Card's Fan

Sorry my Chicago friends, of course living in St. Louis, I have to get Tia started on the right foot!

Tia's Own Language

I am pretty confident that Tia is going to be a talker. I know my Gulledge side of the family are all talkers and of course we all know, I am a talker for sure.  When Chris was little they said he never talked until one day his Grandpa Merli was yelling at him saying 'Say Pa...pa' and if you know Grandpa Merli, he has sort of a raspy, yet very loud voice.  Grandpa Merli kept yelling over and over 'Say Pa-pa....Say Pa-pa...Say Pa-pa'. They said, Chris was huddled under a chair peeking around the leg looking up at him with doe like eyes.  After much persistence on Grandpa Merli's part, Chris screamed 'Paaaaaaa-Paaaaaa' really loud and the story goes...Chris never shut up after that. Sooo, perhaps Tia will get the talker from both sides of us.  Right now, she talks a lot to us and namely when she has her pacifier in her mouth.  It sounds like either the kid from Charlie Brown 'woa-woa-woh' or it sounds like 'shsss ssshhss sshss'...but regardless, it sounds like she is really having a conversation back.  Sometimes it sounds like real words, but of course we still haven't figured out Tia language quite yet.  The girl is super sweet and talkative and I just can't wait to hear what she is trying to say. 

She's a Little Show-Off

Tia cracks me up because she acts super shy when she first sees people she gets super shy, but once she warms up...she's a little show-off.  On Friday, Chris had to pick me up from work because my car was in the shop and I told him to bring Tia with him so my coworkers could see her.  I brought her in when she was a couple months old and she is now 15 months old.  The over an hour drive does not make it convenient to do so unless I want to take a day off work just to bring her into work to show her off.  When they arrived, Tia immediately ran to my legs and got super shy.  The entire office who were here still all came to see her. First off, Tia loved the big open space to freely walk around.  Secondly, she waved hi to everyone, but was a bit shy on looking them in the eye at first.  Soon enough though, she warmed up and started chattering up a storm.  She ran around the office and even found one coworker who had a drawer full of stress baseballs. She grabbed them right up and would throw them back to him while going 'yee ah' sort of sounding like the Karate Kid every time she'd throw it.  She did great and had a ball.  The funny thing was when another coworker, who has jet black hair like Chris was standing there and Tia grabbed his leg thinking he was daddy.  She was acting all shy when some other guys came to see her and I told Chris to make it known that she wasn't holding her daddy's leg, but some stranger.  She looked at Chris, eyes got really big, she looked up at my coworker, then back at Chris.  She let go of his leg and stood her contemplating how to make her get-a-away. She ran for it, grabbed Chris's leg and I just laughed...it was super cute. She did not want to leave work.  She loved Technology Partners!  Then on Saturday, we were all over at "Aunt" Lisa's house for a get-to-gether and she was shy at first, but of course it didn't take her long to warm up quickly. "Aunt" Leslie snatched her right up and I could see Tia sort of give her a second look, but you could tell she knew it wasn't Mommy, but she didn't get all shy either.  Must have been some comfort in Leslie resembling Mommy.  Of course she had a blast with everyone else including little Evan (5 years old). She did not want to go to bed and when we put her down, she didn't fuss, but she wouldn't close her eyes either. She kept hearing us out in the common area.  Mary went in to see her and snatched her up. Then Tia was up playing for over an hour more and just had a ball.  She's going to be a show off for sure. Sunday, when "Aunt" Lisa came over, Tia was pulling out all of her toys and running around. She could care less about her toys all day long until Lisa got there.  So cute!

Starting to Get Shy

When Tia was a few months old, I really liked how she would go to anyone.  Even a few months after that, she seemed to be just fine being handed off to whomever.  It isn't until a few weeks ago that Tia has started to get a little shy around people.  Now that she can walk, perhaps she knows she can run to mommy or daddy if she is shy.  When people come over or new people are there to see her, she'll run and put her head between my thighs, grab her arms around my legs and hold on.  She'll look over her shoulder, with a small smile, and get all embarrassed.  She will warm up and of course she turns into a show off, but I have witnessed so many kids to the run to the parents and hide their head, but now I'm seeing Tia do it.  I love it, although I want her to be outgoing enough not to have to worry about people...some people she sees all the time and she is a lot better.  One thing I have noticed is how she recognizes kids.  She is not shy at all around kids of any age. Even when her cousins came over this past weekend, she became an instant showboat showing them all her toys and running around with a big smile on her face. But when her Aunt Dolor picked her up, she buried her head into Dolor's shoulder. Even when Tia sees the neighborhood kids, Tia gets all excited and loves to run around with them.  It just must be a thing where babies & toddlers recognize the innocence in other children. So sweet.

