Just another manic Monday.....

Recap of today....kicked the corner of the wall and have two painfully bruised toes (ouch!), hurricane Delanah has made quite a mess in the kitchen and living room and as I was midshower (shampoo in hair, covered in suds), little missy decided to pull the full drying rack over on herself. Out running I go to untangle her from the rack and soothe hurt feelings when it hits me....I never thought I would be dripping bubbles and water on my bedroom rug...and I really thought it would have bothered me more! Ahh...the joys of motherhood. Oooh, the best part, it's not even noon yet...... just another manic Monday....

Teeth, screams and standing

This has been quite the weekend! Delanah has figured out how to pull herself to stand on things and now is quick as anything and pulls herself up on everything! This morning Piper was the next "victim" as Delanah pulled herself up on her cage and proceeded to "talk" to Piper :) I thought it was funny :)
We have tooth #7 finally broken through! It must have happened sometime yesterday. At least the drooling has calmed down! Seriously, it was like having a walking faucet in the house! She is quite happy and loves testing her new chompers out on all of her meals. As long as they are only used for good and not evil, I'll be happy :)
Ahhh...the screaming. Last night Delanah was sitting, "reading" a book when she looked up and all of the sudden just screamed/yelled. Yes. our daughter has discovered a new vocal talent, just in time for our next flight as well! Awesome! Should be an interesting trip tomorrow!
Oh, one more talent that she is working on perfecting...blowing spit bubbles! She makes a "momma" sound and blows her spit bubbles. It really is quite funny.

This afternoon we have her year appointment, I can't wait to share her new talents with her pediatrician!

The teeth are coming!

So we have 6 teeth broken through and the 7th working its way through. Man, these suckers come fast! She was fussy as all get out for a few days, but things are looking up now. Unfortunately she has found a new teething toy....Bailey's dog food!!! For over a week now her favorite activity while I was washing up after meals was to feed Bay her kibble piece by piece. Bless her heart, Bay is such a good sport about it! Just yesterday Bay kept peeking her head around the corner at me, trying to get my attention, and I noticed it was eerily quiet. Bay had a puzzled look on her face while staring at Delanah, and I just knew....the little stinker had kibble in her mouth! Ew, ew, ew! Just to top things off, she spit it out and Bay ate it...awesome...

Today, in a 5 minute span, I fished 4 pieces of kibble out and after the last time, you would have thought I was torturing her for the way she was going on! I am such a mean mommy... My mom just laughs and calls it payback for all the times she had to chase me away from our dogs food bowl when I was a baby. Delanah is definitely her mother's daughter!

Tonight I asked Dave to take over after dinner while I got some chores done. I think he was surprised in the first few minutes at how hectic and busy it can be chasing a one year old...welcome to my day! I really need to do this more often so he can develop his own methods of dealing with some attitude issues. My little one is getting quite the personality!

My little helper

My little girl is growing up right before my eyes! She is really imitating everything that I do, so I have to be really careful these days! This morning she decided she was going to help me sweep. She knocked the broom down from where it was leaning against the wall and held it out in front of her while bum-scooting in the dining room. She was so proud! Of course she had heaps of praise from her proud mommy :)

Though we had a rough start this morning (I really did not want to get out of bed), I got a lot done this morning. Cleaned my kitchen, vacuumed, swept, laundry, and played with Delanah...woo-hoo! I was a lot more careful with the water today though, I so did not want a repeat of yesterdays diaper incidents! We had a lovely walk through a neighborhood I am interested in. It seems a lot nicer with green grass and not dead lawns :) There were 2 pairs of jets taking off and landing and a helicopter towards the end as well. I love hearing the jets, so amazing to watch them. It would be awesome to live somewhere with a view of the mountains out one window and the ability to watch the jets from my yard. Got me thinking!

Where do we want to live? Where do I want my daughter to be raised? I love some of the neighborhoods further SE, but there is an "air" about them. Hmmm, that sounded a tad judgemental. It's just that the houses are bigger, more expensive, the cars in the driveway more expensive, lifestyles a certain way. The neighborhood I was walking in today was not as expensive or pretentious. The houses were smaller, but nice, and they had the sidewalks that I liked, with the strip of lawn between you and the street. I really just need to pray about it. I know the Lord will direct us where we need to be and I need to trust that. All in good time.....

Now, if I could only speed up the time it is going to take Delanah to put away her toys as well as she spreads them all out....

A day in the life...

