Crazy Reneezy

Aaahhh!! I forgot to post about Halloween!!

2011-11-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

November is almost over and I never posted about Renee's Halloween fun! So here it is, better late than never, right?

October 9 - We went to the giant pumpkin patch in Lathrop with our friends Jason, Jodi, Keira and Jackson. The kids loved playing in the pumpkin jump house and the playground.

Jeff, Keira & Renee climbing up on the tractor tire tower.

Fun in the jump house!!

In the picture above you can see Renee's "dallween meow" (translation: halloween cat) shirt.

Renee and Jackson getting to go on the big kid swings!!

October 11 - We had our friend Julie and her son Eddie over for some Halloween cookie decorating. It was messy and fun and the kids loved eating their works of art :D

Eddie adding LOTS of sprinkles to his cookies.

Renee decided that her hands also needed some colorful icing.

October 28 - They had a harvest festival at Renee's daycare. All the kids dressed up and played fun harvest themed games.

Snow White, Doctor, Sunflower, Renee the Witch and a Fire Fighter

Renee playing "throw the hoola hoop over the pumpkin"

October 31 - Halloween!!! We went trick-or-treating in downtown Davis with our friends Julie & Dave, their son Eddie and Eddie's daycare group.

I love this picture of Julie and Renee walking, so precious.

Renee the Witch and Eddie as Peter Pan

Enjoying her very 1st candy - a mini Snickers bar!!

The weather was so warm that when we got home we set up our pumpkin carving station out on the front lawn. It was so nice not having to make that mess indoors!! Although we did get some mosquito bites - it was October, crazy!!

Scooping out the innards.

Once the pumpkin was carved we all just sat out on the porch and waited for the trick-or-treaters to come.

Lewis didn't like being alone, so he sat out with us too.

Renee got to eat more candy, she liked Halloween!!

And because I love side-by-sides, here's Renee's 1st and 2nd Halloween costumes. Apparently she's adorable no matter what you dress her up as!!

"Nee dood dit"

2011-11-08T13:11:00.000-08:00

Renee has been talking so much lately. And it's really fun to be able to communicate with her. To be able to ask her a question and not only have her understand what I'm saying, but to also have her answer me, I love it!! And I know just about everyone learns to talk in the world, but it's just such an amazing, fascinating and rewarding process, especially when it's my own baby!!

Of course, it's also very challenging at times, as I can't always understand what Renee is saying. She's usually very determined though, and repeats what ever it is over and over again until I get it. It's cute, and sometimes frustrating and slightly annoying, but it's a learning experience for both of us.

Here are some of the things she's been saying these days (and the translations in parenthesis):

"No, no, Yoyo! My dahdoo." (No, no, Sophie. My cracker!)

"Dadaaaa, arrr juuuu?" (Dada, where are you?)

"Mama, hood ju!" (Mama, hold you.) This means she wants me to hold her. It stems from me saying, "Do you want me to hold you?"

"Mama, dee dee dahdoo." (Mama, cookie cracker.) This means she wants a cracker from the box that has the picture of Cookie Monster on it.

"Nee zock on. Nee dood dit." (Renee sock on. Renee will do it.) She's getting very independent lately and wants to do everything herself. She usually says, "No, Nee dood dit!" when we ask her if she wants any help. But then gives up in frustration after a couple of tries and says, "Mama, hep." (Mama, help.)

She also likes to tell us what we're doing, like if Jeff is putting his shirt on she'll say, "Dada, surt on!" Or, if I finished my glass of water she'll say, "Mama wahwah, all done!"

Everyday it seems she says something new, this is such a fun age!!

Just Us Girls and 1st Cold of the Season

2011-10-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

Jeff was out of town this weekend from early Friday morning until late last night. Jeff's parents are moving to Washington state next year after his mom retires, and Jeff went up there with his dad to help him scope out places to live.

So for 4 whole days Renee and I were on our own!! Well, Friday and Monday she still went to daycare, but the rest of the time it was just us :D Jeff was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle Renee and all three dogs (yes, we still have Lewis) on my own, especially if Lewis and Sophie decided to get into another fight, but the weekend went off without a hitch. Well, except for Renee's horrible cold.

Poor baby girl, she was soooo sick on Saturday. She had the beginnings of the cold Friday night, and on Saturday morning she seemed a little worse, but not so bad that we still couldn't go out and get some things done. So, I carted her off to our favorite restaurant for breakfast (a special treat for our weekend alone), then we went to Home Depot to get some flowers for the front yard, and then we went to the pet store to get her some gold fish. Really the gold fish were for me, I've been wanting them ever since we went to the State Fair, I don't know why I just love gold fish! By the time we got back home she was exhausted!! She had a terrible cough, tons of green snot and a fever. I felt so bad for her I ended up letting her just sleep in my arms for her nap. Thank goodness for reruns of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix, they kept me from being bored out of my mind while I held my sleeping baby for two hours.

After her nap I tried to go out front to plant my flowers, but she still felt too sick to even enjoy the beautiful weather outside. She kept just coming up to me, saying, "hi mommy" with this sad little voice and holding onto whatever part of me she could reach. Poor thing! I finally gave up trying to garden and we went back inside to cuddle. I ended up putting her down for bed early, she was just so tired, and crashed pretty early myself after a long day of taking care of my sick baby.

Thankfully though Renee felt much better Sunday morning! She woke up super hungry and thirsty, she had barely eaten anything on Saturday, and her snotty nose, cough and fever were all way less severe.

After breakfast we went outside. Renee played with her baby doll in her play house while I got some gardening and a few chores done in the backyard. Back inside I let her paint with watercolors, which she loves to do.

And I let her feed her new fish, which she also now loves to do!

My parents came up and took us out to lunch later in the day. We went to a new mexican restaurant in town, Maria's Cantina. Normally it's a challenge to take Renee to restaurants, but they have an outdoor patio, so she doesn't have to stay locked in her high chair the entire meal. She was really well behaved though and loved her beans, cheese quesadilla and little bits of grilled chicken from my mom's salad.

After my parents left, and it was just me and Renee again, I really started missing Jeff. I had been so busy before I hadn't really noticed it, but now that things had settled down I wished we didn't have an entire 24 more hours to go without him. Oh well, it was what it was.

Normally in the evenings when Jeff is home we chat about our day, or watch a movie, or just hang out together. But since I was on my own after Renee went to bed, and I was feeling a bit lonely, I decided to do something a bit more productive and clean out our hall closet. While I was organizing I found my bag with the unfinished quilt I had started making for Renee. I pulled it out and was appalled that I had let it sit so long unfinished when it was soooooo close to being done! So I sat on the couch, put on another rerun of Grey's Anatomy and went to work. Two episodes and plenty of Meredith/Dr. McDreamy flirtations later I had a finished blanket (my 1st quilt) for my baby girl. Finally!!!

We made it through our normal Monday routine and I kept Renee up a little later than normal so she could see her daddy before she went to bed. Really it was more so her daddy could see her before she went to bed. He missed her terribly. He missed me too, but he really missed her. She doesn't quite get the whole talk-on-the-phone thing yet, so Jeff had had zero communication with her all weekend. I'm not sure Renee noticed how long Jeff was gone, she's still to young to really understand that I think, but she was happy to see him and gave him a hug when he got home like she always does.

And that was the end of our girls weekend!

Pee pee on the potty!!!

2011-09-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Renee has been doing great with the potty training the last couple of days. We had been letting her go diaper-less at home in the evenings and on weekends, but we kind of took a step back for a while because she was having so many accidents and we were all getting discouraged. Everyone says she will know when she's ready and that pushing her too early can make the whole process take longer, so I just put it out of my mind for a while and kept her diaper on unless she told me she wanted to go on her potty, which wasn't often and rarely successful.

On Monday night she said she had to go poo poo and so I took off her diaper and let her sit on her potty. In the past she would have then sat there for a minute, stood up, proudly exclaimed, "all done!" and then walked away without doing anything in the potty, and then most likely peed on the floor 2 minutes later. This time though she just sat there on the potty, so I asked her if she wanted me to read her a story, to which she of course said, "yeah!" (I love that she can verbally answer my questions now! Plus, Renee never turns down a story, unless you happen to pick a book other than the particular one she had in mind, which happens often since I can't read her mind and she has very specific and often varying ideas on what she wants. Sighh!!) Anyway, while I was reading her the story she peed in her potty! Yeahhh!!! I did a fun dance and sang "pee pee in the potty!" and jumped up and down and all over the place. She looked at me like I was weird and insisted that I continue reading her the story. I decided to push my luck and keep her diaper off for the rest of the evening and she peed in the potty two more times!! She even started doing the pee pee dance with me after the third time. She never did end up going poo poo, which is what she originally told me she needed to do, but that's small potatoes!

Then last night her success continued and she went pee pee on her potty four times. And I only helped her with one of them, and only by reminding her about her potty when I saw her stop playing and look straight ahead like she was deep in thought (a clear sign of impending pee I learned from all the previously mentioned accidents). The other three times she just went over to the potty on her own, sat down and peed. I continued with the pee pee dance, and plan on continuing with it for as long as it takes; at least it's good exercise for me.

I'm not quite sure what the next step is going to be. I'll have to see how she does in the mornings, and maybe we'll move up to diaper-less weekends. And I'll have to teach her to better verbalize her potty needs before she'll be ready to go diaper-less in school, but we're on the road. Yeahhh!!!!

It's such a silly thing, I know, but it's amazing how much pride I feel on the subject! Go Renee!!!

Finally!!

2011-09-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

So, if you are one of the 5 or so regular visitors to this blog I apologize for my absence over the last month and a half. I could now explain how I've been super busy lately with school, family, dogs, etc., etc. But I'm not going to bore you with all of that. Onwards and upwards, right :D

I will try to do a catch up post of some sorts. We have done so many fun things over the past couple of months and Renee has grown up dramatically in that time. Well, grown up is not really an appropriate description. Really what has happened is that she has prematurely turned the terrible age of 2! Sighhh!! More to come on all of that.

The point of this particular post is so that I can share with you some exciting (well, exciting to me anyway) news that I have FINALLY completed Renee's 1st birthday photo book. Yeahhh!!! I know, it's only been 6 and a half months!! I mean really Kelly, how long do these things take? Well as an excuse of some sorts, Shutterfly recently changed their website so that you now have complete creative control over the format of every page in your book. So I sat there and moved the pictures around, and re-sized them, and added new embellishments, and changed the background color, again and again and again. Then they added new embellishments and new background colors, and I went back to pages that I had already deemed complete and started them over. Jeez, I wonder why I haven't had time for blogging lately :D The process could have potentially continued indefinitely, but a coupon code for a free book finally brought me back to reality and I finalized the silly thing.

Check it out if you have some time:

Click here to view this photo book larger

You can also click HERE if the above link isn't working.

Oh Luis!

2011-08-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

I guess I need a little background for this post, so here it goes...

Our wonderful neighbor Joni has lived in her house across the street from us for 27 years!! When we bought our house in 2005 we didn't move into it for 3 months while we got things settled with school (me) and work (Jeff). And Joni, without even being asked (as we didn't yet know her), watered our lawn and plants so that they wouldn't die before we actually moved in. She continued to be super helpful, always watching our cat and chickens, and watering all our plants when we were away on vacation. And she never accepted any payment from us, no matter how hard we tried.

Sadly, a few months back Joni learned that the bank was not going to help her with her mortgage and they were foreclosing on her house. Her and her two sons had to move in with her mother, and since her dog Luis didn't get along with her mother's dog, she had to find a new, and hopefully temporary, home for him. And to make a long story short (a little late, right?) we offered to take him into our home while she figured things out.

She brought him over on the 4th of July and we've been getting used to this 90+ pound beast of a dog ever since.

Sophie Dog, Jeff & Renee, and Luis (black dog on the right) on the 1st night we had him.

That first night with him was interesting to say the least. Luis, for as big as he is, is a giant wimp! He not only has separation anxiety, but he's afraid of fireworks!! So, that whole evening we were basically coddling him and reassuring him that everything was going to be okay as he paced and shivered.

The next day he was much better though, and I stayed home from school just to make sure all the dogs were going to be okay with this new arrangement. They had all met before and played just fine, but asking three dogs to play together for a little while, and asking three dogs to live together and share their space and, more importantly, their human attention are two completely different things.

Sophie and Kirby weren't exactly happy about the new doggy guest at first, but they've gotten used to him. Sophie and Kirby are 6 and 7 years old respectively, and so they had started getting into an older dog routine of just sleeping all day and barely playing with each other or with us. But, Luis is only 4 and he still wants to play a lot. At first our two seemed really annoyed by his constant pestering to get a game going, but now all three of them are always playing! They run around our backyard like crazy, chasing each other, wrestling, and playing tug. And they go back and forth between Sophie and Kirby ganging up on Luis, and Sophie and Luis ganging up on Kirby (the latter combination is really not very fair at all, but they seem to have fun).

Sophie (50 lbs.), Kirby (20 lbs.) and Luis (90 lbs.)

Don't get me wrong, it hasn't all been perfect. There have been two pretty serious dog fights, both over food. But, that is to be expected when adding a new dog to a group. They have to work out their doggy seniority among themselves. The scuffles did make Jeff and I realize that we were confusing the dogs by giving Luis a little too much attention, which made him feel like he had higher rank. We've since been better at making sure that Luis knows he is bottom dog. Kirby is top dog (he sleeps on the bed with us), then Sophie, and then Luis. And now Luis eats his meals outside while Sophie and Kirby eat inside to prevent any more food related scuffles.

