Happy Halloween!

Filed Under Eighteen Months, Halloween, Holidays | 5 Comments

I hope you appreciate the effort that I put into posting this picture. I could not get my scanner to turn on today and my computer genius husband is at work… so I took a picture of Bailey’s Halloween pics that we had done a few weeks ago.

We also had some adventures this morning. We went to see Nana and Papa (my grandparents) and this was the first time they saw her in her costume.

Then we went to the grocery store and a lot of people were trying to talk to her/touch her/give her candy… So we figured out that she does much better in this little grocery cart car, because people can’t get so close. She was getting a little overwhelmed.

After that, we went to see Daddy at work. He works at a school and all the students just loved Bailey. Some of the oldest kids kind of intimidated her because they were all screeching and crowding around her. But she loved the preschoolers and younger kids. Here is a preschool class who stopped in the middle of the hallway to see her. I just had to take this picture because all the kids were crazy about Bailey, and she was loving it.

Anyway, she is napping now so that we can trick or treat tonight! I hope you have a happy Halloween, and we’ll post pictures again this weekend!

Stellan is here!

Filed Under Prayers | Leave a Comment

I have been following MckMama’s blog about her son, Stellan, for several months now. She was hospitalized in July (while pregnant) and told he would not live. He was born this week and is perfectly healthy! Congratulations to the whole MckFamily!

18 Month Checkup

Filed Under Eighteen Months, Pediatrician, Talking | 6 Comments

Today Bailey had her 18 month visit to the pediatrician. I am so glad that we see her doctor on a regular basis. I think people who don’t go regularly are missing out. We have a wonderful doctor and she is always so supportive, encouraging, etc. I guess it depends on how much you like your doctor.

Here are the stats:
24 lbs 4 oz
31 1/4 in
head 18 in I think… 80th percentile, I remember that.

She asked about her speech and said she should have at least ten words by now. Bailey has over 80 last time I counted. I think I have officially lost track. Some of her new words are car, cow, (she just learned how to make the c/k sound), geeta (grammy), cacker (cracker), ehnie (ernie), keech (cheek), bow, mail, she now says “c0ck” for clock, which is just wonderful, especially because she loves to point them out everywhere we go… I have noticed that within the last few days she is picking up at least five or so new words each day. She is really starting to sound things out on her own. She also calls us Mommy and Daddy now, which I love.

Her doctor asked whether she was starting to go up/down stairs. I said, “Yeah, but she still has to hold the handle unless its just one or two steps.” She was like- what? She’s going up stairs upright? Apparently she meant crawling up and down the stairs, but Bailey has been walking up and down on her own for at least a month or so. She’s good enough now that I can leave her downstairs and tell her to come up when she’s done playing. It’s kind of nice. We still leave the gate upstairs closed though, just so there aren’t any accidents! She was also impressed by her jumping off the ground, and climbing. She said her motor skills are very advanced and ahead of most two year olds. She suggested getting her involved in activities where she can use her gross motor skills.

We talked about how she doesn’t like to get her hands dirty- which her teacher at one of her classes implied could be a sensory problem- but since it doesn’t carry over into any other parts of her life like eating, clothing choices, etc she thinks that she just likes to be clean and is picky about it. She has always been a neat eater, too, and will wipe her mouth if food gets on her lips or face. I guess that is just part of her personality. She has started to get braver about touching messy things but then tries to wipe her hands off right away.

She also watched her do a puzzle on the floor while we talked, and asked about her reading and comprehension when we talk, and stuff like that. She did a screening for autism that they do with all their patients. She said that Bailey is currently ahead of where she needs to be by her two year checkup, in all the areas except speech. She has enough words, but she said by two years old they will be putting two or three words together. So she said that she expects her to still be ahead of the “charts” at her two year checkup and that she is doing great and is a smart little girl. Aw, mommy just loved hearing that. I just don’t want to push Bailey to do things she doesn’t want to do.

Boo at the Zoo

Filed Under Eighteen Months, Halloween, Outings | 6 Comments

I know I talk a lot about how much I love our zoo. It’s free, seriously free. You can park for free (not in the lot but on all the streets around the zoo). The children’s zoo is free for the first hour the zoo is open. I love living in a city (okay, near a city) that has so many great things to do with kids!

