1.26.2011

first dress

2.5 months it took me to put her in an actual dress. still getting used to the girl thing. but after these results, it won't be that long before the next one. bonus points because it gives instant access to the belly action. holy frip, i love this little nuglet.

pink: check. ruffles: check. bloomers: check. it's official

she likes it too

1.17.2011

feast your eyes

sweet moly, i should have never visited this website.

speaking of big fat fatties, layla went to her 2 month checkup tonight and got her first ever shots. we didn't delay the vaccinations until 9 months like we did with judah for various reasons (cold season, pertussis outbreaks, we're generally way more PRO-vaccination now), but we did abstain from the hepatitis (now and at birth). it's my understanding that (barring ingestion of feces) it's really hard to get that disease without doing needle drugs or having sex. so if my kids want to do either of those and put themselves at risk for the hep, they can come let me know and we'll get those shots (and maybe have a little heart to heart). but for now, i think we're good. she was braver than judah at his 18 month ones. to be fair though, i don't think she knew what was coming like he did.

once again she is quite literally off the charts for girls her age at 13.8 lbs and 25 inches. on the both genders chart, they tell me she is 77 percentile in weight and 97th in height. she is SO front row, y'all. or, you know, first chair oboe-ist, championship cup-stacker, or dragon-lore/pirate-lover (runs in the family)-- whatever she wants to be. no one's pushing her into the volleyball. it would be convenient though; i have a mighty spandex and kneepad cache already.

sorry that dey ain't no pictures to share. jesse is at a conference until tomorrow evening and has the laptop with all of the new pics. they're both still mightily cute though and have been engaging in many photo-worthy adventures of late. p.s. jesse is at a conference until tomorrow evening. did you catch that? i have had BOTH kids all day today and again tomorrow. my previous record for this was 3 hours of both of them (i know, i am a sis-SAY to be complaining). i have been getting TONS of judah snuggles in the absence of jesse, but this newfound affection is tempered by the fact that he calls me DA-MA. nice, judah. real nice.

ok, sorry for the scattered-ness. gotta go, layla just woke herself up with about 2 minutes of sustained machine-gun toots that about had me laughing myself out of bed.


1.13.2011

what came out of the pool

so, about that baby pool that a ton of yall entered? maybe i would have been more enthusiastic about posting the results if i hadn't gotten 60th farking place out of 70 entries. oh yeah, i am SO in touch with my body. i only beat out 10 people! (including one college friend goober who guessed i was having a boy). but i wont mock anyone in the basement with me because they ended up there because they thought i'd have a small baby before my due date, sweet angels that they are. so much for that though. thanks anyway, kind ones.

you could have clicked the link on the sidebar at any time, so this might not be news to you but here's how we broke it down:

length (10 penalty points for every inch you were off by): since they only let you pick whole numbers so there wasnt a ton of variation. here are the folks who nailed it on the head. they all knew we had a lady long legs in the making.

hole in one! get it, girls!

in the weight division (5 penalty points for each ounce you were off by), 2 folks got the pounds and ounces right on. way to go mikki and tiffany! fun facts: mikki had a precious baby boy 3 months after judah was born (in a home water birth!) and tiffany was our bradley birth teacher (whose teaching came in handy BOTH births) and also had a baby girl at home at the end of october. they knew their stuff i guess, even though i had thought they were cruel for guessing i would birth an 8-pounder. 4 more folks came within an ounce.

forgot to crop my screen capture so you can see that my favorite excel spreadsheet has been updated for the new year: dukes budget!

and then the birthday portion (5 penalty points for each hour you were off by, OUCH) ended up with 4 people nailing it and my college teammate (and youngest/hottest head coach currently in ncaa volleyball) lauren coming within 4.5 hours:

please note the wilson girls at #9 and #11. precious. and true. but i love courtney too.

so the birthdate was a big one. you could be off on the length by 3 inches and earn less penalty points than being off by just 7 hours on the birthday, which, for example, is why marisa, who was in the top 3 of length and weight, but got 48th in birthdate and time, didn't crack the overall top ten.

here are the top 19 overall (because thats the most i could fit on my screenshot):
those most in touch with my uterus. be so proud, yall.

way to go alexis!! only 103 penalty points! i guess she got all the pregnant-chick pregnancy-guessing smarts (she is expecting a baby boy this spring) since i sure didn't (60th PLACE!?!). if you weren't a part of the illustrious 19 you can find your ranks here.

of the 4 people present at layla's birth, jesse (29th place) beat out lena (50th), adrienne (57th) , and me (60th...remember?). hahaha i guess proximity to or familiarity with with my birth canal didn't give any additional clairvoyance.

thanks for playing everybody! next time (like YEARS from now...though i did read a birth story today that actually had me wanting that moment again. CRAZYPANTS!) i think we'll try to hold out on the gender until the birth so that will be a fun addition to the game too. so yeah, look forward to that!

i got many an LOL over the "who i am" portion of the baby pool. yall are funny. well played.

