One Bear Lost

Since this blog is a baby book of sorts for me to remember stuff about Libby I just had to post this little story real fast.
For Christmas this year my mom got Libby this book.




Seems harmless, right? Its a sweet book about 10 bears who wake up from a long winters nap and go out of their cave. Throughout the day, one by one the bears go off and do different things, I guess helping the kid practice counting down. It's a sweet, well-illustrated book. Anyway, so at the end it says, "Nine weary bears have gone back home. But Look! one poor bear's left all alone. One Bear Lost." And it shows a picture like the one above with the bear all alone.
The first time I read the book to Libby nothing happened but this afternoon when I got to this page she started BAWLING. Like seriously crying her eyes out! I thought Maddie must have scratched her or something bit her to get this kind of a reaction. So I put the book away and didn't think much of it. Then this evening I pulled it out again to read to her before bedtime and again, on this page WATERWORKS. I mean HUGE tears rolling down her face and she just sobbed and sobbed! It was so heartbreaking!! I quickly turned the page and showed her how the other bears came looking for their friend and they all went back to the cave together. She was still upset and it took a couple of minutes for her to calm down.
So I got Tim to come into the room, I still couldn't believe a book could get this kind of reaction from her so I asked her if she wanted to read it again. She said yes so I read it again with Tim in the room. He watched her and said on the page before that one her lip started pooching and when I read, "One Bear lost". She burst into tears again! We showed her the end where all the bears are reconnected and it shows them all happy and sleeping in their cave again but she was still upset. It took a little while for her to be able to relax enough to go to sleep.
Wow. Lesson? I guess she understands a whole LOT more then I ever realized! I didn't know she knew the concept of being alone and that it was sad. Very interesting.
Needless to say, I think we'll put that book back on the shelf for a little while.

Libby + Kittens = ADORABLE!!!

A few weeks ago we went to Houston to see my family and go to one of Libby's future best friend's birthday party. That make sense? Little Maya's dad is a friend of Tim's since 5th grade so their girls are sure to be best buds. :)

My family also had a fresh batch of kittens (if you know my family you know how they have a cat population problem. ;) Libby loves cats and I just can't wait until we have a yard and can bring our cats back up here with us.

Libby and I after church on Sunday, we were almost matching. :)


I love this face!


I think that kitten needs some help. :)

Its ok, kitty.




My younger sis "Auntie Yeffie" who showed Libby the kittens and made a best friend in the process.

Belly shot -- Finally :)

@21 weeks!!! Over half way there!
For anyone keeping track I'll be 23 weeks tomorrow.
I think this photo makes me look huge but oh well. :)




Some random things...

I keep telling Libby there is a baby in my tummy and he/she will be here at the end of the summer but she has no idea. She thinks my belly is funny and actually set a cheerio on it in church the other day and then laughed her head off. At least she has a sense of humor. :)

I'm feeling really great so far! If I have a very busy day then I'm sore at the end of it but no other troubles. I was pretty blah during the whole first trimester but now I feel a lot better.

I feel baby Merkin moving somewhat and my mom was able to feel him/her a couple of weeks ago so that was fun for her.

We have a boy name picked out but cannot for the life of us think of a girl name. :(

I'm not looking forward to the summer heat but I am looking forward to having a precious little one at the end of it!! It's so fun to imagine holding a new squirmy little baby and call me crazy but I'm actually looking forward to the whole labor process. It's such an amazing feeling and I've never felt closer to Tim than when we were going through that together. I'm praying for an even better birth than last time. I have an amazing group of midwives here in Fort Worth and I am really looking forward to having that support this time.

Well, gotta run, have a great day!!

A taste...

...of our Easter!!

14 month check-up

A quick update on the Libster and a few pictures as well.

