Cold, Cold, Cold

It's so cold. Griping? Why yes, yes I am. It was 3 the other night when I went to the grocery store with a wind chill of -21. By far the coldest I've been, I'd say pretty much ever. Ridiculous if you ask me. So on top of this, while the rest of the cold United States seems to be getting snow, we do not get much snow. We get ICE. Ice in any form seems to be the trend. I do very much miss having a garage to park in. But at least it's a workout constantly scraping ice off of the car.

Baylee and I went out the other day to go walk in the snow only to find that it was not snow despite the appearance. It was ice. Everything was just a big sheet of ice. So walking in the grass was quite noisy as the ice broke into pieces. Baylee did find that part entertaining(ok so I did too) but it proved difficult for her to walk on as quickly as she desired and we didn't stay out but maybe 10 minutes.

Play group was cancelled since school was as well last week due to the nasty ice everywhere with the prediction of freezing rain in the future. We definitely missed going and won't be going for another 2 weeks because of Christmas break. :( I really enjoy the singing time as does Baylee. Well it comes in second place to the indoor slide.

We have been indoors because of the cold. Even I won't take Baylee out in this mess to play. I keep hoping that one day soon it will be at least 30 degrees and sunny so that we can go to the park and play. So far our only 2 sunny days for weeks happened to both be excrutiatingly cold and had negative wind chills all day long. That was just torturous. Baylee has taken to admiring the outside from new heights, not really a good thing the little monkey. Needless to say I took the picture and made her get down, mean Mom I am.

Baylee still loves to brush her teeth and can be found at least 6 times a day with someones(usually not her own) toothbrush she managed to get out of the drawer. She loves to brush those pearly white which is a good thing, just not that much fun when my toothbrush ends up in her potty or on the floor by the cat's box or under the Christmas tree. We clean toothbrushes a lot around here.

This week also marks the first time she has peed in the floor since using her potty at night before bath time. She was starting to grow out of her "piddler Paige" nickname and doesn't pee everytime she doesn't have a diaper on anymore. However she has not earned my trust and hates that she can't run around totally naked all of the time. But I did laugh this week when she took off her diaper and ran and hid under the Christmas Tree with the kitty and I came around the corner to see her naked tiny heiny in all of it's bright whiteness poking out at me and a little giggle coming from somewhere in the direction.

We let Baylee have bubbles in her tub one night for something fun since it's been a lot of boringness inside. Bubble is one of her best words and I'm sure she said it at least 126 times while she played in the tub that night. She was in awe at the amount of bubbles.

She's very intrigued with hats right now too. She has the general idea of hats down pat. She likes to invent her own though. She has put everything from blocks, to paper, to a bowl, to a stuffed animal on her head and smiles all big and says "hat". But yet her real hats are on her head for 3 seconds and she's angry. Funny lady she is.

Baylee and Lilli also got a blow up sleeping bag bed from Grandma Lowe this week. We blew it up to test it out and Baylee fell in love. She loves to play on it. Yesterday she had every toy in the living room piled on it leaving no room for her. But she was content to put everything "up" on the bed.

She is also very good at pointing out hot since our last incident with hot. She says hot to anything that is warm now. Maybe she did learn her lesson after all?

On the more grateful side of things...Saturday night, Cody, Baylee and I went shopping to pick up a few things. Apparently we were feeling brave and we even went to Walmart and our local "mall". After eating a nutritious dinner from Taco Bell (haha) we were all done and were on the way home. We got to a stop sign at a normally busy intersection and it was surprisingly empty. However, I had one of those gut feelings you can't ignore to not go yet. I didn't really see any immediate harm and there were a few cars but none to the stop signs yet. I looked up to see a car approaching from our right that ran the stop sign at a speed that was a little faster than our normal 25 mph around here and he didn't even hesitate at the stop sign. Had I gone instead of sit there for just those extra seconds that I did, that car would have creamed right into Cody and Baylee's side of the car. Cody never even saw the car. My heart skipped a few beats and we drove away unscathed. I was definitely grateful that I went with my instinct on that one!

The official countdown is on. I wasn't going to start it until Christmas day, but I've given in. We have one week until Lilli and Faith arrive. It will be so much fun to have them here. Crossing my fingers that the weather will cooperate next Tuesday for travelling.

We want to wish every one a very Merry Christmas and we send our love!

Time Travel

Lately I have been listening to the 80's station on our tv a lot. It's been fun. Baylee has a preference for the 80's and classic rock. She loves to dance and it gives us good workouts. I video taped a little bit of it. Ok so more than a little bit of it, but I haven't finished uploading videos. This one is to "Jessies Girl". Hope it makes yall smile!
It's easiest for me to put it on youtube, so here's the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teeC6trElFM

Busy

Between Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, and extra projects and surveys for me, on top of all the normal stuff, it's been a little busy. I am slacking in the blog area.

Through it all, Baylee is such a great helper, with laundry, dishes and straightening. she likes to wear dirty laundry in anyway possible. She makes sure all of the dirty silverware does not stay in the dishwasher once I put it in. She pulls down more when we are cleaning up than she puts up. But it's the general concept of helping she needs right?

Baylee loves to steal her Dad's seat when he gets up and always takes the remote and has even grabbed his blanket while she's at it. He comes back in the room to find a sneaky little lady has taken over and she just finds it hilarious.

So I had this great idea that I would take pictures myself for our Christmas cards. Well, it was a lot harder than I expected. It took 3 days of trying and many many deleted pictures. I ended up just zooming in on one and cropping it and turned out cute. In the end it paid off and my attempts were successful, but I had to keep some of the duds all the same. Maybe next year it wont be such a fiasco. (right?)

Baylee got a present from her MaaMaa(my mom) that she got to open early. She absolutely loved the ornament. If only I had known she didn't need anything other than an ornament to make her day, I wouldn't have gotten her a kitchen for Christmas. Well, maybe I would have but it was amusing how entertaining a Nativity star could be to one such young lady. She got angry at me for hanging it on the tree so we could go to her room for naptime. It was taken right back off and I got an evil look. I tried a second time to take it from her. She ended up taking a nap with her star. It wasn't worth the fight.

Baylee is thick headed and has to learn the hard way. She has already touched to stove after much preaching. Unfortunately and fortunately it wasn't that hot when she did that and just jerked away. Today she learned another lesson of "hot". I continuously warned her not to touch the lightbulb in the lamp that it was hot. I finally gave up and let her learn her way. She touched the lightbulb and cry she did. She was hardly able to breathe she was crying so hard. After she calmed down a little she gave the lamp numerous evil eyes for hurting her and then said "hot". Hopefully we won't have to learn that lesson again.

