Me and the video cam are not good buds … I don't feel like I've got much prowess with it, but the still camera? We're tight. We took around 10,000 photos last year … and a few of them were of Ms. Tabby. I did not get the freaking scrapbook finished (or even close), and I was all angsty about having photos for her party for reminiscing and such. So the morning of her party, I got up bright and early and went crazy with Windows Movie Maker. I hadn't really used it before (at least not the Vista version), but I found it INCREDIBLY easy to use and in a mere 3 hours, while Matt tended to Tabby and finished up cooking for the party (he is truly Super Dad), I made a 15 minute video with a photo or two from Tabby's first year. It turned out brilliantly … burned to DVD and displayed at the party. I would LOVE to share it with you, but since everyone is all CYA about copyright stuff, Google Video rejected my upload (it contains … get this … copyrighted music). Party poopers. If you're dying of curiosity, you can see the title screen in the background of this photo. Continue reading “As Bad as a Hallmark Commercial”
It's My Party!
It's been a very nice weekend. The highlight was obviously Miss Tabby's party … we had a great time. Matt's family flew in from Tennessee, which was very sweet. Everyone was so helpful and the party went off pretty much without a hitch. Tabby got lovely presents from everyone … some clothes, lots of books, some toys and stuffed animals, a new clock radio, and a new suitcase that she can ride on. We attempted to sing Happy Birthday to her, but she managed to put out her birthday candle with her fingers (even though I was standing RIGHT NEXT TO HER, I could not act quickly enough to prevent this) and a great deal of howling ensued. A cupcake (or two) quickly fixed her mood, though. One funny thing that happened: Kelly had gotten Tabby a sweater and a dress at Baby Style for her birthday. Just before the party started, I enlisted her and Theresa's help to get Tabby dressed. Kelly was quite surprised to see that I had picked out the same dress for Tabby to wear to her party. We have such good taste.
The weekend overall was just about perfect. We went skiing with Matt's sister, Theresa, and her husband Bryan on Friday while Tabby got to spend time with her Grandma Sherrie. And Today we got to spend time with all of the Nashvillians, shopping and visiting Denver's Children's Museum. It was great fun … we'll have to take Tabby back again soon.
Bathing Beauty
Tonight was session #2 of swim class. Tabby really enjoys being in the water, but I'm not so sure she enjoys the idea of swimming. She doesn't want to put her face in the water. She doesn't want to float on her back or front. She was keen, however, on falling into my arms from the pool's side. She looooved that. She also really loves when we go to the “family spa” which is a hot tub sort of thing with fairly warm but not hot water so the babies can get in.
The hardest part about the class is that it's from 6:00-6:25 which means that we're closely skirting her bedtime. We have to rush home, get dinner into everyone, hop into the car and rush over to the rec center. She's so tired by the time we get home though that all she wants is a bottle of milk and her bed. These are the nights where you hold her and she points to her bed as if to say “I'm wiped. Time to hit the hay.”
And for no paticular reason …. a blast from the past: Ladybug Picnic and the Alligator King aaannd the Fairy Alphabet
My Funny Valentines
Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day with the special people in your life.
I ended up spending the day at home with Tabby. She came down with a fever on Wednesday night and couldn't go to daycare. And anyway, she was all pathetic and clingy and in need of attention and snuggles. Wait. I should be more specific. Mama snuggles. We went to the doctor just to be certain it wasn't anything more serious (her fever was over 102) and they said that they had seen loads of kids coming in with fevers and they tend to last around 3 days. Joy. Tabby for the most part is doing OK, all doped up on baby acetametaphin and baby ibuprofen, but she is on the cranky side and seems to only want Mommy (when she wants anyone at all). She's constantly tired, but only sleeping in spurts, so I am a bit tired myself.
