Snuggies and Speedos

On Friday I loaded up the car and made my first "real" road trip by myself with Graham to visit my college roommates. Our destination was Atlanta. Graham slept for 2hours and woke up just before I pulled off the exit for Chick-fil-A. It was perfect timing. I felt like the Queen of Sheba at Chick-fil-A. One of the workers just kept walking around to see if I needed any help. She knew I had my hands full trying to feed both myself and Graham. I don't know what I would have done without her. She got me a high chair, a place mat, and refills. I should have left her a tip!

When we got to Atlanta I finally gave CJ her birthday present...the long awaited pink Snuggie. I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed when I had to ask an employee at Target where the Snuggies were located. But, CJ was dying to have it, so I sacrificed my rosy cheeks. CJ adored her gift and said, "My life is going to be awesome now that I have a Snuggie!" I wish a Snuggie did it for me like it does it for her.
The next day we went to Jason's water polo game at Dynamo. It was quite eventful getting there, which resulted in screeching tires, slamming brakes, and waking up my precious sleeping baby, but we finally made it safely to the pool. Again I was embarrassed or perhaps it was just the overwhelming feeling of AKWARDNESS! I was attempting to steer a huge stroller around the pool while trying to dodge the officials and swarms of men in speedos. I don't know what it is about a speedo, but it just makes me feel super awkward. It just doesn't seem right, you know? And here we were surrounded by speedos. At the beach, speedo wearers are in the minority so you can point fingers, laugh, or say, "They must be European" in an attempt to hide the awkwardness. But what are you going to do at a water polo competition? Those boys could easily beat me up. I just looked down most of the time, and CJ and I tried to conceal our uncomfortable smiles. I felt a little relieved once we left that place and I started seeing men in shorts again.
As CJ would say, we made "precious memories with precious friends," and I am so glad that CJ and Jenna got to spend a little time with Graham. Graham was just about perfect on our little weekend getaway, and I am no longer terrified to travel alone! To be honest, I am now more scared of speedos than traveling with a baby.

Victory Speech

"I'd like to thank Ruby for teaching me that tummy time is fun. I'd like to thank my Dad for giving me crawling lessons when I was just a youngster. I would have never figured it out without you. I'd like to thank my Mom for believing in me and demonstrating the correct way to crawl around the room. To this day, I'm striving to emulate you. And I would also like to thank God for two hands and two legs and the strength to move."

Graham recited this victory speech to me this morning, so I have translated it in order for all to understand. Our baby is on the move! Right now it is a belly flop/crawl combo, but he gets where he wants to! He is starting to do a little less of the seal-like belly flop and more of the crawl, so I'm anxious to see when the full fledged crawl will begin. My life won't be the same!

"I Don't Know Why She Swallowed a Fly"

I was singing this rather morbid song while Graham was napping a few days ago. Yes, kids' songs are so ingrained in my brain that I often sing them even when Graham is not around! While I was singing the song, memories came back of one summer in France.

During high school and college, I spent 3 years at Camp of the Peaks in the French Alps. One summer we took a trip to the city of Briançon (The highest town in Europe). After spending the day shopping, we made our way to a bridge where people were repelling down to the river bank. I was obviously not the worrier that I am now, because I thought nothing of letting a couple of guys lower me to the river bank. They weren't with a company; they just set up shop on the bridge and let everyone daring repel for free. Suspicious, you might think, but I naively joined everyone else and made my way down. No falls, no scrapes, and no hidden fees. Thank goodness they didn't go on strike during my repel! Once all of our group reached the bottom, we realized we were quite far from where the last bus of the day departed. In a panic, we started sprinting. Suddenly, I felt a burning in my nostrils and the back of my throat. I was breathing clean mountain air, so what could cause this sensation? Then, I felt a cough come on. I covered my mouth, let out a good cough, and looked down to see a saliva coated fly in my hands. I couldn't believe it. I had actually inhaled a fly through my nose and coughed it out of my mouth! It was gross, it was hysterical, but I didn't have time to recuperate or to tell anyone. We just kept treking until we finally made it to the bus station. I was going to tell Graham this story, but I think I will refrain for now. I don't want him living life terrified that his mother swallowed a fly and perhaps she'll die.

The Crazy Mom Syndrome Part II

Tuesday nights = Chick-fil-a = no cooking for me! Yes, every Tuesday night we get together with some of our friends and attend Kids' Night at Chick-fil-a. It's been a tradition for nearly a year because the kids' meals are only $1.74. It's expensive, I know, but you are really paying for the ambiance. Nothing can beat people dressed up as cows and the romantic serenades with the kazoo. Yes, we all get kids' meals even though we don't have a single kid with us who eats a kids' meal. Oh well. Chick-fil-a hasn't kicked us out yet!

