Catching up - 19 & 20

Yeesh, I'm behind! 

I know what you're thinking, "it's about time!!!" I know, I know. I'm going to work on it. 

Let me tell you, I thought month 18 was a challenge. She was defiant and contrary and so...very...mobile...I was concerned for our future. 

And then month 19 wasn't bad! Piece of cake!

She is still very curious and I can see her imagination when she plays. It's magical! She is independent and determined. She learns quickly and she LOVES figuring things out. It does not take her long to learn how something works. 

Month 19 wasn't bad. 

And then, month 20. 

Let me tell you, the past few weeks have been a HOT MESS! She has definitely mastered the Tantrum and can whip out those tears at will. And she's also at the age where everything IS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!! 

She knew we were going to go bye bye the other day. I told her we weren't going yet....

Lord, have mercy.

Then later the same day, the mean momma told her she couldn't eat the dog's food....

Oh, the drama. 

She had a massive fit yesterday when I told her we had to brush her hair before we got in the car. Tears, snot, flailing. 

I'm currently researching boarding schools that take 20 month olds. I'm pretty sure she's ready for sleep away school.

She is very bright and can bring you what you ask for. She understands what you're saying and reacts. Sometimes not accordingly, but she reacts. 

She wanted to go outside the other day but it was nap time. I told her she couldn't go outside until she took a nap. Mid tantrum, she stopped, sniffled and marched to her bed. She was standing there like "fine, let's get this over with."

Oh my. 

And she is CONSTANTLY moving. This has made chores and blogging practically impossible. When she's resting, I'm usually eating or showering or doing chores. I sit to blog but I'm so warn out, I can't even come up with a title. 

Hopefully, things will settle back down and our routine will get adjusted to an adjusted life. Here's hoping! 

I do have posts to write! And I do have stuff to share!

We went to the zoo! And she got to throw sticks for Uncle David's magic dogs!! It's all coming, I promise.

It's just coming....really....really slowly.....

Until next time....

Krispy Cleaning

Yesterday I cleaned the baby's room which meant all the cute stuff I put on all the shelves had to come down. I put A LOT of cute stuff up! Yeesh.

While I was dusting, I came across her little lace crown. I ordered it off Etsy when she was born so we could have pictures taken with it.

She was so tiny!

And now look.

Such a big girl.

As I was cleaning off shelves I went through a box of cards I have. They're mostly congrats, get better, what a blessing cards. They made me emotional. Then at the bottom of the basket - I found this and snorted.

This was the name on a flower arrangement sent to me while I was in ICU. At least they got the first name right(ish)! That's impressive! ;) 

Until next time....

Cold

A bowl full of frozen teethers for a very active baby.

"Have a baby!" they said. "It'll be GREAT!" they said. 

Today has been a very, very long day....

She did this for 3 hours. 3. Hours. This certain fit was because I walked in to the kitchen....without her. This is a face that screams "I NEED A NAP BUT I DON'T WANNA!!!!!"

So I put her in the car to run some errands. And sure enough - she passed out. Only I had to go in to HEB because there isn't a drive through grocery store. Come on people! And she had to wake up which meant she didn't get a full nap...again...and when we got home, there was a lot of this....

A very long day.

FINALLY she fell asleep and stayed asleep long enough to wake up happy. 

No matter how many times I threaten to put her on the stoop or sell her to the gypsies - every moment I'm with her is mostly worth it. ;)

Until next time.....

On My Table

On our table we currently have a computer, a pile of bills, a pair of tiny sunglasses, a box of stuff to make me beautiful and craft project items. Confession - we don't always eat at our table so there are times it looks more like a catch all and less like an eating surface. And I'm okay with that. We live here. It's a house, not a museum. And sometimes life is messy. And I truly believe life should be messy. What would I blog about if it wasn't!

Now for what's on my heart. 

