5-31-11 - 3rd tooth!

Anna Claire is (finally) asleep and I wanted to take a couple minutes to update my blog a little.....things roll by so quickly, and when it gets super busy it's hard to write, or take pictures, or anything.  But she doesn't stop growing and I don't want to miss big chunks of time!!

Tonight her third tooth popped through!  I noticed it in the tub when I was brushing her teeth with the finger brush.....it's the left top tooth if you are looking at her.  I hope the right one comes in quickly behind it, so that maybe she can get to feeling better!

We had a nice, unveventful visit with Andy's family.  Since they were sick at the beginning of the month, we went back to stay with them for a couple of days.  It was fine.  We came home Saturday night because Andy didn't want to take a Sunday off so close to our previous time away.  Then Sunday Papa drove over to help Andy lay some pavers in an area under our porch.  It's been a doozy so far, but I think it's going to turn out nice.  I'm proud of Andy doing it himself.  He likes to do home projects, but he's just not had the opportunity to do a great deal, and he's certainly not the type to search out honey do's!! haha!

Made a great strawberry shortcake - super duper easy!  Can't wait for Anna Claire to be big enough to "cook".....easy recipes like this will be wonderful for her when she's just a bit older.  I hope she wants to help and enjoys time in the kitchen.  I don't remember helping mom much, and certainly never doing it for "fun."  I did spend a lot of time sitting with her while she cooked, and I want to make our kitchen a little more conducive for mother/daughter chats while cooking.......an over the stove microwave would be a good start - a kitchen island with two stools would be a good finish...... ;)  Always another project down the line!! haha!  Oh well - it makes it fun when you DO get to do something and cross it off your list!

Josh is coming tomorrow to help me stain our patio concrete.....I'm very excited about it.  I'll have to post some before/after pics.....(I better remember to take the BEFORE pics today!)

Anna Claire eats really well when we eat country style food. Sooo....we went to Zack's today and she ate rutabegas, green beans, cornbread, pork chop.....and creamed corn. Evidently she was storing the corn up in her little mouth, because I teased her and she grinned at me.......and all I could see was corn!! A little corn grin!


All is well here though - life is good - God is good - I am so unworthly and so unfaithful. :(  I have not been spending time with Him as I should.  Not sure exactly how to rectify that consistently, but I do need to do better.  Anna Claire will mimic my priorities and passions - not exactly, of course, but she will DEFINITELY know what I truly believe is important - by what I DO, not by what I SAY.......oh, how convicting that is!!  Wish I had an accoutability partner.....

05-27-11 - Trip to Target

Today Leslie, Emily, Anna Claire and I went up to Oakleaf to Ross and Target.  Boy, it rained cats and dogs!!  Look at my silly baby!

5-26-11 - First [unsuccesful] step...

Baby girl WANTS to walk so bad she can taste it - but not quite ready.  Twice tonight, at Andy's mom's house (we came to visit for the weekend) she tried to take a step.  She promptly fell back on her bottom, but it shows desire! :)

05-25-11 - Fun with Ms. Chasidy

Went to get my haircut, and I think Anna Claire had a better time than I did!  She and Ms. Chasidy played and she even got to try out a pretty little flower bow for her hair!  I've never seen a baby who makes friends with everyone better than she does!

5-24-11 - 9 months old / stood up alone

My baby is quickly turning into a little girl! Not sure how I feel about that, but it's happening nonetheless. Today she turned nine months old...wow. To top it off, she was in the middle of the floor and decided to stand up all by herself without holding on to anything! Big show off! She stood up, wobbled, squatted and then stood all the way up and looked proud of herself! Then "plop" and down she went to her bottom!

Been a rough day overall though, something was hurting her but I don't know what and she just cried and cried.....I tried everything to no avail. Poor baby girl.

Look at how busy I am though!!

5-23-11 - Nosybritches!

I love being able to meet Andy for lunch.  It gives us SOOOO much more family time than we would have otherwise!  It's expensive, but it's good memories! 

Today we ate at McAlisters - and baby girl is SO observant......and SO nosy!!!

5-20-11 - 9 month pics with Wendy Jones

Today we went to have Anna Claire's nine month pics taken - SO adorable!

