A+

While flipping through the channels tonight I stopped on Channel 7, as they usually have some pretty interesting topics and I need something interesting to get me through until Kameryn FINALLY falls asleep. Tonight they were talking about teen suicide, which is obviously a pretty dark topic. Well, outside the place where doctors are discussing it, there's a protest going on. I think some people have a need to protest things in their blood, that's the only thing I can come up with for this one. And a woman is proudly holding up a sign that says, "SUICIDE IS SELF MURDER."
Thanks for helping me with that one, buddy. You don't want to mess with this woman's fire. You'll get burned.

Casting Call

We went this morning for Kameryn to have her picture taken for the American Baby contest. It wasn't at all what I expected, except there were REALLY cute kids everywhere you looked. We got there, filled out a paper and only had to wait about 10 minutes. When we were calle we handed them the paper we had filled out with Kameryn's information on it, and they snapped a Polaroid. Just like that. I think she was smiling at one of the other ladies that was taking pictures when they took the picture of her, but I don't know because you're pretty much dismissed after they press the button...we didn't even get to see what the picture looked like. I have to say, it will be such a huge compliment to be chosen, and I think the fun will be that we entered her. There were so many kids, and older ones than Kameryn with wild hair and other amazing features. If we don't get chosen, no hard feelings. It was just fun to do.
This is the dress we chose for her to wear. But of course, Kameryn had to taste it to tell if it was any good, so a lot of times it looked like this:
Crazy baby.

Dispelling Any Doubts

Tonight I was driving home from Danae's house, and at about Centerville, Kameryn started to cry. I had been listening to a CD Jay had made for me, and just to see what would happen I flipped to track number 8. Cookie Monster started in with, "Now what starts with the letter C? Cookie starts with C!" In the backseat, silence. I kept replaying it until we got home, figuring Kameryn had fallen asleep, but as soon as I pulled into our parking spot and turned the car off, she started crying again. My daughter likes Sesame Street. I don't think I've ever been more proud.

Rockstar

We saw this outfit while we were out shopping for our anniversary. We couldn't help ourselves.

Two Year Anniversary

I never saw my life turning out the way it is now. I think when I imagined life for myself, I imagined myself living alone in New York or as a Blanchard safely tucked away by now. Even two years ago when we got married on that PERFECT September day, I didn't know that two years later I would be an MA and we'd have a 4 and a half month old daughter. But I like how my life is progressing. Given the chance to change anything, I don't think I would. I love my life unfolding, and I love it being with my best friend. You can always make me laugh, I love being with you and really appreciate when I can be with you for long periods of time during the day. I also appreciate when I come home and you have to go straight to bed, because I know you put your energy into watching our daughter, and that means a lot to me.
I love you with Kameryn. I love how she reacts to you, always smiling when she hears or sees you and how she's so content just to sit and be with you. I knew when I married you that you would be a good dad, but you're better than I imagined. I love how much you love her. It touches me to see you guys together. I think you will have a long and awesome relationship that her friends will admire. And her boyfriends will hate. :)
I love you, Jay. I'm glad we're together. Thank you for always supporting me.

American Baby

The "American Baby" magazine is having a contest where babies from all over the country are photographed. The magazine will choose 5 and the babies and their parents will be flown to New York so the babies can be photographed for the magazine. I saw it and thought about it briefly, kinda dismissing it, but then Danae called because she had seen the article and thought I should do it. So we're going to try. We take Kameryn to the Midvale Toys R Us on Fri. Sept 22. I think she's beautiful, but I also think she's fun to be around, and I hope it will work out and they'll see her looks and her charm. We don't have our hopes set on it, only 5 Utah would be hard enough, let alone 5 from the whole NATION, but every parent thinks their baby is the best. We'd like to go to the Met because ours really is! :)

(I know this picture is blurry but it reminds me so much of one of Chelsee's baby pictures that I love it!)

Kameryn is at this really interesting period of discovering herself and she's starting to learn how to move her body intentionally. Her personality is starting to really show. Sometimes that fact is a little bit difficult because she'll fuss just because she wants to be held by someone walking around instead of someone sitting down, and it's not as easy to appease her when she really wants something. However, I love it, too, because she laughs A LOT. She smiles when she recognises people and she is so content to watch her hands or play with her feet.

Now that she's getting a bit older, I'm getting less paranoid about her. A little bit. I'm still over the top, but just not quite as bad as before. I've been slowly trying to get her to sleep in her crib more and more often, and she seems to allow it from bedtime till about 2 in the morning. At that point all she wants is to be with me, and I come get her and bring her to bed with me. I know that I should make her sleep in her crib the entire night, that my getting her out of bed when she cries is just re-inforcing that behavior, but the truth is, I'm just as bad as she is. Maybe worse. I like her with me. But we're still trying to do the crib thing. We just do it a little at a time.

Thankfully, as she gets older other people are getting more comfortable with her, too. Namely Steve who agreed to hold her not too long ago when they came up. Kameryn was really good for him, and now just watches him anytime they're in a room together, smiling at him when he looks at her. It's like she had been waiting for it as long as we had!
I've said it before, Kameryn is a total daddy's girl. Sometimes, despite his hair...
But I love it because she's also a mommy's girl. The smiles I get when I come home from work make it so fun to come home. And I love being with her because it makes me feel like a kid again, too. It's fun to delight in her little accomplishments and watch her become more and more aware of the world around her. Except that pretty soon she'll be crawling...and then it's a whole new game. Thankfully, it's been getting better and better the older she gets.

The Baby in the Water

Grandma Hanna giving Kameryn her first bath at 2 or 3 days old...

Much better experience swimming with daddy at about 3 months.

We wouldn't have guessed it at first, but we have a WATER BABY!!! This is her looking elegant in her hooded towels after a recent bath. She thinks she's half baby, half fish.

Ashamed

So, the Presdient came to visit the Great State of Utah. Jay and I were just watching the evening news, like we often do, and saw Air Force One arrive and we saw him get out. We even watched his little speech. We both hate him so much that I'm actually surprised that we watched it for as long as we did. I think it was half like watching a car accident; you can't make yourself look away even if you try. The other half was just waiting intently to see how others would react.
Well, they were reacting by holding signs of support and screaming out that they loved him. I was so disgusted that afterward while I was doing the dishes I couldn't stop fuming.
I think as far as States go, Utah is the Republican Whore State. A Republican comes in, tells us how great we are, and we're easy as they come. We don't demand to know why he lied about this or that, or why he just let Katrina happen even though he had been warned to fix things beforehand. We just say, "Alright Mr. President, you think we're great Americans" and we lift our skirt.
Personally, I think we have all had to take it up the ass from George Jr. ever since he got elected. The only Olive Garden I see in our future is when we remember W the way we remember Nixon; as a liar.