This Girl...

Is getting too big too fast, where did my baby go?

I love watching her explore and learn new things everyday, now she is..

A very picky eater, totally done with baby food, trying out the gerber graduates, but mostly she wants whatever we have.

Is totally on whole milk, now I just have to get her off the bottle,she likes sippy cups but not all the time, she kind of messes around with them and drinks it all over the course of a few hours, so when she's really grumpy and wants milk, she throws a fit until she gets a bottle, not sure what to do about this.

Has learned to blow kisses and loves to kiss the baby in the mirror, so freaking adorable I just melt every time.

Is very wary of pretty much all men (besides grandpa of course, he is her favorite person in the whole world) any other guy she won't go near.

Is walking and running and falling everywhere and has the war wounds to prove it. Her little bruises just break mommy's heart, but she could care less.

Likes to go bowling with me every Wed, but is not so big on hanging out with everyone else anymore.

Still uses vomit as a weapon. Also hits with hard objects in her hand, I firmly tell her no and take the object from her, but of course it never actually sinks in that that's bad.

And of course she owns my heart and soul, I love her more than I ever thought possible and can't wait to see what every new day brings.

Long weekend

So as I don't have a 'normal' job I obviously don't have a normal weekend. In the four years I've worked at the casino my days off have changed many times and right now they are Tues/Wed, which I like and works for me. So Monday, was the first official night that Chris picked up Ireland for his first weekend. So they got to Missouri around 10:30 and I got off work at 11:30 with nothing to do, no immediate responsibility, didn't have to go right to bed cause no one would be waking me up in the morning. It was bizarre and depressing, so I called my friend and we went to the bar for a few hours then back to his place and hung out, it was nice. Tuesday I had to pre-bowl, which I did with Shannon then left town around four to go down to Missouri. Now this will not be a regular occurance, me going down there when they are there, but I had planned it already and it seemed to work out, plus it was a good transition for me only having to be away from her for one night instead of two. So I got there around 8 and cuddled with Ireland, I was so glad to see her. Wed they left in the morning and that night was Ireland's birthday dinner and Grandma and Grandma Bailey's. Aunt Mary came over, Britney and Ryan, Ireland's great grandparents (Jeff's parents who are the same age as my parents) and Ireland's sisters Samantha and Maddy. It was a nice dinner and of course miss thing got spoiled again. She loved all her presents. Later Sam and Maddy's mom Emily came to pick them up and I finally got to meet her which was nice, she was very nice. Ireland slept like crap that night, up and down all night. The next day we went to Quincy to eat lunch with Brit and Ryan and then headed home. The whole time Ireland would only leave my side for the women in the family. She wanted nothing to do with Chris, Ryan, or Jeff and I don't know where this has come from. She loves my dad, even with all his facial hair and she loves most of my guy friends, but she would just scream and cling to me or Terry or Britney or Heather if any of them tried to take her. Hopefully she gets over this soon. I don't want her traumitized every time her dad picks her up, it breaks my heart and I know it hurts him too. Ryan and Jeff were sad too cause usually she loves them. Also we are having lots of problems with food and eating food. I can't tell if she is just getting to picky or if she just isn't hungry, it's usually the most I can do to get her to eat a few bites of anything before she starts refusing or throwing it on the floor. She's not sick or anything but it's really starting to worry me. Hopefully it's just a phase. An hour into the car ride home she gagged herself until she puked again, no matter how much I tried to stop her. So I had to pull over and clean that up, obviously this is mommy's new punishment whenever Ireland does not get her way. So yeah, it was a good weekend, but a long one and I am tired. I think I'll go take a nap before work. Ireland is in Applington with my dad, visiting my Grandma and Aunt's and Uncles. Back to the grind tonight.

And....we're walking

It's official, we are walking everywhere! Forget crawling, that is now for babies, we will walk or run or fall down all the time, but that will not stop us, we just get right back up. So yep, mommy is loving it. She started walking right before her birthday, but just a few steps here and there, but now it's all the time everywhere. Of course this means all new worlds of badness are open to us, she can reach much more and get into everything, but that's okay. She's getting some big teeth in and that with daylight savings time is messing her up. She wakes up in the middle of the night and has to be comforted and then sleeps in until 11! 11 am two mornings in a row, how wierd, but I'm not comlaining, I am one exhausted mommy all the time. This morning when I got off work at 1 am I just could not get to sleep, so finally around 3 I called Stu. (That's 9 am in England) It's been awhile since we talked and I was really missing him. It was great to catch up and he called again about 11 this morning cause we weren't done talking when I got tired at 4 in the morning. So that was really nice and put me in a great mood. When sleeping beauty finally decided to get up we just played and ate a little breakfast. I'm a little concerned about her lack of eating lately. I was going to be done with baby food, but she is getting pickier everyday and I just want to make sure she's getting the proper nutrition. So I think we'll keep mixing the baby food in with the big girl food, any suggestions would be much appreciated. Today is also ELECTION DAY!! Yay, I am so excited about this election, I alreay voted and if you know me at all you know I voted for Obama, things should be getting very interesting. We're going over to Jame's tonight for an election party, watching the election is like my sports center, I can' wait. I hope everyone voted it really does matter.

Lady Bugs

So with all this gorgeous weather comes the reemergence of all the damn lady bugs, japanese beetles, whatever they are they are everywhere! So of course they get into the house, who knows how, and my daughter seems to have made it her own personal misson to find each and every one. And then she brings them to me, dead or alive, squished or not, mommy gets loads of presents every day, which I supposse is better than her eating them, since she usually puts everything she finds in her mouth. I remember in college walking out of my history classes in Ross hall and the whole side of the building would be one big writhing mass of those damn things, disgusting, but oh well, I'll take the lady bugs if it means this fabulous indian summer, because we all know, I HATE IOWA IN THE WINTER! Yuck, I am so not looking forward to it.