{talk of the train's}

My Flower Child

2012-02-17T00:37:00.001-05:00

With the winter being as mild as it has been, AM and I have spent many afternoons outside.

We run throughout the backyard, barefoot in search of dandelions with our only concern in life being the possible land mines left behind by Champ. Being the good mother I am, I do my darndest to stay ahead of AM to protect her from those.

We carry cups around filling them with flowers and then once they are full, we take them back to the patio, dump them out, put them back in one by one and then start the flower search over. At some point, I get tired or hot and want to go inside. Inevitably this makes AM cry until I say that we can bring her flowers inside. Then she is happy.

Last week, her stuffed animals had dead flowers crammed into their mouths and I found others left over flowers floating in the toilet, in her toy basket and under the couch. I have a feeling the flower fettish will be around for a while!

I am enjoying these seemingly slower days as I watch my Bitty grow, explore and enjoy life!

Training Toddlers

2012-02-13T06:51:00.000-05:00

I had an idea the other day and I thought I would try it. A while back, I remember reading on Ole Miss Mom's blog something about her putting her little ones on a blanket and making them sit there for a few minutes while they entertained themselves. I couldn't remember her whole tactic behind it but it basically she was using this as a method to teach her children to sit still for a few minutes at a time. I made a brief mental note that I should try something similar one day when I had kids.

That one day is here and this week the implementation of "bottom on your blanket" officially began.

I was attempting to do the dishes and one by one either dishes were being tossed on the floor or toys thrown into the dishwasher. After a few minutes of getting nothing done and me casually reminding myself that "this is why I don't do chores during the day" the thought dawned on me to try to get AM to sit still for a few minutes to allow me to finish cleaning up the kitchen.

I grabbed the nearest blanket and threw it on the floor next to the sink where I was doing dishes. By now Anne Margaret was tugging on my pants leg asking for milk. It rolled off my tongue like water off of a ducks back as I told her that, "she could have her milk as soon as she put her bottom on the blanket."

Just like that she walked to the blanket and plopped down.

Rewarding began.

First she got her milk. Then the longer she sat there or if I noticed her getting bored, I would quickly hand her another toy. The plan was working. She sat with her bottom on her blanket for almost 11 minutes happily playing and sipping on her milk while I did the dishes!!!

She did get up a time or two and I would tell her to please put her bottom on the blanket. Once she did, I would give her something new to play with. I literally was beyond excited and just kept grabbing everything in sight to give her to keep her still - hence the blocks, books, bowls and plates that you see pictured above! The time that she did get up, I took away her milk and she cried. I gently reminded her that if she put her bottom on the blanket she could have it back and what do you know. She waltzed straight to the blanket, sat down, looked up at me and said "mik peese?" Her bottom was on the blanket and I praised her, kissed her on the head and gave her the sippie cup with milk.

So far, we have done this each day this week and I have gotten her to sit for almost 15 minutes straight!!! In kid world that's like FOR.EV.ER!

My main goal behind the bottom on your blanket thing is just to give me a way where I can keep AM close by and for just a few minutes she can entertain herself without running like a crazy woman or being into everything. Not that I mind her doing that but we do that all day long and I feel that its time to implement structure in how to sit and behave as well. I want her to be comfortable sitting still, entertaining herself and to learn how to be patient and I also want her to know its not a bad thing and can be fun.

It gives me a method to use on nights when CT3 gets home and he and I need a few minutes to chat and connect and we need AM to be content and not constantly demanding our attention. It is a way that I can help train her to be able to go to place like story time at the library, doctors offices and friends houses and to be content sitting on a blanket and playing and this is the method I am using to help me teach her.

AM is only 17 months and I know that this wont come over night, however so far so good. Her brain is a little sponge and its amazing how much she already knows and understands. Once she gets more of the hang of it and once she is a bit older, I wont be giving her a toy ever other minute. Once she is a bit bigger, we will tell her to grab a few toys to take with her as she puts her bottom on the blanket, but for now, if she does it, we keep the toys coming.

Anyway, I will keep you posted on how it goes but if you have little ones, try it!! As with anything else, repetition and consistency is the key. Both spouses need to be on the same page and both need to be working at it!

Do you have other training tips for toddlers and self sufficiency, patience and contentment? I'd love to hear whats worked for you!

Kiddos

2012-02-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, I left AM at home with a sitter and I jetted off for the day to get my snuggle on with two of my good friends and their newborn babies.

It was a great day of seeing the girls in their new mommy roles and holding their sweet babies however it made me sad that I had left Anne Margaret at home. Don't get me wrong, it was totally the right thing to do as otherwise I would not have been able to visit. If AM had been with me, I would have been chasing her constantly and making sure that she didn't poke their babies eyes out but as I cuddled their littles, it made me want mine.

I am so happy for my friends! They are doing fab and their babies are just precious....Don't tell their Daddies but they have officially been on their first date together and they may or may not have been posed for a picture or two!

Cant wait for these little ones to grow up and for AM to play {or babysit} them! HA!

Pigtails and Pajamas

2012-02-09T06:32:00.003-05:00

I don't know why I haven't yet thought to put AM's hair in pigtails!!

Actually, I do know why. She pulls every thing off of her head - bow, hat, rubber band, headband - my kid doesn't like them and refuses to leave them in. The only way we can get something to stay in her hair is if she is distracted when I put it in and if she is distracted when I let her go. Otherwise, the second she realizes something is in her hair, she reaches up with her sweet little fingers and says "air bow" as she yanks it out.

Little Miss Piggy is so cute though with them in, I think I will just keep trying. Look at all of that hair! I do love it - and regardless if sometimes it looks like a mullet or a helmet, I refuse to cut it. Not because I am scared or not because I am the sentimental mom who just cant take her kid for her first hair cut but I really just don't want to cut any hair that will not allow me to make the cutest durn pig tails you have ever seen.

In other random and deep Thursday thoughts, why are pigtails and other things so cute on little kids and so awkward on adults?

Like pretend this was me and my grown up slightly immature self. If I did a post all about me and my pigtails would you think it cute? Negative. You would instead be thinking Pippi Longstocking or something of the like.

via google images

Lets go a different route.

Footie pajamas. All kids in their footie pajamas are cute an snuggly.

What if I told you that I have a pair of footie pajamas? What if I told you that my footie pajamas are pink? Would you think "Aww! How cute!"

No way Jose! You would be thinking overgrown, wanna be child in a pink jumpsuit and slightly resembling the Energizer Bunny.

Lets take it one step further, shall we?

A kid in footie pajamas WITH pigtails! Talk about the ultimate cuteness!

...you already know where I am going with this.

Just close your eyes, take a deep breath and imagine a picture of me. Now imagine me in my Energizer Bunny suit with pigtails. Fabulously frightening and hysterical all at once.

P.S. I do have a pair of pink footie pajamas and they came from here. No lie. I only bust them out on special occasions {like Halloween}. I also now have the Pippi Longstocking song stuck in my head.

"Pippi Longstocking is coming into your world. The freckled faced redhead kid you ought to know..."

Nervously Excited About Tomorrow

2012-02-08T22:51:00.001-05:00

EEEK! I am SO excited because I am headed to a Stella & Dot bootcamp tomorrow in Atlanta. This is my first corporate event and I cant wait to put faces with names as I meet a bunch of other Stylists. Between bootcamp tomorrow, Valentine's Day orders and a trunk show on Saturday, I have jewelry on the brain so forgive me for my S&D talk!

A Stella & Dot quick update::

I still have a few items left from the Sample Sale. If you would like them please EMAIL {laurenbtrain@gmail.com} me as sometimes commenter's have no email addy affiliated with their name so I have no way to get in touch with you!

Next, if you or your man is ordering you some jewels for Valentine's Day, to not have to pay overnight delivery fees, he needs to place his order TOMORROW {2/9}

Finally, the free Pave Double Bar necklace promo was too good of an option to pass up and we had so many orders that we ran out! In place of it, orders through tomorrow, over $125 retail will receive a Renegade Layering necklace {$69 value} for FREE! To get this deal, you can shop here {www.stelladot.com/laurentrain} and just put the Renegade Layering Necklace in your cart. The promo will be automatically applied at checkout. Again, good while supplies last!

Later gators. I have to be on the road at the crack of dawn. I cant wait to come back and implement all of the tools that I learn into my business as a stylist.

If you have ever considered becoming a Stella & Dot stylist and want to hear more about it, what it entails or my experience with it, I would love to share and help you out! Did you know that Stella & Dot only has 12,000 stylists between the U.S., Canada and the UK?! I have loved every second of it and there really is no better time to get started.

Alright, enough jewelry talk for tonight. I am nervous about the shindig tomorrow and will soon go pick out and lay out my outfit {and jewelry - duh!}

Love to my imaginary friends!

Lost In Translation

2012-02-07T07:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I had more quiet time in the morning than usual.

As I sometimes {and not often enough} do, I drink my coffee as I read my Bible.

Lately, I have started rereading the book of John and am just going to slowly work my way through using my concordance.

While I enjoy reading today's modern day translations of the Scriptures, I love reading what the original text or words meant in Hebrew or Greek. Sometimes I feel that today's loose translations and word choices just don't do the real meaning of the verse justice. Or maybe they do it justice; they just don't give us the full, clear picture of what the writer actually meant.

Take what I read today as written by Jesus' disciple John.

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."
-John 1:4-5

I LOVED what I read today and the meaning behind it. My commentary {written by Jon Courson} said this in reference to the above verse:

"The Greek word translated "comprehend" can mean either "extinguish" or "understand." Both meanings are applicable in this verse, for the darkness could neither understand nor extinguish Jesus."

As I reread this verse, now inputting my new understanding of the word, I translated to myself, "In him {Jesus} was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness could neither understand it nor extinguish it not."

Love that and such truth.

