Little Miss One Year Old

What a year it has been.  Elizabeth has brought so much joy to our lives and it is hard to remember what life was like before she was a part of our family.  She continues to be such a happy, easy and healthy baby.  We all know she gets her sweet nature from her mother ;)

At her one year well check this week, her stats were: Height = 30.25 inches (80%), Weight = 23lbs 14oz (85%) and head was in the 91 percentile!  She is a big girl!  We are so lucky that she will eat anything we give her and eats A LOT of it.  I really hope it stays this easy with her. She now has 4 teeth - two on top and two on bottom.  She loves to "talk", climb the stairs and walk around with a toy in each hand (or mama's shoes).  She also loves to tilt her head back so we can kiss her neck.  

I'm so sad that she has moved up to the "toddler room" at daycare.  Here she eats at a table with the big kids and takes her naps on a cot.  I'm trying to figure out how to keep her a baby forever.

We celebrated her 1st birthday at our house.  Elizabeth, being the popular girl she is, had 60 of her closest friends and family there throughout the day.  The party was a bumble bee theme and she had a great time.  Here are a few pictures from the fun day.  (She would've kept eating that cake for hours)

Elizabeth = World's Best Baby

I feel like so much has happened since our last post and I'm so bad at keeping this updated! So, here is a quick rundown of the highlights and some pictures of a super cute and sweet baby girl.

Wes has started his MBA at Duke. He's already done with his first of 6 terms and is doing a great job. Not only a great job with his grades, but also with keeping up with the demanding study and travel schedule. I'm so proud of him! -

I've had a busy summer traveling every other week for work. I hate leaving Wes and that baby, but most of my travel will finish up in September. I've already been to Dallas, Chicago (twice), Auburn, NY, Buffalo, NY, Montreal, Los Angeles and I have an upcoming trip to Lancaster, PA. Whew.

Since the last blog post here is what we've done:

I took Elizabeth with me down to Atlanta to have a reunion with some dear friends. We all grew up in church together and have friendships that will last a lifetime.

We've been so fortunate to have family come up to help watch Elizabeth during my busy travel schedule. My parents, Wes' mom and Cal, Debbie, Dorn and Chris have been such a help to us.  We loved that we were able to enjoy one weekend with The Smiths!

I spent the weekend with Wes at Duke for Partner's Weekend. I got to see where he stays and goes to class. It was so nice to meet his classmates and sit in on his class.

We also went to a Black Crowes concert where it poured the whole time, but we had a lot of fun.

I think I forgot some things, but that's the major stuff.

Ok, now on to the important stuff - Elizabeth!

She is really the HAPPIEST baby ever.  She is always smiling or laughing at something.  She brings such joy to our lives every day.  She is super easy and I'm so proud that she is my baby.

She eats A LOT.  She will eat anything and everything.
She has already started walking and will take a few steps a day now.
She talks a lot, but still can only say mama, dada, baba
She sleeps from 7-7 each night
She still hasn't ever been sick - other than teething (she has two now) we really haven't had any fussy times from her.  We realize how fortunate we are and thank God everyday for this baby!

8 Month Update (one month late) and Partial 9 Month Update

I'm busy.  I'm sorry.  For those of you who have been asking Becky and me when we're getting to this, better late than never.  Elizabeth has a 9 month check-up at the pediatrician tomorrow, so Becky's going to write a quick 9 month update later this week with stats.  I am going to cover from late April to today. Happy Father's Day to the dads out there.

For the 8th month, Elizabeth started an inchworm style crawl where she would bring her knees to her elbows, leap forward, and repeat.  The scooting started off awkward and slow, but she mastered it fairly quickly.  Fortunately for Buster and Rebel, she can't catch them.  Unfortunately for Buster and Rebel, her "petting" still needs some work.  Don't worry, Rebel is yawning in this picture, not roaring like a lion.  Also, she has started eating more food, but doesn't much care for being fed as opposed to doing it herself.

In April, Becky and I attended my cousin Tyler's wedding in Monroe, GA and my buddy Ben Hause's wedding in Atlanta at the St. Regis.  We stayed at the St. Regis and Mimi and GrandDan kept Elizabeth for the night.  It was nice to see many of my family at Tyler's wedding and a lot of our friends at Hause's wedding.

A week later, Becky traveled to Dallas for the start of her Black Belt program.  Elizabeth and I spent a week together just the two of us practicing for Becky's intense travel schedule throughout the summer and early fall.  Don't worry, Becky's not going to start beating your ass and is no more capable of self-defense, but she does know some Lean Processes and Six Sigma.  When Becky got home, we went to the NC Brewer's and Music Festival at Rural Hill on that Saturday, about 10 miles from home.  We went with some friends and tasted beers from about 10 microbreweries.  Elizabeth was absolutely perfect.  She took a nap, played with us, and just smiled at every person she passed.  She's getting a little heavy for this Baby Bjorn, but such is the cost of having 2 free hands. (shout out to Mike and Ashley)




On May 14th, Elizabeth had a second round of professional photography at the house.  Some of you have seen one of the pictures on the Facebook, but we'll be sure to post some more once the loan clears to buy the proofs.


