Friday, October 31, 2008

PREPARE YOURSELF!!!

This may be the cutest thing you've EVER seen. :-) This is Tucker's Halloween costume, made for her by her Granna (Cindy - Drew's mom). You really can't beat this cuteness! :-)
In case you ever wondered how baby elephants got to daycare safely...




"Woah! What's this? I bet I can get that in my mouth!"




And THIS is THE PICTURE to have. :-)

Alright, now that we've made your day...
L&S,
Drew, Leslie, and Tucker



Thursday, October 30, 2008

Orange and Black Day

So today is "Orange and Black Day" at daycare. T is wearing the CUTEST outfit made for her by Paige Quarles (Aunt Kakie's granddaughter). It is the most PRECIOUS outfit ever (and all three of her girls have the tops as well).
You can't beat that cuteness!!

"Look! It's Daddy!!!"


"Oooh, this outfit is FUN!!"


On her way down. She leans forward, but falls to the side and ends up on her belly! Very funny!

Speaking of Paige, I have so enjoyed getting re-aquainted with her and getting to know her little girls. Alivia, the baby, is barely more than a week younger than Tucker and a chunk just like T. She also, as I discovered Sunday, doesn't enjoy being tossed about like T does. :-) ha! (Cousin Leslie scared her and made her cry - I'm AWESOME!!!) Addisyn is her oldest. She is beautiful and shy. She usually grins at me from around Paige's leg, but I WILL bring her out of her shell eventually. Then Amelia ("Millie") is the middle child. She is "pretend shy" at first (like Laura Kate), but she has enough personality to claim her heritage. She is precocious, smart and funny (and as Paige said, "a big goober"). I can't help but think what a kick Aunt Kakie would get out of us being friends all these years later. :-)

L&S,
Les





Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Bad to the Bone!

Today's dress-up theme was "Crazy Day". Now, they meant "mix-match day", but I decided to go another way (mostly because it pains me to mix-match things when we have so much CUTE stuff)! :-) ha! Tucker went "Crazy Biker Girl" today, and she is tough stuff! Don't mess with her!!!
Aunt Bri gave this to Tucker - note the Jackson Hole label. :-)

Harley Davidson, the layered look, cute headband and some kick-butt leggings :-D


She has begun sitting herself up and leaning forward on her hands. Too cute!


"Look! Feet!"

L&S,
Leslie




Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Confusion Perpetuating

Poor little Tucker. Today's dress-up day was Sports day. You can only imagine what that involves in our house with a Daddy who was raised an Auburn fan and became an LSU student adn her Mommy who was born, raised and educated Bama. :-) At least Daddy has decided he's MORE of an LSU fan, so we don't have to have all three teams included in these outfits. :-) ha! So for Tucker's sports day, she wore an LSU onesie, Bama socks and Bama bib. (This was hard because most of our team stuff is onesies and she can't wear two at one time.)
Our Tucker Burrito, as I like to call it. This is how we bundle to travel the two blocks to school each day. She LOVES being "burritoed". :-)

" WHAT did y'all do to me?"



Her cute little "layered look" onesie. This was a gift from one of our Baton Rouge friends. So cute!
L&S,
Leslie

Monday, October 27, 2008

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger!

To all of you, I just wanted to drop a warning that Earnings season (my busy, busy time) has officially begun at work and I expect it to be especially busy this season with the economy being so screwy. That means that I will be less likely to answer phone calls between 6:30am and 7pm and less likely to return your call until after Tucker's bedtime. I will be slower uploading pics and videos (though I promise I won't quit). This is my first full earnings since maternity leave, so it'll be an adjustment. Just wanted to prepare you all for my disappearance. :-( It doesn't mean I don't love you. I promise. :-)

Homecoming Week

OK, so not Homecoming Week, but rather a week full of dress-up days (which, let's be honest, is really all Homecoming Week is really about for most of us ha!). Tucker's daycare had a week of dress up days this week for Halloween. I hope to get at least a pic up for each day to show you guys. Today was "Country Day". I put her in her overalls that she wears regularly anyway, but to make it truly country, I made yarn pigtails and sewed them into a hat for her. :-) Also notice her first pair of REAL shoes. They're a little bit too big, but the size smaller is too small, so we figure she can grow into them. They CRACK ME UP!!!
*Disclaimer: Drew assumes NO responsibility for the insanity that is the pigtails. He merely shook his head and laughed. *



(She's started sitting herself up - video to follow - in her chair now and reaching for her pants and feetsies.)









L&S,
Leslie

A Random Spattering

As per Fogged's request, here are more pics of Little Bit. (Please forgive the delay, but lately I've been spending so much time actually CARING FOR the child, I haven't had time to post pics of her. :-) haha!)
Sitting like a big girl in her Bumbo. (So lady like with hands and feet crossed.)

