Getting into my new routine

I started back to school with a full load. So far so good. I have 3 online classes and 3 classes on campus. I'm only on campus 2 days a week so I can't really complain. The biggest thing was finding time around chasing Gretchen to do my homework. The best solution to this is to do it when she is asleep. I get up early and work and I work while she is taking naps. I am working on my Early Childhood Education. My goal is to do a program through Western Carolina and do my Birth-Kindergarten. It will take me a year before I will be ready for the WNC program. I really want to get into this program cause it will be better with Gretchen. I can take all my classes either online or at Isothermal and not have to travel. This is probably take me about 2 1/2 year to complete. I'm so excited about my classes. Two classes we do alot of craft and make books. I get to get creative. This will be fun.

Now that school has started I am ready for Fall. Not exactly looking forward to winter but Fall is great. Cooler days and chilly nights. Golden fall colors and time to pull out warm clothes. Season for soups and hearty foods. The thing is about the south is that its still going to be warm doing the day for a few more months but at least the nights will be cooler.

This is also the time of year for me to go through all of Gretchen's clothes and pull out what she has outgrown and what is going out of season. Trying to take an inventory of what she has and doesn't have for colder weather. Luckily she has gotten some great hand me downs play clothes from Kaylee. I really don't have room for anymore clothes but she still needs some more church clothes.

On of my projects is to make or buy Gretchen an outfit to wear to her Big Brother's football games on Saturday's. He plays for the Rutherfordton Raiders. So I need a black and white outfit. Shouldn't be hard to find. I think it will be so cute for here to go to a game in her brother's team colors.

Lots going on!

First let me apologize for any grammar errors in my blog. I try to read back over it to catch mistakes that spellcheck won't but I miss sometimes.

A lot has been going on in the last few days. First there was Gretchen's Birthday party. The plan was to have water balloons and kiddie pools for the kids. Right when the party started at 4 pm it started raining. Of course, I plan a party and it rains. I'm not surprised. I had taken sidewalk chalk and wrote "Happy Birthday Gretchen" on the pavement just to have to rain wash it away. Guest started to arrive (around 40 people) and get settled and I was popping party games out of my head as fast as I could to keep the kids entertained. Luckily after a round of musical chair, Simon says, and dance freeze the rain let up. It was still sprinkling but we let the kids start the fun with the water activities. Let me just say, they had a ball. There was probably about 16 kids there and I don't know one that didn't have a good time. Gretchen played in the kiddie pool and then got covered in wet cut grass. Too cute! After that we ate hot dogs and cake. Gretchen destroyed her cake and had it all over her. We had some great friends and family at the party. My sister Kasey took pictures and they turned out great.I couldn't have asked for a better party. After presents and party clean up Gretchen was so tired. On the way home she didn't make a sound. She slept good that night though. Can't wait to plan next years party. I want to do something different every year.

Sunday and Monday passed and then Gretchen's actual birthday got her on Tuesday. We first celebrated with a trip to the doctor for her shots. OK, I've already heard that I am the worst mother for having her get her shots on her birthday. Well, all I can say is keep your opinion to your self please. Its over and done. After a good nap Brian and I took Gretchen out for a late lunch. I think it will be a great tradition to always take her out on her birthday. Tuesday was also my niece Mackenzie's birthday so we went to my sister where we celebrated Gretchen's, Mackenzie, and my nephew Patrick who had turned 8 that Sunday. Annie bought all a little cake of their own. Gretchen is such a lucky girl to get so many cakes. We sang three separate birthday songs and by the time we sang to Patrick, Gretchen started singing too her baby talk version of Happy Birthday.

