Photos

Nome, here's Shona wearing the cardigan you knitted for her. :)

So it was a good day...

Yep, today was great--and I got a *lot* done. Shona took a 2 hour nap at one point, and I realized once again just how much I can get done in two hours. I re-organized our closet, tidied and dusted the sitting room, dusted/washed the ceiling fan, did a load of diapers, did a load of clothes, vacuumed, tidied the nursery, cooked bacon-stuffed chicken breasts with sauteed mushrooms on top (for supper), and sorted through a lot of papers, clothes, and random junk.

The weather is FANTASTIC right now. I took Shona to the park but we were swarmed by mosquitoes and had to go right back home. I thought the cooler weather would drive them away, but apparently not.

This is kind of off topic, but I have to agree with those who left comments on Of shopping woes and other things and said that they don't always find shopping lists to be incredibly helpful. I almost never go to the store without a list...but my lists often say something like: Milk, juice, stuff for supper, water, flour. Okay, obviously, I intend to buy more than those few things; but when I sit down (or rather, stand at the kitchen counter with Shona on my hip) to make a list before going to the store, I can't really remember what to put on the list. Or Shona is getting really fussy and I don't have time to write a detailed list. (Seriously, if I hardly have time to eat, it's unlikely that I have time to write a fancy, organized list of What to Buy at the Store. But like Sharon said, my memory is usually triggered when I see something in the store. "Carrots. Oh yeah, I need carrots." And like Mercy said, even when I have a list, I still wander from one end of the store to the other. And finally, as Rachel commented, even with a list, I still get home to find that I forgot things.

Okay, pity party over. But I do hope I recover my brain someday so I can enjoy it before Alzheimer's sets in.

Photos to come in next post.

How to ruin a perfectly good day

Well that's what the title should have been - but, I decided not to go there.

Instead, I have some photos to post.

First of all, a couple pics from another trip to the park:

And some family photos:
And Daddy and daughter:
And Shona looking cute:

On Saturday, we went to a friend's birthday party. It was about an hour drive to get there, and on the way, we saw some people skydiving!!! Those little "specks" in the sky are people.

And now, all the rest of the photos are from the party.

A.J. with Beth, the birthday girl

Tiph playing the piano:
Shona with Mommy:

Caleb, holding baby Caleb:

And Caleb and me with baby Caleb:

And that's it!

Of grocery shopping woes and other things...

Shona and I just got home from Wal-Mart. Well, about 40 minutes ago. I just ate lunch, fed her, and put her down for a nap. When I say I ate lunch, I mean I had some potato salad, Lay's barbecue potato chips, and four times the normal serving size of Twix. (In other words, I had 480 calories of Twix.) I am doing great today, huh? We won't count how many times I went through an entire day on 400 calories...so today is a real improvement. But speaking of Wal-Mart...we go there all the time. As much as I hate Wal-Mart's food, I tend to do a lot of grocery shopping there (as well as at Kroger). It all started when Shona was a couple weeks old and she screamed allllll the time. I decided if she was going to scream, she may as well do it at a big store like Wal-Mart where there are lots of other screaming babies. The H-E-B here (and H-E-B is my favorite grocery store in the whole wide world) is tiny, and somehow or other I happen to know just about everyone who works there; so it would have been more stressful taking a screaming baby there. Anyhow, nowadays (or at least lately) Shona doesn't make a peep when we go grocery shopping; so I really could revert back to HEB.

But I said all that to say this: my brain is G-O-N-E. I'm standing in the store trying to remember where soap would be. I head in the direction where I think it is, and get sidetracked looking at pasta. I end up forgetting all about soap. Then I remember I need carrots. So I head to the produce department, locate the carrots, put some in my shopping cart and remember that I need celery. I see the celery a few rows down and walk in that direction when I get sidetracked by mushrooms. It's not until I get home that I realize I never actually arrived at the celery bin; so needless to say, I still need celery. It's crazy, though, because this is totally NOT like me. I'm usually (okay, pre-baby) very focused and could do my grocery shopping in record time. But these days it takes me ages just to remember what I came to the store for. Now I realize why I sometimes get weird looks from people - because I'm standing there staring into space or wandering aimlessly through the store looking lost, even though I've been to that store more times than I wish to count. LOL. No, the real reason I get funny looks is because Shona and I are crazy together. We have so much fun and I do a lot of crazy things, totally oblivious to the fact that there are actually other people in the store besides us!

