18 Month Photoshoot

Once I upload the rest to my computer I will share some more, but here is one of my favs!

Oh goodness I can't get enough of her little smile! :)

Happy Half Birthday Baby Girl!

Can't believe my sweet girl is already 18 months old! Crazy how fast time flies and how much love one little girl has brought into my world. Happy half-birthday Layla Anne, you are my sunshine!

Mommy Advice Needed, Please :)

Just wanted to get a little feedback from other moms on vitamins and/or supplements. Do you give your kiddos any? If so what? And at what age did you start doing so? If not, any specific reason?

The reason I ask is because I feel like my LO is sick all the freaking time. Nothing serious, just a runny nose and such. I breastfed her until almost 6 months and in that time she had one cold. Once we transitioned to 100% formula I was worried that she would get sick more often, plus she started going to daycare shortly after. She went to daycare three times a week during the period from 7 months to 11 months. She had about two colds in that period of time. When we moved in to our new house my mom starting watching her two days a week again and she went to daycare one day a week. At 12 months we transitioned from formula to whole milk. Since she has been 12 months (she is almost 16 mos now) she has had NINE! colds. It is driving me crazy and I feel horrible for her because I feel like she is always sick. I know that part of it is that she only goes to daycare one day a week so she isn't building up as much immunity. But what I also wonder is if it has more to do with the fact that her formula had vitamins and minerals in it. The formula she was on has something called nutriprotect on the label. She is a great eater and loves her fruits and veggies so I thought that from her food and drinking milk she should be getting enough nutrients. Now I am not sure. I am considering now maybe giving her some sort of vitamin or something. I plan to talk to her pediatrician as well, but sometimes the best advice comes from other mommies ya know?

And it wouldn't be an acceptable Layla post without a pic of her of course. :)



A New Adventure: Kelly's Kids



When I was pregnant and we were on vacation in Destin. FL we met a mom and her two sweet little girls. She is from Louisiana and they all had the cutest accents. Besides their accents, one thing I noticed right away was the clothes that her two daughters wore. They were adorable and not just the "oh that is a cute outfit" adorable, but the "seriously I HAVE to have some of these ridiculously cute clothes for my unborn daughter" adorable! I finally asked her where did she shop for her daughters' clothes and she told me about Kelly's Kids. At the time they really didn't have a line for infants so I knew I would wait till she was a bit older. (Now that they have infants clothes too!)

Fast forward to now and I finally decided to act on this and check out Kelly's Kids. I found out that they don't have a store anywhere near me (their only actual physical store is in MS) and that really Kelly's Kids is more of a party type sales company. After some research and discussing it with my husband I decided that I wanted to be a Kelly's Kids sales rep. So this will be my first season and I am not sure how much time I can put in to it since I have a big girl, but I am going to give this a good shot.

Here is my shameless plug. :) Check out my Kelly's Kids website, you will love their stuff, for both girls and boys! The awesome thing is that if you see stuff that you love you can always have an e-party through me and get 10% of the sales towards free clothes! Easy peasy!

https://www.kellyskids.com/AliciaRobinson



Layla the Mommy

We received Layla's (see Baby on the way post) baby and stroller in the mail and she is in LOVE! It is so sweet watching her walk her baby and giggling the whole time! She gives her kisses, hugs, pats her head, puts her binky in her mouth, and her favorite thing to do is feed her baby.

Here is she is feeding her baby, melt my heart!

Doctor's Visit Blues

Monday we had Layla's 15 mo. checkup and I swear each time we go it gets worse! Don't get me wrong I love her doctor, but Layla is terrified of everything about the doctor's office even though everyone is super friendly and the place is definitely decorated to appeal to kids. The doctor assures me that this is very common in kiddos her age and she will grow out of it. I sure hope so.

Our visit looked a little like this:

We walk in, check in, and take a seat. Layla sits on my lap for a minute or so until she warms up and decides to play with the toy thing next to us. She gets a little more brave and wanders over to check out the fish tank. About that time the nurse calls her name so I pick her up and we head back to one of the patient rooms. As soon as we enter the doorway, it was like a light bulb went off in her head and she starts screaming.

The whole time I am undressing her down to her diaper she is screaming.

As the nurse measures her length, she is screaming.

