First Steps X 2

It was Tuesday evening, the 26th of July, Ben was out of town, and Mallory took her first steps!



They were tiny, just a couple from the coffee table over to me on the ottoman but they were full fledged, no holding onto anything, steps!!



I picked her up, gave her a huge hug, I’m pretty sure I was squealing with happiness and I think I scared her to death with all that and she will probably never do it again, lol!



At least she hasn’t done it again for me yet.



So that covers First Steps #1.



When we went to the Dr for her 15 month appointment Dr Phillips was a little concerned that she wasn’t walking yet so to be proactive, he recommended that we get her evaluated by First Steps. They are with the Health Department and work with all kids that may be lagging behind a little bit to just do an in home evaluation of their skills for their age and then if they qualify they can get the type of therapy they need.



So when I filled out the questionnaire regarding what she can and can’t do, she was borderline on whether or not she would qualify for services, but we will have her evaluated just to see.



So I met with First Steps today to get the mound of paperwork involved with any government agency filled out and then the lady who will do her evaluation will call me to set that up for sometime in the next couple of weeks.



The lady today said she thought Mallory would be borderline if she would qualify, especially if she did take her first steps, but we will see what the evaluator says.



So it’s been a busy week with First Steps!


















Here’s a few pictures from the past week!

Mallory's 15 Month Doctor's Appointment

I just realized, as I went back to the blog to check her 15 month weight that I didn't post going to the dr!

We went for her 15 month appointment on the Friday before we headed to the beach later that day so it just got lost in all the vacation craziness!

Her appointment was good. 

She weighed 20 pounds 1 oz and is 30 inches tall....which I personally think she's a little taller than that, but whatever.

I think that puts her on 10% for weight and 45% for height.

Now, the reason I went back to look for her weight/height at 15 months is because we went to the doctor today.  She had been tugging at her ear all weekend more that what I considered a coincindence so I made an appointment to go in this morning and have them checked out.

She's fine.  Looks like her eye teeth are coming in so that's probably why.

But get this, now granted she had on her clothes, but they don't weigh that much, she weighed 21 pounds 7 ounces. 

How in the world do you gain 1 pound 6 ounces in like 2.5 weeks??

Who knows, but I found that interesting.

Let's Talk about Tucker

I haven't talked too much about how Tucker is doing lately and since it's been about 6 months now since his surgeries and him becoming totally blind, I thought you might like an update.

He's fine.

Really, I seriously forget the dog is blind. Little has changed for him or us.

The Dr recommended a book to us, Living With Blind Dogs. I ordered it from Amazon about 2 weeks post surgery.

I got into about chapter 2 discussing how many dogs that lose their vision become aggressive, depressed, etc. I just stopped reading it because it was already evident this was not going to be Tucker.

His personality has not changed, although it would have been nice is the surgery would have somehow ceased his barking when people come and go from the house, but oh well.

He can still find his toys and knows which are his and ALWAYS leaves Mallory's alone. I can't say that for her as we caught her hugging his Raccoon toy just this weekend and looking for it's tag!

He knows where his food and water are located. He knows when you are about to leave. He knows when Mallory gets within about a foot of him and darts to the other side of the room much to her dismay.

He knows when we leave something tasty on the counter in the kitchen that he thinks he needs.

He still runs to the end of his lead and sits and barks at the neighbors dogs across the road.

He knows where the bed is to jump up in it, he knows to jump in the back of my suv when I say load up and pat the floor of the rear hatch.

At mom and dads, the only place he really ever gets to run free, he still gets to and runs around the yard like he knows exactly where he's going.

Now, I'd be lying if I said nothing has changed, but really his occasional bumping into something is about it.

So, 6 months post surgery just reassures us we did the right thing.

Tucker may be blind but his quality of life is probably only a tiny bit worse than his life with sight. It has not changed him at all and I have no doubt that he will have a happy 6-8 more years with us!



Above is Tuck at mom and dads running around, having a ball as if he could see what was around him.

Now onto us. First week home post vacation.

For me it was busy at work catching up, still miserably hot, and trying to get my butt back in half marathon training mode. My next one is just 9 weeks away!


This cartoon pretty much depicts how I feel about the heat, popped, lol!

Bean got to have her first go at Nutella this week. Pretty sure she enjoyed it!



She also stood up next to her bookshelf and pulled down the stuffed tiger aunt Janie had given to her and has been hugging it and packing it around with her since. We named it Mizzou.




I went to a hairbow party Tuesday night and got a few for Bean. I'm certain one day the child will have enough hair for these!!




Ben will do some traveling next week, but other than that, a pretty normal week and hoping for cooler temps!

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Happy Birthday to Ben!!

Today is Ben's Birthday!


Today he is 35.


We are cooking steaks for dinner.


His cake of choice this year.....the Weight Watchers Diet Coke Cake, lol.  Which is hilarious because as skinny as he is does not need anything WWish, but this cake is seriously good and I don't use all the FF cool whip or FF Eagle Brand Milk in it, so it's not the true WW cake, but super easy regardless!


He got a Banjo from his mother and father which will constitute birthday and father's day.  Now he can pick and grin....hopefully, with some lessons!


He wants some sort of gun from me as father's day/birthday combo.  Big surprise that he wants a gun!  And with the money my family gave him for his birthday, now he can get an even "better" gun, lol!


We've had a fairly relaxing day at home catching up on laundry and the yard.


Other than the fact that the stupid gas tank was out of gas as we went to start the steaks, but oh well.


Happy Birthday Poo!  Bean, Tucker and I love you very much!!

Beach Vacation 2011

I was going to try to do a post every day while on vacation, but that lasted all of 2 days, so I just deleted those and decided to do one big one.


We left out Friday evening around 6 pm (a little later than intended) and headed South.  We had reservations at a Holiday Inn just south of Birmingham in Pelham, AL.  about 5 hours away.


We barely got everything in the car, but all door shut and we used some innovative engineering to mount the portable dvd player to the top of the back seat butting up to Tucker's barrier:

With a stop in Franklin, KY for some dinner we arrived at Pelham around 11:30 pm.  I'm always worried about driving at night but Ben and I kept ourselves awake by singing old country songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's at the top of our lungs.  It made it more enjoyable : )  That and we had an audio book earlier when we weren't trying to stay awake, Shooter by Jack Coughlin.


Here's Bean enjoying some breakfast at the Holiday Inn before we hit the road again:

We had tons of toys for Bean too to keep her occupied.  Here's one of her with all her toys on top of her looking at her through her mirror!

We know we are getting close when we get to Opp!

I just love saying Opp.  Opp Alabama.  It wasn't in my territory when I lived down there but just on the edge of it and we would head over to Doc's to eat.


Here's our first palm tree!

I think that was at Florala.   And finally, here's the Mid Bay Bridge taking us over to Destin!

We arrived around 1:30 pm so we ate lunch at the cafe at the condo.

We got into the room at 3 pm.  Bean was impressed, as was I.  Just as described:

Everything we needed at our fingertips!


Mom and Dad arrived around 5pm and Susan and Nick around 6pm.  Our first night we just went over to Rick's Crap Trap which was located in the next condo over.  Pretty good, nothing overly exciting.  We wanted crab claws and we got them!


Susan got a video of Bean and Nick playing keep away.  It was hilarious and we cackled at them for a good 10 minutes!


Oh, and here's the view from our Room 508!

We weren't right on the beach, a little walk, maybe 100 yards but there was nothing infront to block our view.  It ended up working out just fine because Mallory just wanted to eat the sand, so Mallory and I probably only spent 10 minutes total at the beach the whole week!


Sunday we hit the pool.  It was HUMID!  Here's some steaming pictures of Daddy and Ben playing with Bean in the pool.

