Treat Time!

Free card alert! Just a quick post - normally I just post these codes on Facebook but I figure if you see it here you might actually remember to go make yourself one. I personally have a bad habit of immediately forgetting what I just saw on FB.

You know how much I love cards... and you know how much a love free... so this offer sends me to my happy place. 

Use the code TREATBLOGR for a completely free card from Treat.com (Offer expires 11/20) Great way to send a card to family you won't get to see this year without having to go to the store! *nudge nudge Mom* 

I've seen Treat have offers like this before. (I've actually redeemed one before and loved the quality of the card.) So keep your eyes open in the future. 

A belated Halloween

I never knew how extensive a toddler's Halloween calendar could be!

There was the Stroller Strides annual Halloween Shindig which I think the mom's may look forward to even more than the kiddos (Who doesn't love a reason to dress their toddlers up all adorable like and let them loose in someone else's back yard with more than 2 dozen sets of mothering eyes to help keep an eye on things while you get a chance to catch up with friends?)

A quick and BUSY but fun evening at the Wake Forest Factory Spooktacular.

Then there was the Halloween Hoot at our local library which she loved.

A quick costume change for Stroller trickertreatin after a chilly workout.

(Supergirl isn't the best costume for a sandy playground.)

Followed up by Halloween itself.

Guess what. I made that Supergirl costume. Yup. All by myself. It was a white shirt, a roll of red tulle, and yellow headband when I started!

Veteran's Day

Mark and I didn't realize when we got married that we'd be sharing out anniversary weekend with Veteran's Day, but over the years we've seen a lot of really wonderful events. One of our first anniversary trips away to York we stumbled across a veteran's parade and watched it go by as we stood in awe. Our getaways were always peppered by poppy flowers, the symbol they use in Britain to remember their fallen.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We've been back in America for a few years now and while we don't see the poppies here we still remember. My family is a military family. My great grandfather, my grandfather, my father, my brother, my sister-in-law... it continues. It's important we remember the scarifies our military and their families make.

Shutterfly has impressed me again with their Thank the Troops campaign. With over 1.5 million troops serving and many of them overseas they have a simple mission—to send a thank you card to every American hero. They need your help and it doesn't take long. Just select a card from four different designs, add a personal message (or photo -  just think you could have your kiddo draw a picture snap it on your phone and upload!) and click send. Shutterfly will print and ship your card to the troops at no cost to you.

A simple way to say thank you. There is absolutely no reason not to.

Ack! Pre-planning!

It's that time of year again. No, you haven't missed a month. It's not December yet, Halloween hasn't even come and gone. So what time of year do I speak of? That time of year where the super organized start planning their Christmas cards! 

Do I classify myself as super organized? No, not even kinda, however Tiny Prints (this year they've become part of Shutterfly) has kindly reminded me that I may want to start thinking about choosing some cards. It was a very polite nudging email with a ton of great deals that served to reminded me that I've moved into new house [never got around to mailing out 'New address' cards] and that if I don't send my cards in the first half of December then it's unlikely most people will know where to send me cards! [THE HORROR!] 

I've got to say, one of the things you never really think about before children is the FAMILY PHOTO for the "card." Yet, for some reason as soon as you have that darling little mini-me you often become obsessed with finding the perfect shot and sending it off to every living relative. Thankfully since moving to Raleigh I've actually met some pretty great real live photographers! But with pros comes booking and planning... one of the reasons you're getting this post pre-holiday season!

Two of my favourites are Mason Dee Photography and Sarah Beth's Photography. I know both photographers personally, they're amazing and so so friendly! 
                             ...... speaking of, I really need to call one and get something set up!!

This year Tiny Prints has (I'm assuming due to the merger) even more awesome Christmas Card designs to choose from! Which is no small feat, considering the plethora of choice last year. It's a good thing they ran a special on their express shipping because by the time I was finished perusing their selection and pestering Mark to help me narrow them down (yeah, he wasn't much help) it was already the 16th of December and 50% of my cards still needed to make the long trip overseas to our family abroad! Express shipping for the win.

  See?

So many cute choices!

Look I'm already overwhelmed!

I'm also attempting my first ever giveaway. I'm hoping this might encourage a few of my lurkers to poke their heads up and let me know they're around. Plus, anything I can do to  encourage the Christmas Card tradition is a good thing! [read as: SEND ME CHRISTMAS CARDS! I'll always send you one back.] Besides I think Mark adores my many ill-fated attempts to display them in pinteresty fashion around the home (maybe not.) 

