Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Baby Derek's Baby Showers

This precious baby boy is so very loved.  We had 3 baby showers and they were equally amazing!  Here are some pictures from the first shower.
I'm so thankful that MB has all of these sweet cousins to grow up with!  Mary Blanche, Darby, Fallon, Rylee, and Kaiya.
And I'm so thankful for this awesome family putting together this precious shower!
Sheila Jo, Breah, Malinda, Brandie, and Tara!  It was a wonderful baby shower day!

Baby Shower #2!








 I am so very thankful for these sweet friends who put together a wonderful shower!!  Natalie, Annslie, Carie, and Maranda.









And I am so very thankful to all of my friends and family who could come!  It was a great day!!

Baby Shower #3!





 Sweet Parish.  Derek's BFF.  :)


 I'm so glad Jeannie and Mattilyn made the long trip!


 I am so thankful for a wonderful church family who have become such great friends!  They kept me going all of the years Joe and I lived in Beebe before we were parents.  I'm not sure another church could ever feel as much like home as FUMC Beebe!



Rae

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Baby Derek's Nursery

When we found out we were having another sweet boy, I already knew that I wanted to use the same bedding that mama made for David.  He really didn't use it for too long.  And I knew that David and Derek would be sharing a room.  And David's room still matches his baby bedding.  :)  
Mama made new bumper pads because David some how destroyed his!  Ha!  I love the chevron!
His name is on the wall, so it's official.  :)
The crib, mobile, his name, and the stuff in the closet are the only things in his room right now.  I assume he will be spending many months in our room (in his own bed!) before he and David are ready to share.  Gotta ease poor David into this slowly.  :)
I did add a few pictures of his among the sea of David pictures.  :)
And Joe added a second hanging rack to the closet so we have a place to hang all of his sweet baby clothes.  David's clothes look so big compared to Derek's!
And Baby Derek's changing table and dirty clothes hamper are in our room.  I assume we will be using those 2 things often.  Probably while David is sleeping.  So they will hang out in our room for a while.  This was MB's.  But Memama painted it to match David and Derek's room.  I love the way it turned out!
And, here is Baby Derek's cradle.  It is my sister's that Mattilyn, Logan, and Braden all slept in.  And Mary Blanche also slept in it when she was a baby.  :)

It has been tons of fun to get to do all of the baby stuff again!  Especially since we never ever expected to.  I hope you enjoyed the nursery tour as much as I enjoyed putting it together!



