Just to Have an End-of-the-Year Post

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm just posting right now because I felt I should have an official end-of-the-year post. I think I should have something especially poignant to say, this being the year I became a mother and all, but I'm too sleepy and tired to come up with anything great. Christmas week was fun, but with all the traveling and not sleeping much, I'm just weary...but happy. (Amelia is still sleeping pretty well--she wakes up every three to four hours--but as Darryl said to me, six hours of broken sleep isn't quite the same as six hours of straight sleep.)

I remember that last year on New Year's Eve, Darryl and I did a super-thorough cleaning of our bedroom, and I remember thinking how lame we were that we had nowhere fun and exciting to go. This year, we're watching TV (well, technically I'm blogging) and Amelia is snuggling on Darryl's chest (her favorite place to be), and we hope to go to bed before 10:30...and there's nowhere I'd rather be.

Our trip to Florida was fun and we were able to see quite a few friends and relatives. I have some good pictures, but I don't have the patience to upload them tonight. Maybe I will in the next day or two.

Amelia is starting to do more things. She smiles a good bit and makes lots of spit bubbles when she does it, and we just think that makes her the most amazing child in the world. :)

I have several "do-able" New Year's resolutions, but I think I'll save those for tomorrow.

I forgot to buy black-eyed peas, but I'm okay with that.

And there you have it. Happy New Year!

Florida Christmas

We're in Florida for a few days to do Christmas with Darryl's family and to see lots of family and friends and to introduce Amelia to everyone. We're already having lots of fun. I should have some good pictures to post later.

I have to go now so I can beat my nephew Cameron at Wii bowling. :)

Merry Christmas!

While I'm sitting here waiting for my sweet potatoes to cook so I can make sweet potato casserole (with pecans, not marshmallows), I thought I would give you a glimpse into our Christmas festivities thus far.

Sunday night, Christmas Eve Eve, we (the three of us and my parents) went to my cousin Vicky's house for dinner and gifts. Here's a shot of Darryl, Amelia, and me with Amelia's first official Christmas present (lots and lots of clothes were in that box!) as well as the Christmas nativity scene from Vicky and Robert; the nativity is supposed to commemorate Amelia's first Christmas:


Christmas Eve, my mom and I had to finish up some shopping. The traffic and crowds really weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. (My mom mentioned that she needed to go to Walmart; fortunately, I was able to persuade her to rethink that, and she decided that Target would suffice.) Darryl cooked a DELICIOUS prime rib on the Green Egg for dinner.

And then the Christmas Miracle happened: Amelia slept for six straight hours! She decided that would be her gift to her mom and dad. :) (I'm sure this was a one-time thing, but hey, we'll take it!)

This morning was lots of fun opening gifts and spending time with family. Amelia, after drinking a big bottle for breakfast, decided she would just snooze through the present-opening festivities:


My favorite gift is this photo collage that Darryl gave me. (Please forgive the Christmas morning hair and PJs.):

Amelia finally decided to wake up after all the adults opened their gifts. The laptop Nana and Papa gave her was obviously a big hit!


And in traditional Christmas fashion at our house, everyone is napping except for Darryl and me. I'm sure the rest of the day will be fairly low key. The rain has delayed Darryl's turkey frying a bit, so who knows when we'll have lunch. We typically do the Thanksgiving fare--maybe a bit pared down--for Christmas since we really don't have dressing and the fixings any other time of year and we love it all so much.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas with the ones you love. Merry Christmas!!

More sleep deprivation

So I thought my sleep deprivation ditziness was over...not so much.

I'm baking cookies right now, and instead of putting the cookie sheet in the oven, I started to put it in the dishwasher.

Yeah.

Time for a change

I decided I needed to give my blog a makeover. You would have thought I was trying to decide what college to attend or what wedding dress I wanted...that's how seriously I took this whole thing. I'm not kidding.

I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I'm going to give it a few days. Feel free to weigh in with your opinion...

(Okay, somebody please respond. Usually when I post a question, no one responds and I feel lame. However, I had nine comments on the post where Amelia was wearing an LSU outfit. Perhaps I should have titled this post "Geaux LSU" or something...)

Edited later: Oh, joy! I finally figured out how to set up a poll on my blog! This means that you can vote about my blog change! (Again, I will feel lame if no one votes. You don't want me to feel lame, do you?)

Really Random Stuff

1--I may be in the minority here, but I hate that song "Bubbly." HATE it. (Tim, I wonder if it is because my introduction to the song was the not-so-great rendition we heard at the Cobb pageant.)

2--I was watching an old episode of Friends this evening--probably an episode from the second season or so--and Rachel was wearing a pair of overalls with a belt. It made me laugh. I can remember doing that "look." Not so flattering, even on Jennifer Aniston.

