Your only one once!

What a crazy and fun weekend it's been.  The family is gone and my house looks like a tornado just blew through it.  As a matter of fact, I should be cleaning it all up, but instead I'm going to post a new blog.  =)
So, yesterday was Jesalyn's first birthday.  I still have to blink sometimes to believe that she is so grown up.  Who is this little girl getting into my pots and pans all by herself.  Who is this little girl walking from one side of the room to another?  The past year has flown by way too quickly.  I start to get a little teary eyed if I think about it too much so I'll quickly move on.   Her actually birthday party is next weekend.  My 10 yr high school reunion is next weekend too and we didn't feel like driving home two weekends in a row.  Instead, my mom, Danny and my sister Janel drove down to visit.  It was so nice seeing them.  They were here for 2 days and we packed it full. Take a look for yourself:

 Jesalyn and Grandpa Danny waiting for everyone to get ready so we could leave

By the time everyone was up and ready, it was about 10:30 so we decided to head down to Mad Donnas and get some brunch.  Here she is with daddy trying to decide what to get

 She wanted a menu all to herself.  Yes, this is the wine/liquor list she is looking at.

 I'll preface the next pictures by saying I feel guilty.  I promise I'm not a horrible mom, I just fell for the "all parents do it once" phrase.   But, you gotta admit, it's funny.

...after taking a bite of a lemon...

  Even though she made these faces and I think even gagged once, she kept wanting more.  I only let her do it a couple of times.  There were definitely some people behind her glaring at me.  

Grandpa Danny is a civil war buff. He did reenactments for years. Apparently the Nashville area has lots of war history and sites to see.  So, he took us to Fort Negley

We were on our way home for a nap and passed a consignment store.  You know we had to stop.  I scored these super cute shoes from White House Black Market for $15!!

By the time the naps were done and we had eaten supper it was almost time for the birthday girl to go to bed.  We had a cake, but I didn't want her to get hyped up on sugar right before she laid down. So we postponed it to the next day (today.)  

This morning we got up and ate breakfast at Panera.  My daughter is such a clown.  I'm already anticipating the notes from her teachers telling me that she was disrupting class by sticking erasers in her nose.

I normally don't encourage her to stick food or the remains of food on her head, but this morning I thought "what the heck!"

We stopped at Target and we saw these boots.  There was no discussion.  We bought them

And finally the cake!  She didn't know what to do with it at first (of course that could have been fear, because as soon as we sat her down we all pulled out our cameras and cellphones.)  She looked at us like "what is getting ready to happen?"  She finally figured it out and dug in. We eventually had to take it away from her or she would have ate the entire thing.  *Yes, I know the cake isn't iced. We got too busy the day before to do it. Plus, remember she is doing this all again (and officially) next weekend*

The Push-Up Queen

No, not yet, but I will be in six weeks hopefully. And for all of you out there with the "dirty" minds, I'm talking about real push ups, you know the exercise kind.  I use to be in pretty good shape in college.  I could rock some push ups, bench pressed a small, but good amount for my size.  I was one of the only girls on the "guys side" of the gym.  The side with all the free weights that could for sure intimidate you if you didn't know what to do with them. I knew what to do with them...well, most of them any way.  All this to say, I've lost alot of my muscle.  I'm not saying I'm in horrible shape, but compared to my college years I've pretty much regressed.  Things have been crazy busy for oh, about....12 months (which I'm sure has absolutely nothing to do with Jesalyn...wink, wink).  And since, we are living on one paycheck for the moment, we really don't have the money for a gym membership.  I try to do what I can around the house.  I lift my dumbbells and do my squats and crunches when I get the chance, but I just don't have the time to get that "really sweaty, out of breath, man I feel so good" workout in.  I miss being in good shape, I miss my old skinny jeans.  And while, I haven't got the flappy skin when I wave on my arms yet, I did inherit my moms arms.  This is not a bad thing.  My mom has awesomely buff arms.  But with these arms come the responsibility of keeping them toned or they turn out just looking thick.  But I've got a plan.  While reading this months "Fitness" (thanks Sami for last years Christmas gift!) I came across a website:  www.hundredpushups.com that claims if you follow their plan, you can work your way up to doing 100 consecutive push-ups in just 6 weeks.  So, I'm going to test it out.  The first thing you do is an initial test.  You do as many push-ups that you can and then match it to the correct column and follow that column for six weeks.  My initial test resulted in 10.   Not great, but it could be a lot worse.  I'm talking about boy pushups, not girl ones and there was a time in my life when I couldn't even do one. Tomorrow, starts week one.  Check back in every so often to see how it goes.

