J squared + 1: 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

Video Overload

I finally got a new iPhone that takes videos a few weeks ago after my old one took a major dive onto the pavement. So now I have a zillion videos - here are way too many at once. I will get better about posting them one or two at a time, I promise! DISCLAIMER: I should never talk baby talk, especially on video. I apologize for the obnoxiousness :-p

This one was on facebook last week but I know not everyone has an account. She is soooo stinkin close to crawling, it's crazy!

We started E on solids on Christmas Eve. She did pretty well for the first time and has gone kind of back and forth since. It's a slow process. This is a pretty long video, but a couple of people requested I post the whole thing.

Like most kiddos, E's favorite part of Christmas was definitely the unwrapping. Here's her Santa present!

E loves playing with Olive's tags and Olive loves the attention!

I got home from the doctor the other day and Jeremy showed me the new trick that he taught E. Now she loves nothing more than to put her balls into holes!

Jeremy and E love to have dance parties :-p

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Travels and Pictures

Eliza turned 8 months this weekend and this last month has just flown by because we've been in and out of town so much. Jeremy has been traveling a lot for work and we took two trips as a family - one to Santa Fe for Thanksgiving and then Eliza and I tagged along for Jeremy's work trip to St. Croix.

Eliza traveled great to Santa Fe - we drove it with Brett and Jermanie in the back seat to keep her company and she didn't cry once! We rented a house with my parents, the boys, Audrey and David and the Basharas and it was a whole lot of fun. I had a bit of a disaster with my first Thanksgiving turkey because the oven in the house was WAY hotter than it was supposed to be, but Josh and mom swooped in and saved the day. We were close enough to the Plaza to walk and just mainly hung around the square and the house, having fun. Jeremy insisted on taking Eliza while I went to a 3 hour cooking class on New Mexican cuisine, and I had so much fun, and now am ready to try out my new skills! It was a very relaxing and fun weekend with tons of delicious food.

We got back from Santa Fe late on a Sunday and Jeremy left early that Monday for Jersey again. When he returned late Friday he had Saturday at home and we left early early Sunday morning for St. Croix. Poor guy was beat. Eliza did okay on the six flights - some were better than others. At one point we were separated and no one wanted to move to let us sit together and that was a bit scary - I was ready to threaten the person next to me with a big messy breastfeeding display before she finally agreed to move at the last minute so the crisis was averted. When we got to St. Croix Jeremy had to work for a couple of days and then we had three days to enjoy it together. It was a very different trip from our previous St. Croix visits, as we couldn't really do anything in the water or go too crazy in the rainforest, so we just did a lot of relaxing with fewer than usual pina coladas and some scenic drives. We got Eliza a traditional St. Croix bracelet and it is the cutest thing in the world. She really enjoyed playing in the sand but wasn't crazy about the water. We are signed up for swimming lessons here soon so hopefully she'll get more comfortable. Overall it was just really nice to get to spend some time together without Jeremy worrying (too much) about work. This has been a long year for him with few breaks so he definitely needed the down time.

Eliza has been doing great, for the past few weeks she has been showing a lot of interest in learning to crawl. She's not quite there yet, but can get from sitting to her belly and back, and can worm her way backwards, which is stinking cute. My video camera is not cooperating, so I can't post the video but I will try to get Jeremy to figure it out here soon. Other than that, she is just a bundle of fun, very happy and smiley overall. Now I just need to hurry up and get the house babyproofed!!

And without further ado, a zillion pictures to catch up :)

Little Miss in her Thanksgiving gear, showing off her awesome tongue

Santa Fe was great because so many people were around to carry her - my back got a break!

First plane ride!

Playing at the Dallas Airport

When you're this tuckered out you can sleep anywhere - even the airport floor!

I wish I looked this cute in a swimsuit!

Palace of a Bulgarian Countess - we've always seen this from afar but decided to drive up for a closer look this time

Happy to be home with her puppies

This was from a day where she refused to nap - she's looking at me saying . . I'm not tired . . . at all . . . I swear!

Ginger snuck a kiss!

Practicing crawling!

Hanging with cousins - little Lauren is the only one that rivals E's size!

Best buddy Jack!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Catching Up

I have gotten so behind on posting pictures, things have been crazy around here the past few months. At the beginning of October we took a last-minute trip to Austin. Jeremy's work schedule has been kind of nuts and he figured out on a Monday that if we didn't leave by that Thursday we were not going to be able to squeeze in a trip to Austin this year between all his work travel and the holidays. I spent the week scrambling to get ready (packing for a baby is hard!) and we left on time. We put Eliza down to sleep in her carseat instead of her crib that night and drove straight through to Dallas where we hung out with Jeremy's boss and his husband for the day. We did the last few hours to Austin a few hours after Mike fixed us a delicious dinner.

We had a blast in Austin - the trip was a whirlwind. Jeremy's mom and grandma came out for a day so Eliza got to meet her great grandma for the first time. Almost every lunch and dinner was booked - we got to see so many people and eat so much delicious food. While we were there I painted Isabella a mural in her room - it's about as girly as you can get, and fits Isabella perfectly. Our drive home was a little rougher than our drive out, mostly because we didn't have a place to stop and let E play at the 11-hour mark like we had on our way to Austin. All in all though, she really did great and I'm sure we will stick with the overnight driving in the future so she can sleep most of the trip.

After ten days in Austin, we got home and Jeremy's dad and stepmom made a trip out to visit us the following weekend. This was their first time to meet E and it was a whole lot of fun. We kept busy all weekend, hiking, cooking delicious meals and taking scenic drives. It was a wonderful visit and E did remarkably well considering we just kept dragging her all around town.

After Jon and Pamm left, it was time to get ready for the Halloween party - it turned out to be a lot of fun, with amazing chili, s'mores, pumpkin painting for the kiddos and lots of fun costumes.

Jeremy is going to be out of town a lot in the coming weeks which neither of us are thrilled about, but I am counting down the days until our Thanksgiving in Santa Fe this year. Also, the Basharas will be out for a week or so before we head that way, so that will be tons of fun I'm sure. When we get back from Thanksgiving we're home for a week and then off to St. Croix (7 flights total - ugh!) for a week.

Eliza is still doing great - she had her six month appointment last week and the doctor says she is thriving. She was especially impressed with her sitting so well on her own. She said we don't need to worry that she rarely rolls because the sitting is the next step and it's okay to skip steps in gross motor. That's a relief because tummy time was getting to be my most dreaded time of the day since E hated it so much. E's fine motor is also looking great, she's able to pick up a pacifier off the ground and turn it around until it's the right way before sticking it in her mouth. And of course all of her measurements are still putting her between the 95th and 97th percentile so no worries there. We've decided to delay solids at least until we get back from St. Croix in December and potentially until 12 months, so that's one less thing to worry about. All in all she's doing great and a joy to be around.

And finally - tons and tons of pictures in no particular order!

At Kerbey Lane in Austin - this guy randomly came up to me and said he had taken some beautiful pictures of me with my daughter and could he email them to me . . . uuuuuh sure??