One Morr Morrissey, Indeed!

I know, I know.  Bad blogging Mommy!  It's been months and months since my last post, and so many fun things have happened since then that I really, REALLY wanted to blog about.  But time just gets away from us over here!  So, suffice it to say that the most exciting thing to happen in the Morrissey Household recently has been one tiny, itty bitty, soon-to-be little addition...

Baby Morrissey #2 is currently percolating away over here!  Our due date is March 13th, 2013, and we could not be more excited!  Big Sister Makenna is in love with mommy's "baby belly" and makes sure to pat the baby and give kisses every day.  This should make for quite an adventure for the next several months!  So blessed to be a mommy times two!!

Have You Thanked God For Your Little Ones Today?

About 45 minutes ago, I was rocking Toots in her room, putting her to bed for the night.  She was peacefully sipping on her milk, occasionally stopping to whisper, "Niiight niiiight."  Suddenly, she put her cup to the side and squirmed around so that her sweet little head was on my shoulder.  I patted her back and gave her a little smooch on the cheek.  And she bit me.  On the shoulder.  HARD.  It STILL stings.  


My gut reaction was, "@#(*@$, that HURT!!!"  What I SAID was, "Makenna!!!  We don't bite!!"  But poor baby girl is teething something awful right now, and unfortunately, biting is exactly what she does.  As frustrated as I was with my little vampire, I couldn't help but get a little teary.  (And no, not because of the pain.)


It seems like the last few weeks, I've heard so many sad stories.  So many parents out there who are suffering because their sweet little children are sick, in pain, or even dying.  And so many children whose parents are sick, or can't hold them, or who are losing parents when they are still so young.  It hurts my heart beyond belief to even try to imagine what they are going through.  I can't even fathom it and can only pray that I never have to experience it myself.  It has made me realize how incredibly thankful I am that God has blessed us with this beautiful, precious little miracle we call our daughter.  All of the hair-pulling, shoulder-biting, eye-poking, teething-tears and screaming in the world could never make me forget how much I love her.  But some days, I forget to say a little thank you to the One who made her and trusted me...ME...to be her Mommy.  


Today is NOT one of those days.  Dear Lord, thank you for our sweet baby angel.  I promise to hug her tightly every chance I get, tell her I love her every day, laugh when she laughs, wipe away her tears when she cries, soothe her when she's sick, help her learn, help her grow, help her play, help her pray, and the million other little things that I dream of doing for her as she grows up.  And most importantly, I promise to help her understand how much You love her and how thankful we are that You created us and this beautiful family.  AMEN.

Can You Say?

Our little Toots is approaching 15 months old.  I know you're thinking, "Seriously?  Can that be right?"  It certainly is.  With each stage that we approach, I have conflicting emotions.  While I'm sad to see some of her baby-ness disappearing, I am also thrilled by how much she is growing and developing into such a sweet, fun little person!  She is learning so much and just soaking up everything around her like a little goofy, cheese-face-making sponge.  

This is the cheese-face, folks.

She runs.  She points at things she is interested in.  She plays with her kitchen, her blocks, her cook-and-play pot and plastic vegetables.  She hugs her stuffed animals and dolls.  She dances and shakes her booty.  She "reads" (i.e. pages through) her books, sometimes looking intently at each page, and sometimes just racing through to the end.  

If she wants us to read to her, she carries a book over, hands it to Mommy or Daddy, then turns around and backs up to sit down and get comfy in one of our laps.  Finally, FINALLY, she will sit still and let us read to her!  Oh, how I have been longing for that day!


Our favorite new game is a pretty simple one.  Her language is developing so quickly that we are constantly starting sentences with, "Can you say..."  Depending on Tootie's mood at the time, the results can be varied.  Sometimes, she will repeat (or try to repeat) every word. Other times, she just smiles sweetly and pretends like she doesn't hear, as only a toddler can do.  The list of words she says AND understands is getting so long!  Of course, we have the usual - uh oh, Mama, Daddy/Dada, kitty (or "titty", as she says), ball, night night, baby, hi, bye bye.  We get an occasional thank you (which is actually starting to sound much more like "thank you" than "dat doo), and an occasional "peas," which, of course, is please.   


