Shift Work

So Dom has been on Night shift this month. It sucked. He worked 6pm-8am everynight. After showering in the morning he would crawl into bed. Some mornings Francesca would be awake and she would spend a few minutes with him before he passed out. But most mornings her and I would still be sleeping. When she would wake up she would do her normal morning cuddling and whalering. She would flop back and forth and some mornings she would realize that it was Dom laying beside her and she would get so excited. This morning when she realized it she sat up and started banging on him. I don't want her to wake him up so this is my cue to take her out and start our day.
We were gone the first week or so Dom was on this shift so when we had to adjust to his schedule. After our first day back Dom had to start wearing ear plugs. She is just too loud to have someone trying to sleep in the room right next to us. He gets Friday and Saturday nights off. So last weekend we headed down to Crystal's. Our plan was to leave as soon as he came home on Friday morning. He was expecting to sleep on the drive down there, I was more realistic and assumed he would be babysitting during the drive. After packing the car and getting everyone loaded up we were on our way. Dom was in the back with his ear plugs and eye mask. When we hit the interstate I looked back and could see Francesca banging on his head that he had leaned in her direction. She was entertaining herself by playing with a new toy that made noise whenever you hit a particular button. Somehow she learned very quickly where that button was. All I could hear was that toy playing song after song after noise. I had no idea how he was sleeping through this but he did.
Around Stateville she had been very good for about an hour and started to stir. She hadn't had her cereal so I stopped at some small gas station that had an even smaller restaraunt next door. So her and I went into Britney's Bar B Q and took a break. We were the only customers at that time, we beat the lunch crowd and it was after breakfast. I ordered a sandwich to go and sat there and tried to feed her. She ate ok, but was more interested in entertaining the waitresses. She is such a ham. After 45 mins or so I put her back in the car and headed south. She started to fuss when we got closer to Charlotte. I tried waking Dom up to help her calm down and not allow her to get too worked up, but that was to no avail. He was out to the world. I managed to get her a wagon wheel to quiet her down. It only took a couple of minutes before she was sleeping as well. She slept great. About an hour and a half later she woke up. We were about 15 minutes from Crystal's, she didn't make a peep. She started playing with her toys and sat really quitely until we arrive. Dom managed to get pretty good sleep on the trip. If you ask him he didn't think so, but he also didn't realize that we stopped and he was sleeping in the car by himself for 45mins. This schedule has been hard on him and us. Me and little girl miss him and can't wait for a more normal schedule.

Water Baby

I know most babies love the water and Francesca is no exception. She has always enjoyed baths, the spa, swimming and even the beach. And for months now she has always tried to drink the water while she swims. The second video is of her in the pool sneaking a drink. The first video is her just talking and being happy.

But lately she has learned in the bath and in her little blow up pool to lay down on her belly and drink the water. This position allows for her to rest her mouth open in the water and allow it to run in. Before she would always bend over and try to suck up water. This usually choked her. Her new method allows for less choking and more drinking.
She also learned to drink out of the hose in her baby pool. I would leave the hose running very slowly to see what she would do. And of course she picks it up, sticks it in her mouth and drinks the water. I guess I can't complain, at least she will drink water.

Mastering the basics

Its amazing how you can work on one thing for months and she will show no signs of picking it up or learning what it is. Then one day she has it! This past week has been Francesca's Ah ha week. She has started to wave goodbye and play Pat a Cake. We've been working for almost 3 months on both of these and overnight she started doing them.
Around 6 months I figured I should start teaching her goodbye, and waving. So whenever someone would talk to us in the store, or mall or anywhere I would always say 'bye bye' and wave my hand and then move hers. She never showed any signs that she got what I was doing or that she should be doing it back. And out of no where she has started waving. Now she doesn't do it 'every' time, but she does it a lot and knows when to do it.
And this weekend mom had her outside at Crystal's and she came back in and said that she had done Pat a cake. I didn't believe it at first because she had never clapped her hands together for me. But sure enough when you start to sing it, she starts clapping. She always enjoyed playing before and would giggle when we played, but she never clapped her hands together. Now she thinks it is the greatest thing ever and laughs when she does it.
So it has been a week of mastering skills.

Disney

Our first trip to Disney was awesome!!! My friend from high school, Kara, works for Disney and offered to get us in for the day. So I took her up on the offer. Not so much b/c I wanted to take Francesca to see Mickey, but more b/c I wanted to see Mickey. Plus Dad had never been to Epcot and thought he would enjoy the park. Now I didn't really think too much about it, b/c it was well over 90 degrees and summer crowds, but Disney makes me really happy.
Kara's office is inside MGM, which is now called Hollywood Studios (this was a little confusing when we were trying to park and couldn't find the signs for MGM), so we decided to at least go into MGM and try to ride one roller coaster. Well the line was about 80 mins long, so we past on that. Actually all the rides that I would have wanted to ride that day were over an hour. So now rides for us. But we walked around MGM for a little while, we wathced some short film about animation and then went outside to see the parade. Francesca really liked all that other kids. She loved that everywhere she looked there was another little person in their stroller.
Epcot was nice. We went around to all the countries, we stopped to watch a short film on Canada (the USA's b*tch, according to Dom) while she napped in the stroller. But other than that we just were there to site see. We did get a couple samplings of food and drinks around the world~ England: Hard Cider from the pub, France: Strawberry Crape, Germany: Brat, Consession Cart: Popcicles. Mom & Dad were both on a diet so we tried to be good and not eat too much. I think Dad could go back and really put a hurtin to some of the different food around the world.
She got her picture with 2 characters: Belle and Mexican Donald Duck. We went to the character spot, but the wait was over an hour-not worth it, plus we had Mexicn Donald who else could you want.




