Not having a camera, well it sucks

Filed Under Fifteen Months, Food, Grandparents, Outings, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I am so used to photographing everything Bailey does. When she makes a new cute face, or does something funny, or gets a new outfit or new toy… last weekend I cut her hair in the back (about an inch off the bottom) and I didn’t have my camera. On Thursday, my parents watched her for the day. They took her to Build a Bear and she made a stuffed bunny. Now I am waiting to take a picture of her with her new bunny, whose name is Floppy. This is the best I can do at the moment.

I feel like I am letting these moments fly by, uncaptured. I want to remember every smile, laugh, hug, every moment. We were at my parents house last night for my mom’s birthday and I took a bunch of pictures with their camera so hopefully they will loan me the card soon so I can dump them on my computer. Here are some pictures from hanging out with my parents a few weeks ago. I didn’t even realize I had these because I saved them into the wrong folder and discovered them last night when I was uploading to Snapfish.

We took Bailey to a local kids museum and she loved it. We will probably get a membership this fall. She had a great time exploring and learning. They also offer toddler and preschool classes so we might sign up for some of those after we get our membership.

In this picture Grammy is showing Bailey how to fish. After the fish are caught (magnets on the end of strings) they can walk them upstream and drop them into a small pool, then watch them go back downstream through glass in the floor, all the way back to the fishing pond. It’s really cool!

All sweaty after playing outside

Eating her favorite food ever- fries!

Exploring another park with Grandpa

Filed Under Fifteen Months, Grandparents, Outings, Play | 2 Comments

These are from last week at the park with my dad. Our camera is currently being repaired or replaced, so I will have to entertain you with some older pictures in the meantime. Hope you like them anyway. LOL… if you’re local and you want to know what park this is, leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you. It’s one of our favorites, and it’s NOT the Fountain Park.

Bailey HATES swings. I keep trying them every so often, hoping that she will change her mind. She is a pretty brave kid with most things. But I don’t blame her with the anti-swing thing. I liked them as a kid and now it makes me queasy to even watch other people swinging.

Walking through the tunnel- one of her current favorite things to do at any park.

Botanical Gardens Trip

Filed Under Fifteen Months, Outings, Teething, Weight | 2 Comments

We went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens on Wednesday morning with Amy and Kaitlynn. You can read her blog post about it here. It wasn’t so hot, but it was really muggy. I should have pulled my hair back. That’s all I kept thinking. Bailey was a little crabby because of her bottom right molar coming in. It looks so painful, just poking about halfway through her gums. The whole tooth isn’t even through, just like two of the points on it. I don’t envy her at all with this teething business.

Anyway. Aside from the crabbiness, Bailey seemed to have a good time. She played on some of the sculptures like last time, and she even posed for a picture and I managed to get a good one!

Bailey also wandered around a lot and put her snacks down on the ground to go play. Then, she would walk back over and pick up her snack out of the dirt and try to eat it again. She also got really sweaty and sticky. But here are a few shots of her playing and sharing snacks with Kaitlynn.

The last thing we did there was put the girls in an empty fountain to play. That sounds bad, but it worked out really well. There is a new area and they hadn’t filled the fountain yet. Bailey and Kaitlynn were both kind of wandering off and just being generally in weird moods. So we put them inside this fountain and they ran around and played in there for a bit. It was nice not to have to chase them. Bailey seemed to enjoy being in there, too.

A day at the Botanical Gardens can really wear you out!

Sometimes I think treadmills are a good idea, but if I could just motivate myself to go walk places like BG or the zoo I would probably enjoy it a lot more, and so would Bailey. By the way, I lost 3.8 pounds this week! Finally making progress.

I can’t believe how hot it is today

Filed Under Fourteen Months, Outings, St. Louis | 5 Comments

We were crazy enough to go to Grant’s Farm today right at noon, during the hottest part of the day. I don’t know what I was thinking. The company was great, but I just hate the heat. First we sat in the shade in the guinea pig area… then we sat in the shade near the sprayers and the bridge… then we sat in the shade at the gazebo. Yeah, the kids really only saw goats and guinea pigs but they were just as happy to see their friends and eat snacks. They love stealing each others cups and snacks and stuff. Also in the guinea pig and chicken area, you can buy corn out of machines for a quarter. Bailey kept picking corn out of the woodchips on the ground and trying to eat it. You would think I don’t feed her by the way she acts.

Here is Bailey before she got all dirty and snotty and wet. She started the day looking really cute and clean. Although we did get yelled at on the tram for talking too much by this crabby trashy lady in front of us. She asked if we could be quiet (only she was really rude when she asked) so I told her no. I hate when people try to talk to me like I’m a little kid. Seriously, nobody sits silently on the tram listening to the tour guide. It’s like a 20 minute ride, full of kids. Get over it, or don’t go to a kid friendly park if you want silence. Or I could tell you where to find some of the best headphones so you can tune us out.

There is a bridge that you walk across and there are sprayers overhead. Around the edges it’s just kind of misty but when you’re right under it you can get pretty wet. You can either go across the bridge or take another way around on a path. This is the first time I think I have taken Bailey on the bridge. First we kind of sat over to the side so she could check it out, and we could stay cool in the spray. She watched for just a few seconds…

And then she started running back and forth across the bridge and loved it! The only problem was she wasn’t looking at all where she was going and just running at top speed. I kept thinking she was going to plow right into someone and fall over but she didn’t. I am glad that she likes water so much because I have always loved swimming, sprinklers, waterslides, etc and I hate the heat so that is really all I want to do outside during the summer!

She came back to the strollers to see if Kaitlynn and Ella were interested in going in the water with her. Not so much, although Kaitlynn did step in the mud puddle a few times with Bailey. Of course, there is one mud puddle in all of Grant’s Farm and they find it and want to stomp in it. If you look at the front of B’s shirt you can see how soaked she is. I thought she would dry fast because it was literally 100 degrees or so but it was just too humid and the poor kid stayed damp the rest of the time we were there. I ended up taking off her skirt because I felt bad.

And the sippy cup battle begins- Kaitlynn and Bailey always want the other one’s stuff, whether it’s a cup, toy, teething thing… I always feel bad because I will turn around and B is just drinking out of Kaitlynn’s cup. I feel like my kid is such a mooch sometimes.

Even if I got sweaty and Bailey got sweaty and wet and dirty, I think we had a fun day. She passed out about five minutes into the car ride home, but then woke up when we got home and just sat in bed talking to herself for about 40 minutes… I think she is FINALLY asleep again. Oh and my bad parenting moment of the day- because I feel like I have a lot of them- Bailey kept wanting to go in the mud puddle and she had her good Stride Rite sandals on so I took them off and let her go barefoot. There was nothing anywhere around except wet concrete… except she ran out of the wet area and into the sun and I didn’t even think about it until she started screaming and as I sat there trying to figure out what was going on I realized she was stepping up and down and figured out her feet were burning. So I am kind of an idiot and I felt horrible, but she calmed down once I fed her Cheezits. Sometimes I suck.

The Fountain Park

Filed Under Clothes, Fourteen Months, Outings, Play | 7 Comments

This past week, my mom and I took Bailey to our favorite park to play. She gets so excited to climb on the equipment now. It seems like not too long ago that she refused to climb on anything at all! She absolutely hates swings, though. If we sit her in one she looks a little nervous. If someone pushes it, she gets an absolutely terrified look on her face and starts shaking. It’s so sad I don’t really like swings either, in fact it kind of makes me sick to watch kids swinging, but I liked them as a kid! She didn’t like her baby swing either, but a few times last fall she went in a swing at the park and seemed to enjoy it. I hope she grows out of the terrified phase and that it’s not making her feel motion sick or anything.

Her favorite thing to do at this park (or any park for that matter) is to go up and down the steps, over and over and over and over and over… it gives Mommy’s back and arms quite a workout!

In the tunnel with Grammy

This park also has a great fountain area. You can turn it on with a timer and it just sprays out of one pole. It’s in a nice sunny spot and we planned ahead and brought Bailey’s swimsuit so she could get really wet. Last time we went, she was in a hot pink diaper and looked really classy… so we thought we should be more prepared for playing in the water.

I had to include this last one because I just love the back of this suit. It’s from Janie and Jack, and it was a gift- a lot more than I would have spent ($38-ish) but I have to remind myself that she might as well wear it everywhere or she will just outgrow it anyway.

Friends from Nursing Moms Group

Filed Under Friends, Outings, St. Louis, Thirteen Months | 3 Comments

We went to Grant’s Farm again the other day- it’s one of our favorite places! This time we went with some friends that we met in our nursing moms support group when Bailey was younger. We’ve all gotten to be good friends, and even though we don’t all go to the group very often anymore, we still try to get together for playdates and birthdays and stuff.

Here are the girls when we first entered the park area after the tram ride… not pictured is Gabe, who was having a huge fit about his stroller. From left to right- Bailey, Ella, and Kaitlynn.

We spent some time in the chicken and guinea pig area. I was surprised how crowded it was, especially considering the weather forecast. Bailey loves to walk around in the chicken area, though. The fences are low, and there are woodchips on the ground. Which of course equals hours of fun…

Of course, nothing could beat the excitement of ANOTHER CHILD’S STROLLER!

The weather was really muggy when we got there. On the way home, it started raining really hard and quickly turned into a storm with flood warnings and tornado warnings. Gotta love St. Louis weather :eye roll:

Our day with Alison

Filed Under Food, Outings, Twelve Months | Leave a Comment

Here are some pictures from Friday, when I watched Alison. I really don’t look forward to the days I watch her, to say the least. I watch her between one and three Fridays a month. It is really hard because, well, she is used to being the center of everyone’s attention (grandma watches her on other days) and so she kind of has issues with Bailey. Also they have a really big old house with a basement and three other floors, so lots of stairs/nothing babyproofed or gated/too many dangerous things. It is a long day when I’m there. On Friday I didn’t care WHAT we did, I just had to get out of the house. We were going to go to Monkey Joe’s, but when we got there it wasn’t open yet so I just took them to the mall instead.

We played in the play area

We went on some rides

We went to lunch at Chevy’s and they OPENED LATE. I know that sounds minor, but when you have two very hungry kids, one of whom needs to use the potty and the other who has a very wet, borderline leaky diaper, it’s a big deal. It was 15 freaking minutes after they were supposed to open. We stood and watched this stupid demo about acne treatments and then I let Bailey and Alison play in the camera shop thing next door.

Here is Bailey enjoying her lunch. She loves Mexican food, especially rice. And the spicier, the better. I was surprised she didn’t try to eat the tortilla dough that they give the kids to play with. Alison eats at Chevy’s all the time and she totally knows better… but she said to me, “Hey, is Bailey going to eat her bread?” I was like “What???” She said, “I already ate my bread. Can I have Bailey’s?” Nice.

B also loves sour things like lemons and pickes. I tried to capture the sour face She ate three lemon wedges (and half the peel on one of them!)

Botanical Gardens

Filed Under Outings, St. Louis, Twelve Months | 8 Comments

Today we took Bailey to the Missouri Botanical Garden. In case you didn’t know, Wednesday mornings are free for St. Louis City and County residents. My mom drove and we forgot to transfer the stroller to her car, but Bailey did a great job walking almost the whole time this morning. That kid never runs out of energy! They had a lot of new, kind of creepy sculptures that she played on and in with some other kids. She also sorted through the woodchips about a thousand times. We ran into some friends from our Kangaroo Kids nursing group. We hadn’t seen them in a month or two and it’s amazing how much they have grown just since then!

We ate lunch at the Sassafras restaurant in the main building. We also got to see a neat teak furniture exhibit, the Children’s Garden, the Climatron (which was a little warm today!) and lots of tulips.

Here was one of those sculptures- I think this one was a lion.

Peeking through the giant teeth of another sculpture… Now you know what I mean about them being weird, right?

Playing in the fountains- she loved it! We need to get a kiddie pool (big enough for me to get in too so I don’t melt in the sun) now that it’s warm out!

Then she started getting her shirt wet too so we decided just to go completely white trash and let her play in a diaper… but she loved it…

Celebrating Bailey’s Birthday

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Outings, Twelve Months | 3 Comments

On Wednesday, we took Bailey to Penneys to get her pictures done. They turned out so cute. She wore this dress:

Jonathon took a half day off work and met me while she was getting her pictures taken. Ms Rita was having a horrible time with her (we always use the same photographer-there is one woman there who is horrible and Rita gets the cutest shots) anyway Bailey kept leaving the room. She just wanted to walk around the mall. So it took almost 40 minutes to get her pictures done! But we got some really cute ones, and it was so worth it. Anyway by the time we were done, we just had time for a quick lunch so we went to Chick Fil-A. Bailey got to share little bites of my chicken sandwich and fries. She loved it!

She also got a balloon from the guy at the counter. (Note that she had already gotten TWO balloons the day before: One at the grocery store and one at Oberweis!) She loves them but they drive me crazy and I usually cut a hole in them and deflate them after she goes to bed. She gets her feet so tangled in the strings and I am always afraid she’s going to pop one and scare herself.

After we finished eating, we left the mall and went to Gymboree for the open play time. She had so much fun. There were only two other kids there. The weather was really nice, but we had already decided we were going to take her there for her birthday. In fact I am announcing now that we are having her party there next year. So no stealing my idea. Here are some pictures of her playing. She mostly like playing with the balls (we got her the small ones with the holes in them and also a bumpy little one, and we got bubbles). So almost all the pictures are of her with a ball She walked around a lot too and even climbed a little bit.

These bubbles seriously last forever. The little girl Alison who I used to watch had them, and they would last literally overnight. If I came back in a room the next day there would still be some left on the floor.

Oh yeah and she got a balloon at Gymboree too. That’s four in two days.

Another day at the zoo

Filed Under Eleven Months, Outings | 3 Comments

Just wanted to share some pictures from our day at the zoo yesterday. Bailey and I took my mom and my grandma with us. The weather was a little cool in the morning but warmed up and turned out to be a nice day.

Hugging her new stuffed penguin

I can’t remember the last time she fell asleep in her stroller. Honestly, I think she was about five months old. I didn’t even recline it because I didn’t expect her to go to sleep. We were on our way out to the car and I looked down and she was all slumped down. She took a LONG nap after we got home, too!

First Trip to the Zoo

Filed Under Firsts, Grandparents, Outings | 7 Comments

We (my parents and I) took Bailey to the zoo for the first time yesterday. She loved it! Here she is in the car stopping by to pick up her grandparents.

I really thought she wouldn’t notice many of the animals, so I was counting on hanging out mostly in the Children’s Zoo area. Well, it was closed- warning to anyone who is planning on going to the St. Louis zoo anytime soon. They had listed on the website that the train wasn’t opening until March 20th but they neglected to mention the closed Children’s Zoo. So you might want to call ahead. Anyway, I was really bummed because that would have been where Bailey could have seen the animals really close, and touched lots of things.

Instead we went to the Insect House first, since it’s now either free, or free during the first hour the zoo is open. There are really gross bugs and spiders in there- including giant things with pinchers and hair. It made me keep getting the chills and feeling like something was on my neck. Bailey liked looking in the holes in the fake rock wall there. Here she is with her grandma, sitting on the wall.
There is also a butterfly area as you exit the Insect House. Bailey noticed a few butterflies and seemed to like watching them, if they were close enough.

Her favorite part of the whole visit was the penguin and puffin exhibit. It is really neat, I wish I had taken more pictures while we were in there. They just built it a few years ago and there you can get within inches of the penguins! We stayed in there as long as we could stand it- it’s really cold and stinky, though.

She also had her first ride on the carousel. At first she wasn’t really sure what to think. We were the last ones to get on, or I would have let her look around longer before the ride started. We sat on a leopard/cheetah (Um, so I never learned my Big Cats, lol) and she just looked around everywhere and waved at people. She also patted the leopard/cheetah’s back a lot. By the time the ride ended she was wiggling and trying to get off, but she wasn’t upset. I think she just lost interest.

My mom’s favorite thing to see is the giraffes, so we went up to what I call the “dusty animal” section.


There was also this guy walking back and forth in front of the wall, and all you could see was his fuzzy head bobbing up and down. I think that was my favorite animal to watch!

Our visit ended with a picnic lunch. Where Bailey ate her first lunch meat sandwich (courtesy of my mother). Sometimes she does really well with table food and other times, not so much. But I know that ham and cheese sandwiches with extra mayo are a favorite! Yuck

She also loved the iced oatmeal cookie… I wonder if all grandparents spoil kids like this…

Playdate at the mall play area

Filed Under Friends, Nine Months, Outings | 2 Comments

Our moms group went to the mall play area last week. Here is Bailey checking out one of the cars. I was surprised that she had such a good time. It was pretty crowded but she never seems to mind the big kids.

Bailey and Andrew- he is taking her on a date in this car… lol…

My friend Amy’s daughter, Kaitlynn, who is turning one this week!

Playing with the spinny things- she had to fight off an older boy to gain access to them! Go Bailey!

I cannot understand how my child sits comfortably like this. ALL the time. Her PAT lady commented on it and then we had her pediatrician check her hips and knees. She’s doing fine. It’s apparently just the way she likes sitting, and she can quickly turn or get on her knees (or one knee) from this position.

My friend Kim with her daughter Mackenzie, who is three months younger than Bailey

Bug and Mom- she’s not paying attention, I look so pale I could be dead. Wonderful pic of us, huh. But we don’t get our picture taken together very often because I am usually the one with the camera, so I try not to delete ALL of them!

We all had a nice time at the mall. We ate lunch at the food court- I had Subway- and then we shopped for a while. We hit the sales at Children’s Place and Gymboree but I didn’t end up getting anything. Bailey definitely doesn’t need anymore winter clothes, and I need to do a spring/summer clothes inventory before I do too much shopping. I know we got a lot of stuff on sale last year.

After the mall I went to my grandparents house to help them get their shower stool installed. It’s for my grandma, who we are afraid is going to fall in the shower I love having them here, but I hate watching them get older.

My dad with Bailey later that afternoon

Some more pictures, because I like to share :)

Filed Under Outings, Pregnant Friends, Six Months | 3 Comments

I love these pictures from the park last week. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was a little bit chilly, but nice and sunny. Probably one of the last really good days we’ll have before winter. A few of us decided to take the babies to the park to play. We walked the track a little bit, ate lunch, and then let them play on a blanket. It was just a nice afternoon.


Emily and Baby Ella


Amy and Baby Kaitlynn



Pictures from a baby shower like two weeks ago that we had for my friend Catherine and her husband, Jonathan. They are expecting a baby girl in December.

Bailey with her Aunt Jennifer

Last Week- in Pictures

Filed Under Friends, Grandparents, Outings, Six Months, St. Louis | 1 Comment

I realized I am (once again) totally behind in posting pictures, so here are some from last week. One day I went to the Botanical Gardens with my mom and grandma (click here for a cool video made by a friend of mine) and Bailey seems to enjoy just riding around in her stroller there. plenty to see, and good exercise for her chunky Mommy!


Bailey and her Grammy- great grandma was there as well but we didn’t manage to get any pictures of her. She (MY grandma, Bailey’s great grandma) was in a wheelchair that day (my mom insisted that she push her in one because she knew she wouldn’t be able to walk very far) but anyway, I think she didn’t want it to be caught on film.

I wish this picture turned out better. It was in the Japanese garden area where there are giant koi fish that you can feed. I bet they are at least 25 pounds each.

After the Botanical Gardens, we took Bailey by to see my grandpa. He always gets such joy from holding her and playing with her. Which is funny, because apparently he wasn’t really “into” his own kids at all when they were little. I guess age and perspective can change things!

Last Friday, my mom and I went to the mall, and Bailey is a very good baby and likes to ride in the stroller, but we try to give her a break and let her out to play every so often. She liked the little cars and stuff that you pay 50 cents to ride on. This was her first driving experience.


Normally we strip her down for dinner. This is one of the rare occasions where she got to eat wearing more than a diaper

At night we went to a barbecue/sit around the fire evening with some friends. We had Bailey with us because we didn’t plan on staying very late. But it got cold fast, and we had her wrapped in a fleece blanket. She kind of looks a little KKK-ish in this picture, but that wasn’t our intent.

Bailey with my friend Renee (whose wedding I was in a few (three– already!) months ago.

I really enjoy dressing Bailey up. One of the perks of having a girl, I guess. I wish I could figure out where those eBay people and such get their wholesale clothing because then I would become a huge eBay seller, and keep the stuff I liked for me!

Actually, there are a lot of things I would do if I had the time and if I could figure them out. I would learn a lot of cool crafty things to do. I would host estate sales. I would volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters again. (Okay, so that’s really more of a time issue than know-how). Yeah, someday I will have time and I can research all these things I want to try. Right now I feel like I do well to make it through the day and have the house somewhat in one piece when Jonathon gets home!

Botanical Gardens trip

Filed Under Five Months, Friends, Nanny Job, Outings | 5 Comments

Finally! I tried about five times this morning to post these pictures, and Blogger was having some sort of wonky picture issue. These are from our trip to the Botanical Gardens yesterday. I don’t go there as much as I should/would like to because it’s not exactly next door to us (about a 25 minute drive probably- but there are lots of parks and stuff to do closer to us). I forgot how beautiful it is there. Especially this time of year.

I wish I had stopped to take pictures of the flowers and stuff. I was too busy chatting with friends and keeping Bailey happy. I’m going to have to make sure we go again before it gets too cold. Yesterday we started out with a blanket (okay, really the sling) over her lap and it was pretty chilly, but by lunchtime it was really nice!

There were five of us there, and we all have little girls. The “extra” little boy in the picture is Christian, who Bethany was babysitting for the day People kept smiling at us and commenting on how many strollers were in our group, so I thought it would be fun to have a pic of all the babies lined up.

Bailey was very accessorized for her first Botanical Gardens trip! I love hairbows on her, and honestly she seems to not mind wearing the glasses when it’s sunny.

Looking back at all the strollers and mommies behind me…

Bailey really enjoyed looking around at everything, and she seemed quite content to ride in the stroller all morning. Of course, she wouldn’t nurse before we left home, so we stopped and had a little boob snack by the Japanese koi fish. Then later we ate bananas in the rose garden

Bethany, with Christian and her daughter, Enna.

We ran into Britney, from another mom’s group that I’m in. Then, later on I thought it would be a funny coincidence if I saw Alison (who I used to nanny) because I knew she was taking a class there again this year. I peeked into one of the classrooms, and there she was with her Gram and Grandad! I haven’t seen her lately, and she is so big now!

Her new nanny watches her on Monday and Friday, and works for another family Tues/Wed/Thurs. She also takes nursing classes at night. I’m wondering how that’s going because the girl must be exhausted. Also, Alison kept saying she didn’t know the new nanny’s name. Her grandparents are watching her the other two days a week that her mom works- they were supposed to be moving here, but they still haven’t yet, so they are “commuting” from Tennessee three days a week!

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