I kickee de ball!

It is no surprise to anyone who knows Bailey that she loves throwing, kicking and chasing balls. She always had. When she was just a peanut we put together a ball pit for her, or as she liked to call it, "the pit from heaven."

This year, Bailey is doing a soccer "class" through the Redmond Parks and Rec. They meet once a week for 1/2 hour and "teach" basic skills along with colors and shapes and counting. Bailey, really, could care less about anything except that it's in a wide open field and she kicks the ball and chases after it, or, as she puts it, "I kickee de ball!!"

Boo!!

Bailey's new all time favorite movie in the entire world for the last 4 weeks has been (drum roll please) Monsters, Inc. This movie has it all, humor, drama, conflict, and a big "Octopus" (a many armed monster who trips over a ball and lands on his bottom on top of a bunch of jacks). There was obviously a big overlook when it came time for the Oscars that year, because this movie should have been the winner!! One of Bailey's aunt Kristi's friends has a daughter who looks just like the Boo of the movie so she made her a costume as the "Monster Boo" for Halloween. Because Bailey's mom can't sew a straight line, this gracious woman is allowing Bailey's mom to borrow it and Bailey is living in it right now. I can't wait until she will willing take it off without having a conniption fit!!

Who's that?

Every year we visit Disney parks, and every year Bailey just about flies out of the park with enthusiasm as she runs up to the characters and gives them hugs and kisses. I, in an effort to be somewhat germ cautious, would love to spray each of these petri dishes with germicide or bathe them in Purell before allowing her to get within 2 feet of them, but that's not realistic. So, I pray for good health and a strong immune system each time that she gets near them.

What I realized this time is that she has no idea what to do when it comes to posing for a picture. We kept having her say "Cheese" and look at us, but it always ended up with a bunch of pictures of her eyeing the character out of the corner of her eye as if to say, "who the hell are you?" Check it out:

Snow in April

For the first time in over 30 years (probably more than that, but I'm too lazy to look up the statistic) we had snow in the middle of April. Two days later we went to Florida and wore shorts. I don't think Bailey cared which weather we experienced - she simply states (with style, I might add) bring it on!

Fore!!

We did a family day at the local putt putt golf course. All in all a winner of a day - until a blasted garter snake came to play - then, Bailey got a little skittish and we ended the tournament. Enjoy some pics of the happy golfers:

Bailey's Movie Theater

Well, because we don't ever give our child a place to sit and watch her movies, she's created her own home entertainment viewing center - our plastic toy bin, a pillow, all of her creature comforts, bliss!!

First!!

I always hate when people post FIRST! in a comment off of a blog, but - well - it makes sense here!! My first blog here, certainly not my first attempt at blogging, probably won't be my last. My real blog can be seen hanging off of http://www.the-dares.com - although, now I'm updating this, so maybe this is my new real blog - ugh, it's giving me a headache - COFFEE!!

Funky Town

Can I finish a thought?! The answer to this is, I know, no!! I’ve actually begun this post about 1,432,987.6 times, but seem to run out of steam after the first sentence. Today - I’ve actually made it past the first one, so I’m hoping to complete an entire thought (albeit, short one) before Bailey wakes up.

It’s been a busy year - that’s my thought. We’ve been busy having fun, busy working, busy visiting new babies, and busy just living!! And - it’s been good. If anyone had told me that being married and having a daughter would be all that I could hope for, I might have called them nuts. But, I find myself convinced that this is really the case. Adam is a dream and Bailey is a blast, and together they give me more and make me feel more complete every single day.

So - to the Creator of all of these dreams that have come true. Thank you!! And that’s all - I think!

My fwe Tiggah a Pooh!!

To most Disney channel aficionados this title is recognized as the opening to the theme song for My Friends Tigger and Pooh. We just returned from Disneyland where we managed to make it through the Winnie the Pooh and Friends ride (more appropriately named, TiggaPooh Wide, by Bailey) eleven times. Yes, you read that correctly - eleven times we got to see Heffalumps, Woozles, Tiggah, Pooh, Pigwet, Wabeet, and Wawore. It was amazing to watch Bailey take in the adventure. She woke each morning saying, “TiggaPooh Wide?” Obviously, she just wanted to make sure that the world was working as it should.

On Tuesday evening we went to the holiday parade that Disney does each year. As each character went by, Bailey would call out their names and wave as hard as she could at them - and then, just stare. We went on the Alice in Wonderland ride (my first time on this ride, ever), the teacups (another first for me), Dumbo (yet another first), and It’s a Small World (aka. the boats). With each attraction, Bailey was mesmerized.

Perhaps the best part of the adventure was our “Mimmie” and friends character breakfast. As you can see in the above photo, she was so excited to see “Mimmie”!! I could hardly hold her back. She was like that when we met Pooh, too. In fact, I was holding her back while someone else visited with Pooh - when they were done, I let go and she yelled Pooh, ran to him, and gave him a big hug - it melted my heart!!

When we booked this trip, part of the “package” was a character call from Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. So, on Friday night we gathered in the kitchen waiting for the guys to phone Bailey. The call went off without a hitch until Bailey pointed out that one important character had forgotten to deselect the mute button on his phone - Donald “Guck”. I was surprised when the call ended and she started asking where Donald was. Even more surprised because she rarely gives him the time of day when she sees him on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. After the call, though, she was horribly offended that he’d forgotten to dial into the conference call - the NERVE!! The ironic part - we saw many characters during our trip down there, all of the were delightful to her. The only time that we saw Donald - she was sound asleep!! We took a picture, though - wouldn’t want to offend the princess twice!!

You can see this, and the other 176, here. Note that the format on the photo pages is different these days - it doesn’t tell you how many pages there are any more, it simply tells you how many photos there are, and there is a forward (and backward) arrow at the top of the page. Enjoy!!

I'm back - for now!

When I expressed concern about the amount of coffee needed to complete my project I was definitely NOT whistling dixie (I can barely whistle, anyway). I discovered many things about my life during this period of time. A couple of the most important things:

•I can consume a great deal of coffee!!
•I love being a mom (I couldn’t wait to get my snuggles with Bailey)
•My husband makes a great wife!!

So, I should explain the last point. My schedule had me working so many hours a day that I couldn’t find time to cook, clean, or do laundry. If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t stand fuzz growing on my teeth, I would have been hard pressed to find time to brush them, or launder myself. During the project, Adam cooked pretty much every meal, made me coffee (have I ever mentioned that he’s a saint?), played with Bailey, cleaned house, tidied up the toys each night. Well, you get the picture - he was an amazing wife!!

Anyway, I’m back for a couple of days, and then we head for a little R&R to the happiest place on Earth (not Vegas - Disneyland). Seeing as I post very infrequently, why did I bother to post this? Well, because there’s a chance that one person might read my blog and it gives me bragging rights in that it’s been less than three months since my last blog. So - to anyone who might be a lazier blogger than I - take that!!