Sunday, March 30, 2008

Polliwog... First Swim Lessons!!!






Layla had her very first swim "lesson" on Saturday... Polliwog class. She had a BLAST!!! She loved spinning around in the water, singing "Wheels on the Bus" and splashing around! Can't wait for our next class...

Here are a few pics... the one of me in the pool w/her isn't the best. They make the parents who aren't swimming w/the kids observe from a deck above the pool. Probably to eliminate distractions. She loves her suit (and now has three different ones to choose from). There's also a "post swimming" picture of her here. Her on daddy's lap, happy as pie!

:)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bath Time






Wanted to get a few more pics posted before tomorrow... we have some jam packed days ahead of us so not sure we'll get new posts up until Saturday.

Some pics of little chubbins at bath time the other night... She loves being naked. And loves the water. Good thing she starts swim lessons this Saturday! She's our little Pollywog!

We'll post some videos this weekend... Layla's becoming quite the ham. She used to hate the camera. Now she loves it.

More Easter Pics






As promised... more pics of Bean's 1st Easter...

Monday, March 24, 2008

Ear Infection #4

Appointment w/ the EN&T Specialist is April 16th. Tubes it is.

Calling all Angels...






Our first Easter w/our little Bean... how cute is she in her dresses?! Yes, I said dresses... we traveled north to Grandpa and Grandpa Sherman's for Easter, so I had to pack a few options, as I really had no clue what was going to fit. The pink dress is size 9 months and was a tad too tight around her upper arms and "chest". The yellow dress is size 18 months (what the?) and fit pretty much the same as the pink one. So, we had a fashion show and she ended her day in her Easter Pants n' Sweater, due to an Easter blowout in her tights. Yum.

Layla had a great time w/G'pa and G'ma Sherman, coloring Easter Eggs and playing w/all the fun stuff the Easter Bunny brought for her. She's spoiled already! ;) --I'll post more pics of her fun Easter egg coloring endeavors w/them later today or tomorrow...

Not a lot of time spent sleeping this weekend. Layla is sick, yet again. Started coming down w/ another cold on Friday so we took a trip to the chiropractor to see if he might be able to work some magic. I see nothing, in fact, she was up SCREAMING on Sat night at G'pa and G'ma's, and up a lot of the night last night. She actually slept in bed w/us, which left me curled up at the end of our bed like a dog (who, have I mentioned refuses to sleep in our bed now because he thinks it's too crowded?). I was reluctant to even take Layla to daycare today (I have the day off of work) but took her anyway. I HAD to get some errands ran and the house was a disaster. I'm almost finished cleaning now, but we're buried in laundry and I don't think we'll ever catch up. Ughhhh...

2:30 today marks another dr's appt for Layla. We'll see if she has another ear infection. Which will for sure mean more antibiotics (groan) and a trip to the ENT to discuss tubes.

The title of my post is, "Calling all Angels" because I'm calling on all angels to please send us two things: a cure for Layla's chronic colds and ear infections (and yes, I'm well aware things could be worse and that a cold and ear infection are some parents' dreams compared the much more serious illnesses some babies may be facing as we speak) and a nanny. I'm not kidding. I want a nanny. Daycare can suck an egg. Maybe a leftover rotten Easter egg??

I've had it up to here. Jake is a bit more tolerant, but still frustrated. On top of the fact that they let every kid and their brother mosey on into the infant room whenever they please, snotting, coughing, touching and breathing all over the babies who aren't mobile yet so can't even walk away, they have shifted the entire place so all babies and kids are in the next age group up room... my theory on this is so they can open more spots and make more money. As I left daycare today, I wanted to cry... partially due to sheer exhaustion, partially because all I could hear were kids crying (not Layla, thank God). I was about a second away from walking into the older infant room and saying, "HEY! HEADS UP! THAT KID IS GOING TO SMASH IS LITTLE FINGERS IN THE DOOR, THAT KID JUST FELL DOWN FOR THE SECOND TIME, THAT LITTLE GIRL JUST ATE A FROG AND ONE BABY JUST CRAWLED INTO THE STREET!!!"

For the love of God, send us a nanny. Or an angel. One of the two... or both.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Logan and Layla... on their 1st days in this world...