Then we have more fun little words and phrases.  My favorites are "niiiice" and "naaah niiiice."  We've been trying to teach her to be gentle, and she picked these up SUPER fast.  When she wants to pet one of the kitties, she smiles and says, "Niiiice," like they can understand and will somehow hold still for her after that.  If she hits or pinches, which is an unfortunate phase we are in right now, she will repeat after one of us when we tell her that's not nice.  


Toots is also obsessed with her belly.  And anyone else's, to be quite honest.  She will pull up her shirt, put her finger in her belly button and say, "Beh-yee."  Then she does the same to Daddy or Mommy...whoever is closest.  She points to her nose and says, "Nooooose," then does the same to Daddy or Mommy  - often accompanied by a hard pinch of one of our noses and a resulting "naaah niiice."  She is quickly learning "toes" also.  We're still working on hair, ears and eyes, but getting there slowly but surely!


This is SUCH a fun time in all of our lives.  We are just having a blast teaching her all of these wonderful new things.  Seeing her eyes light up when she catches on to something new, or her smile when she says a new word and just KNOWS she is using it correctly, is so amazing!  We can't wait to see what the next few months will bring!

Writer's Block!!!

You know what I hate?  WRITER'S BLOCK.  I have too many things to say about our baby girl these days, which I know is causing the problem.  So for now, I'll settle for a photo of our little Tootie.  Don't think it's possible for her to be ANY. STINKING. CUTER.

A Trip To the Park

Leap Day this year was an absolutely beautiful day.  As Makenna and I had lunch, it dawned on me that it just might be the perfect day for Makenna's first trip to the park down the street.  We live less than a block from a great playground, and I decided that it was time to introduce her to the swings and slides and just general awesomeness.


So after lunch, I got Makenna all strapped into her tricycle, and it was time to go.

We put-putted our way down the block, crossed the street and made our way up to Indian Springs Park.  After we parked the trike at the nearest bench, I took Makenna straight to the swings.  I *LOVE* swinging.  It was one of my favorite things to do as a kid.  I used to swing on my swingset in the backyard, going as high as I possibly could and singing "The Theme From the Greatest American Hero" at the top of my lungs.  (True story.).  I knew Toots was going to be a fan of swinging, too.  After all, she is pretty much a daredevil and seems to have no fear.

But oh...how Mommy was wrong about this one.  I got her into the swing with no problem.  As long as she wasn't moving, she was basically fine, but once I started pushing - game over.  She would lean forward, look down and immediately start whining and reaching for me.   I couldn't seem to get it through to her that leaning forward and looking down MAYBE wasn't the best idea!  


So instead of letting her swing alone, I sat in a "big kids" swing with her in my lap, and she did MUCH better.  We did that for a few minutes, and then, it was time to slide!  I stood to the side and held her as she went down the smallest slide, and I could tell she wasn't REALLY sure if she liked that, either.  We slid down one more time, and then I let her sit for a few minutes and just check everything out.  

It didn't take her long to realize that the slide did funny things to our hair.  She FINALLY started to get comfortable and loosen up a bit after that.  I even got a few smiles along the way!




I let her toddle around for a while, just wandering wherever her little heart desired.  

Turns out that, in most cases, her heart desired being as close as possible to another little girl who was playing at the park at the time.  Such a little social butterfly!  


After a quick break for some water,
we tried the swing again.  No dice.  One more try just before we left confirmed that she is not into the swings, at least for now.  We'll keep trying, and hopefully she will grow to love them as much as Mommy did!


