Category: Random

Losing It

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A few days before we departed for Montana, Baylor told me her tooth felt “funny”. My first thought was oh super. The occasional skip on tooth brushing has caught up to me. I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to spin this to the dentist when he tells me she has a cavity. Good God I hate brushing their teeth…. So I took a peek in her mouth and noticed her tooth did look odd – I touched it and it wiggled under my finger!! SHE HAS A FREAKING LOOSE TOOTH!!

My reaction was a little strong. It’s not often that life’s events sneak up on me and take me by surprise. But man, this one caught me off guard. I sort of gasped, yelped, freaked out in one sentence. Which, of course, made her freak out. Suddenly there was a total freak out had by all with lots of “I don’t want to loose my teeth!!” being screamed.

After we were able to get it together, we decided it was all ok and actually very exciting. A week later, B woke PW and I up with her tiny little tooth in hand and a big toothless grin on her face.

toothThe Tooth Fairy, Penelope, shelled out $5 for her tooth. She said it was because her tooth was sooo clean, it deserved a few extra dollars.

I sighed in relief that we survived the whole ordeal….and then B informed me that her other tooth in the front is loose. Holy moly. What’s next?! Didn’t she just get her teeth and now their falling out?! Cripes, at this rate, she’ll be in college by the end of the week!

Welcome to the Doll House

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We had such a good time celebrating B’s birthday. But it seems that some of the birthday presents aren’t quite getting along….

anna

Ya mind getting off of my freaking arm??

Who am I? WHO AM I?? I’m your worst nightmare, hon.

Oh her? Yeah she looks all cute and innocent. But take it from me, that b*tch will cut you. 

As for me – I’ve been to the doll doctor. Yeah. And I’m not afraid of going back. So if you want to make it out of here with all your stuffing, you better respect the order. Know your place at the tea party. And stay out of my crib.

You scared? You should be. Welcome to the doll house. 

Summer Time and the Living Should be Easy

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When Baylor was a toddler, I dreaded trying to keep her entertained in the summer. There’s a limit to how much pool time a two year old will do. I got sick of sweating it out at the splash pad. The museams start to loose their appeal….and trying to get a bored toddler to nap? Did not happen.

As soon as she was old enough to go to day camp, I would sign her up immediately. Our days went from being filled with bordom to being jam packed and allowing just enough time for some mommy and me fun without putting either of us in the looney bin.

That is until this year. I jumped at the chance to sign her up for camp at the swim club. She was bumped into the older group because she can swim well (score one for weekly swim lessons – yes I am patting myself on the back) and she gets to play tennis, golf, basketball and anything else they can play on the grass. And she loves it – she comes home with rosy cheeks, tired eyes and a belly full of junk food. She is running with an older group and the kids are allowed to move between their activities without a lot of guidance – plus there is free time where they can do whatever they want from video games to swimming. She is in love with the independence!

The down side is that I’ve heard her say a dozen times “we have to leave now?! I just want to play with my new toys!”. And pick up time is smack in the middle of Auggie’s nap. Which means my mid morning is spent trying to push his nap time out which is amazingly fun.

That’s when I realized that somewhere in the last year or so, we’ve started to transition to the big kid “I don’t need constant entertainment” phase. And Auggie has never been in that phase which is leaving us a little over scheduled and for no reason. So we pulled the plug. I canceled the last two weeks of camp and instead, we’re going to spend it getting bored. We’re going to stay in our jammies until nap time. Hit the pool. Watch Frozen too many times. Make and eat popsicles.  Play with birthday presents.

So here’s to easy living, catching our breath, getting bored and enjoying a relaxed summer.

Someone’s Happiest Place on Earth

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Peter and I have been kicking around the idea of a trip to Disneyland since Baylor realized it was an actual place. Niether of us are big Disneyland people and anything that involves a line or crowd, we’re out. And not to mention the planning that goes into a trip – holy moly. That part alone made me want a nap. But after deciding that Auggie was going to sit this trip out, it became a little more manageable. And after surveying Facebook friends (hello 31 detailed comments) and the Disney Expert, Stephanie C at Many Hats Of a Mom,  I had a plan.

I’m going to give a lot of credit for our trip to PW. He came with his game face on – and by that I mean he was relaxed, easy going and up for anything. Which made me feel the same way. Long lines didn’t make us groan, prices didn’t make us cry and vacation rules were in full effect. The only negative thing I heard the whole weekend was when he was taking a work call standing in line at the Matterhorn, and really it was hilarious when he said “well, I’m standing in someone’s idea of the happiest place on earth”.

So. I’m here to pass along the favor and offer up my Disneyland trip tips – enjoy!

 

1. Ask your friends

FaceBook comments after asking for recommendations for Disneyland told me just about everything I needed to know. I was overwhelmed by the options available so asking for the do’s and don’ts from friends was a life saver!

2. Plan just a bit

I created a spreadsheet of all the recommendations and was trying to figure out how to fit everything into our two day trip. Instead, I decided to scale back. This was not going to be our last trip to Disney so fitting in every option wasn’t necessary. We decided to buy a one park pass (you can go to either Disneyland or California adventure, just not on the same day), book breakfast with the characters and the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. The rest we would leave to chance and book something spur of the moment if we wanted to.

