So many teeth, so little time

Hi, everybody! Welcome back!

If I'm not careful, the entire month of September is going to get away from me with nary a blog post. And September isn't just any month -- it's my blogaversary month. So it really would be a shame to give it no little blog babies (which is a term I've just now created to refer to posts). Now, where were we?

At the end of August, our dear friends Jeanette and Dawn came over for a proper August birthday luncheon. Annabel was more than happy to entertain with her piano playing and highchair tray drumming. Then September came, and brought with it a holiday! The months without holidays are cruel. Yes, I'm looking at you, February, March, April, June, and August (October gets a pass because even though it has no holidays that close work, it has Halloween, which is a Fox Family Favorite). This is a round-about way of saying that Labor Day was fun.

Annabel and I headed to Gulf Shores, where Uncle Bill had gotten a condo. Fox had already planned a hiking outing with his dad before Bill had his stroke of genius. Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Lee also headed to Gulf Shores. We had a great time anyway, and I saw more rain and wind than I knew existed.

This little gangsta loves the wind.

However, I thought my hair might blow right off my head.

With Uncle Bill during my first UT football game, which was not on t.v.

It was a little hard to take Annabel to the beach because even during the ten minutes it didn't rain, the wind was blowing the sand so hard it was like getting a free microdermabrasion (which has its benefits). I was scared we were going to get sand in Little Bug's eye though. She took advantage of crawling practice on the king-size bed.

How do I get a king-size crib?

So yes, Annabel is mobile now. She doesn't often do the traditional crawl, though she can. She likes to do more of a stanky-leg crawl where she keeps one leg straight and drags the foot, as a sort of feeler or kick-stand, perhaps. It doesn't have to be pretty -- it gets her where she wants to go. She can get from laying down to sitting up now, and she even tries to pull up, mostly on her crib. I had to lower it some, which really felt like a big-girl step and made me a little sad. The days of her rolled up as an immobile, but snuggly burrito are gone, and they were so short! I've been back at work longer than I was off, and she's almost been out in the world as long as she was on the inside. Before I wax too nostalgic, let me move on...

Fox and the band hit up Athens for a weekend during the middle of the month to start recording their album. I've heard some roughs, and they are boss. Major ups to our buddy Frankie for serving as the Bellwether Station hotel (and for sending me British chocolate). I'm not sure when the next recording weekend is, but I can't wait to have a finished album. Annabel and I had a nice girls' weekend and accomplished lots of errands.

Also, about two weeks ago, I realized out of nowhere that Annabel had two top teeth! She now has FOUR TEETH!! They snuck in like ninjas (and are equally dangerous). She had a fever a few days before, which of course scared me to death. Luckily our pediatrician's answering service is very patient. The fever went away with some Tylenol and did not return. I chalked it up to some weird bug from school, but then a few days later there were two new teeth almost halfway out (I mean, I assume they won't just keep getting longer. They are about half the length of a normal baby tooth. How scary would it be if they just kept growing, like sabertooth tiger teeth? That would certainly be the end of nursing.). I have tried to photograph the teeth, with very limited success.

The bottom teeth I can photograph, the top two like to hide out.

Let's see... what else? Atlanta's weather has gotten awesome. I'm so excited it's fall. We've been watching lots of football, and fall food and beverages are the best. If Annabel ever doubts my love for her, I will tell her that I sat out an entire season of pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin beer for her when she was on the inside. I have recently been able to enjoy some of both (in major moderation) and can't believe that it's been almost two years since the last time I had them. Note to self, avoid pregnancy in October if possible.

Though not related to the Foxes Three, it is worth mentioning that R.E.M. broke up. I'm really sad about this. R.E.M. was my first "real" concert (sorry Aunt Ann -- James Taylor was awesome, but everyone sat down the whole time, so it was like a warm-up concert [but thank you so much for taking me because I do love sweet baby James]). It was the 1995 Monster tour with Radiohead opening -- September 11, to be exact, long before that date held its sad significance. It was a school night, it was all the way in Nashville, and I'm so glad my folks knew it was really important to me. Fox and I saw them together twice in law school -- once in Atlanta with Bill and once at the Ryman. Then, in 2006, R.E.M. was being inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Some other awesome artists were playing a tribute show at the 40 Watt in Athens, but we had a hot tip that R.E.M. was going to show up and play as well (thanks, Fonze -- we will love you forever for many reasons, but this is certainly among them). It was true, and we were rewarded with "So. Central Rain" and "Begin the Begin." Good times... such good times. I hope there are good bands to get excited about when Annabel is a teenager.

Right now, I really just want to play with my feet.

