It's Officially Summer!

Today is officially my first day of summer! School's been out for almost two weeks, but I went to a seven day training at my school all last week. I have never been more ready and excited for a summer than this one. This was my tenth year of teaching, and it really pushed my limits. So I'm just starting to feel free and relaxed. The only real thing that I have left to do is field hockey camp this week and then I'm really a free woman.

To kick off our summer time fun, we went to the Del Mar Fair on Saturday. Brian and I love going to the fair. It's always the same exact thing, but just something that signifies summer to us. This year is was fun in a new way because we were able to bring Bailey. We walked around all of the booths and didn't even buy anything this time--except for some delicious cookies, fresh potato chips, and caramel apple. After looking at everything to buy, we went to the animal barns. It was perfect timing because the bunnies were on display. I have always loved looking at the bunnies, except for the white ones with devilish red eyes. Bailey loved the bunnies too; I think she loved trying to touch their rabbit food even more. We just walked around and she smiled and waved hello to each and every bunny.

Then we went to the petting zoo. Things have really changed! When I was little the animals roamed freely in the petting zoo and you could just walk right up to them. Now the animals are all in their big pens and you can pet them if they come up to the fence. Bailey absolutely loved it! At first she was a little hesitant walking around to the different stalls, but then once she got the hang of it she ran from animal to animal. She was able to pet a giant cow, some goats, a sheep, and a tiny chick. We almost had a near death experience with the tiny chick. The people working at the petting zoo had to get the chicks out for you and then we could pet them. The first time Bailey pet the tiny chick, I had to make her touch it because she didn't really notice it. The second time around, Bailey walked right up and wacked the chick in a really soft way. Bailey doesn't seem to grasp the concept of soft yet, so that was her softly petting the tiny chick. The worker girl was a little surprised and the other girl pettting the chick started laughing. I told her that we needed to go pet the animals that were big enough that she couldn't kill them.

Here's Bailey with the goats. If she wasn't petting the animals, she was trying to climb their cages.

Here's Bailey with big cow, but she's already thinking ahead to her next stop.

We let her run around there for about 20 minutes, then we headed home for the day. She was so worn out that she fell asleep on the walk out to our car, but not before a ride on dad's shoulders. Here are just some more funny photos of what Bailey's been up to:

She thinks that she can feed herself now. It makes her so happy, but it also makes a huge mess.

>
We went to the beach a couple of days after my workshop training. They were very sleepy days at the beach and not too happy, but she did have her rake. This was on the way down to the beach one day.

I still dress her like my little doll on Sundays. Oh, and she's walking everywhere. No more crawling :(

When she's tired during the day and at night, you can tell her to lay down to go to bed and she does. It's really cute! She can understand a lot of things right now. You can see her thinking about what to do.

And this is my favorite--this is what she thinks of vegetables! She will eat them, but when she's done, she let's you know. Look at the determination in her little face.

Baby Dance Off

Today Kyle, Sam, Kate, and Owen drove down to stay the week at the beach. After dinner, we decided to put some music on so the kids could dance. Wow! I haven't even seen moves this hot on So You Think You Can Dance! Bailey has a new, awesome move called the twist. She's added it to her regimen of small squats, low squats, and bouncing. It was so fun to watch all three of them dance around the room. Watch the video closely to see a glimpse of Owen shoot by the camera. These days you can get Bailey to start dancing just by clapping and singing. This girl has got rhythm!

Such a Big Girl

Bailey is almost 16 months old. This is such a fun stage! She learns new things everyday; you can just see her brain thinking with everything that she does. When she's not trying to figure something out, she just like to chill and watch Yo Gabba Gabba! It's her (and Brian's) new favorite show. She usually dances the entire time (I'm still trying to get a good video of it) But doesn't she just look like a big girl? She's got her tiny barrette and her walking shoes. Here are some fun pictures of what she does:

She kind of has a love/hate relationship with her shoes. When she sees her shoes, or any shoes, she gets really excited and tries to put them on her feet. The part she loves best on her shoes is the velcro--what a fabulous invention. She loves opening and closing the velcro. Once her shoes are on, she then likes to try to take them off. If she's wearing sandals, they're usually off before we get wherever we're going in the car.

Bailey is always teething! Just when I think she'll get a little break from new teeth, another batch will start to come in. That's why she's always chewing on something--fingers, high chair, Doby's toys, shoes, etc. It's also why she's usually in a constant state of snot. The joys of being a baby--snot and teeth. Right now she has the two bottom teeth, working on the four top teeth, and I think the second set of bottom teeth are working their way in too.

She also does kind of an air raid move. She'll be crawling or walking around and then flatten out on the ground. She'll also do it if you ask her to go night night. I think she's also seeing what the floor tastes like in this picture--yum!

She also likes to try to escape or do stuff that she knows she shouldn't. She just looks back at me and gives me a little smirk, like look what I can do.

