Tired

Being a mommy is just plain weird sometimes. My darling sweet angel kept me up for the first half of the night last night... again. We've moved on from the crary witch, last night she said that her room was crary and she wanted to sleep in my bed. I tried the "Supernanny" approach - every time she got out of bed, without saying a word I would escort her back to bed and then leave. After doing this 8 times in an hour I thought I had finally won, only to have her running and crying through the living room 45 minutes later!!! So I gave in a little, I let her grab a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor next to my bed. She was finally out and it was 11:30 - I could get almost 6 hours of sleep at this point (before i had to wake up to go to work). Then my other sweet darling angel kept me up for the rest of the night (not really his fault though)... between bathroom visits, backaches, heartburn. and braxton-hicks contractions... Mommy got very little sleep. So you would think that I would be THRILLED when I got home tonight and found that Brian had already fed, bathed, and put Little Red to bed, right? No. I was sad because I missed her. So sad that I started to cry while watching TV just because there was a cute little girl with wispy wavy hair!

So I miss her dearly tonight, and I can't wait to spend time with her on Friday. But if my cute little girl with wispy wavy hair came into my room right now, wanting to sleep in my bed, yeah, I'd probably lose it.

My poor dusty camera

In a few years (or maybe actually now) I'm going to kick myself for not taking enough pictures of Little Red this year. It has been literally 2 months since I last snapped a picture of this kid. When she was little I was so good about keeping up with all that: we did video every month on her "month-birthday" and talked about all her milestones, and I took pictures of her every move, even when those pictures were of the back of her head as she was running from me.

Maybe there aren't as many pictures because her milestones are now mostly verbal and mental. It's really difficult to capture something like her first sentence in a picture (It was "Mommy, what's that up and down my wall?) or one of the cutest things she does - reciting lists. I'll ask her what she wants to do today, or what do we need to bake a cake, and its the inflection of her voice, the way she counts on her fingers and looks up at her brain to remember. Precious memories.

Somethings that are milestones for a 2 year old you don't necessarily want a picture of! For instance, this week she has really developed fears at night and a sense for what she thinks is "scary." My wonderful neighbors down the street have put up a great spectacle of a Halloween scene in their front yard. This includes a GIANT witch-looking thing. We got home Tuesday night and I was unloading groceries and she saw it... she ran into the house, stood in the utility room and yelled to me, "Hurry Mommy! That crary witch get you!!!" (She says crary instead of scary which kinda makes it a little cute) I said "It's okay, she can't get me" To which she yells back "but Mommy I wuv you!!!!!" Broke my heart! Poor thing.

So she mentioned the crary witch a few more times that night, but I thought that I had done and explained everything logical so that she wouldn't be afraid anymore. At about 11 she was awake, crying in her room. I went to check on her and she had her blankets over her head and she was shaking. I went to her bedside and touched her leg and she jumped and looked horrified. She was shaking, drenched in sweat, and so hot. My first thought was H1N1 (chills!, fever!) but I quickly determined that wasn't it because the rest of her body was normal temp, her head was hot from being buried under the covers. She said "That crary witch come through my window and get me!!! Can I sleep in your bed?"

This happened twice more before midnight so I finally gave up and slept on the couch with her. We have a strict "no kids in our bed" rule that is really tempting to break at midnight when you know you have just a few hours left to sleep before getting up to work a 12-hour shift... but I'm glad I stuck to it (even though I didn't sleep so well on the couch) I know I would have been in a lot of trouble with Brian if I had brought the kid into our bed!

Last night she was still scared of that stupid witch, but somehow I was able to calm her down by telling her that I would be in the living room on the couch until she fell asleep in her room. Hope tonight goes even better!

So, um where was I??? Oh yeah, I was talking about my rarely used camera. We took it out to the FW Botanical Gardens last week for a few pics... now I remember why I don't take as many pics as I used to! The kid is just too fast now!

Did I forget to mention that our baby is due in just a few weeks!

This is so her right now, carefree skipping around in life (well except for those few crary witch moments)

Yeah, I don't run much anymore... she'll come back!

