11 Months

One month shy of a year old. I see other Mommas writing that they can't believe they have a "one year old" and when I read it, I normally say to myself-- "get over it! they grow up!".  For some reason, it's completely different when it's my own child.

I can't believe I have an 11 month old. The past 11 months have been a complete blur. You know, all those things the other Mommas say. Time flies so fast. I wish I could hit the "pause" button.

I really do. I mean all those things. I am saying them! Time DOES FLY!! My sweet little baby is growing up WAY TOO FAST!

Just yesterday she was sitting in her bumbo cooing and giggling and now today she can pick that bumbo up and throw it across the room.

 She can eat an entire serving of Cracker Barrel's Mac and Cheese at one time and hasn't seen much that she doesn't like to eat.

 She is walking all over the place and loves to climb, climb, climb! My momma says that when I was a baby, she walked into the kitchen to find me standing on TOP of the stove. I'd turned on the burners and was in the middle of melting my shoes! Prior to Shelby Claire, I always thought-- where was Momma the whole time I was climbing up the stove, then turning the burners on? Well, SC has taught me how fast a baby can move when they put their minds to it!

 We have a baby gate at the bottom and top of our stairs. For some reason, the bottom didn't get closed yesterday (I totally blame this on the 3 year old but honestly, it could have been me). I put SC down in the kitchen, went in the pantry for some reason or other, and when I got out... she was half way up the stairs! When I saw her, I was scared so I started running to her, she then got startled and fell. FYI: when babies fall down stairs, they roll! I caught her at the bottom-- she was laughing the whole way down. Thankfully she wasn't harmed.

She has her back molars coming in and has been pretty cranky throughout that process. She can say "Momma, Daddy, Bye, and DONE". She is constantly telling us she is done with something. Done eating. Done with her car seat. Done having her diaper changed. Done taking a nap-- you name it, she's done with it. As I type this, she is upstairs in her crib saying, "Done, Done, Done" over and over. She's not yet even started her nap!


If I sing, "Ahhhhhaahhhh" like Ariel from "The Little Mermaid", she will mimic me. If we sing, "La-cooka-racha-, La-cooka, racha", she will dance and clap her hands. If Clay says, "Oh, my eyes, my eyes!!", she will throw her hands up to her head as if she's trying to cover her eyes.

She's getting tired of bottles-- much prefers to eat solid food. She is getting the hang of a sippy cup and would probably drop bottles all together in exchange for a sippy cup if I pressed her to do it. But I'm not. I love her as a baby and she can move up to a sippy cup whenever she's ready.

When Audrey was Shelby Claire's age, I enrolled her in Mother's Day Out. I've learned a lot about being a Momma since then and although I haven't figured it all out by any means-- I've learned that they grow way too fast and little SC will not be going to MDO any time soon. Just as the title of our blog says... "Babies Don't Keep".

Smiley Walking

Stuff We Do

 The last week has been a fun one-- first, we hosted a crafty kinda play date with Lyric. The girls made Valentine's frames and both did a great job on them. They loved using Elmer's Liquid glue rather than a glue stick!

 This picture will go in the frames. It was the best one I could get of the two of them! :)

 We don't have cable TV but we check out children's DVD's from the library and we watch random shows that Audrey likes through Netflix. She picked out a Wonder Pets DVD a few weeks ago and that show is about to drive me nuts. She LOVES it and it is all she wants to watch. When she finds something she likes, we pretend play it from then on out until she finds something else. For weeks and weeks we've been playing "Ariel" and I'm always "Ursula". Now, she's a Wonder Pet (Ming Ming) and I am an "animal in trouble". Her mission is to "save" the animal in trouble. I usually hide somewhere in the house and pretend to have a hurt paw or something and she will come save me. In the next picture, Audrey is Ming Ming but she has her Space Suit on and she is headed to board the Rocket Ship (her princess castle) to fly to space where she will save me, a poor monkey that has been left in space by astronauts.

