elmos and tigers and hair cuts, oh my!

Busy day around here....Daddy's off for Good Friday, so we decided to go to the zoo. It was a little cold, so there was hardly anyone there, which was nice, and a nice thing about having a membership is that you don't feel like you're wasting your money if you leave after an hour or two (we left after about two). She loved seeing the tiger up close. He just paced back and forth behind the glass watching her. It was kind of frightening, actually, as her parent, but she loved it!!

And she touched a snake. Gross. I hate snakes. I made Daddy take her to do that.

Yesterday she got her hair cut. It needed it badly. She looks a little more well kept now!

After we got home from the zoo I set to work decorating an Elmo birthday cake for Kaden, my little one's best friend, who turns two tomorrow (he's two and a half weeks older than she is, so that means it's only two and a half weeks until her birthday! I can't believe it.). If you'll recall I took a cake decorating class a little over a year ago (you can click back to March 2007 blogs to find some pictures if you're really bored!) and learned how. I made Kaden's little smash cake last year for his first birthday and the cakes for our little one's birthday last year, too. I'm looking forward to making her a ladybug cake in a few weeks--I'm sure you'll see the results on here if you come back. Elmo's eyes are a little on the yellow-y side because of the butter in the frosting and because I used regular vanilla and not "Wilton Clear Vanilla," like they recommend, but other than that, I'm fairly happy with the result.

I hope Kaden is, too! Happy Birthday, Kaden!!

it worked!!!!

Okay, so now since I think I'm so smart, I'll try another one! In this one she was playing with the clock on the toy and started dancing to the music. But as soon as she noticed that I had the camera on her, she had to run over. She figured out that she could see herself when I played it back for her, so everytime she'd see me with it pointed toward her, she'd come running, saying, "see, see!" So much for candid shots! But enjoy the brief little dance....

Okay, enough of that for today. I can't exert myself too much all in one day. I've been sick, after all! Today I finally feel pretty much like myself. Still can't eat very much--nothing much sounds good, but I did eat both breakfast (a tiny bit of cereal) and lunch (half a peanut butter sandwich) so far. That's more than I've eaten in the last three days combined (a couple of saltines, a few bites of toast, and several bottles of gatorade to replensish my fluids were about it). Last night I finally felt hungry and wanted to eat and I couldn't find a single thing in the house that sounded good to me except for popcorn! My husband was afraid it would rip up my poor stomach, but I insisted, since it was growling like crazy and I had to put something in it, and I couldn't stand the thought of another saltine or bite of toast. So I ate just a little and ate it really slowly, and it tasted so good. Hopefully I'll be back to normal tomorrow if I can keep eating some real food today and get some more energy.

Last night for some reason I couldn't go to sleep. I think it was because I took a two hour nap yesterday afternoon while my little one napped, since I was so wiped out from the days before. So last night I was laying in bed tossing and turning and finally turned on the TV (my poor husband has been banished to the guest room since all of this started so I wouldn't bother him with all of my comings and goings from the bathroom!) which means I could turn the TV on in bed, which I ordinarily couldn't do. I flipped around and found the show, "Top Chef" on Bravo. It brought back memories of my last month or so of pregnancy two years ago--I was always so uncomfortable and couldn't sleep and would end up on the couch almost every night flipping around at midnight looking for something to watch. I discovered Top Chef then and became hooked. I never see it anymore because it seems like it's always on after I go to bed, but I really like it, and I got to see the first episode of a brand new season last night! I'm tempted to keep watching...but that would mean staying up past my bedtime (it's normally on at 10:00 on Wednesdays, I found out, and I usually go to bed at 10). Too bad I don't have TiVo.... just the old fashioned VCR, and I guess I could tape it.... I don't know if I'm that committed to it or not! That's a lot of work to remember to set that every week. We'll see.

first ever video clip

Okay, here goes nothin'....I must be feeling better if I'm willing to attempt this! I was playing around with my new camera today and figured out how to take a few short videos with it. Then I actually figured out how to get them onto my computer. Now I want to see if I can get them to play on here--the final hurdle. Here's the first one (I hope!). I know it's not very exciting, but give me a break...it's my first one!

I brought that toy up from the basement this morning--I took her down there while I was putting in a load of laundry and she fell in love with it all over again, so I brought it up. She spent at least a half hour playing with it--you would've thought it was a brand new toy!

Now if this one works, I'll try to post one showing off her dancing skills a bit....stay tuned.

so sick

The last day and a half have been one of the longest ever. Yesterday afternoon I put my daughter down for a nap and then laid down myself because I hadn't slept well the night before and I was tired. As I laid there my stomach was bothering me. I did fall asleep but when I woke up I felt really nauseous. Well, it only went downhill from there.... Except for once in grad school when I had food poisioning, I've never been this sick. My husband had to stay home from work today to take care of our little one because I can barely move, except to make it back and forth between the bed and the bathroom. This is a rare time that I'm actually sitting on the couch downstairs. I couldn't take my bed anymore. And to make matters worse my mom now has it too. I feel so bad that I gave it to her. Unless it's something we both ate this weekend or something. Ugh.

a day fit for a queen

So today is my birthday, and in my family we've always made a big deal over birthdays. Today was no different. My parents came down last night and we all went out to dinner at Buca di Beppo. It's a restaurant we hardly ever go to because it's more fun to go with lots of people. Our little one had a great time playing with the crayons (for the first five minutes until she threw them on the floor and we couldn't find them), dipping her fingers in olive oil (yeah, I know...gross!) and drinking from Grandma's straw.



