We're Still Here

I guess I should start this post with an apology, it has been a very long time since my last post. I didn't post much, if anything, while my mom was visiting and by the time she left I guess I had just gotten out of the habit. Luckily though, there hasn't been a whole lot going on with us so this probably won't take too long.

Last month we received what is quite possibly the best gift we've ever been given (it's definitely in the top 2)! Someone very close to us, paid off our car loan! We were both surprised as well as being very excited and it could not have come at a better time. It was an answer to a prayer and definitely a message from Heavenly Father letting me know that we're on the right track. The extra money each month has allowed us to save more money each month which will hopefully enable us to buy a house sooner, assuming we find something affordable in the location that we want.

We had a pregnancy scare this month. Or at least I had a scare, B didn't seem to be worried either way. I guess scare may be a little too severe a word but let me just say I'm not quite ready for #2 yet. Had it turned out that we were pregnant I would have come to accept it and even be excited about it, but I am really relieved that we're not. I have a tendency to plan things out, and sometimes, when things don't go as I plan I can get pretty emotional and even a little upset. Right now I just wanna take some time and enjoy being with Y. That combined with the fact that I'm really not ready for the multiple night feedings, being sleep deprived, and just becoming anyone's personal milking machine quite yet. When the time comes that we're ready for #2 (or even if we're not ready but it's on its way anyway) rest assure I will let all of you know, but as for right now...I'm just relieved!

Y is now 14 months old! She is still not walking and that's probably due to the fact that I want her to walk so badly. I have heard from some moms who have said that their son or daughter didn't walk until 18 months and some even a little bit later. I REALLY don't wanna wait that long. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she will walk by Christmas. I should not, however, be surprised that she is taking her time learning to walk. She is such a laid back little girl and doesn't really seem to be in a rush to do things, take crawling for example. She has 4 teeth all coming in at once and she has been surprisingly tolerable through it all. We recently bought her a toothbrush to brush her teeth, previously we had been using one of those rubber fingertip brushes that you slide onto your finger. I was certain that she would just take the toothbrush out of my hand and start chewing on it but she doesn't. She LOVES getting her teeth brushed so she makes no effort to take the brush from me. When she sees me grab the toothbrush and her toothbrush she gets all excited and happy; maybe we have a future dentist on our hands. She still refuses to touch her own food although I did get her to pick up some french fries on one occasion, but other than that she moves her hand away whenever I try to make her take food. She has started trying to help me feed her when using a spoon, she will grab the spoon and pull it to her mouth. She still brings us so much joy and I love to do anything that will make her laugh because it is the cutest, most heartwarming sound I've ever heard. I really do love being a mom, but then again, she makes it easy!

Like Taking Candy from a Baby???

About a month and a half ago while we were at Y's final dermatologist appointment they had a huge jar of DumDums sitting on the counter, so I grabbed one and stuffed it into the diaper bag. Well tonight I discovered that Sour Apple flavored DumDum and began to eat it as I sat on the floor playing with Y. She was, naturally, intrigued by the white stick hanging out of my mouth and below is a video of Y's first candy experience (and the last for a very long time).

Some Happy News and Some Not-So-Happy News

My mom leaves on Tuesday and I must say that I am really going to miss her. Not just because my apartment is so much cleaner than even my deepest cleaning but because I am really going to miss having some adult company during the day. She won't admit it but I can also tell that she's ready to get back to her chaotic routine with my dad, siblings, nieces, nephews, etc. It has been awesome having her here and I wish she could stay a bit longer but life goes on. I guess we'll just have to get pregnant and have another baby so she'll have to come back! hahaha. I actually told her that and her warning to me was that I'd better plan it out so that the baby is not born in a cold month - she says she refuses to come if there is the slightest chance of snow. So I guess that only gives me the months of June-September to have children as long as we live in the state of Michigan!

In other news...B was previously assigned to work both Thanksgiving AND Christmas this year, much to my disdain! I was not a happy camper about it but at least he has a job, right? But he did have a few remaining personal days so we were going to try to make the best of them and shoot for a long shot and have him use them by requesting off Black Friday as well as a few days after Christmas. Well it turns out that one of his co-workers really wanted to have New Year's Day off (probably so he can get wasted on New Year's Eve) so now he's going to work on Christmas Day and B will work on New Year's Day. To top it all off, he also has the 4 days following Christmas off! So we get to spend a whole 5 days together at Christmas, it's like a mini-vacation!!

The Cutest Lamb You'll Ever See!

Y was supposed to be a Ladybug for Halloween. However, in my ignorance, I thought that buying a Halloween costume in September would allow plenty of time and a store definitely wouldn't be sold out...I was WRONG!!! So after that total disappointment, I went home and started looking on the internet but I couldn't find anything I really liked at a price I really wanted to pay. So I went to walmart.com and settled for a bumble bee costume. I wasn't excited about it, but it would get the job done. Then I found THE cutest costume and after a little encouragement from my mother-in-law I decided that I was going to return the bee and Y was gonna be a lamb instead. Last night was our ward Halloween party and of course I took pictures. Here are some for you guys to enjoy! Love ya!

Trying on her costume

Too Cute!!

Sleeping in the car on the way home...guess she was exhausted!

4 Awesome Years

On Wednesday, B and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary!!! Time sure has flown by and I've enjoyed every second of it. We were fortunate enough to have my mom here visiting us so we were able to leave Y at home with her. Last year Y was about 6 weeks old when we celebrated our anniversary and a friend in our ward offered to watch her while we went to dinner. That was the last time that we had gone to dinner sans Y. She has always been a very good baby and so it was never a big deal taking he rout to dinner with us, she kinda just went with the flow. However, this year when we went out and left her with my mom, I realized how awesome it is for just the 2 of us to go out together every now and again. B was of course concerned about leaving her with my mom, he didn't want her to end up spending the whole night crying. Well, turns out she didn't cry once the entire time we were gone. In fact, I'm not sure she missed us at all! So now we will definitely be going out and having more date nights without Y every couple of months. It was so great to just sit and relax, talk, and reconnect. I love having our wonderful daughter as part of our family, but I also appreciate just being able to spend some one-on-one time with my wonderful husband. He has given me 4 awesome years of marriage and I am truly thankful for the ability to share eternity with him. He reassures me when I need it most, comforts me no matter how small or simple the issue may be and it also helps that he's always willing to help out around the house even after having a long day at work. He makes my life whole and I appreciate everything that he does for our family. 143, BPF!

Each year on our anniversary we take a picture of our family to add to our wedding album. That way as the years go by we'll be able to look back and see how we and our family has changed over the years. As you can imagine, getting a good shot while holding a 13 month old can be more than a little tricky. In all the pictures that I really liked Y was looking away or squirming so I am uploading 2 for your viewing pleasure - one where Y is looking at the camera and another that I think would be perfect had Y been more cooperative (it was her bedtime, so I can't ask for much from her).

ARGH!!!

I shouldn't be surprised by the ignorance of some people, but somehow this one just really irks me. I was doing some reading on the internet when the words "Interracial Couple" caught my eye in a headline. It likely caught my eye because, well, I'm ½ of an interracial couple. So I read the rest of the headline, Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License By Louisiana Justice of the Peace, and I was just so curious that I couldn't stop myself from clicking on it to find out precisely what it was about. By the time I got to the end of the first paragraph I was already furious with this guy. He says that, "it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long." Well what experience would he have in the matter? It's obvious he's never been in an interracial relationship and even more obvious that he's never married an interracial couple! My mother and father-in-law have been in a successful interracial marriage for over 34 years now as well as having some aunts and uncles who are in mixed marriages and I am sure that there are many more out there just like them!

As if that wasn't enough to tick me off, I continued reading the second paragraph where he said: "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Well woopty-freakin'-do! I'm so happy to know that if I were his friend he'd trust me enough to use his toilet, I'll rest so much better tonight knowing that! And as a little note to him and everyone else out there: If you feel the need to precede or follow up ANY statement you make by saying, "I have (Insert Race Here) friends" in order for you to feel justified in making that statement, you're probably better off just keeping your mouth shut! The only part of his above statement that I agree with is when he proclaims he is not a racist! Well Mr. Bardwell, you are 100% accurate in that statement! You're not a racist...you're a bigot!

Ladies and Gentlemen the fun does not stop there! The article continues and states:
"Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

I guess my next question is exactly who he discussed this topic with, was it his piles and piles of black friends that he so graciously allows to use his bathroom? Because it seems fairly obvious to me that in an instance such as this, maybe, just maybe he should discuss it with people that have been in an interracial relationship. I mean, they would be more educated on the topic than someone who has never been a part of it. And why is it the fault of the parents if SOCIETY doesn't accept the kids (which I completely disagree with). I honestly believe that the majority of society has no problem with interracial children. Sure, there are idiots out there who do, but I think they are the exception and not the rule! I really think Mr. Bardwell needs to get out of Louisiana and explore a little bit more of society before he can start speaking on behalf of all of black society and white society. I know quite a few interracial people, namely my husband, his siblings, several of his cousins, a few of my own cousins, friends and acquaintances throughout life, etc. and the all seem to be pretty well adjusted and accepted by all of those who matter in their life.

I hate that people, such as Mr. Bardwell, still exist. As for me, Here's to creating many more interracial offspring, in hopes that one day people like Mr. Bardwell will be nonexistent!

Last Lesson

I had my last swim lesson tonight and I am actually quite sad to say that I'm finished. I am extremely proud of my progress and being able to now say that I can swim. There are still some aspects that I want to continue working on, mostly improving my stroke and also my breathing technique (which as of right now is pretty lame). So I had B film a little video of me swimming for you guys to see. I'm still not as good as I one day hope to be but it's a lot better than I was 30 days ago. You'll notice in the video that I stopped fairly quickly and that is because I ended up getting a cramp in my foot (ouch). But not including the time I took to massage the cramp out of my foot, it took me slightly over a minute to finish one lap in the pool!

13 Months

I am late writing this post, 5 days late to be exact. I didn't forget to write the post, I'm just a procrastinator and finally forced myself to sit and write it. Unfortunately my camera battery is completely dead right now so I'll have to come and upload pictures later. I've also debated whether I would continue my monthly pictures of Y since she's now 1, I couldn't decide if it were still necessary or not. But I've decided to continue doing it because there are a lot of you out there that don't get to see her very often and might appreciate the monthly updates.

As for Y at 13 months, she still has only 4 teeth but I think I can see white pressing against the gums where 2 more might break through at the top soon. She isn't yet walking solo but she loves to take anyone's hands and walk them through the apartment over and over again. People keep telling me that I should appreciate the fact that she's not yet walking because once they start walking they start getting into everything. Well, I have a newsflash...she already gets into everything. She crawls into and under things that I would never have fathomed she could get to let alone fit in or under. She can reach pretty much everything and she has mastered the art of standing on her tippy toes to get to the things she can't reach. She opens cabinents and pulls things out and she even reaches for door handles and can even turn them slightly (thank goodness the locks are out of even her tiptoe reach). She knows how to turn the DVD player on and off as well as making it open and shut. She can quickly grab and open a DVD case or game cases. She loves to open and shut drawers and recently has started opening them and pulling things out of them. She points at pictures with B in them and says Dada but I've yet to see her do this with any of my pictures. She mostly does it while B is at work so I'm thinking that maybe it's because she misses him and since I'm always with her live and in person, maybe that's why she never does it with my pictures. She fully understand "no" and "uh-uh" and sometimes she even listens to me when I say it although she doesn't always stop what she's doing, until she notices me coming towards her. Her favorite word is "uh-oh" though I don't think she fully understands its meaning. Ya see, "uh-oh" implies you did something on accident but I believe she does things just so she can say "uh-oh." Like throwing her toys on the floor in the car while we're driving, or letting her cup fall on the floor during dinner, the list goes on! She still refuses to touch her food and i have tried everything to no avail to get her to touch it but she refuses. We are finally mastering naptime and have managed to get her to consistently take 1-2 hour naps instead of 30-45 minute naps. She loves it when we blow bubbles and her favorite toys just happen to be her books. Her favorite cartoos are Word World and Super Why but she doesn't mind Dragon Tales or Barney. She is still such a happy and enjoyable baby and I love being able to spend all my time with her, we're the luckiest parents in the world!

