A Year in Pictures

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Girl! You have made this past year unforgettable. We love you so much!
Mommy and Daddy

Disturbed

Maybe I'm just completely naive, but I'm seriously outraged right now. I have a YouTube account, and every once in a while I'll post videos that I want to share with my friends and family. For example, if I take a video of your kid and my kid together, rather than emailing the huge file, I'll just post it to this account so you can see how cute it is! I don't use the account very often, but seriously don't think twice when I do.

I posted a couple of new videos today to share with friends and family (separate post about that one) and then went back to look at how much my little girl has grown in the past year. When you have a video uploaded to YouTube, you can see if people have rated it, if someone's commented on it, or you can also see how many times your video has been viewed. I don't think of my videos as hot topics and so the majority of them have about 10 views, and I know that they're the ones I've sent out to my friends to see. You can imagine my surprise when I noticed that 2 of my videos had over 150 views (no ratings or comments, just views). Do you want to know what these videos contained? They were of my daughter having fun in the bath with her friend. These are BABIES, people. Little cute BABIES and there was nothing on this video other than 2 little BABIES from the chest up, sitting in the tub splashing eachother and having a fun, rated G time in the bath. What I want to know is who the hell has been looking at my BABY playing in the bathtub??

Needless to say, these videos have been deleted from my YouTube account. I have created a new, private account on another website that I won't be publicly announcing, for my friends and family. Period. If you fall in to one of these categories, I'll gladly share this new place to watch my daughter grow. But to all you pervs out there who have repeatedly watched my precious bathtime videos, you're sick and need to stay away from me and my family.

A Month of Firsts

It's amazing to me that November is almost over. This last month has been a month full of firsts! To recap, I've decided to list them here!

First Trick-or Treating trip!

Talk about time flying... it seems like just yesterday, I was parading my little pumpkin down the street with her cousins and having a great time. Amber, Mark, and the girls came down to celebrate with us, and we took Parker and Autumn out to Trick-or-Treat. We walked around the neighborhood and discovered that I really have some cool neighbors! A lot of the houses that we visited were just parties set up for the kids with treats and even a bouncy-house. Autumn had a runny nose so we didn't stay out too long, but I really enjoyed it.

First Real Cold!

Right before Halloween, Autumn's nose started running. I took her temperature multiple times and thankfully it was never above 99.1 degrees. I called the doctor anyways and was just told to stock up on nasal mist and Baby Tylenol and to ride it out. I was also told that it could last up to 2 weeks. I shrugged that off, never thinking it would actually last 2 weeks and followed doctor's orders. I discovered a product called Boogie Wipes which I fell in love with and stocked up on as well! Luckily, I have a rediculous amount of money left in my flex spending account! (Side note, any good ideas on how to spend it in the next 31 days??) A week in to it, I got sick so the second week was extra awful. However, on day 14 when I was feeling better and my little one was not, I called the doctor again. They told me to bring her in and we discovered our next first...

First Ear Infection!

The doctor told me that when you're snotty as long as Autumn was snotty, it all backs up in the head and inevitably gets infected. I have to admit that Autumn was really a trooper through the whole thing and ended up looking forward to her bubblegum-flavored antibiotics.

First Ride in the Big Girl Car Seat!


Jeremy and I decided to buy the big-girl car seat a little early so Autumn's trip to Mansfield would be extra comfy! Jeremy bought a new truck a couple of weeks ago with a huge backseat, so he picked up the car seat last Wednesday and installed it! The first time we sat her in it, she was really excited to see all of her surroundings! While she still fits in the infant car seat and it's actually still in my car, I know that she really appreciated our little gift. The regularly under 3 hour drive ended up taking 5 1/2 due to holiday traffic and she really held up well!



First Thanksgiving!

Autumn has been eating real food lately so on Thanksgiving, we just let her try everything! We set a little scoop of each dish in front of her on her high chair and watched her go to town. She truly enjoyed the turkey above everything else, and it seems that the majority of the sides (stuffing, sweet potato casserole, jello, etc) ended up on her rather than in her belly! I really think that it's best to tell the story in pictures, though! I'm not sure that any captions are needed...
Thankfully, she cleaned up nicely (the high chair literally needed a hosing down), and the tryptophan kicked in nicely which led to a good nights sleep!


