Growing a Lemon

our weekend + 13 weeks

2012-02-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

Why do the weekends always fly by? I really hate that. We didn't even do anything all weekend and it still managed to whiz past us at lightning speed.

We did our typical Saturday morning grocery shopping and then lounged around the rest of the day. We bought Delia paint at the store, which she LOOOOOOVED. We painted for a good hour on Saturday.

After her nap, we decided to head out and look for big girl furniture for Delia before heading over to Trey's sister's house for dinner. We had no luck finding furniture. We don't have to get anything for a while, but we've started looking.

The bedrooms in our house are tinyyyyy. The crib we purchased for Delia transitions all the way to a full size bed, so if we were to keep her in that then by 4 years old we'd need to transition the bed to the full size. Right? We assume so. I can't imagine our 3.5 year old nephews in a toddler bed. There's no way we'll be able to fit a full size bed along with toys and other toddler stuff in either front bedrooms. We don't plan to move into a bigger home for at least another 3-4 years, so we figure we'll just go ahead and get Delia a twin bedroom set and transition baby v2.0 with her current set. Hopefully by the time this baby needs a bed bigger than a toddler bed, we'll have a new home with bigger bedrooms!

That was a tangent.

This morning we cleaned the house and putzed around until our niece's birthday party. When I asked Delia if she wanted to wear her tutu, she lit up and got so excited. The girls were all supposed to play dress up, but they were more interested in the nail polish, candy necklaces and lip gloss. Delia's lip gloss was lemon scented =) Very fitting. Delia had tons of fun with the bracelets and necklaces.

Delia knows that a birthday party = cake. About 5 minutes after arriving, she was asking for it. "cake?" ..."I want cake." She's a pro at birthday parties these days. We've been to 4 so far this year!

Delia couldn't be bothered with a picture. Cake was in front of her!

We got Emily the game Twister for her birthday. Delia tried. She loves to mimic her cousins, so she just did what they did.

Andddd for a pregnancy update ---

I was wearing a button up shirt over this, but that didn't serve me well for a weekly bump picture ;) I threw the button up on right after this picture was snapped. I've been feeling self conscious recently being in that in between stage, so loose shirts are an everyday thing for me right now.

How far along: 13 weeks - my OB is going by my LMP, which would give me a due date of August 28 and make me 13 weeks, 5 days. But I'm going to continue going by the measurements that were taken because they're 100% accurate with my ovulation day, which I'm sure of thanks to charting my cycles.

How big is baby: baby is the size of a peach, approximately 2.9 inches. Lots of growth recently!

Total weight gain: Still sitting between 3-4 lbs gained. I ate like a cow this weekend (I had 5 cupcakes in 24 hours, yikes) so I'm sure I'll see an increase on the scale this week.

Sleep: I'm so sick of waking up in the middle of the night to pee, but that won't stop any time soon so I probably shouldn't even complain.

Best moment of the week: Our appointment =) It was a long appointment with a family history review, an annual pap and my regular visit. Trey got to witness the awkwardness that is a pap smear. So pleasant. It took the doctor a while to find the heartbeat, which made my mind race with negative thoughts. BUT she found it. 150 bpm. Trey rubbed my head as soon as it came across the doppler. Relief. We scheduled our next appointment for March 22, which is when we'll have the anatomy scan and learn if we're having a boy or a girl! I can't wait. Trey wishes he could know now.

Funny, random story: We got a value pack in the mail last week with a bunch of coupons for local businesses. One was for a first time home cleaning service and I mentioned to Trey that we ought to do it. He responded by saying that if I agreed to go and do an elective ultrasound to find out the gender then he'd clean the entire house by himself from top to bottom - including base boards and windows. We thought we'd have to wait until mid to late April to find out what we're having. Now we don't have to =) Not only will we find out earlier than expected, but we'll be finding out the day before Trey's birthday. Double win for him.

Food cravings: A McDonalds cheeseburger. Weird, right? I can't even recall the last time I had McDonalds...we never eat it. Very random.

Food aversions: I'm free of my coffee aversion, so that leaves me with zilch.

Symptoms: My boobs are very tender. I've been really crampy this past week.

Gender: We'll know in less than a month! I'm completely ok with either. I really want Delia to have a sister, but I also really want a boy. So for me it's a win/win. Trey would really, really love to have a boy, but another girl would make him happy also! So, we're just hoping for a healthy baby.

What I'm looking foward to: the month of March....Spring, third trimester, our birthdays, anatomy scan, last month having the office in our home.....

What I miss: nothing. Last week I mentioned that I was missing diet Sundrop. At my appointment this past week, Trey asked about artificial sweeteners. We were advised that Splenda was fine, but they recommend staying away from all others. So, I bought a 2 liter of Diet Cheerwine this weekend and have had a small glass of it each day.

Next appointment: March 22nd. I'm sure it'll be here in a blink of an eye.

I'm not looking forward to this week at all. We have two ring ceremonies this week, which means Delia has to spend her entire day with her grandma on those days =( Sucks, sucks, sucks.

spring in february? me likey.

2012-02-24T20:23:00.003-05:00

We've had beautiful weather this week, much to our delight. We played outside and enjoyed the sunshine as much as possible. We took walks and played in the backyard. Trey even used the grill twice this week! It wassss glooooorious.

Outdoors + sunshine = one happy child.

stopping to smell the flowers! "mmm, good"

It's as if she bathes in the chalk!

Delia has been loving our stools lately. She'll sit on her knees and watch us cook, eat snacks, and play with toys. She's also all about her animals. She is always playing with them. Always. Her favorites are the "titty cat" and the "raff" (giraffe). She makes them play together, which is so cute!

A big storm is making its way through after the gorgeous weather we had, so I made sure Delia and I got outside while we still could. It was really windy this afternoon, so we hung out on the porch! Ringing the doorbell is one of her favorite things to do. Pretty much every time we approach the door, she presses it. About two months ago, she was way too short to reach and would struggle to get onto her tippy toes and balance enough to reach it. She has really sprouted up these past few months.

Yes, we still have a Christmas mat out. Talk about laaaaazy.

She found a flower. I let her believe it was just that. Trey is going to have lots of fun cleaning up our yard next month =) Weeds galore.

We started our weekend off with Mexican food. When we got home, I baked some cupcakes which are far from pretty. A baker I am not =)

12 weeks

2012-02-19T20:09:00.002-05:00

I didn't take any pictures this past week. Zero. I didn't even pick up my camera until yesterday morning and I only did because I had a newborn session. I really need to remedy that...I just haven't been feeling it. This morning Trey and Delia were playing with stickers and it was way too cute to not capture. She's also been wanting to take off her shirt every morning after breakfast, so we have a topless toddler running around for the majority of our mornings!

All of the special ones make it onto her hand - dogs, cats, horses, hearts, flowers...all of her favorite things. By the time we're done, she has about 20384 stickers on her hand and about 10 on the paper.

She also shares. Once she's placed the sticker, she'll say "you're welcome!" Haha.

Today marks 12 weeks. It was rainy and cold all day today, so we spent the good part of the day inside. We only ventured out to take Delia to Jungle Rapids around 4:00. We ended up leaving because she pulled a girl's hair and hit another little girl....another post for another day. We left immediately following the second encounter and picked up some pizza.

How far along: 12 weeks

How big is baby: baby is the size of a plum, approximately 2.1 inches.

Total weight gain: I didn't gain any weight from the previous week, so I'm up a total of 3 lbs. Today is the first time I've used the rubber band trick with my jeans. They're getting tiiiiggghhht.

Sleep: I've been sleeping fine =) Delia has been waking up around 5:30-6:00 every morning, so Trey and I are exhausted...an hour makes a big difference!

Best moment of the week: I had a really awesome newborn session yesterday, which left me really excited for the birth of this baby.

Food cravings: I'm still loving BLTs and bacon in general. We ran out of lettuce mid-week and I ended up eating a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich the rest of the week =) I also can't get enough pizza. We had pizza Friday night and tonight. Pretty sure I'll see an increase on the scale this week! I've been such a pig.

Food aversions: Hmm, nothing really. I had an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts yesterday morning and it was delicious!

Symptoms: My boobs are ginormous all of a sudden and hurt to touch. I'm starting to feel round ligament pain, which is way earlier than I remember experiencing with Delia! I'm soooooo out of breath within 2 minutes of exercising. Even if we just go on a walk, I can hardly talk! It's crazy.

Gender: Won't know for at least 8 weeks or so. Trey wants to go do an elective ultrasound, but I don't really want to spend $125 on it.

What I'm looking foward to: My appointment on Wednesday and hearing the heartbeat on doppler. This pregnancy has me so paranoid.

What I miss: Diet soda. I hear different things on artificial sweeteners. My last OB office said to stay away from it. I forgot to ask the doctor at my first appointment with this OB clinic, but I just feel safer avoiding it. I know a lot of people who continue to consume artificial sweeteners their entire pregnancy, but I'm still unsure. I figure it's only 9 months. I take sips of Trey's every once in a while, but I'd love to have an entire Diet Sundrop.

Next appointment: Wednesday at 8:30 am! Can. Not. Wait.

And here's a comparison. It's pretty safe to say that I looked busteddddd today! The difference here makes me laugh. When I pulled the 12 week image from Delia, I looked through and I'm looking about the same size now as I was with Delia at 20 weeks. Eek.

happy valentine's day!

2012-02-13T20:16:00.001-05:00

I realized on Saturday morning that my last opportunity to do Delia's Valentine's Day pictures would be that afternoon. We picked up some foam heart stickers during our trip to Target and set up once we got home. This child made me workkkkk! The smiles I did get are all thanks to Trey! I gave up after about 10 minutes. Good thing she's so cute =)

This is what I was dealing with. Lol.

Delia wore this outfit over to Trey's sister's house for dinner that night =) She was all about the tutu!

Sunday marked 11 weeks!

How far along: 11 weeks

How big is baby: baby is the size of a lime, approximately 1.6 inches.

Total weight gain: I haven't weighed myself since mid-week last week. I was down a lb, which made me think all sorts of negative things so I think I'm going to refrain from weighing very often. With all of the food I consumed last weekend, I would've never expected to lose a lb...to gain a lb would be much more believable. So, there's that. I'm up 3-4 lbs.

Sleep: I actually slept pretty good this past week!

Best moment of the week: A fun weekend. We had mexican for dinner on Friday night, a relaxing Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday!

Food cravings: BLTs make my world go round right now!! I can't get enough.

Food aversions: Still coffee.

Symptoms: My boobs are starting to get really tender and I got 2 migraines this week. Otherwise, nada!

Gender: This seems soooo far away. At the rate my appointments are going, we won't find out until 20 weeks. So, it'll probably be sometime in April.

What I'm looking foward to: I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day tomorrow! We got Delia a little bear with some chocolates. She's sooo in love with bears right now, so it'll make her a very happy little girl.

What I miss: I would've loved to have a margarita on Friday night! I'm still missing diet sundrop!

Next appointment: Next week!! ...the 22nd to be exact.

Immediately following this picture, we packed up and headed to Jacksonville for Taylor's 5th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese! Delia had an absolute blast! She loved all of the games and was a pro at putting "money" in the little slots by the end. She insisted on carrying the cup of coins (money) around. Before we left, we told her we were going to a birthday party and it was all she could do not to burst open with excitement. She kept exclaiming "cake!!"....she knows that a birthday = cake.

She had a lot of fun and so did we. Trey and I played our fair share of games! I suck at skee ball...all of the balls kept coming back to me. Hahaha! We got Delia a little gooey lizard with her game tickets.

"I want money"...oh boy.

They were actually racing! My mom had to hold down the pedal for Delia!

Delia's tutu was laying in her room this morning so she asked to put it on <3

I didn't do a comparison this week - I'm being lazy! ...next time, though.

flashback friday

2012-02-10T12:23:00.000-05:00

I decided to join Jen this week over at 525,600 Minutes for Flashback Friday.

7 months old, hanging out in the office while I worked...funny how I miss those days now while I was so stressed out juggling an office and a baby then.

Now she's miss independent who asks for smoothies on a regular basis ("soomy, pwease?"). Seems like such a big girl drink! I throw in some skim milk (I drink it, too), frozen fruit, a banana and a handful of spinach! She's always asking for more when she finishes her cup!! She guzzles them so fast; it's always gone in minutes. It's become our afternoon thing <3

We take Delia on walks pretty often. There's a road that goes behind our house that only leads to a church, so there's not much traffic on it. There are also tons of dandelions for her to pick. Dandelions make her world go round. We probably collect at least 50 every week. Once she picks it, she immediately smells it as if it really smells like something! Ha.

The flowers go directly into her riding toy for safekeeping!

feeding myleigh

2012-02-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

She is always trying to sneak into the closet to grab handfuls of dog food! I love that she says "you're welcome" at the end =)

10 weeks + our weekend

2012-02-05T21:58:00.000-05:00

We had a very relaxing weekend. We didn't leave the house yesterday until around 3 in the afternoon. When we did, we took Delia to the park and then made a trip to Target before meeting my sister in law, brother in law and nephew for dinner. We followed up dinner with ice cream.

Trey ran into an old friend at the park. Delia sat in this position for a good 2 minutes just observing them talk. I don't think her expression changed the entire 2 minutes!

Our trip to Target resulted in this little stool and a potty =)

Today was pretty much the same except we never left our culdesac. It was rainy all day today, so we stayed indoors until around 5:00 when we headed two doors down for a Super Bowl party. I ate entirely way too much food...I still can't breathe. I didn't end up walking back over here until 8:00, which is way past Delia's normal bed time. She was wired and didn't end up falling asleep until 8:45! She's usually asleep by 7:30, usually earlier. We may have a cranky baby on our hands tomorrow.

Hand me down toy from her cousin = new obsession.

Andddd today marks 10 weeks! We're 1/4 of the way through this pregnancy.

I'm going to start doing this survey each week also:

How far along: 10 weeks exactly.

How big is baby: baby is the size of a prune, approximately 1.2 inches.

Total weight gain: around 4 lbs. A lot of this has to do with the fact that my very first weeks of pregnancy were through the holidays. My goal is 25-30 total lbs by the end.

Sleep: Ugh, awful. I am battling insomnia and it's so not cool. Most nights I feel like I'm sleeping with my eyes open. I get up once every night to pee. I wake up around 5 am buuuuurning up. I've been going to bed in underwear and a tshirt every night to try to avoid that 5 am wake up. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. I'm like a furnace.

Best moment of the week: Spending lots of time with Delia outside, drawing on our driveway with sidewalk chalk. She gets so excited over sidewalk chalk. We also got really great news in the family, but I'm not able to talk about it quite yet =)

Food cravings: I never had cravings with Delia. This time around, I can't stop thinking about pizza. I want it all the timeeeee.

Food aversions: I don't have any aversions to food, but the thought of coffee makes me gag a little. For some reason, I can still do a Starbuck's mocha latte and drink one every weekend while we grocery shop. My Keurig hasn't had any action in about 4 weeks =(

Symptoms: Migraines. I usually get one at least 3 times a week and they're bad. I hear they subside after the first trimester, so my fingers are crossed. Other than the migraines and the insomnia, I would have to say I feel pretty normal!

Gender: We won't find out until sometime in April. I really want a boy. I really want a girl. I want a boy just because I want one. I'd also love a little girl so that Delia has a sister. Either way, we win. I do wonder if I'll be disappointed that it's not the other one when we find out. Like, if they tell us it's a girl I wonder if I'll be sad it's not a boy and vice versa.

What I'm looking foward to: There isn't much that I'm looking forward to in the immediate future. I'll be glad when I have my next appointment and hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler. I feel so uneasy this time around =/

What I miss: DIET SUNDROP. Holy moly, I dream about the stuff. I steal sips of Trey's every once in a while and it's like candy hitting my lips.

Next appointment: February 22. I have to look at my calendar on my phone for reference because I keep forgetting. I'll be a little over 12 weeks at that point.

Anddddddd a comparison from last time to this time - (don't mind the quality...I'm way too lazy to fix it)

I started out at about the same weight this pregnancy as I did with Delia...give or take about one pound. Granted, I wasn't nearly as fit going into this pregnancy as I was with Delia, but it's crazy how different I look this time around. It'll be fun to see the comparison in the later weeks!

lots of random - i'm good at that

2012-02-03T21:02:00.000-05:00

We had beauuuuutiful weather this past week. Sunny days and warm temperatures make us all a little more happy around here. It's so easy to get caught up in the everydays when you're cooped up in your house because of the cold....the same thing from one day to the next. It seems as if all of the days run together. I don't dig that. I like a bit of variety and being able to go outdoors provides that.

This girl lives for sidwalk chalk these days. By the time we're done, it's as if she bathed in the stuff.

We don't have much of anything going on this weekend with the exception of the Super Bowl party two doors down =) I'm not into football whatsoever, but I sure do love football food so I look forward to the party my sister and brother in law have every year.

Trey thinks he's a comedian. I do laugh at him quite a bit because he's just so...not funny. Tonight he wrote this on the wall of the Super Bown event:

‎"Yarbi, thanks for the invite to the party. I'm happy to inform you that Danielle, Delia and I will be at your party. We will be bringing sausage balls and 7 layer taco dip. Delia will be bringing the pain, hardcore from the brain. See you on Sunday."

So random. And weird? Two things: Yarbi is his sister who lives 2 doors down and was well aware that we'd be going over there. This comment is quite formal. No? And pain from the brain? What? Clearly I'm missing something here.

Anyway.

We kicked off the weekend with dinner at Flaming Amy's and then went to the mall. We ended up getting Delia 3 pairs of pajamas for $15! They were on sale half off, so I thought they were around $10 each. They ended up being only $5 each. I was entirely way too excited about this at the register. I love getting a deal on something, but then being surprised by an even bigger deal. We saved more than $50!