This morning I got presents--a new digital camera from my parents, because we have a huge monster camera--takes awesome pictures but it's way too big and cumbersome to take everywhere, and I wanted one I could put in my purse or the diaper bag and have it with me everywhere. And my husband surprised me with a long weekend for the two of us in Chicago! He didn't plan the details--he wanted me to do that so I could get to do what I want to do, so I get to get started planning a fun trip--awesome! I was floored. I never would've expected that from him because he's a mountain-climing, clean air, national park lover who really hates cities and would never choose to vacation there, so the fact that he gave this trip to me means he really loves me if he's willing to go just because it's something I enjoy! How sweet! I can't wait. I don't know when we'll go, but sometime this spring or early summer.



Then we had a girls' outing--my mom, my little one, and me. We went shopping and I bought some birthday presents for our little one's upcoming big day. My mom took the two of us out to lunch. I chose California Pizza Kitchen because I love it and my husband hates it and I only ever get to go there if I go with someone else (so not very often at all!). It was delicious and they surprised me with a hot fudge sundae with a candle on top at the end--and didn't even sing to embarrass me, for which I'm thankful!



Next we came home for naptime. After she was safely asleep (with Daddy home to supervise), my mom and I left again for another shopping excursion. It's always a treat to go shopping without a toddler in tow. We went to the mall to several shoe stores I never get to go to with my little one, because I'm looking for a new pair of sandals. I didn't find anything, but we had fun looking and we did some more birthday shopping for a certain almost-two-year-old, as well, which is always lots of fun.



The plan was that my husband and I were supposed to go out to dinner tonight and my parents would babysit, but on the way home from the mall I realized that I really wasn't hungry because of my huge lunch, I was tired from shopping all day, and my husband's basketball team is in the final game of their conference tournament tonight and he really would rather stay home to watch his game, so I decided to save our date for another night when I was hungrier, less tired, and there was no basketball game fighting with me for my husband's attention (I'm plagued--March Madness is ALWAYS starting the week of my birthday. Ugh!). But it's okay...it lengthens my birthday this way!



We ordered pizza instead and had the cake my mom made me (from scratch carrot cake--yum!). And despite my dateless evening, I was a queen today and had a great day full of my favorite people and my favorite pasttimes (spending time with them and shopping!). I'm a lucky girl.

fresh look

I decided to change the look of the blog for spring. Green makes me feel springier.

Enjoy!

prying my eyes open

Yes, the extra hour of daylight in the evening is good. Especially when it's a sunny extra hour, like it is today.

But what else is there to like about this daylight savings time???? I'm so tired I can't do much of anything. In the morning I can barely get out of bed. I drag for most of the day, and then at night I'm not ready to go to sleep and have trouble. Which only perpetuates the getting out of bed problem in the morning. Ugh.

Last week I gradually pushed our little one's bedtime forward a few minutes each night to get her ready for the time change. She's done great with it--and her bedtime is even a half hour later now than it used to be (7:30 instead of 7:00--my husband thought 7:00 was too early, so we decided to try it out). I guess I've learned the lesson that I need to adjust my own bedtime the week before, too! I'll try to remember that next spring (in the fall it doesn't seem to matter, since there's an extra hour involved!).

Not much else going on here. She's still getting over her cold, but she's in a good mood now again most of the time. She's starting to put words together a little more. In this book I sometimes read her before bed there are a few words that are colored in different colors. She points to one and says "O....blue." Yes, it's a blue O. Then she does the same for other various colors (always an O though--it seems to be her new favorite letter). Today she pulled my jacket down from the back of the chair where I left it and was dragging it around saying "jacket....mama" over and over. Well, she doesn't exactly say the word jacket, but her version of the word is too strange to even try to type phonetically! My favorite word to hear her say is "yellow." It sounds more like "yewewwow" or something....but it's so funny to hear.

Today I let out the hems in several of her dresses from last spring. Yes, folks, my almost 24 month old daughter will be wearing her 12 month dresses again this spring and summer. They still fit! They were too short, though, so I let out the hems, which were really deep. She's still so tiny. I wonder what she weighs now. She goes to the doctor the day after her birthday (which is now less than a month away--unbeliveable!!), so we'll soon see.

Alright, I'm going to bed early tonight, so I can hopefully get out of bed a little more gracefully in the morning tomorrow.

the aftermath

Here are the results of yesterday's blizzard.

It's bright and sunny today. Almost looks like spring (if you can ignore the foot and a half of snow on the ground!). The weather channel says we got 20.4 inches. The local news says 14 inches. I didn't measure, so I don't really know. It's a lot...that's all that counts.

We had an added bonus to being snowed in yesterday--our heat was threatening to go out. The heat pump outside started making very strange sounds. Of course everywhere we tried to call was closed due to the weather. My husband called his dad and together they talked through a few things he tried in the basement. The result? The furnace wouldn't come back on. We thought we were doomed...no heat and couldn't drive anywhere. Several minutes later, out of nowhere, it came on! Still making noise, though.

