Happy Birthday to my favorite “boy in high heel shoes.”
You are such an amazing person, and I am so glad to have had your friendship for so many years, and I hope to have it for many many more years to come!
You are truly like family to me.
I hope you had a wonderful day. Love you!
WOOHOO!!! National Champs, baby!
…And they won it for Bayler 
Our first major championship title and the last College Baseball World Series ever to be played at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Life is good!
But my favorite part…an adorable little fan (who didn’t want to go to sleep) getting to spend some quality time with her Daddy, and witnessing an historical event that meant so much to him.
OH EM GEE!!!
Y’all, I’m not really sure how it happened, especially considering the cupcake with The BFF on Friday (and the Mellow Mushroom…yum!), and The Mama-In-Law’s delicious peach enchiladas over the weekend, but, somehow, I lost THREE POUNDS last week!
This was the most successful week ever!
I really tried to step it up this week on not eating more than I needed to get full. Kyla told me about this deck of cards rule for meat portions (don’t eat a piece of meat larger than a deck of cards), and I used the small plates when we had Hamburger Helper, rather than serving myself a mountain of beef and noodles and then eating the entire thing.
Also, I feel like a made a much bigger effort to drink water, which was much easier, considering that it’s been well over 100 here every day.
I hate to be all “me me me…look at how awesome I am,” but y’all, I am SO proud of myself for this. I know that my official total is not even 10 pounds yet, but this is a huge milestone for me. I was stuck in the 150s for so long, and I felt like I would be there or higher for the rest of my life, which just does not feel good on my little 5’2″ body. And then getting to 149 wasn’t a big deal, because that was still in the realm of “daily weight fluctuations.”
But getting into the 130s is major. I never thought I’d see the 130s again, and it has really given me a huge confidence boost to keep me going towards my ultimate goal.
And my favorite part about this is that I’ve been able to do it just by making healthier lifestyle decisions, and not by fad short-term dieting or doing some crazy intense workout that I don’t have time to maintain. So I’m hoping that, once I get to my goal weight, I’ll be able to continue to improve my health and stay at a happy weight without having to constantly watch the scale.
Lofty aspirations, I know…but this week, I’m feeling like it’s doable.
So, a quick aside…I knew I had hit the 130s on Thursday when I saw the needle on my bathroom scale tickling the left side of 140. I wasn’t sure if it would hold through the weekend with the promise of so many sweet treats, but I knew I was going to be close. So when I got on my Wii Fit this morning, and the Wii Fit Plus disk wouldn’t read because of some tiny little 3-year-old finger nail sized scratches, I could have cried. Luckily, I kept our Wii Fit disk after we got the Plus, and I was able to pop it in and use that to get my weigh-in. But it makes me very sad that I won’t have today’s stats on my graph in the Wii Fit Plus.
And it makes me even sadder to think that I’m going to have to buy a new disk. I was just about ready to get back started on the Wii Fit routine, for building muscle again, so it comes at a very inopportune time.
Anyway, here are my awesome stats for the week!
6/28/10
Weight: 138.5lbs
BMI: 25.48
Waist: 31″
Hips: 41.25″
Change since last weigh-in (6/21):
Weight: loss of 3lbs
BMI: loss of .57
Waist: loss of .75″
Hips: loss of .25″
Total
Total Weight Loss: 8.5lbs.
Total BMI Loss: 1.7
Total Inches Lost in Waist: 5″
Total Inches Lost in Hips: 1.25″
And just an fyi…my initial weight loss goal was to lose the 17 pounds I needed to get my BMI into the normal range for my height. As of today, I am exactly halfway there! I hope to lose a little more than that, if it looks like it will be realistic, but all 17 pounds must be kicked to the curb, and I’ve only got 8.5lbs. to go!
Now, this weekend is the 4th, and I will be attending two different celebrations with the girls. One of those will include my great aunt’s legendary peanut butter cake, so the big test is going to be whether or not I can leave there without scarfing down four slices. I’m also going to try to spend some time working on getting some fill dirt for my new raised bed in my front yard (more on that later…it’s going to be sooo cute!) I’m hoping that digging it out myself from the back yard outside in this ridiculous South Carolina heat will help build muscle and burn lots of calories, and will help with Kyla’s Yard of the Month aspirations.
The big goal for next week…don’t go back into the 140s!
So after a long hiatus from couponing, I’ve finally picked it back up. The hiatus was due in part to being out of town and a lack of deals on stuff we needed, but most due to an unfortunate lack of funds.
