Missing out

Most days I enjoy that I get out of the house and come to work. I enjoy my job and interacting with adults (sort of) and feeling productive and like I contribute to the household, etc. I enjoy that Dellaina is getting lots of experiences and learning and interacting with other children and people and she seems really happy to go to school. But there are days like today when I wish I got to be with her more. I called to check in on her and Georgia gave me a great update, full of lots of details: "we just went for a walk. She was holding my fingers and took 13 steps and then plopped down and looked up at me like, 'don't you ever make me do that again!' And we had circle time (I'm not exactly sure what circle time is, even, maybe they sit in a circle and read books and stuff?) and Dellaina was all the way in the kitchen and we were reading her book (her book?! Why don't I know what her book is?) Farm Animals, you know, because she likes all the noises (no, I don't know and that kills me!) and she really wanted to come join the group, but she was facing the cabinet and she got so frustrated trying to figure out how to turn around, but finally she did and she crawled all the way to me, which is a long way." It makes me happy to get such detail, but hard that I'm missing out on so much of her daily life. Maybe if I got more details like that every day, I'd have a clearer picture or already know she really loved it when they sit around and make Farm Animal noises! Or I'd get to see how happy she is when they go outside and she plays on the slide rather than just hearing about it. Some days it's just harder not to be there with her all the time. . . growing girl. . .

Doctor, Doctor

Dellaina waited until we got back from Savannah to get sick this time. I noticed she was feeling warm Sunday night when I was putting her to bed, but thought maybe she was just warm from me holding and rocking her. Monday morning, she still felt warm, so I gave her some Tylenol. I had a dentist appointment that afternoon and went by to see her afterwards and she seemed happy and fine. But, when I came to pick her up at the end of the day she had a runny nose and her eyes were red and she looked delirious and like she just didn't feel well at all. She hadn't touched her afternoon bottle and had taken an extra nap, but wasn't overly fussy they reported. We went home and got her to eat and after another round of Tylenol and a bath that evening she didn't feel as hot and went on to sleep and slept through the night. Tuesday morning, she woke up sounding congested and got another round of Tylenol and Zyrtec we had left over from the last time she was sick that dad said to use as needed for congestion. When I went to pick her up yesterday, the teacher was telling me she sounded like she'd lost her voice. It's just that sick sound when someone is sick, it's weird you can even hear it in children. She ate and felt more normal after another round of Tylenol, but during the night she just sounded so congested. It had moved into her chest and she seemed to struggle to breath; not in an overly scary way, just in a clogged way. So, I called the doctor first thing this morning and got an appointment at 9:15. It was a long drawn-out, traumatic ordeal and 2 hours later we're leaving with 2 more prescriptions; she has her 4th ear infection and we did a breathing test for her bad wheezing. I had to attempt to hold this mask over her mouth and nose while it had vapors coming out, that apparently were medicine, I learned afterwards while she screamed and cried and fought me. We both were crying and sweaty and my arms were about to fall off holding her, fighting. It was supposed to last 10 minutes, but I don't think it was quite that long, thankfully! It was long enough. Afterwards, she drifted off to sleep while we waited on the doctor to come listen to her breathing again and she said it was like night and day and she was much better, so that was good, it was reversible, not pneumonia or bronchitis. it may be a red flag for asthma, though, so we'll just have to wait and see. Fun times. So, hopefully, the meds will help clear her up quickly. We're up to Augmentin from Amoxicillian, because it's a little stronger and some liquid version of the vapor medicine she had in the office to take a couple times a day until the cough clears up. We have to come back in 2 weeks to recheck her ears ($$) and if her cough isn't better in a week, we'll need to come back, then, too. Thankfully, she's still a happy child for the most part, even when she feels sick. Sweet little girl. . .

