Sunday, November 30, 2008

Contribution Update!!!

Dear Ashley,

I loved the pink robe. Thank you for knowing I'm a pink-sparkly girl and not a blue girl. And the chocolates were (notice I said were and not are, so gone...) wonderful.

I love you!

Your favorite cousin in Memphis,
Skye

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

My Contribution

So Thanksgiving this year is at Tanya's house. As any polite future guest would do, I asked what we could bring. She suggested a cherry pie would be nice, so with high hopes and lofty expectations I decided to make my 1st ever cherry pie with homemade crust. I've never actually made any kind of pie before, so this was be a brand new experience.

Why is there cherry pie at Thanksgiving when cherries are not in season? I can't imagine the pilgrims shipped them over for the occasion. Maybe they canned them ahead of time. Were pilgrims big canners? I believe things might have gone differently if it was cherries that were taxed and not tea. It would have been the Boston Pie Party. Which would have lead to the issue of having to find a new name for the Boston Cream Pie as the Boston Pie would be cherry.

Back to the current issue...

Since there were no fresh cherries at the store, I had to choose between canned and frozen. I conducted my own little semi-poll at the grocery store and 3 out of 11 people polled said to use canned cherries. The other 8 people either didn't know or just kind of stare at me... it was a little awkward.

I mingled three recipes from online and also had to make a call to my grandma for some expert advice. My Grams saved the pie by telling me not to throw out the juice. She said it's the juice that makes the pie thick and not just a pile of dried up dead cherries in a shell. Okay, she didn't use those exact words, but that's totally what she meant.

The test pie is in the oven right now. I just peeked at it and the crust doesn't look as ugly as it did when it was raw dough. I thought Alan was going to do a cartwheel when I told him that he wasn't going to have to wait until tomorrow to have a piece.

I don't think Alan realizes just how big a guinea pig he actually is. He told me that you can't screw up a pie unless you accidentally grab salt instead of sugar. That just goes to show you he never tasted the brownies my cousin Shanda and I made that contained rootbeer, a bottle of mint extract and a half a dozen eggs.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy your holiday!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Nanny Cam for Puppies

I want a puppy! It's a live feed, so if they're not moving now then check back in a few minutes. They're puppies, they'll be tearing something up soon.
PUPPY CAM
PUPPY CAM#2
ANOTHER ONE

Care Package

My cousin sent the sweetest box of treats with this letter:

Thank you Corie! Oh, and this picture may be the only time Alan sees the cookies Steve made. Yummy! And you can't tell, but the sponge is hard like coral. I wonder if, when wet, it will poof up like the duckie. That would be so cool.

Cortland's onsie says I know I'm cute, please stop staring!" I have pink muffin-slippers on my feet, but I didn't get them in the picture. See below why I won't be taking the picture again.


I will never again doubt those people that say to never wake a sleeping baby.

Before I Woke-the-Baby-Changed-His-Clothes-and-Took-Picture Picture:

After I Woke-the-Baby-Changed-His-Clothes-and-Changed-Them-Back-and-Took-Picture Picture:


Thank goodness for the little musical Lionpillar. The song helped put Cortland back into a good mood. He says, "Thanks Grandma C!"

Monday, November 24, 2008

Video

A certain Grandma requested a video of Cortland wiggling around.

Mrs. Gunn, your wish is my command! Here you go!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Maybe Still A Little Overcautious…

Another tell-tale sign of 1st time parents:

The unabridged guideline is nothing should ever go in the crib with baby - excluding the pool thermometer.

A close-up for the Grandmas.


(And would someone please tell me the plural possessive of Grandma's. Is it Grandmas' or Grandma's or Grandmas? I missed lots of recesses in Mrs. Webb's 4th grade class because I couldn't memorize this apostrophe rule!)

ETA: To my credit I did try to look it up online, but not only could I not memorize the rule as a child, I, as an adult, can't even comprehend the rule!

ETA Again: I fixed the Grandmas. Thank you.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Just for Daddy!

Cortland asked me if he could to wear this very special outfit just for his Daddy.

He says "Hi Daddy!"

