Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

She is awesome!

I love her.

That is all. 

Earning my cape.

Today was one of those days that just didn't go quite right. I put too many things on my plate. I had too high of expectations for myself. And I am running on too little sleep. As my work day came to an end I was feeling like a failure, beating myself up over unkind words and jobs left undone.  I drove home chiding myself for poor time management, thank you notes still unwritten, and phone calls unreturned. I walked in the door to a fussy baby who I can't sleep train. Laundry that still hasn't been washed. And floors that have yet to be swept. And there are also the untouched running shoes that indicate my current lack half-marathon training.

I felt like a big fat failure.

I am trying to be SuperMom, SuperWife, and SuperTeacher. I am piling on the responsibilities and tasks thinking that I am Superman. I am trying to earn my Super cape through tasks and to-do lists. Making one more promise, taking one one more project that I know I can't handle.  

Does it really matter if I didn't send that last email? Will the world end if I don't make a phone call? Is a two week late thank-you note going to cause a major catastrophe? Will cereal for dinner, one week of poor running totals, or dustballs in corners change the outcome of society. 

The answer is a resounding no. 

So I am throwing away my to-do list. I am halting my quest for a cape. I am going to enjoy my baby, who will sleep someday (we hope!). And I am going to tell the nay-sayers, negativists, and that little voice in my head to shove it.

Funny Face

 Someone just discovered her tongue and is making some awesome faces.

Does the third picture remind you of anyone?

Here's hoping the resemblance in hair and facial expression carries over to giftedness in math and science. 

Ready for a week's worth of smoothies, green monsters, and popsicles.

Lazy Sunday

Exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks this morning. I survived my first week back to work last week, but working with 10 -12 year olds and then coming home to a teething 3 month old is not easy. Today I slept in and took two naps. It was glorious! 

Pipsqueak is loving books. This morning she sat on Mr. R's lap for 30 minutes turning pages and staring at the pictures. I have to admit that I love story time too. I am rediscovering my childhood books and finding my old favorites. Todays reads were Big Bird's Big Red Book and Sesame Street's Four Seasons Play. I really need to video Mr. R. reading, he does voices for Grover and Cookie Monster and Pipster squeals with delight! It's awesome, seriously it could be considered the highlight of my day. 

 Pip took a morning nap at 11AM giving me enough time to make dinner in the crockpot. Chicken and dumplings. My picture doesn't even do it justice. Dinner was lick the bowl good and incredibly easy.

 Another keeper. I followed this recipe but subbed in sauteed carrots, onions, and celery and used only two chicken breasts. I also added two peeled and diced sweet potatoes. Following Stephanie's example I made my own roux, but used Grands biscuits as the topping. After, Mr. R. professed his love of dinner and me. Put this on your to-make list. 

Saturday Night In...

My Satur-DAY was a busy one. 7:00 PM rolled around all too quickly and Miss Pip was ready for a bath, books, and bed. The minute we laid her sleepy head in the crib, Mr. R. and I prepped for date night. 

Awesome dinner? 

Check.

Netflix movie? 

Check.

Cuddling on the chaise while watching said movie? Check. 

Tonight's dinner is one to be remembered and repeated.

 I sauteed the onion, pepper, and sausage. (Tonight I used Costco's mango jalepeno chicken sausage).

Once they were cooked I added half the beer to deglaze the pan. I turned the burner to high and allowed the ingredients to simmer and the alcohol to cook out. 

We ate ours on Costco torta rolls (they are my new fave) with a bit of grated cheddar on top. 

And the movie, the original Ocean's 11.

Can I just say I wish I had lived in the 1960's.  Skinny ties, men in suits and fedoras, kitten heels, fitted dresses, my heart just swoons. 

The bib says it all!

Our newest addition (to the dining room table)

 Someone LOVES sitting at the table. 