So I missed Libby's 1 year check-up and then when I called back to re-schedule there wasn't an opening until March. Boo hoo! Oh well, better than nothing. Anyway, so it went really well!
Libby knows 10 body parts: eyes, nose, tongue, mouth, ears, head, hair, tummy, hands, and feet. She also knows a few animal sounds: cow, horse, dog, cat (sometimes), fish, monkey, bear (hilarious!), lion, and elephant. We're still working on a few others like sheep and duck. I still need to get all of that on video, I have a short clip from when she was one and I don't think I've posted it yet, yeah, bad mama blogger. :)
Anyway, the doc was impressed, she said at 18 months they look for them to know 2 out of 3 body parts and to say 2 words. Libby doesn't speak a lot but she understands almost everything we say. It's amazing! So developmentally she's doing fabulously, it's so fun seeing her learn new things every day!
She was 30 1/2" long and 20.3 lbs. That's the 75th % for height and 25th% for weight. The doc was quite pleased as Lib was only in the 10th % last time we went. And she was still on the mend from her stomach flu so I'll bet she had even lost about a pound. Doctor also confirmed that she was getting her molars in and that it was what was making her grouchy, irritable, and a picky eater. Poor kid! And, I might, add poor mama! ;) I'm just glad that's over for now! After our fun weekend at Tim's family's ranch Libby woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed Monday morning. It was so great seeing her back to her perky self.
So there's a quick Libby update for my little baby book of sorts on here. I'll post a pregnancy picture soon and maybe even a sono pic if I can get it scanned somehow.



Our little family with Tim's grandmother Mimi


"Aunt" Kristin. Actually Tim's cousin and one of my life-long friends





Libby still had a bit of a tummy ache so she wasn't quite up to par but we still got some cute pics!

Libby with her cousins: Kelsi P., Ellie W., Halie W., Annabelle P., and Lib

Back at home...

Libby found my Latin notebook from college and started "reading" it in her chair! yes, it's upside-down. :)

LIBBY!!!

I'm sure you all are dying for a Libby update. And I've been needing to post some stories and updates of Libby. So be prepared for an onslaught of adorableness. :)

My little Libster is now almost 14 months. Hard to believe in roughly five months she'll be a big sister!! I think she'll do great at it. She's still around 20 lbs. and I still need to measure her. I want to get a thing that hangs on her wall so I can track her height. She's in sz. 3 disposable diapers and in a sz medium cover in her cloth ones. She'll wear anything from sz. 9 mo. to 18 mo. in clothing. One of my favorite outfits for her is a layered skirt that's 6-9 months, and she still fits it!

There are two little girls at church who are both one month older than Libby and they're both long and skinny but they're not a lot taller than her. And neither of them are walking yet.
Speaking of church, we love being back in our home church, it's really fabulous! They have a great nursery but I've been teaching Lib how to sit through the service. Thankfully they have a cry room with a monitor so that helps. I usually keep her in the service through the music (her favorite part) and then when it gets quieter I take her into the cry room but I still make her sit still. She has her good days and bad days but I'm going to start working on it at home by making her sit still on my lap. I know other people have been able to do this so I'm going to keep trying. :) I would love for our family to all be together during the service.

One of Libby's big new things is her sheer dislike of trash. If she finds a tissue or piece of paper or whatever lying around she wrinkles up her nose and brings it to me saying "ehh, t-ash, ehh" and we have to go through it away. Too funny!! And if I wipe her nose or her face while she's eating I can't just leave the napkin or tissue on the table, it has to be thrown away before she can finish eating. I managed to get a few pictures of her "eww trash" face so here you go. :)



Ugh, I cannot believe there is trash on my table.


Please take care of it, mama!!


Mama, I can't finish my snack until you throw your trash away!
(also notice the blue bow, whenever she wakes up from her nap or whenever she happens to see them, she always asks for a bow. We let her pick one out so this is what she chose. :) )

See how gross it is?


Here ya go.

On Valentines Day I dressed Libby up in red and tried to get a few pictures. Here are some decent ones. Outside ones turn out way better but the weather has been either yucky or cold recently.

This one below really reminds me of when she was a tiny baby!

Now she looks like such a big girl!!

She's got some big boots to fill!


And finally, yes, we got snow!! And a lot of it!

Libby didn't really care for it much.

Doesn't her outfit coordinate beautifully? I just layered her up and hoped she didn't get wet!

This is about as close to the snow as she would get.



So that's my Libby update. Hope you all enjoyed and if not, oh well! :) This is my on-line baby book of sorts and I want to remember all of these sweet and silly little things.

This and that

Libby and I have been so sick for the last week or so. Libby longer than I was. She ended up having an eye and an ear infection. Poor kid! It was so pitiful I almost took a picture of her sad eyes but I decided not to. So you'll just have to take my word for how horrible they looked! So with all of that we had to give her her first medication. Boo!! I've been giving her tons of natural yogurt so hopefully that will counter-act the antibiotics. Oh well, thank goodness for modern medicine, huh?

Anyway, the weather was horrible but on Friday and Saturday it stopped raining so we got to go to the park! I didn't take any pictures on Friday but since Tim was there on Saturday I snapped a few. So here are some cute pics!