I guess, I can see that the English word comprehend in a Thesaurus could mean both of those things but how in the world would I have known that. Sometimes I wish that the Scriptures were translated word for word, but then again I can see how that would make an already long and slightly intimidating "book" to just sit down and read just that much longer! On the other hand, I feel like I am missing out on so much richness, truth and understanding that sometimes just seems to get lost in translation!

If you are looking for a deep yet understandable, and practical but thought provoking commentary, I cannot highly enough recommend to you Jon Courson's Application Commentary. To be quite honest, I am not a fan of commentaries. I feel like I should read the Bible and try to understand it on my own. Not that I am above help and by NO means do I know it all, but my problem is that once I get a thought in my brain that "this is what something means" its hard to get it out. So if I read a concordance and it tells me a lot of "this is what this verse means and that is what that verse means" then I have a hard time seeing it any differently.

Not so with Jon Courson's. He gives tons of life application, but I feel like I can read this and get so much out of it and learn and it makes me want to delve into the Scriptures and seek understanding and God so much more.

In other news, my small group and I are doing Francis Chan's Crazy Love Small Group Study. Last week was the first part of a ten week series. So far so good and I will let you know how that goes!

I would love to know what you are reading or what God is teaching you today. If you have commentary recommendations or Bible study thoughts or small group study recommendations please share those as well! I am always looking for a good read or a good study!

My Wild Child

2012-02-06T07:08:00.000-05:00

We haven't had too many posts lately that have been picture overload of my child and I feel that we are over due. Thankfully, I have had my mommy cam out lately and the next month of posts could probably be filled with hundreds of pictures of my kid. I also need to do a good, long update on what Bitty boo is up to so that one day I will look back and remember and with this post I will try to encompass a bit of all of that!

Pictures and details of my kid galore.

{I think I heard half of you Internet folks groan while I just heard Gigi and Aunt Kristin cheer all the way from North Georgia!}

Lately, Anne Margaret's vocabulary has taken off. First of all, she will sing H thru P in the alphabet. Now, it may not be the clearest pronunciation of the letters that you have ever heard, but for a almost 17 month old, I think its pretty impressive. No way no how has she learned this from us. Not that CT3 and I don't sing to her but she has quite a few toys that sing it and while I would like to claim that I taught her this, the fact that she ran up to one of her toys yesterday, hit the button and then sang along allowed me to see where she is probably hearing the song over and over and learning it.

Along with the alphabet, if you help her, she will count to ten. Sometimes she gets stuck on eight, but whatever. I think that's cause its her favorite number. She knows the color yellow or in her words yeh-yoh and she calls everything yeh-yoh. She loves talking on the phone and will hold it up to her ear and yell hew-wo into it over and over.

Grocery store trips are fun and we really love the produce section and the dairy. In the produce, we are fond of swash {squash}, nannies or nanas {bananas}, apples {apples}, saw-berry {strawberries} and we-we {kiwi} just to name a few. As we make our way to the diary section, we moo at all of the milk and yell "keys" and point to the cheese. We also yell "go-go" and cry as we pass the yogurt section. I am hoping that one passes sooner than later....

Most fun lately, has been her learning and stringing words together - most of them however begin with either Mommy -----, Daddy -----, Champie ------ or Gigi --------. Such as "Champie outside?" Or "Champie night night?" or "Daddy's sock?" or "Mommy's tirt?"

By the way, "tirt" is baby lingo for shirt. Duh.

She loves to give high fives and fist bumps and if you will not give her one, she will either go find the dog and help him give her one or she will say "high five toes" and give her toes a high five. That is the funniest one and I giggle every time.

AM will answer yes or no if you ask her a question and if you ask her where something is she will just shrug and put her palms up as if to say 'I dont know!' She loves to say "no ney-yee" {woah nellie}, "oh no," "dups" {whoops} and "tig-gle, tig-gle" {tickle tickle} and "ine nonna netchu" {I'm gonna get you} and currently she is in a phase where she runs everywhere she goes.

Our favorite songs that we sing repeatedly are songs such as "Swinkle Swinkle" {Twinkle Twinkle}, "Sider" {The Spider Song as she calls it or Eensy Weensy Spider as you would know it - where I sing and she does the motions but when I get to the washed part, she yells "wassssshhhhhheeeed!"} and the A, B, C's.

We also are loving the Elmo theme song {la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's world, la la la la...} - which she will sing for you should you ask her to and she is loving the potty song that we sing. It goes a bit like this "tee tee in the pot-ty! tee tee in the pot-ty"and you sing this to what ever tune you feel appropriate. Also, you repeat over and over again while dancing like a crazy person. You can also substitute the word tee tee for poo poo when appropriate. Deep I know.

A quick list of other words she is constantly spouting off are chair, nano {piano}, ipper {zipper}, air {chair}, moon, ood {food}, juice, wah-her {water}, ear-ree-ose {cheerios}, yelly {belly}, hat, shoes, ig ird {big bird}, fow-er {flower}, ookie {cookie}, ish {fish}, iss {kiss}, i luh ewe {I love you}, pah-yee {potty}, erk {work}, ome {home}, bump and more!

It truly is amazing to watch how fast she learns and picks up stuff.

In other news, she still only has six teeth but it looks like four more are on their way in and thankfully she is chewing much much better. We have branched out from our all pureed foods and now give her bananas, strawberries, grilled cheese, potatoes, spaghetti/pasta, cooked veggies and a few other things to chew up on her own. Every night we are now brushing those six teeth and she loves to brush and to take her tiny sip of water before bed.

...speaking of water, she is wearing the 12 hour over night diapers and each morning she wakes up drenched to say the least. Like having to wash sheets and mattress protector daily drenched. I am open for suggestions here. She usually does not have anything to drink other than this sip of water before bed time. So I am at a loss there. I tried waking her last week for a middle of the night diaper change and lets just say that it is not something I recommend. She fell asleep sitting up, crying in her crib post change. Whoops!

Champ and her are besties and she loves her puppy. He is so sweet and relaxed around her and we couldn't ask for a better ~~older brother~~ family dog. She brushes his hair, pulls his tail, jumps on him, rides him, takes food away from him and good ole Champ just rolls with it. He is 3.5 years old and for still being young, he really is a great dog.

Anyway, we sure do love our little Bitty and we are already so proud of her!

Guess which art teacher aunt gave her these?

Me telling her "no no no no no" as she puts a crayon in her mouth and her laughing...not a good response!

Front toofers!

See the crayon on the back of her bottom teeth from where she bit into them!? At least she is learning to chew, right?! ;)

Tracing

Getting his hair brushed.

AM loves to grab his tail and say "tiggle tiggle" as she rubs it on her face. This time she was trying to tickle Champ with his own tail.

She will put her head on him and say "awwww!"

Holding her "swash" from the store.

"Tiggle tiggle."

Mommy's erk? {Mommy's work?}

She is also into anything she can put on her feet...

Or hands...

Or body....

or feet again.

And then she dipped my dirty socks, which she was wearing, into Champs water bowl. Nice.

My house looks like this daily. She LOVES pulling everything out of the cabinets.

Pulling Champ's tail as he tries to eat...clearly he looks thrilled.

Then checking on him. He probably didn't love this either, but he tolerates her.

Daddy's hat?

Wassss upppp.

Snowstorm much? Nah, its in the 70's here.

One cool kid. By the way, this was a late afternoon walk and she is totally wearing her p.j.'s that she slept in the night before!

Into everything.

Including the toilet plunger.

and Daddy's dirty socks!!
{Story here...CT3 played a soccer game and then came home and took of his socks and shin guards and threw the socks into the hamper. AM followed him, pulled them out, sat down and put them on and then walked into the living room saying "Daddy's ocks." I told her they were Daddy's yucky socks and she walked around saying "Daddy's ucky ocks" for the rest of the night. So cute!

Urban Dictionary

2012-02-05T01:44:00.002-05:00

CT3 is on a fire call and I have eaten french fries, cookie dough and diet lemonade all night long.

Glad I threw in the diet lemonade, huh? I would hate for the drink to throw off my No Mo Pudge campaign....

Anyway, I was facebooked and twittered out and trying to load 3,600 pictures of my kid onto the blog for Monday so what better to do than look at crazy things on Urban Dictionary. If you don't know, Urban Dictionary is basically an online dictionary written by people of all sorts of slang lingo, sayings and crazy stuff. Sometimes the stuff is useful or appropriate but mostly its trashy. For instance, Tebowing {bowing down on one knee to thank God like Tim Tebow does} is on there.

Anyway, I have never really looked at it before and I was going to use the term "hot mess" in an upcoming blog post and I wanted to make sure I didn't use it trying to be funny and it actually meant something inappropriate. That said, I checked it out on Urban Dictionary.

I would not recommend it for your Saturday night entertainment unless you don't mind a LOT of foul language or constantly retrieving your mind from the gutter. Some of it was funny and some if not most was inappropriate. I will say though that after clicking through a few pages I am now highly educated on all of the slang terms and their appropriate use age. When I am at a high school for work and some kid spurts off something about "haters gonna hate," I am going to have my response ready!

Some of the more informative things I learned tonight on Urban Dictionary were::

Mompetition: mom's competing and trying to one up each other. I am totally stealing this for blog land and the mompetitions that happen around here!
iFinger: the finger you keep clean when you eat so that you can still swipe your touchscreen/smart phone.
501k: when your money is so tight that all you have left is whats in your jeans pocket.
Fartriloquism: like a ventriqulosit but with your farts...someone who "throws" their fart in another direction making it seem like it came from someone else. Urban Dictionary refers to this as an art. {REALLY PEOPLE?!?!}
Facility fishing: looking for a bathroom in a facility.
Hippocampus: a college with lots of heavy people.

Consider yourself edumacated.

Happy Sunday yall and to all of you fartriloquists out there, watch out. I am onto you now.

