What Blakely eats-14 months

I don't know about anyone else but I sometimes feel like I feed Blakely the same things, over and over.  Not because she won't eat anything else but because I run out of ideas!  And, let's be honest, I'm not cooking gourmet meals three times a day...or ever.  

Anyway, I feel like it is important to give her a variety of foods while she will still try them.  I know we will probably run into some toddler pickiness soon and I am hoping the more things she has tried and liked the easier that stage will be, right??  

Also, sometimes I hear (or read on a blog) something that their toddler eats and I'm like "Duh!  Goldfish!  Why didn't I think of that?"  So, I thought I would jot down what Blakely eats at *almost* 14 months old.  Maybe it will help you get out of your toddler feeding rut or maybe you want to share what you feed your toddler (please!).  Also, when I say toddler I, of course, mean babytoddler....very big difference.  ;)  She is growing up WAY too fast...

I am going to break it all down into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks but I change it up often.  For example, I give her scrambled eggs for lunch or dinner, not just for breakfast.   

Breakfast
oatmeal-usually I give her the plain oatmeal but occasionally I will give her a flavored one.  
banana
blueberries
kiwi
strawberries
watemelon
toast
greek yogurt-I get the flavored ones and we share
sausage patties
scrambled eggs
cottage cheese (usually with a fruit)
peanut butter on toast-we just started introducing PB and so far it is a hit.  
fruit cup-I get the Dole cups in 100% juice.  They are the perfect snack size and also good for on the go.  Our staples are mandarin oranges, pears, and peaches.  

Lunch
deli ham or turkey
bread
sliced american cheese or shredded cheddar
vegetable-I mostly buy the canned vegetables with no salt added.  She gets a fresh veggie if I cooked the night before or something.  Our staples are cut green beans, sweet peas, corn, and mixed vegetables.  
club crackers with cheese
grilled cheese
beans-any kind of canned bean.  Usually pinto beans or black beans.  

Dinner
For dinner I try to have her eat what we eat if I have cooked, which we all know is not every night.  So, some of the time, I end up just throwing something together for her.  

pasta noodles-usually rotini or mini bow ties.  I will either put butter, alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce (RARE!  too messy), or cottage cheese on the noodles.  

scrambled eggs/omelet/frittata or whatever you want to call it!  This has become my go-to meal for her.  I can scramble some eggs and add whatever I find in the fridge or pantry in and BOOM! great babytoddler meal.  Some things I throw in are cheese, black olives, ham, turkey, leftover chicken, or peas (or any veggie).  Sometimes I put a little bit of salsa on the eggs too.

macaroni and cheese-I will usually add peas to this because she loves her peas.

waffles or pancakes.  We are big fans of brinner, aka breakfast for dinner, in this house.  I made pumpkin pancakes for all of us the other night and they were awesome!  

Sometimes I just put a bunch of veggies on her tray and she will eat that for dinner.  Other times she throws them all on the floor.  You never know.  

If I don't feel like throwing something together or she HAS TO EAT RIGHT NOW, I always have a few of those Ger.ber toddler meals around.  

Snacks
fruit cups
pouches
cheerios
baby mum-mums
applesauce 

I feel like I am just feeding her and not really putting together "meals" for her, know what I mean?  I did so good at giving her lots of variety from about 6-10 months.  I made all of her baby food and she loved everything.  Once she started eating mostly table food things have gotten more difficult.  Also, until recently, she didn't like to eat from a spoon.  She wanted to be able to pick it up, so that narrowed things down a bit.  Now she is better about the spoon if I let her put it in her own mouth.  

I like easy...super easy.  If I cook dinner for all of us, then she will eat it.  She is still willing to try most anything.  She may throw it down after a few bites and demand something else but she will at least try.  What do you feed your babytoddler?  Do you have something really easy that is your "go-to" meal?  Is there something that your child just loves that I am missing?  Or is there an easy meal you make for your whole family that your kids love?  I feel like I do pretty good with breakfast and lunch but then when dinner time rolls around I am scrambling around throwing stuff on her tray at the last minute.  I am not a good meal planner (oh how I wish I was!).  Help a girl out!  I am getting bored with what she eats so I know she is too.

All about Miami

I agreed to this trip when B was just weeks old.  I remember thinking "Oh, she'll be 13 months old.  I won't be be stressed to leave her!"  Yeah, right.  I told Lonnie multiple times while I was packing that I changed my mind and wasn't going...which wasn't not even an option since we had paid for everything already.  

