Monday, June 21, 2010

happy father's day!

...to my Dad, Joe III, and to all the special dads in our lives. And Happy FIRST Daddy's Day to Joe!

I dressed Hannah in yellow not knowing Joe was already wearing yellow at church...sweet. I wish I would've planned that. I love a coordinating family.

 
I love them.
 
Hannah gave Daddy a special card and a travel mug covered in pictures of the two of them. He loved it!

joe - out of "retirement"

This weekend Joe raced in his first triathlon in two years. It was a sprint distance in Fernandina Beach, FL. Though not as good as he was hoping, he did great. Unfortunately, he got a flat tire on the bike portion which slowed him down a bit. Hannah and I were there cheering him on...

Friday night we went to Jacksonville for packet pick-up and had dinner at Maggiano's. Isn't Hannah so cute in this picture? ;)
Hannah and Daddy.

Race time! Hannah is sporting her "Daddy's little triathlete" onesie I had made for a Father's Day surprise.

Hannah and I practiced all week..."Go Daddy! Go Daddy! Swim, Daddy, swim!!!"

Out of the water...headed to transition.

After we watched Daddy head off on his bike, we waited for him to come back into the transition area.

Go Daddy! Go Daddy! Bike, Daddy, bike!!!

Getting ready for the run...

Go Daddy! Go Daddy! Run, Daddy, run!!!

Yay Daddy!!!

Giving Daddy a special post-race love.

Friday, June 18, 2010

a big week

We had Hannah's 9-month check-up Tuesday. Dr. Jones is very happy with how she's doing. She's a growing girl! She's over the 75th percentile in length (as she's been all along) and she's over the 50th percentile in weight, which we are so happy about.

She cut her 6th tooth. She also stood up in her crib and fed herself a bottle. All in one day! I'm quite excited about the bottle part. She's been completely satisfied to just let me feed her. It's nice to know I can hand her some juice or formula in her highchair while I do stuff around the kitchen.


Yesterday, she had her 9-month pictures. I can't wait to see them all. Here are a couple sneak peeks!

Today we are off to Jacksonville/Amelia Island. Tomorrow morning Hannah will watch her Daddy race for the first time! Obviously blog post to come! Til then...

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

debut of the pink tutu

Friday we went over to St. Simons. Hannah was so cute in the pink tutu Grandma gave her (a la Target). It was her first time in the ocean. Since the tide was way out, it was shallow quite a way off shore. Hannah loved being in the water. I wish I had a waterproof camera that I could've taken out there with us. She was so excited and squealed with glee. Watching her kick her legs, we are sure that she is going to be quite a swimmer!


On another note, going to the beach with a baby is quite different than going to the beach without one. There is no sitting in your chair, with a cold drink and a good book. Simply, a beach day with a 9-month old is not relaxing. If you spend two hours there, you are doing good. It was hot. REALLY hot. Hannah got tired and fussy and nothing could make her happy. When she decides she's had enough, we need to pack up our camp and head for the car. It's ok though, it's worth it to see how happy and excited she gets when her toes are in the sand or when she's kicking in the water. I feel the same way...

9 months old!

Hannah has grown so much in just the last month. It's hard to believe she's 3/4 of a year! We are having her 9-month pictures taken Thursday, but these are the ones we take at home in her nursery every month on the 9th.

 

A lot of our pictures look like this. She's ready to crawl away...

We just love her so much.

Monday, June 14, 2010

who needs savasana?

Sometimes while Hannah is napping, I'll try to squeeze in a yoga practice. I'll put one of my dvd's on, lay out my mat and hope that I make it through the hour before I hear a little voice down the hall. The other day I made it through the standing poses (about half-way through) when I was interrupted. Thinking she might settle back down, I kept on going. Once I realized that the only way she was going to be happy was when I went to get her, I did.

(Pause.)

After I fed her, I put her on the floor near me, amidst her toys, and went back to my practice.

(Unpause.)

My computer starts ringing as someone is no doubt trying to Skype Hannah. I decide to let it go. One thing about Skype - the caller can let it ring forever. And they did...

(Pause.)

(Unpause.)

The house phone rings. I let the answering machine get it. It's my mom. "Hannah!! HANNAH!!!!! It's GRANDMA!!!!!!!"

(Pause.)

A little while later it's back to my practice.

(Unpause.)

Hannah crawls over to my mat, and situates herself right underneath me as I am in adho mukha svanasana - downward-facing dog pose. 

