Herzlich Willkommen!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag to Ryan!  Or, something like that.  Ryan's birthday was Saturday so we wanted to do something fun and it turned out that a neighboring city was having a German Fest the exact same weekend!  We went with medicore expectations and our expectations were completely met and not exceeded.  
Translation = we had a great time and are glad that we didn't expect much.
This was the type of German festival where the German food and wares are there, but you have to search for them and during your search you might give up or get distracted by the delicious funnel cakes instead.


Here is Ryan with Willa, you can see a distant German flag in the background:

Ryan brought his own stein to drink out of (someone came up and asked him about it!) and also a flag representing southern Germany or a province or something, which we hung on the stroller.  We were all decked out!  Ryan's breakdown of the festival dressing up was this: 1) If you have it, wear traditional German costume, 2) If you don't have it, wear t-shirt with something written in German, or that says Germany, or that says beer and Germany together, 3) If you don't have that, any t-shirt that says beer on it will do.

The highlight of the festival was actually watching this old-time band perform on one of the stages.  It was a three-man band, the members were probably 70+ years old, and it had a very Americana feel.  They sang mainly about how much they loved Texas.  The fiddler was a very skinny man with a long, gray ponytail and while he fiddled he was able to sit on a chair and put both legs behind his head at the same time!  Then, he got on the ground and did the splits while fiddling.  It was extremely entertaining and unfortunately the  camera was at the bottom of the stroller.
Willa was a little scared of the German music, but overall was a good baby.  She fell asleep in her stroller during the band.  The applause startled her a little and so her hands ended up by her head like this:

I like to imagine her thinking, "Please, get me out of here!  I can't take it anymore!"
On Sunday, we celebrated Ryan's birthday by having Carol and Jimmy over for ice cream cake.  Ryan's not overly fond of ice cream cake, but I wanted to make it because it was more special :).  I looked up several different ways to do it, then kind of came up with my own thing.


As per tradition (not on purpose, but it just kind of happens), the outside looked like a mess.  I'm reminded of a birthday when the cake Ryan was making for me collapsed on itself.  It tasted great, with all the frosting mixed in over the collapse, but it didn't look the prettiest.

I baked a chocolate cake from a box in to 9x9 square pans (since I don't have cake rounds), then I cut open a carton of mint chocolate chip and used a knife to cut slabs of it to put between the two cake layers.  Then, I got vanilla ice cream and whipped it in the blender so that I could spread it like frosting.  Finally, I got a bottle of Magic Shell and squeezed it on top.  It was actually really good, I was surprised!  The biggest lesson I learned was that when you are frosting a cake and both the cake and the frosting are made out of ice cream, then you better frost in a hurry!  I was so excited with how smooth and creamy the ice cream was going on, that I took my time and didn't realize that it started to melt and drip and not look so good anymore.  Maybe frost it in sections so it has time to refreeze between?  I've been thinking of also making a ganache frosting instead of using ice cream next time.  We'll see.  Who knows if there will ever be a next time.  Ryan will never turn 30 again, so maybe I should never make this cake again out of respect.


Also tricky: finding enough room in the freezer to fit the cake.  That took some thinking and rearranging.  Overall, it was a fun weekend.  It was nothing exciting, but it's always nice to get out and do something different.

Beauty Parlor

Life is so hard when you have to get your hair did! She resisted so much today that she almost pushed herself out of the bumbo. I've been trying the threat that my mom used on us - if you cry while I do your hair then we will have to cut it... I don't think she's buying it yet. When I finally finished there were several intermittent groans of protest that she had had to endure the coiffing. I finally silenced her by singing her favorite song "Happy Family" then her sad groans were punctuated by laughs. Always funny when the baby laugh/cries.

Take That!

Willa has FINALLY rolled over!  All the other nursery moms can stop rubbing it in my face that she hasn't yet! :)  Just kidding, no one's made any comments (yet) but it has been a source of inner embarrassment for me.

