CUTE overload.

Apparently my Little C went to see Santa last weekend since NE had the day off. I haven’t heard the results, but as I haven’t heard a horror story, I’m guessing that little bundle of sweetness was happy to meet Santa.

Side note: as opposed to her mother, who was adamantly anti-Santa visits for at least the first 5 years of her life. I have pictures. They amuse me.

And today that same little bundle became cuteness-overload at her 6 month photo sitting. I can’t share the pic, obv since I won’t share pics of her here, but holy cow am I even more so looking forward to spending two + days with her.

I leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. I can’t wait. Please pray that I wake up on time. We all know I’m not good at it.

Unfortunately, I will not be back in town in time for for YinzBowl II on Saturday. I don’t fly back to the ‘Burgh until after 1pm Saturday because I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Little C, and they’re starting at 10am (they’re insane, I tell you.) But hopefully I can meet up with them for the post-game festivities. If not, I’m sure I’ll see some, if not all of them, sometime in December. Yay!

 

Clapping

I received a text from Lili this morning. All it said was that she sent me a link to a video of Little C’s new skill…

Not having seen Little C in FOREVER. I had no idea what to expect. I’ve learned recently that she apparently loves the baby-type food carrots. As in loves, loves, loves. (We’ll get back to the food shortly.)

She apparently also likes to stand up. I’m missing so much. (We’ll also get back to the what I’m missing shortly too.)

The video was of my baby girl CLAPPING. With her mommy saying “Yay LittleC” in the background. It wasn’t an entirely coordinated clapping. But gosh darn was she trying. And she did it. And it was awesome. (OH! and I saw the toys I took Little C in the background of not only the video, but in recent pics too! Who knew a random purchase would be so awesome!! Not me, that’s for sure. But I’ll take it!)

So the food… as of Thursday, we LOVE carrots. And green beans were next on the list. When I talked to Lili on Thursday night, she put me on speaker-phone so I could say hi to Little C. I said hi and then told her carrots were awesome, but green beans are my favorite vegetable. Lili said Little C held the phone (even though I was on speaker) and had a big smile on her face. So I hope green beans went well. For Thanksgiving? Little C is having sweet potatoes. Yum. I hope she loves them.

As for what I’ve missed. I wish I could make up all the time. Instead, I search for fun, educational toys online right now.

I’m only in Florida Wednesday AM through Saturday AM. The whole extended in-law fam will be there Thursday. But Lili and Little C (and I assume NE, but not sure) are spending all day Friday at my parents house. I’ve warned my mom that I might kick her and my dad out of the house so I get the whole day with Little C. I’m so jealous that they get to see Lili, Little C and NE more often than I do…  But who am I kidding? It’s more fun to see us all together. And I know my little lovely will be entertaining us the whole time I’m there.

Only 4 days. I can’t wait.

Can’t wait…

In one week, I’ll be packing for another trip to Florida. I have no idea what I’m taking. What I love about Thanksgiving in Florida is that it doesn’t really matter what I pack. I’m usually presentable, and we don’t do much but hang out, so I’m all good.

I DO know that I’m super excited to see my mom and dad.

And I’m super excited to see Lili and NE.

And I’m about to explode with excitement to see my Little C. My Little C who can sit on her own, ride in a swing and who (as of today) loves carrots! Woot! I can’t believe she’s six months old.

I am so excited to see her and do whatever I can to help my sister have a day or two off. I can’t wait for some fun play time, and dinner time, and more play time, and maybe some talking and story time. Whatever I can get, really.

And play with my favorite dog, D, too!! We’ll take some super fun walks, of course.

Over Thanksgiving, I have to find out what Christmas gifts to get everyone. Everyone except for D. I already know what I’m getting for her. And I have two separate things for Little C too. (Lili, you already know about Little C’s gifts.)

Over!

Brewfest is over! Done! Whew.

Things went really well. Cindy Lou and I did a bang up job!!

I don’t have exact numbers yet, tickets still need to be returned. Hopefully by December I’ll have totals. Oy.

But things went really well. I am happy that things turned out so great.

I have to figure out where some random thingts went, and I found a jacket that doesn’t belong to me in my stuff.

I’m just happy it’s over.

Now? I have to keep trying to find a job and get ready to go see my Little C in just under two weeks. Sweet.

THE Sewing Project

I’ve said multiple times recently that I’m trying to finish up a sewing project. And I finally did. And I mailed it out. And the recipient received everything yesterday. And loves it!

So what was it?

Well, way back in the Spring, Lili asked me to make a bib set for her best friend. I couldn’t find the fabric she requested, and given that it’s her best friend since high school – a bib set just didn’t seem like the right thing for me to make for her. So I offered an alternative- a quilt for the baby.

Lili and I went out when I visited in June and selected fabrics. I was going to use the same quilt pattern that I used for Little C’s quilt, but I was going to change up a few things.

The end result? I love it. If it wasn’t for this particular friend, I’d totally keep it for myself!

How cute!! I just LOVE it! Some detail pics:

Top left corner

Top right corner

Part of the middle

Bottom left corner

Bottom right corner

I’m so happy with this quilt. These nifty squares that I made really turned out cool! And it was my first attempt at trying to make them! I made some of them “technically” wrong, but they still worked out – and combined with the other bigger squares, they totally gave the quilt the look I was going for!!

Yay!

Six Months. Two Weeks. One Post.

Wow. Little C turned 6 months old yesterday. Seriously. I can’t believe it. I haven’t seen her in just about 2 months. But pics are sent about once a week. And each of them make me want to run, yes, run, to Florida to see her.

I’ve missed just a few things – she’s sitting up all by herself. And apparently she’s standing with help a little bit… And she took her first ride in a swing. Ok, yeah, that’s a lot. And it kills me.

How can you not want to RUN to see these:

Yep, that’s a 6 mo old with PIGTAILS. Super, awesome, amazing, crazy PIGTAILS!!! I can’t wait to see how crazy her hair gets as she gets older. Ok, for now I can wait. With my sister and I as reference, anything is possible… I know it gets worse if she really does have our hair… But for now, OMG. Laughing by butt off. Such a cutie-pie. And she’s getting bigger and older by the nano-second.

I’ve missed just a few things – she’s sitting up all by herself. And apparently she likes to stand, with some help, of course. And she just took her first ride in a swing.

Ok, yeah, that’s quite a lot of thigs to miss… And it kills me.

Hold on. Look at those pigtails…. Everyone smiling? Me too!!!! Ok. We’re good to move on.

I realized that I have 14 days till I see My Little C again for Turkey Day. I’ve got to put that at the back of my mind while I deal with 84 beers at Brewfest, but oh-my-goodness FOURTEEN DAYS till I see those pigtails?

I can’t wait to read to, talk to and play with her. That will be the best time in the world…

But really, all I will need is to hug her and breathe in and out, and all will be right in the world. I have a feeling that a hug from that little girl will always make everything ok, no matter what is going on in my life or anywhere else…

Why? Because she’s My Little C, and if you’re lucky enough to have seen a picture of her 5 or 6 mo. old smile? You know it can melt you into a tiny little puddle of love.

She rolled over!

Today’s guest is my wonderful sister, Lili. What can I say? I love her. I also respect her, her opinion and her input. Truly. She has become one of my best friends in the world (which is amazing, considering the way we used to fight…). Lili and her husband, NE, gave me the incredible honor of being Little C’s godmother, the impact of which is something I think about before every decision I make lately.

When I asked Lili if she’d like to write a guest post, I didn’t think she’d accept, as I know she’s very busy taking care of Little C. She accepted and I told her she could write about anything… I’m honored that she found some time to write this for me, and given what she could have written about me, maybe I’m glad she didn’t have the time… (just kidding!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first 6 weeks of my daughter’s life is kind of a blur.  From exhaustion from not sleeping well to getting a full body infection, things flew by so quickly.  I’m happy to have photos from those first couple weeks as a memory.  But wow, starting at 6 weeks, thing start to become vivid and the memories bring warm fuzzies to my heart It was around that time that she started smiling.  She didn’t really know she was doing it, but it was such a great reward for me, her mommy!  From that point on, the enjoyment of being a mom really set in and the joy and excitement of seeing my daughter progress day by day became greater.  Random smiles became intentional smiles.  Then the smiles became focused on faces, mine especially.  There is nothing better than your little baby smiling every time you come near!!

From smiles, things progressed to holding her head up for long periods of time to moving her arms and legs wildly when there is music playing.  I think we have a little dancer on our hands!  She then started pulling herself up so that her little shoulder blades are off the floor and her legs are off the floor too.  She has become what every woman wants to be.  The girl who has rock hard abs and can hold that crazy Pilates hold for several minutes!!  Finally, after weeks of pulling her feet up to her face and rolling over to the side, we kicked it up a notch and rolled over last week!!  I realize that it is only one way, from back to belly, but she did it!  She practiced and practiced and did it!  I was so, so proud of her when she finally got that arm out of the way and made it.  As a parent, I knew that I would always want the best for my daughter.  I wasn’t expecting the inner turmoil of being so proud and excited as she develops and grows and also being a little sad that my little baby is already growing up.  I guess this is something that all parents go through.  On the outside we are super happy and proud and on the inside, a bit of sorrow is creeping up from your little baby becoming a big girl.  I’m only 5 months in…

Ed. Note: Aunt AnnoyedAngel is incredibly proud of Little C for rolling over! And incredibly sad I can’t be there to see it for myself! Lili, you are a great mommy. And I know I’m supposed to spoil and you & NE are supposed to be the rules & regulations committee here, but when Little C is whatever age and mad at her mom, and comes to me, I will NOT hesitate to tell her what a great mommy you are.

A little bit of happy…

This hasn’t been a great week. At all. There’s a lot of things that make it that way, but we’re not going to get into those right now.

