When the husband is away

Well, well, well. Guess who has been out of town for the past 2 weeks? Adam. It was Adam. Because I am highly paranoid and a lot crazy only my closest peeps knew this fun little fact. I don't expect to get any sympathy from you military wives out there (Krystal), but do you know how long 2 weeks is? A long time. I am not the kind of woman that is cut out to have her husband away for extended periods. In the past, I have been known to get a little suspicious of, well, everything when Adam is away. The past 2 weeks were no exception.

So this is how it all went down.

On Sunday Adam had to be at the Birmingham airport for his 3:00 flight to St. Louis for training. Since Birmingham didn't have the tools to pull off a flight straight to St. Louis he had a lay over in Atlanta. But you don't care and I don't know why I just told you all of that. Anyway, Reese wore her squeaky shoes and we almost got the security pat down because of them.

After a lot of pictures, blowing kisses, hugs, and a TCBY icecream we saw him off and headed back to the car. Which was parked in the dark and scary parking deck and we all know nothing good comes of a woman and her baby walking alone in a parking deck. So I was power walking while looking over my shoulder with my finger on the panic button because I SO would have hit it if I even thought there might be danger lurking around the next car. The only danger we ran into was a pole that I didn't see when we pulled out of our parking space. And if you think I got out to inspect the damage well then we need to reevaluate our friendship.

All went well until Thursday night when Dixie and Autie (better known as Aubie) got all up in arms over something in the yard. Something dangerous like pine needles falling from a branch, no doubt. Anyway, it got me on edge so I promptly called MeeMaw and PeePaw's for back up. (They were on standby, unlike the time I couldn't get them to answer the phone and somebody was on our back porch.) From that night forward MeeMaw moved in with us. (And it was a good thing because the next day a school I learned that 2 men tried to break in 2 different houses that night. Now, it wasn't our neighbors or anything, but you can never be too precautious.)

(Side note about the dogs. In the past when they will bark like crazies all night long keeping us up Adam has been known to go out on the porch the next morning (in his under wears) and wake them up by barking back at them) (I married a very mature, sophistocated man).

Reese talked to him on Skype several times, but as you can see from his face our internet wasn't fast enough to have good quality video. We went to Big Daddy and D.D.'s on Saturday so she could see him more clearly. By the second week when she would see him on the screen she would hold out her arms for him to take her. She would also kiss the screen when he was on there.

Throughout the 2 weeks I text pictures of our babe to Adam because he was certain that she was going to be grown and moved to college before his return.

This picture assured me that we have a lot to work on in the manners department before we send her off to college.

And I would show ya'll the pictures that Adam sent me of his room (because I wanted to know if it was a nice place or not and considering he has been know to call the Motel 6 nice I can't take his word on it.) but in the distant background you can see him in his boxers. And I wouldn't want to make ya'll jealous.

Every morning I took the verse pray without ceasing to another level as I begged Jesus to let her stay asleep while I got ready. Once the little monster wakes up she can be very demanding. There were 2 mornings that she melted to the floor crying because I couldn't hold her every single second while I got ready. On those days I was exhausted before I even walked in the door of the school. And if you saw me then you knew that.

But at noon yesterday our little world started turing again when Daddy landed in Birmingham. And I was so relieved when that plane touched the ground because I like all my people to have their feet safely on the ground at all times. Preferably the same ground I'm on. I took a day off so we could go pick him up. I'll tell you what else I'm not cut out for. Driving in cities with major interstate systems. My heart started beating faster when I got to a fork in the road and I didn't know which way to go. Which lead to getting off the interstate in a sketchy part of town to ask somebody.

Reese did a little cleaning while we waited.

And as he came down the stairs she was holding her little hands out saying "dadada!"

I think it was safe to say that she was a little tired of me;)

16 Months

Why is it every month when I do Reese's monthly update I can feel my heart ache. I don't know why I do this because babies getting older is generally a good thing. She feeds herself, she helps dress herself, she can wipe her own mouth, most importantly she sleeps all night, AND it appears the older she gets the more time I have to do other things. Like walk to the kitchen and fix myself a drink. Alone. But I miss her being a babe in arms.

Moving on.

At 16 months:

Weight: 21lbs

Height: 30 inches

At least that was her height and weight at the doctor a few weeks ago. We sent this picture to Daddy while we waited on Dr. C.

Has 2 teeth on bottom and 2 on top.

Wears 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

LOVES milk. PeePaw drilled a well for Wright's Dairy Farm this week and he brought Reese a gallon of milk home. If they were closer all of her milk would come from there. On the label they have a sticker that says "NO GROWTH HOROMONES USED." On a scientific level I don't exactly know what that means for milk, but I feel sure it is healthier than the milk we buy at WalMart. He also brought her some chocolate milk from the dairy farm. When I was little the Barbers truck delivered chocolate milk by the gallon to our door. True story. I can't believe they made home deliveries, but they did. And I can't believe my teeth didn't rot out considering I went to sleep every night drinking it.