Then tonight we treated ourselves and went to Longhorn.  I think Anna Claire enjoyed it as much as we did!  She LOVES sweet potatoes!! 

05-19-11 - Anna Claire was here!

5-17-11

My baby is a one-woman wrecking crew! And loves her work!

5-16-11 - Family day out

Today Andy took the day off since he worked so much last week, and through the weekend. I am so very glad! We had a nice day as a family! We loaded up Anna Claire and went to Donalsonville, just to try something different. We both like to take little road trips, so we rode over there to try to find a new park. We had lunch at Larry's and then drove around looking for Fairchilds Park. Boy, was it a let down! It was a big circular drive on an inlet with some picnic tables. It actually would be a nice place for a picnic, but nothing else to do there, period. Not even a flushing toilet - an OUTHOUSE!!!!! UGH!!! It was a fun day though!

Anna Claire is standing up on her own - she'll pull up on anything she can get her chubby hands on, and then let go. She can stand for long periods of time - 5 to 7 seconds or so, and then "bonk!" she's back down! She has learned how to fall gently though - even gracefully!

5-15-11

What a dreadful week! Not like somebody died or anything, but just hard, tiring, inconvenient, overly busy, stressful, etc. I'm expecting that this week will make up for it!

Today was Julie's shower though - it is always a joy to see her!  Can't wait to find out if she is having a boy or a girl!  They have much more willpower than I would to wait!!  No way that I'd wait!!

Here's the diaper cake I made for her shower - it was fun!  I've never made one before, but I think it turned out great!

5-14-11

Oh, how I want Anna Claire's top two teeth to appear...she is sooooo grouchy!

Add to that that I was up from 1:30 until 4 last night and that makes for an extra rough day.  Shape Inlay is a Yahoo game that is an utterly marvelous waste of time when you have insomnia...

05-13-11 - Daddy teasing Anna Claire

Mean ol' Daddy!  We went to the church today to see Andy - they are doing a Boston Butt and Rib Sale this week to raise money for the Haiti trip, so he hasn't been home much this week.  He found Ms. Victoria's children's fishing pole with a lizard attached - Anna Claire was INSTANTLY interested.  Andy had as much teasing her and she did chasing it!

5-11-11 - Sick baby to Doctor

Today has been a rough day.  I absolutely detest seeing Anna Claire sick, and the worrier side of me imagines all kinds of terrible diagnoses.  The first half of the day I thought she was just running a slight fever as a result of her teething - (I swear she has to be working on those top two teeth!).  But when she got up at 1:00 from her nap, she was really hot and her temp was 102.5 rectally.  Sooooo, I called the doctor and they of course wanted me to bring her in, which I did.  We saw Dr. Head, who we've never seen before but heard great things about.  He appeared to be thorough, although he seemed a little rushed, a quality which I never like in a doctor, even if they ARE rushed.  But, I digress.  He saw no reason to be concerned about her fever, but didn't think it was related to teething - said it was too high for that.  But she's miserable.  Whiny, clingy - exhausting her mother.  Doesn't really want to eat much.  The happiest she's been all day was while she was in the tub.  (Nothing keeps her from being happy in the tub! haha!)

Her weight today was 19 lbs, 2 oz. (65th percentile).

05-10-11 - "Before I was a Mom"

Got this via email today.  Beautiful sentiment - and so incredibly true!
----------------------------------------------------------------

BEFORE I WAS A MOM

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every ten minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom

5-8-11 - Anna Claire's baby dedication/Mothers Day

Today was a special day in our little family! It was my first Mother's Day, but even more importantly, it was Anna Claire's baby dedication. It meant a great deal to me and Andy, and we took the charge given to us very seriously. We know and appreciate the great responsibility that we have to raise Anna Claire to know the Lord and we are even more aware that we have to live it, not just talk it. That it the greatest challenge of all. May we be vigilant to be what we profess!

Mom and Dad came over to be with us, which was special in it's own right. We are still continually praying that God will move on our entire extended family.

But as for Anna Claire's behavior DURING the ceremony, let's just say that she was THAT kid.....the clapping, laughing, exclaiming one that entertains the room. Yep, that was my girl! Bro. Ricky said, "I can see we are going to have trouble out of Anna Claire already!"

