One year ago...

One year ago tonight I went to bed 37 weeks and 6 days pregnant. For months I had planned on working up until my due date (Jan. 16th)...but for some reason I went to bed that night with a feeling of dread. I'm strep B positive...for those who don't know what this means, I have to have an antibiotic administered via IV 4 hours prior to delivery. For most moms-to-be, 4 hours prior to delivery sounds like plenty of time...but not to rub this in anyone's face...I deliver much faster than that. With Ruth Ann, I was induced, so they started my antibiotic the night before at 11pm, then I was induced at 7:30am and I was at 10cm (ie...ready to get the show on the road) by 10am. Because of how quickly my first delivery went I had a little fear deep inside that delivery #2 would go even more quickly and I wouldn't have time for my antibiotic to be administered...and of course I had researched all the terrible things that could happen.

On December 31, 2010, I went to bed and slept very little because little did anyone know that at 5:13pm the next day we would be meeting the newest McCarty...

My 2nd Born

It's a good thing I'm positive Tripp-man is my very last baby because I fear if I had a 3rd he or she would be forced to raise themselves...or DSS may remove them from my custody due to neglect.

Mom's of multiple children may understand this...or maybe I'm incredibly neglectful...but I feel like my 2nd born rarely, if ever, has my undivided attention. As his 1st birthday rapidly approaches the following things have crossed my mind...

~During Ruth Ann's 1st year I read the weekly updates from Baby Center to keep track of each and every little thing Ruth Ann should be doing...although I did sign up for Tripp's weekly updates, I don't think I've read even one of them.

~Ruth Ann took to eating very well...she ate cereal well and Stage 1 & 2 foods well, but we skipped Stage 3 foods and went straight to table foods several months before she turned 1. As Tripp's 1st birthday crept closer I started to remember we took Ruth Ann to dinner at Chick-fil-a for her first birthday dinner, and as of December 1st, I hadn't even tried feeding Tripp table food! He's been eating Stage 3 foods so well (and it's so much easier & cleaner for me to feed him) that I had not even started to think that it's time for him to start feeding himself.

And sippy cups???



Is it any wonder why he's looking at it like it's a foreign object??  Perhaps because he has never wrapped his chubby hands around one??



Thank goodness God makes these little creatures resilient...and Tripp is basically fending for himself...or he's a genius...



Or he's just 100% McCarty and we McCarty's all find a way to feed ourselves...because clearly not one of us looks as if we've let a meal be missed!

This little fellow has had hugs and kisses a plenty...but I think a part of me wants him to stay a baby for as long as possible and I guess I thought the longer I treated him like a baby the longer he would stay that way...but I can't fight what's going to happen on Sunday morning...those emails I've been ignoring from Baby Center telling me what my "baby" should be doing will now turn to what my "toddler" should be doing...and I'm going to spend as much time as possible between now and then crying and rocking my baby boy!

Birthday Take 1, 2 & 3

When I was in college one of my best friends, Amanda (Ray) Newman, introduced me to the idea of celebrating your "Golden Year". Amanda defined your golden year is the year you turn the age of the date you were born on...for example, my birthday is the 21st, so my golden year would have been the year I turned 21. Amanda's Golden Year was the year of her 19th birthday and this was in October of our freshman year. Her mom sent her a small gift every day until her birthday...I loved this idea...unfortunately for Ruth Ann she was born on the 1st of the month so the idea of a Golden Year won't mean much to her.

As a variation of the Golden Year celebration, Ruth Ann got to celebrate her 3rd birthday 3 times...

First on her actual birthday...at Disney...what a lucky duck!



And here she is rubbing it in everyone else's face...



Then when we got home her daddy had a birthday cake waiting on us...but we waited until the next day to light it up and sing Happy Birthday...





And finally, she got to celebrate with her friends at school the next week...I brought treats for Ruth Ann's class and since she goes to a church pre-school they pray before eating their snack...this picture warms my heart...



Then they sat down to snack...



And like many McCarty's before her, she was one of the last to get up from the table...



Then the whole class sat around Ruth Ann while she opened a gift...



And I also got a picture of Ruth Ann with her favorite friend from school...Jack. After Ruth Ann's parent/teach conference I learned Ruth Ann likes to play with the boys, and Jack is her favorite boy...her daddy is going to have his hands full!



And just so I can cry a little bit more about my baby girl turning one more year older, we'll take a walk down memory lane...here she is bright and early on all 3 of her birthdays...