Even with everyone getting along, things have been less than smooth sailing with a 90 lb. dog living in our tiny house. He is just sooooo big and so he always seems to be in the way. And he's destroyed more than his fair share of household items including a screen door, two sets of mini-blinds, some of Renee's toys, a dog crate, and the dog water dispenser. Plus, having two male dogs in the same household has created a very literal pissing contest in our backyard. One of them goes on a plant, then the other one comes up behind and goes on the same plant. They go back and forth like this until the poor plant is dead, and then they move on to another. I try to keep up and rinse off the plants I see them peeing on, but I am too slow and many of our newly planted flowers have perished.

None of this really matters to me though. I am a dog lover in every way possible and so Luis's adorably sad face, dopey personality and need for a home have won me over completely. The destruction of property is really only an annoyance in my mind, something that will (and has) get better with time. Jeff, however, is not as easily won over by doggy cuteness, and has been waiting for Joni to come take her giant destructive dog back from day one! Luis's ONLY saving grace (in Jeff's mind), and the only reason we haven't called Joni and said that this just isn't going to work out is that....

Renee LOVES Luis!!!!

Renee and "Lu Lu" (that's what she calls him).

And even more importantly, Luis lets Renee "love" him any way she wants. She climbs on him, she sits on him, she pulls his tail, she kisses him, she hugs him, she pokes at him. Anything a toddler can imagine doing to a dog, Renee has done it to Luis. And he just lets her.

Not that we condone her abusing the dogs. Quite the opposite, we are constantly telling her to be nice and gentle to all three dogs and the cat. But it is so cute to watch Renee interact with this gentle giant of a dog. And seeing Renee happy, makes us happy. So, Luis gets to stay :D

He has, of course, bumped into her on several occasions, knocking her down and making her cry, he's just so big he can't help it. But, it has never resulted in more than a bump, bruise or scrape. Renee does more damage to herself than that all on her very own. Luis's tail is also a force to be reckoned with, it hurts when it hits me and it happens to be perfectly aligned with Renee's head. And so she gets knocked in the head with a happy dog tail on occasion. She's actually really good at avoiding it now though, ducking and weaving like a pro. She's also really good at running over to me or Jeff when the dogs get a game going in the backyard. We hold her up so she can safely watch the comedy of three dogs tramping through our yard. She loves watching them all play, and laughs hysterically as they run back and forth.

Dog trainer in the making.

To Renee, Luis is completely part of the family now, and I'm sure she will be very confused when he goes back to Joni. Actually, we haven't heard anything from Joni for about a month, so we're not quite sure when, if ever, she plans to take her dog back. For now though, he is part of the family and we're all making the best of it.

Fun At The State Fair

2011-07-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've been to tons of County Fairs growing up, and I always loved them. I used to especially love the rides and yummy treats like corn dogs, cotton candy and funnel cakes!! And I always loved playing the game where you win a real live gold fish by throwing a ping pong ball into a cup of water. One of those gold fish I won actually lived for multiple years when I was a kid, until one of my cats decided that it would be fun to scoop it up out of the water and bat it around until it stopped moving. That is totally beside the point of this post, sorry. Anyway, as much as I love fairs Jeff and I, as a couple of almost 8 years, have never been to a fair together!! Maybe it's because the rides we used to love as kids now make us nauseous and give us headaches. Or maybe it's because eating a boat load of fried food makes us feel like crap for an entire 24 hours. I don't know, maybe we're just too old for fairs, if that's even a possibility.

Thankfully though, now we have Renee and we get to enjoy everything life has to offer through her eyes, as if it is brand new, and it makes things so much fun. And because I'd never been to the California State Fair I bought tickets online and told Jeff that we were going, no excuses!! Not, really, he was on board with the idea too :D

We actually went two Saturdays ago (like always, I'm a bit behind on my blogging) and got there right when they opened at 10am to avoid both the crowds and the heat as much as possible. It turned out to be the perfect plan of attack for us.

Our first stop was the livestock barn to see all the 4H and FFA cows, pigs, sheep and goats which are always a big part of the fair for me :D Renee was a little overwhelmed to see all the full size cows. They must have seemed humongous compared to the pictures she's used to from her books. We still had her in her stroller at that point, and she was quite content to just sit and observe the giant animals from a safe distance.

Then we went to the petting zoo so Renee could actually interact with and pet some of the farm animals. She was a little apprehensive at first, there were animals everywhere, but she warmed up quickly and then didn't want to leave. Just Renee and I went in and Jeff stayed out to take pictures of us. We also bought $1 worth of food to give to the animals, but I forgot how forward they can be and a donkey and goat pretty much stole all of it from us as soon as we walked in the door. Oh, well :D

There were lots of goats.

A little pigmy goat and a baby deer (fawn?).

A sheep, taking a rest from all the annoying toddlers.

And a kangaroo, they were so cute, but they didn't stay still long enough to pet.

After we all got a good dose of livestock, we went over to the food section to get a snack. Jeff let me choose our first fried food adventure of the day and I picked a Jumbo Corn Dog and a lemonade that we all shared. I'm pretty sure it was not only Renee's first corn dog, but her first hot dog of any kind. She loved it, of course, and could hardly wait for her turn to take a bite as it went around from Mommy, to Daddy, and back to her again. She also love the lemonade, another 'of course'. I never give her sugary drinks at home. She only ever gets water, milk and freshly pressed vegetable/fruit juice from our Jack LaLanne Power Juicer (sorry for the plug, I love that thing!), so the lemonade was quite a treat!

Next on our agenda was the Big Bug exhibit. And no, for those of you who are squeamish about bugs, they weren't real. It was a room full of giant robotic bugs that made us humans seem tiny, like we were the insects. It was pretty cool, but I think Renee was a little too young to fully appreciate it. If it had been a room full of giant kitty cats and dogs she might have thought that was cool, but she doesn't really know what bugs are yet. Jeff and I liked it though!

I think that was the grasshopper.

After the bugs we had a craving for some more fair fare (sorry, couldn't help myself) and opted to share a plate of fried zucchini. Renee was happy that she didn't have to share with Mommy and Daddy on this snack and greedily munched away on her own zucchini stick.

Mmmm, fried bread. Hey, wait a minute, there's a vegetable in here!!

With fried zucchini in hand, we all went over to the mini zoo they had set up. It was really cool with lots of interesting little animals. There was a kangaroo, an emu, some hedgehogs, porcupines, parrots, and one weird sloth-like animal. Now I can't remember it's actual name, but Renee thought it was a cat and just kept saying, "meow" to it. That's pretty much what she does with most animals that she doesn't recognize; they are either a dog, a cat, a cow or a bird.

Saying hi to the kangaroo. She really wanted to stick her fingers in the cage!

Renee was getting pretty sleepy at this point and Jeff and I still wanted to explore the fair a bit more, so we strapped her back in her stroller and hoped she would fall asleep. It didn't take her long and she was out by the time we got to the next exhibit which was The Farm. Jeff and I only garden as a hobby, but this was a serious farm set up, very cool.

Sleepy baby.

Very cool, and very large farm exhibit.

Then we went to see the CA Counties exhibit where every county set up a very elaborate display to showcase the things they produce or are known for (i.e. wine in Napa county). We were happy to see that Yolo County won. Woo hoo!!! Go Woodland, Davis, Winters and West Sac!! You know we didn't really care, but it's like that tee-shirt that says, "The sports team from my local geographic region is superior to the sports team from your local geographic region!" Us silly humans, we always gotta pick sides :D And finally we went over the Creative Arts exhibit so I could see all the beautiful needlework entries. Jeff wasn't interested in this exhibit at all, so he just sat on a bench and watched Renee (still sleeping) while I marveled at all the amazing knitting, crochet and quilts on display.

After all that walking, Jeff and I were hungry again. I know, I know, but that fried food really has no nutritional value, so you have to eat a lot of it to compensate. That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it :D Renee was still sleeping, so I went and found us a shady seat while Jeff waited in line for a lamb gyro. He had hinted at getting the giant smoked turkey leg, but I steered him away because I didn't think it sounded very good. But when we were sitting there eating our gyro, another guy sat down next to us eating a turkey leg and it smelled soooo good. Oh,well. The gyro was really yummy too :D

Renee finally woke up and just in time to get a balloon animal from the clown that was near us. I asked him for a pink dog and he quickly whipped one up and handed it to Renee who was staring at him with that I-just-woke-up-so-I'm-still-grumpy look on her face. But, he was about to leave and we didn't have time to wait for her to get in a better mood. Plus, I knew a pink balloon dog would cheer her up likity split!! Which it did. Although, the clown kind of scared me when he cautioned me not to let Renee bite the balloon. I thought he just meant that if it popped it would frighten her, but then he explained that she could accidentally inhale it! Who knew? Needless to say, I kept a very close eye on her and her new pink doggy friend after that.

There is a LOT of pink in this picture!!

After Renee had her lunch (from home, not fried) we walked around a bit more. Jeff is a sucker for Kettle Corn, so he got a bag of that and we decided to go back to the children's section so we could munch on our popcorn while Renee played. They had a sand-pit that was filled with corn kernels instead of sand and Renee loved it!!! She must have played in it for at least 45 minutes before we had to forcibly remove her. That was fine with us though, we just sat on some hay bales, ate our popcorn and chatted with the other parents.

Oooooohhh!!

One last little visit with a cute baby cow and Jeff and I were done.

We had such a great time! I think that going to the State fair is going to have to be a new Summertime tradition for us. And I can't wait until Renee is old enough to throw ping pong balls into cups of water so she can win a gold fish for Mommy :D

Poo Poo?

2011-07-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

About 2 or 3 months ago Renee started occasionally telling us when she had a poopy diaper, and she would sometimes even tell us right before she was about to go. I hadn't (and still haven't) read anything about potty training, but it seemed like she recognized when she was going to the bathroom. So, a few weeks ago I went to Target and bought her a training toilet. Not just any training toilet of course, it's pink, it looks like a princess throne and when you drop something in it (i.e. pee or poo) it plays music!!! It was actually cheaper than the basic one though, so don't judge :D

We started out just letting Renee sit on it with her clothes on and now, before her bath every night, after we take her clothes and diaper off, we have her sit on it for as long as she wants. Jeff and I usually make a big deal about her just sitting on the toilet, even if she doesn't go to the bathroom, since we want it to fun and exciting for her. It seems to be working and so far she's gone poop in it once and pee in it once. Woo hoo!!! I'm pretty sure both times had more to do with good timing and luck on our part than with Renee actually choosing to go to the bathroom on her toilet. We don't care though, they still count!!

She can't say potty yet, p's are hard for her, so she says, "bobby" instead. But as soon as she says, "bobby" I rush her over to the bathroom, take off her diaper and put her on the toilet. Almost every time she just sits there and smiles at me for a few seconds, then gets up and walks away without doing anything. But this morning she just kept sitting on the toilet and smiling at me. She even reached over and grabbed one of her bath books and handed it to me to read. It felt way too cliche for a 17 month old, but I went with it and read her the book while she sat on the toilet. She sat there so long I almost got up to go get the camera, but I was afraid I would distract her from her mission so no pics for this post.

She had to have sat there for at least 5 minutes (a long time for a toddler) before she finally stood up, reached back, spread her butt cheeks apart, looked at me questioningly and said, "poo poo?" It was like she was saying, "Mommy, I've been sitting here forever, how come the poo poo hasn't come out yet?" It was so funny and so adorable. I didn't know what to tell her so I just asked her if she wanted to sit back on the potty, but she said no, so I put her diaper back on and got her dressed. She ended up pooping in her diaper a few minutes later, but I give her an A+ for effort anyway.

Next month she'll be moving up to the older toddler room at her daycare and they have toilets for the kids to use, so I have a feeling it won't be too long before we're done with diapers. I'm knocking on wood, crossing my fingers, and definitely not counting my chickens though!!

Swimming Like A Fish

2011-07-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

We signed Renee up for swim lessons this summer and for two weeks in the middle of June, we had a lesson (more like guided water play) from 5:30 to 6pm Monday through Thursday night. When I first signed her up for the class I was like, "no problem, it's only a half hour, and the pool is only 3 blocks away from our house, we can handle that!" But, in reality, it was getting Renee home from daycare, letting the dogs out to go pee and stretch their legs, feeding a very hungry and cranky (normal for 5pm) Renee, getting her changed into a swim diaper and bathing suit, getting myself changed into a bathing suit, putting sun block on both of us, gathering towels and hats, locking the dogs back up, and finally getting into the car to drive the 3 blocks because it was way too hot and we were running late anyway. Then came the half hour of swimming, which was fun for the most part, but it was sooooo hot out and the sun was just beating down on our heads.

The worst part of it all though, and this is entirely my fault for not planning ahead, was that when all was said and done, and we got home a little after 6pm, Jeff and I were starving. But, our normal make dinner time had been spent swimming, so we had no dinner!! You would think, being that Jeff and I are relatively intelligent people, that after a day or two of this problem we would plan ahead. But no, no such luck. We were both exhausted from working all day and going through the above described scenario, and so we just ended up having simple dinners like sandwiches, salads, or going out and getting a burrito. One night, out of desperation, I made "pizzas" with some naan that we had in the freezer, left over spaghetti sauce and jack cheese. That might sound decent to some, but it wasn't, it was gross (it was the naan that ruined it) and not very healthy or filling at all. Oh well, we lived.

Okay, enough of my complaining and on to Renee and swimming...

Before these lessons, Renee had only been in my parents' pool, and only once last summer and once more this summer. Both times she was not at all happy about the situation, and so we didn't expect her to be much different at the lessons. We were right. The first couple of days she only wanted to cling to me. Jeff and I would pass her back and forth between each other, but that just made her upset and scared.

