WALKING

FINALLY! After almost 16 months, I have a true "toddler." Monday night we were all in the kitchen. Bailey put her little arms out to her sides and "toddled" across the room. It was the sweetest thing! I even started crying. I'm so proud of her and she was SO excited that we were so proud of her! Here is another swing set picture :) We bought her a pink swing and she LOVES it :)

Also, I want to let everyone know that this is Infertility Awareness week. I have several friends TTC (Trying to Conceive) and I'm asking that everyone who reads this, please say a prayer for them! You can also view their blogs by clicking on their names on my sidebar: Tiffany, Kami, and Ashley.

Reminder

I cried when I looked at our backyard...

I wasn't crying tears of sadness because this huge swing set is taking up the backyard...

I wasn't crying tears of happiness because we were finally finished...

I wasn't even crying because it was FREE (though we are EXTREMELY grateful to "grandma Cheryl" for it...

I cried because I was overwhelmed, remembering the time when I thought "my child will never come," "I will never be a mommy," " why can't I get pregnant?" I cried for my friends whose babies haven't come yet... I thought you wonderful girls who I have come to love and cried for you because I remember what it felt like to think... "I won't ever need a swing set."


And now I do!

Sometimes, God gently reminds me just how blessed I am! On my way to church this morning as I was again thinking about our new swing set I said, "Thank you God, for my baby" through my tears of happiness. I'm so thankful for her and the fact that we now need, a swing set.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, "Grandma Cheryl." We love you!

Dress up and gardening

Yesterday afternoon, Bailey played dress-up in the hat grandma gave her :)

Then, after her bath (don't ask me why, after her bath...) we went out in the front yard and pulled out all the nasty Cannas so that the new ones will grow. I think they might actually look nice this year (ignore the cord, Zach was blowing all the leaves out of the way) :)


First, she sat on her blanket and played with her toys...

Then, she decided this was NO fun unless she could get a little dirty (remember, just bathed)...

And this last one is hilarious. Benjamin (our little mut dog) started FREAKING out at the neighbor dog when the neighbor was walking his dog down the street. First of all, the neighbors dog is a big black lab, Benjamin is little. Second, Benjamin NEVER barks or even attempts to be violent. He has NEVER acted like this AT ALL! But, he was protecting sister. He literally sat AT the edge of the yard the ENTIRE time Bailey was outside. He was going to make sure NO ONE bothered her!

FINALLY

I am feeling MUCH better today! AND! Good news... I have FINALLY reached the 20 pound mark! YEAH!!!!!!! Of course, I'm sure it's due to the VERY minor food poisoning that I think Zach and I got over the weekend. We have both been recovering. Good thing it wasn't too bad :)
Bailey helped us clean out the Canna flower bed last night. It was SO cute! I forgot to bring the pictures to work so I'll have to load them when I get home. We also got a new lap top! As much as I HATED to spend the money, it is a very nice one and should last us a while. Thanks to Bailey for spilling diet pepsi all over the other one, haha. Kids... I still wouldn't trade her for anything!

Just 100

Even if just 100 dollars fell from the sky, or landed in my mailbox today, I would feel better :(

On my heart today...

When Zach and I decided we wanted a baby, I can honestly say I was in an almost DAILY prayer routine over our child and everything that goes along with being pregnant. I would say I prayed every single day but that would probably be a lie! I am sure there were days I missed but not many! Now that Bailey is here, I still pray for her almost daily. At night when I go to bed I pray that God will protect her through the night and the following day, let her sleep peacefully, and help me to be the best mother I can be. I just feel like it is NECESSARY to pray over your child(ren), your spouse, and yourself. I will admit to feeling "less than Christian" at times and I SO struggle with always doing the right thing which sometimes gets confused with me thinking that I'm perfect. I'm NOT perfect in ANY way, shape, or form. I do, however, try to always consider my actions before they are made. I don't actually WANT to be perfect but it would make my life easier (wouldn't it all of us, :) ). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I struggle with doing the right thing (even though the things I worry about wouldn't seem that big to other people) but I am saved by Grace just like everyone else who is a Christian and I believe that God is watching over me and helping me get through life. Without him, I don't know where I would be! Being a good mother is more important to me than almost anything. So, I pray and I seek God's guidance on a daily basis for my family. God blessed us with Bailey and she is the most precious gift we have. And, now that we are "TALKING" about baby number 2, I pray about that. HOW could Zach and I NOT pray for our child(ren) and each other? It just doesn't make any sense!

Which is what brings me to my next point:

I read A LOT of blogs! Most of the ones I read are about infertility, people struggling to have babies, people who have lost babies, or have sick babies. It honestly breaks my heart when I read someones blog and find that they are not a Christian. WHERE do they think that baby came from? That baby that is in their womb or in their arms, who created it? Who placed it where it is today? I have NEVER lost a child and I CANNOT nor do I pretend to imagine what that feels like. My baby is perfectly healthy and always has been so I have NO idea what it feels like to have a sick child. But, I did struggle for SEVERAL months trying to get pregnant and it was VERY hard for me! There were times when I would say "God, why are you not hearing my prayer? Why don't we have our baby yet?" But those women who have been blessed with beautiful marriages and babies, how can they not believe in God? I was reading a blog this morning about a girl who struggled to get pregnant and now is due to have a baby soon. She was blogging about how Easter is no big deal, crappy weather, nothing to talk about. How can you say that? I'm not so naive that I think everyone out there is a Christian, I'm just NOT! I teach at a public school for goodness sake! But, I'm asking you, those of you who read this, PLEASE, pray for those who are not believers! I feel for those tiny babies that will soon be born into non-Christian homes. Those innocent little ones who may not hear about Jesus and what he's done for us! Pray for those babies, and those families who don't know Christ! Pray that through their loss, infertility, sickness, and despair that they will STILL SOMEHOW be able to see God's grace, and the light at the end of the tunnel!

And to those of you who are STILL struggling and hoping for your own babies, I'm still praying for you! I DO know it's hard to wait! But, the prize is worth it!

Love you all!

~Melody

Park

This is a week late...
We took our angel to the park last weekend and I CANNOT believe how old she looks. Sorry they are so small. I have to put them on photobucket first b/c our camera is SO great and it takes HUGE pics.

Stats

OK, my Goliath baby is 32 pounds and 33 inches! She is above 95th Percentile in BOTH categories! I have always heard that if you double your height at the age of 2 that is approximately how tall you will be as an adult! So, Bailey is pushing 6 feet already! Dr. P said she is fine but he doesn't want her to gain any more weight between this appointment and her July appointment. I am glad he said that b/c grandma seems to think we don't feed her enough. HELLO! She's HUGE! She's as cute as anyone I've ever seen though!

Update on the sleeping arrangements:

Basically, it still sucks! BAD! Bailey has a horrible diaper rash and I have NO idea why or how she got it. Ok, I know babies get diaper rash. I'm not dumb. But, this is very strange. Last night she fell asleep beside me on the couch. I kept thinking she smelled like vomit. I didn't feel any vomit or see any on her but her jammies smelled bad like puke! So, when she woke up I grabbed another pair of pajamas for her, a new diaper, and some lotion. It WASN'T her pajamas that smelled. It was her (sorry for the TMI) poop. It was really acidic smelling and her bottom was BRIGHT red and she was making this noise that Zach and I always associate with pain for her. She winces and makes this awful noise when it hurts. So, I lathered her in desitin and nixed the bath b/c I didn't want her sitting in warm water on her already sore bottom. I finally got her lotioned and changed and we watched about an hour of TV and went to bed. She is REALLY congested too (probably b/c yesterday I started to get a sore throat and I think we both have it). So, we let her sleep with us again. I felt bad that she didn't feel well and I didn't want her to have to cry it out last night. But, we were up ALMOST all night! She kept waking up, crying, screaming... I don't know if she's hurt or spoiled...
And, please say a little prayer for her. She has her 15 month check-up today and she has to get shots :(

AND, thank you to Ashley for nominating me for the "Sisterhood" award :) I can't post it at work b/c the picture won't come up but will get on it later :)

What to do...

I love my baby! Really, she is our pride and joy... except at bed time! And even then, she is our pride and joy but my joy does not follow me at 4 in the morning! There are 2 things I don't like about Bailey not being in a more structured environment during the day. 1. She doesn't have much time to spend with other children. 2. She has NO schedule! However, the list of things I am happy about since she stays home with grandma WAY outweigh the negatives. 1. She is home with someone who loves her. 2. She isn't out getting all the snotty noses from all the other "daycare" kids. 3. Zachs mom takes really good care of her and she is someone I fully trust! 4. It's really nice having someone at home who can let the dog out among other things... she does our laundry and keeps our house picked up during the day (I NEVER asked her to do these things but she says she gets bored). 5. We pay a FRACTION of what we would pay for daycare.

So, I am very glad that she can stay home during the day. However, she HATES to sleep. She will bounce on the bed until she literally falls over! She can be absolutely exhausted and find a way to keep herself awake, whether it be dancing at the end of the bed or jumping up and down, or rolling all over the bed. I just don't know what to do! When she does go to sleep during the day she hardly ever sleeps longer than an hour! At night, she goes to bed and sleeps about 6 hours and then wakes up screaming until we giver her "milky" Which sounds more like "mulky" when she says it. Then, she will wake up about an hour to an hour and a half later. My mom says we will HAVE to put her in her own bed and let her scream! I honestly don't think Zach can do that! Now, I'm not saying I can. But, I do think I could hold out longer going to get her then he could. I just don't know what to do!!!! At 15 months I thought this would have ended by now! I don't know what to do and I would LOVE to sleep all night w/out a screaming baby!

Tiff, I'm still working on the other post we talked about :)

Bailey's loopies

Some of you know that I have 2 sisters. My beautiful sister, Sheri is 24 and my beautiful sister, Monica is 12. YES, we have the same parents... they just decided when I was 14 and Sheri was 12 that their "quiver wasn't yet full." Anyway, Sheri and I (and our parents) are all very happy that Monica came into our lives. Here is a picture of Monica (left) and Sheri (right). Yes, they look alike and they look the same age, lol.

When Monica was little she had the prettiest hair. And, since I'm the best hair dresser in the family (no lie) I always did her hair. She still has pretty hair but I never fix it because I'm not there. Anyway, I'm dragging this way out... sorry! Monica always wanted her hair in "loopies." Sometimes spelled "Lupies." Monica's nickname was lupey as a baby too. And this is what they look like... beautifully styled on my little Bailey. They are "baby" buns all over your head :). And, just as my DH said last night, "Melody, our baby is NOT black." I still think they are precious. And, I am hoping that my grandma Carter is smiling in heaven right now as she also once told me, when I did this to Monica many years ago, "Melody, I don't think her skin is the right color for that." However, NONE of us are in any way prejudice. My grandma said this in the sweetest way possible but this was her way of telling me that she didn't like it. Smile away grandma... I've now done it to my own baby! And by the way, if you can see this, I love you and miss you very much!


And, my WONDERFUL teacher's aide brought me this adorable little number today. She bought a yellow dress too! SO cute :)