*GIVEAWAY*  

$50 off your Shutterfly order! (not including shipping & cannot be combined with any other promos.)

Choose at least one of the following - comment and tell me which you did.

• Check out Shutterfly's Pinterest Page: Shutterfly Pinterest (This is actually a great way to save card ideas to come back and look at later.) 
• Add Shutterfly to your Google + feed: Google + Shutterfly (Come on people, Google + isn't all bad!)
• Follow Shutterfly  on Twitter: Shutterfly's Twitter
• Follow Shutterfly on Facebook: Shutterfly on Facebook

For an extra entry tell me your favourite holiday tradition!
For a super extra bonus entry become a follower! The little link is over there --> (just hover your mouse over the far right side of the page and it'll pop out.)

A random inner will be chosen on October 28th. Winner announced Oct 29th.
RANDOM.ORG has proclaimed Christianna winner of the $50 Shutterfly credit.  Keep your eye on your email because Shutterfly will be sending the credit directly to you. :) Enjoy! Thanks everybody for entering!

Don't feel like entering? Didn't win? Explore some of their awesome deals for yourself: Shutterfly's Special Offers. 

 * Shutterfly has kindly sponsored me to write this post about their amazing product. I don't always order Christmas Cards but when I do I use Tiny Prints. I sense a meme I could have used here ;)

Knock on wood.

It has been a bizarre morning... a morning that is playing with my adrenaline hard.

My toddler wanders in to wake me up. (You get up before your children? Good for you. That's not the way it works in this house.)
She takes one look at me and strips down to her skivvys. I blink at her. huh? After some complicated early morning charades it's determined that she wants the blue shirt with a baby chick on the front that I'm currently wearing. Apparently it's 'HER Best Shirt.' huh? It's too early, I give her the shirt. Oh well - it gets me dressed faster. We've got Stroller Strides this morning and need to get out of the house on time. 
         VERDICT - rudely awakened but this goes in the positive column because it gets me moving quicker than normal.


Drive to Stroller Strides. 2 miles from the park, flashing lights in the rear view mirror... ugh no. 
Do you know how fast you were going?  -No
Almost 55 in a 35. -No?
Is there somewhere you're going? -Erm yes?
Do you have your license and registration? -umm probably? What does the registration look like?

Really though, he was incredibly nice, not mean at all and even though he had no real reason to let me off with a warning, he did. *GIANT WHEW*
          VERDICT - Although my heart is in my chest, my hands are shaking and I'm late for class this gets marked as a positive. No ticket AND it encouraged me to pay more attention to the road. 

Class, playground and duck feeding....

I decide to stop at AC Moore on the way home to buy some fabric dye for Jessie's halloween costume. No dye the right colour to be found, but I was already in there with a 40% off coupon so I picked up some puff paint to decorate pumpkins...(more on that later.) Head to the register. The line is always long here. It's the norm. One person in front of me so I decide to dig out my wallet. NO WALLET!! Probably just fell out in the car. Carry 27 lb sack of toddler back to car. NO WALLET!! Proceed to destroy interior of car searching for wallet. No success. (Did I mention that I needed to pee. This does not help calm a woman down.) I call the park and see if some has turned in a wallet. Nope, but she was really friendly and said she'd keep an eye out. 

I get Jessie buckled back and just as I'm about to head back to the park to retrace our steps, my eyes land on the glove compartment... it couldn't be that easy could it? WALLET!! I must have shoved it in there when I put the registration away but the panic of the moment fried my memory pathways.

Call the park back, thank them for their time, explain where it was; blame toddler. yes. I blamed my kid. I'm not proud. I'm chalking it up to the need to pee and adrenaline. Take a deep breath and head home. (oh, I did go back into the store and get the puff paint in case you were curious.)

          VERDIT - POSITIVE. No explanation needed.

I still have half a day left but I'm cautiously optimistic... 
I'm feeling oddly unlucky and lucky at the same time.

Honestly? At class tonight I felt like an alcoholic at an AA meeting who walked in hooting, " I was at the most awesome bar last night and I drank sooo much man!"

Confused? Okay, I'll backtrack.

