Well, I guess since I spent some time talking about how sick everyone is/was… then it’s probably time to talk about some of the things happening around the house.

Kylie has a new job, and seems to enjoy the new challenges. She’s working over at Maccaroni Grill now. She has started as a hostess, but is looking to move up to server when she turns 18 this month. There’s a lot of memorization and studying that she has to do for the job, which I’m sure she’ll do great at, and which should also mirror how well she’ll do in school this coming semester. She’s a Junior this year, and after 11 years in school, I’m know it starts to wear you down. We’ve had more conversations lately though about what she wants to do when she get’s out. I’m sure whatever it is, she’ll be great at it.

Angie is settling back into work after a long 2 weeks off. It was a slow start back with Mallory still being a little sick but yesterday was probably the most normal day yet. She said that when she went to pick her up, the teacher said Mallory had been fine all day. When Mallory saw Angie though, she started doing a little fussing. I think we have an actor in the family… or a manipulator depending on whether it’s cute or old. It will probably take a week or so for Mallory to get back into her routine. She’s been waking up a little earlier than normal the past few days. Hopefully that will revert back soon. \

Mallory has also been doing some fun new stuff. She’s getting pretty good at feeding herself these little Gerber Graduates. They are kind of like cereal, but dissolve a little quicker. Not only is she getting better at picking them up and putting them in her mouth, but she does a good job chewing them too. That has given us a new tool in keeping her content… especially when we sit down to eat dinner.

She’s also talking a lot more. Usually it’s on politics or the weather… the stuff she hears on TV, but every once in a while we dive into some philosophy or mathmatics. At least that’s what I imagine she’s saying anyway. She certainly means to say something… and when she’s frustrated, that certainly comes across as well. I’ve had to tell her on a couple of occasions to watch her language.

She’s got sitting up pegged, so she doesn’t fall over as much. She is actually pretty good at moving from a sitting position to laying on her stomach without too much fuss. Rolling is no problem either. She keeps pulling her knees up under her, so we are hoping she’ll get traction any day now and start moving forward. For now, she seems to make better progress backwards.

I guess that’s the highlights, except of course that she likes to talk on the phone. I’m pretty sure she get’s that from her big sister. We are in trouble when she gets old enough to start making her own calls. Thoughts of that Internet story where the little kid is talking to the police on the phone from his hiding place in the house, while his parents, police, swat, and everyone else search frantically for them. That will be us… if someone wouldn’t mind hitting the record button when it comes on, that would be great. I’d like to make sure we capture the live news footage for use in a future wedding video or something.

Hope everyone is having a great New Year and staying un-sick.

First I would like to thank my husband for posting…now, he can stop sleeping on the couch. ;)

I uploaded pictures and videos of Christmas and Mallory at 7 months. She’s learning so much everyday. It’s crazy. But right now, I am just so tired of her being sick.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

It’s been a while since I posted, and I get the feeling that Angie is going to hold out until I post, so here I go. Before I start though I’d like to make sure that everyone understands that this doesn’t mean that she won or anything. After all, it’s not a competition or contest of wills or anything. I just decided, on my own, that it would be nice if I posted something based on my own judgement and free will to post. So, now that we all understand each other…

Let’s see…. word of the day… “sick”. Might be better to call it the word of the week or holiday. I could talk about a million things, but lately it’s been all about sickness. We stayed at home through Christmas Day and actually didn’t see anyone. We were planning a trip to see family in North Carolina and South Carolina, and my brother Matt was sick, so we didn’t want to risk catching something and taking it with us. Christmas was good… we had a very traditional meal that evening consisting of ribeye steak and baked potatoes. Kylie got a personal DVD player and a sweatshirt from Hollister. Mallory got boxes with paper on them… at least that’s the part she enjoyed the most. She’s amazingly good at holding the paper and tearing it off of the box… then she likes to taste it for good measure. I didn’t try the taste technique with my presents.