One neat thing, at least I think it is neat now that I'm a mom, I could have cared less before, but they have a baby center. I saw a sign in the bathroom on the changing table about it. So we went. They had a place to heat food and bottles, a nursing room, a changing room with some huge awesome changing tables and a place you could buy baby food or formula. I used the nursing room. It was a dimmly lit room with 4 rocking chairs, we were the only ones in there but it was air conditioned, and on a hot day that was probably the best part. We also got to use the changing tables, luckily we were there when she decided it was time to potty, good timing. It was a pretty hot day and to cool off we all got strawberry popsicles. I
We left after being there for about 5-6 hours. On our way out we decided to take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and then get a bus from there back to MGM and our car. Francesca really like the monorail and the bus rides. I think she just really liked being in a moving vehicle and not being strapped into a carseat.
The day ended with us stopping at Mom's favorite restaraunt Hops and getting some ribs. Before our food came Dad had Francesca and she got a hold of the napkin with the silverware. She pulled out the steak knife and Dad took it away from her. She got the biggest pouty face and started screaming. She was throwing a fit right there. I took her and tried to quite her b/c I didn't want to bother the other tables. She would start to calm down and then she would look over at Dad, shake her head back and forth and start crying again. It was so funny. She did that about 4 times before she was over it. She really didn't like him taking away her knife.

ps-Our computer won't download pictures until I free up some space. So as soon as I do that then I will post the pictures.

Wedding Weekend

I had the privilage to be a bridesmaid for my friend Michelle Nase. So Francesca got to visit South Florida for a few days. The weekend included visiting with our old high school friends and was topped off by a gorgeous wedding. Michelle was Dom and my old roommate, we lived with her the first 6 months after we were married.

Francesca and I flew into FL late Wednesday night and then started our drive down to Boca Raton the following morning. We got a late start but she was really tired from the late night. Mom and I were hoping she would sleep most of the way down. She was asleep before we reached the interstate: Success!! this was working out to be an easy drive. She should sleep quite a while b/c she was so tired. Well before we got to Rockledge I heard her little voice. She got a 30min or so nap, ewww. We had to stop at 7 eleven (my favorite) to grab a sluppee, some drinks and I had to grab a toquito, they are so addictive and I can't pass them up. Then after our snack attack we started driving again.

We stopped south of Fort Pierce at a rest area b/c Francesca was upset being stuck in her car seat. Boy did she have fun at the rest area. We let her crawl around and burn some energy. She loved playing in the FL dirt and learning all about pine needles. She was pretty nasty when it was time to go so she got a quick rinse in the sink. After that the trip was pretty uneventful and we eventually made it down to Boca.

Then we got to spend some time with Paul and his lovely girlfriend Lauren. Francesca was napping when they arrived so we talked out on the patio. Paul had to go in the room for something and as soon as he walked in, the door slammed and woke her up. Leave it to Paul to wake her up. But we then had a lovely visit with the two of them. Paul wasn't so keen on holding Francesca and he was a little worried that Lauren and I would drop her or allow her to fall off the bed. He isn't use to the little ones, so he stuck with caring for Lauren's dog Jersey. He did a great job at watching her.

The following day, Friday, she took a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day. So needless to say Mom and I didn't really do anything before we had to go to the rehersal. At rehersal Francesca climbed her first set of stairs. They were small stairs and she crawled right up them. No hesitation on her part. During the rehersal she was her normal talkative self and Mom had to take her outside so that everyone could focus on the rehersal and our jobs for the wedding.

Saturday came and was planned to be a fun filled day. We started it off with a visit to the Flanagan's. We drove down to Cathleens house to hang out with her and her kids, Madison & Kevin. Little Kev was so good with her. He thought she needed some clothes so he went and found some 'baby' clothes. It was 2 of his t-shirts, but he was very genorous and said that we could keep them. Francesca then went swimming with the kids in their pool. Afterwards we hund out and let the kids play. I didn't put Francesca clothes back on her right away and Kevin was very concerned. He kept asking why she wasn't wearing any clothes. Madison then put on a dance show for us. She is a trip. During her performance Cathleen and I were talking some, Maddy stopped dancing and then came to ask why we weren't watching her, sooooo cute. During lunch the kids sang all their favorite nursery rhymes to her. She really enjoyed that. And during all this Mom was trying to fix my dress for the wedding. I guess it wasn't as small as I had originally thought and it really did need to be altered. Thank goodness Mom was there for the rescue.

We rushed back to the hotel so that I could do my hair and make up. I was ready in time and headed to the church to get ready. Francesca and Mom were staying back. It was a really nice time at the church as Michelle and all the bridesmaids got ready. The rain cleared just in time for the wedding. The wedding proceeded as planned and it was a beautiful ceremony. Francesca and Mom did not attend the wedding. Francesca was sleeping and Mom did not want to wake her up. She did really well with Mom. No crying spells and Mom was even able to get her to eat. Mom did make her upset once. Francesca had been trying to play with the cell phone charger cords all weekend and we had been telling her NO. When she went towards them this time Mom said "Francesca" she stopped, looked back and then headed back towards them. Then Mom said "Francesca No." She looked back at Mom and gave her the biggest pouty face ever.

After the wedding I came back and got her dressed for the reception. She loved all the attention at the reception and was very well behaved as long as I held her. After dinner when they started dancing she kept looking towards the dance floor and smiling. I finished up feeding her and took her out there to do the ChaCha slide. She loved it. She was laughing the entire time. We then danced to a few more songs. Around 9:30 she was pretty tired so we took her downstairs and put her to bed. When we got to the room and put Francesca on the bed we tried taking pictures of her. And she would see the camera and start posing, it was so cute.