Two Fives Today

Last night was the fifth night in a row Elena made it through the night! She started sleeping through the night (meaning 9 or 10 PM to sometime between 4 and 6 AM) a week or two before Christmas. Then, the week after New Years (right when I started my longer hours at work, talk about guilt!) she starts needing to eat at 11 or 12 PM and then snacking at 3 AM. This went on until last week. So 5 nights in a row, we'll see how long it lasts this time.

Second, happy 5 month birthday, Elena!

Elena gets in some gym time earlier this evening

Playing peekaboo with the leg of the gym

One plum tuckered five month old, drool and all.

Saying Good-bye to Goldie

Two posts today - the other pics are from yesterday afternoon.

Eulogy for a car:



This morning, we said good-bye to a beloved friend, Rob's car, Goldie. (The name is a long story.) She was ten years old, had over 150,000 miles on her and kept needing some rather large repairs. (A little over $1,500 in the last two months) Also, being a tiny car, she just wasn't big enough for us, really. We got a great deal on tricked out (leather, sun roof, etc.) 2004 Saturn Ion with only 17,000 miles two weeks ago, so we decided to donate the old girl to the Junvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The odometer - 151,285.3 miles, all but 16 of those are ours.

So, your thinking, it's a car. Nope, we spent 10 years going places in that little car and she was such a good car. Great gas milage. She was a major part of Rob and my's courtship, making countless trips between Nacogdoches and Houston. Kathryn grew up in that car - going from sticking peanut butter crackers to the side wall to really barely fitting in the back seat. Some how that tiny car managed to carry two adults, two teenagers and one of those teenagers worldly posessions to Dallas. It made some memorable trips to New Orleans and Austin. And she was a cutey. Maybe just because she was ours, we humanized her, but I think her front end even looked a little like a face.
Good-bye, old girl. We'll miss you. Pardon us, if we picture you running around in a field playing with other little Geos.

This is what happens . . .

When you put Laney on the floor with all of her stuffed animals and then decide to practice sitting up.

First, she rolls over, she's good at that.

She managed to stay up long enough for me to take this pic.

She fell over before I got this one shot.

Luckily she had some soft friends to land on . . .

And chew on.

Update on the Fam

We've all got colds. It's Laney's first. Not a milestone I was looking forward to. She seemed to be doing better, but apparently the sitter had to use the asperator a lot today. The pediatrician said this could last up to 10 days and we can't do anything but use saline and asparate and try to loosen the stuff up by using a humidifier or a steamy bathroom. At least she's still in a good mood.


Hard to believe how fast time passes. My nephew, Evan turned 6 weeks old today and my other nephew is due on Monday. Laney turns 5 months on Tuesday.

Kathryn has taken to playing on the floor with her little sister after we get home in the evenings. She particularly likes to set up the play dome. They can actually get in there with together. Both sisters seem to enjoy it.

Any excuse to post a bathtub pic - Cute ain't it? That baby loves water.

Despite the runny noses, life is good.

Oh and update on my earlier rant - we had a guy out to give us a quote on vinyl siding. We got a reasonable one that we can probably afford in a few months and he said "From the street I couldn't tell you need new siding". Would have been nice if the HOA had actually come and looked at our house, huh?

Suemy's Wedding

Saturday night was my friend (and supervisor), Suemy's wedding. Rob, Kathryn, and I went and Laney stayed home with a sitter. The wedding was beautiful, held at a Lutheran church with gorgeous high ceilings and stained glass. I would love to see it in daylight. The reception was held at the Hobby Center. For you non-Houstonians, that is the theatre where the Broadway showes come. I had a hard time picturing it, but it made a beautiful reception site.

The wedding was so very Chae and Suemy. You could tell the pastor cared very much for them. The music was completely non-traditional - they recessed to "Going to the Chapel" and entered the reception to Nelly's "Hot in Here". Suemy was beautiful and Chae's hair still didn't lay down.

Pics:

Not the most flattering picture of me, but this is Kathryn, me, Suemy, Chae and Hunter, also from my office. We unfortuanely cut Hunter's fiancee out of the picture.

