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.

Around the House

Filed Under Fifteen Months, Hair, Play, Toys | 1 Comment

For the last few weeks it has been dreadfully hot, up until just this past weekend. We have stayed home a lot of days, instead of just finding something to do. Gas is expensive, it’s sooo sweaty outside, and I have just felt like hanging out at home. We have played in the pool/sprinkler a bit, but other than that we’ve just been in the house.

Bailey has gotten a few new toys, including some wooden puzzles from Jonathon’s parents, a new Elmo video and stuffed Elmo from Mommy, and some new books. I have also been making more of an effort to rotate her toys so that she doesn’t get tired of the same ones. Her absolute favorite thing is her Little People Zoo. She doesn’t really care about the zoo part, but she loves the animals. Her new thing is lining them up on the couch or the coffee table. I have also noticed that sometimes she will get only the birds out (there are like six different kinds of birds in the set). For some reason, she really likes birds. Maybe because my parents make a big deal out of looking at the birds at the feeders on their deck.

Here she is lining up her animals. Yes, I know my coffee table needs to be cleaned. Glass top tables are constantly gross, especially with kids around. Of course that’s what we bought, before having a kid!

Whining at Mommy… this happens more than it used to. But my reason for including this picture- you can see her “haircut” because her bangs are actually laying nicely in this shot. I can’t believe this was just a month ago and already they are down to her eyebrows again. I think her hair grows fast like mine!

Playing with her baby and her Fuzzy bear. She loves to carry them around and hug them and pat their backs.

This is about as messy as she gets when she eats… weird, I know. Only maybe three times that I can think of has she gotten messier than this or gotten food in her hair.

Let me out of here, Mom! I’m sick of being at home!

Sprinkle Dinkle

Filed Under Fifteen Months, Play, Toys | 5 Comments

I think I mentioned that a while back, Jonathon bought a Dora sprinkler for Bailey. While very cute, it’s just not a functional kid sprinkler. I could tell that when I saw it, but he was so proud of his purchase. It’s inflatable and fills with water, and then water sprays out of all the holes. But I decided that we needed to get some more use out of it, so last night after dinner we got the sprinkler out to play in the yard.

Here’s Bailey checking out her Dora sprinkler.

We noticed that the water wasn’t coming up very high out of the sprinkler as it had in the past. Upon further inspection, Jonathon found a split on one of the seams. Of course it is from stupid Target and we will have quite the run around trying to return it, just like I wrote about here. That is so frustrating. I’m going to have to start searching for that receipt.

We ended up getting out the regular sprinkler for Bailey, and she was just as happy with that. Proof that kids don’t need cute sprinklers that don’t end up working. I have lots of pictures from last night but there were just so many that I felt like really captured her personality and her silliness, so here you go!

This is what she does when we tell her to smile…

Snacktime (which seems like about every half hour all day long!)

Our neighbor Will came over and confessed that he and his wife had been watching Bailey play out their window for a while. He is such a nice guy and Bailey just loves him! Plus, he helps us out with all kinds of house/yard/car stuff and has taught Jonathon a lot.

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.

Kiddie Pool

Filed Under Grandparents, Play, Thirteen Months | 5 Comments

The other day, my parents invited us to come over after Bailey’s nap and swim in the kiddie pool that they got for her. We should have filled it up early and put it in the sun, because the water was really cold. She wasn’t too sure about sitting down in it but we finally convinced her to. She really liked playing with the rubber duckies and running around in the driveway more than anything else. I love her swimsuit (from Aunt Faith), and I think these pictures turned out nice with the sunlight and bright colors. So here are a whole bunch of pictures!

Yum, rubber duck….

Here she is while we were trying to convince her to sit down

And once she finally sat, she realized it wasn’t too bad!

Self Portrait- Mommy and Bailey

Filed Under Into Everything, Me, Play, Thirteen Months | 3 Comments

Today Bailey and I did not go anywhere! I know, shocker. We very rarely stay home all day. But I have been feeling overwhelmed about the house being messy and having lots of things to catch up on around here. I am addressing invitations for two different weddings right now and I am a little behind on Avon stuff as well. Plus, I know tomorrow we are going to see my friend Sarah and her little baby, and on Wednesday we have plans with my mom.

I tried to put away laundry and do stuff in my office but Bailey kept getting into everything. We call her Destructo. So we ended up just playing in the living room most of the day. Here are some pictures I took of both of us- I know I have no makeup on but the point is that I have a picture with my daughter, which doesn’t happen too often because usually I am the one behind the camera!

Just a few of her while she was playing- you can kind of tell that she is walking on her tiptoes in this first picture. She does that every once in a while now and I think it’s so cute. I guess she just discovered it but she mostly does it when she’s really excited or being silly about something.

(By the way the summer attire of choice for around the house is a shirt and a diaper, yep, we’re classy like that). Hey, sometimes it’s even just a diaper. Whatever’s cool and comfortable.

And her new favorite activity- trying on Mommy’s shoes!

Playing With DaDa and Book Recommendation

Filed Under Daddy, Play | 2 Comments

Being chased by Daddy

Caught!

Playing with her Little People Zoo (birthday present from Mommy and Daddy)

Her favorite book is Goodnight, Baby.
On each page of the book, you can tuck a different farm animal into it’s bed (pocket). The animals are attached by different colored ribbon. On the last page, you tuck the baby into his bed. Bailey LOVES putting the animals in bed. She kisses each one first. I seriously recommend this book to anyone whose kid likes animals! Some days we read it about fifteen times in a row.

Havin’ a Ball

Filed Under Cloth Diapering, Eleven Months, Play | Leave a Comment

Har har. Guess what this post is going to be about? Bailey and her new favorite toy- balls. She has been so into playing with her big green Winnie the Pooh ball. She continues to love the small plastic balls that go in her ball/track/toy thing. She especially likes to carry them around and bang them together. She has started understanding about “playing” ball. She likes me to roll the ball to her. Then she hands it back to me so that I can roll it to her again. I try to get her to let go and roll it back to me, but she won’t. Not sure when they’re supposed to start doing that.

Also you can see her new diaper stuff in these pictures. It’s the Bummi cover with a prefold under it.

I know this isn’t the greatest picture but I like that it shows her walking skillz!

She had to take a break and pull her socks off before she could continue playing…

Just wanted to post some pictures because I realized I have tons on my computer that I haven’t shared… and you know how that kills me… once B wakes up from her nap the family is coming over to celebrate Easter so I’ll post about it later if I have a minute! Happy Easter!

Playdate last week (not so wordless Wedneday)

Filed Under Home Sweet Home, Play, Ten Months, Wordless Wednesday | Leave a Comment

I hosted a playdate at our house last week. It went better than I expected in a lot of ways. I am a horrible hostess, and I hate hostess-ing. I am just not good at being hospitable and helpful and letting people put their shoes on my couch. But I decided to suck it up and invite my moms group over here. There were six babies and some preschoolers. I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but my living room is not exactly large.

Anyway, we survived. The babies (and moms) seemed to have fun. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got mad at me. For some reason, I am really worried about people being mad lately. And I have been stressed out about my blog. Learning Wordpress. Griping about our server. (Basically talking a lot about things I don’t understand). But enough of that. Here are some pictures from the playdate. And a promise that I will be back to my regular posting. I can’t believe how much I have missed blogging!

Bailey has a serious fascination with waterbottles! She has managed to take the lid off of one of them and spill it all over the floor. It may have just been an accident but I keep a close eye on her now!

Can you believe all these babies in one room? And it’s not a Gymboree class or anything; it’s my house!

Bailey with her friend Kaitlynn, whose birthday party we went to this past weekend… more on that later.

New Activity…

Filed Under Daddy, Nine Months, Play | 2 Comments

Hey look! I can see you guys through here! (Looking down at Daddy, who was standing at the top of the first flight of stairs).


What would happen if I put this toy through here??

Ahh, never mind. You guys never give me my toys back anymore when I drop them. I’m going to hang on to this guy.


**This activity was carefully supervised, but thanks for asking**

Close to Crawling

Filed Under Milestones, Play, Six Months | 3 Comments

Just a few quick shots from this morning. Bailey doesn’t crawl, but she scoots, pushes off with her feet, rolls, and pulls with her hands to get where she wants to be. I decided to put a toy about five feet in front of her and watch her go for it.



Victory!

She has had quite the adventures around the house today. She likes to pull this plant in the living room over on herself. She does that at least once a day, and then plays in the leaves and chews on them. Oh yeah, it’s fake. So hopefully it won’t hurt her. She also banged her head on a utility cart tonight when she got stuck up against it. I know she’s not officially “crawling” yet, but we need to do some babyproofing around here!

I think this weekend we will be making a trip to BRU to look at gates and outlet covers and stuff. I didn’t think that time would come so soon

Wordless Wednesday- a day late

Filed Under Daddy, Five Months, Play, Wordless Wednesday | Leave a Comment

I love to watch Jonathon with Bailey when he comes home from work. They are so cute when they play together. It’s the first thing he does every afternoon






Who needs Cowboys tickets when you have this kind of entertainment in your own living room?

New Animal Toys

Filed Under Five Months, Play, Toys | 8 Comments

I got Bailey this really cute Fisher Price animal set. It’s for 6 months and up, so I decided to get it out of her closet today and let her play with it. I have never seen a toy with so many twist ties attaching it to the box. Serious- it took me over twenty minutes to get all the pieces out. Bailey enjoyed looking at it, but didn’t really know what to do with it. She’s not quite ready to “play animals” with Mommy

She sure did like these bananas!

Bailey decided she’d had enough of the animals, and scooted her way off the blanket. For not being able to crawl, she can really get from one place to another. She rolls and scoots, usually in the direction she is trying to reach!

Five Months Old

Filed Under Church, Five Months, Food, Play, Sleep, Teething | 2 Comments

You turned five months old yesterday. It’s hard to imagine you as the little newborn I brought home from the hospital just five short months ago. Where is the time going?

This was a month of lots of accomplishments! You started rice cereal on August 21st and liked it from the beginning. After one messy feeding, you started swallowing it and opening your mouth for more. When you get excited about your food, you wave your arms. In fact, being excited in general makes you wave your arms. If you are laying on your back when this happens, you pound your hands against your tummy.

You just started vegetables on September 11th. Your first vegetable was green beans. You loved them- unless they were cold from being in the fridge! Then you made funny faces but still ate them anyway. Today we tried squash for the first time and that was a hit. If we are eating and you don’t have food, you’re not very happy. Especially if we are using spoons. Funny girl You just get solids once a day, though, and you have tried teething biscuit thingies twice.

You are still nursing A LOT and you are down to usually just four ounces of formula a day- at bedtime. You go to sleep around 8 and wake up about six or seven hours later for a snack and a cuddle, then again around 7-8 a.m. and then you get up for the day around 10. Although I would eventually like to cut out one of those feedings, I can’t complain. And that would just make you more grown up anyway

You are in the church nursery on Tuesday mornings for childcare during Women’s Bible Study. Last week was the first week and you did great. Mommy loves having another day to dress you up, too.

You are very talkative. Your babbling has progressed into chatter, and you make MMM and ba ba ba sounds now. Sometimes it also sounds like “Glooble ba mmmmm pfffft” and other random mixes of noises. You like to grab your feet, and just yesterday you started putting them in your mouth. During the night when you woke up, the feet of your pajamas were soaked because you had sucked on them. Your feet were freezing!

You continue to enjoy Baby Einstein videos. You just started watching Baby’s First Moves and you think it’s pretty exciting. Your favorite toy is still your LaMaze butterfly. We got links to attach it to your carseat. Also, you have used your stroller without the carseat in it a few times now. And we even tried the umbrella stroller one day in a pinch. You didn’t seem to mind.

I think last month you were already rolling both directions. You spin yourself around now too, when you’re on your back. Your feet and legs end up sticking out of your crib and getting stuck. You seem to be teething now, based on your intense need to bite down on my boobies and chew on everything in sight. I can feel little bumps on your gums, but I can’t see anything yet. You don’t really like to let me look in your mouth, either!

Anyway, that’s probably enough for one month. Stop growing up so fast! I love you so much. You are so much fun, and you are the sunshine in my day and you make me so happy. I always tell you, you are my little love.

Fun Weekend

Filed Under Baby Gear, Date Night, Play, Showers, Sleep | 3 Comments

This weekend was very busy- Friday night I went out with Faith. Saturday was a baby shower and then dinner with my grandparents. Sunday was church, a diaper shower, and a dinner at The Melting Pot.

Would you like to play on your Baby Einstein mat, Bailey?

Why, yes I would!

I went to a baby shower for my friend Kim in the afternoon. She is due (well, scheduled C-section because the baby is breech) on July 5th. The gender is a surprise- what a patient mommy! Anyway I made a diaper cake for her because Jonathon and I got one at one of our showers and I thought it was really cool. I had a lot of fun making it, so I’ll probably do it again sometime! Here is Kim with the cake. I’m not sure why she looks so brown- I guess issues with my flash or something.

A close-up of my masterpiece:

Grammy and Grampa bought Bailey an Exersaucer last week. Saturday was the first day we really put her in it and let her try it. I know she’s still kind of little for it and she’s not reaching for toys yet. But we put her pickle pillow behind her to support her and she seemed to enjoy sitting there and looking at all the toys for a while. They got the one with the most stuff on it, so it should keep her busy! Thanks again, Mom and Dad



She was so worn out that once she fell asleep and got moved to her bed, she slept through the night until about 20 minutes before my alarm went off for church!

Sunday night we had our weekly date night. This week we went to The Melting Pot, which is one of our favorite restaurants. We had a great time, and Bailey got to go play at Grammy’s house. Everyone was happy about those plans

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