A Day of Reflection

Memorial Day weekend was pretty good. Joe and I had both Saturday and Sunday off. Saturday we took Ramona to the park and just kind of hung out. Sunday we went to church for the first time since Christmas Eve. I was nervous about that, but Ramona was really good. And I was worried about her Stranger Danger sensor going off with all the new people but instead she was super happy and kept throwing her hands out trying to get other people to hold her. Everyone thought she was cute, of course, and they seemed happy to have a baby there. After that we went to the Mexican restaurant near my OB's office that we used to go to all the time when I was pregnant. We hadn't been since Ramona was born, so it was nice to go again. Ramona was pretty well behaved there, too. Then we did some grocery shopping and Joe got stuff to change the oil in the car and we went home.

Today I worked. Obviously Memorial Day makes you think of people you know who have served in the military, and Joe and I both have lots of family who have served (various grandparents and great grandparents, both of our dads, two of Joe's brothers) and of people who died while in service, but I had never really considered how much of their lives people give even when they don't give their life until recently. One couple that I went to school with ended up getting married after being high school sweethearts. They recently had their first child, a daughter, who is a couple months younger than Ramona. Not long after she was born her Dad had to go overseas for military duty. They make it work, even though I know it's really hard on them. The mom has a cardboard cutout of the dad and takes pictures of their daughter with "Flat Daddy" that crack me up. They keep a positive attitude and just accept that it's part of their life. Giving up most of the first year of your child's life is so big, and it's something that I never really thought about before. I can't imagine how hard it would be right now if Joe wasn't here to enjoy all the little moments we have with Ramona, or to take over when I get overwhelmed, especially if I was also concerned for his safety the entire time.

There are so many sacrifices that the troops make to keep our country safe and our lives happy and our families together. I truly appreciate them, even if I don't know the half of them.

I'm so excited!

When Ramona gets excited about things, she makes this weird noise and tenses her body up and then smiles. For some inexplicable reason, she has been getting excited when Joe puts on a hat. We got a video of her getting excited when Joe put on his hat to go back to work last night.

Seriously?

I've decided to title all gross posts involving vomit, pee, or poop "Seriously?" so that if you're not inclined to read them, you can avoid them. Thank me later.

So tonight I was giving Ramona her bath. She has been scaring me constantly lately with her ability to pull up on things because she almost always falls over and I'm terrified she's going to hurt herself. The bath is no exception. She still takes her bath in a little tub inside the big tub, but she reaches out and grabs the edge of the big tub to pull herself up. So she did this tonight and I reached out and helped her stand so she wouldn't scare me. She looked at me all excited and smiling. (She's very proud of this new standing ability.) I started doing a little dance with her. She was smiling and laughing and then I noticed she had a tail growing between her legs. Yup, she was dancing and pooping in the bath tub. I pulled her out of the tub and sat her on the toilet.

Luckily she has been eating Cheerios so it was a solid poo and she was standing up, so it wasn't a huge mess. Since it was so easy to clean (and bonus her using the toilet saved us a diaper!) I wasn't mad at all and actually thought it was hilarious. I wish I had a picture of her joyfully dance pooping. I will definitely keep the mental picture for the rest of my life so that when she's being a jerk in a few years and thinks she's so cool, I can just picture her joyfully dance pooping and think, "You're not that cool."

This looks like a good place to dance... and poop.

Ladies Weekend

So, we had a pretty awesome weekend. We pajama partied, went on a million walks, played on the floor, and went to the playground for the first time. I had what is currently my favorite Ramona moment ever. We laid on the bed and Ramona would put her hand in the air and wave it around. Then she would look at me and smile. Then I would wave my hand the same way and then look at her and smile. Then she would do something different with her hand. Repeat a million times. She's just so much fun right now. Over the past week she's learned so many different things. Her crawling got more advanced, she figured out how to sit up on her own, she started pulling herself up on things to stand. I can't keep her in her little bath tub for long because she's too good at pulling herself out of it now.

She's also much happier. Everything is either interesting or funny to her. And most things she does are funny to us. Just watching her eat Cheerios cracks me up. And tonight she stayed up late so she was still up when Joe came home on his break and he kept rubbing his head on her belly and she thought it was hilarious. She was cracking up. And every time he pulled away she would start shaking and squeal with anticipation of him doing it again. We were all laughing so hard. It's just these insanely happy moments all the time.

All of the sudden being annoyed by my job or complaining about our house or the weather or whatever just doesn't matter anymore. Watching her grow and figure out the world and loving her and watching her grow to love us is so wonderful that all the crappy stuff just fades away and I don't care about it at all. Yesterday I told someone my daughter amazes me every day, and as soon as I said it was internally cringing because it sounds so lame and cheesy. But it's SO TRUE. I love her so much I can't stop smiling when I think of her.

