Grins and Giggles

Paisley laughed for the first time when we were
in Utah, for her aunt Shirleen. Charles and I
have desperately worked since then to make
her laugh again, without much luck. Yesterday
as I was putting her into her carseat, I sneezed,
and she starting belly laughing. Later that night,
I did some pretend sneezes, which she just found
highly entertaining, and she just laughed and
laughed and laughed. Charles tried, and she found
him equally amusing.














We did not do this to her (well, I did put the
"brain squeezer" on her), she pulled it over her
eyes herself.














Not liking the sunglasses too much.

Simone

I don't know why the pictures duplicated themselves on this blog, as I can't find them anywhere in the posts...oh well.

We'd like to welcome Paisley's new second cousin, Simone.

Ok, so maybe we are crazy cat people

Caesar

Now that Paisley can grab things, she loves her
little gym.

Atticus looking for some attention.

Just chillin'

Point #3

Definitely not the same nose.

Thank you

As some of you may know, my mother passed away on September 17, 2004, after battling leukemia/lymphoma for 8 years. She fought the disease for as long as she could, and we're extremely proud of her determination and will. Unfortunately she wasn't able to attend my wedding, nor see her 1st grandson or 2nd granddaughter. She touched a lot of lives, as she was an amazing woman, smart, extremely artistic, witty, etc. Since her death, two women have competed in marathons, and dedicated their runs in honor of my mother. My best friend, Ginny, just recently told me that she is going to run a marathon with an organization called Team in Training, which raises money to research blood cancers. I am touched, honored and brought to tears when I think of what she is doing for my family, myself, and most importantly, my mother. If you have the means, please donate here.

Point #2

Both of us at about 3.5 months.

Congrats Sarah!!!

Congrats on your last round of chemo Sarah! We're so happy for you, and proud of how amazing you've been throughout these last few months. We love you!

Proving a point-#1

When we were in Utah, Charles' mom kept trying
to tell me that Paisley has my nose. Nope. Not happening.
Which is fortunate for her. See example #1 below.














This is me at about 10 days. I was NOT a cute
baby. While I was pregnant, I got these pics
out and showed Charles, and I think he was
secretly crossing his fingers that Paisley wouldn't
be as alienish as I was. He got lucky this time.
But back to the point, look how upturned my
nose is...














and now look how NOT upturned Paisley's nose
is. There really is no resemblance. I'm not writing
this post to secretly get compliments, so please
don't comment and say, "oh, but you WERE a
cute baby." I don't want to hear that, since it's not
true.

Kate-could you scan and send me some pics of Charles
as a babe?

Photo Shoot

This is what she does every time we change her
diaper. Hold on for dear life!

Charles' idea of a good picture.

I wanted some cute pics of Paisley in this dress
that her Aunt Julianne made for her. I'm not
really sure what's going on with her hair...

















Speaking of hair, did anyone see SNL last night,
and the skit on baby toupees? Totally Paisley.

My brother, Alex, and boy is he weird

My brother Alex is four and a half years older than me. Growing up, that was just enough distance for us to not be very close, but yet drive each other crazy. I have always been told that I was a brat, but I think the below pictures show that I was indeed not the brat, but a sweet, loving little sister. He obviously was the mean one. By the way, the title of this post refers to an essay he wrote when he was about 13, "My mom, and boy is she weird."

Sweet, loving...


This is the response I got.

Frankenstein Hair

It's hard to really see the depth of her hair here.
It just keeps getting bigger...and bigger...

Picture of the day

January 17th

This is how Paisley works on pushing herself
up. She doesn't.





I don't think Petunia will be this friendly when
Paisley learns to pull hair and tails.

Cousin Pics

While we were in Utah, Grandma insisted that we get all of her grandkids together and get pictures taken. They turned out really well, but I have to say my favorite is the fairy picture.

Leif, William, Sarah, Paisley and Anders.

Anders combing his hair. He's a
year old, but Paisley is almost as
big as he is.


Charles thinks this is kind of cheesy, and my
dad says she'll hate me for it in about 10 years,
but I still think it's adorable. What other way can
you take a picture of a naked baby without it
seeming pornographic?

Sleeping

Paisley slept from 9:30 -7 last night! I was able to sleep for 7.5 hours straight, which I haven't done for about a year (pregnancy makes you pee during the night). So nice!

