Fun with Dad

Since yesterday was all about Mommy, today we had some Daddy time! Daryl and Jamie had fun playing in the grass for her first time. She was so intrigued by the green stuff! She kept pulling it out of the ground and wanted to see and touch everything Daryl would show her. .

Here she is being introduced to a willow branch.

And here is her first flower

And then daddy decided Jamie needed some "air time" Jamie is so used to this, notice that she still has her fingers in her mouth like it is no big deal that she is 15 feet up in the air. Sheesh! She LOVES it when Daryl tosses her. She's gonna be a little daredevil!!!

And after all the fun, they let me take a sweet picture. What can I say, they are the loves of my life!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day! We celebrated all weekend. We started on Saturday by driving down to Covington to visit my grandparents with my parents. It was so nice to see my grandmother again! Here are the ladies of the family:My mom & grandmother are two of the most special people in the world to me. They are just so much fun to be around. I hope I'm half the mother my mom was. She was always there for me and listened to me. She made me feel so incredibly loved and I hope I do as good a job with Jamie as she did with me! She is a beautiful person, inside and out and I love her bunches! We have always had such fun times together and now it's fun to bring Jamie along for the fun!

And my GORGEOUS grandmomma! Can you believe she will be 79 this October? She is the sweetest most wonderful lady that has ever graced the planet. If you look up wonderful in the dictionary, you should see a picture of her! She has taught me so much about generosity and unconditional love. She is an awesome Mother, Grandmother & Great-Grandmother to her girls! Today, we celebrated with Daryl's mother and his brother's family. We had a yummy meal at Red Lobster and then went for a nice walk. We always have a great time together! Here is my mother-in-law and Daryl's Brother. Gloria is a God-send. She helps me so much with Jamie and is just plain fun to be around! Her life story is so intriguing, growing up in England during the World War, then becoming a nurse, then moving to Italy to be a governess for the shoe designer Ferragamo's family and finally moving to America to raise her family with Bill. She has experienced so much and knows so much about children that she is a constant source of answers to my new mom questions. Here is my sis-in-law Deeshia. She is a GREAT mother to our nephews and an awesome Aunt to Jamie. She loves Jamie to death and Jamie loves her too. Every time Jamie sees her she just smiles SOOO big! Deeshia and I have a great time together. It is nice only living a few houses away from each other so we can hang out whenever we want!!! And here is my sunshine and reason for celebrating Mother's Day! I remember last mother's day when she was just a little peanut in my belly. I couldn't wait for this day to come when I could hold her in my arms and be her mommy and not just her form of transportation and 24 hour buffet. She is the sweetest little thing and I can't imagine my life without her. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me, right behind her daddy. :-) She is a lucky little lady to have all of these amazing women around her that love her and will help her grow into a beautiful lady. And I am so blessed to have my child loved by these women and to know that she is looked after with as much love and tenderness by them as she is by me.

New Stuff at the Partin House

Well, Miss J has decided that she likes to stand, and she likes to stand on her own. When going to sit her down on her play mat, she reached out and grabbed the canopy and held herself up. She does this ALL THE TIME now. Today, when she fell back on the pillow that was behind her, she pulled herself back to a standing position all by herself! This was a first so we were very proud of her!

Here is Jamie giving me some good lovin.

She is just growing up so fast!

And on the Mother's Day front, my VERY thoughtful husband gave me an awesome first Mother's Day gift. I LOVE to dance... he HATES to dance. In fact, the last time we danced together is shown below. Well, Daryl agreed to go take dancing lessons with me!!!! I am SOOO excited. I get to pick which style of dance. I can't decide between Swing or Salsa, so if any of you out there have a recommendation, let me know! To demonstrate just how much and for how long Daryl has hated to dance, I told his mom today that Daryl's Mother's Day gift for me was that he was going to take me to dance lessons... she (seriously, and kind of confused) asked "Is he going to drop you off?" I was like, "no he is going to take them with me!" and she said "He must REALLY love you!!" ha-ha.

Two Little Monkeys, Laying in the Bed

How could you not love this guy... :-)

Sad thing is, he has more room in the crib with her than he did when all three of us were in our Queen bed... I blame Jamie, I had NOTHING to do with it. I'm not a bed hog. no sir. no way. nope. .

Other Goings On of the Day

. Today my parents came over an we took a few pics of Miss J with the new camera. Enjoy!

Purple is our color

She loves her Paw Paw & Grandmommy!

(and yes, if you look at the picture in the background of Daryl & my wedding day, we are wearing life vests... we were married on a cruise ship... Some people display their portraits, we display a picture of us in life vests, yep... that pretty much sums us up.)

