A Dancing Machine

Bailey has started to dance. She does it when she gets really excited or hears music. It's mostly just a lot of bouncing and some arm waving, but every now and then she gets really creative and throws some ballet moves in there. I got a video of her doing some ballet leg lifting during a dancing session. I too am bouncing a lot so this video may cause sea sickness. It's not too exciting, but it makes me laugh.

Also check out her cute outfit that grandma bought for her. I love babies in dresses and leggings. I want to go out and buy leggings in every color, but it's kind of the end of legging season so I'm having a hard time. Maybe it's a sign that I really don't need to buy leggings in every color.

I Did Want a Clean House

Here's Brian, our fire fighting hero!

I am on week two of my fabulous spring break!! I may not always love all of the 7th graders that I teach, but I do always love the schedule of a teacher. I will always be able to enjoy the things that every child cherished--summer time, spring breaks, and Christmas vacation! I had three main goals this break:
1. hang out with Bailey every day and be a mom
2. finally finish decorating Bailey's room
3. clean my house

There are days when I can barely stand my house because it's dirty--not scary/gross dirty, but just little cluttered stuff that I don't always have time to take care of while I work. I told Brian that I was going to clean two major things a day on my break, so by the end my house would be clean. On the first day I did great because Bailey was a super napper that day--3 1/2 hours (that's a world record for her). I cleaned the downstairs bathroom--every single inch--all baseboards, and kitchen. I also put all of Bailey's clothes away and packed up her ones that didn't fit her anymore. So last Monday, I was feeling off to a good start. Tuesday wasn't as successful cleaning, but I went running with Toni and ran lots of errands with Bailey. Tuesday night was when IT happened.

We (meaning Brian) cooking a delicious recipe that I found in a magazine: chicken tortilla pie. It called for roasted tomatillos in the oven. As I was sitting on the couch I noticed that the cookie sheet was tilted up toward the top of the oven. I asked Brian about it, but he said it was normal, so Toni and I continued watching tv. One minute later, I looked back at the oven only to see a rolling fire in the oven! These were real flames, not just a little spark, but big flames. So I told Brian and he jumped into action grabbing the fire extinguisher which we luckily had close by. Flames and smoke were now streaming out of the top of the oven and smoke was quickly filling the room. Brian had the fire extinguisher and opened the oven and totally went ghost busters! Let me explain the phrase: you remember in the movie when the guys were killing the giant marshmellow guy? Well, that's what Brian looked like! He had his neutron blaster/fire extinguisher in hand and a very intense look on his face. He continued to fire his weapon until it was entirely empty. At that point smoke and fire extinguisher dust rapidly spread throughout the room. We grabbed Bailey, high chair included, and ran out to the balcony. We all could not believe what had just happened--Brian had put out a real fire! Ty also joined us on the balcony after crawling army style up the stairs because he's a Eagle Scout and knew to drop below the smoke :) We then went downstairs outside for a while to try to sort this out. When we finally came back upstairs, the house was completely covered in this thick layer of chemical dust.

Now, I am very glad that our house didn't burn down, but this threw my cleaning plan out the window. I now had to clean my entire house to rid it of this dust. Wednesday we had the carpets and couches cleaned; Thursday we had the tile cleaned because I could not figure out how to get rid of the stuff. So by Thursday afternoon, Bailey was finally able to crawl around the house again. Every spare moment since the fire has been spent cleaning things that I haven't cleaned in a really long time--top of the fridge, plate hanging racks, inside light fixtures, all cupboards cleaned and dusted. My list could go on and on! I like to quiz Brian each day he comes home to see if he can notice the obscure items that I cleaned that day. My quizzing has come to an end because I think I've finished this floor of the house--yeah!!

I don't have any fun pictures of the event, but I do have a couple of suggestions:
1. do keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen
2. keep a small one in your kitchen
3. use fire extinguishers sparingly

Knee High Headbands

It is well known that I love dressing Bailey for church on Sundays. Thanks to Sam, I have also learned the very fine art of making headbands from knee-high pantyhoes. I try to make Bailey a headband to go with every dress. Sometimes they turn out adorable, and others are kind of a flop. The past few weeks I've been going a little crazy matching her dresses. With her apple dress, I made a navy blue with red bow. Who wears navy blue knee highs? The bigger question is who still wears knee highs? Whoever does, I thank them because they make it possible for me to totally coordinate my daughter's outfits.

