Our First Date Night...Sans Jillian

Well, Richard and I finally did it - we finally had a date night for just the two of us. We were actually planning on having this date last weekend for Valentine's Day, but the icy conditions made it a little risky for my mom to drive up from Dallas, so instead, she came over yesterday at 4pm. After taking some pictures of this mementous occasion, our Valentine's Date started when we got out the door around 4:30, and headed off to Stonebriar Mall to have fun at Dave and Buster's. When we got there, I realized that all I had had to eat up to that point was some soup...I was hungry and I probably wasn't going to make it to our later dinner time (plus, not eating enough could affect my milk supply), so we decided that at some point while at D&B, we would get a little snack.


So we went inside, got our "Power Cards" to play games, and headed off to our favorite game - basketball (where you compete to get the most baskets in an alotted period of time) - and I beat Richard ALL BUT ONE TIME!!! Yay me! Then, we played two games of skee-ball before deciding that it kinda wasn't fun. And then...we hit the jackpot. That game, where you put coins in to push the other coins over the edge, to get tickets - yeah...I got about 500 tickets!!!! Richard got a whole lot, too!!! (Oh yeah, somewhere in there, we got some awesome nachos). Anyway, so we went to the "Winner's Circle" to see what kinds of prizes we would try to get with all of our tickets (and after having them count the tickets, realized that each ticket counted as 2). We decided that we would definitely be getting Jillian a stuffed animal or two...and went off to play several last games of basketball and the coin game...we ended up with over 2500 tickets!!! SO, Richard and I got 4 (FOUR!!!) stuffed animals!


We headed home because it was time to feed Jillian (I'm sure she wouldn't be happy to get a bottle before going to bed...she's used to having her Mommy!). I ran to the front door, ran to the living room, and was soooo happy to see Jillian alive and okay (of course, I didn't really doubt that she would be fine, but you mothers know what I'm talking about). So I fed her, put her to bed, and left my mom with dinner and Dancing with the Stars.

Richard and I headed off to Kirby's Steakhouse - one of my favorite places, though I had only been to the Dallas location, so going to the Frisco one was new and exciting, especially on such a special date! Just so that I can remember every little nuance of our first date out, I'm listing off everything we ate: Richard ordered the Prime New York Strip, with the soup of the day - tasty Chicken Jalepeno and a baked potato. I ordered the 7 oz. Pepper Steak, salad with creamy garlic dressing, and a baked potato as well. We also ordered a side of asparagus (anyone who knows Richard should be proud that I have him liking this stuff!). After ordering we asked the waiter to take a picture of us...

Our soup and salad came out and was delicious! Richard was kind enough to let me try his soup and it was very, very good. We had great conversation, and I think we were even able to talk about topics other than our wonderful Jillian! It was refreshing to be out on our own again (though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still longing to see my Munchkin).

Anyway, our dinners came out and they were awesome! I should've taken pictures. But trust me, very delicious! However, we knew that we wanted dessert, so we decided to get to-go boxes. The waiter brought the dessert menu out and I got something I hadn't had in SO LONG - coffee!!! I still got decaf, but it was great! Anyway, we ordered Sin on a Plate and the Chocolate Cake with Ice Cream - I had had the first before and thought that it was great, so I was surprised when I tasted the chocolate cake and discovered it was even better!!! Warm with a touch of cinnamon, it reminded me of my family's chocolate sheath (sp?) cake. YUMMY!!! Of course, we couldn't eat all of the sweetness, so we boxed it up as well! Needless to say, our fridge is full of styrofoam boxes.

It was a wonderful dinner and date - we went home full and appreciative to my mom, who allowed us to get out and enjoy eachother in a different setting. Thank you to my mom and thank you to my wonderful husband Richard - I will never forget our special date and I will always love you!

RE: The Nature of Leap and Lily's Relationship

Richard has informed me that he believes Leap and Lily are "lovers" - his reasoning is that there is another Leapfrog friend named "Tad." Richard believes that because "Tad" refers to "tadpole," he is most likely Leap and Lily's "lovechild." Sheesh.

So I'd like to conduct a poll: Are Leap and Lily siblings or lovers? What do you think?

Jillian's New Friend, Lily

For Christmas, Richard's parents gave Jillian "Leap." She has absolutely loved Leap - she grins when he sings the ABC's and she loves to gnaw on his head, arms, and/or attached ring! So I thought that she should have Leap's counterpart, "Lily," as Richard and I believe that they must be siblings, and we don't want to separate them! :) Besides, Lily sings a "counting song" from 1 to 10 - how fun is that?! So today when we ran errands, Jillian enjoyed grinning at and gnawing on Lily!

Muppet Personality Test

Interesting...

I found this personality test on my friend Tara's myspace page, and these are my results:

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

What are you? :)

Mommy is finally inspired to take advantage of music collection!

While watching the Olympics last night, I realized how much I miss listening to all kinds of classical music. Actually, it was while watching the girl from Japan (that ended up getting the gold) skate to music from Puccini's "Turandot." I probably annoyed Richard by humming the whole way through it! SO, Jillian and I will be trying to listen to a wider variety of music than before (we have been listening to "Classical Favorites," the classical radio station, and sometimes even stuff like Natalie Merchant...she loves when Mommy sings to her!).

Right now, we're listening to Mozart's "DieZauberflöte" (The Magic Flute) - an opera I love, and have actually seen performed at the Coliseum Opera House in London, as well as having sung portions of it in college and graduate school. This will be fun to revisit my music background - my classical/opera music library is a pretty good sized one, and this is the perfect time to take advantage of it! I just seemed to collect lots of CD's that I learned about and grew to love and appreciate while in school. Many times (in fact, most of the time), after having been assigned a new vocal piece, I would find a good recording (or two) of it, in order to help me learn it. Other times, I would fall in love with a piece in one of my music history classes. Then, there were times when there was a deal on an opera CD set that was just too good to pass up. Actually, I think I got most of my CDs at a great price, as I seemed to frequent places like CD Source and Half Price Books. Places like those have great collections of classical music for amazing prices! My "Magic Flute" box set is like new and I got it for $18.99. Here is the same one on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000041ZF...

Obviously, it really pays to check out those other retailers! Anyway, Jillian and I will keep you all posted on everything we're listening to!

Rolling over used to be a good thing...

Sheesh. The White House has a problem. Jillian has learned how to roll over from her back to her tummy, but not so much her tummy to her back. This has presented a problem when she sleeps...for one, she rolls onto her tummy, and gets her adorably large thighs stuck in between the crib rails (it takes some work to get them out, but we've been told that this is far better than having bumpers in the crib). Anyway, so her legs get stuck, AND she's on her tummy - so she just yells and screams until we roll her back over...and it happens again! We've tried working with her to help her go from tummy to back, and she'll hang out on her tummy for a long while, just playing, grabbing things, and drooling. But then she gets fatigued and fussy and either ends up just crying or burying her face in the floor...thus, rarely attempting to roll over! What's a mother to do?!
We've ordered a breathable bumper for her crib - it's pretty much mesh that goes around it, to prevent her legs getting caught, and I'm hoping that if she were to start rolling on her tummy, that she could use her legs to push off the mesh and get back on her back. For now, while waiting on the breathable bumper, Jillian is "sleeping" in her Pack n' Play, so that we don't get any more stuck limbs. She seemed to like it at first, but not now. :(
We had probably a good month of her sleeping from 8pm-8am...and now we don't. :( Yeah, it's great, she goes down really easily at 8pm, but around 1am, she seems to start moving around a lot - she'll roll onto her side, and then when she rolls back on her back, it startles her and she wakes up unhappy. Mommy and Daddy haven't been getting much sleep either. :(
Anyway, here's hoping it'll get better soon!!!!

Wow! Finally a blog...

Okay, so I've been terrible about not blogging on my own page...but I will try to start doing that more often. For now, I'm posting a recent pic of me and my adorable Jillian!