Help me out here...

This is a totally random post, but I need some help figuring something out...

SO, last Saturday, Dean, Ayla, and I were invited to Bill and Taylor's house for dinner (parents of adorable twins, Paige and Paxton) and I was planning on bringing a salad and a dessert. The salad was a no-brainer, of course. Chop up a bunch of stuff. Throw it into a bowl. Toss it. Done. For dessert, I decided to make an angel food cake and top it with CoolWhip and some strawberries and blueberries...easy enough, right? I thought so.

With my brand new angel food cake pan and some cake mix from good 'ol HyVee, I ventured home and started mixing it all up. I poured the batter into the two-piece pan and let it sit on the counter while I waited for the oven to heat up. I picked up the pan to put it into the oven and discovered that the batter was leaking all over the counter. ERG.

This is where all of you come in...WHAT did I do wrong?! Is there some magical way to get the two pieces of the pan to stick together so it doesn't leak? Is the answer blatantly obvious and I'm just a huge dumbass? It's driving me nuts! I'm not going to be able to return the stupid thing because I took the label off and I have no idea where the receipt is...probably forever-lost in the black hole I call a purse. So if I am forced to keep it, I need to figure out how to use it correctly. (Otherwise I'm going to have to go "Office Space" on the sucker.)

Here it is with the pieces put together...looks like a normal angel food pan:

(I paid Ayla big bucks to be my product model)

And here it is as two separate pieces:

HOW does it work?

And just in case you're wondering, I went back to HyVee and BOUGHT a cake. Had I thought about this much simpler option in the first place, I would have chosen it and not had sticky cake batter oozing all over my kitchen counter.

On a completely different subject, our trip to Cancun is less than a week away...I might have to put Ayla in my carry-on. Everytime I think about leaving her, I get a lump in my throat and tears start to sting my eyes. I KNOW she's going to be in the best of hands...THAT'S definitely not the issue. I'm just really going to miss her. :( Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for this trip...really, I am. Basking in the sun on a beautiful beach with a cold beer in my hand and Dean next to me. What could be better? (Well, if Ayla was on the other side of me...) It's just going to be hard to be away from her for that long. Is she going to forget who we are? [Sigh]

Snow Suit

Ayla received this adorable snow suit from friends of Dean's parents...she's so warm and snuggly in it! :) Dean put her in it so he could take her outside to get the mail...

"Gong xi fa cai!"

Happy Chinese New Year! This is the Year of the Ox (Ayla was born in the Year of the Rat). Like I have previously mentioned, my parents are in Taiwan right now...if they were home, we'd most likely celebrate the New Year with tons of great food made by my dad. However, since they are gone, I have settled with mac 'n' cheese. :)

It's customary to wear red on New Year's Day...the color red symbolizes luck. It's also tradition for children to receive "lucky money" in red envelopes. These red envelopes are kept underneath their pillows for a certain amount of time so luck will seep into them as they sleep. Ayla received her first red envelope from her Yeh-Yeh (Grandpa) and Nai-Nai (Grandma):

I put Ayla in one of her Chinese outfits...it's far too big for her right now, but I wanted to get some pictures of her in it. She wasn't exactly thrilled about the whole thing...the only reason she's smiling is because of Kody. She has taken a liking to him lately. She'll sit there with a smile on her face as she watches him walk around the room. He is so sweet and gentle with her...what a good dog.

More pictures...

Nothing new to report on Day 3 of Mommy-Ayla time...just a few photos to share! When we run out of things to do, we grab the camera. In case you haven't noticed, we love pictures. :)Oh, one thing, I guess! During our trip to SuperTarget yesterday, we picked up a webcam so we can talk to Grandpa and Grandma on Skype while they're in Taiwan. Pretty cool that they're half-way around the world and we can see and talk to them in real-time for free!

Fun at home...

Yesterday was the start of two whole weeks that I get to stay home with Ayla. I don't remember if I've explained why...my parents (who watch her during the day while I'm at work) are out of town for a couple of weeks, so while they're away, I get to stay home! Once they get home, Dean and I leave for our trip to Cancun...three weeks off from work...you can't beat that!

I've devoted my time at home towards exploring new ways to make her laugh. :) Apparently, "chuuunky chunkers" said over and over again in a high-pitched voice is hilarious...but only for about two minutes. Today, "Is that your doggy, Kody?" is the new punch line. Her chuckles ultimately lead to at least ten minutes of those painful sounding hiccups though...poor baby!

We had lots of visitors yesterday...Megan and Lisa came over in the afternoon and hung out with us for a little while. Then in the evening, Meghan and Heidi came over to play for a bit. Heidi is 7 months old and crawling all over the place! She's so fun to watch...what an adorable little girl! We tried to get pictures of them together but it's difficult when one of them is mobile! It'll be interesting when BOTH of them are on the go. :) Even later in the evening, Ayla's Uncle Ping and Surina came over for a quick visit...it was close to bedtime though, so she just wasn't having it!She hasn't rolled over again...she tries but just ends up hanging out on her side. If we place something in her hand, she'll get a good grip on it and automatically bring it to her mouth...she has yet to grab something on her own. New things are happening everyday though, so it won't be long!

Random ramblings...

It's 7:30 on a Saturday night and I'm sitting at home...bored. Ayla is sleeping...not real sure if this is a really late nap or if she's down for the night. (We might be in trouble tonight if she's sleeping so much right now!) She usually takes her longest nap late in the morning, so this is pretty unusual. This past week, her eating/sleeping schedule has been way off. During the day, she is perfectly happy and eats well but come early evening...5-6pm-ish, she becomes more fussy than she's ever been and doesn't want to eat. Ayla not eating=worried Mom. We thought maybe she needed an earlier bedtime, so we've been testing that out, but I don't know if that's what it is. I called the doctor's office today just to see if they had any ideas...they said maybe it's acid reflux like before. We stopped giving her medicine for it about a month ago and she seemed fine without it, but we're going to put her back on it and see if we see any improvements. I sure hope so because she's been getting SO upset and I feel like nothing we do consoles her. It's a stressful time of night for all of us!

Remember how I so proudly stated around Christmas that she's sleeping through the night? Well, huh. She's not anymore. The DAY that I posted that blog, she quit. I think I jinxed us! She went six nights in a row and since then, she's gone a night here and a night there, but nothing consistent. Now she generally wakes around 4am to eat...not horrible, but we're wondering what made her sleep so much before?? Just like everyone says, once we think we have her "schedule" figured out, she switches it up on us...keeps on our toes, I suppose. ;)

We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks while I'm at home with her...

And on to a completely different topic. I'm going to talk boobs for just a minute or four, so if it's not something you want to know about, stop reading HERE and I'll see you at my next post. :) So, I seemed to have missed the memo about how having a baby includes a free breast reduction. Yep. After I stopped breastfeeding (pumping), they packed up and left. A one-way ticket to boobie-heaven. I keep thinking that if they get any smaller, I'll be concave. [Sigh] Not that they were huge to begin with, but...enough. Now? Not so much. Push-up bras, we're in business...

We're rolling...and drooling!

Ayla rolled over for the first time this morning at my parents' house!!! We all cheered and clapped so loud, I think it spooked her! Her little lower lip came out and she didn't want to have anything to do with it. For the past week and a half or so, she's been able to roll to her side so we figured it wouldn't be long until she made it all the way over. I called Dean at work to tell him about her new accomplishment and he later sent me an e-mail saying how he needed to look into baby gates...it made me giggle because at this point, it would probably take her hours to roll far enough to get to the stairs...goofy mental picture. :)

Lately, she's also learned how to make farty noises with her mouth, which in turn, creates lots and lots...and lots of lovely drooly bubbles. And once she has all these drooly bubbles in place, she finds something to stick in her mouth...her hand, sometimes both of them at the same time, her blankie, her bib, etc. So then the drooly bubbles pop and turn into drooly, drippy strings. Once that happens, she starts the cycle all over again with the farty noises. :) It seems to keep her entertained for quite a while...

Eesh.

Bleh.