Overall, it was a pretty perfect afternoon, I have to say.  There is nothing quite like playing at the park with your sweet little daughter and seeing everything through her eyes for the first time.  Thank goodness it's almost spring, because I see many more walks to the park in the future!

My Daughter, The Hugger

I love learning new things about our sweet baby angel.  These days, there is something new and wonderful almost every single day.  It's something I've really started to look forward to - what new word she will say, what new thing she will do.  Over the past week, we discovered that Makenna...is a hugger.  


YES!  Being huggers ourselves, this is quite possibly one of the best surprises we could have gotten.  Last week, I was sitting in the floor playing with her, and she just toddled over to me, grabbed me around the shoulders, put her head on my shoulder and squeezed.  Ever since then, it's been hug-o-rama.  She walks over and hugs me, or walks over and hugs Daddy.  Sometimes it's a side hug, and sometimes she just falls into our laps with her arms out wide.  Sometimes it's even accompanied by an open-mouthed, slobbery smooch and a giggle.  


Simply said, it's The. Best.  Without words, without knowing any other way to express it, our sweet little Toots is telling us she loves us.  And it feels AMAZING.  I tear up every time it happens because I am still so overwhelmed by it.  I thank her, hug her back, kiss her on the head and tell her I love her, and she smiles and wanders off with a big smile.  If I'm lucky, I might get a "dat doo" (that's Makenna-speak for "thank you") in return.  I honestly can't think of hardly ANYTHING else that makes my heart feel this full of love.  So "dat doo," Tootie, for making me feel like the best mommy in the world.

Tootie the Toddler

I don't know when it happened, but somehow, when we weren't looking, our sweet baby angel started growing up.  I can't believe that a whole year has gone by since she joined our family.  She is a YEAR. OLD.  My BABY had her first birthday!!  It blows my mind every time I think about it, even though, of course, we had planned for this special event for quite some time.  Even with all of the planning and thought that went into our celebration, it still managed to sneak up on me.  


Makenna's actual birthday was on a Thursday, which is one of the days she goes to Day School at our church.  I was so excited because we bought her a brand new backpack to replace her old, worn out diaper bag.  I couldn't WAIT for her to take that to school.  (I know...it makes me sound a little crazy!)  Daddy and I woke her up together and wished her a happy birthday right away.  She had no clue what that meant, but I think she was happy to have both Mommy AND Daddy doting on her at breakfast.  We let her open her backpack right away, and she smiled the biggest, sweetest smile when she saw it.  

I got her all decked out in her special first birthday shirt and pigtails to head off to school.  There, they had a little poster for her on the door, and her teachers gave her a sweet little cupcake plate.  She had such a fun day (although you can't exactly tell from this picture)!

The Saturday after her birthday was The Big Party.  Having never planned a first birthday party before, I was slightly stressed, but things went beautifully!  Scratch that...MOSTLY beautifully.  The night before, I made her two cakes - one big cake for the party guests

 and one adorably pink panda bear smash cake for Tootie herself.

Her panda cake has a special story.  It was made using the same pan my mom used for MY first birthday cake!  My panda was a regular old black and white, but I knew Toots HAD to have pink!


The party set up was fast and furious, but I have to say, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Nice and simple - cake, some lemonade and bottled water, homemade flower lollipops made from white chocolate.

As the guests started to arrive, Makenna entertained herself (and them) by playing with the birthday cake ring toss game I bought.  And by playing, I mean chewing on the rings and dragging the cake all over the room!

Once everyone was there, we dove right into the gifts.  She paid attention for a pretty good amount of the time, considering the fact that she's just a year old, but she definitely got bored quickly!

After her "big present" from Mommy and Daddy

it was time for some cake!  And with that, time for Mommy's Epic Birthday Cake Candle Fail.  (This video has been edited to protect the innocent...i.e., Mommy.)  I won't go into details for fear of more embarrassment - suffice it to say that Makenna's fingers + hot wax on a just-blown-out candle = a VERY unhappy baby!