A little scared of the slide! :)






Little girl and her dad.



OK so since blogger takes FOREVER to upload pictures that has taken up all of my blogging time. Gotta clean while the Libster is napping.

Soo Over the Top!

Jessy awarded me with the "over the top" blogger, and I am being faithful to answer these questions in one word answers. This may be hard...here it goes!






1. Where is your cell phone? Table

2. Your hair? Bun

3. Your mother? Awesome

4. Your father? Best

5. Your favorite food? Mexican

6. Your dream last night? Crazy

7. Your favorite drink? Tequila, Mwahahaha

8. Your dream / goal? Bethebest

9. What room are you in? Breakfast

10. Your hobby? Photography!

11. Your fear? Roaches

12. Where do you want to be in six years? House

13. Where were you last night? Spades!

14. Something that you aren't? patient

15. Muffins? Yes!

16. Wish list item? diapers

17. Where did you grow up? Texas

18. Last thing you did? Emailed

19. What are you wearing? jeans

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your pets? HYPER

22. Friends? BEST

23. Your life? quiet

24. Your mood? peaceful

25. Missing someone? Tim

26. Vehicle? Infinity

27. Something your not wearing? make-up

28. Your favorite store? Target! (good pick, Jess)

29. Your favorite color? Blue

30. What was the last time you laughed? last night

31. Last time you cried? past

32. Your best friend? TIM

33. One place that I could go over and over? NewZealand

34. One person who emails you regularly? Facebook

35. Favorite place to eat? TexasdeBrazil

I pass this award on to:
KACIE! cuz you need to blog on your personal blog more. :)
Bethanie bc I love your randomness
Christina cuz I'm so happy blogging has brought us back in touch!
Erin, so you'll blog again finally ;)
Misty cuz her little boy is just so dang cute!

Rumors

Yes, the rumors are true!!
We are expecting a new little bundle of joy sometime at the beginning of August! The "due date" is the 3rd, but after Libby arriving ten days late I don't really trust those. :) I'll be thrilled if he/she arrives before my mom's birthday on the 11th.

That puts me at 11 weeks tomorrow so I'm almost out of the first trimester already! This time around has been quite a bit different. I've been more queasy than I ever was with Libby. Thankfully that has stopped but there are days when I can hardly eat anything. With Libby I was starving all the time but thankfully that has not been the case! The last time I checked I hadn't gained any weight so that makes me happy because I really didn't need to in the first trimester.

I found a group of mid-wives at an area hospital that we're going to use. They seem really nice and just right up our ally. I looked into using a birthing center but, strange as it may sound, it's hugely important for me to have unlimited hot water! And that was a concern especially with one place we looked at that had 3 rooms and only ONE bathroom! No way! This is a very highly rated hospital so I think we'll be happy with it.

So far we have no names picked out at all. We had Libby's picked out years ago, but don't really have any others we both like! We want something that has strong meaning, is beautiful, and not very popular. So there are lots of names that fit two of those criteria but not many that fit all three. We haven't even decided if we want to find out the sex of this baby, but we still have a while to figure that out. I do think it would be really fun to be surprised and all of Libby's bedding and gear are all gender neutral anyway. We'd just have to perhaps buy some gender specific clothing. And maybe towels, could I wrap a baby boy in a bright pink towel? :) We'll just have to wait and see! Oh and if the babe is a boy the middle name has to go with Bryan (Tim's middle name) in case you have any suggestions. :)

Flickr Fotos

Apparently I was a really good girl this year and received a Canon Rebel T1i for Christmas!! I am loving learning all about it and I'm finding I have a LOT to learn!!
Maybe I can take a class or something. Anyway, here is a link to my Flickr page in case you are interested. Please be nice and remember that I'm very much a beginner. :)

CLICK HERE

Or copy and paste this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24393774@N07/

ONE YEAR!!!

On the 30th Libby turned the ripe old age of ONE YEAR!! We were at the Ranch and celebrated with presents, cake, and birthday singing. Unfortunately, Libby was recovering from her first bad illness so she was not feeling up to par. She had fun with her first cake though. First she just kind of poked at it and didn't know what to think and then she dipped down her head and licked a bit of the icing. Then she smiled and dug right in! But she never used her fingers! Just ate it right off the high chair tray! It was really funny. :)


Libby wearing her bday shirt from Aunt Steph.


Rocking in her chair from Uncle Todd and Aunt Mindy, wearing her hat from Sue Sue, and holding the puppy from Mom and Dad.


Opening another present with the shopping cart from the Pence family in the background.


