Scooters and Baby Mullets: The Story of Last Month

Big month last month. HUGE month last month. So we all know I had the Big Orange Baby and she turned out to weigh in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces with dark brown hair. This in combination with a lot of other things has made me not blog. Mostly my own laziness. Let this be the official Big Orange Family holiday newsletter. We have never sent one before so it's really a step up and not down. Mom, this is not the kind of blog post you like and you already know all the info in it so don't bother to read it.

Let the updating begin...

1st. The Big Orange Baby has finally become big and orange. Her hair lightened to a lovely orangeish shade and she is rapidly gaining weight. So much so that she has already grown out of all the clothes Grandma Nancy was kind enough to buy her. Sometimes I think if I had a few more of her, I could go to Egypt and build a new pyramid. Then H comes over and I realize he is like the Andre the Giant of babies. I have decided his head will be my new unit of measurement. Special thanks to the Righters and Carriers for all the yummy food. For it was that what put the big in Big Orange Baby.

2nd. I noticed that in blogger the examples of labels for posts are scooters, vacation and fall. The latter two seem reasonable but really, how many people do you know that need a whole category for scooters. This is my first and only post ever labeled and I promise I will somehow work scooters into it.

3rd. Christmas was loverly. Grandma Nancy was kind enough to come visit and help me out a ton. She stayed for almost two weeks. I will be sad to have my month of no baby crying outside the door showers and no baby in the front carrier mad that she can't see dog walks over. We miss her very much.

4th. Grandma Yeagley came after Christmas and helped me out another ton. I barely had room in my house for all the tons of help I have been getting. Grandpa also came and between all of us, we built my new office. I like it a lot.

5th. Jack Jack, our streak of evil white dog, weighs about 3 H heads and is strong enough that he can pull me on a razor scooter down the street. It is really fun and I recommend everyone come over for a ride. Perhaps when the weather is a little nicer. He enjoys it so don't worry about the animals harmed or exploited for my own entertainment. It is actually the only way that he can run as fast as he wants to since I am really not much of a runner at all.

6th. A bittersweet goodbye. Liz moved all the way to Apex. I really needed to have her room to be a home office but I miss her so much. Why couldn't she just build a house in the common area behind my house? I think Sophie considered it her day of liberation. At least we'll have pie Sunday (if I ever stop canceling it).

7th. The great hair debate. Although Leah's hair has definately lightened to a nice orange, the question remains, is the hair in the back duck hair or a mullet? I say baby mullet. Dave says duck hair. It started out that it was just a little longer in the back. then the top started falling out. She has a mullet. I don't see how the point can be argued. I believe Dave just doesn't want to admit his daughter was born with the same haircut he sported when he won homecoming king back in 1986.

8th. Ali's nickname for Scott is Scooter.

9th. Ali wanted really badly to have a drama free year. She almost or maybe did pass out at the doctor on January 3rd. She made it 3 days. The doctor seemed really freaked out and didn't want me to leave him alone with her so badly that he made a nurse go get her some juice. It took them 7 tries to get her blood pressure. Leah decided that was the perfect moment to do a big job in her pants and scream about it. No matter how I tried to explain that this was not about her right now she wouldn't be quiet. You just can't reason with that kid.

10th. I cried 2 H heads full of tears. Hormones are tricky devils. I haven't cried this much since I started birth control for the first time. Or when Josh fell off the wood pile and broke his arm and I thought it was my fault for not telling on them because I knew they were doing something wrong. Yes, I was a big sissy when I was little. Then again as a first time mom. I cried for the following reasons...
They are opening a Chipotle within walking distance of my house
Maria was sent back to the convent on the Sound of Music
Leah was crying in the car with me while Dave was inside buying diapers
We took her to the doctor
Breastfeeding hurts. I cried many times for this.
Leah was crying because I ate pepperoni pizza and it made her stomach hurt and I couldn't do anything about it
Leah is pretty
At least 4 t.v. commercials.

11th. Dave and I have combined sucked out 1 H head's worth of snot with that magic blue rubber ball.

12th. Our heat broke. It was out for 2 days. We holed up in our bedroom. We had 2 adults, 2 dogs, 1 baby and 1 cat all sleeping in our bed at various points. Don't worry, the baby was not sleeping at the same time as the adults. We know it is unsafe. Big thanks to AJ who spent hours working with Dave on it and to Brian, Ashley's fiance, who finally made it work. Also thanks to Liz, Scott, Emily, AJ and Ali who all offered us a warm place to hang out until it was fixed. Leah is really sick of being wrapped up in seven million blankets. She wants to stretch those gams of hers as much as possible. On a nice note, we have extended the holidays because the most warmest sleepers we have for her are all the babies first Christmas ones.

13th. Mom, Ali, Leah and I took a trip to VA to visit Mummu and cousins. We had a good time. We all got sick. Dave was right. I hope he doesn't read this part.

14th. The Great Game Exchange finally happened and we played a game called Fib or Not in which we learned my Dad's first kiss was with a girl named Charmin Somerfrucht (pronounced Summer Fruit).

15th. Leah had a baby blessing by her Grandpa.

16th. A scooter (really a corruption of the word scoter) is a large black diving duck.

Loveliest Holiday Wishes to All,

Love The Bells