audrey rose

audrey rose, originally uploaded by krisadair.

i made a mosaic of my little angel. she is screaming right now so it helps me to see her happy. we are starting to have fun in the bath but she hates to put clothes back on after. i will try to post the bath photos soon. yes i am having a little too much fun with technology. my smiling child is all over the internet.

let sleeping dogs lie

i am still new at the parenting thing. this is evident in my daily life when i do silly things like try to put an active baby to sleep by simply laying her in her crib. or, my best one yet, waking up because my child is talking to herself in her crib in the morning and going in to pick her up. she is happy and not making any sort of fuss yet i feel the need to rush in to see if she needs to eat. she was a perfect angel last night and so i was worried when she did not wake me up four times before 6am. rather she stayed in bed, happy until 6am. i need to have my head examined, or maybe just a few extra hours of sleep. i finally put her back in the crib to watch the mobile and she is happy. maybe next time she does this i will simply stay in bed until she cries for me.

how much farther?

we are having sleeping issues again. i am hesitant to try to do much about them as we are going to tulsa next week and that is bound to cause problems as well. i think the best thing to do is grin and bear it for a few weeks and work on the problems later. i know we can work through issues because we had a major problem with her sleeping in her crib for naps and now she does every time we are home. it took a few days of nothing but tears and now we have fewer problems. tonight she wanted to sleep on her tummy and almost got herself turned over. she works at it like a rolly polly on his back and she does not give up. at least then i have access to her back to pat her and calm her to sleep. our little angel is three months old now. who knew i could make it this far?

best_friends

best_friends, originally uploaded by krisadair.

audrey made a new best friend. she has long conversations with her friend.

my new web phone

Yes We Can

we had a moveon.org "yes we can" party tonight. fellow lawrencians came over to help us make calls to texas voters encouraging them to vote for senator obama on tuesday. it was great. i have never done anything like this before but i felt compelled to do something this time.
i keep going back to youtube.com for this video:

let us hope that tuesday goes well. audrey had a great time as usual. she would not nap during the party and kept wanting to talk to everyone.

mother's day, early

all of the troubles associated with being a mom really fly right out the window when your baby falls asleep on you. there is nothing that melts the heart quicker. she can be screaming one minute and asleep the next but the second she slumps on my shoulder i am at peace. i have been know to watch her sleep as well. i never understood that before.
joshua said a cute thing as i was getting up to feed the angel. he has been telling me what a wonderful mom i am, mostly to keep me from going crazy, and he said this year would be a good mother's day. he also stated that he understood the holiday now. i am sure his mother would be happy to hear that.

better, just barely

i am getting better everyday. except today. i have figured out what it means when she cries and when to put her down for a nap. but today she cried so hard and loud she turned purple. it upset me so much that i started crying. joshua was on a conference call and just shut the door on us. afterward he claimed not to have heard her cries.
i am finishing up a beautiful scarf and i will try to remember to post a picture before mailing it. it is a windy city scarf and it is for a swap. i love the way it has turned out.
i am off to bed to get a few winks before angel wakes again.

sleepless in larryville

i am starting to get used to the lack of sleep. i awake each morning around 7 (or earlier) and can not get back to sleep. joshua is on the 4-8 am shift so in theory i could sleep in. usually audrey is fussy or joshua can not get her to eat from her bottle, or any other number of reasons i need to help. it is getting to the point where i do not mind. she is getting a little easier to understand, i am getting used to it. we are all a little happier around chez montgomery. princess has gained quite a few pounds and now weighs in at 11 05. she is starting to look like a chubby little baby. we are off to costco and the baby store today to stock the freezer and baby room with supplies. it is not as easy to pop over to kc now so we have to make special plans. larissa is going with me so that i have help if needed.

you tube

yes i am one of those mothers. i took a video of my child doing absolutely nothing. well, she was playing with the mobile. i thought it was cute, so cute i loaded it to youtube and sent it to the in-laws. now i am putting it on my blog because that sounds like fun. blogs are very egotistical anyway. we know they are there just to make the writer feel better. i feel better now.

obama_audrey

obama_audrey, originally uploaded by krisadair.

Audrey had her first caucus. It was tiring. We spent 3 hours in order to get our voice heard. I am going to writing my representatives and complain, caucusing is not fun.

not much better today

we had another rough night and slightly difficult day. she woke up every hour for four hours until joshua rolled her on to her stomach. she was fine for four hours after that. she spit up all over both of us while she was eating. then again four more times until we left for the gym. i was ready to put her out with the trash today until she finally went down for a two hour nap. i slept then as well. i would like to someday get back to being able to craft or even keep my house reasonably clean.
i found thanksgiving pictures from before our angel was born. look how happy we were. so excited and ready to be parents. why did someone not try to tell us it was going to be so much work? maybe they did and we did not believe them. i love my angel but i am going to love her more when she sleeps for more than an hour at a time.

parenting 101

i took the class. at no time did they say that my child would look at me and spit up, or scream in my ear when i tried to burp her. she has been a pill today, but look how cute she is. and she smiles at me every time i change her diaper.

My creation

My creation, originally uploaded by krisadair.

