Update. Inconsistent, but here.

I should do a better job of updating.  I love reading my posts from when Millie was really little - sad that there aren't more.

So, I'm currently 30 weeks pregnant and this baby is a healthy, growing BOY!  His name will be Carter, but we still haven't figured out a middle name.  I thought the middle name would be the easy part seeing that it took us until 4 weeks ago to decide on Carter (names are tough).  We're really only deciding between 2 possibilities for a middle name but we're just too lazy to think about it right now.  Amelia will move to another room and the nursery will be Carter's.  We haven't chosen a theme and we haven't even moved Amelia out of that room yet.  Her new bedroom was our extra guest room but, more accurately, our "throw-it-in-the-back-room-and-we'll-figure-it-out-later" space.  Lots to go through.

My baby is getting so big.  She's almost 2 1/2.  She's a good girl if not a little dramatic.  Lately every request ends in tears.  Being two is so confusing, I'm sure. 

"Want your friend, Katilin, to come over to play?"
{crying} "No" {more crying}. 
"You like playing with Katilin.  Won't it be fun to have her over to play?"
{face brightens} "Yeah!"
 
Seriously, kid?

Every night before bed I rock her and sing her a song.  Up until a month ago her request was "ABCs".  Then it was "Hickory Dickory Dock".  While we were visiting family out of town she watched her first Christmas movie, and that night before bed she said "I want a song about Christmas".  So, lately it's been Rudolph, Frosty (when I can remember the words), and Santa. 

We've been potty-training her since September.  She ran around our house naked from the waist down for a full 2 months and was doing really well.  We started putting big girl undies on her, even for naptime, and she was doing great!  Then we went to Florida on vacation and she regressed.  She was an old pro at pooping on the potty before our vacation.  Now she exclusively poops in her pants.  Lovely.  I'm hoping it's a phase and that if we're persistent and consistent with the big girl undies she will "get it" again.

Really don't have time to update so I should get going.
Happy Tuesday!

In Case You Haven't Heard...

We are adding to our Baldwin home in early February.  I'm almost 14 weeks along and feeling pretty good (so glad the first trimester is over!).  We went for an ultrasound last Friday and the tech gave us a gender guess, but we'll make it public once we know for sure at the beginning of September.  We are beyond excited, and Millie couldn't really care less.

Speaking of Amelia, she turned 2 in early July and gets more and more attitude with each passing day.  Some days I feel that I'm on top of her for everything, but I know my persistence will pay off later.  She's hilarious and she talks and sings constantly.  She's entering a shy stage, or should I say a pretend shy stage.  It doesn't take her too long to warm up to people.

I actually just got on here to look up my Spanish Rice recipe but decided to update, so I should probably go get dinner going.

How are you??

I miss blogging, kinda like I miss reading a book or going on a date with my husband.  Okay, I really miss going on dates with my husband.  But, we are remedying that.  Life doesn't slow down!

Happy Tuesday!

Music to My Ears

She sings.  All of the time.  Her ABCs, Elmo's World, Twinkle Twinkle, My God is So Big, or really any tune she hears she will attempt to mimic.  She's not unlike her dad in this way.  He makes up lyric to familiar tunes or just generally sings the wrong lyrics unintentionally while he mindlessly does household chores.  I can see Amelia being this way later, as, really, she is that way now.  We have a couple of Little People kids CDs that are on a continuous loop in the van.  I don't listen to "my" music or even the radio.  She has learned the lyrics to all 30-something songs and, although choppy, she sings along. 

I got a deal on Groupon for Gymboree classes.  A month's worth which, at the time, I envisioned being going to these classes at least twice a week.  Nope - it's for 4 classes.  We had to choose between a variety of options whether we wanted her in an art class (she gets bored after scribbling for a few minutes so that probably wouldn't work), a music class (she'll play instruments and learn about reggae and jazz?  Maybe not), or a "play and learn" class which sounded good to me.  She would be able to get out all of her energy and be tired for naptime!  It was basically a glorified Open Play with some fancy equipment.  There wasn't much structure at all and there were about 15 kids which seemed excessive.  Amelia wasn't interested in climbing on anything - she was being shy and decided to try to round up every bouncing ball she could get her hands on.

I was able to switch her to the music class and that went much better.  She loved playing the instruments and she watched the teacher very closely to try to keep time with the teacher's taps and beats.  There were only about 8 kids in the class which felt much more personal, and the teacher actually taught the entire time.  We learned about Celtic music but it wasn't about Celtic music - that was just what music played in the background and what the kids tried to keep beat to.  I'm really excited about her next class.

