Finally!

It took me eight tries to get this post to work! Ugh! Anyway, we've been pretty busy these last couple of weeks, and in general feeling tired on my part. Laylah has started a newish trend of screaming and throwing a fit every time she doesn't get what she wants immediately. It's very frustrating. If the swing she wants is taken she cries and wants to go home. If one of her friends has the toy she wants, she cries and wants to go home. If she can't have ice cream, cookies, orange chips (dorritos, her favorite thing on earth) she cries and won't be reasoned with. I know she's testing boundaries and that it's difficult to learn to share and take turns, but she was doing so well before and now this! It's driving me nutty! Every day she has at least eight complete breakdowns. It's exhausting. The biggest issue is that she does this mostly when we are out somewhere and I have yet to figure out a way to have a time-out when we are not at home. Threatening to leave wherever we are usually won't work because that's what she wants in the first place and giving in will just teach her to continue, plus I will not leave a cart full of groceries that we need just because she's upset that I won't let her have a donut for dinner! UUUURRRRGH!

See? paragraphs. :) So, besides all that, we've decorate for Easter this week, made a few crafts. We went to Gymboree and made an Easter bucket with lots of egg stickers and her name on it. She loves it. We also went to Toddler Thursday again and she painted outside, well after a tantrum about wanting chick-fil-a right then! We'd just gotten there! and yes we went after. Of course we painted eggs and I put strings on them to hang up on our Easter tree. She was very creative with it. Used brushes, fingers, rubbed the eggs in the paint. Oh, and I finally got our story laminated. I think I mentioned that we made a story in the style of Eric Carle? with the animals? I finally got it together and wrote a story to go with the pictures and then we got it laminate, so that it stays nice. It's crazy how much it costs to get stuff laminated though! $37 for six pages! Really?

Over the weekend I got to partake in a really amazing baby shower for a mom we know here. It was called a Giving Way ceremony. Very Earth Goddess/Mother'ish, circles, candles, flowers, blessings. It made me sad I didn't get to do that, but I hope to next time. We all made home made gifts for the mom and we also got to paint her big belly, very cute. We also visited the Atlanta CYCLORAMA! I capitalized it cause it's just fun to say, try it! It's a big oil painting of the Battle of Atlanta during the civil War, it's in a round room and you sit in the middle and rotate to see all of it. Pretty spectacular. I'd recommend it. Before that we went to Sublime Donuts, near Georgia Tech, sooooo yummy! Everyone should go here! The owner wants his donuts to be the most requested last meal of prisoners on death row, I can totally see that happening.

After all that sugar we went to Lee's house for a cook-out. Laylah loves Lee. Loves loves loves Lee. Too bad he's married. She got to run in the yard, play with the dogs, pick various plants, she had a blast. Brandon and Lee got very tipsy and played their favorite game of looking up stuff on u-tube. Yay. I was sober. Yay. I got to drive him home where he continued to look up stuff on u-tube and tried to convince me it was the funniest thing ever. Yay.

Today we had our Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt. They had a good time looking for eggs, opening, trading, wanting more eggs. It was at a local playground so we had lunch there and played too. Of course two minutes after we get there Laylah has a fit because the swings are taken and she cries, screams, runs away and wants to go home. Before the egg hunt! Ugh! It's all about distraction I guess. But of course telling her about the hunt, she wanted it right NOW! and we weren't ready yet. Another fit. She will get over this, maybe not soon enough, but someday. I hope. Ok, gotta run and pick up hubby. Tomorrow is the dino-egg hunt at the dino museum. Please, please, please, don't have a fit as soon as we get there and refuse to participate! Please?

Two and a HALF!!!

Laylah officially turned two and a half yesterday. It's a milestone. In six months she will be three and that makes me think she won't be a baby anymore, she'll be a little kid. Don't really want to think about that. Anyway, this week I decided I'd take advantage of our fair city for the few remaining months we have left here, it seems Brandon is sure we're headed to DC. We went Everywhere! Monday we went to the zoo. We had a great time, the weather was warm, Laylah got to ride the train and sat in the Peacock chair on the carousel. She found all the animals that they mention comparing to dinosaurs on Dinosaur Train and told me all about them. Giraffes are like Apatosaurus, rhinos are like triceratops, lions are like T-Rexes, etc. She's so cute. It was really a fantastic day. On Tuesday we went to the children's museum and the aquarium, two of her favorite spots. She played the most with the pretend food at the children's museum, she's really gotten into that lately, first shopping for the food and paying for it, just like Mommy! and then putting it away and making dinner, just like Mommy! Only she warns you every time not to really eat it because, "It's pretend! Don't eat it!" At the aquarium we finally saw the belugas again, they've been gone forever, and after that we went to the playground across the street, she loves that playground and since it's still light outside later we can enjoy it after five when the museums close. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and we missed the parade on Saturday because I thought it would be the day of, so I looked high and low for something to do that would be St Patrick'sy, we went to Gymboree first to no avail, then in the afternoon we went to a new toy store called Bean Head Toys where they had a craft time. Very cool toy store! We made a shamrock decoration and played with lots of toys there. They have a story time too that we might try. Then we made bread from scratch at home and I made sausage/potato/onion/beer stew with the crusty bread and some Irish cheese. It was yummy. Thursday was busy busy. We went to the High Art Museum in the morning because we ended up get a membership there from a coupon for only $45 which is less than it would cost of us to go once anyway and we can now go to a program they have called Toddler Thursdays. They give you a paper when you get there with instructions, every week is different. This week we were supposed to look for a portrait of a lady with a blue dress where we would then find Ellsworth the Cat who would read a story. We did this going from gallery to gallery asking questions about the paintings, "Is that lady wearing a blue dress?" "Does that have a boy or a girl?" "That girl looks like Laylah!" etc. We found lots of mommies with babies (Christ and Marys) and then we found the right one and got to hear a story about following lines and what lines make, very cute. Then we went downstairs to their classrooms to make a self portrait. We did this by drawing with marker on a mirror then wetting a piece of paper and pressing it to the drawing on the mirror so it would transfer. Had lots of fun with this, though the portrait ended up being more Picasso than Renoir. After that we went to their children's area which is great, they had a person doing a survey about putting children's area's in art museums that we took and ended up getting a free poster, Andy Warhol, Laylah picked it out, I wanted the Degas, but what can you do? After the art museum we went home for a nap before joining our friends at the Dino Museum. You thought we would forget to go there? Never! We ended up having Quinn, Rhea, Sofia, Jaqueline, and Laylah running around the place. At one point they were all holding hands, soooo cute. Of course Laylah took it upon herself to show her friends around and sing the T-Rex song at least eight times. On Friday we went to Sweet Apple Park, once we found it, I really need a GPS! The whole group was there again and we had fun playing in the sandbox, it was over 70! Then we all went to the Fickle Pickle for lunch, twelve mamas and babies and grannies, we drove the waiters crazy! It was fun though and we ate outside. After that we decided, well she hasn't napped yet and it 3pm so she probably won't, so we went to a toy store having a petting zoo day. We got to hold little chicks, see rabits, an alpaca, a horse, lambs, etc. We also played inside the toy store for a while and watched them take professional photos with bunnies, but we didn't do that. $20 for one 5x7? not worth it. Laylah did nap on the drive home afterall and good thing since we were stuck in traffic, including spending forty minutes on a stretch of road that usually takes less than five because Atlanta Traffic cops SUCK! Brandon spent Friday evening out with friends for a birthday party so Laylah and I had a quiet night, and since the weather was soooo nice I decided to open the windows for a while, right? nice? NOOOOOO! apparently I let in all sorts of bad air allergies because by bedtime I was terribly stuffed up, headachy, and had a sore throat! yay! I slept not at all, spent Saturday miserable in bed while Brandon took Laylah to the bookstore for a few hours. Sunday I was feeling a little better and I felt so bad about not doing anything for her official half birthday that I dragged myself out of bed and we took her to the children's museum beacuse that's where she said she wanted to go. It turned out ok and since it was rainy my allergies weren't bad. We went to a new pizza place after that where they gave Laylah a ball of dough to play with and a mini chocolate ice cream for dessert. It was yummy. This morning I woke up with a terrible migraine and a ball of tension in my neck, yay. The migraine is gone for now but the ball is still there. I've been applying heat which seems to help. Maybe just slept wrong, maybe thinking too much about how I don't want to move, I dislike this ball. When Laylah wakes up I'm debating staying in or going to the post office to send Cathy's baby package and then going to the store for food. We don't have any which is a problem. Well, I was busy last week, who can remember to buy groceries with all that going on?