Tia in Timeout

So we've been trying to show Tia what no/yes means and what timeout means when she disobeys no.  It is definitely hard to do. (1) Because she so stinkin cute and you want to giggle when she does something (2) Because when you put her in timeout and she cries it breaks your heart and (3) We just don't know if she is understanding.  She loves to go into the kitchen and bang all the cabinet doors. I don't mind for some parts except she tends to go for the one under the sink which contains all the cleaning supplies.  We have not baby proofed the house yet, although we are about to.  So we do know that if you teach your kids what is okay to touch versus what is not okay, then they will just not touch those things.  Easier said than done, right!  Well, a couple times, I put her in timeout which is a pack-n-play set up in the other room.  The first time she went in (by Chris), she thought - oh fun, a new thing to play with...but it didn't take her long to realize that there weren't any toys and she was a bit isolated. After I put her in timeout a couple times, now all I have to say is 'do you want to go in timeout' and she quickly stops.  I am praying this will hold up..although she likes to push the boundaries and test our patience.  With daddy, it is much different. I think, with me, she knows I'm more business than play. With daddy, he is fun daddy and is her playmate, so she thinks he is just joking and doesn't listen.  Last night, Chris put her in timeout a few times and she did not like it very much.  I think soon she will realize what it means. It is harder than it looks to be stern, but we both feel it is important.  We know she is a baby and doses baby things, but there are always things she can learn now versus later.  When she touches the trashcan or toilet...it would be great for her to know what 'icky' means when we say it. She'll learn and we will learn a lot in the process. She is a tempter and we can tell will be a rebel...you tell her no and she does the exact opposite. My niece is like that too, but such a fun and spunky personality, which is so much fun. I love my baby girl, she just makes me laugh so hard when she knows she isn't supposed to be doing something and she has that look like 'ha ha, come and stop me' and her face is just priceless. It takes everything not to laugh out loud at her sassy-ness. She is definitely my little diva!

Tia Loves Her Cousins

This past weekend was quite fun because Tia got to spend some time with her cousins.  She has been around them before, but now that Tia is older, she can really engage and enjoy them.  For Christmas, I gave my brother Bobby and sister-n-law Dolor 4 Disney on Ice tickets to use this past weekend.  They have two beautiful girls named Juliean and Janelle.  I remember when they were born and how excited I was to be Aunt Angie.  No, this isn't my first time being an Aunt, since I have lots of brothers and sisters and most of them have already had kids. I even have some nephews in their 20's from my oldest sister Tip, but the difference is that they live in Thailand. I do have one niece here named Tori who is going on 20 years old. So my brother and Dolor took the girls on Saturday to Disney on Ice.  I met them at the City Museum afterwards and we had several hours of playing.  Boy was it fun. I didn't realize how big and crazy the City Museum was. There are caves to climb around and hundreds of tunnels and copper tubes and slides. My brother and I actually were enjoying ourselves although at some points, we could definitely feel that we weren't 12 again.  Juliean, who is 6 and Janelle, who is 5 just had a blast!  They didn't want it to end.  When we left, we tried to go to the Magic House or Science Center, but they were both closing about the time we could have made it there, so we just headed back to my house so they could spend some time with Tia.  Boy did they have fun, they played and danced, watched movies, and the entire time Tia copied their every move and had a smile from ear to ear. She watched everything they did and we could tell that it was one of the best days she's had.  They took a bath together and Tia just screamed the entire time in joy.  They were splashing and she felt she was a big girl from the way she copied their every action.  They watched a movie and Juliean and Janelle laid their head on a pillow...Tia crawled right up between them and put her head on the pillow too.  They danced to some music and as Juliean and Janelle would spin around, we saw Tia spin very slowly around too.  They just had a blast with each other and I know they will every time they see each other. I had that too. When we would go to my Grandma's for family gatherings, I had my cousins Missy and Jamie to play with. Boy did we have a blast and even when weren't doing much at all, it just felt so good to have cousins to play with.  Now that we are all getting older and we are having kids, to see our kids play together is even crazier.  1) It is hard to imagine that we all have kids 2) It is even harder to imagine that our kids are playing together.  My cousin Josh's boys Gavin & Jude were at the last family gathering and my brother's girls Juliean/Janelle, along with some other cousins were all playing together.  Definitely the next generation of Gulledge kids.  On Saturday, my mom and Ray came over and cooked dinner. It was just really nice to have an in prompt to family gathering. My brother and Dolor had no plans to stay the night, but ended up doing so because the girls were having so much fun.  Even after church and lunch on Sunday, the girls didn't want to leave. It reminds me of a song that my cousin Missy and I used to sing when we had to leave each other, 'I'm sad to say, I'm on my way, back again another a day, my heart is down, but will turn it around, when I'm back in Jersey-town'...or something along those lines.  That was probably 20 years ago when we used to sing that song every time we saw each other. Memories!!! And now Tia will start having some fun memories with her cousins too.

