Friday Cuteness

Hello Everyone!

San Antonio Part 2 is still a work in progress. And by that I mean I haven't even started it yet.

There has been Progress of the Getting Bigger variety. After several false starts with eating real food, we shelved the idea for a while. She just wasn't interested in it. She did eat some peas for my wonderful sister-in-law, but after that was all like: "NO FOOD! WANT BOTTLE! OR BOOB! NO FOOD! EW! EW! EW!"

Recently though, she's been showing intense interest in watching me and her dad eat. The other night, I started giving her some mashed potatoes on my fork (freaking daddy right the heck on out), and she was all like om, nom, more please.

WELL, ALRIGHT THEN.

I got this.

What's that mommy? A camera? Can I eat it?

Wait, what? Eat? What?

Just kidding. YUMM! 

Blech! What IS this anyway?!

It's still a work in progress, really. She hasn't QUITE gotten the hang of it, but we're toiling away. We have firmly established that she loves peas and potatoes, and is not so fond of carrots. Next we'll try sweet applesauce, ripe bananas, pureed broccoli, and other deliciousness.

I approve of the paper. And the baby.

What do I have to do to get her to drop meat for me?

And finally, presented for your amusement:

I haven't forgotten you, I promise.

There has been cuteness going on. And work. And Skyrim.

Fun fact about Skyrim. You say "I'll only play for maybe 20 more minutes, then save and do something productive." You get done with what you were doing (Like say, totally exploring Faldar's Ruins and breaking 20 lockpicks while you break into the cashier's cage and sing "We're in the money" while cleaning the place out) and look at the clock and realize it's been at least an hour or more and you're getting glared at my the clock which is totally telling you that you're late late late mclatepants.

Anyway, the last two weeks has kinda been like that, and I have been slacker mcslackerpants about putting up the pictures from the San Antonio Missions. And updating you on Lois because let's be honest here, you only come for the baby pictures.

Anyway, I hope to finish the travel blogging soon, once I get these papers out and submitted and this annoying homework done.

See you then
Laura

Butt Paste!

So we just got back from a week in San Antonio Texas! It was beautiful and warm and a delightful trip all around. It was a real shame how the important conference I was there to attend kept getting in the way of our vacation. Jeremiah has already covered the flights down at his blog, FatherFails. The flights back went just as well, and Jeremiah and I were both so very relieved.

Once we got there and spied the fridge in the room, we went out to get some food for the week. There was a great grocery store not far away called H.E.B. We walked around collecting the diapers, toothpaste, cheese and whatnot we needed. I was having a particularly bad ADD day and had already jumped through about 50 subjects while shopping. I was standing in the front of the stores, near the registers, you know, where like ALL THE PEOPLE are in a grocery store when my face lit up, I twirled around, and announced at nearly the top of my lungs that we still needed: "BUTT PASTE! WE NEED BUTT PASTE!" I merrily whirled in the direction of the baby things aisle, oblivious to the at least 20 people who were now staring at me and chirped "THIS WAY!" Jeremiah at this point had his face in his hands while he muttered "I don't know her. I'm just, uh, here with her baby." He said it wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't sounded so happy about it. I started cackling maniacally and continued to laugh off and on for at least an hour.

Mommy, why do I have clothes on in this big bathtub?

The conference I was ostensible there for went well, overall. I have a great lead on a post-doc for when I graduate. And a nice shiny new deadline for getting my ducks in a row in order to graduate.

For the real fun, we got to take Her Royal Squirmyness swimming. She was overall confused by the experience, what with the gigantic bathtub and total lack of soap. Maybe some pool toys would have helped, but silly mommy left them all at home, and the hotel didn't have any. I looked. Amazingly enough there weren't any in the hamper, and I was pretty sure that taking down the life ring when no one was actively drowning would have been a bad idea

Mommy, why is the water all sparkly? I'm gonna try to catch it.

