Monday, March 28, 2016

my favorite child has turned two

At 1:40 this afternoon this little puzzle maker turned two. 
She's about 25lbs and getting taller by the day. She just started wearing mostly 18 or 18-24 month clothes. Most of her 12-18 pants still fit around the waist but are too short so they'll be making an appearance as capris in the summer. Her hair has grown in beyond belief. When she turned one she barely had any hair to speak of and now I can put in a ponytail. 
March 2015
She loves baths and swimming, music, reading, watching her shows (Frozen, Winnie the Pooh and Minnie are still favorites), eating, playing outside and the playground. She goes to story time and music class. She gets excited about going to church to ''listen to the music about Jesus.'' She likes hats, shoes and jewelry.
She talks and sings all day long. A few weeks ago someone told me she'll "really be talking" by the summer. She's really been talking in full sentences for months already.
August 2015
She does not enjoy most green vegetables but she loves eating frozen peas. She's usually fine when I leave her in the nursery but she almost always has a meltdown if I'm in a different part of the house than her. Heaven forbid I leave the house completely. Most of the time she's obedient and well behaved but she's just started to get a little more difficult. Obviously that's when she takes after her father. When she's being an angel she's all me. 
What's your favorite color?
All the best.

What's your favorite animal?
Bunny rabbit. When I was story time I was a bunny rabbit.

What's your favorite movie?
Frozen! I wanna snack.
What does Daddy do for work?
Daddy goes to gym. Daddy go to Wahmart.

What does Mommy do for work?
What do you work, Mommy?

Who is your best friend?
Rachel and Layla and Mr. Lion. I want some something to eat. I'm going to marry Prince George.

Happy birthday, Belle Belle. You're my favorite baby.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter with the peeps, 2016 edition

Yesterday we took Sesame Pie to a children's museum to celebrate her birthday weekend. It was a HUGE museum dedicated completely to play. I She was very excited. Her favorite parts were the Sesame Street exhibit (which is interesting because she doesn't even watch SS), riding the train and playing in the grocery store. Each child got a cart and could pick five items at a time then ring them up at an actual cash register. It was my childhood dreams come true. She headed straight for her favorite foods- a box of cheerios and two gallons of milk. She would have cleared the shelves of all the milk if we let her. 
Customer service at this place was really lacking. Not only did I have to put the food on the belt, I had to ring it up myself while the cashier watched. She didn't even give me my receipt.

In keeping with tradition, Annabelle's Easter basket was assembled last minute. We gave her a set of Frozen utensils with Elsa's picture ("But where's Anna's picture, Mama?"), a burlap bag with bunny ears, a set of ladybug bows and a new plate. The utensils and plate were necessities but they're exciting to her.
She was too focused on stepping daintily to smile for the camera. Normally she'd wear a smocked dress but I bought this at the PX over a year ago and have been waiting for it to finally fit. I can't get over how precious she looked.
In years past we've spent holidays at our families or with friends stationed in the same place. We couldn't do that this year so we spent the day just the three of us. Honestly I wasn't expecting much out of out the day but it turned out well. The sun was shining for the first time in weeks which felt like a small miracle. We went to church, had a small dinner and took AB's second birthday pictures at the park. Have I mentioned her birthday is tomorrow? I need to go to bed before I start crying about her getting so old.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

a gif is worth a thousand words

What I say every time I go to the hairdresser.

When someone tells me AB is a perfect child and I want to respond it's because she has a perfect mother.
What I think every time I get a wedding invitation.
 When I saw a man wearing womens leggings.
When we woke up late and only had 30 minutes to get ready for church but were ready in 27 minutes.
When Annabelle unrolls all the toilet paper again.
When I forget to put my phone on silent.
When I hear that Taylor Swift has written a new song about her emotions.
When Christopher tries getting Annabelle to do something/eat something I know she won't but I want to see how it goes so I don't say anything.
When we leave the playground/pet store/library/anywhere more fun than home and we didn't cause a scene.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This post is totally and completely inspired by these posts. 

Monday, March 21, 2016

another weekend, another round of germs

Hello! How was your weekend? Mine was less than stellar.

I spent most of Friday feeling like I was about to get sick at any second. I couldn't watch a particular video on Youtube because looking at the food made me feel sick. The new (healthy! organic! practically edible!) cleaner I bought made me gag. I told a friend I'd watch her two kids that night so I kept telling myself to just hold it together until they left. No such luck. I was hugging the toilet seat less than two minutes after the kids arrived. It didn't help that their mom brought reindeer hot dogs for their supper. Annabelle would be shocked to know her friends were eating Sven the reindeer from her beloved Frozen. I sent Christopher an SOS about the situation. As soon as he came home I dragged myself up the stairs and fell into the guest bed. I got SLAMMED with the stomach bug. Just the day before I had the TINIEST, SMALLEST bit of baby fever from a baby at Mops. That baby fever is GONE. Gone like a freight train. Gone like a home run. Gone, gone, gone. I forgot how extremely terrible nausea is. I don't know how I survived nine months of it. 

I perked up some on Saturday. I still felt funky but I was no longer running to the bathroom every couple of minutes. We took Annabelle to the playground after her nap and on the way back she started saying her mouth hurt. Ten minutes later when she was sitting on my lap she threw up in my hands. Gross City, USA. She perked up immediately after but I felt like I couldn't wash my hands enough times. 

The quiet restaurant/bar two houses down from us held their St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday night. Of course they did because it was a night I desperately needed quiet. Normally I'm a go with the flow person but that party was NOT on my list of approved neighborhood activities. People who attend bar parties seldom operate on a 2pm-5pm schedule. I made several speeches about how I was going to walk down there and shut down the whole operation if the loud music kept Annabelle awake. I loathe public speaking but I wouldn't have a problem grabbing the microphone from the lead singer of the Dave Matthew's cover band and telling everyone to go home. Christopher said I wouldn't do it. I said I would. In the end I called and asked how long the party was going to last. I said I had babies trying to sleep. Technically I only have one baby but I have a fish too so I don't think it was really a lie. 

And what was Christopher doing all weekend? Constantly checking the poll results on my last post. It's tied 8-8. Frankly I'm shocked. WHO are all the people supporting his view that Chaos (accidentally misspelled as Choas on the poll), Mayhem and Havoc are good middle names? Please come out of the woodwork. I'm dying to talk to you.

Friday, March 18, 2016

a guest post and yet another poll

Editorial comments: I've been asking Christopher to write something for the ol' blawg since before we were married. He agreed, probably because he was hoping in return I'd marry him two weeks after we met. We got engaged more than six years ago and needless to say there's been nothing but radio silence from the man of the house. Enjoy what you read here because history shows it will be six years before he writes another guest post.
***
Hi, I’m Christopher.

I have been assuring Sarah that I would write a blog post for her for the entirety of our married life. While we haven’t been married for very long in the grand scheme of things, just shy of five years is quite awhile to put off an item on your ‘honey-do’ list. The reason for my long delay is the high regard I have for this blog. This blog was the way I met my wife. It was a giant, bright spot in my day while I was deployed to Iraq. I read the entire thing as I was writing letters back and forth with Sarah. I cannot exaggerate how special this is to me. I hope this helps to illustrate why I was, and continue to be, very hesitant to write an entry. I needed to tread lightly on such hallowed ground. Whatever my entry was going to be had to be a good one. It had to be funny, and personal, and intelligent, just like the rest of her entries. So…..that didn’t work out. You get this entry instead.

I’m sure you are all aware of the ongoing disconnect between Sarah and I when it comes to names for children. I tend to like much more conservative names, while Sarah is a little more adventurous. She isn’t voting for random nouns to be used as monikers such as Tea Kettle, or Prune, but still, it’s a little shaky. If her taste in names tried to drive across the border into Mexico it would be questioned heavily. “Where are you going? Business or pleasure? How long do you intend to stay? Why is there a silent Q?” It wouldn’t get arrested, but it would get some serious eye-ballin’ by a highly suspicious Federali. There is one exception to this conservative vs. adventurous style of naming though. I am of the opinion, and I am not joking, that if we were to have triplet girls they should be named Violet Chaos, Daisy Mayhem, and Rose Havoc. Again, I am not joking. The first names would be classically girly and respectable, while the middle names would be strong, independent, and (since they’re half MY family) probably fairly accurate. It might also be a slight bit of a safe guard against wimpy husbands. A man needs more than a bit of confidence to ask a girl with a name like that to dance. It also might be able to instill the idea that they can be girly AND strong, feminine AND self-reliant. If nothing else, it’ll warn the world about the true nature of what I have most likely unleashed! Sarah has said that she will perform some of her HTML magic and build a yay-nay vote. I think we all know where I stand. Yay all the way.

This picture is a good visual representation of my mindset on this issue...



Are Choas, Havoc and Mayhem acceptable names for baby girls?

Yes
No
Anyone who thinks they are should not be naming children
Poll Maker

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

tutus are her new blue jeans

Monday, March 14, 2016

Weekend Report, Daylight Savings edition

Friday found us hosting yet another play date. I enjoy play dates but I have a limit to how many I can handle within five days. Last week we had MOPS, a play date, a doctor's appointment, the landlord over to fix something, and another friend invite herself over all within 24 hours. I almost passed out from all the socialization. It's tough being an introvert who likes people. The line between "this is fun!" and being curled up in a ball in the corner is VERY THIN.
#truestory
#introvertproblems
I woke up Saturday morning to a text from my friend saying we could bring Annabelle over her house whenever we wanted. We've started trading babysitting with them so we can each go on dates but I had no recollection of planning anything for this Saturday. Not people to turn down a free date we made plans to drop AB off after her nap. Sesame must have heard our plans for the evening because she spent all day moaning about her belly hurting and not feeling well. By lunchtime she had a fever. That's how we ended up not spending the evening at a restaurant, but at home with me asking Christopher if he's ever noticed that Matt Damon has very expressive eyebrows. He had not. I'm glad I pointed it out.
The only thing I remember about Sunday is I forgot about daylight savings and we didn't make it to church. Daylight savings on Sunday and no Downton Abbey tonight is almost too much to bear.

Today started off a little later than usual. Sesame usually wakes up around 7:15 but today she slept until almost 9:00. It was a sure sign she still wasn't feeling well. Two hours later she threw up all over. Happy Monday to me! She's been funky for a week so we went to the doctor this afternoon. After all the visits this year I'm sure they're preparing the Hypochondriac Mother of the Year Award for me. The doctor said to bring her back on Wednesday if she's still having symptoms. Looks like I'll either be spending Wednesday at the doctor's office or participating in this weeks play date. 

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

this, that and the other

I am in deep, deep, deep, deep mourning. Downton Abbey is over. My life is not worth living anymore. I have nothing to look forward to during the long winter nights. I've been with Downton Abbey longer than I've been married and it's rude of them to decide our relationship isn't worth continuing.  
I ran two laps around the track today. Clearly the finale of Downton Abbey is messing with my head. The farthest I've run in the last six months is from the front door to the car when it's raining. Just for perspective, two laps didn't mean I ran half a mile. It takes 11 laps to make a mile on that track. I'm patting myself on the back for running 2/11 of a mile without dying. 


Annabelle's birthday is this month. I feel like she was born last week but at the same time like she's been here for five years. I designed her party invitations and uploaded them to the Kinko's website to be printed. They asked if I wanted them printed on paper approved by the Forest Stewardship Council. The only stewardship I'm interested in is trying not to spend all the party money on decorations. Annabelle talks about it almost every day. "I have a Pooh Bear party! My fwends come to my party. And Rachel come. And Amos come. It be so fun!" I wanted to be ahead of the game and bought fabric to make her party outfit when we still lived in Tennessee. We moved seven months ago and the fabric is still sitting on the shelf and I've made absolutely no progress on it. She still fits into the onesie from her first birthday party so at this rate we'll be recycling that outfit. 


Speaking of being fully prepared for things, here's AB's birthday gift in all it's glory:
Look at all those baskets and general junk we haven't touched since we moved.
Correction. We have touched them, but just enough to move them from one side of the garage to another.
Isn't it beautiful? All I have to do is remove it from the garage where it's sat since January, wash it down, sand it, decide on a color scheme, paint it, seal it, and make a curtain. All before the end of the month. No time crunch at all.


Look who discovered bubbles! Best day ever!
They bring her as much joy as eating the frog facecloth brought her last March.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

some things are better left unshared with the public

We had a guest speaker at MOPS today- a midwife named Khristeeena. She brought all her props of female anatomy and beyond. She spent half the time talking about the uterus. She kept referring to it as 'she' and 'her'. I thought maybe I had missed the beginning of a story but nope. She was talking about the uterus as if it's a person. She brought out her placenta/umbilical cord prop and passed it around so we could all feel it. She asked if anyone had seen their placenta and one lady raised her hand and said, "I have mine in my freezer." 
Some people asked questions but I sat there holding baby Layla and not saying a word. (I had strategically placed myself between the two smallest babies there to maximize my chances of holding both.) I'll hold babies all the live long day but I'd rather not spend my morning thinking about the nine year month ordeal of getting them here.