FOTO FRIDAY

We  have been very busy this past week. It has been an amazing week with Elle and having Kenny home from market but just not a whole lot to report on the ole bloggy blog.  So I will share some pictures for memory and scrap booking purposes.

 Play date with our favorite friend Loftin.

 The weather is cooling off, as in it is an awesome 89 degrees.  So we are taking more cruises around the block in our caddy.

 We have also returned to the zoo now that the weather is a little more tolerable.  This was the first time Elle walked a lot of it.  Going to see the "aaa, aaas" otherwise known as any monkey.

 She loves the carousel at the zoo.

Birds and Bees Exhibit.  You hold a stick with bird seed and all the birds flock to you. 

Amazingly you don't get pooped on.

 Loving our little friend Alice's cat at a play date.(meow meow) More like terrorizing it.

GO SHORTY!

It's my birthday!

And yes it is only appropriate that I pulled out that blog title circa 2004. Because I am getting old yo! I mean really...can you believe that song came out 8 years ago!!

Today I treated myself to a little manicure and pedicure while Elle was at school.  While I was there I was eavesdropping listening to these two cute girls talk about leaving for college this weekend. They were talking about how they were decorating their dorm rooms and how they hoped their parents wouldn't draw out their goodbyes and hang around too long. While their extremely naive conversation made me smile I longed just a little bit that it could be me again.

But then no I don't.  Today I am 29 years old. One more year until 30!  Honestly my 20's have not flown by. My 20's have brought a lot of change. In the last 10 years I have finished college, moved to another state, gotten married, moved in with a man, worked at a job that I really liked, bought a house,  had a baby, worked through a little postpartum something or other, really became a mommy, found out who my true friends are, became a better friend and watched some of those friends have babies too. Phew!

This past year might be the best year I have ever had.  I love Elle soooo incredibly much and my heart has truly changed being a mother to her and watching Kenny be the absolute best father to her. Kenny and I have spent time together traveling just the two of us.  Something that we are so blessed to be able to do thanks to my sister and our parents. I feel like we have hit a comfortable spot in this whole married parenting thing and I think about how happy I am on a daily basis. Tomorrow, everything could be sent into a tailspin.  But today, I will spend the afternoon with Elle and spend the evening with girlfriends over drinks and dinner on a patio. A perfect ending and a perfect start to this year.

Edited to add: I celebrated my birthday with Kenny and Elle the last two nights when we travelled to Tupelo the last two days. Kenny is there for furniture market so while we are able to, we like to visit him when we can.  He treated me to a great dinner and gifted me with a watch that I have been wanting but completely forgot that I wanted.  Didn't want you to think that I was leaving him out in my celebration!

OFF TO SCHOOL

Today was Elle's first day of Second Baptist Parent's Day Out.  We met her teachers last week and we were so excited for our first day.

I am so happy she went to Special Kids this summer because she did great with me leaving her this morning.  I put her down and she went straight to the books and started talking to another little girl.

Dropping her off was crazy because there were parents and cameras everywhere.  People really like to record this day.  I chose to just take a few pictures at home.  That in itself was hard enough to do and I never got full cooperation from her ha!

 Oh look! This new stuff Mom hasn't been letting me play with.

Really Mom?

 All ready to go!!

I bought these cute dishwasher safe labels off of Etsy for all of Elle's sippy cups and other things. The Etsy seller is Lollipop Labels.  I was so pleased with how they turned out.  You get to customize everything and then she sends you proofs before she prints them.  They came very fast and I will definitely be using her again.

I can't wait to pick her up and hear how she did and if she had fun! Then we are hitting the road to see Kenny at market and celebrate my birthday by spending some time with him and going to dinner. My birthday always falls during market and I am glad we will get to see him to celebrate.

BABY SHOWER WITH FRIENDS

What a jam packed weekend! It is so nice to throw a shower to honor one of your best friends and her little baby boy on the way AND get to visit with lots of friends who were town who we don't get to see on a regular basis!

Friday night, our friend Kristin arrived in town and met Tracy and I at my house.  Then we all headed downtown to eat dinner before picking up Megan and her 7 month old Frances at the train station.  We wanted to eat at Local Gastropub but there was a long wait so we ended up at the Majestic and sat on their patio.  It was still perfect because I love that restaurant and their patio.  We had just enough time to swing by the Cheesecake Corner (Tracy's request) to get some cheesecake to go and then it was over to the train station.  I was so interested to hear about Megan's train ride since she came all the way from the Mississippi Gulf coast.  I made her send me pictures of her sleeper car ha!

Elle, Daddy and Frances

Saturday morning Megan and I were up bright and early to get things ready for the shower.  That left Kenny in charge of Elle and Frances for a little while until my sister came over to help.  Annie was at our house during the shower and when we got home she and Kenny looked pretty worn out.  Kenny said he might be having second thoughts about having another one now.  Two is a lot more action ha!  Elle was very fond of Francs but was a bit jealous and didn't know what to think about sharing her daddy and her Nannee.

