OC FAIR

What a difference two years can make! Note the changes...



My apologies to Cody, Alivia, and my better looking face for making the last picture particularly less attractive. Note to self: never, never lean back your head for a photo. Never. Especially when you have lingering baby fat.

2 Months!!

Yes - time flies when you are having fun with a sweet little one. Our baby girl is 2 months old today (ok, just 8 weeks today and 2 months on the 28th)! These photos were taken on Sunday. She's wearing a dress that her Aunt Brooke and I used to wear when we were her size.

Can you tell I'm obsessed? I can't narrow down the pictures...she's just too cute!







Stats: 10 pounds 14 ounces
22 3/4 inches

I could just kiss her face right off - but I can't because I'm sick :( And I need to get healthy fast because my brother Redge and sister-in-law Marci are in the hospital as we speak - about to have their first...and I'll be darned if I don't go and see the little peanut in the hospital. Little Livy will look so big next to him.

Dance Moms

Dance Moms has been a great TV find for the summer. I love watching dance performances - and crazy people. And this show has it all.

I was thinking about how extreme these moms can be about their daughter's competing and winning. And after some thought, I've concluded that I want my children to be mediocre. Well, the word mediocre doesn't sound very nice. Let's just say I want them to be "normal."

I don't want Alivia to be famous. I don't want her to be the President of the U.S. of A. I don't want her to be the best tennis player or smartest kid in the state. Cody and I agree that if we could choose where our children excel, we choose kindness or the like. Areas that don't warrant much praise or pride or attention, but are of much more importance.

Don't worry, I don't plan on squandering my daughter's talents, but I know - I KNOW - I could never become like those moms on Dance Moms.

Sneak Peak

Someone was a model today...




That first picture is just so Alivia. She is extremely pensive: always evaluating and sizing people up (or in this instance - trying to figure out the camera and clicking noise).

I swim!

Alivia Pearl went swimming for the first time yesterday. Ok, maybe she didn't swim per se, but she did go in the pool with her daddy. No swimming suit, just a swim diaper and a hat that was three sizes too big - but she looked too cute just the same. She is a water baby. Bath time is her favorite time of the day.

Google

Cody just admitted to searching on google, while he was in Arkansas a week or two ago, "why do I love my child so much?".

So funny. But does this not melt your heart as it does mine?

Being a parent to Alivia is so rewarding. Cody just loves his little girl and was missing her like crazy. And I suppose he wanted to gain some understanding on how he could love such a tiny human he's only known for a month and a half.

The bond I feel with Alivia is so intense and the love so immense, it's unbelievable. Sometimes it is hard to understand how I could love so deeply someone who doesn't talk to me, laugh with me, and such. But I do. Cody does. And that's all that matters.

Early Conversations

So my daughter and I had the following conversation today...

Mom: Hi honey. Can MaMa take a picture?

Alivia: No mom, you take way too many pictures!



Mom: Please! Please! Please!

Alivia: Fine...just give me a minute...



Alivia: I have to stretch...



Alivia: Not yet...



Mom: Honey, come on...

Alivia: O.K., just give me my paci and take the dang picture.



And there you have it. She's already showing me attitude!

Out of This World

The t.v. show "Out of This World" was awesome. I didn't watch it every week, but I did watch it every now and then. The show's main character was a half alien, half human teenage girl who could stop time by connecting her two index fingers. And since my baby Alivia is growing and changing before my very eyes...I wish I could acquire those alien powers so that I could stop time and enjoy Alivia's newborness for as long as I wished.

Alivia has hit her one month mark. That's right folks. We are rocking the feeding, changing diapers, burping, and keeping a tiny human alive thing. At her doctor's appointment this past week, my little Livy was the following:

Weight: 9.5 pounds (50%)
Height: 21.5 inches (75%)

She's still cute and small and precious...but she's getting bigger and more alert and I'm watching time fly. Cody says I can have another newborn when Alivia is an adorable two year old...but I don't want another one...I want her...as a newborn...again and again and again. Too bad that's not possible.

Well, maybe it is. Is cloning legal yet? Now I'm thinking!