Babies, babies everywhere!

It seems like everyone I know has either just had a baby, is having one, or is trying to have one. We fall into the last category, hoping it won't take too long. However, because of all of these babies I am in baby-stuff making mode. My friends Cathy and Alea are both due in April and I realized last week, crap! I have not made any blankets or hats or anything! So to Michaels we went and bough a boatload of yarn, which, as it turned out, was still not enough, apparently I needed an oil tanker-load of yarn. So Cathy is going with a Tigger theme so I've made her a yellow/pink/white little cap for the baby, cause even though she'll be born in April babies always need little hats when they are first born, they get cold easily. I'm also making her a tigger blanket, which is what I need more yarn for. I hope I get it done before she's actually due though. Alea is going the natural route, home birth, not finding out the gender, so I made her a blue and purple little hat because she thinks she's having a boy and she likes blue in any case. She is having a birthing encouragement party with her midwife and we are all supposed to bring something home-made, some encouraging note cards for her to read while in labor, and something to eat. So I've made her a vase that I painted with a mother and child, sun and moon, her sign and the baby's, I'm going to fill it with sour lollypops that she can suck on during labor since the roof of the mouth has a pressure point that is supposed to relieve pain. I'm going to send some to Cathy too, but they might not let her have them in the hospital since they don't let you eat anything or drink anything while in labor. I think everything is turning out well, we'll see, it has certainly kept me busy most evenings. Makes me think about the little babies coming soon and how precious they will be, how precious Laylah is, how small she was.. I know it will be a challenge to have two, but I think she'll be such a good big sister, she keeps telling me she wants a boy baby in Mommy's tummy, and to name him Quinn, her current boyfriend. She's a funny one. Today we went to Gymboree where she did a great job participating and following directions, sharing even! After that we went to the grocery store, and she played by herself when we got home so that I could straighten up a little and make some banana bread with our old bananas. Added some ground flax seeds and wheat germ this time for an extra boost, we'll see how we like it. The house always smells so good after baking banana bread though. Then we sat down to paint, just a few sheets with green, yellow, blue and spunges and fingers. I'm going to cut out Clovers from them and put them in the window. When we were done she said is was nap time, I love how she does that, I hope it lasts forever. During her nap I've made her a St. Patrick's Day crown out of felt, pipe-cleaners, and glitter and some clover pins for Brandon and I to wear that day, just for fun, maybe if he wears his I can hook it to his tie like a tie pin. Other than making lots of green food I don't know what we'll do for St. Patrick's Day yet. OOps, she's awake, Time to get more yarn and finish these baby projects so I can send them off before the babies arrive. Though nine months seem to last forever, it really does zoom by, I hope we get to experience that zooming soon again too!

Week in Review

Let's see...this week we've enjoyed fine weather, spent a day cleaning up vomit and rushing to an after-hours Pediatrician, of course we've been to the dinosaur museum, and the necessary weekly dentist appointment, but we also had my LAST dentist appointment (for six months), went to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy 70 degrees outside, and had a fantastic Mama's night out. A couple of the moms that we see often decided in December that we should have a monthly outing for Mommies, dinner, a movie, some special activity, so relax, without our kids or husbands, where we can unwind and complain about those we love best. This Sunday was the all time best one, so far. We went to a tapas restaurant with seven moms. After pitchers of sangria and mojitos our pregnant dd took us all to see Dear John, terrible, very very bad movie btw, and two moms left/got thrown out of the theater for making too much noise about how much it sucked, those of us that were not quite so blasted stayed and regretted it, but it was a great time anyway. We all laughed too much, ate too much, and decided we all need another bachelorette party, with me, being the one married the longest (how scary is that?) as the bride. We'll see if this comes about. We are also going to do a painting class together soon. It is really great to have girlfriends that are at the same place in life that you can go to for advice, cry with, laugh with, trust your children with, and I feel really lucky to have that here. So after our wild night out, Monday was still busy. Laylah's friend Sofia and her mom and little baby sister went with us to the Atlanta History Center for their Easter Egg Hunt. They had a great time searching for eggs at the farm, saw some real chickens, made a crafts of a chicken coming out of an egg, played cornhole with stuffed peeps and won prizes. It was also 70 degrees out so after nap we also went to the Fernbank Science Center that afternoon to walk in their forest and smell the daffodils. And since the Fernbank is right around the corner we went to the dino museum after that. Tuesday we went to a playground with our usual group then went to La Leche League meeting at Harry's, the gigantic Whole Foods out here. There was free lunch included, though since it was Kale salad and wraps, Laylah ate none of it and we went to Chick fil-a after. She loves shopping at Herry's though because they have those little kids carts that she can push herself, I just wish she didn't get tired of pushing it half way through and so I end up bent over pushing it while carrying her at the same time, ugh. They also don't fit much in them. It was a good day though. Then today....it started raining last night and has not stopped, at all. Of course I had to drive all the way out to Roswell to drop Laylah off at Play while I went to my last dentist appointment, and of course my wipers have decided they don't function on fast mode (they flip themselves around and scrape the windshield to hell) so I ended up going about 40mph on the highway in torrential downpour with wipers set at just above super slow and everyone passing me for four trips back and forth to get here there, get me to the dentist, go back and get here and then get us home. I'm freakin' exhausted from driving with so much tension! I hate driving in the rain like that! Thank God we got home safe. Oh and I did actually stop at a Jiffy Lube on the way back to get her and asked them about the wipers, apparently I just need to go to an auto parts store and get entirely new more hefty ones cause the ones that came with the car just aint cuttin' it. yay. So they could do nothing. Laylah had a good time though at Play, she was jumping in the bouncy house laughing when I picked her up. She wanted to go to an outside wee right after but I had to explain that was a bad idea in the rain. And it's supposed to rain until Saturday, I might just not leave the house till then. I'm traumatized. We'll see. At least no more dentist for a while, a long while. I'm telling my teeth now that if they ever do that again, whichever tooth is responsible will not be given a second chance to get their act straight, they are out! No going to the dentists every two weeks or more for six months ever again, stupid teeth. Ok, gotta go, need to just sit and relax and not think about my knuckles white on the steering wheel hoping my wipers would hold out on the drive home. Stupid wipers. I need another mama's night out, tonight, with a hummer limo and driver. May your wipers be working and the rain not hit you!

Dino pictures test

This is a test to see if I can put pictures in here the right way. Hope this works. The first picture is of Laylah in her dino dress at the dino museum gazing up at all the big dinos. The second one is of Laylah and Quinn, her fellow dino lover, as they sit under their T-Rex and dream of their wedding reception that will be held in this room in about twenty years. Oh, and the correct spelling of that dino Laylah can say is.....parasaurolophus. Just in case you were wondering. Today we're doing Eric Carle Animal pictures as an art project using sponges, tinfoil, plastic wrap and fingers to spread the paint, then we'll cut out animals. Laylah is loving the Mr. Seahorse book right now and since the weather is terrible I thought it would be a good indoor craft. Also, I made super yummy pasta last night. Laylah really wanted broccoli at the store but she never eats it so I told her we'd get it if she eats it. So I made Spaghetti and then cut up the broccoli into really small pieces, added chopped sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and chopped pepperoni, fried it up, added some water from the cooked pasta and some lime juice, then tossed in basil, parsley and parmesan cheese. It turned out sooooo good and Laylah ate every bight of broccoli! Woohoo!

