Five 4 Friday

Here are five things I don't understand...

1. People who just can't get by without slamming a rock star... or red bull... or 5 hour energy shots. How about a good nights rest and some fresh air perhaps?

2. Professional body builders... male or female. Is this guy happy or ticked? I can't tell, but I sure wouldn't want a roundhouse kick to the face from him. No worries, I don't think he could get his leg up that high anyway.
3. Bullfighting. The picture I saw this morning was a guy with a horn through the face... I censored and found this one of a close call, but you can imagine that sometimes the bull doesn't miss. Yikes.
4. White people with dreadlocks. Common man, Jamaican me crazy with that hairdo...
5. Colored Ketchup, which I think they discontinued, but I still have disturbing mental images of purple goo on a hot dog.

And I thought Cat People were crazy...

This little gem of news came from "The Week" magazine.

A Massachusetts church is launching a religious service for dogs (Because these people obviously don't know that All dogs go to heaven... which is also a really great movie). The Rev. Thea Keith-Lucas of Calvary Episcopal Church says the monthly service will help parishioners "who have a rich spiritual life as pet owners" share their experience of God with their canine companions. She said that barking and whining will be allowed during the services. "We want dogs to be dogs." she said.... (and we all know that what dogs want is to sit through church).

Fiona Smiles

I am making noises such as this pretty much all day. I can't help it I have a baby smile addiction. Chuck actually started the Na Na game, I started with the Num Num game and as this video is a few days old, I have moved onto the clap clap game and the tongue game (which makes a noise but I don't know how to type the sound). Hope you have something to smile about today!

Five For Friday

1. I really want suggestions on how to stop saying the word LIKE constantly in conversation... I have tried to rid myself of the habit before, but I still find myself doing it.
2. I am officially a Moby Mom! Check out my sweet new baby carrier called the MOBY. When I was in school one of my classmates told me I had to get one of these. I have been obsessing over having one ever since Fiona was born, and it finally came in the mail this week. Actually I waited each morning in front of the window watching for the UPS guy. When he pulled up the other morning I ran out to meet him which I think startled him and he totally biffed it on my front steps. I still can't tell if Fiona loves it or hates it, but if I walk around enough she passes out. When I take her out of it though she screams like I stabbed her which is heart wrenching. We walked and shopped in the grocery store with it the other day, and also washed the windows. Thank you Moby:)
3. Do people still flip the bird? Randomly the other day I realized that you don't really see people give the middle finger anymore. I am not saying that I miss it... just wondering if it is considered out of style.
4. I chopped my hair off, and here is a cheesy picture I took of myself to show. My mother in law cut it, and I LOVE it. So bouncy and easy to manage.
   
   
   
5. This Sunday is Chuck and I's one year anniversary. For most occasions I write Chuck a letter in a special journal that was given to us for a wedding present. I am having a hard time summing up and expressing my feelings of the past year. Quite simply Chuck just makes everything better. So happy to have found love, as Rufus Wainwright said, "Life is a game, and true love is the trophy."

Stuff

"Every Possession you have, from the tiniest button to the biggest piece of furniture, takes with is a piece of your time."

-Mindy Starns Clark from The House That Cleans Itself: Creative Solutions for a Clean and Orderly House.

I read this quote today in Parents magazine. Every piece of stuff is just one more thing to move, store, put away, clean, dust, fold, organize....

Ever think that if you don't have enough time, you might have too much junk?

Video Test TWO

Sorry I had the video set to private yesterday, so only YOU TUBE users could watch it. I put it to public so anyone who clicks should be able to see.

Video Test

Ok, so we will see if this works. I have wanted to capture Fiona's cuteness for you all. She has started to makes a lot of different sounds and smiles. As people have found though, it is really hard for me to capture it on camera... it seems that she is camera shy. I think I have shot like 10 mini video's over the last three days trying to capture something noteworthy.

I caught her this morning right when she woke up. Lately each morning I ask her about her dreams and she usually starts moving around like crazy and making faces... then I try to interpret what she is saying. This morning it is only fitting that she looked distressed when I asked her because last night at about 3am I found her weeping in her sleep in the middle of some kind of bad dream... it was so sad and extremely cute all at the same time.

I want to do more little videos in the future... but our camera still runs on double A's and it sucks the power out fast... so I need to get better with my video skills unless I want to spend a small fortune on batteries.

5 - 4 Friday

Where did the week go? I feel like I just wrote one of these posts. I had a request for more Fiona Pics... so here are 5 of my favorite baby pics.

Every morning after Chuck leaves for work I get Fiona from her crib and bring her in bed with me. It's kind of funny because I LOVE it, but she hits me and gets agitated when I am too close to her. I try to give her some space, but I just can't resist her in the morning.

She can't get enough of our big front window. She loves the light and will sit and stare out the window for hours... in fact that is what she is doing right now. Don't worry we will teach her that it is not good to stare directly at the sun.

She is wearing her 3 month clothes now. I had to pack away all of her newborn stuff. I am starting to get sad that she will grow so fast that she wont be able to wear all of her new clothes. She has quite an impressive wardrobe. We especially love her little pants sets.

Daddy works hard to keep her cultured, and plays music for her often.

And this week she discovered that she loves slobbering on and trying to eat his fingers. She gets this WILD look her eyes and goes to town.

