The Not-so-Happiest Rant on the Block

For some time now, I've been trying to figure out why people don't just gush over my precious little baby. At least, her gender isn't constantly being edited by well-meaning strangers anymore (i.e., "Is 'Noah' wearing his big sister's clothes?" -- comments like these not only made me want to add more frills to her clothing, but made me wonder if I had one of those annoying voices that always sounded a bit like I had a cold. Nola? Noah? I dunno.)

People either don't notice her, like, when I take her and the dog on walks, old ladies -- lemme repeat that, OLD LADIES will stop me and say, "What a lovely dog!" with not so much as a peep about the frilled-out infant riding on my chest.

I've even taken her to highly populated places, like Costco, and donning the cutest possible hat I could find in her collection, I had three strangers tell me, "What a cute hat."

I think the final straw broke last week when I went makeup shopping for the first time in about a year, and the saleslady said to me, "Oh, look at your baby! How old is she?"

Proudly, I tell her that she'll be six months in a couple of weeks. To which the saleslady replies, "Oh, you should have seen the cutest little six month old boy just came through here with his mom."

GAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

I know that I'm probably being a little bit too touchy with this whole, "Isn't my baby cute?" issue, but I just hate the thought that I'm actually one of those parents with a not-so-cute baby who is in blind denial of the fact. In fact, I'm going to stick to my instincts with this one, and claim that people do find her to be beautiful, but they just don't have the nerve to tell her to her face.

Bjorn to Be Wild

While Aunt Jaimee was still in California, we headed over to the Santa Barbara Zoo along with Kim and her kiddos. Nola was generally non-plussed as usual, despite the fact that we took part in some extreme box-sledding.

Nola Reading in Bed

Nola took a break during the hectic holiday season to catch up on some important reading...

Here she just looks a little miffed that she's been interrupted.

I guess it's all good.

No, seriously, that is a happy face.

Christmas Day at the Smith Casa

Auntie Jaimee has been in town for Christmas, so we headed up to the Smith's house for Christmas day. Nick wore his red footie PJs and snuck in from the backyard to surprise Kim and Taylor's kiddos as a younger, darker (and in my opinion, much hotter) Santa. Their littlest one was terrified. Reportedly the whole concept of Santa Claus scared her, but she was pretty wary of Nick the rest of the day.



Aunt Kim tried to introduce "Frosty the Snowman" to Nola, but it had about the same impact on her that "Saint Nick" had on Kim's kiddos.

Starting Solids

Nola has been staring us down during our dinner lately, so we after her last doctor's appointment, we were given the green light to start solids. We have a few pictures here of our growing four-and-a-half-month old and her first steps into the wonderful world of "solid" food.

"What is this?"

"You're kidding me... eat out of this?"

"Okay, I'll try it, but I can't promise anything."

u"I may have polished off the bowl, but I'd really rather not let you see how much I liked it."

O Christmas Tree

We went out to a "cut your own tree" farm this past weekend to get ready for Nola's first Christmas. Here are some pictures of our little adventure:

Nola approving of the tree selection.

Nick posing beside the tree before cutting it down.

Nola and the tree getting to know each other.

Rally Caps

Our dear and wonderful Saints have pulled out 12 wins so far this season, and we couldn't be happier. Of course, this picture doesn't conjure up the joy that the season has given us, as it was taken during last week's nail-biter against the Redskins. We barely squeaked out of that one, and we know it couldn't have been done, had it not been for our rally caps.