1.12.2011

bedbugs

i was just trying to get a few pictures of the baby leggings for my etsy shop. i wanted to show them on different-sized kids.

two white onesies, some his & hers leggies and some snuggles in our bed later i inadvertently ended up with my favorite series of brother/sister pictures of all time. i love them so much that i have to share them with the world even though it also shows the world that we have breastmilk spots on our bedding that we sleep on rather than washing immediately. don't judge me until you've milked a mile in my sheets, yall.










i'd say one of them has a little more to give in the personality department right now. but she's got him in the "my-poop-don't-stink" department, therefore we love them equally.

1.11.2011

les jeux olympiques 2024?

layla dukes attempts to capture the gold by executing a double twisting double layout during the all-around competition.

salute the judges


ready


she completes one rotation...

stays tucked through the second


and she sticks the landing!


a perfect ten score. fist pump

victory dance


post game interview: "layla, this is a picture of you taken before your event, you look nervous. tell us, were you?"


"ok, maybe just a little"

1.08.2011

Lay-faces

Man this kid has me straight smitten. Every one of her moods and faces wins another chunk of my heart. I thought she already had it all, but it keeps growing!

Pics and blogging from my phone with two apps i am just learning (and loving): blogpress and instagram.

Unsure and uneasy: adorable


Cheeky and content: irresistible (literally couldn't keep my hands off)


Fat and happy: squnchable


Chatty and engaged: kissable


All time fave: sorry no more pics because I had to eat her up when she did this.

big pumpin'

snuggled warm in bed after a looong night of sewing for a customer and blissfully drifting off when it hits me (like a gentle indian sunburn on the inside of the mammo's to be specific) that i forgot to pump before bed. if i don't get up and do it now i will be exploding by 6 am when she next wakes up, and will have slammed on the brakes of the supply for the rest of the day (supply and demand is how milk production works, fyi).

she last ate at 10:15. if the last two weeks are any indication, chunky monkey's metabolism can feast on the calories stored up in one of her six chins when it needs a nightcap and no longer needs to return to the well (endowed) until morning.

so i guess there's the teensy downside to having a baby who decided to start sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old with zero prompting. heck, i'll take it though.

they say when you pump you should think of your baby or even look at a picture of them or smell something they've worn to get the milk-making hormones going and make it more realistic. here' are two of my faves for accomplishing optimum output (and for seeing how much a baby changes in 7 weeks):


7 weeks old. miss blurry hand wouldn't sit still. she is a precious gummi bear here

6 days old. i gave birth to a cherub. yeah this one works bigtime

sometimes a recent pic works best, but sometimes the nostalgia pic really gets things going. either way: Must. Keep. Milking. So its 1am and i'm off to get some action from my part time lover: medela.

1.03.2011

SBI from the phone

we went on a last minute post-christmas trip to seabrook island, sc with my parents. they have a condo there, but it's a one bedroom so they gave us a huge gift and rented another 2 bedroom place right up the street from their place. it was so fun. it snowed the entire 6 hour drive, but the kids were amazing and we only had to stop once. my mom got a crazy cheap deal on our place that never should have been possible for such a sweet setup:


here are a few camera phone pictures that i got during vacay (because i cant find our good camera cord and because these are pretty flipping random and spectacular):

she should not have been let out of the house in a top this low cut showing this much cleavage

we were floored when we passed these on the highway. straight dumbfounded at the size of what vehicle they must be made for. apparently these go on this behemoth

ordered fried oysters. got a pearl. amazing! cant believe it survived the shucking, battering, frying and eating processes. the squash and spinach casseroles yielded nothing but delicious calories (despite my mom getting a tad confused and telling the waiter, "she found a pearl in her spinach!")

judah will not stay out of layla's carseat. even when she's in it, he climbs in and lays his head on her tummy. when she's NOT in it, its an awesome jungle gym. here he discovered another use besides rocking, falling off of and getting clocked in the head by the handle like the three stooges. pop pop obliges.

the decor in our condo was...mmm...doggy. there were framed photo montages of their pets everywhere. this gem was my favorite. the athleticism, the wind in his hair. majesty.