BFFs

So yesterday when Bailey was having breakfast, I sat down to talk to her (while I multi-tasked and put on my makeup to get ready for work as has become our custom - not proud of that fact, but this is the only possible way we ever make it out of the door at a not completely unreasonable time, although I'm not gonna lie, we are much later than we want to be just about every single day....) 

Anyway, during a discussion about what Bailey had done at school the day before, we had the following exchange: 

Bailey:  I told Amelia [her new school bff who is adorable and has a mom who is really nice, which is awesome] that she could come play at our new house when we're all moved in.   What other friends can I have over?

Me:  Well, who else do you want to ask to come over and play? 

Bailey: Hmmm.....babababa [that's her new "thinking" sound, no idea where it came from]......well, daddy's always here, so.......

This is one of my all-time favorite exchanges so far......right up there with the first time she hugged my neck and said "we're best friends" and when she told me "thank you thank you for all that you do" right when were having a rough time and I really needed some encouragement.  

I am so thankful that Bailey has such a fantastic and fun playmate, friend, and daddy.  He has been just about killing himself moving us into this house and staying up late at night unpacking and organizing all of our junk while I have mostly eaten ice cream and cheered him on while sitting on the couch and/or sleeping (I have washed a few dishes but that's about it).  Being this pregnant (we moved when I was about 39 weeks pregnant - baby boy who still doesn't have a name is due Sunday!) makes me mostly worthless when it comes to moving/packing/unpacking and he has picked up my slack and more without complaint.  

He is amazing and thoughtful and works so hard for our family while somehow keeping up the energy to play with Bailey so much that she doesn't feel like she needs friends to come over.  He doesn't always get credit for it but he keeps doing it anyway. 

Sorry to be sappy for two posts in a row, but just had to get out there how Bailey, little brother (whom I call "buddy" for now...), and I are so very lucky.  

no, thank YOU!

So we have some very major changes coming up which I have not really shared outside of those I see regularly and know very well (umm well those people and instagram of course).  

Long story very short, after looking for a house for approximately a year and a half (with some off time in there), we have finally gotten what appears to be a secure contract on a house and closing is set for May 30.  Also, Bailey is getting a BABY BROTHER who is due June 9 (but will be kicked out no later than June 11).  We have been focusing quite a bit of energy on both of these things for a long time, and BOTH are just now actually about to happen.  So the focus and excitement about these changes has, of course, increased. 

Well, just in time for these major life changes, Bailey appears to have hit a bit of a rough patch.  Tantrums, extreme fussiness over very minor things, and a general unwillingness to cooperate/sassy attitude.  She just seems to be missing a bit of her usual sweet laid back nature lately (although, to be fair, there are still many moments where she still shows that nature, and by no means do I think any fundamental part of her sweet, loving, and joyful personality has changed).  Her teachers, who are around children of this age on a regular basis and have been for many years, don't think it is just her age (although I'm sure that's part of it) but that a good bit of it is stress.  

Which has, of course, triggered many unpleasant feelings for me, as this stress is almost certainly caused by the impending move and baby, which we keep talking about but for which Bailey has no frame of reference regarding time or impact on her.  Some examples of my recent emotions: extreme guilt (I've been focusing on all the wrong things, especially during the last few months when I should be focusing on Bailey!), frustration (she's always been so good at rolling!  where is my child who can handle anything with a smile?!), sadness (I miss all the laughing and fun times), and fear (what if this is not stress, but rather just my own super emotional side coming out in my child?  I was almost held back from kindergarten for crying too much and I remember quite vividly the extreme emotions and sadness I would feel over the most mundane things, such as learning we had bought the wrong crayons for my kindergarten class - true story).  

In the midst of my panic and guilt, a couple days ago, thanks to some very wise words of advice from my very smart, professional mommy sister, I decided I was going to stop talking so much about baby brother and the new house - not avoid the topics, but not focus on them.  I also went and picked Bailey up and took her to the playground to have some one on one time instead of going straight home and rushing into dinner/bed prep (also my sister's idea :)).  Then yesterday, I went to school for her sweet teacher's Mother's Day lunch for all the mommies, and tried to let her know exactly how excited I was to spend that special time with her on a work day.  I went to her school performance last night and raved about how well she did (she was seriously awesome - she has come such a long way from sitting in the teacher's lap picking her nose).

