Sixteen and Seventeen Months

I would apologize for going so long between posts but I would have to do that every time I did a blog entry so I am going to jump into it. We have been busy, busy, busy and don't see that changing between now and the end of the year. Happy Thanksgiving and see you again in January! :-)

- Mary Beth is finally gaining some weight and we couldn't be more excited. We still cheer with every bite and celebrate any ounces gained. When we went to her 15 month appointment, she hadn't gained any weight since her one year and she fell off the chart. We have been seeing a specialist and she has been drinking two Ensure Plus drinks a day. She finally hit 20 pounds and I am proud to report she is back on the chart! We are still keeping a close eye on things but hope we will only have a few more appointments with the specialist. They pretty much told us that she should be eating everything that we shouldn't including tons of butter, oil and fried things. If she was only old enough to know what a gift she has been given, she would be scarfing down all the funnel cakes, fried chicken and ice cream she could get her hands on!
- Baby Einstein has become a new obsession around here. She didn't really like TV until the last two months and she is all about some BE, especially the farm animals episode. She actually will sit still for most of it except for during the square dance when she gets up and shakes her tail feathers. She likes to say the sounds that all the animals make and she has gotten really quick at this. Before we can hardly say the word cow she is mooing like crazy. It's pretty funny and it's our go to trick when we are around folks we haven't seen in a while.
- MB has been trying out her climbing skills. She especially likes stairs but she hasn't had much practice with them since we don't have any in our house (thank goodness). She tries to do chin-ups on the stove door and can almost climb up on our bed which is pretty high off the ground. I was a climber so she gets this honestly.
- The dramatics are pretty high around here. My personal favorite tantrum is the slow motion one where she slowly flings herself to the ground to avoid actually hurting herself. I have tried to catch it on video but she is way too smart for that.
- Reading books is one of her favorite things to do these days, especially anything to do with animals and peek-a-boo pages. She also really likes a bi-lingual book that has tons of objects in both Spanish and English.
- She it talking more and more and we are starting to be able to understand her more which is helping with some of the frustration.
- MB is a total daddy's girl. I am coming to terms with it but she says dada in the sweetest most angelic voice you have ever heard and when I tell her no, she runs to him while pointing at me and giving me the dirtiest look. When she says mama, it is because she is unhappy, hurt or wants something really bad. I am learning my place around here! It melts Dan's heart though so that makes is all worth it. He is so in love!
- She is still sleeping like a champ and normally sleeps until at least 9am. She was sleeping until almost 10am before the time changes. It is awesome and we are enjoying this while we can.
- MB is wearing size 12 months clothes and size 3 shoe. I think she will be moving out of these sizes quickly since the weight gain is finally happening.
- We were looking through a Target toy magazine and MB went crazy over this FurReal cat. She still goes back to that page, brings us the magazine and points to it over and over saying Meow, meow. She loves that thing and we have bought it for her for Christmas. We can't wait to see if she will like the real thing as much as she loves the picture.
- Our friend Lisa Butler (Cherry Berry Studio) took photos of us with Santa a few weeks ago and the pictures turned out pretty funny. MB screamed bloody murder when we handed her off to the big man in the red suit so I will be sure to share those pictures when I have them. I am pretty sure one of them will end up on our Christmas card.
- We have had a chance to visit with some very special people lately so I wanted to share some photos of what we have been up to.

Our friends Camila and Sean just had their second son, Henry Speight. We were excited to go see them in the hospital, Speight is soooo handsome. This is MB with big brother Winlon and we got so tickled at how they acted like it was an awkward first date.

Then the Tatum Tot came to visit! It has been a year since we last saw Luke and it was so fun to play with him. His parents are some of our most favorite people and we wish they would move back to Georgia. I stole these photos from Merran as I didn't take a single picture. I have no idea what I was thinking. In this photo MB was warming up to Luke riding her toys. She wasn't real sure about him at first.

Maybe putting on some of my jewels will boost my confidence.


Harmonious duet. They were so cute together.

This past weekend we make a quick trip to South GA and spent some time with one of Mary Beth's biggest fans, cousin Sadie. Sadie was kind enough to invite her to her school's fall festival and we had to go. She told her teacher that she was bringing Mary Bess from Lalanta to the party. I think she loves MB just a little bit, don't you?

Come with me and let's play.

Enjoying the tiniest cupcakes I have ever seen.

My pictures are not in the right order but I don't know how to move them around. Oh well, this is when we were leaving the zoo and a picture of MB's first M&M. I'm not sure why I decided blue would be the best one to go first.

We went to the zoo for Halloween with our buddies the Doyals and the petting zoo was a hit!

She was so brave and wanted to pet all of the animals. She was a cat if you can't tell. Little did mimi know when she bought the costume that MB would love cats as much as she does!

The girls posing with the giraffe. We love this family and Lucy was such a cute bee!

Trying to take a quick picture before they were off in separate directions.

Something was really funny.

Shocked that she made it to the top of the rock.

A picture of the not so glamorous side of being a mom. I had to collect six stool samples and they all had to be stored in different temperatures. The good news is that the test results came back great so it was worth it in the end!

Does life get any better than being kicked back in your recliner in your pajamas, watching Baby Einstein while chugging your ensure? I think not!

Cranky Pants

I just wrote a post to talk about how cranky I have been and for some reason, the text disappeared and I can't get it back! I am even more cranky now....grrrrr! But, I am hoping that getting updated on my photos will help things, I like being caught up on the old blog updates. So, the text is lost but at least the pictures survived.

First game of corn hole

Going through the tunnel at Lucy's party, this is a big milestone considering she hated the one we bought for her a few months ago.

Lucy turned one and had an "I Love Lucy" themed party!

The Milams at Scott and Kristen's wedding

This is mimi in her element, she needs a few more arms.

I loved the "M" covered in moss

Owen was so handsome in his mini bow tie. He seems very aware (albeit pleased) that he has a stalker right behind him.

Baby boom! Girls, girls everywhere!

Looking tiny in the huge head of cabbage.

The teeth are really coming in. She has four molars now!

Fun trip to the North Georgia fair with friends.

Gearing up for the winter although we may have prepared too soon.

This is how Mary Beth helps me keep our floors clean.

She didn't want to be held on the hayride, this action shot cracks me up.

I love this one!

Showing off her front teeth while we were in the mountains.

Texting with her jewels on - this probably is an accurate portrayal of our life in 13 years.

Old McDonald Has A Fan, EIEIO

Dan's favorite - the horse
My favorite - the pig, it's not quite Oink Oink but it cracks me up because she consistently does the same thing every time.

Some of our favorite things - Beach

There are so many things to love about the beach. Here are just a few things that we love...

having a pretty view to admire

showing off an adorable toothy grin

receiving a helping hand when we need it

kisses to show how much she cares

matching family photos

pictures where we all look as happy as we felt

doting grandparents

being adventurous with poses

holding hands with those we love

being together

lounging without the need for sunscreen

correcting grandaddy when he has the story all wrong

eating dessert after every meal

playing in the shallow water

having the beach to ourselves

climbing up to the sky

standing by your hero

seeking shade wherever possible

licking a vanilla wafer dipped in sand

making funny faces

hydrating after playing in the sand

and last but not least...feeling oh so pretty in your bathing suit.

Fourteen and (Almost) Fifteen Months!

Two more months have passed and there are a few moments that I want to jot down so I can remember and few that I would love to forget. :-)

- I had to go to Barnes & Noble to pick up a gift and I decided to take MB to the kids section. I had in mind that we would read some books and enjoy looking around at all the fun toys. We passed by the Sesame Street section and she started going crazy! She was pointing to the Big Birds and wouldn't stop pointing and grunting until I gave her both of the Big Birds that were there. She hugged them so tightly and carried them around the rest of the time that we were in the store and kept saying Big Buh, Big Buh. It was getting time for us to go and I returned to the aisle so we could drop off the Big Birds and say good-bye to them. No such luck. I managed to pry one of them out of her tiny little hands and she was not happy about it at all. To avoid embarrassment, I came up with the plan to ditch the other one at the counter so I could make a run for it. I totally chickened out when I got up to the cashier and decided to buy the stupid bird. The cashier could hardly get the thing scanned because she had such a tight grip on it. I had no idea that I would be that parent that would buy something to keep their kids quite. I was caught totally off guard by the whole encounter and will try not to give in next time. :-) She has really enjoyed her Big Buh and he is a new favorite although I have no idea how she was so fascinated by it. She may have seen one or two episodes of Sesame Street but whatever they are doing must be working.

