Grateful Girl!

During prayers tonight, Bethany started listing off the things she is thankful for. We started off our prayer as usual & she then started rattling off everything she wanted to thank God for.

Here is her list, "Mommy, Daddy, Elmo, Zoe, Sarah, Annabelle, Brian, Max, Grandma, Grandpa, Achoo, Baby" A few of these got listed a couple times through out the prayers.

To clarify who some of these people are: Elmo & Zoe are from Sesame Street (of course); Sarah, Annabelle, Brian, Max are kids from the sitters; Grandma & Grandpa & Achoo are all the Grandparents. It was really cute when I started to pray with her, that she cut it and started her own list of things to be thankful for. Usually, she just listens to what I have to say & chimes in with an "Amen" at the end! Tonight was a little treat for me to hear what little Bethany had to say!

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Here are some moments over the past few days that I am thankful for: silliness & outdoor playtime!

Silliness:

For some reason Bethany just wanted to play UNDER the kitchen table Sunday night. That is where she ended up enjoying her cheese stick snack! What a silly girl!

Outdoor Playtime:

Bethany & I got to play outside today. What a gorgeous day! We got to have a good time playing on her bike, coloring and playing catch this evening. She loves being outside & since I am such a wimp when it comes to cold temperatures, we don't get out often in the winter!!! Plus, today was one of the first days in a while we didn't have after-school meetings or other obligations! What a great thing to be thankful for! I am hoping this nice weather keeps up...there is nothing worse than bitter cold days after we get teased with weather like we had today!!!

Something's Cooking!

Look how orderly her kitchen is! Everything has their spot!

I love my "Cookie" (aka...pancake). It is my favorite food item.

Time to sit down to eat! Gotta have my "syrup" (aka soda pop) to pour on it!.

Opps, Bethany "dropped" her califlower.

"I get it!" she proclaims as she retrives the lost item!

All Smiles!

Big Girl Bed Update

Ok. So there are no pictures...but you'll survive! Here is the update on Bethany's transition to the big girl bed since her first night there Monday.

Tuesday:
As Cory was taking out trash from the newly defined "baby's room" upstairs, Bethany follows him in and points to the crib and says, "Night-Night." He gently tells her that the crib is now Baby's bed and she will sleep with Elmo in the Big Girl bed. Then get ready for bed, she has no desire to go to her big girl bed. Bethany and I lay down together we read our 2 books, say our prayers, and sing songs along with glow worm. As we are laying there, her hold on me becomes tighter and tighter. She is snuggling me in a way that makes me puddy in her lil' hands. I tell her "one more song" with the glow worm. The song ends, I give her a kiss and tell her night-night. She screams the loudest, blood-curdelingest scream there is. I leave her feeling horrible. Cory rushes upstairs thinking she fell out of bed and was in immense pain. Good News: her crying lasts only 30 seconds or so. She quickly got over being left alone and plays another song on the glow worm herself & falls asleep!


Wednesday:
We go through the routine: 2 books, prayers, a few songs on the glow worm. We say good night to everything in the room & I get up from the bed. She only whimpers softly as I leave. (Still knowing that this breaks my heart to hear her even whimper!)


Thursday:
Thursday...routine again...2 books, prayers, a few songs. We say good night and that is that. She rolls over. Grabs her blankie and sucks her thumb. She is adjusting to this whole big girl thing rather smoothly.


I am very proud of her. Especially since earlier in the week, she didn't want to sit in the bed to put on her shoes because (of what I assume) is to be bad associations with the bed. Now she sat on it to look at books after bath time. I suppose it just takes a few days to adjust to a whole big bed and a whole new room. I am glad she'll be used to the big girl bed well before Baby2 comes along....as I am sure the presence of Baby2 will be a big enough adjustment in itself!!!! Although, Bethany does hear about Baby2 pretty often. Yesterday she lifted up my shirt to try to give Baby2 her blankie by pushing it into my crazy-looking belly button. She was soooo sweet, "Babeee, Blankiee???". How about that for a good big sister!?!?!

A President's Day of Change!

This President's Day brought Great Change to the Milles Household. First off, we changed Bethany's diaper like half-a-dozen times. So that is a pretty significant change...but that isn't a change that is worthy of post on the blog. So...here are the real changes that are pretty significant in our little lives.

Change 1: BIG GIRL BED!

While Bethany and I were out to lunch with Grandma today, Cory got busy rearranging Bethany's furniture from her baby room to her Big Girl Elmo Room. As soon as she saw her bed and all her furniture in her room, she laid down in her bed ready for her nap. Cory had a couple last minute things to fix up in her room, so we went to play for a bit. When he was all done, Bethany went straight down for her nap. We figured that was one thing...the real test will be tonight. However, we went through our evening routine: Homer on tv, upstairs, book, bed. This time she wanted to be cuddled a little bit more than she usually does, but right now she is upstairs in her big girl bed for the first night!!! Cory did report that she was still playing with her glow-worm...but hey...she is in her bed. What more can we ask for. I was so worried about this transition & it turns out to be no big deal. What a big girl! I am so proud of her!

Change 2: Bethany's First Haircut!

We went to the "Hairy Elephant" today to get Bethany's hair cut for the first time. Her bangs were driving me nuts. I am sure if she was able to articulate her frustration of having hair in her eyes 24-7...then I could say they were driving her nuts too! She was such a good girl during the hair cut. She got to sit in a little car & watch Elmo, while the nice lady went to town on her hair. The beautician was so good with Bethany...even with the applesauce in her hair! (Dinner always ends up in Bethany's hair somehow!!!)

Here is Bethany's first picture right after her hair cut.
Notice the cute butterflies in her hair!

She even got to play after the hair cut. That is pretty exciting in Bethany's opinion. She didn't want to leave...AT ALL!! She made that abundantly clear to all in hearing range! :o)

Change 3: Bloomin' Violet!

After having this flower for a couple of years, it is finally blooming again. It hasn't bloomed since the original flowers fell off, it has been a blob of green leaves that Bethany likes to pluck off. Finally, one brave lil' flower decided to join our family. I was so surprised to see it, I figured I'd share it with the world! :o)

Valentine Goodies!

A Valentine Armadillo? What's that?

The Valentine Armadillo stopped by our house this Saturday & dropped off some goodies for Bethany. Bethany got her first MagnaDoodle. She loves to "dolor" with it. She has gotten quite good as you can see from her scribbles...(err) priceless works of art!



She also got 3 homemade Elmo/Zoe Pillows! Now she won't steal Mommy's neck pillow. She got one gigantic rectangle & 2 smaller pillows.


Here is Bethany just getting up her Sunday Nap using her Elmo Pillow for the first time! When she got out of the crib, she wanted to bring the pillow with her....which is a funny sight being that the pillow is over half her size! :)

Hopefully, you also had a nice, loving visit from the Armadillo! We don't want to be the only family on his Valentine route!

Table for Two!!

Want a Seat?

We are in the tax preparation business for our family. We buy the program and plug in different folk's numbers & we get a nice little kick back in the end. (Although, we would do them for free!!!) However, with our profits this year, we bought Bethany & Baby2 a table to sit and color or read at. Bethany loves it already! :o) This table she can actually get up and down by herself. Hopefully she won't mind sharing the other chair with Baby2 once Baby2 arrives and actually cares about things like coloring at tables! :-)

Fishes, Monkeys & Peacocks, oh my!

We took advantage of the outrageously good weather on Saturday and took Bethany to the zoo. Grandma M. got to go along with us. It was a ton o' fun, as you can imagine!

First we went to the Children Zoo, to take advantage of it being free during the first hour of Zoo's opening. Bethany enjoyed the fishes!

She couldn't quite figure out the playground...but really who goes to the zoo for the playgrounds?

Next, Daddy wanted to visit the Monkey house. Bethany loved the Monkeys! Her little commentaries were pretty funny. She told us about them sitting, eating, sleeping & even remarked on their "poo."
On our way to find the entrance to the Bird House (which I always get confused at that portion of the zoo...) we found a male peacock strutting his stuff for the three hens around. The hens couldn't care less about his magnificent beauty. They were too busy finding some good grub around the area. The poor guy. I suggested to him that he lights some candles and plays some sweet music for the ladies. That should get them!!! At the end, Bethany got to ride her first carousel. She was a little tired and fussy at the point.
But once the ride got going, she was grinning ear-to-ear!