Look at these two... Logan was recently pronounced as Layla's future husband... Koen... you're still in the running baby boy... but Logan's going to be fighting for our little Bean pie's heart.
Thought it'd be funny to put pictures of the hot new couple, from both of their very first moments in this world, right next to each other. Don't they both just look pissed??? Like, "Hey! Who said you could bring me out here!? I'm cold! It was nice and warm and cozy in mama's belly! Put me back in! Jerks!"

It's a Girl!!! (No, not kidding, 3rd baby born in a week!)





Yeeeahhhh!!! My cousin Quinn, and her husband, Jamie, had another baby girl yesterday. Her name is Emma Joan and she weighed in at 8lbs, 1oz. Not sure how long yet... Very close to Layla bean as far as weight goes... Love that she's sucking her thumb in one of these pics... Layla did the same thing right when she was born. And isn't the picture of Emma meeting her big sis, Jada, for the first time the sweetest??? Awww!!! Babies everywhere! Maybe we should start trying for our second babe??? HA!!!!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

It's a Boy!!!!!

The Meyer baby is here!!! Logan Cletus Meyer... See pictures on their blog by clickin' here!!
Congrats you guys!! We miss you and can't wait to meet him! :)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Meyer baby is on the way!!!

Update... Theresa and Brian are on their way to the hospital right now!!! I just talked w/ Brian and he says Theresa's having contractions and that she's a "trooper". I'm so sad we're not there to share their special day but I know it's going to be great for them.
Good luck guys... can't wait to hear!!!!

5 years ago today...

5 years ago today marked the official beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Does it really feel like it's been 5 years since that day? I remember watching it all on the news. I was in Arizona with my family and Jake was away at training for the Army. At that point, I think he'd already been gone for at least two months and was expected to return home soon. I remember panicking because I thought that they would deploy him immediately from training and ship him overseas. He reassured me that no, he'd be home soon. And he was. He wasn't deployed until August of 2005.

So much has happened for us over the past 5 years... a war started, Jake and I were engaged, married, bought a house, got a dog, went through a deployment and had a baby... just to name a few big life events. ;)

I won't get too political with this post, as I am well aware that our fellow blog fans fall on both ends of the spectrum on this topic. Some of you feel strongly about staying where we're at in this "war", others feel that we need to bail and get out, as there's nothing we can really do when religion is involved. Maybe I should leave this post to Jake, or, someone who's been in his shoes. Seen what he's seen. Those of us that haven't been there or "done that" can't cast stones.

As the selfish military wife, who's still suffering from PTSD after the deployment, and who's husband is still in the military, I will say that I just want this war to be over. But I realize there are families in Iraq that sure don't want to see the American soldiers leave them to "fend for themselves" either...

Only time will tell, I guess. Time and the 2008 elections... although I know the elections aren't going to provide a simple, overnight answer or solution to all of this.

Such is life... and religion... and politics... and war.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Witch Doctor?? Maybe not...




Well... we took little Layla Bean to the chiropracter last night for her chronic ear infections. It was interesting. The doctor was very nice (Jake has had both his daughters as students) and made us feel comfortable w/what he was going to do and how it would all work. He didn't do any of that scary bone cracking or popping or neck twists or anything like that... thank God. Just did some "pressure point" massage type things with her neck and spine. She was fine with it, for the most part, and then started to get fussy. No tears, which means she's just straight up annoyed and was trying to tell him to "knock it off". Then, all of a sudden, right before he finished, Layla just stopped crying completely, turned around and looked up at him almost with a look on her face that said, "Hey! Thanks!" And that was it... the whole thing took about 10 minutes. So, we shall see... She didn't pull on her ears once last night, went to sleep like a champ and ... slept through the night (WHY DID I EVEN TYPE THAT OUT... EVERY TIME I DO SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS THE NEXT NIGHT...)!!! Let's hope this continues!!!!

Some pics of the champ... check out the one of her eating while sleeping in the excersaucer... Yes. She fell asleep, while eating, and standing up on Sunday! It was hystarical. Another of her at the new Hartford Walmart SuperCenter -- could I be more of a loser??? I LOVE it there... I think I've been there like 8 times since it opened. It's like taking bean to a carnival. And the other of Layla taking a nap. This one's for Nonnie... Layla sleeps just like her Nonnie. Arms straight above her head.

:)

Monday, March 17, 2008

Nina Rose






Here are some pics of Nina Rose... the newest addition to the Bailey family... she's GORGEOUS!!! Just love her!!! Look at her PERFECT skin and lips!!! My gosh, she's not blotchy or swollen or anything... what a cuuuute baby!!!

