Catch up time

Ok...I guess I better get caught up on posting pictures of what we've been doing lately. We've either been pretty busy or I've been too tired to do much...so here it is. :)

We let Meritt skinny dip in the backyard one evening before bath time. It's been SO hot that we hardly go anywhere or go outside. These 60+ days of 105+ temps and no rain is really getting bad. :(

I had to get a pic of Meritt with a "big girl" ponytail. Her bangs are not quite long enough, so I have to pull them back in a clip and then I can make a ponytail with the rest.

So sweet....giving Daddy a kiss!

This silly girl loves to throw her blankie outside of her crib and then yell at us to come get it for her....until we finally tell her to stop throwing it and go to sleep. :) I guess she threw it out again, in between her bed & the glider....and then when she tried to reach through the bars for it she found one of her "nite-nite" books...and then fell asleep. This cracked me up so much when I went to check on her.

A couple weekends ago we went to visit our friends, the Vickers, in Springtown....spent the night & went to pick up my new car the next day in Granbury.

The Vickers have a sweet dog named Rusty. Well...Meritt has a weird thing with dogs. She loves them, is scared of them and obsessed with them all at the same time. At first she will act scared, then once you show her it is a nice dog, then she wants to see it, and when you take her to pet it she freaks out like she's excited, but scared to touch it. It's the funniest thing, but usually after she's warmed up to it then she will get closer and even pet it on her own. Now, this is only with calm dogs....which all of the ones she has been around are really calm and well-behaved.

Here are a few pics with the dog & kids.

Scarlett, Aiden & Meritt

The kids outside of Babe's Chicken in Granbury square. We had never eaten there before, so we all went after picking up my car. It was really yummy!

And here's my new car!! We love it! It's a 2012 Kia Sorento. It's so much easier to drive & get into than my truck. We sold Chris's truck (which he was sad about) and he is now driving my truck. This will be much better with Baby #2 on the way. :)

We had the Austins over for dinner one night & let the kids have a popsicle. This was Meritt's first time to have one.....I know, that's bad....but we just never thought about it. She liked it ok, but it was too cold so she didn't eat much.

The kids put on a show for us.....we called them the Morstin band....with Meritt on the piano, Ella on the maraca & whistle and Owen on the drum. It was pretty cute!

Then Aiden turned 4 a couple weeks ago and we went to their house for cake & ice cream. He's such a big boy now and we had a great time!

Meritt sure loves her Papa Don.

I took Meritt to Katie's baby shower at the bank and she was great entertainment. I let her play on the keyboard while we were waiting for everyone.

Playing with tissue paper from the gifts...

Now for the BIG change that's happened lately. We figured it was time for Meritt to get a "big girl" bed and new dresser since we will be needing the crib & changing table for the new baby.

Here's the bed after we got it put together.

And here it is with her new bedding on it! So pretty!

We made a great, big deal out of her being a big girl & she was really excited to show everyone her new bed. We knew she really didn't understand the whole thing, but hoped she would do great because she always loves going to bed and always sleeps good.
Here is the Big Girl sitting in her Big Girl bed!

Time to go nite-nite in her new bed.

And she's out with no problems the first night.

That all changed. She did great the first night & her nap the next day, but then it all went south. For some reason that 2nd night she freaked out....shaking, crying and acting really scared about going to bed. It also seemed like she didn't want us to leave her. I had been noticing the last week or so that she was becoming very clingy to us and wanting us to hold her a lot....which she normally doesn't. We wondered if she sub-consciously knows that there is a big change coming (the baby) and is acting different because of it. She knows what a baby is, but she doesn't really get the whole thing of course. If you ask her where the baby is, she either pats on my belly or kisses it. :) Anyway....after several days of horrible nights & naps...including her throwing up several times because of getting so upset....and us trying everything we could to help her....Chris finally took her to Dr. Yap to make sure she doesn't have a stomach issue or something because of the throwing up. We tried putting the crib back in, changing her night-time routine, letting her watch TV before bed...but it didn't help and the only way to get her to sleep was for me to lay down with her. Dr. Yap said that she has a sensitive gag-reflex, which we knew, and that she doesn't have stomach problems....but that she is having anxiety at night. He would normally tell us to do the cry-it-out method, but he said we couldn't with a kid that throws up....so we were going to have to do it the hard way....which is making a palette by her bed and laying there every night until she gets used to her new bed and knows that we aren't leaving her. I was very stressed & upset about the whole situation because she was so happy & had always gone to bed so well....so it just made me sad that this was happening. It has finally started to get better (but I don't want to jinx anything) and there have been a few nights that we haven't had to lay in there the whole time & she still goes to sleep fine. Oh...how I have prayed that it's just a short phase that she's going through....and hopefully it will continue to get better and she will be back to normal. :)

Saturday donuts! She seriously ate that whole, sprinkle donut. :)

This past weekend I threw a baby shower for Kelli, with some other friends of hers and it turned out great. Here's Vicky and Atlee at the shower

Atlee got a few gifts for her at the shower, too!

Kelli & her hostesses

Meritt sound asleep the other night....with her Pooh bear, elephant and pillows! :)

The other morning she was just laying here on the floor for the longest time, so I took a pic because I thought it was funny......until she got up and was soaking wet from peeing all over herself....AND left a puddle on the floor. You can see her clothes are wet where she's laying on her belly. That girl will go all night without peeing and then has the biggest, fullest diaper when she goes for the first time in the morning.

We find out tomorrow what the baby is, so I will post the good news then. :)