Mark and I joined a gym. Joining bonus included Life Time Fitness Bucks that we could spend on gym services. I chose a personal training session and a few weeks of 'Team Weight Loss.' 

It's been great. The trainer is pretty awesome. She's a great motivator and I really push myself just to get her praise. (I'm 30. You wouldn't think simple praise would be such a powerful motivator anymore, you'd be wrong.) The class meets three times a week for an interval based treadmill workout. Without my heart-rate monitor egging me on I'm sure I'd be less interested but looking at my little watch and realizing I've burnt 800 calories in the past hour? That's gold.

However, Monday nights are a little different. The first half hour is spent in a little office discussing nutrition  It's how I imagine a Weight Watchers meeting would be if Weight Watchers met in a tiny office, only had 4 people attend and devoted a large amount of time to benefits of protein and sweet potatoes. (Seriously. I think my trainer's favourite food is the sweet potato.)

Tonight was Monday. Tonight's topic? "Have you eaten out recently and what did you have?" (really? have I eaten out recently? does winne the pooh enjoy honey?)

Okay yes. Last night we went out. Texas Roadhouse to be precise. What did I have? I don't think what I had for a meal even mattered after it was revealed that I started off by nomming up at least four of those yummy rolls with cinnamon butter they so tantalizingly present you with as soon as you sit down. [Some of you with photographic memories might remember when they popped up in last year's 365.] 

Turns out there's roughly 220 calories in each roll BEFORE you add butter. I consumed more than 880 calories before our dinner even arrived. 440 of those before we even ordered our dinner! (hmm... it's pretty obvious why the weight isn't exactly melting off despite the increased exercise) 

When I admitted that breakfast was a brownie and that lunch was, well.. a brownie, I was sure I would be asked to leave. I was not. 

She suggested that next time I ask the server not to bring bread.. Huh? Oh and that I should order the roasted chicken with a sweet potato. (is it possible to own stock in sweet potatos??)

Nutrition class adjourned and we headed to the treadmills. I'm pretty sure the extra push-ups we got tonight were my fault. Can't say I didn't need them!

Year 30 update

Wow. That took a LOT longer than it should have, but my Year 30 (365) is finally updated. I'd done okay updating every week or so from March but completely lost track of things in July. When I tallied up the missing days from July I was looking at over 17 missing photos. Normally that shouldn't be that hard to dig out, but with pictures from two phones, a point and shoot and a DSLR...  well there was NO such thing as date order. I probably could have made things easier on myself if I'd just looked for them directly on the c drive but no... I went through Picasa and made more work for myself (see of course I'm not actually realizing any of this until just now.)

However I will stop bemoaning because I did it! No missing photos at all! Enjoy.

Little gymnast!

The difference is shocking. 


A couple months back I signed Jessica up for a Creative Movement "dance" class. It was a disaster. We still have two classes left and while I try to stay positive to encourage Jessica, I bet she can still tell that I dread it. 


She loves dancing. She loves her ballet shoes. She loves Angelina Ballerina. The logical progression would be -- she loves dance class. Not. I don't know if it's the teacher, the building, the small class (only 2 other girls) or if she just had a bad first day (we had just dropped Daddy off at the airport and she didn't eat breakfast) but it all went downhill from there. Four classes later she still clings to me, cries, doesn't participate, begs to go home... it's a train wreck. 


Hence you can see why I might be slightly worried about the gymnastics class I signed her up for a month ago, that starts today. 


I shouldn't have wasted a second worrying. She LOVED it. I mean SERIOUSLY LOVED it. From the moment she saw the indoor rock wall and climbing frame in the lobby she's was hooked. After a few minutes introducing herself to other children and playing chase with a ball we headed into class. 

The teacher was brilliant. Lively, bubbly, engaging. She used to be a kindergarten teacher but has been teaching dance and gymnastics for Raleigh Parks and Rec for four years. Jessica danced, jumped, bounced, ran, followed directions, played nicely, took turns. She was an absolute dream and my heart swelled with love watching her play. I'm positive that knowing other children in the class helped her confidence. I can't wait to go back. Jessica's still talking about 'Nastics! We'll definitely be signing back up for next month! 

Hello August!

Honestly, I know I write more when things go wrong, when I'm stressed. The amusingly awkward and the hilariously unfortunate are more common topics for me. When my husband finds me writing in my journal his first reaction is to ask me what's wrong.

