and what a fun evening it was for little miss abby (as in abby cadabby: fairy-in-training from our favorite show, sesame street)
i had her costume made on etsy and when i unpacked it from the box, she immediately knew it was abby & got really excited. "abby! abby!" ...i should mention here that over the past two months pay has finally decided to try talking some :o) oh, happy day!
let me not keep you in suspense
i know she's mine, but isn't she precious? i love that she got so into it & enjoyed being abby! the skirt did get in her way a bit during our 10 minute pre-naptime shoot.
we did trick-or-treat with the tisdales & friends. pailyn enjoyed flirting with the likes of superman, buzz lightyear & pretty boy simon (who wasn't feeling the duck costume, ha!)
while this little fire truck was super fun for her, she coveted the real car & waited not so patiently for her turn
once she finally got her chance she stuffed her big 'ol tutu dress in there, shut the door & camped out until we left an hour or more later. she absolutely loved it!!
the big brother & sister cooperated for a couple quick clicks before bennett ran off with hayes & don to collect candy. bennett is old man farve...complete with gray hair, ankle wrap & grime all over from being slammed around :o) (he's at the saints game now with nana, lucky kid!!) and heather is a pirate...arrrr!
the last shot of the night. these two worked on their game & i know both slept well after such a fun time!
i'll be posting a few more abby shots on the photography blog if you want to peek.
she had corn on the cob for the first time last week and turns out after looking at it & playing with it for 10 full minutes before actually tasting it (she knew i wanted her to, so naturally held out) ...turns out, she's a fan :o)
an adorable snap before i determined i had to hunt down my camera.
yep...missy-moo loves her some corn-on-the-cob! she's had some aversion to trying new things off & on, but i believe miss independent enjoyed being in control of feeding herself :o)
it grieves me, however to know that the corn she is eating here was grown from a genetically modified seed. a seed that the most shady, money-hungry-at-any-cost company i know of has bullied over 80% of american farmers to grow. we are eating corn from a seed created to resist round up sprayed directly on it's crop. both the genetically modified corn seed (soy seed, cotton seed, etc.) and the round up were created and are owned by monsanto. ...yep, our sorry government let them patent life & then let them sell genetically modified food without being labeled as such!) and just to let you know, if you aren't aware, but that same gm corn's is engineered into most everything you & i eat. think, peanut butter, syrup, cookies, ketchup, the beef or chicken you prepared have fed on it, it's in your coke, it's in baby food, pop tarts, chips, certainly most anything in a box, can or frozen in your grocery store. sigh.
i want to use this post to document the fact that the roo's daddy & i have a newfound appreciation for the benefits of eating organic. i've actually been buying organic for pailyn anytime i have the option. i've tried to limit overly processed foods from her diet (not easy!) although she'sa fan of toaster scrambles, goldfish crackers, & a couple cereals. carbonated sugary or diet (filled with awful man-made sweeteners) soda has never crossed her lips (except when her nana thought she'd sneak her a sip of diet coke just yesterday) (insert stern look here.)
i will be placing our first order for grass-fed beef later this week & we are headed to the local farmer's market thursday to place a vote (by spending money with local farmers) for fresh, organic fruits & veggies! i am the world's worst about getting all fired up about something, climbing on my soap box and then fizzling out before i take action, but i think, over the past couple years i've seen a change in myself regarding follow through...maybe hitting 30 had something to do with that, ha!
i had very strong feelings about delaying vaccination with bennett, but coward down when his doctor stood up to me. with pailyn, i held my ground. i made decisions regarding what i, as an educated & informed mother knew/knows was/is best for her & found an amazing pediatrician who has worked with me rather than against me. we love you dr. d!
i feel equally strong about providing more healthy, nutrient-rich food for my family & hope to share that journey here on her very own blog! it's been a challenge living in small town mississippi to find organic food items! i'm willing to work to find what i want though :o)
i'll leave with the food, inc. movie trailer below. i absolutely believe it to be one of the most important movies you can watch with your family! the big brother (9) and sister (16) as well as the daddy & i were glued to the television the whole time, pausing to have discussion along the way. you can head over to amazon & have it in 2 days!
she's not a talker. she just isn't. this is something i've had to come to terms with over the past many months. just because bennett was communicating with 3 word sentences using pronouns correctly at 12 months doesn't mean that his little sister will do the same.