Our home for the week was the Best Western on S. Laredo St. It was really nice, actually. A microwave and a small fridge in the room. And, as seen above, an indoor pool and spa. She went swimming several days, and it had the desired result of wearing her out so that she actually took a couple of good naps. She's napping now, right by my elbow as I write this, actually.
I hope that when she gets a little older that she will enjoy the water as much as I do. We can go swimming and snorkeling together! Hopefully.

There was a really neat park not far from the hotel. I say was, as though it was only there when we were there, but in reality it is still there, and a very nice place. It's called ChrisPark and was built in memory the founder's son. I'm not sure why he died, but she clearly loved him very much. One of the most fascinating things to me about the park were these rhinestones that were set into the concrete walkways. I'm not sure what they were meant to be, but I found them to be quite lovely.

 We also went to the San Antonio Zoo while we were there. It was a really nice trip and we walked all over the park. My feet hurt SO much by the time we were done, but it was still very cool. The spring flowers were in bloom and it wasn't too hot at all. We saw a lot of really neat animals








Like for instance this nice kitty who agreed to pose for us. So kind of her, really. And that handsome man who is taking his life in his hands by standing so close to the fierce animal is of course my co-star in this program. Lois was snoozing right about now, I think. She wasn't impressed.

Grumpy Snake is SO disappointed in you.

From there we went into the reptile house and met this charming gentleman. He was SO not impressed with us. In fact, I'd say he was actively upset. Look at that face. Is that the face of snakely happiness? I offered to give him a nice little scalerub, but curiously I couldn't reach him. Something about being VERY VENOMOUS. I decided that he could manage his own heartbreak and moved along.

 In the next set of aquariums were these two. Now you can't see their faces, but that is because they were REALLY INTERESTED in all of us in the hallway. Lots of motion, swaying and careful consideration of the faces peering in at them.

This became significantly spookier when we realized that these charming snakes were in fact green mambas. Deadly as they may be, I found this pattern made by their entwined tails to be both beautiful and fascinating.

 This is a gratuitous picture of otters put in here solely for the benefit of our otter-loving friends. There were 7 small-clawed asian otters in the really huge cage holding some really cute monkeys. There was even a baby monkey playing around. But the baby monkey, cute as it was, was still not quite as cute as these otters tumbling all over each other as they played around. They even went swimming and tried to dunk each other. I was just waiting to hear one of them start squeaking "Marco!"

 As we moved along, we found a stationary Komodo Dragon guarding part of the path we were walking. Mr. Fargo decided to leap on and try to subdue the fearsome predator. After some vigorous wrestling and truly inspiring pinning techniques, the Komodo gave up, declaring Jeremiah the winner by total knockout. The real Komodo dragon was not amused by his lookalike's performance and ducked his head in utter shame.
We promptly went to the local tattoo parlor and bar and commemorated the occasion with new tattoos and a rocking hangover.*

meh.

GAH! I mean... Oh, how nice.

After the fearsome fight with the real-life dragon, we moved across the way to the butterfly house.

SOMEONE would have you believe that I screamed and leapt when a butterfly got too close to me, but I would characterize it as more like a ladylike squeak and small start. I certainly did not break any holes in the greenhouse in some vain effort to get away from the aggressive and ravenous beasts harmless fluttering beauties.

Lois was delighted by the butterflies as well. She kept reaching out for them, and I really hope I don't infect her with my fear of all things insect. It was getting overly warm in the greenhouse by the time we left, and we were all glad to be outside where it was cooler and with a nice breeze.

These two beauties offered themselves up for pictures and I happily obliged.






There is also a small aquarium in the San Antonio Zoo.  Being from the east coast, I am rather spoiled by our aquariums here, which feature a multitude of tanks with millions of gallons of water. Still, they had some very nice tanks, which samples of some beautiful aquatic life, like this seahorse here. He was just chilling in the seaweed, watching us funny-looking mammals walking by and peering into his tank. He tried to request a single tank with a bit more privacy, but for some reason he was denied by the zookeepers.

