Day #2

yikes I have nothing interesting to post today but said I would... lets see what did we do today? absolutely nothing! we played house, we played ball, we played with cookie monster who was her favorite today. we watched curious george and we took a nap. yep it was a good day :)

like I said, a waste of a post but oh well. I will leave you with a daddy pic, this is my fav from our trip to Colorado... I need to proof the rest of the pictures still, Im behind as usual but have to work on client's pictures soon...

Babies wont Keep....

So lately I have been stressing over the fact that I cant seem to keep my house clean, and the dust keeps getting worse and how do I find time to clean the toilets, ect...

Today Greg of course gets like 50 things done around here before noon. I love him for his energy and his willingness to help, but sometimes watching him makes me feel so guilty. Like I should be able to get as much done as he does. He never ever complains about stuff that isnt done, but I still feel like I should be a better housewife. I just cant figure out how to balance Gracyn and life. She is 10 mos old and you would think I would have this down. And considering I only have 169 days till the new baby comes I had better figure something out fast!

I think Im going to make a chore list so that each day I do one thing. I made one before but I never stuck to it, so this time I have to really dedicate to it. I would love any other mom tips out there you guys have for ways to find time or organziation tips, etc...

In the meantime I found this quote today and it made me feel a lot better about the fact that I am playing ball with Gracyn instead of doing the 5 loads of laundry I have waiting. I thought I would share it with you guys...

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,
For babies grow up, I've learned, to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.
(Ruth Hulburt Hamilton)


ps- this is my first post of my 7 day challenge to myself. im going to make an effort to post something from our day everyday this week. (dont hold your breath though, lol)

I must admit....

I have a guilty pleasure- I love the Young and the Restless. I promise Im not a trashy mom who sits around all day watching soaps with her kids! I record it and normally watch it during nap time, but occasionally I will watch it with her in the room. But it's really not a trashy soap, I promise! Even my grandma and grandpa used to watch it everyday. Anyway something I have noticed that is so funny to me is that she will sing along with the theme song. She is mesmerized by any music that comes on the tv, she always shakes her toys or sings or goes and stands next to the tv... I tried to capture it on video but she saw me with the camera so was distracted. But its still cute so I thought I would share.

No I have not remembered that I need to hold the camera horizontal yet.

One Sad Blog

If you havent already figured out that this blog is called "onesadblog" because it is horribly neglected Im sure you are catching on now! Im sorry I havent written in a long time.

Life here is great. Gracyn is almost 10 months old now. She is an insane monkey, the girl has no fear of anything including trying to climb anything she possibly can get a foothold on. She is babbling up a storm, though nothing truly coherant. Greg sometimes picks up sounds that he says are words, but Im not sure they are intentional words. We start a baby sign language class next week so that should be fun! Im not convinced it works, but hey its something for us to do together and another way to get her out around kids. We also start a "wonderful ones" class for kids her age to play and have story time together, etc. Its at the library. She is eating all sorts of table foods now so I've had to challenge myself to actually start cooking a bit. In my dreams Im this very organized house wife who actually cooks and does laundry and cleans her house... too bad thats not quite reality! Im sure with the new baby coming it will be even further from reality and I think I need to just accept that!

Here are a few pictures from August. Gracyn is now 20lbs and 30.25inches! She is so big! She is wearing 6 mos shirts but 12-18mos pants already, I just cant believe that. I promise she does wear more than this outfit, these and the video of her fit where all taken on the same day.






time to baby proof the house! we have been putting it off forever and finally went to buy gates this weekend...






And finally a quick video of her climbing the chair.... she can usually climb all the way to the wall behind her...

Only Because Im Bored

So this is way early, and Greg would kill me for posting this... but I was bored and decided to make a name list on babynames.com, then I decided why not let people vote. No people, I DID NOT LEARN MY LESSON THE FIRST TIME AROUND :) But at least I think I have developed a thicker skin and realized as long as we love the name that is all that matters. I think that realization came after learning to brush off the "oh well that is unique" comment I get everytime I introduce Gracyn to someone! So anyway vote away, But no "tatum=tator tot" comments!

Good Intentions...

