Catchy/Witty Title Here. Monday, March 31, 2008

The Kirk family spent their weekend at home, under the weather.  The rainy weather, that is.  It was dismal at best, abysmal at worst.  Bleh.  But we were productive.  We did venture out to Lowe’s Sunday after Ian’s last hockey game of the season.  Grass seed and decorative gravel for the yard was purchased.  The gravel now resides on our pretty path to the sidewalk and mailbox.  The grass seed is waiting until we have killed off the clover and other weeds that have taken over our lawn.  Other than that, we have been laying low and tidying up around the house.  Olivia has not offered to help.  In fact, she puked on the floor the other day (on mom, too).  I would have been more upset, but she just grinned and grinned.

This is one of the least glamorous posts I have written.  Hmmm…

SEQUINS!
SPARKLES!
SHEEN!
STEP RIGHT UP!  (Feel free to play the Tom Waits song of the same name… it fits).

And I can do this and this and this… Thursday, March 27, 2008

Yesterday, I put Olive down for tummy time.  And she immediately rolled over.  I put her back on her tummy.  And she immediately rolled over.  Then she sort of laughed at me.  Today, I put Olive down on her activity mat.  And she immediately grabbed at her fish.  She played with the fish for over an hour.  Pinching, batting, pulling, talking, all-out playing.

I have decided my baby is a genius.  She has decided mommy is boring.

Easter Weekend Re-cap. Tuesday, March 25, 2008

We headed to our hometown for the holiday.  Early(-ish) on Friday morning, we packed everything up and drove down for a photo appt with our friend/fabulous photographer, Lesha.  It had been scheduled for around noon (Eastern), but some continuing construction on her brand new studio (shameless plug – La Mariposa) had it pushed back to 2PM.  Instead, we went to Matt and Richell’s to eat lunch with my mother.  I do miss me some Bojangle’s Chicken.  There’s only one in Nashville and it’s the exact opposite of conveniently located.

You can follow the link to the beautiful pictures by Lesha here.

We had dinner that same evening to celebrate Richell’s 29th birthday.  Her actual birthdate is at the end of the month, but we partied a little early because her sister, Kim, is moving to California just before the big day.   There was early spring weather and it had been a beautiful day.  We ate barbecue out on the patio.  This is the best time of the year for it in the South.  No mosquitos, yet.

Saturday morning, we headed over to the shooting range at the Chattanooga Rifle Club so I could get some practice on the shotgun.  Matt and ‘Chell are members and visit quite regularly.  It’s really fun to watch Richell shoot.  For those of you who have never had the pleasure of meeting her, she’s tall and quite thin.  Very feminine, a true girly-girl and proud of it.  To see her popping off targets with a scope rifle is… unforgettable.

Anyhoo, I don’t like the shotgun, but I know how to use it effectively should the need arise.  I hope it doesn’t.  After I felt proficient enough, I had some fun with handguns.  I am actually fairly capable with them and it surprised the hubby a bit.  I think the fact that I’m a better shot than he is weirded him out, but made him proud at the same time.

After the range, we met up with our friend, Cortney, and her son, Jake.   Let me tell you, he is the bee’s knees.  Jake was born about 2 months before Olivia and is quite the personality.  He’s got his mom’s eyes which are going to cause some problems when he gets older.  Well, problems for  his parents, local girls, and the local girls’ parents.  I’m betting he won’t mind it a bit.  Don’t believe me?  Take a look.

We don’t get to see Cortney too often, so it was a treat to catch up in person.  We discussed life, work, and parenting (of course).  She’s trying to teach Jake baby signs, which I think is just a neat idea.  I may try it with Olivia myself in the near future.  That Saturday was a pretty day, too, so we hung out for a while in the Riverpark before the wind became a bit too much for the babies.

That night, we dropped Olivia off with her Doodah (Ian’s mom, Sandy).  She wanted some quality time with her granddaughter and we had a small party to go to over at Amy and Garrett’s house.  Their house is really looking wonderful these days.  The kitchen is halfway renovated with new countertops, dishwasher, and fridge.  The bedrooms got some love, as well, with new carpet and fresh coats of paint.

The party was much more understated than the LAN parties they host.  Just card and board games, the Wii, and pizzas.  Kimmy and Sparky showed up so everyone was able to wish them well before they move away.  Cherity came with Kim, which was a nice surprise for me.  I haven’t seen her in ages.  It’s safe to say, everyone had a fabulous time.

Easter Sunday, had us at my parent’s church for service.  We sat with family and friends.  To my delight, a dear friend of mine, Shane Stanley, and his girlfriend were in town to spend Easter with his parents.  I hadn’t seen Shane in a few years, so I was pretty excited.  He got to meet Olivia and we caught up a bit before the service started.  After it was over, Olivia made the rounds with dear family friends – and promptly spit up on them.  (Sorry Larry!)  In spite of the emitus, she was overall very charming.

We finished up the weekend with lunch at my parent’s house after service.  As usual, it was all delicious.  My mother is a true southern cook and knows how to whip up good food.  Ham, green beans, potatoes, cream corn, crescent rolls, and strawberry cake.  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

After lunch was over, we headed back to Matt and ‘Chell’s to pack up and leave for Nashville.   It’s very nice to make that drive in the daylight.  It’s kind of boring in the dark, but with Spring bringing in the green it was really quite pretty.  I’m looking forward to April when the weather is more stable and the flowers start blooming.

Ok, So I’m not very timely in my posting. Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I’d rather play with Olivia.  You know, now that I actually can.  She interacts.  She coos and laughs (sorta) and is quite the coquette to be perfectly honest.  She’s rolled over about 5 times now.  Though it is purposeful, I can tell she still hasn’t figured out how she’s doing it or she would do it more often.  Alas, she’s still not a fan of tummy time.  The best opportunity for it is in the morning when she is happiest and has the most energy.  Another major development – real tears.

That’s right, now she can cry like she means it.  I noticed this yesterday while I was feeding her.  She was eating, then wailing, eating then wailing some more.  Turned out to be some gas.  As I was holding her and laughing/gagging (her gas = [rotten eggs + raw sewage] x death) , I was startled to see tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.  On a bad mommy note, my first reaction was, “Hey honey, come look at this!” rather than soothing her.

A list of things Olivia likes/can do:

Blowing bubbles
Grinning
Cooing
Rolling over (tummy to back)
Sucking her thumb
Yanking on her clothes
“Airplane”
Situps (with assistance)
Drooling (especially happy when it’s on mommy)
Having mommy “run” her legs
Anthony Bourdain (watches him whenever the show comes on – first celebrity crush)
Chewing on her butterfly/bee toy
Batting the hanging ball on her playmat

Clinging to the Weekend (better known as “I hate Monday” syndrome). Sunday, March 9, 2008

My parents went home early on Friday morning.  It was lovely to see them and I’m grateful for all their help in making the house more secure.  I am sleeping better, not hallucinating that some hoodlum has come up the stairs into our bedroom in the middle of the night.

Sandy, Ian’s mum, came up late on Friday evening, getting here just ahead of the snowstorm that hit us that night.  It coated the ‘hood in pretty, white snow around 2″ deep.  It was lovely when we woke up on Saturday morning, glistening and cold.  We bundled Olive up in her adorable bear suit (thanks Dru, Jules, and Ben!).  Ian held her and let her experience it close up.  She was so unimpressed.  Matter of fact, she disliked it so much she started whaling on contact.  I took pictures for posterity and they’re on the Flickr link.  By the end of the day, all of it had mostly melted.  Boo.

Graham and Virginia came up on Saturday to visit a sick friend at Vanderbilt hospital.  After that they dropped in and we all went out to dinner at the AlleyCat Lounge.  Texmex and Southern food.  Very yummy, but I’m happy we hit it on the early side.  They allow smoking and it’s kind of tight corners, so had more people been lighting up it would have been hard on our collective nostrils.  It was grand to see the Pattons again.  Graham is celebrating his birthday this week, so for all the readers here who know him don’t forget birthday spankings and calling him old

Ian has a hockey game at 11:10 tonight.  I’m a teensy bit nervous about being alone so late, but I’m a big girl with a big gun and a little girl to protect.  I’ll deal.  However, I’m hanging around Ian a bit more than normal right now, you know, absorbing courage vicariously.

