16 months!

Dear Bella,
I am now going to give you a new nickname. Miss "B" for B.U.S.Y!
I love you,
Your mommy
PS: Please slow down in growing!

16 months? Crazy y'all! Here are some Miss B (for B.U.S.Y) updates - with giraffe pictures.

We'll try to get her to say "mommy" and she'll respond by yelling "DADDY". what? wait a minute?


She does not like to have things taken from her. The other night she kept grabbing my glasses, which I kept telling her "no" to. That didn't work so we had to pull out the "big guns" - aka. D.A.D.D.Y! He told her "no" and she was not happy with it at all. She started crying really hard, walked over to him with her arms up, laid her head on his shoulder and continued to cry. Break my heart - and Mike's too! Boy, discipline like this is going to be a heart wrencher. Later that night we were all laying together before bathtime when she tried to grab my glasses again. Mike said "Bella" is his you're-about-to-get-in-trouble tone - and she put her bottom lip out in the BIGGEST pout i've seen so far! She did that 3 or 4 more times that night too when she kept trying to grab my glasses. I had to turn away every time from laughing so hard. (Mike kept saying "she's not going to understand it's discipline if you're laughing" - I need some practice of keeping a poker face or i'm in trouble.) One second she was fine - the next second the pout lip came out. On and off like a like switch! So cute and so sad at the same time!
She loves to push the laundry basket around - and gather up everything in the way - so, right now the laundry basket has books, my clothes (including undergarments), measuring cups, blocks, socks, more books, my shoes, her sippy cup, and her stuffed llama.
She will play her music from her laptop (which, by the way, is extremely LOUD - thanks to the grandparents for that toy - uh, hem) and dance and sing to it.
She will lay herself on the floor (tummy side down) and scootch (sp?) herself backwards like a fish - only going backward - ok, so not like a fish at all. But you get the idea. She thinks this is hysterical.
Speaking of light switches, she loves to turn them off and on. Over and over again.
She likes to rub her belly when she's in the bath tub. She'll get her hands wet and rub away!

She is blowing kisses and giving them - they are usually big, wet, slobbery and sometimes running-nosey kisses. Awww - if you could bottle them up and keep them forever! Here she is hugging her giraffe. Priceless!

She still loves books and will sit contently for a while "reading" them.


She wants to rock herself in the rocking chair.

She likes to put too much in her mouth - especially bread. She really likes cheese, bananas, bread, peaches, oranges, green beans, cheerios and the occasional little bit of homemade cookies she sees her parents enjoying.

Happy 16 months sweet thang! We love you so much - pout lip and slobbery kisses and all.

A near perfect day

Today was a near perfect day! It might sound weird but I LOVE Saturdays that are full of being at home with the two special people I love the most - and I truly enjoy cleaning, laundry, shopping, and cooking. I love the feeling at the end of a day when all is quiet and clean and all the lamps are on in the house. and nothing is left to be done Awww, let me tell you about our near perfect day.

It started with us bringing Bella into bed with us while she was waking up. And, then we had a great 45 minutes of playing/tickling/laughing in pj's! Then breakfast of eggs and sausage made by the hubby. The little gal went down for her long morning nap (3 hours, praise the Lord!) That gave me time to clean out two closets (we organized and cleaned her closet since I still had some of her 3-6 outfits in there...am I in denial or what?), clean the whole house, do the weekly shopping at Walmart, start the laundry, and make turkey chili in the crock pot. Then, the little cutie got up, she ate her lunch - cheese, banana, bread, green beans. We did some major playing with toy eggs from last Easter. We went shopping at Target (I told you it was a near perfect day - hence, the Target trip). We came home. She ran around and around the couch playing peek-a-boo. I finished laundry. Finished supper. Had supper. Played some more. Put the laundry up. Pushed Bella around in the laundry basket. Listened to her cute squeal. Gave the cutie a bath. Rocked her to sleep. And, now i'm sitting in a clean house with clean clothes and grocery shopping done. This near perfect day gets better because tomorrow is truly a Sabbath! - a day of rest - a day of enjoyment with those you love. awww. Love it! And, could this day get better? Yes, I think so. "How", you ask? Well, my little gal gave me kisses today for the first time! We can now ask for a kiss and she'll plant a big, wet one right on our lips. Precious! Mike and I usually just look at eachother with that look of "did you see that" when she kisses.

