A Halloweeny Weekend

This past weekend was filled with lots of fun! First on Saturday, we had Bailey's reunion at the hospital for all of the babies born in the Special Care Nursery (most commonly called the NICU in all other hospitals). We didn't really know what to expect, being our first one. I wasn't sure if it was just the babies born this year or from years past. I was honestly picturing a small pop up tent with some cookies and a mat so the babies could crawl around. Boy, was I wrong! This was a huge affair. The oldest alumni from the nursery was 12 years old! There were about 1000 people there at the event. There was lots of food, Halloween games for the kids to play, and small pig petting zoo, face painting, clowns making balloons, Dr. Zoolittle with lots of different animals to hold, a jumpy, buckets of toys for the kids, Elmo, Donald Duck, and the highlight were the llamas to ride. When Bailey is older, she is going to love this! It was so much fun to see some of her nurses and for them to see her. They all remember her (or at least act like they do). We also saw Dr. Sebald, who was Bailey's main doctor. He was there with his cute family and he definitely remembered Bailey. He came right up to her and knew her name; he is an amazing guy. We were also reunited with some of Bailey's old roommates. We saw her first roommate

Sophia. Sophia and Bailey were originally supposed to be born on the same day--April 27--but both had other plans. Sophia was born in January at 13 ounces! She is the smallest baby ever born at Kaiser. She was in the hospital for 8 months and had 7 surgeries. What a busy life she's had so far. Now she weighs 9 pounds and is smiling and grabbing at things. It was so good to see her and talk to her parents. Bailey slept for the first hour of the party and then was awake and smiling for the rest of the time.

Here's the big sign for the event. It took up one of the parking lots in the front of the hospital, so there was really no parking that day.

She was really into Donald Duck, or at least trying to grab his big, fluffy hands. Next year I think she'll probably be afraid of big, furry characters, but for now she just wants to eat them.

Here's Bailey with Dr. Sebald. His wife said that most of the babies cry when he holds them, but not Bailey. She was so happy to see him. We were all happy to see him again.

After our hospital reunion, Brian and I had our annual Halloween party at our friends Kadee and Jim's house. This year we went has hippies; mainly because I had made a hippy costume for myself last year for school. So the rest of the afternoon, my mom and I made Brian's costume. We made some sweet bellbottoms and a nice vest. The key to his outfit was his afro wig, which came with a pick. It was a fun party as usual! There house is always decorated so cute and perfect. I love going to see what new decorations she has each year. There was lots of yummy food and we played some fun games. Brian won the slow food eating contest--saltine crackers, tootsie rolls, gummy candy, soda, and bubble gum. His choice of prizes was some Halloween candy or some Chargers salt and pepper shakers. Do I even need to tell you what he picked? Of course, he picked the Chargers shakers. I don't know if Brian would be able to survive without football. It is definitely his favorite time of year.

Here's the whole group: Eric and Tami were indians (costumes totally made by Eric), Brian and I were hippies, Kadee and Jim were Hannah Montana and her dad, Liz and Brett were and outlet and an inlet (with cute new baby Elise), and Corrina and Adam were cave people.

On Sunday, after church, we went on a family outing to Bate's Nut Farm. It's kind of a local tradition to go to Bate's Nut Farm, or Nate's But Farm as we like to call it, to pick out a pumpkin. It's this huge farm with tons of pumpkins. They have two fields of the huge pumpkins; I always want to get one of those huge ones, but they're way too big and probably way more than I ever want to spend on a pumpkin. We were excited because it was Bailey's first time there. So I dressed her up in one of her many Halloween outfits. I just finished making a matching headband for her pictures. We also took Doby, so it was truly a family affair. We took Bailey out to the huge pumpkins and started shooting. I was afraid that we would get tons of pictures of the top of her head because she would just look at the colorful pumpkins and try to eat them. That was true for most of the pictures, but we were able to get a few of her looking at the camera.

This was one of the good ones. It's funny because these pumpkins were so much bigger than her. It was also funny because there was an 8 year old boy who really wanted the pumpkin that Bailey was sitting on, so he waited about ten feet away the entire time. I kept reassuring him that we weren't going to buy this pumpkin, but just use it for some pictures. He was very skeptical and just wanted to keep his eye on us, in case we tried to make a quick dash with this 30 pound pumpkin.

I like this one the best because I just propped her up in between the pumpkins and she sat there all by herself.

