{We Have a Toddler}

Because my husband works 3 12's each week, almost every time I get home from work my he greets me with Berlyn.  The other night when I got home from work my husband says to Berlyn, "Walk to Mama!"  I was a little confused because just that morning she was only standing by herself and taking two or three steps at a time.  I digress... I stood there for a couple seconds with my arms open and she actually WALKED to me!  This is by far my most exciting moment of being her mom!

From that moment on, she would walk from the coffee table (which is actually an old chest) to the sofa, and then from the sofa to the kitchen.  I swear this chick has been planning this for dayssss and just now decided to show us what she's been up to.  I'm telling you, it is the craziest thing to watch your "little" baby actually have the willpower to walk.  It seems as though all she needed was a little time and a dose of extra confidence.  She is such a smart baby and I LOVE her to pieces!

As a side note, I still need to post about Berlyn's first birthday.  I have posted a few pics on instagram (@dbaitx) but I have most of the pictures on my actual camera :)

Until then, enjoy the [short] video of The Boo and have a great Friday night!!!

My [Almost] Walker!

Last Wednesday, February 20th, Berlyn took her first step!  I posted a picture of her on my Instagram and loved seeing all the congratulatory comments from all my mommy friends!  Berlyn started crawling just before she was 7 months old, started walking along furniture shortly after that, and now she stands alone ALL the time and takes a few steps here and there then falls on her booty.  When she took her first step I was ecstatic!  It really is crazy to watch your baby develop from barely learning how to see further than 6 inches in front of their face, to talking and then walking. 

 

With Berlyn's birthday just a few days away, this is a big milestone of hers that I will be proud to tell everyone that will be at her party! :) I am so happy that my little girl learned how to do this all on her own, at her own pace.  Well, partly at her own pace.  My husband wanted her to walk so badly that he would trap her on the ground in between the coffee table and two walk-along toys.  Of course she would get frustrated and I would save her, but that is just my husband's humor, I guess!

 

Tonight I captured her taking a few steps for the very first time on camera.  It is exciting for me to watch because as she goes to take the third step with her right foot, you can see a smile spread across her face like "I'm doing it!"  I love my baby so much.  She is growing too fast!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week is going to be SO busy for my husband and I.  Tomorrow night we will be going shopping for some last minute birthday supplies.  Thursday we will be taking Berlyn to her 12 month check-up.  Thursday night my mom will be coming over to bake cupcakes and go shopping for the food we'll be serving at the party, and Friday we are taking Berlyn to Disneyland for her birthday!  We took her when she was 8 months old around Halloween but I think she will enjoy it just a little more now that she's a tiny bit older. 

 

This little muffin is my pride and joy.  She will ALWAYS be my baby, no matter how old she is!

VINE!

Is anyone else on Vine?! I was hesitant about joining at first. The privacy settings are basically... Nonexistant. You weren't able to approve or deny follower requests and your videos are pretty much out there for all to see... But I joined anyway, and instantly fell in love with being able to see all my mama friends posting videos of their baybays!

I am so happy to say that all the hype and complaints (of mamas I'm sure) that their privacy settings SUCK got them to whistle a different tune. You can now report AND block a user's profile. This comes in handy when a weird man starts following me and I say to myself "Umm... No. You're blocked!" It makes me feel more comfortable about posting videos of The Boo (Berlynny Boo, that is). Speaking of which, I just posted a video of Berlyn being shaken by her daddy.. In the cutest way possible. Haha! Go and take a look, it's funny! :P

Valentine's Day and Birthday Month!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that Berlyn just turned 11 months old. She has 11 teeth, can barely fit on her changing table anymore, and has decided to do away with naps altogether. I don't know if it's her teething or WHAT, but this kid will not take naps anymore! Don't get me wrong, she is a great sleeper at night (sleeping 12+ hours straight), but for some reason she wants nothing to do with napping. I can't complain though. She doesn't cry in her crib when we put her down, but she will play, laugh, bounce, and shout. She will do this for two hours sometimes... And the end result is a baby who is still just as happy as ever. Maybe she doesn't need those long morning naps anymore? Who knows...

