The Little Minx

 

Get a load of those eyelashes! They come in handy at playgroup, as she flirts with all the boy babies. Her first playgroup conquest was Harrison, who's a month older and quite a little flirt himself. Their love was not to be however (Harrison really wasn't "relationship material") and she quickly moved on to Vincent a few weeks later. Vincent is significantly older--he's 9 months--so Kevin and I worried that they wouldn't have much in common. As predicted, they were just in different places. Vincent is eating solid foods; crawling; etc...so, that relationship fizzled as well. Today, however, she met her latest Prince Charming. He's new to playgroup: His name is Henry; he's Australian and he's 5.5 months old. Aside from their cultural differences, I think they're both in it for the long-haul...or at least until playgroup next week.

#1 Fans

 

...in the rain, at the Ben Folds/John Mayer concert. My heart broke a little, seeing the 13 year old, John Mayer fans wandering around in boredom during the Ben Folds opening concert. Sort of made me want to grab them by their bony shoulders, shake them until their eyes quit rolling around in the back of their heads and make them listen to Ben Folds' performance. Then I remembered that I used to be that 13 year old girl, who probably would've sulked around during a Led Zeppelin concert, if they were the opening act for Poison.

Just your average Monday night

The house next door to us caught fire last night. It looked to be a fairly small fire, but we had 8 HFD trucks and a couple of ambulances in front of our house with sirens, lights, the works.

Luckily, my sweet baby girl was sound asleep the whole time, oblivious to what was going on outside her bedroom window.

Solid Food Challenge

Here's the way a typical feeding goes--especially if it's anything other than peas (which are, what you might say is her "favorite", if by "favorite" you mean "that which doesn't make her retch and shiver with disgust"). You approach her with a spoonful of, say, pears (which is what she had this morning). I do either the patented "Here Comes The Airplane" game, complete with "VROOOM!" sound effects, or the "Here Comes The Choo Choo" (which she prefers) complete with "CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHOOOOO! CHOOOOO!" sound effects. Then I shove a spoonful of food in her mouth. She promptly swishes it around in her mouth and then re-deposits down her chin. I've learned how to circumvent this problem now though, so I just keep the spoon against her lips, so that when she spits the food out, it lands right back on the spoon, at which time I spoon it right back into her mouth. This pattern occurs about 5 times per spoonful and by about the 4th spoonful, the food is about 98% diluted with her saliva. It's not the best table manners, but what can you do?

Kevin tried a different approach with her the other day. One of the things that she does while you're feeding her is put her hands in her mouth as soon as she gets a good mouthful of food. Kevin decided to forego the spoon and just put the food on her hands and let her suck it off (such a "Dad" way of doing things, eh?). You can imagine how that turned out. I'm still scraping dried sweet potatoes off of the breakfast table.

Anna Claire, 5 months old

 

 

 

Tomorrow, Anna Claire turns 5 months old. Here are her current specs:


Anna Claire Jurica

Weight: 17+ lbs (was 17lbs at her last appointment)

Current Interests: Her Jumperoo; Her cats (especially Molly Cat, who makes her giggle); Seasame Street and The View (don't ask, but she giggles when The View is on); Playgroup; Swimming; Swinging outside; "Popsicles" (crushed ice in her mesh, food-feeder that makes her gums feel good); Watching older children; Her sunglasses; Making "raspberries" and blowing bubbles with her mouth.

Current Dislikes: Solid foods--all of them so far; Sudden, loud or otherwise unexpected noises; Cartoons; Church

Pears

So, we tried pears today....

Appearantly Anna isn't a fan (isn't that a pissed off face? She's totally saying, "ok, the formula was working just fine. Why you wanna go and upset the system, woman?).

Why The Office is my favorite show

Anna's New Hobby

A Green-Living Tip

It's confirmed: I'm single-handily responsible for global warming. All these years, when my clear, plastic shower curtain liner got gross and slimy, I'd throw it away and go buy a new one. Not only are there probably 37 shower curtain liners in landfills from Corpus Christi to Houston, as a result of me, we also had to endure that awful "new plastic" smell that comes with the new curtain liners. I'm sure that those fumes are not good for the lungs.

Today, I finally broke down and decided to wash our fabric shower curtain. Our plastic liner was gross and slimy, but I don't foresee a trip to Target in my near future, to buy a new one. I decided to take a chance and just throw the liner in the washer to see what would happen. I tossed in some detergent and a capful of non-chlorine bleach (I LOVE Seventh Generation products!). The liner came out of the washer sparkling clean...better than new!

Try it! It's more cost-conscious and better for the environment!

