halloween 09

warning:  overload of pics coming!

since jovie’s pretty young, we planned on having a very low-key halloween.  because it was saturday, music class was that day, so we were to wear our costume to that.  our big halloween plan was to just be in costume all day long.  yippee.  she goes to bed pretty early, and doesn’t eat candy, so we weren’t going trick-or-treating anyway.

good thing.

friday night we thought jovie got out of her crib, packed her things and moved out, but brought a newborn as a decoy.  ok. so, it wasn’t quite like newborn status, but it has been a long time since we had to get up with her 5 times!  (tho, thankfully b/c of her early bedtime, that’s not as bad as it sounds.  she slept solidly from 1-6:30am)

so we pretty much knew/assumed she wasn’t feeling well (tho no fever nor stuffy nose at all, except for what happens when you cry all nite).  of course when we saw her in the light of day on saturday and saw the red nose, watery, glassy eyes, and felt her hot skin…..   ooohhhh

so our one halloween plan changed and we stayed in our halloween pj’s much of the day.  after having a newborn-ish baby again—- no sleeping, being held, crabby, miserable— we did throw some jeans on her and brave the sprinkles of rain to take her for some coffee.  (us, not her).  we needed a change in scenery!

what with the rain and everything, that pretty much delayed the start of halloween in our neighborhood.  i don’t think anyone came over until right about 8pm!  just as The Mr. got the brilliant idea that since little girl was fussy/not feeling well/didn’t sleep at all…..let’s not have the doorbell ring all night.  so we just set our candy out with a threatening note. 

and she did, indeed, sleep through the kids who rang the doorbell anyway and shouted excitedly remarking on our scary halloween fun.

apparently she needed that sleep, because she was about back to normal yesterday.   so if you’re keeping track that brings her sick count to:  2.  (plus a 5day unexplained, unobtrusive fever).

luckily, we got to use her “costume” last week when we went to our friends’ halloween party. 

without further ado:  (plenty o’ pictures for you, aunt barb!)

i'm feeling fine on oct 30th. happy 15th anniversary, mommy & daddy!

inspecting pumpkin guts

can i look any more pathetic? i'm exactly where i want to be! eating a snack on daddy's lap

i don't LOOK sick!

i'm fearless!

i'll make a scary face. or, i'll just try to get down, either way.

really, dad. not scary. i'm containing my laughter.

and- the “costume”:

scary skeleton

scary skeletons need time to play, too.

makin our way in the costume parade

requisite photos

i apologize for not posting some pics earlier.  last week was pretty busy, i guess.  aunt jo-jo & michaela came for a visit.  then we headed to gramma & grampa’s for a visit and a very helpful babysitting deal while The Mr. & i went to a friend’s wedding.

the birthday weekend was a success.  thursday (actual bday), The Mr. & i went to lunch, ran some errands, and got her pictures made.  we gave her our gift to unwrap.  i’d post the video of her unwrapping, but really, we don’t want to waste about 10min of your life watching her watch the box.  we gave her a little push/ride-on car that she has no interest in yet.  well, save for the little piece that she likes to pop off in the front.

saturday the 11th (her due date!) we had gramma & grampa, and kenny & amy & their baby over.  unfortunately, my bff wasn’t able to make it with her daughter.  but amy had made the cutest ladybug cake for the occasion (thanks, amy!) and we all enjoyed ourselves watching the babies watch each other.  we dipped in the pool and then cut the cake.  this time, we even tried ice cream.  let’s hope she does, in fact, have some grampa & me in her.  b/c at first taste, ice cream was NOT her friend.  we have good video, at least!

but here are the money shots:

actual birthday, first tastes.

ladybugs galore

(by the way— the plates/napkins came from the cutest online store! they sent me better than average emails tracking my order with poetry. was fun! the cups i had fun dotting myself. i’m quite the talent. you know, compared to the awesome freakin cakes that amy made. that were also delish!!!)

i like this birthday thing!

thanks to the participants.  & thanks to The Mr.  (greatest ever!) for cleaning her up & feeding her a lot of supper afterwards.

(we missed you, beck!)

happy birthday

happy birthday jovie! our pretty little baby.

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.

merry merry

just an update to let everyone know that we have indeed survived the christmas holiday!  we hope you enjoyed your time with your families and friends.  sorry i missed posting last week.  i actually had a “24″ themed post rolling around in my head; as she turned 24 weeks on the 24th.  but with it being christmas eve—  well we even got too busy to do that.

we had a nice christmas.  jovie’s gramma, grampa, & uncle nate came to visit on xmas eve.  we had xmas here.  The Mr. was fantastic in helping make breakfast & dinner.  on friday, we went to g’ville (to g’ma & g’pa’s) to break up our first trip to columbia to see my family & my bff.  spent the night in our first hotel & back thru g’ville to home on sunday.

truthfully,  she handled things a lot better than expected.  christmas morning she even participated in opening one or two gifts herself.  we spent the day hanging out.  i guess i’ve learned what 2 cokes can do to a baby.  xmas night she didn’t feel good (oops) & was up every 2-3 hours!

so while in g’ville, g’ma & g’pa let us go out to dinner.  she apparently cried like crazy for about 45min.  it was hard calming her down when we came home, but finally after about 15min, she did.  & then slept with no problem. 

