Holiday Weekend Recap

This last weekend was just so… wonderful. It was quiet and relaxing and fun. Mr. Right, Baby Girl, and I got to spend some quality time together, doing some FUN things around the house. It was so refreshing and peaceful and I want to do it again and again.

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On Friday night we hosted a Fourth of July party for our Sunday School class and our neighbors. We had hoped it would be a way to get to know some of our neighbors better, but, well… nobody from the neighborhood showed up. We had fun anyway – I mean, how could you not have fun with a picnic, gallons of sweet tea and lemonade, ice cream, and FIREWORKS. That’s a recipe for the best night ever, if you ask me.

(For the record… Wrenn LOVED the fireworks. For about five minutes, and then she was on to the next thing… but those first few minutes, she was mesmerized. I loved it.)

Mr. Right, in typical party-planning over-achieving fashion, built an 8-foot photo booth. It will now live forevermore in our garage, and you can expect to see it make an appearance at every party for the rest of our lives. Everybody should own a photo booth.

Oh, and I made peach cobbler. You know it’s a national holiday if I get the urge to bake.

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Saturday Wrenn and I hung out at the pool with my parents (weekends are workdays for my realtor husband), then we ventured out with Mr. Right to Trinity Groves in Dallas to eat the greatest gourmet hotdogs in the history of the universe. I ate one with pimento cheese (weird), bacon, and gouda, with a homemade bun dipped in maple syrup. It was pure awesomeness. I’m pretty sure it made my calorie-tracking app explode.

Sunday, after church, Wrenn and I bummed around the house and took marathon naps while Mr. Right worked, then we capped off the night with some movie watching and baby cuddles.

Can I have a do-over on this weekend? Or, rather, a do-again?

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il_570xN.524050111_subdFor more prints, visit Texas Lovely on Etsy.

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He shields all who take refuge in Him

angel wings

Print available here

I love verses about God shielding us with His wings. It’s such a comforting picture isn’t it? Like this:

“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” – Ruth 2:12 (ESV)

Those wings are a place of refuge.

Of protection.

Of rest.

Of comfort.

Of love.

Of peace.

I need all of those, don’t you, dear friends? With that inspiration, I made this print, available for instant download in my shop. I hope it brings a comforting reminder of another aspect of this big God we serve.

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il_570xN.524050111_subdFor more prints, visit Texas Lovely on Etsy.

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More adventures in the ER

In the past 12 months, as a family we have experienced:

  • Mr. Right had a major bicycle accident, which included a fractured bone and a major injury to his hip that almost required extensive surgery (translation: ER visit + multiple orthopedic surgeon visits).
  • I had a pregnancy-related blood-pressure scare that translated to an evening in the hospital and a week on bed rest.
  • WE HAD A BABY. (Yea! But that also means hospital stay + 8 million doctor appointments/vaccinations)
  • Wrenn and I had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (most glamorous week of my life).
  • Wrenn and I had RSV.
  • I got tendonitis in my wrist.
  • I got a benign tumor in my back.
  • Mr. Right and I had the stomach bug.
  • Mr. Right had another stress fracture in his foot.
  • I had an ear infection so severe I spent a weekend doped up on major pain medicine and the ear drum eventually ruptured.

Each time you read these, I want you to hear “Cha-Ching!” in your head. Because that’s the cost of doctor visits, hospital visits, prescriptions, shots… not to mention stress, trying to quarantine one or both parents from our baby girl, sleepless nights, trying to juggle childcare duties…

It’s been quite a year. No wonder I’m so tired.

Let’s add one more to the list – Mr. Right got shingles last week. On his face. Actually, on his eye and cheek. We started out thinking he had an allergic reaction to something, but I’m so thankful that Mr. Right followed that “something’s not right” gut feeling he had (he NEVER has that). Turns out that shingles on your eye is, like, the WORST PLACE TO GET IT, but thankfully we caught it within a few hours of it appearing. Two ER visits + two doctor visits + one week on quarantine to protect Wrenn from catching the chicken pox virus+ one trip to the store to buy Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer to wipe down everything in our house + a lot of pain and suffering by Mr. Right.

So yeah, it hasn’t been our best week.

But in my tendency to remember all of the random sickness/injuries we’ve faced in the last year, as I look over that list, I’m reminded of God’s grace, his healing, and his answered prayers.

  • Doctors told us surgery on Mr. Right’s hip was inevitable – his type of injury never improves on its own. We prayed like crazy people, and six weeks later, his hip had improved enough to avoid surgery. Praise the Lord.
  • My pregnancy blood-pressure spike was a one-time thing, and we had a healthy baby girl just a week later. That was just one of SO MANY MIRACLES we experienced during that very difficult pregnancy.
  • Wrenn had RSV, but she had a mild case, and never experienced the complications that make so many babies so very sick.
  • My tendonitis was treated with just a steroid shot, and my back tumor was benign and probably will never require surgery.
  • Mr. Right’s shingles never spread to his eyeball, which is very, very good news.

It’s easy to see all of the difficulties of the past year, but in retrospect, I see so much goodness. So many little miracles… reminders that God is our healer and our protector, and he is worthy to be praised regardless of our circumstances.

Free Download Friday: Hope

Hope

This is my verse right now. On the good days, and on the bad, I will always have HOPE. And I will continue to praise Him more and more. Because He deserves it.

Here’s to praising more and more, whether I see the blessings or not. Whether I see the answered prayers, or I’m in a season of waiting. Whether the praising comes through clapping or through tears. He is worthy of my praise.

As a gift to you, my dear readers, I’m offering this as a free download. Just click here to download. Fine print: File available for personal use only and may not be resold or distributed. If you feature this print on your blog, please link back to this post as the original source.

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il_570xN.524050111_subdFor more prints, visit Texas Lovely on Etsy.

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Dirty little secrets parents don’t tell first-timers about sleep.

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Is your baby sleeping through the night yet? This is the single most common question new parents get. (Not to be confused with the “treasure every moment, it goes by so fast” unsolicited advice that, while true, makes a sleep-deprived parent want to punch that well-rested parent in the face.)

There’s a few dirty little secrets about sleep that these more experienced parents aren’t telling you…

1. The “Sleeping Through the Night” milestone isn’t a permanent one.

My baby girl started sleeping through the night at just seven weeks old. She had colic and screamed for three hours every evening, and I really think she simply wore herself out, making her a great sleeper from the very beginning. On that seventh week, my sleep-deprived husband and I high-fived each other and celebrated that we had MADE IT. Whew. No more sleepless nights for us.

Yeah, that’s a joke. Turns out, my precious little girl slept through the night at seven weeks. And then a few weeks later, she got sick for the first time, and woke up every hour for a few nights. Once she was better, it took her another week or two to get back to sleeping through the night. And then we went on vacation, and threw her schedule off again, taking another week or two to get back on track. And then she started teething. And then something else came up, and then something else came up… and now at 11 months, she always sleeps through the night, unless we’re traveling, or she’s sick, or teething (kind of the same as me, come to think of it). So instead of asking each other, “When did your baby start sleeping through the night?” I think we should instead ask, “When did your baby kind of/sort of/most of the time start sleeping through the night?”

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2. Those grand p­lans you had for how you would – or would not – get your baby to sleep may get replaced with something we like to call… SURVIVAL.

My husband and I read a few baby books, and because we’re (a) one of the last in our friend group to have a baby, so we’ve had plenty of time to judge everybody else’s parenting skills, and (b) huge planners and schedules make sense to us, we were determined to adopt one of those rigid parenting theories for how we would get our child to sleep… on a schedule. You know, the sleep/eat/play/sleep schedule.

And then we met our baby and realized that she’s not much of a schedule girl. And, we were very tired new parents. The book told us things like letting your child fall asleep after she nurses will basically ruin her for life. But our baby was a wonderful sleeper and preferred to sleep right after eating, no matter how hard we tried to make her change. And so, we finally gave up and decided to do what worked best with our baby girl, and she turned out to be a champion napper and sleeper. (Did I mention she slept through the night at seven weeks?)

And so we burned the book. Whatever.

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3. As a new mom, you will sleep in things you never dreamed would be acceptable.

I think you just make weird decisions when you’re really tired. The other night, I went to bed in my birthday suit. Not because I was feeling frisky, but because my sick baby vomited all over me while I was up rocking her for the second time that night. And I was just too tired to find new pajamas.

Whatever.

Despite all those dirty little secrets that experienced moms may not be telling you, the one thing I will tell you is that those precious babies are worth every sleepless night, every vomit-covered pair of pajamas, and every cup of coffee you have to drink to fool your body into thinking you got enough sleep.

Sweet dreams, my friends.

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You’re 11 months old, and I don’t want to forget…

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Baby girl, you’re 11 months old, and I don’t want to forget…

1. You still like to kiss every single page in your book. Every time. You also kiss people and stuffed animals and your cousin Luke, and the baby on the diaper box, and basically anything you can get your hands on.

2. You’ve only had two teeth since you were seven months old, and then suddenly, right at 11 months, you popped out your four top teeth ON THE SAME DAY. My word, you worked hard for those teeth!

3. You are filled with JOY. You fill ME with JOY.

4. You have gotten so cuddly. You love to cuddle up against me, lay your head on my chest, and snuggle for about five seconds, then get back to whatever it was you were doing before. Many times you will take snuggle breaks over. and over. and over.

5. Poor baby girl, you fall ALL THE TIME. You constantly have at least one bruise on your forehead, usually from falling onto furniture.

6. You can now use your stool (made by your daddy!) to climb onto the couch. You’re a pro at it. However, you are not very good at your dismount – you usually just leap head-first, backwards, off the couch and trust that someone will be there to catch you. Most of the time, we do. Most of the time (oh my word, my nerves!).

7. You are a baby foodie. You love everything. Last night you had roasted potatoes with a Havarti cheese sauce. I didn’t even know Havarti was a thing until yesterday, but you happily ate it. Your current favorites are bacon (just like your dad), grapes, blue berries, and potatoes.

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8. You took your first airplane ride at 11 months, to Colorado with my side of the family for a little vacation in Estes Park. Your daddy had to work so he stayed home, but you and I had a blast with your cousin Luke, your aunts and uncles and grandparents. You got to go swimming for the first time (which you LOVED), went on a hayride, and went shopping in Boulder. The flight coming home was a bit rough, and we were both covered in Ritz crackers and cherry sucker by the time we landed, but we made it. You got those four new teeth a few days later, which I think made the trip a little harder for you.

9. Your favorite movie is Frozen. It’s like a drug for you. Daddy just discovered that the Lego movie also has the same effect. You can sit still for an hour and watch either! (Confession: Sometimes I turn on the movie when I’m running late and need to pack the car, because I know you’ll be perfectly content while I run around the house.)

10. Back to food… we’ve decided to be laid-back about food and just let you try anything we’re eating. Which means that the cake you eat on your first birthday won’t be your first bite of sugar. You’ve had cookies, ice cream, cake… you name it. And you love it all. I can’t wait for your daddy and I to get to cook with you in the kitchen.

11. You are so close to walking… you could totally do it, but you refuse to let go of my hand. You’re a speedy and stealthy crawler (you have a tendency to sneak away if you spot a door ajar… especially to escape to the laundry room or pantry), and you can pull up and walk around the house if there’s furniture to hold onto. Just so I don’t forget, you started crawling and pulling up on the same day – the same week your turned eight months old.

12. You just graduated to a toddler class at church and you LOVE it. You also don’t make it out of the parking lot before you pass out from pure exhaustion after three hours of pure glee.

13. You are still a napping QUEEN. You usually take a 2-hour nap and a 3-hour nap every day, plus you sleep from around 8:30 at night until around 7:30 in the morning. Bless you, my child. Bless you.

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14. Your favorite things in life are: eating, grandparents, snuggles, trying to pet Harley, pulling off shoes and hair bows, your cousins, being outside, bath time, Frozen, being swaddled, laughing, and talking.

15. You can say mama and daddy and your newest trick is pointing and saying “Huh?” You also love to laugh and make other people laugh, and you can play peek-a-boo with a blanket over your head. It gives you the biggest case of the giggles ever.

16. You LOVE people. Strangers, family members, other babies and children… it doesn’t matter, you simply LOVE people. It makes my heart so happy! I think you’re going to be outgoing like your daddy, although when you’re overwhelmed, I’ve seen you turn speechless, just like I do when I’m overwhelmed. I know your personality will continue to evolve, and I will be interested to see if this continues.

Baby girl – I can’t believe you’re 11 months old. I’ve already mailed your birthday invitations (we’re having a family-only party for you in a few weeks) and am busy making plans for your big day. I keep thinking back to this time last year, as I sat, VERY PREGNANT, and wondered what you would look like, what you would be like… and now you are here and your big eyes and big personality make my heart so very happy.

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PrintCheck out my newest print: Every Day I Love You.

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First Birthday – Party Prep

bird day party - blog

Wrenn is turning ONE in two weeks. How is that possible? I swear just yesterday I was 800 months pregnant, lamenting to my husband that I would never go into labor, as I was stuck on the couch on bedrest, eating Chick-fil-a and binge-watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix (y’all, Netflix got me through a very difficult pregnancy and the first two months of Wrenn’s life). And then my water broke, and next thing I knew, I was in the hospital holding my beautiful, big-eyed baby girl.

And now that beautiful, big-eyed baby girl is about to be ONE. ONE! We’ve decided to avoid the first birthday insanity and host a family-only birthday party with a simple dinner and cupcakes. But of course I had to design a special invitation and a FEW special decorating touches for the big day.

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It was only fitting that we declare this a BIRD-day party in honor of our little Wrenn-bird. We

found the idea a few months ago from a greeting card while on one of Mr. Right’s secret dates. The card had a bird with a crown and it simply said, “Happy BIRD-day.” From there, we spent the evening brainstorming fun ways to use this theme.

I’ve been on my best behavior and haven’t gone crazy buying decorations OR gifts, but I did decide that Wrenn would have to have a special birthday dress. I found this pattern on Etsy and did a practice run with scrap fabric (see photo) to make sure I could do it. I’m in love with the way it turned out! I’ve bought special BIRD-day fabric, and Wrenn will proudly debut her new dress at the party. (Lord, please don’t let her have a blow-out diaper in her new dress before the party starts!)

I can’t wait to fill you in on the rest of the details! Also, in the meantime, don’t forget about my little Etsy Shop! That shop helps fund my fabric addiction.

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PrintCheck out my newest print: Every Day I Love You.

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By the way, I’ve lost 10 pounds

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I’ve lost 10 pounds. Can I say that again? I HAVE LOST 10 POUNDS.

Man, those are sweet words to say!

In my last post, I talked about how (1) I stopped nursing, (2) went on a diet, and (3) was really hungry. After talking to a friend who happens to be a personal trainer, I found out that 1200 calories (the recommendation by My Fitness Pal, the iPhone app I’m using), is too few. That’s why I felt so hungry and run-down. She tweaked my goal to 1400-1500 calories a day, and you know what, turns out that is PLENTY of food. It’s totally sustainable, y’all.

I’m averaging somewhere around 1350 calories a day if you look at a weekly average (I love My Fitness Pal because it lets you look at charts and graphs… which motivates me to trade that donut for a banana). Before this diet, I used to have, oh, about two cheat meals a day. Now I have about two cheat meals a week, and even when I have those cheat meals, I try to watch my portion sizes. And you know what? I feel so much better.

Crazy how that works. Not stuffing yourself until it hurts = feeling kind of good. Not eating a bunch of junk = having more energy. I’m exercising some, but not as my primary way to lose weight. I’m losing weight because of nutrition.

I write down every single thing I eat, every single day, in my app. I have a couple of friends (two fellow moms losing baby weight with me, and one girl who’s getting married), and every day they can see if I was under my calorie goal for the day. I told them it’s like a walk of shame if they see that I missed my goal. It’s the motivation I need.

I’ll post more on what I’m eating later – mostly I’m focusing on a super healthy breakfast of eggs + fruit, and substituting snacks and junk for fruit and yogurt, and following recommended portion sizes. But let me say it one more time… I HAVE LOST 10 POUNDS.

{this is me doing a happy dance}

 

Weaned. And Hungry.

photo (42)Y’all, two big things happened this week.

1. I weaned Wrenn. Completely. No more nursing.

2. I went on a diet. A good, old-fashioned, count your calories and work out diet. Nothing fancy.

And boy am I hungry.

But first, the weaning.

After Christmas I went down to just three feedings a day. Then dropped to two a few weeks ago. Then one… just a nighttime feeding. I knew the full weaning would come sooner than later. My goal had been to hit nine months (which is today), and to get Baby Girl through flu season. Part of me has been scared that the minute I wean her, she’d get sick.

It was so much more emotional than I could have ever anticipated. Like, I cried, y’all… several times last week as I nursed her to sleep, wondering if it would be the last time. I kept praying that God would show me when it’s time to stop. I worried that I was stopping for selfish reasons. I’m ready to have my body back. I’m ready to never pump again. I’m ready… but the readiness all seemed to be about me.

Over the past few weeks, I realized Wrenn was ready too. The reason I dropped my morning feeding was because she just wasn’t interested. Some mornings she would completely snub nursing, or nurse for less than five minutes and then lose interest. So I followed her cues and stopped.

In the last few weeks, after nursing her at night, she was waking up starving around 5:00 a.m. Mr. Right would get up and make a bottle, drop it in her crib (yes, I realize this goes against all the baby books and makes us horrible parents, but guys… we are TIRED) and she would go back to sleep. On the nights we gave her a bottle before bed, she slept better. I don’t think I was making enough to keep her full.

