Romelie's First Birthday

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written, but the trade off (to those who like reading) is lots of news to share.

Starting with…Romelie’s first birthday! It was a low-key event. I did end up getting a free cake from Lunds thanks to the nice lady working who was willing to accept Romelie’s social security card in the absence of a birth certificate. My dad came over earlier in the day to cut up a tree branch that had fallen in our front yard, so he got to see her on her birthday, and then my mom came into town. We went to church where they sang happy birthday to Romelie, and then went home for the eating of the cake. Romelie chowed that cake – I probably gave her too large a piece, so I kept subtly stealing some of the frosting away when she wasn’t paying attention so she was on less of a sugar high, but still – lots of cake was consumed. She got a few cute gifts, including a winter coat, so she should be set for the cold which has officially arrived here in Minnesota. All in all, it was a nice day.

Monday was her one-year doctor appointment, and I’m sorry to say that although she appears healthy in most every other way, she’s pretty significantly underweight. She’s 30 ½ inches long, but she only weighs 19 lbs 12 ounces. If they weighed her correctly at her 9-month appointment, that means she’s only gained 4 ounces in three months. Ouch. So we’re trying something new – feed her silly. Because Romelie doesn’t seem to have a “full” signal, I have pretty much fed her a set amount that seems reasonable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now I feed her and feed her and feed her until it seems like she’s eaten a ridiculous amount of food – and then I breastfeed her until she decides she’s done. She usually ends up spitting up a little; hopefully that’ll ease up once her body adjusts to this new system of eating nearly to excess. Last night, for example, she had some breastmilk, then cheerios, then 3.5 ounces of green beans baby food, then almost an entire burrito, then two ounces of whole milk. That’s almost more than I can eat.

And finally, Romelie has three teeth now. Her two lower middle teeth have been in for a little while, but we just discovered a third tooth on Saturday. It’s the top right one, but oddly enough it’s not the middle one; it’s the next one over (if I knew more about teeth I could name it, but that’s as descriptive as I can be). So we didn’t even know she was teething when she was acting fussy and had a runny nose all week because the tooth that came in wasn’t one we were expecting. Ah well – we’re new parents and we’re learning something new every day, right? Right.

Almost time for a birthday...

Romelie has a little bit of a temperature. She doesn’t seem to be sick, but she’s been sleeping more than usual. Two nights ago, she went to bed at 7:15 – and she would have fallen asleep on the floor earlier, but we had to keep her awake for dinner! So I don’t know if she’s coming down with something, or if it’s teething, or a growth spurt, or what. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse.

As far as recent events go, Romelie got her picture taken with Santa last Thursday! I know, it’s a bit early for Santa, but we had an opportunity through our friend Erin to get a free picture taken at the Mall of America, and I’m cheap, so I took it. And I’m super glad I did because the picture is awesome! She was a bit fussy and I didn’t think she could handle sitting on his lap, but it was a professional photography studio that was hosting the Santa pictures, so they had all these props and tricks to getting the perfect shot. They got her all comfy in a little chair and got her laughing and smiling and then Santa just snuck into the shot behind her – she never even knew he was there! Pretty cute.

By the way, in case anyone was counting, only three more days until Romelie’s first birthday! We’re not having a party (technically she already had one in Texas, so she doesn’t need two), but my mom is coming into town and I’ll probably make her a little cake. I was going to get a free one from Lunds, which again, cheap-o that I am, I was really revved about, but you need to show a copy of her birth certificate and I have only just realized – we either never got one or accidently threw it away! Which stinks. We can get a new one (which I’ll probably take care of next week), but not in time for her birthday, obviously. Ah well. Homemade cake equals love, right? Right. Look for a new blog with loads of pictures after Romelie is one year old!!

Election Day

Romelie encourages you to get out and vote. She is not ashamed to publicly endorse her candidate. Yes, ladies and gentlemen…Romelie is hoping you vote Grover for President.

(I love this shirt. It was mine when I was a baby.)

Romelie and I had a fun weekend up at Gramma Carol and Grandpa John’s. They did a haunted house at Huntersville (local bar/restaurant) and had some local high school students, friends, etc. hand out candy and cheerios and stuff. It was pretty fun, and Romelie wasn’t scared at all. In fact, she helped hand out little stuffed animals to kids at the end of the path.

Other fun things. We went to see "High School Musical 3" (judge all you want, it was awesome). We spent time with the duckies and puppies and etc. And my camera batteries were dead, so I didn’t get any pictures of this, but we went to a pumpkin patch that had all these kid-friendly activities, and one of them was a corn maze. We seriously couldn’t get through it. It took, like, 30 minutes. I finally had to cheat and go back out the entrance and come in through the exit to see where I had gone wrong. Very ridiculous.

The weather, by the way, has been gorgeous. 70 degrees and sunny. I haven’t had to bundle Romelie up in her winter gear, nor have I had to force socks on her (since she takes them off anyway). This picture, however, was taken just last week when it was 30 degrees and snowing. Love that Minnesota.