New shows

Last night I got my first dose of new TV shows of the season. Greg & I watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (the pilot from last week, not the new episode that recorded last night). I thought it was good and will probably continue to watch, but it didn't immediately draw me in and I'm not as big a fan as some people I know. At least not yet. Then, after Greg went to bed I watched Six Degrees. Now, I am a big fan and really really like this new show. I was intrigued by the premise as it's the type of thing that I enjoy thinking about -- how we are all connected to each other and how we affect other people's lives. Some may find it too sweet, perhaps, but it has some raw pain and some mystery left to reveal and I really enjoyed it and got excited about finding a new gem to watch. I highly recommend that everyone tune it, because I think this will be a good one. Then, I watched Men in Trees, the new Anne Heche show. I have missed at least one episode, which I was disappointed about, because I feel that would have really captured the mood, but I had heard enough of the premise to know essentially what I missed. It was pretty good. A celebration of being single and independent, even when you struggle being alone. Otherwise, I've also caught up on a few old shows, too. ER did not disappoint, nor has House, The Amazing Race 10, or America's Next Top Model so far this season. I can't wait for Veronica Mars and Smallville to start! I'm also TiVoing Ugly Betty, The Nine and Brothers & Sisters and will have updates on those once I have watched them. My name is Andria and I am a TVoholic. This first step is always admitting you have a problem. . .

Savannah

We had a great weekend in Savannah. We finally got on the road Friday, and got to the hotel by 8:00. Dellaina did well in the car and didn't get sick this time, so that's a vast improvement over our last trip down. Doug & Morgan had waited on us for dinner, so we took the ferry over to River Street. Our hotel was on a little island in the middle of the Savannah River overlooking River Street. The bride works for the hotel chain, so surely got some good rates/deals on things. I think we had mom and dad's room, because we had a gorgeous room with a big bay window and king bed. The hotel had brought in a port-a-crib, so we didn't even bring our Pack n' Play. Mom and Dad had attended the Rehearsal Dinner and they stopped by the restaurant and grabbed Dellaina before heading back over to the hotel. We proceeded to get some drinks and sit outside since Savannah is without an "open container" law. It was nice on Saturday to wake up leisurely and eat breakfast with Greg before they all left for golf. Morgan went on a walking tour that morning, but it was 2 hours and I did not have a stroller and did not want to give up my morning with Greg. Dellaina and I hung out at the pool instead once the golfers left. Then, we came back in to watch the UGA game - they barely squeaked out the win and I was calling the golfers to report updates. They couldn't believe the last one when I called to say we'd won the game, after all the previous calls with miserable reports. Morgan got back and rounded us up some lunch. Then we went outside and walked around the hotel grounds. We watched an alligator that was in the water on the side of the hotel. If clearly was used to people, because it came as soon as anyone came and stood up on the overlook. There were also fish jumping, birds and dolphin out in the water right next to the hotel. And it's amazing when the HUGE ships go by. It's like the world is moving when you look up and see something so large passing right in front of you. We played on the front lawn.


Greg & I ended up skipping out on the actual ceremony and Dellaina took a long nap instead. The reception was in the hotel, so we just met up with everyone for the party and it worked out wonderfully. The reception was quite elaborate and swanky. The Grand Ballroom lived up to it's name and was very elegant. It had gorgeous chandeliers that I wish I had gotten better pictures of to show off. Dellaina kept leaning back to look up at the one over our table. She did really well and had a good time. There was A LOT of free alcohol and we all partook in our share. The food was excellent, too, if not too fancy? We had a good evening visiting and even dancing! It was nice to see all of the cousins and hang out with family. We managed to leave by 9:30 Sunday morning and got back in time for the race. Dellaina took a long nap with me and kept napping even after I woke up. I was worried she wouldn't sleep last night, but she did, thankfully. She made one little fuss as she rolled over when I put her in her crib and that was it. All in all, it was a great weekend.

To to Savannah

We're about to start the mad frenzy of packing, taking and dropping off the dogs, picking up Dellaina, picking up Emily, loading their stuff, then going to pick up Daniel from work to head down to Savannah for my cousin's wedding this weekend. Just thought I'd write a quick note before heading out. Greg's playing golf, but the tee time isn't until noon, so that will be interesting to have some time in the morning with him. I was hoping to maybe take a carriage tour or go out to Tybee or at the very least take Dellaina to the hotel pool. Hope everyone else has a nice weekend.

Work reflections

For those of you that don't exactly know/understand what I do. . I'm not good at explaining it, so it's not your fault. The simple answer is: I work for a marketing research company. Ask for much more than that and it's a convoluted answer. Continuing in simple terms, I am the Project Director and one of my main functions is to oversee our studies as they are running in the field (research facilities in malls across the US). This job entails communicating with the sites, checking the progress on the study (making sure they are recruiting enough respondents daily to finish on schedule) and looking at the quality of the data run. For the most part, I really enjoy this part of my job the best. I work for a small company, but still get to communicate with other people across the country. There is a process and I enjoy going through it most of the time. But, there is the human side of things, which means there will always be problems, mistakes and errors to deal with. Sometimes, that's frustrating on it's own, but mix in attitudes and personalities and you have quite the concoction for stress and headaches. Being the communicator, you have to walk a fine line between "being a friend" and trying to help out where you can and being stern and demanding certain things as the client. (My boss is constantly telling me to be the friend and make him out to be the bad guy, like my back is against the wall, it'll work out better for me in the end to maintain our relationship that way.) Sometimes I feel like screaming and pulling my hair out and sometimes I really enjoy building the relationships with the managers I talk to almost daily during a study. Sometimes, when we are having issues, I'll explain them to the manager and say something like, "I'm not telling you how to do your job, but that person wouldn't be working for me anymore" (which was a classic line from my boss) or I have to flat out forbid certain interviewers who clearly are careless and incompetent from running our studies anymore. I get worked up about getting the work done correctly. But, then it will hit home that I am actually affecting someone's life. Like on a recent study when a manager emailed me that things wouldn't be tolerated and that person no longer worked there. I told my boss when he came in that I thought I'd gotten two people fired that morning! They weren't doing their job properly, but it's still hard at the same time to really think about it. And then, there are the times where I think others are going off when they don't have to. I try to go through the corporate office only when I'm really struggling with a study or a particular site. You want the backup/support and the push from them, but sometimes they go off on just the most random things. I had just sent out an email checking in with sites because they should be receiving the packet for a new study to be installed and started today and I listed the few sites that I had already heard from. The corporate lady sent out an email to the sites I hadn't heard from yet, "respond to Andria NOW!" and that was it! I was just like, whoa! We don't have to be at the yelling phase yet, just a gentle push or reminder to communicate with me is all I'm looking for. We're just getting started, let's not get worked up yet. Anyway, I was taken aback and it got me thinking about the harsh emails I've sent. I've started sending them just to my boss first, so he knows my frustration and then he helps me word things more nicely if needed or helps me call corporate to go over the issues.

Hopefully, this post was clear enough to make sense, but vague enough not to get me in any trouble talking about work!

Seriously?

I have been thinking about composing a post on fashion trends that I just don't get, but a friend did one recently and I stumbled across this one this morning and they both hit on the points I wanted to make myself. I just really don't get why skinny jeans are coming back! Don't we struggle with our bodies enough as it is without adding that humiliation? 80's clothes are coming back. The 80's styles were bad, very bad. They do not need to be revisited except in old pictures for a good laugh! All these things I thought were horrendous and so glad they were gone, why do they resurface as cool? Fashion is so strange.

Quick blog question: does everyone see the sidebar stuff on the right at the top or the bottom? The picture of Dellaina, the links, archive and profile stuff. . on mine it has been moved to the very bottom of the page and I have to scroll down to the last post to see it, but I've gotten reports from others that it's in the correct place and at the top for them. Just curious. . .

