G's shriveled little umbilical stump didn't fall off for a long time. It was icky. I was really anxious for it to go away. Finally one night when I was changing him at some odd hour, I discovered it floating around in his jammies. Victory! I woke Adam up to share the exciting news and show him what I found. He was annoyed and grossed out. Ok, understandable, but I was just so ready for that thing to be off my perfect skinned little baby.
Bath time is a favorite in our house and I do my best to scrub all the little nooks and crannies (i.e. neck rolls, leg rolls, tummy rolls, armpit folds, between the toes...) where lint and yucky stuff can hide. This has included G's little bellybutton. Since his cave-like little inny was revealed, I have noticed some dark spots in there. I thought they would come off, so I've scrubbed with soap and water in the bath and even used a Q-tip with no luck. So I assumed they were just tiny freckles in his bellybutton.
How cute. My kid has eeny-weeny freckles in his tiny bellybutton.
Fast forward to this afternoon. While I'm changing G's diaper I take another look at the cute little freckles. He's gotten bigger and so has his bellybutton. It's much easier to see in there now. Enter my fingernail. Exit one of those cute little freckles. Gasp! I rushed to get a Q-tip and some baby oil. The next thing I knew, all the "freckles" were gone. I am so embarrassed. In almost eight months of his life, I have not properly cleaned G's bellybutton.
I officially have the stinky kid.
No, used to have the stinky kid. His eeny-weeny inny is now squeaky clean.
Remember how the last two weeks were all about snow, snow, snow? Guess what I did today?
I wore shorts.
[Insert joke about how you can't see my snow white legs with the snow in the background.]
Ha. Ha.
I also resumed the runnish.
I also broke in my new kicks.
While I was "running" I wondered what would happen if I collapsed into the snow bank on the side of the road. How long would I lie there before Adam came to look for me? Would I have frostbite on my legs from lying in the snow? Then I passed a man walking two poodles and got distracted from my thoughts of collapsing.
Adam spoke at the K-Life fundraising banquet this week. He's spoken the last several years, so it's not anything out of the ordinary. I just wanted to mention how proud of him I am.
Doesn't he look like a natural up there? And doesn't he rock the sweater vest? The argyle sweater vest, no less? He's so handsome!
And he changes diapers (cloth diapers!) which makes him the most awesome husband ever!
I'm not really a wreath kind of girl. I don't mind one on the door at Christmas, but I don't really get into wreaths year round. And I'm definitely not really into wreaths just hanging on the wall. I think they belong on a door. I've seen some cute wreaths on etsy, though, that may change my mind. The jury's still out.
But since we've been snowed in for the last week and a half, I decided to make a Valentine's Day wreath. I saw the idea here and wanted to give it a try. I made a yarn wreath like this for my sister-in-law last year for Christmas, so I had all the stuff, which was good because I couldn't get to the store if I wanted to.
I used burgundy yarn, a straw wreath form, and one sheet each of pink and white felt. I would probably use a foam wreath form next time, but this is what I had.
After wrapping yarn around and around and around and around...I finally got the whole thing covered. That part seemed to take FOREVER! Then I just made a heart pattern and measured to make sure it was the right size. After cutting out my felt hearts, I glued them on and added the argyle. I think it turned out really cute. (Note: my carpet is not that yellow, but the colors look better without the flash.) (Note to self: don't take pictures at night.)
Look at me being festive with a Valentine's wreath on my door!
You may think these pictures are repeats, but we got another foot of snow.
There was less wind this time during the storm, so it's more of an even coating with less drifting. The 'ville is a ghost town. It was eerily quiet when I opened the door briefly to take a picture. I've seen a few vehicles on the road outside our window, but only trucks. I watched one truck get stuck at the end of our street this morning. I guess it got out because it's not there now.
In just eight days we've been totally snowed in twice. Go figure.
As much as I don't want to admit that TV affects my life, it does. I'm pathetic and I let TV impact me. There, I said it. The first step is admitting something, right?
I've let reality TV suck me in. I am REALLY looking forward to the new season of Amazing Race. I am fascinated by 16 and Pregnant. It's a total train wreck and I can't look away. I count down the weeks when I know So You Think You Can Dance is getting close. And I record Biggest Loser just to see the transformation moment at the end.
But it doesn't stop at reality TV. My friends had a LOST season finale party and we all dressed like characters from the show. And that's not all...we staged a photo in the back yard that is reminiscent of the official LOST cast photo. We'll call it "loosely based."
Although I don't have a picture, Adam dressed kind of like Chuck from the show Chuck for his last day working in an office. He didn't wear the pocket protector, but he did wear his high-top cons.
At one of my jobs, I could identify nearly everyone from The Office on our staff. Yes, there was a Dwight and a Michael Scott.
TV has permeated my existence. And now it's affecting my son.
On the show Big Bang Theory, one of the characters, Sheldon, has a certain lullaby that he requests when he doesn't feel good. The song is called "Soft Kitty."
Soft kitty,
Warm kitty,
Little ball of fur.
Happy kitty,
Sleepy kitty,
Purr, purr, purr.
It's true, I know the lyrics.
In a moment of desperation, Adam and I tried singing it to G when he was crying one night. And he stopped. Turns out, the G-man loves "Soft Kitty." It has become our go-to song when he is unconsolable. We have sung these words over and over and over. They work nearly every time. In fact, just this week we had some screaming/crying and, as a last resort, I tried some mommy snuggles and "Soft Kitty." I whisper-sang it in his ear for about five minutes and he fell asleep.
I have a feeling that "Soft Kitty" is going to be the song of choice for our future kiddos too. Who knew a sitcom could have such an impact.
G needed to experience the snow. It was important to his development. Ok, not really, but babies in the snow are cute. So we bundled the little man up in his bear suit and headed outside.
He wasn't too impressed at first.
We don't have a sled (come on, we live in Oklahoma), so we improvised with the laundry basket.
He still wasn't impressed.
We thought a family picture might help G to see the benefits of a pile of fluffy, white snow.
Nope. Although, it was kind of bright for him. We thought maybe he just didn't really see the snow since his eyes were closed most of the time. I was sure that's why he didn't act very excited about his first snow experience. So we sat him down in a shady spot for a more hands on experience.
The good news is that he didn't sink down into the snow and get stuck. The bad news is that he tipped over...
...then started crying.
Adam rescued G before I could get to him. No snow angels for G-man despite the fact that he was in the perfect position.
So, the snow didn't really do much for G. He stayed toasty warm in his bear suit, but his face got pretty cold. Sweet little rosy cheeks. I'm sure we'll get our share of wintertime play when he's a little older, but at least we have one of those cute baby in the snow pictures.
We had a blizzard this week. Being from Colorado, my idea of snow and what warrants breaking weather alerts here in Oklahoma are often quite different. But this storm was legit. Granted, people were freaking out days before a single flake fell, but when it was all over, we had a lot of snow.
This is what we saw out the windows all day on Tuesday:
Our porch was covered with snow.
We watched the snow blow and drift all day. It finally stopped sometime in the afternoon and, on Wednesday, the sun came out! We decided to survey the damage. Getting out of the house was a little challenging. There were at least 16 inches drifted up our garage door.
Adam's truck was completely surrounded by a snow drift. We still haven't tried to get it out of the driveway four days later. (Check out the random dry spot at the corner of the house. Weird.)
We took a measurement in the middle of the driveway. We thought that would be the most accurate place. Ten inches exactly and the drifts were much deeper!
I know the snow can be a pain, but it sure makes our little house look cozy.
