Chugging Away

We've been hard at work and play this last week.

We had a fun little joint baby shower for our friends from the ward. Each one was on their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th baby, so we kept it low key. We did a chocolate fondue night--one peanut butter and chocolate, and one plain milk chocolate. It was divine.



Beezie and I packed up and headed up to Sacramento for the day to visit friends. Our first stop was seeing my crazy-fun NKOTB friend Shauran. Here we are over the years at NKOTB concerts:


She has an adorable little boy a few months older than Beezie. They played on the carpet, rolling around and having fun while we ate lunch and caught up on the NKOTB cruise her husband so generously sent her on. Talking about the cruise fueled my DDub fire, and I am SO excited for the back to back concert dates in July!!

Our next stop was at my friend Rachels. We roomed together in Provo in 1994, and have stayed in touch ever since. She has 5 kids, so it's nearly impossible to get together. But every time we do, it's like no time has passed at all--except we have better hair, and our jeans aren't 5 inches above our bellybuttons.

We went to the Fake Cafe Rio spot I have been hearing so much about-Costa Vida. It was SO tasty! Naturally, I got the pork barbacoa salad, and I have to say, it's really the only salad I enjoy eating.

Next on the agenda was a much deserved and long overdue GNO with the girls in the city. You know the night is going to be good when it starts with car service!

Our first stop was Orson--it's run by Top Chef and Citizen Cake Chef Elizabeth Falkner. I'm sure you've seen her on the Food Network over the years.

The restaurant was gorgeous, and the food did NOT disappoint!

We started off sharing the prosciutto and melon salad. This was followed by the duck fat fries topped off with brown butter béarnaise.Re-read that, and take it all in. For the main course, JoJo and I shared two dishes: the smoked pork chop on top of creamy polenta and collard greens with an orange chutney AND the grilled rib eye with asparagus and marble potatoes. I'm drooling thinking about it.

Next 2 stops were at Roe, and then off to Cat Club. It was 90's night, and the music was awesome. I needed a good night of dancing. Except that dumb-dumb JoJo convinced me to wear these shoes. They have a killer spiked heel.

I had on cute and comfy flats because JoJo told me that everyone was going in "dressy casual." I showed up, and everyone looks like they are going to prom! To dress up my boring mom outfit, I popped on the Lanvins. They looked great, but after 20 minutes, I was ready to kill myself. I kicked them off, and probably need a hepatitis C test now.

I also got some allergy testing done. I have been getting these horrible canker sores in my mouth and down the sides of my throat. It was horrible. I basically had a raw, sore throat for almost 2 months before I caved and went to the doctor.


I would have been scared I picked up some weird disease from the Cat Club floor, but the symptoms appeared long before the shoes incident. I thought my allergy was to nuts--specifically almonds.


Nope! The culprit was soy and...gluten. I also have bad seasonal allergies. Duh. I reacted like crazy to the wheat, barley, rye and oats. It's also likely some nasal drainage (so hot!!) combined with my sensitivity to gluten. I had accidentally ingested some gluten several times, and it kicked off this horrible immune reaction, which caused the neverending canker sores. They also told me to slow down, and rest a little. I have been napping with B for the last few weeks, and its really helped. That whole "sleep when the baby sleeps" business is solid advice! Who knew?

Beezie is teething again--argh. When not shredding on her guitar like her daddy...

...and playing with her fun and exciting toys...

She's been serving me up a main dish consisting of this....

with a side of this......

...and this for dessert!

She's been a total stalker. I read an article titled "7 Signs That Your Baby Loves You" and it kind of sounds like the Stalker's Handbook--a book that apparently, B has been reading nightly. Of course, my friend Mary wisely pointed out that she inherited her stalker tendencies. I have no idea what she's talking about!

There Once was a Girl...

...who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good, she was very good.

And when she was bad, she was horrid.

Yeah, even at her most horrid, she's still pretty dang good. These are from her 7 month shoot. She was tired, teething, and on the cranky side. Enjoy what we got!

Firsts

Blakely has racked up an impressive string of firsts. Here are a few.

First family day at the park. Who knew that playing with sand toys in the grass is just as fun as playing with them in the sand?

First leery exchange with Logan--hands off my toys, Dogface!

First time at the beach, including a faceplant right into the sand. Awesome. Leg rolls like these are meant for showing off at the beach.

First time enjoying food! I thought Beezie hated solids. Mealtime was a total struggle, and she flat out refused to eat. I even talked to her doctor about it. On a lark, I grabbed some silicone spoons at Target. Turns out she hated the spoons, not the food. Now she happily scarfs down her fruits, veggies, oatmeal, puffs and melts like the happy little pudge I knew she was destined to be.


First scoot! Crawling is for babies, so B scoots on her booty. I place her a few feet away from her toy bin, and after a few minutes I look over and see this:


To say that B loves her toys is an understatement. She is IN LOVE with them. She definitely inherited Lance's ability to concentrate. She will sit and play for hours.

When she gets bored with the toys she has out, she scoots over to the bin, and pulls new ones out.



Jojo and I did a roadtrip to Manteca, where Beezie made great strides. First, she sat in the cart at Target.

Then she was playing at Auntie Claudette's, and started trying to pull herself up using the table. Next, she was leveraging the sofa.

And now it's all standing, all the time. Heaven help me.

First Giants Game! It was also her first time on a train. We went with my friend Alyssa, and her son, Ryan. I borrowed a little jersey for her from Colin, and it was so cute. To make her less of a dude, I paired it with a pink shirt and ruffly jeans. It didn't help. Everyone we met referred to her as "little dude" and "little feller." She may have a confusing identity crisis later in life, and I will have to cite this as the reason.

Ryan and Blakely...holding hands. I love it!

All aboard!

Alyssa and Ryan checking out the action on the train

Beezie perfected the art of screaming at the umpire. "Yo, Ump!! What are you, blind?? You're killing me over here!!!"


First time without a barky cough! Since she was about 3 months old, Blake had a dry, barky cough. It drew lots of rude looks, and questions from strangers. No, my baby does not have whooping cough. No, my baby does not have croup. I got used to stating "it's not contagious!!" after each cough. I did a little research, and found out that slight acid reflux can cause a chronic cough. She started on Pepcid, and lo and behold, the cough is now gone. Hallelujah. So long, seal bark!


First teeth! After drooling for months, the little white buds have sprouted! She has 2 little teeth on the bottom. They're so cute!

You can see them in this picture from her disastrous 6 month baby shoot. More on that later. This pretty much summed up the entire shoot.


I got in a few firsts of my own as well. For starters, it was my first Mother's Day. Lancer and Beezie got me flowers, a card, and a charm for my necklace. It's a silver flip-flop. I wear flip-flops every day, so it was perfect.

I love being a Mom. I have a happy, easy baby that makes me smile and laugh all day. She sleeps, she eats, she plays. She never cries, though she is certainly throwing little tantrums when she's unhappy--including pinching! She's my little sidekick, and I love having her with me wherever I go.

Next up--Gluten Free Rice Krispies. It's nice to have an option besides Chex.

And, last but not least, I didn't complain about not being able to go on the 3rd annual NKOTB cruise. That was a first!

Actually, that picture kind of scares me. Counting down the days to my July concert in LA!

Party Like a Rockstar

What do you get when you mix...

This happy baby

With this Partygirl's genes??

A baby who parties hard until she literally cannot party anymore.

That's my girl!