While watching True Grit (the original) Hailey starting saying grandpa and pointing at a one-eye, patched Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) on the TV.

Tis the season Sweet Pea! Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bruce got to town today! We realized that we still had not taken you to see Santa yet so we decided to do that with them. We dressed you up in your pretty Christmas dress and tights, headed over to Grapevine Mills mall, and stood in line about 15 minutes to see Santa. Though you were very interested in Santa from afar, you wanted NOTHING to do with him when it came time for you to sit on his lap. Though it was not your best picture, we had to buy it cause your pouty crying face was just too cute to resist.

We thought it would be a ton of fun to make a Build-a-Bear each year. So we began our family tradition today! After much thought and a lot of touching and hugging different animals, we decided on the Hello Kitty. We got her a voice box and took her over to the stuffing machine. That machine was loud so mommy pushed the foot pedal for you. Once the kitty was stuff you got to put her heart in. You really liked that part so you decided to give her another one. 🙂 There is your trivia fact – your Hello Kitty has 2 hearts!

Afterwards we ate dinner at Carrabba’s and then we drove to see Christmas lights. You LOVED the lights and were such a good girl the entire day and into the night. It’s absolutely amazing how fast you are learning and how quickly you are growing up!

It’s been a monumental day! First, your cousin Emerson Ameilia made her way into the world today….5 weeks early! We’ll have 3 girls (you, Jordan, and Emerson) right around the same age at all of our future family gatherings. I see lots of trouble to be had…poor Colton doesn’t stand a chance! 🙂

You also achieved a HUGE milestone today. You poo poo-ed in the potty! We got you a cute pink potty a few weeks back because you had been showing an interest in the toilet and you have been saying “poo poo” everytime you go poop in your diaper. We had you sit on the toilet a couple of times in the past, but we never actually got anything to happen….even though you very much enjoy sitting on the potty.

Well, tonight you came over to me saying “poo poo” and basically drug me into the bathroom and pointed at your potty. We pulled it out, took off your diaper, and sat you on the potty. Then there it was! A poo poo in the potty! What a big girl you are! You stood up and pointed at it and said ‘uh oh’ about 10 times. It was pretty cute! It’s just so amazing how fast you are growing up!

It’s been too long since we last blogged so here are a few things that have happpend the past month or so…

Your first goose egg happened at the end of October. You fell off the park bench outside at daycare and got a pretty good knock on the back of your head. Had mommy all shades of worried! Luckily the worst that came of it was a little headache and senstivity for a day or so.

In early Novmeber, you spent 3 nights in a row at Grandma Abby’s and Grandpa Terry’s house. The longest time you’ve ever been away from home. You had a BLAST and and even got to go to the park with your cousin Colton! It was hard for mommy & daddy to be away from you that long but we took advantage of the free time by having a date night – dinner and a movie! We had fun but we were sure glad to get you back home!

We also had a couple of fun family days! The first one was at the Blue Angels air show. You had a lot of fun running around and seeing all of the airplanes. Miraculously, you managed to fall asleep and take a pretty good nap – even with the constant sound of fighter jets flying overhead. Very impressive!

Our other fun family day was at the Fort Worth Zoo. You got to see all the fun animals and even got to hear the Lions roar! You weren’t a huge fan of the bird cage where we got to buy food on a stick and walk into a room with about 10,000 birds…it was a little overwhelming!

You are maturing so much – even in just the past couple of weeks! Your commuincation skills are supurb – even though it’s a little difficult to understand exactly what you are “saying”, you have NO trouble communicating. Your can officially utilize the word “no” in cotext and the number of words you say and understand is growing by leaps and bounds and now includes: bath, shower, shoe, car, birdie, clock, please, thank you, more, banana, airplane, puppy, kitty cat, bite, cheese, cracker, cookie, all gone, and shoes. You will say the sounds of some animals: puppy (woof, woof), kitty cat (meow), owl (who, who), & cow (moo).

You’ve learned to say hi and bye in context and you recently started hugging and kissing. It’s SOOOOO sweet! Your hair is ridiculously long and pretty – it has so much body, just a bit of curl, and beautiful natural highlights.

