It Walks! It Sleeps!

She's walking.

She has taken baby steps before, but never more than one or two. Yesterday, she took four. To Mowgli. They were playing with nail polish (not as bad as it sounds) and he stepped back. She stood up. He stepped back again, as if he's been watching us as Jason and I have been doing the very same thing for weeks now. He knew the drill, and it worked. She took four steps over to him, slapped pet him, and sat back down. Now Baby Girl is all confidence and a half. We are so tres proud of her, but can't help but think we're in much more trouble now than ever before! Baby girl is mobile!

Also, I hereby give my overwhelmingly passionate endorsement to Sleep Training. Lily is now a self-soother when it comes to letting herself fall asleep, and she hasn't woken up pre-7am in a week! Lily is well rested, Daddy is thrilled for the extra Z's and Mommy doesn't need nearly as much paint to cover up the circles under her eyes! Win-win-win!

Top O' The Mornin'!

Hope y'all had a fabulous St. Patrick's Day! We played it pretty low key over here, but I made sure we started the day off well within the theme!

Legit bowl o' porridge, y'all. Takes forever to make but totally worth it!

Picture o' the Lassies

Reading a bit o' Southern Living

Bit o' Mowgli lovin'. Kiss me, I'm Irish!

Too much o' the green milk will do things to a wee one!

Hope everyone had a merry and safe celebration!

Tuesday Tortilla Soup

Tuesday nights do not produce some of my best work (or effort) in the kitchen. So tonight I made what is possibly the easiest, cheapest and no-hasslest (just go with it) tortilla soup ever. Wanna see how?

First, assemble the Team. This is the most common view from the stove at our house. Even if you're just making coffee. The Team is there for food you.



Team Support is tres important when being lazy in the kitchen and trying to be sneaky about it. Brown and drain a pound of ground beef. Then check back in with the Team:



Lookin' good. OK. Then add:

1 can Tomato Soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup water
1 cup shredded cheese
5 tortillas ripped into pieces. Take out your Tuesday frustrations on the tortillas. They can handle it.

Now stir it all up. Keep it on Med-Low until it bubbles. Serve it up with a dollop of Daisy and Diet Dr. Pepper ("Diet" 'cause it's healthier, of course.)

Early March

So here's what's been going on in our neck of midtown:


We got a new couch! His name is Beauregard.


Last weekend, Mommy worked at Southwoodstock. It's a Woodstock-inspired annual community event benefiting the Catholic High School. We had artists, musicians, amazing food, family activities and, new to this year's event, dancers! And guess who got 'em there? We had a dance troupe from a local studio perform, Irish step dancers to get the crowds psyched for St. Patty's Day, and a very special performance from the Tallahassee Ballet. Fabulous! Lily came to supervise:

"What are you doing, taking pictures? Get back to work, Mommy!"

Fan Favorite, Braidan and family came, too!

We're all gearing up for St. Patrick's day over here, and to prepare for all that corned beef and cabbage, look what Lily has been working on! Yay!

A note on Sleep Training: The first night was rough. It took about two hours of us going in every twenty minutes to soothe her cries and dry her tears. But last night, night two, it only took one twenty-minute shift to get the job done! We'll see if it's just a fluke after tonight!

Dear Santa...

Kisses! Love, Kayleigh

We Done Got Played

Writing this post with one hand while desperately clutching my coffee cup in the other, trying to summon the energy to raise it high enough to drink out of it. At 12 months and two weeks, we are back to square one, y'all.

It has gotten progressively worse over the past few days but last night was the breaking point. Lily has been fighting sleep more and more lately. At first it was going to sleep. It took forever. Then she began going down OK but staying asleep started to get tricky. We figured now that Baby Girl has FIVE (5) teeth coming in at once on the top, she was just feeling her growing pains. Motrin has become the chic new nightcap. But, then, if she were in pain, the pain wouldn't stop simply because we hold her, right?

