my birthday cake (on sunday night)
spontaneously decided to go to the beach today during the time frame we’re usually at the gym. layne’s had a fever and a runny nose so i didn’t feel right putting her in the kidzone. it had just poured down rain so i knew all the playgrounds would be super wet. decided that we should get to the beach before it gets too “cold” tomorrow. we were only there for about a half hour, but it was alot of fun…really just us, the lifeguards, and like 20 long-boarders.
this girl LOVES her some beach…
post-diaper, pre-shower…
harper and layne are really starting to have a relationship. yes, they still get on each other’s nerves (daily), but most of the time they just get a kick out of each other. i think harper is really starting to learn that she can show layne something and layne can learn and do it too….fun! here are two sister shots from today:
(please don’t think bad of me that layne is barefoot and practically naked in the hall. we were just on our way back in from the beach…i’d carried her in from the car, but harper’s new thing is “leading” layne down the hall.)
- yesterday afternoon we hung out at the beach with friends for about 2 hours. by the time we left if was 6:30 and they girls were starving. since it was so late, we just stopped by wendy’s and got them cheeseburgers on the way home. not only did layne eat an entire cheeseburger, she ate it faster than her big sister did. i scraped off most of the condiments and just squished it really good so she could get her mouth around it and she went to town. i was so annoyed that i didn’t have the camera because it was so funny looking to see a one year old eating a hamburger just like an adult would.
- butter was 2 for $4 at publix yesterday. when i got home and was putting things away, i couldn’t figure out where my 2nd box of butter got to. when we opened the back of the car to get the beach toys out, we found it…totally melted and steadily leaking out of one end. my car still smells a little like butter.
- took some photos of gunnar. i was just happy to be in the same room with him again. so precious!
- the message at church yesterday was extremely challenging to me. pastor is doing a short series on revelation. contrary to what i’d thought, he didn’t talk about the end times. he talked about the shortcomings of one of the last churches: laodicea. God despises lukewarm. so convicting.
gotta run: load the dishwasher, switch over the laundry, make cookies with harper, and pick up the post-weekend clutter. love to all!
some random snippets from my day:
- a few weeks ago i found an ariel jigsaw puzzle at world thrift. harper’s finished it, with my help, about 6 times. every time we do it she gets faster. the other night i decided to just take random pieces out of the completed puzzle and have her put them back in. it was ridiculous how fast she could get 10 or 15 pieces back into the 70 piece puzzle. so, i decided she needed a new one. got a 24 piece at target today. it said 3+ on the side, so when i opened the box, i decided to give her no help at all and just see how far she could get. she had the thing totally finished in about 10 minutes. i was so proud. i’m gonna let her do it a few more times and then video it and see how fast she can do it. it is SO much fun watching her figure new things out and to see the sense of accomplishment she enjoys afterward.
- we visited harper’s school for about 15 minutes this morning. just picked up a calendar and her supply list and talked with the director about drop-off procedure and what-not. harper is SO excited….wait, i’m pretty excited, too, actually! hopefully when tuesday comes around she’ll be pushing me out of the way at the door to get in like she was today.
- layne climbed up into the chick-fil-a playground again today, but this time around there were A TON of kids in there. i heard a blood-curdling scream and had to climb up into the stinking thing. some brat had pushed her down (at least that’s what another little girl told me). we did not hang around much longer…had to get to target to buy school supplies! (us, and every other family within a 10 mile radius)
- i had sweet tea at lunch today and i just LOVE how much energy that caffeine gives me at the gym. i’m not normally a caffeine person, but i ran 3 miles pretty easily today and i haven’t done that in a few months. (plus the tea just tastes SO darn good.)
- keep forgetting to report this: my excema is back in full force. i’m a little relieved that i’m not allergic to sonic, but super annoyed because i really thought i had figured out what was causing it (although i have eaten other fast food and am wondering if maybe it’s just that in general…maybe i need to nix fast food for 6 months…hmmm….i don’t know if i could do that!).
- layne was walking around today the most i’ve ever seen her. she still just takes about 10 steps at a time, but she’s doing it totally on her own more now than i’ve ever seen….confidence is growing, i guess. won’t be long until she’s keeping up with harper! (scary!!!)
- got a call tonight from my sweet sister-in-law julie yesterday and a confirmation call tonight. they are flying me (and harper) out to springfield (MO) at the end of september to take pictures at her brother’s wedding reception (he got married a few months ago). i’m so excited! i’ll make a little money and get to hang out with family that we hardly ever see…and have some fun time with harper! thanks again for thinking of me, julie!
