Houston, here we come!

Tonight…we fly. Is that from a movie? Whatever, doesn’t matter – we’re headed to Texas tonight! Steve and Angel are awesome and are flying us and Romelie down for a long weekend, so we leave tonight around 7:00 and come back Monday evening. Four day weekend in TX, woo-hoo!

Romelie is very excited to see her Nanny and Papa again (did I get that right?), and is looking forward to meeting all sorts of family members, including her great grandma, her great aunts and uncles, second cousins, and her Aunt Bronwyn, Uncle Shane, and her cousins. (And we’re looking forward to meeting our new niece Greta as well!) We do sincerely hope that she doesn’t spit up on any of these lovely people but apologize in advance for when she inevitably does. She’s been spitting up a lot more since she started solid foods. Anyone know what that’s all about? Is it just immature digestive system, or is she trying to tell me she’s allergic? That’s the problem with the ambiguous spit-up vs. throw-up – not knowing how much it takes to qualify as the latter.

We’ve also been working with her on consonants lately. She’s really good at making noise, but hasn’t gotten to babbling yet (ma-ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba-ba…you get the point). So Chason’s been trying to get her to say da-da. So far, no luck, but it’s pretty funny to watch – he says “da-da;” she shakes her head no. He says “da-da;” she shakes her head no and laughs. Cuteness.

I’ll be taking plenty of photos in Texas, so check the blog again after we return from our trip!

Who's a big girl?

Romelie had her 6-month check up yesterday and she is…drum roll, please…17 lbs 8 oz! Still 28 inches long (she may have grown a quarter inch or so), but 17.5 pounds…whoofda. So last night, she officially made the move to her big girl bed. No longer in her bassinet (which only is good up to 18 pounds), last night was her very first night sleeping in her crib. She apparently didn’t care, as she slept just fine. Of course, that means that I’m now trying to put a new system of organization into place in her room because we’ve just lost out on two major storage places – under the bassinet, where her toys were stored, and inside the crib, where blankets, snuglis, big stuffed animals, hats and mittens, childproofing devices, her car seat, and any random items that didn’t have a place to go were stored. I’ll be heading to good ol’ Target in the next few days, and I’ll be sure to post pictures once I get everything fixed up.

Also learned something new about Romelie yesterday – she has a heart murmur. Dr. Mitchell didn’t seem too concerned (we don’t have to give her antibiotics or go to a specialist or anything yet), but it’s there. Sigh. Since I wasn’t told to worry, I’m going to choose not to for the moment until I hear otherwise.

And we tried a new food last night – sweet potatoes. Yummy. She ate an entire ounce and was still hungry, so I gave her some rice cereal. We’ll stick with this for a few days to make sure she tolerates it well, and then we move on to either acorn squash or pears – whichever one I decide to make first (probably pears). Making baby food is super fun, by the way – and healthier and cheaper. That’s my mommy motto – healthy and cheap.

I haven’t taken any pics since Florida, but look for more updates soon!

Florida Fun!

Oh, it's been ages. Ages since I've written. Sorry.

The biggest news (a bit old now) is that Romelie and I went to Orlando! Yup, we went down to visit with my mom, who was there on vacation, and my brother, who was there for my cousin's wedding which I was unable to attend. My dad was down in FL, too, though we were at different times, so it was a big ol' Florida party.

Romelie had a lot of fun. She went swimming for the very first time, and she got to experience warm weather and actually spend time outside for once! She's still too young for sunscreen, so we had to keep her in the shade all the time, but it was still good for her to get outside. We went to Busch Gardens and Sea World - she really enjoyed the animal shows. We also went to Daytona Beach for a day and she got to play in the sand - not in the ocean, though...way too many waves, mom's not that coordinated to begin with. As you can imagine, Romelie did get a bit exhausted from all the partying. So she slept in some pretty odd places during the trip :)

Since we've been back (we were down a couple weeks ago and came back 4/24), we've had some other fun events. We attended the wedding of our friends and former roommates Kevin and Nicole - very beautiful wedding, lots of fun, adorable couple. Chason was a groomsman for the event, and he looked very handsome in his tux. Crystal got to be on baby duty for a couple nights in a row (both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding) but Romelie was apparently fairly well-behaved. So that was a relief. And I had a couple of beers for the first time in over a year! To be fair, I've had a beer here and there since Romelie was born, but never more than one - not allowed, unless you're not going to be breasfeeding for a while. So that was new.

What else - Romelie moved up a diaper size - she's now wearing size 3's. She's so big! And she's just as smart as ever - her favorite things to do are spit, pull hair, and stick her toes in her mouth. Good times.

Her 6-month checkup is on Monday, so I promise to update soon with the vital stats. Happy upcoming mom's day!

Happy birthday Chason!

I'm a bit late in typing this entry. It's been brewing.

