The sweetest

My goodness...blogging is not on the short list right now unfortunately.

As for doing the Insanity workout I last posted about - well, I didn't even make it through the first month.  Two weeks in, I realized I had a foot (tendon?) injury - plantar fasciitis (man, I sure miss the days before I knew what that was....)  Seems to be better with orthotics now, finally - all I know is, after (starting) insanity, picking up spinning when I learned I couldn't really put weight on my foot, and then doing a LOT of swimming when I finally decided to listen to the doctor and completely rest my foot to let it heal, I FINALLY reached pre-baby weight and FEEL like I'm still there, if not better (can't drag myself to get on a scale after the beach, whatever).  The irony - I'm fairly certain that without getting plantar fasciitis, I would not have put my body through those varied and different workouts, and it probably would have taken me much longer to lose the weight, if I ever did.  Not a small reminder that God works in mysterious ways.  Regardless, I'm thrilled to be fitting well in almost all of my clothes, although of course I'd still love to lose those five last 5-10 pounds.  But isn't that always the case?

Anyway, on to the important stuff - right now and over the last few months, Bailey has done so many cute things and her vocabulary has literally EXPLODED!  Plus, I keep thinking of the stuff I should have written in the 18 month post. So here goes a list of a bunch of different things......roughly in order of occurrence, but who am I kidding, a lot of these don't really have an order and are continually developing and changing, seemingly by the second.  Yes I realize this is way too long and mostly not at all clever, but this is really just for my own records more than anything, and I know I'm going to want to look back at these things one day.  Also, I swear I'm going to get better at writing down these cute things when they happen....

Babysitters - or lack thereof:  B still has only had a single actual "babysitter" who was not related to her by blood.  (and that babysitter was Miss Carmen, a teacher at Bailey's spanish immersion daycare in Memphis, who said she would just stay with her while she slept when I tried to tell her how to work the remote for the tv and whose arms Bailey would jump in when I took her to school, which I openly loved and only jealously disliked a little bit.  Bless her.)

Bailey's "swagger": I can't believe I haven't posted this before, and I've probably also failed to get a decent video of it, but Bailey's way of walking is an absolute production.  The arms and hips swing, the feet fly.  It is pure swagger and utterly exudes confidence and busy-ness.  Like her beautiful red curls, I hope it stays forever.

Bows/clips in her hair:  When Bailey was a few months old, I started putting bows in her hair and of course, it was undeniably adorable.  As soon as she figured out how to take them out, however, she did almost immediately despite my subtle attempts to persuade her to keep them in, which literally led her at one point to answer the question "what makes you so pretty?" with the response "bows!"  So much for my persuasive technique, as she still takes out just about everything I try to put in her hair within seconds.  I swear one day I'll win the battle of the bows, but her crazy beautiful hair gets  more difficult to control every day (the gravity-defying bedhead is seriously a sight to behold) so a hair trim (do not say cut do not say cut do not say cut) will have to be done soon  because as her hair has gotten longer and longer, she looks like a (beautiful) sheep dog with her bangs covering her eyes  as soon as she takes out whatever I've put in to hold them back. 

CIRCLES!: One day when Bailey was less than 19 months, I started to draw a flower on her drawing board, and as soon as I drew the middle circle she yelled out "circle!" and started drawing circles on the board (and went on to draw them everywhere, especially in the bath with her bath crayons, which is where she especially likes to name the person for whom she is drawing the circle - as in, circle mama, circle dada) Now she draws lines too (thanks to dada, who loves to teach her new "tricks").

Favorite color/colors in general: Bailey's first favorite color was purple.  I discovered this when she was about 18 months old and I randomly asked her what her favorite color was and she responded "puh-pull," a word I'd never heard her say before.  After that, even though she could pretty much always give me the right color block or toy and point out right color, she called everything puh-pull.  Her next favorite color was blue, so everything was blue, but then when we were at the beach in June she got it and would name the correct color. Now her favorite color is (usually) puh-pull again.