(P.S.  Check out the Recipe Site.  Ames stepped up and put some really yummy stuff up.  Mmmm, mmmm.  And Garrett has his way of making a cup of coffee with the Aeropress for those of you who love your cup-o-joe.)

On A Positive Note. Thursday, March 6, 2008

Olivia rolled from her tummy to her back this morning.  Twice.  Once to the left side and the next to the right side.  She had been enjoying her morning bottle when she decided to be more social than hungry so I opted for some tummy time.  I set her down in her crib and put her mirror in front of her (she’s quite the narcissist these days).  She was fussing so much that I thought she wanted her bottle again.  I turned to grab it and she became quiet.  When I looked up at her, she was smiling up at me from her back at the side of her crib.

I thought it was a fluke, but I called Ian to tell him about it anyway.  I flipped her back on to her stomach to see if she could/would do it again.  Sure enough, she fussed and fussed about being on her tummy.  Once she decided I wasn’t going to help her, she shimmied her way over the other side onto her back.  Give the kid a round of applause.  Oh, and she wants to crawl so bad she can hardly take it.  I don’t think her mummy is ready for that.

(On a side note, we now have a shotgun.  Eek.)

And it continues. Monday, March 3, 2008

Things had calmed down by Sunday.  Matt and Ian fixed the door and also reinforced it.  Longer screws, stronger wood in the frame, etc.  It was an uneventful day.  Around 4:30 that afternoon, Matt and ‘Chell headed back to Chattanooga.  It was a quiet evening and we were pretty relaxed.  Ian had a hockey game at 8:30 last night.  He left for it at around 7:40.  Just after he left, my mom called.  While I was on the phone with her, I heard the front doorknob rattle.  I thought Ian forgot some piece of his equipment and had come back for it.

I walked into the front room and as I was heading for the front door, I looked through its window and saw a man with a baseball cap pulled down on his face on the other side.  He and I turned and ran at the same time.  I grabbed my baby and went up to the nursery to call Ian and then the cops on my cell.  I kept Mom on the home phone until the cops arrived.  Ian got here while they were still looking around and asking questions.  No sign of the guy by that time.

We are getting a gun.  A shotgun.  We are looking at things we can do to the house to make it more secure.  We are also considering selling the house.  That would be a hard decision to make.  Harder for Ian than it is for me, but still very hard.  We are talking with our friend/realtor Andra about what the house would go for.  We are trying to decide if it’s a rational decision, if it is economically feasible, and where we would go.

We’ve got a bumpy road and right now the shocks are shot.

An uncomfortable dilemma. Saturday, March 1, 2008

An hour ago, a group of young men kicked through our front door.  No, not kidding.  Matt, Ian, Richell, and Olivia were all in the front den at the time.  I was in the front bathroom.  When it happened Richell grabbed the baby and ran to the back den, my brother grabbed a hockey stick and he and Ian chased after them, and I ran into a front room to find it empty.  Not knowing if my family was safe.  Not knowing what had happened or if it was safe for me to be standing there.  Not knowing if someone snatched my baby, my husband, my sister-in-law, or my brother.  I looked into my empty front room with pieces of trim and plaster scattered on the floor and my front door swinging open into the night.

I am afraid to call out in case someone has come into the house, but I do it anyway because I need to know where my child is more than I need to be safe.  It is a terrible feeling.  And I hear her crying and I hear Richell crying and they are in the back and I don’t know where my husband is and when I find him I can’t see my brother and someone has kicked in my door.  Someone has kicked in my door and I could have been home alone with Olivia.  Someone has kicked in my door and instead of running away they could have come in.  Someone has kicked in my door and even though they are gone, I’m still scared.

How do I live here now?