But after going to the Extreme! Couponing class the other week, I jumped back in with renewed excitement. With an ongoing fund shortage, and an empty fridge, it was quite a challenge, but I was determined to get what we needed with the money we had.
Unfortunately, ol’ Taco Bones started putting all of the groceries before I could snap a photo (I can’t be mad at him, being that it’s been a while since I required photographic evidence of my shopping exploits, and he’s a little out of practice), so I have no pretty pictures for you.
Instead, I thought I would type this shit out, because I’ve got to make sure that you understand how excited I am about everything I was able to get.
I used to think that Publix was super expensive and not worth the trip, but once I found out about double coupons, buy one get one free deals and store coupons, I realized that it would be more than worth a trip. Plus, the two closest grocery stores to my house are Food Lion and Publix, and that Food Lion has terrible service, so I don’t like to go there unless I have to.
Now, granted, when you see this list, you’re going to be like “What kind of meals do they make at that house?!” You need to know that our pantry was still fairly stocked, and we were trying to get some of the pantry items we were out of and some food for quick snacks and small meals. I promise that we eat more than hot dogs and mangos.
24 items
What I Bought:
(1) Packs of hot dogs
(2) Packs of shredded cheese
(2) Packs of lunch meat
(2) Multi-packs of kids’ yogurt
(1) Half gallon of fancy milk
(1) Blueberries
(2) Packs of butter
(1) Dozen eggs
(1) Case of beer (The Beast Light, for those who are interested)
(1) Bag of salad mix
(2) 5lb. bags of sugar
(1) Pack of diapers
(1) Pack of toddler training pants
(1) Pack of baby wipes
(2) Mangos
(1) Bag of chips
(1) Pack of hot dog buns
(1) Loaf of bread
Coupons:
$1 off 2 packs of hot dogs manufacturer coupon
$2 off fancy milk manufacturer coupon
$.75 off 2 multi-packs of kids’ yogurt manufacturer coupon
$1 off 2 packs of lunch meat manufacturer coupon
$1 off 2 packs of lunch meat manufacturer coupon
$.40 off 5lb. bag of sugar
$2 off pack of diapers or training pants
$2 off pack of diapers
$1.50 off baby wipes
Competitor Coupons
$1.50 off pack of diapers Food Lion Store Coupon
Double coupons (only one was under the eligibility limit)
$.40
There were buy one get one free deals on the salad mix, hot dogs, fancy milk and kids’ yogurt. Plus, there was a deal going on where you would get a free package of wipes if you bought a pack of diapers.
No ECB redeemed
TOTAL SPENT: 62.80
TOTAL SAVED: 38.57
(Manufacturer coupons: 9.65, Store coupons: 5.29, Store deals: 23.63)
So, I saved 38%, which I thought was pretty good since I had been terrible about keeping up with my coupons for a month and had to get a lot of things that we needed or were requested by family *cough cough Kyla’s beer cough cough* that weren’t on sale. Not a bad trip, if I do say so myself.
I’m hoping to do a bigger CVs run later in the week, but I just had to go today to make sure I could get this deal. The razors that I like are hardly ever on sale, so I really just couldn’t wait.
2 items
What I Bought:
(2) Packs of fancy razor refills (3 ct.)
Coupons:
$4 off razor refill manufacturer coupon
$1 CVS Extra Care Bucks (ECB) redeemed
TOTAL SPENT: 18.52
TOTAL SAVED: 5
ECB earned: 10
So, while I only technically saved 21%, if you count the ECBs, I got $23.52 worth of razor refills for $8.52, which would be a savings of 64%.
Total Items Purchased: 26
TOTAL SPENT: 81.32
TOTAL SAVED: 43.57
Percent Saved: 35%
(CVS) ECB earned: 10 (equivalent to $10 towards future purchase)
We’ve got a GreenBax days promotion going on at The Pig right now, and there are some other deals this week that I’m hoping to take advantage of, so we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully we’ll get to 50% or more next week.
…And on that note, I wanted to point out that it is, in fact, possible to make an ugly cupcake, if you’re basically terrible in the kitchen like yours truly.
But thankfully, the good folks at Cupcake don’t suck as much as I do, and The BFF has graciously allowed me to twist her arm into accompanying me on an excursion to partake in the deliciousness that is a store full of gourmet cupcakes.
And maybe she won’t be too mad at me for cursing her rack in middle school…and then discussing it on the intrawebs.
