Playdate and Other Ramblings

Filed Under Friends, Outings, Playdates, Twenty-two Months | 2 Comments

Today has been a good day. Mostly. I slept in a little later than usual (thank you, Bailey, for loving Barney the way you do). We had some friends over to play. My very pregnant friend Kim came over with her daugher Mackenzie. Kim’s c-section is scheduled for a week from now but she is hoping to go into labor before then and try for a VBAC so send some prayers up for her! They also don’t know the gender of the baby yet. I think I would die from the suspense. My newer friend Steff also came over with her son Payton. I have enjoyed getting to know them over the past few months. We met at the early childhood center but have started having playdates and stuff together.

I wish I had taken some pics this morning at the playdate. Instead I am going to share some from the park last week. We went on Thurdsay and thought it was going to be warm but the only word for that day was “blustery.” But the girls (Mackenzie, Bailey, and Addison) had lots of fun together anyway. We went to a park that we hadn’t been to before- it’s only about five minutes from our house! So I am excited to have a new park to go to this spring/summer. I can’t believe I haven’t taken B there before because I remember going there a lot as a kid. In fact, my fourth b-day party was there!

Here is Bailey when she was watching the ducks swim in the pond. Not that I would trust her alone near a pond EVER, but I was surprised that she didn’t try to go closer. She is finally developing that “don’t walk off the edge” sense of danger. Sometimes. Thank God. She loved watching them and yelling Quack Quack!

Bailey and Mackenzie sat on this ledge for a while. Of course I couldn’t get them to both look at the camera at once- that would be too much to ask. I also very rarely dress Bailey in jeans and a t-shirt. I like her to have on things that match. Not like the same pattern pants and shirt but coordinating pieces. So this was definitely a park outfit for her but I like to see her in playclothes sometimes. Now I am going to have to hide this shirt because she wants to wear it every day! It’s her “flurfly shirt.”

She was so worn out when we got home. She asked for her guys (which is what she calls her blanket, bear, and lovey ensemble) and then curled up on them on the floor. She NEVER does this- she’s never still. Normally after I put her in bed she jumps like a pogo stick for about ten minutes before settling down! So I had to grab the camera. I even offered her Fritos but she was too tired to reach over and pick them up. I wish I was too tired for snacks more often!

Sweet As Candy

Filed Under Clothes, Twenty-two Months | 7 Comments

Just wanted to share a few pictures of B in her new Candy Shoppe attire from Gymboree. I love it!

This is her “Stop taking my picture” face…

Spring Weather and Zoo Outing

Filed Under Clothes, Friends, Outings, Twenty-two Months | 4 Comments

On Friday, we went to the zoo with some friends. The weather was amazing! If the temperature thing in my car was correct, it was close to 80 degrees! I didn’t even know it was going to get that warm- I brought jackets for both of us!

On the way to the zoo, we had a little snot incident that resulted in Bailey throwing up all over herself. Of course. So she kind of looked like Pigpen for the rest of the day but we had fun anyway. Emily and Julie both offered her a clean shirt to borrow but she was adament about wearing her new bear shirt that my friend Sarah gave her (it says “My First Alaska Shirt” on it).

Bailey has lots of favorite animals. If you ask her, she will tell you about the zebras and the penguins first. Some of her other favorites are polar bears, which she calls “cold bears” or “poker bears” and giraffes. We spent quite a bit of time watching the zebras stand around and do nothing. Ella also liked watching the zebras.

Bailey always likes to share/steal her friends snacks. Here she is with Kaitlynn’s snack container. She tried to run off with it several different times. You would think I don’t feed her, but I promise, I do!

On the way home– I think the 4 1/2 hour zoo visit wore her out!

Cherry Jammies

Filed Under Clothes, Twenty-two Months | 5 Comments

I love these new spring pajamas that I got for Bailey. Carters pajamas seem to fit her the best. I have gotten some from The Children’s Place and the zipper is just funky on the front. I like Gymboree pajamas but no can do unless they’re on sale. She also does NOT like tight, fitted pajamas so I try to buy a size up if they aren’t too long. Carters fit well through the body, and the feet have good grippers. And it’s easy to find one piece zip ups in her size!

