Boone Hall Oyster Roast

I guess if we had a theme for this weekend, it would be "FOOD".  Friday night we went to dinner with our Boot Camp Instructor team for a little 2011 pow wow.  We went to Red Drum in Mount Pleasant and as always the food was amazing!  We were going to get a babysitter for Dylann, but at the last minute we decided to just bring her since we were going fairly early and she would just sleep through it.  Sure enough, we put her in her car seat to head there and she zonked right out, she slept all through dinner and Daddy easily transfered her from car seat to crib when we got home without her waking up.  I felt a little bad about having my baby out past 9pm but very glad we saved that $40 why we still can!

On Saturday we had some skydiving friends from NC come to town for a visit and to go to the Boone Hall Oyster Roast on Sunday. We met up with them downtown Saturday night for dinner at Blossom.  I've heard great things about this place, it is in the same family with Magnolias and High Cotton, but I'd never been.  It was wonderful and the atmosphere was fantastic.  Definitely will be going back there again soon. On Sunday they came over to our house in the morning where we polished off a couple to many mimosas and then we piled into "Shirley" (what we have named our soccer mom pilot) to head to the Roast.  Boone Hall Plantation is only about 3 miles from our house, but it took us almost an hour to get there down the 2 lane road.  Just goes to show how many people were going to this thing! The Boone Hall Oyster Roast is the largest Oyster Roast in the world... over 65,000 pounds of oysters are eaten each year by a couple of thousand oyster lovers.  And yes, it was a zoo.  Tons of people head out there early to set up shop for what ends up looking like a cross between the biggest tailgate/modern day Woodstock you have ever seen.

Boone Hall Oyster Roast 2011

Tables are set up everywhere that you can bring your 'beer' buckets of oysters to, or you can bring them back to your little personal village and shuck away into one of the many oyster recycling bins.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  70 degrees and sunny with a nice light breeze.  It was just the break we all needed from the winter dull that is hanging around.  We ate EIGHT buckets of oysters between the 6 of us, and honestly could have gone back for 4 more if we wouldn't have run out of tickets. haha.

Yummmmmmm!

Dylann did great and we got a lot of compliments on what a cute baby she is.:)  At one point we had her striped down to her t-shirt and diaper because it was so warm.  She ended up skipping her afternoon nap because of all the action, but the minute we got back in the car she was out!   We had a great time with our friends and will definitely be making this an annual event for the Starck family!

Our new jogging stroller, The City Mini Jogger- we LoVe it!  

Mommy and Dylann at the Oyster Roast

Our first Veggies!

Today, 3 weeks after starting Dylann on rice cereal, we started Vegetables!  Yep, it was a big day at the Starck household. ;-)  I decided to start with an orange vegetable, squash.  She loved it!  It was funny to see her expression when she first tasted it, "Whoa, that's not rice cereal!"  She tends to have a flair for the dramatics when she eats with big open bites, almost like she is making a fishy face.  Cute, but with these extremely runny veggies, they tend to go flying in all directions if I don't get the spoon all the way in her mouth before she chomps down.  Now I know why Aunt Lindsey always de-clothed Emma for meals. :)

I only gave her half of a small jar just in case she had any allergies to it, but so far, she is doing fine.  We will stick to Squash for the next 3 days, eventually adding it in to lunch and dinner and then on day 4 we are going to introduce a green vegetable... drum roll... green beans! Oh the excitement. Here is a picture with her first veggie... sorry for the red eyes, it is from my camera phone.

More Squash Please!

Our first 'out of diaper' experience...

It's funny, just the other day I was thinking about how we haven't had any mishaps on the changing table yet.  Sure, there have been some aggressive diapers, and even some, "Kyle, help! I'm out of wet wipes!" mid-change, but so far, no peeing or pooing out of diaper and on the table.  I figured it was just because she was a girl and didn't need the shooting practice I hear boys do.  Lucky me.