Unfortunately, I haven't actually witnessed the event.  She was in her play yard and I hopped on the computer for a second.  Suddenly I heard her start groaning and making sad noises so I looked over and she was on her tummy!  I hurried and took some pictures and called Ryan before I moved her back.  Then, she did it again!  She's occasionally gotten very close to rolling over but really hasn't felt any need.  I will hold toys out to the side and she'll look at them but usually find something else to interest her that is closer by.  I was dreading the six month appointment because at our last appointment the doctor said, "It's okay if she hasn't rolled over by four months, but we do like to have them rolling by six months."

This morning I even had an idea born out of quiet desperation.  Whenever she gets boogers in her nose I will gently put a q-tip up the front of the nostril to grab the booger and pull it out.  She hates it and really squirms when I do it; this morning I realized that maybe I could put her on the floor and get her to practice her back arching and other pre-rolling over activities by simply putting a cotton swab up her nose. This would confirm my notion that fear motivates more than joy or fun things.  I'm sure I'll be able to experiment more with this principle as the child-rearing continues, stay tuned.

Here she is after the roll - not too happy to be on her tummy.  Sometimes we need to learn that after hard work there still comes disappointment.

Not sure how this picture got in here, but I'll show it anyway.  She's happily trying to eat an Easter card from one of her grandmas.  Eating is very in right now, she loves to munch on Ryan's thumb.

Is she happy that she just rolled over?  Eh, I don't think she really knows what's going on or what she did.  More likely, she's happy that I have gotten down of the floor to play with her; it's fun being the most exciting thing in my baby's life, it makes me feel so special.

Mid-roll, okay I actually staged this photo.  I don't think she really rolled here, but you get the idea.  She's only rolled twice and then must have learned that all it got her was more tummy time.

Another staged mid-roll picture, it's fuzzy but she's smiling.  I feel badly that her hair isn't cuter today and that she doesn't have any pantalones on.  I was giving her some open bottom time to air out that area and had just barely put the diaper back on (she was on a blanket, don't worry).

I feel bad that none of our subsequent offspring will get anywhere near this type of documentation about their little steps.  Can I photo shop their faces onto Willa's for each stage and call it good?

The Morning Run(s)

I take Willa for a morning jog a couple of times a week.  It all depends on when she wakes up, sometimes I'm able to get in a run sans stroller before she wakes up, sometimes after and Ryan will watch her as he gets ready, sometimes I will take her with me in the early morning, or sometimes we drop Ryan off at the bus and then go on a run.  When we drop Ryan off at the bus, instead of going home we drive over by our church building because there are lots of really beautiful trails there.  It's a lot easier to take the stroller on beautiful trails than to try to dodge traffic and go up and down curbs.

Here is Willa before the run:

She's got a big smile.  I love this stroller!  It reclines so that she can get a nice snooze in while I'm working hard.  I don't think it's the most restful sleep, but she can't fight the vibrations and it gives her a little pick-me-up.  

 Here is a side view, riding in luxury! The sun canopy is so big, I love how it completely shades her; once I forgot the rain cover and it started to rain but baby was nice and dry under that canopy.  Check out the big, inflated wheels.  It's so much more pleasant for her because the bumps are smoothed out; even when we go on a walk at the park or somewhere close I will take her in this stroller because it's so much more comfortable. 

Do you see that little plastic opening on top?  It's a little peep hole so I can peek in and see how she is doing during the run.  

View of Willa through the peep hole, nice and safe - trying to eat her toy:

The neighboring town has amazing running trails all throughout.  

This is what it looks like at the start of one of the trails.  The trails go everywhere, but they aren't all connected like the Provo River Trail.  Basically, if you see a residential area you can pull over and you will find a trail opening pretty quickly.  It's pretty exciting to find out where the trail will end up once you hop on.  Isn't it pretty?

Lots of the trails go along big roads; those trails are nice because they are fairly straight and you know they will last a while.  However, if you take a chance and turn off onto a smaller trail sometimes you will get a good view of this, or this:

Isn't that so pleasant?  The lower photo reminds me of a trail we used to run on in Bloomington.  The unfortunate part is that these little vistas don't always last too long and then you sometimes end up just emptying out onto a street.  Still, you can't complain because these trails are awesome and if you do empty out onto a street there is another opening not too far away!  