We then took some pictures in the ghost pumpkin area. It was funny because I just sat her down right on the dirty ground. I'm not some type of germaphobe mom, but I've just never sat her down on dirt before. I know this is the first of years of playing in the dirt. I think she kind of liked it!

Then we took some with the regular pumpkins. Most of the pictures look like this one. She was always looking around at all of the pumpkins surrounding her.

We then let her pick out a mini pumpkin to take home, but she just really wanted to eat it.

It seemed the perfect size to fit in her mouth.

Bailey also seemed the perfect size to fit in the wheelbarrow with our pumpkin picks!

I made my pick for the day!

Other news is that Bailey is almost crawling. She does this combination of an army crawl and a huge lunge with her right arm. She can't always control if she goes forward or backward, but she definitely is moving. When she sees something that she wants, she goes for it. If she doesn't get it, she gets a little frustrated. Her are some pictures of her in action:

Here's she's up and ready to go. Yes, in another Halloween outfit; she has six!

Bailey and Doby, just hanging out together on the floor. Doby loves to bring his toys to Bailey to play with. She actually, would love to play with them because she likes red things. But since his toys are covered in lots of dog slobber and dirt, mom says no.

She's up on all fours and starting to do the rocking motion. She loves this toy because it lights up.

I couldn't resist this picture of my true California girl. Where else do you wear Uggs and a mini jean skirt together? It's cold enough to wear the boots, but not that cold that you can't wear a cute skirt. I love these boots! She wears them at my night field hockey games and practices.

Future Star

On Thursday, my field hockey team had their team pictures down on the beach. I wanted Bailey to be a part of the team pictures, so we made her a uniform too. My mom made her a mini kilt out of an old kilt. My friend Jeanne turned her onsie into a jersey with "Hook 'em" on the butt. She also had her own tiny stick that she loved. All she wanted to do is to look at her stick and eat it. She was truly the cutest thing you've ever seen! The girls went nuts over her outfit. I even put her in the big team photo, so she'll be in the yearbook this year. It seems like it has come full cirlce because I was in Vista High's yearbook when I was a baby and my mom coached the pagentry girls. I even had a mini uniform too. So now my daughter is in the yearbook with my team.

Here's the best picture where you can see her uniform. She's hanging out with Michelle, who she loves. Look how cute her kilt is! I think we have a future field hockey star on our hands.

She's making what looks like a sad face in this picture, but she's just teething right now. I'm expecting a tooth to pop out any day. She is constantly feeling her gums with her tongue and makes this face for most of the day.

Here she is with the team. We probably shouldn't have given her the stick because she wouldn't look up, but it was too cute.

Here's my team jumping for joy! They're doing so well this year. Right now were ranked 4th in San Diego. Our record is 11-4. We start league this week and I plan on winning this year!

Here's a picture of the Hook 'em on her butt. It's so cute because it shows right above her kilt.She has also started to notice her feet, especially when she has shoes on. She wants to eat them. When Brian first ordered these shoes, we both thought, wow, it will be so long until she wears those. Now she's wearing them, and they're almost too small for her. She is growing every day. She'll be eight months old next Monday; time really does fly by.A couple of weekends ago, we went to this awesome baby swap meet. (FYI for any moms out there, the next one is in March and you have to come because it is such good bargain shopping) We bought this door jumpy thing for $10. I'm sure that it's been posted on some safety hazard list, but she loves it. She looks like such a big girl in it.This has been a momentous weekend for Bailey because she is actually eating real food. Last night Roxann got her to eat a jar of peas and tonight she ate a jar of carrots. I was even able to slip in a little rice cereal. She really seemed top be enjoying them too--no gagging or extreme spitting. She still loves her spoon and tries to grab it the entire time. You might also notice the extremely large bow that is on her head. I was cleaning out my closet and came across a basket that had some cards and bows from our wedding. Well, this bow just seemed too cute to pass up, so I tied it on her head. She didn't even notice it was there. Later in the night, when we were playing on the ground, Doby (our dog) came by and took it off her head because he loves big bows too.

Day by Day

If you couldn't tell by my extreme lack of posts, I'm back in school. This is our fifth week, but it feels way longer than that. I now have a true appreciation and admiration for all working moms and the day-by-day struggle and stress that they go through. I'm also totally jealous of all moms who get to stay home with their cute kids all day, but I do get to do that on the weekends, all holidays, and of course my fabulous summers! So much has gone on so here are some highlights:

1. On August 19th (the day before I had to go back to school) Bailey turned 6 months old!! At her appointment she weighed 12 pounds 12 ounces and was 2 feet tall exactly! I just love saying that she's two feet tall at the moment. We went back down to the hospital to be examined by her doctors, nurses, and therapists. They said that she was doing great. It was so awesome to go back and visit everyone at the hospital. All of the nurses remembered her and it was a huge moment for us. Lots of memories and emotions all came back at the same time.

