Panic Button

I've hit my internal panic button a few times over the last couple of days. Especially Monday night. Whew. Spring is my least favorite season because of storms {and pollen}.

I'm one of those people who checks the weather channel constantly. So Monday when I knew the weather was going to be bad later in the day, I pretty much had it pulled up on my desktop all day. Waiting and anticipating. When the line of storms finally got here I was only moderately terrified until we got the tornado warning and the power went out. The moment the power went out I pretty much flipped my lid. Of course... Colette slept through the whole thing. Cory and I hung out in the floor of the nursery until it was all over.

Luckily the next 9 days look panic-free in terms of weather.

On the other hand, I have to go to Philadelphia for work Monday night-Wednesday morning next week. {*HITS PANIC BUTTON FRANTICALLY*} I'll be leaving my sweet little baby for the first time over night. Not only do I have to leave her, but I also have to get on an airplane. So pretty much this blog post is about my main fears in life. Tornadoes, planes, and leaving my child with the possibility of not returning. I know the likelihood of me dying in one of those things is slim, but it still petrifies me.

Like Cory says, "There's nothing you can do about it!" (Then there's that little voice in the back of my head that says, "Sure there is... you can get a storm shelter... you can opt to never travel by plane.. and pretty much never leave home...") Not irrational at all, right? :)

Some of you who get email notifications when I update the blog probably wondered what the "Letters to Colette" post was about since it was password protected. Basically it's just words of advice, love, encouragement, life lessons, and anything I can think to share that I don't want to forget later. Or if by some chance I do get whisked away by a tornado or my plane disappears, she'll also have a piece of me left behind in those words. It's the "just in case" file. Maybe one day I'll share them, but for now it's just between me and Wordpress.... and well.. anyone who's able to hack into my account and read them, I suppose.

 

And to make the post less depressing.. I completely forgot about our Easter photos until today. So here's something fun to look at!

 

[caption id="attachment_874" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Watching the dog with Granny Poore[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_875" align="aligncenter" width="560"] First Easter Basket![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_876" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Mom and Steve's beautiful yard![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_877" align="aligncenter" width="534"] More yard![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_878" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Sweet baby[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_879" align="aligncenter" width="560"] This one is for my sister![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_880" align="aligncenter" width="560"] D'awwww[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_881" align="aligncenter" width="560"] She's a celebrity[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_882" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Sitting with Grandma Betty[/caption]

5 Months Old

We're a few days late on this post! Colette is officially 5 months old now.



Sleep: Decent - could be better! We have days when she'll sleep through the night, (like last night), and then days when she'll wake up 2-3 times. Sometimes she'll put herself back to sleep, but occasionally we'll have to go in and calm her down.

Clothes/Diapers (Sizes): Generally around 6 months clothes and size 3 diapers!

Diet: Milk, milk, and more milk.

Milestones/Firsts: She's sitting up really well, not totally balanced and definitely can't pull herself up yet. But she will sit and play with things for several minutes at time without going down. I've also noticed her passing blocks and toys from hand to hand. And of course, as mentioned in my last post, TWO TEETH! They're adorable.

Likes: She looooves to sit outside with us on the front porch swing. She gets really quiet and just watched everything around her. She especially likes it when we let our beagle/terrier mix Ace sit with us. She thinks the dogs are hiiilarious. We spent a lot of time outside over the weekend and she was pretty happy about that - minus all the pollen.

Dislikes: Putting her clothes back on after a bath/before bedtime. We can generally count on her to not be happy about that.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget: Her excited little laugh that comes from no where when we're riding in the car. When she passes out unexpectedly on my shoulder. Mornings when I've brought her into our bed and she rolls over and starts playing with my face/hair. The sight of her face lighting up when I walk into the room and ask her what she's doing. Ahhhh.

 

Here's a few more photos from the 5 months session and some from the weekend.

 





[caption id="attachment_862" align="aligncenter" width="533"] HOW OLD DID YOU SAY I AM?![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_866" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Girl on Safari[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_867" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Sweet little Max[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_865" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Sunny puppy Ace[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_868" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The rare mommy/baby photo[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_869" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The even rarer leash-free Ace photo[/caption]

Teeeeeth and Fatherhood

At our 4 month check up our pediatrician said she rarely sees teeth come in before 6 months. Well, we sure proved her wrong! Here we are at 4.5 months and we have TWO TEETH. I can't believe it. We knew it was coming because of the excessive drool, but we didn't know it would be so soon. She wasn't really cranky about it either. She's had a few nights where she was upset right before bed, but I can't be totally sure it was because of the teething.

