Nine is fine

It's hard to believe that ME is the same age as to how long I carried her in my tummy. It's even harder to believe that Drew and I have known about her for over 1 1/2 years! Wow...how have we enjoyed it all!!! I'm thankful to say that ME seems to be fully recovered from her yuck sickness last week (although she might have an ear infection now), and we have been able to enjoy her fun, social personality all night. After Davis' party today, we came home and giggled all evening. It's so fun, and the best way to wind down the evening! What did we ever do for fun before she came along?

We don't go to the doctor until October for her well-baby checkup, so here are a few stats/updates about her:

• She weighed 20.12 lbs when we went to the Dr. last week
• She mutters "Dada", "mama", "baba", and "wh"
• She's a great eater. She LOVES macaroni and cheese...but who doesn't right?
• She is still crawling with a "bum leg" and is now trying to stand by herself for about 1.5 seconds
• She is finally starting to laugh at things other than the dog!
  

As you can tell from the picture below, ME empathizes with me and Drew on occasions. Drew was upset that today was the last day for the Yankees to play in Yankee Stadium. So I put ME in her I love NY onesie so she could watch today's game (really just to watch Derek Jeeter) with her daddy. And even though, I'm sooooo over baseball (sorry, Bebo!), I'm disappointed that I won't ever be able to see a game played in Yankee Stadium.

So long Yankee Stadium!

Happy 1st Birthday, Davis!!!

Yea, I'm ONE today!

Today we celebrated Ryan and Ashley's little boy's birthday. What an exciting time for them. Davis is no longer a baby...he's a little boy! For some reason, whenever I think about Davis' milestones, I start to get a little sad because that means that ME is just 3 months behind him. On the other hand, it's so exciting to look forward to the fun things she'll learn.

We also got to meet Miss Taylor this weekend. ME was so excited to get to play with another little girl. As you can from the picture, she's a little confused as to why the "little person" is wearing pink since really all she knows are boys around her age.

Three's (er...uh.. six) company

Our sad little princess

I have to report that our poor baby girl has not been so jolly these past few days. Daycare called on Monday to say that she had a fever of 102. So I picked her up and took her to the doctor. She has a bacterial infection in her nose. I know...sounds yucko!!! It is! And she now HATES the "booger sucker", whereas before she actually liked it and thought it was a game when I used it on her.

Let me tell you that seeing ME these past few days has been so heartbreaking to me and Drew. She hasn't been terribly fussy, but she has the saddest puppy dog eyes, the rosiest red cheeks, and a hot body! Really, the most fussy that she's been was this morning at 4 am until 5:15 (just before it was time for my alarm to go off!). We actually went to the living room and played with toys to try to calm down. After that didn't work, I was finally able to rock her back to sleep and put her in bed with Drew. I wish so badly that I could have captured the sweet picture of her sleeping on her daddy to share with you all, but I didn't want to risk waking her up again. But after I laid her down, she rolled her back onto Drew's stomach, almost standing/leaning on him and started snoring. It was priceless!

After I put her down for bed tonight, I'm happy to say that she seems to be feeling a lot better! I sure hope so and that I don't have to see those sad eyes for a long time!

Daddy Wins!

SIDE NOTE: THIS BLOG IS BEING DICTATED BY DREW!
I can only assume that each parent of a newborn child wonders what their first word is going to be. Most importantly, which parent they are going to recognize first. Well, I'm not trying to boast, but "DA DA" wins! After returning home from a weekend in Fayetteville, within an hour of being home, ME looked right at me and said "DA DA". And, fortunately, for me, Lana was there to witness and confirm that ME looked at me and said it. I must admit it feels really good to have my little princess call me "DA DA".

Woo Pig Sooie!

We are proud to say that Mary Elizabeth was officially introduced to the world of Razorback tailgating this past Saturday! Drew decided that we needed to get our own tailgate spots this year, and ME got to enjoy the experience with us. She was such a trooper, even with the music blaring in our ears! Thanks to everyone that came to our spot, and to everyone that helped make ME's 1st tailgating experience memorable! GO HOGS!!!!

Yes, at least my "arranged marriage husband" supports the right team!

Yessss, I finally get to blog!!!!

Okay, I think I may be addicted (although you can't tell) to blogging. I have been itching to blog for the past several weeks about our happenings, but when I get a free moment something either comes up or I'm ready to crash. So here goes a little bit of catching up in the past few weeks:

• Drew's dad went to Dallas market a few weeks ago, so he decided to fly over to LR that weekend before he headed back to NYC. Although it was a short trip, we all had a great time. I had to capture this photo op of Daddy Mike feeding ME. I know she looks scared, but they were pretty funny together.

What is Daddy Mike smiling about? He doesn't have to eat this mush!

• Labor Day weekend was somewhat relaxing. Drew headed to Fayetteville for his biannual Razorback tennis reunion, and I stayed home with ME. On Labor Day, though, Drew and I decided to spend the day with our little girl outside. So we checked out the "Big Dam Bridge" down by the dam (hence the name). It really is a neat bridge...luckily, it wasn't too big to cross with a stroller!

I'm really high up in the air! I wonder if this makes daddy scared...

• Mary Elizabeth has already had her 2nd 1st day of school. The first daycare was just temporary since the one that I camped out for didn't start until after Labor Day. Although we really enjoyed the sweet ladies at ME's 1st daycare, I am really excited for her to be at our church's daycare now. I love the ratio...4 kids to 1 teacher and 1 assistant! Plus she has another girl to play with, and they have 30 minutes of early Christian time!

Seriously, another school picture?

Other Happenings:

• We've already had to learn what it's like to pick up a sick child from school. During her last week at the old daycare, ME got diarrhea (sorry for TMI!), so she really didn't go the last week. Although it wasn't great timing considering it's the beginning of school for me still, I did get to spend an unexpected day with my little girl. Luckily, she's all better, and we really think that it was teething issue rather than a bug. Too bad those teeth just won't come in, though!!!


• Several people have asked me how her new daycare is and I still really don't know, except for what I said earlier. Due to Gustav and the rainy weather last week, the church, along with several other businesses, lost power around here last week. So ME's only been there for 2 1/2 days, but we've received positive reports everyday from her teacher!


• One of my dearest friends, Sarah, had her little girl last week. We are so excited to welcome Taylor Elise!!! Too bad, though, that another girl is born but doesn't live nearby. Maybe one day we'll have some girl friends to play with in LR!

Taylor Elise Gilmore