No Party

Mommy told me that I should tell people that we're not celebrating my half birthday this year. She thinks she'll wait a couple of years since I won't know the difference anyway. At this point it doesn't matter to me that my birthday and Christmas are a few days apart. In the future, we'll celebrate my half birthday with a party and my real birthday as a small family. It's hard to believe I'm almost six months old! I get more fun every day. I've been sleeping well the last week with one arm out of my swaddle so Mommy might decide to attempt the no-swaddle sleep again. Grandma H is coming to visit tomorrow and she's going to babysit on Friday night while my parents go to a fancy party. I get to go to a wedding on Saturday night. Daddy isn't in the wedding party this time so Mommy might actually get to stay in the church during the service instead of managing me. Sunday is Mommy's 29th birthday. In other words, we have a lot going on this weekend!

Daddy Time

We have our internet back for the time being so I thought I'd pop on really quick and tell you about my fabulous weekend with Daddy. We had a date night on Friday night. Mommy went to a movie without us since she couldn't go to the baby shower. Daddy and Mommy wanted to see if I'd go to bed without Mommy and I did! I slept from about 9pm to 6am. I had so much fun on Friday night shopping with Daddy and hanging out on the swing. He fed me an enormous amount of mommy milk before bedtime too.

Daddy was on call on Saturday (he switched with another resident to get his anniversary off). He got called in during a downpour to help a kid that had a fish hook stuck in his mouth. Mommy and I went with because we were getting stir crazy. Yes, they took me out in the flood, but I was safe. We only had to do a little bit of off-roading and driving on gravel. There was a beautiful double rainbow near the end of the storm. Mommy only managed to get one picture through the windshield.Sunday was Father's Day and Daddy and Mommy's sixth wedding anniversary. Mommy made us special shirts to show Daddy how much we love him. 186 has special meaning for our family. It means "the most" and originated with Mommy telling Grandpa that she loved him 186 when she was a little girl. She still does, but now she has me and Daddy to love too!I also got Mommy to make Daddy a special box to put all of the things he will be getting from me through the years. You know how she likes to be organized. Daddy keeps everything from Mommy so I figure he'll want to keep everything from me too.
Even Daddy couldn't resist taking some pictures of me. I played with my aqua duck for a while until I fell over.
Daddy took pictures instead of helping me.
That's okay because I didn't need help. I rolled onto my tummy and tried to crawl towards him. See how my tummy is off the ground?
Later on I snuggled with Euclid. We are always trying to assert our space. The Buddy won this round.

I might be gone here and there in the next week so don't get too worried if I'm gone again. Apparently the internet provider is having flooding issues.

Getting Kinda Worried

This is the 500 year flood plain for Coralville. See where our house is? They say the flood WILL reach the places that are in pink. It looks like our backyard will be pretty soggy, but our house should be safe.

This is Parkview E-Free Church. It looks like we won't be going to church there anytime soon.

Mommy is going to take me on a walk soon so we can retake the pictures of the creek behind our house to see if it looks any different from yesterday. She tried to return a movie today and couldn't because the movie store was under water. She went to the mall and some stores were closed because the workers couldn't get there. She isn't going to the baby shower tonight because she can't cross the Cedar River anywhere. It's really starting to chap her hide....and many people have it a lot worse.

We're back from our walk and the creek doesn't look any different from yesterday. The flood is supposed to peak on Monday or Tuesday so that doesn't mean a whole lot. Mommy's getting out my swimsuit...

Stop Your Worrying

Mommy won't let me float away. Our city is flooding, but we are doing just fine. I took Mommy and Euclid out exploring to see if the creek behind our house was in danger of flooding. We seem to be safe. It isn't even all that high.Nothing to see here...We can still use the tunnel to go under the interstate.Mommy had to take my picture when we got home. I was cozy in my big stroller. She used it because she was afraid Euclid would tug too hard and the lightweight stroller would go flying. He was a perfect angel.
This was my view of him. Cute, huh?This is my view of the apple tree by our front door.It's going to be a great year for apples. Last year we didn't get any because the blooms were frozen off. It's going to smell good by our porch!I didn't blog about the second half of my visit with family. Apparently they take lots of pills at Friendship Haven. Great Grandma W let me use her empty containers to play. Mommy was relieved that I didn't open the lids...YET! I really showed off with my rolling and talking at that visit.Grandpa H read me the morning newspaper. I helped by kicking and grabbing the paper. My hands and feet were all black by the time we were done. I enjoyed myself.Once we got home I played with my jumperoo for about 45 minutes straight. I missed it. Daddy got home after a while and I gave him lots of smiles and laughs.

