So many changes

We've all been super busy these last couple months. The semester is finally starting to slow down and come to an end. We have less homework to worry with and more time for Maggie. She getting so super cute. Her personality is becoming more obvious everyday. She says "uh-uh" to all most everything no matter if she wants it or not. If you do something she doesn't like then she points her finger at you and makes it all crooked and says "no" in this cute little baby voice. She's going to be feisty. She loves to tickle our belly and back. She loves playing with cars now. Baby dolls not so much. She has some hot wheel cars that she drives around the coffee table and makes vroom noises.
She had tonsillitis this weekend. It was so sad seeing her sick. Coughing hurt and she cry this awful painful cry. I hated it. Luckily, the antibiotics are certainly helping.

She changed daycare this week. She adjusting very well. She won't walk all the way in by herself yet but she's getting closer to doing it everyday.

Now, for the biggest change of our lives. WE'RE PREGNANT! It's going to be another June baby. Apparently, Isy is only fertile one months a year. ;) Hopefully, It'll be a boy. I'm willing it to be. Any chance I get I call it a boy. I can't wait to see how Maggie adjusts to the new baby.

She loves computer chairs now. She plays on ours all the time. She climbs on it and twirls around. Ours has no back or arms, so it's like a stool. At church this weekend, she refused to sit anywhere other than the computer chair that was against the wall. Once she got in it, she was the perfect baby during church. She sat so quietly and drank from her cup and ate her goldfish.
I swear she thinks she 16 already.

18 hour semester has hit

Sadly, school has been keeping us all quite busy. Even the Maggster is back in daycare. It's funny how quickly her personality changes. She went from giving us kisses every two seconds to not ever giving us a kiss. We'll ask for a kiss and she shakes her head and grins and if you act like you are going to run after her, she'll take off. Those kisses are a lot of work now. She loves being chased. We have to do it every morning just to get her clothes on her.
With her being in daycare during the day now, she requires more attention when she gets home. She just loves for someone to hold her and play with her. We usually love to do it too. The other day she played in the floor with her daddy. She had the best time sitting on his chest playing with his face.
She loves playing rock band drums now. The youth were over the other night and she watched them all play. She'd clap every time the song ended.
She has become independent lately. She prefers to walk instead of being toted. I'm sure you saw how happy she was to be down walking on her own in the picture. Ilove that dress that I bought at the jubilee. It's so cute on her.
She wanted to walk into daycare the other day. It almost killed me. She walked in the building, found her door and pulled it open, walked to the director and raised her arms, and once she was picked up she waved bye bye to me. I think I could have cried. I want my itty bitty (well, smaller) baby back. I miss the days of being able to just sit and hold her.

so far behind

Sadly, I've been slacking on my post and with school starting up again Monday I see it will only become worse. Maggie changes so much everyday. She such a cutie and sweet baby. She become a little more loving everyday-especially towards her daddy. She's starting to dance more for us and even practices her harmonica skills on occasion. She took it to bed the other night and played herself to sleep. It was so cute to sit and listen to her play. Boy does she have skills. My baby has groove. I think I'm going to let the pictures tell the stories of our last few weeks. Sorry for the upside picture. I'm too lazy to go turn it around.

All is well

We've been so busy with school that it's almost unbelievable. Maggie's become such a silly little girl. It's so fun to watch all the stuff she does. She never fails to make us laugh or smile. He EKG came back with great results. Her heart was perfect. Praise God.
She found herself some new toys- a cake pan and wooden spatula. She loves drumming on the pan with the spoon, and I let her. She loves to play in the pot and pan cabinet. She loves playing in the kitchen. We have to put the garbage can out of reach now. Isy made Cole slaw the other day and she stole one of the outer leaves from the cabbage out of the garbage. She took a bite and made the cutest face. She was so proud of herself. I don't think she liked it very much.
She's figured out how to open the baby gate but can't get it off the latch just yet. She even tries to 'unlock' it with my car keys. She tries every key hoping one will work. We bought her an aqua doodle mat because she has become interested in coloring and writing. You put water in the pen and it will only write on the mat. After drawing for a minute or two, she realized that she could suck on the tip of the pen and drink the water out of it. That's all she does with it now.
She was able to spend the weekend with my parents while Isy and I went to wedding in Shreveport. I think she had a great time there. She stole a fresh tomato off the counter. We didn't expect her to like it as much as she did. I've never seen her like a vegetable that much. Even the 13 month old knows there is nothing better than a home grown tomato.

One brave baby

The second session of school has started and Isy and I both have classes this semester. We've hired a youth from the church to come watch Maggie for us while we have class. I was kinda nervous at first. It's the first non-family member we've had watch her outside of daycare- a teen at that. It's only for a couple hours and Maggie seems to like her.
Maggie's become one brave baby. She learning how to get down the stairs on her own. That's so scary for me. Luckily, she only tries it from the second stair and has it down pretty well. She's had sometime of doctor appointment every week lately. She got one year shots one week, a check-up on a heart murmur the next week, and Tuesday she had an EKG to see if there is anything causing the murmur. We'll be calling for the results of that Monday. She did so well. Here's a picture of her checking out her ID bracelet. She was nervous during the actual procedure. It was horrible having to sit at her feet with her reaching and whining to be held but not being able to hold her. Even though she was very unsure about the new people and the things he had put on her chest, she was quite cooperative. He even commented on how well she did to be so young. I was very glad that we had on older gentleman who was so patient.
Tonight has been a very rough night for the us. She's been so fussy. She fell and got her first busted lip. She couldn't figure out the red stuff on her finger for a little while. I knew that pacifier I had left in the freezer would come in handy for something. After calming down from her injury, she began to play in the floor. She decided she didn't want to wear her diaper anymore. She stumbled around trying to get it off for a few minutes. I looked away for a few seconds and when I looked back at her I was greeted with the funniest thing.

This is her with the diaper on her head. Boy, was I glad she hadn't pooped in it.

So much to do.

We've all been so busy lately with work and school and Maggie of course. She's no longer in daycare. It is a happy/sad kind of situation for me. I love the idea of her staying home with us instead of being in a daycare where I may not know what she does, what the other kids are doing, and exactly what she's learning. However, having her home takes away a little of our time for homework or house work. I haven't had a clean living room for more than 8 hours since she stopped going to daycare. Those 8 hours were the 8 hours she was asleep by the way. Isy and I have both just completed the first session of summer school and are preparing to start session 2 Thursday.
Maggie had to get her one year shots last week. She did so well. She recovered rather quickly from her 5 shots. She had to have her finger pricked to check her Iron and a couple other things. I wanted to cry. She only cried during the shots, but was quickly pacified by her cuddling with her daddy. Her iron was low but only two from normal. She's taking an iron supplement for that just to bring it back up to normal. The doctor also said he heard a heart murmur, so we have to go back Thursday to have that checked out again. If we hear it again, we will have to have test done. It's all going to be gravy though.

Maggie's 1st Birthday Party.

We had Maggie's party Sunday at the park in Grenada. It was great but we were also visited by some nasty heat that made it a little difficult to stay comfortable. She enjoyed herself and was completely worn out by the time it was over. Isy and I spent several hours making the cakes and they turned out wonderfully as you will get to see. She got to try some new flavors. She doesn't approve of mustard or mild salsa just yet. She took the bread out of her mouth and handed it back as soon as she got a taste. When she was done eating, She threw slung the food on the floor and then set the plate on the table. ( I want to know where she got this behavior from.) We put the cake in front of her and she gave us the funniest looks and acted like she didn't know what to do with it. Once she decided she want to reach for it, we couldn't let her or the photographers wouldn't be able to get any good pictures and we weren't done singing. She wasn't so sure about the song either until we said her name- then she smiled at us. She had the best time with her cake. My sister and dad would try to take her cake away and she'd quickly grab it with both hands and pull it towards her and glare at them. She loved her cake. She ate on it for a while before she decided to dig into and really tear it up. She got sleepy and started rubbing her eyes. It was awful trying to keep the cake out of her eyes. She went to go sit on my dad while I got her presents on the table for her to open and when he sat her on the table she threw a fit. She was so tired and didn't care to be put down. He finally got her stay there. She opened the three presents before crawling back into his lap and letting me open them all for her. She had a great time but was completely tired when it was all over. She slept the whole drive home and let me have the music as loud as I needed without any complaints.
Here are more pictures if you are interested in seeing the rest of them.

Happy Birthday Maggie

Yesterday Maggie turned ONE! What a milestone, after all, she survived a whole year with us for parents. I found my self reminiscing about the day of her birth every time I looked at the clock yesterday. I came to realize that I have no written recollection of her birth for her to possible read one day. This is where I bore you with the story of how she arrived.
Her due was June 1st. That day came and went. Finally the Friday before she was born I had my next to last prenatal visit. I was already 2cm and 70% effaced. We had scheduled her induction for the following Tuesday June 9th. Having read about how much more painful induced labor pains would be and the chances of that leading to a c-section, I was hopeful for her to come on her own. I prayed that I would go into labor on my own. After all, I wanted to try to birth her with out any pain medications if possible. Monday, I went for my last visit at 9 that morning. I hadn't dilated any more. Since June 1st I had been doing everything possible to make her come. I did jumping jacks, squats, walked a mile each day, and anything else I had ever heard had worked. I came home, or my home at that time, and took a nap- isn't that what every pregnant woman should be doing so close to time to give birth. I woke after a couple of hours with some back pain. It was very sporadic. I didn't think much of it until about four that afternoon when I realized it was happening every thirty minutes or so. I was so excited to know I was having labor pains. Isy wasn't scheduled to get off work for a couple more hours. I decided that I should call him just yet. What if they stopped? I'd feel stupid then. Isy was working in Cleveland at the time and we still lived in Grenada, so he was having to drive an hour back and forth. I'd hate for him to have left early for no reason. About 8 him and his parents arrive and I let everyone know that I'm having contractions. This continues and we go to bed. Well, I try to sleep as much as possible, but around 4am I'm having contractions every 5 minutes. I was to be induced in an hour at this point.
We go to the hospital hoping they'll cancel the induction, but that doesn't happen. I receive my first dose of pitocin. The pain gets amazingly worse. I get my first dose of pain medicine. I receive more doses and harder more painful contractions. I ask, no beg, for an epidural. I finally reach 4cm. Water finally breaks. Two tries on the epidural and it doesn't work. I suffer. The Dr. finally examines and says that he believes that I'm going to need a c-section, but we could wait an hour and see if things change first. I tell him that would be pointless. We start the preparation for surgery. Isy's dressed in his sexy OR scrubs while I get my spinal. Two of those and they also don't work. I'm getting put to sleep now. Isy will not be able to witness the birth of his child. I think this is the most heartbreaking thing for me. He's one of those father's that wanted to be there. I last remember seeing 1455 on the clock. I then remember waking and hearing some one telling Isy that I'm awake if he want's to come in. It was about 4:30. At 3:335 I had a 8lb 9oz, 20 1/2 in. baby removed from me. She was pretty and perfect.
It made all the moments of pain and awful nurses worth it.

Oh so busy.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Summer school has started for Isy and I. I've began preparing for Maggie's birthday party. I can't believe she'll be a year old Wednesday.
She managed to start saying mama some. It's more exciting than I thought it would be. Now we'll have to work on dada. A couple weeks ago Isy and I took her to the park for the first time. She loved the swings. She was a little scared at first but eventually she began to love it as much as her mommy does.


