Bailey Gets a Haircut and Pigtails

Yesterday at church I went to check on Bailey in nursery between Sunday school and Relief Society. I peaked through the window and saw all the kids sitting at the table doing an activity, but I couldn't see Bailey anywhere. I thought maybe she was throwing a tantrum and sitting against the door where I couldn't see her. I opened the door a crack to see if I could see her, but when I looked over at the table again as I walked in, there she was--she had been sitting there the whole time working away. I totally didn't recognize her because she looked like a boy! She had pulled her headband off and so her hair was all shaggy and hanging in her face. I decided it was time for a haircut. Here she is with her new do.

Santa is Scary

We took Bailey to see Santa a couple times this year and it was exactly how I envisioned it--with lots of tears and a little screaming. For playgroup we went to the Festival of Trees to see the trees of course and the line was short to see Santa so we decided to give it a shot. I tried to warm Bailey up to the idea as we waited in line, but it didn't help. As soon as I sat her on Santa's lap she immediately started crying--poor Santa. He was a good sport and held her nice and tight while a friend snapped these awesome shots.

The next day we took Bailey to Emilie's Santa Session and the outcome wasn't much different. We thought if we could warm her up to him then at least she would stand next to him with a semi-decent look on her face, but that didn't work either. Those pictures are yet to come.

Bailey now says "Santa scary" when we talk about him. I guess that's okay since I would rather have her focus be on other things during Christmastime rather than just Santa.

Thanksgiving and Vegas

I've have been a total slacker with this blog for the past 5 months and hardly know where to begin. I have every intention of documenting those many months if it kills me. Here's just one thing we've been up to.

One highlight of the past couple months was a totally fun trip to Las Vegas. Omai had to film a little league tournament over Thanksgiving weekend for Sports Filmz. We debated for a long time about what to do as far as when I would go down and what to do with Bailey. Our first plan was to all drive down together on Wednesday and come back Sunday. I was a little hesitant about this plan because we would drive down with Omai's friend and his wife so I wouldn't have a car to get around while I was down there. Then Orin and Meagan offered to watch Bailey while we went and slowly our plan evolved into me flying down Friday afternoon and leave Bailey with Meg and Or and then drive home Sunday with Omai and his friend. It all worked out perfectly and made for such a fun trip. Omai spent Thanksgiving day working so it wasn't the greatest for him. His boss' wife made dinner for them so at least he got something, but he had to eat standing up in a little trailer that was used as the filming headquarters for the weekend. Not the greatest Thanksgiving he's had in his life.

Once I got to Vegas I didn't see Omai much, but I got to visit a lot with my good friend Andrea who I lived with down at BYU my sophomore year. We were able to catch up from the last almost 10 years and it was absolutely fantastic. I met her cute little boys and saw her adorable house that she's decorated almost all herself. For the past three weeks I've walked around my house thinking, what would Andrea do with this space, or, Andrea made this space functional in her house so I can do it too. It was a weekend well spent.

I got to do a little shopping because Omai won $150 playing Black Jack. I also got in on the action winning a whopping $2.50. I also won $7.25 in the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. It's not much, but all I cared about was paying for my lunch so I was happy. We also ate very well going to the Rio Buffet and the Claimjumper restaurant where I ordered a six layer piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Oh boy!! Talk about death by chocolate. Despite my desire to consume the whole thing I shared it around and could hardly finish one layer. It was yummy.

On the way home we got stuck in a snowstorm and spent 14 hours trying to get home. It was pretty miserable. The only saving grace was that Omai's friend, Mullet, had a DVD player in his truck. Psych, Robin Hood, and How to Train a Dragon became my lifesavers. We stopped at a restaurant in Fillmore and spent almost an hour waiting for our food. Turns out it was basically the only open eating establishment other than the Phillips 66 for many miles in either direction. Another up side is that we were heading north and not south because a diesel truck carrying fuel had rolled on the freeway blocking all southbound traffic. We heard those people would be stuck for 7 - 8 hours on the freeway. Now that's a bummer if I've ever heard one.

We finally made it home pulling into our driveway at 11:30 PM. Bailey still recognized Omai having not seen him for 6 days and I swear she grew like three inches. Meg and Or said she did great and just played and played and played. We're already planning our next trip to Vegas in March for the MWC tournament. Can't wait!

Bailey's New Bed

Bailey is growing so fast and I find myself getting a little too excited for her to be a big girl and it ends up not working out very well for me. One day I decided it was time for Bailey to start sleeping in her big girl bed. I took down her crib and brought up her bed. The assembly ended up taking me way too long because I decided not to use my common-sense part of the brain. Anyway, after putting it almost all together then taking it all apart again, I finally got it put together the right (and safe) way. Even though she wasn't cooperating with me as I tried to take pictures of her, I think she really did like her new bed.

And as a side-note--we got these cute paintings from a neighbor who just moved in down the street. Bailey loves them!







Grumpy Bailey. She knows when I want her to look cute for pictures and I think it makes her mad :).



Isn't this more like the look of a grumpy teenager rather than a 20-month old baby?...



The part of this that doesn't work very well for me or Omai is that since putting together her toddler bed, we find her in all sorts of weird positions--most of which are NOT in her bed. She often won't stay in her bed whether it be for naps or for bedtime. One day I put her to bed, went down into the garage to clean out my car, came back inside to grab something and Bailey was sitting on the kitchen floor playing. She likes to get all her toys or books out and play with them after we put her to sleep. So we usually have to fish a bucket-full of toys out from under her before we go to sleep ourselves. She likes to play with beaded necklaces that we put in a drawer in her nightstand. It's not unusual to find her with four or five of them around her neck and she'll be curled up on the floor next to her bed. I'm terrified she's going to strangle herself. Omai found her the other morning asleep half-way under her bed. He had to lift up the bed to get her out so her head wouldn't get stuck. Even though I vowed I would never do this, she ends up sleeping in my bed most nights from about 3 AM on because she'll cry, I go check on her, she'll be asleep on the floor, she screams when I put her back in her bed, I'm sick of getting no sleep, so I just bring her in bed with me. Even though we have a California king-size bed with plenty of room for both of us, she ends up sleeping perpendicular to me with me on the edge of the bed and her feet in my back. I think we're going to resort back to her crib until we need it for another baby. This arrangement just isn't working for me.

Here is an example of one of the many ways we've found Bailey asleep.

Pools and Poop

For Easter we got Bailey a little kiddie pool and I put it to good use this summer by having her bathe in it some mornings in the driveway. I would warm up the water for her and she loved it. She would splash and splash in the water, throw all her toys down the driveway for me to go fetch, and splash some more.

One morning barely five minutes into her bath I could tell she needed (and started trying) to poop. I quickly grabbed her and got her out of the pool because I didn't want all my hard work of warming up her bath to be ruined. I ran inside and sat her on her potty, and viola--she totally pooped in the toilet. It was awesome!! Mess avoided. I wiped her little bum and she was back in the pool splashing away.