We went on a lunch date before I left.  She was excited if you can't tell!

We left on Saturday morning when B went down for her nap.  She stayed at our house with my mom and my aunt Saturday and Sunday.  Then Monday and Tuesday she stayed here with my mom and my MIL.  I was not worried about B...I knew she was going to have the BEST time.  She absolutely LOVES her Gran Di, her Jenni, and her NanaBob.  I was more worried about how much I was going to miss her! 

We got to Miami Saturday evening and went to dinner with our friends, Justin and Allison.  We ate awesome sushi and I had my first ever sake bomb...fun times.  Then we decided to go to a super fun Miami nightclub called LIV.  What a time that was!  Let's just say I had on way too many clothes for this club ;) 

only one crappy cell phone shot of that night... 

I really wanted to sleep in while we were there but that just didn't happen.  We didn't go to bed until 4 am so I was running on little sleep Sunday.  I definitely feel too old for the Miami club scene but it was a super fun experience.  I think I can do that about once a year.  

On Sunday we had brunch and then napped in the afternoon.  That night we went to an Italian restaurant that had amazing food and amazing wine.  But the company was even better.   

We spent the whole day Monday relaxing on the beach.  Which is exactly what you want to do when you have just gained 10 pounds from weaning AND started your period the day before.  Not cool at all but whatever.  I sucked it up (or in) and got into that bikini (!!) and planted my white, squishy, bloated booty on the beach.  The mojitos helped a lot with this...

Monday night was the Madonna concert.  The concert was the whole reason we planned to meet them in Miami.  

Lonnie and I have seen Madonna twice.  I know that sounds weird!  We went to NYC for our first anniversary and as I was planning the trip I looked to see if there was anything fun happening at Madi.son S.quare Gar.den.  It turned out that Madonna was playing while we were there.  We had to go...I mean it was Madonna.  It was one of those things that you had to do if the opportunity presents itself, kind of like Elvis or The Beatles.  So we went and it was amazing!  We both had such an amazing time and she put on an awesome show.  Neither of us were super fans of hers or anything but the concert left us very impressed.  We ended up seeing her in LA a few months after that.  Lonnie told me not to tell anyone how much he liked it and I was sworn to secrecy about the 2nd show.  Sorry honey!  I'm telling the internets now ;)

Anyway, her show in Miami was great again.  The only problem is that she NEVER starts her show on time.  She was 3 1/2 hours late so that was pretty frustrating.  We were pumped up for the show and then we had to wait so long that I was getting tired!  We went to a latin/salsa bar before the show and it was so much fun.  They had people singing and dancing all over the place...VERY entertaining.  At one point Lonnie ordered us all tequila shots.  I mean...I haven't had a tequila shot since college!  And I won't be having one for a very long time!  

This is what we looked like when we got to the concert...

and this was 2 hours later..

We flew home Tuesday and that was the hardest part of the trip.  I COULD NOT get home to my sweet girl fast enough.  She missed us for sure but not nearly as much as we missed her!  She was playing outside when we drove up.  I scooped her up and didn't want to let her go.  I gave her to Lonnie and she started whining!  She wanted meeeee!  That actually made me a *little* happy..only because she is always excited to see Lonnie.  I am with her everyday so she never really misses me.  She always wants to go to him..but this time...she wanted her MOMMY!  

we did lots of snuggling...

and playing...

I am so glad that we went.  It was great to hang out with our friends that we don't get to see very often.  Lonnie and I needed some time together.  We love to travel and we can't always take our B.  I know she was well taken care of it didn't scar her for life!  I even gave her super messy spaghetti that night just in case she was mad.  

 and she liked it..

 and then she didn't.... 

Happy Tuesday!  Tuesdays are always great here because my house gets clean!!!  

Here we go!

Hi!  Long time, no blog.  Sorry about that.  Things have been hectic lately!  Lonnie and I took our first vacation without Blakely.  I just wrote a long post all about it but Blogger won't let me upload any pictures.  It says that I have run out of space and that I need to purchase more.  WHAT???  I am so frustrated with this.  So, as soon as I get that figured out (please help!) you will get to see super fun Miami pics :)

The biggest thing going on here is that we decided to go ahead with our FET...like now!  We thought we would wait until January but then we started wondering why we were waiting.  I started my period the day we got to Miami, of course.  So that meant starting the estrogen patches.  I will be on those for a few weeks and, as long as my uterine lining looks good and I don't ovulate, we will transfer our 2 embryos around mid December.  Hopefully I will be knocked up by Christmas!  That is just craziness...

