Vague Recollection

I have to admit that I do not remember much about January. It is all a drowsy blur full of nausea and naps. I am thrilled to say that I am feeling human again and am starting to get some energy back. Big shout out to Dan for taking care of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE over the past month or two. I even let him go to the grocery store a few times so y'all know I must have been seriously down for the count. I'm looking forward to catching up on some blog reading and hopefully have a few posts of my own. Here are a few pictures that helped jog my memory of the blizzard that came through a few weeks ago. I realized the downside of working from home is that I still have to work even when my entire city is shut down. It was depressing but when I think of all the other perks that come form working from home, it's not so bad after all.

Eating snow for the first time. I'm sure my floor was spotless. Everything was fair game at this point.

Excited about venturing out, this was about day four of the blizzard and the first that MB and I felt up to getting off the couch and stepping outside.

Dan was all about it and attempted to sled with a baking pan.

Ready to go back inside, she didn't want anything to do with the white stuff. Maybe next year!

Mary Beth is going to be a....

and we couldn't be happier!!!!!! The due date is 8/16 but given MB's late arrival, we are hoping the baby makes it before September. Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

Not a Chance!

I have been trying to take Mary Beth's 18 month lamb photo for weeks, I am giving up. Maybe we will have better luck during the two year old photo shoot. Yeah right.

Eighteen/Nineteen Months

Oh my, say it ain’t so! Our baby has passed the year and a half mark and is headed towards two! At times I can’t believe that is possible but then she reminds us that two is closer than we think. :-) Here are a few things that I want to remember about the past few months. There aren’t any pictures so please feel free to skip this post. The little lady is keeping us on our toes and we are enjoying her so much!

- NO - She has known this word for a really long time but only in the last month or so has she started saying it. No was not one of her first words which seems interesting because she hears it pretty often. It is still surprising when she tells us no and it is great that we are able to have more conversations with her and she can tell us what is on her mind (although her facial expressions have always told us plenty about what was on her mind).

- Hygiene - The girl has amazing hygiene. Her two favorite things to do are take a bath and brush her teeth. She would take ten baths a day and brush at least that often if we would let her. You know it gets bad when you have to tell you child that they can’t brush their teeth again. Side note for Mary Beth, you lose a few cleanliness points when you drink your own bath water and leave your tooth brush inside your little potty. I’m just saying, you may want to take a look at those two things.

- OCD - She has a little bit of Dan’s OCD from when he was a kid. I gave her some M&Ms the other day and she had to turn them all over to where the M was on top before she would eat them. Dan used to sort his M&Ms by color and then eat them in a specific order. Fortunately, Dan has loosened up a bit and can eat them in random order now so may MB has a chance!

- Babies, babies, babies - She is all about being a mama. She likes to give her babies bottles, rock them in her mini recliner and she gives them hugs and kisses. It is very sweet.

- Funny sense of humor - The girl is pretty funny. Just recently she took the ring of her toilet seat cover, put it in front of her face and started running around the house making faces through the toilet seat. She was cracking up and could hardly walk from laughing so much. We were sitting on the couch with her the other day and Dan asked her for a kiss. She gave him a sly grin and turned around and gave me a kiss instead and start cackling. It is funny to watch her try to make us laugh and she ends up getting so tickled we can’t help but laugh too.

- CK - MB’s pronunciation of words is still pretty muddled but she totally has the CK sound nailed. She says the words cheek, chick, neck, back, etc. really well and you can understand those words very clearly. Her vocabulary is growing every day and we are constantly amazed at the words that she can say.

- OoooWeeee - I must say that word a lot because MB has picked up on it and says it all the time now. She also says Whoa a lot and just recently said it when I jumped a curb while we were driving through a parking lot. I can’t catch a break!

- Hi/Bye - These are probably my two favorite words that the little lady says. She sounds kind of like a high school Valley Girl when she says them and it cracks me up. I’m sure her southern accent will come through but for now she sounds really grown up when she says these two words.

- Eating out - It has become a nightmare to eat out with the girl. She will not stay in her high chair and eat anything. She cries and struggles to get down and then tries to run around. Our last episode was on December 29^th at Mellow Mushroom. She kept trying to run in the kitchen and ran laps around the table. We had a few heart to heart talks in the bathroom before Dan had enough and took her home before we were finished. We have sworn off of eating in a restaurant until 2021 and so far we have kept to that goal. It is hard to keep a child that cares nothing about eating to sit still so we are waiting for this phase to pass. Please Lord let it be a phase.

- All Girl - The little lady is super prissy. She likes to put on hats, wear jewelry and carry around a purse. The first thing she does when she is in a new outfit or wearing jewelry is go to the floor length mirror in our bedroom or to the oven door to check out her reflection. She grins and gives herself kisses. I hope this high self-esteem lasts through her teenage years.

- Eating Habits - If you have a child that enjoys eating, be so very thankful. You have no idea how stressful it is to try to get a kid to eat when they have absolutely no interest! We are still seeing a specialist and MB is drinking at least two Pediasures a day. We look forward to the day we can just do whole milk and not stress about each calorie. We literally get excited if she eats a few bites at each meal. We try to get her to eat fattening things (who wouldn’t want powdered doughnuts for breakfast?) but her favorite things right now and our go to foods are grapes, blueberries and cheese.

- Dip - MB has discovered the joy of dipping. We try to serve a condiment with most of her meals to encourage eating but she normally uses the chip or chicken nugget to lick the ketchup or ranch dressing up. She has resorted to bypassing the food and just dipping her fingers and giving those a lick. Nice.