Baby's Sleep Schedule

2012-02-04T10:18:00.000-05:00

Kind of ironic that I wrote this at 3:17 AM last night and its supposed to be a post on good sleep habits.

I guess this is what I get for sleeping til 10:30 AM today and then for drinking a Diet Coke at midnight tonight. Whoops!

Despite my poor sleeping habits, this post is really not about me. I wanted to share with yall how we went about getting Anne Margaret on a sleep and eating schedule.

As we took off into the wild world of parenthood, I read a few books, researched a few things online and then basically took bits and pieces of each that worked for our lifestyle and that worked for us as parents. We then implemented those ideas in our little family and molded them as we saw fit.

First and foremost, we stood pretty strongly by the whole "you cant spoil an infant" thing and we agree that up til 12 weeks old, you shouldn't really worry about forming bad habits. At this point, all is still quite new for Mommy, Daddy and Baby and the first few weeks are survival mode at best. We didn't worry on long nights when she wanted to be held or rocked and we would let her snooze all night long in her swing. People would tell us we were forming bad habits, but I think that under 12 weeks the babies really just need to be loved and cared for. They are too little to really self soothe and for us the habit forming stuff didn't come til a few months later. Around 12-14 weeks was when CT3 and I got a bit firmer and did work hard to implement good habits up front so that we wouldn't just do stuff for convenience now and then bear the repercussions of it later.

From the start, CT3 and I used a loose version of the Becoming Baby Wise theory. The whole premise of this book deals with infant management concepts. It talks about everything from feeding to sleeping to fussy babies and gives tools and tactics for understanding your child. In regards to feeding, it discusses how you can be child led or parent led and either run on more of an on demand child schedule or rely more on the clock {parent directed}. If you are going the on demand route, you feed your kid every time it cries. If you are a clock watcher, you say that you will only feed when the clock hits a certain time {say every 3 hours}.

We did an abbreviated version of this basically combining what worked for us. In the beginning we fed her when she was hungry. Once she was a few weeks old, we implemented more of the Becoming Baby Wise schedule and we would try to get closer to the three hour mark before a feed. There were some days that Anne Margaret cluster fed and would eat more frequently and we just dealt with those as they came and then the next day would try to get back on schedule.

For me, I couldn't imagine busting out my boob each time AM screamed, nor could I imagine listening to her cry until the clock struck the magic feeding time. Thus said, we set the three hour mark as the goal or the ideal and if it was slightly before that when she wanted to be fed, we just rolled with it. We found that within a few weeks, even though we weren't too strict with this, she had actually worked it out herself and was on a every 3-4 hour feed schedule. So while we helped guide her, we didn't stress on days that she clearly wanted to be nursed a bit earlier.

Becoming Baby Wise also encourages a eat-wake-sleep cycle. This means that after the baby eats, it plays for a bit and then sleeps. We did encourage this routine as it did help us to get on a good schedule. With AM's tummy full, she was happy to play and then after she had played hard, she slept well. The she would wake up and the cycle would repeat. Once we got this schedule down pat, it also helped us plan our day. We knew when she would be awake and when she would be asleep and we scheduled our meals, showers and errands accordingly!

By 8 weeks old, baby girl was sleeping through the night. Let me clarify here. For babies, I guess they say that sleeping for 6 hours or more straight is sleeping "through the night." At around this time, we were still nursing every three hours during the day and then I would nurse her between 10-11 and she would go down for the night. She would wake up around 6 AM, nurse and then go back to bed til 9 which is when we would get up for the day and begin our every three hour nurse routine. Basically she was sleeping 7-8 hours straight, getting up to feed and going back down for 3 more hours before waking up for the day.

From there, she got bigger and as her tummy could hold more food, her sleep hours extended and she would go to bed a bit earlier and sleep a bit later. We never ever put Anne Margaret to bed before 8. Not that we really didn't want to, we were just never headed for bed by then. Besides, I didn't want her waking up at the crack of dawn and would rather have her up a bit later but sleep in a bit longer.

Now, as she got older {around 5 months} we transitioned her from the pack-n-play in our room, to the crib. She had been napping in her crib during the day, we had just yet to make the nighttime switch.

When we moved her over, we began more of a nighttime routine. For us, our routine consisted of diaper change and getting into p.j.'s, dimming the lights, nursing, praying and laying the baby down. Some people do bath time in there too, but we don't bathe her every night {since she is at home and not in daycare or out some days we skip baths} so we never included that in our consistent routine.

As Baby grew, we began sleep training by putting her in her crib during the day and letting her cry it out. We started this just after 4 months old. I am not going to lie, it was R-O-U-G-H. There were some days that I thought I just couldn't listed to a screaming child for one more second. There were also days that I had to turn off the monitor and hide in my room for ten minutes til she calmed herself long enough to go to sleep. Thankfully those days only lasted for a week or so and now they are few and far between and with the exception of a random teething night here and there. I would say that though difficult initially, our sleep training days paid off.

For sleep training we did a loose version of the Ferber method. We would go through our nightly routine, make sure she was fed, had a clean diaper and was warm and we put her down. In the beginning when she was really little, we only let her cry for 5 minutes, then we would go back and check on her, put her paci in, pat her back and leave her again. The next time she would cry for 3 minutes, then go in and do the same thing. Within a week, we would put her down and she rolled over and went straight to sleep without a peep.

The key here was CONSISTENCY. Consistency with how we put her down {nap time and bed time} and let her cry and consistency in how CT3 and I managed it. There were some nights that were long and frustrating. Though she is a great sleeper, there have been times when she would just get off cycle and have a few bad nights. We would automatically go back to our Ferber training and let AM cry it out as she got back on schedule.

The past few weeks teething has thrown us way off. She has four little teeth poking through and we have had multiple long nights for each of them. Now that we are through the worst {I think} we have had to fight to get her back on schedule. Home girl cried for 49 minutes the other night in her crib before going to sleep and we LET her. The next night it was 20 minutes and the next night and from then on out it was 30 seconds. The first two nights were killer but now I am really thankful that she is back on track.

With the sleeping, there are a few exceptions to our rules. If she gets herself too worked up where she cant breathe, we go and get her. If she has been standing in her crib and crying for more than 10 minutes we go and get her. If she is fussing, she is laying down or sitting in there playing with her paci and rubbing her shirt on her face. We know she is just tired and we let her cry it out. The times when she is standing in her crib wailing til she cant catch her breath, she just isn't going to go to bed and we usually go and get her and either hold her or let her play a bit longer - just depending on the night and the circumstance!

In regards to bed times, CT3 and I are pretty chill. Last night, AM was up til 10:30. She will sleep late tomorrow and then tomorrow night we will get her down somewhere between 8:30-9:15. We occasionally have late nights and she is super flexible and rebounds well.

After I stopped nursing, we substituted a milk bottle instead of her bedtime nursing. We did this from about 13 months til 15 months and around then we changed to what we currently do. We now give AM a sippie cup of milk before bed but its a bit earlier. She drinks this while she plays and then we go for our diaper change, p.j.'s and teeth brushing before hitting the hay. I was nervous about taking away her before bedtime bottle, but she kind of did it on her own when she started asking for milk a bit earlier in the night. When she did this, we also brought in the toothbrush. Now AM will ask to brush her teeth and she knows that we do that right before she gets in bed.

I know lots of people have a book routine. Eh, sometimes we ready to her, sometimes we don't. I really don't care about it right now as I figure once she gets a bit older she will be asking for one every night and currently during the day, we read a ton.

In regards to babies and nap times and sleeping, we don't use a sound machine, have any special black out curtains, or have any special blankets, pacis, or anything of the like. Not that we are opposed to this, but for us we travel too much to have multiple of everything and to worry about a baby not sleeping if we don't have black out curtains or the magic sleep pajamas or what not. We went with the minimal on the sleep training and I really think because of that, as long as AM gets a cup of milk and has her paci, she is good to go.

Lastly, as I just mentioned, CT3 and I have traveled quite a bit with Baby as well as had lots of people put her to bed. Sometimes with others putting her down, she fusses more, but for the most part she is easy. I am really glad we did some of this early on as now my kid will sleep anywhere, through anything and around anyone. It has given CT3 and I the flexibility and confidence to leave her and know that not only is she in good hands but she is also capable of soothing herself.

Anyway, I know that some will disagree with me on the Ferber method or on the abbreviated version of the feeding schedule and all. I know some people swear by a sound machine and everyone tells me that when we decide to have more kids, the older ones will have to have a noise maker. Eh, we may but we may not. Who knows and to each his own.

I hope our little story helps one of you out there and if nothing else, it will be a good reminder of what worked for us in the future!

Valentine's Day Gifts For Her

2012-02-03T16:35:00.008-05:00

Alright yall. We know that Valentine's Day is probably way over commercialized. We also {as women} know that most of us would probably be slightly disappointed if our significant other didn't at least acknowledge it, right?

Come on now. With all of the other ladies around the office receiving flowers, chocolates, jewelry and more, its hard not to have at least a few wishes for this lovey dovey day.

That said, if your guy needs a few helpful hints, I have included the two photos below for you ladies to print off, fill in your wish list and casually leave for him to find. Drop it off in his car, leave it by the sink or heck, tape it to the remote! After that, all your man has to do is call me and I will take care of the rest!!

Guys, YOU can use this too...if you are at a loss and your lady has big expectations, how bout you take the initiative and print it out, stick a sticky note on it saying "please fill out and return" and leave it for your gal. I PROMISE you that she wont mind doing a bit of pre-shopping on her own! On the big day, cook her dinner or take her out, tell her she looks beautiful, give her her jewels and voila, the perfect Valentine's Day!

There are two options below but they are both the same thing. One for the sweetie who just wants to drop a hint or two and one for the sassy who really wants to make her wish list known! You know your man and what will get his attention best so use whichever suits your personality!