With her polka dot dress I made a white band with a blue bow. These pictures show her progression of melt down after 1:00 church.

Starting out very sleepy.

Next phase is not wanting to eat, but just sit in her high chair and be sad. She's not possessed, I just don't know how to turn on the red eye on my camera.

I love this last one because this is how she used to fall asleep when she was just a tiny little thing.

A New Found Fish

Yesterday we took the kids--Bailey, Kate, and Owen--to the kid pool at Lawrence Welk Resort. I put Bailey in one of her new big girl bathing suits and she looked adorable, but I wasn't quite sure how she would react. I think I found her new favorite thing--water! I carried her, at first, around all of the water things. She had no fear and would stick her head right in the water. I was wearing my cover up dress over my bathing suit because I thought I wouldn't get wet just walking around--boy was I wrong!! Bailey would get so excited she'd kick her little legs and flail her arms in the water until I was completely soaked. When I could tell that she clearly wasn't afraid of the water, I put her down on the ground and let her go. She crawled right up to the water and loved it. She would sit right underneath the giant shower and scream (a happy scream). It was so much fun to watch her play. Once she started to get a little cold, we went into the pool because it was like a giant bathtub. She jumped right into the water without a moments hesitation. I can already tell what we're going to be doing this summer. I'm not sure how much you can teach a one year old to swim, but we're going to do it! I think she would have stayed in the pool for hours, but her diaper was filled to the max and she was a wrinkly as an old prune. Swimming diapers are the next item I added to my shopping list.

How can you resist such an adorable face? This was her pre-swim lunch of yogurt. She loves yogurt, but more than the yogurt, she loves the container.

I don't know if this truly captures her excitement, but she's screaming because she loves it; I'm screaming because she keeps soaking me with water. (Please try to ignore me)

This is how Kate and Owen spent their time--drinking the water as it would shoot up from the ground. I guess there's enough clorine to kill anything really bad? :)

Both Bailey and Kate loved swimming around in the pool.

Here's my little pink daisy after her swim. She ate almost an entire tangerine by herself; she worked up quite an appetite with all her "swimming."

What We've Been Doing

In my month hiatus from blogging, here's what's been going on in case you were wondering:

In one week, Bailey came down with pneumonia and started teething. Needless to say, it was a really fun week! I took a day off to stay home with her while she was sick. Thank goodness that Toni wasn't back in school yet because she watched her for two days. I took a picture of the trail of toys that Bailey created the day I stayed home with her. She would get one toy out, play with it for a minute, then go back to the toy basket for another one. For being a sick, teething baby, Bailey was surprisingly happy during her sick days. Luckily, she's doing great now!

She's started teething and has two bottom teeth that have broken through. Since she's started teething, her days of chewing on my chin are numbered. I know that it looks really weird, but she has always loved chewing on my chin. I don't know if she likes how it feels or that I move it up and down, but I think it's really funny--and it hurts now with her tiny teeth!I've been attempting to get Bailey to drink from a sippy cup. As you can see from this picture, they haven't been really successful attempts. She always ends up chewing on the bottom of the cups or on the handles. I have about five different kinds of cups, but she doesn't get any of them yet. Any ideas on good cups to start with?Bailey's new favorite trick is to play with the drawers. She finally discovered that they open and that there's stuff inside of them--or I should say that there used to be stuff inside of them. She loves to open them, but smashes her fingers a lot because she doesn't realize that she has to move them when she closes the drawer. In the drawer up in our bathroom, she has emptied the Q-tip box one too many times!And last, but not least, I have been playing more dress up with Bailey. My new favorite accessory is leg warmers. I know that they're meant for bigger kids to go up to their knees, but I couldn't wait that long. The leg warmers are so big that they work more like tights for Bailey. I think it's so cute that her "chunky" upper thigh hangs out at the top.

Who needs tights or pants in February, when you have striped leg warmers?