Saturday Errands

So I'm super pumped about my Saturday off today.  Jarrod loves it too, because I have a full day planned for us.  He just loves it when I fill his Saturday full of errands and trips (can you hear the sarcasism dripping?)   So far on my list I have the farmers market if I can get all of us up and motivated.  I've been looking for a pottery coffee cup.  I have looked and looked for one for several years, ever since working at Sacred Grounds coffee in Edwardsville IL in college.  Yes, I know it's kind of crunchy of me, but I'm okay with that.  I just haven't found one that I'm in love with yet.  Next on the list, we need to head over to Target and get another baby gate for Jesalyn.  We bought some, but we need one that's longer heading into our kitchen. While at Target, I might just pick up some long-sleeved onsies.  She's got a couple that fit her, but it's fall now and she needs more people! Of course, we have to go to the grocery store.  I don't know how, but we never seem to have food, despite the fact that I visit the grocery store at least twice a week. I guess I just haven't become efficient in my grocery shopping yet. There are tons more that we need to do today but I won't bore you with the details any further. I will say this though, I can not get myself up and going in the morning without my special cup of coffee. Special, because I doctor it all up and make it yummy. Coffee is much much better with a little whip cream and a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice.  Have a mentioned that it's fall yet =)

Keep your clothes on please!

Jesalyn decided to wake me up at 5:30 this morning so I figured what better thing to do than post a blog. I mean, who needs sleep anyway right??  Actually, I guess she didn't wake up.  But I heard her crying on the monitor and did my best to just keep on sleeping.  But, after the whimpers turned into sobs, I couldn't handle it and went in to her room and woke her up thinking she would just fall back asleep.  I thought wrong!  She has decided she is up for the morning.  On a side note, does anyone else's child wake up screaming in the middle of the night?  Jesalyn has started doing this quite frequently the past 4 or 5 months.  She will be sound asleep and then she'll start crying while sleeping (like she's having a bad dream) and then she'll just start wailing.  It takes us like 20 minutes to get her calmed down.  It just breaks my heart to think she's having nightmares.
But, I'm getting off the subject.  So let me tell ya'll what my little sugar bee is doing lately.  Walking.  Have I mentioned that she is almost independently mobile?? She will now walk with us holding her hands and will even take 4 or 5 steps on her own.  I  have gotten it on video (for all of you that are thinking it) but I still haven't found/figured out  the software to put my video on the computer.  We bought her a walker and she loves it.  She thinks it's funny that she can walk on her feet like mom and dad.

We have started giving her some milk (instead of formula) the past couple of days, just to see how she does with it.  For those of you that aren't aware or haven't followed the blog from the beginning (...thanks for joining up now) Jesalyn had a really rough first 5 months.  I wasn't able to breastfeed, though I tried for 4 weeks through tears and frustration so we went with formula.  She was on just about every formula out there.  She would drink her bottle, and an hour later, like clockwork she would start crying and then one night it reached critical mass.  You can read it for yourself here. After that night, we found the miracle formula, aka Alimentum.   We are a little nervous about switching to milk after all we have been through.  The first day we gave her a little milk in a bottle and she did wake up crying that night, but I think she was just hungry.  Yesterday, we mixed some in with her cereal and gave her a little in a bottle and she did pretty good (minus waking up at the crack of dawn.)  And today, Jarrod has given her mostly milk so we'll see how tonight goes. Fingers crossed!!

And lastly, I'll try not to make this too long, she has learned to take off her diapers.  Well, one style anyway.  We use clothe diapers and for a while we couldn't decide which brand to go with so we decided to buy two different kinds and see how it went (if you really want to be an overachiever you can read the blog I wrote on that here.)  Let's just say we have a preference now.   The Fuzzi Bunz are far superior in our opinion. Why?  Because it snaps instead of velcros.  Who would of thought that little difference would make such a big deal. 