But right now? I'm happy. It was a good day to be me and I thought I'd share. Try to bust out of the only writing when things go wrong habit. 

The air conditioning in Mark's office is out. So he's working from home today. This is a GOOD thing! We don't have to figure out commuting with one car. I don't have to drive into Raleigh during rush hour to collect him. The day is off to a good start. 

Plans to meet friends at the park. It's overcast. Score! It's still humid but since the sun is obscured it's not roasting. I can handle a little (okay a lot of) humidity if it's only 78 outside. 

This is what happens when you ask toddlers to say cheese during snack time. 

Post park date, Jessica and I head over to Target for some essentials. 1 cauliflower, a loaf of bread a new rubbermaid box, boogie wipes, a couple sandwiches, a vanilla milk and a free Starbucks coffee later we head home. (What? Those don't sound like essentials in your home? Well maybe you're weird. Have you considered that. ;)

Lunch with Daddy! Turns out our tomato loving toddler also loves cucumber, but only if you don't cut it into slices. If you desecrate the awesomeness that is a whole cucumber she'll want nothing to do with it.... 

Oh no... I have just realized looking at these photos that I don't remember putting the cucumber away and the last time I saw it Jessica was headed into the living room. Erm.. so the question is... do I get out of my cozy bed (yes, I'm in bed it's almost midnight! ) and go search for this cucumber or leave it till morning... 

Finished lunch and Mark still has half an hour left.... he says he's going to take Jessica for a walk and I can stay home, take a nap and try to fight off my inner walrus (if you've seen me at all in the past 3 days you'll know barking cough would blend in seamlessly on a beach full of walruses.) I opt to be responsible and stupidly use my free time to wait around on hold with various doctor's offices, but I'm given a reprieve when he brings her back.... ASLEEP!!!! WHOO! We roll the stroller into the living room and I'm given a second chance at free time! This time I'm smart and use my time wisely. I lay on the sofa, drink some coffee and attempt to finish my book (for book club tonight.)

The bear wakes, we play. A awesome thunderstorm rolls through. Mark is finished with work for the day. Jessica and Mark adjourn to the den to fight monsters. (This girl is going to be an elite fencer before she gets to kindergarten. The sword we purchased at Edinburgh Castle has been well worth the £2.50.)

While they do battle with the unknown I'm able to finish the book. Which is pretty impressive since I started it right before bed last night. Book club can be stressful when you keep forgetting to read the book because you've forgotten when book club meets. 

Feed the family. Head to book club. Enjoyable relaxed adult conversation. Some of which is even about books! Peanut butter cookie, cafe mocha. Home again. Toddler asleep in her own bed. Husband not stressed out of his mind or covered in child's dinner. Did I mention it was a good day. :D      

                                                                          Psalm 118:24

Princess.

Have I mentioned how much I love this sweet girl? 

It is becoming very obvious that my little sweetheart has an intensely caring personality. She feels (and expresses) it very strongly. When she believes someone is in trouble, in pain, or needs help she will be the first to come to your rescue. She likes to fight off dragons, defend lizards from unknown monsters and generally save the world. This is one princess that's going to be doing the rescuing herself.


Above all she wants to hold your hand.

Zumba... aiieeee!

You'll never believe what we did yesterday morning. Straight off a midnight arrival home from a conference in Colorado, Mark accompanied me to the grand opening of our new gym. The promise of free food and a raffle can do amazing things (ie. getting him out of bed before 9 on the weekend.)

The plan was to drop Jessica off in the Kid's Club and hit the 9:30 Speed Fitness class. It was supposed to be a 5 circuit demo class showing off some of their new programs. After asking at the front desk, she waved us off in a general direction... apparently we did not follow her vague wave correctly and found ourselves in a fitness studio with something like 50 women and 3 men. Mark looked at me, I shrugged back.

Enter the instructors... super buff black guy and a tiny cute Hispanic girl in a short skirt. See Mark? There's a male instructor. You'll be fine. Ahem. Two second later the lead instructor turns to the girl and she rips his pants off to reveal the tiniest hotpants ever. Mark looks at me with eyes the size of saucers and expression that says, "where have you taken me?!" Between the instructor's accent and his effeminate voice I can't understand a single word he's saying but the music starts and away we go!