The Sunshine Committee

One of my favorite things to do is to go walking. It's a very peaceful thing for me; it helps me to clear my mind and to really just kind of take a break from everything. My favorite route is at the beach, but there are lots of good trails around my house. Before Bailey was born, I would take Doby walking whenever I could; he has always loved to walk, but he would get tired or hot really quickly. Before I had a stroller on our walks, I would either carry him or just take a break when he was done. It was always kind of funny to me when I had to carry my dog, but I didn't mind. I would always get comments about who is taking who on a walk. Now that I have both Doby and Bailey, we go for a group walk. Doby will still walk for about 20 minutes, but instead of me having to carry him, he gets a ride with Bailey. There is a little bit in the front of the stroller that I know, was just made for dogs to sit--why else would it be there?! So Doby knows now that when he's done walking, he gets to take a ride on the stroller for the rest of the walk. The first time I tried it, I didn't know if it would last. Doby would try to jump off every time he heard my voice or saw me around the back of the stroller. Over time, he as taken quite a liking to his seat on the stroller. Now when I go walking and Doby is in his spot, I feel like the sunshine committee. Everyone that we walk by either starts to laugh or starts talking to me about how cute it is. We bring a smile to everyone's face! It makes me feel like I'm doing my good deed for the day to bring people a little bit of sunshine in their day. I know that it sounds really cheesy, but it makes me really happy to be able to brighten someone's day by doing nothing more than going on a walk with my dog and my daughter!

I've been meaning to take this picture for a long time, but I always forget to bring my camera with me when we go walking. I now realize that I should have taken this picture at the beginning of my walk because I look so beautiful, but really try to ignore me and focus on Bailey and Doby.

One Year Old Today!

I can't believe it! Bailey is one year old today. It has gone by so fast and has been so much fun. It's so weird for me to think back on what was happening in my life one year ago. I was miserable in the hospital, really drugged up, and worried that I was going to have my baby ten weeks early. Her arrival was really early and very scary, but everything has turned out so great. She amazes her doctors with every visit because she's doing so well. She weighs 19 pounds and is 28 inches tall. She's crawling all over the place like a little speed demon and laughing every step of the way. It's such a fun age right now because you can see her turn into a little person; each day we see a little bit more of her personality develop. She really is a fun baby who loves to smile, laugh, and be a little bit sneaky. She also talks all day long; she has a lot to say about everything that she sees. I love my little Bailey girl and I can't imagine what my life would be like without her. So happy first birthday today; we've made it so far for 365 days and have a whole bunch more to go!

Today she had a birthday party at Trish's house with all of her friends there. They ate cupcakes and opened up her first birthday present. She got an adorable pink purse that talks and sings; it's also filled with everything a little lady needs--lipstick, car keys, bracelet, mirror, and money! At my field hockey game today, one of the moms--Judy Kramer--brought Bailey a mini cake and her daughter, Sandy, brought her balloons. Bailey played with the balloons during the game, but was asleep by the end and missed the team singing her happy birthday, but we didn't let the cake go to waste. After dinner at my mom and dad's house, we let her thoroughly enjoy her first birthday cake. I was looking forward to this all day and it was well worth the wait.

She loved the cake and got more excited the more sugar she ate. After it was completely destroyed and she and the table were covered in frosting, she got a good bath in the sink. Here are some fun pictures of her first cake adventure:

This is the cute cake before it met its match--Bailey.

At first, she didn't know what to do with the cake. She'd touch it, then sit back and smile at us. Once she realized that she could attack the cake and that it tasted good, she went for it.

Two hands were needed for this job of destroying the cake.

Bailey is the champion! She looks so satisfied with herself in this picture, like look what I did.

This picture was a split second before the camera got a little bit of frosting.

She actually dumped the cake on the table in the end, which added to the fun and mess.

Even though she was stripped down, she wanted to go back for more. Toni acted as the body guard to make sure she didn't fall off the table, while the rest of us took pictures.

I'm so proud of my little girl and all of the obstacles that she has overcome in her first year. She brings such joy to our lives and we love her so much! It's been a crazy/fun first year and I can't wait for the rest to come.