You passed your 18 month check up with flying colors. You weigh about 28 pounds and are almost 33 inches long – both in the 90 to 95th percentile. Your head circumference is almost 20 cm – still off the charts. 🙂

You love to sing and dance. Your current favorites are “Wheels on the Bus”, “Old MacDonald”, and “ABC’s”, although you LOVE all songs and singing. You are even able to say/hum the first few tunes of A, B, C, D…luckily, I think you got my sense of tone and musical ability! Even daddy is happy for that!

Oh, your dad and are have booked a vacation – just the two of us! It’ll be our first vacation together (besides the Ranch) since February 2007! We are going on a cruise (our favorite!) in late February. We’ll be gone for a week. We leave out of Galveston and go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, & Jamaica – we are both SUPER excited!

Anyway, we are just cherishing every moment of this stage in your life. You are soooooo much FUN and we love you to pieces!

We spent the day doing girl stuff with Luli today! We spent most of the day going to Tyler to see Aunt Dannise. You were trapped in your car seat for quite some time and did amazingly well! As a reward for your good behavior, we fed you some Blizzard and we went to the mall so you could play on the soft toys.

When we got there we saw a carousel! So, you & I rode it! You were very unsure what to think of it so after about 10 seconds I ended up holding you the whole time. I think you thought it was pretty cool….just were a little unsure. You then played on the soft toys for quite some time – you are a HUGE fan of that. Then you rode a very small, 3 seater, merry-go-round. You rode the duck and pointed to him and said “duckie”!

We all had a great day and thouroughly enjoyed our grandmother – mother – daughter day!

With VERY few exceptions, for the last year or so, you have been in bed and asleep no later than 7:30pm…usually closer to 7:00pm.

We developed a new bed time ritual upon our return from the Ranch…I rock you in the chair in your room until you are good and relaxed…and sometimes asleep. Then I will lay you in your crib and close the door behind me. You don’t cry, you don’t fuss, you just drift off to sleep until the next morning – usually between 7:00 – 8:00am.

Well, last night you made it clear you wanted no part of the relaxation time. Thinking you were just sleepy, I put you in your bed kicking and screaming thinking you’d quickly fall asleep. Not so! You made it very clear that the last thing you wanted to do was sleep. So, after about 5 minutes, we caved and let you out. You ran around the living room for the next hour or so and had a blast. It was clear you just weren’t ready for bed yet.

We pretty much repeated the cycle tonight! It might just be that your growing up a bit and your bed time is getting later. You are growing up so fast!

Well, Luli and Papaw came to town and we all took you to the petting zoo yesterday. WHAT FUN! You got to see and touch all kinds of animals: zebra, brama (cow), buffalo, baby pigs, chickens, goat, sheep, alpacas, horses, and mommy even got to milk a cow for the very first time in her life! GOOD TIMES!

You have definitely inherited my love for animals. You get so excited when you see them that you can hardly stand it! It’s the most adorable thing to see. We even got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch before we left. It’s nicely perched in the front flower bed, along with the two that daddy & mommy picked.

You are growing up so fast. Though not all of your words make sense, you definitely have a way of communicating. You understand & respond to commands like “throw it in the trash”, “get your bib”, “is your hair in your face”, want to go bye-bye”, “where is…”, “what does Maddie say”, “where is your…”, “are you done”, etc. You also make it VERY clear when you are dissatisfied…for example, you let us know you are very unhappy when we take something away from you or try to put you back in your stroller after you’ve been allowed to walk around. We are working on finding the balance between teaching you that behavior will get you what you want…while still making sure you feel heard – no matter how you choose to communicate. It’s pretty amazing that we can have an entire conversation with you now!

You like to dance whenever you hear music, and you LOVE it when mommy & daddy sing songs like “The Wheels on the Bus”, “Old Macdonald”, and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”….you actually like it when we sing anything. Even if it doesn’t make any sense.

You are very curious about EVERYTHING. You are methodical. You are a busy body and like to constantly stay on the move. For some reason, you love to play with anything that you are not supposed to. You could have 48 toys in front of you and you’ll want to dig through my purse, or play with daddy’s keys. You are still a healthy eater and there isn’t much you’ll turn down. We are in the process of converting you over 100% to whole milk from formula….we are about 60/40 milk to formula right now.

You know words for and can identify things like banana, cup, baby, balloon, puppy, bow, daddy, mommy, uh-oh, bottle, bear, bird, and ball. In fact, the sweetest thing happend the other day. I had just gotten you up from a nap and you were pointing over at your armoire and saying “baby”. I couldn’t figure out what you were talking about. The only thing “baby” by the armoire was a picture of me when I was just a few months old, with Luli feeding me a bottle. So, I took you over there and you immediately pointed to the baby (me) in the picture! AMAZING!

