December Pictures

Whoo! I'm running behind! Here's the link to December's photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GGamelin/December2008#

It's pretty sparse right now, but stay tuned for more!

I'm growing what!?!?

Teeth! That's right, the Dragon is teething...and has been for the past five days. It has been exhausting to say the least. Through a series of trial and error, we have finally found a few things that can placate Audrey while she's going through this ordeal. She's been sucking on bibs, fingers, teething rings, cold washcloths and even carrots (yes, carrots!) When those don't work, we've been using teething tablets and then baby Tylenol when she's absolutely inconsolable.

I had been trying to do things the hard way for several days, having Audrey chew on things to help with the pain instead of using any kind of medication. My line of thinking was if I gave her something for the pain, she wouldn't get used to the discomfort of teething and then all the future teeth would be just as hard to deal with (make any sense?...didn't think so.) Well, after 6 straight hours of no napping, hardly eating and lots of crying, I'm singing a different tune. It goes a little something like this: just do anything to make the kid happy! That includes the use of OTC Drugs to mask her symptoms and I'm A-Okay with it.

After that morning, I was thanking God I have the world's best husband. All it took was one thinly veiled emailed cry for help and he was on the phone rallying the Schweighardt troops to sponsor a Mom's day out this Saturday including a much needed haircut and massage. It also helps that I'll be making Christmas goodies with a friend of mine the day before, so I can relax and enjoy some homemade cookies. If Audrey has cut a tooth by then, maybe I'll let her have one too!

Happy December!

I can't believe it's December already and you all know what that means: EGGNOG!! ...oh, and Emily's Birthday...and Christmas...and pie. (yes, these are a few of my favorite things.)
We're getting really excited about our trip to Arkansas for Christmas, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up that everything will go as planned. Two years ago at Christmas John and I ended up in a mess when a huge snowstorm hit Denver and our flights were canceled. Our revised trip involved a hectic scene with lots of yelling in a rental car in the pouring rain/sleet, trying to figure out the windshield wipers and almost running over a set of road spikes while figuring out how to get the heck out of Portland. So, basically, if we make it to Springfield and that hasn't happened, it should be a pretty good trip. We're hoping Audrey does just as well traveling half way across the country as she did for our trip to Seattle. (I'm not holding my breath on that one.)

Little A can roll over like a fiend now, but is stranded once she gets onto her belly. Her new favorite game is to roll from her back to her belly, grunt and buzz her lips while holding her head up, start to protest because she doesn't want to be on her belly anymore and then when I roll her onto her back to rest she immediately rolls onto her belly again...wash, rinse, repeat. I'm torn between wanting her to figure out how to roll back to her back so I don't have to keep flipping her around and wanting her to just stay as immobile as possible for as long as possible. I have mental images of Audrey rolling away when I have my back turned for a second and after a few minutes of searching, I'll find her in the kitchen with Caba trying to figure out how to open the refrigerator. (And you think that's an irrational fear)

A few more discoveries The Dragon has been perfecting recently are: how to jump in her jumperoo and buzzing her lips (she's gonna be a brass player!) I can't tell you how many times over the past few days Audrey has been in her crib (supposedly napping) or actually amusing herself in her carseat and out of dead silence I start to hear buzzing. It's hysterical and amazingly messy. If you thought drooling was a problem, wait until you've seen Audrey's projectile spittle. We're now finding there was a use for all 396 bibs we received as gifts.

I caught some video of Audrey in her jumper--it's not anything spectacular, but I figure it'd be neat for people to see the difference between the first video we posted and how much she's advanced since then. Enjoy!