Lillie Ann Turns One

One whole year with Lillie Ann and what a year it has been.  If I had only known how our little world would change in the months after she was born.  Of course, our world was rocked in all of the normal newborn ways but in mid-March, the world fell off its rocker!!  While things have seemed in a complete mess if you turn on the news, there have also been really sweet times that resulted from the rona.  Because of the complete fear whenever the news of the coronavirus broke and the social distancing requirements, we slowed down A LOT.  No dance so no dance recital.  No work for me for several weeks.  No church.  We didn't see our family for over two weeks.  Some of those things were no fun, but it did allow a lot of quality family time for us. Even in the months since March, things are still slower than normal.  Lillie Ann's first time to go shopping anywhere, including Wal-Mart, was whenever we started Christmas shopping in November!  She was eleven months old!  Callie had been to Disney World twice at that age.  It has just been an unusual and weird year, to say the least. 

Whenever we found out Lillie Ann was on her way, I was a little overwhelmed.  Maybe even a lot overwhelmed!  Callie was just sixteen months old and I knew that adding another baby to our family was going to take my attention away from Callie and lock me down.  I was right, but since life was basically canceled for a big part of this year, being locked down wasn't so bad.  There was nothing to miss! 

Lillie Ann was a fairly easy baby.  She has not always been a great sleeper, but in comparison to Callie as a baby, she hasn't been so bad.  Lately, she has been going to sleep around 9:30pm and will sleep until around 5:00am.  She takes a bottle and will sometimes sleep as late as 8:00, if I am not working.  I normally have to wake her up to put her in the car seat whenever I am working.  

She is getting a little personality and learning to communicate with us without saying a word!  She lets Callie have it whenever she takes something from her, so  I think she is going to be able to take up for herself!  She has learned how to give sugar, waves bye bye and in the last few days has starting "smiling" with her eyes closed whenever we take her picture!  She is SO CUTE.  I tell Austin all the time how darn cute she is.  I could just eat her up!  

Over the last month or so, she has become quite a mama's girl.  She especially wants her mama whenever it is bedtime!  For a long time, Austin would lay down with Lillie Ann and I would lay down with Callie.  We have somewhat swapped.

She has a fake whine that is something to see.  If she falls down, or doesn't get her way, she crinkles her nose and whines but there are no tears.  

She is not a good eater.  She likes hot dogs and toaster strudels-- that's about it.  I do not eat hot dogs!  She would also eat her weight in cheese puffs.  She likes to drink sweet tea from a straw and will fight Callie for a Capri Sun.  We switched her from formula to whole milk about a month ago and she has handled that like a champ. I did try to give her milk from a cup the other night instead of her bottle, and that did not go well.  We will try that again soon. 

She weighs twenty pounds and has six teeth with one on the way.  She is pretty petite like Callie was as a baby!

She doesn't really have a favorite toy, but she really likes the Woody Callie got for Christmas.  She also loves to play in laundry.  She is very entertained whenever I fold clean clothes and I even caught her last week putting some of her clothes in the dirty clothes hamper!  Another favorite for her is unpacking her bag!

I knew having Lillie Ann two years and one week after we had Callie would have its challenges.  For several months after she was born, I would have told anybody that having kids that close together was not a good idea.  I didn't know what I had gotten myself into!  BUT.  Now, I would not trade it for anything.  I think the hardest year is behind us, and they are already so much fun together.  I spent a lot of this year feeling torn between them, but now that Lillie Ann can walk and is starting to play, it is a lot easier and so sweet to see them together.  Before Lillie Ann was born, I honestly didn't think I could love another child as much as I loved Callie but that just is not true!  I think I love them both more everyday.  Lillie Ann is the perfect little addition to our family and I truly cannot imagine life without her.  She makes us more complete!  Happy 1st Birthday, Lillie Ann! We love you so much!

Callie Turns 3!

 

I have no idea how my Callie girl is turning three years old.  The past year with her has been so much fun, but has also had some VERY trying times. 

Callie is hilarious, dramatic, sassy, STUBBORN and into all typical little girl things.  She tells me at least once a day that pink is her favorite!  She loves barbies, unicorns, princesses, shopping and sparkles.  She is super shy whenever we aren't at home, and will even tell me before we go somewhere that she is going to be shy! 

