Lions & Tigers & Bears . . . oh my!

Today was our first outing to the zoo with the kiddos! Tracy and Kelton came over around 10am and we packed up my Honda Element as if we were off to a week’s vacation to Disneyland! The sky was overcast but it wasn’t going to stop us. After stopping for a Starbucks we headed to the Fort Worth Zoo.

We arrived around 10:45 with babies both in a good mood. It started to trickle some but we took cover and it soon went away back to just gray skies and hot sticky humidity. I would never survive in Houston, I’ll tell you that! I had on jeans and Sophie’s diaper bag backpack which helped my lovely insulated body produce a few buckets of sweat. I must say that I’m absolutely in love with this diaper bag/backpack that I got a few months ago. It has a cooler in the bottom, although I didn’t use that today, and room for loads of other things. I just sling it on my back and off we go! It’s great! (For those curious it’s called Outside Baby Cooler Backpack).

Sophie had only one diaper change along with a change of clothes due to a diaper accident, then she was great the rest of the time. Those big ole cheeks of love she carries around can cause all kinds of problems! I had her in the stroller like a big girl and she seemed to enjoy that. Kelton of course enjoyed it a bit more since he can look at things, point and walk around. We went and saw the gorillas, flamingos, zebras, alligators, rhinos, elephants, bears, snakes, birds and lions . . .and a few others.

After about an hour or so we were zooming around trying to find our way to the lion den as we could hear the lion actually roaring from across the park! It was nuts, it sounded like a sound effect and we were going in a maze trying to get to the lions! Once we got there we had a sacked out lion and a sacked out Sophie. So much for that. I guess roaring is exhausting, so is being a chunky little Sophie.

I don’t like that my sister is jobless but I do like how much time I’ve been able to spend with her over the past few months! It’s been loads of fun! I think Kelton does too . . .

Uno.

Wow what a big weekend we had! Let me see where to start . . . My family all came into town as it was Kelton’s 1st birthday! The little guy is a year, I can’t believe it! He’s walking like a little robot and getting around quickly. He also is doing several baby signs for things and it’s super cute.

My mom, David (my step-dad) and Tracy all toiled away in the yard since last Thursday as they re-landscaped Tracy’s yard for the big party on Saturday. Friday I had a couple of clients during the day and then we all headed over to Tracy and Andy’s for dinner. We hung out there and Sophie didn’t want to fall asleep there so we got her home and she finally went to bed around 9pm (her bedtime is usually 6:30-7pm).

Saturday was the big day. I had to work in the morning and then got to Tracy’s with Sophie around 2pm, party started at 2:30pm. Sophie had a nice long nap that morning while I was at work, Daddy said, so I thought she may be able to handle the whole party. She got very over-stimulated with all the people and activities. We tried to put her down at Tracy’s but she couldn’t get to sleep there. So Daddy drove her around the block in her car seat and she fell asleep and took a nap for about an hour.

While David and Sophie were driving around we sang to Kelton as he stared at his sprinkle-filled cupcake. He’d never seen such a sight and wasn’t sure what to do with it. I got a little on video of us singing but for some reason I didn’t keep rolling for you to see him put the cupcake up to his face and bite into the huge dollop of icing on top! It was cute as could be. Anyway here is the video.

Here is a still photo I got of Kelton after the singing.

So after that we hung out at Tracy’s for quite a while and Andy got some really cute shots of Daddy and Sophie. She’s gonna be a Daddy’s girl for sure. He’s got her wrapped, er. . . she’s got him wrapped. I can’t wait until she tells him about the first boy she has a crush on . . . . We’ll see how that goes.

Goop.

