New House

We have moved! We moved everything from the old house last Saturday and stayed at the new house as well. I LOVE it and am so glad to be in. Mike misses his old house but he will come around! Some may not know but Mike bought our old house right out of high school and fixed it up and remodeled it himself, he was/is very proud of that house and that he saved the money to do it himself at such a young age. That house was his baby so he is a little sad to leave it but he loves the new house too and all the hard work he put into it. Shelby loves the new house too and I don't think it has phased her a bit to live there. THe dog however doesn't like it yet! We have been taking her to the old house to put her up on her chain during the day so she can run in the grass, etc...well she usually runs to the door to go inside! We have almost everything put away already. We still have to move the old garage stuff but we are not in a big hurry for that. Maybe some this weekend. I will try and get some pictures up soon!

"School"

Shelby started daycare this week, we call it school because that is what she understands it to be. She only goes 2 days a week right now, Monday's and Thursday's. I think mawmaw is excited to have a break and be more of a grandma! PawPaw on the other hand, you would think we have ripped his right arm right off his body (Shelby is a major PawPaw's girl!)! haha. But we all agree it is good for her to be around other kids her age and to start learning things that we aren't very good at teaching her! I was afraid that she would try and cling to me when I dropped her off on Monday but she did really good. She acted a little hestitant at first but one of her teachers came and took her by the hand and lead her in and that was it, she was fine! Me on the other hand, not so much! I have NEVER cried when leaving Shelby, ever, even at 3 months old. But it hit me this is the first time I have ever left my baby in the care of strangers. She has never had babysitters other than the grandparents. I knew she would be ok but it was still scary! When I went to get her around 4:30 on Monday I watched her in the window for a few minutes to see what they were doing and they were having circle time, where all the kids are supposed to sit on a big rug and they read or have learning time or something, Shelby was sitting quietly (shocking I know!), then she got up and got a tissue and went back. Her sheet said she seemed to have a good day and played well with the other kids and she ate almost all of her lunch and snacks. But when she seen me, it was time to GO, she ran out the door to the car! When I took her this morning, they have them wash their hands when they first get there and while she did that I signed her in and I said BYE and she ran over gave me a kiss and said BYE and ran over the play. In other Shelby news, she is going to start speech therapy next week, she has her evaluation at DMH next Friday. Her pediatrician says that what she is doing now is not normal. She does not close her lips to form sounds or letters like P, M, B, etc... Her please sounds like wease, drink like wink. So the fact that she says some words but not correctly or is leaving sounds out or substituting a letter for another letter is not normal for her age. Some of that is normal for her age group but not what she is doing they say. And she is still very delayed for her age. She also still talks in a lot of baby babble or some foreign language we have never heard of! lol We are hoping that the speech therpay will help with her anger as well. She had her 2 1/2 year checkup last Friday and she is 35 pounds and 37" tall! We did have a bit of a traumatizing day however, she got her immunization, but then had to go to DMH to get a lead level test done for daycare. They DREW BLOOD out of her arm for this and she was NOT happy about it. She has never had blood drawn before and she screamed NOOOOOOO when they did it! And she did not like the bandaid on her arm either and insisted it be taken off! But Grammy came down to help us out and got her a rice krispy treat out of the vending machine so it was all better after that and she got a happy meal on the way home to make it all better!

The Girls

Dad snapped this picture of the four of us watching TV on mom and dads bed. Yes my father is surrounded by LOTS of estrogen! lol

(mom, me, shelby, kimberly)

Fun in the sun

We are back from Myrtle Beach and we had a blast! The plane rides were good, the first one from Bloomington to Atlanta was a little rough but Shelby was tired and she cried off and on and then crashed about 10 minutes before we landed. On the first flight home we hit some bad turbulence and people were screaming on the plane, luckily it was short lived! Mike swears he is never flying again, he was petrified! We actually came up out of the seat the plane dropped so bad. Shely LOVED the beach and the ocean. She ran straight into the water and we had to stay by her side the whole time. A wave would come knock her down and she would get up and run straight back into it! I took her out into the waves once and we "rode the waves" and she just cracked up. We had such a blast and it was fun having my cousins and their kids there as well. Even though we didn't spend a whole lot of time together, but it was still fun to see everybody. Okay sorry for the picture overload. But here they are and this isn't even all of them

For those that don't know, my dad was stationed at the air force base in Myrtle Beach when him and my mom got married and I lived there for the first 2 years of my life. The base is now closed. So we spent a few hours one day driving around the old base, which is totally different now and driving around where we used to live and where mom used to work, etc... My aunt and uncle also live in Myrtle Beach

At the Bloomington Airport, Shelby was fascinated by all the airplanes

Shelby's first steps on the beach!

This was Grammy's favorite spot!

Shelby and Grandpa

At Broadway at the Beach, which is a big shopping center place and they had this big pond that you can feed the catfish and ducks, Ripley's aquiriam and Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood and Margaritaville is also here.

This splash pad was at Broadway at the Beach too

Daddy gave shelby some quarters in case we seen a candy machine at Broadway at the beach

One night we went to eat at a place Uncle Steve was playing at and listened to him play a little, Shelby and Grandpa danced!

This was our condo building, we were on the first level and it was right on the beach, which was really nice

Shelby and Bradey (Dayna's son)

Silly Shelby!