Callie is very into “helping” and tries to do a lot independently. She also wants things done a certain way, ALWAYS.  Most of the time, she wants me to do everything from getting her out of her car seat to cutting up her food before she eats.  If I don’t do it, and her daddy does it—she will make life miserable.  She doesn’t always want me, but nine times out of ten, she does.  Sometimes life just has to be miserable because I am trying to teach her that she doesn’t always get her way!

Nothing makes Callie happier than a bag of junk.  No matter where we go, she always wants to pack a bag/take something with her.  She usually brings home a bag from where ever she comes from, too!  She still calls Mama Jim “Bim” most of the time, although she is very capable of saying Mama Jim!  She loves to go to Bim’s house and tells me to “text Bim and see if she’s home.” 

Callie sings Let It Go on repeat and only knows those three words of the lyrics.  We have watched Frozen, but she goes back to Toy Story every single time!  She always wants to watch “when Andy growed up”, otherwise known as Toy Story 3!  During the fall, she found a love for the movie Halloweentown, which was also one of my favorites growing up.  She will randomly quote the line in that movie “you don’t even trust your own kids!”  I doubt she even knows what that means!  She also quotes Toy Story, “I don’t want to play with you.  You’re broken.” 

She has been a good eater since day one, and loves a snack like her mama.  Austin comments all the time that she is my kid because she gets giddy over snacking and always wants to do it on the couch!  She always tells me that since she ate her good food, she wants a snack.  We love a snack! 

Callie loves her cousins and calls them her “friends.”  She calls Joy “Go Go” (she can’t get the J sound) and it is super cute. 

As for the trying times of this year, she was VERY attached to her paci.  During the fall she gnawed a hole in all of them.  We saw it as a perfect opportunity to get rid of the paci.  We didn’t take them away from her, but she didn’t want them since they were “broke.”  She was quite a handful for several months while she transitioned from paci to no paci.  It was very bad.  We were not okay.  I told her all the time I was going to take her somewhere for somebody else to take care of her (daycare), and I would have had to for my sanity if she had not turned a corner.  She got her share of spankings and I loaded her up for a ride in the car seat several times just to constrain her and have some peace!  It was a rough couple of months. 

Her role of big sister is growing on her, and as time passes, she pays Lillie Ann (better known as Willie Ann to Callie) more and more attention.  Up until Lillie Ann was a good nine months old, she ignored her existence.  She has warmed up to her now and it is fun to see their little friendship grow. She likes to feed Lillie Ann, loves to make her laugh and never fails to let me know when Lillie Ann is disrupting what she’s doing! She says “get her” a lot.

Occasionally I catch myself stopping to appreciate how much fun it is having a little girl who makes all of my girl mom dreams come true.  Here’s to soaking up this year with my three year old!

a day in our life

For as long as I've been reading blogs, some of my favorite blog posts are "a day in the life" posts.  So last Monday, on a very normal/boring day for Callie and I, I decided to document our day!  I've tried this several other times before and I always forget that I'm documenting sometime around lunch. I did pretty good on this particular day.  It was a mundane day, but one I know I will love to look back on years down the road.  

After Callie was born, with the exception of tax season, I started working three days a week.  I'm off on Mondays and Fridays.  Whenever dance is in session, I go to the dance studio on Monday nights.  Since it's summer time, Mondays are free of obligations and schedules for us.  While the rest of the world drags itself out of bed on Monday morning, we are sleeping in and resetting after what are usually fun-filled and busy weekends.  Mondays have quickly become my favorite day of the week!  This particular Monday was the week after VBS, so I was extra thankful for the change in pace.  Without further ado... our day...

We slept until after 9:00 Monday morning!  On days off, I usually wake up between 8:30 and 9:00.  As long as I lay in the bed with Callie, she will sleep as late as 9:30.  Even after she is awake, she is super snugly and doesn't mind hanging out in the bed awhile.  It takes her a little bit to pre-heat.  

Just before 10:00, I gave Callie some grapes for breakfast that I had chopped to death because I am paranoid about her choking on fruit (anything), and I got some things done in the kitchen.

After finishing off the grapes, she requested her DVD be turned on and I obliged because I was getting some things done around the house.  She wants this DVD on all day, every single day.  It's the Cedarmont Kids singing/acting out Bible songs and Austin and I both know it better than we wish we did.  Mama Jim got it for Callie for Christmas and I couldn't count the times we have watched it!  I got another Cedarmont Kids DVD for her off Amazon a week or so ago, and she cried when I turned it on because it wasn't the same.  So much for some variation. 

