It was Bound to Happen

well...it was gonna happen. I've been terrible about writing anything. So....I'm thinking that I'll take a leave of absence during the summer or maybe just write a couple times a month, because we are just so busy during the summer.

What's New:
-Abrisa dances non-stop! It must be something that babies just know how to do. They must be born with the will to dance or the want to bust a move. I used to sing or listen to music and dance with her when she was a tiny little thing, but it would mostly be soft swaying, so they have to be born with it. We have a radio that goes throughout our house (in each room) and right when you turn it on she starts dancing. She has several moves. One is kind of like the sprinkler. She will move one arm from side to side as she is holding it straight out in front of her and also shaking her head (like she is saying no) at the same time. This one is my favorite. She will also just bend her knees and bounce to the music. Another dance move she will do is just a simple tap of the foot. She is a great dancer. When Shaff's phone rings she starts dancing immediately. It must be her favorite song.
-When my mom comes over and then leaves Abrisa will cry her eyes out. I'm like HELLO, I birthed you!!! She loves her gramama.
-She likes to throw a good temper tantrum several times a day. Just out of the blue, she'll just throw her body back and start crying. If I take something away from her or she runs out of milk or snacks ....or whatever. She'll look at me and throw her body on the ground, blind and backwards. I feel like she is thinking, "here you go mom, you chose this. i didn't want to get upset, but i'll hurt my own self because of what you did. i'll show you. i'll hurt myself and then you'll feel terrible for what you've done". Surely she's not thinking this.
-She wants to be outside at all times. When we come inside, she cries like a crazy!

Are You Joking?

Abrisa and I had to take her da-da (Shaff) lunch the other day because he was so busy and wasn't going to get to eat if we didn't. The only time I could take him lunch was pretty early, right after Abrisa ate breakfast and drank her morning milk. So we found some food for him and headed to his work. Abrisa was being extra quiet in the car, which was odd because she is usually singing or talking back there. So I look back at her and ask her if she's okay. She doesn't respond :). Sooo....we are almost to the school and I look back at her again and she projectile vomits all the milk she had drank. It was everywhere!! awesome. So I drop the food off and head home. Poor sweet girl!!
I put her in her bed because she was pretty tired and ready for a nap after that crazy outing. So, I go back to my car and it smelled absolutely unbelievably terrible. I'm sure you can imagine!! Thrown-Up Milk in a Hot Car. MMMmmmm Good! So I have to get the carseat out and take it all apart and it says you can only hand wash the cover. GREAT! At this time, I am feeling like this has never happened to anyone else in the whole world. I do my best to hand wash it....I use a TON of detergent!! I let it all dry out and put it back in the car. The next day, we get in the car and it still smells like milk vomit! So I decide to head to the car wash. It's the one at 71st and Sheridan...they do a great job! I tell them what happened and they get to work. I wait inside in the crazy gift shop and their is this woman in there. She has two kiddos and she starts talking to me. She was very nice, but I felt like everything she was saying was a lie. All the stuff she was saying was outrageous. Anyway, then she decides it's time to breastfeed her son. Let me just paint this picture for you....we are at a carwash....where a ton of dudes are there washing cars and coming in and out of the gift shop! She pulls her shirt up and just begins to nourish her baby. I mean, I'm all for breastfeeding!!! But, did she realize she could pump and put the milk in a bottle so they men weren't all looking at her! It was bizarre!!!

Learning to be a Mother

Abrisa doesn't like anything.....no food will do. I have made her so many different types of food this week that she has turned away, it's not even funny. I will make her something and she won't even put it in her mouth to try it. I know she's starving...I know it!! Although, if you look at her she doesn't look like she misses a meal. Sometimes, I'll just shove a piece of 'whatever I've made at the moment' in her mouth to see if maybe she'll taste it and then realize how delicious it is. ...but no, she'll spit it right out!