Thank you, Dinosaurs. Thank you!

I know, I know. I haven't written in forever and I didn't mean not to write, things just got away from me. We've been trying to potty train, given up trying to potty train (whole long story I just don't want to go into), doing taxes, having parties, and the usual day to day craziness that goes along with a two-year-old. First, this is the last year that we will get probably any taxes back and I just want to commemorate this tax season by saying I will really miss the wonderful surprise of completing our taxes and getting a HUGE check, or automatic deposit. Of course I wish we could use it for something fun like a vacation, but saying goodbye to credit card bills feels pretty darn good too. We also had a really fun Valentine's Day Party for Laylah's usual playgroup and their moms. It was a craft party with gifts to be made for dad ( a heart-shaped dough hand-print, later baked and painted to be a paper-weight) Mom (scented candles with message heart candies glued on to make them festive), and grandparents (home-made valentines) We also decorated shortbread cookies with pink and white icing and lots of lots of sprinkles. Oh, and made heart shaped hats/masks out of paper plates. It was really a good time and everyone brought home some really cute crafts and memories. We also almost went to a Valentine's Cupcake party but Atlanta shut down because, drum roll please.....IT SNOWED!!!!! Three or more inches! In ATLANTA!! It was crazy! We had lots of left over strawberry cupcakes (we took them to an AP meeting the next week and it worked out) but we had a fantastic time in the snow. The next day was a Saturday and we went to Chastain Park, where everyone had sleds, where the heck did they get sleds in Atlanta? It must have been a rush shipment to Target that we didn't get the memo about. We used out pizza pan, didn't work too well, but we build a snowman and a snow-dino and multiple snow-angels. Laylah's snow-angels were head down, but still the general shape. Everyone was out though and the park was sooo pretty! The next day on Valentine's Day we went to the Fernbank, the Dino-Museum, because, let's face it, Dinosaurs are Laylah's true love so we decided to honor that on the day of love. We had a blast with her showing everything to Daddy, since it's usually just her and I. Brandon also made me dinner that evening, planned it and everything with no input from me. It was yummy and I think the tradition should continue, maybe once a week? Anyway, since then I've been the dentist once a week to continue fixing my stupid tooth, it's been what? five months of this now? Nice. But one good thing has come of it. We finally found a reliable babysitter! We had a girl before but she got a job and started canceling all the time, so we went to this playgroup at a place called Play. It's basically a kid's gym with trampolines, balls pits, foam pits, balls, slides, sand-boxes (actually full of rice so less messy), a book corner, play kitchen, trains, cars, a kid wonderland! and they have a drop-off program. You can drop off your child for up to four hours at $8 an hour for age appropriate play and programs including a snack and craft and a report when you pick them up of everything they did. It's fantastic. I checked it out very carefully and read all the reviews, but frankly, Laylah loves it! She doesn't complain when I drop her off, the staff there is fantastic, the security is great, she has made the cutest crafts, and they have a kid's night out every Saturday evening so parents can have a date night. I've only dropped her off twice for dentist appointments, but it worked out great and no need to reschedule because you can't find child-care. It's not like day-care with forty kids and nothing for them to do, they only take eight at a time, ever. I love the reports of what she did too, makes me feel like I didn't miss out. She shared, she played with dolls, she read a story, she had a poopie diaper, etc. We also went this last weekend with Daddy so that she knows we don't just drop her off there and so Brandon could see it. They also have a parent's room so you can let your kid play in the supervised area and you can sit on the nice couches and watch TV or read or whatever. There should be one of these places everywhere! Our mom's group is thinking of using it one morning so we can go to the salon next door and get our nails done while the kids all play together for an hour. Bliss! Next topic. Dinosaurs. We went to the Fernbank again this week with two of Laylah's friends, one, Quinn, is her special dino-fan buddy. They are both huge dino and train fans, and they both love Dinosaur Train and can both sing Buddy's T-Rex song. Quinn's mom and I predict a large wedding with all of their paleontologist friends with a reception at the Fernbank. Laylah had a great time taking Quinn to see all her favorite dinos, singing the song together, holding hands. She of course got a dinosaur at the shop, a parasaurlophasus, which she can say. here's the best part. She spent and hour and a half playing with her dinos ALONE when we got home. No tugging on me, no wanting anything, just taking them with her around the house, talking to each other, etc. It was amazing! I got so much done! Laundry, dinner, ironing, cleaning the bathroom! Thank you Dinosaurs! That $5 dinosaur was sooooo worth every penny. She's gradually collecting them all, and can say all of them. We also have so many dinosaur books I'm beginning to think I've read every child's dino book there is. We went to the library on Wednesday and got five more! I also went to a consignment sale last week and found a box labled, "Dino Books," I got like five books for fifty cents! Woohoo! I'm saving some for Easter presents. Then on Friday we went to the Aquarium with her playgroup, she and Quinn connected again over the love of fish. Laylah held his hand as much as he would let her and kissed him a couple of times. Tried to drag him off to dark corner to talk of their love of dinos and fish. I've got a two-year-old who's boy-crazy! Well, maybe more Dino-fish crazy, but still. Brandon should be worried. The weekend was busy as well, Friday evening we picked Daddy up from work early and went to the bookstore and then Taco-Mac for a special dinner treat, Laylah ate about three tons of chips and salsa, her favorite food by far. Saturday we went to J Christopher's for breakfast and had Dino-eggs, a key point in it's popularity with our family. Play is right next door so we went there after. Then we went to Harry's, it's a huge version of Whole Foods with a farmer's market feel to it. They had tons of yummy samples and we got Laylah gelato. In the evening Brandon babysat and I got to go see Valentine's Day with Laurel. It was a very feel good movie though very similar to Love Actually, but I loved Love Actually so I don't see a problem with that. Sunday we cleaned, went food shopping, and watched USA loose Hockey Gold. Then Lee came over for Pizza. Laylah loves Lee, I think he'd give Quinn some competition if he wasn't twenty-five years too old and married already. That's all for the catch-up, maybe next time I won't have to catch up and will just keep up. If the solo-dino play continues I may have a lot more time on my hands. Yay for Dinos! All HAIL DINOS!

Hmmm, I'm SAD!