Our biggest first yet (birthday!) is coming up a week from today! While I'm still a little in shock that this milestone is approaching, I am so glad to have spent the last year with one of the silliest, funniest, most pleasant people I know. My love for this little girl grows exponentially each day and I've been so blessed to be able to share these days with her.

The Best Costume Ever!

Chandler Smile

You've all probably seen the hilarious episode of Friends where we discover Chandler's inability to smile normal when a camera is stuck in front of him.

I think that Autumn has figured out what she's supposed to do once I stick the camera in front of her face and what's funny is she has discovered her own "Chandler Smile". Here's some of the latest evidence of her new talent...

Is it totally wrong to laugh so hard at pictures of my daughter? Oh my goodness these could keep me rolling for hours.

This next weekend is Halloween! People keep asking me what Autumn is going to be for Halloween and my standard response has been "Uh, hello, have you met me?" I found the most precious pumpkin outfit at Gymboree and yesterday we did a photoshoot in my front yard with about 50 pumpkins of various shapes, colors and sizes. I can't wait to see the results! Once again, it's so awesome to have such an amazing photographer as a sister. Thank goodness Kate's talent for Photoshop is just as strong as her talent for taking the pictures! She may be working overtime on this batch of photos with the new look that Autumn has developed!

Two of my Very Favorite Things

With each new accomplishment...

...comes a little extra attention on my part! We're both learning, you see!

Specifically, last week Autumn started pulling up on things. The first couple of days were slow going, but she has officially become a master. She can pull up on just about anything now and she gets a huge smile of accomplishment each time she gets to a standing position.

The only problem that we've found is that she has not mastered the art of sitting back down once she's standing. This means that I need to be near her pretty much at all times, which is tiring! I am also learning that, while I want to capture all of these new things on video, I neeed to suffer the consequences when I do! Here's our latest example:



I want to add that the end of this video when you hear me say "oh sh.." you can just imagine what came out of my mouth next. What came out of Autumn was expected, she cried until I could distract her enough to make her realize that she wasn't hurt. She was fine! No bumps or bruises this time around. The kid needs to learn to sit down!

My new job this week is to show her each time she stands that she can drop to her bottom quite easily. Wish me luck.

Big Girl

This past week has been FULL of new accomplishments for my little girl. Not only is she dancing to every song she hears, waving to strangers, and getting to a sitting position by herself, but as of Tuesday, she can pull up to a standing position! All of which means that my days chasing and entertaining her are now officially nonstop. I am more and more amazed by her every day, and could go on for paragraphs about how much fun she is. So rather than bore you with every detail of each accomplishment, I'll just post my favorite pictures from our latest photoshoot that took place this afternoon. Thanks again, Aunt Kate!

Temper

I think that Autumn had her very first temper tantrum yesterday. She had eaten dinner, and I was giving her a bottle, and when it was done, she started screaming and full-on crying (red face and all). I picked her up out of her high chair and tried to distract her to take her mind off of the situation and she just got even more mad! She started flailing her arms around which was hitting my face, so I took her little arms and just gently pinned them to her side, which of course made her even more mad. I ended up just putting her in the baby jail and walking away for a minute. About 20 seconds later, she was fine, happy, and playing with her toys. Wow! I'm not sure that a temper tantrum at 9 months is a good sign, but I guess we're all learning in this process.

In happier news, Autumn is learning new things daily and it's a joy to watch her! She can stand up while holding on to things, but she can't quite get her balance, so I think walking is a ways off - thankfully! She is trying to wave and beat on things, but she's not all that coordinated, just like me, so she just flails her arms around and doesn't actually accomplish much. She is also saying da da da da da when she's really happy and playing and in the last 2 days has started saying ma ma ma ma ma only when she's terribly upset. I'm not quite sure that's fair, but oh well. Even though she's screaming when she does it, it's still wonderful to hear her say it! She's also dancing and singing along with the radio! She bobs her head to music and just makes noise with her voice whenever music is on. It's hilarious. We were in TJ Maxx today and she started dancing when she heard the music and she was totally cracking me up. She just gets this huge smile on her face like it's the best thing she's ever heard, no matter the song.