I haven't gotten pictures of that yet but I hope this will suffice for now.

She had her first Valentine's Day party at day care. Mike walked in the door with Bella and her little goody bag of Valentine favors and I had a near-breakdown. What? My kiddo is not big enough to be getting Valentine's or bringing things home that she "made". Isn't it adorable? The feet and arms on the cute "Happy Valentine's Day" heart are her hand and foot prints. That is refrigerator or photo frame worthy! I'm still surprising myself, y'all. I never thought I would be the type of mother who thought these little were adorable. My, my, how things change when it's your kiddo. I'm loving this mom stuff!

Here she is coming around the corner to "scare" me.

Enjoy your day everyone and the Sabbath tomorrow!

Back in the Land of the Living

Awww, I feel like i'm back and keeping my fingers crossed that that statement is the truth! The crazy past two weeks started last Saturday when Bella threw up in her crib - grosss!! We were at my Grandmother's house in Lubbock for her 80th birthday party. All the family, minus Mike and Brad, was gathered to spend some quality celebratory time with the GRANDmother. However, I found Bella asleep in her throw up (poor kid, I didn't even hear her get sick). So, this momma had to clean it up, all of it, get her bathed again, and figure out what to do next. After calling Mike (a small breakdown moment ensued calling the hubster), I tried to tell myself it was too much to eat for breakfast. Alas, it wasn't. She seemed fine the rest of the day until later that night it happened again. Allison and I headed home the next morning and I spent the 6 hour drive doing what other moms probably do too - worrying. By this time, my mom and grandmother had gotten sick. And, over the next few days three of my aunts, my uncle, my cousin, Mike, my mother-in-law and myself got sick too. Susy came to help take care of Bella while Mike and I were both sick and she ended up getting the yucky bug at the end of the week. (Susy, by the way, was phenomenal! We are so thankful for her.)

So, here we are. 8 days later, 100's of loads of laundry (well, it felt like that), lots of Lysol, 11 pounds down for me, and too many crackers/toast/bread eaten - I think we are back to the land of the living. If anyone is sick at another family function i'm outta there! Nothing against my family. That sharing thing we all did was not fun at all! And, if Bella is ever sick again we're outta there. Thankfully, I think everyone is on the mend now too.

While I was out for a week I had a lot of time to think or try to think to get my mind off of being sick. I HATE this type of sickness. I will take bronchitis or a sinus infection any day over the stomach bug. I read a couple of books while I was sick and have been meaning to share my book reading list for 2010. It's one of my "2010 Resolutions" that i'm revealing in February. But, whatever. Better late than never, right? Here's the book list separated by genres. I currently have 15 books and would like to get to 20-25. Does anyone else have any good suggestions for books?

WORK:
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson

FUN:
Wuthering Heights
The Lacuna: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver

HOME:
Second Nature by Michael Pollan
The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver - I read this one and it was AWESOME!! One of my favorite books so far.

FAMILY:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey

REFLECTION/INSPIRATION:
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich
Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof
Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore- I read this one this week and it was so good. But incredibly sad. It's one of those books that is inspiring in a bittersweet way. Great true story though!
Eleanor vs Ike: A Novel by Robin Gerber
Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson - If you have never read "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson, I would HIGHLY recommend it. I'm looking forward to this book as the sequel to "Three Cups of Tea".
One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer

Here's our library at home with most of our books. Well, we have another bookshelf full too. And, we keep buying more. One of my dreams would be to have one of those libraries like in Beauty and the Beast...you know...the wrap around one with ladders and wall to wall books!