Malia wanted in on the action too, Malia and her Papa Dad

Three of us cousins, Dayna, me and Barbie

Mom and Bradey, he loves everybody! Stranger or not!

Grandpa hanging out on the beach

In the waves, when a wave would come we would lift her up over them and she thought it was hilarious

The morning we left, we went for one last walk on the beach

"Footprints in the Sand" Beautiful Here is a little video dad did on his camera

Chores

Chores...ahhh, we all probably had to do them as children to get our allowance or JUST because our parents said so! haha Well Shelby has her first chore and it is by HER choice! Shelby feeds the dog now. Of course I have to be right there usually because sometimes she spills or drops the cup full of dog food all over the kitchen floor or living room floor. BUT I CANNOT help her, nope, she INSISTS on doing it herself, she will shove me out of the way to beat me to the dog food so she can do it! If I do manage to fill the cup full of dogfood myself, she will try and grab it away from me so SHE can dump it in Emma's food bowl! She is so funny. Occasionally the dog food ends up in Emma's water bowl too, that isn't cool! She also has to tell Emma now that she has food! Take this morning for example, Emma was laying down on the porch and Shelby filled her bowl up with food and she went over to Emma, yelled something to her in Shelby language and pointed to her food bowl!

Luckily Emma is very good with Shelby and very patient with her. Shelby loves Emma and also likes to boss her around and tell her what to do! We do have to remind her a lot to be gentle with Emma and not lay on her or pull on her fur.

I keep telling her she is awfully bossy for a 2 year old! Oh what my future holds!

This is Shelby and Emma in April of 2007

Shelby and Emma last winter

Relay for Life

I am participating in the Macon County Relay for Life this Friday. It is always exciting to participate in this event. I participate with the Job's Daughters. I think it is so important to try and find a cure for cancer, it is such a terrible, awful thing. I am walking for many people who were close to me that have died of cancer; Aunt Judy, my great grandmother Nanny, Jim Cooper and many others. I think it would be nearly impossible to say that you have not been affected by cancer in some way shape or form.

Many people do not realize that the Relay for Life is an all night event. This is to simulate a person going through cancer treatment. In the beginning you are excited about getting cured, then as time goes on you get weak and tired but you keep going. The energy at the Relay for Life in incredible.

If you want to donate to our team you still have time! Go to http://www.relayforlifemaconcounty.com/. Go to "donate to a team" search for Job's 49'ers. It is such a great cause and it is tax deductible.

4th of July and more

4th of July has come and gone. We hope that everything had a good one. We went to Harristown's 4th of July celebration. Mom and dad came out and we parked their truck on old route 36 and put blankets in the back of the truck and watched the fireworks like that. They were actually pretty good this year. Shelby was memorized. I have never seen her sit in one spot for that long EVER! She clapped and put her hands on her cheeks and her eyes were as big as saucers, it was great! Shelby is VERY hard to get up during the week when I have to go to work. Unfortunately she is a lot like me in that I hate mornings, I hate getting up and I hate being woke up and I like to wake up slowly. I took this picture about 15 minutes after trying to get her up for the day! I am sure she will be a joy when she starts school someday! We are also now excited because our cousins, Barbie, Michael and their two boys and Elizabeth and her daughter are now ALL going to Myrtle Beach and one of my other cousins and her family are coming from PA too!! YAY. I can't wait to just chill on the beach and watch the kids play in the sand. My cousins and I grew up really close so it is fun to see our kids grow up together now. Just as long as we don't get kicked off the plane for a screaming out of control child! lol This will be Shelby first vacation and first time to the beach so we are really excited.

On other Shelby news, she still isn't saying a lot of real words but she has been saying more. Please tell my why she can and will say basketball (3 syllables) but won't say anything else!! lol EVERYTHING is mama and dadda or mommYYYY or daddYYYYYY. I am sure most people find it annoying but I LOVE it. I think it is great. I waited A LONG time to hear those words come out of that toe heads mouth! I will take it. She says it over and over and over and over again. I just tell her yes, Daddy is at work on the choo choo train or wherever. Or what do you want mama to do. She is trying to say drink and please, more like WEEEEEZZZZZ. Cute none the less. She is till very behind for her age but we are getting there, we will probably do some speech therapy this fall but I am confident it won't take much. It is obvious that she has some trouble forming words with the lips and tongue. She rarely closes her lips for sounds. for mama, she tucks her bottom lip in under her top front teeth. She is very bright though. She will put all of her shapes (about 9) in the shape sorter by herself will Little helping. She will look at the shape, look at the holes and look again and again until she finds the right one. I am pretty sure she knows most of her colors and she will try and count with her fingers (since she doesn't talk). We had her hearing tested, just to make sure she could hear clearly (not that she could hear), before we did any speech therapy. All of those tests came back fine, she still goes to see the ENT at the end of the month just to double check there is no fluid in her inner ears. She also likes to sing along with the radio!

She is also VERY ANAL, which drives people crazy. The only thing that bugs me is with her, is her food. Everything has to be separated and she will spend half the meal making sure her ketchup doesn't touch her food. She will have a pure meltdown if it does or you put the ketchup ON her fries. Everything has to be lined up in a row and her toys have to be just right. She isn't necessarily tidy but when playing with certain things it has to be JUST right or we have a problem. I have no clue where she gets this from!!! Probably a little from both of us. I have anxiety if my house is out of order!

Hope everyone has a good rest of the summer!