Today we got to take our first trip to the pediatrician for a reason other than a check-up! Little miss has pink eye! I first noticed a little goop yesterday and then after David got home yesterday he says, “Stacy, what’s wrong with her eye??!!” So I told him I’d watch it and if it looked funky today I would call the doctor. So this morning she woke up with a big ole goopy booger in her eye and some redness around it. We took a trip to the pediatrician’s this afternoon and sure enough–pink eye it is! Our pedi’s office is great about not drugging up babies so they only like to prescribe medicine if it’s absolutely necessary. He gave me a prescription and said to see how her eye is tomorrow and if it’s the same then I can fill it (it’s just eye drops). In the meantime we are washing hands thoroughly and Sophie got a nice hot bath this evening!

She didn’t nap well at all today, I think she’s feeling a bit under the weather but she’s happy as a clam still and eating ok. We did get to weigh her at the pedi and she’s 14 lbs 6 oz! That’s a whole pound since March 30th! They didn’t measure her as they usually only do that on wellness check-ups which means not again until she’s 6 months.

Well here is a video of her just before David got home this evening . . .

B is for Banana.

Well my little one is learning and growing like a weed! Day by day it is so obvious how she grows and develops. It’s sad, I know she won’t be this cuddly forever. I give her lots of squeezes and love right now while she likes them. She grabs for everything and watches everything. She’s grabbing the bumper in her crib and she fell asleep the other day with her cute little chubby hand dangling off of the bumper. I quickly got a picture.

David is such a wonderful Daddy. He gets home from work and instantly goes in and takes over whatever needs to be taken over. I usually have to leave within minutes but even if I don’t he still does the same. Then he always has full-time duty on weekends as I’m gone just about all weekend. I didn’t see them for about 24 hours this weekend. . .

Saturday I started with a 9:30am client in Dallas and then had my first class at the new indoor dog park. Misty helped with my class and so we stayed after at the park to observe and get to know some of the staff there. It was fun. I finished around 3pm and got home around 4pm. David and I went on a date to Pappasitos . . . Don (David’s dad) came and got Sophie around 5:30pm and she spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s. I had to go meet my therapy dog group in Dallas the next day by noon then go help Misty with a class and a private lesson so I didn’t get home until around 5pm. I went in and got Sophie and she looked seemingly large to me. I thought to myself–has she grown 2 inches since yesterday? I was sad that I didn’t see her for 24 hours!

This week is a bit slower but still crazy with things I have to get done for all the classes that we are starting at the new place. I called Megan this morning at 9am asking if she was busy today so she could come watch Sophie so I could just get some things done. So she came over around noon and I was able to get a few things done. I could have gotten more done but I did get some things done. As you can see in this picture, this is what it looks like when I take Sophie with me to the grocery store! . . . Megan left around 3pm and Sophie slept until 5pm! She took the longest nap in her life as she had been asleep since 1:45! So she slept about 3 hours and 15 minutes!

We did get a new garage door on Saturday. Our old one literally died. It was an old wooden door and the guy said he thinks it weighed around 800lbs! So we got a new one and it’s lighter weight and metal–thanks to Grandma and Grandpa (Susan and Don)–Thanks!

This coming weekend we will have a busy weekend as it is Kelton’s 1st birthday! I’m excited I think it will be fun. Of course any party Tracy puts together will be fun and cute to boot! She put “no gifts” on her invite but it’s a 1-year old he’s gonna get gifts from me!

I’m a big girl now . . .

We are onto solid foods to start our little baby engines! First we tried some bananas and she puckered up like she ate a lemon and today we did applesauce. I think we’ll stick with that. She ate much more of it although the face of puckering still remained. I got a bit of it on video and it’s pretty cute.

I also wanted to make note that although I thought we would be perfectly fine without a high chair I think I may have changed my mind after seeing this awesome 3-in-1 high chair at Target in San Angelo last weekend. We registered and received the cool little hook-on chair that is currently hanging from our kitchen table awaiting Sophie to goo it up but it’s not going to travel too well. Also, Tracy used it for a short bit with Kelton and she found that the gap between the baby and the table was so big that he’d drop almost all of his food before it hit his mouth! So she has one of the neat-o chairs that has a little tray on it and it buckles into a regular chair. Then when they are older you can use it as a booster seat. Well that is the 3-in-1 that I found!! 1: high chair 2:portable booster seat with tray 3:booster seat. It’s also a cushioned plastic so it’s easy to clean (someone was thinking along the lines of messy babies here, very intelligent I must add). Anyway I was going to add it to the list on the right but I thought I’d add it here because I saw it in the Target store but cannot find it on their website for the life of me. I think it’s brand spankin’ new so it’s not on the site yet. Or maybe you can only get it in stores. I dunno. Anyway. Love it. And for a 3-in-1 mod high chair it’s only $99. Awesome. Let’s get some food out and start sloppin!

Ok. Here is a super cute picture of her laughing with her big gummy smile. Isn’t she the cutest thing? Since David and I moved into this house we started this little thing where we write notes on each others mirrors. We each have our own sink and mirror in our bathroom and one day I noticed a wipeboard marker and I took it and wrote a note to David so he’d see it when he was getting dressed for work. So we swap cute little notes here and there. This morning my mirror says, “Thanks for making me so cute, Mom. Love Sophie.” I went in and said, “David can you believe it? Sophie accused me of making her cute!” The nerve.

Gotta love babies!

Sophie is so much fun! Sadly she’s teething right now and so she’s a little fussy and in some pain a bit but overall she’s doing well with that. She likes to be cuddled and held so I hold her and squeeze her while I can and while she allows it. I know it won’t be long when I can’t squeeze on her like a little puppy-dog.

Tracy has sent a few of the pictures from Easter. There are many, in the 100s, I think. I know she’ll put them on Snapfish and I can send the link to you so you all can order some. In the meantime I’ll post a few here.

Well this week is absolutely nuts for me for work. I have several clients but I’m extremely busy doing stuff just from home on the computer. I’m working on all the stuff for the new indoor dog park that wants us to do classes. It seems like it’s probably official and we will in fact be doing classes there. We haven’t got it in concrete just yet but we are almost there. I typed up a long proposal with classes, pricing, details, equipment and everything and had a meeting with the HR lady there today. She loved my neatly organized outline and is very excited to have us there. I did aim high on the commissions and she said she has to “run the numbers” and get back to me on that. I hope they will go with the number I offered so I can benefit fully from doing this!

Well I’m really tired and have my brain on overload right now . . . I’ll be back . . .

Hoppy Easter!

Hello All! We had a very good weekend and it was so great for me to get away! Work is getting stressful, maybe I’m making it that way but with a baby and work at the same time it gets stressful much quicker!

Anyway, Tracy and Kelton came over Friday around 11am and we hit the road. We made a great road trip only taking 5 hours to get to San Angelo with 2 babies! Awesome! At one point during the drive Sophie was fussing as we were searching for a rest stop to change a poop-filled diaper and feed her and Kelton got sick of listening to her and started crying too. My mom calls while both kids are wailing. Tracy and I are laughing. My mom says, “Uh oh . . . two babies upset?” I said, “Oh yeah” and I chuckled. My mom says, “Yeah that’s real fun isn’t it?” with a load of sarcasm. My poor mother had to listen to Tracy and I cry for hours on end apparently. We are told we were not dream babies and that we made her life a living nightmare for the first year. Anyway, since Tracy and I don’t have to listen to that everyday with two kids we found great humor in it at the time! Overall the trip was very easy considering we did have two kids under the age of 1 traveling 275 miles . . .

David and Andy left late that evening and got in town around midnight. We all had a very busy day and crashed out. Sophie slept like a log, went down at 7pm and didn’t get up until 7am the next morning.

