Christmas? Already?!

Oh, wait. We blinked, and it's gone. This was Jessy's first. And last- as an only child!

Our little firecracker is due July 18! Mommy is now 11 weeks along, so still nauseated and icky, but not complaining. Hey, if it means Firecracker is doing well, BRING IT!!! We will find out if Firecracker has a hot dog or cheeseburger probably sometime mid/late February.

Jessy wore a little (ok, not so little) red and white dress for her first Christmas. She got soooo many toys and clothes! Hokey-pokey Elmo, a Disney princess pony, did I mention clothes?, and so! many! toys! If she complains she's bored I'm not buyin' it! ;)

She needed help with unwrapping her gifts; the babyjess didn't quite know what to do with the paper. It will be interesting to see what she does on her birthday (which is *gasp* around the corner! ;( can't believe how fast time is going!).

All the toys and wrapping paper did not keep Jessy from finding (and later chewing on) the coasters at Grammy's house...

Jessy pooped right out after opening (with mommy's help... wait, mommy did most of the work...) all her Christmas gifts.



So much to say...

So little energy! I'll explain in detail a little later, but I have been really dragging. Two full time jobs is really getting to me. One of which, of course, I enjoy more than the other. ;)

Which brings me to a quick ramble. I have several business ideas to generate some extra money, since we're poor as all getout, but the one I reeeeeally want to get started ASAP is a crafty one. I just have no idea where to start. Obviously I can get supplies from the good ol' crafting store, but then what? How do I price stuff? I think I could just do shipping via USPS- those little flat-rate boxes have to be good for something, right?

Anyone have any ideas on how to set prices? Suggestions are very welcome!!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Yeeeeahhhhh, I've got some catching up to do. But, two blogs in one day? Man I must be on something. OK, I promise- I'm not. Jessy had her first Halloween this year and while she didn't actually go TOT'ing (yeah, I got lazy on that), she still had the opportunity to answer the door and had out candy.

In true snowflake fashion, Jessy dressed up as Snow White. But trust me when I say that finding a Halloween costume for this child was no easy feat. I visited many a store and came up empty-handed. Either the costumes were too big, too small or just too expensive and even Jessy was becoming impatient. I finally resigned myself to no costume for our adorable little snowflake.

And of course, after I resigned myself to not finding anything and just dressing jessy up in the garb Grammy bought her, I saw it: the somewhat-big (or so I thought) Snow White dress. And it was only about $8. That was more like it.

Without much further boring rambling, behold! Jessy the Snow Princess.

Jessy's Baptism... Finally!

Finally, on so many levels. Jessy was actually baptized on 10/9/10 but I didn't post right away because it was such a busy weekend... we spent the night at grammy's house after the awesome party she threw us and then came home- we were still tired! lol

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pics of the ceremony itself, but we got these beautiful pics of Jessy in her (mom's) dress before and after our child was initiated into the Church (well, part i of iii, anyway ;)). Yes, Jessy wore a dress from circa 1981, and it not only fit her beautifully, but held up through multiple washings and dryings. Heck yeah.

Enjoy!

 Jessy with her proud Godparents

Jessy with her proud parents!

Blink.

I did. Apparently, too many times. It's November already. How'd that happen??? I mean, I believe I had a resolution, which felt like it was the beginning/middle of last month, to be a better blogger. I believe I have gone in the opposite direction. Please forgive me.

Jessy turns 9 months on Friday. She will have been outside of me nearly as long as she was baking on the inside! For the past several weeks, she has been working on her crawling skills and has become a pro at it. And our princess spooked us the day before Halloween by... STANDING! I caught it all on video, since I know any readers I have left nowadays aren't going to believe me. ;) *crickets*

Without much further ado, here's the footage!

The second vid is a tad dramatic b/c it ends with Jessy falling over my leg and she looks terrified. but rest assured our little snowflake didn't even cry, much to her mama's relief.

The little snowflaker is doing well with the baby food nowadays- we started sending some off to the baby sitter's place with her every day and she is taking it like a champ. Unless she is at home, though, but more on that later. (I mean it this time!)

Summer's over.... already?