This is nurse Laura who took care of Bailey a lot while we were still in the hospital. All of the nurses, doctors, and staff love to see the NICU alumni come back to visit. They get so excited to see how they grow. They all remembered her cute face and her beautiful eyes. We'll be back soon to visit again.

2. Bailey can now roll from her stomach to her back and her back to her stomach. She started rolling wherever she wants to last week. It's so fun to watch her. Once she's on her stomach she kind of pivots in circles to see and grab what she wants. She can sometimes scoot forward if she's really motivated. My guess is that she'll be crawling before Chrismas.

3. We've started trying (with a hugh emphasis on trying) to feed her rice cereal. She absolutely hates it! We've been trying for a few weeks, and I bet she's actually swallowed only one spoonful total. The only thing that she loves is the colorful spoon that we feed her with. Here are some pictures of her eating or attempting to eat:

Here's the only part of eating that she loves--the spoon.

See her look of utter disgust.

And that is where all of her food ends up--on her chin. She's saying, "You're kidding, right? There's no way I'm going to eat this stuff. I'd like to see you try mom!"

4. Brian's Aunt Nancy came out last week to meet Bailey. They turned into instant friends. Bailey gave Aunt Nancy and Grandma Roxann a run for their money when they watched her one day.

Here's Aunt Nancy and Bailey

Here's Roxann and Nancy giving Bailey lots of love!

5. She started getting really good at grabbing things. It looks like she's riding a roller coaster in this picture. She's got both hands gripped tightly around her bouncy chair; she's ready to go!

She can also hold her bottle for a while when she eats. She either gets distracted or too focused eating to worry about what her hands are doing. We work on it every time.

6. As always I've been having way too much fun playing dress up with Bailey. I usually have the most fun on Sundays getting her ready for church. Here are some of my favorites:

Here's a cute dress that Brittany gave to Bailey. Hi Brittany!

This is the first dress that we bought for Bailey the night that we found out we were having a girl. She looked so super cute in it!

This is the dress that Aunt Keri bought for Bailey. She has the best aunts who love to spoil her constantly with cute clothes and lots of love!

And this is my happy girl! I have so much fun with her every day. I love being Bailey's mom and watching her grow and learn.Last Friday she turned 7 months old! I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by.

Give peace a chance!

Wearing big girls shoes!

Hanging out with Aunt Toni!

Before vs. After

A day at the beach before Bailey went something like this:

Toni: Hey, let's go to the beach today.

Me: Okay, let me put on my suit and grab a towel, chair, and book.

15 minutes later we'd be there laying out and reading in peace on the sandy shores of Oceanside.

A day at the beach this summer:

Toni: Let's go to the beach today.

Me: Okay, let me get ready and I'll meet you there.

First, get Bailey dressed in beach gear and grab a back up outfit in case of extreme spit up. Find her sun hat because she doesn't like the sun in her face (but where is that dumb hat; I'm always misplacing it). Oh yeah, I should bring a bib because that saves outfits lately from spit up; and I need to bring a back up spit up rag--again in case of extreme spit up (are you sensing a theme here yet?). Okay, now I need to have at least two blankets. Now to work on the bag. I need to get her formula filled for the day and at least two bottles ready with water. Oh, no clean bottles? let me clean them. Do I have diapers? yes, but I need more wipes. I should pack that diaper rash cream just in case. I have her back up pacifier in case one is lost. Let's see what else... I need to get dressed and find a book to bring! Should I try to eat something before we go? I think we're ready to go pack up the car. Car seat, jogger stroller, my chair, umbrella, beach blanket, towel, and water. Good thing I'm meeting Toni at the beach because my car is full. Let me run through my mental list again to make sure that we are totally set.

I have that routine down and set in about 20-30 minutes these days. I'm not complaining, just amazed at the difference in my life. We have been going to the beach a lot this summer because that's what I think the summer is all about. When we're at the beach Bailey is pretty good about either sleeping or being happy. I have been able to do a lot of reading under the umbrella while holding a sleeping baby this summer, so it's been a good summer.

Here is a picture of Bailey sleeping peacefully at the beach last week. I had been holding her for a while, but I wanted to set her down. It was a rookie mistake on my part because as soon as I took this picture, the next picture happened.