(Pause.)

I am laughing at this point. She's just so cute!


She seems delighted to interrupt me, doesn't she? So I do my floor poses around her. She drools all over the place.

(Unpause.)

I mop up her drool while I workout. I recline for savasana - relaxation (corpse) pose. For the non-yogi readers, this is at the end of the practice where you let your body relax completely. It is restorative. It is restful. It is wonderful. Hannah is busying herself and I am getting half-way relaxed when... Daddy comes home for lunch and the dogs go beserk. Ok, I get it. Practice over.


I do a little baby yoga with Hannah as she rolls around, take some pictures...and then I roll up my mat and call it a day.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

2 end tables...1 big hassle

Monday, June 7th

My focus last week was on one thing (after caring for my baby, of course). That one thing was converting two end tables into something that I can love to look at (and love might be too strong a word). See, here's the story:

When I married Joe, I adopted 2 stained-oak end tables. Good bones, but the truth is, the look was way passed it's prime. Between my collected-over-the-years and handed-down furniture and Joe's, we have quite a smorgasbord.  As anyone who truly knows me can attest, I dream constantly about what I want our house to look like. Joe appreciates a well-designed and decorated space (now), but he's really not interested in the details and doesn't think about it all the time like me. My goal has been to use what we've got and make it work as we gradually (emphasis on GRADUALLY) collect new furniture that is "ours."

Tangent - My sweet mom gave us my long-coveted white slipcovered sofa for Christmas. Most people think I'm crazy, including Joe, but I will argue all day long that white slipcovered furniture is practical with kids. Hello, bleach and washing machine. Can't do that with an upholstered piece. I can now say that we've had it about 3 months with a drooling and spit-uppy baby, eat dessert on it every night, and I still love it.

Back to the tables. So after we got married and I moved in, we painted the tables red. Generally, I'm not wild about red in the interiors. I can appreciate it in certain situations and it has it's place, but caution should be taken. I went with red because we had extra paint lying around in the shed from a previous homeowner and the color coordinated with some tones in the artwork above our mantel. So, after sanding and some paint, we were happy with the transformation. Almost four years later, I'm over it. The red that is. My VERY practical husband would argue that you work with what you've got instead of buying new when at all possible during tight financial seasons. I agree. Well, I agreed...until this week.

Here they are - in all their red glory!

After weeks of deliberation, I decided the tables would work best in the room if they were painted black with a rubbed finished. I would allow a little of the red to show through, so I would be reminded of the table's past, and then in other places I would sand through to the original oak. Seems relatively simple, right? I got to work with my electric sander, sand paper, and spray enamel. After my first day of work, I was disgustingly sweaty and had enamel over-spray all over me (including in my nose - and I wore a mask) and in the carport (yes, I used lots of plastic sheeting, too) and I was also not pleased with the paint's coverage - totally uneven.

So, to not bore you with the details, the saga continued for four days - fixing problems made by the paint and by me. The weather was very humid and very hot, and with using black paint, outside in the sun was not a good idea (paint will bubble up). When the weather was overcast I would work in the grass, basically moving the tables back and forth. The project took twice as long as I anticipated, and I had set way too high expectations for myself.

Sunday came and since we were headed out of town, I had to stop working. The fun needed to end, and I don't know who's more relieved, Joe or me. Maybe one day I'll look back and think this was a good idea. But right now I'm thinking...why didn't I buy those cute end tables at Two Women and a Warehouse?


Sunday, June 13th
 
So here we are, a week later. The paint fumes have dissipated and Joe moved the tables into their place - flanking the white sofa. I'm happy enough with them, though I think it'll be awhile before I paint another piece of furniture...or Joe lets me. (I still have to put the drawer pulls back on once they've been polished.) If you're wondering where the coffee table is, we moved it out of the room to allow for sufficient crawl space.


Now, on to the next project!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

memorial day weekend

The Buck family had an eventful long weekend. On Friday in Jesup, Hannah went to Aunt Karen and Uncle John's big pool. First time! She was a little overwhelmed at first. It was colder than her little giraffe pool and there were big kids splashing around, but Mommy held her tight and she relaxed a little.


On Saturday, we went to another pool with Allison and Austin and showed off our patriotic bathing attire.


On Sunday, we headed to Savannah to play with family. We had fun with Grandma and went out for Uncle Ben's birthday. On Monday, we went out to visit Gran Gran and Poppy. Hannah loved being on Moon River.