Liberty Park, Dr. Emery and Cantaloupe

Here is my attempt at keeping my blog going ..

Just Paisley being cute while eating. She loves all foods and at times, eats more and quicker than Emery. For a while, I dreaded feeding Emery and I have to say, I'm glad I don't think it will be this way with Paisley.

Paisley fell asleep in her big girl carseat.
My wonderful friend Meghan introduced me to Liberty Park last week. We've already gone twice since then. It has a ton to do and there is a ton of shade. I think we will be spending a lot of time there this summer.
Paisley's first time on a swing and she loved it!
Liberty park has this little "fair" as Emery calls it. Basically, it's a few rides, less than 5, that are old and ghetto. But, they are cheap and Emery likes them, so it works for us. She still gets shy each time we watch her on them though.
Here, I decided to give Paisley her cantaloupe on a plate. I'm not sure what I was thinking since she just dumped it all off right away. This morning, I gave her sausage in a bowl. As soon as she picked it up, she dumped all of the sausage on the floor. Needless to say, Carter got a good breakfast and I will stay away from plates and bowls while feeding Paisley for a while.
Paging Dr. Emery ...
Ivan was eating cantaloupe the other night and Paisley was freaking out wanting some. She finally got what she wanted and she loved it!

Paisley's 8 Month Update

Paisley is already 8 months old. She is the sweetest little girl and I just love seeing how her and Emery interact. Emery has dance every week and Paisley is always with us. All of the other moms comment every single week saying, "she never makes a peep, is she always that good". The simple answer, yes. She is such a good baby, very happy and goes with the flow. Ivan and I have been so blessed with good babies, I couldn't be happier.

Paisley's Accomplishments include:

• scooting backwards
• shaking her head no
• saying "dada"
• burrying her head into my chest - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!
• pulling down her mobile
• pulling hair - she tends to beat up on Emery just a little
• putting food in her mouth - she still loves her Cheerios
• rolling in a 360 degree circle in her crib
• rolling over, finally!
• so close to crawling the day she turned 8 months (she is now 8 months 1 week and still not crawling. I am 100% OK with it, I like being able to leave her alone for 5 minutes on a safe spot on the floor and knowing she will be there when I get back)

What we've been up to ...

Emery is all about playing with my make up these days. I have make up that I never use (eyeshadow, lipstick - who has time for that?) that I will let Emery play with. The other day, she came out of my bathroom with her make up on - I think she resembles a raccoon just a little

Here she is getting ready to play outside. She picked the outfit .. boots and all
We went up to our friends' house Sam and Meghan a couple of weeks ago. This is their adorable little girl Gracie ... soooo cute!
For Mother's Day we took my Mom bowling. Everyone had a blast, especially Emery.
Paisley is always entertained with keys, a phone or FOOD
After bowling, we played video games and Emery earned a bunch of tickets. She's been all about pirates lately, so she picked a pirate set that included a hook and patch. Emery wouldn't go near the patch, but Paisley seemed to enjoy itPaisely's first try at Cheerios. She loves them! She hasn't quite mastered how to get them into her mouth on her own, but Emery is always around to help her
We had a BBQ with the Dymock's last weekend. Here is Paisley with August. He is exactly 1 month older than Paisley. Aren't they sooo cute?

It doesn't get any better than seeing a sleeping baby ... Paisley isn't a huge fan of the binky, instead, she sucks on her index and middle finger on her left hand every night ..

I was playing with Emery today .. tickling her and such. She had these goggles on from her tool set and quickly said to me, "Mama, it's not time to mess around, you have to be serious". Really, who can be serious when you are looking at Emery with those silly goggles on ...

Paisley's 5, 6 and 7 Month Updates

I know I always say I'm amazed at how quickly time is passing me by, but really, I just can't get a handle on it. I feel like Paisley is growing up so quickly and I'm really not ready for it. I will do my best to remember 3 months worth of accomplishments all at once.

