Seventeen Months

Faye continues to grow and learn!  At seventeen months she is 33" tall, which has us very excited. She loves to read, dance, and count to "reeee" (three). Here's a few moments of Faye's fun as of late. 

 Grandma Lisa purchased 3 different sized collapsible stools for group pictures this summer.  Faye, and Tilly, LOVE them.  Faye will drag the stools around the house and cries for help if she can't open them on her own.

Faye had a rough month, a few days of fevers, vomiting, and then two ear infections to top it off.  Luckily popsicles help make sad babies feel better.  Faye is getting into the sharing game as of late and insisted on sharing her popsicle with Grandma Lisa and Alan

I can't get over how long Faye's hair is getting!  It's been so much fun to style, assuming Faye holds still long enough for me to work on it. 

 Faye and I are known to get stir crazy.  So to chase away our cabin fever we have visited the pet store!  Faye is fairly cautious around animals, but she was enthralled with seeing the cats at the pet store.

The New Do

Camille is a good friend of the Dudley family, she's practically an aunt to me.  Camille has been fighting cancer since June, and to our joy she is winning this battle!  In support of Camille I decided to shave my head along with a few members of the Calvert Clan. 

Drew was first in the hot seat.

Cole was kind enough to shave my head

Camille's group of baldies.  We love you, Camille!

Alan's New Job

Alan started a new job this week at  Fairchild Semiconductor.  He gets to work on a factory line cleaning wafers for microchips between processes for 12 hours at a time.  He's on a night shift schedule for the last half of the week, which is an adjustment for everybody.  Thus far things are going well, though, and we are so very grateful for this Job!

 The work floor is a dust free zone. As such, all workers must have an air blast kind of shower to get rid of any loose skin sells and other particles then suit up.  This is Alan's self portrait of his work gear.

New Trick

Where's the baby?

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

In attempts to find a solution to my pelvic pain, and since our first attempt failed in improving the condition, the doctor suggested the next two options:  taking a shot that would throw my body into temporary menopause, or laproscopic surgery. On the off chance that the pain wasn't being caused by edometriosis, Alan and I decided that surgery would be a more straight forward approach. So we got on the schedule for surgery, Alan took the day off to come to the hospital with me. 

Waiting for the doctor to finish delivering a baby.

 Along with the standard hospital gown, I was given a pair of socks to wear, which made me feel like a duck with my webbed feet, and a pair of leg compressors to promote blood flow during surgery.

The surgery went well, no complications or anything like that.  Unfortunately, though, the doctor didn't find any endometriotic tissue, or any other obvious source of the problem.  I woke up from the surgery to hear this news and started sobbing, which I'm still quite embarrassed about.  At this point we try to find a specialist who is on my insurance plan that might be able to identify the source of my pain. 

New Routine

Since the move Faye and I have had the chance to play with our friend Tilly a few days a week. Tilly is a year older than Faye, but the two girls are always excited to see each other and play well together.  Here's a glimpse into our new kind of fun:

 

Tilly's favorite game to play is Coloring!  Luckily sidewalk chalk offers all the fun of coloring but with a change of scenery. 

We go for wagon rides around the cul-de-sac....

 

Play with the soccer goal....

And swing!  We swing quite a bit.  The girls are very good at finding airplanes while we are swinging. They insist on waving to each airplane they see!  So much fun.

Quick Learner

I'm always amazed with how quickly Faye picks up on things and how much of a personality she has!  For instance, Faye knows what cake is and what cupcakes are and she will do everything and anything she can to get a hold of some delicious goodness, like climb onto the kitchen table, or pull down the table cloth so the cupcakes come to the edge of the table where she can reach.  Some days I just share with her, though, instead of making her work for it.

As most toddlers do, Faye seems to be able to make a toy out of any ordinary object.

She loves to play Peak-a-Boo with see through lids!

She proudly wears any ornament she can find.  Clearly she's ready to go earn one of her own!

One of her newest quirks is loving to watch movies up close.  We've put the flat screen out of Faye's reach by putting baskets of her toys in front.  Lately, though, Faye will simply climb into the laundry basket and watch her movie while sitting on top of her toys. 

Update

I apologize for the lack of news this month, things have been fairly busy around here.  Alan is back in school and still searching for a job, but with the hour long commute to and from campus he's gone for a good chunk of time every day.  I've been taking classes online as well as working three part time gigs and still doing the mommy thing.  Unfortunately I've let blogging sit in the backseat, but this is my public promise to do better with updating the blog more regularly! 

Let Them Eat Cake

Between work, school, and Fay i've found time to develop a new talent: cake decorating! What brought on this desire for a nerd to decorate cakes? I've been trying to find a way to bring in some extra money while staying at home with Faye. I never expected cake decorating to be so fun or addicting, though. It's my new stress reliever! The moment I finish taking my quizzes for the week I'm in the kitchen baking. Here are a few of my creations:

 

The obligatory "Hello World" cake.

 In addition to cakes, I've been working on cupcake and mini bundt skills, as well. 

 

 Sorry for future cake posts!

14 Months

My baby is definitely a toddler now. At fourteen months she has FIVE teeth, insists on feeding herself, her vocabulary includes "puppy, hi, dez (please)" and she's close to adding "airplane" to the list. Faye loves to sing and dance. Ring-around-the-rosy has become a favorite game as of late. She's been sleeping through the night for about a month now! Hooray!  Here's a glimpse into our happenings.

Alan's not a big fan of self feeding since it means a large mess, but I think Faye looks pretty cute with red sauce everywhere.

Faye's been to a few of Uncle Reed's soccer games lately, she has her very own ladybug chair to sit in thanks to Grandpa Kelly!

Trips to the park are a must.

Unfortunately being back in school means there's days when Faye watches TV while I do homework.  Luckily the Grinch, Dinosaur, and Blanket keep her company.

She loves playing with Grandma and Uncle Reed, and they love playing with her, too! We're so lucky to have them around to help.

Gavin

Gavin belongs to my friend, Kelli, and her husband.  Kelli was kind enough to let me practice taking pictures with her little boy, who, coincidentally, just turned one in August!  We packed up the two tots and headed up to Wheeler Farm for some rustic scenery.  I'm quite pleased with how the pictures turned out and thought I'd share a few of my better moments with him.

 

 What's a trip to the farm if you can't have fun checking out all the animals?  Gavin and Faye were both fascinated with the chickens.  I found this particular specimen to be quite humerus.

 

Thanks for all the fun, Kelli!  Your baby boy sure has grown to be a charmer.

Roughest-Toughest Cowgirls

I had the fun opportunity to take pictures of Cambrie and McKenzie again last week.  Annette and Leesa arranged for the girls to wear their new western gear and be out at a family member's ranch.  This is the first time I've shot people riding horses; definitely a learning experience!  Even so, it was a lot of fun and I think we got some fun shots.

Thanks for always letting me practice with your girls, Annette!