My latest flickr creation. My loves. Notice the fabric, magazine covers, and chocolate!

new addition

i say new but she is two months old. i am still trying to get the hang of this mothering job. she is a vocal child and that means she screams at me a lot. when we go to visit people she does ok so everyone just thinks she is cute. i know better, at 4am she is not so cute. and then she smiles at me after a feeding or a diaper change and my heart melts. being a parent is the toughest job i have ever had and i am no slouch. i have much more respect for single parents now.

sleepless in the third trimester

i have reached the sleepless stage of pregnancy. well, i sleep but it is in fits and spurts. some nights i sleep very little and then nap a little during the day. some nights i sleep all the way through and then nap a lot during the day. who knows, i may be getting just the right amount of sleep over the week but in strange amounts. we are still working on the house. the floors are done, air conditioner is in, and joshua's shed is up. he has to have them come back and fix the roof of it but otherwise it is great. he takes pictures of it all the time and since he moded his iphone to connect to his flickr anyone who cares can see it. his account name is oojoshua. please ignore all the unflattering pregnant pictures. i am just happy he is interested in filming me at all, i look like a cow. the reason i got out of bed tonight is because i was hungry. i wake up in the middle of the night to eat now. or sometimes i just need a tall glass of water, with ice. i have been eating a lot of ice. tonight it seems that a few mini scones and some dried papaya are all i need. i cleaned the kitchen yesterday and joshua wanted to know if this meant the baby was coming. he did pay attention in birthing class when they talked about nesting. now he wants another sonogram to make sure she is not breech. i have tried explaining that the birth is a month away and she has plenty of time to turn but he is still worried. he can now feel her and tell that she is laying sidewise with her head in my side. i should get some sympathy but instead he is worried about his child. at least i know he will make a good dad. he bought batteries for all the smoke detectors and three carbon monoxide detectors. i am just excited to get my new washer and dryer. i can not use them yet because the plumbing is not secure in parts of the house so we can not turn the water on. i am biding my time. they are so pretty and new. i even went out and bought the special soap for the washer so i would be ready. mary already posted a clip about the happy song it makes so i will not bother.

new floors

So I realized that not only have I not been blogging but I have not put up photos of the new house. It is still being worked on so we have not move in yet but I did get most of my new floor today and am so excited to see the finished product. They will start sanding and hopefully get the finish done tomorrow as well. The hard part then is the wait for the floors to dry so I can get back upstairs. All of the main rooms are on the upper floor so I am stuck in the basement until they finish. Maybe this is a good time to shop for light fixtures. I have been to Home Depot just about 20 times looking at everything. The couch arrived today as well. It is beautiful! I bought it online. I have never purchased furniture online before, it was a little scary. It came from Target so I figured it was safe. Tomorrow I get to clean the basement walls and putty. Joshua won't let me paint or I would start on that as well. He bought "odorless" Kilz, how many really think it does not smell? Our house was unoccupied for 3 years because it was foreclosed so with no light or air the walls got a little mildew in the basement. It would not be a fixer upper if there was not a lot to do. Just for fun I will put up a photo of the kitchen before and then when it is finished I will add an update.
Notice the lack of cabinets and appliances. We have had to do everything in the kitchen. It is a small room though so it has not been too bad. It is a cute little house, just big enough for the three of us. It is more like 2 1/2 right now but I am getting bigger by the day. We are in the 33rd week. I could do without the heartburn but I am not looking forward to the sleepless nights. Fortunately, I am having her around the holidays so everyone is able to visit and I will have a lot of help in the beginning. I am starting to get a little nervous.

is it tomorrow yet?

i spent another weekend at home. this will be my last for a few weeks. it was an average weekend but i was just not having a good time of it. i spent time with my sister, brother, dad and step-mom, and even got to see george and derek. i should have been happy. my mother called and left guilt-ridden messages and then proceeded to call me 20 times in one day. i think it may be time to cut off her phone. cheryl and lee both want her to have one but i for one am not happy about her harassing me. i ended up spending most of sunday sleeping because i felt bad and then had a terrible night sunday. my daughter is still exploring her space and sometimes really gets to kicking me. that plus the heartburn made it a rough night. i finally got out the door monday around noon then had to stop half way and take a nap. when i arrived home i was sad, tired, and not feeling great so i went directly to bed. joshua came home with a hideous handle-bar mustache that he thought was funny and then told me i had to put up with it for another month. that really did not sit well with me so i got even more depressed. a warm bath helped a little and then i decided to continue on my quest for new decorations for the house we bought. really all i need is a good cry and some cookie dough. maybe i can even get enough energy to go to work tomorrow.

a new day

joshua and i are taking the day off. he is still in bed at noon. that is the best place for him. he has worked so hard this year and has been supportive of me through everything. we are going to have lunch with friends, yes friends. we have two nice couples we hang out with. actually they are the girls from my yarn group and their husbands but joshua knew one of the husbands before we moved here and the other is an engineer so we are hoping they speak the same language. after lunch we will hang out a bit and then head to kc to have dinner with joshua's cousin and aunt. i actually need to end this now so i can make my hair lay flat.
i just wanted to say that today seems like a better day.

coming to terms

it has been a tough month. i almost said weeks but then i realized that it has been longer than that. my wonderful second dad died august 11th and i am still working that out. he was a father for me when mine could not be. and even though my mother left him when i was a teenager he still was my dad. he helped me with homework, helped pay for college, gave me advice when i asked and was going to be a really wonderful grandpa to my audrey. my step-father passed suddenly at the young age of 52. we are all still trying to pull ourselves together and work through the pain. lee and his girlfriend will move into the house once it is fixed up for them so we will always have a place to go visit. mom still has a hard time talking about it with anyone. i do ok except at night when i have stopped thinking about my everyday life. last night was pretty rough and joshua did not know what to do with me. he wants to be able to fix everything and there is really nothing he can do. if i craved ice cream or pizza he would run to the store for it but there is nothing really i want.
my sis just called and we talked for a while, comparing our lives. remarkably, we are going through the same stages. i told her that i keep thinking about the little things like the state fair coming up at the end of the month. bob always took the kids to the fair. his birthday is next month, what will we do? christmas will be the worst i feel, or maybe when audrey is born. i got online with the tulsa world and read the nice things people said about bob on the guestbook. that made me cry as well.