Tonight, my grandparents brought dinner to our house. We feasted on the famously good Osteen's shrimp dinner and Pip squealed, cooed, and played the entire time. She doesn't quite fit into the highchair, but she loves being at our eye level and having the ability to play at the table. Tonight she was content to play with her fruit teething ring and plastic purse, but pretty soon those little hands will be grabbing things off my plate. 

On Wednesday we went swimming.

After teaching all day and being up since 4AM, the most logical thing to do would be to take the baby swimming right? Just nod and smile OK. In truth, I love taking Piper to the pool. I get to have her all to myself and we walk, talk, sing songs, and we work on her kicking and neck strength. Pip hates tummy time, but she will gladly float on her belly in the pool, thus strengthening her neck muscles and causing her to hold her head up for longer periods of time.

 The community pool was COMPLETELY empty. We stayed for 35-40 minutes and had an entire lap pool to ourselves. (I probably shouldn't be blogging that fact, since I am trying to convince the very cheap thrifty Mr. R. that we NEED a pool.) And afterwards we came home she donned her pajamas, had dinner, and promptly slept for 6 hours. Swimming is where its at peeps. I will gladly swim everyday if it grants me a healthy, happy, sleepy baby.

In other news, Piper now hates be contained in any way. Forget trying to strap her in the car seat or the stroller. Girlfriend will scream bloody murder. Right now we are in battle of wills. She can scream, but mama can also by ear plugs.

Splish Splash!

My wish came true, this girl is a fish! 

From the moment I knew I was pregnant, I was hoping for a little girl who loved the water. When my mom was here, two weeks ago, Piper started to kick her legs in the pool and last week she figured out how to hit the bath water in order to make a splash. Monday night she put both motions together and my girl is swimming! She will be ready for the 500 meter freestyle in no time!

Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

Guess who is measuring in at almost 25 inches!

In other news, Pip has completely outgrown her bassinet and is now a crib dweller! 

We knew she was going through a growth spurt this month, (she has been rivaling the very hungry caterpillar in the food department), and we decided to bust out the measuring tape and see how tall our pipsqueak is. Being typical Piper she wouldn't stay still (AT ALL) so two quick measurement checks resulted in our best guess being more than 24 inches, but less than 25 inches. I guess we will have to wait a few more weeks, until her next Dr. visit, to be more accurate. 

I want to be President!

 I guess it is only fitting that the daughter of Mr. Republican would own a book titled "I want to be President!". I happen to love that it features Betty Lou the blonde haired muppet. Although, I don't think I ever remember her being on the 80's Sesame Street that I grew up with. 

We have been reading to Pip for almost two months now, but just this past week she has really started to notice that there is an actual book in front of her. She has started to grab the pages and turn her head when new images come into her view. She seems to really love books with lots of contrasting colors and bold images. 

And she loves when her dad changes voices while reading. His old lady voice (as featured in the Babar books) is her current fave. Tonight we are reading the ZOO book, hopefully she will love my version of lion roars and elephant trumpets.

P.S. And a big thank-you goes out to Roy, Jenn and Gavin for Pip's new book! 

I ran out of space!

As I was trying to upload a few pictures from today, google informed I had used up all of my available picture space! 1,000 pictures are currently all over this blog and google has said NO MORE! What does this mean for the future of our little family blog and our adventures? Not a whole lot really. I need to pay the man (aka google) $5 and then I can post up to 10,000 pictures! I can't imagine I will have 10,000 things to take pictures of, but then again I never thought I would have 1,000 posts on this little old blog of mine either. In short... Sorry for the lack of pictures, as soon as I find my visa card we will be back in business!

Mornings are so much better now.

There used to be a time when mornings were quick cups of coffee followed by a seemingly endless to-do list. We would run out the door, no breakfast needed, ready to conquer the world or at least the grocery store, target, and maybe home depot.

Now we take things a little slower. There is still coffee, but it is savored. And the to-do list is still endless, but it's not as important. Instead of running out the door we cuddle, we make faces, and someone makes the cutest baby noises I have ever heard. 

