Kate turns One!!

A few weeks late... but we recently celebrated Kate's 1st Birthday!  Party planning is not my thing so we enjoy getting to do a small family affair until children are old enough to know the difference!  We were fortunate to have both sets of grandparents and aunts, uncle, and baby cousin here for her mini-celebration!

As many of you have heard me say, Kate bring such joy to our family!  At one she is walking (wobbling as Claire calls it), says Daddy and almost says baby! Baby dolls are one of her favorite things and she is toting one around much of the time!  She wants to be anywhere big sister is and thinks she is big enough to do everything big sister does. She has no fear and has no concept of sharing yet.  If you have it and she wants it, she will take it (or pull your hair until you give it to her).  If she doesn't get what she wants she pitches a huge fit!  This little spitfire has a temper!  But I love that about her- she is not a pushover and knows what she wants!  She is not your typical laid-back second child at all!


She thoroughly enjoys eating and some of her favorites are diced tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, corn on the cob, and pimento cheese! She is a very messy eater though and loves to spread it in her hair!  I have to sweep under her chair after every meal and she takes lots of baths!! Speaking of baths, Kate loves the water!  This is totally new to me because Claire has always been very wary of the water.  Kate loves to stick her face under the faucet on the bath tub, lean over and stick her face in the water, and in the pool she is like a fish!  I think if we let her go she could almost swim already. She kicks her feet and waves her arms and fights you to try and stick her head under the whole time!

Kate's nickname is BooBoo.  Not sure where it came from or why, but both her Daddy and Claire call her that almost 100 percent of the time.  I am the only one in the family that calls her Kate!  She responds to either name! Claire and Kate love each other very much and already have fun playing together, but they also fight like normal siblings!  I knew this was coming down the road, but had no idea my main role with a 1 year old and 3 year old would be Chief Referee!

Happy First Birthday Kate!  We love you and this year has flown by!

We also took a chance while the whole family was together to get an updated Higginbotham family photo with baby Caleb!

A Leap of Faith

This past January, I took a leap of faith- a big one!  I joined Rodan and Fields Dermatologists as an Independent Consultant without ever seeing a business presentation or trying the products!  But what I had done was my homework.  After Kate was born in August I spent countless hours researching work at home jobs.  We had always planned for me to stay at home with children (I told John that on our first date back in 2005), so we had structured our lives financially for just one income. However, our one-income plan was tight and didn't allow for many extras, splurges, a new car, or as much savings as we would like.  But more than the paychecks- I missed working.  Don't get me wrong, I love staying at home with my girls, but I miss the goals, challenges, and mostly adult interactions of working!

I set out to find the best of both worlds - I knew I had pockets of time throughout my day because I was wasting far too much time scrolling on Facebook!  I was about to decide the job I was looking for didn't exist - every option I explored was either a low paying hourly job, or required dedicated hours on a computer or on the phone - hours I just didn't have with two young children.  As a last ditch effort (and because I really wanted to try the Reverse for my pregnancy melasma), I reached out to a few friends I knew selling RF in other cities and states.  I found that they were all doing really well with it and most had been doing it close to 2 years! My friend Christy Jones from Sunday School in Birmingham had actually replaced her corporate salary while being a full time working mom!

After putting my Finance degree to work and researching the company further, I came to the conclusion that I was being presented with an amazing business opportunity!  A chance to be my own boss, set my own "hours", have unlimited earning potential, and grow my team anywhere in the world all while getting great skin!  The best part was no stocking of product, doing deliveries, or asking others to host parties for me!  Rodan and Fields was already ranked 4th in premium skincare in the US and most of the US hadn't even heard of it yet- I knew my small town hadn't! I also fully expected RF to become a global household name just like the dermatologists did with their former business ProActiv!

To begin with I set a goal to stick with it for at least 6 months and hopefully build my business to the point of bringing home an extra $500-$1000 a month to allow us to take on a car payment, help pay for preschool for Claire, dance lessons, etc!  I told John if that was all it ever became, and I could get rid of all of my crazy freckles from my pregnancy melasma I would be happy.  Boy did I set my sights too low!! In only 5 short months in the business I have been blessed to promote to Level V in the company and far surpass my initial goals plus I love my results for my skin!  For the first time in my life I don't wear concealer and liquid foundation every day and bye bye crazy freckles!


