bad blogger, good news

So, I have been a bad bad very bad blogger as my last post was an entire week ago. But I wasn't laying around getting pedicures and taking naps. No. I, we, have been super busy all because of one little job interview that the hub went on. And wouldn't you know it, they wanted him to come back for a second interview. And before we'd even ventured to discuss the "what-ifs" about him getting offered the job he got offered the job. And he accepted the job. The job that is better than his current one, with a new company, which pays more, and comes with all the glitter fairy dust and magical unicorns you could ever want! (Ok, so maybe not the last part). But, and this is a big "but," the job is in DALLAS. As in, TEXAS.



Yes, that state (or republic, if you ask them) that sits directly below Oklahoma that you are required to loathe if you want an Oklahoma driver's license. Now, I have no ill will towards Texas because to me, as a non-native Oklahoman, I think it looks a lot like Oklahoma, the twang is almost the same, the cowboys are still yummy, and I didn't go to school in Oklahoma so I have yet to pledge my undying devotion to obliterate anything Texas at any given moment.

So, job accepted. And my job has an office in Fort Worth (Dallas's step-cousin) so I can transfer. In 13 days. Yeah, I almost went into the shakes when I read that sentence. THIRTEEN DAYS. So I haven't been updating on Britton's daily fun because I have been running around losing my mind and trying to find my to-do list that doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Probably because I keep adding asinine things to it, like "clean out garage." Ha! Thirteen days to move and I want to clean out old stuff from the garage. And dust the window blinds. And get the house listed for sale, and pack up all of Britton's stuff, and clear out family photos while "staging" the house, and call the cable company to cancel service, and forward my mail, and, oh yeah, throw a first birthday party for Britton, all while my mom comes out to visit. So, yeah, I've been a little stressed. And the hub and I do as much as we can, flop on the couch for ten minutes of DVRed television shows, then hit the hay exhausted.

So I will do better for my two blog readers. Cammy's coming tomorrow and the party is Saturday, so I promise to update. Even if it is only to brag that I got my to-do list whittled down to "have nervous breakdown" and "rock in the corner of a dark room."

pop quiz

In the pictures above, Britton is:

(A) Displaying her awesome skills at eating applesauce without a utensil

(B) Wearing an OU dress and orange bib, which everyone knows is not allowed in Oklahoma because you're either for OU or OSU, but not both

(C) Especially excited about her dinner on a Tuesday night and not afraid to show it

(D) All of the above.

If you picked (D), you're correct!

And, bonus points, if you look at her tray in the second picture, she's actually on her second applesauce. My girl likes to eat and I love it! Of course, half her food ends up in her lap/on the floor, much to Sadie's delight.

our little dumpster diver

Britton has been compensating for her not-quite-there-yet-just-on-the-verge-of-walking non-walking status by now becoming the child that wants to discover EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. Though she did walk at daycare yesterday afternoon! Just a couple of steps, but great daughter she is pulled it out of her hat of tricks when the hub showed up to get her. And she did it some more last night - a couple of timid steps, but so amazing! And she's so tickled with herself when she pulls it off, the hub and I basically throw a parade anytime it looks like she might walk a couple of steps. Motivation!

But I digress. Her latest discovery? The trash can! And because the hub and I are cheap and got the plastic crap-tastic Wal-Mart one when our magical automatic opening model broke, we are paying the price. Ahhh, such fools in Aisle 17 who buy the trash can that keeps no one out. Poor Sadie never figured out, after all these months, that scraps heaven was simply a karate-kick away. I believe she and Britton are now conspiring - Britton gets the paper towels and old bread, and Sadie gets the meat drippings and used aluminum foil. Tasty!

smiles mcgee

Britton was sent home early yesterday with a mad case of the Hershey squirts. Seems some kid in her class continues to re-infect everyone with a virus that ravages the bottom half of the little ones, and each one has taken their turn being sent home. Of course, that means that Britton cannot return for 24 hours, which destroys a decent work day for Josh and I. We took turns today, him in the morning and me staying home for the afternoon. And we didn't get a sick little girl - she may have had a heavy diaper, but not a heavy heart.

So here are some smiles from this week. I can't keep all this beautiful smiley goodness to myself.

hmmm....

While Jessica was visiting, she accompanied me to my "girl doctor" appointment. So much fun discussing birth control with my pregnant sister looking on, but we're close like that. I insisted she come in the room so that she could witness any shenanigans instead of getting the story from me later. But all was quick and relatively painless. Check out the magazine title and 20-week pregnant belly.

isn't she lovely?

This may seriously be one of the cutest photos I have captured of Britton. And you can see her teeth!

aunt jessica's visit

Jessica came for a visit! She hasn't been here since Britton was born, so it was fantastic to have four days to hang out and catch up. Of course, we had an agenda, as Jessica found out the day before her trip that she is having a.......wait for it........GIRL! So, Britton's clothes needed to be sorted and borrowed, and much shopping of all things pink was to be had. We cleared out Babies 'R Us, StorkLand, USA Baby, and Kohl's. Also Cupcakes to Go Go and Braum's ice cream, but that's a different kind of indulgence.