If you’re a male, especially one who is related to me…please, please stop reading now. For your own good and for mine. And if you don’t want to read entirely too many details about my boobs, you should also leave now.
There are a million things about breastfeeding that are absolutely fantastic. Seriously, I could write nine posts about it.
But I’m not going to go into all of the reasons that I know it was the best choice for me and for my family…not right now. Later, though…promise.
You always hear that, as you get older, your boobs are just going to sag. It’s a fact, and gravity is going to win, no matter how much you think your girls are good little fighters.
And whether or not you breastfeed or formula feed, your boobs will still fill with milk when you’re pregnant, and they will likely never be quite as perky ever again.
So whether or not breastfeeding two children is the culprit, or the actual pregnancies, or just my ass getting old…it doesn’t matter. The fact is that my boobs will never be the same.
See, I was never “blessed in the chest.” I remember when I got to a B cup, and I was, like, beside myself. Of course, all of my other friends were already in Cs, and even Ds…in middle school. And I loved them, because they were my best friends, but I also hated letting them borrow my clothes, because the tops would never fit right after they had stretched them out with their huge knockers.
Seriously, their boobs were boobs. They could wear a shirt and fill it out like the shirts were made to be worn. But I would put on the same shirt and you weren’t sure if you were looking at my boobs or just folds in the fabric.
I know it’s really shallow and lame and immature, but I can’t say I wasn’t bothered by it.
But then I would always try to make myself feel better by cursing their futures…I would tell myself that when we got old, their boobs would be hanging out with their belly buttons, and my boobs will still be up where they had always been, small and perky and cute. Karma definitely caught up with me for wishing negative things for my best friends. (sweetie, I’m sorry about those horrible thoughts, and I totally owe you a cupcake…payable today)
I guess I thought my boobs had super powers and could defy gravity. But I was SO wrong.
About the time I started weaning my first daughter, I could see the difference. The little boobs that had grown into fairly shapely knockers while engorged with milk were suddenly looking less round and cute and more baggy and saggy. I felt ugghhh.
I mean, they weren’t like those funny birthday cards that talk about needing a size 36DD long or anything, but they were much lower than what I was used to.
I had spent my whole life consoling myself with this notion that even though my boobs were small, they would always retain their shape. I think I would have been devastated about this if we had not had a million other more serious things going on in our lives at the time, but I was still pretty pissed about it.
So then I got pregnant with our second child, and things started looking up again…literally. Engorgement may be painful sometimes, but it really fills out a low cut top.
So, while I had the big boobs, I know I abused the low cut tops and v-necks. I know it, and I own up to it. For once in my life, I had some cleavage, and I could not pass up that opportunity. So to anyone who has ever been offended by my borderline-streetwalker maternity and nursing shirts, I’m sorry. (cupcakes for everyone)
Where was I going with this? Oh, right.
So, now that we’re getting closer to weaning with our second daughter, and some meals are being replaced by solids, gravity is taking over again.
This is so TMI, but it has to be said.
No one told me that my nips would start pointing down. I mean, it’s great for nursing, because I can totally lay the baby down in a more comfortable position without my arms going to sleep from holding her up, so that’s a plus. But really, I already feel like a dairy cow, and the downward facing teats are so not helping my self esteem.
You know, I used to be able to go out without wearing a bra. Yeah…my boobs were that small and perky. I could keep up with the androgynous hipster girls any day of the week. Not that it happened often, because I feel pretty naked without some kind of bra on, but the thing was that I could.
But no more. Gravity and milk deflation have taken their toll on my front facade. And to add insult to injury, they’re not even any bigger than they were pre-pregnancy…they’re still small, but now instead of being small and round, they’re small and floppy.
I have to look at the bright side, though…at least they didn’t have very far to flop.
On Tuesday, I took the opportunity, while Kyla was home, to wash our car. It was looking pretty yuck, and I am too cheap to pay for a car wash when I can do it myself, even if I don’t have a sponge or a brush.
But I’m not going to bore you guys with the details of me trying to wash a station wagon with a wet t-shirt.
I want to tell you about why I hate Lincoln Town Cars.
In college, I had a job as a car prep at the local airport branch of a national rental car company.
It was kind of like working at a car wash…but not exactly.
See, this airport was technically an international airport, though I can’t remember ever seeing an international flight on the schedule. So it wasn’t a teeny tiny airport, but it wasn’t a big one either.