Last night, from 11pm to 4:30am, Jason and I reverted back to our Zombies With A Newborn Mode and took turns stumbling into Lily's room, rocking her back to sleep, only to put her down into her crib and have her shoot up like a cannon and start yelling again. During this time frame, the only time the girl slept was when she was in our arms, and the only time we slept was when the other was on rockin' duty. We would listen on the monitor and wait. 5 minutes. Go in. 10 minutes. Your turn. Then 20 minute increments of time before we went back. She would cry and yell and call out for us by name: "Mama!" (read: shame). "Dada" (read: shame). And then coo and purr the second we walked in. Happy as a clam.

We figure if this were really all about teething, the pain would still be there whether we held her or not. We figure if she were afraid of the dark, the worry would stop when the night light was put in. Y'all, the girl played us like fiddles.

Tonight we're starting early (so hopefully the neighbors won't call in a complaint!) and try a healthy mix between the Ferber method and the Focker method (see "Meet The Fockers". That's right, I went there) in an attempt to get our star sleeper back on track. We can learn a lot from the movies. Really.

Wish us luck! It's gonna be a rough day!

Lent - A Love Affair On "Pause"

Giving up Craigslist. Lord, give me strength.

On any given day, I can decorate an entire house in my head using the fabulous finds on Craigslist. Don't knock it, y'all. The Home and Garden network began with "Flea Market Finds" and will eventually get around to "Craigslist Creations". Mark my words.

Usually, Jason comes home to a "hey, honey" a "how was your day?" and a "here, take the baby" shortly followed by a "ooooo and look what I found on Cragislist". Many of our furnishings come from this magical place of capitalistic reuse and recycling and I don't mind in the least creating a first-rate home out of a second-hand house. This beautiful system, however, has its downside. I've been going a tad bit Craig Crazy lately, and so I have decided to give it up in an attempt to become more thankful and content with what I already have. Why buy and re-paint someone's old lamp when my (not particularly exciting almost painfully boring) one works just fine? Does my entertainment center really need to match the bookcases (yes). Is a new coffee table really necessary? Well, of course it is, but hopefully come Easter my answers to these questions will have changed.

My affair with Craig is now officially on pause. No more browsing which leads to thinking which leads to planning which leads to rationalizing which leads to justifying which leads to my irrational justification of why it is necessary to make a purchase because if it wasn't necessary I would not have been browsing the in first place! Phew. Big steps here, y'all. Do I get a chip or something?

Many blessings to you and yours during this time of sacrifice and reflection. Catholic or not, may you come to find something you didn't know you were searching for, or find that what you were searching for you have had all along (there's no place like home, there's no place like home...). May you discover a strength in you you might not have known you possessed. This is the reason for this season - to strip down the excess and discover the value of simply living (both literally and in regards to the fabulous magazine). Be ready to celebrate these findings come Easter! I'll be there with Peeps!

The Easiest Demi Country Boil Ever

I love a low country boil. Usually, these things are made in bunches big enough to feed a football team, but since it's just Jason and me, I've had to learn to cut down recipes to suit our little family. Here is the easiest demi-country boil ever.


Here's what you need:

About 8 small red potatoes and 2 pounds of fresh, unpeeled shrimp

Smoked sausage links. I cut mine in half and only ended up using six - the rest will go into some sauce or another for a pasta dish tomorrow.

Corn! Since it's just the two of us, I only used two ears. I'll boil and butter up the rest later this week.

Use the whole bag, y'all.

So get a big and pretty pot and fill 'er up. Stick the seasoning bag in there and wait forever for it to boil. While waiting, do something productive. Like play on your blog, or eat a tacky cupcake you had to buy because the local Publix ever so rudely ran out of King Cake

Once it gets going, keep it on Med-High heat and toss in the potatoes and sausage. Cook 'em for about 20 minutes. Then add the corn. Go another ten minutes and then add the shrimp. Give it about three more minutes with everybody in the pot together.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.

