Pssst! It's me!

Dearest readers (of whom I like to think I have and appreciate greatly!),
We've been on hiatus over here, visiting family and getting weird sun burns (For serious, who burns a stripe on to their forehead? Certainly not me). We'll be wrapping up our 10ish(I think?) day visit this weekend. I have oodles to share when we get back including munchkin's first trip to the beach! *Spoiler alert--wardrobe changes were involved. Don't judge.
So if you're a sucker for adorable beach bum baby pictures and tales of unbelievable sales, stick around :)

--the person in charge around here
....who still can't believe she's in charge of a mini person
(Seriously, who decided that was ok?)

Boiling duckies and assorted good(and not so good)ness

Okay, good stuff first--so much exciting stuff going on this week!
April 16th--in addition to being my favorite Minnesota man's FIRST birthday (Happy birthday, Charlie Doodlebug!), today my nugget is precisely 10 weeks old. 10 weeks!!! It's crazy, she seems so much older. My chub-a-lub is always alert and checking out the world, whipping around her crazy strong neck, trying not to miss a thing. If I put my palm under her little feets when I'm holding her, she stands herself up and gives me a "Hey mama, get a load of this!!" face. I die. And I need to get pictures of all these fancy tricks!  She has discovered the mirror and she loves checking herself out. This past week we spent a lot of time at my sister's house (she was busy rocking a home birth, bringing my new little nephew into the world. Nah bigs.). She has mirror closet doors in her bedroom and Scarlett could not get enough of them. I think she was a little disappointed when we came home to our much less mirrored apartment. Sorry, baby girl. Since we've been back home the weather has been glorious, so afternoon walks have definitely been in order! Scarlett loves to look at trees so our walks usually involve me splitting time between narrating the trees and cracking up at her reactions. *Sigh* so. much. cute.

my adorable Little Hip Squeak!

the focus is waaay off (still figuring out my fancy camera) but come on, could she be more cute?!

Now, maaaaajor buzzkill (*salute* Major Buzzkill), we are in the middle of a trifecta of misery. A shitstorm, if you will. As I wrote before, thrush has reared it's ugly head, once again. It's hard to believe that we've been fighting this for almost 8 f-ing weeks now, 6 weeks officially diagnosed. Pretty much her whole little life. EW. My sister's lovely midwife took some time to talk to us about it and her opinion was that one or both of us is dealing with a systemic condition.  Aaaand I'm inclined to agree after doing more research. So basically, I'm on an intense diet and probiotic regimen for the next six weeks that requires me to basically go full-on Paleo. What. Le. Fuck? How the hell does a former vegan do a complete 180 and go Paleo? I guess like this: no carbs, no sugar (including fruit. I might go crazy.), no dairy except plain yogurt, no starchy vegetables. I'd say I need a drink, but those are out of the question too. It's scrambled eggs, salad & veggies, lean meats and tuna on bell peppers for days. And water and green tea like crazy. Ef that shit This should be fun..?

Fun stuff, for reals (sorta): Scarlett loves her little Wubbanub ducky. (Mr. Ducky to us. We're super creative with toy names around here.) Anyways, I realllly needed to blow torch the hell out of the thing til all the thrush on it died boil it, but I couldn't figure out how to do it with out destroying the duck part.
That is, until I actually pulled out the pot:

hehehe clever

just hanging out to dry

This had me and Eric quite entertained last night

But wait, there's more! I said TRIfecta, people.
In addition to thrush, we haaaaave.....teething.

I know, right? In my perfect little world, a 10 week old has NO business teething, but apparently, my 10 week old does.
Scarlett has some chompers coming in and I hate what they're doing to her--grumps galore, fussy from the pain and refusing to nap for more than 15 minutes. My poor baby is so tired and just cannot catch a break.

And, just for funsies, we have (I'm pretty sure) a growth spurt that decided to show up early.
Thrush. Teething. Growth Spurt. Why?
So basically, my baby's mouth is raging, but all she wants to do is eat for ages at a time. It's making her soooo tired but all the discomfort is keeping her awake.

In 6 weeks, there is a shot of tequila with my name on it.
Grumpy, uncomfortable, poor baby.
Frazzled, sleepy, hungry mommy.
Check, please.
Hoping the rest of the week is kinder to my sweet babe!

Why yesterday sucked and yesterday was awesome.