Really? How'd that happen? It seems like just yesterday... eh, nevermind. For some reason, actually, it feels like Labor Day was a looooooong time ago. The week after we had a visit from the nasty Tropical Storm Hermine, who spawned a few different tornadoes in the Dallas area, one of which went through Love Field Airport. Luckily, though, no planes or people were affected in teh airport, although an 18-wheeler was mangled a few blocks away. In the Fort Worth area, cars were literally underwater as severe flooding took over the area very quickly.

Then, the house caddy-corner went on and off the market. (which has ZERO curb appeal- no front garden and it looks like an Office Depot truck drove by and puked white out all over it. Well, almost. Well, a girl has to try to make her house look better than the rest, right??). We're back to scrambling around to get ours clean enough to be presentable. (yeah, right.)  Wish us luck- with my feeling wiped out after work
(mentally) and juggling normal, everyday house chores plus a near-eight-month-old it's nearly impossible to stay clutter-free. Perhaps a little Saran Wrap is in order here for the floors and countertops.

Jessica will be 8 months old next month. How did that happen?? It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. *sigh* We are FINALLY getting her baptized a few days after her 8-month mark; then it's on to... *gulp* planning her first birthday party. :( Where has my baby gone??

OK, 'nuf with the mush. lol

Labor day already??

Wow! I can't believe it's September! Seriously, where has the time gone? Jessy has turned 7 months and finally, after all that work and all those months, finally sprout a tooth last Wednesday! I worked and worked and of course, the sillygirl just would. not. let me photograph this momentous occasion.

However, when we were at Grammy's yesterday JessyNicole accidentally showed it off and gave the camera a front-row view.

For skeptics, here it is, close-up!

Funny part is, the babysitter and I were talking about this that day when I picked her up from daycare, how it gets harder to cut those things as she gets older, hopefully she would cut one soon!

BTW, don't let this in-nocuous looking fool ya. It's sharp as all getout and will hurt you.

Seriously?

Manic Monday went by slowly. Once my lunch break finally arrived, I hopped in the car and headed to the bank (gotta love those errands, includeing getting money to pay the babysitter!). Did my thing, (boring stuff deleted) and decided since I was out and about to just go out for lunch. There was a McDonald's across the street.

I meticulously guided my SUV through the drive through with no clue as to what I wanted. Then IT caught my eyes. An angus burger. Since I love JackInTheCrack's version, I decided to give the Mickey-D's version a try as well. Unfortunately, I noticed a couple of EPIC FAILS right off the bat. The WHITE STUFF in the picture... WTF was THAT? I asked the attendant and was horrified with his reply. "Mayonnaise and mustard." WHAT?? Um, excuse me, but you don't put MAYO on STEAK? I mean, seriously- I don't know anyone who would eat a steak with mayo and mustard on the side. A-1? Lea and Perrins, perhaps, but MAYO and MUSTARD?? C'mon!

Of course, I'm a person who is prejudiced against most things mayo. Chipotle mayo? Any flavor mayo? Maybe. But plain old mayo? Ew. The stuff stinks!

So I ordered my old standby instead- ranch. Since they only had packets of ranch, a little manual labor was involved, but I didn't mind. For a decent-tasting sauce, it was worth it. Truly.

However, when I got back to work and dove into the fries (c'mon, who doesn't? ;)) I noticed not one, but two, HUGE dipping-style buckets of ranch. As in, I only used 3/4 of one of these "packets." They gave me entirely. too. much. Ah, well, better too much than too little, right?

What's For Dinner, Mommy?

I know I'll hear that sentence before I know it, so I may as well get used to it, right? For those who don't know me, I'm the ultimate slacker when it comes to cooking. Plan ahead? Nah. I constantly forget to take stuff out of the freezer. Fortunately, though, there is a remedy for forgetfuls like me.



Lazy slacker brain I have, I recruited my crockpot. To make things even simpler, I put a liner in the pot to quicken the cleanup (just like putting foil in the dishes I bake in) and finally tossed in the tropical marinade. Next, I plopped (ok, not really) two frozen chicken breasts in the pot and turned it to high power. Dropped the lid on and 4 hours later...