Sad face!

Makenna dug into her cake like a champ and made a great mess, which we all ooohed and ahhhed over, like good mommies and daddies and grandparents and aunts and uncles.  

 

The party wound down after that, and everyone took their chocolate flower lollipops and headed home.  Makenna was POOPED (and so were Mommy and Daddy), and she went straight down for a nap when we got home.  We ALL pretty much crashed.  Surprisingly, Mommy made it through the day without a single, "My baby is growing upwhycan'tshejuststayababy?!?!?" tear.  And now...we have a sweet little toddler.  Gosh, I love her.  It was a little bit overwhelming seeing all of the other people at her party who love her, too.  She is one lucky little Toot, and we are one lucky little family.

Walk This Way

It was always looming out there.  The inevitable.  The inescapable.  The unavoidable.


The day our baby girl started to WALK.


And folks...that day has come at last.  She's a WALKER now!!  An actual toddler!  


Since just before Christmas, we have gotten Makenna to take a step, maybe two, here or there.  She was definitely not really into it, and I think she only did it sometimes to make Mommy and Daddy quit bugging her.  She was definitely getting steadier on her feet and able to stand without holding onto anything.  We even noticed her squatting to pick things up and then standing back up again, which was cause for all kinds of excitement.  Not long after that, it was pushing up to standing from sitting on the floor.  I was SO thrilled when I first saw her do that, only to be knocked down a few notches when dear hubby said he had seen her doing that for several days before.  He just assumed I had already seen it, since I am home with her and usually the one who gets to see everything first!


Makenna slowly worked her way up to two, three, four steps in a row, but even then, she was only really doing it if we "enticed" her into it - holding out a cell phone, remote control, her brush, whatever.  And then, last Wednesday, it was suddenly GAME ON.  We had the video camera all ready but couldn't manage to catch those five, six steps she was taking.  Until...

WALKING!


I believe I counted 12 steps there?  YES!  All to get to Daddy's cell phone.   Which, of course, Daddy would not let her play with.  Which, of course, made her a little pouty.


Since then, her confidence has been growing exponentially.  She is walking more and more every day, without either of us even encouraging her to do it.  She walks to get the kitties, to get her toys, to pick up her sippy.  She can take a few steps, squat down, pick something up, stand back up and keep on truckin'.  She dances and she bounces, and she knows how to catch her balance when she starts to fall (although she doesn't QUITE always make it!).  


Even though I've been watching it every day, I'm still amazed that she's really doing it!  Our little girl is REALLY walking!  It makes me such a proud mama.  I just can't wait to see what she is going to do next!

Looking Back At 2011

I know I'm a little late with my "year in review" post.  Hey, it's a busy time of year!  But I did want to take a moment to look back on what is probably the best year of my life, so far.  It's not an exaggeration to say that 2011 was when my oldest, most cherished dream finally came true - I became a mom.  It has truly been the most amazing experience, one that was even more incredible than I had ever dreamed it would be.  I am so thankful that we have our beautiful baby angel, and I am even MORE thankful for her amazing daddy, with whom I can share ALL of her moments - wonderful and frustrating and beautiful and tiring and just plain HAPPY.  Here's to what 2012 will bring our sweet little family!

                          

JANUARY

Almost time!

A family of 3.

 

FEBRUARY

Such a diva!

MARCH

Snuggling with Great Grandpa

First St. Paddy's

APRIL

NOOOO FLOWERS!!

Happy Easter!

MAY

First Mother's Day

Giving rice cereal a try.

JUNE

First Ranger game!

JULY

First 4th of July

Baptism

AUGUST

Our little water baby

SEPTEMBER

Off to school.

                                                                 

OCTOBER

Apple picking

Boston!!

First Halloween

NOVEMBER

Four generations of Morrisseys

First Thanksgiving

DECEMBER 

Santa!!

First Christmas!