Five on Friday

{ONE: MY BIRTHDAY}

My birthday was on Wednesday and I turned the big 2-8. I love my birthday and always get depressed when it's all said and done. I spent the day at work (big fat bummer) but my co-workers are pretty sweet and brought me a cupcake. And some candy. And they took me out to lunch. Yep, they're awesome.

I snuck out a little early and picked up the babe and when we got home, my parents had arrived in town for the weekend. We all headed out to get some din-din and this big girl helped me celebrate:

happy birfday, mommy!

{TWO: BIRTHDAY CAKE}

Justin offered to bake me a birthday cake 'cuz he's awesome. Rufus thought it was awesome too. We have since yelled at him 1029024938291 times to stay away from the cake. If you eat the cake, you will die. Chocolate is lethal to dogs. Except for you, probably. You could eat the entire chocolate cake washed down with chocolate milk and still live yo' life because you're not normal and you hate us.

no cake for you.

just call him cake boss.

{THREE: BIRTHDAY DATE WITH THE HUSBAND}

My mom and dad babysat (THANK YOU!) on Thursday night so the hubby and I could go out to dinner sans offspring. I'm embarrassed to say that this was the first time since the baby was born that we had gone out, just the two of us. That's eight whole months. That's a long time.

We went to Bonefish, which is actually where we had our first date. For a second we thought about re-creating our first date, which went a little something like this:

1. enjoy a super nice dinner at a pretty nice restaurant where several alcoholic beverages are consumed.

2. you know what will really impress this girl? a strip club! yes, let's go to a strip club after enjoying a super nice dinner at a pretty nice restaurant. we might as well, we're already liquored up! it could be fun!

Now, Gracyn, if you're reading this, it should be a general rule of thumb to avoid any dude who thinks it's a good idea to take you to the strip club on your first date. A nice dinner, yes; a strip club? Not so much. Your daddy was the exception...

Anyway, we enjoyed our date night with a good meal and decided we skip the strippers this time around...

nom nom nom nom

free dessert.

After dinner, we went to a bar to have another cocktail and reconnect again as husband and wife. Actually, we talked the whole time about how tired we were (very), how much longer the baby would be teething (the rest of her life), and the fact that I wished I was wearing sweatpants. We are so awesome and romantic it's cray cray.

still lookin' good.

{FOUR: MOTHER'S DAY BIRTHDAY MASSAGE}

Justin got me a Groupon for Mother's Day that entitled me to a one-hour massage. I have only gotten one other massage in my life so I was pretty pumped to receive such a nice gift. Mother's Day was 4 months ago and I still hadn't gotten around to using said Groupon so I finally got that bad boy scheduled and had a very relaxing massage this morning. It was wonderful.

{FIVE}

#stoptalkingaboutyourbirthday #noonecares #watchthisvideoinstead

Linking up with {the good life blog}...

Gracyn :: 8 Months Old

Miss Gracyn is 8 months old today. She's like a little person instead of my sweet little baby we brought home in January. I feel like I've seen so many changes in her developmentally and personality-wise this month, more so than any other month. It blows my mind that so many things can change within a short few weeks. Seriously. Mind blown.

She loves loves loves to play and is constantly moving around and getting into shit. The only baby proofing we've done is put those cover thingys in all of the outlets within her reach - we should probably get around to making the rest of the house safe for a mobile infant...

The second she's on the ground she makes a beeline  to the coffee table to attack the basket that contains diapers, wipes, diaper cream and hand sanitizer. We should probably move it 'cuz I'm already tired of restocking that thing every 5 minutes and she's knocked her head a few times too. 

Other big changes?

- She is so "talkative". Always making sounds in that beautiful baby voice of hers. I swear she's said "hi" a few times and Justin swears she can say "da-da." And I'm pretty sure she said "I poop" the other day. Just sayin'.

- Finger foods. We might as well forego the purées and let this girl go to town on big girl food cut up in little girl-sized pieces. As soon as a spoon comes within arms reach she grabs hold and wants to feed herself.

- She's mobile. Crawling, climbing, pulling up, walking around furniture.

- Her personality is really starting to come through. She's genuinely in a good mood except when she's tired. The girl needs her sleep that's for sure. She lights up when we walk into the room (best. feeling. ever) and she's wary of strangers or people she doesn't see too often but she'll warm up eventually.