I'll explain my title in a bit. First the diet. It was actually very filling for a cleanse. Lots of fruit, salads, some hearty cabbage soup, rice and beans. Brandon said he felt hungry the whole time but I never did. Laylah has been eating so well too. She's been eating all sorts of fruit and brown rice and chicken and peas and corn. I've been very proud. We're on phase 2 now that is to reintroduce stuff like meat. Last night we had a spinach salad, brown rice, left over cabbage soup and blackened chicken. The chicken was really good, I was surprised. Next topic, this will jump around a bit. We decided that since we didn't have any big plans over the weekend we'd make a a potty training marathon. We put the potty in the living room, put Laylah in big kid underwear and watched Elmo's Potty time about eight times. We sat her on the potty and read books and did puzzles and talked about when she needed to go. AND SHE WENT POOPEE ON THE POTTY!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO! It's a breakthrough! She was excited too, so happy, she helped me flush it and got a sticker and a Lindt truffle, which she calls a Daddy chocolate, they are her favorites and a good way to get her to do anything. Especially since we get the variety bag and she gets to pick the color and then looks forward to another color for the next time. Of course as we save money on diapers we'll spend it on chocolate. Oh well, worth it. We also took her to Borders to get "The Poop Book" as a reward for her first poop and also the reinforce the lesson. It's a lift the flap book with baby animals and their parents. They each have a special place to poop and you have to help find the poop, then the last page has a bathroom and a little boy who's pooped all by himself in the toilet. She loves it. So this happened Saturday. Sunday she peed on the potty, and Monday too. We sit on it several times a day to try and she gets a sticker for trying but a chocolate and a sticker if she goes. She's also had a few accidents but it's progress. She's wearing training pants now that turn cold if she pees to help her anticipate the feeling. Next topic, we got a really cool phonics book at Kroger for $2. It's called "Pat and the Bat" and has pull out tabs with the word next to the picture so as you go through you find the word on the page and pull it to see the picture. So you can kind of quiz them as they go. There is a whole set of them out there. Laylah recognized several words after just one reading! She already new DAD but she got Bat, Bag, and Man, which is pretty darn good. We'll do it again today and see if she remembers. I'm so excited that she's starting to read, she likes reading me books now, usually ones that she already knows but it's still impressive. I'm a very proud mama let me say. Then there's today. She pooped in her diaper right after she woke up so we didn't have the chance to try the potty but she did tell me as soon as she did it and wanted a change which is good. We got ready and went to the Library for story time, which is every Tuesday. I also wanted to pick up a few more books for her about her potty and one for me about methods of training to get ideas. We got there and the first thing the librarian does is sing "If you're happy and you know it". Now I don't know if it's just a matter of being in a bad mood or that she decided that she was tired of taking orders and wanted to rebel, but Laylah decided, "NO! I'm SAD!" and proceeded to lay on the floor in the corner almost the whole time giving me dirty looks and telling me she was sad and wanted to stay that way! When I asked her why she said, "Hmmmm, I'm Sad. I'm not Happy. I'm taking a rest and I'm sad, right here." It wasn't nap time or anything, she'd just eaten. She just wanted to be sad. I asked her if she was having fun being sad and she said yes. So I let her be sad. As soon as story time ended and the librarian was gone, she got up and started playing and running and smiling. We went and got our books, she was very good about being quiet in the adult section and helped me look for the letters to find the books we wanted. We left the Library and went to Kroger to pick up some mouthwash and she got a Lollypop. Then we came home and she read some stories and is taking a nap. We'll put on underwear after nap and sit on the potty to try again, probably watch Elmo again. If anyone knows of other good Potty movies I would be grateful. Dinosaur Train had an episode about it that's we've watched online a few times. She now knows more dinosaur names than I ever did. Crazy. Anyway, I gotta go, hopefully I'll write more soon. Oh and Brandon has a lunch/interview with a really family friendly firm today and a breakfast meeting with a headhunter (the good employment kind) tomorrow. Things are moving along. Hopefully we'll know soon where we'll be so we can plan ahead a little. Have a good Tuesday everyone and please, don't be sad!

Catch up...fast!

Ok, so I haven't written anything in like a month but I have good excuses. I do! First I was cleaning and organizing the whole house, putting away decorations, getting rid of stuff, finding places for Laylah's new stuff. Then I was getting ready to go to Kelley and Wesley's wedding in Illinois, planning for snow, formal occasions, hotel stay, airplane, it's a lot to cram in. Then we actually went to the wedding, and then there was the day of unpacking and cleaning, and then the inevitable, I got sick. So, now that I am somewhat recovered, still have a cough and stuffy nose, I am writing again. For the most part everything went well over the past month. The wedding was better than we expected, and it was nice seeing so many people from Brandon's side of the family. Laylah got totally spoiled having soooo many people to well, spoil her. She did really well on the plane, the CARES worked really well, without it she would have been sliding around in the seat and totally squirmy. We rented it off Ebay, totally recommend it. After the wedding getting sick was not fun. Especially since it was the weekend of Brandon's birthday. I had all these plans to make it special and I was totally unsuccessful. I dragged myself to the store Friday to get some stuff for her birthday dinner at least, which turned out well. Getting ahead of myself, so we woke up and went to Mary Mac's Tea room, an Atlanta institution of Southern Cooking. DO NOT GO! It has soooo many reviews of being soooo good, and a tradition you can't miss, believe me, you can. First they only serve lunch and dinner, no breakfast of any kind which was annoying, And it was in Brandon's words, "Bad Cafeteria food." He had chicken fried steak that was lumpy and covered in tasteless brown gravy, I had ok fried chicken (supposedly the best in town but Wayside in C-ville is sooooo much better, no comparison) and the mac and cheese we got for Laylah was frankly inedible. The only good thing they had was their sweet tea, and really? how hard is that? Although northerners seem to think it's magical. Just put the sugar in while the water's hot, stupid. Anyway, it sucked, especially for a birthday breakfast that we were looking forward to and I dragged my sick miserable self to. Then we went home and passed out for three hours. Then Brandon called Lee and they thankfully went out to have some fun since I just couldn't. We were going to go to a museum or something but there was just no way. I think Brandon had fun with Lee though. Laylah and I stayed home and we baked a birthday cake, she picked out the type. Rainbow sprinkle cake with butterfinger crunchies mixed in with buttercream icing mixed with cool whip and more butterfinger crunchies on top with blue sparlky writing. She was a good helper. I took pictures. I also cleaned and got everything together for dinner. Brandon came home with Lee and they played around on the Wii with his new Resort game thing I got him and drank some more beer. When Lee left I made dinner. Grilled aspergras with lime, smashed red potatoes, and rib eye steaks with blue cheese onion cream sauce. It was stupendous. Oh and a salad. It was actually so filling we had it the next night too. The sauce is soooooo good, I think I'll do filets next time though cause the rib eyes the recipe called for were just too fatty for me. Very easy to make too. Brandon loved it. And then we had cake too. Brandon let Laylah help with the candles. We put her to bed and then watched something on TV I don't remember because I was practically comatose at this point, then we went to bed. Sunday I was supposed to go out with my mom friends to Maggianos and to see Leap Year. I was really looking forward to it and up till 3:30 I was really trying to feel better so I could leave at 4, but alas, I gave up and didn't go. Of course they had the best time ever and went to the Cheesecake factory after the movie too to get drinks and desert. Ugh! I would have loved that! I'm super jealous. I stayed home and tried to breathe. Oh well, next month. It would have been unfair of me to go anyway because I didn't go our with Brandon for his birthday so I would have felt guilty the whole time even if I had felt well enough to go out. Anyway, now it's Wednesday. So far this week I've been to the dentist again, yay. with a stuffed up nose, soooo much fun. And to the grocery store. We went to boobie wee today and a playground cause it was nice outside, which then led to getting lunch at Chick-fil-a. IN my defense she hadn't been in more than two weeks and had been asking for it since before the wedding, and I am going on a total cleanse four day diet tomorrow. Which will be my next set of things to talk about. I am not fasting, it's a cleanse, lots of fruit and veggies and fiber and brown rice. It's in this book called the "Four Day Diet" and so Brandon and I are going to try it. My idea is that since February brings with it my big dr's appointment to start trying to having another baby, I want to get a healthy start on it. Brandon agrees. Laylah will probably love the rice and bananas and strawberries but she's not doing it. K, that's enough for now. sorry it was so long. Hope you are all caught up. Fun Laylah fact, she has started putting her hand in front of her eyes at parts of movies that she doesn't like. It's so cute. I never taught her that, totally instinctual, not closing her eyes, covering the open ones so she can still peek. She's a cutie!

Happy New Year!

