My little Delaneylion

THe last couple of weeks have been really busy.  My mother-in-law was in town from Michigan 2 weekends ago, then 2 days after she left, my parents came in town from Michigan for almost a week.  While I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to share with you soon, one of my favorite things about having my parents here is that during the day, I get random pictures to my phone of things they are doing throughout the day. While the quality isn't the best, the cuteness is still tops in my books! This one is my favorite one I received from my mom one day after bath time.

I am Delaney...hear me ROAR! ZOMG I cute not stop showing this picture to everyone! She was so tired in this picture because it was right before bedtime. (which is probably how my mom got her to sit still long enough for this picture!)

In which I apologize profusely

I'm so sorry!!! There isn't really an excuse for the fact that I know that it's been forever since I last posted.  I'm pretty sure it's been exactly 1 month.  But this past month has been so busy that I haven't really had time to update anything.  But, that means that here in the next week or 2 you will be bombarded with updates of the last month.  Come back and see me soon, and catch up with all the fun Delaney activity!

Here we go again...another milestone!

Yesterday, I picked Delaney up as usual from daycare and the teacher handed me her usual daily sheet.  Only this time it had this on it...

That's right! Delaney had her first tinkle on the big girl potty!  Of course, I made a HUGE deal about it to Delaney to encourage her to continue this.  We called Nana, Papa, Grandma, Papa T, and Mammy to let them all know.  She even got a cupcake as a treat. 

I'll be honest...yes I am extremely excited about the possibility that she'll be out of diapers before she's 2...but at the same time, I'm a little sad.  This is just one more step away from babyhood and into toddlerhood.  No one told me how conflicted I would feel with every new thing she does.  As a parent you want your child to learn new things, to thrive, to grow...but a part of you wants to grab them and hold them and never let go in hopes that it will keep them little longer.  I knew she would grow, but I never understood how fast! 

So now, we just keep plugging away at this new stage...potty training.  Lord help us!

1.5 Years/18 months/78 weeks/547 days

Delaney,

When you look at that last number, 547 days, it seems so long. But I assure you, that time flies by so fast when you are a parent.  On the 4th you turn 18 months old.  My sweet baby has turned into a just as sweet if not sweeter toddler.  I mean, I know that technically you've been a "toddler" since about 7 1/2 months when you started walking, but you are definitely a toddler now.  You are hitting a stage right now where you have your daddy and me cracking up all the time.  Your vocabulary has just blown up in the past month or two.  You look at us with such a serious look and start "talking" to us.  You are so determined to tell us something, and you are completely convinced that you are saying the words that you are hearing in your head.  But then in the past 2 weeks or so, when you're talking to us you are actually saying words that we can understand!  And when you string some of the words together, the "sentences" that you say are so funny!  Sometimes we know where you've picked up what you're saying, and sometimes we have no idea!  Like the other day...we were sitting in the living room and you walked over to me and started screaming "ELMO!" over and over.  Now, we've never watched Elmo with you. And you don't have an Elmo toy. So we don't know where you picked that up.  Luckily someone had given us an Elmo movie back when you were really little to let you watch.  And now, you like to request Mickey Mouse.  But when you ask for that, it sounds like moush.  You LOVE to eat cheese or fruit snacks as your snacks.  When you ask for a snack it sounds like you are saying Knack.  But it is the cutest thing.  You are constantly moving and climbing.  You will climb on anything that you can get your little hands on.  One of my favorite things you do is, you can be in the middle of doing something and you'll hear music start up up somewhere in the background and you will drop whatever you are doing to start dancing. You are a music baby, that's for sure.  You are also a water baby.  I have to keep a real close eye on you, because if I don't, you will pick up the dogs water dish and completely empty it so that you can splash around in the water.  You have been known to get into your kiddie pool fully clothed, shoes and all just to splash around.  You are a very loving baby too.  You love to give hugs and fishy kisses. You will cuddle with me all the time, and believe me when I say, I eat it up!  I will stop anything to cuddle with you because I LOVE it that much.  You have also recently started trying to show your independence by throwing tantrums every once in a while.  So far they haven't been too bad, but daddy and I just laugh because your fake cry look is so adorable!

I can't tell you how much your daddy and I love you.  You have been such a bright spot in our lives since the day you were born.  We just wish the time would slow down a little because we know that if we blink, you will be grown and ready to move out.  We know that you are already a great kid, and we look forward to watching you grow.

Just to let you know, at your 18 month appointment you measured in at 25.6 lbs, 34 inches tall, and your head measured off the chart as usual!  I would tell you to slow down on the growing...but we both know that won't happen!

Love,
Mommy

My Beautiful girl

I don't know when you got so big either!

