11 months old

Eileigh, you are ELEVEN months old today. It is so hard to believe that in just one short month you will be ONE! My how time flies when you are having fun.

Here is what you've been up to this past month:

-You LOVE to walk but you don't quite have your balance yet so we (Mama and Daddy) let you hold onto our fingers so you don't fall down. So whenever we are old grey and hunched over, just know that you contributed to the hunching over! haha!

-You can clap and you love music. You can actually clap on beat to music which is more than me(your Mama) can do.

-You are such a social little person! You wave at everyone and everything. However, when someone speaks to you, you do tend to shy away and lay your head on my shoulder. TOO SWEET! You even waved to the fireworks this past weekend at the onion festival! You definitely get that from your Daddy because he is a social butterfly just like you!

-You can say "Mama" "Dada" "Ball" "Hey"and I swear it sounded like you said "Good Job" the other day! You are a little chatterbox! You will fuss us (your parents) out sometimes but you're lucky that we don't know what you're saying! LOL!

-You call Stitch by making a clicking sound with your mouth just like your Daddy and patting your leg. It is too cute!

-You are starting to eat more solids but you still love the breast.

-You sleep pretty good and you prefer to be right beside/underneath me. I love you alot because I'm not a snuggle person but you are the best snuggle person EVER!!!

-You drink water from a sippy cup. You love your Daddy's sweet tea.

-You love puffs in any flavor.

-You ate your very first red velvet cupcake at Caden's 2nd Birthday Party.

-You still hate bows and you pull them out especially when you're bored.

-You like going to the ballfield to watch your cousins play!

-You like to feel things with your feet and you love to kick stuff. I hope you don't like soccer because that is the most boring sport in the world in my opinion but if you do, I'll learn to love it. ;-)

Eileigh,

You are the most precious gift that your Daddy and I have ever received. I know I say this a lot but it is so true, you were so worth the wait and I would do it all over again just for YOU. Your little personality keeps us smiling along with your laugh which is the best sound in the whole world. We are amazed at how fast you catch on to things and how inquisitive you are about how things work. It is just hard to put into words the impact you've made on our lives and how much joy you bring. I always always always want you to know how loved you are, how wanted you are, and how needed you are! I can't believe you are already 11 months old and yet it seems like you've been in our lives forever. You are my heart, my soul, my everything.

We love you!

Love,
Mama and Daddy

Chasing Stitch

Stitch is my first baby and my second baby, Eileigh, loves to chase him. It is too cute and funny because Stitch plays along. He could easily veer off the circle of the roundabout but he goes around until he's tired and then he finds his bed. Eileigh refuses to get in the roundabout these days because she found the freedom of her walker so a circle just makes her mad. haha! She does like to stand at the roundabout and play with the toys especially the piano. These pics are from a few months ago but I never got around to posting them. Enjoy! :-)

Weigh Less Wednesday

I almost didn't post this week because I have yet to exercise and I only lost 1/2 lb. It brings my total weight loss to 9.5 lbs and I weigh 188 lbs.

I have been very unmotivated in the exercise department so the only thing I am doing is eating until I'm full and stopping.

No post is complete without a picture of my beautiful daughter. Here she is eating a popsicle.

Life is Hard

It seems as if once I get a handle on this thing we call life, life throws another wrench and dagblameit I have to get a new handle. Lots of things outside of my control are going on RIGHT NOW and I hate not being in control.

Not being in control, makes me hyperventilate, my stomach churn, my neck hurt, my heart race, my stress levels increase, my patience decrease (which is very very bad considering I don't have much to being with), BUT there's nothing I can do but trust God.

Trusting God should be easy. The birds do it, I should to. However, it is hard. He has never left me nor forsaken me and I've never went hungry. He's answered prayer after prayer and yet it is still hard for me to trust COMPLETELY in HIM. Why? I have no idea. I think it is hard for me to trust in general. It is hard for me to rely on someone other than myself. I have this unhealthy thought that I can do it all myself and that is like the biggest lie ever.