- MB has had really bad separation anxiety these past few weeks. She doesn't want to go to anyone that she doesn't know really well and she cries when we put her down around strangers. This is such a new stage for us because she normally goes to anyone around and isn't really picky. She even gets anxious when it is just the two of us at home and she doesn't want me to be in another room or very far away.

- The thirteenth and fourteenth months were really hard for MB. She had several weeks where she didn't eat hardly anything and survived on Gatorade and goldfish. We think it was a combo of a stomach bug, teething and maybe even the regular milk she was drinking. She stopped drinking milk for a week or so and we started giving her soy milk again. I am going to wait and try dairy again at some point but I am enjoying this healthy time.

- While we were at the beach, she sent her monkey for a swim in the toilet. Her timing was perfect as I had just flushed it. Fortunately, I was able to grab it by the tail before it went down too far. She was then horrified that I wouldn't let her play with it until it was washed. It was hilarious!

- When we pick MB up from the church nursery, we always watch her for a few seconds before we call her name. She always is happily playing and enjoying the new toys and other kids. That is, until she sees us. Once she lays eyes on us she loses it and wants us to believe that she has had such a miserable time and puts on quite the dramatic show. One of the last times we picked her up, the nursery worker told us that she was such a compassionate child. She said that every time another child would cry, MB would start crying too. I would like to believe that she is compassionate but have a feeling other kids crying make her think that she must have a good reason to cry too. The good part is no one has to cry alone when she is around.

- MB took her first ride on an airplane last week. The two of us flew from Jacksonville to Atlanta. I am so put out with myself that I didn't take a picture but that didn't seem important at the time. 100% of my focus was on keeping her happy and keeping her from grabbing the hair of the old lady in front of us. She was dying to get her hands on it! She did great on the flight and we were seated next to a lady that absolutely loves babies so she helped entertain her. The flight ended at the perfect time as we were getting close to a meltdown. I think she fell asleep before we left the parking deck. I was thrilled with our choice to fly instead of me driving seven hours by myself. That could have gotten ugly.

- While we were on vacation, MB ate desserts after every meal. You wouldn't believe the appetite that she has for sweets, it's seriously impressive. She would eat whole pieces of dessert without blinking an eye. I have since bought mini ice cream sandwiches and she has been eating one almost every night after her supper. We are hoping that will beef her up!

- We bought a new car seat since she was getting too long for the infant carrier. She is still facing backwards but we are hoping to be able to turn her around in the next month or two. The last time we went to the doctor she weighed 17 pounds and 10 ounces.

- MB will be the perfect contestant for the 92nd season of Survivor. Smells do not seem to bother her. She seems completely unaware when she has a dirty diaper yet I can smell her just by walking by her room. She also will eat anything and everything. She even likes to chew on my sweaty socks after I exercise. And yes, I do stop her when I see her doing this and make all kinds of gross sounds to discourage her.

- She is learning more words and seems to understand a lot of what we say. We are amazed with how much she is learning and how grown she seems now. Something about wearing shoes and asking for juice makes her seem like she's twelve.

- I don't know how this happened but I didn't take one picture during the month of August. I guess since we spent several of those weeks with a sick baby, pictures were far from my mind. We have done much better in September and hope to post those soon.

- We love you Mary Beth and are enjoying your adventurous spirit, determination, love for life, your amazing laugh and your funny sense of humor. You are a little lady who knows what she wants and doesn't want and it is nice that we do not have to guess how you feel. We pray that you channel all of your strength, honesty and determination to do amazing things in your life. We will be there cheering you on all the way!