Here you see Y standing in front of the screen - unassisted - watching the Miis hula hoop.

Last night while B was doing a little Wii Fit, Y decided to give it a shot too. Watch the beginning segments of each video closely and you'll see her trying to hula hoop along with B and the Mii's on the screen.

The Farmer in the Dell???

Nope, it's: THE LIL' FARMER IN THE D!!!!

It's Happening

On Monday I noticed that Y would be holding on to something with her arms stretched out as far as it could go and a look on her face like she was contemplating letting go. However, she never did... well at least not until Monday night when she took her very first steps!!!!! She would let go of whatever she happened to be holding on to and take a few steps before toppling over. Fortunately falling didn't discourage her one bit and she went on to do it several more times that night. Unfortunately by the time I got the video camera out and ready she had already tumbled over. Now I keep the cameras within an arms reach...just in case. So she was exactly 16 months and 1 week old when she took her first steps AND stood unassisted.

Chronicles of Baby Bootcamp

For any of you that aren't quite sure what Baby Boot Camp is, I'll try to explain. I'm sure you have all know that when someone joins the military they first go away to basic training, which is often called boot camp. Well just as the military using basic training/boot camp to train the soldiers, moms can use baby boot camp to train their baby. It's called boot camp because it's not a pleasant experience from mother or baby and is a pretty touch regimen.

I wanted to use baby boot camp to accomplish three goals:

1. Teach Y to fall asleep unassisted. We stopped rocking her to sleep long ago but we still remained in the room until she fell asleep, I wanted to end this dependency.
2. Teach Y to sleep through the night, or at least not wake up screaming in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
3. Extend Y's nap time, her naps would only last about 30 minutes and she would wake up still being sleepy.

The three goals often go hand-in-hand and if you fix one then it is said that the other two will fix themselves...this was not the case for us at all!

We started Baby Boot Camp as soon as we returned from celebrating Christmas in Canada. That was two weeks ago, we started at nap time on Tues., Dec. 29th. Nap time didn't go so well at all, she only cried for about 10 minutes but she only slept for 15 minutes before waking up and screaming her head off. We surrendered and I decided to give it another try at bedtime. So when it was time for bed, I gave her her milk and she sat with B while I read her a bedtime story. We then put her in bed, she cried for 5 minutes after which I went in to check on her briefly. When I left she screamed even louder - fortunately I had my iPod touch to keep me distracted and I surfed the internet. After another 15 minutes I went in again, calmed her down and left. She continued to cry for another 10 minutes and then she was asleep - 30 minutes for the first night wasn't bad at all!!! I felt confident that this was going to be easy. but received a reality check when she woke several times that night. I started out just letting her cry but I was pretty weak and gave in. The next day nap time was fairly easy, she only cried for 5 minutes and only 15 minutes at bedtime. Over the next few days nap time became a breeze with bedtime becoming fairly easy as well. But the night waking was still an issue, and I mean a HUGE issue. She would wake at night screaming for hours at a time until I cracked. Meanwhile, B and I were having some disagreements on the whole baby boot camp thing. I felt it was a necessary evil for my own sleep needs and sanity. He felt it was cruel and we were punishing her when she had in fact done nothing wrong.

At this point I felt we have successfully accomplished goal #1 but the night wakings were getting more and more challenging and the nap was still only at 30 minutes. I was seriously at my wits end but the progress with goal #1 is honestly what made me stick with it. So now after two full weeks of boot camp Y is able to soothe herself to sleep and at least for the past couple of nights she has slept through the night until 8am! I have definitely enjoyed having the nights of uninterrupted sleep! I still don't wanna say that goal #2 is completely accomplished until she has done it for at least a week or more and goal #3 isn't even close to being resolved. I now put her down for 2 afternoon naps so she is at least getting an hour of nap time each day - still not where I want her to be but we're taking baby steps I guess.

Overall I have to say that though there were so many times when I just wanted to call it quits I am so glad that I stuck it out and stayed with it. I am much happier and so is Y! I think B is just happier now that she doesn't seem to cry herself to sleep or wake up crying.

How Could I Forget?!?!

In my haste to update our blog yesterday I totally forgot to mention a couple of Christmas gifts. Mostly because I didn't already have the pictures on our camera because I figured I could get better pictures from the item's website. But I forgot to go to their websites...so anyway, I'm posting them now.

The first was given to B and is something that he has wanted for a very long time; he thinks it's probably one of the greatest inventions ever, falling just short of TVs, computers and cars. It's also the perfect gift for him because even though we keep the temperature at about 80° in out apartment (a perk of having heat included in rent) he still finds a way to be cold. So you're probably wondering what the gift is...well, "It's the Blanket That Has Sleeves!" haha.

One gift that I received for Christmas was money, and this money was to specifically go towards my buying a purse. Probably not a big task for most people, but for me it's HUGE. Why? Because I am NOT a purse type of girl! I probably own a total of 5 (including the new one) - 2 of those were a gift, the other 2 I purchased many years ago, and then there's this one.

I must say that I am REALLY excited about this bag. I have been searching for months for the perfect bag for me. I am great at finding the perfect bag for other people but never find the one with the exact specifications I want. Maybe you're wondering why, if I'm not a purse person, am I searching for a purse. Well mainly because I get very tired of going out for quick 20 minute trips and having to carry Y's diaper bag. So I wanted to find a purse that zipped (all the ones i own are snap closures) AND was big enough to carry some diapers and a small wipe holder PLUS my wallet, keys, lotion, my gloves, Y's gloves & hat, chapstick, Lifesavers mints and whatever else I happened to throw in there. Not to mention that I wanted something that wasn't way too expensive, I'm not really a designer girl either.