The strange thing is that I hardly ever see people on these trails!  I used to think it was because people here were just lazy.  One Saturday morning my mom and I were on a beautiful section of trail and no one else was out!  Saturdays on the Provo River Trail were busier than the 405 at rush hour. Now I think that there are just so many miles of trail that the people are more spread out.  I've noticed that there are certain sections where I will see a lot of people and other sections where I will see none.  I always like looking for houses that are for sale close to these trails; it would be so nice to just walk out the door and be right there instead of having to drive.  Plus, they are in a great school district!

I like the privacy of the trails while having them still close to civilization.  Sometimes during my run, I wonder what I would do if I needed to take a little pit stop.  Are there sections of trail that are sufficiently shaded from the public eye where I could secret myself behind the stroller?  What sections am I least likely to be interrupted by another runner?  What are the shrubbery conditions most amenable to this?  Here is my surmise: chances of being interrupted by other joggers- very low; chances of being interrupted by chiggers- almost guaranteed. 

Willa, post run:

Ahh, all done.  She is very smiley because she's had a little catnap; if you look closely you can see that her hair gets a little windblown.  I'm not running that fast so this always surprises me; I wonder what she would look like if Ryan were at the wheel.  We love this stroller; it saves me when I need to get out but didn't get up early enough before Ryan goes to work!  A big thanks to Willa's Aunt Becca who gave it to Willa for Christmas!  

Little too braggity?

I've been thinking about my posts and fearing that they might come across a little too braggy. We sure love Willa, but she is no angel. She is a GREAT baby, but I'm pretty certain that she came with her little personality and her easy-going nature has little to do with any parenting styles at this age. Babies are babies and every one of them is different, I'm pretty sure we'll get a horrible one soon enough. I don't want anyone to feel badly if their baby isn't sleeping through the night, or doesn't like to do something that Willa is good at. Chances are, Willa is horrible at something your baby is good at - it's just easier to list the positives rather than the negatives in a blog. Here are some negatives about Willa.

- she is very picky with her smiles, she's a little more solemn and won't just laugh and be smiley like other babies I see

- stranger shy, I've written about this one - it drives me crazy! It also makes it hard for us to go out, people are doing us a huge favor when they babysit her and I don't want to throw it in their faces if she is going to scream the entire time

- she startles easily - she doesn't like loud noises and will even start to cry sometimes if I practice the harp!

- light sleeper - this goes with the previous point, she wakes up fairly easily so I have to be very quiet when she is napping - even with a loud fan on in her room; it makes it almost impossible for her to sleep at church because she jumps anytime people say "amen" or for the hymns or any general noise

- super sonic scream - when she wants to, she can SCREAM and it is deafening; really, it hurts your ears

- refuses to take a bottle unless it is piping hot - I should be grateful that she takes a bottle at all, but I think as she gets older she gets wiser and wiser and refuses it more often; if it is not extremely warm then she will gag on it and get very upset. This is mainly annoying because the times when I would like to give her a bottle are when I would prefer not to breastfeed (at church, on outings) and those are places where it is impossible to heat up a bottle. It's still nice to be able to send a bottle when she goes to the babysitter, but I'll be glad when she starts on solids and I can just send that instead.

- NOT rolling over yet; according to my mom, she flipped over tummy to back a few weeks ago; I have not seen her do it since. She can almost flip over back to tummy, but really feels no inclination to work on this

- gets distracted easily when eating - if I am breastfeeding I can't do any of the following: laugh, talk, cough, sneeze, breathe different, move around - or else she comes off completely and looks at me; I have to sit extremely still for her to eat. Even in the morning when she is famished she will often come off if I try to say something to Ryan

- finally, at this very moment she is in her bed with her pacifier and she is refusing to go to sleep even though she is tired! She is learning to spit out the pacifier when I leave the room so that I have to come back in and put it in her mouth.

Okay, there are more but I can't think of them right now. I think I'm going to have to put her to sleep in the bouncy seat right now because she needs a nap before I go teach my class. See? Sometimes she won't go to sleep in her bed.

