So Close to Crawling

I keep grabbing the video camera, thinking this will be the moment!  She's going to take off across the floor!

She's not quite there yet, but she's getting close.

Here are a couple videos of her training.

We've had a good week, so far.  Not very eventful, but good.  The weather has been gorgeous!



Ginnie and I put together a raised herb garden today, and I'll post pictures soon.

Have a good week!

Apothecary Media Console Cabinet: Part 5

We made a little more progress on the cabinet this weekend.

Sad news - I don't think we're going to have it done before Lucy's mobile.  She's so close to crawling now!  But we've been busy with road trips and working weekends, and it just hasn't gotten done as quickly as I had hoped.



Still, we did make progress this weekend--and it will get done, eventually!

 

This weekend we got the other 3 drawer faces attached to the drawers, which required some planing and sanding, since the drawer faces were slightly larger than the drawer openings.  



We decided to skip the routing of the facade apothecary drawer faces, in favor of some electrical sanding to just round the edges and help give a distressed appearance.



We will re-stain these faces, so that they don't look quite this distressed.



Next we will either cut and install the cabinet doors, apply oak facing to the plywood edges, or attach the drawer pulls to the facade drawer faces. 

 

Like I said... Lucy is so close to crawling!  I will post a video on that topic soon.



I was bragging telling someone the other day how Lucy hasn't had so much as a runny nose yet, and what do you think happened.



Within 24 hours her face was wet with tearing eyes, runny nose, and drool.  Looks to be either a little upper respiratory infection or the most acutely onset allergies I've ever seen.

 

Makes me that much more thankful we've not had to deal with any serious illness so far. 

I'm Declaring Victory

 

The Rash is so much better.

 

I still don't understand why Lucy's skin became so sensitive all of the sudden.  She had been fine for 6 whole months, and then suddenly The Rash appeared and would. not. leave.


 
She still has no teeth to show for all her "teething."  I wanted to blame The Rash and all the drooling on teething, but maybe there's no explanation for the rash.  And maybe she's just a drooly baby - end of story.



It's certainly not the worst problem she could have, if it's even a "problem" at all.   



Counting waist-down nudity and changing diapers every 30 minutes or so, I tried 8 remedies:

Maximum Strength Desitin
Eucerin
Miconazole
Babyganics Hiney Helper
Grandma El's Diaper Rash Remedy
nekkidness
frequent changes
and finally...



Baby Anti-Monkey Butt powder (with Calamine powder).  It has done the trick.  Or maybe it's a coincidence, and her skin would have gotten better anyways.  I'll never know.  The other things I tried are good products, but you know what they say... every baby's different. 



It is remarkable how my self confidence (or maybe sanity) as a mother seems to have been inversely correlated with the severity of The Rash.

 

Thank you, God, for starting with small things.  Thank you that they come out as babies, not as 3-year-olds.  Thank you that our first parental trials are drool and diaper rashes instead of bullies at school.  Thank you for supportive friends, families, and blog commenters.       

That "Mama" Moment

Many times I've seen that magical cinematic moment where the baby first says, "mama," and excited, almost tearful parents are on the edge of their seats, waiting for baby to say it again.  I had always interpreted that scene as the first time the baby was saying the name for his mother - "mama" 

Should be no surprise to me that the actual "mama" moment, at least so far, is nothing like in the movies.  It doesn't mean anything yet... it's just babbling.  But still it is fun, fun, fun to hear her say, "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" again and again. 

Sorry it took me a few days to update with a new post. It always seems to, after I work on the weekend.  I always seem to need a couple days to get back to normal after working. 

Lucy loves to be surprised. She is a thrill-seaker.  And she is thrilled when she's surprised.

Road Trippin' with my Baby

Lucy and I got on the road toward Beaumont early, early on Sunday morning.  We would have left Saturday, after Daniel left for Florida, but I had a staff meeting on Saturday evening. 



We left at 5:30 AM and managed to get to Beaumont before noon - not bad, considering we needed stops for diaper changes and feeding.  The trip in the car was not without tears, but thankfully they were all Lucy's.



This statue (below) of Sam Houston drives me crazy.  I'm not sure why. 



I think the size of it just really bothers me.  Like the sculptor was trying to out-do nature. 



And I suppose it sort of reminds me of the city of Houston - too big for its own good, no offense to any Houstonians reading.



Sarah and Joe were so happy to see Lucy, and we were delighted to see them!



I love Joe and Sarah's house.  They let me stay with them during my internal medicine rotation, and we were strangers at the time. 



They are just some of the warmest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.



What a face.



These are called "fire crackers" and are yummy!  Mix saltines with oil, powdered ranch salad dressing mix, and lots of crushed peppers.  They turn into spicy little saltine potato chips and are irresistible.



This is Ruthie. She helps out around the house and is just lovely to talk to.  She used to run marathons.  She says, "Oh Jeeeesus" a lot and has 13 brothers and sisters.   



One of the meals we shared was "chicken deli wraps".  Chicken salad in a cream cheese spread-ed tortilla.



Sarah and I made the chicken salad, and Joe did the wrapping.



I liked watching him put the wraps together.  Very methodical.  Like an art. 



Visiting Evelyn is a must-do whenever we visit Beaumont.  She is a very sweet, 90-something lady who always prepares coffee and treats when we come to chat.



Oh, and she loves Justin Beiber.



It was Lucy's first time meeting Justin. 



I think, if she could speak, Lucy would have commented on his remarkable height. 



We finished our trip with a meal at Goodfella's, one of my favorite Beaumont restaurants.  We loved being in Beaumont and visiting with our friends and look forward to next time!

Photo Shoot in Pink

The other day was really cloudy and perfect for portraits.  Lots of indirect light.




So I took Lucy outside and set up a mini photo shoot.



The whole shoot lasted maybe 10 minutes but was so fun.



I am still applying the basic principles I learned in How to Photograph Your Baby.



Get close (really close).  Use lots of indirect light.  Take lots of photos.



I love the following series.




I think I need a new backdrop for photographing friends' newborns.  I'm thinking black velvet.



This photo isn't photo-shopped.  Her eyes just look like that.  Unreal. 



This week Daniel is in Florida for business, so Lucy and I high tailed it out of town to visit our good friends Joe and Sarah in Beaumont.



I was intensely nervous about the 6-hour car ride with Lucy.  But it actually went pretty well.



She didn't really sleep much, but neither did she cry much.  I'd call that a success.



I made the aperture too large in this photo (above), which is why her right eye is in focus, but her left eye is blurry.  The bigger the aperture, the more blurry anything will be that is behind or in front of the point of focus.



Similar issue here, but I still like it.  Hope your week is going well!  Will update with pics of our road trip soon.