NOTE:: For FREE shipping, orders must be over $125 and ordered before 2/8. You must CALL me to place so I can take care of the shipping {i.e. there is NOT a code to put in for this deal}. Also, for orders over $125 {retail} you get the Pave Double Bar necklace for FREE. To get this deal, just add the necklace to your cart and the {$79} discount will be automatically applied!!

Happy Shopping and I cant wait to hear from you men!

Bubbles

2012-01-31T07:29:00.001-05:00

Whether you are blowing a bubble with your chewing gum, whether they are soaring through the air in a sunny afternoon or whether its a bath tub full of them, one thing is for sure, my kid loves bubbles.

She has always loved bath time, but now with bubbles in the equation, it is just that much more fun. In fact, we had so much fun filling the tub with bubbles that I managed to drain the entire thing of it in a few days...looks like we will be picking up more bubble bath on our next Target trip!

Anyhoo, I just love the little Bitty and love watching her as she plays in her bubble baths. She has gotten so smart lately and is stringing together more words and trying to say sentences. Just yesterday she was making her debut and now she will bow her head to pray and repeat after you at the table. So much fun and if I could have 10 more just like her, I think I would!

Babies are so much fun and so true are the words of Psalm 127:3.

"Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him."

Mexican Cupcakes

2012-01-30T08:47:00.003-05:00

I am laughing SO hard right now.

I was pulling pictures to post on this blog and while they were uploading I was catching up on a few of my favorite reads. Let me brief you on our weekend and the real gist of this post and then I will tell you why I have the giggles...

This past weekend, we went out with a bunch of friends to celebrate Lauren and Eddie's little family as they prepare to welcome their second little boy. Like it was the most unplanned, non structured event one has ever been to. My brain has been out to lunch a lot lately and it seemed like the best I could do just to get it together.

Literally my thought was to get a bunch of friends together, go to dinner, and have people bring the expectant family diapers and wipes. After all, they have one little boy, so they have the bulk of what they need and the diapers and wipes would carry them for a bit and then they could fill in the rest, right?

So then I tried to think of a good place to have it. Well, they and we love Mexican, so that was obviously the route to go. I made the reservations, set up the Facebook event {fancy, I know} and then I realized that I was not friends with any of Lauren's friends. I think I made like ten new friends as I messaged them, explaining to them who I was and why some random chick was sending them a friend request to invite them to an event for their OTHER friend named Lauren!

Who knew you had to be friends with people to invite via Facebook!?

I think I had already made Lauren feel awkward enough about the whole party thing so I didn't want to tell her this up front that I had to go around randomly friending people and she is probably just finding this out now as she reads this post...Sorry Lauren! Hehehe!

Anyway, Friday night-the day before dinner, I decided that we needed at least something baby themed as we were all bringing gifts {well diapers and wipes} to celebrate their new little one. So off to the store I went to buy the fixings to make some of Grandma's famous cupcakes. I had considered balloons but then I remembered that boys were coming and the last thing I wanted to do was make it all girly. I ditched any thought of excessive decor and just stuck to the sugar.

I made the first batch of cupcakes and only had 18. Given the fact that just under 25 would be coming - and lots of kids who all like cupcakes, I decided we needed more and I whipped up a second batch. On this one I made some mini ones too giving me close to 50. They weren't anything fancy, but now we had Mexican food, friends, diapers and cupcakes. Sounded like a pretty good party to me.

Cupcake tree...sure, why not?!

Mexican and Cupcakes...most random thing ever.

I arrived early and set out the cupcakes. I have to admit, the whole cheese dip and cupcakes thing seemed a bit awkward but whatever. It was too late by then so we just rolled with it.

Thankfully Nanette and Michael arrived first. They were the only other people that I knew so when she got there I was excited as she could help me greet the rest of the guests. As people came in, they asked me where to sit...again, the whole unplanned, just rolling with it, not so much thought out plan was in full action. It seemed like people just filled in as they got there and once we finally got happily seated, we ordered and meals arrived and we all ate and were happy campers.

To my delight, everyone {including the adults} ate and loved the cupcakes! They werent the most beautiful things you have ever seen, but they sure did taste yummy! Once again I think I made Grandma proud!!

James does not look too thrilled either by having to share his Daddy or by me taking the photo.

Baby and her sugar packets.

Towards the end of the night, Anne Margaret and James were having a who can be more into things competition. Anne Margaret seemed to take the cake as she dumped sugar packets all over the table and the floor, but then James won when he tried to pour his sippy cup into the coke glass and when he couldnt reach he literally just threw it. It knocked the entire glass over into Lauren's lap....

...I told her that if her water breaks in public, the "dump your drink accidentally into your lap" is TOTALLY a card I would pull. Consider James just practicing for the next week or two!

With that and our kids getting more rowdy by the second, we helped them load their car and bid our farewells. A fun, low key, most-unorganized-second-baby-shower-sprinkle was enjoyed by all.

James & AM were so cute holding hands!

Now, why was I laughing at the beginning of this post you ask?

Well, because LITERALLY as I was typing this and adding pictures to it, I came across Meredith's blog post for the day. She wrote about her weekend and about how her sweet friends had thrown her a shower for her third child.

Her shower seemed relatively organized. It wasnt at a Mexican restaurant and I bet they had more than cheese dip and salsa. In fact, it was actually themed...more so than just slap some diapers and wipes in a bag and bring them to Lauren and Eddie...it was a "Monogram Shower." How cute is that?!

Anyway, so as I was thinking about my lack of planning this weekend and how poor, sweet Lauren at 38 weeks preggo had to bear the brunt of it, I was reading and giggling at how perfectly schemed Meredith's party seemed to be. Regardless, a great time was had by all and I do think that our friends will at least have enough diapers to get them through a few weeks.

.Lauren, for your third kid, I cross my heart that I will try to be more organized and maybe, just MAYBE, you will get a monogram shower then too....no promises though. And just for fun, we will have to keep the mexican included. In fact, I am pretty sure it will be a "Mexican, Monogram, Maracas, Margaritas and Cupcakes" themed party.

I may even make people wear sombreros...

Awkward Family Photo and a Birthday

2012-01-29T23:46:00.000-05:00

Before I get too into talking about my family's odd photo shoot the other day, lets wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my old man! His birthday was Saturday and I think he did lots of whatever 62 year olds are supposed to do on their birthday!

The week prior, Dad and company had come down to celebrate his birth fest. If you know my family, we just don't celebrate birthdays for the day. Its for the entire month. That said, it was totally normal for us to start dining and feasting in honor of Dad a week or so early. We will continue the celebration in a few weeks when we head to their house for a belated cake and ice cream.

Before dinner, we tried to snap a few photos. I dare not post too many of the outtakes for fear of being shunned from the family, but lets just say I had to do a bit of editing on this one and it was by far the best in the bunch.

Never mind the fact that the camera was sitting on top of a wet mailbox with a piece of folded newspaper wedged under the lens to get the angle relatively normal. I would mash the automatic shutter button, run around, squeeze in my spot and then when the light stopped flashing I would yell for everyone to smile.

The first one looked like a sorority shot gone bad. The second {as seen above} was a bit better. We also had a few solo shots. First, I would like to welcome Kristin, along with the 80's and her semi-side pony action that she has going on. The hip pop out and my child's butt cut make this picture clearly a winner.

Next we have Dad and baby. Cute of both of them, but what cracks me up most about this is the tree in the distance perfectly lined up behind Dad's head. It looks like he has some serious static electricity or major frizzies going on along the back and side of his head.

Lastly, I cant make fun of my family without showing you my worst official photo shoot ever. Like ever. It started off with Dad getting all up in my way. After that, apparently I didn't have my game face on. I forget what I was trying to get a good head shot of myself for, but clearly tonight was NOT my night.

First the lighting was not good.

So we switched sides. Then my arms got all chicken wing-ish and that just looked stupid. My head looks a bit too small for my body here too...Is that a sign I need to lose some weight?

Then we tried hair down, arms in front. Unfortunately when your hair is uber greasy like mine, its just not cute. As Kristin said, "Lauren, you should do this RIGHT after you get out of the shower next time." Riiiighht. Thanks, Sis.

So then I pulled my hair back again and did the most awkward neck pose I could ever do. It honestly looks like I have a goiter on the right side of my neck.

Then I got annoyed and just did a crazy face. Sadly, blurred and all, I thought this was the best shot of me.

My stomach was growling by now and clearly the light or the subject was not getting any better. We went for one more low pony look and after that was disastrous and made me look like I had a nasty rat tail, we headed for dinner.

I went for one more shot pre-dinner and aside from the random restaurant in the back, it turned out half normal.

I am not sure why I am showing you how hideous all of these are. Regardless, we went into dinner and I was feeling so sorry for my unphotogenic self, that I ordered one of everything on the menu.

Seriously though, I ordered a soup and veggie plate and then got a craving for a caesar salad so I added it on and when they brought everything at once there was no room left on the table! I ended up just eating the soup and salad and taking the rest home.

Post dinner, we ordered a big fat dessert to celebrate Dad's birthday. Unfortunately, Dad doesn't like this chocolaty goodness, so Mom, Kristin, CT3, Baby and I just shared it all.

Hi Ma & K!

A good night was had by all. Even Anne Margaret was perfect in the restaurant, and Moms of little ones, you know that is something to be proud of! We went home after dinner and little miss strawberry tried on all of her new gear that Gigi and G-Diddy brought her before they headed home late that night.

Happy Birthday G-Diddy! Here is to many more birthdays, many more desserts and many more awkward family photos!

Love you!

Is It Summertime Yet?

2012-01-26T00:22:00.004-05:00

This little strawberry wants to know if its summertime yet!?

