Don't you love that game where you try to figure out who the baby looks like most- mama or daddy? I know you do because whenever you see us in real life, you love to play it with me. Or maybe you're just indulging me. Anyway. I used to think Elizabeth looked just like me. But lately, I've noticed that she's looking more like her daddy. And then I saw these pictures:
She doesn't look like me at all in this pic. What stands out to me here is that she does not have my coloring. I'm a white, white, white girl. I used to have major self esteem problems over that (college years = tanning bed years), but honestly, I'm totally over that. The good news is that hopefully as we grow older, we grow a little wiser and more mature. And I'm totally there on my skin tone. It's a weird thing to realize your 10 month old is tanner than you are. And honestly, I'm glad. She's got her daddy's coloring, and I'm grateful. Not because I hate my own coloring anymore, but because I hope she will be spared the merciless childhood (and junior high and high school) teasing that accompanies it.
So we went swimming this week. The in-laws have a pool and a hot tub. The pool water is still a little too chilly, so we adjusted the hot tub water to a lovely "bathtub temperature", and jumped in with E's cousins, Chloe & Sophia.
We had such a lovely time. Elizabeth wasn't too sure of the water at first, but by the end, she just loved it. Which is a good thing because The Craigs love all things water: pool, beach, lake, water parks. This is one girl who will grow up on and in and by the water!
True Confessions:
The Diet started yesterday. For reals, y'all. I knew I was overweight, but there's nothing like seeing pictures of yourself in a swimsuit to slap you with a wake up call. For the vast majority of my life, I've been a very skinny girl. Then I got married and turned 25. And the weight started creeping on little by little. And then I had a baby. And now I don't recognize myself in the mirror or in pictures. You know how people who grew up chubby, even after they become adults and lose weight, still see themselves as "the fat kid"? Yeah, apparently, I have that but in reverse. In my head, I'm still the skinny girl. So sometimes it takes seeing pictures for me to really realize how bad it's gotten. I want to lose weight for lots of reasons. Vanity & health. I'd like to have another baby, but cannot imagine adding more pounds to my frame at this point. But this week, mostly I want to lose weight because I am sick of not having pictures of my daughter and I together. I don't want us to look through her baby pictures when she gets older and say, "Where was mama?" Oh, mama didn't want to be in the pictures because she was embarrassed by how fat she'd gotten. So the solution is that obviously I need to jump into pictures with my daughter more often, no matter how I feel about my body. But the other part of that is that I just need to lose weight. I weigh 50 pounds more than I did 5 years ago. And I weigh 20 pounds more than the day I found out I was pregnant with Elizabeth. Y'all, I'm 5 foot 1. Those are serious numbers. Dr. Oz would not approve. If I was 5'7, maybe those wouldn't be such crazy numbers. But I'm not. I'm a short little thing. 50 extra pounds is a big freaking deal. So, yeah, diet started yesterday. I'll let you know how it goes.
The Hubs & Jonah's Daddy have been friends for a million years, from kindergarten to college roomies to being in each other's weddings...we are blessed to call this sweet family our good friends still today. Welcome to the world, Jonah Kates. We are so happy you are here, and we love you to pieces already.
He looks like he's asleep in this last one. Don't let him fool you. He, most decidedly, was NOT. It took almost 2 hours for his mama to get him to go to sleep. That boy does not like to be naked, let me tell you. As soon as we gave up and put clothes on him, he fell right to sleep, and I snapped pics like a mad woman. That's how we finally got those first two! Thanks, Cindy for being so patient and letting me take pics of Jake. Elizabeth cannot wait to have fun with her new hoodrat friend! ;)
She doesn't look like me at all in this pic. What stands out to me here is that she does not have my coloring. I'm a white, white, white girl. I used to have major self esteem problems over that (college years = tanning bed years), but honestly, I'm totally over that. The good news is that hopefully as we grow older, we grow a little wiser and more mature. And I'm totally there on my skin tone. It's a weird thing to realize your 10 month old is tanner than you are. And honestly, I'm glad. She's got her daddy's coloring, and I'm grateful. Not because I hate my own coloring anymore, but because I hope she will be spared the merciless childhood (and junior high and high school) teasing that accompanies it.
So we went swimming this week. The in-laws have a pool and a hot tub. The pool water is still a little too chilly, so we adjusted the hot tub water to a lovely "bathtub temperature", and jumped in with E's cousins, Chloe & Sophia.
We had such a lovely time. Elizabeth wasn't too sure of the water at first, but by the end, she just loved it. Which is a good thing because The Craigs love all things water: pool, beach, lake, water parks. This is one girl who will grow up on and in and by the water!
There is a pretty wide age gap (20 years) in the cousins on my mom's side of the family. I'm the oldest, and Lindsey is the youngest. She's 10, which makes me...AHEM. Anyway. What is it with all these gorgeous 10 year olds? Did y'all look like this when you were 10? 'Cause I looked straight crazy!
Katlyn is my goddaughter. Her dad is my mom's baby brother. He was 16 when I was born. And then I was 16 when Katlyn was born. We think that's pretty cool. This picture makes me want to cry, because she looks like a freaking TEENAGER. Oh wait, she is. I feel so old. I'm going to go cuddle my 10 month old baby now. Who apparently is also going to be a TEENAGER in like 5 minutes. 
Afterwards, I said something about the fact that it had been a million years since Amanda & I had had our picture taken together. She remarked that the last time we had- she'd been wearing the exact same shirt. For the record, I was NOT wearing the exact same shirt because I was FREAKING BIG AS A HOUSE PREGNANT with Elizabeth:
And finally...Katherine Center was gracious enough to take a picture with me. I felt like a total dork and a half for bringing my camera and asking for a picture, but I'd forewarned her on Facebook that I was gonna do it, so I had to follow through. She was absolutely lovely. I'm reading Get Lucky now, and will be posting a review here when I'm finished with it. But I can say so far...it is GOOD. Click here for some more pics on Karen's blog of the party. And I would like to say about that last pic she posted- I look like a total weirdo & my face looks all funny and not like me at all, & why is everyone looking one direction and I'm not looking there, what was I looking at anyway, and damn- my hair looks GOOD.
This is Elizabeth's happy face. Has that kid got a big mouth or what? Whenever she is happy, this is how she smiles. Now that she's crawling all over the place, there's lots of things for her to get into. Like the cookbook shelf in the kitchen. (And apparently, where we store daddy's oatmeal).
Her favorite thing to pull off the shelf is Daddy's grilling cookbook.
She chases Phoebe all over the house.
Speaking of Phoebe, Elizabeth loves to play with her. She'll pick up one of Phoebe's toys and start waving it around at her, trying to get her to come play with her. It's very cute. Sometimes Phoebe looks at me like, "Seriously? Where did you get this kid? I don't want to play with her. I want to play with YOU." To which I respond, "Phoebe, this is a team effort and you need to start pulling your weight around here. You've been freeloading for far too long. Go entertain your baby sister so I can check my email."
E loves to clap. She does it all the time. Sometimes she crawls across the room, sits straight up and starts clapping for herself. She has a very healthy self esteem.
Happy, happy girl