I was trying to get some pictures after her bath the other night…

But this is what happens when I tell her to smile:

I love her beautiful blue eyes!

Accomplishments

Filed Under Being a Mom, Home Sweet Home, Into Everything, Twenty-two Months | 7 Comments

I feel like I have gotten a lot done so far today. Isn’t it funny how once you are staying at home with your kid(s) the definition of “a lot” totally changes?

Today I:

-Washed the cloth diapers, dried the inserts and prefolds, hung the covers to dry
-Started a second load of laundry
-Put almost a full basket of laundry away (Bailey helped me- she tried to put every item in her pajama drawer but it was so sweet that she wanted to help. She finally at least learned where to put socks. I should probably have her help more often. She loved it so much!)
-Put about 10 eBay packages out for the mail… only about 100 to go I think!
-Cleaned the kitchen, mostly
-Unloaded the dishwasher
-Took the trash and recycle down to the garage, where I found that my husband STILL has not brought our trashcan in from last Friday. Now that’s classy.
-Made plans for Thursday with my friend Casey and her daughter Addison

And more importantly, I:

-Kissed Bailey’s soft, puffy, wonderful cheeks at least 25 times
-Held her on my lap to read stories
-Taught her how to put her socks in the sock drawer and how to put dirty clothes in the basket- and had fun doing it!
-Ate Alpha-Bits cereal while sitting on the kitchen floor with Bailey and feeding each other the letters
-Changed three diapers
-Attempted to make a healthy lunch for my daughter (at least she ate the yogurt and banana)
-Got lots of hugs without even asking for them
-Danced to the intro on a new Dora video, several times

Some people think that once you “give up your career” and stay home, you become “just a mom.” I have had feelings from time to time, like all I have is my daughter and my life revolves around her. At times, that has made me feel inadequate or like I am not doing enough. But looking back at my day of accomplishments, I realize again that there is nothing I would rather be doing. There is nothing more important than taking care of my daughter, raising her myself, being with her to give her all those hugs and build her self-confidence, and enjoy the little things with her.

Muffin and Muffins

Filed Under Food, Twenty-two Months | 1 Comment

My little Muffin ate a banana nut muffin today! The reason I care? My child has a huge aversion to any type of bread- sandwich bread, cheesy bread, bagels, soft pretzels, muffins, cake, etc. Today at the store they had mini banana muffins to sample and I left her try it. I told her if she didn’t like it, I would eat it. She ate the whole thing! It took about 15 minutes but maybe we are finally making some progress with this food thing.

Kaitlynn’s Birthday Party

Filed Under Birthdays, Friends, Parties, Twenty-two Months | 4 Comments

I swear I started this post earlier today. I was having trouble uploading pictures (thank you, WordPress, for never caring about my feelings) and so it saved and I was going to come back to it later. Now? It’s completely gone. So I am starting over and it’s probably going to be a lot less energetic and entertaining than the first version. But you get to see Bailey in her cute party outfit, so that’s a plus, right?

I started out by saying how Jonathon, Bailey and I went to her friend Kaitlynn’s second birthday party this past weekend. It was at her house, and they had sandwiches and drinks. The kids just played downstairs and the adults ate, until it was time for cake and ice cream. The party seemed to go pretty well except that I got stuck sitting next to Amy’s really loud MIL during the gift opening. I heard “KAAAAITLYYYYYYYYYYN” about ten thousand times within the span of twenty minutes. That woman is loud, for real. And I don’t feel bad saying that because Amy and I have already discussed it.

When we were downstairs playing, the older kids were playing Wii. Bailey thought she needed a piece of the action and kept getting in their way. At some point, someone must have put her on this stool (or maybe she climbed up… sounds like maybe I should start supervising my child) and she was using the Wiimote for a phone.

