90/365

Today I am thankful for Annie's last day before she turns 1 year old. Our little bitty has a big birthday tomorrow, and I just can't believe it. I am working on a big update post for her. We do have her 1 year check up tomorrow. I hate that it is on her actual birthday, but she needs to get checked on anyway just to make sure nothing is happening in her ears. I think I am in denial that I now have to tell everyone who asks that she is one. At least she is still really small and I can keep pretending she is just my little bitty! At some point I think she may get tired of me treating her like a baby, but she doesn't mind yet so I will just keep being in denial. :) I am hoping that the snot will let up a little tomorrow so that I can get some cute birthday pictures of her. Lucy and I made some cupcakes today, so maybe she will try a little taste now that she has made a couple of eating breakthroughs! I am hoping.

I am super pumped because Mandy and I am going to the Britney concert today. Yes, I LOVE me some Britney and I could not be more excited about seeing her perform tonight. Don't even think about giving me crap about this! Our tickets almost fell through, but thank goodness they came through, literally at the last minute. I think Mandy might have never recovered from missing Britney. I think she might have shed a tear when I called her at 4:30 today to say we were going. We had both just kind of assumed we weren't getting to go. I will be back with a full report tomorrow!! But for now, It's Britney, ______!! (trying to keep it clean around here - Lee Lee would be all over me if I cussed)

I ♥ Faces - Pouting

I didn't even know this was the theme at I ♥ Faces when I posted this picture last week. But I really don't think I have a better pouting photo than this one. I sure do wish we didn't see this face so much! Be sure and check out all of the other great pouts this week!

89/365

Today I am thankful for all of the funny, quirky little quotes that come out of Lucy's mouth that always keep Justin and me laughing. She can just be so hilarious. For instance, today there was this clicking noise in the car somewhere. I knew Lucy would notice it, she is very aware of noises. Her exact words were:

L: "Do you hear that, Momma?"
Me: "I sure do Lucy."
L: "It must be a woodpecker. Yes, it is a woodpecker. A black and white woodpecker."

I really don't think we have ever even talked about a woodpecker. Not sure where she knew about them from. Maybe a book I can't think of, but it just caught me off guard. And it actually did sound like the tapping of a woodpecker. Smart that one. I need to start writing down more of our conversations because they really are so funny and I forget about most of them.

Annie is still not feeling well. She doesn't have a fever anymore, but she is severely congested. She is still acting like she feels fine, but she really looks pitiful. Her nose is bright red, her face is red and splotchy, and her skin is really dry. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for her 1 year check up, so I am hoping she still feels okay until then. Lucy seems to be getting the really runny nose as well now. :( I swear, these two are not looking their best. They are just snotty/crusty and it is not pretty. Poor babies. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they both keep feeling okay.

I had a photo session today! So exciting. I actually have a couple of sessions that need to get up on the La La Blog, so check it out later tonight to see what I have been working on. I am off to edit pictures!



She is so pleased to be 2!

88/365

Today I thankful that my best friend growing up is in town and I get to see her. She lives in NYC now and I feel like I never get to see her. She is in town for a wedding and I only got to see her because her flight got canceled and we got back in town. She leaves in the morning, but I am going to hang out with her tonight. Yeah!

That is all for me because I am off to catch up with Katie.

87/365

Today I am thankful for the really fun time that I got to have last night with Justin, friends, and family. It is so rare that I get to do something at night because I just do not normally feel comfortable leaving the girls. But Lee Lee offered to be on duty and away I went. I got them ready for bed and put Annie down, but Lee Lee did books and songs with Lucy, which was of course the preferred way of doing it as far as Lucy was concerned. It is just so nice to get out and do something with Justin and to see friends. There was no baby talk. It was really nice and much needed.

Sweet Annie is not feeling well. She is still running a fever and incredibly congested. I swear, when this girl gets a cold, her little nose produces more snot than I have ever seen in my life. She has now had 2 colds since coming home and both of them have been like this. Literally the second I wipe her nose, it is covered again. Yuck.

I was supposed to go to the horse races today with a bunch of my friends, but I didn't want to leave Annie since she is feeling so yucky, so I stayed home. I was sad to miss it, but my pitiful little one needed her momma today.







Pitiful.