Jessica did convince me that this vinyl tree at Kohls, 50% off at $11, was a much better deal than the one I had been eyeing on Etsy (for $89). She was right.



And Jessica arrived with Britton's first birthday presents! Showing up with gifts will get you a foot rub and treated to lunch around here. The hub was out of town Thursday and Friday nights, so poor Britton had to wait until Saturday morning to open her gifts.




Footie pajamas with her name on the butt flap. Love it! These are gracing our family Christmas card photo!



And a beautiful elephant keepsake box. If you know me at all, you know I love elephants, and Jessica shares this love equally, if not more so. It can hold a curl from her first haircut, or her first lost tooth, or any little things Britton may deem as treasure.



Jessica also treated Britton to some stacking cups, which she loved. She would hand the cups to us, one by one, then take them back, and do it all over again.





On Saturday night, the hip folks we are, took to a spirited game of Trivial Pursuit. Then it was off to bed because we're old and need our sleep. Come Sunday, I drove Jessica to the airport and hung out with her while she waited in the security line. I didn't want to leave that line. We had such a good time, and I miss her so much. It is a palpable emptiness when I spend too much time away from my sister. Our relationship is a constant reminder that Britton needs a sibling too. Just not anytime in the near future. It feels like I won't see her forever, but Baby Drinks is due at Thanksgiving and I'll make the trip out to help, like Jessica did when Britton was born. I can't wait to meet this newest member of our family!

I cam back from the airport to find Britton "helping" the hub with bed-making. She's a pro!



And, on a side note, Jessica and I spotted these jean diapers at Babies 'R Us, and since the hub had shown interest I picked some up. Cheesy as all get out, yes. But they negate the need for shorts or pants, which is always a good thing when you're just hanging out at home, filling the dishwasher.

disney cometh to us

While the hub and Grandpa were in Florida this weekend, they took it upon themselves to support the Floridian economy and buy out Disney World. We're big loathers of buying knock-off Disney stuff, because there is a certain magic to things 100% Disney. And Disney counts on such attitudes to keep the lights on. So, with the Disney cruise and Walt Disney World extravaganza coming up quickly in September, the hub treated Britton to a sample of all things Disney.

Because it does not get anymore classic than Minnie...



Seersucker AND bloomers? It's like I was guiding the hub to this outfit from 1400 miles away!



Red. Tutu. A bow. All great on their own, but combined this girl will be styling.



What to chomp teeth into? Ahhh, soft plush.



And of course, after seeing this awesome clothing, I decided to hop onto Etsy for finishing touches, courtesy of Lemon Drop Boutique and my PayPal account...



To go with the green Winnie-the-Pooh dress.



We are so ready for this trip. The best part of all? Introducing Britton to Disney World AND the ocean and seeing both through her eyes for the first time. Talk about magical.

little miss smarty pants

Admittedly, there's not much going on in the Sunday paper during a holiday weekend, other than SALES, SALES, and more SALES. But Britton finds that keeping abreast of current events is a satisfying way to spend a leisurely afternoon.

Do you get this excited about your local newspaper?



You would if you treated it like a four-course meal. Britton likes the delicate balance of the Sports section, but finds the Local section to be too salty.



The classifieds have a nice piquant after-dinner taste.

girls' weekend

The hub went to Florida with his dad for the weekend, so Grandma came up to visit and watch Britton so I could get some hours in at work. Britton welcomed her Saturday morning with a fever. Because Britton knows how to have a good time. But Grandma was undeterred - Babies 'R Us shopping extravaganza - OUT; snuggling - IN. So we hung out, went to visit the hub's granny, made chicken pot pie, spaghetti sauce with tomatoes from the garden, and Barefoot Contessa's toasted coconut marshmallows. I also got to pick Grandma's brain about ideas for Britton's first birthday party, and made her cry when I previewed my video photo slideshow of Britton's first year. That means it's a keeper! We also ganged up on anyone in the neighborhood who thought it neighborly to be shooting off fireworks all night long WHEN MY SICK BABY IS TRYING TO SLEEP. Our "stink eyes" were at their best, I tell you. Britton appreciated our efforts.



Grandma and Britton played peek-a-boo all weekend long and Britton never got tired of it. She also never got tired of her game where she hands Grandma every diaper out of the basket while Grandma tells her "thank you" after each one. Britton even started saying something that sounded an awful lot like "thank you" as she handed them over.



Pretending not to like walking, something she LOVES. Already a teenager.



See those top teeth? She has four of them up there, and appears to have inherited the gap between her front ones from me (the gap it took THREE YEARS of braces to get rid of). Something tells me that the hub and I are going to be converting our retirement accounts into "Britton's braces" account. Either way, her smile is adorable, so I can't complain!



