Hello toddler type behaviors...Where did you come from?!?

Apparently with entering the "toddler years" comes a whole new set of not so nice behaviors.  Now, I must start by saying we have been spoiled by a "dream child"...she has been so easy and well-behaved.  She has slept great since 6 weeks old, eats great, very sweet and calm demeanor, rarely cries, etc...get my drift?!?  She's one easy child!  So over the last week, we've seen a new side of my little angel. 

Example 1:
On Thursday, I decide to run a few errands (something that Ali is used to doing as we've always been on the go since she was born).  Picture it: we're in Target (our 1st errand of the day) and Ali proceeds to reach behind her and grab everything that she could reach and chuck them out of the cart and crack up laughing. At first, I laughed until it went on and on and got quite embarrassing.  Then she tries to stand up and get out of the cart and then look at the lady running the register and growl and make this terrible face!  From there we move onto the dollar store, where she pitches a fit (I mean screaming and crying) because I won't buy her a ball.  Now I realize this was only $1, but the principle is she can't get whatever she wants just because she cries.  And she has 4 or 5 balls already at home...we don't need another ball!  So we put back what I have in the cart and calmly exit the store!  I have one more stop before going home and we make it to Whole Foods where she pitches multiple fits for not getting her way or not getting something that she wants, etc.

We make it home to eat lunch and she proceeds to throw her food off of the high chair onto the floor for the dogs to eat.  And has a couple of other meltdowns throughout the day.  The day was so "trying" that when Brandon called at noon to chat and asked what we're doing, my response was "trying to make it to naptime!".  I must admit that we haven't had many of these days, but wow when we do, they are not fun!

Example 2:
We've had to buy a new trashcan.  This little jewel:

Now the reason that we've bought a new trashcan is because over the last 2 weeks we've found the remote control, my phone, the ipod, countless toys, a couple of magazines, and a cd in the bottom of our trashcan!  Thank you Ali for deciding that we no longer needed these items...but we sorta think that we do need them.  Makes us wonder, what has she thrown away that we didn't find?!?  So this handy new trashcan is heavy enough that she can't lift the lid and even has a nice locking feature that says "great for dogs that get in the trash"...how about for keeping kids out too???  So far its done a nice job of keeping her out.

Example 3:
We've had a few random moments of "where did this come from...that's not our child!".  For instance, attempting to bite us a couple of times for not giving her something or putting her feet on the table over and over after being told no or pulling Fonzie off of the sofa by his tail.  You know, just things like that!  I'm afraid that we're getting paid back for such an easy first year of her life.  Ha!

Oh, and I'll leave you with a shot of her new favorite face:

Beach bums

I've been raised in a family of beach bums since pretty much the moment that I was born...like I think my mom took me to the beach at 4 weeks old!  So I guess it's only fitting that my child be raised the same way!  We took her to the beach for the first time at 6 weeks old and we just returned from our annual beach vacation with my family.  We spent the week at Emerald Isle, which was super fun because that's where we grew up going and we haven't been to that beach in probably 10 years.  Here's a look back at Ali's beach trip at 6 weeks old:

The last 2 years have not been the typical "relaxing" beach trips that we're used to.  Last year we had our hands full trying to figure out what to do with a newborn, this year we had a new "walker" who was into EVERYTHING!  But we still had such a wonderful week and enjoyed seeing Ali really experience the beach for the first time.  Here's a few pics of our girl experiencing the beach:

Brandon and I asked my family to watch Ali for us so that we could have "date night" in Beaufort.  We went to this awesome tapas restaurant, called Aqua.  I'd highly recommend it, if you're ever in the area!  But to say that we ate too much was an understatement...the food was so good that we just kept ordering more!

Us on our lovely date night!

A picture of our whole family of beach bums:

Watch out world, we have a walker!!!!

So Ali has been on the verge of walking for weeks, maybe even months now!  She's been pulling up, walking the furniture, pushing her little push toys through the house, and has even taken a couple of steps here and there, but then she just gets scared and sits down to do her crab crawl.  We've been really working with her and trying to encourage her to just do it on her, but she has just not been ready.  So Brandon and I went to Ocean Isle to stay with Christy and Graham the weekend of July 13th.  That Thursday we decided to drop Ali off with Mimi and Papa (Brandon's parents) at bedtime so that we didn't have to take her quite so early on that Friday morning.  While we were over there telling her bye and giving Mimi and Papa weekend instructions, Ali decided to take off and really start taking steps!  Like we're talking 15 and 20 steps at a time!  We were sort of sick in knowing that she was probably going to be "walking" when we got home and we were going to miss it...and that's exactly what happened!  :(  At least we got to witness it beginning and it was definitely still shaky when we got home, but its safe to say "watch out world, we have a walker"!  She's gotten much more confident and quick since this video was taken.  This is still just the very beginning.  Here's the short clip of our little angel on the move:

My sweet baby girl turns 1!