Food she will eat: carrots, but only if they are mush like baby food. hummus, but only a few bites. eggs. toast with jelly. applesauce. yogurt. well that's about it. She hates everything else. I mean, I'm sure she wouldn't turn away a nice big cookie or a huge piece of chocolate cake, but come on!! I did make her a smoothie kinda thing today though and I slipped some vegetables in it and she had no idea!!

It's funny, when you have an infant, you have to learn how to take care of them. You have to learn how and what to feed them. You have to learn how to give them a nap and put them to sleep. You have to do a routine so they'll get comfortable with what is happening. Then, right when you get everything down and you feel awesome about it....and you feel like you're possibly the best mom that was ever created----BAM! --they get a little older and everything changes. They start throwing little tantrums (for no reason at all--just out of the blue), they don't like anything you make them to eat, they hit you (ya!! not kidding--she usually laughs after she hits me, not sure what it's about). So, I am having to go through a whole new learning experience. I guess now that she is 1, she thinks she is supposed to be all grown up or something.

But even if she does hit me or not like any of my food or even if she didn't like me, I would still love her more than anyone. I would love her more than ever. She is my sweetness and she is why I get to be a mother. I feel like sometimes I take it for granted....I know there are people out there that wish they could be mothers or could have been mothers ....I just feel so happy that I get to be a mother. It is the greatest thing I've ever experienced.

Riding Around in Boxes

This weekend we played and played and played. I thought I'd show you a few videos of Abrisa's new favorite thing to do. Besides taking everything out of every cabinet in the house, she loves to ride around in boxes. I emptied a new box of diapers and she was kind of looking at the box and kind of playing with it and I thought it would be fun for her to get in it. So I put her in the box and then tied a rope (actually a work-out band) around the front of the box and started pulling her around. She wasn't smiling while I was pulling her around, but several times when I would stop she would get upset. In one of the videos, she says her favorite word, "baby"...although it comes out "ba-ba".

Walking Baby

Abrisa has been half walking/ half crawling for the past couple of weeks. Right after she turned "1" she has been doing both. Her walking has been very wobbly though. She'd take a couple, four, eight steps and then lose her balance and go down to crawling. Yesterday and the day before she has been really working hard at the walking thing! Today, she said, "I'm done with crawling"!! She has walked non-stop today. No crawling unless it's absolutely imperative. When she would lose her balance, she would get really mad at herself and make a grrr sound. And when she would try to stand back up, she would have to really use her leg muscles and really grrrrrrrrunt! It's really funny! I can't believe my sweet little angel baby is walking. I thought she would be a newborn baby forever!

BaThTiMe

Taking baths for Abrisa used to be one of her favorite things in the whole world. When she was tiny tiny (like a month old) she loved baths. I would lay her in the bath on this blue spongy thing shaped like a turtle and she would lay there and almost fall asleep. It was so calming to her, I guess. Well, lately she has been flipping out in the bath. Two nights ago Shaff came home while she was in the bath and she was so excited to see him and wanted to get out and hug him that she slipped and hit her face on the side of the tub. ... a little blood came out of her nose. We were flipping out! Shaff was like, 'did she break her nose...oh great!!' although, he didn't really say 'oh great'...he used a different word other than great. :) ..... so if she likes a bath, it's a rare occassion. Tonight she loved it....don't know why! Everything was funny to her.

Cabinets and Comforters

Abrisa loves to get into the cabinets. I mean....LOVES!! She sings while she's getting everything out. A lot of the stuff in this cabinet is probably trash, but I keep it in there so she can get it out. I know that you are thinking, 'why doesn't she put child safety locks on the doors'. Well, if I did this, I wouldn't get to take a shower if she wakes up before me. I usually get up before her and get ready so that I don't have to try to do it when she is up. Sometimes, well a lot of the time, she will get up before me and I'll have to get ready and take a shower with her in the bathroom and this keeps her busy....



Also, we have an in-ground (sorta) bathtub and now she has figured out how to turn the water on! Which is just great! So while I am taking a shower, she will turn on the water full blast in the tub!



