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Where's the rain?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but it hasn't rained this weekend (I know I'm jinxing myself by talking about it, though)! So ME and I have enjoyed the outdoors. After school yesterday, we played outside with bubbles. She thinks she's a big kid now and wanted to do the bubbles by herself. Do you think she was successful?

I had to take off her clothes after the last picture. You can decide why. :) Just remember that there was a 17-month-old and an open bottle of liquid involved. I took this picture to show off her fantabulous hair that she went to daycare with!

Check out that cheek! With Dixie in the background, this picture reminds me of the Waterbabies sunblock picture. Isn't it cute?!?!

Then we headed to Hillcrest's Dog Days today to watch a few different dog contests (best dressed, best trick, best coat). ME was all about petting all of the different "woof-woofs". But she got confused with all of the black labs that reminded her of our own Mo-doggie at my parent's house.

This is a picture showing her confusion. She's pointing at a black lab across the parking lot that looks like Mo while saying "MoMo".

Leave it to a toddler to manage to find the only wet spot in the whole parking lot to sit in! This girl loves "wah-wer" (water)!

She found this sweet puppy hiding in the shade. She kept "bootie scooting" up to her to love on her.

Can I have this doggie, Daddy?

Notice the red clock on the girls arm on the right side...this dog won 2nd place in the costume contest as a "watchdog". The Mo imposter won dressed as Superman in case you were wondering. Too cute!

I had to share this picture from last weekend, too, for Helen and Ashley. Is this a look ahead to my future??? Yikes!!! Drew and I took ME to the Travelers' baseball game last weekend and sat in the outfield on a picnic blanket. We watched the Visitor's team warm up in the bullpin and got some sun. I wish I took a picture of her poor burned forehead where I missed putting the sunblock on.

Notice ME is staring at the catcher (Uncle Bebo's position) in the bottom left. Yikes! I'm having flashbacks to my "mistreated" childhood spent at the ballfield. :P I can't believe that I could possibly be doing that all over again with my own son! Maybe he'll pick an indoor sport like billiards. Ha! :)

ME has a new friend!

If you know ME at all, you know that she's not too fond of people she doesn't see too often, especially men! When she's around most men that she isn't quite comfortable with, she just gives them a serious stare down with her "Grandy eyebrow". That's an advantage for me and Drew if she keeps that up until around age 30! :)

Well, a few of our guy friends (Huck and Jarrod) have made a goal of trying to get her to like them. As I tell most of the guys, just hang ME upside down and you'll be her best friend. Huck took that advice last week and he's slowly winning her heart. :) It started when we walked up to the Huck's house last week to rock on their porch. As soon as David came out, she wasn't happy. So he started to run around the yard with her like an airplane and she soon turned it into a game. Then, last night we were at Michael's surprise party and it didn't take her too long for her to remember who he was. Sorry, Jarrod, but I think Huck is winning!

The picture above is a picture of ME and Huck SMILING after a game of chase last night. And notice her new addition to her hair...she's been wanting to wear bows now!

Pray for Katie

Please pray for a childhood friend of mine from church, Katie. Click here on Hillary or Shannon's blog to get updates about her.

Oh, brother! 20 weeks already!

Can you believe that a baby boy is inside this belly?

If you haven't already heard via phone call/Facebook/text, ME is going to have a little brother to boss around! Drew and I had our ultrasound today and we are so excited to know that we will now have the best of both worlds!

I will say that I'm a little surprised, but still very excited. My very first instinct was that we were having a boy due to my completely different symptoms, but the past few days my instinct has switched to a girl. However, as I was shopping at Target during my lunchbreak today for gifts to announce the sex of the baby to the grandparents, I kept looking just at the boy/blue things by accident. Funny thing is that my first instinct when pregnant with ME was that I was having a girl. Maybe I should be a psychic. Ha!

Here is the ultrasound that shows off our child's "business". Drew and I aren't quite sure what angle this is, but you can tell what the arrow is pointing at!

So far this time around, we're doing things differently. Instead of having the grandparents in the room, we just had ME with us. It was fun to watch her. However, because I was watching her, I missed the second that "the part" showed up on the screen. Right when the ultrasound tech asked if we were sure we wanted to know, I turned to look at Drew and ME, then Drew said "It's a boy!"

Drew and ME watching the screen. She was so focused on what was going on. She loves technology!ME sitting in the exam room while I'm waiting for the doctor. She was so proud of her drawings on the exam paper.

At the last minute last night I decided I still wanted to make the announcement special somehow rather than just calling our parents since they weren't going with us this time. Sorry, Daddy Mike, that we had to call you, though! Several of my friends gave me cute ideas, but I just didn't have enough time. So I bought "It's a Baby Boy!" balloons to tie at their houses for when they got home. Well, as soon as my parents saw their balloon, they made a trip to Wal-Mart and headed straight to our house with gifts. Do you think that this baby boy is already loved and destined to play some kind of sport?!?! Not even born, and he already has a set of golf clubs, blue baseball glove and ball, football, and another baseball. The pink baseball glove is for ME (obviously).

