Shenandoah

To understand my experience this past weekend you need to know a little bit about Seth. Seth is an Eagle Scout. He spent many days and cold nights out camping in the Utah wilderness. Seth got his Eagle Scout so he would never have to do that again. Seth is not a camper. So...when Seth told me he was ready to go with some friends to a primitive cabin in the Appalachian wilderness I was excited.

We drove with little Stella to a cabin about 2 hours away. Our party consisted of us and the babe, our friends with a baby, and our friends with two girls age four and two. We had to hike to the cabin from our car but all was well. It had lights but was very pioneer-esque: no water, no toilets. In fact the outhouse was taken ransom by giant wolf spiders. No one touched it the entire time.

All was well upfront. We had a great dinner, lots of snacks, and good times.

Sadly, all was not well in the morning. My friend and her four year old daughter were out in the morning dew greeting the day they happened to stand on an underground beehive (remember the outhouse was taken over by spiders). They were attacked by bees and we were awoken with the sheer terror of their blood curdling scream that only can happen when being attacked by hundreds of bees. It was quite a trip.

The craziest part of all of this is that I am excited to go again, although maybe when it isn't 105, infested with bees, or jinxed.

Last week I decided Stella needed a Bumbo. Unfortunately these bad boys are $40. That seems ridiculous! So I got one on craigslist for $20. I felt like it was a creepy drug deal at the park. I slipped her the money and she gave me the seat. Attached are pictures of Stella in her awesome new chair. Also, all those moms with new babies. This chair rocks. It makes you handsfree and the kids love it. I love being able to do the dishes once a day.

Miss Teen South Carolina

I saw this on a friends blog. Yikes! Yikes! Yikes!

Reflections

First of all, went to the fair last week and tried a fried Oreo. Oreos are pretty fatty unto themselves but battered and fried is almost an overload of everything wrong in society. It was delicious. Ben came along with us as well as some of our friends who now have babies. Good times were had.

Stella loves her reflection. We had this mirror in our car but it didn't work very well so I put it in her crib. She was fascinated.

She is the cutest little girl. I have so much fun with her. I love when she smiles with her whole body. I will go in and she is grinning from cheek to cheek and wailing all arms and legs with squeals of joy. So freaking cute. I am glad we got a baby instead of a puppy.

Teething and Antiques

I forced my way into our storage this past weekend and resurrected my old baby pictures. You can all see me at Stella's age. There is some resemblance but I think she is still her daddy's girl.

Also, she has started teething...I vaguely remember teething, permanent teeth, it was itchy and uncomfortable. I can only imagine she feels the same way. She is drooling and whining and wants to be held all day long. I kid you not my back feels broken today. I hold her all day long. It frustrates me when people ask what I do with all my time, because the truth is I spend most of the day holding her to get her to sleep, back to sleep, comforted from teeth, playing, changing or feeding. It seems like I should have gobs of time to clean the house and do the laundry. It was a miracle today that I washed the clothes but I didn't have time to fold them before they wrinkled. Defeated again.

Which brings me to my next thought. Why is it that the bar for fatherhood is so low but mothers are in constantly guilty? Don't get me wrong, Seth is on any level, and amazing father and this has nothing to do with his fathering abilities. It more so has to do with the reaction I get when others see that Stella has an active father who helps raise her. People often react as if it is a great favor to me, as if this is a one time treat that I have a husband who changes diapers, holds his baby, and does parenting duties. They say things like, "that is really nice that he changes the diaper for you" or "you are really lucky he helps out for you." Admittedly, I hit the lottery jackpot on amazing husbands. But why is it is surprise when a father helps with a young baby? I think we can do better when we rejoice that a dad stays with his family. We need to get past the wait in the bar while the wife is in the hospital mentality.

The Best Diet Ever--Starvation

This week has been rough for me. My dear cute little Stella has defied the diaper industry and nature herself and has been blowing out of every diaper we put on her. We have tried Pampers, Huggies, different sizes, different ways of tightening it. Nothing can fight the force that dear Stella puts out. It isn't just Stella that is being affected. When the aforementioned blow-outs occur Stella is usually on something such as a seat, my bed, her bed, my lap, Seth's lap. So whatever object is holding her also gets attacked. I have changed my sheets now twice this week from this event. She goes through at least four outfits in a day. It is exhausting and disgusting. I can't imagine what life would be like with cloth diapers. I guess they are probably about as nasty as my current situation.

And the nap status...it is rough going. She naps but only for about 45 minutes. In fact it is amazing I have time to do this at all. But she is napping, and at the right times. Maybe she is not a long napper. I can't complain because I do get from 9 to 6 am without much fuss, but seriously, I need my days.

Because of Stella's lack of napping I have stopped eating during the day. This is really starting to take its toll on me. At first I felt famished all the time, but now I have hit that I don't need food during the day phase and I will sometimes go all day until Seth gets home to eat. This is not too smart because I am also breastfeeding and I really need to at least drink. By the end of the day I feel like I have a salt lick in my mouth. I am just dying of thirst. But hey look on the bright side, it is still better than Trimspa.

And for those of you (Kate, Nancy, and my mom) who got me sucked into this vampire serious...for shame. I am hooked. I have been reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It reads like something Ann M Martin would write but I am still hooked. I am now on the second book and planning on continuing to the third. Apparently my cousin Bryant's wife Angela is one of the characters in the book so I have that excuse to read it. Still, read it so we can talk about how it lacks literary quality yet we are hooked.

Shots and Charts

Yesterday Stella had her first shots. It was so sad. While they were weighing and measuring her she was the happiest little baby. She smiled at the nurse, smiled at the doctor, kicked her legs as she sat on the table in her little diaper. Very cute. Oh, and by the way, I can't even compare Stella's height and weight. She is off the chart. They couldn't give me a percentage for her age because she is too big and tall. She weights 16.5 pounds and is 25 inches at two months old. On her tracking sheet they wrote "Off the charts." So I have a big kid.

As they gave her the shots I had to hold her arms and knees. Then they pricked her. She gasped for about 10 seconds to get the proper fuel for her fury. There was a scream that was beyond anything else. Her face turn magenta and she wailed. It was so sad. In five minutes she was smiling again but all was not forgotten. She was fussy all night and Seth and I have been holding her 16 and 1/2 pounds for almost two days straight.

By the way, Stella was blessed on Sunday. She was a good kid. She didn't cry and she looked super super cute.

Naps and Pinafores and Mali Credit Problems

Stella is getting blessed at church this Sunday. We bought a dress before her birth to celebrate the occasion. This dress is a three month size. My less than two month baby looks like this in it:

It fits her more like a shirt than a dress. So we are finding alternatives.

I have decided I need to get my kid on some kind of nap schedule. She doesn't sleep enough. I kept track yesterday and I had 3 naps all less than 30 minutes in the day. She was just tired and grouchy. So I am starting to regiment and earlier bed time and more day naps. We will see how this works.


Also, Seth and I got a new number about a month ago, a home phone. Every day I get calls from credit places and from the country of Mali. Apparently some dude named Barnabus ran up some credit and went back to Mali and now I get calls at 8:00 every morning (waking Stella up) asking for money from this dude. The problem is, these are computers calling me and I can't tell the companies that this is his number. How do I get them to stop calling?