When I sit her on the scale, she is still screaming and holding out her arms for me. :(

After that we sit and wait for the doctor. She calms down after a few minutes and I think to myself "So glad that is over."

Guess again! As soon as the doctor steps in the door, she starts crying again. He senses my mommy panic and assures me this is normal for her age. Since she is still upset he said it is probably best to keep his distance and do the Q&A part first and then he will do his checkup. She screams the whole time we are talking. Once he starts listening to her heart, lungs, eyes, and ears she really starts screaming. She is literally pushing him and his instruments away from her. He is so patient and sweet with her, but Layla doesn't notice one bit. He is her mortal enemy at this point, yikes. After we get a clean bill health, he exits and says the nurse will be back to give Layla her shots.

She gets two shots and is equally upset as she has been the rest of the visit (not that I blame her).

Finally we can leave and she gets back to her usual happy self.

Can you you say super stressed mommy!? I hated seeing her so upset and feeling helpless to boot.

Any tips from you other mommies that worked for your kiddos and their doctor visit fears?

Here is an after pic of Layla, red faced and soaked with tears. I had to take a pic to show my hubs. Her little sad face just breaks my heart. :(

15 MO. Stats: 27lb 3 oz and 33 in tall :)

Baby on the way.......

.....NOT so fast, by baby I mean, baby DOLL!

Ha, don't be too mad that I had you going oh yay!

Layla has really started to take an interest in one of her baby dolls that she has had for a long time. She loves to give her hugs and kisses. She is beginning to enter the stage where she expresses motherly type nuturing and I want to help her with that. I saw a little girl with a baby doll that I know Layla would love so I had to get it for her. This baby has a pacifier (Layla can totally relate as she is a paci baby) and also has a bottle. Layla no longer takes a bottle and I know she will love feeding her baby. When you lay the baby doll down her eyes close and the baby is the perfect size for Layla and looks so real. I was sold when I found out that it was also Phtalate BPA Free. I am so excited to for this doll to arrive. I searched online and this is where I found it the cheapest.

Corolle Bebe Charmeur

I also ordered the stroller that is a part of the Les Classiques line that the baby doll is in. I cannot wait to see Layla pushing her baby all around! 

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

***Warning long post, but I decided to put this all together rather than posting at separate times, it drives me crazy when I have to wait to read part 2 of someones story so I am not going to do that. :)***

"Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"

I have always agreed with this saying for the most part and this has proved to be true with blogging for me. You may be confused; why the absence and why did you need the heart to grow fonder? So I will try to explain my feelings and thoughts at the time when I decided to take a (very long) bloggy break.

When I first started this blog I enjoyed posting occasionally and reading other's blogs for craft ideas, money saving tips, and pure entertainment. I never really felt like I had to much to blog about. When we found out we were expecting our bundle of joy I enjoyed blogging about my experiences with pregnancy, giving baby updates, and basically just chronicling our journey through pregnancy. I also knew that once little miss arrived I would have even more to say. Although having a baby did provide a lot of opportunities for great posts, blogging was the furthest thing from my mind.

As soon as Layla was born I started feeling anxiety about going back to work. Each day after her birth was one day closer to the day I would have to go back to work and I was dreading it. For the 12 weeks I was home with her I soaked up every single solitary second that I could with her. I didn't go anywhere with friends, grocery shop unless she was sleeping, or really spend any time away from her. I realize this may sound crazy, but in my head she needed me and honestly I needed her. I was so afraid to miss something. I would get housework and other things done while she napped. If she was awake I was either holding her, sitting next to her, or had at least some sort of interaction. I did not understand why I was like this, but looking back I guess I was thinking that if I could spend as much time with her while I had the chance then once the time came for me to return to work, I would feel better about it. Boy was I wrong!

For the 2 weeks leading up to when I went back to work I cried daily. At night I would cry so hard, you know the kind where you are crying so hard you actually physically have an ugly face. I could tell that although Ryan was trying to comfort me, he had no idea how much this bothered me. I tried to be rational at times, knowing that going back to work was the only option, but I always thought what if? or maybe? we could figure out a way. Thanks goodness Ryan was my patient source of reality because otherwise I would have made a total emotional only decision and quit my job. Once the time came for me to go back to work I did it and I actually held up pretty well. Perhaps I was all cried out?

