Trying to clean your room with a mobile 13 month old is ridiculous.

At the moment I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of strangers who are going to clean out my dryer vent, glories of home ownership I suppose. Is this something people have done regularly? I don’t remember ever knowing of anyone who’s had it done. I need my dryer back, I would have never made it as a pioneer.

So this baby, she likes to dance, nay LOVES to dance. She even has a favorite song, “Lonely Boy” by The Black Keys. We have a Pandora station all set up for her. The crazier the guitar? The happier the baby.

This is another one of those things that I’m fairly certain only my immediate family and my husband are interested in, but in case you feel the need to watch a chubby little baby in a rocketship diaper dance? Here’s the video for you. (Don’t miss the shimmy double seated pirouette at 00:25)

My dad said I should photoshop cowboy boots onto her and edit the video to “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”

I think he has a valid argument.

And Vivi has rug burn.

(Guess what? This video was shot and seamlessly uploaded straight to YouTube with my Motorola Droid Bionic. No more recording, uploading, editing and uploading through my camera/computer again!)

So there’s a few growing pains going on around these parts. If my blog were a car it would be my old 1994 Nissan Altima. Still works, kinda. Should probably be overhauled and upgraded to a much newer model…but it’s just not that broken yet. Maybe an unlicensed 15 year old will run a red light and total my blog just like one totaled my Altima six years ago.

RIP Altima.

The biggest change is that I’ve added in links to my posts from over at babble. I sure do like writing over there. Keeps me busy. Keeps my brain occupied…which is doing wonders for my outlook on life. Just a couple of days I ago I started writing for another (I KNOW) babble blog…this one is about raising kids 4-8 years old. If you’re into math like Addie is (“SWEET! THERE’S ANOTHER MATH PROBLEM!” was overheard during homework this evening.) That’s just over 40 posts monthly between the two. Plus what I do here. And anywhere else I do stuff.

Speaking of doing stuff.

I take a lot of pictures of my baby.

And then when she goes to sleep?

I stare at all the pictures of my baby.

Oh my how I love these babies of mine.

I have my first of four appointments to have my pregnancy face lasered off with frickin’ laser beams (hopefully not attached to sharks) today. It should be interesting. And hopefully not too painful. And yield glorious and amazing results. No pressure though. I’m all about reality.

This baby right here?

SHE NAPS.

As in you feed her, burp her, change her, snuggle her, lay her down in her bed, walk away AND SHE FALLS ASLEEP ON HER OWN.

TWICE A DAY.

Officially the highlight of the week.

I would say rolling over was a pretty big highlight but she needs to knock it off with this developmental stuff. STAY LITTLE BABY!

Somebody asked me if this photo was staged.

Nope.

This photo is what happens almost every day when Addie gets home from school. Vivi scoots as close to Addie as she can and stays there until Addie is done reading to her.

My heart is very full of very happy stuff.

My brain is behaving very well.

Which in turn makes my eyes a little misty with some wet stuff.

So…Vivi found her volume switch.

Multiple times today I made MAD DASHES across my house to make sure nothing was eating, pinching, sitting on, stealing, choking, scaring, hitting or biting the baby. Because surely babies don’t just randomly shriek out in the same high pitched shrill tones for every emotion they’re capable of conveying.

Turns out Vivi does.

And it’s the stuff scary movies that include children in the plot are made of.

Cody keeps the monitor turned up extra loud for whatever reason I’m not sure of yet because I can assure you that if she wakes with the monitor at a normal human level he’ll feel my kick long before he would ever hear her over the monitor at any level. I’m scared of what we’ll be awoken with tonight. It could be that she’s excited for another day of being a baby! Or she’s being eaten by a R.O.U.S. The monitor is capable of amplifying Vivi’s newly discovered volume switch exponentially.

I can hear her breathing through it right now.

The thought of her trying out her new mandrake shriek at two a.m. simply because she can with the monitor up this loud?

I may very well wet the bed.

Vivi screaming me awake or Addie standing thisclosetomyface when I open my eyes…

Suddenly it’s a toss up.