Category: Tales from the Crib

A Spot of Tea

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For the readers who don’t know, my mom and I own and manage a water company in Southern Arizona. Why? It’s a long story…

As we close in on the end of the month, I am scrambling to finish up deposits and customer changes and prep my documents to go read meters. It’s not complicated, but it does require some form of concentration. I.E. it is very difficult to do when my “assistant” is shuffling papers off the printer, climbing up my chair and simultaneously trying to draw on my documents.

I have perfected the art of Baylor entertainment so that I can steal a few minutes to and check items off my to do list. She has her own keyboard which she pretends to type emails, narrating her messages as she creates them. She gets a pad of paper and a pen. A coloring book and also my deposit stamps to play with. However Saturday morning the usual things weren’t keeping her busy. Trying to keep my frustration level to a minimum, I suggested she go brush her doll’s teeth (endlessly fascinating to a 2 year old) and then make some “tea”. We love tea parties and have them often. Bay happily ran off leaving me a few more precious moments to complete my tasks.

A few minutes later, a headband clad kiddo (making tea requires  Bene Hana style head wear) came running into the office with a cup of tea and a saucer for me. She then ran back to her room to get the tea-pot, filled up my cup with air,  shouted “KISS!!”, gave me a peck and was off again.

It’s hard to remember sometimes what’s important. It’s easy to get caught up in the grind of work, the endless to do list, and the stress of getting it all done. But all we need is a little cup of tea to remind us why we work like we do and also why it’s good to shut off the computer and go make some tea.

Where’s the Tome – 1st edition

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In case you missed last week’s post, I will be illustrating the travels of Baylor’s Gnome – or Tome as she calls him. Get excited. He goes to some funny places.

I think I might be having more fun than Baylor with this story line. The kiddo had Tome going for a dip in her pool…I may or may not have suggested he talk to Barbie. And is it me, or is he smiling??

A Ghetto Fabulous Summer

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What do you do when you live in Arizona and you don’t have a pool to cool off in? You make a pool to cool off in. Because when the high is 114, there’s only so much pool-less-ness one can take.

Yes, this is our little backyard ghetto oasis. This is the only time of year that I would love the maintenance and cost of having a pool, but because the pool fairy hasn’t come yet, this is what we do to have some fun. And actually it is really fun. The hose going down the slide into the pool? Awesome. The mister under the shade of an umbrella? Surprisingly refreshing. “Tea” parties with Tome the Gnome and Barbie? Can’t beat it.

So while it may look a bit questionable, it is quite fun and refreshing. And some day when Baylor is in therapy describing how she had to play in a tiny pool where she had to roll around to get wet, at least she’ll have the money to pay for it since we didn’t blow her therapy money on a life-size pool.

What Should You Do?

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Peter, Baylor, our friend Cameron and myself all met at one of our favorite restaurants, Orange Table for breakfast on Sunday. Peter and Cameron had been out “killing clay” (i.e. at the shooting range) so B and I met them there.

As we were sitting on the over stuffed couches waiting, a little girl about 4 years old and her parents walked in. When the girl saw Bay, she immediately made a beeline for her, ripped the sun glasses off of Baylor’s face and proceeded to rifle through Bay’s bag of books and other entertainment. Baylor’s immediate response was a look at me like “why would she do that?!”. Annoyed, but not wanting to make a scene, I said to the girl “these are Baylor’s toys. You need to ask her if you would like to play with them”. As I finished this statement, I noticed the girl’s parents were watching me say this to their daughter and yet didn’t do anything. Thankfully the hostess showed them to their table.

Just when I thought the coast was clear, the girl came running back over to retrieve a toy she had left. Baylor saw her coming and politely held up the forgotten stuffed animal. Again, the girl ripped the toy out of Baylor’s hand and then made a swipe for Bay’s bracelets (she was well accessorized). This time the father followed the girl and sat down to WATCH her repeatedly grab at, pull on and steal from my daughter. He said hello and introduced himself but never said anything to his kid. At this point I’m getting to incredulous and about to say something like “could you please ask her to stop since she is not listening to me?” when Peter walked in.

PW gave me a strange look which I answered with a “I have no idea who these people are and yes, they are making me crazy too”  face. At the same time, he witnessed the little girl grab a book out of Baylor’s hand and shout “MINE!!” which Peter answered with “NO, no it’s not” and took the book back from the girl. All the time, her dad is sitting on the couch saying nothing, just smiling like an idiot. It was then that I noticed the mother was sitting right behind me, seeing all of this and also doing nothing.

We were finally shown to our table and got to leave the little terror behind. Sadly it didn’t stop her from running to our table at least 3 times to again try to take a toy, a phone or a bite of Baylor’s breakfast. And again, parents were right be hind her saying nothing.

Peter and Cameron were shocked. I was annoyed but this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered ill behaving children whose behavior is ignored by their parents. I hesitate to tell the parent’s how I really feel about these situations because I don’t want to run into these people later and learn that I burned potential clients for Peter or the family’s guest lodge or after I’ve accidentally rear ended them and they decide to call the police instead of just exchanging insurance.

So I am putting this out as a question: what do you do in these situations? How do you handle it when you cannot get away from a kid who is being a demon? Do you say something to the parents? Ignore it? I welcome any and all comments and I will post a follow-up in a few days with some of the responses. Bonus points for the funny, ridiculous and best of all, clever responses.