No big accomplishments. Though it's been a busy week, nothing too exciting going on and not too much to report. She's not trying very hard to learn new words right now. I guess she thinks she's on Christmas vacation. We have about 2 weeks until Lilli and Faith get here. We are definitely excited for that.

Down again....

Our week started out a little rough. Baylee had a pretty nasty cold last weekend. She seemed to be doing better by Monday but was waking up in the night and fighting going back to sleep. (yay, no sleep again!) After a very rough night Tuesday, I took Baylee to the doctor for you guessed it...ears or at least that was what I assumed by the repeat barking seal cough. Turns out she has another ear infection. I am grateful that we went from June until December without any. However, was not thrilled to hear it but thank goodness the Doc says I caught it early and appeared to just beginning to get infected. And it was only one ear. Hopefully this time we will get rid of it with the first round of antibiotics. I am not looking forward to the possibility of a repeat from last spring when the poor lady had ear infections from March until mid June at the cost of a little over $400 as well for visits and antibiotics! You can't blame me for that. But there is hope as she took a normal nap on Thursday for the first time this week. We still have not gotten to sleep through the night but I'm hopeful for that as well.

The other good part about the doc visit was that since I decided to skip her 15 month checkup, we got a weight for her and I measured her height at home. She's now 22 pounds and 30 1/4 inches tall. Both are right at the 30% mark. At her one year she was right at the 50% for both which had been a jump up, but now back down to where she was. She's so little but yet so big. Sometimes I forget how small she is. We went to playgroup on a different day and some of the ladies I knew had never seen her before and just went nuts over how little she was but was keeping up with their 2 & 3 year olds.

And we got to shop at Kohls while we were down in that town anyway. I am enjoying shopping more than ever before, I think because well obviously it's fun to buy for the girls. But it's also something I don't get to do as often because I dont want to drive 30 miles to go.

We finally received our first inevitable snow. Sunday morning we woke up to I'd say about 4 inches. It's been cold as snort and snowing off an on all week with it occasionally sticking but not piling up anymore and mostly melting by the end of the day.

Because Baylee didn't feel great, we have been in the house a lot this week and had to cancel a few of our plans and playtimes. She has perfected the word apple and says it perfectly, when she's not being lazy and saying app. We pulled out the Little People Nativity set for her to play with. She just loves it. We played with her toys a lot this week. The "stuck indoors" has at least given me time to pay better attention to which toys she really likes and which ones she no longer plays with and which ones she can't decide about. So I have gotten to pack up some things to take to storage which is perfect timing for Christmas coming up. I've gotten some things done around the house that I kept putting off as well. It's nice to still get some things accomplished.

Not much else to report. We stayed pretty low on the radar this week.

Warning: lots of pictures

Last Saturday we ended up going shopping in Champaign (about 50 miles away). We needed to go to Target. I was glad I did too. The exciting deal of the night....tennis shoes for Baylee for $2.48! I do love a deal. Baylee had fun trying to ride under the cart in Target and browsing the shelves. In Toys R Us, she loved playing on the little couches. As we were walking away, she grabbed one and pulled it down the aisle. There were a few folks around of course laughing at her. She set it up and sat on it again. It was cracking us up. We got to go to Bob Evans for dinner. It was nice to get out of this small town for a few hours.

We got to do all of our normal activities plus some. We played with Keenan a few days. Baylee had to get shots on Tuesday. Poor girl had 4 to get. It was traumatic for a few minutes but she recovered quickly. Although, she had a relapse when we pulled back up to the building a little bit later(I forgot my checkbook at the visit). She screamed as soon as we parked. A special pack of Goldfish are magical at times.

When we got home, she was so playful, we went and played with Keenan for about an hour or so. We went to the park after naptime. I took a lot of pictures but she was so cute and in such a good mood at that point. She did really well until that evening. She got a pretty decent fever so I dosed her up and put her to bed. So far so good. She did get another chicken pox shot which can cause symptoms up to 4 weeks later. Hopefully the first fever was all we will get this time.
We did playgroup on Wednesday this week because of Turkey day. She was dragging a little but still had fun. She loves the slide they have inside. The only bad part is that it's on a rug and between the rug and the slide static is everywhere and the kids get shocked. I accidentally forgot to touch the slide first and shocked poor Baylee in the face. Nothing like getting tortured by your Mom!

Thanksgiving day, we all slept in which was incredibly nice. I did our turkey and all of that good stuff. It was yummy! It was the first time I've ever done just a turkey breast. That was an incredible choice on my part and the turkey wasn't dry at all. I was quite proud. I did do a few things lazy style. It was the first time I'd have to cook Thanksgiving with a kid tugging at me and saying "up, up, up". But we had a feast.

We always put up Christmas stuff on Thanksgiving. We went and dug out all of our stuff from storage. Brought it in the house and decided to go to the park and play. We did get everything up, mostly while Baylee was sleeping from being worn out at the park. She was in awe when she woke up. She had to touch everything. It was fun to see her amazement at the lights and ornaments and decor. She has loved a stuffed reindeer that I had. And made friends with the snowman that's about her size quickly. Our tree seems a little empty without tinsel and about half of our ornaments which are glass. Falling glass onto wood doesn't really mix well, throw a toddler into that, um, no words needed.

Baylee and the kitty have loved the tree. They can both be found laying under it pretty often. I rehang a good deal of ornaments, no glass has already paid off.
Friday I chanced things and decided to go to Walmart about 10 am. I needed things such as laundry detergent and garbage bags, and only get them from there. Turned out not nearly what I expected. People are stupid and caused some chaos. But it was nice getting groceries, there was no one on that side of the store. Baylee and I went to the park later Friday afternoon.

This morning we went to the Mattoon Christmas parade. It was a little chilly. I've been trying to teach Baylee how to use her pockets and the purpose of them. That came in handy today since she wouldn't wear her gloves or mittens. We got a pretty good bit of candy, I even scored some chocolate! Her favorite parts were the horses, the pony, and still the old men on cycles and in the little cars. I enjoyed it too. Well except the fact that she didn't want to be anywhere but in my arms. Including the walk home. Stubborn woman she is! I pushed the stroller and carried her the mile home. I wanted exercise and that was the purpose in walking, she made sure I got it, my left arm is already sore a 45 minute parade and then walking home. Unfortunately, Cody had to work, so he missed out.