This month is a bittersweet one for me. Valentine's Day will be Berlyn's last "first" holiday and she will be turning one in a few weeks. I can't believe that just a year ago I was just about to go on maternity leave and now here I am, a mother of a beautiful, healthy, almost-one-year-old. Life has certainly changed for the best in the past 11 months. Every month brings new surprises, new milestones, special memories. Berlyn is my pride and joy!

I also want to brag just a teeny bit that Berlyn now WILLINGLY gives her mama open-mouthed kisses. I have been trying to get her to do this for MONTHS but she would always fling her head in the other direction the second I moved towards her. The other day we were grocery shopping and I looked at her and said, "Can Mama have a kiss?" And she opened her mouth and moved towards my face. My heart melted.

Being that it's February and B's first (quarter) birthday is in a few weeks, I am now in full-fledged-first-birthday-planning mode. Her party will be Minnie Mouse themed (some ideas compliments of Pinterest), complete with a Hot Diggity Dog station and Minnie Mouse smash cake. I really don't like birthdays that are too "themey" so I decided to just go with bright pinks, blacks, and whites. Oh, and of course some polka dots and Minnie ears! I will be scouting out the perfect invitations for her party this week as well as some more decoration ideas!

As far as gifts go, I have a few ideas in mind of what I, myself, would like to get her. As for our guests, I have absolutely no clue what gift ideas to tell them! Birthdays for one-year olds are so hard!

Does anyone have any good ideas for one-year old gifts? Ahh!

Sweet Pea is 10 Months Old!

I FINALLY got around to capturing [and posting] Sweet Baby Berlyn's 10 month photo. It did take us some time but, like I've said before... It is so hard to do without someone else's help and with her being the squirmiest baby EVER.

I can't believe I only have two more monthly photos to take of her. It makes me sad that it's coming to an end, but I am so glad I did this! These pictures will be something she looks back on when she's older and she will either be 1) embarrassed, or 2) proud that she has an amazing, creative mother. I think it will be the latter. :)

Berlyn decided to smile for this picture. I think it had a lot to do with the Minnie Mouse doll my husband was holding above my head when I snapped the photo. Either way, I am glad I captured it!

Happy 2013!

As I said in my previous post, my husband and I have had the past two weeks off together. We have spent quality time both as a family and with each other. I am so bummed that I return to work tomorrow, but also grateful to have a job to go to in the first place!

2013 is going to be a great year. We will be celebrating Berlyn's first birthday, watching her grow up, and spending time together as a family. Along with these give-ins, I am making some personal resolutions as well.

Tomorrow marks the first day of my new eating schedule. About a month ago I had stopped exercising... I'll just blame it ln the holidays... And I really need to get things back in order! I used to come home from work everyday and exercise to Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 or 30 Day Shred. Both of these workout videos combined helped me lose over 20 pounds on top of the 12 I lost from walking/running with Berlyn. I will be in a wedding in May so that is my motivation right there! That, and the fact that I don't want to gain the weight back that I've already lost. I was so unhappy with how much I used to weigh and I never want to be there again!

I also made a resolution to be more focused on God and my walk with Him. I have mistakenly put everything before Him and feel horribly convicted for it. I know that it can be crazy being a working mother, but I have learned that if I trust in and lean on him he will direct me in every path I take (Prov. 3:6).

I am sure going to try my hardest to stick to my promises to myself... What resolutions have you made for 2013?!

Playing Catch Up!

I have been the WORST blogger this past month.  I don't know what it is, but every time I get around to writing, I get distracted or have something else to do.  I made a promise to myself last night that I would try my hardest (as I also stated in my last post) to blog when I can, no matter what.  With that being said, here I go! :)

Berlyn is now ten months old, however, I forgot to post her nine month chalkboard picture so here it is!