We got home from picking Ryan up for work on Friday and a bunch of kids ran past us in their bathing suits. It's been warming up here, so Ryan felt inclined to take Willa for a quick dip in the pool. Because of naps and other things, we ended up not going until Saturday around 6:00 pm, so it ended up being a little cool outside and the water was chilly so the dip was very quick.

Isn't this such a cute swimming suit? I want one to match it; I was calculating just how I would make my own. Do you think they sell mommy/baby matching swimsuits? If not, that's a niche market that needs to be tapped, the next billion dollar idea!

Don't you love this stanky face she's giving Ryan?

In the pool at last! I can't wait until it is warmer and we can really play with her there. The pool as a little sloped area where it is really shallow; once she can sit up, she'll love just sitting there and splashing. Ryan and I grew up swimming and around a lot of water, my mom enrolled me in a class when I was about eighteen months where she would drop me off the diving board and pay someone to tread water in the deep end and teach me how to roll onto my back. It seems like everybody should do this with their kids; it is so important for a toddler to know how to float! Ryan and I haven't decided who will be the one dropping Willa and who will be the one treading water - I will probably pick the one where she will hate me the least.

Sleeping

Willa has always been a pretty good sleeper, though she definitely has her moments of rage. Here is a photo of her on her way to naptime la la land today. She's such a good baby! I lay her down like this and she goes to sleep! Today she had a few unhappy throat gurgles, but that's because she didn't get a good nap at church so she was overtired. Most times she doesn't even make a peep when I lay her down.

Yes, we still swaddle her. While we're on the subject, let me just say that I LOVE the kiddopotamus swaddle wraps. Shannon gave us one (among the many other baby items she handed down) and the first time we used it we were in love. I had no idea that we would be using it this long; we even had to buy a bigger size when she outgrew the original one. It looks kind of ridiculous on her now, but it works! I think she would probably sleep find without it, and I won't be sorry to see it go, but for now it keeps her busy little hands from pulling her pacifier out. It's also become part of the nap/bedtime routine. Once she's in the swaddle she KNOWS it's naptime; sometimes she even starts smacking her lips for the pacifier because she know that that comes right after the swaddle. I'm not sure how we will get her to sleep without one, anyone know of some teenager-sized swaddle wraps we can buy?

Willa has been regularly sleeping 11+ hours each night. The last few weeks, however, she started waking up 60-90 minutes earlier than normal. It wasn't THAT much of a pain because Ryan and I were up already, but it was a little bit of a pain because she was still a little grumpy and it also threw off our "take Ryan to the bus" schedule with her. Yesterday I decided to try putting her pacifier in her mouth instead of getting her up. Guess what, she went back to sleep for another hour!! I went and laid back down and watched her through the monitor, her eyes got heavier and heavier. I was hesitant to do it because I thought she might freak out since it had been a good ten hours since she last ate, but she really is a lot happier with the extra sleep. I tried it again this morning and it worked... kind of. She fell back asleep, but then woke up again within ten-fifteen minutes. Oh well, babies just do what they do. Can anyone explain why babies just do what they do?

There's not much point to this post, except that she's such a good baby. She hasn't cried when I tried this, in fact she really doesn't cry when she wakes up. Normally, I know she is awake because I look at the video monitor and she's looking around with her eyes wide open. When I go in her room she starts kicking and smiling because she is so excited to see me, but she doesn't cry when I just put the pacifier in instead of picking her up. I think her nighttime schedule really went smoothly because we followed the Babywise steps of making her eat every three hours in the beginning, but beyond that I have no idea why she is so good. We are definitely spoiled with her, but I think that's a good thing because she's lulled us into a false sense of security into having more kids in the future. We haven't experience the demon child yet, so we don't know what to fear.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Obligatory green outfit.  It was a little warm for today, but so cute.

A bonus picture; warm enough for a romper yesterday.

Maternity Leave Ends

Today is officially my last day of work, errr... maternity leave.  Willa is five months old and my maternity leave (most of which was paid) is just ending.  Isn't that amazing?  I was so blessed to find this job; I worked there three whole years - I was hired on October 18, 2007 and my last day of work was October 14, 2010.

When Ryan and I moved out to USC, the plan was for me to get a campus job because if you work for the university you can get half off of tuition.  USC is $PRICEY$ so we really wanted and needed this job.  Well, getting a job an on-campus job is easier said than done.  I wondered if the application website was actually just shooting these applications into a black hole in space rather than submitting them to people who were hiring.   In retrospect, I actually got a job fairly quickly (by sheer luck) - but when you're on the job hunt everything seems to take so long!

One day, I was in the temple doing our ward sealing assignment.  I was praying and thinking about a job and I thought to myself, "I'm going to go get in the car after this and there is going to be a message on my phone for me to come in for an interview."  I don't know if that was inspiration or desperation, but after I said that to myself I felt pretty good about it.  When I got to my car, I immediately looked at my phone and there was a message!!  It was someone contacting me about my application and asking me to come in for an interview.  Isn't that amazing?  I went in the next day, the interviewers were so nice, and they called me the following morning to offer me the job of "Secretary 1" in the Academic Affairs office of the dental school.  One funny story about my interview was that I mentioned that my dad had gone to dental school there.  They all got so excited and ran to get their record books.  Sure enough, there was my dad's name (and picture on some records) with his graduating class.

Most people know that I have really hilarious stories about my work, but overall it was such a great environment to be in.  The office was full of people who were very caring, warm-hearted, and generous. I feel like Heavenly Father really put me in a place that I would be comfortable in and where I could do well while Ryan was in law school.  Law school was so stressful that it was nice for me to have an enjoyable job so that I could help Ryan chill when he got home.  It was also the perfect job because I had almost zero commute.  I found a used beach cruiser and bought it for $50.  I might have paid an additional $30 total throughout the years to replace flat tire tubes and my stolen bicycle seat, but it was a pretty cheap way to get to work.  In fact, I rode that bike to work every day up until I had Willa; I actually rode it the day before she was born.  Every day when I would ride that bike pregnant I would wonder how long into my pregnancy I would be able to ride it, I just kept going and going.  The morning she was born I went into work, but since my water had already broken and I was having contractions, Ryan was nice enough to offer to drive me to work that day :).

My wonderful coworkers threw me the most amazing surprise baby shower!  My only regret is that since it was a surprise I unknowingly had worn a really ugly outfit that day and not really gotten ready.  (I knew the outfit was ugly, I didn't know that I would be wearing it to my own baby shower; plus, it was all blue and I was having a girl.)

I have purposely pick a photo of me where most of me is covered, I did NOT look pretty that day and I don't want to scare anyone reading this blog.

Jennifer, me, Eileen's head

 Nasrin, Sharon, Mary

Oscar, the workstudy, was the only boy there.  I think my favorite part of the shower was when we played "Guess that Baby," they had baby pictures of everyone in the room and we had to guess who was who.  Well, as you can see there are several different races in my office so when it came to picking the Chinese baby to go with the Chinese coworker, it wasn't too difficult.  The best, though, was seeing the lone baby boy photo up there, not too difficult to figure out who that one was.  There is also great video footage of Oscar during the shower.  Some of the ladies were cackling about something and you can see Oscar in the background just shake his head and put his hand over his eyes.  Poor guy, what a good sport for coming along!

Eileen, Ursula, Oscar, Takiyah

 Anna, Ruth, Larissa, Jessica

Patricia and Jessica

Pauline with some attitude

As you can see, I had the awesomest coworkers in the world!  They were so so generous with everything and the shower was so fun.  I am not sad about getting to stay home with Willa, but I already miss this crazy place.

Ewww

Remember how I told you that Willa attacked the giraffe yesterday, effectively removing him of some black fuzzy hair? I remember thinking, "Wow, she's got a fist full of black fuzz and she likes to put her hands in her mouth, I'd better get this cleaned up." Her nimble fingers were too fast for me! This morning I found a few of the black fuzzy hairs in her diaper, gross! I'm assuming they didn't hurt her, but pretty gross how they went all the way through and still came out intact.

Willa is FIVE Months!