We did have a tragedy that still makes me cry when I think about it. Saturday we went over to Mimi’s (that’s my mom’s mom) as Granda got to leave the nursing home to come over for the day. So we all went over. Mom, David (my step-dad) and Aunt Cathy were there as well. Mom, Tracy and I had gone to get some things at Target and upon our return we found the family searching for Mimi’s little mini Poodle, “Dude.” He was only about 7lbs and was indeed old. David and I got in my car and started driving around. David Hendricks (step-dad) calls me on my cell and says, “Can you come in the alley, I think I found something . . .” We drove down there and David had seen someone’s back gate open so he peeked in and they had a swimming pool. Poor little Dude had fallen in and drowned and was already lifeless by the time David found him. David laid him on the ground outside of the home and I just burst into tears and bent down and loved on his little wet body. I took his collar off of him so that I could give it to Mimi in case she wanted to keep it. I noticed the tag that hung from it was the one I had purchased for her many years ago that had “Dude” stamped across it with Mimi’s phone number. That little booger would bolt out the door any chance he got and so I had given that to Mimi once in case he ran off and someone found him . . . . Anyway we had to tell Mimi the news and she was absolutely heartbroken. For those that don’t know, my grandfather (we call Granda) is in a nursing home so Mimi’s all-time companion was that little Poodle. David (my David), Andy and David (step-dad) dug a little grave for him in Mimi’s back yard and buried him properly. Mimi told my mom today that once all the company was gone she took a chair over and sat next to his grave and “had a talk with him” . . .

Onto to the brighter side of the weekend . . . it was good to be with my family, as it always is. We went to Southland Baptist, the church I grew up in and that my Dad and Carol (step-mom) are still very, very active in. Dad and Carol were actually teaching the Sunday school class that was our age group so we went to that class after we dropped Sophie off for her first time in a nursery! The class was quite intriguing as it was the end of a 6-week kind of “project”, if you will, about poverty. I wish we had been there for the whole thing as I found it very profound just listening to the last part of the whole thing. As Dad stated that “we just scratched the surface on this topic” and we really don’t realize what an issue or possibly what poverty really is. As Christians we should always lend a helping hand no matter who it may be.

There were three pregnant women in the class, two of which appeared so pregnant that they could have probably given birth right there today if the sun was aligned just right . . . one of them spoke up stating that she noticed a very obviously underprivileged child one day when she was picking up her 6-year old from school. The child, she said, had pants on that looked like they should fit a child half his age. She took a bag of old clothes her kids had at home and the next time she saw the mother at school she went to her and discreetly told her that she would be doing her a favor by taking the clothes off of her hands. I was really touched by her story and it made me realize how lucky many of us are today and how much we really should reach out to help others in need. Whether you are a believer of God or not you can still feel the absolute rush of happiness it gives you as an individual when you do help someone who is truly in need. I’m now going to think of a project for my non-profit group to do for others. We had helped the community last Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I was large with child and wasn’t able to be there for it, Misty (my wonderful friend, trainer and Board Member for our non-profit), did all the work and said it was great to see the faces on the family we adopted when they gave them many donated items and gifts for Christmas. . .

Sophie did well in the nursery but she didn’t sleep a wink and was so extremely exhausted that she wasn’t even fussy but her little sparkling eyes were so heavy and as we waddled through the church crowd to the car she fell asleep in Daddy’s arms. So she transitioned from the car to her bed at my Dad’s and slept for about an hour. A bit after lunch Uncle Andy got his handy professional camera out and took a zillion pictures of Sophie, Kelton and then the two of them together. I can’t wait for Tracy to upload them. We’ll upload the pictures to Snapfish so that anyone can purchase professional-grade pictures if they want to frame some. I’ll also post them here too.

David and I made it home around 8pm this evening and I’m just about ready to crawl in my own bed and go off to dreamland . . . . All the pics on here were taken over the weekend. Her little dress and hat is what she wore to her first Easter Sunday!

Chunk of Love.

So I decided against the blog remodel. I couldn’t find a template I liked and so I just changed the colors on this one a bit. Go ahead and tell me if you do not like. . . . .Well we are going to be leaving tomorrow morning (Friday) for San Angelo! Tracy and I are taking the kids and then the hubbies are meeting us there tomorrow evening. I had a slow week, work-wise, but was swamped with emails and phone calls so I’m going to be quite busy over the next couple of weeks–hooray!

