The Daffodils Are in Bloom

With all this beautiful weather, our daffodils have started blooming!

Serena's 8 months old today!!! Unbelievable, huh?! Rather than gushing on and on about how wonderful she is, I think I'll try to sum it up with a few adjectives: busy, nosy, exuberant, loud, excitable, cute, observant, kissable, and definitely lovable! :)

Playing with Daddy

Getting a big squeeze! Serena was having fun playing with her hacky sack from Guatemala that Aunt Jessie gave her

Macy is REALLY REALLY jealous of the hacky sack

Jordan tried to distract Macy with a tennis ball. It didn't really work. She is OBSESSED with the hacky sack and is always VERY AWARE of its location.

In other news, Serena is getting very adept at pulling herself up on things other than the side of her crib. This evening, she pulled herself up on the coffee table and reached immediately for the SWITCH BLADE KNIFE from Guatemala that Aunt Jessie gave to Jordan! Oh boy. I had a freaking-out-protective-mom-moment ("We can't have things like that just lying around!") and Jordan had a proud-dad-moment ("Did you see that? She reached right for the knife!").

The last couple days have also been punctuated with lots of new noises from Serena. "Da-da," "ma-ma," "la-la" and "ba-ba." She is still just as excitable as ever, and her ear-piercing screams can be heard from anywhere in the house...or store......or church. :P

Snapshots

Serena is really good at getting up on all fours. She practices it constantly, but she still drops to her belly when she's ready to move forward. But I'm thinking it won't be long till she's crawling on all fours, though!

Happy face

"Come down here and play with me!"

Pretty Day Outside

As you can see, it was very nice out today!

Naptime and Playtime

Cute Snuggler...and Another Poop Story

Yes, yet ANOTHER poop story.

And the only reason I tell it is because it will probably be repeated in years to come and I want to make sure we get it right. That is the ONLY reason I tell it. Not because I want sympathy. Or admiration for my skills at removing poop from carpet and clothing. And DEFINITELY not because I enjoy writing about poop (usually) or because I think you guys enjoy reading about poop. (Do you?)

This evening, Jordan got home from a day in Iowa City and since he'd had pizza for lunch said he wasn't really hungry for any supper. I, on the other hand, was rather hungry; so I got out the fixings for a good ol' cheese quesadilla - complete with medium salsa and fresh chopped cilantro. I put Serena down to play in the dining room and got to work on my dinner. All of a sudden, Serena started making a lot of what I call her 'complaining' noises. It sounds like a whiny 'nnnnn' (...I know, shocker that sweet, happy Serena could EVER sound whiny!). So, thinking she'd crawled into some corner and couldn't figure out how to turn around or something, I peeked in on her. There she was, still sitting right where I'd left her, and there was this pile of I-didn't-even-want-to-know-what a couple inches behind her. I dropped my bag of cilantro on the floor and warily approached my poopy baby as I shouted things like Ewwww! and Gross! and You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! About that time, Macy came trotting in to investigate the commotion, spied the pile of poop, and (maybe thinking it was just a super-sized pile of oddly-colored spit-up?) rushed over and...yep, YOU GUESSED IT...started licking it up as fast as she could. (I know, you're thinking you didn't really need to know that detail. But you did, because otherwise the story wouldn't be quite as memorable.) I had my hands full trying to keep the squirming poop-monster from painting her poop on me, so I called out to Jordan to get his dog to quit eating the poop. Macy was banished to the outdoors while Serena received her second full bath of the day and her clothes joined yesterday's jammies (which had suffered a similar fate) soaking in the sink. I did eventually get back to the poop pile in the dining room and managed to get that stain out of the carpet. :P So far, Macy has seemed none the worse for her poop snack. Jordan watched a very happy ex-poopy baby for me while I finally got back to my cilantro and supper. Overall, the rest of the evening was quite uneventful after the big poop. In retrospect, I almost wish (ALMOST) that I had seen the poop happen. I mean, seriously, how does a baby end up with poop going UP the back of her shirt and a little poop on the waistband of her pants, but then a BIG PILE of poop a couple inches behind her?! It must have been quite a spectacular sight. My mind is conjuring up images of Old Faithful.

Cute lil' pooper hanging out on the couch with Daddy watching March Madness

I just included this picture because I think that expression looks so much like some of Jordan's baby pictures!!! Cute!

Thirty-Second Thursday

An Afternoon with Serena & Macy

The Tennis Ball Edition

Again, we're a bit on the long side today, but I had SUCH a hard time cutting it down to this!!! If you knew all the cute footage I have and DON'T include, you'd give me some credit for managing to make these videos as short as I do! ;)

Is She Not Adorable?!

Devouring the Written Word...Literally

Bumbo Time

Serena thinks it's SO funny when I put something on her head (i.e., a blankie) and she pulls it off! I think you can almost hear her squeal in the center picture! ;)

Covering Ground

Serena is such a busy little girl! She is never still!

Playtime with Mommy

"Where's Serena? Where's Serena? There she is!"

She gives Mommy big smiles!

Tired. Must have Pepsi!

A very tired baby

She is playing with some of the souvenirs Jessica brought back for us from Guatemala - a hacky sack and a scarf

Uh oh! SOMEBODY got caught getting into Grammie's stash of Diet Pepsi!!

Mmmmm! Shhh...don't tell!

Thirty-Second Thursday

Once again, I have a long-ish video. A minute and 45 seconds. Sorry! :P

In the first bit, Serena babbles and shows off one of her latest tricks where she rubs her hand in front of her mouth to make noises. She started doing that about a week ago. Before that, we would use our fingers to do a 'motor mouth' sort of thing on her mouth, and then one day she figured out she could do it herself! When we went to church on Saturday night, she was showing off her trick to everyone there after church and as we were standing there (us and 2 or 3 other families), I suddenly came to the realization that almost everyone was doing it back at her! It was a really funny sight! Oh the things we'll do to entertain a baby!

In the rest of the video, Serena plays with her favorite doll. You can see how EXCITED she gets about it! It's really funny! She just can hardly contain herself when she sees that doll!

Our Pink St Pattie's Baby

Well, I DID have Serena dressed in her cute green onesie - the one with the big flowers on it - but, you guessed it, she had a BLOWOUT! Little booger! She seriously had more poop on her outfit than in her diaper. So, into the pink outfit she went and we decked it out with some green beads and socks. :)

First Spankings

I'm not sure what she did to deserve the spankings...maybe just being too cute? Anyway, it looks like it wasn't too horrible of an experience! :)

Serena's Excited Face

Lately Serena has been really into squealing about things. She has this one doll that she squeals about every time she sees her. Sometimes she just squeals randomly about nothing in particular and loves it if you squeal back at her.

She was very excited about whatever-it-was that Jordan was doing when I took this picture

Over the Border

Up till now, I would leave Serena in the dining room and she would stay on the carpet in the dining room/front room. If she came to the doorway to the kitchen, she would stop and just pat the tile floor or something. Tonight, she crossed the border and began scooting across the kitchen floor to find me! When I finally picked her up, her little belly was cold from being on the tile!

Tonight after the service at church, I handed Serena off to Jordan and went to use the bathroom. When I got back, I saw that she was pretty content with Jordan as he was talking to another guy, so I went to talk to some of my friends. Several minutes later, it dawned on me that Jordan was now up at the front of the church helping with take down/set up...without Serena. A quick scan of the auditorium revealed Serena sitting a couple pews behind me surrounded by four 12-13 year old girls! They were having fun playing with her and she was in her element with all that attention she was getting! She even made eye contact with me and still made no efforts to get to me! It was just an "Oh, hi, Mom" look with none of the usual "I NEED TO GET TO YOU ASAP!!!" look/gesturing/vocalizing that usually accompanies those moments. It was nice and a little weird at the same time to carry on a conversation without having to handle her busy little body at the same time! I had another empty-arms moment last night when Jordan took us to the mall. He took Serena in the stroller the whole time we were there, and I shopped BY MYSELF for the first time in 7 1/2 months! It was a weird feeling! I kept thinking I was forgetting something, haha!

Play Time

Serena is FASCINATED by our computer power cords. She scoots across the floor SO quickly to get them! Thankfully, she's not interested in the outlet yet, just the cord; but I'm sure it's only a matter of time! Gotta get some outlet covers! :P

Serena was such a busy little thing playing on the living room floor tonight. She seems to be trying to figure out how to crawl on all fours, but she's still not quite there yet. She just played with her pile of toys and then all of a sudden would remember the computer cord and race over there...only to be picked up by Mom just as she reached out her chubby little hand for that cord. Then it was back to the toys until it crossed her mind again! Haha!

Thirty-Second Thursday

Serena gives out kisses now!!!