- i’ve been plugging away on the website for about a week now. it is so frustrating that i don’t ever get more than 2 hours or so in a day to work on it. still, it’s slowly coming together and i’m really pleased with it so far….feels very much a few steps above the old one.
some small things that made me happy today:
- i entered 2 designs into this contest and they are on the site today. GO VOTE!!! i really want to win and i feel like i have a chance…the designs with the most votes right now are a huge deer and michael jackson. the prize is $150…help harper go to preschool!! please vote for either of the last two designs…they’re both mine: “branches” and “peony sketch”.
- chick-fil-a peach milkshake. so good it is just WRONG. why why why must their time be limited?!
- after i cleaned up the mess at our table, i walked into the playground at chick-fil-a and couldn’t see layne anywhere. i couldn’t see her because i was only looking on the ground. guess those nuggets were little bits of battered courage, because she decided today was the day she could climb up all the stairs to get to the little “rooms” at the top. she was SO proud (almost as proud of herself and i was of her).
- talked to a client in tallahassee today. we did a session like 2+ years ago and she decided out of the blue that they need another. i’ve also had another girlfriend from the TLH want to schedule something, so i guess i’ll be heading that way sometime in the next few months. thank goodness….hopefully this is the drought coming to a close.
- took the girls to dubois lagoon after naptime since ryan was working late. it was great….a little more crowded than i’d prefer, but not too bad. love the beach that time of day, and then we got home just in time for baths and bed. also, i got my favorite parking spot right in front of the shower.
- dating in the dark: have y’all seen this show? it is awesome. ryan came into the room while i was watching and laughed at me. he said i had a huge grin on my face. ha!
- sent in harper’s preschool registration!! yay! so excited (for her and for me).
i just posted these on FB, so many of you have already seen them, but i thought i’d post these collages on my blog as well. they are birth-11 months of my girls. the older layne gets, the more different the two girls look (still both very beautiful, in my opinion). (layne’s photos for month 4 and month 8 were terrible, so i left them out.)
- yesterday after church we went to Jersey Mikes subs for lunch (if you’ve never eaten there, go. as soon as they open tomorrow. go.). when we got there, harper had on no panties because of an emergency stop we’d just made on the side of the road after which i’d neglected to put her panties back on (she was wearing a dress so i ripped them off before i held up in the squat position to pee). when we got into the store, i was hoping that harper could keep A) a low profile and B) keep her dress pulled down until we got into the bathroom. ryan got in line and i stopped for a second with him to check out the kids’ menu (harper’s not too hot on lunch meat, so i wasn’t sure what to get her at a sub place). harper ran over the the shelves where they keep the chips and started very loudly asking ryan what kind of chips he was going to get (low profile blown). he was on him own to decide what to get her. off we went to the bathroom (as she is yelling “i don’t need my panties back on!!”). layne had a really full diaper, so i decided to deal with her first. there was no changing thing-a-majiggy. so, i sucked it up and threw the diaper bag on the floor and laid her on it. she’s gotten really squirmy lately, so it usually takes longer than it should to change a pee diaper. as i was changing her, i heard the water running and foolishly thought, “how nice, harper’s washing her hands before she eats without me asking her too.” pshaw. i finally looked up and realized she had filled the sink almost to overflowing and was splashing vigorously in it. i gave her devil eyes then somehow managed to get her panties back on with one hand and both of us remaining on our feet.
- i finally got to enjoy my sandwich. layne was sitting next to me and i was taking turns feeding her and stuffing my face with the amazingly delicious Italian on white with freshly sliced meat and cheese and perfect toppings. as she was eating, layne kept grabbing the paper my sandwich was on a pulling on it. it was getting close to naptime…the closer it is, the friskier she gets. i popped her hand once really good and thought she had the idea (that she needed to keep away from mommy’s sandwich paper). i got too comfortable. about 2 minutes later, she reached over, yanked the paper as hard as she could and my beautiful, less-than-half-eaten sandwich fell to the floor to the tune of my groaning, “NOOOOOO!” i am not one to frown off eating things off the floor, but this was like peel the mayo-covered tomatoes and shredded lettuce off the floor gross. it was ridiculous, but it honestly took me about 10 minutes until i could laugh about it, i was so mad.
