Bunny Baby

Libby's Christmas Pageant

Libby had her first Christmas Pageant today. It was the best one ever in that it lasted less then 15 minutes. The teachers would parade a class into the Chapel and the kids would sing a song, those children would leave as the next class would be entering. Just like a well oiled machine. Beth, Reagan and I had aisle seats so we had to hide our heads as Libby's class was coming in, or she would have screamed "mama, daddy" and sat with us instead of singing. We also couldn't let her see us during the performance for the same reason, so I had to record her from far away with extreme zoom.
Libby is in the front row far left. You may think this is a charismatic church the way Libby has her arms raised throughout the song, but it isn't, she is just doing the motions to the songs "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me".

Messy Baby

After taking Reagan to her 6 month well check appointment we vowed to start feeding her solid foods at least twice a day. She HATES them with a passion, she hates them more then her Uncle Rudi hates two-way streets! The first few times we gave her rice cereal of which she promptly threw up. Then we tried vanilla custard (baby style) and had a little bit better luck, but I still think she got more on her then in her. For the past few days we have been giving her carrots, and as you can see only about 1% of them actually made it into her pie-hole. We ended up having to wash her outfit, the bib and the bouncy-seat cover. Don't worry Aunt Laura, the stains all came out.

Working Away

We are a little behind in getting our Christmas cards sent out this year because we had Reagan type up our Christmas. She is VERY slow, but oh so cute.

Standing Up

Last week we got out some more of Libby's old toys for Reagan to play with. So far Reagan loves standing up and pressing all the buttons on this on. It brings back many memories of Libby doing the same thing and I already have the toy's annoying song of "stir, stir, stir the soup" in my head.

She Flings Poo

Libby awoke from her nap around 2:15 p.m. today, a little earlier then usual. I went in to see what was the matter and the odor hit me. Apparently before she fell asleep she had pooped in her diaper and instead of letting it mellow, she took some of it out and smeared it all on her forehead, in her hair, on her pillow case and on the wall. I washed everything in her bed, scrubbed the wall and threw Libby immediately in the bathtub for a good scrubbing. Kinda makes me not want to give her good night kisses on the forehead anymore.

Reagan's Six Month Check-Up

Reagan went in for her 6 month well-check appointment today. She is growing like a weed. She now weighs 15 lbs 7 ozs which is the 40%, she is 26 1/2 inches long, 50% and her noggin is 43 cm around, 70%. She had 4 shots today, including her flu shot, plus some sort of vaccine she had to take orally. She screamed like a scalded ass ape for all of them.
Reagan did a great job sitting up and pulling herself up showing off all of her muscles. Her parents have failed her in the feeding department as we have only given her cereal twice, the second time being yesterday where she threw everything up all over us and her. We plan on making an effort to give her solid food twice a day from now on, vomit or no vomiting.

Sitting and Standing

Reagan now loves to stand up, although she can't do it on her own yet, she still likes to stretch her legs out and blow spit bubbles at you.

Reagan started sitting by herself about two weeks ago, a full six weeks earlier then Libby did. She has been able to sit for 3 minutes before toppling over.

Adventures in Potty Training

Last week while putting up our Christmas tree, Libby finally showed an interest in her potty chair. So Beth decided that we would let Libby run around bare bottomed so that when she had to potty she could quickly sit down and use her potty chair. After about 10 minutes of naked tree trimming, Libby screamed "oh-no" as she peed under the Christmas tree, not quite making it to the potty chair. Before we could stop her, she ran into the kitchen grabbed a towel and started cleaning it up herself.
Later that night while Libby was playing in her bed before she fell asleep, I went in to check on her to see what the noises were all about. I saw her in the dark and something didn't look quite right, it turns out she had taken off her pajamas and diaper, peed on the comforter and was laying naked under the covers.
So Libby is not yet potty trained, but she is still young. My brother-in-law Rudi's mother told me he wasn't completely out of diapers until he was five.

Sad but True

One of the nice things about running a marathon in the city of Memphis (like the St Jude Marathon) is all of the homeless people out and about to cheer you on.

Another Reason to Move out of Memphis

On Sunday a car full of angry transvestites attacked the workers at a local McDonalds with a tire iron and their finger nails. To bad for the workers, the trannies got mostly undressed first. You can read more about this here or Rich you can just watch the video. Just a warning to anyone coming to visit us, the transvestites are still on the lose.

Cousin Gabe sure knew how to make Reagan laugh. I think that each time Gabe disappeared Reagan really though he was gone and wasn't coming back.

Happy Birthday Stretch

Our oldest wiener dog Stretch turned 8 years old today. Here are 5 things you might not know about him.

5. Stretch and I have the same middle name, Mark.
4. Stretch has almost died twice. Once when he ate a staple and the second time when he ate half a bottle of ibuprofen. Both times he was rushed to the emergency vet and after hundreds of dollars in vet bills he fully recovered.
3. Stretch is very lazy. Even though he is able to jump into bed by himself (with the help of a small ottoman) after eating his breakfast in the morning he insists on having Beth lift him back into bed.
2. Stretch loves to give teeth kisses to people who are special to him. This includes my friend Jeff, our cousin Melissa and my sister-in-law's friend Anne. In defense to Stretch, each of those people were making threatening advances towards Beth or I.
1. Stretch use to have a favorite Aunt named Sarah. This is until she forget his birthday and started cheating on him with some random dachshund she meet walking down the street anda pug.

Reminder

Only 3 more shopping days until my birthday.

Day 2

While this may look like feces smeared on a piece of paper, it isn't. This was the "art" project from Libby's second day at PDO. November's color of the month is brown and the shape is square, so this is Libby's interpretation of both. They also learned this cute little song that Libby has been singing all day:

"Brown Brown, Flush you Down,
All the Way to Chinatown,
While Your there, Don't be Square
Or You'll Forget Your Underwear".

Once again Libby did great. When I dropped her off she was crying but stopped as soon as I walked away. She ate "most" of her lunch, had her diaper changed twice, and napped from 12:30 until 2:05 p.m. One of the teacher's told me that Libby has a new friend who she played baby doll with most of the day, her name is Libby also.
The only hitch today was during pick-up time. Last week at the exit they had dum-dum suckers for the kids, this week, none. Libby cried for almost an hour because she wanted a "treat". Later that afternoon we stopped at Krogers and I picked up a bag of suckers to keep in the car for next time.

Picture Day

Today we went to Portrait Innovations to get Reagan's five month picture and our family picture taken. Both little girls were great. Reagan was full of smiles and gave them nothing but huge grins. Libby took directions so well this time and wasn't nearly as shy around the photographers. I found out the hard way that they do not do artistic nudes. You can see all of the pictures here.

Our family Christmas picture has been removed so that you will all be surprised when you get it in the mail.

Hair Salon

While Reagan was sitting in her Bumbo, Libby got out her doll's hairbrush and started doing Reagan's hair. I heard her telling Reagan how pretty she looked and that she was putting a "pony" (ponytail) in her hair.

Sisters

After propping Reggie up against the couch to get a few pictures, Libby wanted to sit next to her.

And then she wanted to hold Reagan's hand, Reagan didn't quite know what to make of that.

First Day

Wednesday was Libby's first day at Diaper Baby School (as her cousin Nate calls it). We dropped her off kicking and screaming at 8:45 and were told everything would be o.k. We got a call at about 10:00, as soon as I saw the caller ID I knew there must be a problem. But instead, one of the programs leaders had just called us to inform us that Libby was having a great time and doing really well.
Each week they send home a "report card" to let us know how she did. She had her diaper changed twice (no poops), napped on her new "happi nappi" pad for about 1 1/2 hours, and ate "most" of her lunch. The best news was that they told us she played well with the other kids and participated in all the actives, including the art project of making a "tootsie turkey".
We are very proud of Libby and hope that all goes well again next week.

P.D.O.

Libby has her first day of "school" tomorrow. She will be going to a "Parents Day Out" program one day a week from 8:45 until 2:45 p.m. She has a cute little back-pack with her name on it that she will bring her lunch and a change of clothes. We are not sure how she is going to do for such a long period of time away from us, but know that it will be good for her. She usually cries the entire hour she is away from us in the nursery at church. It will be interesting to see how she does eating lunch and taking a nap away from us.
The program seems to be a really good one from what we have seen and heard. There are 13 kids all within 2 months of Libby and 3 teachers to watch over them.
We are hoping that Libby's separation anxiety will get better and that she will learn to interact with other kids (aka sharing) better.

Hold Your Head Up

Reagan is now rolling over (back to front) and doing a great job of holding her little melon up.


She is a girl of many expressions.

Almost

Reagan is almost sitting up by herself. If it weren't for the pillow and the couch behind her she would be sitting up all by herself.