Today is Willa's five month birthday!  Hip hip hooray!  I can't believe that we have had Willa with us so long, being a parent still feels so new.  We love our Willa-bear so much.  To celebrate, I thought of what I could do that would be fun for Willa.  First of all, I let her sleep in this morning (sarcasm, I never wake a sleeping baby if I can help it) - she slept almost eleven hours!  She can't eat cake and ice cream yet, so as the parent always sacrifices for the good of the child, I will eat it for her.  Actually, nix the cake - I would have to bake it and that's not going to happen today.  I will, however, eat chocolate chip cookies and delicious ice cream in honor Willa's five month birthday.  I'd better eat enough of it that she can get some of the flavor coming in through the milk.  See what a good mom I am?

Here are some pictures we took this morning next to her giraffe.  My friend Katie told us to take her picture next to the same stuffed animal each month so that we could see how big she had grown.  Unfortunately, Willa was very cheerful this morning but not so inclined to smile.  She can be tricksy like that, she'll only smile if she feels like it.  Maybe it didn't help that I tried to position her very sweetly with the giraffe and instead she attacked it and ripped out some of its hair so I had to pull it away for a few minutes.

One forced smile - Ryan's hand is tickling her.  All the pictures are fuzzy because she's quite the little mover lately.

Stare down contest with giraffe:

Fakes out giraffe and gets ready to give a life-ending bite:

These days Willa can grab items with TWO hands and is getting very accurate with her reaches.  She loves to immediately put these items in her mouth.  Sometimes she gets frustrated when she can't get them to her mouth, but she also gets frustrated when they do get to her mouth and she doesn't know what to do with them from there.  Life is so hard.  She likes to grab our faces and put them in her mouth, which results in large, slobbery, and very sweet kisses.

These days we call her Willa, Willabeast, Wildebeast, Willabear, Willis, Wilster, and Sweetie Pie :)

Willa started laughing around three months but now she does so more often; however, she's still pretty coy with her laughs.  Sometimes she will laugh at everything we do, then next day she won't laugh at anything.  She has recently started liking to get her diaper changed.  She started kicking, smiling, and sometimes laughing - especially when we use the cool wipes on her warm behind.  

She is very observant and follows us with her head and eyes all the time.  If either of us says something she'll immediately swing her head around to see who is talking.  

She is STRANGER shy already!  Willa is a mama's girl and even takes time to warm up to dad if he has been working more than usual.  Some days she is good for the babysitter, other days she is crying when I come back but immediately stops it and starts smiling once I hold her - the little stinker!  Since the babysitter is quite possibly the nicest person on the planet, I think it's Willa's issue to get over.  Any ideas on how to get her over this?  Even if I'm right there and someone else tries to hold her she will look at me and her bottom lip will start to quiver.   Maybe I just need to get out more.  It's exhausting to get out of the house with a baby, though!

She has also just started finding her voice and likes to coo and make sounds.  She's very good at making raspberries and she also likes to do a raspberry-like gurgle in her throat when she's not happy.  This is actually good, if she's upset when she's in the carseat or somewhere where she has to soothe herself she will do this now instead of screaming (most of the time).  She is also sleep-trained!  She babywised herself.  Occasionally, if I keep her up for too long she will have a hard time going to sleep herself, but she will lay in bed with her pacifier in just doing that throat gurgle in a really sad tone for a few minutes before she goes to sleep.

This is Willa on our morning run today.  It was drizzling a little so I put the rain canopy on.  This stroller is SAWEET!  It deserves, and will get, its own post.  She likes to sleep during the run.  I like to look out over the stroller and see her little feet laying still or starting to twitch as she wakes up.

We sure love our Willa!

Hair

Obviously, when you are pregnant you wonder what the baby will look like.  I was mainly concerned with her hair.  I loved babies with hair and I had had a lot of hair as a baby; however, how much hair is too much?  Ryan is fair, but he does grow a good set of hair and a magnificent beard.  We wondered if we would have a wolf-child.

+=

Eek, we would have to create a fund for laser-hair removal instead of college!  Or, we could fully embrace the Persian-ness by dousing ourselves in perfume and keeping a hot pot of wax permanently on the stove.  (By the way, I do not wish to make fun of anyone suffering from Hypertrichosis, it is really an unfortunate disease.)

