Birthday Celebration, Part One

Presley woke up bright and early (5:30 to be exact) to start off the birthday celebration. John rushed in to her room to get her so he could be the first to wish her a happy birthday. Little does he know that I was up with her around 3am so I was actually the first. We both got in some good snuggle time with our birthday baby while we waited on Rebecca to wake up. Then the festivities began.

Presley got a red wagon from us and a Weeble Wobble tree house from Rebecca. They were both huge hits with both girls. According to Rebecca, what's Presley's is Presley's and Rebecca's. What's Rebecca's is Rebecca's. Ugh.

After being pulled around the small apartment for a while, we sang Happy Birthday to Presley. She looked at the blueberry muffin and candle throughout the song. She looked as if she was wondering, "What the heck is this?"

After we finished singing, she tried to grab the flame, but fortunately big sister came to the rescue and blew the candle out. Then Presley enjoyed her first bits of a blueberry muffin.

Daddy then had to go to work and the girls and I packed up the car and headed back to Atlanta. Presley was so confused and excited to be facing forward in her car seat. She was so cute, I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road and not in the rearview mirror staring at her.

Mimi was waiting for us when we got home. The girls were so excited to see her. They were really excited because she brought presents. Presley (and Rebecca) love the bike and chair that Mimi and Papa gave her.

After playing for a while with Mimi, Nannie and Pop Pop arrived. They did not let icy roads get in the way of seeing Presley and Rebecca. Tomorrow Daddy and Papa are coming to town. On Saturday is the "big" party. We are having a huge birthday weekend to celebrate my sweet girl.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Dear Presley,

Happy birthday baby girl. I can't believe you're one. You have made me so happy. I love your smile. I love your big gorgeous eyes. I melt when you put your arms around me and your head on my shoulder. I love that when you want something you say "mama, mama, mama, mama, mama" over and over and over. You say it even if I am not around. I love rocking you to sleep at night. I love how you try to climb into the bathtub. You lift your chubby little leg in the air and grunt like you are working so hard to get in there. I love that you do not mind when I pour water over your head to get the shampoo out of it. I love how you shake and kick your legs when you get excited. I love how you can hold something in your hand for a hour without ever playing with it or dropping it. Just as long as you get to hold it, you are happy. I love that you like to just sit in my lap sometime, no matter what I am doing. You just want to sit with me. I laugh when you shake your head no when I ask for a kiss. I just take it anyway. I love how you try so hard to put your own shoes on your feet. I love that you try to put your clothes on by just wrapping them around the back of your neck. I love how you love your sister. I love how determined and stubborn you are. I absolutely love everything about you.

You are an angel, and I am so lucky to be your mommy.

I wish we could go back to last February and do this year all over again. It has gone by too fast.

A year ago I was worried that I would not love you enough. I thought that there was no way I could love someone else like I loved your sister. Boy was I wrong. I am madly, deeply in love with you.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Love,

Mommy

Doll Baby

I was just reading what I wrote about Presley in my last post about her. It is crazy how much she has changed in just a few weeks. I guess I did not get my wish of the month to slow down. Presley sure didn't slow down at all.

She has gotten 5 new teeth with one more on the way. That takes the total up to 8.

She is sleeping much, much better. Praise the Lord. She has slept all through the night from 7ish to 6ish twice, but usually she wakes around 3. I go in, calm her down, and then go climb back in bed and throw a pillow over my head. She will cry off and on for a few minutes, but then will go back to sleep until 7ish.

She has already been back in antibiotics since the last post. She got an ear infection about a week after she finished her last round.

We are down to 3 nursings a day. In the afternoon I give her a bottle of milk. We went ahead and tried cow's milk, but it caused bad, bad, awful diarrhea. She also stopped eating finger foods. She would nurse and eat yogurt, but that was it for about 3 days. Once we stopped the cow's milk, she went back to normal. Now I give her rice milk. So far, so good.

She is starting to repeat things we say, even though she mostly just gets the first sound. She does say : Mama, Dada, Buh or BuhBuh (Rebecca), ba (bottle), doh (down), Papa, ee (eat), bye bye, and mo (more).

She has stood a few times on her own, but only if we start her in the position and then let go.

She is wanting to start climbing on things such as the couch or in the bathtub. It is too cute to see her try to get that chubby little leg up.

She looks to me as if she is starting to stretch out and slim down. She is really not a chunky as she was just a few weeks ago. And her legs look so long.

Her eyes are no longer blue, but they are not quite brown. They are grey with a brownish outline. Very odd, but beautiful.

