Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Here I am, nearly a month later. Christmas has come and gone and I haven't even wished you all of the Blessings that the Holiday Season should hold for you. But consider it better late than never.  Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year.... from the worst blogger ever. The little one had a great holiday and really enjoyed all the time she got to spend playing with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  Today she will visit with her great grandpa Lloyd (if the little booger ever wakes up from her now epic nap). She's cutting more teeth, learning all sorts of new things and is quite obviously exhausted by it all. Next week she will celebrate with us the coming of a new year and then the countdown begins until her First Birthday.  My, oh my, how time flies!

So this morning I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  I stretched and then reached over to grab my phone to check the time.  It was 9:30 am!!!! What?! Something must be wrong with Leelu.... she normally wakes up and starts babbling for attention around 7:30-8.  My mind instantly went to dark places as I pulled on my sweatshirt and pajama pants. As I approached the nursery door, which doesn't shut completely thus always being slightly ajar, I spied the most adorable little face peeping over the pink mesh crib pad.  She was on all fours, just staring at the door.  As I opened it the biggest smile spread across her face.  How long had she been waiting for mommy to come in and say good morning? How long had she been awake? Why had she not begun her usual morning wake up calls? Why was she just staring at the door? None of those questions mattered really.  The only thing that mattered was that she was awaiting my arrival and was thri...

A lot of folks are doing this thing on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter where every day they post something they are thankful for throughout the month of November.  I'm too lazy to remember to do that, so I'm going to attempt to express my thankfulness via blog posts.  You'll get a handful of things I'm thankful for when I find the time to sit down and type up a post for it. Today I'll cover the first four days of the month with the following things that I am thankful for... 1) My husband, a great husband, friend and father and I cannot imagine my life without him. 2) My daughter, who has brought me more joy than I could have ever dreamed of having in my life. 3) My siblings, my big sister is my best friend and my little brother is my hero.. but don't tell him that because it'll go to his head. LOL 4) My parents, my mommy was always there for me and I know she still watches over me from the other side of the veil.  My daddy has always...

I nearly forgot, Leelu turned 7 months last Friday.  She had a doctors appointment on the 10th which I think I may have mentioned before.  She was 15 lbs and 24.5 in. tall.  We went for her 6 month vaccinations last week also.  She got the last rounds of her recurring 2 month shots and won't need more of those until she's a year old.  She also got the flu shot, which we have to go back next month for the second part of for her.  Apparently babies have to get the flu shot in two parts, but only the one time.  Not sure of the reasoning behind it but whatever.  I also go my flu shot that day.  I thought if I went first and got my shot while Leelu watched, then she would take her shots a little better. No such luck.  She couldn't have cared less that I was getting a shot but then acted like it was the end of the world when it was her turn.  Cry baby. (i keed i keed) Of course, after it was all over she was peachy.  Her 4 ...

It's official.  Starfish has chompers. The first little sharp razor blade like tooth finally poked through last Sunday.  Since then, the other has begun poking and now she enjoys biting my finger a little harder than usual, biting down on the plastic spoon at mealtime, and hearing them scrape on everything hard that she sticks in her mouth.  I can't believe she's got teeth already.  Didn't I just go into labor and have her like last week? My how time flies! Before I know it I'll be planning her first birthday party, then sweet sixteen, then her graduation party, then I'll be picking out a mother-of-the-bride dress for her wedding.  Slow down already! We're still working on crawling.  She seems to still prefer to roll around to get where she wants to be and is getting good at scooting on her belly.  I know it's just a matter of time before she's crawling all over the place.  I'm not rushing that.  No way, no how.  It's...

It's not for lack of wanting to blog, but lack of time and sufficient brain power to do so. My mind is a muddled mess.  I don't know if it's motherhood or something else, but whatever the cause, it bites.  I didn't bother reading my last entry to see where I left off  so if some of this is a repeat, forgive me. The Starfish is just a few days away from being 7 months old.  She had a check up last Monday and weighed in at 15lbs on the nose, was 24.5 inches tall and the pediatrician said she's perfectly healthy. We have been having trouble, however, with her digestive system.  She keeps getting constipated and nothing we do seems to help but in the short term. She will get back on track for a day, maybe two and then bam, she's all backed up again.  We've eliminated rice/oatmeal cereals from her intake, thinking that might be the culprit, but alas, it hasn't made one bit of a difference.  So every few days we're finding ourselves breaking out ...