Baths and bath toys: Bailey loves baths for the most part (although she hates having water poured over her head).  She loves to color in the bath tub with crayons (circles) and loves "bubbles." Also loves colored baths, which I think are the coolest, with boats.

Baby talk:  When Bailey first started talking, she loved to do a blabbering-type noise that sounded kind of like blablablablablablablabla with her mouth abd tongue moving all over the place.   We loved it and would do it back, and then one day it turned to - Mamadadamamadadamamadadamamadadaaaaaaa! (said very quickly in an auctioneer voice - unfortunately I never did get either one of these on video.) Now she changes it up and will do dadamamadadamamareillyBAILEY and all kinds of other combinations.

"Tutch":  When we walked up the stairs to the condo we are currently living in, Bailey would always want to reach out and touch the wall and say "Tooouuuch . . . Tooouuuch" (pronounced "tutch" as in Dutch.)

DADA! (said loudly and while pointing at strangers):  When Bailey first learned to say dada, for some reason she thought that was every man's name (I think it was because all the men who would pick up her classmates were referred to as "dada.")  So she would call random, and sometimes strange, men "dada" very loudly, in public - especially at the grocery store.  Which would make me giggle awkwardly and say "OHHHH you want to go HOME to see YOUR DADA soon" very loudly, so that the man would hopefully hear me and not think I was training a toddler to pick out potential father figures.

"No know": Instead of saying "I don't know" Bailey first said "I no know."  Not sure why this makes me so happy - somehow there is a simple logic there that speaks to me.

Not hepful:  Bailey is certainly growing in independence every day, and whether it's the playground, getting a spoon out of the drawer, or putting up blocks, she often wants to do it on her own and says "no hep me!"  Of course, she then tries to assert this independence while climbing and/or swimming, and she has to learn to accept the "hep." 

Almost: Bailey loved to play with her blocks and try to put them in the right holes on the top of the bucket and she would say "ALMOST!" in a very determined manner every time she missed.  This sounds so boring, but I promise it was really cute. 

Best (school) friends forever:  Bailey's bffs at school appear to be a pair of twin boys named Beau and Tate.  As in, the answer to my question of "what did you do at school today?" when I pick her up is often, and almost automatically, "BeauTate."  She's now diversified a little and will talk about playing with Hudson or Grayson too, and I've seen her play with Paxton more than anyone else when I come to pick her up, but she does not appear to have much interest in playing with girls. 

"Maddie book me" - when we first got to the beach, Bailey was thrilled to learn that her cousin Maddie could read her books and (thankfully I caught this on video) looked at me with pure joy and said "Maddie book me!"

Mamadada:  For a long time, Bailey would often (but by no means always) refer to Scott and/or me as "mamadada," like we were a unit, and would only sometimes correct herself to say one or the other. 

Taroline:  Similarly, Bailey also seemed to think of Maddie and Caroline as a unit, and chose to refer to them singularly as "Taroline" (as in, "I see Taroline now?  I pay (translation: play) Taroline?"  Even if it was just Maddie, she called her Taroline.

Sea Turtles:  At the beach, Caroline told Bailey that sea shells were sea turtles.  Sweet little gullible Bailey walked around all week getting so excited to find sea turtles, and completely disregarded everyone else calling them shells.

Beach toys:  For the most part, on our beach trip Bailey would only stay on the beach for 10-15 minutes, after which she would want to go play with the hose and foot bucket on the porch.  For hours.

Fearless and fearful: At the beach Bailey touched a real live star fish and loved sticking her hand in the minnow bucket and pulling it out and yelling "it tickle me!!!" and giggling excitedly.  However, she refused to go on the tube with mama or dada in the creek (she finally did it a few weeks later on the big boat in the lake).

