o christmas tree

We finally took a few Christmas tree pictures today. Told you it was very, very large!! It continues to be the number one toy in the house, along with the Christmas snow globe (I think I mentioned her love of snow globes in the Thanksgiving post, since she's obsessed with the one at Grandma's house!). She's learned that there are two ornaments that play music, and constantly wants to hear them--both at once! I draw the line there....I'll play them one at a time over and over again, but I don't want to hear them both at once, which is what would really float her boat, for some reason. She also likes it when the wind up Santa plays his music at the same time as the stuffed Frosty the Snowman plays his song. Cacophony, I guess, is a pleasant sound to her.

Anyway, here she is, caught in the act of touching the tree....a big no-no.

And here she is being a good girl, doing what she was taught to do--pointing with one finger at what she wants to touch, whether it's a light bulb (her favorite), or an ornament. She touches a bulb and I tell her what color it is. Eventually I quiz her. She gets them right maybe 30% of the time! We have two more weeks 'til Christmas to practice!!!

And here she is posing while Daddy was testing different settings on the camera. I just like the picture and wanted to post it.

a Griswold family Christmas?

This will be our first Christmas ever being in our own house on Christmas morning since we've been married. We're both really excited to start our own Christmas morning traditions with our daughter like we both had growing up. And since it's our first, my husband had this idea, or a dream, as he put it this morning, to have an old fashioned family Christmas, including going to a tree farm to cut down our own tree. Neither of us had done this before, though I always grew up having a live tree every year, and used to be adamant that I needed to have a real tree (after about three or four years of an artificial tree in recent years, though, I started re-thinking my predisposition for live trees and recognized the benefits of a perfect looking, non-sticky, no-standing-out-in-the-cold-to-find-it kind of tree). The last few weeks as we've been discussing this, I've been skeptical, both about the prospect of having a really heavy real tree for our daughter to pull down on herself and also with the whole process of going out in the cold to find a tree we agree on, having my husband cut it down, and then dragging it back to the parking lot....all with a not quite two year old in tow.

Yesterday he informed me that he had taken the day off today, and this was the day we should go get our tree. I have to confess that I had a very doubtful attitude going into the whole day.... mostly afraid that we'd be cold, frustrated because we couldn't find a tree, arguing, and trying to juggle a cranky toddler as well. But I got up, put my long johns on (yeah, I actually have some, which I had to dig out of a trunk of clothes I haven't touched in years!) and a smile on my face, hoping for the best. We had a list of tree farms from the newspaper from a few weeks ago, and chose the closest one that was open on Fridays, which happened to be about a half hour away.

We woke up to a fresh coat of snow, to which my husband cried, "Yes! It's perfect!" All part of his dream.... It continued to snow lightly most of the morning while we were out....again, ideal for my husband. We gathered together everyone's warm clothes, a saw, the camera, the video camera, and some snacks for our little one, and were on our way.

All along I wasn't sure how we were going to tote our daughter throughout the aisles of trees--the snow is at least 6 inches deep, after all. I don't think our stroller is all-terrain! But when we arrived we found out that they provide you with a sled (a BIG sled!) with which to drag back your tree, so it was perfect for transporting a little tiny eskimo girl with short legs around, too!

We started out in the sections closest to the barn where we parked. We didn't want to venture too far, not knowing how our little one would fare out in the cold. But all of the good ones close by had already been taken and the ones left were pretty sparse. We wandered around there for awhile, retraced our steps because we dropped and lost our saw in the midst of picture taking, and after finding it, started on to another section. My husband decided to go on ahead without us, though, to scout things out, so we wouldn't have to drag her all over if there wasn't anything good, so she and I stayed where we were and played in the snow for a little bit.

After awhile he motioned us over and I dragged her to his section. When we reached him, he told me to get in the sled too and he'd drag us both. I told him it wouldn't be as easy as he thought, but he said it was no problem. Actually, it was easier than I thought it would be for him, and I had fun riding in the sled with my little girl--can't tell you the last time I'd been in a sled!

So he showed us the trees he found, and after much debate, we decided.

We were both a little nervous that it would be way too big for our living room, but it was the only one we found that wasn't sparse and had a nice shape and a straight trunk. We decided to go for it. There's not a lot of furniture in our living room anyway, because we don't use that room much, so we decided if it took up a lot of room, it wouldn't matter too much. The whole time, though, I was having visions of Clark Griswold's tree in Christmas Vacation, which, when they cut the ropes, broke the windows and caused all kinds of damage as it filled up their entire living room!

He cut the tree down without much problem--I thought it would be lots harder, but it didn't take but a minute. We put it on the sled and carried our little one back, as the tree needed the sled this time. They bound the tree for us and we were on our way. It didn't take as long as I thought, it wasn't as cold as I thought (I had my down filled "recess coat" on, which I bought for recess duty when I first started teaching and have only ever worn for recess because it's so darn hot to wear anywhere else, so I was toasty warm!), and our little one was soooooo happy the entire time. She loved the sled ride, loved playing in the snow, loved watching Mommy walking behind the sled....just loved it all.

So we had fun and fulfilled my husband's dream, all in one morning. A good ol' old fashioned family Christmas outing. A beautiful thing.