the next day we went to columbia to meet a zillion people & have xmas with my family. we knew it would be difficult.  no ability to put her down for a nap and all that jazz…  she did sleep in Daddy’s arms for about a half hour.  since she was being held (and held and held), she did fine with all the people around.  surprisingly, after a long day, she was in a very good mood on the way to the hotel.  i got her to laugh most of the way there.

she did better than we thought she would sleeping in the hotel.  and the drive from cola to g’ville wasn’t too bad.  there she napped & i fed her (then i got to go eat lunch w/ The Mr.’s parents while he stayed home with her).  we even took a 30 min. walk w/ her in the carrier before we left to come back home. 

car rides are not the most fun w/ jovie.  on the way home, i had to sing and entertain her for literally 2 hours. without stopping.  i did the “name game” with her for everybody in our families.  that’s including spouses and her cousins (60people on my side alone)…  that’s a lot of “banana fana”. 

we’re all glad to be home in our own cribs and are even more glad to know that we are not going to be traveling again anytime soon. 

i guess the highlight is that santa brought jovie a baby einstein dvd (we’ll watch later) & an exersaucer.  she’s still deciding if she likes it.

twenty-one

we have been parents for 21weeks (and a day) now.  we’re still alive.  and we even smile sometimes, too!  this last week was a lot of fun. 

as mentioned before, we were a little nervous about the thanksgiving holidays- and more specifically the trip itself.  it all ended up just fine.  with some trepidation we ventured out for a 3hour drive. she did well at first.  even went to sleep on her own w/o the screaming of the stone mountain trip.  she woke up around the time we were stuck in traffic and wanting to be fed.  after we managed to find a spot to feed her, she did get impatient and screamed the last HOUR of the trip.  once it was evident she wasn’t going to go back to sleep (the reason for said screaming), The Mr. & i entertained her with the alphabet song.  i know my ABC’s in sign language, and she was pretty enthralled at my fingers.  that was the last 10min before arriving.

that was the only stressful HOUR of the trip.  my biggest concern was that she wouldn’t be able to sleep in new surroundings in a portacrib. but she did just fine!  & there were plenty of people there to hold her.  

we had some playtime, where she got to show off her skills of squealing & smiling.  she was in a new swing she seemed to like.  got to explore a new bouncy seat that had toys closer to her to play with.  we took a walk w/ gramma & grampa.  we got to watch grampa’s fish.   we even got to all eat as a family; and not in shifts.  she stayed in the bouncy seat during dinner. 

the ride home was (thankfully) less eventful.  we kept waiting for the screams, but she never got over-fussy.  all in all she did well.

this past week, we’ve enjoyed some other firsts:

• the squealing i mentioned.  she’s always been a screamer. but now she does it for conversation.  JOY. 
• she learned how to blow raspberries.  which gives her more drool to work with. 
• she has finally discovered yiminy (one of our “kittens”).  she watches him as he walks by or wags his tail nearby.  with this, yiminy has paid a little more attention to her. i’ve noticed he comes and sniffs her a little more.  or sits close to me while i am feeding her.
• saturday, The Mr. & i witnessed her rolling over (again in the crib!). it was quite unexpected, and when we both cheered for her, she didn’t seem to mind or get startled.  she just stared at us (upside down).  i can only imagine what she was thinking.
• sunday, we actually had very real laughter, and even caught it on video!
• she’s trying to get used to her babyseat.  that’s hilarious to watch.  she puts both arms out like a tightrope walker for balance.

here, i leave you w/ a picture of jovie with gramma.  (i never cleared it w/ gramma for me to post pics of her; but surely she won’t mind- all you see is her hair.  thus, she can keep her anonymity.  we wouldn’t want everyone at the library to hound her for autographs.) 

to grandmother’s house we go

wow. what a difference a year makes.  this time last year, we were in the middle of painting her room; and excited about sharing the news w/ gramma & grampa at thanksgiving!  i knew it would be fun to tell them before we even decided to ever have a baby! 

we hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving.  we’re taking our little butterball to greenville for her first big trip.  after having a most excellent weekend visiting with aunt kippy and her kids, we’re hopeful this trip will also continue to surprise us!

The Mr. & i are thankful for a healthy baby girl with an adorable toothless grin.

enjoy your friends & family during this holiday season.

Costume Contest

I challenged Jovie to a Halloween costume contest this year and I’m happy to announce that I won!  Contestants were judged on the following categories:

• Orignality: Tie
• Scariest: Winner – Dad
• Ugliest: Winner – Dad
• Grossest: Winner – Dad
• Costume With the Most Brains Sticking Out: Winner – Dad
• One that Most Looks Like a Stunned Pumpkin: Winner – Jovie

Overall Winner – Dad!

Granted my costume isn’t that original – it’s really just my regular grubby clothes and the same old mask I wear every year, but neither was hers! 

Strangely enough, she seemed rather indifferent to the entire contest and it’s result, which makes it hard to gloat.  But it still feels good to win!

Good luck next year Jovie.

Parenting 101: Frightening your helpless baby is fun.

After the Contest Photoshoot

Even maniacal killers like myself need some downtime.