{Photo above also submitted as my favorite photo for the month to The Paper Mama's photo challenge!}

Last weekend when Mom, Dad and Kristin came down to visit they made a quick pit stop at the outlets. They said they were shopping for Kristin, but yall know that they couldn't shop without picking up a few things for baby!

Anne Margaret racked up with a few 18-24 month old clothes that will be perfect for spring and summer and some new beach attire.

Mom and Dad love to take Baby swimming, so I think we will probably leave it at their house so that Mom can take her whenever we are in town. Mom works at a place that has a pool that she can use daily, so even in the winter months, AM can keep swimming!

They also bought Baby a pair of sunglasses - strawberry themed of course to match the rest! She wasn't too keen about wearing them around, but since last weekend she has grown quite fond of them. She prefers them on her head holding her little blonde in place and safe from flying in the wind.

After dinner and after she modeled the sunglasses, she then modeled the clothes. She also ran around naked, brought us lots of diapers from her room and stuffed them into Kristin's rain boots.

Once we finally caught up with her naked and squirmy self, we tried her new swimsuit on for size. If this isn't the cutest little thing you ever have seen!

Thanks for the new stuff yall! AM loves it and cant wait to go for her next swim with you Gigi!

Update and a Stella & Dot Sample Sale & Promo

2012-01-25T01:26:00.003-05:00

***I still have these items available however please email me at laurenbtrain@gmail.com if you are interested in them! Sometimes commenters have a 'no reply' email which I cant respond to through Blogger! Thanks!!***

I hope yall had a great weekend. Despite the heaviness of the medical stuff going on all last week, I have remained focused and have actually rested better in the past few days than I have in a while! This week has and will be a doozie at work {catching up and working an extra day at an event} hence my silence here in blog land and hopefully next week I will have my act back together!

Until then, let me delight you with these goodies from my Stella & Dot samples and a fun Valentine's Day Promo I will be running!

First, for Valentine's Day. Go ahead and make a wish list for your man or just for fun, treat yourself! You deserve it....and actually, I have a bunch of guys who I actually help shop and its totally fun. The guy wins because he has picked it out and the girl wins because she gets a great gift! Now, for orders placed before Jan 31st and over $100 retail, the shipping is on me! You must email or call me to place your order so that I know you have seen this post or seen it on Facebook.

Next, I am selling some of my samples at a uber discounted rate to make room for more stuff in my line. Here's how it works. I will post an image of the item {as seen on my Stella and Dot website} and a brief description along with the current retail price and my sample sale price. At the bottom, I have posted pictures of my items on the necklines so you can see how snazzy they are!

I had my first Stella & Dot trunk show on November 29th and I have not even had these items for 2 months yet so they literally are like new. All will be shipped or delivered in their original boxes and if you are unhappy with the product, just talk to me and we can work something out.

Leave a comment if you see a piece you want and please leave your email address so I will have a way to contact you. I will also be posting these to my Facebook Page {shameless promo - click the link and please go LIKE the page!} within the next day or so - so don't delay if you want it as its a first come first serve deal!

I will email you a Pay Pal invoice and upon payment, item will be shipped. I am asking that everyone pay within 24 hours. Shipping is flat $4 if you are local I will deliver.

La Coco Chain - Gold

Retail: $69

Sample Sale Price: $30

Gold textured double layer chain necklace, antiqued gold plated finish, comes with extender that can be removed and worn as a bracelet {To create a layered look - order with the Gold Pearl Strand...sorry, not selling mine but you can order here!}

Soiree Pearl Pave Bracelet - Brown

Retail: $34

Sample Sale Price: $15

Stretchable, 2.5 inch diameter, glass pearls with a handset Czech crystal bauble.

Amanda Necklace

Retail: $89

Sample Sale Price: $42

This may be one of my favorites. I am kind of grumpy to be selling it but Stella & Dot has some amazing new jewels and I just cant have it all! That said this piece is fabulous because it comes with the ribbon and can be worn long or doubled with the ribbon {can you see the small pics on the side with the different ways to style it?!} Its uber cute!

Sofia Pearl Bib

Retail Price: $118

Sample Sale Price: $80

This is another one that I am obsessed with. Our website description reads "cascading champagne and ivory acrylic pearls create a dramatic bib." I agree....its stunning.

Adrienne Mixed Chain - in Gold

Retail: $128

Sample Sale Price: $80

Another necklace I adore but again I need space. This one is actually pretty cool as its antiqued chains are wrapped/braided together to create a lariat. It can be worn as many ways as you can think of and mixed chains are one of the current top fashion trends.

Here are the pictures of the necklaces at my house. Forgive me please, I took them with my Android phone. I know that's lame but its 1:21 AM and I didn't feel like breaking out my mommy cam.

{on top of the La Coco Chain, you can see the extender piece that comes with it and can be worn to lengthen the necklace or as a bracelet! Ribbon is currently tied on the Amanda Necklace to give the doubled look.}

Again, sorry for the poor resolution!

Anyway, comment or email with questions or if you want a piece! Make your wish lists and shop or tell you man to contact me for me to help him make this the best Valentine's Day yet!

P.S. Our Rebel Pendant is in February's Real Simple magazine! WOO HOO! I love being a stylist at such a fun company!

Faith

2012-01-20T08:33:00.003-05:00

{Mom, Dad & Kristin feel free to skip this post. It may make you cry but I needed to get it out there}

People have called me things such as unrealistic, impractical, nonsensical and even fake. Truth be told, I am none of those things. In fact, I believe I am quite the opposite and I think that I am very much a realistic, practical, sensical and sensible person as I look through life through my rosy and half full glasses.

Debbie downers and negative Nancy's bring me down and quite frankly I don't even like to hang around folks like that. They will argue that they are being "realistic" and that I am the one with my head in the clouds and whilst they may be presenting factual statements, their statements border on the worst case scenario and unfortunates, while I tend to hedge on the best case and the lets defy the odds side of things. Their "realism" if that's what you like to call it, brings me down and I think I eventually and probably unknowingly tune out folks like this.

When something bad happens and I look for the positive. I am the eternal optimist and in the darkest of darks, I can find the lightest of lights. I also am a firm believer in Proverbs 18:21 which says that, "the power of life and death is in the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit."

I believe that you can CHOOSE to speak LIFE or you can CHOOSE to speak DEATH.

I believe that you can choose to be negative or you can choose to be positive.

I remember when I was growing up and competing in spring board diving. Mom used to tell me as I went to sleep to visualize myself. To see my self taking my approach - doing my hurdle - reaching on the take off - tucking as I rotated - and kicking out and looking for the water - and a clean entry. Mom used to tell me to visualize myself making great saves in soccer {I played goalkeeper}. To imagine myself making that diving save in the net and winning the game.

Why did Mom tell me this?? Did Mom believe that I would nail every dive or be the hero every game? Nah, probably not, but I think that Mom did believe that I could affect my outlook thus affecting my outcome...and whether or not Mom knows this, I think she did it cause she too believes that the power of life and death is in the tongue.

Lots of times, if I believed that I could do the dive or make the save and if I told myself I could, then guess what, I did it. The times I either was apathetic or down about it were the times that I busted. My thoughts and my positivity gave me the confidence to accomplish the task that was set before me.

------------------------------------------------------------------

In the past two weeks alone I have heard of and or dealt with the following news:

My best friends baby has been in the NICU for a week.
Our church friends baby has been in the NICU for 4 weeks and was just released yesterday - still under 5 lbs and a long road ahead.
A family member with a pregnancy related problem was just released from the hospital after almost 4 weeks on hospital bed rest.
I spoke to a friend on Monday night who asked me to pray for a job interview that he was going to early the next morning. That night I saw on Facebook that he had a severe migraine that day, began throwing up, went to the ER and had a brain tumor removed. Just.Like.That. It is cancerous and as soon as he recovers, I guess chemo begins. He is a year or two younger than me.
The same guy from above's father died about 12 weeks ago.
A friend's little boy has been diagnosed with a nut allergy.
My family is waiting on some test results back...more on that later.
One of my good friends had some pre-cancerous cells removed from I think her uterus last week...testing and results still to come for her.
A friend had a cyst cut out of his throat yesterday and will soon go in for hernia surgery....well as soon as he can heal from his cyst - and this needs to happen pronto because the wife is pregnant, and just cleared a surgery herself and the baby will be due in less than 6 months and all need to be well prior to that!
A friend from colleges sister tried to take her life and is now in the hospital.

On top of all of this, we have a fire alarm that wont stop going off at random times and I keep having dreams of bad things happening to Anne Margaret.

I have shed more than a few tears this week and the fact that I cant sleep and am now afraid to sleep because I dream of my child having seizures or someone dropping her only makes me that much more emotional.

So emotional in fact that when I asked Emily {my friend who just had the baby who was in the NICU} how her husband was, her response that he was "so sweet taking care of her and the baby and already a great father" made me burst into uncontrollable tears.

Bretters, I love ya, but on a normal day, I sure wouldn't cry over you!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Why am I writing all of this?

First of all, to say that life ain't pretty. All of that junk has literally happened in the last few weeks with all but two of them being this week alone. Quite frankly, it all stinks.

In a lot of the cases there are lots of unknowns. My friends baby has a long road ahead. She is currently on a g-tube and there are questions about her long term prognosis. My friend from the Ranch may wake up from anesthesia to find out a worst case scenario - and may not even remember that depending on how much he is aware. Once my family gets test results back, they make big time decisions. Its an uncertain waiting game.

In all of this, there is lots of opportunity to see the worst, to get mad, to become negative or to stress out over the unknowns. While freaking out and becoming frustrated, bitter and negative seems somewhat like the appropriate thing to do - and is everything that my flesh wants to do, I refuse to go there.

Earlier I said that in the dark, I can find the light. Its not cause I am 'all that and a bag of chips' or anything remotely special and its not cause I am an unrealistic Pollyanna. Its not that I am uneducated or a bimbo or that I choose not to understand ramifications all the way through.

