Happy First Birthday

Dear Arabella,

One year ago today they placed you in my arms. One year ago today your Daddy & I cried as we took you in and became parents. One year ago today you made me a Mommy and a much stronger woman. There aren't enough words to describe what I was feeling at that moment, other than pure joy. I was filled with happiness and a sense of accomplishment. Nine long months, over twenty hours of labor and your Daddy & I brought you into this world. There aren't many things that you'll experience that can top the feelings experienced during pregnancy and labor.

I remember just wanted to snuggle and sniff you for as long as I could. Unfortunately that would be short lived as they had to take you away from me and to the NICU. I wash crushed to say the least. I had just given birth to you, what gave them the right to take you from me? In the end we did what was best for you and here you are today. You are healthy as can be expected and growing every single day. The doctor is amazed at how advanced you are with some of your skills at the ripe old age of one.

In the past year we've had our struggles as parents, a definite hard time getting the breastfeeding routine down, and a lot of sleepless nights. But everything that we have gone through as a family has been for a reason. You are the little girl you are today because of every thing we've done as a family.

You are quite the toddler these days. You grew from this tiny, helpless baby into a toddler overnight, or so it seems. You're becoming more and more self-sufficient, it has its good sides and bad sides. Mommy isn't so keen on cleaning up after your self-sufficient meals, but everyone has to do things on their own eventually.

As for your advancements over the past month you've really increased your vocabulary. You are saying the word bites and you know exactly what it means and when to say it. We're still working on "Big Bird" but it's cute to hear you attempt it. You've recently started making up your own signs, but I'm still unsure at times what you're asking for. You've also grown attached to certain material things and know them by name when we ask you to bring them to us. Piggy, your stuff poodle and Blanky are your two favorites. You still manage to yank your socks off and parade them around like trophies, but are all to willing to give them up when we ask you to. You're also very close to figuring out the safety locks on the cabinets, you just don't quite have the strength to open them. I can say the same for the toilet handle. You know that if it is pulled down it will make the toilet flush, but you still lack strength. You are, in our opinion, one bright little girl. You started walking before Thanksgiving, but since you've really taken off, nearly running most of the time. It makes for a fun game for you, not so much for Mommy and her pregnant belly though.

There are a zillion things that I know I should be remembering and writing down, but being nearly nine months pregnant makes a Mommy exhausted and forgetful. Please forgive me. Just know that one year ago we fell in love with you the moment you were placed in my arms. Those feelings remain today, because there is nothing more precious in life than a child.

Love, Mommy & Daddy

34 Weeks

We had another short but sweet appointment today. I gained a mess of weight, that I am not happy about, but the doctor isn't concerned. My blood pressure is great and the baby's heart rate was around 140. I'm two days away from 34 weeks, but measuring at 36 weeks. Not sure if it's holiday treat related, a certain little boy is going to make an early appearance, or if he's just going to be a big boy. Either way she wants me to watch my Braxton Hicks a little more closely and if they are too close together call, because it may not be painful, but they want to make sure he doesn't come too early. And I've had several painful contractions but they haven't been regular at all (except that one time & we think it was due to dehydration), but I still need to watch it. You know the drill: don't over do it, take breaks, lay down, relax, drink plenty of water, the whole 9 yards. In two weeks we'll be back to the doctor and after that we're ready to start our every week appointments until he arrives!

Now to finish (or start) his room and get all of my affairs in order!

1st Birthday Party

Sadly it's that time of the year. Time to reminisce of the past year, how it flew by, and figure out how our baby has grown into a toddler. We had Arabella's first birthday party the day after Christmas. Next year we may wait until after the new year to have a party, but we'll see. This year our theme was snowflakes, and I guess I lucked out as it was snowing on the day of her party. The snow came in handy for our redneck cooler (snow drift on the back deck) for the pop.

It was a fun filled evening with lots of food, great friends and family to share Arabella's monumental first birthday.

Arabella treated her guests with goodie bags of Puppy Chow for them to snack on. After chowing down she decided it was time to open up her gifts. How lucky can one little girl get? I mean three days in a row of opening gifts doesn't happen all the time.

She started to become a pro at opening gifts. She still didn't care to rip into the boxed gifts, but if it were in a bag and she could pull out the tissue paper, she was set. She got a "gumball" machine, but would rather have kept the container it came in and played with the handle, but I guess that's the normal thing for most one-year-olds.

She was so happy to get so many great gifts.

This was the last present of the evening and she just had to clap for joy.

We followed up opening gifts with a round of Happy Birthday and some yummy cake!

She wasn't quite sure what to think of the flame atop this cake, nor did she really understand what was going on. It's not every day someone plops a sugar filled treat in front of her and tells her to dig in. Eventually she got the hang of it though.

After a while she figured out that putting fist fulls of cake and icing in her mouth was a slow method and opted to just bite into the cake. Definitely a great choice in my book!

My little cake faced munchkin ~ can she get any cuter?

Ah yes, the damage was done and so was she.

It was a great party, lots of fun and she was worn out. Only 365 days until we figure out what to do for her second party!

Christmas Day

After we opened presents at home we were off to Grandma & Papa's house for Christmas dinner. With all of the recent snow fall I was excited to get out of the house. My first Christmas ended up being a white one and included the car getting stuck in the snow twice. Daddy got us all ready to go, backed out of the garage and poof we were stuck. Sitting in our own driveway. I guess after all of the blowing snow and blizzard like conditions no one bothered to look behind the vehicle before we pulled out. Daddy had parked the car in a three foot tall snow drift. He then had to climb over Mommy and her belly to get out on the passengers side of the car. He busted out the handy dandy snow blower and worked on the snow surrounding the car. About fifteen minutes later we were on our way. It snowed the entire drive but it was so pretty outside.

After our eventful start and about an hour later we made it to Grandma & Papa's house. Now Mommy told Daddy to gun it into Papa's driveway because she new it might be tough to make it up the incline. But what neither of them realized is that there was a lovely drift of snow covering the bottom of the driveway. As soon as Daddy gunned it we made it five feet and the car was high-centered. Partially in the driveway and partially in the middle of a dangerous road. To make things more interesting Papa & Uncle Camden had left to go get Aunt Katie. There was no one to help Daddy. He hopped out, ran up to the house and grabbed a shovel. Mommy slid into the drivers seat and after a half hour of digging and going forward and backwards we made it up the hill. Lucky for me I got a half hour nap in while this all happened.

We made it into the house and I was able to play with Brooklyn and try to figure out Abby. We waited what seemed like for forever for Papa and Uncle Camden to return. But in the process a guy got stuck on the hill by Papa's house. While a guy was pulling him out, traffic backed up and unfortunately Aunt Amy got stuck on the hill thanks to the efforts of this gentleman. Papa was behind her so he was able to help get her up the hill safely.

We still had a lot of family members to wait on, so I played with my cousins and in the mean time Aunt Katie let me open my present from her. I got these really cool bird cars. I love it when Mommy make vroom noises and rolls them over my head and arms.

All of the driving, waiting and playing wore me out, so I got to take another nap. Here's a picture of Daddy trying to wake me up. I'm trying to ignore him. I failed.

After a lot of food it was time to open more goodies. I really love this laptop Grandma & Papa got me. Guess you couldn't tell huh?


I also got some new clothes from them. I really love my Grandma. I think she was trying to make me smile in this picture.

Aunt Amy outdid herself! She gave me these awesome flannel Monkey jammies. They have kept me so warm ever since.

Aunt Erica said Brooklyn & Abby picked out my dolly for me. I really like her because she squeaks when you squeeze her belly. She also has crinkly sounding wings when I chew on them and that's always been a favorite of mine.

It was a great Christmas.

My First Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas Arabella!

I woke up at the bright and sunny hour of 9:00am. After a quick diaper change I made my way to the top of the stairs. Of course I can't go down them by myself so I had to wait for Daddy to bring me down to see what treasures Santa may have left behind.

Finally Daddy took me to see a stocking full of goodies, just waiting for me.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to touch it, so of course I turned to ask Mommy and Daddy. They said go for it. I just had to double check because I always get told to stay away from the fireplace, but on this morning they said it was okay.

