Pajama Day

Every once in a while Bailey and I have pajama day. We stay home the entire day and just play in our p.j.'s. Today was one of those lazy days and I got some cute pictures of Bailey.

Prayers Needed

I have attached a blog that I would like for all of you to read. This family definitely needs our prayers. The McCall Family was in Lubbock the same time Jay and I were and we got to know them through my sister-in-law, Julie. Julie and Jordan taught school together in Lubbock and were very good friends and have remained in touch. Jordan just gave birth to her second child one week ago, and yesterday underwent surgery to remove a tumor. There are still two tumors, one in her lungs and one in her liver. Please pray for Jordan and her family.

www.themccallfamilytx.blogspot.com

Good Friends

Tonight was a great night. We had the rare treat of getting together with some friends from law school, Justin and Amy. They are currently stationed in Italy, so we have only seen them one time in the past 14 months. Me, Jay, and our other friend from law school, Jennifer, met them for dinner (where Justin and Amy paid...thanks again guys!). (We went to Joe T.'s where my beautiful cousin Marty was working) It was so great to see them and hear about everything they have been up to. Last time we saw them I was pregnant, so this was their first time to meet Bailey. Of course, they thought he was cute:) It was so fun to catch up on everthing! They have had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling and have experienced so much! Including skiing in Austria! (if you want to see pictures of the places they have visited, their blog is linked to mine) They got to hear all about Bailey, Jay's job and Jennifer's upcoming wedding. You know people are good friends when you get together and it seems like no time has passed even though it's been a year. Unfortunately, it will probably be 1 1/2 years before they are back in the states. Thank goodness for the internet! The only thing that would have made the evening better is if Chris & Theresa and Job & Ashley had been there. Who knows when/if we will all be in the same place at the same time.

Bailey is doing great! He has 2 teeth on top and 2 more coming in. He will walk while holding onto furniture or while pushing he little bike. He is really into mimicking right now and it is very cute. It's hard to believe that he will be 10 months in less than 1 week. And, for those of you who don't know, my birthday is next week. I will be 27. Not exactly an exciting birthday. Certainly not like the big 18 or 21'st birthdays. I guess the next big one will be 30. We are going to the Mavericks game for my birthday and I am very excited. My sister and her husband are going too. GO MAVS!

Hickery Dickery Dock

Yup, that's right, Hickery Dickery Dock. Bailey and I have joined a music class! When I tell people this, I get strange looks. I know Bailey is only 9 months, but music is important and fun. Even at such a young age (I have a degree in Human Development, so don't argue with me)! There is this class at our church for mommy's (or daddy's) and babies. It meets once a week and we have so much fun! We clap our hands, dance around, ring jingle bells, sing and tons of other cool things. Bailey really likes it and is very mesmerized by everything going on around him during the class. The other week when the jingle bell bucket went around, Bailey reached in and grabbed one and started shaking it! He is SO smart (and I'm not just saying that because I am his mother:))!

He is slowing starting to eat less baby food and more table food. Still no meat, but everything else. He loves chewing (or gumming) food! He has two bottom teeth, two top teeth and two more about to break through on top. He is still cruising around furniture like crazy and I am hoping he will take his time in the walking department.

Today, Bailey's second cousin, Nora turned one! AND, my mother's birthday is today too. Almost one week ago our good friends from college, LeeAnn and Rhett had their first child. A daughter named Riley! New babies are so exciting! Congratulations Newberry Family!

Blessed!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to say how grateful I am to have Bailey and how blessed we are that he is healthy. I have been reading some other blogs, ones I have found through friends. I have been reading some updates on some sick babies. One was just diagnosed with cancer, one is having seizures, and one past away recently. As a mother, I cannot imagine experiencing any of these things. It is such a good reminder of how much I have to be thankful for. As I am typing this, I am watching Bailey pull the soil out of my plant and onto the floor and I am so glad that he is able to do that! Even though he is making a huge mess and will most definitely throw a fit when I make him stop, I am so grateful that he is healthy enough to destroy my house! So, everyone who has a healthy child, please take a moment to thank God!