I've never been to a Zumba class before, so honestly I still believed we were just in a really bizarre speed fitness class... Mark had no such illusions, but I have to give the guy credit, he danced his heart out and stayed the entire time. It was fabulous!! It lasted an hour, we were exhausted but had a hilarious experience to add to the memory file. Don't hold your breath for it to be a regular outing though!

Afterwards we headed out for the raffle and Mark won a $60 gift card to the spa at their gold club out in Cary. People did the reserved clapping you get at raffles but when he walked back and very blatantly gifted it to me, there was an eruption of "awwws" and more clapping. My husband is awesome.

4 months, 16 months, 28 months!

I haven't done a Jessica update in forever so I thought I'd do a little time-lapse comparison post today.

June 18th 2010 [4 months old]

She was finding her toes and sitting up like a pro (well perhaps not a pro compared to adult humans but she was definitely in the advanced baby category!) Weigh-in 14.11 lbs photo June 17.

June 18th 2011 [16 months old]

Running proficiently and really getting the hang of expressing her very own personality. Weigh-in 22.4 lbs

June 18th 2012 [28 months old] 

She's got the basics down when using toddler scissors.


She can say just about anything if she puts her mind to it. You should hear her say rhinoceros. 


She seriously thinks she can swim. Even in the toddler pool she lays on her stomach and walks around on her arms while she floats. I think she's trying to give me a heart attack.


Due to her Daddy's influence she's seriously into superheros. The other night while watching The Animated Superman (courtesy of her Uncle Daniel) Superman was in trouble (much like he always is) Jessica turns to look at us and with a concerned expressed, plainly states, "Batman, help Superman!" Now we all know who Jessica thinks is more awesome! Last night she put the cat bed on top of a box and fell into the box, after meowing for a bit (I think she's decided that because Leeloo gets attention when she miaows that she will too) she asked for help. After extricating her from the box she looks lovingly at me and says, "Momma save me. Momma superhero." Okay, all together now... "awwwwwwwww!" (It's a couple days past the 18th now but I'll see if I can get some photos of her today to add for the June update)

Post-Nap

After a morning spent playing and learning to share (she did remarkably well today!) I finally got J-Bear to nap. Oh and nap she did, it was fabulous. Almost three hours I think! I was oblivious to the time when she went down. The rocking and the singing and the reading just seemed to go on forever. I don't really mind it at all (as long as I know she WILL eventually go to sleep) it gives me the chance to turn my brain off and just hang with my daughter for a while. The current mantra in our house "She's only going to be this little once." of course on those days when I spend an hour trying to coax her down for her to ultimately refuse.. well those days are less awesome...
She sleeps, I read. I probably should have slept too, I have a headache I can't shift. Probably something to do with the half box of salsa flavoured wheat thins that I deemed 'lunch.' Slight tangent here: Mark and I really need to start eating healthy balanced lunches but I lose all creativity and will power when lunch time rolls around. This is something that needs to be pre-planned. Any helpful suggestions for awesome lunches? Come on people, I know you've got something.

Anyhoo. She's awake. She's not happy. Poor thing. She's very rarely happy when she wakes up from a nap. I thought since she'd slept for so long that she'd be happy. (Normally the longer she naps the less angry she is when she wakes up.) Alas no. She wants to be held. Heaven help us all if I put her down for a second to find her clothes. The first words out of her mouth, "tv show?" Ugh what have I done? How is it that tv is the first thing my child thinks of when she wakes up? This won't do. Effort time. I'm going to make this afternoon fun. No tv.

I get her into her swimsuit, only a few tears while I put her down so she could step into it. We go out to check the mail. Normally this is one of her favourite afternoon rituals. Nope. The sun is too bright, it's too hot, Mummy suggested she walk. Really it must be the end of the world.

We head out to the deck to fill the pool. I woke up this morning to find that some mosquitoes had renamed it Labour and Delivery. *shudders* UGH! Just glad I could get rid of them all before they metamorphized through their instars and became blood sucking menaces.  Some light scrubbing and it's ready to be filled. I hand Jessie the hose, another one of her favourite things. (Currently on loan from our wonderful neighbors because I keep blanking and forgetting to buy one! I'll return it soon I promise!) She looks at it like it's a snake. She attempts to fill the pool but starts crying, "I no do it myself!!" until I relieve her of the hose. Okay, new tact. I attach the hose to the spraying giraffe. She loves this. Nope. Terrified. I think we may be done with the pool for the day. She wants a snack. Snack provided. Still unhappy. We come inside, she wants to snuggle. I break. She's watching Fern Gully and is smiling. *le sigh*

mmm pizza

What was I thinking? Who knows.