She now has 3 teeth. She has the 2 on the bottom center and then one little odd one on the top that I think came in out of order. It looks like it's the canine tooth, but it could be the one right between that one and the front tooth. I lovingly call it her snaggle tooth!

With all of these things going on, I guess a temper tantrum every once in a while is to be expected. I just hope that in the future (not including her teenage years, because I know they'll probably be daily at that point) that they are few and far between!

My Happy Place

This last weekend we made an impromptu trip to Leakey for a much-needed getaway. I was literally bitching to Elizabeth on Thursday afternoon that I didn't have any plans for the Labor Day weekend and she said "Let's go to Leakey tomorrow" and I said OK! Jeremy wasn't hard to convince either. I guess we both needed a little time away from the house.

We packed up the car (you'd be surprised how much crap a Jetta can hold) and headed out Friday afternoon. We didn't go overboard with food like we normally do and packed the car with a couple of t-shirts, some shorts, some swimsuits, flip-flops, 3 chihuahuas, a whole lot of champers, and Autumn's entire room*. We got to Leakey at about 6pm and just relaxed!

The relaxing continued the entire weekend and the weather was incredible. It was not too hot and there was a nice breeze that even brought in a couple of sprinkle showers. Unfortunately that meant the Frio was even more frio than normal, so we didn't spend a lot of time in the river. We did, however, sit on the porch, gossip, take long walks with the girls, sleep in, and have a wonderful chill long weekend. Just what the doctor ordered!

As usual, we took a whole bunch of pictures which I've put on my Picasa album. It's far easier to just have them as a link you can go to and take a peek than to actually post them here! See, my laziness continues... We also got some video of the girls that we are going to cherish forever. The first 2 below are of Autumn and Felicia playing outside. Autumn loves the swing and Felicia loves to get in to everything so this set up was ideal.



The second was just a couple minutes after Felicia got tired of pushing Autie in the swing. She decided to run back to check on the situation and things got a little out of hand. Unfortunately I was sitting about 6 feet to the right of where I should have been sitting to caputure this moment properly, but you get the gist.



And finally, we took a lot of video of the girls in the bathtub together. Of the ones I took, this one's my favorite. Felicia splashes the crap outta Autumn, but Autumn just seems to take it all in stride. While she may not be able to splash her back now, I'm sure that it will come in the future.



We had so much fun and remembered what it's like to be without cell phones, tvs, internet, and civilization once again. Pure bliss if you ask me. While it's nice to come back to it, it sure is wonderful to be without every once in a while!

*Unfortunately I've learned that it's virtually impossible to travel light with a baby! The trouble of getting things to where you're going far outweighs the convenience of having things with you!

I have become the person I always bitched about...

Here's what store managers need to realize: when you have a 20 pound baby in a cart that you've left in the car seat because cart germs freak you out, and you've failed to park near a cart return, a dilemma arises. You only have 2 options. Do you leave your baby in the car that you've had to turn on because it's 207 degrees in the shade in a lovely Texas summer to walk 5 cars away to be the good person and return the cart? Or do become "that guy" and leave the cart by the car? Folks, I've become "that guy". And what's worse is I don't feel all that bad about it.

HEB, for example, has wonderul "people with baby" parking. But what is the point of having that baby parking if there's no cart return right next to it to put your baby in? And do you want to know who the worse store offender is? Babies R Us in Austin! No kidding. In the parking lot, there are about 3 cart return areas. Where are they? At the back of the parking lot! It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, now does it?

So next time you see a lone cart in the middle of the parking lot, please don't cuss the person that did it. Just think that there's a good chance that there's acutally logical explaination for it.

9 Month Doctor Appointment!

The last couple of weeks have absolutely flown by. Autumn keeps me constantly occupied and by the end of the night, I sit and think... Hmm, I really should update my blog. And as we all know, that never happened.