The teachers instructed everyone hold our babies by supporting their chest while letting their feet dangle, and Renee wanted nothing to do with it. So, I just let her cling to me and tried to make the experience as fun and exciting as possible. Jeff tried to be a little more adventurous with her and he actually dunked her under the water a few times. She was even okay with it for a while, but as soon as she saw me she cried for me to hold her. I guess I still baby her a little too much, but how can I deny her the safety of her Mommy's arms?

That's Jeff and Renee (pink hat) by the edge of the pool.

By the end of the first week she was at least smiling a little bit, as long as we didn't do anything too scary like hold her out away from us for too long. The funny part was, that at the end of each lesson as we were walking back to the car, she would excitedly point back to the pool and exclaim, "wah wah!" as if she wanted to go back in. I think she really wanted to have fun, but was just a little overwhelmed at how much water there really was.

After this picture was taken all Renee hell broke loose, as I was no longer in the pool and she was!
"MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!"

By the end of the second week she was much more comfortable with the whole thing. We were able to zoom her around in the water while she smiled and laughed, it was really cute. And she would happily allow us to pass her back and forth between us, no problem. She still wasn't nearly as comfortable as all the other kids in the class, they were jumping off the side of the pool and into their parents arms by this point, but they were all a little older than her.

Anyway, Renee looked way cuter in her bathing suit than any of the other kids! No competition :D

Since then we've taken her swimming a few times in the pool at my parents' house and also at a family picnic last weekend. And although she isn't (as the title of this post suggests) swimming like a fish, she does have a good time in the water now.

Busy Baby

2011-06-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Normally when we get home in the evening we go straight out into the backyard to let the dogs go to the bathroom, check the chicken and duck food and water levels, and tend to the plants in the garden. But with the random rain storm yesterday, we got to skip most of our outdoor chores and just have some fun inside.

Renee was having so much fun that I decided to pick up the camera and snap a few shots of her antics:

She is big into imitating what Jeff and I do these days. We have an old cell phone laying around for her to play with and make pretend calls. She says, "HaaaDooo!" instead of hello, it is so cute!!

"HaaaDooo!"

Renee is also an expert at walking now, so much so that she's putting her best efforts into to running as fast as she can. Before, when she would try to run, her feet would move really fast, but she wouldn't actually go forward any faster than when she was walking. She's been getting the hang of though lately, and loves zipping back and forth around the house.

Here she comes!

And there she goes!!

Watch out!!

And there she goes again!!

And she absolutely loves to go up on the couch (or our bed) and jump around. She stands next to it, pointing to the cushions saying, "Bah! Bah! Bah!," (translation: Up! Up! Up!) until you lift her up. And oh my goodness, the drama that ensues if you tell her no! I'll have to do another post on how dramatic she can be another time. Back to last night's fun:

"Hey Kirby, stop licking my face!!"

She gets a kick out of standing up, taking a step or two, and then falling down onto the cushions.

And her giggle is so contagious! Jeff and I just watch her and smile, she is so much fun!!

And most recently she's been working on her somersaults. Well, we've been working on them anyway. This is how it works; I tell her to go upside down and she puts her head on the ground, like so:

Then I lift her feet up and gently guide her over onto her back:

Then she lays on her back and says, "mo, mo!" which means "more, more." And we do it again, and again, and again!

Sometimes I take advantage of the situation and steal some kisses on her belly, which I love. And it makes her giggle, which I also love :D

Silly girl!!

And thankfully, for as silly and active as she is, she is still willing to stop and give Mommy and Daddy a hug. And sometimes, if we're really lucky, we get a nice big slobbery kiss too. Although most of the time when I ask her for a kiss she smiles, says, "No!" (her favorite word lately) and runs the other way. It's okay though, I just steal them whenever I get the chance.

Renee's 1st Year Photobook

2011-06-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

So, I finally completed the digital photo album I've been making of Renee's 1st Year. We had soooooo many pictures of her (I think it was around 1200) from those first 12 months and I didn't want them just sitting on my computer. And when I saw the adorable scrapbook design on Shutterfly I just had to make one for Renee (translation: for me!). Our print copy came in the mail the other day and it turned out really great.

Check it out when you get some free time:

Click here to view this photo book.

If for some reason the book is not showing up you can always see it here.

Enjoy!!

Pictures From Daycare

2011-06-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Paula, Renee's primary teacher at school, sent me some more pictures she took of Renee. Some of them are soooo cute and I love seeing how much fun Renee has at school!!!

Paula, Renee and a baby doll.

So serious.

They had the parents come have lunch with the kids to celebrate UCD Picnic Day

Renee feeding her baby vegetables

She's such a good mommy!

Bingo art is so exciting!!!

Pushing a cow around on a chair, silly girl!

I'm pretty sure she's not supposed to eat the paint.

That's better!

"I don't know how I got paint all over myself. Honest!!"

I LOVE this child!!!

Our New Patio

2011-05-31T12:39:00.000-07:00

When we first bought our house, the flagstone patio in the backyard was beautiful! But over the years the weeds have taken over, the flagstones have shifted, the sand in between has been blown away and the whole thing has just turned into a big mess. Jeff has been saying that he wants to re-do it for a couple of years now. And as much as I would have loved for him to do it himself, I just didn't think he knew how much work was involved (he tends to underestimate on those sorts of things).

Our backyard patio - BEFORE

Anyway, with Renee being mobile and wanting to play outside a lot more often, the flagstone was even more of a problem. It was way too uneven for her already unsteady little toddler walking capabilities and it was really not a good place for her to play. It was simultaneously adorable and heartbreaking to watch her try to traverse the dangerous rocky terrain that was our backyard. So, although I hated to use our daughter to push my own agenda, Renee ended up being the perfect excuse to justify spending the money and finally having our patio re-done professionally.

We went with a local company, Dumars Landscaping, and they were great to work with. The landscape designer took note of all our ideas and how much we were willing to spend and came up with a great design (which was totally free of charge, we were surprised!). The best and least expensive option, as well as the only one our budget would allow, was regular old concrete with a little color and a salt finish to make it pretty. And here it is:

AFTER!!!

We had a ton of left over flagstone (all of it basically), so Jeff put in the pretty path to the arbor and back portion of the yard. Just doing that one small part took him most of a day and he was super sore after, but I think he did a really great job!!

And here is the rest of the patio:

AFTER!!

They also continued the concrete to make a path along the side of our house, complete with section for our BBQ and our garbage bins. It is so much nicer than the stepping stones we had before!!!

Last weekend (5/21) my mom came over to help me pick out some new plants to put in to fill in all the dirt area that we had. Jeff stayed home and took care of Renee while Mom and I went to Orchard and Home Depot and filled my little Civic to the brim with plants! It was a challenge to find plants that met all of my requirements: drought tolerant, good in full sun, low maintenance, and pretty. We ended up going with a lavender, russian sage, and salvia (another type of sage) which fit all of my criteria and will fill in the area nicely. And my mom treated me to a succulent bed in a shady spot of the yard (by the fence, under my bird houses).

The next day we had our friends Jason & Jodi, and their kids Keira & Jackson over. The weather was perfect and we spent tons of time out in the yard.

Action shot of Jack Jack, and some of the new plants.

We also got a hand-me-down slide from one of our neighbors that weekend. Renee, Keira and Jack Jack had a ton of fun playing on it. It was perfect timing!!

Of course, they didn't need kids toys to have fun. A few fly nets kept them busy for quite a while:

Silly kiddos!

This past weekend Jeff and I planted a plum tree, made a concrete bench and laid out whole bunch of mulch to keep the moisture in and (hopefully) block out the majority of weeds. I'll post some pictures next week after the bench is done curing and we've put it in place under the new plum tree.

It is all coming together so nice, I'm loving it!!! And since this blog is supposed to be about Renee, she is loving it too! Actually, she is just loving all the opportunities to be outside with Mommy and Daddy while we are working in the garden. She has so much fun out there. I got her some sidewalk chalk to color on the new patio and her Grandma Karen got her some kid size garden tools that she enjoys using to dig in the dirt with. She recently learned the word rock, which sounds more like, "rah!" when she says it. So she'll walk around the yard with a couple rocks that she found, chanting, "rah, rah!" She LOVES the chickens and the duck, and follows them around the yard clucking the way I taught her, "ducka, duckaahh!" Sometimes she'll pick some mint or flower petals and put them up to her nose, exclaiming, "Mmmmmm!!" (also, something I taught her). Then she'll bring them up to me and stick them in my face, I always play along and make a big deal of how good they smell. She also has fun throwing the ball for the dogs when she can get her hands on it. They try their best to keep it away from her though, it takes her forever to throw it and it never goes very far, not the ideal game of fetch for Sophie and Kirby! I could go on and on with all the cute little things she does out in the yard, it's so much fun watching her learn and explore and get dirty.

I don't know what you're talking about!

2011-05-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Often, at Renee's daycare, one of the teachers will comment on her goofy personality, her great smile or they'll say something like, "Does she just make you laugh all the time at home? She is such a crack up!!"

Really, I have no idea what they are talking about . . .

Catching Up

2011-05-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

Since I have been having trouble keeping up with blogging these days, I'm going to do a catch up blog of mini-post describing what's been going on lately.

Here we go!

1) April 27 - Renee got new shoes!!

She got her 1st pair of real shoes for her birthday. They were size 3, they fit her perfectly and they were the cutest little shoes ever!! Fast forward 2 short months later and Renee hit a growth spurt that necessitated a new pair of size 4.5's!!! This may hardly seem blog-worthy to most but, 1) her birthday shoes were soooo cute, 2) her new shoes aren't nearly as cute (those are them in the pics above), and 3) it means that my baby girl is growing up too fast :(

Also, I just love the photo series of her playing with my yarn, worth a blog post in itself!

2) April 30 - Trunnelle Family Gathering

We normally do a Christmas get together in early January with Jeff's parents, brother & family, uncle Glen & cousin Rachel. This year it got delayed . . . a lot, and we didn't get together until the end of April. No matter, it was great seeing everyone and Renee had a great time hanging out with her little cousin Eric,

He is only 7 months old and already almost as big as she is.

and her Grandpa Earl and Grandma Karen.

3) April 30 - Renee's Last Bottle

After everyone left from the family get together, we gave Renee her normal evening bottle. She was so pooped from all the fun she had had earlier in the day that she fell asleep while she was drinking it. There is just something so adorable about seeing your fully clothed baby sound asleep in the middle of the floor, surrounded by her toys :D

We didn't know it at the time, but this was Renee's last bottle!

Since she started in the Toddler Room back in February, we had only been giving Renee two bottles a day, one in the morning and one in the evening before her bath. This was a BIG step for her, she had been drinking 4 or 5 bottles a day previously and had a hard time with the transition. So, I decided that I would let her have her remaining two daily bottles until she was ready to give them up. And when she started seeming less interested in them (i.e. not finishing them and not asking for them) we figured it was a good time to take them away completely. The morning after that picture was taken I gave her a sippy cup with milk instead of her normal bottle, and she was totally fine with it. And that was that, Renee is officially weened!!!

(I'm not sure if I ever posted anything about this, but just for my own record keeping, I weened her from breastfeeding at around 10 1/2 months old.)

4) May 5 - Strange Child in the Dog Crate
This is just a funny picture of Renee hugging our cat Madame inside of Kirby's dog crate. I walked into the back room, saw this, laughed at my goofy girl and then ran to go get the camera. It was too funny!

She loves that crate and is always putting random things from around the house in it. Whenever Jeff and I can't find something (i.e. a shoe, the remote control, etc.) this is one of the first places we look.

5) May 7 & 8 - Mother's Day Weekend

Renee and Grandma Karen reading a magazine together

We had a super busy Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday we went to Pleasanton to visit with my step-mom and brother for lunch. Then we went to Dublin to visit with Jeff's parents for dinner. And we spent the night at my parent's house in Clayton. On Sunday we had brunch with my parents. Then, after I got Renee down for her nap, my mom and I went to get pedicures and do some shopping with my aunt & cousin. And finally we had a big family dinner at my aunt's house. It was all a lot of fun, Renee got to see all 3 of her grandmas in one weekend, and my toes are super pretty!!

Easter Weekend

2011-05-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Easter (a week and a half ago already) was another busy holiday weekend for us! Jeff was on-call, and his company was doing a major power-down, so he missed out on a lot of it, but Renee and I had a great time.

Jeff was up working in the wee hours on Saturday morning, so when Renee and I got up at 6:30am and he was just wrapping up what he needed to do and starving after having been up for so long, we decided to go out to breakfast.

There's a great little place in Woodland called the Main St. Cafe. The owner/chef is this gruff mountain-man/biker-dude looking guy who's a bit socially awkward, but he tries very hard to be personable and we appreciate that :D Renee usually just stares at him though, which means she's still not quite sure about him. Anyway, the food is great, very fresh and most importantly you don't feel like you just ate a tub of lard when you're finished eating. And, like most places in Woodland, it's small and not very crowded, so they don't mind if Renee wanders around a bit while we're finishing up our food.

She's good in the high chair until she's done eating, then she wants down and there's not much we can do about it. She's got all the passive aggressive moves down now: going limp, arching her back, squirming & twisting; so it's hard to keep a hold of her if she doesn't want to be held! But, she's really good and just wanders around and enjoys all the attention she gets from strangers. Everyone just thinks she is so cute (we totally agree, of course), so she gets lots of smiles, waves and exclamations of how cute she is! All the attention is turning her in to quite a little ham :D

The rest of Saturday we just took it easy. Jeff caught up on some sleep while Renee and I planted our summer vegetable garden. She loves being outside, so she was happy as a clam and kept very busy while I worked. She "helped" me dig some holes for the starter plants I had grown indoors, she fed the duck some spinach, she "threw" the ball for the dogs, and watched our new little chicks run around in their pen. She also loves shaking the seed packets, they sound like a rattle, so she had fun doing that for a while. She ended up spreading the packets all over the yard, so I was constantly searching for the one I wanted to plant next.

