busted.

I know I didn't post yesterday. Like I said, nothing doing over here. So it was kind of intentional, and kind of like I forgot. And you know what? I'm not really even posting now, I've just come back to tell you I'm not here. Sort of like that one Paul Simon song, but far, far less depressing.

Anyway, catch you later dudes. Super busy + teething baby = ACK.

Yahtzee!

The title really has nothing to do with anything, but I'm running out of ideas and I have always enjoyed that word. Yahtzee! Canasta! Oooh, canasta is fun too. Huh.

One of the major pitfalls of posting every day is that you're forced to stare your mundanity in the face. We just aren't that interesting. Iris is pretty cute, and there is a certain level of audience captivation she can muster, but really only for so long. And how much do you guys really want me to tell you that omg she chewed on her hand again! Then she giggled and smacked me in the face and farted. Then! She chewed on both her hands at the same time! Enthralling, I know. She is pretty fun in person though, and baby farts do have a certain charm to them, if ever the passing of gas were going to be charming. But good blog fodder it is not.

It could be that I'm losing my drive here. I need an assignment. I'm getting boring in general. Listen, I told Iris that I liked her little gums and that stylish thing she was doing with her hair today, and this is what she said to me:

"Bla-gaaaglelaaaaa."

Indeed. When you start boring the baby, you know it's time to do something about it. I shall strive to bring you actual content tomorrow (er. soon. ish. we'll see), but in the meantime, as always, enjoy the new photos (I'm posting from our desktop, so I think I'll be able to get this next bunch to picasa, but if not, check back tomorrow).

Fussy is the new black.

I have come to the conclusion that Iris is going through A Thing. I realized that I've been rationalizing her recent fussiness with vaccinations and teething, but what's really happening is that thing that babies do right before they process a growth spurt. Which I guess is also one of the things I use to rationalize fussiness, but I think I'm right here.

Have I mentioned the crunches here before? I know I've told the story in person a million times to various folks, but just to be sure I'll recap quickly: every time Iris is laying on her back, she curls up and picks her feet up and sits in this perfect death-to-abs-style crunch. It is like her big red flag that says "hey I'm about to figure something out soon." Last time it happened she started grunting and talking and trying to intone like an actual conversation was happening, when she had been the silent inquisitive baby the day before. It is her standard position now, but every time something like the big chattiness burst happens, the crunches really ramp up and become somewhat of a hindrance. They are worse when she's tired, or overly hungry and speaking of overly hungry, did anyone else know that babies go on hunger strikes because the world is just too interesting?

(awesome aside time: Kyle just mentioned that Iris has been watching a lot of the 30 Day Shred, so that might explain her drive to crunch it up.)

Anyway - what's happening is that Iris is usually a bit hungrier than she should be*, and it's harder for her to sleep because of that and the crunches, and everything being so mind bogglingly interesting. I have seen her go from dead asleep to cinching up like a fish out of water for no identifiable reason at all. Which is neat because it's always followed by her turning to glare at me for obviously forcing her to do that sit-up just then. Gah. It will pass soon though, and then I'll be able to tell you that Iris is not only three feet taller than me, but she speaks German and just wrote an ode to rice cereal in iambic pentameter.

*Trust me. She eats. She just doesn't do it in a timely fashion, and then she's super death hungry and consumes like half a day's feedings in an hour.

In which Iris divulges the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything...

...and then she whipped out her towel to chew on it for a bit, and really delve into the core of the issue, pontificating, some might even say masticating at length on what the answer could be. That is, until she fell over, found a fresh diaper and headed off for her nap.

And when I say nap, I do mean in her crib. Her crib that is in her room. Someone get me a stretcher because that fact continues to knock me out cold every time I think of it. Iris in her crib? does...not...compute...? crazy.

I'm gonna wrap this up here because I really don't have much else for you, but I wanted to assure you that she finally stopped being so sad sometime around bedtime yesterday, and now this miracle crib sleeping thing is happening.

It's not you, it's me.

*This post was saved from late yesterday. The internet is still being fickle and it decided that this is the number of photos I get to post, and that's final. Fine then. I still can't tell if it's my connection or Blogger or what. So just replace every instance of "today" with "yesterday" and it will remain a fairly accurate post.*

Oh Friends, Iris Luella had a sad day today. She really wanted to be cheerful; she certainly wanted to be distracted as much as possible. To put it mildly, she is very uncomfortable right now. Her shot yesterday left her today with a very mild fever and no appetite. Plus, her gums seem to hurt her so badly that she is almost frantic in her attempts to keep her hand or just something in her mouth at all times. She slept on and off all day, mostly alternating one hour asleep to an hour an a half awake since 7:30 this morning.

We were going to take her to a local baseball game, then to see her friend Gus's Dad play some tunes at Cooper's Landing. Once we realized that following those original plans would result in a well-cooked baby and very little time at home, we revised a bit. I sorted through all of the baby clothes in our house (it's ridiculous), and Iris napped at will. I managed to sort of document the most convivial moments of her day. Mind you, there wasn't much good humor available to Iris today, so you'll have to be impressed that she is not actively scowling in the following pictures.

The rest of the photos did actually make it to Picasa, so that's nice. Iris is still on some sort of hunger/happiness strike. It's pitiful. There is a massive storm going on outside, so we couldn't take her anywhere even if she was being cooperative. Sadness all around. Boo. I feel like there were other things I wanted to tell you, but the encompassing sound of baby misery has overthrown my thought process to the point of complete distraction. It is remarkable how pervasive that sound is. Must be some sort of biological caveman thing. I'm off.

this is tricky

Hey guys! Our internet connection is being wonky so I am actually posting this from my phone. Bet you thought I wouldn't squeeze in an update today! I'm very resourceful.

I have a real post all typed up and ready to go, so hopefully that happens tomorrow. I think some photos might have managed to load to picasa before the signal crapped out,so check there if you're so inclined.

Hopefully more soon...

The Future

Well, the great beast that is the pediarix vaccine 2.0 has knocked Iris out again. She fell immediately to sleep at 3:20 when the shot was administered, and as far as I know, is still passed out. So guess what happens tomorrow then? That's right, it's Franzia time. Maybe it won't be, you never can tell with these things. Maybe her age difference between then and now will allow for her to bounce back a little better from this round. But it could happen. So I'm prepared if it does, you understand. Anyway.

Being that the child is asleep, pictures are obviously a no-go at this point, but I'll entertain you with statistics. Sometime I'll have to figure out how to get a little illustrated growth chart up here, but for now, I give you bullets:

• Length: 25.5 inches (82.14 %tile)
• Head Circumference: 16.5 inches (67.1%tile)
• Weight: 16lbs. 2oz. (87.03%tile)

I don't know about you, but I think it is one of the coolest things ever that she's so big. It means she interacts like a little bit older baby and does a bunch of fun stuff like squeal and giggle, and...lick her shirt. It's awesome. Plus everybody knows chubby babies are way more fun to chew on. So bring on the big sleep, big baby! Dom knows what's up.