Anyway, my job was to take the cars that were returned, wash them, vacuum them, make them pretty, and bring them back quickly. The money was decent, hours were flexible, and I got to work on my tan (yes, I used to love going out in the sun…shocking, huh?)
Another cool thing that happened as a result of my working there was acquiring the skills to drive very large vehicles…like “packers” (13 passenger vans). To this day, I’m proud to say that I could 3-point-turn anything short of a tractor trailer with little anxiety.
When I first started working there, we washed the cars behind a gas station up the road from the airport. It was kind of weird and creepy late in the evening, but it wasn’t too bad. There was another car prep–a guy in his thirties–who always left the stereos on in the cars when he turned them off, which lead to more than one complaint from renters getting in the car and being blown away by the music blasting at full volume. Anyway, he talked the gas station owner into setting up a clothes line for him out back, and he would bring his laundry there and hang it up to dry during his shift instead of paying for a dryer at the laundromat.
Then one of the bigger rental agencies built a fancy new 8 bay wash and prep building, and we got their old building. It was pretty sweet having a real car wash to use, rather than a brush, a bucket and a hose. And there were two bays, so we rarely had to take turns.
I look back at that now and wonder why I didn’t take more advantage of using the prep building to wash my own car more. And it makes me feel old that I look back on that time fondly because of my tan and the free car wash.
Anyway, so this city was on the coast, and golf was H-U-G-E, so most of our customers were golfers. Which means we were always having to clean large cars and SUVs for the foursomes and their clubs. And if they did not have a large enough vehicle waiting on them the second they got out of the gate, you can bet they were going to be royally pissed.
So I learned to wash and vacuum an entire SUV in about seven minutes. The only hard part was cleaning the top of the car, since I’m what my father calls “vertically-challenged.”
But then there were the older golfers…the ones who insisted on Cadillacs and Lincolns, rather than the SUVs. I hated it when they would come in.
I always hated cleaning the trunks, mostly because they would be full of dirt and dried grass from the clubs, and they were a bitch to vacuum. Being as short and small as I am, I had to climb into the trunk to reach the most interior part, right behind the back seat.
Now, this one day, I was cleaning a Town Car. We had terrible storms all the week before, and it was evident by the mud covering the trunk carpet that the golfers who had returned the car has not let a little thing like inclement weather ruin their vacation.
I washed it first, as was my habit, and got the outside looking pretty spiffy. Then I pulled the car over to the vacuum, grabbed a wet rag for the dried mud, and climbed into the trunk to get to work on making that carpet pretty enough for the next foursome to dirty up again.
Well, while I was in there, the aforementioned coworker, who had a thing for loud music, pulled up and got to work on another of our cars. I heard him pull up, but didn’t bother greeting him, since I knew he couldn’t hear me anyway. Well, at some point, I dropped the vacuum, realizing that he may need it before I did, and that it would take me a while to get the mud loose enough to even begin vacuuming it up.
Sure enough, he did need it. When he didn’t see me at the car, he assumed that I was in the bathroom, and thought he would shut the trunk, in case someone pulled up after he left and tried to steal it (his words, as explained to me later that day).
Yes…I had just been shut in the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car.
I start yelling as soon as the lid closed…but he didn’t hear me. Between the vacuum and the stereo, there was no way he would hear me.
I listened for him to come back, maybe wondering where I had got off to, or for him to turn off the vacuum or turn down the stereo.
None of these things happened, and I listened to him drive away.
I started fumbling around to find the emergency latch, since I was sure this car must have one, being a luxury vehicle with a huge trunk. But I couldn’t find it. It was pitch black, and I could barely tell where the back of the car was, much less tell where the latch would be.
I was pretty calm the whole time, considering that I inherited a mild form of claustrophobia from my mom. It was more than half an hour before anyone came to look for me, which was shocking, sicne I was one of the fastest car preps we had. But the guy had told someone that he thought I must be sick, because I had been in the bathroom the whole time he was cleaning his last car.
But, someone finally came, and happened to check the trunk.
I refused to clean another Town Car for the rest of the time I worked there.
And I still hate them.
So Sadie has been working on past tense verbs for a while now, and she seems to have gotten some of them pretty easily. And I know that she understands the concept, as she adds “ed” to verbs that I know she hasn’t heard us say.
For example, if she wants to say that she has already gone pee pee, she says “I peeped!”
I laugh every time she says it…I know I should correct her, but it’s just so darn cute.
