happy holidays...

iona weighed in at just shy of 20 lbs and is just short of 30 inches at her recent checkup...so she seems to have definitely inherited her father's giant genes..hopefully she will make it to 5 or 6 before she is taller then me...i must say i still remember the day i became taller then my mother and i was very proud of my accomplishment (however passive it may have been on my part)...so i suppose i can't begrudge her that rite of passage...




winter seems to have arrived here...we got our first real snow with more on the way soon...we are all happy but no one more so then ernie...for a dog that was born and raised in florida he can't get enough of the snow...iona has been out in the elements since just a few days after her arrival and seems nonplussed by it all...we are hoping she will choose the outdoors as her playground but only time will tell..until then she is at the mercy of her hiking, fresh-air loving, snowman
building parents.....






soon we are off to celebrate her first christmas...several trips (her first plane ride!) and lots of family....she hasn't even tried to pull down the tree (of course we tied it to the wall with a neck level garrote length of fishing line...and as a result have just left the lights on day and night)..she has been very helpful wrapping gifts (how do they always find the scissors?) and we are sure she is anxiously waiting her first visit from santa (she asked for a new xylophone...and she has been very good)...no mall santa visits for our girl though...this seems like such a frightening thing for a small child (seriously they never look happy)....not to mention the idea of plunking her down on the lap of a stranger in a costume that must rarely be cleaned makes me itch just thinking about it..it crosses even my very high threshold for germs (along with chewing on the dog's tail) ..she is still a bit young for my family's holiday traditions..lumpia and chex mix (i know it DOES say merry christmas)..but she might have fun making tamales which matt's mom has expressed in an interest in helping me do...i LOVE christmas (but NOT christmas music)..the twinkly lights, the sparkly snow, the sense of hope and kindness that you can just see out of the corner of your eye...to have a small, joyous person around who is seeing it all for the first time makes it even better...and it doens't hurt that she finds shiny paper and empty boxes to be unbelievably exciting...

childhood advice....

iona saw her first real snow this week (no this is not a picture of her in the snow..but look how happy she is that we are talking about it)....we got 7 or 8 inches on thursday....as we took her out for her inaugural romp (for which ernie was so much more excited) it reminded me of when i was a kid and my mom would send us out for fresh snow to make slushes with....on one occasion we proudly returned with a tray of pretty yellow snow that we assumed had been magically flavored by the winter fairies (thus saving my mom the effort)...i couldn't have been more then 3-4 and i still remember my mom emphatically telling us 'don't eat yellow snow!' which i feel is really good advice for a kid....so this got me thinking about other good advice we receive when we are young...'never trust a fart' seems smart (thanks bud!) and the 30 second rule is good to learn young (although it takes experience to understand the subtle yet important variations of this rule e.g. 30 seconds in your kitchen different then 30 seconds on the street)..in an effort to balance iona's education i am sending out a request for other useful advice...it may be a while before it sinks in for her but it is never too early to start....

funny haha and funny peculiar

matt picked out this hat for iona and i knit/felted it...we are endlessly amused by it because it bears a striking resemblance to that of sgt schulz on hogan's heroes..strange costuming choice i know but i am a child of the 70s..and so strange that i was allowed to watch that tv show...






also something that we do for our own amusement at the expense of our child (perhaps she understands this better then we think..hence the crying and carrying on) giving your kid a fauxhawk in old navy while we waited in line -i can't remember if we actually put water on her head or it was just sweaty....we laughed for five minutes....yeah she totally knows...

peer pressure

so we started this blog because we actually follow the lives of several people we love by reading their blogs...it seemed like a good idea to let folks keep up with the baby and how things are going in our lives...but we forgot a couple of things as we set out on this path...1) we are CRAZY sleep deprived and our typing skills are bad on a good day 2) we barely have time to pee (and often have to take iona into the bathroom with us...so she has a little separation anxiety stop judging us) and 3) the blogs we love to read are crazy funny and creative and the pressure to perform at this level is already starting to crush us...it is the same pressure i feel every year at Halloween to have this memorable, creative costume but ultimately end up in a witch hat......so hopefully we can live up to the hype...at least the baby is cute so we can distract you with pictures of her...

i should also mention that the blog robots identified our blog as spam and blocked us from the world...clearly we had no idea about the depth of power held by the blog robots...

she is peacefully sleeping now..super tuckered out by a night of teething and screaming..poor kid...she doesn't usually sleep through the night but she is cheerful about it...she usually want to play and chat about her day at about 3 am but last night she wanted no part of anything i was selling...but tonight it looks as though we may be getting a reprieve from the governor...and to celebrate we are watching a classic spaghetti western 'Once Upon a Time in the West'..pales next to 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' but may be equal to 'Shane'.....

Some Photos for Yall

Here are some cute pictures of me hanging around my crib. What do you think?

Me and my G-Rents



Banging on a Pumpkin with no Pants

Chilling in my Lay-z-Baby





Tub Time

Welcome to Wackyville

Iona lives with her mama Shanna, her papa Matt, and her hound Ernie. This is her blog. She is looking forward to telling you all about her adventures and she wants to keep in touch with family members and friends. If you find her blog be sure to post a comment and let her know. We'll talk to you soon!