Then the kids decided they needed that Wiimote (does anyone else feel like they have a speech impediment when they say that word?) –Bailey was NOT pleased.

We went upstairs to get ready for cake and ice cream. Jonathon asked Bailey if she wanted to wear a party hat. I thought she would hate it because of the chin strap but she loved it! It looks like she’s pulling at it in this picture but she left it on the whole time and didn’t complain.

The party had an animals theme. The decorations were really cute. Bailey gets so excited about giraffes and zebras. The cake was from McArthur’s Bakery and it was really good! I’ve seen/eaten quite a few of their cakes and I have always been impressed. I love birthday cake. I even love the smell of matches being blown out- it’s like it automatically makes me think of birthday cake!

Happy birthday, Kaitlynn!

Tuesday is Snooze-day

Filed Under Church, Cloth Diapering, Diapers/Potty, Twenty-two Months | Leave a Comment

I have been noticing a trend. Every Tuesday afternoon Bailey and I take a LONG nap. Not together, but at the same time. I work at church doing childcare on Tuesday mornings and she is in the “Big Girl 2′s Class” so we both have a busy morning. I am in the infant (six weeks to crawling) room with my friend Casey. I enjoy getting to spend the time with her every week. It gives us a good chance to talk while we hold the babies and play with them. We have been blessed with some really cute babies! This one little guy, well it’s good that he’s so cute because he seriously has stinky grown man gas. Constantly. But he is just so cute that we manage to put up with it

On the flip side: My daughter is most definitely not a baby anymore. She is funny and sneaky and loves to be mommy’s helper. She also likes to sit on the potty. She is successful maybe 1/2 the time but we don’t push it.

Another thing that she loves to do is line up her Little People animals. She likes them all to face her. She knows an astonishing amount of animal names now. Even things like lizard, seahorse, hippo… I can’t wait to take her to the zoo this summer. We talk about the zoo A LOT and talk about what animals we want to see. I love that she can have conversations with me now.

And just because I love her fluffy cloth diapers (this one is a Blueberry Minky), and because this one just happens to match her pajama shirt, I had to snap one more.

22 Months

Filed Under Being a Mom, Food, Professional Pictures, Twenty-two Months | 2 Comments

Little Muffy Muff,

I can’t believe you are almost two years old. I have already booked your birthday party! Yes, you are having a big party with all of your friends. I have been told that’s silly but I just want you to be happy. I know you will have so much fun. Especially when you find out that we get to sing and dance and do parachute time at your party!

You have grown up so much just within the last month. You continue to come up with new two and three word phrases. You are a good problem solver. You are now obsessed with letters and numbers. You want to learn letters and match them and make the sounds. I don’t think it makes much sense to you yet, but you love it all anyway. I hope you continue to have that love for letters and words. You are one of the most well-mannered toddlers I have seen. You insist on saying please and thank you for everything! You even thank me for things like putting your pajamas on. It makes my heart smile to think about it. You have such a sweet and kind and loving spirit. You are also so active and I like to say that you are part pogo stick. You bounce and jump and never stop. Even when you get in bed, some nights it takes an hour of you laying there before you fall asleep. But you never complain, you just lay in bed and play quietly.

It still drives me crazy that you are such a picky eater. Your favorite food is a Big Bird Bar (still) which you call a “Bee Barn” and ask for at least five fifty times a day. The only meat you will eat is chicken. In the form of nuggets. Although last week you surprised us and ate tacos one night. Crunchy tacos with ONLY meat and cheese. You also like yogurt, cheese, bananas, and any sort of baby food fruit. We tell you it’s applesauce.

You are still my entire world. I don’t know how I lived without you until you came into my life. I spend so much time thinking about you, praying for you, doing things that I think will make you happy. Including obsessing over Gymboree clothes for you! I just want you to have it all but somehow not have that attitude. I’m sure that will be a line I always struggle to stay on top of, without falling to one side or the other. Just know that I woul do anything for you.

Love, Mommy