So I promised a blog post about my baby girl's first birthday, so here we go!  I guess first thing is first...technically my baby girl is not so much of a baby anymore, which makes this mommy so sad.  Its crazy how fast this first year has flown by.  Its exciting and sad all at the same time.  We love seeing her grow and develop and learning new things, and its so exciting, but with every new thing that she learns how to do on her own, its just a reminder that she is not our tiny baby anymore.  So onto the birthday festivities...

We had her BIG birthday party the weekend before her birthday due to lots of other things going on during the weekend of her birthday.  Now I've been planning this birthday party pretty much since she was about 6 months old...no joke!  I decided to go with a butterfly/garden party birthday theme.  Her nursery is butterflies and flowers and birds (cheerful and happy) theme and as she has gotten older, she has become very fascinated with the butterflies on the wall, so it just made since.  Plus a lot of the party decorations are now serving as room decorations!  We had issues with the guest list because it was HUGE, but there are so many important people in her life and we wanted all of them to have the opportunity to celebrate with her and us.  I did a lot of the decorations myself, spending weeks on tutu table skirts that I saw on pinterest, and making table decorations, etc.  All in all, I'd say the party was a success and Ali had a blast!

Here's some pics from the BIG party day:

On Ali's actual birthday, Brandon and I took her to the pool for the afternoon and then we went to Yaya and Papa's for dinner (really to celebrate Father's day), but we had to have another smash cake for Ali since it was her birthday too!

I swear, I'm gonna get better at this...

So I think I need to start setting small goals.  My goal is one post a month and if I do better than that then great, but at least that's a monthly update of our crazy life!  So a brief recap of the last 2 months...

Mother's Day...What can I say about this day?  Its the greatest gift in the world to be the mommy to such a sweet baby girl!  I can not even remember what life was like before we were blessed with her.  Being a mommy is the best thing that I've ever done in my life!  So now onto our mother's day plans: we did a mother's day cookout at our house with both my family and Brandon's family on Saturday evening (although Mom was sick, so she missed the cookout) and then did our typical Mother's day brunch with my family, Nana, and the Eskews on Sunday.  We went to the best place in Winston for Sunday Brunch (at least in my opinion)...4th Street Filling Station.  So much fun!

Father's Day...So this was Brandon's 2nd Father's day.  We had about a week old baby girl last year!  We went to Sunday Brunch at Bermuda Run with my parents and then went to Brandon's parent's house that evening to celebrate with his family.  It was a great day all around!

We had a huge birthday occur on June 15th!  ;)  But I think I'll do a separate post on that one next!

A sneak peek of the post to come on her birthday!

My baby brother got married on June 30th!!!!  It was a beautiful, but HOT day!  Leading up to their wedding, which was taking place the same place that we got married, I said "well even if it's hot, it won't be as bad as our day...100 (record breaking high for June 7th)!"  Well it looks like they beat the heat on their day...102!!!  But despite the heat, it was a beautifully perfect day for a beautiful couple!  I could not have hand-picked a better girl for my brother to marry.  Diane is the perfect girl for him and we are so thrilled to have her in the family!

Bridesmaid brunch

Rehearsal dinner

With the groom to be!

One of the only pictures that I took on the wedding day

July 4th...We had the annual shop party that evening.  Its great because we set up games (horseshoes and cornhole), grills, tents, tables, and chairs and its a party with a perfect view of the fireworks.  Given this recent heatwave, it was pretty toasty but we still managed to have a great time and Ali was just a trooper!  She hung out and stayed up til 10:30, watching the fireworks, eating homemade ice cream, and loving the attention from everyone!  One of the things that I've enjoyed most since being a mommy is watching the world through a child's eyes.  I barely even watched the fireworks, because I LOVED seeing the excitement and wonder on her face as she saw them for the first time!  It just makes you so much more appreciative of the "little things in life".

Better Late, than Never...

Wow, to say that I'm behind on my blog is an understatement!  Life has been crazy busy...not that its unusual in this house.  I guess I'll just do this entry as an update on what's been going on around the James household!

Well my last post was about our trip to Jamaica...Brandon and I got settled back into our little routine of daily life.  I must admit that we miss our days of relaxation and laziness of not having to worry about a thing, but we sure are glad to be back home with our sweet girl!