5 Month Update

Accomplishments: Sitting up unassisted, pulling binky out of mouth and loving baby food

6 Month Update

Height: 26 3/4 inches - 75th percentile

Weight: 17.6 lbs - 80th percentile

Sleeping: To bed between 8-10p - sleeping a solid 10-12 hours every single night. I really can't remember the last time I have had to go into Paisley's room after putting her down for the night. Ivan and I are so blessed with kids who like to sleep. She usually takes 2 naps throughout the day, but to be honest, they are all over the place. With me working a different shift every day of the week, it's nearly impossible for her to be on a normal schedule.

Temperament: Still very easy going. She loves to watch Emery and she LOVES to eat! Her sign of approval for the food you give her is that she will start to grunt over and over and over.

Accomplishments: Rolled over from belly to back on March 16th. Rolled from back to belly on March 17th. Hasn't rolled either way since :) I asked Dr. Ring about Paisley not rolling over and she said it's a motivation issue and not ability issue since she has rolled both ways before. Paisley would much rather prefer sitting up being involved in things than laying down on her belly or her back.

7 Month Update (really, already?)

Weight: it would require me to remember to get Paisley's weight when she is awake, and it never happens!

Sleeping: same as above

Temperament: We are starting to see a little attitude from little miss Paisley. She knows what she wants and is patient for a while with getting it. But, if you don't eventually give her what she wants, or if Emery takes something from her, oh you hear about it. Paisley is also obsessed with cell phones and remote controls. She has a way of finding the remote every time she is on the couch. Paisley loves all food - baby food, table food, you name it, she loves it. I'm not aware of one single food that she's been given that she doesn't like. Right now, her favorites are lentils and rice and salmon.

Disappearing Manners...

Is it possible that a 3 yr old can completely forget her manners? If it is at all possible, that must be what has happened to Emery. I swear, when she was 2, she had the best manners. I remember commenting to Ivan on a regular basis how well Emery did with please and thank you's. Every single request was started with please and ended with thank you.

Fast forward 1.5 years - it is a whole different story. Emery has absolutely no manners and is VERY bossy! When she wants something, not only does she not say please, she is demanding with everything that she wants. It goes a little like this:

"Mama, get me milk!"

"Mama, you clean up the mess!"

"Papa, carry me to the bathroom"

"Papa, feed me now"

Do you get what I mean? I don't know what happened to this little girls' manners, but I need to get them back, like, yesterday. She is driving me crazy and I'm not used to being bossed around this much. When I tell people at work about this, they respond with, "I wonder where she learned to be bossy?" But, in my defense, if I boss you around, I at least have manners and say please and thank you.

Oh, to make matter worse, the other day in the car, she says to me, "Mama, you are being bossy". Talk about ATTITUDE!

If any of my blogger friends have tips on how to restore manners, please leave comments ...

What does Adopted Mean?

Last week while Ivan was giving Emery a bath, she asked him the question, "what does adopted mean?" Now, I have no idea where Emery heard the word adopted, but it just shows how much she is growing up. Anyway, Ivan tried to explain what the word adopted meant to Emery. He gave the example of adopting pets and then started to talk about giving our dog, Carter, up for adoption.

Emery then came out of the bathroom and said to me, "Mama, we can't give Carter up for adoption" and put her arm around Carter and started to give him loves. I asked about giving Carter to Auntie Silv and Uncle D and Emery hung onto Carter even tighter and then started to cry.

So, moral of the story - I guess we are keeping Carter for as long as he lives as I'm not willing to break my 3 year olds heart over giving the dog up for adoption :)

Easter Festivities

We had Easter at our house this year and we had a great time. All of the family came over - we dyed eggs, BBQ'd and had several Easter egg hunts. As usual, Emery had a great time and got spoiled. (of course the pictures loaded the wrong order! I'm lucky to be posting on the blog, so I'm not going to spend the energy fixing the order of the pictures. We'll see if my OCD kicks in later to fix it)

Here are all of the eggs that we dyed. Now, keep in mind, this is from egg dying #2. We still have the eggs almost a week later. We are still hiding and finding the eggs daily. Emery even takes eggs to Grandma Lola's several times a week and I let her. If we have to suffer with the damn eggs, so does Grandma Lola.

