Masquerade Ball

Hope everyone has a safe holiday. The Denbows will be spending a quiet evening at home with the lights off to deter anyone from trying to come to the door. Allie just doesn’t do well on Halloween and I don’t want her barking her head off & scaring Daphne everytime the door bell rings. We didn’t even get Daphne a costume.  I couldn’t talk Chris into it, even for the photo op.  Chris celebrated early by shooting the annual Rocky Horror Picture Show Masquerade Ball at the Alabama Theatre. If you haven’t already, check out his Flickr account for the pics. All I can say is there are some freaks out there!!!

Photo Mojo On TV

Today Daphne and I were home, laying on the sofa, watching Oprah (I’m really getting into this stay at home mom thing!) on the DVR. Dr. Oz was on and he annoys me so as I was fast forwarding through the show I noticed a commercial for the Moss Rock festival with a couple pics that looked really familiar!! Last year the organizers asked if they could use some of Chris’ pictures in their promotional material and two of them ended up in their latest commercial for the upcoming event this weekend. Pretty cool!! Click on the picture to go to Chris’ Flickr account to view more.

Today Daphne is 8 weeks old. It’s amazing to look back on the past two months and see how much she’s changed. For those of you that have yet to meet Miss Daphne here are some facts about our girl:

1. Daphne is completely full of crap. Literally. I’ve read things about other breastfed babies that only poop once a day, or once a week even. Not our girl. She poops after she eats, before she eats, immediately after you change her diaper… all day long. And pooping takes great effort for her, she spends most of the day grunting and waving her little arms around, that is when she isn’t eating.

2. Daphne’s eyes are two different colors. One is a clear blue. The other is more greenish hazel. We are hoping they will eventually both turn hazel (Chris has hazel eyes) or blue. The idea that her eyes might be permanently different horrifies Chris. I think it would make her unforgettable. I’ve tried to convince Chris that lots of pretty people have two different color eyes- like Demi Moore and Kate Bosworth. Daphne won’t be a freak.

3. Daphne’s finally catching up on her growth. Today she weighed in at 10 lbs 9 oz and is in the 40% percentile. At one month she was only 7 lbs 13 oz and 15% for weight. Hard to believe she was 5 lbs 9 oz the day we left the hospital. Her head has grown from 13 inches to 15 inches (uh oh, she might have my big head after all, and since she inherited her father’s thick boofy hair we are hoping she doesn’t look like a bobble head when she gets older) and is now 21 inches long (so she’s a pretty short girl for her age, no surprise there).

4. Daphne is finally smiling on a regular basis, and we can distinguish it as a social smile, not just gas. Can’t wait til she starts to giggle too.

5. Daphne has figured out the louder she cries, the faster we respond. Before she would fuss and cry a little when she was hungry. Now she cries bloody murder.

6. Daphne’s latest thing is she likes be held so she’s sitting up and looking around, preferably at the pictures on our walls, or the ceiling fan. Her neck control is getting pretty good. It won’t be long before she can hold her head up all by herself with no wobbles.

7. Daphne loves blues music. When she’s fussy at nights Chris puts on BB King’s “Paying the Cost to be the Boss” and she stops crying immediately. She also likes Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy” (Chris has a video of this somewhere on Vimeo). She doesn’t seem to respond the same to the music I like (U2, The Police, etc..), guess there’s not enough of a beat for her.

8. Daphne’s hair continues to grow like it’s Play-doh coming out of a Fuzzy Pumper Barbershop toy (for those of you that don’t get the reference, that was a toy in the 80’s, the little figurines go in the barbershop chairs and play-doh “hair” squirts out of the top of their heads).  My craft project this week is to make some hair bows and clippies to coordinate with a few of her outfits.

9.  Daphne stops traffic.  Well, I’m sure people do this with most other babies, but everywhere we go people stop to talk to us, comment on her hair and tell us how gorgeous she is.  Older women especially.  She’s a big hit with the Golden Girl crowd.

10. Daphne’s name has been misspelled & mispronounced more often than I anticipated.   It’s been spelled Daffney (OK, I can sorta see this) and Dalphane (what?!).  Some people have honestly said they have never heard the name.  Where these people have been I have no idea.  Not only is it a name from Greek mythology (Apollo & Daphne) and a very common subject in art (like the famous sculpture by Bernini, which has always been one of my favorites), you also have the famous author Daphne Du Maurier, Daphne from Scooby Doo, Daphne from Frasier… oh and there is even a Daphne, AL down by the gulf coast.

I just love this monkey outfit on Daphne. It’s from Gymboree’s new, lower priced sister store, Crazy8.com. They have a whole line of sock monkey clothes for newborns. I’ve been wanting to make her the sock monkey afghan (but swap the red for hot pink, make it a little more girly) from the Stitch and Bitch Happy Hooker crochet book, but until I start having enough time to take regular showers and actually dry my hair I don’t see that happening.

Speaking of Daphne, she slept through the night last night!!!!!  Yesterday she was up at 9:30 AM and didn’t nap at all.   We finally got her to sleep around midnight and she woke up a little before 7:00.  I’m not expecting this to be a regular occurrence but it was so nice to have uninterrupted sleep.  I can’t tell you the last time I slept that long without getting up with a hungry baby or a pregnant bladder.

Today is my first official day as a stay at home mom. Yep, that’s right. Yesterday I found out that I was being laid off from my job just as I was planning to return from maternity leave. It’s not unexpected, especially when you work for a mortgage company that specializes in the subprime market. I doubt many employees will be left with the company by the holidays. I had planned on returning on a part time basis (with some hours telecommuting) so unless I just stumble across another job with the same flexibility I’ll be filing for unemployment for a little while until Daphne gets a little older. I’m actually relieved. I was not looking forward to coordinating Daphne’s care and feeding around a work schedule. And being with her is much more fun than being in the office anyway.

And in Daphne News- at 7 weeks we think she weighs about 10 lbs. Hard to believe she was 5 lbs 9 oz when we left the hospital, doesn’t seem like it’s been that long ago. It’s amazing how fast they change and grow.

Aldridge Gardens Scarecrows

After months of record heat here in Birmingham (and the hottest summer on record, just in time for my third trimester) it finally feels like fall. We plan on making the most of the cooler temps this weekend!

In case you weren’t lucky enough to have a baby with an insane amount of hair ready for hair accessories (like Miss Daphne) don’t fret, buy your little one a toupee at babytoupee.com. Styles include: The Donald, The Lil Kim, Bob Marley. Check out the gallery on their website. Too funny!!

I like this gallery pic in particular. Both the baby and the family dog can look like Donald Trump.

On the Vulcan Trail with Daphne

Originally uploaded by Photo-Mojo

Our Sunday excursion to Vulcan Trail, followed by some shopping at Whole Foods for produce. Daphne slept the entire time. Too bad she can’t sleep in her carseat or my Babyhawk Mei Tai carrier all the time.

Here are a few sites on my Bloglines feed that I thought I’d pass along:

Craft: Blog - Great site, updated frequently. Really at the heart of the modern craft movement (not your grandma’s projects).

Baby Cheapskate - Because I’m a bargain hunter.

Cupcake Bakeshop - Truly the most inventive cupcake recipes.

Parent Hacks - For tips and tricks.

Cool Mom Picks

Daphne & DaddyOriginally uploaded by Photo-Mojo

Daphne is growing like kudzu (or a really fast growing weed for you non-Southerners that are not familiar with “the vine that ate the South”). We’ve slowed down on our Daphne picture taking the past couple weeks and have promised family to get some pics uploaded this weekend. Keep checking Chris’ Flickr account.