Chubby Baby

Isabella and I just got back from our WIC appointment. She got weighed today and we found out she's 13 lbs. 2oz.. She got weighed with her clothes on so she's probably closer to 12lbs. 12oz.. It made me feel better though that she's gaining quite a bit of weight since she seems to spit up quite a bit sometimes. I think she's spitting up so bad some days because I can't always get her to burp after she eats. She'll usually burp pretty good at the beginning of her bottle, but by the end she falls asleep and no matter what I try she won't burp. Usually I'll lay her down for awhile until she wakes up more and then try to burp her again, but sometimes she'll spit up instead. I was also worried about her screaming. Every now and then she'll just start screaming like someone is beating her. It's usually when she's just laying there and then you pick her up and she calms down. The lady said that it might just be muscles that might be hurting her since they are growing. Hopefully that's all it is. Isabella's sleeping now, so I better go and try to get some cleaning done. Although I'm sure she'll wake up as soon as I get started so she can help. (haha)

Insomnia plus a baby is not a good mix

I got almost two and a half hours of sleep last night. It's definitely not because of Isabella though. She was asleep by 10 last night and didn't wake up until 6 this morning. Ever since she's gotten over her colic she sleeps great through the night. The problem is I have insomnia. I think it's that mixed with a screwed up sleeping schedule I had before Isabella was born. I had been working the night shift (11pm-7am), so I was already sleeping during the day and up all night. Then when Isabella was born she had her days and nights mixed up, as well as having colic which started about 10:30 at night and lasted anywhere from 3 to 8 in the morning. It's been about two weeks since Isabella's had a bad night, but I just can't go to sleep before 2 in the morning. I went to sleep this morning a little after 3:30. I almost just stayed awake the entire night, but today I have to watch Isabella alone, so I might not be able to get a nap in. Doug worked the night shift last night and when he comes home he'll need to sleep, and then works again at 3 this afternoon until 11. Hopefully I can get Isabella to take a nap for a couple hours this afternoon. She's been taking better naps lately, so hopefully today she'll cooperate.
I'm still amazed when I think of women who take care of their kids and then go off to work an 8 hour job. I don't know how they can do it. I mean watching Isabella 24 hours a day everyday is hard and stressfull, but I don't have to put up with rude customers or annoying co-workers. If I'm crabby I don't have to put on a happy face and pretend to agree with a customer.
Well I better go watch JoJo's Circus with Isabella. I'm terrified of clowns, but the clown in this show doesn't really look like one, so it's not so bad. It's sad that Isabella will never go to a circus with me because her mom is scared of a little face paint and over-sized shoes. That'll have to be her and Doug's thing to do. Her daddy is much more brave than I am.

Ann Coulter...Why must I hate you??