And now we march on into October. I will strive to blog more, since it is such a fun month. I know we will have lots of adventures.

Summer Babe

August is almost over, and I only blogged once the entire month. And honestly, that post was pretty slapdash (oh man, that word just popped into my head, and I'm about to start overusing it in daily life. Get ready, friends.) So back to the blog... SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!

Let's see... we are still eating new foods. Annabel eats a new food twice a day for three days. Here's the rundown in order of consumption:

Green beans, sugar snap peas, avocado, rice cereal, banana, spaghetti squash (from the garden!), pears, collard greens (from the garden!), sweet potatoes, chick peas, yellow squash, carrots, and apples.

Get in my belly, pear.

I'm having way too much fun making baby food. I've probably mentioned this before, but Fox's firm generously gifted us with a Beaba Babycook. It steams and purees -- one container to wash. After a long day of work, only washing one thing when you make baby food is key. Now that I've used it a dozen or some times, I can say with confidence that the French are geniuses, at least in the baby food appliance department (which is probably the most important department, really).

Annabel has loved all the foods, but none as much as the collards from our garden. My heart bursts with pride (and honestly a lot of surprise) to report this. Collards are my favorite too, so maybe she remembers them from her time on the inside. Observe her enjoying this treat from the Fox garden:



Our philosophy: if you aren't making a mess, you aren't doing it right (or having enough fun).

Annabel has now figured out how eating works. At first, I never thought she would get it. She could not be convinced that her hands were not a part of the transaction. She wanted the spoon. She thought she knew how to use it. WRONG. Exhibit A:

To be fair, sometimes she did pretty much get it right.

But now, she opens her mouth in an appropriate fashion, swallows at the right time, and all around understands how to be fed with a spoon. It really is amazing to watch someone learn how to do everything from scratch. She's ready for finger foods, but I'm so scared of her choking. We'll get there eventually. I can spoon feed her into her teens, right?

In addition to eating food, we've had some great visitors. Our good buddy Karl came to visit. He helped keep Annabel out past her bedtime on her 6 month birthday. He's really good for things like that.

Our dear, dear Libby came to visit as she moved her sister from New York to Houston. Annabel crashed a family cookout for these Koch sisters and giggled the whole time. The Kochs were also witnesses to Annabel's second foray into solid food. She was much happier eating with a cheering audience.

Fox's parents came to visit. Annabel loved playing games with GranDeb. They also kept her for a few hours while we went to see Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings at Variety Playhouse. It was fantastic -- thank you, thank you Foxes!

While we're talking about good music, Fox's band played a really great show in Marietta at the Strand Theater's rooftop deck. It started at 6, so Annabel and I were able to go for part of it, pre-bedtime. She likes to seize any opportunity to wear her Bellwether Station onesie.




The weather was great, and we had so much fun. Annabel even started dancing side to side, which was a new level of cute.

We went to visit my folks in Columbia, and they had not seen Annabel since before we went to California on May 13. They could not believe how much she'd grown and changed. On the trip there, we reached another milestone -- Annabel sat in her first restaurant high chair! We like to stop at sketchy Mexican restaurants when we travel, and we found a good candidate in Monteagle, Tennessee with Mi Casa. It was pretty good. Check out this high chair pro:

So it's entirely possible that we got carried away in Mi Casa. But as crunk as the pictures appear, we were not loud. Annabel is a baby ambassador. She goes places where people don't like babies (such as restaurants, airplanes, movies, and San Francisco [okay, she's been to one movie and she was asleep the whole time -- we aren't getting carried away here {how many different parentheticals can I use? I'm not even certain these are correct any more. When I close all these parentheticals, it is going to look like a ridiculous emoticon, but really it is just punctuation.}]), and she behaves. It's glorious. People say with amazement as Annabel Jane smiles sweetly at them, "What a good baby." And I think to myself smugly, "Yes, I'm sure you were a grumpy, rotten baby, and now you sit in judgement of all babies." Ugh, sorry -- the babyhaters have been getting to me lately. It's one thing to dislike ill-behaved babies and too-permissive parents, but another thing entirely to dislike someone because they are a parent or a baby. We were all babies at some point, people. It's disturbing, but true. You can't Benjamin Button your way out of this one, grumpypants.



Annabel has also started to enjoy water, which is fun. Look at her in the Best Float Ever:





Oh also, she has Two Teeth (forgive the seemingly errant capitalization. I have been reading a lot of Winnie the Pooh to Annabel, and I love how A.A. Milne capitalizes certain words to give them Special Meaning. I'm trying it out.). The Two Teeth are adorable. I love them even though they are crazy sharp. Behold:


She is really digging the Jenny Jump Up too.