So anyway, potty training has been a struggle…not so much for Sadie, but for me. Trying to figure out if she was ready, trying to avoid pressuring her and myself, trying to take other people’s advice and not get discouraged that what worked for them didn’t work for us. I’ve heard that it’s common for kids with Williams Syndrome to potty train much later, but I didn’t want to use that as an excuse to not try. But I also didn’t want to give her some life-long emotional issues because we didn’t let her poop her pants long enough.
I mean, the way some people talk, and the way some studies make it sound, if you do it one day too early or one day too late, you might make your kid grow up to be a serial killer…or a furry. (Please, please, I would love to get hate mail from some furries)
So, I was very stressed about this whole thing, and didn’t want to push her too hard…but I also didn’t want to pay for diapers for two children any longer than absolutely necessary. I mean, I love my girls, but one of them needs to learn to use the shitter, and I doubt it’s going to be the one who “peeps” every twenty minutes and can’t yet walk. (See below, as she’s saying “who, me?!”)
Several people have mentioned the idea that we should skip pull-ups all together and go straight to big girl panties. That this would really give her the chance to feel how uncomfortable it is to wet yourself, and give her more motivation to go to the potty. I thought this sounded like it was worth a try, and since Kyla was off work today, I thought it would be a good time to try it.
Let’s just say that we were cleaning puddles of pee off the floor for most of the day.
She didn’t want to pee pee in the potty…she wanted to pee pee in her panties and, as a result, on the floor right after she got off the potty. Like, every single time.
We would ask her why she pee peed on the floor instead of telling Mommy and Daddy that she needed to go to the potty, and she would look at us as serious as can be and say “I peeped on the floor.” Like “uh, why would I pee pee in the potty if I’ve already pee peed right there? I’m done now.”
So I called my mom and vented my frustration. I know that she’s not going to learn to potty in one day, and I know that you just have to keep at it. But I guess I wasn’t really getting anything from her that showed me that she really understood what the goal was. So then I felt terrible, like I was pushing her too hard and trying to get her to do something that she just wasn’t ready for, and Kyla and I decided to just put her in pull-ups and keep encouraging her, but to wait a few more months before we stared pushing it again.
And then, not an hour later, she comes over to me and says “Mommy, I gotta pee. I gotta go baffroom.”
So we take off to the bathroom, me carrying Ruby, holding Sadie’s hand and pleading with her to hold it in while I got the baby gate down and got everyone to the potty. She pulls down her pull-up, sits down on her little baby throne, and she started to pee!
She PEEPED! IN THE POTTY!
She got a sticker on her little progress chart (got it free from Pampers when they were giving away potty training kits a month or so ago), and she got to flush her pee pee down the big potty. Oh, and she got to see her Mommy dance around like an idiot, clapping, hollering and screeching in pure delight.
And then, she pee peed in the potty two more times the rest of the night. And both times, she told us that she had to go, and we took her to the bathroom, and she went!
It was AMAZING. I could not be more proud of her, and I am just absolutely stunned by the progress she has made in just one day. I know it’s still going to be a while before she’s fully trained, even in the daytime, but I’m just so excited that we’re moving forward. This little girl never ceases to amaze me, and I’m always so proud of everything that she accomplishes.
So, now we have to started buying little tiny underwear, which give us a whole new problem…
we don’t have enough room in their dresser for an underwear drawer.
But I think it’s a good problem to have.
Congrats, my sweet girl!!!
I am shrinking a little bit…but something is happening.
As I started going into last week, there has been a noticeable change recently in my size. Clothes fit differently (in a good way) and more people have made comments about me looking thinner, particularly in my face and tummy. And, really, I can’t tell you how much better I feel. I just feel like I look better in my clothes.
Now, I’m nowhere near where I want to be, and I’ve got a long way to go to my goal, but I do feel encouraged that I’m on the right track.
The hardest thing right now is not getting discouraged by the numbers on the scale. I know it seems stupid, considering how I feel, but it is very discouraging to see that needle barely moving. I guess I should be happy that I didn’t gain this week and leave it at that.
But I don’t want to leave it at that. I want results. I want more impressive numbers. In exchange for only eating two pieces of bacon when I wanted five, and eating one sliver of cheesecake when I wanted half of the cake, I demand to see the 130s. Next week needs to be my week where I hit 139…come hell or high water.
The only exercise I got last week was shopping with The Godmother, so I totally failed at my goal of exercising more and getting off my butt and doing something physical. I did alright with my portion control, especially considering the yummy meals that I had tempting me.
