Mamie's first time swimming

Hide'n'Seek

Oh, one more adorable thing. Before I knew about Mamie's spina bifida, I had a dream when I was pregnant of my little girl running away and hiding from me and it kinda broke my heart when I felt like that would never quite happen. Well, just not exactly how I had imagined.

The other day, Mamie and I played hide and seek. I hid in her room and kept saying, "Come find Mommy!" and she'd army crawl into the room and get so excited and giggle when she found me. Then I hid in the bathroom and did the same thing. Then in my room. Then Daddy came home and I told him to hide under the desk and I "chased" Mamie (crawling) into the living room where we found Daddy under the desk. So cute! I just LOVE my girl!

Beany Baby

So the other day, I find Mamie had army crawled her way into her room and found not just a left over cracker, but a little sealed container of sugar water stuff that we used when she was really little to get her to settle down when we replaced the feeding tube. Anyway, I found little bite marks in the top of it. She was sitting there happily eating her cracker and sugar water. Great snack. LOL

Here is my little "beany baby", enjoying some beans. She likes to use all natural products to give herself a facial as well. It's amazing what some beans can do for blemishes.... ;-)

At the Beach

Mamie's first birthday
Mamie with Mommy and Daddy

Mamie the secretary

Our little sweetheart, Mamie

Mamie finished her last swim lesson this past week at the local rec center. It was Monday and Wednesday mornings for 4 weeks. Usually, after the swim lessons, I would take her and sit on one of the steps in the hot tub with her in my lap (she was not in the hot tub at all). Anyways, there was a water aerobics class for seniors at the same time and some of them usually went in the hot tub afterward. There were 2 ladies in particular that we would see nearly every time and talk to named Marty and Karen. They would offer to hold Mamie so I could get in the water, and they would just talk to her and wave to her and enjoy her cuteness. On the last day of swim lessons, the babies in the class got to go down a big water slide (with their mommies of course.) As the other parents considered whether or not they wanted to do it, me and Mamie were of course the first ones there, (adventuresome spirits that we are). I put on her cute life jacket that made her look like a marshmallow man and we went down 3 times! By the 3rd time, she was giggling. We came out of the slide right near the water aerobics class and all the old ladies were watching and cheering her on. It was so cute!

She has also REALLY been getting around! She army crawls her way around the house, we are thinking of getting a gate for the kitchen, cuz she eats all kinds of junk off the floor. She likes to go down the hall, especially if Wade or I is down there in our room or the bathroom. She has also started going down the 2 stairs to the family room. We definitely have to watch her when she does that because she goes face first and usually ends up rolling down them.

She loves to say hi and wave. Everywhere we go, she smiles and waves at people. But the best is when she actually says hi. Its so cute, and people never expect it because she does it completely unprompted. She just sees them smiling and says hi! She also loves music and you can never turn music on without Mamie starting to dance. She just waves those little arms so vigorously! We recently had the primary program at church and we'd hold her up a little on each song so she could see all the kids. She loved watching them sing, and of course participated by waving her arms.

When I tell her to do the wiggle, she does a cute little wiggle with her body and head. Today I said "giggle" and she thought I'd said "wiggle", so she did. When I say, "Give mommy kisses" she just kinda leans against my cheek for ME to kiss HER, I guess.

I've gotten her some new toys recently from Goodwill and the HUGE Pass-it-On consignment sale at the fairgrounds. I also got her a lot of clothes and was very pleased with my purchases. She has grown out of most of her clothes, so she really needed a lot, although I probably bought too much.

Mamie is such a sweetheart and we are thoroughly enjoying having the cutest baby in the world for our daughter!