Drain and admire

Dump and eat. Bust out the cocktail and hot sauce and you're good to go! So filling, so easy and not nearly as unhealthy as the other stuff I cook.

We still ended up with enough for at least four, but luckily this will keep and make a fabulous lunch tomorrow. SO good!

"The King Cake is GONE"

I adore Mardi Gras, so this year I tried as hard as I could to honor the celebration and my favorite US city. Last year, Lily wasn't quite ready for a Mardi Gras bash (being only a week old, I can't blame her. Let's face it, on a newborn's feeding schedule, I wasn't looking to party, either). So this year we began working our way into Mardi Gras celebrations. Hopefully by her tenth birthday (which happens to fall on Mardi Gras - yes, I researched this) we'll have our own MTV special. Just watch me.

So how do you start to celebrate Mardi Gras? Well first you need some Mardi Gras shoes:



Then you need a Mardi Gras breakfast. Mardi Gras breakfasts consist of beignets, which I was up and over the Mardi Gras Moon to make....but I forgot to get powdered sugar. Hey, we're starting slow, remember? At least I got the good coffee. I'll get it right next year!

Then, you dress in purple, gold or green (or a combination of two. Never a combo of all three. Come on, now do I really have to tell you why?). You go to work and work real hard. Then you come home and get ready for Mardi Gras Dinner. This year, we did a low country boil. A smaller version, though, because only three members of the family have enough teeth to handle this kind of food, and one of those three is not permitted seating at the table. So we prepped the table for our demi boil:



We strapped the baby in...


And I took a moment to really appreciate the true and profound meaning of Fat Tuesday. Amen.



Mardi Gras also means King Cake. Apparently novice King Cake buyers like myself who are rookie/tacky enough NOT to order it straight off of Bourbon Street (I am so ashamed) need to arrive at their local Publix somewhere around 8am to procure a King Cake for the night of. I did not do this so when my purply-gold self waltzed into the store on my own imaginary Mardi Gras float, I was quickly deflated as the mean baker-lady told me in a very firm tone "the King Cake is GONE". How rude. So I said a little prayer for her and had to settle for cupcakes instead. Next year, I'm making it myself. You just wait. I'm gonna nail this if it kills me!

ONE Last Post From Lily's First Year

Baby Girl is officially one (because it's not official if there wasn't a photoshoot!) She is smack dab in the middle of a cold so out of about the 20 quick clicks she allowed our photographer to take, these are the best of the shoot. Enjoy!

12 Month Shots

At 12 months and 5 days, Lily is a lengthy 29 inches and a whopping (ha!) 19 pounds and.........14ounces! That's right, just TWO ounces short of turning the car seat around to face the front! In order to help this process along, both Lily and Mommy (for moral support, of course) will engage in a high-calorie, high-fat diet for the next two days. We're talkin' whole milk and heavy cream, people. Maybe frosting RIGHT OUT OF THE CAN. There's nothing I wouldn't do for our sweet pea!

On a slightly less exciting note, today marked the first day of hard times at the good doctor's office. Up until now, Baby Girl has taken her shots like a new 21 year-old. Today, however, she did not take them so lightly. We had 4 sticks today, two on each precious little chunky thigh - and we still haven't heard the end of it! Wailing and shaking, I'm pretty sure this day will come up in my inevitable therapy sessions down the road. Definitely traumatizing for everyone present. Not a happy girl. The fear followed us home as Lily would finally calm down and nap, only to wake up shrieking like a banshee minutes later. Infant flash-backs are rough. However, we are going to watch Uncle Will play baseball with the JPII Panthers tomorrow - hopefully her overwhelming team spirit will cheer her up!


We go back to the doc in three months for two boosters. Next time, Lily and I have decided to share, and both take our shots together (again, for support - aren't I a stellar mama?) in an attempt to cut the tension for all involved. Just like she shares her Cheerios with Mowgli:

One For Lily

One For Mommy

Sharing is caring, y'all.