And, I leave you with our kiddo that looks like she is developing a liking for books like both her parents. Mike is taking a world religions class at Truett, hence the book Bella is reading is one of his textbooks.

More Bella updates

I forgot a couple of cute updates from the last Bella-update blog. So, i'm adding it here to make sure it gets in her second year book.

Here she is watching the Olympics with her daddy. They now have a new game. Mike will pretend like he is asleep and snoring. Bella will come up to him and scream to "wake him up". Then she'll laugh and do it again. Adorable. She kindof growl/screams too to have the full scare effect.
Here she is reading and lounging with Grammy. She'll bring book after book to us, sit in our laps, and lounge while we read the book. Sometimes we have to read it real fast since she's ready to turn the pages!

And, here is her adorable self at her 15 month checkup. She did great until we had to lay her on the exam table. She's smart. She knows what comes next. Shots and poking and prodding. Not happy to say the least!

She also likes to look at pictures around the house and point to them to say "daddy". She's saying "daddy" instead of simply "da da". Cute! She also is sticking out her tongue or rolling her tongue to make lots of "l l l lllll" sounds.

When we sing to her, she'll sing back. When we dance, she'll dance. When we don't dance but she hears any type of music, even if it's the music from a commercial, she'll dance. Sometimes she'll pick up her leg and hike it up like a sumo wrestler - then bring it back down and proceed to bounce/dance/swing from side to side.

One of my favorite times lately is when she comes around the corner and just starts waving. Cutie! And, she's becoming a champ at blowing kisses.

So, there you have it. Random post of the century. Oh by the way. Congrats to my friend Georgia who rocked her first half marathon! Seriously great time! You can read about it here.

A post fitting for Valentine's Day

In my last blog I told you all that alot has been going on in our household. One of the biggest thing...no...the biggest thing so far is that my SISTER IS ENGAGED! Translated into Emily-talk...MY SISTER IS ENGAGED AND I GET ANOTHER BROTHER! I have a brother, Joey, since Christie got married. So, now there is a new addition. And I couldn't be more excited. Brad, the sis's fiancee-extraordinaire, started out as "hot ICU boy". You see, Allison and I both work at Scott and White Hospital. I started receiving these emails from her about the new "hot ICU boy". (Brad is a nurse in ICU and Allison would see him when she would go visit her patients.) The emails became more frequent and then turned into quick phone calls - "Should I talk to him?" "I think he smiled at me" - you know, the good ole' butterfly in your stomach relationship beginnings that sister's talk about and analyze about. After some time, they started talking and had there first date. Allison actually gave him her number. You go girl!

So, that leads us to the present day. Mike, myself, my parents, Allison and Brad went on a "ski trip" a couple of weeks ago. Unbeknowst to Allison, this ski trip was the engagement trip. And, I did great at keeping it a secret. I actually just told her weeks prior to the trip not to ask me anything about anything since i'm terrible about keeping secrets. So, Brad romantically proposed by the fire with a ton of snow outside with a gorgeous ring! (I had the great fortune of going to the ring stores and shopping with him.) Then, my parents and Mike and I joined them in Ruidoso and the engagement/celebration began.

Ruidoso had a TON of snow dumped on them while we were there, which was beautiful and made for great sledding! Enjoy some pics of the happy couple and the happy sister/bro-in-law and happy mom/dad. We had a great time with them. Y'all know how much I love my sister. So, i'm so excited to spend this time with her and her new fiancee - which I am increasingly growing to love just as much as his to-be-bride.

And, that is a post fitting for Valentine's Day!

My daddeo and I!!

Allison and I trying not to crash...

Oops, we did.

Just sharing the love with the new bro-in-law.

The four amigos!

Aww, happy couple.

15 month update

This post is late but there's been alot going on in our household lately. I'll have to blog about those things later. But I wanted to update everyone on what Bella's been up to these past few weeks.