Speaking of zookeepers, there were two sightings of the wild zookeeper while we were there. One was feeding honey to the bitty golden monkeys and one was (bravely) walking into the gator enclosures to feed the birds that shared their spaces. From her we found out that the birds that Jeremiah was calling starlings were actually great-tailed grackles. They apparently cause lots of problems and take the food out of the enclosures. Then, I heard, they eat it while laughing at their caged friends. Cruel, cruel birds.

 We also went to see the Missions around San Antonio, but I think this post has quite enough pictures already. There will be ANOTHER post in the near future talking about that fun. We got stamps!


 * Not really.

My brain. It blurts.

Actual conversation about dinner tonight, just in case you had any delusions about me not being the biggest dork on the face of the earth:

Jeremiah:  Well, Will and Amanda have plans. I'm up for dinner with you.

 me:  dinner with is totally.

 Jeremiah:  But was thinking something at home.

...

dinner with is totally?

 me:  I don't know. My brain blurted.

 Jeremiah:  laughs

Brain: Quick! Write something! Anything!

 Jeremiah:  Dinner with is totally!

Brain: What?

 me:  DInner! Yea! I'll say something about Dinner!!

 Jeremiah:  I have no idea!

 me:  It was something! About dinner! I win! Yay!

... yea. I know.

In other news, we are leaving to go out of town next week, and there is a lot of packing, planning, and errand running being conducted today. Starring my two favorite people:

Pink like bear!

Uh, mom? The world looks a little... tilted.

Jeremiah bundled up Her Royal Squirmyness because it was relatively cool outside in her absolutely adorable pink bear suit and we set off. Dropping me off at school was the first stop, and after that our intrepid explorers tackled Goodwill, Kroger, and Target (targ-ay). There were no casualties, and apparently all provisions were acquired. Including SWIM DIAPERS. Since the hotel we will be staying in has a pool, we are going to take the bear swimming. She really likes bath time, and if she didn't have the disconcerting habit of trying to lay down in the water, she'd be bathing in the whole tub, instead of just the little infant/toddler sized one.

Whatcha got mom? Can I eat it?

Since she was so adorable this morning, I went in for more pictures. She caught me trying to take a picture of the cuteness and wanted to help. Much better.

I'm so cool, I'm sleeping.

There isn't really a rhyme or reason for today's post. Just popping by to say hi.

HELLO WORLD!

I squeezed the Charmin.

Obligatory cuteness. She just gets more beautiful every day.

I'm so sorry for absence y'all. I don't know what came over me. It'll never happen again. Ok, let's be real. It will happen and happen frequently. It's a busy life I lead, and alas, blogging isn't even near the top of the list. True fact. I first typed "It's a busy lie I lead." And while I feel like that may be true some days, (Hah! They're gonna give me a shiny fancy degree and declare to the world that I am a trained scientist. I sure have them fooled.) I thought y'all might get the wrong idea here and I fixed it. You're welcome.

Back to the title of this post though... It's true. I squeezed it, I tugged it, I ripped it. I did other unspeakable things to it, but I'm sure you'd rather not hear about that. Jeremiah is good at being a man. He is expert at man-looking (the croutons were RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM), man-colds (him: I'm dying. I love you. Send word to my parents. Me: It's a cold. You'll live. Him: Would you make me some chocolate milk before I die?) and now, man-shopping. We were almost out of TP. Aside: Any house I live in needs to never ACTUALLY run out of TP. There are few things more nightmare inducing for a woman in her prime than running out of TP without warning. It ranks as a necessity right up there with coffee, chocolate, diapers, and baby formula. End aside. However, instead of our regular stuff, he brought home a large package of Charmin. I had a minor moment at the idea of something DIFFERENT. To his credit, it works. It is soft, and it does its job. After careful consideration of the merits of Charmin, I concede that while it may be a bit cushier and more comfortable for blowing my nose in, I prefer my Angel .... um... Angel Soft? What is the name of that stuff? Apparently I'm not as attached to it as I thought I was. Moving on.