I know exactly why I hate Ann Coulter. For anyone who doesn't know who Ann coulter is, she is a republican who wrote a book called, "How to Talk to a Liberal." The only other thing I know she does is to go on talk shows and give people a reason to hate her. (Side note: the definition of hate is "intense hostility and aversion", so hate is definitely the correct word to describe my feelings towards her). I just watched an interview between her and Bob Beckel a Fox News Democratic Political Analyst on Hannity and Colmes. They were discussing political cartoons that portray Condoleeza Rice in a negative way. These cartoons depict her as not being qualified enough to become the next Secretary of State after Colin Powell. From what I understand these cartoons just show her as being Bush's lap dog basically. There was reference to one that said something about "brown-sugar", and Bob Beckel agreed that this cartoon went too far. Ann Coulter decided to take the position that all democrats are racist and that is why they do not want Condoleeza Rice to be Secretary of State. She also stated that republicans would never say a racist thing about African-Americans.
Now, I know she is really an idiot. Can she really sit there and say that republicans are not racist and democrats are? I realize that there are probably racists on both sides of the political spectrum, but to group all democrats under one very insulting word is simply wrong. She did not explain herself further in the interview to say wether she only meant certain democrats or not.
I have seen many interviews with her on Fox News, and also on Bill Maher's show. From the very first time I saw her I hated her. Whenever she opens her mouth ridiculous accusations towards people come out that she can never really back up. She's incredibly smart when it comes to trying to avoid answering a question. She will make a ridiculous statement, someone will question her and try to get her to explain how she came to this conclusion, and then she will turn it around and ask them ridiculous questions.
Ann Coulter is a republican for life. By this I mean that even if our republican president decided to slaughter orphans because they cost too much to take care of, she would support him. She doesn't need a reason to, she just would. She would go even further with this idiotic thinking and find some way to twist it around and make the democrats look like the bad guys because they are against slaughtering orphans.
I am all for strong woman who can stand up for themselves and express their opinions. I am definitely against women who think they can say whatever they want because they are a woman, and cannot back up insulting accusations they use against people.
It also makes me angry that people will listen to her nonsense and believe it. I found a website that has listed several quotes of Ann Coulter's. One thing she says is that, "Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism." I never really knew what Kwanzaa really was all about, so I looked it up to try and find out. Kwanzaa was created in 1966, but that's about as close as she got to the truth. From what I understand, Kwanzaa started in the United States, but is based on ancient African history and culture. The way Ann describes it I would be led to believe it was some hippy, anti-white cult. Unfortunately, there are probably people out there who believe what she says is true. Ann Coulter believes that only republicans and christians are right. I have not heard her say those exact words, but from her interviews this is what she sounds like.
You know, I could go on endlessly about Ann Coulter. I really could, but I think my fingers would fall off from typing so much.
If you'd like to make your own opinion about Ann Coulter here are a few websites to look at:
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/iblog/C168863457/E1293307494/ (this site has the transcript of the interview between Ann Coulter and Bob Beckel)

http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/origins1.html (this site explains all about Kwanzaa)

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20020205Coulter.html (this one has quotes from Ann Coulter)

I don't know if any of you out there really care about any of this, but I just can't take Ann Coulter anymore. If I were to use her logic of thinking, then all republicans must be as dumb as she is. Oh, wait...I'm not an idiot.

I hate Christmas!!!!

Ok, so I don't hate Christmas. It's actually my favorite holiday of the year next to my birthday. I'm just frustrated with putting up our Christmas tree. We don't have much room for a tree this year because Doug got a drawing table last year and the only place it fits in our house is in the living room. We moved it over to make room for the tree, but I still don't like how it looks. I don't like the tree to look like it's crowded by stuff. I think a Christmas tree should stand out and kind of be a centerpiece to all your Christmas decorations. I was getting to the point where I just wanted to take the tree down and forget about it. I finally just had to take a break. I think I feel better about it now. I really want a Christmas tree up for the holidays, so I'll just have to live with it. Well now I'm going to go try to decorate it. Maybe that will help.

