Minor Parenting Victory, grass and noggins

I love Malone. I love how silly she is. I love her little smile. I love when she gets the hiccups like she has right now. I love hearing her trying to tell me a story. I love it when she holds my face with both her hands and smiles. Agghhh, it warms my little heart just to think about it. And now I love that she is sleeping in her own crib and through the night. With this new and recent adjustment I feel like so much more has changed in her than just her sleeping location. I feel like she's more grown up. Like she's one step closer to going to leaving the house and going to college (I don't even want to think about Kindergarten at this point).

Is every step of her growth and development going to be this bittersweet?

In other news, I have to tell you what a rock star husband I have. He spent all last weekend (with the help of some friends and one really nice neighbor) preparing our backyard for topsoil, laying the topsoil, fertilizing, and laying sod in our backyard. He worked so hard. I was impressively impressed with his yard work skills. I, on the other hand, felt like a total loser who just sat on the steps and watched. Granted, I was put in charge of Malone (much harder according to Cameron although I think he was trying to be nice). Still I felt like this was totally something I should've been helping with, out there sweating, getting sand under my nails and mud on my face. Anyways, the grass is laid. Now we just have to put up a fence and finish our patio. Here's some pictures of the "sod party", our nice green grass and our sad little patio.

In even more other news, Malone has adopted a Yoga Crawl as her means of transportation. Let it be known that I think she's the inventor of the Yoga Crawl. As you can see in the following video, she does not crawl on her hands and knees like most babies. Instead she gets on her hands and her feet with her bum in the air, very similar to a yoga pose whose name I cannot remember and then she goes into the yoga pose, "downward dog" although Malone is less graceful and instead just jumps forward onto her face. Nonetheless, she is on the move.

And for our last story of the evening, I took Malolo to the doctor on Tuesday for her six month check-up. And did we have a heck of a time. The doctor came in and started checking her out and at first she was a bit cranky (darn appointments right in the middle of nap time) but then all of a sudden she started laughing hysterically at the doctor. I think it was a bit of a nervous laugh but funny nonetheless. In fact, so funny that I was laughing hysterically as well all the while the doctor looked at us like we were coo- koo. Despite the jokes, Malone is healthy and strong with a bit of a big noggin (65th percentile for her head circumference). Apparently, she's smart too! Isn't that what a big head means?

Sorry, one more addition. We went to something called Seafair on Saturday. Long story made short, ever watch "The Deadliest Catch" on Discovery Channel? For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, its a tv show that chronicles the adventures of crab boats fishing in the REALLY cold, crazy waters near Alaska. Anyways, we got to go aboard "The Northwestern" (one of the boats) and meet the Captain and the crew. It was pretty awesome. We got to go aboard because one of Cameron's pilot training classmates did a fly over for the fair and got us VIP passes. Fun, huh?

Well, I better go before Malone has my hair for dinner...ouch!!

Sleeping/Napping Shenanigans

I hate naps. I mean, I love naps but I'm a bad nap taker. Everyday, I desperately want to take a nap, just to rest my eyes for a few minutes, but the cost is too high for me. You see, I can't take a cat nap because it takes me forever to fall asleep during the day, one of many reasons I should never be a grave-shift worker. Rather, I have to take a REAL good, long nap in order to feel like its worth it. But who has time to take a two hour nap? And this is the bad part, then I wake up groggy, in a slumber and just plain in a bad mood. Cameron on the other hand is the king of naps. He can take a 5 minute nap and feel as fresh as a daisy in Spring. My dad, too, is a good napper, laying down for his 15 minute cat nap after lunch is a daily ritual (he gets up so early that it is only expected for someone to take a nap midday). Not me.

You know who else is a bad napper? Yep, Miss Malone. She whines, cries, rubs her eyes red, scratches her face and tries to break the world record for longest eating session when its nap time. And when she's finally asleep, its like a game of Russian Roulette, will she really sleep or is she just faking it? **Side note: anyone have any advice on getting her to nap better? Oh, and I forgot to mention that when she does nap well (my lucky day!!!) she wakes up not in a good mood. I think I can hear my parents rejoicing as they read this, thinking "Oh the irony of Karma!"

Keeping all this in mind, Cameron and I REJOICE every morning when she wakes up, because she wakes up in the best, cutest, most cuddly of moods, all full of smiles and giggles. I think its my favorite time of day. So in honor of Malone and her crazy sleeping/ waking up shenanigans, I'm posting some pictures of her when she woke up this morning.

Waking Up
Picture 1: She just woke up and is starting to smile because she saw us. Ooh , she looks a bit rough...look at that bed head.
Picture 2: Look at that goofy smile...I think she got a bit over-excited.
Picture 3: Beautiful smile

Awake
Picture 4:Here's smiling Malone. Obviously glad to be awake and looking a bit more pulled together.
Picture 5: Here's scared Malone. " What? I'm going to have to take a nap?"
Nap Time
Picture 6: Will she or won't she? Note how proper she is folding her hands one over another. Cameron and I were catching up on some LOST episodes while she was napping yesterday. It lasted about 15 minutes.

6 week milestone

Yesterday, Malone is crossing the 6 week milestone. Its hard to believe that only six weeks ago she was a longing and excitement in our hearts and my belly. However, over the past few weeks she has firmly established her position in our family. I don't have much to update you on, just an increase in appetite and diaper size and a decrease in sleeping. Here's some new pictures. Enjoy!

Picture 1 & 2: Malone napping with her daddy









Picture 3: We like to call this look "Milk Drunk Baby"
Picture 4: This is the closest I can get to showing you her beautiful smile
Picture 5: She knew I was taking pictures for you, so she thought she would wave
Picture 6: She is posing for you...Note for my mom: doesn't this look like the pictures we have of oumagrootjie, ouma and you where you're each doing the pose fixing your hair? (the original was of oumagrootjie)
Picture 7: She was sooo sleepy
Picture 8: She finally went to sleep....squishy face and all.