Polka dots!

Shelby's room has stripes in it, while Joey's has polka dots. Shelby has told me several times that she doesn't want the "stripe room" anymore, she wants Joey's polka dots. In lieu of switching all the furniture around, I decided that for her birthday this year we'd have a polka dot party, and hopefully that would pacify her polka dot obsession for a while.

I think I have finally learned not to go too overboard for birthdays. I tried to keep it pretty low key this year, so we just had our neighbors over for swimming and snacks. The few details there were though, I did try to make special. For example, we had "polka dot" food. Everything we had was circle shaped.

Polka dot fruit salad


Crackers and cheese



Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches


And of course, cupcakes.


We also had cheez balls (Per Shelby's request- she saw them on Alvin and the Chipmunks), Skittles, and Reeses Pieces.

I made a polka dot banner for Shelby. Darn wind kept blowing it around, so here is the best picture I could get of it.


Shelby wore a polka dot cover up and bathing suit.


Joey even had her polka dots on.


Of course we had polka dot party favor bags, filled with Dots candy and polka dot colored sidewalk chalk.


The kids had a great time playing on the water slide. Shelby has so much fun with her friends, and luckily, they all live on the same street!





"Blue Steel"


Shelby was pretty tired after the party. I think she had a good time.


P.S. I don't know what's up with our Kodak software. It won't let us edit any images.

Warning

The image you are about to see is very disturbing.



This is what I found in our bathroom yesterday. A baby Black Widow spider. I had Joey in her bouncy seat on the floor, Shelby in the bathtub, and I was in the shower. I stepped out, picked up my towel, and went to the sink to grab my hairbrush. My spidey sense went off and I turned around, and there, on the rug outside the shower, I spotted the most creeptastic looking spider. Ok, maybe not the MOST creeptastic. That title belongs to the tarantula we found outside the garage last year. Anyway, I knew instantly what kind of spider it was. The hourglass shape was very visible. I tried to get a picture of it on my phone, but it came out pretty blurry, and I didn't want to sit there taking picture after picture and risk it running after one of us.

I have to say I think I handled the situation like a pro, especially compared to the other day when I went outside to water the herbs and a spider ran out from the flower pot. I calmly got some toilet paper and let it crawl onto it. Then I flushed that bad boy. A couple of times. I am still scared to use that bathroom though. If this was a BABY black widow, where's it's mama? And is she plotting some sort of revenge on me for flushing her child?

I called the bug guys this morning.

Father's Day

Yesterday we had a great day. I woke up early and made Jeremy Bananas Foster French toast. It was delicious.



Ok, so this is not my picture, and mine probably didn't turn out looking as spectacular, but it really was good. So good that we came home from church and ate the leftovers for lunch. :) If you're ever looking for a good, fast breakfast recipe, google Paula Deen's Bananas Foster French Toast.

Then last night, the missionaries came over for dinner. We had roast beef AND fried shrimp poboys, french fries, and potato salad. For dessert: trifle. Mmmmmm....trifle. Heaven in a bowl. Jeremy was SUPPOSED to take the leftover trifle to work today so that I wouldn't be tempted to devour the rest of it. He didn't. I did.

After dinner we went outside and played with bubbles and the soccer ball with the boys next door. We really are blessed to have such great neighbors. Shelby has lots of friends in the neighborhood, so it is nice that we can just all hang out in our yards and play together.

I hope Jeremy had a great Father's Day. He really is a great dad. He is so cute when he holds Joey and talks to her, or when he takes Shelby out for special "fun days" so that I can have a break. I love you, Jeremy!

The Rest Of The Trip...

Back to our trip...

The Wednesday after Memorial Day, we all checked out of our hotel in Slidell and headed North. My parents and sisters went to Corinth to visit my oldest brother and his family, while we went to Hattiesburg to introduce the newest great-grandchild. It was nice to get to spend time with Mamaw and Papaw, as well as Nana and Daddypaw. (Note: Shelby gets so confused with all the names. She calls my parents "Grandma" and "Grandpa", Jeremy's parents "Nana" and "Daddypaw", and her great-grandparents "Mamaw" and "Papaw". Since she had just spent a few days with my mom and dad, she was still in "Grandma and Grandpa" mode, so that's what she was calling everyone. I guess we should be thankful she has so many family members to get confused!)







After a couple days in Hattiesburg it was time to go home. On our way we stopped through Bastrop to introduce Joey to Jeremy's other grandparents. We had a great visit with Mamaw and Papaw. Hopefully we can visit again soon and spend a bit more time with them.





We had such a good time visiting with all our family, but it had been a long week and I knew Shelby was ready to be home. In fact, she kept telling us, "I want to go to our house!". We got home late Friday night, and even though we don't have the best mattress in the world, it sure felt great that night!

2 Months - Updated

Joey had her 2 month checkup today. She weighs 12 pounds 7.5 ounces, and is 22 inches long. That puts her in the 90th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. Her pediatrician says she is absolutely perfect and that we are doing an awesome job. (I love our pediatrician. He does wonders for your self-esteem after dealing with a cranky 2 (almost 3!) year old.)

