The Bailey Chronicles

Saturday John said his goodbyes to working inside of a Best Buy store and is now officially District staff!  One of the perks to being a District Staff member is that he no longer works 10 hour days, he's back to 8 or 9 hours DAY time shifts Mon-Fri.  Sooo weird when you have been in the land of retail your whole life!  Bonus his first Sunday off happened to be on Father's Day.  Bailey and I got him a Dallas Cowboy's helmet for our ubber fan.  I feel that this is some what of a pointless gift because I don't know what he's really going to do with it, but he's been talking about having one for a long time so it made him incredibly happy and that's what is important.  Bailey colored in his card and helped me sign her name, and then walked over to him that morning handing him his sweet card. My Mother's Day card, however, is still unsigned and unrecorded sitting on a counter some where that slacker lol!!  Later that day we met the Carminatis, and Nanny and Poppy for dinner at Chuys.  I made an Italian Cream Cake for dessert and brought it with us to the restaurant.  I don't know if that's weird, but I have delivered several cakes to restaurants for our business and seeing as how it was a holiday I figured it would be cool, we also shared some with the waitress and a fellow cake enthusiast waiter.

John started his new job on Monday and is absolutely loving it!  I think it is exactly what he needed to rejuvenate himself, because it's all he can talk about.  I am so happy that he is coming home so amped up about his job... and I love that he is home normal hours to play with us!  It's like your first week of school how excited you get about your friends being in your new classes and your teachers and everything is a new start.  It's made our evenings way more enjoyable and we are both feeling rather blessed at this moment in our lives!

My birthday was on Wednesday and my sweet hubby was on his A game.  He brought home some beautiful red Painter's Roses, maybe a dozen or so stems.  I have never seen a Painter's rose before so for those of you unfamiliar with them like myself they are fantastically stripey and totally unique to anything I've ever seen before.  He also had a card from him and a card from Bailey which she signed and colored and brought to me :D  We went out to Kobe's Steak House meeting up with some friends and the Carminatis for some hibachi action.  Candi made me a custom crib skirt for Bailey's room and her very first toddler pillow!!!  So cute!  Now I need to get curtains and I'll photograph her finished room!  

I had so much fun on my birthday that I have decided that it should go on for a full week.  I asked John if he was cool with this and he agreed.  Ok so I might of asked him when he was all sleepy and full from hibachi, but he agreed so I am sticking with this idea.  The next day Candi and I snuck off for a girl's night.  My PIC (partner in crime) from High School, Sarah, has an older brother Craig.  Craig has been a lot of fun to hang out with for years, but it was only through Facebook that I realized he was in the same class as Candi and that they actually knew each other.  He hosts a cooking class every two weeks, so we thought it would be fun to take a class from him since we both know him.  We had a great time letting him cook us some yummy food and drinking all night without having to take care of children or do dishes and such.  We will be doing this again for sure, and hopefully bringing some friends with us for future classes!  I know a lot of Mommy's out there dying for a break from time to time!  And as a reward to John for being such a great hubby I fixed him the meal I learned for tonight's dinner so we all win. 

Bailey has been a little hooligan lately.  She searches for pens, crayons, markers, etc in drawers and then uses them to color on the walls and door ways.  ROTTEN!  I have to keep a close eye on her, she's a sneaky little ninja!  She destroys the house if I get on the phone or the computer, much like a puppy would do the minute you leave home.  I know it's to get my attention but I am not really sure if I should be putting her in time out for it or trying harder to keep her entertained.  She is also trying to get more and more independence, so I've been letting her feed herself scary things like yogurt and purees in addition to her regular finger foods with her very own big girl toddler forks and spoons.  She is usually covered in her meal when she is done, but it makes her so happy to do it herself.  She is such a happy girl all smiles and giggles and hugs and kisses about 90% of the time.  The other 10% is the occasional toddler outburst or pout but at least she's easy to distract and make happy again.

John brings Bailey to come lay in bed with us the other morning as we were slowly trying to wake up.  As we were discussing what we wanted / needed to do that day Bailey climbed out of our bed and wondered off.  She comes back in and to my surprise she looked like this... 

She had tried to eat a fat black washable marker LOL.  The Halloween look at me cracking up so hard that I was crying.  She has definitely become an expert lid taker offer and it has led to nothing but trouble.  

One of my closest friends, Jen, and her 7 month old son, Loyal, came to visit this past weekend.  They stayed at our house in our spare room, and this was Bailey's first experience being around a baby younger than her for any length of time.  It wasn't as scary as I thought it could have been.  She was very excited by him at first wanting to show him all of her toys and how they work, by then end of the weekend she was over him touching her toys and that was when I really had to keep my eyes on her.  But like I said, for the most part she was really good with him and listened to me when she needed to be corrected.  

On day 1 we had a play date with another friend's little girl who is just a few months older than Bailey, and Loyal.  By the end of it poor baby Loy was a little over stimulated and having a hard time napping so Jen ran a bath for him.  Bailey ran over to the tub and leaned in to touch the water... plop, in goes Bailey fully dressed face first into the tub.  She looked up not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry, and then decided she was ok with what happened when she saw us laughing at the situation.  Baby Loyal didn't find it as funny as the rest of us. 

Day 2 we went to the baby shower for another friend, delivering the Monkey Cake, while John watched Bailey at home.  Another Mommy was there with a toddler about 14 months who liked to throw everything he picked up.... I have to admit I am not missing that stage one little bit!  The cake was a huge hit at the shower, and the kids loved eating the bananas and monkey heads.  They thought that the fact that it was all edible was pretty special.  

and then Day 3, the final day of their trip.  Nothing special was planned that day.  I ran to Chiloso's that morning to pick up some breakfast tacos for everyone.  A potato egg and cheese breakfast taco is Bailey's favorite breakfast treat.  Jen asked when I first started feeding Bailey eggs and I told her at 8 or 9 months I started feeding her scrambled eggs mixed with spinach because they were easy for her to pick up and easy to chew with out choking.  So Loyal got his first taste of scrambled eggs.  He loved them.  Gobbled up the entire egg out of her taco.  Ten to fifteen minutes pass and he starts breaking out in red bumps on his chin, and then his chest, neck, back, and behind his knees.  We head off to Walmart to get him some Benadryl.  She asks the pharmacist at Walmart the correct dose to give a 7 month old.  The lady at Walmart gets all crazy on her and tells her to dial 911 immediately.  Jen calls her on call doctor, but can't get a hold of anybody.  Calls back at the house and neither John or her mom answer the phone and panic sets in.  Did I mention she is 7 months pregnant?  By this point she is beyond stressed and calls 911 because nobody would help us and allergic reactions can become really bad really fast or just go away, but by that point her mind was understandably now on worst case scenario.  Our local fire department comes out immediately to check him out.  Fortunately his break out symptoms had already started to disappear and all of his vitals were totally normal.  I think the whole fire department showed up at my house, and then once they were there they just wanted to hang out LOL.  They checked our smoke detectors and offered to pose for some pics.  and then asked if we wanted a tour of the fire truck.  Guess there weren't many emergencies happening in our small town that day.  

Today was the last day of school for my niece and nephew.  Bailey and I went up to Bella's school to watch their talent show.  It was adorable, and some where very talented with the dancing WOW!  And some were a little brutal with the singing and the instrument playing, but in all fairness it is quite scary to get up in front of such a large auditorium of parents and students to perform.  I think I wouldn't have been able to do it, especially not at that age!  Bella and her little buddy Caleb, who is totally adorable, did a short poem about a brother and sister box.  I am unfamiliar with this story so I couldn't tell you what it is from, you'd have to ask her or Candi.  Bailey was great the whole time and was absolutely delighted to see Bella.  She just loves her so much!  

Afterwords Bailey stayed with her cousins and her Aunt while I headed off to do a cake with Bree for a friend's baby shower.  She will be having a boy and did her nursery in a monkey theme so we did the most adorable monkey cake to match.  My bf, Jen from Colorado, and her 6 mo. old son will be staying at our house for weekend to go to the shower.  I am so excited to see her and to love on her baby!!  John has the weekend off so he can play too!  

Bailey is 18 months old today!  I wouldn't trade life with my daughter for anything.  It has been such an amazing experience to raise this little girl.  She is my little ray of sunshine on even some of my most miserable days.  I was a little nervous about giving up my freedom to be a Mommy, but I can't even remember life without her.  It definitely wasn't as fulfilling!  Seeing John as a Daddy made me fall in love with him all over again.  She is my little side kick, with me every where I go no matter what I am doing, always trying to "help".  I just adore her!  I love hearing her little baby jibberish, and watching her little facial expressions as she is trying to tell me something very important.  I love how she sneaks up on us and RAWRS at us!  I love how she drags her little blanky around the house draped over her shoulder.  And I love finding her new hiding spots for her many treasures.  I love how she waits for me to fill up her sippy cup with her hands behind her back.  I love how she comes up behind me and hugs my leg.  I love her ut-oh face.  and I love how she picks things up with her toes LOL.   

I have been working out like a mad woman and it feels great!  I have never been successful working out at home, but being part of a gym makes all the difference.  When I am at home I always manage to put it off until it's too late and then I think tomorrow and it never happens.  But with the gym I am pushed to do this before John leaves for work, and once I get in my car and head that direction I am fully motivated.  It's a nice break to get a little "me" time.  To focus on my goals.  I have a long road ahead of me for weight loss, but I feel motivated and have made some adjustments to our life style now that I have a car.  I haven't yet braved taking Bailey into the gym's daycare because I have never left her with a stranger before.  I know I would be right there, but I still have anxiety towards all of that.  I do feel positive that she would probably enjoy it, I just have to work up the nerves to feel comfortable with it.  I know it's silly and over protective, but I'll get there sooner or later!  I am sure it will help break me in for when it's time to enroll her into a preschool, which we both agree we would like to do that as early as possible a few days out of the week.  

Our cake business has been blowing up lately!  We have had at least one or more cake orders for every weekend booked up passed July along with tastings.  Last weekend we did our first and last Jeep cake.  The bars gave us so many issues on that Jeep that it almost doesn't feel worth it LOL, although I think if we did have to do another one there would be easier ways to achieve the desired result.  We have a guitar cake next weekend that we are going to try to make play a song along with a grad cake.  and the pics I have posted are of my Wedding Paper Divas invite project.