Her face when I tell her to smile cracks me up.

In the meantime, I saw Mama Jim and Daddy Jim outside in the garden.  After they had picked the peas, I spotted them on the swing up the hill from our house shelling.  I changed out of my pajamas, got Callie some clothes on and we rode the side by side up the hill to Mama Jim's to "help".  By this time it was about 11:00.  The day flies by whenever you sleep until 9:30.  We enjoyed some swinging and pea shelling.  I mostly tried to keep Callie from throwing shelled peas into the yard.

At 12:00. we went back home and Callie had leftover spaghetti for lunch.

After she finished, I attempted to eat a sandwich but not without her watchful eye on me.  Eating is never okay unless she is participating.  She is a big fan of drinking tea out of my Yeti cup with a straw, and who could blame her.  She gets it honest.  She says "tea" now and refers to all drinks as "tea".

We both crashed for a nap from around 1:30-3:30. I guess you could say we sleep a lot.  Callie has gotten to where she will point to the bedroom (my bed, of course) whenever she is ready for a nap! She shakes her head  yes whenever I ask if she wants to go get in the bed!  She does the same thing at bedtime. She usually wants some milk, her baby and a paci and she will go to sleep after some tossing and turning.   

After we got up from the nap, I went back to Mama Jim's to get some fresh peas to cook for supper with stewed squash from the garden and leftover pork chops that Austin had cooked the night or two before.  We hung out at Mama Jim's for a while playing and waiting for her to get the peas washed, before heading home with them.

I kind of left the door open while I was in the kitchen because Callie was entertained and playing with Daisy on the back porch.  

This is her face whenever I tell her she can have ONE popsicle.  Usually one turns into three.  She knows we keep the popsicles in the freezer that's in the shed out back.  If she's outside, she always wants a popsicle.  

Around 5:30, Daddy got home and supper was almost ready.

I don't have any picture evidence, but I think Mama Jim came and got Callie and they rode the side by side in the pasture while Austin and I ate supper.  They do that a lot.  The one (or more) hours when Mama Jim gets Callie in the evenings are sometimes the most productive part of my day.  Other times, I just use the time to take a shower or maybe to do nothing.  Monday is Bachelorette night, so I caught a little bit of that and then Mama Jim and Callie picked me up and we went over to the swamp where Daddy Jim was bush hogging to pick him up.  Austin was at the swamp spraying, too.  

At 9:00, we had had our baths and were ready for bedtime.  

I love these kind of days!

a new addition

We have big news!
Callie Taylor is going to be a big sister!!

WOWZA- I can't even believe I am typing this post.  I remember whenever we found out I was expecting Callie Taylor I tried to write a blog post and after I erased the first sentence a dozen times, I just quit.  There was no blog post announcing Callie's arrival, although that one line is still saved and waiting to be published.  I just couldn't find the words, but I think they may come this go round!

I did write a little bit about finding out I was expecting Callie in the post I did for her first birthday.  If I was good at this blogging stuff at all, I would link to that post here.  Since I am not, you'll just have to scroll back and find it.  Anyway- finding out about Baby Byrd#2 feels a little bit like de je vu, even down to the time frame!  I found out I was expecting Callie the Wednesday after the dance recital on Saturday.  Soon after that, we went to Satartia with my family for Memorial Day where I had to keep the secret.  Much the same happened this time around, I just found out about two weeks after the recital instead of one! I don't have the exact dates, but the similarities are crazy!

 Days or maybe even hours after having Callie, I can remember saying out loud that I could not imagine not doing that again.  It was just such a beautiful thing that I knew I wanted to do it again!  And maybe even again after that!  Multiple children has always been our plan, but I didn't exactly think it would come this soon!!  Life happens before you can turn around.  Goodness!  Callie will be exactly two years old when this baby is born.  Callie's birthday is January 8th 2018.  My due date is January 21st, but Dr. Reeves took Callie one week early, so that would make it January 14th.  They're going to have super close birthdays if all goes as planned, and hopefully it will.  

As excited as we are about growing our family, I can't help but worry a little about Callie.  Have I had time to enjoy just her enough?  Will she even like the new baby?  How's she going to handle sharing our attention?  And the list goes on....

While all of those fears are lurking in the back of my mind, I am also really excited about the friendship I hope she has with her new little brother or sister and just the thought of  her meeting the baby for the first time makes my heart want to explode!

