BOO! BOO! BOO!

Well, sadly, there are no pictures of our Halloween tutu princess. Bailey hasn't been feeling too well this weekend. Apparently she was sick at daycare Friday although I didn't know this until I got there to pick her up. She got sick again on the way home so when I got home, I put her in the bathtub (which just reminded me I'm sure that carseat in my car smells really nice right about not) and then put her in her highchair with some pedilyte and crackers. She fell asleep, poor thing, about 4 and just couldn't wake up. I made the mistake of giving her some forumla around 9:00 and it just came right back up. She hasn't been that sick today, but is just punny and not eating. Jerry and NeNe came to stay with Bailey tonight while Sid and I went to eat and to Wal-Mart. Fun times! I just didn't want to get her out in the wind and most of the people we would go see weren't home anyway. So we chose to sit this Halloween out and Bailey could care less. She doesn't even know she's missed something and we have many, many more years of trick-or-treating ahead of us!!!

We hope your weekend has been nice. It's supposed to get down to almost freezing here tonight and we set our clocks back. So don't forget to turn some heat on and fix those clocks. We might could actually make it to Sunday School in the morning with an extra hour of time on our hands!!

SHEW!

( I love how she's looking back at me like, "Don't touch me Mom! I'm the Halloween tutu princess, or whatever we are calling this costume!")

So, it's been a week around here. One I don't care to discuss. But we did have the Fall Fetival at church Wednesday night. Although this is a preview to the frist Halloween Costume, I just got to post them because they are really too funny. My sweet friend Beth came over about an hour before church to deliver the pictures she took a few weeks back (some of those coming soon) and so she tried to get our picture as a fam before we headed to the festival. Have a look at how hard it is to get two adults and a 10 month old to look at the camera for just one shot.


"BAILEY, LOOK AT THE CAMERA"


"OKAY, DAD, IT'S YOUR TURN TO LOOK"


"HOW ABOUT SOME PATTY CAKE, YA'LL"


"YEP, STILL PATTY CAKING"


"FINALLY" I guess being outside, and a new person being at the house, and the bird singing, and the patty caking finally got old because she finally looked.


"WHO'S THE GOOD LOOKING COWBOY? WHY, COUSIN MASON OF COURSE!"

**It appears that some of the captions and the pics don't match up, but you get the gest. This blogging, adding pics thing isn't all that easy you know!**

Is She Beautiful or What???

I still have so much to blog about from the weekend, so many pictures and special things. But, again, for tonight, here's a sneak preview at the most beautiful 10 month old you will ever lay your eyes on.



Mom, Bailey's Mimi, bought her this dress because she knew that she would not have time to make her one since we only gave everyone about 4 weeks notice. So, this dress was not the dress that I was Christened in. Mom monagramed her full name and the date on her slip. This will definatly be an heirloom that we will pass down from generation to generation. Can you but something like this in a shadowbox to display and it preserve itself for use years and years later? I'll have to do some research.



We don't get very many pictures, or any that I know of, as a family because usually I am the one with the camera and Sid is the one with Bailey. But we got plenty this weekend.

I'm working on more posts, more specifically, posts of the whole families, mine and Sid's. Also, sharing about everyone who came to help us celebrate the day. And a surprise that Mimi had made for Bailey, which happened to mean just as much to me as it will Bailey one day. Come to think of it, Mom might have done it for me but gave it to Bailey, hmmm! My Aunt Marianne got some fabulous pictures of the actual Christening and I want to share those. Aunt Marianne, you'll be surprised at just how good you did do! And of course tons of more pictures of the sweet angel in that beautiful dress. So keep checking back daily. It was a big weekend with lots of pictures. Sid and I still are so overwhelmed and thankful for everyone who came from near and far to make the day just perfect.

October 25, 2009

Today we had Bailey christened at Lester Memorial First United Methodist Church in Oneonta, my hometown and home church. My pap-paw, Rev. Ed Self, preformed the cermony with the help of the associated paster, Tony Jones.