She's hilarious.  I need to start writing things down.  The other day, she put her shoes on her baby's feet:

I mean, come on.  What's funnier than that?  The fact that her baby could stand, literally, on its own two feet.

She loves Elmo and Caillou.  Every morning when she wakes up, she yells "Mommy!  Mommy, Daddy!  Mommy!" and when I go in to get her she says "Elmo?  Caillou?"  The routine is that I let her watch TV while she eats breakfast then we get ready for the day and try to get out of the house.  Getting out of the house is a must with a toddler...at least with my toddler.  We drive each other crazy if we don't get out at least 3 or 4 times a week (during the day).  That's why I love MOMS Club...something to do every day.

I better get off of here.  A lot of work to do. 

I'm doing a Deserving Mom contest on my Millie's Bows Facebook Page.  If you know of a mom who puts others above herself and, despite her circumstances, pushes through and keeps going, please tell me her story and get her some recognition (and $50 worth of bows!).  Email me at MilliesBows@gmail.com or visit my fan page for more info.

Happy Friday!

Figures

I planned for days to write a post lamenting the fact that my child will not eat anything.  It was going to be good, too.  I thought of adjectives and acronyms and dusted off my sense of humor.  Mostly I was frustrated and you know how much sense it makes for that to bring out the best writing in someone.

Amelia hasn't been a good eater since day 1, literally.  I've been in a constant state of maternal angst, metaphorically and literally ringing my hands worrying about if she's getting enough nutrients and, if she decides to become a fruitarian, will she waste away to nothingness?  My sister gave me good advice.  She said not to push it - not to force her to eat.  I nodded emphatically and agreed with her.  Eating shouldn't be a warzone. 

The next meal I shoved a green bean in Amelia's mouth.  You may think I'm kidding about the force-feeding bit, but I'm not.  Usually if I could just get a taste of a food on Amelia's tongue she would decide she liked it and eat at least a few bites.  If she couldn't bear the taste on her tongue then I didn't push it.  I've had to start pushing it.  She refuses any and every food - even foods I know she has liked in the past like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  She will not touch a noodle.  Of any kind.  Which means she won't eat spaghetti or macaroni and cheese - childhood staples!  I know it's a texture thing and she'll grow out of it, but she needs the carbs!  My waft of a girl is just a few pounds more than her 7 month old cousin!  Granted, he's a tank, but still.

Things she'll eat for sure:
- A Costco hot dog (go figure)
- Fruit of any kind
- Goldfish crackers
- Pizza
- Donuts (that's my girl!)
- Fruit Roll-ups
- Chocolate (of course)
- Sticks of Colby Jack cheese
- Waffles
- Her daddy's Chicken Fried Rice (we tried living off of it for a while and got burned out)
- Ice cream

Things she won't even touch no matter how often she's offered them:
- Eggs
- Pasta
- Any kind of vegetable (although she ate a couple of tiny bites of broccoli lately)

That list may seem short but it covers a vast array of foods that her father and I happen to enjoy.  I still offer her everything we eat but she usually won't eat it.

Mealtimes for the last year have been filled with frustration and crying - and not just from me.

Yesterday she was feeling really sick so she ate next to nothing all day.  I could have penned the most angst-ridden blog from the heart yesterday about what a horrible mother I was.  That is, until about 5:30pm.  She just wanted to snuggle and I realized she had a slight fever and was exhausted and, from what I could tell, had the chills and body aches.  We put her to bed with not much in her tummy.  Even her beloved Fruit by the Foot didn't get eaten.

This morning when she woke up I offered her a blueberry waffle (I made them last week and froze the leftovers) and turkey bacon.  She didn't touch the bacon but she ate almost the entire waffle and about 1/2 of a pear.  That's good for her, people.

Lunch was nothing to write home about.  I cut up leftover pork chops to look like chicken strips and even gave her some dip to dunk them in and all she did was take a couple of bites then suck down the sweet and sour sauce I gave her for dipping.  Then she had a Fruit By the Foot and called it good.

We cut back on the snacks today.  When David got home Millie had developed somewhat of a cabin fever and really wanted to go outside even though it had snowed today and was freezing.  We bundled her up and David took her out and let her run around the cul de sac for a while.  Pizza was for dinner and that's all she talked about until it was ready.  She was offered a slice of pizza and carrots.  David thought the piece of pizza was too difficult for her to eat so he cut it up and she wouldn't touch it.  Ah!  Presentation!  We then gave her another piece that was whole and she gobbled it up...toppings first.  Then she asked for more!  MORE!  I noticed teeth imprints in the carrots but not a full bite - she didn't want anything to do with them.  But after dinner David gave her as much applesauce as she wanted and she had quite a bit.

