magic

kids are magic.

they learn and adapt and change so fast.

i have to admit,

its a bit frustrating to not have my kiddo

naturally progress on my schedule.

crawling at nine months - - walking at 12 months.

that's the way i had it in my head.

but as you know,

every kid is different.

and every kid goes at their own pace.

i never thought anything was wrong with brette,

i just thought she was either

a- lazy

b- wasn't strong enough

or c- couldn't figure out how to

get herself moving.

but brette has had a magical few weeks.

something clicked when she turned one

and we've watched her learn so much in just the last few weeks.
she said her first word.

ah oh.

every time she drops something.

ah oh.

so stinking cute.

sure, she's been talking for months...

mamma, dada and she now says

mimi and all done.

but i'm not truly counting those because

i don't know if she knows what she's saying

or if she's just repeating what i say.

i think her language skills will be one of her strengths
because she seriously doesn't shut up.

we had her on the phone with ronnie's mom and

they had a full blown conversation.

ronnie's mom was sure that she was speaking in sentences,

she just needed the words.

 

next, and almost more exciting,

she is crawling and getting herself back to sitting!

holy cow, call the president.

this needs to be a national holiday.

a physical therapist came to our house on saturday

and did an evaluation on her.

in order to be qualified for the "first steps" program

you have to have a 6 month delay.

our PT didn't think b would qualify

so she showed me activities, exercises and positions

to help brette naturally learn how to move.

she said that brette has hips that turn outward

instead of forward, which is why her legs frog out

instead of move straight as she would need to crawl.

she suggested i order special shorts called hip helpers and

she said the best thing i could do for her is to keep correcting

her legs and do it over and over and over.

(here's a picture from the internet of the hip helper shorts.)

 

she also said we would need to work on her muscle tone.

so that's what we've been doing and it only took

two days for brette to figure this all out.

i feel [a little] bad that i didn't think to go through the steps with her before.

it seems like such a logical thing to do

and it obviously works. 

i only wish i had been doing this with her for the last three months

and then she probably wouldn't be categorized as "delayed."

even though now i think she was just learning at her own pace.

something i'm sure i'm going to have to get used to.

now?
on to walking!

jaime caught brette crawling this morning at their house:

 

and i made sure to catch her this afternoon.
she is non-stop and i love it!

summertime

i know when its summer

just from all the social events that get piled up.

 

 

royals game?

check.

it was ladies night and the girls from the old bank met up.

notice we are at the bar in the outfield? 

that's where we spent 95% of the game.

the other 5% was in the parking lot.

whoops.

 

 

wedding in st. louis?

check.

 

my roommate from college, suzy,

got married and all our sorority sisters gathered for the event.

ronnie stayed at home with brette so i spent

some quality time with my margie.

 

 

fourth of july with the fam?

check.

 

i think we had the best weather in the history of the world on the 4th

  like seriously, perfect.

we went to marceline,

where my aunt lives.

we spent the whole day outside,

except for when we were refilling our plates.

lots of food.

brette fell asleep around 8 so

we headed home and missed the fireworks

but saw tons on the highway.

i can't wait for her to

really experience this holiday.

 

ronnie's big 35th birthday?

check.

my mom made ronnie a blue goose pie.

(blueberries and gooseberries)

what did i do for him?

served up leftovers

with a promise to make it up to him.

 i swear, i'm a good wife.

 

 

lake weekend planned.

check.

 

and so on. and so on. and so on.

so forgive me that i'm mashing all

these events together,

i'll try to be better.

 

hope you're reading this from

the pool

or on vacation

or sitting on the back deck counting fireflies

or eating a popsicle.

somewhere you appreciate that

it. is. summer.

french silk x 2

kelly, my cousin, offered up decorations from

her daughter's party for brette's birthday.

and then she also gave me icing for b's smash cake.

and then her kiddo was my runner during the party.

and then kelly spent over an hour uploading/sending me pictures.

whew.

so i thought just saying thank you wasn't enough.

i decided to make her and her family a pie.

i was watching pioneer woman and she was making a french silk pie.

i had never made it, but it included a key ingredient

that i knew would make it a hit - - chocolate.

 it didn't look too hard,

so i thought i'd give it a whirl.

 

i followed all the directions and it was coming together nicely.

the last part of this pie is mixing in 4 eggs over a 20 minute period.

i had my big kitchen aid mixer going on high

and then i dropped A WHOLE FREAKING EGG in the mixer.

shell and all.

dammit. dammit. dammit.

so close to being done.

so i dug through the filling and picked out

as much shell as i could find.

but i knew i couldn't give that away.

what if someone got a mouthful of shell?

heinous.

i went ahead and finished the pie and let my dad eat it.

if its pie, he's in.

he'll eat anything and never found any shell.

so i remade the pie

(hopefully, it was as good as the first)

and gave that to kelly.

the lesson i learned?

crack your eggs in a bowl instead of the mixer.

at least until you are a way better baker than me

and confident in your egg cracking skills.

 

 

want the recipes?

pie crust

pioneer woman's french silk pie

 

 

 

 

 

say cheese!

ronnie was working when we had brette's newborn pictures taken,

so technically we don't have any family pictures.

i know, so weird.

so i demanded politely asked to get pictures taken when b turned one.

i really wanted some outdoor photos and

the lady who took b's newborn pics only does studio shots.

after some online searching, i found blair and thought

her style and price was juuuuuust right for us.

i got to pick the location and she met us there.

i decided on longview. 

we went into the park to take advantage of their old white picket fences

and their big grassy areas.

then we made our way over to the old pergola.

 

 

 

 

aren't they gorgeous?

i can't get over it.

 

but...

you know the worst part about family pictures?

getting everyone dressed.

we need to coordinate but not too matchy.

and i only had to do three people!

i don't know how a big family does it.

i bought brette a cute little romper from crazy 8

that was navy, coral and aqua. 

we layered her look with a navy cardigan from carter's and

the coral headband is one i had from my baby shower.

we also bought her little gold sandals,

but somehow we forgot to put them on once we got there.

oh well.

ronnie and i picked our outfit colors off of her romper.

ronnie had on a plain aqua t-shirt from gap.

i really like their clothes for pictures because

you don't have to worry about big logos all over.

i borrowed my coral jeans from kassie and

bought a navy short-sleeve sweater from macy's.

i also took a change of clothes for b.

a little coral and navy onesie from target with a navy headband.

 

and i called it done.

i'm really happy how they turned out.

oh sure, i'm making some weird faces in some,

but brette steals the show.

a d o r a b l e

short hair, don't care

i had my hair cut and you are only allowed to say nice things about it.

especially since these pictures are sa-weet bathroom selfies.

 i am so crazy about having long hair so

i have no idea how i talked myself into doing this,

but i'm so glad i did.

i think it was time for a change.
the last time i had "short" (for me) hair
was back in college aka 2004.

my inspiration?

a seventeen year old.

and a kardashian jenner.

i know, i know.

but its cute, right?
 

 

so i went to visit my aunt and took kylie's picture.

she did the cut and when i got home,

i did the ombre dye job.

7 inches off and a little more blonde.

love.

 

 

 

one year wrap-up

we had brette's doctor appointment

and luckily, ronnie was off early enough

that he got to go too.

she weighs 22lbs 4ozs - 83rd percentile

and is 30 in tall - 80th percentile.

her head was 18cm - 75th percentile.

my big ol' adorable one year old.

i liked it because i got to ask all

my questions i've had for the last 3 months:

how many ounces of milk should she be getting?

is 2% okay or does it need to be whole milk?

is the rash on her arm normal or an allergy?

what do i do about her gross motor skills?

the answers:

between 12 and 18 ozs.

whole milk for the next three months,

then you can do 2%.

totally normal, not an allergy.

meet with a PT for help.

yep, we were referred to a physical therapist at children's mercy,

AND we have someone from first steps coming over.

our pediatrician thought it might be time since

brette hasn't really had any great breakthroughs in the last 3 months.

she is still just sitting and rolling over.

there is some scooting going on,

but nothing to write home about.

i'm so excited to get the help and

to get this baby on her feet.

unfortunately, our PT can't see her for another 6 weeks.

blah.

but the good news is, the lady from first steps

will be here thursday.

i'm so excited to see what she has to say.

 

 

in other news - brette's lip stayed swollen

for a couple more days after my initial post.

i had our family dentist see it and he thought it was infected.

i called our pediatrician and they thought it sounded like a mucocele.

in the end, i just left it alone and it healed itself.

thank god.

but i'm not excited to see the ER bill.

wah wah.

 

 

 

seafood, kind of

ronnie hates seafood and i love it.

of course.

he'll eat fried catfish and tuna sandwiches,

but that's about it.

imagine my poor life without salmon fillets

and boiled shrimp.

seriously, i'm deprived.

but about once or twice a year i make

tuna noodle casserole and he'll eat that.

it's not his favorite, but he manages.

i thought there has to be a better recipe than

the traditional one i have:

soup, milk, tuna, noodles, peas.  blah.

something that maybe he would enjoy more.

so i went searching on the internet and found this one.

and i think it was seriously good.

i think ronnie kind of, maybe, sort of like it.

hey, i'll take what i can get.

 

recipe:

12 oz egg white noodles

2 5oz cans of tuna

1 can cream of mushroom soup

3/4 C milk

1/4 C mayo

1/4 C sour cream

1/4 C water

1 pkt onion soup mix

1 tbsp worcestershire

1 tsp tabasco

1/2 tsp celery salt

1 tsp pepper

bake at 350 for 30 mins.

 

as i just typed this out i realized i forgot

 to put the mushroom soup in mine. 

whoops. 

it was still good though.

i added crushed chips on the top of it for some crunch

and i didn't have egg noodles so i used fettuccine.
then when there was 10 mins left of cook time

i also added some shredded cheese.

its also an option to add a 1/2 cup of peas or a vegetable medley,

but i prefer my veggies on the side.

 

if you need a fast, easy and CHEAP meal,

try this.

or if your family actually likes seafood,

skip this all together and go straight for some crab legs.