When I worked for the Rodeo I had the pleasure of meeting some pretty great people. And even though I only saw those people once a year, I still count them friends. I lost one of my very dear ones yesterday. The first time I met Deb, I knew. I knew we were kindred spirits. She was spunky and spry and just the right amount of bad influence on me. :) She was encouraging and dedicated and worked her little butt off no matter what and was NEVER scared to speak her mind. She went above and beyond and sincerely cared for those she worked with. She had a gift for making people laugh and making the boys uncomfortable and let's be honest - it's about time. We talked and laughed and enjoyed our month together. When it was time for me to move on - she made it easy to see and encouraged me every step of the way. There's no way I would have made it through that last Rodeo without her. She lived a very exciting life and I'm devastated she won't be there next March when I go to visit. 

The Studio will never be the same.

And the Quack, Quack girls are down a member.

And for that, my heart is heavy. 

Until next time.....

Hot Mess Thursday

Thankfully no mug shot was required. 

Today was a jammie day which means we stay in our jammies as long as we can. Today this lasted until about 9:30am when Little Bitty threw up on us. So she got clothes and I opted for a shower and lounge clothes. But I did stick with no make up and pinned back hair! 

She's a particular child who loves a clean diaper. And she's a contrary child that will wait until she has a clean diaper to fill it up again. This usually takes anywhere between 10 - 15 minutes. 

Today it took 3. 

"The Momma JUST changed my diaper so to reward her, I POOPED!!" 

And she wasn't one bit ashamed. 

It was all fun and games until the baby knocked over the Momma's Dr. Pepper. Then things got real. 

I had two errands to run that didn't require me getting out of the car so we loaded up. 

"I spilled the Momma's Dr. Pepper so she's returning me to the Library! Yay!"

Only as I was leaving I couldn't find the dog.....until I found him locked in the laundry room.....

He did this to himself.

I go to get in the car and the dog jumps in too. Fine. We'll all go! 

She talked to the dog the ENTIRE time. Again - he did this to himself.

And I left the house just like this - yep, I have no shame. I am officially THAT mom. The entire time I'm hopeful for no event that will require me to exit my vehicle or one involving a mug shot.

My whole goal for this adventure is to avoid having to get out of the car. I get to the post office and as I'm pushing the letters in to the mailbox - they almost hit the ground. Karma is determined to get me out of the car. 

So I finished my errands and headed home with a shaking dog and squealing baby. 

I get about a mile from the house and look down at the dash....

EEEEEEEE!!!!!

This entertains my mom who is now trying to figure out how to get to google maps so she can capture the footage of me pumping gas in my jammies with a frantic dog and a screaming baby. 

Tosh.0  - here we come!

Instead I cross my fingers and toes like a grown up and hope we have enough gas to get home. 

And we did!

(Note to the Beloved - before our weekend outing, we need gas in the car. :) )

Now we're home safe and sound. No mug shots required.

Thank goodness.

Until next time....

Stupid Blocks

Since she's a bit more mobile, I thought it would be a good idea to get something for our living room floor to keep her from hitting her head. Walmart had a few different options - Dora, Princess games, Cars and ABC's. We decided to get ABC's and be educational. 

So far they've just upset my OCDness. 

First off - they don't package them in alphabetical order. I mean, come on! 

So I just put them together ignoring the order in order to get them to her faster. 

Only there's 26 and there is no way to connect them and make it even unless you do two rows of two. I don't need an aisle runner. I need a play surface. 

None of this seems to bother her.

When my Beloved got home I told him my issues. He already knows I'm crazy so this didn't really come as a surprise. We laid them out in alphabetical order so the placement isn't even. Seriously - they couldn't include 4 shapes blocks maybe?! Triangle, circle, square, star - BAM!! EVEN!! But no. They needed to make the crazies crazier. 

I'm PRETENDING they did it on purpose to account for my ottoman. Yeah, yeah - let's go with that.

When in alphabetical order the color pattern is soothing.....except for R. The R is off. Seriously!? 

Lord help me. 

We should have bought the princess one.