Hopefully this is a turning point to better eating.  And with that, I'm taking my sick self to bed.
Supposedly we'll have snow tomorrow.  Doubt it.

Happy Wednesday!

Screaming Santa Photo

It strikes me as odd that I finally have the time to blog 4 days before Christmas. 

My business keeps me very busy.  I make bows in every spare slot I have available and even those are precious few.  It's still going very well, although I closed my Etsy shop - right now I only sell my wares via my Facebook fan page.  I got a little tired of Etsy's fees and how long it took to create each listing.  My hope is that I will be able to have my own website relatively soon.  We'll see!

Amelia's doing great.  She's at the age where she repeats (or tries to repeat) what we say.  We took her to see Santa a couple of weeks ago, and because I'm such an awesome mom I was kind of hoping we'd get the obligatory screaming child Santa photo.  She sure seemed on her way to making that wish a reality.  She clung to me as tightly as she could - her little arms wrapped around my neck and her fingers digging into my back.  She even managed to wrap her legs completely around me in an attempt to interlock them when I tried to give her to Santa.  Santa just sat there, probably hoping we'd give up and walk away.  I managed to free myself and put my close-to-a-meltdown 17-month-old daughter on Santa's lap.  She was not havin' it.  But then the photographer produced a Goofy stuffed animal and waved it in Amelia's face.  This is what we got:

Thanks a lot, Goofy.  Here's hoping next year I get my screaming child photo.

(I really do love this photo)

The Business. She's a Beast.

It's been two months since I last posted.  To the day.  Odd.
Somehow I have over 760 "fans".  And if I could send free bows to each one I totally would.

But, the business is why I haven't been blogging.  Or cleaning.  Or cooking much.  Or, really, much of anything.  It's pretty much grown into a huge, scary monster that I am afraid I can't handle anymore.  Busy is a blessing, don't get me wrong, and I certainly wouldn't complain.  But I feel an obligation to every single one of my customers to make the best product possible and ship it as soon as possible which is very stressful.

It sounds easy.  You're thinking it sounds easy.

It was easy when I first started and had, maybe, an order a week.  Now I'm looking at my order sheet of orders placed this week and last and wondering how I'm going to ship 16 orders as quickly as I'd like.  The truth is, I'm not.  And I have that disclaimer on my main business page - that it could take 2-3 weeks for in-stock orders to ship.  You'd think that would make me relax a little but it doesn't.  It makes me twitch.  Do you know how quickly 2 weeks flies by?

Christmas is 3 months away!

I digress.  Really.  Because I'm not complaining, I promise.  I could just use one or two of Santa's elves right about now.  He should stop being so selfish and gimme one.


On to other things.  Like my sweet, beautiful Amelia.  She's such a good girl and this age is SO fun.  I don't let my business completely overtake everything in my life, especially her.  We have a great time.  She's hilarious - I'm really enjoying 15 months old.


She can say a lot of things because she tries to mimic everything you say.  Today, she said a word and I didn't understand it (big surprise), so I said "What?" To which she responded "What?  Whaaat?  Whaaaaaat?"  I would be offended that she were mocking me if she weren't 15 months old and learning to speak.


She says "Thank you" ("Tchank Tcho") without prompting.

She says "I love you" ("Ya Ya") and gives kisses and hugs without prompting.

She says "All Done" ("Ahh Duh") as she signs it now.

Give her 100 toys and she will always go right for a baby doll and tote it around with her.

She laughs a lot, but she laughs the hardest at/for her cousin, Caleb.  They are GREAT friends.


The girl will eat any dried or fresh fruit you stick in front of her.  She may be a somewhat picky eater with some things, but fruit is not one of them.

"Default happy" is how my husband describes our baby, and he's right.  She just seems content and easy-going 95% of the time.  She gets that good naturedness from her daddy.  Not that everything is stars and rainbows all of the time - she has her moments.  But, we deal with the attitude and move on.

She will and does walk off with things.  No idea where the remote control for our Blu Ray player is.  She walked off with one of David's favorite pens - can't find it anywhere.  Half the time we can't find our lip balm or remotes for our bedroom lights.  It'd be frustrating if it weren't so funny.