Does She Need a Helmet

Our poor little Tia, she is getting so big, but a little clumsy.  Last weekend, she bumped her forehead on her left side. A tiny scab formed and it wasn't too bad.  Then on Monday, shortly after I dropped her off, she fell into a crib and bumped  her head in the same spot causing a big bruise.  Just yesterday, another incident report where she lost her balance and hit the tile in the same spot.  It looked like she had a horn growing on that side. The knot was big and purple and huge. It stuck out and I just felt so bad for my baby girl.  Luckily this morning, it has gone down and it looks better. Let's pray she can get through a while without another incident report. I know all kids go through this, but I just hope she doesn't receive a concussion or any long term damage by hitting her head, etc. I'm sure Chris and I were both walking catastrophes when we were 1 too along with all kids in America.  So if you see her, you can give her a little kiss on her left forehead!

Age to Age

Do you remember when your parents were around 40 years old and you just thought, wow, they are old!!  I remember on my 14th birthday, my dad was 40 years old...I just thought that he was an old guy.  It if funny how I will be 34 years old this year and I really don't feel that I'm old at all. Truthfully, I'm not and I don't think 40 is old and I don't think 50 is old. Now that my parents are 60ish, I really don't consider them to be old either.  I guess I really am not sure what I feel is old....70? 80? 90?  I think we all know that I have always looked a little younger than I am, probably because of my half Thai heritage.  And I always get carded at the grocery stores, bars, and even restaurants.  I don't mind, I think it is always flattering.  I remember when I was 27 and a waitress at Helen's carded me and said 'wow, you look great for your age' and I thought...I'm 27, not 80.  I asked her how old she was and she said 18. Yep, I can see why she'd think that.  Just this past year, I was a guest speaker in two Corporate Communications Classes at Lindenwood University and being 33, I am sure they thought I was ancient.  Of course, when I take Tia to daycare and they say 'Tia's mom' that sort of puts it into perspective too. Yesterday, I think I realized that I have hit that point where younger generation Y kids would think I'm old.  Yesterday, I went to a luncheon at the Ritz for a Boys/Girls Club Fundraiser and it was mostly older women all suited up and fancy.  There were only 2% of the hundreds of attendees that were younger than me.  One set of girls walk up and a girl looks at me and says 'Hey, you are friends with my mom'. I wasn't sure if I was hearing it right and almost wanted to look behind me to see if she was talking to me and sure enough she was.  I soon realized, although the girl had jet black hair, that I had met her a while back when she had platinum blond hair because she IS the daughter of my friend Joni.  Joni is around 50ish and she bowls with me, plays cards on a regular basis with me, and we've become very close friends the past few years.  As I walked away, my colleague said wow, that is when you know you are getting older when someone says 'you are friends with my mom' and I just had to laugh really hard at myself.  The truth of the matter is that I've always enjoyed getting older.  I am not one of those who hides my birthdate or skirts the issue about age.  I have always been a person to round up and really embrace the aging process.  I was always the youngest in my classes growing up and I just had the feeling that we got better, smarter, wiser, and more financially stable as we got older, so what is not to love.  I believe we all have a destiny....a purpose....God's plan....and ultimately we'll get there one day.  We may take detours along the way that make it more in our distant future than immediate, but the more we become obedient to our goals and purpose, the closer we get.  I have enjoyed getting older and do believe that age is a state of mind.  There are 20 year olds who literally act like 50 year olds. There are 40 year olds that act like 12 year olds.  I have had this sense that everyone is the same age as me....that we are all on the same level playing field. I have always been drawn to older friends too. Not sure why, but I sort of feel they are wiser and you ultimately become your friends so why not choose more mature ones. Or perhaps I have always been more mature than my age, so I am attracted to those older than me.  I'm just not sure why, but I feel I can hang out with a 21 year old or a 60 year old and it doesn't matter to me, because they are all the same age as me in my eyes.  Hard concept to digest, but age is what you make of it and yes, like wine, it does get better with age.

