Jayla started walking 8 days before her first birthday. I remember at her first birthday party she was a fairly competent walker, even in her new Air Jordan's that her Tee Tee bought for her.
Tamyra, on the other hand, has never seemed particularly interested in being mobile in any sense of the word. She wasn't even a fan of crawling until probably 11 months or so, even though she had the ability to do it well before that. As for walking, she's not been the least bit interested in it (or maybe mama doesn't give her many opportunities to try it because that would mean that she's growing up and since she only weighs 18 pounds, mama just likes to carry her around!).
At her first birthday party, walking was not even on the horizon. She just wasn't interested. At 12.5 months old she started thinking about it and I got some cute video of her taking a few steps and then dropping down to crawl to her destination. Since then, she'll walk but, only holding someone's hand.
And then this past Saturday at exactly 13 months old, she got up and walked by herself and hasn't sat down since then. It was the most amazing transformation from Friday to Saturday. All of a sudden she had the confidence to keep putting one foot in front of the other and lo, she is a new woman! She walks around the house...she walks outside to play with her sister...she wants to walk in Wal-mart when mama is trying to get in and out of the store in less than 30 minutes...and the list goes on (though mama still has a terrible, terrible habit of wanting to carry her everywhere).
And so my baby is notably less of a baby. The next thing you know, she'll be wanting to face forward in the car or something. My only solace is that she is still the size of a 9-month old and sometimes she'll still cuddle with me...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Summer Plans
The summer is quickly approaching. I've spent a considerable amount of the past couple of weeks trying to plan for the summer. This will be the first summer ever that Jayla will not be in school. Jayla has been in school full-time since she was 16 weeks old. I'll also have Tamyra full-time this summer. So, I'll be all stay-at-home mom-ish, I guess. When I told Jayla that she'd be home with me this summer, she broke down in tears and said, "NOOOOO!!! I don't want to stay with you. It'll be BORING!" (I wish I were kidding). Hence, my planning mania...
Our June is mostly filled up. Jayla's spending a week with my parents...all by herself! She is so excited about it. I'm maybe just a wee bit excited too. It'll be our longest time apart and only the second time that she's been outside of the immediate care of her parent but, I'm excited for her to spend time on the same farm that I spent my summers on when I was growing up. When she returns we've got a week of Vacation Bible School at our church, followed by 2 weeks of daily swimming classes and a possible trip to Atlanta for a family reunion. Then, it's July!
I'm not sure what we'll fill July with yet, but something tells me that it won't really be a problem. Both girls are already enrolled in gymnastics classes once a week for the duration of the summer. Plus, there's the playgroup that Tamyra and I currently meet with each week, multiple splash pads that we want to hit up, a museum membership to take advantage of...and POOF, there goes the summer!
Jayla will likely return to school at the beginning of August just to get her back into the groove before Kindergarten starts. Tamyra will probably hang around the house until the week that I go back to school at the end of August. I'm really looking forward to spending plenty of time with my girls, though. After all, what doesn't kill me will only make me stronger, right? Please just nod.
Our June is mostly filled up. Jayla's spending a week with my parents...all by herself! She is so excited about it. I'm maybe just a wee bit excited too. It'll be our longest time apart and only the second time that she's been outside of the immediate care of her parent but, I'm excited for her to spend time on the same farm that I spent my summers on when I was growing up. When she returns we've got a week of Vacation Bible School at our church, followed by 2 weeks of daily swimming classes and a possible trip to Atlanta for a family reunion. Then, it's July!
I'm not sure what we'll fill July with yet, but something tells me that it won't really be a problem. Both girls are already enrolled in gymnastics classes once a week for the duration of the summer. Plus, there's the playgroup that Tamyra and I currently meet with each week, multiple splash pads that we want to hit up, a museum membership to take advantage of...and POOF, there goes the summer!
Jayla will likely return to school at the beginning of August just to get her back into the groove before Kindergarten starts. Tamyra will probably hang around the house until the week that I go back to school at the end of August. I'm really looking forward to spending plenty of time with my girls, though. After all, what doesn't kill me will only make me stronger, right? Please just nod.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Mother's Day 2010
Last year at Mother's Day, I had a brand new baby and was pretty unsure about the whole 'mother of two' thing. We were adjusting to being a family of four and were teetering between "oh, wow...this baby sleeps all the time and is so, so easy" and "oh my goodness, this baby has turned our lives upside down".