pailyn said momma and dadda early on and then delighted us with bye bye for a day before retiring that word all together. she prefers to grunt and point and make a huge array of interesting noises to communicate with us regardless of my plead for her to "use words." use words if you want your juice, pay. can you say juice? juice. say juice. juice is a word she made an effort at saying a few months ago...followed by huge cheers from chuck & i. it, too has been retired. frustration!
pailyn has a precious routine when she wakes up each morning and goes to bed each night that involves her baby. santa brought baby stella to her this past christmas. baby has a bed in pay's room and baby has her own (magnetic) paci.
from the beginning-well since she was 4ish months old, i have not offered pailyn her pacifier all the time. they are not just laying around the house for her (noooo...that might deter her from speaking, ha!) i was the same way with ben and separating him & his beloved "p" was successful (and a fabulous story for another post) i digress...when pailyn wakes up she has learned to hand my paci or she'll throw it down in her crib so it's ready for her naptime rock.
i take her out of her bed and she's been going straight over to baby. she picks her up from her bed, "loves her" (gives her a sweet long hug) and then swipes paci from her and throws it down. she'll then either take baby into the den with us or *sit* her back on her bed.
at night before we tell everyone goodnight we straighten the den, which by then is a train wreck of books and toys and i tell her to go put baby to bed. she picks baby up, loves her and proceeds to her room...running...because she pretty much runs everywhere these days, and lays baby in her bed and gives her her paci. sweetness, right?
so tonight...after preforming yet another word she picked up from the pj-animals short that comes on sprout at night. well, heck, let me get that down for memory's sake while i'm at it. an adorable set of jim hudson (is that his name?) puppets sing a song about going back to bed if it isn't morning. the lyrics include: is the sun shining in? no. no. no. so our day can begin? no. no. no. can you hear the birds sing? is your day gargling?you get the idea. so after she saw it for the first time a couple weeks ago we danced and sang it together and she did her finger in the air to mimic me and said no. no. no. yiiipeeeee! she talks!! i had her do it a few more times and then carried her downstairs where she preformed her new trick for chuck just once. the next morning she did it one time and *nothing* since. sigh.
back to where i was beginning that las paragraph...tonight that same song came on again & she "no. no. no" -ed a couple times for everyone.
bedtime comes shortly after and we are headed into her room to put baby to bed when mysweet baby gave baby her paci laid her in her bed, pat her belly a couple times then decided she's sleep better on her tummy so turned her over (hold onto your seat!) and pat her on her back twice while saying "night night." clear. as. could. be.
found these photos from mid april of her playing with baby :o)
that's worth staying up super late to blog about right?! you bet it is.
i have no expectations of her repeating it, but my goodness did she absolutely melt me being such a sweet (vocal) little momma to her baby. oh goodness, i love her!
sorry, i just couldn't think of a more appropriate title for this post.
i suppose i could have gone with "my baby's bff is cute," but since this is pay's very own blog the former seemed more fitting :o) the latter is totally accurate though, see...
another clever title might have been "cutest mj models *ever*" oh how cheeky our girls were in their new threads!
my roo is an absolute monkey! she enjoys my old rocking chair by doing much more than rocking in it!
aunt katie came to play too. yes i said "aunt" katie. katie, you told me i was family when i dove into politely accepted that yummo chicken earlier in the week so i'm going with it! :o)
plus p & i just love you ...soo as long as mimi doesn't mind sharing, why not?
i'm pretty sure this adorable face was a result of aunt katie.
when angela and the girls arrived at our house and walked in, a precious mimi greeted me with "lindey!" ...just as clear as it could be & totally made my day! she began saying "pay" a good while back & graduated to the cutest version of "pailyn" with an "s" sound slipped in there adorably, but to hear lindey was an absolute treat!
dear pailyn, you can start talking now. now, in fact is a great time for you to try out a few words. please. pretty please? just a few little words...it would be totally worth your while.
and to pailyn's blog stalkers who have cutie little girls in their lives, i am planning to host a mj trunk show when d releases the new line in the fall. comment or email me ((lindeymagee[at]hotmail[dot]com)) if you want to make certain you don't miss out on the opportunity to dress your special lady (baby/toddler, child, tween, there are a few boy accessories, & great stuff for you too!) in mj clothing! i'm even toying with the idea of a lindeymagee photography give away to make things more fun!