I am so thankful for my supportive customers and an amazing team of 16 consultants!  I have truly loved getting to know these ladies and am honored to get to lead them in building their businesses! College students, nurses, teachers, real estate agents, business owners, stay at home moms, working moms,empty nesters, and retired professionals, they all saw a chance to add value to their life with Rodan and Fields!   They say that this is a 3-5 year business plan so this is just the beginning for all of us!!  I can't wait to see what the future holds!

    

Kate: 9 months!

Yes! Sweet Kate gets her a blog post all to herself! Why?  Because I am the stereotypical second child mom.  Her poor baby book hasn't been touched since the first month or two while Claire's has every doctors visit and memory until she was 2.  I have not created custom photo books for Kate, sewed custom bedding, or recorded milestones and memories as much as I should.  With Claire I obsessed over schedules and bedtimes and every move she made.  I worried over every change in behavior and spent far too much time on Google and reading parenting books :-)!  I researched how to play and what activities she should be doing at every age and agonized if she didn't do something as early as other kids her age.  I was afraid she was "bored" and  that I needed to be stimulating her to learn and that I wasn't teaching her the right things.

So even though Kate may not have a perfectly documented first year, she does get a much more relaxed Mama.  A mama who doesn't worry about creating bad habits if she needs a little extra loving or rocking before bed one night.  Who knows "this too shall pass" and that most strange behaviors are just phases and do not require extensive analysis and research!  A mama who still can't stand to make her "cry it out" at night because as ready as I am to sleep all night, I know that once those middle of the night snuggles are gone I won't ever get them back!  A mama who doesn't spend every moment trying to teach her and entertain her- luckily big sister does that for me!

I was a first child and I always thought that, of course, being the first was the best!  Now that I have my two- I am not so sure!  Although I love both of my children equally I also love them differently.  I soak up every moment of time with Kate, every snuggle, every sloppy kiss, because I realize how fleeting time is!  I am not pushing her to grow up and learn and do and wishing the days away, instead I am savoring each day and realizing that each phase of their childhood has good parts and bad parts. I wish I had known to love that way when Claire was little!  Kate also has a built in playmate who she idolizes already.  She wants to be with Claire doing whatever Claire is doing all of the time.  Claire now runs through the house daily saying "Come on, Come Play, Sister Bug!" and Kate does her best to crawl and keep up!

So to my sweet Kate - you are so smart, loving, and adaptable! You are also headstrong, stubborn, and mischievous - but those things keep me on my toes and make life with you fun! At 9 months old you are crawling, climbing, and cruising and on the verge of un-assisted standing.  You babble but don't say any definite words yet and you still have NO teeth! At 6 months old you weighed 20 lbs and at 9 months you weighed 21 lbs.  You have the cutest,chunky baby rolls that people comment on every where we go!  And when you grin in lights up your whole face and makes everyone in the room smile!

No you may not have a baby book filled with dates and milestones, but know that you have days filled with love and laughter and we cherish you!

Disney World with a baby and a 3 year old on a budget!

Many of you have asked for tips from our recent Disney World trip!  I spent hours researching before our trip and learned even more while we were there so I loved the idea of sharing what we learned as well as remembering it all for our next trip!  Hope those of you planning trips find this helpful!

First of all, let me begin by saying that our trip involved my just turned 3 year old daughter, my 7 month old daughter, and 2 sets of grandparents!  I do not know how parents conquer a trip to Disney with two children and no helpers and I am sure the list of tips for that kind of trip might look completely different!

Staying offsite:  We purposely chose to stay off-site because of our large party of people.  It was much more cost effective for us to rent a home and split the cost and cook our own meals rather than stay on site and each get a hotel room.  Also, with a 3 year old and a baby, the thought of all four sharing one hotel room for 5 nights was not a relaxing or fun idea!  We rented a home through VRBO.com and had a good experience.  We had plenty of bedrooms and even a heated private pool that we used almost daily.  We were able to buy groceries and cook our own meals as well as pack snacks for the park!

The following tips will mostly apply whether you choose to stay on or off-site.  Some of these things we did and some of these things we will do next time after we learned the hard way!

1.  Rent a double stroller:  The strollers you can rent at Disney world are not great and are $15 a day or more.  We rented a NICE double stroller for the 5 days from Orlando Stroller Rental for $75.  It was delivered to our rental home and we just left it outside on the last day! And get the free rain cover- you may need it!

2. Carefully pick your time of year:  We traveled to Disney World at the end of February and it was perfect!  We picked a time that was during the school year so it would be less crowded and made sure there were not any marathons or special events going on that would make it more crowded.  I have also heard the Fall can be nice.  The lines were short and it was relatively uncrowded.  Also, children under 3 get in for free if you can plan your trip for right before your child turns 3!  We missed that for Claire, but hope to go back before Kate turns 3 so she is still free!

3.  Maximize your fun by minimizing your time:  As adults who just spent a large chunk of change on Disney World tickets your instinct is to soak up every second of fun and get every dollar worth!  If you have younger children, remember more isn't always better.  They get overstimulated quickly.  5-6 good hours at the park in a day is better than 10-12 hour with the entire last portion being miserable from cranky kids!  We would spend our 5-6 hours at the park and then go back to the house to cook unwind and swim.  The one day we attempted to go in the morning and then go back at night everyone was too worn out to go back that night except for John and I (but we thoroughly enjoyed a date night!

4.  Plan a rest day:  If you can swing it plan a day in the middle of your trip to rest and relax.  We didn't do that this time but probably will next time!  We spent 4 days in the parks and thought that was perfect, but would have preferred 2 days then a rest day and then 2 more days!  We were too tired to fully enjoy day 4 at Animal Kingdom and went back to the house and played putt putt and relaxed.  We will hopefully plan a rest day next time!

5:  Bring a baby carrier:  If you are traveling with a baby take or borrow a good baby carrier!  You will be standing in lines to meet characters or ride on slow rides and you will want to strap them on because you can't take the stroller with you in line.  I bought a used Ergo off Ebay for $40 and loved it!  It saved the day many times on our trip.

6.  Splurge on character meals:  These can be booked up to 180 days in advance so plan ahead because they will book up!  If you have little ones, you will spend much of your trip meeting characters.  This is great because it is truly magical to your little one and the characters do an amazing job making it memorable.  However it is much easier to plan a character meal, sit down and enjoy a great meal and meet several characters all at once. Otherwise you will spend all day and all your fast passes to meet characters.  We did Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios which is a must do if your little one likes Disney Junior.  In the future we will plan to do a meal at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom to meet Mickey, Minnie, etc as well as a Princess meal to meet the princesses.

7:  Planning your trip:  Use the My Disney Experience App to book your fast passes and manage your entire trip.  Fast passes are an entirely different topic and vary widely depending on the age and interests of your child.  If staying offsite you can book your fast passes 30 days in advance.  This is one advantage to staying onsite because you can book them 60 days in advance.  However, if traveling during a down time like we did it was fine to book them only 30 days in advance.

8.  Favorite Attractions:  Keep in mind these were the favorites of a 3 year old girl so yours may be completely different.  Her absolute favorite was meeting all of the characters but beyond that some of her favorites are listed below:

• It's a Small World
• Enchanted Tales with Belle
• Carousel
• Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• The Festival of Fantasy Parade
• Dumbo
• Disney Jr show at Hollywood Studios
• Safari at Animal Kingdom
• Boneyard Playground at Animal Kingdom

9.  Don't let rain ruin your fun:  Pack a poncho and use that stroller rain cover! Our best day was a rainy one because the waits were much shorter!  We were able to knock out so much more that day.  Most of the rides or attractions are indoors so we were only in the rain going to and from!

10.  Learn and Enjoy:  Realize that your first trip is a learning one and that hopefully you can go again in a few years and enjoy it even more!  Spend time before you go reading and learning about the attractions and select which ones you think will most interest your party of people!

Hope this is helpful!

A Name!

I know at the end of the last blog, I promised that the next blog would include a name for our little girl. Obviously I have been slacking in the blogging department :-). The name we decided on is (drumroll, please)....Claire Hughes Higginbotham! This is actually the very first name we discussed and after exploring many other options we arrived right back where we started.

