Thankful Thursday

1. My new chair! I have been hoarding my birthday and Christmas money until I could figure out something I really wanted. A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to buy a new chair for our living room. I love it! Now I have just a few more things I want to do to finish the room.

2. Baby Monitors. Of course I'm thankful for them for the obvious reasons, but one of my new favorite things is being able to listen to Bailey just lay in bed and talk to herself. It is so sweet! Lately when we lay her down at night she's been talking to herself...or Mr. Froggy, for at least 20 or 30 minutes before she finally falls asleep. And this morning she woke up at 6:00, which is way too early for her, so I decided to wait and see if she would fall back asleep. She jibber-jabbered and laughed for almost an hour before she fell back asleep. I just love listening to her!

3. Our newly converted play room. We have officially moved ALL of Bailey's toys to our front bedroom. It is so nice to have the living room as a grown-up room again. It seems crazy, but the room feels more peaceful now that there's not toys in front of the fireplace anymore. We will bring toys in there while she is awake if she gets tired of being in the play room, but they all go right back in there when she goes to bed.

Babysitter

Last night was a first for me and Nick. We were going to my friend Brittany's house for her birthday party and we actually hired a babysitter for the evening! Before, we've always had family or friends watch her when we've gone out. Well, our friends were going to be at the party, and I don't like to ask my parents to watch her on the weekends since my mom keeps her during the week while we're working. So we decided to ask one of Nick's students to babysit for us. She's a really sweet girl and she babysits on a regular visit. I was nervous about it though! And I wasn't the only one...my mom had some reservations about it...when I had told Brooke she said "I'm just not so sure about this..." and when Justin asked who was keeping her and we told him he said, "I don't like this. My mom's home and we can take her over there." Now, to clarify, these people are friends of ours! It's so great that Bailey has so many people that love and care for her! One of the people at the party made the comment that it seemed like Bailey had 5 sets of parents :) Well, everything went great! I had Nick call at 8:15 to make sure she had gone to bed ok. That was really my main concern, that she wouldn't want to go to sleep with someone new laying her down for bed. When we got home I asked Georgia how it went and she said she actually had to keep Bailey awake until 8! Apparently at about 6:30 she wanted to sit with Georgia on the couch, then they laid down together on the couch and Bailey fell asleep on her! Seriously, my daughter NEVER does this anymore! So, being the good babysitter she is, Georgia knew to keep her awake until her bedtime, or otherwise it would have been a very early morning for mommy and daddy :) We will definitely call on her services again...however, family is free :)

Story Time!

This morning I got to take Bailey to story time at the library! Actually, me and Nick took her since there was no school today. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but as a working mom, there's usually no opportunity to do things like this. Well, at work we've started having weekly meetings on Fridays and when they start is 30 minutes before I usually come to work, so Katy agreed to let me kill those 30 minutes during story time! This couldn't have worked out any better! There were only 2 other little girls there this morning. Bailey loved the books (of course!) and the dancing! She is usually so shy around new people, but she really surprised us both by going over and sitting on another mommy's lap during one of the books! Then during one of the songs she went to Mrs. Mary Lou (the leader) and she picked Bailey up and they danced. I couldn't believe that was my daughter! I'm very much looking forward to this being a normal weekly thing!! Here are some pics.

Videos!!

So, I've been behind on getting videos uploaded on here...just a little laziness on my part! But here are two videos I've been meaning to get on here for a while. This first one is the first time Bailey actually fed herself with her spoon. For a while now we could put food on her spoon and sit it in her bowl and she would pick it up and feed herself that way...but this was the first time she did it all by herself!

12-30-08

This next video is of Bailey playing with her mini basketball...her new favorite thing!