It's not to say that she isn't sometimes annoying or cranky, or that she's so perfect, or the best baby ever. I have plenty of times where I'm like, "Seriously, Ramona, give it a rest already." But those moments just vanish completely with one smile. Especially the "isn't this great?" smile, where she's so happy and she looks at me to make sure I'm happy, too, and my smile makes her smile even bigger.



I love the smile in the picture above. She always looks like Joe, but her smile looks so much like him in all his baby and little kid pictures. I love it.

Other highlights of our girly weekend were me getting the house super cleaned, making good on my cookie promise, and enjoying the great outdoors. We also got two new bibs from Great Grandma Marilyn, and a package with lots of little dresses from Grandma Lindsey. Unfortunately the package from Grandma Lindsey was addressed to Joe so I didn't open it. Otherwise we would have done a fashion show and there would be many more pictures taken than what I took this weekend.

New bib!

In super rad news, Joe has Saturday and Sunday off this weekend so we have TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF TOGETHER! Yay! I am so excited.

Seriously?

This morning Ramona had the poopiest diaper EVER. It was up the back almost to her neck. Completely ridiculous and a huge mess. I was just doing it really quickly before I left for work, expecting a pee diaper, but instead got a big disaster. It took like forty wipes to clean up, and of course Ramona kept trying to grab the dirty wipes and stick them in her mouth. This was especially annoying since I was just changing her for Joe before I left to be nice. If I were a meaner mom I could just be relaying the epic poop tale second hand.

After getting Ramona cleaned and ready for the day, I went to pick up my purse and leave and I saw Lars smelling it, which made me suspicious that she had peed on it, since she loves peeing on stuff so much. I sniffed it and made the stupid error of only smelling where she smelled and so I thought she hadn't peed on it. Then I got to work and realized she HAD peed on it and it was wet and it smelled. So gross. So it was an annoying morning. But such is to be expected every once in awhile, and I had such a great weekend that this week can't get me down.

I'll write more about our awesome girls weekend after Ramona is in bed, but in the meantime here's a video of her figuring out how to crawl.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

When I got home from work today, Joe left for LA for the weekend to have some time with his buddies and go to a baseball game. Joe seemed bummed when he left, even though I know he'll have a great time. He said it was weird because it was going to be the longest he's ever been away from Ramona since she's been born. Which is true. But she's in good hands, if I do say so myself.

So, what should we do? According to all these Sex and the City 2 commercials we're supposed to drink cosmos and talk about shoes, but Ramona is too little for cosmos and I don't really like them. Also, I wear flip flops every day since they loosened our shoe requirements at work, and Ramona rarely wears shoes, and also can't talk. So, we're going to have to come up with our own plans. Plan one is to finally go swimming tomorrow! Ramona has swim diapers and it's supposed to cool down for the weekend, so it's a perfect time to go swimming. We're going to play outside, too, and I plan on making cookies and getting some cleaning done. I'm really hoping the wind dies down so we can do all our outside stuff. We get insane sand storms here sometimes, and today was really bad. So fingers crossed that it dies out tonight. I'm thinking about going to the little playground area to see if Ramona can swing in the infant swing as well. I'm dying to be outside and get some sun this weekend. Please please please cooperate, weather!

I'm going to work on some more videos and take a bunch of pictures this weekend, too, so keep an eye out. Big plans, big plans.

New teeth aren't just for Ramona

Today I had more dental work done. My teeth are costing me a fortune. I will finally have a crown where one has been missing for almost five years soon, though. They made me a temporary today.

This is what I did instead of dishes last night.

Superstar!

Nothing encourages my delusions of grandeur like this baby. Today when I got home from work, she actually squealed with delight at the sight of me. Like I'm freaking Justin Bieber or something! How awesome am I? Super awesome! Someone literally bounces up and down in anticipation of me smiling at them. If you didn't know it was a baby, you'd probably think I'm pretty cool, huh? It makes me feel great that she loves me so much and gets so excited to spend time with me. The feeling is always short lived, though, because she immediately puts me in my place by showing as much enthusiasm as she has for me for one of the cats. Or the ceiling fan. Or DJ Lance Rock.

Ramona is pretty much in love with DJ Lance. For those not in the know, DJ Lance is the main character on the children's television program Yo Gabba Gabba! Ramona and I watch Yo Gabba Gabba pretty much every day. It's the only show she gets into. I DVR it and we watch it together in the evening and dance to all the songs. And when DJ Lance is on the screen Ramona lights up like a barbeque on the fourth of July. Joe said she even squealed TWICE for him yesterday when they watched it.