Bailey turned 10 months on the 22nd and I didn't figure when she was born that we would wait this long to have this done. But with her NICU stay and not needing to get out much during the winter months and then being sick and in the hospital for during Spring, and let's not forget the week and half stint in the PICU when she had surgery on her airway, we are just now getting around to doing it. (We already had the date set when she had RSV a few weeks ago.)



But there will be much more to come on the details of our day. For tonight, this post is dedicated to this man.



And let me tell you, if you don't know him, you have truly missed out on a huge blessing in life. Pap-paw brought the house down.

Pap-paw, if you never preach another sermon again, I just want you know how much you blessed the entire congregation this morning. In all my 33 years of attending Lester Memorial, I have never seen so many people come down for alter call. But it's because you don't make people feel like they have to come or that they are a bad person for needing to come to the alter. I myself was touched to the point of tears and as I looked around I realized I was not alone. Oh how you blessed this special day for my daughter and my family, for your great-grand daughter. For all those in need of what God spoke through you today. And you know those needs are many!

We will treasure this day for our lifetimes. We love you more than words could ever express here. You are a man of wisdom, a man God, a man of love. And your grace and love and blessings poured out on us today, Bailey's special day. You didn't just show up and perform a christening like you have done for years and years and years. Your words and sermon and being their for us means more to me, your first born grandchild, than you will ever know. I know you wouldn't have had it any other way, but THANK YOU!!! I am so loved and honored to call you my Pap-paw. I am so honored that you were willing and able to marry me and Sid two years ago this month, and now dedicate our sweet girl to our Lord - to charge us with the responsibility of bringing her up in a Christen household, to remind us of our purposes of raising her to love the Lord and know the Bible. To bring her to church. I love you so much and Sid and I just want to thank you for how you blessed our family this morning, and every day. We love you so much!

PS: Send me a copy of that sermon, would ya?? And be looking for more blog posts soon of other pictures of people who helped us celebrate Bailey's life today. It was a magical experience!

Lazy Acres 2009

Sid and I so badly wanted to go the Pumpkin Patch in Alabama when we were there last weekend with Erin and Andrew. But the rain just had other plans for us and we didn't get to go. I don't know who was more upset, Aunt Maggie or Erin. But I was rather upset myself.



So yesterday we went to Chunky, Mississippi to a place called Lazy Acres. It was first for a lot of things in Bailey's world. Her first time wearing a coat and keeping a hood on her head, the wind was horrible. I just knew she'd be so sick when the day was done. We took a hayride to the bottom of this huge hill where the pumpkin patch resides. Check out these furrowed eyebrows when the tractor cranked up and the trailer started moving.



Once we got to the actual pumpkins, Sid and I laughed about how much she was interested in all the other people than she was us or the pumpkins. She is defiantly the most social baby I've been around.




Bailey loves her some Daddy!



But I promise she is mine too!



We had a great day! They have much more that she can do next year when she can walk like some small step-by-step hay mazes and a choo choo train that is only big enough for the children. There were a few arts and crafts booths set up and of course a country store with mostly Christmas stuff for sell. There were also several photo opps around the place but didn't want to keep dragging her in and out of the stroller so we didn't take advantage of those. Oh, and not to the forget the pig races. That's right, real live pig races. That was first for me! We can't wait to go back again next year. Oh, and we didn't buy a pumpkin because we really don't need one this year. Bailey isn't old enough to participate in carving a pumpkin and Sid decorated the yard all Fall like for her anyway, so we decided to go against the $6 pumpkin. I am going to get a pie pumpkin before the season ends and boil it, take the skin off, and mash it up with sugar and cinnamon for Bailey to try. She'll probably like it though, she eats anything we put in front of her face these days!!

Ok, So Wow!

We have a whole lot going on right now. First of all, it's been a busy busy week for me and Sid has played Mr. Mom basically all week long. That's probably why he was in the bed before 7 tonight with a migraine.

It's 9 week exams and my intern finished up with me last week so I've had to hit it hard this week. Giving my own exams and helping students with their tests from the regular classroom has been a bit tiring.

We are headed to Alabama this weekend. Hoping to get to the pumpkin patch, but if we don't we are just excited to be getting away for a few days and spending time with people we NEVER EVER get to see anymore.

