I am so excited, y'all!  Gia's Pink Giraffe birthday party was chosen as a finalist for party of the month on the most awesome, famed blog of Project Nursery!  Last I checked, we were in second place, behind by just 3 or 4 votes!  So.... will you help us win by voting for her birthday party!?  Here's how you can do that:

• Check out Gia's party and the other fabulous finalists here at the Project Nursery Blog.
• VOTE at the above link.  
• "Like" Project Nursery on Facebook. Then comment on Gia's photos in the May Finalists Album.
•  Tell your friends to vote, too!

Thanks, guys!  :)

I took these pictures tonight as I was holding Gia.  Its Wednesday night, and she's always tired on church nights.  As you can see, she didn't make it through her bedtime nursing session.  (Hope she doesn't wake up hungry at 3 am!)  Usually, I try to keep her awake as I'm feeding her so that I put her in her crib awake.  But that was just not happening tonight.  So instead, I just stared at her.  For a long time.  Truth be told, I do that a lot.  Just look at her.  I'm amazed and awed with the both the amount of love I feel for her and the capacity of my heart to hold such emotion. 

I made a quick little video that shows how I edited the weekly photos.  So many people have asked where I got the onesies for the 52 weeks, but here's the secret: they're fake!  Totally photoshopped.  I just use a plain white onesie, then add the weeks in using Photoshop.  If you are interested in doing a similar project but don't have Photoshop, I think you can still do the same thing using another free photo editing program like paint.  (But I haven't tried it so I'm not totally sure.)

Sorry if the video isn't entirely clear... I couldn't figure out how to add text beyond "titles" so the text is a little more vague that what I had initially planned on including in the video.  It also cut off the very top of my screen so you can't see everything I was doing with the top tool bar in PS, but it gives you the basic idea.  If you have any questions, just ask!

Oh- and there are stupid ads on it so you may have to "x" off of those in order to see the text.  :)




 

Now that our 52-week photo project is over, I've taken a little time to think about what I might do differently if there is a next time. I love having all the weekly pictures to look back on and am so excited to make them into a book! I've also thought about creating a poster with the pictures, too. I'll be sure to put up photos of that if I do it! Overall, I am super happy and proud of the way the project went. The main things that I would do differently all involve the fabric choices. So here are my thoughts about that:

1. Choose fabrics I LOVE. Most of the fabric I used for these pictures came from the Clearance section of the fabric stores. While that is great for our wallet, I'm not so thrilled with some of the selections. Some of the fabrics are too similar to one another; some are just odd. I liked them all at the time I bought them, but I didn't LOVE them all. Most of the clearance fabrics were $3-4/yard. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I did the math and realized that I could pretty much have any fabric I wanted at Hobby Lobby if I used the 40% off coupon or got it when their calico prints were 40% off (which they are frequently). So even a fabric that is usually $8 or $9, I could get for just about the clearance fabric price. Now, fabrics at Joanns are a bit more expensive, as are more "name brand" fabrics like Amy Butler or Moda. But I think it might be worth it in the end to pay a dollar or two more each week to wind up with great fabrics. Another reason to choose only fabrics that I LOVE is because in addition to creating a quilt for Gia, part of the point of this project was to build up my formerly non-existent stash of fabric scraps so that when a project arose that needed fabric, I would have something on hand. Unfortunately, because I am not so crazy in love with most of the fabrics, I have found myself going out and buying MORE fabric for specific projects. So that's a bummer I didn't think about ahead of time.



2. Only buy cotton if planning to make a quilt. I was very indiscriminate about my fabric choices in the beginning. And being the novice (er, non-existent) quilter, I didn't even think about it all needing to be the same fabric. So while I love one of the seersucker prints I used in week 8, it can't go in the quilt. Neither can the weird gauzy heart fabric from week 23 (which happens to be one of my FAVES). So, next time I will definitely choose only cotton fabrics.