It's honestly the most amazing day weather wise today.  But I'm sitting in the nursery on my behind doing nothing more than surfing the interwebs and bouncing my little sleeping Starfish in her bouncy seat trying to keep her in nap mode for as long as I can.  But I feel productive.  Or that is, I feel like I could be productive.  Something about the onslaught of autumn makes me feel like doing stuff.  Typically, people get that urge in the spring time after a long, hard winter.  But me? Not so much.  At least not until that crisp air, light breeze, and the scent of summer dying off fills the world around me. I was sitting here looking at another mothers blog and started on the seemingly endless search for ideas for someones First Birthday which is just a little over 6 months away.  Seems like I have plenty of time for planning something photographically fabulous, but really one can never have too much time to plan for something that will o...

I may have already "lost it" but I will stick with my trusty old friend Denial for a little while longer. I get an e-mailed weekly update about views and visitors to my blog.  My numbers have dropped dramatically.  I suppose that since I'm not trucking any more and just about every mom out there has a blog, my little corner of the interwebs isn't really that special any longer. I guess that means I'm off the hook for frequent, clever, interesting updates.  Which is good since I've been neglecting my blogging duties in exchange for playing with my sweet little Starfish.  I mean, I'd much rather spend time tickling this adorable little booger face than tickling the keyboard on my laptop.  I will keep blogging, of course, because I do love doing it.  It's a great way to keep my thoughts in a place I can look back at them any time I want without straining my brain.  Plus, I think it will be neato when Starfish is big enough to read it and wil...

I am not always the most positive person on the planet.  In fact, just the other day my hubby had to knock me off my Negative Nancy Barcalounger.  I was being a real Debbie Downer and I threw stones at anyone that came close.  I get down.  We all get down. But that doesn't mean we get to blame everyone and everything else for it.  I have had many a heaping spoonful of reality over the years.  I battle depression.  I get down, I get through it, get down again, and keep trudging through. Why? Because I'm worth it. I don't ask to be depressed.  I don't go looking for it.  It just happens.  It's not anyone else's fault.  Don't believe me? One of the definitions of "fault" is " an unattractive or unsatisfactory feature, esp. in a piece of work or in a person's character" ....based on that it is solely MY fault.   I can try for days to blame the weather, the person who pissed me off or hurt my feelings, the wor...

Yesterday marked Starfish's fifth month of life.  (applause, confetti, etc) Poor thing was a right mess over it too.  Crabby as can be... wait'll she turns 30, 40, 50 etc. If she is as crabby about it then as she was yesterday, she's got a long dreadful collection of birthdays ahead of her. Of course, I know at five months old she doesn't know that she's getting older.  She barely knows her own name... so her crabbiness was certainly not aging induced. No, she was just cranky for no reason at all. Well, not NO reason, she is still teething and growing and learning to be human at lightening speeds. Which really would make anyone crabby. Heck I get crabby just thinking about it. Last week we went on our first trip to the local public library.  It's a fabulous old building with 4 floors of literature of all kinds.  The third floor is the children's library, which was where we were heading for a Baby & Me activity group. I wasn't sure wha...

I'm giving solid foods a break for the little Starfish today.  She spent the greater part of last evening and this morning spitting up when in an upright position.  I know part of it is the amount of saliva she's swallowing as a result of teething, but I kinda wonder if her little stomach just isn't quite ready for solids yet as well.  So I'm gonna give her a days' break at least to see if it helps.  For one, I'm tired of having to clean up spit-up and I'm also a little concerned for her because she seems to be acting different.  Last night we had a tough time getting her settled for bed.  She hasn't cried like that for some weeks now.  And this morning instead of her usual happy morning glory self, she woke up screaming her head off and very upset.  Since she started sleeping through the night she's not done that... ever.  So I'm a little worried.  I'm sure it's nothing.  I'm sure it's normal. There's a lot going on ins...

...is worth 500 GB in the bush.  Or something like that. I got an external hard drive finally.  It was one of Amazon's lightening deals yesterday.  Plus with my Prime membership it was shipped two-day delivery for free.  And I suppose that since I ordered it early enough in the day, yesterday counted as one of the two shipping days.  I was shocked when the UPS guy knocked on my door this afternoon. And excited.  I love new toys. Here it is! 500 GB in the palm of my hand. I've been on  the verge of a completely full memory on my laptop for some time now.  I have a 136 GB hard drive in this thing, with an additional 14 GB of "Backup/Restore" storage.  For a grand total of 150 GB.  But I've had less than a half gig left for over three months.  So every time I take pictures and want to put them on my laptop I have to go back through old albums and delete pictures and/or videos I don't think I really need to keep. So now, I...

