Mommy Ponderings

Things no one tell you about motherhood:

1.  The countless number of times you will doubt yourself and your decisions.

2. Your body will never be the same. Okay, I realize this isn't the case for all women, I like to refer to such women as freaks. Kidding. Kind of.

3. The number of break downs you will have over the stress of mothering, working, cooking, cleaning, mothering, wifing (not really a word, I know), consoling, mothering...

4. How messy it is. Literally. Spit up, poop, pee...at some point your flesh will come in contact with all of these. On a really good day it could be all three at once!

5. How many times you will want to change your name from "mommy" to something else completely and not tell anyone what it is!


The things you can never fully understand until you are a mother:

1. What it's like to have a pure, unfaltering, no strings attached, complete and undying love for another human being.

2. How you can be over the mountains excited and heartbroken all at the same time as you see your child reaching new milestones and realizing how fast time is rushing by.

3. The excitement and joy you will feel as you experience the world through your child's eyes.

4. The sigh of contentment that comes from simply watching your child sleep.

5. The hope for a better tomorrow when you think of all the good your child can accomplish.

6. How your relationship with your husband will never be the same. You go from two people who love each other to a family. Just when you think you have a reached a point where you couldn't love your spouse more, all it takes is seeing him holding your baby with that look on his face, and it will never be the same.

7. Your mother was right...about a lot of things.


Just wanted to share the thoughts that I couldn't seem to shake from my mind this morning.

Elmo Live!

This is WAY over due...but better late than never I suppose.

I managed to get tickets on the 2nd row for Elmo Live! We went along with the Nichols and their little girl Emily. I was pretty sure Bailey was going to love it, but I had no idea just how much she would enjoy herself. Her little eyes just lit up when everyone first came out on stage. She was mesmerized for the entire hour the show went on...which is a huge feat for a fidgety two year old! Every time Elmo would leave the stage she would get very concerned about where he had went. The characters would leave the stage and dance around the floor seating, and Bailey thought this was the coolest thing! In fact, when they weren't down on the floor she was screaming "I want them to come down the steps right there!" and pointing to the stairs. Here's some shots of the show.

She was so tired after all the excitement that on the way home she said, "Mommy, I so tired, I wanna go nite-nite." I'm so glad we were able to take her to the show, the amazement in her eyes was priceless!!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I most certainly have not been too lazy to take down the birthday balloons that have been up since Bailey's birthday party. You know, the one that was on October 10th, and it's now the 26th.

I did not wait almost 2 1/2 years to use our fireplace for the first time this weekend. Of course not, it was one of the upgrades I just had to have when we built the house and I've been using it all the time!

I did not fail to mention to my mom this morning that Bailey hadn't pooped all weekend. Why is this important? If she goes more than a day without having a bowel movement she more than makes up for it the next day. So going two days? Here's the string of text messages from earlier this morning:

Mom: Did she poop any over the weekend? We just had huge poop #2.

Me: No she didn't I meant to tell you.

Mom: Well the colon is cleansed now. My house smells like a sewer.

I would never use the word "poop" three times in one blog post (I guess technically four times now!), I'm way more refined than that.

What did you not do this past week?

Where Was I?

Today I am going to use this space as a personal diary. May not be the most interesting post you've ever read, but I just need a place to open up; and since I'm sitting in an empty office, this seems like a great place to do it. And since I've bored my husband and friends with this issue several times over, I'll spare them the agony this time.

Today I was on the campus of Georgetown College. Of course being there brought back memories of my time there. I was not a typical college student.  I hated living on campus and never got into any of the "normal" college activities. I tried the whole sorority thing, met several great girls, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Most of the time I was working at least 20-30 hours a week while taking a full time class schedule. Did I do this because I had to? Not really. Yes, I did have bills to pay since I had decided to move off campus and have my own apartment, but I could have chosen to (eek) stay on campus or even have moved home. But I was just bursting at the seams to prove my independence. I wanted my own life. More specifically, I wanted to be married and have a family. I'm not sure what it was about those years, but I wanted more than anything to be married, and I just knew that Nick and I were ready for that (so not true!). I think it was this constant desire that led me to resent school. I hated going to class, and because of that tended to skip...a lot. I thought my time was better spent working so I could earn money. I went from being a very good student in high school to being a lousy student in college. In fact, I ended up not finishing.

