Watching Bailey grow...

Because of the Christmas holiday, I had a couple of days off from work so I thought I'd take a moment for an extra post to give you a quick update on what our day looks like. I know that most of you do not get to see Bailey, so I thought this might be nice for you. First, Bailey is so incredibly funny. Some of the things she does and says can bring you to tears. For example, she loves her stuffed animal Piglet so much, that I have to wash the poor animal every couple of weeks from the sheer amount of slobber on his nose :) She has such fire in her eyes, it's absolutely wonderful to see. Like Mommy, when she gets tired, she gets giddy; when she gets hungry, she gets grumpy.

Bailey is a strong communicator. Her first word, Mama, was at 8 months; she's been going strong ever since. At a year, she had about 12 words that she used, around 15 months she started using two word sentences and three word sentences popped up around age 19 months. By 15 months she could recognize most letters in the alphabet and count to 10. By 20 months she knew all the letters and we were working on numbers 1-20. She's very good at getting her point across and I am often amazed at how well she can communicate with me. She has started to sing along with the CD's in the car and will say, "God Bless you" when Tom or I sneeze. When we leave the market, she often tells the clerk to, "Have a good day" and "Merry Christmas" with a wave was popular this month :)

Bailey has started to play more make-believe. She's always played very well on her own, but she's started to vocalize her (make-believe) playtime more. You can now hear her making little voices for her stuffed animals or dolls in her doll house. It's really cute.

Bailey is not a fan of little boys. One little boy in her (Gymboree) play class tried to give her hug goodbye last week and Bailey ran the other way waving her hands and yelling, "no, no, no!". She may have found it a little traumatic, but Mommy found it a little funny. Sometimes my beautiful girl can be quite the drama-girl.

Bailey loves to read, go outdoors, shop...oh my goodness, this child LOVES the mall or Costco! She is her YiaYia's granddaughter! Bailey will walk into a clothing store and pull an item off the shelf with a resounding, "Cute!"; the other day, I got a "Cute outfit!"....it was the funniest thing :)

There you have it...a bit of an update. She's growing/changing fast so I'll do my best to sticking to my commitment of posting at least once a week.

Love you all...


Getting ready to go for a walk outside


Taken at a photo studio (The Picture People) 12/26/08

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas! I hope each of you have been as blessed as we have been these past few days. Celebrating the birth of Christ is always such a special time for my family. My parents (aka YiaYia and Popo) drove up the afternoon of Christmas Eve so we could go to an early service which was simple, a few song and a short serman, but very tender as I watched my baby girl raise her little hand to praise Jesus (she saw a gentleman in front of her doing this; heads up to us adults...children really do watch how we do, or do not, praise God). After service we went out to dinner and then for a drive around the neighborhood looking at lights (one house you actually got out and walked around they had so many...Bailey loved it, she didn't want to leave!). Once back home we started what can only be described as a nauseating over-indulgence of Christmas "cheer" (no, we don't drink but man, can we put away the sweets!).

Christmas morning was exciting at our home! This was Bailey's second Christmas, but the first one where she really "got it". It only took her walking into our family room to realize that Santa had been there :) She got a kick out of the gifts and the wrapping. It took only one or two presents before she realized that if she tore off the paper, a gift would be inside however... being the neat little girl that she is, she had to hand each piece of paper (no matter how small) to Mommy and emphasize the word, "trash". YiaYia and Popo brought Bailey this really cute Disney tricycle. It's purple and pink and will grow with her (there's a handle for me to push her with now and later she can use the peddles to move it herself). Bailey absolutely loved it :)

Today, the day after Christmas, we stopped by the mall for a bit and Bailey was genuinely upset that Santa was not there (not that she would have sat on his lap, but she liked to smile and wave at him....she's very brave from a far :) We're planning to take down our Christmas decorations this weekend but, we'll see how that goes. Bailey has grown pretty accustom to the Christmas lights, so it may take some "weaning" to prevent a melt-down :)

Pray that each of you were blessed this Christmas season. May the love of Christ, be felt by you all...


