They were wrestling.

Guess who won?

Dear Curly Hair,

Thank you for coming back to me.

I know all those pregnancy and post pregnancy hormones sort of freaked you out and made you hide for all those months. Thank you for not abandoning me forever.

And I'm sorry that I chopped you off after I had Karly because you weren't showing me your full potential and I made a hasty, horrible decision. I hope you'll forgive me and grow back quickly.

Also, how would you feel about my dyeing you a different color?

Love,

Alisa

P.S. Stomach: Curly hair came back - will you go back to your former glory too? Please?

Happy Birthday Suzie! (I'm a bad sister)

I forgot to call this girl yesterday:

She turned 14.

14!

That's not even possible. She was only 3 like, 5 years ago! And now she can dance with boys and drive (with a learner's permit, obviously) and all kinds of stuff my baby sister shouldn't be doing yet!

No wonder I forgot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCUZE! Love ya girl!

Fall walk and pics

On Sunday, we decided to go for a walk to see all the beautiful fall colors.

Karly enjoyed...uh...her Baby Bjorn. Tasty!

Ooh, pretty!

Prettier! :)
We took a bunch of pictures and I got a little crazy with the Picasa collages. :) I'm not sure I love the sepia, but the pictures sure are stinkin' cute!

5 months!

I can't believe how big this girl is getting!

• She loves to suck the water off her hands in the bathtub.
• She has started growling all. the. time. It's kind of creepy, honestly.
• She is really good at rolling from her back to her tummy, but is only good at rolling from her tummy to back in her sleep (she can do it when she's awake - it just takes her longer)
• She has, just this week, started pulling herself into a crawling position - onto her hands and knees (I've nearly cried every time).
• She laughs! We love hearing it every time.
• She eats rice cereal like a champ. She loves the stuff and as long as she's hungry and there aren't too many distractions, she'll eat pretty quickly. :)
• She likes going on walks and will lean over so she can see more of what's going on (drives her daddy crazy because it makes her much harder to hold).
• Her hair that she has lost over the last couple of months is starting to come back in. Also, she has a couple of REALLY long hairs. It's hilarious when they stick out.
• And she's got us wrapped around her little finger!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Thanks for always playing with me and making me laugh!

I love you!

Love,

Karly

P.S. Mom says she loves you too, but you already know that. :)

The greatest sound in the world.

Man, I love that girl.

I know it's for the best, but....

This post is an attempt to distract myself from the noise of my sweet baby crying in her crib.

I swear she keeps crying the word "Mama."

In case you didn't know this about me, I majored in Home and Family Living in college. The major occasionally referred to as "How to be a mommy." In more than one class, but definitely in my parenting class, we talked about how kids need to learn to put themselves to sleep. At Karly's last Dr. appt, her doctor said that 95% of all 4 month olds sleep 6-8 hours at night. Apparently, my daughter was in that 5%, because she wasn't. I was happy if we got 6 in a row every couple of weeks.

So Doc said that - and I quote - "if you're heart can handle it" - we should try teaching her how to put herself to sleep. We tried a couple of times, but sort of gave up because we hated hearing her cry.

I'm sure most of you know the drill, but for those who haven't reached this point or aren't parents, here's how it goes:

1. Make sure baby has a good nighttime routine, so they know that when you do certain things (bath, jammies, read a book, etc.) it's getting close to bed time.

2. Put them in their bed. Sometimes it's good for them to have something consistent like a blanket or stuffed animal, also to remind them its bedtime.

3. Leave her in her bed, no matter how much or how hard she cries. Don't pick her up.

4. Go in occasionally (less and less often) to make sure she is okay (she hasn't pulled a blanket on her face or gotten stuck in the bars or something) AND to soothe her and let her know you're still there, even though you're not going to hold her.

5. Keep doing that until she has figured out to fall asleep on her own.

Apparently, it only takes a couple of nights.

Let me tell you - the first night is the worst.

The second isn't much better. (you have just figured out to distract yourself at this point)

In the time I have written this post (less than 20 minutes), she has pretty much fallen asleep. The first night she cried for 1 1/2 hours. Tonight, it's only been 30 minutes so far and she's not crying (though I'm not sure she's asleep).

I do have a question for anyone who might know: is a binky (soother, nuk, whatever you call it) cheating? Like when I go in to calm her down, is it cheating to give her that binky because then that's putting her to sleep instead? Because often, as soon as it falls out, she starts crying again.

Also, she tends to wake up in the middle of the night - around 3 or 4. I usually just get up and either feed her or put her binky back in. Am I supposed to let her cry then too, or just when I put her down for the night? I can't remember if this is stuff we talked about in class and I wasn't paying attention.

Any thoughts?

(And thanks those of you who commented on my Facebook comment yesterday - you gave me strength to do it again today!)

Did anyone else see this?

http://tvwatch.people.com/

I actually liked him at first, but he got old fast. I'm not sure I can watch an entire season of him...

But I probably will.

Dear Grandma:

Thanks for my cute bunny.

It's just my size.

And thanks for my cute pants. They look way better than mom's green sweatpants.

Love, Karly