365 Days of Everything Georgia

October 6, 2010 - Say Yes to the Dress!!

>> October 20, 2010 – birthdays, the little things

What is a birthday without a great birthday dress? Georgia's birthday is fast approaching, and it took me weeks to pick out the perfect dress for her.

Now it's here!

It's not the colors of her party. If I haven't mentioned already, I didn't want a "themy" party. But it's bright and it's fun and I can't wait to see her in it.

October 5, 2010 - Just a Little Fun Today...

>> – sickness sucks

... with my camera and my little girl (oh, and her runny nose. Will the colds from daycare ever stop coming home?). Enjoy! (well, not the runny nose because that's just gross)

The blue is my shirt, she decided to crawl up and attack.

October 4, 2010 - There a Piece (or Two) Missing

>> – fall, food

After our trip yesterday to the apple orchard, I keep finding incomplete apples around the house. Someone like to nibble and run!

October 2, 2010 - Drumset... No Need!

>> – fun

Instead, Georgia decided to play my kitchen floor today... and my cabinets and my plastic containers.

After all, isn't that what kitchen spoons and floors are made for?

October 3, 2010 - Fall Means... Apples!!

>> – fall, family, food, fun

Oh fall, sweet fall. How I have missed you. And why have you hidden away longer than normal this year, letting summer linger like that "looked better on the rack" skirt in my closet or that container of "long past its date" sour cream in my fridge.

Oh but you have kissed the leaves this weekend, embracing them with that coolness and crispness I so love you for and wait anxiously for every year. My heart is lifted and my spirits are as high as those red and orange leaves still clinging to the highest branches. Please stay and play for a while, dear fall.

With the arrival of a few cool days, I finally decided it was time for my family to indulge in one of my fall favorites - the apple orchard.

It was Georgia's first trip to the land of hay rack rides, luscious cider, thousands of red globes dangling from trees, freshly baked apple donuts and memorable walks down orchard lanes. Ah, fall.

So we climbed aboard a converted trailer lined with hay bales, and a tractor led the way to rows upon rows of red globes.

And this was Georgia's reaction when we started moving...

Everyone on board was giggling right along with her. She enchants.

And it was a wonderful, sweet day.

And this little girl who has never really liked apples, bit into them in their purest form and fell under their spell.

And as always, I fell under hers.

October 1, 2010 - How the Heck Do I Get Out?

>> – fun, growing, life

This post is proof of how behind I am on this blog. This is my October 1st post and it is October 20th. Yikes!!! Our family has just done too many big things lately where I take tons of pictures. It has me WWWAAAYYYY behind on my editing. Now that trips and birthdays are over, I am determined to catch up. Except for the fact that were going to the pumpkin patch this weekend where I will no doubt take 100+ pictures. OK, new goal... get caught up before Sunday and its pumpkins. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

That said, on October 1st, Georgia was very proud of herself for finally figuring out she can crawl through the chairs and under the dining room table.

That pride lasted all of two minutes though, when she then figured out she had no idea how to get back out from under said table.

Oh, a little more learning left to do.

September 30, 2010 - She Loves Turkey, Right?

>> October 11, 2010 – dogs, family, picture fails

So why doesn't Georgia want to be a turkey head? My husband picked up this lovely turkey hat from Target the other day, and I thought a picture of Georgia wearing it would make a very cute Thanksgiving card for our family members. (those family members reading this, keep reading before you get your hopes up) Did I get the desired picture...

Yeah, no. I was lucky to get her in the same shot with it. But she was more than happy to give me shots like this...

And this...

Um, yeah, I don't know.

Then Bailey decided the turkey hat was getting too much attention, so he snuck in the shot just as I was snapping it.

And he would... just... not... leave.

Then Bailey just pushed Georgia right out of the shot. Camera hog... or dog. (forgive me, it's late)

Georgia's Birth Story

The timing of Georgia's birth, in a way, came out of a journey to death. I'd like to think with every death comes new life, and for me, Georgia is that life. She is my saving grace and has kept me breathing when my lungs were screaming to stop, screaming to drown in my own self-pity.

My husband and I decided to try for Georgia just a few months after our walk down the aisle. You see, my mom had been diagnosed with incurable Ovarian Cancer, so I wanted a baby soon. I wanted a baby while there was still time to have my mother there as I brought a new being into the world, to see my mother hold her granddaughter, to ask my mom which of my baby features my daughter bore, to lean on my mother when I had those "new mom" questions and for so many other moments I had played out in my thoughts over and over again through the years.

My husband and I were thrilled to soon find out our little Georgia was growing inside of me, rounding out my belly day by day, pushing tiny feet into my sides, entertaining us with a neverending chorus of hiccups. We went to the doctor's appointments, the baby classes, took the hospital tour and had everything ready for the day we brought our darling home in Omaha, Nebraska.

It's funny though, life seems to fight our planning and always chooses its own course - and so it did. When my belly was just shy of 38 weeks round, the day came. After a 52-year-long life, which was as bright as they come, my mother faded away. She died on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

Early Monday morning, with my doctor's permission, my husband and I got on a plane to fly home to Georgia for my mom's funeral. We got off the plane in Atlanta around 3 p.m. Twelve hours later, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, I was sleeping at my parents' house. As I lay in the home where my mom had been just days before, that journey toward life took a leap. My water broke and the contractions started coming within minutes. We were more than a thousand miles away from our doctor, our hospital and our house.

So off to the local hospital we went in the dark of night, my husband driving my mom's SUV and not having a clue where he was going. I had to give him directions between contractions. We arrived at the hospital and didn't even know what entrance to go to. We found locked doors twice before finding the right entrance, and yeah, I floundered up to both locked doors!

We checked in and by the time we got to a room, I turned around and there were my sister, brother and cousin in the room with my husband and I and my other sister and father were on the way. We had thought we'd be delivering in Omaha with just my husband and I and the calming classical CD's I'd burned. I guess my mom had other ideas.

So there we were, in the hospital where two years earlier they had cut cancer from my mother, in the hospital where my two nieces were born, in the hospital where my delivery nurse had also been my sister's bridesmaid - there surrounded by those who love me most and the memory of one who just couldn't stay long enough to make it. I delivered Georgia Katherine at 10:46 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. and 8 ounces.

We left the hospital on Wednesday with a borrowed car seat, a bag full of borrowed baby clothes, a lot of flowers and hearts bursting with every emotion you can possibly imagine. We arrived at my parents' house to a borrowed crib, borrowed baby supplies and relatives arriving in town with funeral clothes and baby gifts packed in their suitcases. On Friday, my daughter and I looked down on my mother in her casket, and on Saturday we buried her. It's the only time my daughter every saw her grandmother.

My mother fought hard to live long enough to meet her granddaughter and in the end, she missed the date by two days. But life doesn't stop, and it's the beauty of my daughter's life that keeps me smiling. And oh how her life makes me smile. I like to believe whenever I'm holding my daughter and she's starring off into the distance, over my shoulder, that she's seeing my mom - a guardian angel for both of us - and that they are already the best of friends.

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October 6, 2010 - Say Yes to the Dress!!

October 5, 2010 - Just a Little Fun Today...

October 4, 2010 - There a Piece (or Two) Missing

October 2, 2010 - Drumset... No Need!

October 3, 2010 - Fall Means... Apples!!

October 1, 2010 - How the Heck Do I Get Out?

September 30, 2010 - She Loves Turkey, Right?

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October 6, 2010 - Say Yes to the Dress!!

October 5, 2010 - Just a Little Fun Today...

October 4, 2010 - There a Piece (or Two) Missing

October 2, 2010 - Drumset... No Need!

October 3, 2010 - Fall Means... Apples!!

October 1, 2010 - How the Heck Do I Get Out?

September 30, 2010 - She Loves Turkey, Right?

About this Blog

Who's Following us:

Georgia's Birth Story

Get New Posts!

Blog Archive

Blogs I'm Reading:

Visitors (since 03.02.10):

Labels