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?