I took lil' miss Starfish with me to my friends wedding this weekend.  I almost left her home, she'd been fussy earlier in the day and I was terrified that taking her would ruin my friends wedding.  No one wants to hear a screaming baby in the middle of saying their vows.  But as the clock crept towards time to leave, she was getting to be in a better mood.  So I got her dressed and decided to risk it.  And I'm glad I did.  She did wonderfully.  She cooed, not cried, during the ceremony and only a couple of times.  It was luckily at endearing moments and no one seemed to mind.  She also did great at the reception.  She enjoyed playing and watching and dancing a little bit.  She also didn't mind that everyone wanted to snap her picture and say hello.  Here are a few of the best shots from the day.  The Ceremony - Daddy giving his daughter away. Getting ready to cut the cake. Nom Nom Nom! Enjoying ours...

I had to recharge the batteries in Starfish's mobile last night.  They died during a nap yesterday. The mobile has a detachable arm with the dangling toys on it.  I love the fact that you can remove the arm and just have the music box part of it for the baby when they get "over" having the swirling animals over their heads.  I remember in the very beginning of our new life as a family when Starfish slept in one to two hour increments.  I would try anything to get her to sleep longer.  I had received the mobile as a gift from a family friend.  I almost sold it because I was certain there was no way Starfish would ever like it, because attempts to use it to distract or entertain her in the beginning failed.  After a few more tries I ended up taking the arm part off  and used the music part to try to soothe her to sleep.  It seemed to help some nights, so I kept it attached to her crib without the arm and used it as often as I could rememb...

Right now, Starfish is napping.  I was catching up on FB and e-mail and as needed, tending to laundry.  I also snuck in a bit of baking, making a batch of sugar cookies (from a pouch) and trying really hard not to eat the dough as I spooned little dollops of dough on to the cookie sheets.  I get one good long nap out of her a day now, the rest are 20-30 minute cat naps that are just enough time for things like meals, chores, and a shower.  Not necessarily in that order. And the long nap varies in time of day from one day to the next.  I know eventually we'll get something that resembles a predictable schedule, but until then, we just wing it.  She had her 4 month check-up with the Pediatrician yesterday.  It was a big appointment, the longest lasting one yet.  She weighed in at 13.5 lbs and was 23.5 inches long.  Looking back at her 2 month stats, she's gained 2 lbs and grew a half an inch.  Impressive little one.  We disc...

On Thursday we closed the refinance and funding loan on our house.  The funding, above and beyond the payoff for the previous mortgage, is for installing a kitchen in our house.  You see, since before I even moved in here (nearly 10 years ago) the kitchen has been pretty much "makeshift". No traditional cabinets or pantries, no drawers (save for that one metal cabinet with drawers that is always a disastrous mess).  We've had a fridge and a stove/oven and a sink.  But none of the other creature comforts of a modern facility. But with this loan, that's all about to change.  Actually, the change is starting today as my hubby tears up part of the floor that needs repaired and replaced before we really dig in and get things moving. Hubby is tearing in and tearing up the floor!   The floor is gone and he's going to be putting in new joists and sub-flooring. We have already picked out flooring, cabinets, counter tops, and tile for the back splash....

Last Thursday Starfish hit the 4 month mark.  I can't believe how quickly four months has flown by.  We marked the day with the cute picture below and a day full of crankiness.  She refused to nap that day and had massive mood swings as a result.  One minute she was playing and cooing and grabbing handfuls of my hair (ouch) and the next she was screaming bloody murder.  It was a fun day.... not. She goes in this week for her second round of vaccinations.  That should be fun.... (sarcasm).  And next week she has her 4 month check-up with the pediatrician.  I'm anxious to see how much she's grown!  I mean, I can SEE how much but I want official numbers. Over this past weekend she discovered her outside voice - inside a restaurant.  There was a TV near our table and it was showing a lacrosse game.  For some reason that excited Starfish to no end and she yelled and squealed with delight for pretty much the entire meal....

