A little bit of everything.

9 days since a post... I'm slacking!

I've been pretty busy lately... I thought that since I'm not working full-time, I'd have more free time, but no. Seems like it's one thing after the other!

Russ and I had our 2nd anniversary this past Monday... it's so hard to believe it's been 2 years already. 2 years and a little baby! Russ had a pretty busy Monday work-wise (his secretary is out of town--she just got married) and so he's had to play catch-up with alot of stuff.... so we just went out to dinner Monday. Russ's mom and her fiance watched Alyson and brought her back later that night, so it gave Russ and I some time together. While at dinner, I said, "Yeah, last year at this time we were in Cancun...." And then Russ had to add, "Yeah, that's when we conceived Alyson!" (He swears that's where it happened, but I doubt it... I just let him think that, though.) Maybe next year we'll be somewhere tropical again for our anniversary...only without bringing home another 'little souvenir,' if you know what I mean!! I want to go to Aruba, or Punta Cana or something. Hell, I just want to go SOMEWHERE!

In other news... Russ's mom is getting married at the end of the month. She's SO excited about it. She's been by herself for over 20 years, so we're all very happy for her. When she's with her fiance, it's like she's a teenager again...she's all giggly and giddy, with a permagrin on her face...lol. Russ's brother is coming in from Alaska for the wedding, so since he'll be in town, we're getting Alyson baptised October 1st. A few friends of Russ and his brother's are coming in from DC, and are having their son baptised too... Russ's brother will be their son's godfather. So it's going to be a DOUBLE baptism! We still don't know who Aly's godparents will be. Well *I* know who I want to be the godparents, and it SHOULD technically be a given... but Russ doesn't agree with me. He's upset because they picked other godparents for their children... people who are NOT good role models whatsoever. Russ goes, "I wasn't good enough to be a godparent for them? They picked HIM, and he's a big a**hole!" *sigh* This is what I go through. In the end I'll win out though. *evil laugh*

So now, we have tons of stuff to do at the end of this month/beginning of next month. A rehearsal dinner, a wedding, and then a baptism a few days later. Now we're in the process of planning a party afterwards at our house. (Which, the party planning will mainly fall back on me, I'm sure.) We're figuring it'll be 20-25 people once it's all said and done. I think we're doing the cookout thing on our deck (burgers, hotdogs, MAYBE steaks or something), but Russ is kicking around the idea of having it catered. A friend of ours caters,and has offered numerous times to come cook the two of us dinner, (WHY have I not done that yet?!) so we might go that route. I just don't want to spend hundreds on a baptism party, when I'd be happy with cake, snacks and some alcoholic beverages...lol.

New subject. My beautiful little 'punkin', Alyson.

(I can't very well post without talking about Alyson!)

She's just so darn entertaining lately. It's been something new with her every week, whether it's a new sound or face she makes, or a new milestone she reaches. She just makes me SO happy and I swear my face hurts because I can't help but smile constantly when I'm around her. She's holding her head up pretty steady now, and CONSTANTLY wants to be sitting up looking around (hence it being such a necessity for me to buy that bumbo seat! What a godsend!) She'll bat at toys you hold in front of her, though her little arms still flail out all erratic sometimes... it's so cute. Oh, and she's made a new discovery over the past week or so. Her feet. When she's laying on her back, she's gotten into the habit of lifting her legs back toward her head, so I think that started it. Then, when she's leaning back in her boppy or sitting in her bumbo, I'll catch her lifting her legs up and staring intently at her feet with a puzzled look on her face. I take her socks off and put her foot in front of her face and say "Look at the tootsies!" and she'll smile and open up her mouth real big and coo. It's one of those 'melt mommy's heart' moments. She has a lot of those :-)

On one of the pregnancy (and new mommy)message boards I visit, a June mommy mentioned a sale Target was having on the Rainforest Jumperoo (which I had been wanting to get for Aly eventually.) The jumperoo is normally $80 but was on sale for $60, and if you bought it online and used a certain promotion code, you got free shipping and an extra $5 off. I ended up getting the Jumperoo for $57 brand new! Sadly this sale isn't going on anymore, or I'd pass on the info. I checked the website and it's back up to $79.99.

Anyway, I COULD NOT wait to get Aly in that thing... so I sat Aly in her bumbo seat so she could watch me, and put the jumperoo together right after it came to the house. I was SO excited!! She just kept looking at everything with this puzzled look on her face while I put it together. However... by the time mommy got it together, Aly was a little tired. Mommy had taken a little too long.

I figured, "What the heck" and picked Aly up out of the bumbo and placed her down in the jumperoo. This is what happened.



Yes, she FELL ASLEEP right when I put her in the seat. She looked so tiny in it, and her little legs didn't even come CLOSE to the floor. She was just hanging there, fast asleep, with her face resting on the seat. I had to laugh, though I was a little disappointed that we couldn't have more fun with it that day. (Ha... "we"... yes, I enjoy it too!)

I carried (well, 'pulled') the jumperoo upstairs and put it in the nursery, figuring it'd be awhile (like a month!) before we'd use it again. But a few days ago, Aly was fussing and I was bored, so I took her upstairs and put her little butt in it. And guess what? SHE. LOVED. IT. She was smiling and cooing, and batting at the little toys, even though that darn jumperoo dwarfed the poor girl. I kept turning the seat around so she could see all the toys. She especially loved staring at the lights on it. So at least I can get SOME use out of it for now, even if she can't touch the ground yet :-)

Here are a few more pics....

This is one I took on her playmat. Yes, she's asleep. Again. She had played on it for about a half hour and I think she wore herself out kicking the inflatable ball and batting at all the toys :-)



And last but not least...



This picture cracks me up. She does this everytime I have the flash on my camera. Her eyes get all huge. She looks like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't. LOL.

Well that's it for now. It's getting late, but I'm not that tired yet, unfortunately. This is bad, because these are the times I end up just checking out stores online, and usually end up buying something out of sheer boredom. I'm the same way with infomercials. If it's late and I can't sleep, I'll flip through the channels and watch an infomercial, then be convinced for that half hour that I really could use a juicer... or a swivel sweeper... or a steam iron... or a roomba... or some other crazy thing. And we won't even get started with the exercise infomercials. If I could lose weight just by BUYING exercise dvd's, I'd weigh, like, 10 pounds. LOL.

Well, nighty night! Take care :-)