A healthy breakfast followed by an hour of outdoor exercise at the park was promptly given a swift kick in the teeth by an impulsive Butterfinger and an icey cold Dr. Pepper.

Lunch was a reasonable portion of last nights leftovers but of course I couldn't let that be a redeeming moment.

Dinner was Papa Johns pizza with a side of something I'm sure is made entirely of out fat called a cinnapie

pizza is far too easy to acquire these days.....

I'm not sure why my mind subscribes to extremes of health... super healthy organic one moment, bottom of the barrel junk the very next. Oh well, at least I'm not always rolling around in the junk or I'd be the size of a house by now....

oh did I not mention (speaking of the bottom of the barrel) .... Sunday was doughnut day. As in doughnuts for breakfast, lunch and then maybe just maybe a sneaky post dinner one as well.... ugh. This spare tire around my waist really is all my own fault isn't it? At least my daughter is super cute in a Krispy Kreme hat right? 


hmm perhaps I'll add in some light yoga tonight... yeah. That sounds like a less self destructive action to round the night out on. :)

We do things a little late around here...

For the past 3 years Mother's Day has been a hit or miss affair in this home...

We were in the UK for my first Mother's Day (in the UK they celebrate in March instead of May) but March is packed. My birthday, my sister-in-law's birthday, my father-in-law's birthday and of course celebrating OUR mothers all happens in a very short space of time. Over the years these occasions have often been lovingly smooshed into one large family gathering. Combine this with a newborn who wasn't even a month old at the time and what do you get? Overwhelmed? I can't exactly remember what happened, but I can tell from my photo archive that we have no pictures. There's some pictures on my birthday a few days before and then some pictures of me and Jessica a week after, but nothing on the day. Oversight. (I know Mark got me something a few months later on American Mother's Day and I remember cards.. but honestly I was still low on blood and was running on less than two consecutive hours of sleep, so.. yeah. Memory fail.)

March 27th 2010

Here's what we will pretend was my first Mother's Day.














2011 rolled around and we were better prepared. I'd had more like 5 hours uninterrupted sleep, my red blood count was up and we were in America where marketing moguls don't let you forget such important days. I got an amazing handcrafted card from my baby girl with some help from her Daddy and dinner at Panera where my beautiful girl obliged by posing for photos with Mummy.

Mother's Day 2011

This year I slept all night and was then allowed to sleep in while Jessica and Mark hung out. (Awesome!) I can't say she cooperated all day. We're in the process of transitioning her into her own room, it took about 2 hours to convince her to nap, with the end result of her and Mark fast asleep in our bed, not hers.

Around 5:30 they roused from their blissful, exhaustion induced slumber and we all got ready to go out to dinner. We stumbled upon an excellent Japanese place (we will be back) and had a wonderful dinner together. (Although the combined factors of and ill fitting dress and a toddler who was done with the paparazzi mean we don't really have any good photos this year either...)  see?

I think this year we were so (I can't even think of a polite way to say forgetful or late) that cards and pressies are still in the process of being sent to our favourite Moms. Don't think we've forgotten about you. We haven't. We love you and appreciate EVERYTHING you've done and continue to do for us. Although maybe you should have worked harder to beat the procrastinator out of us. (I kid.)


ps. You still have to buy me a present too honey. ;)

Year 30.

So I haven't actually written a proper post in a while. Oops? I can't seem to stay focused long enough to write one. However, take solace in my new 365. I really enjoyed doing the last 365 but was feeling slightly burnt out and a little overwhelmed at having to take a picture every day. A little time was all I needed and by March I wanted back in. So this year the photo compilation started on my 30th birthday and will continue until March 11th 2013. If you haven't looked at it yet, now's a great time to start because I'm completely up to date and haven't missed a day!

                                                                       Year 30  enjoy.

and remember, I thrive on comments so don't forget to sign in and comment on them!

yeah.... I kinda broke my blog. Bear with me until someone more technical than me gets home and explains why blogger is crashing on me everytime I try to change something. :)


MAY 11th -  Okay that's better than nothing and there's a shiny new interim banner up as well. I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment, so no real blog post for you today, perhaps when we get back from Music on the Porch in downtown Raleigh tonight.

