First words... and more...

WARNING:  VERY LONG POST!!  I REPEAT... VERY LONG POST:-) 

Before I get carried away with a massive blog post, I want to wish my hubby a HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY (on the 2nd)!!!  I told him I can’t give him TOO much grief because I will be in the same boat next year... but I have to give him a LITTLE bit of grief for flipping over into a new decade, right?!  I had told Malea that Daddy’s birthday was coming up, and she must have been listening because the night before his birthday she gave him a very precious gift... she decided to say her first “real” word... “dada”... how fitting she would get it down just hours before his birthday!  I tried to get her to sing him happy birthday too, but that proved to be a little much for her 9 month old vocabulary:-)  

Well in the 4 days since daddy’s birthday, Malea has decided to rapidly expand her vocabulary!  Not to take anything away from her “first” word, I’d also like to mention that she is saying “mama” now too; )  She also says “bau” which we are still deliberating whether it means “bottle” or “ball”.  The cutest is when she sees a puppy.  We say “Malea there’s a puppy!  The puppy says “woof woof”!”  And then she tries to say woof woof, but it comes out as “pphhuu pphhuu” (yes that is my best effort at spelling what is coming out of her mouth: )  We have a pencil sketch of our dog, Sable, hanging up in our bedroom... this morning when I was getting ready, she was sitting on the floor pointing up at the picture saying “pphhuu pphhuu”... she is learning new things so fast it’s scary!  Among these words she is saying these days, she also just babbles a bunch of jibberish... but it cracks me up every time.  For instance, on the way to my folks’ yesterday, she was in her carseat just jabbering away, then she would laugh at herself, then jabber some more, then laugh at herself.  Made my day.

Here is a picture Joel took this weekend.  This is her “big cheese” as we like to call it.  When she gets SO excited that she squints her eyes, crinkles her nose, and sticks her tongue out all at once... when you see THIS face, you KNOW she’s happy...

Funny story "behind" this next picture (no pun intended)... I had this cute idea to sit my naked little peanut next to a few of her stuffed animals, and take a picture from the back.  Well, Joel managed to take 2 pictures before Malea decided to pee on the carpet!  HAHA!!  No I didn’t roll up a newspaper and paddle her like a puppy, I laughed it off, because let’s be honest, I had that coming!!  Joel actually predicted that would happen... I hate it when he’s right... good thing that doesn’t happen too often!! HAH!

On Valentine’s Day Joel and I decided to take little M to the Build a Bear Workshop to make a valentine bear for her 1st V-day. My good friend, Ashley, had gotten Malea a giftcard there, so what better time to use it! I had all sorts of valentine puppies and bears picked out, but every time we walked past one bear in particular, Malea would get so excited, squeal, and pump her arms and legs... so we decided on that one.  Cue the crazy purple bear in the above picture covered in hearts and peace signs: )  Fittingly enough, named “Valentine”. (Very original, right?! : )

And now a few videos I promised!  The first is of her crawling to the couch and pulling herself up like it’s no big deal.  She’s getting very brave.  The other day we were at my folks’ and my dad was laying on the floor next to her.  She pulled herself up on Papa, and was holding on to a ball.  At one point she took her other hand off of dad so she could grasp the ball with two hands, then she soon realized she was not holding on to anything so she quickly grabbed ahold of Papa’s shirt again.  But my goodness, she was standing independently!  What a big shot!

The 2nd video is of her clapping and giving me a five... She actually does 10 times better than the video, but wouldn't you know, as soon as that camera comes out she gets shy: )  I will work on getting some up of her saying words and playing peek-a-boo soon!!

So after going 9 months with a perfect bill of health, our poor little peanut had a few little bugs that we are thankful didn’t last long.  The first was a few weeks ago (the night of the 16th).  I didn’t feel the best myself, and a 24 hour bug had been going through my sister’s family, so I wasn’t surprised when I was playing with Malea that night and she threw-up all over me.  Thankfully she only got sick twice that night, then was doing quite a bit better by the following evening.  Then this past week she started getting a cold.  Thursday her cough had gotten significantly worse and she sounded really cruddy when she breathed, so after taking her to drop her off at Grammy’s, mom and I decided it would be best to take her in to get checked out.  Well $175 dollars, an RSV and Influenza test, and a look over by the doc later, we were on our way home with a little girl with a “bad cold and a lot of drainage in her throat”.  Thankfully that was all it was, and she seems to be doing much better.  She still has a few coughing spells and sounds a little hoarse from time to time, but all in all, she is definitely on the mend!  Mom and I were laughing at the doctor’s office because Malea doesn’t know how to “act sick”... you could tell she was miserable, but yet she was still trying to act happy.  I took the rest of the day off of work to take care of her, and honest-to God, the picture below depicts how she spent the majority of the afternoon.... just laying her head on mommy’s shoulder not wanting to do anything else.  Usually when she sees herself in the mirror she gets super excited and laughs and smiles... that afternoon was much different... since she felt so cruddy, she didn’t even raise her head off my shoulder.  Just gave herself a blank stare into the mirror and kept her head on my shoulder.  Poor little sweetie broke my heart!!

Malea also had her first experience seeing the animals on the farm.  It was a chilly day so we weren’t out for long, but here are a few pictures from her day on the farm.  She loved the cows and chickens, but was definitely unsure about the pigs... can’t say I blame her...

A few weekends ago I bowled in the “Bowl for Kids’ Sake” fundraiser with a group of gals from work... we had a hoot!!  The other South Slope team bowling next to us had much better scores, but we had way more fun; )  The theme for the bowling outing was “superhero bowl”, so our team wore superhero socks, bandanas, and eye-black... Cindy and I opted to wear our socks on our arms for a more dramatic cape effect.  LOL.  Enjoy the pics!!

 Wonder-Woman-Cindy : )

This was Cin and I striking our best superhero pose: )

Me and my girls, Menzea & Jami

Nolan, our oldest nephew, just celebrated his 2nd birthday... are you scratching your head wondering how my OLDEST nephew can only be celebrating his 2nd birthday considering I have 4 nephews?  Well let me explain: )  Nolan was a LEAP DAY BABY!!!  So even though this was only his second "true" birthday, he actually turned EIGHT: )  He had a lego-themed birthday... I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few I got.

And last but certainly not least, Malea's Auntie Amanda came home from TN over President's Day weekend for a quick visit, and we were so excited to see her!  She couldn't believe how much Malea has changed since she last saw her.  Here is a cute picture of the two of them.  Miss you Aunt Amanda!! 

Sorry for all of my rambling, but when I’m not able to get posts up as often as I’d like, I end up having to bombard you with massive posts to catch up instead!  As always, thanks for reading and GOOD NIGHT!!