A Happy Mother's Day.

Yesterday was just one of those perfect days.  My husband started off the day by giving me the gift of sleep.  And when I did get my wake up call, it was my husband and my two year old daughter coming in the room to wake me up - which was a great, warm feeling!  When they came in to wake me, they also brought me a super sweet Mother's Day card that they made together... the BEST kind.  I got to play in bed with Presley for a little while before getting up and getting ready.

Next on the schedule?  We drove down to Tunica, Mississippi to have lunch with his parents at Sam's Town Casino's buffet.  They have Corky's BBQ - so I had DELICIOUS ribs for the first time since being back in Memphis.  Delicious!  My mother-in-law even pointed out that the dessert bar had no-sugar added options for me!!  We always have so much fun with my in-laws, Selena & Mike, and Presley just adores them so much. 

Oh, and did I mention, I didn't change a single diaper?  I didn't even dress Presley yesterday... my husband did!  And she looked adorable.  (Oh and of course, Presley and Tony being the buddies they are... she decided to not poop at all yesterday.  So typical!)  Tony also gave Presley her bath last night!!!  These things were so welcomed and appreciated, especially with this almost-32-week-pregnancy-belly in my way of things.

My husband is such a giving man and I felt so loved yesterday after his gifts to me.  As I've mentioned here before, I have been struggling with anxiety about this pregnancy as well as the big changes that await us and yesterday was such a welcome reprieve from all of that.  Today, I feel more equipped for everything going on and the things yet to come as well.  It's really amazing how healing some family time (coupled with some relaxation) can be for the soul.

And as always, I spent the day thinking about the influential women in my life - the ladies who have been mothers to me through their love and encouragement.  I'm lucky to have been born into an incredible family and to be accepted into another.  I am lucky to have aunts, grandmothers, a mother-in-law, and mom to support me and the people I love most.  As if those gifts aren't enough... every single one of those ladies has given birth to some of the best people ever - some who I consider my best friends!  And knowing how tough parenthood can be - knowing these women were able to do it, usually several times over, gives me strength that I can, too.

I hope everybody had a nice Mother's Day.  Whether you were looking for a fun and adventurous day or a calm, relaxing day or maybe you just needed a reminder as to why you are doing this whole crazy parenting thing - I really hope you were able to enjoy the day and the things it offered to you.

Meeting Family!

SO, you met a LOT of people while we were in the Midsouth for Labor Day.  I tried to get as many pictures as I could but because your mama wasn't feeling well while we were out of town, we didn't get to meet everyone I had in mind.  Also, there are some family and friends you met that I wasn't able to get a picture of... but the memories are there and those are better than any picture!

Here are some of the wonderful, crazy, loving, beautiful people you met while we were in Mississippi...

You know you're Grandmommy, already!  But we were so lucky to get to see her again so soon!  We've been SO fortunate & have seen your Grandmommy about every 2-3 months since you arrived!  She is surely no stranger to you. :)  Grandmommy is your daddy's mama.  I absolutely love sharing stories with Grandmommy about you because she is just as obsessed with you as I am!  It makes me so happy that there is someone else out there who can match the amount of love that I have for you.  (I know she's not the only one, but there aren't many who I can confidently say love you in a similar way.)  She loves you so much!  We are all lucky to have Grandmommy Selena in our lives.

This was your first time meeting your GREAT Granny!  She is Grampa Mike's mama and she was so comfortable holding you for the first moment she picked you up.  Granny is great at a LOT of things (she is strong, and supportive, and independent, and loving - among those things) but perhaps something she is a PROFESSIONAL at is raising kiddos and helping take good care of them and I could see she is still such a natural.  Your Granny is a spitfire and I have yet to meet someone quite like her; she has got so much LIFE inside of her.  I just hope you get to know her as well as I have!

You met your cousin Riley.  I'm not sure the exact relation (second cousin? someone help me out here...) but she is about 3 months bigger than you and such a sweetie.  I have never seen you react so strongly to another tiny person as you did with her - you must be getting comfortable with little girls who are 3 months older than you thanks to your weekly playdates with Alli and Molly!  Anyways, you and Riley were just loving on each other and it was so sweet.

