2 months…

We made it to two months and haven’t given Leighton Shaken Baby Syndrome… high five!

Just kidding… we kind of love her and think she is a keeper!

Until later…

Fat and Happy...

Good God I think that baby ate our baby… that is the text I got from jon the morning I sent him this picture of our little munchkin (I might not be able to call her that anymore!).  I seriously have no idea when Leighton gained all this weight but she definitely has turned into a roly poly.   She had her two month appointment yesterday and she is officially 11 lbs. 6 oz.  The doctor at one point looked at me and said, “what are you feeding this kid,” as she slept through her exam.   Jon figured out if she kept this rate of weight gain up she will be 720 lbs by the age of 30… yowza!

Leighton is still a Rockstar and we are still getting way more sleep than should be allowed for a newborn's parents… or should I say Jon is since I have to wake up with her in the early morning for her 4 o’clock snack.  He was standing in the kitchen this weekend and started yawning… then he said,” I am so tired, I think I am getting too much sleep which is making me sleepier… you know what I mean.”  As calm as I could, I slowly turned my head so my gaze could shoot daggers at him and lifted up my hand and showed him the appropriate finger for that comment.   He was lucky he was not sitting next to me because he would have felt five fingers instead of just seeing one!  

Any who, even though Leighton did acquire half of her genes from Jon she is pretty awesome and keeps us entertained most days.  She started to smile and laugh which any parent can tell you melts your heart!   I am happy that this milestone came about, because I was bored of poking her as she laid on her play mat saying… “do something… poke poke… come on, seriously do something because I am bored… poke poke…”  

excuse the commentary from me please...

We are excited that Leighton is large and in charge and is as happy as can be.  I have always heard the saying A fat baby is a happy baby… well, I have recently changed this to be A fat happy baby makes my life pretty gravy.  I think I am going to have to stop saying that now because last time I did, I looked at Leighton and she was licking her lips and I know she was thinking… ummmm, gravy!

Until later…

ZTA for life…

Everything that you read tells you to sing to your baby… well, Leighton is lucky because I kind of have an awesome voice (NOT!).  I am however the daughter of Sharon Mueller… the woman that has a song for everything… no, seriously, EVERYTHING!  Mom had a song for driving a car, getting dressed, eating dinner, hell… she could come up with a song about pooping if need be!  She woke us up most mornings singing, “rise and shine and give god the glory glory, rise and…” I tried this the other morning and was promptly told to STOP by Jon.  He said I was scaring the baby and hurting his ears... sad but probably true!

Recently, I remember Jessica Stoner telling me that she needed to learn more children’s songs after she found herself singing, Black and Yellow to her son, Collier one night.  I thought, well, she didn’t have a Mom like mine who sang constantly so I should be fine with my vast catalog of Sharona classics… little did I know I was wrong!  As I was putting Leighton to sleep the other night I started to sing the Humpty Dance to my sweet little bug.  After realizing that even though it is my go-to karaoke song, it probably is a little inappropriate to sing to a 6 week old, so I started racking my brain.  Nothing, absolutely nothing was coming to mind… I mean like awkward silence nothing… and then, just like that… I busted out, To Themis, a lovely little Zeta number we sang in college. 

 I remembered standing in a dimly lit chapter room singing this song with a bunch of sopranos and trying not to have my oober deep voice stand out… half the time just mouthing it… which is why I am kind of surprised I remembered all the words. Then I pulled out, In the Cellar, and although slightly inappropriate, I remembered all the words and was very impressed with myself.  Those two songs got me through the night but the next day as the little lady and I were having Playmat time, I randomly started singing, Turquoise and Gray… after a few rounds Leighton and I came up with a new version;

Turquoise and Pink the colors that we wear,

Symbols of a babyhood beyond compare.

Oh, don’t you wish that you could wear them too,

If you are a baby they’d be put on you!

The munchkin thoroughly enjoyed this song and demanded that I sing it to her as she went down for her afternoon nap.  That’s when I remembered why I knew all the words… they had been drilled into my head as we sang it over and over and over and over again in rituals… about the 30^th time that I had

 to repeat the verse to Leighton, I remembered standing in an alum’s house

singing and singing and wanting to find a gun to put myself out of my own misery… those same feelings came flooding back, but Leighton was happy so I just kept singing.  I guess that is kind of what parenthood is all about right now… keeping the little one happy and putting the gun down!

Zeta love…



HAPPY FATHER’S DAY…

Here is a little gift to Miss Leighton’s Daddy, PA and Poppa C… the first actual picture of her smiling!  She is a sneaky smiler and likes to clam up when she sees a camera, but alas, I finally got a picture and on father’s day to boot… she is so thoughtful like that!

Happy first Father’s Day Jon!!!

Until later…

Forced into success…

So the other night as we were settling into our nightly routine… dinner, bath time, get Leighton dressed for bed, mommy shower time, feeding and bed…  Jon went to turn on the air conditioner in our bedroom and yep, you guessed it, it wasn’t working!  Yes, this is like the bazillionth time that one of our AC units has stopped working in our house.  Luckily, the day before this catastrophe the unit that controls our guest bedroom and Leighton’s room was fixed (praise Jesus!) or Jon and I would have been fighting over the couch downstairs.  Jon informed me of the bad news when I got out of the shower and you would have thought the world was coming to an end… I threw a hissy fit.   I stomped into the guest bedroom and pouted while I fed Leighton.  Jon proceeded to get the guest bedroom set up as our bedroom and tried to drag the pack-n- play into it.  Well, he tried to “squeeze” the metal pack-n-play through the door… since I was annoyed I just stared angrily at him for a while.  When I saw that he was getting frustrated too I talked him through how to collapse it and when he went to pop it back into place in the room, the darn pack-n-play would just crumble onto itself… so I stopped, got up and tried to help… but nothing helped… it would not stay open!  So, just like the 12 year old that I am, I walked over to the bed and threw my face down and started yelling into the mattress as to not disturb the baby.  Then as my face was smooshed in to the mattress pad, I realized that we hadn’t put the sheets on the bed after my mom left town, which led to more yelling into the sheetless mattress… augh!  Jon just walked over to me… rubbed my back and said, “ I need you to calm down… it is all going to be okay,” and then he kissed me on the check.  I realized right then that we are a pretty compatible couple… when I fly off the handle he is there to pull me back and vice versa! 

