Almost done

billy and bailey got to spend a lot of quality time together during our vacation this year!



we had a little picnic lunch almost everyday by the pool.

something about the way bailey is standing in this picture just cracks me up! she most definitely has her daddy's build :)

Strike a pose

i promise all i asked her to do was to smile for me and she started posing away. she kept putting her hands behind her back like this and moving all around.

she did this same thing last year too. honestly, i have no clue where she gets this from. i don't have a lot of fashion magazines or anything and most of the tv bailey gets to watch is animated and on pbs. it does crack me up, though.

Hoops!

Baby update :)

i officially felt the baby move for the first time last night!!! always amazing!
also, despite my appearance, i am measuring a touch on the small size and have gained less than half of the weight i did when i was pregnant with bailey at this point. it most likely has to do with the fact that i have to lift 32 lbs up and down all day long and i am still having food issues, making it impossible for me to eat as much as i would like. unfortunately, the morning sickness is still lingering but, like every day for the past 4 weeks, i still wake up thinking that this might be the day i feel better.
the big sonogram appointment has been set for june 23rd. i'll get a guessing post up when it gets closer.

Floaties rule!

like the beach, bailey really seemed to enjoy swimming in the pool a ton more this year than last. i'd like to thank her new $10 floaties for that (i wanted the regular old cheap ones but could not find them at target and gave up, i have seen them everywhere since).

not only did the floaties match perfectly with one of bailey's pink swimsuits, they also provided some much wanted independence in the water. the first day she wore them, bailey swam laps for almost a solid hour. i was impressed with how quickly she picked up the concept of swimming/treading water/doggy paddling.

the 30 minutes it takes us to get ready to go to the pool is finally justified and i have a feeling we will be swimming a lot more this year :)

Sandy

obviously, the abundant sand was the main draw to the beach for bailey. she would spend forever trying to put all of the sand from the beach back into the ocean. we also had fun building sandcastles, but somehow, i forgot to get a picture of them.

bailey concentrating very hard with this toy.

it has entertained her for 3 years in a row.

when we got home, i asked billy what he thought about getting a sandbox for bailey once we moved into our new house since she loved the sand so much.

it was a definite no.

sand is fun, but it's horribly messy.

Finally!

every year before our annual beach vacation, i have visions of my adorable little curly blond haired girl giggling as the waves splash her cute little sand dusted toes.
this year, it finally happened. it's official, bailey loves the beach :)

she would entertain herself by running back and forth from the waves to the squishy sand, pretending that the ocean was trying to get her. then, daddy developed a game where you keep scooting closer and closer to the water trying to guess when it would hit you.

the child ran and laughed and played hard this way virtually every morning. settling down for a nap wasn't an issue at all this week.

a few mornings we found a small shallow collection of water pooled just beyond the shore line. bailey loved simply running back and forth, splashing around, and occasionally even laying down the warm, calm water. she was always literally covered from head to foot with sand after each trip down to the beach, allowing for at least 2 baths a day :)

My favorite

welcome to the first of many posts about this year's family beach vacation.

this one is my favorite. just look at how happy bailey is to be on the beach!

Be careful, pregnant woman venting

ok, so i'm about 15 1/2 weeks pregnant and i have a little advice for those of you who will never be pregnant due to the lack of the necessary parts, those of you who just haven't gone through the miracle of pregnancy quite yet, those of you who have no desire at all to have children and those of you who were pregnant so long ago you have forgotten what it is like.

exclaiming "are you sure it's not twins?" is not a welcome expression to a pregnant woman at any stage of her pregnancy. it is not cute, funny, original or witty. it is rude and offensive and i am more than sick of it.

i have heard this 3 times already. again, i am only 15 1/2 weeks as of right now.

hey, i'm with you. i realize i am unusually large and pregnant looking. it's not like i enjoy the fact that i get really big and show very quickly when i am pregnant, but that's just the way it is for me. but to endure comments about the largeness of my body and my appearance, especially from strangers, is not ok. i put up with it a lot last time, but i'm not going to allow it this time around. would you go up to a person you consider to be overweight and say "wow, are you sure you haven't been eating 2 servings of food lately because you are about twice the size you should be?" most likely, no, rudeness. that's obviously crossing the line.

that's why i just don't get how people feel like it is ok to comment on or even ask to touch you (those that do ask) as soon as you announce your pregnancy.

when you really think about it, making comments about how ginormous you think a pregnant woman is can be such a common sense no-no. first of all, woman are notorious for being concerned about and unfairly judged on their appearance. an extra large, round body is not seen as attractive or desirable to the vast majority of our society. secondly, you know the stereotype of a woman suffering from pms? sensitive, angry, over emotional, and, at times, borderline crazy. well, the various hormones that flood your body when you are pregnant increase your common pms symptoms at least 10 times.

why, oh why, do people think it is perfectly acceptable to tell an overly emotional, uncomfortable, increasingly pregnant woman just how huge and giant they think she is? makes no sense.

so, please, remember what your mother always told you. if you can't say something nice, just don't say anything at all.

the next time it happens (i'm not going to even try to delude myself into thinking that it will stop now) i plan on telling people how i feel about their comments. if you think this might be something to joke about or tease me with, please, don't try me. i promise i will not find it the least bit amusing.

ok, i'm off of my soapbox for now.

