Insanity

Well, Scott and I have started the insanity workout.  We took "before" pictures and everything - we're nothing if not ambitious.  We've only done the fit test and the first day, which was some kind of plyometric cardio cycle.  

As for the fit test, I have to say it was not so much a test as much as a way of pointing out exactly how out of shape I am.  I couldn't do a single pushup.  I fell out after a few seconds of high knees.  And there was something I was supposed to do in plank position that just made me literally fall over. 

As for the workout tonight - I have to say, even though I've only done one real day of it, the title of the insanity workout is not a misnomer.  I asked Scott, out loud, more than once, what this guy (the annoyingly fit Shaun T who apparently thinks everyone has a rock solid "core" who can keep them in "proper form") was smoking.  

I'm also doing a few other things to, as Fergie would say, "work on my fitness." Not sure why, but every six months I tend to hit a motivation point and this one feels pretty good, so we'll see what happens.  

So, in the words of the text I sent my sister after completing our plyo cardio whatever - hot damn I hope I can walk tomorrow.   

Highs and lows and Easter cuteness

Y'all, we have had serious highs and lows this week, but the cuteness has been pretty darn consistent.

First, a definite high: last weekend B had a play date with Will Kizer.  Their first play date was almost exactly a year ago, when they looked like this:

(also, at last year's play date, Bailey was in a teething/kissing phase - she would kind of gum us to kiss us, and she TOTALLY kissed Will when they were leaving.  I freaking love that story.)

Well, this year they looked a bit different, but they still had a blast together: 

To quote AK, I "love everything about this"!

They also worked in some lovin' - thankfully for B, it was a little more 2 sided this time, as Will finally made it clear that he returned her affections: 

Clearly, they are both excellent huggers.

Even though B had been growing fussier (which I chalked up to teething, as she has at least one big ol' tooth coming in), she and I headed to an Easter egg hunt with Will and other friends on Sunday.  It was Bailey's very first one, and she picked up on it very quickly: 

She MAY have picked up on it a little too well, actually - at one point, right after I'd asked her if she wanted to hunt more eggs and she said "NO," she began to grab Will's eggs out of his basket as soon as he turned around.  Sneaky girl!

 Scoping out her target while Will checks out the donkey at the petting zoo, where B was fearless as usual.

Late last Sunday afternoon, Scott arrived back in Knoxville (he spent last weekend at a bachelor party in Saint Simon, GA, while Bailey and I spent it with Pops while Mimi was out of town).  Of course, B was back to her old self - she must've saved up all her cuteness for him just so that my many texts to him from the weekend regarding using tv to get a break from the fussiness and/or wtf is this baby's problem probably seemed ludicrous.  Until, that is, the next morning, when Bailey's fussiness showed it's true cause - she was pretty warm and very lethargic, so I stayed home with her.  After attempting a trip to the grocery store during which she whined the ENTIRE time even when I resorted to googling Peppa Pig clips on youtube to play for her on my phone in order to get some peace (judge away - I'm fairly certain I would have judged myself for that act up until the moment I realized I was going to have to do it....) So after Bailey immediately passed out in her car seat while we were still in the Kroger parking lot and then laid on mommy and/or the couch for a few hours, our day finally reached a type of high which was really definitely a low - as in, B's temp reached 104.6: 

Poor baby :(

I love the cuddles, I hate the reason behind them....

Thankfully (and typically), only a few minutes after Scott got home from work on Monday, the fever seemed to have broken and we thought we were out of the woods, as she's had several fever viruses which have lasted a day or so (he did get to see some of her most pathetic moments of the day, but I swear, dads have some kind of miracle healing powers, which are awesome but also make mamas go what?!).  

We headed to her 18 month checkup on Tuesday morning, where she was a happy baby and had a minimal temp (and was 75 percentile in height and weight and 85 percentile in head size - must be the big brain!) and Scott's mom came to watch her that afternoon since she couldn't go back to school until her temp had been gone for 24 hours.  Well, unfortunately, just as I was on my way home from work, Bailey's temp spiked again and she threw up all over :(  Even though she'd taken Advil an hour or so before I got home, her temp was still 104 when I took it after getting home.  That one stayed pretty darn high and didn't break until 9 or 9:30 that night, so we watched many Peppas while trying to console her, as I was far too afraid to put her to bed for fear that the fever would spike yet again.  Thankfully, she woke up Wednesday morning with no fever whatsoever and got to spend a fun (and vomitless) day with her Mo (Scott's mom).  