Enough about me.

Reese's favorite foods are Puffs, raisins, and peas.

Loves chapstick.

She can say a lot of words and learns a new one almost everyday it seems. This month she has added: pie, bowl, work and shoe to the list. Reese has renamed Autie to Aubie. I am not sure if Autie appreciates a name change at this point in her life, but Reese didn't ask for her approval.

When she sits down somewhere, like her princess couch for instance, she will pat her little hand in the seat beside her when she wants us to sit with her. So sweet.

There is one really big thing that I don't like about her getting older. The spankings. She has started hitting us. Mainly in the face. Usually she does this if someone is in her face trying to kiss her, but sometimes it is because she doesn't get her way. And oh the drama when we spank her hand. Other times when she gets mad she sits in the floor and kicks her legs while screaming/crying. We try to ignore her when she does the kicking thing. But the one that disturbs me the most is when she gets mad and hits herself in the head. I do not like that at all (as though hitting us in the face is any better). At first I got on to her for hitting herself, but it only caused it to be worse. So now we try to ignore it and she seems to do it less often.

She loves to get in her bed in the afternoons and play. I put a few toys in there and she is happy for about 10 minutes or so. She was pretending to be asleep in this picture.

She and her Daddy caught a quick nap after taking down Christmas lights a few weeks ago.

She is a good little shopper for a few miuntes then she starts demanding to be held. Or she wants to run around the store. Which is why we stay home a lot more now than we used to.

So I don't remember if I have mentioned this, but Reese is a momma's girl. To put it mildly. It takes her several minutes to warm up to people, but then she will play and talk etc. Today we went to our friend Blakely's 1st birthday party. This is how it went.

She went a little nuts when I handed her off to Samantha. So dramatic. I hope she outgrows this phase soon. Blakely looks so confused as to why a baby would cry like that. I'm confused too, Blakely.

Anna Kate and Reese had some bonding time at the party.

I've been a blog slacker

I feel as though the blog has suffered some since the holidays are over so I dug around in my iPhonosaur to see what I could find.

In my defense I have been laying on the couch trying to decide if I am going to commit to some type of Spring workout program. From the looks of things it is highly unlikely, but (since I'm off tomorrow and can stay up late) (until 9 p.m.)(aka-the middle of the night) I am going to try to get myself motivated by looking at some potential swim wear. Or not because that could interfer with me eating sugar cookies and drinking milk.


(Really y'all, back to my phone. Or Adam's old phone that he as been kind enough to let me borrow. It is the original iPhone. No video camera. I am not even sure you can classify the camera on it as a camera. The quality is horrific. Adam, if I promise to never misplace it again can I get a new one? I promise to treat it better.)

Anyway, we've been pretty boring lately so I've had nothing to talk about. So if this isn't the most entertaining post I've ever written then please forgive me.

If I'm lucky I MIGHT get to put my makeup on in the mornings before she starts calling for me. At that point I am bribbing her to let me hold the makeup brush, hair brush, eye shadow etc just long enough to use it. Girlfriend knows exactly where on her face that each utensil is used. One day this week I had done all I could do with her on one hip so I had to quickly devise a plan to occupy her for a few minutes. I put a towl in one sink, sat her in it, and gave her a few hair clips. She loved it. She laughed at herself in the mirror. She tried to brush her teeth with a tooth brush she plays with. Then she turned on the faucet. And before I could stop her she had gotten her PJs soaked. I took her out of the sink because of all the water and you should have seen the fit she pitched. Oh my word. So this morning back in the sink she went while I got ready for church.

(MeeMaw, before you send me a text about how dangerous it is that she is on the counter/in the sink let me go ahead and defend myself. I never left her. I never even looked away. I was 100% in control of this situation. Except when I turned my head and she flipped on the water;))

I am not sure what order the following 2 videos are in because videos look fuzzy until I post them, but 1 is of Izzy (Big Daddy and D.D.'s lab) and the other is of Reese wearing her Mary Jane squeaky shoes. What is it about hearing yourself on a video? Sends chills down my spine. I am convinced that the video adds a layer of Southern accent that isn't real there. Back to Izzy. Reese loves dogs. She gets so excited when she sees them. She got really excited when she got to feed Izzy. And Izzy was pretty excited too since she got to come in for a few treats.

P.S. All baby hands were deep cleaned after the making of this video.

Christmas, Paci's, and Phones

Before I even talk about Chrismtas and all its goodness let me tell you a little story. I declared that the day after Christmas I was cutting the tips off Reese's pacis. I had read about other people doing this. Every few days you cut a little more off and eventually she wouldn't want it at all. Well. That's not how it went for us. I didn't exactly have the support of...well, anybody so she still has the paci. We have limited it to nap/bedtime and car rides.

She had a 15 month check up last week and weighed 19 lb 14 ounces and was 30 inches tall. Dr. C. was not at all on board with taking the paci away. He says we all have pacifiers....playing golf, reading, fishing, hunting etc. I immediately left the office and went to Target for 2 shinny new pacis. I guess we'll worry about it later, but I can guarantee you that she won't go to kindergarten with it. Maybe.

