Friday, July 31, 2009

Picture Post

July is almost over, which means summer is almost over. It seems weird considering the crazy weather we have had. It hasn't been hot like usual and instead we have gotten tons of rain. Considering our Air Conditioner was broken for a couple of months, it wasn't so bad for us though.

Anyway, here are some pictures I've taken of my girl this month:











Thursday, July 30, 2009

Skunked

We spent a few days at my Mom's house recently. We had a bunch of plans: the zoo, the boardwalk, Atlantic City. But, I'll save all of that stuff for another post.

My Mom told us that her and my Step-Dad recently found out that they have skunks in their backyard. They aren't actually living in the backyard, but they live just over the fence and they come over into their backyard at night.

My Mom did the research and found out that skunks kill insects and rodents, so it didn't seem like such a bad thing. But, we joked that my dog Amstel would get sprayed. He is so curious and since he isn't the smartest dog either, it just seemed like a given.

The first night we were there, we saw a skunk run across the backyard. They are cute little things! Luckily neither of my dogs noticed and we didn't have a problem . . . until the next night. Sure enough, Amstel caught a glimpse of a baby skunk and went running right after it. He just wouldn't let up and of course, he got sprayed.

You would think that we would be prepared for this scenario, given the fact that we sort of expected it to happen. But, nope, we had no idea what to do. My Step-Dad pulled out the hose and started spraying Amstel down. In fact, he got me, Nik and my Mom pretty wet too (not to mention the deck).

After a good hose down, Amstel still smelled like Skunk. So this time we got a bucket and soap to give him a bath. I scrubbed and scrubbed but only ended up with a stinky dog and smelly hands of my own.

Finally, I resorted to searching online (I probably should have done that first). Turns out there is special stuff you can buy at the pet store. Of course it was 10 or 11 at night at this point, so running to the pet store wasn't exactly an option. Thank goodness Amstel was sprayed by a baby though because the smell wasn't too unbearable. We decided to let him sleep in the house, in his crate, but he was confined to the laundry room. We would deal with the smell in the morning.

The next day I ran out and bought a big bottle of the Skunk Odor Remover. I scrubbed Amstel down with it, but still the smell did not go away. Several applications later although the smell was better, it still was not gone. My poor dog was not allowed back in the house until the smell was gone and we were all starting to feel really bad for him (he isn't use to being left outside). Although the smell was bearable, we didn't want him to rub it against the furniture. Something had to be done though, so we came up with this idea -




Poor boy got stuck wearing a pink shirt. It was the only thing my Mom could come up with that would fit him well and cover the sides of his neck (the smelly part). So, for almost a week now he has been running around in his little pink shirt and when I attempted to take it off of him yesterday, I realized that yes, he still smells. :-(

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Pink tot rod

We were at Toys-r-us a couple of weeks ago and tried out some of the toys.





This a powered car that she can control from a button on the steering wheel when she is older, or I can control from a bar on the back now. It only goes up to 2 miles an hour, but boy is it fun! CC took to it right away. She isn't smiling in the pictures, but she was actually having a great time. And yeah, I have been convinced that this will be her birthday present (which btw is only four weeks away!! Happy 11 months Christina!)

Monday, July 20, 2009

Family Leave

New Jersey passed this great law that allows me to take an additional six weeks off with my daughter. The deal is, you can take six weeks off of work (with partial pay) to bond with your newborn up to a year old. This brand new law was available to new Moms as of July 1st. Since Christina turns a year old at the end of August, I just make the cut.

So, today is my first day off on Family Leave. How awesome is it that I get to take six whole weeks off of work!? Also, since I'm not recovering from child birth and Christina is at an older age right now, this makes leave all that much more exciting. I won't be stuck in the house with a tiny fragile baby that is attached to me and nursing every couple of hours. This time around I can go out and do things with my little one. We can go to the park, the zoo, the pool. We can take Baby Music classes. And what is even better is that it is Summer. Perfect timing.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Too Cute

Thought this video was too cute not to post, it was taken a few weeks ago . . .

Monday, July 6, 2009

Happy Fourth of July

I hope you all had a good Fourth of July. We certainly did. It started with a day at home and at our pool, then we headed to my Moms for a BBQ and on Sunday we went to the boardwalk.

Over the weekend Christina decided that she wants to pull up on anything and everything, so she has been doing a lot of standing. She is also starting to stand more on her actual feet and less on her tippy toes, which means that she is one step closer to walking. She even "cruised" for a few minutes on Friday. (BTW, cruising is when a baby walks while holding on to furniture or other objects) Some babies cruise for months and months before they start walking though, so Christina could be as little as two months away or as much as six months away from walking.

Christina is also newly obsessed with clapping her hands. Sometimes she does it when she is happy or excited and sometimes she does it for no reason at all. This is much better than her last phase of blowing raspberries in the air and ultimately spitting whenever she was excited. Just imagine her doing that while eating pureed food . . . yucky baby food EVERYWHERE! So yeah, clapping is a lot less messy.

After a day at the boardwalk and a quick trip onto the beach, it still stands true that Christina does not like the sand. In fact, she HATES the sand. Poor girl screams everytime she gets near it. This is so weird because nothing else freaks her out like sand does, well except for the Ocean. But we didn't even get close enough to the water this time to see if she is willing to give it a chance. I'm sure she will get use to the sand and the Ocean in time though.

Now, what you've all been waiting for (I'm sure!), pictures from this weekend:



"See, I can stand, I can stand"








"Yes, I'm wearing my underwear on my head . . . but Daddy put them there!"








"First time in the pool with Mommy"







"First time in my turtle float"





"Look, I've got my own pool!"








"Do you like my Fourth of July outfit?"