I thought that once I went back to work and I was back in to some sort of a routine I would start back to blogging and this is just what I did. I blogged a few times and starting catching up on my favorite blogs to read (most of which went through pregnancy right along with me). This is when the feelings of resentment, sadness, and jealousy started. I found myself being so angry and jealous of all the moms on here that get to stay home with their babies. It ate at me and reading these just validated that I had made the wrong decision and because of certain things going on in our life there was nothing I could do about it. It was then that I decided that I would just stop; stop writing and stop reading. My closest friends that have kids, also work so it was with them that I found comfort in and by not reading I was able to keep my frustration with the whole situation at bay for the most part.

I will try to better explain our situation and why going back to work was the only decision for us at the time. I work for a big aerospace company in Missouri and my husband is part-owner in a family pest control business. My job has decent pay, a flexible work schedule, and amazing benefits. My husband is still the main breadwinner although when you own your own business it lacks the benefits of company paid insurance, 401k, all those things we at one time took for granted. We also knew that we wanted to sell our 3 bedroom, 1200 sq. ft. ranch and move into a bigger house with a great school district before I quit my job. When you own your own business it is very had to get a loan, especially in the more recent years. So we knew that we had to have my income backing to get a loan, even though I made considerably less than he did, my income is considered more stable to mortgage companies.

So the plan was to sell our house, buy a new house, gets everything set up financially so we could afford to pay for our own insurance, and then I would begin my career as a SAHM. Well it took awhile to sell our house and even once we did that we could not find the perfect house for us. We ended up moving in with my in-laws for 3 months and then finally August 30th we closed on our new home. I was thrilled! This meant that soon enough I would be home every day with my sweet girl. Once we started adding up the costs of getting the house the way we wanted we knew that it was best to wait until the spring before I quit. The winter months are the slowest for the bug business naturally. Around the same time my SIL went back to work from her maternity leave and I had someone who knew exactly what I was going through. She too worked, booked all of her husband's appointments for the bug business, all while being a mommy too and wishing we was not away from her as much. Not long after she was back at work her and husband decided that she would be quitting her job. Once again the feelings of jealousy started up. But for some reason instead closing off from her we would talk about the challenges of being a working mom, owning a business, and for her the challenges of owning a business and a staying at home every day with your baby.

One day it just hit me. No one way is the correct way, every family has to decide what is best for them in the short-term and the long-term. And all decisions have their positives and negetives. Although I sometimes still feel sad about not getting as much time as I would like with Layla or the times where I get so frustrated at all the things I have to juggle, most days are good. I know that I am doing what is best for Layla. We get to go on fun trips, she will grow up in a beautiful home in a top ranked school district, and while she doesn't get spoiled we can afford to get the special things for her. I work 33 hours (which is considered part time at my company, but is the minimum hours you can work and still get benefits), I do calls and appointments for the business on my day off, some evenings, and weekends. My husband takes care of all the paperwork, record keeping, marketing, and growth opportunities. This is working for us and we know that Layla loves her days with her grandmas and her one day with Miss Sarah at daycare. This works very well for a our little family and I will not be quitting in the spring. We will continue to get financially set so that once the day comes for be to SAHM and bug lady (lol) there will not be any regrets and we can live comfortably. Once our next LO comes (no definite plans as to when that may be) I will transition into life without a big girl job. :

So there it is my whole story on why I avoided the world of blogging. And NOW I am ready, ready to share and ready to read. I am looking forward to seeing the experiences of all types of moms all while knowing that each one does what they do because it is what is best for them and their family. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I'm Alive!

Well folks it has been a year since I have posted anything on here or really read any one else's blog. I have lots of reasons for this absence, although at the time I really didn't understand or realize them. But now I am in a different place and I am glad to be back! I am looking forward to catching up with all my fav bloggers and getting back in to writing on mine.

So look for an explanation post very soon, since I feel like I need to explain.

Also, since so much has happened in the last 12 months, I want to not only blog about new and recent things, but also share some of the last year of my life.

I am looking forward to sharing with everyone. Until then I will leave you with an updated picture of little miss, she is really enjoying herself at daddy's birthday dinner!