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!

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.

Maybe Dr. Brown has something....

So over the past several weeks, I've been giving careful consideration to changing bottles just from the sheer volume of stuff to wash off of these Dr. Brown bottles. So in a "threat" of sorts, I decided that we needed some Avent bottles to try out. First thing....they are super expensive ($19 for 2 bottles) and second....there are only three pieces. THAT fact alone makes the price semi-worth it.

So for lunch time feeding, I used one while Kim went grocery shopping. Everything went fine and while Papa and Grandma visited Reese did reasonably well. She fussed a little more than usual and I could attribute that to several things....her schedule of 6,9,12....was off by one hour and was more like 7,10,1....maybe that was it...but this evening we had a little fussy butt. She could have been tired, she could have been hungry, but it also could have been the dreaded GAS because I didn't use a Dr. Brown bottle. It almost seems like Dr. Brown has field representatives that dupe you into believing their bottle is better all in an attempt to keep Mom or Dad chained to the sink station doing wash. I felt like Ben-Hur tied to my oar the other morning because the bottles just kept coming in. "I live to wash bottles and serve this sink....wash well and live!".....apologies to Charleston Heston....speaking of which....bad week to be a 50+ year old celeb huh? The Oxi-clean guy upset me the most because I like his show "Pitchmen", eh well....

Veering back onto subject, you're presently looking at Reese's favorite thing to do now.....Stand.

We have to straighten her right foot because of her ankle being bent so badly while she was residing inside of Kimmy's belly but this is the preferred mode of observation now. Standing leads very nicely into the list of things that Reese is doing now at age three months:

• just for repeatings sake...she wants to stand whenever possible. I swear this kid will walk before she crawls because she doesn't seem to prefer her belly for long.
• Her right leg is becoming strong enough to roll her. If you sit her up on the couch, she does this push off thing and slides down. And promptly gets pissed because she slid down.
• She LOVES her jungle mat and will lay there looking at everything for far longer than any other toy.
  
• She is grabbing so much more including Kim's hair and earrings. She'll hold onto to pretty much all of her toys and is grabbing items on her jungle mat now.
  
• Hands MUST go in the mouth for nearly every occasion. She isn't quite making the leap from teethers in HER hand to the mouth....but if you hold it for her...she'll gladly gnaw on any of her teething rings.
  
• No teeth quite yet....but we can't get a clear look because of her crazy tongue getting in the way.
• Slobber is thick and stringy.....and very common. So are rasberries. (spit bubbles)
• She recognizes her bottle and will stop to watch you mix her formula.
• She smiles SO big when she fixes her eyes on you first thing in the morning or when you get home.
• She is on the verge of laughing. She has done freak laughs with Kim while she was tickling or playing but its super hard to get consistently.
• She is eating 6oz every three hours 6,9,12,3,6,9....and then she'll sleep through the night to the 6am feeding. Now watch, since I've said this, she'll make a liar of me tonight but she has been super consistent sleeping through the night every since her first growth spurt.
• She is starting to take to her doorway jumpy and will consistently hit something to make it play music.
• The exersaucer is still a little strange for her. I don't know if it's sensory overload but she doesn't seem to like it just yet....time will change that I'm sure.
• She is kicking like crazy in the bath tub seemingly on command....probably just a fluke.

Folks...that's it for a Sunday evening. Week 2 back to work commences but it's a short one because of the 4th so that's awesome. Enjoy going to work on Monday and it really being Tuesday.