I seem to have forgotten the effects the estrogen has on me.  I hate the world.  I am annoyed, easily irritated, and highly emotional.  Lonnie LOVES estrogen...HA!!  I feel bad for him...for a second...and then he says something that irritates me and I don't feel bad for him anymore ;)  
Oh well.  It will all be worth it!  He will love me through it...just like he did last time.  Maybe I should get him a really great Christmas gift to make it better?  I'm going to look for some cyb.er Monday deals right now.  Have y'all been online shopping all weekend like me?  I seriously can't stop....

13

Today my baby is 13 months old!  This is also my 200th post on this blog..whoa!  I could not be happier to write about my charming, sweet, happy, 13 month old on this "special" occasion :)

I am realizing more and more each day how much of a little girl toddler she is becoming.  It is really fascinating to watch her grow and learn.  I don't think I will do such detailed monthly posts because that is such a big commitment but I do want to document things.  I want to be able to look back at my blog and see what she was doing or what was funny at the time.  I think they will be similar to my last post about things I don't want to forget.  

As I've mentioned before, we have a big time talker here.  It has gotten to the point though that she understands way more than she can actually say.  I can sense her frustration occasionally when she wants something but I don't know what she is trying to say.  Eventually I will figure it out and she gives me this look like "DUH Mom!".  If she can't say the word then she just says BA!  So most of our days are spent with her walking around the house yelling BA!  BA! and pointing at things while I walk behind her saying the word. 

She understands more and more each day.  Here are a few new things she can do.  

• Where is Mommy's belly?
• Want to go outside?  She will go to the door to the deck first and then if I don't open it she knows to go to the front door. 
• Let's go bye-bye.  She goes to the garage door.
• Sit in your chair and drink your milk.  
• Can you go give Minnie kisses?  She finds Minnie and kisses her nose.
• Can you close the door?  Usually this means the cabinet door on the entertainment center but sometimes she will close the bathroom door for me.
• Where is Blakely's other shoe?  She will already have one on and she will go find the other one (out of the 4327 pairs of shoes she has!).
• Where is the fan?

I want to mention this but I am not sure where it is going.  When she poops she will bring me the pack of wipes that I keep upstairs or she will just start playing with the wipes.  I ask her if she needs a new diaper and she will go grab one.  I don't think she is connecting the pooping with the diaper change just yet but I think she just knows what a diaper is now.  Since I noticed this a couple of weeks ago I have been trying to immediately change her so she will get it.  I thought maybe she didn't like being dirty or something? 

This child definitely understands no.  She knows there are certain things that are BIG no no's and other things that she might be able to get away with if she keeps trying.  

I have started letting her watch Mick.ey Mou.se Clu.bhouse while she is drinking her milk before her afternoon nap.  She really pays attention and has started dancing to the songs.  

Blakely finally got her 7th tooth.  We were stuck at 6 for months!  It is the one on the bottom next to the middle right one.  

Funny story.  The other night Lonnie was gone so I was going to give B her bath myself.  I got her all undressed and let her run around naked in the bathroom while I ran the bath.  I look over and she has popped the poop squat and is pooping on the floor!  I couldn't believe it.  Sure, she has peed a zillion times on the bathroom floor but never poop!  I couldn't help but laugh and, of course, take a picture.  She just hopped up and walked over to her toys to play while I cleaned it up.  When I was finished I looked over and she was doing it again!!!  AHHH!!  It was crazy and she just kept laughing because I was laughing so hard...I couldn't help it.  I made sure to send all of those pics to Lonnie...who was at dinner ;)  Crazy girl.  

Dear pea pod,
I have a feeling from here on out I am going to want to tell you just how big you are getting and how I can't believe how old you are!    Now that you are past the big first birthday I think time is just going to speed up.  I desperately want time to slow down.  You are so fun right now...I love it!  You loooove to give me kisses in the morning when I bring you into our bed.  You still like your mommy snuggles even though we have stopped nursing.  You really love to sit in your big pink chair and drink your milk or watch your show.  Occasionally you will let me sit with you so we can cuddle.  I love those special moments with you.  You are everything, sweetie...everything.  I love you.  
Love, Mommy

Things I don't want to forget at this very moment

• The way I know when you are beginning to wake up from your nap.  You sleep on your tummy so when you start bending your leg at the knee and pounding your foot on the mattress I know that I have 15 more minutes to finish whatever I am doing.  

• You still suck on the back of your hand when you are sleepy.  You have done this since...forever.