Here she is digging up some dirt in our raised beds:

On a total side note, since I'm writing this post so late, some of the zucchini & sunflower seeds we planted have already popped up!!

On Sunday morning Jeff had to leave the house at 2AM!!! So he didn't get to join us at all on Easter :( But, Renee and I made the best of it. After her morning bottle I gave her the Easter basket I made for her. When I was a kid the Easter Bunny always brought us a basket of goodies and I wanted to continue the tradition with Renee. It was so fun watching her look through the basket!

I don't let her have candy yet, so instead I filled the basket with some fun toys (Little People, no-spill bubbles, a book: "What Makes a Rainbow", and some fuzzy bunny ears to wear). She also got some goldfish crackers as a yummy treat, even though gets those whenever anyway, she doesn't care :D

Enjoying her Goldfish crackers :D

We spent the next couple hours playing (mostly Renee), cleaning up the house a bit (mostly me) and getting ready to hit the road. As soon as I got Renee dressed in her Easter outfit, complete with a cute little sweater I crocheted, I took a bunch of pictures. I wanted to capture her pristine cuteness right away before she messed it all up with her toddler business!

Our first stop of the day was my Aunt Julie and Uncle Mario's house in Petaluma to see a few members of my dad's side of the family. Renee had fun watching her second cousins, Antonio and Franco, playing with all their fun new Easter goodies.

After a few hours visiting we got on the road again and went to Novato to have dinner with my Mom's side of the family at my Auntie Lea & Uncle Dave's house. Again, Renee had lots of fun. My Aunt Lea's house is like a museum, she loves collecting antiques and she displays them beautifully in every possible space. So it was a bit exhausting chasing Renee around making sure she didn't break anything! She had a ton of fun when she realized that she could make a full circle loop around the house from the kitchen, through to the laundry room, living room, entry way and then back to the kitchen again. And she also loved climbing up the stairs, which we don't have at our house.

SOOOO excited about the stairs!!

My aunt and uncle also have a horse barn, so I took Renee out to see the horses. She was a little apprehensive about it. She knows what horses are from all the picture books we have at home and she can even tell you what a horsey says, "neehhh!" But, I don't think she realized how big they were in real life. I just held her and she sat in my arms motionless, staring at the horses, quietly contemplating whether or not she wanted to get any closer to them.

She also got some extra Easter goodies from my mom and Aunt Lea:

The kitchen utensils weren't part of the gift :D

After dinner and dessert, we packed up and headed home. When we're out and about I like to try to get in the car to go home around Renee's normal bedtime, usually around 7 PM, but we weren't able to leave until about 7:45. She was having so much fun that she didn't even notice how tired she was until she was strapped into her car seat; she fell asleep as soon as we hit the road. All that Easter fun makes for a very tired little girl :D

All the things Renee can say

2011-04-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Renee's brain has hit hyper drive these days! It's amazing how fast she picks up on things. For instance, just a few weeks ago she could only show me her nose and her head (I'll ask her, "Where's Renee's nose?" and she points to, and sometimes up, her nose). Now she can show me her nose, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly button, toes and head. And she has semi-words for almost all of them too. I say semi-words because the last consonant is usually cut off , and if you aren't with her all the time you probably won't understand most of what she says. Sometimes I don't even understand her, but it is a huge help that she usually points to whatever it is she's talking about.

Here are some of the words she can say and the Renee-speak translations:

I want - "me me!!"
mama - "mama"
dada - "dada"
dog - "dah!!"
no - "no, no, no, no, no!" (while pointing her finger at you)
baby - "beebee"
bottle - "baba"
book - "booh"
ball - "bah"
bird - "bur"
bubbles - "buboo"
shoe - "shzssoo"
sock - "saw"
snack - "nah"
up - "puh" (up backwards)
down - "dow"
banana - "babwa"
water - "wahwah"
apple - "appoo"
diaper - "papoo"
poopoo - "poopoo"
Renee - "Nee"
belly button - "bah boo"
head - "heh"
teeth - "nees"
hi - "hi"

And she understands SOOO much more than that. It's amazing! I can tell her, "go show it to Daddy," and she'll walk around the house until she finds Jeff, then she proudly holds up whatever it was that she was supposed to show him. It's so cute.

Oh, she can also tell you what the following animals say: dog ("oof, oof"), cat ("meeeeah"), cow ("moooo"), lion ("rarrr"), chicken ("dukadukawww"), sheep ("baa, baa") and horse ("neh, neh"). And she is really good at blowing kisses and waving bye-bye. We always get a lot of attention for that one :D

It is so fun to watch her learn all these new things and to watch how happy she gets when we understand her and respond appropriately. Of course she gets equally frustrated when we just don't know what she's trying to say. It's a steep learning curve for all of us!!

Our Little Toddler

2011-04-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Renee has been in the young toddler room at her daycare for about 6 weeks now, and she LOVES it!! She barely even says goodbye to me some mornings when I drop her off. She'll just brush me off as I'm trying to give her a hug and kiss, it's like she's saying, "yeah, whatever Mom, I'll see you later."

The teachers keep the kids really busy with tons of fun toddler friendly activities. They read books, sing songs, play outside on the play structure or with the water table, go on buggy rides around campus, and they do lots of art projects and science experiments (i.e. mixing two colored liquids together to get a third color).

They keep the kids on a schedule of snack times, lunch, nap time and play times and stick to it as close as they can everyday. They are even able to get all 16 one year olds to take a nap at the same time. And they are not in cribs anymore, they are on cots - amazing!!! I can barely get Renee to take a nap when we're home on the weekends, and I only have her to deal with.

There are four teachers in the toddler room, and each one is primarily responsible for four of the kids, but they all share duties of course and mostly do things as a whole group. Renee's primary teacher is Miss Paula and she sends home great reports everyday of how Renee's day went, I love reading them. Here's an example from the other day:

And in case you are having trouble reading the tiny scanned image of cursive writing here is what Paula wrote:

I have been having such a great time with Renee! Her personality is just really coming out! She's so crazy fun to work with! She's always up for whatever we're doing... and that giggle!! It's just non stop!! It makes me feel good to know that she is so happy and content here in the toddler room! :D Almost every song we sing... she giggles her way through it! Paula

Paula is great at always writing something positive about Renee's day. She is usually more specific about activities Renee enjoyed, but this one just warmed my heart. It's so nice to know that Renee is happy at daycare!

And here are some pictures Paula emailed us of our little cutie pie!

Renee at daycare during snack time.

These pictures made our day! Our happy little toddler, so cute :D

Renee's Birthday Celebrations

2011-03-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

I meant to write this post about a month ago, but never got around to it. Better late than never, right!

Before I even had Renee, when I was still pregnant, I worried about what we were going to do for her 1st birthday party! We didn't want a huge party, and definitely not at our house. In general 1 year olds don't do well in large crowds of people they barely know, especially when their parents are busy entertaining all those people.

So, what to do? What to do?

We considered not having a party at all. But, that's no fun either. My mom offered to have the party at her house, which would give Jeff and I the freedom to keep Renee happy. But, there was still going to be too many people. So I came up with a great idea - split the party into two parties! One would be at a restaurant with just Renee's most immediate family (parents, grandparents, uncles) and our closest friends. The second party would be at my mom's house with more (but, still not all) family and friends. Jeff wasn't quite sure how we went from the idea of no party at all (which he liked) to having two parties, but he's not one to argue with my sound logic, that and he learned early on in our relationship that I am just always right.

We had the first party at Fenton's Creamery in Oakland on the Sunday before her birthday. Renee was so good and had such a great time. She just sat in her high chair and ate french fries and some of my hamburger and smiled at all the attention she was getting. She even wore her birthday hat for a long time, which was surprising because normally she hates wearing hats. It was really cute!

Here are some pics from that party:

She really liked playing with the balloons!

Since we were planning on having a special cake for her second party, and since we were already at an ice cream parlor, it seemed only fitting to give Renee a birthday ice cream scoop. It was her first ice cream ever and she loved it!!

Her 1st ice cream experience, she wasn't too sure about the candle though :D

Renee got lots of great gifts: bath toys, books, a sand & water play table and money for her college savings. Jeff and I gave her a picture book of her family and friends that I made on Shuttlerfly.com, a pink sweater that I knit for her and a new baby doll. She absolutely loved the baby doll and still plays with it everyday!!

Hugging her new baby doll!

It ended up being a perfect party! No stress, no clean up, & tons of fun!!! I also must thank our super great friend Jodi for taking such beautiful pictures at the party :D

On Tuesday, her actual birthday, Jeff and I took the day off. We were considering still taking her to daycare so that we could have the day to ourselves. Kind of a gift to us for making it through the first year of parenthood. But, it just didn't feel right not spending Renee's birthday with her. So, we decided to go to the Sacramento Zoo instead.

We ended up having a great time! The weather was perfect and since it was the middle of the week, there weren't many people there so Renee got to walk around on her own, which was all she wants to do these days :D

The uneven path was hard for her to stay balanced on, but she did her best!

Renee as compared to some birds of prey.

Ooooooh! Big kitty cat!!

She was only marginally interested in looking at the animals. The ones that resembled dogs in any way (tigers, coyotes, etc.) and the ones that moved around a lot (birds and monkeys) got her attention. She did enjoy watching the orangutans for a while, as did Jeff and I.

We also took her on her first carousel ride at the zoo. At first she loved it, I think because it reminded her of the rocking horse she has at my parents' house. Then, when the ride started she was torn between being nervous and just having a great time! The ride was a little too long for her toddler patience though, and after about five times around she was ready to get off.

Happy on her polar bear, for the moment :D

Renee's second party was at my parents' house on the Saturday after her birthday. My cousin Olivia has been making really adorable cupcakes and cakes for a few years now, so I asked her to make Renee a special 1st birthday cake. I let her take total creative license and so we all got to be surprised at what she decided to make.

And I must say, she outdid herself:

Is this not the CUTEST 1st birthday cake ever!!! Thank you again O!

We all had a great time at this party too! Renee loved getting attention from all her aunts, uncles and cousins, as always :D She also had a ton of fun playing on her hand-me-down rocking horse that we keep at Grandma & Grandpa's house. This was the first time that she was really able to rock on it all on her own, it was really cute!

That's the sweater I made her :D

Again, she got lots of great presents: clothes, building blocks, books, more toys and money for her college savings.

After gifts, we all sang her "Happy Birthday" and gave her a huge piece of cake (the caterpillar's head) to dig into all on her own!! She wasn't quite sure about the whole thing and didn't like how the frosting stuck to her hands and ended up making a big purple frosting mess. It was cute. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries right before the cake, and I haven't uploaded the pictures from my parents' camera yet, so I don't have a picture of her messy cuteness to show you.

Renee ended up have 3 birthday celebrations; two parties and a special day at the zoo with Mommy and Daddy. Wowzers, what a lucky girl!!

A homemade gift

2011-03-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

I don't think I ever posted anything about this, but back around Thanksgiving Renee's primary infant teacher, Erika, changed positions and ended up going to a different daycare center. And Rajvir, an udergraduate student at UC Davis who was working part time at the daycare, took Erika's spot as soon as she graduated at the end of Fall quarter and became Renee's new primary teacher.

Renee moved into the toddler room about a month ago, something I intend to write a post on soon, and so now she has another new primary teacher. Anyway, when she left the infant room I had planned on doing something special to thank all four of the teachers for taking such good care of my baby girl, but I never got around to it.

So last week on Monday, when we got an email that said Rajvir was going on to nursing school, and her last day at the daycare center was going to be Friday, I knew I had to do something for her and fast!!

I've always loved crafting and just can't wait until Renee is old enough to really appreciate it too!! And because I'm sometimes really impatient, I decided our gift to Rajvir should be something crafted by Renee, with maybe a little bit of guidance from me. I know she's only one, but if they can get elephants to paint works of art, I should be able to get my 1 year old to make a small going away gift, right? Not that I'm comparing my daughter to an elephant, she's a lot more like a monkey than anything :D

After a quick Google image search for toddler crafts I found this cute little frame that I was sure Renee and I could do together.

Clay Photo Frame by ActivityVillage.co.uk

I needed something that I could set up for her and that would then only require 5 minutes or less of her time. She is a very busy toddler these days and can't be bothered to do many things for very long unless they are super fun and/or totally new to her. And this seemed to fit the bill perfectly!

Off to Michael's we went and picked up some supplies:

I rolled out the clay and then just cut a rectangular frame shape with a kitchen knife. I didn't measure it or bother making sure the edges were straight. I figured it wouldn't look like a toddler had a hand in making it if is was too perfect :D

Then I set Renee up in her high chair with the clay frame on some parchment paper and showed her how the whole project was meant to work by sticking one gem in the clay myself. She's pretty good at copying whatever I do these days, so I figured it would work great.

I thought it would be more authentic Renee art if she got to pick out the gems herself. But the first thing she did was stick a gem in her mouth. After digging the gem out of her mouth with my finger (being careful to avoid getting bit), I remembered she was only 1 and proceeded more cautiously!

What worked best was when I just gave her 1 gem at a time. I would then point to the frame and repeat cheerfully, over and over again, "put it right there!" She would sometimes oblige and try to stick the gem into the clay like I showed her. But about half the time she would smile at me and stick the gem in her mouth again. Of course I couldn't get mad, I was the one asking her to do something that was way above her maturity level!!!

And after a few minutes of the back and forth gem in mouth, gem on frame business, I gave up, filled in the blank spots myself and called it done. She did seem to enjoy the process a little bit at least, but it probably would have been a lot more fun for the both of us if it was something more age appropriate.

