14 months

My little Sweet P is 14 months and it's crazy to think I officially have a toddler. We have so much fun together. Here is some greatness about my favorite little lady:

Stats: 

Height: 30"

Weight: 20 lbs

Diapers: Size 3

Clothes: 12-18 months

Shoes: size 4

Favorites: Being tickled, when daddy gets home, playing with mommy's iPhone, swinging at the park, being outside, going to Sonshine Class at church, rolling around on the floor, playing with other kids, chasing Bonnie and Piglet and bath time is still an ultimate fav. Here are some pics of her favs:

NOT favorites: when mommy's phone is taken away, being at mommy's feet (she wants to be in the action. Her Learning Tower is being delivered today!), taking vitamins and sitting still.

Foods: sweet potato pancakes, french toast sticks, cinnamon apples, spinach, strawberries, quesadillas (usually filled with quinoa, lentils, spinach or chicken), hummus, chicken, grilled cheese, bananas (these can cause constipation so she can't have very much), animal crackers, yogurt, cheese, black beans and green beans. We are working on the Whole Milk thing and so far she likes Unsweetened Almond Milk and she loved the Horizon 1% Milk Drink Box, but she isn't a super fan of Whole Milk. We're still nursing. Not something I EVER thought I would say "Yes I'm still nursing my 14 month old." But she isn't ready to give it up completely. So we're still in the process of weaning. Aaron and I are going to the Shell Houston Open all day next Saturday and P is staying with some really good friends of ours. So she will only be able to nurse twice. I really think she'll be completely fine because I won't be there and she does really well being around other people. But the true test will be how the next day goes! We'll see if she can only handle nursing twice a day.

Sleeping: She still takes 2 naps a day that usually last 1.5-2 hrs. She sleeps 11-12 hours straight at night.

Schedule: Wakes around 7:45 am, nap at 9:15, nurse/snack when she wakes up, lunch around 12:30-1:00, nurse then nap at 2:15, snack when she wakes up, play time and we try to go outside, dinner around 5:45-6 pm then play play play until daddy gets home - mommy usually turns on the tv at 7 (Henry Hugglemonster is on or we watch Frozen!) to help keep P occupied while I pick up the house and finish dinner, then she gets about 15 - 20 minutes of time with Aaron and then it's bedtime between 7:30-8.

Development: She can say mama, dada, thank you, Diggy - which is Piggy short for Piglet (and on occasion I have heard Jo Jo and PawPaw), When you ask her what does the (fill in the blank of one of the following animals) she will answer you: "cow: moooooo", "puppy: (high pitched) arf arf", "kitty: meooow", "duck: dack, dack", "lion: raaaaaw". She has also learned to take small bites of food which is nice because I don't have to cut up some things anymore. I can give her a small, whole pancake and she can eat the whole thing by holding it by herself and taking small bites. She has started walking with her hands down by her side instead of holding them out to keep her balance. She can blow kisses. She can give hugs and kisses on command. She has learned how to push buttons and she can turn the lights off (we're still working on turning them on.) She can close doors. She is learning to give us things when we ask for them.

Adventures: 

St. Paddy's Day.

 McDonad's Houston Children's Festival with Katie, Jackson and Tricia.

 The Grove Donutz. First donut! It had Nutella, Banana and Caramel.

First Hibachi Steakhouse experience at Shogun.

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease gave you sores in your throat and 104.5 fever. Not a fun time.

First fun mommy/daughter outing. We had Panera Bread, a little shopping and play time!

 The park!

Happy 14 months sweet girl. We have loved every second of being your mama and dada in these last 14 months! xoxo Lauren

Finding the "God" in everything

I have always heard "try to find the good in everything." This morning during my quiet time I thought a little differently about that idea. In "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young she wrote "Attentiveness is directing your gaze to Me, searching for Me in all your moments." I LOVE that last part: "searching for Me in all your moments." It hit me, I should be searching for God in everything, not necessarily the "good." There are some situations that just aren't good - like going through the divorce of my parents. My parents divorcing during the end of my senior year was a very hard time for me and my family. There really wasn't any good going on at the time, but God was there. He never left. He held my hand the whole time. He taught me a lot about myself, who I wanted to be and helped me define my own personal faith. Sure, hindsight's 20/20 and you could say all that I learned was "good." But, while you're going through a testimony highlight like that, you can't see that as "good". 