This past Saturday, Jonathon and I took Bailey to Boo at the Zoo’s Spooky Saturday. They had free trick or treating, so we knew it would be crowded. We were lucky and got a close parking space, but we should have arrived earlier. We got there almost an hour after it started. I have to say, there were some hoosiers there who had their kids trick or treating without costumes. Also some adults were trying to get candy. At least bring a kid to hold the basket like we did! Bailey seriously got a lot of candy, so Jonathon and I have been snacking a lot lately

Bailey got to wear her frog costume. She loves it, and gets so excited to put it on. We need to do some work on her pumpkin because it’s cloth and has her name on it, but it hangs down and drags on the ground when she holds it. And of course, no one else is allowed to hold it.

The weather ended up being really nice. We got to see a few animals. My favorite is always the giraffes. Today they were close to the fence because people were feeding them leaves.

By the end of our time at the zoo, Bailey was worn out. She had eaten pretzels all morning (she got them in her pumpkin and it was better than feeding her candy that whole time!) and we had seen animals and she was ready for a snooze. But she was the cutest tired frog I have ever seen.

Halloween Candy recall

Filed Under Halloween, Recalls | 2 Comments

HALLOWEEN CANDY RECALLED

Sherwood brand Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled due to
the fact that they contain Melamine, the ingredient in milk product that
has caused many infant deaths in China. These candies are sold at Costco,
as well as many bulk and Dollar Stores. Please make sure to check your
children’s Halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE PIRATE COINS (you
know the ones wrapped in the shiny gold foil) and please let other parents
know about this!

Check it out on Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/coins.asp

Pumpkinland at Thies Farm

Filed Under Eighteen Months, Outings, St. Louis | 3 Comments

We went to the Pumpkinland last week with my friend Amy and her daughter Kaitlynn. It was at Thies Farm, which I had never been to before. I was really impressed! We got there around 10:30 in the morning and I think if the girls didn’t need naps and we didn’t get tired of chasing them, they could have played there all day. There was so much to do. They had a huge corn maze, a bunch of those hay maze/tunnels (which were so dark you needed a flashlight), a wagon ride, a pirate ship with a treasure chest, zip lines, things to climb on, a big slide, swings, pretend horses, real goats, giant pumpkins, a big swing, and a farmers market. I know that we will definitely take Bailey there again next year. I wish he could have gone this year to see how much she loved it.

My camera crapped out on me again while we were there. You know my camera issues if you have been a reader of this blog for longer than a month. I think this time when we take it in to get repaired it will get replaced. You know, since it’s the fourth time and all. It is really starting to make me angry, and the warranty runs out this December. But that’s a topic for another day.

Here we are when we first got to the pumpkin patch. I convinced Bailey to sit down with me for a picture, until I made the mistake of saying we were sitting on a swing, and then she wanted nothing to do with it. She hates swings!

She also loved riding on this little play tractor. There were three of them, and she had to sit on each one before she was satisfied. Sometimes she gets a little picky about things being done a certain way

Bailey loves wagons and was going crazy because there were so many wagons at the pumpkin patch. They had them for people to pull their pumpkins in. She wanted to climb in them all but they were kind of dirty inside.

Playing in the treasure chest with Kaitlynn. It was full of mardi gras type beads and fake gold coins. They thought it was the greatest.

These are the tunnels through the hay. I guess they were kind of like mazes. They looked so fun, but once you got about five feet inside or went around a corner, it got pitch black. You couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face. People were buying flashlights to go through them. Bailey kept wanting to do it and then backing out when it got too dark.

And last of all, a picture of me with my sweet little girl on the hay ride. Except that there was no hay, so it was really a wagon ride. I thought it was funny that there was no hay. I guess for allergies, but- THE ENTIRE PLACE WAS COVERED IN HAY. The ground had hay at least three inches thick through the entire pumpkin patch. Every play structure was either made of, or covered in hay. So I don’t think that people with serious hay allergies would be there anyway. But. Bailey really liked the wagon ride and I prepared her by talking about how it was a rule that we had to sit on her bottom the whole time. To my surprise, she didn’t even try to stand up. She is starting to understand and obey more. When she’s in the mood.