I'm not ashamed that I didn't finish, and honestly, have no desire to go back. That could change in the future, but only time will tell. What I regret, however, is that I never let myself just sit back and enjoy those years. Those should have been years of fun and exciting new things. Years with little worry. But instead, like always, I was too busy planning my future to enjoy the there and then.

I've always done this. My mom said even when I was little, we would be leaving Wal-Mart and I would say "next time, I want to get this". Geesh, even as a little kid I couldn't enjoy what was right there in front of me, I was too worried about what would happen next time!!

And it's not just material things that I ponder and dream about. I joke that I have career ADD. I love real estate, I really do...but I can't help thinking about other ventures all the time. I just get the feeling that one career can never really satisfy me. The thought of having one career for the rest of my life is more than scary. Is that a commitment issue? I don't know.

Apparently, or so my psychology teacher husband has informed me, that somewhere in your early 20's there's this little light bulb moment; where you realize who you are and what you want to do with your life. Well, where the hell was I when others were having this moment? Was I too busy thinking about my future to pay the electric bill that my light never went off? Was I rushing around so fast wishing my life away that I missed it? Whatever it was, it sure never happened for me.

Ok, I've whined enough. I guess I'll just keep traveling through this life waiting for my "light bulb" moment while trying not to get stuck in the future and trying to remember to enjoy every day.

Two Year Check Up

Last Monday we took Bailey in for her two year check up. She was great and is now 35" tall and about 27 pounds...although it's starting to feel like she weighs much more than that, carrying her really wears me out! It's funny, through every stage we've gone through so far, I've always thought this is my favorite...and that's still true today. This is such a fun age! Everything is so new and exciting for her, and she seems to learn something new every day. Sure, there are moments with a two year old that aren't so fun, but they pale in comparison to the great moments. Here are a few things Bailey is doing now and some of my favorite things about this age.

* She can count to 10 and can recognize several letters on her own. She loves to say the alphabet and afterwards always asks to spell Bailey Grace, mommy and daddy.

*I love that she is singing along to songs now, it's so cute!

*Some of the things she says absolutely cracks me up, for example, a new favorite of hers is "prob'y not", which doesn't sound that funny, but the way she uses it...one day I acted like I was getting ready to tickle her and she held her hand up and said "prob'y not mommy", what a silly girl.

*She doesn't seem to lack any self confidence. If we're having people over we'll say something like "you're going to get to see Grammy and Pops today" and she'll say "no, they see me"...which, when it comes down to it, is the truth...she just shouldn't know that yet!

*She's started this new thing where she taps her finger on her chin and says "maybe"...very cute! I then got her to say "I suppose", which comes out "I 'pose"...I just love it!!

*Just about any piece of paper she sees she calls a coupon, I've got her started early! :)

*She absolutely loves play cooking! She sits and makes us meals and adds all sorts of concoctions. It's amazing the kind of imagination she has!

I could go on and on, but won't. I will however, share the one thing I'm not loving right now. While Bailey took to potty training very quickly and easily, well before her 2nd birthday, for the past month she has decided that she doesn't want to poop in the potty anymore. At first we were very upset about this and tried punishing her for this behavior. After talking to the doctor she said not to, because it is normal for a child to do this, and that if you punish them they will start to hold it and end up getting constipated, which I don't want! It is frustrating though, because she knows where she should go, I really think it's because she doesn't like taking the time. She would rather be playing than sitting on the potty. We don't have any problems with her going pee, but that doesn't take as much time, so she's ok with it. I guess we'll just keep working on it and hopefully she'll get back on track sooner than later!

Bobby Flay

On October 3rd, Nick and I went to go see Bobby Flay do a live cooking demonstration at the Lexington Convention Center. Flay was in town with the Kentucky Pround Incredible Food Show. We were lucky enough to score 5th row tickets to the event. Flay is Nick's favorite chef to watch on Food Network...I think it's all the grilling. I enjoy him as well, and we were both really excited. Because of the tickets I purchased we each also got a signed cookbook of his. Of course, he was also doing a live book signing between shows, but the only way to get in the line was to purchase a book at the event. Well, of course we did! I mean, we were there, he was there, we had to! Luckily they had a few different ones available so we were able to get a different one from the one we got with our tickets.