This past week has been challenging to say the least. Autumn is officially teething (again). The last time the 2 bottom teeth came in, we never even knew that it was happening. She didn't even give us reason to think that they were on their way and one day, they just appeared! This round, however, I think she's making up for it. Since Autumn is such a good baby normally, fussiness in this household is so frustrating! I haven't been able to keep her happy for long periods of time, she's wanted constant attention, and for the last couple of days has run a low fever. A couple of days ago, I saw the first hint of a new tooth (the little tooth to the left of one of her 2 front teeth) and thought the end was near. There was no luck in that department, as even after the tooth was cut, the symptoms continued. I feel so helpless sometimes since I know she doesn't understand why her mouth hurts. I've just tried to keep her a little closer and cuddle a little more these days.

I had it in my mind that her 9 month appointment was this Thursday for some reason, and planned my week around it. I couldn't remember the time of the appointment, so I called the Pediatritian's office this morning to check. They couldn't find Autumn's name on Thursday, and just started to look for her this week. The woman on the end of the line informed me that the appointment was today! Thankfully my boss is very understanding and we headed off to the doctor's office!

When we arrived, Autumn charmed everyone with her smiles and personality as usual! We got her new stats when we got in to our exam room! Autumn now weighs 20 pounds 15 ounces (a long way away from her original 6lb 7oz!) which puts her in the 85th percentile. She's 27 3/4 inches long and is in the 65th percentile for height. The shocking number is that her head circumference is 45.8cm which puts her in the 90th percentile (it's got to be all those brains in there)! My interpretation of these numbers supports what I see, that I have a little butterball :)

I was asked the normal questions about Autumn's development. I happily reported the things about her that I love the most. She laughs constantly, she plays peek-a-boo, she crawls (kind-of), she's very curious, she says "da da" (but no ma ma, dang-it), she repeats noises that you make, she's trying to pull up on everything but can't quite make it yet, and she changes every single day. I also happily reported that she loves to sing, and even though she may not be on key yet, the doctor informed me that singing was a very advanced still for a 9 month old.

We went through our feeding schedule and I learned about what's to come. Basically, she's no longer needs "baby" food and she can eat almost anything. I'm very excited to introduce her to some of the things that I love most! I can't help but wonder what her favorite foods will be and what she's going to refuse to eat (anyone want to introduce Autumn to seafood for me?).

We talked about teeth and I told her about all of the recent fussiness. She asked me if she could look in her mouth and I warned her that Autumn wasn't going to like that very much! While I literally pinned her arms to her side and her head to my chest, the doctor was able to take a peek. She told me that not only was the one tooth coming in, but she saw the front two teeth that should be making their appearance shortly! I can't even imagine what Autumn is going to look like with all of these teeth!

At the end of the appointment, she was cheerfully playing with me and lying on the table when the mean nurse stuck 2 huge needles in her chubby little thighs. This ain't my first rodeo and I've been very proud of how Autumn has handled shots in the past. With all of her changes, has come one very big one. SHE DOESN'T LIKE SHOTS. Autumn cried a cry that I have never heard before. I'm not sure that she's ever heard the screams that came out of her perfect little lips. I was so shocked by these noises that I had to show her to the nurses to make sure she wasn't having some sort of allergic reaction to the shots. They just pouted their lips and said "awww, her little face is so red!".

I took my little one home and just cuddled with her a little bit extra tonight because she just plain needed it. That's one thing in the world that's never going to change. She need me and I need her. Forever. And while I have no idea what kind of woman she's going to be, I know that I will always need her and I will always be there for her.

Everyone tells you that when you have a baby, the love that you immediately feel for that little one is indescribable. What they didn't tell me is that this indescribable love grows exponentially every single day. I absolutely adore this new-found love and have no idea how my heart is going to hold all of this love, but I can't wait to find out!

Getaway

Last weekend, Jeremy and I went to a conference for his company in South Padre! It was quite intimidating, since even though children were invited, we chose to leave Autumn with my mom at home. This was the first time that we both left Autumn alone overnight without either of us. Big steps, people!!

We flew out on Thursday morning and anyone that knows me knows how I hate to fly. I took 1/2 of one of my xanax pills in preparation, and when we got to the airport, Jeremy and I decided to sit down and have a beer. Our plane was delayed, and as one beer turned in to two, I started to feel light-headed! About 45 minutes before our new scheduled departure, we headed to the gate where all of Jeremy's co-workers were already waiting. Since they all knew who Jeremy was, they were all very welcoming to me and introduced themselves. We got on the plane and for the hour that we were on the plane, I felt great! It was a very uneventful flight in my opinion!