At that moment we realized that we had no other option than to put her in her own crib since the pack-n-play was out of commission and two 6-foot tall people plus one sneaky dog and a baby in a full bed would not work.  I had no plans on putting her in her own room for a while… everyone was happy being in one room… she cried, I popped out a boob, she ate and burped and we all went back to sleep… hell, I didn’t even have to get out of bed!   Nevertheless, we had to put Leighton into her own crib and crossed our fingers that this night would go somewhat smoothly.  We tiptoed back to the guest bedroom for the night and stared at the monitor as she grunted herself to sleep.  Next thing we knew it was 6:30 am and the perfect child had slept through the night… freaking awesome right!  My mom keeps reminding me that just because she is good doesn’t make us perfect parents… the next one may knock us on our asses (which she knows from experience)… or hell, Leighton might become a diva and call me a b-hole when I won’t buy her the designer jeans in the baby section of Nordstrom in three months.   Anyways, she only woke up once on night two and three.  BUT, let’s see how night four goes tonight because whenever I brag about her on the blog she usually disappoints the next day… so I am not holding my breath.   If all goes south, our AC has been fixed and the pack-n-play can always be reassembled (I found the instructions).   Everyone say a little prayer that this transition is successful and the AC holds up because I still haven’t put sheets on the guest bed... don’t judge, you know you have slept on just the mattress pad before!

Until later…

My mommy says I’m special…

Just to follow up on the “oh, isn’t my baby just the cutest thing” photos, I wanted to post some of the everyday shots of little miss Leighton.  Jon and I figured we can just show Leighton’s prom date these pictures to make sure that no funny business happens instead of the stereo typical, “Come into my study son and let me show you my collection of guns… Now what time will you have my daughter home tonight?”  All we need to do is show him these prize gems to keep prom G rated!

Notice the lovely arm/back hair?  Everyone says it will fall out but I am still skeptical.  Do they make Baby Nair?

Sometimes we might have a stray sideways eye…  I guess she is just trying to practice the face her mommy makes after one too many games of Flip Cup.   She is already such a smart ass!

SLOTH LOVE CHUNK…. BABY RUTH!!!!!!!!   I mean, bless her little heart in this picture… seriously, bless her heart!

And the piece de resistance… well, I am not going to post it since I have been informed by my family that it is highly inappropriate for the blog.  BUT, let’s just say that the sounds alone from this video, not including what exits my child’s body will make any teenage boy not want to touch her with a ten foot pole.  (The video really is hilarious… it will make you jump back, be grossed out, make you laugh and then you will want to watch it again.  So, if you want to see it, just email me!) 

Until later…

No regrets…

I have few regrets in life but one of the biggest is that jon and I didn’t have a professional photographer at our wedding.  Yes, our friends and family are super talented and we have some pretty good wedding day shots, but nothing can compare to a professional’s pictures.  Jon, being super husband and knowing my thoughts, told me we can get a professional to shoot all the big moments in our lives for the rest of our lives… he is pretty amazing I know (he actually didn’t say the “rest of our lives” but if I put it in writing and you all read it, he will be pressured into making it happen!).   Anyways, I found a fantastic photographer here in Dubai and she did an amazing job with our little wiggle worm that wouldn’t sleep, because she was going through a three week growth spurt.  I feel like I am being one of those moms that feels the need to throw pictures of their new baby in everyone’s faces…  guilty as charged! 

Hope y’all enjoy nonetheless….

 And my favorite picture by far...

Until later…

If at first you don’t succeed…

Well, I haven’t posted in a while because there hasn’t been much to write about.  Leighton and I are settling into a little schedule and trying to figure out how to venture out into the world by ourselves.  I am trying to figure out how to handle a hungry monster that wakes up in public and needs to be breastfed when I am by myself.  I can’t say that I have anything down to a fine science yet, but every trip out is getting more comfortable.  For example, the first time I went to the grocery store by myself I pushed Leighton into the store in her stroller and when I went to get a basket thought… crap, how am I supposed to do this?  So I just pushed Leighton around in the stroller and stacked the heavy groceries in the bottom basket of the stroller and put the lighter ones on/around her… wish I had a picture, but I felt bad and like I was being judged in the store so I purchased my things and fled.  On my second trip to the store I carried her in her car seat, got a basket and just stared at it trying to figure out what to do now.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to put her seat on the front of the basket so I just put Leighton and the car seat into the basket itself… BUT it filled the entire thing minus a few awkward open spaces.  Once again I found myself stacking groceries in, around and on top of my child… needless to say, the third time was a charm, I figured it out… I brought Jon!  It made shopping a lot easier!!!  So, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again… or just bring the baby daddy along!

This is a week late but LC turned a month old the other day… this was me trying to take a picture of her by myself… MAJOR FAIL!

So I got smart and waited for Jon to come home and we tried again… SUCCESS!

Until Later…