3. Choose a theme or broad color palette. I still think my quilt will look good, but next time I think I'd like to try choosing a theme for my fabric choices (like dots and stripes or flowers) or a broad color scheme (like teal and red, or all blues). I saw a quilt on Pinterest that was an "I Spy" quilt... all the fabrics had fun things on them, and you could use it to play "I Spy" with a toddler.


4. Always buy 1 yard of fabric. For the early pictures, I only bought 1/2 yard. Though that was all I needed at the time, it doesn't make for much leftovers to play with! That's all I can think of right now. We are right in the middle of moving across town, so I know it will be a while before I get to working on Gia's quilt. I still have to decide on a pattern too! I've pinned several ideas (some posted above here), which you can see on my Pinterest Board here. SHEY'S QUILT BOARD  So, anyone else planning on doing this project? Something similar? What do you think about the quilt patterns? Any faves?

Weight: She is 17 pounds, 3 ounces. 
Clothing Size: 12 months, with a few 9 month onesies that I still SQUEEZE her into.  
Fave Toy: She received some super fun toys for her birthday!  Its hard to pick a fave this month as she is having a blast exploring them all!  But if I had to pick, I think her new Cinderella baby doll and doll stroller are her current fave.
Fave Outfit: Without a doubt her birthday outfit- the "1" shirt and tutu skirt.
New Moves: Walking more here and there, a few steps strung together at a time. She also has this super cute squinty-eyed face she makes when she really likes something. 
Teething: STILL NO NEW TEETH!
Eating: She's been eating like a teenage boy the past couple of days!  I am so proud of her.  I am trying to wean her off of her afternoon nursing session.  Yesterday was the first day I didn't give it to her, and it went pretty well.  So we'll keep trying that and see how it goes.  She got her first taste of sweets this month and is pretty much a fan.  She loves cake pops and donuts the most.  :)  I've tried giving her whole milk but so far she is not a fan of it.
Sleeping:  She is still waking up once or twice.  For now I'm still letting her nurse but I know we really need to stop that soon.      
Talking: She is babbling like crazy!  She says "all done" while doing the sign for it when she is finished with dinner.  She also says it whenever she's ready to move on to a new activity or get out of her car seat.  Too cute.  She's also trying to say "banana" which is cute. 

I cannot believe Gianna is one year old.  We had to go to the doctor on Friday before her birthday because she had an ear infection.  Gia now weighs 17 pounds 1 ounce, and grew an inch in just the past month.  She is 28 inches tall now!  That puts her in about the 12th percentile for her height and weight.  Dr. C was very happy with how she is growing and gaining weight.

For Gia's birthday, her Aunt Anne and Uncle Kyle wanted to take her to the Indy Children's Museum.  What a great birthday gift!  I love the idea of giving the gift of a memory!  There was a "Going to Egypt" exhibit that made the day especially fun.  We pretended like we were going to see Nana and Papa Sam.  I was amazed at how true to life the depictions of everyday Egypt was!  We took a million pictures (ok, really just 134) but here are just a few of the best ones.

She's hillarious.  This is her personality that is just budding!

 After the Children's Museum, we went to Yatz's for an early dinner (YUMMMM) and then The Flying Cupcake for- what else?  A birthday cupcake!  Here are some phone pics of that. 

She used my dark-wash jeans as a napkin for her white frosting-covered hands.

Mmmm Yatz cajun food!

It was a beautiful day filled with many priceless memories.  My heart was so full.  I can't think of another day this past year that has been so perfectly wonderful and enjoyable other than the day she was born.  Thank you Aunt Anne & Uncle Kyle for making memories with us! 

HURRAY!  52 Weeks old and this Photo A Week project is complete!  I had my doubts about being able to do this project, but now that it is complete I can't believe how fast this past year has flown by.  I am glad I was able to keep up with it!

