My Name Is Now Mom

What do you mean, "I don't belong here"? The cat genes are showing... TerraDactyl has started trying to sit in small places, just like a cat.  She finds drawers, boxes, cake pans, etc. and shoves her little body into them.  She seems to find it relaxing, because she'll just chill there for a while. What evil is this?!?! Why won't you open?? TerraDactyl is also SO much better at opening the kitchen cabinets that we had to add some baby proofing  to the kitchen.  The glass dishes were the only safety concern.  The rest were just inconvenient.  She loves emptying things out, and it was  just a lot of dishes to wash.  It took her a bit, but she's also able to open the large kitchen drawers as well (above).  The middle drawer is just Tupperware, so it's a dirty dish inconvenience.  The bottom drawer is saran wrap and aluminum foil, so the sharp tearing edges make me a bit nervous.  So far, I've been trying to redire...

Sneaky Snake DH found this snake while playing outside with TerraDactyl.  I think it's a garter snake.  Our little wren chicks are continuing to grow and add feathers.  They're much cuter now.  I even get to watch the momma bird feed the babies every now and then.  Their beaks are the entire width of their heads! TerraDactyl is still a crazy kiddo, getting into everything she can.  She's learned that she can push individual keys down on a keyboard instead of just doing a full hand mash.  Typing just like Da Da Sometimes the things that TerraDactyl decides to play with seem odd.  Like the bar stool.  She hates being confined behind the baby gate, but she willingly confines herself within the stool, as seen below:

Left Leg Right Leg Left leg, Right leg, One arm, Two arms: Dr. Seuss seems like a good descriptor, but maybe the Hokey Pokey would be just as good.  :)  Either way, TerraDactyl is working out her muscles, that's for sure!  She's gaining strength and flexibility.  And she's been pushing her limits.  She really wants to play in the corner of her nursery where the garbage is.  And then she tries to sneak in playing with the dirty diapers...  The little sneak.  The picture of innocence We have very few off-limit things in our house, but the diaper garbage is one of them.  I'm super excited to enter the "enforcement of house rules" phase of TerraDactyl's life.  /sarcasm  I figure this phase should only last for the next 17 years or so, right? Get a haircut ya' hippie! I made my first rhubarb pie the other day.  It's really good.  The only problem?  DH got me pre-made pie crusts and I think the...

Awww...  They're so ugly! That's right!  Those 5 little eggs have hatched!  I'm not sure of the exact day, I just know I was washing dishes the other day and happened to see the mom feeding the babies.  The rest of the time she just keeps sitting on them.  We're pretty sure that they're  Bewick's wrens , based on the white line over the eyeball and the ridiculous tail feathers.  Did someone say babies?? TerraDactyl has fallen in love with Riley's toy basket.  She's always liked it, but she confined herself to emptying the toys out of it.  Now...  everything's fair game.  She's climbing into it, using it to practice her steps, lifting it up...   She's all over that thing.  TerraDactyl is also really enjoying her wood train.  Oma gave her this train when she was a too young to play with it, so I set it aside.  When we move into the new house, I put it on TerraDactyl's window sill.  But th...

Just ONE smile?  Please? I had a great Mother's Day.  I don't remember my first Mother's Day very well, since TerraDactyl was only a couple weeks old.  But this time around, I got to sleep in, I got a shower, and TerraDactyl took a long nap for me!  DH made dinner and we topped it off with a chocolate cheesecake.  Corned beef brisket, cabbage, and carrots This weekend it was super hot.  We were in the high 80's with some humidity.  We have a window air conditioner unit, but we didn't install it since we knew we'd only have a day or two of heat before it dropped back down to the 60's.  So excited to see Da Da coming home!!  Check out her top teeth! Luckily, DH had put the window screens back in all our windows (the previous owners took them out before selling the house).  So we could open the windows up at night to try and cool the house down a bit.  All the windows that open have a screen in them - except one....

TerraDactyl Sandwich! TerraDactyl has discovered one of Riley's favorite sleeping spots when he was a puppy.  I caught her crawling up into the middle of our coffee table the other day.  I guess that means I should probably dust there if she's going to be mucking about and exploring that area.  ;) Tres chic - TerraDactyl is already exploring her fashion tastes TerraDactyl is getting pretty good at communicating her desires.  She points and grunts insistently to steer whoever is holding her.  She grabs the breast feeding pillow and drags it over to me when she wants to nurse.  And she pulled quite emphatically on Riley's leash when she wanted to go on a walk the other day.  Time for a walk! After a few days of below average eating, TerraDactyl is back to eating more normally.  She's also sleeping better, so I think her teeth aren't bother her as much.  The other morning she ate an entire 4oz cup of pears in addition to Cheer...

What is this?!?! It doesn't exactly lead to Narnia, but TerraDactyl has discovered the secret door in her bookcase - and she loves it!  She spent a lot of time playing with the door, putting things in the empty cube, and just generally experimenting with it.  Oh, and ripping off the "Infant CPR/choking Instructions" that I'd taped to the inside of the door. The coolest secret ever Now I want to hide random surprises in there for her to discover when she decides to open the door again.  Last weekend, DH and I tried to get some chores done.  Enough to feel like we're making progress on the house, but not so much that DH feels burnt out and like he's working 7 days a week.  Shelf and coat rack for the back door.   TerraDactyl helping to replace the light bulbs in the kitchen I think that TerraDactyl has been paying attention to me when I put on chap-stick.  She carried around a tiny tube of sunblock and kept shoving it into DH...

My annual mint chocolate ice cream cake Every year for my birthday, DH makes me a mint chocolate ice cream cake.  It's amazing.  Mint oreo crust, grasshopper cookie edge, chocolate ice cream on the bottom, then a layer of hot fudge, and then mint ice cream on top.  SO good.  I love it.  Usually he even makes all the ice cream from scratch.  DH didn't have time to make it completely from scratch, so the ice cream is store bought.  But it's still delicious.  Olives?  What olives?? I'm not sure if you can notice the difference, but these pictures are all taken with a different camera.  Or phone really.  DH upgraded my phone so I'd have a better camera.  It's faster and I think it's more likely to catch TerraDactyl when she's in focus (before she moves off to the next thing).  It is a bit weird getting used to a new phone though.  Somebody left an empty box here!!

Mom dressed me in pants?!?! That's right.  I voluntarily dressed TerraDactyl in pants yesterday! It actually went pretty well.  TerraDactyl doesn't have as many diaper changes as she used to, so it's not like I'm taking her pants off 12 times a day.  Plus, she's a little more helpful when getting dressed than she used to be.  And by "helpful" I mean, she's not as detrimental to the process.  It's important to stretch properly before exerting yourself While TerraDactyl and I were playing airplane yesterday, I think I saw a tiny bit of white peeking through her upper gums.  I think her top teeth might finally be breaking through!  It's hard to tell though because TerraDactyl is definitely opposed to me poking around and looking in her mouth.  She's actually really good at locking her lips together.  I guess I'll just have to be patient.  Doing some weight lifting TerraDactyl has started blowing raspberries again.  I...