On a more day to day scale, there are days when my patience wears very thin. Either the dog pees all over the bathroom, Peyton throws avocado all over the wall, herself and my hair or she throws an absolute tantrum at my feet. In those moments my prayer is I will take a deep breath and know that God is holding me. He is with me. He is giving me the patience I need, I just need to accept it. He is giving me the gentleness I need, I just need to accept it. He is giving me the kindness, self control and goodness I need, I just need to accept it. 

Finding Him in all my moments gives me the opportunity to stop, reflect and be thankful He is with me.

I will leave you with a few pics from mommy/daughter fun with my favorite. We went to Panera Bread, a little shopping and had some play time at La Centerra in Katy.

Standing in the high chair. Oh also please note we are sitting at the table you come to IMMEDIATELY when you walk in the door. Not my first choice on our first lunch outing by ourselves. But Panera Bread at lunchtime is cray cray. So you take the first available table and "get used" to all eyes on you as your daughter squeezes the yogurt tube and it goes in your hair. :)

The milk drink box was also a learning experience. P eventually realized that it was a cross between her straw sippy and a food pouch. So naturally, she squeezed it. Milk went everywhere. The best part was for some reason I thought she had all of a sudden become much older and wiser in 30 minutes so I gave it back to her in Crazy 8. Same outcome.

But then there was the sweetness of play time. There really isn't anything cuter than a babe in a bubble romper and a sun hat. She just melts my heart. 

To the right of this picture there is a little girl holding Peyton's ball. They had so much fun! I love going to the play area and meeting new little munchkins for P to play with. She really plays well with others!

Not much planned for this weekend. If tomorrow has nice weather, we might end up right back at this spot to play with daddy! Then at 3 pm… momma has a nice little massage scheduled while P and daddy take their naps! ;)

Have a great weekend. Find God in all your moments. Thanks for reading. xoxo Lauren

My sick little lady

So the last 24 hours (and counting) have been rough. 

I guess it started Tuesday morning. Peyton was sneezing like crazy. Then by the end of Sonshine Class (she goes to the church nursery while I attend Ladies Bible Class) she had a runny nose. I thought it was just allergies so I gave her some Children's Zyrtec and called it a night.

Wednesday morning I got to go to a doctors appointment baby-free and Aaron worked from home while Peyton napped. He took her temp when she woke up from her nap because she felt warm and it was 100.4. By the time I got home it was 100.7. So it was on the climb. At 2 pm it was 101.4 so I decided to call the pediatrician. After speaking with the nurse and told her my concern of yet another ear infection, she scheduled an appointment but it wasn't until 6:45 pm!!! When we left the house at 6, her temp was 101.7. 

We got to the pedi's office a little early (that clearly never matters!) and were called back quickly only to wait for awhile in the room. While we were in the room the nurse took P's temp under her arm and said it was 99.0. I knew that was not accurate but thought ok maybe they know it's 99 give or a take a degree? While we were waiting Peyton was walking and claiming around the room but then about 15 minutes before the dr came in she crawled on my lap, laid her head down and was completely still. Which is NOT my daughter. She is a mover and a shaker unless she is super tired or feels really lousy. Dr came in checked her ears, no infection (Hallelujah), did a flu test- negative and checked her throat... Nothing. So she said it's probably a virus... We'll just have to wait it out. Ohhhh I LOATHE viruses! 