This past week has been so crazy with all the things Gia has been doing.  Its like all of a sudden, she realized the people around her really were her friends.  She's been much more social.  On Saturday, we had her big birthday party (a week early so out of town family could be there).  I was totally nervous about how she would hold up for the whole thing, but that child amazed me.  She let me walk around and play hostess while she was perfectly content to play with the other kids across the room.  When the party was over, I was going to hurry up and get her home for a nap, but she was still happy.  So I was able to stay and clean up- she never got fussy!

She is getting so cute with her little baby dolls.  She got a new one for her birthday that she loves- a baby Cinderella doll.  Its amazing to me how maternal she already is.  My parents got her a doll stroller for her birthday, and she is so sweet.  She cuddles the babies and the puts them in the stroller.  Gia is even getting a bit more cuddly these days- something she has definitely not been much of before.

As for walking, Gia hasn't really taken many more steps.  Just a few here and there.  But she is definitely trying and getting closer!  She is still saying "momma" and "dad" a lot.  She's becoming such a daddy's girl.  She can also say "All Done" when she is finished eating.  It is SO cute when she does that!  She's even started saying "all done" whenever she is tired of something... getting out of her car seat, playing with a certain toy, etc.  This little girl has such a mind of her own already!  Gia loves to sing.  She has such a sweet, angelic voice!  She sings in the car all the time!

So what's next?  I am planning to take monthly pictures of little Miss G from here on out... until she's 18.  :)  How many pictures is that?  194?  Yes, that sounds good.  Well ok, I guess I will just take it one year at a time.  I have an idea for what I am going to do, but I need to find a few things for it.  I'll keep you posted.  ;)  Thanks so much for following along with us this past year.  Your kind comments and encouragements have helped keep me going!

Oh, and as for what I am going to do with all of the pictures and fabric, I will write another post about that soon too.  But you may have to bear with me a few weeks because we are in the middle of moving craziness! Now for some outtakes:

I think its quite serendipitous and appropriate that today's prompt is about body appreciation.  You see, today is my sweet baby girl's very first birthday.  And if conceiving a tiny baby, then cooking that baby, giving birth and recovering from the previous 10 months doesn't make you appreciate your body, nothing will.

One of the many therapeutic exercises I had to do while in-patient at TC2 included writing all the things that I am thankful my body can do.  I remember standing in the smoking room (which I was never allowed because I wasn't 18 yet at the time) which had a wall of mirrors.  My therapist was next to me and she had me start at the top of my head and go down to the tips of my toes as I said things I was thankful for about every party of my body.  Talk about uncomfortable!  For some reason, my biggest point of contention with my body was my stomach.  I have scars that show just how much I disliked my stomach, and though I can't really tell you why it was such a hang up for me, it just really was.

As I was doing this body image exercise, I got to the area of my stomach.  I fell silent.  I had nothing good to say... nothing was coming to mind.  I could be thankful that it digested food, but at the time, I didn't like eating.  So I couldn't care less about that.  I don't know how long it took me to come up with something, but it seemed like forever.  But finally, I was able to be thankful for my stomach because someday, it would carry my unborn children.  And even though I was still a teenager, I knew that some day, far down the road, I wanted to have kids.  This actually became a leading motivation for my recovery-- to live a normal life.  And for me, that included the dream of having kids.  I knew that eating disorders can affect fertility, so the appreciation of my body and what it would hopefully some day do in terms of creating and carrying my family was huge.

Today I've thought a lot about when I was pregnant with my daughters.  Though I gained a lot of weight and saw the scale slide up an awful lot in the past 3 years, I've never once had a panic moment where the old ED-thinking crept in.  It was always about nourishing myself so I could nourish my babies; so they could be as healthy as possible.  And honestly, I had fun doing it.  When else can you beg your husband to go out and get you that special coconut milk chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream at midnight?  I attribute this all to God and his healing power, but along with that, I think the appreciation that I intentionally developed for my body in this aspect played a huge role in it as well.  I actually enjoyed the curves of pregnancy, and was able to recognize the awesome gift that God has given women in the ability to birth children.


After Gia was born, my body did even more crazy stuff.  It once again looked different and took some adjusting.  But I had confidence that my body would recover as it should, as long as I took care of it.  I breastfed Gia (and still am), so I took joy in finding healthy but filling meals and snacks (often at all hours of the day) in order to keep my milk supply up.

A Year ago today- Gia's birth day!

Now that I am exactly one year post-baby, I have a greater appreciation for my body than I ever have had before.  I've never been extremely healthy in means of exercise (as in I rarely do it), and we've just started going to the YMCA as a family.  It feels good to exercise without obsessing, and to be more than okay when several days go by and I don't make it to the gym.  Its all about moderation in life.  Knowing that the world isn't going to end if I gain weight and that ultimately, as long as I do my part in taking care of this temple God has given me, it will do what its supposed to.  I am so eternally thankful to God that my destructive behaviors didn't have a permanent impact on my ability to have a family.  Because like I said, its pretty much the dang coolest thing your body can ever do!

This is us today.  Yes, I'm sentimental and wore the same thing today that I did on her birth day last year.  Well, different pants, of course.

So much has changed in just a year.  I am amazed and humbled at the ways I have personally seen God move.  Our baby girl, Gia was born one year ago today.  On this morning last year, I was a bundle of nerves!  We headed to my doctor's appointment just hoping and praying they would let me have the baby that day.  After a quick ultrasound that showed Gia's amniotic fluid was getting low, we were sent straight over to the hospital to begin the amazing process of bringing our baby into this world.

I'll never forget how excited Sean was that morning.  His joy at becoming a father again bubbled over to the point of near giddy-ness.  As we were leaving the doctor's office to head next door to the hospital, he shouted to the very full waiting room, with hands raised above his head "We're having a baby today!"  So cute.

Labor was long and difficult but we had an amazingly skilled doctor who delivered Gia.  In the final moments, I held my breath as the second heart I had been carrying inside for 10 months left my body. I held my breath in desperate anticipation of one noise, and one noise alone- her cry.  When Whitney was born, the delivery room was so quiet.  So incredibly still.  Just like her.  I needed to hear some noise from my baby, to know that she was alright.  It seemed like minutes but I know it was really mere seconds that I had to wait for the one sound I'd been craving to hear for years.  Please God, let her cry.  Let her scream.  Show me her signs of life!  And before I could even finish that prayer, I heard it.  Air flowing through her lungs, cries of new life emanating from this tiny human being.  A miracle.




Sean was by her side as they took her to the bassinet to clean her off and check her out.  "She's got teeth!" Sean exclaimed.  (Psych- he thought he was joking but had no idea some babies actually are born with teeth.)  "Why is she mexican?" he exclaimed again.  (New dad humor?) I chuckled, but the nurses still weren't sure what to think of him.  But who cared?  Our baby girl was here and she was beautiful.  Her cries were the sweetest thing I had ever heard.  




They brought this tiny noisy bundle over to me and laid her on my chest.  The closest thing to heaven on earth.  I'd waited so many years for this moment.  Its not every day you get to actually touch a miracle.  So tiny in size but huge in symbolization and truth.  That we were allowed to be a vehicle for God's redeeming power and compassionate love is both weight weighty and astounding. For once, the impossible actually happened- time stood still.  Nothing else mattered.  Our baby was here and she was healthy.  And she was ready to rock our world.



We love you, Gianna Noelle and are so blessed to call you our daughter!!!

Ok, maybe its just me, but today's prompt: Create a Mascot, is a little strange.  I don't think I'm creative enough to do that.  Or maybe I've just been out of art therapy too long to come up with something.  So... yeah.  However, I did see a really cute mascot by another blogger who is a part of this Hungry for Change blog month.  She has the Recovery Cats!  Its so cute- you should go check them out HERE. Sorry to be lame today!