Christmas started with the party at Ms. Liz's. Reese and Addison are daycare BFF.

This wasn't your ordinary daycare party. Oh, no! Santa even came to this party. As the big man got closer Reese started to panic. And because I'm the mother of the year I think it is hilarious how she cries when she sees him so I asked him to get closer to her. Look close and you'll see the panic.

It's all for the pictures people. (I love Addison's face in this one.)

And I love this picture. There was 1 ornament that I would let her take off the tree and play with and at this particular moment she was struggling to get it off.

Thursday before Chrismtas I left Reese at MeeMaw's so I could meet with LaRae. On my way back to get her MeeMaw text me with a diagnoses that Reese had pink eye. Merry Christmas.
We went to the doctor that afternoon and got a more formal diagnosis. He told us that pink eye was contagious for the following 3 days. That just so happened to be the 3 days of all our family Christmas functions.

However, (and I hate to play doctor here) upon further research I have my doubts that was the case. She never rubbed them or acted like they bothered her so we went right on with our holiday plans. 6 events within the next 3 days. This is the best picture I could get of her eyes. The picture doesn't do them justice. And don't you love how she has her arms crossed? That's her latest trick.

She gave love to the pillow pet that Aunt Bec and Big Horn gave her.

I was surprised at how much she liked ripping the paper off the presents. I thought we would have to do it all for her, but we didn't.

Here are some of the babes at Papa's.

And I love this picture because it looks like chaos. Which was exactly how it was.

One of the only family pictures I got and please look at Reese.

All the babies at Papa and Katherine's. Even though some aren't such babies anymore.

At Adam's Granny's Reese was much more concerned about the bag than the gift. She turns everything with a handle into a purse. Do they just come here knowing how to throw a purse over their shoulder?

And then.....

The meltdown began. I can't wait to show her how she acted when she's older.

Then we headed home to wait for the big man.

She only likes to ride the 4-wheeler when we walk beside her and push the button. When she pushes it alone and it takes off it scares her.

She loves her shopping cart though. She puts everything in it and pushes it around.

She also helped us open our gifts.

At Big Daddy and D.D.'s she got a tent that she loves.

And her current favorite is the princess Cozy Coupe. Which she supervised its assembly.

And I'm not going to tell you how long it took 3 grown men to put it together because it would embarass them, but oh my. It took a sweet forever. Then they figured out they had the back wheels on the front.

She then passed out from all the waiting and anticipating.

I readlly wanted a family portrait on Christmas day, but by then she was out. It's the best I could do.

On Monday, as I mentioned, I cut the tips off most of her pacis. She quickly found a replacement in the electrical plug covers.

Monday afternoon we headed over to MeeMaw and PeePaw's (or PawPaw) to open gifts.

How about those jeggins and boots. Love them. Too bad we had to return the boots because they were too small and they didn't have her size:(

I said I didn't get any family pictures. Here is the 3rd one so clearly I was wrong.

Then it started again. See, right here was where I should have pulled out the paci and stuck it in her mouth. But at this point I still had a little life in me and wasn't going to back down.

Chinney said that all the kids and crying cause him to have the nervous stomach and he needed some peace and quiet.

Reese was trying to suck up to MeeMaw and get a paci;)

Then we proceeded to end the night with the one hundred dollar bill game. Here's to hoping this becomes a tradition.

PeePaw set out several envelope. Some had $1, some had IOU on them, but 2 of them had $100 each in them. We picked a card from a stack and who ever had the highest card got to pick first. Guess who that was? Yep, A-master.

Who brilliantly picked an envelope with $1. Guess who was the next highest card? Yep, me. I picked the IOU card which turned out to not be a joke. It has a note in it that I owed him. In the end Brandi was the only one who picked a card with $100. So we played another round. And guess who picked an ace? Me. I let Reese pick the card this time. She must be my lucky charm because there were 2 cards left so I had a 50/50 chance. Merry Chrismtas to me. Too bad I lost my phone the next day and will pobably end up using that money to get another one later.

And we ended the night with a group photo of the babes. Notice mine is the only one acting out.

P.S. You know how I mentioned a few post ago that I was a little off my A game? Did I mention I lost my phone. Well I did. In Target. Laid it down in the shoe department and never saw it again. I am currently using Adam's iPhone 3G phonosaur. (Get it? Phone. Dinosaur. HAHA.) He tried to give me his 4GS or whatever you call it with its handy little personal assistant. But I wouldn't hear any of it because if, on the off chance, I lost it too I would NEVER hear the end of it. So I'll just take my punishment for being irresponsible.

Oh, and last year can anybody in the class remember what happened to me the week after Christmas? Got a speeding ticket, that's right. I hope this bad luck isn't going to become some kind of end of year ritual.

We spend New Year's Eve at Allison and Jared's, but we left before midnight because we are just that fun to be with. Plus we had to get home to take our geriatric meds.