We arrived in Harlingen, picked up our rental car, drove the 45 minutes to the island, and checked in to the Sheraton. Jeremy headed straight to meetings, and I headed straight to my first nap in months! When I woke up, Jeremy and I headed to dinner and drove around the island looking for the perfect spot. We settled on a little place on the bay and the whole time I was thinking, hey, even if it's a seafood restaurant, there has to be a chicken breast on the menu! We took our seats at a wonderful table on the patio just in time to begin watching the sun set! We got our menus and I was shocked to find that there was nothing but seafood on the menu! Our waitress was terribly understanding, so she took our picture on the patio and went in search of a new restaunt. Our picture turned out great, don't you think?

We settled on a lovely little joint called, and I'm totally not joking about this, the Big Donkey. The food was wonderful despite the name.

That evening, we took a nice walk on the beach and headed to a mixer that the convention was throwing. All evening, people kept coming up to us and chatting with us as if we'd known eachother for years, which I found a little odd. Jeremy had to remind me that those were all of the nice people that I had met in the airport earlier that day. The rest of the weekend I was horribly embarassed because they all knew who I was but I had no idea who everyone else was because I couldn't introduce myself again without looking like a big idiot!

The rest of the weekend I totally laid low and enjoyed my alone time with my husband. One of the days, we stayed in bed and watched 3 movies back-to-back on HBO, ordered room service, and went to bed early. We got up early the next morning and took a walk on the beach to watch the sun rise and it was such a treat!

It was terribly relaxing and definitely different from my everyday life. Overall, though, I missed my little peanut and was really excited to go home on Sunday! I was so excited that I decided to take the flight au-natural so I wouldn't be sleepy when I saw Autumn. Unfortunately for me, it was the most turbulent-filled flight of my life and I told Jeremy that the next time I decided to take a flight without my meds to tell me no.

When we got home, I walked in the door and Autumn was on my mom's lap. She looked up at me, and after a couple of seconds, she squealed and smiled a huge perfect smile. It was as if she was saying "well there you are!". It was wonderful. Honestly, I think that it was the best part of my trip!

Autumn Leaf

When I announced our decision to name our daughter to my mom, she said "What? You're going to name her Autumn Leaf??" I corrected her with a laugh and ever since, the name has kind-of stuck.

This last week, when Tenley was watching Autumn, they went to hang out on a blanket in the front yard (which is one of Autumn's favorite things to do these days). Autumn discovered how fun leaves were when she found one and picked it up. It somehow ended up on her head and when she couldn't find it, she went looking for another and decided to make a lunch out of it. Tenley tried to take it away from her and she screamed!

She is such a silly little girl. And now she is living up to her nick name!

She loves her mirror friend!

Recap

It seems to get harder and harder to post something regularly on this. Autumn is getting much more active and wants more of my attention, which I really don't mind one bit! The only downfall is that I just have to give a recap of our events, rather than documenting them as they happen!

First of all, last Wednesday, I got all of my hair cut off. Now I have really never had long hair, but pregancy was kind to my hair! It was thicker and less stringy and I let it get longer than it had been in a long time. Unfortunately, when my pregnancy ended, so did the good hair days. It has been falling out in clumps and it's a wonder that I still have any hair left at all. I saw an episode of Law & Order SVU and decided that my hair needed to look like Detective Benson's. I ran in to a friend at a get together who does hair and I begged her to take me in and fix it all. When it was all said and done, Jan said that she cut off about 4 inches. I have never felt better and I think my hair shows it! I wanted to take a picture of it, so I just made it a lot cuter by adding Autumn to it. Now if I'd only fix it once in a while...

On July 4, we celebrated by having a block party in our front yard. It was incredibly hot, but luckily we have a lot of shade. As we all know, Autumn absolutely loves being outside. We put a quilt down in the grass and Autumn just played until she passed out. Everyone kept commenting on how they couldn't believe how good she was! She didn't make a peep the whole time and was perfectly content the entire time. We didn't take many pictures, but I did get a couple of her nap.