The only thing we can't quite figure out is bedtime - getting her to sleep and staying asleep.  We have a routine and do the same thing every night - dinner, playtime, bath time, bottle, bed. She's a champion at fighting sleep and never wants to give in. We never know how bedtime is going to go. Some nights she'll lay right down and fall asleep; other nights (like tonight) it takes an hour or more to get her down. Sometimes she falls asleep and wakes up 45 minutes later and then it takes an hour to get her back to bed. I absolutely HATE letting her cry so I'm usually in there rocking her back to sleep or trying to calm her down, creating bad habits along the way. I'm sure it's tied to teething and all that jazz but that's probably the one thing we struggle with the most. Suggestions on how to cure the restless monster are welcome.

Speaking of teething - TWO new pearly whites busted their way through on top. We felt one Sunday morning, and the other one today. Four whole teeth in that head of hers. Such a big girl.

Gracyn Girl, it has been a beautiful 8 months. Your daddy and I are so lucky we get to be your parents. Know that you are loved beyond measure and you are absolutely the light of our lives.

What's that I hear? Oh, you're crying again up in your crib and not sleeping so I guess I'll be up in a second.

Mama loves you, baby girl.

Weekend in Pictures

This weekend was one for the books. The weather was gorgeous (like, absolutely perfect) and we didn't do a damn thing. It was wonderful. Friday night consisted of playing with a cute little girl, ordering take-out and lounging around the hizzouse. My kind of party...

On Saturday, after a solo trip to Target - totally my guilty pleasure btw - Gracyn and I took a nice long stroll around the 'hood', chatted up some neighbors and had a snack on the back deck.

She totally ate that leaf after I snapped this pic. Oops. Rufus got in on the action too...

On Saturday night, J cooked up some steaks and we had a nice date night after the babe went to bed. We rented a movie and I wish I could tell you that it was good (we rented the new{est} Start Trek flick) but I fell asleep promptly at 10pm and didn't really watch it. Party on, Wayne...

This morning I took G's 8 month pictures (what the hell, she's already 8 months old?!?) which I'll post tomorrow on her 8 month birfday but here's a sneak peak:

I spent some time cleaning the casa (we have some VIPs coming this week and I am SO SO SO excited to see them), doing laundry, playing with the bebe - who took an awesome morning nap but didn't take her afternoon nap until 5pm so I'm a little terrified of how this evening is going to go. It'll probably be horrible and I'll probably blog about it so stay tuned.

On the menu tonight is homemade pizza and the series finale of Dexter. Oh, and G cut another tooth! Felt it this morning - first front one on top came through and the other one shouldn't be far behind. 

Solid weekend if you ask me.

Adventures in Raising a Rufus... Vol. 2

My dog does so many asshole things that I could write a book. Instead I'll just make it a series of recurring blog posts with the same title where I can complain about all of the asshole things he does...

Rufus threw up 5 - count them - FIVE - times last night. WTF. Seriously. Five times. Five times we I (ok, Justin got up the first time but after that he was sound asleep...I'm jealous of the fact that he can fall asleep in .5 seconds flat and stay asleep through all of the commotion and the hell that was my night...) had to get out of bed to clean up dog vomit. I was thisclose to taking off his collar and opening the front door to let him run wild in hopes that he would never, ever, ever come back. Ever. I am so over it. Ok, deep down I know he was sick or something and obviously not feeling well but really!??!!? FIVE TIMES?!?!

In keeping with the theme (and sorry if this is reaching your vom-quota for the week year your life but...) Rufus threw up a sock again the other day. Justin was the first one home so he got to clean up that little surprise. And it was his sock sooooo..serves him right I guess?

"Just sittin' here, thinking of what I'm gonna throw up next..."

Rufus threw up yet another pair of my underwear last week. I was the first one home so I got to clean up that little gem. But! I'm pretty sure Justin was the one who left the closet door open giving Rufus full-on access to my underwear drawer so I'm gonna go ahead and blame this one on him too... ;)

Anytime I need Rufus to do anything, he goes dead weight. Completely limp. I could kick him (don't worry, I don't actually kick him...hard anyway...), drag him across the floor, pretend to get him a treat, actually get him a treat or knock on the door and...nothing. He avoids eye contact too so I know he hears me and I know he knows that I want him to go outside or get in his kennel or stop what he's doing because its probably something bad and yet he'll just lay there.

Here I am - *not* getting up...

Anytime Justin wants Rufus to do something, Rufus listens immediately and does whatever he is told.

Rufus stares me awake in the middle of the night. I'm a super light sleeper and pretty much wake up at the drop of a pin. If Rufus decides he needs to go out in the middle of the night he comes to my side of the bed and just sits down and stares at me. Stares into my soul. Pretty soon I wake up and see Rufus 5 inches from my face staring at me. Once he sees me awake, he'll make a rather annoying grunting noise until I get up and let him out.