Well, tonight was quite eventful at Chick-fil-a. Graham started getting fussy, so I decided to forsake my delicious chicken nuggets and feed my baby. Graham was eating so contently when all of a sudden, his super suctioning powers sucked the nipple right out of the bottle, and he ended up with half of the bottle on his Covenant College Baby onesie. If it had been an MTSU onesie, I wouldn't have been so upset, but it was his one and only Covenant College onesie! I was trying to figure out how I was going to clean the two of us up and fix the nipple in the bottle when Graham suddenly struck my cup, spilling coke all over the table and on top of Daniel. While Daniel rushed to get napkins, Beth offered to hold Graham while I finished my nuggets. And while Beth was holding Graham, he again suddenly reached across the table sending Beth's ice cream flying into the air and all over the seat and floor. Brad then exclaimed, "Don't you know that baby has arms," as if we intentionally let Graham cause all the food disasters! :) If Graham was older, this would have been one of those "Let's go out to the car, son" instances where a spanking would be awaiting him in the back seat. But what are you going to do to an almost 7 month old? I couldn't think of any other option but to laugh. Maybe it was inappropriate laughter, but I think laughing is often the only thing that keeps a mother sane in a chaotic situation. It is now more clear than ever that I am suffering from the Crazy Mom Syndrome.

The Wheel of Responsibility

Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Jeff and I actually resorted to using the Wheel of Responsibility. We were having a debate as to who had to change the next poopy diaper. We had each changed one that day. I told Jeff that I knew how we could settle the dilemma. I then pulled out the Wheel of Responsibility and laid down the ground rules. No best out of 3. Just one spin. Plain and simple. And of course I won the battle. I have to say, the Wheel of Responsibility was quite a handy baby gift from my cousin. Changing a dirty diaper isn't really that big of a deal, but for some reason Jeff and I like to turn it into an ordeal. Oh well. That's fine with me as long as the arrow keeps landing on Dad!

The Electric Slide

So you may be wondering how baby food is going since I was totally stressing out about the whole thing. I guess you can say it's going pretty well, despite the fact that Graham is the messiest eater I have ever seen in my entire life. I mean, I knew it would be a little messy, but I didn't expect it to be THIS messy. I fed a baby in the nursery at church a few weeks ago, and he had baby food all around his mouth, but not on every other part of his body! Graham ends up with it on it his eyelashes, eyelids, hands, feet, chest, and even the back of his head. And he just loves to save his food in those adorable rolls! We like to say Graham takes after my dad, Tsunami Ronnie. Tsunami Ronnie got his nickname because he spilled soy sauce on himself every time he ate sushi. Unfortunately, the mess didn't stop at sushi, so now he pretty much gets food on his shirt every time he eats! I can't say that I am much better. When I was a kid, I was banned from getting a chocolate dipped cone when we went out for ice cream. No one else in my family was banned, just me. And it had to be my favorite ice cream treat! My mom said that I just ended up with chocolate all over my outfit every time I ate, so it became the forbidden food.

Okay, well back to the baby food. So far Graham has had avocados, sweat potatoes, carrots, squash, bananas, oatmeal, and rice cereal. He is usually a good eater, but when he needs a little persuasion, I have found a new trick. First, get the spoon ready with food on it. Then, begin doing the Electric Slide. Do the grapevine to the left and to the right, and as you are going forward, and just before making the turn, you make your move with the spoon. You just electric slide those carrots, squash, or peas right into your baby's mouth. I promise that your baby will be so fixated on your dance and how ridiculous you look, that he won't even know that he's eating something disgusting. I tried it again tonight, and Graham was dying laughing and never even knew he swallowed 5 more spoonfuls of carrots. If you don't know how to do the electric slide, it is pretty simple:

Do a right grapevine.( step right , behind, right step)
Do a left grapevine. (step left , behind left step)
Take 3 steps backwards.( back two three four)
Reach from back foot to front foot.(step on back foot, kick front knee up)
Reach from front foot to back foot. (step on front foot , tap back toe)
Take a step to the right and while doing so, turn to face the left.
Repeat all steps

And if you can figure out how to do the electric slide by these instructions, please, please, show me! I seriously found these instructions on the Internet. I do, however, think you might be able to learn it from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwpTva9ERk. If you live in the South, you have to know how to do the Electric Slide. I don't care if you hate country music....you just need to learn it. You can do it to almost any song. In fact, I was even sliding to Ice Ice Baby (which was playing in my head, not on the radio) while feeding Graham today. The Electric Slide is just a staple (If you can call a dance that) for wedding receptions, girls night out at The Wild Horse Saloon, and of course baby feeding!

"G" is for Graham, I think

I absolutely love appliqued clothing. A plain little onesie can look so adorable once you applique a cute design on it. Even though I have no experience sewing, I thought I would take on the project of appliqueing a onesie for G. This is my first one, and it is my first attempt at using a sewing machine all by myself, so please don't laugh. I think with a little bit of practice, I'm going to make some pretty cute clothes for Graham and for babies to come. I had a little bit of difficulty sewing with the zig zag stitch, but it came out okay, I guess. The other problem is that the G is huge, and it is sitting down on his stomach which makes it look like it stands more for gastrointestinal than for Graham. I've gotta work on positioning, I guess!