1. She has 3 more teeth! - 2 more on top and 1 on bottom.
2. She is saying "cheese" "thank you" "love you" and "Alli" (for Aunt Allison)

3. She likes to eat avacados, bananas, pretzels, pasta, bread, tomatoes, grapes. I gave her a big helping on grapes, cantaloupe, and pineapple. She separated them all into their respective piles, pushed the canataloupe into the cup holder of her highchair, and ate the grapes and pineapple. what?

4. She is 20 pounds and 30 inches long and you can definitely tell she's losing some of her baby weight.
5. She is running, running, running!
6. She is finally drinking from the sippy cup! woohoo! Still nursing, but sippy cups throughout the day.
7. She is still taking two naps a day - one long one in the morning and a shorter one in the afternoon/early evening.
8. She is going to daycare one and a half days a week at our church. Mike's semester this time requires him to go to school three days a week so we put her in daycare the days I have to work or he has to go to school. So far so good. The daycare worker said she is doing great, which makes a momma happy.
9. She likes to wave!

10. She has started coming to sit down in our laps with a book. Yes it melts our hearts, little cutie. Then she'll just lounge and we'll read. My favorite this week? "I love you through and through".



Well, this post is short and lacks wit. But, we're all sick right now with a yucky stomach bug. Bella got it over the weekend, and then my mom, grandmother, three aunts, an uncle and a cousin got it too. Then Mike and I got it yesterday. Thankfully, Grammy came in last night to help out. And, help she certainly is!

Here's the monthly giraffe pictures.

Moms to the rescue with a "mommy pill"

Whew! If I want to see how many readers I have I need to post another "I need encouragement" post! Y'all were awesome! I received great emails and phone calls and blog messages since Monday. I had to laugh at some of the stories from you other moms about your own "I don't know what i'm doing" moments. (By the way, the previous post was not meant to be a discourse on working vs stay at home moms. I work because I want to, not because I have to. And, whether we as moms are working outside of the home or inside of the home, being a mom is loving your kiddo - regardless of what you do during the day. A bloggy and real-life friend, Ashley, wrote a great post on this here. I'll say ditto to her great writing about it.) So, all in all. I'm much better. And, Mike has always been ok with my moments - aka. Mr. Steady! And, Bella is ok. And, we love that little thing to pieces. And, in the words of both grandmothers "She's just perfect".

Like I said previously, I received some great encouragement, advice, comedy relief from other moms who have been there or who are there with me. I'd like to share two emails I received from the great moms of the world. My Mom and Momma S (what I lovingly call Mike's mom). This post is not to bump up my self esteem or ask for more encouragement. or share how awesome my moms think of me. Just kidding. They are moms right...they have to love like that. (I'm just kidding again, Mom and Momma S...I know what y'all are saying to that.) I really want Bella to be able to read all of these thoughts (mine and her grandmothers) one day when she's older and know how much she is loved, even before she knew what love is. And, if she is ever a mom herself I want her to know "this is normal". And, to let her know that her grandmothers can be fiesty and encouraging at the same time! As my mom said, she was pounding the keys as she wrote her email. Bella certainly is loved! I also want to Bella to be confident in own skin, particularly as a woman....but, that's for another post altogether.

Without further adieu, I give you the moms to the rescue with their own "mommy pills".

Doesn't it mean so much when you receive good-mommy-pats from your own family?!

From my mom:

Hi honey,
sounds like you need a pat on the back and a good hug. You are a great mommy. There is no book on exactly when to do what--well there probably is, but there are as many opinions as there are experts. There is general knowledge, that seems to change from one generation to the next. But the thing to remember is that Bella is flourishing and happy. You have read to her, talked and laughed and smiled and surrounded her with love and family who adore her. She will learn sooo much from all of that. She will learn to be secure and feel loved from watching her parents love each other deeply. She will pee on the floor and all kinds of things that make great stories.
javascript:void(0)
If you need mommy time, call some of your friends for maybe a once-a-month gathering and visit. Talk to Kelli.

