Thursday February 14, 2013 Valentine's Day - Almost 12 month's :)

Today is Miss Tatum's very first Valentine's Day!! This morning I woke up to roses, chocolates, and balloons from Rich and he got Tatum a stuffed Valentine bear that's chocolate scented! It was very sweet of him to do that for us and we really appreciated it!! :) Rich had to go to work so Tatum and I went to a Valentine party with my Mom's group. It was a lot of fun! I made Valentine's for all of her pals but no one else made any. :( They all loved her card…there's a pic below. Elvis showed up at the party, Tatum had her first date with a boy (Colton) and it was so dang cute. They sat together at a big kid table and had lunch together. Tatum played with all of her friends and we all had a great time! Later in the evening, I just had a heart pizza made again at Papa Murphy's, just like I did last year but it was really cute and good.

Friday February 8, 2013 11.5 month old

We took Tatum's 1 year pictures today with Mandy. They are so amazing!!! I am so pleased with how they turned out. We took several of her with balloons and a cardboard "1" that I made and then we gave her the big smash cake. She was so cute with it! She put her finger in the frosting first, then her hand and then she went ahead and put her whole face into it! It was so hilarious!!! She really liked the cake and we got some wonderful pictures of her eating it. I am so glad we had the opportunity to get such great pictures!

Sunday January 20, 2013

Today is the first official day that Tatum started really walking!! She has taken some steps here and there but she took 6 steps today!! Rich and I were taking pictures of Tatum for her birthday invitations and Rich was dangling some jewelry in front of her and she walked over to get it. I just so happened to have my video camera on at the exact moment because I felt like she was going to do it and I was right! I am so glad that I turned it on and that we got that moment on film!

I can't believe how fast our little girl is growing up. She is almost 11 month's and I am planning her birthday party. I really can't believe it! It seems so crazy that I am actually planning her birthday party already. It seems like yesterday we were finally bringing her home. Time is going way too fast and I just want to push the pause button. I'm having fun with the party plans and I am trying not to go overboard. I am going to put a picture timeline together of the past year and I'm making a banner and a small banner for her highchair, along with a tutu. :) I'm going to have a jar out for people to write a wish, a piece of advice, etc for Tatum to read when she is 18. We will have lots of food, a beautiful cake and a special cake just for Tatum to have. It will be a really fun day and I hope everyone enjoys the party.

Sunday January 6, 2013 10.5 month's old

We took Tatum to her very first museum today, Arizona Museum for Youth. We had such a great time! They had all kinds of areas for babies to crawl around and play. We went with my Mom's group so she had quite a few of her friends there. There was squishy toys, foam blocks and various shapes to play with, and other types of noise maker toys of varying textures. It was a pretty fun museum and a great rainy day activity!

Here are some pictures from the museum :)

October 31, 2012 Halloween!!! 8 month's old

It has been a fun couple of weeks!! It's Tatum's first Halloween and we did it up! We had a Halloween party that we went to with my Mom's group, we got together with our friends Andrea and her adorable Daughter Madison, a Halloween party at Musicology, and we had fun with the trick or treaters at the house! We also took T to Schnepf Farms to her first pumpkin patch. She thought it was really neat. She smiled and laughed the whole time. We got some really cute pictures of her there. Our friend Mandy also took some pictures of her last week in a pumpkin that I carved and with some cute Halloween decorations around her. They turned out so cute!!! A couple of weeks ago I went to a pottery painting place and ordered a special pumpkin with T's name on it and I custom painted it for her. It turned out really cute and it's her very own special pumpkin that she will always have. I love how it turned out!

A couple of days ago Rich and I took T to the park so she could swing in a real baby swing for the first time. She absolutely loved it! I knew she would since she has always loved her little baby swing. She had so much fun and I just love to see her so happy!

October 15, 2012 Almost 8 month's old

A lot has been going on lately. Firstly, Rich and I just got back from our first weekend away without Tatum. He and I went up to Sedona for a wedding of our friends, JT and Andy. It was a really fun weekend! We hiked, shopped, lounged around, and of course shared in wedding festivities. It was truly a great time but we missed T very much. She stayed the weekend with my brother and sister in law Charlie and Melissa. They took really great care of her and said they had a fabulous time with her. It was so hard to be away from her but it was really nice to get a break too. We felt really weird without her though. :)

The really big thing that happened today was that I walked out of T's room this morning for a minute and when I came back she was standing up!!!! I couldn't believe it!! It was the first time ever and now of course she has been doing it all day. She pulls herself up and then stands for a few seconds. She's pretty wobbly but I am so impressed that she's doing that already! She's not even 8 month's old yet so I think that's very impressive! Everyone is telling us that she will probably be walking by 10 month's.  We will see.

At the beginning of the month, T started using a sippy cup for water. It's so cute! My little girl is growing up so fast. It's just funny all these little things just keep adding up to become big things. Little by little she gets bigger, stronger and more independent. It's all very exciting but at the same time I get so sad. On one hand I want to keep her my little baby forever but on the other hand I can't wait to see what/ who she becomes. I'm always excited for the next thing. I suppose it will always be like that. It's bittersweet to see your baby grow. It's wonderful and what they're supposed to do but you just want to keep them little and take care of them forever too. :)

Good news for me is that my medication is working and I am feeling a whole lot better! I'm not crying everyday anymore and I feel like some of the hurt and anxiety over Tatum's birth is slowly subsiding. It's so hard to verbalize what I have been feeling but I truly have had this heavy heart and it feels as though it's becoming lighter and lighter.

One crappy thing that happened last week is that I developed calcific tendonitis in my left shoulder and it is causing severe pain in my shoulder that radiates down my arm. The morning of the 9th I woke up with such severe pain that I couldn't lift my arm. My sister was so wonderful and came over to my house so that she could help take care of T. I couldn't even lift her, it was so awful. I got in with an orthopedic doctor and he gave me a shot of cortisone and it helped take the inflammation down and the pain subsided thankfully. It's been a crazy couple of weeks around here but fun nonetheless!

Friday September 21, 2012 7 month's old

I met a new pediatrician today that was recommended to me but another Mom in my group. Dr. DaSilva was becoming problematic for me and we were just not meshing well. She kept treating me as though I was going to harm Tatum by taking her to a chiropractor and to a naturopath doctor. She told me that infants have died by getting adjusted by a chiropractor and basically alluded that I am risking her life by doing so. That couldn't be further from the truth! Pediatric chiropractic is so gentle and Tatum loves it. It's very relaxing for her and it obviously makes her feel good and it's working so I will continue taking her. Her reflux is almost all gone and I contribute it to the adjustments and to the homeopathy that Tatum's naturopath gave us. I don't feel comfortable giving her medications all the time and I know from my experience, reflux meds just cause further problems down the line. So, I found a new pediatrician that seems to be on board with my desires and she seemed to be pretty supportive of the natural things that I'm doing. I set-up Tatum's 9 month well with her (Dr. Romero) and hopefully it will go well.

I'm having a lot of fun with T and I continue to make her baby food. She seems to love it all and I am so pleased that she is such a great eater so far! She pretty much likes everything that I make and hasn't been too fussy at all.