mug shots, snapshots, Jager shots

       Getting your baby's hand prints and foot prints is a lot easier said than done. I had the perfect idea for what I wanted to get Keith and my father for fathers day. I wanted to go to Color Me Mine and decorate a mug with Jayde's hand prints and foot prints. I had this perfect picture in my head of what the experience would be like, Jayde sitting perfectly still while I panted the paint on her hands and feet and then getting a perfect print onto the mug. The experience was nothing like I imagined. After I was done painting Keith's mug an all-over turquoise color and my father's mug a green color, I decided I was going to make Jayde's prints a dark purple color. I started off trying to get a foot print but she was screaming at the top of her lungs. I then went outside in the car to feed her and after she got her belly full she was happy again. I then went back in and attempted to do a hand print, which wasn't going to happen. Every time I painted her hand she would close it and get the paint all over the place. After two tries, I gave up getting her hand print onto the mugs all together because I knew it wasn't going to happen. Her feet weren't easy either, painting them was almost as difficult as her hands. I knew I had to at least get her feet because I didn't just paint my father and Keith mugs for no reason. So, my mother held Jayde while I held down her leg and foot while an employee helped paint her feet to get them onto the mugs. The foot prints looked nothing like I expected them to look like and I kept having to re-do them until I was satisfied. Eventually both my mother and I were stressed while Jayde sat their screaming. We just wanted to get everything done with so we finished up with the foot prints, wrote "#1 Dad" and "#1 Grandpa" on them, and called it a day. I picked them up a week later after they were fired and glazed and when I saw them I was very happy with the way they turned out. They where exactly what I wanted and I was so excited to give Keith and my father their fathers day present. They both loved it, and now they will always have a mug with Jayde's little foot prints on them from when she was a baby.

Keith's Fathers Day present-- There are foot prints around the whole mug

       While I think that I have the most beautiful baby that has ever lived, I also know that all parents think the same thing about their baby. Every time I take Jayde in public people always say the same things, "That is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, she is going to be a heart breaker!", "Look at those beautiful eyes, your baby should be a model!". A couple months ago I submitted Jayde to be in a contest to be on the cover of Parent's Magazine. She was one of the finalists, however she didn't win. I wasn't heart broken or anything, I entered her in the contest just for fun. After that, I hadn't really thought of Jayde being a model until just a few weeks ago. One of Keith's friend's son is a model/actor and she recommended her agent to us if we were considering ever finding an agent for Jayde. I then e-mailed her and she asked us to submit Jayde's photos to her along with some other basic information. (Jayde's height, weight, age, etc.) So on Saturday I sent her a few of my favorite pictures not expecting to hear anything back anytime soon. Yesterday she called me and wanted to set up an appointment to meet Jayde. Tomorrow Keith and I are taking Jayde into the agency and although I'm hopeful, I'm not getting my hopes too high. Her being a little baby model would be cool, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if nothing happened. I'm doing all of this just for fun.

This was the picture that was submitted to the Parent's Magazine cover contest

       On Saturday was my first night ever away from Jayde. I went to San Francisco to visit some friends that I went to SFSU with. After deciding that I was going to go, I was so excited! I haven't been able to be with anybody for the last 5 months without having Jayde with me. Not only that, but this was going to be my first night drinking in over a year. That night while I was getting ready I was so nervous, I was literally shaking while doing my hair. Right before I was about to leave, I started to get cold feet asking Keith whether or not he thought it was a good idea if I went. If it wasn't for him reassuring me that everything would be OK at home, I probably wouldn't have been able to go. I left about 6 oz. of expressed breast milk along with some Nutramigen formula just in case the breast milk wasn't enough (Jayde can't drink regular formula. The one time she did have it she had an allergic reaction! Her pediatrician thinks she might be allergic to cows milk). After about an hour of pacing the house, I finally left. I had such an amazing night. It was no nice to be able to relax and hang out with my friends without having to worry about keeping track of a baby. However, at the end of the night I kept wishing I could go home but because I drank I wasn't able to. I missed both Jayde and Keith and kept looking at the clock wishing it would be morning. I can say that I probably won't be drinking for a while. Keeping track of drinks to determine when all the alcohol will be out of your blood is stressful and takes away from the experience. By the end of the night I was so stressed about when I would be able to feed my daughter again and if my breast milk was tainted that I asked Keith to run to Target in the morning to get a test to determin if there was still alcohol still in my system. Thank god when I got home and tested my milk it was clear, because Jayde was hungry and had just finished all her breast milk! Also, she hated her formula and wouldn't drink it! So I took Jayde into bed with me and we snuggled while I feeding her until we both fell asleep and took a nap.