There simply are no words to express the abolute joy you bring to our lives…each and every day!

Til Death Do Us Part.

Such emotionally fired and passion evoking words – that was the thing that stood out most to me from MamaLou’s funeral. I pictured Louise and Dann in their twenties standing at the alter exchaning vows and promising those words to each other. They meant it. And now they rest together….forever in love.

Though much more popular in their time, so seldom in this day and age do children get to grow up in an unbroken home. How lucky for each of their children to have such a wonderful example of what unconditional love should be. In today’s world, getting a divorce is just about like ordering a cup of morning coffee at Starbucks: a little time consuming and way over-priced but still a fairly simple undertaking.

Til Death Do Us Part. Your father and I promosed those words to each other, too. I cherish the thought that you will be one of the lucky ones – to grow up in a home with a true example of passionate and endless love.

Mommy’s last living grandparent and your great-grandma, MamaLou, made her way to heaven Tuesday night. She is finally able to rest in peace and live forever with the love of her life DaddyDann. I have visions of the happiness they shared when they were finally reunited after being apart for the past 8 months.

Her funeral is Saturday – the celebration of all the amazing things that made up her wonderful life. May she rest in peace.

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since your father & I have blogged! Shame on us! What’s been going on in that time?

I left for the Biggest Loser Ranch on 8.8.10; your father joined me after 2 weeks on 8.22.10. He also brought you & Luli with him when he came to town! Your visit was supposed to be a surprise but I had a mini nervous breakdown about being away from you for so long just before I was scheduled to leave…it was a tough decision, but your dad decided to let me in on his little secret. I was SOOOO relieved and excited to know that I would get to see you in 2 weeks…even if it was for just a short time. Our visit was far too short, but very much needed!

You spent the week of 8.22 with Luli & Papaw and the week of 8.29 with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bruce. You ended up getting strep throat that last week – even had to go to the doctor and take antibiotics! Being away from you was hard as it was, but knowing you weren’t feeling well made it that much more difficult. It helped knowing you were in good hands though.

We were both super excited to come home on 9.4. We got home about 10:30pm and were upstairs talking to your grandma and I guess you heard us and started crying. Your dad and I looked at each other with the same thought in mind…then barged right into your room to cuddle you up! It was obvious you were surprised to see us….somewhat confused but absolutely overjoyed at the same time. We just scooped you up and loved on you. Lots of hugs, kisses, and watery eyes. You smelled so good – like only you can smell. All things felt right with the world at that moment.

You’ve matured so much in the last month. When I went to get you out of bed the next morning you were sweeping your hair out of your face with your hand. I hadn’t seen you do that before. Then you started pointing at your hair bows and grunting. You were totally communicating your needs to me! It was pretty amazing to see you make such strides in such a short amount of time!

It’s clear you missed us. For the first few days you would get anxious and upset when one of us would leave the room or gets out of the car. You’ve also been much more cuddly than before which you know I love!!! You have also become much more vocal about your wants and desires. One might also say you are a bit demanding and insistent. Not sure where you get either of those traits. 🙂 We are working on finding the balance between teaching you that tantrums are not successful in achieving your goal while still making sure you know we love you more than life itself. I’ve got a feeling that’s the song we’ll dance to for the next 20 years or so. 🙂

I had many motivators for going to the Ranch. One of the most important was to set a good example for you and to teach you healthy habits. It makes me feel good to feed you healty and wholesome foods. We’ve cooked at home more this week than the past year! As a result you’ve gotten to enjoy some yummy things like grilled chicken, shrimp, banans, peanut butter, nutrigrain waffles, zucchini, mushrooms, and your all time favorite – bananas!!!

It’s absoultely baffling how quickly you are maturing and growing. You are cuter than ever…and strangers notice and comment on it all the time. Your smart, determined, curious, busy, and sooooo lovable.

It’s so good to be home!

By the way – while at the Ranch your father lost 14 pounds and 4″ off his gut. I lost 22 pounds and a total of 8″ (5″ of that off my waist). That brings your dad’s grand total weight loss to 25 pounds in a month and my grand total to 45 pounds since May! We are on our way to being the healthy family we’ve always wanted to be!