another fun day

Baby's congestion is getting better, and with that she's also been letting us sleep later than 5am. And let me tell you, that wake up call was getting OLD. The last two days she's not gotten up until 6:20-6:30am, which means The Hater has gotten to sleep later. It's amazing how much better you feel when you get a better night's rest.

While he entertained her I finished my shower and getting ready, at least partially. He handed her off and I prepared baby cereal and fruit while he went back to bed to catch fifteen more minutes of shut-eye. He jumped in the shower while we ate our bites (breakfast at 7am). When he finished we handed her off again and I finished my makeup and dressed.

In a whirlwind we changed her, packed the car, and headed out for fall pictures. We had so much fun. We started out in costume, then played on the playground. Baby was bummed when we left the playground, so the great ideas of posing next to the first letter of our last name just didn't work out. However, the chocolate ice cream DID work out. (What one year old is going to turn down their nose to ice cream?) My cousin had some ice cream pictures earlier this summer and we loved the concept. By the time we were done Baby had ice cream and sprinkles just about everywhere. It was a great day with perfect cloud cover -- a little wind, but when isn't it windy in Uglyhoma? Our favorite photographer made it fabulous - and it'll be a tough decision to pick which one will be our Xmas card picture.

After all of that sugar we took Baby to Pet Smart. I'd read that they were having a huge adoption weekend and were hoping to get a ton of animals adopted. They had tents set up in the parking lot and she had a ball running around looking at and petting all of the doggies in the cages. And the kittys in the trailors. She had her leash - doggies had their leashes - it was a great way to run off some extra sugar-induced energy.

From there we went to TGIFridays (lunch at 11am) and the guy who sat us was not very nice. I really like their pecan-crusted chicken salad. The lettuce is shredded, the dried cranberries and pieces of mandarin oranges make me happy, the chicken is yummy - it's great. But it's huge, so I have leftovers in the fridge. The Hater got a sandwich that he said was a disappointment. Baby ate mandarin oranges and a little bit of cheese pizza. By the end of the meal the sugar had worn off and she was tired.

She fell asleep on the way home. It was simple getting her changed and put down. By the time I had her down The Hater had brought in all of the things to put away. Once that was done I laid down to enjoy her nap, too. She slept for about 3 wonderfully magical hours. It was fabulous. The Hater brought her in to see me after she woke up. I pretended to be asleep, and she climbed over my shoulder and started kissing me. It was super sweet.

We played and split a huge apple for a snack. The Hater went out to get a few last minute groceries (milk). Baby and I stayed home and played and read stories.

Supper at 5pm. We played for a little while outside (with bubbles!) while The Hater grilled burgers for us to eat when the work week starts back. Baby and I ran around the yard, then came inside for a bath (with bubbles!). The big decision after that was to wear the horse pajamas or the Dora pajamas. The horse won out this time.

She's not nearly as fussy with the lotion as she used to be. Usually if I hand her a book she's great. I have most of these memorized, so I recited it and she turned the pages while we were lotioning. (Incidentally, The Nose Book won out over The Foot Book tonight.) Her new thing is to pull her feet up and try to put her toes in the book after we've "read" it a few times.

Tooth brushing was easy. I gave her the regular toddler-sized toothbrush and one of her stuffed animals to brush their teeth while I used the silicone tooth-brusher over my finger with baby toothpaste to brush hers while she's still on the changing table. It works for us. I sing the broadway hit toothbrush song (to the tune of For She's a Jolly Good Fellow) while we brush: "We brush our teeth in the evening. We brush our teeth in the evening. We brush our teeth in the evening. We do it every day. // We do it every day. We do it every day. We brush our teeth in the evening. We brush our teeth in the evening. We brush our teeth in the evening. We do it every day!" (Don't you wish someone sang the brushing song when you brushed your teeth?!) (In the mornings we sing the same song, except substitute morning for evening.)

Because we played outside we didn't have much time to play after we had her ready for bed. We sat down and read our usual four night-night stories. After the last one, per her usual routine, she slid off of the couch, said "night night!", and walked to the kitchen where we give her teething tabs and milk. We also give kisses in the kitchen. Then I took her to her room and rocked her while I sang the night-night song. When the song is over I say "night-night", turn on the sound machine, and lay her down in the crib. She said "night-night" as I hand her the baby she sleeps with and cover her back with the buh-buh that Nana made her. I turned on her sound machine to 45 minutes of the ocean and snuck out of her room.

We know that we're fortunate that for now our bedtime routine is easy.

Now we're watching football. We're cheering for our Vols and are excited at how well they've played in the first half. It's halftime now, so we're hopeful that they'll come back out and continue to play well... but historically our 2nd half isn't very good, so I'm nervous. We're also cheering for Mizzou to beat Zero-U.

The cat is cuddled to my left. My arm is warm from her love.

It's been a great day.