FOUR Months!

*check out those cheeks & knuckle dimples! I am in love.

All I've heard for the last weeks is, "Whoa, when did Wendy get so big?" She really has changed so much just recently. Major growth spurt. She's not just bigger in size, but bigger as in seems older. She's so much more aware, it makes me a little sad to admit that she's not an infant anymore, she's a full on BABY!

Fun Four Month Facts:

weighs 14 lbs (almost doubled her birth weight!)

24 1/4 inches long

has discovered her hands & feet

getting better at "tummy time"

sleeping better through the night, usually

tries to put anything she can in her mouth (and by tries I mean she usually fails & ends up sucking on the back of her fist)

giggling up a storm (she thinks it's hilarious when Ryan gets her ready for bed, I have no clue why)

Thanks again Nessa. The photos you take are priceless. 

The Final Straw

Ryan has a plethora of nicknames. "Mr. Whispers"- the man could not whisper to save his life. He's got this deep voice that just carries AND, on top of that, I think years of drumming has caused him to go a little deaf. "Sniffles"- he likes to smell everything. Even water before he drinks it. His mom says he should have been a detective. "Arnulfo Viciera"- in high school spanish each of the students had to pick a spanish name for themselves and that was his. To this day some people (Lane Shapiro, Garret Lambourne, etc.) still refer to him as Arnulfo. "Mr. Overly-Considerate"- he will go out of his way to be considerate to others, to the point that it's INconsiderate to himself. "Ryoni"- by his parents. "Chubba"- by his grandpa (said quickly with a spanish accent). The list goes on...

A couple of days ago, a piece of straw landed on Mr. Overly-Considerate's back and broke it. The piece of straw was his aunt Jacque (who lives next door) humbly asking us if there was we could keep our dog from barking at 3AM because it was waking up her whole family. The very next day, Oscar was with a new family. 

Although it breaks our hearts, it's for the better. That poor dog has been neglected, and therefore abused, since the day we had Wendy. He hasn't had a single walk or even 10 minutes of human attention in over 4 months! Now he's with a family who loves him. The kind of family where he's PART of the family, where they'll walk him, and cook him egg omelets for breakfast. 

I know this is morbid, but I feel the same way I did when my great-grandma died. When someone young dies, it's devastating. When my great-grandma died, she had been going through dementia, had most limbs amputated, and was in a lot of pain. When she died, I missed her, but it was a happy parting because I knew she could be with her Melvin and her pain would be gone. That is how I feel about giving up Oscar. It hurts, but I know he's in a better place.

4 Reasons Why We Love Colt

1. He loves Wendy! 

2. He's giving: he read about Ryan's obsession with free t-shirts & the very next time we saw him he had a cool one waiting to be stuffed in Ryan's drawer

3. He's an AMAZING artist! You should see what did at my parents house.

4. Every time he comes to visit he brings another wonderful piece of art for Wendy! (We wanted to have him paint a white snail on the wall of her nursery, but since we're planning a buying a house some day & wouldn't be able to take it with us, he brings new bug art for her that we can take where ever we go!) 

Thank you Colt. 

For being so awesome. 

We love you.

NERD ALERT!!!

"A romance novel? About vampires? No thanks,"  was my reply when the 1st person suggested I read these books. I don't really care for vampires OR romance novels (except for Jane Austin). So I know how lame this sounds, but I just finished the 4th book and I LOVED IT!! I'd only heard bad reviews, maybe I had low expectations, but I kept waiting for it to get bad and it never did.

Now, for the truly nerdy part: my views on the  casting of the upcoming movie. After seeing the trailer, I'm a lot more excited for the movie than I was when I saw the cheesy-buffy-the-vampire-slayerish picture below. I really like the actors they chose to play the 2 main characters (which is the important part, right?) but I just can't get over some of the other choices.

    

Why, why, WHY are you casting a bunch of dark skin/haired people to play pale  blondes??? I'm mostly annoyed with who they chose to play Rosalie. She just not the intimidatingly, unapproachably gorgeous woman I pictured. Not even close. They tried to dye this dark brunette's hair fair blonde & it just looks like a bad yellow wig. Not mention trying to make her olive skin look pale. I pictured someone more like Jessica Stam. I wish I could get to the movie people to have them fix this problem, but I guess I'm a little too late.        

       

Don't judge. I already know. It's lame, but I can't help it.

Collection or Obsession?

While cleaning out my garage, I came to a realization about my husband. He is obsessed.  With what? FREE T-SHIRTS!!!  A couple times a month he comes  home and lays a nicely folded new free t-shirt on the kitchen table, and I think to myself, "Another one? Come on, are you really going to wear that?" But he always does.

Where does he get these free t-shirts from, you ask? Anywhere and everywhere he can! He's got random band t-shirts (bands that have long since broken up), shirts from every company he's ever worked for (including Pet Smart :), t-shirts from all the choirs he's been in (show choir, chamber choir, Mt. S.A.C. choir etc.) and he's got boxes, plural, of Neil Diamond t-shirts(I have to admit, those ones are pretty cool). 

But most of all, he has free t-shirts with logo's of his friends companies (Create the Group, CineLlease,  Food Fetish, S.I.R., O.C.D.P., Truth Drums, Boss Paint & Body, to name a few). So, if you want to get on Ryan's good side, or need some free advertising, he will proudly wear your free t-shirt.

*just doing some laundry

Nursery Time

Wendy's nursery is finally finished! It only took me until 31/2 months after she was born to add all the finishing touches. We painted the walls blue when we moved in (it was the one room that Julia & I gave Ryan freedom pick the paint color). I know it's supposed to be a boy color, but I just loved the white, pinks, & light blue combo. And it turned out to be the most soothing color in the house (so good job Ryan).  

*my inspiration: penelope crib sheets by pottery barn

(hate birds in real life, love them everywhere else)

*LOVE my crib, from WALMART of all places

Special thanks to: Ryan for assembling all the furniture, Walmart for having a crib that looks just like the one I like at Pottery Barn for $5oo less, and Heather S. & Elder G. for letting me borrow the green dandelion painting to go with the orange one. Without the 4 of you, this nursery would not have been possible. 

Williams Beach House, Round 2

*thank you nicole thompson for the cute blue bathing suit!

Wendy's week of 1st experiences:

*1st earthquake

*1st time being baby-sat all day by gma lamb

*1st giggles

*1st ferry ride (to balboa island)

*1st trip to the beach

*1st bike ride

Wendy was a BIG HIT at the beach house this year. Her cousins were absolutely IN LOVE with her! (Ruby was a little too in love with her, if you know what I mean). I loved watching them try to make her giggle. 

*best cousins

There were so many highlights of the trip: the girls bike ride, ryan getting to come out for the day (major treat with the hours he's been working lately), family walk to the same ice cream shop we go to every year (the cute little asain lady who works there knows us and crocheted a beanie for Wendy), AND FINALLY... playing scattergories with Bobbi! (we were laughing so hard Celestial almost pee'd her pants), the letter was "A" and her list looked something like this:

Apple sauce

Art Appreciation

Arkansas

Animal Habitat

Hunny 

Heat lamp

"Hey You!"

Hair extensions

Harry and the Hendersons 

...It was really late, so we were all a little slap happy. But I really need to thank Bobbi for making silly mistakes in all the games we play. You keep things fun.