Wednesday, we traveled to Asheville to take Gretchen to her first dentist appointment. I know what you might be thinking. You're taking your 1 year old to the dentist? Brian even made fun or me and asked if I was going to take her to get a mammogram. I'm not crazy just precautious. First of all Gretchen is 1 and has 12 teeth already. As I see it she is going to be having these teeth for the next several years and they need to stay healthy. If she only had 4 teeth I probably wouldn't have taken her yet. I took her to Smile Starters and so far I was pleased with them. We were in and out in 45 minutes. The dental hygienist went over somethings that I already know but some I didn't. Gretchen was already weened from a bottle to a sippy cup for a few months now, great, and I had been brushing her teeth since her first tooth came in, great. I didn't know that I need to be flossing her teeth. Since I like to ease my daughter into new routines I figured I would start flossing only a few times a week and get her used to it. She squirms so much not I don't know if I can do it everyday. They also talked to me about fluoride and gave me ideas on what I should to insure she is getting fluoride. Nursery water is probably going to be my best resort to this since we are on well water. We talked about when they would want her off her pacifier. The pediatrician said 2 years and the dentist said 18 months. I know that I have to do this but I'm dreading it. She just looks too cute with a pacy in her mouth. While there they did a fluoride treatment and put a varnish on her teeth. She squirmed a lot but I'm hoping she will get used to it.

School for me also starts this week so I have been running to the bookstore to get my books and materials. Already have 3 online assignments due today. Already have the papers wrote just have to type and send it.

I'm super excited today because I get to go pick up Gretchen's pictures from Beautiful You Photography. They are too cute.

Talk to Everyone Later!

Letter to my Daughter on Her 1st Birthday

Girl, you are 1 year old today. Life with you as sure been an adventure..

6 weeks of morning sickness (week 6-12 of pregnancy)
20 weeks of you kicking my insides
uncountable weeks of you using my bladder as a trampoline
1 road trip out west at 5 months preggo
26 pounds gained
12 hours of labor
45 minutes of pushing
1 epsiotomy
1 week of you having jaundice
3 trips to the hospital for you to have your belirubin count taken due to jaundice
2 weeks of me having back pain and nausea due to my hormones from being pregnant
1 trip to Niagara Falls
7 weeks of breast feeding (plus my hair falling out after I stopped breast feeding)
3 months of getting up every two hours at night with you
1 Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years,Valentines, and Easter
uncountable bottles make and diapers changed
a mountain of baby clothes
learning to roll over, push up, sit up, crawl, stand up, walk, and talk
1 birthday party
and 12 teeth later here we are.

Having you in my life as been such a blessing and I wouldn't trade this year for nothing in the world. You are walking now and getting into everything. You can say "Momma", "Dada", "dog", "stop", "that", "wiggle",and sometime "Nana". You love to stand on your head and dance. You love the Wiggles. You are a totally foodie. You have such a great personality and always smile. In the morning when you wake up and I go get you out of your crib you just smile and giggle. You have a blue fleece blanket that you love and think that when you get out of the crib it has to come too. You think you are a big girl and you try to keep up with the big kids. You have learned to climb on stuff now and think it is funny to try to roll off of it. You sure do keep me on my toes for sure. You love to swing and swim and to be outside.

I love you my Gretchen Paige (aka Bugsy or Monkey)

Love,

Momma

Busy Day Today! Gretchen's 1st Birthday Party! And to announce the Giveway Winner.

Today is my daughter 1st birthday party. Hopefully everything will go as planned. We are suppose to have water games and kiddie pool but here is a 60% chance of rain. If this occurs the party must still go on and it will moved inside.

As far as the party prep goes we have a few major things to do still. 1) Get Gretchen a birthday present. We have been racking our brain out on this one. What do you get a 1 year old that already has enough? More stuff I guess? 2)Balloons Balloons and more party favors 3) decorate 4) cook.

Yesterday my mom and I made and decorated cakes and cupcakes. Everything turned out pretty good. Probably made too many cupcakes. Oh well. Update later on the party.

Now to announce the winner of the 2 in 1 Harness Buddy. And the winner is......


the auther of the blog LivingoutLoud! I had two people become follower/leave comments on my blog this week. One was my big sister Kasey so by default she wouldn't be qualified to win. However, I am glad that LivingOutLoad won. She became a follower, left a comment, and emailed me with some great blogging advice. So Ms. LivingOutLoud, email me your address at crawfordkari@rocketmail.com and I will mail you your HarnessBuddy.

Thanks again!

Giveaway Scout

Just learned about Giveaway Scout, www.giveawayscout.com. A fellow blogger helped me out and gave me this pointer. I went to the site to add my blog and it simply ask that I write a few sentences about them. I am absolutely so excited about this site and hopefully it will help lure readers into my blog. I have my first giveaway up right now. I am starting to get tons of other giveaway ideas for the future. So, go to www.giveawayscout.com and check it out.