Bringing in the New Year with a very small child is always somewhat of a challenge. Since the holiday is primarily celebrated with adults in mind, (alcohol, parties till 3am, going outside at night in the cold, getting dressed up) celebrating at home with someone that goes to bed by 8:30 presents some interesting choices. First, finding a babysitter, even if you wanted to, is pretty much impossible because all people without someone to babysit, ie their own bundles of joy, have plans, big fat fabulous fancy plans. But, we did not particularly want to go out. We weren't invited to any parties because almost everyone we know either has kids and isn't going anywhere either, or knows we have kids and it's useless to invite us anywhere. And the option for outdoor celebrating, (meaning freezing among a thousand other stupid people to see something that you can always see better at home on TV), was the Peach Drop. Yes, a Peach. Suffice it to say, we stayed in and created our own partay! The day before Laylah and I blew up about fifty balloons of different sizes and colors, then I took two garbage bags, cut them each down one side and then sewed them loosely together with yarn. I then taped half the garbage bag to the ceiling and filled it with the balloons and then taped the other half up. This became a constant source of fascination for Laylah, "Want Boons Down!" But I told her that they were for the New Years party and she only asked every ten minutes until we actually did the balloon drop the next night. What patience my child has! We also made two noise makers from Pringles tubes which we filled with unpopped popcorn and balls of tinfoil, and put construction paper on the ouside that Laylah colored on. Then we made a sign for the wall saying Happy New Year! and we were set to go. The day of we stayed in, played with her new toys, made a slide out of her mattress because we changed all the sheets (I just like the idea of sleeping on clean sheets to start the new year) and she loves doing this. We balance her mattress on the otoman of her chair in her bedroom and she proceeds to slide down it, slide her cars, trains and animals down it, it's a great time had by all. We made twice-baked potatoes, cooked for eight hours with a hunk of ham so they are not at all healthy green beans, and some very nice tenderloin steaks for dinner. Brandon wanted to get a whole tenderloin to cook in the oven form a recipe he found in GQ, but getting a whole tenderloin was just way too expensive so I just got two steaks. I made really good horseradish sauce to go with it. We showered and dressed around 5pm, having spent the day in pj's. I wore a sparkly purple evening gown complete with fuzzy socks and thermal underwear, Laylah wore her pj's (she refused to take them off) plus a dress pulled over it, and flowers in her hair. Brandon wore his black suit with his new red shirt and red pocket square. We ate dinner with red wine for us and sparking blueberry juice in a plastic wine glass for Laylah. Go some cute pictures of her being a lush. After dinner we celebrated new Years in England, meaning 7pm. We did the countdown with Laylah's microphone, she helped by counting up as I counted down. Then the balloons pdropped, we stomped on big buggle wrap, shook our shakers. We ate our 12 grapes, drank rasberry champaign and wrote out our wishes for the new year and put them in our Christmas stockings so that we can find them next year when we decorate and see whether they came true. We danced, we sang. we popped all the balloons, mostly by Laylah sitting on them. Then we did the usual bathtime and bedtime ritual after talking to Tita and Tito on the phone. Then Brandon and I watched yet another episode of Dexter, soooo good. Brandon then promptly fell asleep at 10:30 and I stayed up to ring in the New Years at midnight on the couch. I did go give my two loves kisses at midnight but I doubt they noticed. Today we got up and had breakfast, went to the store to get more balloons, she's become obsessed. Then after Laylah's nap we hid gold chocolate coins all around the living room. She went around finding them. The idea being that finding coins is good luck, and finding chocolate ones on New Years Day has to be better! It think it's a fun tradition to start anyway. We also watched lots and lots of football and the Rose Parade. I think we made up some good traditions to celebrate New Years with little ones that we will continue for years to come. Hopefully Laylah will remember them fondly and celebrate with her children this way too, after she has a few years of going out to parties, dressing up all fancy shmancy and going to stand in the cold with thousands of other people and seeing something she could be seeing on TV better, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun, well at least until she has someone worth staying home for.

NO! Boobie first!

First off I have to say that the snuggie is possibly one of the best inventions of the twenty-first century, or twentieth for that matter, and why the heck had no one thought to put arms on blankets before? It's....heavenly. Everyone should have one, the government should hand out snuggies at birth with social security cards. For those of you living in Hawaii I would even go so far as to say that you should order one, pump up the AC to frigid, just to feel the full effect of wonderfulness, however this may negatively affect your electric bill. Anyway, today I'm writing about a control mechanism that I find both funny and extremely annoying at times. Every time, without fail, that I get up from doing anything with Laylah, even if it's to go to the bathroom, to get a different book, get something she's asked for, make dinner, anything, she grabs hold of me and says, "No! Boobie First!" she proceeds to have to nurse not just one but both breasts, even if for only a second each, before letting me go do whatever. Brandon thinks it's because she think I might be gone a while and wants to make sure to top off before the opportunity goes away, but I think she knows I generally let her nurse whenever she wants and it's not that she does it only when I leave the house, not that I almost ever do that without her anyway, I think she does it to show me who's really in control. You can go but I'll be watching, you can go but before you do, remember your real purpose, you can go but only because I'm letting you go, not because you want or need to. And in some cases it can get desperate, trying to a explain to an almost potty training (in other words trying to persuade her to potty train and rarely succeeding) that you have to go potty when you have to go potty and you can't just go in your pants, well, it does not work. Actually applying any kind of logic to any situation doesn't work at the moment. No, Mommy can't go down the baby slide with you, have you noticed that Mommy is big enough to squash it if she wanted to? No, Mommy does not fit in your crib to jump with you. Now there are times when lessons can be demonstrated and logical conclusions reached by a two year old. For example, the day after Christmas Laylah decided she wanted to take her baby for a walk outside with her new stroller. She had not gotten dressed yet and didn't want to, would not even put on shoes to go outside in below forty degrees. She proceeded to have a fit about it when I tried telling her it was too cold to go outside sans shoes and coat, let alone getting dressed. Finally I said fine, if she insisted on going outside in the cold with no shoes, go, see for yourself little princess. Brandon was dressed so he took her outside. She made it to the end of the sidewalk where the cars are parked, turned to Brandon and asked where now? Brandon said for her to decide, she looked around and said, "Home!" then she ran back to the door. I let her in and she told me, "Mommy, I'm COOOOOOOLD!" while hugging herself. I said, yup, that's what happens when you go outside without shoes and a coat in winter. I can hope she learned the lesson but I doubt it, maybe after a few more tries. Still, it was kind of nice getting to say I told you so to a two year old, and for a moment having the control in my hands. Didn't last long, her next words were, "Boobie NOW!"