Rae

Monday, May 19, 2014

Update on Mary Blanche

Slowly but surely I've been marking things off my to do before baby brother gets here list.  And I'm about to finish blog post number 3!  Yay!  
Where do I begin with this mess of a girl!?!  I have absolutely no doubt that she will survive just fine being the only girl with three brothers.  And I have no doubt that she will be in charge.  Strong willed children make awesome adults.  Right??  That's what I keep telling myself.  :)
This girl is just as much sweet as she is sassy, for sure.  She needs her mama cuddle time daily.  "Mama, sit down.  I sit in your lap!"  I hear this at least twice a day.  And I most definitely sit down and let her sit in my lap!  She won't want that forever.  And she is my shopping buddy.  She loves it as much as her brother hates it.  And she usually talks to anyone who will talk to her!  "Hi!  What you doing?" is her favorite phrase.  And she has got her "Thank you!" every time someone tells her how cute she is down.  
This girl is growing so much!  She is wearing size 4 and 4T clothes!  Last time we went to the doctor she was 35 pounds and 35 inches tall!  Goodness.  And this girl can talk circles around her brothers.  Joe and I say all the time that there is a reason most 2 year olds can't talk in full paragraphs and carry on 20 minute conversations like her...you really don't want to know what 2 year olds are thinking.  I promise.  One of her favorite sayings as she makes a super sassy face "NO NO NO do that!"  And then you get a "No no no do that again!"  She has also learned that if she fake cries her brothers will give her whatever she wants.  Smart girl.  Too smart sometimes.  And this girl has no fear!  That's what worried me the most about moving her to her big girl bed.  She isn't afraid of heights.  She will step right off the bed and expect someone to catch her.  And the dark does not phase her!  She will run in a dark room by herself and close the door!  Geez.  So far, the only thing that works to keep her in her bed to sleep is keeping the pack-n-play in her room and tell her that she is going to have to sleep in her baby bed if she gets out of her big girl bed.  And you quickly get a "No no no baby bed.  I'm big girl! I have a big girl bed!"  :)  So so so glad this is working for now.  She has only spent 2 nap times in the pack-n-play.  She is so tired at night that it usually isn't a fight at all.  She does like to get out of bed and get things and put them under her pillow.  Ha!  I've found her brush, diapers, her pajamas, and her bows under her pillow!  Silly girl!  And keeping clothes on her while she is in her bed is impossible!  I'm not sure why I still put pajamas on her at night.  She never has them on when I get her out of bed the next morning.  And I always have to put bloomers or panties over her diaper to keep it on her while she is in the bed!  This girl.
This girl spends her day in dress-up clothes, crowns, high heel shoes, necklaces, and bracelets!  She really likes Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Anna, Elsa, Ariel, Tinkerbell, and "Punzel!"  One of my favorite stories that Joe tells about MB is the time he was in the bathroom and she comes and knocks on the door.  He didn't say anything, so she sat down out side the door.  Knocked again and said "Elsa, you in there?"  And then she breaks out singing "Do you want to build a snowman?"  Hahaha!  She also loves to parade around the living room in her Elsa dress and Elsa shoes singing "Let it go, Let it go!"  And you better believe that her whole dress-up outfit matches.  And she picks it out all on her own.  If she has on her Belle dress, she picks the gold crown, gold necklaces, and her Belle shoes.  Because you can't wear Ariel shoes with a Belle dress.  Y'all.  She is only 2! And talk about independent!  Man.  Her 2 favorite things to say right now are "I do it myself!" and "It's my turn!"
She loves to sing her ABCs and can count to "eleben" with no problem.  And I can take no credit for that.  We don't ever really specifically work on her numbers or letters, but just play.  And when we are playing sometimes we talk about letters or we count stuff.  She picks up on stuff quick.  And  having 2 big brothers definitely helps!  And, she can recognize her name!  She knows which one says Mary and which one says Blanche.  And requests that I write them both multiple times a day.  And then she likes to "write" them.  :)  You can tell we have worked hard with Daniel on learning his feeling words.  This girl has got them down!  "Sissy is sad!  I cry!" or "Sissy is happy!" while jumping up and down.  Speaking about jumping, she definitely has no gross motor delays.  I'm pretty sure she could climb a mountain.  Alone.  If we would let her.  She can climb on anything!  And never slows down!  She loves to color!  She is doing a great job learning her colors.  I taught David his colors by reading Pete the Cat and with M&Ms, of course.  MB is learning her colors by her bows.  Ha!  She has got pink down!  "I want the pink one!"  She has figured out in a house full of boys, that if it is pink, it is hers.
I'm really interested to see how she reacts when her baby brother gets here.  She is very annoyed at my growing belly right now because it gets in her way when she wants to sit in my lap.  :)  But, the other day she brought baby brother a cookie.  Put it down my shirt, and said "That's for baby!"  And I wasn't allowed to remove it from my shirt.  Ha!  Her reaction to everything for Baby Derek right now is "Awwwww!  Thats for baby!"  We finally got the swing put together and she noticed it immediately.  "Awww!  That's for baby!"  And when she got in the car the first time after we put the car seat in she looks over and says "Awww! That's for baby!"  She has enjoyed going to his baby showers and seems to be just fine that the presents are not for her.  Because, "That's for baby!"  I'm more worried about this sweet baby's safety than his big sister not loving him.  :)  I'm a little worried she is going to want to love him a little bit too much!  She really likes to "I carry!!"  Oh goodness.  
    She is definitely a fan of her brother's new bath tub!
And of making silly faces!!
And of throwing a fit when she doesn't get her way!
And of being on stage!  Girl loves the stage!
And her daddy!  She knows she has her daddy wrapped!
I love being this girl's mama.  She challenges me to be very creative in my parenting.  Man, girls are SO different from boys.  I snap my fingers and those boys melt.  I snap my fingers and she looks at me like I've lost my mind.  It is very scary to see one of my looks looking back at me.  I totally expect this sweet and sassy girl to challenge me for many years!  



Rae