Blue bird singing in the dead of night...

Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive.

What moment? The moment to shine in her fancy new costume.

Happy Halloween!

The quality isn't awesome, but you get the idea. She stayed in the costume for about 5 minutes. Good enough for me and the camera. :)

Real blue birds fly, so fly she did. I think it made it more realistic for her. I could practically hear her saying "why the heck do I look like a bird instead of a baby. You people are strange".

Oh dearie dear, you have no idea how much you will love Halloween in the years to come. I can feel it. I think I have some learning to do on that good ole' sewing machine before I'm ready for more!

Weekend review

We got a new patio door:

I made some delish mac and cheese from scratch that took about...15 minutes. Seriously good. And not even bad for you.

We made a Thanksgiving-like dinner. It included turkey, stuffing, our famiy's favorite bread roll things, and mashed up cauliflower (review: good, but does not replace potatoes). Dessert was blondies but they did not turn out. boo.

Turkey chef himself:

Some parts of today were tough for this little cutie pie, but look at her, can you even be mad for more than 1 second? Pigtails, tutu, huge grin. Perfect.

Grammy's loving her some Josie time... great weekend!

And just for fun, this is my favorite picture. Why, you ask? Because I love seeing my house full of family! And this view made me just smile. Plus we always forget to use these hooks, so it's nice to see them used. I'm a weirdo, admittedly.

On to another week!

the good old days

I've come to the realization that when I look back on my life and think of the good old days, I will be thinking about right now. How corny is that? Oh but it is true. I was told at work by my boss that I had a refreshing new attitude since I have been back at work. My first instinct was to reassure her that it wasn't going to go away because that is what you tell your boss...that you are always going to be wonderful and perfect. But then I realized that my actions will show my coworkers that my "new attitude'' is here to stay. Honestly, I feel almost like a different person.

My life is so good. I'm truly so happy. I'm making changes to be healthier and it makes me grin. Weird, right? But I find myself truly excited at random points of the day about the smallest thing, like that there is room in my eating schedule for a treat, or that it's 3:00 already and the afternoon staff is there, or that I get to drink my cup of coffee with my favorite creamer (which I do every single day, why does it make me so happy??). I love that the little things add such joy.

Today was day 4 of the start of my Weight Watchers journey. Lets just call it a journey since its going to take a super long time for me to reach my goal, and I'm ready to take it on. I feel better already (I knew I would) and I feel like its going to be more of a fun thing sometimes than a burden. I say sometimes because I have some awful habits (awful!) and they will. not. be. easy. to break.

Josie is the funnest right now. She's moving more and more. She's smiling and laughing all the time. She's playing with anything in sight and always grabbing at new things. Its fascinating to watch her learn and see how quickly she adapts to changes and new discoveries.

Ah! I love it. Life. God, You are so so so good.

Just my monthly "I'm so blessed" post. Thanks for reading (if you still are :)...) (Seems monthly doesn't it? A much needed improvement from my grumpy old self of 2010)

4 month appointment

Did you catch that? She's four months! Ok not quite, just a few days shy. But wow she's growing up fast. Did I say that two months ago? Yeah but it is still so very very true.

This peanut is growing like a weed. Here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 10 1/2 oz (<90%)

Height: 25 inches (75%) - dropped a lot! She's not our string bean anymore I guess...

Head circumference: 16 1/4 inches (75%)

The doc said that we could start feeding her some cereal any time and start her on veggie (first so she doesn't reject it after trying the sweet foods) and fruit solids starting in about a month. Hopefully the cereal will help her sleep through the night a bit more since she has sometimes been waking up around 5-6. Who am I kidding, though, she is a great sleeper and I'm not complaining about the fact that she wakes up that early. At least it isn't numerous times a night.
He also gave me a lotion with 1% steroid something something to put on her dry skin by her hairline on her forehead (whew that was a lot to get out). Poor girl inherited that from me and I have already apologized to her numerous times for it. I'm not sure she has completely forgiven me... it might take a couple of decades before she sees that its not a big deal. I see many days of frustration ahead when her super dry skin hurts and starts to peel off. Ouch! And Dad is no help. He just says "ew.." and walks away. It's not gross, Dad, and it hurts! At least I can sympathize?

Hopefully the lotion helps and we don't have to worry about it. She was great for the appointment, smiling and cooing and rolling all over the place. We were fortunate to avoid any falling-off-the-table incidents, and she only screamed super loud for about 2 minutes after the shots. Wow I hate those things. But she's a champ and moves on with life pretty quickly after. I'm so proud of her.

I think white shirts are out for a while... no wet t-shirt contests allowed in my house! Seriously, she looks like she got hosed down with all of that drool covering her head to toe. No signs of teeth yet, though Doc said they could be coming soon though.

He was also super impressed with her ab crunches she was doing (always an over achiever, just like momma, showing off how good she is) and said she looked really strong and ready to move. If you ask nicely, she might show you her six pack someday.

Love me that healthy baby!