Cheerios, Bald Doll Babies, and Baby Jails...

This kid seriously loves her Cheerios.... they've even replaced her beloved Banana Puffs :) She still likes the Puffs, but she loves her Cheerios. Putting her in her high chair and giving her a handful of Cheerios and a Sippy Cup buys me enough time to actually eat lunch anymore! Plus she just looked so happy, and she rarely looks that way these days with Teething and Separation Anxiety... I had to share! I miss my happy baby!
While we were on vacation, our friend Jenni knitted this super cool doll baby with a rainbow colored dress to give to Kat. Well unfortunately upon giving the doll to Kat, the poor doll's hair started falling out in clumps. We removed the hair and gave the doll back, now she's totally attached to it. There are tons of toys and stuffed animals in the house, but she just drags her poor bald doll baby around the house by it's one strand of remaining hair. It's the cutest thing ever!!




And we bought a Baby Jail... okay it's actually a SuperYard, but we separated it and are using sections to rope off problem areas- for instance we're constantly chasing Kat out of the Kitchen and off the stairs, so now- we have a contained area that's relatively safe for Kat and will help preserve some of my sanity at having to be on top of her at all times to keep her from opening the stove or climbing the stairs! She actually likes it, so far... but I'm not too optomistic, the minute the novelty wears off she's going to be mad. At least for now it's working out! We attached hanging toys from the sides, and she thinks that's fun. She also likes that she can use the little holes as grips and pull herself up to standing. The bonus to this is-- we can reattach all the pieces and make a circular play area outside or at someone else's house (it folds up to a really portable size, has a handle, and is pretty light) We'll likely also be using it to fence off our Tree this Christmas. Best 50 dollars we ever spent!

More Vacation Pictures and updates...

Ahhh- things are starting to slowly get back to normal in the House of Lewis :) I say slowly, because we're still dealing with vacation fallout... specifically Kat winding down from doing something new every day and getting used to not being held and cuddled every minute of the day. On an upnote, she's sleeping at night in her crib now- we really thought this would be a HUGE battle, but after one initial scare and realizing that I would come quickly if she needed me, she's doing a great job!

However, it's teething and tantrums for me :) I'm grabbing a few seconds to share more vacation pictures.

The road trip down was actually great and Kat was awesome and slept most of the way. We drive from Michigan to Gettysburg the first night and stayed there over night to give ourselves a quick break before diving into camping and socializing.


The TaraThe Tim
And the sleepy baby makes 3

Kat having a good time walking around downtown Gettysburg

Because we thought this was funny... and no, we ate no hot weiners there

We had dinner at a yummy restaurant instead, with awesome fairy stained glass all over!

Tim and Kat with Steve Carell and Abraham Lincoln statues... well we aren't sure it was Steve Carell, but man it looked like him! No idea what he was doing hanging in Gettysburg with Abe... the signs didn't explain anything... it's just called Return to Gettysburg...

Me and Kat with Steve and Abe
Seriously!! Doesn't this look like Steve Carell??


Momma and monkey having some giggles before heading back to our hotel

We're Home!

We're home! The trip was SO much fun, but so long with so many pictures that it'll take me a few days to show them all to you and tell the stories. :) Let it suffice to say for now: Gettysburg was FUN!, FSG was iffy (weather and bad cabin assignments) but getting to play with Dove and Johnny and Jessa made it all worth it! Staying with Mom was sooooo relaxing and we had a blast. Mom and Kat hit it off like peas and carrots and they spent most of the weekend playing with each other while Tim and I relaxed. It was lovely. Okay- the pictures here are from the professional photo session at Sears this past Tuesday with Mom. She wanted a 3 generational picture, but when Kat was being so cute hamming for the camera she caved and did a full photo session and bought them all LOL

Cute kids are dangerous!

The pearls you see Kat wearing are the same pearls I wore for all my pictures as a kid all the way through my Senior Photo, now they're Kat's. We decided they needed to be in the picture!

Enjoy and I'll post more picture tomorrow!
And no... I'm not real sure why it's underlining all my text, and can't get it to stop, so you'll have to suffer for now LOL

Pictureriffic!

Kat is very mystified by our packing for vacation...


... but very willing to help!!
Man alive does this kid need a haircut or what?! She'll be getting one on vacation when we see my Mom thankfully LOL It's starting to look like she stole Donald Trump's weave...



