Oh. Hi there. (300th post)

Hi!  How are y'all?  I know I haven't posted in forever but this month has just been so very busy.  There are no signs that it is slowing down anytime soon either.  

I have a few posts that I will try to get up this week (ummm birthday party!) but for now you get a totally random post about this blog.  

This is my 300th post.  I had no idea when I started this little blog that it would grow into something that is so important to me.  From the documenting of our lives (I print this into a book each year) to the friendships that I have made (some of the best!), I can't ever imagine not having this space.  Thank you all for that.  Thank you for reading my happy posts.  Thank you for reading my sad posts.  Thank you for reading my bitchy posts and thank you for reading my pity party posts.  Y'all are just the best!  

I thought I would share a few random fun facts about this blog.  I saw Sarah do this a while back and I found it pretty interesting so I thought this was a good time for something similar.  

Most viewed posts on this blog (in order from the most popular)
1.  Nature Themed Baby Shower
2. Blakely's first birthday party
3.  An injury (random...)
4.  2 years (a recent one!)
5.  What you've all been waiting for

Top google searches that hit my blog
1.  baby shower nature theme
2.  loooooots of different types of diaper searches (candid diaper booty, outside no diaper...weird, I know). I guess I've written about diapers a lot!
3.  first birthday pumpkin theme

Most pinned posts.  
1.  Nature Themed Baby Shower---multiple different pics from that post have been pinned but mostly the table set up, the wishing tree, and the favors.  

2.  Pink Pumpkin birthday party---the balloon entrance is the most pinned picture from this post, followed by Blakely waiting for her party to start and my foyer.  

My first post----Hello Blog World!---so weird reading that one!  

My favorite posts
1.  Blakely's birth story and part two of that story. 
2.  Christmas Countdown
3.  I'm Pregnant...
4.  Letter to Blakely
5.  Pumpkin painting!

The post that got my first comment!  Ready to go

The post with the most comments (16)---My fave diapers

I have only ever deleted one post.  I only deleted it because I was getting a ton of hits due to a picture that I had in the post that I found from a goog.le search.  It was a maternity picture that I thought was funny but I decided I didn't want sooooo many people coming to the blog because of that picture.  

Only 7 people that I know in real life know about this blog {Lonnie, my mom, my MIL, my dad, my aunt, my BFF Sarah and Juanet (I recently told her about the blog)}.  Since this blog started as a way to talk/share/commiserate about my infertility I didn't share with anyone.  I still don't talk much about the details of our infertility with others outside of this blog.  I don't have plans to spread the word about my blog but I don't really stress too much about people finding out either.  I do worry that if everyone knew or I shared my posts on FB/IG that I would find it hard to be as honest.  I really strive to be honest here, the good stuff and the bad stuff.  

So there ya go.  A few random things about this blog.  Thanks for reading and HAPPY SUNDAY!  

2 years

My baby girl is now 2 years old.  I want to be able to look back at all of the things that she is doing right now.  Feel free to skim this one or just skip it altogether because it is going to be long!   
  
FEEDING:  I guess I will say that Blakely is a good eater.  We are going through a phase right now where she just wants to snack all day long.  I have a very hard time getting her to sit down and eat a meal.  When we sit down and eat dinner she will eat a few bites and then want to get down.  Then 30 minutes later she is raiding the pantry.  She rarely wants to eat breakfast and only eats some of her lunch at school so I am assuming that is why she wants to snack all evening long.  At first I was just letting her snack because I figured she was hungry but I am going to try to cut down on that to get her to eat more "meals".  I was thinking I would try for dinner and then a heavy snack before she goes to bed.  We will see.  

Some of her favorite things are :
apple slices (still has trouble with the peel)
peanut butter (eats it by the spoonful)
Annie's cheddar bunnies (or cheddar squares)
chips (any kind.  I can't keep them in the house or she will find them.)
baby carrots (I think they feel good on her molars)
pasta (always have to dip it in something)
nuts (any kind really but her favorite are almonds an cashews)

she made dinner...

