Exhausted

We were up until midnight last night, watching the 'particularly dangerous situation' (as coined by the National Weather Service) weather warnings develop all around us. I hate storms. The tornado causing ones, anyway. They scare me, hence the lack of sleep.

The girls were not pleased with me for postponing bedtime. Not at all...

I can't help it...

Last night, as I was putting Brigid to sleep, we went through our general bedtime book routine, and when I'd finished the fourth or fifth book of the evening, I turned off the lamp, as I normally do, and asked her if she was ready for bed. Usually, this question is met with giggling and a frantic push off of my chest as B tries to launch herself into the crib (my kid? she loves her bed. it's awesome.). Last night?

She wasn't ready.

So, we just sat together in the dark, in the glider, her with her head on my shoulder, me singing any and every song I know the words to...the ND Fight Song, the Alma Mater, Elvis, miscellaneous lullabies...we covered all bases. Every time I'd stop singing? She'd perk up, put her hand on my cheek, hum a few notes, and settle back into my shoulder when I'd start singing again.

I'm pretty sure I've never really been as happy as I was in that little moment.

When Steve and I were first married, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted kids. Kids were work. They interrupted all of the fun things in life. You couldn't take them to bars. You couldn't sleep in on the weekends. You couldn't spend all day Sunday on the couch just because.

Who wanted to live life like that?

Let's just say I'm really, really glad I changed my mind.


Completely unrelated, and yet, worth mentioning nonetheless...I posted over at Style Lush yesterday with a wedding attire question, and if you want to weigh-in on the madness, I'm taking any and all opinions this week!

Scenes from last night...

Steve (while watching the first episode of Game of Thrones, after realizing that the two episodes of Camelot that he'd recorded were both reruns): How am I going to keep two medieval period shows separate in my head now?

Oh, honey, probably the same way you keep the eighteen different storage auction/pickers/pawn shop shows you watch separate.

You'll figure it out.

(PS: Love you, dear!)

Things I love about Brigid, 18-Month Edition

1) When you ask Brigid for a hug, she giggles, and wraps her arms around your neck. And it's maybe the best hug I've ever received. Ever.

2) When B sees a picture of me, she gasps and shouts 'mom-mom-mom-mom', which is ridiculously adorable every time she does it, except when she does it at a particularly quiet time during Easter Mass. And then follows it up with a rather loud screech when you try to take the photo album away from her.

3) When I tell B she needs to hold my hand, whether it's to keep her from touching everything in a public bathroom after we've finished a diaper change or to keep her from walking into traffic in the parking lot, she generally does. Walking around, holding the hand of one of the cutest toddlers in the history of toddlers (yes, I know I'm a bit biased, but it's my blog, so it's allowed...) gets me a lot of admiring looks, let me tell you.

4) Brigid preens for strangers. If someone smiles at her, or waves to her, or tells her how cute she is, she ducks her head and smiles the sweetest little smile. She's particularly enamored with waiters, it seems. The kid is a flirt, which is reason #976 why she will be home schooled.


(I don't actually think she will be home schooled, but there are some days when it seems like it would really be our best bet...)

5) Brigid loves her dogs. I've never seen anything cuter than Riley lying on the ottoman with Brigid stretched out on top of her, thumb in her mouth, watching Elmo on Sesame Street. It's kind of awesome.

Friday at Target

Brigid got a new hat!

She also proceeded to pull the lid off of her snack trap in the car on the way home and dump Cheerios all over my back seat, but we won't get into that, will we?

What She Said

I've spent so much time worrying over Brigid and her reluctance to talk, that I'd like to take a few minutes to celebrate the few things she actually does say. Because, believe it or not, all of my whining aside, she does get her point across when she needs to do so...

She's got the basics, of course...'bye-bye', 'night-night' (which refers to both her blanket and the actual act of going to sleep), 'mom-mom' (Just ask her to say daddy...I dare you. She'll laugh and yell for me. Of course, when we're walking somewhere, and I ask her if she wants mommy to pick her up, she'll run away from me as fast as her little legs can carry her and beg Steve to pick her up, but whatever. She has the psychological games down pat, that one...), 'ball', 'dog'. We got a 'water' or two out of her this weekend at the pool.

She still doesn't say Jack (Skellington, from Nightmare Before Christmas) or Elmo, which surprises me, because she loves both characters, but do you know what she does say?

M&Ms.

And do you know how I know she says that?

Because when we were getting ice cream last Saturday, Brigid walked up to the candy counter, pointed at the bag of M&Ms, and asked for them by name. I turned to Steve and said, 'I think B just said M&M'. His response?

'Yeah, she's been doing that for a couple of weeks now. We were just too afraid to tell you.'

A couple of weeks. My kid is a sugar fiend. So there's that...

I posted about coveted spring purses over at Style Lush yesterday, so feel free to drop by and add your favorites to the mix!

You can skip this post if you want...

...because it's just full of annoyingly adorable pictures of my adorable kid on the (way too) short vacation that we just took, that I just can't stop talking about.

I'm sorry. I really, really am.

But that's not going to stop me from posting the pictures today.

Don't worry...I'm done now.

Highlights from the weekend...

We're driving back from Florida today, and I am very, very sad about it. Brigid and I would have stayed for much longer if we had a choice, but real life (and Steve's desire to stop pulling pool duty with B in mid-70 degree temps with wind) called us back to Georgia.

A real recap, with real pictures, will be up sometime this week, but in the meantime...

Vacations are Awesome!