Back from Utah

We're back from Utah and almost back to normal. We had a great time and loved seeing all of our family and friends, although 7 days was just not long enough. There were so many people I wish we could have spent more time with, and people that we still didn't get to see. Paisley was an absolute angel, of course. The flight home with her was great as well, not a peep from her. When we landed, the guy in front of us stood up and saw her, and was very surprised to see that he had been in front of a baby for 2.5 hours. Good girl! That's about when our luck ran out though. We waited for our luggage, and waited, and waited...turns out that since the weather was not very good in KC, they opted to take some bags off of the plane, ours being some of them. That meant no baby items, no clothes, no meds, no toothbrushes, etc. So we go to my dad's house and sleep in dirty clothes, and I wake up in the middle of the night with really bad stomach pains, and spend the next 24 hours with food poisoning. To top it off, our bags weren't delivered the next day as promised, so Charles called Delta (yes, I will say it, so everyone can boycott them) and chewed out the sales girl, but that still didn't get us anywhere. Our luggage was being sent UPS, and they still wouldn't give us anything for our troubles. Arghh. All in all, it was a good trip. Lots and lots of pictures, of course.

Paisley with Riley, a sweet girl we used to babysit.
She liked to paint Charles' fingernails.

Zoe, Emma and Shawn. These 2 were our flower
girls in our wedding.

Her hat and mittens.

Beca happened to be in town from NC at the same
time as us, which was great because I had never
met her younger daughter Kate.

Amelia the doll. Just look at those eyes!

Amelia's mom, Nolene.



Sad girl. We put her hair in pig tails and she
got really upset. I think it hurts while it's getting
done, but she's fine as soon as we stop messing with
her hair. She better grow out of that, because I
want to do fun things with her hair when she
gets older.

Nolene and Paisley

Kim and Paisley

Napping on Grandma. She's definitely spoiled
in Utah.

Mmm, chocolate cake.

Jenny and Paisley. I think I've known Jen longer
than I have any other friend.

Aunt Shirleen and cousin William. Shirleen was
the one who got Paisley to giggle and grab at things.
Damn you!

So cute!

Grandma and cousin Leif

Playing with a rattle

Great Grandma Lee

Great Grandma Bartholomew

This is why we moved away from Utah

Utah Theater Cancels 'Brokeback Mountain'

SALT LAKE CITY - A movie theater owned by Utah Jazz owner
Larry Miller abruptly changed its screening plans and decided not to show the film "Brokeback Mountain." The film, an R-rated Western gay romance story, was supposed to open Friday at the Megaplex at Jordan Commons in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Instead it was pulled from the schedule.

A message posted at the ticket window read: "There has been a change in booking and we will not be showing 'Brokeback Mountain.' We apologize for any inconvenience."
Cal Gunderson, manager of the Jordan Commons Megaplex, declined to comment.
The film, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is about two cowboys who discover feelings for one another. The two eventually marry women but rekindle their relationship over the years.
The movie's distributor, Focus Features, said that hours before opening, the theater management "reneged on their licensing agreement," and refused to open the film.
Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said not showing the film set an example for the people of Utah.
"I just think (pulling the show) tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show," she said.
Mike Thompson, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah, called it disappointing.
"It's just a shame that such a beautiful and award-winning film with so much buzz about it is not being made available to a broad Utah audience because of personal bias," he said.

The newest trick

It's really fascinating to watch a baby learn about it's world. Paisley figured out how to put her hands in her mouth a few days before Christmas, she started looking at her hands just a few days ago, and yesterday she started reaching out and grabbing things. She was engrossed with a little Garfield doll and finally managed to grab it. She was so excited looking at the doll that she started shaking and breathing heavily (I have a feeling this blog is going to be REALLY tedious to those that don't want to know about every milestone this child accomplishes-but that's just TOO BAD).

Bad, bad mommy

A picture of Paisley and mommy where mommy
doesn't look TOO huge.

So far in this parenting thing, there have been times that I've felt like a bad mother; when I don't notice she's poopy and therefore leaks and gets poop EVERYWHERE, when I have to make her wait for her food and she gets really sad, but yesterday topped it all. We went to Target (where we told Paisley that if it wasn't for THAT VERY STORE she wouldn't exist, since that's where her parents met), and I never realized it but they have stupid carts. Most carts allow you to snap the carseat onto the bench part, but Target's do not, at least not the car seat we're using right now. We put her in the basket part and tried to put groceries around her, but as I went to put a big 16 oz container of chip dip in the cart, it somehow FLEW out of my hand and landed smack dab on her little cheek. She looked very stunned for a moment, and then started wailing, like I've never heard before. Meanwhile, I'm freaking and crying and trying to get her out of her seat, while Charles is standing there trying to calm both of us because the people around us are starting to stare and think something really bad was happening. I know it's not a big deal and that she was fine after a minute or so, but what an awful feeling to know you've hurt your own child.

Utah

We just arrived in Utah this afternoon, and of course Paisley was an angel on the flight, and the whole trip in general. We'll be here for a week, and I'm excited to show her off to family and friends (and if there's anyone that I haven't called and wants to see us, please let me know!). Paisley's cousin Sarah just saw her for the first time, and as Sarah put it:

"She looks so real!"

A gentleman at the airport asked if the baby was wearing a wig. I've just given up on counting the "look at all that hair!" comments. We may not be able to post pictures this week, but we'll definitely catch up when we get back to KS.