No big accomplishments this week other than a few new words. My favorite new word of the week...alligator. Still won't say milk, but she will say "alliga". The "tor" never makes it out, but again, close enough for me. Potty time is the same, I'm still not pushing it. But still exciting all the same. We've had a good week. Next week looks even busier with something everyday except Wednesday so far. AAAAAAAH! And they say teenagers are busy? Our little soon to be 16 month old has quite the social life. :)

Stuck inside

Like everywhere else, it's been quite chilly here. So I've had to come up with more things for us to do inside. It's already proven a difficult task as she doesn't have the patience for too much yet. We've also discovered a few things that most kids like that Baylee has not found the same love of and in fact have made her cry; bubble gum bubbles, stickers, leaves, and fingerpaint. With a little help from us, she has learned to love stickers and leaves and tolerates fingerpaint. Bubble gum bubbles still need some work.


We did fingerpaint a few days. After decking Baylee out in an old tshirt of mine, we attempted to teach her how to fingerpaint. She cried when Cody stuck her finger in it. After a little encouragement and a lot of papertowels, she warmed up to it. I wish I could say we have a little Picasso on our hands, that is not the case. She still did not love it, even after she tasted it...imagine that. But she was very proud of her paintings and played with them many times throughout the week.


We did bundle ourselves up in our big, fluffy, warm coats and head to the park again. It was very cold and she hates her mittens so her hands were freezing. I gathered and piled up leaves on the slide. It did not work as I had envisioned but it made her like leaves and not be scared of the piles.


We pulled out the playdough one day. I made some "incredible" figures of a snowman and an odd dog. She enjoyed saying "uh-oh" then destroying whatever I made. Funny how the "uh-oh" always came first even when they happened to fly across the room.


Baylee got to play her Little Leaps game system for the tv. She loves to push the buttons and really loves the music. (Thanks Kelly)


Baylee is still learning new words. She still doesn't say milk but says octopus which comes out as "otpu" which in my book is close enough. I've also broken her of the "uh-uh-uh" which previously meant I want up in a whiney way. Now it means "Mom is going to ignore me if I whine like that". She now has to say up to be picked up or lifted onto things. We are working on up please but I've only gotten the "peas" one time. I will take the up minus the peas if I never have to hear "uh-uh-uh" again. She has done very well this week with helping pick up all of her toys instead of just bath toys. So yay for that.


Our biggest and proudest adventure this week was Baylee's new potty. I figured since she hides and hunkers down to use the bathroom in her diaper already, that I would get the potty in here. The plan was to let her play with it and get used to it and then move on to potty training when she was up for it. She however has done far better than expected. The first night we had it, I took it to the bathroom and put her on it and she actually went. So she has gone every night before bath time in it. Quite honestly, I've only tried one other time. I'm not ready to push her yet, I was just trying to get her used to the idea of it all. She does love to sit on it quite often and point out Winnie the Pooh characters. I was a little surprised but very proud she's done even what she has.


We hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

**Sorry about lack of pictures on the blog, Blogger/Picasa were not friends yesterday when I did the post and I have lost patience. But there are plenty of pictures in the albums.

Because I posted late this week, I don't have anything significant to share. It's been life as usual for the most part. Baylee is learning new words and constantly cracking us up. Weather has been rainy and cold all week, so we've done little. We did go to playgroup and to storytime at the library. Baylee enjoyed both. It's been a routine week but of course I still have a few pictures.

Under the Weather

Last weekend, we did pretty much nothing. The weather is not being cooperative anymore and fall is finally here. We found ourselves indoors quite a bit.

We did get to go play with Keenan and Marilyn one day. We also took them with us to playgroup this week. It was still very fun and Baylee just loves the singing and dancing in circle time.

Baylee's still just up to the same copy cat stuff. I can't recall any new tricks, other than jumpstarting her car. She's still a big helper and enjoys putting stuff away with me, especially the laundry. Oh with the exception of her toys. She still struggles with the enjoyment of picking up her fun things around the house. But puts away her bath toys just fine. Go figure.

We struggled with sleep due to the colds that we both had, that always makes for long days. So not only bad weather this week, but we were under the weather. Friday night, Saturday and Sunday turned out to be our worst days. We both were totally zapped of energy. However, after being couped up ... we bundled up Baylee in her marshmallow coat and went to the park on Sunday afternoon in 27 degree weather. I had the theory it would make us feel better, guess what, it did! We had fun crunching leaves and running around. The slides were cold and the little lady didn't have much flexibility in her marshmallow. Unfortunately a lot of my pictures didn't turn out really well from the park. But I posted them anyway.

In the end that leaves us with Baylee completely messed up on her sleeping schedule and us up in the night and her not going to sleep on her own. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. The never ending frustration of regulating her sleep patterns. But when the kid is struggling and is obviously sick, it's hard to not just rock her, and I am paying for that decision.

But we are doing well and glad to be past the worst of it. I'm tired I don't even know what to post, but the pictures are worth it. ... Picasa is struggling at the moment so no captions yet.

The week...

We went fishing last weekend and surprisingly, still caught some fish. We actually caught the biggest bluegill yet at the pond. I flew a kite part of the time. Baylee found it amusing. I have to say I did pretty well considering it's been quite a while since I've attempted that.

We got a package in the mail and Baylee claimed the box. It was funny to see how much she enjoyed sitting in the box.

We had fun this week. We played with friends. Baylee got to go to storytime at the library. They even let her run around all the shelves and didn't care. She liked exploring it. She got to go to a playgroup put on by the school system. She was a little shy there even though we knew a few of the people. We also went to Halloween movie time at the library where Baylee refused to be more than 6 inches away from me. That was Halloween day. The kids were supposed to dress up for movie time. Baylee was one of one that didn't wear her costume. Yes we attempted. She went as a stubborn pumpkin, her costume minus the pumpkin. I finally just gave in. That's why I was surprised that night she was having fun wearing her pumpkin.

Yesterday we went to the park with Dad. Baylee had fun sliding down onto his head since he was laying on the slide. It was fun to her to attack him. It's turned into really nice weather the past couple of days and we've enjoyed walking some and playing at the park.

We stayed busy this week despite the fact that I had an earache and sinus problems most of it. Baylee is turning into quite the copycat when it comes to words and tries to imitate many new ones a day. I've stopped keeping up this week. She's been a great helper, especially with laundry. She transfers clothes to the dryer now for me. It's been a great week. I really enjoyed staying busy with her and trick or treating with her.

Trick or Treating

We went by one of my friend's houses first. We stayed and chatted for a minute or two. Then we went trick or treating at the mall here in Mattoon. I thought Baylee would do better inside where it was bright. However it was too chaotic and I had to carry her the whole time. She did better outside in my friend's neighborhood.

We came home and then we went down to Tim and Susan's apartment since they bought candy for her. The Grandpa in Tim came out and he was all excited to give her all the candy she wanted and to open it for her and taught her to wash it down with Dr.Pepper. After that, I let him know he was babysitting if he gave her anything else, he then decided Baylee had had enough. :) Everyone seemed to love Baylee's pumpkin suit including other kids. We had a good time for sure. Baylee thought that stock of candy was pretty cool as well. She even kept her pumpkin on for 2 hours straight! Yay for that.