1st Birthday...



2nd Birthday...



3rd Birthday...



The day before my mom had treated both Ruth Ann and Ada to a visit to the Bippti Boppiti Boutique for their birhtday gifts...this little princess fell asleep on the way back to the room (after 13 hours of Disney excitement) and stayed asleep as I got her ready for bed...she doesn't usually wear the crown jewels to bed and if you had witnessed the amount of product they used to keep her hair in that bun atop her head you wouldn't be surprised at all to see it still in a nice neat bun after 10 hours of sleep.

And even though the child celebrated on 3 different occasions and it has been 3 weeks since her birthday...she continues to tell me everyday it's her birthday. We're trying to distract her with Christmas...but I have a feeling she's going to be super sad the day after Christmas when she realizes her birthday is 11 months away!

Bad Words

For those who know me in real life or if you've been reading my blog for a while you may already know this about me...I'm a proud Auburn Tiger. And not just because we are the defending National Champions in football...and I love those Tigers even though we went from 1st to Worst this year. I fell in love with Auburn when I went on my college tour in 1995 and never looked back.

I decided once I had children that I would begin to brainwash teach them to love Auburn too...



Ruth Ann's first campus tour...Spring 2009



Dressed super cute for her first football season as an Auburn Tiger...I miss those rolls in her thighs!



Ruth Ann's first tailgate/football weekend...Fall 2009

And I'm doing the same with Tripp too...



Gameday clothing...Fall 2011



Tripp's first campus tour...Fall 2011

For those who also know me in real life you also know that saying "bad words" is not something I have a problem with. We've kept our language clean around here even before little ears were around. However, a few weeks ago we watched "Roll Tide/War Eagle" on ESPN and when Ruth Ann repeated "Roll Tide" I promptly told her those were BAD WORDS! Since learning this her little ears have been on guard against "bad words".

Example #1: While I was driving a few weeks ago I was trying to merge right while the car in front of me (with a giant Alabama sticker on their back window) was trying to merge left. The car stopped short and I nearly clipped the back of the car. Out loud, I said "Come on, go Alabama." to which Ruth Ann promptly said "Momma, don't say that, those are bad words. We say go Auburn Tigers."

Example #2: We're listening to Christmas music in the car...because I LOVE Christmas music and could really enjoy it all year long. In one song Ruth Ann heard "Yuletide"...she said "Mommy, they said a bad word. They said Roll Tide."

Clearly I need to be watching everything I say and do because this little girl is on the look out. Of course, currently her list of "bad words" is basically limited to anything related to the University of Alabama!

Thanksgiving 2011

Ever since Arch and I got married we have been having both of our parents over to our house for Thanksgiving. My mom is a pharmacist in a long term acute care facility and there are only 2 pharmacists for their patients. She usually worked Thanksgiving and the other pharmacist worked Christmas...this year the plan changed so my mom offered to have Thanksgiving at her house. I only got a few pictures because I was too excited about taking a little break from my diet to even worry with taking pictures.

I did get a few of Tripp enjoying his first Thanksgiving feast...although he still prefers to be fed rather than to feed himself...





Then we went outside for a little while before heading home...

Ruth Ann had fun throwing leaves...and at my parents house there is no shortage of leaves...



Then Ruth Ann and her daddy took off on a four wheeler ride...no matter how much I dress this girl in a smocked dress or appliqued clothes with matching bows...there's a strong streak of country girl running through her that I just don't think I'm going to be able to win the battle against...





While they were gone I got a few pictures of Tripp...



I'm always behind the camera taking pictures so I'm trying to make an effort to take more pictures with my children so one day they'll know what I looked like too!

I also got a great picture of Tripp with Arch's parents...Arch's mom rarely smiles for pictures so I was THRILLED with these pictures...even though I wish Tripp was in a little bit better of a mood...



I think this sweet boy just brings out the smiles in all of us!



Once the four wheeling daddy and daughter returned I got a picture of me with both of my babies...



And the trauma from the day that took 5 years off my life resulted in this...



My mom and I were in the kitchen and smelled something burning. The cranberries were overflowing and burning on the bottom of the oven. I took out the hot dish and of course there was no where on the stove to put the hot dish. My mom was looking for a place to set the dish down...all the while the oven was wide open and Tripp crawled up to the open door. The next thing I knew Tripp put his little chubby hand on the open door and he started crying...but he wouldn't pick his hand up off the door. My first thought was of course the worse case scenario...he's melted his hand to the oven door. I screamed for someone to take the dish from me and Spencer thankfully came to my rescue. I snatched Tripp up and ran cool water over his hand while he was whimpering...it was awful...but in 5 minutes he was fine and back to his usual self. I thought we were going to avoid a blister...but it was looking like the picture above before we left my parents. But it didn't slow his crawling down at all, so clearly I was more traumatized by the event than he was. Mothers of boys can sympathize with the mis-adventures of little boys...at this rate I'm going to be completely gray headed by the time I'm 35!

Where does the time go??

When I was kid the time between my birthday, Christmas and Summer seemed like FOREVER...now time is flying by in a complete blur. In the last 3 weeks I've easily taken over 1000 pictures...Thanksgiving, Disney, birthday's, etc...and I have finally weeded through and loaded most of them so I promise I'll be posting frequently in the next few days...

The time that's on my mind right now is the time that is most precious to me & I feel like it is slipping through my fingers...it's time with my sweet babies. On December 1st Ruth Ann turned 3 years old...I'm still in denial. And on January 1st Tripp will turn 1...also, in denial. Between the stress of the holidays and both of my babies having birthdays not only do I feel like the days are flying by...but I'm also on the verge of tears at the annual reminder that my babies are growing up too quickly!

I feel like I was just living this day...



I remember checking into the hospital the night before and that terrible night of sleep I got before Ruth Ann's big day. I feel like I was just handed my sweet little girl for the first time and then I blink and this is the baby girl I'm holding now almost at the exact the same moment 3 years later...



(Ruth Ann was born at 10:38 am and it wasn't until I sat down to write this post that I realized this picture was taken at 10:31 am on her birthday)

I was warned before hand that having a 3 year old may be the most challenging of all ages...and so far that's been VERY true! But there are lots of fun things about this age too. It sounds strange to say...but Ruth Ann is like a little person now. She chats with me, she has irrational arguments with me (that's one of the things that makes you want to pull your hair out when dealing with a 3 year old), she has her own interesting thoughts and ideas that she likes to share, she tells me all about her day and her friends when I pick her up from school or from her grandparents and she's FUNNY...I laugh at the things she says all the time. She's my willing side kick a lot of days while Tripp stays home with Daddy and I love looking in the rear view mirror and seeing her happy to be Mommy's tag-a-long. I wanted to be a mommy for as long as I can remember...for me it was never a question of "If" I wanted children, it's always been "When" I have children. This sweet girl made me a mommy after a very long wait and there are no words to say just how grateful I am that God granted me the privilege to be her Momma.

These days are going too fast and I'm often left wondering where the time is going...but even though I feel like these days are going quickly...however, thanks to a 3 year old attitude, some days feel like they last an eternity...everyday just gets sweeter and sweeter and I look forward to more and more birthday's spent with this little girl!

Ruth Ann

Okay, this is the last post with Ruth Ann's personalized clothing. Getting all these clothes out and looking at them again has been a little sad...compounded by the fact that Tripp will turn one in a month making this the last month I have a "baby" in my house...and there will be no more babies in our house, so no one go making that suggestion to me.

I also realized exactly why I kinda thought it was a good idea to name my second child, had he been a girl, something with the same monogram. They were both winter babies born in the same season so the timing was perfect...however, God saw it fit to bless me with a baby boy...and what a blessing he has been! Also, after making outfits for both my neice and Ruth Ann to wear while we were at Disney I realized I don't like making the same thing twice...especially when it comes to smocking. It's okay for special occasions, but I could not have done it for every outfit. It's more fun for me to make coordinating bother/sister outfits instead.

Anyway, only one person had some interest in "Ruth Ann" clothes, so they're yours for the picking...

1
$5, 18mths, Smitten & Company, personalized T's from Etsy




2
$5, 2T, Monag shirt I appliqued, I have some matching pants I'll have to find that go with this top




3
$5, 2, Monag shirt




4
$10, 2T, Lolly Wolly Doodle, there is a small hole in the back of the pants that I've mended




5
$5, 2, Smitten & Company




6
$5, 2, Smitten & Company


7
$5, 2 Smitten & Company (I also have the shirt in a size 4 that Ruth Ann is wearing now...I originally ordered the 4, but it was too big for her last year...you may not be planning on your Ruth Ann being a big sister any time soon...but I thought I would include it!)




8
$5, 2T, Gap tshirt




The rest are all free...

9
24mths, Target shirt




10
24mths, Target shirt