In other news, I have had the same comforter/bed spread for a long time!! I have loved it very much, but I decided it was time for a change. I was getting tired of the old one. It's very nice and so soft, but it's pretty boring. It's brown and pretty plain. So, I went on a hunt. I went to bed bath and beyond, stein mart, target, sears, dillards. I know we needed something a bit brighter because our bedroom is really dark. The walls are grey and the room is really big so I needed to brighten it up. So after buying several and putting them on the bed and then decided I didn't like them....here's the one I ended up with! I love it!!


Shaff thinks it's a little too girly, but he said he didn't care. He likes it fine, he said!! I love all the pillows !! When I go in my room, I smile :) Now I need some new lamps or lampshades. The ones I have are too cream colored and not big enough for my new white and flowerdy comforter.

Taxes

Taxes: Listen do this doozie!! Shaff and I bought our first house a couple years ago in Edmond. It was during the time when they were giving first time homebuyers a tax credit. We were so excited when we got it......so we spent it all. We spent it on house stuff amongst other things. We lived in the house almost 2 years and then sold it. Shaff got a new job and we moved to Norman and now we are in Tulsa in the most recent home we own. So.....you're thinking, 'good for you!'. Well, I'll keep going.... I get my taxes done by a man who does my dad's taxes. Since he does my dad's, I just figure he does a great job. He has so far. So I get a call from him about a week ago and he says, 'Laura, you have to pay that first time homebuyers tax credit back since you sold the house.' ARE YOU JOKING!!! Where are we going to come up with a few thou... who has a few thou. hanging around ready to be given up! Well, we don't. We just bought a house and spent quite a pretty penny trying to update it. I"m telling you, it's not cheap! So, I was talking to a friend who is a real estate agent and she says, "i really don't think you have to pay back the credit if you took a loss on your house'....which we did :( . So I decided to email my tax guy and tell him that. He didn't respond to the email. Well, a day later my dad calls and says something about the email and how maybe I offended the tax guy by getting tax advice from someone other than him. Hmmmmm.... So I tell my brother the whole story and he says, 'i really don't think you have to pay back the credit either'. So he researches it and finds a ton of information. So I call my dad and tell him this. At this point, I feel like I am still unsure because I am getting one story from the tax guy (who should know what he is talking about) and another story from other people. So....I take the situation into my own hands and I call the IRS!! :) I was on hold for literally 25 minutes before I talked to a human, which I figured was going to happen since I called on Friday, April 15th !! So, I explain everything to the lady and she asks me if I sold the house to a relative and asks me if I made money on the sale of the house. I answer 'no' to both. She takes about 30seconds to check on it and says, "No, you do not need to pay the credit back! Just get this form and check this box" !!!! Amazing!! I (well Trey) outsmarted the tax guy!

Too Much Love

Do you ever think that you love your baby, babies, kid, kids too much? I do, I really think that maybe I love Abrisa too much. I wrote this recently on facebook on her birthday: A year ago, God gave me an angel. I love her more than I have ever loved anyone. I feel like a different word should be created for how I feel about this sweet girl. I love everything about her. I love her face, her ears, her hair, her chunk legs, her dimple chin, her buns, her tummy, her nose, her mouth, her voice, ...everything. I am so lucky that God gave her to me. She isn't perfect, but she IS perfect for me. She is my "goose". I adore her. Thank you Lord for every second I spend with her. Happy Birthday, Abrisa Elizabeth, I'm so happy you are mine. She's just so sweet. There are funny little things that you find interesting or funny about your little ones. Like.... whenever I am rocking Abrisa before a nap or bedtime, she always plays with my necklace (a heart necklace that says her name one it). If she is ever hanging out naked, she always gets away from me as quick as possible in hopes that I'll leave her nude and just forget that she needs a diaper. I'll put a bow in her hair and she won't mind it for a while, but when she's in the car, she'll magically find it and take it out and usually laughs about it. She'll just laugh hysterically at little things-- she was handing things to me (from the inside of my purse) and each time I would take them, she would die laughing!! And another time, I threw a wipe down and it made a funny sound so she laughed sooo hard, so I kept doing it and she laughed over and over and over. When she pushes her little toy that she can walk behind, she laughs the whole time (especially when she runs into something). It's hilarious!! I guess that's why I love her so much! I am trying to figure out what she is supposed to sleep in now. She is still wearing a full footed/long sleeved pajama, but her size is apparently for slendor and long babies. She is too short for her size and is too sausagey. Her legs and arms have to be squeezed in, so these pajamas are too big and too small for her. I guess I need to get her the two-piece pjs. My thought though is aren't her feet going to get cold, I keep our house very cold (especially at night). I know I could put socks on her, but surely they'll come off in the night. I also don't want the pants to be irritating to her on her waist. I think I'll just go to Carter's or Target and buy some two-piece pjs and try them out. I'm sure Abrisa would say, "I'll be fine mom!" We'll see.