Finally, it was time to go home. We had a great day at the zoo! It is so much fun now that Bethany is learning her animals and really gets what she is seeing!

I need...

Can you figure out what she is saying...

Cory and I really have been working on our listening & critical thinking skills this past week or two. Bethany has started blurring all of these so-called-words together, expecting us to understand what the heck she is talking about. We have finally figured out what the little girl is trying to communicate to us. She used to say "noi" when she wanted something. Now it is, "I heheNee **insert object here****. " This all started with apples. "I hehehypal" We were wondering why she was thinking she was hyper. But after awhile, we realized she wanted apples. Now we are getting used to her blurred sentences. I did feel guilty for a while there not knowing what she was saying. We tell her to use her words instead of whining & when she was using her words...it wasn't making much of a difference as I didn't know what in blazes she was saying.

Good thing we are learning just as quickly as she is! :)

Big Girl!

Bethany really is emerging to become this big girl. I don't know when she stopped being my squishy, scrunchy baby and started to be this little toddler--but it happened. I need to find a way to stop all this growing up, before it is too late and she is off married somewhere!

Anyhow...while I work on that, I will go ahead and share some of the big girl pictures from the week.

She loves to watch the computer. Whether it is Sesame Street videos off of youtube (courtesy of our fast Internet) or just pictures of herself via the screen saver...she always wants to sit in the chair in front of the "deevee" (tv).

Bethany also likes to take care of Mommy and Daddy. Here she is feeding Daddy some veggie oil from her kitchen set. Yeah...veggie oil. I am sure you are just oozing with jealousy!

Putting the baby in the high chair came out of the blue on day. She really wanted to put the baby in the high chair and then she went and started to give the baby a book, toys from the kitchen set and she even shared her sippy with the baby. That is one lucky baby!

Okay...maybe it is Bethany's turn for the sippy now!

Playing Dr. & Going to the Dr.

Bethany has rediscovered her Elmo Doctor Kit she got for Christmas. She is loving it, although I imagine she doesn't know what each item represents in real life. She just cares about the characters on them. Glad to see Sesame Street has great Marketing!

Just chilling while listening to my ABC's.

Poor Bethany had to go to the Doctor today. She had a 103 fever! Fun times for us! Poor thing just hasn't been acting right. Turns out she has another ear infection. :-( She'll go through a small period of time where she is happy and playing & then something happens and she is just clingy and fussy. I am glad we took her to the doctor, 103 is pretty high in my book. Now she is on antibiotics & Cory will take off work with her. Poor thing seems to be getting sick a lot this year. We can't imagine what life will be like when the sickness gets to bounce between two little bambinos!

Just pray for us that the antibiotics kick in quickly!

Don't forget to watch the video in the post right below! She is pretty cute when she sings along with Cookie Monster!

C is For Cookie!

Here is Bethany singing along with Cookie Monster. It is pretty cute! :) Sorry for the YouTube video. I couldn't get the video to load on the blogger website. It took way too long! But this is totally worth a glance!

Up & Running!

Poor lil' Bethany has a nice runny nose the pass couple of days. She is such a neat kiddo. Seriously, she is really neat. She hates to have stuff on her hands and boogies on her face. So whenever she needs a tissue, she is always whining, "my nose, my nose."

Are all the boogies gone?

We also have Internet up & running at our house. That is pretty exciting. We no longer have to "borrow" other people's internet or deal with the dreaded dial-up. Bethany likes to help Daddy type on the computer. What a good helper! Since we have fast and reliable Internet, perhaps you can expect more posts...but don't hold your breath too long! ;-)

mmmKay!

Taking care of baby.

One of the cutest words that Bethany has started to say is Okay, but it comes out as "mmmkay." She'll use it all the time now.

"Bethany get your shoes."

"mmmkay, shooos on"

"Bethany lets go bye-bye"

"mmmkay"

"mmmkay my Baby Di-ter"

(translation: Okay, My baby needs a new diaper)

It is so cute seeing her strand her words together!

Other happenings in the house:

We run poor Bethany ragged. Here she is Saturday--dead tired. Poor thing didn't even flinch while I took off her coat. Who knew Pizza Hut was so wearing on a poor child!

22 1/2 weeks pregnant!

We also had our dr. appointment for Baby2 this week. Things are going well. The most important thing was my antibody levels. This month, they went down again! That is right. The antibody levels started off at level 8. This means, that once the technicians detect an antibody, they divide your blood cells in half to see if it is still present. This is level 2. Then they divided them again (level 4). Then again (level 8). Level 8 and above is considered "significant". For a few months, I've dropped down to Level 4. Well, this month I am at a level 2! That means the antibodies were present, but only stayed noticeable when the blood was divided in half. Beyond that, they couldn't be detected. So, that is pretty exciting news.

I also got to hear Baby2's heartbeat. Sounds pretty strong to me. Next month, I get to do the lovely glucose test. Yum-yum. I get to try out a new flavor: lemon-lime. Oh the joys of pregnancy! ;-) I have no fears...about the gestational diabetes, though. Things went so smoothly with Bethany!

Another Busy Week!

Life went back in full-swing this week. Boy, has it been a loooonnnnggg week!!!

Bethany finished up her sickness last Saturday, right when Cory started up. He was down for a couple of days last weekend. My turn to get sick came in Monday & Tuesday....just in the knick of time to interfere with work. I ended up needed to take a sick day Tuesday...the first day students came back. What a horrible day to have a sub. By Wednesday, all 3 & 1/2 Milli were feeling much better.

Bethany loves to take advantage of her nightly cuddles with Mommy, no matter where Mommy decides to plop down. ***side-note: plop is pretty accurate with this monster of a belly!***
Bethany continues to fine tune her puzzling skills. She has gotten pretty good & is really liking her puzzles. She is so smart (like you didn't know that already), that she will know when she has a piece to a different puzzle she will immediately discard the odd piece and find the pieces that go with what she is working on.
Coloring has also become a new hobby for little Bethany. She loves to get in her high chair and color. This is great for Mommy and Daddy, too! They get to get some paper work done while she is confined. Usually all school work, bills, etc. have to wait until little grabbing hands are down for the night. Color is only half the fun; Bethany also gets pretty occupied with just putting the crayons back into the box. Whatever it takes to amuse her, works for me!

Now we are ready for another full week of work and meetings and appointments and whatnots! We hope you had a good first non-holiday week back into the swing of things!

A Puzzled 19 Month Old!

Today is Bethany's 19 Month Anniversary of her Birthday!

Here are a couple glimpses of her puzzling day!

Why am I wearing Daddy's shirt?

"Daddy's shirt"

Don't you think I wear it better?

After owning these puzzles for about a month now, Bethany has figured out how to get the pieces into their respective areas. She has been working on that for a while. Today she just got up from the AquaDoodle, picked up a puzzle and started playing with them. I was amazed to see her able to get the pieces in with ease. For a while there, her theory was "If I push hard enough, it is bound to fit." It appears she has abandoned that theory and has gone into the rotate the image into the appropriate counterpart & all is good! :o)

Pathetic New Year!

I am sooo not in the mood, Mom!

Chillin' with Daddy. Notice the blanket on the chair, just in case of another "incident" and by "incident" I mean puke...lots and lots of puke!

Our poor lil' Bethany has fallen ill for the New Year. Our fun festivities began New Year's Eve, where literally one minute she is running around all cheerful & the next she is vomiting! This resulted in a sleepless night for the Milles family. While the rest of the world rang in the new year with a bang, we rang it in with a "Barf". At least her throwing up only lasted one evening. On New Years, the poor thing was running a fever all day. Today, Jan. 2, she has no fever and no vomit and no energy. She hasn't eaten much in the past 2 days and isn't really excited about the concept of eat ting. She will drink a little bit with prompting. We took her to the doctor today because she was so zombie-like, but the dr. said she just had a virus and to wait it out and keep pushing liquids. Poor Girl. At least it happened over break and we didn't have to do the whole song-and-dance to get a sub! ;-)

We hope your New Year got off to a better start than the Milles Family!

Fantastic Photoshoot!

Abbie sent us pictures from our latest photo shoot. Here is a sampling. It is hard to pick just a few to show case on the blog, there are so many good ones. You will need to visit this link to see the whole set. They are pretty cute. But really, what do you expect with such good models? Don't forget the password is: Milles