On the home front, I have been trying to put Dellaina in her crib at night before she's actually asleep. The doctor (and lots of things I've read) have said it's the best thing. Before I would rock her to sleep and then put her to bed. Normally, she would stay asleep, but last week, during her ear infections, when we moved to put her down, she'd start screaming. I tried to be firm and just let her cry it out, but she'd cry so hard for so long! So, I've been trying again to do the whole routine firmly this week of bath, book, turn out the light, sing and then go to bed. She has cried a lot, but last night, it was markedly less time! She cried a little bit, but it wasn't nearly as long or as heartbreaking; it was more a tired whine, but I knew she wasn't going to fight it long, so I felt like we'd made progress! I don't want her to associate the routine with the fear of being left alone and have her upset about going into her room, reading or rocking, because she knows bed alone is imminent. The routine we had before worked most of the time, but I see where she needs to learn to fall asleep on her own. It's just hard. And now I understand what my parents were talking about when they said they'd have to go out on the front porch and would just hold each other to prevent one from breaking down and going back in to "rescue" me. It's pretty heart melting to go back in and check on her once she's finally succumbed to sleep and she's clutching her giraffe upside down around the neck. I don't have a picture of it to share, but it's burned in my brain and is pretty precious. Here's a sleeping picture I do have from this weekend after lots of crawling about. . .

Pictures

Emily's wedding pics finally made it online, so if anyone's interested, I can share. Since I didn't have many before, I wanted to show some of them off now and re-live the beautiful time we had! The bridesmaid's goofing off getting ready. And, trying to behave. Here are some of my favorite shots of Emily. There were so many good ones, it's really hard to choose, but here are my choices. At least this time around. Next time I go through them, I'll probably pick out more. I'm glad I don't have her job of picking out all the ones for the album, that's so difficult, I'm so indecisive! I just love this peeking out of the door picture; it's super cute! This close up is beautiful, and looks a lot like my mom to me.
I love this look of, "Oh my God, this is really happening?!" as we walk up the stairs for the ceremony.


Guess I should add one of the handsome groom. He's looking pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself.

I thought this was a beautiful shot of the ceremony. Very creative!


The Happy Couple, right after the ceremony. Sweet!



I love this picture of such a tender, personal and emotional moment right after saying "I Do" -- I'm so glad the photographer caught it so I can show it to everyone.



Door shot of both is still cute to me!


And finally, guess I'll throw in a couple shots of us all dressed up and you know I can't leave out Dellaina!







It's amazing to me how much she has changed in just a month and a half!



Ironically, Andrea's pictures are also online now. They came out beautifully as well and some are really creative. I can't steal her's as easily, and I had more of my own which I posted earlier, because I learned from Emily's wedding to try to take a few more personal pictures. Here's the link for the online versions if anyone's interested in viewing.

Emily came over last night to hang out and try on dresses for the wedding this weekend. We had big plans to go work out together, but the stupid gym wanted to charge us $15 for her to take the class! I was so mad. She ended up just going back home and hanging out with Dellaina and Greg.

Stuff

I don't have much to discuss today, but feel compelled to have a new post. A few things I've noticed recently:

Wal-mart seems to be stepping up their game. I was just really impressed that this bedding came from Wal-mart. It seems they are trying to compete with the more upscale Target. They even had the padded headboards for sale! And a chandelier! I'm sure the quality isn't the greatest, but the visual is definitely an improvement over my normal expectations for the store.

Tyler sent me this link to an item on ebay that is rather disturbing. I'm all for mourning the loss of a pet, but this seems a little extreme? I wonder if people would accept it if it was for a person?!

I'm just waiting on the next round of Gold Rush questions to open up. . 20 more minutes!

We are headed down to Savannah this weekend for one more wedding - the last of the season (as far as we know). I'm looking forward to the trip because, while I was honored and loved being a part of my sister and sister-in-law's weddings, it will be nice not to be a part of the wedding party and have the day to enjoy Savannah and other family in town. Hopefully, we'll be able to take the carriage tour Morgan & I wanted to last time, but Dellaina got sick. Also, Greg & I were laughing at ourselves last night about all the crap we packed last time we went in July. We seriously had every toy she owns just about: Pack 'n Play, Bumbo chair, Play mat, Exersaucer, stroller? all these things and it was so crazy! I think we've definitely learned a lot since. It's amazing what objects you can find to amuse a child, something totally new from the environment will be even more exciting than her normal toys. So, hopefully, we'll pack less (as my dad says, load the car, get all packed. . then take half of it out!) and be able to enjoy more this trip!Dellaina is laughing at us for packing so much stuff last time! This picture cracks me up.

New addiction

The doctor's appointment went well today. She was really cracking us up, because she was full of energy. She was laying on the table that has the paper pulled out on it and she was just kicking and crinkling it and having a big time. She loved the loud noise and was really going to town. The little grandma nurse lady was trying to ask me questions and kept saying things like, "oh my, she's really excited" We sat her up, so she'd stop kicking the paper and she still kept kicking (running her legs back and forth over it still made lots of noise) and then she started pulling it up and tearing it! The little grandma lady seemed so distraught by it all. Greg & I had a laughing fit to tears after she left the room. That's our little Bam-Bam. She gets it from her "brothers" and we laughed about that, too, because people will come over to the house and the dogs will play loudly and it doesn't phase us. But, they are all happy, so we think it's ok to be a little loud sometimes! Anyway, Dellaina's ears have cleared up and she seems to be right on track. She weighed 20 pounds, 7 ounces (78 percentile) was 28 inches long (66 percentile) and her head is still in the 98 percentile! We know she has a big noggin! She's outgrowing her current car seat, so we'll have to go shopping soon for the next size up. She's gotten the ok for table food, but we've already started giving her things. I can't remember if I mentioned her having french fries at the Braves game or not, but I felt that truly made her first sports event complete! She's been in the room with the older kids (along with the rest of her Infant class) for a week and has been getting their snacks: sliced bananas, gold fish, yogurt and apparently really likes Vanilla Wafers! We've given her tastes of different things at home, too, like pasta or other soft things. She had some of Aunt Andrea's wedding cake, too! So, anyway, that's the report.

Ok, so I may have something to obsess about like I do my pictures. . moving pictures! Click here to see my first creation. I hope the link works. It was a lot of fun to create and who knew we had a movie making program on our computer? And that it was so easy? That's all for now. .

Milestone

Dellaina made her first crawling movements this weekend! She's been on the verge and would lean out to get things only as far as she could still push back to sitting or if she got on her tummy, she was able to scoot around and get places, but didn't quite have the up on hands and knees movement down. Friday evening, I'm in the bathroom catching up on a little celeb gossip courtesy of People and I notice over the edge of the magazine that Dellaina is leaned over and I look and watch and it slowly registers that she just moved her left hand, then right, then left leg, then right at least in one succession and that qualifies as she just crawled! Trying to get to the green Listerine can on the floor next to the toilet! How exciting! Ever since, I've been placing objects just out of her reach to see if I can get her to do it again. It's all in how badly she wants the object and most of the ones I've staged haven't been what finally gets her going. .it's the things I didn't put down (like the dog bowls or magazines or cell phone or shoes) that she goes after. And she's definitely repeated the movements multiple times, both Greg & Cayenne have witnessed it!

We have had a nice weekend and we still have one more day, yea! Cayenne was here visiting with us today, which was really nice. She got to feed Dellaina and just hang out and play with us while Greg mowed both the front and back yards! (I had cleaned the house before Cayenne got there, done laundry and dishes and unclogged the kitchen sink, so I wasn't completely useless, just for the record). She'll be taking a new job out in Vegas after Thanksgiving, so it will be hard having her even further away. I know Greg will be excited to have an excuse to go to Vegas, though, he's always looking for a way to justify going out there again.

I'm super thankful to Emily for helping me figure out the Gold Rush challenges and to Nik for all of your input and helping lead "us" (ha!)down the right paths. Hope we all continue to enjoy playing the next round that starts tomorrow!