The week of our 8th wedding anniversary, Becky was travelling for work to Chicago for regional meetings.  Uncle Reid and Aunt Kate came into town Memorial Day weekend right after Becky got home.  We had a great time with Reid's brother Shane's family at the pool, playing golf, and out to dinner while we had a sitter.  This was the first time we have paid for a sitter yet. (not a neighbor doing us a 2-hour favor - thanks Laura and Kelly) (Aunt Kate took this picture).


A week later, I attended the orientation residency at Duke for my Executive MBA program.  Becky traveled to Chicago for week 2 of black belt.  Mimi and GrandDan came up and visited with us for the weekend and then Mimi stayed all week with Elizabeth.  Nana came up with Cousin Vance later in the week to see Elizabeth.  During that week, Elizabeth started pulling up on everything and standing there.  We're sorry we missed it, but we're so proud of her (almost as proud as she is of herself).  Her crawl has transitioned from an inchworm to a full out army crawl.  She's fast.  It's not as easy as it used to be to "watch" her.

So, today is Father's Day, my first one on this side.  I went back and read my posts from the hospital, and, not surprising to those of you who know me, cried again.  We went to the pool yesterday and are going back today, because Elizabeth loves the water.  Becky looks great, I look pregnant, so you're only getting pics of her.  Tomorrow, Becky leaves for Montreal.  That's in Canada for my Morgan County friends.  I have to take Elizabeth to the pediatrician and she may be getting some shots.  I'm pretty worried.  For me, not her.


 I know I speak for Becky when I say this, but we feel like we hit the baby lottery.  Easy E is a pure joy to raise, love on, and be around.  Even though today is Father's Day, I feel like she's our real celebration.  She has truly enriched our lives in every aspect.

Is it already time for the 7th month update?!?

It's a Becky post this time (sorry to disappoint fans of Wes' posts) - I know I say this every time I write this blog, but time is going by so quickly.  I can't believe Elizabeth (nicknames - Ed, That Baby, The Baby, Little Nugget) is already 7th months old!

She is growing so fast and every day seems to bring a new milestone.  She is still a very good sleeper and is ready for bed by 7:30 and sleeps until we are ready to go to work in the morning.  She is constantly smiling - even the daycare has named her "Smiles".  We love that we can take her anywhere and continue to enjoy our long Saturday lunches and Sunday trips to the grocery store together (wow, I feel really old and boring after writing that sentence).  Her favorite place is the floor surrounded by toys and also loves her new jumper toy.  Seeing a baby jump in one of these things will make a bad day great.  Let me know if you ever need me to send you a video of it.  She's not crawling yet, but can roll around and scoot a little on her belly.

She also is trying some "solid foods".  Why do they call them solid foods when you can eat them through a straw?  She is having oatmeal and vegetables every day.

Her biggest milestone this week....she can now sit up on her own!

A lot of you have asked how the dogs are doing with Elizabeth.   Rebel is still in denial.  She doesn't want to admit that there is another baby in the house with her.  Buster however has found a new best friend.  She won't leave Ed's side when she's around.

We've had a busy few weeks of travel and Wes and I spent the longest time yet away from That Baby.  Thanks to Nana, Mimi and GrandDan for coming to Charlotte and keeping her!  It was hard to be away from her and we missed her so much but knew she was in good hands.

We had a great time at Jostine's wedding.  It was a lot of fun and great to see our friends all together.  Some basketball announcer from TV was a wedding guest.  He hated all the attention he received....

Wes and I then headed out to La Quinta, California.  Wes had a work conference and I had a very tough few days of going to the spa, laying out by one of the 65 pools on the property, going to fancy dinners, maybe or maybe not being hungover on a Tuesday, and reading an entire book.  It was rough.  The pic below is of the resort, it was breath taking.  Also, Nikki and Shannon in the other pic made this trip so fun and FULL of laughs the entire time.

Finally, we finished our week off in Augusta at the Masters.  I feel so spoiled writing all of this!  Thanks to Aunt Kate and Uncle Reid for letting the 3 (5) of us stay at their house.  We went to the tournament on Friday, it started out rainy, but cleared right up and the people watching and sandwiches were better than ever.  Oh, there was some golf there too.  While Wes and I were out on the course, Nana watched Ed and she had fun with Cousin Vance.  She also decided to use the Masters badge as a teething ring...

 Look at those blue eyes!  She may have been switched at birth, but we're going to keep her.



I love this picture below.  It makes me laugh every time I see it.  I think she's wary of Will because he looks like Daddy, but isn't quite Daddy.  Priceless face.

Finally, I'll end this post with a couple more pictures (including Elizabeth joining us at happy hour)