We have a tooth!

After lots and lots of hard work, Ingrid Cate finally has a tooth.  Derek discovered it while we were out to lunch with Glenda and Granny Lane.  I'm so happy one little tooth is peeking out. I thought I felt something down there when I was feeding Ing her breakfast Saturday morning, but couldn't see anything through the mouthful of cereal. So I discounted it to wishful thinking. But after Ingrid ate her lunch, I passed her over to Derek and he saw the tooth while she was mid-squeal. We all clapped and cheered and celebrated for that tiny bottom right tooth.

Nine Month Birthday

Dear Ingrid,

Nine months seems like such a big milestone because you have now been in the world as long as you were in my belly. And it has flown by. You seem like such a big girl now. You talk non-stop! Your voice is so sweet. You babble at your babies, stuffed animals, puzzles, books, everything! You try to mimic a lot of things we say now. You do the best when daddy says something. There are a few words we can consistently understand. You say dada, mama, baba, and your newest phrase that you LOVE saying is all done. When daddy sings E-I-E-I-O you sing it right back to him. You love books. It always makes me laugh when you hold up a book right against your eyes and start reading it. At gammy's house, you love to read your lift-the-flap books. You definitely have your favorite pages and you let gammy know when she's on a page you don't like. You are still a good eater and I'm so thankful. You definitely like your veggies more than your fruits right now. I guess you get that from daddy. Even though the vegetables are your favorite, there hasn't been a single food that you won't eat. You got to see Nurse Elaine and Dr. Causey this week for your checkup and you weigh 18 pounds even and you are 27.25 inches tall! Dr. Causey says you are perfect and I would have to agree with him. You are the light of my life. I look forward to seeing your sweet face and hearing your precious voice every single day I'm at work. Mommy has had to work a lot of extra hours lately and it has made me sad that I haven't gotten to play with you as much. I think you have missed me too, because you have decided to wake up at night for me to hold you! Last week when I was working so so much, you made sure we still had our time together! We made the most of midnight to 4. Even on sleepless nights, I cannot complain. You are the most wonderful gift I have ever received. I love you so much Ingrid Cate. I hope you always know that.

Love,
Mommy

This weekend is supposed to be nice and hopefully we can shoot some "real" nine month pics. These are the most recent I have and they're from my phone!  But Ingrid Cate is wearing very cute vintage dresses in these pics.  Both from Etsy.  Sailboat dress is from hartandsew and yellow dress is from teachergirl

a Mover & a Shaker

Ingrid is such a busy girl. She's always going somewhere with a goal in mind. And that goal 99% of the time is to find something to pull up on and walk along. She never sits still anymore. She's always on the go. This is such a fun age. Ingrid is so curious about everything. She wants to know how something works and what is making it move or light up or make a noise. She would be really fun to sit and watch--but you must chase her around so she doesn't knock her brains out!
She loves the DVD player and Wii. She's always trying to push the buttons and make the lights blink.


Ing is really into looking at books by herself right now. She reads and reads the pages. She's usually a very expressive reader--she gets quite loud.

The play cube is still a frequent hot spot for her entertainment.

Mom and dad got Ingrid Cate a little lion puppet book when they were in Vegas and she loves it so much. They also picked up a monkey at the Rainforest Cafe and Ing loves to give it kisses. She's very fond of kissing her stuffed animals now.


And how does she keep up all this energy? By stealing her Daddy's Snickers bars, of course!

Playing catch up

I've been away for a week! Eeeek. I don't like that. I have so much catching up to do. But let me give my excuses--I worked 12 hour days at school last week and I was exhausted. Plus, D was working fast and furiously on senior pics on the computer that we share. Those are my excuses for no posts for a week. So I have to back-track alllll the way back to two weekends ago. Because I love these pics and I still need to post them.

Amelia loves Ingrid so much and warms my heart to see the delight in her eyes when we walk in the door. This particular instance was no different. Amelia squealed when I came in with Ingrid. She said, "Hi Ingy, pease come pay with me!!" Ingrid took off in a mad dash and Amelia chased after her with hugs and kisses. Then she said the most precious thing. "You me cousin, Ingy. Me had missed you ALLLLL day." It was so sweet. I melted into a puddle. I love my Claire bear for sure.


Elise had a big milestone that weekend as well. She rolled over for the first time and we all got to see it! Here she is post-roll feeling very proud of herself.

Who am I kidding? We were all proud of her.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

I had a professor in college who always used that phrase and it drove me nuts.  And I just used it as the title to this post....But, Ingrid has figured it out.  Why crawl, when you can ride?  She can travel by tub or tug. We had a lot of fun with family this weekend and Ingrid Cate found some new forms of transportation.

80 years

Happy Birthday to my poppy today. Thank you so much for the following memories:

helping in the garden
cheering me on at all my basketball games
playing smutt
fixing your hair in millions of clips and ponytail holders
driving your truck through the fields
getting push-ups after school
bottle feeding a calf
watching me ride the big wheel over and over
listening to me sing songs (even made up ones)
taking me to cattle sales
playing slap jack
letting me tie you up (see above picture!)
listening to all my stories

There are many many more. But I just wanted to name a few. I love you Pop. Happy 80th Birthday!

Collections

When Derek and I first started going to flea markets, he was always looking for records. Every place we went, Derek would find the booths with records and hunch over those crates for what seemed like hours. He always knew which artists he was looking for and it was super fun for him to dig. Not as much fun for me. So I started looking for my own sorts of records. I knew we would eventually have kids one day and I thought it would be special for them to have a collection to call theirs. So I started my own hunt. For kiddie records. I've collected quite a few and it's getting harder to find ones I don't already have. Some of the illustrations on the covers are beautiful. Check out "The Little Engine That Could."  I wish I would have gotten a picture of "It's a Small World." I love the perfect rows of unique little people. So charming.  It's my favorite cover.  And some of the Disney records play the actual story, not just the songs. And I was even lucky enough to find paper copies of the stories enclosed in a couple. And my hunch was right, we did have a kid of our own! haha. I let Ingrid look through these records for the first time the other day and she had a blast. I look forward to when she can listen to some of the stories and follow along in the books. What fun we will have!

Spring Break

Today officially started Bergman's spring break. But, as you know, Ingrid and I started a little early. Yesterday was the start of ours. I had already planned on being away from school since both of my sitters were out of pocket, and since I got sick it worked out for the best anyway. We had tons of fun (between coughing outbursts of course).

We blew bubbles.

And read books.

And laughed and played.



Today we had just as much fun. We started off the day inside at the play table mom let me bring to my house for spring break. Such a great idea!! Ingrid has loved having something new to play with at our house for a few days.

Very busy concentrating.

Blue-eyed beauty!

Funny hair.

I've been sitting here wondering how in the world I got a picture of her so still and it just dawned on me! Ing had found my phone. No wonder she looks like a statue.
It was even warmer today so we took another stroller ride and cooled off with some water. Stroller rides sure do make some girls sleepy. But definitely not sleepy enough for a nap. Who would ever want to take a nap???

I love how Ingrid Cate has my little chubby toes.

And then for the best part of the day...mom and dad got home from Vegas! Bearing gifts of course.


I'm so proud of them for taking a much deserved trip together. Derek is off tomorrow and Friday to spend the rest of spring break with Ingrid and me and I'm so happy!

I'm alive...

...barely. It was questionable at times. But I made it through the flu. I definitely had the flu. I still have bronchitis. But it's no biggie. Nothing like that awful flu. It makes you feel like death. Bluck. I hated it. I felt so much better this morning I felt like doing a dance. I finally got to see Ingrid!!! After 2 days of isolation, it felt like an eternity. I was going to try to make it 24 hours fever-free before I saw her, but I felt like that was never going to happen. Still might not. So I'm counting anything under 100 as no fever. That's my solution. So according to my rules I didn't have a fever today! And we spent all day together. I will share a few photos of our glorious day and then I must go to bed. It is 11:30 and I don't want a relapse.

Sad Sack Saturday

This post comes to you from my bed. Where I have been all day long except the two hours I was at Mediquick this morning. I'm sick. According to the doc, I have an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis. But I could swear I have flu. What's up with this fever? I don't ever run a fever like this with bronchitis. And the body aches? You would think I just ran an ironman. I could see this sickness coming on. My students have been sick for two weeks. Coughing and coughing and coughing. It was only a matter of time. I can only wash my hands so many times a day. Normal Stephanie wouldn't have even gone to the doctor after one day of feeling awful. But since Ingrid is now in the picture I knew I need to get better ASAP. I haven't seen her all day. Trying to stay clear until my fever goes away and my cough sounds less beastly. I'd like to pretend I've been strong all day but there have been several instances where I might have cried because my Saturday at home with my baby has been RUINED by this awful sickness. Sigh. I'm just hoping tomorrow I can feel 100 times better. I'm trying to think about mom and dad in Vegas right now to get my mind off myself. (so selfish). I'm hoping they are in the coke store drinking a delicious coke iccee! Grrr. That just started another round of chills. Good bye.

Warmth

It has been pretty warm the past couple of days here in the Ozarks. And I'm loving it. I can almost taste spring break. It's so close. And I think the actual season of spring is close too. Because I saw buds on Meme and Pop's bradford pear trees! I love those two trees. Maybe we should plant some at our house? Or perhaps we have more than enough trees. haha. I love getting to drive by Meme and Pop's house every day before and after work. It's so lovely. And I love going to Mom and Dad's too. Makes for a pretty great morning and afternoon. Now if I could just work on the in-between. Kidding. Not really. But seriously...

Mom and Ingrid are usually playing up a storm when I arrive to pick her up. Yesterday I drove up to find this:



Ingrid was loving the mini four-wheeler. Apparently she had been riding it for about 40 minutes before I pulled up. (My back would have already broken in half, by the way. But not my moms. She's superhuman you know.)  I took some quick snaps with my phone.  Ingrid was having a blast.  I just can't hardly wait for more spring days and more outside play time.  Bring on the warmth.