Spring has sprung!

All around the blooming heather,
Will ye go, lassie, go?
(all together now)


Tulips, coming up early


Fothergilla. Not attacked by gypsy moths. Yet.

Ahhh

Movie reviews

S has started to get into a routine where she has a long-ish nap of at least 2 hours in the early/mid afternoon. And it's usually on me, since every time I try to move her to her bassinet, she wants nothing to do with it. I know, it's probably a bad precedent to set, but whatever. She's not even 2 months old.

Anyhoo, she's done this a couple of times with me and a couple of times with J. We've used it as an opportunity to watch a movie on Pay per View. Why not, right? We're not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, today I had a bowl of popcorn on the table next to me to complete the experience while S snored.

So far I've seen the Blind Side and Funny People (I'm basically going through the alphabetical listing and watching what looks interesting). Loved The Blind Side. Sandra Bullock does bossy well ;) And of course I loved the adoption angle. Not to mention, having lived in Baltimore for almost 10 years, and knowing that Michael Oher is a Baltimore Raven, made it even better.

Funny People? Not so funny. Is it just me, or just this movie, but are all Apatow films this filled with expletives? It got ridiculous. It's kind of like the shock jocks that J listens to. It's like they have a quota they have to meet each day. I know the movie got mixed reviews, and I'm definitely on the negative side.

Not sure what's next in the queue, but I'll keep you posted...

Baby shower

My mother in law and her mom threw us a baby shower last weekend. My mother in law been waiting a long time for this. J is an only child, we have been married 4 1/2 years, and we waited 10 months for S.

J has a big family, and everyone was invited. It was almost like Christmas, so many people showed up. We had a great time.


J's cousin made this awesome diaper cake. Yep, homemade. There is a cute little bunny on top, and some adorable socks and a cool rattle. Amy is the crafty one in the family ;)


The grandmas enjoyed their little nugget.



The bakery got special instructions on how to spell S's name. And performed admirably. The cake was delish!


'Nuff said



S has her very first Pooh Bear, and he's pretty big!



The happy family.

Our kid looks like Joe Biden

S has lost all of her hair in the front, leaving her with just some fuzz. But she still has quite a bit of dark hair in the back, so long that it hangs over her collar. I call her our little Joe Biden. I really should get a picture, but it's so hard to get a good shot with a squirmy baby. So for now you'll have to take my word for it.

Meeting Nana and Tapa

My parents came out from California to meet their newest granddaughter. They arrived late this morning.



Tapa really liked S. And she smiled at him every chance she got.

Nana couldn't get over her. She took her from Tapa after about 30 seconds.

S was quite the ham for them. Smiling, grinning, and cooing. She got a little fussy for lunch, but after her bottle she sacked out quite nicely so Nana and Tapa could go get some lunch.

It's gonna be a fun week.

Big burger, little bun

To change things up a little, I made bison burgers the other day (J usually makes them). Apparently I make 'em a lot bigger than he does, as they dwarfed the bun.

They were delish. We only had one left over after lunch, and J took it in to work yesterday (boo for me).

Time to fire up the grill again.

Scenes from a garden

Our new garden gnome


Some cool tree with white flowers in our back yard.



Buds on the hawthorn




Blooms on the magnolia. I hope they're still here when my parents visit. Mom loves magnolias.

Blooming heather

Gonna talk gardening

Spring is finally here and I can't wait to get out into the yard. I planted some crocuses last fall and they are finally starting to bloom. My roses all survived the winter, even the climber that was still budding in November. The heather bloomed off and on all winter, but the latest flowers are bright and springy.

All of our new landscaping from last spring overwintered, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the dogwood looks this year. My biggest anticipation will be to see the hawthorne in the spring. If I remember correctly, it's going to be a mass of white flowers.

I am now sorely tempted to get a forsythia or 2 to add to the yard. They're all over the neighborhood and the color makes me happy. Not to mention, my parents have never seen one in person, so it would be nice to have them see one at our house when they come visit.

I'm taking S out for a walk tomorrow, so I'm going to try and get some pictures of our yard so you can see how amazing spring in the Poconos can be.

Happy Easter!

Oh, it was a busy day here. S woke up in a great mood, and early on got her First Easter outfit on:



Mommy and Daddy were busy bees making Easter dinner for Grania, Maw, Bruce, and Annie. This was the first time S met Maw, Bruce, and Annie. She loved Maw.



She took a long nap after her 2pm bottle, then got dressed up in her Easter dress.




S and Mommy were both decked out for the day.



All this visiting took some out of her.

One month old!

Holy crap, how did that happen??? She's already a month old.

I did take this on her actual 1-month birthday (4/3), even though I'm posting today. She didn't sleep much yesterday, so Daddy hung out with her sleeping on him (when she did sleep) or we were trading off with her while the other person got some work done around the house.

Our little girl is starting to show her personality. She's definitely a morning person. When she gets up for her 8/9am feeding, she hangs out on the changing table for a while just giggling and cooing, and moving her arms and legs. I want to just hang out there all day.

She's starting to smile more, and to learn that it's a good thing. I'm still not quite sure if she knows how cool it is, but it's so nice to see.

Had a "she looks like you" moment

I took S out the other day, and she was being her charming self. I swear, having a baby means you make instant friends with strangers who want to check her out and tell you what a cute kid you have. And S cooperates by being wide awake and alert for these encounters.

An elderly woman looked at her and said, "What color are her eyes? Are they blue?" To be honest, they seem to look a little different every day, and I think they're going to be hazel. But I said, "Well, they're blue today at least." The lady walked right up to me, gazed into my eyes, and said, "Well, your eyes are blue, so I'm sure hers will be too."

I had to just smile. If she only knew.

I told this story to friends of mine who have adopted, and they all get the same thing. Even if their child is a different race or ethnic background, there's always someone who says, "They look just like you."