I beg to differ with the old Folger's coffee commercial, the best part of waking up is Piper. 

I'm where I should be.

It's 8:44 and I should be at the movies right now. I had planned a girl's night earlier this week with some of my favorite teachers and I was beyond excited to see the movie adaptation of The Help. I loved loved loved the book. But as with even the best made plans, things changed.

I stayed at school one hour too late. 

I went out to my car to find the battery dead.

It took 4 people, two cars, and a stroke of luck to get my car running again.

I came home to a VERY cranky baby who only wanted her Mama.

And her Mama really wanted to attend girl's night.

But instead we cuddled. 

She ate.

We sang songs. 

We read two golden books.

She got a bath. 

And now my girl is sleeping soundly. 

By the looks of her you would never know she had a rough day.

So, I missed girl's night.

But in the end, I am right where I should be. 

Marriage Lesson #83:

I try to pack in as much as I possibly can in one day. I start the day with coffee in hand and take off running, sometimes literally and other times figuratively. Then their is breakfast for Piper, a shower for me, drive to work, work, drive home, feed Piper, walk dogs, make dinner, feed Piper, eat dinner, and then somewhere around 9 PM I collapse and start it all again. 

Did you see husband loving anywhere on the todo list? 

Nope. I didn't it. And I need it. Jeff needs it. Our marriage needs it. So tonight, after walking the dogs and before making dinner, we carved out some time to just spend with each other. Cell phones off, computers away, Piper sleeping, dogs outside. We caught up on our days, laughed at inside jokes, and reconnected. My husband is awesome. And my marriage is worth way more than facebook updates, text messages, and clean laundry.

In short, I might be harder to get ahold of. I might be a little more wrinkled. My house might be a bit more messy, but my husband is worth it. 

Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

 I am back to work this week, but the kids aren't attending classes until Friday. I am knee deep in lesson planning, meetings, and interactive notebooks. But I have to be honest and say I love this time of year. It's like my New Year's Eve, time for clean slates, resolutions, and brand new composition books. But right now, I am savoring the final moments of summer. I am squeezing in late night family walks, trips to the pool, and drop by visits to my grandparents house. 

We took these "pip-tures" aka photo strips last week and I just love them. 

I am so grateful that the iphone lets me capture these little moments. 

Our nightly routine..

Bath 

(with lots of bubbles, a funny looking octopus, and many sing-a-long songs. Piper loves the ABCs and Row, Row, Row your boat)

Books 

(tonight we read David & Goliath, It's Bed Time, & Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Pot)

Bed 

(I am on my way to bed now too!)

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush

Pippa is THREE months old!

Our little Pip is still a tiny one, but she is growing! 

Piper weighs in at 10.5 pounds and measures 24 inches.

She Can hold her head up for almost 5 minutes and can push up with her legs. 

She has started to making crawling motions while on her play-mat, but doesn't have the arm strength just yet to actually create movement. 

Piper is starting to say "a" and "o" sounds. And she is in LOVE with her Palsy (my grandfather). She will "talk" to him for 20 minutes while smiling, cooing, and batting her LONG eyelashes.

Piper still loves bath time and the pool. Being in water seems to be Pip's happy place.

 Piper is wearing 0-3 month clothes, but girlfriend has long legs. We have had to move up to 3 month and 3-6 month pajamas to make room for her gams. Pip's a skinny mini though her little waist and bum barley hold up 3 month bloomers. I am saying she got her Daddy's flat bum, because Momma has some junk in the trunk.

When people ask me about Piper and I can't help but gush that she is absolutely amazing. I love how she is growing and changing and getting her own personality. She loves to stick her tongue out right now and I am thinking she might have some sass in her. I wonder who she got that from? 

Mr. R. is home!

And all is right with the world.

Also, this single parenting stuff is for the birds!