So I finally found it a couple days ago while perusing the web for purses. It came from GAP and cost $50 which is normally WAY more than I would spend but I had a 20% off coupon and the Christmas money to pay for it, so I went out and bought it! It is everything that I wanted plus it's cute and did I mention that it's a nylon material so it just wipes clean!!! Yeah, I'm excited about it! Anyway, here's a picture of it in case you're wondering.

Welcome 2010, Come On In...

I am so filled with excitement and anticipation for all that 2010 holds! I know that this year will not be without its trials and obstacles but yet and still I feel that we have so much to look forward to. We have always been so blessed in years past that you almost expect the bottom to fall out, but if one thinks like that then they obviously lack the faith needed to survive the crazy day-to-day happenings in their life.

I try not to plan out my life too much, mostly because in the past I have found that my “plan” never works out how I want it to. So instead I set goals. There aren’t many differences between planning and setting goals but there is one HUGE difference – goals are made with some wiggle room which allows you to change them as needed, plans seem to be slightly more set in stone.

So as for our goals for 2010, they include (drum roll please):

• Buying a house (or at least a condo/townhouse).
• Making baby #2.

There, that's it! There's only 2 but they're two pretty hefty ones if you ask me. Now don't go getting all excited about that second goal, notice that I said "making baby #2" I did not say that we would be having baby #2 this year. See, that's where that goal setting comes in, had you asked me last year I would have said that we would be making AND having baby #2 this year. However, I wanna enjoy having just one for a little while longer.

Some Random Pictures

Here are some pictures taken while were were in Canada as well as some taken while being silly here in our own place. Enjoy!

Christmas

We had an awesome Christmas this year. B had 5 consecutive days off so we were able to go to Canada and spend the holidays with family there. We were also able to talk on the phone briefly with Lance who is currently serving his mission in Argentina. It was awesome to hear from him and know that he is happy and faithfully serving the Lord and the people of Argentina. I am just now realizing that I didn't take a single picture of Y in her Christmas dress! We did take pictures of her on Christmas day opening her gifts but she was wearing her Christmas Pajamas! I am pretty disappointed with myself! Next time she wears the dress I'll be sure to snap some pictures, and then I can just say they were Christmas pictures, haha.

As far as gifts go, Santa was very generous this year! B got his TV, U got her iPod touch and a ton of accessories, and Y, well she got all the toys a little girl could ask for, cash to be put away in her college fund, and a few clothing items as well! We were also given some awesome gifts from our family as well.


Here are some pictures:

And finally here are some pictures of Y opening her gifts while wearing her Christmas PJs (which were also a gift).

My Latest Project

I freely admit it...I am becoming domesticated! To many this probably doesn't seem like a big deal or anything to write a post about. But those who have known me the longest will probably be pretty surprised by this admittance. You see, I was never the one to cook, bake, make things, and definitely would not entertain the notion of being a stay at home mom. But people change and evolve based on their life circumstances - I am living proof.



While in college at Virginia Tech, my roommate LeAnn always wanted me to cook or bake with her. She would come home from class and I would likely be taking a nap (I typically had 8am classes or had to work early) and she would swing open my door and yell: "U, let's make some cookies." At first it was a little weird and then it became funny because she knew that I had no intention of making cookies with her, but she would come in and jump on my bed or whatever it took, but I still never made those cookies. I really think she just got all her joy out of waking me from my long naps.



Fast forward a few years and now I enjoy cooking, baking (when I have the time), and LOVE to try new recipes. The weird thing is that it changed almost overnight. One day I hated everything to do with a kitchen and the next day I got married and loved cooking. I remember relatives asking B what he was going to do since I couldn't cook. I always corrected them by saying, "It's not that I can't cook, it's that I DON'T cook." Once we were married I actually found joy in it...maybe I just needed someone to cook for.

A similar thing happened once I became pregnant. I developed a new found interest in crafts. I would find things that I wanted to put in Y's room and then I would decide that instead of spending a ton of money to buy it I would spend a little money and a lot of time in order to make it myself. Well once she was born AND I was in school the projects pretty much ceased but recently they have started again. You all saw my Christmas cards, well immediately after I finished those I started on another project - hair bows for Y!!! She was born with so much beautiful curly hair that I always wanted to put things in it. Last year it was headbands, which I still love! Unfortunately Y doesn't nearly love them as much as me and as soon as she realizes it is on she pulls it off. I went out and purchased many bows but either couldn't find all the colors I wanted or didn't wanna pay the price that it cost to buy all the colors I wanted. So I did a little research online and found FREE instructions on bow making, found 2 that I liked and went to town making the bows. Fortunately I was able to find a website that sells Grosgrain ribbon by the yard because I didn't wanna purchase full spools of ribbon for the small amount that I actually needed for each bow.



Anyway, I'll quit rambling now but here's a picture of my latest completed project. If you're wondering what is next, I'm teaching myself to knit. I've already started, haven't created any masterpieces yet but when I do you can be sure that I'll post them here!

Christmas Lights

This year we wanted to take Y to see some Christmas lights and we kinda waited until the last minute. The one we REALLY wanted to see was on the other side of the Detroit Metro area so we settled for one that was a bit closer but still got pretty good reviews - The Big, Bright Light Show in Downtown Rochester. It was very pretty but not exactly what I had in mind, fortunately Y just loved the idea of being outside in her stroller - despite the cold, frigid air! I think next year we'll go see the Wayne County Lightfest instead, apparently the distance is well worth it!

Anyway, here are some of the pictures we took: