A bunch of pictures

Here's a shot of Livia's two bottom teeth.

Reaching with all her might for our camera case. (She got it, by the way)

Grinning.

Playing in her Christmas outfit.

Check out all her hair! This is her "I-look-like-I'm-about-to-crawl-but-I'm-really-going-to-fall-flat-on-my-belly" stance.

Another shot of her teeth.

Side note: Despite my best intentions of sending out Christmas cards this year...it's not going to happen. Next year, I promise.

When disaster strikes

I've learned a lesson in vigilance this week.

On Monday I left Livia alone in the living room for a few minutes while I moved the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I can't count how many times I've done that before, and every other time I've returned to find her sitting in exactly the same place I left her, playing with her toys. This time, however, Livia took the opportunity to...explore...a little bit.

She rolled all the way into the kitchen and pulled over the bag of trash I had been about to take out. So when I came back from changing the laundry, I found her lying on the floor, wallowing in garbage! Aggh!

I cleaned Livia up first, and then turned my attention to the disgustingness that was my kitchen floor. This was when I realized that the trash she had been exploring included egg shells and raw meat packaging. Holy gross!!

Then, yesterday, she was playing on the living room floor and suddenly started coughing. Obviously, she had found something off the floor and tried to swallow it. I did a finger sweep but didn't feel anything. She was crying and coughing now, so I grabbed a flashlight and peered into her mouth. What did I find? A pine needle, sticking up out of her throat. I didn't know what else to do, so despite her sputtering and gagging I just reached right back there and plucked it out. I could swear she gave an almost audible sigh of relief. As did I.

Apparently, I can never let her out of my sight ever again.

Because it's been awhile...

First of all, Thanksgiving was wonderful. The food was delicious, the company was great, and Livia entertained herself during dinner by eating peach puffs. What more could you ask for??

Here is a picture of us, taken just as we were about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.


Chase's oldest brother, Richie, and his wife, Whitnie, came up for the occasion, and it was so much fun to all be together.


My parents also happened to be in the bay area for Thanksgiving, visiting my grandparents. So we spent Friday morning with them and were able to fulfill the Self/Fitt family tradition of sitting on Santa's lap! My Uncle David has a full Santa suit costume, and doing this is a major highlight of every Thanksgiving.

I was worried that Livia would start to cry, but there were no tears! Here they are, checking each other out.

Even Chase got to sit on Santa's lap!

We met up with the Baldwin side of the family in San Francisco later that day, and took a jaunt down Lombard street.

Thanksgiving was over all too soon. It's a good thing Christmas follows so quickly! Chase put me on a tight budget for Christmas decorations this year, so I settled on a Christmas tree ($20 for a 6 ft. tree at Target!) and a wreath. I'm not a very crafty person, but since our budget was too small to buy an elaborate wreath, I went to Michael's and bought some ribbon and a $3.00 wreath. I thought it turned out rather well, and I used the leftover ribbon to make some bows to put on our Christmas tree, as it was looking a little sparse. Pretty thrifty, eh? In other news, Livia is becoming increasingly mischievous. The other day she managed to get into my diaper bag and pulled everything out.

I still haven't figured out how she managed this next one. One minute she was playing quietly on the floor, and the next she was going through our medical records!

Livia is also becoming increasingly mobile. She still doesn't crawl, but she's come up with her own way to get around. I usually have her sitting up on the floor, but if a toy rolls out of reach, she'll fall over onto her stomach, roll onto her back, and push herself along with her feet (probably rubbing half the hair off her head in the process). Then she'll roll back onto her stomach, and if she's still too far away, she'll flip right back to her back and scoot some more.

Here she is napping...she was facing the opposite direction when I laid her down. Apparently, the blanket stayed in one place and she just rotated underneath it.Ü

Supermom

Every once in awhile, I think parents have moments when they feel pretty dang heroic. Maybe you managed to carry all the groceries into the house AND your baby, at the same time. Or maybe you successfully navigated your way through an intense tantrum, or won that power struggle, or figured out the reason why your child was so mysteriously upset. Today, I had a moment of parental heroism.

I had just put the laundry in the dryer and had approximately 50 minutes before it was done to run an errand. We have communal laundry facilities, and I hate having my laundry moved by other people (even though I've totally done it before myself), so I wanted to be back on time. I only needed one thing at the grocery store, so I thought "I'll be in and out, no problem." Ha!

