Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks...

Or how about two hot dogs, two bags of chips, peanut M&M’s, nachos, a bbq sandwich and a RC cola. And Derrick had a cheeseburger. I was HUNGRY and the peanuts and cracker jacks weren’t gonna cut it. Neely Jo’s first baseball game. She looked similar to a hoot owl. She big eye-balled everything in total amazement.

And then she passed out. Maybe next time we will try to get some cheering in for the home team. After we eat, of course. Go Spartans!

The Sickies

We had BIG plans for this weekend…my cousin Becky’s wedding! Derrick and I took off work on Friday, we were heading to my parents, and then heading to Columbus for the special event. I have been looking forward to this wedding FOREVER! I actually bought Neely Jo’s dress before she was even born. Just so we are clear on my feelings, there was no way I was missing this wedding. Enter the sickies. It hit Neely Jo Wednesday night. The sniffles. The coughs. The snots. Just all over sickies. Thankfully, she doesn’t have a fever but she is just pitiful. I waited until the last minute thinking that maybe I could just drive straight up to Columbus on Saturday morning but it just didn’t happen. And I know that it is probably best that I didn’t go. She would have been passed around like a hot potato and ended up with something worse. But I still was grouchy (major understatement) all day Saturday because I was so disappointed we weren’t there. I think Neely Jo was, too.

Derrick took advantage of the beautiful weekend weather and did some yard work (more on that later) and us girls just curled up in bed and watched movies. Derrick was a tad jealous. Especially when he found out we had matching socks.

The Avocado Exorcist

When I was pregnant Derrick and I had all these ideas about how everything was going to go down. Neely was going to sleep in our room in a crib for the first four weeks and then she was going to move into the nursery and sleep in her crib in there. Yeah right. Neely Jo has probably spent a total of 25 minutes in both cribs combined. She wakes up every single time we try to sneak her into a crib. If we are lucky, we might be able to put her in the swing. For the most part she sleeps in the middle of the bed. Totally not the way I had thought it was going to happen. I had also planned on breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months. Well, I have to go out of town in a couple of weeks and I have no idea how in the hee-haw I am going to get enough to feed the little bug. We decided to go ahead and start her on food two weeks early which was today. We are trying to skip rice cereal all together and opted for avocados. In my mind I pictured Miss Neely Jo loving it. Gulping it down. Everybody says they just eat a little in the beginning but I figured she would be more like a pig on slop. I was thinking my baby girl was going to be an overachiever with the food seeing how she is my daughter, and Mama loves to eat.


Imagine the scene from the Exorcist. You know, green mess flying all over. That was us. She liked it at first but round two was a whole different story. It was so bad we stopped taking pictures so we could capture some of it on video. We did get a couple of good ones before she started flailing around. And of course the dogs were extremely interested...

Can We Get a Parenting Class, Please?

Our latest lesson in parenting came today. We woke up this morning and it was beautiful outside. Forecast 69 degrees and sunny. We thought to ourselves, “Let’s load up and take Neely Jo to the park.” And so we did.

1. Even if you think your 5 ½ month old would be interested in watching you feed ducks, they really aren’t. You just end up stepping in duck poo for no good reason.

2. When you pull up at the park and see the other children (who are about 4-5 years old) wearing their Carhartt coveralls, you should turn around and go home. The Bailey Boys sleeveless dress with matching bloomers is probably not the best choice for the season. No matter how cute you think it is.

3. If you have a baby stroller with some of those nice iBaby speakers for your baby, you should make sure your iPod is already set to something appropriate for the park and your child. Nobody wants to hear you strolling around to Run DMC singing “It’s Tricky”.

4. Even if your baby did have colic and she still likes to be bounced around 24/7 and she screams when you put her in the stroller unless you make it jerk around and do some rough riding on the gravel, there is no need to be so obvious about it. Nothing worse than people thinking you are playing Evel Knievel with your baby.

5. Make sure all the cars door are shut before you decide it’s a good time to nurse. And don’t holler and draw attention to yourself if they aren’t.