So I'm not as cool as DJ Lance, which I guess I'm ok with. I would like to plead my case for being cooler than ceiling fans, though. I'm a sentient being, which is way cooler than being an inanimate object. And I'm cooler than Lars, because she peed on Ramona's Ugly Dragon today. I'm probably not cooler than Danzig, though. Oh, well. I try.

Sweet weekend!

So, this weekend was pretty awesome. Mony's fourth tooth popped out, so she has all her front teeth now. (Obviously they're not super far in, but they've broken through.) Her first tooth is easily visible when she smiles and makes her look so super cute!

We got up early on Friday and went to Vegas. Ramona was super well behaved and happy. We went to the indoor outlet mall and I got a new wallet, some new pans, and way too many new outfits for Ramona. We also got a cute lobster outfit for Rob and Lauren's new little boy. There are so many cute things for boys these days! If a little boy ends up in our future, I'll probably be just as bad as I am with Ramona. I really wanted to buy her some little boy pants with skull and crossbones on them, but they were at Gymboree and not on sale, so I wasn't willing to spend that much on them.

Then we drove up the road and went to an outdoor mall that we always drive by and talk about stopping at, but never do. So we did. (I know, we're soooo adventurous, right?) It was really nice. It's super family friendly and had a lot more locals, which makes it a lot easier. The strip is fun, but there are so many people just stopping in the middle of nowhere to take pictures of stuff and there's always some wanna be Entourage losers being drunk idiots and some scantily clad ladies sexy dancing everywhere. It gets annoying when you're just trying to go shopping. Especially with a baby. But probably 40% of the people at this place had babies. There were strollers everywhere. When we ate lunch, we were sat by another couple with a little tiny 5 week old baby. It's so crazy to see babies that small and think Ramona was that little just a few months ago. They thought Ramona was really cute. And their baby had ten times as much hair as Ramona already. She slept the whole time and was so tiny and adorable.

We bought some stuff at Border's- I got Ramona three new books and Joe got a couple things. We did lots of browsing and I might have got some more things but Ramona started getting hungry and tired so we went home. We stopped in Pahrump for ice cream and gas, and I drove home from there because Joe was tired. I was driving, and Joe was snoring in the seat next to me, and Ramona was making farting noises in the back seat and I just started laughing out loud out of nowhere like a crazy person. I was thinking about how Ramona was snoring on the way to Vegas and Joe was snoring on the way home. And how all our baby books call the farting noises "razzing". I'm pretty sure it's just because they don't want to put "farting noises" in a baby book, because, honestly, who calls that razzing? Joe didn't even know what it was supposed to mean when he read it.

Anyway, we got home and Ramona went to bed and Joe took a nap. I unpacked all our new stuff. Joe and I drank a couple beers and watched TV. The next day Joe worked so Ramona and I played together. I had a great time with her. She was in a really good mood and we played and danced. She's tried to start pulling up on things, but isn't quite coordinated enough to get off the ground by herself yet. I can't believe she'll be seven months old on Friday. She's getting so big so fast. I daydream about us baking cookies together in a few years, or playing at the playground. I feel like I have a whole new purpose to my life since Ramona has come into it. Everything I do feels more important. I just get this feeling like being a mom was what I'm meant to do. I really think Joe is who I was made to have a child with. We're such a good team, and I'm so happy things have worked out how they did.

TGIF

I am so glad it's the weekend, and the most awesome part is that Joe has Saturday off! It is the first day off that we've had off together since I went back to work that we didn't specifically plan off together for a trip. (In other words, we went to Grand Canyon and the LA Marathon together, but other than that we haven't had an entire day off together since I went back to work at the end of December.) We're going to Vegas to do some shopping and to get out of here for a little bit. I'm looking forward to it SOOOOO much. I haven't done anything fun in awhile and am getting pretty tired of staying on property. Plus Ramona needs new jammies, and we need to get a present for some friends who just had a new baby. Yay for Saturday! And since I know no one cares about me, here's a cute baby video. This is from March.

My little baby is getting so big!

That's what I say whenever Ramona hits a new milestone. First I celebrate her achievement, and then I lament her growing up too fast. This week Ramona got two new teeth, bringing her to three. When she got her first one, I looked at Joe and did a pout face. "I can't believe she has a tooth already!" (This, after complaining about her teething forever.) That same day, Joe and Ramona stopped by my office during their walk, and under the horrible lighting of my office, I couldn't believe how full her hair looked. "She has so much hair now! She's getting too big!"
Because the first thing you think when you see this child is, "Whoa! Too much hair!" right?