She is still a doll, even more so now that she knows how to sleep.

Out of the Mouth of Rebecca

Alternately titled...Rebecca says the Darnedest Things

Such as "I can't wait to be a Mommy so I can use a knife."

Or "When I was a Mommy, I was your Mommy." She has lots of stories about being a Mommy and me being the baby.

Or " Call me when you call me." instead of "Call me if you need me." She once said, "If you call me, you call me."

She also says "me neither" instead of "me too."

I love how she uses the word "her/hers" instead of "she". For example, "Hers not in my room." or "Is her in my room?" I probably should correct her, but I don't want her to stop. It's too cute.

But my all time favorite thing she has every said in her 3 years of life is the following (If we are friends on FB, you have already read about this one, but it is worth repeating.):

Rebecca: Mommy, I want big boobies.

Me: One day you will big boobies.

Rebecca: But Presley has big boobies.

Me: No she doesn't, she's just fat.

Month, Slow Down

How in the world is my baby girl 11 months old? How did it go by so quickly (and with so little sleep)? I remember my sister-in-law saying how she went into moarning when her youngest turned one, so much so that she was not able to throw her a birthday party. I never understood it, but boy do I understand it now. How is it that in just a few weeks Presley will be one?

Maybe it is just that she seems like much more of a baby than Rebecca did at 11 months. Rebecca was walking at 10 months. Presley is just starting to cruise on the furniture. Rebecca was talking a lot. Presley can say a few words: mama, dada, bye bye. Rebecca had hair and could wear a bow, Presley's hair is just starting to grow. I don't mean to compare the two, it's just that when looking at pictures of Rebecca at 11 months, she looked like an 11 month old. Presley still looks like a baby.

She is my baby, and I want this month to go slow. I am not ready to say I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Month...go slow.

And now in honor of Presley's 11th month, here are 11 facts about her:

1. She still does not sleep through the night. She is getting up once durning the night, usually around 1:30, eats, and goes right back to sleep until 6:30.

2. She still nurses 5-6 times in a 24 hour period. I need to start weaning her, but I am having issues. I do not want to let her grow up.

3. Her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, cheese toast, yogurt, turkey, cheerios, and cereal bars.

4. She loves bath time. She doesn't even mind when I wash her hair and pour water down her face.

5. She sleeps with two lovies: a bunny and a monkey. (Sound familiar? Rebecca sleeps with a bunny and monkey, too.)

6. Her favorite part of these two lovies are the tags. Whenever I go to get her out of bed, she is holding the lovies by the tags. If she drops it, she frantically searches for the tags. It's bizarre.

7. Her favorite toys is the Little People SUV. She loves to fill it with whatever she can get to fit into the small opening and rolls it all around.

8. She can sign "all done" "more" "eat" "bye bye" and blows kisses.

9. She just finished her first round of antibiotics, ever. Poor baby was sick. She had a sinus infection that settled into her lungs. We had to do breathing treatments and everything. She hated it. I had to get Rebecca in on the action to try and make it better for my sick baby girl. (Rebecca's mask was not really hooked up to the nebulizer.)

10. She still only has two teeth, but I am pretty sure she is about to get at least 4 more. In fact, I will be shocked if she does not have 6 new teeth by her 1st birthday.

11. She loves to go looking for trouble. As her Daddy says, "She always finds mischief." In fact, we were eating dinner tonight as Presley was playing on the floor. All of a sudden, I heard a rustling of paper. I looked down to find Presley with a lollipop in her mouth. She pulled my purse down from a chair and found my stash. Then she figured out how to open it all by herself. What a stinker!

Gingerbread Party

We traveled to Chattanooga recently so John could be in a wedding. Actually we went so we could attend the 4th annual Gingerbread Party at the Collins' house. Rebecca was so excited about seeing Mae Mae and Ambrose. Presley was just along for the ride.

The big girls decorated cookies.

Presley stared out the window.

I got a chance to visit with Denise.

After the wild party, the big girls relaxed in front of the tree.

Christmas Program

Rebecca recently had her Christmas program at school. I should let you know in advance that it was also known as the show your belly program. Here the kids are practicing We Wish You a Merry Christmas before they walked to the Sanctuary. It doesn't look like it in this picture, but for those of you who personally know Rebecca, you know that she was singing the loudest of them all.

Here they are before they started singing.
Once the music started, Rebecca forgot to sing. She was busy doing other things...showing her belly.

Lucky for her, or me, she was not on the front row. Gracie, on the other hand, put on quite a show.