- Compassionate - She has such a big heart. She still gets very concerned when other babies are crying or are hurt. Another example is I bit the side of my mouth while we were eating tonight and grimaced in pain. It took us five minutes of telling her that I was okay for her to believe us. She was so concerned and wanted me to be okay. It’s very sweet.

- Prayer Warrior - MB likes to hold hands and say the blessing but you can forget about trying to get her to close her eyes. She recently prayed over our meal about ten times in a row. She kept grabbing our hands, bowing her head and mumbling something and then she would say NayNen. It was so cute and thrilled us to death.

- Driving in the Cozy Coupe - She has been sporting around in the Cozy Coupe these days like a little Driving Mrs. Daisy. She wouldn’t even think of using her feet to move the car and enjoys being pushed around the house. One of the paths that we take is by the floor length mirror in our bedroom. We have to slow down so she has long enough to flash a big smile and say Hi or Bye to herself, what a character.

- Sliding - We have been keeping the mammoth slide inside our living room since the weather has been so nasty. This has made for a lot of fun but she seems to be regressing a little. She used to fly down by herself without any help but now she wants us to catch her at the bottom or hold her hand the whole way down. I have no idea why she has become a little less daring, although, it may not be a bad thing.

- Dada- She is such a huge fan of her dada. The snow days enforced this even more. Dan was home for three days and since I work from home and snow days do not exist for me, he kept her while I worked. The first day that he went back to work, she went through every room in our house calling his name in her sweet voice. It broke my heart. I found her at the door that goes to our garage with her arms up calling his name. She knows that if he isn’t in the house, he often is working in his workshop in the garage. She also associates anyone coming through a door with Dan too which is always funny. She thought our pediatrician coming in the door was going to be Dan, what a disappointment.

- Friendly - The girl really likes strangers and entertains herself in public by waving to random folks and telling them hi. She was serenaded for the first time by an older man at Target the other day. A little boy who looked like he was around three saw her and started singing Ooo Baby, Baby, B-B-B-Baby over and over. She was mesmerized and didn’t know what to think.

- Body parts - She can name all of her body parts instead of just pointing to them and her favorite ones to say and point out are eyebrows, neck and elbow.

- Obsessed - Since she has been sick with an ear infection, she has become OBSESSED with her Nah Nah (pacifer) and blanket. She used to only use it in the bed and car but she has been wanting it all the time. She seriously has a one track mind and she cannot think about anything else. Meow the cat is pretty high on the list of things she wants when she isn’t feeling well but the Nah Nah is by far at the top.

- Stats - In true Mary Beth style, she can sense when she has a weigh in coming up. Maybe she is watching too much of the Biggest Loser or something. The night before we went to the pediatrician for her check up, she didn’t eat anything. Not even one bite and right before we left for the appointment, she had a big blow out. Typical. But, despite her efforts, she weighed in at a whopping 20 pounds and 2 ounces. I was so proud! We are back on the chart in the 3^rd percentile and we are going to move her car seat to face forward. That will be a huge moment in our family! Her height is 32.5 inches which is in the 75^th percentile so no problems there. She is wearing 12 month clothes but they are short in the arms and pants. We have a few 12-18 month clothes that she is wearing but we have to safety pin the pants to keep them on.

- Sleep - She is holding strong at sleeping 12-13 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the early afternoon.

- Manners - For some reason, some of MB’s favorite words are “thank you”. Although it sounds like “Teet doo”, we know it’s thank you and she says it almost every time we hand her something or do something for her. Maybe she loves it because it sounds like “peek-a-boo” which is one of her favorite games. I hope she keeps saying it as she grows up. Those words can get you a long way in life.

- Pictures - Last but not least, she loves pictures of family. At least once a day she’ll grab a picture frame of family or friends and start naming them. She knows all of her grandparents and great-grandmothers and can point them out and say their names.

Family!

We spent the holidays enjoying our little family and all of our extended family. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had a blast and are still recovering from the craziness! I don't have any pictures from Americus so if anyone took any, please send them my way. I wish I would have taken more pictures but I'm sure this will bore most everyone that is not family. Hopefully more posts to come soon!

The Milam cousins on the tractor with papa.

MB keeping a close eye on me while she was riding.

MB's first time on the tractor, Sam was an old pro.

Love these girls

Christmas Eve party in Moultrie, I think this party has been going on for over 50 years. Does anyone know when it was started? We have a group picture from every year!

Showing off her bow on Christmas Eve

Traditional family pose in front of the tree

Sweet girl loving on her daddy

MB actually hugging Sadie back! She normally wants her personal space so this was a first.

Twinsies

Playing dress up in Sadie's new play clothes

I have no idea how we caught this pose on camera. She defines casual elegance with her satin dress and blue jeans.

A few sips for the baby...

and a few sips for me.

She has loved this cat! She picked it out in the target flyer and had been pointing to it for months. The funny part is that she doesn't like it when it is walking or meowing so we are saving on batteries.

Taking the cat through the tunnel

Concerned about what she is hearing

Worn out after a fun morning!

Celebrating Christmas in Cartersville, she loved her car! She likes to drive by the mirror in our bedroom and check herself out.

Cracking up with cousin Sam

Owen the handy tool man - the belt pulled his pajama pants down just enough to show a little of plumber crack. I decided not to post those pictures because I love my nephew too much but they are hilarious.

Rocking the new glasses and looking a little like Elton John here.

All through the town

I have a feeling this will be just one of the many embarrassing moments I have as a parent in order to show off the talents of my children. If I could figure out a way to edit this without me singing, I would. Enjoy her singing and incredible coordination though! We were proud to catch this on camera. She is convinced that she is two and she will say that EVERY time we ask her how old she is. I guess wanting to be older than you actually are is starting early with her. She is so much fun and it is amazing to see her learn something new everyday! :-)

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!