Last week of R&R

One morning for breakfast Mike and I were eating chocolate chip cookies (which we know we'll have to stop doing once she's old enough to understand that we have the eat healthier than that) and she came up, took a cookie out of the bowl, ran away with it, sat down in the corner and started munching away on it. Of course I didn't let her eat it all but I had to get a picture because it was too cute! That baby loves her some sweets.

For whatever reason, she's been sticking her tongue out all the time now. Like she just found it or something. This is her in the back of Mike's truck at my parents house. We picked her up after our fun weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge! She loved being back there and banged on the sides as her drum.

Ok this was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I went to walmart while Bailey was asleep and Mike was putting the new lawn mower together. She woke up early so he improvised and put her in the lawn mower box, gave her toys, and blasted the music and when I drove up she was having the most fun of her whole life. She loved being in that box and banging on it's sides like drums. And she was bouncing up and down to the beat of his music too. This child loves music!

Yesterday after Bailey's nap she just laid down on our bed and snuggled with me for a long while. Not sure why exactly because she normally doesn't do that unless she's not feeling well. But she did. Even after I got up she laid there with Mike playing and looking at pictures on the camera. This is one of her favorite games to play. You take the paci, she takes it back and sticks it in her mouth. She and Mike had a lot of fun with that game while he was home.

I took this picture this morning right before Mike left. She is wearing a onesie from General Jackson's that says "If you love your freedom, thank my dad." I loved it and had to have it for her!

Well, R&R is over. It was a quick 15 days but we had a great time. We got a lot done in the last week that he was here. Monday we went to Wilmington for a couple of hours to have pictures taken by a photographer named Matt McGraw. He did wedding pictures for Heather and we loved his work so we decided to go with him. He was definitely worth the drive to Wilmington! We had such a great time around downtown while he was taking our pictures. I can't wait to get the slide show of the pictures in a couple of weeks! On our way home from that we stopped by the bank and opened Bailey's savings account. She got $110 total for her birthday and since she didn't need anything, we put it all in the account. I'm excited to start saving for her!

Tuesday we had Bailey's 12 month well baby visit. We gave the doctor our vaccine schedule that I came up with and she had no problems with it, which we well know is SUCH a blessing! She'll only be getting 3 vaccines total for now and we'll be making monthly visits for the next 6ish months to spread them out. She only got 1 (DTaP) on Tuesday and next month she'll get 2 (Pc and HIB). She did very well with it and only cried for a second. She weighs 20 pounds, 12 ounces (50th %) and is 28 inches (25th%) and the doctor was very impressed that she already has about ten words. Woohoo! Then we went to run errands, which included buying a new lawn mower and getting some last minute army stuff for Mike.

Wednesday Mike put the lawn mower together and mowed the grass, we took the Jeep to get the oil changed, Heather and Pilot came over shortly to say goodbye to Mike, and then we went to Carrabba's for dinner. We had a great last night together. She went to bed a little later and even slept in until 7:30! I could definitely get used to that.

Thanks friends for all the thoughts and prayers for our family. Keep them coming because I know they're working! We'll miss our man but only five months until he's home again. We're well over the hump of this deployment!

Daddy's home and Bailey's a whole year old!!!

Pancakes and bananas in the shape of 1's for my little girl's first birthday. We had to buy 100 cookie cutters at Bed Bath and Beyond to get the 1 I needed. It was so worth it though.

Getting ready for the birthday party to start in her pink cake dress and her little pink chucks

The toy box my mom and dad fixed up for Bailey. Can you believe it was a tool chest from 100 years ago? It belonged to Bailey's great great grandfather.

Opening presents!!

Mmmm CAKE! Chocolate with cream cheese icing made by Mama

She liked wearing it almost as much as she liked eating it

First trip to the park, going down the slide with the Daddy. She actually liked it!

Having fun on the swings with Daddy

Nice looking family, eh? She's a funny looking baby sometimes

Random picture of Bailey on the turtle. Mike did a very good job with this one, I love it!

