bits & pieces

altho’ The Mr. & i likely not going to make it a regular habit, we have all been able to enjoy going to a real restaurant for lunch on 2 occasions.  i would like to think that because we ease jovie into things is the reason why she handled both occasions so very well. 

of course, we have to ease me into it as well…  the first time, i didn’t have any snacks or water for her.  and it would have been a perfect opportunity to forcefeed give her some water while waiting for the waitress or our food. 

the 2nd time i was prepared, and she was a big girl eating her fruit puffs while we had lunch.  both times the waitresses brought us her highchair and then asked if we needed a kids’ menu!?!  i hope that’s just b/c they don’t have kids of their own, and not because people regularly order their not-one-year-olds hamburgers.

i know it doesn’t seem like a big deal to the rest of y’all, but the fact that The Mr. & i have an option for lunch now is like opening up a whole new world to us.  yes, yes…  if you’re my family or Gramma & Grampa, you’re saying “back in my day we didn’t go to restaurants!!!”.  and if you’re not one of those then you’re saying “who cares?  babyx has been going to outback since month1!”

however, if you know us in person, you know that the archives of this blog is quite mild compared to how things really were.  and if you’re not sure why we feel we needed to wait to take jovie out in public, then let me remind you of a few things. 

here she is at Beef O’ Brady’s, her first time ever at a sit-down joint:

i'll have the coaster with a side of straw, please.

by the way- in linking Beef’s site, i never realized it was such a chain!  our 2nd restaurant was at a true local-chain near our house.

both times it rained, which she didn’t mind at all.

other “news” is that daddy’s been having to travel.  unlike holland, tho’, he’s been home on the weekend.  which has been very nice.  luckily she still doesn’t get that he’s gone (sorry, daddy!) because he leaves at the asscrack of dawn very early in the morning.  so by the time she wakes up, she’s moved onto whatever memories a 10mo dreams about. 

she has been regularly feeding herself the aforementioned fruitpuffs.  the other day, it was all she wanted to eat. no amount of mush from a jar was going to placate her.  so the past couple of days, i’ve tried to give her the spoon (which i have done months before with some success) and she looks at it as if it’s this newfangled discovery.  with prunes, oatmeal, whatever all over and notatall in her mouth. 

with her wonderful dexterity comes new food territories…  however, maybe she is my child afterall because this is going to be slow-going.  she makes the cutest dern faces, tho.  this past weekend, we had our first taste of real food.  the smidgiest of watermelon pieces.  which don’t dissolve at all like the fruit puffs (which she honestly is starting to chew on; but i guess all the dissolving really helps).  oh the confusion on her face when we were smacking our mouths up and down trying to convince her to chew her food and not just down it!   seriously, y’all.  smidge!  miniscule.  fit for an ant!

she is constantly enthralled with yiminy & doh.  most of the time, she starts to talk/babble when they come in her sight.  and quite a few times, she watches yimmy as he walks back and forth vying for my attention while i’m feeding her.  she’s actually getting better at petting yiminy a tad more gently.  we have a long way to go here!  

before i began this post, i put her down for her afternoon nap, and she tried to kiss me.  the great thing about babies this small is that we can make up what we want to about what it is she’s actually doing.    but she has done this to both The Mr. & i on quite a few occasions, so we think we may be onto something.  she has no clue how it should be done- which makes it all the cuter when she opens her mouth wide and throws it on our shoulder, nose, haphazard part of the face.

yes, she does this with her toys, too.  but nevermind about that.

actual conversation

sunday, may 10th- mother’s day:

• Me: thank you for the sweet cards & gift.  that was thoughtful.
• Mr: you’re welcome.
• Me: ……can i tell you something funny?
• Mr:  sure.
• Me: i’m NOT saying that you should’ve, or that i wanted you to get Clemson for me, but i was surprised that you didn’t, is all.
• Mr: ??? ok?
• Me: I thought you were going to…
• Mr: why?
• Me: well, it’s just that a few days ago, you mentioned needing to call your dad instead of emailing. on the same night i was going out to dinner.
• Mr: oh, ok.
• Me: and then, when you didn’t call & yesterday you said you had to call your mom right around the time they’d be leaving, but not right then because you were feeding jovie and you needed 2 hands (???)…
• Mr: i was feeding her.
• Me: no, i know. but i thought you were making an excuse b/c i was around. you ended up calling them when i was upstairs getting dressed.
• Mr: yeah. hmmm.
• Me: so since you never call them, i assumed it was b/c you had to get Clemson sent to them b/c obviously you couldn’t send him here if you were surprising me, since i’m home all day. and also because you knew i didn’t buy him & there was only one left.
• Mr: right. funny.

monday, may 11th- after The Mr. left for a business trip:

so it was already on the way…

The Mr. is fantastic at gift-giving & surprises.   i think i’ll keep him.

bit of nostalgia

i’m a sucker for nostalgia.  maybe you’ve picked up on that?  and now that jovie’s getting older, and around the age that THEYsay she’ll be choosing a “lovey”, i’ve been thinking of my own.  growing up i had 3 that i remember. 

i grew up in columbia, SC- home of the gamecocks.  my whole family (like a zillion) were fans of the gamecocks.  except my brother, kenny  (him again).  he was a fan of the big rival- clemson tigers.  of course being the youngest, and a girl…  i never cared about football.  i always “rooted” for the gamecocks as much as saying “yay” can be called “rooting”.  still, growing up i always wanted USC to win.  it didn’t make sense not to, since i lived in columbia.

one year, i had gotten a tiger-shaped stuffed animal pillow.  of course i had no idea what to name him, so i used all of my brain power and named him Clemson.  i slept with him nightly.  although admittedly, i don’t think i had him for very long.  i’m not sure what happened to him, but i don’t have very many memories of him when i was older.

interestingly enough, i grew up and graduated from clemson.  my family & friends were confused and would ask why i’d ever go there since i “hated” them so much.  but i knew i wasn’t a great big fan, and i wasn’t going to let football determine what school i went to.  i was the only freshman on “the hill” who would pull for the gamecocks instead of the tigers.

besides, why would i go to USC and live at home when i could go 2 hours away w/ my BFF?  turned out to be a fantastic decision.  i love the school.  gorgeous campus, great education school, and- oh yeah- that’s where i met The Mr.

my freshman year, i became friends w/ a girl who lived on the 3rd floor, right below me.  (what a fantastic view of the stadium i had—- didn’t care about football, but was very exciting to be a part of it all!)  and how completely random that this girl from maryland had the exact same pillow!

i digress.  recently this has been on my mind because i’m remembering some of my loveys from when i was little.  recently, i took what memory i had of Clemson in my head & searched on google something like:  “stuffed tiger pillow vintage”  and the FIRST entry i came to was the exact one i was looking for!  i was pretty amazed.  (i’m not that great at googling). 

after all this, i had to hunt for the one and only picture i thought i had of Clemson.  so, here…. travel back to 1978 and see a very sleepy mpotter:

4 years old

oh, and look!  there’s coco!  that’ll be another story…..

big girl

what happened to my baby?

we went to wendy’s today for lunch (dad worked from home) and sat in a ??highchair?? (that’s 2 firsts).  glad the lady came and gave us a toy.  5 seconds earlier she was chewing on a straw & a spoon.

sittin by myself