Yeah, I hear you. Still not moving.

See what I mean? Asshole.

Just Keep Swinging...

We took Gracyn to the park for the first time last night. She was skeptical of the swings at first but seemed to enjoy herself. I was the geeky mom who whipped out her fancy camera to take pics of her kid in the swing. So glad I did - I love how they turned out.

Seven Quick Takes

Linking up because that's all I ever do..

1. The weather has finally cooled down to the point where we can be outside and not sweat our balls off. I'm determined to take G for several walks around the 'hood this weekend and maybe take her to the park and venture to the swings for the first time. 

2. This week was a doozy and I'm glad it's over. Gracyn slept better (yay!) but I slept worse (boo!) and I didn't think that was possible. Tuesday night I decided to be an insomniac and got what felt like 2 hours of sleep. 

3. On Wednesday morning as I was getting ready to head out the door with Gracyn, she decided it was an opportune time to have the mother of all blowouts. I'll spare you the gory details but we both had to change clothes and I was late to work. I'm always late to work (like, every day. I should probably win employee of the year...) but on Wednesday I was noticeably late. I blamed it on the baby (...and throw in mother of the year while you're at it).

4. I've never been a pageant girl and I can't remember the last time I watched the Miss America pageant but I secretly hope Miss Kansas wins it this year. She's rocking some bad ass tattoos, she's in the national guard, and an archery expert. Pretty hardcore if you ask me.

5. Totally random but I saw this commercial the other day for the air curler and for some reason thought it was the silliest thing I've ever seen.

Curls in seconds!

I don't even know if thing this would actually work but who am I to say anything. I severely lack mad skillz when it comes to doing my hair. I can straighten it or put it in a pony tail- that's about it. And I'd be a little be a little nervous using it for fear that instead of curling my hair it would just suck it up into the wind tunnel and I'd have to get some horrific haircut to fix my own mistakes.

6. What's a blog post without a picture or two of Gracyn?

So sweet and innocent.

Big foot.

7. She's so big these days. The other day Justin commented that "she does all of these things now. She used to just sleep." When she was only a few weeks old I had a crazy new mom moment where I was concerned she was sleeping too much...like 20 hours a day. I googled it and everything. Duh, that's what babies do. They sleep.

Anyway, I told Justin that I missed her being an itty bitty baby and had a momentary lapse in judgement and asked when he wanted to have another baby. He just looked at me and said, "it's still too soon."  He's right but for a split second my mind went there...

But, look! She was so teeny and cuddly and squishy!

I mean, for reals.

Love.

Head over to Jen's for more quick takes. Happy Weekend!

Holy Milestones, Batman!

We are meeting developmental milestones around here like it's no body's biznass. I try not to read too many books and freak myself out if Gracyn doesn't do something right on schedule 'cuz I know every baby is different yada yada yada.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have the Holy Bible of Parenting handy - What to Expect the First Year - and don't think I didn't reference that bad boy when G was is sick (were still fighting that damn cold) or when I needed to know if babies could eat olives (they can, in moderation of course) but I think there is something to be said for having too much information when it comes to our little monsters. If I read everything and compared my baby to all of the other babies I would just drive myself bonkers so most of the time were flying by the seat of our pants around here.

Any who...back to G and all of her new found awesomeness. Within the last couple of days G has managed to feed herself an ungodly number of puffs (I think she's addicted and can't get them into her mouth fast enough), pull herself up and she started to crawl. Super Baby? I think so.

She's been climbing all over the place and if she has enough to hold onto will pull herself right on up to standing position. She would rather be standing instead of sitting and is always grabbing or reaching for something. Gone are the days where we can sit at the kitchen table with her in our lap. She can grab the place mat out from under a bowl of cereal in a matter of seconds sending milk and honey nut cheerios flying everywhere, ruining my breakfast but ending up pretty pleased with herself.

7 months going on 2 years.

Standing. NBD.

Seriously, three days ago she could not crawl. She'd get on her hands and knees like she was getting ready to go places but then just sit there and not know what to do. She'd whine until Justin or I would put her back into sitting position. Now-a-days she'll be sitting up in her crib when I go get her in the mornings. On Sunday I went to get her up from a nap and she was in the middle of her crib with 2 pacifiers and 2 lovies (I have no clue as to what those things are actually called - little stuffed animal/blanket thingys that she cuddles when she sleeps) in a pile in front of her and she was just sitting there playing like the big girl that she is.