Oh my goodness, I could not believe it. I had a stocking full of goodies. There was a bouncy ball, a couple of books, a new teething necklace and my favorite linky-dos. I would have been happy if that's all there was this morning. Really, I didn't need anything more and I absolutely refused to give up my new toys. But Mommy & Daddy promised me that there were more goodies to be had if I turned over the stocking to them.

Poutingly I gave it up and then the real fun started. I tried to eat the bows that Mommy had put on the boxes, so daddy stuck one to my head for fun. I got this really cool play tent and tunnel. Mommy set it up for me but I'm not sure I like it just yet. It seems a bit confined perhaps? I'd rather just walk and jump on the box. It's way more fun than the toys that came in it.

What's this? More goodies for me? I just don't believe it. What did I do to deserve such pretty things?

A new dress? Really? Isn't it just so me? I can't wait for the weather to warm so I can wear it.

One of my new obsessions is this awesome bead toy. I can sit here all day and slide the beads back and forth and never get bored.

Just when you think the best toys have been had, out comes another one. This activity cube is a lot of fun. It has beads to slide too, but the phone on one side is the most fun.

As you may have noticed I also received the alphabet. I love making the doggy sing the alphabet to me. I just need to be a bit older to play with it on my own. Mommy doesn't like chasing down missing letter, you know? I received a few toys and some great new clothes. What a way to spend my Christmas morning, knowing I am loved.

Christmas Eve

You could say Arabella's first Christmas was a hit. But really she had no interest in opening her gifts. She mainly wanted to play with the bows on top of the boxes. She didn't even really want much to do with the boxes themselves.

Her first Christmas Eve was spent with Grandmama Marsha and her new beau, Daryl. It was a fun filled evening. We first ate dinner, the traditional pizza witches and salad, followed up by umpteen different kinds of cookies, candies and desserts. Then we watched our traditional Christmas movie, The Christmas Story.

It was a fun filled evening and based on these pictures you can't tell she's loved right? Daryl got her this awesome Blanket Buddy. It has a blanket rolled up and stuffed inside. It's a cute poodle, but Daryl was calling it a Piggy. So her new puppy's name is "Piggy." We actually ask her where Piggy is and she'll bring it to us. She made out. New clothes, new toys, what more could a girl ask for?

The Next Rockette?

LOL...I loved this little outfit. It belonged to my niece. It was just about too small for Arabella, but I had to try to get some pictures. She was cranky and it was close to bed time so I didn't really get what I was after, but that's alright. I still have the memories from that night.

This was about the best pictures of the night. She loves her jingle bells.

I think it's time for bed...

Our Beautiful Baby Boy

Thanks to a generous Christmas gift we were able to get a 3d/4d ultrasound done for baby boy like we did for Arabella. There are a lot of pics but he was too shy and was hiding behind my placenta...so here's my favorite.

Another new tooth?

My kid is the weirdest child according to her tooth eruption chart. She's getting teeth months before they are supposed to come in. And the opposite teeth aren't even trying to make an appearance. I guess her mouth is being as stubborn as she is some times. I do know it's getting harder to track her teeth. Every time I try to feel around she bites me, not one of those warning nips, but really and truly bites as hard as possible. Guess I can't blame her, I wouldn't want someone jabbing at my sore gums either. So after I did her hair for Shane's birthday party today I felt around and there it is, molar number two. Her bottom gums are still swollen but I can't feel anything breaking through yet. Soon enough she'll have a mouth full of teeth.

We have improved upon our tooth brushing routine. She used to fight us, but I've found that if I give her the tube of toothpaste to hold she'll cooperate better. I also sing a little tooth brushing song, it's nothing special just me repeating "brush, brush, brush" in different tones. She seems to enjoy it none the less. She really like the part where I stick my tongue out, trying to get her to do the same so I can brush it. Usually she smiles really big and then opens wide so I can scrub her tongue. It's nice to have her cooperate with her routines. Now to keep the tooth brushing habit up when she's old enough to do it herself, that may be a challenge? I hope not though.

32 Weeks

Another short but sweet visit has taken place. I'm measuring right on target, the baby's heartbeat is around 150, and all is well with the both of us. Two more weeks and we'll be back for another check up!