Us before we left for the wedding

Work folks - Krissy, Ling

Jacklyn, Zahida, Jamie and me

Jamie & Jacklyn

Zee and her husband, Ali

For some of the professional pics check out pinkposh.blogspot.com

Aristocratic? Titles

Thanks to Shea for introducing us to this site:

Rob's aristocratic title:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Earl Tora the Dejected of Bismorton Shropcake Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Mine:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Grand Duchess Heather the Ingenious of St Winifred by Winchelsea Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Kathryn:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Milady the Right Reverend Kathryn the Dulcet of Giggleswick under Table Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Elena:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Imperial Majesty Elena the Perplexed of Waldenshire under Throcket Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Gotta Love the French

I got an e-mail from A.M. - this makes three in one week, a record. :) I've got to credit her with this one -

"My French phrase of the day: 'Les carottes sont cuites!' - We've had it!
or literally, The carrots are cooked!
I totally want to wander around work monday saying 'The carrots are cooked!'"

The French come up with great phrases! I particulary love "L'Sprit D'Escalier" or the Spirit of the Stairs (a phrase I use in English, but who knows if anyone understands I am saying). To quote Neil Gaiman - "It means, well, the clever things to say that only you think to yourself when you're on the way out." Or driving down the road hours later, whatever. Thank you for teaching me that, Neil.

Random post for the day, done. Number of posts it took for me to quote Neil Gaiman - four.

Blogging and More

So, this could get addictive. Yesterday in response to my "my new blog" e-mail, my friend A.M. sent me a link to hers - look to the left. From there I ended up finding some of my other college friends and suddenly I'm reading blogs for over an hour, when I really should be going to bed. And then in the shower I'm thinking about what I'll write today. And what do I do when I get home from work tonight? Check Tara's, Shea's and A.M.'s for postings. Yup, this could be a problem.

On to other topics - This was an insane day at work! My supervisor is getting married on Saturday so she is out of the office until Tuesday (she's not honeymooning until the summer, thank goodness) but that leaves me basically in charge. I spent all morning being her and all afternoon being me. (In fact, I just realized one of the attorneys asked me to help him this afternoon and he never came by.) But I got it done, basically kept my cool and that feels fantastic.

Veering off on another topic - Elena finally got hold of her feet this morning. She's been staring at them for a couple of weeks, trying to figure them out and this morning when I was changing her diaper she reached up and grabbed them. The milestones just keep on coming.

And finally a rant - my home owner's association sucks! Back in September we got a letter telling us we need to replace our wood siding which was decaying. We can't afford this, so my dad decides he'll fill in the cracks and bad spots and then repaint. He spent a week in October, a week in November, and a week during Christmas doing all of this work. The siding looks much better. But what's in the mail today - another letter telling us our siding is decaying and we need to replace it. Yup. Of course, these are the folks that check the lawns on Thursdays instead of on Mondays so that we haven't had a chance to mow over the weekend. I guess I shouldn't feel too threatened, the neighbors behind and to the left have had tarps on their roof since Hurricane Rita. I'm looking forward to moving in a couple years, but I know it'll just be another HOA we have to deal with. Hopefully they'll be more reasonable, but then I can also hope to win the lottery.

Snow Day

Ok, so it's not snowing. But that sounds better than "Inclement Weather Day" or "Ice Storm Day". Yup, those are icicles hanging off my outside lights and my hose caddy. They canceled Kathryn's school today and I am probably going to go into work late, if I go in at all. Right now, we're watching "The Sound of Music", eating popcorn and having something hot to drink.

It's been cold (by Texas standards) for a few days now - this is Elena all bundled up to go to the sitter's yesterday morning. She is wearing the hat made by my cousin, Martha, that I never thought it would get cold enough for her wear.


This is her wearing the hat my cousin, Roseanne (Martha's daughter) knitted. We're trying to get them all worn while it's cold enough.

Welcome

Well, this is me jumping on the band wagon. I held out for a while but here I stand, er sit, "blogging". Yup, using a made up word even. My sister-in-law, Tara has been blogging for a while - about her pregnancy and now her cutie-patootie baby, Evan, and I'll admit, I've been inspired.
So, without topic - I'll probably wax poetic (and non-poetic) on any old subject, I get this thing started. Now I warn you, my favorite topic of conversation right now is my baby girl, Elena. Around here she is more commonly called Laney (or Crankypants, or other amusing and/or embarassing nicknames) and thus my blog name.


I'm also Kathryn's step-mom and I have three four-legged children, Rory (the dog), Ebony and Scooter (cats) and my husband, Rob. Most of you probably already know this. I don't know who's going to read this, maybe I'm just listening to myself type.