Helpful lessons from cousins:  At the beach, Bailey started using the term "stopit!" which we've tried to delicately change to "stop please" or "no please."  She also learned the joy of closing doors which has continued even though one of her helpful cousins managed to shut her fingers in one while at the beach (which was thankfully treated only by emergency bandaid by dada while mama was not around).

NO CARS!: We started teaching Bailey about stopping on the street before you cross to look for cars awhile ago, but she didn't really get it until the beach, where she would yell out "NO CARS!" before crossing the street to get to the dock (she didn't necessarily look before yelling it, but at least it showed that she knew the concept.)

Duh:  For awhile, Bailey would  ask what something was and when you'd answer she'd say "ohh" or "ohhhhh yeah!"  (like she obviously knew that already and had just forgotten for a second) or "yeah" (like, obviously I knew that, I just wanted to make sure you did).

Soon and Now:  Bailey learned the concept of "soon" almost exclusively as it related to Peppa Pig (her favorite show until about a week ago).  As in, when we got home in the evening she'd want to watch Peppa, which we don't do til after dinner, so I'd say no and she responded by saying "Peppa soon?"  She first demonstrated her knowledge of the concept of "now" by demanding that "mama pay (translated: play) NOW" while mama was folding laundry.

OINK:  Bailey started watching tv at around 18 months, and the only thing she would actually sit down and watch was Peppa pig for some reason.  During the height of her Peppa obsession, Bailey started saying PEPPA PIG "OINK!" in a manner that was scarily and impressively identical to the way Peppa says her name in the opening and the realistic pig noise that follows it.

So friendly:  Bailey loves saying "hi" not just to strangers and children who enter her general area, but also to inanimate things - "hi dada car" "hi cottage cheese" "hi cup."  Same with bye-bye.

Night Night Songs:  At night, we've always sung songs before we leave her to go to sleep.  However, a couple months ago, my normal "sunshine song" (translation: you are my sunshine) or altered lyrics to "the Lord's been good to me" song (my lyrics:  ohhhh the Lord's been good to me/ and so I thank the Lord/ for giving me the things I need/the sun and the rain and my sweet Bailey/the Lord's been good to me) were no longer enough.  Bailey demanded a "night night song" which I made up on the spot and which I'll post later.  Seemed to make her happy, which made me happy.  Over the last few weeks, however, the only night night song she regularly requests is her dada's rendition of  "Rocky Top," and he literally sings her every single verse as she sings along and actually impressively gets a number of words right (not moonshine yet, unfortunately).

So Exciting:  Bailey gets very easily excited about just about anything and very clearly exhibits that enthusiasm by saying loudly and with a smile "EXCITED!" or "FUN!"  As in, "Bath soon.  I excited!"  or talking about going to the lake "FUN!"

Mmmm mmm good:  Bailey loves to eat most things and will say they are "dewicious!" or "yummy in my tummy!"

Boats and Dreams:  Bailey loves boats and loved getting on "Dada Boat" when we took it to the beach.  Now that we often go out on the lake at Norris with Mimi and Pops, she mostly talks about "Pops' boat" and tells me that she dreamed about pops' boat at night, where she was with mama in the wawa going fast!  More recently, in the last couple of weeks, her dreams have involved horses, which is kind of interesting considering I don't think she's ever seen a real horse and the closest she's gotten to riding one is the horsey in her room which is not exactly realistic.

Dr. Bailey:  Bailey started LOVING babies a few months ago, and about 6 weeks ago she started lining up ALL of the babies at Mimi and Pops' house, which is a lot, and say "Sick! baby need medcine!" (that is not a typo on the spelling of medicine, that is exactly how she says it.) Now she does this very frequently and her babies are "sick" all the time.  Maybe she's not the best doctor.....

Cheese!:  Blame instagram, blame my craziness, it doesn't matter, but I am the first to admit that I am almost constantly trying to take pictures of Bailey and somewhere along the line, Bailey developed a "cheese" face, which is a very unnatural looking smile with her eyes mostly closed.  When she sees my phone or another camera pointed at her and doesn't want her picture taken, she says "no cheese me," sometimes while making the cheese face.  Thankfully she will also make a "happy face" that is a more natural looking smile.