Speaking of cranky 2 (almost 3!) year olds, Shelby is finally getting her 2 year molars. In all honesty, and I feel REALLY bad for this...I didn't even know she didn't even have all of her teeth yet. She was complaining yesterday about her mouth hurting, and said that she had been hit in the mouth by another child in nursery at church. Then I noticed a small amount of blood, but thought it was just because she had been messing with her mouth and figured she just scratched the inside of her cheek, or bit it, or something. She complained about it again this morning, so I looked, and sure enough, her two year molars are coming in on both sides on the bottom. Pobrecita.

2 Months

Joey is now 8 weeks old (as of yesterday). I was going to blog about her last night, however, Joey had other plans. She decided to freak out at 7:30, and screamed bloody murder until almost 10 pm. I almost took her to the ER because it was such horrible wailing- like she was in pain. Actually, we think her lotion might be irritating her skin, because she started that last night as soon as I put her lotion on her after her bath, and she did the same thing tonight as soon as Jeremy started putting her lotion on her. We'll switch lotions tomorrow and see if she does it again.

Aside from those two anti-lotion moments, Joey is a fantastic baby. She eats like a champ and sleeps really well. At night, she will typically take a nap at about 9 pm, then wake up around 11 and we'll change her diaper and feed her again, and then she'll sleep from around 12 - 7 am. Every couple of nights she'll wake up around 4am for a feeding.

I don't have her 2 month stats yet because her appointment is not until Monday, but I can't wait to see how much she weighs. As I said, she is a great eater and she is plumping up quite nicely, just as Shelby did. Also, just as Shelby did, she is starting to lose her hair. Sad. Remember how by 6 months Shelby looked like an 80's punk rocker with hair only on half of her head? Yep, Joey is headed down that same path. At least I know that it will (hopefully) grow back quickly like Shelby's did.

Since during the chaos that was Joey's blessing day we forgot to get pictures of just Joey by herself, we put her in her blessing gown today and got a few pictures. This is Joey at 8 weeks (and 1 day):





And I had to include this one from tonight. What a happy girl. Love her smile!



And to cap off this post, I had to include pics of Shelby. These pictures are the result of being bored one night and having an extra roll of crepe paper on hand. Look at how she poses. What a diva.

NOLA

We couldn't wait to move from Louisiana when we lived there. We just knew it was not the best fit for us in terms of where we wanted to raise our kids. However, we loved our neighborhood- being just a block-and-a-half from the levee, our ward, our friends and coworkers, the FOOD, and all the fun eccentricities that make NOLA what it is. So the next two days of our trip were spent getting our "fix" of as many of those things as we could.

Fist on the agenda...SNOBALLS. There is nothing like a New Orleans Snoball. They are pure, sugary, HEAVEN. Snoballs are different from snoCONES in that it is shaved ice, not crushed. When I say shaved ice, I mean, it is like snow. It is so soft and fine. Then there is the syrup. Most places pour just enough sryup on to cover the ice. Snoballs have so much syrup on them that you can get a good 45 second slurp through a straw and still have plenty of syrup left. If you are a glutton like I am, you also get your snoball "stuffed" with soft serve ice cream. Since we were staying on the northshore we hit up Southern Delights. This was actually the first place I was ever lucky enough to taste the goodness that is snoballs, so it was perfect that we go there for our wonders from Heaven. I got half wedding cake, half cream cheese, stuffed. Sweet Buddha I can taste it now.




From what we have heard from others, Dallas has a great aquarium. We have yet to experience that. Oh we have been there...but we left after an hour because it was more packed than Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras Day. Horrible. Honestly I could not breathe in the place. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I am sure the fire code was broken that day. ANYWAY, so while we were in New Orleans, I really wanted to take Shelby to the aquarium. Even though she was too scared to pet the sting rays, I think she had a great time.





And of course we had to hit up the French Quarter- St. Louis Cathedral, beignets, pralines (which I didn't get a picture of because I ate them too fast).







One of the best parts of the trip, aside from seeing family, was my visit with my coworkers. We had a surprise baby shower for my friend, Casey, who is due in a few weeks. (Side note: My coworker, Ellen, had her baby girl in February, I had Joey in April, and now Casey is due soon. Fun!) I really enjoyed lunch with them and wish I could have visited with them longer.

Name and a Blessing

This past week was great. Long and tiring, but great. It all started with "The Princess and the Frog". My sister took her kids to see the movie, and it made them miss New Orleans, so they decided to take a trip. I then told them they should do it Memorial Day weekend, because I would still be on maternity leave and we could go with them. Then my parents and two other sisters and one of my brothers joined in and we ended up having a mini-McGrath reunion. It was so fun!

To start off the week, we had Joey's blessing at the Slidell Ward on Sunday. In our church, we don't do baptisms until the age of 8. We do have blessings. This is where the baby's name is given for the records of the church and the baby is given a blessing. So Jeremy gave Joey a blessing, and all of my brothers-in-law and my dad were able to stand in the circle, and my brother held the microphone. Jeremy gave Joey a beautiful blessing, although I feel like I don't remember half of it since I was focused on Shelby, who had snuck away and walked up on the stand to get a better look at what was going on.