But, even after going to school Thursday, B's fussiness (and, sure enough, my fussiness) seemed to reappear Friday.  We had to get BOTH B's 15 AND 18 month shots that morning (yes, we are terrible parents.  We had no idea there was a 15 month appointment until she'd been 15 months for awhile, and when I called to make the appointment, I didn't think about the fact that it was basically already on her 18 month appointment date.)  So, needless to say, that was a rough start to our Good Friday (mommy may have shed a few tears with Bailey....).  We spent most of the rest of the day at Mimi and Pops' house while Scott put the finishing touches on a Boston Whaler he's been working on (more on that later...).  On Saturday, we took B to the zoo, and she seemed ok, but not great.   

So, Scott and I went out to celebrate Loucinda coming in town on Saturday night since we were all going to spend the night before Easter at my parents' house and they wanted to babysit her (and dye eggs with her - Pops is all. about. dyeing eggs for Easter, which is pretty darn cool):

  

Bailey woke up on Sunday to some fun surprises from the Easter bunny, who may have gotten a little bit carried away (but it was pretty much stuff she would have gotten anyway...... so stop interrogating me!): 

Her "cheese" face.  We're working on it. 

So, after eating her Monster Mix (or *cough* just picking out the m & ms) for breakfast, we got ready and headed to church.  After my car failed to start and we got it jumped (twice....), we got to church in time basically to hear the last hymn.  Happy Easter indeed.  We stuck around for the Easter egg hunt  and although B had somehow lost her egg hunting skills, she had fun and outsmarted everyone again, finding a bin of (I think thrown away/used, but whatever) Easter eggs after pretty much refusing to at all participate in the actual hunt, though she loved being on the big kid playground which I don't think she gets to get on while she's at school.   

Today (Easter) B has seemed pretty rough, and I ended up having to call the ped to figure out whether, and to what extent, I should be concerned about her extreme fussiness (she ended the day in my arms, on the couch, watching the Masters - not her style).  She seems to be having a pretty rough reaction to the shots on Friday, and we're hoping she'll be better tomorrow.  

But I know she would want me to wish you all a HAPPY HAPPY EASTER :)

18 months and counting!

Bailey, you are 18 months old!  I can hardly believe it.  Where did my baby go?

In the last 6 months, you officially became an East Tennessee girl, which makes your mama, who will always be an East Tennessee girl at heart no matter where she is, so happy.  While this meant transitioning from your former school where you were immersed in Spanish spoken by native speakers all day (a sad day for you and your parents, as we all loved that school, especially including your favorite teachers - we will never forget sweet Ms. Miriam, Ms. Yolanda, and your all-time favorite, Ms. Carmen, who I think almost got a little teary when she found out you were leaving), you've done a great job in your new school which is, awesomely, one of the best preschools in town AND part of the church your mama grew up in.  You've loved your teachers, and while you've had some issues with biting, which we're still trying to straighten out (I think the count is up to 6 or so bites you've inflicted, while you've received only two), overall you've loved school and seemed to do really well.  Although you've had a few phases of crying when I drop you off off, mostly when you're transitioning to a new class or when you don't feel well, recently you have been hopping out of my arms, giving me a hug, and starting to play while I leave.  I'm pretty sure I'm sadder than you at the separation, which is probably a good thing in the long run, but it still hurts my working mommy heart a little bit.  And, when I come to pick you up, you're happy to see me but you're still so happy at school you usually tell me "no" when I ask if you want to go home with me.  So, I usually have to pretend I'm going to leave without you if you don't come in order to have you go willingly.  I sure hope that doesn't make you end up with abandonment issues, because I use that tactic A LOT.

Your belly laugh is so darn cute that it cracks me up when I hear it and makes me smile just thinking about it.  You can point to just about every part of the body we ask you about (including head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but you haven't yet put that song together).  You  love to dance, run, and hold hands (especially with both your dad and me when we do the 1, 2, 3 SWIIIING).  You're a great hugger (you and Will Kizer hugging is cuteness overload),  you've recently started sittting still for longer periods of time, and you will even use a crayon on paper instead of just sticking it straight into your mouth (most of the time).  You just recently started watching television - your very favorite show is Peppa Pig, and it's pretty much the only show that will hold your attention.  You've started picking up your "babies" and rocking them and trying to feed them whatever you're eating.  You still sleep with JR and bunny (who really needs a new name but I'm going to let you do that) and numerous blankets every night, and you usually want to take a couple of those items with you when we take you out of the crib in the morning.  You more or less sleep through the night, but you consistently have what we call "shout outs," where you cry out and either immediately fall back asleep or fuss and cry for a minute or so before you fall back asleep - I've stopped going in to check on you, as you're either still asleep and I wake you up, or it makes you stay up longer because then you cry when I put you back down. 