Rain drops were falling on my head!

Rain.  It's what's been on everyone's mind here for....well....it seems like forever.  We have not seen rain in over 3 months.  And while normally it wouldn't be that big a deal, we have also been in the high 80's to high 90's for the past 3 months.  Needless to say, dry and hot do not mix well for plants, grass, wildfires...you know what I mean?  Last night though, while we were playing with bubbles in the backyard, it started to sprinkle.  So I grabbed my husband a a couple beers and sat out on the back patio, well, until it started to lightning and the wind picked up.  But Delaney got to spend a little time in the rain and thoroughly enjoyed it.

She was laughing and stomping around in the puddles.  We were all enjoying it.  But then it got to a point where it wasn't safe outside anymore, so we scooped her up and headed indoors.  And when she realized that she wasn't going to be able to play in the rain or blow bubbles anymore...this is what we got...

A sad little girl!  It's OK, the weather is back to dry and hot today, so we'll get some bubble time in tonight after dinner!

Summa, summa, summertime!

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend...or if you ask me, the official start of summer.  First off, Memorial Day weekend has a special meaning to me as my grandfather was a veteran, and I have lots of friends that are either veterans or are still active in the military.  My whole-hearted thanks goes out to all of them for the freedom that we have that they fought for.  Without them, our lives would not be the way we know it today.

Since we got the new dog over the weekend, we had a pretty relaxing weekend in which we didn't go ANYWHERE!  It was GLORIOUS!  We did take advantage of our local community pool twice.  Delaney is such a little water baby that even though her teeth were chattering, she didn't want to get out!  (don't worry, I moved her to the baby pool that was MUCH warmer and she warmed right up!)  And we did go out to dinner once (thanks to a gift card my mother-in-law gave us for Easter).  On Sunday evening though, we did the traditional cook-out in our back yard with some good friends of ours.  They brought their 2 1/2 year old Aiden over and he and Delaney and Delilah had a blast in the backyard in our little turtle toddler pool.

They played for hours in the pool while we cooked and ate dinner and enjoyed a few beers and some GREAT company.  Delaney even got to stay up a little past her bedtime so that her and Aiden could watch Elmo on the TV for a little bit. 

The swimsuit that Delaney is wearing is my favorite one that she has this year as it features a monkey. And since Delaney is as close to a monkey as you can get (only WAY cuter!) it is only fitting that she wears it!

Plus, there's just something about ruffle butts that gets me every time!

I Die!

I'm thinking that this is going to be an AMAZING summer!

A girl and her doggy

So this past Friday, we added to our family.  Her name is Delilah and she is a pit/lab mix.  More lab than pit.  She is 9 months old and so ridiculously laid back and gentle that I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Delaney (like with her own name) drops the DUH part of the name and just calls her Lilah...but she still answers and it's all good. 

So we brought her home on Friday and Delaney followed her around and trying to get her to do things that Delilah wasn't ready to do, as she was too busy sniffing around her new house.  But by that evening, she settled down and was a little more responsive to Delaney's requests.

Now Delilah has been living in a house where she was allowed on furniture and allowed to sleep in bed with the owner, however, this is not the case at our house.  When getting into bed that night Delilah thought she'd help herself to the foot of our bed.  I made her get down and sleep on her pillow.  She tried once more an hour later, and again I put her back down on her pillow, since then...she hasn't tried again and just curls up on her pillow.

How is she with a toddler you ask?  Well, Delaney can take toys out of her mouth and all she does is lick Delaney's arm.  When Delaney is eating a snack in front of her, she just sits and watches Delaney eat without bothering her.  Now don't get me wrong, the second Delaney offers it to her, she will eat it...but even then she takes it from her very gently.  She allows Delaney to lay on her and on her pillow. She has never tried to jump on Delaney either.  So far so good. 

We are enjoying her a lot.  My husband has always had a dog while growing up, and I can tell he missed having one.  She is a wonderful addition to our clan.

This is Delilah and she says hi!

New art? Yes Please

OK, so we had bought a groupon (actually 3) that was a great deal. A 16x20 canvas art print of any picture we want.  Like I said, we bought 3 with plans of putting them on this giant blank wall we have in the kitchen.  We decided early on, that we would probably do pictures of Delaney since she's the cutest thing we know, plus it will give us some "artwork" that no one else will have.  So we procrastinated to the point where we had 3 days to pick put pictures.  Last night I finally sat down to look at pictures to decide.  I came across a series of pictures that my husband has taken of Delaney while she was playing in the back yard in her little playhouse.  The thing about these pictures is that she has 3 different faces in them, but they are all in the same position.  We couldn't help but choose them for that fact and for the fact that we promptly died from the cuteness that is our daughter. (And yes, I am fully aware of the fact that I may be fully biased...but lots of people have told me that she's cute, and I'm not one to tell people they're wrong)  We ordered the pictures today and they should be here in about a week.  We asked the company to crop it to just be her face and to make the pictures black and white.  I CAN NOT wait!