Despite all of this, we contrived to have a nice Valentine's day anyhow. I made Matt one of his favorite dishes, an adaptation of Rachael Ray's Buffalo Chicken Pizza. In the original recipe, she makes her own (atrociously bad for you) buffalo sauce. We'd tried store-bought Hooter's sauce, which wasn't very good, the last time we made the pizza, but this time I got Frank's buffalo sauce and it was great. Tabby had BBQ chicken pizza since it's a bit less spicy (that's right, people, the sickies haven't hurt her appetite one bit!) and we all had brownies for dessert. After dinner we had to make a run to the ATM to deposit a couple of checks and we picked up a new Baby Einstein for Tabby. When we got home we all watched that while I took my new game (a Valentine's day gift from Matt) for a spin.
I am way behind on blog reading, and email and I have a lot of links collected to share. Hopefully I can play catch-up tonight. Happy happy Friday!!
Party Girl and Other Mind Fluff
One of the things on my “to do” list for this weekend was to get invites out for baby girl's b'day. It did not get done … partially because I was waffling on the idea of having invitations at all. It will be a small affair with mostly family in attendance and normally for this sort of thing, I'd send out emails and make a few phone calls … but seeing as this is her FIRST BIRTHDAY, I'd sort of like something … y'know, paper … for the scrapbook. It seems a bit silly, but kind of important nonetheless.
I do think I've narrowed down the theme a bit. Everyone's suggestions were really helpful. I think we'll be going with a purple/green theme at least for the invitations (I'm crap at drawing) … but I may add some children's book elements into the mix as well. I will need to start looking into cupcakes and other foodstuffs soon … but hopefully I can get the invites out tonight.
And as my homage to Super Tuesday, I left what I thought was a funny comment on The Kitchen blog. C'mon, people, oven Mitts?!?! That's hilarious. Anyway … I don't think they got it either. And back in reality: I couldn't vote in the election. I am registered as an independent and they don't allow us to vote in primaries here in CO (which I think is very narrow-minded). But I still say my “party” designation stands. I wouldn't want to be a part of any party that would have me as a member.
We made Chunky Potato-Crab Chowder for dinner which was beyond excellent. We both raved about it … and as an added bonus, it was really easy to cook. Tabby loved it too.
11 Months!!!
Well since 10 months completely blew by me (I think we were skiing??), I thought I'd have to recap at 11 months. As I write this, Miss T is busy crawling around under my desk and that definitely underscores her biggest changes in the past couple of months … mobility. She crawls, cruises, pulls herself up and enjoys being chased. She is absolutely thrilled with her newfound freedom and sleeps like mad at night and is even napping better.
We're starting to see even more personality emerge. It always amazes me the things she finds to be absolutely hilarious and those that she gets so wound up over. Perhaps she has her mama's temper? Hope not.
She is chattering away at 90 miles per hour almost all the time now. We still have no clue what she's saying most of the time, but she's added a few things to her repoitoire, including “duh-gee” (ducky), “gog-geee” (doggy), “tuttle” (turtle) and “woozat?” (what/who is that? – usually accompanied by pointing).
What else can I tell you? In the world of food, she continues to be a huge eater … and she seems to have gotten a bit more picky, refusing a few of the things she used to enjoy (did we overfeed on these??). She's also really into snuggling … the dog, her kitty pillow, and us. And she loves to give everyone she meets kisses.
It hurts my heart a bit to know that she isn't the little baby we brought home from the hospital anymore. But we're so thrilled to see the amazing, funny and capable girl she's growing into. And besides, she still loves a good snuggle.
Weekend End
This, people, is basically what I did alllll weekend. Chase the kid around the house. She is MOBILE. She couldn't do the stairs on Friday and now she's a pro. And she's going to be 11 months old tomorrow. !!!
Friday night it was just me and Tabby. We had a great time playing and reading stories and we made Soft Black Bean Tostadas, which completely exceeded my expectations. They were very flavorful and Tabby was a huge fan.
