six months of life

Since no one really cares what I have to say, let’s get on with the pictures.  This baby is magical, I tell ya.  She’s been changing like crazy in this six month blogging sabbatical.  So now I present to you my favorite pictures for each month I was gone.  I posted pictures in April, so we’ll start with May.

05.09

Here is Baby Swiss and her birth mom at T’s graduation.  Look at all of those honor cords.  Way to go, T!

First time in a high chair other than home.  Thanks for the memories, Chick-Fil-A.

06.09

First trip to the pool.  Pardon the crusty nose.

Her future’s so bright, she’s got to wear shades.

07.09

Just being cute in July.  You can’t see it in the picture, but there are two teeth in that cute mouth.

There are those teeth.

08.09

We enjoyed the end of summer and got all of the wear out of our halter tops and summer hair accessories.

Baby Swiss had her first bomb pop and at the same time, her first time to dress up like the Joker from Batman.

09.09

Baby Swiss continued her world domination by sitting on the shoulders of anyone who would let her.  Here, grandpa is her willing pawn.

Baby Swiss slowly started to figure out that she can stand up without holding on to anything. It’s not nearly as cool as crawling though.

This concludes our retrospective.  Here we are today.  A ridiculously happy family of three.

funny stuff

I’ve been spending a lot of time the last six weeks or so thinking about where we were this time last year.  I mean, I was in the midst of one of the craziest, most uncertain times in my entire life.  It’s only natural to think about how far we’ve come in the last twelve months.

In the fall of 2008, we had committed to adopt this baby in a crazy open adoption situation that we had never dreamed of, and were hopefully hoping that all would work out and we would bring home a tiny baby to dress in tiny little things.  We were treading uncertain waters with a major/scary medical diagnosis/treatment with Mr. Mouse.

Thinking back to where we were this time last year, makes me think back to where we were this time two years ago.  Fall of 2007 was probably one of the darkest times of my life, although I didn’t realize it until I came out of the fog.  Had our first pregnancy stuck, we would have had a new baby in October 2007.  Instead, we were watching friends get pregnant and have babies and be pretty insensitive to our two lost babies, and I was trying hard to count my blessings.  But really.  Really, all I wanted was a baby and it was hard to see where the path we were on was taking us in the midst of the storm.

It’s funny how clearly the path behind you is, even with all of its twists and turns and bumps.  It’s funny how easy it is in hindsight to see what was in the way of the road, that caused it to veer so quickly in one direction or another.  It’s funny how much each of those bumps and ruts along the way condition you and shape you, even though at the time, they just leave you feeling battered and bruised.

It’s funny how quickly you’d take the exact same road all over again just to taste the sweetness of reaching that perfect destination.

stay tuned…

This fickle pickle may be coming back soon.

Or maybe not.

I bet the suspense is killing you.

i pity the fool

We are having quite the hair growth happening here in the Baby Swiss department.  The only problem is that it is all in the middle on top of her head.  Tell me if you can see the resemblance…

Why yes, if it were Halloween season, I would be loading my child up with gold chains and painting on a mustache and beard with eyeliner.

yum

Jen asked for my recipe for tator tot casserole.  Since it is a favorite around our house, I thought I’d share it with everyone as well as a chicken & stuffing recipe that is also a big hit at the Mouse house.  Both are super easy and can be easily doubled into a bigger pan – bonus!

Tator Tot Casserole

Brown one pound of hamburger meat with minced onion, salt and pepper.

Once brown, add one can of cream of mushroom soup, some milk and sour cream to desired consistency (not too soupy, not too thick).

Pour into a baking dish (I use a corningware dish approximately the size of a deep 9″x9″ pan.

Spread frozen tator tots on top of mixture until covered.

Bake according to tator tot baking instructions, turn broiler on for the last couple of minutes.

Chicken & Stuffing

Cube 3-4 boneless chicken breasts and place in the bottom of a 9″x9″ pan.

Add 1 can cream of mushroom soup and sour cream (I don’t measure – approximately 1/3 c.).

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Mix 1 package of chicken stuffing with 1 stick of melted butter.

Top chicken mixture with stuffing and bake an additional 20 minutes.

(I hate stuffing and I love this and the leftovers actually reheat better than you would expect, although obviously the stuffing is not as crispy as the first time around.)

Perhaps we’ll have a dessert edition some time.  I have some great dessert recipes.

french fries and food courts versus salads and smoothies

So, you might be wondering with all of my Chick-Fil-A references what on earth happened to my diet plans.  First of all, last week was an anomaly in our household in terms of eating out.  The refi appointment plus the niece in the hospital unexpectedly equaled lots of unplanned eating out for us – only some of which was documented here.  (We did manage to both stuff ourselves at Costco on Saturday for under $7 total.)

Truth be told, I have fallen off of the “Project-High-School-Reunion: A Quest for Hotness” wagon a little bit.  I’m planning on hitting it hard again this week and getting back in the saddle because referencing a wagon and a saddle in one paragraph is super cool.

I did weight myself yesterday morning with much trepidation, to happily find that I haven’t gained any of my lost weight back.  That will teach me to fall off the wagon.

Part of my problem in this Quest for Hotness is that it is about just that – hotness.  I don’t care about being healthy.  I’m just vain.  Not exactly noble intentions.

Anyone have any recipes for low-cal delicious food?

#1 fan

Setting: Sunday night in the Mouse family living room.  Mr. Mouse is sitting in his recliner with his laptop on the arm of the chair and the baby snoozing on his lap.  I’m across the room on the floor with my laptop on my lap reading my Google Reader.

Mr. Mouse: whatcha doin’?

Me: reading my Google Reader.

Mr. Mouse: are you blogging?

Me: no.

Mr. Mouse: were you blogging earlier?

Me: no.

Mr. Mouse: are you going to blog tonight?

actual thoughts I’ve had recently

• I wonder how much my toenail clippings can contribute to my weight loss efforts.
• I can’t believe my hair looks this great considering the fact that I haven’t showered for 3 days.
• It’s always a good day when you can find an America’s Next Top Model marathon on tv.
• I love adverbs.
• I wonder what kind of dance moves they’ll come up with for the blind guy in this week’s America Idol.
• Why do I smell so bad?
• It’s a lot harder to stalk people on Facebook since they made the new changes to the home page.
• Why can’t I seem to cook anything other than Cashew Chicken, Chicken & Stuffing and Tator Tot Casserole?
• I think lugging this baby around is starting to pay off in the toning-of-the-arms department.  Key word: starting.
• I love those dumb Sonic commercials.

it looks like we eat out more than we really do

We are home from the hospital for tonight.  Niece (18 months) is suspected to have rotovirus which is a nice diagnosis and all, but apparently does not explain the seizures.  She is going to see a neurologist tomorrow and we’ll know more then about what the plan is.

I gathered a few things from around home and ran to Target before going to the hospital because sister-in-law needed a few essentials.  When Mr. Mouse and I were dropping Baby Swiss off at friend’s house (hello! rotovirus!), sister-in-law called to request a pair of sweatpants because apparently she keeps getting pooped on.  Since we were already close to 15 minutes from home which is the wrong direction from the hospital, we ran to Target to pick up a pair.

While I was grabbing the pants, I encouraged Mr. Mouse to run to the nearby Chick-Fil-A (a different one from last night) to grab some dinner for himself, since he hadn’t eaten and WE HAD A COUPON.

So, he comes back at the exact moment that I’m walking out of the store, which is just great timing.  I start to get his food out for him and we realize that we got TWO free chicken sandwiches instead of just the one that he ordered and for which he had the coupon.

The Chick-Fil-A gods are still shining down upon us.

i did it all for the milkshake

My niece was brought by ambulance from town-that-she-lives-in that is 1.5 hours from here to our big fancy Children’s Hospital today because she was having seizures.

Right now they think it might be a virus of some kind.

Pray please.

Who knows, it might get you a free milkshake.