The first one is her serious face

Then...there's the one that made me die instantly from the cuteness...

And then there's the full on laughing picture...


Seriously can not wait to show these off!

Because she's just so Hollywood

If this isn't what cute is...then I am crazy!

Michigan Weekend Extravaganza!

So this past weekend we got to travel back to Michigan to see family.  My wonderful brother-in-law graduated from Michigan State University.  Off course we can't miss that!  Delaney, once again, flew like a champ on the way there and on the way back.  She's such a good little traveler.  It was great to get to see family and friends again.  We haven't been home since Christmas, and even though we skype every week with our parents, it just not the same as being able to wrap our arms around them and give them a big hug.  It was especially nice because my other brother-in-law and his wife were able to come up from Virginia, so everyone was there.  The weather over the weekend was B-E-A-U-TIFUL!!! We couldn't have asked for better weather.  We even got to spend a little time with some of our closest friends while watching the Red Wings play on Friday night.  We spent all day Saturday up in Lansing for graduation, which went very well besides the fact that graduation started at 8:45 in the morning, causing us to have to leave my parents at 6:00am...WTF??? Who schedules graduation for 8:45 AM???  After graduation, the family went out for lunch to celebrate.  And then, I handed my baby girl off to my mother-in-law so she could take her to my parents house.  My husband and I along with his 2 brothers and my sister-in-law were all staying back to party that night.  This, however, was my first night away from my precious little one.  Needless to say, there was WAY too much alcohol ingested that night...but fun was had by all.  Partly thanks to the bucket of beers from Crunchy's.  Now if you've ever been to Crunchy's in East Lansing...then you already know about the bucket o'beer...but for those of you who haven't, let me explain...when I think of bucket of beer, I think of either 5 or 6 bottles of beer served in a small metal bucket of ice.  But at Crunchy's...you get a car wash bucket full of draft beer, a pitcher, plastic cups to drink from, and a shammy to wipe down your pitcher after you fill it up in the bucket. (take a moment to let that sink in and pick your jaws up off the floor) It worked out to about 6 1/2 pitchers per bucket! 

As you can see...it is pure AWESOMENESS!

The next day was Mother's Day, so I was in quite a hurry to get back to the Detroit area so I could see my baby!  From what I've been told, she had a blast with my sister, who came up from North Carolina for the weekend, and my parents.  She went to bed on time without fussing, ate her breakfast right up, sat quietly in church, and even took a little snooze before I saw her at brunch.  But when my parents walked through the door at the restaurant and she saw me, she yelled out "Momma!!" and all the fun she had was forgotten as she wrapped her little arms around my neck and didn't let go for a few minutes.  It made my heart melt. 

We got to go see my husbands grandmother after lunch and all of his aunt's and uncle's and some of his cousin's were all there as well. We took  the little ones out to see some baby geese...and she LOVED it. 

Later that night we got to spend some time with my husbands father and step-mother.  His step-sister was there as well with her little girl so the cousins got to play together, and were absolutely adorable! But I also got a little more snuggle time in with D as well.

I LOVE that little girl! All in all it was a GREAT weekend!

I hope that you all had a great weekend and a Happy Mother's Day as well.

We mastered the 1st haircut!

So today we took Delaney for her 1st haircut. Seeing as how Delaney will be 17 months old tomorrow, you can see that I put it off for a little while. Her hair definitely needed to be cut as you can see from the picture below

The first couple of clips made her a little unsure at first...and made mommy a little sad (when did my baby grow up?)

But...the ladies there were prepared. And of course she settled dow, because animal crackers makes everything better...DUH!

And when they were all done...my baby looked like a little "grown-up"! 

Ok, maybe not a grown-up but she definitely looks a little less babyish now!  :tear

So this is what it's like?

Ok here goes...My name is Jennifer and this is my first blogging experience.  I have been reading blogs for a while now (mostly mommy blogs) and everytime I read one and see how they are recording their child's life, I get a little "jealous".  I think "I can do that...why don't you write about Delaney and your life with her? She'd love to see these stories in the future! Plus you could meet some really cool people on the blog boards." But then I usually talk myself out of it and just keep reading and hiding in the shadows. 

But not any more!  I'm going to give this a try and see how it goes.  So welcome to the ride, I hope you enjoy!