The Girl likes her technology

Alice loves things that light up and she wants nothing more then to chew on your phone. You light up a phone in front of her and you have her attention! 

Aunt Tami was holding her and texting and Little Bitty reached behind her head for the phone. 

I was trying to talk to mom on the house phone and she decided she needed that one too.

Seriously.

And she loves the TV and the remote as well. She doesn't know what the remote does but she knows she wants it. 

This probably makes us bad parents. 

Oops.

Update!

I have an update of this post.

Yep. Jinxed it. 

Been sleeping with her ever since. 

Good thing she's cute. ;)

Sorry I've slacked when it comes to posting. We've had a busy few weeks and I've just been exhausted. We'll try harder - I promise. 

Daily Routine

I change diapers.

I mix bottles.

I warm up peas.

I do laundry. (Sometimes not daily)

I sweep up dog hair. Lots. (I don't do this daily but I should. Especially since I got my new dust pan. HOLLA!)

We nap.

We bathe.

I try to blog. 

And even when it's tedious. Even when it's trying. Even when it's hard. Even though we occasionally have a fussy baby. Even when I'm convinced I've made the wrong decision and I want to run away and hide. Even when I think I'm a horrible mother/housekeeper/pet parent/wife....I'm thankful I'm here.

I'm thankful I won't miss the first word (hopefully it will be baby book appropriate). I won't miss first steps. I settle her when she's upset. I see her smile and listen to her screech all day. And I'm just so thankful. 

I'm thankful she's healthy and growing and ours. 

I'm thankful my Beloved encourages me and loves me no matter how much I doubt myself. 

Until next time....

Animals

Ours. 

He sheds like CRAZY. 

He is ALWAYS under foot.

He chooses to go outside right before I feed Alice and then proceeds to throw himself on the door when I can't let him in. Every. Time.

He barks at the mail person.....every day.

He loves his man. 

And his baby.

He is sweet.

He is 'well loved'. ;)

He is ours. 

And as crazy as he makes us, I couldn't imagine life without him.

I'm grateful for our silly beast, Rice Noodles and night with my favorite people. I'm grateful for a video call with my Booganose. Thanks for making my birthday so much fun!

Until next time...

Have your people call our people

I love the TV show Veronica Mars. It's witty and fun. I will admit that the first season was the best however all three are worth watching.

Since I come from an enabling family, I encouraged the Young One to watch it. She too fell for the charming show. 

About a month ago she sent me a video posted to Kickstarer in reference to supporting a Veronica Mars movie. Kickstarter is a website that lets you post projects for financial support. It's actually really neat!

So my Beloved and I clicked around and mostly cracked up at the idea. Donate a little and we can help produce a movie. How much fun is that?! We figured a $50 donation wouldn't be horrible so we did. Apparently with our donation we get a t-shirt (HOLLA!!), pdf version of the script, a digital version of the movie, an official movie sticker (again HOLLA!), email updates, our name mentioned on the official movie website and a physical DVD of the movie. 

AND the chance to see Logan on the big screen. 

Ummm.....yes please!

A few days after our pledge, Little Bitty was being a pill. I looked at her and said "look kid, your parents are big time movie producers now. We don't have time for your shenanigans!" She didn't care. I knew she wouldn't. 

True to his word, series creator Rob Thomas has sent daily updates. Sometimes a few. The other night my phone pinged and sure enough, it was yet another update. I told my Beloved this movie producing stuff is just exhausting. I went on to (jokingly) ask since we produced the movie if we had to pay to see it opening weekend in order to make our money back. 

My Beloved: Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're not getting our money back. 

He went on to say something else that led me to ask if we were going to be one of those Hollywood couples that don't make it. 

This made him chuckle. 

The project is now over, the goal was reached and a movie will be made. And Alice can tell all her friends her parents helped produce a movie once. :) How fun is that?!

Until next time....

Technology

I love technology. I love things that plug in. I love things that light up. I love things that record. And I LOVE apps.

Apps are the best.thing.ever. 

