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birthday invite sneak peak!

I am obsessed with planning Payton’s birthday party. I feel sorry for my Mother and Jim because all I do is talk about is her special day. I know she will not remember it but I will. My theory behind my madness is that I did not hear her come into this crazy world. I will never get back those moments so for each day this year I have tried my best to make each day count and her 365th will not be any different. Since we are forty-three days out I thought I would share her invitation that I am so proud of. I have only made one complete invitation but Jim is planning on stamping and glittering the snowflakes on the rest while I am at work this evening. I love the colors and am eagerly awaiting the end of this month so I can break out all my Christmas decorations. LOVE IT!

all DIY, paper products are from paper source, snowflake stamp & ink from impression rubber stamps

I have also ordered all her custom decorations from etsy as well as her cookie favors, which are mini snow babies, stockings and circles all complete in red, aqua and white. I have her red polka-dot snowflake onesie to go with her plush aqua pettiskirt. My baby girl will have the best Winter Onederland party yet!

one step at a time is good walking

yep! With that being said our little ten-month-old is a walkin’! She has been testing the waters for a little over a month and randomly last week she decided to let go and made ten steps on her own. I thought it might be a fluke, but she kept doing it and now she just goes. She is practically running at some points which scares the ba-jeebus outta me. Today as we got home from running errands she was sitting by the front door and crawled into the family room and then stood up and ran half-way out our back door. Oy vey! All this mama could do is sit back, remember her baby’s non-mobile days, pray and then shed some tears. It’s astonishing how fast she is growing up. In 46 short days my baby will be one step closer to being a toddler.

The video isn’t amazing, but I wanted to show y’all a little of what she was up to this evening.

payton walking from melissa on Vimeo.

I am too cute to spook

We hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! We didn’t do much around our house which is super disappointing since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. On Saturday I was supposed to get off of work early to head to my nephew’s Halloween/7th birthday party. But, we did not make it since I worked a 12+ hour shift. When I got home we ended up cruising around Target to boost my moral and then we went home to greet my parents. My parents came down after Ethan’s party and we caught up on Boardwalk Empire and then hit the sack! On Halloween morning I made everyone breakfast, which was so yummy! We don’t have the pleasure of doing this often so my veggie scramble and homemade red potato hash was extra special! Plus, Payton had her first taste of scrambled eggs, which of course she loved. After breakfast I decided to decorate my grave yard that the kids on the block go nuts for and then napped for a bit. I had to head into work around 3 so we made a quick visit to a pumpkin patch to take pictures of Payton in her costume so I could be somewhat a part of her first Halloween. She looked so stinkin’ cute as Minnie. I had colored in her nose and she quickly wiped it off but the remnants of a soft black circle managed to stay on. She had fun eating and inspecting the pumpkins. Next year will definitely be more fun but it was amazing taking her to a pumpkin patch twice this season. Jim and my parents said that Payton did really well going trick-or-treating. One of the first houses they visited was passing out glow bracelets so that kept her occupied and refrained from pulling her Minnie ears off. Later that evening after my parents had left to head home Jim surprised me by stopping by my work so I could see my Minnie one last time before she headed to bed. It’s moments like those that make it worth being a working mom but even better that I have an amazing husband that recognizes how difficult it was for me not be 100% involved on her first Halloween. The tears that were shed on the drive into work were erased and overall it was a great holiday weekend. Today, I cruised Target again (one of my bi-daily adventures) to see what Halloween goodies they had left and surprisingly they had a ton of good stuff. I did refrain from going nuts because I do have a ton of amazing decorations so I only snagged a banana split costume for Delilah, the adorable gnome costume for Payton (my runner up for this year’s costume choice) and some more fogger liquid. I will probably wait a few more days and then head to some of the Halloween shops to see what other great discounts I can get. Maybe next year Payton will host a Halloween party for all her buddies!

Below are some pictures from Halloween, our trip to Disneyland last Thursday and from our trip to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Enjoy my pretties!