There you are!

You already know this guy -- it's daddy!  You are just knocked out on him here... we were in Eudora visiting Grandmommy, Grandaddy and the pups!  You met Sandy, Samantha, & Bandit for the first time.  Did you know daddy has known his pup Sandy longer than he's even known you or mommy?  I wish we had a picture of you and Sandy together, but you were a little nervous around dogs on this trip.  You were definitely overwhelmed during our trip to Mississippi, but I am so happy you got to meet so much of your daddy's family members.

Here is your GREAT Aunt Kelly.  She is your Grampa Mike's sister and Granny is her mama which makes her daddy's Aunt.  She has some funny stories about your daddy that I can't wait for her to tell you someday.  You liked looking around the room at your Aunt Kelly's house and out of all the faces in the room you seemed most comfortable focusing on hers!  I don't blame you - not only is she gorgeous (obviously!) but she is one of the kindest people you may ever meet.  I hope the two of you will make lots of memories as you grow.

This is your Aunt Shareese.  Her mama is Aunt Alice - who is Granny's sister.  (I believe this technically makes Shareese your 1st cousin, twice removed... but all of that confuses me... so we are going to recognize her as your GREAT Aunt Shareese for all intents and purposes.)  Just like your Aunt Kelly, Shareese is so kind-hearted and so much fun to be near.  She is also somebody I would love for you to get to know as you grow.  She's married to your Uncle Roy and they have a little girl Ava - who is an absolute sweetheart.

You also got to meet your cousin, Lexi - who's mama is Aunt Kelly - so this makes her your daddy's cousin.  This year is her last year of high school and then she's onto the big leagues!  I first got to know Lexi when she was much younger and sometimes I still see and think of her as a little girl, but she is much older and more mature (although she's always seemed more mature to me than other people her age) now and was so good with you - which was no surprise.  I hope you grow up to love sports and be confident in yourself in the way that Lexi seems to be.

Oh my word.  This is Lexi's little brother, Bobby.  That makes him your cousin as well.  Mommy used to watch Bobby when he was a little boy - and if I still see Lexi as a little girl - then I certainly see Bobby just the same way.  I would easily say Bobby is my first little person love and while EVERYONE I have mentioned here has a ginormous piece of my heart, Bobby's got such a soft spot in my heart.  He is funny and loving and a million other wonderful things... he is just a good person.  I can not wait to see how much you love him as you get older!

Here's another familiar face!  This is your Grandaddy - your Grampa Mike.  The last time you two were together (besides when this picture was taken) was when you were a fresh, brand new baby and still in the hospital.  I'll never forget that your grandparents made that long trip to be with us on your first days here with us.  If you haven't gathered yet, your Grampa Mike is your daddy's daddy and one of your daddy's best friends.  And I hope he will be one of your best friends, too, as you get to know him over the years!  He's such a great man - he's such a hard worker, someone who loves his family unconditionally, and always has a listening, caring ear for the people in his life.  Everybody who knows Grampa Mike, loves him instantly.  :)  He's also the only Grampa you've got left on this Earth.

Your Grandparents - I hope you learn to cherish every moment you have with them because life is very short and these are two people who would lay down their lives for you - that is how much they care about you.

This is your GREAT Uncle Bob!  He is married to your Aunt Kelly and is a very special person in our family.  People flock to both Bob and Kelly.  They are so inviting, always welcoming, and definitely some fun people to be around.  Your Uncle Bob loves you very much and we love him, too!  I don't think Bob has ever met a stranger in his life - he is so friendly and will strike up a conversation with just about anybody.

This is one of daddy's best friend's, Chris.  I'm not sure if you will call him Chris or Uncle Chris - whatever makes you comfortable.  He is so silly and he will make you laugh a lot with his lame jokes over the coming years.  In addition to his silliness, he has got a big heart and is a very humble person.  You can learn a lot of great things from him just by being near him and with how important he is to mommy and daddy I know you will be getting to know him yourself as you grow up!