First Warm-up suit (hoodie and all) of the season - so precious!!!


Always with the fingers in the mouth!


One CLASSY BROAD here! She was hot so wouldn't let me put clothes on her, so she's down to the diaper, socks, a bib ('cause she's the spit-up queen) with her hand in her mouth, the other on her head (my favorite look of worry) and a burp cloth under her arm. Mamao Tucker would be SO PROUD of the lady I'm raising. :-) ha!


Pushing up like a PRO!!!
(More to come soon)
L&S,
Les




Sunday, October 19, 2008

Tu, tu Fabulous!!!

Our church had its Fall Festival yesterday and I decided to take Tucker so we could meet some more people (even though she, obviously, couldn't enjoy any of the activities). She wore her tutu given to her by our friends, Jeff and Lisa Goolsby. She was definitely TU, TU CUTE! :-)
Tutu hiney is maybe the cutest part of a ballerina (at least at 4 months it is). :-)


All Tuckered Out (tee-hee) at the end of the day


Mommy's sweet, sweet baby



L&S,
Tucker and Mommy

Friday, October 17, 2008

Fun with Babies! (Okay, just the ONE baby.)

Thought I'd share some of the fun in our everyday now. :-)
First, splashing in the bath -- she LOVES to go for a "swim"! (And Munner, I PROMISE my hands are RIGHT THERE to catch her at the slightest move towards the water. tee-hee)
Second, the ROLL!!! Now that she knows how to do it, she's never on her back for more than about 10 seconds (not counting sleep time, of course). Then, of course, she hates being on her tummy because she can't eat her hand AND push herself up at the same time. :-) haha!
L&S,
Leslie

Sweet, sweet baby T!





(Finally figured out how to play with the beads!)

L&S,

Leslie


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

It doesn't get much better!!!

After discovering this weekend that we had gotten Tucker a little too dependent on her swing for bedtime sleep, we have adopted a new "no swing" policy for bedtime. That meant for a long bedtime routine last night. Drew got her to sleep, put her in her crib, and about 15 min. later, awake she was. So we played with her on the floor for a few minutes and then I bounced her to sleep in my arms. I held her for a while and then passed her off to Daddy for a while. (We were trying to make sure the sleep settled in this time.) As you can tell, she finds sleeping on Daddy's chest just MISERABLE!!! (My mom calls this Daddy's "magic chest". ha!)



LIFE IS GOOD!!!
L&S,
The Bowers Family

Drumroll, please.....

She's been ALMOST rolling over from her back to her tummy (a VERY different skill than from tummy to back) for a while now. This morning, she finally did it!!!
**Please note the SOAKED mat beneath her. Apparently rolling over requires a GREAT DEAL of drool. **



Learning and Growing...
L&S,
The Bowers Family

Monday, October 13, 2008

So it's not a totally un-peachy day...

As emotionally exhausting as my weekend was, there was a DEFINITE bright spot! Here's some pics of our new girl for those of you that haven't seen her yet. (She's SO TINY - truly smaller than Tucker ever was - and she looks even smaller next to my gigantor baby. haha!) Carly Elise is a DOLL with all that black hair! She's very sweet and cuddly and has the tiniest, highest little voice. So sweet! :-)





L&S,
Les (and Tucker and Carly)

In response to the challenge...

In response to Unclewesty's call to our lack of bloggering (see, Westy, how I spelled my made-up word however I wanted ;-D ha!), and since, apparently, my posting pictures of the same old kid day after day doesn't count, I shall BLOG!!! (My only warning is it was a rough weekend, so it's not all peachy keen in mood today.)

So this Mommy thing can be TOUGH. (I know this is a shock to all of you.) I have told anyone who will listen how grateful I am for my sweet, happy, sleep through the night baby. I have never taken how blessed we are with her temperment for granted. But I will say that the fact that we don't have a fussy baby makes her really fussy, difficult times so very difficult. I don't know if it's because we haven't had to learn how to deal with this or if it's because her fussiness seems like it MUST be for a REAL reason (not just fussy baby) since she doesn't ever do it. Because she never screams, when she DOES scream, I feel like there's generally something REALLY wrong with her (fever, teething, something's pinching her, etc.) And really almost everytime she screams (I use this word to distinguish from just normal fussing or basic crying) it is because there is something truly wrong.

All this is a preamble to the story of my deciding to travel with the 4 month old and without the Daddy this weekend. We planned our driving Friday night to coincide with our normal bedtime, so hopefully she would sleep the whole trip, then transfer right to Carly's crib (which she is not currently using). This plan of action has worked well in the past. She did sleep the whole trip, but she woke WIDE AWAKE when we got to Scott and Brittany's. But she did go right back to sleep after nursing, so nothing too bad. Just a little less rest time for me that night (as she still woke up at 6am Eastern time).