Well, on the way home from the church dinner after her performance last night, Bailey just randomly said "tank you mommy for coming to school to eat lunch and to see me sing and eating dinner with me."  It was so sweet, and genuine, and I appreciated it so much.  As I was driving, all I could do was pat her her leg and say "thank YOU baby, I have so much fun with you and I am so proud of you."

Well, THEN last night when we are singing songs to put her to sleep, Bailey said "mommy, tank you tank you tank you for all that you do" and gave me a big hug.   While I was trying to figure out if she had really just said what I thought she had said, she said it again.  And again.  And again.  Her sweet daddy tried to catch it on video but the flash caught her off guard and I don't think we got it, although I'm pretty sure he got a very cute video of her being very sweet anyway. 

This was seriously the best early Mother's day present I ever could have dreamed of.  I've checked with teachers and daddy, and no one seems to have put her up to it.  My sweet girl, even in the middle of all of her own stress and even when mommy has been focusing on all the wrong things and has had her own temper and whining issues, just wanted to tell me thank you for all that I do.  And I will never, ever, ever forget that.  

I could not love Bailey any more, no matter WHAT stage she is in or what things she may have done that I don't particularly like.  It is impossible to put into words how happy she makes me, even when there is so much other stuff going on. 

And I think we are all going to be just fine.  

The (in?)famous TWO

Well, Bailey, you have somehow turned into a sweet, fun, happy, and absolutely adorable two year old!

Birthday girl!

We have seen a few glimpses of the infamous sassy attitude and testing that are supposed to come with this age - you certainly express much stronger opinions about what you want to do instead of what we want you to do sometimes, and you will sometimes do the very thing we ask you NOT to do right after we ask you not to do it - but the vast majority of the time, you are still your sweet, silly, sassy but not too sassy, overall happy and joyful self, and the twos have been nowhere NEAR terrible.

 

Some less than happy two moments captured at the pumpkin patch.  Check out that lip on the right - that is advanced pouting.  To your credit, I think your poor mood that day was due to an ear infection we had not yet discovered :(

Here are some older and adorable things that I've forgotten to mention in previous posts, and some newer and adorable things you have just begun to show us: 

Reilly did it - (This is super old but I have to share it, it's too funny to forget) - On July 4, 2012, when you were all of 21 months, I fixed you leftover spaghetti and cottage cheese and fruit for lunch, all of which are some of your favorite foods.  I was packing for all of us to go to the lake while you ate and didn't listen to your instructions to "sit down!" (bad mommy, I know, but we were on a tight schedule and I had to get everything done somehow). Well, when I returned to check on you at one point, you had cottage cheese EVERYWHERE.  I told you that you had made a mess and your response was "Reilly did it."  I had to literally gulp down the laughter at this very obvious fib, your very first, at least to me!  It was truly one of the funniest moments yet.

Reilly's mess - obviously!

You ok in there? - (Another older one) When you first started really talking, you loved to narrate what you were doing.  So you would start running around the condo and we would hear something like this "I running, I running! [Boom, hear you say "ugh"]; I falllll! I otaaaay!!!"  It was so funny and joyful and happy, just like you. 

Nekkid - You have always loved to be, and tell us when you are, "nekkid" and "nekkid with a diaper on" (and yes, that is the way you say it!).

"My nekkid!  Wearing muddy puddle boots!"

Please and thank you! - You have excellent manners, at least to your dad and me.  In public, you get a little shy and freeze up on the please and thank you, or say them so softly the person you're talking to can't hear you.  But with us, you have been known to finish dinner, walk into the other room, and say "tank you mama for cooking me dinner!" with zero prompting, ever - you totally came up with that on your own.  You've also been known to tell us "tank you for paying with me" at night time.  Which pretty much makes us want to not put you to bed and take you to go play more, just because it's so amazing. 

Stickers save bedtime - A few months ago we started having the hardest time putting you down for bed and it was dragging on later and later.  You would cry, I would go in, I would leave, you would cry more, I would go back in, I would leave, and you would cry more, I would want to cry, over and over.  It was just awful and stressful and no fun for any of us.  We first tried some tough love to get you to cry it out (I had never, ever done that to you ever before, although I've always let you fuss for a couple of minutes to let you get some energy out and soothe yourself), and you did ok with that, but not great. Finally, I realized we should use a reward system, and we began giving you stickers in the morning and after nap if you went down without crying.  It has worked like a charm and you have done soooo well with it, saving us all a lot of heartache!

