WOW!

Well, it's been an exhausting weekend- I'll post some of it here and some later on. My sister and brother-in-law surprised us and showed up Saturday!!! It was great! All the pics of them were awful- so here's the best one...M had some lunch before the festivities began.
Reading with Grandma and Grandpa- just in the last couple of days she will bring you a book and sit down on your lap. She turns the pages like lightening, so you still can't read to her- but I think it's a step in the right direction. I have tried to read to her before bed, but we're still a long way from that working out.
My friend Beth made these AWESOME cookies for M's bday- they all say her name across the bottom. SO YUMMY!!!
Here are some party pics- GREAT turnout! It seemed like there were a million kids, but really there weren't.Ok- the cake escapade. M really does not like cake, but we tried it again...
She was basically saying- "You idiots tried this once, you think it's going to work this time? I think not."And if you have a daughter like mine- the harder you try, the worse it's going to get. Can't figure out where she's gotten the stubborn streak from.
QUIT IT!So we gave her a cookie, but she wasn' t over the whole cake thing yet so she didn't eat it, however today she chowed on them!On the other hand, she LOVES ice cream, so she settled down and let her Pep Pep feed her some ice cream.
She had a great time playing with all the kids. She got some good toys- more things for us to do together, so I'm pretty happy.
She loves this little shopping cart toy Pepper got her- she was trying to stand in the basket here.
We tried to get a good pic of M and grandma, but it wasn't happening. Way too many more fun things to do.I am completely exhausted now. Last night after the party M slept for about 2 and a half hours. Then we went to Mike and Theresa's for the MU game- M and I left around 9:30- I was beat! Today was busy too. Remind me to wait a little longer with the third babe (even though I don't think you'll have to!). I am starting to get extremely excited to have him here though!!

One Year Old

Here are some more birthday pics. She was so cute today. Her little hoodie had cupcakes all over it!! Of course, what good is this thing if I can't climb on top of it?!
This is a pretty usual picture around here. She's always carrying her blankie in her mouth.
The cake- I never said I was good at it! I do think I did a pretty good job though. It worked. The one on Saturday will be vanilla frosting...but this is what I had, so she got chocolate today.

I shouldn't have put sprinkles on it- it seemed to throw her off...
First touch...still ok with it.Not a fan of this sticky crap all over my fingers.
She probably only took a bite or two and then started throwing it. She really doesn't like stuff that sticks to her fingers. I had to wipe them off after awhile. She did try to stick her face in it once, but she couldn't get it there. It was pretty cute. We also got our tree tonight. Maybe that'll end up being a tradition for M's bday.She thought the lights were pretty cool.She is so big. I love her so much. She can truly be a pain in the rear at times- especially when she is intentionally doing something she knows she shouldn't, but all kids do that, right? I love to hear her talk. I can't wait until I can understand it all!! It's hard to believe we'll have two of these little miracles in a few months. It seems like she just came here yesterday, but she's already so big. It's such a short time that they're small it's so sad. She's getting really giggly. She'll laugh at herself or at certain things a lot now and it's so cute! She's just so fun to be around. Eating is getting better too- perhaps because I've decided I don't really care if she eats or not. I put a thing or two on her tray and if she wants it, whatever. Maybe she was sensing my stress about it.
I have to work tomorrow and then the big party is Saturday. I've been trying to get things cleaned up around here for it. Hopefully no one will think too poorly of me and my housekeeping skills. Until then...

Happy Birthday- almost...

Well today is the day...almost. It will be at 11:06 and the worst night of my life was finally over. I asked B if he wanted to stay up all night last night to reminisce, but he said he'd rather not remember it. It started Nov 28 at 8am and ended Nov 29 at 11:06...let's not talk about it further. Today has been uneventful so far. She got to open her present from B and I- she likes it pretty well. It's actually for kids a little older- so she'll grow into it. Here are some birthday morning pics.

Right now I'm trying to get fussybutt to take a nap, but she's resisting. While she "sleeps" I'm agonizing over her cake. I wanted to make it rather than buy her one, but I didn't have pans that little, so I'm using corning ware. Getting the temp and time right is hard!! My first attempt the cake was too done on the outside but not on the inside- really fine for us, but not how I wanted it for her. So I suppose I'll eat it today. Second try is in the oven! I'm going to end up with a million cakes. Tonight will be the trial run for her party! We'll see if she likes it.

Today will be filled with errands- we have to go pick up some pictures at wal-greens, get some more curtains for our bedroom (stupid me only bought enough for one of the windows), get the rest of the groceries for the party, clean the rest of the house...and entertain M. Whew- we'll see if it all actually happens.

More pics to come later on today hopefully.

