Melting Pot and More!

Katie had her Sweet 16 Birthday Party on Thursday night at the Melting Pot with 5 friends. They all had a great time. It was so much fun to listen to them interact with each other. Really takes you back to high school. She has a great group of friends right now and a sweet boyfriend named Teddy. They all dressed up and we drove them over there. We were there for like 3 hrs and they talked the entire time. We sat at a table for two beside them.

Irelynn stayed with her Pappa while we were at dinner. She did great. She has started crying when we leave, so I made Travis take her. She and Pappa played in her toy car and really had a great time. She is starting to doing so many things. Everyday it's something different. Like right now, she is sitting in her little chair singing along with the Micky Mouse theme song as she watches cartoons. We went to the pool yesterday and dunked her head. She loved it! She also crawled up the netting into the playhouse at the pool (with a little help). Sleeping is better. Wed and Thurs night she slept all night and the last two nights, she just woke up once or twice. She has started brushing her hair when I hand her a brush and she can point to her hair, eyes, nose, and teeth. What a smart girl!

Saturday night Travis and I took Irelynn and Hunter to chapel hill to eat and walk around on Franklin St. We got ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. Irelynn loved every minute. She walked and squealed. She was precious.

Lately...

Lately things have been really busy. I'm working way more than I want too. Travis' job is getting really busy, Katie adds on more activities everyday, and Irelynn is growing and learning so fast.

Katie has been volunteering at Rex hospital in Cardiac and Endoscopy. She is loving the excitement of the hospital and being able to help out the patients. She and I have been volunteering a little bit with the SPCA and Ronald McDonald house for NCL, our community service club. This past weekend, we had Katie's family "Sweet 16." Later this month, she is planning a birthday dinner with friends at the Melting Pot.

Irelynn is doing all kinds of new things. She is great a shape games, like putting shapes through holes on her toys. She has started playing pretend with things. When I'm cooking dinner, she stirs her Cheerios or Goldfish or air in one of the pots and then pretends to put it on plates. She also loves to feed us her food. She has started singing a couple of words or humming along with her favorite shows on TV, which I think is precious! Her teeth are coming in and really bothering her. She has had a couple of really rough nights, but I think they have broken through and are bothering her less. I give her frozen waffles and cucumbers, and frozen go-gerts all the time. I'm most proud that she has started saying "peese" and "thank u" when prompted.

She has done a few funny/embarrasing things. I'll just touch on the highlights. We were eating dinner at a friend's house. When we went upstairs, she leaned over and spit over the inside balcony. That's when I learned that she and her daddy do that all the time off of the back porch;)

What a great week and weekend. Grana and Pop visited us this week. Then we spent July 4th at the Puff's house. Irelynn, Hunter, Travis and I went to the pool. Irelynn did great in the water. I can already tell she is going to be a little fish. She loved walking, splashing, and playing. She and Hunter had a blast together. She has also started rolling and catching a ball.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a great day. Irelynn, Travis and I went strawberry picking. Irelynn ate so many strawberries! I'll have to admit that they were pretty tasty. She is so much fun! She is really starting to exert some independence. She has started pulling her hand out of ours when she walks. She wants to do it all by herself. Taking her grocery shopping alone is out of the question this month. Last weeks trip was an absolute disaster. People were actually asking me if I needed help. I probably looked like a neglectful mother, but i just had to carry her screaming most of the way. She wasn't even distracted by her cookies. She just wanted to be down on the ground, walking the direction of her choice. Travis helped me grocery shop this week. We also went to Home Depot with little Miss Independent. She carried around paint rollers. I let her get a small American Flag, which she waved all through the store.

Sunday, we went to Loco Pops. Irelynn sure loved the cookies and cream pop! My favorite too! She also liked her dad's brownie pop! Monday, we went to the Puff's for Memorial Day cookout. Irelynn kissed little Preston on his head. It was really cute. We had a great dinner with the whole family.

Some really cute things that Irelynn has started doing...

She loves carrying shoes around by their shoe laces, taking things out and putting things back in containters, walking down the sidewalk beside our house, holding the dog leash, picking flower petals off of flowers. She knows how to pick dandelions and blow off the little fuzzy seads. She loves to pick the mint that is growing near the front porch and smell it. We taught her to put it up to her nose and smell. She knows the word nose and will point to hers when you ask her where it is. When I say, "noses," she will rub her crinkled nose up against mine. She definitely knows the word shoes and if her love for shoes doesn't fade, we are in deep trouble. When she gets mad, she screams ...Apple, Apple. I have no idea where she got that, but it is hilarious! She claps and plays patty cake. She is just doing so many fun things now. I can't believe how she changes each day.

May 16, 2011

We all had a great weekend, especially Irelynn. Grana and Pop came to visit, we went to the art museum, and ate Mexican food... Irelynn loves black beans.

Step by Step

Irelynn has started taking some steps! I wouldn't say she is walking, but when we hold something that she likes in front of her, she will take 2 or 3 steps towards it. It is a really cute wobbly step and her eyes are filled with full concentration each time. Her early birthday present was a bike trailer, which has been a lot more fun than I ever thought. I wasn't sure how she would like it, but it has been a big hit with her. The first couple of rides, we put her car seat in the trailer and pulled her around that way. The trailer is great. The big wheels make it really easy to pull (well, that's what Travis says... I haven't attempted to pull it yet.) Irelynn has been saying a few words. Dog comes out like "Gowg." That is her new favorite word. She will also say Duck. She will point to the monkey in her room when I ask her where it is in Spanish.

Irelynn's first birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. We are going to try to make a piano cake, since she loves the keyboard that her Nannie gave her. Pictures to come.

Just Dance!

Irelynn has learned to play the Wii. Tonight, she crawled into the gameroom on her own, grabbed the Wii remote and hit the power button on the TV. Then, she cried because Just Dance was still not on the screen. She crawled over to me, hoping that I would turn on her favorite game. Her two favorite songs are "Yo Ba Ba," which she twists and bounces to, and "Who let the dogs out," which she loves to yell, "whoo whoo" along with the singer. You would think that these two hits would loose there luster after a while, but we are going on about 3 weeks of Just Dance fun. Some parents put their kids to bed after a couple of books and a bottle, we prefer a little "Who let the dog's out," to send our baby off to dreamland. Speaking of sleep, Irelynn is doing a little better with the whole sleep thing. Although many nights we still have a middle-of-the-night feeding, she has begun to sleep through the night more frequently. She will also go to bed a little earlier and a little easier.

In less than 1 month, my baby will be 1-yr-old! I can't believe how with each passing day comes something new and exciting. Sometimes, I wish I could slow it all down.