I RAN TODAY!!!

And I only lasted about 15 minutes and thought I might pass out!

It was GREAT.

I love that feeling like your lungs are on fire.

Here's to getting back in shape!

CHEERS

The Perks

Mothers Day Rocks! As if having a sweet little baby to adore and play with isn't enough, I ate crab legs with drawn butter, baked potato, asparagus, artichoke dip and sparkling pear cider all served by a very handsome and man (No we weren't out to eat... Chuck bought and prepared it all:)

Then as if that wasn't enough he got me this sweet new summer hat that reminds us both of peppermint bon bon ice cream.

And I got a bracelet, and my mom got me a scrapbook to put together for Fiona.

And my brother got me a framed picture of me and Fiona from the hospital. At first I thought it was the sweetest thing until I noticed that he had photo shopped out Fiona's face and put a picture of him making a gross baby face. When I finally noticed it I screamed... and then laughed hysterically. My brother is crazy.

(Chuck holding the Choopie or pacifier in Fiona's mouth while sleeping... what a skilled daddy)

We took a walk, a nap, and snuggled.

Who knew being a mom had such great perks.

I REALLY did not expect presents, just a carnation at church and maybe a card. Thank you to everyone who made my first mothers day unforgettable.

Hope yours was too:)

Belated Five for Friday

Ok... so I knew I was going to stink at remembering to do this. I even posted yesterday and completely spaced it. So it's Saturday but here is what I would have wrote yesterday if I wasn't such a scatterbrain.

1. Chuck kicked butt this semester, he is still waiting for one grade to come back but almost straight A's ( I think he got an A- or something). Nice work babe.
2. My next door neighbor looks and sounds just like Balki from Perfect Strangers

(He is the one in the purple suit on the right)

3. Ethnic Restaurants will often have menu items that sound less than appetizing once they are translated to English. Case in point, we went to a Vietnamese place the other day and I asked for a recommendation of that to eat. The waitress pointed me to dish that contained "FISH BALLS" she also showed me lots of other dishes I might like.... but in my head I just kept say... fish balls, FISH ballz, fish BALLS... I ended up ordering it, they were like meat balls but made with fish.

4. We randomly watched two movies this week were the main character commits suicide at the end. What a bummer, we should have just watched Nacho Libre twice and laughed ourselves silly.

5. It is therapeutic for babies to hang them upside down for about 10 seconds a few times a day. Fiona Loves it :)

Who's got the baby?

Four Generations

(I would have liked to have Joni my mother in law in this picture, but like a good girl she went to Sunday School after sacrament, while we all played hooky and took photos outside)

This past weekend Fiona received her baby blessing at church. My mom (aka Granmmeemare... as she now likes to be called) made her a blessing gown out of the same fabric and lace as she made my wedding dress. It was a gorgeous blessing gown. A little tricky to get a baby into though. Before church three of us were in the Mother's lounge trying to dress her and there was so much dress that at one point we could barely even see Fiona and my mom said, "Who's got the baby!?!"

Here are the proud parents. I was full of emotion, so grateful to be a wife and mom. It is something I have wanted for a long time and being able to realize it is really incredible. Plus I was surrounded by my family... Even Katie and Jason and the kids drove down for the event. We had 17 members of our family over afterwards for a big lunch... I really enjoyed having our apartment filled to the brim with such great people. It made me really excited for the big family reunion we are going to have this summer.

What a little peanut

My sister was in town too, and she brought a ton of gifts for Fiona... mostly books and CD's (like Raffi) It was perfect, now we have lots of fun stories to read to her and hours and hours of songs like Rub your Tummy and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

I wish my sister lived closer... she is going to be a great Auntie.

I am looking forward to this weekend. It will be my very first Mother's Day as a mommy, Chuck is going to make me a fancy meal... Can't wait :) I have a new found appreciation for the women of the world as of late.

Also this up and coming Wednesday is my 6 week postpartum appointment. I promised myself I was going to wait at least six weeks to start running again. It has been almost a year since I have laced up my sneakers for a run. I couldn't be more excited about it.

So many good things to look forward to!

Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies!

Even if you don't have kids of your own, your womenly-ness makes the world go round.

Childhood memories

DO you know who the Washington Post once named as "the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world?"

My husband didn't.

If you are listening to my playlist right now, you've probably already guessed. It's Raffi.

(Doesn't that picture just make you smile... he is like the happiest person in the world)

Is it ok that I love children's music especially Raffi... my sister came this weekend to meet Fiona for the first time and she brought me like 10 children's music CD's and I can't stop listening to them and laughing. I suppose that's good because kids usually like to listen to this music over and over and over and over again. If I enjoy it it will probably prevent me from going absolutely insane.

I keep imagining Fiona someday singing these songs and it just makes me smile.

Some of you may find this sort of music highly annoying and cheesy, but it brings back really good memories of my mom playing her guitar for us before we went to bed. We would always request Raffi songs. I also remember dancing around the living room with my sister and watching my then baby brother do this squatty dance he did that cracked us up.

What music were you addicted to when you were younger?

I also included the Owl City song on my playlist because my nieces and nephews were over this weekend dancing to it. Now every time I listen to it I picture them twirling around my living room.

(Just Chillin in the chair)