Weekly Update 11.08.09

Hi! I've been ignoring you. No, but really. I've been busy, and Scott doesn't bother to help with the updating (ahem nudge nudge elbow nudge pointy finger), sooooooo. Yeah. No update-y for awhile.


Small recap of last week, as I officially give up on doing these suckers on time: we both did the usual, worked. Um, and I guess there was Election Day. Oh, but it was a thrilling week as if you can't tell.


On Friday I had wine & cheese night with the KC Cooking Club girls, we have not gotten together in ages. And I needed it, badly - oh my gosh, you mean I get to wash the baby barf out of my hair and put on real-pants-not-yoga-stretchy-pants and enjoy some lovely cheeses and wines and grown-up real person discussions? Yesssssss! That was much needed, folks. And a million thank-yous to my darling sweet husband, who did the baby wrangling all night for me as well as acted as my personal chauffeur. I knew I married that guy for a reason.


We had our belated anniversary dinner on Saturday night, spent the evening downtown with dinner at Pachamama's and some dessert/nightcap at Ingredient's I-Bar.


Funny story - so we head to the I-Bar, thinking that they had this nice fondue and we knew they had wine to go with. So we get there, realize the "fondue" is not quite real fondue, but whatever. We're there, they have nice cushy couches and are dimly lit, we'll go with it. The guy at the counter tells us that their Saturday special is $6 wines, then gives us the list. I tell him I want a Cab, Scott orders a Reisling... And the guys looks at us as if we are taping an episode of Intervention*. Dudes: it was six bucks PER BOTTLE. What?!? So we went with the red and settled our dress-shirt-and-tie and black-dress selves into our squooshy seats on a couch. And could not. stop. laughing. Um, it certainly tasted like $6 per bottle wine, but hey. Still! Six bucks! The whole bottle! It's like it's 1985 around here. We are so obviously living life in a college town, dudes.


And that's about it. We'll leave you with some pictures, as we all know that's all that a few people come here for.


Oh! Wait, yeah, the kid. Well, he's stopping chattering and instead has taken up making nothing but an "MMMMMMMMMMMM!" noise. He's very vocal, it's just with his lips clamped shut. Odd, odd boy.


Also, in the bless-the-lord-for-all-his-miracles department: he's only getting up once, maybe twice a night. Saturday night he didn't do so hot, got up a lot, but otherwise it's been smooth sailing. It's weird how refreshing 4 straight hours of sleep can be.

* Okay so I know Intervention is supposed to be this serious show about addiction. But my all-time favorite episode is the one where Allison is addicted to huffing. Not just huffing, but huffing computer duster spray. Oh, but she is walking on sunshine! Look out for the Po-Po! I laughed through that entire episode. Mean but true.

Okay on to the bebe.

Weekly Check In 11.01.09

A great rarity occurred this weekend - for the first time in several weeks, we did not have to travel, we had no visitors, no parties or dates with friends. Just us. Bliss.

I am not going to lie, it wasn't exactly news-worthy. This will be a boring post. In the wee hours when Peter got up, I dragged him into our bed and then we all slept in every morning. I caught up on housework and Scott got the yard raked and half-mowed. Peter got back on a great nap schedule and did better at night.

We got in a few nice walks (the weather, it has been beautiful. BEEE-YOU-TIFUL). We played in the yard. Just kinda enjoyed things.

Saturday we got out and did some things, it being Halloween and all. Long long ago (think: August), I bought his Halloween costume. I found an ice cream cone bunting online and wanted to get it before it sold out. I tried it on him a few times while he was still small, and he really seemed to enjoy it. I thought I was so smart for getting it out of the way early, before the cool costumes sold out.

Fast-forward to about a week ago, during a costume dress rehearsal:

Yeah he hated it. Hated. It. But I looooved it! And I really, really, really didn't want to get some other last-minute, mass-produced thing from Old Navy.


