Good Mommy, Bad Blogger

Well, I've gotten the whole Mommy gig down pretty well now, but I obviously suck at blogging.  There is always so much to say and share but not enough time to do it.  Kate is doing so amazingly well.  She eats lots of different veggies and fruits now.  I make her food and this week I'm introducing beans and meats.  Kate will love them, but we won't like the poops!  :)  Little Miss isn't crawling yet, but she is finally showing some interest in mobility other than rolling around and rocks on all fours when she wants.  Kate is very verbal -  sounds like "nah nah," "bwah bwah," and "ah ah" are frequently heard in addition to screaming, shrieking, and cooing.

Mr. Rambler and I are doing okay - just wishing we could be at home with our baby girl all the time.  Unfortunately, that doesn't pay the bills and surely won't give us the money for all of the diapers and food and clothing we seem to go through like crazy!  Here are a few pics for you to enjoy.  I promise someday I'll get better at getting it all done.

5 months

6 months

7 months

I'm finishing the little details of her nursery, and I PROMISE to post pics when I finish!  Hope this finds all of you well wherever you are in your journey to parenting.

Return of the Pterodactyl

Baby Kate has always been pretty verbal.  She is a calm, happy baby but has expressed her basic needs for sleep, food and diaper changes with cries.  As she has grown, Kate likes to coo and talk and make noises.  She really only cries now when sleepy, hungry, or bored.

As a teeny-tiny baby, Kate had such a squeaky cry.  It sounded like a mix between a baby cheetah and baby pterodactyl.  Enter Exhibit A; Kate at 2 days old (she was SO tiny!) :

At 2 months, her cry was more of a cry than a "call."  Enter Exhibit B:

A few weeks ago, Kate began her "static" language as demonstrated here.  It was so cute and sweet!  Note the descriptor "was."  Enter Exhibit C (pardon my half-nekkid, roly-poly baby!):

For a few days, she just did some cute chuckling and giggling amidst precious coos and static language.  Then this past week, (now that she is such a big girl at four months old) Kate has returned to the pterodactyl as demonstrated below.  She is SO proud of herself.  Kate will use this joyful "call" any time she likes, day or night.  This time, it's killing me.  Must.buy.stock.in.ear.plugs.

Enter Exhibit P for Pterodactyl (warning: turn down your volume now):

She's gonna be a talker . . . and screamer . . .and really loud.  Who am I kidding?  Kate is already all that & more!  Oh mercy!!

A Quick Ramble

First . . . to all of the mommies out there, I apologize.  Mommy Brain IS real.  It is not some pretend thing you made up to rub in my face that you had a baby and I didn't.  Mommy Brainz = I gotz it.

Second  . . . Kate is AMAZING.  I can't even describe how in awe of and in love with her we are.  She is now four months old (FOUR!!!) and beautiful, healthy, strong, funny, snuggly, feisty, smart, sweet, curious, and so incredibly cute.

Third . . . I have so much to blog but such little time.  Being back at work and getting Kate picked up at the sitter and home and dinner and cleaning and bath time and bed time and . . . . . . . it's just not getting done right now.  It will though.  I promise.

If you had this to look at whenever you wanted, would YOU get anything done?

I didn't think so.

Sleep Diapering?

Now that I'm back at work and Daddy Rambler is taking care of Miss Kate, he has night time diaper and bottle duty.  On weekends, I'll take one feeding and he'll take the other.  We'll have to figure out how to divide and conquer that when we both return to work in January.

So in the weeeee hours of this Tuesday morning, I woke up to shrieking sounds resonating from Kate's bedroom.  She shrieks more than she cries, so I wasn't alarmed.  Stopping by to use the bathroom first, I made my way to the precious little shrieker and changed her diaper.

Mr. Rambler comes stumbling in, and I told him to go back to bed.  He groggily said, "Are you sure?  I'll get her."  I confidently responded, "No, get some sleep while you can.  I'll feed her."  DH shrugged his shoulders and turned towards our bedroom replying, "If you insist."

I finished diapering the cutest little bottom in the world, got her bottle ready, and prepared to nourish my little Chunklet when it hit me . . .

It wasn't weekend.  It was a school night.

Continuing to practically sleep walk, I headed to our room and woke up an already snoozing Mr. Rambler.  "Honey . . . can you feed Kate?  I thought it was weekend.  Sorry."

Man, it's going to be a long week!

Two Whole Months

Where has time gone?  Kate turned 2 months old yesterday!  Every time I pull out the camera, she becomes more interested in the lens than she is in smiling! That's why Kate is in the beginning of a smile in this photo.  I got what I could which is still amazingly precious to me.  :)

As you can tell, Miss Katherine is growing like crazy and really filling out.  We can’t believe how big she has gotten & look forward to an actual weight/length at her two-month check at the pediatrician.  She is CRAZY strong and pretty much crawled over her Boppy pillow during tummy time last night.  Steve must have been proud of her because he stopped, licked her twice on the head, and laid down in the middle of her room - his new place.

Funny story:  After I was done taking pics with Kate, Mr. Rambler said, “What is that on her legs?”  I excitedly said, “Legwarmers!  They’re called Baby Legs!”  I won’t share exactly what he said (haha), but he hates them and later asked Kate if she was crying because she hated her legwarmers.  It’s all good, though, because Daddy hung Kate’s chandelier not long after that.  Hahaha!  We’ve been working hard on her nursery and it is already looking sssoooo pretty!  Photos to come soon . . .

The C Word

If you've been reading this blog for long, you've probably figured out I can easily exercise the mouth of sailor.  However, I hate the "C" word.  But now it has a whole new meaning.

Colic.

For the past four days, my sweet little angel turns into a screaming, shrieking hellcat for a handful of hours each day.  It's so sad and awful.  I feel so helpless in trying to help her and feel so sorry for her. I'm great at keeping my cool with her and didn't cry until my mom called tonight.

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus Lying in a Manger Lord in Heaven ---- Have Mercy on Me.  This too shall pass . . . . . .

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Tears

It was a rough afternoon for our baby girl who was gassy and NOT happy.  I felt so sorry for her and helped the best I could.  Between the gas and her being royally pissed off (Miss Thang has a temper!), she wailed and clawed and screamed and cried in between few minute moments of rest.  We worked through it for a few hours before Daddy got home from work.

Once Daddy Rambler walked in the door and saw our screaming baby & my exasperated face, I let him take over for a bit so I could get a short break.  Kate & Dad walked around the house, him bouncing and humming.  They went back to our bedroom while I washed bottles and poured a glass of wine for myself.

A few minutes later, I went back to check on them, only to find Mr. Rambler continuing to bounce and hum . . . while wearing an Indiana Jones hat.  WTF?!  I nearly pissed my pants, and I'm not the one wearing diapers around here.  I had to leave the room because I was laughing so hard.

Later on - after I took over & got a few minutes of silence out of our little screamer - I went into the den to DH.  Laughing so hard I could barely breathe (and about to piss myself), I told him that he needs to let me have a potty break before the next time he goes Indiana Jones on me.  His response?

"Well, she was looking at me and I thought she might like the hat."

Our daughter is only 17 days old.  This is only the beginning folks . . .