 Audrey has gotten to the age where she can play with her friends without me standing right over here. When friends come over, the mommies no longer have to stay in the playroom with them, they can go up and play by themselves. It's a huge change from just a couple of months ago. Addie came Friday and she and Audrey played and played right by themselves.  Smiley got some play time with me and Addie's mommy, Amy!

 Then Audrey and Addie came down because they thought they may be missing something exciting downstairs.

 Audrey had enough playtime and took herself down to the basement for a few minutes to have a "break". :)

 Thankfully that little spell didn't last long and she was back upstairs with us, being her normal sweet self!

 We took all 3 little ones to Chik-fil-a to have lunch and then it was home for naps for everyone! A perfect day in my book!!


We've been spending a lot of time in the play room these days. The cold weather has us bundled up inside and I am so ready for spring to come so I can play something different! Ha!

The "pretend play" has always been a big part of our playtime around here. Audrey has a very vivid imagination and we are constantly giving voices to some sort of character. She doesn't mind mixing her toys up either. It is perfectly fine with her to have Ariel and her sisters play with the mommy and baby from the Loving Family Dollhouse. It makes it a challenge for me, but she loves every minute of it.

 Smiley, on the other hand, loves nothing more than to be let loose in the playroom. She gets so excited to just be in there!!

 Shelby Claire is the demolition crew for the dollhouse. Audrey will get it all set up just right, and then SC will take notice of something and make it all crash down. Sweet Audrey is very good at distracting her baby sister when she sees her coming. She will start shoving random toys at SC, hoping to distract her from whatever she's going after. She's really good at it!

 SC is so very lovey-dovey. Audrey has never been interested in a specific "lovie" but SC loves a tag blanket that has a precious teddy bear on it. I will get a picture of it soon. She also loves anything that is cuddly or snugly. She will hold it, kiss and love all over any kind of soft, stuffed animal. This particular Elmo sings the "Hokey Pokey" and turns "himself about" but she never lets him finish singing before she grabs him up for loving and kissing!

These days are precious and wonderful and boring as all get out at the same time. I need to come up with something dramatic to act out this afternoon after nap-- something like Ursula is trapped in the dollhouse so we can't go in there or she will steal our voices and then we can pretend to be Wonder Pets who go save Ursula who has changed her ways since being imprisoned and is now "sweet". That should jazz things up around here-- unless Audrey says, "No, No, Mommy- that's NOT how it goes."

2012

I can't believe I just typed 2012. Hmmm...time flies.

I haven't had new year's resolutions in a long time. I kinda don't like setting myself up for something that I most likely will fail at. I'm giving it a whirl this year but I'm not going to call them "resolutions"- maybe just lifestyle changes. Maybe that will fool myself into keeping it up.

First, I am going to work on being a better wife. I think I'm a pretty good one but who doesn't!?  I'm starting off by reading, My So-Called Life As a Proverbs 31 Wife. It's a good book but the lessons in the book are a hard pill to swallow. Which is exactly why I need to be reading it.

Second, I am going to work on finishing projects that I start. Simple ones like- finish decorating Smiley's nursery, finish sewing projects that are piled up in my sewing room, etc.

Third, I am going to find a part-time job. Hopefully something in the teaching profession. I've been itching to go back to teaching and I am hoping that I can find something part-time so I can stay-at-home but scratch the itch at the same time.

Finally, I am going to cook at least once a week whether Clay wants it or not. He is not a big "eater" so he prefers that we not have big meals for dinner. He really likes to eat cereal (!!) for supper or a bowl of fruit. I'm going to force myself to make meals for us all to eat that are healthy (so Clay will eat it). I'm thinking Sunday is the day to do this!

  

These other random pictures are of us on New Year's Day. We met friends at a park and tried to fly a kite. It was freezing that day and although the kite took to the air some, we didn't call it a success. The final photo is of Smiley laughing at me today from her seat in the back. We were in carpool line waiting to pick Audrey up from school. She found me to be hilarious and all I was doing was driving the car. :D