She started walking in mid-August and hasn't slowed down since.  That was the same week we were down in Portland buying our '05 Honda Odyssey Touring.  Yes, a van.  And I LOVE IT.  Seriously, I think people who say they'll never own a van need to drive one around for a week and see how awesome it is.  Remote control doors and rear hatch?  Um, yes, please!  Seats that fold into the floor and hidden compartments in the floor for storage?  OKAY!  The list seriously goes on and on. 



You'll notice many of the photos are from this month. We drove down to Portland last weekend for an early trip to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island. We had a really great time but many of the festivities weren't out yet - too early. I should mention that my sister, Carrie, made the girls' t-shirts. Cute, right? She's making more to sell in my Millie's Bows comment game on October 1st. See my Facebook fan page for details.

And, just for fun, here's a photo of the newest member of the family!  Meet Benjamin!  My sister, Carrie, gave birth to him on July 28 of this year.  He's so squishy and loveable.  That's my dad holding him.


Happy Friday!

Trader Joe's Woes

Trader Joe's are few and far between around here, but when we were visiting David's Gramma we decided to go to one just around the corner.  David calls it the Hippie Store.  Politically correct?  No.  Funny?  Yes.  Let me say that if you're a TJ's first-timer, you will stand out like a sore thumb.  People who shop there regularly know where they're going.  I definitely felt lost and out of sorts several times...reading all the labels wondering exactly what I'm looking at.  I realize I just ended a sentence with a preposition. 

I was mostly looking for things for Amelia.  Not that I'm super picky about what I feed her, although I do try to give her well-rounded meals and snacks.  She is getting about 5 teeth right now but she still doesn't chew things very well so I'm forever chopping up her food in little pieces which completely cramps my laid-back-mom style.  What's worse is when I spend more time chopping than Amelia spends time even considering eating it.  Tess is a very fat dog right now.  Imagine my complete elation when I stumbled across these in Trader Joe's:

They're teeny tiny ravioli!  Perfect for munchkins with few teeth.  Plus, they're freeze dried so they don't have to be refrigerated or cooked all at once.  I thought I was being all clever when I boiled enough of these to last a few of her meals.  We also bought mini tortellini with pesto filling. Brilliant!

These things are nasty.  Amelia won't touch them.  I tried one and they taste like...well, like freeze dried cheese would taste.  Major convenience fail.  I'm pretty sad about this - I am hoping Amelia will develop a liking to them.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, these...

...are awesome.

They're also $3.50/box which is roughly $.59/package.  Amelia really likes them.

I also bought some hummus which, paired with calamata olives, pita bread, and cucumber, was a very yummy dinner for me tonight.

A few Amelia things:

~  Last night she was sitting and eating at dinner and I was going to be a little longer fixing my plate so David sat down to eat, too.  As soon as I sat down to eat, Amelia clasped her hands and bowed her head.  She knew it was time to pray!  Even though David had said his own already, he said a prayer for all of us.  Very proud moment for us!

~  My dad has always called us girls his "chickens".  Before (or maybe right after) Amelia was born, my dad picked out chicken ornaments for each of us.  I think they're supposed to be ornaments for a Christmas tree, but I took the hook and string off and it became a decoration in Amelia's room.  Every morning when I go get her up for the day she points to it on her shelf and says "Bid, bid" (bird).  Then she does the motorboat thing with her mouth and that is her trying to say "bird" the correct way.  Every single morning this happens - like that bird is the first thing on her mind!  I snuck in her room and took the bird off her shelf so I could show it to you!

~  She has started blowing kisses.  She puts her hand to her mouth and says "Muuuuah!" but doesn't remove her hand, so she's keeping the kisses to herself for now.  She's also started giving kisses close-mouthed which is a little less messy but makes me a little sad. 

~  She took 3 steps on Wednesday, 3 steps on Thursday, and a couple today.  She could be on her way to walking!  Everyone tells me that when they walk is when you have to look out and be careful, but she's been standing and cruising for months.  I can't imagine anything that would be in her reach now that wasn't in her reach before.  I'm ready to be able to take her to the park and let her walk around.  Right now she just sits on my lap which can't be fun for her.  She'll walk about 5 steps next to me while holding my hand so I let her do that while we're out and about sometimes.  She loves, loves, loves going crawling after church at the building.  Grandpa follows her around and cheers her on which is so cute.

We went to a local street fair today.  It was less than I was expecting but still nice to get out and about.   

Happy Weekend!

