This morning, at 6:20am, my eyes popped open. Ellie was fussing. I checked the video monitor and saw her thrashing around, frantically trying to find her pacifier. Sometimes if I give her a minute or two she finds it on her own. I watched her get more and more angry. Since she normally doesn't wake up till around 7am, I decided to get up and help her since I didn't want her to get so worked up that she was awake for good.
I stumble into her room, in the dark, and start helping her with the search. I check the corners, under the blanket, under her little legs.... I can't find it. She's now reaching for me. Getting more and more angry. I power walk to the living room, dig one out of her diaper bag, run back into her room, hand it to her, and run out. Thankfully, she immediately went back to sleep. I did too.
She woke up again at 8:11am. HAPPINESS. She never sleeps past eight, but I was just thrilled. I nearly skipped into her room and told her that mommy was so thankful. She clapped and we sang a little song about how nice it is to sleep as I changed her diaper. As we headed out to the kitchen, we stopped by the light switch which she turned off for me.
Into the high chair she goes.... along with a handful of Cheerios for her to munch on while I figure out what we're going to have for breakfast. I desperately need to go to the grocery store. She had fruit with oatmeal and some pieces of a cereal bar. Then we snuggled on the couch while she had her morning bottle and I watched The Today Show as usual.
She played with all her toys on the floor and bugged her daddy while he was trying to work. She crawls down to his office dozens of times a day and bangs on his window. It's so funny that when she sees me coming to pull her away from his office door, she crawls away from me really fast. Such a silly girl.
She lays down for her morning nap, while I make my coffee and sit down to do my Bible study, read emails, and check the daily sales. To be honest, 98% of the time I never buy anything, I just love to look and see what's available.
Ellie wakes up and starts playing again. I turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I brush my teeth and put normal people clothes on. I walk out into the living room and don't see her. I find her in the kitchen. She has dumped Moxie's bowl of water all over herself. She finds this to be hilarious. We go into the nursery and change her diaper and her pajamas and put her into a little onesie and some capri leggings. I put a bow in her hair and put her shoes on while I talk to Aunt Jaclyn on the phone.
Then it's into the car so we can head to the grocery store. She starts to fuss. I keep a pile of newspaper ads from grocery stores in the front seat of my car for such a time as this. If Ellie is fussing in the car, all I have to do is hand her a sheet of paper. She loves paper. She giggles and crinkles it and tears it. I talked to her Baba (Grant's mom) on the way to the grocery store about their travel plans for Ellie's upcoming 1st birthday party which is in less than a month!
We get to the grocery store. I'm so thankful for my HEB who has "Parent with Child" parking spaces. So nice and convenient. She loves to sit in the cart and point at people and things as we go through the store. I have to hand her little trinkets from my bag to entertain her while we shop. Mama's keys... Mama's wallet, a rattle... when she's done with each item she throws it onto the ground. Such a helpful girl. People stop me in the store and tell me how BIG she is! And then they ask me how old she is and I say "next month she will be 1" and then they say "Oh, so she's not big.. she's SMALL!" Which is so very true. She is so small.
We load up in the car and I'm sweating and I look at the clock and I realize we are way past her lunch time. I get home as fast as I can, passing her yogurt drops at stoplights to keep her from melting down entirely. I get her in the house and rush to get all the other groceries in while I am simultaneously trying to put lunch in front of her.
For lunch she has 2 chicken nuggets, bananas, and blueberries. We top it off with a bottle and after a few minutes of playing my sleepy girl is ready for her afternoon nap.
I know that as a mom, I should use the afternoon nap to get things done around the house. I don't. I use the afternoon nap to sit my booty on the couch and veg out. I know this isn't the best use of my time, but I can eat my lunch and drink a Diet Coke and surf Facebook and it is glorious!
Little Miss wakes up and I chase her around the house. We read a few books. She does lots of crawling. I gave her a small bottle of Whole Milk this afternoon. It was her first time to taste whole milk. She finished it, but she kept taking the bottle out of her mouth, staring at it, and then putting it back in. "Something's different.... but okay. I'll take it."
She pulls up on the storage ottoman several times to dig out her toys. I'm so proud of her for how strong she is getting. She is just now really starting to pull up which is encouraging since I thought for sure it would never happen. She's on her own schedule :) She pooped. I changed her diaper. She pooped again. Always a pleasure.
I load her into the stroller, complete with her sun hat, and we embark on a little walk. We walk to the park and she has a blast on the swings. Then we got super adventurous and the 2 of us went down the slide together. Four times. Yes, I dragged my fat butt up the stairs and put her on my lap and we went down the slide together. Four times. She had a blast. I was out of breath.
We went to the mailbox and got the mail. She held some junk mail on the walk back home. By the time we got back in the house, we were both so thirsty. She gulped some water out of a sippy cup and banged some toys around as she continued her quest to get down to Grant's office as many times in a row as she could.
She was standing at one of her little toys and then saw something on the couch that she wanted. She was brave. She tried to take a step. She fell and hit her head on the bottom of the couch. It was hard. Instant sobs with real tears. I picked her up and consoled her. Grant came out of the office and he cheered her up instantly. She definitely has a little bump on her forehead. Makes me so sad. We journeyed back into the nursery where we read books and played. Then I cooked dinner while Grant entertained the girl.
Back into her high chair. She ate pears, half of a turkey dog, and a whole jar of pureed spinach and potatoes. She gets it all over her face and hands. After a good wipe down, we strip her down and she's into the tub. She splashes and plays with a duck. Then I pick her up and wrap her in her pink snail hooded towel. Probably one of my favorite parts of the day. She gets into a new diaper, some fresh pajamas, and I wrestle her into my lap to brush her hair. Then it's into the living room for another bottle. Part milk, part formula. She sucks it down and then we cuddle.
Right now she's playing on the floor. I'm typing this blog and I'm about to put her down. It's 7:20. It's been a long, full day. I just wanted to document this little day in our little world.
She's gonna be one. Goodness gracious. What a blessing!
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7:28pm. Update. She pooped again. You're welcome for that piece of information.****