But it sure would be handy to have a brain right now. I'm trying to sort out some landscaping ideas for our back yard but I can't seem to visualize anything. Caleb bought me 8 knockout rose bushes (bubblegum pink ones--they are SO pretty) and I want to plant them along the back fence but I'm having a hard time deciding exactly how to do that. I think I'm just going to plant them in the ground and add a row of mulch along the whole fence.

Hmm, I'm realizing I have a lot of typos. And those are just the ones I've noticed--who knows how many other ones there are!

Okay, I need to get some laundry done while Shona is sleeping.

Cheers!

Another video of Shona when she was a couple days old

Another video of Shona...a couple days old. This one and the following were filmed by Caleb.

Video: Shona when she was a few days old

Video: Shona at the park

Since yesterday's trip to the park went so well, I decided to take Shona again today. I think she enjoyed it even more than yesterday. We will probably be going pretty often now that the weather is so nice!

A video...I think

I dunno for sure if this will work, but I'm gonna try it. If it works, then I have lots more to post later on.

This and that

(Can someone please explain why Blogger is underling everything???)

I was hoping to visit my grandparents today, but Shona has not been feeling well at all. I tried everything I could think of to make her happy, but she was still miserable...so, I put her in the stroller and we walked to the park. The weather has been beautiful today. Anyway, Shona had a lot of fun and she actually fell asleep on the way back home - which was a relief, because I hadn't been able to get to her take much of a nap today.

The above photo is of some flower clips I made to attach to Shona's hats/headbands

The next three photos were taken at the park today. Shona had so much fun, even if it doesn't look like it in these particular photos!

This photo is hilarious (to me, anyway):

We finally had to pack up the Amby bed (kinda sad cos it seemed like such a comfy, cozy place to sleep and Shona liked it quite a bit) because Shona was getting too big for it. She's back in the Moses basket (I posted photos of it before she was born--I think it was the day we assembled the stand it goes on). The walls of the basket are super soft, and Shona has started this thing where she snuggles her face against her seahorse while rubbing/petting the wall of the basket while she goes to sleep. It's really cute.

She's also started this thing where she likes to hold things; in particular, she likes to carefully remove her pacifier from her mouth, and just hold it. Yesterday on the way to church, she was very tired so I gave her her pacifier in hopes that she'd go to sleep. Within a couple minutes she was very quiet. I leaned my seat back to see what she was doing, and there she was--sound asleep, carefully holding her pacifier with both her hands. :)

Okay, got to go. Ciao!

This is crazy!!!

Shona has done THREE new things today! She is growing up way too fast. First she sat up all alone without any support. Then, when she was on her tummy, she scooted herself around until she was facing sideways. Later on, I put her down for a nap but I heard some noises coming from the bedroom so I went to see what she was up to. She was using both her hands to hold her foot, and she was sucking on her toe. It was hilarious!!

I have more photos and I also have some videos (!!!) to post (*if* I can figure out how to), but that will probably have to wait until Monday.

Oh, and I found a totally amazing place to buy baby headbands, hats, shoes, etc. Check out www.etsy.com .

Okay, got to run! Cheers!

crochet headbands

For those who have asked...I get most of Shona's headbands from sweetbabybowtique.com, and then I add my own bows or flowers. There's also some neat stuff at pinkbowtique.com and somethingsweetbowtique.com.

You guessed it...more photos :-P

Shona and her great-grandpa :-)

Shona and her great-grandpa and grandma

Labor Day barbecue at Carl's house

Shona wearing a lovely dress her Auntie Rachel made:

And since a couple people have mentioned (in person) that all I ever post is baby photos, (ha, what do you expect?? :-))...here's one of me. :-P

My landscaping project...

Before and after:

More photos!!!

She's already four months old!