Bailey is doing wonderfully! Here is a list of his latest accomplishments:

• His second tooth has broken through
• He is nearing the end of "his crying through the night" phase
• He had spaghetti for the first time last night and LOVED it!
• He had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and loved it as well!
• Squash is still his favorite vegetable (he can't get enough) and still loves anything banana
• His hair is long enough to comb (into a style) everyday
• He is cautiously starting to cruise
• Fearlessly still pulling up on everything in sight!
• He "only wants his mommy"...poor Jay, it's breaking his heart!

Need A Good Laugh?

My cousin posted this on her blog and I had to share it with you. It is hillarious! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-rGQUni6A

Dare Devil

Bailey is quite the dare devil. Since he has begun crawling and pulling up, he is not afraid of anything! He looks for everything he can to pull up on; making me very nervous. I try not to run around behind him saying "no" or "be careful". I know he has to learn and I don't want to make him scared to try new things. I posted a picture of his injuries...look closely and you can see a bloody lip, bumps and scrapes. I know there are more to come.

This weekend we went to Bailey's great great grandmother's (Grandmother Johnson) 100th birthday party. What a milestone! We were so excited to go because she had never met Bailey before. As many of you know Bailey's name is a family name on Jay's side. Grandmother Johnson's husband was the first Bailey and it has been used every generation since. We are proud to carry on the tradition and Grandmother Johnson was thrilled that we used her husband's name.

Crawling!

Well, he has finally done it! On January 3rd Bailey started crawling. He does not crawl all the time, only when he has a purpose. I know soon he will be crawling all the time, for no particular reason.

We went on our ski trip over the weekend and had a great time. The snow was perfect! Bailey wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow. I think he thought it was too cold:) He looked so cute in his snow suit. My sister got pictures of him, so once I get them from her I will upload them.

It was so nice to get to ride in a motor home. It really made the trip a lot nicer! Unfortunately, on the way home Sunday it was clear that Bailey was not feeling well. Turns out that he has an ear infection. It is obvious that it is extreemly painful. He has not been sleeping at night and cries all the time. I feel so bad for him. He started antibiotics today, so hopefully he will feel better soon.Poor kid just can't get well.

I will try and post some pictures with this, but for some reason it never uplaoded the pics from my last post.

Christmas

We had wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve, we spent time with both families and had a great day! We woke up at our house Christmas morning and watched Bailey play with the toys that Santa got him. It was very cute. Then we went to Jay's parent's house and celebrated Jay's birthday and Christmas. We then went to my Grandmother's house and celebrated.

That evening we left Bailey with my mother because we had to get up very early the next morning. Me, Jay, my sister, Jill and her husband, Jarod all went to Vegas. We had a great time, but it was very hard to leave Bailey. The trip was fun and pretty uneventful until the last day. On Friday, I find out that Bailey has the croup and was put on breathing treatments. As you can imagine, on hearing this news I was VERY ready to get home to my baby! That afternoon we head to the airport for our flight home. Everything is going smoothly, we get there plenty early, get our tickets, get through security with no problem and head to find our gate. Only to discover our flight has been cancelled due to the tornados at DFW airport! So, we go back to the ticket line (which by this point has increased in size and there are only 2 attendants working). Get on the standby list for the 8 o'clock flight and get reservations for the 11 0'clock red eye, on a different airline just in case. We go back through security, ride the tram to our new gate only to discover that this flight has also been cancelled. So, we RUN back to the ticket line to get our tickets for the 11 o'clock flight that we had reserved earlier. The ticket line was unbelieveable. We waited for over 1 1/2 hours and maybe moved 20 feet. People were being told the earliest they could fly out was Sunday! We weren't worried because we had reservations...however, we start hearing a rumor that our red eye was in the process of being cancelled! Luckily, it did take off. It was 12:30 vegas time, but at least we left! We got to Weatherford to get Bailey at 6:00 am Saturday morning! Needless to say, it was a very long journey home!

Bailey is doing much better and is tolerating the breating treatments like a champ. He has a bottom tooth and can pull himself to a sitting position from laying down! He is not crawling yet, but I keep thinking any day he will. We are having so much fun! We leave for our ski trip on Thursay. It is a 12 hour drive, but we are going in a motor home, so I think it will be nice. Bailey got a portable dvd system for Christmas, so we will be taking it!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's!

7 Months Old

I can't believe it, Bailey is 7 months old toay! I know I have said it a million times, but, TIME FLIES! He is doing so many new things! Here is a list:

• the beginings of a tooth is visible (barely)
• he can eat small pieces of table food
• he is sitting up unassisted and barely ever falls over
• he is starting to try and pull up
• he gets up on his hand and knees and rocks back and forth...crawling is just around the corner

We had family pictures taken over then weekend and they went great! As you can see from the above picture, Bailey is so easy to please and was such a ham for the camera! I will upload more later, but these are Chrsitmas gifts, so I don't want anyone to see the picture they are getting.

Our computer is on the fritz...again! It is constantly freezing up on me! Getting the hard drive repaced did not fix all of the problems, apparantly. Luckily, my dad is getting us a new one for Christmas. It is a much needed and much appreciated gift!

Hope everyone is enjoying the days leading up to Christmas. I know we are. We just love going to the malls on the weekends and push Bailey around in his stroller. It is one of his favorite things to do and it is so fun to watch him enjoy himself so much!

Exciting News!

As many of you know, my sister-in-law is expecting another baby in April. Well,...it's a GIRL!! We can't wait for our niece to arrive! We would have been thrilled with another boy (we are partial to boys:) ), but are SO EXCITED to welcome a little girl and I can tell that Bailey is excited to have another cousin. It is great having the boys grow up together and a little girl will add a great dynamic. It will be fun to see the difference between the boys and a little girl. I wonder if she will be roudy like the boys or a little miss priss. I can't wait to find out!

Also, wanted to let everyone know that we had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Bailey enjoyed himself and the mashed potatoes. He got to play with his second cousin, Nora. They played really well together. She is 9 months old, so they are very close in age.

We took Bailey to see Santa at the Galleria. At first he liked him, he was playing with his beard and everything. Then, all of the sudden, he started crying. It was cute. Bailey loved being at the mall. He is such a people watcher. He even reached out and tried to grab a kid that was walking by! What a cutie!

Helpful Hint

As a single income family, I am always looking for ways to save money...using cupons, buying in bulk, etc. One of the luxery's I afford myself is having all of Jay's work clothes washed at the dry cleaners. Spending my days ironing his dress shirts is not my idea of fun. Trust me, it is an expense worth every penny! However, with sweater weather upon us, I am again looking to save some money. All of my sweaters are dry clean only, as are Jay's. So, I decided to look for another option so that I can continue my luxery of not ironing Jay's clothes. I have recently invested in Dryel...the dry clean at home product. I wanted to let y'all know how I feel it works (for those of you who may be interested in saving some money).

I would vote "no" on this product. One of the inserts said you could throw other items into your dryer while your dryel bag is in there. Another insert said not to put anything else in the dryer with it. You are suppose to be able to put up to 4 items into the bag each time. So, I put in a sweater, a shirt and a cardigan...all in the brown color family. Well, the sweater came out fine, the shirt came out very wrinkled and the cardigan had dye from one of the other items on it...it was ruined! Maybe someone has had different luck with Dryel. If so, let me know. Right now I am scared to try it again. As far as saving money goes; after I pay to replace my expensive cardigan, I could have over 20 garments dry cleaned professionally. ...Just my luck, Banana Republic no longer makes this cardigan. So, if anyone has the cream colored 3/4 sleeve one (...Jill) and would like to give it to me:).....

Rolly Polly

At what age should parents stop sending out naked pictures of their children? Is there a cut-off age? I have no clue; therefore, I have included the cutest naked picture of Bailey (who is 6 months now). When we get him out of the bath, we swaddle him in one of his huge towels (Neiman's and Pottery Barn sell the best baby towels) and he loves to roll around on the floor in his towel and attempt to free himself. He laughs and squeels and just loves it! Well, I finally got a picture and just HAD to share. Isn't he cute?

Bailey has started saying "Mama" (sounds more like Baba). Of course he has no clue what he is saying, but it still makes my day every time he does it....although, he usually says it when I am trying to strap him in his car seat. He struggles to free himself, looks at me with very sad eyes and whines "Mama". He has also started scooting himself around on the floor. He no longer stays on his blanket full of toys. He always manages to scoot his little self off the blanket and plays wherever he ends up. He usually scoots backwards and I have been told that is the first step towards crawling! Noooo! I am NOT ready for that! Hopefully we still have a couple of months before we have to worry about that.

When Bailey was younger he use to enjoy hearing the sound of the vaccuum running. Not any more! He has recently become petrified of the vaccuum. This has proven to be quite the inconvenience. The other day I was so desperate to vaccuum, I actually took him over to our neighboor's house so she could watch him and I could vaccuum. We are slowly working on it though. I have found that if I smile at him the entire time I am vaccuuming he will give me this shaky smile back (as if to say "I don't know about this, Mom").

Our Little Pumpkin

Well, Bailey had his first Halloween and he was a pumpkin. We did not take him trick-or-treating, but did dress him up and passed out candy. We got a lot of oohs and aahs. As expected :)

Bailey will be six months in a few days. He is eating baby food like a champ! The desert ones are his favorite! He also likes rice cereal mixed with fruit. He is working hard on sitting up. When he is propped up in front of his boppy he can sit up and play for about 5 minutes.

I think Bailey is teething. Of course, I have a lack of experience in this area, but I have been reading my parenting book and he seems to fit the symptoms. He is a very happy baby...as many of you know first hand. However, the past two days he has just laid around whining (and he IS NOT a whiner). He has had little interest in playing. He just wants to whimper. It is very sad. I have been trying many tricks (teething tablets, biting on a frozen washcloth, drinking ice water). These have helped some, but if anyone has any more suggestions, I am all ears.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend two of our closest friends, Chris & Theresa came to visit, along with their 3 month old son, Aidan. We had such a great time! We took the boys to the pumpkin patch and got a lot of cute pictures (check out our kodak gallery for all of the pics). As you can see from the picture, Bailey was more interested in licking the pumpkins than anything else. It was great to see them and to meet their little boy. They had only gotten to see Bailey one time before, so we had fun playing with the babies. Bailey was very interested in Aidan, grabbing for him, talking to him, etc. Aidan, being a few months younger, was not as interested in Bailey. He did enjoy watching him though.

A few weeks ago I wrote that Bailey had learned to roll over onto his tummy. Well, now he can roll over from his tummy to his back. He won't do it every time, but he can when he wants to. Also, we have set up his exersaucer and he really loves it. We have also set up his high chair which he really likes. He has slowly begun to tolerate some baby food. His favorite is bananas.

I will write more next weeks with pictures of Bailey in his Halloween costume!

Bailey's Baptism

On Sunday, Bailey was baptized. He looked so cute in his shirt and tie (his Great Aunt Donna gave him the tie). It was a very special event, and many of our family members were able to come.

On Wednesday Bailey will be 5 months old. It is so hard to believe! As you can see from the picture, he is trying to sit up. However, it is more like propping up, I guess. He is so cute!

Ok, I have to tell a funny story (sorry, Mom). On Friday night, my mother babysat Bailey while Jay and I went out for a couple of hours. We came home and my mom tells me that she lathered up Bailey's body with lotion and he really loved it. I was surprised that she knew where I kept his lotion. Well, as it turns out, she didn't. She showed me what she had put on him....it was diaper rash cream! She thought it was just a really thick lotion. It was very funny and Bailey smelled interesting!

Little Red Raider

Saturday we took Bailey to his first Texas Tech game. We all had a great time. As you know, Jay was in the Goin' Band from Raiderland and Saturday was Alumni Band Day. Some of Jay's college band friends got to see Bailey for the first time. Bailey and I got to march down to the stadium with Jay and the band. Bailey loved all the music! It was a long day for him, but he did wonderfully!

Bailey is doing new things all the time. He can push up while on his tummy and is so proud of himself when he does it. He can also roll over from his back onto his tummy. Almost every time I lay him on his blanket to play, he immediately rolls onto his tummy (then after a few minutes cries because he can't get back to his back).

He had his 4 month appointment last week and his doctor said he is doing great. He is in the 70% for both weight and height (15 lbs and 26 inches). Jay and I are having such a great time with Bailey, he is such a wonderful baby with such a cheerful personality. We are so blessed!

Four Months Old

Another busy week is coming to an end! We have had so much going on lately, I have been bad about posting. Our computer is at the repair shop, so I will not be posting pictures on this blog. I am hoping to hear something tomorrow about our computer and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will not cost a fortune to fix.

Jay is on a "guy trip" this weekend with Jarod and our neighbor. They went down to Corpus to dove hunt and fish. He was excited about going, but sad to leave Bailey. He left today and will be back Sunday, so it's the longest he has been away since Bailey was born.

Bailey is doing new things all of the time. He can push up now, and really enjoys being on his tummy surrounded by his toys. He can almost roll over. He is working hard, and only lacks getting one arm out from under him. We have been trying a little baby food the past week (he's not completely ready, so we just give him a few bites every now and then). Not a huge fan of the rice cereal. He acts like he is having convulsions (VERY DRAMATIC). He really likes bananas, but the peaches seem a little tart. Those are the only 3 things we have tried...aside from chocolate, whipped cream (thank you, Jim Newton) and popsicles (Jay gets credit for that), of course. Next week Bailey goes for his 4 month shots. I am hoping it is less tragic than last time. I am not sure either of us could go through that again!

Oh, for any of you reading Dallas' blog, she has the link to baby Max. I have included that link too. Please go to it if you have never read it before. Scroll down to the bottom and read from the begining. He is making little improvements each day and could certainly use continued prayers! http://julian-family.blogspot.com/

Our First Family Vacation

Okay, I know it has been a long time since I have updated our blog. Our computer is sick with a virus and we haven't taken it in yet (I am using Jay's work computer and will have to upload pictures later).

I am sitting at the airport in Corpus and for those of you who have never been here, it is awful! There is one magazine stand and one little sandwhich shop. Needless to say, like good passengers we arrived 2 1/2 hours early. What a mistake! But, to the good part of our vacation...

Jay had 3 depositons over the past two days in Corpus, so he brought us along (because he flies so much for work, he had earned a free flight, which I got to use). Bailey was terrific on the flights. It can be very stressful to fly with an infant..my cousin Dallas can sympathize.

Surprisingly, each deposition only lasted 1 hour, so we had a lot of fun family time! Yesterday we went to the hotel pool (we got to stay at a very nice hotel because that was where the depos. were at) and went to lunch at a local place called Waterstreet. After Jay's afternoon depo. we drove our rental car to Port Aransas and took Bailey to the beach. He really liked the water. We only stayed 1 hour because we thought that was enough sun for Bailey (of course, only a small part of that hour was spent in the water. By the time we laid out the towels, put on Bailey's swimsuit and lathered him with sunscreen, etc. it had been 30 minutes. Oh, did I mention he needed to eat as soon as we got all settled :) ). Then we ate at the Crazy Cajun..they dump the food right on the table! cab legs, shrimp. corn and potatoes. It was great! We were all 3 exhausted by the time we got back to corpus, but had a great time. We took some pictures that I will upload at some point.

Since it has been so long since I have updated, I am sure there is more to write, but I can barely remember yesterday (hazard of being a new mom). Have a great Friday!

Growing Up So Fast

Nine days ago Bailey began sleeping in his room. When I came home from my night out with the girls Jay had made the decision that Bailey would begin sleeping in his room that night. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with this last minute decision...I didn't even have time to prepare myself. However, it went really well, better than I had expected. Of course, the first night, I just laid in bed listening to the monitor, hearing his every movement and wanting to bring him back into our room (where his pack-n-play was anxiously awaiting)...but, I did not. I made it through the entire night. Bailey actually slept until 6:30 am! The longest he had ever made it. Now Bailey sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00 each morning, Jay and I play with him in our bed for 15 minutes. Then, while Jay gets ready for work, Bailey eats and then the two of us go back to sleep for about an hour. It's a nice routine. Of course, now that he is sleeping so much at night it has cut down on his daily naps, occasionally making it harder to get things done during the day, but we are adjusting.

I still can't believe how fast he is growing. It almost feels like the past 3 months are a blur. I am trying to hang on to each second with him. He is holding his head up for longer now. He has also started to enjoy the Baby Einstein videos. He is mezmerized by all of the sounds, movements and colors. Another favorite of his is going on walks. He loves being in his jogging stroller and watching the world go round.

Tomorrow night Bailey is being officially babysat for the first time. By that, I mean the first time someone other than family has kept him. Our friends who live across the street will be keeping him for a few hours and they are very excited (they are our age and have a 7 year old, so we feel very comfortable). They love Bailey and I know they will have a great time.