Cute photos.

Here are some cute photos from the last couple of weeks:

Local Computer Expert

I'm regularly called upon to be a 'computer guru' for the family and friends. Today's XKCD put it soo well - And yes; this is actually what I do when you ask me these kinds of questions...

More teeth.

Yesterday Mira cut through two more teeth. She's had the bottom two for a couple of months now, and as they've grown they've become quite prominent when she smiles. Here are some cute toothy grin photos.

You can see in this last one how she is starting to work on learning to crawl. She's up on her hands and knees. So far, all she does when she gets into position is rock back and forth. But I have a hunch that we'll need to be baby-proofing much more thoroughly very soon.

Anyway, back to the teeth... She cut her upper front two teeth yesterday. Last time when she cut the bottom two, I didn't really notice that it effected her mood any. But this time she was definitely cranky on the day that they came through. She seems to be over it now. Well I attempted to get a mouth shot so that you can see her new choppers. If you can't see them here, try double clicking the photo to see the larger image. You can just barely see them peeking out.

So now today, she is sort of exploring the fact that she now has opposing teeth by grinding them together. Oh lord, that sound is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I hope she stops once the novelty wears off. Because A) that's a bad habbit to start, B) I'm sure it's not good for her teeth, and C) if she keeps it up too much longer I just might have to start wearing earplugs.

Again?

So Brian and I have known for a while that we wanted to have another baby very soon after Mira. We want our children to be close in age. The idea is that when they are older (grown up) they will be close and can share experiences. Brian and his sister, Lindsey, are only 2 years apart. While they didn't get along too well in childhood, now that they are adults they are very close. I love my sister dearly, but she and I are 12 years apart. Unfortunately, that means that we will never be at a stage in our lives where we are experiencing the same things. I will always be the older one who blazes the trail, and while it's nice to know that I can be a very positive role model for my sister and help council her through things, I am a little envious of Brian's relationship with his sister. So that's one reason why we want to have our children all back-to-back. The other reason is so that we can make the most of me taking time off of my career. If I have all my kids in this one leave of absence, then I don't have to worry about putting my career on pause again later down the line. Finally, we want to have all the kids out of the house by the time we are 55 so that we can enjoy time alone together again before we are too old to take advantage of it.

So anyway, we've been keeping this in mind and wondering how soon we can start trying again. My body, aka the baby factory, decided that I was ready to concieve again a mere 2 months after Mira was born. (Much to my dismay. I mean couldn't I even get a good 6-months in before my cycles started up again?!?! Yes I did just say that in front of the entire web.) The main thing is that my OB has told me that I shouldn't get pregnant again too soon because there is a significant risk that I will lose my milk. And if that happens while Mira still needs to be nursing, then we'd have to start her on formula, which I'd really rather not do (formula is expensive). But then again, I've met plenty of moms who have nursed through pregnancy. I've even met one who is going to be nursing her nearly-two-year-old and her soon-to-be-born baby simultaneously (a practice they call "tandem nursing"... who knew?).

In the end, we think we're going to start trying for baby #2 around November. Mira will be around 10 months then, and could probably get by on solids if needed. Also, by the time the next baby is born Mira would be around 20 months, old enough to potentially be potty trained and to be out of her crib. On the down side, that does mean that I'll be big and pregnant and chasing a toddler in the heat of the summer, but with a little AC and plenty of water, I think I can manage.

So that's the plan. We'll see if things go accordingly.

Come back here.

Mira is getting more and more mobile. She's rolling all over the place, and while she still hasn't learned to crawl, she is working on it. She'll push up onto her hands and knees and rock back and forth. But really her main method of locomotion is rolling.

Since she's figured out that she can move herself, it's gotten really hard to change her diaper. She is constantly fighting to get away and roll over. It's such a struggle that I'm no longer comfortable changing her on the changing table for fear that she'll fall off of it. Using a toy to distract her only works for about 30 seconds, so I'm working on my diaper changing speed...