We took the baby out to lunch that day. She was asleep when we got there. Once she woke up, the lunch deteriorated quickly as it became one of those deals where one parent holds the baby to let the other parent eat and then switch. Tamyra never was a very good restaurant baby before she could partake in the activities at hand. In contrast, Jayla was an excellent restaurant baby from the beginning. So, this was a new experience for us.
I distinctly remember being mortified by the pictures that I took with my girls that day. I was only 2 weeks postpartum and still weighing a good 50 pounds more than I was used to. But, I took plenty of pictures of me and my girls because I really was pretty excited to be able to hold two girls and call them mine.
This year, I took several pictures with them again. I am still holding on to about 20 extra pounds but, whatever. This year I'll post the pictures.
We went to church this morning. I had my girls to myself because daddy was ushering. I enjoyed the time with them. After lunch, Jayla and I grabbed some McDonald's on the way home and Daddy and Tamyra had lunch from home. Tamyra and i slept most of the afternoon while Daddy and Jayla did something (watched tv? played the Wii?).
For dinner, we had Ragin Cajun. I have a knack for picking restaurants on Mother's Day that have essentially no wait (remember Buffalo Wild Wings?). And it was yummy...crawfish tails and crawfish etouffee for me! That was it. My fifth mother's day. A low-key day but, always nice to focus on my family and my role as a mother.
We took the baby out to lunch that day. She was asleep when we got there. Once she woke up, the lunch deteriorated quickly as it became one of those deals where one parent holds the baby to let the other parent eat and then switch. Tamyra never was a very good restaurant baby before she could partake in the activities at hand. In contrast, Jayla was an excellent restaurant baby from the beginning. So, this was a new experience for us.
I distinctly remember being mortified by the pictures that I took with my girls that day. I was only 2 weeks postpartum and still weighing a good 50 pounds more than I was used to. But, I took plenty of pictures of me and my girls because I really was pretty excited to be able to hold two girls and call them mine.
This year, I took several pictures with them again. I am still holding on to about 20 extra pounds but, whatever. This year I'll post the pictures.
We went to church this morning. I had my girls to myself because daddy was ushering. I enjoyed the time with them. After lunch, Jayla and I grabbed some McDonald's on the way home and Daddy and Tamyra had lunch from home. Tamyra and i slept most of the afternoon while Daddy and Jayla did something (watched tv? played the Wii?).
For dinner, we had Ragin Cajun. I have a knack for picking restaurants on Mother's Day that have essentially no wait (remember Buffalo Wild Wings?). And it was yummy...crawfish tails and crawfish etouffee for me! That was it. My fifth mother's day. A low-key day but, always nice to focus on my family and my role as a mother.
After church. Pay no attention to my bra escaping my clothes!
After dinner. Outside of Ragin Cajun. Before the picture where the homeless man walked up behind me, put his hands on my shoulders, and smiled for a picture. And my husband took the picture! Only Jayla felt the need to NOT change out of her church clothes all day.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Not easily impressed
Last weekend my husband bought a used copy of MarioKart and two steering wheels for our Wii system. He has proceeded to go from sucking to "usually winning" in the past 5 days.
Tonight, I was trying to get dinner on the table so that I could sneak out to the gym while they ate it. My husband was keeping the girls occupied by letting them watch him play MarioKart. At the end of a particular run, he got super excited about something, "...look what daddy did, Jayla!". Her priceless reply: "Ummm...that's not really impressive, Daddy." Perfect English. Perfectly straight expression on her face. No more...no less.
I couldn't deny that she's mine even if I wanted to (I've just learned to keep those things in my head instead of saying them aloud). Also, she cracks me up.
Tonight, I was trying to get dinner on the table so that I could sneak out to the gym while they ate it. My husband was keeping the girls occupied by letting them watch him play MarioKart. At the end of a particular run, he got super excited about something, "...look what daddy did, Jayla!". Her priceless reply: "Ummm...that's not really impressive, Daddy." Perfect English. Perfectly straight expression on her face. No more...no less.
I couldn't deny that she's mine even if I wanted to (I've just learned to keep those things in my head instead of saying them aloud). Also, she cracks me up.
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