Well, this morning, I put Dylann on the table to change her diaper and get her dressed for the day.  I wiped up her toosh and, mistake one, I removed the old diaper and put it in the bin before first putting a new one down.  I guess after almost 5 months without an accident I got lazy.  Well, there goes the fountain, all over the changing table.  Ok, no big deal- I knew it would happen sooner or later.  I picked her up, got her clean and changed out the cover on the changing pad.  Done.  THEN, I decided since she's already peed, I might as well try and take a couple of "naked baby" pictures.  I've been wanting to do this since we got back from Christmas, but I just haven't found the time and wanted to make sure I did it  right after she went to the bathroom so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

I got her laid out on the guest bed where we have all white linens and started snapping away.  About 3 minutes in to our "shoot" I decided to turn her over to get some of her sitting up and when I do... HOLY MOLY- a puddle the length of her body is underneath!  Didn't she JUST pee??? Yet again our naked baby shoot is cut short and I again, went about the process of giving her a bath, stripping the bed and so on.  I don't know how baby photographers do it.  They are like little time bombs!

I did manage to get a couple of cute shots before 'Soak Fest 2011' but we will try again later this week... when I don't mind doing MORE laundry. :)

My favorite, I just want to cuddle with her:) 

Baby tooshies rock

Mmmm... toes!

Dylann found her feet a couple of weeks ago, but we just recently discovered we can put them in... our mouth!  The best part is she doesn't quite have her control and aim down yet, so she usually ends up with a toe in her nose, or her foot over her head with her head arched back, mouth open, biting at air.

SOOOO close!

This new discovery may have made bath time and diaper changes a little more interesting, but it's proved hours of entertainment not only for her, but myself as well!

Mozart? Not for this baby.

So I have found the ultimate recipe to make Dylann laugh.  Old skool rap.  Yep, my baby girl is gangsta. :)

I was watching 'The Proposal' on TV the other day and during the movie Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds do a little impromptu duet of "It takes two to make a thing go right" By Rob Base and DJ E Z Rock.  At the end of the movie they play the song during the credits.  Well, leave it to silly mommy to get up and dance around the living room and bust out my rap skills into the remote.  Dylann went nuts.  So today after her nap I surprised her with the youtube version of the music video on the computer and again, Mommy's silly antics.  She definitely loves her Baby Genius classical music DVD's, but some old school hip hop is currently the crowd pleaser! haha!

"Hip-Hop Lullaby's- Volume II" 

Bling Bling Baby

So we went through with it.  On Sunday we got Dylann's ears pierced.  Originally, when I found out I was having a girl I 'knew' I wanted to get her ears pierced as a baby.  I think it is just adorable and it is nice to have them done before they can remember it.  However, once I had Dylann, I was torn about being the source of causing her pain.  Getting shots is one thing, because they are for her health, but to stick needles in her ears because I think it's cute, was suddenly not as necessary.

We asked our doctor at her 4 month check-up if he pierced ears and unfortunately, they did not do it in the office.  He told us it was no big deal especially since she had gotten two rounds of boosters and that going to a place like Claire's would be fine.  This kind of freaked me out because I did not want some teenager putting permanent holes in my daughter.  After going back and forth on it for a couple of days we happened to be running errands around Claire's and Kyle said, "Let's just do it."  I had to call Aunt Lindsey who got Emma's ears pierced at 6 months for a pep-talk.  She definitely calmed my nerves and I agreed. We walked in and  up to the counter and upon seeing me the girl behind the register said "getting ears pierced?" I was thinking 'wow, how did she know that?' when she said "I can tell by that look of terror on your face." Nice.

I felt rude, but I asked her if she had a lot of experience and she said yes, and seemed very confident, so that put me a little at ease.  We picked out small 14k white gold diamonds and then it was go time.  Kyle held her in his lap and the girl had to do one ear at a time.  She went up to do the first hole and I braced for a wail.  Snap went the gun and.... no scream, not even a whimper.  She made a WT??? face, but I then gave her a lick from the sugar free sucker the girl gave me and all was forgotten.  Could it be that easy?!  She immediately went to the next side and snap.... "Whhhaaaaaaa".  There was the cry I was looking for.  It was not a scream by any means, more of a "Seriously... AGAIN?"  I immediately picked her up and started soothing her.  She calmed down in about 2 minutes and everything was fine.  The girl who pierced them said she was the easiest baby she's ever had.  She did amazing, Mommy survived, and I have to say, Dylann looks pretty darn cute with her new Bling. :)

 

Passed out after watching Daddy play Wii :-)

Blog Envy

Ok, so maybe I'm blog challenged, but I can not get this thing to look 'cute' or at least decent.  My cousin Cora needs to give me lessons on how to edit, because everything I do just makes it look worse.

Yes, I have blog envy. Sigh. I guess I will just have to continue procrastinating on all the things I need to do and play with this some more. ;-)

4 Months Old Already!

Ok, so here is the reason I dusted off my one-entry-blog.  Dylann has just turned 4 months old and a LOT of exciting things have happened over the last couple of days. Mind you, this is coming from a first time parent, so 'exciting' to me is probably a little different then what you are thinking.

We went in for Dylann's 4 month appointment Wednesday, January 5th and she is now weighing 13.7lbs(47%), is 25.75in long(94%) and her HC is 16.5(76%).  Yep, she's a long string bean.  And that adds up to a little over 4lbs and 4 inches in 4 months- wow! She also got her 2nd round of shots, Mommy's least favorite part.  She wasn't as loud this time, but she cried a little longer then at her 2 month shots and had some fat crocodile tears.  It broke my heart. The doctor said she is doing great though and she has wonderful head control. He then asked me if she was rolling over yet.  I replied no and immediately looked down like I had done something wrong. He, of course, informed me it was no big deal and some babies don't roll over until 6 months, but I couldn't help but feel I had failed in some way.  "My poor baby can't roll over yet- I am a failure as a mother!"

The next morning I woke up with a new found ambition to work on Tummy Time.  Dylann has not been a big fan of being on her belly, but I wanted to help her get to the roll over stage.  So, I put her on her new play mat that she got from Aunt Paulette and Aunt Jane for Christmas, assumed the position in front of her head with all the coolest toys I could find, and got ready to do everything I could to keep her from losing interest.  So, what does she do?  Props up on both hands, slides out her right arm and rolls right over to her back!  Poof!  Just like that.  I didn't even have time to smile at her.  I put her back on her tummy to make sure it wasn't just a fluke and sure enough, she propped herself up for about 30 seconds and then, roll she goes.  You would think I just won the lottery by the way I was clapping and making baby faces.  I was so proud of her.  To be honest though, I couldn't help but think, "You couldn't have done this yesterday before we went to the doctor?!"

"Mom...tummy time sucks!"

Our other exciting adventure is that the doctor gave us the go ahead to start D on rice cereal. Yay, solid foods and from what I hear, smelly diapers!  Kyle and I decided to introduce her to the fun 'mush' that very evening.  She did surprisingly well, although I think she enjoyed chewing on the spoon more then eating the cereal.  Another sign she is definitely teething.  I am a big fan of the bumbo Aunt Lindsey let us borrow, it is amazing how something so simple can be so handy...and I am finally going to get some good use out of ALL those bibs I have.

So far, a good start to 2011.

Rice Cereal is Guuuud. 

Playing Catch Up

Ok, so I guess I was a little ambitious on the weekly/monthly updates!  Haha!  But one of my New Years Resolutions is to Blog regularly for our family so, here we go.  I would go back and write a bunch of 'make up' posts about the last few months, but most of you have heard or know what's going on in our family, so a quick break down will do.

1) We had a beautiful little girl on September 4th, 2010 at 7:14am.  Her name is Dylann Marie and she weighed 8lbs 14oz and was almost 22 inches long!  One of the most amazing experiences of my life was holding her for the first time... I will never forget it.

2) Dylann's first month was great and we some how got very lucky with an angel baby.  She sleeps well, eats well, and only cries when she needs something.  Not sure what Kyle and I did in a previous life- but we are loving our baby girl!

3) Dylann's second month was so much fun!  She started to smile and lights up the room with her emerging personality.  For her first Halloween I just had to dress her up as a 'Baby Swan'... she was precious. She also had her first set of shots on November 4th and I brought Kyle for moral support.  She was a trooper, but that is a sound I never what to hear again.

4) During month 3, Dylann started sleeping 12 hours through the night (amazing!) and has started to giggle and hold her head up.  She is so bright eyed and observant.  She really takes everything in.

5) For the holidays we went to Atlanta for Thanksgiving where Dylann and her cousin, Emma, got to bond.  Grandpa Starck also came down to join us which was a nice treat. Then for Christmas we went to Atlanta for a few days and saw Ashley and Tom who were in town from LA along with the rest of the Johndrow Crew.  From there we drove 14 hours to WI to see Kyle's family.  We were there for a week and a half and got to see a lot of the family which was wonderful.  Everyone loved Dylann and she had a great first Christmas, meeting Santa, spending time with family and new cousins, and seeing snow for the first time!

 

So there's a break down of what we have been up to!  Let's move on to the New Year, and hopefully a more up-to-date blog!