Then it was shower time! All of Tracy's closest friends came together to celebrate Baby Boy Shearin.  We all decided on a brunch because we are crazy about breakfast and the food was phenomenal.  She received so many great gifts and so many things that she needs for his arrival.  I was so happy for her.

Framed invitation and wish cards designed by J Press Designs in the foyer when you walked in.

Just some of the loot.

The food.  Oh I wish I could eat this spread every single day and of course not gain any weight.

The adorable cake!

Tracy and Lindsay

Mollie, Lindsay and me

Opening some gifts.

The hostesses with the mommy to be.

Wish cards all filled out for Baby Shearin to read one day.

It was such a wonderful day.  After the shower and cleaning up we all went over to Tracy's to hang out and then some girls went back to their cities.  Then a few of us got take out from an Italian restaurant and came back to my house so we could put the babies to bed and watched Bridesmaids before we all passed out on the couch.  Ha!  It was so relaxing and such good girl time!

Sunday, I woke up at 5:30 to take Megan and Frances back to the train.  I was sad to see them go but we will be seeing lots of them with football season.  We share a condo that we rent for games so Elle and Frances should be good friends. The rest of the day was spent lounging around and watching the last day of the Olympics.  So sad about that. Hey, only 18 months until the winter olympics.  

CRAZY NIGHT=CRAZY WEEK

So remember that awful night we had on Saturday. Well we've had a few more nights of craziness.

We've been up a lot some of these nights and I've been through the broadest spectrum of emotions. Elle woke up crying and I went in to settle her which usually involves just tucking her back in with her paci and lovey and she was screaming bloody murder. So I picked her up. Well, it was over after that. Wouldn't let me put her back down. So I rocked her and cried. I cried mostly because I know I will miss these moments so much and I cried because it was 2:30 in the morning and I was tired! Long story short, Elle never wanted to be put down in her crib again that night so once I finally did...she screamed. A loooooooong time.

The next night I got into bed at 7:30 (Kenny was out of town) because I should mention that I have had a terrible summer cold all week and after no sleep I was ready for bed. I even turned OFF the Olympics. 11:00 o'clock I'm ripped from my sleep. Elle is screaming. I go in settle her and then I LET HER CRY IT OUT. For 30 solid minutes she screamed. And I lied in my bed and cried. But then she passed out.

The rest of the week we have been nursing our colds. All that teething I thought was the problem turned out to be a lovely summer cold that I now have too. I'm sure Kenny will have if just in time for market next week.

In addition to all the night time craziness I've had a ton of work to do for my job, we had Elle's Meet The Teacher day this week, I'm still GLUED to the Olympics, getting my house ready for my bestie and her 7 month old baby boy to stay,and I am throwing a baby shower this weekend. Busy, busy, busy!

This post probably sounds so mundane and monotonous but hey, such is the life. I know one day Elle and I will love reading about these days.

Anywho, here are some pictures from our week.

Elle wants to look out the window these days.  So I put this under there so she can see, which I am now having to reconsider since she has fallen off two or three times now.  Mom of the year!

From the ouside looking in.

One of her favorite things to do as of late.

Was going through my silver for the baby shower and foumd this.  An exact price listing of how much everything cost in 1947. $30.55 for a place setting.  What a bargain!

She came home from school covered in strawberry juice.  This always results in "bloomer play."

Funny story.  See that red streak on her arm.  Well she also had what appeared to be a huge swirly red rash all over her hind leg that looked really weird.  So I sent the picture to my nurse prac friend and my mom friend and they had me making an appointment to take her in to the doctor right away.  That is until I realized that the rash seemed to fade and turned the baby wipe pink.  Apparently she had a serious run in with those silly strawberries that day.  Luckily the "rash" wiped away and the stains came out of her clothes.

PAJAMA WEEKEND AND A NIGHT FROM HECK

That's right.  We spent most of the weekend in our pajamas.  Kind of boring I know but it was actually really nice. It is so hard to tear ourselves away from the Olympic coverage and it is giving us the ultimate excuse to be lazy. That, and the worst night of sleep I have had since Elle was born.  More on that later.

Friday night we just cooked dinner and did our nightly routine with Elle which always includes bath time, teeth brushing, story time and night night. 

 Somebody was looking extra sweet all squeaky clean and wrapped up in her towel.

 Bath time is kind of Kenny and Elle's things.  He spends a lot of time with her playing in the tub and they listen to music. 

Saturday morning we hung out in our pajamas and then Aunt Annie came over to spend some time with Elle while Kenny and I had a day date.  We went to see Ted, which was hilarious and kind of sad all at the same time.  I am embarrassed to say I actually cried.  I am a sap.  After the movie we went for what we call a Linner, late lunch, early dinner.  