Did I ever tell you that the bright side to a constant night-waker baby is that I have all my great ideas at night, and can then remember them? So about 3am one night (morning?) I had a lightbulb moment - when we put him in the Bjorn, Peter never gets wiggle-wormy, and hangs out like a champ. Hmmm.

It worked like a charm. I stuffed some quilt batting around his legs and a bit on top of his head, and it was perfectly filled out. And off we went, to the Downtown Trick or Treat. I think this will be our regular gig every year, it was so much fun. We just walked the outside perimeter this time (it's cheating collecting candy for a 4-month-old, right?), and it still took over an hour. We got stopped, a lot. We had our picture taken. The costume was definitely a hit. Even the (city-block-long) burrito line of college girls squealed over Peter as we went by.

After that we headed back home. Peter visited the neighbors, then I started the bath and bottle and bedtime. Scott ran out to grab us a Jack-O-Lantern pizza, and spent the rest of the night handing out candy... to our one measely door-knock. Um, yeah we have "one of those" neighborhoods. Ah well, we still luff it here.

On the food front - Peter loves his cereal and he now loves his oatmeal too, and the chunkier the better on both. Total texture baby. We thought maybe we'd start on veggies, so I sent some green beans through the baby food mill.

We absolutely do not like green beans. There was like a slow dropping of the spoonful from his mouth while he made a yucky face, and then very theatrically started with the gagging noises. It was pretty awesome.

What a faker. Next we try peas.

Happy Halloween!

Scott and I met in college, at the ice cream store where we both worked.

Ironically, we also are both incredibly addicted to the stuff. Ice cream is not something we generally keep in the freezer because neither of us have any self-control with it. We just go out for a cone when we want it. Which is a lot.

The day I had Peter, we were at the hospital early early in the morning, 5am. One of the questions was "what was the last thing you ate?". I bet you can guess the two words I chirped to the nurse in response.

Ice cream. It has a history in our house. So the choice of costume this year was a no brainer.

Happy Halloween, my pets!

I'm getting something leather, right?

Happy happy annivesary, my darling. Just think, it was 3 short years ago at this very moment that we were both having silent-yet-very-public nervous breakdowns because OMG EVERYONE IS STARING AT USSSSSSSS, MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP. That had to be, hands down, the most stressful, longest, hour-ish time period of my life.

I still think you were worth it, though.

ps - way more pics posted last year, when I had a whole hell of a lot more time on my hands.

What??

Okay for those who don't know what I meant by the Patrick Swayze comment in the last update (because seriously like whaaaaa...? One of the best roles in history? No but reallllllly??).

Anyway. Hopefully this video jogs your memory.

Peace out.

Roll out the barrel...

Bad mommy alert.

I think I might have forgotten to maybe recognize a tiny milestone here at the Mueller household. We, ah, have movement.

Oh, but not of the scooting or crawling kind. Instead, our dear boy has decided to pick up the fine art of barrel-rolling. Daycare alerted us of this feat first, when I came to pick him up one night Peter was playing with a toy near the door. "He started out over there" she said, and pointed to an area well into the depths of her house. I laughed because I figured she was joking. I mean, come on. Then she informed me that he rolls the entire way. Well, that would make sense...

That evening I put him on his mat to play and stepped back a bit. And sure enough - tentative for sure, but he rolls, then looks around, then may decide to change direction (which he does by scooting with his feet), then rolls again... Hilarious. It is a fun kind of movement because it's slow, and we really don't have to do much baby-proofing for this.

Or so I tell myself. In this picture - he is laughing, right? And then a few minutes later he bonked his head when he rolled into the kitchen cabinets.

And here - he had changed direction and rolled into the pantry, into a growler, knocking it down like a bowling ball hitting a bowling pin.

Fun times. Oh - and I'm totally back-dating this so it pops up in the correct order in time. I'm only off by a few days, I pinky swear.

