It's Been A While

So, once again it has been too long since I updated this page. I will try to remember everything that has gone on for the last week, but not TOO much has gone on.

Monday and Tuesday of last week were pretty boring. Tatum and I stayed home while Antonio went to work. That is pretty much all that happened. No major outtings or anything for Tatum. I got out of the house a few times to run errands and such, but that was it.

Wednesday Antonio went to work until about 4pm. After that, he met Tatum and I at the house and we all went to my grandmother's house (Tatum's Gran) in Jackson for our Thanksgiving meal with my family. Most all the family was there. We did miss those that were unable to be there, but I think I ate all of their helpings of food! I LOVE Thanksgiving and Christmas because we get to eat so well!! Nothing is better than a good meal cooked by my grandmother! Below are LOTS of pics from that night. The first three are pics of Tatum right after I got her dressed and ready to go. I just love her little hat and it is about the only thing that fits her well at this point, but she is growing fast. She was so great on the way to Jackson and the way back home. She slept the whole time both ways.






Once we got to my grandmother's house Matt wanted to hold Tatum and talk to her. He is trying to quickly become the "favorite uncle" before Clif gets into town.


Then, my dad talked to Tatum for a bit to tell her all about New Orleans. My dad got reassigned back to New Orleans for work for a few months.


Below is my sister Laurie. She looks AWESOME! She is about to have her 2nd child in a WEEK!! I know, I know...she doesn't look that far along!


Gran got to sit down and talk to Tatum a little after we stuffed ourselves with all the food.


Below is my brother Matt, his girlfriend Stephanie, and my niece, Mckayla.


Matt was wonderful at entertaining Mckayla for most of the night. He would lift her in the air and then let her fall really fast. I don't think I have heard "Do it again!! Do it again!!" so many times in my life. Mckayla LOVED it until....


........well, until Matt decided to hang her upside down. Then Mckayla cried and Matt and Stephanie had to console her.


After Mckayla cheered up, she wanted to talk to Tatum for a little while. My mom was in hog heaven with both of her grand babies in her lap at the same time. She is really going to have a lap full when Mya Elizabeth gets here!


Then a HUGE tradition in our family is that we can't leave Gran's house until my dad falls asleep and begins to snore. That's when we know the night is complete. See Clif and Jennifer, you may not have been present for Thanksgiving, but I bet you knew that this was going to happen sooner or later during the night, right?


On Thursday, Antonio, Tatum, and I all went to Antonio's parents house for another great meal. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera at home, so I have no pictures for Thanksgiving day. Tatum even had a special outfit that said Baby's First Thanksgiving. I was so mad at myself for being so forgetful!!

Anyway, Friday, Antonio, Tatum, and I slept in and we were lazy all day long and it felt good. Antonio took care of Tatum except for feeding times and I got to sleep pretty much the entire day which is all I wanted to do. I didn't want to shop or clean or anything else, I just wanted to sleep!!

Saturday, we chilled out until early afternoon. Then we got ready and went to my sister's family's house and watched a movie and ordered pizza. It was good to hang out a bit before Mya Elizabeth comes. I am sure after things settle down with the holidays Laurie and I will be hanging out alot since we will both be on maternity leave!

Sunday, we didn't do much.

Monday, Antonio went back to work and Tatum and I stayed around the house. It was Tatum's one month birthday and we celebrated by laying low.

Today...I decided to get productive and started dressing Tatum up in some of her Christmas outfits to take pictures. The first pic was just for laughs! I got her a smocked Christmas dress and it came with bloomers and a bonnett which I would never make her wear the bonnett in public, but I thought it would be funny to put it on her for a pic. I can't believe my mom used to put those on me when I was a baby.


In the next pic, I tried to capture the writing on her bloomers.


As everyone knows, a true model needs a break during their shoots...so below is a pic of Tatum taking a break. She got wrapped up in her blanket to keep warm and she also got her pacifier to calm her down.

