What's going on now....

We haven't updated what the little one is up to in a while in terms of overall new stuff and what we're kind of learning.....so, here we go.

• If you put Reese on her back...she will roll very shortly. But only right to left. She hasn't figured out the other way just yet but she's close.
  
• She isn't rolling back over once she makes it to her tummy...which sometimes gets her a little ill.
• She isn't slobbering quite as bad now.
• She loves to eat her hands.
• and her thumb
• She is growing TONS of new hair and it isn't all that greasy looking on bath day.
• She's gaining an attachment to Elmo now.
• She sings like crazy in the swing if she isn't tired.
• Fighting sleep is an art for this little girl. She'll actually work herself into such a mess over sleep that she'll almost go the other way and NOT be tired.
• Rice cereal is going soooo much better with apple sauce.
• Poops stink a little worse.
• Krissy seems to get the majority of poops.....damn
• Reese loves her B.O.B. (three wheeled stroller) and we do too. Thanks Mom and Dad....
• She jumps all over Kim and the last feeding of the day.
  
• She still doesn't burp all that well.
• Don't shake the baby after feeding....she will spit.
• She doesn't get the hiccups all the time like she used to.
• She pees every five minutes....well, maybe ten.
• Still loves bath time.
• Loves to sit up in the tub now and splash with her hands and feet.
• Is almost sitting up on her own.
• Is still amazed by ceiling fans.
• Loves the breeze outside...she just smiles so big.
• Might be recognizing her name.
• She says mummamuuuuuma mmumma.....which makes Kim just light up but I contend that she doesn't really know what she's saying yet and really wants Daddy regardless.
• She has been wearing 6-9 months and depending on brand can easily go to 12 months in clothes. We are buying 18 month stuff for the cooler months.
• Loves her exersaucer.

I know there is more but I just can't think right this second...I'm tired and ready for bed.

Five Months....

Our little girl is already five months old....how can that be? A lot of people say she looks like Daddy but in the five month picture, I really see it. Poor kid.

We are so in love with this little girl and every stage is our favorite...we'll get to a new thing and that becomes our favorite part of her. It's amazing to look back to the first pictures of her in the hospital and then look at her now. We know we're blessed. We know that so many other children climb a mountain that we hope Reese never has to. Sickness and pain cloud so many parents first glimpse of their children and we have been so very blessed. We pray every night that Reese lives a charmed life. No pain, no sickness, no hurdles that can't be crossed without great sacrifice....just happy days and God given gifts. One day she'll read these words in the books that we are printing and she'll more than likely already know it....but as she sits in the Bumbo behind me on Kim's desk...she is the center of our world. Love you squirt!

New curve ball...

So Reese is in this trend - over the better part of two weeks now - where she flat refuses to take her afternoon / evening nap. You can plainly see that she is tired....her left eyelid is a tell-tale sign of her tiredness because it has been weaker than the other eyelid since she was born.....she is mildly fussy and doesn't really like anything during the evenings.

To call it a nap is probably a stretch but a twenty minute power nap is sometimes all a girl needs to unwind a little bit but she won't do it. Has anybody else run through this? Is this another growth spurt? Is she secretly hungry? Or is she just OVER tired? (a term that I pretty much despise) Pooka turns five months old Thursday and I would expect that she would be throwing new things at us but we're at a loss on this one.

She used to sit idle for a few minutes in the swing without her patented mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm whine. She doesn't really cry until the caca has hit the fan so all we hear is mmmmm mmmmm mmmmmm right now when we leave her in the swing for an instant.

So, the question is this...what the heck is going on?

Is she teething? Is she dropping this evening nap? Is she tired? Is she not tired? Is she bored? Does she need additional stimulation (over what we're already giving her)?

Either way, bath time is still a hit.

Reese is an expert curve ball pitcher. Yeah! Just our luck.

BBQ time!

So I just got through riding about 9 of the toughest miles that I've ridden in a long time....my legs have been mush after the near death experience Saturday of getting completely run off the road into a ditch...and now I'm rewarding myself with JD's Bar-B-Q.