Weekend Update 10.25.09

My work is doing their usual “Celebrate Walktober” thing this month (it’s a “get healthy!” program where you are asked to go for a walk every day in October, or at least as often as possible). Weather cooperating, I try to take Peter out for a walk in the evenings. It’s been pretty rainy and chilly here this October, though, so it hasn’t always panned out... When we are able to walk, Peter usually zonks out in the Bjorn before we get home (man, he loves that thing. Best money ever spent). Here’s how he is usually deposited when we get back:




When I try to get him back to sleep the bazillion times he wakes in the middle of the night, the slightest shift in weight startles him wide awake. And yet - constant jostling and being plunked face-down on our (smother-tastic down-covered) bed doesn’t faze him in the least. Kids are so weird.


Peter also had a dr. appt. this past week. His weight and height are in the 50th percentile, the doctor proclaimed him “perfectly normal”. I personally would like to take this moment to let that sink in for all those people who think our baby is huge or “so heavy!” or whatever. Because yeah guess what, naw. He isn’t. I think that is just going to be a permanent by-product of having a big newborn and I need to get used to it. Not like there is anything wrong with big babies mind you, as far as I’m concerned the chubbier the better. But it’s still a little odd to have people constantly commenting on a normal-sized baby as “hulking, and huge, a little linebacker, etc.”. Maybe that's supposed to be a compliment because he's a boy, I don't know...


I also made my weight in cupcakes this week, all for the love of Jules. I told her I’d make desserts for her Halloween party, and with 50+ RSVPed that meant lots of baking. I made buttermilk cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream for the kiddos, and Tiramisu cupcakes for the grown people. And then I threw in some pumpkin whoopie pies for good measure, because who doesn't love a whoopie pie? Hopefully, they all ended up happily in peoples’ tummies. There were a lot of delectable desserts on that buffet table…


And then there was Friday. Scott and I took off work, so we could hang out with Aimee et al. on her last full day in Kansas. We met them at The Legends for lunch at T Rex, then had to hustle back to Lawrence to take pictures of all of the cousins (because hey guess what, the Kemmeter Curse of Lateness struck once again and no one made it up here until 1pm and then we had to rush and eat and dash back to Lawrence, but it was still a lot of fun anyway). Anyhoo. Will post a link to the photos whenever it’s available so everyone can check them out, 'kay?

Saturday we went to a Halloween party. It was all for the kiddos (well, except for the fancy "mommy only" cider) and it was so much fun! I love to see all the wee ones dressed up in costumes. Our dear little man has an As Yet Unannounced costume but I knew he wouldn't like it too much for this shindig (it's a bunting and he can hardly move in it), so we did the next best thing. We dressed him up as his idol, Patrick Swayze. The Chippendale SNL Patrick Swayze, to be more exact. Um yeah it was pretty bad ass.

And how is the boy doing these days, really? Ah, he's fine. Still lovin' the cereal, in fact we're thinking of adding some oatmeal to that diet in the near future (I KNOW SO EXCITING). He still sucks at sleeping through the night, but has had a yucky cough lately so I don't blame him too much for getting up a million times. He'll get it eventually, and to be honest while the exhaustion is a Total Suck I kinda like getting up with him. We keep NPR on all night in his room so we usually groove to some jazz and listen to news bits and I think about things like wow - someday, I'll think back on this and it will seem like it was all a daydream. So I rock him and he snuggles and even though it's 3am and we're up for the 3rd time, I appreciate it a wee bit.

He is such a sweet baby, with chunky thighs and chub-cheeks and goofy mooooooo noises and funny faces, whose whole face lights up just because I happened to move into his field of vision. My little man, my sunshine baby. Thank goodness for Scott's happy genes is all I have to say. This kid got them in spades.




That's it for me this week - check ya later.

Totally Different. But Maybe A Little The Same.

So, just for fun, a picture of me as a babe:



And the Pete Monster:



Yeah? So maybe the eyes, you think? Something, anything, hmm?? At least I can take comfort in the fact that he got his finger-sucking from me.

At the Park with the Kemmeters!

As I promised, more park pictures. Enjoy!