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.

January in San Diego

I just wanted to post some pictures of what we--meaning Southern California people--wear in the middle of January. The past couple of weeks it's been around 80 degrees!! Can you believe it?! When I watch the news in the morning, it doesn't make sense to me that the East Coast is freezing with below zero temperatures, but we're nice and toasty out here. It seems like we're in a totally different country; somewhere below the equator where it's summer now.

We wear short shorts and cute skirts! I put her in all of her skirts and shorts this past week. it was great because those clothes won't fit her by the time it gets warm again, so I felt like I was really getting some good use of those clothes. Hopefully, when it gets cold again her warm clothes will still fit. Toni watched her a couple of days last week and she took her on a shopping trip for this cute summer in the winter outfit. Along with the adorable onesie, she bought her really cute sandals which I have her wear with everything now. I love it when she wears shoes, but she does get stuck on them sometimes because they're so big. I guess that's just the price you pay for looking so cute!

This is what she wore to church today. She's such a big girl! She's going to be 11 months old tomorrow and I can't believe it. She pulls herself up on everything and will let go with one hand, but she gets really nervous if she let's go with both hands. She's really into talking these days too, but not just talking--screaming. It's not sad or angry screaming, just really loud, happy talking screaming. She's just tryint to get her point across.If this picture had sound, I'm pretty sure that you'd be hearing what was on her mind at the moment. I love dressing her up for church; she looks just like a little doll.She's such a happy baby and loves to smile--or make there weird, crazy faces all the time. This is actually the face she makes right before she makes a loud noise of some sorts.

This picture is of my nightowl child. I just put her to sleep because she's on a crazy schedule today. This 1:00 church is killing me! She should sleep right before we go to church, but that hasn't happened yet. She'll fall asleep in the car, but carrying her in her car seat into church wakes her up. Then she's tired, but not grumpy, but you know she should fall asleep. She'll nap for maybe 20-30 minutes during the second or third hour of church (thanks Kim!) and then again on the way home. When we get home she could eat, but today I thought I'd see if she could make it until 6:00ish and then be done for the day. The plan was working until we got home from my parents' house at 10:00and she was wide awake and ready to eat. I fed her and let her crawl around for a while, but as you can see from this picture she was tired. I just went upstairs and laid her down and she didn't make a single sound. So I don't know what to do about 1:00 church. If she was a great napper, I'd say just change her nap time, but her nap time is whenever she falls asleep. I don't want to feed her in the middle of church because it's a lot more now than just giving her a bottle. She eats a bowl of rice cereal and then some sort of baby food and sometimes a bottle on top of that. I think this year at church will be interesting as Bailey gets older and able to do more (including screaming in the middle of church).

Swinging High

This week we took the kids down to the beach to play. It's been sunny the past few days, but still pretty cold--at least for Southern California. The park that's just south of the pier actually has swings; I don't know of many parks that have swings anymore. Bailey slept for the first hour we were there, but once she woke up we put her in a swing. She really liked it, but she likes pretty much anything. She would get really excited and kick her legs and scream when she went high. For her first time on the swing, it was very successful.
It's not a great picture, but we put the twins in the same swing back to back. They could have stayed in the swing all day long, but there were a ton of kids at the beach so we had to share.

After I changed her diaper, I let her crawl around. She's really speedy these days!

This is what she looked like when it was time to go. She didn't mind being all sandy.

I'm so excited that this video actually posted. I've tried before and it didn't work. It's nothing too exciting, but she does get excited in the middle of it.

Here's another video of her crawling on the beach. It's a good one just so you can see how well she's crawling these days. This is also how she got so dirty. The sand was really black.