Catching Up

It's been a while since I dusted off the ole blog, so I figured it was about time for a general update on all the goings-ons in our world.

Sibley is almost 19 months old, and she is hilarious. Just the past month she's really started to blossom with her words and her reactive communication skills. It's amazing to watch. She's OBSESSED with shoes. "Shoe" was really the first true word that she's perfected other than "mama" and "ball."

She's recently been a fan of shaking her finger at us as telling us to "top" while making a mean face. It was cute the first 5,000 times.

Christmas with the munchkin was so much fun this year! Santa was very good to her, and we've completely turned the living room into a play room of sorts. Oh, well. It works for us.

Other than that, we went to quite a few football games this year both in Oxford and in Hattiesburg. For the USM games, we actually were able to walk from my parents' new house to campus, which was perfect. It's a different world with them living "in town" these days!

We have a busy spring ahead, including a revised trip to Japan planned to visit Cassidy and John! Stay tuned for details. We can't wait, but it's a big step for us to leave that baby girl for 10 days. Yikes. Wish us all luck. :)

She's Walkin', Yes Indeed...

She's walkin' and talkin' and into everything these days!! Sibley was 14 months on August 7th, and just days before she decided to start taking her first steps. Now she's close to a professional toddler. :)

 

What a fun and brand new world it has been! I can promise you that while I was slightly disappointed that she wasn't walking by her birthday, I absolutely did NOT rush this because now all of a sudden it's like she's grown a foot!

She is such a sweet, funny girl. She's very outgoing and doesn't meet a stranger. Her personality is coming out these days, even the temper tantrums. :(

We're learning as we go (all three of us), and each day is a new adventure. I'm just so proud of my little munchkin and the sweet TODDLER she's becoming. Time, SLOW DOWN!!!

Closing Time

Today is the end of an era... my parents have sold our old house, and today is the closing. It's very bittersweet.

They've bought a beautiful old home in the Avenues in Hattiesburg, and I'm SO IN LOVE with it. It's so close to campus and downtown, and it's just great to be back in the "city" again. The new house even has a pool, which has been such a lovely way to spend some weekends this summer. I look forward to many, many more memories at the new (old) house.

But there's just something about saying goodbye to the house where I really grew up that is a little sad, even though I haven't lived there in 15 years or so.

We moved into that house right before sixth grade, and I finished up school at PCS before starting junior high at Oak Grove.

The school was right down the street. There were several kids who lived in our neighborhood, so we would all walk home from school together. My first kiss was behind the stop sign across the street. My first boyfriend lived one street over. My best friend lived right down the street. There were many a game of spotlight and truth or dare played in that neighborhood. It was perfect. You could hear the high school football games from our back deck. Three pets rest in peace there.

There are wonderful, wonderful memories associated with Leaf Lane, and I will always remember it with a smile. All that said, I'm beyond thrilled with my parents' new digs.

This house is GORGEOUS, and it's just a few blocks away from the zoo, which will be so much fun as Sibley gets older. My "first" house where we lived until we moved to Oak Grove was just a few streets over, so I guess you could say the Bices have come full circle.

Cheers to change. It's always a blessing. It keeps us on our toes and keeps things in perspective. So long, Oak Grove... Hello, Hattiesburg. :)

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!

My sweet baby girl is ONE YEAR OLD!!! It's so hard to believe, but it has been one of the absolute best years of my life, and I would not change a single thing.

 

I just wanted to do a quick recap of what all is going on with Miss Sibley these days... She weighs 23 lbs., 14 ounces and is up to 29 inches long. She's a very fast crawler and thinks it's fun to try to "run" away from mama and daddy. But speaking of running, we're not really close. She's standing on her own and cruising along the furniture and behind her walker, but she won't take any steps by herself. Oh, well... I'm not rushing it.

 

She waves and claps and holds the phone to her ear and says "mamamamamama" a lot and "da" for everything.

 

A week before her birthday, on a HOT and MUGGY Sunday afternoon, we met my photographer friend Melanie out on the Natchez Trace for Sibley's one-year photo shoot. We loved, loved, LOVED all the pics! Here are just a few...

 

We were fortunate enough to have her birthday party on her actual birthday this year, and what a party it was! She had so much fun, and we were all worn out afterwards. :)

I have to say I waited a long time to see this girl's reaction to her very own birthday cake, and it was so well worth the wait! She dove right in with her mouth. It was priceless.







Sweetest Sibley, I know I've said it before, but we could not have special-ordered a more perfect fit for our family. You absolutely complete us, and we are so proud and blessed to be your parents.

Happy FIRST Birthday, my beautiful baby girl!!

VEGAS!

Good grief, it's been way too long! I'm a horrible blogger these days, but just for the record, I wanted to write a short post about our trip to Vegas.

This was our first "real" adults-only vacation post-Sibley, and we truly lived it up.

We flew out of New Orleans EARLY on a Friday morning two weeks ago and were in Vegas by 8:30 a.m. their time. Crazy. First thing on the itinerary was a poolside cabana that we had rented for the day. We felt like such VIPs! It was incredibly nice and so relaxing.

