Happy Birthday, Baby Llama!

Just 365 short days ago, I was lying in the hospital, bored, and watching Good Morning America. I was waiting not-so-patiently for this sweet little girl to be born.

We've gone from this:



To this, taken yesterday:



And though we have over a thousand pictures of this year, I'll just show three memorable moments.

The happiest one-month-old I've ever seen:



And five months later, the unhappiest octopus I've ever seen:

And last but certainly not least, Little Miss Ladylike at her birthday party on Saturday, showing off her prizes from the Egg Hunt and wearing a dress that her grandma made her:

The more I say about this, the more likely I am to cry (and you all know that I cry a lot), so I'll just say that I'm grateful to have the family that I was born into and the family that I married into. I'm so lucky to have this little Llama to kiss and call my own. And I have learned so, so much in the past year. I can't wait to see all the other April 17ths for the rest of my life.

"If it all falls apart, I will know deep in my heart the only dream that mattered has come true. In this life, I was loved by you." ~ Collin Raye

Happy birthday, little girl.

Pictures. Better late than never, right?

Last weekend, Llama and Tuna Roll went to a family birthday party with their Grandma (who is not to be called Grandma VaJayJay for the obvious reasons, despite all of our protests) and Hawaiian Punch. Tuna Roll on the right, Hawaiian Punch in the middle, Llama on the left. Coordinating outfits, of course. Provided by Hawaiian Punch. It was a luau party.



Things headed downhill from there.



New attempts to take pictures of them together after returning to our house were slightly less successful:



And things only deteriorated from there:



Tuna Roll got a little spicy when Llama smacked her in the face while trying to escape:



Llama could not understand what the problem was:



Then everyone cried and we gave up.

While Llama and Tuna Roll were partying it up, Bucket, his dad (also as yet un-named), and I were putting ceramic tile in the kitchen. Since then, we've been painting the kitchen while also dealing with the continuing saga of Llama's ear infections (third antibiotic, 20 days of sickness, still not better), which is why posting has been so light. Or non-existent, really.

Before I was someone's mom, I never thought ear infections were a big deal. I didn't think "failing" an antibiotic would make me feel like I did something wrong, either. But here's one nice thing I never knew about being a mom - last night, I gave Llama her bath and was rocking her while she drank her milk before bed (we have a whole routine, it's very nice and she drops to sleep at the end of it without any issues). She laid her head on my chest and started "talking," and I swear she was telling me about her day. Maybe not, maybe I just made that up, but she talked quietly to me for about 10 minutes and then went right to sleep. I never knew I'd want to have a baby talk gibberish to me and that it would make me this happy.

Llama's birthday party is in FIVE DAYS. I have so much work to do, starting with painting the rest of the kitchen and ending with baking a mess of cupcakes. Posting will probably be light until after the party.

No photos for today.

Sorry, my little Llama broke out in hives and I'm not mean enough to post the pictures. I have them, of course, but I'm not putting them on the internet for all to see.

She's allergic to amoxicillin.

Whenever we're back to normal, pictures will be back, too. :)

My daughter is already planning to leave me.

As I was making her breakfast, Llama was playing in the fridge. She had one of her pink storage cubby cubes next to her. I went to the fridge for cheese (you know she needs cheese on her eggs), and peeked in the cube. She had a bottle of ranch dressing, a bottle of italian dressing, a potato, and a cup of yogurt. I asked her what she was going to make, and she looked in the cube, then back in the fridge, and grabbed the cheese and threw it in the cube, too. I think she was packing her bag.

Then I was standing at the sink, waiting for her eggs to cool, and she grabbed my pant leg and said, "Daddy?" I said, "No, he went to work." And she said, "Noooooooooo!?" I've been demoted and it's not even 9am.

Mobility. It's not just for seniors with Hoverrounds anymore.

On Thursday, Llama stood up and took three steps. She really wanted the remote. (The remote is a big motivator in this house, and now Bucket and I have to learn to share it with someone besides each other, which is a problem. We're not even sure how to share it with each other yet. Maybe we'll have to buy her a television of her own, which was how we solved this problem for ourselves.) (I'm totally kidding about the television of her own, in case you didn't catch that. I'm not really down with babies having televisions.)

Since Thursday, Llama's taken a total of another four steps, but we'll cut her some slack. The poor girl has an ear infection and tonsillitis. Who knew babies could even get tonsillitis?

In any case, the combination of new mobility + hurty ear + sore throat = a real explanation for me of why she's been sleeping so very badly lately. Bad sleep for Llama means no sleep for Mama, and on Thursday night into Friday, it was a very literal interpretation. I sat in the rocking chair (very comfortable, selected for just this situation, thanks very much to my mother in law who knew best!) with Llama from about 11pm until 4am. She couldn't sleep laying down, probably because her ear hurt so damn bad, and she was so very hot that I had her almost naked even though it was cold outside. We keep the house cold at night (saves on the gas bill, and I really like to be cold when I'm sleeping... who knows why) so I felt a little bad taking her pajamas off, but it really did help her sleep. On me.

I had to sing a lot, though, and since I'm sick, too... the vocal stylings were not at their best. The offerings ranged from "Walkin' in Memphis," which is always Llama's song for sleepy times, to "Edelweiss" and "A Whole New World." Don't hate. We were going for songs to which I knew all the words.

But last night... last night was glorious. Llama loves Amoxicillin, by the way. She claps her hands when I bring out the syringe. I hope she always feels this way. Anyway, last night Llama slept for 8 hours, woke up so that I could rock her and sing (badly) to her, and went back to sleep for 4 more hours. And now she's a cheerful, happy girl. Back to about "half-tornado-strength," as I said yesterday. I'm hoping by tomorrow she's back to her normal self. Because as tiring as it is to wrestle my little tornado, I was really scared by how quiet and lethargic she was.

Have a fabulous day! It's the second day of spring and it doesn't appear to be snowing!

Wordless Wednesday... now with MORE WORDS!

As much as I'd like to keep this wordless... do you know me AT ALL? I can't miss an opportunity to explain this.

Last Thursday, Llama, Tuna Roll, their grandmother (my mother-in-law) and I went to a huge kids' resale event at the fairgrounds. It was a good time. Tuna Roll hung out in a Snugli that I wore, and she just snuggled right in and went to sleep on me for the entire time. Llama was not so calm and loving. She rode in the stroller and used the tray to kick her shoes off about one million times.

During one of the times I was putting her shoes back on, I spotted a Fisher-Price house thing. I don't know the exact name of it, I don't even know if you can buy it in the store anymore. I said to my mother in law, "I'm going to look at this house for Llama's birthday present." As I said that, this giant hosebeast of a woman came along and put her (too old for this toy) kid down in front of it and asked, "Do you want it, honey? We'll get it, then." I know she heard me say that I wanted to look at it.

So she let her kid play with it, despite all the signs saying, "Please do not play with the toys," and I walked away, mumbling angrily about people being deliberately rude.

And then the giant hosebeast's kid had a fit and she had to walk away. She took her hands off of it, so I went back and swiped it. I carried this giant-ass house around with me.

And I bought it, with complete disregard for the fact that I drive a small sedan, with two babies and their seats, bags, and various toys and accoutrements in the backseat. The trunk was full of stroller. Did that stop me? No. Bucket keeps tools in the car, thankfully, so as my mother-in-law changed diapers, I disassembled the house and wedged its pieces in the trunk and backseat.

I drove home with my knees in the dashboard, wedged precariously under the steering wheel. Bucket reassembled the house in the living room. And while I was planning to wait and give it to Llama for her birthday, they (Llama and Bucket) started playing with it immediately. I didn't have the heart to take it away from either of them.

Was it all worth it? See for yourself.

Yes, I think so. I'm again on the hunt for a birthday present, though.

Late again and not wordless at all...

Maybe Wordless Wednesday was a little ambitious. I'll keep trying, but I think it's more likely that what's going to happen is that I will get at least one picture each week of Llama and put it on here.

This is what happens when you walk out of the living room for one minute without properly securing EVERYTHING:


And coming soon to mailboxes across Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland:

I have to thank my friend Amy, who made the invitations. I'm crafty, but not with paper. Aren't they CUTE!?

Please note that the post for Llama's birthday will be titled, "Ain't no party like a cupcake party, 'cause a cupcake party don't stop." It's been in my head and now it's in yours.