6 Months

Today our baby is six months old. Every cliche about how quickly time flies and how much one can love their child is 100% true. I really enjoy being Lola Dee's mom. I marvel at everything about her and am still surprised by the fact that nothing about her has ceased to be as exciting and wonderful as it was those first few weeks. Granted, she's still in that phase where she demonstrates some new trick every day...still, though. I'm eating it all up and truly cannot fathom a time where she becomes "old hat" so to speak.

That being said, however, I must take a moment to discuss my motherhood-related challenge: the total loss of my brain. I read about and listened to 1st-hand accounts of the scatter-brained-ness pregnancy and motherhood can cause, but didn't pay it much heed.

Oh, I wish I had known.

I'm fairly intelligent. I would admit to being well-read and educated. Yet I am frustrated daily, even hourly, by moments of total brain shut-down, usually at those critical moments I need my brain most. I can't describe the inner turmoil it causes as I hear myself struggling to communicate in cohesive sentences or suddenly realize that I've overlooked or forgotten something important and even obvious. My baby, so far, has been easy. Rarely does she needlessly cry, she sleeps as well as one could hope, and she's healthy and developing as she should. However, my brain functionality - or rather the lack thereof - has been the true challenge of motherhood.

I read this fantastic book on the female brain when Lola was first born, so I understand the biological reasons why my brain is betraying me - at least when it comes to being intelligent - yet I thought by now I would have regained some control. But I haven't. And I'm starting to worry this might be a permanent condition or one that gets worse over time and/or with the addition of more children.

(Insert a huge, depressed, hopeless sigh here.)

In a meeting this morning with a senior executive I was asked for my thoughts on something...I can only describe the sentence that came out of my mouth as verbal throw-up. And, like actual vomit, I was powerless to stop it. It just kept coming. Unlike real vomit, however, I felt metaphorically sick-er afterward. There was no momentary relief from the malady; no, rather it was the cause of the yuck I'm still feeling.

Anyway. Writing is good medicine. It provides a way to extract the mess floating around in my head onto something else where I can then, objectively, evaluate it or forget about it all together. So there you have it. Hopefully I can move on and actually accomplish something today.

To end on a lighter note and again returning to the awesome part of motherhood I'll leave off with this:
Lola's first swing. She was concerned at first (it seems to be her default condition...those eyebrows!), but she soon warmed up to it. Dare I say she loved it?

I just love her.

Post edit: Lola's six months as of TOMORROW. My dates are all mixed up. Yet another Mom-Brain moment.

My family visits.

Sometimes my extended family comes in to town and remembers to call us. Not always, but occasionally. We really love it when they do. Especially when it means we end up at the beach on the BEST day and get to have Pedro's for both lunch and dinner. These times happen too seldom, so I have to document it when it happens.

Ben and Sheri...

again, but right-side-up this time and with Miley.
More Miley...
Staci and Tyler...awww.
And more Miley. Hearing her say "Lola" may have been the best part of seeing them.
Sheri dances. Who knew?
Sunset was BEAUTIFUL.

Oh, Tyler. How kenny misses you especially.

Now for a quick PSA from Kenny:

Pedros Tacos may be awesome in every way, but you may think twice before eating it for two out of your three daily meals. Unless you really enjoy spending the next morning (and early afternoon) indisposed. Seriously.

The Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we met up with Amelia, her boys, and Kenny's parents for soup and a trip to the pumpkin patch. It was really fun and I'm excited for next year when Lola can actually do stuff.

The lighting was capital-h-HORRIBLE, but we did the whole photo thing anyway. Sorta.

No, she's not going to be an owl for Halloween (yet), but I couldn't resist this hat.

Here, "Crappa" (aka Grandpa Mark) helps Sloan out in the petting zoo. Sloan was very interested in this goats, ahem, nether regions. In a purely observational sense. (I know you were worried.)
Yikes. Hudson behind the wheel. I though we had a good 11 years before we had to worry about that. He, of course, LOVED it.
Sloan was fearless on this HUGE slide. That's his tiny body way up there.
And, of course, more Lola...and us (with Lola).








The best part was that it was actually kind of chilly (i.e. low 70's). I actually wanted hot apple cider. Next time.

Part A
3.5 hours of sleep
+ 45 minute morning commute in the rain
+ 2.5 hour meeting
= tired Jill.
Make that VERY tired Jill.

SO happy it's Friday.

Part B
On another note...last night, at the insistence of a sister-in-law, I watched my first episode of a certain MTV reality show last night. I won't say which one, but I will clarify that it follows a certain family of big-bootied Armenian sisters (and their CREEPY-looking, plastic-surgeried step-dad...and mom for that matter). I just watched one episode and that one was WAY more than enough. Ladies and Gentleman, I have identified the source of all Bad in the world today. Applaud me.

So, in addition to being exhausted today, I'm in mourning for two things: the half hour of my life that I'll never get back and the unknown quantity of brain cells that were lost as collateral damage as a result of my viewing that show.

The combined effect of Parts A and B is making it extremely difficult to get any work done. The remaining brain cells have all but gone on strike...or maybe they've just already started their weekend.

I think I'll join them.

More Blessing Photos

To accommodate our families and their conflicting schedules, we finally decided (very last minute) to have Lola's blessing at our (very small) apartment. It worked. We were still missing a lot of key people, but oh well. The girl wasn't getting any younger.

Here's a few of the kiddos.

The obligatory family shot. Kenny shaved his beard for the occasion, but hasn't shaved since.
Those eyebrows. Seriously. She always looks so concerned. Plus she was tired at this point.

Skyler was out of town, but Elise was able to make it. (Don't mind Lola's face...the important thing is that WE looked good, right?)

Poor Mark had MAJOR car problems on the way...but at least we had my parents and Kenny's mom.
I'm sad I didn't get any other photos of those who came...we were all kind of rushed. Or maybe it was just me.

I know a lot of these photos are essentially the same...but I don't really care. I'll be staring at them all day at work and they'll make me happy. I really love her. And Kenny. And everyone who came.

Thank you.

It was a good day.

So...Lola is a roller. Actually she has been since she was just under two weeks old when she rolled off the couch.

That sucked.

I may have cried more than she did.

Anyway, nowadays she rolls at will every which way. We're now working on sitting and she's pretty good.

Except for when she's not.

Have a great day. Try not to face plant.

Thank You

To everyone who has congratulated us and has said such complementary thing about our girl…thanks. Seriously. I try not to gush too much over her (to others), so thanks for being so nice when I cave.

And to Diana (who asked) the bonnet in the photo below was made by my great-grandmother along with a matching sweater. However, she died before completing it, so my grandmother finished it and then made the matching blanket. My mom made the dress and bloomers. Not shown are some cute eyelet espadrilles gifted from Kenny's mom.

This was her blessing outfit. Thankfully we had these heirlooms to make the outfit special as there was no way Lola would have fit into my dress (given that I was one when I was blessed). I’ll admit, Lola Dee was four months when we finally got her blessed (although the photo below was taken just after she turned five months). We just wanted our families to be there and it took awhile. We got most of them, but missed those that weren’t able to make it. The blessing itself was sweet and intimate. Kenny did a good job. After much reflection, I’ll just say that it was sweet in its simplicity; it was focused and to-the-point while covering all the important stuff. I hope one day she’ll be able to say that same sentence about her life as a whole.

I hope to post some more photos of the actual blessing day whenever Kenny let’s me use our computer. (He’s been a very busy boy.)