The Model Magic directions said that it would take up to 72 hours to dry completely, so I just left it on the counter for a couple of days. On Thursday, after our trip to the pediatrician, we had to go to Walgreens to get Renee's albuterol prescription, and while we were waiting we went over to the instant print photo machine and printed out one of the pictures I had taken of her that morning. I love that photo machine, you just stick in your camera's memory card and it prints out the photos while you're standing there, and they're only 33 cents each. Perfect for those last minute magnet photo frame gifts!!

Back home I cut the picture to size, glued it on the back, stuck on two of magnets and voilà!!!

A beautiful magnet picture frame "made" by Renee, with just a little help from Mommy.

I've never used Crayola Model Magic before, but it was pretty cool. It stayed nice and bright after it dried, and it was super light, perfect for a magnet! We only ended up using half of it, and there are a ton of gems left. I think I'll wait a while before we try to craft anything with those again though!

On Friday morning, we went into the infant room and gave Rajvir her gift along with a thank you card. She also got a big hug from Renee, so cute!!

Good luck Rajvir, we'll miss you and we know you'll do great in nursing school!!!

Her 1st 2nd

2011-03-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Renee's 2nd St. Patrick's Day!!! It's not really a big deal, except that it was the 1st time she has celebrated anything for the 2nd time - if that makes any sense :D

Normally, to celebrate my mom makes corned beef and cabbage for dinner; mmmmm, salty goodness! But we were all just a bit too busy this year. Instead I just dressed Renee up in a cute green outfit, made sure Jeff and I each wore a green shirt (didn't want to get pinched), and continued on with our normal routine.

March 17, 2011 - 1 year, 3 weeks & 3 days old

I found that super cute little dress at Target. Paired up with some green leggings from another outfit and we had ourselves a little St. Patty's Princess! I do feel a bit silly for spending money on something she only got to wear once, but it was just way too cute to pass up!

She got compliments from so many people everywhere we went. They even gave her a green balloon at the grocery store, which she loved. And you know they only do that for the really cute and super festive babies! Okay, I know, not really :D

Here is a picture of Renee from her 1st St. Patrick's Day. Look how tiny she was!! This was before she got all chubby and round. She was still super cute though : D

March 17, 2010 - 3 weeks & 3 days old

Even though we didn't really celebrate the holiday this year, the day wasn't completely routine. We ended up going to see the pediatrician because Renee had been wheezing for a couple of days and I was starting to get worried. Luckily, it was just a symptom of a common cold and will clear up shortly with the help of an albuterol inhaler :(

We ended up having to wait about an hour before we saw the doctor, but Renee had tons of fun entertaining all the other people in the waiting room. She is so busy these days, always on the move and always inventing new ways to have fun. I love seeing her so happy!!

Here are some pics of her having fun in the doctor's office:

Okay, now that I've pushed this stool across the room, what should I do next?

Hey, why won't this thing open up? There's gotta be something cool in here!!

Peek-a-boo Mommy!!!!

My mommy can't see me under here!! He he he!!

For The Future

2011-03-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, as I look at my adorable baby girl, I have a sudden and startling realization that eventually Jeff and I are going to have a teenage girl!! A snotty, back-talking, lying, dramatic, know-it-all who hates us (sorry future Renee, if you're reading this, it's true), who will make us more angry than we could ever imagine, and who we will still love more than anything anyway.

And although this is quite a ways down the road (12 years to be exact), it will be here eventually. I usually don't linger in that thought process for very long, really only a few seconds is enough! I'm just saying, it does pop in my head every once in a while.

So today when I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Yarn Harlot, a knitter with 3 daughters, who's topic happened to be on things teenage girls like, I thought I'd better take note of this for the future!

Here is what she said:

1. Expensive things. The more money it costs, the better they like it. I use this to my advantage by making sure I complain bitterly about the expense. Makes them feel special when I fold and buy whatever it is, even though I was always going to buy whatever it was. and even though it isn't very expensive.

2. They like stuff that has to do with their physical selves. Manicures. Waxing things. Stuff you paint on yourself. Cream that allegedly does things to your skin. (Hint: The more "action" a product has, the more they like it. Aim for products that have verbs in their marketing. Lengthening, lifting, correcting, shining, enhancing, bronzing, boosting... anything like that.)

3. They will love it if you hate it. This goes for everything, especially boys and skirt lengths.

4. If you love it, they will hate it. See above.

5. They will love it if you look really stupid in it, near it, by it, around it or can't do it. (This, I believe, is the primary draw of skateboards.)

That's all I've got. Good luck, and stay strong.

All I have to do is remember to come back and read this post in 12 years!! And for now, I am going to enjoy every single moment with my sweet little baby girl Renee and try not to think about future problems we may or may not have :D

Happy 1st Birthday Renee!!

2011-02-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

Today, at 9:25 AM, Renee turns ONE YEAR OLD!!!

I can't believe it has been a year already! Time has flown by so fast and Jeff and I have enjoyed every minute of it with our beautiful Angel Pie!

Renee in her birthday suit, minutes after she was born

It is incredible how much she has changed in so little time, and how much more we love her every day!!

Renee today, walking around, smiling and being the goofy toddler she has become!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!! We love you :D

New Pictures Up

2011-02-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Yeahhhh, Jeff put up new pictures from November, December & January on Renee's Gallery Page. That means we're actually up to date on her webpage! And that doesn't happen very often.

If you read this blog, you've probably seen most of the pictures already, but go check them out anyway :D

Jeff's Babies

2011-02-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning Jeff, Renee and the dogs were being super cute together. Everybody wanted Jeff's attention and he was doing his best to make them all happy. I tried to get the perfect picture to capture the moment, and ended up taking a whole bunch. I'm not sure if any one picture was a success, but the series is really cute.

I think it all started with Jeff sitting on the chair by himself.

"Daddy, give us some love!!"

Kirby hopped up and took his place on the back.

"Please!"

Then Sophie decided she needed some attention too.

Renee just couldn't resist Daddy AND the dogs, that's just too much fun!

"We can all fit, really Daddy, really!"

This next one is my favorite:

I'm pretty sure that sometimes Sophie wishes she was a small dog so she can get more attention.

"Life is so hard! If only I was a small dog."

I love that you can see her nosing Jeff's hand in the corner of this next picture!!

"Don't forget about me!!"

"Okay Sophie, I'll pet you while Kirby kisses Renee."

Jeff had his hands full! But I was having too much fun watching and taking pictures to help him!

"Standing up and hitting the dog at the same time, this is awesome!"

"Sorry Renee, I only have two hands and my other children need love too!"

Sick Baby = A Great Day

2011-02-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Wednesday morning Renee woke up like normal around 6:30am. Except, unlike normal, when I went to pick her up out of her crib there was throw up all over her mattress and pj's. Then I noticed that her face was all red from sleeping in her own vomit. Yuck!!! I felt so bad that my baby slept in vomit, but the only time she had cried all night was for just a few minutes, so I didn't go in to check on her. Poor baby girl. Mommy is sorry!!

Anyway, other than a diaper full of diarrhea, she seemed completely fine the rest of the morning. She even happily played with her toys while I got ready. So, I took her to daycare hoping the whole thing was just a fluke, and not the same stomach bug that I had over the weekend.

Well, I was wrong, and after she threw up two more times at daycare they called me to come pick her up. Since the Kaiser clinic that we go to is in Davis, I figured we'd stop by there to see if they could fit her in before going home. I was pretty sure she didn't need to see the doctor, but I figured it was better safe than sorry. And after spending over an hour there, between waiting time and visiting with the pediatrician, we came out with the conclusion that it was exactly what I thought it was - the same stomach bug I had over the weekend :-( So, there was nothing to do but wait it out and make sure she got plenty of fluids.

And, since her daycare's sick policy does not allow the children to come back until they are throw-up free for 24 hours, she wouldn't be able to attend on Thursday no matter how she felt.

Luckily though, she felt better almost immediately!! So on Thursday, we had the entire day free to do whatever we wanted :D After a short discussion we decided to go to the mall, okay, I decided and she had no choice but to tag along! I have been in desperate need of some new bras. Renee is officially weened (I'll write a post about that soon, promise) and as one good friend and fellow breast-feeding mother put it, my nursed out ladies needed some help :D

We had such a great time shopping together! Renee LOVES her stroller, and happily waved at all other children and many adults as we walked around the mall. And she was super patient while I tried on bras (I must have tried on at least 15!). Of course it helped that I let her play with my sunglasses and that I gave her some crackers to munch on (bad combination by the way, my sunglasses were really gross after that). After I finally settled on a couple bras, we went to the food court for some lunch: Panda Express - mmmm, I love their orange chicken!

The food court at Arden Fair mall now has a play area for kids, so I let Renee romp around a little bit. She was the youngest, the other kids were all around 2 or 3 and running around like crazy, so I was a little worried that she was going to get trampled. But, she had a great time! One little girl, Lea, fell in love with her and wouldn't stop petting her head and blocking her path when she crawled. I thought it was pretty cute, but Lea's parents were constantly telling her to leave the baby alone.

Then, as if I hadn't been indulgent enough for one day, I decided to take Renee into Build-a-Bear Workshop and get her a stuffed animal. We (meaning I) decided on an adorable stuffed dog. Renee liked it so much that I had trouble getting her to let it go long enough for the guy to stuff it and sew it up. It is so cute seeing her light up and grab at it with that giant toothy smile of hers! It was well worth the $18. I'll have to write a separate post to introduce her new friend properly :D

Renee fell asleep on the car ride home and slept long enough for me to wash some dishes and clean up the house a little bit. When she woke up from her nap the weather was so nice that we (again, I) decided to spend some time outdoors. So, I got out a big picnic blanket and set Renee up on the front lawn with some toys. She happily played while I weeded and raked up the planter bed in the front of our house. I wasn't able to finish, but I made a pretty big dent in it and I plan on planting some hostas and other shade loving perennials in there over the weekend.

The rest of the evening we just played around with her toys in the living room until it was time to go to bed. She was in bed and asleep by 7:15 (holding on to her new stuffed friend, so cute!) and I had plenty of energy left to wash the dishes from dinner and make some rum raisin rice pudding, which was delicious!!!

Ahhh, days like that make me want to be a stay-at-home mom!! Don't worry though, I'm not naive enough to think that that's how life would be if I were to actually stay home everyday.

"What'd you do today honey?"

"Oh, you know, the same old thing! Went to the mall, spent a ton of money, ate crappy Chinese food, played with the baby, made rice pudding and ate a giant bowl of that."

I'd be broke and fat in no time :D But, a girl can dream, can't she!!

Sick Mama

2011-02-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

Firstly, I'd like to apologize to my readers (I think there's only like 5 of you out there) for not posting in a while. Sorry, I'll try to be better, I swear!!

Okay, on with the blog...

So, for this last weekend we had a super busy Saturday planned: Jeff's parents were going to come over for brunch around 10:30am; for which I was going to make a delicious quiche Loraine, a fruit salad, a green salad and some roasted potatoes. Then, at 2:30 we were going to drive down to San Mateo to have dinner with some great friends that we only get to see every 3 or 4 months.

Well, I woke up Saturday morning at 5am with a really bad stomach ache. Mistaking it for hunger, I got up to have a bowl of cereal and threw up before I even got to the refrigerator. I went ahead and ate some cereal anyway, hoping it was still just hunger and went back to bed. Twenty minutes later my body decided to wage an all out war against any and everything that was in my intestinal tract. And for the rest of the day I was either on the toilet, had my face in the toilet or passed out in bed. There went our plans!

Jeff's parents still came over, but instead of having the great brunch I planned, they took Jeff and Renee out to lunch so that I could have the house to myself for a few hours and get some rest.

Renee LOVES her Grandpa Earl and Grandma Karen! I think because they get such a kick out her antics, and so they're always laughing and smiling, which then makes her laugh and smile more, which then makes them laugh and smile more, and so on. It's a total snow ball affect :D Here are some pictures:

Poking Grandpa in the face with a spoon!

Trying to steal Grandpa's hat! He doesn't seem to mind :D

Making Grandma and Grandpa smile.

Jeff spent rest of the day taking care of Renee, taking care of me AND juggling his on-call duties for work!! Thank goodness he was home, I don't know what I would have done without him!

I finally started feeling better around 5pm, and was able to keep some food down (apple sauce, saltines and chicken broth). But, man did I feel weak. Just standing up for a few seconds made me light headed and nauseous. By Sunday, I was pretty much back to normal, albeit a few pounds lighter! But, I was still tired, so we just took it easy all day and hung out at home.

And, changing the subject entirely, here is a picture showing Renee's progress on her most current endeavor: growing teeth!!!

She's got 6 so far. Look at those choppers!!!

Stand, Color & Spin

2011-01-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

I was actually able to get a few Renee steps on video last night! I also got about 10 minutes of her just being cute; coloring, spinning around and making motor boat sounds :D Don't worry though, I cut most of it out and made a short video to show you some of the highlights of her cuteness!

So you don't miss it, the walking part is right at the start of the video, it really is more like stumbling than walking, but it's a start!

The crayons are new. Jeff, Renee and I went out to lunch, and the restaurant had crayons and coloring books for kids. We let Renee do some coloring and she did pretty good (meaning she didn't try to eat the crayons as much as we thought she would) so, we went to Office Depot and got her some extra large crayons and a pad of paper.

And here is the masterpiece that she created:

Renee Walked Today!!

2011-01-14T21:41:00.000-08:00

When we picked Renee up from daycare today, one of her teachers told us that she took 6 steps!! As exciting as that information was, the shock of this unexpected news caused me ask several questions for clarification:

   Teacher: "Renee took 6 steps today!"
   Me: "You mean on her own?"
   Teacher: "Uh, huh!"
   Me: "She wasn't holding onto anything?"
   Teacher: "Nope"
   Me: "She walked, all by herself?"

And it went on like this for a few more rounds of me basically asking the same question and her politely nodding her head and smiling. Although, I'm sure by the end of it she would have liked to yell, "YES lady, that IS what I said, isn't it!!!"

Renee was too tired when we got home to even play on her own for long, so Jeff and I will just have to wait until tomorrow to witness her new mobile ability :D I will be sure to post a video as soon as I am able to get it on film.

In the meantime, here are some cute pictures of her from the last couple of weeks:

Here she is feeding Chico (my parent's chihuahua) some of her Cheerios. Yes, there is a dog on the kitchen table!!!

She LOVES playing with her cousin Credence! He was running as fast as he could from the other side of the room and diving onto the ottoman straight towards Renee. She thought it was hilarious! I thought there were going to be two crying kids with giant bumps on there head at any moment. Luckily, I was wrong :D

Our little vampire! Her eyeteeth are coming in faster than her front teeth, it's pretty goofy looking!

What can I say, poor Kirby dog!!

Mmmmm, spaghetti! She is finally starting to eat solid food on her own. Before, if she picked something up and it felt slimy at all, she would look at it in disgust and throw it on the floor.

Jeff picked out this shirt for her. It says, "Dad Thinks I'm Rad." It's totally a boy shirt, but she doesn't care!

Operation: Get Renee to Sleep - Part 2

2011-01-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

I realize I never gave an update on my progress at getting Renee to sleep, so here it is along with the new plan implemented earlier this week.

Last month I told you about my plan to take away one of the three nursing sessions she woke up for in the middle of the night. Which after a about a week of just rocking her back to sleep she just stopped waking up at 11pm. Great progress right? Well, kinda. With that change in her night time schedule, two new things started to happen: 1) she moved her 3am wake-up to 2am and 2) she REFUSED to go back into her crib after I nursed her!

So, at 2am she would wake up, I would nurse her back to sleep and put her in her crib (used to work fine). But now she would immediately wake up screaming as soon as her body touched the mattress. So, I picked her up and did whatever I could to calm her down without nursing her again. This entailed pacing the house, shushing, singing and rocking her until she would fall asleep again. Then I would put her in her crib again and she would wake up screaming again, and the whole thing started over! This process usually lasted an hour to an hour and a half and entailed 2 or 3 attempts at putting her back in her crib before she would stay and I could finally go back to bed.

Okay, so my original plan, although successful, kind of backfired as far as the overall picture of getting Renee to sleep better was concerned. What to do next? Well, with the holidays right around the corner, I was hesitant to make another big change until I knew we could have a more consistent schedule. So, right after our crazy Christmas weekend, I started putting her to bed awake. My thought being that if I could get her to be comfortable going to sleep on her own at bedtime, then maybe at our 2am nursing session she would be okay with just going back into her crib and not put up such a huge fight. Also, I knew I needed to stop picking her up when she cried and so my plan was to just pat her back and shush and sing to her until she fell asleep.

This plan worked pretty well. To keep her awake at bedtime I would read her a story while she was nursing, she can't fall asleep with all those cool pictures to look at :D Then I would put her in her crib and pat her back and sing to her until she fell asleep, this usually took about 15 to 20 minutes. But, it wasn't helping for the 2am nursing session, she still refused to go back to sleep. I was spending way too long bent over her crib patting her, it was KILLING my back and I would end up just giving in and picking her up to rock her back to sleep!

HUH!!! It was a rough week!

Okay, new plan, she needed to learn to got to sleep on her own and I just needed to stop nursing her in the middle of the night all together. That was it, end of story, she's 10 1/2 months old Kelly, she won't starve!!!

So, on Sunday night, with Jeff's very persistent urging (to put it nicely), I put her to bed at 8pm and let her cry herself to sleep. Thankfully it only took 23 minutes, I wasn't going to let her go more than 25. She woke up again at 10pm when Jeff went in to check on her (as if this whole process wasn't hard enough already) and then again at 2am (her normal time). I let her cry for 10 minutes both times and, to my surprise, she barely resisted and went to sleep after about 6 or 7 minutes of patting her back and shushing her. Not too shabby!

Monday night was even better. She only cried for about 15 minutes when I put her to bed. She woke up at 4am and was crying, but it was more like a whine/whimper, and she fell back asleep in 14 minutes without me going to her at all. She woke up again for about a minute at 6am, and didn't get up until 8am. Pretty good!

And last night, after her 15 minutes of crying to go to sleep initially, the only sounds she made all night were a few coughs and maybe a whimper or two. She woke up at 6:50am. Success!

The only side effect of this new sleeping arrangement has been that Renee is now incredibly clingy in the morning. I can't even put her down for a minute without her screaming her head off!! I'm sure it's really hard on her not having that extra cuddle time in the middle of the night any more, but hopefully she will get used to it soon :D And now that we are all going to get a good night sleep, we will have plenty of energy for extra cuddle time during the day!

3 Days of Christmas

2011-01-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

Renee was born into a VERY large family. So, in order to see as many people as we can, holidays are always a little hectic.

Our usual tradition is that we have Christmas Eve dinner with my mother's side of the family. Then on Christmas morning we have breakfast at my Aunt Barbara's house and dinner with my dad's side of the family. We have lunch with Jeff's family on either Christmas Eve or Day, depending on what side of the Bay each of the dinners are being held that year.

This year though, with Renee in tow, we decided to make things a little bit easier on ourselves and only do 1 family function per day and then visit Jeff's family the day after Christmas.

So, on Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt Lea (my Mom's sister) and Uncle Dave's house in Novato. Always a loud bunch, my mom's side of the family knows how to have a good time :D Tons of great food, great people and gazillion presents!!!

Renee got to meet her cousin Erin, who lives in Long Beach, for the first time.

Erin, Me, Loren, Renee & Olivia

She got to play with my mom's dog, Pearl. Renee LOVES dogs and is very happy when they let her "pet" them.

She got lots of play time with her Grandma Denise (my mom).

My mom thought is was hilarious when she squished Renee's face in her hands, Renee thought it was pretty funny too... I had to get a picture of that silliness!

And she had an absolute blast chasing around her cousin Credence. Of course there was no way she could keep up with his 3 year old energy and speed, but she tried her hardest!

Credence, Jennifer & Renee

By the time presents were being opened, Renee was exhausted!! But, to our surprise, she held it together quite well. There were so many distractions and new things to play with, there was no way she could be upset for long.

Renee and her Daddy playing with some of her new toys.

She even let us put her in this cute box so we could take a picture of our little angel on her first Christmas :D

On Christmas morning, Jeff and I didn't have any exciting plans for her, we knew she would be exhausted and have a million new toys, so we only gave one small gift: a wooden shapes and colors puzzle - which she loved :D

Then we decided to try out one of her gifts from my parents and went on a walk in her brand new stroller.

Kirby, Sophie, Me and Renee.

I had previously borrowed a stroller from a friend when Renee was younger. It wasn't quite the right fit for us at the time, but after using that for a few months I was able to come up with a list of features I wanted to have for the next stroller we got. Things like: a single handle bar, easy and compact folding, easy steering and a really good canopy to protect my angel from the elements. This stroller fits the bill perfectly, and Renee loves it too :D It started pouring rain about halfway through our walk; Jeff, the dogs and I all got soaked, but Renee was snug as a bug in a rug!

When we were getting ready for our next gathering I put Renee in a very pretty Christmas dress, a hand me down from some friends of ours.

And as pretty as it was, it made me and Jeff uncomfortable just looking at her in it, we're just not fancy-dress-on-baby kind of people I guess. So, instead she wore a "Baby's 1st Christmas" onesie I got her at Target, much more our style :D

We went to my Aunt Julie (my Dad's sister) and Uncle Mario's house in Petaluma for dinner that night. And again Renee had a great time playing with the doggies!

Renee getting Christmas kisses from Piccolina.

My Aunt Julie has kept the high chair she used with her children, now in their 30's. It has been quite well used over the years, Auntie Julies has used it for her grandchildren and now gets to use it for her great nieces and nephews. She also let Renee play with a Santa Clause Rattle that was over 30 years old. Renee loved it, but was treating it a little too rough for my comfort, so I eventually took it from her and put it safely back on it's shelf!

Renee got to visit with lots more family:

Great Grandma Ferguson (aka "GG") and Renee

Uncle Jerry and Renee

Renee and cousin Ashley

And again there were lots of presents for Renee to open; she seemed to enjoy the paper more than the gifts inside though :D

On the day after Christmas we went to Jeff's parents house to visit and open a few more gifts. Then we all went to lunch at the Hunan House in Dublin. There's nothing like eating some good Chinese food after all that American holiday fare :D

Jeff's Dad, Earl, calls Renee his little light bulb because she always lights up the room. I love watching him play with her; he's so big and she's so small and they always have such a great time together.

Grandpa Earl helping Renee drink from a cup.

Happy baby Renee with her Grandpa Earl :D

After lunch, we went to Pleasanton to hang out and have dinner with my brother Sam, my step-mom Lynne and their family. There were more presents to open and more family to shower her with love and attention, so Renee was a happy camper!

Pete (a very experienced dad of 4) giving Renee a bottle.

Renee also showed off her new talent. When someone says, "Uh Oh!!", she puts her hands on her head, it is sooo cute :D

And of course, she had to have lots of doggie play time. She is becoming our little Elmyra, which is exactly what I was when I was a kid. Animals ran with fear from all the "love" I wanted to give them :D

Julia, Lacey and Renee.

And that was Renee's first Christmas, and our first together as a family. A very busy and exhausting 3 days, but filled with great memories.

Look Mom, No Hands!!

2010-12-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I just watched Renee pull herself up to standing using the coffee table. Then she let go and stood there all on her own for like 1 or 2 seconds, looking at us with her big goofy smile before falling back on her butt. A few minutes later she did it again, and this time stood for a good 4 seconds :D

Of course we missed it with the camera both times, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities now that she knows she can do it!

The Weeks Leading Up to Christmas

2010-12-30T15:30:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't posted in a while, I figured I'd give you a quick catch-up of some of the things we did before Christmas. I'll do a post about the holidays soon though, I promise :D

The weekend of December 11 & 12:

We originally had no plans for this weekend, then on Thursday we got invited to our friends last minute birthday party for their son Hayden, who was turning 3. Chris and Katrina (Hayden's parents) rented him one of those giant jumper things, which Renee LOVED!

Of course she had to wait until the "big" kids were tired of it before she got to go in, but I'm pretty sure she enjoyed watching them jump in it just as much as she like being in it herself!

She also got to play with her friend Aubrey, Hayden's little sister, who is just a couple of weeks younger than Renee.

I had Jeff pose with both the girls so we could do a side by side of how big they've gotten since the last time we were all together back in April.

Aubrey, Jeff and Renee - December 11, 2010

Renee, Jeff and Aubrey - April 25, 2010

It's amazing how fast they grow, isn't it!!! Jeff pretty much looks the same though :D

After Hayden's birthday party, we went to my parents house for dinner. And then the next morning we met Jeff's mom for breakfast, so Renee got lots of grandparent time that weekend :D

Later that afternoon she showed some interest in her magnetic drawing board and to my surprise she actually figured out how to draw on it, instead of just sucking on the magnet pen like she usually does. It was really cute!

The weekend of December 18 & 19:

We didn't have too many plans this weekend, so Renee got to spend some time just hanging out with Daddy. She loves to press the buttons on his computer :D

On Saturday we went to Old Sac to have lunch with our friends Marc and Nancy and their sons Koichi and Seiji who were up in our area for the day to get a new puppy.

It was a bit cold and rainy out, but Renee didn't mind!

This picture has no point other than total and utter cuteness...

And here is Marc holding Renee (this was the first time they met) and that's his son Koichi over there on the right, playing video games I think.

On Sunday we went to Jason and Jodi's house and Renee got to play with her friends Keira and Jackson. We also did a gift exchange with the kids, so Renee got to practice opening presents before Christmas :D

Other than all the visits with friends and family, the weeks leading up to Christmas were relatively calm (most likely because I didn't make cookies this year!).

Gross

2010-12-14T16:14:00.000-08:00

Renee threw a toy in the toilet for the 1st time this morning.

It normally wouldn't have been too big of a deal, except that we are a "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." kind of family.

...I threw the toy away!

Crawling - A Video!!!

2010-12-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

Renee is getting better and better at crawling every day. I love watching her move around and explore new things in the house, which is pretty much everything other than toys or spatulas :D

I especially love the way she crawls, it's more of a scoot/drag than a crawl really, but it does the job and it's super cute! Here's a video I took of her I took earlier this evening, there's really only good crawling action for the 1st minute, and then she gets distracted by the dogs:

Santa and a Shot

2010-12-02T18:20:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid my mom always took me to the mall to get my picture taken with Santa Claus. I remember really enjoying getting to sit on his lap every year and tell him what I wanted for Christmas, and it's a tradition I want to continue with Renee.

Of course, she has no concept of who Santa Claus is, or even what Christmas is at this point in her life. But, I know she will enjoy looking back at pictures of herself with Santa from every year of her childhood.

So, I got off early today and took Renee to the mall. She did not like the fact that I was handing her to a large, hairy, stranger. And no matter what I or the "elves" did, she would not smile. It didn't help that Santa wouldn't let her get a good look at his face. He thought it would make her cry, and so every time she tried to turn around to see who was holding her he would duck his face down behind her back. This resulted in her just sitting there looking sad and confused! Oh, well, it's still a cute picture.

And without further ado, here is Renee's very 1st picture with Santa Claus, taken at Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento.

After visiting Santa, we went to Sears to pick up our Christmas photo cards. I would show you what they look like, but I'm pretty sure everyone that reads this blog is on our mailing list, so you'll just have to wait :D

After window shopping and snacking on some mall food (Hot Dog on a Stick), we got in the car and drove back to Davis to get our flu shots. I fully expected Renee to cry like she does every other time she has gotten shots, but she just sat there in my arms and looked at the lady like, '"hey, why are you touching my leg lady?".
At this point, a few hours later, it feels like someone punched me in the arm where I got my shot, so I'm sure her leg is sore too, but she's a tough little monkey. Hopefully she doesn't have too bad of a reaction to the vaccine later tonight!!

Operation: Get Renee to Sleep

2010-12-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

I am tired.

I have been tired for 9 months, 1 week and 2 days. Some days are worse than others of course, but basically, I haven't gotten a good night sleep since Renee was born. Well, that's not entirely true, she slept 9 hours straight on Sunday, November 21st. You might think it's strange that I remember the date, but it was so miraculous that I might just make it into a personal holiday. Most nights though she wakes up every 3 hours and I nurse her back to sleep each time.

Here is a typical night: I put her to bed at 8pm and I go to bed at 9:30pm. She wakes up at around 11pm, 3am and 6am every night. It takes me about 20 minutes to nurse her back to sleep each time, and then another 5 to 10 minutes for me to fall asleep after my head hits the pillow. I stay up after the 6am feeding though. She usually sleeps for another hour or two after that, and I use that time to get ready in the morning.

If you haven't already done the math, I am getting about 7 hours of sleep in a 9 hour period. That might not sound too bad, many people do fine on 6 or 7 hours of sleep, 6 or 7 hours of continuous sleep that is. It's amazing how important that is. My 7 hours is interrupted twice on a good night, and that's not even counting if one of the dogs has to go to the bathroom, which of course is NEVER at a time when I'm already up.

Everyone's advice: "Just let her cry." Well I can't do that. I've tried. It hurts me. Physically. Really, it does.

So, my new plan is to take out one nursing session at a time, and replace it with just holding and rocking her to sleep. This week (or however long it takes her to get used to it) I'm not nursing her when she wakes up at 11pm. My hope is that she just won't wake up at that time any more. If I'm not nursing her, then there's no point, right? Then, when we (really just me) are ready, I'll take out the 3am one, and eventually she will just sleep through the night. That's the plan and I'm sticking to it.

Renee does NOT like this plan! It has only been two nights so far. Both times it took me about 20 minutes to get her to go to sleep; holding strong through her screaming, pushing and back arching, all part of her fight to get her face to my boobs. The whole time telling myself that if I give in and nurse her, then I lose and I will never get a good night sleep, ever again!

Both nights, as soon as I put her down in her bed she woke up and started screaming again. Another 20 minutes of rocking, singing and shushing later and another try at putting her down and she woke up again! The second time though her crying was much less intense, and I was too tired to continue the process so I just let her cry it out, which only took about 10 minutes. I HATE doing that, but I can tolerate it when she's not screaming. If it's just soft crying and I'm completely exhausted, then and only then, can I handle letting her cry herself to sleep. Desperate times, desperate measures, or something like that.

So, wish me good luck in my endeavor to get Renee to sleep longer, and in turn, get more sleep myself. I know my way seems like the hard way of doing it, and maybe not the best, but it's what I'm comfortable with.

Two Days of Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

Normally on Thanksgiving, Jeff and I try to fit in multiple family visits into one day. This year though, with Renee in tow, we decided to go a bit easier on ourselves. Well, that was the plan anyway :D

To start our two day holiday celebration off we packed up the car and headed to Briones Regional Park in Pleasant Hill on Thursday morning for a hike. The weather was beautiful and the dogs had a great time running around on the trail and chasing the ball. Renee also enjoyed the hike, she just loves being outdoors for any reason, especially if she gets to watch the dogs run around. I wore her in my front pack and zipped my fleece jacket up over her legs so she was nice and cozy warm.

After the dogs were tired, we drove up to my parents house for my family's Thanksgiving dinner. There were a ton of people (19) and a ton of food (enough to feed a small army).

Renee is pretty comfortable at my parents house now, and even though she only sees them about once a month, I can tell she recognizes her Grandma and Grandpa. But when everyone else arrived she was a little overwhelmed. It took her a while, but she warmed up to the idea of getting to know all those relatives and ended up having a great time.

Playing with cousin Credence.

Hanging out with Uncle Dave.

Chatting with cousins Olivia and Loren.

The next morning we just relaxed and let Renee play and practice crawling. She has been working on it for a while now and about two weeks ago she figured out how to push herself up from laying on her tummy to sitting up on her butt. So we knew she was close.

Look at that concentration. Tongue out, just like her Daddy!

She's also been practicing her standing lately, of course she always needs something (or someone) to hang on to for balance :D

Then for lunch on Friday we went to Jeff's parent's house in Dublin.

Grandpa Earl and the kitty, Ted 2.

Grandma Karen was so happy to see her.

After spending the afternoon with Jeff's parents we went over to my step-mom's house in Pleasanton for dinner.

Grandma Lynne and Lacey dog.

Uncle Sam.

While we were there, we let Renee play a bit on the floor. She REALLY wanted this metal pumpkin decoration that was on Lynne's coffee table, so we put it on the floor just out of her reach and....

SHE CRAWLED!!!!!!

It was really slow, and not very far, and she looked more like a lobster than a baby, but she crawled for the first time :D It was very exciting! Of course Renee was just happy she got to the pumpkin.

We went back to my parents' house to spend one more night and then came home Saturday afternoon. It was a tiring 2 1/2 days, but very fun and well worth all the driving to see our family for the holiday.

In other Renee news, she is also getting very good at waving and saying "hi", although it sounds more like "haaaaaaa". But, she's working on it :) Oh, and Jeff put up some more pictures and a movie on her gallery page, so go check them out.

If a baby pulls herself up and no one is around to see it, did she really stand on her own?

2010-11-09T10:53:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, when I picked Renee up from daycare, all of the teachers were so excited because Renee had used a bench to pull herself up from sitting to standing for the first time. The catch was that no one saw it. They left her sitting on her own, they all got distracted with helping other babies, and when they looked over at Renee she was standing!

Initially I was excited too, but when I was driving home and thinking about this HUGE thing that my baby girl did, I started getting really sad. I wasn't there to see her stand up on her own for the 1st time! The fact that no one else saw it was only a little bit of a consolation, and a very selfish one at that!!

She's growing soooo fast, and of course I'm not going to be there to see every new thing she does, as much as I want to. And I can only imagine how Jeff feels, he barely gets to see her at all during the week; maybe 15 or 20 minutes every morning, and then sometimes he gets home after she goes to bed at night.

Obviously we can't stop her from growing, so we just have to enjoy every second with her as much as we can before she moves on to the next big thing. And of course take pictures, tons and tons of pictures :D

And more for my own memory keeping than anything else, here are some of Renee's most current milestones (besides the whole standing thing):

She can say mama now, although it's more like, "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma"
She can also say dada and daaah (translation: dog, she LOVES the dogs)
Her 1st tooth is coming in!
She can point and poke at things with her index finger (seems trivial, but it's an important one)
She's beginning to depend less on putting everything in her mouth and starting to actually explore what else she can do with them (i.e. shaking rattles, banging things together, etc.)
And finally, she's getting more and more adorable every single day :D

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~Dr. Seuss

Her first Halloween!

2010-11-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

I wasn't even going to get Renee a costume this year, she wouldn't know what was going on anyway. But, my own guilt and a chat with a good friend pushed me over the edge. So, on Wednesday, only 4 days before Halloween, I took Renee to one of those Spirit Superstores in Sacramento. What a madhouse that place was! They had no cute costumes left for babies, and the ones they did have were $30!!! NO way was I going to spend that much on something she was only going to wear one time and that she wouldn't even remember.

So, then we went to Target, who was selling their very limited selection of costumes they had left at 30% off. I ended up getting a flower costume for infants 0-6 months old. Too small for Renee, of course, but that's all they had and I knew I could fix it. $10.50 on the costume and about 30 minutes with my seam ripper and sewing machine later and my baby girl had her very first Halloween costume. Not bad, if I do say so myself :D

She wore it to daycare on Thursday for their Fall Harvest Festival. I knew they were having this festival, and they said costumes were optional, but EVERY single baby was dressed up!

Renee with her teacher Erika and friends from daycare.

I was so glad I ended up getting a costume for Renee, she would have been the only one not dressed up if I hadn't.

Playing with a baby pumpkin at the Harvest Festival

On Friday, we were supposed to go to my parent's house for dinner, but I ended up getting a major headache (rare for me) and so we stayed home and relaxed instead.

On Saturday, we had dinner with some great friends. She wore her Halloween shirt that said, "Daddy is under my Spell". Which, he is!

Happy with Steve O., and that's Katie in the background.

Hanging out with Jane and Steve.

On Sunday, we had breakfast in Vacaville with Jeff's mom and some of her friends. Then we went home to do some chores before my mom came over to spend the afternoon with us. And Renee wore her "Baby's 1st Halloween" shirt. We can thank the local children's consignment store for all her Halloween themed shirts :D

Watching the Giants game with Grandma Denise.

There were only a handful of Trick-or-Treaters, but Renee did enjoy seeing their interesting costumes. And after such a long and event filled weekend, she was pooped!

All of that Halloween fun made for a very tired baby!!

Cousins, cousins, and coming soon, even more cousins!

2010-10-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend Renee and I went to my cousin Rachel and her fiance Lindsey's baby shower. They're going to have a baby boy, and his name is going to be Jaden! There are actually three babies due on that side of my family (my cousin Jennifer is having a girl and my cousin Maryann is having a surprise), and they are all due within the next 3 months!!!

Renee and her great-grandma Ferguson. And that's Rachel and Lindsey in the background :D

Renee and her cousin Ashley at Rachel and Lindsey's baby shower.

On top of that, Jeff's brother Eric and his girlfriend Veronica just had a baby boy, Baby Eric, a month ago.

Me holding baby Eric, and Veronica's cousin holding Renee.

All of these babies being born are in some form or another cousins to Renee. So, I started thinking about how many cousins she actually has? And the answer is A LOT!!! I had to make an Excel spreadsheet to count them all and keep their exact cousin titles straight, and these are just the ones that we stay in contact with.

Here's the count:
1st Cousins: 1
1st Cousins, once removed: 25
2nd Cousins: 4, soon to be 7
1st Cousins, twice removed: 2
2nd Cousins, once removed: 3
3rd Cousins: 2

Grand Total: 37, soon to be 40 cousins!!! Eight of which will actually be around the right age for Renee to play with at family functions. Pretty crazy! And there are more out there, many more, we just don't keep in contact with them, so I'm not counting them.

Oh, and if you're not quite sure what all the cousin terminology (once removed, twice removed, etc.) means, check out this site: Cousin Relationships (I'm always explaining it to people, but this site has a good visual lesson).

Toys, unfortunately, are a necessity.

2010-10-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

Before becoming a parent, I always had this idea that I would not overwhelm my child with a million toys. Our friends and family who had children before us seemed to lose their house to an avalanche of toys. Everywhere you looked was another annoying blinking noisy plastic thing! How? Why? No, that would not be us!!!! I will just let my child play with kitchen utensils and cardboard boxes.

Then came Renee. Our beautiful, precious, darling angel. Our princess. Our love. Our slap in the face reality check. And finally, after years of wondering, I understood. If you give the baby an annoying blinky noisy plastic thing then you can get the dishes washed, or you can take a shower, or maybe, just maybe you can write a blog post (something which seems to always be last on the "to-do" list)!!! And then the toys are no longer annoying; they are magical, they are amazing, they are life savers. Alright, maybe I'm being a little dramatic here, but I think you get my point :D

Don't get me wrong, kitchen utensils held their ground strong for a long time in this house. Renee enjoyed many hours of sucking on, waving about and banging the array spoons, spatulas, whisks and measuring cups that call our kitchen drawer home.

But, those have become old news to her and so last weekend I went to a local children's consignment store and bought her some used (well, new to her - and that is all that's important) toys to play with. And she loves them!!! And I love them!!! And Jeff, well, he's still concerned that our house is going to be overrun with toys. And maybe it will, but we'll worry about that when we get there.

Responsible Parenting

2010-09-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Renee and I went to my graduate group's annual Welcome Dinner to meet this year's incoming class and to re-connect with some of the other graduate students in our group.

While I was chatting with a new student, Renee was sitting on my lap wildly grabbing at her beer bottle. It's always so cute watching her chubby little arms stretching out, and her long chubby little fingers wiggling away, desperately grasping at whatever object her mind is set on at the moment! When the student (sorry, I don't remember her name, I'm horrible with names) was done with her beer I asked if Renee could have the bottle so she could slobber it up.

Another student saw Renee sucking on the beer bottle and "had to take a picture!" on his iPhone. He sent it to me with the subject line: "Responsible Parenting"

The picture turned out really cute :D I love how serious she is about it!

And with all the hype about BPAs and other chemicals in plastics, letting my daughter suck on a glass bottle is responsible parenting :D

Apple Hill

2010-09-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we went to High Hill Ranch in Placerville with our friends Jason & Jodi and their kids Keira and Jackson. The ranch is part of an area called Apple Hill, an association of local apple growers, vineyards and christmas tree growers. It was our first time there, but apparently it's a popular destination if you live in Northern California because everyone I mentioned it too was like, "Ohh, I LOVE Apple Hill!! They have the best pie, fudge, cider, donuts, etc..." or "That place is great, we go there every year!"

Anyway, we had a great time. We brought stuff to have a picnic lunch on the lawn by a man-made duck pond - Renee's first picnic :D

Family portrait.