Not Millie's 1st Birthday

It's never, ever a good idea to drink a large glass of iced caffeinated coffee at 5pm.  Take it from me.  Learn from my mistakes.  Don't walk in my footsteps.  It's 1:20am and I'm starting a blog that is bound to be long and wordy.

First, a couple of things.

We went to see David's Gramma J last weekend.  She hasn't seen Amelia in months so it was fun to see her and catch up with her.  I tried to get a photo of everyone but Gramma wouldn't look at the camera in any of the photos so this is the best one I have of David and Amelia (to the right).

We bought a big, huge bag of Brookside dark chocolate covered acai with blueberry on the 11th of this month (last Sunday for those of you who don't feel like thumbing through a calendar).  It's gone.  David had 3, maybe.  Amelia had 3, maybe.  I'm not a math whiz or anything but I think that means I had more than 3.

Amelia has learned to say "Please" ("psss").  Up until this point we hadn't really pushed the manners thing since she was still learning how to say a lot of things (important things like "bird") and she looked lost when I asked her to say please.  Truthfully, she's probably insanely brilliant and realized that once she started with please she'd never be allowed to stop.  She's also got the head nodding for "yes" and the violent head shaking for "no" down, although both are just games and we are still trying to help her associate what they really mean.  Well, she knows what they mean but I don't think she knows that's what she's communicating when she nods or shakes her head.  Get it?  Okay, moving on.

She's been signing "More" for months now, but in the past few weeks has also picked up "All Done". 

I was going to make this post about her first birthday but I'm actually getting sleepy and we have plans to go to the park tomorrow morning.  Amelia is teething like crazy - I see about 5 teeth trying to pop their way through.  I put her down for her first nap today around 10:45 and got her up around 2pm.  Lest you think she slept for more than an hour, let me tell you that in that time was some crying, then some rocking, then some more crying in her crib, then me changing her stinky diaper, then some more crying in her crib, then me being a sucker and giving her more milk, then her finally crashing around 1pm and waking at 2pm.  I tried to put her back down to see if she'd take a cat nap around 3:15 but no dice. 

Am I crazy or does Amelia look a little like Emma, the guidance counselor from Glee, in this photo?

David and I went jogging today.  Maybe a 1 1/4 miles.  Definitely a mile - just not sure about the 1/4 part...could be more or less.  I say jogging but of course I mean I would jog in 30-60 second spurts then start walking and mumbling about how out of shape I am.  I tried several times to get David to go ahead of me and I'd catch up but he wouldn't - he wanted to wait.  Isn't that sweet?  At the end of our run we had circled the park and were about to go home but I convinced him to take another lap around the park and he did - a 7 1/2 minute mile was his pace.  When we was running with me it was a 12 minute mile.  Lame. 

I put Millie to bed at 8pm which is half an hour earlier than usual.  She zonked out and we haven't heard from her since.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  She squawked a few times but went right back out.  Usually by now she'll have woken up for a bottle or something.  Not that I'm complaining, it just means that she will probably be waking up around 7:30 or 8 instead of 9 like she usually does.  And here I sit at 1:40 writing a blog.  Stupid.  Stupid.

It's almost 2.  All of the photos with the exception of the Gramma J one were taken tonight while David grilled our steaks.  My baby is not such a baby anymore.

Happy whatever-day-it is.

I can't believe I have over 500 fans on Facebook.  I'm supposed to do a huge giveaway so if you have any ideas of what that could be, please let me know.

Super Lame

I'm all about posting the ups and downs of life.  I never understood why one would post only happy things.  Isn't the purpose of a blog to document real life?  Anyway, I digress.  A balance of both is good, I'd say.

My husband is passed out on the couch and has been since about 9:15 tonight.  He has been staying up until around 11:30pm every night and getting up at 5am for work.  I love Thursdays when he doesn't have to work the next day (he is on a Flex schedule where he works more hours during the week and has every other Friday off), but lately he's had to go in for a meeting for about 4 hours, even when he isn't technically supposed to be working.  Thankfully it's not until the afternoon and he gets to sleep in.  Usually we watch a movie together on nights like tonight.  Or, he'll go work on projects and I'll make bows.  Tonight, he went horizontal on the couch and it was all over.  I feel bad for him - I wish he wasn't so tired all the time.