Almost my favorite shot... if only I had been a bit more to the left

This might look like nothing to one person, but to me it describes their relationship quite well. To me, this says, "teacher" and not in the obvious way that Brian's career is being a teacher, but because of how he teaches her all the time. He has always been the one to teach her little things, like colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. Recently they have been working on counting things by lining them up and pointing "one, two, three, etc." I didn't know that until one day we were all outside and he asked her to count something and she did it all by herself - I thought she was a freakin' genius or something! That's when he told me that they have been working on that. Love him!

Love that kid!

Why little girls need Daddies

I'm not exactly a nervous mommy who - if given the chance - would coat all the sidewalks in foam rubber or put my child in a bubble to avoid all potential accidents. I do believe that a child's decision making skills and self esteem grow when they are allowed to make choices and accomplish tasks that may seem difficult. Sometimes a mommy just has to let her baby fall (or fail) to learn a life lesson. With that said, I'm still a mommy who doesn't like to see her kid get hurt. Especially when I could have prevented it. This is why little girls need "Daddies" or at least someone else in their life that will encourage them to do new and challenging things. I have taken Little Red to our neighborhood playground several times, but I never let her do this:

I always peel her off that green climbing thing and tell her something like, "Not this time, you're still too little to climb that"
Well, when Mommy is at work and Daddy is in charge...

I'm happy to say she made it all the way to the top - without any help.

Yes I have to admit that the other side of the mommy in me at first noticed that her hair was not combed and why it the world is she wearing those shoes with that dress - at a playground for crying out loud. But that is another reason that little girls need their daddies - to teach them that it is okay to go out in public every once in awhile without make-up and just have fun. People who matter don't care and people who care don't matter.
(Okay, but he still could have combed her hair since he was going to take pictures!) ;)

This is why I can't do dishes

I want to move. I've wanted to move for quite some time now but I cannot come up with a good enough reason to convince Brian that it is a good idea. He always has something sensible to say like, "this is not the best time to put our house up for sale." or "If we get a bigger house, we'll just have more room to collect junk," or even "we don't have the money to put down on a new house, and we'll have to pay a realtor..." blah blah blah. All "valid reasons" but besides worrying about where we are going to put this little boy that's due in November, the other thing that really bugs me about our house is the lay out of the kitchen. I get to look out a window at the bricks of the house next to mine while I do dishes. All of my working space faces a wall. My back is turned away from the living room. I would really like to be able to keep an eye on things while I work in the kitchen, but can't and it's a little frustrating at times like this:

Sigh... Yes, that is a blue marker up the right nostril, and a green marker up the left, along with some pink above her left eye and blue? on her lips. You can't see her body in this shot, but she decorated her shirt, skirt, and the top of her table too. The sad thing is that I was less than 10 feet from her in my kitchen while she was in the living room coloring in what I thought was her coloring book... this is what happens when I try to do dishes! When will those eyes in the back of my head come in? This isn't a good enough reason to move either - I already tried.

Are you kidding me?

Why is it that random people feel it is necessary to come up to me in the grocery store and tell me what a bad mom I am?  It is very upsetting to say the least.

Yesterday, I had to run into the grocery store closest to my house to just grab a few items.  I had to search through the rows of shopping carts at the entrance to find one with a complete set of functioning buckles because I have been having a very hard time with Little Red standing up in the cart.

Halfway through the produce section she figures out how to unbuckle herself and tries to stand up.  I scolded her, sat her back down and buckled her back in... only to find her unbuckled and attempting to climb over into the bigger part of the cart.  This is how the the whole trip went, this back and forth game.  I told her she would fall out and get hurt, but next to spanking her right there in the middle of the store (which I did and she didn't bat an eyelash), I could not come up with any other sort of consequence for this behavior.  The times that I have tried to bribe her or deny her of something fun like going to the pool or park haven't worked yet - I think she still just lives in the here and now and doesn't have the maturity to realize what I mean.  Anyone have any ideas on that because right now I'm just chalking it up to the terrible two's?

So anyway, we had this battle the entire time we were shopping.  By the time I got to the the check out I was exhausted and frazzled.  I'm putting groceries on the belt thingy when of course you know who is standing up again.  I ask her to please sit down - then the cashier asks me, "Do you have Internet access at home?" I answer yes thinking maybe its a coupon or discount kind of thing... she says "Do a search for 'grocery cart accidents' so that you can fully understand how serious this is.  I have a friend in California whose 4 year old granddaughter fell out of a cart by doing exactly what your daughter is doing and now she is completely paralyzed.  When I take out my grandsons they know better then to do that with Granny."

Completely embarrassed and in tears, I put my sunglasses on, paid for my groceries and left.  I got in my car and cried until I had a headache.  I called Brian and luckily I was able to catch him on lunch break.  He calmed me down, I love him dearly.

I just can't help but wonder about people who do that to other moms.  Why do you have to judge?  Lady, do you honestly think that I let my child stand up in the cart without any fear of her falling out?  What would you say or what will you say to me next time I bring her into the store with me and I'm walking her on a leash because I have one and I'm not afraid to use it!  The only reason I don't use it in the grocery store is because I know my child.  Given the chance she will throw everything off the shelves and onto the floor.  But if that is the safer option for her then so be it!

"My Girl Bed!"

We bought a new computer - for some crazy reason I can't rearrange my pictures to the order that I want them and there is this crazy line under everything that I type!!!  Why?!?  I am trying to figure this out and I am at a loss, so just bear with my crazy line until I consult someone smarter than me!  Moving on...

Little Red is now in her toddler bed!!!  Did she climb out of her crib? No.  Did she demand to go in a regular bed? No.  Did her crib break somehow? No.

A few weekends ago Brian and I were rearranging the "kid side" of our house to make room for the next kid.  We were trying to find a good solution for Red's room (her crib was next to her dresser, so when she woke up, she would open up the drawers and toss everything out onto the floor!!!).  Brian has been asking me for a while now "When can we convert Red's crib?"  I have always had a convenient excuse for him - 

"Not yet, she will be impossible to put to bed at night, she'll get up over and over again and cry at her baby gate or roam the house!"

"Nope, she'll get up and climb up the dresser or "rearrange" her closet."

"Let's do it over a weekend or a week off so that if we have a bad night or 2, we don't have to go to work all tired and grumpy."

"If we do it now, she will regress when the baby arrives."

"I have no earthly clue where the directions to her bed are!"

I know I know, these all sound pretty ridiculous now in hindsight.  Brian, in typical Brian-ness, did what he does best to get his way.... he wore me down by being annoying about it!   

So (Hey my line went away!) So I let go of the last piece of "baby" and embraced "preschooler" (probably the real reason I didn't want to do it!)
She loves her big-girl bed - or "My Girl Bed!" as she calls it!  She immediately started jumping on it.
The transition has been uneventful and actually pleasant.

So I guess I was all worried about nothing.  She isn't impossible to get to bed, she doesn't cry at the baby gate or break out and roam the house at 2 am.  She hasn't climbed her dresser and I lock her closet.  We were smart enough to convert it to a toddler bed without the directions!  We rock.  Ooh, and the other really cool thing about this is that I MADE HER COMFORTER!!!  Yup, that's me... talented!

Easter 2009

Seriously, I know what Easter is really about, but I can't help but get caught up in the extreme cuteness of the day. For today, Easter is about cute little dresses, white straw hats, and children running around the yard looking for little plastic eggs. This year we spent Easter out at Brian's dad's house out near Aledo. They have the biggest yard I have ever seen - perfect for scattering little eggs!

Little Red was soooo into the egg hunting this year. I don't think she realizes the competetive aspect of it all yet, which will probably make this my favorite Easter (meaning I don't have to hear "He got more eggs than me! She got the gold egg - I want a gold egg!")  She was just happy to pick the eggs up and put them in her ducky basket. I have thought about just taking a bunch of empty eggs, scattering them in the backyard, and letting her hunt all over again!

After the egg hunt came the bluebonnet pictures. I hope the people who live in this house in the background don't mind that we totally trespassed in the name of good photography!!! This was someones front yard around the corner from my in-laws... It is just the perfect bluebonnet field.

What a fun day! It is so nice to watch these 2 play together. Jayden is Red's cousin, he's almost 2 years older than her, and they really played very well together. Next year will be twice the fun - there will be 4 kids at Easter instead of just the 2 of them! Little Red is going to get another cousin in the early fall and a little brother or sister in November! Yep you read that right... we are going to have another baby!!!

2 months behind and retro posting...

Between chasing down a 2-year-old and working more hours than I really want to, I am now officially 2 months behind on my blog.! A few things have happened since Christmas and I think I'll try to fill in the gaps when I have time instead of trying to play catch up all in one day. You are probably asking yourself why I would even bother trying to catch up on non-eventful things like going to the zoo in mid-january or playing in the backyard etc. I am asking myself that same question! Hahaha! Seriously, there is a method to my madness. At the end of the year I put together a photo book for us, our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents and it is soooo much easier amidst the Christmas rush to just pull the pictures and stories from my blog and plug them into the pages. (If you have been thinking about making a photobook, you should totally do it. You will love it! It will bring tears to the eyes of the recipients!)

2 years old!!!

I can't believe my sweet little girl is now 2... I really can't believe how much different 2 is compared to 1. This year she was able to walk around, play with her guests, open her own presents, and eat her cake with a fork (well, sorta)! I lost my mind and allowed a trampoline to invade my backyard - and she loves it! When I was a kid, I always wanted a trampoline but never had one. Back then I don't even think that safety netting was available - this thing would not be in my backyard if we didn't have a net around it!!! Every day she wants to go out and "jump high Mommy, I jump high!!! Pleeeeeeease?!"

The birthday party was a little crowded... last year I split the party into 2 groups and had 2 separate parties (we are blessed with a large, local family). This year we had to throw it all together and have 1 party - I knew it would be 40 people in my tiny house and those that know me well know that I really don't like having a whole lot of people at my house but I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best! We had bubbles, the trampoline, and a little bounce house in the backyard. By the end of the day, it really didn't matter because the birthday girl had the time of her life and i think all the other kids had a great time too.

See - A fork!!!

Best Friends

She affectionately calls him, "Woof"
He patiently sits under her chair at the table - waiting for Cheerios/ Mac n cheese/ goldfish crackers/ peanut butter sandwhiches to drop.
She likes to brush him - usually with something other than a brush.
He follows her around as she plays in the yard.
She tackles him while he's napping.
He waits by her door when she's napping.

Pigtails and play time

When I found out that I was going to have a girl, my like second thought was joy over pigtails!!!! (My first was giggles - especially when you tickle them!) So when she was born with absolutely no hair at all, I had to patiently wait until she was nearly 2 before I could get a ponytail, much less 2 of them! I love her pigtails! I put them in her hair every day that we're together.

I'm glad she received this "bicycle" for Christmas. She had a tricycle, but I backed over it a few weeks ago.... *someone* wasn't thinking things through when he placed it in the garage BEHIND my passenger side rear tire!!! Seriously...

Jan 2

We combined our Christmas money (and a little extra) and bought a super awesome camera. There was nothing wrong with our other little snapshot digital, except that toddlers move fast, very fast, and our little snapshot couldn't catch her, no matter how quick I set the shutter speed. On the gorgeous day that was Jan 2nd, we set out for Bear Creek park to feed the ducks and figure out our camera.
It can keep up with my pigtailed-cutie!!! I took this picture from about 20 yards away while she was chasing Daddy around the tree. I'm sold!

This picture would look even better if I had cropped it - the expression on Little Red's face is super cute and you can't tell unless the picture is zoomed in.

Sometimes the only way to get a toddler to sit still in your lap is to feed them...

zoom-zoom

Christmas with Nana and Grandpa!

Because of the horrible sickness that fell upon our household the week of Christmas, we had to postpone Christmas with my parents until New Years Day. This was actually a really great thing and I may insit on it again next year for 2 reasons: no pressure to take down the Christmas decor and it made the actual Christmas day seem less final. I love Christmas so much that I get a little bit sad towards the end of Christmas Day because the season is over!

There is such a big difference between a child's first Christmas and their second. Of course, this was Red's 5th Christmas celebration within 2 weeks so she knew exactly what to do with all those presents. Last year we got her to pull the paper off of a few gifts but she really didn't get it and then we had to open everything else for her. This year was just a blast to watch her excitement with everything - even clothes and shoes. The trend seemed to be that if she could say the name of the item, she loved it even more (shoes! book! baby!)

Shoes!

The Christmas dress

our family picture - Fonzie included. I really like this picture - and we took litterally 11 shots before we got a decent one. We made the mistake of opening presents first, so all the interesting little toys were all on the floor. Little Red did not want to sit still for a picture - she wanted to play with all of her new stuff! I just had to include one bad one:

This is what the other 11 photos look like - toddler torture.