Monday morning I went and dropped the dogs off at the kennel (though I forgot Majors medicine and Kylie had to run back down to take that). Angie went to the dentist, and then took Mallory to the doctor while I packed. They confirmed that she had an ear infection and gave her some antibiotics… the pink stuff. Angie noted yesterday that every time Mallory has been to the doctor the past few months, she has either had some fluid on her ear, or an infection… that might be an indication of something. The good news is that the infection was not contagious, so we continued our trip.

We dropped by Greenville to see Mee-Maw, Pee-Paw and Dad. We had a great time, and enjoyed seeing everyone. We took Dad by the airport on our way out and then headed up to Hickory to see Maw-Maw and the family. By this time, Mallory had developed a little cough. It started dry, but became more “wet” as time went on. Sunday morning we were planning to leave around noon, but Mallory spiked a 102.6 fever so we packed up and left in hopes that we could avoid getting Maw sick (though that didn’t happen unfortunately.)

Monday morning, we were back at the doctors office, and found out that Mallory had picked up a virus. Her ear seemed to be doing better, but there wasn’t much we could do for the rest except treat the symptoms. They tested her for RSV but it came back negative. I guess this is about the time that Angie and I both picked up the bug. The next week was basically taking care of Mallory, taking care of ourselves, and trying to get a few things done around the house. Kylie managed to avoid the bug luckily.

We did get the dining room repainted… it’s now a brown, rather than the construction orange that it ended up before. We also touched up some trim, and finished the wall and one of the trays in our bedroom. Even more exciting, we got Mallory’s room ready. I put up some corner shelves to give us a place to migrate all of the frames and stuff to… making room for a changing pad. We cleaned out the “stuff” that had found it’s way to her room for storage and Angie organized her clothes, and Mallory officially moved upstairs without any problems. She has done fine sleeping through the night and the monitor works well too, which was a worry given that her room is in the opposite floor and side of the house from our room.

Monday though she went back to the doctor with another fever though. Two new ear infections, and a new prescription. Hopefully this one will knock them out. There’s been more talk of tubes, but I’m not sure when we get to a point to need to make that decision. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens after this one clears up. With the new infection, Mallory stayed out of daycare Monday and Tuesday… Aunt Lindsey kept her part of the time which was a huge help. This morning (Wednesday) she went back to school, and Angie said she just stared at her teacher when she got there. She’s gotten very used to being held a lot the last couple weeks, so I’ll have to admit that I’m glad they get the opportunity to break that habit.

This ended up being pretty long, so I’ll stop for now. There are lot’s of new things Mallory is doing these days, so Angie or I will have to post more of that soon. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and great New Year.

I’m trying to talk Johnathan into blogging for you guys. It’s been a while since you have heard his perspective. So hopefully, there is a family update coming.
In the meantime, I have loaded pictures and videos. (sorry it took so long) Some have asked if there is a way to tell if it is a picture or a video before you open it. The answer is yes. When you open an album and see all of the thumbnails, videos have a little gray box in the bottom left-hand corner. Also, I had trouble watching the videos as part of a slide show. It only showed 19 seconds of a 46 second video. I just wanted to let you know so that no one misses a second of our precious baby. :) She’s quite a character…she gets that from her dad.