Please excuse the ketchup on Baylee's forehead as I had a time trying to get her face clean....we have to wrestle to do that and I didn't realize I missed a spot. :)

Back to reality

It was so nice in Florida, it was a little sad when we got home and it was cold again. Unlike all of our friends and family that live out west and have already been graced with snow, it only got down into the 50's for a spurt just before we left for about a week and is headed back up. So I have no right to complain.

We got back into the routine of hanging out with friends and playing at the park. We took Cody with us to the park 2 days this week for playtime. It's always nice to have him go too. We've had a lot of fun playing with her little soccer ball. My fabulous $1 investment.

I made a blanket fort for Baylee with her highchair. She loves to go in and peek out. She moves her fort around the house. It's funny to watch her do that. She likes to pull the blankets off too, so we are constantly fixing it, but it makes her so happy.

I've been letting her play with my wallet. She likes to pull all of the cards out and organize them, line them up then stack them. Cheap entertainment yet she's creatively playing. My kind of deal.

She's still broadening the word spectrum. We were talking about her pajamas one night and what colors they were she proceeded to copy Dad and say "blue and green". Two new words but yet sometimes we can't even get her to say hi. I've always been under the impression that she's holding out on us. I do believe that!

She has taken on full force the art of screaming now. She's been really good about that until lately. I am hoping this is as loud as she's going to get for a while. She runs around like a chicken with her head cut off just screaming and occasionally giggling in the mix. Not pleasant on the ears really. I guess she makes up for it since she's been "helping" me clean everything.

I went ahead and pulled out her pumpkin costume this week. I know a boring pumpkin...in my defense it was one I had gotten for Lilli. By the time I decided to dress her up, it was the only thing left in stock at Party City in Seattle in her size when we went shopping. So in the tradition of hand me downs, it's now Baylee's turn to wear it. I learned with Lilli it works best to get her used to it before I expect her to wear it. Baylee has taken to it much better though. She knew what her pumpkin was within two hours of me pulling it out and would follow commands to go find it and then we'd identify facial features. She likes to wrap up in it and sit on it(as does the kitty) and she even brings it to me and wants to put it on, backwards but on. She wants it on like a jacket, unfortunately that puts the face on the back, but beggars can't be choosers and considering her size, I'm sure people will understand if that's all we get on Halloween. It is amusing though that the pumpkin had this effect of making Baylee want to spin in circles when she put it on the first time.

I am excited for probably "trunk or treating" or going to the mall here for "safe trick or treating". I haven't decided where we are going yet but I'm still looking forward to it.

Glorious Florida

Our trip to Florida was quick but very fun. Baylee had her first privately chartered flight to a destination at 14 months old. Spoiled girl! We had an awesome tail wind and we made it about 45 minutes early to Florida, so it took just over 2 hours. That was nice considering she got a little squirmy in the plane and I was having to try to keep her from going up and flying with the pilots. We also got to hang at the multimillion dollar house in the fly-in community for a bit. We got the grand tour of the house, it was gorgeous of course and my entire apartment would fit into one of the bedrooms. Talk about a dream house. I felt insanely out of place there.

Baylee had fun throwing a ball in the pool for me to fish out while we waited on the boys to get the plane in the hangar and to get the batteries charged on the cars so that we could go to the beach via the guest condo where we were staying. By the time we ate some lunch and got things settled and got to the beach, the weather had taken a turn for the worst. However, considering how often we get to go to the beach, we went swimming anyway. It was still decently warm but not like how perfect it was upon arrival as we flew in where it was sunny and in the 80s. We only got to swim about an hour before I could make Baylee suffer no more. She loved it, it was just a little chilly. Baylee had fun watching the water around her and continuously fell because she'd get dizzy watching the water go away. It was nice too as it's one of the places you can still drive on the beach. We got to chase seagulls, throw sand, and jump waves. Baylee had a blast, as did we.

Somewhere in the midst of all of the excitement, Baylee would not settle down enough to take a nap, so she was very sleepy but quite the trooper. Too much to see. We had fun exploring Port Orange a little. We left early Sunday morning to head home.

The drive went much much much smoother than I expected. Partly because I was one of those moms most people talk about and I let Baylee wander around when she got too restless. We made it to Atlanta by about 3:45 pm. We stopped and I got to restock my boiled peanut supply. I was glad for that. We then met Kelly, Brian and Caleb for early dinner. It was so good to see them. We miss hanging out. It's crazy how big Caleb got in the 8 months since we've been gone and how much older he seems. It was fun to watch Baylee interact with him again. She is pretty shy most of the time and surprisingly she didn't take but maybe a minute to feel at home around them. She followed Caleb all over the place. Caleb took some pictures of himself for us since I was a slacker and didn't take any. Kelly was nice enough to pass on a booster seat to us. Baylee was freed of her carseat and she climbed onto the backseat which laid down perfectly to make mini stairs for her to climb up and she arranged her booster to where she could sit in it. She loves the seat. I was very glad we had the Expedition, it had plenty of wandering room.

After about 2 hours we headed out. We drove as far as Chattanooga, Tennessee and stopped at the first hotel with an indoor pool we could find. We wanted Baylee to get to swim some more. She liked it as long as she was very securely in our arms. We then headed out and made it home Monday evening. Despite being so short and driving home, the trip was definitely worth it and we had a good time. It was nice too since Cody has been working so much lately to have him with us for 3 days straight. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

Early post

I have the habit of posting on the weekends, just seems to workout that way. But today, I'm taking advantage and posting for the week a little early. We will be gone all weekend anyway.

Another somewhat tame week in our house. The normal walking and park visits occurred. We went and hung out with Keenan and Marilyn for a while one day. We cut that short because our little lady was in the middle of a Grouchfest. She was the only performer, hopefully that festival went well for her as onlookers were unimpressed.

We are still having Baylee hair woes. She's not yanking it out as much but is still impatient and doesn't have time to sit and let me try and control the chaos we call her wig. Frustrating at times, I have to say.

No big news to report. Baylee is still figuring out so many things that you wouldn't even think about until you actually think how did she know to do that? She's on a kick of controlling the tv since she figured out a few weeks ago that not only the remote can turn it on but so can those big buttons in perfect reach on the tv. She loves to have the noise of the tv and turns it on and walks out of the room. She also has learned to turn it off when we leave the house if it's on. As soon as I start getting the diaper bag ready, she knows we are going somewhere. She runs to the tv turns it off and heads for the door as if I'd leave her if she wasn't right there.

Today we went and helped setup for a Rummage Sale for the MOPs group. Baylee was complete opposite of the other day and entertained herself quietly for 3 hours. She fussed only three times, once because she face planted after tripping over a toy and twice because she tried to clothesline herself on a table and couldn't get it that the table was not tall enough for her to go under. She likes it the hard way. But she had fun and got many many compliments on how cute and well behaved she was. Where are they when she screams bloody murder for 10 minutes straight at the top of her lungs because I took Dad's pliers away from her? After about 3 hours, we came home and she's down for the count hopefully for a couple of hours so I can get some stuff done and maybe just maybe pack.

We are super excited that by approximately this time tomorrow we will be on Daytona Beach. I cannot even explain how nice it sounds. You can only go so long without a beach fix. It's about time. 10 months was long enough. Though it will be a fast trip and a long drive back, it will be enjoyable. Can't wait to see Kelly, Brian and Caleb!

4 things tag (thanks Melanie)

4 things I love about my husband:
1. He's probably the handiest person I know and can rig almost anything(and it still works when he's done)
2. He's incredibly smart about almost everything...to the point, his favorite shows are always learning shows.
3. He loves me undeniably more than I think possible at times. He puts up with my moodiness and craziness. He is a wonderful dad to both Lilli and Baylee.
4. Cody is an incredibly hard worker and has been working part time on the boss's farm and still his full time job to help us out financially.

4 movies I wouldn't mind seeing again:
1. For the Love of the Game
2. A Knights Tale
3. How to lose a guy in 10 days
4. Bridge to Terabitha

4 TV shows I watch:
1. Prisonbreak-my favorite! Gotta love it
2. One Tree Hill - Yes, I am admitting that.
3. Imagination Movers - my new favorite kids show. They have good music. Baylee and I dance to it everyday
4. Fringe - very enjoyable new addition from FOX

4 places I have been:
1. Bahamas
2. Key West Florida
3. Talladega Motorspeedway, Talladega Alabama (yay Nascar)
4. Redondo Beach, California

4 places I want to go:
1. Paris
2. Alaskan Cruise
3. Coastal Maine
4. Chicago(so close)

4 people who email me regularly:
1. Cody
2. Kelly (when she's not getting rid of a house)
3. Jenn
4. ebay

4 things I look forward to:
1. Daytona beach this weekend
2. Baylee fully communicating
3. this all counts as one: finding out what/where the job will be for us next year/ getting out of my 2nd floor apt/ finding somewhere new to live
4. Lillibug and Faith coming in December

4 people I tag:
1. Carli if you feel up to another
2. Erin Colburn--I knew I could pass it on someday.
3. Katie
4. Heather if you need something to do at work

I will in no way shape or form be offended if y'all don't want to do this. If you do, enjoy!

Abundance of Bed time

We had a fun week of playing. We went to the park of course, Baylee actually played with some other kids one day, baby steps! Actually there were 5 of them all aged 4-10. She loved them and ran around with them, they did the same with her. We all ended up playing soccer together. They didn't have any parents there(odd to me) so I had to control the boys a few times, but it was fun. Me and Baylee were first pick for the teams. It was fun to run around with them, like I was a kid again too.

I took the side off of Baylee's crib quite a few times this week so that she could play on her bed. I did it when she wasn't in the room the first time. She noticed as soon as she came in. She couldn't seem to get on it, so I moved her rocking chair right next to it when she wasn't looking. She again immediately saw that and got up. She loved it. One of the days we threw her bunny back and forth for an hour and a half. She cracked up pretty much the whole time, a little repetitive for me, but it was making her happy. Today she actually pitched a hissy fit and tried to hang off the side of her bed to get the side off. Definitely meant naptime to me, but it was funny she wanted it off so bad.

Baylee is becoming more and more creative. One day she was playing with her books. Next thing I know she's playing librarian and opened all of the books and then stacked them on the table. It made me laugh. She has also apparently progressed to reading novels since those seem to be the book of choice for her these days. Her favorite is a Dean Koontz book and she opens it and just looks at the words and turns the page as if she's reading. Sometimes she studies intently sometimes she speed reads.

We went to a garage sale yesterday and the people were kind enough to give Baylee another bunny. I wasn't super thrilled about a used stuffed animal, but it still had the tags and she would not let go of it. So I washed it as soon as we got home and I'm ok with it I guess. She loves it. She's never been attached to any one toy, blanket, or anything and all of sudden she loves this random lady's bunny. She fell asleep last night with her arm around the new bunny.


Nothing big in development, just continuing to work on words and identifying things. She does really well with commands from "Go get your shoes please" to "lets go change your diaper". She knows what to expect and now willingly lays herself down when I tell her we need to change her diaper. It may be 6 feet from where the stuff and me are, but nonetheless, she does it by herself, I can move.


I was amazed the other day at how much she really pays attention to everything. She is truly a sponge. She likes to hold my keys. I gave them to her as we were getting things together to leave the house. We got to the door opened it and she gave them to me without me asking. Rare when it comes to such treasures as real keys. As soon as we locked it she wanted them back. I have monthly wall hangings she always notices when they are changed and makes sure to point it out. As with the sunglasses, she has watched her dad blow his nose a few times, and she does the same. She goes and pulls off a little toilet paper, wipes her nose and throws it in the trash and walks out of the bathroom even if no one is in there. She doesn't need to, it's just a trick she learned. It cracks me up.



As another year came and went for me this week, it seemed the perfect time to reflect. Never did I expect to be 26 and feel so young and yet so old all at the same time. As I was telling Teague...I'm now on the downhill to 30. It seems all so strange. I feel old when I can say...I remember when I bought gas for 72 cents a gallon, the fact that I say I remember when makes me feel old. Then to think I almost did a dance yesterday at paying 2.62 a gallon. Inspite of these thoughts, I am glad to be at this point in my life where I am truly blessed to have a wonderful husband and such a beautiful little angel I am honored to call my daughter and an adorable stepdaughter who we do not get to enjoy nearly enough.

Plain old week

This week has been another just normal week. We've played, walked, and danced a lot.

Baylee has been kind enough to somewhat dance on camera for us. She gives you a piece of her "hot dog dance" along with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I will not take credit for her rythym, I blame that one on her Dad, and maybe the fact that she's 14 months old. The music is quiet in the background, but have no fear, she's not dancing in tune anyway. Keep in mind, this is tame because I was taping instead of doing it with her.

Baylee and I were playing around on Monday on my bed. Rough housing comes to mind, but she loves it. It was all fun and games til someone got hurt....ME! Baylee likes to stand up and fall on the bed. We had quit playing and were just laying there. Next thing I know, she stood up and threw herself backwards from standing to laying....the problem? Instead of her head making contact with the bed, it made contact with my face. She hit straight on my cheekbone. She rubbed her head and got up, I thought she had crushed my fragile face :) It hurt very bad. Needless to say, it still hurts today even to the lightest touch. It was straight on my bone, so it bruised but was a red bruise instead of black and blue. I took the picture today. No my cheek is not just rosy, that's what is left of my bruise 5 days later!

We played at the park some of course. We met Christa and Julia at the big park and had a picnic and played for a couple of hours one day. It's been a little chilly but nice. Baylee had a blast and slept very well after we got home.

Thursday, I had a mystery shop to do. It worked out perfectly, Cody got off at lunch time that day and got to go too. It is much easier for me to do while he entertains the Baylee. We then did a little shopping and spent the money I made on the mystery shop to eat dinner at Steak n Shake...haha. But it was a fun family outing.

Friday we went over and hung out with Marilyn and Keenan. He's so funny. He has the cutest personality. One of Marilyn's friends Brandy and her daughter Tess joined us. Baylee wanted nothing to do with Tess but still enjoyed Keenan's company. Tess is um....? We actually walked there, ended up being a little longer than expected but it was nice out and Baylee enjoyed it. For the first time ever, she fell asleep in her stroller. It lasted about 2 minutes with the crazy sidewalk, but it was a notable event. Our walk ended up being around 3.5 miles as we detoured to the post office on the way.

I'm having fun walking places. I guess soon it will be cold enough I can walk to the grocery store, even for cold things, as long as I don't have too much to get. It's still a little odd at times to walk around town to the post office with a box in the bottom of the stroller. But it saves me gas and the main purpose, good exercise!

As far as accomplishments...Baylee is still working on same words, no new ones. She can now accurately identify her nose, ears, tongue, toes, and tummy. The rest is yet to come. No other big news this week that I can think of.

Today we are headed to Christa and Julia's for a Stampin Up demonstration. Hopefully Baylee will have fun playing with Julia and maybe just maybe I can do a thing or two! But I'm not getting my hopes up.

Uneventful

This week has been pretty calm. Baylee has not been feeling quite up to par and has been grouchy grouchy grouchy. I didn't know such a small little person could be so grouchy. On the other hand, she gets more entertaining at every turn. She's had me cracking up a good bit this week between her left over peanut butter and jelly sandwich ending up on the cat's tail, sword fighting the cat with Cheetos and talking her crazy gibberish at 90 miles a minute nonstop for half an hour at a time.

We made our usual rounds to the park of course. She's worked on a few words, gotten a few more parts through on her 3 molars and climbed things she should definitely not climb. She has shown everyone she can blow kisses now and drags her cabbage patch around by her hair more frequently and loves to pull off her clothes. But at least she gives her baby hugs after the beating. She got her own cell phone (the one she broke of mine) and has not set it down for longer than 30 seconds since Thursday. She's a busy girl and has to communicate. I worked on her blanket some more, still a long way from done. Not much news to report, not as many exciting pictures either. So it's been a pretty insignificant week in the grand scheme of things, but nice nonetheless.

A big thanks to the rain...

I got a chance to finish the sheet, it's now on her bed. I was getting to her blanket and changed my plans a little. That will come later, it may take a while to finish it. She was there to show off her sheet, maybe she's aspiring to be on the Price is Right? I also forgot to post some of the pictures of Baylee "helping" me make dogfood. I love that she tried to steal the cupcake off the cookie jar. And yes, she was dancing on the counter. SCARY! Sorry about the chaos of the post...its past my bedtime. I am not dealing with it now.

Parks unlimited

We started out with a lazy weekend in the house due to weather. Though we did go out for Chinese food! :) Monday night, I went to the MOPs group again. It was much much better and a lot more fun with at least triple the number of people as the one I went to in the spring. I met tons of new people. My new friend Christa went too. I'm glad I gave them another chance. Plus it gave Cody and Baylee a chance to play. It was nice for me to get away. We spent the rest of the week pretty much at the parks...

Tuesday we met Christa and Julia at the big park. Julia is only one week younger than Baylee so that's fun to have someone else pretty much the exact same age around. Baylee played for about 2 hours. She loved the merry go round. We turned lots of circles, until I finally got comfortable enough to let her ride while I pushed her as I had seen enough circles for the day. Baylee likes to pet kids heads. She petted Julia and Morgan(a little girl we met there) way more than they would have liked, I'm sure.

We left the park to go for shots. Which I'm still amazed I have to go to the health department for that. They only gave her two, but boy was she angry. I just knew she'd be the same as she always has after shots. So we came home, I fed her an early dinner, gave her a bath and depending on mood was going to put her for a nap or keep her up and put her to bed early since she used to sleep forever with shots. Proved me wrong. She slept for 2 hours (normal nap length). She did wake up one time in the night about the time when the ibuprofen would have worn off and from then on, no one would have known she'd gotten shots. Was perfectly normal the next day too. She didn't even get a fever or bruise on her leg. So pretty much every aspect was completely different this time. But not in a bad way, she just likes to show me up.

Thursday we met our friends Marilyn and Keenan at the other park for about 2 hours of playtime. Keenan is 7 months but he's a little go getter. That was fun as well. Baylee didn't play much. She was ok with swinging for about 20 mins then she played with sticks, mulch, dirt and leaves for the rest of the time. She could not have cared less about the rolly slide. Moody little lady.

Last night we went to the park while Dad went fishing. We ran into Karie, Lady I met last spring at the ghetto park by us with 3 boys from Savannah. She also goes to MOPs, which was fun. Her youngest Carson is about 3 weeks younger than Baylee. He has the cutest curly hair. We had fun with them as well. Again, Baylee didn't play much this time because there were so many big kids there. Too much to watch.

The days when we weren't at the park with others, Baylee and I went on our way home from the post office since we've been walking there. I do feel as though we pretty much spent the week at the parks of Mattoon, but it was nice to be outside since the weather has been very pleasant.

Baylee has been talking up a storm. She has some new favorite words this week. "Begeath" took the honors of most used early in the week. I have no idea what it means. She would say it randomly, never pointing at anything or while specifically doing anything. Towards the end of the week, yuck, back and book took over. She knows yuck and book, but back I think she's still deciphering since I always say put it back. She knows what it means when I say it but she doesn't know when she says it. I love that she's finally trying to really talk and using her words a lot more. Of course that pointer finger has more than it's fair share of workouts still too.

She has become an amazing climber. She scales all of the stairs to the apt now at astonishing speeds and I don't have to carry her up the full flight either. That's been nice for a change, I can take all of the groceries in at once and don't have to carry an extra 22 pounds up with me. She's also figured out how to get down off of everything, including our bed. That one's a little high and she usually doesn't land it well, but she's a little bruiser and pops right up and goes on her way.

We've had so much fun this week as she becomes more and more entertaining and able to do things with us. She even helped me make "dog food". Which she absolutely loves, who doesn't love peanut butter, chocolate and sugar? Oh yeah and she even likes the Crispix. She's doing better at helping me pick up the toys around the house though that one needs work. She's very good at picking up the toys in the tub, probably because it's fun to feed them to the turtles belly. I love that she picks out her own books to bring to storytime before naps now. Not to mention the probably 15 we read randomly whenever she's feeling up for a book. She opens your hand puts the book in it and backs into your lap. If you sit on the floor, it's usually a given at some point you will read her multiple stories. She loves her books and love that!

Apparently I'm chatty this week...haha, last update. Her room, haven't finished like I had hoped. I have to finish the sheet for her crib but I will put up what I have done. Her curtain, and her name sign, which I had to sand and repaint. Her curtain is awesome, and the picture does it no justice. It makes her room have a blue tint when it's closed, it feels like you are in an aquarium. She snuck into the picture. I will show the dustruffle when the sheet goes on. And I still have to do something with the purple table cover. I am still brainstorming more decorations for her walls .... eventually I may finish this. Our plans this weekend look about like last weekends at this point, so again I'm hopeful!

The blooming personality

As each day passes, Baylee becomes more and more her own little person. She was full of it this week to say the least.

We call what most people call the puppy dog face the puss in boots look due to the movie Shrek. Baylee has mastered the "puss in boots look". She has not done it to me. She does it to her Dad. The results, it got her some strawberry pie, exactly what she was after. Smart little devil. It was so funny to watch her do it.

For those of you that know Cody, you know he wears sunglasses all of the time outside. If he's indoors, they end up on his head. People at his work have made fun of him because he always has them. Baylee proved the coworkers right and they have viable proof now. She's been wearing her sunglasses more and more and when she is done wearing them, she now puts them on her head and goes about her business and plays. If they fall off, she picks them up and sticks them back on the top of her head and moves along.

Monday was absolutely a fabulous day outside, extremely sunny and a high of 66 with a slight breeze. I could not resist taking advantage. Baylee and I ran some errands and then we got Happy Meals and went to the park for a Happy Meal picnic. I was surprised on such a day that we had the whole playground to ourselves. It was a nice treat for both of us. She had so much fun, climbing, running, playing and spinning. It was made even better by the sticks we found that she could carry around and the next best thing to rock gardens....mounds of mulch. She had fun on the mound of sticks. She climbed some stairs to the tall slide very well. It was exciting. They also have a rolly slide there and she loved watching her legs bump as she went down. I wish it was like that everyday. It was so nice.

We went to our ghetto park down the street one day. Baylee and I spent 45 minutes picking up trash. It's so sad. Not only is there graffiti on the slides, the swings get thrown over the top bars so you can't swing. I was furious about all the trash. The man was there cutting the grass and mutilating the trash so I got to as much of it as I could before he cut it. He was nice enough to stop and thank me later. By the time we picked up the trash around all of the playground areas and tennis courts, Baylee only played for 10 minutes and we went home. I surely did my good deed for the week. It looked so much better. Sad that I know when we go back this week, there will be more. I have been on a rampage about littering in this town. There is a trash can there, it's not like there's not one. People are pathetic! I'm stepping down from my soapbox for now.

The rest of the week found us indoors mostly due to rain. She's back to saying kitty and hot. And throwing some new sounds into the gibberish. Climbing is going well, it doesn't scare me as much.

I'm working on redoing Baylee's room. Once I finish making everything I will post pictures. I know it's only been a year with the other, but well I had an idea and I'm running with it. I started Thursday. Plans changed after the shelf in our closet fell on Cody Thursday night and we had to take everything out. It turned into chaos. But Cody fixed it yesterday and it's stayed so far.

Baylee is very unforgiving of me doing something she can't touch. Pins aren't so good for her, so naptime has been pretty much the only useful time....and that's after I finish everything else. Needless to say, her curtain is hung(which I didn't make because I found a really good deal and it was the inspiration for everything) and half of the dust ruffle is done. ... that's the extent of it. If Cody is home, he can help entertain her so I can work. Maybe by next weekend I will be done with most of my projects. I doubt I will be done with the quilt but everything else I'm hoping! Cross my fingers!

Lincoln Trail State Park

We went fishing this past weekend in Marshall. It was a gorgeous day. The fishing was stellar for Cody and me. The main difference is what we fished for; Cody caught plenty of fish, I fished for things Baylee thought were funny floating in the water. Her cup, trash, a ball, and Snow White. I saved those numerous times each. However, we regret to inform you that Polly Pocket drowned on Saturday. Thank goodness I was smart enough to only give her Happy Meal toys to take fishing.

Baylee had fun throwing stuff in the water, climbing on her stroller and laying on the blanket and playing with me. She also had fun pulling out her ponytail holder quite frequently.

It was a fun day. I didn't catch any fish, but I wasn't trying very hard. I had to contain Baylee at the end of the pier where she couldn't get into the water. The ramp to the pier was where she could and of course that was where she wanted to be. Not to mention I was busy retrieving "uh-oh" items!

Lots of fishing

As predicted, we did go fishing on Saturday. We tried two different places. Neither one great. I ended up taking a book and laying down on the blanket with Baylee and reading. It was very relaxing. The next place, Baylee ended up of course playing in the water. After being wet and falling in the dirt she was covered in mud and got to ride home in just a diaper. She loved it.

It was one of the hottest days it's been here on Labor Day , so we chose our fishing hole according to access for Baylee to the water. We went prepared with her in her swimsuit and good thing since she spent most of her time in the water, well what wasn't spent playing with our bait(minnows we grabbed in the water) that quickly turned into dead minnows. I was telling Cody I think we got the wrong idea across to the ladies...they both like the dead fish as friends. Baylee had one she carried around and then found a perch for her friend on my leg. I was however not quite as fond of the dead minnow on my leg and would politely knock it onto the ground. Baylee was quick to notice and give me a "what in the world are you doing look" and put it back on my leg. It was definitely not ok for that minnow to be anywhere but my leg according to Miss Baylee. We had fun and spent quite a while out there.

The rest of the week was pretty normal for us, mostly spent in the house due to rain. Friday we had a playdate at the park with some new friends. It was about 70 outside and despite being overcast, it was a nice day. We went to a park that Baylee and I don't frequent and she loved zooming around the new obstacles.