The week

Still not eating...here she is picking the pears out of all the other food on her tray. Today she ate banana and rice chex for breakfast, goldfish and cheerios for snacks, chicken, cheese, 1/2 jar of baby food spaghetti for lunch, activia yogurt for snack, and pears for dinner. Great. She does seem to feel pretty much fine now except for her right lower molar that's just about through. That'll make 11 teeth. We have to be done sometime soon, right? So here's the paint job- I should have taken them during the day time as it looks different in my opinion, but you get the idea. No more puky yellow... The kitchen is a really dark blue. The living and dining room is this brown color. It looks GREAT! We are quite pleased. It finally feels like our house!
Here's just one so you get an idea of the colors together. M has this cute little pink outfit with a dress that goes over it from Reese. It's amazing how things look so unappealing on a hanger and SO CUTE on!! I didn't get a pic with the dress though...
She was pretty grouchy this evening after her nap...this seems to be a theme around here. Her nap is great but she wakes up and cries and cries, no matter what!! She's also started doing things purposefully wrong. She loves to peel the UV film off the windows and she knows she's not supposed to- she looks right at you! We think it's attention seeking but she does it even when you're in the midst of playing with her. We've started time outs with her- but she doesn't really care. She usually just sits there and claps and laughs, but it gets her mind off whatever she was doing wrong...She thinks she needs to climb everything.

Getting better...

Yeah, I forgot the camera today...I know I know you're saying WHAT? YOU? Yes, me... Sorry. She is starting to feel better though, thank GOD! She was a mess yesterday at Pepper's- how God brought Pepper to me I will never know, but I never ever take for granted how lucky we are to have her. I did have to work but got to leave around 5pm to come home and be with her. Today no fevers and doing much better it seems. We went to my dad's side of the family today because on the other side I have a cousin who would have been really put out if I had brought M knowing she'd been sick. She acted great all day and did a good job of showing off her skills! She actually acted pretty shy for quite awhile! It's pretty cute. Hopefully this is all ending. Two more days of antibiotics and all better, right? We'll see. We are working on painting downstairs too- kitchen is done. I'll be posting pics as soon as things get put back together!

Yeah, sick again...

So M has been sick for about 3 weeks now. It started out as RSV I thought with a lot of congestion in her nose. There were a few nights I had to get her Benadryl so she could sleep and a night or two I had to just go in and hold her upright. Well that lasted about a week. Then a cough was added to the illness...the runny nose never really ending. Then last week she got a rash that only really lasted about 2 days. So this week the saga continues. Basically she acts ok, just pretty fussy most of the time, runny nose, and not eating well. Well about 9 am this morning she started the scream walk...just walking around in circles screaming for no apparent reason. I have become used to this in the last few weeks. I took her upstairs and tried to lay her down as she kept rubbing her eyes but she would just scream unless I held her. I was rocking her and she was saying nigh nigh in this pitiful voice. Finally I gave her benadryl and ibuprofen, put orajel on her gums, got her to sleep and called the Dr. Enough is enough. So we got an antibiotic. Hopefully this will work. By the time we got home from the dr her temp was 101.6. GREAT! FEVER has NEVER been a part of this yet. In addition, the one thing that has always annoyed me about the dr is that they take her temp with an EAR thermometer- Basically useless. So it says she has a temp of 97 when I know she's burning up. Whatever. Tonight her temp was back up to 102.8. Great. Hopefully she'll sleep ok. Good thing Pepper never cares if she's sick because I signed up to work extra tomorrow. Sheesh. I wish I had a healthy kid. I suppose things could be worse. I'm tired.

Enlighten me, PLEASE!

I'd really like to know how I created a child who won't eat. It appears she has got some of her father's traits. Asside from cheese, fruit, eggo french toast sticks, chicken, and....well...that's all I can think of right now, she will NOT eat. She only drinks milk. As a baby she would eat ANYTHING. There are times I get so completely frustrated with her that I can hardly stand it. Even starving her doesn't work, she just sits and screams. I'm not really sure what to do about it. It's endlessly frustrating to continue fixing her things to eat that I know will end up on the floor or in the trash, but do I just quit offering her things other than cheese and fruit? Probably not. Will this ever go away?? Sometimes if I just force something into her mouth she'll remember that she really does like it, but not very often. Usually she'll just spit it back out. The most frustrating thing is that at the baby sitter's house she'll eat EVERYTHING. AH! I HATE IT! I'm actually to the point of dreading meal time with her because I know I'm going to end up livid by the time it's over. The problem is she's so damn cute. How do you be mad at her? I'm afraid to switch her to whole milk because then I know she'll get almost zero vitamins. Oh someone help me.