The Bailey Chronicles

We did our first round of Christmas at my Mom's house on Christmas Eve. John had opened that morning and it had been snowing all day so by the time he came home it was freezing with brutally cold winds. We rushed to get ready and the car all loaded up, but in the midst of all the craziness I left my camera at home BOO! I was bummed when I got there and realized it didn't make it. It turned out that I probably wouldn't have been able to take pics effectively anyways because little Bailey was everywhere and it was all very chaotic, but she was so adorable in her cute little Christmas dress and red tights that I will still have to do a mini photo session! My mom's big gift to Bailey was a much needed high chair from Fisher Price's Zen collection. This high chair is way cool and modern, looks like a real piece of furniture. She also got her a huge basket filled with Beanie Babies, a Zhu Zhu pet hamster so her and Bella can play with them together, and what seemed to be her favorite FurReal infant puppy and kitten she kissed on them all night and my favorite toy that she got Bailey was a Teddy Ruxpin! I used to have him when I was little and loved it a whole lot! I think Maple Town and Teddy Ruxpin were my most prized possessions as a kid. Apparently they put him back on the market, smaller and using cartridges instead of cassettes. Bailey lit up when he started talking to her and blinking at her. So cute! And I fully intend to get her some Maple Town animals either next Christmas or the one after, they are kinda like the vintage littlest pet shops.

Texas is so unpredictable. On December 23 I have to crank my ac on because the temperature in my house has risen to 75 degrees, and the next day a blizzard blows through making it a white Christmas. For one, a white Christmas in Texas is rare, but the drastic change from hot to cold always blows my mind. Not that I am complaining about it snowing on Christmas Eve, I think that is actually pretty neat since snow in Texas is such a rarity. Especially since it is our first Christmas in our new home, our first Christmas to play Santa Claus, and now we get to have the memory of waking up to snow! Very cool indeed!

December 2009: 12 months old

Our modem went out last week and we just got it replaced today! YAY for the ability to connect once again with the outside world ;P Over the weekend we had Bella and Skylar over for a sleepover and I was inspired by my cousin, Jennifer's, family blog to make Salt Dough ornaments as a craft to entertain my young niece and nephew and as a reason to play with dough. The recipe is very simple, anyone can do it, and my crafty niece loved it. Marking this the best sleepover ever.

Recipe:

1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Salt
1/2 cup Water

bake at 250 for about 2 hours.

I made two batches. One batch was used for them to make whatever sculptures they wanted with whatever tools they could think up... they were pleased to use a rolling pin for this project
And the other batch we cut out circles for ornaments (if I had cool cookie cutters we would have used them for sure, but I don't yet) but they were fine, especially Bella, with the option of painting their own images on them. We did the sculpting and baking at night, and then the kids had a pajama toy party playing with Bailey and taking great pride in acting like little baby sitters catering to her every need. Needless to say Bailey had a wonderful time climbing all over her cousins, imitating their every move, and showing off her toys.
The next morning we got up and made a big breakfast, that was compared to Uncle Earl's breakfast feast, Earl will always be associated with a big delicious breakfast in their brains ;D Bella became number one in Bailey's book, because she eagerly pushed her around the house in her favorite toy, the Winnie the pooh train. Ever since she was gifted this from her Nanny and Poppy it has become a nightly routine for Bailey and I to walk about 20 laps around the house in this thing and she never grows tired of it. When I take her out she cries until I distract her with something else. But fortunately for Bella, she is also a kid, who doesn't easily get tired of things so she wore Bailey out in that thing! It was really easy getting her down for a nap later.They made some kind of game out of it where Bailey was a police officer and Skylar raced around with one of her walkers as the outlaw, then they would trade off LOL. Once I got Bailey down for nap we painted our ornaments from the night before as a quiet activity, made lunch, and baked cookies.