Little Bo Peep and her tiny sheep

(and yes, that is a Barney R. cup from the mid 80's... don't hate!)

We took 80 pictures today.... She got tired of it REAL quick!

A Day in the Life

I go to bed at 8:30 and depending on my mood, I either wake up at 3:00 to eat then sleep until 8:30, or I wake up at 5:30 and then sleep until 8:30. I like to shake it up! .

Then I take my bath. I like my bath until mom tries to wash my hair. She stinks at it. She always gets water in my face and is like "I'm sooo sorry!!!" Whatever.

Then I spend some time with one of my many admirers. Here I am with my Grandmommy.

Then I eat.

and eat some more.

And I PLAY... a LOT

And then I get ready for bed.... BED?!?!?!

From Tooth to Teeth!

Now presenting, tooth #2. Jamie didn't act like she felt 100% yesterday and then she had a freak out cry in her sleep twice last night (nothing a little rock from mom couldn't fix) right after she went to bed, like she did right before tooth #1. But today, she has been all smiles.

I Sing Because I'm Happy

Jamie has decided that she can sing...and she can sing HIGH - Watch out Mariah Carey!

I guess Jamie gets that from the Maddox side of the family. Hopefully she will sing like my mom or Aunt Bettie, and not like me!

Jamie sings so much in the below video, she makes herself fall over!

Break on Through to the Other Side

Jamie's 1'st tooth made its appearance today! She was a little fussy last night and has been clingy today, but all and all, it hasn't been as bad as I feared it would be. She doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain so that's good!

Dad did Jamie a favor and massaged her gums... If she were a dog, her back leg would have been kicking like crazy. She LOVED it!

And to thank daddy for a job well done, she posed for a picture with him.

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And then daddy had to go and do this to her....

It's a Jungle Out There!

Today we went to the Zoo with our friends Tim, Amanda, Davis & Marleigh. We had a great time taking the little ones out and about. The weather was great. We got there early, and the rain didn't hit until we were all back in our cars to leave. Here are some pictures from our day! .

Moms looking at Daryl, Daughters looking at Tim.

No Lions, One Tiger, No Bears.... go figure

Check out my new hair cut! Check out my bald baby!

Trying to ignore the elephant in the room.

Jamie taking it all in

It looks like Giraffe #2 is about to get a rude awakening from Giraffe #1.

Monkeying around.

Naps and Feet Don't Mix

This morning, Jame discovered that she can put her toes in her mouth. As such, whenever she is on her back, her feet are firmly in her hands. So I put Jamie down for her afternoon nap while she was still kind of awake, and she was holding onto her toes for dear life. Well, as she started to drift off, she kept the death grip, but as she would drift further to sleep, her leg would drop and that would startle her. It was SOOO funny! I have some video of her doing it. The video starts off with her holding her foot. She did this about 10 times before her feet finally rested peacefully on the bed and she could really sleep.

gimme gimme!

So Jamie has begun reaching for EVERYTHING! As I type this, she is attacking the keyboard. It started full force yesterday. She reaches for everything that comes in her path and if it is small enough, she picks it up and shakes the living daylights out of it. If it is too big, she just pats it.

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Tummy time has come to a screeching halt... EVERY time I put her on her belly, she rolls over. I put her back on her tummy, she rolls again. She rolled 10 times today until I gave up on tummy time. Any advice? She will never learn to crawl at this rate... I think she will just go straight to walking.

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Bed time is going pretty good. She has not returned to our room since the second night that we started putting her in the Crib (so the last night with us was the 20th). Last night was close. She went down at 9:30 and woke up at 2:00 for her middle of the night feeding. I didn't get back to bed until 4:22... ouch. I fed her on one side, she went to sleep, woke up when she hit the mattress. Fed the other side, same thing - it was 3:00 at this point. I REFUSED to bring her to our room and start the cycle all over again so I rocked, and rocked, and rocked until we were both asleep. Thankful when I put her down then, she stayed asleep. She slept until 7:30, which was fine by me. So I think she is cool with her crib now, she just had a REALLY long nap yesterday evening which sabotaged our night.

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But yesterday was a great day because we went to see my grandparents. We haven't seen them since Feb. so you KNOW they were happy to see Miss J! My grandmother cooked lunch for us, but I should really call it Thanksgiving because it was a SPREAD! It was so good. She sure can cook!!! We had leftovers at my parents today and it was still good. It was so nice to see them and for my grandmom to get some good Jamie loving. She only gets babies once ever 28 years, (I'm an only child, and my mom is an only child - and we both had our daughters at 28) so you know she was having a blast!