My girls are out with some Calhoun friends catching up and I'm treating myself to some good chow!

So much for calories burned.

Sunday Summary....

So this post was interrupted before it even started by a little girl that has fought sleep the better part of the afternoon. We sort of let her grump it out in her crib but she just wasn't having any of that. Kim tried to soothe her and I asked her to just calm her down and then leave but it didn't work. Reese was getting so worked up about being in the crib that she was working up a stuffy nose from the crying. I relented out of frustration to go get her thinking little momma was playing us but when we got her down to the swing to chill out, she was doing those little snuks that kids do after they've been crying. Snuk, snuk snuk, sigh.....I felt pretty bad because I thought she was just working us to stay up a little longer with Mommy and Daddy but I think she was genuinely upset about something now and I guess motherly intuition was pulling at Kim to comfort her and there I was thinking that Reese was just being ornery. Her schedule has been off pretty significantly today so I think that has more to do with this than anything but at the same time...this happened last night to Ryan and Jenni when they watched her so I don't want to start a trend. Speaking of which.....

We went to a wedding yesterday at Lake Lanier Islands. I'll admit openly that I was not looking forward to the trip - I mean think about it. A big boy in a tie, outside, during the August heat, during the August HUMIDITY, sweating my brains out.....this just didn't seem like a good idea. But to our surprise, the Friday night storms kicked up a nice breeze, cleared out the wet blanket of air that we live with 90% of the time, and knocked down the temps by about 10 degrees. For an outside wedding in August....you couldn't have asked for better. And what a beautiful place...we've never been to Lake Lanier Islands even though we've heard about it for so long. I was pretty impressed. I wouldn't go spend a week there but I would spend a long weekend up there without a doubt.

Some of the event pics are not fully condoned by the parties shown but they should get a blog too....then they can have creative control of pics that make the cut. Like in the pic below where Celeste finds her man soooo attractive that she sort of slips him a little something....mmmmhmm.










Congrats go to Justin and his new bride. The boy looks nervous as all get out and Lance can't take his eyes off of one of the brides maids. Rawr!

So we get back home and Ryan and Jenni had fallen asleep on our bed keeping a close eye on Reese. We decided that we'd let them sleep and we took the spare bedroom......the result is that we're tossing that bed as soon as we can afford to do so. What a piece of garbage to sleep on. We feel ashamed that poor Nana slept on that bed for an entire week after we brought Reese home. Oh....it was horrible. I think that's the worst night of sleep that either of us has gotten in our own home. So when we got up and realized that they had left early....we got back in our bed and slept in. That's the main reason that Reese's schedule is so dorked up and there is something about the kid going to sleep with it still light outside. She just patently refuses to give in to sleep in her crib if light is shining in her room in the slightest. I've got to cover that palladium window sooooon!

I also decided that today was to be project day - only one project but something that had been on the to do list since we moved in....paint the wrought iron handrails at the front door. They looked horrible. Rusting, flaking paint, looking all ghetto....yeah, we needed to do something about that because that's the first thing you see when you stroll up to the house....a rusted out piece of junk, handrail. So I brushed the paint and scoured the rust with a wire brush and some stuff called Naval Jelly....erp....don't put this stuff in your navel because it would probably eat through to your backbone. It smelled horrible and then I decided that for good measure, I would paint to make everything smell even worse. See before...
And after.....

Take into account that the before was the result of the scrubbing and the additional use of Naval Jelly....I can't get past that....Naval Jelly...what the hell? - Any way, it looks so much better now. And to show that I'm an equal opportunity kind of guy when it comes to pics....check out the hot guy that Kim hired to paint the railings and his "bald" spot on display.

What a tool!!! Hey dude...try some Rogaine! ahahaha aha ahem.....uh....wait. Mmmmmmm, that's me. oh. hmmmph. Well. Interesting. Moving along.

Finally, Sunday seems to be shoe day for Reese and in keeping with our redneck ways of only putting shoes on our child one day each week....We made some pics of Reese wearing her new Crocs from Aunt Sandy. Thank you Sandra! She still tries to pick at them like shoes are some sort of plague that just appeared on her feet but eventually we'll try to get her to like two days a week before we cart her to Walmart all barefooted and everything. That's all for now....have a good first part of the week!