• You are starting to show suuuuuuuch a little attitude.  I think it is the cutest thing ever.  I wonder if I will think this in a few years ;)

• You go over to Gran Di's every Sunday.  You love playing over there...especially on the swing.

• You get the "scrunchy" face when you don't like something or I won't do what you want me to do.

• How you hand me the dog food plate every single morning.  I always forget to pick it up the night before so first thing you do when we come upstairs is go get it and hand it to me to put away.

• How you get down off of the couch.  I taught you how to do this a while back and you used to lay on your tummy and shimmy towards the edge feet first.  Now you are a pro so you just flop over and off and land on your feet every time.  

• How wild eyed you look when you first wake up.

• You usually wake up in the morning while Daddy is in the shower.  I bring you into bed with me to drink your milk and you always point to the bathroom door and say DA DA!  You know he is in there and want him to come cuddle with us.  He tries to come right out when he hears you.  

• You watch for people to come over out of the dining room window.

• You always want me when you are crying.

• How cute it is to watch you climb into your rocking chair.  At first you couldn't bring a toy with you but now you have mastered that.

• You do everything with your left hand.

• You try to put your shoes on.  After a few minutes you get frustrated and bring them over to me, plop down in my lap, and wait for me to put them on you.  

• It is nearly impossible to go to the grocery store with you.  You talk to everyone and they can't help but talk back to you.  It takes forever just to make it down one aisle.  

• You love your peeps at Greg's Rise n Dine for breakfast.  We have been taking you there for breakfast on the weekends since you were 3 weeks old.  They just love seeing you and you love playing with them and making them laugh.  

• You love playing in our closet or in the laundry room.  

• You know Daddy is home in the afternoon when you hear the garage door open.

• You are scared of balloons.  I have no idea why but you always have been.

• You save your best kisses for me.  Sure, you will kiiiiiss Daddy or kiiiiiss Gran Di but you love giving me kisses over and over and over...and I don't always have to ask :)

all about the boobs

Since my time breastfeeding Blakely has come to an end, I thought I would do a little reflecting on the whole thing.  I'm not sure where this post is going.  It is going to just kind of be me blabbering on about my boobs and emotions.  I want to document, in one post, my nursing adventure.  I also want to get this out so I can feel some closure to this chapter in mine and Blakely's life.  

When I was pregnant I knew that I wanted to breastfeed my baby.  If we had gotten pregnant easily I'm not sure if my drive to succeed in this would have been as strong.  It is hard to say because the fact of the matter is that I had 3 infertile years (still infertile but sort of on the other side) to think about it.  I worked with a number of girls who nursed the entire first year.  Seeing them do it and work gave me motivation that I could definitely do it.  

Nursing was one of the main things that I was worried about while pregnant.  Even more than labor.  The baby had to come out one way or another.  It might hurt, yes, but the baby will come out no matter what I do.  Breastfeeding was totally different.  I could mess that one up.  When I started to think about it, I knew NOTHING about nursing.  How often?  How much?  Just HOW?!  I needed to be educated.  I had never actually seen a baby nurse.  

So I read a ton of books about boobs.  I read books that recommended scheduled feedings.  I read books that said scheduled feedings were mean and to feed the baby on demand.  I read books that said you should never pump in the beginning.  I read books that said you should pump to help your milk supply.  Needless to say, the books made me even more confused.  They also solidified the fact that I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

I took a breastfeeding class.  Yes, I made Lonnie go with me.  He knew about as much as me and I needed him to be able to help me when Blakely was born.  Therefore, he must get educated also.  What I learned in that class was...a whole lot of nothing.  It was all stuff that I had read in the books.  How to get the baby to latch, different nursing positions, how to help with pain, etc.  BUT, what I did learn in the class was that I knew as much as someone who had never nursed a newborn before could possibly know.  Breastfeeding isn't something you can "practice" before your child is born.  You just learn as much as you can and then you get completely thrown into it and there is a little life that depends on you...totally cray.  It is like on the job training...but again, with a little tiny tot depending on you.  

Now, I was lucky in the fact that Blakely seemed to really be hungry when she was first born. I nursed her about an hour after delivery and she didn't want to let go.  I think it was about 25 minutes per side.  I remember crying the first time.  Not because of the pain but because I was actually in that moment.  Nursing my daughter shortly after I birthed her.  I tear up now just thinking about it.  

