Rodeo Shenanigans

When your parents volunteer to babysit your baby all night AND drop you off and pick you up from the Rodeo where the drinks are free all night, you go, no you RUN there.  You run like the wind to the land of country music and BBQ.  You don't 'forget' that you're a mom now, per say, but a little bit of Old School Erin tends to make an appearance if the ingredients are right.

I didn't even take many pictures because I was too busy livin' it up.  They had all the Shiner Bock cans I could ask for plus a dance floor and the fanciest Port-O-Potties at the cook-off.  FUN FUN FUN.

After some Cupid Shuffle and fake taking Tequila Shots (I talk a big game, so glad I stuck to beer).  I was in the mood to make some mischief.  Dancing by myself...embarrasing Josh...trying to teach Melissa that there IS a rap song that starts out "Gator boots...and a pimped out Gucci suit..."

I even went up to one unsuspecting gentleman and pulled out some crazy dance moves in front of him and he said, "I can't move like that."  To which I replied...."No one can." And ran away.

Trying to steal Shiner

The Rams Club tent was SO much fun, Josh and his brother helped out Uncle Glen in building the tent, so we were lucky to get badges.  It's one of the best weekends in Houston!

Look at this photo-bomber! LOL



We called my dad to pick us up and on the way home I demanded that we stop for more beer.  He was such a sport, so we stopped at Kay's Lounge of course!  My mom's name is Kay.  It was fate.  After a game of pool we headed home and I was about done.  Not too too sloppy, but an obvious out-of-practice drinker.  Remember, I had a 10 month hiatus!!

Josh tried to make me drink water, but pouring it down my throat never works, so I spit it out all over the bed, my clothes, my hair... and then made him sleep on the wet side. Win!  I also managed to pump breastmilk and demanded that Josh not dump it, swearing that it was still "ok"."  LoL don't call CPS, I tested it on Sunday and, shocker, it had alcohol in it, I even think the test strip had a skull and cross bones on it. haha PUmp n Dump!

Like I mentioned on Facebook, hungover child care is FOR THE BIRDS.  But I disagree with some of my commenters....It was totally worth it =)  Thanks Grammie and Papa!!

Tick Tick..

Remember the "hot bomb" guy on Grey's Anatomy.  This was years ago, the episode after the Super Bowl.  Coach Taylor on Friday Night Lights played a bomb squad guy. Meredith Grey handed him the live bomb and he walked carefully away, slowly...quietly.....moving ever so slightly, and BOOM! Done. He blew up. Literally. Kinda like some scene in Hurt Locker.

I think my baby is a ticking time bomb when we want to lay her in the crib at night.  It's SO funny the different ways that Josh and I have figured out on how to lay her down without waking her.

There's no "putting herself to sleep" at this point, we feed her swaddled and rock her to sleep, this doesn't take very long, but the transition from glider to crib is an ART I tell you. A precious art form.

Josh says he spreads his huge hands as wide as we can on her back side and head....keeps her completely level.  He carefully stands up from the glider, keeping a slight rocking motion so she won't know he's left the chair... He's a tall guy, so he speads his legs apart very wide in front of the crib to get lower with out changing her degree angle in his hands.  Oh and dont forget the squeaky floor board RIGHT next to her crib, avoid stepping on that at all costs.

He lowers, her lowers her...she stirs... he stops, holds his breath... she sighs again and he's safe for now.  He gingerly places her down, but leaves his hands there for a minute, not a second shorter.  One minute.  Ok, he thinks the coast is clear.

He slides he huge hands out from under her, so very slowly.  He pulls his hands up and lets out his breath, she looks so peaceful, so sweet.  He backs up slowly from the crib, because you never know.  He shuts off the bathroom light and checks her one more time, but forgets the pesky floorboard. "CREEEEEK."

Two wide dark blue eyes pop open.  She frantically looks right, swings the head left, and looks right again and lets out a small squeal.  She's now kicking her legs.

BOOM.

 Josh's head hangs as he gathers the ticking time bomb, and rocks her once again in the glider.

Ruff.

Today was certainly rough.  What I thought was going to be a normal day at the doctor with Claire, turned out to be a nightmare, with both of us leaving crying!

When I placed her in the sink for her weekly bath, for some unknown reason, she started screaming and crying.  Like REALLY screaming...the water seemed fine to me.  I tried to finish the bath, but she was hysterical.  I wrapped her up and ran into the exam room and tried EVERYTHING.  Her back was red, like a rash from the harness, but I can't imagine the water hurting it that bad...both nurses came in and put some Aquaphor on her back and tried to soothe her.

