Trying to finish what I started

So, can I just say that trying to go to bed earlier is making me more tired, it seems? I've been sitting here in front of the laptop for like 20 minutes with no energy to actually start typing...instead I'm watching my husband fail on the medium level of Rock Band guitar. So, ummm...I think I am at May (too lazy to check back and actually see where I left off)

May - Maybe I'm suffering from more brain cloudiness again (which I'm still blaming on the sleep deprivation) but, I really don't remember alot about May. I remember going to College Station for the last time on May 11. I remember that Jayla's last day of school for the summer was a the end of May. I remember that's the month when Jayla, Tamyra, and I went to pick strawberries. The other 28 days of May do not exist in my memory. (So, I just cheated and looked at my planner. I was right. May was fairly quiet outside of a couple of birthday parties and a garage sale and mother's day at Ragin Cajun. But, one thing that I'm disappointed that I forgot about - Motown and More Revue!! This was our 4th year in the row attending this show. We love it! Our girls love it! Last year Tamyra attended as a one-month-old baby. This year was the craziest, though, with torrential rains showing up at the beginning of the show. The four of us stuck it out, though, with huge umbrellas and lots of laughs. Just as the rain slacked off, Jayla and I had plenty of room to practice our dance moves since the less committed attendees had left when the rain got tough. The pictures below were taking before the rain came!)




June - We kicked off June with another annual event - our trip to Kemah to see the Friday night fireworks. We've been going with the same family since 2005. At the time, I was pregnant with Jayla and they were kidless. Now I have my two girls and they have two kids with one on the way. Each year that we've gone, we either have a new baby who wasn't with us the year before or one of us is pregnant. This year was the last year that we can fit in one vehicle. Their new baby is due right before fireworks next year so, we'll have to take 2 vehicles to acommodate all 9 of us!



Jayla also went to visit my parents in June. She gained 4 pounds in that 6 day trip so, my guess is that she spent alot of time eating. I've also heard stories of her having a blast at various museums and water parks and going to movies and basically having the time of her life away from her stuffy old parents. Jayla, Tamyra, and I also attended VBS at our church for a week in June. I actually had a fairly active role in photographing the kids each day to produce slide shows throughout the week. It was a really great week. Then, father's day and my husband's 33rd birthday. We celebrated at the Cheesecake Factory with my parents and other family members that happened to be in town that week for a church-related conference.



I also lost my wedding band on his birthday. And Jayla started her swimming lessons for the summer that day as well. That reminds me that both girls were also taking gymnastics throughout the month of June. We ended June (such a busy month!) with a trip to Atlanta for the 2010 Century Family Reunion! I look forward to this every year. It's like my non-negotiable trip each year. Atlanta did not disappoint. We had an awesome time visiting the city and our family (not so much of an awesome time on the Airtran flight that we took to get there but, I'm slowly getting over that).

I had intended to get through August tonight but, I'm exhausted. And I am just giddy as I reminisce about last June. I was having an absolute ball! Everything was so much fun. I need to end now, though, because I still have a few other things to do and I'm still trying to honor that early bedtime commitment. So, I'll be back later and will keep working on this series until I'm done. Good night!

1/2/11

Wow...look at me...2 blog posts in the same month! I must be on a roll or something. Actually, I've been thinking all day about the fact that if I wait another 5 months to post on my blog, people will be reading all about how I didn't do anything in 2010...which just isn't true. SO, I'm going to attempt to do a quick re-cap off the top of my head...no peaking at my 2010 planner, pictures, or anything else...just peering through my foggy memory to remember the events of 2010. Here we go...

January - We brought the new year in with our small group from church. There was Wii playing and food. I was working on my preliminary exam which is one of the major milestones on the PhD journey. My Uncle Herman passed away on 1/12/10, which was also my mom's birthday and the day of the earthquake in Haiti. I was devestated by his death and took a trip to Mississippi for his funeral in the midst of trying to complete my exam. Tamyra was not cooperative at the funeral so, I sat with my cousins while my husband walked around the church trying to soothe Tamyra. I managed to pass both the written and oral portions of my preliminary exam that month.