Reagan is holding her "binkie" in the above picture, our friend Sarah (who loves Mike Koch) got it for her for her birth. It is her new favorite thing, she has to have it with her at all times. She spends many hours a day stuffing it in her mouth sopping up drool and has to have it next to her when napping.

If we moved to China...

On Dan's last trip to China he got his favorite niece (and namesake) this cute little oriental dress.

This was the first (and last) time she has worn it.

Number Three

Two weeks ago during our annual termite inspection, the inspector told us that he thought he saw a rat in the crawl space, either that or it could have been a snake. Neither sounded that good to me. He suggested that I go buy some rat poison and throw it in there.
On Tuesday when I got home from Las Vegas, I smelled a horrible odor in the back bedroom. Apparently when rats eat poison they do not head out to the woods to die. The next day I opened up the door to the crawl space, threw up a little in my mouth from the smell and sure enough there was a dead rat. Being the manly man I am, I waited until Beth got home from work and gave her a shovel and a rake to drag the rat out of the crawl space. I did the hard work digging the grave. Libby and I ran in the house as the rat was being brought from the house to the grave.
The smell in the house is now 90% gone.
During our first nine years of marriage living in Michigan we had zero interactions with dead rats, in the last 2 1/2 years living in Memphis we have had three.
I guess that is three more reasons to move out of Memphis.

Halloween 2007

This Halloween went so much better then last years. Libby loved being a lion and going door to door getting candy. She even said "trick or treat" at one of the six houses we hit. After saying "thank-you" she would roar.

As this is Memphis and there is safety in numbers we went trick-or-treating with our neighbors. Lauren was a little chick and Lindsey was a hot pepper.

After hitting a few houses Libby was acting like a real lion and had to roll on the ground to itch her back.


Reagan on the other hand only made it to about 4 houses before she fell asleep in her mom's arms.

Sleeping Baby

Reagan's new favorite place to take a nap is on the couch. She lays her little head on the pillow and within a few minutes she is out like a light.

The other day Beth snapped this picture of Stretch sleeping with his head on Reagan. She didn't seem to mind.

The Saddest Princess

The Saddest Princess, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Cutie in a Hat

Reagan received this cute outfit from one of the ladies Beth works with. As it is still sunny and in the 80's here Reagan can still wear it for another month or so.

Great New Show

Ultimate Factories is an awesome new show on the HD National Geographic Channel (or Nat Geo as we in the biznizz call it). So far they have done episodes about building a Peterbilt Semi-Truck and building an Apache Attack Helicopter.

An interesting fact about the helicopter is that it contains almost 8 miles worth of wiring for all the computer systems and over 1500 splice junctions.

Another Desticle

We almost had another "desticle" on Sunday night. It was about 8 p.m., the weather was beautiful, no rain or even a breeze in the air, when all of a sudden we heard a huge crash from the backyard. We both ran outside to see what had happened and found this limb (the limb was longer, about 9 feet more of it broke into smaller pieces and had already been carried out to the curb when this picture was taken) had fallen, taking down the overhead cable/internet line (Thank God the cable and internet didn't go out).

So on Monday (against my mother-in-laws advice) we called a few different tree services to come out and give us estimates on getting all the dead branches and limbs removed. We decided on Robinson's Tree Service and they will be coming out in the next few days to trim the oak up. It is about 70 feet tall and over 75 years old the guy estimated. Since there is no way to get a cherry-picker in the back yard they will be doing all the work up in the tree, should be fun to watch. I can't believe how many dead limbs there were that he pointed out to me. Now every time the wind blows or it rains I worry what else is going to fall out of the tree.

First Food

Reagan got her first taste of "people food" last week (as long as you consider rice cereal mixed with breast milk food). She wanted n0thing to do with it and cried after the first 2 bites.
She sure does look like a big girl sitting in the high-chair.

I think I love you

After our old brown striped couch got repeatedly puked on by Libby during her sickness and both sides of the cushions were so worn though they had holes in them we decided to buy a new couch. We picked it out a few weeks ago and they delivered it last Wednesday. The couch is called "Wild Thing" and it is unlike anything we have bought before. It goes with no other furniture in the house and is really quite ugly, but when we move it will go in the basement for me to use with my home theater. As ugly as it is, it is the most comfortable couch I have ever sat on. Both sides of it recline and is all big and puffy. It is about 13 inches longer then our old love seat so now all four of us plus the 2 dogs can comfortably sit on it. And we were able to get rid of the foot stool providing much more room for Libby to play.


As you can imagine it is quite hard to get me to move from in front the television now.