A Warm Walk

The weather lately has been warm.  Now, warm is relative of course.  Again, never did I think I'd be calling high 50s and low 60s "warm" in my life.  But, being 20 degrees above "normal" for this time of year. I'll take the relative warm.

We went for a walk to celebrate!

Yep, that's right. Last day of January 2012, and we're out without coats.

Just a Little Brain Vomit

*heavy sigh*

I don't even know where to start really.  So, I'll just dive in and see what comes out.

~Life is pretty busy right now and only getting busier in the next few weeks.... BUT I am hosting my very first giveaway coming up next week that I'm VERY excited about!  So all you mamas and friends and friends who are mamas who are as into pictures of your kids and family as I am...stay tuned!  Look for it Monday because I can't wait to share!

~I started my physical health journey and I feel pretty good about it. I'm going to write more about this in a post by itself. For this non runner, I'm committed to this program I've begun despite the place I went to run's track having construction going on and the convenience store I stopped to get water getting robbed days later. ha! I don't take those as signs to quit, but rather to be flexible and have alternate plans.  If you haven't watched The Tillman Story on A&E, find time to do it. I have so much admiration for his family and of course as a fellow Arizona State Alum, the Pat Tillman Run is something I'm going to get behind.

As far as the mental health journey of that post, writing is such a good release that I will continue to do so with regard to dealing with Reagan's mother.  The once a week post may be LONG and sometimes simply a rant, but it is mine and necessary.  I simply shake my head at the crap that I hear randomly from Reagan about us.  The last minute thing today before leaving for the weekend was that her mom isn't going to let her help take care of their new baby like she totally takes care of Lily here.  Whatever, Crazycakes.  I'm Lily's primary caretaker and I like it that way.  There are a billion reasons why we do not let Reagan take care of Lily, so once again, you're wrong.

~The sickness continues.  George went to the doctor early last week after all the coughing and difficulty breathing and is FINALLY starting to feel better after what seems like an eternity. Reag still has her stuffy nose and cough. Lily has caught on to the runny nose (mostly teething clear runny-ness) and slight cough too. Andrew's hanging in like a champ staying healthy. My nose and head are starting to get stuffy after all these months. :(

~Lily has zero interest in being "contained" now that she finally decided walking is her preferred method of mobility. She is content to walk and just walk. She's started "running" a little bit too. It's become increasingly difficult to catch pictures of her because she's off and going before I can get her on camera.  Same holds true trying to hold her to get a picture. She wants down! 

This is evidenced below with my sweet nearly 85 year old grandmother and I trying to get a picture together with Lily.  She's saying "nooooooooooo" which is her new favorite word in situations like this.  And yes, it's that elongated and emotional too.  If she's just saying "no" short and sweet it's, "nope", but for something she really doesn't want to do..."Noooooooooooo"!

'Cause you see when she finally gets down...here's what you get ~ happy, cheesy grins. She's a pistol.

~Andrew had a great visit with his dad and family in Tennessee. I'm glad to have him home, of course and we definitely missed him over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I'm so happy he really enjoyed himself with his dad, stepmom and grandparents. Knowing it's only a month before he sees his dad again, made for an easy transition to come back home too. :)   Birthday post to follow soon since we're doing his family birthday party this weekend! He had a great birthday dinner in Tennessee on his 12th birthday:

Okie dokie I gotta get the Punky Pie fed.   Catch up more soon!

She Ate Dirt

Yesterday afternoon, we spent some time in the backyard enjoying the last bits of nice weather without being all bundled up in winter coats and boots.

This isn't our first rodeo, so Lily isn't chased around with hand sanitizer or one of us underneath her at all times. She would rather be mobile than be held, so despite having no shoes or pants on, she wanted DOWN yesterday afternoon when we were all out back. 

The ground was slightly damp from some previous days rain, but not wet enough that there wasn't dirt.

I was more worried she was going to stain her "1" onesie if she scooted her butt across the grass. But, rest assured since she won't walk yet and doesn't love for weird textures on her knees, she crab crawls instead.

While she was on her crabwalk, she decided that some dirt looked good...to eat. Quickly 3 handfuls made their way all the way into her mouth before I got near enough to get her.  She didn't make much issue about it at first and then started the spitting and drooling and sticking her tongue out to get it out of her mouth.

She literally looked like she had eaten Oreos as the inside of her mouth was that black.

She loved playing and the dirt eating didn't stop her from crabwalking to get where she wanted. She's been taking a few steps here and there still, so when she stands up like she's ready to go, I try to be ready to capture it on camera!  We were hoping that maybe the grass would bug her crawling and she'd try to walk more.  Nope, just squats.

She's just so much a "do things her own way" on her own time kind of person, so if she wants to eat dirt instead of walk, that's what she's going to do. 

And she'll stand proudly behind her decisions.



A Lil Update on Lily

Lily is thinking about walking.  Just thinking so far, but yikes! I'm not ready for her to be this big!!  She practically runs with her walker and she's strong, so she tries to just go over or through anything in her way then ends up falling over the walker.

She crawls REALLY fast, so she doesn't have any trouble getting around anywhere in the meantime. 

She stood up the other day without holding on to anything --just the stand up from the floor.  Then it kind of freaked her out because I started clapping and excitedly cheering!

Teeth are coming in all over the place. And I mean all over the place.  Bottom two on either side of the two middle ones she has, the top middle and two wayyyyyyy far back on the top ---I think they might be molars, but it's hard to tell because everytime I try to get in there to look, she squirms away. And as if those FIVE weren't enough all at once, there's a swollen gum for her other fang on top. 

We call this her True Blood face:  (she's actually smiling her cheesy smile, but it reminds me of Jessica on True Blood when she flashes her fangs)

 

Birthday party planning is in full swing! In just 12 short days, this baby girl of mine will be ONE! I cannot believe it. Simply can't.  My to-do list is a mile long, so sometimes I'm up wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too late, but yeah, she's worth it. And fortunately she's a sleeper, so I do get to sleep in at least until 8am! I know--lucky!!

Here's a little peek at the banner... (that I stayed up until 2am working on)