 Someone loves her grocery cart.

After Elle ate dinner that night we all went out for some frozen yogurt.  The place we like to go happens to be next to the restaurant that serves my favorite meal in the entire world.  I asked Kenny if he knew what that meal was (wife quiz) and he couldn't remember.  I started giving him a hard time about it.  He claimed that if he could see the menu he would definitely be able to pick out my favorite meal.  No such luck.  I had to give him all sorts of clues and eventually narrow it down to a very small section of the menu.  He finally guessed picked the right meal and we continued on to the yogurt shop. Just had to include the picture because I thought it was funny.   I would never pick on him if he wasn't such a great husband and not remembering my favorite meal is a pretty low offense.

 Kenny swearing he knows my favorite meal.

 Elle really enjoys a yogurt outing.

 What  a "girl" dad.  This is how we keep up with her bows in our house. Ha!

Oh my goodness was Saturday night awful.  I think I seriously got zero sleep.  Elle is cutting her top molars and she isn't sleeping.  Around 12:30 am after she had already woken up several times I decided to bring her into our bed. Only the second time I have done this.  I try to go back to sleep and I wake up to her sitting up in bed playing with my hair and crawling around the bed.  In kind of a delirious state I turn on cartoons thinking she will fall asleep watching them.  As soon as I saw how excited she was about the cartoons at 3:30 in the morning I knew that was a mistake and decided to put her back in her crib.  She threw the biggest fit and cried and cried.  I felt so bad.  She finally wiped out and woke up an hour later ready for the day.  Needless to say, Kenny and I were exhausted and we all pretty much stayed in our pajamas all day. Kenny cooked us a big breakfast and we watched the Olympics.

I did get out to make a trip to Walgreens to buy pain reliever, teething tablets and orajel.  She had to sleep better because I choose to be the only one to wake up with her on weeknights because Kenny doesn't need to work/drive tired. I am writing this Sunday night and my fingers are majorly crossed that it all works!!!

UPDATE: Thrilled to report that after a dose of ibuprofen, some teething tablets and some orajel all before bed, Elle fell peacefully asleep.  She might of stirred a little bit but I did not have to wake up once! Hooray! I think we are both feeling much better today!

 Cuddling on the sofa in front of the tube.  No shame on this tired tired day.

Coloring with Daddy.

FOTO FRIDAY

It has been a busy couple of weeks for us around here.Kenny came home after being gone for almost two weeks from Las Vegas. Elle and I went to Hattiesburg to stay with my mom while he was gone and were happy to return home.  Elle is now walking across an entire room and has discovered that her push toys are REALLY fun if she actually walks behind them instead of pushes them with her knees. We are also getting ready for Elle to start PDO in a week or so.  I signed her up with this program before we decided to send her this summer to help her walk.  So we will be making a switch. Hoping all goes well.  

So here are just a few pics.... 

 This was the night Kenny came home. He literally came home, kissed his baby,(and me) tucked her in, ate dinner and PASSED out.  He is always so exhausted when he comes home from market.

 Elle and I had a little lunch date on our way home from Hattiesburg.  It is so hard traveling in the summer with a baby and a dog all by yourself. I can't leave Lena in the car if its turned off because its too hot.  So I leave the car running and sit where I can see the car all the time.  This time was different thought because I had to pee.  I was so nervous to lose sight of the car but I hurried.  Not to mention how difficult it is to go to the bathroom when you have to hold a baby the entire time. Elle thought it was really funny.

 This photo needs no explanation.  Silly girl.

 Elle really likes coloring these days.  We do it almost daily. 

I ordered Elle a new lunch box and backpack from a seller on Etsy for PDO.  I really liked how it turned out and think its super cute.

And I had to include a video of Elle up on her feet.  She was having the best time pushing her toys around.  Please ignore my mess of a house.  As she gets older the toys seem to be taking over our den.      I can only imagine what will happen when we have more than one child.  

USA! USA!

WARNING SPOILER ALERT IF YOU DID NOT WATCH WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS LAST NIGHT.

BUT WE WON GOLD! 


It was so fun to watch.  I somehow managed to not read anything about it on Twitter or see it on television so I was on the edge of my seat the entire time hoping the American's were going to win. It was so sad to see those poor little girls from Russia just fall apart.  But even if they did really well I still think America would of taken the gold.  I have to be honest, watching the Gymnastics competition has me wanting to enroll Elle in the first gymnastics class I can find so she can win a gold medal of her very own.

As for all the other events.  I have been watching ALL of them.  I am tired.  NBC just drags the coverage out with all their commercials and commentary and I have been staying up past my bed time every night.  I know I could just cheat and look up who wins but I love the excitement too much!