how's that for the perfect "the end" photograph? goodness, they are cute!
yep...a buffet of sidewalk chalk :o) i ran in to get my camera & bennett was watching her. upon my return he told me that daddy (working in the garage nearby) told him to "just let her go"
it's always a challenge to get a snap on a sunday morning before church. i am awful about running us late, although...i will say, we've managed to be earlyfor at least two months worth of sundays! on easter morning chuck & i actually got up & went to the sunrise service while the kids slept (7am is waay to early for the roo!) and then we all went back for the easter ccantata. here is what i got before loading up:
pay was fascinated with the bling on heather's sandals. and then she thought it was cute to ruffle bennett's hair; she is *so* mischievous!
after church was lunch at aunt dedee's.
check out that hair starting to grow!
bracing for some hazel sugar.
remember my mention of her love for abby?
after a quick change out of church clothes & an amazing lunch we had to go get abby for her to love on.
to the backyard to fish & enjoy the beautiful day!
my big boy doing a little fishing :o)
we finished the day up with a front yard softball game! it was an absoluteblast!! i didn't even stink it up too bad :o) the roo, although napless, was fabulous...she just got passed around to those on deck to bat. it was a wonderful day :o)
and these three made out pretty well :o) enough candy for the big kids to get sick off of, sidewalk chalk & a fabulous slip & slide for them all to play with.
and the roo's bucket was pretty exciting too.
i love monkey is perhaps the cutest children's picture book i've read recently! easy to hold heart shaped crayons, sunglasses, an adorable camera by vtech, bath tints that smell fruity, peeps (major hit!!) and her absolute favorite...abby kadabby :o)
see the love?
i think bennett enjoyed the camera as much as she did. it has remained a popular toy & is super cute (and i believe quite an appropriate toy for child)
she loves being read to! it has taken until recently-in the past couple months-for her to actually sit still enough for a story, but now she brings us all books and puts her arms up to indicate she'd like a lap seat.
the bunny hid eggs around the den. pailyn caught right on! she is loving emptying out things and then putting stuff back in. i.e.: the kitchen cabinet drawers...i allow her access to one with plastic cups in it while i'm cooking and it occupies her the entire time. she takes them all out, stacks them in different arrangements and then with a little instruction puts them back in the drawer.
this is a great activity for her, but i would much appreciate it if i didn't walk into the kitchen often to find she has played and not cleaned up after herself. stinker.
super excited about the praise she'd received for finding another egg. yay pay!!
now...time to get ready for church; we serve a risen Savior!
seriously...how did that happen? i am ashamed that i've neglected the roo's blog so. rest assured-the little missy-moo herself has been anything but neglected. she is one busy, fun, demanding, did i say busy? little girl these days!
she's been up to all sorts of new & exciting things since my last post. for one, she's moved to a new house :o) pailyn is in love with our new home. among several reasons,her favorites are: 1. no 'step downs' ...meaning she is free to roam-all over-to each & every room. 2. there is a staircase. and in case you weren't aware, stairs might-as-well be an amusement park when it comes to a one year old.
the roo mastered the staircase the first night we moved in. according to bennett she made it bottom to top in 42 seconds-with chuck chasing behind her the whole way up, of course. a gate will be ordered; meanwhile we have a temporary solution.
she's enjoying the fact that there are still a few random boxes here & there who's content hasn't found it's place in the new house just yet. she is into everything!
lately, she loves balls. big balls, little balls-all balls. she manhandles big 'ol basketballs, but now that heather & bennett have started softball & baseball, she has access to lots of baseballs & she knows what to do with them!
these were taken a couple evenings ago just before heading to ben's game (she likes the quick trip to town too!)
watch the ball!
i'm going to throw it...
here you go!
now go get it :o) (she's bossy)
and a cutie...don't 'cha think?
and she's ready to go again :o)
now that spring has arrived, we are able to get outside more. the roo loves being outside! at the old house, the door's window was up high, so she couldn't see out, but now, she's able to see out & spends time right there at the door when she's wanting out of the house.
i expect a super fun summer with this little miss!