We stayed at the Flamingo, courtesy of a comp room from our friends Marc and Jarrod, and our room overlooked Caesar's Palace and the Las Vegas Strip. It was amazing. We could even see the Bellagio fountain from our window. What more could you ask for? ;)

After lounging by the pool all day, we headed to the Venetian and the Palazzo for dinner at Lavo, followed by a spin above Vegas in The Linx, a very slow-moving Ferris wheel high above the city. The views were absolutely amazing, and it was a great way to end our first (very long but fun) day in Sin City.

Saturday morning started with a walk down the Strip for lunch at the Sugar Factory inside Paris Paris. This place was so cool. I had a Reese's Martini with my lunch, which tasted just like a peanut butter cup. Their candy store was amazing, and it was the perfect way to really kick off our Saturday. After lunch, we walked through Paris Paris (one of my favorite casinos, I've decided - I love the themed ones) and through Bally's to catch a cab to the Stratosphere.

The guys rode the crazy ride at the top of the Stratosphere while Allison and I were too chicken. It was insane. You couldn't pay me a million bucks to do it, but I got some great pics! :)

After our top of the world adventure, it was back to the hotel to get ready for our night out on the town. We had early dinner reservations at STK steakhouse inside the Cosmopolitan, and this place was by far the best meal of the trip! DELICIOUS! Our reservations were at 5:30, which gave us plenty of time to get over to Planet Hollywood for a cocktail before we saw Britney.

Britney was the main reason we planned this trip, in addition to one free flight and free rooms, so it was fun. I probably would have picked a different show to see, but it was high energy, and two of our five-member party got to move down close to the stage due to a ticket snafu, so they had an amazing view.

After the show, we went "out" and the rest of the night is a little fuzzy. It was a lot of fun based on the pics though! :)

On Sunday, we all needed some recovery lunch at Gordon Ramsey's BurGR inside Planet Hollywood. This was the best burger I've ever had. And we were starving. It gave us all the energy we needed to walk the 1,000 miles that the afternoon had in store for us. We did it all - the Bellagio fountain, Caesar's Palace, Mirage, MGM, New York New York, Monte Carlo, Cosmopolitian, then Fremont Street for dinner and the laser light show. I probably even left out a few. We walked for miles because it was our last day. We had to see it ALL!

What a trip! It was a quick long weekend, but I missed my baby girl so much and was so happy to return home on Monday. One thing is for sure... three days in Vegas is plenty for me. :)

Spring Break

We've had a busy few weeks here at the Grey House.

Sibley's spring break (who knew daycare closed for spring break??) coincided with Derek's work conference in Chicago. So I took a few days off work and stayed home with her, then we made a little road trip to get her all settled in at my parents' house for the second half of the week. It worked out well since she was on the mend from her ear infection. We had some lovely mommy-daughter down time and plenty of cuddles.

I came back to Jackson Wednesday night and went back to work on Thursday. Derek was supposed to come home from Chicago that night but got delayed in Atlanta for the night because of weather.

After a LONG trip, he finally made it home safely on Friday, just in time for us to have a little belated anniversary date night (8 years!) and to get real for the St. Paddy's parade on Saturday.

It was a long week, but it was good timing for there to be so much going on, and we had a great time at the parade and were super excited to get the munchkin back on Sunday.

My parents even took her to the Hattiesburg parade. I think she had fun, despite the unimpressed look on her face.

This past weekend we went to the lake for a little family time and some R&R with our good friends, the Gorneys.

I sadly didn't take many pics, but Sibley had so much fun playing with sweet Ella Grace and cousins Cash and Frances. It was perfect, and a much needed relaxing getaway.

Spring is always a busy time of year, and this year is proving to be no exception.

I'm heading to Atlanta next week for work, and Derek will be a single parent for the first extended period of time, so here's hoping for a happy baby and happy daddy when I return. It's going to be a very long five days for mama, too. :(

Nine Months

Sweet Sibley,

I promise I blinked, and all of a sudden you're a big girl!

You turned nine months on Friday, and we celebrated with your first ear infection and pink eye. :( But the good news is that the medicine seems to be working because you feel much better!

You started crawling about three weeks ago, and in the past week you've gotten faster and faster. On your 9 month birthday you pulled up to standing for the first time, and yesterday you took your first steps holding our hands or holding the furniture. It's happened so fast!!

We really can't let you out of our sight now because it doesn't take you long to find some trouble. Guess we really need to start baby-proofing this house!

You've been eating pick-up foods yourself, and you're down to three bottles a day most days. You're officially in 9-12 month clothes now, and we have plenty of outfits to choose from thanks to some sweet hand-me-downs from Aunt KK and pajamas from "Aunt" Melanie. :)

You're now up to 22 pounds and 28 inches, keeping you in the 90th percentile for weight but up from the 37th to 66th percentile for height! Thank goodness for growth spurts!

You babble all the time, but you'll occasionally say Dada, and on Thursday you said Mama for the first time. ❤️❤️

You're SUCH a happy baby, and you love to go places and be social! You don't meet a stranger, which makes us proud.

We love you so very much, Boogie/Nugget/Munch/Punky Brewster! You make us happier than we ever knew we could be (and busier too!) :)