By the way...when it comes time to ditch the much-washed and well-worn vinyl liner, consider recycling it into something useful in another part of your house. For instance, they would make a good drop-cloth, either for painting or under high chairs. They're also handy to have around in case you need a tarp-like material.

Further justification for me being a stay-at-home-mom...

The going rate for daycare in Houston these days?

Roughly $1200 a month--with another $70 or so tacked on for a "diaper charge".

I think that I need to proposition Kevin for a raise.

Why We're Bad Parents: Part 2

Another entry in the W.W.B.P. series so soon, you ask? Ummm, yeah, unfortunately.

The scene: Sunday morning, Oaks Presbyterian Church
The Players: Kevin, Jenny, Anna & an entire congregation of God-fearing people
The curtain opens and the story begins...

Anna fussed the whole time. We bounced her on our knees, fed her, gave her water, pulled out every toy that we packed in the diaper bag--you name it, we tried it. Finally, Kevin got up and took Ms. Fussy Pants to the "cry room" (which, by the way, isn't sound-proof, so my child's ceaseless whines and cries continued to delight the congregation). After church, we went to the little meet and greet hour in the fellowship hall and apologized profusely for our pissy little baby. "I think that she's teething, bless her heart", "This is usually her nap time...",etc.

Now, 6 hours after returning home, I'm wiping baby peas off of her toes and I find two red, angry, oozing blisters on her toes...caused by the shoes that I made her wear to church today. No wonder she was so fussy. Am terrible mother.

Dad's Day

 

Happy Father's Day, Kevin (tomorrow)! To say that you've really "stepped up to the plate", being a new dad is an understatement...especially considering that it wasn't really your choice to become a dad when and how it happened (oops! But you totally rolled with the punches and became so excited about being a dad!). Anna Claire adores you and, no matter how much you're working or how long you've been away on a trip, she always has a big smile for you when you return home. You're so loved and so appreciated, I hope you know.

All of our love,
Jenny and Anna Claire

Why We're Bad Parents, Part 1 (Of A Continuing Series)

Why we are bad parents:

--We keep the baby formula in the liquor cabinet. Our liquor cabinet looks like this: Maker's Mark Whisky, Grey Goose Vodka, Kahlua, Cuttysark and Nestle Goodstart Formula "Now With Comfort Proteins For Better Digestablility!".

How this came about: We cleared out a whole "normal" kitchen cabinet for all of the baby feeding paraphenalia, but when that cabinet became so full that it couldn't hold everything, we had to find a place to stash the cans of formula. The liquor cabinet was our best option, so it came to pass...

Why We Don't Have Nice Things: Part Three

 

Right angle cat vomit

Firsts!

Anna Claire had several firsts yesterday:

--Swimming!: Our playgroup met at the home of one of the moms who has a pool. Anna Claire donned her pink bikini (thanks, Ashley!) and got in. I thought that the cool water would upset her but she loved it. She kicked her feet a lot and just chilled with mom. It was fun. Daddy needs to buy us a pool for our house.

--Ate peas (without gagging): She certainly didn't LOOOOVE them, but she also didn't projectile vomit them. I was expecting a recreation of the pea soup scene from The Exorcist.

--Put one of the cat's tails in her mouth: She grabbed my sweet Simon's tail, as he patiently laid on the bed with her and it went directly in her mouth. Luckily I caught it in time before she was able to ingest all 1,456,721 cat hairs that she pulled out and was holding in her little fist.

Erika and Keith's Wedding

Erika and Keith's Wedding

As usual, our bad picture-taking doesn't do it justice. It was a beautiful wedding and a grand time was had by all.

(click on the picture to open the album)

Mexico 2007

Kevin and Jenny Mexico 2007

Click on the first picture to open the web album

All Duded Up

 

I took this picture today, after we'd returned home from church* and after she'd taken a quick cat nap (that's why the dress is all wrinkly...she looks so cute in this outfit--thanks Cousin Kate!).

*And yes, we heathen Juricas (who sometimes even drink a beer before noon on Sunday! {GASP!}) do occasionally go to church.

p.s. We don't, however, typically drink that pre-noon beer before going to church, just so you'll know...

Squashed!

At Anna Claire's last doctor's appointment, we got the go-ahead from our pediatrician to try some solid foods. Over the weekend, I went to the farmer's market and bought some good, wholesome, organic squash. I came home and lovingly cooked it then diligently pureed it into mushy goodness. I was so excited to see how she'd react to it. The following video showcases her reaction:



What you're seeing in the video is gagging, shudders of disgust and retching. After I turned the camera off, she promptly projectile vomited the small amount of squash that actually made it down the hatch. Unfortunately, our other attempts at solid foods have ended similarly.