- we started VBS at church today. harper was very excited because it’s the most “schoolish” thing she’s ever participated in. she LOVED it and i could tell that she really had a handle on some of the things they talked about. when we got home, she seemed exhausted, but decided (very unfortunately) that she didn’t need a nap. before i gave up on her getting one, i had to give her two spankings. when i brought her in my room for the second time explaining why she was getting the spanking (because she’d woken layne up by singing very loudly), this is the conversation we had:
harper: “mommy, God loves me.”
me: “you’re right honey, God loves you very much.” (my heart overflowing with pride and happiness)
harper: “mommy, God loves me sooo much that He doesn’t want me to get a spanking.”
Filed under: layne
man, how time does fly. and how quickly a newborn baby can turn into a wobbly, babbly pseudo-toddler.
today is layne’s first birthday. we had a party for her while we were in Sebastian so that most of my family and ryan’s family could be there. my nephew’s birthday is next week and ryan’s mom’s birthday was the day after we celebrated, so we had three names on the cake. [the only time i've ever been disappointed with publix: they wouldn't give us the free little baby cake because the large sheet cake didn't have the word "first" on it. i was annoyed but said i'd just buy the baby cake...i asked how much that would be...$16!!! needless to say we just cut off a big corner piece for layne and stuck a #1 candle in it.]
i just sat down after going in to wake the girls up…sang layne happy birthday while i changed her diaper. a year ago at this moment i was stuck in a hospital bed, my water broken, trying to will my cervix past 2 cm’s. it’s honestly really difficult to think back to that morning becuase i was in alot of pain, frustrated that i was stuck in bed to deal with the pain (if you’re trying for a VBAC, they won’t let you walk around because of liability), confused as to why it hurt so much if i was barely dilated, and mad at God for not giving me what i wanted (or teaching my body to do what it was told). when told i’d need another a c-section, i was simultaneously extremely angry/disappointed and secretly relieved that i wouldn’t have to deal with useless contractions anymore. the rest of the day was a blur of sobbing in front of strangers, surgery, a rough recovery (vomiting, super low heart rate, and dizziness so bad i couldn’t sit up), family arriving at the hospital, and it taking forever until i honestly wanted to hold the pretty new baby.
on the other hand, when i think back to the next day, i think of nothing but sweetness. she had no name, but i knew we’d come up with something cool. harper came to meet her and behaved exactly how i’d hoped she would. the baby slept the best when she was somehow nestled into my lap on the bed, which i loved. she latched on like a champ. i was no longer mad at God because during the c-section, the doctor had found a large tumor on my left ovary. it was harmless at the time, but he said that if he didn’t remove it then, i’d for sure eventually have to have it taken out (which would mean another surgery). i was still devastated that i’d had a baby the most unnatural way possible, but it was at least justified.
layne didn’t have a name until she was 3 days old. we were bouncing around the idea of “july lynn”, but it never sat right with me. i’m glad.
today she:
- says “mama”, “dada”, “buhbah” (harper), “hi”, “bye”, “baba” (baby)
- waves goodbye
- signs for milk, more, and eat (working on bath)
- stands on her own (no steps yet, but she seems pretty close)
- loves books and balls
- has a pair of two of the prettiest blue eyes i’ve ever seen
- is obsessed with food. will eat anything edible.
- sleeps great with a binky and her precious doggy
- starting to get some little curls at the bottom of her head
- wants to do nothing but follow harper around all day
- is very mellow and happy 95% of the time
can’t wait to see who she’ll grow up to be! thank you Lord for such a beautiful, healthy, joy-bringing gift.
Filed under: layne
harper’s been in tallahassee for almost a week. it’s been cool to have time with just layne and me. she’s so fun right now. she’s starting to try to stand unassisted by herself (no steps yet, though). books have recently become an OBSESSION. she’ll drag a book clear across the house to me in hopes that i’ll pull her into my lap and read it to her. she is constantly pointing at anything and everything and nothing. i know this is completely normal, and i remember harper doing it at this age, but it’s still funny when she does it. the other day in the car she was dancing with her arms…it’s the first time i’ve seen her show any reaction to music and it was really cool…since then i’ve seen her dancing by bouncing up and down, just bending her knees. cute. she’s still babbling quite a bit. a few actual words we’ve heard her say so far: mama, dada, hi, bye, ba-ba (baby), uh-oh (uh-uh), and she tries to “moo”, but it just comes out like “mmmm”.
every day is more fun than the last!