First, I realized that Livia was hungry, so I quickly fed her, watching the clock all the while, and then buckled her into her carseat. On the way to the grocery store I was debating whether it was faster to use a grocery cart or just click her carseat into her stroller. Grocery cart, I decided. So I pulled her out of the carseat and saw a huge, orange glob where she had been sitting. Oh yes, she had had a blowout. So there I was, in a grocery store parking lot, holding an extremely poopy baby, trying to figure out how in the world I was going to take care of this.

I decided the trunk was my best option for a makeshift changing table, so I cleared it out (while holding her and trying desperately not to get poop all over my shirt) and laid out her changing pad. I don't even want to think about how weird it must have looked to all the other shoppers to see a little head poking out of my trunk (I was parked directly in front of the entrance, so everyone passed me). Now, I've dealt with a lot of blowouts in the past 7 months, but this was one of those really bad ones...the ones where you usually just stick them straight into the bath. When I laid her down it went all the way up her back, almost to her neck. And then, of course, she started wiggling and it got on her arms, and legs...and it was just really, really awful. 10 minutes and 20+ wipes later, I had a clean but stark naked baby in my trunk. I always have a spare outfit in my diaper bag, but I hadn't switched it out since Sunday, so Livia got to wear a nice sundress around the grocery store, even though it was sleeveless and it's the end of November. Thank heavens we live in California and it's not too cold.

As I stood there, I realized that I was clean, Livia was clean, and the trunk was still clean. That was when I had my moment of parental heroism.

Now, I know you're thinking "Um, Mary? You do realize that you simply changed a diaper, don't you?" But hey, I successfully handled what could have been a serious disaster, rescued Livia from herself, AND still got back just after the dryer finished its cycle! Yep. I felt pretty amazing.

In case you were curious...

I just thought I'd post a little update about Livia. Livvy turned 7 months old this week, and her second tooth erupted today. Her favorite game is peek-a-boo and her favorite song is the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I can tell she is so anxious to move herself around the room, but she hasn't quite figured it out yet (which is good news for me!). She absolutely hates being on her tummy, which makes learning to crawl a little tricky. This is one of about two pictures that I have of her on her tummy, smiling.She does, however, love to stand, and one of her favorite things is to hold herself up on the ottoman. We spent Halloween with my grandparents and Uncle David. We all had such a good time, and Livvy loved her great-uncle!

This picture just makes me laugh.

Livia wore these overalls for the first time the other day, and got a little excited about the clasps.

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny feet

And no, I'm not talking about Livia's. Anyone who knows me also knows that I am quite petite. What you may not know is that my feet are ridiculously small, even for someone of my height. I am usually a size 5. The smallest size they make in women's shoes.

Today I felt like buying shoes. I'm not sure why, but I just really wanted to, so I buckled Livia into her carseat and we were on our way. I tried on nearly every size 5 shoe there, but only ONE pair actually fit me, and although they were cute, they were super uncomfortable. So I moved to the size 4 1/2 children's shoes. Still too big. I turned to the size 4, realized in horror that I was actually looking at children's shoes for myself, and promptly left.

Bummer.

Jesus wants me for a sunBEAM

On Sunday, Chase and I were called to be primary teachers, and were thrilled to find out we'd be getting the sunbeam class! I think it'll be fun to teach together, and the children are absolutely adorable.

We sat in on primary that day, just to become familiar with the schedule and routine they have. I think I ended up chuckling to myself 95% of the time...the kids were so funny! Some of my favorite moments....

When the senior primary kids arrived, the chorister asked the junior primary kids to look behind them and see who was here. One little boy who was sitting directly in front of me leapt from his chair, shouting "let's wrestle!!"

teacher: "What are you grateful for?"

child: "Heavenly Father, God, and Jesus"

Little girl: I don't want you to sit next to me.

Little boy: Well, that's rude.

While they were singing a song about autumn time the kids had fake leaves to throw around. One little boy picked up a leaf and, glaring at it, said, "Don't mess with me, leaf!"

Part of a prayer..."thank us for this day. Thank us for primary..."

Seriously, so excited about this calling!