Thumbs and Bums

Since she was born, I have tried to prevent thumb sucking. Every time the thumb would go in the mouth, I would pull it out and replace it with a binky. Well, I am officially declaring truce on the thumb.

The binky won many battles....

(This picture melts my heart, she is SO TINY!!!)

...but the thumb has WON THE WAR!!!!!!

And just a random booty picture of her...she is no longer satisfied with just sitting on the couch. If I leave the room, she tries to follow....and this is as far as she makes it. (Don't worry, I have begun putting pillows on the floor just to be safe).

This is a really good picture of her birthmark on the base of her head, yet another reason we never leave the house without a headband!

My Kid ROCKS!!!!

I always thought when I became a mother, I would be one of those "over-the-top thinking my child could do no wrong overestimating their abilities they are the best kid in the world" kind of moms. Don't get me wrong, Kerrigan is completely PERFECT in my eyes. However, I have noticed that occasionally I underestimate how awesome she really is.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I needed to "wean" her from being swaddled. I did tons of research, asked everyone I knew for advice and decided I should do it gradually (i.e. keep one arm out of the swaddling for a couple of weeks, then both then the legs).

However at that time she was waking up anyways, and screaming until I brought her in bed with me, so I decided to go cold turkey with the swaddling while letting her cry it out (just going in to comfort her without picking her up every 15 minutes). I started on a Wednesday, thinking I was going to be up ALL night for at least a week, so I could break it up by letting Jared be on baby duty Friday and Saturday night.

The first night was awful!!! She screamed and screamed for 45 minutes. When I would go in to comfort her, the little stink would grab my hand and hold it to her face while crying pitifully. By the time Jared got home from a Young Men's activity, I was sitting at my desk sobbing for my poor baby. However, within 10 minutes of him getting home she fell asleep.

The next night, I had a pep talk with Jared. "Its going to be hard, " I said. "Its going to take all your mental strength not to pick her up, " I explained. "Your heart will break, but its for the best, "I added. He was fully prepared.

Bedtime came. I fed Kerrigan, rocked her for a few extra minutes so she KNEW I loved her, braced myself and laid her down in her crib. She smiled at me, lifted her legs and bum straight up in the air, rolled to one side and fell asleep before I even left the room.

I didn't know what to think, so I tiptoed out of the room, turned on the monitor and laid down in bed fully anticipating the scream I was sure was about to emerge....but it never did!!!! This is how we found her 9 hours later (and it has been like that every night since with the exception of the night when we had company over when I put her to bed)!!!!

Like I said, my kid ROCKS!!!!

Technology Blues

Technology is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!! Not only can I watch t.v., I can pause and rewind it AND record it so I don't have to bother with commercials. If I look hideous, I don't have yo leave the comforts of my home-I can do my banking,bills and shopping online. I can take a picture, and within minutes share it with all my friends and family....AMAZING!!!

However, technology does come at a cost. I think one of the major drawbacks is the loss of personal interactions.

Instead of receiving free lollipops from the teller at the bank drive through, we go to the drive through ATM...who only rewards us with a receipt.

Self check outs at the store have eliminated the challenge of getting the cashier to smile (a game Jared and I like to play)...and when you are checking out your own items, if you forget your membership card you can't ask a machine to scan a temporary card for the discounts to save that $1.25!

Emails have replaced hand written letters. eHarmony has replaced good old speed dating. Twitters and tweets have replaced little notes. Text messages have replaced phone calls.

Last night, Jared was trying to sleep, and since I was wide awake I decided he needed to be as well...so proceeded to poke him (in a non-facebook way)which started a war. In order to defend myself from the responding attack, I hit him in the head with my phone a couple of times (this sounds WAY more violent than it was...we were both laughing by this point).

My phone decided to call my friend Lesley, who I was in the middle of a text-ersation with. It took a few minutes to realize what had happened, and when I tried to explain to her what had happened I could barely breath I was laughing so hard.

She just laughed with me, and we talked for a few minutes. When I hung up I realized this was the first actual conversation I had had with her in OVER A YEAR!!!! She has one of my favorite laughs in the world (Allison, I am sure you agree!) and it had been over a year since I had heard it. We "talk" weekly through text messages, but....OVER A Y EAR!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

The thought made me sad...so I have a new goal for this week. Whenever possible, I am going to avoid technology that causes me to miss a personal interaction.