Last week was when I first noticed the teeth. She pulled my hand into her mouth, bit down, and WHOA, there was something poking through. So I pulled her little lip down and sure enough her little gums were a little bit red and there was the first teeny tiny tooth. Sometime between then and now, we've procured another tooth as well.

[caption id="attachment_852" align="aligncenter" width="560"] She wasn't thrilled about me trying to take a picture.[/caption]

Outside of sprouting teeth...

Pregnant Chicken posted their April Round Up yesterday and this was on it. Hank Azaria made a little 12 part documentary called "Fatherhood." I seen 6 of them so far. I just finished the episode "Being a Kid with your Kid" and they're at Disney World. They're GREAT. So much humor and not terrible on information either. It's interesting to see all these celebrity dads (Rainn Wilson, Mike Myers, Kevin Bacon, Joshua Malina, Jim Gaffigan, Bryan Cranston, etc.) telling stories, especially the episode on screen time since they're all... you know.... on TV and in movies.... I love it and I highly recommend watching it.

 

Speaking of Fatherhood, here's some photos our sweet baby and her daddy.







 

Sweet Cheeks :)

Easter Session

So here's a couple of photos from our Easter set. I love them. Of course.. I love all photos of Colette.. but these are pretty adorable.

We needed at least a couple more bags of eggs for the bathtub full of eggs shot, but I still think they're cute.

[caption id="attachment_846" align="aligncenter" width="401"] So many eggs.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_848" align="aligncenter" width="401"] So drooly.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_847" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Of course she went straight for the glitter eggs.[/caption]

Must... find.. motivation/ Motivation found.

Side note: I started writing this last Thursday... Motivation has been found.

 

Today I feel very unmotivated. Actually there have been several days out of the last couple of weeks when I've felt like this. I know I don't have to be on the go and doing something every minute of the day, but days like today are terrible. I don't want to work, I don't wanna clean, all I wanna do is spend my day planning my Disney vacation and hanging out with that adorable baby of mine. 

I'm hoping when I finish writing all this out that I'll miraculously be ready to get thing done. We'll see how that goes...

Colette's Fairy Godmother came down last weekend to visit. It went much better than the first time. She didn't cry every time Jill tried to hold her. 

We also went to our first roller derby bout of the season! I was so excited to see everyone. I miss derby and would love to go back, but I just don't have that kind of time. Maybe when Colette is older and I have more time with her! We didn't stay for the whole game because it was incredibly loud, something I definitely never noticed when playing. Colette did enjoy the program very much though.

--end last Thursday's post. Apparently I was too unmotivated to type up an entire post and publish it...

Now for today's post!

Motivation has returned. Not full force, but I was able to get the house cleaned on Saturday. We had the Branum's over for burgers and hot dogs on Saturday night which is always enjoyable! And Sunday we spent the whole day lounging around the house and playing with the baby. It was the best day ever. We even made a dent in our DVR list. (Thanks to Colette for those really long naps so that could happen!)

OH! And we officially have a rolling machine on our hands. Rolling all over the place. I finally decided to move her crib against the wall so I could mount the monitor. Now we can see the entire crib, which is great because she certainly doesn't stay still too long!

In other news, we took some Easter themed pictures of Colette last night. I'm super excited to share them, but I'll wait til tomorrow for that.

 

 

Just in Case

Colette,

Things in this world are not always certain. Most things are not meant to last forever, but there is one thing I'm certain will: My complete love and adoration for you.

From the moment you were just a tiny speck of cells, I've loved you.

Obviously, I hope you never have to read these and that I can make you laugh, wipe your tears, give you all the advice you could ever need, and love and cherish you from a distance that can be traveled by plane, train, or automobile...

But just in case I can't...

These are letters of advice I want you to have and memories of you and our family from my point of view. I'll always be your mother and you'll always be my baby girl, even when you're no longer a baby. I'll always love you.

 



To the moon and back.