Swim lessons:  At her first swim lesson, they taught blowing bubbles, which I demonstrated to Bailey,  only to have her yell "NO DRINK THAT WAWA MAMA!" every single time I did it, no matter how much I defended myself and assured her that I was not, in fact, drinking the water.  Of course, then when she finally tried to blow bubbles, she pretty much ended up just drinking the pool water.   

Baby pooh:  After swim lesson, we would always go to the outdoor baby pool, which Bailey loves and refers to as the "Baby Pooh."  She also referred to her swim lesson as her "pooh lesson."  Thankfully, she never poohed in either one.

Right and left:  Daddy is already trying to teach Bailey right and left, and to my surprise she gets it right somewhat consistently.

Reilly:  Bailey now refers to our dog almost exclusively as "REILLYDOG."

Can't say I didn't warn her:  Bailey will try most foods - but sometimes she is more adventurous than others. For example, one night I was making a recipe that called for garlic powder while sitting at the table with Bailey as she was eating her dinner.  Despite my warnings, she demanded to try some, and then made a disgusted face and kept telling me "it's in my mouth!" until she finally followed my advice to drink milk to get the taste out. 

Hugs and kisses: Bailey has never been overly affectionate, unless sick and/or tired.  In fact, she would often refuse to give me and Scott kisses and hugs saying, "no hug me mama" or "no hug me dada."  In the recent weeks, however, she has started expressing her love more openly -  she loves to give super snuggly hugs and grab mine and dada's faces and give kisses, and makes me and Scott give each other a kiss, and she LOVES family hugs.

Here's "ooking" at you:  Whenever Bailey is doing something she thinks is cute and thinks no one is paying enough attention, she'll say "ooka me ooka me" (translation: look at me, look at me).

Boo (insert fake scared reaction here.  Repeat 737 times):  This is what Bailey refers to as "booin'" (as in "I booin'") which is loosely translated as: I'm going to go behind something like a curtain for .5 seconds then shout boo then forget all about actually pretending to hide and just continue to shout boo at you and be thrilled if you react in any way such as shouting boo back or pretending to be scared.  It never, ever gets old.  To anyone.  Ever.

She was running!:  Bailey has started loving to run.  However, after starting, she insists upon stopping to make a panting "ah ah ah" sound.  I'm guessing school taught her this?  She'll keep going, however, especially if you let her run in circles, which combines two of her favorite things.

Achoo: Most of the time when someone sneezes, Bailey says "achoo" instead of bless you (recently she's sometimes started to say bless you, but rarely).

BOTH: if given a choice between two things, Bailey very early learned that normally she would prefer both even if that was not exactly an option.

Picky picky: Sometimes Bailey will order me (or Scott, but not as frequently) not to come somewhere.  It started at the beach, and I would stay where I was, as long as I was closer to the water than she was.  She sometimes does it for bathtime and story time too, although she always ends up asking the parent she'd formerly kicked out to come back in about 30 seconds later.  Not sure why she does this, but we try to respect her opinion. 

Favorite foods and drinks: COTTAGE CHEESE is just about the only food Bailey will eat anytime, anywhere, and in an amount large enough to fill her tummy.  Bailey also loves yogurt and will now eat two yobaby yogurts (she used to pick between two, but of course now wants both, with two spoons or a spoon and a "spoonfork") for breakfast.  Yogurt and pancakes are about the only foods she will eat for breakfast.  Bailey started loving peanut butter at the beach when her cousins were eating it, but she seems to like it only by itself and will lick it off whatever vehicle I try to put with it, such as apples or banana or pretzels, even though she likes all those things too.  She loves fruits, especially blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples, grapes, mandarin oranges, and bananas.  She loves avocado and peanuts (and cashews, which she refers to as peanuts).  The only vegetables she'll consistently eat are corn and green beans, which is probably my fault because they are convenient and easy - she used to eat sweet potato and squash but now pretty much refuses them when I take the time to make them.  Her favorite snack is white cheddar cheese popcorn, just like her mama.  She'll usually eat a good bit of spaghetti, but sometimes not, and recently loved my sausage pasta bake for the first time.   When offered juice and/or gatorade, she will take  few sips but not really drink it, but she loves to drink water and milk and will frequently make an "ahhh" sound after taking a long drink.  The only sweet things she really likes are m & ms and mini reeses cups.  She doesn't like, and refuses to eat, ice cream and popscicles, even though she LOVES plain ice (I don't get it either).  Bailey has recently decreased the amount she eats over all, at least at school - they used to consistently circle "heavy" to describe her eating at lunch, but now she's usually medium, and sometimes light.

Books:  Bailey loves to read books and would probably rather do that than anything else.  She loves the Sandra Boynton books especially - Moo, Baaa, Lalala, was her first favorite book, and she still loves it.  She loves to act out the Barnyard Dance with mama, and recently started loving Happy Hippo Angry Duck.  She shocked me and Scott by knowing "Doggies" almost by heart a few weeks ago.  She loves nursery rhymes, especially riding mama and/or dada's leg for the "Grand ol' Duke of York."  She loves the Elmo, Goodnight Gorilla, and Stinky Face books.  She loves for daddy to read her counting book, but not so much mama. 

Yemma Yemma:  (yes, this is also about books, but deserves its own space)  For awhile, Bailey would ask for yemma yemma sometimes at night.  Thinking it was a song, I asked the music teacher at school, who had no idea.  Finally one day they were reading a Llama Llama book in her class when I picked her up, and Bailey shouted "yemma yemma," so I realized that she loved those books and dutifully ordered several of them from Amazon because that is what good mamas do, right?  Well, I know they are very popular, and Bailey loves them, but I have to admit that I hate them.  First,  "Llama Llama Misses Mama" literally made me bawl the first time I read it and while we still read it because she loves it, it still makes me tear up every single time I read it (don't tell Bailey but sometimes I have to skip pages in order to make it through without ugly crying - talk about sending a spear straight into a working mama's heart).  Then, we had to hide "Llama Llama Red Pajama" because it was making Bailey get super panicked about where Mama Llama was, and it was just not worth it.  We still read "Llama Llama Mad at Mama" but I'm not a big fan of Llama's tantrum and the potential for Bailey to think that is appropriate behavior.  So anyway, I know the rhyming is great but couldn't Anna Dewdley have written some more upbeat stories?  I like Sandra Boynton better, hands down. 

Nighttime Routine:  Well, after months and months of stressful evenings with numerous screaming bouts and multiple trips in to give more hugs, fix a blanket, get a new book, have one more tiny sip of water, etc., I realized that it was not good for me or Bailey to have her learn to scream at me until I came back in after saying night night.  So, the last few evenings we have enacted a tough love, cry it out, whatever you want to call it regimen.  She cried off and on for 42 minutes the first night, 12 minutes the next, 6 minutes the next, then very little the next night (although it was way past her bedtime, so that's probably why).  Then she regressed a little last night and cried off and on for 25 minutes last night.  It's absolutely heart wrenching and miserable to hear your name being called out but I am determined to stay the course and hope we can eliminate any crying when mommy and daddy leave her to go night night.  I absolutely, positively hate not going in there and getting those sweet hugs and I miss them immensely but overall, the stress it was causing to all of us was just not fair or worth it.

PHEW!!!  Well, that's all I can think of for now, and this blog post literally took months to write.  And, I'm pretty sure that no one but me and Scott and maybe Bailey will probably ever read it in its entirety, but that's enough for me.  Can't believe Bailey will be 2 in a little over a month, but I'll get all sentimental about that when the time comes.  For now, here's a picture of our beautiful girl looking way older than her years this morning before leaving for school: