This is the Post where I Amaze Myself.

Seriously, when was the last time I posted so frequently? I guess I can be amazing! Just kidding. But in all seriousness, recently I made it a goal to blog more often because this is the closest thing I get to actually writing in a journal. So here I am! Blogging again! Sometimes I'm afraid that what I have to share will actually be really boring for most people though. So, if you are reading this, and it's boring for you, feel free to tune out. I promise I won't hate you. Not forever anyway. haha

So, not too long ago I had one of THOSE experiences. You know, the experiences that Moms have that they will tell their children over and over about. Especially when the Mom needs some sort of leverage to get their kid to do something or to guilt trip their kid about something they've done wrong. Well, from now on whenever baby K gives me a hard time I can tell her, "Well, I cleaned up your poopy after you smeared it everywhere during nap time so that means you have to...! (feel free to fill in the blank here with whatever you wish. Things like washing dishes, weeding the garden will be appropriate)"

Yep, that's right. In the tiny amount of time between when I heard her wake up over the baby monitor to the time I went in to pick her up from her nap, she had pulled off her pants, pulled off her NASTY dirty diaper that was loaded with poopy, and proceeded to smear her poopy everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I do mean everywhere. The bars of the crib, the mattress, the wall that was within her reach, her legs, stomach, chest, arms, and (worst of all) all over her FACE. So what did I do? Well, I did the only thing a mother should do in the situation. I giggled a bit, and ran to grab the camera before cleaning up the nasty mess. After all, a Mom needs blackmail material for the future right?

I then proceeded to give her not one, but two baths. I got her all rinsed off at first and then had to let the icky drain away. Then I had to clean the bathtub quickly before giving her the second sanitizing bath with plenty of soap. In between the baths while she was standing on the bath room rug waiting (pretty patiently, actually) she decided it would be a good time to squat and pee. Awesome. Now I had to scrub the baby clean, scrub the bath room rug clean, and scrub her bedroom and crib clean. It took a lot of time to clean it to where I was satisfied, but you know what? I still love being her Mom. It's not the most glamorous job in the world, but when these frustrating moments come it's easy to remember back to the time before she came to our family. I so desperately wanted to be a mother. I longed for every single one of these experiences. Having struggled through infertility, it's easier to appreciate my little blessing. Even when she is being a little monster and creating messes (that I have to admit are sometimes completely foul and repulsive.)

By the way, the funniest part? Malone really laughed at me for having to be the one to clean up that mess. But guess what? A few days ago when I was out with the girls, Malone was giving baby K a bath after dinner. She decided to even out the score between Mommy and Daddy and pooped in the bathtub.

Nothin' Much

Well, it has been an awfully long time since I posted. Things have been so busy! School started up again for us and I have been swamped with homework. This semester I am taking two social work classes, an English class, and a psychology course. It seems my professors this semester are big fans of busy work. But the material is fascinating. Good thing I love it because I'm applying for the social work program this semester! In fact, I have been finding my coursework so interesting that for my birthday I am asking my hubby for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association. I guess that officially qualifies me as a nerd. Other than school I have been staying busy with work and of course being Baby K's mommy.

As for the hubby, he is working on getting his first first author publication. Hopefully (fingers crossed) this will happen within the next month or so! Other than that, he just keeps plugging along in his program at school. He has the very last part of a big test coming up in a few weeks, so he is hard at work studying for that.

Baby K is growing in like a weed. It seems like her vocabulary is growing almost every day! She has mastered the words: mama, dada, and baba. She will also occasionally say: no, and uh-oh. She gives kisses, although they are still much more like head-butts. She loves to snuggle and she will clap when she's happy about something. Her rescent fascination has been playing peek-a-boo and she likes to throw things on the floor to watch me pick them up. She is proficient in the army crawl, and tries to crawl on her knees if she isn't in a hurry. She has also learned to pull herself into a standing position and will sometimes move her feet forward like she's trying to walk. As of this past week, she has six teeth. We are so proud of her!

Baby K's "Honey Bear"

Three years ago when our son was born at 24 weeks we unintentionally started a little family tradition. You see, our baby boy was extremely premature so he spent his short life in the NICU hooked up to monitors and lines. The hospital wasn't exactly the most cheerful place, to say the least. So one day Malone and I decided to go to Build A Bear and create a little bear just for our little Gavin. Shortly after that he passed away. Now his little "Buddy Bear" holds a special place in our home.

After I became pregnant with Baby K we kind of held our breath for the first 24 weeks just waiting to see if I would be able to make it that far. When we hit that milestone we remembered that trip we took to Build A Bear for Gavin. We decided that we would take a trip to Build A Bear to celebrate our accomplishment and to purchase a bear for Baby K that would help her relate to her brother. We lovingly dubbed that bear "Honey Bear."

As Baby K grows, we are taking pictures of her with her Honey Bear so she can have a physical representation of her progression through childhood. These are her Honey Bear pictures so far.

Hooray for summer!

Baby K is growing bigger and stronger every day. She has outgrown a few of her newborn clothes and according to our bathroom scale she now weighs about 11 & 1/2 lbs. She now holds up her head on her own without wobbling and she smiles back when either Malone or I smile at her. In the past few days she has even started giggling! It's so fun to watch her grow and it's so rewarding to have her interact with us. It does make me sad to pack away some of these tiny clothes though. Sometimes I just wish I could slow down time with this kiddo!

In other news, we had our first hot dog roast of the season for FHE this week with a handful of my siblings and their families. It was a bit chilly (which is why Baby K is all bundled up like the kid off of "A Christmas Story" in the picture above) but we had so much fun! It really made me excited for summertime and now I'm just itching to go camping.

This summer we have a lot of really fun plans. Mostly those plans include being more active: hiking, swimming, camping, gardening, and so on. But we're ESPECIALLY excited for our summer vacation this year. It's going to be a couple of cram packed weeks, but it's going to be so fun. This vacation is going to hold a lot of firsts for me. I'm going to the Gulf of Mexico for the first time, I'll be going to Disney World for the first time, and best of all I'm actually going to get to meet my husband's Nana for the first time! Toss in a bunch of time with our family and close friends, and I really don't think you can beat it.

Baby K's Bouncy Chair

So the first time we tried out the bouncy chair, K HATED it. She only took it for about one minute. But then we put the batteries in it and tried it out with the vibration setting. Now she LOVES it! So I decided to take a video of how she kicks her legs and shakes her hands around when she's in the chair. Sorry that it's sideways, I can't figure out how to rotate it.

Wow

Holy moly, where has the time gone? My baby is going to be a month old on Saturday and it's been almost that long since my last blog post. But things are going well at our house. We are just loving every minute of having her in our family. Here are some photos of our baby over the past month.

She's Here!!!

Our precious baby girl has finally arrived! She was born April 1st. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and measured 18 in long. We are so thankful she is a part of our family and are so indescribably in love with her. More to come later!