Mallory is so much fun these days. Gone are the days when I had no answer to, “What has Mallory learned lately?”
The first new trick was learning to “blow bubbles” and make sounds with her lips. If her lips are dry and won’t make enough sound, she can take care of that by working up more spit. Never mind the drool running down her chin. Anyway, you can get into a “raspberry” contest with her. That’s the closest thing to a conversation we can have right now so I’ll take it. ;)
We have started solid foods. There is a good side and a bad side to that. On the good side, she sleeps very soundly (she can now go from 8:30 or so until 6:00 or 6:30), and it’s a lot of fun to try new foods. On the bad side, her diapers need to be stored in one of those “biohazard” disposal containers. Good night! I had no idea that something that small could contain so much stink. We’re thinking of installing an exhaust fan over her bed. Now when I smell something, I have no idea if it’s coming from her, Major or Johnathan. ;)
The first food we tried was peas. Her eyes got big, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it (we have video to load so stay tuned). It didn’t take her long to figure it out. It also didn’t take her long to figure out how much fun it is to “blow bubbles” with peas in your mouth. Not only does it feel neat, but it gets a great reaction from your audience. They make a huge noise so they must be enjoying it, right? ;) And it didn’t take her long to figure out that there are things that are much better than peas (she accused us of holding out on her). The carrots and sweet potatoes have gone over well. So now the peas will just get mixed with one of those. It has the same effect as wrapping a dog’s pill in bacon.
The only fruit we have done so far is bananas. They were an absolute hit! (we also have video of that) She was smacking. It was hilarious! I thought she was going to suck her lips off. We’re not going to add anymore fruits until we have enough vegetables in her diet. We’re afraid that adding veggies will be harder if she prefers the sweetness of fruit. Typically, for dinner, she gets a jar of vegetables and then some oatmeal with bananas mixed in. . . like a dessert, but not too sweet. The other night, Johnathan decided to feed her. He started with peas and carrots. At one point, I noticed that he had given her a bite of the oatmeal. I said, “She finished her peas and carrots already?” He said he just thought he would mix it up a little. I believe I even wished him luck as he tried to give her the vegetables again. She looked at him like, “Ummm. . . no.” as the peas and carrot slowly oozed out of her mouth. I told him, “You know, if she was able to talk, this would be one of those instances where she would say, ‘Mommy always does this. . . ‘”. I think that he was finally able to get her to finish the vegetables, but it was a struggle.
The newest feat was displayed just this weekend. She learned that she could roll over multiple times in one direction and get places. . . like under the desk, under a chair, etc. She takes great pleasure in rolling right off of the blanket we spread out for her. Unfortunately, in most cases, that puts her on the hardwood floor. This morning, I was getting ready for work, and I heard her start crying like she was in pain. I went running (of course) and found that she had rolled over onto a toy. I guess that’s a hard lesson for a 6-month-old. But she’s having fun.
Last but not least, we just went to her 6-month check up last week. Her doctor said she is doing great. Developmentally, she is right on track. You can’t even tell she’s a preemie anymore. He said she is very accurate with her grasp (as she was trying to grab his stethoscope) and was really pleased with her progress. She’s still in the 25th percentile for weight. But she has jumped to the 50th percentile for length and about the 63rd percentile for head circumference. So she’s a long, skinny baby with a big head. It may take forever for her to learn how to walk because she’s so top heavy. Time will tell.