Pooks is tired...

She's sleeping all over the place now...She's just the cutest.

I'm a slave to the bottles....

Props to all the single moms out there....good Lord I'm tired.

What I'm saying is that Kimmy is traveling right now and I'm playing Mr. Mom ------ NOT that I'm not accustomed to doing pretty much what it takes, Oh, I am. But just not by myself!

I travel sort of regular and I couldn't be more proud of Kim for doing it solo while I'm gone. It's really not that Reese is all encompassing right now...that's not what wears me out. Its the prep work for later. I'm so sick of prepping for the next chow session that I'm about ready to cut up hot dogs and start her on solids tonight. The rice cereal went well tonight and all of the bottle feedings went fine as well. We even went for a walk down to Publix to get Bax some dog food...and some M&Ms....and THAT went well. But washing these God forsaken bottles so that you don't get behind is just Fop! (My own word for all things bad....Fop!...watch O'Brother Where Art Thou if Fop sounds vaguely familiar)

I figured I would share the pic from the Daily pic blog so that you can see how the Publix run went....Reese didn't really protest much. She sort of propped on the dog food and narked out.

On another note, Mom went through her second surgery for knee replacement and no doubt there is plenty of trauma around her knee but she can already feel a difference from this morning to now. Thank you Lord! My poor Mom has suffered through 7 1/2 months with this bum knee and going to an even worse bum doctor that wouldn't hear her regarding pain and uneasiness. Finally, she got a second opinion, planned another surgery, and today was the day. I spoke with her tonight and she sounds great...considering some guy was hacking on her leg earlier today. Modern medicine is amazing. What if we lived 100 years ago...she would have been down for the count...for that matter 25 years ago would have been a different story as well! I know she's relieved to have this behind her and she has to be looking forward to a better recovery.

Alright...I'm pooped so that's all I've got for now. Kim comes home late Thursday! I love you sweetie! You're already Super Mom in my eyes.

Spa night for Pooka...

We give Reese a bath every other night and she has loved it since the first full "in-water" bath. Now she is starting to sort of sit up and slap the water with her hands. It makes for a soaked Mommy and Daddy but it makes for some pretty good laughs too.

Notice the towels everywhere...
Wet bangs after a little face wipe down....
Can I help you? I mean really....check out the scowl. Do not mess with this girl during her hair wash.
I'll veer off subject for just a moment.

After my birthday...I'm done with Summer. Git! Done I tell you. Git on!! And then this evening while walking with Kim and Reese after dinner...I took notice of a major shift in the seasonal tides. The Cherry trees that crowd the entrance to our neighborhood have started dropping leaves. Oh yes...I love it. I love Fall with more passion that a normal person should. Fall is a man's season....Fresh air, cool air, camp fires, football, tailgating, cold beer, fall colors, Bar-B-Q....it just tastes better in the Fall, Brunswick Stew, Thanksgiving, football, World Series, football, our Anniversary, football.....I love it. My job has been absolutely stressing me out of late and fall is the cure...and it can't get here soon enough.

I know that we still have a week or so left in August and September is no cake walk in the south but those first leaves dropping just get my juices flowing.....60 degree highs here we come!

Sunday Summary

It seems like Reese is doing new things daily right now...First, she started rolling from her back to her stomach on Thursday and hasn't stopped since. In fact, now we sort of have to prevent her from rolling right after eating so she won't spit-up all over the place. We also have to roll her back over because she gets a little irritated being on her stomach so we're sort of at her beck and call right now. The fun has begun!

She has really taken to the Exersaucer and can pretty much take it for long periods without alot of fuss. She stayed in it Saturday while Kim and I washed cars. She was in the garage with a fan blowing on her...our little oven couldn't do it otherwise....and she let us wash the cars and vacuum the insides. What's worse is that this was the first time that we have washed vehicles since we've lived at this house. All of the water restrictions have made it sort of "uncool" to wash your own vehicle and even without restrictions...you still feel like the water Nazi's are watching you. Eh well, the cars are clean and the lake didn't dry up so I'm not stressing it.

