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!?