So there you have it -- a pretty good rundown of the last half of our summer. If you are Facebook friends with me, you may be disappointed that most of these are the same pictures I recently posted in an album of the same name. However, they are really fun pictures (and a really apt title [and a swell Pavement song to boot {here I go with the parentheticals again}]).


I'm going to bed before this punctuation situation gets any further out of control.

Food Fight!

I really should not be blogging. Work is exploding everywhere, and I should be reviewing advertisements or doing legal research. That's what I was doing a few minutes ago, and that's what I'll be doing in a few more. But for now, I'm going to share some pictures of my sweet baby eating food.

Weekend before last (July 23), we gave Annabel her first "solid" food. I sent Fox to Whole Foods to get some organic green beans for me to steam and puree. His firm generously gave us a Beaba Babycook when Annabel was born, and it is fantastic. I had been dying to use it, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting until 6 months to start solid foods, so I've been patient. The Beaba steams and purees -- and you only have one thing to wash! It's super easy.

So, I steamed. I pureed. I tasted. It was delicious. I decided long ago not to feed Annabel any food that I wouldn't eat (unless it was made with breastmilk, because that's where I draw the line). So I got the adorable, colorful soft spoons out. Fox got the cameras. Annabel knew something exciting was about to happen. She was more than happy to grab the spoon and guide it into her mouth.



Then I got this face.

Oh. No. She hates it. She won't have healthy eating habits. She'll never learn to eat solid food. This is a disaster. All paranoid mother thoughts flood my brain at once. But, I try another bite, and she is willing. It's better, right? Nope, I get this face.





I love that as a six-month-old, she can register complete disgust on her face already. I don't have a poker face either, Annabel -- put all those emotions out there for everyone to see. I also love that she can make that face, and then be willing to keep trying more. Every time I presented her with the spoon, she would try more. She ate the entire amount that I'd prepared. By the end of the feeding, she was having a blast.

We had green beans for three days. On day two, she was scarfing it down. After our green beans, she moved on to sugar snap peas. On day one, I got unhappy faces. On day two, she was all in. Then we moved on to avocado. Same thing, day one she was a skeptic. Day two, a believer. Then we moved to rice cereal. This weekend, we're going bananas -- her first fruit. I know I'm excited.

I think her reaction was mainly due to the foreign texture of the food. Imagine if all you'd ever had was milk. How weird would purees seem? I think we're off to a good start. It has been hard to feed her foods every morning before we head to work/school. I was just starting to master our schedule and get out of the house at a decent hour. Now I have to add the solid food feeding, which is a good 25 minutes. I'm really not sure how people get everything done. I sure don't feel like I am. Everytime I get something mastered, she moves on to something else. However, we've had lots of fun events lately. Check back after the weekend for a run down of them (hopefully).

P.S. How fun is the vintage Hello Kitty shirt? It was mine back in 1980 or so. It makes a great sleep shirt for Baby Bug.

Half a year gone

I'm six months old. Owen hides from me when I squeal. Do you see him?


I give you Blue Steel!! (if you haven't see Zoolander, you really should -- otherwise, this joke doesn't make sense).

Look at the cute dress Ma Mere made for me.

Next time you see me, I'll be eating food.

I'm on a boat!

Last weekend, we went to two baby showers! Annabel and I went to the Lynns' shower to welcome baby Sydney, then all three Foxes went to the Lioons' shower to welcome baby Lioon (we don't know the sex yet, much less a name... those dang Lioons, with their love of surprises. Don't they know I hate waiting to find out? The nerve!). Both showers were wonderful, and a good time was had by all Foxes. We can't wait to meet the new babies next month!

This weekend, we went to the lake with our good friends the Williams. We have been very excited about this for some time. I bought Annabel a life jacket about a month ago in preparation, and I left it on the kitchen table to torture myself every time I saw it. (Do you get a feel for how bad I am with anticipation? You should see me at Christmas. I have been known to remove tape and peek at presents. I'm the worst.). So Friday rolled around, and we headed out of the city to lovely Lake Sinclair. After a stop at the slowest Moe's in the world (c'mon Conyers -- you can do better than this), we got to the lake house around 9:30. It was raining and late, so we put the kids to bed and had some grown-up time indoors with the Williams.

Saturday was beautiful -- just overcast enough to not be scorching hot. We took Annabel's first boat ride*. She enjoyed the life jacket a lot more than I expected. She also slept for the majority of the ride. With the nice breeze and motion of the boat, it's easy to see why.