Thankfully, my sister is the best sister on the planet and sent some her monthly email today with pictures of the 4-month old Little C.

And I smiled. I smiled every time I looked at each picture. She’s so damn cute. Her smile melts me. But since I won’t show you that here, you can see these things:

That is our lovely Little C in her christening gown.

That gown was also my sister’s christening gown…

And it was my christening gown. Which means it’s way over 30 years old. And it still looks gorgeous, and obviously Little C look even more beautiful than it would be on its own. Of course, right? (side note: NO CLUE how my mom managed to preserve it so amazingly well!! But she did an amazing, fantastic job with it!)

And do you remember this?

Yes? No? It’s one of the little toys I bought for Little C before my trip earlier this month…

Well, this picture is from the email sent today…

Obviously this Aunt knows how to buy an awesome toy… because nearly three weeks later, there is our little buddy the elephant, hanging out with Little C. And yes, Little C is wearing an adorable Red Sox onesie, since she’s such a big baseball fan! (Reminder: we totally support Little C endorsing the Red Sox. That is all.)

*sigh* she’s so cute, My Little C… I’m so glad that I get these little glimpses of her that make me smile.

I’d much rather see her every day, but since I can’t I’ll appreciate what I can see of her.

Now excuse me while I go stare at these pics and melt myself a little more.

Things…

• I want to know something about Pittsburgh… Because I REALLY do not get it… Sidewalks… why do people refuse to use them?

When faced with a perfectly good, non-decaying sidewalk (yes, it may have a slab or two that are off-kilter, but it’s still passable) I want to know why people in the ‘Burgh refuse to use them. I don’t mean a random narrow side street. This is either a decent width one-way street or a two-way street with parking on each side of the street.

And I’m not talking about folks on bikes or roller blades etc. I used to ride my bike to work, so I understand all those rules & regulations.

What I’m talking about is regular people walking down the middle of a street. Just strolling down the middle – or, oh-so-slightly to the left or right of a street. So that it’s nearly impossible for you to drive past without running them over. I’ve seen it all over Bloomfield/Friendship/Shadyside/Point Breeze/ East Liberty etc. Even other sections of town.

I’ve seen all kinds of people – professionals, athletic types, kids, older adults, someone who looks down on their luck etc. – ALL kinds. And there is no way these people are heading to a vehicle. Why would you, when there is a perfectly good, usable sidewalk just a few feet away!

I slow down to a near stop when I find these people in the street so that they can move out of my way… Really they’d probably hurt the midgie more than my car would hurt them.

But I still don’t UNDERSTAND why you’d just walk down a street instead of a sidewalk. Can anyone help me here?

• I bought a new iron today. Why am I telling you about it? Well, my old iron was the one that The Nana bought for me when I left for college many, many years ago.

Yes, it’s old. And yes, I was still using it. No wonder I was confused when things weren’t perfectly crisp and free of wrinkles when I ironed them lately… And yes, I didn’t really realize this until last weekend when I ironed something at Lili’s house. I was shocked at how great my stuff looked! Really, I don’t think it became an issue until I started sewing so much and HAD to iron nearly every day…

So after seeing my shock upon using Lili’s iron, The Nana gave me an early Christmas present and told me to go buy a new iron today when a sale started at Kohl’s. So now, I’m the owner of this:

I haven’t used it yet… but I’m sure it’s 30 kagillion times better than the hunk o’junk I’ve been using. I’ll let you know…

• I spent most of this evening scouring the interwebz trying to find contact info for a huge list of breweries that I want to invite to Brewfest this year. I managed to find contact info/fill out contact forms etc. for 51 of them. That brings my total number of breweries contacted in some way to a minimum of 110. Probably more, but that’s a rough count and I don’t want to count anymore.

By the way, if you read this, and you are NOT a rugby player, you ARE planning to attend Brewfest, right? (The correct answer here is YES.)

• All of my time – free time, that is – is now devoted to Brewfest it seems. Timing is about right. So much for a social life, sewing or anything else I want to do for myself. It’s all good because this year’s event WILL be better than last year. More info on that as details become available.

• If you were wondering, I miss My Little C terribly. I think I need to work on getting Skype set up for Lili and I this weekend so that Little C and I can giggle at one another through the interwebz. That, my friends? Will be so much fun. Really.

Gifts.

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to get My Little C for her baptism. I mean, the gift wouldn’t just be from her Aunt. It’s now from her Godmother too. (Yes, take a moment and let that sink in. I’m Little C’s Godmother. I haven’t hyperventilated. Yet.)

Baptism gifts seem for the most part to be crosses, rosaries, and other religious gifts. But while I wanted something a little bit on the spiritual side, I wanted something that would somehow show her that I was here for her & loved her from so far away, especially when she’s older. And I think I found the perfect gifts. Three Willow Tree figures:

Angel of Caring "Always there, listening with a willing ear and an open heart."

Thinking of You "Keeping you close in my thoughts."

With Love "You are loved."

Yep, I think these were the perfect choices.