Yesterday I went to our local Harbor Freight and picked up a variety of rechargeable batteries for the various items in the house that require constant battery changes.  The C batteries were the ones I needed most for one of Starfish's favorite things, this mobile .  She will seriously lay in the crib for 15-20 minutes and just smile up at that thing when it's turning and doing it's thing.  She smiles the biggest when the ostrich comes around, sometimes she will squeal with delight even.  She seems to like the monkey and the giraffe as well. But the ostrich really makes her the happiest.  The other day the batteries finally died in the mobile, the same batteries we've had in it since she was about a month old.  I hadn't made it out to get replacement batteries and I was noticing that Starfish was looking at it longingly and would get irritated when she was in her crib during the day because it wasn't moving.  So I finally caved and bought some ...

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The clock on the wall in the baby's room is losing time.  It currently reads 8:13, but it's actually 11:52.  It's been losing time for a few days.  I have been too lazy to change the battery.  But it's an appropriate physical allusion to the way life feels right now.  I realized this morning that in 10 days my little girl will be four months old.  FOUR MONTHS?!  It seems like it was just last week that I found out I was pregnant. I think it was actually about a year ago that I learned I was pregnant.  Maybe a week or two from now, when I took my first at home tests.... I didn't mark the occasion with a blog post or Facebook status update because I didn't want anyone to know until we met that 3 month viability mark in case something happened.  So I don't know the exact date we found out.  I am sure the midwives have it in my chart, as after taking the home tests on a Thursday night and Friday morning I went in Friday afternoon for a rea...

Yesterday I had the need to use the Koala Care changing table in a restaurant to take care of an over full wet diaper on the lil' Starfish for the first time as a new mommy.  It went better than I expected.  But then, the bathroom was empty save us two chicks so I didn't have to feel like I was in any one's way or anything.  Thankfully I'd not bothered taking out a small blanket I'd packed in the diaper bag for our last weekend trip and was able to just lay that down on the hard plastic surface of the Koala table so Starfish didn't have to be annoyed by it. She was already in a mood and I was just glad to give her one less thing to get pissed about.  Recently she's discovered her feet.  At first she just grabbed there occasionally and cooed.  Now, however, it's like an all day task to get her toes into her mouth.  And that task usually results in a meltdown because eventually she gets too tired to hold her foot tight enough to get it to her mouth o...

Today marks the fifteenth week since my little Starfish came into the world. And to mark the occasion she has decided to be an absolute cranklepuss today. Well it really started yesterday, maybe the day before.  But whatever.  She's intolerable right now.  So far today, if she's not sleeping she's just whining, crying, screaming and/or fussing.  Nothing seems to be a comfort.  I am not sure if it's growing pains or teething pains or a combination of the two, but it's not any fun at all. I know this too shall pass and all that jazz, but it's exhausting right now. In recent days when she's in better moods, however, she has been a complete joy.  She's learning new things it seems every day.  She's discovered her feet and likes to have them in hand a lot, which makes things like diaper changes and bath time challenging. She's finally had success in getting her little pigs into her mouth too, but it's a funny process that leads up to her g...

So my little Starfish is officially three months old today.  I can't believe it has been three months already.  It seems like it was just yesterday, or at least just last week, that we were bringing home our 7lb. 15 oz bundle of joy for the first time, quickly realizing we needed a few more things to make her nursery functional... like a trash can for her dirty diapers and a heater to keep the cold late winter nights at bay.  We were excited but exhausted.  Eager yet scared to start our journey into parenthood. In the beginning she slept in short 2 hour spurts and took a half an hour to finish a meal.  Sleeping through the night was just a dream we had.  She was in newborn diapers and had a crusty black stump on her belly that we had to clean and keep dry.  She screamed bloody murder during diaper changes and hated her sponge baths.  She regularly got the hiccups and rarely ever spit up.She loved being snuggled but hated having anything on her f...

So I just logged on to blogger to catch up on the blogs I follow.  But when I got to my dashboard all of my reading list entries were gone.  I don't know if they will come back, I sure hope so.  But as of right now I have no idea what anyone is doing because I can't read to find out.  Is blogger doing some sort of maintenance that caused a temporary disappearing act on the blog roll feeds? Or have I accidentally done something to remove them all myself?  Oi vey! I hate it when strange things happen like this. Oh well... It's too pretty of a day to waste reading anyway.  It's a gorgeous day and I think I'm gonna wash up, get dressed and take baby girl out for a walk at the park.  :) Have a good weekend everyone! Oh and to all the daddies out there that read my blog, I hope you have a wonderful Father's Day weekend! Starfish with her Daddy at the Five & Dime in Harrisville, WV

If you've attempted to view my site in the past 72 hours and got an error page, I apologize.  I kept putting off renewing the annual subscription for my website and email services and Yahoo! put my domain on lock down until I paid them.  But we're back on track now. Life hasn't been too exciting since my last post.  Just watching my little Starfish grow and learn each day.  She's making leaps and bounds and is growing way too fast.  Now tipping the scale at nearly 13lbs. Shes swiftly outgrowing most of the 0-3 month clothes I have in her top dresser drawer.  She's already outgrown size 1 diapers as well.  Technically she could probably wear them still, but she kept having major poo blowouts that were no fun to clean up.  She's starting to grab and hold onto toys and things with more intent than instinct.  And she is learning how to work her hands more each day.  She's developing quite the spunky little personality too, having learned...

On Sunday we spent the afternoon and evening with my family having dinner at my Dad's house.  It was a very nice get together, despite Starfish's crankiness.  She got passed around and loved on lots and seemed to have a good time (when she wasn't crying or fussing).  I kind feel like I failed at the whole traveling mommy thing though, I really should have taken something for her to sit in besides her car seat.  I'm sure she'd have enjoyed her bouncy or her Bumbo when she started feeling wallered to death.  But alas, I suck.  I am still learning that I have more items to put in a diaper bag too.  I'm a newbie, give me a break child, I don't know what you need and what you don't yet! It's almost funny though when you get somewhere and you think "oh hey I need this thing I don't have with me and now life is miserable because we don't have it".  Like I said, almost funny.  We're gearing up for a 7 hour road trip to a family re...

I had really hoped becoming a stay at home mom would afford me more time for blogging and other things I enjoy.  But alas, it hasn't.  And really I'm quite okay with how my time is actually being spent. I am way too occupied with the epic cuteness that is my little Starfish.  Where I would spend time reading, blogging, listening to music and such, I now play peek-a-boo, tickle monster and make up silly songs about my baby's body parts to elicit any and all smiles that I can get.  I am napping when she naps and changing diapers and feeding her, sacrificing (or at least postponing) my own hygiene and nutrition needs to make sure my sweet little one is getting everything she needs to grow up big and strong. I talk to her and show her things and explain things as I do them; I'm blow drying my hair, washing the dishes, folding the laundry and putting on shoes.  I tell her why I do those things as I do them and watch as she looks at me quizzically (or like I'm c...

Starfish is 9 weeks old today! Here she is being all chubby and cute before her check up with the pediatrician this afternoon. And then here she is being all cute again after her appointment.  She's completely enamored with her hands right now, they move non-stop when she's awake.  A couple weeks ago Starfish was just hanging out on my lap after having a booby snack, and I caught this little video.  She's such a delicate little flower....

I have to put last night in the baby book as the first time Starfish slept through the night.  After some seriously horrible tantrums during the day yesterday mixed with having barely slept from 3am yesterday until we put  her down last night at 11pm, I imagine she must've been so exhausted that sleep just couldn't be fought any longer. I was at my wits end, crying while she cried, wondering what I was or wasn't doing right when the hubby came home from his class last night around 9pm.  I was just as exhausted as the little one was, maybe more so, because while she got in a few 30 minute naps (and by few I mean three all day long) I was searching for the next thing to try to calm her when she would inevitably wake up screaming. I also managed to get the bed linens washed, dried and the bed remade, get the dishes done and make myself grilled chicken on the George Foreman (my only real meal of the day yesterday). I tried once to lay down and nap while she did but that w...

So for, oh... the last 48 hours or so, the little Starfish has been a serious cranky butt.  She fights sleep, cries...no... screams for seemingly no reason at all, and is just generally cantankerous.  It's exhausting.  She did sleep well last night, when she finally WENT to sleep.  Which was sometime around midnight.  Daddy took duty again last night because I was exhausted, frustrated and just out of ideas to try to calm her.  Nothing I'd tried had worked.  So I said, "Here ya go daddy...you try! I'm going to bed." I didn't hear her make a peep once he got her settled until around 5 this morning.  When she started stirring, I got up and started our nighttime feeding routine of turning on the low wattage lamp, changing her diaper (whether it needs it or not), and then feeding her quietly.  No TV, no bright lights, no noises except my gentle "I love you's" when we make eye contact. She didn't fall back to sleep right after that feeding l...