*Annabel actually rode on a boat in utero on Lake Toxaway with Anna & Justin, MoJo, and the Eads. She has told me that she does not remember this, so it doesn't count.

Fox and I also enjoyed the boat ride very much.



Oh no, the wind is in our hair, let us fix it before the photo. There, that's better.



I got a Baby Hut for Annabel that boasts 50+ SPF. I am somewhat neurotic about protecting her sweet skin. She's even in the Baby Hut indoors!


We got two thumbs up on the Baby Hut. Even the Williams' four-year old, Jack, liked hanging out in the Baby Hut. He sat in there with Annabel, and she giggled for a good 15 solid minutes at him. Unfortunately, that was on the deck, and I did not have my camera.

Annabel's buddy Tillie felt like it was time to do something about Annabel's hair, so she took matters into her own hands.



Annabel wanted to return the favor. She felt like maybe Tillie's pants were a little crooked.



There we go -- everybody's looking good.



We had a lovely dinner in downtown Milledgeville at The Brick. I can't get over what a cute town Milledgeville is. It has Georgia College & State University, which has a beautiful campus and gives it a liberal arts feel. It has a historic downtown with restaurants, coffee shops, book stores, and bars. And it has many lovely Antebellum homes. Our favorite of which is Andalusia, Flannery O'Connor's Georgia estate, where she lived as an adolescent and also as adult. It's where she lived when both of her novels and her most famous collection of short stories was published and also where she died. We did not go to Andalusia on this trip (we've been before), but we did drive by it on our way back from dinner and gave it a big wave. It's pretty special to just casually drive by the place where one of your favorite writers lived and died. We told Annabel a little about her.

This week has been pretty momentous, even aside from our lake adventure with the Williams (though of course, that was the highlight -- the Williams are tops in our book.). Annabel has been sitting up unassisted like a champ (if I'm not right there, I still put her in the Bumbo seat though -- I don't want to risk bonking her head). She's been rolling around really well too. She even sleeps on her stomach sometimes by her choice. And, on Wednesday night, a tooth broke through. You can't really see it well, but it is as sharp as the dickens. She's been really happy since that happened. I'll get a photo of the tooth soon. I also took some pictures of her sitting up by herself, but I think we'll wait until next time to post those. Maybe I can even sneak a post in Tuesday night when Sweet Bug turns SIX MONTHS OLD!! Where does the time go? Suddenly I understand every cliched easy listening song. It's weird.

Regardless, come back next week at least for pictures of Annabel Jane eating food!

Food? Yes, please. Nom, nom, nom...

Summerteeth

Happy belated Fourth of July! We had a great time cooking out at a few different friends' houses over the glorious three-day weekend. Fox ran his 7th consecutive Peachtree Road Race (have we really been in Atlanta that long?!). For you non-Atlantans, the Peachtree is the world's largest 10k. I heard that recently a Canadian 10k has claimed that honor, but I refuse to acknowledge it. Regardless, Fox ran it, and Annabel and I met him at the finish line. It was Annabel's first time in the jogging stroller (though we were just walking). She really liked looking at everything -- in her other stroller, she faces backward (looking at me) and is up high. In the jogging stroller, she faces forward and sits down lower. I think she got a better view of all the festivities, and I had an easier time pushing her on grass. She'll be big enough to jog in the stroller soon. I can't believe she's almost six months old. She's definitely looking more like a little girl and less like a newborn these days:

She has almost mastered sitting up on her own, which is exciting for me. I hate having to lay her down all the time -- I always feel like she's mushing her head. However, I recognize that once she sits up well on her own, crawling is just around the corner, and then it will be nonstop chaos for the next six years. There is a certain easiness in knowing she isn't going to go too far when I put her down. She's getting a little squirmier in my arms now too.

She decided to be nonphotogenic for once. Attagirl, be like your mom. Do something awkward when the camera is around. Even awkward is cute on her though.

Annabel is working on getting some teeth these days. None have popped through yet, but she's putting everything in her mouth, drooling some, and not being an awesome sleeper. I feel bad for her. I certainly don't remember what teething is like, but I'm sure it is a painful and confusing endeavor. That is what keeps me calm and friendly when she wakes up and wants to nurse at 1 a.m.... and 4 a.m.

Lately I've gotten excited about making baby food. We're going to start feeding Annabel solids in less than two weeks, and I'm looking forward to steaming and pureeing some veggies. I think she's really going to like eating food. Maybe I'm just saying that because she's putting everything in her mouth these days, but I think she likes trying new things, so hopefully it will be successful. Don't worry -- Fox will be standing by with the camera. I'm sure some fun pictures will ensue.