 Here's why you want snaps over velcro people!

Cuteness

Fall is here, and we're going to enjoy it!!

*Reader Beware:  this post contains several pictures.  So many, that there might be a point where you think they may not end....they do, I promise.  Continue at your own risk!*

As I said previously, just because I haven't been blogging does not mean it's due to lack of content.  The Pruitt family has been super busy.  I will get to that, but let me just get this out.....In 21 days, my little baby will be a year old.  One question; how did his happen?!? I find myself talking to customers that are pregnant or that have a newborn with them, and I'm trying to relate. I feel like saying "oh yeah, last month when I had my daughter..."  Except it wasn't last month, it was last year!!  I stand behind my statement that every stage she has gone through has been my favorite.  It's amazing to watch her little mind work when she's looking at something or trying to understand something. She's going to be a genius, I just know it =) 

Okay, I'll get to the pictures.

   

So, a couple of weeks ago we went back home to celebrate Jesalyn's great-grandparent's 50 anniversary.  50!!  Not too many couples can say that.  It was a good time seeing everyone and Jesalyn, in true style,  made lots of friends.  When she wasn't being passed around meeting family she hadn't met before, she was chillin' with mom and dad. 

Reading one of her favorite books with daddy.

Playing "peek-a-boo" with mommy                     

                                 

The Happy Couple: Grandma & Grandpa Pruitt

Since we were home, we had to take full advantage and visit Shreve's Pumpkin Patch.  That weekend just happened to be the first weekend.  Neither Jarrod nor I had ever been, but that's something you absolutely must do if you have child in Fairfield.  I think she had a good time.  I know, we did!


Holding still while Aunt Janel snapped her picture with the pumpkins

We played in the grass.  She wasn't sure about it at first, but soon ventured out and got her toes in it. 

Oh yeah...and tried to eat it too!


That was all in Illinois.  But that hasn't stopped us since we've been back in Tennessee. Oh no, the weather has been too nice.  There's something else we've learned of Jesalyn, besides her being a total socialite.  She loves being outside.  Days that it was too hot to go out, she would stand at the front door and press her hands and face to the window and just stare.  So, if you happened to drive by our apartment and see this taking place, I promise we weren't holding her captive despite the desperate look on her face.

This weekend we took a little drive to a place called Leiper's Fork.  We've heard how pretty the drive was and thought we would check it out on one of my days off work.  The drive was pretty, all hour and a half of it (okay, so I might be exaggerating a bit on the time, but only by a little.)  When we finally reached the half mile stretch of what looks to be an abandoned town filled with a cute little grocery and 4 or 5 artsy places, we stopped to take look around. 

She still hates wearing her hat, but I was able to snap this photo mid-pull. 

Today  we went to the park to take a walk and on the way home, I wanted to stop at Hobby Lobby to pick up some ribbon to make her some head bands.  Does she wear them?  Nope!  She can't stand them.  I know what your thinking.  "In the pictures of her at the pumpkin patch, she has a headband on."  Yes, that was a one time thing.  Seriously, I can't believe she had it on the entire day.  I don't know if she just forgot about it due to all the excitment going on, but after seeing her in it, I'm determined to make her wear them.  So we went and bought more =)  My plan is to put one on her everyday.  When she pulls it of in 2 seconds, I will put it back on and give her something to play with.  I don't expect this to work immediately but maybe, just maybe, over time.   I started this plan as soon as I could.  We had to stop at the grocery store on the way home and I jumped at the chance.  Isn't she adorable!!

 

And in case you need further proof that my child is a genuis, let me show you what she can do.

When you ask her the question "where is Jesalyn?"  this is what she does: 

                                     

....aaaannnnddd. done.  Congratulations! You made it through!!                          

I'm still alive

I'm still here.  The computer that has all of my pictures on it is currently sick, so I can't get on to upload photos for a new post.  But, that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.  Jesalyn has been doing so many things.  This is such a fun age.  I love seeing her experience things for the first time.  Here is a picture I took with my phone....just to wet your appetite.