So yesterday started out nah-so-hot. Baby girl woke up at 4. Okay, different from our usual 5, but no big deal. Then she looked at  me with a look that said, "Hey mama, guess what? I don't want to sleep this morning!" Ugh. After fruitlessly trying to get this nugget back to sleep, I gave up around 5:45, flipped on the lights and grabbed the rattle for some playtime. After fussing for an hour, her little face lit up into a huge gummy smile. How can you be mad when you have big ol' eyes smiling at you saying, "Oh thank you, mama! I just want to play!" So what started out crappy got cute pretty fast.

Once Eric woke up, I handed her off to make breakfast. I was talking to him from the kitchen when we realized she was following our whole conversation like a ping pong match. Seriously, hilarious! We tried to keep talking, but we couldn't stop laughing.

Throughout the day, Miss Thing decided she was also anti-nap. Her little routine she usually falls into is something like: up for the day between 7:30 and 9, 45 minute cat nap an hour and a half after waking up, play for 2 hours, looooong afternoon nap (like, 3, sometimes 4 hours), cat nap, bed. Nothing doin'. It was 30 minute cat naps all the way. Basically as soon as I thought she was good and asleep, I'd put her down and *BING* wide awake. Needless to say, not much got done around the apartment.

Then, fit hit the shan again--guess who's back? (back again)
Thrush. Ew. We've been clear for over a week! Almost two! Nope. It's back and all over my baby's upper lip. Soooooo basically, Smurf mouth has made a comeback.

Later on we took a walk and Eric was telling me a story about work. Scarlett was chilling in the Ergo, hanging on his every word. Like, eyes bugging out (even more than usual), glued to his face with a "What happens next, Daddy?!!!" face. Again, we tried to keep talking but we couldn't stop laughing. This kid is just so adorably nosy!

These eyes! I melt.

But then it was bath time, and Scarlett has figured out....the splash! Oh yeah, it's cuteness overload! She gets so excited and froggy kicks a frenzy. Sure, Mama was soaked afterwards, but it was totally worth it. I love watching her figure out her likes and dislikes, and bath time is a big, fat LIKE.

So yeah, add all this in with a great 2 month check up the day before (officially 12lbs. and 24 freakin inches long! 90th and 95th percentiles, respectively. Yeeeaaahhh buddy.) We had a pretty happy crummy day.

You wanna do something fun?

I had a baby.
My body looks like I had a baby.
It's funny, I thought that fact would be a bit more....traumatic. Before this babe, I always had (everybody's favorite) that extra five-ish pounds to lose. Legitimately, not in a Regina George "I really wanna lose 3lbs." sort of way.
And I have to admit, I got pretty lucky. Most of my pregnancy cravings were for fruit, so I didn't gain too much and breastfeeding brought me back to my pre-prego size (not a number to write home about in the first place) in a few weeks. No all-carb diets needed. But daaayummm things have changed. That's right--a TWO syllable damn. That's when you know, (all together now) shit is real.
What the hell is with the hips I now have on my box-y body? My stomach looks...sad. No really, if you look at it just right, I'm pretty sure you could see a saggy sad face in there. And, let us not forget, the crowning glory, le stretchmarks. No, they don't make me feel "womanly empowered" or like a "tiger" or warm and fuzzy or any crap like that. They make me feel like I have stretch marks. They're there. I've got 'em, and anyone who says I should love them, I've got two words for you:

Yeah, things are, shall we say, scary as all hell different, and I'm actually fine with it. I thought the whole "losing my body" thing would be more devastating but I really just don't have time to be devastated. Sure I try to watch what I eat (not at baby showers on yesterday afternoons where cupcakes and cookies abound, but let's not go there). I sneak in some crunches and cardio whenever I can, but I'm not even able to obsess over it like my silly (and pretty damn fit) former self. I'm working on it, but I've got a squishy baby to obsess over and I don't want to waste this precious short time staring at my scale. I don't have to like it (I'm looking at you, stretchmarks), but I can, in a weird way, appreciate it. I look in the mirror and say, "You grew a sturdy, almost 9lb. baby! Good job, you."

So muffin top be damned! I should be doing my ab circuit right now, but I've got a snuggle bunny sleeping on my chest and I have no intention of moving her.

P.S.--ten points and a high five to whoever can finish the quote in the title.

Happy Easter!

$5 bunny ears from Costplus=pure gold and entertainment for days!
I can't get enough of my beautiful bunny. And how bout that growth spurt chub?!