Beautiful place.

Thank goodness there was a cheery fire.

In other, less bathroom-related news, I made my very first visit to a winery this past weekend to Chateau Morrisette in beautiful Floyd VA. It was cold but very dry in Blacksburg before we left, but was briskly snowing by the time we got up there. They had a fire going right behind the tasting bench, and it was really quite warming. The wine was quite tasty and we merrily worked our way through the list. From whites to reds to semi-sweets to very sweet. I'm a light and sweet type, myself. They did have a couple of reds that weren't bad, but there were a couple I took one swig from and poured out the rest of my tasting to Jeremiah.

Our partners in chocolate! They are brave to bring us along.

In the end though, it was all delicious. We were there specifically for the chocolate-and-wine pairing that they were doing for Valentines day. I sat down to an array of wine glasses and 5 delectable-looking fine chocolates. One was black walnut and orange-peel in white chocolate, one was jalapeno and chili in mexican semi-sweet, one was raspberry jam in dark chocolate, one was espresso, and the last was chocolate-covered coconut. We went through and made notes about how the wines and the chocolate paired together. And then, since we're rebels. (And they suggested it.) We started mixing up the chocolates and the wines. The hands-down best combination was the chocolate-covered coconut with the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a pair made in heaven, and not one that they had suggested.
We went with our great friends Will and Amanda. They are so much fun to be around and come up with these awesome ideas for fun things to do. Plus Lois loves her Aunty Amanda.

Chocolate Rose!

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetie!

Gifts for attending the event included these amazing chocolate roses. There were 3 on the tables, one for each couple. We got the pink one,  but there was also one in orange and one in white. I haven't eaten it yet, but I expect it to be delicious.



After the tasting and the pairing, we went for a tour of the winery. It was blustery cold outside, so we ducked inside really fast. Look at all that happy aging wine! The wine barrels all have this adorable dog paw print on them. Turns out, once they are done aging wine in them, you can buy them for about $75. I see where some of our tables once we settle and get a real home will come from! Can't you just see one of these, with a big glass tabletop on it? Perfect place to sip wine and eat cheese or chocolate, no?

 Once you get inside the doors, you look up and this is what you see While the cast-iron chandelier is very beautiful, I was astonished by the wood. It's reclaimed wood from the west coast and is absolutely amazing. The grain and color are rich and they add a lot of character to the building. It was constructed using dowel fasteners instead of nails, and the work really is quite amazing. I should be so lucky to have wood like that in our future house.

Rebel!

In the tour of the winery, we found this very helpful sign by the bottling room. Jeremiah, being the rebel that he is, had to hop on the other side of it and show off. I made all sorts of frowny faces of disapproval, but only because he thought of it first.

Lush!

I peeped through a window and found these really neat corks in a box. They made a great picture, and I really wish I'd gone through and picked one up. I love that pattern.

This wasn't what I had in mind.

Final rating on the winery? 8/10, would visit again.
Final rating on the wine? 10/10 would drink again.


Then we went home and passed out. The next day, we went and obtained a new couch. Our couch was well past it's prime and had long since passed from "comfortable" to "butt-sucking" in terms of sitability. We again recruited our friends for some help.  The first half of the couch (A sleeper! We can have people VISIT now!) made it into the apartment without any real trouble. When the reclining half was due to come in, there was apparently a slight detour.

I AM THIS BIG!

It did finally make it into the house and is just as comfortable as promised. Jeremiah and I have agreed that we are a comfortable couple since we have now progressed to buying furniture together.

And finally: More baby. She says HI MOMMY! PICK ME UP!

True Conversations in our house:

I brought us both glasses of water. As we began to drink it, we had this little conversation:

Jeremiah: You didn't put any poison in this, did you?
Me: Just the usual one.
Jeremiah: ... the usual one?
Me: Yes. The usual one. Iocane powder. I've been building up your tolerance to it bit by bit. You're welcome.
Jeremiah: ... You are such a dork.