3--I absolutely love jewelry commercials this time of year. Darryl was joking with me the other day that he had bought me a diamond necklace from Kay Jewelers (trust me, he hasn't), and I told him that if he gave me jewelry, he must present it in a dramatic fashion as we see in the commercials. You know, he either has to drape the necklace around my neck while I'm sleeping, or else we have to go Christmas tree shopping and he has to put it under a tree without my knowing and then point to the tree and say, "that's the one!", or he has to build a snowman (yes, in Georgia) and have the snowman hold it. Seriously...does anyone REALLY do these things?

4--Amelia is now "intentionally" smiling. Too precious!

Events o' the week

I'm still hanging out with Amelia during the week and loving it. I can't believe how fast she is growing.

Wednesday, Darryl had an overnight trip for work and I was a tiny bit concerned about having Amelia by myself, mainly because I was already tired (she had a quirky night Tuesday and got up much more than usual) and had no one to share the shifts with. It went really well, though--pretty much a peaceful evening of "just girls."

Friday, Darryl and I checked out the daycare where Amelia will be staying. We both have an extremely good feeling about it, and while I'm not looking forward to leaving her for the day, at least I can be reassured by the fact that she is being well taken care of.

Today has been a pretty slow day, but we've enjoyed it. The weather is cold and rainy, and we've been inside except for an excursion to eat lunch and shop at Costco. I really could write a whole post on the Costco trip because it was such a roller coaster experience, but in a nutshell...it involved a Christmas present lost then found (something I knew I wanted to get my parents but it had been restocked in a completely different part of the store from where it had been last time), a Christmas wreath lost then found (I saw it, planned to come back for it, and "they" had moved it while we were there!), and a fudge sample found then lost (when I went back to stand in the sample line--and yes there was a line--the sample giver-outer was on a break).

I could also post about Darryl and his love for warehouse stores. He loves to buy in bulk. Today he was looking at a big box of Clif bars. I asked him if he liked Clif bars. He said he couldn't remember. I said, "Well, I think they taste like dirt, but perhaps you should go somewhere and buy just one to see if you like them before buying, say, 36 of them." When we were first married, he went to Sam's by himself and returned with a box of crispy M&Ms and 12 cans of cream of mushroom soup.

You can tell we've had an exciting day.

One Month

Wow...I can't believe Amelia is a month old already.

If you are familiar with the play Our Town, you might recall that the character Emily is given a chance to re-live any day from her life. If I were given that opportunity, I would choose November 12...the anticipation, the excitement, and finally the moment when I met and instantly fell in love with the little girl I had been carrying for 41 weeks--it was beyond amazing.

I'm not trying to be extra-sappy or poignant or anything; I'm way too tired for that. I've just enjoyed getting to know her and I'm very happy to be her mother. :) And I think she's pretty cute.

A smile

I finally got a picture of Amelia smiling. :)

Also, if you look closely, you can possibly tell that she is pointing with her left hand. Now, I realize she isn't aware that she's pointing, but she does this all the time...when she has a serious look on her face and has that finger pointing, she totally looks as if she's telling someone off. Too cute.

Sleep deprivation, maybe?

This morning, instead of opening two Splenda packets and pouring them in my cup of coffee, I poured them onto a paper napkin. :)

Sunday Update

I know this isn't the best pic of Amelia, but hey, look at that swing. I put that together myself. Yes sir (or ma'am), I did. And it required screwdrivers.

I haven't posted much this week because, frankly, not much has been going on. This was my first week alone with Amelia, and it went pretty well. Some days were better than others. The swing was purchased after one of the not-as-great days. All in all, though, I can't complain. Amelia's a pretty good baby, and I'm really enjoying spending time with her. I told Darryl tonight that I'm fully expecting to cry when I leave her at the daycare the first day back to work...Okay, don't want to think about that right now.

So there you go.

Question...

Am I the only person NOT watching The Hills?

Christmas Photos

Yesterday Darryl and I took on the task of trying to get some good pictures of Amelia for a holiday birth announcement. Amelia was a trooper for about the first 15 or 20 minutes, but then she started getting annoyed with us.

We finally ended up with several good pictures, but she isn't smiling in any of them...at least she looks content. Of course, she gave us several smiles shortly afterwards when she was enjoying a bottle while lying in her daddy's arms.

(Part of me is tempted to send out this pic on the announcement, but I guess I'll go the traditional route and use something more angelic.)

Halftime Photo Session

Here's Amelia showing off her LSU cheerleading suit. (Forgive the milk/spit bubble--it's not very easy posing an almost-3-weeks-old baby for a picture.)

I think this one shows her frustration with how the Tigers have played so far in the game. I think she's saying, "What are you DOING??"