As a side note, the baby birthing classes were really big on "skin to skin" contact with your new baby and "wearing" the infant.  The baby reflexes of closing the fist and also curling the toes inward intrigued us; supposedly these reflexes are leftover from when we were primates and the baby needed to hold onto the mother.  Ryan decided that he would wear the baby on his chest, under his clothing.  The baby would grip his chest with her hands and feet just like an ape child.  Eventually, like Gollum, the baby would grow lean and lose all her hair.  A thin milky covering would coat her eyes and whenever Ryan would open his shirt, the baby would violently jump and hiss.

Back to hair.  I was more concerned that the baby would have no hair than that she would turn into a wolf-child.  Despite his head of hair, Ryan was pretty fair.  So that I wouldn't be disappointed, I decided that the baby probably wouldn't have any hair but that was okay because all of Ryan's nieces and nephews had still been adorable sans much hair.

Towards the end of the delivery, the nurses started talking but I really couldn't understand what they were saying so I looked at Ryan.  He looked and smiled and said that she had LOTS of hair.  I was so convinced that she would be bald that I was actually disappointed at first!  I blame it on the hormones and the fact that I was actually pushing a baby out right then.  It didn't take me long to fall in love with this baby's hair.

Newborn

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

She will be five months in a few days and I can't get her hair to stick straight up anymore; it's so long that it just flops over.  If we skip giving her a bath, her hair stops smelling like baby and starts smelling like hair, it is getting too thick on top to use the baby brush and sometimes we don't get all the shampoo washed out, every day I have to work through some snarls in the back. Even though sometimes she looks like she's wearing a really bad toupee and maybe her hair is detracting from the cuteness, I love her hair!  As Willa gets older she looks more and more like Ryan except for her hair color, but in the beginning she was 100% me!  At the time, I felt kind of bad about that - I thought Ryan would feel a little left out.  Now, I love that she looked so much like me in the beginning; I feel like we have a special hair connection.

Almost Five Months

I tried to get a spikey-haired shot, but I couldn't pull it off.  Does someone have tips on how to do this?  I put hair gel in and it just ended up giving her the "wet hair" look, which is so 1992.

Rodeo!

Yippee Yo Kaiyea

Willa is feeling better now so we took the day to go to the Houston rodeo. We went with my good friend and old roommate Carol and her two kids. Thanks for the deep-fried oreo, Carol!

Willa and I wore matching outfits: cowboy boots, jeans, and cowboy shirt. Don't judge how I look, Ryan informs me that I shouldn't have tucked my jeans. By the time I get Willa fed, changed, and ready to go I usually rush out the door so that we can get going before she gets cranky, therefore I don't always look at myself in the mirror. Willa looks cute, here is a close-up. Again, I was rushing to get out the door so the photo isn't the best.

Has anyone ever seen Food Inc? It's kind of like a horror movie but about animals and farming practices in America. Lots of my friends watched it and decided to eat more "friendly" meat afterwards; we can't afford "friendly" meat, so I just look at the documentary and the farming practices as a testament to Capitalism a la Ayn Rand: capitalism is strong, let the stronger crush the weaker.

Back to the rodeo, there was a livestock show that included a fun area to teach kids about farm animals. Everything looked very clean and sweet from the rodeo. They showed a video of a little chicken pecking around outside in the grass instead of showing the dark, windowless barns where the chickens are basically living on top of each other.

This photo isn't that good but I liked how they had live turkeys, then signs about how many turkeys we eat. It seems kind of harsh at a petting zoo to explain to the kids how you eat those animals; that's farm life, I guess.

We had a great time, even though navigating around with three little kids was exhausting. I felt very brave even attempting the outing. I'd also like to have a small moment of silence for the parking and efficiency of Disneyland.

The Houston rodeo is the largest indoor rodeo in the world. They have the big rodeo events in the evening along with a concert. Tonight Rascal Flatts was playing (not that we were going) and Janet Jackson was a few nights ago. I imagine that it's kind of like a bigger Stadium of Fire. It was fun seeing all the animals, the cows were huge! They even had honeybees and worms there, though I don't think the worms were getting judged. The largest earthworm ever found was 22 feet! The worms here were just part of the kid's exhibit, they had piles of dirt the kids could search through for worms, ewww.