February - For Valentine's Day, we attempted to go to Outback Steakhouse as a family. Despite our best efforts, we managed to arrive at the restaurant at precisely the same time as 400 other people for dinner. We ended up going to Casa Ole' instead. Casa Ole' did nothing for my Outback craving and it took my until October to finally eat at Outback. For my birthday on the 23rd, the husband and I spent the day together. As usual, we started our day at IHOP enjoying National Pancake Day (even though I am high maintenance and couldn't be bothered to get the short stack that was on the special). I'm pretty sure we also went to the gym together later in the day. I do remember having dinner at BJs because I talked to a good friend that night enroute to the restaurant. Two days later Tamyra and I went to a professional conference in Knoxville where I presented a paper. My mom met us there so that she could watch Tamyra when I had to do "conference stuff". I also got to see a good friend from college and meet her husband and baby son for the first time.

March - We got a new roof on the house, which would've been exciting if it hadn't been overshadowed by another trip to the Emergency Room with Tamyra that day. She was diagnosed with pneumonia. Luckily, my parents spent Spring Break here with us so my mom spent a large portion of the week comforting Tamyra back to health. Meanwhile, my dad kept Jayla busy with trips to the park and learning to ride her new bike and I was frantically trying to write a dissertation proposal while having no real clue what I wanted to actually research. At the end of the month, we went down to the Angleton Rec Center for a pool party...the first of several trips this year and also Tamyra's first experience in the water.

April - We went on our first (for all 4 of us) camping trip with some friends from our small group at church. It was awesome. It was very nice to just get out in the middle of nature and just relax a bit. Jayla had a blast riding her bike around the campsite with her friends and learning to fish. Tamyra hung out with me mostly...doing a bunch of nothing all weekend. It was Easter weekend and we did not attend church because of the camping trip. So, a few weeks later, during a photoshoot for Tamyra's first birthday, I got some pictures taken of the girls in the beautiful Easter dresses that my Godmother sent to them. It seemed like a small price to pay for me to erase the guilt that I felt for not having them in church with those dresses on Easter Sunday! Tamyra turned a year old on the 22nd. The four of us had dinner at Panera Bread and ate a tiny birthday cake with her. We had a relatively small birthday party for Tamyra on the 24th, consisting of the families in our small group and a few of our own family members.

Four months down...eight more to go. I'll finish this trip down memory lane a little later. It's time for me to honor my goal of getting to bed before midnight!

1/1/11

It's the first day of the new year and I've spent a decent portion of the past week trying to figure out what in the world happened to my 2010. I really have been beating myself up trying to think of the notable happenings and accomplishments and I just keep coming up short. I'm concluding that my dissertation sucked up my entire 2010. That project is completely overshadowing the awesomeness of 2010 that included my friends and family (because I know I had some great times in 2010...I really, really did...).

I spent most of today just trying to decompress. I've been very stressed out for the past 3 or 4 months. So, I'm on a mission to correct that in the near future. I've got plans for 2011...big plans, even. I'm hoping to receive some revelations this year...learning more about what I'm supposed to be doing with my life now that grad school is over and hopefully reconnecting with the parts of myself and my interests that had to take a back seat in 2010. I'm actually excited about that.

But, one of the most important things that I have got to do is sleep. I've not had a regular sleep schedule in 2.5 years. And when my sleep schedule has been regular, it involved approximately 5 hours (at most) of uninterrupted sleep. And maybe the whole sleep deprivation thing is clouding my memories of 2010...hmmm...

So, I'm really hoping that 2011 will be a year of rest and revelation for me. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Exhausted

Just returned home from a trip that spanned 8 days. We drove home from St. Louis today in our quickest time since have two children...13.5 hours. I am so, so incredibly tired but, I refuse to still have "submit completed dissertation to the thesis office" on my to-do list when I ring in the new year. Since that new year will be here in just 25.5 hours, I must work...when I would so much rather sleep!

I'm so sorry, baby...

I smashed Jayla's fingers in a classroom door today when I was picking her up from school. It was really bad. I haven't seen her cry that hard in a very, very long time! I couldn't look at it because it really was that bad. Some of the teachers at her school helped us out with some ice and compression to stop the bleeding. I just hung in the background trying not to get emotional about it.

Because she is my child, on the way to the car, Jayla asked, "How am I going to eat with a hurt finger?". Those comments always make me love her more.

