We're Walking...Sort of

On Sunday, May 20th Bailey took his first steps alone. He took 2 steps 2 different times. Of course, as soon as we grabbed the video camera he stopped. Since then he has walked 3 or 4 times, just a couple of steps each time. He will not walk on command, he has his daddy's stubborn streak :). He stands alone all the time and if he is standing and wants to get to something he will try to walk to it, but usually sits down (then claps for himself) before he reaches his intended target. I have a feeling it will still be a few weeks before he is walking routinely.

We spent the weekend at my dad's skiing with some friends. We had a great time and Bailey loved being on the boat. Luckily, this trip Jay did not break any bones (Last time Jay cracked a rib while skiing, but it didn't slow him down any). Bailey even got to ride on the intertube and Yes, I realize Bailey is wearing pink sunglasses. We forgot his and a little girl had left these in my Dad's boat.

Yesterday Bailey got his 12 month shots. 5 of them! It was not fun. Afterwards, mommy and Aunt Jill took Bailey to get ice cream at Chick-Fil-A. He seemed to feel pretty good yesterday, but today has been running a fever and has been very whinny, wanting to be held. He really wants to go outside, but it's raining, so that is not helping his mood. Luckily, no more shots for 6 months.

Birthday Boy

Friday was Bailey's first birthday. He had a great day! He had lunch with his daddy and then cake at daddy's work. Saturday was Bailey's party and we had quite the turnout! Almost 50 friends and family. It was hot, but fun. Bailey had his very own cake and ate half of it! I am NOT exaggerating!



He even fell asleep while eating it. But that didn't stop him! He was literally eating in his sleep. It was very cute!

We had a geat mother's day too. Bailey was such a sweetie all weekend!Our friends came down form Houston for Bailey's party and he had fun playing with their little boy. Enjoy the slideshow.

My kid eats poop!

We were over at our neighbors for a cookout the other night and Bailey is happily playing in the grass. I see him chewing something and assume it is leaves or grass because he is obsessed with eating both. Occasionally he gets a piece of bark in there, so I have to keep a close eye on him. So, I go over to him and stick my finger in his mouth to see what he is chewing on and ....I pulled out dog poop! I was disgusted!! Our neighbors have 2 dogs, but are always sweet enought to pooper scoop before Bailey plays outside. Clearly, they missed a piece, and out of the entire back yard, my child finds the poop.

Bailey is doing great! He is not yet walking by himself, but loves to do it if I am guiding him. He has also begun to stand alone for a few seconds at a time. He has added another word to his vocabulary. "Bye-Bye" Accompanied with a wave. Any time we go into the garage he waves and says "bye-bye".

Unfortunately, Bailey has had some wheezing problems. He has had to use a nebulizer twice since December. We are monitoring it closely and hoping it's not asthma, but will be a while before we know that.

The next time I post, Bailey will be 1 year! His birthday is Friday, the 11th. The past year has gone by so quickly, I can't even describe it! It has been a wonderful year, the best year of my life! Bailey is such an amazing blessing and I am so fortunate to be a SAHM.

"Uh-Oh"

These are the words Bailey uttered last week! He has been saying "mama" and "dada", but this is his first "real" word. He even knows when to use it. He will throw something and then say "uh-oh" and sometimes he says it and then throws something. It is so cute (unless he is throwing his spaghetti on the wall!).

Last week he got pink eye for the first time. It was not fun! He didn't feel bad, but did not like having his eyes cleaned! Unfortunately, a gross nose came along with it. Below is a picture of him right after he woke up. You can tell his little eye is matted shut. I couldn't resist!

We also went to Bailey's great granddad's brithday party.It was at Jay's parents farm, so it was very relaxing! I got some pictures of him with his cousins and swinging, which he loves! The biggest news of all is that our little niece, Ava Grace was born on Friday. She is so beautiful!! She's so tiny and sweet! My sister-in-law, Julie, is doing great and they are already back at home.

(The slide show moves kind of slow, click the plus sign on the bottom left to speed it up).

Play Dates

Lately Bailey has had several play dates which he has really enjoyed! Below is a slide show.

Some of you have asked about Bailey's Easter pictures. Somehow, I managned NOT to get any pictures of Bailey in his Easter outfit, but did get a few after he changed clothes. Oops!

I Survived!

This morning, Jay and I competed in a HALF MARATHON (Impressed? Me too!)! The best part is, I am alive to write about it:) Actually, it wasn't that bad. We had a great time and we finished in 2 hours 23 minutes. We ran the entire 13 miles without stopping to rest! I have to say, I am a little amazed that we were able to run the whole way. As many of you know, my form of exercise is running; however, I only do 3 miles, 5 times per week. Other than that, I occassionally run 5-6 miles and have ran in a 10k. So, this was, by far, the furthest I have gone. I am very proud of myself. I could not have done it without Jay. He was my cheerleader/coach (slow down, lengthen your stride, you can do it, almost there). These words of encouragement were very helpful and much needed once we hit mile 11. My body started to fight me once we got that far. Everything hurt! But there was NO WAY I was going to walk after having made it 11 miles!! I know tomorrow morning I will be in a lot of pain, but it's worth it!

On the Bailey front, everything is going great! He is growing so fast and getting into everything! We are having so much fun. We have joined a mom's group and really like it and are planning on joining a play group through our church. That would make 2 play groups, music class and CCM (caring christian mothers). We are staying busy and I love getting Bailey together with other children and I enjoy getting to spend time with other mothers. It is so fun for Bailey and I to get to do these things together. I want to spend as much time with him as I possibly can. Time is going by way too fast!

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.