When we brought the tree inside (after naptime had begun, so as not to have a toddler running around while we did the hard parts), we found it was almost the exact height as our ceiling without the stand, so we had to cut off several inches from the top. After putting it in the stand we had to cut off even more to get the star to fit on top! When we cut the ropes we found that it was, indeed, very big, and it overwhelmed the room, but we trimmed some of the branches and it began to look better. As we put on the lights (ugh....the worst part of the day....I hate that part and definitely see a pre lit artificial tree somewhere in my future, but there were no tears involved, as there have been in previous years, and no arguments, either...just frustration), then the garland, and finally the decorations, it began to look more like a Christmas tree and less like a very large bush in our living room. I'm happy with the way it turned out. And of course it's the newest, hottest, toy in the house now for our little girl....I'm not looking forward to that battle every few minutes for the next two weeks. My nephew learned his colors when he was about my little one's age at Christmas time because he loved pointing to the Christmas lights. She's doing the very same thing, so I'm hoping it leads to her learning her colors, as well! You'll have to wait for the decorated tree pictures, though. We decided not to take any today. That'll be another fun post for some other day.

Now I'm in the mood to watch Christmas Vacation....and be thankful that ours didn't turn out like theirs!

a snowy day

It started snowing overnight--our first real snowfall of the year. We have about four or five inches right now and it's still coming down! I debated all morning about whether I should bundle us both up and let my little one experience her first snow (last year doesn't really count since we just carried her back and forth from the door to the car). Finally I decided, why not? So what if it's a lot of trouble....it'll be fun. She was watching one of her favorites, Jack's Big Music Show, so she didn't notice that I was busy digging coats, hats, boots, gloves, snow pants, and the camera out of the closet. She didn't mind getting all bundled either, because it involved her precious BOOTS (she still is so in love with those things!).

Here she is waiting for Mommy to finish getting her snow gear on, still enthralled with her show.This was her first time in her snow pants--they're humongous on her, but it didn't bother her one bit.

She was so excited when I opened the back door--up until that point I don't think she realized what we were doing. We ventured outside into the winter wonderland. The snow came up to her knees! She just stood there....not sure what to make of the whole experience. It was still snowing, so she was feeling the snowflakes fall on her cheeks as well as walking in this weird white stuff. That's a lot to take in for the first time! Yes, she's standing in this picture....that's how much snow there was!
I took her out into the yard and she walked a little bit (well, walked is a generous term....she really wobbled her way through the snow!) and then just stood and surveyed the situation. Then she started singing "B-O-O-T-S!" (well, her version of it, anyway) and stomping her feet. I made some snowballs for her, which she enjoyed throwing up in the air, shouting, "wheeeeeee!" I tried starting a snowman, but it didn't pack very easily, so I gave up before too long. We'll save the first snowman for another day....

After about 10 minutes we came back in, unbundled ourselves, and she resumed her usual day-in-the-life-of-R activities....in this case, going for a drive in her car.

on the curve again

We went to the pediatrician today for a weight check. I'm proud to announce that she's back on the growth curve. Of course, she's at the absolute bottom of the curve--3rd %ile, but hey, it's better than not even being on it at all! She now weighs 20 pounds, 12 ounces, which means we can now officially turn her car seat around (nevermind that we actually did that months ago. Shhhh.......don't tell the car seat police, please!).

You'd think I'd have all kinds of news since I haven't written in a few days, and I got so used to posting every day during November, but I really don't! Right now her newest favorite toy is her first Christmas present of the year--her best friend, Kaden, gave her the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set a few days ago. She LOOOOOOOOOOOVES the animals....there's a sheep, cow, donkey, and camel. She has subsequently learned how to make the donkey sound, which is quite funny to hear (she already knew a sheep and cow), and always waits for me to tell her what the camel sound is, but I keep telling her, "Sorry, sweetie, but Mommy doesn't really know what a camel sounds like!" I told my husband maybe it should be a spitting sound!? Don't camels spit a lot?? She likes the rest of it, too--she can point out Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus when you ask her to. She likes to take the angel off the top of the stable. She's a bit confused by the final three characters, though, since Daddy calls them Magi and I call them wise men, but I'm sure she'll figure it out.

Today she was listening to her favorite Laurie Berkner music--this was a song about fish swimming. I started singing the song and making swimming motions with my arms. As soon as I said the word "swimming," she went in the guest room and found her blow up floaty toy from the summer when we used to go swimming, which she hasn't used in months and months! I was amazed. A few days ago we were looking at a book and there was a picture of a spoon. She ran in to her toybox and I knew she was going to find one of her play spoons. But she decided to do a few other things first, like go down her slide, play with the ball popper, and a few other diversions, but sure enough, about five minutes later she came back with the spoon. I had put the book away, but she got the book back out and proceeded to flip through the pages until she found the spoon picture and brought them both to me. Again, I was amazed. Her memory is a steel trap! (except, of course, when it comes to following the rules and not touching things she knows she's not supposed to!)

yeah, yeah...

...I know NaBloPoMo is over, and I don't have to post today but it's December 1st, and in my family my mom always sang this song to us on December 1st (because her mother had always sung it to her on December 1st). When I was older and out of the house she would still email the words to me or even sing it to me on the phone sometimes. So in keeping with family tradition, I'm posting them here. Our little one will hear it every December 1st, too. (except the difference is that my mom knows the words, while I had to copy them from an email I've saved from her from December 2004!!!)

Oh, December how I love you,
And the joyous sounds you bring.
Winter snow and winter sleighrides,
Hear the merry sleighbells ring,

Jingle, jingle, jingle on the frosty air
Tis a jolly sleighride I declare.
Jingle, jingle, jingle all the world is fair,
Jingle, jingle, jingle everywhere.

Hear the voices of the sleighbells
Ringing out so loud and clear
Telling with their merry voices,
"Santa Claus will soon be here.

Jingle, jingle, jingle on the frosty air
Tis a jolly sleighride I declare.
Jingle, jingle, jingle all the world is fair,
Jingle, jingle, jingle everywhere.

Oh, and I had to post this, too. Last year my mom found this and sent it to us with her picture. It was hilarious. This year I ran across it and decided to do it with our little dancer's picture. Somehow it's not quite as funny as my mom, because we could easily see our daughter doing these moves....since she's quite the dancer. My mom on the other hand wasn't quite as likely to be found dancing like this! Anyway, click on the link and enjoy.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114179235

so this is what it's like...

...to have a daughter who takes a long nap!? I wouldn't know! I'm lucky to get an hour and a half out of her. Well, I told you about how sleepy she was....and she ended up sleeping for three hours! That's unheard of from this girl! I was in scrapbooking heaven! (I never get to scrapbook during a nap. I barely get a load of laundry in and she wakes up. Today I got about four pages done...and a load of laundry!)

So she woke up bouncing off the walls. She was SO happy! She wanted to play in her crib awhile after she woke up, so she did, and I took some pictures along the way.

And since it's 12:03 AM (I tried going to sleep and couldn't), and is technically November 30th, this brings us to the triumphant end of NaBloPoMo. I'm not sorry to see it go. I hope you have enjoyed it, though. Don't be surprised if you don't see a post for a few days. I'm taking a break....we're all out of news here.

sleepy girl

We were out doing more Christmas errands this morning and were on our way home from the last stop. She had been good the whole time, but suddenly got very, very fussy in the car. After a couple of minutes of crying she was quiet. A new Christmas song had come on the radio and I figured she liked it (it often calms her down). After a couple of minutes I looked back to see what she was doing, and she had fallen asleep! It was well before her nap time, but she was sound asleep. We got home a little bit later and usually she wakes up when the car stops, or at least when I start taking her out of her car seat. She stayed asleep! I lifted her out of her seat and she stayed asleep on my shoulder. One or two times this has happened and she wakes up when I take her in and start taking her coat off. Nope. Not this time. I got her hat off but couldn't get to the zipper to take her coat off without putting her down. So I carried her upstairs, took her shoes off on the way, laid her down in her crib with her coat on....still asleep....unzipped her coat, pulled her arms out, lifted her head and shoulders up so I could pull the coat out from under her....still asleep. I covered her with her blanket and left....wow. Is this my daughter???

see 'n say

I've been on a search for the perfect Christmas ornament for our little one. My plan is to get her one every year and when she gets married to give them all to her. Last year it was a 'baby's first Christmas' ornament. This year I wanted it to be something that represents who she is this year...like something she's interested in or something like that. I thought about Elmo, because she adores him, but I thought would she really want to put Elmo on her tree when she's 25? The other day I bought an ornament, but was kind of settling for something less than ideal--it was three snowmen, clearly a Daddy, Mommy, and little girl snowman. Cute, but not really what I was looking for. I'll be taking that one back. So today I went to Hallmark to look at their keepsake ornaments that are always so cute (but also more than I wanted to spend since we've already spent way more on her than we had planned). Well, they had a "daughter's second Christmas" ornament, which was cute, but also not quite what I was looking for. I was going to settle for that, but then I saw the perfect one. It's a tiny "see 'n say" toy....almost just like the real see 'n say that she has, and it really plays the animal sounds. You spin the middle and pull the string (it's more like the old fashioned ones in that respect, since the new ones like she has now have a lever instead) and it makes all of the sounds. It's perfect because 1) she'll love to pull the string and hear the sounds, 2) she loves animals and 3) making animal sounds is currently what she loves to do! I pulled the dog sound in the store to see how it worked and she started barking and barking. She was so excited about it. I'm excited about it too, just because it's perfect.

over and over and over

I'm realizing how much toddlers love repetition lately... everything I do with her, she then expects me to do it all the time, over and over.

Case in point... she's recently located a picture of a skunk in one of her animal books (yeah, they're officially on the "hot" list again). One time when we looked at it I said, "Oh, that's a stinky skunk!" and I plugged my nose. She thought that was funny. The next time we looked at it she looked at me, waiting for me to say "stinky skunk!" again. So I did. At one point I then plugged her nose and said it. She thought that was hilarious. So yesterday we were looking at it and I said, "stinky skunk!" but didn't plug her nose. She then took my hand and placed it up on her nose so I would pinch it! Such a funny girl!

dreary Monday

It's a rainy, cold, yucky day. The kind of day I just want to crawl into bed and take a nap. Or lay on the couch under a big blanket and watch a movie. Why don't toddlers enjoy those pasttimes, too? So instead, I've run some errands and played "chase me all over the house to tickle me, Mommy" most of the morning. She's in bed now (so I could actually be napping, too, but decided against it in favor of doing her laundry).

Thought I'd post these pictures from Thanksgiving. We didn't take many pictures because our camera is acting up. We got some video instead, but I'm not so technologically savvy as to post any of that on here. I know it's probably not hard, but I'd rather stay ignorant in that area.

Enjoy the pictures of my sweet girl. In the first one she's playing with the snow globe--her favorite toy at Grandma's house. She's only allowed to play with it if she's sitting on the floor, so she'll go in there and sit down on the floor and wait for someone to give her the snow globe and wind it up for her. It's so funny to see her just sitting and pointing to it and waiting. She's wearing a new dress, which came with the hat....it didn't stay on for long, but it looked cute while it lasted!

This one is when she took the whole pile of mashed potatoes and tried to put it in her mouth....unsuccessfully!

over the river and through the woods

We did go over some rivers...but not really through any woods...but it was a L-O-N-G drive back yesterday. We left around 1:00, heading from Grandma's to Granny's (about a half hour drive). Our little one fell asleep as soon as she got in the car--her cousins wore her out yesterday morning, I guess. She slept until we got to Granny's, and woke up as soon as Daddy stopped the car. A half hour nap....not ideal. We were going to stay in the car while Daddy picked up something from his dad, but she saw Granny and Papa outside and wanted to get out, so we did. We ended up staying awhile. She rubbed her eyes the whole time so we figured she'd fall asleep again once we got started in the car. No such luck. Instead she cried her really tired, "there's no satisfying me" cry pretty much the entire two hours back. We stopped along the way to try and break up the trip, which was fine while it lasted, but as soon as we got in the car she started up again. We couldn't do anything to make her happy....except get home. She was so happy to get in the house and ran for her toys! Mommy and Daddy couldn't have been happier to see home, either. It was almost 7:00 when we got back--that's a very long afternoon of driving (and fussing).

Grandma got a name this trip home....up until now she wasn't called anything, but while we were home our little one started calling her "Dee Dah." It was so cute--she was Dee Dah's shadow, and whenever she couldn't find her she'd yell, "Deeeeeee Dah?!"

And last night in the tub she came up with another new word. She likes it when I blow bubbles for her with the soap and was trying to get me to do it last night while she was in the bathtub. I told her, "Say 'bubbles.'" So she finally said, "ubbs!!" So now bubbles are "ubbs."

home sweet home

We're home.....we're tired.....we're sick of being in a car with a fussy toddler....

More tomorrow.

a brief recap

So this was our Thanksgiving day:

-Woke up early (6:45) to take my little one down to get her milk...but as soon as she saw all of the new and different toys in Grandma's living room, she was down on the floor playing and had absolutely no interest in her milk. And as soon as Grandma heard us and came in the room, she had no use for Mommy either....Grandma was much more exciting!

-Spent the morning playing/chasing after her, trying to keep her out of Grandma's way in the kitchen, and also got the table ready for dinner.

-Late morning my brother, Ted, and his family (her three cousins) came and the four of them ransacked Grandma's living room and toy chest while preparations continued in the kitchen.

-1:00 dinner....where she proceeded to pick up the entire pile of mashed potatoes on her plate with her fork and attempt to put them in her mouth. They fell off the fork, she picked them up, and tried again. During dinner we discussed the fact that my younger brother, Jack, wasn't there to liven things up, so we thought about things to put in a video to send him and his wife (they're in NYC). Someone suggested that Ted plant his face in his plate of food, in remembrance of the time Jack once did that at a family dinner when Ted brought his girlfriend over to meet the family (yeah, that's my brother, for you). Ted was against that idea, especially with his kids at the table, so they decided on singing....you've got to know my family to know that singing is usually involved. (These are my brothers and dad who once put on an impromptu "musical" during the holidays, making up the music and lyrics as they went along!) So after dinner Ted started playing "Over the River and Through the Woods" on the piano while everyone sang along (except only my mom knew all of the words!). The kids were jumping and dancing all around to the music and loving every minute of it. Then Ted broke into "We Gather Together," very slowly, and my dad pulled his ancient pipe out of his pocket and put together some sort of sappy, sarcastic greeting for Jack and Megan. The whole thing was very funny, and my husband thinks I should put the video on here for all to see, but it has our names in it, and you really don't need to see my family making fools of themselves, so you can just imagine it all and think we're the weirdest family in the world.

-4:00 leave for Granny's house. Our little one fell asleep for the last 15 minutes or so of the trip (she had also taken a nap in the morning, so she would be up for dinner). There she got to play with another set of cousins (five, to be exact!) and aunts and Papa and Granny. We ate another meal and were sufficiently stuffed!

-8:00 left to come back to Grandma's house--way past our little one's bedtime, but she did great! She came home and played a bit with my aunt and uncle who had come while we were gone, and then went to bed without a sound. What a sleepy girl!

Today was a bit more relaxed, though still crazy with all of the kids, but they all had a fantastic time playing together and with their aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Grandma babysat a little while and my husband and I went out a did a little bit of shopping (I didn't want to fight the crowds so we didn't go too far). Can't have the day after Thanksgiving without shopping, after all! Even if it is only for an hour or so.

just a quick note...

...to say Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't have time to write today--setting the table, cooking, playing, and eating await.

Have a great day...I'll try to write a better post tomorrow.

what did I tell you?

What was the first thing she brought to me this morning after drinking her milk? The aforementioned "not hot" animal books! It's all she wanted to look at this morning.

We're headed out of town in a couple of hours for Grandma's house. We have Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow at 1:00 and 5:00 at my parents' and then at my husband's parents'. I hope our little one is ready for lots of food! Maybe she'll actually eat a little if we're sitting down to two big meals.

She's busy looking at her little photo album of family members--dutifully reminding herself of who we're going to be seeing in the next few days. I know she'll be excited to play with all of her cousins. She loves looking at their pictures.

hot and not

So here's what's in and what's out for our little one at the moment....she definitely is opinionated and those opinions change frequently! I guess that's what life with a toddler is all about.

hot...
Laurie Berkner CDs and DVD

not...
Baby Einstein (used to be her absolute favorite)

hot...
crackers

not...
fruit

hot...
Dr. Seuss board books (esp. "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" and "The Foot Book")

not...
animal books

hot...
making animal sounds

not...
saying "mommy" (she has yet to call me anything resembling Mommy....sniff, sniff)

hot...
going upstairs to dance

not...
getting in the high chair to eat

hot...
going upstairs to take a bath

not...
actually getting undressed to get in the bathtub (for some reason she's very excited when we say, "Let's go take a bath" but when we actually get up there and start getting ready for it, she cries)

hot...
playing with hats and gloves in the house

not...
actually wearing the hats and gloves because it's cold outside

There you go....now you know her about as well as I do at the moment! I'm sure in the next 24 hours at least one of those will change!

blast from the past

Well, not that far past....just last year at this time. I was comparing pictures from a year ago. I can't believe how much she's changed.

because it's been awhile...

...since I posted a picture of her (well, a week or so, right?), I thought I'd show some today.

These are from the unsuccessful Christmas card photo shoot which I previously mentioned (we have since had a successful photo shoot, just in case you were wondering. The results should be landing in your mailboxes in a few weeks....). In these pictures she's dancing to the music of the snow globe (It's playing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"--quite a danceable tune, don't you think?).

She loves music and loves to dance. Often in the middle of doing something else she'll come up to me and just start dancing, which means, "Mommy, can we please go upstairs and turn on the music in the guest room so I can dance?" Sometimes I comply and other times I try to appease her by turning music on downstairs, which is good, but that isn't what she really wants. But if I follow up her dancing with asking, "Do you want to go upstairs and dance?" she bolts for the stairs. Downstairs dancing just doesn't cut it, I guess. The real dancing happens upstairs.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my dancing queen (please ignore the sheet covered couch in the background. It was to be the background in the photos, which would be cropped to camouflage the couch, but I didn't bother cropping since these weren't being used on the card).

OH--IO!!

Go Bucks!

We're all wearing our scarlet and grey (sans the grey....just scarlet!) in support of the big game.

Last night we went out to dinner at The Olive Garden. Daddy had pasta with shrimp and scallops (scallops are his favorite). We were trying to get our little one to eat something (she wouldn't even eat the breadsticks, and usually she inhales bread!) so he actually sacrificed one of his scallops for her. She had her plastic fork and was trying to put everything (goldfish, cheerios, everything...) on her fork to eat it. So we put the scallops on the fork and she ate it! So he gave her another one (keep in mind he loves scallops!). This one she played with on her fork and then dropped it on the floor!! Daddy was so, so sad. One of his precious scallops was ruined. Oh well. At least she got a little protein in her.

This morning we've been raking leaves and stuffing them in lawn bags. She was out there with us. We tried to teach her to run and jump in the leaves (so yes, Mommy and Daddy were jumping in the leaves, too). Well, she'd run up to the pile and then stop as she got up to it and just start laughing. I guess the running was enough for her. I wish we'd had the video camera out there with us. It was so funny. Daddy picked her up and very gently tossed her into the huge pile. She sunk down into the leaves so we couldn't even see her face! She was a little startled by that one--being buried in leaves isn't her idea of a good time, I guess. But as soon as Daddy got her up and started tossing leaves up in the air, she decided leaves were fun again and she had a great time. After about a half hour or so, though, she'd had enough, and she and I came in to warm up. Good ol' Daddy is still out there stuffing bags. He's almost done, though.

I'm ready for November to be over....this posting every day thing is hard work. I've definitely run out of things to say.

are you smarter than a fifth grader?

I've never seen that show, but ran across this quiz. Since I once taught fifth grade, I'd like to think I'm smarter than a fifth grader (not to mention the fact that I spent however many thousands of dollars to earn a college degree and a master's degree!!).

I'm ashamed to say that after taking the quiz, I'm only 90% smarter than a fifth grader....I missed question #8 (my dad, my former government teacher, will be so sad...it's a government related question!).

Click on the link to see if you're smarter than me (and than a fifth grader!). I'd better stick to teaching first grade.

http://www.gotoquiz.com/are_you_smarter_than_a_fifth_grader

trial and error

I'm experiencing that phrase quite literally in the last 24 hours...

1) Yesterday's sweet potato fries: disaster
I followed the instructions, but in several of the reviews I read it said that they didn't get crispy, so leave them in longer. I did--about 4 or 5 minutes longer (I didn't look at them, though--there's my error). When I opened the oven they were almost all completely burnt! Crispy, indeed! Also inedible for the most part. The few that weren't charred were decent enough, but they were overshadowed by the fact that I did all that work for nothing! (I realized that cutting raw sweet potatoes is a difficult and time consuming task! They're rather dense and hard to get the knife through!)

2) Today's dinner prep: painful
Today I decided to make dinner in the crock pot. I got out the crockpot from the depths of my cupboard where I store things I don't use very often (I used to use the crockpot a lot more when I taught all day--I need to start utilizing it again--note to self!). I got the chicken out of the freezer. Put it and the required spices into the crockpot. Reached to get the lid and moved my head directly into the corner of the cabinet door, which I had inadvertently left open. (Another note to self--don't leave cabinet doors open--I'm too tall for that!). After some excedrin and 20 minutes of holding ice on my head, I'm feeling a little better, and dinner is safely cooking in the crockpot, but the lingering headache will be a reminder to close those doors!