This week I have gotten hollered at many times. Baylee has recently in the past week or so taken up a new skill. She has to throw away her own diapers. Out of habit I sometimes grab them and forget it's her job now, I am reminded very quickly though. She gets so proud of herself when she throws them in the trash. She also learned to go into the bathroom open the drawer, put in her toothbrush, close the drawer and leave when I ask her "are you done brushing?" She understands so much just won't talk.

She is finally getting used to wearing her sunglasses a little. However, her favorite ones to wear are ones that are from a stuffed animal not her little lady ones. But I guess whatever makes her happy.

Back to quiet

It has definitely been a quiet week. We are well back into the swing of just me and Baylee. We went to the park some which is pretty normal. But Baylee has recently learned how to climb things better and she has conquered the stairs to the small slide at the park. However, she still attempts to climb the ladder to the big slide, that's nothing but scary to watch! Thank goodness she's easily distracted by the actual sliding down part. Apparently the wind in her face makes her forget she wanted to get to the big curvy slide. (haha)

Speaking of climbing, she has learned how to get onto the couch to look out the window or to get the kitty. She has taken quite a few tumbles this week due to her misjudgement of trying to sit while she's standing on the edge of the couch. I figure she has to learn somehow. Tough love, I know.

We went fishing last Sunday at Lake Mattoon, not much luck there so we headed to Lake Paradise down the road with our luck continuing. But it was nice outside and we enjoyed that and being with each other.

Wednesday, Cody got off early and was home by noon so we again attempted our hand at fishing. We took a little drive and went to Paris and fished. The flattest spot we could find was a driveway that looked like an old boat ramp. Unfortunately, Illinois is not one of the dry states where you can't make fires. Someone had made a fire in the middle of the driveway where we had to fish and Baylee liked playing with the black rocks. There was soot on everything. She even climbed into the car and jumped up and down on the seat. Fun times. The driveway was sloped and she struggled walking on the rocks uphill. She wiped out a good bit and came home with lots of scratches, but she was determined it was not going to slow her down.

She then became somehow convinced that every rock in the driveway needed to be in the water. I just knew she was going to go for a swim at some point in time. We could not keep her away from the water and from throwing rocks in. I tried distracting her with everything I could think of. I even quit fishing to try but she had one thing on her mind, moving rocks. For once luck was on our side and she didn't go swimming but she threw more than enough rocks in the water for us. We still had a lot of fun though.

I brought in one of the car seats to clean it up and put it back into storage. Baylee "helped" me get it all cleaned up!

Baylee did figure out one more thing this week. Proud I am....she learned her fingers can go in her nose. It's not uncommon to see her walking around with her THUMB in her nose. It's just what I always wanted for her :) I'm a little concerned the next news I report on her nose will be of some random item like a crayon being stuck in it. I hope she sticks to just the fingers! That I can easily deal with.

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful. Baylee is still struggling with teeth and had a fever Thursday night and Friday. We had a long day on Friday...I pretty much had her on my hip all day as it was the only way she wasn't screaming her lungs out. We are hoping she improves and that this is not the start of another ear infection, so far today she's slept more than been awake so I have high hopes. Cody is off for a 3 day weekend. I'm sure some of our time will be spent fishing. Other than that, no telling what stories we will have for next week!

A normal week with Lillibug

We had a pretty normal week, with the addition of Lilli. It was our last week with her.

We went to the big park one afternoon for the girls to play in the fountain. Lilli loved it after she finally got wet. Baylee not so much. We think she was just scared of the sound. The water is pretty loud. We had fun playing and watching Lilli. She chased a little boy around until he finally ran to his dad trying to get away from her. Poor boy, Lilli followed him and sat next to his dad and talked to them. We went home not long after that so the poor boy could have fun with his sisters. She had a lot of fun playing though and was very sad to go home.

Lilli helped me make cookies one night. She probably got more flour on the floor than in the bowl, but that's what brooms are for right? And our cookies were according to Lilli "yummylicious." While waiting on them to cook, she went to snuggle with her blanket and the kitty came to join her. She was thrilled to say the least.

After naps one day, we went outside and played until it was dinner time. Somewhere in the middle Dad came home. We all played bubbles, walked, chased, swung and tossed the ladies around. It was a lot of fun, they laughed so much and it wore us all out.

One afternoon after Lilli woke up from her nap, Baylee and I joined her in her bed and we started playing around. It led to a wrestling match between Baylee and Lilli. To my surprise, Baylee even got in a few good tackles. They giggled for about an hour straight.

They danced a lot this week. Any downtime and one of them was over pushing the Leap Frog farm animal thingy on the fridge(thanks Caleb!) and they would both start dancing and twirling. Baylee has discovered the one leg stomp and looks like she's right out of a good old fashioned hoedown. (due to my laziness at the moment, I will post videos later) Baylee learned how to spin to the music from her big sister.

Lilli tested my patience and my determination at times, but I did good and stood strong, thanks to my stubborness. She probably thinks I'm mean, but I have some rules in my house that she didn't really appreciate.Eespecially the pouting when you don't get your own way and if you do it, it's done in your room and as soon as you are done, you can come out. But then she could also be the worlds biggest sweetheart when she wanted to. Through it all, we had soooooo much fun with her and many many laughs and will miss her very much, with the exception of the kitty :) We took her to the airport yesterday to meet her Mom. They were so happy to see each other, of course. We are just grateful she got to come out for a few weeks to visit, it was definitely worth every minute of it.

I have really enjoyed having the company and having Lilli here. In all honesty, it's like going home after a trip, it's always nice to be home, that's how I feel. It was a little crowded in our apartment....one lady can make a mess by herself, two ladies, I cannot even explain to you the pile of sweepings from the kitchen floor everyday and the amount of toys that could be pulled out and where they ended up!

I also have to say, some of you know my deep rooted hate for laundry. I felt like I was doing more laundry than possible. Turns out in the past 3 weeks, I have gone through a 51 load bottle of detergent and 1 whole bottle of a Mom's best friend AKA Zout. When I realized that last night, it made me feel better to know it wasn't just all in my head.

Baylee is already back to Baylee despite the soon to show molars she's working on and the long torturous ride home from the airport yesterday. She struggled the whole time. Today, she is being happy and noisy. I think she was a little initmidated by Lillibug and didn't quite know what to do most of the time and just kept to herself. She will learn though.

I took a picture on the ride home yesterday of the Arch...yes, I should not do that while I'm driving, but after missing my exit for the interstate, I had to go through downtown and took advantage of the opportunity. Baylee and I stopped to eat lunch at White Castle......YUM YUM YUM!!!!!! She loved it almost as much as I did.