And I love the Life360 app.

It's an app that allows you to see where your loved ones are at all times. It's fun! A little stalkerish but fun! :) It also allows you to find the predators, reported crimes and rescue centers near your location. 

I check my family's "dots" all day. If it's in a strange location I text to make sure they haven't been kidnapped. ;) What?! I'm crazy! You know this! 

There is something comforting about seeing every one's dot safe at home before bed. 

I'm thankful for my dots, DVR and washing machine. I'm grateful we live in an time where all that's possible. 

Until next time....

Nature

When we found our house, this gate is what sold it. For me that is. :) It's magical even when it's not in bloom. 

My Beloved has mentioned several times the gate is in bad shape and should be replaced. This causes me to have a mild tantrum so it has remained. I think he's hoping for a hurricane to come and take it out so it won't be his fault. He'll just to have to replace it with one just like it! Silly boy. 

This is all very ironic because I don't like outside. At all. So the gate is simply something I admire from inside the house where there are no bugs. Unless I have to take a picture of it - then I venture outside....quickly.

And now that the back fence is exposed to the world, I should probably stop going out there in my bathrobe. Whatever. 

I'm grateful for our very own Secret Garden gate, a sleeping baby and some chores checked off. Now it's time for a nap. ;)

Until next time....

A blooming arch

Inspiring Person

I know, I know. "JK Rowling?! Seriously?!"

Let me explain.

I think she's a great writer. Period. 

She had a story to tell and told it no matter who told her no. She created a world we all want to be a part of and characters we want to be friends with. Her story invokes such strong feelings for characters that you cry when bad things happen and cry when good things happen. (Maybe I just cry a lot.) You long for a letter to Hogwarts and dream of having a pet owl. No matter how old you are. 

She is also inspiring because she knew what story she wanted to tell and she knew when to end it. Even though the books are HUGE money makers, she didn't feel the need to continue just to continue. And THAT is what makes her a great writer. Letting go. I have several series I read and some of them are getting extremely tedious and need to be wrapped up however I know they won't be because the books are still selling. Sadness. My friends deserve a rest. ;)

While I do think she's a great a writer, she's not perfect. I do think she made a few mistakes....

1: The death of Hedwig. Seriously?! The bird?! Now I understand her death. Rowling needed to establish early on that no one was safe. Anyone could die. I get it. But it's the way she died that bothered me. If she had died the way she died in the movie - I'd be okay! (This is the ONLY time I've felt like the movie got it right when the book didn't.) I can even pretend to see that she wanted to establish that innocent lives were going to get caught in the crossfire. Whatever. I still don't have to like it. 

2: The deaths of Tonks, Lupin and Fred. Uncool. Again, I see her reasoning but again, I don't have to like it! Tonks and Lupin deserved to be happy. And killing a twin?! That's EXTRA cruel! I'd be okay with losing a Weasley but a twin?! No ma'am. That's just plain MEAN.

3: The fact that Umbridge lives. I think she is the vilest character ever written and she deserves the worst. She's worse than Tom Riddle (Dumbledore called him that - I can too!)! I promise! My rational side can also see how it's important to show that sometimes the bad guys don't always get what they deserve. But still! Stupid life lessons. 

Bottom line, as someone who enjoys writing I find Rowling inspiring. I don't think I'll ever write a Harry Potter type book however writing a book doesn't seem that far fetched. I bet she never dreamed Harry would take her to where she is today. She was just writing about characters she loved. 

Today I'm thankful for a magical world and a boy with a lightening bolt scar. 

I'd be even more thankful if House Elves were real. Word.

Until next time.....

Day 27 - Pair

The prettiest pair of blue eyes I've ever seen! 

These are the first attempts. She was less than accommodating this morning...

On to a success of the day! I had to venture out to the bank and since I didn't get to do any grocery shopping yesterday I was able to split my list between Walmart and Kroger. This meant I didn't have a huge Walmart list after all.

So I put my big girl panties on and took the baby to the store. 