I'm hoping the trial and error phase is over for awhile.... I'll keep you posted.

sweet potato fries

Anyone ever had them? I had them once at a restaurant and thought they were great, even though I don't really like sweet potatoes. Well, they were on sale for about 33 cents a pound the other day so I bought a few, thinking I could try some. So tonight's the night. I got online and found a few different recipes....not sure which one to try. I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes.

B-O-O-T-S is still a favorite around here....this morning she was looking at a word book she loves and she found a picture of boots. She grinned the cutest grin as she pointed to it and started stomping her feet, waiting until I would start singing it for her.

We did some secret Christmas errands this morning...I can't tell you what they were because a certain someone may read this blog and find out what he or she is getting for Christmas! But even though we were riding in the car all morning long, she was such a good girl (thanks to the same Laurie Berkner CD we played through 1 1/2 times!)

Sorry about the lame post yesterday, and today's is turning out almost as lame, but not every day can be bloggable, I suppose (is that a word? Maybe I just coined a new term--let's call Webster's!).

you knew it was coming....

...a day with nothing to say! When you write every day there's bound to be a day when there's nothing at all exciting to write! Today's one of those days.

We went to a friend's house this morning to play and chat (guess who did the playing and who did the chatting!?), she took a 1 1/2 hour nap after we got home and had lunch, then we ran some errands this afternoon. Just your average, unexciting Tuesday!

Sorry to bore you....back to your regularly scheduled web-surfing!

secret for success??

I'm on the quest for the perfect Christmas card picture, without much success. We tried on Saturday and she just wanted to run around in her dress, play with her halo and pull the background down. Here are a couple we caught, but they aren't Christmas card material, though they're funny!

I tried this morning with a different tactic. She did better because I gave her things to play with, but she was so enthralled with them that she didn't look up and smile!

These are the best I got, after cropping, but her hair is so messy that I don't want to use these. So we'll have to try another day.

It was lots easier last year! She was so happy with the ribbons and paper that she couldn't help but smile! I had a hard time choosing because there were so many good ones.

I guess the secret for success is to photograph a younger baby or older child! Since that's not the case, maybe success in this situation is to settle for imperfection!?

B-O-O-T-S!

I've mentioned before that she loves listening to Laurie Berkner's CDs. We have several from the library--as kids' music goes, it's pretty tolerable for adults! One of the songs she likes best is called B-O-O-T-S. They spell it out and stomp their feet in boots at the same time (there's a video to go along with it on the noggin website). Well, today she found her boots again in the closet (she loves them!) and wanted to put them on. As soon as I put them on her she started stomping her feet like in the song and doing her imitation of "B-O-O-T-S!" It was hilarious....you'll have to take my word for it, though. I don't have pictures.

An update on her health....she's getting better after a bad few days of coughing (often waking VERY early in the morning and not able to get back to sleep). She still has a runny nose and still coughs when she wakes up, but she's definitely better. But now Daddy is sick. It was a rough couple of days. But this week should be better.

tagged again

Emily tagged me (well, she tagged anyone who wanted to be tagged, and since it's hard to think of things to write about, I took her up on it!) for another meme....





What were you doing ten years ago?
1. Teaching first grade in Greenwich, CT. It was my second year of teaching. Man, was that already ten years ago??? I'm old!

2. Living in a mansion in Greenwich with a family from school--anyone who doesn't know that whole story should ask me about it sometime. It was quite an experience!

3. One semester away from finishing my master's degree program.

4. Babysitting, housesitting, and pet sitting for anyone who would pay me (yes, I lived in a mansion, but I made very little money, lived in the richest community in America, and was paying for grad school!)

5. Visiting friends in NYC (only a 40 minute train ride) whenever I could get down there--that's what I miss most about living out there.





What were you doing one year ago?

1. Celebrating the fact that I'd helped my daughter make it through seven months of life!

2. Still waking up a couple of times a night to feed her.

3. Wondering whether my house would ever be clean again (I still wonder that, come to think of it....)

4. Getting excited about celebrating our baby's first Christmas.

5. Tutoring a 6th grade boy in math once a week. (I wonder how he's doing!?)





Five snacks you enjoy

1. Ice cream (esp Graeter's Strawberry Chip)

2. Cape Cod potato chips, or the cheaper Meijer brand knock offs, which are almost as good

3. Nachos with lots of melted cheese, and sour cream, guacamole, and homemade salsa on the side

4. Frito Lay's "Muchies" mix--it has pretzels, doritos, cheetos, and sun chips in it--super healthy, eh?!

5. Milk Chocolate...in just about any form

Gosh, this is making me WAY too hungry!





Five Songs you know the lyrics to (uh oh, this will be embarassing....)

1. My Favorite Things (from The Sound of Music)

2. Castle on a Cloud (from Les Miserables)

3. Do Re Mi (also from TSOM...see #1)

4. We are the Dinosaurs (by Laurie Berkner....a kid's CD we listen to in the car constantly!)

5. It's a Hard Knock Life (from Annie)

(Can you tell I watched a few musicals growing up??)





Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

1. Give a lot away

2. Build my parents their dream house nearby

3. Build our dream house also nearby

4. Build myself a scrapbooking room in my dream house so I'd have room to spread everything out and leave it out when I wasn't working on it.

5. Travel with my husband (and eventually our daughter)





Five bad habits (I confessed a couple of these a few weeks ago the last time I was tagged!)