I think we have Bailey all covered for Christmas shopping as of today. For her birthday she received two walkers (one baby doll stroller from us, and the other a cute little wooden one from Ikea that has a basket on the front gifted to her by my friend Holly), also a ride along Winnie the Pooh toy from Nanny and Poppy, and a Rocking Horse from her Grand Dad... plus books and little people, which we love! Apparently Ikea has lots of cool baby stuff, I had no idea, so I need to check it out because I love that little walker!

As far as Christmas goes, I kinda felt like she has just been totally spoiled for her birthday last month and wasn't sure what else she would need. Never under estimate the toy market, I still ended up finding lots of treasures at Walmart today. Her big gift is the Little People Nativity set, then she got two musical books that are of course learning based with colors, abc, numbers, shapes, animals, and kid songs, one board book, (I feel less guilty about the spoiling happening here if they are learning oriented or books) a sock monkey that she picked out, big Lego's, and a soft baby lovie. My only problem is that with the recent events of the showering her with gifts, we are running into storage and organizational issues. Any solutions around that?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, the Christmas rush has left me pretty busy. I really need to learn how to shop throughout the year vs waiting until December because money and deadlines take some of the fun out of it all. Fortunately this year we are more prepared for it than we ever have been, but it has been tricky with John's loooong hours and him gone 6 days a week. Since we share a car I had to order most things online, thank you Internet! Seriously, what did people do before Internet? I actually got Christmas cards out before Christmas this year, which in years passed has never been a guarantee. And most everything that I have here is wrapped and ready to go! The tree is up and decorated, stockings hung, and Christmas pics have been snapped. I have to admit I was a little worried about putting up the Christmas tree with a cruising baby, but she only seemed interested in it the first day. I don't have any fragile type ornaments up that I feared would break and be dangerous, I was more worried about her trying to pull herself up with the branches and pulling the whole thing down on top of her. She doesn't seem to like the texture of the branches so it hasn't been an issue like I thought it might be. As far as her Christmas pics, we did the first series at my sister's house, she was in a cute little red shirt and blue jean skirt in those. For some reason we couldn't get the lighting right and struggled with either overexposed pics or blurred pics from my very busy daughter. The next day I did pics at my house, the shirt she had used from the night before was dirty so I put her in a red onesie which she promptly threw up on. I did not have any other red outfits for her so I just did some of her in her diaper with her baby legs on. I hope they do not come off as inappropriate to people. I didn't think anything of it when taking the pics, but my husband seemed a little worried about it. I think they are cute so I went ahead and used them anyways. These are some of my favorites.

Oh and my funny baby story: Since I have been spending so much time on the computer editing pics, ordering cards and presents Bailey has been getting a little annoyed by it, understandably since it's just me and her all day. But I have to get this stuff done sooner vs. later so they can arrive before Xmas and birthdays... Candi, Kobi and Bella are all December birthdays. Anyway, Bailey would come up to the computer and unplug it all ninja like. I would try to make a silly out of it and wave my finger all animated and say in a goofy voice "stop that" and then pick her up to love on her. Apparently she picked this up and is mimicking me. My best friend brought her 2 year old son, Ian, over who Bailey just adores. Most of the time they play really well together, but sometimes they get territorial over the toy situation as babies do. I caught her waiving her finger at him and saying "DAT DAT!" LOLOL

These are a few from my camera that I loved. The first one is Birthday morning when B woke up drinking her juice. She was so excited to see the streamers and birthday banner in the breakfast room, which we designated the party room since the dining was taken over by Thanksgiving decor. The second pic is B tearing through the wrapping paper, which aside from the cake was her favorite part of the day. She loved her presents and all but the unwrapping was definitely the highlight of her morning. And the last is a happy baby loving her day.

Bailey's birthday party was so much fun! We had a great turn out considering it was on Thanksgiving! It was a little hectic pulling off Thanksgiving and a Birthday party in one day, but I think gifts and cake made Thanksgiving a lot more entertaining than just stuffing yourself until you pass out on the couch! It definitely made it feel more kid friendly and exciting. Bailey was so much fun with her giant cupcake smash cake. Candi was my photographer for the day and she got some fantastic shots that really captured the memory of the party. Bailey was so excited to see that giant cake put in front of her and then she looked around at all of us in disbelief that it was actually for her. She carefully poked a finger into the frosting and tasted it and then became more and more brave with the tasty sugar feast in front of her. Eventually she LOVED it so much that she hugged it LOL, and grabbed a chunk of cake to rub on her face. After a bit her eyes glazed over and she seemed like she was on autopilot scooping more and more cake into her mouth. She was a champ all morning and afternoon with all of the craziness. She was pleased to tear into the wrapping paper of the gifts and shred it to tiny pieces and played with her new walkers and books for the rest of the party. Then like all sugar highs she crashed hard into a long nap right after the Thanksgiving meal. John's best friend was thoughtful enough to open up a trust fund for her in her name so that when she turns 18 she will have some money in savings for college, which I thought was an awesome gift idea, especially coming from someone who does not have any kids yet. We will make it a point to add a little to it every holiday. All in all I couldn't have asked for it to go any better even though the cake design didn't quite make it! We had warm memories, great food, awesome photos, and lots of friends and family to share the holiday with! Who could ask for anything more? Happy Birthday Bailey!!!

Over the course of this year I have written about the things Bailey has learned from her first giggles, clapping, eating solids, saying Mama, rolling over, waiving, new teeth, crawling, pulling herself up to a stand and most recently standing for brief moments unsupported and climbing up on furniture. If I sit here and think about it long enough I could probably write a list a mile long of Bailey developments, but if you have been following this blog you already know these things. She has come a long way from that tiny little chicken-legged newborn baby I brought home from the hospital those first days of life observing the world through new eyes, taking it all in. But of all the things she has learned, I think she has actually taught me more than I would have ever guessed. No amount of babysitting or daycare jobs can prepare you for the job of taking care of a newborn baby. I never thought that once she arrived that I would feel so afraid of her. I realized fully at that moment that I was in charge of this new life and her well being and that we were experiencing a new world together, something I had never thought about in that perspective. I learned that the fear of losing your baby starts early on and will probably never go away. I learned that nursing a baby can go horribly wrong for a while but with enough patience and determination it really does help keep those hormones in check and bring back those warm fuzzy feelings even at the most trying times. I learned how little sleep one can function off of and it not even matter because God has blessed you and touched you so deeply with the love you feel for your little one that you know if you merely blink the baby days will be over. I learned the ridiculous amount of pride you can feel as parents when your baby does a new trick, like sleeping in her crib for the first time throughout the night. I learned that the amount of love a human heart can hold has no boundaries once you have children. I figured out why people get so emotional with movies, listening to music, or even reading a quote through the eyes and ears of a parent. I learned that as a mom when your baby cries it triggers something inside of you to yearn to fix it, not because the sound annoys you but because your heart is breaking with them. I have realized that even though it is so hard to watch your baby grow that it is also the most amazing thing to watch them develop into a little person. I have learned that everything is a phase even if you don't want it to be. And most of all I learned how important a year is!


Mommy and Daddy love you so much Bailey. This has been the best year of our lives thanks to you sweetheart!

My mom ordered a baby shower cake for a co-worker's shower and I just finished it up tonight. Bree and I came up with the idea of doing a diaper bag for this cake and I think it came out really sweet. Shower cake for baby Addison, check... birthday cake, next!

I did a mini photo shoot for Bailey's birthday invites. We wish everyone could make it, sorry we had to plan it on Thanksgiving I know that means that my Austin gang won't be there. I wish we could come down for a visit soon, but I know John's schedule is packed and Candi has been busy as a substitute teacher at Bella's school. I will be hosting both Bailey's birthday party and Thanksgiving this year! I am so thankful we have our new home to share all of these happy memories in! We feel so blessed!