You loooove stickers.  Even if you want to stick them on your nose.  You sure do have a mind of your own.  

Amen - When you finish a book, you say "amen" instead of the end.  One of my favorite of your sweet habits. 

Time out - You respond well to time out, and the threat of time out, so you don't end up there too often.  We have had a few standoffs when you've refused to say "sorry" for the behavior that got you in trouble after a timeout, but we sit and talk it out and you finally do it.  I'm not sure where that stubbornness comes from (certainly not me or your father....or both.....and everyone else in the family....no, it couldn't be that :))

Not in time out, just a cute picture. 

"Happy see you" "I miss you" "Wuv you" - You have the cutest phrases - one day a few months ago when I came to pick you up you absolutely made my day when you just blurted out "I happy see you!"  You also say "I miss you" to both me and your daddy a lot - even when we've been together all day.  I kind of think it is your way of expressing "I love you," even though you'll occasionally say "wuv you" too - I always tell you how much I've missed you when I pick you up from school, so maybe that is where it came from?  Sometimes you will not let me say that I miss you back - when I try you say "NO mommy!  Only I miss YOU!" so all I can do is just sit there and hug on you and say thank you.  I also like to tease you and tell you "I miss you more" - and you will totally play with me and say "NO I miss YOU more" and we will go back and forth for awhile.  I always let you win, but that's because I know in my heart that I really "miss" you more :)

"Dat's my waugh" - You love to laugh, and sometimes after you do it you tell us "dat's my waugh" - it is such a funny thing for you to feel like you need to clarify.  

Sleep/Naps - You are a night owl who likes to sleep in, just like your parents, and you now usually go to sleep around 8 and would love to sleep til 8 for the most part, but we wake you up around 7:30 or so if you don't wake us up first. As for naps, for the most part, you still take (and very much need) your afternoon nap.  You have gone 3 days without any nap at all though - the first was our first day of the beach trip to Pawleys (late June 2012, so you were not quite 21 months), the second time was one day at the lake when we had you lay in the pack and play and all you did was play and laugh and sing for an hour so we gave up because we all wanted to go on the boat.  The third day, we were going to visit your great aunt Cissy in Nashville and you refused to nap in the car on the way there and there was no way you were going to nap when we go there because you were so excited to see all the fun family you hadn't seen in awhile! You are great at pushing through and still keeping a good attitude without a nap, and it is very impressive.  But I'm pretty sure none of us are anywhere near ready to give up the nap altogether!

"I can have fun at the lake and look this cute in the terrible spare boat glasses we bought at the gas station even without a nap!"

Chips - One of my favorite stories about your sweet little genius and knows how to get what she wants self happened when we were shopping a few weeks ago at Fresh Market.  I wanted to get your daddy some chocolate raisins, which we all enjoy, and when I picked them up you said you wanted some.  I told you they were for daddy but that maybe after we bought them and got in the car you could have a few.  As we continued shopping, you said (seemingly out of nowhere) "daddy likes chips," to which I suspiciously replied "yes, he does."  When we got in the line to check out, you said "oh! chips!" like we'd forgotten them.  I told you we had chips at home, and you replied "Oh.  Bailey likes chips!"  And then I cracked up - I knew exactly what you were going for.  You know how to get what you want!

Ticklish - You love to be tickled, but you also sometimes say that something that makes you happy "tickles you."  As in, I tell you we're going to Mimi and Pops' house or that Mo is coming over or we are going to a playground and you'll get all happy and say "that tickles me!"  It is even cuter than it sounds. 

East TN girl - Your accent is adorable, and has clear East TN notes, but your teachers at school also hear some Italian.  Some of my favorite of your accented phrases are when you say "I payin' wit mah to-wheeze raht na-yow." (translation:  "I'm playing with my toys right now")  You also had a phase, and this coincided with your loss of your ear tubes in your ear, when you would say "Wha's 'at no-wheeze" (translation: what's that noise?) no fewer than 714 times per day.  

East Tennessee girls cheer on the Vols, not matter how terrible they are!