5, 6, and 7

It's been a while since my last swimming update which is very likely because I felt like my progress had stalled. Needless to say I had been pretty down about it because the pressure builds the closer and closer I get to my last lesson, which is a week from today. Like last time, I'll give you a lesson-by-lesson replay, so here goes...

Last Thursday, October 1, was lesson #5. It was much the same as lesson #4 (where I first swam unaided). We did several laps with the noodles and a paddle board, several more with just the paddle board, still more with just the noodles and finally about 5 minutes of swimming with no assistance. Nothing really exciting happened in this lesson, I was just happy I hadn't lost my nerve from lesson #4.

This past Tuesday was my 6th lesson and I was feeling pretty crappy at the end of it. Not because I had a hard time completing the tasks but because I didn't progress anymore. I was still swimming a little at the end of the lesson but I still couldn't manage to do it for long periods of time without my brain telling me feet to find the bottom of the pool. In other words, I was swimming for short periods of time and even that could be a struggle. I was angry at myself, frustrated and it didn't help one bit that I kept reminding myself that I only had 3 lessons left. I went home pretty downtrodden! I felt like I knew what my problem was but I didn't know how to fix it. I needed to find in myself the ability to have my head at least partially in the water so that my upper body was not constantly struggling to stay afloat as I swam. And seeing as I still have my fear of water, it's still perfectly intact, this is pretty hard for me. But allowing my head into the water will allow me to straighten out my upper body which would make it a lot easier to do the kicking motions when I'm not concentrating so hard on everything else.

The defeat I felt after lesson #6 actually gave me a great deal of motivation for tonight's lesson, #7. I'm pretty sure that knowing how few lessons I have remaining also had something to do with it. We went about the usual laps in the pool and we'd randomly take a minute break here and there in order to give myself a little rest. While taking these breaks I decided I would work on going underwater. I would take a deep breath, submerge my head, and bring it back up when I needed to breathe. While doing my laps with the noodles I decided that I would attempt to do it then as well. I was actually surprised by how much easier it made the whole swimming process! I would take a deep breath, hold it, submerge my head a little, exhale and repeat...all while continuously swimming. I felt like I had made a major breakthrough. I was totally amazed at how much easier it made things, not only because my body was better aligned but also because I wasn't spending so much time and energy focusing on trying to keep water away from and out of my nose. I was so excited about this but I knew the hard part was still to come. It was time for me to set the noodles aside and do it all on my own. So I tried my best to relax, took a deep breath, closed my eyes and just started. Boy did I feel my muscles start to burn but I kept at it until I couldn't take it anymore and when I stopped I realized that I had swam half the length of the pool! I don't know who was more excited, me or my instructor.

It is so very exciting for me, I love to marvel at the progress that I have made since I first started. I was talking to a friend on the phone yesterday and she said to me, "Umeka, I can swim a mile and I'm still not over my fear of water." And I can now say that I completely understand what she means by that but before I started these lessons her statement would have been a total oxymoron to me. I am still afraid of water, but I'm going to learn to swim anyway. I don't think my fear will ever completely go away, it'll probably show its ugly head everytime I get in a pool, but I'm gonna do it anyway!

Happy Birthday

Today is my mommy's 50th birthday!!! I just wanted to wish her a very happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope your day is filled with lots of joy and you're able to enjoy it. We love you and look forward to seeing you soon!!