Happy Easter and God bless!

11pm thoughts at 8am

Scarlett loves Easy A.

Aaaaand the parenting fails begin.
Baby girl hates tummy time. A lot. Last night I put her down, ready for the meltdown. She popped up, looked past me to the movie behind me and gave our TV a big ol' smile for a good 10 minutes. Thanks, Emma Stone, for making my baby enjoy her daily workout.

Morning books and tunes--this is after a tummy time meltdown, hence frowny face.

I seriously need to stop stalking Baby Gap/Old Navy. It's a problem. Scarlett and I go wishful shopping at least once a day week. (You know. Load up your online cart with everything your little heart desires, look at the grand total, say "Well that sucks," and move on to your next activity. If you say you don't do it, you're lying.) Anyways, the summer lines are coming out and the last thing I need to do is drool over chambray ruffled rompers and floral sundresses.....because occasionally I break. And end up buying said chambray ruffled romper. And convince myself it'll go in her Easter basket. You know, sometimes. Not last week or anything. Shut up.

HGTV--(noun) a TV network that sucks in the first time home buyer and causes them to obsess over potential DIY projects and decorating and faux exposed brick back splashes
   --For similar effects, see: "Ikea" and "Crate & Barrel"

Our shrimp has officially been sleeping through the night for 2 weeks now. No schedule or anything like that, I just gave her a simple bed time routine and apparently it's working. Pretty fancy trick for a 6 week old to pull off. Even better to keep it up for 2 weeks. Mama appreciates it. Good job, kid! Hopefully it lasts.

Unexpected shit I bought this week: Maple flavoring??? Damn it, Pinterest.

I actually worked out today. It was pitiful, but it was something. We'll see how I feel tomorrow since last week I did, like, 40 crunches and was sore the next day. Good times.

Eric sings the Rubber Ducky song from Sesame Street to Scarlett during bath time. It's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever heard.

We have a double chin, neck rolls, tummy chub and thunder thighs--woot woot! Growth spurts are the craziest things ever. We're on the tail end of my nugget's 6 week growth spurt and I swear, in a 3 hour nap, her thighs doubled in size. So much chub! I'm dying of cuteness.

I got Eric to try the Moby wrap. I don't think he'll ever be the same again:

Somebody's sucked in

And last, but not least--we are officially on the move! Pre-approval is underway and the realtor is hunting. We've been talking about it for a year and a half, and it's finally time, I hope. Fingers crossed that it works out cuz Lord knows our budget is slim for the area we're looking at. Another reason to stop watching so much HGTV--it's positively painful/nauseating to see the 6 bedroom mansions we could afford in other states. If only we liked San Antonio.....

bedebedebde that's all folks.

Play it cool, baby!

So yesterday we made it out of the house. Eric was home and I needed to make a return and I wanted to go to Kohl's, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway! I was super excited to just be out of the house so I suggested that, since our shrimp was still in a good mood, we go walk around the mall. Just for funsies. So we got there and I got Scarlett all Moby-ed up. We didn't plan on being there long so I decided not to tote around the diaper bag.

Wehlllllll, we got as far as Old Navy (basically, not very far) and my growth-spurting girl decided that she must eat. NOW. My nursing cover was in the car. Ugh. I figured since there was no line and it didn't seem busy, I could get a "dressing room" and just feed her real quick. I grabbed a couple shirts that I was obviously going to try on. by myself. with a baby. Ok, who was I fooling? But at least the pretense was there. It was probably 5 minutes, 8 tops. (I refuse to say '10' because I know it wasn't that long). Voila, happy baby. I popped her back in her carrier, grabbed my decoy clothes and walked out of the dressing room. BOOM. Apparently in that time, the whole world decided to show up at Old Navy, form a 10 person line for the dressing room and give me one collective dirty look as I stepped out of the room that I had apparently occupied for too long.

Internal monologue:

Ok. No big deal. I mean, they don't know that you were just feeding your baby and not trying on clothes. I'll just walk away. No one will have any idea---

BUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not once we got away, not when we were in the clear. Nope. Miss Thing decided to let it out right as we passed the line of irritated looking people. Just in case it wasn't clear, she decided to spit up all over my shoulder and Moby wrap. Ya know, for good measure.

Way to play it cool, kid.
I decided it was best to leave before the angry mob started.
Misadventures of new motherdom.

In other news, my kid is a bunny.

She's not gonna hate me when she's older, right?