9 months old

She's quite the little strong-willed thing.  Both of my girls are, but I know how to make Camryn cave.  Darcy's not old enough to mess with to where she'd understand what I was trying to do. 

This past month, she has started dancing, clapping, pointing, giving slobbery kisses,  reaching down to pick something up on the floor without plopping down and then standing right back up.  She's stood for a couple of seconds here and there without realizing it when she transfers a toy to the other hand.  And she eats finger foods really well.  Her favorite has got to be bananas.  But she has tried blueberries, strawberries, grapes, ravioli, cheese and bread.  I still feed her veggies from the baby food containers, but I need to start cooking that for her too. 

She had 4 teeth. 3 on bottom and 1 on top.  I always though baby teeth kind of grew in pairs.  It cracks up that Darcy is already bucking the trend.

Last night she got into the icing on Craig's birthday cookie before I could stop her.  We slip her a teeny taste of sugar from time to time and she knows exactly what it is when she sees it!  LOL!

First bath with big sis

I've had Darcy in the big tub for a while, but have just been sitting her in her little baby tub inside the big tub so it didn't feel so overwhelming to her.  Boy, was that a mistake.  She was particularly  messy with rubbing food in her hair yesterday so I just plopped her into the tub with Camryn last night.  It was hilarious.  Darcy would not stop splashing fo rone thing. But she kept scooting on her bottom somehow.  It was kind of like a little hop forward. And then she'd spin and hop back. So funny. (NOTE: Camryn didn't make the blog on this one. She's almost 5. I figure we've hit that inappropriate stage to post naked pictures.) 

She's how old?

Yep, on Feb 6th she turned 99 years old!  I can't even imagine all of the news headlines, personal experiences and family gatherings she has been to over the last 99 years.  It's crazy to me that she is 99 and Darcy is not even one year old.  And Grandma Collins loves watching the girls play.  She looked so much better than I have seen her look in a long time for her birthday party.  She was talking to everyone and smiling more.  Almost as if she had shaved several years off. :) 

Happy Birthday Grandma Collins!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue on blogging.

Oh my!  So, I'm amazed how busy one can be when they're not working.  Yet, I look at my house and think "what in the world have I done all day where my house still looks like this?" 

Anyone that reads this blog has already seen these pictures, but I had to get them up so when I come back to scrapbook someday, I'll remember what to write.

Darcy turned 8 months on 1/21.  She turned a corner in this 8th month.  She learned to crawl, climb up on things, climb over people, pull herself up on furniture, climb stairs, learn to sit from a crawl.  She's such a happier child now that she can move.  Although the tantrums, when she throws, them a way funnier.  She'll crawl toward you and just scream until her face is read and snot is coming out of her nose.  Then she'll hang her head like 'I can't go on any further!'

Here are some pics to commemorate the 8 month mark. 

Snow Day

Camryn was so excited to play in the snow this past week.  Only it was too cold to be out there more than 15 minutes, which is about how long it took us to get her all bundled up.

Here she is lying on the ground.  I asked if she was making a snow angel and she said "No.  Daddy pushed me down."  Ha!

Look how red her little cheeks were.  We originally had the scarf wrapped around her face but that didn't do much since she spent most of the time on the ground or tasting the snow.

Meanwhile, Darcy has had a packed 2 weeks.  It didn't take long after she began crawling for her to begin pulling up on just about everything and now climbing stairs.  Although, she struggles on the stairs unless it's during naked time.  The clothes don't give her enough friction and she slips too much.

She's definitely feeling like a bigger kid. She's going after all of her sister's toys and wants to play with her more.

I brought out all of my old Barbies for Camryn to play with and Darcy made it her mission to taste each one's hair. It took an entire day but I think she was successful. Ha! Actually that night was the first time she pulled herself up to a stand. Camryn had moved all of the Barbies up on the couch and Miss D pulled herself right on up to see what was going on.

The next day Camryn had finished playing with them and put them all back in the box with the lid on loosely and then walked away. Darcy pulled herself up, popped off the top and looked inside.  I was watching from the kitchen and yelled "Hey!  Darcy Rae!  Are you supposed to be doing that?"  She just looked at me and started laughing. 

One of her favorite spots.  We're constantly pulling her off the TV.




Pulling herself up by her chair. I guess she was looking for puffs that she left behind from a previous meal.

Here's Craig with his girls.

New tricks

Darcy has learned a new trick. She started crawling on New Year's Eve and goes a little farther each day.

In fact I actually experienced for the first time since she's been born the feeling of her moving away from me. The stinker is so clingy, and still is most of the time, but she is getting more comfortable with her new skill. The hardwood floor still poses a challenge. Here she is chasing after one of Camryn's balls. Forgive the length (2 minutes, I think). I need to learn how to use the editing software better.  NOTE: If the screen isn't showing up, try refreshing your screen.  That worked for me.

Tonight she started feeling a little more certain of herself and she's aiming for higher ground.