Afterward, we stopped by the store to get a couple ingredients that we were missing for cookies and Trey picked up some beer. We went to check out and ended up getting $15 off our bill. Our grocery store was having a Pamper's deal where if you spent $50 on Pamper's products in a month, you got $15 toward your VIC card. We thought it was applied to our last week's grocery bill, but it wasn't. So, we walked out with chocolate chips, brown sugar and a case of Yuengling for $5. Apparently tonight was our night.

Delia had so much fun helping with the cookies. Once they were finished baking, she inhaled 2! She loves chocolate just like her mommy and daddy. I'll shamelessly admit that I've had SIX cookies. I'm sure one or two more will make their way into my belly by the time I go to bed.

I love the weekend. I especially love weekends with zero plans.

I'll be 10 weeks along on Sunday. I was soooo good at taking weekly pictures with Delia. I haven't taken any so far, which I'm kind of bummed about mostly because it'd be fun to compare. I'm going to try to start on Sunday and keep it going until this baby arrives. We'll see if I actually do it. I've been lacking in the motivation department lately.

19 months

2012-01-29T20:41:00.002-05:00

We're past the halfway mark to 2 years old. This seems unreal to me; impossible. Time passes...yada yada. But, goodness, it's the truth. We were eating lunch yesterday and Trey asked me "what do you want to do for Delia's birthday this year?" and Delia exclaimed "party! cake!" Apparently those are the only things that matter to her =) We'll definitely celebrate. No doubt there will be cake.

But that's still 5 months from now.

At 19 months, Delia is ridiculously cute. She mimics everything we say and is always so eager to learn new words. We had her 18 month appointment on Friday (yep, way late...thank you, croup) and the doctor asked us how many words we think she's saying now. Ummm, 100+???? If we're talking to her and she hears a word she's unsure of, she'll repeat it. She's like a parrot. At that point, we teach her what it is.

At her appointment, she measured at 34 inches (94th percentile) and weighed 28 lbs (87th percentile).

She's learning me and you. She's also putting "my" together with things. "My daddy" is her favorite right now.

She knows most of her colors and can point them out and say them - red, purple, pink, green, blue, red, yellow, orange, white, brown and gray. She doesn't know black yet.

She knows some shapes - triangle, square, oval, heart, diamond and moon.

She knows her numbers up to 9 and can point them out and say them. She sometimes rambles off numbers as if she's counting, but it's in whatever random order she manages to come up with!

She knows pretty much every animal and what they say - she's known these for a long time, though. I'm not sure I've mentioned it in past updates??

She recognizes means of transportation and often points them out - car, bus, truck, train, plane, boat. We took a stroll downtown yesterday afternoon and she pointed out all of the boats along the river!

Her favorite songs right now are "if you're happy and you know it" and "the itsy bitsy spider". Her favorite books are still her Backyardigan books and any of the books with flaps. She also loves her two Max and Ruby books. She has names for her books and says it as she brings them to us. She has a book about eating, which she calls "eat"...the Max and Ruby books are simply "Max"...the peek-a-boo book is "I see you"...the "you are my sunshine" book is "sun happy".......

She's in full on tantrum throwing mode. She usually has at least one a day. Sometimes it lasts 10 seconds and she's over it and other times she lays on the floor crying for a minute or so. We always ignore the behavior. Once she's done, she comes to us saying "I crying." =(

Brushing her teeth is probably our biggest struggle right now. She wants to do it and wants our hands nowhere near her toothbrush. Sometimes we get lucky and she'll say "ahhhh" for us and will let us brush them, but it's not very often.

She lets us know when she wants to go outside now. She'll go to the back door and say "outside." I can't waiiiiiiiiiit for Springtime. We took advantage of the warmer temps this weekend and spent some time outdoors!

She had cereal with milk for the first time this morning. It's so hard to get her to eat breakfast in the morning. She's just not much of a morning eater. This morning she devoured her cheerios. I thought it'd be a disaster and she'd have milk everywhere, but she did so good!

Speaking of eating, she eats with her left hand when using a spoon or fork. She's not really good at getting the utensil to her mouth with her right hand. She uses her right hand to color with, though.

She's obsessed with flowers. We never come home from a walking adventure without 234982 dandelions. She's weird about picking them, though. She'd rather me or Trey do it. Today she nudged Trey's leg and said "go, go, go. Pick it." Bossy little thing!

She says "cheeeeeese" when you have a camera out. 98% of the time, she's looking away from the camera while saying cheese, though.

She's really social about 90% of the time. She's real weird around our friend, Alex (a guy) and is sometimes iffy if a stranger approaches her and asks her a question. Otherwise, she's wide open. I take her to the post office at least 3 days a week for work once I pick her up for the day. She chats everyone up in there. It's so funny. She loves being around other kids and playing, too.

She's started recognizing places when we're in the car. We passed by Trey's mom's condos yesterday and she said "grandma!" When we turned onto our street, she said "home." If we pass by the park where we do Stroller Strides she says "park!"

Her favorite things to do right now are color, draw on her chalkboard, jump on her trampoline, go on walks, play at the park, and take baths. She lovesloveslovelvooooveosoeosoes bath time!

She's started hiding in closets. She loves the pantry closet and her bedroom closet.

Yup. Christmas pajamas in January.

Andddd she's a daredevil! She loves to have fun =)

I'm 9 weeks today! Baby is the size of a green olive and is now considered a fetus! In just two weeks, this little fetus will double its size and be the size of a lime. Crazy huh? That's a lot of growing in two weeks!

delia is excited

2012-01-24T20:59:00.003-05:00

Clearly.

We had an appointment the other day where we saw our newest little Lemon. We saw his (her?) little heart flickering away at 143 bpm (Delia's was in the 170s at this point)! I was built up with anxiety prior to going to that appointment. It was such a relief when I saw the heartbeat on the screen. I think I let out a huge sigh of relief. We met with a doctor after our ultrasound who we both really, really liked.

We've had to change practices since Delia was born because my old OB clinic closed. I absolutely love where I go now. Trey seems to really like it also. He liked that he was actually spoken to. In the past, he was always sort of ignored as I was the focus of attention! The doctor acknowledged him and even included him in discussion =)

I'm 8 weeks, 2 days as of today and am due September 2. We learned about being pregnant a few days before Christmas. We were going to be around our families for 3 days straight...alcohol would've been consumed. All of our family found out within those few days! It added more excitement to the holiday!

So far this pregnancy has been flying by. If it weren't for the awful migraines I've been getting, I'd forget I'm pregnant entirely. Delia keeps us so busy! With the exception of the headaches, I feel completely normal. Tylenol isn't doing anything to help my head from feeling like it's going to explode, so I'm going to call the dr. office tomorrow to see if there's anything else I can take! Because seriously? I'm pretty miserable a good part of the day.

A lot of changes are happening for us. We recently signed a lease for an office space. We'll be moving the office out of our home and into the space on April 1st. We're both ecstatic about this...we both want home/work separation. But, the main reason for this change is the new baby. We need that bedroom! We're still undecided as to whether we'll make that room the nursery or switch Delia to that room. It's bigger, but having her leave her first room we made for her makes me a bit sad! We put a lot of work into it. We'll see.

Along with a new office location, we've also arranged for someone to take over my position next year so that I can stay home with Delia and this baby. At this point, we've planned for me to go into the office on Mondays with the new baby and have Delia go to her grandma. This is mostly because I have a hard time letting go of the office completely and I'll need to make sure my replacement will be on track each week! We'll see how that goes, too.

We're really excited for all of the changes that are to come this year. It's crazy that by the end of the summer, we'll be a family of 4.

terrible twos?

2012-01-20T20:45:00.001-05:00

It has to be the only explanation. The terrible twos. Delia has become the most defiant child at times. She hates getting her diaper changed lately and won't sit still for a second. She flails her arms around and twists her body. She kicks her legs, sometimes hitting me. It's driving me absolutely insane.

That's really the only time she's a hard kid to manage, but I'm truly at a loss about what to do about it. Do we just let it be what it is and ignore the behavior hoping it passes? We've tried the 1-2-3-time out thing and she likes it. Or, rather, she doesn't mind it. I've tried popping her leg, but that only leaves me feeling like a crappy parent and her acting as if nothing happened. Being that it's really our only (almost only) battle, I've almost convinced myself that it's just a stage and it'll pass. I don't know. That's my hope, I guess. I'm completely over it at this point though. That's for sure.

Oh, besides getting her diaper changed and getting dressed she's a jobbbbbbbb when it comes to brushing her teeth lately. So, I lied. There's this issue also. I hate it. She used to love brushing her teeth and now it takes every bit of my patience to get through those few minutes. It's awful and I dread it. Trey is now in charge of teeth brushing. She tolerates (except, not really) it more coming from him for whatever reason.

Both of these things have been going on for the past week or so. Every night, we put Delia down for bed, close her door and look at each other wondering what in the world to do! It's almost laughable.

Otherwise? She's still her silly, funny, crazy, amazing self. We've been stuck inside a lot lately because of the cooler temps but we're getting by. She's a little gymnast on her trampoline. It's insane how high she jumps on the thing. She does a little dismount which we've named her "trick". I called our gymnastics center to see about getting her in a class. We haven't decided whether or not we'll put her in or not. I know she'd absolutely love it though! She's incredibly strong.

We still go outdoors when it's not *too* cold. I feel like we're limited though. We can take walks down the street and we can go to the park. But we can't stay out too long without freezing to death! That's pretty dramatic considering we've had 40 degree temps and a good bit of our nation is covered in snow right now, but whatever. It's colddddd. I prefer 60+ degrees.

We bought season passes to Jungle Rapids. We bought them so that we could take Delia to the waterpark over the summer. But until March you can do one of the other activities on Sunday evenings for free. Last weekend I took her to the kids place portion with all of her cousins and she had an absolute BLASTTTTTT. You would've thought she was born FOR that place. She is only 18 months old and climbed a rope ladder, got into the tunnel and went all over the place, weaving in and out of tunnels, going down slides and through obstacles. She dove into ball pits and jumped around the bounce house. The girl is wide open. It stressed me out a little, haha. We're going back this weekend =)

Trey is leaving for another work gig tomorrow morning until Sunday evening so Delia and I will be on our own again. Boo to that. At least we started this weekend off good....with pizza and cookies. We'll see where the rest of the weekend takes us. I hope it's a wee bit more relaxing than last weekend. Delia and I were so busy from start to finish!

missing my mojo

2012-01-13T20:39:00.001-05:00

I'm just blah lately. I don't want to do much of anything. I don't want to work. But when I'm working I can't really think of anything else I'd rather do. I don't want to exercise. When I'm doing nothing, I'm bored. But I don't want to do anything else. Haha. It's depressing! I'm never like this.

I started feeling like a cold was coming on last weekend. Anddddddddd on it came. I felt like absolute crap for about 3 days. I went to the dr and was prescribed a z-pack...........uhhhhh, amazing stuff. The next day I felt about 90% better. With only one dose! I'm finally feeling 100% better and am thanking my lucky stars. I felt like crapppp. It was especially bad because I NEVER get sick, so it was even more torturous. Hopefully all of the sickness has vanished from our home for a while.

Trey is gone this weekend for a work thing, so Delia and I are holding down the fort. This afternoon, we went to a playdate and then met Trey's family to celebrate our brother in law's 30th birthday! Tomorrow morning we have a birthday party to attend and then the rest of the weekend is ours to do whatever we please. I'm 99.9% sure that we'll make trips to the park, color and read. Oh, and we'll play with stickers. Delia loves "teekers" lately. She'll probably ask me where daddy is about 203840283482 times, give or take.

Hopefully I can shake this funk I'm currently in.

Her new thing? She says "I seeee youuuu."

She has become a master at utensils lately! She's so proud of herself when she manages to get food into her mouth and shouts "yayyy, I did it!" <3 She fed herself an entire container of applesauce the other day and didn't even make a mess!

The whole "I did it" thing is wayyyy too cute. It's her new thing. When she does things on her own (big girl things), we always say "you did it all by yourself!" and I guess she caught on. She goes and throws away "twash" in the trash can and once she shuts it, she boasts with pride. Love it.

oooh, 2012

2012-01-06T20:28:00.000-05:00

I know this year will be great, but this past week could've fooled me. I wouldn't mind a redo.

We opened the office back up and had to work. Boo to that =)

Delia somehow caught the croup nasties, so we battled that all week. It was pretty awful listening to that nasty, awful cough and witnessing her be so unwell. She was pretty miserable for the good part of the week. Her little voice was really raspy. Two doses of a prescription and she was on her way to being herself!

Tonight we started our weekend off with Mellow Mushroom. We decided to attempt the booster seat instead of the high chair. Major. Fail. Delia only wanted to sit in mommy's lap. Well, when the food came I couldn't eat with her on my lap so we put her back in the booster seat. Cue the biggest melt down she's ever had in her 18 months of life. Yeah, tonight was embarrassing. We were those people. She cried in the booth for what seemed like forever. I ended up taking her outside once I was finished eating. She's been on a majooooor mommy kick lately and is always wanting ME (and only me) to hold her. Anyway. That situation was really hard to deal with and I'm still wondering if we handled it right.

We did manage to sort of enjoy the week, but I'm definitely glad it's the weekend and I'm glad we have our healthy baby back!

Watching the Backyardigans!

We had a lot of tea in the past few days. Delia rediscovered this toy.

I took her to the doctor the morning of these pictures. By that afternoon, she was already on the mend.

Happy Friday!

2011, you were great

2012-01-01T20:26:00.001-05:00

2011 was a great year. While a lot of amazing things took place, the absolute best was seeing Delia through her first whole year of life. She went from a baby at 6 months old to a kid at 18 months old. A year makes all the difference.

At 18 months old, here's what she's up to these days...

She's obsessed with mommy. She always wants me to hold her, color with her, sit by her, etc. I love it. When she asks me to hold her, I hold her...all 28 lbs of her. It won't be long before she's 5 years old and going to kindergarten. If she gets hurt, she needs mommy.

She's also obsessed with daddy, but not as much as she is with mommy. If Trey walks into another room she'll start asking "where's daddy?"

She knows her entire alphabet with the exception of the letter G. She can say each letter and point to one when asked. She also knows how to spell her name, but flips the A and the I. "D-E-L-A-I" =)

She knows some of her shapes and can say/recognize them - oval, square, triangle (she says this one really cute), star, and moon (crescent).

She counted to 4 today. She can recognize and say the numbers 1 and 2.

She is bashful at times and completely wide open at others. She'll walk up to a stranger and talk to them, but if someone approaches her, she gets really shy!

She still loves the playground. We've been taking advantage of our 70 degree days and taking her outside to play a ton.

She does the hand motions to "the itsy bitsy spider" and tries to sing along. She's loving "if you're happy and you know it" lately.

Coloring is still one of her favorite activities. She knows the colors yellow and purple. We doodle A LOT. Every time we sit down to color she asks for the same things - dog, bus, plane, flower (she even smells the paper), heart, moon, house, face, bow (to sit on the head of face), random letters but always the ones in her name, bear, car, house, tree, shapes, sun........that's all I can think of right now. Most of the coloring is done by me and/or Trey!

Her favorite foods right now are cucumbers (cumbers), strawberries (beebees), macaroni and cheese, apples and peanut butter. She also devours a black bean and cheese wrap when you give it to her (we sneak in peas and carrots onto it). She's also using utensils really well.

She is beginning to talk in 2-3 word sentences.

Her teddy is still her #1 prized posession. We don't go anywhere without him. She actually really loves all bears right now. She got a build-a-bear for Christmas and loves it. We had to stuff/build it right away!

Her favorite books right now are her two Backyardigan books and "You Are My Sunshine." She's also into Elmo lately.

She's showing interest in the potty. She always wants to sit on it. We put her up there and while she doesn't do anything, we humor her and put her on it whenever she asks! She'll also let us know when she's gone #2. "I poop," she says.

She wants to pick out her bow these days. I usually try to give her a choice so that she doesn't end up with a pink and purple outfit and a green bow.

She loves swinging. The higher, the better.

We knew her trampoline would be a huge hit and it definitely is. She looooves jumping. She jumps on the ground all of the time and can get two feet off the ground several times in a row. Dancing is also lots of fun. If she hears music, she starts moving.

When we're getting ready to go somewhere, she runs around the car to try to hide from us! If she sees us coming one way, she runs the other! It's a game for her...she laughs so hard when we catch her.

She recognizes all of our immediate family members and will randomly ask where some of them are. Today while I was getting her dressed she asked "where Layna? where pop pop?"

She loves family hugs! If she sees Trey and I hugging she immediately wants to join in! We pick her up and sandwich her. She loves it. She's also very giving with kisses lately. Ask and you shall receive.

She sleeps from 7 - 7 every night and usually takes about an hour nap. Sometimes it's as long as 2 hours but not usually.

When she wants something up high or wants to be held, she'll jolt her little body upward and make an "uh" sound. It's hilarious.

She says "oooh man" on the regular. She definitely picked that one up from me!

She hangs from swings on her belly! If you twist her around, she laughs and laughs.

She's extremely clumsy and is always running into things. She trips and falls at least 5 times a day...usually more. She also gets that from me. I still run into walls.

Exploring and picking flowers makes her day. Flowers make her world go round these days.

If she doesn't want to go inside, she'll let you know!

....that's all I can come up with. She's seriously awesome.

At 18 months old, it seems as though it's ok to refer to Delia as a baby sometimes. While she's very much a kid, she's still sleeping in a crib and sitting backward in her car seat. She still wears diapers and needs us to dress her. 2012 will change some of that! She will turn 2 and we'll turn her forward in her car seat. We'll potty train her this year. By the end of the year, she'll have conversations with us. She'll probably be able to get up onto a swing by herself.

I know 2012 is going to be absolutely amazing. We have a lot of changes in store for us that I'm really excited about! Bring it onnnnnn, 2012.

stickers

2011-12-28T21:12:00.001-05:00

My sister got Delia this sticker/coloring book for Christmas. After we colored a little bit of each page (she kept insisting on going onto the next), I let her play with the stickers. I had to peel them off, but she placed them where she wanted them. Nevermind they were all stacked on top of one another, upside down and some torn. She loved it. By the end, she was sticking them onto her hand. There were about 15 stickers piled on top of one another on her one little hand. She's so funny.

My parents got her this dollhouse. She loves it. While she's a kid that's on the go constantly, she has a really long attention span.

christmas was amazing

2011-12-26T11:09:00.001-05:00

Ahhhhhhmazing. We had so much fun this year!

My sister and my brother in law drove through the night from Florida on Wednesday night (who wants to drive during the day with TWO 7 month old babies?). Wilmington is on the way to my parents' house so they stopped here for a few hours before going on. My nephews are adooooorable. They're so smiley! After being around them for just a few hours, I was honestly questioning how my sister and brother in law still had their sanity. Twins are so much work and require a ton of attention!

Once they left, we headed to Shallotte for Christmas with Trey's dad and step mom! All of the girls went to a Christmas on Ice show, which was fun to watch. Delia stayed home with Trey because there's no way she would've sat through a 2 hour show. I really enjoyed it, but I'm cheesy and always enjoy Christmas type productions! We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening eating, hanging out and opening presents!

The next morning we all ate breakfast and then a big Christmas lunch. It was all sooooo yummy. We left in the afternoon to head to Jacksonville to do Christmas with my family! Delia was so exhausted and slept most of the ride there.

Not long after we arrived, we headed to Mike's Farm to check out the lights. We waited in line for what felt like forever, but when we got off of our hayride, the line was sooooo loooooooong. It was definitely awesome. Delia kept saying "woooowwww" and "where Santa?" over and over. She absolutely loved it. I loved it as a 26 year old, so I'm sure that it was more than impressive to younger kids!!

Thennnn came Christmas Eve. We did absolutely nothing that day with the exception of consuming lots and lots of food. We lounged around most of the day. I didn't even shower until the afternoon rolled around.

Delia and stairs = exhausting

Delia absolutely loves Elayna!

He wanted out...

So I saved him =)

...and all was right in the world again!

My mom cooked the normal Christmas Eve meal and we devoured it. We exchanged presents and hung out until more family came over...more presents were exchanged. My mom got Delia a little rocking horse, which is her faaaavorite.

We stayed the night again that night...Santa delivered presents to my mom's house andddd our house! By the time Christmas morning rolled around, Delia was over it. She didn't pay much attention to the toys that Santa brought her. We planned to head back home around Delia's nap time. Once 11:00 came around, Delia was asking to go home!! She was soooo exhausted.

She fell asleep about 2 minutes into the car ride. When we got home, she walked in to our house to see moooore presents from Santa! She got a trampoline, some animals and a farm house toy. She was so excited by the trampoline!! We knew she'd love it and she definitely does. She got soooooo much stuff for Christmas - our house currently looks like a daycare. We really need to figure out where we're going to put all of these toys.

This is from Trey's dad and step mom! She'd rather push it than ride. Haha.

She did NOT want to turn around!

It was so much fun watching Delia take in Christmas this year and being arond all of our family! She loved being around all of her cousins and was so excited by it all. She ate like a champ and now asks for candy and cookies on the regular. We all need to wein ourselves from the holiday junk! We need a detox.

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

christmassss, christmassss

2011-12-19T12:18:00.000-05:00

We've been so busy and I've had zero time to update. Christmas is right around the corner, which I'm soooo excited for! The other day Trey mentioned that Christmas is much more fun these days with Delia around and it really is. She loves the lights and the trees and exclaims "ho ho ho" every time she sees something that resembles Christmas.

We had a holiday party this past weekend. We all had sooo much fun! Delia stayed up past her bedtime to play with all of her little friends. Everytime I'd let Delia know that another friend had arrived, she'd light up and get excited! She was so happy. Trey and I drank and mingled with our friends. We spent the entire day prepping; cleaning and cooking. It was so worth it. At one point we had about 19 adults and about 10 kids in our tiny 1100 sq ft home, but smiles and laughter were abundant! Unfortunately I was having way too much fun to even think about taking pictures, which is ok by me!

We have plans to stay at Trey's dad's house on Thursday night and do Christmas with them on Friday. On Friday, we'll drive all the way to Jacksonville to spend two nights with my family. My sister and brother in law will be in town with the twins, so we're going to soak it up. I can't wait. Last year we spent Christmas morning at my mom's house also. We've agreed that next year we'll start waking up at our house on Christmas morning since Delia will probably understand the whole Santa thing a little more by then.

today - a day in our life

2011-12-10T20:21:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to do this for a few months now and never did. This is a pretty typical Saturday for us.

6:40 - Delia woke up. She greets me with a "hiiiiiii mamaaa" and then continually asks "where daddy?" Once she has a fresh diaper, I carry her into the kitchen and pour her a cup of milk. She hands me her blanket and bear and says "day doooo." These things happen every single morning. Substitute me for Trey every other day. Same story, though. If it's him waking up with her she'll say "where mama?"

She walks into our bedroom because we've started the habit of watching tv in our bed in the mornings. It's a bad habit, but one we all love. I hadn't planned to this morning, but she started climbing up into our bed. So under the blankets we went! She watched an episode of The Backyardigans.

7:00ish - We all get out of bed and move into the kitchen. Delia sits on a stool while I cook us all french toast. Delia isn't much of a breakfast eater, so she only eats about half of it...if that.

After breakfast, Delia plays while Trey and I browse the internet for a bit.

8:00ish - we all get ready to head to the grocery store. Trey got Delia dressed this morning first. He has style sense...he really does. But sometimes he just doesn't get it right with Delia. I mean, she has tons of printed items and all sorts of colors so I get it. This morning he paired a pair of pink heart leggings with a bright blue graphic tshirt that had purple and pink hearts on it. We immediately went into her room to change her shirt. Hahaha! He tries.

8:30 - we get to the grocery store, wipe down the cart and immediately head to Starbucks. We go to the same grocery store every weekend and do the same exact thing. Delia knows the front of the building and immediately starts exclaiming "boon boon!" So as I order our drinks, Trey picks her out a balloon. We get our coffees. We're on our way......to spending $208. Our grocery bill is never less than $170. Ever. We go weekly. And that doesn't include the $8 on Starbucks.

9:30ish - we get home and unpack the groceries. Meanwhile, Delia keeps getting into the pantry letting us know she wants a snack. I give her some yogurt. Then she goes into her room and reads some books =) ...balloon still in hand.

9:45 - Delia wants to color. We color. I make myself some coffee with my new keeeeurig!

10:15ish - We move to lounge on the couch. Delia loves couch time! I eventually get up to try to find a good recipe to make for dinner (fail). I look over and Delia and Trey were "sleeping". Delia really enjoys the sleeping game lately. And we love it too. Sleep time = cuddle time. She'll say "shhhh" and play along when we pretend we're sleeping. It's so cute.

11:00 - lunch time! Delia had ham and cheese on a tortilla and some blackberries. It was her first time having blackberries to which she said "ewww." So I switched those out for apple slices.

11:30 - Delia goes down for a nap. While she naps I jumped on the elliptical. I needed to...I really didn't want to. I need to lay off the Brusters ice cream.

12:30 - Delia wakes up (short nap). She kept going to the pantry and telling me she wanted peanut butter (pee-yuh buyah) so I made her a sandwich. In the meantime, Trey and I decide we need to sell our Roomba because the thing is never used. So Trey sets out to clean it.

While Trey is cleaning the Roomba, Delia and I played. She kept going to the pantry to which I'd say "Delia, there's no way you're hungry...you just had a peanut butter sandwich." First it was "crackers?" (she says this so clearly). I told her no. Thennnn "I wah mulk." I told her no...she only gets milk with meals. Then she said "egg?" I made a joke about her just wanting something and she responded with "I huhhrrry" (hungry). Sooo I fed her some applesauce.

We continued hanging out for a while. We watched her first year video. We sat at the stools and watched daddy clean the Roomba. We played with her fridge phonics toy. She kept asking for crackers (you'd think she was being starved to death), so we gave her a few.

1:45ish - I jump in the shower. Trey and Delia join me in the bedroom as I get ready.
(no pictures)

2:30ish - Delia and I share a ceasar salad. She was all about eating today! Growth spurt?
(no pictures)

3:00 - We head out to go to the Arboretum. I had a session there last weekend and thought it'd be fun to take Delia there. She absolutely loved it! She ran around and explored. She saw flowers, leaves, butterflies, birds. There was a little pond and she kept asking where the ducks were (there weren't any).

3:45 - It was getting really cold and the place was being taken over by photographers so we headed out. We decided to go get an early dinner.

4:15ish - Mexican! It took us 203484 years to find a parking spot. Everyone and their mom was out shopping today.

5:00 - We got home and immediately ate ice cream. Thennnn we lounged around. We hung out on the couch and Trey played his guitar. Delia and I pretended to sleep. We sang songs. She's loving "if you're happy and you know it..." lately. Trey started singing it with her and now she goes around saying "i appy" all of the time!

6:30 - bath time! "Delia, do you want to take a bath" ... "yissss!!!!" She immediately takes off toward the bathroom when you ask her that. Bath time consists of letters. Letters, letters, letters. Our lives revolve around letters these days.

6:45 - Lotion. Diaper. Pajamas. Brush hair. Brush teeth. Give daddy a kiss. Give mommy 23840 kisses.

7:00 - "nigh nigh." By 7:15 she was out.

TV and relaxation time for me and Trey =) Tomorrow we're heading to Jacksonville to see my parents. Then it's Monday. Boo.

twinkle twinkle

2011-12-07T11:06:00.001-05:00

Just a share of some twinkle light photos I did with Delia a couple weeks ago. This girl is so full of personality!

Don't pay any mind to her snotty nose =) It's pretty much always present these days and I plan to leave it there!

That smile makes me smile.

delia's favorite activities

2011-12-02T19:35:00.001-05:00

Delia likes to go and do. She's like her mommy in that way. Sitting around is boring. Because of that, we spend a lot of time doing things and going places =)

People comment on how well she gets around the park just about every time we're there. We spend a lot of time at the park which is the reason behind Delia being a master of the playground.

We walk the block pretty often. Sometimes she pushes her stroller. Sometimes she walks Myleigh. Sometimes we just walk and run and she explores along the way. She picks up leaves. She picks flowers. She points out dogs. She loves the moon. She talks about the moon all day long. She says hi to the moon and she says bye to the moon. Moon, moon, moon.

We color. We color a lot. Because of this, Delia knows 8 letters of the alphabet. She can tell you the letter and point to it when you ask what/where it is. She knows D, E, L, I, A, O, Y and B. She actually learned O, B and Y with her grandma the past few days. As soon as you give her a crayon she'll hand it back to you and say "uh deeee? uh iiiiii? uh eeeeeee? uh aaaaaa?" She wants you to draw the letter. I hope we always remember that. It's the cutest thing ever. She's also learned a few shapes by us doodling. She knows a square ("quare"), circle, and a heart ("hawt"). She asks to color all of the time. When I pick her up from Joyce in the afternoon lately, they're usually at the table coloring. I've been keeping a sheet every couple of weeks to save!

She loves putting the crayons back into the box and then dumping them out. This easily occupies her for about 10-15 minutes. The bottom of the box fell out and they kept falling through so Trey took it away to fix. Took 2 seconds. Here's how those few seconds played out...

We draw on her chalkboard. We play hide and seek. She plays with her puzzles.

She's been asking to play with bubbles for about 2 weeks now - she sees them on top of the fridge and says "bubboo" over and over. It's usually dark when she asks so we haven't been able to play with them. We brought them outside the other day - she was so excited. The sun went down and it got really chilly...she was not happy when we had to go back inside!

I hadn't showered yet this day...one of the benefits of working from home.

We read a loooooooot. We read so much that I could probably recite 20 of her books from memory. She always picks the sameeee ones. She learns a lot through reading also. She's really loving "The Big Red Barn" lately and knows what a barn is because of it. She also learned what a rooster says thanks to the book...."doooo dooooo." Santa is bringing Delia new books for Christmas. Mommy and daddy are beyond excited about this.

When we're being lazy, we hang out on the couch. Delia likes to watch videos of herself on our phones! When one ends she says "anowa one?"

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Trey was home all week so we worked side by side at the kitchen table. We were able to get a ton accomplished. We even went out to lunch one day, which hasn't happened in forever! We ended the week with going to get pizza for dinner and then went to the mall. We couldn't head home without stopping for ice cream, so we did that too. I'll shamelessly admit that I've had 3 bowls. Ice cream rocks my world.

While we were at the mall tonight, we stopped to show Delia Santa. We were a good 30 feet away from him and she had a skeptical look on her face the entire time. Trey asked if she wanted to go see Santa and she responded "nooo" with a frightened look. Soooo I don't think a trip to see Santa will happen this year! She's happy keeping her distance and she'll gladly tell you that Santa says "ho hooooo" (only two) if you ask her. As we were walking away she kept saying "byeeeeeeee." She was so happy to be walking away!

I don't blame her. I'd probably be scared too.

fun, melt downs, family and friends

2011-11-27T19:26:00.001-05:00

I'm so bummed that tomorrow is Monday. The past five days went a little like this:

We made cake batter candy bark. I suggest you do the same. Delia loved adding the sprinkles.

We ate with Trey's family for Thanksgiving #1. That was fun.

Not long after finishing Thanksgiving #1 were we on our way to Thanksgiving #2 with my family. Trey managed to devour another plate full of food while I could only stomach little samplings. I did eat some pumpkin pie, cherry pie and my weight in cake batter candy bark at my parent's house though.

After dinner, Delia played outside with my niece. Delia rode around on Elayna's princess scooter. We had to help her push the pedal down to make it go. She ended up having a melt down right there in the driveway because she wanted to drive the scooter in the road. Once she was over it, my niece took her for a ride in the princess car (yes, Elayna is spoiled). The batteries were almost dead so it only went about 3 mph, but that was enough for Delia. The thing even has a radio!

60 seconds later, it was all better.

We stayed the night at my parent's house on Thanksgiving night and made the brave decision to face the Black Friday crowds. We went to Toys R Us with my mom on Friday morning. We are soooo close to being done with Christmas shopping.

We picked out a Christmas tree and decorated the inside and outside of the house. We're ready for Christmas =) Delia helped. She didn't quite get the hook on the branch thing and just placed the ornaments in a big pile within the tree...nevermind they kept falling out.

We gathered again with Trey's sisters and husbands. We ate. We drank. Delia and her cousins danced and played. One sister lives 2 doors down and the other lives less than 2 miles away. We do this often. I love that Delia will grow up being so close to her cousins.

We had a playdate with an old friend. We've been friends since 7th grade! Delia and Maddi were born only one day apart. They played so good together now that they're big enough to truly understand playing. Delia pushed Maddi on her push toy and they passed around babies. Delia shared crackers with Maddi and Maddi shared crackers with Myleigh. They live in Jacksonville which is a major bummer. I wish they lived closer so we could get the girls together more often.

The same day, we had another playdate with another old friend. Same story...friends since 7th grade. I had a session with her little girl and then they came over and had dinner with us. Delia was absolutely exhausted come bed time and fell asleep in about 2 seconds flat.

We had nothing on the agenda today, so we did absolutely nothing. We took Delia to the park this afternoon and stopped by the store, but that was the extent of our day.

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Andddddd some tidbits about some fun things Delia is doing right now =)

She says "cheeeese" when you take her picture. She sometimes even does it without being prompted.

If you ask her what Santa says, she says "ho hooo!" But she's not very fond of Santa. Hopefully that changes in the next few weeks or our trip to visit him will be disastrous.

If you ask her what her name is, she responds with "deh-dya." She knows her name =)

She's OBSESSED with the letters in her name. She's costantly on the look out for a D, E, L, I and A and points them out every single time she sees one!

She puts her finger to her mouth and says "sshhhhh" now. Usually the words "night night" are involved when doing so. Her Backyardigans go to sleep...her bear goes to sleep...she goes to sleep. It's rather cute.

She eats at the table like a big girl now. We don't put the tray on her high chair anymore and just push her up to the table. I love it. She loves it.

She's becoming a little pro at using utensils. We gave her chicken and dumplings tonight and she shoveled it into her mouth over and over again.

She loves having ice in her water. She'll even say "ice?"

Trey and I have a Starbucks addiction which is pretty much out of control. Trey always shares his whipped cream with Delia before he starts drinking his frappacino...and she knows this and loves it.

She says "hiiiii" in the sweeeeeeetest little voice. Trey calls it her angel voice. Today she was wired at nap time and I went in a few times to lay her back down. She kept saying "mamaaaa, hiiiiiii" while waving her little hand. I couldn't help but laugh.

She's basically just a whole lot of awesome balled up into a little person. Broken record? Perhaps.

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This afternoon I sent my sister a video of Delia saying "ho hoooo" and she responded saying that she thought Delia was starting to look more like me! I get really excited when someone tells me that Delia resembles me in any way because, let's face it, she's her father's clone and we hear it everywhere we go. So as I'm writing this post Trey turns his computer to me and says "you were saying she's looking more like you?...."

Crazy, right? They're twins! He likes to rub it in.

thankful

2011-11-23T22:04:00.001-05:00

I'm thankful for lots and lots this year. Mostly, I'm thankful for where I am in life; I'm thankful for my incredible husband who supports me 1000000%. I'm thankful for my sweet boogie who makes me smile a million times each day. I'm thankful for our health. I'm thankful for our home. For our amazing family and friends. I'm thankful that I had enough courage to pursue my passion that is photography. I could go on and on.

I have lots to be thankful for and for that I'm thankful.

Someone is excited for turkey! Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

P.S. See that little tooth poking through??

lately

2011-11-21T17:40:00.001-05:00

It's been forever since I've updated. It may very well be the longest I've gone without blogging in foooo-evah. But, here I am. Trey is currently occupying Delia so that the weight of this blog post can be taken off my shoulders. So much to do, so little time.

So, lately.

We're slowing down tons and tons with work. We went from 100 mph to about 25 mph, which is welcomed with open arms. There's some "clean up" and office work that needs to be done, but we're mostly done with the semester which is rather freeing.

We had a fabulous weekend doing a whole lot of nothing. The only thing on the agenda were my two sessions. We went to dinner, ate lots and lots of ice cream and cookies, read millions of stories, colored, learned, relaxed, went to the park. My parents came down on Saturday night and put Delia to bed so Trey and I could go see a movie (Breaking Dawn - ahhhhhhmazing). My niece tagged along with them, much to Delia's delight.

I'm loving Delia's obsession with books lately. It's the ONLY time she'll sit in your lap for more than 2 seconds. She listens to the story and points out things on the pages. This morning I read 15 books to her...some more than once. I got up to get in the shower and daddy continued the reading. Guess what they're doing right now? Yep, reading.

Bears, bears, bears. She loves bears. Trey drew a bear last night while we were coloring and now it's all she wants. You can't just draw one bear - you have to draw about 28 before she's satisfied. Her favorite books are the ones with bears. Her beloved teddy bear? We're convinced he tells her stories or something because she cracks up at him entirely way too often - at what appears to be nothing to me and Trey. She feeds him and gives him milk, too.

She's got a cold, which is accompanied by a fever this go round. I'm sure we'll be visiting the doctor by the end of the week just to be sure she doesn't have an ear infection. She's been so congested and snotty. She's learned to wipe her snot with the back of her hand - that's been fun.

Walking Myleigh is Delia's new favorite outdoor activity. She'll go to the closet to get her leash about 2394 times a day. Myleigh usually walks with her tail between her legs the entire time because the leash is known to chase her when Delia is in charge. We have to remind Delia to hold the leash tight!!

Just this month, we've had to replace our water heater (disaster) and we're having to pay our car insurance deductible. We were going around some funky two lane roundabout thing and Trey was on the outside trying to go all the way around. The girl on the inside lane tried to go straight at an opening and ran into us. Totally Trey's fault. He needed to yield to her. We can't get a break this year - first, his chipped tooth ($1300). Second, my ectopic pregnancy which totaled a whopping $4800. Private health insurance rocks. I'm lying. Private health insurance is actually a joke. Another topic for another day. Thennnn, we had the water heater start leaking ($550). And now the accident ($500). Hopefully 2012 is a little easier on the bank account.

Happier note -

I'm soooooooo excited for the holidays! I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving like whoa. We're going to Trey's sister's house for lunch and then making the drive to Jacksonville to have dinner with my family. I'm going to attempt to make cake batter candy bark...it's been going around Pinterest and calls my name every time I log in. Delia will be in charge of the sprinkles!

We went and got some Christmas decorations today - new placemats, a table centerpiece, stockings (!!!!), dish towels. I can't wait to decorate and put up our Christmas tree. We've even knocked out a bunch of our Christmas shopping. While we know the majority of what we're going to get Delia, we haven't actually bought anything for her yet! I can't wait to start buying for her and see her excitement as she opens up her gifts this year. Christmas = amazing.

I have to admit, it was kind of nice taking a (mini) break from blogging. But it weighed on me big time. I feel like I have to update often - I like to look back and read what we were doing, or what Delia was doing at particular times. My free time has been completely taken up with photography. It's been a blast to be busy, but I'm looking forward to a break. My personal photos have taken a back seat andddd that kind of sucks.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving =) Last year Delia sampled sweet potatoes - this year she gets to dig in!

farewell, weekend

2011-11-13T19:52:00.001-05:00

This was the most relaxing weekend we've had in a long time! Other than me having two sessions, we didn't have anything on the agenda. We did a ton of lounging around. We spent a lot of time on Delia's bedroom floor hanging out as a family. We took walks. We visited parks. It was all sorts of awesome.

This afternoon we decided to go check out a playground we've never been to. It was ahhhh-mazing. We'll definitely make more visits there. Delia is like a little monkey on playgrounds. She gets around like she's been doing it for years. We always have at least one person express their amazement at how well she gets around given her age.

She's an observer. She loves watching kids.

She's obsessed with leaves! "weeeeaf"

It's impossible to keep Delia from climbing our chairs.

She's all about kissing lately her stuffed animals lately. She even makes Pablo and Tyrone kiss!

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I keep meaning to update on what Delia is up to lately. So, here it goes....

Her vocabulary is insane. I'd guess she says about 50-60 words now? Some on that list are mama, daddy, Myleigh, milk, water, bear, dog, duck, cat, car, moon, flower, tree, bath, shoe, night night, heart, down, up, car, eat, snack, cracker, apple, banana, no, yes and blanket. I could go on and on.

She says "I want...(item)." So she'll say "I want milk" or "I want water" or "I want down."

She also says "where he (or whatever) go?" So, she might say "where daddy go?" or "where pabo go?" or "where Myleigh go?"

She knows the letters D and E and can point them out. You can also point to those letters and ask what they are and she'll tell you. She can also sometimes identify an L (I go over the letters while drawing her name, hence the D-E-L). She picks things up SOOOO fast. It's really amazing. I wasn't even really trying to teach her when I was showing her what a D was - I just doodle and show her what I draw. She started saying it back, so I rolled with it!

She knows the sounds of a cow, horse, dog, cat, duck, bird, bear, and a monkey. She can also point all of these animals out and can say all but monkey.

She lets us know when she's hungry now..."eat."

She can successfully put on her Crocs. She put her boots on last night all by herself, too!

She looooooves reading books!! She flips through the pages and points things out. She's also letting us actually read an entire book to her instead of turning the pages constantly. She can identify certain books also. Her favorites right now are "I Love You Through and Through", a book of colors with fruits and little $1 Elmo books that I got out of the dollar bin at Target last year!

She's gotten SO fast at running and loooves being outside.

She talks A LOT. She is always babbling about something.

She was sleeping until around 7:30 every morning. Daylight savings killed that. She's now waking up anywhere between 5:45 and 6:10. While I love getting our days started and having time to get things done before having to rush into getting ready, those mornings come fast!

She tells everyone "hiiiii" and makes sure she waves and says "bye bye" to everyone as we're leaving a place. This could be a store, a restaurant, a park. She even tells her bear (or whatever she has in the car) bye when we're getting out of the car.

She asks for a bow in her hair. Bows and barrettes are the same thing to her.

She has the most fun personality. She'll fake laugh when she's trying to be funny. She can also be really shy. When she's nervous she'll burrow herself into my chest and hide. It's really sweet. She's very determined. She gets frustrated when she's trying to do something and doesn't successfully do it in about 15 seconds.

She loves coloring and loves doing puzzles.

She's been draaaamatic lately! If she doesn't like something, she'll get on the ground and crrryyy. We usually just let her do her thing and it's over in about 20 seconds. Sometimes we can't help but laugh.

Anddddd that's all I can come up with right now.

bee-air

2011-11-12T20:16:00.000-05:00

We always crack up at how Delia says "bear," which is what she's taken to calling her teddy as of lately.

Andddd grandma saved the day. Notice Pablo!! My mom dropped Pablo off yesterday morning and Delia LIT UPPPPP and said "PAB-O!...where Rone?" (tyrone) They're a pair, those two.

backyard adventures

2011-11-09T20:22:00.006-05:00

We've been blessed with warm weather the past few days and have had temperatures in the low 70s. That makes me one happy girl. Delia, too. Warm weather means more time spent outdoors. It'll be interesting to see how we pass the time this winter.

These pictures pretty sum up Delia's time on a playground. She doesn't know what whe wants to do. Slide. Swing. Up. Down. Swing on the big girl swing. Climb. Run. Swing. Climb....

She wanted down. Haha.

Chasing Myleigh is the most fun thing in the world. Clearly.

It won't be long before those gaps are filled. Teeth are busting through!

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And what's a post anymore without some randomness?

On the subject of backyard adventures - we lost Pablo. I'm thinking she dropped him on our walk last week without me noticing. Everyday we hear "where Pabo?" no less than 30 times. It's heartbreaking. We went to try to find another one, but had no success. Every other character sat happily on the shelves...without Pablo. Luckily my niece has a Pablo, so my mom is going to bring him to us on Friday. Delia will probably jump through the roof.

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There's been lots of this lately. Delia goes to the shelf, picks a book and returns right to daddy's lap. She flips the pages as she wishes, which usually only allows Trey to get about 5 words in.

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She's still obsessed with her table.

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Scoping out the neighborhood with Myleigh. Her cousin, Krew, had arrived =)

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We have a long weekend coming up! We're closing the office on Friday for Veteran's Day. Hooray!

county fair

2011-11-06T20:39:00.002-05:00

It was a disaster.

1) It was $20 per person. That, to me, is absolutely ridiculous considering neither Trey or myself like to ride the rides. Fair rides make me want to vomit. My parents and niece came with us and they even charged $20 for Elayna - she's only 6 years old! On top of the entry fee, we spent close a million dollars on a couple corn dogs and a drink. They had a walk through price, but it was only available Monday - Thursday. Not cool.

2) It was freezing. I can deal with freezing. But 28028348 mph winds? No, thanks.

3) The sky fell out on Friday and we got tons of rain. This made for very, very muddy fair grounds. It was disgusting.

4) Delia wanted to walk. Walking was pretty much out of the question. See #3. If she couldn't walk, she wanted me to hold her and only me. It's very hard to carry around a 26 lb. child who is outfitted in a coat that doesn't allow much movement on her part. My biceps are sore today.

5) Because of the muddy grounds, a pair of my boots are now ruined. I'm a moron for even wearing them, but I honestly didn't think we'd be trudging through mud. Trey and I both attempted to clean them today with suede cleaner and they still look bad. I'm still mad at myself. Trey even gave me warning and said I should probably change them before going. Blibbity blah.

6) The one ride I would've glady rode was out of commission. If the admission price is $20, all of the rides should work.

Enough complaining.

I did hop on a few rides with Delia and Elayna. Delia thought the little helicopter ride was the best thing ever. Elayna was our pilot and provided entertainment in front of us. Delia giggled and said "weeee" the entire time. She was bummed when it ended.

She thoroughly enjoyed her corn dog. My sister used to eat corn dogs like they were going out of style and I'd always turn my nose at them. But holy moly, the corn dogs yesterday were delicious! It very well could've been because I was starving. I should add that to my list; I was on the verge of dying from starvation.

I can laugh now. Delia had a good time when she wasn't whining and trying to free herself from my arms. We did let her walk around where the grounds were dry. She had a really good time and loved spending the time with her cousin, Elayna. She's quite the little adventurer and wants to do and see everything!

I loved watching her see different animals up close. She kept making animal noises as we approached each one. She wanted to keep her distance, though. Getting close made her nervous.

She kept shouting "naaaaayyyyy" when we were near the horses and got so excited by them.

So, although I complain about the majority of our experience, it wasn't COMPLETELY miserable. We had some fun =) Watching Delia take in new things is always a good time and usually has both Trey and I smiling from ear to ear. She's easily excitable and I love that big time.

happy halloween!

2011-10-31T19:55:00.002-04:00

Delia's first trick or treating experience was nothing short of amazing. She was so excited by her cousins running and squealing and went right along with it. I'm so glad she has them to look up to. She followed them right up to the doors (but not without a grip on my finger) and announced "tweat ah twea" when prompted. She would usually pick her candy, drop it in her pumpkin and say "dayy-doo." She'd announce "bye bye" and we'd be on our way.

We had so much fun. I couldn't get over how cute she was the entire time!

Delia devoured an entire Tootsie Pop and had a piece of chocolate. Trey and I are working on the rest. Shame, shame.

creating

2011-10-30T21:56:00.001-04:00

This project cost all of about $4 ...and that's probably an overestimate. We already had the chalkboard paint. I think it cost like $10 when we bought it over the summer (for her lemonade stand). We picked up the trimming from Lowe's and had a friend miter the edges for us.

I taped off a rectangle and painted away. Delia managed to put her entire hand into the paint can while doing this, which was a huge disaster. If it weren't for that, it would've taken a total of 5 minutes. We let it dry overnight.

Trey nailed in the frame in about 2 minutes...with Delia's assistance, of course. I dream of a huge playroom with chalkboard walls, corkboard, cubbies, art/craft centers, etc. Our 1200 sq ft house doesn't allow that, so this will suffice =) Delia loves it and that's what matters. It's another area where she can create.

Doesn't it look like she wrote the word pink in the left hand corner of this pic!? Trey walked in and pointed that out!

backkk to reality

2011-10-27T22:29:00.000-04:00

I'll be honest. For once, this week has flown by. I'm kind of in disbelief that tomorrow is actually Friday. All of the days have run together! I think it's because we've been so busy that we go from one thing to the next without actually sitting and thinking.

Monday - I ~~worked~~ took phone calls when I could and played with Delia. I worked while she napped. Once the phone was forwarded we ate dinner and went on a walk around the neighborhood!

Tuesday - I dropped Delia off at her grandma's house and worked until 3:00 when I picked her up. I played with Delia for the next hour in between taking phone calls. As soon as the phone was forwarded, I changed clothes and we headed to Subway to get dinner (Delia is a pro at eating a sandwich). Afterward, we went to the park to play a while before Stroller Strides. Trey didn't get home until 10PM because he had a grad fair in SC.

Wednesday - Same as Tuesday until 4:00. My sister in law came over so Trey could mess with her new phone while we went on a walk around the neighborhood with the kids. As soon as we got back we went and go something to eat. Got home and gave Delia a bath and then it was bed time for her. Oh, and Delia turned 16 months old.

Today (Thursday) - Joyce picked Delia up at 9AM. I worked until I went to get her at 3:00. We played and played until about 4:15 when I started making dinner. We ate dinner and then headed out to the park! Delia played for about an hour before Stroller Strides. Trey won't be home until 11:00 or so because we had another grad fair in SC this evening!

That's why the week flew by - it was go go gogogogogo.

We have a busy weekend planned. A trip to the pumpkin patch, dinner with family, Halloween parties, a visit from my parents, pictures for my nieces and nephews. Lots on the agenda! It's gonna be a fun one =)

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We bought Delia Pablo and Tyrone from the Backyardigans about 2 weeks ago. My mom gave her Uniqua and Tasha, so she now has 4 out of the 5 characters. We've been meaning to get Austin so that the set is complete but haven't yet. Delia is so in love with them! We were out and about shopping one night and came across them at Barnes and Nobles and had to get her a couple. Trey and I were giddy with excitement over finding them. She carries them around everywhere.

So, about 95% of the time you'll find Delia with teddy, blank and her crew of Backyardigans. She loves when I tuck her blanket around her! If she can't find one of her beloved items, she goes around saying "where bwank?" or "where he go?"

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Delia lovessss to color. This excites me because I'm a master doodler!

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She's been giving the BEST kisses. She puts her little head forward a bit and waits for you to plant one on the lips. We used to have to steal kisses from her, so this is huuuuge! HUUUUUGE.

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She's been sleeping until 7:15-7:30 every morning. I don't know if it'll last, but it's been so nice! It does put me way behind in the mornings, though. We're used to her waking up around 6:15 so I've been getting a late start these past few days! As soon as we wake up, we have to start getting ready for the day. We usually have lots of time to lounge around in our pajamas before embarking on our day.

On top of sleeping later in the mornings, she's also been napping almost 2 hours everyday this week. Since switching her to one nap a day, she's only been napping about an hour and fifteen minutes or less. I was never bothered by her waking early (I actually like getting our day started early...crazy?) or napping less than 2 hours, but we'll take the extra time!!

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This is one of Delia's new favorite things lately. She comes up to me and makes the noise that I do while she rides my legs.

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She says thank you for EVERYTHING. If you hand her something, she politely says "day-doo." She also says "day-doo" if she hands you something. So when she's done with her milk she'll hand you her cup and promptly say "day-doo"...same with her snack bowl, her blanket, her teddy, her barrette....EVERYTHING.

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Peek-a-boo!

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This picture is so out of focus, but she looks so gosh darn grown up!!! Her hair has gotten so long and full the past few weeks. And that perfect little smile. Love her.

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We still play lots of "where's Delia?" around here. I run and hide and shout "wheeere's Delia?" and she runs to find me. I pop out and she gets really excited and laughs like it's the most fun she's ever had.

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She's doing SO much these days. It's been hard to keep up with everything. I know I'm missing a million bits and pieces of Delia at this age on this blog and that blows. I need to start jotting things down. She's totally a kid doing kid things - she talks so much. Her vocabulary and ability to understand us is impressive. She sings in the sweetest little voice. She attempts to put on her own shoes. She tries putting her clips in her hair. She brushes her teeth and combs her hair. She's almost mastered the fork. She puts her beloved items in her stroller and pushes them around.

Yeah, there's so much more. She amazes me everyday.

mountain trip

2011-10-24T20:30:00.003-04:00

Fun. Relaxing. Perfect.

Delia was an angel on the car ride. I questioned whether or not I'd be riding in the back seat the majority of the ride to keep her occupied prior to leaving. I maybe spent 30 minutes back there each way. She napped, played with her Backyardigans and sang songs when prompted. She napped twice each way, which was pretty surprising. Apparently long car rides are a drag. Who knew?

We arrived at the cabin on Wednesday afternoon. We watched the temperature drop as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain. We went from 75 degree weather to 50 degree weather in a matter of a few hours! It was frigid. Once everyone arrived and we all picked rooms, we spent the evening hanging out and eating. We did a ton of eating. My brother in law is an awesome cook and never disappoints.

spaghetti + no bib = disaster

We woke up bright and early the next morning. Delia spent a lot of time coloring with her cousins! Coloring is her new favorite thing.

We went to the Mast General Store in Boone after everyone ate breakfast, but a good majority of the day was spent just sitting around, doing nothing. We played. We lounged. We talked. We (the girls) ventured out to do a little shopping that afternoon and left the kids with the guys. But that was the extent of our adventures that day. More food. Wine. Beer. We spent the evening playing board games, which was soooo much fun!

She spotted the pig. Touched the pig. Then proceeded to ride the pig.

Someone was being a wee bit greedy.

This lollipop remains unopen in our pantry.

We spent a looooot of time going upppp and down the stairs with Delia. They wore her out because she slept in until 7 am every morning (yes, 7 am is sleeping in).

On Friday we decided to go to Tweetsie Railroad when all of the kids woke up from their naps! We rode the train as soon as we got into the park. I thought Delia would either love it or hate it (there are gun shots and crazy indians), but she was indifferent. She just sat there, cuddled up on my lap!

This is what we were battling at first...

At some point, Delia has become afraid of carousels. We have one in our mall that we ride sometimes. The last time we took her on it, she was scared of it! Nothing has changed since then. She wanted nothing to do with the animals on the carousel!

Sad, right?

Holding Emily's hand made her feel safer.

Watching her cousins! She was too little to join and parents couldn't ride.

This = heaven. Trust.

We headed to dinner after Tweetsie to celebrate Logan's 3rd birthday! ...all 15 of us. Afterward looked much like the previous night minus the games. Eating. Alcohol. Chatting.

The next morning, I decided to take Delia outside to explore the mountain a bit. We were pretty much situation on the tippy top. She absolutely LOOOOVED it. She was like a free little bird. She wandered all around taking it all in. She discovered so many things. She was infatuated with all of the rocks and leaves. We crossed a mini bridge about 2359 times. We stomped on leaves and crunched them in our hands. The only other place I've seen her so happy is the beach. If it weren't for her loving the beach so much, I'd have convinced Trey to move to the mountains, haha! She was that happy out there.

The leaves! That's also our cabin in the back.

Check out that expression.

The girls took another trip to the outlets that afternoon while all of the kids stayed home with the daddies again! We had septic tank issues and ended up not being able to shower or flush the toilets that entire day, haha. We all found the humor in it after being initially disgusted as brown water flooded mine and Trey's downstairs bathroom. No lie, we got our stuff out right as soon as the toilet started spilling over. It was absolutely disgustinggggg! The girls fled and the guys used the outdoors as their toilets.

That night we ate (the eating never stopped), drank and played another round of games! The next morning we packed up, cleaned up and headed home. It was such a fun trip. Our cabin was absolutely amazing. It was perfect for big groups like us. Delia loved spending so much time with her cousins and we enjoyed the relaxation. It was perfection.

And now we're back to reality.

I'm already looking forward to next year's trip!

3 years

2011-10-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

Trey and I were never really a couple who talked about our relationship and where we stood. We never discussed marriage, ever. We didn't need to.

I remember feeling incredibly lucky to have found Trey when we first started dating; to meet him in a random bar one night and hit it off as effortlessly as we did. Life is funny like that. From the get go he was eager to be in my life, often calling me as soon as I'd get out of class or get out of work. I liked that. We constantly wanted to be in each other's company. Our relationship was easy.

Once our first date was past us, we really never looked back. A year after meeting, he asked me to marry him. In true Trey fashion, he proposed a day before he planned to because surprises just don't bode well with him. He's a 5 year old kid where surprises are concerned. No lie. I'm still wondering how he managed to go weeks searching for the perfect engagement ring without telling me!

Anyway.

I could probably go on and on. He's the perfect husband and an amaaaazing father. He loves his girls and we love our guy. I feel as though I did right by Delia and other future children (child?) by saying "i do" three years ago today.

I love you, Helem. Thank you for being you. I can't wait to see where forever takes us!

Photos by Charo Donohue.

whole lotta random

2011-10-13T21:06:00.000-04:00

I was thinking today that I can't wait for things to return to normal. Then I realized this is our normal now. We'll go through typical busy spurts with work and then it'll slow down. Life has been so insane lately. It's exhausting.

Example?

Trey and I left Delia with her grandma this morning at 7 am and headed to do a ring ceremony at a school. We got back to the office around 12. I attempted to cram in as much work as possible into the 3 hours I had left while Trey unloaded his car and reloaded it for a grad fair tonight from 4-7. He left the house at 1:15 and just walked through the door at 9 pm. Now he has to unload his car and then reload it (AGAIN!) for a ring ceremony tomorrow morning. Trey's mom is coming over at 6 am so that we can head out to that one.

But, at least tomorrow is Friday. Glass half full.

We're both looking forward to Wednesday, which is when we leave for the mountains! November's calendar is much less full, which is typical for the time of the year. December, January and February will be quiet and then we'll go full force again until graduations happen! The past few weeks have been pretty stressful to say the least, but we're getting through it.

Day by day.

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Delia and I went and ate Subway before going to Stroller Strides tonight. I got her a kids meal, which is a 3 inch sub. She ate it like she's been eating subs since she exited the womb. She did eventually open the sandwich up and eat everything piece by piece. But she devoured all but one tomato.

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Delia loves bath time. Loves. Loves. Loooves. It's fun for all because we're usually laughing at what she's doing.

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I'm pretty much obsessed with "Dirty Soap" on E!. Every week I'm bummed when it ends. Our other favorites (Trey loves trash TV just as much as me) -- Jersey Shore, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Teen Mom (sad it's over), The Real World, Kendra and The Sing Off. I'm excited for American Idol to start up.

We usually DVR all of those and watch them sometime throughout the week once Delia goes to bed.

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For about 6 months, Delia ate a blueberry whole grain waffle and blueberries for breakfast everrryyyyy single morning. About 2 months ago she grew tired of this and quit eating anything. Since then we've had to figure out new things that she'd eat. We tried pancakes and those were hit or miss. We tried eggs, which she used to love, and she doesn't eat those. She liked everything bagel thins, but after a couple days she was over it. For a couple weeks, we gave her a blueberry bagel and a Gogurt. She's obsessed with Gogurt! We've tried so many things.

Recently, we've gone back to the whole grain waffle and put a teensy bit of syrup on it. It's not even enough to leave her messy and sticky, but enough to add some sweetness to them. We've been giving it to her with a side of fruit and she's been gobbling up breakfast like old times. She's also loving blueberry muffins lately.

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She's teething again. Her entire hand is usually in her mouth lately. When she removes it, it's usually covered in teeth marks =( All 4 of her incisors look like they're about to come through. The gums are bulging. I think these are the last teeth she'll get until she starts getting her 2 year old molars???

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Sometimes I'll sit against a wall, or piece of furniture, when playing with Delia. Whenever I do this, she immediately comes over and takes a seat next to me. She loves it. The other day we looked out the front door for a while, just hanging out.

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She's no longer scared of anything at the park. She wanders around, occasionally looking back at me to make sure I'm still there. I have to stay pretty close to her or she'd dive off the slide, though. She has no fear. We went to the park tonight and she started going down the slide on her belly!! She turned around, got onto her belly and went down...more than once. That's totally a big kid thing to do. She's also been interacting with random kids lately. She usually pokes their eye while saying "eyeeeee." Poor kids.

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End randomness. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. We have a fun weekend ahead =)

saturday mornings

2011-10-08T09:54:00.002-04:00

Saturday mornings always look the same, much like our Friday nights do. We wake up, eat breakfast and then head out to grocery shop. It's usually a family gig, but the past two weeks Delia and I have flown solo. Last weekend Trey had a parents order taking day and this weekend he's playing in a golf tournament with his dad!

I've never really hated grocery shopping, but I've come to look forward to it lately. We go to the grocery store right up the street. Upon arrival, Delia gets a balloon and Trey and I get Starbuck's. My addiction to Starbuck's has turned Trey onto an addiction for Starbuck's! It's sooooo good.

The balloon usually magically disappears when Delia takes a nap.

Now Delia and I are off to take a walk and go to the park! The weather is perfect outside. It's going to suck when we can't take Saturday morning walks and trips to the park because of frigid weather, so we need to soak it up while we can.

bit of this and a bit of that

2011-10-07T21:07:00.002-04:00

So, we're busy. That's a given. I wanted to shout from the rooftops when 4:00 hit today and we could officially say hello to the weekend. It was another one of those weeks.

Except....

Except I had Delia to juggle along with work all week. There wasn't a whole lot of working that took place. Every time the phone rang I hoped Delia would play quietly so that it didn't come off as unprofessional if she decided to randomly go high key in the middle of my conversation. Thankfully, it only happened once to which the customer said "is that a baby?" Major emphasis on baby. If I called a business and heard a baby in the backround, I wouldn't particularly care. But some do.

Joyce went out of town this week. I looooved having Delia around all week. It was like old times =) We spent a lot of time playing and learning. We did our usual trips to the park, walks around the neighborhood and Stroller Strides adventures. Delia got pushed down by a little boy yesterday at the park. She was just standing there minding her own business, observing all of the action. 2 seconds later she was on her butt. Tears ensued, but they were quickly wiped away. She's a tough little thing.

Delia loves her cousin, "kwoo" (Krew)

I won't get in to the whole "parents need to pay attention to their kids" rant. But really, they do. It blows my mind when a parent just sits on the sidelines using the playground as their babysitter.

But I'm not going to go there.

Trey was gone a majority of the week. There were two days where he left shortly after Delia woke up and didn't return until after she was in bed. It sucks, but such is life. Thank goodness for weekends!! We love the weekends around here! Delia has been on a huge mommy kick the past couple of weeks, so it burns Trey a bit when she prefers me over him when he hasn't seen her much lately =/ She's always loved her daddy, so it's a new and unusual phase.

We had her 15 month well baby visit on Thursday sans Trey. Delia was a wreck. She didn't want the nurses or doctor to touch her. AT ALL. She's usually a very happy, easy going baby. She whines and has her moments, but for the most part she's not really a fit throwing kid. Thursday around 2:00 was an entirely different story. It was awful. I was sweating by the time we left the office!!

But, she's doing great. She's 26 lbs (78th percentile) and 32 inches long (88th percentile). In other words, she's a chunk. She's wearing all 24 month clothing with the exception of two pairs of pants, which she'll outgrow soon I'm sure. She got her shots, which was painful for both of us. The nurse took foreverrrr to inject them and went oneeee by oneeeeee and took her sweeeet time in between. I scooped Delia up as soon as the last one was removed. She stopped crying within a few seconds and starting sweetly announcing "bye." The poor thing was ready to go!

She's become quite the chatterbox lately. She talks soooo much. We constantly talk to her...she really enjoys being face to face with someone. I spend a lot of time with her pointing out items and telling her what they are. We go over animals and animal sounds. We sing the ABCs a lot and count to 5. She picks up so much of it so quickly. She's such a little sponge. She's learning an average of 3 new words a day. She can point to an item and say what it is. She's using the word "help" when she needs assistance and says "all done" when she's done eating.

She's OBSESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSED with her blanket. If she doesn't know where it is she'll go around sayiing "where's bwank?" Her attachment to it is a bit ridiculous (and really cute), but I'll pick my battles! She drags "bwank" around everywhere. We draw the line at bringing the blanket into places. It can go in the car, but that's the furthest it travels. Today she put her blanket in her stroller and thought it was hilarious when I'd say "aww, blanket is in the stroller!"

I really, really love this age (I say that a lot, I realize). But, she is soooo much funnn!

I'm really excited for this month. We have a trip to the pumpkin patch planned with my family, complete with a hayride. We're going to the mountains again with Trey's family, which we're REALLY looking forward to! We plan to leave on Wednesday afternoon and won't return until Sunday. Delia will be able to experience Trick or Treating for the first time and will walk our neighborhood with her cousins! On top of all of that, we'll also celebrate our 3rd anniversary.

Lots of fun to be had. Whoooop!

We kicked off the weekend our usual way - dinner out followed by ice cream! Afterward, we played in the culdesac with the cousins. Bonus!

Krew and Logan were jumping off the curb!

I'm pretty much obsessed with my child. Totally normal, right?

up and down

2011-10-04T19:52:00.001-04:00

Delia learned to get up on our chairs today. She's been working on it the past few days and finally got it. It's her favorite new game as she is also able to get down all by herself.

15 months

2011-09-30T21:41:00.001-04:00

Delia is now 15 months old. Well, 15 months and 5 days. I've had zero time to sit down and post, so we're late. I used to be really insistent on doing Delia's monthly pictures on the actual day. I had good intentions. We were going to take them on Sunday, her actual 15 month birthday. But the weather didn't cooperate. It's been soooo gloomy and has rained so much.

But the sun decided to show its face earlier this week =) Unfortunately, we had Stroller Strides on Tuesday (well, not unfortunately) then I had a session on Wednesday and Thursday. So, tonight was our date despite being 5 days late. We set out to do some 15 month pictures of Delia prior to going to dinner. I love doing Delia's pictures because they seriously take like 5 minutes.

She sits, she smiles. She gets up. Trey wrangles her. Puts her back in the chair. She sits and smiles. Rinse, repeat. Voila.

While we were out there I had Trey snap some pictures of me and Delia. He's become quite the photographer =)

Delia has really made the transition from baby to kid this past month. She understands so much. It seems as if everyday she adds a new word to her ever expanding vocabulary. She answers us when we ask a yes or no question. When I tell her it's time to brush her teeth or take a bath, she runs to the bathroom. She goes to the kitchen when I tell her we need to give her her medicine. She goes to the pantry when I ask if she wants a snack. She gets it.

She's starting to sing her ABCs. It sounds like "aaasheedeededededeeee" but it's in tune to the ABCs. Haha. If you ask her to sing them it's the exact same each time. She also counts. Except instead of going "one...two...three" she immediately says "tweeee" and holds up 3 fingers. It makes us laugh =) Her favorite thing to say right now? "uhhh ooooh".

She loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider, especially if you control her hands to do the motions. She gets really excited and claps at the end when the spider goes back up the water spout! She's obsessed with "ride that horsey" which involves her going up and down and falling down at the end. She'll ride the horsey wherever...on your lap, on the stool, on the couch, on a chair, on the floor.

Her grandma has one of those horses that is on springs...the ones that rock and bounce up and down. I'm pretty sure Delia would stay on that thing all day if Joyce would let her. When I go to pick her up every afternoon, she runs straight to the horse after greeting me. She likes to show off for me and show me what she's made of. She even rides it one handed and lifts her little butt of the bottom! She's crazy.

She loves balloons and balls.

We got a bean bag last weekend and she's really enjoying that. She falls backward onto it and laughs.

She's enjoying her riding toys lately.

She's learned to use her little toy phones. She means business.

She takes everything to her table in her room. That was probably the best purchase ever. When I give her a snack, she immediately carries it into her bedroom to eat. We probably shouldn't let her do this, but she's not hurting anything. She alternates between the green chair and the blue chair.

She's been attempting to put her shoes on her feet. She'll grab her entire foot and try to place it in the shoe instead of trying to place the shoe on her foot. It's hilarious.

I've been giving her a fork a few times a week so that she gets practice. She has a hard time scooping things, but she has the concept down!

She's learned to say "no no" to Myleigh and points and shakes her little finger while doing so. I don't know where she picked up the finger pointing, but it's a sassy little finger point! If Delia has any kind of food in her hand and Myleigh approaches her, she starts telling her no. Usually it comes with other words as well, but there's no telling what she's saying to her.

She knows almost all of her body parts - eye, nose, mouth, teeth, ear, hair, belly, arm, leg, fingers, toes, foot, hand. I think she's understanding where her knee is now, but it's not 100% all of the time. We have been working on animals. She can tell you what a duck says. She can point out some animals, but she's been doing that for a couple of months. She hasn't really learned any new ones. She calls most animals dogs...I'm having a hard time getting her to understand that there's a difference. Haha.

Delia has been in loooove with mommy lately. She's been up my butt. She won't even let Trey pick her up. She just wants me. I love that she's going through this, but sometimes it can be exhausting!! It does get me extra kisses and sweet hugs.

She's loving the playground lately. She can do pretty much everything on her own now, so I think she's loving the independence. I have to stay close by her, though, because she'd go down the slides on her feet if I didn't. That could be disastrous.

With her playing on the playground more independently lately, I've been able to witness her interacting with other children. The other day a little boy her age went up to her randomly and shouted "no, no!" to her for no reason while swatting his hand at her (he didn't hit her). Delia just looked at him kind of stunned and moved on. A few minutes later, I was talking to a girl from Stroller Strides while the girls were playing and a little boy came up and pushed Delia's little friend. Like, straight up pushed her out of nowhere. I couldn't believe it! I know it's going to happen, but it breaks my heart. Delia will put out her fair share of meanness, I'm sure, but it's hard to watch her experience it on the other side. I don't want kids to be mean to her! She's too sweet to be mean to.

I guess that's part of being a kid; part of growing up. I don't really look forward to the months coming where we have to stress sharing and being nice. It seems utterly exhausting!

Anyway, that's Delia at 15 months. She is loving being a kid. She gets so excited when she's playing with people her size. We go for her 15 month well baby visit next week, so we'll know her stats then. I'm pretty sure she's about 26 lbs at this point. She's a chunk!

friday! friday!

2011-09-23T15:42:00.003-04:00

I have neverrrrr been so happy to see Friday! I'm sure I've said that a million times before, but this week has been so crazy. We're all sick. I am sounding more and more hoarse as the days progress. Trey has a sore throat and congestion. Delia has a cold. I took her to the doctor on Wednesday and she has the beginning of an ear infection, so she's on an antibiotic. Hopefully we'll all feel better next week.

With the exception of a birthday party I have to photograph tomorrow afternoon, we have zero plans for this weekend. Hooray =) Weekends full of to-dos are always fun and exciting, but having weekends without anything to do is refreshing. We welcome weekends with no agenda.

While we were really (like, really really really) busy this week, we still made time for some fun.

We let Delia walk the entire way to the park with her stroller.

On the way home, we decided Trey should carry her because she loses steam as we go. She was somewhat content with this as long as she was holding her stroller.

All is right in the world again.

Delia loves the office. There's so much for her to get into in there...all stuff she shouldn't get into. Every time she gains access she goes straight for the elliptical but usually ends up in order forms and other important papers.

Helping daddy with important business. Someone has to do it.

And another park trip...to the park we have Stroller Strides at. Trey and I both wore jeans out there. Biggest mistake ever. Isn't today the first day of Fall? Why is it still 2038084 degrees?

Have a good weekend!

attached?

2011-09-20T17:45:00.000-04:00

A certain little someone ~~demanded~~ insisted that she eat dinner with her blanket. You can imagine how clean this blanket looks. She's got a cold. She's extremely snotty. She's teething and drooling. She's a mess. Don't let this smile fool you. Seconds before, I was calming and shushing her cries. She hasn't been eating much the past two days, which is so unlike her. The kid loves to eat. We may be making a trip to the doctor in the morning!

I'd say someone is a bit attached to their blanket.

longer days, please?

2011-09-16T21:02:00.002-04:00

I wish there were more hours in a day. I neeeed more hours in a day.

I've been working everyday from 9-3 without stopping. As soon as I pick up Delia I spend time with her all afternoon. Then we cook/eat dinner. Tuesday and Thursday nights we go to Stroller Strides. I always try to go early so that Delia has time to play at the park with all of her little friends. We try to get to the park or take her outside on other nights. Once she goes to sleep I spend my nights editing until I go to bed. It's crazy. I'm exhausted. I forced myself to avoid editing pictures tonight so that I could upload pictures of Delia and post.

We've been so busy. I checked out two books from the library this past weekend and haven't even read the first page of either. Trey has been all over the place with work. On Wednesday he was gone from 7:30 am - 8:30 pm. I got to see him for lunch, but that was it! He said goodbye to Delia and announced he'd see her the next day only 30 minutes after her day started. Sad. Sad. Sad.

Luckily, those kinds of loooong days are few and far between. There are days like today where he leaves the house for 2 hours and then he's back! Of course, there's still work to be done but his presence makes our world a little happier. We love the daddy man.

We have a bed time routine. It usually takes both of us to put her into her jammies. She's a crazy one. Once she's jammied up, I bring her into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair. As soon as we're done wiping her mouth I whisper "let's go give daddy night night kisses" and she gets excited. She sometimes gives him a good smoocheroo right on the lips, but most nights she makes him work for it. Once I smother her in kisses, I lay her down and tell her goodnight.

The night of Trey's long day we walked out of the bathroom and she kept saying "daddy? ...daddy?" It broke my heart! She's so sweet.

And oh, so funny. She cracks us up these days. She's always acting crazy. She runs around the house at lightening speeds...hands behind her back. She drives her toys into things while saying "boom" and dances when music comes on. She laughs at all the good parts when watching The Backyardigans. The way she says "please" and "yes" are incredibly cute and always make us say "awww."

The other night in the bath she kept grabbing her belly and each time she did it Trey and I would yell "belllyyyyy." It was making her laugh sooooo hard. Ever since then she goes around yelling "beyyyeeeee" while slapping her stomach. It's so cute.

We go to dinner every Friday night. After dinner tonight we went to a few different places. Delia announced "hi" and "bye" to every passing stranger! It was hilarious. Halloween stores are open around here, which seems crazy. We ventured into one of them tonight to look around. Delia got the daylights scared out of her by a life sized spider. It stood as tall as her and leaped out when you stepped on a trigger. We had no idea it did that and felt so bad because it was terrifying for us, so I imagine it was a nightmare for her. Poor girl!

She quickly forgot about it. We let her roam the store. She picked up buckets and carried them around. She played with foam swords. We ended up buying her a costume while we were there. I really wanted to get the baterina costume, but Trey is dead set on her being a devil. He says she'll pick fairy/princess costumes every year from the time she's able to pick. Good point. The costume we got her is really cute. She's going to love Halloween this year! We're overachievers, apparently. Or maybe we're just excited parents?

This weekend we'll be celebrating Delia's cousin's third birthday! Today she started saying "kwoo" (Krew)...just in time for his celebration =) There was a chill in the air today so we busted out Delia's new fall clothes. While I'm ready for a change of season, I'm dreading cold weather. Today was a small taste and I'm already shivering. But toddler fall clothes makes me giddy.

she's a kid

2011-09-10T21:01:00.003-04:00

We still refer to her as a baby sometimes. Trey will say "where's the baby?" and I still say "come on, baby" (or something similar) on the regular. But when I look at her, I see hardly any traces of a baby.

Her vocabulary grows by the day. Every time we leave the house I say "let's goooo" and she's started doing so also. Except it comes out like "gahhh gooo." She's also started to say "all done" which is incredibly cute. She says daddy, mama (on occasion - she's stingy with this one), milk, dog, duck, bird, light, bath, shoe, balloon, bye, baby (this one is new!), snack, cracker, yes, no, up, down, Myleigh (and it sounds just like Myleigh), hot, water, book....that's all Trey and I are able to come up with right now.

I can ask her to go get something and she'll get it. She knows where everything is located. She knows where her shoes are kept. She knows where the snack cabinet is. She knows her milk is in the fridge. She knows where her books are. She finds her blanket and teddy when it's time to sleep. When I ask her if she wants to take a bath, she runs to the bathroom door. When we ask if she wants to go bye bye, she goes straight to the front door and waits with her hand on the handle! She goes over to her high chair when I announce that it's time to eat.

I've been working on counting with her. We count everything. I usually put up my fingers as I count so she can see. She'll try to mimic me. When I start to count I'll start with "oooonnneeeee...." and she immediately says "tweeeee" and repeats that for every number. Haha. Apparently three is the new one...and two...and four...and five.

She's pretty much over baby-ish toys. She loves balls. She bounces them and kicks them and gets giddy every time she sees one. She's pretty much obsessed. We took her to her cousins' first soccer practice/game this morning and she ran around exclaiming "ball! ball! ball!" the entire time. Next time we know to bring a ball of our own.

She is a natural born dribbler. She keeps the ball close!

Always. She loves showing off her belly.

She really loves her ride and push toys. She'll run with them through the house, crashing into everything on purpose. She's always pushing around Emily's little stroller when we go over to their house, so we went and bought her one today. She played with it for about an hour and a half. Trey took it out of the packaging and handed it over to Delia. She immediately put her teddy in and took him for a ride. We decided to take her outside to walk her teddy up and down the sidewalks. We pretty much made her dreams come true.

She loves outside. It's to the point where if she wants to go outside she'll go to the back door and pull on the door handle. It's always locked, so she's not very successful in her efforts. She's mastering the playgrounds. She even went through the tunnel at the park the other day. Take her outside and you're guaranteed a happy child.

Want to know what makes her even more happy? The Backyardigans. The child can't get enough. I really try to limit her TV watching. But it's so hard when she looks up at me, points to the TV and says "teeee-zeeeee?" in her sweet little voice. She's not interested in any other cartoon or program. Only the Backyardigans. She laughs when there's a funny part and gets excited when they sing and dance. When the show is going off and they're announcing they're going to have a snack (that's how the show always ends), she waves bye to them.

Other things that prove she's a kid these days --- she colors at restaurants. She dips her food. When I give her a bowl of snacks, she carries it into her room to eat at her table. She has a mouth full of teeth. She brushes her hair. She tries to put on her shoes by herself. Babies don't do these things!!!!!

---------

One of my slits was looking funny, so I called the doctor and they had me go in. I figured it was infected. The steri strip was laying inside the opening, which was obviously keeping it from closing and healing. It became really red and irritated. Dr. Woodfill ripped off the strip (OUCH!), blotted it with cotton ball, squeeeeezed the puss out (gross, right?), poured peroxide over it, squeezed again, swabbed with a q-tip and then put new strips over it. I went home with a prescription for an antibiotic. I had a follow up on Wednesday and it's looking much better. I go back again next week!

I went back to Stroller Strides this past week, which felt great. Delia missed all of her little friends and I missed a good work out!

My mom and dad came down yesterday evening to watch Delia so Trey and I could go out with some friends. We went to dinner and had some drinks downtown. We were home by 11:00. I remember the days when we didn't even get a cab to go downtown until 11:00. Funny how times change. We had a lot of fun =) Our 6:30 wake up call came wayyyy too early this morning, though.

I really, really, really need to update more often. I feel like all of my posts have been incredibly lengthy lately!

first hair cut!

2011-09-04T20:57:00.002-04:00

We were super productive on Saturday morning. Delia and I went on a walk while Trey took a trip to the gym. At the tail end of our walk, we met Trey at the park and Delia played for a bit! After that, we went grocery shopping. Got home, unloaded the groceries and fed Delia lunch. Delia went down for a nap and Trey and I took the opportunity to clean! I felt pretty accomplished =) We even cleaned bathroom mats and bleached the floors!

Once Delia woke up from her nap, we spontaneously made the big decision to go get her hair cut. We'd mentioned it a few times, but never really made a plan as to when we'd go ahead and do it. We didn't have anything left on the agenda for the day, so we picked up and headed to Mayfaire. There's a super duper duper duper awesome little girl's salon in there. They do manis, pedis, fashion shows, facials, hair cuts...you name it. We decided to go there knowing Delia would absolutely love it. She adores little girls and chaos. And chaos it was.

When we walked out Trey said "I looked at the two little girls with cucumbers over their eyes while they were getting their feet done and thought 'how in the world can they relax?'" Hahaha! Insanity probably best describes it. There was so much excitement in the place. Trey was the only male in the entire shop among zillions of Justin Beiber loving pre-teens.

So, the hair cut. We opted to get the baby's first hair cut package, which came with a certificate with her picture on it and her hair in a pouch. We looked around while we waited on a chair. Delia was mesmerized by the "boons" (balloons) on the ceiling. They had colorful balls hanging and really cool circle lights. She looked around and watched everything going on. Once our stylist was ready, Trey loaded her into the chair.

I told Trey on the way that we should probably have The Backyardigans on Youtube ready on one of our phones in case she hated the experience. She freaking LOVED it. Our little sassy diva soaked up those minutes in the chair. She watched herself in the mirror and smiled the majority of the time! A few associates commented on how good she was - they usually witness the complete opposite. It only took about 5 minutes. We only wanted it trimmed so that everything was more even and less shaggy...same look, just cleaned up =)

After!

A girl came over to take Delia's picture for her certificate as soon as her hair cut was complete. Delia sat there and cheesed it up for her! She never sits and smiles at the camera! Ever!

It was such a fun time...for her and us! We left with a freshly groomed baby, some sweet baby locks, and the most precious first hair cut certificate in the entire world. We're proudly displaying it on our fridge!

First hair cut? Check.

Delia's hair cut wasn't the only first this weekend. We decided to get her some sidewalk chalk to play with! She's started coloring when we go to restaurants so I figured she'd like it. She had fun marking up the driveway...and so did we =) When it rains really hard, our gutters push our mulch out onto the driveway. We've been too lazy to clean it up!

Trey's art.

She's such a kid these days <3

normalcy is settling back in

2011-08-31T22:13:00.001-04:00

Not being able to hold Delia sucks. Really sucks. It's been a tough week of helplessness on my part, but we got through. As of today, I'm pain free. My belly button doesn't hurt with each step I take like it has been. The first few days after surgery, I was so uncomfortable and crazy swollen/bloated. I looked 7 months pregnant. As each day passed, the swelling and bloat went down. I even got brave this evening and lifted Delia. It's absolutely killed me to not be able to pick her up and squeeze her this past week!

But I'm fine. I picked her up and felt 100% normal. I did hold her more carefully, trying to avoid having her rest directly on my belly button. I even put her to bed by myself tonight and laid her in her crib for the first time in what feels like an eternity. Without the daddy man, the past 7 days would've been pretty impossible. He stepped up and filled both of our positions. I have to say, it's so nice to feel physically normal again. I don't like being restricted. I'm going to continue to take it easy, but a day without pain is incredibly sweet. Being able to hold Delia on my hip is even sweeter. Now if I could get rid of the itching that goes along with healing scabs. My belly button is screaming at me to scratch it.

We made it through Irene. My surgery came at the perfect time...if it's possible to say that a surgery came at a perfect time. The storm locked us inside like prisoners for 2 days straight. Had the sun been shining, I would've felt even more miserable. We spent two whole days lounging around and doing nothing. The lights flickered a few times, but we never lost power for more than 45 seconds. The rain and wind woke Trey and I up at 3:30 am on Saturday morning, but neither did any damage to our home.

On Sunday, Irene had departed and I was itching to get out of the house. Keeping a 1 year old cooped up in the house for 2 days is pretty saddening in itself. So, we spent a lot of time out and about on Sunday. We took our weekly trip to McAlisters and walked the mall. We ended up buying Delia some fall clothing. This mommy got really excited at the thought of dressing her in cozier clothing. Leggings, long sleeves, layers, cute little boots. Oh, what fun. Speaking of, I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of September. It seems as though we were just entering the month of August.

We played in our backyard a lot and also took Delia to the park. She hasn't been too keen on swinging the past few months and was more interested in exploring. Something changed on Sunday. The girl didn't want to do anything but swing. All dayyyyy looooong. We sat and pushed her in the backyard for like 35 minutes straight that morning. At the park, she was content to sit in the little bucket and look around as she caught a breeze and mommy and daddy sweat to death! She's learned to say "weeee" and does so the entire time she's swinging now!

She made sure to make time for the slide though! Our little girl has become a brave little thing and is now a master slider. She doesn't even go for the toddler sized ones - she goes big. She climbs all of the stairs necessary to get to the top - one by one by one. This is a timely process, but she has her goal in mind. One of us places her on the slide and the other roots for her at the bottom! She loves it and immediately starts the process over as soon as her feet hit the ground! It's so fun watching her!

Delia has become obsessed with Trey's mom. Joyce has been coming to pick her up at our house because I haven't been able to lift Delia. This morning Joyce walked in, Delia stood up, grabbed Joyce's finger and led her straight to the door! She was ready to go. I could hardly hand over her little bookbag and lunch before they were gone. She knows there's fun to be had, apparently! Thank goodness she's always happy to come home, or my heart would be a little hurt.

The other day when Joyce dropped her off, Delia had two cars in hand. She played with them the entire rest of the afternoon. She sat at her little table and ran them across the top as if she had been playing with cars for years. It's the first time she's ever experienced toy cars! She flew them through the air and laughed when the big one would crash or ride off the table.

She loves books. She goes to her closet door and repeats "book" over and over and over. She empties her bookshelf every opportunity she gets. She sits and takes them off the shelf one by one, but not before turning the pages of each before deciding to move on to the next. I'm usually able to read a few to her before she gets bored with listening and wants to frantically turn the pages herself. Curious little mind.

Check out that bed head!

She's carrying Teddy around differently these days. She dangles him over her little arm. It's as if her teddy is her accessory. She's sweet and gives him hugs and kisses.

Her hair has become so long and full lately!! It's filled in so much in the past few weeks. We've talked about going and getting it trimmed and cleaned up a bit...we're both sentimental and have been holding out. I was willing to get her long lock cut off a couple months ago. It's like a little rat tail that is down to the middle of her back when her hair is wet. Trey said no way because it's the only bit of baby hair that she didn't lose. Thankfully, it tends to blend in a bit in the craziness that has become her hair.

delia + myleigh

2011-08-30T21:30:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed that Myleigh hasn't been making much of an appearance on the blog recently. They used to be best friends...and Delia still thinks they are. If Myleigh could talk I bet she'd say something along the lines of "you used to love meeeeee...now I just spend all day in my stupid crate." It's for her own good, really. Delia has become OBSESSED with dogs lately and feels the need to be one with Myleigh. If Myleigh is running free Delia is usually chasing her around the house toppling all over her and laughing about it. When she gets her hands on her, we usually have to pry Myleigh out of her grip. Delia doesn't understand gentle.

Delia's laugh is super contagious. She laughs ALL.OF.THE.TIME and never fails to make whoever is around her laugh right along with her. She's such a funny little person! ...and maybe a little bit crazy =)

Myleigh got a haircut today. Apparently it's pretty funny stuff.

still a family of 3

2011-08-26T11:02:00.001-04:00

{warning: this post contains a bit of TMI}

Back in June I got off birth control and started to chart my cycles. Our intentions were to start trying for a second baby in September, so we were going to chart to avoid until then and nail down my ovulation day. It's the same thing we did in preparation to conceive Delia. Well, we went on vacation in July and I didn't bring my thermometer. We were sharing a room with Delia and I didn't want my alarm to wake her being that you have to temp at the same time everyday.

I always ovulate around day 17 of my cycle, but neither of us paid attention to what cycle day I was on. We weren't trying, but definitely weren't preventing. Around day 28ish, I took a pregnancy test. Negative. Took another the next day. Negative. Relief.

Two days later I started my period, or what I thought was my period. So I started a new chart and began temping. Around cycle day 6 I realized my temperatures were up in the 98s, which is odd for the beginning of my cycle. I looked back at the chart that I got pregnant with Delia and sure enough, my temps were in the 98s at that point. I sort of shook it off and figured my body had just changed since having Delia.

The next morning I couldn't stop thinking about it. While I was cooking myself a second breakfast I decided to take the last pregnancy test I had. I knew it'd be negative, but I needed the peace of mind to keep my mind from wandering. After all, I was on my period. Not even 30 seconds later, I looked back at the test to see 2 lines staring back at me. TWO LINES. POSITIVE.

Trey wasn't even home! I for sure thought it'd be negative. So I immediately called him and told him the news. He was immediately excited. He's game for another baby whenever. I've been the one that has been hesitant as I'm very much a planner and with all of the changes with work this year, it seemed ideal to wait a bit longer.

I spent that entire first day of knowing stressed out. Excited, but stressed. The due date would be mid-April...part of the busiest time of year for us. Trey wouldn't be able to take any time off from work, as our work situation is unique and he doesn't really have coverage. His dad would be willing to cover for him for a few days, I'm sure, but anything more than that would be too much. We would have to hire someone to take over my position in the office. I'd have to train that person. We'd have to pay that person.

On top of all of that, we live in a 3 bedroom house. One room serves as our office. So, we'd have to either move into a bigger home that could house our business and our family, or find an external office location. We had intentions of doing one or the other soon, but this meant we had to rush it a bit more. Can you understand why I was a bit stressed? I quickly realized we have amazing family and we'd get through it. It was meant to be and we were going to make it work. All you need is love, right?

So, that "period". Yeah, that. It continued for about 12 days. It was never red - only brown. I went to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy. I was, in fact, pregnant. I don't have maternity insurance so I got in touch with our insurance agent and started getting that process going. I made an appointment for October 4 for my first appointment, as I had a healthy pregnancy last go round and wanted to avoid paying out of pocket. My new practice (my old one closed a few days after my post-op appointment with Delia) assured me that'd be fine and they'd do an ultrasound and blood work that day. The triage nurse also assured me that spotting was completely normal and that as long as it's been brown, it's old blood and could be from implantation.

Cool.

As each day passed I became more worried. It didn't seem right that "implantation spotting" would last that long. But I kept my thoughts positive. All the while, I didn't allow myself to get attached to the pregnancy. I had a feeling something wasn't right. This past Sunday I started feeling crampy. I got into the shower because we made plans to go walk around Mayfaire and grab some lunch to get out of the house.

While in the shower I started to get really sharp pains throughout my pelvic region. It was beyond cramps. I walked out to Trey in my towel and told him then immediately went to lay in our bed. Two minutes later I was in tears. The cramping was unbelievable. My family was unaware of the pregnancy at this point. We ordered Delia a custom-made big sister tshirt and were waiting on it to be delivered. That's how we were going to announce it to them.

Trey got Delia some lunch while I called my mom, in tears, from our bathroom. I sat on the toilet and said "mom, I'm pregnant..." and then proceeded to sob my eyes out. She encouraged me to go to the emergency room and told me everything would be fine. Meanwhile, Trey's sister knew we were pregnant and told Trey to call the vitaline at the hospital. So, he did. A doctor called me shortly after and told me that if the pain got worse or was accompanied by blood to go to the ER. The pain subsided after about 25 minutes. I laid on the couch the entire day, only getting up to use the bathroom or do something minor. When I would get up, it'd hurt my entire stomach to walk.

I never had any red blood. Monday came and I was still crampy and I realized it hurt to press on my abdomen...from the top of my stomach to the bottom. I called my doctor's office to see if I could get an appointment and she said that at that point, 6 weeks exactly, it'd be too early for an ultrasound to be all telling. She spoke with a doctor at the practice and made me an appointment for Thursday, hoping with a few days they'd be able to see a bit more.

As each day passed, my spotting eventually stopped and the pain lessened. Yesterday morning (Thursday) I woke up with absolutely no pain in my abdomen and no spotting. I questioned whether or not I should cancel the appointment, hopeful that everything was ok. In talking with Trey, I realized that I should go to at least get some peace of mind. I even called the triage nurse looking for assurance that I should still go in. She said that I should.

So, I dropped Delia off at her grandma's house. Trey had to be at a school, so I was flying solo to this appointment. We both were really hopeful at this point and thought for sure everything was fine. I even told myself that it could be possible I'd see a heartbeat on the screen and got excited. I checked in and was called back into the ultrasound room. I stripped down my lower half and laid on the table, feet in stirrups.

While the tech took a peek around, I kept a close eye on the screen. I noticed there was nothing in the uterus. Nothing. I told myself that I probably didn't know what she was looking at. A few minutes later, I asked. The sweet tech responded back with "well, there's nothing present in the uterus, but I'm seeing something on the outside of the ovary. I do believe this is an ectopic pregnancy." I responded with "ok." That was it. Just "ok". I had prepared myself for that with the exception of my little bit of hope I had that morning.

She was very extensive and took a lot of different shots from different viewpoints. As soon as she was done, I dressed myself and numbly walked back out to the waiting room. I was expecting that news. But then again, I wasn't. I was excited that morning. I expected to see a heartbeat. I shouldn't have let my hopes get back up.

I fought back tears in the waiting room and texted everyone awaiting the news. Ladies who were far along in their pregnancies surrounded me, which made it all sting even more. I text Trey, my mom, my sister, my sister in law and my best friend. I exchanged texts with them the entire time I was in the waiting room, willing myself not to cry every time I answered a question one of them had.

I was called back again to see the doctor. I waited in that room, shivering, trying not to think about the conversation that was about to take place. In came a really bubbly, overly sweet doctor. It was my first time at this practice and was so relieved at her kindness. It was genuine kindness and I appreciated that so much in that moment. We chatted. I caught her up on what was going on. She went in that day just to see me, as she was the doctor that the triage nurse has spoken to on Monday.

After going through the bit of history and happenings of the past few weeks, we looked at the ultrasound pictures together and she showed me each little thing. She wasn't exactly sure that it was an ectopic pregnancy, but she was pretty positive. She said that it very well could be a cyst, but even then there wasn't a sac in the uterus, so the chances of it being a cyst (which would be normal for early pregnancy) was slim.

At that point we discussed my options.

Option 1) Take a medication that they use for chemotherapy in a really small dose. It would require me to go in for blood work a couple times a week to make sure my blood levels were decreasing. This option would allow things to break down...there'd be heavy bleeding and a lot of abdominal pain. Also, there was only a 60% chance of it working. She said that often the cramping from it was so bad that it's usually hard to say if it's working. We would have to worry that the meds weren't working and that the pain was coming from a ruptured tube, which at that point, would require an emergency surgery.

Around this time, I started becoming really overwhelmed.

Option 2) Surgery. They'd do a laparoscopic surgery and enter through my belly button. They'd also create two little slits on each side of my pelvic region. From there, they'd remove the embryo and clean up any blood that may be in the abdomen. Obviously the extensiveness of the surgery depended on how much damage was done and that they wouldn't know until they were inside. So, there would be a chance that they'd have to remove my tube if too much damage was already done.

I broke down. I'm terrified of needles so going in every few days for blood work scared me. I also didn't want to take the chance on the medication and have to end up with surgery anyway...and take the chance on the situation worsening. After all, if gone too far, an ectopic pregnancy can be life threatening. I've never had surgery before with the exception of my wisdom teeth. The thought of them cutting my skin while me being under made me want to vomit there on the spot. The doctor helped me through the anxiety. She handed me tissues and I calmed down.

She did a pelvic exam to make sure she didn't feel excess fluid in the uterus and to make sure my cervix was doing ok. Once that was over, she left me for a little while so that I could call Trey. I had 2348 text messages on my phone. I spoke to Trey and bawled my eyes out while explaining my options. After hearing me sob through my options and trying to explain everything, he suggested the surgery, which confirmed my thoughts.

Surgery it was.

I didn't realize that I'd be going into surgery right away. As in, she immediately called in the surgery appointment lady and they got me on the OR schedule at the hospital. I made a follow up appointment prior to leaving for the hospital. Everyone was so, so nice to me and told me over and over how awesome the doctor was that was doing my surgery.

I left there. I was numb. And scared out of my mind. I was alone.

My mom left work in Jacksonville before I even told her to head down because I was definitely going into surgery. Trey called his dad to see if he'd cover for him for the rest of the afternoon at the school he was at, but it'd be at least an hour and a half before he'd get there to replace him. So, I waited in the waiting room by myself. My room was available before my mom or Trey got to me, so I went back alone. I got changed into my hospital gown and took up camp in my bed.

My mom walked in about 2.2 seconds before the nurse was going to insert my IV. I'm so awful with needles, so I was so relieved that she got there. The nurse ended up trying two different veins with no luck. I hadn't had anything to eat since 6:45 that morning and hardly anything to drink. Once I found out I was having surgery, I couldn't eat or drink anything. So, my veins were pretty much non-existant. She called another nurse in and she got the IV in my left arm. I ended up also having to give 2 tubes of blood.

Trey got there shortly after and we all just sat around in my room waiting. And waiting. And waiting. I seriously thought I'd die of starvation or thirst at any second. The anesthesiologist came in around 2:30 and went over her doings with me. Shortly after, the doctor came in and explained what was going to happen. We asked lingering questions and that was that. 10 minutes later, I was being wheeled into the OR while my mom and Trey went and waited.

I don't remember anything from them switching me from the bed to the operating table. I woke up in recovery to the nurse asking me my pain level. I was groggy and completely out of it. My throat hurt from the tube they put in. My belly hurt. After a little while, he wheeled me down to my room where my mom and Trey joined me. I was barely alert. They gave me goldfish to eat so that I could take some more pain medication beyond what they put in my IV. I could hardly stomach them...I maybe ate 6 or 7 and only took a few sips of water. They allowed me to get dressed which consisted of me sitting on the edge of the bed and my mom and Trey assisting me. I couldn't move without wanting to vomit.

Trey went to pull the car up and they transferred me to a wheel chair. My eyes were closed the entire way down the hall. I had a bucket in my lap and a rag on my head. My skirt that I wore that morning remained unbuttoned. We rode home the same way. Getting to the front door and into my house was miserable. I was so wobbly regardless of Trey holding onto me. I got nauseous and almost vomited. I eventually made it to the couch where I stayed and slept (sitting up) for 2 hours. Trey went to pick up my medication while his mom sat with me and my mom trekked back to Jacksonville. He helped me to bed at 9 when I woke up on the couch.

It turns out the doctor had to collapse my tube. The reasoning behind the ectopic pregnancy is me having a zigzagged right tube. There's a fancy name for it, but I don't remember it. Had the doctor kept it in tact, the chances of it happening again were pretty significant assuming a future embryo would travel through that tube again. Delia must've went through the left side. My ovary is still in tact, so I can still release an egg from that side. If an egg from my right ovary is fertilized, there's still a chance it could go through the left, but that's a pretty far distance to travel. So, the doctor told Trey that it may take a little longer to get pregnant when we try again. But, of course, it may not...if the left ovary releases the egg and that egg gets fertilized. I'm only with one tube now, though. And no baby.

It's pretty devastating. The entire experience has been a whirlwind. It all happened so quickly. I almost cancelled my appointment. It's scary to think about what could've happened if I didn't go. I already had some bleeding in my abdomen...it could've been far worse. For that, I'm thankful. I'm also thankful and feel so blessed to have Delia and to have experienced a completely healthy pregnancy the first round. I'm so lucky to have an awesome, supportive husband who will drop anything to make sure I'm ok. We're incredibly lucky to have amazing family. Trey's mom kept Delia all day yesterday and put her to bed for us. My mom drove down before even knowing I was going into surgery - she broke speed limits to get to me. My sister and Trey's sister supported me all day and cried tears for us. My best friend wrote encouraging words and told me it'd be ok.

It will be ok. As I sit here in tears, I realize that I'll heal and we'll give Delia a brother or sister in the future. I hate that this happened to me. I hate that it took me experiencing this to know that I had a misshaped fallopian tube. I hate that we lost a baby. A baby that we were so excited for. I never thought that would happen to me. But it did. I'll have scars to remind me.

As far as how I'm feeling - I'm sad. I'm in a lot of pain, so I'm camping out on the couch while Trey's mom has Delia and Trey went to a school for a few hours. Trey's already called to check on me once and he just left an hour ago. I've been trying to avoid the vicodin they prescribed because it makes me feel nauseous and dizzy. I did take half of one earlier alongside ibuprofin. I can't pick up Delia for a couple weeks. I can't drive for a couple weeks. I can't exercise for a couple weeks. But the doctor said the pain should be gone within a few days to a week. So hopefully I'll feel somewhat normal by the end of the weekend.

So, we're still a family of 3. We'll pack Delia's big sister tshirt away for the next time. We have to wait until I have 3 normal periods to try again. It'll be scary to try again, but I'll be hopeful.

Only our closest friends and immediate family knew of this pregnancy. I'm writing about it here as it's part of our story. It's helped immensely to write it down and sit and sort through my feelings. I hope I can look back at this post in the future and smile at the thought of being a mother to an angel.

change is good

2011-08-23T20:59:00.002-04:00

We're on week 2 of Delia being separate from me for part of the day. I can safely say that I've gotten used to it and actually enjoy the time I have to focus on work and eat lunch without a little person hollering for me to share =) She's only been going to her grandma for 3 hours for the past 5 days. I pick her up at 12 and she comes home to nap. I've completed my work by that time everyday so it's worked out well. And it's been a good way to transition into this change.

I've been picking her up at that time because my mother in law has also been watching our niece and nephew. There isn't anywhere for her to sleep at their house, so it's easy enough for me to bring her back here to nap. The majority of our schools aren't back in session until tomorrow, so the phones haven't been too crazy yet. She's really loved the time with her cousins. She roughs Logan up and gives him a run for his money! She plays with him like a big kid - it's adoooorable. And kind of sad.

So, anyway. This change has been good. I feel like I can 100% focus on Delia when she's back with me and don't have a million things running in the back of my mind. I'm not scrambling and stressed. I do miss our entire days together, but I very much look forward to the time we have together now! We spend our mornings playing with her toys and reading and our afternoons outdoors. We walk the culdesac lots and lots. It's her new favorite thing. She spots flowers and gets excited about birds.

We went to the beach this past weekend. It was gloomy outside, but we took a chance. A little while after we got there ominous clouds took up residence and decided to bottom out. We took cover under our umbrellas and hoped it'd clear out. It didn't. It was tough trying to keep Delia out of the rain and her little lips turned blue, so we left earlier than we originally planned.

It seems as though it's been raining on our parade a lot lately. We're currently keeping our fingers crossed that Hurricane Irene lessens in severity. She's headed right toward us. We can handle a category 2. The thought of a category 3+ frightens me a bit as a homeowner and a mother!

We need electricity. That's sad, isn't it? I'm worried about losing electricity. The thought of not having air conditioning...whew. Keeping Delia's milk in a cooler? That'd be a bummer. Not being able to use a stove or a microwave? Ugh. I'm really hoping we just get plastered with rain and the storm rolls on out. Things can change pretty quickly, so I'll hold onto that hope.

We'll finish out the week getting outdoors as much as possible before the rain settles in. Delia has a new interest in climbing her rock climbing ladder on her swing set.

When we're bound to the house, we'll continue rediscover toys we used to obsess over. Delia can't be the only child that does this??

P.S. Delia got some cute new sandals from my mother in law. They squeak. They day Trey brought them home I put them on her. She immediately starting running up and down the length of our house laughing! When I ask her to go get her shoes, she walks into her room and opens her shoe drawer. She brings me back two matching shoes. They're always her squeakies. Always. These squeakies are rather obnoxious but oh-so-freaking-cute. They make her happy and they make everyone look our way in public.

She's growing and learning. She's incredible.

where's daddy??

2011-08-20T10:35:00.000-04:00

we survived week one!

2011-08-19T20:27:00.000-04:00

It has been the longest week ever. Seriously. I thought it'd never end.

I dropped Delia off at her grandma's house on Monday morning. I packed her lunch and carried along her teddy and blanket so she'd have them to nap with. I settled her in for a little while before leaving. As I was leaving I was walking to the door saying "bye bye, Delia...I'll see you later..." and she trailed behind me waving and saying "bah bah" as if she was going too =( But she didn't cry! Instead she went to the pool with her cousins, ate some lunch, took a nap, went on a walk to the pond...Grandma packed her day full of fun stuff!

She was excited to see me on Monday when I picked her up! But Tuesday was the best ever. I walked into Joyce's condo. Delia was in the back and as soon as she saw me she came running with the biggest smile on her face!! She was so happy to see me! It made my heart melt. Since then she's had the same reaction when I walk in to pick her up. She runs right into my arms. She only went for a half day on Wednesday and Thursday because Joyce was watching one of our nephews and niece also. So we figured it was easier just to bring her home after lunch!

It was a successful week where that's concerned. We both survived! It was pretty successful in the work department also. I couldn't believe how much work I was able to accomplish. My efficiency was off the charts, which I think stems from having to cram so much work into nap length time periods for an entire year!

Because Delia was away from me the majority of the day, I was always really excited to pick her up and play with her! We've spent so much time outside this week. The temps dropped a bit, so it's been bearable outside. You don't die from heat and humidity the second you walk out the door. I'm really looking forward to cooler temps which seems really bizarre. I'm all about the heat usually.

We played in the back yard a lot.

We blew bubbles (which Delia loooooves).

(Delia got her first scraped knee last week - didn't phase her one bit!)

We went to the park a few times. She's learned what the park is and gets excited to go. There are three different ones we take her to for a bit of variety! We went to Stroller Strides. We went for walks. Delia is an outdoor girl for sure. She absolutely loves being outside! Now that she can run she especially loves having all the space to go go go! And she's been loving playing with kids lately. She plays so hard!

One morning I brought Delia out into the backyard before dropping her off with grandma. I didn't realize how wet the grass (read: dirt) was. She got sooooo dirty! Trey and I had to give her a bath and change her clothes before sending her off!

She's successfully transitioned to one nap a day. Sometimes it only lasts an hour and sometimes it's an hour and a half. Hopefully it'll eventually get longer in length, but for now it works! She eats lunch and then goes down a little while after. As soon as her little head hits the mattress, she's out! Same for bed time...I lay her down and 5 minutes later she's asleep in the same position I left her in. She's also been sleeping a little later some mornings.

She's been talking a ton this week. She'll point at every dog she sees and announce "gog...gog...gog." If she sees a bird, she'll let you know. She's become such a silly little girl. She laughs just to laugh all the time. She makes us laugh all the time because she's so silly. She's mastered a fishy face and giggles like crazy when daddy joins in with her and makes his own variation of fish faces.

We've stopped carrying her to the car and let her walk there herself when we go bye bye. She also walks into places with us. She immediately looks for both of our hands so she can hold them! Trey's step mom (aka Dede) got her a pair of squeaky sandals. As soon as I put them on her she started running up and down our house laughing hysterically. She's obsessed. When I ask her to go get her shoes, she goes into her room and brings that pair back to me! They're very obnoxious but really, really, really cute! She's now a master of the couch. Up? No problem? Down? Like a champ.

Not much else has been going on. I hope every week doesn't crawl like this past one did. It's so nice to greet the weekend! What's even more nice is that we don't have anything we have to do the next 2 days. That = awesome.

her mother's child

2011-08-13T20:02:00.001-04:00

When we gave Delia sweets for the first time (her cake smash) and she hardly touched it, Trey's reaction was "whose child are you?" Trey and I both love sweets, especially if it's in the form of chocolate. Naturally Delia should love sweets too! Right?

I've been on a major ice cream kick lately. We went to get ice cream again tonight. But, this time we didn't order by way of the drive thru. We parked the car and walked up to the window...Delia holding each of our hands because that's how she insists on walking all. of. the. time. We got her her very own cup of chocolate. We planned to share ours with her, but they give a free (itty bitty) scoop to children, so we figured we might as well.

We sat at a child's table just for her. She took a seat like a big girl and went to work on her ice cream. Our fears of our child not liking sweets is out the window. Delia has developed quite the sweet tooth! She enjoys dessert just as much as we do now. It's a good thing we don't keep things like that in the house. We I really need to lay off of the ice cream, or I'm going to see an increase in my pant size soon. It's ouuuuut of control.

We never did make it to the beach today. We had gray skies the majority of the day. Instead, we took a trip to the mall to get Trey some new work pants and shoes and then got some pizza at Mellow Mushroom. Yes, we followed pizza with ice cream. Win in the parent department today. After we got ice cream, we took Delia to the park to burn off some energy! She went down the (big) slide all by herself and giggled the entire way down.

busyyyy bees

2011-08-12T22:23:00.001-04:00

Monday marks a big change for us. Delia will no longer spend her entire days with me. It was in the back of my mind all day today. I know she's in good hands, but I can't help but worry. She's so used to the way I do things and our routine here. I know she'll adjust. I'll adjust, too.

Trey has been working really long days this past week. He has been starting work around 7 am. Some nights he hasn't finished until 11 pm. There's tons of prep that goes into the beginning of a school year. We're taking over the business this year, which has been overwhelming in itself. Between work we've managed to squeeze in some family time...walks, the park, dinner (we always sit down and eat dinner together - very important), lunch at McAlisters, frozen yogurt dates. But the majority of the week has been all business for Trey.

...which meant lots of me and Delia time! This week has been spent transitioning her to one nap a day. We tried about a month ago, but she wasn't ready at all. Just lately, she's only been napping for 20 minutes in the morning, so it's obvious she's ready now. She's battling ANOTHER cold, so we laid low most of the week.

Colds = snotty noses and boogers. Ha.

I changed out the batteries to her all time favorite toy. The girl played with it for like 30 minutes straight.

We've played lots of hide and seek this week! Delia loves it, but she knows my hiding places now. We need a bigger house! Ooooor maybe I just need to get more creative =)

I took her to the pool yesterday. We went to Stroller Strides on the designated nights. Today we went to the mall. Once Trey got home this afternoon, we battled the pouring rain and got dinner at Carrabba's with Bruster's ice cream to follow. Delia loves ice cream just like her mommy. We've had ice cream/frozen yogurt like 5 times in the past week. Definite problem.

I've been trying to cook things that require Delia to use a spoon and have been serving her dinner on a plate. She looooves mashed potatoes. So much that she hardly touches any of her other dinner.

I was making myself something to eat earlier today. I went to check on Delia and walked into this...

Earlier today Delia and I were playing on mine and Trey's bed. For some reason she's been obsessed with it lately. It's probably because she's learned how to climb up there. Anyway, she was acting all sorts of crazy. She laughed and laughed and laughed....at pretty much nothing. She was making funny noises to get me to look at her and when I'd look she'd crack up. She was so silly all day today. It made for a really fun day =) Love her.

Trey and I just finished watching Bad Teacher. It was pretty funny, but I though it'd be better! We are going to the beach tomorrow and my parents are coming down on Sunday, so we have a busy weekend ahead. I'm looking forward to the family time!

Bed time for us old folks. Trey insisted I update my blog tonight or we would've been in bed about 40 minutes ago!

listen up

2011-08-09T16:09:00.001-04:00

This girl has important things to say.

Delia has become quite the little jabber lately. She gets in moods where she'll just talk and talk and talk! It's really cute. She's become a master at saying "bye" and waves to everyone as we leave places while repeating "bye" over and over again.

She also says "wawa" for water. She even says Myleigh now...comes out like "iyee". She repeats "nap" when I ask if she wants to go take a nap. "Boon" is balloon. Every time she sees a balloon, she says it over and over. She's saying so much now. It seems as if everyday she has a new word - she's constantly trying to mimic us!

She can get on and off the couch on her own now. It's her new favorite trick and insists on doing it over and over and over and over.

She hasssssss 9 teeth now! Her 4 top and bottom and a first molar popped through. We've had some fine times around here lately, haha. We've never really known when she's teething. She's never really been whiny or complained. Until these molars started coming in. Ooooh boy. So much fun.

We've started letting her watch some TV here and there. We discovered that she really, REALLY, REAAALLLLLYYYY loves The Backyardigans. Baby crack. Seriously. She's maybe sat and watched TV 4 times ever. Yesterday she got on the couch and I sat beside her. She picked up the remote, pointed it at the TV and then handed it to me! She's way too smart! She picked that up in the few times we've let her watch TV because the TV doesn't usually turn on until she's tucked away in bed.

She thinks I'm hilarious. We sit and laugh together often. She has quite the sense of humor! She laughs just to laugh. If I fake laugh, she laughs. If she hears someone laugh across a restaurant, she'll laugh. But, really, I'll do the silliest thing that's nowhere near fu nny and she'll laugh. I think she's just humoring her mommy!

We gave her peanut butter recently and she's OBSESSED. She's like her daddy and really loves the stuff. She saw daddy eating some off of a spoon, so we served it to her the same way. She went back for seconds.

She knows several body parts. Eyes, mouth, foot, toes, hand, belly. She always gets stuck if asked where her nose is!

If the bathroom door happens to be open she makes an immediate bee-line to the toilet. She's like a ninja. She gets there in about 2.2 seconds and her hand goes directly into the toilet bowl. We are very good about closing the bathroom doors nowadays! The main bathroom even has a safety lock on it because she can open doors now.

She's always in our cabinets. We didn't put any safety locks on them because nothing is harmful. She plays with our pots and pans, plastic pitchers, and plastic serving trays on the regular. Apparently they're better than her 20340824 toys.

Those are some of the noteworthy, fun things she's doing these days.

we did it

2011-08-07T20:33:00.000-04:00

We left Delia for the first time over night last night. A friend of mine got married last night. The wedding was almost 4 hours away, so we made the decision to make the trip alone. Trey's mom stayed at our house with Delia. I tried not to think about it much in the days leading up to it. It gave me anxiety thinking about it. Where there's a Delia, there's a Danielle. We're always together. Always.

Trey's mom showed up a few minutes before our scheduled departure. We gave her the low down, showered our baby in kisses and then headed out. 5 minutes down the road and I had already started to miss her...I guess it was because I knew we'd be gone from her for more than a few hours. We called and checked on her about half way into our trip, which helped put my mind at ease. She was in good hands. I knew that from the beginning, but still.

We got lost. We ended up in farmland, about 30 minutes away from our destination. Haha! We rerouted and headed to the proper place! I guess Trey wanted to keep things interesting. We got to the hotel about an hour before the wedding was due to start. We quickly got ready and met my cousin and his girlfriend to head to the ceremony.

We called Trey's mom to check on Delia right before she was due to go to bed. She waved to Trey through the phone. We were already a few drinks in at that point and were having a good time. We had so much fun. Sooooo much fun. We danced the majority of the night...with a few breaks to take advantage of the awesome photo booth. We were back to the hotel and in bed by 12:45. We woke up at 8 this morning, showered and headed back to Wilmington!

Delia was napping when we got home. She didn't wake up for another hour after we arrived. Longest. Hour. Ever. When we heard her first peeps, we both scurried to her room to greet her. She made it. We made it. Our first night away from her was successful and pretty painless. Her grandma took good care of her while we were away! She even took a trip to her aunt Heather's house while Trey's mom went to church this morning. We are very lucky to have such awesome family who enjoy stepping in when times arise.

being a parent is hard

2011-08-04T20:31:00.000-04:00

The night Delia was born we barely slept a wink. Every sound she made had us concerned for her well being. The second night her and I were up until 5 am crying together, trying to get her to latch so she could get something in her little hungry belly. Sleep was very seldom in the early days of being a family of 3. I'm not good without sleep. I function improperly without sleep. So, there's that. Then there's the fear that every time you're out and about the baby is going to start screaming on the top of their lungs and you won't know what to do about it. Trey and I still laugh about how scary those times were! They're daunting.

It didn't take long to get accustomed to being parents. Eventually our life with 3 of us became normal. It wasn't so foreign. But then you worry about sleep patterns and routines and if she's eating enough. You worry about milestones being met. You worry they're too hot. Too cold? Does she have a fever? There's diaper rashes and constipation. Maybe I'm just crazy and I worry about everything? I don't know.

As the days and months have passed and Delia has grown into this little person, I find myself worrying about the person we're molding her to be. THAT'S daunting. Who she becomes is our responsibility. Morals. Values. Behavior. It's on us. And, let me tell you, I don't want a bratty know-it-all kid who doesn't show respect to others.

That's a lot to have on your shoulders and it scares me.

I want to teach her rules and boundaries. I want to teach her how to respect not just her elders, but everyone. I want her to have manners and appreciate kindness. I want to teach her compassion. I want her to know and experience support that has no limit. I want to teach her that you really can be whatever you want to be and that you don't have to go to a university and get a 4 year degree to be that something. I want her to be one that loves hard. One that isn't afraid to show affection. I want to build her confidence. I want to teach her to share and give. I want her to find happiness in the little things and be content with where she is and who she is ------- I don't want to mess her up.

That starts here and now.

We're trying. Being the best we can be as a parent is all we can really do. In the meantime, we hope and pray like hell that our child/ren turn out ok. If it were up to Trey, we'd lock Delia up and keep her to ourselves for the rest of our lives. But we can't shelter her no matter how hard we'd like to. It's a really scary world out there and it makes me so nervous to one day have to send her into it. But, such is life.

One day she'll go to Kindergarten and the next day she'll be graduating high school. She'll get picked on at some point. She'll experience rejection. She'll win some and she'll lose some. She will have more than one broken heart. She'll get knocked down, but will get back up again. All the while, we'll be there...trying our best to be there every step of the way.

As these days pass us by, I'm constantly reminded of those newborn days. The ones where she needed us 24/7. She's becoming more and more independent as the days pass. As the days pass, we dance around the house and have fun, we laugh and smile. We strive on routine. We try as consistent as possible where discipline is concerned, although that is new territory we're treading. We're trying to be good parents. Delia is one happy little girl, so I'd say we're doing ok so far.

I suspect we'll always worry just as we did that first night in the hospital. We may not lose sleep because of a baby crying in the middle of the night, but because of a teenager who stayed out past curfew. Instead of us being scared to take on the world with a newborn in tow, we'll be scared of sending her into the world alone. Being a parent definitely isn't easy. There's way more to it than what you see on the surface. But it's also rewarding. And soooo, so much fun.

I've been meaning to write about this for a while. I think about it all. of. the. time. We deal with jerk teenagers on the regular. Disrespectful teenagers. I talk to parents who call the day before graduation because their student needs a cap and gown to walk. The day before. THE DAY BEFORE. I want to be better than that for Delia.

We will always try our best.

-----------------------------

Now, for some random photos of the last few days....

Trey was planting new bushes in the front of our house. Delia and I were on the porch and she saw a ball over in Emily and Logan's yard. So, naturally, she went to get it....in her pajamas.

We've been playing in the backyard more lately...

She fell and scratched herself between the eyes the other day =(

This is the look of concentration. My absolute FAVORITE. Pouty lips, puffy cheeks.

Different day, same scene...

family pictures

2011-08-02T12:03:00.000-04:00

An online photographer friend of mine vacationed in Myrtle Beach last week. We took advantage and planned to do a photo swap at the beach where they were staying! We arranged to start at 7, which is Delia's normal bed time. Because of that and the hour and fifteen minute trek back to Wilmington, we decided we'd stay at Trey's dad's condo that night, which is about 10 minutes from where we were doing pictures. Trey's sister and her family stayed at the condo a few nights prior so she dropped the key off to our house one day while we weren't home and left it on the porch.

The key stayed there for about 4 days. We kept forgetting to grab it. About 15 minutes before leaving I said "let's not forget the key on the porch...."

We load the car up with everything necessary for an overnight trip with a baby. Pack 'n' Play, noise machine, blanket, lovey, pajamas, clothes, sippy cups, etc. We get half way there and Trey says "did you grab the key?" to which I replied "no, did you?"..........uhhh, major fail. We laughed about it and it worked out fine. But, seriously. What dummies! We immediately switched Delia into pajamas after the session and she fell asleep on the ride back. She woke up when we got home, but fell right back to sleep as soon as we laid her in the crib!

The session was pretty crazy, though. Delia and the beach - not a god mix. The girl is obsessed with the water. All she wanted to do was get in the water. So while I was taking pictures of their family, Trey was working up a sweat chasing Delia down in an attempt to keep her dry. Hahaha! It was interesting, to say the least. Barbara managed to get some good shots regardless =) It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we did it.

(Photos by Barbara Stinard)

Delia made her way into the water and is entirely soaked here!

To see some of the pictures I took of Barbara's family, see here.

dog days of summer

2011-07-30T20:38:00.002-04:00

We went to the park tonight after dinner. It's been incredibly hot here the past couple of weeks, so our outdoor time has been pretty limited. The park across the street is shaded, so I thought it'd be fun to take Delia. We didn't stay too long. After about 20 minutes, Delia's face was bright red, her hair was soaked and sweat was dripping off her face! But she had fun =)

Obviously I didn't take the following photos (duh, I'm in them). My wonderful, super amazing husband did. He is so awesome...he makes me question my own photography skills. 2nd shooter? Hmm, that's an idea.

today marks a first

2011-07-29T21:56:00.000-04:00

We took a trip to ToysRUs tonight after dinner to pick up some safety gadgets for around the house. Not sure why we haven't baby proofed up until now, but I'm assuming it's because we haven't had a need. Delia has learned how to open our doors. Her favorite to open is the pantry door where all of the snacks reside. We also keep Myleigh's dog food in there, which concerns me. And obviously the cleaning supplies cabinet is a huge concern.

We're may very well be weirdos, but every single time we put Delia into a public high chair or shopping cart we sanitize the crap out of it. I left Delia's bag in the car which holds the Wet Ones and ToysRUs didn't have any, so we thought "eh, what the heck...we'll let her walk. She'll love it." She did love it! She looked so proud and happy. She held daddy's hand and pranced her way down the aisles. She even waved to fellow customers like it was her job.

We picked up what we needed and headed toward the register. Delia was holding my hand at this point. She stopped to look at something and I told her "come on, Delia!" She didn't like that. I picked her up and kept proceeded to the register. SHE. THREW. A. FIT. A fit which included pulling my hair. In her defense, I don't think she purposely pulled my hair, but still. That gives you an idea of how dramatic she was. So, Trey promptly took her out of my arms and took her out of the store where he said she immediately stopped! I checked out and we went home.

She randomly decided to skip her nap this afternoon, which is probably the reason for said meltdown.

It was interesting. I'm sure it won't be the last time!