I was even more irrational when she started sitting up by herself. The first night she sat in her bath without needing me to prop her up, I came out sighing, "She doesn't need me anymore." Joe helpfully pointed out that she couldn't run her own bath or get into and out of it by herself, or actually wash herself without me. He doesn't appreciate the drama I add to our lives.

But the fact is that Ramona is going to get bigger and need me less and less as she gets older. I was talking to my mom on Mother's Day and we were discussing the fact that my youngest sister got her learner's permit and that she is going to be a junior in high school this year. My mom started talking about how fast high school goes, because freshman year they are still your kids, as in they are home all the time and don't have too much of a life outside the family. But by the end of it, they have jobs and friends and are almost never home. But you get to watch them carve out their own life and become productive members of society. And it got me thinking of how it's exciting and rewarding to watch your children grow up and do things on their own, even if it's sometimes hard to let go. And if my mom can watch her kid drive away from her in a car, I guess I can let mine sit up by herself at bath time. And when you get down to it, we always need our moms. My baby may not need me to help her sit up anymore, but she'll always need my love and support to some degree. I just have to remember that when she hits the next milestone.

Happy Mother's Day!

Joe worked this morning so Ramona and I had the day together. We played outside because the weather was nice and went for a walk. I dressed her in a super cute outfit and she even let me put her hat and sunglasses on her. Joe took some pictures of us while he was home on break. He also made me grilled salmon and asparagus for dinner. Yum! I had a great day and am so glad I get to be Ramona's mom!

It's a Beautiful Day

What a great day! The weather was gorgeous and Ramona was in the best mood. We had an awesome time together. We also hosted a little bbq and had delicious ribs, potato salad, and corn bread from Joe and I made a cheesecake. Everything was from scratch and I think we did a great job. We had friends over and Ramona was so sweet and cute and didn't freak out at all. She even went to bed easily, which is always nice.

Time to buy a new swimsuit and take Mony down to the pool on the weekends before it gets crazy hot. There's a super cute giraffe print swimsuit as baby gap right now that I want to get her. And I washed all her 6-9 month clothes today so it's time for new outfits! I'd been waiting since before she was born to put her in the skirt she wore today. If they made it my size I would totally rock it.


Isn't it cute? Isn't she cute? All posing in her little chair with her superstar sunglasses.

Why won't the paparazzi leave her alone? That's it; no more pictures!

A PS

I forgot to mention my favorite part of Thursday in the last post. When I was done with my root canal and was paying and making my next appointment at the desk, Joe came up to me with Ramona. I noticed she was still wearing her shirt, but was only in a diaper with no shorts. "Ramona, where are your pants?" I asked. She got the hugest grin on her face. Joe gave me a tired look and said, "She got poop EVERYWHERE." She looked so proud of herself. It was hilarious.

Blah

Well, I had big plans to write in this yesterday. It was going to be a cute "day in the life" post with pictures and everything. I even put the camera next to my bed so I could get the ultra cute pictures of Ramona all smiley when she first wakes up. However, that did NOT happen at all.

Ramona slept horribly and I got up with her at least six times. Probably more like eight. She doesn't really sleep through the night, but she usually gets up only once or twice, which I can deal with. Also, she usually wakes up around 6:30 and plays happily in her crib until I get her up to snuggle in bed with Joe and me while she nurses around 6:45. But no, she got up at 6 and did not happily play. She started whining. I ignored it, hoping she would fall back asleep. No such luck. She started full on crying. I laid there, willing her back to sleep. Lars jumped on the bed and started meowing at me as a reminder that the baby is crying and I need to do something about it NOW. (For some reason, she thinks if I don't hear the baby I'll hear her.) I got up and grabbed Ramona and nursed her back to sleep. I was super annoyed and on almost no sleep, so I left her sleeping with Joe and went for a little walk to cool down (so I didn't throw the cat out the window) and wake up.

I got back and Ramona woke up and was being whiny while I made and ate my breakfast. She usually plays happily, but no such luck again. I got ready and went to work, and work was ok. I talked to one of the hotel managers on the phone and embarrassingly did an enthusiastic "Bye-bye!" at the end of the conversation (which is what I do for Ramona when I leave the house.) I went home for my lunch break and Ramona had cheered up, but I suddenly felt terrible. My stomach was killing me. I spent half my break in the bathroom thinking I was going to die. Then I went back to work and felt fine. It was really weird.