Fahrenheit 9/11

I just finished watching Fahrenheit 9/11. I was very cautious in forming any opinions before I watched it. I have heard how Michael Moore edits his documentarys to sometimes be misleading. And obviously he has a very biased opinion about President Bush. After watching the documentary my negative feelings towards Bush are probably even stronger than before. To me some of the information in the film didn't matter that much. Like Bush's connection to the Bin Laden family. Personally I don't care, but maybe it's because I still don't fully understand it all.
My main focus of my anger is towards the war in Iraq, the troops sent over there, and the citizens of Iraq. I still can't figure out why we are there. I thought it was WMD, but as the war went on we were told that it was to free the Iraqi people. I guess they're still looking for WMD even though they received incorrect information. I guess they somehow think there is a possibility of finding WMD there, but I'm sure they'd find WMD's a lot quicker if they went to North Korea or Iran. I'm assumming they have a good reason for negotiating with North Korea and Iran rather than invading them. Isn't North Korea a dictatorship?? Why shouldn't we invade them to free their people?? Why not Cuba??
Supposedly freeing the Iraqi people would let them be able to do whatever they want without being scared of punishment. How can they do whatever they want without jobs, or with so many dead relatives they can't support their families? I guess with fewer relatives you don't need as much money, so being unemployed probably isn't as bad as if you had your mom, and brother, and daughter to support. How do they live a freer life without electricity? How do they live a freer life without gas for their cars?
I also don't understand why the troops, the people being killed everyday for absolutely no understandable or clear reason, are payed much less than the people who work for large American companys, and are over there building pipelines? I know that they are also in danger, but the troops work 5-7 days and 12, 14, 16 hour days. They are the one's going into terrorists homes and walking down the streets of towns that are just waiting to ambush them. Why is it that when a soldier gets injured they are forgotten? I saw a story about a soldier who had been severely injured in Iraq. He came back to America to get treated. He now lives in his car because he has no money. The military was also trying to get him to pay back thousands of dollars because he didn't finish out his deployment. Even though his deployment ended when he became severely injured that didn't matter. Or the soldier who died in Iraq and his family was sent his last paycheck. They didn't pay him for his last five days of work because he had died. To some degree that makes sense since he didnt' work, but with the billions of dollars being spent on the war would a couple hundred bucks really have mattered to the military? I'm sure it matters to the family who now has to figure out how to pay off the dead soldiers debts, and if he has a family they have to now find a way to support themselves without another income.
To me we should still be focusing our time in Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for Osama Bin Laden. That's where this war should have stayed. Sadaam may possibly have had ties with Osama, but I haven't seen evidence that convinces me he did. Either way it was Osama who set up the entire September 11th tragedy. He should be our main focus. I've heard multiple times Bush saying that Osama isn't really a priority to him. Basically he's saying that if we find him we find him, but if we don't...oh well, we tried.
I know this was a long entry and possibly boring to some people. So to end this I want to tell you my favorite thing Bush has ever said since he became president. He was asked one time where he thought Osama Bin Laden was, he answered, "either dead, in Afghanistan, or some other country." Why he didn't just say that he didn't know where the guy is, is beyond me. I wish I got payed $400,000 a year to say stupid things like Bush.

Isabella gives a half-hearted smile.

A picture of Isabella in her Thanksgiving Day dress she got from her grandma Linda.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Doug, Isabella, and I went to my mom's today. We had dinner there, and as usual it was great. My mom made cider which I love, and Doug found out he liked it too. We watched the movie "Bad Santa". Kayla didn't really want to watch a Christmas movie, but I like holiday movies around this time of year, so I tried to find one we would both like. I don't think it was a very good choice though. It's a good movie, but with all the swearing and some sex, it wasn't exactly like watching "Home Alone" or other Christmas movies that put you in the mood for the holidays. Oh well, it's a good movie at least. I put Isabella in her Thanksgiving dress that her grandma Linda bought for her. As always she looked very cute. We had to keep a bib on her the entire time since she's been spitting up quite a bit lately. We took some pictures of her, so when I get those I'll post them. It snowed on the way down to my mom's and for awhile after we got there. I love when it snow's this time of year, because it's not really Thanksgiving and Christmas without snow. I wish it would all melt though on December 26th. Doug's working now, so it's just me and Isabella at home trying to find Christmas movies on tv. I think I might have to put one of mine in to watch. I'm also going to try to put up Christmas decorations tonight, but I'll wait to put up the Christmas tree when Doug gets home. I love decorating the tree, but actually setting it up isn't fun, so I usually make Doug do it. Well I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and gets really full!!!

Isabella with her great-great grandmother Alyce. One of Isabella's middle names is Alyce.  

A picture of Isabella 

Hi People!

Well this is my first time creating a blog. I just figured that Isabella needed something devoted to her. For anyone out there that doesn't know who Isabella is, she's my daughter. She is the most beautiful and smartest baby in the world. I'm not being biased, she truly is. I'll probably give you my opinion about stuff too, but that's more so I can vent about stuff rather than for entertainment purposes. I hope you guys enjoy my obsession with Isabella as much as I do!!!