Adventures In Breeding: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween

We got such great Halloween stuff from several people, it ended up being quite a fashion show!

Witchy Woman

With Daddy, the hockey player

A hint of a smile from our little Punkin

Outfit from her cousins Madison & Faith

(she lasted all of about 5 minutes before she spit up all over it!)

Road Trip to Charlotte

Packing to go - Logan likes to help

Logan offered to let Darcy ride him all the way to Charlotte!

Meeting Great Grandma Jean

Darcy was more impressed than she seems here

Saturday football watching

Mommy's little Hokie

Meeting Auntie Meghan and soon-to-be Uncle Chad

Meggie tells Darcy about shopping

Look what we found in the pumpkin patch!!

I swear, I take 30 pictures and this is the best one...

(it's not easy propping up a baby on pumpkins, you know.)

Darcy's new puppy toy from Grandma MaeMae

Reading her new monkey book

Enjoying her first real bath?

Logan missed Darcy so much he jumped in the car when we got home

and of course, Daddy missed her too.

Darcy and I had a lovely time visiting Charlotte and some family last week. Darcy Jean got to meet Great Grandma Jean for the first time, and also Auntie Meghan and Uncle-Elect Chad. It was Darcy's first real road trip, and she did pretty well. I went in the middle of the week, (what else am I doing - not working!?!) so Tony stayed in Nashville to work. He'll come with us over Thanksgiving.

Grandma Maeve & Great Grandma Jean got to see what fun it is to put Darcy to bed at night. (Hint - not very!) But Grandma Maeve came up with a dare-I-say-it brilliant(!) routine that includes a screamingly fun and relaxing bath, pjs, a nice long feeding, and falling asleep with barely a peep. I don't think the bath is really relaxing her, given the sheer volume of her screams, but maybe it's wearing her out enough that she gives up and falls asleep. I have never seen a baby fight sleep so much. But regardless, it has been working this whole week - asleep around 9 or 10, and not a sound until 3 or 4. That's pretty good for a 5 week old I think - 5 or 6 hours straight. We'll take it at this point.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Cute in Green...

So I don't know what it was about today, maybe the sweet green outfit, but she was just so cute and so awake and making such funny faces, I must have snapped about 50 pictures. Here are the highlights. :)

Super cute - kickin' it on the changing table

AGH! Mom, you are TOO close!Looking worried on the couch...
And now, my impression of a drunken hobo...And finally, a smile - captured via cell phone!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Miracle at 3 weeks

Our darling Darcy is 3 weeks old, as of yesterday. She celebrated this milestone by having a looong day of eating, crying, diapering, repeat. NO NAPS for this child, nuh uh, not on her 3 week birthday! I thought I would lose my mind. She was so fussy and upset all day, then into the evening; I must have fed her every hour and a half, it was amazing. It took me walking & rocking & singing to her from 10 to midnight just to get her to shut her eyes. I crashed into bed just after midnight and sighed, thinking of the 3am wakeup that would be coming along all too soon. Then, lo and behold, a miracle. I wake up at SIX am when Tony gets up for work, and I hear quiet peaceful breathing from Darcy's room on the monitor. I shut my eyes again, just for a minute, and wake back up at SEVEN am. SEVEN hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep. bliss. At that point, she was making some pre-wakeup noises, so I went in and woke her up, just to make sure all was well. Apparently she was just sleepy after her party-time Monday. I got her up and she went back into her normal eat-awake-sleep-cry cycle of roughly 3 hours. I don't expect a repeat performance this evening, no no, we are not that lucky. But what a good girl she is to give me a one-night break just as I am about to totally lose it.

Here's some more video I took of her this weekend, at her Auntie Meghan's request. She is smiling more now, although I can never seem to catch it on film. But her little goat-y grunting noises come through pretty well.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

6 random things

My lovely sister Meghan has asked me for 6 random things about me. As our family in general is pretty random, I thought I'd take her up on it once I learned how to link something. :) Hopefully when you click on her name there, you'll get to her blog and her answers. She's set the bar pretty high for entertaining answers, but I'll do my best. I'm just going to list 6 of my strongly held "truths" - ie, 6 of my opinions that should be passed as law. If only I ran the world...

1. Clowns. Are. Evil. Seriously. No redeeming qualities there whatsoever, their freak show hearts just pump pure concentrated liquid evil. They eat children who wander too far from their parents in the park. I am not alone in this one, so if you are one of the people who thinks they are sweet and fun and harmless, enjoy your delusions while you still can. The be-wigged freakos are on their way over to steal your soul!

2. Everyone should be required to learn to drive a car with manual transmission - as part of driver's education to get a license. Seriously people, it's not that hard. You don't have to buy a stick shift, or even like it, but you need to know how to do it. They still make cars with manual transmissions, and yes, some of us even prefer our cars that way. (It saves money and drives better!) You never know when your pregnant friend is going to need you to drive her to the hospital, or when some hook-handed psycho is chasing you slasher-movie style, and the only car available is a manual. It's just something you need to know, deal with it. And while we are on the subject, if you are going to drive a giant vehicle (SUV, extended-cab pickup, Hummer, etc), you should have to take a special test to prove you are capable of maneuvering the humongous thing. If you can't park like a normal human being, it's a sub-compact for you. Let me just restructure the whole DMV licensing/driver's ed/car purchasing system, I promise you I can make the roads safer for everyone.

3. Don't buy clothes that have words across the ass. Especially don't buy them for your daughters. If you are one of Hugh Hefner's bunnies, you are exempt, because your butt probably would look cute with the word "angel" or "juicy" written across it. Go for it, girl, you've only got a few years in that mansion before your tushie starts saggin' and you'll be back to parking cars at wrestling shows. If you are anyone else, just say no. Or at least find the pants that tell the truth: "flabby" or "desperate". Cause no one can read the words anyway while your butt cheeks are bouncing through the Walmart.

4. I don't like spicy food or scary movies. They sort of fall under the same category for me - why would I pay good money for something to hurt/scare me? I want to enjoy my food/entertainment, not survive it. Quit trying to get me to try that jalapeno or go to that haunted house - it's not gonna happen.

5. Cheese is the perfect food. Anyone who knows me has heard this before - it is just so versatile. There is a type of cheese that will complement ANY other food out there. I defy you to come up with a food that could not be made better or complimented by the addition of some kind of cheese. There are obvious examples, like broccoli with cheddar sauce, or ham with Swiss. But there are so many less obvious - breakfast cereal? - bagel & cream cheese. Steaks? Just crumble up a little bleu cheese... mmmmm, the options are ENDLESS. God save me if I ever become lactose intolerant.

6. And I can't think of a 6th opinion right now (amazing, huh?) so I will just list out some of the crazy places I have worked: a paper mill, a primate research lab (monkeys!!!), a food science lab (microbiology & sensory testing - not on the same stuff!!), a pork processing plant (sausages, lunch meat, bacon, mmmm), a dog food plant (not so mmm), and about a billion retail jobs - bridal registries, kitchen stores, delis, and I was even a Pampered Chef consultant for a couple years.

There you go! So I'm supposed to tap 6 people now, but I only follow 5 blogs. My sister is one of them, and she tapped 2 of the other ones I know! So, that only leaves me 2 blogs left to tag. Kristie and Josephine, it's up to you. :)

The directions are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog entry
3. Write six random things about yourself
4. Pass it on
5. Alert the bloggers you've chosen
6. Tell me when you're done, because I wanna read 'em!