You recently started wanting to sit on the "big" potty, so we let you pick out a potty for yourself.  You LOVE to sit on your potty and you've amazed us by going "pee pee in the potty" almost every time you sit on it!   You have done so well, I think that we are going to have to consider some serious potty training in the next six months or so, which is pretty early based on what I read.  Such a smart girl!

We've implemented a "time-out" routine, which mostly gets used when you decide to run away from putting on clothes and/or getting a diaper change or decide to yell "no" repeatedly to something that was not a question, and while you don't always fully cooperate, you know what it means and, strangely, sometimes seem to decide on your own that you need it (as in, you will do some smallish thing and I will ask if you need time out and you will say "yes" and go sit in your chair).  After you sit a minute or so, you're always thrilled to see me and listen (again) to why you had to go to time out, then you agree that you are going to listen and that you're sorry.  So you get showered with kisses and hugs :).

It seems like your vocabulary increases every day.  You say please and thank you really well and often without being reminded (we both LOVE when you give an unprompted please or thank you).  You say mama and dada allll the time, sometimes acting like its one word, and you have said "I love mama dada" at least once VERY clearly.  You will parrot back just about any word we ask you to say, but still won't say your own name or your Mimi's name, which is surprising (you usually say "no" when we ask you if you can say Mimi.  You just ignore us if we ask you to say Bailey.)  You'll say the names of your other grandparents, and it makes Pops especially happy when you say his name and hand him yet another Corduroy book or the "sing a song of sixpence" book and climb up in his lap.  You try to say all your aunts', uncles', and cousins' names.   You like to say "bye bye" to everything, whether its animate or inanimate (although if it's a person, you'll usually wait til they turn their back and/or are out of earshot), and you tend to say it every time I get off the phone, or when you want me to get off the phone, which is pretty cute.  You have a very cute way of saying "hiiiiii" and Pops just taught you to say hello (or, more accurately, "hewo") which is now a fun game for you - you say "hewo," wait for someone to answer, then say it again, varying the length of the "o" on the end. 

You're still a little inconsistent with pointing out the right colors when asked, but you're pretty darn good at it when you focus, and while you don't pronounce the colors very clearly yet, you will try for us.  

We spend a lot of time talking about sounds the different animals make, especially ducks, birds (you make a "tnn tnn" noise almost every time we go outside and it took me forever to realize you were saying "tweet tweet" when you heard birds.  I'm not very quick.), dogs, bears, cats, lions, snakes, bees, and so on.  You love to make all the sounds (especially quack and woof, those were your firsts and favorites), and I'm amazed at how many you know.

Speaking of dogs - oh, B, you just love them.  You love to help feed Reilly and give Reilly (sometimes unprompted) hugs (and also orders - Reilly hears "NO" a lot from you). You say "woof woof" every time you see a dog and you always want to say hi to them (which basically means getting near them and standing there, as you don't really "pet" yet).  

One of mine and your dad's favorite memories so far was when we were on the boulevard playing with Reilly and you wanted to say hi to a dog we didn't know for the first time (which you indicated by whining and pointing).  We asked the dog's owner if it would be ok, and he said yes so we put you down.  You picked up a stick and then tried to give the stick to the dog when you got close enough.  This was a completely unprompted and unprecedented act on your part - it was like you just instinctively knew it would be nice to bring the stick to the dog to break the ice, probably from watching Reilly eat sticks and giving them to her. 

That story is the best way I can sum up your sweet, intuitive disposition - you just seem to have a gift of knowing what to do in just about any situation, even if you've never been in it before.  You are sweet and gentle with babies, and silly and playful with adults and dogs.  You can be reserved and shy at first, but when you decide to turn on the charm, your sweet and bubbly personality and energy just shine.

You make me and your dada soooo happy, and every day it just gets better.  We love you, we like you, and we will always be the best parents we can be for you.  Thank you for being a sweet, fun, happy, and sassy little girl.