So she leaves the room to get our paperwork and when she came back I asked of we could take Monk's temp one more time so I could have a baseline of what their thermometer said. Nurse took it under the armpit - 100.3. I said there is absolutely no way. She feels like a lit match. My arms were so red where she had been laying. So I asked the nurse to take it rectally (oh Monk hated me for that!) and it was flippin' 104.5!!!! 104.5!!! Are you kidding me?!? Your stupid armpit way is NOT cutting it if the 2 readings are THAT far off! So because it was actually so high that was a game changer. Pedi did blood work and set her up for a urine sample. Neither test showed anything  alarming so we were back to "It's just a virus..." Dumb.

She slept well last night. Not a peep. This morning Aaron went to wake her up. (We let her sleep until 9. Usually she's up at 7:30.) When he picked her up he said "Lauren she feels like a furnace." Sure enough she had a fever of 103.7.

We did a lot of snuggling today.

Her fever bounced between 99's and 103's all afternoon so we made a tough call this afternoon to cancel our trip to Abilene. I was heartbroken, but knew it was the right thing to do. It would have been so exhausting for the little monkey while her body is trying to get over this stupid, stupid virus. We were going to Abilene for our cousin's baby shower. I am disappointed that A. I can't be there to celebrate Jama. B. Seeing people I haven't seen in a few months. Mostly C. I am bummed that I don't get to see Sarah, B and Gmama Traci! They were so looking forward to loving on P and I was looking forward to loving on them. Stupid, stupid virus!!!

So for now we are specifically praying that her peak fever tomorrow doesn't spike higher than 101. Otherwise, we have a pedi appointment scheduled for 3 pm. This afternoon we were specifically praying for wet diapers and that prayer was answered! She had 3 this evening!!! Her fever was climbing back up before we put her to bed (100.8) but I am hopeful the Ibuprofen did it's job to keep the fever at bay so her body could rest and fight the virus!

On another positive note (the other was the wet diapers): Aaron had requested vacation tomorrow and told me he was going to "cancel" that since we weren't going out of town. I was bummed but didn't tell him because I understood. When he got home he nonchalantly mentioned that he decided to work from home until noon and take the afternoon off!!! I had tears in my eyes. That meant the world to me!!!!! It's so hard to have a sick little lady and have to handle it all by yourself. Aside from the fact that my arms are literally sore from carrying 20 lbs all day, you feel so terrible that your baby girl is sick and there is nothing you can do. So it will be nice to have him to "carry" that with me. Goodness I love that man.

Something else I am kinda excited about, going to Chick-Fil-A for dinner tomorrow night! Well through the drive-thru anyway. Some friends of ours from church are having a "spirit night" at CFA to raise funds for their adoption!!! Since we can't go out of town, I will brighten my day with a little CFA... And support our friends while we're at it!

I know that wasn't a very exciting post but my goodness it makes me feel better to just write it all down! 

Thank you for all the encouragement, prayers for P... And for reading! Xoxo Lauren

A beautiful week

I have decided that beautiful days are so much more fun now that I can share them with Peyton! We like to play in the backyard, walk to the mailbox and live at the park. P loves to swing! I love to go to the park because A. I love breathing in the fresh air and B. it is an awesome filler for the time between the end of P's afternoon nap… and when daddy gets home. Whew those couple of hours can be so rough!

Playing in the backyard...

Swinging at the park...

These super sweet and random boys were playing at the park too. We met them and they instantly wanted to be Peyton's best friends. They were so cute. They insisted on holding her hands and wanted to help her go down the "big kid" slide. She was eating it up!

She has discovered the Dogloo and it's her new, cool hideout. It was so filthy and I decided it would be a "good idea" to wash it out. Cleaning it out with a toddler around was a true test of my patience and gave me quite the "opportunity" to practice saying "yes" more. All she wanted to do was sit and roll in the water and "eat" the bubbles! After I let go of my control and thoughts of "oh dear Lord you're getting your cute pink bicycle leggings soooo dirty" she had such a blast. I washed the pants immediately during her afternoon nap. But hey… I think she really enjoyed my "yes!" (Ok there wasn't really an exclamation point after it was kinda said with a sigh.) This is her "no mommas allowed" look.