Colorado, part 4

One of the days that we were out there we went to the Denver Museum of Natural Science, which is extremely awesome. If you ever get the chance to go, you should plan on spending the better part of a day because there are so many very cool things to see and do there. They had this new section open on the human body and I really wish we could have seen it, but because it was so new it was very crowded and Mira wouldn't put up with that too well. And we didn't get to spend as long as I'd have liked because we had to cram it in between Mira's naps. But we did get to see their space section (Brian's main interest) and their prehistoric section (my main interest). Mira was not quite old enough to really get into it, but she did ok just sitting in her stroller and watching all the exhibits go by.

The plane ride home was much better. For starters, there were several free seats on the plane, so we were able to take Mira's car seat and put it in the seat next to us. That made a big difference. She seemed pretty content to just sit in the car seat and play with her toys for most of the ride. Another big difference was that the flight was in the middle of the afternoon, rather than being so close to her bedtime. The third thing that helped things go more smoothly was that I nursed her on both the take-off and the descent. So overall she was much happier on this flight than the previous one.

A friend of mine bought this toy for Mira. It's this sphere that has blinking lights and vibrates. The thought was that it would be a good distraction for her on the plane. Mira is totally hypnotized by this thing. (Thanks, Becky!)

I took some video on the plane.

Colorado, part 3

We took the ski lift in Copper Mountain up to the top of the mountain. There was a little cafe up there where we had lunch. The view was spectacular. I'm glad I thought to bring Mira's carrier along (the kind that attaches her to Brian's chest) otherwise I don't think I would have been comfortable having her on the lift.

Colorado, part 2

While we were up there we rented bikes. They had a little trailer for Mira which Brian pulled behind his bike. We had the bikes for 24 hours, so we had them for one evening and then nearly the entire following day. We got in several nice rides. Mira seemed to like the whole experience well enough. She fell asleep most of the time that she was in the trailer, and when she wasn't sleeping she seemed to enjoy the wind in her face, looking around with big eyes.

My favorite thing that we did the entire time that we were in Colorado was when we took a shuttle up to Vale Pass. They took us and all our bikes up to the top of the pass and then dropped us off. The we biked down the 14 miles back into Frisco. The bike paths up there are all really well maintained and very smoothly paved so it was no problem to pull Mira's trailer behind us. It was so beautiful!

Here's a picture from the top of the pass.

As we were biking down:

That's the bike path behind us. You can see it followed this beautiful stream most of the way down.

After that we took another bike ride part way around the lake. You can see the bike path on the right hand side of this picture. By then we were both pretty tired so we didn't get all the way around the lake, but just wanted to get in as much bike riding fun as we could before we had to turn the bikes back in to the rental place.
I think that whole experience made Brian and I wish that we could afford to buy bikes and a trailer to have at home. And that it was about 20 degrees cooler in Austin so that we could actually ride them without being miserably hot.

Stay tuned for part 3...

Colorado, part 1

My grandparents rent a very nice cabin for about a month or so every summer in Frisco, Colorado. Frisco is a little town near Brackenridge, about an hour west of Denver, in the heart of the Rockies. (Altitude 9,000 ft.) This summer we went to stay with them out there for a week.

Frisco is nestled between a mountain and a lake.
We took frequent walks from our cabin into town.

It was so nice to get away from the hundred degree heat in Texas. The weather up there was beautiful, with highs in the mid 70's. We were spending the better part of almost every day outside, which was great for Mira. (She loves being outdoors, but is so easily overheated that it's difficult to spend any time outside in the Texas summer.)

When preparing for the trip, I was worried about forgetting something, since I wasn't used to travelling with a baby. I made extensive lists, though, and managed to bring along everything that I thought we'd need and not too much excess. Considering that we were flying, I didn't want to load down the luggage too much. Luckily, my parents were driving up, so they had a bit of room in their car for things that we didn't want to tote onto the plane with us, like Mira's stroller and booster chair.