We also FINALLY cleared the hurdle on the car seat drama. Yeah....the Taj Mahal of all car seats...the be all end all because if you don't buy it your kids will die.....yeah, it didn't have the latch system in the box. Seriously? I mean what the hell....We pay that much and the stinking seat doesn't have all the parts. So I took it back to BRU and the next one that I picked up....didn't have it either. The only one that had it on the seat was a seat that was out of the plastic which made me wonder if this was a return and was I inheriting another piece of caca. Let me rate Britax right about now....I'm sure they'd love to hear what we have to say about their seat of gold. Anyway -----

Today my folks came down for a visit since it may be a while before Mom can make it back. She's going back under the knife to repair a botched knee replacement that was performed in January. She's had horrible knee pain since that time and her slacker Dr. didn't own up to botching the surgery. Any way... she gets it fixed by a highly recommended Dr. on Wednesday so they spent the afternoon with us. Between naps and playing with Papa and Grandma we put Reese in some of her hand-me-down kicks and she had a time trying to figure out what in the heck was on her feet.

Between good times on the jungle mat and the exersaucer, Reese also found the time to learn how to eat her feet...check our pic-a-day blog A Year in the Life of Us. Silly girl....she is so much fun right now.












Off of baby talk for one second to close the summary....Daddy got some shoes and clips for his bike Saturday. I rode to the office this morning and made record time. I couldn't believe how efficient I was on the road. Look out Lance Armstrong.......hahahahaha aaaahhhhhh, I tickle myself.

Me and Pooka....

For some reason we started calling Reese Pooka-Booka not too long ago and now that has been shortened to Pooka.

I have no idea. I swore that I would never do that....call my child a name that had NOTHING to do with her real name. Sort of like Neleh (pronounced Na-lee-ya) being called Dita. I've never understood that but now we're just as guilty.

Me and Pooka...chillin' on the weekend.

Back home....

Lately....I've thought better of advertising that my wife and daughter will be at home alone while I travel - hence the creative hiatus here on the blog by Adam and a fine job of filling in for me by my lovely wife...I've been all over eastern North Carolina visiting accounts and being drowned in rain of biblical proportions. I seriously doubted my admission into the pearly gates was secure so at one point during the deluge I paused to say a quick prayer....no lie.

Lightning and thunder were so prominent that the thunder was making my windshield wipers jump and skip while they tried to rake buckets of rain off the windshield...again, no lie...and you could smell what the lightning had just hit.....I think that means it was close. You think?

And on top of that, I drove about 7 hours to get home to my girls on my birthday. I'd say that hugging my girls was about the best present I could have ever received. The only thing notable about this birthday is that I can legally serve as President of the United States now....I think I'll abstain.

I'm also very tired for a mid-thirtysomething adult and choose to go sleep in my own bed next to my beautiful wife. Ahhhhh I love home.

Happy Birthday Adam!!!

Happy Birthday honey! I love and appreciate you so much. You are a fantastic husband, friend, and now daddy! We can't wait to see you this afternoon and celebrate your birthday.

So exciting....

Reese rolled over for the first time on her own today and who was there to see it.....no one! Ha! I picked her up from Krissy's house this afternoon and we were going to run an errand. I put her on the living room floor so I could go start the car so it would be cool in the car and I would have a happy baby during my travels. I ran down stairs started the car and ran back up stairs to find Reese now laying on her belly. Oh my goodness...YEAH REESE...good girl...EXCELLENT!!! During all my praise I think I scared her because her legs were moving like there was no tomorrow. I picked her up and put her in the carseat so that we could run our errands real quick because it was close to feeding time. I was SO anxious to get back and see if she would do it again or if it was a one time deal tonight. WELL...she has not stopped rolling over this evening. Each time I have put her on the floor or on her mat she has rolled over. There is no stopping this baby girl now!! I actually did catch her rolling over on video, but I'm not sure how to post a video so we will have to wait until daddy gets home tomorrow.

Hugs and kisses to daddy! We can't wait to see you tomorrow!!! Reese can't wait to show you her new moves! :-)

Trying not to break the bank....