We had Bailey's pictures made today for the first time by a real photographer. Actually, it's the girl that was the intern in my class. She has a side business and a big fancy smancy camera. We met her at a local park and took some regular pictures and then a place that is decorated all fall like for some fall type pictures in the tractor dress. Too bad it felt like a muggy Mississippi July afternoon, blazing hot, we were all sweaty and worn out after the hour long shoot at two different settings. Beth emailed me a few pictures a bit ago and I'm super duper excited. Bailey's picture has been made at daycare twice since she's been born but not really professionally in our own settings. Be on the lookout for some pics soon.

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!!

New Found Love

Of smocked dresses that is! I got this dress of Bailey off of ebay brand new with the tags still on it, for a pretty penny. But we just had to have it in honor of Bailey's Pap-paw Jerry and Mason. I happen to think she looks just so adorable and you can really see her personality coming out in these pictures I took before church this morning. And for all those worried, she does have a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of dress dress. But the dress shoes are still a little too big. So she goes barefoot. And I did read that while they are learning to stand and balance it's better to be barefoot for balance purposes. So that's why she goes without shoes most of the time. BUt, I do know with cooler weather around the corner that I've got to do something.

Now for your viewing pleasure:

Happy Fall Ya'll

Hello October!

So I didn't post anymore in September because I was truly ready for that month to be over and gone. That's sad to wish away time isn't it? But really at the end of August, I clearly remember thinking about how good life was. Work was new and awesome and refreshing and I was doing a great job flying under the radar, Bailey was content and happy at daycare and thriving, Sid is so gracious and continues to drop her off daily so I don't have to endure the separation anxiety moments, but most of all-WE WERE WELL!!! And life was good! Not that life wasn't good in September, but it just stressed me out to the hilt that Bailey got RSV. I mean, I spent the better part of the first half of her life pissing people off with my obsessiveness about her staying away from the people that might could infect her. I sat my tail at home the entire time during my maternity leave for this reason and sat my tail at home all summer so that she didn't get something to compromise an already weakened airway. But life was good, I let my guard down, and she got sick. Unless you have been a parent of a child who has been in the hospital for any extended length of time there is no way you can begin to understand the feelings that I started to feel when I heard the nurse say "her RSV was positive". And I don't mean like PICU hospital stay, that was actually the best part of any stay because she was sedated to the point that she didn't know where she was or what was going on. I mean think about, a 9 month old who just learned she has a new way to explore her world, by crawling around on the floor being stuck in a teeny tiny room, hooked up to an IV, possibly on oxygen, with nothing but a staff-infested hospital floor to crawl around on. I panicked and I guess in my moment of stress, I let my guard down even more and then I went down hill, thus getting flu-like symptoms (I really don't think I had the flu) and strep throat. I know that there are worse things than RSV for any child to have and I'm very thankful, believe you me, more thankful than I could ever express here in writing, that we don't deal with a kind of sickness that is long-term or not fixable or terminal. And hospital stays that are never-ending. OH God are we ever thankful. But I just really couldn't believe we got RSV. I've been holding my breath since that diagnosis. And, shew, finally, here we are, on October 1st. Bailey went back to daycare Monday, I went back to work Monday, and life is good!!!

I was fussed at today by Sid and Pap-paw that I hadn't updated in awhile, but like I said, I've been holding my breath. But we are alive and well. Speaking of Pap-paw, when I talked to him today, he told me he'd been asked to preach the day of Bailey's Christening so that is going to mean even more to me and us.

I still haven't decided what Bailey will be for Halloween. I have only found one thing I really love and it's expensive. I'm trying to talk Sid into paying half of it and I'll pay the other half, but we just haven't agreed yet. Other than that one thing, I haven't even found anything I remotely like. So I just don't know. It's hard the decisions that have to be made when life is so good!! But we'll take these decisions any ole day.

Ok, I have a request, if you read, can you please leave me a comment and let me know you are here. There are somethings I would like to be able to do through the blog, like pediatric cancer awareness month, but don't want to waste my time blogging about it if no one is here reading and can participate.

So anyway, happy fall and may your life be as good as our's is right now!!