We bought a bag of Brookside dark chocolate covered acai with blueberry at Costco.  They're good.  Too good.  I'm considering buying another bag and stashing it in my freezer so I can have a surplus when Costco doesn't sell them anymore.  I'm getting the feeling they're a seasonal item.  I made the rookie mistake of leaving the open bag on the coffee table the other day.  Amelia sniffed them out, reached in the bag despite my chorus of "No"s from the other room, and popped one in her mouth.  It was like slow motion, me running from the kitchen to stop her and her shoving the choclatey goodness into her mouth.  I told David about it later and he got the mistaken impression that I had given her one.  So, he decided to let her have one, too.

A little dark chocolate won't hurt her.  She's eaten so many blueberries this summer that I wouldn't be surprised if she starts turning blue.  One thing she won't eat:  meat and veggies.  Our pediatrician assured us that she won't refuse them forever, but right now it seems like the only things she'll have anything to do with are sweet things like fruit.  She actually really likes cheese and hot dogs, but if the cheese is shredded instead of cubed it throws her off and she won't eat it.  Crazy girl.

I'm having a giveaway on my Millie's Bows blog.  I'm giving away some cute clippies, so check it out!
Enter Here! ~ Millie's Bows ~

Happy Friday!

Miss me?

Ah, the things that make one think "I should document this". 

**WARNING** This post is about poo...and I don't mean the Disney character.

I saw on the video monitor today that Amelia had woken from her nap.  I was in the middle of something and decided to just let her be since she seemed content.  Probably about half an hour passed and I assumed she had fallen back to sleep since she's been doing that quite a bit lately.  I finally check the monitor and I can tell that her rear is bare.  I didn't look too closely but I grabbed my camera on the way to her room, thinking that whatever was going on would at least be humorous enough to photograph.

I was right.

I'll spare you the photos, but she had decided to see what it would be like to poo on her crib sheet instead of her diaper.  The diaper was virtually unscathed save for a few poo streaks on the outside.  Not only did she deficate on the crib sheet, she played in it and smeared it all over everything she could reach.

Now, I'm a first time mom and have never had to clean up a mess this stinky or on a scale as large as this.  I didn't really know what to do exactly.  I left the room and started to fill the tub.  When I went back into her room I took her shirt off of her and she tried to grab my shirt.  Keep in mind her hands are absolutely black they're so caked with poo.  I realized once I reached the bathroom that filling the tub was a monumentally BAD idea.  Now there were poo particles floating all around her the second I put her in.  So, I started to empty the tub, all the while trying to run her hands under the heavy-streaming water and scrubbing them as much as I could.  I was grateful that I had just cut her nails a few days ago.

I finally got her un-pooed enough that I could fill the tub and give her a normal bath.  That was the easy part.  While I was drying her off I called my mom.  I knew she'd get a kick out of my situation and, honestly, I thought it was pretty funny, too.  It wouldn't have been funny if Amelia was old enough to know better and did it anyway, but she's 1.  Anyway, apparently my younger sister had done the same thing to my mom when she was a baby.  I think my dad called this something like "sweet revenge".  Maybe 28 years down the road I'll get a call from Amelia when her baby smears poo all over the place.  A mom can only hope.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought - cleaning it up.  I put all of her little stuffed animals and her blanket in a bag and also had a separate bag to put my used cleaning items in.  Her crib sheet was soaked in the bathtub while the bumper, rug (yes, some even ended up on the floor), and mattress pad were washed.  Then her sheet and her little animals were washed. 

I'm sure you care about the details.  I just have to say that I would rather clean up her poo than be a Northwesterner without A/C this week.  It got into the mid-90s today and many, many homes in this region do not have central air.  We had ours installed when we moved in and it's so nice.  Although, last night we lost power for a few hours (which never happens) and that was pretty crazy.

I'll catch up with other things soon.  I have to write about Amelia's first birthday party.

Cuteness

Jillian Michaels kicked my rear-end today and I think she plans to do it again tomorrow so I'm not sure why I'm still awake, much less blogging.  I still enjoy blogging even though it's becoming harder and harder to find the time for it. 

Is it weird that I forget how old I am?  I recently turned 29, and my only reaction to that was "What?  I thought I was already 29."  Nice.  Sometimes I feel like I'm in constant crisis mode, but not about anything important.  Mostly just about how in the world am I going to find the right organization storage for all of my craft stuff?  And...how will I be able to make it functional enough so that I can operate my business on a daily basis?  Right now my workstation is my dining room table which always results in an illusion of sorts by sweeping it all off the table and throwing it in the back guest room.  Ta-Dah!  No more mess!  This has to change.  Here's the problem:  I have 250 spools of ribbon. 