2. Adopt Vacation Rules

Let it ride. Ice cream for breakfast? Sure! Skip a nap? Absolutely. Letting go of the day to day rules makes the trip more fun and a lot more relaxed.

4. Do the free stuff

It’s easy to forget how fun the free stuff can be. We stayed for the parade and it was great. It was a good excuse to sit down in the shade and eat ice cream to save our seats. We didn’t make it to the fireworks, but I’m sure the same rules apply.

5. Go to the pool

When Peter told me to pack a suit, I almost ignored him. I thought there would be no way we’d have enough time to go to the pool. But we did and B was thrilled. Plus there was a great bar making the most delicious boat drinks. We also met our Canadian counterparts. They had kids almost the same age as us and they were having some work done to their house as well while on vacation. We talked Restoration Hardware over margaritas and swapped Disneyland tips.

6. Bring a stroller

Baylor never rides the jogger so I wasn’t sure it was going to be necessary. But thank heavens we brought it. It made cross park treks so much easier and no one had to carry her along.

7. Pinterest

Because you needed another reason to waste a nap time on Pinterest, right? We were behind a little girl in line and she had a few board books of her favorite characters. She explained that she took them with her to meet the Disney Princesses and had them sign each book for her. Such a cute idea! I’m sure it could go to crazy town real quick, but it might be cute for some memory making ideas.

She’s One of Us

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Baylor’s end of the year packet from school contained a self portrait she created in January. There was a note from her teachers on it – apparently she drew her picture from the feet up. They said all the years they’ve been teaching, they’ve never seen a kid start at the bottom.

PW and I didn’t know what to make of the comment – does that mean she’s creative? Thinks outside the box? Or is she destined to be a crazy cat lady?

Leave it to Noni to put it into perspective. When I showed my mom, her response was “She’s clearly one of us – her heart is in her stomach!”

So from the feet up to the head, down – at least her heart is in the right place 🙂

b self portrait

She’s One of Us

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Baylor’s end of the year packet from school contained a self portrait she created in January. There was a note from her teachers on it – apparently she drew her picture from the feet up. They said all the years they’ve been teaching, they’ve never seen a kid start at the bottom.

PW and I didn’t know what to make of the comment – does that mean she’s creative? Thinks outside the box? Or is she destined to be a crazy cat lady?

Leave it to Noni to put it into perspective. When I showed my mom, her response was “She’s clearly one of us – her heart is in her stomach!”

So from the feet up to the head, down – at least her heart is in the right place 🙂

b self portrait

Last Day

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This year’s last day of school kind of snuck up on me. Really, we’ve been running hard the last few weeks with school activities…this year feels a little more like crossing the finish line of a marathon – it’s relief rather than saddness!

It’s been a tough year. It was our first experience with “life’s tough, get a helmet” type teachers. It was not the greatest experience – but – it was a great lesson in how to get along and make the best of a less than perfect situation. And really, I’d rather do that now in 3 day a week preschool than when it really matters.

In looking back over teh year, I realized how much B has learned. At the beginning of the year, she could spell her name, but not identify it. Now she can read it, write it and write any word you spell for her. I was in awe as I dictated a thank you note to her and she not only wanted to write it, but could write it! Her hand writting has become legible, her drawings more precise and her vocabulary is a crack up. I’m a little worried about her use of the word lure…as in “I’m going to lure Auggie in here with some crackers”.

Watching her imagination, comprehension and verbal skills grow is amazing and so fun to watch. Although the days of not being able to spell the words I don’t want her to hear is rapidly approaching. I think PW and I should probably look into developing our own language.

Wow. It’s not until you look at August v May that I can see how much she’s grown!

(Also, it’s pajama day at school. The Uggs were a fight I could not win. Yes it is going to be 95 degrees today.)

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Brilliantly Stupid

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A few weeks ago, we (ok, that’s a royal we. It’s more like I decided and then wore PW down until he finally agreed surrendered) that it was time to paint our house.  Like the whole house. Our paint had been battered, bruised, slapped with pureed spinach, scraped, sunburned and whatever else happens to a house with a collective 3 dogs, two kids and countless shin digs over the last 7 years. The breaking point was when I went to hang our new Jake Early  pictures, only to discover that the prints that were already on the wall had left discolored squares behind them.

But how? When? I had a vision of Auggie and Mac walking through a paint tray and then finally getting some actual progress made during nap time only to realize it was time to pack up and go get Baylor from preschool. PW acknowledged the only way to do it was to either hammer it out over a few free weekends (which we don’t have) or hire someone.

But how to organize a full house painting, drywall touch ups around nap time, lunch time, dinner time, play time? And then it hit me – Disneyland. We had our trip to Disney planned a few weeks out and the painter agreed he could get it all done (and then did, which is amazing in itself). The plan was both brilliant and insane because on top of planning and packing for our trip, we were literally moving out of our house. Everything off the walls and that was near a wall that could be lifted went out the door to the garage. You never know how much crap you really have…

Long story short – neither the painting nor the trip could have gone better! Peter said a few times “man, your planning has totally paid off!” which is the best complement from mister “we’ll figure it out”.  House pictures to follow when someone finishes my mirror…get that PW?

But first – Disneyland!