My Favorite Song

Last week I heard a Christmas song on the radio that I had never heard before, but I automatically loved it. I've been dying ever since to hear it again. My Festivus miracle was granted tonight on my way to another midnight shopping trip to Kohls. I immediately called Brian and had him look it up to I could listen to it all day and sing to my heart's content. The melody is very catchy and of course I think I can sing it just as beautifally as they can. The song is called The Virgin's Lullaby If I did it correctly, you'll be able to listen to it too! Merry Christmas and happy singing!

Pictures of the Season

Here are some pictures from the past week or so:

Bailey has finally discovered Doby's dog food bowl. She crawls straight to it if we don't put up some sort of barricade. The funny thing is that she hasn't tried to eat it, but just move it around and out of the bowl. I'm sure that trend will change rather quickly.Every year I can't resist buying Doby a totally awesome Christmas outfit. Last year he had boots and a coat, but this year I went for the bearded hat. Doby loved it so much, that he wanted to eat it. I can't help buying an outfit like this; it bring such joy to my life. I laugh every time I look at this picture. It is a five bucks well spent!

The same morning that Bailey discovered Doby's dog food, she also claimed her first Christmas decoration. When I was putting these two snowmen on the shelf, I wasn't sure if they would last the whole season. I was right! They are at the perfect level for Bailey to grab, bash, and eat, but it's okay becuase I'm pretty sure they're indestructible.

Last week, Brian's dad came out for business and a visit. It was good to see him and fun for him to see Bailey getting so big and smart.

A First (and second) Time for Everything

So it happened this week--Bailey got sick! On Thursday as I was driving over to pick up Bailey I called Trish. She told me that she threw up, but that my sister Keri already came and got her. She said that she was just really tired, but okay. So as a first timer, I started asking Trish a million questions about what to do with a sick baby. I always ask Trish what to do with stuff with kids--she is an expert with four cute ones! Once I got to my mom's house, I felt prepared to see my sick, little baby. She was still in her car seat, just kind of chillin'. She gave me a tiny smile to say, "Hey mom." I picked her up and cuddled her. She seemed to be okay. I had been expecting this sickness to come since it had been going around my whole family--mom, sisters, cousins, brother. The good thing was that with everyone else is was a 24 hour flu. As I was sitting there talking to Bailey, she seemed to take a moment to think about things. I asked Tera if she could get me a towel because my mother's instincts told me that Bailey was about to ...yes, right as I said it, she did it. She didn't want to wait for a towel to throw up; she just let everything fly. She completely soaked herself from head to toe and she was wearing a cute, white Christmas onesie. I took her home and had a very sad and tired baby all night. She was just really mellow. I called in for a sub that night because I didn't know what she would be like; a sub on the last day before Christmas has to be very brave to cover a 7th grade class. On Friday, I woke up not knowing what I would find. Bailey had slept all night and woke up happy. She seemed okay, but I fed her a flu diet of bland food and little formula. We enjoyed our day off together and even went to take pictures with Santa.

Life went on as usual for Friday night and then most of the day today--UNTIL 9:00

We just got home from some hustle and bustle last minute shopping at the outlet mall. I had been on a search for one last present and the perfect outfit for Bailey to wear on Christmas day. Bailey was tired and hungry, so I fed her a bowl of food and then a half bottle. Thoughts of flu and puking were long gone from my head, although it was the first time that she had both food and bottle since her sickness. She ate everything happily. We were playing on the floor when she laid her head back to take a moment to think. I didn't think anything of it; I thought she was just sleepy. A few minutes later, she had an eruption to rival Mt. Saint Helen's. This time, she soaked herself and me. I was totally covered. Brian was in shock because he didn't witness the first time. I will say that it was quite amazing that that amount of liquid could come from her tiny body. Once Brian had Bailey and I slowly and carefully got up without touching too much, Bailey was back to normal--smiling and playing. I do not think that this puke was the flu, but merely some sort of gag reflex gone wild.

So now I can cross another one of those motherly experiences off of my list--puking baby.