Well I set off to record her climbing the furniture, and to show what a monkey she has become. However after a few failed attempts to get my keys off the ledge behind the couch I ended up with this video which I thought was so much more funny :) Im really not a mean mommy, but someday I think it will be funny to show her these little tantrums she would throw. You can see part way through she starts to laugh because Im laughing at her, she is so obviously faking the tantrum. She is definatly learning to manipulate! Anyway just thought it was funny, though Im sure no one else thinks so...

Surprise Surprise!

Gracyn is going to be a big sister! I have been anxious to share our news, but wanted to tell all of our family in person before announcing it here. I am currently 10 weeks pregnant and due March 9, 2009! We are so excited that the kids will be really close in age (15 months) and we are hoping they will be close friends as they grow up. So far the baby looks really healthy on u/s, I got to see the heartbeat last week! Im feeling pretty sick, moreso than with Gracyn, but Im hoping that will pass in a few weeks when the first trimester is over. This is a quick picture my dad took of Gracyn with my mom after we told them and my sister the news. It took a little bit for them to figure out exactly what the bib was telling them. They are going to have 3 grandkids next year! My sister is due January 16th, so I am even more excited that the cousins will be close in age!

So many changes

This month has been a chaotic one with vacation and house guest and Greg having surgery and gracyn crawling, etc. Its rare when I get to pause and really notice how much my little girl is growing up and changing before my eyes. She really is such a fun and sweet little girl. My friend took this of her and I just love that it captures a quiet moment in this busy summer.

Snapshots from her life

8 months old and finally crawling! Still no teeth yet though. Here is a video and some good old fashioned snap shots...

how do you entertain her for 5 minutes? let her rip up my pottery barn catelog...


her favorite game of peek-a-boo with a book...


sporting her baby legs, her onesie got lunch on it...


how daddy spent a good portion of his birthday- he is still layed up from back surgery


Second day of crawling... the babylegs keep her knees from getting too red and sore.

92 degrees of fun!

Gracyn got to enjoy her new little baby pool today. We have been taking her swimming in our hot tub (turned down to about 85 degrees) but I wanted something I can put her in where I dont have to get in too, she loved it! She doesnt have much fear of water, she wanted to crawl through the water on her belly to get her toys, it was so cute! Here is a really quick video. The other girl talking is Gracyn's favorite friend Brittnee who is her nanny. Im not sure what the white lines across the video are. Sorry for the really poor quality! Here are also a few really quick snaps...

Im so far behind

A lot is happening around here and I have fallen so far behind! Gracyn is now almost 8 months, she will be 8 months on Marley's 5th birthday. I cant believe he is 5! He is doing really well with Gracyn, esp now that she is more mobile. Today she sat there and continually yanked on his tail and though you could tell he didnt love it, he just sat there through it. He is such a good boy. I really need to take pictures of the two of them together, he just never wants to participate.

Anyway Gracyn is blabbering all the time now, she also tries to "sing" with me by drawing out her "ahhhhhssss and baaaaas" in a musical way when I am singing to her. She talks a lot in response to others talking to her, its so cute to watch her try to communicate. She is also on the verge of crawling. She sits and launches herself forward, but sometimes has trouble getting one foot out from underneath her. She often ends up face planting and in tears, but she is determined! Its amazing how fast things change where one day she cant do something and the next she has figured it out. She is starting some table foods, although she still doesnt have any teeth! I have felt like they were coming for months, with all the drool and crankiness and EVERYTHING in the mouth, but none yet!

Gracyn just took her first plane ride to Colorado. She was so good and slept almost the entire way! I have a ton of vacation pictures that I need to get around to posting, I will make it a goal for the week. Anyway here is a really quick video of Gracyn playing peekaboo with Greg. She loves to play and will use anything she can to cover her face. Here she is using one of her favorite books from Aunt Amanda....Greg admits he sounds like a moron in this, anything to make her laugh! Sorry also that its sideways, I took it with our point and shoot and I always forget it doesnt auto rotate! More to come I promise!

6 Months

Well she is almost 7 now, but this picture was taken at almost 6 months when we were visiting Indy. I love the light in my dad's studio! We had fun playing with Gracyn since she had just mastered sitting! I'll add more when I get a chance to proof them.