The temperature dropped in the house to 64. We put our daughter to bed in our room in the pack and play with the heater on so we'd all be warm last night. Somewhere in the middle of the night it started working normally again and stopped making that weird noise. I actually was too warm last night (I wasn't used to sleeping with a heater on in my room).

Today the furnace is working fine. Just a little added excitement to an already exciting blizzard.

My husband shoveled three times during this whole ordeal. The poor guy is beat. We live on a corner so we have double the sidewalk to shovel, in addition to the driveway. Yesterday some neighbors were trying to get out and shoveled a path down the street. In the process they buried my husband's work vehicle in the snow, which was parked on the street. He had to dig it out this morning so he can go to work tomorrow.

We haven't attempted driving yet. With 4 wheel drive it shouldn't be too awful. We just haven't been brave enough to try it yet (well, I should say I haven't been....I'm sure if my husband wanted to go somewhere badly enough, he would've already!).

Our daughter's oblivious. All she knows is that she's gotten lots of time with Daddy in the last few days and is loving every minute of it.

well, I was wrong...

...about the snow, that is.

We're up to about 9 inches and counting. It's coming down (sideways most of the time because of the wind) and is supposed to until dinner time tonight, they say.

We're all three hunkered down here for the duration--it took my husband three hours to get home last night from where he had to drive for work (usually less than an hour drive) but he made it around 5:30. I was so relieved to see his car drive up and so glad we have nowhere to go today (everything is cancelled or closed anyway, so I guess it wouldn't matter!) . This morning he got up with our little one and I was lounging snugly, so warm in bed, thinking about how thankful I am that we have a warm house, plenty of food of supplies so we don't have to go anywhere, and we're all safe and sound. Yes, the snow is a pain (just read yesterday's post to find out how I really feel about it!), but it's kind of nice to sit inside a warm house with the people you love and look out at it.

Maybe after all of this stops we can take her outside (it'll be up to her waist!). She seems to be feeling a little better, so hopefully she'll enjoy it.

just a little update

First things first...........I'm DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just turned in my final two papers (which aren't actually due until Monday, the last day of class, but I had to get them out of my hands so I submitted them). Can I just shout "HALLELUIA" from the tree tops???? Not usually my style, but I'm so excited to be done (can you tell???)

Even more important than that, though, is that my little one is sick. :(

I mentioned before that she had a cold. She still does, it just has gotten worse. Yesterday she was just not herself--choosing to spend most of the day sitting on my lap. If you knew her and her unending energy, you'd know that she's sick. She's all stuffed up, coughing a ton, eyes watering non stop.... She would just lay her head against me and rub it back and forth. Poor thing. This morning she woke up at 5:00 crying and when I went in her whole face was covered with a mixture of tears and gunkity-gunk from her nose. Oh, I felt so bad for her. She went back to bed at 8:30, slept two hours, and woke up much happier and more like herself. She's back in bed for round two now, though, so I'm hoping that another nap will help zap these germs. It's miserable being sick, but it's even more miserable to watch your sweet little one be sick when she has no clue why she just feels yucky. And she can't blow her nose to get the stuff out, can't take any medicine to help her congestion or coughing, and can't tell me what hurts. No wonder she's cranky! I would be too! I'm actually so impressed with how happy she was after her first nap this morning with what she's going through. We went to the grocery and she was great!

And the other news around here is the weather. Some are predicting a foot of snow. I've also heard 4 inches, so who knows....everyone seems to have a different opinion. I tend to believe the 4-6 inch range, but we'll see--maybe it's just wishful thinking. I'm so sick of snow. My birthday is next week. My birthday is in March. March is spring.....SPRING! Not snowy! No snow allowed this close to my birthday! Go away, snow!

My husband's on his way home now from an hour away where he had to go for work today, of all days, in the middle of a snowstorm. I'm sick of snow.

Did I mention how sick I am of snow?????

brought to you by the letter K

She learned a new letter yesterday.

She was milling around the kitchen table and found Daddy's hat down at the other end of the table. She loves wearing his hats, so she pulled it down and put it on. Then she pulled it off and started playing with it. Eventually she brought it to me (I was busy sitting at the other end of the table cutting coupons) and showed me the letter on the front of the hat and said, "T!" I told her no, that it wasn't T, but K. She repeated, "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" At dinner I said, "Tell Daddy what letter you learned today." She didn't say anything at first. Then I showed her his hat and she said, "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Later we were getting ready to go to my friend's house--her son is Kaden (they're best buds). I told her we were going to Kaden's house. "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" she exclaimed. In the bathtub last night I found the K from her collection of foam letters and asked her what it was. It took her a minute to respond, so I said, "It's like Kaden's name," and she immediately said, "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

Today I found it in the box of magnet letters (I only have a few up on the fridge right now--the ones she knows and the ones that spell her name) and added it to the collection. After her nap we'll work on them and see if she can remember. If so, then we're up to seven letters that she knows.

I'm almost done with my class! I have two big projects due Monday. One of them is finished and the other one is well on its way. I can't wait.

This blog entry has been brought to you by the letter K and the number 7.

cow, cow, cow

She's obsessed with cows! It started because of this toy she got for Christmas:

It's a puzzle--the cow fits in the barn, the pig fits inside of that and the sheep inside of that. It also sings "Old MacDonald."

Then last week I got Baby MacDonald out of the library again, since she was so enthralled with Baby Noah again.