She can go from laying down to sitting up to crawling and back again. We have not baby-proofed one thing and she has a nice red mark on her forehead to show for it. She face-planted after climbing over her toys yesterday afternoon. She took it like a champ and after we dried her tears she went back to playing.

I'm gonna getcha.

I got a video of her this afternoon. She looks like a little drunk human crawling down the street - she goes a little sideways but she's getting the hang of it... Oh, and nevermind my voice. I hate the way I sound on video. I always think my voicemail recording on my cell phone or work phone sounds so weird and I end up re-recording everything 130294124 times.

And then she did this...

And then it was time for bath and bedtime...

Love me some jammies.

Oh, and by the way, those are 12 MONTH pajamas. WTF happened to my little baby!?

Sunday Social

I'm finding new and fun blogs on the daily thanks to these linkups throughout the week. Between working full time and the whole parenting thing, these linkups make it easy for me to come up with actual blog posts. Whether or not these posts offer anything of actual value has yet to be determined. In the meantime...


// What is your favorite fall activity? \\

It's always fun to get together with our friends and watch a little football. Most Saturdays in the fall we're getting together with a small group to each munchies and drink a cold one while cheering for our favorite teams. This year G gets to be a part of it and so far I think she's lovin' it too.

// Do you follow a football team? If so, which one and why? \\

We are a house divided. I went to college at the University of Nebraska so I'm a Husker at heart. I'm a bad fan though and don't follow it as closely as I should. My husband is a die-hard Oklahoma Sooners fan and we must watch every single game and we must cheer loudly or else the world as we know it will end! Boomer Sooner!

Sorry for the duplicate picture but she's such a cute little sooner.

// What is something fun about fall in your area? \\

Ok, we've lived in the Kansas City area for 5 years now and I'm embarrassed to say we have yet to really "experience" Kansas City. There are so many things around here that we should really go do.  One thing that is fall-ish is the Plaza Art Fair every September. It always falls the weekend of my birthday and makes for a fun time. Vendors and artists set up shop down on the plaza - we go walk around and people watch.

// What are your favorite fall staple outfits? \\

Leggings and boots. I was pregnant last fall/winter and wanted to wear leggings and boots so often that it became unacceptable to wear the same thing so many days in a row. But it was so comfy and cozy. And I was all pregnant and stuff so I didn't care. This year I'm not pregnant but I'm pretty sure that won't stop me. I will still try and wear leggings and boots every day of my life.

// What things are you looking forward to most about this coming fall season? \\

Gracyn's first Halloween. She can help us hand out candy to the neighborhood kids and maybe we'll take her around the block to trick-or-treat a little bit too. I've been looking at costumes but haven't decided what she'll be yet.... maybe and elephant or pumpkin or this...

scary.

Ok, probably not the woopie cushion but that would be funny. No matter what, she'll look adorbs.

// What is your favorite fall holiday? Tradition? \\

Does my birthday count as a holiday? No? Probably Thanksgiving then. Love me some Turkey Day. Family and food and all that jazz. And that means we get to put up the Christmas tree the next day which is my favorite.

Now, time for a nap on this hotter than hot Sunday...

To find blogs that are awesomer than mine, check out more here.

Midweek Randoms

Trying a new link-up today hosted by Megan at In This Wonderful Life for a bunch of midweek randomness - since this is how I feel today/this week.

Yesterday felt like a Monday except that it was Tuesday which should have been a good thing but it just threw me off the whole day and the day seemed to drag on for.ev.er. Kinda like that sentence. Sorry.

Gracyn has her first cold..poor thing is all stuffed up and has a nasty cough. She'll wake up in the middle of the night having a coughing fit which makes me think she's choking to death in her crib so I run to her aid the second I hear her over the monitor. She's fine of course and will just roll over afterwards and go back to sleep.

Down but not out. Still ready to cheer for Daddy's Sooners!

Speaking of sleep, and I'm going to jinx myself the second this thought leaves my brain, but G's been sleeping MUCH better the last week or so (minus her sickness). We've even had a few nights of sleeping ALL night long which is glorious.

We lowered her crib last night because she has figured out how to get up on her hands and knees and reach for the stars. I caught her thisclose to pulling her sound machine off the ledge of her crib.

A little morning selfie action.

I need to do some serious fall cleaning. Ceiling fans, bathrooms, floors - all the good stuff. I keep putting it off and I'm afraid my lack of enthusiasm for cleaning is really starting to show around here...

September is here! The most wonderful time of the year if you ask me. Cooler weather, football, all the best tv shows start back up (Grey's Anatomy! The Voice! Parenthood!) and it's my birthday month. Yep, I love me some September.

Yeah, that's all I got today...