More Steps!

We have been sitting about six feet apart in the floor in the evenings and Bayley will walk to each of us. It's so exciting! She gets really excited and wants to RUN to us, but we make her wait to get her balance first. She then makes my favorite face -- the scrunchy face smile. :)

I don't have a lot of news. It's hot. We come home from work and stay inside where our house is like a dungeon: dark and cold. Joe works outside in the scorching heat all day so he just falls on the couch and doesn't move much. I worry about him not drinking enough fluids and dying from heat exhaustion or heat stroke. There has already been an outside worker die locally from it.

Bayley has had several meltdowns lately. She's just tired or grumpy. I just hold her and let her cry it out. If she doesn't want to be held, I put her down and sit there.

Bedtime routine has gotten back on track and for that I am thankful. She eats when we get home, takes a nap, gets up and plays for a bit, then we sit in the floor and let her walk back and forth to us, then she gets in the bath. I get her ready for bed and let her drink some milk while I sing to her and snuggle her. Then she gets very calm and I put her down awake (usually). I blow kisses and tell her I love her, then leave her room. She doesn't make a peep until the morning.

Many of my blogger buddies are preggers with their 2nd child and I am SO NERVOUS for them because they already have a toddler and now they're bringing on a newborn. I hope to be pregnant again within a year, so I am anxious to see how everyone handles their own situation.

Anyway, I gotta go unpack all of my boxes of office supplies I just got at work!! WOO HOO!!

Purcha$ing.

Bayley took her first three steps on Saturday!!!!!
So right now I'm enjoying the calm before the storm. That girl will be SPRINTING instead of walking, so we're going to put on the cabinet locks this week.

At work we're spending money like crazy since its the end of the fiscal year and since I do all the purchasing I am having a BLAST spending tons of money that isn't mine. :) Too bad I can't cut a check to daycare for a year and my house payments for a year. That would rock. And the contract we use for office supplies has the camera I'd like to have. Someone should SO buy me that!! It's only $685. :) The good news is that I get a new leather chair. Hey, I don't have intials after my name, so I take pleasure in the small things (since that's all I get. lol).

Bayley is teething again so she's very clingy and wants to be held all the time. My right arm is getting buff; in addition, my left arm is becoming more proficient in my normally right-handed things. I can even write left handed now; I can sign her in and out of daycare legibly.

I need to get back to spending money. If anyone wants, I can spend yours too. Just drop me an email. :)

Weekend Photos.

Z's 7th birthday was this weekend and he had a small party at our house. One of the gifts he got from someone was a Slip N Slide. So Joe set that up Sunday and Z and Bayley and Harper (a neighbor) played for hours on that thing. Is it me, or have they gotten a lot smaller and cheaper? I mean, I know it's just a long strip of plastic, but it seems awfully cheap to me. Anyway, my mom got Bayley a bubble machine and the kiddos had a heyday between the slip n slide and the bubble machine.
Z, with Harper photobombing:


Some of the slip n slide photos (we put it right up next to our neighbor's unmowed lawn so the grass could cushion the slip n slide more. :)


My daughter LOVES water!

My very fave photo of her this weekend:

After the slip n slide, got her changed and let her hair down to dry:


All in all, it was a good weekend. Hot, but fun.

Bits o' Bay.

Yesterday one of the kids in the neighborhood rang our doorbell. Without missing a beat, Bayley said, "Helllooo." So cute!

She likes to point at people. And she loves being the center of attention and laughs and scrunches her face up when she's being cute. I love that.

Sometimes to get her to refocus her attention back to eating, I'll say, "Bite?" and she'll open her mouth. Now she likes to put her food in your face and say, "Bite."

The sassy girl loves Fletcher, our collie. Bless his heart, he'll lay there and let her slap or pull his hair. I always stop her, of course, but he doesn't even flinch. He is protective of her, too. If you make loud noises or horseplay around her, he will stand between you and her so you don't knock her over.

She LOVES her walker. She isn't walking on her own yet, but she can take off on that walker! She was trying to stand up on her own last night. It's going to be VERY soon when she starts walking and getting into everything else.

I've not been taking many photos lately, so here are a few that I've taken to make up for lack of photos being posted:

Car Repairs.

My car is in the shop for two repairs: to fix my air conditioning and to replace front and rear shocks. I drive a 1999 Chevy Blazer and it's an awesome car. It's paid for and is big enough for Joe, Bayley, Z, me, and a lot of room for groceries, etc in the back. It's a small SUV (they don't even make them anymore) and gets decent gas mileage. I just need it to hold on for a few more years so Joe can be out of school and Bayley out of daycare.

I have been without a/c since the end of last summer and it wasn't a big deal until recently with HOT, HUMID Arkansas weather. Bayley needs the a/c so we're getting it fixed. It's costing us almost a house payment to fix all of that. But hey, money grows on trees, right? :)

I'm just thankful that my BIL is willing and able to loan us the money to have it repaired. We'll be paying him back monthly until paid off. My husband has amazing family. Just wanted to say that.

Bad Bedside Manner.

Bayley has a virus or allergies. She is very snotty (the thick, green kind... you're welcome for the description, btw.) and her eyes have a green goopiness to them. In the mornings, she wakes up with her eyes matted shut. It's pretty pitiful, but at least it doesn't freak her out.

So anyway.

I took her to the after hours clinic on Saturday evening because she was running a low grade fever and digging in her ears. I knew it was probably a cold or allergies but she's been digging in her ears for a couple of weeks now and I just wanted her ears checked. The doctor was in and out in less than 5 minutes, took Bayley from me to lay her down (which made her VERY upset), and had the bedside manner of a robot.

It is a 25 minute drive to this clinic from my house. I spent almost an hour in driving time, 5 minutes at the doctor, only to be handed a prescription for eye drops and then sent out the door. I'm glad her ears are okay, but dang. Bedside manner, please?

I guess I have a higher standard for patient care because I work in healthcare. I see both sides of it and can understand if someone is swamped or had a complicated case. But I also expect the physician to "dumb it down" for parents and calm/soothe parents' concerns. This clinic was EMPTY except for us. And I didn't take her to the ER where I know she would've been much better taken care of, but hello... it wasn't an emergency and that co-pay is $150 vs the $25 office visit copay. ERs are already overcrowded because people don't go to their PCP...but that's a whole OTHER post. :)

Anyway, that's my gripe about bad bedside manner for today. :) HAPPY MONDAY!!!

Upside Down.

Sometime in the middle of the night Bayley was crying in her sleep so I stumbled to her room definitely less than half awake and picked her up. When I brought her to my chest, I realized I had grabbed her by her legs and she was upside down.

I'm such a good mom.