Happy Halloween!!

I've heard you have to play up your best assets and since I have eyes that make me look like a toon bug, I knew I needed a halloween costume that had antennae.  My friend Arne was given this cute costume, but he decided that a lady bug might not be his style (even though he agreed the tights are pretty awesome), so he let me wear it.  Thanks, Arne!  

The give-away winners!

I ain't a-frida no nose.  Sung to the tune of Ghostbusters... I ain't afraid of no ghosts.  I'm a silly girl, no judgement please.

So, I believe I only got 8 or so more fans, but that doesn't matter.  I'm just excited to save two more baby noses from the blue syringe of death.

I used random.org to generate the winners.  From the blog comments the winner is...

LAUREN Dyson!!  *Squeeeeeal

From the facebook page comments the winner is...

STEPHANIE Talley Woodside!!  *Grrrrrrrr  (No offense Stephanie.  Squeal and grrrrr are currently the only two sounds I know to express excitement.  I promise it's a good thing)

Congratulations to the winners... I'm sure your babies will be thanking you by sleeping better through cold season.  Let's hope so!!

I'm a believ-a in the nosefrida

Calling all babies.  Now that it's cold season, it's only a matter of time before you experience major boogies, if you haven't already.  Has your mommy ever come at your tiny nose with that awful blue bulb?  The snot sucker?  The booger sniffer?  The nose torturer?  Even when the target is your average now-and-again boog, it takes five attempts to snag it... and each attempt is a chance to have your poor little baby nose membranes poked, jabbed, stabbed.  The older you get and the more wiggly and playful you get, the more damage is done to your nose.

Well, mama got a head cold (as she seems to do every six weeks these days) and she finally passed it on to me.  Here was the scene two nights ago:

So tired.  Can't sleep very well without my paci.  Can't breathe with my paci.  This makes me cry, which makes the boogies worse.  Mama picks me up; happy!  Mama sets me down by the night light; sad!  I scream while mama tries to accomplish something with the nose torturer and puts me back in the crib to try again.  We maaaaaybe got four hours of sleep.

Mama heard about the nosefrida (http://www.nosefrida.com), and even though she was a tiny bit grossed out by the idea, she was sick, tired, and desperate.

Let.Me.Tell.You.  It's way less invasive and way more productive.  No jamming, jabbing, poking.  No multiple attempts.  I even kind of giggled at the feeling and the noise it made!  Talk about a more pleasurable experience all around.

A video in case you want to see it in action:

It's not gross, I promise.  There is no way for mommy to get my germies from it.

The best part: I slept through the night last night even though my cold was a little worse than the night before.

Yep, I'm a believ-a in the nosefrida.  Look at that clear-nosed happy face!

In fact, I'm so adamant that all you babies have one of these things that I'm going to do my first give-away, with TWO chances to win.

The rules:
- Like my page on facebook.
- Leave a comment on this post and/or under the link for this post on my facebook page between now and Sunday at midnight EST.  Your comment can be anything, but I'd love for you to tell me about a gadget or product you love.  It doesn't have to be baby related!!

If we can get 100 followers by Sunday at midnight then I'll give away a nosefrida to one person from the comments on the blog and one person from the comments on my facebook page.  Just in time for cold season, and a perfect stocking stuffer.  Woop!  I'll announce the winners Monday morning.

Food fights

Mom and I have had one heck of a time mastering this food thing.  First, she was giving me cantaloupe until friends told her there had been a recall on them.  Whoops!  She tried giving me bell peppers without cooking them up so that they would be sweeter.  Blech!  She gave me hummus which was a huge mistake.  Yuck-o!  She tried cooking pears the way grannie cooked apples.  "Sliced thin; 20 minutes on the stove-top."  It took an hour!  She gave me mushed up banana, but it was so slippery it kept shooting back out of my mouth.  She tried cooking a sweet potato in the microwave.  It caught on fire and the en-tire house smelled like smoke for days.  A month later the microwave still smells like smoke.  She bought a butternut squash to roast and while preparing it realized it was actually spaghetti squash.  Hard to get a break around here!

Things that thankfully HAVE worked:  grannie Annie's apples (in my best french accent: mon favorite!), avocado (gotta love no prep, no fuss foods), pears (after an hour on the stove-top), and banana (when mama just gives me the whole thing to gnaw on).  Nom nom nom.

The polar bear says grrrrr.