This morning in the nursery they made a craft - so sweet!

5-4-11 - 1st Fireworks and traveling around Disney

Who knew there was so much cool free stuff to do in and around Disney!?  Not me!  Thankfully Michael Miller is the King-of-all-things-Disney, so he educated us.  Or rather, he educated Andy and Andy surprised me! We went back to Downtown Disney, since we hadn't gotten to see it in the daytime and then hitched a ride on their bus system to the Polynesian Resort. (NICE!)  There, we ate at the Kona Cafe - an upscale, delicious restaurant.  We got some pot stickers (a duck dumpling) that came with a side of prepared seaweed, which was surprisingly good.  It's not everyday that Andy tries something new - he's tried almost everything - so that was a fun treat!  From the Polynesian, we hopped on the monorail and went to walk around the Contemporary Resort until the fireworks display over Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom at 10 p.m.  You had a phenomenal view of the fireworks from the balcony there.  It was wonderful!  Anna Claire wasn't scared at all - again, she clapped and yelled and after a couple of minutes just settled down and fell asleep in my arms when we got back on the bus.  Poor girl - she'd just had it.  She slept during the transfer from me to the stroller at Downtown Disney - the transfer from the stroller to the carseat - then the transfer from the carseat to the pack and play for bed.  Considering she usually wakes up ANYTIME you transfer her, this is really saying something! :)

5-3-11 - Islands of Adventure

Well today we learned one of those valuable lessons that you can only learn from experience.  We thought we would do something we would have done and loved pre-baby - we *tried* to go to a theme park.  I've been super pumped to check out the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure, and being that we were in Orlando, we couldn't bear to pass up the opportunity.  Well we should have.  It was HOT and crowded and we couldn't do ANYTHING with a stroller.  Literally.  We couldn't ride rides, we couldn't see shows, we couldn't even do the blasted "Ollivanders Wand Shop" thing because we had a stroller.  Baby wasn't the problem - the stroller was.  The best part about the whole experience was that Anna Claire LOVED her first carousel ride!  She clapped and yelled and got thoroughly worked up about it!

The Harry Potter stuff was cool though, don't get me wrong.  Just too much shopping and not enough real entertainment.  Kind of felt cheated though - like they were banking on my fandom and didn't really hold up their end of the bargain.  Worst part is that I didn't get to try Pumpkin Juice OR Butterbeer.  :(  Lines were just too long.

Hogsmeade:

Hogwarts Castle:

So, we decided to improve the day significantly and go back to the hotel and play in the pool, which was more fun than Islands of Adventure could offer!  Anna Claire got to play in her little float and have a blast.  She played until she just couldn't go any more - splashing and cooing.  Hardheaded baby refuses to wear a hat OR sunglasses though!  We picked her up to carry her back to the room and sweet girl fell asleep before we were fifty feet from the pool.  I just laid her down in her pack and play in her little swimsuit and covered her up and she took a good nap!

5-3-11 - Daddy's lullaby

Tonight we had an AWESOME meal at a great place called Matteo's Italian Restaurant. Delicious, family style food. Expensive, but a great memory. Andy and I love that sort of thing.

He takes the baby, who is getting very tired by this point, and starts to sing to her.....what does he choose? "Surfer Girl" by the Beach Boys. So there in the parking lot he sings and dances with his daughter. Meanwhile, she is cooing "ah-boo, ah-boo" along with him.....oh what good times!

5-2-11 - 1st taste of a pickle / met Millers

My baby girl is just like her Daddy - she will eat ANYTHING!!  We stopped at Zaxby's on our way down to Orlando for the youth conference Andy is attending and he gave her a taste of a pickle....makes my stomach turn inside out - but she loves it!  She eats all kinds of weird things - pickles, lemons, guacomole, anything really. 

Then tonight we went to Downtown Disney and met up with Leah and Michael and their daughter Hannah. It's been since early Fall 2010 since I saw Leah, and I've never gotten to meet their daughter, so it was a nice tag on to our visit. We walked around Port Orleans there at Downtown Disney and enjoyed a meal at a pseudo-Cajun restaurant. It was good though - we enjoyed spending the time with them.