Want to know a secret? I actually gave birth to Elton John. True story.



Britton also showed off another "first" for Grandma wherein she dumps all of her bows out of the basket and then puts them back in, one by one, very methodically. Grandma rewarded her by putting every bow in her hair.



Here's Britton's best Justin Bieber impression. Or Greyson Michael Chance, if we want to go local. If you don't know what I'm referring to, here's my answer to everything - google it. You will be amazed.



And as I'm putting Britton down for her nap this afternoon, I heard a huge crash in the kitchen. Silly me for leaving the high chair tray where Sadie couldn't quite reach it! I'll have to remember next time to just put it on the floor. And cover it in steak and shredded cheese, as per her highness's request. Would Sadie also like an after-dinner mint?

eleven months old

Whew. This one is hitting me hard. In the throws of planning Britton's first birthday party, her eleven month birthday snuck up on me and I wasn't emotionally prepared. IN ONE MONTH SHE WILL BE ONE YEAR OLD. Just give yourself a second for that to sink in. I still can't wrap my mind around it. Yes, babies grow up. But I was just saying today that I want to suspend her in amber and set her on my bookcase. Frozen in time. Because frankly she's at such a good stage - she laughs, interacts, attempts to talk, eats real food and feeds herself, and enjoys hanging out without having to be entertained non-stop. Why does she have to get bigger?

Britton is now in the one-year-old class at daycare, where everyone is walking and it's pissing her off. It's like being a diabetic in a candy store. She knows she wants to walk, but she just can't get the hang of it without a push toy or a hand to guide her. She has eaten a wide variety of food, including blueberries, corn, peas, cheerios, tuna, green beans, avocado, peaches, bean quesadilla, hamburger, pineapple, pears, pasta, watermelon, and thanks to daycare, chicken nuggets, pizza, corn dogs, and cupcakes. She ends every dinner with a biter biscuit, as if it were a steamy cup of coffee. And tonight she took the spoon from me and fed herself baby food! We haven't started juice yet because I'm convinced it's just soda in a prettier package, but she does a great job drinking water all day. And she still has four bottles per day.

Britton now has SIX teeth, with more on the way. She is still sleeping great, twelve hours through the night, then one nap per day during the week and two per day on the weekends. She has her routine down, and while slight deviations are acceptable to her, any big changes throw her off (she is, after all, my child). She LOVES music - the hub playing the harmonica for her, me with my awful singing voice, rattles and her tambourine. She can now interact with Sadie, grabbing Sadie's ball and tossing it for her. Speaking of toss - this girl has an arm. I'm not kidding. She likes to throw around the beach ball with us, and she can actually throw it in your direction to where you can catch it. Good thing we live in the land of women's softball!

No doctor's appointment (or shots) until next month, so no stats as of yet. But we took her to the doctor for a virus about 3 weeks ago and she weighed 21 pounds, 14 ounces.

Likes: baths, water time, peas and corn, Sadie, singing and music, walks in the stroller, playing with other babies, blueberries with a passion, her stuffed penguin, her glo-worm, her new shoes

Dislikes: being changed, anything going over her head, diaper changing, anything that requires her to not squirm for all of five seconds, teething, when Sadie ignores her, having her hair done

down the drain

This is what the top shelf of my freezer has looked like since Britton was born. Almost an entire year that shelf has been home to a rotating, then static, supply of breastmilk. But yesterday after work, it all came out.





And you're probably thinking, "But that stuff is liquid gold! It takes so much effort and energy and patience to get such a bountiful supply of breastmilk!" And you would be right. But I can't use it and won't be able to at all, and I certainly don't need a daily reminder that the one activity my baby solely relied on me for was, for lack of a better term, a failure. All the days, weeks, of nipple shields and clogged ducts, and getting up every two hours, were gone. Poof. Just like that. When my pediatrician, after warning he never liked to get between a mother and her baby, suggested the only thing we hadn't tried to make Britton's digestive problems go away. No medicine, no procedures, no more elimination diet, no extensive superstitious rocking and rubbing and burping and tucking legs under bottoms and swaying. Just no more breastfeeding. No more breastmilk. No more soothing with the boobies.

And it worked.

And I was heart-broken.

It's not that Britton still has those same problems, or that my milk would cause her the same problems. It's that we don't know - what effect it would have on her, how safe it really is after ten months in the freezer, with its ice crystals forming. The window of opportunity to make use of my milk has passed.

Jessica comes to visit next week, in fact the day after she finds out the sex of her baby. And during her visit, we will go through baby things, and ohh and ahh over little mittens and socks and onesies, and she will pack up new and old things to take home. One of those things being the breastpump. And I'm sending her with the bottles upon bottles I bought to store the milk I can't use. So, into the sink they went, to defrost, and today I dumped them, one by one, down the drain.