Bailey's new little "house", she has to make sure the door is closed behind her :)


Popo helping Bailey onto her new Disney tricycle



Bailey's just like her mommy... a baker :)



Mmmm...delicious!



No silly, I don't want to share :)



Bailey helping daddy with his wrapping...



Santa brought Bailey Minnie; she immediately had to find her Mickey and show him :)



Doctor Bailey checking out YiaYia's ear.



Popo is next to be checked out!



Bailey likes to listen to her heart...she'll tell you, "thump, thump...thump, thump" :)



My beautiful baby girl....



Bailey's newest "trick" :)

The Big Chicken and Daddy

Bailey loves spending time with her Daddy. Actually, if you ask her, she'll already tell you that Daddy is the fun one :) I think Tom is priming her for the teen years; while he may be prepared to grill (or should I say scare) the boys that come to pick her up when she's ready to date (which we're thinking should be around 23), I know that he still wants to be the "fun one". They'll be playing and sometimes he's laughing so hard that I need to come check on him, not Bailey. They have a great time together; it's hard to really know whose having more fun, him or Bailey...my guess, is it's a pretty close tie.

Our little angel, growing so quickly. This year, she's learning to say "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus" and I think she's starting to grasp that Santa is "magic" and that he may bring her a gift or two :)

Oh...and as for the "Big Chicken", we have one of these in Georgia. Actually, I think you're still considering visiting if you live in Georgia and don't know about the "Big Chicken" (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/7021). When Tom and I first moved to Atlanta in 2003, we moved a few miles down from this landmark so we were "locals" pretty quickly. Anyway....the other day Bailey and I were in that area of town. I could see Boo in my rear-view mirror (in her carseat), but I wasn't sure if she could see the Big Chicken from where she sat. All of a sudden, I saw her get this big smile and she laughs and says, "look at that" :) Funniest thing to see/hear! She's all of 22.5 months old and she's laughing at the Big Chicken and saying "look at that". It was one of those great moments, that I think I'll always remember.

Love to you all.

Visit from Uncle Josh...

We've had a great week, Uncle Josh came to visit! Bailey was a bit apprehensive at first (as she is with all new people) and my brother Joshua is a big guy with dark facial hair that added to Bailey's sense of "stranger danger" but, even so, she still loved him :)

While here, Josh, Bailey and I drove down to Alabama to see YiaYia and Popo.

We went to a Dothan favorite where a campground is transformed to a winter wonderland with thousands of Christmas lights. It was very cold, but also very pretty and we had a great time. Santa was there and Bailey was brave and sat (with Mommy) for a few photos.

Back on the home front, Bailey has decided that time-out is not only for her, but for Piglete. Apparently Piglet had misbehaved because I heard Bailey say "time-out Piglete" as she walked to a time-out corner in our dining room. I grabbed the camera just in time to see Bailey sit down with Piglete. I guess that will teach him! :) Bailey also discovered Daddy's shoes this past week. She and I were in the kitchen and I had my back turned to do dishes when I heard Bailey say, "too big...shoes". I turned around to see her trying to put on Tom's work shoes. How cute is my baby girl?! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful week!

Things that I love about my daughter....

Her smile

Her laugh
Her smell

Her eyes

Her hair

Her cute little thighs

The way she learns; how she soaks up everything

Her little voice

The way she runs, kind of like a prance :)

The fire in her eyes

Her imagination

How she's made my wonderful husband an even better man

How she knows that church is God's house, even though I've never told her that

How she gives life to a room, no matter how large the room

How she eats, mouth fulls at a time and mouth wide open :)

The way she genuinely thinks that if she yells "Meow", the cat will come running

The way she reacts to my being silly...you'd think I was a high paid comedian! :)

How she's taught me about patience

How she's taught me about unconditional love

When she reaches out to me

How she fills the arms that were empty

How she's filled the hole that was in my heart

When she calls me Mommy....

And the Magic continues....

While it's always hard to come home and back to the realities of "real life" after vacation, we've had a great week. Bailey's asked about Disney a few times with words like "condo" (where we stayed), "Dumbo" (apparently her favorite ride at Disney) and "Mickey Mouse" (why...because we love him! :). She even put on her Minnie Mouse ears all by herself! :)

After all the magic, the reality of my beautiful (however willful) child came out in true glory and she found herself in that special place we like to call, "Time Out". Bailey seems to find herself there about twice a week for a couple of minutes but, that short amount of time seems to make a lasting impression because if she's misbehaving, all I usually need to ask is, "would you like to go to time out?", to which she responds with a resounding "NO" and a sweet baby girl smile (that gets me every time....little stinker :). Even sitting in time out she's too cute....which is why I had to snap a picture :)

This week Bailey and her friend Evan took me and Evan's mommy to the aquarium. We had a great time! The girls showed some interest in the fish and were able to get some good energy out by running from tank to tank. The aquarium in Atlanta is the nation's largest so....there are a lot of tanks :)

This evening, Tom was playing with the camera and had Bailey look up at him. We thought the photo was cute so both Tom and I got down and looked up at the camera for photos of our own. Yes, we know, we're not as cute as she is :) Hope you've all had a great week....Oh and a shout out to the YiaYia and Popo....HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! We love you!

Disney Magic.....

This past week was Thanksgiving and we had a lot to be thankful for. Not only did we have our amazing baby girl to share the day with, but we also got to spend the day (the entire week actually) with her at Walt Disney World. It was AMAZING....exhausting to say the least, but absolutely amazing. As a mom who loves Disney, I've found that there is nothing better than experiencing the magic through your child's eyes. Bailey had a great time and did really well with meeting the characters, except Santa which should not leave my lap to go and see (actually, she wouldn't even him touch her hand :).

My parents (YiaYia and Popo) came along for the trip and were not only a huge help with our active toddler but, I believe, were blessed as much as we were with watching Boo experience Disney.

I took close to 300 pictures, which I reduced down to just about 150 and from that number I posted 12 pictures here. If you'd like more, just shoot me an e-mail. One picture, I will say, makes me a little sad...it's a picture of Bailey running next to a "big girl" (probably around age 4 or 5). Bailey was working hard to keep up with her and I wanted to say, "slow day baby girl..you're already growing to fast for Mommy". This picture is a look into the future for me. As we walked around Disney, I saw babies in their strollers; babies about the same age as Boo when we brought her last year. I looked at them and thought, "gosh, Bailey was that small last year"; when I look at this picture of Bailey running next to the older girl, I realize that soon she will be that big girl.....and "soon" is a word that is some days too fast for this Mommy. Parenting is bitter sweet I've decided. It's awesome to see your child grown and turn into this little person, but in order for that to happen, they must do just that...grow. I've decided that the growing happens too quickly. But...enough of my sadness! Our week was fantastic and my baby girl is amazing! :)

Lots of love to you all! I hope your Thanksgiving day, was as magical as ours.

Another week in the life of my beautiful Bailey....

This week brought cold weather to Atlanta. Bailey does not go outside without a heavy coat and hat. It puts a damper on our outdoor playtime, but she just makes up for that with extra energy inside :)

Next week, we'll be at Walt Disney World. Bailey is fast following in her mother's footsteps and loving everything Disney. I'll do my best to get some good photos while we're there and post them next week.

The photos below are from this past week...Bailey in her fancy winter coat (this is not her play coat, but a coat more purchased for YiaYia so Bailey can follow in her, girly-girl footsteps :), one picture of Bailey "chill'in" on a mattress topper that has taken up residency in my home office (yes, she is handing upside down) and a few from today (she's wearing the red shirt).