Milk Vomit?

We had a great weekend, again full of baseball, babies (Abrisa and Luci), and bathing beauties (we bathed outside again--no no, not 'we' as in Abrisa and me, but 'we' as in Abrisa and Luci). Abrisa and I went to lots of baseball games this week! We love going because we get to be outside and Abrisa loves to clap when everyone else claps, it's so fun! On Thursday, we were driving to Okmulgee. Okmulgee is about a 45 minute drive from our house. I almost didn't go because of the drive, but Abrisa said, 'mom, we have to go and support the team'. So we decided to grab a couple of grilled cheeses :) I'm kidding....maybe!!
Abrisa used to looove the car, but as she has gotten into her older age, she isn't quite fond. She can't play and move around as much as she wants. We also had not switched carseats yet....I know, I know....we did it last night. We had not switched yet, because she is just now 20 pounds and the limit for her infant carseat is 25 pounds and it was going to be too emotional for me, but we did it! Anyway, we get to Okmulgee and I have no clue where the baseball field is. We are driving around and around. We turn in somewhere and end up in the middle of a cemetary. Neat! So instead of taking 45 minutes, it's turning into almost an hour. Abrisa is really irritated! She is whinning and kinda crying. So I grab her ice cold and very delicious milk that I was not going to give her. I didn't even mean to bring it. So I hand it to her and she gets quiet and enjoys her glorious milkshake. mmmmmm. So, I finally find the field. We go in and park and I get my chair and her stuff and my purse. I put it down by the back door. I get in the back seat and get Abrisa. I have to get her on my hip and then pick up my purse, grab the chair, get her stuff and finally we can start walking. I see a nice spot to sit in the grass right next to 3rd base and only 1 other person was sitting there, so I start walking toward it. All of the sudden, Abrisa lets out this huge burp. It sounded like the kind of burp you might have right before you have a nice big throw up. So, I stop and look at her and make sure she is okay and she seems fine so we keep walking. I take about two steps and HURL. She projectile vomits all of the milk. It made a huge splatter sound on the cement. She really did not get too much on me because it went so far. She got a litte on her bonnet and a little on my shirt. So I then realize that when I gave her the milk in the car, she had completely chugged the whole sippy cup full! I guess it was so good that she couldn't stop. So, we stop where we are and clean up and go sit in our spot and she was fine. It was pretty nasty! I don't have any pictures because I don't think you'd really want to see it. Moral of Story: Don't give your baby a sippy cup full of milk while they are leaned back in their carseat. (I'm sure my mom has told me not to do this, but I must have not been listening)

More Baby Food

I made some more baby food lately. Sorry if you're not interested in this, but I feel so good about myself after I make it. The first 'dish' for Abrisa is a mixture of sweet potato, vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), black beans, apricot spread. This is a lot like another one I made recently, but I added lots of the vegetables.








Here is the next 'dish' I made. It is a mixture of brown rice, baby cubed butternut squash, spinach leaves, and hummus (she loves hummus, it's probably her favorite food).