1. Being on the computer too much

2. Checking my email too much

3. Watching TV every evening

4. Eating the snacks listed above

5. Deciding not to exercise on any given day with a lame excuse of why





Five things you like to do

1. Scrapbook

2. Shop (only for good deals!)

3. Play with my daughter

4. Hang out with my husband

5. Read





Five things you will never wear again

1. Legwarmers

2. Stonewashed denim

3. Jelly shoes

4. Overalls

5. Heels (not that I ever wore them much, but since my husband's the same height as me, I won't wear heels to make myself taller!)





Five favorite toys

1. My laptop

2. My laptop

3. My laptop

4. Did I mention my laptop?

5. Does my daughter's Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Home count? I play with it every day...





Five things you hate to do

1. Play with my daughter's Fisher Price Laugh and learn Home every day (just kidding....it's my favorite of all of her toys that we play with)

2. Clean!!!!! But especially the bathrooms

3. Scrub stains out of my daughter's clothes. It takes forever to do a load of her laundry!

4. Exercise

5. Get up early (I'm a morning person, but not before 7 AM)

don't touch

Can I just record that phrase and have it playing on a loop throughout the day? Because that's all I seem to say lately. For some reason she's developed a huge fascination for electrical cords. She's tried to touch them now and then over the last year, but not like she's been doing for the last week. It's so frustrating! She knows she's not supposed to...she looks at me as she does it, just to see what I'll do. Ugh.

Have I mentioned that I've been tutoring? I started a couple of months ago to tutor a fifth grader, Shelby, in math. She's lots of fun and is very bright and excited to learn, so I'm really enjoying it. On Monday night we worked on long division, which she had just started and was having trouble with. It took her awhile to get the hang of it but by the end of the hour she was doing great on her own. When her mom came to get her she asked, "Are you understanding it?" She said, "Yeah, Mom, she's good. She gets into my head!" It was funny, but also nice to be appreciated! A 19 month old doesn't express appreciation very well, so I don't get much of it lately (she's 19 months old today, by the way....what a big girl!).

black and white

I was fooling around with some pictures yesterday, trying to find some that would look good as black and white (in our frame shopping extravaganza last weekend we bought some black frames and need to come up with some pictures to put in them). So here are a few of the contenders.

Whattaya think? Yea? Nay?

In other news, our little one is sick. It's been a big kleenex fest here the last few days. She runs everytime she sees me heading for the box, but what kind of mother would I be if I let her nose run down to her chin all day?? When she drinks and eats you can hear her pausing to take these huge breaths because while she's chewing or drinking she can't breathe. Poor thing.

And happy birthday, Jack!! (my little brother)

a chip off the OTHER block!

Since yesterday's pictures elicited such a response, I thought I'd stick with the theme and show you that although she really resembles me, she also looks like her Daddy. Here are some comparisons. Daddy's pictures are the ones in black and white, in case you didn't figure that out!

a chip off the old block

I don't have very many baby pictures of me here at my house--my mom still has them all. But I have a couple scanned on my computer from a project I worked on for my parents' anniversary this past summer, and thought I'd put them on here for you to compare me and my little girl. What do you think? She's definitely mine, don't you agree?? I'll try and get some when I'm home at thanksgiving and put them on, but this should whet your appetite. These are both with my great grandma. I'm the one in the pink in the first one and the red in the other. She and I are roughly the same age in the first two pictures. In the third picture, I'm almost three, but I can already see the resemblance in what she looks like now.

randomness

There's nothing exciting to tell you about today, but to fulfill my NaBloPoMo responsibility for the day, I'll share some random thoughts with you.

*Last week they tore up our sidewalks to put in new handicapped ramps. We spent many hours staring out the window at the big trucks and machines working.

*This week they're tearing up our streets! We've already spent much time this morning staring out the window at the big trucks and machines working. If I had a boy, he'd be in truck heaven at my house! As it is, she's every bit as interested, so it's providing great entertainment.

*Last week was the first full week without a morning nap. She just kind of gave it up on her own (I thought she never would--how many 18 month olds take two naps a day?). Since naptime was when I took a shower and got dressed, I had to institute a new showering policy. Around 9:00 every morning I've been taking her up and putting her in her crib with toys to play with (toys she doesn't ordinarily play with so they're more fun). She plays while I get ready. She's done pretty well with it, although when I get out of the shower I usually hear her yelling, "All Done! All Done!" every couple of minutes until I come get her.

*Right now as I type this she's watching "Jack's Big Music Show" on Noggin--it's probably her favorite half hour of the day. They're singing, "March, march, march, march...." and she's marching right along with them. She's very into music, dancing, jumping, and so forth.

*This morning for breakfast we had Honeynut Cheerios. There's a bee on the box (partially because it's honey, and partially in advertisement for the new Bee movie that's coming out). All through breakfast she kept looking at the box and saying "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." It's one of her favorite "animal" sounds.

*After breakfast we went upstairs and I was putting clothes away in her room while she was playing in the guest room (that's where the CD player is and she likes to go in there and dance, plus she has some toys in there). Her pumpkin costume was laying on the bed in there, and she got it down and was carrying it around. Then she brought it to me and kept holding it up to me. I finally took it from her and said, "Thank you!" Well, she held out her arms, waiting for me to put it on her! So I did. Then she stooped down to get the hat and held that up to me, too. So I put that on her. She got the biggest smile on her face, and then ran into my bedroom to look at herself in the full length mirror, cracking herself up at how funny she looked. She ran around upstairs with it on, dancing to the music, for quite awhile. I guess Halloween isn't over at our house (well, it is now, because after we took it off I hung it up and put it back in the closet).

See, I told you it would be random!
Have a great day!

fall back...