Emery got a little bike for her birthday last year but she was too small to really enjoy it. We brought the bike out over the weekend and Emery loves it! She even knows how to pedal and bike around the back yard.
Getting ready to go out back to find the eggs - she was so excited!
She found all of the eggs!Then Ivan thought it was a good idea to hit the eggs like they were baseballs. Luckily, he just used the eggs filled with confetti.
Here is Emery's Easter basket from Grandma Phyllis. She got spoiled and Emery loved it. Thanks Grandma Phyllis for always thinking of the girls and spoiling them at holidays!
My Aunt Wanda was in town and we got to spend the day with her as well..
Emery and Grandma Lola dying eggs
Paisley, Grandma Lola and Auntie Silv
Cute little Paisley ..
This is the first year in several years that we did not go to California for Easter. I missed seeing all of my family and celebrating Easter with my extended family, but we still had a great time.

Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures

These pictures sum up all of the pictures taken in the last few months.

We dyed Easter eggs on Monday night. I didn't really intent on dying eggs twice, but I bought the kit on Sunday when Emery was with me and she just couldn't contain herself. First, we have a shot of her hands nearing the end of the process. Emery really didn't like her hands being dirty and whenever she would stop focusing on dying the eggs, she would try to clean them as best as she could.

The dying kit also came with stickers. Of course, anything you leave in front of Paisley ends up in her hands. She was amazed at the stickers sticking to her little fingers ..

Grandma Phyllis and Paisley having fun with stickers
Papa showing Emery how it's done
Isn't Paisley so stinkin' cute??
Emery went through a stage for a few nights where she wanted to sleep on her floor. I wasn't about to argue with the 3 yr old, so I let her do it. She moved all of her animals (notice the increase in animals she sleeps with nightly?) from her bed to her floor and slept on the floor for 3 night until Ivan put a stop to it. I caught her bright and early one morning and snapped a picture.

Emery loves to cook and bake. We made cookies together one night for my work ..

Paisley has enough hair for pig-tails already. Emery didn't get her first set of pig-tails until she was 9 months old. Paisley has a ton of hair!
My girls hanging out in my bed watching Max & Ruby before bed
I took Emery to Disney on Ice a while back. It was a Mommy/Daughter date and we had a great time. I could have done without the Disney on Ice, but Emery had a blast. Her favorite parts were Cinderella and when Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story came out on the ice.
Ivan and his girls ..

Ridin' Dirty!

I've added a new song to my playlist to honor Emery's new favorite song. What is her new favorite song, you might ask? Ridin' Dirty by Chamillionaire. I'm not sure that there could be a more inappropriate song that she could have picked, but this is it. She first heard it with Ivan and her first response was, "Papa, I can't understand the words". Apparently, by listening to the song more, and louder each time, she now understands the words. In fact, she has the entire song memorized - word for word. Nice!

Teething Solutions

One night last week, Paisley was in pain due to teething. Ivan was on baby duty and trying to find ways to soothe her. He is one of the most creative people I know and will always find ways to make the girls laugh or feel better when they are sick or in pain.

So, Ivan went to the freezer and got an Otter Pop. He cut around the edges just enough to cut away the sharp edges and let Paisley chew on it to numb her gums. Instantly, she was happy, gnawing away at the Otter Pop even though it wasn't opened. Then, a minute later, we heard slurping sounds. The little stinker had gotten the Otter Pop opened and was sucking the juice out - no wonder she was so happy! I took the Otter Pop away (if I wasn't home, the 7 month old would have likely had her first Otter Pop) and Paisley freaked out. She was so mad - grunting and crying. I brought her another Otter Pop, unopened, and gave it to her. She knew the difference and wanted nothing to do with it. So, we were back to square one with a fussy baby and pulled out the baby Tylenol.