I can do this. 

And while she did take up a lot of cart space, she was willing to share it with diapers, Easter candy, Clorox wipes, dinner and dog food. 

We got this!

While we were in line, the lady behind us mentioned she remembered when her kids were that small. She said she would get hand baskets to put the groceries in while the baby was in the cart. I told her my incompetence when it comes to putting the baby on the handle bar. She was quick to say never to do that, it's just not safe. This made me feel better. I KNEW it wasn't safe! ;)

We not only visited the bank and Walmart but we also got gas! HOLLA!!

Now we're back home and safe in our jammies. ;)

Until next time....

Day 26 - Something you did...

I mastered the Sock Battle!! I can't keep socks on Little Bitty to save her life. She just kicks and kicks until she's barefooted and freezing. My Beloved worries about her survival skills. Last night when he came home he noticed she was wearing two pairs of socks.

I told him since she's mastered getting one pair off, I'm challenging her. 

HA! Take that kid! Try getting TWO pairs off!! 

If she does, she'll be wearing three pairs. And when she masters three - four.

One day my Beloved will come home to a child wearing her entire sock drawer. But she'll be WEARING them! 

Now for something I DIDN'T do. A mommy fail.

I attempted for the second time to shop on my own with Little Bitty. However I didn't make it in to the store. 

I can't figure out how to secure the seat to the cart. I worry I'm an idiot. 

The first time I only needed a few things so I put her entire seat in to the cart. She takes up a lot of room! 

SEE!! She takes up ALL the cart space!

But today I needed lots of stuff. When trying to get her balanced on the cart like all the other cool moms who have NO trouble at all, I was worried with how unstable it seemed! I'm not a great cart driver. One bump and over the edge she goes! 

So I panicked and put her back in the car with her "momma cray" face and cried all the way home. 

Sometimes I'm no good at this.  

Luckily, she doesn't know any better. ;)

Until next time....

This deal STINKS!

I'm pretty sure my Beloved and our daughter have made a deal.

You see, she can spend ALL day with my Beloved and then he will leave the house for 10 minutes.

And in those 10 minutes...

...she will poop. 

Every time.

I think the garage door going down is a signal - "here's my chance!"

And as if to solidify this deal - she has a onesie that says "I love my Daddy" and every time I put her in it within 2 minutes of having it on - she poops. And then smiles! 

Because it's HILARIOUS! 

Yeesh.

;)

Until next time.....

Day 20 - Clean

A bubbly bowl full of bitty bottles.

Clean. I like a mostly clean house. I'm not a fanatic. I understand we LIVE here so dirt and mess happen. We also have a dog so we'll never have clean floors again. These are things I've come to terms with.

However, I am NOT okay with sharing my home with rodents. No ma'am.

About a week ago the dog started barking at something. My Beloved checks and says it's nothing but really it's a small rat on the porch railing. Nasty.

We had the exterminator out and he put out some poison and set some traps in the attic. We haven't heard anything from the attic and since I'm up at all hours of the night, I feel this is my responsibility. I have great hearing and I've heard nothing. The exterminator suggests they're UNDER the porch. Yes, under the porch is better. 

Traps set, we're good to go.

Fast forward to Monday. We're having mom over for dinner and I look up to notice a few HUGE flys in our kitchen light. I jokingly say "you'd think we had something dead up in the attic!" And then we got quiet and looked at each other. 

My Beloved - "I'll check the trap."

He comes in from the garage and proceeds to get out a garbage bag and gloves and assures me "everything is fine." Liar, liar - pants on fire.

Now I'm in TOTAL freak mode with visions of our baby being carried off by a group of disgruntled rats in the middle of the night. Months ago when were having foundation issues, Daniel had to cut a hole in the kitchen to reinforce the cabinets. I also had visions of rats flying out at my face at 4am when I'm mixing bottles to avenge the one that went for the peanut butter. 

Because my husband loves me, he fixed that problem.