"'Et's do dat!" - It is becoming harder and harder to convince you to do what we want you to do, but when we are able to convince you with a persuasive argument, you will relent very graciously by saying excitedly "'et's do dat!" and run in whatever direction "dat" is.  

Mebbe! - You have just recently started using the term "maybe" very appropriately and well, which for some reason seems to me to be a really advanced concept for your age.  The first time I heard you say it was one day when we were going grocery shopping at Kroger - you (and I) love the cheese samples that they put out, but recently they haven't been putting them out as much (maybe because some silly moms don't buy the expensive cheese that often but always get the samples for themselves and for their 2 year old - hmmmm.....).  Anyway, when we started going in the store, you said "I want some cheese!"  And I didn't want you to get your hopes up so I said, "well, they may not have it today, it's not always out."  To which you replied, with your eternal optimism that is so characteristic of you, "MEBBEEE!!!!"  It was perfect and completely caught me off guard (and no. they didn't have any out that day, darn it).

"Mebbe if I hold my chopsticks just right and stick my pinky out, I can move on from chicken to sushi."

Confidence - We went on a walk on the blvd with Reilly recently, and as fall has definitely arrived we were admiring all the pretty leaves when you randomly said "I want a pink flower!"  I told you that it was not really the time of year for those, and we kept walking.  Well, we soon came upon a house with a bush that had pink flowers on it, and your sweet and ever thoughtful daddy picked up some pink flower petals off the ground for you.  I said, "well, Bailey, I guess your wish is your daddy's command."  Without missing a beat , you said "and mommy's too."  I was too busy laughing to even try to argue with that!   

Tour guide - You love to narrate our car rides now and talk about a truck! and a skoo bus! every time you see them.  You also point out all the green and red lights, and say "green light means go!" and "red light stop!"  You get so excited when you see one so that you can tell us what color it is and what to do, it is so much fun. 

Why NOT? - Yes, my sweet girl, your fast moving mind has already started the "why" questions.  Your first one was about 2 weeks ago when you went through a series of "why" questions regarding bedtime - as in, we were in the final goodbye stage of night night routine and I said it's time to go night night and you said "why" and I said because you're tired and you said "why" and I said because you've been playing all day and you said "why" and I said ok no more games it is time to go night night :)  I try to be patient and answer as well and as many as I can (as long as it is not bedtime), but wow this seems early for the why questions and wow they are exhausting!

Why are the Vols not winning when they have such adorable cheerleader fans?  Now THAT is a question I'd like to hear the answer to. 

Best friends - ohhhh I might tear up writing this, but about a week ago I was taking you out of the bath and you just hugged my neck and said "we're best friends" and repeated it over and over and I could just FEEL your sweet sincerity in the big hug you gave me with those words.  You've also told daddy and me that we are your best friends while riding in the car together.  I have to say those statements were some of my very favorite moments so far and the sentiment is more than returned by myself and your sweet daddy.  I sure hope you feel that way forever.  Because I know that your daddy and I will.

Animals - You still love animals and the zoo especially.  We have a blast going to the zoo with you - you run around and know all the animal names, although your favorites are the elephants.  You still LOVE dogs and get so excited to see them too.

Favorite color - still blue, although you seem to like purple and pink a lot too.  

Mommy phase - You have always been both a mommy's girl and a daddy's girl - you might seem to prefer one of us one day, then the other the next day, and sometimes there would be some short phases where you preferred one of us for a couple of days. Lately, however, after you had a couple tummy bugs and a cold and started getting your molars, you have been in a solid mommy phase for the last few weeks.  Which is fine and probably totally normal, but I think it's been a little tough on both mommy and daddy in different ways.  However, TODAY you asked for your daddy to take you to Little Gym and had a BLAST going with him and getting a smoothie with him after, so I think we may have turned a corner on this phase.

School friends - You still like to play with Beau, but now I think Hudson is your favorite play buddy at school.  Since you recently moved up classes, a girl named Cora (who I think is about a year older than you or so) loved having you in her class and would get so excited to see you, but I can't tell if you are really friends with her and play with her or not, as you don't talk about her much.  You definitely decided to be a bee for Halloween this year when Cora was being a bee and asked to go on the "school bus" - a traveling bus that comes to school and has fun gymnastics activities inside - which Cora does, so I think at the very least, you admire her a bit.  Paxton apparently talks about you at home, and I can tell he gets excited when you come to class, as he always wants to come over and be near you.  