I just wanted to share one more picture that just makes me smile. Stephanie sent me Bailey's 9 month pictures where she had some taken in Bailey's Halloween costume. First she was in a big, poofy, girlie pink dress with a fuzzy tiara and very beautiful. Then, she was in a cute Fall outfit. So, by the time she was in her Halloween costume, you could tell she'd had enough! It was too cute and Tyler felt inspired and created this picture from some of the proofs. I just love it!



Hope everyone is having a great weekend. We're off to the doctor Monday. It'll be interesting to find out how much Dellaina weighs, etc. Guess that's all for now.

Braves Game

We had a great time at the Braves Game tonight. The weather was great and being in the 755 Club was pretty sweet! We started out in some seats, but eventually moved up to a table where we ordered food and more drinks. Dellaina did really well. She seemed to enjoy riding in her Baby Bjorn on Daddy (I will get pics from Emily to post later) walking to the stadium and she had a good time and only got close to crying once when Braves hit a home run and it got loud. She ate her first french fries (mushed up) and had a real ballpark experience. She was pretty tired and got a little fussy, so I took her inside thinking it'd be darker, but she woke back up and wanted to play some more. I didn't think they'd already be up, but if you want to see a picture, check it out! We're famous! Or they are just smart at making money, even after you have left! Not sure how Daniel managed to sneak out of yet another picture. If you can click into the next picture or two you'll see the girl in the orange dress that picked up my brother, Garris. Literally, in the middle of the game she came walking up the stairs and stopped at where Garris was sitting on the end of the row, grabbed his hand and said, "come here" or something and off they went! The other guys were totally floored and wanted to know what magical powers Garris possesses. It was straight out of an Axe body spray commercial. Anyway, off to bed.

Gold Challenge

That worked out well -- I'm happy to get others hooked! And get Niki back to commenting, even more impressive, she's been MIA for over a week now. . Down Under! So, I'm cheating again and asking for more help. This is all I have for the Final Gold Challenge. . .any thoughts? The clues given are: "Down Under." and "The answer is at your fingertips" I know there was another clue given early, but since I wasn't at the Gold Challenge, I didn't pay attention to it and now I can't find it (I think they changed the original clues given out) and that's really frustrating. It's just wild, what do they want here?! You get little picture icons for each challenge you solve and I thought this might be your guess as to who the Icon is that those pictures will unlock, but I'm fairly certain I know who it is and that's not the answer here, so I guess this challenge is just what you see. Just in case, here are the icons I've collected:

(1) picture of rats

(2) Red boots

(3) New Jersey

(4) Blue eye

(5) My Way street sign

(6) Hot dog

(7) Board room table

(8) taxi cab

(9) Mafia man?

(10) Welcome to Vegas sign -- oh what famous hotel is that in front of? Maybe that's the answer here?

(11) Person watering flowers?

(12) golden? right arm

At first, I was thinking it was Donald Trump with the New York (rats in sewer and taxi cab), board room, hot dog (didn't he sell hot dogs one episode?) Atlantic City. He gives people the boot? It's his way or the highway? stretching here, but that's not the answer. Then, Tyler pointed out Frank Sinatra and that made more sense -- Rat Pack, he's from New Jersey, old Blue eyes or something was his nickname, right? He had alleged ties to the mafia, My Way was one of his songs, still don't get some of the other stuff, but. . . so, is there a joint merger of Donald Trump's that's in Vegas? I'm grasping here, any help? And again, I'm not sure these have anything at all to do with the domino question mark picture that's Down Under Right at my fingertips. . .

Game Help

Gold Rush. So, I'm addicted, I admit it. And I'm recruiting help now, too. This is totally cheating, but I'm desperate for more ideas. Anyone have any guesses on who this picture could represent? The Hint given in the Glog (Game Blog) is "Ready to Rock?!" Also, there is a new hint that says "you're destined to 'pic' the correct answer." I've tried Elvis, for The King and I've tried OutKast, because they have a backwards K, I think. I tried Kid Rock. And The Rock and Rocky Maivia. I even tried Charlemagne, which according to Wikipedia is who the King of Hearts originally represented. Any other thoughts or suggestions? My other fear is that something hasn't completely loaded on my end and I'm missing something. So, if anyone else is playing and sees something different in the picture, please let me know! Thanks, hope you all have a nice weekend. We are headed out tonight with my siblings for a Braves game. It will be Dellaina's first sporting event, so wish us luck! We'll be in the 755 Club, so it will be swanky (thanks to Emily & Daniel).