We are so very grateful for this new addition!  We are going to have our hands full, but I know our hearts will be, too. Here's to Baby #2!

one year

One year ago at 6:13pm, Callie Taylor made her long awaited arrival and turned our little organized, in order lives upside down.  I have been reflecting a lot on the last year and how much she has completely changed our lives. For some reason or another, being a mama was never really my biggest dream.  I felt a little selfish for the job and honestly, I didn't really think I would be good at it.  Before I got pregnant, I was so happy living our little married life in Remus that I just did not see how it could get much better!  We did what we wanted, when we wanted and we had a lot of fun-just the two of us!  But, there was this little piece that we didn't even know we were missing.  Whenever I found out, a little surprisingly, that we were expecting, I can remember saying these exact words to my mama- "I feel like my life is over."   And she responded- "Your life is just beginning." 

Before Callie was born, I was quite literally a nervous wreck.  I did not love being pregnant, I really didn't appreciate the beauty of it all the way I might if we were to have a baby number two, and I never really felt a strong bond with her whenever she was in the womb.  I loved her because she was mine, but I wasn't just a puddle in the floor over her little self growing inside of me.  I was scared of the moment she was here and I was supposed to know what to do with her because I quite frankly had no idea.  And since I wasn't just so excited to meet her I could not stand it, I was scared that I wasn't going to fall in love with her the minute they handed her to me.  Forget fall in love- I was scared I wasn't even going to like her!  I knew that we could make it if I loved her, but what if I didn't?!  These were my actual thoughts. 

By some miracle, on January 8, 2018, I survived a very long day of labor that was probably worse than all of the scenarios I had played over in my head, but somehow didn't seem that bad in the moment....and I knew just what to do with Callie within hours of her arrival.  It honestly came so natural that I felt like I had been doing it forever.  Thank you Lord.  Within the first few days of having her, I didn't even recognize the person I had become.  Being a mama is a crazy, beautiful thing.  Whenever she was just a little bitty baby, I can remember telling Austin that it felt like she had been apart of us all along.  She's always been ours!  I will never get over the miracle that having Callie is to us.  There are days that Austin and I look at each and say- "isn't it crazy that we have a baby?  Like- there is a baby crawling around our house right now!"   I am not even kidding. 

If I have been away from Callie for any amount of time or sometimes if she's just been napping and she wakes up, being back with her is almost like meeting her for the first time all over again.  There is excitement, there is amazement, there is so much LOVE.  The bond that we share is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life.  There are times I look into her eyes and I think I see her soul.  Whenever she's going to sleep on my pillow and I smile at her and she smiles back with her eyes closed and her little paci grin, I cannot even stand it.  I've been brought to tears by her sugars and love more times than I could count.  Being her mama is by far the most exhausting yet precious thing I have ever done.  She makes me a better version of myself. 

Having Callie opened a door to a world that has always been out there, but I had never known.  I'll never forget the first time I walked into Jewelry Just For Fun after I found out she was a girl or the day I discovered the baby section at Wal-Mart and its million different formulas or whenever I was added to the Facebook page- Smocking Hot Moms Without Entitlement. Who knew 10000s of mamas around the world resale their children's clothes on Facebook around the clock??!  Haha.  (#obsessed)  All of those things have always been there, but I never really noticed them until now... now that I'm a mama!

Being a mama is a scary thing because time isn't slowing down for us.  If the next seventeen years go by as fast as this one has, she will be flying the coop faster than we think. Whenever times get tough and I'm living off of frozen pizzas and terrible sleep, I just think to myself that it isn't always going to be this way.  She isn't always going to come crawling to the bath tub when she hears my bath water running or have a complete meltdown whenever I walk out of the room at her bedtime.  I won't always be picking sweet potatoes out of the rug or stepping on green beans she threw from her high chair into the kitchen floor.  She isn't always going to be this little or this dependent or this attached to her mama.  My goal in the next year is to try to enjoy the here and now and to be as present as possible because I don't want to miss a single minute.

So on her birthday, I hope this little firecracker always knows how very much she is loved. Not only by her mama and daddy but a host of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, family and friends.  I pray God's hand over her because I know he is with her whenever I can't be. I pray that Austin and I will be the parents she needs us to be and that we are building a strong foundation for her little life. 

Happy Birthday, Callie Taylor!

We love you more than we knew was possible!