Rather its cause I CHOOSE to believe that the power of life and death is within me and that my actions and my faith can impact my response to these seemingly difficult challenges.

I believe that the LIGHT of the world has come to save me and all of you and so ultimately, if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then He has already paid the price. I believe that there is no darkness so dark that the light of Jesus can not disseminate it. The comfort that news brings truly is a peace that passes all understanding and allows me to say in the crummiest of crummy situations, Lord, blessed be your name.

I CHOOSE to see the good in all of this and trust ultimately that HE has a plan for us. Its not that my heart doesn't hurt or that I don't shed tears. Its not that I do not have emotion or do not get angry or sad and its not that I just sail through trial and tribulation.

Its that in the midst of trials, my challenge is to remind myself WHO is in control. Its my challenge to refocus on HIM and to learn more about my faith. Its an opportunity to lay at the feet of the cross and once again thank my Savior that all has been covered and all I have to do is TRUST in Him. Deep down, I know that "it is well with my soul" and this is merely an opportunity to prove it.

Lots to pray about today and I will leave you with a few lines from my favorite song, "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman.

"Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in

Lord, Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name"

Barber Shop

2012-01-19T21:27:00.002-05:00

These were taken last week when we were in the midst of our sleepless days and nights.

For the life of me, I couldn't get little bit to nap. One afternoon, she had cried for almost an hour and I had a splitting headache. She had gotten herself so riled up that she was gagging and coughing so I went to get her.

By now, we were halfway through nap time and I didn't want her sleeping later for fear she wouldn't sleep that night, so instead, I brought her out to the living room, made a palette, gave her some milk, her blanket, her bunny and turned on Fraggle Rock.

That lasted for about 4 minutes until she got a bit fidgety and decided to go grab a few "bocks."

That's blocks for those of you who don't speak baby.

Unfortunately AM forgot to call 'barber shop' or 'seat saves' and as soon as she stood up, her warm spot was nabbed. Not phased a bit, she laid down again and tried to regain her palette and her bunny.

Clearly Champ was too engrossed in Fraggle Rock to realize that his throne was being challenged as he held his ground and stuck his tongue out at Anne Margaret.

She grabbed his tail a time or two but Champ stood strong and finally AM gave in and took the last remaining corner of the pillow.

Finally AM got tired of it. She figured it she couldn't have it to herself then they would have to share.

The two of them snuggled as they watched the remainder of the show.

Cute as this was, when AM grabbed Champ's tail and started playing "tickle tickle" on her face with it, I think he decided that he had had enough of her shenanigans. He let her tug on his tail for a big and then he got up, moseyed over to me and laid back down.

I must say that these two really really love each other.

Champ is more gentle with her than he is with any of us. He lets her brush his hair, ride his back, jump on him, pull his ears and tail, take food out of his bowl as he eats and more with hardly a peep. He is really the sweetest puppy in the world and I love seeing the two of them grow together each day!

Emailing Myself

2012-01-18T06:37:00.000-05:00

Do you ever send yourself an email from the computer and then get excited when your phone dings??

Yall. I do it EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!

Like just a second ago, I emailed myself a bunch of photos from my phone for this post. Thirty seconds later, my trusty phone beeped to let me know I had received a new message.

I jumped to grab it, excited to see what or who was just itching for my attention.

The I realized I was excited because I had emailed myself.

Is this post screaming LOSER our DUHHH to anyone else out there!?

Please tell me I am not the only one who does this. Please tell me its because I had a brain fart and am emotional and tired tonight from working and running all over creation today. Please tell me I am not losing it...although, I did just spell the word "later" in the paragraph above "lader."

#Thankfulforspellcheck.

Really? What has gotten into me?! I cant spell and I get overly excited when I email myself! HA!

Anyway, before I get all giddy about another email I am about to send {to myself}, here is the past few months of phone pics! Nothing really special about them all other than I just love my big girl and felt the urge to show her off!

Such a great little helper!

M-E-S-S-Y!

CAUGHT! Both of them!

So big!

Did I tell yall that this is my dress from when I was little? My Grandma made it and Kristin and I had matching! I love it that Anne Margaret fits perfectly into it!

Shopping #1

Shopping again.

Precious!

She loves her Daddy!

Toilet paper is up there with our favorite toys these days!

Stealing the bed!

Trio

Playing with David

Everyone sitting! Even more impressive is that I accomplished this feat without any treats!

Anne Margaret says ROLL TIDE!

Looking more like a little girl and less like my baby girl! Love that face!

Making "art" just like G-Diddy and Aunt Kristin taught her!

This was at 3 AM the other night when I went to bed. On my pillows!...stinker.

One More Thing...

2012-01-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

I forgot this one on my list last night {see previous post} of stuff that has gone on lately. This one, though not a huge deal, was definitely something to be noted. Our fire alarm in the kitchen started going off at 3 AM last night.

First let me say, that is NOT a good way to be woken up. I don't think I have ever moved so fast out of bed, into a robe and down the hall. Never mind the fact that I didn't have contacts in or glasses on and I am not sure if CT3 did either. We just got up and ran.

We both ran straight to the kitchen however in my brain I was already planning how I was going to kick down AM's door if needed to get to my baby.

A fire in my house is such a scary thought and to be awakened by the alarm going off {not the low battery beep thing} but the real deal in full force is quite frightening.

CT3 was up on the counter turning it off as I sniffed around the kitchen trying to figure out what in the world set it off.

We couldn't find anything and still have NO clue what set it off. Its in the middle of the kitchen, so occasionally it will go off if we have the oven on or steam coming off the stove, but clearly in the middle of the night, there was none of that.

With no further answers and the battery yanked out of the thing, back to bed we went...CT3 was out like a light, but it took me a while to finally fall asleep. After I did, I still didn't sleep well and then I woke up in the morning after having a bad dream about someone dropping little Anne Margaret.

Its those nightmares that keep me up all night long and wake me with a start.

Anyway, thankfully, none of the dreams nor alarms were real and thankfully sweet Anne Margaret slept through it all! We have yet to put the alarm back up, however we have at least 3 other working ones in the house and so whether this one will go back up or be moved first, is still up for debate!

Hello

2012-01-16T23:21:00.002-05:00

Here's a mid-January random list for ya!

I can't stop eating avocados. I love them more than life and am trying to stop because of the amount of fat calories in them. I think I ate two today. Thats like a stick of butter but with the good fat - not the bad.
I am trying to figure out which forward facing car seat to get for AM. Advice please? She is still rear facing but is about too tall for her carrier/car seat. I cant believe my baby is so big!
CT3 and I have ONLY been out to eat three times in almost three weeks. That may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is to me. Why you ask? Cause I am the one who has been doing the cooking!!! CT3 helps a ton and is great with the dishes too and despite a few peanut butter and jelly nights, we have done pretty well on the cooking front! We are saving money too so I am quite proud!
We have made chicken pockets, chicken spaghetti, baked ziti, spaghetti with vegetable sauce, grilled cheese and more! On the chicken pockets, chicken spaghetti and baked ziti, we doubled the recipe and have a few things left frozen in the freezer! Go us!
Anne Margaret is doing much better eating from the table. She likes grilled cheese and spaghetti too!
One of my besties had her baby! Congrats Em and I cant wait to meet your little man!
I am loving being a Stylist with Stella and Dot! If you have ever thought of doing it and have questions or reservations I will talk to ya. I love love love it!
Our sleeping woes have gotten a bit better. She is sleeping fine - the challenge now is getting her down. She stands in her crib and screams "Mama" over and over and its the saddest thing ever. I think maybe she is learning about fear and being scared maybe?? Like Champ barking did not used to bother her. Now when he barks she sometimes cries and sometimes runs to you to be held. Same thing with you say night night or walk to her room...baby girl realizes whats about to happen and loses it!
I have yet to gloat on the blog about Alabama winning its 14th National Championship and the fact that we rocked the game...I am currently wearing my new shirt though!
About the game, if I had a nickel for every time someone commented on the amount of field goals in the game, I would be rich. Quite frankly, I wouldn't have cared if we won by 16 safety's. The fact was we had more points and that is what mattered.
As for whether or not LSU and BAMA should have had a rematch? Who cares. Talk to the BCS people if you have a problem with it! I am fine {and think its actually a good idea} to go to a playoff system, however for now, those aren't the rules. Alabama played in the National Championship fair and square - and was decidely the better team!
Speaking of Alabama and last but not least, completely unprompted today at the breakfast table, AM put her hands up over her head and said "touchdown!" Then right after it, again unprompted, she swirled her hand around in the air as she said "Oll Ide!" Thats baby talk for Roll Tide!! I am so proud of my girl!
My hubster got a new job and I am so proud of him! He will be in the same place just another role and an exciting move. This will mean lots of work on his part, but he is one smart chemical engineer and I know he will be great at it!
We have had a really relaxing week...too relaxing if you could see the state my house is in.
For some reason I have the overwhelming urge to paint my nails black...maybe its watching the trendy folk on the Bachelorette with there cute nails.
Speaking of the Bachelorette, I wish I were back in Birmingham where Em and I used to go for a run, go grab dinner, get a glass of wine and have Monday nights of the Bachelor and 24. Those were the days!

Well, I know my list is lame, but its 11:20 and the fact that I am actually tired before midnight is nothing short of a miracle! I am usually up til at least 1 or 2 and since my body is speaking to me, I think I shall listen!

Sorry for my lame-o post and I will be back soon with baby and dog stories!

Potty Time

2012-01-13T07:47:00.003-05:00

Anne Margaret is almost 16 months old. If you recall, at around 10 months old, her love with the potty began as she found it fun to send some of her toys for a swim. After that day, we began discussing how only toilet paper goes in the potty and by 12 months or so, her infatuation of flushing the toilet repeatedly was second to none.