We originally thought that Claire was a family name, but later found out that it wasn't, but by then we really like the name. Hughes is my mother's maiden name and, therefore, the last name of my maternal grandparents. I never met my maternal grandfather, as he passed away before I was born, but I have been told that I am very much like him! As most of you know, Ellen and I were extremely close to our Grandma though, who many of you knew as Miss Isabel. Many have asked why we didn't use the name Isabel, but we thought Isabel Higginbotham was just too many syllables and quite the mouthful. Also, Ellen called dibs on the name Isabel for any future daughters she may have on the day that I became a Higginbotham. Won't it be ironic if she ends up with an equally long last name :-)!

Not surprisingly, the monogramming has begun in earnest. Sweet little Claire already has several things with her name on it! I am also attempting to learn to sew and plan to make the nursery bedding. So far I am stuck on the picking out a fabric part, which doesn't bode well for the completion of this project in the next 11 weeks. And, of course, we can't pick a paint color until I pick the fabric so John is stalled on painting the nursery as well.

Luckily we already have the furniture for the nursery, thanks to my sweet parents. My mom and dad let me pick out the nursery furniture as their gift at the Las Vegas furniture market back in August and it was delivered about a month ago. Between my dad, Ellen, and John we got the furniture hauled from Cullman to our basement in Birmingham a few weeks ago. This weekend John and his Dad are going to move the furniture upstairs to the nursery. As you can see, setting up the nursery has definitely been a family affair and we are just getting started!

It's a Girl!

This past Tuesday, September 13th, we found out that Baby Higginbotham will be a little girl! All of the old wives' tales and the Chinese calendar that John found predicted a boy so we were all surprised to find out it was a girl. I was so excited after the ultrasound that my blood pressure was really high and the nurse made me lay down for a while until I calmed down and it went back down!

I apologize in advance to anyone reading the blog because all of the posts are about to be about baby girl! I plan to take some of the blog posts and create a memory book using the photo book software. It will be my version of a scrapbook and journal since I do not have the patience or craftiness to actually scrapbook!

Now that we are all thinking pink, the shopping madness has begun! My mom, sister, and I took a several hour trip today to Buy Buy Baby to begin picking things out. As you can see from the pictures below, my mom and I are quickly falling into the stereotypical mother and grandmother roles. I am worrying about diapers, wipes, mattress pads, and clothes hangers (my purchases in the left picture) and she is oohing and ahhing over all of the cute outfits, hairbows, and accessories (her purchases in the right picture).



Hopefully, John and I will have a final decision on the name by the next posting! We are almost sure on it now but are taking a couple of days to make sure we don't change our mind. When your family owns a monogramming business you can't change your mind once you announce the name and the monogramming begins!

Cookie Dough

Many people have encouraged me to document my pregnancy either via a journal or pregnancy photos. I am now 20 weeks into pregnancy and have made zero journal entries into my pregnancy journal and have taken zero pregnancy photos. My next thought was to try something a little more fun - a blog. Hopefully, I will be more successful at blogging than my previous attempts to document the adventures of the Higginbotham family!

For the past several weeks, I have been unsure whether or not I felt the baby. One day I would convince myself that I felt the baby move and the next day I would second guess myself. I knew eventually a day would come that I would know for sure. Last night I made some chocolate chip cookies from scratch for our Labor Day weekend at the lake with friends. Of course I had to taste the cookie dough repeatedly to make sure that it was turning out well and lick the bowl.

John had stayed late at a work event to help "clean up" (a.k.a watch the Mississipi State/Memphis game). He has always been opposed to the eating of any raw cookie dough or cake batter since it contains raw eggs. Growing up, my family was the exact opposite. We always had fights over licking the bowl and my mom ate raw cookie dough while pregnant with both me and my sister. This is one reason I chose to make the cookies while John was gone so that I could enjoy as much cookie dough as I wanted without his disapproval :-).

Evidently, Baby Higginbotham loves cookie dough too, because within an hour the baby was moving all over the place! I texted John to let him know that he was missing out on feeling the baby move. He called me immediately and told me that he was on his way home. He also asked me to wait about 15 minutes and eat some more cookie dough so that maybe the baby would still be moving when he got home. This was the first time in our almost 6 years of dating/marriage that John didn't lecture me on the dangers of eating raw dough and even told me to continue eating it lol! Luckily, when he arrived home baby was still moving and John was able to feel it too!