Anyway, I was trying to encourage her to move her fingers as I was getting the girls settled in the car. She kept telling me that she couldn't. I couldn't get her to distinguish between "can't" and "don't want to try".

So, because I was already incapable of even looking at the gruesome injury, I headed straight to a friend's house, which was about 30 seconds from the school. Luckily, they immediately took charge of the situation (because I was useless). They managed to calm down a hysterical Jayla, examine her injury to assess the damage, ice her down, and wrap the finger up after finally determining that it wasn't emergency room-worthy.

An hour later and Jayla is knocked out on the couch with her wrapped finger in a bag of ice. She's been a trooper considering the circumstances. But, she always has been...

Skin

This morning I was informed that it's okay to show a little skin. In fact, girls don't need to wear a shirt under their real shirt; only boys do that.

Thanks Jayla! Where would I be without you?! Probably wearing a tank top under a shirt that otherwise shows entirely too much cleavage for me to be appropriately dressed for my work environment. Silly me.

The Zoologist

So, every afternoon when I pick Jayla up from school I have to check her folder for her daily work. The folder is generally full of paperwork and projects and I often wonder how in the world they get that much stuff done in a day.

Well, on Friday when I went to pick her up, I went to check her folder and there was a note: "Don't forget the crabs". The...huh? "The crabs, mama, we have to take them home". I glance over to the chart that shows the student roles for the week and, sure enough, Jayla was the zoologist last week. I had no idea that meant that I would house two hermit crabs for the weekend. I'm still a little confused as to how I got suckered into this.

But, I will say that Jayla and her daddy seemed to be creating father-daughter memories this weekend as they fed the crabs and sprayed water to create humidity in their cage. I have yet to even look at the things but, I'm assuming we didn't kill them. I was really nervous about being the first parents to not bring the crabs back on Monday morning.

He DOES care about the small things...

So, the girls and I are attending Vacation Bible School at our church this week. Today was the first day.

Tamyra spent a nice chunk of the three hours screaming her head off in the nursery because the nursery volunteers dared to sit other babies beside her at the table to eat.

And Jayla made me so proud with her answer to the question "What do you pray to God about?". Her answer: "a pretty pink bow with sparkles on it".

It's going to be a fun week...

Mississippi Report

Well, I just got off the phone with Jayla for the third night in a row. She is having a BLAST at my parents house. She tells the stories of her day with such enthusiasm in this grown-up voice that I never hear when she is talking to me in person. She doesn't sound like she's spent the bulk of the day whining and complaining the way that she does at home. Instead, she sounds refreshed, rejuvenated, and obedient. This trip is turning out to be a really good experience for her.

Yesterday it was a ride on the carousel and a couple of pushes in the park. Today it was the zoo with her first cousin, a ride on the train, and some bike riding with another cousin. And tomorrow it's a trip to the waterpark with Grandma and Papa. With every report that she gives me, she's more and more excited; and today I got to hear "I love you and I miss you", unprompted. Maybe this trip is turning out to be a really good experience for me too.

...and she's off...

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...

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.

strawberry pickin'...and eatin'...

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.

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.

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.

Punishment

So, Jayla got written up at school yesterday. Ummmm...yes, she is only 4 years old and in Pre-K...why do you ask? But, seriously, the teacher filled out a form yesterday and checked the boxes indicating that Jayla was: "disruptive at naptime" and "would not follow directions". At the bottom of the form, she wrote: "We know that Jayla is starting to outgrow her naps. Can you please talk to her about staying quiet on her mat? Also, when school bell rang to end our naptime, Jayla said, 'Finally, the bell rings'."

What's funny is the teaching assistant predicted that I would laugh at what Jayla said. And I did. Then I talked to her about staying quiet at naptime, just as I was asked to do. Then I took her and Tamyra to swing at the park on the way home.

Fast-forward to home: Jayla says in her daddy's presence, "Mama, you forgot to show him my bad note." I went and got the note and handed it over to him. First, he had lengthy words with me about taking her to the park when she had gotten in trouble at school. I chose not to mention that the note did not say "and please don't take Jayla to the park on the way home from school today". I had spoken with her, which I felt was enough.