I gave her a bath to clean her up. I also put her in her funny bunny towel. It is just like the pajamas from The Christmas Story, only in the towel form. Look how cute and clean she is:

Here's another funny picture from today:

She fell asleep while playing in her bouncy. Like any good mother, I took a picture before I got her out.

A Coronado Christmas

A holiday tradition in Brian's family is to go down to Coronado to the Hotel Del. While there we look at the gigantic and beautiful Christmas tree and just walk around. It's been a new, fun tradition for me to take part of for the past few years. I just love being able to do things down on the beach in December; it always reminds me why I live in Southern California. This year Brian, Bailey, and I had to go down early to Coronado without the rest of Brian's brothers, but it was still a fun day. Here are some pictures from Sunday:Check out Bailey's red shoes. They are so cute and Christmasy! My mom and I just couldn't resist when we saw them last week.
Bailey and Brian. She wasn't too incredibly smiley on Sunday (which was weird for her) but this is one of her almost smiling.There was a beautiful sunset on Sunday.Bailey and Grandma Roxann.
The theme for the tree this year is Victorian decorations, so they had all sorts of old fashion looking decorations. This was the "best" shot of all three of us that we got. So it looks like I'll have to keep looking for a Christmas card picture.
Like I said, Bailey was not very smiley for the pictures outside, but the one thing she did smile for was the candy in the candy store. She could have been an advertisement for the store becuase she matched in her red and black. Even the ladies that worked at the store said that she should sit in the display window. I do love this outfit that she wore!
Bailey with Roxann and Dan (and her cute red shoes)

She loved the lights on the tree. Once we get ours up, I have a feeling she'll just sit there and stare at it all night. After I teach her not to grab at it.
Here are some of her almost smiling shots.
By the end of the day, she was ready to go home. I love it when she rubs her eyes; it is such an big kid thing to do. It was another fun year at the Hotel Del. I know that Bailey will like going there every year!

The Life of a Night Owl

I've always been a major night owl. I have always had a special talent for staying up all hours of the night. At slumber parties I would usually be the last one up and always ready to go tp a house in the wee hours of the morning. My talent has not elluded me in my old age and the holiday season provides many opportunities to display it. Every time I see a commercial for a store that is open until midnight for Christmas shopping, I automatically think that I'd like to go there around midnight to shop. Now I could just go much earlier when the regular people shop, but it's so much more of an adventure when you're there fifteen minutes before the store is going to close.

The store that has been enticing me lately is Kohls, so tonight I went at 10:30. The kids--Brian and Bailey--were ready for bed and fast asleep, so off I went! I was expecting to see more moms there who only have time to shop after their kids are asleep, but I was really the only one in the store. Another benefit of this late night shopping is the very personal one-on-one help you that's available if needed. I did not need it because I did not have a specific item I was looking for, but it felt good knowing that lots of help was near by. The other advantage of late night shopping (advantage to the store) is that the customers are very sleepy and more apt to make rash purchases (two Christmas outfits for Bailey) and sign up for the Kohls credit card (I did save 20%). Overall I'd say it was a very pleasant and successful shopping excursion. And now as I get ready to go to bed, I hope to find more midnight madness deals in the next weeks to come. Happy shopping!

Baby Girl Clothes Are the Best!

When I first found out that we were having a girl, my first thoughts were to how much fun it would be to play dress up with her. Brian's first thought/fear, was what are we going to do when she's a teenager. On this one point, I think I definitely had the more positive outlook--usually it's reversed between the two of us.

My first thoughts were right--Bailey is like my little doll. The best days are on Sundays because baby girl dresses are the cutest things! There are days when she wears three outfits, just because I want to see her in everything. But Sundays are the best because to go along with her church dress, I usually make matching headbands for her to wear. I've searchd online for baby headbands, but they are way too big and way too expensive. So with some excellent advice and instructions from Sam, I began making headbands for all occasions.

Here are some of her recent Sunday outfits:

I love this outfit because I found ribbon that exactly matched the dress.She loves playing with her back pack and has this weird facisnation with straps of any kind--backpacks, car seats, high chairs, purses, etc.She looks so grown up in this outfit with her little sweater. I still sometimes have her wear a mini bow to church if I don't have enough time to make a bigger headband. My secret weapon with the mini bows is corn syrup (thanks again Sam for the insider secret). People are always amazed and shocked that I actually put that on her head. It works really well, and the bonus is that it tastes good when you have to get the bow off of her head!Here's her more casual look without the sweater.

Can you tell that I love dressing her up and taking pictures? I'm going to do it as long as she'll let me, which better be a long, long time. When I was younger I always used to dress up my sisters and take pictures of them. We have some really sweet shots of them in matching outfits and really nice make up (I'll have to work on scanning some of them to display). I guess I've always wanted to be a stylist/photographer deep down inside. Luckily, Bailey is too little to protest too much and she does have the cutest smile. I need to think of some new poses for her because sitting on our blue couch is going to be boring for every picture.

Playing Catch Up

I know that I could title every post playing catch up because I'm really not good, but I'm busy...what can I say? Bailey had lots of fun playing with her cousins last week during Thanksgiving. We had tons of exciting things going on:

We went to the beach one morning with Kate and Owen.

While the cousins played in the water and with the birds.

Bailey tried her first handful of sand...and it was delicious!

After a fun morning at the beach, we came home and Bailey got dressed up.

She was imagining what it will be like one day to have lots of hair.

While the cousins were here, Bailey started doing all sorts of trick in one week. She went from doing a funky army crawl, to crawling normally where ever she wants. She can also pull herself up to stand on anything--even if it is really low to the ground she tries to stand up. Bailey had her nine month check up and here are her stats: 27 inches tall, 17.4 pounds--both are totally normal and average if she would have been born on time. The doctor was absolutely amazed at all of the tricks she can do--crawl, stand up, rolling, etc. She doesn't even look like a tiny preemie baby anymore. I swear that she's grown and learned all sorts of tricks in the past few weeks; she is definitely making up for all of her lost time being so tiny.

She loves her feet right now and are quite the form of entertainment for her. It comes in handy when I'm changing her diaper because she can hold her feet up for me.

This is an example of what she looks like some mornings when we come to get her out of bed! We've had to lower her crib because she had no idea how close she was to falling over. She is just so happy to stand up all the time.

She also really loves to eat now! She's eating all sorts of vegetables mixed with rice cereal. Just one month ago, the smell of rice cereal would make her gag and eating vegetables had severe consequences. She has decided to grow up.

I decided that we should give her a bath in the sink, now that she can sit up on her own. We got everything prepped and ready for a fun time, but Bailey didn't want to give it a chance.

All she wanted to do was escape the entire time. It's like she was being held captive and looking for any moment when we had our guard down to make a run for it. It's a good thing that she was too slippery to stand up. I'll get her to like it because I want my babies to take baths in the sink. I remember my mom giving us baths in the sink and I always thought that was so fun. Bailey just doesn't know what's good for her yet.

The last big event that we tried to pull off with the cousins is a photo shoot. Someone gave Bailey and Kate matching dresses and we went and bought Owen a little man suit to match. We were going to get them done at JCPennys, but of course on the day of our appointment (which happened to be the day after Thanksgiving) the power went out at the store so they had to cancel. So we did the best we could with our lack of professional photography experience (I say that smiling because the people at JCPennys aren't too professional either). Here's what we came up with:

Here's Kate, Bailey, and Owen giving us their best looks. Owen looks handsome as usual and the girls are just adorable with their dresses and hair!

Kate and Owen were good smilers in this one, but Bailey isn't quite sure what to do.

I love this look on Bailey. She really works her eyebrows to their full effect. She looks likes she's trying so hard to understand what I'm telling her. She loves listening to people talk.

Here's my pretty girl with her big smile!

It was so much fun having everyone down last week. I can't wait until it happens again in a couple of weeks for Christmas. And who knows, maybe Bailey will want to chase the big kids around so much that she'll start walking. I don't think it will be that soon, but Brian is betting by the new year. That means I need to decorate for Christmas and do some major baby-proofing this week!