Recently a co-worker was telling me that her kids were potty trained early on and she did this by just occasionally setting them on the toilet, letting them hang out for a bit and then putting a diaper back on them and going on about their day.

As AM loves to knock on the bathroom door, throw things in the toilet and flush, I figured, hey, why don't we give it a whirl and set her on the john.

So probably six weeks ago, I set her on the potty for the first time. Homegirl laughed so hard and thought it was awesome. She even tee-tee'd in the potty that very first time but I think it was cause she was laughing so hard she couldn't help it.

Don't lie. You know that all of us have at one point laughed so hard that we went in our pants and thankfully for Anne Margaret's sake, she was already on the throne when it happened.

After that, I told her that we needed to wipe and as I wiped her little booty, she just giggled and giggled. We threw the toilet paper into the toilet {again discussing how it was the only thing that goes in a potty} and she flushed it as she waved and said "bye bye."

By no means are we potty training, however after the first time and her enjoying her stint on the pot, we decided that we would just make it fun and there are certain times a day that if we are around and if I think about it, I will set her on the potty. Most of these times are either right before bath {when we are already in the bathroom}, or right after eating or when I am changing her diaper anyway, so its no sweat off of my back to let her sit for a second and try.

As the weeks have gone on, we have had some successes and some moments when she just sits there and laughs. If you ask her, "how do you go tee tee?" She will respond by saying, "sisssssssssssss." And if you ask her, "how do you go poo poo?" She will respond by grunting at you. She will also push on her tummy {and your tummy if you let her} as the first few times I sat her on the toilet I would tell her to "push with her tummy." She apparently took that literally as she tries to push on her tummy with her little fingers. Its the funniest thing.

Last week, I caught her straining and I whisked her away to the potty. She was quite happy there and proceeded to perform both 1 and 2. I was so proud and we high fived {multiple times} as she flushed and waved bye bye.

All of this brings me to today.

I sat her on the potty after lunch and she again just laughed. We played there for a few minutes {with whatever toy she had in her hand} and then she said "all done," "down please" and tried to get off. I had a funny feeling about it, but didn't really think twice as I let her down.

I went to get a sweatshirt out of the closet and as I was in there, AM said, "Mommy, water?" I turned around and she was standing in the largest puddle of piddle you have ever seen. Like it was all over her, all over the floor and still trickling down.

"Mommy, water?" She asked again.

All I could do was laugh as I drew the bath water and poured some bubbles in it for her first official bubble bath.

Later that day, I texted a picture of her in her bubble bath to G-Diddy, Gigi, Mimi and GrandDad.

Mimi texted back asking me if we were having a spa day...My response was that if it takes piddling on the floor to get a spa day, then I don't want one! Ha!

Anyway, like I said, we clearly aren't potty training, just kind of doing it for fun every now and then and getting her comfy on it. Today my plan backfired, but the bubble bath was fun and we all recovered well from the mess. Its been interesting to see her learn and understand more about the potty and its um, functions and I am actually looking forward to the day that we get to for real start potty training!!

{And yes folks, I do realize that potty training isn't all that glamorous...I sometimes keep two little boys at the house and we have had a few times where the kids get thrown into the bath thanks to a little number two accident!!...I don't look forward to more of those necessarily but I do realize that it comes with the territory!}

We Missed New Years

2012-01-11T00:04:00.000-05:00

This post seems appropriate being 10 days late as CT3, Eddie, Sewing Lauren and I missed New Years.

No lie. We are officially old parents who cant stay up late and who easily forget things. I know it sounds crazy, but I kid you not, four adults and two kids missed new years.

CT3, AM and I had gone over to Sewing Lauren's house. She and Eddie had been kind enough to offer for us to come over for dinner and to ring in 2012.

The plan was for us to come around 6 and I would bring a chicken nugget tray from Chick-Fil-A and a Swiss Bacon Dip. Lauren was going to make a spinach artichoke dip and a buffalo dip and have brownies and Eddie was going to throw sausage or some manly meat on the grill. The kids were going to play, we were going to hang out, put the babies down there, play grown up games, watch the ball drop and sip on sparkling cider and officially ring in the new year.

Now, take the plan, throw it out the window and that is pretty much what happened.

We arrived late. Go figure. We are always late.

We ate dinner late. I got a tray of nuggets that served 8 and apparently the 4 adults and the 2.5 year old ate all of it....Although, Lauren is preggo, so maybe we can blame a few on her little one in utero??

Lauren asked what we wanted to drink for dinner and I went for the tried and true, Coke. CT3 had been eyeing Lauren's Fresca {which are apparently her pregnancy cravings because the trashcan was full of empty cans} and he asked for a HALF of one.

Yes, not a whole Fresca, but a half of one. Lauren and Eddie being the polite folk that they are, kindly poured him a half a Fresca and left the remainder on the counter. Ya know, just in case he got thirsty later.

After that, we chased the babies and just let them play. I broke out the blow things and hats and chased the kids around trying to take cute pictures. I didn't get one good one {see the 10 blurred or non-looking shots below}, but I am sure I did an effective job of acting like the crazy mom blogger who wont put down the dang camera! Lauren's husband probably things I am a nut job and some sources would agree with him, I am sure.

She enjoyed chewing on it more than blowing it!

James was not a fan of the party hat.

...still chewing...

James and his blow things collection!

Happy New Year, sweet boy!

Around 9:30 Anne Margaret was pitching a fit and acting crazy, so we went to put her down. While we did this, Eddie took James to bed. Apparently, AM was not ready to go to sleep because she just stood in the pack-n-play and screamed. Since James was trying to sleep and I would have been mortified if she kept him up, I went and got her. At our house I would have let her cry it out, but for fear of the other folks having to listen to her wail, I caved.

She came back to the living room to play, which was fine because Eddie was taking a cat nap with James. Somewhere in there, AM dropped a puzzle on her toe and bruised it badly. She again screamed like a wild woman. I stuck her foot in the sink hoping to cool it off I guess. I have NO clue why I thought that seemed like a good thing to do, but it did at the time.

Love my snuggle bunny!

She loved James' NOLA inspired necklace. Beads, brass instruments and all...speaking of NOLA - a post is sure to come on that topic :)

We realized at 10:30 that we never made the brownies or heated up my Swiss cheese and bacon dip. This was our first error of the night. Granted we had just finished the chicken nuggets so we definitely didn't have food on the brain. Eddie's sausage never got made either.

It was now 11 and Anne Margaret was showing signs of fading again and so we went for round 2. This time she went straight down. Praise the Lordy!

Around 11:20, CT3 and I made ourselves comfortable on the couch and I tried to plan Lauren's nursery for her....cause I am sure she was just dying to know how I would decorate her house...At some point we pulled a bunch of games onto their floor in the living room and Lauren went to wake Eddie so he could come play...Ah yes! Exactly what Eddie wanted. He was probably dreaming of all of the games he could play and I bet he was happy when Lauren went in to wake him!

Funny side note. I kept saying that we would play "adult games" after the kids went to bed. CT3 asked me at one point in the night to stop saying adult games as it sounded inappropriate....Freudian slip I guess, however, it sounds to me like he needs to get his mind out of the gutter. Clearly I meant games like Yahtzee or Scrabble instead of Candy Land or Hot Potato!

It was now probably 11:40 and we were flipping between Dick Clark and ESPN and the crazy Red Bull stunt jumper guy. We got to chatting about the latest pop culture fads, Jenny McCarthy's crazy-self, how the lady on ESPN was no Erin Andrews and the fact that we never made brownies or played games. I was blabbering in there about how I cannot watch Dick Clark countdown this year because last year I just stared at the TV and cried. We also were wrapped up in deep discussion about how he has probably had extensive physical therapy and how his mind seems still sharp as a tack just some of his motor skills aren't the same.

All of the sudden, CT3 blurts out something about it being 12:03. Eddie quickly flipped back to Dick Clark only to find Ryan Seacrest thanking people and the ball lit and on the ground. Not only dropped, but had been down for a solid 2 minutes. The fireworks had even subsided and the only sparks left were the tipsy people still indulging in a New Year's smooch and CT3 and his 2012 New Year's excitement.

After all that, we missed the ball drop.

Then we flipped back to the crazy guy about to do his stunt. When the channel popped up, the stunt guy was kissing his {assumed} wife and holding his {assumed} baby. Yep. We missed that too.

After all that, we missed the stunt guy. CT3 was bummed about this, so he took a picture of the replay of the jump.

Then, Lauren realized she forgot the sparkling cider and ran off to the kitchen! At around 12:10 we toasted and CT3 tried to plant one on me.

RERUN!!!

My sassy face - and the most normal pic I took all night long.

Finally, we turned to our local news channel which had a ghetto ball dropping and was currently doing a 2 minute countdown.... After listening to 20 seconds of that we muted it. After all, our local channel with a random peach or something dropping 15 minutes late seemed slightly anticlimactic.

We were in hysterics about how from everything to forgetting the food to missing the ball drop to the stunt guy and everything in between, we had completely missed New Years. We stayed up the whole night just waiting for the big moment and did not pay one lick of attention to the time or the channel.

In the middle of our laughing, James {who is 2} apparently got his second wind and came out of his room to party. He was ready to play some Candy Land and Hot Potato.

We hung out for a bit longer and finally around 1:45 in the morning we packed, grabbed AM and headed home. Despite the fact that we missed most of it, it was probably one of the most fun and surely the most memorable New Years we have ever had! Thanks to Lauren, Eddie and James for letting us hang out there til the wee hours! We had a blast!

Oh yeah. By the end of the night, CT3 drank a few more of Lauren's Fresca... Happy 2012 yall!

Spring Jewels!

2012-01-09T16:13:00.008-05:00

The Amalfi Collection

YALL.