You are amazing in that you've integrated Bella into your life without even hitting a speed bump, (except a few small ones), but every mom does that. YOU are her mommy and you know what is best, and you learn as you go along about those things, like shots, eating, potty training, all of that. YOU ARE AMAZING! I am so proud of you. It was only ONE appointment and you haven't done anything wrong if that's how you came away feeling.

So, here's a mommy pill from your mom--I love you and am proud of you, and here's a hug.
lyl
mom

And, here's from Momma S (as I call her):

Hi Emily,

Just read the blog about nursing, whole milk, sippee cups, etc. I just have one thing to say about all of that – poooohhhhhh!

The ladies of the LaLeche league would say, nurse til they are 2 - 3yrs. or more! And there’s no time limit on learning how to use sippee cups.

Remember the saying

Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait til tomorrow

For Babies grow up, we learn to our sorrow

So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Those moments of holding little Bella taking her bottle are priceless. You don’t have to rush through them. Let her enjoy being a baby a little while longer and you enjoy it too. Time flies! Sippee cups will happen! Don’t compare yourself to other moms and don’t compare Bella to other little ones. Y’all are great!

Bella’s healthy. She has a mommy and daddy that love each other and her. Your home is overflowing with love and laughter. I think maybe the others need to look at your home/marriage/mothering/fathering and take notes!

Michael and Christie had bottles til they were at least 18 months old – maybe longer! I don’t think their development was delayed. J

So………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………take a deep breath, relax and enjoy these days.

You don’t need our approval but for the record, we couldn’t be more proud of you guys.

Love ya!

Momma s

Thanks Mom and Momma S! Onward we go - sippy cups, milk, zinc, pee-pee on the floor and all.

The mommy pill

New mommies - Do you ever have those days of just feeling like you don't know what you're doing? We had Bella's 15 month checkup today and today is one of those times. "Whoa, you're still breastfeeding? Why? Have you started her on whole milk? Does she drink 16 ounces of liquid a day - some from a sippy cup? Can she....Does she...Has she...."

What? Wait, i'm trying to learn here. I must have missed those memos. Flouride drops? Zinc supplements? Pronouncing West Virginia correctly when you say it to her? Spelling retrospective frontwards and backwards?

Uhm, sometimes I just want to give a business card that says "I have no idea what i'm doing". We've come a long way from figuring out the diaper stuff and when to feed or sleep or play. But, I still catch myself thinking that i'm way behind the curve on mommy-knowledge. Maybe there's a pill that the other mommies have taken called the "confident-in-all-I-do" pill. Or maybe we are all in the same boat. Either way, being a working mom makes it tough for times like this. I can't go to play dates with other moms to ask "is this normal" because I work. And, I can't do the morning times at church with the other new moms to ask "is this normal" because I work. Don't get me wrong. I love my job and am very thankful for the flexibility my job gives me to be a mom and stay at home some days. And, i'm very thankful for the hubster who will stay at home and take care of Bella while he's studying. (I've said it before but I do think he's changed more diapers than I have. And, he is the one in the family to clip her nails.) So, i'm very thankful for our current situation. I think I just feel like an island. And, the other moms took their pill and introduce milk at an appropriate age or get their kid to drink from a sippy cup at 3 weeks old.

I wish there were play dates for working moms. Or church get togethers for working moms. Or maybe a book that lets you know exactly what to do. But, then where would motherhood be? Where would the comedy be in all the mistakes we make? And, where would the fun be when you see your daughter decide to go to the bathroom on the floor when her daddy is getting the bathtub ready (happened last night). Or when you find a stuffed animal and your measuring cups underneath your pots or in her toybox.

So, today is one of those days. And, the appointment was one of those appointments. I'm sure i'm not the only one who's thought of inventing the mommy pill either.