TV - we have moved on from Peppa, your first very favorite show, and you never really ask to watch it anymore.  You went from preferring Little Bear to wanting "Doos" [translation: George as in Curious George] and now Little Einsteins and Olivia.  It's nice to have some variety, but a little sad to leave Peppa behind.

You may not love Peppa anymore, but you still love muddy puddle boots and jumping in puddles.  And yes, if you're counting, this blog post contains pictures of all 3 of the pairs of muddy puddle boots you own.  You have been very very blessed with hand me downs from your sweet cousins, that is for sure!

Favorite foods - you still LOVE cottage cheese, avocado, all fruits (especially strawberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, blueberries, grapes, and blackberries - and SMOOTHIES), and yogurt, and those are your main staples in your diet.  You love macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, popcorn, cheese, and chicken (fried or grilled) too, and you just really started eating pizza and seem to be liking it (after rejecting it for a long time).  Despite your love for naturally sweet fruits, you absolutely will not eat sweets and we are fine with that even though I don't think any of us really understand it.  Both times I tried to give you a cupcake for your birthday, you turned it upside down and refused to eat it (see first picture above - cupcake top down on your tray!).  You've been asking for candy a lot since it's been Halloween time, and while you've choked down a couple bites of m&ms and reese's peanut butter cups, you mostly spit out the candy and tell me "I no yike it!"  The only thing you actually ate out of your Halloween basket was the popcorn bag one of the houses handed out.  I'm not sure if this rejection of sweets will continue, but it will be very interesting to see!  You certainly didn't get that from your daddy or me!

Outdoors girl - you have always loved leaves, rocks, and sticks, and that has continued.  You love the fall leaves and have to pick up at least one just about every time we walk into school.  I love that about you and encourage it :)

Babies - you still love all babies, and have a lineup that you have to sleep with every night, but you are especially into baby "Fina" (yes you named her!) and your monkey "Ah Ah."  (get it?  yes you named him (her?) too!).  Your sleep crew consists of bunny, JR, Ah Ah, Fina, and 2 "widdle babies" as well as a number of blankets.

Skills - you are doing great at counting, and can count to more than 10 on a regular basis, although its just memorization right now - you don't get how to actually count things.  You are doing great at singing the alphabet and a number of other songs - Old MacDonald, bunny foo foo, happy birthday, the leaves are falling down, and you'll even join us in Rocky Top (still your favorite night night song) every once in awhile.

Singing happy birthday to sweet Caroline :)

Books - you are still LOVING books (which your mama who also loves books LOVES).  You have moved on a bit from the Llama Llama ones (thankfully) and actually seem to prefer longer and more involved books - for instance, the Berenstain Bear, Mercer Mayor, and When You Give a Pig a Pancake books we've gotten with our Chick fil A meals have seemed to become your favorites recently.

Birthday - we did not do a big birthday party this year.  Instead, I fixed pancakes, fruit salad, breakfast casserole, and cupcakes for everyone at Mimi and Pops' house while all your family members who were in town, including those visiting from Memphis and Louisville, came over.  We put balloons on your door for you to walk through when you woke up and balloons all over the kitchen and I think you loved it.  You got so many awesome presents but your favorite was your doctor's kit.  You still like to say it's your "bird-day pahrty" and have us sing you happy birthday.  Next year we'll have to give you a bigger party now that we know you'll love it so much.

Halloween - this year you had a serious opinion about Halloween - you wanted to be a bee! (AGAIN!) I was not thrilled with this since we did this last year, so I kept asking you over and over every day to see if you'd change your mind.  When you didn't after about 3 weeks, I ordered the cutest bee costume I could find.  Well, lo and behold, about 3 days after we get the costume and 2 days before Halloween, you watched an Olivia episode with a ghost in it and decided you would be a ghost.  Your sweet daddy tried to humor you and tell you you could be both, but mommy stood her ground.  Thankfully, when Halloween came, you were just tickled to be a bee and you were the cutest one I've ever seen!

Well, Bailey, those are all of the fun anecdotes I can think of to share, but I know there are so many amazing moments I could never express here that you share with us every day.  

You literally make me and your daddy so very happy EVERY SINGLE day.  We are both so incredibly proud of the person you are becoming, it is amazing and humbling to watch.  You sure do make us look good.  

We love to spend time with you.  You are funny, you are silly, you are thoughtful, you are brave, and you are incredibly fun to be around.  You still have that positive energy that just follows you everywhere which has been there since you were a tiny baby.  It is like a breath of fresh air to see your sweet, happy, optimistic, self grow and learn new things every day.  

I love you more than words can say and I will always, always be your best friend.

Love, your mama.  

Bailey's Birth Story

(*Note - No, you have not traveled back in time, I fully realize that this post is over two years late, and yes, I am working on a two year post for Bailey because she totally deserves a fabulous one!  But I have to write this down or else I know I'll forget it, and I don't want to forget the night my most favorite girl in the world decided she wanted to join us.....)

On September 30, 2010 (two days before I was due on October 2), Scott and I went out to dinner with a friend of mine who'd clerked in the Western District with me.  I ate a delicious bbq chicken pizza, and I'm pretty sure that despite my huge belly I found the room in my stomach to just about finish it off.  We went home afterwards and went to bed as usual.  I woke up around 2 am or so that night to go to the bathroom (as is annoyingly normal during pregnancy) but when I stood up, I felt a gush of fluid.  It wasn't huge, just kind of felt like I'd peed my pants a medium-sized amount (sorry if that's tmi, but after everything that happened later, this is nothing, so if that bothers you you should prob stop reading now). 

I woke Scott up to tell him I thought my water may have broken, and he more or less replied that I was crazy, there was no way that was what that was and we'd know for sure if it had.  So I got back in bed and tried to go back to sleep.  Of course, I couldn't sleep and when I stood up again, the same thing happened again.  So I walked around the house a few times trying to figure out what was going on and while there were a few more small gushes, there was nothing to clearly indicate anything was going on.  I then laid back down and, after awhile, I felt what I was sure was my first contraction (I'd had a few episodes of feeling extreme tightness in my belly, which I guess may have been braxton hicks, but nothing like this).  I got up a little while later and went to the bathroom and saw some spotting, which our doctor had just told us at the appointment that week was a pretty good sign "things were really happening."  So, at that point I told Scott I was pretty sure this was the real deal.  To which he replied, and no I'm not joking, "then I have a project at work for Bob that I really need to go downtown to finish up first."  I wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought, and really thought that was a pretty weird response at that moment, but I was still feeling pretty good so I told him to go if he had to, but to hurry.  So I laid in bed holding Reilly for the next couple of hours while timing contractions with handy little app on my phone.  (Reading this now with the benefit of hindsight, I can't believe I didn't call the doctor immediately after the first gush.  I mean, losing amniotic fluid is no joke!  No idea where my brain was.  Also in hindsight, after all the stories I've read about how fast labor can go for some people, I can't say I think that having Scott leave me alone while I was in labor was the best idea and I don't necessarily think I'd be ok with doing it again, but at the time I was totally comfortable with it for some reason.  So, I'm glad it everything turned out ok!)

At about 5:30 am or so, I finally called Scott and told him I was taking a shower and putting on makeup because it was time to go.  The contractions were still manageable, but they were now about 3 minutes apart and getting closer together and I did not want to push it too far.  So he came home and we headed to the hospital. 

Once we got to the hospital waiting room around 6:30 or 7 a.m., I was still having frequent contractions but they were still manageable.  I remember there was a very young and very pregnant girl with her parents in the waiting room in a wheelchair who seemed to be having pains much worse than me, so I felt a little silly being there.  When we got to the room, they checked me and I was still only 1.5 cm dilated, exactly what I had been at my last doctor's appointment, so I thought I might get sent home.  Apparently they saw enough regular contractions to make me stay though, so we settled in and they started the pitocin.  Strangely, we learned later that the young girl who had been with her parents and made me seem so not in labor had actually not been in labor and had been sent home (not sure why or how we learned that).  I still wonder what happened to her and what her story was.

The doctor at the hospital, who was not my doctor but someone in her practice that I had never met before, explained to me the "continuum of dilation" or something like that, and mentioned that she had a couple of students with her on the shift and I agreed that they could observe me and that I would answer questions for them.  I can't exactly remember what they asked, but it was mostly about whether we had any other kids, my pain level, etc. 