The fall time change used to be a much anticipated weekend for us....an extra hour of sleep!! Who can argue with that? All of that changed last year when we found that time changing also meant schedule changing for a little one. I remember it taking a long time to get back to normal last year. So today my little 18 month old alarm clock went off at 5:15....not the way I was hoping to spend my extra hour today! We decided to let her go awhile and see if she'd go back to sleep. SHE DID!!! She slept until 6:45 (which actually felt like 7:45, so that was more than acceptable!). I was pleasantly surprised. Her nap this afternoon left much to be desired, though. Usually she goes down between 12:30 and 1:00. Today I put her down at 12:30, thinking she'd be exhausted because it would feel like 1:30 to her. Well, she talked and squealed and cracked herself up for a good 20 minutes before falling asleep. And then woke up not a half hour later! Again I decided to let her go to let her put herself to sleep. This time I was out of luck. She ended up screaming and crying, so I finally, after waiting a half hour, hoping she'd go back to sleep, got her up. She was happy as a clam, though, and was great all afternoon and evening. Strange! I put her in bed at her normal time (even though it would feel later to her) to hopefully get her back on track. We'll see when she wakes up tomorrow.

where did it go?

Saturdays just fly by. Today was no exception. I was putting my little one to bed just a little bit ago and realized that I hadn't done my daily post yet. Whew....I'm glad I remembered, or my reputation would be blemished already on day 3!

Here's today's play-by-play:

8:00 AM - Trip to Kohl's for the Super Saturday Sale to buy a sleeper for you know who.
9:00 AM - Home to bundle up said little one and go outside to rake leaves, while Daddy cut the grass, probably for the last time of the season.
10:00 AM - take one soaking wet little one in the house for a change of clothes (those leaves were wet!!) with one exhausted Mommy (raking leaves is certainly good exercise!)
11:00 AM - Start cleaning the house with little one in tow.
12:00 PM - Lunch, while watching the Buckeyes.
1:00 PM - Naptime, while Daddy and Mommy cleaned (and watched the Buckeyes), but then started talking about putting pictures on the walls (after living in the house for 4 years we chose today as the day to finally do something about this) and decided which pictures needed to go up.
2:30 PM - Naptime over, leave for another trip to Kohl's to buy frames (which I saw on sale this morning when I was there) and to Walgreens to get some pictures made into the right sizes
4:00 PM - Home and start putting up pictures (hammering, measuring, leveling...) with our little one continuously in the way and touching everything she wasn't supposed to. Note to self--don't try to put pictures up (or any other time consuming project) with a little one who needs attention. It was a BAAAAAAAAAAD couple of hours.
5:00 PM - Realized we had all landscape pictures and needed more people pictures, so I made my THIRD trip to Kohl's of the day to buy more frames. I like Kohl's, and all, and love that it's right around the corner from me, but I've definitely had my fill of that place for awhile.
6:00 PM - A random dinner of broccoli and roast beef (wanted beef and noodles, but didn't have any noodles, and wasn't about to make another trip to the store!!!) in the midst of picture hanging and a frustrated toddler (but we'd made it this far, we had to finish).
7:00 PM - Bathtime, after a frustrated session of "Let's put your toys in the toybox!" That game doesn't go over well....we're working on it....slowly.
7:40 PM - Collapse at the computer (but there's more cleaning to do downstairs....so I'm staying up here where I can be in denial and type away instead!).

I feel like I've worked non stop all day, but there's not much to show for it (except for picture overload on the walls!!) Want some stimulation for your eyes? Come on over to our family room. There are pictures everywhere. Too many, if you ask me, but my husband is happy.

life gets in the way

There are so many things I want to get done on any given day, but everyday life always seems to interfere. So I try not to have very high expectations of what I plan to accomplish each day. If I keep my little one happy, empty, load, and run the dishwasher, pick the toys up, get dinner on the table, and maybe get a load of laundry done, then anything else I get done is icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned!

All that to say, I meant to post the dedication pictures days ago, but like I said, other things got in the way. So here they are.

This is during the actual dedication. Up in front with us in the orange shirt is my friend, Alisa, who prayed for R and for us.

We didn't get any pictures at the church so we tried to take some when we got home. This one wasn't too bad, while Daddy was trying to figure out the right settings on the camera.

But by this one, she had had it and needed a nap! So no happy family picture like we had hoped.

After a nice, long nap she enjoyed playing outside with her cousins and friend, Kaden. Here she is in the leaves with Kaden.

day 1

Okay, so it's day 1 of the posting every day of November attempt....we'll see how successful I am!

Here are halloween pictures from last night's trick or treating adventure. I had a bunny costume for her, but I bought it last fall at a garage sale and thought she would grow more than she has (we all know how little she's grown....) so it was gigantic on her. My mom and I bought this costume last year after Halloween on clearance, so she was a pumpkin again, even though I didn't want her to be a pumpkin two years in a row. Oh well. She could've cared less!

She had a great time running up and down the sidewalk of our cul de sac. I did a lot of chasing while Daddy stayed and passed out candy at our house. We didn't leave our street, but she had a ball. She kept going back to one house on the end of the street that had dry ice blowing steam around their yard. The lady there kept giving her more bags of Gerber puffs (she had those for the little kids). She kept carrying them around and didn't want to put them in her bucket. Every once in awhile she'd plop herself down and play with her loot in the middle of the sidewalk. She'd then run back home to see Daddy, play a little more with what was in her bucket (she'd take it all out and then put it back in), and then want to take off again down the sidewalk. She enjoyed seeing the other trick or treaters, too.