For Memorial Day we went over to the Joy's house to hang out with them and some of the other youth kids and play some rock band. Despite the loud noises and big group of people, Maggie seemed to have a great time. She got lots of attention from some of the youth girls and even got to help daddy sing Twist and Shout. She was just the cutest thing. She'd pull the mic up to her face and make noises. I think she might be into music just like her daddy.

our latest adventures

Isy and I have been playing Rock Band together some. Maggie happened to be up with us the other night when we decided to play. Luckily, Isy just happens to have an extra set of drum sticks. She LOVES the drums and the sticks. She totes the sticks around all night and drums on random things or claps with them to hear them make a noise. Maggie's become quite the busy child. She climbs on the couch and lays over on me-for all of 1 second, then she's off to the drums that are at the end of the couch. They are just high enough that she can reach them. Isy let her play with him the other day and you could see the happiness in her face.















Tonight, she got to spend some time in the pool. We haven't gotten it out yet this year until tonight. I knew she'd love it because she absolutely loves the tub. I was going to get some pictures, but my phone's not waterproof and she was determined to get me as wet as possible. The pools just low enough that she can crawl in and out of it on her own. She did that for about 5 minutes straight.

practice cake 1

I decided a couple months ago that I wanted to make the cake for Maggie's first birthday. I wanted to make a butterfly cake and have a pink and purple party. As Maggie's birthday approaches, I have decided that I should make a practice cake. Today was my fist attempt at this. I don't like to leave things to the last minute, so I've reserved the park we are going to have it at, ordered the goody bag things, and began preparing invitations. I've never been a very creative person, but the thought of making her cake really appealed to me. I began my cake and cooked it in the wonderful butterfly shaped pan I had bought at Easter. The cake smelled so yummy when I took it out of the oven. As I released the cake onto the pan, I made Isy come join me for its unveiling. It was nothing I expected it to be. It fell apart in every possible way! I don't think a super moist cake is the route to go with this type of cake making. That's not blood. It's a strawberry banana glaze i made to frost it with. It taste great but looks horrible. Too bad I need both.

Vist with a special friend

I have a very special friend who moved to Canada about 4 years ago. I haven't seen her since then. We've managed to keep in touch through Facebook and on the phone though. I found out she was in the state to visit family and I managed to get some time with her too. Maggie and I were very eager to meet her husband and beautiful baby Micah. We even got to meet her brother's family. I was surprised at how well she interacted with Micah whose a couple months younger than she is. She played pretty well with him and only tried to sneak a few bites of his dinner, but he shared his puffs with her. Maggie seemed to really like her husband Aaron. Isy shaved all of his facial hair off Saturday night and when Maggie saw him Sunday morning she seemed to be having a difficult time adjusting the the change. She always liked to play with his beard. Aaron has a beard and I think it was comforting to her during her time of loss. Hopefully I'll be able to get a copy of a couple of pictures that we took while we were together to put on here.

Watching her with Isy Sunday morning was fun. She'd just sit in the middle of the bed and follow every move he would make. She could not take her eyes off of him. She's such a daddy's girl. We got to spend all day Saturday together since I didn't have to work. She was extremely fussy all day. She's got a couple teeth still trying to come in at the same time so some days are rough. She fussed all day and nothing would make her happy for more than a couple minutes. I played and did everything I knew to do that she normally likes, but it never worked. When her daddy got home, she was a completely different baby. She was so happy. She played peak a boo with him and would just laugh and laugh. I guess she had more of me than she wanted.

I gave in.

I've decided that having a blog to post some of the major things going on in our lives wasn't such a bad idea after all. I really want to be able to have a record of what was happening at this stage of Maggie's life when she is older. >Maggie has grown so much. She's almost 11 months old and she's walking. She had her first experience walking in the grass today. She loved it even when she was distracted by the small yellow flowers. She's been at it for 2 weeks now and nothing is slowing her down. She seems to have great determination. She's already so feisty. Sometimes I think she's already 13. She managed to tear a page out of one of Isy's math book, and when i found her, she took off walking as fast as she could. Of course I had to take a picture. She seems to have passion for math already. Maybe she'll have her daddy's math smarts instead of my lack thereof.