And for everyone that's wondering the name...we don't know yet! I thought we would use the one that we had picked out for last time, but Drew has given me other names recently that I don't like. So we'll keep brainstorming.

I'm 17 months and very independent!

Sorry this is sooooo long!

Swing low, swing high...

As I walked in to my classroom this morning, it dawned on me that Drew and I have a 17-month-old and another one "in the oven". For some reason, that just blew my mind! ME is not a baby anymore, she's on the verge of being a little girl! As my mom says (every single time she sees her by the way), "ME is so funny." Although we make fun of LaLa telling us that every time, it's so true. From the "words" that she mumbles, to the screams that she makes, and the tricks that she does, Drew and I are always on our toes and constantly laughing with/at her.

I think it's interesting how girls learn how to be so girly, while boys learn to be so boyish, at such a young age. All that ME really hangs around are boys, but she is still so prissy. She still insists on putting on my makeup most mornings and carries two purses around with her. Plus, she's so loving. I know that boys can be loving, too, but man this little girl loves to share give hugs and kisses. She's even sympathetic when I sing "the babies on the bus go wah-wah-wah" and hugs me while singing that verse. We are so lucky to have such a sweet-spirited little girl.

Give me a little time, I know I can do this. Check out that concentration! A signature serious look inherited from me and her Grandy while trying to unhook the swing. Priceless!

Try keeping me out, but I'm still going in to swim with the duck-ducks.


Ha! Try to catch me!

Things that she's doing now:

We go for her Well-Baby checkup next month, so I don't have any stats.

• According to Uncle Bebo, though, she still hasn't said anything. He says that she's just mumbling or making noises. Drew and I, on the other hand, know differently. She's saying a bunch of new words and has started signing for water and saying "wah-wer".
• I'm trying to get rid of the paci, although they still give it to her at daycare. So every morning when I get her up for breakfast, I tell her to give or throw her paci to George (her stuffed Curious George from Grandy).Usually, she's pretty easy-going with this, but sometimes she'll just tell me "No" and sit in her crib because she knows I won't let her take it out of the crib. Then, when she's not looking, I have to hide it because she reaches through the slats and tries to pull George and her blanket until she can get her paci back.
• As I said earlier, she's such a loving girl with such a sweet personality. She is starting to realize where Mommy's baby is and hugs my belly as well as almost anything else that she can hug, especially "woof-woofs"! She's been trying to love on our neighbor's cat everyday, but Ty isn't too fond of her yet. I love that she's animal person like me!

Pictures from the Travelers' Game that I was talking about:

I need a delivery made to my box.

Bring me 4 fried chickens and a Coke.

Do April showers really bring May flowers?

If so, then we Arkansans are some kind of messed up! It pretty much has rained here for the past week or so. This means that we haven't gone outside to play, and my 3rd graders' field trip to Pinnacle Mtn. got cancelled. However, last Sunday, we had a little stretch of no rain so my parents stopped by for a little while and played with ME outside. As you can see from the pix, we have a little priss-pot on our hands. She doesn't like "icky" on her hands or feet. In these pictures, she started off toward our neighbor's cats. But once she hit the grass, she didn't want anything to do with the grass touching her.

Busy April weekends

A few weekends ago, my Aunt Vickie came in for Kari's baby shower. ME finally warmed up to Vicki and is finally loving Uncle Bebo. She's actually reaching for him now! It looks like Kari is just about ready for McKenzie to come into this world. I'm just sad I didn't get any pix of the mom-to-be because I was chasing Miss Munchkin around.

Great-aunt Vicki and ME

"Looking up to" her Uncle Bebo while petting Gulley's belly.

Before Aunt Vicki went back to TX, we hung out at my parents. As you can see, ME still was loving Bebo from the previous day. I think it helped that Bailey was right next to him, though.

I thought this was too sweet. If she only knew what I had to put up with while growing up with him!

The following weekend, we were extremely busy! Friday night, we attended Craws for Paws (a fundraiser for the Humane Society). ME was a little overwhelmed by all of the people and dogs. Just like she does with men she doesn't know, she actually shied away from the dogs after she would run up to them. She did, however, keep her eye on the Great Dane. It was fun to see her try to love on the "woof-woofs". Sadly, I was too busy chasing her in the pavilion to take any pictures.

Then, we had a play date with Mason and Anna Carol that Saturday to see Disney on Ice. The kids had a blast (I think the mommies enjoyed getting to sing Disney songs, too)! Since ME loves fish and can spot them a mile away, she flipped out right when we walked in and saw Flounder (or some fish character) skating. Mason and ME were so cute because they were dancing, reaching for the characters, and laughing.

The Cast

How'd they do that?
Mom, I don't have time for pictures...I'm watching the show with Mason!
I can't wait to see my next show!

I'm worried because my mommy is a little too excited about watching some cartoon characters!

The next day we went to the Travs game with my family and we got to sit in Brant's company box. That made it real nice for ME since she's into running around lately. Plus, they had little baseballs for her to throw around and a phone to play with. I have the cutest picture of her talking on it, but I can't upload it for some reason...ugh!

Take me out to the ballgame...