No Name.

A few years ago my mom changed her name from "Mom", and any variation, to "No Name". Now I understand why. Don't misunderstand; I LOVE hearing "Momma" from Waverly's mouth, just not every minute for a half hour straight. Mothers, you know what I'm talking about.

However, I must brag on her and her skills...

In our house lives Momma, Gaga (Dadda), Go-go (Fenway), and Wee wee (Waverly). The "wee wee" is cute for now... we'll keep practicing "WAY-Verly".

She LOVES animals and her favorite book is, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" She will pull every book off of the shelf until she finds that one. Then ask, "Piece" (please) until you read it to her. BB bought her an "eppo" (hippo) pillow for Easter that Waverly absolutely adores. Daddy and I also bought her an "eba" (zebra) stuffed animal from Africa that sleeps in her bed.

Along the lines of loving animals, I have worked a lot with her to learn different animal sounds. Over the past few months, she has learned to mimic the sounds of a dog, cat, duck, monkey, bird, horse (just the spitting, not the "neigh"), bear, and sheep. I think we're going to do the zoo thing sometime soon.

I'm just so proud of her. My parents have told me all my life how proud they are of me. I just shrug it off like no big deal, but now I understand. It is incredible to watch your child learn new things and practice new skills, like saying, "Momma" as much as possible in the shortest amount of time.

While I'm at it...

...procrastinating, that is. I figure it's about time to put some photos up from Waverly's birthday party. See, by this point, I would typically just say, "forget it" and put the photos in an album at my leisure; however, this blog is somewhat of a journal of Waverly's life that I want her to have access to some day. So, better late than never!

We really did have quite the bash. For a couple months I wrestled with the invites: Who do I invite? Friends? Family? Which then begged the question, Where are we going to have this shindig? If we have it at our house, it would have to be a short guest list, but if we have it elsewhere, we could probably invite more people. But if we invited more people, we'd have to pony up more money for snacks and favors. But if we only invited a few people, who would we have to leave out?

What a dilemma. And Waverly didn't care one bit. Rude.

Finally, I worked it all out: we would invite Waverly's Gymboree pals, her grandparents and aunts and uncles (obviously), and just a couple of mine and Chandler's friends. Still, it was 40 people.

My second major dilemma: What is the theme? Again, Waverly didn't care. I was sailing this ship solo.

Ultimately, I found the invitations I wanted; they were pink and yellow with her photo on them. The selection was called "pink lemonade". And I had my "theme": pink and yellow. We served pink lemonade, banana punch (yellow), decorated with pink, yellow, and white balloons, tissue paper puffs, and tablecloth. My MIL made the cake and cupcakes with lemonade powder sprinkled on top and the favors were small jars with either pink lemonade mix or yellow lemonade mix.

Yay! I made a lot of the decorations and bought the food over a period of time. Ultimately, I paid only about $150 for everything. I'm pretty pleased.

As the hostess, I was busy making sure everyone was taken care of, but I managed to snap a few photos. Fortunately, my SIL was able to help out and took photos as well.

 Sam

 John Camden with his mouth full. Love those cheeks!

 Baby Em! We love her :)

Ella

 "Happy birthday, to you..."

After singing, everyone clapped, so Waverly joined in. Of course, we all started laughing which encouraged her to clap more!

Carter had phone calls to make

Ella showing Waverly the how-tos of opening gifts

Richard

 Swinging on her new jungle gym

Playing with Papa

Opening gifts with Grandma

It was really a great day. Party: Success!

"Hi, baby"

I swear, my child grew leaps and bounds when we were gone. Her hair is growing over her ears and flipping a little in the back. It is darker and thicker, too. She is gaining confidence with walking; she doesn't  shrug her shoulders and lets her arms hang like a normal person. It is scary.

However, I am most impressed by her newfound ability to string together two-word phrases like, "Hi, baby", "Oh, blankie", and "Thank you". She is like a spongey parrot: soaking up and mimicking everything she hears and since I talk to her all day, she does a lot of mimicking. Guess it is time to clean up my act!

Along the way, Waverly has also developed a nasty habit. Tonight, though, she took it to a whole new level. For whatever reason, she likes to poop in the bathtub. When it first happened, I hoped it was a one time thing, but it must be a toddler fad. I have become quite adept at noticing the early signs, but cannot seem to get her out of the tub and onto the potty fast enough. So, what is that new level, you ask? She peed on the bathroom floor right before I put her in the tub. Soon thereafter, she pooped in the tub. Fail.

What does all of this tell me? Sit her on the potty while I fill up the tub. Throw her in and wash her up. When her nostrils flair, grab her up, fling her back on the potty, and cross my fingers that all of the hooplah does not interfere with her "business".

Boom. Potty Training 101.

11 Days.

The longest time I have ever been away from my baby girl and it. was. tough. We were fortunate enough to have some kind of internet; however, it wasn't sufficient enough for Skype-ing. I only saw her face twice. Three nights I pumped myself up thinking I would see her precious face, but was left in tears when our internet connection failed repeatedly.

Today was a sweet day. I wanted to run through the airport to get to her, but we settled for a swift walk. I was absolutely elated to see my baby toddle around the corner, but I don't think she recognized me in my glasses with my curly hair pulled back... not my usual style. She just wanted her ga ga. It didn't hurt my feelings; I was happy that she was excited to see her daddy and she did warm back up to me.

She is more beautiful than the day we left and is looking more like a little girl than a baby.
I love her.
I could snuggle her forever.