Total yumminess!



Paired with an 88-cent bag of frozen veggies, here's the finished product. *drool*

The Ride.

My heart began to pound as I stepped into the train and took a seat. What was I thinking? was the only thing crossing my mind as I pulled the lapbar down to my lap.

A flash of a t-shirt came running by me, quickly pushing and pulling on my lapbar, then another lapbar, and another and another... until finally, the teen at the control panel grabbed the mike and announced the golden words: "All clear, dispatching train."

Off we went. The sneaky train made a quick U-Turn to the right and we began our ascent. It felt like forever as the train's backstops loudly rattled up the hill with us, like heavy metal thumping on a hollow, metal pole. My heart began to pound even harder. Still climbing. It felt like we had been climbing for about five minutes, but in reality, we were only halfway there. Sheesh. Will we ever get to the top?

Finally, as I began to think my heart was going to literally pound its way out of my chest from all the adrenaline I had, we reached the top. Monumental. I looked around and could see clearly the Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington, a local hotel, and nothing but air. Suddenly my stomach was tickled and I screamed as we made a rapid, 85-mph descent into a long, dark tunnel. We were suddenly back in the air again as the cars took a U-turn then dipped again, careening us into a mangled-looking maze of track. 4 G's and two spirals later, we were back into the station.

The ride for which I had waited literally months to take on had ended. My adrenaline turned into endorphins as I exited the train and couldn't help but to jump up and down to release some of it. While the ride of my life was over, the rush was not. I had tackled the long-anticipated Titan, and it was everything I thought it would be, and then some.

There is something about roller coasters which has basically made me gaga. What it is exactly I can't quite put my finger on but whatever it is, I feel the bug to ride again beginning to wiggle inside me. Being pregnant last year knocked me clean off the riding roster, as did a chicken of a husband. And while K doesn't like roller coaseters, he is occasionally generous enough to get on one with me. The Titan was no exception. At over two centuries tall and breathtaking speeds, it had certainly proved its worthiness.

A roller-coaster fanatic friend of mine posted on Facebook about this Intimidator in Virginia this morning and it brought back the golden memories of the many adrenaline rushes I have lived through to tell about. But this thing appears to live up to its name- at over 300 feet tall and lashing speeds of over 90 miles per hour, it's definitely no joke, but I look very forward to the prospect of conquering it. One day.

Thankful Thursday

Nom, Nom, Nom! I'm so thankful for my babyjess, even if she does chomp on her toes!

I'm sooo thankful for my husband, who also loves the babyjess.

Things may not always easy 100% of the time, but hey if it was, life would be no fun. And in my book, no challenges=no fun. My recent job loss created a bit of a financial challenge- mainly b/c it was after another job change and being out of work for 7 weeks without pay (my maternity "leave" from having Jess. But that's another post, for another time). It adds up. That's all I'm sayin.'

So while times have been a bit challenging for us in light of the craziness in our lives, I have a *ton* to be thankful for. My extended family, my mom, my HUSBAND, my JessyNicole, my NEW JOB, my car and house, our health and safety... I could go on and on about what is right with my life. And maybe I will ;)

Sweet Sunday (and Saturday)

I can't believe it's Sunday night already. Ahhh, Sunday night. It's a night I dreaded when I worked certain jobs. I always felt like the weekend was over after church ended for some reason. :/

However, tonight is different. I sit here relaxing, as I should be after a moderately hectic Sunday. You see, yesterday I bought a package of two, big-ass steaks yesterday at Target. With the $2 coupon I had, it was a steal. However, it was too much for Keith, myself and Jessy to eat alone. Just kidding. Jessy isn't ready for steak yet... So we invited J, my BIL. Sheesh. I just realized I didn't take any pictures, so that means you'll just have to trust me when I tell you that the marinated, grilled steak with salad, mashed potatoes, cantaloupe and strawberries was very tasty. Of course, it was a beautiful meal before we devoured it. Healthy food and all. *crickets*

After we ate, BIL had to run to let his dogs out for the night. That's when my adrenaline rush kicked in. The pizza tray and cutter which *blush* had been sitting on the stove for two weeks? I finally had the energy and motivation to clean it. I felt ENERGIZED. After work, I always feel totally wiped out. Too much so to even rinse out Jessy's bottles alot of the time. However, after I entertain? I feel GREAT. I feel ALIVE. I just need to do it more often.

On the household front, Jessy finished her fourth night of green beans. They didn't go as well as the carrots did; it seems as though she has gone backwards on the food. So, we're jumping the gun and will sstart her on a fruit this week and see if that makes a difference.


In the meantime, enjoy a few pics of our little sweetie "devouring" her veggies like a good little girl. :-)

Viva la vida!

I grew up as an only child. As a result, I have pretty much always wanted at least two kids... maybe even three... or four! Many people say that they wish they were an only. But do they really wish for that? Perhaps, nobody to fight with or share anything wish sounds quite attractive. Or how about the Mt. Everest of presents under the tree on Christmas?

Yes, I lived all of these little "perks." Once school was out, I got to come home to peace and quiet (with the exception of my mom nagging me on my homework :p). No siblings punching or picking at me. No siblings invading *my* space. I had *my* own Mt. Toyverest under the tree. All of which were the direct opposite of what I would have had if I had siblings.

That's not to say that if I had had siblings I would have had other kids picking on/at me at home. I would have had to share some space, and definitely no Mt. Toyverest under the tree. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not some materialistic freak or anything, I mean, hey- what kid isn't thrilled at a Mt. Toyverest under the tree? Perhaps I would have learned to fight back against bullies/lowlifes a little better. Perhaps people wouldn't think they see a "NAIVE AND STUPID" stamp on my forehead. Sometimes, I can't help but to have peoples' ignorance under my skin, but that's a whole other soapbox. There's practically a laundry list of stereotypes about only children.

Back to the bright side of things. I had more one-on-one time with my mom, along with my grandparents (even though they have, like, elevendy-billion grandkids) than alot of other kids in the area. I developed an awesome relationship with my grandparents. More on that later.

Now that I'm older, though, there *is* a new set of considerations for me. When the time comes, the responsibility will be all mine to handle my mom's affairs. (my 'rents divorced when I was very young- more on that later, too.) Also, growing up, I had an awesome extended family. Lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. However, Jessy (and any other kiddos we might have) will only have her three cousins (who live in CA), three uncles and an aunt. Not the same privilege of a huge extended family at all. I have fewer godparent choices for our children.

While growing up, recess time often (but not always) found me playing by myself: I couldn't relate to my classmates. "Experts" say that only children tend to be more mature than their counterparts who have siblings. This was painfully true for me. Through the years, however, the effects of being around mostly adults became less profound as I grew up. The older people are, the less age matters- both physically and mentally. How often do you see, say a five-year-old getting along well with a 10-year old? Probably not very often- they're as different as night and day! However- a 30-year-old and a 35-year-old? Not too bad there. Mental age has the same effects.

Thankfully, though, I have the important stuff: a loving, devoted mom, a doting husband and sweet daughter, who all love me as I am, quirks and all.

Carrots, Green Beans and Bronx Cheers

One week ago today, Jess turned the big 6 m-o-n-t-h-s. She went for her checkup as usual, weighing in at her snow-normous, well, 17 pounds*, 27 inches long with a 17-inch noggin. Per the doc's recommendation, we have stepped up on her solid-food consumption. 

We started with carrots and stayed with that for five days (minimum of four days). But tonight, we started the green beans. YUM! Seriously, when I opened the packet some of the puke-green puree splashed out on to my thumbnail. So I did what any other crazy, loving mom would do: I tasted it. And surprisingly it was- very tasty! Of course it wasn't very satisfying, but still tasted good. Like actual green beans. 

However, Jess had other ideas. Tired little thing she was, she drooled, spit and Bronx-cheered most of the tasty morsels out of her mouth.

*16 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces.

Working-Mom Musing: New Gig

My other gig with the auto finance company fell through. *sigh.* But, as some may say, things happen for a reason. Think about it- contract goes pop on Thursday night. Friday- in with staffing agencies. Monday- official job interview. The rest is history.

This new gig I think is going to rock- MUCHMUCHMUCH closer to home, $1 more per hour and, um, did I mention closer to home?? No more 30-mile commute out to the boonies by the airport and back. No more racking up extreme toll bills on George Bush. ($6/day for less than 30 miles each way! The other miles were made on a FREEway)

Now weather, will you just cool off already? I'm SO over this 1,000,000-degree heat! And no, I could never make it living in hothothot places like Vegas or Southern Arizona. *crickets chirping*.

In other, more random thoughts, what exactly is Brian supposed to represent in Family Guy??

Great.

Just what I needed. I'm wondering if super-glue can fix this mess. Ironically, we switched back to these basic dummies to SAVE money. HA!

And this is what it's supposed to look like. Oy Vey.

In other thoughts, can I whine for just a second? I hate summer. As a kid, I used to love it- it meant a break from school, even after high school- I never went to summerschool while in college. I LOVED the time off. The CHANGE OF PACE. Now, not so much. No change of pace, same ol' crap, day in day out (minus the weekend). And hardly any access to a pool to beat this awful heat and humidity! (And BTW I'm far from the hottest spots in the country! I can't stand it here in the summer- I'd never make it in Southern AZ or Southern CA...) OK, whine over.

Jessy... Sittypants?

Oh. Geez. It's been howwwww long since I've blogged? Yeesh. Too long. I am terribly sorry for my absenteeism here. I know, there's getting to be a pattern... I blog alot then just fall off the face of the earth. But such is the life of a working mom. Ew.  I've thought of firing myself from the realm of blogging, but I don't think that would be a wise idea. I just enjoy this blogging thing too much! Even if I don't have some readers left after all this time, I cooooouuuuuld pick up a few more, right? Riiiiiight? *crickets chirping*

Since K and I are trying to save some major $$ and pay some bills off so I can enter the realm of stay-at-home-momhood, I am trying to figure out some cool, healthy and yummy budget meals. Fortunately, things diet-wise are pretty easygoing for us- no allergies or anything like that, but I still like to use the "sinful stuff" (read: alcohol, fats, sugars, pretty much all the stuff we love to love) in moderation. We try to keep sodium low so I'm less likely to turn into the Goodyear Blimp during, ahem, *that* time of the month. I am definitely going to try to post more recipe ideas here... stay tuned! ;)

Now, for the topic that's not for dinner, or dinner. Jessy! And you thought I would actually write a post that didn't mention our own Crown Jewel, Her Royal Snowiness. She is now 24 weeks old- 5.5 months old. She has her next checkup with the doc in a little under 2 weeks. Jessy can sit pretty darn good with support, as evidenced by the pics below. Enjoy!

 She's growing up so fast!

 Nom, nom nom!

Oh yeah, did I mention she's already trying to crawl?

No words needed.

Mommy Brainless

I figured I'd clue you guys in before I forget (rim shot). I officially have momnesia.

Tonight I went over to Babies R Us and Target for some light shopping. Loaded up the car from BRU and headed off to Target. Got there, cut the engine in the car, took off my seatbelt. Reached for my purse... quickly pulled my seatbelt back on, re-cranked the engine (poor car!) and shot back over to BRU so fast... sure enough my purse was still in the shopping cart. Oy Vey. Thankfully everything was still in it, probably b/c I went at night, and there was definitely an angel watching over it!

I've been forgetting half the stuff I'm told at work. Not good, since it pertains to doing my job. It is also very frustrating since I've done the job before, but look to my boss like a complete buffoon who hasn't even seen it and can't learn how to use a toothbrush let alone discount contracts. *crickets chirping*

Oy. I just need a good night of... something. Um, I think they call it ssss.... sleep?

A Month of Firsts

Wow, time sure flies! Wait, I keep saying that, don't I? *lol* Perhaps it's time for another blog-name change? Nah. Just kidding.

Jessica will be 5 months old in another week. She has had her first taste of solids. Plain ol' white-rice cereal, pumped up with DHA and probiotics (mmmmmmmm....). The very first real-food feeding was a family affair, with daddy holding Jessy after a few sips of baba to calm her down, and mommy actually giving her the spoon. She loved it. Since we don't have a fancy camcorder that I can plug into the 'puter like I can my still-camera, you'll have to bear my description. ;) Her expressions were priceless and while a few times she looked like she was going to cry, she trucked on, swallowing her mini-spoonful and smiling, all before opening her mouth toward a spoonful of cereal to start all over again.

ummmmmm... what is this STUFF??

ew. uh, ok, mommy and daddy... I've had enough for now. Interesting stuff, though!

Another first came along this past Saturday night at our locat fireworks display. Our city does them the week before July 4, which makes for more fun since we get to stretch out the celebration and have more parties. ;) But this year was more special than all others, as we had an extra attendee with us. Yup, Jessy saw her first fireworks Saturday. Her mommy, daddy and Uncle Jeff parked a ways away from the park then walked the rest of the way, which made for a decent workout after our picnic-style dinner under the sky (okay, it was at at table, but still...). They bumped into an old co-worker of mommy's, who recommended an awesome stake-out spot for viewing the fireworks. They took his recommendation and were very happy. The view was incredible (as is every year, from this park), even with the parking lot lights shining away behind us (they were the only ones not shut off).

Daddy! What's all the booming? Hold my hand!

As for the next first, that may be teething. Jessy was quite fussy yesterday evening and when I handed her her texturized keys, she went crazy holding them while rubbing her little gums on them. Of course, those teefy-weefies have been teasing us for quite some time now, so we'll see...

Crazy.

It's been at least 3 weeks since I have blogged. SRSLY?? Jessy has been keeping me on my toes as well as this working-mom crap, plus miserably-failing attempts at housekeeping. After all, who's gonna buy a cluttered house, right? More on that later.

As I stated, Jessy has done a kick-ass job of keeping me on my toes. She turned 4 months old on 6/5, but due to timing issues w/our doc, didn't get her check-up in til today...

Jessy proudly whipped out (ok, her mommy did...) her shiny, new plastic keys and began mouthing them immediately for the doc. Weighing in at an amazing 15 lbs, 1.5 oz, 25" tall and having a 16 3/4" head circumference, Jessy put on a spectacular show yet again for the doc. Pulling her head up 100%, she pulled herself on to her elbows and even sat up and stood (supported, of course). Hasn't quite mastered the bow yet, though. ;)

Oh, hi! Once again, Grammy dodges the camera...

She went to another party yesterday- this time for her cousin, M, who just turned the big one! They are 8 months apart, so I'm sure they will get to have plenty of playdates in the future.

Do I HAVE to??

Whoa, Horsey.

Back in 2007 I was diagnosed as having the lovely Fibrocystic Breast Disease. Basically, I have bumpy boobs. And it sucks. After a weekend (which felt like a YEAR!) of tearing my hair out, popping out tears and screaming and shouting, I had a breast biopsy. You may be wondering why I went so crazy before this procedure, as for me it was quite simple: get numb, needle in the boob, cool u/s pics, blah, blah, blah... but it was the words I NEVER wanted to hear from my doc after having a u/s of my breast: Solid nodule. It scared the wits out of me. And I heard the words at pretty much straight-up 5pm, on a Thursday afternoon. It couldn't get better than that.

This is one of the things I love about my DH (fiance at the time of this disaster)- he has a calming way about him. He was able to put me at ease like *this* (snaps fingers) and let me cry, scream, and have a fit, right there on his shoulders. I was utterly terrified of the C word.

Back to the main story line... the biopsy came back benign. Thank God. I was (and still am, knock wood... plan to stay that way!) cancer-free. But the doc had a caveat for me- stay away from the caffeine. At the time, I was so addicted to caffeine that 70 cups of coffee a day didn't touch me. (OK, slight exaggeration there. ;) ) I took what I thought was the easy-way out: I quit cold-turkey. A couple of days later, I had headaches- the kind that made me just want to give up and go have a few make-up Jolt colas. But I kept on keeping on, and two weeks later I felt much better again- like a human being. I was awake once again and my co-workers began filling me in on what had happened over the past several days. I slowly began allowing myself caffeine again, here and there about another week later.