chip thief

SLEEPING:  Oh the sleeping.  I may have to write an entire post on what is going on in this department.  She has always been such a great sleeper and we have never had a hard time putting her to bed.  That all changed about 2 weeks ago.  A few different things are happening.  
1.  She doesn't want to go to bed.  She stalls and stalls.  We don't usually give in but she knows exactly what to say to make us think about giving in.  "More pee pee" and then if that doesn't work she tries "Blakely poop".  Smart girl that one.  Sometimes she goes to sleep after a few minutes of crying and then other nights it takes over an hour.  On the long nights one of us usually goes back in to calm her down which is why I am sure she keeps crying.  Sigh.  
2.  She is waking up in the middle of the night completely and totally hysterical.  I am not talking whining and crying.  I can handle that.  I am talking full blown screaming and crawling to get out of her bed.  Yelling so much she coughs and gags and gets choked and /or vomits.  She goes from sleeping to hysterics in like 5 seconds.  She sounds scared and that I can not take.  I go in there and she either a) immediately lays back down but freaks if I try to leave the room or b) stays hysterical until I pick her up.  This has led to me sleeping in her room for the past week or so.  
3.  She doesn't want to nap when she is home with me.  They tell me that she naps at school but it isn't always a long nap.  She naps for a good 1.5-2 hours when she is with Juanet.  I know part of the problem here is that one of her teachers lays with her until she falls asleep.  She wants me to do that at home and that just isn't happening.  I left her in her room for an hour on Saturday and she cried for the first 10 minutes and then she just whined and talked to her babies (which is why I let her stay down there for an hour).  So we have had no naps for 2 days.  She is with Juanet today so I am curious to see what happens there.

I know all of this is just a phase and it will get better soon.  I also know that I do not mind snuggling with her one single bit!  I watched her sleep for an hour last night before I fell asleep and it was so good.  She was holding my hand so tight and it made me wonder why I even try to get her to sleep by herself. 

Here is a list of the MUST HAVES in her crib at night.  I want to remember this because I slept with my soft bear until I met Lonnie.  Don't judge...  ;)
pillow
Minnie
Big soft bear
Little soft bear
Jaffy
Dotty
Baby Doll 

attached to mommy

TALKING:  This girl talks up a storm as I know I have said before.  She is definitely talking in sentences and it is pretty weird to hear that.  This morning she said to me "wash Blakely's hand pink soap please".  We can have full on conversations.  Well I guess you would call them that.  They usually go a little bit like this.  
Blakely: "Mommy sit pink chair"
Me:  Okay.  (I go sit in her pink chair.)
Blakely: "NO!  Mommy sit dis chair"  (points to her rocking chair)
Me:  Mommy's booty is too big to sit in that chair.  
Blakely:  "Mommy big booty.  Otay...Mommy sit down here" (points to the floor)
Me:  Okay.  Do you want to sit on the floor with Mommy?
Blakely: "No ma'am mommy.  Blakely sit pink chair."  (I know...ma'am.  must be from school)

Basically she bosses me around all day.  Ha!  

She talks so fast sometimes and I have to tell her to slow down and say her words correctly.  Instead of saying "baby doll" she will say "bay doll".  Or when she is saying Blakely (which sounds like Boppy) she will shorten it to just "BA".  She gets frustrated sometimes when I don't know what she is saying but if I can get her to slow down and "say her words" then I can understand her.  Now if I ask her to say something again she will look at me and say each word slower.  It is pretty cute.  

A few of the phrases I hear the most often are:
more eat please
more pee pee
up mommy up
Boppy go outside
hold mommy hand
play mommy hair
ME DO IT!

Some of the funny things she says...or things that sound funny the way she says them.  
Sit still sounds like shit.  
Princess sounds like penis.  This one if fun.  She will say "Mommy play princess!"  oh dear.  
She has started saying OH NO!  which is way cute.  "OH NO Minnie fall.  Kiss Minnie boo boo"
Football is still shitball.  

POTTY:  I am sure she will love that I put this section out on the internets but oh well.  She is fully potty trained except for sleeping.  All of her naps at school she wakes up dry (wears a pull up for nap there) and most of the time here too.  She isn't scared to use public bathrooms anymore so this is very helpful.  She is even to the point that she will hold it if I tell her too.  LIke if we are almost home or we are about to be finished with lunch somewhere.  We have had very few accidents throughout this entire process.  The only one I can even remember in the last month or so was when we were outside and she just refused to come in.  I  knew she needed to go but I wanted her to understand what would happen if she didn't go when she felt like she needed to.  So we stayed outside.  10 minutes later she looked at me with big eyes and said UH OH PEE PEE and bolted to our front door.  She had just gone a little bit in her panties but she didn't like it one bit.  I am very proud of her for doing so well with the potty.  And I am LOVING not having to wash and fold diapers!  