My sweet girl will be 1 in less than a month.  I'm working to plan her party and so far just have some things ordered.  This will probably be one of those situations where the date seems so far away but it sneaks up on me and I'm unprepared.  I'm just tellin' it like it is.

I wanted to share some pictures but Blogger is doing the usual messing them up and I don't have time to fix them so how they are is how they are.  The one above is Amelia with her Uncle Jake and Sage the dog at my in-laws' house.  The very top picture is from the same day - her first "whale spout" in her hair.  Aww...

Here's a couple I took on her actual 11-month day.  If you don't know, I have taken a photo of her next to the same pig since she was 5 months old.  It's neat to see how big she's gotten (Amelia, not the pig).  The pig is special because my dad got it for me when I was 2.  When Amelia reaches the 1 year mark I'll post all of the photos.

Tonight Amelia cried out a few hours after going to bed and I didn't have to but I went in and rocked her.  It didn't work to put her to sleep - it never does - but it was so nice to just love on her.  It feels so good when she buries her head in my neck and wraps her little arms around me.  Often on the weekends when David gets up with her she won't eat and instead looks for me to come in and feed her and rock her.  He's really good about getting her to eat and go back down anyway, but sometimes she just wants me.  That feels good.  And, yet I love when David gets home from work and Amelia just wants to attach herself to him and play with him.  I know she's growing fast but in some ways it doesn't feel like it yet.  I'm enjoying every stage.

Must go to bed.  Happy Tuesday.

P.S.  Please go to my store and purchase a FIND A CURE Flower.  $2 from the sale of every flower will go to the Susan G. Komen foundation in honor of a friend of mine who just found out she has breast cancer. Thanks!

Record-breaking badness

I have to make this quick because right now I'm supposed to be doing 556 things and none of those require blogging.  BUT, monumental terribleness happened today and I must record it.  After all, every second that ticks by another brain cell in my head implodes.

Amelia didn't sleep well last night.  I have thought for the last couple of days that I was being a super awesome mom by figuring out a way to get protein in my baby's lunch.  Add black beans!  Problem is, beans are a magical fruit.  Baby's got gas.  She didn't go to sleep until 9:30 last night then woke up at 2am (I hadn't been to bed yet) screaming.  I rocked her and fed her and rocked her some more.  She finally went to sleep and I finally did, too.  I thought she would sleep in a bit but she was awake at 7:45 this morning and wouldn't be put back down.

I gave her a bath then put her down for a morning nap which only lasted 45 minutes.  Not long enough.  I tried rocking her - she was obviously SO tired.  She's been cutting teeth so I gave her a little bit of Walgreen's version of Tylenol.  She loved chewing on the dropper so I let her hold the bottle.  It was in her crib when I put her back and hoped she'd fall back to sleep. 

Meanwhile, I called David's mom and asked if she was free to come over and play with the baby so I could get some things done.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  She said she would be happy to (LOVE her!) and she'd be here after lunch.

Amelia had gotten quiet then all of a sudden started crying.  It was the poo cry.  Sure enough, I walked in to her room and smelled it.  Then I looked in her crib and saw it.  Not poo - reddish pink stuff.  My first thought was "She threw up the Tylenol" but .08 mL is not enough to coat her crib sheet in 5 different places and make my baby a completely sticky mess. 

I found the dropper and the bottle.  Empty.  It had only been half-full to begin with.  I changed Amelia's diaper and stripped her of her sticky, gooey clothes.  I called David at work and he said I should call poison control, something I was planning to do anyway but for some reason called my husband first.

Amelia's baby tub was still in the kitchen from when I bathed her, oh, and hour or so before.  I stuck her in the tub and let her splash around while I ran a wet washcloth over her and called Poison Control.  The guy on the other end needed info from the Tylenol bottle.  In Amelia's room.  I grabbed her out of the tub, wrapped her in a towel and found the bottle in her bedroom.  I gave him the information he needed and he put me on hold while he did some calculations.  I took Amelia in the living room to put a diaper and clothes on her while I waited.  As I was trying to diaper Amelia one-handed, he came back on the line.  Amelia was fighting me and the diaper so I let her air dry while I wrapped up the phone call.  She crawled next to the towel, sat up, and peed.  On the carpet.  Reminded me of those fireboats:

David's mom came over and played with Amelia for a couple of hours while I worked on finishing my lesson for the ladies class.  I taught the class - it was on Homemaking.  I was told it went well!

I should be packing and making bows.  I'm so far behind on the bows I need to make that I feel I'll never catch up.  Most are donations to a wonderful charity but I also have some gifts to finish making. 

