Tuesday July 2, 2013 16 months old

We have been having so much fun lately. I am really enjoying this age. Tatum is so much fun right now.  She's really starting to take direction and she really enjoys life. We have really been enjoying a lot of activities lately. Tatum and I go to my stroller strides workout 2-3 times a week and it's been great! I workout and she hangs out in the stroller and snacks and watches me. She's so cute because she will clap for me sometimes and try and mimic some of the moves. She cracks me up! We've gone to the aquarium a few times and she really loves it. She waves and says hi to the fish and thinks they are great! She has so much fun there. We have been swimming a lot at home and she really enjoys her water table outside, the mister and her quad. It's so cute to watch her ride it. She has really enjoyed going to some of the local splash pads! She has so much fun running through the water and she tries to eat the water when it comes out. She's so damn cute!



The really big thing that has happened is we just finished 6 weeks of ISR swim classes. ISR is Infant Swim Rescue swimming. It teaches babies how to survive in the water by flipping over on their backs to float. It's unbelievable how much she accomplished in 6 weeks. Last week was our last week.

Monday June 10, 2013 - 15.5 months old

Little miss continues to amaze me everyday with how smart, sweet and funny she is. This morning I took her to her first dance class at USA Youth Fitness with some of our friends. She didn't seem to be totally into it but she had fun. It was mostly organized chaos and the directions weren't completely clear so Tatum and her friends mostly stood around and clapped a little, haha! It was cute though. I think she will enjoy it more when she's a little older. She loves to dance around at home so I'm sure it will be fun when she understands what's going on.

Tatum really loves books right now. I truly hope that love continues. She wants to look at books and have us read to her all day long. It's so cute. She loves books on any kind of animals and colors. She loves to feel the fake fur in some of her books that's supposed to be animal fur. She knows a lot of her  body parts and can point pit most of them when we ask her what's what. She also knows what animal is what when we point them out in books and can tell you the sound most animals make. She is so smart! Everyone tells us all the time so it's not just us thinking our baby is smart. She truly is. Rich and I laugh about it all the time and wonder where she gets it, hahaha!

Tatum's hair is growing so fast right now. All of a sudden she has tons of hair and it has the cutest little curls. She is just the cutest little girl. We just love her so much and thank God everyday that we were blessed with such a wonderful baby girl. Not only is she smart and cute, she is just so sweet and loving and super funny! She makes the funniest faces and she's such a ham. She gives us these open mouth kisses that are so cute and sweet. When she hugs you, she just leans into you and puts her head against you. It's so cute! She loves her dogs, Roxy and Gabby so much and loves to hug and kiss them everyday. It's so sweet! They love her too, especially when she gives them food, which she does a lot! She loves to play with toys and is very persistent when trying to figure things out. She will keep at something when she's trying to figure it out. I love that about her and hope that she continues to have that quality as she gets older.

Saturday May 18, 2013 - Almost 15 months old

The past few weeks have been a lot of fun with Miss T. We went to Gymboree this week to play with pals and T had a blast! We haven't been for awhile so it was fun to see her play with more of the bigger kid stuff this time. She was climbing up all the gym equipment and going down all the slides like a big kid. It was so cute!

Last Sunday we celebrated my second Mother's Day and I had a blast! This year's celebration was much better for me. We spent the morning with just the 3 of us at breakfast, church and then hanging out at home. We went out to dinner with my parents, Deb, Darin, and Ashley at North Restaurant and had delicious Italian food. I loved spending the day with Tatum and Rich and then with my Mom later in the day. It was perfect! The week before Mother's Day, Tatum and I took Mommy and Me pictures with my friend, Mandy. I absolutely love how they turned out! I am so happy to have these special pictures with just Tatum and I.

A couple of weeks ago I took T to Sealife Aquarium for the first time. She had so much fun! We had such a great time and I was so amazed by how much she really loved all the fish and sea creatures. She was waving at them all and laughing the whole time. It was so cute. I bought an annual pass so that we can go as much as we want to. I figure we will get in a lot of visits throughout the summer.

Monday March 18, 2013 Almost 13 months old

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and we planned to go to a party with some of my mom's friends but we unfortunately had to go to a funeral instead. The nice man who owns the salon that I work at, Joel, passed away a couple of days ago. It's a very sad time because he was such a great guy and I wanted to pay my respects and give him a final nod today. We opted for a very small, quiet evening at home with just the 3 of us and we took some silly pictures of course!

Today Tatum and I went to the mall and got her a Build a Bear for her birthday. Rich and I didn't get her anything for her birthday besides her party so I thought it would be fun to get her a bear. She picked out which one she wanted (based on how soft and silky it was) hahaha and I made a voice recording in it for her to hear whenever she wants and then I got the bear a Happy Birthday t-shirt. It is really cute. She will hopefully keep that bear for a very long time and know that we gave that to her for her 1st birthday. :)

I am constantly in awe of my sweet, precious baby girl. She is just so smart, so cute, so sassy and so funny. I couldn't have ordered a better baby! She brings Rich and I so much joy and we are so proud and feel so blessed to be her parents. Everyday she makes us laugh and smile. She is such a goofball. Her latest thing that she loves is to play "I'm gonna get you". Haha!! I started that awhile ago with her but she absolutely loves it when I chase her around and say I'm gonna get you!!!! She now says "Get!!" to me when I chase her. It's so funny! She heard me say that to a bug the other night so now she just keeps saying, get, get!! It's really quite cute. She still enjoys rolling around in her "silkies" as we call it. Haha!!! She just loved to roll and roll in her blanket, especially after her bath before bed. I let her roll around with just her diaper on and she just loves the feeling of her soft blankets on her skin. She is just so sweet and so cute. She really is a character!

