A Crime Against Nature

As you may or may not know, the Webster-Stoppel clan recently bought their first home, and for the most part, we're still madly in love with it. However, as with most new things, there are certain points you wish you'd noticed before purchasing said item--the bath towels that you swore were blue in the store, only to find out that in your bathroom, they're totally gray, or the gap that appears in that super-cute new button-down that gives your co-workers more insight into your "world" than you'd anticipated. I'm having similar feelings about the closet in the master bedroom.

When we first looked at the house, the closet in the master bedroom was a selling point. It's huge; actually, it's two closets, with two doors and two lights and everything. I was so excited that Jon and I weren't going to have to struggle to smash everything into one closet, and more importantly, my dresser wasn't going to be downstairs on a completely different level than my bedroom/bathroom. All good things, right? Fast-forward to December: Said gargantuan closet is located over the garage, and the garage is not heated (nor is it cooled, so expect similar complaints in July), and therefore, the enormous and wonderful closet is transformed into an icebox of meat locker proportions. Seriously, I think I could move some of the stuff from the deep freeze into the closet, and it would keep just fine.

So, I say unto you (and you can imagine me shaking my fists at the sky and shouting the following), it is a crime against nature to be colder when you have put your clothes on than you were before dressing! I yearn for Spring when I will no longer live in dread of choosing something to wear...

Bald is Beautiful

Remember this? The tiny baby who so wooed the nurses with her lucious, brown locks?

Well, no more my friends! I prayed and prayed that her hair wouldn't fall out, but did the hair gods listen? No, instead they left with the mother of all punk/goth hairdos--long on the top and short on the sides. Not only that, her need to constantly know what's going on around her has left her with the following:

Hopefully, she'll believe the same line I've been giving her dad for the last four years: Bald is beautiful (even if it's only one small, oval patch on the back of your head).

That's How We Roll

So, Maddie rolled over for the first time yesterday. She's rolling back to front, which is actually harder than front to back. (She hasn't even attempted front to back yet, but we're sure she'll get there eventually.) Now that she's attained this new skill, she wants to do it all the time. If you lay her on the ground, odds are when you next look at her, she'll be on her side or lying on her stomach with her left arm pinned under her. (We're still working on that part...) We finally got some video of her today, so you can check that out below.

Oh, and babies don't usually roll over back to front until around the six month mark. We're just sayin'...

Ridiculous with a Capital "R"

So, you know when you're out in public, and you see people who've dressed their children in strange/ridiculous/incredibly unnecessary items of clothing, and you think to yourself, "Wow, those people have absolutely abysmal taste," or "Perhaps they secretly hate their child," or "Man, I can't wait to see the therapy bills that result from that!" Well, we (and by we I mean Jon, who is completely responsible for the following) have officially become "those people." It's completely possible that Maddie will never forgive us.

Oh, and please ignore my voice in the video. I didn't realize Jon was filming, and like most people, I can't stand the way I sound on tape.

Complete Portrait Session

I promised that I would inform you when all of the proofs from Maddie's photo session were available, so... All the proofs from Maddie's photo session are now available. If you click on the following link, http://www.joshsolarphoto.com/, it will take you to their webpage. From there, click on Portrait Photography, then click on Proofing. Once the page has loaded, the password is maddie. Enjoy!

Happy Pukes-giving!

Greetings fellow survivors of the Thanksgiving holiday! What? Wait, what do you mean you don't consider yourself a survivor of Thanksgiving? I thought everyone came down with the incredibly nasty stomach bug that gripped the entire Webster-Stoppel (and extended Stoppel) family in its vomitous teeth and shook it like a rat terrier shakes a...rat. No, you say? You didn't spend several hours with your head (or behind) in the toilet praying to whatever gods may be listening that it would all soon be over? Hmmm, must just be us.

So, just in case you didn't figure it out, Jon, Nancy, Larry, Chris, and I were all victims of a rather violent stomach flu in the days following Thanksgiving. I will be using this as an excuse for our lack of recent posts, and I expect an appropriate amount of sympathy from all of you.

Oh, and for those of you who were worried, Maddie didn't come down with a full-blown version of this bug. If she had, you'd probably be reading a post titled "Baby's First Emergency Room Visit!" I think she had a watered-down version Saturday night (long night...), but we're all doing well now. I promise to post something more interesting, and hopefully less disgusting, soon!

Three Months of Complete Adorability

Today Josh and Jenny Solar came to the house to shoot Maddie's three-month photo session. She started out pretty well, and they got some really good shots. By the end of the session, I think she was a little stressed out, tired of four adults acting like complete idiots, especially since they were obviously not as amusing as they thought. They got some pretty good shots, though. We've posted a few below, but you can find more on their blog. They'll have all the shots from today ready in about a week, so we'll post more information then. Until that time, enjoy the cuteness!

Finger Sucking Indecision

Maddie had control of Aunt Christa's finger this evening and decided to practice her hand to mouth control. She would repetively insert Christa's finger and then move it out and then back in, it was rather humorous to watch! (Christa is not moving her hand at all)

Maddie's New Room!

So, after more than two months in our new home, we finally got around to finishing Maddie's room.

While the postponment of this project was mostly due to our infamous ability to procrastinate, there were some other obsticals. For one, the people who previously owned the house really liked wallpaper. Well, at least they did like wallpaper, at one time. However, at some point, they changed their minds. They decided that the wallpaper covering a good portion of the walls of their home was no longer to their taste. BUT, did they strip it? Did they replace it with new wallpaper? No, they painted over it... Needless to say, stripping wallpaper through paint is not easy. Luckily, in her room, it was just a border. Imagine how long it will take us to get the rest of the house painted.

In addition to the paint/paper issue, I also complicated things be insisting that we do stripes--in the same color, but in different finishes. It involved a lot of measuring and taping, and until it turned out well, I was not the most popular person in the house.

Jon also got to install his first ceiling fan, which was not quite as simple as he anticipated. It's remote controlled, which is nice, but there's not a lot of room for the equipment that "talks" to the remote (I know; my technical knowledge is astounding.), so it took a long time and several rounds of "language" to get it going. (Oh, and since I know he's going to mention this unless I do, he's also installed a OTR microwave, dishwasher, and gas-burning fire place since we moved in. He's very handy.)

Now that it's all behind us, we think you'll agree that the overall result is nothing less than fantastic! Feel free to marvel in our decorating skills and express your amazement/jealousy freely.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Alaina's 27th birthday. For her birthday we have decided to get a babysitter (Christa, Alaina's sister) and have dinner at the Bluebird Bistro. It will be our first real date since Maddie was born.