Christmas part deux

Like the Charlie Sheen reference? hehe. Anyway, Christmas morning. Laylah wakes up, I jump out of bed to tell Brandon to get the camera ready so we can tape her expression when she sees the wonder of Christmas presents under the tree and what does she do. She lays down on the floor outside our bedroom and acts like she just wants to go back to bed! I'm like huh? So I ask her if she wants to go night night again and she says no, sighs, stays there. Then I tell her to go see if Santa came. She finally stirs and tromps into the living room where Brandon is waiting. She walks in, takes a look at the presents under the tree and kind of gives it the look of, "So? That's there every day. What's the big deal??" Meanwhile I'm hopping up and down and exclaiming that Santa came and does she want to open presents and which one and look at the cookie Santa ate, and she kind of looks at me like, "geez Mom take chill pill already!" I finally convince her to go sit under the tree to open something and she starts getting excited and stupid parent that I am I hand her the one gift that will prolong the present opening phase at least four hours. A tube of plastic fish. Yes, a tube of plastic fish. It was $5. She must have it open right NOW! and then we don't get her attention again to open anything for what seems like an hour. We try to tempt her with dollies, books, she looked up briefly for the all important sparkly shoes, which had to be put on over her footy pajamas right NOW! But always back to the plastic fish in the tube. We took a break, ate Monkey Bread and coffee. Anyway, it took a long long time to open presents. Once she got into it and put aside the plastic fish we still had to open every toy, book, and box, right NOW! She got two babies, a stroller that had a take out bed part, some dresses, several thousand books, a tea set which Brandon and I spent time each taking turns playing with her with at her little table, a little people airplane and car, a talking alphabet book, a talking thomas the train laptop, puzzles, craft books, stuffed animals, and of course the red hat, pink hat, sparkly shoes and green present. The all important green present was actually the tube of fish so maybe she knew all along why she wanted a green present, it was fate. After most of the presents were opened we went to bed to take a nap, all three of us. It was cozy. When she woke up I wanted to get her dressed and tae pictures with all her loot and open stockings and video with grandparents, but this did not work as planned. She refused to get dressed. Struggle struggle, scream, kick, and don't change her nasty stiny poopie diaper for the love of GOD! I'm beginning to think she grows attached to her stinky diapers, like they are her bestest friend. Today she went so far as to run screaming to the diaper pail after I'd put in the latest addition and try to open it to get it back out to put back on. It was actually quite funny if it wasn't also totally disgusting. Anyway, I digress, The not getting dressed part lasted well into talking to Grandma. I'd given up at this point and told her if she wanted to be naked and cold that was just fine. I had to make dinner. I made "Ode to our new Home" Ham, (meaning Coke basted Ham), cranberry wild rice dressing, aspergrass, (yes that's how I say it too!) biscuits, and sweet potato mush. It was all pretty good. Except that we got it all done, ready to eat, table set, and Laylah had a fit about not eating at the table. She wanted to eat on the floor. This lasted another ten minutes because I really wanted to have us all eat at the table and enjoy christmas dinner together like we did at Thanksgiving, it's a rare thing and I wanted it! But no, so I put her food on the floor and Brandon and I proceeded to eat our dinner at the table while she complained the whole time. When she realize she was actually hungry she wanted to eat my dinner, at which point I let her because frankly it was Christmas, she eats nothing as it is, and I was just tired. After dinner we all played with more of her toys. She's very good with the laptop game and the alphabet book. Knows all her letters, pushes the right buttons when they ask, it's quite fun to watch her. We also had fun pushing her babies in the stroller and giving them bottles and babas. She then took a bath with all of her plastic tube animals (she actually got four tubes worth of them) and then we read ten of her new books before putting her to sleep a very spoiled girl. Brandon and I watched another episode of Dexter, which was actually the last one in Season 2 so now we can't get more till netflix actually send them instead of watching them online like we were. Ugh. OH, also, I got red flannel long underwear pajamas with feet from Brandon, with a buttflap. Very sexy I must say. I also got several books to enjoy in the new year, a beautiful necklace from my parents, a snuggie (best thing ever), more pajamas, dvds, gloves, socks, calendars, and chocolates. A good haul all in all. Brandon did well with two new video games, clothes for work, lots of books, and gift certificates. Laylah won Christmas by far with the most presents. Here's the thing though, next morning she wakes up, runs into the living room, looks around with a confused expression and turns to Brandon and says, "Where my presents?" She totally thought it was going to be a daily occurance from then on. Maybe this is why she's been such a little brat lately. and I don't say that lightly, I would not call my child a brat unless she royally deserved it. But maybe she thinks every day when she wakes up that there will be presents under the tree for her and when there aren't it just starts her day off on a bad note. That's what I'm telling myself anyway, I'm really hoping it's not her sincere wish to watch Mickey Mouse Club every second of every day, to never change her diaper, and to scream and kick every time Mommy asks her to do anything. It's just that she is feeling what every child feels, Christmas is over and it won't come around again for a long long time, and I remember how that made you sad even if you'd had the best Christmas ever, you were still sad to realize tomorrow wasn't Christmas anymore.

Christmas is...magical?

This last week we celebrated all that is related to Christmas. It was busy to say the least. Brandon had Christmas Eve off so we did have more time to spend together, but as we'd apparently not planned on having a toddler who suddenly has decided that everything we usually do, as in every day routines, are now call for outright rebellion and murderous screams. We had a nice breakfast Christmas Eve morning, Laylah didn't eat a bite. Then Brandon went last minute shopping while Laylah and I made cut out cookies to decorate. This was mostly successful except for the fact that she kept insisting, no matter what I did, that the cookies cutters should cut the cookies backwards, and when I'd try to show her how to do it right so that the cookies were actually cut and not just squished all over the place, she of course had a fit. After this we tried napping, I put her down in her crib and she went to sleep, then I went out to get one last thing for her stocking. Brandon had returned at this point. Apparently she woke up the minute I left, and I was back about thirty minutes later and she was still upset. So I lay down with her. She finally kind of slept but woke up at 3. So we still had to ice the cookies and we sat down to do this, these were the cookies we were leaving for Santa so I wanted her to have a part in them. It took maybe fifteen minutes and then I started trying to get her dressed. This has started to be one of the biggest tantrums of the day. Screams, kicks, tears, will not get dressed, will not let me change her diaper that is falling off it's sooo full. I've tried letting her pick stuff out, Brandon doing it. Telling her far in advance, explaining that we are going out and where to get her excited, telling her she'll get a treat, letting her watch tv while getting dressed, nothing works. Anyway, we finally forced her into her dress, by this time Brandon is seething, we're leaving the house on Christmas Eve for mass at 4 at 3:45. Well, the thing about that is that I'm the one that asked him when he wanted to go, did all the research, he didn't seem to care, when I proposed going at 4 because it said it was the nativity scene thing with kids, it did not say it was a mass, I thought it was an actual little nativity play, he said fine. So we get there, of course there's no parking, he gets more angry by the second, we get in the overflow area, of course there is nowhere to sit, and guess what, it's a mass. So I take Laylah down to their school area where there are several kids running around while he stays in the church. I ask this, I'm not Catholic, I don't know all the terms, what everything is, why am I in charge of figuring out when we should go and where and all that and then when it's not what he wanted get blamed for it? He was pissy the rest of the day because the church was too full. Well, what did he expect? should we have gone at 2 to get parking and seats and sat there for three hours with a restless toddler? Apparently so. Anyway, after mass we went home and I made fondu, which turned out well except again Laylah ate nothing. I seriously don't know what the child lives on. We watched MIracle on 34th street and talked about Santa and stockings and presents, we did her last advent chocolate which she loved. We then put out the cookies for Santa, tried reading NIght Before Christmas except she wouldn't let Brandon sit next to her so it was difficult. When she was finally in bed we dragged out all the boxes, wrapped some last minute things and somehow fit it all under the tree. Then we had some eggnog, the good kind and watched Dexter, for those of you who don't know is about the un-christmassiest thing you can watch, it's about a good serial killer. She's up now and I'm having issues typing while she's trying to fondle/nurse on my boobs, so I'll go now and write the conclusion of our wonderful holiday extravaganza plus ham next time.

Crafty Goddess

Yes, that's me. I've crowned (does a goddess get crowned? ordained? dieified (how the heck do you spell that word???)?) Anyway, myself the crafty goddess. As you've all learned by now I've been making a lot of home made christmas presents. Which reminds me, Christina, I will get you those pictures of us for your thing, I'm just having issues right now getting to the pictures on the laptop because Brandon has put them all on an external hard drive and saved them who knows where and then when I import new ones they all go to the same place and I can't find them!!!! Anyway again, so today started out kind of icky because I had yet another dentist appointment, never quite as fun as you hope. When I got home Laylah was in full art mode as the babysitter had been coloring with her and they were tracing their hands. Laylah wanted me to continue this so I decided it was the perfect time to try out a new crafty thing I'd thought up, Christmas tree Feet! hehehehehe. You'll think this is genius! To explain, we made Rudolph hands earlier in Dec by tracing her hands onto brown felt and then having the thumb be the head and the fingers the legs. I added a red cotton ball thingy for a nose, added a tail and pipe-cleaner antlers, and a googly eye. Then put another pipe-cleaner on the back for a hook. They were super cute and a great memory of making them and seeing in however many years how much her hands have grown. So with the same inspiration I thought hey, I haven't done anything with her feet! So today we traced her feet, she loved this and helped with the marker, onto green sparkly felt, added a brown stump at the bottom (the toes) and then decorated them with pipe-cleaner gold star, tinsel, and sequens for balls. She loved it, of course she also spread about a pound of various sized and colored sequens all over the carpet, but she did help clean them up after. We put another pipe-cleaner on the back for a hook and there ya go, Christmas tree feet! They are super cute and now we have feet and hands to mark christmas 2009. Next year I'll have to come up with something new, can't have twenty rudolph's in various sizes and nothing else. Maybe Santa feet? mouse hands? who knows? by the time she's 18 we'll have every variation I can come up with. hehehe. It was fun though. Too bad I didn't think of it in time to send them with the other stuff for christmas presents, but maybe for reyes. Mom, Dad and Jane disregard that last, you do not know what you are getting from us for three kings and you will be very surprised and delighted when you receive whatever it is. :) Little miss Christmas Tree Feet herself has awoken from her very short nap so I shall wish you all a good day and a Silent Night!