Saturday we busted out early so I could have the protective coating put on the front of my car (yawn) and sign some papers they messed up. Then we went to breakfast with my parents. They made Ham Egg and Cheese Fondue. I was supposed to take muffins, but they got left at home in my mad scramble to leave. We spent the rest of the day shopping. I got some clothes for myself at The Limited and some for Tabby at the Carter's store, cuz lord knows that girl would be going nekkid otherwise. We had an amaaaaazing dinner at California Cafe. They had the coolest kid's menu … bento boxes with celery and carrot sticks and excellent food choices (not just your normal hot dogs and hamburgers), including salmon. But Tabby shared my dinner instead … or maybe I shared hers. That girl can eat!
Today we were lucky enough to get Matt back early since his upgrade was handled and he could get the earlier flight out. We made a menu and shopped Target. Then we had a nap and did some Superbowl watching and Gnocchi making. I need to expand my Gnocchi repertoire … I'm thinking that maybe some butternut squash ones. I also have a recipe for BEET gnocchi which totally appeals to me.
Alright … bedtime. Over and out.
Quarantine
UGH. What a weekend. Tabby got a doozie of a cold towards the end of last week. Thankfully Matt got home from Cali just as it was getting really bad. Tabby hardly slept Thurs or Fri night and we both were the living dead this weekend. Then Sat night, I got a doozie of a GI bug. I'm pretty much over that (as of this evening) and Tabby's hitting the end of her cold … but maybe she has my GI bug now. I soooooo hope not. Yea, we're loads of fun around here.
Here's a video of Tabby giving kisses instead of more cheerful ramblings from moi.
Date Night Dud
I thought I'd give you a date night update since I got quite a few comments on it.
Dinner was great. It was even easier to make the second go around because I knew exactly where we were headed. And I brought out the Lens Baby to take some photos of the results. I am still learning, but I think I captured a bit of the yummminess.
Just before we started making dinner, we posted my car on Craigslist. Even before we sat down, we had a call from someone wanting to see the car. And another as we were doing dishes. We had the car sold by the time we went to bed. And I'm happy to say we got out of it what we wanted. Oy I am going to cry like a baby when they drive it off.
So though we had a nice dinner and managed to sell my car, the evening was sort of a dud as far as having fun goes. I think we both fell asleep watching TV around 10:30. We'll have to take a raincheck. Tabby had a great evening with the grandparents and Auntie Gaga and was a very good girl for them. So I think she'll be invited back.
Tabbyisms
Can I prattle on s'more about my amazing and sweet and funny and cute kid? Yea? Ok, thanks.
Aunt GaGa
Recently, when Tabby sees my sis, Kelly, she goes “GaGa.” So Kelly jokingly said that GaGa must be her new name. I kept the joke going saying things like “Oooh, Tabs, Aunt Gaga's here.” So when we were at dinner the other night, I referred to my sis as “Aunt GaGa” and then Kelly said to Tabby, “I'm Kel-ly … Kel-ly.” My cheeky baby looks right at her, grins big, points at her and goes “Gaga.”
Tabby Goes to the Movies
I took Tabs to her first movie the other day. I didn't really have any reservations about this … she is overall a very easy going and good baby … well except one. She's …. chatty. She comes by this honestly as she is from a long line of chatty women. But that aside, I knew it could be a problem. Luckily, the movie (Juno – awesome, by the way, you must see it), was only about 90 minutes. Somewhere during the trailers, Tabby drifted off to sleep in my arms and continued to sleep peacefully for about 45 minutes. For the next 20-25, she ate the crackers and drank the juice that my mom handed me. Then … she got rather chatty. Ba baaaah! Gooo. Hi (which still sound rather like haaaaaai) hi hi! mama! Mama!!! So we spent the last 20-25 min of the movie walking the ramp that leads into the theatre. She was enthralled by the path lighting and the light coming through the window in the door. She also *really* dug the sound track and laughed out loud a couple of times and danced around in my arms. Luckily for me, the movie was mostly dialogue. But I must buy it on DVD when it comes out.