Two weeks ago my best friend and I headed to a pumpkin patch a few miles away from my house. It was right after it had rained for a few days so everything was moist, when we had arrived it had actually started sprinkling so we felt like amazing mother’s taking our infants out in the rain. At least we did not stick to our original plan of driving into the black sky towards Julian. The girls had fun, even though Molly was looking at us like we were crazy mama’s!

Maggie and Molly.

I love this little girl. I am so thrilled that our little girls will grow up together. Maggie and I have known each other for 20+ years and our birthday’s are five days a part so it’s great that they are starting off earlier than we did!

Typical infant, everything in the mouth!

Payton was enamored with Donald. After we left him we were waiting to take a picture in front of the big pumpkin and she kept staring at him. Love my munchkin!

My lovely festive parents!

Done trick-or-treating with Daddy. Until next year. . .

pee u it stinks

I hope none of you are offended by the post or that you make an assumption that I am the worst mother out there. Last Thursday my Mom and I were packing everything up to head to Disneyland for the day with Payton. While I was getting the last minute items together in her baby bag I saw that she had crawled into our dining room. I noticed a mini three musketeers wrapper sitting right by the the tile and just assumed that it had fallen the night before. I see Payton sitting right next to our table and it looks as though she is munching on a Tootsie roll. But then she turns to the side and I look and much to my dismay she was chowing down on a dachshund turd. I am dying at this point. Grabbing her screaming and practically gagging as my Mother is laughing at me. I knew it would eventually happen but really?! Did she have to squish it in her hands and then proceed to put it in her mouth?! The weirdest thing is I did not even see that Delilah had an accident in the house. I am going down as the “best” mother in the world I tell you. Anyway, needless to say it was time we took out her toothbrush and scrubbed her seven pearly whites clean of stinky dog poop.

Yum-MMMM—yyyy!

A Letter to Payton – 10 Months

Dearest Payton,

Today you are ten-months-old. This has been the hardest month so far this year because the realization of you being ten months equates to the amount of time you stayed safe in my belly. I miss laying with you, cuddling and just listening to you breathe. Your sudden deep breaths, lip smacking and hearing you suck on your pacifier was like listening to the ocean waves hit the shore. You are growing into a toddler, which is exciting in itself everyday, but my baby is slowly leaving. You have grown so much in the past two weeks, leaving all your baby chubs behind and gaining a few additional teeth and inches! You explore more and more and have a routine to test your limits with me every morning. You babble a little more and have gotten out a few new words like, “hi”, something that sounds like “doggie” and “papa”. You recognize any dog that gets your attention, point and say “da”. Your love for Elmo is astonishing and when you see him or any other Sesame Street character you get so excited. You have started to dance and clap whenever it is necessary. You have started to let go of the coffee table and other like stabilizer’s and have taken up to six steps on your own. You can stand for a while with nothing around and have even stood straight up from a squat. We’re just waiting for you to “go” any day now. Though, since you were born you have been a conversation stopper you have stopped more strangers in the past week just awing over you and how “advanced” you appear and of course how gorgeous you are. I feel as though I am bragging, but my darling, this happens every time we step out of the house. You love meeting new people and love engaging in conversation and wave good-bye as they depart. There is just so much that occurs everyday that it is hard to sum in one letter. I love waking up to you, still, and love kissing your belly until you cry because you are laughing so hard. Your laughter and smile is my cure all!

I love you baby.

What else you have been up to. . .

– Wearing size 18 month + clothing

– Lovin’ all food! You have been given table foods like: homemade sweet potato fries, a blueberry bagel (which you loved!), cheerios, baby goldfish, chicken and black beans just to name a few.

– Wearing size 5 shoes.

– You got in two more teeth! The second top tooth came in on 10/18 and the third top tooth came in on 10/20. You have an uneven smile, three and three with the left side lacking an appearance. I think the fourth bottom is days away!

– You love to bite! We kid around saying you’re a vampire. You have left a few bruises on my shoulder from your love bites.

– You roll your ball to and from us.

– You play “chase” or “follow the leader”

– You are finally beginning to snuggle! We love that you put your head down on our shoulders again now that your getting older.

– You give kisses like crazy, which we love and please never stop!

Love you baby girl!

xoxo,

Mommy and Daddy