Once Upon a Mattress

Last night Aidan graduated out of her crib and into her big girl bed. Right now we just have a mattress on the floor while she gets used to being able to roll out of bed.

Several people asked me if I was sad that she was out of her crib. It honestly didn't occur to me to be sad because she was sooooo happy and excited about her new bed and her big girl bedding. I like to feel emotions about 6 months after it's appropriate, so if you see me weeping in the fall it will probably be about her not being in a crib anymore.

Aidan has a double ear infection (AGAIN) so she has not been a happy camper, but once we put that mattress on the floor you would have never known she was sick. She was actually shrieking with glee.




In Baby #2 news, I started my 3rd trimester today. Good thing this baby will have somewhere to sleep now.

My Funny Valentine

Ben surprised Aidan and I with a Valentine's tea at Inspirations Tea Room. My first thought was, yay I get to eat scones, my second thought was Aidan is going to break everything that isn't nailed down in that place. But she actually did really well! The good thing about her rampant obsession with princesses is that if you just add the word princess on to anything she will love it. So princess tea party, she's totally there.

Hello dainty porcelain cup. Don't make any sudden movements and maybe you will live through the next 30 minutes.

Aidan's princess tea party tray. I think she's going to expect pink sprinkles on her pbj's from now on
Ben and I's tray. Hello lover.


Follow along as my daughter gets drunk on icing and pink food coloring.

Guys is this cupcake moving or is it just me?

You're a pretty cupcake, You're pretty. Zzzzzzz.

Aidan's been asleep for about 3 hours now. The hangover is not going to be pretty.

Criminally Late

I asked Katie Rowten to make Ben's 30th birthday cake in December and she did such an amazing job. Unfortunately I came down with a 102 fever and strep throat on the day of his party and we had to cancel everything. But the cake was amazing and I so appreciate her doing it. Ben loved it!!

Thank You!

I just want to give a quick shout out to my husband who made sure I had a great birthday yesterday even if he wasn't in a celebrating mood. He fed me yummy food, bought me perfume, and took me to not one, but TWO bookstores and let me browse to my hearts content. Fortunately for him I get tired pretty early these days.

Thanks Ben, I love you.

One of the reasons I can't blog right now...

There is a lot of bad stuff going down this week. I can't turn on the news without crying, wanting to punch someone, or adopt 7 Haitian children. Meanwhile my best friend's family is being put through the ringer.

Lailah's sister-in-law Jamie has been serving as a Peace Corps worker in Kazakstan. Instead of sitting around on her butt and complaining about the world she's been out there trying to make it a better place. Jamie was in a car accident and is in a coma. She's been flown from Kazakhstan to an Air Force Base in Afghanistan to Landstuhl Military Hospital and now she's getting flown to Bethesda in the morning. Lailah and her family will have flown thousands and thousands of miles before the week is up and I know they are so exhausted. Please keep Jamie and the rest of the Morris family in your prayers. http://lailahrafik.blogspot.com/

Also please give to Haiti, there's not a person in this country that's worse off than anyone in Haiti right now. And you can tell Rush Limbaugh I said so. In fact you probably should, because I would punch him.

Halfway Mark

Surprise! You're getting a sister! Ben and I found out at the end of December that we're having another girl. We're really excited and Aidan has seemed more interested in this whole baby thing since we told her about getting to boss around a little sister. I don't think I could have handled giving Aidan's little baby clothes away, I cried just putting them in a box. They will be almost exactly 3 years apart.

I was 20 weeks yesterday so I'm already halfway through this pregnancy. It's going by so quickly this time! Probably because I don't have time to sit and think about it. I feel pretty good except that I am sooo much sleepier this time around.

Christmas in Fort Worth

Aidan loved helping decorate the Christmas tree at our house.

We got to have the first white Christmas in Fort Worth in 80 years! We didn't bring any snow clothing so we wrapped plastic baggies around her shoes.

The only thing Aidan wanted from Santa was a pink necklace, but Santa got her a doll house too.

Dear Disney marketing department. You win.

Aidan had so many presents she had to take a break from all the hard work of opening them.

Aidan is pretty sad Christmas is over. In fact every night before she goes to sleep she asks if Santa is coming in the morning and she cried when I took down the Christmas tree.

Belated Happy Holidays post

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!!


Thanks for the pictures Mandy!