Since the contractions were still manageable, I didn't get an epidural right away and rather chose to try to go as far on my own as I could.  However, I did not do very well on the "continuum of dilation," and after a number of hours I was still around a 2.  So I agreed to get the epidural, which was not fun  (apparently I have a "narrow space" and the anesthesiologist had such a hard time that after a few pokes at me, she had to call in someone else to do it) but totally worth it afterwards. 

After the epidural, I could finally relax and sleep a little bit through the contractions, which was nice as I'd been up since 2 a.m.  Unfortunately, I still didn't dilate.  The doctor came in a little before 5 p.m to check me, and I had still not dilated to a 4 - I think I was 2.5 or 3.  The sweet students who had been so enthusiastic about getting to see the full process were long gone.  At that point, the doctor let me know that based on her "continuum," I had less than a ten percent chance of delivering vaginally, but let me know that as long as I was not in distress and the baby was not in distress, we could keep trying.  Of course, I opted to keep trying. 

I'm pretty sure that about 30 seconds after the doctor said that and left the room, she came marching right back in and let me know that I no longer really had a choice - Bailey was in distress.  That was one of the scariest and saddest moments of my life, and I will never forget it.  But I was not about to risk my child's well-being for trying to have a birth experience for myself, and immediately agreed to a c-section. 

Things went pretty fast after that.  They upped my epidural significantly, and I think they gave me some kind of green oral medication too, because I vividly remember throwing up green stuff everywhere as they wheeled me down the hall to surgery.  We got to the OR and Scott wasn't there, and I was terrified he was going to miss it, but thankfully he showed up before things really got going. 

I remember everyone in the OR seeming to be in a good mood and laughing and joking together.  At first that seemed weird to me because I was completely terrified, but it also kind of comforted me to see people acting like this was all just normal and a pleasant experience, and it makes me happy to remember Bailey coming in the world to such a relaxed atmosphere.  I remember feeling the pushing on my belly and looking at Scott and saying "don't you want to see this?"  He was then confused, because we had previously agreed that he would stay AT MY HEAD during the birth - I didn't want anyone who was not getting paid to see what happened "down there."  I guess he didn't realize that rule didn't apply to a c-section, and only just peeked over the curtain to see the doctor pull Bailey out of my belly. 

I remember them telling me that she had been a little off in her positioning, and that may have been part of why she couldn't get out.  Instead of the conehead most babies get from the birth canal, she had a large lump on the side of her head (which would remain for several weeks).

Scott got to see and hold her first while they sewed me back up, which made me a little sad, but they finally laid her on my chest and I was in love and completely and utterly terrified of this sweet baby that I had thought I would recognize immediately.  All I wanted to do was hold her and love on her, but I also felt like - wow, I have NEVER seen this baby's face before, and I have NO idea what she's thinking, but she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

After the c-section, they took her away to clean her for awhile and I shook like the dickens for what felt like forever (I know that probably is a really weird thing to put in a birth story, but I had never heard of the shaking before, and it completely freaked me out.  Why does no one talk about the shaking?!?!)    

But then they finally brought her back to us, and we were thrilled to be a happy little family of three :). 

A house

We are in a serious house hunt, with major hopes to be in before the holidays, and we just signed a contract making an offer for the first time since almost a year ago (a contract we ended up cancelling after we ended up arguing over nit-picky things with the sellers and finally just decided it would be smarter to pay off Scott's law school loans and live in a friend's condo until we saved up enough money for another down payment). 

We really like this house and while it's at the top of what we'd be willing to pay right now and definitely needs some updating, it's one that we can grow into and make changes at our own pace (nothing is so bad that we can't live with it for awhile), which is awesome.  I'm trying not to get too excited but would love some good thoughts and vibes if you have a chance!

I also have to share Bailey's thoughts about getting a house.  When I asked if she wanted to live in a house with mommy and daddy and Reilly, she said "Uh huh.  And more dogs."  This was completely out of the blue - she loves Reilly and definitely loves dogs but has never talked about wanting to get another one, and as Reilly demands the attention of about 7 dogs, Scott and I have never seriously discussed it either, especially not after having a child.  But, in an attempt to appease her, I said something like "Ummm I don't know about that - maybe down the road we can talk about getting a small dog" to which she replied "NO.  A BIG DOG.  I want a BIG DOG."  

I think for now we'll all just settle for a house. 

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:

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 :)