Baby girl had her 9 month check up on Wed and she now clocks in at a nice 20lbs. Carrying her around is a real work out, let me tell you! Unfortunately, part of her check up included the dreaded shots. Only one but it was a doozie.

For the last few days, my little McNugget has been so sick. High temperature, diarreha, loss of appetite, and mad-mad-mad! There has been lots of rocking, walking, and wailing in the McLaughlin house. But yesterday the fever broke and last night she slept like a log so it seems that the munchkin has rebounded! Yes!

Leina is such a joy. She just fills me with happiness. My favorite thing in the world is when she is so giddy, she tilts her head back and laughs, laughs, laughs. I tell you, I can feel the joy pouring into my heart at moments like that. If you took all the joy that Kevin, my family, friends and even pets give me, add it up, and multiply it by 10, it still wouldn’t even come close to the happiness Leina brings me when she laughs. How is that possible? How can a mere 20 lbs of babiness complete me so? I don’t understand it but I thank God every night for it.

Just put Leina down for her nap and those few moments broke the HSN spell.

Yes, that’s right, I’ve been watching the Home Shopping Network.

I know, I know, with my impressionable mind, HSN is a very bad idea. But it’s on 24/7. The people are just so darn perky and excited. Since it’s rainy and icky out, the kid and I are stuck inside and it’s kind of nice to have some happy, perky, excited people around too.

And let me tell you, these people are GOOD. Not five minutes ago I was convinced I needed to buy a hair piece. Yes, that’s right, me. Chrissieterry. The woman with more hair than a horse was -this- close to spending 32.50 (plus shipping and handling) on some fake hair to put on top of my already massive amount of hair. I don’t know what happened but after two and a half hours of fake ponytails, clippy things with curls, and bobby bits of whispy hair, all hand made with 16-18 colors of the finest sythetic hair available on the market today, I was brainwashed. Luckily, Leina saved me with her need to nap and the spell was broken with my credit card unscathed.

Kevin was laughing at me for watching HSN this weekend but I ran to the store and when I came back, he was glued to the set and convinced we needed this convection toaster oven that could bake ribs. Or was it the juicer? All I know is that I pulled him away before they got to the electronic hour. That would have been ugly.

I’m going to head back into the living room. My plan is to grab the remote and hit the power button before my eyes can process whatever super-value they are hocking right now. Wish me luck. But if the next time you see me and I’m wearing fake hair, please have pity on my and don’t laugh too loud, ok?

Who would have thought we’d have made it this far?

Remember back to when Leina was only a few weeks old and nothing seemed to be going right? Feeding, sleeping, even a little jaundice just to add to the difficulties. Now, everything back then seems so foggy, all I remember was being in a daze for the first several months. I guess that’s the “baby-nesia” setting in. I do remember just telling myself, “make it through this week then work on next week.”

Now things couldn’t be better, Chrissie’s last few blogs speak to that. Leina has always been a joy, but now she’s pure joy. I’m both afraid and giddy for the next milestones: crawling and walking. I’m sure, as the past nine months indicate, the next nine months will be an adventure.

To mark the occasion of Liena’s 3/4 birthday here’s the latest Pooh Pic. Isn’t she getting big!

I’ve been strangely joyful lately. I caught myself whistling Zip-a-dee-do-da this morning for no apparent reason so I stopped myself and did a little mental check. Why so happy?

Simple really. My darling daughter has figured out how to sooth herself. Yes, a mere week before her 9 month birthday, Leina has crossed a major threshold. With a big grin, I feel confident announcing, she is offically sleeping through the night. (knock on wood)

Crazy, huh? I’ve gone eight long months without a full nights rest. It doesn’t really seem possible but it’s true. The baby sleep book I love warned me that some breast fed babies will require one or two night time feedings up until 9 months and guess what? Leina was one of those babies. My book also informed me that around 9 months, if baby wakes, it’s out of habit and not hunger so it’s ok not to go nurse ’em. I’m so glad Leina figured this out all on her own. I was a little worried we were going to have some night time screaming here real soon. But no, my darling daughter taught herself how to sleep. Oh, she still gets up around 11:30 and 2am but after a few minutes of mild fussing, she puts herself to sleep. Me? I’m sacked out the entire time and have even taken the very big step of sleeping without the baby monitor on. If she has a real problem, I’ll hear her just fine.

Even bigger news, Leina has finally figured out how to nap! Yesterday, for the first time in nine months, I sang her a lulliby, tucked her in and left her room. After only a minute or two of fussing, total silence. She was asleep! No more rocking, no more patting, no more rolling her over onto her belly again and again.

Is it any wonder I’m giddy with joy!!!

Sleep, wonderful sleep, how I’ve missed you!

Kevin went off to work at his new job yesterday. He was so excited. Sort of like the first day at a new school I suppose. There are seven people in his group, and he is paired with a woman who has spent the last 18 years at Novellus. Needly to say, Kevin pretty much spent the day running around behind her with a pad and pencil trying to keep up!

This is the crazy part. At WaferTech, Kev was in charge of about 12 tools. He had to keep the recipes on the tools tweeked and the tools running. Needless to say, at some point, there was always a problem on at least on of these tools which meant late nights or long weekend work. So at Novellus, Kevin was a little worried about his tool load. Ha! Turns out, each tool is owned by TWO engineers. Yes, you heard correctly. Kevin is the proud owner of 1/2 of a tool. Um, hello? Could this be any easier? I figure there must be a catch ’cause it can’t be this simple.

However, like any big company, there were glitches. His phone doesn’t work and someone forgot to order his computer so he pretty much sits at his cube twiddling his thumb. Oh yeah, he can’t start working in the clean room until he takes all the safety classes too. The cool part is that his new employee training is in San Jose so on Monday he catches a 6:30am flight out to CA and a 7pm flight back to PDX. How crazy is that? All I care about is that he gets to leave work at 5:30 which is the best news. Of course, he has a 40 min commute right now so we’ve got to get the house hunting into high gear.

Anyone wanna do my packing for me??

Well Munchie and I made it home.

All I can say is that kid is a trooper. We got to the airport 2 hours early only to find out my flight was delayed an hour and a half. Yes, that’s right, Leina and I cruised the airport for over three hours before our plane even arrived. Then add a two hour flight and you have a very grumpy kid. The flight was full so I didn’t have a seat for her and had to keep her on my lap the whole time. Well, not the whole time. I found that the food tray from the seat in front of me was the perfect place to put an eight month old baby. She sat on that tray, feet dangling down, watching every one and every thing. I was even brave enough to feed her some baby food which was quite amusing to the passengers around me. Lets just say turbulence and sweet potatoes don’t mix well together.

But it was all worth it when Kevin greeted us upon arrive. It was like a scene from a movie. The eyes locked, a big goofy grin, and he ran towards us with open arms. I was left hanging for about 10 minutes while he showered Munchie with long overdue dada kisses but I didn’t mind. I knew I was going to take second fiddle!

Leina was very excited to find that the dumb dog and annoying cats were still here. Artie was even more excited when he found her eating a meat stick. Lets just say you don’t need a washcloth to wipe up her face and hands when she’s done eating here. Artie is all over that job. I think she remebers this place pretty well because she is settling in so quickly. Thankfully the weather has held so Leina and Kevin have been doing lots of strolls together. He sure is happy to have her back.