Ready for another Vikings season!

I’m back from Indianapolis. The Colts lost while I was there, while the Vikings won while I was away. Then of course yesterday, they lost again. The Vikings seem to lose when I watch the games – maybe I should just stop watching now. I have cute pictures of Romelie in her new Vikings hat to post – I’ll get them up ASAP.

My teeth don’t hurt any more; thanks for the concerns! I did end up going back to the dentist but there wasn’t anything unusual going on and they said to try giving it a few more weeks. I get a little twinge every now and then, but I think I’m good to go.

The trip was fine, and I missed my family (of course). Romelie was a very good baby while I was gone. She got to spend a couple days up with Grandma Carol and loved watching the ducks and geese and puppies and the entire menagerie. I got special searched on the way there AND on the way back, and while I was permitted to transport my cooler o’ breastmilk, they insisted on taking every single bag of it out, laying on the counter, and testing it with some wand-looking device. So that was a little embarrassing, but at least they didn’t make me throw any of it away.

New Romelie news – three times now, she’s pulled herself up to standing! It happened twice a couple Thursdays ago (9/18) when she pulled herself up using the couch so she could get a better look at the cat who was sitting there. Both times, she freaked out when she realized that she didn’t know how to get back down – the second time, she seemed resigned to just freefall sideways, so I had to catch her. Then she did it late last week in daycare. So apparently, she’s planning on skipping right over sitting up and crawling (two things she has yet to even attempt) and go straight to standing. Brilliant.

I’ll get those pictures up tonight, hopefully. Still waiting on the pictures from visiting Uncle Paul in Wisconsin (my mom brought them down, but I forgot to ask for them, so I don’t know if they’re in my house somewhere or what). I’m a slacker, we all know that.

**Update 10/2 - Pics are up! And I got the ones from Wisconsin, so I'll try to get those up tonight or tomorrow.

Teeth

No, not Romelie’s teeth. Mine. Romelie, though she turned 10 months old yesterday, has yet to sprout a single tooth. I, on the other hand, had my first dentist appointment in I’m-not-telling how long, and had four cavities. They have since been taken care of, and now I have horrible, horrible pain on the entire lower right side of my mouth. I don’t know if something went wrong or it’s just being overly sensitive, but I’m giving it another week and then I’m going back in to get it checked out. Boo teeth problems. Better believe I’ve been a professional flosser lately, though.

Romelie has started finger foods. To be fair, she started finger foods a couple weeks ago, but I’m just remembering to blog about it now. She eats cheerios and pasta like a champ. I tried banana last night, and I don’t know what genius thinks bananas are good finger foods since they’re too slippery for her to hold on to them. I ended up just feeding them to her. But she’s improving daily at the whole hand-eye coordination thing.

Unfortunately, I’ll be leaving my family for a few days coming up here. I’m going to Indianapolis for a work conference – I leave Sunday morning and don’t come back until Wednesday night. My mom’s coming down to help Chason with Romelie so he doesn’t get completely exhausted. I’ll miss everyone, but I’m most worried right now about pumping while I’m gone. My boss arranged so I’ll have a fridge in my hotel room, but I need to transport it all back through airport security. The TSA website says a mom, even a mom traveling without a child, can transport breastmilk through security, but it specifies that it must be “in reasonable quantities for the duration of your itinerary.” Does 60 ounces (since that’s about what I’ll get in 3-1/2 days) count as reasonable?

Wish me luck…sorry, no new pictures to share.

Kung Fu baby

Apparently Romelie is determined to be a fighter. Here's a long and dark but still awfully cute video of Romelie kicking Joe repeatedly and finding this to be the most hilarious thing ever. Enjoy.

A visit to Wisconsin and a fight

For Labor Day weekend, my mom, Romelie and I went to Spring Green, WI, to visit my brother and his girlfriend Carrie and see their shows at American Players Theatre. Romelie was very well behaved for the 4.5 hour drive (closer to 5.5 on the way out there – traffic was not our friend), and she was generally pretty good for everyone. Paul found a couple of babysitters from the company to watch her so mom and I could see the plays, and she was reportedly very well behaved for them, which was a relief. Other than her grandparents and Crystal, she’s never really had a babysitter before.

We had a great time in Wisconsin. Romelie’s big into separation anxiety, so she cried nearly every time Paul picked her up (sorry!!), but she had a lot of fun with him, too, and it was great to get to know Carrie a little bit better. They were fantastic in the shows (we saw “Henry IV,” “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Belle’s Stratagem”) and we ate really well – quiche and ribs and s’mores and banana bread and all sorts of home-cooked treats. I remember when I used to cook…now Chason and I eat pizza three nights a week. Sorry, hubby. Anyway, Paul took lots of pictures but I forgot to get them from my mom before she went home so I don’t have any to post yet – but I’ll get them up later, don’t worry.

Also, yesterday Romelie got into her very first fight. Yup, you heard me right. One of the girls in her daycare tried to steal her bottle yesterday while Jen was changing the diaper of another little one (the girl is about 13 months, so she wasn’t being mean or anything…just saw a bottle and decided she wanted it!). Well, Romelie wasn’t about to give up her bottle and fought for it, so they ended up scratching at each other. Romelie’s smaller, so she got the worse of it. Jen felt really bad, but I understand she can’t be there every second. And it could’ve been worse but it wasn’t, and Romelie’s fine, so what can you do? My little Rocky…getting in fights…

Finally, Romelie has been doing this spitting thing for months now, but I finally managed to get a video of it yesterday. It's really cute except when she does it with a mouthful of food.