Now every few minutes I hear, "cow, cow, cow," as she points to the DVD case on top of the entertainment center. She'd watch it all day if she had her way (yeah, I say that about a lot of things...she really would watch TV all day if she was allowed).

brief weekend stories

Friday: Ate Desitin while in bed (how she managed to reach the Desitin from bed, I'll never know. All over her face, hair, shirt. Called Poison Control. "Don't worry," they said. Then why does it say to call Poison Control?

Saturday: She went to the zoo with Daddy (I was at a women's conference this weekend--SO nice to get away, but I missed her like crazy!). Enamored by the elephants and monkeys. Face pressed up to the glass at every exhibit. Afterwards went to McDonalds for her first happy meal. Nose running like a faucet...getting another cold. I had to work in the nursery Sat. night at church, so Daddy was in charge again. I was so happy to see her when I got home--she had had her bath and was almost ready for bed, so I rocked her while she drank her milk--the first I had really seen her since Friday afternoon.

Sunday: Woke up coughing and had a stuffy nose. Didn't want to take her to the nursery to subject other kids to her cold, so I went to church and Daddy stayed home with her. This afternoon I stayed home with her while he went to our small group. She's in a good mood--it's just a little cold right now--I just don't like other kids being exposed to her germs.

New words: Yellow (wewwo), Cow

So that's our weekend in a nutshell.

we're getting closer...

...to spring! It's almost March! Winter's almost over! Of course, there's snow on the ground, but that doesn't matter. The calendar says spring arrives this month. I'll just look at this and imagine:

I can't wait. Playing outside, going to the park, swimming, vacation, bubbles, the sand box, riding her tricycle.... ah, just thinking about it all puts me in happy mood.

Well, it seems that my extroverted social butterfly is becoming a bit shy. We're hoping it's just a little phase, because she seems really attached to me at the moment (more than normal), but who knows, since I've always been that way. Today at the grocery store the lady at the meat counter was talking to her and she looked down at her lap and wouldn't look at her. She finally looked up a little and grinned just a little and then said "dye dye" when we left, but a couple of weeks ago she would've been smiling, talking, and squealing away if someone talked to her. A few days ago Daddy took her to the library and into the little playroom she loves and she clung to his leg almost the whole time because there were a couple of other kids in the room. Is this my daughter? The one who just a month or so ago was in the center of that same room dancing around while all eyes were on her? What's going on? The last two weeks she's cried when we've gone to the nursery at church, when usually she loves going in there. She's been happy when we've picked her up, but why is it taking her so much longer to become comfortable all of a sudden? Like I said, we're hoping it's just a phase of separation anxiety or stranger anxiety or whatever, but I guess only time will tell.

Baby Einstein has made a surprising reappearance on our TV screen. I thought those were out a year ago, but for some reason she's totally in love with them again--particularly Baby Noah and Baby MacDonald...you know, the ones with the animals, of course. And she loves the little logo that looks like this:

She sees it on a few baby einstein books she has and goes crazy, shouting, "ah-gie, ah-gie"), pointing at that face. We think she's trying to stay "Einstein." Then she points to her videos and wants to see the same picture on the case. She also loves the little caterpillar that comes on at the beginning and thinks every caterpillar in every book is the baby einstein caterpillar.

The Wiggles are still an obsession, too, and now she has little stuffed dolls (Dorothy, Wags, and Henry that my mom found on ebay) and a Murray guitar to add to her obsession. Whenever she watches the Wiggles (every morning at 7 am) they all come out and dance with her and she points to their pictures on the guitar, too. This girl would watch The Disney Channel every waking moment if we would let her. (we don't, though sometimes it's tempting!).

Well, she's awake and talking in bed, so I need to go get her up.

words of the week

Just in the last week or two her vocabulary has started expanding a lot. Here are some of her new words:

cack-uh = cracker (this is a big improvement on the "k, k, k" she used to say when she wanted one!
bow--nie (with a big pause in the middle) = brownie
Dah-dee = Dorothy (the dinosaur on the Wiggles)
Hi, day-dee = Hi, baby (talking to her dolls)
bah = barn
a-uh = apple
puh-puh = purple
bom = bottom
tay = tail
bow = brown
ge-i = get it or get him (when waking Daddy up when he's pretending to be asleep)
bo = boat

That's all I can think of at the moment, but they're starting to sound a little more like the real thing (except day-dee, of course....but she is saying some words with the "b" sound now!).

Still plugging away on my class, but this week is easier than last week. I'll still be glad when it's all over, but I'll spare you my complaints from now on!

remind me to never do this again

This has to have been the worst week I've had in.....oh, probably since my little one started sleeping through the night. That was when life started getting bearable again...until this past week, that is.

I mentioned that I'm taking these classes to renew my teaching license....a license that I don't know when I'll use again but have to keep current in case I do want to use it again (kind of like an insurance policy...you pay for it even though you hope that you won't have to use it). It's a bunch of jumping through hoops, taking classes you don't want to take just because the state says you have to have 6 credit hours in order to renew it. It's expensive, it's time consuming, and it's just a bunch of baloney, if you ask me. My dad got a permanent license back in the day and never had to worry about it again. You can't do that anymore. Ah....the good ol' days....