Kat's 1st Bathing Suit- and yes Grandma, it actually does fit!


All this packing made her verrrrry tired LOL

And after her nap she learned to climb on the shelf under my desk and grab cords....

Ripple Effect...

When I try to explain to friends of mine who aren't from Michigan just WHY the auto industry taking a nosedive effects everyone in a sort of ripple effect and not just people directly affiliated with that auto company- it just confuses them.

Well, we are now a prime example of Ripple effect. Tim just got word last night that in October all county employees have 2 choices: Take a 2.5% pay cut (which is basically losing one whole paycheck per year) or be laid off...

Obviously we're taking the pay cut- but in a 1 income household we live hand to mouth for the most part... things are getting rough.

I'm not here to whine about it and say 'Poor Me' but merely to point out that The Ripple Effect is in fact real. Within 1 week of a major auto company declaring bankruptcy, my husband- a county employee- received notice of an upcoming pay cut. Everything is interconnected in some way or another.

I guess we just pull our belts a little tighter and pray for the economy to recover... and be thankful Tim still has a job at all :) We'll get by, we always do- but it makes us revamp and change some plans for the future that we were contemplating.

Gotta roll with the punches :)

And since that was depressing- here is a cute picture of Kat:

Another new tooth?

Looks like tooth number 3 might be making it's appearance. Kat won't let me really look in her mouth since she's so sore, but I've caught sight of what appears to be another tooth just breaking through (which would explain the past week being a crazy house around here!) So it looks like tooth number 3 is another bottom front tooth if I'm seeing correctly.

Typically kids get the first bottom two, then the top two, then alternate so on and so forth, but it's not too odd for her to be getting most of her bottom teeth first :)

Let's hope this mean old tooth hurries up and just gets here and gives poor Kat (and poor Tim and poor Tara) a break soon! In the meantime we're doing lots of frozen chewies, catnip and chamomile tea, and Baby Tylenol....

Maybe soon she'll get back to sleeping through the night and being the sweet funny baby she normally is!

Go Red Wings!

Kat is cheering on the Red Wings with Gramma and Grampy :) She's officially a WeeMichigander!! Oh and that thing on her head is a WingNut- from Urban Dictionary: WingNut: a Detroit Red Wings fan. This phrase was conied in 1997 when the Wings won the Stanley Cup and people started wearing red wings headgear resembling a wing nut.

Momma's Little Helper

Having a baby is so helpful around the house, especially in the kitchen!

Here is Kat making soup for Momma and Daddy.... mmm... invisible soup!

She keeps the baby in the stove door company by kissing her all the time! This has the added bonus of keeping the stove door sparkling clean from about 25 inches to the floor since Kat's kisses are more like puppy kisses and less like people kisses!

See! She unloaded the dishwasher all by herself and put allll the dishes away! What a helpful little girl! We should have more kids so I can put them to work in other areas of our house! I need a laundry baby!

Kat's current favorite song

Kat's current favorte song, she just can't get enough! She dances and pounds the nearest surface to the beat while she smiles. Guess she's on a Beatles kick! Aunt Katie should be proud!

I love the 80's

Decided to share this one from my scrapping blog since you will all find this funny :) One of the designers I work with released an 80's kit as part of a competition, so here's my 80's layout. She drew the whole thing like she would have when she was 9, so I scrapped it the way I would have when I was 9... enjoy LOL

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

Kat got a new toy today, and she really really loves it! She is talking to it right now pushing the One button and saying 'One' to it, she's also trying to say 'Blue' when the toy says blue. It's supposed to be a sit to stand toy, but when she tries to pull herself up on the bar in the standing position it tips over, sooo, we're using it in the sitting position until she's a bit more steady!

Some pics we took yesterday of happy nekkid baby relaxing on Daddy's lap... she's getting so big!!

I really love this one! It looks like she's having a great conversation with daddy!

Kat loves standing up and 'reading' (ie turning the pages and talking) a book!

Some pictures from our Family Picnic this past Saturday!

4 Generations of the Lewis Family- awww!

Our little family!

Daddy's girl :)

A few pics from Katie and Matt's Wedding last Friday!

Loved the wild cake!!

Soooo it's been a busy week! The wedding was beautiful, and everyone said I did a good job on the ceremony. Katie and Matt were so beautiful and in love, it was touching to see.