Anyway, so the flight up there was kind of poorly planned. First of all, we just took whichever flight time got us the cheapest fare. But that meant that we were flying up to Colorado near her bedtime. So she was tired and a bit fussy. The other mistake that we made was not buying Mira her own seat on the plane. We decided we'd gamble that there would be an empty seat on the flight that we could nab for her. Turned out the flight was full, so Brian or I had to hold her the entire time. The flight wasn't too long (2.5 hours) and it was a direct flight, so it could have been worse. But Mira was tired and she has a hard time sleeping in my arms (she gets too hot sharing my body heat and plus I wiggle too much). Also, I mistakenly assumed that she wouldn't nurse on the flight because she'd be too distracted by everything else. (Normally she's very distractable while nursing and any little noise or shadow will have her turning away to see. This is why we always nurse in a quiet dark room at home and we pretty much don't plan to nurse while we're out. Instead, I pack baby foods in her diaper bag.) But I knew that she'd need to drink or suck something during take-off and landing in order to help her ears. So I had her sippy cup with water for that. She didn't seem to have any trouble with her ears thankfully. But halfway through the flight, she decided it was bedtime. Now. Where is my crib??? So to try to get her to calm down, I tried nursing. It actually took both Brian and I to accomplish the task: we both had to lean over her close, me with one arm under her and the other hand holding her head to my breast, Brian with one arm lending me support and the other hand rhythmically patting Mira's butt. It was quite the operation... but it worked. And then she fell asleep for about 20 minutes and was ok for the rest of the flight.

When we got there, Brian and I both were feeling the altitude. Brian was winded just unloading the luggage from the car. And I was having periodic dizzy spells. So we took it easy the first day we were there. We took leisurely walks down the bike paths or into town or around the historic park. I also had to take some time to go to the grocery store and then puree Mira some foods, since I'm making all her baby foods from fresh produce but couldn't think of a hassle-free way to bring along the foods I already had for her at home.

The next day Brian went golfing with my grandfather, which I know he really enjoyed. In the mean time, Mira and I went on more little walks, enjoying the wildflowers and the chipmunks and the birds and oh yeah the mountains.

More later....

I know, I know...

... you all want to see the vacation pics. I promise I'll get to it soon.

Despite what Walmart might have you believe, a five-year-old is not a teenager.

Watching television today while Mira took her nap, I saw an advertisement that really bothered me. It was a Walmart ad for the video game Guitar Hero. At first it was all cute: this hip mom is rocking out with her kids. There's a little boy, who looks like he's maybe 8 and a little girl who looks maybe 5. The mom is jamming out on the base and the boy is playing the guitar and the girl is dancing in the background. All cute and good. Then the narrator comes on and says, "blah blah blah, rated T for Teen".

...
...
o.0

Does this bother anyone but me???? Am I being one of THOSE women? You know, the overly sensitive mom who screams about violence in the movies and how everyone else's actions are damaging to her children? Cuz I don't want to be THAT woman. But it irks my senses for Walmart to sit there and say, "We recommend this game for audiences over the age of 12... except for these two children you are observing here. These kids are mentally mature or something so it's ok for them, but not for your pre-teenager. So please don't try this at home." WTF?

In Colorado

As I type, I am sitting in a beautiful cabin in Frisco, Colorado. There is a lovely view of the mountains out the window behind me. It is currently 48 degrees outside, and the high today is 72. Today we are taking a shuttle up to Vale Pass, where they will drop us off with bikes so that we can bike down the mountain. (Mira has a little trailer that is hooked up to Brian's bike.) We have been on many walks so far, and plan to take many more. Brian has done some golfing. Later this week we plan to visit the Denver Museum of Natural Science, and maybe do some kayaking.

I'll post again when we get back, but I don't want to waste this beautiful mountain environment sitting behind a computer. So I'm off to enjoy the day!