Courtney Wearing My Shoes

Recently Courtney has reveled in walking in my shoes or her father's shoes. Here's video of her putting the shoes in the right place and stepping in.

Bow Battle

Courtney has never had a haircut, and her bangs are hanging in her eyes. Every morning I pull back her hair with a bow and she pulls it right back out. So I found an old huge obnoxious bow I used to wear in the 90s and I put it in my hair one morning. Then I said to Courtney, 'Mommy wears a bow in her hair, and Courtney wears a bow in her hair.' It worked for a little while before she pulled it out again. So now I try this every morning, putting one in my hair. I'm hoping she will leave it in for longer periods of time each day. (Edited to add photograph of this monstrous bow from the 90s!)

Courtney & Reilly Cat

Courtney loves the live cats at the house as much as her stuffed cats (all named Meow). Here's Courtney interacting with the one live cat that doesn't run away - Reilly. Reilly is our 10-year old orange tabby and he's got a laid back philosophy about life. Babies don't seem to bother him as you'll see...

Bottle Battle Ends

Today the Battle of the Bottle has officially ended, after about 16 days. We decided on Jan. 1 to begin phasing out the bottle, and it was tough on Courtney. I had been advised by the pediatrician at Courtney's 12-month appointment to make sure Courtney was completely off bottles by the time she was 15 months old, but I put it off for more than a month because of the holidays. She was getting such constant attention from visiting family members, plus our schedule was disrupted by traveling, so I admit I wussed out. But I decided New Year's Day to start the process. For the first 4 days we only offered sippy cups full of milk, and she completely refused them, going so far as to throw them on the floor. During the same time, she was drinking lots of juice and water out of these same cups - she just did not want to drink milk from them. On the 5th day, I broke down and gave her a morning bottle because I was starting to feel sorry for her. For the next 8 days or so she only had a bottle in the morning and sometimes at night. One day she and I went to Babies R Us and picked out some special "milk cups," which didn't help at first. So during these 16 days she went through the following: she would point to the bottles on the countertop and cry (I put them away after that); she would walk around and whine; she continued to throw the cups on the floor; she started pulling her own hair in frustration and saying "ow," which really broke my heart; on about day 10 she agreed to drink milk from the milk cup for the first time; and then by day 16 (today) she was taking the milk cup with no problems at all. It has not been very fun for us, and I don't think it was fun for her, but it's over. Until the next battle. Whew.

Biloxi Trip

We're in Biloxi for a meeting for my work. (I just found the memory card with these photos on it and wanted to post before it's too late!) Here are the 4 of us couples together at Hard Rock Cafe Biloxi (never thought I'd say that). Robb, Fran, Pax, Jennifer, Hermine, Bill, me and Todd. We also ate at Mary Mahoneys and I took the photo below of the view of the Beau Rivage hotel from the restaurant. We are enjoying the Beau Rivage hotel room and especially the suite upgrade I got at no charge.

Mamaw and Pawpaws Visit

Here's a picture of Courtney's latest trick. I had taken out the ladder while she was down for a nap, and I forgot to pack it up. Next thing I knew, she had found it. Note that she put her best purse over her shoulder for the trip up the ladder. I won't include the first photo I took - the one of her standing on the top step of the ladder - because I don't want to be reported to child services :-)
Here's Courtney with Mamaw and Pawpaw this weekend. She developed "armitis" again this weekend and did not want to be put down!

Our Girl Returns

Mama Lyn and Courtney have had a vacation together this week. Courtney went home with her and stayed for a few days, and they have had a grand time. I went today to Hattiesburg to pick her up, and it was fun to see the look on her face when I walked in! But it wasn't a few minutes longer before she said "Daddy?" I told her Daddy was at home, and that Courtney was going to get in the car with Mommy and go home too. We are glad to have her home, and thankful that Mama Lyn enjoys keeping her sometimes so we can have dinner out and sleep til 8:30 a.m! Thanks Mama Lyn!
Courtney's favorite things to do with Daddy: sit in his lap and play the piano with him, be tossed in the air or turned end over end, picture flash cards, the chasing game, count to three, sing the 'happy and you know it' song, and play peekaboo.

What I've Been Reading

On Audiobook: A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engele. Unabridged and read by the author. Great young adults book.
In Hardback: The Likeness by Tana French. Gripping. French does conversations like no one else. Satisfying ending.

Seven Pounds

Courtney is at Mama Lyn's house so Todd and I got to go to dinner and a movie tonight. We saw 'Seven Pounds' on the strength of the Will Smith name alone - we knew absolutely nothing about the film and boy were we glad. Figuring out the plot was a lot of fun. I highly recommend this film - we really enjoyed it.

My Family Christmas Part 2

This is part of Christmas photo-taking. My brother Breck and his wife Jen came after Christmas to our house to celebrate, and here is a photo of all of us taken with the trusty tripod. Unfortunately I don't have pics of My Family Christmas, Part 1, in Asheville. In all the childoproofing, baby-chasing-dog, wrapping-paper-shredding, I forgot to pose a group shot of my father and stepmother with us.

Christmas

Christmas Eve in front of the fireplace.
Courtney Christmas morning, enjoying her new toys.

Trip Home - 13 Hours

Not on anyone's top ten list of things to do - drive 13 hours with a 1-year-old. We did it on the 23rd coming home from Asheville to Jackson. Hour one was the worst - I-40 goes through a mountain pass and Curtain Climber got carsick, depositing her breakfast all over herself, the carseat and the car. Mommy felt a bit sick herself after that. I crawled into the back seat to clean her up and help her - we couldn't stop right away because through the pass there are no exits, so we kept going to Sevierville, TN, and stopped there at the trusty McDonald's playland (our 2nd visit there this trip alone). We changed her clothes and our attitudes and kept going. One of Todd's best ideas EVER is tossing a roll of paper towels into the back seat on any car trip. You just don't think about the multitude of ways those can be used until you really need them. Courtney was fussy but watched Baby Einstein and we all sang songs (went through the kids song CD twice!) to keep her calmed down. But truly, she couldn't have behaved any better if she had had a halo. After 10 hours of riding, we spent an hour in Meridian at the Chik Fil A play land (by the way they have diaper changing stations in the mens room there - they have won a lifelong fan in me!) and by then it was her bedtime, and she slept the final couple of hours home. We left Asheville at 8 a.m. Mississippi time and got home 8:45 p.m. Mississippi time, so it was more than 12.5 hours.

It's Cold Here in Asheville!

The temperature is in the 30's here in Asheville, but the whipping wind makes it feel like much colder. Today Courtney, Todd and Grandaddy took a 10 minute walk and that was enough! Here they are bundled up.

Playplace

I am going to rant here. We have never been so thankful for a McDonald's Playplace as we were today on our trip. We stopped there for an hour and let Courtney blow off steam before getting back on the road. She and we had never played at a McDonald's playground before, and they are great. They're indoors and have a variety of things for all ages. But here's my rant. Todd took her into the bathroom to change her diaper and they don't have diaper changing facilities in the mens' rooms at McDonalds! What? So I had to take her into the ladies room for a diaper change. I mean you might expect it at other restaurants but at McDonalds, come on! That really jangled my chain. Here she is enjoying the Playplace.

On the Road

We have spent the better part of a day traveling to Asheville, N.C. to see my father and stepmother. Courtney has been a surprisingly peaceful travel companion! We spent the night Friday in Ft. Payne, AL, and the rest of the way on Saturday.

Counting

Courtney thinks it's fun when we count to three. We do it a lot of course - on the count of three remove her shirt over your head - on the count of three pick her up - etc. So often she'll say "one" and want us to say two and three....and she sometimes joins in on the three. Here's video.

The Bigscreen

Santa came to our house early this year and brought this big screen, which makes Todd really really happy. Paco also helped Santa out by making the slot in our entertainment cabinet bigger so it would fit. (Courtney loves the box this thing came in!)

Todds Family Christmas

Tonight Todd's sister Kim, her husband Charles, and Todds father Mike, came over and we celebrated Christmas with them. Kim was in town showing her dogs at a dog show, so it worked out that everyone could be here at the same time. Here's Courtney playing with Pop (and she can say 'Pop'), and below, Todd and Charles and Mike and Courtney. I just realized I did not get Kim in a single photo - sorry Kim!

Christmas Photo Session Gone Awry

Mama Lyn and I tried to take Christmas photos of Courtney today, but did not get anything special. So I'll use some photos from earlier in November for the holiday cards. Here's the best that I got. She was extremely interested in the Christmas lights, and I was allowing her to play with them only because of the photos, but that was a disaster because she stepped on a light bulb and broke it and the sole of her foot bled through her stockings. So lesson learned!

Courtney and the Fun Birthday

I am late posting these fun birthday videos from 11.8 . . . enjoy.