Those first few weeks were pretty tough and I wrote about that here.  I knew that committing to breastfeeding meant that I would get very little sleep.  But I was oh so determined to do it.  I didn't know how long I would nurse my child but I was going to make it until we at least had good routine down and my milky supply was stable.  When my milk came in Blakely started spitting up.  I had a really hard time those few weeks.  My boobs constantly felt like they were going to explode, my lady bits ached and throbbed all the time (I was NOT prepared for the recovery), I cried at the drop of a hat, and my sweet baby spit up all the time.  It was a bit rough.  

A small turning point came at about week 3-4 when we moved B to her crib and out of the pack.n.pl.ay in our room.  I slept in a bed in her room and we could nurse in the glider instead of the bed.  Multiple reasons why this was amazing.  I got better sleep.  Nursing was more comfortable for both of us.  She slept better in her crib because we could prop it up so she didn't spit up as much.  Lonnie got good sleep upstairs so he could let me nap during the day.  WIN.  

We did that set up for about 8 weeks.  I loved that time.  Sometimes I wish I could sleep in her room just to feel like we were back in those early days.  She would start squeaking or grunting.  I would pull myself out of the bed to change her diaper.  She would inevitably poop immediately.   I would change her again and then she would nurse.  I would hold her upright for about 10 minutes after and then put her back down.  Then I would crawl right back into the warm bed and drift back to sleep.  Only to do it again in 2 hours.  Oh how I loved that time.  

I have a small confession to make here.  I have always had very small boobs.  Like seriously.  Anyway, I worried that their itty bitti-ness would mean that I wouldn't produce enough milk to feed my baby.  So I pumped.  And pumped some more.  I also pumped because I wasn't sure when we were going to want to try for another baby.  I was definitely NOT ready to even think about that but I had thought about it before B's birth and I knew I wanted to store up as much breast milk as possible.  I was also planning on going back to work so I needed to be storing milk for that as well.  For a long time Blakely would only nurse from one side.  So I would pump the other one when she was finished.  I did this after every single feeding, even in the middle of the night, for about the first 2 months.  I had the pump right by my bed and sometimes I would almost fall asleep doing it!  Once she started sleeping through the night at a little over 2 months (I know, don't hate me) I moved out of her room and I didn't pump as much.  At that time I was pumping in the morning, at night before I went to bed, and sometimes once during the day if I felt full.  Do I think I went overboard with the amount of pumping that I did?  Yes.  Do I think it helped me to succeed?  Absolutely.  Will I do as much pumping next time?  Probably not.  Mainly because I know I will be staying at home, I know my boobs can produce enough milk, and I don't think we will be in a rush to get pregnant again.  

From about 3 months old to about 6 months old breastfeeding rocked.  It was easy.  We had a great routine down and we both enjoyed it.  Once she started crawling, it got hard.  She was so squirmy and busy.  It was hard to get her to pay attention.  I wrote this post about those difficulties.  

Around 7-8 months I got tired of nursing in a way.  She was still wanting to eat 6-7 times a day.  Our entire days revolved around her feedings.  I would have to nurse her in public places just to be able to get out of the house and go shopping for a few hours.  I couldn't leave her for more than 2 hours because she would need to eat.  If she had a bottle then I would still have to pump.  We were also introducing solids at this time so we had to be home for that too.  It was exhausting really.  I was over it.

Month 9 was a turning point.  She started nursing less and eating more real food.  We got a better daily schedule down that didn't include 7 nursing sessions.  We were able to leave the house and eat real food at an actual restaurant!  At this point she was nursing 4 times a day.  I went back to loving it and thinking that maybe I could make it to a year.  

I began the weaning process around 10.5 months.  That is when I first gave her whole milk.  I cut down to 3 feedings per day and one sippy cup of whole milk.  Then at 11 months I went down to just morning and night nursings.  This is when the emotions hit me and I wondered if I was really ready to fully wean...I wrote about that here.  Looking back I think there were just multiple things at once that made me so emotional.  She was about to turn one, she started walking, AND we were weaning.  Too many big things for Mommy at once.  I kept those 2 feedings for a while.  

She had her last bed time nursing on her birthday.  I didn't cry...I knew it was the right thing, for her and for me.  Blakely nursed for the last time on October 26.  That was a Friday and she nursed in the morning.  I knew it was going to be the last time...I didn't cry then either.  It felt right.  We were headed to our consultation for our frozen embryo transfer later that afternoon so everything seemed to fall right into place.  That was how it was supposed to be and that is all I really wanted.  I wanted it to feel like the right time.  I didn't want to feel rushed or like I was doing it for the wrong reasons.  It happened organically just like I wanted.  