Anyway, so I'm taking these classes. I signed up to start the first one the last week of January. It went three weeks, then I had a week off and the second one started, lasting three weeks. After I enrolled and paid all my money they told me the first class was full and I had to wait until the next start day, and they went ahead and enrolled me in that class. Well, it overlapped with the second class for one week. That was this week. THE.worst.week.EVER!

So I was trying to finish one class and start another one. These are three week classes, but they are a full quarter of a graduate level class, squeezed into three weeks, so it's an exorbitant amount of work in a very short period of time. Fine if you are childless, but for those of us with almost two year olds running around, it's difficult. Forget trying to get anything done when she's up. Impossible. So every naptime and every night after bedtime I've been at the computer. But this week it was even worse. Because of the amount of work I had to finish for two classes, I was also up here every second I could spare when my husband was home and could be downstairs with our little one. Well, she's going through a "Mommy" phase where she doesn't want anyone else but me, so everytime I came up to work I had to listen to her whining and crying because she wanted me and not Daddy. She'd come to the bottom of the stairs and yell, "Mama, Mama," to me. It broke my heart not to be able to go to her. Daddy did the baths and bedtimes almost every day this week so I could get an extra half hour or 45 minutes in....which caused tears on her part as well because she wanted Mommy. Well, Mommy wanted her, too. I would've much rather have been giving a bath or reading "Time for Bed" or singing her to sleep. Two broken hearts....

So today I turned in my last assignment for my first class and my two assignments that are due on Monday for my second class, so I'm ahead for a couple of days (out of necessity, because I'm going to my nephew's birthday party tomorrow and won't be home to work on it!). It's a relief, and yet not really because I know on Tuesday I have to start it all up again! At least these next two weeks won't be quite as hard as this last week was, since I'm back down to one class again.

If I had nothing else to do I would've enjoyed these classes. They're interesting, it's nice to have "discussions" with other teachers around the country online and not have to talk to them face to face (not a particular strength of mine), and I've learned a lot. However, I do have other things to do...much more important things, like dance to Wiggles songs and wipe goldfish cracker crumbs from little cheeks and play in the snow, just to name a few. I have baths to give and songs to sing and board books to read. Give me that anyday over online textbooks (have you ever tried to read an entire textbook on the computer screen? It's torture!) and intellectual "conversation." Do you know how hard it is to go from saying things like, "Five little monkeys jumping on a bed...." to then having to sound profound and write a 700 word paper in APA style?

Kudos to all of the parents of little ones who go back to school and do this stuff every day. I don't know how you do it. It's definitely not for me. Thankfully, for another five years it doesn't have to be.

Tomorrow is a new week. It's bound to be better than this one was.

a little about me

This blog is called the World of Weed, but it seems that I'm always writing about the daughter of Weed (well, she is pretty much my world, since I'm a stay at home mom)! Well, I ran across this survey and liked it because it's different than all of the rest I seem to get, so I thought I'd answer it so you'd know a little more about me that you may not already know.

1. What is the one BIG goal you hope to accomplish this week? Finish my classwork. This week my two classes I'm taking overlap so I'm trying to finish up my first class and get started on my second class. It's a ton of work and I'm not sure how it's going to happen (getting off of my blog would be a start, though, huh?)

2. What is the one household chore you do NOT like to do? I can only pick one? I hate household chores. But if I had to choose I'd say changing the sheet on my daughter's crib. It's torture and takes forever. Who knew a little bed could be such a pain?

3. What would you buy if someone gave you $2,000.00 (all debts and bills paid)? I'd put it in the bank because I'd need it soon enough. But if I had to spend it, I guess I'd fix our fireplace so we could use it and cut down on our heating bill.

4. Describe yourself using one word. Quiet.

5. What is the one saying or theme that you live by? "I'll do it tomorrow." Not a theme I want to live by, but for some reason I've sort of adopted it...hmm...I'd better work on fixing that.....tomorrow, of course!

6. What is the one household item you can NOT live without? Dishwasher. Well, I did live without it for many years, but now that I have one, I don't want to ever be without it!

7. If you had one chance to go anywhere in the world where would you go? Europe--all over, but most of all I want to see London and the Alps.

8. List the one person you admire the most. Only one? My parental unit...does that work for one? I admire my mom and dad for being happily married for 40 years in a world full of divorce, for teaching me just about everything I know, for working so hard all of those years to provide for my brothers and me....for too many things to list here, actually.

9. What is one thing people may not know about you? My eyes are different sizes. If you look carefully at a picture of me you'll notice. Now aren't you glad you know that?

If you have a blog and want to use this...consider yourself tagged!

piecing things together

As I've mentioned before, though she babbles non stop she's behind in her language skills. Most almost-two-year-olds have been talking in short sentences for a few months now. Ours never has. But just the other day we saw a glimpse of her learning to put everything together. We were driving in the car and were stopped at a red light. We were pointing out the red to her and told her it would turn green soon (this is a regular pasttime when we're driving because she's often fussy in the car and we're trying to get her attention on something else). So the light turned green. She said, "geeee!!!!" Then as we drove through the light she said, "dye dye gee." Translation: Bye bye green light. Not quite a sentence, but she's getting there.

on a bargain high

I've just been shopping (by myself....Daddy's home today for President's Day, so I got a little time to myself--ahhhhhhhh....) and have to share my bargains.

