Park Fun

We went to the neighborhood school playground today. Georgia had so much fun! She is growing and changing each day and taking her to a place like a park it becomes very evident just how fast she is growing. She thought she was something else climbing everywhere and running around. She loved going down the slide and trying to walk back up it. When it was time to go home, she was very upset. She did not want to leave the fun. Miss too big for her britches even walked the whole way home. 

Bed Time

All I heard while I was pregnant with GC was "get all the sleep you can now..." and to be honest with you I only had about 5 weeks of little sleep before GC started sleeping 8 hour stretches. I literally thought I birthed the best sleeper in the world, until she turned 6 months old. I blamed it on teething for the longest time. I never really rocked GC to bed, not even as a newborn. I always laid her down awake and she put herself to sleep. Summer came around and she all of a sudden needed to be rocked. Obviously I started it at some point and didn't even realize what I was doing. All summer I pretty much slept on the floor in her room because she would cry out needing a back pat, paci, or just some snuggles. I repeated over and over, "she will never sleep in our bed!" Never say never, my friends!!! August rolls around and all of a sudden the up and down nightly routine just wasn't so glamorous when the 5 am alarm clark started going off. That is when I decided well maybe she can sleep in our bed. Well, let's just say it was December and she was still sleeping in our bed. Caleb looked at me one night and said, "Claire, at some point we have to decide what kind of parents we want to be!" Boy that hit me hard! He was so right. In my classroom I run a pretty tight ship and don't let my kiddos get away with much, especially when I know they can do something better. I looked at Caleb and said, "you're right...she can sleep in her bed and she will, but just give me until Christmas break!" 

Christmas break rolled around and I was motivated to get GC in her bed and sleeping. I was determined. I bathed her, fed her a bottle, and immediately laid her down still awake. Night one was awful. I repeat awful. I laid her down and she screamed for one hour. Night two was better. We were down to about 40 minutes. Night three was even better. She only cried for 12 minutes or so. Night four was what we both had been waiting for. She laid down at 8 pm, cried until I shut the door, and then nothing... Not one peep until 9 am the next morning. Needless to say she has been taking naps better than she ever has before AND she is sleeping in her bed for 12 hour stretches. She can do it! I feel so much better. She is sleeping so much better. There is not a perfect way to parent or perfect routine or "way" but you do have to find what works for you and your family. Sleep is an essential and I am thankful we have finally found our groove. Speaking of essential, I also started diffusing  Peace and Calming at night. I definitely think it helps. 

 

Family Night

The three of us headed to our favorite dinner tonight at Oceanaire inside the Galleria. Caleb and I love to splurge at this place. It is absolutely delightful. While we were there, we remembered that this exact weekend last year we were celebrating Georgia being one week old with my family. How time flies! 

Before going in we tried to take a picture in front of the tree. You can see how that turned out. GC is hit or miss on photos. 

Going to eat with a one year old is quite risky to say the least, especially at a nice restaurant. Well we sat down and while we were waiting on GC's seat we let her stand in the booth. Before we could blink (of course) she climbed to the crack in between the booth and wall and completely fell between. As Caleb said, "I had to pick her up like a loaf of bread!" Oh my gosh. Yes it made it a loud noise and she screamed. We were those parents. It was great. :) She did recover quickly and was precious the rest of dinner. Probably due to the concussion she suffered. ;)

Big girl once we got home. She definitely looks like a one year old. The pjs are perfect! She is quite the monkey. Thanks aunt Claire for the birthday gift!

Curious Georgia's First Birthday

 

Big One Year Old

Georgia's favorite cartoon is Curious George. She loves it for many reasons, including the colors, the puppy, and of course, the monkey, George. Hence, the theme "Curious Georgia" was born. It was meant to be. The invitation was the inspiration behind each detail, big and small. I started with the cake design and from there I made the décor and my shopping list. I knew I wanted to keep the food simple, so I stuck with "cake and bananas." I made chocolate dipped frozen bananas, banana sugar cookies, funfetti dip, and of course, the cake which I did not make. I made most of the decorations, including the monkey pom-pom, the 0-12 month banner, and 'I'm One' banner. I used balloons to help scream birthday party!! The guest list was mainly family, since lord knows we have plenty!!!

Georgia Cate had a ball mingling with everyone and getting everyone's attention in the room. She loved opening her presents and would scream each time I pulled a toy from the bag. Her favorite toy was the shopping cart with food from her BFF, Hattie. She spent the rest of the party inviting the kiddos into her play room. She didn't know what to think about the smash cake. After some prompting she decided to give it a try. She wasn't too impressed, after all it wasn't the fruit, veggies, or tuna fish that she is accustomed to eating. Overall, it was a precious afternoon filled with lots of claps, giggles, and squeals. It was worth every minute spent planning and every penny spent. And as Caleb said, "This is her last birthday party!" Until next year, of course!! ;)

Tablescape

Cake: Candy Haven, Denton

Frozen Bananas & Toppings

Birthday banner - 0-12 months of pure joy

 

Georgia's Guest Book - "When I'm older I'll be CURIOUS about who was here to celebrate with me. Please sign my book and leave a note for me."

Banana Sugar Cookies

Precious toys

 

"Jungle Juice" - Pink lemonade, ginger ale, strawberry ice cream, pineapple juice

Invitation: Heather Carpenter Designs, OKC

 

 

 

Small Moments

Well, a lot has happened since 2012 and my last blog post. Let's see... since then we married on 06.09.12, traveled to Antigua, Costa Rica, Los Cabos, New Mexico, and Florida. We moved into our first cozy house in the heart of Denton, TX and quickly made it our first home. Caleb graduated from The University of North Texas and I graduated with my Master's Degree from Texas A&M Commerce with a degree in Education Administration. We adopted our first pet, Rudy. Eight short months after being married we were blessed to find out we were pregnant. In the meantime, we built a house and waited anxiously until 12.28.13 when Georgia Cate changed our lives forever. This brings me to the reason for this blog post today. Our first year as a family of 3 flew by extremely too fast. As much as I pray I remember every sweet detail, I know that just isn't possible. Therefore, my goal for 2015 is to not only savor every moment but to do a better job documenting our days, the good, the bad, and the ugly, because let's get real....there ARE ugly days. However, that is what makes life sweet. I hope at the end of 2015 I can read back through the blog posts and feel a sense of peace to close out the year because I have the words written down to help remind me of each special moment, hard time, celebration, and most importantly small moments that happened. So this is more for my little family, but feel free to join me on our journey this new year!