Testing out the cake.


Going in face first!










Well, here are a few things that our little girl is up to:

~She has six little teeth
~She runs around everywhere
~She can say: out, dad, eggs, mama, cat, cold, that (dat), please (deeze) and probably more things that we don't understand. She also tries to imitate us a lot and it's pretty funny what she can say sometimes.
~We taught her to sign a few things and she can sign "please", "more", and "all done". She also waves hello and good-bye but she's done that for months.
~She makes a few animal sounds, mostly a half-whinny, half-gargle for horse, a moo for cow, and she pants for a dog (the sign for "dog"). She tries to make the other sounds but they're not recognizable.
~Loves to climb! Will climb up and down the stairs all day and on top of things to just get higher.
~We taught her the rule "one finger touch" so that we're not constantly telling her "no" all day. Plus, it's great for when we're at non-baby proofed places. Also, I find that she responds a lot better to when we tell her "no, don't touch".
~She is already learning how to obey! I'm so proud of her! She will look at my face when I tell her to. She's learning to do what we say when we tell her, it's really amazing what a child so young understands!
~This girl LOVES to eat! It's really funny! She will just eat, and eat, and eat. It's actually a lot of work sometimes to make sure I have plenty of food on hand for her. And I've stopped sharing my meals at restaurants with her, I don't get nearly enough food!
~Libby loves soft stuffed animals, especially ones that are very soft. Her particular favorite is her little deer that she carries around everywhere, but she has others that she loves too. She loves to rub her face on anything that's soft and my MIL told me Tim used to do that all the time. :)
~Along with stuffed animals, Libby also LOVES real animals. So trips to the ranch are a lot of fun for her. Tim had her outside and she literally started running down the drive-way toward the horses! She's also not afraid of any animals so we really have to keep an eye on her.
~She is not shy or scared of people. A friend of my BIL's came to the ranch for New Years and all the little girls were scared of him because he was so tall and had a deep voice. But Libby walked right by him and smiled at him and grabbed onto him so she wouldn't fall. That being said, she likes her mama and will sometimes not go to anyone else.
~Libby is very independent. Tim went on a walk with his mom and sister and her two kids while at the ranch and Mindy's girl never got too far from her side. Libby, on the other hand, took off as fast as her little legs would carry her in the opposite direction!
~She sleeps from 8-5 every night and then from 5-7 or 8. She wakes to nurse around 5, but then falls right back to sleep. However, recently she's been sleeping a little longer.
~She is trying to switch to one nap during the day. I'm thrilled about this because it means a nice long time in the afternoon where I can get a lot accomplished. She'll oftentimes sleep for 3 hours in an afternoon!
~When asked Libby can point to her ears, eyes, mouth, hair, teeth, nose, and head! And she will lift her shirt up and point to her belly button when you ask her where her tummy is! She also points to those things on me and her animals and doll.
~She figured out how to smell things! Its so funny to see her sniff a candle or something and say "Mmmmmm!"

Running love

If anyone of you know me at all you know that I love to run! And it's a good thing too because I also love to eat. ;) Like I told Buff today, I'm in the best shape of my life, but I'm the worst shape of my life. Ha! Ah well. :)

Anyway, I'm in training right now for a half-marathon that is in 13 days! I'm so excited! My little sister and I are running it together. It'll be my third half and her second. We ran our first together and neither of us were in that great of shape. Now we've both trained pretty hard and are ready to go. It's great having someone to run with too, makes a world of difference! Yesterday I was all set to run 10 miles and talked to Amy right before and she was encouraging as she had already done her long run. She did 12 miles in 2 hours and 13 minutes. I thought, dang! There's no way I can do that! However, when I hit mile 5 I was feeling great! So I ran to the end of the trail (6 miles) and started back. I kept telling myself that I had to beat her time. So even though my legs were k-i-l-l-i-n-g me I kept going and finished it with a minute to spare! Running is hard, but some things are even harder, like having a child who is ill.

I have some other friends who are running this race as well. One of them is a friend of a friend who's sweet little boy is afflicted with Neurofibromatosis. She and some friends are running the race for sweet Denver. They are trying to raise money to support the research of this disease. I dropped the ball on joining their team but I just wanted to give a shout-out to Katy and let you all know what they are doing. Just visit her site and read for yourself and if you feel so inclined to donate know that every little bit helps. And remember, we're going to be running 13.1 miles and Katy will be thinking of Denver with every step.

Katy's blog. She will have a lot more information for you.