We were sitting on a slope and I was worried that if Renee fell forward (which she does on occasion, she's quite top heavy) that she'd just topple on down the hill into the pond. So, I sat below her the whole time just in case. She only fell once though, right into the cheese plate (we were done with the cheese, thankfully), it was pretty funny :D

Keira & Renee looking so cute together!

There were only two ducks in the pond, and they were the fattest ducks we've ever seen, so they really had no interest in any food we had to offer. That didn't stop Keira and Jackson from trying and they still had fun throwing bread in the pond!

Jason, Jackson and Keira "feeding" the ducks.

The weather turned out to be perfect. The forecast had said 60% showers, but it just sprinkled a bit on our drive, and it was beautiful for the rest of the day.

Me, Renee, Keira and Jodi

Keira got her face painted and got to go on a pony ride.

And there was a cute little playground for the kids.

Keira & Jackson playing in the sand box.

Renee really wished she was big enough to run around with Keira and Jackson, but she had to settle for watching from my lap. Pretty soon baby girl!!

And, of course, we got some apple pie for dessert. It was okay, not great, mine is better (and Jeff agrees - I didn't bully him into that opinion, honest!) They did have good apple donuts though :D

At the end of the day we drove into downtown Placerville and checked out some of the cute little shops on Main St. before having some super yummy pot-pies at Z-Pie.

It was a great Sunday!

World Traveler in the Making

2010-09-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I love to travel and did so as much as we possibly could afford to before Renee was born. We always thought that having a child would hinder our traveling. But, it turns out (for now anyway) that Renee is a great traveler! Last week we went on our first trip with her and she did great every step of the way.

First we flew from Sacramento to Seattle (with a stop-over in Portland) to visit Jeff's step-brother Earl and his wife Daphne. The plane rides went great, Renee fell asleep before taking off and slept until we landed in both of them. Of course it helped that they were only about 1 hour each :D

Here's me and Renee in her Ergo carrier (I love that thing) in front of the Space Needle in Seattle. And that's Jeff's hand blocking out the sun so he could take the picture!

We went up to the top, but Renee had no interest in checking out the view. She was hungry and just wanted to nurse. So, now at least I can say I nursed my baby at the top of the Seattle Space Needle (I know, not really T-shirt worthy, but fun to say anyway!).

The view from the top of the Space Needle.

And here she is with her Uncle Earl

and her Auntie Daphne. She thought Daphne was just about the funniest person she's ever met and laughed more in these two days than she has in her whole 6 months of life :D It was really cute!

Earl and Daphne were great tour guides! We saw killer whales in the wild.

We went to an alpaca farm,

and a lavender farm.

And we enjoyed tons of yummy food (Earl is not only an exceptional cook, but he also had a nose for yummy food joints to snack at while we were sightseeing)!

Jeff, Renee and I had one more day in Seattle to explore on our own, so we went to the Seattle Aquarium and the Pike Place Market.

The aquarium was great. Renee wanted to grab all the fish and didn't understand why she couldn't get her hands through the glass when they swam by! Jeff and I enjoyed watching her reaction to everything more than we enjoyed the aquarium itself.

Then, another plane ride and we landed in Palm Springs to visit Jeff's grandpa, aka Renee's great-grandpa Denny, Uncle John, Sarah (the cat) and their house guest Valerie.

We had a nice relaxing couple of days there before heading back home.

So, really, the only hard part about traveling with an infant was dragging the car seat around everywhere we go and installing it in every new car we drive in. And that really wasn't that bad, although Jeff was the one who had to carry the thing through all the airports!

The only question now is, where should we go next?

Food Face

2010-08-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we started giving Renee solid foods! It took her about a week before the food we put in her mouth actually ended up in her stomach. But she's got the hang of it now. She's eating fruits and vegetables and sometimes rice or oatmeal cereal (the cereals constipate her, so we don't give it to her very often - sorry if that was TMI!).

It's strange how changing one little thing like what we feed her has opened up a whole new can of worms on baby care. Before, I just nursed her and we were done. Now, I have to defrost her food (I made a whole bunch and froze it in small portions), strap her in her high chair, put a bib on her, then feed her, then clean up the mess.

This should give you an idea of what kind of a mess I'm talking about:

How does that happen you wonder? Like this: Mom puts food in baby's mouth. Baby puts hand in mouth. Baby gets food all over hand. Baby rubs hand all over face. Mom takes picture while laughing at food covered baby face :D

Just One of Those Mornings!

2010-08-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

Got up and started the coffee while Jeff showered.
Changed Renee's diaper and got her dressed.
Prepared coffee for me and a to-go cup of coffee for Jeff.
Nursed Renee.
While nursing Renee I also: kissed Jeff goodbye, drank some of my coffee and tried to trim Renee's nails.
Showered and got myself dressed while simultaneously entertaining Renee by singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over again - she loves that song.
Finished trimming Renee's nails (they were long and she was starting to scratch herself - had to be done!).
Blow dried my hair while eating a bowl of cereal, not very successfully.
Changed Renee's diaper again, this time it was poopy.
Brushed my teeth.
Banged Renee's head on the door of the bathroom (an accident of course, and thankfully not part of a typical morning).
Calmed Renee down by nursing her.
Gathered breast pump supplies.
Dropped the frozen hard ice pack that keeps my breast milk cold all day on the floor about a foot away from where Renee was happily playing, scaring the living bejeesus out of her!
Calmed Renee down by going outside and looking at the trees and singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".
Tried to feed two dogs while holding an upset baby in my arms.
Spilled dog food all over the floor.
Let the dogs clean up the mess.
Gathered Renee's food, diapers and blankets for daycare.
Gave the cat her medication.
Rinsed out my half full cup of coffee and half eaten bowl of cereal.
Made sure both dogs went to the bathroom.
Crated Kirby.
Checked the house for things Sophie could and would get into (i.e. garbage can, food on counter, etc.).
Made sure all the windows were closed.
Grabbed my purse, Renee's diaper bag, food bag and two blankets, my car keys and my sunglasses (forgot my cell phone, but didn't realize that until I got to school) all while holding Renee in my other arm.
Finally got out of the house, locked the door, buckled the baby into her car seat, packed the car with all the stuff and left!!

Whew, no wonder I'm exhausted today!

Jumping Bean

2010-08-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

We went to my aunt's house on Sunday for a family get together, and my mom brought a jumper for Renee (apparently she's going to be the spoiling kind of grandma!).

I thought for sure she was going to cry as soon as we put her in it, but she loved it immediately! Not only does she get to stand, but it has a mirror and a bunch of hanging toys for her to play with.

It really is a great thing, it keeps her happily occupied for a good 10 minutes in the mornings while I get ready. Every little bit helps! Thanks Grandma Denise!!!

Oh, and I had to post this adorable picture of Renee and her second cousin (my cousin's son) Credence getting to know each other. So cute :D

In other Renee news, I started giving her solids this week! She's been eating rice cereal mixed with baby food veggies. I use the term "eating" very loosely of course, most of the food ends up on her face, chin, hands, etc. But, some does get in her mouth :D We're working on it!

And, I finally put up the July pictures on her Gallery page, so go check them out if you're in the mood to see more of her cuteness!

Sittin' Pretty

2010-08-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Renee can sit all on her own!!! She was hanging on to the roller coaster toy (see the previous post) and she just let go. Of course I was ready and waiting to catch her, thinking she was going to topple over like always, but she didn't. She just sat there :D

She doesn't have the hang of it 100% yet, every once in a while she wobbles, but then catches herself. And then sometimes she still falls down (I catch her, don't worry!).

And here is close-up of that beautiful smile:

Ohhh, that picture makes me melt into a giant puddle of gooey mushiness. I didn't know it was possible to love someone so much!!!

Roller Coaster

2010-07-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

I got this roller coaster toy, along with a bunch of baby clothes, from a donation shower (aka: baby stuff swap) that the UC Davis Pregnant Student Support Group held a few months ago. I love free baby stuff, Renee doesn't care if it's used, and we don't have to spend money on something she's only going to use for a few months.

She really likes this toy too. She can't move the blocks around yet, but if she holds on just right it helps her balance so she can sit up, which she loves to do :D She topples right over as soon as she lets go though!

She's getting better about doing "Tummy Time" these days also. I can even make her laugh when she's on her tummy sometimes.

But, it usually doesn't last long, and she starts to get upset.

Luckily that one is a quick fix, just turn her over, make a goofy face and Voilà!!, a happy baby again :D

Goofy Girl!!!

On another Renee note, she had her first real cold this week. It started last Saturday with a runny nose and a fever, and it pretty much lasted all week long. It was a good one too, complete with a trip to the doctor, two trips to the pharmacy, greenish snot, lots of coughing and, by far the most fun, throwing up... on me... several times. At least she's not eating solid foods yet :D

Party Girl

2010-07-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

On Friday Jeff, Renee and I went to a party in San Francisco. Jeff's description of the party before we went was that it was hosted by one of his co-workers, the majority of the people there were going to be fellow emplyees, spouses were invited and that there would be a hired bartender. So, I'm thinking work party, low key, boring.

Well, it was more than a boring work party, let me tell you!!! They were taking shots, playing pool, blasting music, dancing, and having a great time. And Renee had a blast :D She was very interested in watching what everyone was doing and even let total strangers pick her up and walk around the room with her. We only stayed a few hours, since it's never fun for a sober person (namely me) to be around ever increasingly drunk people for very long :D Plus, I was worried about the noise level and Renee's sensitive infant ears.

On our way home we stopped at a CPK in Emeryville for dinner and Renee was so tired from partying that she fell completely asleep while nursing and didn't even notice when I put her down on the booth seat next to me while Jeff and I finished our pizza. She got lots of curious looks, and tons of awwws from surrounding diners!

Here she is sound asleep on the booth at CPK.

Then yesterday, we had some great friends from San Mateo over. And again Renee was very social. I think everyone took a turn holding her and she didn't mind one bit, smiling and cooing while we chatted. It looks like our fussy little baby has finally grown into the social butterfly we've always wanted her to be, or at least she's well on her way!

Renee Rolled Over!!!

2010-07-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

It was not at all graceful, but she did it!!! And she was really mad about not being able to get back over - she doesn't like being on her stomach :D

Here she is right after she rolled onto her stomach for the very first time!!!

Oh, and I finally put up the June pictures on her Gallery Page, go check it out if you want to see more of her cuteness!

Look How Big Renee is Getting!!!

2010-06-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Renee had her 4 month check up appointment yesterday. Every time we go to the doctor they weigh her, measure how long she is and measure her head circumference to make sure that she is growing enough. The doctor's have been concerned about her slow weight gain ever since she was 2 weeks old, but not any more :D She is now in the 50th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height of babies her age! Yeahhh, no more weight checks every two weeks!!!

The doctor is always showing me a graph on where Renee fits in the growth categories as compared to all the other babies of the world, so I thought I'd make one that's just about her - no comparisons :D

(sub in famous boxing announcer voice here)

"Weighing in at 13 pounds, 10.7 ounces, standing 2 feet and 3/4 inches tall, our very own Slobber Champion of the Woooooorld: Renee "Thunder Thighs" Truuuuunnellllllle!!!!" (crowd cheers in the background)

Day Care

2010-06-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Renee has been going to day care for a little over a week now. I wasn't sure how either one of us would do with the transition since we had been together all day, every day since she was born. But, so far it's going great!

Her first day was rough. Her primary teacher, Erika, noticed that whenever the room was quiet Renee was okay, but got very upset when there was a lot of noise from the other babies. And as you can imagine, in an infant daycare with ~15 babies under the age of 1, the room is not quiet very often or for very long. So, she did a lot of crying that day. I almost cried leaving her there, but stayed strong, telling myself that she would be just fine, and I made it through the day without shedding a tear :D I didn't even go and visit her, I didn't want to traumatize her (translation: myself) even more by leaving her twice in the same day. Thankfully when I picked her up at the end of the day she was sound asleep in her crib (not screaming her head off like I imagined), which was very comforting for a worried mom who doesn't know how anyone else could possibly take care of her baby the way that she does!

Here's a picture of Renee and her primary teacher Erika on her first day.

Since then she has been doing great. I drop her off every morning and hand her to one of the teachers, whoever is available to hold her at the moment, and give her a kiss goodbye. And she looks completely relaxed with the situation, not caring at all that I am no longer holding her (something which was a major problem up to this point!). She barely gives me a second glance as I leave; she is now much more interested in watching what the older, more mobile babies are doing. I feel like if she could, she would say something like, "bye Mom, see you later!".

What's really great is that all the teachers love her (I mean, how could they not)! They get a kick out of her silly baby babbling, goofy smiles and adorable laughing. There is even a little friendly competition going on among them about who gets to take care of her more.

Other than day 1, her first week went great and when I picked her up on Friday, Erika handed me this:

Renee's 1st art project

(outside of the card)

(inside of the card)

Renee "made" a Father's Day card for her Daddy, complete with orange construction paper and green baby hand and foot prints :D It was so cute, I was jealous that I didn't get one! Jeff will just have to share it with me!!!

First Post - A Better Blog

2010-06-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have been struggling with the current design of Renee's web page for quite some time now. Not that I think Jeff didn't do a great job building it, he did - it's awesome; especially the gallery page. It's just that her main page is not a proper "blog", which is how I've been using it, and it's kind of a pain to update. I could have had Jeff create some new blog-like page that would give me all the options I want, which he probably would have spent hours upon hours perfecting for me (thank you my love!). Instead I am just going to stick with the principle that the simplest solution is often the best solution (Occam's razor, in case you were interested).

So, here it is: a user friendly blog to keep our friends, family and anyone else who stumbles across it, updated on the smiles, tears, drool and other interesting activities of our beautiful daughter Renee Marjorie Trunnelle.

We hope you enjoy and visit often!!!