My Baby Girl is 3!

I can't believe that my baby girl is 3 years old! How time flies :( She had a great day. We went to HEB and she got to pick out whatever kind of cake she wanted me to make. And can you believe that she picked a pink cake with sprinkle icing?! Shocking I know! Then we met Grammy for lunch out and then just had a normal day.

Such a happy birthday girl!

But the fun really started once Daddy got home! Here she is wearing a present (her Rap-pa-unzel dress from Auntie Lisa) while opening presents from Mommy and Daddy.

And then for dinner, we met Mimi and Paw Paw at Chuck E Cheese's. It was her first time there since she was about 1. She was so excited!

Opening up another gift. What can I say, the girl loves clothes!

Playing some games with Daddy.

And singing Happy Birthday to my baby! She had such a great day!

And we had had her birthday party with Jack a few weeks before. We had it at Pump it Up and Joe and I were both on high alert for injuries.

Ally and Jack :) Thought it was cute :)

Mimi and Andrew. I think she held him the whole time!

Grammy had her hands full too- with Mia and Ethan

Lisa and Jack!

Evie, Joe and Izzie :)

Getting ready to sick happy birthday!

Man that is good cake!

The birthday prince and princess!

Isabella continues to make me laugh and smile more than anyone. She gives me the best cuddles and I love just cuddling up with her and reading a book or watching a show. She loves to dress up, Lord, does she love to dress up! She changes her clothes between real clothes and dress up clothes about 10 times a day. She definitely has an opinion about what she wants to wear and how she wants to wear her hair, which can sometimes be a challenge. She loves Disney princesses, dolls and anything pink. She LOVES watching me put on my make up. I set her on the counter and she just watches and hands me each item. A few weeks ago, I put some blush and some shimmery eyeshadow on her and man did she love it!

Isabella is still just as sassy as she is sweet :) She is a girl who knows what she wants and is quite persistent. I still just like to think that this just means that her strong personality will lead into her adulthood and she will be a strong woman, who won't take anything from anyone :) and sadly, she is still the biggest flirt. She says hi to random men all the time, "Hi, man!"

She still loves her teachers and going to school. She loves to role play and will often tell me, "Mommy, you Orange Blossom and I Lemon Meringue" and then we have a conversation in character. But we can be a number of different characters in a matter of just minutes. Actually, my favorite, and her most frequent choice, is when she says, "Mommy, you Mary Pat and I Evie"- our newest friends :) In fact, I think I've already been Mary Pat about 3 times today! She always assigns us all roles of characters from stories or shows, and I always think it's interesting that she always chooses the most feminine character to assign herself- ie Fuffa, Millie (UniZoomi), Dora, Fancy Nancy, etc.

She loves to sing and, her favorite, aside from Mamma Mia, is Taylor Swift. She asks to listen to the CD every time we get in the car. Except, she calls her Taylor Slipped, which is so much cuter :) She actually knows the words to several songs! She is also really anxious to start Ballet classes, but I am using that as a potty training bribe (way to long of a story to get into that one right now!) She acts out scenes from movies, and any time she is watching something and two people hug or kiss, she comes over to hug and kiss me.

She is still a pretty tiny little girl. Most 2T pants fall right down those skinny little legs after about 10 steps, but they are getting too short, so it makes for an interesting fashion statement. I'm interested to see how much she has grown at her 3 year appointment.

Isabella, my sweet, sweet girl. Being your mommy has been such a gift, and I don't know what I did to deserve you. I still look at you in awe, and even get a little teary eyed just by looking at your sweet face. Thank you for teaching me and challenging me, making me smile and laugh and dance and sing, and thank you for bringing light into my life every single day. God only knows what I'd be without you :) NEVER, NEVER, NEVER change. I hope you always know just how beautiful, inside and out, you are.

I love you all the way to the moon and back.

Andrew at 8 months

This past month was a big one for Mr. Andrew! He now has two teeth, does a traditional crawl, can sit up without having to think about it too hard, is pulling up and said his first word- Dada!!

Monkey picture with the helmet,

and without.

And of course the traditional monkey make-out!

Andrew just continues to be the happiest, sweetest baby. I am constantly getting comments on how quiet, calm and mild tempered he is. Don't get me wrong, he definitely gets upset when you take something really good away from him, and he has even started to fuss at me if I don't feed him fast enough. And boy is he determined! Once he gets a thought into that head, he doesn't give up until he has what he wants!

He still absolutely adores Isabella. Even if she isn't being so nice to him, as long as she is paying him attention, he is laughing and smiling. And it's kind of confusing to her because she will do something naughty and he will laugh, so she gets a little confused when I reprimand her for it.

He still sleeps very well. He typically wakes up between 5-6, has a bottle and goes back to bed for a few hours. I would love if he could wait until 7 for that bottle, but I can't complain too much. It's better than waking up multiple times in the middle of the night. He is a pretty good eater, eating baby food and somewhere between 25-30 ounces of formula a day. I can tell that he has definitely had a growth spurt because his helmet is fitting tighter and he is now wearing 9 month clothes- yea! I am anxious to go to his helmet appointment tomorrow and see if we have made any progress. And his well check appointment is scheduled for January, so well get the official weight then!