We're laying in bed that night and I say in all seriousness "it's just so gross! The house now has death in it." And he laughs because his wife is a CRAZY person.

I don't keep a dirty enough house to have RATS! Gross! But we live on a water way so it's going to happen. It doesn't mean I have to like it. One bit. 

Until next time...

Day 16 - 9 O'clock

9 o'clock and Dad's eye is twitching!

Sometimes it's hard to come up with stories to go with each picture. Our life is not ALWAYS crazy. ;)

I found this picture on Pinterest long before Little Bitty was born and wanted to duplicate it one day. Only our girl's feet were way too small for such things! 

Disclaimer - this is NOT my picture. Just one I want to copy.

Well, last night as she was kicking on the couch it occurred to me that the feetsies might be big enough! So I grabbed a pen, her foot and attempted to write on it. My Beloved sees me grab the pen and asks what I'm doing. When he sees me grab the baby's foot he says "don't write on our baby! What are you doing!?"

I tell him I saw this super cute picture on Pinterest (this earns an eye roll and a sigh - I'm pretty sure he wants to punch the Pinterest creators in the face). I say the pen didn't work so I'll have to try eye liner or a sharpie. He follows this up with "don't write on the baby!!" To which my response was "yeah, you're going back to work next week." Him - expletive. Me (to Alice) : "Don't use Daddy's words!" ;)

I hit my phone right after this conversation and the clock said 9:02. SCORE! Now I have a story! 

This isn't the first time he's had cause to worry about how we fill the hours while he's at work.

We had her at the doctor the other week and she was smacking on her hands. 
My Beloved: I wonder what her hands taste like.
Me: They might taste like dog.
Him utterly disturbed:  what?!
Me: Well! The dog has been known to lick her hands!
Him (to Alice): That's it. I'm quitting my job to stay home with you and your mom is going back to work! :)

I'm not sure that would be much better. I ran an errand the other day and came home to this:

Me: Daniel! Her toe is sticking out!
Him: It's perfectly normal for your toe to stick out of your socks.
Me: No, no it isn't! If your toe is sticking out of the sock - throw the sock away!
My Beloved: Oh, my bad. 

:)

Again, I'm VERY thankful there are LOTS of people praying for our girl. Lord knows her parents need it. 

Until next time....

(Editors note: Daniel says he feels misrepresented and says he meant that she could wear the outfit one last time before we threw it away. Not that is was okay to have your toe sticking out all the time. Just one last time. ;) )

Day 13 - Sound

Let me start by saying we're not early risers. And we've been blessed with a child that feels the same way. She ate at 6ish this morning then back to bed she went!

So at 9:30 am when the you-know-what hit the fan - she slept right through it. 

Here's how the day started....

At 9:30 am the door bell rings, the dog goes BERSERK and my Beloved springs out of bed. 
"It can't be 12:30 yet!" I say in my cold med drunken state. (The Exterminator is set to come at noon.) "No - it must be the city" he says. While he throws on some clothes, the neighbor calls to let me know it's the utility guys trying to get in to the backyard and she knows we have a big dog. 

I'm sure by now the whole neighborhood knows we have a 'big dog' - he barks his head off every time the mailman drops off the mail or they pick up our trash. EVERY TIME. 

So now we're up. We can't complain - it's almost 10 am for crying out loud! But we were sleeping good. 

As I'm getting in the shower before they city decides to cut the water off to fix the leak  I say "I'm going to need some coffee."

My Beloved - "You and me both sister!"

The city fixed the leak without having to remove our fence. The exterminator came and went. Daniel took the dog for a walk through this adventure. Atticus HATES the exterminator. 

After all the commotion, we left the house for a bit. The dog was working my nerve! And I've decided why Daniel is his favorite! When he acts up, I spray him with the water bottle (which might as well be acid with the way he reacts) however my Beloved gives him a treat to shut him up. Yeesh. 

The leak is fixed. The house has been debugged. We've had a cupcake. And now it's almost time for bed.

Until next time....