Comments please!

Ok, so everyone that has read this has commented, not here, that they can't comment. I don't now why. The settings are set so that anyone can comment. When I go on to it without signing on and from a different computer I can comment. Brandon went on and he could comment. Here's what we did in case you're just not seeing it right. At the bottom of the posts there is an underlined "comment" , click on that. It should take you to another page where you can either sign in if you have or want a google account, or there is an option for anonymous which means you don't have to sign in or have an account. Select whichever you like and then comment something in the text box. We tried it three times and they all showed up right away on both computers, then we erased them because they only said, "testing". So you should be able to comment, if this still doesn't work I don't know what to tell you, create a google account if you don't have one, sign in to that on igoogle, then find my blog maybe and since you are already signed in maybe it will recognize you another different way and let you comment. Thanks for wanting to comment though! and if it still doesn't work then just email me.

Carolers in the car

So, is it bad that I had a hard time spelling carolers? I totally thought there should be something doubled in there. Anyway, I've been singing a lot lately with Laylah and trying to teach her some carols. She's gotten pretty good and jingle bells and recognizes it when it comes on wherever we are. Today on the way to Boobie-wee we were in the car and I was singing with the radio and asking her to sing with me, it was kind of a jazzy version of "It's Cold outside" and so she started singing, This is what she said, "booboo, be, ba, ba boo, da be, boo boo, be baaaa!" all the way to boobie-wee. It was hilarious, just going along with the song, she didn't know the words so she just boo-booped along to it and nodded her head. It was tooooo cute! I was almost crying I was laughing. She has also, without any kind of encouragement from me or her father, to my knowledge we've never said this in the car and haven't told her to say it, started saying, "Are we there yet?" specifically at one point on the highway on the way to downtown, usually to the aquarium or children's museum. At first I have a hard time understand her, she'd never said it before, and when I got it I was totally in shock! How did this happen? How did my child, without prior knowledge, pick up the most renowned annoying thing to say for a child in the car ever? I have no idea, but it was really cute and funny, and so far not annoying. She does only ask once though, so far, so I guess I'll enjoy that while it lasts. Isn't she a hoot? Today we're going to a Polar Express Party in our PJs. Hopefully she'll enjoy it. We'll sing all the way there! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Over doing but not done?

I don't know how I get into this every year. Probably from the general belief that I have to do everything without help, not that I'm realistically expecting help to come, afterall someone has to work for our living, but GOD, I am so tired of the Holidays! I'm thinking that maybe if I start everything in July by the time Thanksgiving comes around I'll be done and prepared and then I won't have to do anything but enjoy myself, but how can you bake eight types of cookies in July and have them good do Christmas? What if something happens between July and November that should be in the christmas letter? maybe I can do the crafts and gifts, but frankly after this I'm almost willing to say screw it and just get everything online. Not that I don't get a lot online, but due to financial issues, and because I mistakenly thought ooh making crafty gifts will be easy! We made lots of home-made stuff. Not to say it wasn't fun, but when you have five co-workers, two ex-co-workers, brothers, in-laws, grandparents, friends and immediate family to make stuff for, it adds up. The making the stuff isn't even the issue, again that was fun, Laylah was great, did beautiful things and made me smile, it's organizing what goes where, to whom, how many cookies go in which container for whoever they are for, AHHHHHHHH! and I'm still not done! I feel like I'm totally behind and I swear I can't go faster. Ok, yes, we have taken "breaks" to go to the aquarium three times in the last two weeks, the children's museum, the usual Gymboree and boobie-wees, but still, every moment not doing that I was doing this! Now i've missed the supposed easy time to send stuff at the PO, meaning the time when lines aren't forty deep at all times of day, and now I have to plan that visit like going to war. Here's the plan: Thursday after nap everything WILL be packaged and ready to go. I will get out Laylah's big stroller (which we have not used in forever) drive to the PO, stuff as much as I can around, in and on top of the stroller, put Laylah in there somewhere, then I'm gonna set up our mini DVD player with Christmas Elmo and strap it to the little snack tray thingy that the big stroller comes with, and with many snacks and promises of candy and going to Toys R Us afterwards, brave the PO to send out home made goodies. Thankfully I'm only sending three packages, big ones though so I hope they fit. If there is one person in that line that has a stupid question I might lose it! I'm hoping this will work and it will go smoothly and I'll hit the PO at a time after lunch rush before after work rush and maybe, maybe there will only be two people in line. Wish me luck, pray for me, bow down to whatever God you worship that we all get out alive, oh, and our christmas gifts get to where they are going by christmas.
After Thursday, I'm DONE! no more! Well except planning christmas dinner, finding a sparkly pair of princess shoes promised from Santa, getting my tooth fixed, hosting two dinner parties, going to three playgroups, a cookie-exchange, and paying the bills, doing the laundry, feeding everyone, making the beds, maybe showering once or twice, baking more cookies, wrapping presents....nevermind, I'll never be done.

Thanksgiving/Birthday and now Christmas?

So, I have not updated in about a week so I have a lot to say and not much time to say it. Thanksgiving was my 31st Birthday. We spent the day at home, I cooked and cleaned the day before so I didn't have too much to do. We got some pre-made stuff from Trader Joe's and a pre-brined Turkey. I made Sausage balls, Apple Bread, Tukey with dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, cranberry orange relish, and apple pie, I think. It was a busy day but fun one, got to play with Laylah, take a bubble bath, talk to family, and I got presents! Then Friday we got out early and took the Marta (the train) to the High Art Museum where they are having a DaVinci Exhibit. Laylah loved the train, she calls it the Daddy Train because Brandon takes it to work. The exhibit was actually really good and I'm even more impressed by the collection in general there. They also have a lot for little ones including a differnt craft that goes with something in the museum every week, and a special play area for them with all sorts of art related stuff. We made a DaVinci invention and a tin-foil horse with Laylah. They also have a two story horse outside to advertise the exhibit which Laylah was entranced by. She was actually really good and I think she's getting a fascination for art, we paint almost every day and she loves doing one side of the page and folding it to see the pattern, she always says, "So Pretty!" I guess I'm praising her efforts quite well. She also paints and colors in the bath and draws with crayones and markers several times a day. Maybe I've passed on that love of art gene. After the museum we went home and spent the rest of the day relaxing, eating. Saturday we went to Marietta to the GWTW museum there. They also had a farmer's market going on in the town square and a little playground with a train that had a slide coming out of it, so you can guess where this leads. The market had lots of yummy treats to sample and I even got a free cookie for guessing the correct spice, it was Cardamon, which I thought was pretty obvious but they said I was the only one to guess correctly. The museum itself was fun but they didn't have as much stuff as I thought they would. Mostly old copies of the book in several languages, a couple of movie props and lots and lots of GWTW doodads through the years. Laylah was not impressed, oh well. We likes Marietta though, cute town square, cute shops. That afternoon we went to Walmart cause I needed more christmas lights and there was one on the way home, remind me never to go to Walmart again!!!! The People of Walmart website is soooo right. Then we had to go to the library to return books and we got several christmas stories to get Laylah excited. Sunday we had good intentions of spending a lazy morning at home, Laylah however, wasn't up for that and wouldn't take a nap, so we decided to go ahead and get a Christmas Tree. We went to berry Patch Farms and cut our own tree. A Leyland (sp?) Cyprus, so it doesn't have needles and it pegged as the perfect tree to have around younguns. We got a four footer, Laylah picked it out. Then she played at the playground on the fram and we got funnle cake. We decorated the tree after we got home. I made some cookies and we have crackers and cheese and hot chocolate as snacks. We put on music and went to town. Laylah helped too and we got some good video and pictures. It was a great weekend, if busy. Seems very traditional to me. This week so far we've completed the decorating, started the christmas cards, started maing the home-made gifts, made a list of the cookies I'll make next week, and went to Gymboree and Boobie Wee. This afternoon I think we'll take a break and go to the children's museum or Aquarium, if I get the chance to shower anyway, which reminds me....Bye!