Ok.  Surely I am not the only mama who thinks this but when she poops she is so freaking adorable!  She will work so hard and then when she has success she will say "YAY!  Boppy BIG poopy".  I mean seriously.  It makes me laugh every single time.  I know she gets this because once we started potty training we would always do big cheers for #2's.  I had heard that some kids would pee on the potty but had a hard time with the other.  So when she would go we would basically throw a party.  Now she throws her own little party and entertains the heck out of us!  

TEETHING:  I know she is getting one of her 2 year molars.  It is about halfway in.  But I am pretty sure she is getting one or two more.  The amount of drool has increased dramatically and I catch her with her fingers in the back of her mouth often.  She has also started putting things in her mouth again.  Stresses me out.  I had to talk with them at school about it because she was putting little things in her mouth here and she hasn't done that in like a year!  She choked the other day on a little toy we had here and I freaked out.  I saw her putting it in her mouth and immediately said NO! and ran over to her to get it out.  Being the 2 year old that she is that just made her shove it further in her mouth.  Her eyes immediately got wide because she knew she couldn't get it out (she had it folded over and when she let go it unfolded and lodged).  Long story short, I reached in there and swiped it out.  It was very scary and we both cried after it was over.  She hasn't done anything like this since because I know it scared the heck out of her but I am still worried about when she is away from me.  

CLOTHING:  She wears a mix of 2T and 3T.  2T would fit her better except that the sleeves are starting to be too short and the pants aren't quite long enough.  My long and lanky girl.  Summer 2T stuff is perfect but for winter stuff she definitely needs a 3T.  She wear a 7-8 shoe depending on the brand. 

HAIR:  Her hair is a light brown and is fine.  I have no clue how she has fine hair with the coarse, thick mane I've got and the sheer volume of hair Lonnie has.  But fine it is.  She is getting more and more hair though and it does have a little bit of curl on the ends in the back.  

EYES:  Big blue eyes.  Just like Lonnie and I.  

WEIGHT:  I am guessing about 27 pounds.  I'll update this when I take her to her 2 year check up.  ****She weighed almost 29 pounds at her checkup and jumped up to the 75th percentile***

HEIGHT:  35 inches?  36?  I am guessing.  ****She measured 36.5 inches.  I think that is not quite accurate as she was squirming and didn't want to stand up against the wall.  I'd guess closer to 36 but either way she is a tall girl!  99th percentile!***

BLAKELY'S FAVORITE THINGS:
Minnie nightgown
Snow White doll
bubble baths

getting in the shower with mommy
pushing her babies down the slide

Mick.ey Mou.se Clu.bhouse (seriously trying to get her on to a new show)
letters (singing them, pointing them out, etc)
speed bumps
strapping herself in to things (grocery cart, car seat, booster seat)
hiding
playing chase (she prefers this with daddy)
playing "night night"...kisses each doll, lays them down and puts a blanket over them.  

being naked.  She says "BOPPY NAKEY!"
eating off daddy's plate
playing with mommy's hair
Wheels on the bus
seek and find books

A FEW OTHER THINGS....

Blakely can count to ten.  She gets to ten and then starts back at seven and repeats "Sheh-sheh, eight, nine, TEN" over and over and over.  It is pretty adorable.  

She is sort of obsessed with school buses.  I take her out to the school a few days a week and we watch them go by.  When we are driving down the road she can spot one from so far away.  She gets super excited and yells "Shoo Bus!"  Then she asks for a pink school bus...

She can sing the ABC's up to the letter V.  I am not sure what the deal is with W, X, Y, and Z because she knows them just won't add them to the song!   

Any time she sees words on a sign or something she points and yells ABCD!  ABCD!  This girl loves some letters.  

She is finally starting to get her colors on a consistent basis.  Lonnie was seriously thinking she was color blind.  (He also thought she was allergic to the sun when she was 2 days old....ha!)  I try to remind him that SHE IS ONLY TWO.  When she points things out to me she will say the color first.  (Pink shirt, orange balloon, red cup, etc)  

She loves going to school and going with Juanet.  We have no trouble at all when Juanet comes to get her or when I drop her off at school.  I am thankful for this and hopefully it will stay this way!  

She loves stairs, any stairs.  The child can find them anywhere but ours are definitely her fave.  

When watching MMCH she will gets very distressed if Minnie seems to be sad, hurt, or upset.  She will start whining and saying uh oh Minnie or oh no Minnie.  We can't watch the Wiz.ard of D.iz or the one where Minnie, Daisy and Pluto get carried away by the balloons (meltdown!).  Our girl is pretty sensitive to others being in danger or hurt.  Especially Minnie...don't be messing with Minnie.  

She loves to jump off of things.  She always jumps off of the last step wherever we are.  She jumps off of her pink chair, our ottoman, the big mats at gymnastics and is working on jumping off the couch.  This is scary for a mama.  She is good at it, I can't lie, but it gives me a stroke.  

Speaking of gymnastics, she is doing really well there.  Not that I care about her doing actual "gymnastics" because, let's be honest, I am paying to use their space to let her run around.  I don't give a flip about her becoming a gymnast!  In the beginning B wouldn't sit down to warm up and she didn't follow any instructions...she just wanted to run and play.  I don't blame her.  But now she loves singing the warm up songs and doing all the stretches. She lets the teacher show her new things and really does well most of the time.  I remember when we first started going thinking that there was no way my child would sit in a circle for 10 minutes and "stretch"...now she does.  Big girl. 

She is very independent.  She wants to do everything herself, from tying her shoes to climbing into the car herself.  She will get frustrated if she can't do it (ME DO IT!) and I always try to let her do it herself before I "help" her.  I hear "no help" a lot too.  

She loves going to GranDi's house every Sunday.  She knows that GranDi, Jenni (which sounds like GiGi) and Grandmama (GEEE-mama) are all going to be there and will basically do whatever she wants to do.  She also knows that we stop and get GranDi "ICE T!" on the way over.  

Jenni snuggles

NICKNAMES:

B

Blake

Blakey

Boppy

Buggy

Bug

B-bug

boo bear

Bop

B-bop

bopper

bugger

boo boo chicken

Dear sweet Blakely Ann,
     I can't believe you are two years old.  You are the most amazing little girl and I am so proud to be your mommy.  You make me laugh until I cry and not a day goes by that you don't show me how much you love me.  I am thankful for that.  Your kisses are sweet and your hugs are gigantic.  I hope you always give them to me freely.  I hope you know how much your daddy and I love you.  You are the best Blakely.  You are silly, sweet, smart, and sassy.  You are just everything.  There is no other way to put it.  Everything.  I am not sure how we got so lucky to have you as our daughter but I can tell you that we are thankful every single day to be your parents.  We love you buggy!  

My girl is 2.

Today my miracle baby turned 2 years old!  We have had a wonderful day full of celebrating, cookies and and too many kisses to count.  I keep thinking back to what I was doing at this very moment 2 years ago.  I had an hours old newborn and I was in complete awe of her.

Tonight I have a sassy little 2 year old and I am still in complete and total awe of her.  

Man....time flies.  

And just to prove she IS sassy.....

I love her.  Happy 2nd birthday baby girl!  

Flashback Friday-One Year Ago

Since my little lovebug turns 2 this Sunday, I have been going through lots of pictures.  These two were at her one year photo shoot and it is AMAZING to me how different she is now.  Of course, I expected her to be different but still.  I mean look at her?  THAT IS A BABY RIGHT THERE.  

She had hardly any hair.  She had just learned to walk and I remember her falling in those leaves a hundred times.  She could only say a few words and it was easy peasy to get her to smile or laugh.  Fast forward a year and she runs like lightening and jumps off of anything she sees.  She talks in 5-7 words sentences most of the time and that hair?  It is down to her shoulder blades in the back.  She still smiles and laughs a ton but not if you have a camera in her face.  Back then she was 100% dependent on me to get food for her.  Now?  She raids the pantry every single chance she gets.  

On the other hand, I had balloons for her at that photo shoot a year ago and she was scared to death of them.  Today, a nice man blew one up for her at the car dealership and she completely melted down because she hates balloons.  I guess some things will never change.  And I am totally okay with that too!  