6/21/10
Weight: 141.5lbs
BMI: 26.05
Waist: 31.75″
Hips: 41.5″
Change since last weigh-in (6/14):
Weight: loss of .5lbs
BMI: loss of .08
Waist: loss of .25″
Hips: loss of .5″
Total
Total Weight Loss: 5.5lbs.
Total BMI Loss: 1.13
Total Inches Lost in Waist: 4.25″
Total Inches Lost in Hips: 1″
There is nothing special going on this week, so there is no special occasion that calls for pigging out…so don’t. And get outside and do something, at least once. Physical activity is greatly needed.
I can’t believe that you’re eight months old. I just can’t.
I can’t believe that you now have a grand total of FOUR teeth, all four of which you use whenever the opportunity presents itself. Although I’m trying to be tough, I have to admit that the presence of these four little chompers and your insistence upon utilizing them is really pushing me towards the idea of weaning. Most of the time when you’re nursing, you’re pretty good about not using the teeth…but when you do, it’s hard to think of much else besides how not covered in my skin a bottle can be.
You also really like to use those little teeth to gnaw on anything and everything within your reach. Usually, that is my shoulder, and I have little bite marks all the way from my neck to my elbow. You chew on the table, your sister’s leg, the cat’s tail, Daddy’s shirt, toys, shoes, purses…anything except the box full of teething toys we’ve given you.
I even caught you a millisecond before putting a piece of leftover steak in your mouth the other night after dinner that must have made its way to the living room floor by way of your sister’s pockets. If there was ever any doubt that you are my daughter, it has now been dispelled.
Your not-crawling has me in stitches every single day. You just pull yourself around with your arms and push off with your toes, belly flat on the ground, slithering around the house like a drunk snake. It is so precious to watch, and absolutely hysterical.
We know that you can crawl in a traditional sense, and we’ve seen you do it on a few occasions, but this dragging your body around thing you’ve got happening seems to be your preferred mode of mobility by far.
…short of walking, that is. No, you’re not walking yet, but you’re definitely trying.
You seem to think that you’re as big as your sister, and that you can do anything that she does…walking being no exception.
You’ll drag yourself over to the coffee table next to her, pull up, and stand there like you own the place. You even try to cruise around the table, inching your way towards whatever thing has been purposefully placed just out of your reach because of its status as a non-chew toy for babies.
Sadie is always keeping an eye on you and making sure that you don’t put anything in your mouth that shouldn’t be there. She’ll follow you around, grabbing everything you pick up, and repeat, like the little Mommy she thinks she is “No, this not for babies.”
You’ve started getting really angry when someone takes something away that you want, and you pitch a fit and cry and throw your little arms in the air to show how unhappy you really are. You and your sister have already started fighting over toys, with each of you trying to get a better grasp on an object than the other one. Your sister usually wins, obviously, since you currently lack any advanced fine motor skills. But she does share sometimes, and she’ll even bring you toys that she knows you like, just to make you happy.
The cutest thing is when you’re sad, and she tries to comfort you by telling you it’s ok and patting your head. She loves giving you hugs and kisses, and is beside herself with joy when you crawl into her teepee tent to play with her.
I promise I won’t tell her you’re only going in there to try to chew on the tag.
But the most amazing thing about you right now?
How happy you are.
You grin all the time. You giggle like it’s going out of style, and you can barely contain yourself with joy. You are probably the happiest baby I think I’ve ever seen.
When your Daddy walks in the door after coming home from work, you see him and your eyes light up. Your whole face is taken over with a smile, and everyone in a ten mile radius is filled with your infectious glee.
You smile and giggle at everyone close to you, and fill the room with happiness, but I always feel like you save your best smiles for me. Those beautiful smiles you give me when you wake up in my arms from a short nap, or the giggles when I peek-a-boo at you through the play pen mesh. And the way your eyes light up when I hold you up over my head…I love making you happy, and I love feeling that pure baby love and joy coming from you.
Even when I’m having a hard day, and I feel like I don’t have time to go pee, much less be the good mom to you and your sister that I think I should be, you give me one of those smiles like I’m the most amazing person in the world, and your love and happiness remind me that I’m really not doing that bad.
Thank you, my darling girl, for always making me feel like the best mom in the world, and thank you for being such a wonderful, amazing angel. I am so happy to have you in my life.
Happy eight month birthday, baby. I love you.
Karen Brown - moderately crafty, crass, funny, finicky, stubborn, somewhat domestic, long-winded, Southern work-at-home mother of two.