And then Cam saw the camera turn on so she requested to jump in! LOL!  Darcy's face is like "hey wait! I'm still here!"

And a couple other random pics. This was Camryn's idea of entertaining Darcy for me for a few minutes the other night.  She grabbed all of the toys around the room and made a colorful circle for Darcy.  Ha!  She looks content at least.

New Year. New Attitude.

OK. This is going to be a good year.  No, a great year!  Tonight I was looking at upcoming race events and planning out my training schedule for the April half marathon. I began to get excited for the potential this year holds.  So in the spirit of tradition, I have made resolutions.  I never make them.  This is the first year I think I've actually put them in writing.  Here are my 2011 resolutions (in no special order).  I'm keeping this list short so it's manageable.  (I haven't forgotten that I have a 7 month old in the house.)

1.  Get a job.
2.  Pray more. 
3.  Take time with Camryn once each day to reflect on what we're grateful for in our lives.
4.  Eat more fruit.
5.  Drink way more water.
6.  Run two half marathons.   

Here's wishing you all luck on your goals for this year.

Goodbye 2010!

While there were many highlights of the year, Camryn's first dance recital, Chris and Jessica's wedding, the LONG awaited addition of little miss Darcy Rae, Jon and Liz completing their adoption paperwork for a new little nephew or niece, and a much-needed weekend to visit Jeff in San Diego, the overall mood of the year, at least for me, has been BLAH.  I really, really hate to say that. I mean, I just mentioned so many blessings. I'm sure I sound completely ungrateful for what's been given to me this year. I don't mean to.

My life is just not complete without work.  I'm going on 10 months unemployed and have become one of those ugly statistics.  I have no balance in my life right now and it makes for some tough days emotionally.  Hard to keep it together.  And there have been some days (more than I care to mention) where I've been a complete you-know-what to be around this year.  My poor family.

That's all I'm going to say.  I'm hoping and praying for work in 2011.  And hoping a positive attitude adjustment soon follows.

See ya 2010.  I'm drop kicking you out the door!

Taking a moment to laugh

Tonight we had the entire family back in the house.  Camryn has been home for more than 24 hours after being pumped full of fluids to rehydrate herself at the hospital.  My stomach bug is gone.  And Craig picked up Darcy from his parent's house.  We got her out of the germ house in hopes that she would escape this crazy stomach virus.

Anyway, I had a period of about 15-20 minutes tonight that I have to thank God that I was able to laugh at. 

It started at the end of dinner.  Well at the end of Craig's, my and Darcy's dinner.  Camryn usually sits at the table for another 20+ minutes partially because she talks the entire time we're eating and when she is left alone to eat her cold food she begins refusing to eat whatever I've made.   (Oh, I remember stalling on certain foods with parents.  And holding my nose while eating cold peas so I wouldn't have to taste them.  And a list of other foods.  I was so picky.  I'm sorry guys.)  So...I was battling Camryn to eat and even out of the goodness of my heart reheated her dinner.  I was cleaning up the dishes, so when I noticed she was down to a few bites I came over to observe the grand finale.  I noticed she knocked half of her bite into her lap "on accident" and when I walked around the table, half of her dinner was on her lap and on the stinkin' floor!  I yelled at her to get upstairs and change her clothes.

When she came back down she asked if she could fix my hair.  I needed to change Darcy's diaper, so I said okay if you can do it while I'm cleaning her up.  So as Camryn is inserting at least 7 multi-colored clips in my hair I notice Princess Buttercup has a horribly nasty diaper and it has traveled up her back side.  I accidentally got some of it on the carpet, and she is so squirmy it was all I could do to get that outfit off without rubbing it all through her hair.  By this point she was flipped over rocking on all fours with her bottom in the air and I noticed she had something in her mouth.  Only I couldn't fish it out because I had poop on my hands.  I left her her in the buff while I ran to wash my hands.  Craig was able to get a piece of tape out of her mouth before I could get back.  I just vacuumed today too!  That figures she would find the one thing I missed.

After getting a fresh diaper on her I went to rinse off the crap from her outfit when I hear "mommy, I spilled your water all over the floor."  She grabs a towel to start cleaning up and I grab the carpet cleaner to clean off the poop on the floor.  As I'm scrubbing the carpet I look up and Camryn has moved from mopping up the water and grabbed a freshly cleaned mattress pad (that took 2 days to dry because it's the awesome pillow top kind) out of the laundry basket and is using it like a sled on the dirty wood floor.

Really?

Wow! I'm looking sweet!



She may look sweet, but look out!  She can be quite the little trouble maker. In fact as I'm typing this I had to get on her case for using the chair as a jungle gym. (Yes, Dad, I do that now. LOL!)



I'm done with this day!

 I'm not mentioning the Darcy vs. Mommy battle at bath time tonight that left me soaking wet but that wasn't part of the 20 minutes. :)

Tomorrow is a new day! 

Ice cream!!!!!!!!!!