Goals for 2009

All right Terri, you want to know my 2009 goals...here goes! 1. Get more organized. I actually started this one a little before New Years, but it's definitely my biggest goal this year. I am such a piler. For some reason I have a problem throwing things away, so if I don't know what to do with something I'll pile it, until I get tired of seeing it, and THEN I throw it away! So I'm trying to streamline everything. I had already posted pics of my bedroom, and that was the first room I organized. Nick actually rearranged our front bedroom, that is now basically Bailey's play room :) but I have a few more things I want to do in there to get it how I want it. 2. Lose weight. I say this one every year, but hopefully I will actually stick to it this year. I do actually weigh less now than I did before I got pregnant, but everything seemed to shift, so my body is still completely different than it was before! My main goal is really to tone up. 3. Soak up every minute of Bailey I can! There are nights when I come home from work and am so tired and end up on the couch watching Bailey play, only to feel guilty about it later. I know she's only going to be little for so long, and I want to enjoy every second of it I can, tired or not! One thing I'm really excited about, is on Friday's I'm going to start taking her to Story Time at the library! I've worked it out with Katy that I'll come in early that day so I can leave to do this with her. I'm so glad to have a boss that understands what it means to be able to do things like this. I know there are a lot of working mom's that do not have that luxury. 4. Have more date nights. Me and Nick do not have enough of these...as I'm sure most parents would say! I want to really make time for us too! 5. Take off with my real estate career. I'm learning to give my business card to people everywhere and to try and meet someone new everyday. I think I've had a pretty good start and I've got a couple of clients I'm working with right now that will be buying this Spring, but I hope I can really start to make a name for myself this year!

Ultimate Recipe Showdown

I am sitting here on my couch counting down the minutes until the Ultimate Recipe Showdown comes on Food Network at 9:00 tonight. Why am I so excited? Because I know one of the contestants that's going to be on there!! I've talked a lot about Katy on here...my boss...her son is Michael and he is also a Realtor in our office. His girlfriend, Brigitte Nguyen is on the show tonight! She is such a cute, sweet person, I just love her. She graduated from Sullivan's culinary program last year. She was chosen to go over to feed the Olympians and is now competing on Food Network!! They have been very tight lipped about it, so I have no idea if she wins or not, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for her! If you click on the following link, you can find her name and watch her bio video. Good luck Brigitte!!!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/ultimate-recipe-showdown/index.html

Happy 15 month birthday!

Bailey imitating a monkey!

I can't believe Bailey is 15 months old today! I don't know where the time has gone!! Oddly enough, her 15 month check-up isn't until February 9th...which will make her 16 months then...oh-well, crazy doctor schedules! Here are some updates at 15 months: Favorite food: Still has to be biscuits and gravy. She is finally eating her vegetables good again! We just have to give her those about ten minutes before we put anything else on the table :) And she loves soup of any kind! Favorite drink: She loves her juice! She only gets it about once a day (and it's watered down of course), and she gets so excited. Favorite sign: Eat/Food. When she wakes up this is the first thing she does. I think she would eat all day if we let her! Favorite toy: This seems to change regularly, but lately it's been a little basketball. She can entertain herself for a long time bouncing the basketball in the kitchen. She picks it up, says "Ball", drops it and then chases it across the floor. And if you bounce it for her she gets excited and she'll just squeal! We call this, Baby Fetch :) Favorite cartoon: Sponge Bob...and I HATE Sponge Bob! Nick watched it even before Bailey was born and she started watching it with him. If she even sees a TV she asks for "Bob". She still loves music and dancing. It amazes me how much she picks up on without us even noticing. Now we can tell her "Go to your room", and she'll go right in there...very handy for diaper changes. And if you ask her if she wants to take a bath, she almost runs into the bathroom! This is definitely one of her favorite activities. She has recently started shaking her head no...so now if she doesn't want to do something she'll just look at you and shake her head no. She loves to impersonate animals. If you ask her what a monkey does, she'll put her hands under her arms and make little noises, and if you ask her what a bird does she'll flap her arms like she's flying, and we're working on what a pig does...she'll push the tip of her nose up but won't make the pig noises yet :) Question for other mommies who use/used Baby Signing Time...have you noticed that your child likes to sign more than talk? Bailey's great with the words she uses all the time, but I feel like she will imitate us before she will try new words. Mommy's favorite things about 15 months: Her curiosity! Even if it leads her to getting into trouble occasionally, I love watching her try to figure new things out. Her little personality seems to grow everyday. Every month I think "This is the best age yet!", but the next seems to always get better!