86/365

Today I am thankful that even when Annie is sick, she is still so sweet and happy. Poor thing has been trying to get a bunch of head congestion for several days now and last night it just kind of settled in her nose. It is running nonstop and she has a low grade fever, but other than watery eyes and constant snot, you would never know she felt any different. I swear, all Annie wants to do is make everyone else smile and happy, and a little cold is not going to stop her from living out that mission.

We have really just hung around the house today since Annie is not feeling great. We are going to dinner tonight with Justin and then I get to go out with Justin tonight! Yeah!! I am excited. I am more excited than Justin because he has to work, but it will be fun for me. I hope that everyone has an awesome weekend! I have some fun plans for tomorrow that I am really looking forward to.

The girls love to roll the pool balls at Papa and Lee Lee's house.

She is FINALLY getting to the point where she wants to do what all babies do - put everything in her mouth.














This is from last night and I love it. Lucy absolutely refused to let me read her her books before bed. Lee Lee had to do it.

85/365

This is a new and very common look that I get. She really is too funny.


Today I am thankful for Thursday night TV. I realize this is not at all profound or important at all, but I really enjoy the time after the girls go to bed and I always love it when I have good tv shows to look forward to. When it is not reruns, Thursday is my favorite tv night by far. I have been so tired this afternoon, so I look forward to just relaxing and not thinking about much of anything.

Annie had another good day of working on sitting up and she wants to pull herself up on her own so badly, but she just can't quite do it yet. Almost though. She also snacked on a cracker today. Yeah! All of the sudden the fear of putting food in her mouth is just breaking down. We still have a long way to go, but the improvements are so enormous.

I took the girls with me to an old friend's house today to meet her new baby girl. She was so sweet and snuggly. We ate lunch with some friends, came home and took naps, and then ran some errands with Lee Lee. I was asked in the last post how Lee Lee got her name. Justin actually came up with it. My mom's name is Becky and Justin used to always call her Becky Lou Lee. Then it turned into Lee Lee and it has just stuck. My dad took us out to dinner tonight - Sonic drive in! And now both girls are squeaky clean and in bed. Woo hoo!

84/365

One week until I am 1!!!




Today I am thankful for the fact that Lucy loves her grandparents so much that I can leave her for a night and know that she is perfectly happy and not freaking out about where I am. I have not left Lucy for a night for over a year. She has stayed overnight with her Lee Lee several times before, but every time I was always completely stressed out about leaving her. She always did fine, but struggled a little with bedtime. Now, she can spend the night with her grandparents with no problems at all. She was such a good girl while Annie and I were gone for the night. She went to bed easily, slept great, ate great, etc. I am so proud of her.

This whole post is a giving thanks post because now, as I sit here and type, Annie just went from laying to sitting ALL ON HER OWN!!!!!!! This is a first!!!!! She had almost done it, but just couldn't quite get up. So she rolled back down on her back. Lee Lee and I were cheering for her to try again and up she went. Just like that. This has been a HUGE developmental week for Annie. Her OT is going to be so excited when I report all of these big steps we have been making!!!!! She is going to be on the move before I know it. I really can't even begin to explain how exciting it is to see her do all of these things for the first time. She did not want to turn 1 next week without a laundry list of exciting news for me to report! :) She just went from sitting to laying as well! By the time I finished getting this post ready, she had gone up and down 3 times. I think she actually is getting it!!!!!!

I am so glad that this post is getting written in shifts. After I wrote the first two paragraphs, I brought Annie up to "feed" her dinner, which was green beans tonight. Here is how a feeding generally goes - Annie gets upset and very anxious when I start to put her in the high chair, I get her happy again once she is in the seat by playing with her for a bit, she sees the food and starts blowing spit out of her mouth, as I try and put food in her mouth she continues blowing so that all of the food comes out of her mouth and she swallows nothing. This goes on for a while, until she gets upset and then I just spoon some food on her tray and let her play with it for a while so that she realizes that the food is actually not threatening. However, tonight, she ate a WHOLE #2 jar of green beans. Ate it. Didn't spit it or play in it but swallowed it and was not upset!!!!!!! Again, I was shocked in the best kind of way. The progress she is making is just unbelievable to me. I have had a magical day today watching her accomplish such huge things.













Hugging her Lee Lee.




Standing on her own.