Happy Birthday Eve Eve sweet bug.  I can't wait to see all the ways you change and all the ways you stay the same in the next year!  

I just need to ramble.

Life seems to have kicked into high gear here lately.  We have many things going on and I just haven't been able to find the time to blog.  Here are some quick notes.  

1. Blakely turns 2 next Sunday.  We are having her party at our house just like last year.  Most of my free time (I have free time?) has been spent getting things ready for that.  I am not even close but it will be fun anyway.  I can't wait to share with y'all!  
2. Lonnie and I had our 6 year anniversary yesterday.  He's my man.  I love him.  I won't get all mushy but just know that he took me to Buff.alo Wi.ld Wings yesterday so I could watch football without an *almost* 2 year old on screaming at me at the top of her lungs.  He loves me.  Good man, that one.  
3. I can't lie, Blakely has been kicking my ass the past 2 weeks.  Apparently someone told her that she was the boss.  She is not the boss.  She does not understand this.  The other day I told her that Mommy was the boss and that meant that she had to do what mommy told her to do.  Her exact words, "NOOOOOO!!!! Blakely Boss!!!"  Then she proceeded to chant that while throwing wet wash cloths out of the bath tub.  I am very scared.  
4. I have some serious mommy guilt going on.  Lately B has been much more difficult to put to bed.  Or just much more difficult in general?  Anyway, I mentioned a while back that she is super attached to me.  Well this means that she doesn't want anyone else to put her to bed.  So I do it most every night.  Which is fine.  But NOW she will not let me leave the room.  She wants me to stand there and hold her hand while she falls asleep.  If I walk out of the room she gets hysterical.  Not just normal crying.  I'm talking sobbing, coughing, gagging, holding her breath hysterics.  Now, let me just tell you that a part of me, and not a small part, wants to jump in that bed with her and hold her sweet little hand all night long.  Deep down I know I don't want to get into that routine so I try my best to comfort her in other ways.  But I mean really.  The child just wants to touch me while she falls asleep.  It is the sweetest thing ever and It is breaking my heart to not do that every night.  Last night I slept in her room.  Tonight I will try not to.  
5. I have 1,000 things I should be doing other than blogging right now.  My carpets are being cleaned as we speak and I am supposed to be doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen.  I hate carpet, by the way, and can't wait for the day when we get rid of it all!  
6. My mom and I took Blakely with us to the craft fair this weekend.  I looooooove going to the Arts and Crafts Fair.  My aunt used to have a booth where she sold hand painted signs so I've been going since I was little.  I got some cute stuff but we didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked.  It was like 100% humidity so we were worn out after a while.  I've gotten B some adorable knit hats there the past 3 years and I may have gone overboard this year.  Oops.  
7. I am in 2 fantasy football leagues.  It is getting hard to keep up with them both.  BUT in the one with all the boys I am 5-0!  Kicking ass and taking names!  Oh and the name of my team is A Woman Among Boys.  LOL!  In the other league with just my girlfriends I am doing ok....need to step it up though!  
8. Must.  Go.  Do.  Laundry.  
9. Happy Monday!!!!!  

23 months...quite late

I am way late on writing this because I forgot!  Can you believe that after 2 years of writing these monthly posts that this one just got away from me?  Oops.   

Basically, the only thing B turning 23 months means is that she will be 2 IN A MONTH.  That is all. 

Here are a few little things about her and a photo dump.  Enjoy!

She loves to be tickled.  We call them her tickle spots (under her arms, on her neck, etc).  She will say "Mommy tickle spot" and point to one of them.  When we tickle her she just laughs and laughs.  The best sound in the world.  

She is doing great in school and talks about her teachers all of the time.  Since starting school she has become a little (okay, a lot) more attached to me.  She loves going and there is never any problem dropping her off.  But on days when she is with me she wants my undivided attention...which I give to her.  But when someone else is around she whines and just wants me to hold her and not talk to anyone else.  Even Lonnie.  When he gets home from work she whines and yells if he and I try to have a conversation.  It is a little difficult but I understand why she is doing it.  She misses me.  And boy do I miss her when she is gone.  To me this is one of the best things about school.  She can go there and play and learn while I get things done.  Then when she is home with me I can completely focus on her.  When she was with me all day everyday I felt like I was constantly trying to get things done and give her attention at the same time and I was failing at both.  We just need to work out this whining when others are around.  It is the worst after she has been in school for 2 days.  Then it gets better over the next few days.  Then it is time to go back to school!  I can't lie though, I love being her person ;)

She still loves daddy even though she is a big time mommy's girl right now...