The train goes down the track. Choo-Choo!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Need to Get Out More

I'm feeling a little stir crazy today. I'm ready to leave the house and go do something, but the doctor said to keep muffin-butt in as much as possible until his 1st round of shots. It's kind of like having a new puppy.

I guess it's for the best since I still haven't practiced opening and closing the stroller.

Call to Claim Your Prize

And we have a winner! Thank you all for playing Who Knows Skye Best. All guesses were technically correct, but only one answer was the favorite that I was craving at the very moment of the quiz posting...

It's Pizza Rolls!

kkoois a.k.a kimjello wins the very special prize! Kim, call me to learn what your great windfall is. (And I swear, it's not a trick just to get you to call me.)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

QUIZ!!!

Let's play Who Knows Skye the Best

Question: If I could only have one thing to eat for the rest of my life, what would it be?

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sleeping

All of my good blogging ideas seem to happen at 2AM - when I'm upstairs and the computer is downstairs, and I'm feeding Cortland and not exactly mobile. By morning I have slept and all of my brilliant middle of the night observations have skipped right out of my head. Such is life.

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I thought I would be one of those women that popped up at the first peep out of the baby's mouth. In fact I was counting on it, as Alan sleeps like the dead. Really. A circus could be performing at the foot of the bed and he would be blissfully unaware.

Imagine my surprise when, on Cortland's 1st night home, I woke up to Alan petting my arm and telling to wake up because the only way to quite the crying baby next to my ear was to feed him. Who knew that the maternal alarm clock was sometimes a learned skill and not always hard-wired into a girls system? Good thing I honed the sleepwalking skill early in life. Now that's a skill has come in handy in the past 2 weeks.

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Cortland is an easy baby so far. At night he usually sleeps for a stretch of at least 3-4 hours.

There's this message board I read that's filled with tens of thousands of women, all willing to share their life experiences and opinions.

About a year ago I remember one of the questions posted was; Based on personal experience, how long after your baby was born did it take before the baby was sleeping through the night?

The answers ranged anywhere from the 1st night home to my kid is 25 and his wife tells me he still wakes up 6 times a night to eat. The most common answer was 6 weeks.

6 Weeks.

I told Alan last night that when I read that thread a year ago, I totally did not get the significance of that most common answer of 6 weeks. I get it now.

Soon Cort will be sleeping all night long. And he will be doing all sorts of other things that indicate that he's getting older and bigger. I'm not ready for him to get older yet. Just let me keep him little a while longer.

I'm excited to see him grow and practice new skills. I'm just asking for a little bit more time to enjoy my sweet, butterscotch-breathed baby.

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And now for the best part of this blog... pictures!



Thursday, November 13, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Girls and Their Bags

This really cute diaper bag came for Cortland in the mail a couple of days ago from my Mother-in-Law.

Alan was holding Cortland while I was pointing out all of the neat things like the polka dotted changing pad and the super cute identification tags and the little zipper pull shaped like a baby carriage.

When I found the storage bag inside the big bag, I overheard Alan whisper to Cortland, "That diaper bag is not really for the baby. It's for the mommy. I know you would never get so excited about a bag in a bag."

Guys just don't get it. And now I'm outnumbered.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Christensen Soup

This is Alan as a baby:


This is me:


And this is Alan and I all mixed together like a soup:



The bottom picture is from today. He was still a tiny bit asleep, but we managed to snap this photo before the wailing began. Oh, and before the big daddy bear came in and told us to quit waking the baby for photo ops. Party Pooper.

He's now happily back asleep in his grandma's arms. The baby, not papa bear.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Cortland is Finally Home

Cortland came home today. We have been enjoying not having to share him with nurses. Pictures to come soon.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

No Baby Yet

Cortland is still not home yet. He has to start gaining weight before they will release him. Alan keeps saying that they are just keeping him because he's so cute.

I can't seem to stay awake more than 4 hours at a time. There's no baby at home to excuse this huge tiredness. I could just sleep and sleep and sleep.

Alan is doing great. He is patiently waiting for baby to come home. He doesn't seem to be stressed or tired or anything.

I'll let you know when we have a baby in the house. It will hopefully be soon.