Sleepy Time!

Jamie went to bed in her room at 9:00 last night, woke up at 3:00 to eat, went back to sleep by 3:30, and woke up again at 8:00!!!! Hopefully this will be the norm!

2 posts in one day?!?! It must mean I have cute pictures!

My sis-in-law's dad took some SUPER cute pictures at Easter and I got them from him today.

Yay for nice weather!

It is SUCH a pretty day! I took Jamie outside to model one of her many summer dresses. This isn't the first outfit she has had on today... Daryl dressed her in her new SUPER cute plaid shorts with her little polo shirt... yep. TOO SMALL! They are 6 - 9 months.... some of her 9 month stuff is too small too. Guess that is the downside of being in the 95th percentile for height and weight. I've decided that if/when we have another kid... it HAS to be a girl and she HAS to be born in late September so if she is like Jamie, she will be able to wear Jamie's clothes! . Luckily, dresses fit Miss J quite nicely so that's good, and she has a ton so guess what Jamie will be wearing all summer! :-) . In other news, J slept in her room from 9:30 - 3:00 last night. I'll take it! I decided I'm going to wait until she is totally down with sleeping in her crib the first half of the night before I try to get her to go back to sleep in her crib after her early morning feeding. . Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful day!!!

Happy 5 month Birthday!

Jamie is 5 months today, and to celebrate, she gave mommy & daddy a gift.... she slept in her room from 9:30 to 4:00 last night!!! I know I said yesterday that I was going to try to feed her and put her back in her crib, but since she added 2+ hours to her night last night, I figured "why push it." She came in our room at 4:00 and slept until 7:00. . I feel SOOO rested! Of course, we didn't go to sleep until 11:00 because we kept checking on her - I went in one time, and she had put her sheet over her head which of course freaked me out... which it shouldn't because what I'm using to swaddle her (yes, she still has to be swaddled to sleep) shouldn't even be classified as a blanket, it is more like a sturdy spider web. I folded it as many times as I could and I could still breath through it...yea, it is THAT "hole-y" but still... I woke up a 2:00 freaked out because she hadn't woken up for her 1:45 feeding. Then I did the same at 3:00, but she was just snoozing away. . Of course I had to get up at 3:20 and pump.... she had not eaten on one side in 9 hours - OUCH! (she only takes one side before she goes to bed). And by the time I was done, she was starting to stir. She finally woke up at 4:00 and took care of the other side which had been going strong for 6 hours and wasn't too comfy either. Ahh the joys of adapting to new eating schedules. .

And what did she do one hour later after ALL of this sleeping?

SNOOZING IN THE SWING!!! Go figure.

Nighty Night

So I'm excited... Jamie actually slept in her room last night from 10:00 - 1:45! This is a HUGE accomplishment for all three of us. Jamie likes being with us, and we like being with her, but we know it is time for her to be in her own room. We are taking "baby steps": the 1st night she stayed in her room until 10:00, then last night it was until 1:45 (this is when she normally wakes up to eat). Tonight, I'm going to try to feed her in her room and see if she will go back to sleep in her crib.

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It wasn't easy getting her to sleep... you would think I was pulling her fingernails out the way she was crying and carrying on, but she finally went to sleep in my arms and I sloooowly took them out from under her in the crib.

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Here's to hoping tonight goes a little smoother!

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In other news, Jamie and I were able to meet up with my friend Samantha. She is the one that gave Jamie her Easter dress. She works for SunTrust in Peachtree City so if you need a home Loan or a Refi - Ask for Sam! :-)

C is for Cute

Here is Miss J in her "C is for Cat" outfit. I was afraid she wouldn't be able to wear it because A) it is 6 - 9 months and B) it's almost summer -- but since Jamie is in the 95th% for weight and height and since we had a cold snap, she was able to wear it! YAY! We were so happy to find this bib at Babies 'R' Us. We call Daryl's mom Nana... and you can't find Nana stuff anywhere. We also found this snazzy feeding bib. Jamie has moved on to squash and LOVES it! She hardly misses a drop of food... apparently. :-)

Some videos

I'm ready for my close up!

Here are some videos of Miss J.... Sorry there is no sound, Daryl was having some issue capturing the video from the camera.

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Here is Jamie partaking of some lovely rice cereal. I started her on Oatmeal yesterday to be greeted by a horrible rash all over her body this morning... yep... Jamie is allergic to oatmeal!!! So no more oatmeal until she is over a year and then we will try again. She is all back to normal now. Luckily it only caused a rash and not breathing problems!

Here is some video of Jamie when she discovered her toy basket. She tipped it over and started pulling her toys out!