She didn't really like the photo shoot and I didn't really capture and awesome pics, but I am going to try again when Antonio is home to help me.


Finally, today we also got out of the house and went to the mall to see SANTA!!! She was so good! She didn't cry or anything. In fact, she was so good that we only had to take one picture and that is the one you see below. I think it turned out AWESOME considering she is only a month old!


On another note, Tatum has been sleeping in her big crib for over a week now. She is doing very well! She does wake up a few times at night to feed, but maybe in a month or two she will start sleeping thru the night!! I can't wait for that!

We are also trying to get all of our Christmas decorations out and up. If/when that happens I will post some pics. Hopefully, it won't be a week before I update my page again!

Activities of Last Week

Well, I don't really have any pictures to post from this past week, but I still wanted to write about everything we did.

One thing I forgot to write about was Tatum's 2 week dr's appt. that we had 11-9-06. Everything went very well and she was great. She had gained a little weight too. She weighed exactly 7 lbs. (she was 6 lbs. 13 oz. at birth).

Tuesday-Tatum Alivia and I went to the Phi Mu Alumni dinner. It was good to get out of the house and it was also good to see everyone. My sister had her diaper shower too at the dinner so we got to give her a present. The only thing that went wrong was I was a BAD MOM!! I did not pay attention to the time too well and I left the restaurant when I should have been feeding her!! That means the 20 minutes it took me to get home she screamed the whole time and I felt SOOO bad!! It did cross my mind to pull over and feed her on the side of the road, but I decided that would not be very safe or smart.

Thursday-We got some great news...My sister, Laurie, found out that she is going to be induced on December 6th unless Mya Elizabeth decides to come earlier! That means Tatum Alivia will have a new cousin very soon! We are all excited to meet her very soon!

Friday-Antonio's mom came over and kept Tatum and I got to go out for a few hours to run some errands. As much as I love Tatum, it was so great to get out of the house for a little bit!! Thank God for MILs.

Saturday-Antonio, Tatum, and I all went to our Childbirth/Parenting Class Reunion. There were several classes all together and only 4 couples out of our class showed up. However, the couple we talked to the most, Amy and Wes, showed up and we got to meet their beautiful little girl. I was hoping to get some pics of the girls together before they left, but I didn't get a chance.

Saturday night...Tatum slept in her crib for the first time!!! She did so good. We put her in her bed after I fed her at 11pm and it took about 30-45 minutes for her to get settled down and go to sleep. She then woke up at 2am and did so well. As soon as I fed her, I changed her diaper and put her in her crib and she went right back to sleep. Then she woke up at 5am and ate and went back to sleep and we finally got up at 8am and ate and stayed up. We are hoping she does this EVERY night except maybe sleeps thru a feeding or two. One thing is for sure MOMMY LOVES her sleep and misses it VERY much!! I look forward to the day that I can sleep 8-10 hours straight!!!

I guess that is all for now. I am sure that I have forgotten some things again, but Tatum is hungry and telling me ALL about it right now, so I must cut this short.

Until next time...

Long Overdue Update!

I am sorry that I have not gotten around to updating my blog for over a week, but it has been pretty busy around our house. So, I am going to attempt to update the last week and a half on here all at one time. We will see if Tatum sleeps long enough for that to happen.

Last Sunday night my mom came down to Memphis to stay with Antonio, Tatum, and I for a whole week. Monday I got lots of Tatum's toys out to play and here are some pics from her first tummy time. I think she liked watching TV more than the toys, but when she gets older I am hoping toy time becomes better.






Tatum finally got tired and fussy from being on her tummy so I put her on her back for a little bit.


Sunday night my dad and mom, Cyp, Laurie, Mckayla, Antonio, Tatum, and I all went to eat at Chilli's to celebrate my mom's birthday early. Tatum slept thru the whole thing and didn't even get out of her car seat! This is not the best pic, but it was the only one that I took that night.


The next picture is a pic of Antonio and Tatum napping on the couch. Tatum LOVES to nap with either me or Antonio like this! I think it is the best sleep she gets! We love it too and hopefully we are not spoiling her too much.


Later in the week, I put Tatum in her swing for the first time. She is a little too small for it right now, but I rolled up some thin blankets and put them on each side of her so that she would not fall over. She likes the swing, but it doesn't really put her to sleep.



Tuesday was my mom's birthday, so Cyp, Laurie, and Mckayla came over to our house to eat supper and open presents. Mckayla helped her Grandmommy open her presents up.


Cyp (my bro in law) and Laurie (my sister) were acting crazy on the couch as you can see below.


AND, Mckayla finally held Tatum all by herself(with a little help from Laurie). I think she is finally warming up to her cousin and she is ready to practice because she has a sister coming in just a few weeks!


This next picture is one of Tatum sleeping on the couch. I think I am holding her and taking pics at the same time.


Saturday was Antonio's birthday. He is officially 31 now!! We all went to his parents house and had lunch. We were all treated to some Colombian home cooking and it was wonderful!!


Gabby dressed up in a clown costume to suprise Antonio for his birthday. We were told she practiced on her suprise ALL MORNING!! She was so cute in her outfit as you can see below!


After Antonio gets off from work he gets to come home and have bonding time with Tatum by giving her a bath. Below is a pic from yesterday. He gave her a bath and then wrapped her up in her towel. She loves her Daddy and is very happy in his arms. Daddy loves this time too! He even gets his clothes all wet and doesn't even care!



After the bath time, he gets her all dressed up and combs her hair. Usually, he combs it down, but last night, he wanted to show her mini fro off, so here it is at its finest!


The second week of having Tatum Alivia in our lives has been great. Sunday we got to go to church for the first time, but I didn't take any pics(sorry). Breastfeeding is going great. My mom babysat for us this past Friday night and Antonio and I went to a birthday party for David Loyd. It was nice to get out of the house for a few hours and see everyone.

I must say a HUGE THANK YOU to my mom for giving up a whole week of her life to come to Memphis and spoil Antonio and I with WONDERFUL meals everyday and night, cleaning the house, and helping LOTS with Tatum Alivia. We appreciate all she did for us and all that she will do in the future! I hope she never feels that we take advantage of her or don't appreciate her because we do!! I sure don't know what I would have done last week had she not been here!

Tatum Alivia has been sleeping pretty well at night. Last night I fed her at 12 midnight and she finally went to sleep around 1am and slept until 5:30 am. I then fed her and she slept until 9am. I fed her at 9am and she slept until around 11:30am. And of course, when she sleeps I sleep, so I got some great sleep last night!

I am not sure how many of you guys saw Oprah yesterday, but she had a lady on there that said she can understand what babies are trying to tell us when they cry. I know all of you are thinking "Yeah, whatever!",but after she explained it all and showed some video, I was SOLD!! I have been paying more attention to Tatum's cries to see if it works, and so far I think it has! If you watched it, you understand what I am talking about, and if you didn't then I suggest you google it or something to see if you can see the clips because it was great.

I am sure that I have left something out of this blog that I need to update everyone on, but I can't think of anything else right now. Hopefully I won't wait as long to update the blog next time. Tonight Tatum and I are going to a Phi Mu Alumni dinner, so I will take some more pics if I remember.

Until next time...

I DID IT!!!

Before Tatum Alivia arrived, I said when she got here I was going to give her a million kisses. Well, I think I have already given her like 10 million kisses, but I think she likes it.(I know I love to give them!)

Other than that life is still great! My mom took off work from school to come help me for the week and she has been AWESOME and it is only Tuesday! She has washed clothes, cooked my FAVORITE meals, mopped floors, helped out lots with Tatum Alivia, etc. PLUS, today is her birthday, so Tatum and I get to celebrate it all day with her!(I am not sure that this is her ideal way of spending her birthday, but we sure appreciate it!) I am not sure what I am going to do next week when I am home alone!?!? The only good thing is that Thanksgiving is very close, so Antonio will be off a couple of days then too.

