Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Preschool, wedding weekend, and our new favorite thing in Memphis

No more Mother's Day Out -- Mimi is now in Roulhac's Preschool!! She's been attending for about 2 weeks now, and we couldn't be happier. Normally when we drop her off in the morning she cries a little, but she has literally jumped out of my arms to see her new friends this week. No tears . . . no chasing me with open arms . . . yeah, I'm a little sad.
They had a huge water slide last week, and I stopped by to try to take some photos without her noticing. Of course, she noticed so all of my pictures are of her screaming . . . but I still think they're cute. We visited my parents in Corinth a couple of weekends ago when our air went out and rode to Pickwick on Saturday afternoon. Mimi loved seeing the water and the boats.Last weekend we went to Jackson for a wedding, and Mimi went crazy in the hotel. She loved to run full speed into the closet mirror, stick her head in the air conditioner so her hair could blow, and pull all the toilet paper off the roll. I'm so glad she's able to entertain herself in a small hotel room!
Hooray for babysitters!!The Botanic Gardens has recently added "My Big Backyard," which is a couple of acres of treehouses, sandboxes, creeks, little play houses, bridges, and flowers that are all geared towards children. I had no idea what we were in for when I decided to stop by and check it out this afternoon. Oh. My. Gosh. It is absolutely amazing.Mimi's favorite part was the "rain," which is an area that looks like a front porch with a tin roof. Every 15-20 minutes it thunders and kids start running from the other areas to get drenched under the rain. I had no idea how Mimi would react to this, but she ran straight to the middle squealing and giggling. We were so not prepared, so her clothes (and mine) were completely soaked. And this is what she did when we got home . . .

Monday, August 10, 2009

Happy First Birthday!!

Mimi celebrated her very first birthday on Saturday, August 1, at our house, and she had a blast! Our little home was completely filled to the brim with friends and family, and despite the torrential downpour outside, we all had a great time. She LOVED her cake and dove right in . . .and then went crazy with a sugar rush and ran around the house for a couple of hours!
Here we are about a year ago with our new little bundle . . . we had no idea what the first year would be like. As Mimi grew bigger, we grew wiser and a little less selfish -- 3 feedings a night will do that to a person. Before we had a baby, our lifestyle consisted of sleeping in as late as possible, going out to dinner almost every night, sending our dog Ruthie to doggie day care (which is more expensive than Mimi's!), watching TV all night, and basically feeling like we had very little responsiblity other than work. Needless to say, the priorities have definitely changed, and we have changed for the better. Clint and I know all the songs on Sesame Street and we buy organic produce. I don't even pay attention when Anthropologie or J. Crew has a sale, but I go nuts when Cotton Tails has smocked dresses for $35! In the past we watched Dave Chapelle when we wanted to laugh -- now we just sit in the floor with our little one-year-old and crack up at her trying to dance or be silly.