Today, we began our swim lessons! I knew that Autumn would love being in the water from our time in the Frio River. As I expected, she loved every second of it. She didn't even cry when we dunked her little head under water (unlike her classmate!). This lesson, we learned to blow bubbles in the water: We learned how to make Autumn comfortable on her back while being pulled through the water (and I sang her favorite song, thanks to Tenley, to keep her interested and calm)

She even learned how to pull herself out of the water! They swear that she can do it, but I know that we have got some practicing to do. Right now, she can grab on to the side...

But inevitably, she ends up face first with the concrete poolside in her mouth.

We have 7 more classes and we're looking forward to all of them! If anything, I get to spend extra time with my little girl and watch her learn more about the world around her!

So much to catch up on

Okay, this is why I try and post every week. I'm sitting here thinking that there is way to much that I need to cover that happened over the last 2 weeks! I guess I'll just have to hit the highlights...

On Monday, Jun 15 I heard Tenley scream for me while I was in the shower... She felt Autumn's very first tooth! She and I had been watching out for one for what seems like the longest time, and we finally caught a glimpse of it! The little sucker broke through the gums with no screaming or crying on Autumn's part, which made me so proud! As of today, there are 2 visible teeth in Autumn's mouth and she's learning to bite, which seems to amuse her. She will bite anything you put in her mouth... spoons, toys, fingers (ouch!) and it looks like she's practicing chewing when I feed her. It's absolutely amazing to me to watch her figure things like that out. She's brilliant!

From Jun 16-19, I had my first extended time away from Autumn. I went to New York City for a work trip, and Jeremy's mom, sister, and neices came to watch Autumn. Sharon went with me and we had a blast. We shopped, ate great food, saw the sights, and even met Ken Seely. It was a very short trip, but I know now that I'm very lucky to have a wonderful team of people to keep Autumn safe and entertained while mommy goes off to make a living!

Autumn is doing great eating solid foods. She loves fruit, and scarfs down any kind that I put in front of her. Vegetables aren't so easy, but she tolerates most. We had a horrible experience with peas the other day, though. I really believed that after the pea posting a couple of weeks ago, that we wouldn't have problems with them, but after a week straight of various fruit, she would have nothing to do with them! It was quite a funny sight to witness, even at the expense of being called a child abuser for what I put Autumn through in that feeding session!

Kate took some new adorable pictures of Autumn last Sunday. While there are way too many to post here, I've created a link to my Picasa album where the best are saved. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am so incredibly lucky to have such a talented photographer as a sister! Thanks Aunt Kate for taking the new pictures of Autumn!

This last week, I began seriously working out and watching what I eat for the first time since before my pregnancy. While my body is protesting, I really feel great. My goal is to not feel like a huge whale when Jeremy and I go to South Padre in 3 weeks. Remembering that trip has been my motivation and it seems to be working! Thanks to Kate, I have a copy of the P90X program which is totally been kicking my butt! It's amazing though that after a workout, while I can barely lift my arms, I feel really great. I worked out 5 times this last week and even though it's a very strenuous program, I know that I can do it. It's time to put a little "me" time back in my daily routine, as it's been lacking since Autumn's arrival!

Finally, I signed Autumn up for swim lessons! It's a 4 week program which meets twice a week. We start on July 6 and I am so excited! While we don't readily have access to a pool, I want Autumn to be comfortable when we do get to go swimming. After our time in Leakey, I have a feeling that she's going to love it.

ANTM Cycle 29

Today's lunchtime reminded me of an episode of America's Next Top Model. Smile with your eyes, Autumn! Watch out, Tyra. Here we come.

The Great Pea Experiment '09 (In Autumn's words)

Hmmm, what was this stuff that you just put in my mouth?

I'm not sure how I feel about these. You mean I'm supposed to eat this yucky stuff?

I'm not sure I trust you on this. I'll just do this myself. I've seen you do this before. Let's see, you just take a hold of this plastic thingy...

And then I think I'm supposed to move it towards my mouth... Wait, why isn't this working?

Oh, I get it. Turn it around! OK, let's try this thing again!

OK, move the plastic thingy towards my mouth and...

OK I'm new at this, so give me a break. A little to the left and... SUCCESS!

I've got this eating thing down, guys! You see, I'm a big girl now!

Now, who is going to clean these peas off of my forehead?