Well the title implies what we were trying to do.

Backstory:
We've been looking for a new convertible car seat...why? you ask...because our precious little lady is out growing her carry-all that we've had since she came home. The other reason is that for about a month, we've given Krissy our spare base so she could run an errand or two with Reese during the day. I know what some folks are thinking...you let Krissy drive Reese around....yep. She has three kids of her own and she hasn't caused lasting damage to either of hers and I'm sure the motherly instinct is always in gear whether in the car or in the kitchen. So, my car has been baby free for a week or so and we needed to fix that. The other thing is that a stroller is becoming a little more desirable for Reese and carrying her in the other car seat is a pain since she weighs 19lbs. now....talk about a work out lifting her tail all over the place. All this equals...convertible car seat.

Shopping for a new seat is a ROYAL pain. What's safe, what's easy, what's cheap? Mind you...if it meant taking a new mortgage to keep Reese safe, we would do that but it doesn't so we shopped price and compatibility and what basically made sense.

Every book you read seems to recommend Britax carriers...another Dr. Brown conspiracy? I sort of thought so and that meant that we were ready to buck the trend. We were prepared to set out on our own and find something cost efficient (at least more so than the Britax) and user friendly. And so we did....we bought a Graco car seat that you saw in the photo the other day.....It was perfect. Little sippy cup holders, nice padding, side impact tested, neat color......oh, and impeccable safety from Graco 'cause they don't make junk.

that's beautiful...what is it? Velvet?
FAST FORWARD:
I'm running around like crazy yesterday trying to leave on time for the 'Hoon and I'm installing this seat. I wrestled this thing like crazy trying to get it in and then finally realized that I hadn't read the de-structions all that clearly and probably cost myself a good 15 minutes of garbage wrestling in the heat of the day in my car....Dear Lord, I sweateth. And I spake foul words in succession.

Finally, I get the seat installed....got the car loaded for the boil....and Reese is ready to load. But now, the straps won't tighten around pumpkin. We reach in to trip the strap so it will pull and you can loosen the straps but no can pull. Nothing....Seriously? Lord.....really? Did I say THAT many four letter words? I'm sorry....please make this thing work...............................please. Nothing. I might as well have been pulling an elephant from under this seat, it wasn't going to happen. I unlatch the seat....look at it...it moves a little now but not much. By this time, I'm in red-ass mode which means I'm slightly less savory than swift kick in the throat. Kim is probably ready to jerk a knot in my previously mentioned red-ass and this seat that we were so proud of having bucked the system on - is a piece....(and whatever "of" you care to...I preferred something akin to caca yesterday.)

We could have bought TWO of these seats for the cost of ONE Britax but if this seat bites and is un-user friendly, why bother.

Guess what we did today? We spent the money on the Britax. Lord.....Please forgive my foul mouth and thank you for making our path clear.....They rank this stuff high for a reason and then price it that way because it would be too much for something to work as designed if it costs less than our first born. We were trying to do the right thing but in the end, we needed to see for ourselves.

I'm not buying two more of these things for Kim and then Krissy as well or we will have to mortgage the house. We spendeth too much.

All for you Reese.....all for you. Mwaaa

Busy day....

Right out of the gate...today was a busy one. I woke up, grabbed Reese and brought her into our room to let her finish out her nap and while she laid there with Mommy, I got ready to go riding.


During one of my treks up and down the stairs this morning, I decided to grab my camera and give everyone a glimpse of a peaceful sleeping Reese. She is laid out! After that, I hopped on the bike and proceeded to ride 24 miles over to Red Top Mountain State park. Blitz completely from the ride, I got home, gathered our stuff...showered of course...and headed up to Calhoun for a little send off dinner for Elizabeth. She's headed to school in south Georgia so we did a little Low Country boil in honor of her moving below the gnat line. (for those that don't know, there is a point in Georgia when go far enough south that the gnats will absolutely tote you away. Nose, mouth, ears, eyes....they get into everything. I hate it.)


