I'm doing a better job enjoying each stage of Annabel's development without wishing to rush to the next milestone. It's hard because I'm dying to see her crawl and teach her to walk, to hear her voice and see what funny things she says -- but I know once all those things happen, our time with her as a baby is over. So for now, I'm really just enjoying her as a baby with no rush. I am curious to see what she'll look like as a little girl though. Fox looks just like he did as a baby. You could pick him out of a baby line-up with no problem at all. I really don't look much now like I did as a baby, which I've always thought was strange. I'm sure you can guess who's who.

Have a great week everyone!

June with the Bug

So apparently I'm a once a month blogger now. I know, I know, I don't like it any more than you do. Hopefully it will change as I get into a better routine. Right now my routine is wake up, nurse, change and dress Annabel, drop her off at the Treehouse, go to work, pump every three hours, leave work, pick up Annabel, nurse, bathe and change Annabel, get her to sleep, wash bottles, rinse diapers, perhaps do some more work or laundry, watch a tv show, sleep, nurse, sleep, repeat. Throw in the occasional trip to the grocery or vacuuming, and the blog is getting left out. Boo. It's hectic, but I really do enjoy every second of my time with Annabel -- even if it's a 3:00 a.m. feeding.

However, it hasn't all been work and routine around here at The Foxes Three. We've had some big fun too. Here's a summary of our recent adventures in chronological order since we returned from California:

We went to a lovely wedding in Augusta (Annabel's first!) -- congrats Anna and Justin!!

We went to Bruceton to see Fox's family, which was great. We got to see Aunt Jordan's new place. We got to read books with GranDeb. We got to swim in the pool. GranDeb even got Aunt Jordan's old swing and slide out and we discovered that Annabel loves to swing (and that Aunt Jordan is good at sharing her toys).






Fox's band, Bellwether Station, competed in the Atlanta Bar Association's battle of the bands, LawJam. The guys had been practicing a lot in the basement, so I knew they were ready. They had prepared a sweet set of Too Loud Guitar (original) into Folsom Prison Blues, followed by Outrun the Night (original), Bound For Jackson (original), and finishing with The Clash's version of I Fought the Law. Pretty much a perfect set for something called LawJam. However, there was a lot of competition. There were 8 bands who were selected to compete after submitting information and music to the committee. I was really excited about seeing the band play at Variety Playhouse. It's a great venue in Little Five Points where we've seen some spectacular artists -- Bright Eyes, Iron and Wine (with Calexico), Lucero, Drive-By Truckers, Todd Snider, Bobby Bare Jr., The National, and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting. So I decided to get Annabel's first babysitter for the occasion. We have a good friend who is super responsible and great with babies, so I booked him for four hours. I was pretty nervous leaving her at night for the first time, but the guys sure made it worth my while. They sounded amazing and won both awards given -- Best Original Song (written by Fox!) and Overall Winner. One of the judges was Phaedra Parks, local entertainment attorney and Real Housewife of Atlanta. She gave them a 10 and said their song Bound For Jackson is a hit. The awards are giant gold records. Big Time!


Before the show with their number one fan

Rocking out

After all the rockstar excitement, we celebrated Fox's first Father's Day with some much-needed family relaxing time.


Last weekend, we headed to Athens for Fox's cousin Ryan's wedding. It was beautiful. The venue was a place called The Hill that is sort of an orphanage for historic homes in distress. The owner relocates them to the Hill and rehabs them. The wedding was behind a lovely house from the late 1700's in a sunken garden, and the reception was under a big tent in front of the house. We had fun touring the old house and snapped a picture of Bug next to an antique bed warmer. Congrats Ryan and Kiel! We had hoped to catch some music at AthFest while we were in town, but it was a little bit too warm to subject Annabel to that. Maybe next year!




After a delicious brunch at The Grit with our good buddy Frankie, we headed back to Atlanta. Annabel was invited to her first ever birthday party! Avery was celebrating her second birthday with a luau. So we put on our best grass skirts and got our party on. The big kids played in a sweet bouncehouse. The even bigger kids had some frozen drinks. Annabel just looked at everything and handed out smiles.



I've discovered several things that make Bug laugh. She thinks her feet are hilarious. If you show them to her, she will give you some chuckles. She loves to play rocketship and blast off then fly though the air. Depending on how vigorously you blast off and fly her, you can get a few laughs to a small fit of giggles. The newest and best way to get some laughs is to lay her on a bed or couch, put your arms on either side of her and bounce. She will giggle really hard, and it's almost too cute to handle.

I hope you all giggle really hard this week.