I invite you to join me in this endeavor! Together, we can reclaim the lollipops, notes, letters, phone calls, and temporary membership cards (and that $1.25 in savings)! I am excited to see how it turns out. WHO IS WITH ME?!?!?!?!

Hair Things and Bouncy Swings

Baby Carrot is finally getting enough hair in the front of her head to put her hair pretties on without the headbands. They don't stay in very long and have to go further back than most people wear clippies (since that is where the majority of her hair is), but I think it still looks stinkin' CUTE!!!
I used to think it was silly when people would post like 6 pictures of their kid doing something.

I mean, really, how many different angles can you get of a child doing one activity. Soooooo, in an effort to avoid hypocrisy, I have uploaded a mere 5 pictures of K in her newest toy.

Whenever she is being held, she wants to jump up and down. So in order to spare our biceps from doing hours of 15 lb repetitions, we got her a jumper swing. Genius, right?

It would be, except she can't figure out how to use the darn thing...

She just sits there, swaying in the breeze with a baffled look on her face...

Good thing she enjoys "hanging out"....

Happy Cinco De Mayo

We had a fiesta on Saturday to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.

We were surrounded by good food (which I forgot to photograph, but thanks everyone for contributing)...

Good company...

The Jones's and Davis's made it authentic by wearing flu masks as their costumes (how could I forget to photographically document it???)

I had to include this picture...none of us realized Jackson was giving Kerrigan's head a little "massage" during picture time, such a funny little guy!

But the best part- I discovered my full potential as a blackhead (as in black hair, not acne)!!!! OOOLALA!!!!

Let's Talk

It's 11:00 on Sunday morning. I should probably be at Church right now...but instead I am sitting on my couch. I wish I could say with confidence there is a legitimate reason I am "ditching" church today.

The truth is I have turned into one of those mothers I used to mock. The mom who constantly sanitizes EVERYTHING and flees the scene when an innocent bystander dares to sniffle. People ask if they can hold Kerrigan, I hand them hand sanitizer. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME???

So no, I am not missing Church because I am sick. My baby girl isn't sick. No one (that I know of) at church is sick. Yet here I sit, terrified to take my baby to church because of the off chance that someone COULD be sick.

I find myself torn between my love/need for spiritual fulfillment and my love/need for a healthy daughter.

So what is the deal with this swine flu???? What is all the panic about? Why are people so scared of it? All I know is what Brooke has told me (about the nasty symptoms) and that there are starting to be reported cases in CT.

There is such a fine line between being a reasonably protective mom and being a crazed germaphobic nutjob....and I constantly find myself approaching (if not crossing) it.

What are your feelings? Don't worry about hurting my feelings...I want to hear what you have to say! I know it is ultimately up to us, but any insights would be great. This dilemma just solidifies my opinion that all kids should come with a manual!


Picture found at mercola.com

Twins????

The last time these cuties were photographed together was right after they were born...we were still in the hospital...
I know what you are thinking- there is NO WAY those 2 sinfully good looking women just had babies....I know, America's Next Top Model, here we come!

Alot has changed in our little ladies...it is so fun to be able to watch them grow and develop at their own rates, Kerrigan is now bigger but Kate is stomping on her when it comes to rolling over!

When we were taking this picture, a passerby asked if they were twins (could they look any different???) and we had to explain they weren't twins but they were born on the same day!


I got to take a bunch of pictures of the 2 of them, and here are my favorites:
Holy Cow, Kerrigan looks like the Incredible Hulk next to Kate...who would have thought(Kate was about 3 lbs bigger when they were born since she came late and Kerrigan came early)?

They took turns shwacking each others' faces...

Then "kissed" and made up...

And decided to hold hands...

This is my favorite. Kate rolled over onto her stomache, so I rolled Kerrigan over, hoping to get a few tummy time photos. Kerrigan wouldn't lift her head up and Kate was looking at her like she was a weirdo....so funny...

I think they will be GREAT friends!!!!