Poor planning.

So passes another day in April that I have not made it to a single Stroller Strides class. The first week I was in Scotland - perfect excuse. The second week I was recovering from jet lag - pretty decent excuse. Third week - started off spectacularly. *ahem*

I had a doctor's appointment for my dumb hip and ridiculous toe this morning at 8:30. It was rough getting everyone out of the house in enough time but we did it, or so I thought.

Snacks? - check.
Drinks? - check.
Baby entertainment? - check.
HSA card to finally pay the doctor? - check.
Stroller? - um. not so much. Didn't actually realize this critical fact until I was about to drop off Mark. At least I realized it before I showed up at class and was all "Hey.. um yeah I'll just hold this toddler and exercise."

Oh well... we'll just head home, I skipped breakfast this morning and I'm pretty hungry.

98% home, the Bear throws up, and throws up, and then throws up just a little bit more incase she missed a spot. It's entirely possible she made herself throw up like she did a couple weeks ago, but she seemed really upset and since she kept throwing up I'm guessing it was for real this time. Plus I've felt nauseous all weekend. I was hoping I was the only one but I guess not. (You know what? Suddenly I wasn't very hungry anymore.)

Resist urge to hose the ill baby off in the driveway. Strip her and carry her up to the shower. Wash - Rinse - REPEAT.


Now she's set up on the sofa with some banana toast watching some Dora. Hopefully both our bellies will feel better soon.

There really is a silver lining to every cloud if you look hard enough. Example: Had I remembered the stroller we would have just been arriving at class when she threw up, I would have had to try to clean her up in a public restroom and then drive 30 minutes home in a car smelling of vomit. See? Silver lining. :)












Another example of this week's poor planning? We had a fabulous time strawberry picking yesterday, but honestly, what are we supposed to do with 5lbs worth of berries? (If you have any great strawberry ideas please let me know, there's only so many smoothies a family can drink!)

Additional info: Unexpected development. Jessica wants nothing to do with her beloved Cheddar Bunnies and wanders around the house mournfully calling for her duck until I pull out the Cheddar Duck crackers from Harris Teeter. (Took us a while to figure out that this is what she wanted. We kinda thought she was looking for "choc" which doesn't sound entirely unlike her pronunciation of duck. Guess bunnies are out and ducks are in.

Also, why does drink (which she used to pronounce beautifully) now come out like 'chicken?'  I'd have no idea what she wanted if she didn't immediately follow it up with apple juice. eg. "chicken? chicken? apple juice!"

Potty Training Tidbits

• Never brag about how well your daughter is doing potty training because when you get home she will poop in her pants and then while you're trying to take them off poop will fly into your face. 
• Perhaps consider purchasing two identical pottys. Carrying a toddler and a potty down/upstairs at the same time is a recipe for disaster. (having 2 different ones is NOT okay. She will only want the one that is on the other floor of the house.)
• The one potty book you decide to buy will be the only book she refuses to look at. The five you got from the library she will not be able to get enough of and you will have to pay late fees because other people will have inconsiderately requested them.
• One accident free day does not imply success. She will pee on your lap while you're wearing your only clean jeans the very next day.
• Self flushing toilets are both amazing magic and the devil. It all depends on the day of the week.
• Potty etiquette requires that socks, shoes and pants be completely removed, except for when it doesn't. Heaven help you if you get this wrong. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will get her out of bed no matter the hour. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will allow her back into the restroom at the restaurant while your food goes cold even though she peed 5 minutes earlier. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will get her out of the stroller in the middle of class. 
• She will quickly learn that telling you she needs to poop will always attract your full attention and she will use this to her full advantage at all times.
• and you must always comply because the first time you ignore them you will be peed/pooped on. 

But most importantly, always remember not to brag. Flying poop is not your friend. *shudders* I think I may have nightmares/flashbacks for weeks.....