First I went to CVS to get a prescription filled for my husband. I don't usually go there, but CVS takes competitor's coupons, so I took a competitor's coupon for a $20 gift card with a transferred prescription, and they honored it. So I got my prescription and $20 to spend.

I decided to spend it on items that would earn me ECBs (Extra Care Bucks). I've been reading a coupon board online for over a year now and see all of this stuff these women get for free by using coupons and earning ECBs at CVS. It always sounded so complicated, so I never tried it. But a few weeks ago a friend recommended a website which broke it down so I actually understood what to do and she tried it and it inspired me to try.

So this week CVS has a deal that you buy $30 worth of certain products and you get $15 back in ECBs to spend the next time you go to CVS. Huggies diapers were one of the products. They were on sale plus I had coupons. So I bought 3 packs of those and a couple of other things on the list of items to hit the $30 mark. I had a coupon for $4 off a $20 purchase, so it was going to cost me $26 plus some tax. Subtract my $4.50 in diaper coupons and my $20 gift card.....I ended up paying $2.67 out of my own pocket, plus I got $15 in ECB to spend just like cash the next time I go there. I was so excited.

Then I went to Kohl's. I had a gift card there. I bought a ladybug summer outfit (shorts and a shirt) for you know who for her birthday and a shirt for myself, and all of it was also on sale. After I used the gift card I had to pay $.09!!

I thought about staying out a little longer, but decided I'd better come home while I was ahead. My husband, of course, doesn't understand....he says I still had to pay for the prescription (it was $10), so really I spent $12.67 at CVS, but I told him that I would've had to have bought that anyway somewhere, so I may as well have done it at CVS to make my money work for me!

where do we begin?

Okay, we got a potty chair....now what? (No, this isn't the potty chair we have...we have a very simple cheap one...I just thought this was a funny picture of one, and probably one my husband would try to build her if he saw this picture!)

Yesterday we took it out of the box and she sat on it (with her clothes on). She was most excited about opening and closing the lid.

This morning she dragged it out of the bathroom out in front of the TV and sat on it to watch The Backyardigans.

I guess she likes it...

success!

She can drink out of a straw!!!

I know it's not exciting for anyone else, but it is for me, because every time she does something with her lips I start to think, "Maybe there's nothing wrong with those muscles after all!"

We were at Wendy's yesterday having lunch and didn't have a sippy cup with us, so we got her a little cup of water and tried the straw. Within seconds she was sucking water out of it. How she learned, I'll never know. She just did it.

My girl's got talent, huh?!

happy valentine's day

Couldn't decide which to post, so you get all three!

We're going out to dinner tonight--I don't think we've had a "date" since Christmas when we were at my parents' and went to a movie, so I'm looking forward to it. My husband asked me where I wanted to go and I said I wanted to not have to plan it, so I was in charge of the babysitter and he was in charge of dinner. It so happened that my mom was going to be at my brother's last night to sit for them while they went out, so she offered to come here today to sit for us tonight. Perfect! My job was easy!

Last night I tried to get him to tell me where we were going. I finally got him to give me a clue. He said, "You've been there before." I had a guess, but only because a week or so ago he told me he didn't remember where this place was. So I told him my guess and I was right! It's one of my favorites...Bravo. He's not a huge fan, but I've always loved it and a couple of college friends and I go there almost everytime we get together, but one of them moved away so we don't get together much anymore, so I haven't been in a really long time (I think I was pregnant the last time I was there--two years ago!?!?). I can't wait.

dress up

As I mentioned earlier this morning, I'm watching my three year old niece today for a few hours. She brought a big bag of dress up clothes with her for the girls to play with. My little one has never played dress up before, and to tell you the truth I didn't think she'd be much into it because she hates getting dressed in the morning and undressed at night. It's like she can't be bothered to stop what she's doing to do something so unexciting!

But I was wrong--she had a ball! Do little girls just have this instinctive understanding that big poofy dresses are fun to put on and purses and crowns make them "glamorous?" Because even though she doesn't have a clue who the Disney princesses are and has never had a tiara or any type of princess attire, she immediately knew what to do with them all!

I put the Snow White costume on her and that wasn't enough...she wanted the gloves, too. Of course, she doesn't know how to put fingers in the holes of a pair of gloves, and they were way too big for her tiny hands, but she loved having them on her hands anyway, and clapped and clapped with them on.

While I was helping my niece put a costume on, this is what my girl did on her own:

It's supposed to be a skirt, but she thought it was a hat and it wound up looking like a veil. Hilarious.

And her favorite, of course, was the ladybug, as it's an obsession of hers lately. Did I mention that I'm going to make her a ladybug cake for her birthday? I decided to make that the theme this year for her little party.

So here's my little ladybug, along with her cousin, Madame Butterfly. They're both in bed right now, which affords me the time to share all of this with you!

a sleepy, snowy day

I wrote this yesterday....so keep that in mind as you read.

My day started at 2:30ish this morning, when our little one had one of her night terrors, or whatever they are. She had one a few days ago, but before then it had been months since she'd had one. I've learned not to go into her, even though she's crying and carrying on, because she's not awake and it only makes it last longer if I try to fix it. She works through it much better on her own. Around 2:45 her cry changed and I could tell that she was awake and was calling "mama." Then I went in and she was fine as soon as I picked her up. I sat down with her in the dark and rocked her and sang a few songs while she sat quietly. I couldn't tell if she had fallen back asleep or not. After a few minutes I said, "Are you ready to go nigh night some more?" "Okieeeee," she answered quietly. So I put her back down and she was quiet. I went back to bed, but for the next hour she would rouse every few minutes and do her strange "I'm not awake" cry, so I couldn't sleep (not to mention my husband's snoring, because he has a cold). I was tossing and turning and didn't want to keep him up, so I got up and came downstairs. I was wide awake by that point and didn't fall asleep (on the couch) until about 5:30. At 6:30 I heard my husband get up, and a few minutes after that our little one started making noise, too. So my day started (with very little sleep).

It snowed overnight, about an inch and a half, but then it started again and was supposed to continue all day, along with some freezing rain. All of the schools around us closed (including the city schools, which never close) and my husband says the road are pretty bad.

When I went to get her up after her nap (oh, I slept a little during her nap, by the way, so I felt much better by this point) I walked in her room and the hood from her hooded fleece was up on her head! I wished I had had a camera with me--it has a pointy hood and she just looked so funny sitting there in bed, hair all a mess, bright red cheeks, and a pointy hood on her head. Quite a sight.

So after her nap this afternoon we ventured out into the winter wonderland. She was, of course, excited to wear her boots. I threw a snowball to her, which she then picked up but wasn't sure what to do with. So she did what any exploring toddler would do, I suppose....put it in her mouth. She's almost through the putting everything in her mouth phase (I think!) but she couldn't resist. "Mmmmm," she said. "Yuck!" I said, as I told her no. It was dirty because the gloves I had pulled on as I rushed out the door were an old pair that I had used to help my husband out in the garage one time.

So she "threw" her first snowball and I helped her make her first snow angel. She liked it when I moved her legs back and forth and back and forth. She thought that was funny. She didn't get it, though, and when I tried to show her what she made she turned away and got interested in something else, but oh well. It's still her first snow angel:

We came inside after 10 minutes or so because it was lightly raining freezing rain and we were getting wet. She would've stayed out all afternoon, though. Then we played with one of her favorite things--her pretend food. Right now she's really into the ears of corn, a bunch of peas, and a pretend chocolate chip cookie. She carries them around for a significant portion of the day.

It's supposed to keep snowing, so we'll see what tomorrow holds, and whether we can go out again.

Okay, now it's back to today, Wednesday. I got much more sleep last night, though she still had one of her "episodes" as I've come to call them, since I don't know what to call them. This time it was at 10:00 though, just as I was getting ready for bed. It didn't last long and was much more manageable.

It did snow again last night a little bit. All of the schools are closed again here. I'm watching my niece today (she'll be here in a few minutes), so I'm sure my little social girl will be in all her glory with another little one to play with!

(Oh, and here's just a little of what goes on at my house....dancing with a jump rope in her mouth. Doesn't everyone do that?)

the pig tail war

My friend, Emily, recently posted on her blog about wishing she could put pig tails in her daughter's hair (our daughters are almost the same age), but her hair is still too short. I commented on her blog and said that I'd love to do pigtails too, but it's a battle I usually choose not to fight. She hates having her face or head touched to clean, brush, comb, wipe, etc, and makes it abundantly clear to the perpetrator (how do you spell that word, anyway?? I can't get my spell check to work!). Washing her ears, face, and hair is a daily battle I do choose, because, hello, she needs to be clean!

But anyway, until today she'd only had pigtails (successfully) two times, and that was because Daddy held her arms away so she couldn't grab her hair or my hands and make it impossible for me to do. I can't do them by myself at this point because she doesn't understand why Mommy's pulling her hair and can't help but pull away.

So today her hair was awful--she got out of bed looking like her finger was stuck in a light socket. Some mornings she wakes up and it looks almost perfect, and other mornings it's a static mess. Today is was the latter. So I decided to fight the battle of the pig tails. Daddy held her down and I, armed with a brush and two teeny tiny rubber bands, went to work. She wiggled, she squirmed, she cried and carried on, but Mommy (with reinforcement from Daddy) won. The pig tails stayed.

I tried to take pictures, but she was too busy either dancing, playing, fooling with her pig tails, or crying (because I wouldn't put the camera down) to really smile for me, but oh well. Here she is in her pig-taily cuteness (complete with drool on her jumper!).

my new name

First I was "da da." For a long time, actually.

Then came "dee da." My mom was that too for awhile. Last time we saw her she was "ga ga" (sounds kind of like "Grandma," right?)

Finally I became "Mama." I was so excited!

The other day I became "Nonny," as she's trying to say "Mommy." She'll say "nonny nonny nonny," and I'll correct her and make sure she's looking at my mouth as I say, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy." Then you can see her little mouth contorting just so and she says, "Mah-ny Mah-ny," and then finally a "Mommy" comes out. She'll say Mommy a couple of times and then it's like she just can't make her mouth say that anymore and it's back to "Mama," which is just fine with me! I'll take "Mama" anyday over "da da!"