....I thought I'd show my process of the food making :)
And, speaking of hummus!! We eat hummus at my house daily, really...daily!! I used to make it all the time, but have stopped because of a brand we have found at Target that is divine. I have to say, I have had the most amazing hummus in all of the world. Made by hands of gorgeous and talented Lebanese women. My grandmother (my Sittie), my aunts, my mother, etc. I'm telling you, I have had the BEST!! ....and this stuff at Target is really good. The brand is "Sabra" and you can buy different styles, like roasted garlic, classic, red pepper. My favorite is the roasted garlic. It is located in the produce section, near the lettuce and bags of little carrots. I've always been hesitant to buy store hummus, because it never measures up, but this stuff is pretty darn close! They also sell it at Reasor's. It is delicious!! You should try it. ....unless you don't like hummus.

House Renovations

In the master, we painted the wall that the bed is in front of a darker color than the rest of the walls and painted the beam the dark color also.

In the master bath, we changed the light fixtures, the countertops, the sinks, the bathtub, the tile floor. We still have a little bit of work to do in there. We need to finish painting a couple of spots and fix the tiles around the tub.

Here is the guest bath. We changed the countertops and sink and well, everything.

Here is the tile we used in the entry, the kitchen and in the bathrooms. I loooove it!!!


Here is the kitchen. We still have work to do in here. We took out the trash compactor and put a drawer and cabinet in it's place, which we have to paint. I hate the swirly woodwork above the sink, so we'll be busting that down. Their used to be a piece of stenciled glass above the sink in that square area, which came down immediately.



We decided to paint the fireplace and the beams (there are 2 big beams) a darker color than the walls in the living room.

Our house!

I wanted to show our before and after pictures of our house. I only have a few before pictures and I"m in the process of taking pictures of it now, new and improved. I just want to take pictures of a clean house...you don't want to see our new floors with a couple of baby puffs on them and some spilled milk, that would not make me happy. So, today I plan on cleaning the house and taking pictures of it. But for now, here are some of it BEFORE the renovations.







We have painted everything, changed all the floors, got a new bathtub for the master bath, changed some of the light fixtures, etc, etc, etc.


On another note.......

Weird things happen to me, and by this I mean people talk to me and say odd comments and stuff to me a lot. There can be an entire grocery store or mall full of people, but for some reason some weirdo will come up to ME and talk to me or ask me something. They're not always weirdos, but a lot of times they are. I like to think of it as God showing me his sense of humor. Like he's watching me and thinks, 'hmmmmm, I think that guy should say something to Laura'. So some guy asks me a question about my clothes or something and God gets a big kick out of it. hence, the inappropriate story the worker told me in my bathroom a couple weeks ago. Although, I don't think God initiated that one to happen. So here's an example: I go to sonic and I get a grilled cheese. I know....I know, you're thinking, grilled cheese! Who orders a grilled cheese?? Well, I do. Thanks! I used to eat them all the time when I was younger and then I got them on the way to my friend's bachelorette party and now I just can't stop. I think about them all the time. They are glorious!! ...okay, back to the story. So, the guy on rollerskates, Michael, comes to my window and hands me the crispy brown sonic bag. I give him the money and say thanks. He decides he wants to chat, so he leans on the sonic menu and says, "Man, I love grilled cheese. Everyday when we're about to close I have the cook make me a grilled cheese with extra cheese and a ton of bacon. It's so good. Sometimes I get two. I get them literally every night." So I say, "Neat, ya, they're pretty good." So he keeps going on and on and I"m wanting to leave, but he keeps talking. So I have to wrap it up and say, "Okay well thanks a lot...see ya" I know God was laughing at that one!! I'll keep you posted on anymore that happen like this. This same kind of thing happens to my mom a lot too. A while back she was in the grocery store, minding her own business, and this lady comes up to her and says, "Should I cut my hair?".....what!! how weird is that!! So, since my mom is so wonderful and so nice she gives her honest opinion!! haha! I love that one.

Baby Food

I have been making a lot of homemade food for Abrisa in her whole one year of life. Although, I'm not going to lie to you, I would definitely grab a few (or seven) jars of baby food at the grocery store. Abrisa loves that! I've been experimenting more and more lately because now that she's one, I feel like she can eat more options. Also, my mom bought me a new baby food cookbook, which I love. I don't think Abrisa really likes the food unless it's all mixed together. So here are a few recipes I've made for her lately:

Sweet Potatoe & Chicken Goodness (I just made up the name of this goulash)
a whole sweet potatoe (cooked in the microwave)
boiled chicken tenderloins (2)
steamed peas and carrots (about a cup)
Mix the chicken and the vegetables in the food processor until they're not quite pureed. Next add the sweet potatoe, until all the food is mixed well.

Black Bean Delight
1 can of black beans (heat in microwave for a minute)
1 serving of brown rice (cook brown rice extra long, so it's nice and soft)
steamed peas and carrots (about a cup each)
apricot fruit spread (2-4 tablespoons)
Mix black beans in food processor first, for a few seconds. Next add in the brown rice and puree it for about 10 seconds. Next, add the vegetables. Then, add fruit spread. Mix until chunky or pureed.

I'll try to make as much as I can and I'll pour the pureed/chunky food in muffin or cupcake tinfoil and then freeze them. So all I have to do is thaw them out or microwave them for her lunch and dinner. That way I don't have to make food for her daily.

Her favorite right now is the black bean delight. It looks pretty disgusting, but she loves it. She is used to the brown rice flavor because I have fed her pureed brown rice since she was six months old. She hated the gerber rice cereal stuff, although I only tried once to feed it to her.

I bathed Abrisa outside today. We got her a blow up kiddie pool for her birthday (it's tiny). So, since it was soooo nice outside, I got her naked and put her in it. I figured hose water might be a little chilly, so I had Shaff bring pitchers of warm water to the baby pool. It took about 8 trips to fill it even half full. I thought I'd go ahead and bathe her since she was in a pool of water and enjoying herself, so Shaff brought me the shampoo/soap and she got all lathered up. I felt like a weirdo after I imagined someone walking by and thinking, 'What in the heck is that lady doing?....washing her baby outside?....what a weirdo!' Oh well, it was fun.


Well, it was a fun weekend. Filled with baby food making, baseball (as usual), and backyard bathing beauties!

Bloggin' it up AGAIN

I've decided to return to my blog. The old posts are from when I was pregnant, so you can read them or not, your choice. But know they are not recent....they are from Abrisa...so don't go thinkin' that I'm pregnant again! I decided to blog again because I read several blogs, especially a lot of which the writers have young kiddos. I think it would be really neat one day to show these blogs to their children....because of funny pictures, stories, etc. So I'm going to try it out. We'll see if it lasts. Sometimes I get big ideas and start doing something and stop. Obviously you can see that, since I started this blog a while ago and then just stopped. I guess I do have an excuse, I had a baby. Wish me luck! I also don't know how intersting or exciting our life is...I mean, it's kinda the ole run of the mill, normal, not very wild life.
I think it would be really funny if someone started a blog and told wild and crazy and hilarious stories about their life and then come to find out, they were all lies. Just made up stories to get people to read their blog. Maybe I'll do that. So now you'll never know if I'm lying or telling the truth. Although, lying is wrong....but if Im typing it, is it really lying??? ...probably.

....So, we bought a house. An older home and fixed it up to our liking. It was really fun, but a lot of annoying things happened in the process as well. Like, we moved during baseball season, so I pretty much had to pack and unpack our entire home by myself. I'm awesome. I had to have a lot of random men come into the house and fix things...I saw several butt-cracks. Pretty neat! I had one guy tell me a completely inappropritate story as we are both standing in my bathroom, which is an awkward place to be in the first place. Let's face it, you're naked in there, you go to the bathroom in there, you shower. There's a lot of personal stuff that goes on in a bathroom. Before he told me this inappropriate story, which is too inappropriate to share here, he asked me if I was religious. I gave my response and he still thought it was a great idea to proceed with this little bit of weirdness. After he told it, I said, "that's pretty gross" and I walked out of the bathroom and straight to the front door. I said, "thanks, i'll let you know". He wanted to know if he offended me. I said, "i'm fine. thanks. i'll let you know if i need your services. see ya". Idiot!!!