Last week Mike got home and we were very happy to see him. Since then, Bailey's been warming up to him more and more every day. He gets hugs and LOTS of laughs and grins. She's a very happy little one playing with her daddy and I'm happy to have him home to help as well. We've just been hanging out, going to the park, and playing 0n the floor.
Saturday we had her birthday party and it was a blast. She was adorable and ate her cake just like I knew she would. I can't believe my baby is a whole year old now though. I finally finished her baby book with pictures and all. I know it goes fast but I sure hope she slows down on this whole growing up thing!

Silly baby, attitudes are for grown-ups

Bailey is studying to be just like Daddy

Bailey very much enjoyed when I made homemade cream cheese icing

Funny looking baby with cream cheese icing on her face

Nana gave her an apple core and she went to town on it!

It's been a while since I've updated. Two weeks ago Bailey had a terribly high fever (103.2 at it's highest) which we didn't find out until day 4 was caused by Roseola. Ugh, it was the worst. But she's all better now. We did get an appointment with an allergist for when Mike is here so we can find out if she's having season allergies. Not looking forward to that 2-4 hour appointment!

Bailey is saying "Dada" any many other things now. She took the TV remote the other day and said "dada" so I turned his DVD on. After a while I turned it off, she looked at me, pointed to the TV and said "dada" again. So basically I think she's pretty clear that Daddy is on the DVD. She also says "dada" when she wants to look at the pictures in our hallway, a lot of which have Daddy in them. I can't wait until she sees him and really, really hope she calls him Dada by the end of our time together!

Bailey had a giant tantrum this week. Her first ever. She has been really enjoying playing with her toothbrush after I brush her teeth. Well yesterday morning she threw a fit because she wanted to do it first. So, being the ABA mommy that I am, I put it away after I had brushed her teeth kicking and screaming. You would have thought someone had ripped her heart out. She screamed, she sobbed, she screamed some more for 7 or 8 minutes until finally she just put her head down on my shoulder and snuggled. Oh, that girl. She's got her mama's attitude for sure.

Can't believe next weekend is her BIRTHDAY! She's getting too big, too fast. We're still hoping Mike will be here by then. He was supposed to be on his way already and I've heard nothing from him so prayers for his safe and timely return are welcome!

We went down a big bouncy house slide and she was not a fan.

Not ready for the bouncy houses yet.

All the practicing we've been doing on being gentle has really paid off. She was very gentle with Lilly.

We got snow again, this time at Nana's house and when I put her in it to make a "snow angel," she was less than pleased. haha, oh well! I needed the picture!

I'm not entirely sure Bailey knows much about the snow yet. She hardly smiled once.

"What the heck, mom? Why are we out here?"

She was very gentle with Gavin too but he did not enjoy her chasing him all over the house the whole weekend. She, however, was VERY interested in him! It was neat to see her play with someone her own age.

So, what's new with us? Well, we've been to the doctor again since I last posted. Last Tuesday she was having trouble with her cough again so I took her back. The doctor said she probably has allergies (seasonal, I assume, since she's had this problem in both of the winter's she's been alive) and is referring us to an allergist. As a result, we're on nightly breathing treatments and zyrtec and she now sleeps with a cool mist humidifier all night. All of this for a silly little cough! Ugh!

We spent some time at Poppy and Nana's with Aunt Sheila, Anna, Chalice, Neil, Kenzie, Gavin, and Destyn. That's where we got the second bout of snow. It was perfect though because it started snowing Friday and snowed all night and left 4 inches of fluffy, white snow on the ground. The best part of it all was that it was gone by Saturday afternoon and there were no driving issues! I loved it. THAT is the kind of snow I can get into. But I'm ready for winter to be over.

We went to a birthday party this weekend for one of the kids I work with and it was at a bouncy house place. Bailey wasn't ready, lol. But we are getting ready for her birthday now too! We just got all the decorations for her party at Party City yesterday. I also found a small cake pan and will be making her cake for her homemade. It will be chocolate (recipe from the Hershey's cocoa package) with cream cheese icing. I did a test run today and it is AMAZING! Now we're just waiting on Mike to get home, which should be before her birthday. Woohoo!

Lately she's been doing lots of new things. She imitates every facial expression people make. If I blink, she blinks and then we just laugh and laugh. She uses her little walking toy to walk (and sometimes crawl on her knees which is hilarious to watch because it moves so fast that she has to move really fast on her knees) and is really starting to get into it. She also is dancing a lot these days. So much so that if she's on a hard floor she scoots her whole body forward from all the crazy dance moves. I can't believe my little girl is going to be 1 year old on March 12th. Where in the world did the time go?!?!

Random Bailey things

Look, it's Bailey as a boy! haha, she just looks kind of boyish here because we're used to seeing her in pink but we bought her this onesie a while ago when we visited OH in June. I guess this is what our son will look like.

Take a look at my child's stomach. She's got bananas resting on it. Yes, that's how big her tummy is. So big things can rest on it.

hehe, I love this picture. She's studying and researching for our next big project!

Pilot and Bailey in their matching outfits. Bailey hadn't even realized that Pilot was over there or else she would have been all over him. But Pilot seems to be really looking her way... with what? Googly eyes? Is he in love?!? Stay tuned! He's so little compared to my big girl. Sigh, I miss her being that little but I like that she's much more self sufficient now too. This child can entertain herself for a LONG time and Mama is VERY thankful for that!

What's been going on lately? Not too much. I'm realizing that I can't possibly remember all the new things she's doing after a whole week so I'm failing miserable at this blogging thing. She's very smart, that's what I can say. She knows the things around our house she isn't supposed to touch so she has started looking for me to see if I'm watching and if I am then she won't touch it but if I'm not, she's all over it. She also slyly puts her food she doesn't want under her highchair tray rather than so obviously throwing it over the side. Great, right? No, she's driving me nuts! But I love her all the same.

She's been waking up the last couple of weeks around 5:00 am but I think she's getting back into sleeping until at least 6:00 now. Thank goodness but I've definitely been averaging a trip to Starbucks about three times a week. I can't afford that so she needs to start sleeping more again. Last Friday we got an all clear for her at the doctor that her ear infections were finally gone and her chest sounded good. Unfortunately, she's starting to cough again and she woke up this morning with a runny nose. Ugh, I just want her to be better before Mike gets home in a few weeks!

Snowy day

Well, not really a snowy day. More like an icy day but it's made us house bound all the same. About two inches of mostly ice is on our deck and I just had to get out there and snap a couple pics of this little girl on her first snow day. I think this might be my most favorite picture of her EVER!

I forgot to write yesterday another thing she's doing lately. She's sharing her food and toys and pacifiers with me now. There's a video on facebook of her sharing some carrots with me. There's also a video of her "talking" to me.

Pilot is here and Bailey has a new best friend

Mr. Pilot all curled up and cuddly on his mama.

Every time she would pull up on his car seat (notice that nice Carolina blanket he's borrowing there, maybe he'll be a Tar Heel too) she would do the indian war whoop. She didn't mind us playing with him and giving him more attention because she was busy playing with her toys but she made sure to do all her newest tricks for us to make sure we knew she was cool too. She just learned to be a little war whooper yesterday. It's too cute.

Today was the first time Bailey got to spend an extended amount of time around Pilot. He really interested her. She was so happy to look at it and tried soooo hard to be gentle but she was getting so excited that she would end up hitting him. He's a resilient little monkey.

This is the first time I got to hold Pilot. His birthday was kind of a hectic time since he tried to strangle himself with his cord and like his new best friend (Bailey, of course) he also inhaled some meconium on his way out. It was stressful in there for those kiddos of ours!

Just look at that sweet girl with her hair in a bow that her MAMA did for her! I just might get this doing hair thing after all. Stay tuned, we'll see...

This week we went to the doctor for her follow up from three weeks ago. She still had her double ear infection and her cough had gone into her lungs a little bit and caused Bronchiolitis. So she had to have her very first ever shot. It was an antibiotic shot to try to jump start the healing. She took it pretty well although it made me want to cry too. She also had to get a breathing treatment. Now she's on 3 breathing treatments a day and some more antibiotics. I felt so bad that I didn't know she was still sick but she showed no signs of it! She wasn't fussy or having sleeping trouble or anything.

Tonight we're supposed to be having a winter storm. I'm nervous because I am afraid the power will go out because we're supposed to get a lot of ice. But I'm hoping we'll be fine. Nothing much else is going on. Bailey's learning to sort shapes a little more now and she's cruising the furniture. She'll definitely be walking by the time Daddy is home to see her. If not, very close. Maybe he could see her first step!