Water Cooler Talk

The Oscars:
Boring!!!!! Where were all the REAL celebrities? No Charlize, No TomKat, No Bragelina, No Reese, No Gyllenhal's, No Smiths's, No Leo, No Kiera, No Crowe, and the list goes on and on. I went to E! on-line thinking that the cameras at E!, TV Guide, and ABC must have missed them walking in or something, but there was only 22 photo's to even vote on. Lack of super stars equated to lack of fashion. Maybe they should re-think inviting Miley and Sean Combs instead of true heavyweights to present. There were some highlights, but overall not enough to even make it a show. I liked Kerri Russell and of course Jennifer Garner. I might be biased though because I was such a huge Alias fan.
In the pre-shows that said to look out for colored diamonds and tons of colored dresses, but outside of all the Red dresses there was not that much color excitement. Oh, and the ponytail was so Golden globes 2 years ago! Boo! I am actually boo'ing the Oscars...

American Idol:
So I know this is like 3 weeks ago, but I cannot even explain how upset I am that Josiah Leming was cut out from the top 24 of American Idol. I really liked his first audition and then at Hollywood week when he did "Grace Kelly" I was sold. (I even liked his "Stand by Me.") Ben is so sick of listening to me play his clip on You Tube over and over and over again. Everyone always makes fun of me for picking up accents from where I live, so I totally understand the English accent. So I guess David is my front runner now, and I like the Australian guy too. But if it's not Josiah, I really don't even care....

Lost:
Wow! What a season and how sad that we will only get half of it due to the writers strike. I am so excited that Kate has Aaron and will Jack ever know that he is his nephew, so crazy. I want to go on the obsessed fans sites, but Ben will be mad at me if I read the spoilers and wreck it for him. Since I told the whole kindergarten class about Santa I am guessing I will not be able to contain any information I learn about Lost. I hope the writer's strike does not change the direction they were going, I am willing to wait for the story to be told correctly. So good!

Assembly Line

The only thing more efficient than an assembly line for diaper changes would be for them each to roll over and diaper the kid next to them. I am keeping my fingers crossed that will happen soon!

Late Night at the Office

I was so bored last night waiting for Ben to get home that I wrote him a song, to try to get him to call me. He was pretty wiped out and did not even understand my e-mail. I was pretty bummed out because I thought I was hilarious, but it was midnight so I might have been a little delirious myself.

Tune of Hey there Delilah, by the Plain White Tees:

"Hey there, Benjamin.... What's it like in the Yum building? I'm 20 miles away, but boy, tonight you look so tired, yes you do, earnings release must be getting the best of you, oh well it's true..."

Maybe not so funny, but I still crack myself up.

Aubrey's 6 Months in Review

Mid Year Review

Aubrey has reached an important milestone, her first midyear review. Yes, she is already 6 months old, we cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Aubrey is a sweet baby girl, who adores her family. She loves to watch her big brothers play and any attention they pay to her she takes full advantage. Aubs will seize every opportunity to engage with others. Try not to make eye contact unless you are ready to pick her up. Aubrey has hit the learning curve. You can see the "lightbulb" has gone off in her head and she has a much broader understanding of her role. Accoring to her Dr. she is on the fast track. I am concerned her skill sets may grow faster than the necessary experience level. Overall, a good performer. With a properly laid out action plan and increased training she will continue to grow and progress. At this point she is best suited in her current position as the baby!

Aubs personal information:

Born: 7-27-7 6 month
Weight: 7 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 19 1/4"

Check up: 1-30-7
Weight: 15 lbs 9 oz. (45th percentile)
Length: 25" (25th percentile)


She is the exact opposite of the twins, they were always skinny and long!

Key Accomplishments

6 months

• Sits by herself
• First tooth
• Babbles and it sounds like Da-Da and Ma-Ma
• Cries when you take something away from her or set her down

5 Months

• Rolls both ways
• Talks more than Mommy
• Eats $120 in baby food a month
• Put in her own Paci
• Holds a bottle
• Sleeps in her crib for Naps and part-time at night
• Transfers toys from hand to hand

4 Months

• Eating her purees
• Turns her fish mobile on and off

3 Months

• Mastered the ExcerSaucer
• Stands with help

2 Months

• Cried a lot
• Must be held while standing up
• Rolled over

1 Month

• Champion Nurser
• Slept a lot

Areas for Growth

• Sleeping through the night
• Being set down without screaming
• Not putting everything in her mouth
• Crawling

Temp Help

This week Ben was travelling to CA for business and I was faced with the daunting task of taking care of the household and the 3 kids by myself for the week. Since I am exhausted by the time Ben gets home each night I thought it necessary to call in reinforcements and get some temporary help. Phyll (my Mom) and Conrad (my Aunt Connie) to the rescue.
Phyll and Connie packed up and headed down to Louisville on Sunday afternoon. My Mom realized quickly that she was under the weather and should not have come after all. She was in bed most the time they were here and unable to visit with her grand kids much. Lucky for me Great-Aunt Connie rose to the challenge and gave me a lot of help and support with the boys and baby.
I have been informed though that there may be an impending law suit. Apparently Aubrey's demanding way of being held has left Connie bedridden with a sore back and is seeking punitive damages. Gramma unfortunately did not help our case when she claimed to have had a similar experience after a visit from Aubrey to her house. On top of the fact the I am getting back treatments and adjustments weekly now, the liable party is becoming very clear. Luckily for Aubs she has no assets of value so unless someone wants her crib or a size 6-9 months tunic and stretch leggings, they are out of luck. Aubrey is however showing remorse and has improved on her need to be held.
Temp help is always appreciated in every form. My first temp in the business world came in everyday with her cute little blue rain bonnet, promptly on time, and was a very cheerful older lady. While I thought she was just super slow at all the tasks I had given her, she actually was writing a "how-to" instruction book on each thing she accomplished. Not that it was ever used again, but her intentions were good.
Although all the workload from the position that the temp is filling in for does not usually get completed, having someone there to support you and keep you going is usually enough. I am very grateful for all the help that family and friends have provided us when Ben is travelling or busy at work. From Reeni living with me in Chicago while Ben was on an internship in MI and I was pregnant with the twins, Maggie using every vacation and lots of her summer vacation from teaching to come and stay with her nephews and niece, Cousin Nat driving almost 10 hours to pick us up to go to our grandfather's funeral, the Michigan Grandparents allowing us to crash their small condos in MI or FL when Ben is gone for long periods of time, Uncle Seth waking up with the boys everyday while they slept in his room on Christmas vacation allowing us to sleep in(even though he showed them the Sponge Bob Sq Pants show!) and Grammy coming to stay and help when babies are born and doing everything that I would have had to do in the house and taking on a lot on the night wakings when we are at our wits end.
Temp Help has allowed us to survive the past couple years and hopefully we can offer similar help to our family or show appreciation for all they do.

2007 Year End Party!

The Dunham babies rang in 2008 in style. We had a ton of fun dressing up the boys like little Justin Timberlake's and of course I could not help singing "They're bringing sexy back!" all night long. Back in December I was shopping with Maggie and we were both commenting how we would like to dress our husbands in the outfit a mannequin had on at Express Men's. Ben said "no way." He is sure not my Ken doll like he used to be, not only does he have vocal chords, he now has an opinion on fashion and practically everything else that most men could care less about.

So on New Year's Eve as I was going to try to find something in black to coordinate with Aubrey's purple dress, I remembered the boys had light purple shirts, gray/black vests and ties that they wore in Maggie's wedding. I whipped out their cool blue-black jeans and they were JT styled. Both the boys thought they looked sweet and asked me to do their "cool hair". This is hair with a substantial amount of pomade to give Owen a faux hawk and Evan an allover spike. Much to Ben's excitement that also meant a costume change for him to a black sweater, which after some major convincing he finally changed.

Aubrey was also in on the action. She wore her new gorgeous dress from Nordstrom's that Grammy got her for Christmas, but she did not have any black tights. After Ben went searching to three stores on New Year's Eve, we had to improvise, I took some 12-18 month old sized black socks with wide lace edging and hiked them up on her legs like thigh high's. Everyone loved them and kept asking where I found such cute little leggings. So all my work to coordinate the family's color scheme and as usual we did not even get a picture together. Oh well, maybe New Year's Eve 2008!!!!

HAPPY

TO ALL OUR FAMILY & FRIENDS