Okay, folks. The web album has been updated. There are a few new ones in the 4 Months folder. And I have added 5 Months, Fall Festival and Mallory’s First Trip to Louisiana. The trip was great. It was so fun watching my grandmother with Mallory for the first time. And my dad is just silly over her. Shoot! Now that I think of it, we should have gotten all three generations in one picture. Dang it! I guess we’ll just have to go back. ;)
Have you ever traveled with a 5-month old? It is not for the faint of hearts. They are only happy for the first 4 hours or so in a car seat…that includes there and back. After that, they start plotting against you. Case in point – on the way home from Louisiana, Mallory was having a fit. We finally got her settled down, but a couple of hours later, we ran into issues (I think she has a voodoo doll shaped like the bus). We stopped in Good Hope, Alabama (the name is just full of irony). Kylie and I went into Hardee’s to utilize the facilities and grab some food. Johnathan stayed in the bus because Mallory was asleep (quick side note: the bus rocks for road trips…despite what you are about to read). While we were inside, a guy taps on Johnathan’s window and says, “Hey, d’you know you got gas pourin’ out the bottom of yer car?” Shoot yeah…we figured it was getting such good gas mileage that we could just waste about 9 bucks on the ground (I pick but I’m very grateful that he told us). Hint: it is not a good sign when you come out of Hardee’s in Smallville, Alabama, and your husband and a stranger are laying on the ground looking underneath your car…and there’s a big puddle of something running across the parking lot.
So we called AAA. The good news is that it stopped leaking when he turned it off. The bad news is that you can’t start and run a vehicle that is literally pouring gas. The worse news is that you can’t find a garage on a Sunday night at 8:00 pm. The worst news is that you’re in Smallville, Albama so you can’t get a rental car on Sunday night at 8:00 pm, and the only hotel in sight is an Econolodge across the parking lot of a truck stop. It soon became very apparent that we were spending the night in Good Hope (starting the get the irony?).
Bear with me while I take you through this thought process. If they towed the bus to a dealership, we would have no way to get to it the next day. If we left it at Hardee’s we would have to carry all of the luggage plus the baby stuff through the truck stop (and trust me, we used every bit of space in that vehicle…we were loaded down). So we decided we would walk over to the hotel and have them tow it there. Then, Monday morning we would call them again to come tow us to get it fixed. Once we settled on the plan, the next step was helping AAA find us. Not as easy as you would think. The Hardee’s chick told us where we were…in local terms. Apparently, that doesn’t jive with Mapquest or whatever it is that AAA uses. It only took about 20 minutes to work out the minor details of where the heck we were. After everything was lined up, we walked over to the hotel and got a room. The guy at the front desk was really nice…even offered to call some of his buddies to see if any of them were interested in working on our car (something that the tow truck guy later told us to be vary wary of…warned us that “bubba” might show up with duct tape). The room was decent. But to add insult to injury, we had very little cell phone coverage. The only way my phone would work was if I was standing at the front of the room, leaned up against the window. On the bright side, they did have free wifi (woo hoo).
The next morning, we had to make a decision. Either we could all go to the dealership, or Kylie, Mallory and I could stay at the hotel and risk paying for late check out. My vote was to not sit at a dealership for an undetermined amount of time with an infant. I won. ;) That turned out to be a very good thing seeing as how Mallory decided to give me back her breakfast after renting it for a couple of hours (meaning – she puked…lots). Johnathan went with the tow truck to get the bus fixed. He was back in about 2 hours. We packed up, checked out (only 10 minutes late) and headed home. Frustrated and tired…but at least I had something to blog about. ;)