Then she started biting me. She would look me in the eye, smile the most mischievous smile ever, then slowly lean in and BITE ME while maintaining eye contact. She thought it was the most fun game ever. I tried sternly saying no – it made her cry, but it didn’t make her stop. I tried pulling her in close (a trick that makes it impossible to bite), but again, it made her cry without changing her behavior.

And that’s when I realized… nursing her was causing BOTH of us stress. Unnecessary stress. It had gone from a sweet bonding experience to something that was causing friction, something that could easily be solved with a bottle. SHE was ready. I was ready.

And so I stopped. Just like that, I stopped.

I’m trying not to think about how much I will miss it… because I will. With our plans to adopt, this may be my only baby to ever nurse. And it was such a beautiful experience. I LOVED it more than I ever thought I would. I will miss it. It means the end of a chapter in my life, the one where I became a mother for the first time.

Instead I’m trying to focus on all the good parts of weaning. For the first time in two years if I get sick, I can take medicine. If I am tired, I can drink that extra cup of coffee. I can burn my nursing bra, put away the nursing tanks and go back to regular clothes. I may go wild and wear something STRAPLESS.

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I am focusing on the good things, the fun things this new chapter of Wrenn’s life is bringing. The crawling, the (almost) talking, the new foods she gets to try. I am focusing on the good. This is the most fun stage YET.

I am also focusing on the last few pounds I have left to lose from this pregnancy, now that I can truly diet again. I’ve dropped several in the past 10 days, thanks to my new spin bike and counting calories through My Fitness Pal. I don’t love it. I’m hungry ALL THE TIME. But I do love watching the scale tick down, closer to my goal. Ten more pounds to go before I hit my pre-pregnancy weight, and then another five or so before I hit my ultimate goal. I can do this. I can do this. SOMEONE GIVE ME A CUPCAKE. No, I can do this.

So, dear friends, I need two things from you: please leave me either (1) encouragement about life post-weaning, or (2) a link to your favorite low-calorie recipe on Pinterest. Something that will fool me into thinking I’m eating a bacon cheeseburger but will only cost me 300 calories on My Fitness Pal. Those things exist, right?

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PrintCheck out my newest print: Every Day I Love You.

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How NOT to Take Bluebonnet Pictures

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You know those things that sound really good in your head, but in reality are a terrible idea? Yeah, that would include things like taking bluebonnet pictures. Because it’s ALWAYS a good idea to put a helpless baby into a field of tall grass and weeds and cross your fingers that a rattle snake doesn’t eat her.

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But we’re new parents, so of course, we just HAD to get bluebonnet pictures. Well, confession… I’m the genius who just HAD to get the pictures, because that’s what good Texas mamas do, right?

While we were in Round Top, we stayed in an amazing farmhouse on 90 acres, and everything around us was covered in gorgeous bluebonnets. It was like heaven. So after a long day of shopping for junk antiques, we decided to take the grandparents and our nephew out for some photos.

New parents, I’m going to save you some heartache. Here’s a list of how NOT to take bluebonnet pictures with your baby:

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1. Pick a really cold day. Cold, windy, rainy… and then dress your baby in summer clothes because the outfit “matches the bluebonnets.”

2. Take the pictures during naptime. Because babies are always extra smiley when they’re tired.

3. Choose to take them during naptime on a day when they’ve been shopping for SEVENTY BAJILLION HOURS. You know, because they’ll definitely be in a good mood.

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4. Decide that the baby doesn’t need to sit on a quilt, because that distracts from the bluebonnets. Bluebonnet pictures have very particular requirements – the child must sit directly on the ground, surrounded by bluebonnets.

5. Go a little crazy and just LAY the baby down in the middle of the bluebonnets.

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6. When the baby starts screaming hysterically, pick her up, brush off the dirt… and then realize that it’s not dirt on the baby’s head… no, her head is COVERED IN ANTS!!!!!!!

7. If you’re a mother, this is where you should start freaking out. Which will make the baby cry even more.

8. Forget the bluebonnet pictures, run the baby inside, and start GOOGLING THE HECK OUT OF YOUR PHONE trying to figure out how to treat ant bites on a baby.

9. Freak out just a little more. You know you want to.

10. Call your friend who is a doctor, seek medical advice on multiple “Mom Pages” on Facebook, pray like crazy your baby isn’t allergic, and then call it a day. You have officially completed your first annual bluebonnet pictures.

Repeat next year…

(PS – It turns out that Wrenn is not allergic to ants… the bites didn’t even bother her… praise the Lord.)

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PrintCheck out my newest print: Every Day I Love You.

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