my cowgirl

Today Grace had a Hoe Down at her school so the kids got all dressed up. Here is the most cowgirl stuff we have. I LOVE her red boots... one of my favorite hand-me-downs we have ever gotten!

rewind

Okay so I don't really think I'm a bad mom. I think we all can take the "bad mom award" from time to time. Right?! But I did just feel bad that she had been feeling bad for close to 2 weeks and I hadn't done anything.

Thankfully Emma is already feeling a lot better! I was really worried that my sweet baby had truly turned into a toddler that was a huge handful!

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Anyway, so I thought I would talk about Grace today. Mainly just a few things I want to remember. Everything we do or talk about has something to do with her favorite. For example we had broccoli (or "rockli" as she calls it) and she kept saying "broccoli's my favorite". Pretty much all day long this goes on for anything she likes. These shoes are her favorite, this party is her favorite, etc.

She has also been saying "oh my gosh". It is actually quite funny. She will drop something and "oh my gosh"... very dramatically. Do I have a future drama queen on my hands?

What else ... oh the other day we had some neighbors over for our weekly play date (it was my week) and we have a couple beanbags. Well some of the kids figured out that you could just unzip the zipper and presto... you have snow everywhere! Yup.. we had little white foam beans all over the game room. The only thing I do was laugh... it really was quite funny. Amen for my Dyson!!

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And for the best news of all... Adam and I are going out with NO children both Friday and Saturday night! I'm so excited.

Friday night I can't really talk about b/c its a surprise and I'm not sure if that person reads my blog. My sweet cousin is going to watch the girls! They love her!

Saturday night we are dropping the girls off at my parent's house (to stay for the night!) and we are heading to Ft. Worth to celebrate a good friend's 30 birthday. It also happens to be Adam's birthday on Saturday (only 29) so we will celebrate that too!! Then we are going to come home, sleep in and go eat some yummy breakfast before we go get the girls.

What are you doing this weekend??

award

Yes I get an award...

The Worst Mom of the Year Award.

I feel terrible. Emma has a double ear infection and bronchitis.

She has had what I thought was a cold. But apparently it wasn't. This afternoon I had had it with her new toddler behavior. (Remember the behavior I talked about last week...) well apparently she isn't being a toddler... she was being sick!

Yeah she had a little cough and little bit of a clear runny nose and sure she had a low fever (off and on), but she was teething. And I thought she was grumpy b/c I weaned her this week.

I was wrong. So wrong.

Thankfully today I came to my senses after talking to my mom and brought her to the doctor. Plus her cough was sounding worse and she didn't really take an nap. However, I still would have put money on it that he was going to tell me that she just had a cold and was teething. But he didn't.

What would I do without my mom.

bloomers anyone?

Okay so I love when little girls wear dresses. And mine pretty much wear one nearly everyday during the summer. Well as Grace has gotten older I've noticed that few brands have little bloomers to go with the dress. I have some generic white ones with lace that were hand-me-downs, but they don't go well under everyday cotton dresses. I have some shorts like these ones... but really what is a mama to do. It's not like my sweet three year old is lady like... right... so someone please enlighten me on bloomers for big girls... as in a 3T.

Thanks ladies!!

It's over

Over the past year I have sat down on the couch or on my bed or in a rocking chair and cuddled with my sweet baby while I nursed her. Usually several times a day... at most maybe 8 (when she was itty bitty), but over the last couple weeks we had worked to get down to just one time in the evenings.

Well tonight she didn't need me like she use to.

In fact, I wasn't even here to know if she needed me.

I went to a neighbors house to watch Twilight (great by the way!) and told Adam to try to put her down and if needed me to call.

Well I didn't get a call.

I came home and she was fast asleep. Without my aid. So sad.

When I weaned Grace at 13.5 months I was so done. Past done. But with Emma it makes me sad that I might never nurse another baby. Seriously though...where does the time go?

my little toliet flusher

Emma loves to flush the toilet. If we accidentally leave a bathroom door open she is in there flushing away. (Hey at least she isn't playing the toilet anymore!)

Well last night I was home alone with just the girls and heard a toilet flush. I freaked! Since Adam is out of town I was about to call my neighbor, but then I heard the flush again and realized it was coming from my baby monitor. I went into Emma's room to see that she had been rolling around and rolled over a potty training book we have! One that has a little button on it that you can press and it sounds like a toilet flushing!!! Thank goodness, b/c I nearly had a heart attack.

I normally throw a stack of books in Emma's crib for her to read to go to bed or when she wakes up in the morning. Yesterday Grace was helping me put some new books into her crib and I guess I just didn't realize the potty training book that makes noises was in the the bunch.

Needless to say, I made sure that book was put into Gracie's room so we don't have any repeats of last night!