...of a mom. Let's see here...three (yes, three) diapers soaked through today affecting clothing, and this was on top of having some good toilet sessions! The last one was right before bath time. So, clean her up and as she just filled the diaper to beyond capacity, I can let her roam free for the two minutes it takes to fill the bathtub, right? Wrong! In that time she managed to piddle on the floor of her room...awesome! On the plus side, earlier in the day she had pulled out linens from her bottom drawer and just happened to piddle 1/2 on a piddle pad! Guess this is one time not cleaning up after myself helped :)

Delanah has also picked up another new skill tonight. Last night it was all about feeding Bailey. Crawling over to her food bowl, grabbing a piece of kibble and butt-scooting over to where Bay was standing and feeding it to her, crawling back to the bowl and doing it all over again. This went on several times, Bay was so gentle and patient! Tonight we had some Bailey feeding with some signing going on as well! She would grab a piece of kibble and make the sign for eat and then feed her :) But new tonight was bringing Bay her chewie (rawhide). Now, some background...Bay is a bit possessive over her chewies. She has actually growled at more than one person who came too close to it or tried to grab it. Last night Bay was trying really hard to play with Delanah and brought her chewie over to her and placed it at her feet and then laid down. It just melted my heart! Tonight Bay was munching on her chewie in the living room and Delanah was playing while I was getting dinner ready. After dinner they went back to their activities while I was cleaning up. Bay joined me in the kitchen and next thing I know, here comes Delanah butt-scootin' holding out Bay's chewie! Concerned of how Bay would react, I got there first to supervise. Bay watched her, they made eye contact and instead of letting go, Delanah decided to make a U-turn and head back into the living room. I think she was trying to entice Bay back to join her :) Not more than 10 minutes later, Bay is back in the kitchen and here comes Delanah again with the chewie! This time she let Bay take it and they both returned to the living room. Today during both nap times Bay chose to sleep half in our room and half on the landing, watching Delanah's door and listening for her. I'm not sure who heard Delanah first, myself or Bay, but Bay was quite excited to go in and see her and tried everything she knew to do to make Delanah stop crying today when she was fussy. Yes, those two have quite the friendship :)

Let it snow!

Today started out so lovely! Sunny, not too cold, what a beautiful morning! Ros and I headed to Michaels and had some fun there and then all of us were off to the outlet mall! I admitted I was in denial about the predicted snow, it was just too nice! We had the most lovely time in the mall. Delanah loves her grandparents so much and just lights up in their presence. We hit all the stores we wanted to and then Delanah decided it was time to nurse and boy was she tired! They wandered while waiting for us and when we met up we realized something, not sure if it was rain or snow at that point, was coming down...boo! I bought a small umbrella and after a quick stop in the loos and lolly shop I was off to get the car and pick them up. The verdict? It was snow, and a lot of it!
The drive home was not the most pleasant thing I have ever done. It took us a little over 30 min to get there this afternoon and almost 2 hours to get home tonight! The first part of the drive I could barely see the road! It was coming down so quickly that the light from our headlights was reflecting back. I just followed the tail lights in front of me and kept at a nice 20-30mph :) The second half consisted of the speed not registering on the speedometer as we were traveling so slow! Oye! We were SO glad to make it home! I think it was more scary for Ros and Bruce than for me. It was just plain annoying for the most part for me!

On a bright point though, the forecast has changed and there is to be no snow falling tomorrow morning, picture morning...yay!!!! It will look so nice to have our pics taken in the park in the snow! So much for planning our outfits so well! We shall all be covered nicely in our winter coats :) I'm thinking of heading out tomorrow morning and getting, for the ladies at least, matching touks :) Fun, fun! I think we're all going to tuck ourselves inside all day and stay warm and have a nice last day with the Aussie Grandparents. Over 70F yesterday and up to 18 inches of snow by Sunday....gotta love Colorado!

Almost over....

With all the apprehension and anticipation over my in laws coming to visit, I can't believe how sad I am that the visit is almost over. I have loved watching Delanah bond with her grandparents. She is so excited to see them and loves having them for her audience. She is really going to miss them next week. I am going to miss them as well. This visit has been quite enjoyable, especially this last week when I haven't been so crazy stressed planning a party :)
Okay, yesterday was pretty bad...we were all tired and Delanah was super fussy! It was nice to have people around who not only understood, but helped with the chores without me asking, they just did. That was so nice.

I hate that we live so far away from Dave's parents. Delanah loves them so much and they love her and I wish they could spend time together every week. I have been stepping aside a lot to let them spend as much time with her as possible, and I must say, it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. I am learning! I don't have to be in control of everything, I can let things roll off my back, I can keep the big picture in mind...cultivating a relationship with family.

I know there are going to be a lot of tears Sunday morning. Delanah will have no idea what's going on, just that her Grandma, who loves to sing her songs and read her books and make her smile, will be crying and her Granddad, who loves to play games with her and make funny noises and show her interesting things, won't be getting in the car with her to go home. Mommy will be crying and the house will be so quiet. I have been trying to take a lot of pictures and get the video camera out. I want Delanah to know that her Grandparents love her so much...man this is gonna suck!

Today at lunch Ros left the table for a moment and Delanah called after her. Two short weeks and my sweet pea has claimed them! Okay, enough sentimental chatter for one night. Tomorrow we are expecting snow and time in an outlet mall...I need some sleep!

One year

One year ago today I met my baby girl for the first time. Uttered her name for the first time. Cuddled her for the first time. Became a mother for the first time. My baby is a year old!

All day today we were reminiscing about what we were doing this time last year. The running around with a stop watch timing my contractions, my water breaking, watching Coupling in the delivery room, starting to push, finally seeing our baby girl for the first time.

This year I was manic trying to get everything done for the party while trying to keep my cool and do it all on my own. Lesson learned...I am not superwoman, I need help. I am not the hostess I would like to be. Big parties stress me out. Why today? It was family and friends. Most have seen my house a disaster. But I had new friends over, I wanted everything to be perfect. Was it? Not in my book. People showed up early...I wasn't dressed properly, no make up on, the decorations weren't put out how I imagined them to be, the food wasn't ready. Was it a disaster? Not by any means. The kiddos played and played, no one had a meltdown, food was eaten, conversation flowed, a fun time was had. The cakes were a hit! I think what is going to stick out most for most guests is where the cakes were from...La Bakery Sensual, known mainly for its, um, naughty cakes ;) When I was looking for a cake for her, I wanted something awesome. I looked at tons of websites and this bakery did children's cakes as well as the naughty ones. The cakes looked awesome!!! The cake for the guests was exactly what I was hoping for, and tasted so good! Delanah's smash cake was a lady bug! My goodness it was adorable and she went to town! She was tentative at first, but ate an eye (pure sugar!) and poked at some of the black dots and then it was on. I think she ate almost half of it! How? I have no idea! There was cake everywhere!!!! She smelled quite yummy for the remainder of the day :)
Although we let people know that presents weren't necessary, all brought gifts. What a lucky girl Delanah is! She showed absolutely no interest in any of them! Dave had gotten 12 balloons and the kids loved them. Each little one went home with one and Delanah played with balloons after her afternoon nap. Who knew? All we needed to do was get some helium balloons for her!

Dave and I got some time alone tonight to just sit back and try to take it all in. So much has changed from this time last year. Dave and I feel a little more sure on our parenting skills. But man, there is so much to learn! So many milestones reached in a year, and so many more changes to come. It's so hard to remember what life was like before she was here. What an amazing kid she is. My baby is a year old...where has the time gone?

It's almost here...

I'm ready, but I'm not...my baby is turning 1! This week has been hectic, with Dave's parents in town, so I haven't been able to dwell on things too much, but my goodness I have my sentimental moments. This afternoon we had her year photos. They were to have taken place Monday, but for unforeseen reasons needed to be pushed back to today. I'm really glad as I don't think I was fully prepared Monday for them. I made a cake for her to smash (she loved it!) and had her dress all ready and my goodness was she cute! She was more interested in getting the wooden blocks that were set out than she was in looking at the camera, and she was most definitely not into pics with Dave and I, but I think we got some good shots. When I came home there were 2 pics posted by her photographer...one from today and a 3 month shot....oh the changes! She definitely takes after the Schelbach side!

My little girl is changing every day. She loves to cuddle, growl, crawls like a fiend, and is discovering new, fun and loud noises to make with her tongue. Always a good time! She loves to dance to songs (and with her Mommy), and has taken up singing as well. She is a blast in church as she loves to bust a move and sing at the top of her lungs...even when the song ends!

She fell asleep in my arms this morning and I was taken back to this time last year. We had similar weather, nice and warm, I remember walking Bay around the park and having to stop at every bench as I couldn't make it in one go! I remember thinking that Delanah was never going to be born and being full of fear at becoming a mom. So much I have learned in a year! So much I have to learn!

Tomorrow I have my MOPS group, which I am looking forward to, and then the last minute things for the party! I am feeling a bit stretched thin at the moment. I am trying to play the hostess, but I am also trying to keep my house in shape and get ready for this party! My relationship with my mother in law is still shaky at times and I watch every word I say and every step I take...that's tiring as well! Focus, focus, focus! This is about celebrating with friends and family the first year of my daughter's life....focus, focus, focus...