I've had the thought for a long time that there's something wrong with the muscles in her mouth/lips. From day one she had eating problems (couldn't latch on correctly, had to switch to the bottle, had a zillion problems with that, too, and on and on). She can't drink out of a straw, uses the "d" sound for everything that's supposed to start with "b," and has trouble making the "m" sound, too. Something about putting those little lips in the right position just isn't easy for her. She can make the sounds now, but it's taken a long time, and it isn't very often that she uses them correctly in context (Mama is an exception). I mentioned this to the doctor a couple of months ago at a visit when she was sick, and she said we'd address it at her 2 year well check up, so we'll see. If there's a problem, I'd like to know about it now so we can get her in to see someone who can help us sooner rather than later. I hate that she's learning all of these wrong ways to say words! When she's in kindergarten I don't want her being made fun off because she wants to play "dasket-dall" or tells her friends "dye dye" at the end of the day, or can't drink out of juice boxes because she doesn't know how to use a straw!

So anyway, "Nonny" is off to bed. I just signed off of my class for the night (it's so weird that I can go to class 24/7 in my PJs if I want to), and I'm tired.

picture time

Okay, so I lied.... I said I wouldn't be around much this month, but I've gotten tons of work done for my class in the last two days and am several days ahead (chalk it up to being completely stressed about it all, so I worked hard to get as much as I could done), so now I can take a break and share some pictures with you.

Early this morning my little one found a hooded sweatshirt that she wore yesterday laying around--somehow it didn't make it up into the hamper last night when she went to bed. She decided to put it on (with Mommy's help when she couldn't get it on all by herself). Then she found Daddy's Steelers stocking hat (a hat he's had forever and a day) and put that on. She also still had her PJs on....she was quite a sight, so I decided to take some pictures. (By the way, notice that the back of her car is filled with her beads. That's where she likes to store them!)

Later on in the morning I decided to attempt fingerpainting for the first time with her. I was feeling blah and we didn't have any plans today, the weather was gross, and I needed something different and exciting to add pizazz to our day. I figured I'd have a big mess to clean up, but oh well. I was up for the challenge. So I taped newspaper to the kitchen table (actually, all the newspaper had already been taken out, so all I had were a few ads I had saved), and then taped a big piece of paper over the top of it. I squeezed a small bit of each color of finger paint onto a paper plate. Then I brought her over and put her new art smock on her that she got for Christmas (it's HUMONGOUS!--but it did the job!) and put her in her high chair. She didn't quite understand what was going on, but she was excited. I then put my finger in the paint and drew a smiley face for her to show her how to do it. She got a huge smile on her face and dipped her finger right in. It took her awhile to get the hang of it, and she tried a few times to bring her finger up to her mouth (but I was able to keep it from getting into her mouth, and she eventually stopped trying), but she seemed to really enjoy it.

After she was done, but before I cleaned up, I was trying to get her to smile for a few pictures. I started singing a song to make her smile, and she, in turn, started dancing. In the process she got some paint on her face. Up until that point she had stayed so clean! Actually, there was very little mess to clean up, so I was happy about that.

All day long she kept asking for more. I'm afraid I've started something.... Maybe she'll forget about it by tomorrow!

a few quick tidbits

The other night Daddy snapped his fingers (I think it was to some music). Our little one thought that was great, so decided to snap herself. After all, snapping is just moving your hand up and down and saying, "K," isn't it? Well, that's what she thinks it is, anyway. It was so funny I started crying I was laughing so hard.

There's a Wiggles song about standing on one foot and shaking your hands. She's got the standing on one foot part down pat: she holds onto the coffee table and lifts her foot up whenever that part of the song comes on. It's too cute.

There's another Wiggles song about moving your arms like Henry (he's an octopus, for all of you non-Wiggles fans out there). The dancers move their arms around and around. Well, the other night, out of nowhere, she started moving her arms really slowly around and around (mind you, she wasn't watching the Wiggles....just wandering around moving her arms). I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Yesterday as she watched that song, she started moving her arms around and I finally figured out that's what she was practicing several nights before!

This story is for my friend, Nancy (Nancy and I were roommates in college). Nancy made R a beautiful quilt when she was first born. When we used to lay her down on the floor to play we always laid her down on that quilt. Since she's been mobile and doesn't play in one place anymore the quilt has been folded up, hanging on the back of the rocking chair in her room, and occasionally if I go in to check on her and it's cold I'll put the quilt on top of her. Well, in the last couple of weeks, when she gets up from a nap or gets up in the morning she wants to crawl up on the rocking chair and point to the colors in the quilt. She says "blue" and "green" when she points to the those colors, and wants me to say "pink" and "yellow" when she points to those colors. Then she wants to take the quilt down onto the floor, spread it out just so (if it has wrinkles in it, she fusses), sit on it, and look at her books. We do this nearly every day at least once. And before we leave the room she makes sure I fold the quilt back up and hang it back on the back of the chair. Nancy, I thought you'd like to know that your quilt is still used and loved!

I probably won't be posting much for the next month or so. I'm taking two online classes, starting today, in order to get the credits I need to keep my teaching license valid. It expires this summer, so I needed to get on the ball and get this done. I got the syllabus last night for the first class and it looks like a ton of work, so I don't know that I'll have a lot of time to post here. We shall see! I'm a little worried about how I'll get all of the work done, but my husband assures me that I don't need to get an A, I just need to pass. He thinks I should aim for a B or C. I told him that I don't work that way. How about I just do my best and see what that gets me? I'll be glad when March 11th is here and I'm all done!