Chason's birthday was April 10, and his mom and Aunt Karen came for a visit! We had a great time with these fun ladies, and Romelie Ann enjoyed meeting her Great Aunt for the first time. If you haven't already seen it, check out the video of them serenading Romelie during her breakfast. It's fabulous.

Also, on April 11, Romelie had a bonus well-baby checkup just to check her weight and height and see if she's now eating enough. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (drum roll) rrrrrrrrr - 16 pounds, 2 ounces! And 28 inches long. So she's back up to 90% for weight, which is where she used to be and therefore where she's supposed to be. Yay, Metoclopram! And we'll be starting her on her first solids in about a week, which should be fun for all. Go, rice cereal and breastmilk. Appetizing.

I'm keeping it short cause she's been napping for about 25 minutes now, and her weekend naps usually only last about 30...so I will compensate by adding a new video - Romelie driving. And only 5 months old. I'm telling you, she's advanced.

Dinner Theater

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Remember the movie "A Perfect Storm?" That movie pissed me off. Because they said at the beginning that it was based on a true story. And then (spoiler alert) everyone on board the ship dies. So the only part of the story that was true was that a ship went out, there was a big storm, and it never came back. But all the crap about them catching tons of fish and then their ice maker breaks and that's why they come back despite the storm and all the other adventures are all made up. True story, my bottom.

Well, we had our own little perfect storm this weekend (having nothing to do with my tangent above). The plan was simple. On Saturday, I had to teach in St. Cloud (about 90 minutes away in the direction of my mom and John's place, for those non-Minnesotan readers), so I figured I'd bring Romelie along. My mom could watch her while I was teaching, then we could drive the last two hours to Menahga, spend the night at the cabin, and then return to Minneapolis sometime Sunday.

Here's what REALLY happened.

Saturday night, there was a huge snowstorm in Menahga. For the record, no snow fell in Minneapolis. None. By 10:00 pm, the power had been knocked out and I was changing Romelie's diapers and feeding her by candlelight. Good times. By Sunday morning, power was back, but Romelie was sick. Fever, cough, the works. She'd been a bit fussy Saturday, but now she was sick, and I hadn't thought to bring Infant Tylenol for a 24-hour trip. So my mom had to drive 20 miles through 2 feet of snow to get medicine from Walmart. Meanwhile, the snow kept falling - we were not going to be driving back that day. I called in to my boss and left a message saying that I'd be out Monday. Romelie kept whimpering all day cause she didn't feel well and didn't know how to cough the phlegm out of her lungs - pretty pitiful to see. But I took a picture anyway.

Monday morning, snow finally stops - and the van gets stuck in the mud for an hour. I call to check my cell phone messages to learn that my boss hadn't gotten my voicemail and no one at The Bakken knows where I am. Awesome.

We finally get on the road at 3:00 and are home by 6:30. The only blessing is that Romelie sleeps the whole way home. Oh, by the way...it's my mom's birthday. Which she spent digging a van out of the mud and driving 3-1/2 hours. Good times.

That was my series of unfortunate events. Now Romelie is mostly better, but she hasn't been sleeping well for the past 2 weeks, which means I haven't been sleeping well, which means every day I get crankier and crankier. It was totally understandable when she was sick, but now that she's mostly better - I just want her to stop waking up 3-4 times a night. Too much.

On a better note, we got to see some old friends last week - we visited CLIMB on Thursday and had lunch with Shad and James, and saw some former CLIMBers on Friday night at a coffee shop near Uptown.

Can't wait to see Gramma Diane and Great Aunt Karen tomorrow!! Be warned: it's supposed to snow this weekend. You may THINK you're leaving on Sunday...

Happy Easter! (yesterday)

Romelie’s last feeding was at about 11:00 last night. I woke up (well, she woke me up) at 6:30 this morning, and I was totally ENGORGED. So much milk was my body producing, it was literally painful. And I’m not complaining – I’m gloating. This Metoclopram has worked so much better than I ever hoped. It’s awesome not to have to worry about my milk supply, whether or not I’m underfeeding Romelie (especially since, apparently, I was), or feeling like I need to ration-feed her so we have some milk left for later. I now have an ABUNDANCE of milk. Take that, same time last week! In your face, 75% weight to 97% length! Look out, 3-6 month clothes, cause I’m about to fatten up my baby! (Insert inspirational Rocky-theme-like music here)

Enough of that craziness. With any luck, you won’t have to read about my breasts for a while, so hey – added bonus.

We had a fabulous Easter. Romelie got to do a little search for her Easter presents (see picture of her finding one of her presents), then we went to church, had lunch at my dad’s (and got to take home leftovers…yummy ham sandwiches for lunch…), and Chason and I went on two – count ‘em, TWO – dates this weekend! Saturday night we went out to dinner at a Middle Eastern place by our house called Shiraz, and Sunday night we saw “Jane Eyre” at the Guthrie (thank you, babysitting Gramma Carol). Don’t worry, we spent plenty of time playing with the baby, too.