Overall it was a really good show. I will say this, I think he's better on TV. He just seemed to struggle with keeping everything running smoothly. What he made smelled and looked incredible. I think next week we will be attempting a lobster dish he made, hopefully it turns out good!

Here's some photos from the event.

Ribs

Flay with Richie Farmer

Apples for his dessert he made

By far the best picture I got!

Us after the show.

And someone was getting married in Triangle Park, it looked pretty, I just had to sneak a photo!

Bailey's 2nd Birthday!

Wasn't it just last week that we brought Bailey home from the hospital?

And wasn't it just yesterday that we celebrated her 1st birthday?

My how these last two years have flown by! I can't believe that my baby is now 2 years old!!! But whether I was ready for it or not, Bailey celebrated turning two on Friday the 9th. I took off work and Nick was off for fall break, and we spent the early part of the afternoon at Explorium. It was Bailey's first time there and she really enjoyed it! And because she was wearing her Birthday Girl shirt, they let her in for free...even better!

Daddy and Bailey in a bubble!

For breakfast she wanted mommy to make her biscuits and gravy, which is what we had,  and she said she wanted pizza for dinner, so we went to Mancino's so she could have some good pizza. We ended the evening with a birthday cupcake. It was a great day!

The big birthday party was Saturday.

Nick and I had been working like mad people to get everything ready. I had planned on having everyone outside as much as possible since the house isn't that big and there were lots of people there. The weather didn't really cooperate, but I still managed to get everyone to eat outside (even if they were a little chilly!).

Can't wait until she gets older and all the adults are replaced with little kids...or maybe I can :)

We made pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw. The pork was a big hit and pretty easy since it all cooked in the crock pot, and it really wasn't that much more expensive than the pizza we did last year, and it tasted much better!

Bailey received a ton of great gifts from our generous friends and family.

The girl is set for this winter, racking up 14 pairs of pants alone!! The big hit was the kitchen my mom and step dad got her.

She had outgrown the kitchen we got her last year and she loves her new one! She plays on it for at least 30 minutes every night. And it's serious, uninterrupted play, which is nice for mommy and daddy :) Aunt Brittany got her the cutest little apron and chef's hat, which she loves to wear while cooking for us.

She puts it on and says "Chef Bailey!" Aunt Brooke got her a ton of dress up stuff, including little high heel shoes, which she loves! She walks surprisingly well in them, considering there's about 3 or 4 inches of shoe that her foot doesn't fill :)

We got her the dancing Dora doll. We had seen a commercial for it one day and she was completely fascinated by it, it was the first time she had seen a toy on TV that she got excited about.

Since the theme of the party was Blue's Clues, I knew she needed a Blue's Clues cake. I thought about this cake for a good two months prior to the party, trying to figure out the best way to go about it. I finally decided on doing a two layer cake with blue frosting with Blue making an appearance on the cake in fondant. Now, I'm not artistic in the least, so I knew there would be no 3D version I could do, so I decided to just do a flat image of Blue's head and have some paw prints on the cake. I couldn't have been any happier with the way Blue turned out!!!

And I think the cake (Devil's Food) was probably the best tasting cake I have ever made. The frosting was another story. I did Cream Cheese frosting because Buttercream frosting and I do not get along...I will conquer it though, that is my new goal!! I've made Cream Cheese frosting a hundred times, and it always turns out good...this time, not so much. It did taste good, just never got to a good frosting consistency. But the show must go on, so I did the best I could do and tried to cover the bad spots on the cake with paw prints. Bailey told me it was beautiful, so that was all that mattered!

It was a great day, and just reminded me how blessed we are to have a beautiful, rambunctious 2 year old and loving and caring friends and family!

Aunt Brittany and Bailey

Bailey "gettin'" Aunt Brooke with the blower.

My nephew Quentin, or "Q" as Bailey calls him.

My grandparents, Mema and Boppy.

Bailey and her 2nd cousin Jacob, she loves him!!

Everyone waiting for the present extravaganza to begin!

Some of the "extended" family just hanging out :)