My First Giveaway! Enter Enter Enter

For a while now I have been saying to myself how Gretchen needs a leash. She is a go go go girl and wants to explore everything. I had seem kids before with harnesses on but never really paid much mind to it since it wasn't my child having to keep up with. I had been debating where or not to try one until I saw a little girl at the grocery store with one on. I asked the parents what they thought about it. They said that they loved it and their daughter always wanted to wear it.

So I bought this 2 in 1 Harness Buddy from Goldbug. Actually I bought 2. One for Gretchen and one as my 1st Giveaway.

To Enter:

1)Simply Become a follower on my blog. For my friends who don't know what this is when you get to my page click on the Follow button and simply follow the directions.

2) If you are already a follower you can enter by leaving a comment about what you think of kid leashes or any critics about the site.

Entries must be in by Friday August 13 at 11:59 p.m.

I will announce the winner Saturday morning her on My MOMoirs.

Enter Enter Enter.

Giselle Bundchen

It you haven't read or heard about this on television or the Internet supermodel Giselle Bundchen made a statement that women should be force to breastfeed their children. WHAT? Excuse me?

I'm not against Giselle. I mean, she's pretty and I wish I was tall and had great hair like her but maybe she should keep somethings to herself. I breastfeed for 7 weeks and I commend anyone out there who breastfeed, even if it was just for a day. Breastfeeding has its pros and cons. Pro its cheaper, con its time consuming. Pro, it claims that it will help you lose your baby weight faster, no con to that. Some research claim beastfeed babies have higher IQ's and the antibodies will help them from getting sick. However, this isn't going to guarantee your child will be a genius ( and let me just say being a genius has its problems as well) or change its DNA to avoid any inherited disease like cancer.

Why can't mothers just be supportive of each other. Instead we think that we are experts in parenting, even with only one child, and have the right to tell people how to raise their children.

I get these ridiculous images in my head of what would happen if breastfeeding was a law. I image it would be a lot like Prohibition. Women would be making formula in their basements to sell to people. Women would be selling and buying breast milk from each other at ridiculous prices. It would be a hard thing to control. Can you image reading in a newspaper women getting arrested for feeding their babies formula? As my mom said, there are far too many more important issues that need to be addressed in this world other then breastfeeding.

I think that if you feel strongly about a cause then advocate for it. Instead what Giselle has done is make everyone feel that she is ridiculous and uneducated. She could easily be a spokeswoman and share information about breastfeeding. Perhaps even suggest to those women that produce enough milk to feed multiple babies to freeze and donate some of their milk.

If I could go back...

Being a new parent and having your first baby is a big learning experience. By your second, third, or 19th (like the Duggar's) you know what works, what doesn't, your parenting style, and whatnots. If Brian and I have another child (if we win the lottery that is) I would do just one thing differently. I regret not trying to use cloth diapers. I don't know if it was a fear of mine to use them but I should have tried. I could have easily traded most of my diapers that I got at our babyshower and bought cloth diapers or had just told people that I wanted to use cloth diapers. I still would have used disposable diapers when we were out in town to illiminate having to carry around poopy diaper though. Think about how many diapers I am putting in our landfills everyday. I really need a pop on the hand "No More" ,"Don't do that again." My question is now , can I start using cloth diapers now even though she is a year old?

Quicky Blog

Here is a quick one while I am multi-taskiing this morning.

For all of you that don't know I am starting back to school this fall. (Cheers! Applause! HIP HIP HOORAY!) Hopefully now that I am older and a mother I can settle down and finish a degree.

I was totally shocked yesterday when I realized that I was signed up for 6 classes totalling 19 credit hours. When I pre-registered I signed up for 4 classes and was on the waiting list for 2 more. I really didn't think I was going to get into the other classes but now that I did I was almost in a panic. Two classes are mostly doing crafts and puppets. So hopefully that will be easy. But I also need these classes and who knows wheren they will be offered again, right? So in a few weeks I will be a FULL FULL time student. Here we go.

Also, I have got my IDEA for my first contest. I need to go to the store and get it first though. But I'm totally excited about it. Can't wait! Contest soon!