CONGRATS GUYS!!! Welcome to the club!!! ;)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Congrats to Nate n' Lisa Bailey!! It's a Girl!!






Nate ("LT") and Lisa Bailey are proud parents of a baby girl... Nina Rose, weighing in at 7lbs, 6oz and measuring 19in long. She was born around 2:30 a.m. this today. Mom, dad and baby are all doing fine and should be going home tomorrow, I think. How exciting!!! Oh, and Lisa didn't take any drugs... biatch. ;) What a champ. Labor was about 7 hours, total, I believe.

Now, cousin Quinn and friend Theresa are both due very very soon... will they both have girls too??

A few pics of Bean... just hanging out w/ dad, tryin' out her summer sun glasses and sun hat, and of course, Old Iron Guts had to make an appearance. The sun is shining which means his mission for all of today is to get someone, anyone, to throw the darn ball for him.

Our mission today, errands. Baby stuff (what's new?) and new window treatments. Yessss!!!!

Happy Sunday!!!!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Sherman week in review

Here's a summary of the Shermans' week for ya...

Layla was still snotty, coughy and achy for most of the week. As a result, Jake and I ended up getting sick but fought our way through it in an effort not to miss any work this time around. We seem to be making a comeback... just in time for the weekend.

Layla had her six month check up on Wednesday. She is weighing in at 22lbs, 4oz and is 28in long. So, that puts her at about the 115th percentile mark for height and weight. Nice. ;) We weren't surprised to hear that her ear infection hasn't faded at all, even with the meds she's been on for 8 days. So, she's now on a new medicine that we're hoping works. We've made an appointment for her for Monday to see a chiropractor who will be making some adjustments in an effort to get rid of these chronic ear infections -- don't worry, we've researched this dr, asked our pediatrician about it and received boat loads of advice on pursuing a "witch doctor" for her ears. This dr has worked on a number of babies before, on of them being only 2 hours old. So, that alleviated some of my worries about his experience with infants!

On Wed night before her dr appt, I went to pick up Layla at daycare only to find out that all three of her full time teachers had up and quit. Gone. Vamoose. Bye-bye. Long story short, I got the run around from the asst director of the daycare, Jake went in and talked to the director and put her in her place for not notifying the parents, and Layla will have new teachers come this Wed. What a mess. One of the teachers was "let go" because she was accused of swearing. Are you kidding me?? Who gives a S#!@ if she said a swear word. We do (yeah, we try not to, but we do). The other one was offered more money somewhere else and the third is going to be an in home nanny. Great timing on all three. We're back to square one now... it's like Layla's starting all over.

Does anyone know Mary Poppins by chance? We'd like to hire her.

TGIF.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Happy Birthday Auntie Meg!

Happy Birthday Auntie Meg!! Can't wait to see you again... Your card is in the mail!

xoxo,
Layla Bean & fam

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

6 Months... Playing with Grandpa and Grandma






Okay! Here you go! :)
Here are some recent pics of our big girl... okay, so these were taken six days before she turned six months old... sue me. ;)
More pictures from Auntie Meg's house... You can see that Layla had a blast with Grandpa and Grandma Sherman.
I included a picture of Layla's "devil face" for Auntie Meg... it's her favorite Layla expression. I believe at that point in the day, Layla had had enough of mama trying to feed her and wanted OUT of the high chair.
The picture of her in her excersaucer cracks me up because she was smiling at herself in the mirror. Wonder where she gets that???
Happy Tuesday!!! Sorry for the lag in pictures... I promise to do better.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Psychos

Geeze... blog psychos... thanks for being such loyal readers, but man... Sorry for not posting when I said I would. I was home w/ a very sick, cranky baby all weekend while Jake was at drill. We're all running on EMPTY which is why I didn't post any pics.

I'll post tonight, for fear that if I don't, someone will burn our house down.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Six Months ago... yesterday.




Six months ago, yesterday, our worlds were turned upside down and inside out... Little Layla Jennifer was brought into this crazy place we call life and we haven't looked back since. It's hard to imagine how our lives were before she was here. What on earth did we do with our time? When we said we were "busy" then, what were we really talking about? These days, thinking of getting some "down time" to relax sounds wonderful, but if it means that we have to try to do that without our little Layla, we'd prefer to continue with our crazy busy lives as new parents ... thinking of life without her seems unreal.