My First Avon Home Party

Filed Under Avon | 2 Comments

On Thursday night, I sold Avon at a home party hosted by my friend Cara. She wanted to have a home party basically to humor all of her friends who sold things and to have an open house at her new house (which is beautiful). I did not even know she was thinking about doing this until she emailed and asked me if I would like to partipate! The other people there were all regular home partiers. There was Homemade Gourmet, Pampered Chef, Partylite, and someone who sold hairbows. There was also someone selling knock off designer purses and Asgi shoes. I was the only makeup/skincare/decoration/jewelry person. I was also the only person who had not sold my stuff at a home party before. Avon is not really set up to be sold that way, although it’s your own business, so technically you can do whatever you want!

The night went really well. My mom came with me and helped me to set up. We put two card tables next to each other with a big black table cloth over them. We had two big shallow boxes of stocking stuffers like shower gel, hand cream, trial size skin care products, etc. Those went over really well. I just labeled each box- one was $1 items and the other was $3 items, so that made it simple. Then I had holiday decorations out for people to look at, and brochures for people to place orders or take with them. The party actually went pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I sold. I am hoping to get a few more calls for orders from that party but who knows, I might not.

My biggest seller? These holiday lighted-leg sitters. I had a couple of them sitting on the edges of my table, turned on so that their legs were blinking and their various fiber optic body parts were glowing. I am just in love with these little guys. The pictures don’t do them justice, but they are so cute. Jonathon even asked me to get him the snowman one for his office at work. We are getting the penguin for our house. They are only $12.99 and I think Bailey will like them since they have lights.

And if you made it this far, I have some exciting (to me, at least) news! I had a girl sign up to sell under me earlier last week, and I have another new recruit that we are signing next week. So I am now officially in Sales Leadership and that was something I did not think I would ever do. I love that my business is growing and now I can help other people with theirs, too.

Friends in a box

Filed Under Eighteen Months, Friends, Playdates | 5 Comments

Bailey and I had a playdate yesterday with her friends Mackenzie and Addison. Bailey can said “Addie” but won’t even try to say Mackenzie or Kenzie or anything else I suggest. Anyway, my friend Kim is one of those really sweet hospitable people. Kind of like I am NOT. She had drinks and made us lunch and she just loves to take care of people when they come over.

I think the girls all had a great time. There was very minimal scuffling over toys. The best things about playdates? Getting to talk to the other mommies, and the kids playing with “new” toys! Someone else’s toys are always so much more exciting. I remember that from when I was a kid- even as an older kid, someone else’s Barbies or whatever were better than my own… looking back I probably had more Barbies and all that stuff but they were the same ones I looked at every day.

Getting off track, though. Kim emailed me this picture she took yesterday. The girls kept getting in the toy box. They didn’t seem to mind that half the time one of them was on top of another one. From left to right, Addison, Mackenzie, and Bailey.

Two Words Together

Filed Under Eighteen Months, Talking | 3 Comments

Bailey has started putting two words together on occasion. Her most common ones-

more Emmo! (more Elmo- she wants to watch her video again for the hundredth time)
oh no
ah duh (all done)
ah guh (all gone)
no __________ (describing anything she does not like or does not want to do)

Also more new words:

people
purple
happy happy happy happy (she says this when she really IS happy and it’s so cute!)
dar (star)
Neena (she is now saying this for her Grammy)
bye bye

I guess I should also tell you that Bailey pooped on the potty on Monday!

She is also very diligent about warning everyone when things are hot. Or when they look hot, like neon signs in store windows. She always points out the toaster oven and regular oven to our guests, and tells them, “Hot. Hot.” If we tell her to “foof” something, she will blow on it.

Wordless Wednesday- Footie Pajamas

Filed Under Clothes, Eighteen Months, Wordless Wednesday | 7 Comments

I need a favor, please

Filed Under Blogging, Input Needed | 4 Comments

My friend Mae needs some votes for her video clip. She is neck and neck with some other chick for first place. If she wins, she is donating all the money to a women’s and children’s shelter. That other lady? She’s probably going on a selfish shopping spree. So go vote for Mae! You have to register but I did, and I promise they do not spam you.

Here is the link:
http://www.mindbites.com/tags/the-baby-formula

And the person you vote for is the one with the title “Cleaning up toys” or something like that. She has brown hair and a big hot pink boa around her in the picture.

If this is any inspiration to you- comment and let me know that you voted, and I will link to your blog. I know that’s nothing huge, but who couldn’t use some linky love?

On another topic- I was curious if anyone has gone through Insurance Bureau for auto insurance. We got some info from them and I was wondering if anyone had an opinion. We have considered switching from State Farm, but right now we get a multiple line and multiple car discount, so it would have to be a whole lot cheaper!

Not Me Monday- short version

Filed Under Not Me Monday | 3 Comments

While I was helping to get food ready for a baby shower, I definitely did not get hot pepper juice on my hands. (jalopeno poppers)

Then I definitely did not touch my eye, even after washing my hands

It does not actually feel like your eye is on fire even when there is no pepper juice left.

I did not scratch my nose about six hours later and feel like I was breathing fire from the pepper juice on my nostril.

Just now, I did not remind myself of the whole unfortunate pepper juice situation by adjusting my contact.

I am not typing this with one eye squeezed shut.

For more Not Me’s visit MckMama’s blog.

footnote: You would think that Vegas vacations would be somewhere to do stupid and crazy things. Well they just happen to me here in St. Louis on a regular basis. And by “crazy” in this case I mean like sleep deprived insane.

Grant’s Farm Halloween Night

Filed Under Grandparents, Halloween, Outings, Seventeen Months, St. Louis | 3 Comments

Last weekend we went to Grant’s Farm for their Halloween event. It is every weekend in October, I think. It was $20 a car to get in, but no per-person admission. So it wasn’t too bad considering that we fit the three of us and my parents all in our car! I think it was really well done. It was cheesy kid-scary stuff. Like Bailey was not afraid of anything except this woman dressed as a witch who kept trying to talk to the kids. She was really nice, but they were scared. Anyway. We met Dave, Amy, and Kaitlynn and Christopher, Emily, Emily’s parents, and Ella there. We all rode on the tram separately and then met before the goats.

These first few pictures are from when we were waiting in line for the tram. The line started on the parking lot side of the bridge, for those of you who are familiar with GF. It was the longest I have seen the line but my guess is we waited no more than 20 minutes.

Also now you get to see what Bailey’s Halloween costume is. I know I was being funny keeping it a secret. She is going to be a frog. She loves her costume and wore it the first part of the night, before she got too hot.

Here’s a really funny one of me, when we were riding the tram. I just never have any normal pictures of me with Bailey!

Once we got into the park, we took a bunch of pictures on the bench. Obviously it’s not easy getting pictures of three toddlers. And Bailey and Ella kept poking at each other and trying to kiss.

I loved seeing my little Muffin in her frog suit. However, quite a few people commented on how “HE” was such a cute frog. I knew that was going to happen. I have to remember to glue a bow to the head of the frog suit before she wears it again.

When you walked through the park, there were things like ghosts in the trees, and at one part it looked like giant moth traps, and some version of the Scream guy. But if it was stuff your kid was going to be scared of, it would be really easy to distract them so they didn’t look up at those spots.

I tried to get a shot of Bailey and Ella kissing (again) but I was too slow. They kept doing it but I just didn’t get the timing right with the camera. They were so cute and funny. I am so glad that the girls are starting to interact with each other more. It’s fun to watch them develop their little friendships.

Bailey and Grampa- and she was no longer wearing her frog costume because she got really hot in it. It was about 70 degrees out- too warm for a busy girl to be wearing a long furry suit!

Family picture in front of the Anheuser-Busch sign/logo, but our flash didn’t light up enough to really get a good shot of it.

We went and enjoyed our free drinks and let the girls run around and play. Bailey was definitely busy the whole time. She found a Grants Farm stroller that someone had abandoned and wanted to go for rides in the stroller, then the girls decided it was more fun to push the stroller. She also danced A LOT and got so sweaty.

My mom bought Bailey one of those wand things with spinning lights in it. She was obsessed with it for about five minutes. Then it quit working, they traded it for another one and it was put together funny, so they ended up returning it. We got her some glow necklaces and a different wand for next time we go out at night.

Relaxin’

If you live in the area and you haven’t been to Grant’s Farm for their Halloween event, you have to go before they close for the season!! We had a great time and will definitely do this again next year.

Internet was down

Filed Under Complaining, Technology | Leave a Comment

We had a big fiasco with AT&T this weekend… they were going to hook up our fiber optic service and then decided they couldn’t because we were over 2000 feet away, although they will sell the service as long as you are within 3000 feet… maybe they should come out and check first before signing you up for the service! So then they had to take down our DSL only to find out that they couldn’t set up the new thing. Jonathon had to rig up wireless for us, but it was so painfully slow that I couldn’t even stand getting on the computer except to get directions for a baby shower and to check my email, to check on something I was trying to find on Amazon books (but it took too long to load) and the weather once.

My Thursday

Filed Under Date Night, Money, Talking, This Rocks | 4 Comments

I feel like I need to update, but it’s going to be in little bullets and bits and pieces.

-Today my mom watched Bailey while I ran some errands. I went shopping (which now equals going to Kohls and Target). I also got my hair cut and it looks really cute! Thanks Ellen, if you read this!

-I spent a half an hour on the phone with Avon support in India trying to get something straightened out. I had to return a bunch of items that a new customer of mine bought from another rep. It was a pain.

-I found a winter coat for Bailey. I was going to try to find a picture of it to post, but the London Fog website sucks! (Also I did NOT pay full price for that coat. I’m cheap.) Her new coat is a few different shades of pink and its a little bit puffy. The only drawback is she won’t be able to wear it in her carseat, but it will be a great coat for playing outside in cool weather. I also got her the mittens with the string that connects through the sleeves of her coat.

-Bailey started saying people, purple, and pee pee yesterday. She also put two words together today- which is very rare for her. She said, “Hot hice” at dinner. Which translates to hot rice.

-Speaking of which, my baby is 18 months old today. That’s a whole year and a half. We’re not going to think about it for too long right now.

I can’t believe she is big enough to sit along in a chair, to wear a Disney Princess jammie shirt, to eat an apple by herself. And those legs? They are not chubby baby legs anymore. They are long, skinny, bruised kid legs. I love her.

-I went in our hot tub tonight after Bailey was in bed. For the first time in about 26 months. It was great. Jonathon sat outside and worked on his laptop, and I sat in the hot tub and read a book.

-Tomorrow night we are having a date night. I think we are going to go see the movie Fireproof. And out to dinner, but I’m not sure where. Nothing too fancy. I am wanting to go to Red Lobster sometime soon to take Jonathon to the all you can eat shrimp. We do that every fall. But if we do it before the movie, I will be stuffed and then I won’t be able to stay awake. I am bad about falling asleep during movies. I am also having a Melting Pot craving.

-Tomorrow during the day, we are going to a pumpkin patch with friends. I am looking forward to it. This is the first one Bailey will go to, ever. Lots of pictures.

-Our trash service changed. I am happy about that because the prices went way down, and now it all gets picked up on the same day. Before, our neighborhood had the choice of three services and so there were trash trucks every day, between the people who had all the different companies, and twice weekly pickup, and yard waste/recycle on different days. I hated it. Now? ONE DAY. No more stupid trucks rattling down the street several times each day.

-We got our tax return. Remember how I had to file an amended return because we didn’t get the credit for Bailey? That whole mess? Well the IRS paid US interest! I guess they felt like it was their fault since Bailey was on our paperwork and they didn’t catch it. I personally thought it would have been Turbotax’s fault for it not processing correctly, but whatevah. I’ll take it. Big fat refund and interest. And now we have $300 coming our way in the next few months for the rest of our stimulus check!