She was still crying, blood curdling crying and I gave her to Naomi the nurse to try to calm her down, and I sat there and cried myself.  I passed off my baby to a stranger to comfort, I couldn't even do it myself.  I felt pathetic and helpless! I just wanted Josh there so bad. At least she got her calmer.  We tried to put the harness back on and must have pinched her or something and the screaming started up again, and I cried more.

I'm sure people in the waiting room were like.. maybe we'll come back another time...they've sure got their hands full...

Then Dr. Brock came in and was the epitomy of calmness, he held her and patted her. He told the nurses to get a new clean harness and got her to settle down again.  He tried one more time to fit the harness back on, she cried, but more normal cry, and I could use the pacifier, things looked better.

So, I ask, what kind of mom can't handle her baby screaming and know how to comfort her?  Why does it freak me out and scare me so much to make me start balling...and cry all the way home, even on the phone to my OWN mom.  I hate feeling so powerless like that, what the heck set her off??  She loves baths!  Anyways, she's happy now, hopefully forgot about the whole terrible experience, but I sure haven't and won't for a really long time.



So I'm posting happy pictures from earlier in the day and the weekend...and hope that next doctor visit goes a lot better. I totally RUINED her first Valentine's Day!

Saturday...

Fun with photo editing!

Bieber Fever...

Claire has it bad.  This is ridic.

I tweeted this to Ellen... she loves the Biebs and Babies.  Sometimes it's the only way to get her to stop crying, watch at the end. LoL!

Obligatory 2 month stats...

Like you care! Ha, this post is for my records =) Enjoy.
Yesterday she got her 2 month shots, we went with the regular shot schedule after talking to some doctors and friends.  We're fine with the decision and luckily she did great!  She cried of course, but was easily consoled by her daddy afterwards and slept most of the day.  I did give her a little Tylenol because the shot site was sore to her.

Weight: 11 lbs 9 oz (74%)
Height: 23 inches (78%)
Head: 15.98'' (90%!!)

My little bobblehead baby, no wonder we have to stretch her shirt necks to get it on, ha!  She's still getting about 50/50 breastmilk and Emfamil Newborn formula.  The doctor said keep up the good work!

Fun fact is that she's exactly what I weighed and measured when I was 2 months, crazy!  She eats about 4 ounces every 2.5-3 hrs during the day with one big morning nap and multiple cat naps.  She is doing pretty well lately at sleeping from 10:30ish and always wakes up at 4 am though to eat a big bottle (5.5ounces) then sleeps til like 7am for more food.  There are still bad nights here and there. We miss her nightly baths, but we still wash her bottom and hair in the faucet when we can. 

She's smiling and cooing and practices her American Idol vocals all the time.  She loves staring at the curtains and has gotten good sleeping at the Baby Bjorn so mommy can get some stuff done or play fetch with Shelby pup.

 Everyone comments on her hair, it's so wild, we love this baby!!

Little fuzz head!

Whoop!

Kiss me I'm an Aggie

Friday Fun Days

My new favorite time of the week is Friday afternoon because a lot of my friends are off!  My engineer friends: Melissa has half days and Jill has every other Friday off and Kalin is in law school and has Friday's off and Karen gets off early from teaching!  This is very pleasing to me, since I have found myself to be a Stay at Home Mom, least as long is it takes little Claire's hips to heal!

Last Friday, Melissa found some insane recipe on Pinterest...so naturally she brought like 3 bags of supplies and we got the wine open (after pumping of course), and got started.  We didn't really read the directions before committing, and lets just say it had us zesting lemons and making blueberry preserves...MAKING them.

It was really fun/hilarious.  We used almost every bowl and dish in my place.  Used a blender.  Needed a juicer.  Ran out of milk...thought about using breast milk (lol) and then Karen and Liz came over to help decorate.  We made purple icing, of course...and pretended it was Claire's birthday.  She actually got icing on her hands and we hurried to wash it before she tasted it, 10 months too early!

Here's pics!

Mel and Karen icing the cake (this was the second attempt to make icing.) The first had like 4 sticks of butter and .. yes ended up tasting just like whipped butter.  Good for rolls or toast, gross for cakes.

cNe = Claire Ellis Nowak!

Claire "loving" her cake...

This next photo had us laughing so so hard(could have been the wine).  Our plan was to make it look like Claire was standing by herself. LOL You can totally see their shoulders!

By this time, Josh was home, good thing, we were quite tipsy and decided skewers were best to keep the cake from toppling over... brilliant.  At least it tasted good.

Can't wait to see what we make this Friday!  Yay for friends, wine and silliness!