Talky-talk

Amazing the changes one weekend can bring. In the past two days Jessica has used no less than 14 new words. It's been obvious that she's known what a lot of these words have meant for a while but this weekend was the first time she decided to try using them on her own! For that added dose of impressive, these were not repeated words, eg. I didn't say "Hop Jessie, can you say hop?" It was more of- Jessica hops across the living room repeating hop as she goes. Jessica pulls on my pants leg to get my attention while saying "pull pull pull." You get the idea. :)

Sad 

Poop

Nine, Ten

Where

Stop

LeeLOO (this used to only be LeeLee)

DadDEE! (After months of Dada she has finally realized that "Daddy" will make her father weak in the knees)
pull
hop
don't
zip the zipper!
help

and something that sounds like "It's stoflen"  but we've yet to work out what she's referring to!

It looks like it might be time to stop counting her words and just accept that she can "talk" now! I'm excited to see what next week brings!

Butterfly toes

I love pinterest. It shows me all the wonderful crafty and cute things I could be doing while I instead stare at pinterest and do nothing. Granted, I would never know that I wasn't doing all these crafty and cute things if pinterest hadn't told me about them in the first place. It's definitely a love hate relationship. Stop making me feel so optimistic and yet bad about myself at the same time! It's not fair!

Today I decided to take a step in the right direction and actually DO something from my ever-growing collection of pins "to-do."

I'd seen this adorable butterfly a month or so ago and it's something I've been determined to try ever since. [Original source: Kara's Party Ideas]

We warmed up with some light painting.

 Ta Da! It's harder to write in puff paint with a toddler pulling on your leg than I thought it would be. I think next time I'll wait for nap time to do the finishing touches. All in all, I like it. I'd planned to send it off to her Gramma Bo, but I don't know... I think I might just keep it. ;)

ps. She has used "I." While attempting to climb out of the back window of her cosy coupe today she calmly informed me that, "I stuck Momma." which she indeed was. Silly Bear.
pps. Do you need an invite to Pinterest? Let me know and I'll send you one!

23 Months

I can't believe she'll be two in a month.

This past month has been incredible. Jessica's comprehension and speech seem to have exploded.

Today we were playing with a wooden animal alphabet puzzle that we haven't had out in weeks. I asked her to find me letters - she knew C, D, F, K, L, and O without me having to ask twice. She can also identify Lions, Giraffes, and of course Bears. Sometimes I don't stop to think how much she actually understands because she speaks so little, but when you ask her questions she often comes up with the answer and shocks you.

A couple weeks ago while we were visiting family in Kentucky a doll diaper went missing. It was from my cousins' baby alive doll and it only came with two, so we wanted to make sure it wasn't laying around on the floor waiting for a dog to chew it up. Jessica had been playing with the doll earlier so I reckoned there was nothing to lose and asked her if she knew where the diaper was. She headed straight to the kitchen and pointed to the bin. Sure enough, I opened the bin and there it sat. She understood that diapers go in the garbage AND remembered more than an hour later that she had put one there. I was impressed.

Her actual words have increased too.
Her favourite phrases at the moment are: It's stuck, Momma. 
                                                                It's stuck, Dada.
                                   (the other night in the car I was talking to my Mom on the bluetooth and Jessica decided that she needed out of her carseat to come talk to Bo and started repeating "It's stuck Bo! It's stuck BO!" She of course being the IT.)
                                                                 Oh no, bwoken!

She's decided that it's finally time to start repeating what we say. Yesterday we were outside listening to birds.

Jessica - "Who's that?"

Me - "Birds. They're singing. Birds say Tweet!"

Jessica - "Twee twee!"

She thinks Os and circles are the same thing which is kinda cute. I mean they are pretty much the same thing. It might take a bit more explaining.

She's more fascinated with Leeloo everyday and has taken to calling her Leelee. We're working on the Loo bit, but neither my father or my father-in-law can pronounce my cat's name correctly either so I'm not going to hold it against her. ;)

She points out pictures of owls even though I don't remember ever telling her what a owl was and her favourite song is still the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She hasn't tried to say it yet, she just looks at me, repeats Momma twice and then does the hand motion for Itsy until I get the idea. 

She's precious, wonderful, amazing and I don't even mind a bit that I haven't slept through the night in more than 2 years.. (well maybe I mind a tiny bit lol) but we're making progress on that as well.

You can see the rest of the photos from our mini-phoot shoot over at the Picasa album 23 Months. She found a puddle and got her arms wet up to the elbows and since it was in the mid-40s I decided baby pneumonia wouldn't be worth a few more shots. :)

ps. Did I mention this kid can thread cheerios onto yarn with a darning needle? She can. That's some pretty impressive fine motor control for an almost 2 year old!