In other news, this happened:

Om nom foot.

And I've been making progress on the quilt. From the pile of squares it used to be, it now features some completed strips!

 These are some of the easier ones to piece together. just one, two, or three seams. Easy. Wonderful. Fast.  I really like how they're coming together too, and the purple shows up really well here. The contrast is good too, since it'll be really clear when it's done. The second photo is one of the inner pieces, where I am assembling the triangles I made out of all those squares. These strips are going to take a lot longer to put together. I'm still debating the green I used here. I think a much lighter green would have been better, but it's a little late to change it now.

Keep Scrolling




A little more ...

If I crouch, she can't see me.

BAM! Sudden topic change!

Here we witness a Sunday afternoon in the wild. We are lazing about on the couch, complete with cat sleeping and baby slouching. Chester is of the opinion that he needs to be protected from the caustic baby drool that so often pollutes his fur. (Not really.) See how Chester has cleverly employed a BabyShield? He says it is the perfect protector against a baby who will eat anything.

Om nom blanket.

PROOF! Here she is, trying to eat a blanket! RUN, BLANKET! RUN!! She says the blanket fuzzies are like the bonus marshmallows in your hot chocolate. Except they taste less better. And more fuzzy. And ew, what is that in my mouth? Did *I* do that? On purpose? What was I thinking. EW MOM COME AND SAVE ME FROM THE EBIL BLANKET!

Eat feet instead. More toes. Less fuzz.

Growing! She's GROWING!

Hello world.

Today was Lois' 6 month checkup. When she was born, she was so little and awake. This picture was taken right after she was born. Well, not RIGHT* after. They'd had time to clean her up and check her out and feed her a little bit. I have diabetes and when she was born her blood sugar was a little low, so they boosted it quickly with a little formula. *I* hadn't even seen her yet at this point, other than the peek over the curtain that I got during the c-section. She was squalling and covered in ick. I'll spare you THAT photo, but we do have it.

A bath? Now? But I JUST got my hair perfect!

These days she's looking more like this. Here we're having an in-depth conversation on the subject of diapers, baths, and bedtimes. Her point was punctuated by vigorous foot-flailing, and she was making a sweeping gesture with her left hand. Her other appendages didn't have an opinion. The hair was all for it.
Fun fact we've learned over the past few days: She is sensitive to the Pampers Sensitive Diapers. Put the regular baby-dry or the swaddlers on her? No problems. But the ones for sensitive skin broke her out into some diaper rash. This is SO definitely my baby.
Back to what I started out with... she's 6 months old! And today was her 6-month checkup. She is doing perfectly. She's long and skinny, 27.5 inches long, 15 pounds and 5 ounces. That's the 87% for height, and 33% for weight. The doctor is very happy with how she's developing and says to keep on with what we're doing.

This was right before the power went out.

Look at the cute baby bear! LOOK AT HER!

Ahem. I mean, isn't that little snow suit warm-looking? And what about the handsome man holding her? That is daddy. He is most wonderful, the source of tickling, funny noises, dinner, and cuddles. She loves her daddy. So do I. He's wrapped firmly around her finger, and he takes marvelous care of her. She makes it easy by being such a good baby.

Now, about that bear suit. She likes it. It tends to produce an instant nap in her, which I like. It's warm and cozy and makes her look like a little pink bear. Win-win-win.

And now I've introduced you to one more of the characters in my day-to-day life, my wonderful Jeremiah. He is totally awesome.

Not as awesome as this toe. Om nom toe.

*EDIT: Apparently she hadn't been fed yet. Just cleaned up and already being showered with daddy's love. I was shivering in a recovery room while they made sure I was okay after the c-section. They have these awesome pre-warmed blankets they give you in there. I think I had like 5 of them.