We had a good meal and a good time eating a ton of food. I had to cook alot of the stuff separately because there was just too much food for my little basket in the boiler. Elizabeth heads down early in the week so keep that whole gang in your thoughts. I know Sis (aka Judith...I'll attempt to explain on a post down the road as to why everyone calls her Sis....I don't know that I know completely.) will miss her little girl and I'm sure the first tastes of "freedom" for Elizabeth will probably be a little bittersweet as well. This is a good thing and it is the time of your life. Live it to the fullest Elizabeth. You'll never live like this again...sleeping late, playing hard, studying, making new friends, and living life in a way that you never will again. It goes by fast sweetie...soak it in because in a few short years, it'll be all work...and not nearly enough play.

You'll do fine and I'll see you in a couple weeks. You can buy the beers and we'll do keg stands ---- No Sis....I'm just kidding.

Adorable...

Is it any wonder why this little girl has our hearts?

We've got a big weekend planned with a cookout for Elizabeth prior to leaving for college and just some around the house chores and bike riding to do this weekend as well.

We're so glad Friday is here but I'm a little sad as well looking back since this is my Papa's birthday. He would have been 84 years old on Friday. I still miss him more than anyone in my family really knows and the effect that he had on my life is so profound. I know life where he is - is infinitely better than it is here but for a selfish moment, I want him back so he can hold Reese and kiss her cheeks.

But he will, one day.......

Rice cereal sucks....

....So we mixed it with a little apple sauce tonight and it went down better than previous nights.

This pic is on our other blog (A Year in the Life of Us) as our daily pic but this look is just priceless.

I mean, who can blame the girl....I wouldn't want anything that looks like this either....

This is more Mommy and Daddy's speed right here....Sorry munchkin, soon enough but not tonight.

Bam!

For the first time since November 2nd of last year....I beat 30 minutes on the Towne Lake loop. Roughly 7 miles of burn it hills and kill it climbs and I hit 29:36 this evening for an overall average of 13.9 mph - I say that's fast for a big boy. November was 29:50 so I'm pretty stoked to be doing this well this 'early' in the year. (I took some considerable time off this winter and spring with pregger Kimmy.)

I've got to keep this up to lose some weight and surely to God this is good cardio for my big arse.

Sunday summary

What a busy weekend for the fam...We pretty well kicked it hard this weekend starting with a 17 miler Saturday, mowing, cleaning, SCRUBBING the garage where the former tenant (Baxter) left a hint of pee in the air....I can't explain it but the garage has stunk like pee since he started staying there during the winter and (I mean I know why but you would think the smell would quit lingering.) You'd think that time would make it pass but nah, his pee hangs around. We also did some running around Saturday evening after all of that and then rested for about 15 minutes prior to bedtime.

Today, we started weeding out things that Reese has already out grown....I mean seriously. Already? Reese is wearing a size 6/9 month and according to weight on some things, she could be wearing a 12 month....REALLY? But almost everything that she grows out of seems to have more to do with length than anything. I mean she's 27 inches now so footed pj's are getting blown through like diapers.

We also fired up a video cam that a friend from work loaned me and it seems to be working pretty well. It's going to be so much easier that running to check on her everytime you think she needs you. We did some more running around this afternoon so all in all, we took alot off of the honey-do list this weekend.

After everything was done this afternoon, I took some pics of Reese laying around in some new kicks. Nana bought these for her a week or so back and so I thought we'd try to cram those feet in to see what she'd do. She actually didn't care that much..................UNLIKE rice cereal. She's not all laughs and fun like the first time.....I think she hates it. We've mixed it into her bottle and let her take it that way, but it still seems like she just doesn't care for the taste.

Another milestone for this weekend is that we ditched the swaddle...Pause for a minute and read that Goller clan. The baby straight jacket is gone! I mean we could go back but she had been busting out for a couple weeks so we had been wrapping her under her arms but we decided that maybe a sleep sack might be the best thing now. It will keep her warm since we keep the house cool at night and will still allow for a loose but contained sleeping mode. Our little one is growing up daily and changes keep coming at a rate too fast to blog about....It's borderline sad but very exciting nonetheless. It really does happen too fast.