 

This is Kristen!  She is dating "Uncle" Chris and this isn't the first time you've met her (or Chris).  We got to see them over Memorial Day Weekend in St. Louis!  And Kristen was around while you were in mommy's belly, too!  I remember Kristen saying how light on my feet I was despite how big my belly was around Christmastime... I would flop down on your Uncle Chris' bed just like I always have and she thought it was hilarious because my belly was pretty big at that point!

This is another one of daddy's best friends - Tyler.  He has one of the biggest hearts of anyone we've ever met!  And he is magic around kiddos... I haven't seen any kid that hasn't liked your Uncle Tyler, including you.  I can't wait until you are old enough for your Uncle Tyler to be able to lift you over his head and toss you around in the pool - because Tyler is very strong! :)  He'll be one of the many protective men in your life who helps chase away the boys who bother you over the years.  Even though we currently live pretty far from each other, I would be shocked if we don't end up living close to your Uncle Tyler in the long run.

You got to see Tyler's girlfriend, Marsha, again!  She is a kindergarten teacher and is so great with kids.  She also has such a sweet spirit and is so easy to talk to and get to know - I don't think she has a mean bone in her body!

 

This is one of daddy's oldest friends - Damen.  You also met Damen's brother, Peyton, but we didn't get to snap a picture of the two of you together.  Both your Uncle Damen and Uncle Peyton have such important places in your mommy & daddy's life and you will be hearing so many stories involving them as you grow up.  They both had a lot to do with your mommy and daddy getting together and both of them have been such loyal and dear friends to us for so many years.  Damen and Peyton have always been more like brothers to us than anything else.  Though time and distance have made it hard for us to stay as close - nothing will change the bond we have with them!  You are going to grow up to love both Damen and Peyton and have MANY people to meet from their family who have been like our own family for a lot of years.

And that's everybody - at least everybody that I have a photo of with you.  That's a lot to remember and a lot to take in - so it's a good thing this won't be your only time to get to know all these wonderful people.  The plan is to visit again around Christmas or New Years, but considering what a long trip it was and the toll it took on you emotionally, I'm just not sure if we will make it at Christmastime or not.  If not, maybe we can talk some of our friends and family into meeting halfway for a few days in St. Louis again.  But ideally, we would be going "home" for Christmas to spend as much time with everybody as we can!  We will see what happens... in the meantime, know that you are so loved by so many people.  It's because you are such a special girl yourself.  You are so important, Presley, and I hope you always know that.  I love you so much!

PS, Next I will have to write a blog about all your special family members who live near you!  I don't want them to feel slighted - because we love them so much!

Keeping up with the Duggans!

Okay, so really it's just Keeping up with Presley, because Tony and I are chop liver these days!  But I'm okay with that.

I apologize for being M.I.A. lately... as I said in one of my last posts, Presley has had some big changes lately and they require more attention than before!

So, the big thing that's been happening lately is the addition of solid foods into our routine!  Things started off very slow in the food department for Presley, so I really chalked it up to her just not really liking this baby food yet and I'm honestly just happy she's still content with breastmilk since that is so cheap and (relatively) easy -- considering it's the only meal I can make in my sleep!  We tried baby oatmeal (hated it), Gerber Organic Sweet Peas (not a huge fan), and Gerber Green Beans (still not a fan).  I knew I'd like to try making her baby food so after we were home from our Memphis/Mississippi vacation, I decided to start with a batch of Carrots as well as a batch of Butternut Squash.  We started with the carrots and let me just tell you, this kid LOVES them!  She has been gobbling them up!  We started out with one cube (which means, one ice cube, for those who don't know what I mean by that. I puree her food and let them freeze in ice cube trays and then pop them out and save them in freezer baggies), one time a day (I am starting her out pretty slow, I know...) and she worked her way up to demolishing two cubes - still just once a day.

With how much she loves carrots, I was nervous to start the squash today.  I thawed two cubes (each cube is about 1oz each, just for a frame of reference - again, for those who haven't used this method) and realized that the squash turned out much runnier than the carrots.  I thickened it up using some of Presley's Organic Brown Rice baby cereal.  Like I said before, she wasn't a huge fan of cereal, so that on top of introducing a new food, I wasn't sure how she was going to like it!  Come to find out, I had nothing to fret over because she destroyed what I gave her in record time; I could not give her big enough bites fast enough!  SO, now I am thinking about adding another feeding to her day since she acted like a starving child (trust me, she doesn't look the part!).


Maybe adding another feeding to our morning schedule will help her take a nice nap in the afternoon - these days she refuses to nap.  This drives me crazy - mostly because she needs one or two a day - but since she is sleeping pretty good at night again, I kinda just think of it as a give and take.  Hopefully this will subside and just has to do with her transitioning from 3 naps a day to 2 naps a day.  (Even though right now she is 0 naps a day!)


Ever since she began the nasty part of teething a few weeks ago, her sleep has been all messed up!  This was made SO MUCH worse when we went out of town for a long Labor Day Weekend.  We drove from Moline, Illinois to Memphis, Tennessee (10+ hours each way... dumb....) and surprisingly, the car ride was the easiest part each time!  We stayed with Tony's family members - Aunt Kelly, Uncle Bob, cousin Lexi, cousin Bobby, & a few small pups! (They are the most gracious hosts and people just flock to the McQuages, I swear... but more about the fun we had on our vacation for the next post...)

This is what Presley did in the car... GOOD GIRL!

Unfortunately, my first night in town I started to feel really weird.  Tony was so exhausted from getting up so early to travel (4am) that when I told him I didn't feel good he just told me to sleep it off and knocked out himself.  I tried to sleep but I got so hot it was overwhelming - it was making it hard for me to breath, sleep, or even think.  I woke him up (he's so impossible to wake up once he's out...) and just pleaded with him to stay up with me.  He felt how warm I was and by that time I started to get a little freaked out by it all - it felt like my eyes and ears were full of warm liquid.  So he got up with me and we sat in the bathroom and he took my temp... 103.7!?!  I expected it to be high, but not THAT high!!!  So I took some ibuprofen and tried to sleep it off.  Eventually my fever broke and I got some relief and a bit of sleep.

To make an already long story short, I stayed sick (on and off) the entire time we were on vacation.  On top of that, in hindsight, I believe Presley was going through a growth spurt because she was up every 3 hours (or more frequent) throughout the night to eat.  She was crabby as a result and was SO clingy to me.  It could also have been that she was outside of her normal comfort zone, but being that I was feeling sick and spiking a fever every night, it was just awful.  Since we've been back, I've been trying to find our "new" schedule after the chaos and still haven't had much luck.


And, unfortunately, after being sick and feeling so overwhelmed by taking the trip, I quit the couch to 5k program.  I feel like a failure about it but I know I'll try again when the timing is better.  Tony and I are still scheduled to run our first 5k next weekend and I'm still really looking forward to it and plan on giving it my all!  I know we'll both still have a great time with it and I can't wait.  Hopefully the 5k will spark our interest in the program again.

Last night I guess I had too much time on my hands because I started watching videos of Presley that I've taken over the last nearly seven months.  This entire time I've been wishing for time to fly by to get us out of the baby stage and now that time has done just that, I've realized that isn't what I want at all!  For the first time, I was really crying just watching the videos and wondering where in the hell the time has gone.  Even more, where has that tiny little baby gone and why did I wish her away?  I'm sad just thinking about it.

Hey big girl!

As my friend Sharon said earlier this week...  
It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. - Barbara Kingsolver


Once I gather all the pictures together, I'm going to write a big blog about all the family and friends who might as well be family that Presley got to meet or see again while we were in town.  It was a big trip and so much happened that I want to dedicate an entry strictly to that!  Also, be looking for a guest post soon... pretty excited to start those!  I'll try to make sure there isn't such a big gap before an update, because as I said before... no one is going to be more sorry than myself for the lack of updates.

Love hearing from you guys... hope everybody is doing well with the transition back into the Fall/Autumn lifestyle!

100th Post! (Couch to 5K Friday!)

When I started my blog back in 2010, I wasn't very hopeful that it would remain a permanent part of my life, nor did I think it would ever be an area of importance in my life.  I didn't really have any direction I wanted to go in with my blog and just felt like there probably weren't many people who would care about what I had to say.  (Sometimes I still feel like that!)  But here it is, 100 posts strong, and I am enjoying writing again and feel that this safe keeps an important time in my life.

It's funny, in my first post I was writing about how Spring 2011 was going to be my last semester of college.  And in reality, today marks the LAST day of my Summer 2012 classes which will finally complete my Bachelor's Degree!  I had 5 credit hours leftover that I had to complete and am just now getting around to it.  (It's been a busy year!!!)  So in 100 posts, I've finally come in full circle in that regard. 

Onto other news...

Couch to 5k Update:

• On Thursday of last week (I think?) I was supposed to do Day 3 Week 2.  Instead of doing what I was supposed to be doing that day, I accidentally clicked Day 3 Week 3 on my app!  I didn't realize this until I was already 1/3 into the program so I just kept going.  Talk about just being thrown into it!  But really, it was the best run I've had so far.  I felt so great and really hit a good stride that day.
• So then I did Week 3 Day 1 on Sunday and let me just say:  AWFUL.  It was scorching outside - so hot that we left Presley home with my mom - and both Tony and I barely made it.  It was definitely the worst run yet.
• I was supposed to update about C25k on Wednesday, but we pretty much (accidentally) took nearly a week off from it because of the stupid hot hot weather.  After our 5 day hiatus, we completed Week 3 Day 2 today.
• This week's Milestone:  Currently running 3 minutes straight this week!  Say what!
• I downloaded the "Endomondo" app for my phone to track the distance of my walk/run combo.  Today in the 28:37 (just over 28 minutes) it took to complete Week 3 Day 2, I completed two full miles.  The first mile I ran/walked a 14:21/mile.  Mile 2 I ran/walked a 14:16/mile.  Pretty happy with that!  I can't wait to see what it is at the end of the program.  (And so far I LOVE the Endomondo app!  Highly suggest it if you walk or run to keep up with your progress.)
• I went into it today thinking it would be okay to walk during some of the run time since we took 5 days off and I'd probably really suck today.  Towards the end of the last run, I really felt like I wanted to quit.  But then I gave myself a pep talk:  If you can give birth to a baby, you can do this!  And then, Linkin Park came on and I knew the music gods were in my favor and that got me moving!
• The weather today was AMAZING.  There was sun, there was shade, there was warmth (but not too hot), and good gosh... THERE WAS A BREEZE.  Thank you, Mother Nature... thank you Mississippi River!!!!
• My husband is still keeping up with C25k as well and he's doing great as well!  (He ran/walked a 12:29/mile 1 & 12:31/mile 2 today!)  Neither of us have "quit" on any of the run periods, either.  And since I signed us up for the 5k in September - and paid - I don't think we will be quitting or cutting corners anytime soon!
• Thanks to my C25k partners and knowing they are out there doing the program really keeps me going, too!  I love that I've got friends to rely on for accountability.  I know I say that just about every week... but it really is great.

A little bit of our scenery.

There's daddy & Presley!

Sun, music, and the best sun glasses in the world.

The geese were out and enjoying the day as well!

Beautiful day.

So today was a big ole success!  If you would've asked me yesterday, I would have said that I think I was throwing in the towel on C25k and I was just going to walk the 5k in September.  But after getting back into it today, I am confident and feel strong!  I'm looking forward to the rest of the program -- the challenges, bumps in the road, and all.

Well, my sister is due tomorrow and still no baby!  That just means that it really could be any day now so keep your eyes peeled for an update here and hopefully Presley and I will make it to Nashville so I will have some pictures of Miss Anne Marie to update with!  So if you have a moment, please keep my family in your prayers for safe travels and a safe labor and delivery.  It's my sister Amanda's first baby!  So exciting.

Hopefully the next update there will be some kind of news to share!

Here's hoping!