Happy Friday!

Starting to Forget

I was so concerned about potentially boring my few readers that I neglected writing about Amelia as often as I wanted to and should have.  Now I'm starting to forget so much about her first several months.  I know we had rough nights (and some rough days), but not wanting to be a downer, I rarely posted details.  How lame.  Life is full of ups and downs - how can anyone read a blog that's all "ups" and no "downs" with any sense of reality at all?  Especially with a newborn the wonderful moments outweigh the tiring, emotionally exhausting ones, but I think they're all worth documenting.

Often we drive past the gas station where, on the way home from Bible class one night, we had to park there so we could take turns soothing an inconsolable baby.  My parents were in town that night and my mom spent a lot of time with me trying to figure out what was wrong with her...I think Amelia was maybe a month old.  Finally my mom, being the rockstar superhero that she is, soothed Amelia with a combination of song and belly rubbing.  I know now that it was painful gas causing my baby to get so upset.
So, I'm here now. I have to get back on the proverbial horse and write about my sweet baby. It makes me so happy to go back and read the few posts I did manage to write when we first brought her home and the months that followed.

Here are some things about my 10 1/2 month old baby girl:

- She doesn't like anyone to touch her hands.  At all.  I was able to put a finger puppet on her pointer finger tonight in Bible class before she slipped her hand out of my grasp.  I think it was just an attitude thing, but when I was holding her tonight I had my hand on her leg and she kept pushing my hand off.

(Picture to the right is of Amelia and her pediatrician.  We love her!)

- She still only has 2 teeth that are all the way through and those are on the bottom.  The white of her left eye tooth is clearly visible but no sign of her two front teeth yet. 

- She loves graham crackers, green peas, cheese, all fruit, Costco hot dogs and buns, and beef.  She's not a big fan of chicken or turkey.

- She loves Tess.  Every morning when she first sees Tess, she claps and says "Hi Teh!"  She's constantly grabbing Tess's toy rope and waving it in front of Tess's face until Tess grabs it and they play some tug-of-war.

- She hugs me every time I get her up in the morning and after her naps.  I love it.  She will give me hugs and kisses any time I ask, and I ask a lot! 

- She's a daredevil.  Climbs on things, including our couch, and loves to be tossed into the air.

- She says "Mama", "Dada", "Bah" (Book), "Teh" (Tess), and tries to say a lot of other things.  She's just at the age where she'll look at your mouth when you're saying something and she really tries to figure out how to say it.  She babbles all of the time.  I can't wait to see what she says next!

- Her favorite games are "Peek-A-Boo", "I'm Gonna Get That Baby", and "I See a Belly!"  She loves her books, especially "Open the Barn Door" because I make the animal noises.  Every time I say "Woof Woof", Amelia laughs.

(Picture to the left is her about a week ago when she fell asleep for the night using her stuffed bunny as a pillow)

- She loves her daddy.  When she hears him come in the door, she crawls over to the gate and claps and bounces up and down.  She wants him to hold her right away and she'll spend until dinner snuggling and playing with him.  She loves repeating noises that he makes.  He'll say "Ha ha ha" and she will repeat it.  They do a lot of "Ah!"s back and forth. 

- She has learned on her own how to uncap lipbalm and Vaseline as well as how to push the button on the wipes box and start pulling wipes out of the container.

- If she is done with something it goes on the floor.  This applies to books, toys, and especially food.  Tonight I gave her pieces of cooked chicken breast dipped in mixed veggie puree.  On the floor.  Then I tried salvaging the pieces (they had dropped onto a clean towel which we had underneath her) by putting a small piece of pineapple on top of each piece.  That did the trick.  My baby loves pineapple, just like her mama and completely unlike her daddy.  The "on the floor" thing has become an issue in the middle of Bible class or worship services when she just lets go of whatever toy she's done holding and it falls loudly onto the floor.  So, we are teaching her not to drop things on purpose.  It's a fine line between purpose and accidental at this age.

- She's not so much a drama queen, she stays pretty even tempered.  However, her whine/cry sounds like the most pathetic noise in the world.  Sometime I'll record it and post it.  There are days when she's not in the best mood and that's all I hear.  It makes me want to saw my ears off with a spoon.

I think that's enough for tonight.  Good timing on her part - she just cried out.  Hopefully (praying!) she isn't really awake and that was just a squeal in the night.  We'll see.  Mama needs sleep.  I planned to get up with David tomorrow morning but I also planned to go to sleep 2 hours ago. 

Happy Thursday!