Mommy went a little crazy at Babies R Us yesterday afternoon. She bought this really cool toy. It has water in it and different toys that move when I press down. She's trying to encourage me to sit more.I love ducks! Look at how well my hair is growing in.I was happy when she decided to not let me sleep in my swing this morning. My eyes were red because I had been complaining. She knows how to make me instantly happy. Recently I've started playing with the toys on the tray.
Have you ever seen such an intense look on a baby? This is the face I make when I'm playing and trying to figure something out.Daddy is going to be completely in charge of me tomorrow night. I can't wait. Mommy won't be home to tuck me in for the first time in my life....or I'll wait up until she comes home. We'll see if the bottle and Daddy snuggles will satisfy me.

Leif Rocks

Everybody loves Leif like crazy. I'm not all that interested in him yet, but Mommy assures me I'll be happy to have a playmate when we're older. I was excited to go visit family again. Here I am safe and secure in my carseat. Mommy was pleased that I slept almost the whole 2.5 hours and didn't scream at all. Lately I've been a bit of a trial in the car. It's because Daddy drives too slow. Mommy doesn't mess around. I played on the floor at Leif's house. He has all sorts of cool toys, but my favorite was the full-length mirror.
Mommy enjoyed holding Leif. He weighs less than I ever did. I outweighed him by a pound at birth and now I weigh at least 10 pounds more than him.
Anya has always given me a huge amount of attention. I realized that I have competition now.
We went and watched Macy play softball last night. I chewed on Mommy's nursing necklace.
When we got back to the car I made Mommy and Grandma laugh with my hat as a prop.



I got rained on last night and didn't like it one bit. It was sunny outside, but all of a sudden it started to pour. Weird. Leif was outside too, but he got rushed under cover a lot faster than I did. Don't they know I'm fragile? I'm such a tiny baby. LOL!

Mobile

Watch out everybody! I'm mobile. I can roll where I want to go. Mommy had to move something away from me today because I tried to kick it over and almost accomplished my goal. The babyproofing must begin. There were a couple of other highlights today. Daddy helped Mommy give me a bath in the grown-up tub. I swam around and floated on my back. Sorry no pictures, Mommy was in the tub with me again. I can also babble a lot of things and they get excited when I say "da da da da da da yeah..." Mommy made me some new food today that I'll get to try tomorrow. It's peaches this time. I hope I like it!

Let's play name the baby hazards in this picture - wood chips (from Euclid's kennel) to get splinters, blinds cords to strangle with, dog, sunlight that causes skin cancer...can you find any more? I started out safely in the middle of the quilt and ended up by the door.

I was proud of myself. Euclid didn't seem to mind the death grip I had on his tail.

Euclid resents being called a hazard. He's such a sweetheart!Daddy got called to the hospital so Mommy will put me to bed by herself tonight. She hopes I'm good like last night, but we'll see what I feel like in half an hour.

Overtime Snuggling

I challenged my parents last night. I've been sleeping pretty well lately, generally from about 8pm until at least 4am, then waking up to eat and going back to sleep until at least 6:30. It all started the same as usual last night. Mommy put me down at about 8:15 (despite my daddy's pager going off multiple times during the process). I got up again half an hour later and Daddy tried to come to my rescue. I didn't want him and settled down with Mommy after I told her my story (and she laughed). I was transferred to the crib and woke up again. I fell asleep staring at Mommy sitting in the rocking chair. I woke up and she wasn't there so I wailed again since it's so effective. Mommy and Daddy came upstairs and Mommy put me to sleep laying down on the big bed. I woke up at 4am to get a bite to eat, but the only person laying with me in the big bed was Daddy. Mommy traded with him and I got what I wanted and I fell asleep for a couple of more hours. That's how night one of sleep training my parents went. I think it went well since one of them slept with me in the big bed the whole night. The next phase is to get both of them to sleep with me. After that, I think I'll get them to massage me while I sleep and fan me with palm fronds. Sleep training is hard work.