Gold Rush

Yesterday, I started playing the new interactive AOL online game experience phenomenon, Gold Rush. It's actually a lot of fun and fairly easy (also, because you can keep guessing until you get it right) and I encourage anyone to try it out. But there are also some frustrating flukes. It has locked up or frozen a few times and sometimes I have to log in repeatedly in order for it to keep my points/challenges. They have really laid it out well, promoting lots of different companies or web sites or television programs. Sometimes you are instructed to go to a retail store to check out a display for a clue (but you won't have to in order to solve the puzzle) or to watch a television show for clues. Sometimes at the end of a challenge you are supposed to go check out a web page to retrieve your gold bar. However, the bar doesn't always load and I've had to play the round over and over again until it finally decided to show up. The rounds are usually quick and it tests your knowledge of pop culture, so I don't feel terribly stupid, like if it was actual knowledge based! The whole thing will come down to a television version, but I'm not in it for that or the million dollar prize. I just love games and wanted a little something to pass the time and see how I could do answering the questions. I know I have posted lots of complaints, but really I would like some other folks to play, so I could have Gold Buddies, whatever they really are. I'm not really sure how that works, if I can phone a friend, but it'd be nice for someone else to know what I'm talking about when I'm trying to match up high school principles to different schools (Mr. Belding to Bayside High and Principle McGee to South Park? or who's at Rydell High? What school are Ed Rooney or Principle Victoria?) if you want to play go click here to get to the home page and sign up.

Pups

It's been a few days since I've posted. . mostly because I wanted to be sure everyone saw and voted (at least once!) for Dellaina's Halloween costume. Right now Sweet Pea and Chunky Monkey are running head to head. I think that's fitting since both are actual names we call her! I'm a little torn, because the Sweet Pea costume is awfully cute, but it seems a little restrictive and for a younger baby. She's now on the verge of crawling and scooting around and especially by Halloween, I can just see her wanting to be more mobile than in a sack! That's my own biased opinion at the moment, not to sway the vote or anything!

In other news, Greg apparently spread his wonderful virus on to the rest of the family. I've gotten reports from several folks about missing work and feeling miserable. I'm happy to report Greg is finally feeling better. Guess it wasn't the cold shrimp on the buffet line after all. We'd all desperately clung to the notion it was food poisoning and not something contagious! Oops.

Dellaina woke up early yesterday morning and was fairly cranky with me. She refused to go to sleep last night, too! I finally just took her and laid down on the guest bed, because I was about to pass out myself and she finally drifted off around midnight!

Today, rather than pics of Dellaina, I'm going to post pics of our other babies. I was looking back through pictures at Andrea's wedding and was surprised by them then. Greg snapped them sometime at home before and I think they are pretty darn good. Even if he is constantly taking pictures of the dogs and not his daughter or wife or daughter with his wife. That's ok. Glad we have such great ones of Boss and Hank. Really. I do love how it finally shows Hank's beautiful eyes and not like he has cataracts.

Halloween Poll

I've been working on this post for a while, and I'm not sure if it will actually work because I tweaked it so much after importing it here, but we'll try! You can vote for more than one, but I've just been trying to figure out what Dellaina should be for Halloween and would love some input/feedback!

Which Halloween costume should Dellaina wear for her First Halloween?
	Bumblebee
	Sweet Pea
	Chunky Monkey
	Lion
	Yoda
	Puppy
	Punkin
	Zebra
	Whoppie Cushion (They also have an adult version - for Greg!)
	Lady Bug
	Cat/Leopard
	Pooh
	Other, please specify in comments
Free polls from Pollhost.com