Ok. Sophie is starting to mimic me a little bit. She has discovered her tongue and spits and makes “pffffsssst” noises all the time while spitting everywhere! She’s so cute! I can stick my tongue out and in and out and in and after a few times she’ll ever so slightly try to do the same! Her gummy smile is the cutest thing on the planet and poor David doesn’t get to see her laugh except on the videos!

Well Monday I had gone to the doctor because I had been feeling really strange–really, really fatigued, lots of hunger, and headaches. Well the doctor thought it could be a low thyroid. I got my tests back and they said I was “a healthy person”, which is good news. So, I guess I’m probably just stressed and not eating and exercising like I should. I’m vowing to change that not just for health reasons but because well . . . I really need to!

Anyway . . . I walk a Golden Retriever every Tuesday and Thursday and then train him some too while his owners are at work. He’s super cute and almost pure white. His name is Riley. I snapped this pic of him before our walk today.

Let’s get back to Sophie, the little chunk of love. I got this cute pic of her looking at Jake. I think this might have been the first time Jake noticed we have a baby. He really hasn’t acted like he knows much. He says–wait a second . . . we haven’t met!

Oh yes and don’t forget to look at the new books I added to the sidebar under “Sophie’s List”. I found some good reviews on them and they look super cute too! Just a little side note. Also, remember you can always find where to buy or visit any of the items in the sidebar by clicking the picture or logo I pasted.

And then here are some random pics Tracy took while babysitting the other day. She’s all crafty with the camera. She must have known a photographer. She’s got some connections, I just know it. . . . Pictures are available at a discounted rate to well-liked members of the community. Just ask for Stacy Greer when requesting a photo . . . .

New Blog?!

I’m changing my blog to have a nice little background . . . and a new look! Bear with me I have to go back and add in all the little pictures of things I had listed on the side, the books, schools, etc. That takes a bit so . . . . stay tuned!

Here comes Peter Cottontail . . .

We are going to be in San Angelo for Easter so we had our Easter lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Greer today. Sophie got her little hot pink corduroy dress on and got to wear her fuzzy bunny coat because it was so cool and windy! She also got her first Easter basket full of eggs, clothes and some books!

My weekend was productive as I had my normal classes on Saturday and then I had a great adventure as I went to take a look at the newest thing in the metroplex for dog lovers–and indoor dog park that is state of the art called Unleashed Dog Park! The park just opened last weekend and Misty had gone to the Grand Opening as I was in Austin then. She said it was amazing and so we met up on Saturday to take a look at it once again. Here are some cool bits about this place:

Situated on 6.5 wooded acres just four minutes from downtown Dallas, Unleashed IDP is a state-of-the-art 50,000 square foot facility with spacious play parks for dogs and their owners created of a special K-9 turf that stays clean and green year round. There’s also a pet supply center, café, grooming, daycare and lounge areas overlooking all the action.

Well I had discovered their website a few weeks ago and emailed them right away to ask about trainers or if they were seeking anything of the like. The owner called me just this week and said he wanted me to come in as he hadn’t spoken with any other trainers yet and he was impressed with what I had to say. Of course I used all my redheaded charm. Misty and I talked to the entire staff for about 2 hours and they want us to do classes in there, behavior seminars and other goodies. I said, “If you could get agility equipment in here I could fill classes for you left and right . . .” he said, “Tell me where to get the equipment and we’ll get it in here. We can move these fences around and set this up to your needs! . . .” Misty and I left all pumped. We are going to meet with them after Easter weekend to work out specifics. We will be 1099s (independent contractors), so we won’t be under any obligations or anything. We can also sell and advertise my current services while there too! This will be a huge opportunity for us and we are so excited!

Well I’m finally off on Sundays and Mondays once again. I’m going to put my foot down and be sure to keep from scheduling on those days. I most likely will have to start working on Sundays once again when I start some work for this dog park since weekends are the peak times for them. Until then . . .