I got off work an hour early because we were going to Pahrump so I could get my root canal done. (That was the impetus in my "day in the life" post. I thought it might be a little more interesting than usual since we were leaving the property.) The root canal went as well as one can I suppose, and I got done around 8:30, so Ramona was pretty fussy since it was well past her usual 7:00 bedtime. Joe said she had been really good while I was getting my tooth worked on, and everyone at the dentist's office thought she was the cutest thing ever. We got home and I put Ramona to bed and Joe and I watched part of the hockey game we'd recorded and were stoked the Red Wings made it through. Then it was off to bed to start another day- and thank God Ramona slept MUCH better last night.

So I suppose this is still a "day in the life post" just minus the pictures and all the cute happy moments. But then again some days just aren't full of cute happy moments. As long as we end the day together as a family I guess I'll take a few days with mostly crappy annoying moments from time to time.

M-m-m-mony and the Cats

A lot of people want to know how Ramona and the cats get along, especially friends who are trying for babies who have kitties. All I can say is that you can't really predict how they'll react. Lars is our resident fraidy cat. We expected her to be terrified of Ramona. Danzig is the adventure kitty. She's the small one but she rules the house.

Lars was scared of the glider my parents got me a few weeks before the baby arrived. Like straight up terrified. If someone was rocking in it, she would run in the other room. And she would walk all around the perimeter of the room by the wall to stay as far away from the chair as possible. This did not bode well for the soon to be baby. But then we brought Ramona home and Lars was cool with her. Both kitties were pretty freaked out by the crying at first, but Lars was the one that gave her a chance first. Lars would come sit on my lap while I was holding or nursing Ramona. Sometimes she would sit on Ramona, so maybe she was just pretending she didn't exist, but she wasn't scared of her. We were shocked.

Danzig, Captain Curiosity, was confused and concerned about the baby. She was used to being the center of attention. And worst of all, she had to share mommy's boobs! Danzig loves to perch herself on my chest and cuddle right under my chin. Suddenly that was no longer a possibility because I was nursing Ramona constantly. She started cautiously smelling Ramona on occasion a few weeks after we brought her home. Then she started playing with Ramona's toys. Eventually she started cuddling up with Ramona. Now they're good buddies. Danzig likes to come over and let Ramona pet her. We're still working on the concept of petting. Ramona usually just grabs a handful of Danzig and yanks. Danzig doesn't mind at all and is so good with her. Of course we try to keep the yanking to a minimum and show her how to be gentle, but it's good to have a kitty who loves Ramona as much as we do.

Lars isn't quite as in love with Ramona, but she does tolerate her. Usually I have to trick Lars into coming over and seeing Ramona (kitty treats and lunch meat!), but once they get together everything is awesome. She even lets Ramona get a handful of fur every once in awhile.

So all my babies love each other. Who could ask for anything more?

I'm the Wii-nner!

Joe and Ramona got me a Wii and a Wii Fit Plus for Mother's Day! Joe let me open it early. The Wii Fit Plus came in and the Wii isn't here yet, though, so I can't use it yet. I'm super excited! I knew this whole having a baby thing would pay off eventually. (Kidding, of course.) But I am really pumped up to try it out. You can put in your stats and your baby and pet stats, too, so I'm looking forward to have a little virtual family on the Wii. I have been complaining about how hard it is to work out since whenever I'm not at work, Joe is usually at work so I have to be home with Ramona. We go on walks all the time, but that's about it. So Joe, (I mean Ramona, Joe told me this was all her idea) thought it would be nice for me to have something I can do at home after Ramona goes to bed at night.

Anyway, it was especially cool because Joe and I rarely surprise each other at holidays. Usually we just pick something out and the other one buys it. But I surprised Joe pretty well back at Valentine's Day with a food processor. (Pleasantly surprised- he really loves it, I swear!) And I had no clue this was coming. Of course, this puts a lot of pressure on me to really deliver for Father's Day, but I've been thinking about it for awhile and decided to buy Joe a bike. He got me one for Christmas, and this way we can get a child seat or trailer so we can all ride together when Ramona's a little bit older. So I told him to start looking and pick one out. No surprises for Father's Day, but at least he'll get the one he wants.

On a completely different note, I spend a good portion of each weekend taking pictures of Ramona. I've been trying to get a good picture of her tooth, but haven't had much luck. But the picture below is pretty cute and if you look closely you can see that the bottom left side of her gum has a white spot. In person the single bottom tooth gives her an adorable little monster look.
Joe and I were also talking about how lucky we are that we have kids now when digital cameras exist. We take so many pictures of Ramona, and I can't imagine paying to develop them all. Of course, we probably wouldn't take so many if it wasn't digital, but we probably wouldn't get as many good ones then, either.