That's how I felt all day yesterday. BLEH, with a capital B. On Saturday night, Dean and I rented a limo and we went out on the town with his team from work to celebrate a very successful year. So successful that he earned a trip to Cancun (we go the first week of February.) Long story short, I drank. Perhaps a wee bit too much. Oops. I even went to bed at a respectable hour and life STILL sucked the next day. I've quickly realized that a 28-going-on-29-year old body doesn't quite recover the same way a 19...ahem, I mean, 21-year old body did. I have vowed to pace myself while we're in Cancun so I don't waste any days away...

Speaking of Cancun, what am I going to do without Ayla for the SIX days that we're away?! She stayed with my parents on Saturday night (thanks Mom & Dad!) when we went out and I missed her...that wasn't even 24-hours! Everyone keeps saying it'll be good for us (I know!) and we're very lucky to have both sets of parents to take care of her while we're gone so we have absolutely nothing to worry about. But still...I'm going to miss her like crazy.

Happy with Grandpa!

She's growing so fast! Every week, there's another cute outfit she can't fit into anymore! :( She's in mostly 6-month clothing right now...our little chunky-monkey. :) I think all the weight goes to her cheeks...my mom jokes that she's storing ping-pong balls in them.

In her Valentine's Day outfit...we're going to have to find a new one since this one will probably be too small by then.

Afternoon Photo Session

When Ayla and I got home this afternoon, I decided that we needed to take some pictures in her room...the lighting in there is beautiful when the sun is shining through the windows. It's such a happy room!

Just a quick/fun update...I've gotten her to laugh the past couple of days! Not just a little squeal or giggle but a real belly-laughing chuckle. Of course I need to act like a complete moron to get her going, but it just might be the greatest thing ever. (I know, I say that about everything.) :)

As long as she makes this face, she can have all the ponies in the world...
All tuckered out with her new favorite thing...a little blankie with tags. She snuggles with it when she gets tired.

3 Months!

Ayla is 3 months old! In the past few days, she has discovered the world of being upright...whether it's being propped up by pillows, "standing," or by being held vertically where she's able to peek over our shoulders, she loves checking out the world around her.
She has also really started to enjoy her playmat. If she has a full belly and a clean diaper, she'll happily kick and flail about in there for quite a while! It's so fun to watch...especially when she kicks at just the right spot to make the music go off.
She grabs at things, but I'm not sure that she realizes what she's doing yet. She'll end up with a fistful of my hair or the drawstring on my sweatshirt...she has an amazingly tight grip for being such a tiny person! She seems to want to "help" while she's being fed...her little hands are all over the bottle so it's a constant wrestling match between my pinky and her hands. If I just let her hands go, she manages to fling the bottle out of her mouth. Gone are the days where she would lay calmly with her hands folded ever so sweetly on her tummy. :)

Changing diapers has also gotten just a little bit trickier...she's a squirmy one. The best is when she frees one of her feet from our hands and dunks it RIGHT into the dirty diaper. Speaking of dirty diapers...yes, I'm actually going to talk about poo for just a second here. Now that she's completely on formula, HOOOOLY stink-ness!!! Breastmilk poo smelled like roses compared to this!

It's so exciting to witness the new things she does everyday and to discover different ways to make her smile and giggle...she thinks it's funny when we (lightly) blow in her face. :) Anything to elicit a display of happiness from her makes US even happier. I love when I go get her from her crib in the morning and she looks up at me and greets me with a smile. There's nothing better!

She's awesome. :)

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year! Ayla invited her baby friends over to ring in 2009...including her, there were five babies (all between 2 1/2 to about 4 months old) and two toddlers...and a bunch of crazy parents. :) What a change from past New Year's! :) We played Wii, had a few drinks and snacks and just had a nice, relaxing evening with our friends. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with all the kids together...everyone was on different eating/sleeping schedules. I don't think they were ever all awake and not eating at the same time. :) I hope we're able to continue getting together with all the kiddos...it'll be fun to watch them grow up together!

All decked out in her stylin' hot pink sweater from Lisa!

On New Year's Day, we watched the Huskers play their last game of the season against Clemson in the Gator Bowl.

Watching the game with Daddy!

Cheering on the team with Uncle Tom...matching bows and all!

Hanging out with Grandma!