He, on the other hand, decided that she could not have dessert after dinner (her beloved apple ritual) and she could not watch PowerPuff Girls (for whatever reason, that's what she likes to wind down to before bed). And she took her punishment and only broke down about 4 times throughout the night. Each time, we took the chance to remind her of why she was unable to do those things last night and she would reiterate to us why the punishment had been served and what she was going to do to avoid it in the future, which is the same thing that I would've done even without the other punishments.

So, this is just another illustration of how different our parenting styles are. I think because I never responded very well to punishment and such, I forget that some kids do respond to it. And because my husband responded very well to punishment as a kid, he doesn't really see how I could let things go without some kind of "major" consequence. I guess eventually we'll figure out which kind of kid Jayla is. Hopefully, she's more like him...that would make the teenage years infinitely more bearable than if she's like me!

One

...and so my second baby is a year old now. I'm not sure how we got here. Or what I was doing during that year...I certainly wasn't blogging!

Tamyra is not quite walking yet. She prefers to just hold on to us and drag us around the room, and down the sidewalk, and up the stairs, and around Wal-mart, etc. She still gets regular comments from strangers about her hair and cheeks. Both of which are certainly her defining physical features. She has a hilarious sense of humor and hates medical professionals, which probably stems from her recent battles with RSV and pneumonia (on two separate occassions). By far, her favorite foods are strawberries, graham crackers, chicken tenders, and green peas. Despite what we think is a healthy appetite, she is still just 18 pounds (15th percentile) and 28 inches (30th percentile) long. It's in such contrast to Jayla's massive size that it's comical. She's very attached to her mama and her daddy will do in a pinch. All other adults, beware. She's developing a temper and can easily convince Jayla to back down when they're struggling over the same toy. She certainly knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it. She's finally started sleeping through the night in the last month. It involved mama staying in bed for three nights while she learned to put herself back to sleep. Clearly, she was ready for that, though, because she took to it like a champ. And that is Tamyra at one, in a nutshell...

I Can Take a Hint...

...and if you're wondering, the sad person at the bottom is me. The happy one is her.

In The Car Tonight...

Jayla: Mama, you are mean to me everyday!
Me: I'm only mean to you when you do bad things.
Jayla: See, I told you!
Me and Daddy: *crack up laughing*

Student of the Week...Again...

So, remember when Jayla was Student of the Week last time and I worked for way too long on her poster and was all proud of her as if everyone in the class doesn't get a chance to be the Student of the Week? You should, because it was a Big Deal.

Last Wednesday when I went to pick her up from school, the October newsletter was posted on the door to the classroom. As I always do, I glanced at it during the nanosecond that it takes me to open the door and walk into the classroom. But, this time, I spotted Jayla's name under the Student of the Week section. Eeeeeekkk! She was scheduled for the first week in October and I had jut four days to prepare the world's most awesome Student of the Week poster! My first reaction was, "Didn't Jayla just have her turn?" Ummm...that was in January...and time just moves faster than I will ever comprehend.

And so, I spent the better part of this afternoon crafting another Student of the Week poster. I probably spent half of the time on this one as I did the first one. And frankly, Jayla was responsible for ALL of the design elements of this one (whereas she wanted nothing to do with the poster in January). She put the glue on the pictures and pasted them where she wanted them on the poster. She afixed the billion stickers and even wrote her name on the poster. And while I think her first poster was more visually appealing, I'm so very excited about how proud she is of her poster. Here's to Jayla being Student of the Week!...again...

Four Months - An Update

My baby turned four months old yesterday. And as a cruel reminder of how much she's grown over the past four months, we attended an event for a dear friend to meet the baby to which she gave birth just three weeks ago. And it became clear that we are, indeed, not dealing with a newborn anymore. Tamyra is a full blown infant.


She is, in fact, so much of a non-newborn that the first thing anyone comments on when they see her these days is her size. She's a chubby girl. Last week a lady in Target had a baby about the same size as Tamyra. She excitedly asked me how old my baby was. When I told her that she was almost four months. The lady pointed to her own baby and replied, "Oh...he's 8 months." Wow...way to make me feel like my baby is abnormally large! I had already started to develop a complex when she was 75th percentile for weight at 2 months after being just 50th percentile at 1 month (apparently, I produce some high cal breastmilk!) She quickly followed up with, "...but, he's a small baby!". And as we parted ways, she yelled back to me, "she's beautiful, though!". Yes, I know.