Callie's First Easter

Callie's Easter weekend was eventful to say the least.  I don't work on Fridays or Mondays now, but somehow we always stay busy anyway!  On Friday, Callie went with me to dance and stayed at Mama Mac's house while I taught a solo for recital.  After we left the studio, I dropped her off at Mammie's house for an hour or so while I went up the road to gather some tax information from a client at my office.  Whenever we got home, Austin helped me put together a scavenger hunt for the next day at church.  I had most of the stuff I needed around the house, but what I didn't have I knew I could find at my mama's house because she keeps all the things.  

Callie spent the night with Mama Mac Friday night to give me some rest!  I knew the weekend was going to be cray and I would probably need it!  After a restful night, I went back to the studio Saturday morning to work with some girls that were trying out for Centralettes at EC!  Callie came and watched us!  I was excited to get my hands on her!  We went home and got ready to go to the church easter egg hunt.  Mama Jim went with us and we had lots of fun with our church fam.  I have one picture to show for it.

We chilled out Saturday night and tried to relax before a full day on Sunday.  I could NOT sleep on Saturday night.  I knew I had to get up and iron clothes the next morning and I really needed to choreograph some solo routines for Monday at some point on Sunday.  I knew it would be impossible, and I think that's what was keeping me up.  Instead of laying in bed awake, I got up and ironed Callie's dress and Austin's pants for church.  I just thought ironing Austin's clothes was torturous.  I spent 30 minutes on  Callie's dress and it still didn't look that great.  Not to mention, it was realllly wrinkled after she sat in the car seat for a few minutes the next morning!  I ended up getting a whopping 3 hours of sleep on Saturday night.

Whenever I got Callie up on Sunday morning at the crack of dawn, she was looking at me like I was crazy.  She was good through church and did some napping.  We were unsuccessful at getting good pictures of Callie in her Easter dress before she spit up all over it!  I don't know how moms keep their kids clothes clean but maybe I'll one day figure it out.  After church, we sat around in the fellowship hall visiting and waiting on the men to cook breakfast!  

Before we left, we had a little Easter photo shoot in front of the church!

OH, and Blake and Callie had their first kiss.  Haha.  Callie doesn't look too thrilled about the situation!

At 2:00, we headed to my Mamaw Kea's for her Easter get together. but not before we stripped Callie down and caught her on camera smiling!  We attempted to nap, but Callie had other plans.  There really wasn't time anyway.

  Callie always seems to lose her bow whenever men are around.  I rarely put a bow on her without Austin making a comment about it cutting off the circulation to her brain.

I usually get a group picture with my camera at Mamaw's.  I bought a remote for my camera for our wedding photo booth and it has paid off a million times over!  Madilynn, Jennifer and Austin helped me get it set up! Love those girls!  And Austin too, I guess.

The whole sha-bang.  We are lucky to still have Mamaw Kea around!  She is one of a kind!  Whenever I think about Mama Jim's mom still being alive, it kind of blows my mind.  I hope I still have my mama whenever I'm 78!

Callie got some Mamaw Kea lovin.  I know I will hold these pictures tight one day!

We did lots of visiting and hid some Easter eggs for the kiddos.  Aunt Amy has her in this picture!  

And now Jake!  Whenever I looked out and saw Jake with Callie, my heart may have melted a little bit.  

Mama wanted to get another picture of our hands where you can see Mamaw's hand better!  Callie Taylor's sweet little hand is so precious to me!

I spent some time talking to the teenagers about their plans for the future and what they do on the weekends.  Oh to be sixteen again! 

After we left Mamaw Kea's house, we made our way to Mammie's for supper!

I got Jamie to take a family picture of us with Callie in her chicken suit!

We got a cousins picture against Joy's will!  Bless it.  You can't tell they weren't super happy about taking a picture!

We celebrated Poppa's birthday a few days early.  Callie was asleep and she woke up during the birthday song.  She was completely exhausted by this point!  We counted over 20 people who had held her that day!  She was wore out.  I debated cancelling my solo practices the next day because we were so tired.  I opted to go ahead and go through with it!  Callie was still snoozing on Monday at 11:00 whenever we left to go to the studio!  

Whenever we were finally finished with our to do list on Monday afternoon, I rocked Callie on the porch and we enjoyed having nothing to do.  She was still recovering from her weekend days later!

Our first holiday with our little love was a good one!  Everything is a little more fun with Callie around.  We love her so!