Chicken, Hi, & Muah

First off, wouldn't you think that it would be awfully hard for a 15 month old to say Chicken...well, yep, Tia can say it.  The Director of the daycare said, I taught Tia how to say Chicken. She can't say my name Jill, but she can say Chicken.  And of course I had to hear it for my self and low and behold, Tia can say Chicken. It is super cute!  She also says Hi non-stop. She will see new people and say 'Hi' and when we get to daycare, she says Hi too.  Love it!  In addition to the mmmmmm kiss that I talked about the other day, she also does the Muah after the kiss just like we do.  I can't quite say mini-me just yet, but the girl is definitely working on it!

Mmmmm Kiss

Tia is such a sweetie. For a while now, probably 6 months, when I leave with Tia in the morning, Chris and I will kiss each other.  I am usually holding Tia and Chris and I will say 'mmmmmmmm' as we approach each other then kiss.  She always looks at us like we are from Mars, but then Chris will do the same to her by saying 'mmmmmm' then kissing her. Then I'll so it to Tia.  We've been doing this for months hoping that she'd learn to kiss.  She has learned to give kisses which is so adorable.  A few days ago, Chris said, 'give Daddy a kiss' and she said 'mmmmmmm' as she approached him and then landed a big kiss on him.  Our hearts melted...it was so adorable. So now, she will say 'mmmmm' when she kisses. I absolutely love it!

Natural Soccer Player

All the kids were playing in the cul-de-sac when we got home this weekend. I know the neighbor and she waived, so I took Tia and let her run around with the kids.  She had a ball. She was not walking, she was literally running. She had no fear and just wanted to run as far as she wanted without being stopped. It was super cute. All the kids loved seeing her and it just seemed like Tia knew they were kids versus adults.  There was a soccer ball (for adults) and they put it down in front of Tia. Tia runs up and kicks the ball and then follows it again, then kicks it again. I was amazed. She knew how to dribble.  She just kept doing it. I couldn't believe it. Both of us, are soccer players so maybe she just has that natural ability. I couldn't be more proud of my little tom-boy!  I really do hope she plays soccer as she gets older and I do hope she will be better than I ever was.  I played as the only girl on the guys soccer team for over 15 years...and throughout my adult life until I got married to Chris.  Chris has played his entire adult life until he tore his knee playing soccer and had to have surgery. We are definitely a soccer family.

She's got Rhythm

I have always considered myself to have great rhythm.   I like to dance and for a while during my college years, I used to go country line dancing every week. Since I love all types of music, I really can dance to just about anything.  I credit my creative side for this artistic trait. About a few months ago, we started noticing Tia moving from side to side when music was playing. It was sooooo cute.  But last night, she really proved that the girl has rhythm.  I had a few friends over to play cards and we were listening to a 70s and 80s station.  Every song that came on, she would move to the beat of the song. If it was a fast song, she'd dance quickly and if it was a slow, she would dance slowly. It was hysterical. I think I even caught her head banging on one song.  I really do hope she has rhythm and I think she is going to love the attention too.  She's my little dancer and I hope she is going to be a creative like her momma!