After people acknowledge her abundant fat rolls, they then generally comment on her hair. It is also abundant and blows her big sister's full head of hair at this age out of the water! Her hair cracks me up though. It's a mullet but, I love it. Tight, tight curls in the front and 2.5 inch long straight hair in the back. The two textures are so apparent and I fear my child will eventually hate her hair for that reason. I rarely brush or comb it but, have started an almost daily regimen of smearing a little baby oil on it. Otherwise, it dries out and looks rather dull. The baby oil gives it a nice shine and restores the color to jet black. I'm also putting a little headband on her most days. Then I don't have to smack anybody for referring to my baby as a "he".


Tamyra is a dream baby. Very, very sweet. She rarely fusses and when she does, it's clear what she wants and usually fairly easy to fix. Mama has a better knack for fixing things quickly than Daddy does, but that doesn't stop him from trying. And generally, she gives him a break eventually, even if he doesn't meet her exact expectations. Her favorite hobbies her sucking her hands, drooling (clearly inherited her sister's abilities there), and talking. The girl babbles constantly! She loves her voice, I think. And will flash the brightest smiles when you talk back to her. She's even given us a few chuckles...not all out laughs, yet...but, I suspect that's coming soon.

She sits pretty well, assisted, and has recently started to show a preference for sitting up rather than laying down. She also loves to stand on her chubby little legs (with assistance, of course). She is not a particular fan of tummy time. As a result, she never does it. Neither did her sister. But, her sister did roll over from front to back on the day that she turned 4 months. Tamyra has not yet hit that milestone but, she does generally turn to her side now, whenever you put her down on her back. I guess that's something. She can grab whatever she wants and put it into her mouth. I hadn't realized how good she was at this until I was trying to play a card game with her in my lap last night. Yeah...she managed to swat my cards to the floor at least twice!

Tamyra has been a good sleeper since the beginning. But, she is still nursing once each night. That's something that Jayla was not doing by now. For some reason, I don't mind getting up with Tamyra whereas, I HATED it with Jayla so, I didn't after she reached 3 months old. Tamyra typically goes to sleep between 10pm and 10:30pm and wakes between 4am and 5am for a quick snack and then slumbers again until around 8:00am or so. It's something that I've been able to easily live with. She still spends her nights snuggly wrapped in her miracle blanket but, has never really used it for naps. Tamyra is generally good about taking her naps around any errands or activities we have planned for the day...which is awesome! She likes to stay awake and be involved in whatever we're doing and reserves sleeping for another time. But, left to her own vices, Tamyra would take a 1-2 hour nap following each 2-hour awake period. It's something magically about how programmed she is to desire sleep after she's been awake for exactly 2 hours. Accordingly, she nurses every 3-4 hours during the day. But, the nice thing about it is that she's totally flexible with it.

Our schedule, however, will likely be shaken up a bit soon. Tamyra will start going to day care on Tuesdays and Thursday this week so that I can return to school starting September 1. I will miss her like crazy but, I know I will learn to enjoy having those two days to focus on my studies each week.

We took Tamyra to have her first professional photo shoot last weekend. I was hoping to get our first family-of-four portraits as well as document Tamyra at 4 months and Jayla at 4 years (she will get her own post about that later). It was a disaster! Tamyra screamed through the entire session. She wanted NOTHING to do with the photo shoot and refused to be consoled...even by me. So, in many of the shots, she is seemingly emotionless and in reality, the camera flash occurred as she was drawing her next beath to release a deafening wail. But, in her defense, she was battling a fever of 101 degrees as we would find out when we got home. It was her first fever ever and she dealt with it well after we rescued her from the evil photography studio. She had no other symptoms. After a couple of doses of Tylenol and a mega-sleepfest, she was back to herself (though, she was still doing some uncharacteristic night-waking during this past week - hopefully, that has passed). And, truthfully, I adore the pictures despite the tear-stained clothing and general unhappiness of the littlest one in the portraits.

My goal with this post was to paint a snapshot of what Tamyra is like right now. I have done a very poor job of documenting her life in any form so far. I've got to do better...a third of a year has already gone by and I know from experience that it only gets faster! But for the record, I am totally, totally, undoubtedly in love with everything about Tamyra. Her sister and daddy think she's pretty cool too.