This is a time to put all of my TRUST in HIM, rely SOLELY on HIM, and quit thinking I can do it by myself because I am NOTHING without GOD.

Whew, I needed to write that. Thanks for reading.

Here are some pictures of my sweet EA playing with my makeup while I get ready. She loves playing with the brushes! I think I may have a girly girl on my hands. :-)

Mastitis

Most people get Mastitis within the first 2-3 weeks of breastfeeding but I'm one of the "lucky" ones who somehow got it after 10 months of breastfeeding. Go me. Last Monday (I think), I woke up with a blocked duct and I didn't think much of it because I do get them occasionally but the babe always gets them out. I can even remember not really thinking that much about it because it didn't hurt that much, yes it was uncomfortable but not too noticeable. That afternoon I knew the blockage was still there so I repeatedly nursed on that side while praying I wouldn't get a blockage in the other breast. Oh the joys.

The blockage refused to go away so I took a bath while EA napped and expressed as much as I could in the beyond hot water. I was desperate and growing more desperate as the minutes ticked. I tried pumping, nursing, expressing, massaging, heat, and nothing worked. I began to not feel good but I wasn't dying, you know?, and so I kept pumping, nursing, expressing, massaging to no avail. The hubs had to go to the funeral home because his cousin's grandfather died so he took EA and I took another bath because I was FREEZING! I expressed and massaged. My breast was so sore from expressing and massaging and nursing that I couldn't tell if the blockage was still there or not so when he returned I asked him to see if the blockage was out because I could no longer tell. He happily obliged and to my dismay IT was still there! It was at this point, I felt as if I was dying so I posted on facebook for help, advice, anything at this point. My doctor's lovely nurse (who is the best nurse ever!) suggested massaging while nursing and whatdaya know....it WORKED! No more blockage but I did end up having to sweat my 103 degree fever out during the course of the night.

When my breastfeeding journey began (seconds after she was born), I never thought I would dread seeing the end of it as the one year mark quickly approaches, but I do. It breaks my heart but I'm not going to be that mother breastfeeding her five year old y'all! haha!

I rarely take photos of her breastfeeding unless I'm totally covered up and I doubt you want to see them anyways! haha! But here are a few of my girl and me!

1st Birthday Decisions

A couple of months ago, I wrote about First Birthday Blues and I've finally decided on a theme TWO months later and ONE month before she is ONE year old! Gosh, Where does the time go??? So the theme is........

A LUAU!!!!

 

We are having her party on Memorial Day and I thought it would be a great day and way to get our families together because the Hub's family ALWAYS gets together for holidays and Memorial Day is no different. We took EA swimming a few weeks ago and she loved it!

So I thought a great way to celebrate her FIRST birthday would be a swimming party and then the Luau theme emerged and I've been excited ever since! I've scoured the internet trying to find a cake I like and I finally found one!

http://blog.hwtm.com/2012/03/hawaiian-luau-inspired-birthday-party/

I like how they used hula skirts to decorate the food table and I plan on doing the same thing.

http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/08/vibrant-colorful-aloha-summer-birthday/

And these are the cutest party favors:

http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/08/vibrant-colorful-aloha-summer-birthday/

 

I can't wait to get started and make my thoughts come to life! It is such a bittersweet time. I still can't believe my baby is almost one. It seems like I just had her yesterday and yet other times it seems like she has been a part of our lives for ever! We love her SO much!

Cornhole

If you haven't heard of cornhole and you live in South Georgia you must be living under a rock or something because it is the tailgating game that has become a sport. These people are serious about this stuff and a huge tournament came to our sweet city and the hubs participated in it. We had a blast inspite of him losing and it was fun to see how he measured up to competitors from all over the United States. Considering that he rarely practices he did pretty good. Here are some pics! Enjoy!

 It started raining, so we moved inside.

 There were just a few folks there. haha!

The sun started shining so we moved outside again!

 EA and I played while Daddy played. =)

 That hair drives me insane but she refuses to keep a bow in her hair so what do you do?

 Chillaxin' between games.

 Hubs is wearing the white shirt.

FUN FUN FUN!