5 Months

I'm 5 months old today!  I absolutely love to hold my toes, play with toys that make noise, and squeal in the grocery store.  I sleep like a rock star at night, but I'm not an excellent napper during the day.  I love to stare at new faces for a solid 5 minutes without blinking before my mouth breaks into a huge smile.  I don't love to lay on my back, but I still can't sit on my own yet (I'm trying SO hard).  My hair is really growing but it's kind of hard to tell, and my eyes look like they are slowly turning from dark gray to brown.  The weather is still amazing and I love to be outside, but I learned today that I do not like tummy time in the grass.  I don't like to lay in the grass at all actually.  It pokes me in my ears and stuff!  

Sunday Funday

I love Sundays.  Daddy is around in the mornings and we get to hang out in our pjs.

Then we get to wear our cutest outfits for church.  Mommy sure looks silly with that towel on her head!

Then!  I get to play in the nursery while mama and daddy learn about God from pastor JD.  Good thing pastor JD is long winded, because the more he talks the more I get to play.

Mama has only been leaving me in the nursery for about a month now, and the first time was super hard for her.  She gave the nursery volunteers entirely too much information.  What is there to know?!  Play with me, love me, smile at me.  I was peacefully sleeping when she came to pick me up that first time:

But she started crying anyway.  Something about hormones and emotions and love, and she just couldn't help herself.

That's not my mommy!

Most mornings I wake up around 7:30 or 8 and lie in the crib holding my toes, rolling left to right, right to left, talking to myself until someone comes in to get me.  It's usually mommy, looking quite groggy, but sometimes I catch daddy before he goes to work.  I get SO tickled when I see them after a long night's sleep.  I smile so big that my eyes squint, my nose wrinkles, and my tongue sticks out a little.  Like so:

I just can't help myself, it's a new day!

This morning however, I slept until 10:15!  Daddy didn't come get me because he had already gone to work.  Groggy mommy didn't get me either though.  This was a different mommy.

My face says, "who is this mommy?"

This was a mommy that had managed to send some important emails, update her budget spreadsheet, and finish her cup off coffee without half of it getting cold... all before her bundle of joy (me) woke up.  I didn't realize that extra sleep for baby meant mommy would be the one refreshed.  I'll have to remember that.

If I can't reach it, it must be something good...

What is it about humans, even 14 lbs baby humans, that makes us prefer what is just out of reach.  What makes us get tired of each new thing so quickly?  Look at all of these great animals I have hanging right in front of my face.  There's a lion, a monkey, a mouse, a rooster.  

Oh, but what's this orange thing over my head?  It doesn't rattle.  It doesn't squeak.  It doesn't shake or spin. It is simply more interesting because it is just out of reach.

If I could just arch my back a liiiiiittle bit more I might be able to get it.  Or pop right out of the bumbo if I'm not careful!

Woo! Catching up is hard to do!

Friends, I'm sorry it's been over a week! A lot happens in the week of a 4 month old. Mommy and daddy's internet isn't working very well these days, so that's the reason for my absence.

What do I want to share first? It's all so exciting. Well, I've started trying all sorts of food. Cantaloupe until mama found out there was a recall, ooops! Bell peppers, hummus (the first thing to make me gag), pears (which were good until mama mixed Greek yogurt in with it), sweet potatoes (these keep getting stuck to the roof of my mouth and I almost throw up so I'm not loving that), and my favorite... baked apples. Yumm. If I could just get mama to stop taking every other bite of them!!  Eating big-girl food is fun, though!  I especially love when mama lets me hold the spoon a little during snack time. Who doesn't want to be in control of what they're eating? Here is a video of me enjoying some apples:

Now that I'm into everything and really loving playtime, daddy and I put together my jumparoo.

There are no age/height requirements... just that I can hold my head up (check) and that I can't yet walk (check). So please tell me then why my feet are inches from the ground. :(

Mommy said I might want to get used to this feeling of being a little bit shorter than this world was built for. What happened to the 90th percentile the dr talked about? It's okay though, mama says you just have to adjust, so we did.

This past weekend grannie Annie and grandpa Lenny came to visit!!

They got me a wenkel ball (and baked apples). Grandpa came with mama to wake me up in the morning and I loved his fuzzy face. Olivia came over too. She's my absolute favorite. Our outfits matched... down to our socks!

The biggest newest thing?? I'm rolling over!! Never on demand, obviously.  My favorite time to do it is when nobody is looking.  I'm fast, too!

And since everyone loves a baby laughing, here's a bonus video from the other day: