Bits and bobs

My brain's not put together enough post-baby to write anything of substance, so expect to see a lot more of these in the future. #mamabrain

[one]
Kate learned how to smile this last week.

MY. HEART.

I didn't realize that I had been waiting for that moment until she did it and I think my heart stopped from pure joy. She looked into my eyes (for real, not that unfocused gaze that early newborns have), cooed a little, and gave me the biggest smile you could imagine.

Every day since then has been singled-minded on the part of me and David: get her to repeat it. And she's such a happy, obliging baby that she does! Even if she's hungry or has a dirty diaper, she's still willing to forget it for awhile if you get real close and talk to her and smile. Then she'll pucker those sweet lips and talk right back and it's adorable.

I'm so in love with her, it's hard to believe she wasn't in our lives at some point. Just 5 weeks ago she was still inside me...it's really crazy to think about.

[two]
This Fourth of July (baby's first!) was perfect. We went tubing on the Niobrara up near Long Pine, NE (you fellow Nebraskans should check it out if you get the chance, it's amazing), ate deliciously American food (it's what the Founding Fathers would want), and blew some stuff up. It was a nice relaxing weekend and hopefully we'll get to go again soon.

Can you spy Baby Kate?

We're lucky that Kate first of all adores her car seat, and also loves being worn. It makes travel with her super easy. She may have pooped all over David twice in the same weekend (I warned him!) so she might make us bring more clothes than normal, but it's worth it.

[three]
David and I like to jam out on our drives from his parent's house back home (about an hour and a half) and yesterday during the drive, we remembered this song and how catchy and awesome it was. Problem was, the first time we heard it David accidentally skipped it about 10 seconds in to the song, and it took us about half an hour to search it on the internet and finally realize it was LFO's Every Other Time.

Do you know how many songs have "nanananana" in them? An ENORMOUS AMOUNT. It was impossible to find because that's the only part of the song we knew, except for we knew it was a late 90s/early 2000s band.

20 Google searches later, I finally found it. It was a lot of work but worth it...and of course it's been stuck in my head ever since!

[four]
David's dad accidentally broke my camera a few weeks ago so now it will only take photos in Manual mode. It's a little unfortunate because the camera is brand new but on the plus side, it's been forcing me to actually figure out how to shoot in manual!

Here are some photos I took over the weekend that turned out pretty okay, if I say so myself. The beautiful light and dust in a few of them did the work for me - no credit to my photography skills there.

#SOOC

#SOOC

Let's be honest, I don't need those #SOOC things because I am terrible at editing photos. I've had Photoshop for over a year now and I still feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark when I try and do stuff.

[five]
I haven't had a margarita since Kate was born. I just realized this and now can't go 20 minutes without craving one.

David and I have a date planned this week (sans Kate!) to our favorite Mexican place, La Mexicana, where the margs are delicious and cheap and oh-so-wonderful. I'm stoked.

Catch ya later, alligator!
HG