Sunday night we headed over to Baytowne Warf and ate at Hammerheads.  More seafood....that's why we are here right : )  Here's some pictures from there and we walked down to the Marina to gawk at the yachts and there was a guy with his birds that you could take pictures with for a donation.

We also stopped for ice cream while at the Warf.  Bean enjoyed hers too!

And of course we had to sit in the huge chair!  Sad to say I think this is the only picture of all 3 of us that I got on my camera.

Miss Bean has been having a ball in the big garden tub!

And I bought this to take with us since I didn't want to haul around a high chair and it worked like a charm!

I don't remember if it was Sunday or Monday that we hit the beach in the afternoon and quickly learned that Mallory and I wouldn't be staying there long!  It took about 15 seconds to get a handful of sand into her mouth.  Then sand on the hands, sand in the eyes, sippy cup in the sand.  Ahhhhhhh.  So we went to sit in the waves, which she loved but when I wouldn't be watching she'd reach over and take a big handful of wet sand and shove that in her mouth.  Needless to say, we went back to the pool.  We did venture back down for a few minutes on Tuesday just to say she was actually at the beach and here's the pictures to prove it!

Monday night we were looking for a place to eat that wasn't as seafood focused.  After being told it was a 3 hour wait at Fudpuckers, we found Graffiti.  I liked it, it was a toss up on the rest, but here's Bean and Dad as we were waiting to get in.

Bean loves exploring the condo, especially in her pj's!

We also got good use of the pea pod.  We'd swim a while then play a while then swim a while.  She likes playing in it.

She would not wear her hat nor her sun glasses so I have few pictures where she's outside and would look at the camera, the sun was always in her eyes!


Tuesday night, after Ben and Nick played a round of golf at the course at the condo, we went to Callahan's a local all american type restaurant that was tasty.  Here's Bean and Sue!

Mom, Dad, Susan and Nick headed out Wednesday morning and Bud and Susan came in on Wednesday to spend the next few days with us.


As we waited for them to arrive, we went back to Baytowne Warf to head to Another Broken Egg Cafe for some Brunch.

Wednesday night we headed down to Harbor Walk to eat at AJ's and to get Ben and his Dad booked on a Deep Sea Fishing trip for Thursday.

Here's a pigeon that was just waiting by the boat docks for some leftovers!

We stopped for Ice Cream at Brewsters.  Yummy and Bean thought so too!

Thursday Ben and his dad went on a 6 hour deep sea fishing trip.  They went about 14 miles out and caught Red Snapper and Mackerel mostly.  We went back down to Harbor Docks to meet them as they came off the boat at 5pm and then headed over to eat at Dewey's.  

Friday we went back to the other Another Broken Egg Cafe so Ben's parents could eat there.  Bean and I were meeting Dusty for lunch, so I passed on breakfast, but Mallory ate both : )


She was a little crabby that morning:

But she was in a better mood as we met up with Dusty but was for sure needing a nap by the time we were done.  We met up at Pompano Joes just down from our condo:

We then spent Friday afternoon shopping at the outlet mall and then headed out to Mellow Mushroom for dinner.


Ben always got a big kick out of the name of this bar for some reason....he just likes saying Lower Alabama, lol!

Saturday we woke up to pouring rain.  Which was fine in one way, at least it hadn't rained like that while we were there wanting to be at the pool or beach but it made for a messy and unpleasant loading up of the vehicles to head back north.


But we got it all back in some how and off we went, treking back 12 hour in one day.


We wanted to stop in Decatur, AL so Ben could eat dinner at Big Bob Gibson's bbq, which had been on one of those Food Network or Travel Channel shows.  It wasn't bad, that coming from someone who isn't a big bbq fan.

On the way out of Decatur we stopped at this gas station, we thought the sign was funny!

We only had to stop once other than our planned stops because of Mallory being crabby.  She made it to Nashville, so we pulled over and let her stretch her legs for a bit and then hit the road again.  After that she went to sleep, so she was a real trooper for being cooped up in the car for 12 hours!


We had fun but we are glad to be home!!