Just a Quick Ramble for Ya

Wow, if I am not careful it will be an entire month since I've last posted. Good grief!! And it's not for a lack of things to post. Quite a bit has happened around here lately. But that is probably the main reason I haven't had time to post.

Claire and I traveled out of state to attend my cousin's wedding recently. It was a beautiful wedding and such fun to visit all my family again. The only hard part of the trip was traveling with a toddler who doesn't understand the point of sitting still in my lap on the airplane for over an hour. Combine that with an ever expanding pregnant belly and you've got yourself a recipe for a really hard travel time.

Her schedule has been a mess since we've been home. It's largely due in part to several missed naps and late nights during our trip. She usually bounces back so quickly that I didn't give the schedule upheaval a second thought. Boy was I wrong. I think we are finally getting back on track though which is a huge blessing!

Michael's family came in to visit the weekend after Claire and returned home. It was great to see them. The majority of us headed to College Station to watch an A&M game. It was the first game for our nephew---let the brainwashing begin!

Claire is starting to mimic words now which is so fun! She has been signing words with her hands for several months now, but to finally hear those words come out of her mouth is a blast. Especially now that she has mastered "Ma Ma" and "Da Da". She has also mastered "Yeah" and "No". She isn't using either of them with too much attitude yet, so they are still cute to hear.

She is finally giving hugs and kisses to us as well. She has been offering them up freely to her stuffed animals and picture books for over a month now. But anytime we'd ask her to kiss us, she'd just shake her head and say, "No!" Glad she has now included us in the list of those worthy of a smooch.

Well, I'd better end this ramble of a post. I did have a fairly interesting sonogram yesterday. More on that in a couple of days.

Later!

Lost

Technology is so wonderfully frustrating to me right now. I have always considered myself to be fairly savvy when it comes to learning new technology. I take the stereotypical "guy approach" to learning new programs. You know, a guy needs to put together a new bookshelf so he dives right in without using the instructions and only concedes to read them if there is a problem? Well that is me and technology.

I have yet to find a program that I couldn't just "figure out" by exploring it for a time. Granted, I know that means my knowledge of said programs is fairly limited, but as long as I am able to accomplish the task at hand, I am happy. I don't necessarily need to know all the ins and outs of the program and I don't care to know the fullest extent of its capabilities. If I ever do, I know the instruction booklet is just within reach.

That said, we recently bought a new computer, and with it all upgraded software. Not a big deal if I had the time to sit down and explore it all to figure out how to make it do what I want it to do, but I don't have the time.

My biggest frustration right now is in the new video editing software I have. I have seen enough of it to know it will be really fast and easy to use and will allow me to do quite a bit more editing with my videos than programs past. The problem is that I don't have any clue how get the videos from my camera to the computer because it is using a completely different uploading system than I am used to and it won't do what I am asking it to do.

Right now, all I want to do is upload a couple of really cute Claire videos to my computer so I can post them and I have no clue how to do it. ARGH!! All my first attempts have been feeble at best. I guess I can attribute that to the fact that I only give it a couple of minutes here or there and then have to give up to go attend to my more important job--taking care of Claire.

Speaking of which, she is now awake and ready for breakfast. I guess I could have used this time to explore the program, but I figured my time was better spent whining to all of you about it.

Later!

Cheeeeeeeeeese!

So I am really tired of all the stoic poses Claire offers the camera now-a-days.

She truly is a happy child and smiles or laughs almost all day long. The problem is that she is also a very inquisitive child. Anytime the camera comes out, she wants to examine it and figure out why Mommy holds this weird thing up to her face while making strange cooing noises.

Frankly, when I put it that way, I can't blame her.

So she puts on her "engineer face" (we have Daddy to thank for that) where she is focused on solving the perplexing problems of "What is that thing and how does it work?"

So today I tried teaching her what "smile" means. She was doing her best to mimic my examples and it was quite funny. Her natural smiles are much cuter, but the attempts are definitely worth posting. Enjoy!




And my favorite . . . . .


Awwww sweat pea, we love you!

Freshly Steamed Poopy Diapers

I don't know if I have ever professed my dislike for vegetables on this blog or not, but there you go. The few vegetables I can stomach have very little nutritional value for me and the ones I gag over are the very ones I need for a healthy lifestyle. For example, I love canned green beans, corn, fried okra and potatoes (made anyway you can think). I absolutely gag over spinach, squash, zucchini, asparagus, broccoli, etc, etc, etc.

That said, I am doing my best to push through my dislike and have at least one of these veggies at every dinner. I am doing this for a couple of reasons. The first being for the health of Michael, Claire and my unborn child who is currently gestating and, I am quite sure, in serious need of valuable nutrients. The second reason is that I don't want my children to grow up hating veggies the way I do. Although I can't say that exposure to veggies will cause Claire and her sibling to appreciate them. Goodness knows my parents tried. I was exposed to veggies on a fairly regular basis, but to no avail.

So the veggie of choice for last night's dinner was steamed broccoli. I steamed the evil greens and lovingly placed them on the table with enough butter and lemon pepper that I am sure it defeated the purpose of including them in the meal. After choking them down, I headed off for Starbucks to hang out with some friends from church for a bit. Upon my return to my lovely home I was immediately hit in the face with a stench that convinced me that Claire had had some sort of massive diaper explosion in her sleep. I was half way to the living room when it dawned on me that the smell was actually left over from the broccoli steaming process. SHUDDER!! In that moment, I remembered exactly why I resist bringing broccoli into the house.

Now in fairness, I am going to assume that the odor was amplified due to my pregnancy and the fact that I currently have the smelling ability of a hound dog, but I was still disgusted that something so good for you can create such a foul odor. One that lingers long into the evening.

Next time? I am placing the steamer on the back porch while cooking the broccoli. And don't think I won't! Let the neighbors think my dog had an accident, I don't care. It won't be in my house and that's the important thing.

Veggies--yuck!

Time To Expand

Yep, it's official. We are expanding our family. Here is a fuzzy photo of Baby #2. Profile of head on right, body on the left. We're due late January. Woo hoo!

Sympathy Phlegm

Do you ever get "sympathy phlegm"? I've had it all day today. Claire has a wicked rattle in her chest. She's not sick, just dealing with extra fluids as a result of her molars coming in. So it's the kind of phlegm that you know would go away with a good throat clearing or possibly a cough or two. But I have yet to figure out how to get a baby to cough on command. So instead I get to listen to her rattle away. Shudder.

I seriously find myself clearing my own throat to clear the phantom phlegm. It's kinda like when I'm talking to a stranger who has a big glob of food in the corner of their mouth. I can't help but to wipe the corner of my own mouth in the hopes that in some way, my wiping will eventually cause the glob to go away on its own.

I seriously need help.

Outdoor Fun

Now that Claire is walking, it has opened up a whole new world of outdoor fun for us. As you'll see below, she is fearless when it comes to water. It's a good thing because with almost 100 degree weather every day this summer . . . the more water, the better!!