Gender Specific

I got yelled at last night by Chris.  He was jokingly saying that I'm in trouble because everything I buy for Tia is all girlie and pink/brown.  I decided to buy a food catcher for her high chair, as well as a mat that goes under her high chair.  What he doesn't know about the food catcher is that I ordered brown, but they sent me an email saying they were out and so I picked pink.  Honestly, it looks awfully cute.  The mat that goes on the floor, however, is pink and brown giraffe print and it is oh so cute.  We are hoping for a boy in the next few years, whether that is baby #2 or possibly baby #3.  I realize that if we had a boy next, that would mean we would have to buy a lot of new boy or non-gender specific items.  But Tia deserves to be girlie and cute, right?  Her car seat has the cute pink/brown flowers and is super adorable. Fits her and matches her room well.  We just don't know if we'll have all girls or have a boy in there...heck we don't even know if we'll even have another baby, although we want one and have been trying for months.  But whichever we have, we'll just face it when the time comes.  Chris was saying that our little boy (pretend, of course) would have to go to school in girl clothes and have a lot of pink items.  And of course, I'll get blamed.  Well, I wouldn't do that to our kids, but I know a lot of friends who had boys and I'm sure they could help us out.  My brother has all girls, my cousin has all boys, my aunt has all boys, my uncle has all boys...it seems that in our family there are a lot of the same genders in families.  So who knows which gender we'll end up having.  Tia is going to need her stuff for a long while and I can tell she loves all the girlie stuff, lol.

Officially a Toddler

First of all, where has the time gone? I mean, wasn't it yesterday that she was army crawling around. Now she is walking, talking, communicating, and understanding more than I would have imagined.  At school she has officially moved up to the Toddler Room.  She is no long considered an infant. She no longer needs bottles at daycare, no more sheets, or blankets, or baby food. They don't even want to know when she last ate or was changed.  Basically, you just drop her off and she is ready to go.  They said that she gives the big boys a run for their money.  It just cracks me up because she is probably the smallest in the class, but she is the one who is not afraid to stand up for what she wants/needs.  But she is also extremely happy and talkative too.  They just love her at daycare because, she is always smiling and high energy.  It is crazy that she is so big.  When they say time flies, they weren't joking. We have been working on expanding the family and I really hope that we get pregnant sometime this year.  I had originally imagined that we'd have kids within a couple years a part, but if we don't get more serious about our baby making, they are going to be more than a couple years a part.  I guess that is okay too.  I can barely remember the sleepless nights and non stop crying, the billy bed for jaundice, the endless sick days, the teething, the thousands of explosions, BUT if we have another baby, we'll get another round at all of those things.  Aren't they so worth it?  Tia is just a light in my life and I just love seeing her get bigger and more interactive.  She is super sweet and I can tell she is going to love life, as well as really live it to the fullest.  I hope she gets some of those qualities that Chris and I have.  I have always been a positive person, live life once mentality, and really appreciate all of my blessings. I hope she is the same way.  She loves to laugh and I know that Chris and I laugh all the time at each other, our own selves, and just because.  Live, Love, Laugh is really our motto in our home.  I love telling Tia I love her and when I ask if she loves mommy, she'll give a big nod of her head with a big ole smile.  She loves laughing and playing. And of course we all love to live!  So fun! So blessed!  Tia is so amazing....and getting so big.