Everyone told us how much our lives would change, how different things would be, how we'd love our new baby more than we've ever loved, or ever thought it was possible to love, anything in our entire lives. I remember thinking, "Yeah, I know. Sure, sure. Let me figure it out." But I wondered what everyone could possibly mean? How was it possible to love something more than we've ever loved anything else in life? Now I know.

Little Bean Pie... in the sky... we love you more everyday!!

Instead of posting how big our little one is as a six month old, I thought I'd refresh your (and our) memories with some pics of Layla when she was just minutes, days and about one week old. She doesn't even look like these pictures anymore!!!

Six month old pictures to come this weekend! :)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

It could always be worse, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?

Well, last night was a fun one. Layla kept waking herself up due to her cough, and I finally had to pull her out of her crib at 3:00 a.m. and sit with her on the couch for two hours patting her back to get all the "ickys" worked out. Both her and I were in and out of sleep mode during that time, but I couldn't lay down because I had to keep her upright to prevent more coughing. Both of us finally fell asleep around 5:00 (the time I'm supposed to be getting up) and woke up at 6:30 only to realize I had overslept, and so had Jake. So, we all got ready in a daze this morning as Hudson walked as slow as molasses in front of each step we took, trying his hardest to keep us home.

Poor Hudson. He's injured bad (is that even a sentence?). Torn muscle in his leg according to the vet and is on the "injured reserve" list for an undetermined amount of time, but, for at least two weeks. He really doesn't seem to be getting any better either. He is so sad and bored and just doesn't understand why we won't let him play or play with him. He can't go to daycare, can't play with his best friend Rocky, and can't chase balls. He probably wants to off himself right about now. Oh, and did I mention the vet bill on Saturday was $220?

One more thing to vent and then I'm slapping myself upside the head and making a giant push to turn this day around... as if dropping $220 on a vet bill wasn't bad enough, yesterday we had the pleasure of forking over another $425 for Jake's truck. Wheel baring (sp?) this time. Apparently, the wheel was ready to fall off. Six words: NEVER BUYING A GMC TRUCK AGAIN. Damn American made cars. Sorry to all you devout "American made" backers, but that's how I feel. Knock on wood, the Envoy has been good to us, but I promise you, I won't be buying anything but a Honda or Toyota after the Envoy's retired - which won't be for a very long time, so I'm not holding my breath. I know I won't be able to talk Jake into anything foreign, but at least he's agreed that GMC are Gay Man's Chevy's.

Okay. That's it. I'm done. Now it's time to turn things up a notch, and catch up from a day out of the office. I'm going to pound a bottle of water, pound a cup of coffee, and get down to it. Maybe I'll crank out a few power squats just to get the day started... you never know.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Ear Infection #3

ugghhh... seriously?? 3 ear infections since 1/18. Daycare sucks.

Our dr is sending us to an EN&T specialist to talk about getting tubes if she gets another one over the next 1-2 months.

Bean's sick

At home today w/ Bean. NASTY cough... possibly an ear infection. Waiting for the dr's office to call to let us know when she can see us. Oh, and she puked on me this a.m. before it was even light out. Pretty much all snot. Yumm.

Monday, March 3, 2008

...

Okay, and I'm gonna say it before anyone else does... yeah, I see it. She's smiling from ear to ear in all of these EXCEPT the one w/me!!! I must smell bad or something. ;)

She SMILES!!!!






This weekend we went to Auntie Megan's house for a belated bday celebration... Jake's 31st bday and Jeremy's 26th. Megan hosted and we all had a great time. You can see by all of Layla bean's pictures that she had the time of her life, and decided that day to make a liar out of me. I'm constantly saying how she doesn't smile for the camera. What does she do as soon as Megan whips her camera out?? Yep. You got it. Smiles from ear to ear and never stops. She LOOOVVES Megan. She had a blast with Grandpa and Grandma too (I'll post more pics tomorrow but for now have to let it be because I just had a fight with our computer and box.net. And, Jake's ready to kill me because I've been demanding that he show me how to upload pictures from that site as fast as possible and refused to let him show me himself. Hehehe. Oh, and cuz I'm still sweating from spin class and all I want to do is go upstairs and change).

Thanks to Megan & Jeremy for hosting a great bday party, and to Ice and Heavy D for making the trip and spending time w/all of us. It was great seeing you all and I'm glad we got to share Layla on one of her good days (well, okay, most of them are good days... she only gets super crabby every once in a great while now... knock on wood)!

More pics from the weekend to come!! :)