Actually she loves school so much it is hard to get her to leave.  I have resorted to bribing her with frozen yogurt to get her to come with me without a freak out!  Probably not a good idea but it sure is yummy and fun!  

She loves her Sno.w W.hite.  She calls her "doh doh white".  We usually can't leave the house without her, Baby Doll and Daisy.  I have learned that even if Blakely says she doesn't want to take them with us that I should bring them anyway.  Because it never fails she will ask for them when we get about 10 minutes down the road.  :)

Razorback football started this month and we dress up in our gear to call the HOGS every Saturday!  

I love this baby girl so much and I can't believe she is about to be two years old.  I am feeling very emotional that my baby is so not a baby anymore.  She is a funny, sweet, strong, determined little toddler and I can't wait to see how she continues to grow into her own little personality!

outdoor weekend

We had such a great weekend.  The weather took a big turn towards fall and so we decided to get out and enjoy it.  

On Friday it rained all day long.  Not a storm but just that lazy all day light rain with no thunder or lightening.  You know, the perfect napping weather.  When we all woke up from those wonderful naps we decided to take a little walk in the rain.  I got this adorable rain coat with matching rain boots from Zu.lily a few months ago.  You've probably seen the rain boots in a few of my pictures because B loves to wear them in the house.  I told her we could finally wear them outside because it was actually raining.  She got so excited.  Then I asked her if I could take her picture.  This is the pose I got...

She's pretty cute if you ask me!  Anyway, we walked around the neighborhood picking up acorns and stomping in puddles.  She thought it was super fun but her favorite part was swinging in the rain, as you can tell from the picture.  It took me a loooong time to get her to come inside.

When Blakely went to bed Friday night Lonnie and I started talking about going camping.  We talked about weekends he was off and tried to plan.  Well finally we said lets just go tomorrow!  So we did!  

It was a totally a last minute decision.  When B woke up the Saturday morning I packed up all the things we would need for an overnight stay.  We gave her an early nap and then left to find the perfect spot to camp.  

We live on a lake but there are a few other lakes near us.  Lake Oua.chita is very close to us (like a 15 minute drive).  It is much bigger than the lake that we live on and no homes are allowed to be built near this lake.  Because of this, it is an extremely clean lake and just a gorgeous piece of nature.  There are many islands and Lonnie and I have camped on an island with our boat before.  We've never taken B camping because we weren't sure how she would do.  I mean a baby/toddler sleeping in a tent?  Sounded like a recipe for disaster to me.  

But Saturday was the most beautiful day.  Sunny and 75.  We wanted to get out there and have wide open spaces for her to run around and just enjoy being outside.  So we did and it could not have been a better idea.  I was proud of Lonnie and I for doing something so last minute.  Since having Blakely we have become such planners.  Everything is always completely planned out and we never just do something on a whim.  But this?  This was definitely on a whim.  

On our drive into the campsite Blakely spotted a playground so we stopped there so she could play for a little while.  

Then we picked out a PERFECT spot, unloaded the car and set up our tent.  

We walked around the lake and just let her explore her surroundings.  We picked up rocks and threw them in the water.  She liked it best when Lonnie picked her up (he isn't supposed to but try telling him that) so she could throw it from up high and make a bigger splash.  She also like "washing" her hands in the water.  Ignore the plumber's crack in the picture.  These pants are from last year and they still fall off with panties on...

Then we gathered a bunch of sticks and helped daddy build a fire.  I think this was her favorite part!

Once the fire was going we roasted hot dogs and then marshmallows.

By the time it was dark our girl was super sleepy.  I took her in the tent and laid down with her (and Min.nie, of course) until she fell asleep.  It took all of 10 minutes.  Then Lonnie and I stayed up and chatted by the fire for a few hours.  

Y'all.  It was so nice.  Just being outside all day with my loves enjoying nature.  I could not have asked for a better weekend!  And because I just can't help myself I have to post this picture.  You know you're the mommy of a toddler when.....

HAPPY MONDAY!