Me and My baby

Funny how a photographer can so despise actually being in front of the camera, but I loathe it. I just look at pictures and dont see me. But that is a whole other blog entry... This is a picture my dad took of me and Gracyn last month and though I'm never happy enough with pictures of me, I know that in the years to come I will treasure this photo as will she when she is older. One of my all time favorite photos is of me with my mom around the same age as Gracyn. I need to make more of an effort to spend some time in front of the camera, so that Gracyn has lots of tangible memories of me.

ps. this was the day after I cut 12 inches off my hair and it was a mess, I still have no clue how to actually style it. thank goodness Gracyn doesn't have hair yet, I need to learn some beauty skills before she grows it :)

Ava James Ellermeier

This is so late, but things have been crazy! Little Ava James was born on May 21st weighing a whopping 5lbs and measuring in at 18.25inches! She is a little peanut but is fiesty and strong! She came home from the hospital last week and is really thriving at home. I am so proud of how well she has done and we are so excited to have her in our lives as Gracyn's little friend! I havent gotten to do her official photoshoot yet, so here is a quick picture Stacia sent out of mom and dad and baby. I cant wait to get my hands on this tiny little girl for our photoshoot!

Welcome little Ava!

Just for fun....

Playing with a new blanket....




My little baby wears big girl clothes! She looked so old in this outfit :(

Childhood is a lot more fun as an adult....

I love taking Gracyn to see new things and explore new places. I feel like I get to relive my childhood through her. I cant wait till she is older and can really get excited about everything. I cant wait to experience all her firsts like bike riding and swimming and hopscotch and fireworks and trick or treating and Christmas and the list just goes on and on! We have gone to the zoo twice now, I probably have not been to the zoo since I was in Junior High, and it is so fun as an adult to really be able to appreciate how amazing the animals are. Anyway we went with our new friends Parker and Jen and Kelly. Jen is my good friend/roomate Katie's cousin and she just so happens to live down the street so that has been really nice! Anyway here are just a few snaps from the day, obviously all the excitement wore them out :)

After 5 months we finally have HAIR!!

Excuse the super close snapshot with a flash, we were playing on the floor practicing our push-ups... look at this head of peach fuzz finally growing in! I think it just might be a bit red like her grandpa!

Seperation Anxiety

I really thought this would not be something we would have to deal with until she was older, but in the last week Gracyn has developed a really bad case of seperation anxiety. She panics if I leave the room or her eye sight for even a minute. We are talking huge sobs and crocodile tears. Greg keeps telling me to let her cry, but I just feel like she doesnt have that concept of permanency yet and she must feel abandoned. Im not sure. But I know I need some help! I cant get anything done unless she is in a sling with me or in the room. Not only that, but since our trip out of town (where I let her sleep with me in bed), she has reverted back to waking every 2 hours or so at night until I break down and bring her to bed with me, where she sleeps solid. She had been sleeping 8-10 hours at night in her crib since about 6 weeks. I know I need to rebreak that habit, Im just not sure how. Come monday we are going to have to rework on a schedule. Anway I never post snaps, I always post posed pics, so here are some snaps of her throwing a fit... mean mommy taking pics of that (but I know Stacia loves to see them, lol).



ok and one of her happy, just so you know she is usually not upset like that... she really is normally a very happy baby...

Gracyn Giggling

Im sorry you cant see her, I just grabbed our little point and shoot camera and set it on the table so I could jump around and play peek-a-boo (hence the annoying "boo" you keep hearing :) ). Next time I will use the video camera... I just didnt want to miss you hearing her giggle.

life as a mom...

is a whole lot different than before. Before when I was sick I would lay in bed all day and sleep it off, or pull my comforter down to the couch and watch girly movies while Greg was at work, etc... but life isn't about me anymore. Its all about her and its wonderful. Its really tiring being sick and trying to take care of her, trying to protect her from my germs by only kissing her toes and the back of her head and covering myself in alcohol gel as frequently as possible without the skin on my hands falling off, but when she smiles at you or stops crying because you walk into a room its really easy to forget you even felt lousy to start with. anyway I didnt take a picture today, and Im out of town the rest of the week, so this was a bad week to try to post everyday (excuses I know)... but here is a picture my friend Lidia took of her the other day...