I have a very brave little girl on my hands. If I would let her, she would 100% pet the ducks. She seems them as the same as her dogs, Bonnie and Piglet. What's even more scary is these ducks would let her pet them, if they weren't scared of me. They are very used to people feeding them so they will walk right up to you. Not just 1 or 2. All bajillion of them. They just come out of the woodworks! Another great thing about this video… I truly think my daughter looks like ET when she walks.  It is super adorable to me! (Could just be because I'm her mom. I'll own it.) Please note she's wearing her Vans. Gosh she's cute!

This morning P had a follow up appointment with her pediatrician for an ear infection she has been fighting off since Valentine's Day. Praise the Lord… her pedi said both ears look BEAUTIFUL! I am so thankful. She unfortunately still has a little fluid in her left ear which means she will be susceptible to an ear infection if she gets sick. But luckily we're almost out of the "sick season" so the likelihood of her catching a cold is slim(mer). Woohoo! Ear infections are always a concern for me because both Aaron and I had LOTS and LOTS of ear infections as little tots. So if we can avoid tubes for P that would be great! Today we are celebrating NO MORE INFECTION! WOOHOO! :)

No big plans for the weekend. Just hanging out with my favorite peeps…

Hope you have a great weekend! :) Thanks for reading! xoxo Lauren

Starting Fresh

It has been so long since I blogged… like years people. But I have been reading a lot of blogs lately and it inspired me to attempt to start this crazy thing back up. There have been a lot of changes in last couple of years… the biggest change is we have a daughter! Her name is Peyton and she is definitely the best part of me and Aaron. She was born 1-30-13 and is 13 months old. I wish I had blogged during the first year of her life… but it didn't happen so I will just try to start now! :) She is quite the firecracker. I feel inadequate daily to be her mom, but I am just trusting that God gives me the patience, wisdom and courage to nurture, encourage and challenge her determined, curious, fun, smart and beautiful spirit. She is completely courageous and fearless. I pray that never fades. Her middle name is Jo after Aaron's mother, Marsha Jo. It was important for us that Peyton always have a part of her Meme (that's what I think she would have wanted to be called) with her. Marsha would have been the best grandmother to Peyton. She wanted grandkids so badly! Sometimes I hear her voice talking to Peyton. Here are a few pics of my little lady!

I am also now a stay-at-home mom. That is something I truly didn't have planned for my life; but apparently God had other plans. Silly God. I can say it is hands down the best, hardest job I have ever had. There are days that fly by and are so fun. Then, there are days that drag.on.forever. Seriously, daddy cannot get home fast enough. There are some days that my mood can literally change the moment he walks in the door and I can take a deep breath and think "alright. it's time to tag-team this biz." No really, we have sung that song many times while doing a diaper/outfit change. You know, "Tag team back again…" We're dorks. Poor Peyton and future child(ren). My days are now filled with boogie wipes (LOTS of boogie wipes), butternut squash in my hair, chasing a toddler around cleaning up the milk she drools out and begging her to NOT chew on her bed like a beaver. It is also filled with lots of hugs, laughs, the best smile I have ever seen, moments where God shows me glimpses of Heaven and moments where my heart could burst it is so overwhelmed with love for a tiny tot that God has trusted me to care for. 

Lets see… other changes… Aaron now works for IBM. His company was acquired by IBM a couple of years ago. It has been a blessing to our family. It was quite a transition for Aaron, but I really think he has enjoyed the change. He isn't usually a big fan of change; but this change happened over a period of time. I think that helped him adjust. I really think this change has allowed him to thrive. His old boss often had his thumb on his employees and Aaron's new bosses allow Aaron to have more of a lead roll - which is a roll he totally rocks at. He really is a stud. I don't know if there is a more proud wifey out there. I have to take deep breaths when I think about how much I love that guy. 

Well, I think that's enough to overload you for now. I am really hoping that I can stick with this for awhile. After typing all this I remembered how much I enjoy writing and liberating it can be! 

Thanks for reading. xoxo. Lauren