Mother's Day

billy and bailey gave me a fabulous mother's day :) billy planned everything, which is exactly what i wanted! we ate muffins for breakfast, went to church and then met up with most of our community group for a picnic at a park. the guys organized all of the food and entertained the kids, which was wonderful.




billy spent at least a third of his time pushing bailey very high on the swings. i have some video i'll post later.


sweet josh also got in on the swinging action.

courtney and jason.



dayna loving on cute christopher and enjoying her first mother's day :)



bailey and josh walking hand in hand as we were leaving. always extremely cute!

thank you, thank you, thank you billy for making mother's day special for me this year :) it was the best one yet for sure!

"I want a girl baby"

oh, the fickle mind of a 2 1/2 year old. ever since we went to babies r us where she kept bringing me tiny little baby girl outfits that she deemed "so so cute", bailey has wanted a "girl baby". especially after i told her we could come back and pick out a few for her to give to the baby once we find out if we are having a boy or a girl.


bailey has always been drawn to comment on the cuteness of babies and oooh and ahhh over them. here she is getting to "hold" a baby for the very first time. you could tell that bailey felt so big and proud to get to hold her friend caleb's little sister, kennedy. sweet little kennedy was a great sport about it too, not fussing or anything. we even got a smile out of her and captured it!! when the other kids noticed how much attention bailey and kennedy were getting, they wanted in on the action and hopped on the couch for some pictures too. getting three 2 1/2 year olds and 2 infants to even look in your direction while taking their picture is quite challenging, but i think i got at least one decent one.

Bailey and the boys

although she is quite the girly girl, bailey sure does have a lot of friends that are boys!

bailey and reece have always been close, but they just haven't gotten to play together much lately. thankfully, we enjoyed a short little visit from reece last wednesday morning while his sweet momma went to the doctor. they are quite the handfull together these days. reece is all boy and bailey is all girl, so it was a little hard to find some indoor activities that they both liked. coloring was the great gender neutral activity that kept them busy for a least a little while.


wednesday night, we just so happened to run into simeon and his wonderful mommy, cerene as we were getting our mail. they kindly invited us to hang out at their place and we all had a blast! we even got to sing happy birthday to simeon and share a little of his cake. they are special neighbors of ours that we will really miss. it's awesome to see both of their little faces light up when they see each other :)

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we ended the week with a square one reunion hosted by lindsey and caleb. bailey was the only girl there representing. the obvious differences between boys and girls never cease to amaze me. here is bailey, singing and directing while the boys are silently eating and throwing things. i was impressed that she convinced them to sit down with her in a circle. everyone had a wonderful time catching up and hanging out. the bond that we share is very special. we were there for each other during those first few crazy months of motherhood. i hope to get together again soon!

Miss piggy

bailey broke her piggy bank the other day and, apparently, it was a pretty upsetting experience. she talked on and on about it although we could never quite figure out how it got broken (obviously, she dropped it, but she wouldn't tell us why she was carrying it around). the next day, she earned a new one and was delighted with the replacement. she kept hugging it and telling me "oh, thank you, thank you mommy, i love it so much, thank you, thank you". i have some video i'll try to post later.

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Beep beep!

every week, bailey and i head to kroger for groceries. the excitement lately has been these beautifully clean car carts (i scrub them down with the kroger provided antibacterial wipes every single time, i seem to be the only one doing so). although much less sanitary, riding around in the car makes our trip more enjoyable.

this morning, bailey accessorized herself quite nicely for our trip with 3 bailey made necklaces, a bracelet, her summer hat and new purple barbie sunglasses (in my purse during the photo, as requested).

on a completely different note, i am sad to report that i still feel yucky most days. when i was pregnant with bailey, at this point in the pregnancy, i was starting to feel like a regular human being again. not so this time. in fact, i have felt worse the past 3 days. please pray that this isn't something i will battle for several more weeks or even the entire pregnancy. i just want to enjoy eating again!!!!

More fun in Little Rock

bailey had a great time in little rock visiting my family. we got to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and bailey had a blast blowing bubbles with my cousins. thanks, everyone, for entertaining bailey so much :)


she also made a lot of castles out of blocks and was quite proud of them.