Ugh, followed by Vicodin

So, I've gone to the endodontist, he was good, friendly, put lots of numbing stuff in my gums so I didn't feel anything, but (there's always a but) now my mouth really hurts four hours later. Turns out the dentist who originally did my root canal fourteen years ago didn't do it right and left part of the roots in there which lead to this whole disaster. There is an infection in there that he's hoping will resolve itself after he's done redoing everything, which means I need two more appointments, yay. But if the infection doesn't go away he may have to pull the tooth, which I'm all for, the stupid things has caused enough problems, however, I also don't want to pay for it. OH, and vicodin doesn't work very well. I have an order of pain medicine program to follow, first advil, then vicodin, then percocet. Right now I'm on the vicodin, it's ok, but I'm wondering what kind of agony I'd be in if I had not taken it because it still hurts pretty bad. Not percocet bad yet, but bad. Oh, and I can't eat on that side of my mouth for three weeks. On the weekend of Thanksgiving. Super timing right? One good thing is that we found a great babysitter through all of this, which leads me to believe the saying about something being harder than pulling teeth. She played with Laylah and they got along so well that Laylah gave her a hug and kiss when she left. This is unheard of! We are totally gonna use her again. After I got home I had to get my prescriptions filled, so we went to Kroger and then Choo-choo Bike (toys r us). We had to get more bath paints and Laylah stayed good at Kroger through waiting for my meds with the promise of choo-choo bike. She loves that place. Gave me some ideas of what we'll get her for christmas too. But I think I might try Walmart cause they apparently have super prices this season on toys. When we got home Laylah took a good long nap giving me the chance to gingerly eat some pringles (they have pickle kind right now, my fave!) and read my book. I'm currently reading a Joanna Fluke book. She writes mysteries about a Cookie Shop owner and after almost every chapter is a really yummy recipe, I've tried several and they are really good. The stories are really cute too. I've gotten the last two from the Library. I'd totally recommend them. This one is called the Key Lime Pie Murder, they're just cute. Now time to play and try to ignore my tooth. I hope all of you have wonderfully healthy teeth and can eat on both sides of your mouth for Thanksgiving!

Weekend Crazies

I've come to realize that since we don't have much of Brandon during the week, we kind of go crazy doing a whole bunch of stuff on the weekends. I remember a time when weekends meant staying in bed till noon, not getting out of pajamas at least one day out of two, and just relaxing. Not so anymore. Every weekend is go go go! This one was no different. Saturday morning we went to a birthday party for Laylah's friend Rhea. It had an owl theme so Laylah wore a little owl shirt and we made a dress and little owl pillow for Rhea, along with getting her an owl book. Alea, Rhea's mom, did a great job setting up coloring stations, outside fun, and owl themed activities. The cake was also yummy and Laylah actually ate some. The only thing that wasn't great was that Laylah insisted on being wherever anyone wasn't. If everyone was doing something outside she wanted inside, and vice versa. So I spent the time running around with her and missing most of the fun. She did help sing happy birthday though, we'd been practicing and she did a good job. When 1pm rolled along and Brandon picked us up we were going to go home for nap time, but Lee called and wanted to go to a new Pizza place for lunch. Laylah had not napped for three days in a row, we'd been trying to do this lunch with Lee for a month and she didn't seem tired, so we decided to try. Of course she fell asleep about five minutes before we arrived. We sat out in the car for another twenty minutes, Lee was behind, and let her take a little siesta. I got to talk to Cathy, which was nice, but not long enough. She's finally feeling some movement and finds out the sex of the baby next week. So excited for her. But we found out her baby shower is the same weekend as Wesley's wedding so I can't go now. Very disappointed. She was such a huge help in planning mine and I wanted to be there for her and now I guess I'll just have to send a gift. Maybe I can go up and visit when the baby is due.
Anyway, we ended up loving the pizza, very fresh, and Laylah watched them toss the dough with rapt fascination. Then we went to Atlantic Station where they were having their official opening to the Christmas shopping season. They had the coolest machine that made snowflake shaped bubbles and a huge christmas tree in the main square, a craft fair, performers, and of course sales. We didn't end up getting anything but it was a fun excursion. After that we finally went home to discover that we had a total of three diapers left. This lead to a mad dash looking for more and hoping we didn't have to go out again, especially Brandon since he'd already missed so much football. I did find three more and we decided it could wait till Sunday. We ate left overs, tried to watch Wall-E, which Laylah really wanted to watch but did not stay interested in, and then went to bed. Sunday morning we went to a new restaurant for breakfast called J. Christopher's. They sent me a birthday coupon in the mail, with my name spelled right and everything, and after looking them up online we decided to go. It was sooooo yummy. I got eggnog french toast, Brandon got a sausage and gravy skillet, and Laylah got dinosaur eggs (real eggs but she loved the name). They were really friendly too and we think we'll go back. Good marketing on their part, though I am still curious as to how they got my birthday. After breakfast we went to Target for diapers and I found some cute red tights for Laylah to wear to our portraits that afternoon. We then went home and she took a good nap, THANK GOD! while I primped for portraits. I had decided to get everything done at once so we didn't have Laylah take pictures around her birthday and we got christmas and birthday taken care of together. She had a change of clothes and we brought lots of props. It turned out well, we got some really cute ones, but I don't think we'll be doing Sears again. They take forever, FOREVER!!! to process your order after taking the pictures. We were there for over an hour with them doing this and that with us waiting so we could pay and leave. I took no time in deciding which pictures we wanted but it took them an hour to put it in the computer right. UGH!!! Brandon was totally losing his patience, which he doesn't have much for these types of things anyway, and Laylah was way past done with exploring what Sears appliances had to offer. We finally got out of there around 6pm, we were going to go to the Barnes & Noble after but ended up going home instead. We were all starving and cranky. We had more leftovers for dinner and Laylah got to talk to grandma before bath and bed. So, though mostly good, it was a hectic weekend. They always seem to be. I guess I prefer that to having nothing to do and nowhere to go, but someday, sometime in the not too distant future, it would be nice to have the old kind of weekend, sleep, eat, sleep, tv...but not next weekend, or the one after that, or really any of December, or January, maybe February? I'll see if I can pencil that in our calendar...

Thankful

As Thanksgiving approaches it's easy to start thinking about all the things you are thankful for, well easy for me. I'm thankful for my family, my beautiful daughter who brings laughter, love and adventure to my life. My husband, who supports us, is patient, kind, and willing to be silly to make his girls laugh. My parents, who are always there when I need them and provide such comfort and shelter and wisdom. I'm thankful to live in a place that I finally feel is a home. We've made a life here with friends, clubs, activities. We know our way around, we now where to feed ducks, where the best slide is at the best playground, where to find the cutest hair ribbons and cheapest used kid's books. I feel like we belong and I haven't felt that way in a very long time. Actually it's been a long time since we've lived somewhere that I thought I might actually want to stay, for most of my adult life it's either not been an option or not an option I wanted. This is different and I hope we can stay. I'm thankful for seeing and learning new things through my daughter's eyes every day and have the excuse to come up with something new to do and see instead of sleeping in and watching TV all day. Though some days I'd be really thankful for that too. Today we went to a playground with a group of wonderful Mommies and their babies and then to a duck pond. Later we'll make some home-made Christmas presents and decorations. Laylah may not remember making them but when she'd older she'll take them out of storage that first week of December and be proud knowing she helped make them when she was little, maybe even show them to her babies one day, that makes me smile. I love this time of year and I hope I make it special enough that she loves it too. I'm also turning 31, which is a little daunting, another year farther away from my twenties. But, in another way it gets me excited. This year we'll have another baby, I've decided. 31 is a good age to try again and Laylah would be three when the baby is born. That way if we want more after we'd still have time. So I'm thankful that this year brings so much joy, so much excitement, some challenges, but so much love. I feel like finally things are falling into place the way they should be, the way I've dreamed of, and I can't ask for more than that. Thanks, thanks, thanks!