Saturday, however, did not go quite so smoothly. For some reason, Tucker decided Saturday that she would NOT nurse. This meant that for every meal (every 2 hours for my big baby), I had to give her a bottle, then pump to replace it so we'd have one for the next meal. Again, a little stressful and more exhuasting than usual, but nothing too bad. Then, Saturday night, she would NOT go to sleep at her normal bedtime (chosen by her, not us). And she cried and cried and screamed and screamed because she was so sleepy and wouldn't go to sleep. Nana and I finally decided to try a car ride, which is a given sleep-aid for my baby. She did sleep after a relatively short trip, but woke right up when I transfered her to her crib. She she stayed awake HOURS after her normal bedtime and only went to sleep when she did because Nana rocked her for more than 30 min. in her carseat. (Thank heavens for Nana!)

Sunday, of course, began at 6am Eastern time (because my baby's actually part alarm clock). She nursed our first time in the morning, but only with much fitting and distraction from Nana. Church - good. Lunch - good. After lunch, happy and talking to everyone she saw. But she once again, refused to nurse and then skipped a meal. After waiting on that meal for an hour, I finally decided to drive to Scott and Brittany's, nurse there, and then drive the rest of the way home (at least I'd be making forward progress). Got to Scott's fine, then tried to nurse and she refused. (And I'll note here that my baby is not indecisive. She's not one of those you can talk into nursing. If she doesn't want it, you're not going to make it happen. The more you force, the fussier she gets and the fussier she gets, the less likely she is to do it. NO CLUE where she gets that strong will. teehee) So Nana gave her a bottle while I pumped (again, thank heavens for Nana). She downed her bottle and then SCREAMED for more. She screamed and screamed and screamed. (Just ask Carly.) So as soon as I was done pumping, I gave her a little more and she downed it and SCREAMED for more. So I gave her a little more (now we're at a total of twice what we usually eat in one meal). She cried a little after downing that one, but Nana got her calmed down (while I cried at the sink washing stuff). (Again, thank heavens for Nana.)

I will add here that many of my tears at this point were at seeing the stark difference of my nursing experience to Brittany's. I LOVE nursing my baby and am so glad that I've been able to, but I struggle EVERY DAY to get enough to keep my baby happy. We never have extra. I stress everytime I have to use one of my precious bottles of milk, for fear of not being able to replace it. It's very stressful and hard work, but I think it's worth it, and I love being able to do it. But Brittany just has this amazing over-abundance already. She, less than a week in, has more than 3 times what I have 4 months in. That contrast combined with Tucker's refusal to nurse just did me in. (And that's not to begrudge Brittany HER experience, but rather wanting some of that myself. )

Back to our original travel story, I got her in the car, she was alseep before I hit a mile, and all was well until my pause in Carrollton to hand something off to Nannette Elise. She started waking up there, so I hopped in the car quickly (because motion generally equals sleep) and got going. My attempts failed. She woke all of the way up and SCREAMED all the way to 75 (close to an hour). Most of that hour, we cried together because there are few things that make you feel more helpless than being in the driver's seat of a moving car with a helpless, screaming baby in the back, to whom you can give no comfort or aid.

Jump to Monday morning, and Tucker woke up as sweet as possible and nursed like nothing had ever been any different.

This is all to let you all know that I am no longer traveling with my baby. She is officially a HOME baby now. Day trips only. If you want to see her, she'll be at the house on Dahoma. (Which means if you want to see me, I'LL be at the house on Dahoma.)

I DO NOT KNOW how parents of colicky babies survive. (And again, I apologize for the non-peachy-keen mood of this blog, but that's me today.)

L&S,
Les

Thursday, October 02, 2008

SO MUCH FUN!!!



LIFE IS GOOD!!!!
L&S,
The Bowers

JUMP AROUND!!! JUMP AROUND!!!

JUMP UP, JUMP UP AND GET DOWN!!!
Now that we have the harness off, we are slowly trying to introduce things that help her do the things she couldn't do with the harness - tummy time, pushing up, flipping over, bouncing, etc.
Today, I introduced her to this jumper. She had SO MUCH FUN! My favorite part is how every time she sets the noises off with her bouncing, she looks to me for approval/reaction. SUCH A CUTIE!!!
L&S,
Leslie

Don't know WHERE she learned this!!

*I give my standard camera-woman apologies. To get her to perform, I have to look at HER, not the camera.*






L&S,
The Bowers Bunch

There were five in the bed and the little one said....

...ROLL OVER!!! ROLL OVER!!!
That's right, folks! She did her first rollover from tummy to back. (If you look at pics of the harness, you'll understand why this hasn't happened previously -- too much surface area, as the geometry teacher, Nana, says.) She did it twice in a row without warning and, though I had my camera in hand (just trying to get tummy time on tape), I missed them both. But I do have an "in the middle" picture and a "look what I did" picture. :-)




L&S,
Leslie