ROLLING OVER!!!!!

I realized this week that you are officially a real baby now. You recently decided to hang up your newborn status without sending your father and I the memo. I say this because newborns don’t hold their necks up and look around for minutes at a time. Newborns don’t have intense baby babble conversations with that weird little cow thing that hangs from your bouncer. Newborns don’t decide to ROLL OVER after dinner on Monday night.

I will miss my little “sack of flour with a pretty head” as a swaddled and sleepy newborn - but I like this new baby you’ve become. You are turning into a real firecracker and I am constantly amused by the big personality that is pouring out of my little girl.

Currently, your favorite thing in the entire world are the ceiling fans in our house. They fascinate you in a way nothing else does. You’ve almost figured out how to push your binky back in your mouth using the back of your chubby little hand and you prefer me to sing old Tina Turner and Whitney Houston songs to you over the traditional lullabies. (What’s love got to do… go to do with it? What’s love, but a second hand emotionnnnnnnnnn!)

Sometimes I think I can actually see you growing right before my very eyes. The whole world is opening up to you and we have been standing right there, watching with amusement and joy as you soak it all in. You are one heck of a baby Miss Aliyah Jacquelyn and I am one lucky mama.

Birth Announcements

I’ve accepted the fact that I’m never going to be one of those moms that effortlessly has it all together. So when it came to ordering birth announcements - it was something I wanted to do, but just wasn’t sure I had the time or energy to send out... Or know where to even start for that matter.

When I found some coupons for shutterfly I was thrilled. I desperately needed a little direction - fortunately, they have cute designs and all I had to do was upload photos, type in our info - and voila! Beautiful birth announcements that only took about 10 minutes of my time. They came in the mail 3 days later! Completing this task so easily has me feeling sort of super-momish.

I haven’t even had the mental coordination to send out a Christmas card for the last 3 years so the fact that I’ve accomplished so much (in so little time!) has me feeling like quite the domestic queen at the moment - now if only I can actually get them addressed and in the mail (bah!)

My Thoughts: Reality TV

There is a reason you can’t find true love on a television show.

Because it grows best in the quiet times

when there are no cameras, no prying eyes, no people there to watch it.

It grows in the slow breaths and long silences of a car ride

in the short distance between his shoulder and mine.

Real love is not a fairy tale.

It is not perfect.

It can be flawed and difficult:

It even hurts sometimes.

Real love takes weeks and months and years to become.

It knows the story behind the scar on your shoulder,

your greatest fear,

and what you look like in sweatpants and a tee shirt.

True love isn’t a contest.

It’s the most unforced and natural of all life’s possibilities.

It’s what happens when you let go of cookie-cutter molds and expectations

and reveal all of yourself, privately and wholly to another soul.

Save reality TV shows for design contests and cook offs,

leave love alone.

It's the Great Binky, Charlie Brown

Can we talk about this massive binky for a moment? Leave it to our daughter to fall in love with the blue (she has a pink one too) whale of the binky world... but this humongous silicone bink has been a saving grace for us.

I really debated whether we wanted to give her one in the first place as I know how hard they can be to take away once a child grows older and I had read there are some increased cases of gastrointestinal issues from babies that use them. Then I read that they have been proven to reduce the risk of SIDS and I thought, “well, we’ll just give it to her when she sleeps”. But as soon as she was born, Aliyah started sucking on her fingers and if her fingers weren't there her little lips were sucking even if she had just eaten... it seemed cruel not to... so - plop - the binky was in her mouth.

We heard good reviews for the WeilBaby Pacifier but had to order it online since we couldn't find it at any local stores. I think the large size helps her hold on to it more easily, and I like the fact that it is a single, molded silicone piece (no crevices for bacteria to get into). In the course of two months our daughter has acquired an addiction to this bink - She can go from a screaming banshee to sprouting angel wings the second you give it to her.

I try so hard not to resort to sticking it in her mouth every time she is fussy - but sometimes, it’s the only thing that can keep her happy. I’d sign her up for Binkies Anonymous if such a thing existed - she’s a bonafide binky fiend!

I am already imagining the battles we are going to endure when it’s time to give it up. But I figure a binky is easier to take away than to get a kiddo to stop sucking their thumb. (On that note, Anyone have any recommendations on a good age to wean her off?)

This thing might be in the running for a guinness book record due to it’s size, but it also wins the prize as a sanity saver in our house.

I've Caught the Sickness

You know the one - The OMGosh... Let me strap a big flower to my baby girl’s head - sickness

What is it about a perfect round baby girl head that screams “I need a headband with the biggest freakin’ flower you can find?”

It’s an incredibly contagious disease and one that seems to be running rampant with mother’s of little girls everywhere. (Have you been affected too? Let’s start a support group)

When I put this thing on her, Ali looked at me like “Oh come on mom - I look like the chiquita banana lady”

Maybe so - but isn’t she divine?

Smiling's My Favorite

Some people have said that Tyler and I have big smiles,

but check out the grin on this gal...

The Inzer Family: We take smiling to a whole new level

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

I cannot say thank you enough for voting on Aliyah's picture in the best facial expression photo contest!!! She started out in 1,221st place and has bumped all the way up to THIRD PLACE (you all are amazing!) Today is the last day to vote. Would you mind voting one more time by clicking HERE and then scrolling down to the "vote for me" button? Many MANY Thanks!!!