Bluebells

Bluebell is the Texas state flower; it is also the name of some delicious Texas-based ice cream!

The bluebell flowers are in bloom right now so we went out yesterday to take some pictures.  Anything for a cute baby picture, right?  Also, anything to get out of the house sometimes.  Also, anything that serves as an excuse to stop by Sonic on the drive home and get a slushie.  So many reasons!!!

All packed up and ready to go!  We can fit three carseats all in a row in the Exploder.  Willa, DJ, Rene

 

Me and the Willster, tasting danger with her tongue, perhaps?

DJ and Renee - NOT posing nicely, but still looking cute

Willa was a good sport and enjoyed wiggling her little toes in the flowers.  I gave her a few flowers, thinking that I could get a cute picture of her holding them, but that only taught her that she could grab at these things and then eat them.  What fun!  This last photo of her is my favorite, I love that little smile and the look on her face.  These pigtails are what caused the crazy bedhead this morning, by the way.

Bedhead

Willa had crazy hair this morning.  I was sad when it was time to give her a bath and brush it down.

Feeding the Ducks

Carol invited us to go feed the ducks at a nearby pond. Once we were there, I remembered that feeding ducks sometimes disgusts me because of how aggressive they are.

A photo of the whole gang, except me. Carol is itty-bitty and so are her kids. Here is Renee, 15 months, still in a back-facing carseat in the snap 'n' go because she doesn't weigh enough to be turned around. Her baldy head also keeps people thinking that she is closer to 9 months and they are all surprised that she can walk when she's so little. D.J. is three and he sits on the carseat between Renee's legs. Carol really knows how to pack lightly.

These ducks below are pretty disgusting looking, they have some sort of red stuff on their beaks that makes them look like a Turkey/Duck hybrid. The original Turducken?

The kids again, Carol's husband is Filipino thus the undeniable, half-Asian cuteness. It was bright outside, poor Willa. I think the sunshade worked most of the time, but I want to find her some cute little sunglasses.

Unrelated photo of Willa in the bumbo, I love this little zoot suit hand-me-down from cousin Claire!

Thrilling news... no, not a job, wah :(

The other night I was talking to Ryan and I'm not sure how it came up, but I said, "I'm going to email a question to Joy Bauer, the nutritionist on the TODAY show!"  Then, I attempted an imitation of Joy's TODAY show segment where she answers nutrition questions and invariably tells the people to eat more chicken and fish.

I got on the computer the next day and emailed my question in.  Two days later they emailed me back asking if I'd like to do a live call or Skype of my question on the TODAY show!!  Oh yes I would!  Listen, life isn't too exciting and our particular little family has had a little bit of stress so why not spice things up by doing something silly and fun?

I opted for the call-in, no one likes when the Skype freezes and I couldn't risk not getting my question answered.  There was also the option of just having them read my email, but I found out that with that option there is no definite date, it's just kind of a filler in case they have extra time.  The very nice TODAY show assistant, Johanna, and I sent several emails back and forth (I think I got on her good side by complimenting her name, then she got on my good side by telling me that Willa was adorable).  Johanna is filing my information and will let me know as soon as the next call-in slot opens up.  I had to send a photo of myself in, so when they have me on the phone there will be a photo of me up.  So exciting :)!

What was my question?  I asked Joy why I still had a tummy pooch even though I had already lost all my pregnancy weight.  Did she have some advice for getting rid of it since spot reduction is a myth?  When I sent it in I hoped for some response because I figure that I'm the embodiment of their core demographic right now - young moms.  Do I think she's going to give me any advice besides laying off the sweets, eating protein in fish and chicken, and a lowfat diet?  Not really.  Will I follow her advice instead of eating large slices of ice cream cake throughout the day?  Probably not.  But hey, this is the stuff dreams are made of.

I will let you all know when the special segment will be, hopefully they will ask to have me back on a segment about blended Persian/American families!

Gratuitous photos of Willa watching Baby Einstein.  I don't put it on very much because I forget about it, but I think she is starting to get bored of the same old play with me and her play yard so I have been trying it more often.  She is getting into this and it cracks me up.

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?