Here she's so happy that Doby came to visit her in the bath. She loves playing with Doby, but I'm not quite sure that he loves her just as much. I don't know what I'll do when she doesn't fit in the sink; it's so convenient.

She's a Walker!

It's official--Bailey is walking! She started walking on Mother's Day--happy Mother's Day to me. She's just been walking a few times a day, but on Wednesday she started walking a lot. Yesterday she walked over to the footstool, climbed on top, then climbed on the couch and then turned around and laughed. We're moving into new territory--both good and bad. She thinks she a climbing monkey and tried to climb everything. Here's a pretty good video of her walking (despite the shakiness of the camera). It's also cute because she gives her little baby some good loves in the end.

I just wanted to post this quickly before I head off for a field hockey tournament this weekend. Brian will be braving the world alone with Bailey, so in case he calls you it's because he's bored. I know they'll enjoy a lovely father-daughter weekend. Good luck to both of them!

Congrats Doctor Miller!

Last weekend my brother Kyle graduated from UNLV's Dental School! It's been four long years filled with lots of work, so we're all very proud of him. We all went up for the big day so he would have the loudest cheering section. I do believe that although we were small in numbers, only 10, we were the loudest there. I'm kind of bummed because we told Kyle to pose on stage--AND HE DID--but none of us got it on camera. So if you are in need of a dentist in the Thousand Oaks/Weslake Village area in CA, I happen to know an excellent one!

There is his crossing the stage to get his diploma and awesome plaque/statue. I suggested that next year, the plaques are made in the shape of a tooth.

Here's Kyle and Sam. Sam should get some sort of wife of a dentist diploma because she's been there every step of the way.

I just liked this picture because all of the professors had to wear these awesome little outfits. It made the whole event very Harry Potterish.

Here's Kyle with the twins. They weren't too keen on taking pictures with Kyle's cap on, but they did an excellent job.

Most of stayed home on Saturday during the huge graduation ceremony and this was an awesome picture of what we did. All of the kids took really good naps. When they woke up, they were hungry so Kate tried to help out with the feeding process. It's always fun to play with cousins.

I Have a Problem

I guess the first step to fixing a problem is to admit that you have one...right? My problem is that I can't resist buying clothes for Bailey. I just can't help myself, but I think you'll agree that I made the right decision when you see some of these outfits. I realized that Bailey probably has more clothes than the average baby a couple of months ago. As I was boxing up her clothes that didn't fit her, so I went to Target to buy a new bin. I bought my usual sized bin to match the other ones because who wants to have unmatching bins in your garage? When I got home, I began to pack up her small clothes. Once the bin was full, I still had more clothes to pack. The even more startling fact is that I already have another basketful ready to be packed away today! My addiction is dressing up my daughter like the cutest little doll you've ever seen. My only hope is that our next one (not that there's another one anytime soon) is a girl so I can get some good use out of these clothes.

Last week we went to the mall to spend our thrilling Friday evening. I had a coupon and I wanted a corndog, so off the the mall we went. We did some shopping first and when we were finished I wasn't sure what had happened. There were some amazing deals at Children's Place--dresses that I was drooling over two months ago for $30 were now only $10. I can't pass on a deal like that! Then I just had to use my coupon at Gymboree because that was the point of the trip. After being scammed into spending enough money to get some Gymbucks, I realized that I had probably spent more than I had planned. But I'm planning ahead with my purchases and buying big sizes, so really I'm saving money in the long run :)

So here is one of the most adorable outfits I bought. I bought it in honor of the Kentucky Derby and all of the ladies and their big hats. It's so cute! I know that some of the pictures look like it's an old lady/farmer hat, but really it's quite stylish.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see her fang that's coming in on her upper left side. We always knew she was part vampire; I guess that's what happens when your mom reads too many Twilight books when you're little.

It looks like she's walking in this one, but she's not. She just stands up all day and takes one, maybe two tiny steps and then sits down.

This is a classic Bailey pose: the mini smile! I'm also in love with making the "Minnie Mouse" style bow that sits right up on top of her head.

This picture is nothing fabulous, but Toni says I need to put more pictures of Bailey and somebody else up. So this one's for my sister!

So Close!

Bailey's favorite game to play right now is stand up and see who notices. She's so close to walking. The other night she took two mini steps in a row and then collapsed; we have the camera ready to go so we can get her first real steps recorded. Right now she's just so proud of herself that she can stand up. She'll stand up anywhere and just look around and smile. In this picture, she was standing up and then showing her Herculean strength and picking up her rocking horse. This girl is kind of freakishly strong! She has great balance because she can stand and bend over and pick stuff up and still be standing. I know when she realizes that she can actually walk, she's going to just start running all over the place. It's exciting, but I know our whole world is going to change once she takes those first steps.

Look at how happy she is! She'll stand and smile and laugh all day long.

Here she is being a cool chick with sunglasses on her head like mommy!