I've been thinking a lot lately about my journey through Tatum's birth and post partum time and I am truly feeling so much better. I am ready to get off of my medication and move on. I finally feel at peace with everything that happened. I truly love my baby girl and I wouldn't change anything that has happened because it all happened for a reason but it has taken me some time to sift through everything and really come to terms with my feelings about everything. Although I didn't have the birth and post partum time that I thought I would, it was all okay and I'm who I am now because of it all. I got my baby 5 weeks earlier then I thought and the fact that Rich was laid off was really nice to have him home with us during the really tiring, scary first few weeks at home. At the time this was happening I was so scared, sad and depressed but I can see clearly now. It feels great to feel so good about everything and not feel this overwhelming sense of sadness anymore. It is truly wonderful!!

Tuesday March 5, 2013

I took Tatum to her 12 month well check this last week and was very surprised to hear that she has dropped back down to the 5th percentile in weight. She jumped up to 54th % for height but she only weighs 17 pounds. She only gained 1 pound in 3 month's. I don't see how that's possible because of how much she eats. She eats really well and good amounts of food so I find it very odd that she didn't gain more. I know with her walking all the time now that she's probably burning more calories but I still would have thought she gained more weight then that. Her doctor isn't worried but we will keep an eye on that. I am switching her over to whole milk now so hopefully the fat in the milk will help her gain some weight. I am only buying her organic milk that doesn't have any hormones or antibiotics in it. There's so much crazy stuff in our food now so I am trying to keep as much junk out of her food that I can. I try and feed her mostly organic and mostly fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and some grains but not a lot. While I have control over her diet I will make sure she is eating good, healthy food. I'm sure soon enough she will want nasty chicken nuggets and hotdogs...yuck!!

So now begins transitioning her over to milk only and getting off of formula. I am thrilled! I can't wait to get her off of that stuff. The other big thing is getting her off of bottles soon too. She should be off of them by 15 month's and so far she is not wanting to let them go. Hopefully she will let go soon. :)

On Sunday Rich and I took Tatum for her very first hike! We got a new hiking pack for her and she loved it. We went on a really short hike, about 1 hour just to see how she would do. She fell asleep about 45 minutes into it haha!! She was super comfy on her daddy's back and snuggled in to sleep. We had a great time and it was just surreal because Rich and I talked about doing that for years and now here it is. We always thought it would be fun to bring our baby hiking with us. It is just so exciting and beyond our imagination how great our life it with her. We are so lucky to have her and we are having so much fun with her!

Saturday February 23, 2013 1 YEAR OLD!!!!!!!

I can't believe it but Tatum is 1 year old today! It is so surreal because it seems like yesterday that she was this tiny baby laying in the nicu in the hospital attached to oxygen and a feeding tube and now she is this strong, thriving baby who continues to amaze me everyday. We have had so many ups and downs this year but mostly ups. I have learned so much from this little baby about myself and about life. She teaches me so much about who I want to be and who I want to become. She makes me want to be a better person, not only for her but for the rest of the world. She has taught me patience, humility, and that I am so much stronger then I even know. She makes me reach so far deep inside myself that sometimes I want to pull my hair out but then she will flash me her sweet, precious smile and then I know everything will be ok. I've never been so scared of so much but so strong and brave at the same time.

This past year has been so wonderful watching my little girl grow. She started off so little and helpless and has gotten so big and is walking and speaking a few words and is so smart! Rich and I are always astounded at her intelligence! I know every parent thinks their child is smart but in this case it's actually true, hahaha!!! Every time I take her to the doctor, she is always ahead for milestones and that is even more exciting since she was born 5 weeks early! We have always been allowed to adjust her age for development but have never needed to. She has always done so well developmentally and it is so wonderful!

Today we had her birthday party and it was so much fun! Tatum wouldn't nap in the morning so she wasn't in the best mood during her party but she still had a lot of fun! She had most of her family there and a lot of her sweet, little pals there. They were all so cute playing together in the family room. I decorated the house with a cute banner that I made and a photo timeline of pictures from birth until today. I also put her smash cake pictures up. Everyone loved the pictures! I also made a tutu for her highchair and a sign that said "I AM ONE!" I requested all the guests to write a wish, piece of advice, etc for Tatum to read on her 18th birthday. I had the cutest birthday cake made for the guests and then a mini version of her smash cake for her to have all to herself. We also had a piñata that the kids got to hit and open to reveal all kinds of cute toys and books for all the babies. The party turned out really well and I had a lot of fun putting it all together! I think all of the guests had a great time and I hope Tatum will look back on the photos of it fondly. I know first birthday parties are for the parents and this one was no exception. We wanted to celebrate her life and make a big deal of this birthday and I am so glad that we did! The other really big thing that we did is Rich and I put together a video of pictures from this past year set to music. The three songs that we put in it are songs that mean a lot to us and say so much about how we feel about Tatum. The songs are Miracle by Celine Dion, Songbird by Eva Cassidy and Daughter by Loudon Wainwright. We had a lot of fun putting it together and I hope Tatum will cherish it forever.

I look forward to what this next year has in store with her. There's going to be many more milestones ahead and so much more fun. This year went by so incredibly fast, much faster then I could have ever understood. Everyone kept telling me to really enjoy her and that it would go fast and they weren't kidding. I really do try to enjoy her as much as I can. In the middle of the night when I am up with her feeling frustrated that she isn't sleeping, I try to tell myself that this is going to be gone in the blink of an eye and that I will want this time back. I know she won't need me forever so I am really trying to cherish this time with her. We say this everyday but we truly love this little baby girl so very much and feel so blessed to have her in our lives. We are so lucky to have her and she makes me so happy that I am her Mom and she is my daughter. I AM SO BLESSED!!!!!!!