Tia Cracks Me Up

I know kids just do the cutest things, but Tia has just really shown her personality. She is a bit spunky, definitely has a touch of Diva, and is quite funny and she knows it.  One thing that just cracks me up is when I am feeding Tia and Chris is standing with his arms crossed in the kitchen. Tia will cross her arms and just stare at Chris.  We have to do double takes to see if she is really crossing her arms mocking Chris...and she is because she'll giggle too. Last night, I was feeding Tia and Chris was sitting at the Kitchen table with his elbow on the table and his hand holding his head up.  All of a sudden, Tia puts her hand on the top of her head.  It made me laugh out loud.  She did it a few times.  At Christmas, she got a big tunnel but we decided she wasn't quite big enough for it, so we stored it away.  This weekend, we decided to open up the entire living room for her to play. We expanded the gate and put pillows all around the room, so she could go too far and she just had a hay day playing with everything and running around the room.  We pulled out the tunnel and at first, she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. She looked through it but wouldn't enter it.  Finally, I got her to crawl through it and I was playing hide and seek with her and she just had a ball.  She would belly laugh every time I would try to grab her and she'd quickly crawl away. It was so cute and she just had a great time with it.  Her teeth on the top are so cute.  It sort of looks like she has fangs tho.  But when she smiles, it is just the cutest smiles.  The other funny thing she does is talk with her pacifier in her mouth.  Of course, we don't know what she is saying, but she'll talk to you and it just sounds like the kid off of Charlie Brown.  She also walks around with her sippy cup in her teeth. She isn't holding onto it with her hands, she just holds it in her mouth by her teeth and runs around the room. Oh the girl just cracks me up, but we just have so much fun with her.

Thumb Sucker?

This morning, as I was driving Tia to school, I heard the sound of her binky being tossed to the side.  It made me realize that she has not sucked on her thumb or fingers and I started to ponder when babies usually started to do that.  Just as I had that thought in my head, I turned around to see Tia sucking on her thumb.  I have not seen her do this since she was about 3 or 4 months old.  I took her thumb out and she laughed, then put it back in.  I did notice that she had a lot of slobber so I wondered if it was just her teething.  I hope she doesn't become a thumb sucker, but she does rely on her pacifiers.  The girl cracks me up.  As a gift from Great Aunt Jenny, Tia received a pair of Avery Pacifiers for a 0-3 month old and then a another pair of 6 to 12 months.  So of course we used the 0-3 months and she loved them.  When she turned 6 months, I tried to bump her up to the 6 to 12 month pacifier and she just hated it.  So the girl has been using 0-3 month pacifiers even though she is well over a year old.  On Tuesday, I had a Harley Davidson photo shoot and I didn't have to be there until 10. Tia was still not feeling great, so I wasn't sure if she'd go to Katmas or daycare.  I was holding out to make sure she didn't have any loose diapers before making the decision.  Besides a bit of goopy eyes when she woke up, she was back to her old self with a high energy and super smiley.  We left the house when I realized she didn't have her pacifier, so we stopped at Babies-R-Us and they didn't open until 9:30, so we had to wait patiently for a few minutes and were the first ones in. I bee-lined it to the pacifier section and I could not remember if she used 0-3 months or 3-6 months..so I went with the 3-6 months. We get in the car and I get her one out. She puts it in her mouth. Takes it out and intently looks it over. Puts it back in. Takes it out and looks at it again. I instantly realized, it was too big. Darn!  That girl is a pacifier snob!  She cracks me up.

The Whole Family is Sick

When Tia was less than a year old, it seemed like every time she would get a cold, soon after me and/or Chris would get it too.  I have to admit that after about 10 or 11 months of life, Tia didn't pass on much sickness to us. However, this time around, whatever it is that she has is spreading to me, Chris, his mom, her uncles, etc.  Whether they are all related is questionable, but we are all sick at the same time.  I was out of work yesterday and I know that Katma and Brandon went to the ER the day before. Chris woke up not feeling good today and it is that unsettling stomach feeling...a nausea, some diarrhea, and lost of green fluids keeping us a bit congested.  I know it is just a virus or bug that is going around. Luckily for us Tia's diarrhea went away yesterday.  She had two loose stools the day before, but yesterday seemed to be the first day that she was diarrhea free and had a bigger appetite too.  She has had crusty shut eyes every morning which just breaks my heart. I can't imagine waking up and not being able to open my eyes.  She doesn't cry, but I can tell she is annoyed. I give her her bottle and then I take a wet rag and get her eyes cleaned up.  I hate to see that and if she cries, the green gunk still seeps out.  Yucky!  I can't wait for her to wake up gunk free.  Luckily, I don't have that symptom, but the same colored gunk is definitely in my Kleenex so it looks like the same bug. Oh well, I know it is part of having babies and daycare sickness.  She is still happy and fun to be around. She just cracks me up with how mobile she is. She wants free reign of the entire house, but gets soooo mad when we don't let her past the living room.  She's our little diva!