Plagiocephaly

At Andrew's 2 month well visit, the doctor pointed out that Andrew's head was looking a bit flat. So I worked on correcting it myself- getting up in the middle of the night to turn his head, putting a pillow under his head to make him lay on the opposite side, etc. After months of working on it, it continued to bother me so we made an appointment with the neurosurgeon. She was extremely nice and really said that Andrew had a moderate case. She even said that she thought it would self correct, and that the decision to get a helmet would be up to us. In the end, Joe and I just didn't want to risk it. I had been working on it already with no results, and we didn't want to have any regrets. So, Bubba has a helmet!

Before:

See how the back left is pushing his forehead forward?

It is very helpful in situations such as these:



And as much as I was dreading it, I have to admit that it really hasn't been that bad. He adjusted to it quickly, even at night. Pretty much nothing can stop his smile :)

We go in every 3 weeks to get measured and go for our first measurement on December 23. I can't wait to see if we have any results. Kids typically wear them for anywhere between 3 and 5 months, so since Andrew has a moderate case, we are hoping it is closer to 3 months, but we'll just have to see.

Andrew is 7 Months...

and seriously couldn't be any sweeter!! Everyone comments on how friendly and smiley he is. He is sitting up a little better, but I still wouldn't just set him down and walk away. He needs to be strategically placed still :) And he is still doing the army crawl and the scooting on his chest and tummy thing. He is strong enough to do a traditional crawl but just thinks you are supposed to do it the other way! But he is all over the place and always crawls like he is on a mission (which he usually is). It has become impossible to change his diaper. He has been eating like a mad man- thank goodness! I am anxious to see if he has resumed his spot on the 15% mark on the growth chart.

And his sleep! Since we moved into our new house (more on that in a few days) he has been sleeping soooo much better! He isn't perfect by any means, and still wants to get up around 1 for a paci or around 5 for a bottle, but the improvement is amazing. In this house the kids are upstairs and we are down, and I think that has been key. In the old house, he could hear EVERYTHING from his room and here he is in his own little corner. I really think he didn't have the opportunity to be a good sleeper in the other house. And as far as naps go, in the old house he would want to take 3or 4 45 minute naps and here he is taking 2 2 hour naps- big difference!


Andrew is all of a sudden Mr. Shy, too. If you talk to him, he will smile and bury his head in whomever is holding him. It's too cute :) He has started reaching for me (melt my heart) and always has something in his hand. Sometimes I don't even know it until he has dropped it or something! And for a period of a couple of days, he only wanted me. No one else, just me. He had the lip turned up and everything :( I'm thinking it was teething maybe, although he still has no teeth. Still has that sweet toothless grin! He also had his first cold this month- it appeared on moving day no less :(

Andrew, my sweet boy, I hope you stay this sweet forever. You are vibrant, and energetic, and loving, and simply perfect to me. Your little smile just always melts my heart. And I can't get enough of kissing those sweet little cheekies of yours. Thank you for being exactly who you are. Life wouldn't be the same without your sweetness :) I love you, baby boy!

30 Years

So, I finally hit the big 3-0! And I have to say that it was probably my best birthday ever :) The day started out great when I got 2 dozen beautiful roses from my sweetie and yummy birthday donuts (no picture of those!)


And I wouldn't normally write about my gift, but this one was a super special one. As most of you know, for my 20th birthday Joe got me a promise ring that I wore everyday and cherished soooo much. Well, about 3 or so years ago, I lost it. I don't know how, I just know that one day I went to put it on and it wasn't in my jewelry box. I was really heartbroken over it. Well, for my 30th, Joe decided to replace it. It was the best gift ever, and of course, I got a little teary eyed when he gave it to me :)

And when I was a little girl, I had several costume birthday parties, so in honor of that I thought it would be fun if we all dressed up for my family party. It was soooo fun and everyone was a really good sport about it- especially Joe Bass! We've decided to make it a birthday tradition. Here we are as a group!

And Auntie brought in a pinata! Super fun!

Andrew wanted to try on Uncle Phil's wig!



The Norred family! Evidently Izzie thinks she belongs with them!

The Gonzalez family!

The Bass family!

My little sweeties!

Happy Birthday to me :)

Like I said, best birthday EVER! I am a blessed girl to have such a loving and amazing family :)

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago we headed out to meet Mary Pat and Evie at the pumpkin patch at St. Thomas. The girls had a blast and since it was small and on the back of the property, it was really relaxing to let the girls just run around.

This moment was completely unprompted! They just grabbed hands and took off :)

Loving the wheel barrow

Pumpkins!

Smiling pretty!

Izzie's turn,

and Evie's.

Attempting to get a family (minus Daddy) shot.

Loving on our sweet boy!

She loved climbing the haystacks.

Posing by the fence.

Hiding in the hay maze.

And I attempted to get a cute shot of Andrew in the pumpkins, but he clearly wasn't having it. I tried several times and every time he touched the hay, he started crying :(

Poor baby! But seriously, how sweet is that face!?