Speaking of sweet girl...wow, she's growing up a storm!  I can't believe she's already 11 months old!  Where does the time go?!?  She's still such a joy and such a happy baby.  She's talking up a storm, mostly babbles, but she does say "mama", "dada",  "bye-bye", and we think she's trying to say "kitty" because she says "kiiii" when looking at the cats.  She is also on the move now!  She has been doing a cross between a crawl and a scoot.  Its so adorable, but man its made life a little more difficult...she's into EVERYTHING!!!  We also had to drop the crib to the lowest setting because she's pulling up to standing in the crib.  And as of last week, she's been pulling up on her push toy and walking around using her train as stability...walking could be anytime and then life will really get tricky!  Here's a few pictures of her recent antics:

My mom, Nana, and I took a girls cruise to the Bahamas earlier this month.  We had a great time (for the most part).  The days on the islands were great...awesome weather, fun shopping, and lots of laying in the sun at Atlantis in Nassau.  The days on the boat...not so fun!  We had some terribly rough seas, especially on Sunday.  Apparently it hasn't been that rough since hurricane season, when there was a hurricane somewhere in the atlantic ocean!  So to say we didn't feel great is an understatement.  We basically slept the day away because it was the only way that we didn't feel like we were going to be sick.  Other than that little hitch, we had such a great time.  It was nice to have a "3 generation" getaway.  And even though Nana was horrified to get on the boat, I think she had a good time overall.

Bahama Mamas...our fave drink!

Last bit of excitement over the last few months are babies, babies, babies!  First of all, Ali has met her future boyfriend!  :)  Bethanye and I have been friends since kindergarten, so its only natural that we attempt an arranged marriage for our children, right?!?  Well at the minimum it's one of Ali's new BFFs!  So on March 18th the world was blessed with one of the most precious little boys ever...Reece Allen Carrigan.  He's beautiful and perfect.  I'm so happy for Bethanye and Scott and for this amazing journey into parenthood that they are embarking on.  We got to go meet Mr. Reece in the hospital after he was born and then Bethanye and I have planned several little "playdates" (aka- adult time for the mommies while Reece sleeps and Ali crawls around playing). Here's a few pictures of sweet baby Reece:

Love taps for her boyfriend

In other baby news, my adorable little nephew was welcomed into this world on April 15th!  He is the other most precious little boy that I've ever met...William Lloyd Foster!   He's also beautiful and perfect and a wonderful addition to an already beautiful family.  So proud of Erin and Chad and how they've handled becoming a family of 4.  Here's some pics of my sweet nephew:

Well I think that about wraps up this update...I promise to try my best to post more often from here on out!  :)

"Its a big ass stingray...get out of here"

So I must first tell a little story to explain the title quote...Brandon and I went to Jamaica for 5 nights last week and on our second to last day, we had a little encounter with a stingray.  :)  My "strong and brave" husband was horrified!  So I'm sitting on a float while he was swimming around in the crystal clear water, when I see a large shadow coming towards us in the water.  I calmly say "hey Brandon, there is something coming towards us"...he searches for the water for a second (half believing what I'm telling him)...and then his eyes get HUGE and he shouts "Its a big ass stingray...get out of here"!  I swear I've never seen him move so quick in all of my life...he was practically walking on water...nevermind the fact that his wife was still in the water!  No concern about me whatsoever.  But I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even consider getting out of the water.  Oh yeah and the whole time he was bolting out of the water, he was screaming "that thing is not going to Steve Irwin my ass".  Needless to say the stingray turned and never tried to bother anyone...but I'm still cracking up at how horrified my husband was.

We had a phenomenal getaway.  We've never been to Jamaica, but had been told about how beautiful Negril was and particularly how great this resort was.  Needless to say all the recommendations were right on target.  Most beautiful beach I've ever seen, most amazing food that I've ever had at an all-inclusive, and the choices of watersports, excursions, and relaxation were endless.  It was definitely a nice break from "reality"...especially for Brandon.  He's been so stressed with opening a 3rd Subway, plus his last year of online school...so it was nice for him to be able to relax and not worry about work or school.  We were worried about leaving Ali for that long, but she did great!  We were able to call home everyday and everyone insisted that she was the perfect angel.  Doesn't mean that we didn't miss her like CRAZY!  We were so excited to see her and she was equally excited to see us on Sunday night.  When we came in the door, she just looked at us and got the biggest, sweetest smile on her face!  Melts my heart to see that little smile.