Happy Friday!

Brigid says...

...leave me alone, you crazy woman!

Also? She'd like you to know it's never too early to coordinate you accessories with your outfit.

Well played, kid. Well played.

Hey, I posted over at Style Lush yesterday, if you're interested in my take on the perfect summer make-up routine. And you know you are...

Eighteen Month Check-Up

The stats:

Weight: 25lbs 3oz (good for 50-75th percentile)

Length: 33 inches (good for 75-90th percentile...woo!)

Of course, when I take Brigid in for a doctor appointment, she gets four shots at a time, and she cries with me the entire time we're there. When Steve takes her, she gets no shots, and she spends the appointment asleep on his chest. Shouldn't there be some kind of mommy rules that apply here, where I don't have to be the one she hates, yet? It doesn't seem quite fair to me.

What we learned:

 Brigid sleeps too much.

It's kind of our fault she's not talking, yet.

It's time for baby's first dental trip.

We were a little concerned with how much B sleeps, considering she's good for 12 hours a night, plus two naps a day, so I had Steve talk to the doctor about it. It turns out, she is on the 'high end of normal' when it comes to how much she sleeps, so we've been told it's time to work her into one nap a day, both for our convenience and B's development. I kind of think I'm going to miss that second nap a day...

As far as her speech abilities go, the doctor referred to it as 'first child syndrome', in that we aren't doing enough to encourage Brigid to talk to us. When she wants something, she points, and we get it. It's as simple as that. And that has to stop. I kind of think she's going to be the one to miss this little change...

And a dentist? That should go over really, really well, huh?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Steve (laughing to our friend Jim as we were leaving Augusta National on Sunday evening): Tara looks exhausted.
Me: WE'VE BEEN HERE FOR TWELVE HOURS!!! IN 90 DEGREE HEAT!!! Of COURSE I'm exhausted.

You know what, though? It was totally worth it.

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I had my first experience with changing a dirty-dirty swim diaper on Saturday afternoon. We went to lunch with Steve's aunt and uncle, who were visiting from Cincinnati, and Brigid wanted so much to get in the fountain outside of the restaurant that the only way we were able to get her in the car was to promise her we'd pull out the baby pool when we got home. So Steve pulled it out, filled it up, and left to run some errands. About twenty minutes later, I noticed Brigid was doing some very quiet squatting off to the side of the pool.

It was disgusting, and Steve owes me about seventeen dirty diaper changes in a row as payback.

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Brigid has her 18-month well child check-up this morning.

She's still not really talking.

Good times.

My Heart

Hey, Bug?

I love you.

 

More than I could have ever imagined...

Peter Cottontail

I’ve been so wrapped up in family visit recapping, I completely forgot to mention that Brigid had pictures taken last Friday with the Easter bunny. Ok, not THE Easter bunny, as in a random someone dressed up in a creepy rabbit costume, but AN Easter bunny, as in a cute and fluffy baby rabbit.

The cuteness! I melted.

Brigid, in true toddler-with-a-dog fashion, could have cared less about the sweet little bunny, no matter how many times we urged her to ‘Awwww the bunny!’ (Brigid speak for petting said animal, or laying her cheek against its fur), as we have her do that on a daily basis with the dogs when they are sleeping.

(What? It’s one of her cute little tricks. And, yes, we do treat our child like a trained animal when people come to see her. I can’t help it.)

We did manage to get an adorable shot of her sitting, with the bunny on her lap, and there were other various pictures taken involving Easter eggs and smelling flowers and some such run-of-the-mill springtime poses. It was supposed to be a quick, 15-minute shoot, but our photographer had an open spot between Brigid and the following appointment, so we kind of lucked into a double sitting. I can’t wait to get the proofs back, so I can see how they turned out!

What do they remember?

The last time Steve and I took Brigid to the zoo, the first place her and Steve went was the petting zoo area, and being the mom that I am, I immediately wiped the poor child down from head to toe with a sanitary wipe. And Brigid proceeded to carry that wipe with her the rest of the time we were at the zoo, occasionally wiping her own hands as we went along.

That was a month and a half ago.

When we went back this past weekend, the moment we walked into the gate, Brigid dug into her diaper bag, pulled out that container of wipes, and refused to put it back until I gave her one of the wipes. And she did not put that wipe down until we left the zoo at the end of the day. She wiped her hands, my hands, Steve's hands, and my mom's, my dad's, and my sister's hands. She was crazy with that wipe.

And after the zoo, we went out to eat, at which point Brigid wanted a new wipe, which she used to wipe off the table in front of her. It was like a mini version of my mom running around.

(or a mini version of me running around...although I'd never admit it...)

Oh, that kid...she picks up on everything. I'm going to have to start watching myself around her from now on!

Don't forget to check out today's post at Style Lush, where I talk about my issues with plants, and how I'm slowly overcoming them with the help of ice...

Dahlonega

We took my parents and youngest sister to the town of Dahlonega on Saturday, because it's the cutest little town in north Georgia, and my mom loves cute little towns. And I love places with a used bookstore, two chocolate shops, an ice cream parlor, and a general store that sells rock candy.

I totally took the camera, thinking I could get some great pictures of Brigid and my family around the town square, and then I left it in the car while we walked around. So I just took some iPhone pictures instead. Because even when I plan ahead, I still fall behind...

Hope a great weekend was had by all!

Houseguests...

We've spent all night and all morning cleaning for my parents' visit this weekend, but it's finally done! My house is presentable!

Brigid is exhausted.