Happy St. Patty's Day

love our little Leprechaun

My toddler

Here is the first sign that I have been welcomed to the world of toddlerhood.
You know ... the age where you can't reason with your children, the age where everything is the end of the world (back arching end of the world!), and the age where the word "no" gets a laugh.
This morning Emma did her first very bad thing... she bit Grace. Yup... my 12 month old bit my 3 year old. She bit her hard enough that you can still see the marks on Grace's arm 8 hours later. Ouch! Grace was pretty upset too, but I guess Emma has finally learned how to stand up for herself!

In other news, last week Emma and I headed to the doctor for her 1 year well check. She is perfect healthy. Would you believe in her first year of life the only really sickness she got was the chicken pox?! Other than a couple colds she has been super healthy! AMEN! Our first year with Grace was filled with 9 ear infections! So we are more than thrilled that Emma has been healthy.

Here are her stats:
weight: 20lbs 8 ozs (40%)
length: 29 inches (50%)
Head: 18.5 inches (93%)!!

Look mom no hands! I guess she was trying to be "clean" by just digging in face first!

Thankfully my sweet Emmy is here most the time and little miss todler Emmy only comes out from time to time!

shirts

So I've been sewing a bit more lately. I saw these adorable shirts online and thought they would be cute for gifts so I thought I would attempt to make them myself. Here was one of the finished products. Cute huh! So don't be surprised if your child's birthday is coming up because she just might get one of these shirts :)

month by month

1

12 months!

1 year ago this morning I went to the hospital to be induced since it was a couple days past my due date. And after a very quick few hours you made your way into this world at 12:38! I am still surprised at how quickly things went that day.

While I can't believe you are 1, I also can't remember what life was like before you were here. How can I possibly have a toddler now?

Anyway, we celebrated your big day a couple weeks ago with friends and family, so today is just a nice little celebration at the house.

Here is what my 1 year old is up to these days:

* You are taking more and more steps everyday. I think I've counted 8 total at one time, but each day you are doing it more and more. You have even started to scale the walls to get around. I guess you have finally figured out that crawling hurts those knees.

*You finally got your 4th tooth just yesterday! They have been quite slow to come in, but are finally coming in. In no time you will be eating steak.

*You are also talking or jabbering a lot. The words I think you say are: mama, dada, duck, up, go, dog, bye, hello and maybe some others that I'm just not sure about yet. You are definitely talking more... we are just trying to "de-code" what you are saying!

*You can climb up and (finally!) down stairs.

*You love to be outside and will ride on your little cars moving your legs to make you go. I think you are very coordinated like your sister. You girls will be playing soccer in no time!

*You love the bath... especially when the water is running... you just swat at the water and get your face all wet and just laugh!

*You love to rock back and forth on you and your sister's rocking chair. You also get very upset if Grace sits in the chair. Which brings me to my next point...

*You do not how to share. Not like I expect you to, but you definitely want anything Grace has. Thankfully she is pretty good about sharing.

*You love to give kisses and hugs. I LOVE those little open mouthed kisses and how you bury your head in our chest for a hug. So cute.

*You are a fabulous eater! And eat almost anything we give you. But you especially love fruit and chicken. However, I'm also working on weaning you. I've been offering you milk in your sippy for about a week now and you aren't showing any interest... soon enough!

Happy Birthday baby girl!

bored

Not us. I saw this yesterday on a friends blog and thought that Grace would love it. Basically its just cleaning money. Why would that be fun? Because you're 3 and if your mom lets you play with a toothbrush and water in the kitchen - that's cool! Grace is super into money these days. Wants to have money in her wallet and wants to buy things... or really me to buy things for her.

So here she is.... rather engaged. She "cleaned" her coins for a good 45 minutes while I fed Emma, put her down for a nap, put the dishes away and cleaned the kitchen. Great idea Jenny!!

Oh and just so we don't leave Emma out... we went to a friends birthday party this past weekend and brought out little travel booster seat with tray with us for Emma to enjoy (or demolish) a cupcake. Anyway, so the booster was on the floor yesterday and Emma had a blast for a good half hour just sitting in the chair, standing up and crawling around it, only to go back and sit in the chair. It was so cute.

Remind me again why we have a whole room full of toys?

speech stuff

We have been busy with Grace's speech. She started 2 weeks ago just days after she turned 3. (The transition into the public school has been SO easy... I hope that if anyone else has to do this with their child that it goes as smooth as it did for us!)

She goes to school on Tuesday and Thursdays for 30 minutes and works with Ms. Kristine (a speech therapist) and Ms. Ryan (her assistant who is getting her masters right now and also happens to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader!). They are both young and super sweet! Grace works so hard for them. We have started with the letter "n" in the final position. Words like "balloon" or "button" and even "banana". She has learned to clap out her words by syllables. It sort of sounds like each syllable is a word on its own. Anyway, its working. She is saying "ba - na- na" perfectly! I'm just very hopeful at this point that she will be right where she needs to be in no time. Thanks everyone for all your advice and support! I've needed it.