Now, for the physical stuff.  I have heard many horror stories about how hard and painful weaning is.  Well I am here to tell you that it is not that way for everyone.  Weaning has been EASY for me (physically....).  I did it gradually, more gradual than I really even needed to, and I think that was the key.  Blakely has been weaned for about 9 days.  The girls haven't stopped producing yet and I'm not sure when they are going to catch on  I haven't had to pump...I have just been dealing with the "pain".  I wouldn't even call it pain, really, just more like fullness.  NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, like when my milk first came in or when she first started sleeping through the night!  I have had a few blocked ducts that were quite painful but nothing a little ice pack didn't help.  I have always leaked.  I started leaking at 20 weeks pregnant...I know...  I have had to wear nursing pads for over a year.  I am still wearing them because the girls are confused and kind of have a mind of their own right now.  But I can't even begin to explain to you how excited I will be to not have to wear them anymore!  As soon as my boobs settle down into the sad state of small that I am sure is to come, I am going bra shopping!  I can't wait!  

Things that are awesome about no longer breastfeeding!

• I got to sleep in last weekend for the first time in a year.  Lonnie got up and gave her milk and I slept.  And then slept some more.  
• I can leave the house without Blakely for any amount of time that I want.  
• I have my body to myself for the first time in close to 2 years!  
• TMI but I have a certain "drive" back these days.  Let's just say that the husband is THRILLED with this.  
• Anyone can put the child to bed.  It doesn't have to be me!  I didn't realize how much I could accomplish in those 25 minutes to myself.  I can blog, or read blogs, or eat warm food.  Super.  

Things that are not awesome about no longer breastfeeding...

• The girls are a sad sight :(
• Periods....didn't miss those at all.  I started my first one on Blakely's birthday.  
• Weight gain.  I'm pretty sure I have gained about 7-8 pounds since weaning.  I should probably stop eating like a cow.  

All in all I am very happy with my nursing experience.  There were times when I definitely wanted to be done with it but, for the most part, I really enjoyed it.  I am so thankful that Blakely and I were lucky enough to have a pretty smooth ride with it and I am proud of both of us.  I know how lucky I am to have been able to do it and I can't wait to nurse my next baby!  I better get on that pretty quick because no breastfeeding also means BABY FEVER UP IN HERE.....

Also, if anyone has any questions or anything about nursing I would be more than happy to answer them!  Leave a comment or just e-mail me!  :)

Halloween from Blakely

Hi!  It's Blakely and I stole Mommy's computer so I could tell you what a great day I had with Mommy yesterday.  First thing was that she let me get really really messy.  We carved a pumpkin!

You're going to let me do what??

Is this a trick?

Then I got a bath in the middle of the afternoon.  I told you I got really messy!  After bath Mommy made me an awesome lunch.  I mean just look at it...who doesn't want to eat all of that?  

Then we got to play with a bunch of stickers.  I've never played with these before but Mommy is so smart because she knew that I would LOVE them.  She said it was my very first "crafting afternoon".  We made a fun diaper....

Then we decorated my trick or treat bucket.  I put most of those stickers on....Mommy just finished it off when I would get distracted.  

Then we made cute little pumpkins to give away to family!  This was my favorite craft.  Mommy kept telling me where to put the stickers but I'm not sure why.  I knew what I was doing.  

I knew it was a special day already BUT it got even more special.  Mommy let me drink my milk upstairs while watching a show on the TV before my nap.  She never lets me do this so I was veeeeeeery excited.  I sat really still and drank every drop of my milk so I could finish watching the whole show.  I hope she lets me do that more!  

After a long nap we got ready and went to see Daddy at work.  Everyone was so excited to see me.  At first it made me a little nervous because they were all staring at me but then I remembered that I LOVE attention so I started making them laugh.  Plus, my peacock costume was super cute.  They loved me :)

Daddy had one more patient to see before he could come with us so we took a little break in the car and ate some cheerios...  Thank, Mom

Then we went to see Pops and Uncle Matty at work!  I had a fun time there just running all over the showroom.  Everyone kept trying to take my picture but I'm just too fast.  

Mommy tried to hide her keys in my bucket but I found them!  Can't fool me...

Then we went over to Grands house to see all of my peeps.  I got to see Grand, T, Richard, Jenni, and even GRAN DI!!!  They got me toys for my bucket which is so much better than that other stuff that Mommy won't let me have.  

Don't you think it was an awesome day?  I can't wait until next Halloween!

Ohhhhh and here I am compared to last year!!!  I've sure grown!