She refuses to smile for any of her monthly chalkboard pictures anymore and would rather look at the chalkboard than sit next to it.  It takes many tries before we actually capture anything close to "THE one."  Once she is standing on her own it might be a little easier, but for now, the I-don't-want-to-smile-while-I'm-sitting-next-to-a-chalkboard look is all we're going to get, I guess!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  I know we did!  It was a very busy week for us, but my husband and I both had two weeks off from work so it allowed us to spend some much needed time together.  We went to family holiday parties, exchanged gifts, looked at Christmas lights and called it a day!  Santa brought Berlyn some cute gifts this year!  She got a bunch of toys, clothes, books, and money!  For some reason I am unable to load pictures on Blogger right now, so I will do a separate post later with photos from our first Christmas as a family. :)

A bunch of things have changed with Berlyn in the last month or two.  She has become a professional crawler.  She crawls so fast that if I turn my head for a second she is GONE.  Luckily, we have hardwood floors and a house that sits on a raised foundation, so I can hear every move she makes!  Plus, it helps that our house is on the small side and I can shut the doors and know she won't get into anything too crazy.  She pulls herself up and has stood by herself on quite a few occasions, but she is still not comfortable standing on her own.  Because of the fact that our floors are hardwood, when she has a spill it really hurts her.  I hate seeing her fall face first into the floor and then burst into tears.  I wouldn't want to stand by myself either if that happened to me! 

Berlyn is also eating a lot of her mama's food these days.  She acts like a little puppy whenever my husband and I sit down to eat, it's pretty funny... she'll crawl over to where I'm sitting, pull herself up and do this silly dance and giggle.  If it's something that I know she'll be okay with eating, I'll feed it to her.  She loves scrambled eggs, chicken tortilla soup, and pasta.  This chick could eat pasta every day if I let her.  For New Year's Eve, my husband and I stayed home with Berlyn while we cooked a pasta Pinterest dinner (we call them Pinty's dinners for short, because we're weird like that).  The dish was amazing!  It was a combination of penne pasta, tomatoes, basil, chicken, spaghetti sauce with heavy cream, and LOTS of mozzarella and romano cheese.  It was so yummy that I gave Berlyn her own little dish, mashed up first, of course. :)

Berlyn can now drink out of a straw, too.  I bought her the Lollacup and she loves it!  It is so easy to drink from and doesn't leak like her sippy cups.  She also doesn't use the handles on the cup anymore, and I love the cup because you can take the handles off.  I put in an order for another one of these cups in pink.  Berlyn is the girliest girly girl so it just seemed fitting!  They are a little on the pricey side though, at $17 a pop, but I think they are totally worth it.  She drinks formula still, 6-8 ounces 4-5 times a day, along with 3 meals. 

My little girl also cut another tooth!  She is getting so big right before my eyes!  She wasn't that cranky, but it was a big tooth and it finally cut all the way through, thank God. 

Right now Berlyn is in love with watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Junior.  She gets so excited when the song comes on.  She likes it so much that I decided on having Minnie Mouse be the theme for her first birthday party next month.  I don't want it looking cheesy, though, so I'll have to come up with some clever twist on the traditional Minnie Mouse birthday party supplies... any tips would be appreciated!

Other tidbits:  Berlyn's clothing is size 12-18 months, but some (most) of her leggings/pants are 18-24 months.  This little string bean is long and lean.  She is almost too tall for her changing table, and her doc said she has the height of a 16 month old!  Her hair is getting thicker and thicker, and she will only wear a bow for a few minutes if I distract her.  She loves pulling them out and playing with eating them.  I painted her toes for the first time the other day and I have never seen cuter toes than hers!  She gets a tiny rash on her chin when she teeths, and I think it's from her saliva.  Has anyone else's babies gotten this before?  Also, she can now say "bye bye", "Mama", "Dadda", "all done", and "uh oh."  It is so cute hearing her little voice, I could just listen to her talk all day long.  She also does this silly little scream alllll the time.  Sometimes I'll get on the ground and crawl behind her and scream like her.  She will look back at me, scream, and then keep crawling; it's hilarious!

Be on the lookout for our holiday photos once I am able to get them up!