I have been successful at parking the bus so far. . . that is if you consider “successful” to be that I haven’t hit anything. If you consider it to be parking within the lines without my tail end hanging out. . . then, never mind. I have to admit it has served its purpose so far. A couple of days after we bought it, I had Mallory, the dogs and boxes for FedEx all at the same time. We went tailgating for Kylie’s band competition this weekend and even had enough room to carry Mallory’s exercise saucer. Tonight, I picked up a ton of stuff at UPS, and it all fit in the back end. I can’t wait to load it down and take it to visit dad. Kylie gets to have the whole backseat to herself.
Mallory had a stomach virus a couple of weeks ago. That was fun. There’s nothing like wondering if your 4 ½ month old is going to have to go the hospital for IV fluids. My friend Terri said her daughter had it twice. She ended up giving her Pedialyte with a syringe. We didn’t have to resort to that. Mallory would drink it mixed in with her formula (took a couple of days and a couple of conversations with the “advice nurse” to figure that one out). But I have to say that Johnathan and I are very blessed that we work for people that are so understanding. We were able to trade off working from home (along with some help from Lindsey). She never acted like she felt bad. She just had it coming out of both ends. She would puke her guts up and then give you the biggest cheesiest smile. . . with milk still running out of her nose. Crack me up. On a positive note, her face cleared up because of the lack of slobber. ;)
Now to the fun stuff. Mallory has learned how to laugh! Well, “learned” may be a bit strong. We were sitting in the office, and Johnathan started making faces at her. She started making this noise until it suddenly came out as a laugh. I think it startled her as much as it startled us. I looked at Johnathan and said, “Where’s the camera?” He said, “I don’t know” and went back to making faces with her steadily laughing. So I asked again, “Johnathan, where is the camera?” He said, “I don’t know” and went back to making faces. I finally looked him in the eyes and said, “Dude. Go get the camera!” I was actually blinded by the light that came on over his head before he darted out of the room. You have to understand that this man has been waiting for months to hear her laugh (I’ll refer you to the video on his blog from 11/3/06). Tearing himself away from that moment was hard. . . but I was holding her so he didn’t have a choice. We do have video. . . but he took the camera to Seattle with him so you’ll have to wait a few days. (sorry, don’t complain to me. . . I looked all over the house for it before I realized) But it’s the cutest thing. She’s not real great at duplicating it yet. She gets it every once in a while and just keeps going, but for the most part, she chokes herself and ends up with the hiccups.
On another note, last Wednesday night, I decided to put her on her tummy in the kitchen to see how she was doing with tummy time. I had no sooner laid her down than she rolled right over! I squealed. . . she cried. I’m not sure if I scared her or if rolling over scared her. To me, she seemed like “an old pro” at it. I was able to get her to do it about 4 times, and then 2 more times when Johnathan and Kylie got home. It was so exciting! My problem is that she did it so quickly I’m convinced that she has been doing it at day care, and they haven’t told me. Of course, I asked. Her teacher said she hadn’t, but she also said that they can’t tell us when a “first” happens (too depressing I guess). She just smiled this big smile and said, “I’m so glad she did it at home for you before doing it here.” What a crock. I just know she’s been doing it since she was 3 months old and nobody told us. I wrote October 23rd in her baby book. . . but it will forever have an asterisk beside it.

I’m doing this with a baby on my lap so if it’s not as entertaining as you like…get over it.
So I knew from the beginning that loving and caring for our child was going to be amazing. What I was not prepared for was how awesome it was going to be to watch her learn. She is learning how to use her hands. It all started last Wednesday night. She was in her exercise saucer just staring at these things that she can spin (check out the video and you’ll see what I’m talking about). I played with them to encourage her, but her hands never quite got there. On Thursday night, I was on the phone and noticed that she had picked up a rattle. Then, she stared very intently at the spinners…and slowly got her hands to them! She did it over, and over, again. (I have a lot more footage, but I can’t upload it.) Now, a week later, she starts playing with them as soon as you put her down. She’s not interested in anything else but those spinners. However, the child has a short attention span so I expect her to move on any day now.
A couple of days after that, I had her in her purple Bumbo seat and noticed that she had her hand on her sock. She was looking at her foot! So I pulled the sock off and let her play with her foot. She watched it in amazement…trying really, really hard to get it into her mouth. Oh, that reminds me. It’s the most fun thing to watch her try to put toys in her mouth. Lots of times, she gets the back of her hand, but she’s getting better.
There’s something new almost every day. I seriously had no idea. I can’t wait to watch her learn to walk and talk. (no she’s not rolling over yet but she’s getting close…still hates tummy time)
On another note, we are going to pick up our “new” car tomorrow. It’s a 2002 Suburban. That’s right. I’m going to be driving a land yacht. They are so huge, but they have so much cargo space, it’s ridiculous. I can’t wait until I have to try to park this thing.

What a week! I added some pictures to the 3 month album. I also uploaded videos of Mallory eating cereal. It’s quite a hoot. It involves a lot of shoveling, scraping and wiping. Now, after a few days, she has gotten a little better (it still take 200 forevers to feed her a tablespoon), but she has learned that it’s fun to try to talk with your mouth full. She gurgles and spits…and thinks it’s hilarious. Actually, so do we. That’s all I have time for tonight. Sorry. It’s 9:30, and if I want to get into bed before midnight, I need to get started.

(Update: The pictures and videos are still loading as of 7:30 this morning. Check back later today.)