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:

Growing Like a Weed

Look at how huge she looks! Bailey is definitely in the middle of a growth spurt. Over the past few days she has changed from my regularly scheduled eating baby, to wanting to eat all the time! Is that normal? Last week we bumped her eating to 5 ounces from 4, but now she's eating between 5-6 ounces every 3-4 hours! We have an appointment next week and I'm sure she's going to be huge. She's also not sleeping much at night. The past two night she has woken up around 5:00am letting us know that she is starving. I thought that babies were supposed to start to sleep longer and through the night--she's killing me! I desparately hope that by the time school starts in August that I can put her to bed at least by 10 and she'll sleep through the night. Right now I have to stay up (which I don't mind because I'm a night owl) until 12 or 1 to feed her for the last time and she'll usually sleep until 6 or 7. Once school starts I'm guessing I'll have to sleep more to function at work. So all the moms out there--any advice?

The other exciting thing is that last Monday, Bailey rolled over! I say exciting because it is for me. She can roll over from her stomach to her back. She kind of just falls to which ever side her head bobbles. It's really funny because once she's done it, she's very surprised. Bailey's other tricks at the moment are playing with her tongue, blowing bubbles, playing with her hands, and making lots of fun sounds. It's funny because she's always grabbing her hands and trying to stuff them into her mouth. She doesn't really suck on her fingers; she just licks them like a lollipop. The other thing she loves at the moment is her swing. Right now she's just chillin' in her swing licking her fingers. She's thinking about being sad right now, so I better go stop it before she turns into full on crazy cry mode.

Busy Summer

There's been so much going on that I haven't had time to post in a while. So I'll catch up on everything with lots of pictures.

The week of the 4th of July we went out to Palm Desert with my family for three days. It was super hot, but super fun. The boys would golf in the morning and then the girls would lay out and read in the afternoon. Bailey took her first dip in the pool. She liked it because it was just like a big bath. She didn't do much but chill with me in the shade with her huge sun hat on. The exciting part was that she was able to debut her cute bathing suit. It's so tiny with little elephants on it. I also discovered how much water a diaper can hold because I couldn't find swim diapers small enough to fit her. The diaper probably weighed three pounds! The last day at the desert, Kyle, Sam and the twins drove out to stay for a day. It was so fun to see them. They had a little bit more fun in the pool because they are always on the go. Bailey also saw two movies while we were there and she was a perfect angel. I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that she'll sleep through movies right now because I've been told that it won't last long. On Thursday night, all of the girls and babies drove back home to get ready for the 4th of July.

Our family tradition is to go to the beach all day on the 4th of July. Our plans had to adjust this year because of all the babies. Normally, we all go down around 6am to get a prime time spot for the day. This year we had several shifts. Our set up crew this year was Toni, Tera, Keri, and Sam. They got there at 6 to secure us an amazing spot. It was really crowded this year, but they prevailed with some beach front property. They came with the truck loaded up with all of our gear--cribs, tents, tables, barbeque, chairs, towels, etc.. The next shift of people was me and my mom. My mom had the delicious food she had worked on all morning and I had the babies--Kate, Owen, and Bailey. Luckily, I picked up Brittany along the way because I had two strollers to push down to the beach. The city of Oceanside was really stingy with parking and access to the beach this year, so it took a while to find a parking place. When we did find a spot, it wasn't as close as I was hoping. My mom, of course, did some fancy talking and gained close access to the beach front road and the best parking spot ever. She's always good at talking her way into things. I thought I would be able to talk my way through or at least get the sympathy vote with a mini van filled with crying babies, but the babies were smiling and happy and the cop blocking the roads didn't care one bit. Once all the girls, babies, and food were at the beach we were ready to begin celebrating. It was a really gloomy day, but I think that was best for the babies. The last shift of people included all the boys (after a round of 4th of July golf) and Brian with a skateboard. Brian dropped everyone off then parked at a friend's house and skated down to the beach. We were all very impressed with his skating skills. We had our usual yummy barbeque food, games, and presents for Keri's 21st birthday. We stayed until 7:00ish and then packed up and went home. It's a good thing we didn't stay to watch fireworks at the beach because it was so cloudy that nobody could see them. Over all it was a great day--a different day compared to all previous 4th of July days, but very fun. I spent a lot of the day sitting in a chair with Bailey reading The Host (a great book for anyone looking for a good read).

The 4th of July was not the end of our busy schedule. On Saturday we went out to lunch with Brian's dad and his step sister Lauren; they were out here from the East Coast for a few days. The big event was that on Sunday we blessed Bailey in church. All of my family was here--even my grandma and grandpa made the trek down here. And all of Brian's family was here too. It was good to have family around, but all I could worry about was if Bailey would cry the whole time during the blessing. We fed her about 45 minutes before church started to she would be full and get the majority of her spitting up done before church started. I didn't want her to spit up in her beautiful dress because my Grandma Miller made the dress for me when I was blessed as a baby. All of my sisters wore it for their blessing and little Kate wore it last summer when she was blessed too. It's so special to have something that was made by my Grandma Miller; she was an amazing seamstress. The dress is absoultely beautiful! Bailey looked like a little angel in it. While we were waiting for church to start, Bailey came close a couple of times to launching a load of spit up down the front of the dress, but due to some quick moves by Tera, everything was saved. Right before Brian took her up to the front of church, I gave him her pacifier to stick in her mouth in case she started screaming. Brian was really nervous to give her blessing, but he did a wonderful job. She started to make some noises right when he started, but Kyle was quick to calm her down with her pacifier; she was a perfect angel the rest of the time. The thing that I remembered the most from the blessing was that Brian mentioned obeying parents and rules three times. When he was done, I told him that and he said he wanted to make sure that she listens to us as she grows up. It was funny because that's what Brian is the most nervous about having a girl--that she won't want to listen to anything we have to say. As soon as it was done, she fell asleep for the rest of church. After church, we went back to my parents' house to eat lunch. It was such a great day with all of the family around. The day would not be complete with out a photo shoot in her blessing dress.

Here's my little happy angel!

(If you've ever seen A Muppet's Christmas Carol, she looks just like the ghost from Christmas past in this picture, but in a not so spooky ghost way)

Me, Brian, & Bailey. The whole familia.

My little Bailey. She's thinking about her day.

All the Miller kids!

My grandpa has the magic touch in walking all of his grandkids and great grandkids to sleep.