Life in pictures

Just some shots of life over the past week or so...
xo

Smiles and more smiles

Today was great. She just wouldn't stop smiling. It really helps when it feels like life has you by the balls!

Buddies

Sam and Viv are becoming best buds. It's really sweet to watch. He has finally accepted that this drooling, grinning, little person, who charges at him full speed while screaming at the top of her lungs, isn't going anywhere. He takes a lot. A. LOT. I have visions of them sleeping together when she's older, and Sammy running up to her to get scraps from the table. Oh wait, he's not a dog!

They can't all be good

This was not the best of days, certainly not for Vivienne, and well, for us either. I know we are about 3 weeks behind, but Vivi had her one year checkup today. All systems are go! Perfect. Healthy. She continues to be, how did the doc put it..., "off the infant chart". Quite literally, she's 100%, which doesn't mean straight A's. It means, you are enormous and you don't fit on our percentage scale! Her doctor came in and seriously said, "Well Vivienne, you're right on track! No one will beat you up in school -- you'll be the tallest one!" I knew something was up when the nurse gasped as she was measuring her height. Is 33 inches that long for 12 months? Anyway, MAJOR tangent. Sorry.

The horrible part where I wanted to break down and completely lose my mind, was when it was time to have her blood drawn. Seriously, it is not okay to physically hold down your child while they are putting a needle in her arm to find a vein and draw blood. Routine testing? More like, EXTREME TORTURE! Thank god Mitch came over to meet us for this final part, because this was definitely a two person job. To top it off, she had just come from getting her immunizations, where I had to pin her down on the table as she screamed bloody murder while getting poked 3 times. I never knew 10 seconds could seem like 10 millennium, or that the sight of disease containing needles aimed at my child could make me so nauseated! Tangent alert: I truly think that they should make a separate waiting room for the poor babies and kids that have to listen to someone like Vivi get their shots right before they go in themselves. The look on this one poor little boy's face as we exited the exam room was so horrifying. And his parents looked at me like, what the hell are they doing in there? Skinning people alive? I mean, they should think about this dynamic.

Needless to say, it was rough. I've never seen Vivi look so sad. She's had immunizations before, but this time was just rough. The blood draw was the icing on the cake. The rest of her day was much better, when two of her favorite people (Auntie Andilene and Uncle Jeff) came over to cheer her up. I was even able to remove her little bandages in the bath without her even noticing. I'm off to bed now, where I will be watching the monitor every five minutes for her chest to rise and fall. It's gonna be a long night...

Then and Now

I've been using my Mister's computer the last two days cause he's gone and fixed mine up! (Thank you computer genius at Sequoia High School). He had these two pictures on his desktop and I can't stop staring at them. O. M. G. She really has grown. Viv at 6 months, and Viv at 12 months. Is she not the most beautiful thing ever?

Look out world...

Here she comes! I can't believe it, she just keeps getting bigger. I'm sure there will be many pictures of her on this bike.

More party pictures

I thought I'd just share some of the gift pictures, not to display what Vivi got. Um, no. Look at her face though! She literally understood and was clapping and "Yea'ing" the crowd every time. And, Mommy was just a little excited about her vintage style red baby piano...

The party!

The party was a success, and Vivienne was very happy and adored -- two things I wanted for her on this special day. We were so lucky to have people from out of town make the drive. Every person in her immediate family was there, and then some! She ate up all the attention, and I'm telling you, I looked at her several times thinking "Who the hell is this child?!" She would pan the crowd every time she would open a gift and then start the applause with a "Yea!". She never once had a meltdown. NOT. ONCE. She had the room in hysterics! She played with her cousin Marley non-stop, and I barely saw her in the beginning part of the party, as she wanted to be with everyone. Unfortunately, since I was participating in the cake smash, I do not have any pictures of it. I'll have to get some from my dad. She loved smashing her cake though, but NOT eating it. Not one bite (which is probably a good thing, because seeing as it was my first time baking a cake, it was ROCK HARD). It was a glorious sunshiny day, and we were finally able to use our backyard that Mitch has been so relentlessly working his butt off on. It wasn't (and isn't) finished, but we didn't care. It's gorgeous! What a great day, celebrating Tootie. All I wanted was for her to feel loved and I think my mission was accomplished...

Labor Day with Sammy

It was a filled to the brim holiday weekend, with Vivi's first birthday party, and lots of BBQ with friends (in our own backyard as well!). Birthday pictures and details to come. It was a hoot, and my girl a major ham.

Channeling 15 years from now...

Day: 365

Vivienne turns one today, at 10:10 pm. I plan on having a shot of Maker's Mark, while eating my frozen pizza dinner, and making about a zillion Pom-Pom things for her birthday celebration on Saturday. Maybe I'll go crazy and have two shots! We survived one year, after all. One year! It has flown by. I feel like I blinked and she turned into this red-headed, almost walking, very opinionated, super lovable and sweet-hearted, ONE YEAR OLD!

Note to Vivienne:

Dear Vivi,

I cannot believe we made it this far. There were times, right after you were born, that I couldn't fathom this day ever getting here. Those sleepless, postpartum nights feel like a lifetime ago. Everyone said it would fly by, and it did. I wish I could go back and do it all over again. Every painstaking minute of it. You have changed our lives completely, and there is no way I could ever imagine life the way it was before you arrived. Your daddy and I spent last night reminiscing your birth and looking at your year in photos (which I really wanted to have as a slide-show on here, but time got away from me). You were so small! You were the most adorable newborn we have ever laid eyes on. My GOD you were so freaking cute! Absolutely perfect!

Vivi, you are a pretty cool baby. Seriously, I think you're going to be an amazing kid and person. I can't wait to get to know you more. This last month has been a little hard for me, with leaving work and dealing with some mental health stuff, but I want you to know, none of that has anything to do with you. I am so utterly in love with you, and so confident in my choice to stay home with you. What a privilege! I was just telling Daddy last night that it will be so fun when you are a little older and we can go through series of books together. You love books! You also love telling Mommy what to do these days. It cracks me up (when it doesn't completely scare the hell out of me). You get your feelings hurt very easily sometimes, and love everything to be in order (a little OCD), but I have to say, you come by it naturally! I get to experience all these little things with you and I can't think of a better life than that.

We've recently almost finished our backyard (thank you Uncle Courtney!), and you've been motoring around on the lawn, exploring, and playing with your water toys. You are a very tactile baby and you absolutely adore water. It makes your day complete when you can splash around and get wet. You're almost walking! One of your favorite things to do is use our hands as your walker and walk around and check things out. You can take little steps barely holding on, and your balance is almost there! You've got some serious action going on in your mouth these days. There are about 4 teeth all trying to burst their way out of your gums right now -- not fun. I promise you will love having teeth though. Think of all the things you'll be able to eat! Blackberries are the new crack:

You have a doctors appointment at the end of September to get all of your shots and blood work, all the one year old stuff, and we'll find out what you weigh these days. All I know is you are HEAVY. VERY. HEAVY. And you love being held and cuddling. You're a lover with a givers heart (quoting your Nono). It's true, Toots. Sammy has figured this out, and you both have taken to cuddling with each other which is just unbelievably heart melting. Daddy has been missing you tremendously lately, as he just went back to work after a whole summer with you. It's been hard on him. I can't imagine a Daddy that loves their baby more than yours loves you. You are one lucky girl.

Well, Vivienne, I should wrap this up, as I could go on forever writing about all of the things that make you, you. We love you, love you, love you! Bring on Year 2! You are the best thing we ever did.

Love,

Mommy

The new game

This is what we do now at least THREE THOUSAND times a day. Vivi crawls to her room quickly, as I pretend to not be catching up with her. She rushes to close the door on me, as I knock incessantly for her to "let me in, please!", wherein she finally opens the door with a huge smile, and then the whole thing starts over again.

Oh, the life.