I also got to get out for a little bit today to go vote! Brandy and I went to vote, went to Schnucks(the grocery store) to get my mom some flowers for her birthday, and then we went to Target. It was nice to get away for a couple of hours and I didn't worry once about Tatum because I knew she was in the best hands(my mom's hands) and she would do great!

Sorry for the short blog, but Tatum needs me for now. I will post pics later this week and update on what we have done this week.

A Few New Discoveries

A few discoveries that we have made that I forgot to mention in earlier blogs...

Tatum likes her swing even though it is a little too big right now. However, she is too facinated by it that it doesn't put her to sleep, it just occupies her.

Tatum has been smiling lots lately, but only really in her sleep. I am not sure what she is dreaming about, but whatever it is, it sure makes her happy. Last night I was holding her and Antonio and I were sitting on the couch watching TV and she laughed out loud in her sleep!! We can't stop staring at her because we love to see her smile. Now Antonio and I must figure out how to make her smile at us!!!

Finally, I weighed today and I have officially lost 22 lbs since delivery!! While that is awesome, I still have several more LBS to lose before I will be done. I gained a little more than I wanted to, but it was all worth it! I can't start really exercising until my 6 week checkup, but I think I am going to try walking on the treadmill after the 2 week mark.

Antonio is SO awesome at bath time!! We gave her another bath today and she is loving it more and more each time! Antonio gets everything ready before bath time starts and then he is in the ZONE! She still cries a little, but for the most part, we can tell she likes it and she naps so well after it is over.

Breastfeeding is going great now! Those first few days were VERY painful, but I think I have gotten the hang of it now. Tatum's little cheeks are getting fuller and fuller, so I can tell she is getting enough milk. Even though I was a little unsure if I would make it in the beginning, I know now that everything is going to be okay. Those late night prayers have been answered!

Anyway, I just wanted to do a little update for some things I forgot to mention. Tonight my parents, my sister's family, and my family are all going out to eat for my mom's birthday. If I remember, I will take some pics and try to post them some time this week.

Until next time....

One Week Birthday

Tatum Alivia celebrated her one week birthday yesterday. She has been so good this first week and we are hoping for it only to get better. We have done so much this first week, so this may be a long blog, but I want to get up to date on this.

First of all there were some more visitors that came to see Tatum Alivia when we got home, so here are some pics...


This is Bernardo and Amanda(Antonio's cousins) and Tatum Alivia



This is Allison and David and Tatum Alivia. They are getting married next summer and then maybe in 4-5 years they will have some little ones too, but no rush!!

Soon after Tatum Alivia got home, we gave her a bath for the first time. She didn't really like it, but we think when the umbilical cord falls off and she can be IN the water she will enjoy it much more. Antonio is so AWESOME at bath time. I can already see that is going to be "Daddy and Tatum's" time to bond.

Tuesday was Halloween and we dressed Tatum Alivia up in a little outfit that was WAY too big as you can see below.

But it was fun being able to dress her up anyway. As you can she had a cute little pumpkin face on her butt.

Tatum Alivia LOVES her little bassinet that she is currently sleeping in. She loves to stretch out and sleep for HOURS.

On Thursday, I was getting a little crazy from being in the house all day every day, so I talked Antonio into taking a small outing. So, we all got dressed and we went to Antonio's office for about 20 minutes and then to Chick-fil-A for a late lunch. Here are some pics of Tatum Alivia all dressed up and ready to go. Notice the cute TINY little Keds she is wearing(size 0).

Next are some pictures from my one week birthday.

As you can see we have had a fun and eventful first week. Some things have been tougher than others, but we have had such good help from family and friends. Antonio and I are looking forward to the next weeks, months, and years ahead of us.