The Red Coat

Swinging

Another Day...and Another Blowout

Today started out pretty normally. I awakened to Jordan's alarm clock, but stayed in bed since Serena was not yet awake. She was still sound asleep next to me, her left arm stretched above her head; her right arm resting where it had found my arm earlier in the morning when she had started to stir and had quickly fallen back asleep after being reassured of my presence. About 10 or 15 minutes later, I woke from my doze to the sound of the shower and Serena rooting around for me. I turned to nurse her and dozed until Serena started announcing her readiness for the morning with her squeals, spitting, and other baby noises. I stayed in bed to enjoy her fun mood for a while before getting up. My morning routine is basically always the same: Get out of bed and build a pillow fortress around Serena. Then, brush my teeth and put in my contacts (I cannot function until my contacts are in!). Next, I take Serena into her room to change her diaper before we head downstairs for breakfast. Usually about an hour and a half to two hours after she first woke up, Serena is ready for her morning nap. Today was no different. I changed her diaper, making a mental note that I was putting her last diaper cover on her so it would probably be a good idea to wash diapers while she napped. We went downstairs and I got some breakfast for myself. I put Serena down to play in the dining room and I went to check my email. After about 15 minutes, Serena's tone changed to the "I'm lonely" sound, so I went in to play with her. As soon as I sat down next to her, I caught a whiff of that diaper. Oh boy. My mind instantly started thinking about when the last time was that she had pooped. Three days? Four? Maybe FIVE?! This is going to be a big one! Sure enough, she had once again worked her pooping magic. The cover contained it, but was not going to be able to be reused until it had been washed. Of course, Serena's flailing feet managed to get in it, and somehow it ended up on her jammies too. You'd think after 7 months of changing her explosive poopy diapers that I would have figured out a way to keep the poop from getting on her feet and clothes! But NooOOO! I probably only manage 'clean' poopy diaper changes about 30% of the time. These every-few-day poopings definitely have their pros and cons! Anyway, so that is how Serena came to be wearing nothing but a disposable diaper for this morning's photo shoot! She was in a delightful mood for it though...apparently feeling great after cleaning out her bowels so thoroughly. ;) Oh, and if you look closely, you can see her face-painting is still kinda there. I tried washing it off last night, only to find that it was stained. We'll see how long that lasts, haha! She just looks like she has a rosy dot on her cheek, since the pink stands out more than the blue!

First Face-Painting

This afternoon, Serena and I went to KidsFest. It was in the Varied Industries building at the State Fairgrounds. Jordan was running a booth there for his company, so that was the main reason we went. :) He had worked there for most of the day yesterday, too, and I guess it was much busier then. Today the crowds were pretty manageable, and we were able to look at the booths without feeling too overwhelmed. Serena loves being in situations like that where there are lots and lots of people for her to look at. She was so happy the whole time, especially if anyone took the time to talk to her! When I was walking up to Jordan's booth, I wondered if Serena would be able to pick him out and recognize him in the crowd, and she definitely did! It was so cute how she lit up when she saw him up ahead! Later, I took her to a booth to get her face painted before we left. She was too interested in the girl who was doing the painting to actually sit very still, but somehow we managed to get something on her cheek that at least somewhat resembled a flower, haha! :)

I didn't think to bring my camera to KidsFest, so I took a picture when we got home. By that time, Serena was fast asleep...no doubt exhausted from all the excitement!

I asked the girl to paint a flower that matched her dress. Pretty good, huh? I think it's SO CUTE!!! :D

Blue Bear

We went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant last night and the waitresses just loved Serena. The girl who waited on our table kept coming over to play with her. It was a little weird, since we were having a conversation and she kept coming over and talking to Serena, but anyway. What are you going to say? "Umm, please leave our baby alone. We're trying to talk." ???? ;) When we left, they gave her this cute little blue bear, which was really sweet!

It's so cute how babies 'study' things. Serena always looks them over carefully until she finds the tag. Apparently that's the best part!

My heart melts like butter when I see that little baby-thing coming toward me!!!

Time for a Walk

This week the weather has finally warmed up. And by "warmed up" I mean it's been getting above 32 degrees. This is very exciting since we haven't had temperatures that warm since November, I think! The snow is rapidly melting, and it is truly a wonderful thing! Macy and I are suffering from spring fever, so I've been bundling Serena up in the afternoons to take walks this week. It's been nice and sunny, so it feels really good to be out and get some fresh air!

Serena is so funny in her snowsuit. She can hardly move! It's so cute!

Thirty-Second Thursday

Two videos for today. The first one is of Jordan and Serena playing with a ball the other night. Serena was all giggles, so of course we got the camera out!

The second video is just a bunch of cute moments from today:

My Happy Thing

Although it's been warming up to above freezing for the last 3 days, it still gets really cold at night...hence the ugly blankets on our bed. Looking at this picture makes me think I should really work on getting some new blankets. :P I'm sure you all were so distracted by that sweet happy face that you didn't even notice the ugly blankets until I mentioned it, huh? ;)

Having a Ball

Gettin' Around