11 months.

well how the heck did this happen?!  the little haysie maysie is 11 months old!

to say that this child brings us joy would be an understatement.  we love her so much!

she has a whole truck load of personality - kinda like another little girl i know....

so....mary hazel lucy, you are 11 months old today!  you had a great month....

*you cruise furniture now and can push your little grocery cart/walker toy around the room (i'll post a video or 2 below).

*you talk a lot!  much of it is really loud gibberish.  the words you know are: dada, mama, beau-beau, you say "ca" without the t for cat when you see bella, "mum-mum" -for your mum-mum snack.

*you LOVE to "rough house" - especially on sisters bed.  you get in her bed and throw yourself around and pin her down and burry your head in pillows, etc.  you have temporary blinded me with a knock to my eye doing this and then last night you nearly broke sister's nose doing this.  you have a hard head, haysie!

*you like to eat!!!  at all meals you shovel your food in and then make a "mum mum mum" sound while you eat.  it's really funny!  you like any meat.  in fact, meat is your favorite thing to eat - chicken, ham, beef, steak, bbq pork, turkey bacon.  you like sharp cheddar cheese.  you eat most all fruit and veggies.  i still give you baby food after you finish all the "real" food on your tray.

*we will be working on merging your morning and afternoon naps this summer.  

*you had your first beach day of this year on friday- you dug in the sand and ate some, too.  and took a beach nap.

here you are trying to get to daddy's food....

when you didn't have success you tried to get sister's......

and finally after sk joined us on the picnic blanket you were able to swipe her sandwich....

you got so tickled at yourself for getting away with this!!

sk loves you, haysie!  she told you on the way to the park this morning, "haysie, one day you will love finding nemo as much as i do.  you will, haysie.  you will get bigger and then you'll love it."  ha!!  too funny.  she gets that from me.  i'm always telling sk, "one day haysie will......"  you know, just trying to assure her that she'll grow into a nice playmate..."she won't always knock down your sand castles." ha!

my girls!  

beach fun....

beach nap....

eating the beach....

swinging continues to be your favorite activity!!

now, i have one more month to come to terms with the fact that my little tiny 5 pounder is nearly a toddler.  

videos to share - i have to post links to them...

HAYES CRUISING

HAYES AT DINNER

sk has completed 3k!  school's out & all the lucy girls are ready for some summer fun=)

a beach day was a great start!

ava & bryce (party pics!)

last weekend we celebrated ava and bryce - they turned 6 on may 2nd.  so hard to believe!  they had a mermaid/pirate party at mimi & papa's pool.  trey, sk, hayes and i made it down there friday night and enjoyed our weekend visit so much!  

pics to share...

maybe i'll do a party part 2 when i have more time!

lately (beau & sk).

oh what a day.

on a positive note, sarah kate is doing great!  sweet as pie - still spunky but in a good way.  whew.  we'll just leave it at that.  i'm now a firm believer of reverse psychology and i'd hate to speed up the next episode with too much bragging about good behavior. ha!

good behavior equaled plenty of pool time at mimi's.....

back to today....

beau has been doing well.  he has been stabilized and was set to start an important new heart disease med within the next week.  but after having a really bad night last night i took him in to the vet today and they rushed the med delivery so that he can start them tomorrow.  the fluid was back on his lungs and his breathing was labored.  they gave him another shot of the diuretics which has helped him so much!  i'm thinking we'll get some rest tonight.  last night was like having a newborn again!  i was up constantly with a pacing, panting and unsettled beau.  i felt so bad for him!  the vet reminded me today that she still usually sees dogs make it about another 6 months to a year after this diagnosis.  maybe i'm in denial (well, i guess i'm totally in denial) but i feel like this new med will really work well for him and he will live on longer!  she said that that was certainly possible.  i don't think they want to get our hopes up so they tell us the worst.  i just love my little guy so much!  he may have "over done it" at my parent's house this past weekend.  although the vet said to let him be a dog, i think he enjoys being a dog a little too much while down on the farm.  well, ups and downs are to be expected and he had a blast down there!  

hunting....

we had such a great time in folkston this past weekend!  ava and bryce had a very fun and cute birthday celebration at mimi & papa's pool.  i'll blog about that soon.  i have alot of pics to go through!

one of my favorites so far.....

love those girls!

guess who's back?

it's official.  reverse psychology works.  my old sarah kate was back today.  hopefully she sticks around.  i'm not naive.  i know we may not be entirely out of the woods just yet.  but today was good.  and we all needed that!

this is sk in her art class today.  she made me something (i don't know what it is) for mother's day and it's wrapped.  she wrote her name on the wrapping paper, drew a pic of sk & mama, and then wrote the word love on it.  when i walked in to pick her up she flew over to me and yelled, "here is your mother's day present, but you can't open it right now because mother's day is not until sunday!!!!!"  

where have i been?

dealing with HORRIBLE behavior from someone i love.

oh how i miss that genuine, sweet smile.  timeouts, spankings, taking dumbo away, an over-abundance of praise, sticker charts, ignoring, yada yada yada....we're doing all kinds of things around here. so i've resorted to talking crap about her on our family blog.  maybe that will work.

when hayes was a newborn she had the fussies.  duh.  if you've ever read this blog before then you know that hayes was quite the doozy of a baby.  people always asked about her anytime i was out and about without hayes.  i always said, "she's so fussy and difficult!"  and it never failed....the next day she'd be a dream and totally make me eat my words.  

if trey knew i was writing this then he'd say, "katie, god doesn't work like that."  and our pastor actually did a whole sermon on this very topic on sunday.  well, whatever!  i'm desperate.  my 3 year old's behavior STINKS and she is not a joy to be around right now.  

stay tuned.  i'll blog tomorrow to see if this worked.   there are good moments and yesterday she was very well behaved BUT her personality was still off.  way too full of herself.  not MY sarah kate.  hope i find her soon!  t minus 4 weeks till vacation with the husband.  breathe in.  breath out.  

and enjoy the good moments - even if there aren't many.

pics...
hayes looks so relaxed - she cracked me up.  she's growing up too fast!  sk gets frustrated with her some but overall, she is really good with her.  being a big sister is hard!  i wasn't one, but i can see that it is - little siblings are annoying without meaning to be and it's hard to be patient but sk puts on her patient pants quite a bit (see - i'm positive!)

up close and personal with a lemur at the aquarium yesterday....

my mom and trey think this little cuteness is sk's big problem......

she's active, she invades sk's space, she goes after her toys and she requires alot more of my time and attention.  i suppose they have a point, but hayes becoming an actual person as opposed to being a lazy infant can't be the only reason for our behavior problems.

i know - this too shall pass!  it always does.  we wouldn't trade her for anything in the whole world!  and we just keep on going!  my problems are so small.  i always remember people who have lost babies and children who they loved and wanted so badly and then i remember how grateful i am for my babies!  i'll take them any ole way they come.  just like i'll gladly take my adult vacay soon;)

insta wordless wednesday.