Monthly Photo Shoots

As hard as it was on some months, I am SOOO thankful to have these precious pictures of Miss Priss!  Here is a little re-cap of the last 12 months!

My quote from every photo shoot quickly became, "All it takes is 1!"

Here are some bloopers!

Note to self...don't buy a new camera mid-way through the monthly photo shoots...the pinks will be different!

12 Month Photo Shoot - 1 Year Old

Oh my!  The 12 Month Photo Shoot was by far the best!  Charley was excellent!  She did all of her "tricks" and was absolutely adorable!!!  So much so, Momma cried throughout most of the shoot.  All I could think about was her first month's photo shoot and how sweet and little she was and how fast this year has flown by.  This particular month was full of big changes.  At 11 months and 1 day, Charley took her first few steps.  It was a Friday morning, and it was just me and Charley at home.  She was standing in front of me and I put my hands out (like I have been doing for a while now) and she just wobbled to me!  It was PRECIOUS!!!!  After 5 or 6 steps, I scooped her up giving her the biggest kisses!!!!  I don't know if she would have gone any further or fallen or sat or what, because I was too excited!  On that same day, she learned to drink from a straw...which was something we have been working on for a while, too!  This made it much easier for her to drink from a sippy...and Granddad's coke, and Gramma's and Momma's diet coke!  At about 11 months and 3 weeks, I was at my wits-end and broke down in the car seat department!!!  I literally pulled the car over and turned the seat around in the middle of running errands.  I figured she was over the weight limit, and I doubt a cop would be able to tell if she was 11 months and 3 weeks or a one year old!  At that point, it was a risk I was willing to take!  Car rides are definitely not perfect, but MUCH better!!!  Plus, I can reach her and the DVD player much easier now!  By the end of the month, I was able to teach her to show that she was "1" by holding up her little finger!  This is just another trick to add to her skill set :)  Some of our favorites are spitting, blowing a kiss, squealing, showing how big she is, showing she's "1", showing her belly button (it often varies from place to place on her stomach), giving "five", shaking it, and my new personal favorite is when she shakes her finger and head saying "no, no!"  She is a MESS!!!  At her 1 year check up we stopped doing formula and made the switch to whole milk.  We are also working on getting rid of the b-o-t-t-l-e (we spell it now), which is going ok except for when its time to nap or sleep....so we still use the bottle at night and some morning naps.  As far as teeth go, the count is still 2.  That doesn't seem to hold her back on eating, as long as its something she likes.  If she doesn't like it, she spits it out...which is pretty gross.  The only place that you can guarantee she will eat and eat well is Chuy's...the apple doesn't fall far from that tree...like mother like daughter, and I like the sound of that!

Top 10 List of Things I Didn't Expect (about my first year of being a mommy!)

Well, tomorrow is the big day!  Miss Priss will be 1 year old at 8:04 a.m.  It is so hard to believe that 365 (well, 366 since it was leap year) days have gone by so quickly!  This time last year I was stuck in a hospital bed not-so-patiently awaiting Charley's arrival....little did I know what the year had in store for me! I will be the first to admit that, other than knowing about really cute baby clothes, I was pretty clueless in the whole baby department!  There were things I thought I knew...which leads to my Top 10 List of Things I Didn't Expect about my first year of being a mommy!

1. (Gramma's favorite) About two weeks into motherhood, I looked at Mom (fighting back the tears) and said, "No one tells you this is SO hard!!!"  And they really don't!  No one tells you any of the things on my Top 10 list or maybe I would have been a little more prepared!  Mom says people do tell you, but you don't listen...I guess those "rose-tinted" glasses of how easy I thought things would be kept me from hearing it, too!

2. Getting ready!  OMG...what a challenge!  It takes very strategic planning, prepping, packing, organizing and extra time to get out the door!  I don't think I will ever shower, dry my hair, put on make-up and get dressed in that order ever again without stopping to do something!  And that is just the beginning!  I thought I was so "together" a few months ago when I was getting ready to go to the Y.  As I was walking out the door, Charley spit up all over us both!  Really?  I got to start the whole process over again...but this time in a hurry, and I had to clean the spit up that was on the carpet!

3. No privacy!  Let me just tell you, last year when I went into the hospital, I said good-bye to my privacy! I remember the exact moment, because I changed into the hospital gown and tried my best to tie it and hobble back to the bed without anyone seeing anything!  haha!  I am laughing just thinking about how ridiculous I was!  After a few hours of labor, privacy was a thing of the past.  Now that Charley is getting bigger, I shower most days with the curtain open, which is even more difficult for me since I have been known to take a bath with the curtain closed!  I think I knew life would never be the same when I had to use the bathroom holding my baby in my lap!  All modesty is out the window when you can't even go poop without an audience in a front row seat.

4. Physical changes.  I'm going to be vain for just a second and say, "holy cow!"  Another thing that no one tells you about is the roller coaster you go on with your post-baby body!  I won't even go into the details of the horrible, allergic reaction that I had to pain medicine in the hospital and the nasty things that it did to me, because I am mainly referring to the after-delivery things!  I am not even really referring to the weight gain...I figure it took 9 months to gain it, and its gonna take at least that to lose it! (In this case, more than 9 months considering that Charley will be a year, and I still have 8 pounds to lose!)  My main thing would have to be the hair loss and gain!  Seriously!!!  For months it came out in chunks, and I couldn't wait for it to come back in!  Then as it started to grow, I looked like I was a 5 year old girl that cut her bangs way too short!!!  And my belly button...bless it's heart!  It will never be the same!

5. Emotional changes.  OMG, again!  I seriously asked Craig a few months ago if he thought I needed to see a doctor!  In no way or form did I have post partum depression, but my emotional dial was turned on max!  Actually is turned on max!  I am just so much more sensitive now that I am a mommy!

6. Going places.  For some crazy reason, I thought that my life would go on pretty much as is!  HA!  On one particular occasion, I took Charley to the mall to pick up shoes for Easter...just like I would've before Miss Priss came along!  I left the mall bawling!!!  Charley screamed, people stared, people commented, people judged!!!  I couldn't get out of the mall quick enough!  Then we went to meet Aunt Rachel at Baja Burrito, and when she got there I was in the back seat still crying and Charley was still screaming.  In a desperate attempt to calm her down, we drove around Nashville for 45 minutes before going back to Baja for dinner!

7. Traveling.  Well, I am the first to say that I keep the road pretty hot between MT Juliet and Benton!  From what I understood, most babies sleep in the car with no trouble!  Well...either those parents are liars or my sweet girl is the exception to that rule!  Plus, if the crying wasn't bad enough....what was I supposed to do when I had to stop and use the bathroom?  Let's just say I have mastered two very important skills...peeing while my child sits in my lap and sticking a bottle in her mouth while driving!  I am SO thankful to the maker of portable DVD players, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and the person that told me to break the law and turn her car seat forward facing before she was 1!  Things in this department are getting easier!

8. Baby-proofing.  I've heard of the typical electrical outlet plugs and baby gates...but this child seems to get into anything and everything that isn't hers!  Sometimes you have to be creative and arrange the decor and furniture to create diversions...but that doesn't always work for Miss Priss...she is sly like that!

9. Being sick.  I have NEVER been sick this much in my entire life!  It has been the endless cycle between Charley, Craig, Gramma, Granddad, Granny Martha, Granddaddy Charlie and me.  We've managed to pass snotty noses, sinus issues, sore throats, diarrhea, throwing up...you name it, we've passed it around!  I always thought this would be an issue when Charley has siblings...but we can't seem to get well enough around here to stop passing things around!

10. Sunday mornings.  Craig and I joked last Sunday about how it was the first Sunday morning we were actually speaking to each other by the time we got to church!  Who knew putting on your Sunday best would be so stressful!?!?  I am happy to say that after 48 (since Charley didn't go to church until she was a month old) Sunday mornings...we have now gotten a good system in place!

I can only imagine the things I will have to add to the list as Charley grows and a whole set of different situations arise!  I have learned more in the last year than in my entire life...and these lessons are definitely the best!

**I guess the bonus item to add to my Top 10 List would have to be that a year ago I never would have thought that being a Momma to my sweet girl would be one of my greatest accomplishments.  The unknown truly is a blessing!