2 going on 14

14 is my generic bad attitude age for girls so forgive me if you have a delightful non-moody 14 year old. I was certainly no walk in the park at 14.

Speaking of walks in the park....

Do you think you could smile for Aunt Mandy?
Oh really?

What about just a slightly sarcastic smirk? That's a little better.

I don't know where she gets this.

FYI Men- Do Not Do This

Please tell me I am not the only one who saw this last night. This is REAL.



I would like to provide a public service announcement for all the husbands out there. This is creepy. Like the husband in Sleeping With the Enemy creepy. Do not do this.

Anti-Dentite

So when Aidan fell a few weeks ago we tried to focus on the positive aspect of her no longer using a pacifier. Unfortunately, over the past few days we discovered that they may have been another issue. Her front two teeth were knocked pretty hard and now there's some pretty noticeable discoloration. In the grand scheme of things is this a big deal? Absolutely not, but when you combine pregnancy hormones and the first bad thing to happen to your daughter you get something resembling a small Terms of Endearment hospital fit. Needless to say I didn't handle it very well when our regular dentist informed me that it was no big deal and her teeth would fall out in 5 years anyways. Um, anyone else remember Kindergarten and 1st grade? I do I had the biggest rabbity buck teeth ever and was kind of scarred, so this did not help.

So I marched our behinds to the most Edmondy of Edmond pediatric dentists. You know what I'm talking about. Lots of video screens, charge you twice the amount they should, decor like the inside of a Chuckie Cheese. Because I knew that they are used to moms having Terms of Endearment freak outs and wouldn't bat an eye. Can I tell you that I don't care how much he overcharges me? He was so awesome and wonderful and I feel so much better about her teeth being okay and feel silly about even freaking out. I honestly don't know what came over me but I think I just went nuts remembering the teasing I endured as a little girl and the realization that there was nothing I could do to completely prevent Aidan from enduring that. We're going back in 3 weeks and my only job is to keep her from falling again because that could permanently damage them. Just keep a 2 yr old from falling for 3 weeks? Noooooo problem.

The Shrimp

I guess I should start blogging on baby #2 I don't want them to have a complex some day. According to BabyCenter Baby #2 is a shrimp now. Unfortunately, my morning sickness has not gone away with the start of my 2nd trimester so this picture makes me kind of nauseous. So sorry to any early preggos out there. I had my monthly appointment on Thursday and the baby's heart beat was 156. I don't really believe in the whole gender heart beat thing but feel free to speculate. We're supposed to find out the first week of January. My doctor reminded me that I wasn't actually supposed to try and lose weight while pregnant and I reminded him that he could shut up and pass me the trash can. Just kidding. Sort of.

Update: My doctor just called and my ultrasound got moved up til Dec. 30th! Yay.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

Thank you for providing the one source of entertainment my daughter loves that doesn't drive me up the wall (I'm looking at you Dora, stop yelling everything!)

In honor of little monsters everywhere, my favorite Sesame Street moment.

Could it be?!?

We have gone almost a week without Aidan's pacifier at all! We had it down to just sleeping but then she got H1N1 and seriously regressed. Last week when she fell and busted her lip open, we took the opportunity to tell her she couldn't use her pacifier because it would hurt her lips. And we have continued saying this every time she has asked for it. Perhaps your child kicked the paci at 8 months, well bully for you. I'm just so glad we seem to be done with looking for that stupid piece of plastic at all hours of the night.

Halloween 2009

The theme for Stansberry Halloween this year was movies and fortunately Aidan already had her Hermione from Harry Potter costume all picked out. I'm glad that I got to choose a good role model this last time before it turns into like Hannah Montana and cheerleaders every year.

Hermione Granger with her wand and Crookshanks the cat.

Looks like Crookshanks is about to get changed into something bad.

The Rosses were Raising Arizona.

The Evans were Dirty Dancing. Too soon Jay. Too soon. Benjamin was a fireman maybe he worked as a dancer on the weekends I'm not sure.

Ben and I completed the Harry Potter trifecta with Hermione. We were her muggle dentist parents. I thought everyone knew Hermione's parents were dentists but I guess you have to be a true fan. I am only going to be characters that allow me to wear scrubs from now on.

The Stansberry's were Woodstock, although I still think Matt looks more like Almost Famous.

Benjamin wearing his dad's Johnny Castle mullet.