Stella & Dot's spring line launched last night and the stuff is AMAZING!

Have you seen it yet!? Wow. I even had my husband watching the runway show last night as Anne Margaret danced to the music and I drooled over the jewelry!

Many props to our design team for their fabulous vision and creativity and thanks to Stella & Dot for offering the stuff at such great price points! ...over half of our line is under $50!

I have already made a few purchases for myself and believe you me, when I say I may have to pick up a few more things as the summer draws near!

Below are a few pages from our Spring Look Book. I am mailing them out to friends, family and customers this week so please leave a comment with your email address if you want one and I will contact you for your mailing address and get one to you ASAP!

I am also looking for friends who want to earn FREE jewelry and host a trunk show! Email or comment if you are interested in that! I have upcoming shows in Birmingham and would like to do a few more in the Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Huntsville or Auburn area as well as would like to do one in Athens, Rome, Nashville, Knoxville, Savannah, Valdosta, South Carolina, or North Carolina. If you are interested in hosting please let me know!

{All pictures below I pulled from the Stella & Dot website and are from our Spring 2012 catalog! Ask me for one or view online for the full line. For those who are ready to shop and be the first to show off the beautiful jewelry, click here!}

OH! One more thing!! Stella & Dot is now in the UK! We are looking for stylists and people to join our team overseas so if you are in the UK and want to be a part of this great company, contact me!

Click on the text below the image to see the full collection!

The Savanna Collection

The Urban Splendor Collection

Trend watch!

Bracelet from the Signature Links collection

Love the Zahara Bib!

What are your favorite pieces of Stella & Dot jewelry? What are your must haves for the upcoming season?? Color is in. Be bold. Be beautiful and don't be afraid to spoil yourself! You deserve it!

Granny

2012-01-08T00:31:00.003-05:00

Today, on January 8th we would be celebrating my Granny's 97th birthday. She passed just over 11 years ago and every day we still miss her! In remembrance of Granny, I will show you a few pictures of her {that I stole from my Mom's family album} and tell you a few of my favorite stories.

First of all, Granny always called me Lah-Run. I guess it was her Virginia accent coming out that made the pronunciation as such. However, to this day, I HATE it when people call me LOR-en. Like I despise it. When people add an "O" to my name, I shudder and at times, can barely get over my annoyance enough to answer them. I blame my desire to be called Lahr-en - with the emphasis on the "A" on Granny!

Next, Kristin, Mom and I all blame Granny for the booty we are lugging around behind us! Some generational things are blessings, but this one is just extra junk in the trunk! Thanks to Granny us ladies have some wide child-bearing hips we are lugging around!

Now that I have blamed Granny for the reason I get angry at people calling me Loren and now that I have blamed her for my ghetto booty, onto the stories!

Granny smoked. Lets be honest, most people who were her age and her generation were quite proficient in their casual smoking and drinking abilities. Well, my parents didn't smoke and we didn't ever want her smoking in the house, so she would always go outside and stand. During the frigid winter months, Granny would go outside to smoke and little Lauren would always go stand outside with her and wait for her to finish her ciggy.

I was probably ten at the time and every time she needed a fix, we would throw on our jackets and head out the door. I didn't want her to be lonely and I assumed she didn't mind the company. I guess Granny one day felt bad that I would come freeze my butt off to keep her company, so she quit. Pretty darned cool of her I'd say! {pun intended!}

Granny had lots of crazy driving stories. Sad to say, but the older she got, the slower her reflexes got and the more her memory seemed to fade. Granny would turn onto the off ramp to get on the highway and one time she tried to park on the concrete pad next to a power station.

I guess she was thinking that it was the driveway to the soccer field? Never mind the large power boxes and electricity fences around it, that was where Granny and her land yacht wanted to park. Everyone was staring and I cant remember what Mom or Dad did but for some reason I think I remember Granny starting to back out and Mom running over there in efforts to help.

I was in the middle of a soccer game and Granny was just trying to come and watch me play. I was too scared as she reversed back onto a busy street to be embarrassed by her choice of parking lot.

One day, Granny's car got stolen. We were sad to see it go, however, it was a blessing in disguise. Her arthritic and weak hands could hardly open the door and it just wasn't safe for her to be behind the wheel anymore. She wanted her freedom and wouldn't turn over the keys and so thankfully some greedy thief stole her car and solved the problem.

After the car got stolen, Mom and Dad would always go get her to bring her to our house and as she rode, Granny would say about every three minutes, "Well, Margie, where do you think all of these people are going?" If she didn't say that she would say, "Wow Margie! Look at all those lights," as she referred to the headlights on the other cars.

Time and time again, Granny was of the utmost concern of where all the people in Atlanta were going.

One time, Granny was over for dinner at our house. We had these doors that you just pulled shut - the didn't really latch. In the room behind the doors was Mom's office, a mini couch where Kristin and I threw all of our junk as we ran in the door and this particular week, our pet turtle.

I have no clue where we got this turtle, but it was in a box in the room.

The doors were pulled shut, but again weren't latched. Poor Granny rested on the doors while we chatted and as she leaned into them, they swung straight open and she fell to the floor.

While Mom and Dad tended to Granny, I think Kristin and I made sure Mr. Turtle was okay. Thankfully he was safe and sound in his shell and Granny was fine too!

Granny got older and it was time to move her out of her house. When Mom and Dad went to move her, they would find saltine crackers hidden in every nook, cranny and drawer of the house. They would find napkins with rolls tucked away and little packets of butter hidden along with them. There is no telling what other snacks Granny had hiding and how long some of them had been there! Also, this house had an out house.

I don't remember much about the house there except for I was scared to death of it. I remember my older cousins locking me in bathrooms and on the concrete attic steps and them making me play bloody mary in the bathroom. I remember the full length mirror that Granny had and how at night it freaked me out. I also remember the cheery Christmas lights in the living room and the baby grand piano that was perched in front of the windows that you see on the far right of the house. That piano is the one that we now have. I remember my cousin Michael playing the "Pink Panther" song on the piano and how we all thought he was such a talented pianist. Now I am thinking he only knew that one song and the chords along with it! I remember some Christmas picture where we all crammed on the couches trying to get the family in the picture. I think Mom was trying to use the timer and would press the button and run over and over again to try to capture us all.

Finally, I remember Mom making me spit in the toilet over and over and over again for spitting at someone...it was probably the mean next door neighbor who always stole my coloring books, but whatever. In this house, I learned not to spit.

Anyhoo, the summer of 2001 was when Granny passed. I don't remember many of the details but I remember that she had a stroke and for some reason they couldn't get my Mom on the phone so they called me. I was the first one to the ER and Granny's right side {I think} of her body was droopy and not really working. Her speech was slurred though she was angry she was at the hospital. This makes me wonder if her mind was there she just couldn't communicate. She had had some pin strokes prior to the big one, but after this one, she didn't ever get to go back home.

I was in the ER with her only for a few minutes before Mom got there. Granny, being a retired nurse, was not happy with the IV or the fact that she was in the hospital and despite her fading condition, she fought to pull out her IV and get up to walk out. Like literally.

I don't remember how long she was in the hospital before hospice was called in, but I do remember all of our family having time to get in from Texas, Virginia and South Carolina and all being able to say goodbye before she slipped into a deep slumber. We all joined hands in a circle around her hospital bed and prayed...in fact I think I was the one who prayed, I think...I remember being nervous praying around all of those folk. So it was either when she passed that I prayed or then.

Anyway, she had been in the care of hospice for a few days and I had a number to run the Peachtree Road Race. I had trained for the 10k but was now torn as to whether or not I should leave Granny's side or go to the race. If I recall, I feel like I was with Granny a lot in the hospital. Now, her condition had faded and she was hardly opening her eyes and there was little to no movement. There would be the occasional hand squeeze but it was obvious that Granny was making her final amends on this earth as she prepared to depart for a place much more glorious. Mom and Dad convinced me that Granny would have wanted me to run it so despite my objection and concern that she would pass while I was running, I went on.

I wore one of her ID bracelets as I ran - it was not a glamorous thing - in fact, I think it was the one from the nursing home identifying her and what room she was in. Regardless, I wore it just so I could have a piece of her with me as I jogged through the streets of Atlanta.

Post race, I hurried home, showered, made me some Velveeta Shells & Cheese and headed back to the hospital with my macaroni in a tupperware container and my finishers tee shirt. I arrived at the hospital and walked in to Granny's room. I told her about the race and how I had run for her. I think I ran much faster that day, knowing I was trying to get back!

I squeezed her hand, thanked her for running with me and told her that I loved her and that I was going to go eat and then would be back to visit.

I stepped out of the room and not two minutes later Mom walked out and said that it was over and Granny had taken her final breath. Mom cried and we hugged.

Sad as it was, I knew deep down that Granny was in a better place. I also knew that she had just waited on me to return before departing. For that I was grateful!

Needless to say, I spit out the bite of Velveeta Shells & Cheese I had in my mouth and to this day, I refuse to eat it. Not cause I dislike the taste, but cause it reminds me of Granny's hospital room. My t-shirt from the 2001 July 4th Peachtree Road Race was buried with Granny. Sounds silly I know, but she had run with me, and she deserved her finishers tee!!

While my stories are probably silly and a bit lame, I am thankful that I have taken the time to write this post and I know I will look back on it with fondness one day. Mom, Aunt Merry and her brothers I am sure have many many more stories to share about Granny and GrandDaddy and maybe one day I will convince Mom to do a guest post on here! ...we shall see!

Happy 97th Birthday Granny! I cant decide if today I will eat a slice of cake in honor of you or a baked potato loaded with butter and salt....another thing Granny taught me to indulge in!

Mini Shoot

2012-01-07T06:48:00.000-05:00

Unedited...cute baby...great light...happy camera...happy mommy!