A conversation we had today

while I was cutting Scott's hair. I was trying a new tool to cut the hair around his left ear.

Britta:
*gasp*
(pause)
(trying to sound casual) "Hmm, that cut your hair shorter than I thought it would."

Scott:
"Are you trying to teach me a lesson?"

Britta:
"I'm trying to teach myself a lesson."
*laugh laugh*

(a few minutes later while working on the right ear)
"This side looks great!"
*laugh laugh*

It seems unfair...

...that in the midst of packing up your house to move, working double hours, chasing after a baby all day, cleaning the messes and tackling the yard work you still have to figure out how to feed your family.

I looked in my fridge today and found three boxes of butter, a half jar of marachino cherries, garlic, Grape Jelly and two week old meat in a tupperware. Hmmm... what can I make with that? Throw in the fact that we sold our microwave, so we can't reheat anything easily. Also throw in the fact that all our dishes and glasses are packed away, so if it's finger food it's even better.

It was time to admit we had to go shopping once more before we move. Tonight we got bread and peanut butter. At least we can use the Jelly! Anyone need butter?

We've taken the plunge

Just a couple weeks after holding the future of television in our hands, we have taken it a step further. We are now a TV-free family!

This will certainly make moving that much easier. We'll see how this works... I'm hoping the end result will be more productivity for me, more one on one time with Grace, and discovering different ways to unwind at the end of the day. I hope I don't go crazy!

Lucky 7

Happy Anniversary, Scott! I love you!

Photo taken Fall of 1999 (I know, not 7 years ago at our wedding, but I took whatever picture I could conveniently find.)

We have the Power!

For the past week we've been a Nielson TV viewing research home. The future of television is in our hands! (And they paid us $10! Lucky us.)

One Year Stats

Baby Stats:

Height 29" (50%)

Weight 18.0 lbs (10%)

Number of teeth, 2.5 (one just came in last week)

Walking 40% of the time, crawling 40% of the time, falling in a helpless whining baby heap until I pick her up 20% of the time.

Babbles a lot, has maybe a dozen words including duck, dog, moo, num num, up, da da, book...

Sleeps 10-11 hours per night, takes two naps during day.

The doctor said she needed to drink more milk but she cries 80% of the time I try to feed her cow's milk. Still nursing 2-3 times a day.

Mama Stats:

Height still 5'9"

Weight back to pre-pregnancy weight, but body is different shape and has less tone.

Coordination down 60%, clumsiness up exponentially.

Sleep about 7 hours a night.

Patience down 40%, I used to think I was a patient person. Still working on this.

Working about 10 hours a week.

Stressed out a lot easier. Still working on this, too.

One of these things just doesn't belong . . .

Can you tell which thing is not like the others by the time I finish my song?

We saw this in a store of the "TJ Maxx" ilk, though I don't think it was TJ Maxx, maybe it was Marshall's? Anyhow, we couldn't resist documenting this for posterity's sake. (Can you find me and Grace in the pic?)

Dogs

Grace loves dogs. Her first word was "duck" but her second word was "dog." She gets super excited every time she sees one. She had no fear playing with Lily when we were visiting the grandparents, even when Lily nipped and jumped. For her birthday Scott ordered Grace this book:

We've had the "Cat" book since Grace was born and she loves it, but now a book about dogs? Even better.

Between Scott and me, I think we've read this book at least a dozen times just today. Grace carries it to us and sits in our lap. There's one page where you can make the dog shake it's head and Grace shakes with it. She kisses the dogs. She pets the dogs. She smiles at the dogs and wiggles with the dogs. It's adorable.

So tonight we thought we'd take it to the next level and bring out the BIG dog book...

oh. my. goodness. She loved it.

She even freely gave kisses. So cute. I love that she loves dogs.

Golden Number ONE!

Happy Birthday, Grace! We had a picnic at the park, but it was cold and windy so the candle didn't say lit.

Our video camera broke, too, so I just have stills. Here is the play by play. Grace was pleased to have the cake in front of her.
However, she was so distracted by the crowd watching her that she just let her fingers do the work massaging the cake for about a minute or two.
She needed a little help from Daddy to start the tasting.
She didn't have much problem after that. Here is the final damage. Not too bad.
Cute girl. We love her so much!