This incident inspired me to do some research as to exactly how much caffeine is in any given drink at any given time. I thoroughly researched the drinks I frequented, and thought I had a grasp on it all- supposedly the amount of an ingredient in something can be somewhat-deciphered by where it is in the ingredient label of its product. For example, take a can of soda, read the label. Then pick up its diet counterpart, and do the same thing. According to that wisdom, the diet soda would have less caffeine in it since caffeine is mentioned more toward/at the end of the ingredient list, as opposed to the beginning/middle.

Well I sure was shocked tonight when I went online to research the amount of caffeine in iced tea and decided to look up diet soda as well. Apparently I need to just stock up on the iced tea and forget the soda- because diet and regular have the same amount of jolt juice in them- which is more than iced tea AND a Hershey Bar, combined! eek. There are a ton of these charts online and believe me, I have looked at several. And they all pretty much agree on the caffeine content of drinks/foods, within about 5-10mg of each other.

Here's one to get started on. Siroter votre boisson.

One year ago today...

I was staring at the stick I had just peed on at 2am in pure disbelief that a TEST LINE had popped up on it right away, almost immediately after the pee hit it. The one month we were totally not trying... (heck, we had impending layoffs and so much uncertainty...) was the one month we hit the jackpot! LOL

Scared and shocked, I put the test down on the sink and finished about my business. I brought it back into the bedroom with me and set it on the nightstand, and crawled back into bed. Sleep?? Yeah, right. DH stirred and asked, "How are you?"

"I'm pregnant," I replied, still in disbelief. What a ride we were about to embark on...

Wow! Rolling OVER?? HA HA!

Jessy, you hit two milestones this past Saturday (and yup, I'm just now getting to write it down. lol)! You screeched with laughter and delight while your daddy was talking to you (as I do sometimes) and it melted my heart. You smile and laugh a little for me, but not quite so much. I think this is going to be a daddy-daughter thing, but I still love it.

You also rolled over- from back to front to side to front... all over the place in your little dress! And that's another thing- you wore a dress for the first time that day too! So make that three milestones! Your dress was little, strappy and had lots of red, as everyone can see in this video.  You are beginning to reach out at objects dangling in front of you, like the froggy that came with that neat mat that Cousin T gave you.

Mommy and daddy splurged a little and got you this bouncy-gym thing. You're still figuring it out, but starting to explore it more as you get to know it!

What's this do??

aaaaaaahhh... *DROOL*

Camera=Mommy??

I can't believe you're 3 and a half months old. Two weeks ago, when daddy took you to the doctor for the rest of your shots, you weighed 13# 6 oz. Up from 11# 9 oz! EEK! Little weed. ;) Oy, part of me can't decide if I can't wait to see what you weigh at your 4-month checkup, and the other part of me can b/c she doesn't want you to grow up so fast! Ah well... what happens, happens... you're still my little girl! Beautiful, to boot.

Oops.

I have slacked. Again. Life here has been way too busy- I am barely keeping up here as a working mom but somehow I manage to do it. I think it is largely Keith's help that is getting my through this.

Even though I work 8-5 now and Jessy only spends 7 hours in daycare per day most days, I STILL have the lovely mommy guilt. Tonight I played with her a bit- placed her down for some tummy time on her mat and she totally went through the motions of crawling! Unfortunately I didn't get pics of it, but one day I will put her down and she will take off... and I will have to run after her! I'd better start training yesterday.

Saturday's Tummy Time pic...

Chillin' for her Saturday AM nap! She takes her ZZZ's seriously. And yes, that is a pacifier in her hair!

On another note, our home improvement projects are- well- coming along. We tore the wallpaper off of one of the kitchen walls and let me tell ya, it was scary! Of course, what should one expect when renovating/remodeling a 1972 house?! Pictures to come.

And last but definitely not least... happy belated Mothers' Day to all the mommies out there (Earth AND Angel mamas alike)!! Keith and Jessica bought me a beautiful bouquet of pink tulips, some chocolate and a couple of blouses. They know me well!