Wide awake and ready to eat her whole hand!

Life has been really good this summer! We've had tons of mommy and me time and good relaxing days at the beach. This is a funny picture of how much fun Bailey can be sometimes:

In case you ran't read the irony in her shirt, it says Huggable. Doesn't she just look huggable? She is in the slobber zone lately. Brian keeps asking what can be done about the amount of slobber, but I keep telling him it's just part of being a baby. I really did try to get this picture taken while she was smiling, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera.

To get her in a good mood, all I have to do is give her a bath. She loves it! I love how she looks when I get her out of the bath.

Fun Stuff

Okay, so I'm not the best blogger, but I truly do love the idea. So here is a synopsis of the highlights from the past few weeks:

1. On July 17th, Bailey slept for 12 hours!! This was a major event in our lives. I just wrapped her up and put her in her crib and waited, and waited, and waited for her to wake up to feed her. I didn't end up feeding her until 9:ooam the next morning. Now I didn't sleep that well that night, but I did the next night. She hasn't been as consistent with 12 hours everyday, but we've been averaging 9-10 hours a night. It is quite wonderful!

2. Bailey has this toy that hangs on the side of her crib. It's like a jungle scene with a monkey, bird, fish and waterfall. It has cool lights, jungle noises, and soothing music. Bailey loves it! She lays there and makes noises, kicks her feet, and if she watches it long enough, she falls asleep to it. It gives me enough time to get something done while she's entertained. I thank the Kramer family every time I see them for giving it to us! (I tried posting a video of Bailey watching it, but I can't get it to load.)

3. Brian and I went and saw Phantom of the Opera with our friends Jared and Lenora. I was a great show, but all I wanted to do was sing along with the actors. I had to restrain myself because I didn't think that the people sitting next to us would appreciate it.

4. My sister-in-law Sam, her two sisters Ashley and Cali, and their 8 kids--Kate, Owen, Tyson, Jack, Carolina, Grace, Oliver, and Rob--came to down to California for the week. I was totally crazy with that many kids around my parents' house, but so much fun! We went to the beach three days and to the San Diego Zoo. It was really fun at the zoo to see how much all of the kids loved seeing the animals. My mom and dad loved it too being around the kids; I think it gave them a glimpse into the future of being grandparents. I loved hanging out with Sam and her sisters because the more sisters around the merrier! I hope that they make it an annual summer event. This was Bailey's day at the zoo--she just happily hung out in her carseat while I pushed her around. She is a good baby.

Here's Kate and Owen looking at the pandas at the z00.
Here's a picture of the panda. Pandas have always kind of freaked me out because they're big enough that they look like a human wearing a panda suit.

5. I bought Bailey a Bumbo to sit in; she loves it! She also really loves watching tv. While I get ready in the morning, she watches a Baby Einstein video. She is absolutely facsinated by those videos. Once she realizes what tv actually is and what she's watching, we'll definitely have to make sure she doesn't turn into a tv addict.

6. On Saturday, August 2 the new Stephenie Meyer's book--Breaking Dawn--was released. It's the latest addition to the Twilight series. My sisters and my mom have all read these books and love them. So my sister Toni and I went to a midnight release party for the book at Barnes & Noble. We picked up our wristbands earlier in the day on our way home from the beach. We were numbers 187 and 188. At the time we didn't know if that was good or bad.

We went down to the store around 10:30 and the store was packed. We saw people who had wristbands in the 400's, so we felt good. It was funny to see all of the different types of people there. It was mostly young girls who were in love with Edward or Jacob. We saw some total weirdos--one dressed like a Pikachu and another dressed like the Joker from The Dark Knight. There were some guys; one guy was wearing a shirt that said "My girlfriend made me read it." Around 11:45 they started getting everyone lined up to buy the book. The store started a countdown during the last minute, so we all counted down from 60. The store erupted with cheers at 12:01 when the first books were bought. We had our books by 12:15 and were reading the first page at 12:16. Here's a picture of Toni buying her copy of Breaking Dawn; the both of us happy with our new books; me reading my book outside the store (I'm really just posing for a picture).Saturday morning, Toni and I met at the beach for a serious reading session. The beach was cold so we brought sweatshirts, blankets, and chairs. We read for a couple of hours before we had to leave. We both finished the book yesterday and loved it! I was very happy with the ending, but I won't ruin the surprise for those who haven't read it yet.

Here's a fun picture of what happens when I ask Brian to keep an eye on Bailey for me: