I hate to brag, but Peter and I have a great kiddo! She is super funny and a ball of energy, we just can’t wait to see what she says and does every day. I can’t believe it was almost a year ago that we were going to the hospital, coming home, going back, waiting, and then ending up in surgery to get her out – it’s all thankfully a bit fuzzy now! This post is a little tribute to our girl Baylor – otherwise known as Baylie.

Of all the expensive, educational, fun and loud toys that Bay has, her favorite is an old universal remote. We refer to it as her “wee-mote” (yuk yuk yuk, we’re lame, we know). She likes to chew it, bang it on things and chase the dogs around with it. Noni (my mom) has said it’s her favorite because it’s daddy’s favorite – she’s probably not far off. She and Bear the dog also share a love of the caps that come off of aerosol cans like shaving cream and cleaners. They take turns chewing them and then tossing them around and chasing after. I tried to separate them, but have realized that people germs worry me, dog germs not so much. So away they go!

Which brings me to a small concern I have – I think Baylie hangs out with our dogs, Bear and Travis too much. We don’t have a lot of friends who have babies around her age so she doesn’t get out with other babies often. Therefore she has befriended Bear and Trav. As most people do with their friends, she has picked up some of their habits. For example, she will put about anything in her mouth and crawl away with it. Her spoon, a toy, socks, sippy cups, whatever. She takes them to a new location or to usually Travis to show him her booty. Being the loving, protective old man that he is, he patiently sits and watches her as she shows him what she’s found. Usually she is screaming at the top of her lungs with excitement! She also likes to eat grass and will make her way daily into the home office to crawl into the dog crates and roll around like she belongs there. Bear will walk in behind me, observe her in his bed, give me a dirty look and then mosey out the door with a look of disgust. Bear is learning how to play with her, but he lives up to his name so he doesn’t get to play too often. However, they always have shaving cream caps.

There’s nothing better than walking into Baylie’s room in the morning. She is usually reclined in her crib, using the soft bumper of her crib as a pillow, sucking on a pacifier, holding another and raking a third one against the crib rails like a prisoner in a movie. Once she sees you, she literally throws the pacifiers, scrambles (while panting and with “fast feet”) to the side of the crib and pulls herself up. She then spits the third pacifier out at you and screams with delight. Despite the sometimes freakishly early hour, that smile and screech makes you happy!

The three pacifier thing started a few weeks ago. We were working with her to get better at going to sleep on her own and it wasn’t going well. She was screaming in her crib when Peter went in to check on her. Maybe two minutes later, she was silent. I was in awe. When I asked Peter what he had done, he mumbled something and then wouldn’t elaborate. He just said he had the magic touch with her. I finally got it out of him a few nights later that he was taking in extra pacifiers – he would give her one to suck and two to hold. It’s now standard criteria for the bed time routine.

Baylie has inherited my blonde hair…and the fact that I didn’t really have any until I was about 2 years old. I’m not sure what it is about being bald that makes people think she’s a boy – but I swear I have had her in a pink dress and have had someone ask me “how old is he?”! It drives me insane. I actually had a woman tell me that it was difficult to tell that she was a girl because of what she was wearing – which was jeans, a puffy sleeve purple polo and a pink pacifier. Not sure how many moms are cross dressing their sons, but apparently they do exist. As I learned the hard way at my previous job (I asked a coworker how old his sons were while looking at a picture at his desk – he informed me it was his WIFE and son in the picture. There’s no recovering from that) you always say: “what a cute baby!” and usually the parent will drop a hint. Better yet, just smile and don’t say anything!