Where’s the Tome?

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For many years, Mame had a gnome that sat by her front door. It drove my mom nuts and one day she snuck into Mame’s house and left a book called “How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack” with a note inside:

It became a great joke – my mom would always ask when she was getting rid of the gnome and Mame would always threaten to start a collection.

Every time we would visit Mame, Baylor insisted on being the one to notify her that we were there. First we would ring the door bell. Then Bay would knock and shout: “It Baylor!!”. Which comes out more like “Bay-yer!” and the “it” is not a typo. There’s no “s” when she says “it’s”.

After she finished alerting Mame, she would spend the few moments waiting for her to come to the door petting the gnome. Except she calls him “Tome” instead of Gnome. The pats on his little hat were followed by sweet whispers saying “Hi Tome. Good Tome”.

I brought the gnome home to our house this week and put him outside her play house. The kid doesn’t miss a thing and was thrilled that Mame’s gnome had come to live at her house.

The funny thing is a few days later, she started moving the gnome around. He’s been in the wagon, down the slide, in the wadding pool and sitting at the dinning room table. The concept cracks me up so expect to see more posts on where Tome is this week.

Tome’s new home

Tome on the move…

Birthday Par-Tay

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Peter and I had a blast planning Baylor’s 2nd birthday party this year. It was so much more fun because she actually understood what a party was and that it was all for her. We had crazy straw cups, the new climber, a bouncer, a home-made game of “Pin the Stuff on Baylor”, design your own glasses, cookie cake and lots of friends. What more could a girl need?

Just waiting for her buddies….

Bubbles make everything fun!

Auntie Ali

No boys allowed!

Pin the Stuff on Baylor – will be more fun in a few years

Willow makes “design your own glasses” look goooood

Blow out the candles before the wind does!

Check out Stephanie’s blog www.manyhatsofamom.com for more great pics and her daughter Kelsey’s favorite parts!

Crap Pops

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For Baylor’s birthday two weeks ago, I attempted to make cake pops to enjoy during the family party. Please note the word attempted.

I found a blog that documented how to make the little spheres of deliciousness and I also had a friend walk me through how she made them. How bad could it be?

I forgot I was supposed to be taking pictures so I started when I was mixing the Fun Chip cake with icing to make the cake balls:

And then I started fashioning the balls – I thought they looked a little big and I should have listened to myself:

Then I started coating them in pink candy coating. However, my cake mix was too warm and they kept falling off the sticks. I had to regroup and put the balls in the freezer for a bit so I could finish the job:

After I took this picture, I had a hard time deciding if my creations should be called Crap Pops or Cake Meatballs. I decided on Crap Pops. But after tasting one I realized they were most definitely delicious, you just couldn’t look too hard at them:

Good thing the kiddo didn’t care!

Peter pretended that they were pretty

But I did redeem myself for her big party on Saturday with a delicious M&M Cookie cake. Made from scratch and not too shabby!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baylor

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It’s amazing how  2 years flies by. I know everyone says that, but it’s not a cliché for nothing.

Two years ago at around 11:46pm, our lives were changed forever. If we’d only known then how amazing, infuriating, magical, crazy and sweet the next two years would be! Happy birthday to our little lady Baylor and to many many more wonderful birthdays to come!

7 lbs and 21 inches of perfection

Enjoying her new digs

That smile still melts my heart. Which is a good thing because it gets her out of a lot of trouble!

First birthday

Enjoying her presents

Check out my little Cabbage Patch kid

Enjoying this year’s present with Mr.Bear

Already the cool kid

 

 

Holy Head Butt

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This past Sunday marked yet another week of taking our sweet soon-to-be-two-year old to church. A ritual we’ve done since the week she was born. And until the last few months, has been a relatively simple process. As she enters the second year of her life, she has a new-found fun time at church. Mainly torturing her parents.

Last weekend Baylor was frustrated, hot and bored. In an effort to get my attention and thus relocated to the much more interesting and fun vestibule of the church, she attempted to head butt me. I gave her the mom stare trying to telepathically tell her “knock it off” when she went for a second shot. I’m quite sure that she knew that my usual response to a head butt is a head butt – which I obviously do gently and in a “I’m going to show you that this hurts” teaching kind of way. However, when someone sees you head butt your child, they tend to frown on that. Especially in a place of worship. Therefore my little Einstein knew if she threw her noggin at mine, she was probably A. going to get away with it and B. get to go to the vestibule.  And she was right.

So instead of a demerit system and empty threats, we tried a reward system. If Baylor was quiet, we would quietly thank her for being silent and then give her a yogurt raisin (her favorite). Brilliant? Maybe. But worth a shot none the less. I have to say that it did work, until about a half hour in. The little stinker caught on and then started making noise in order to be shushed and then she knew she got a raisin for being quiet. She’s either going to be president or live in a secluded cabin somewhere running a blog that plots to take over the world.

The one redeeming quality is she’s really stinking cute and I am always sure to dress her equally as adorable. Mostly because I think people are more tolerant of cute kids.

Phun with Photos

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If you could get your DAMN kid’s DAMN coloring book out of my DAMN bed, that would be helpful. I’d like to get some DAMN sleep!

“Mommy, I really loooove your shoes! Are you suuuure I can’t wear them a little longer??”

The real question is; who DOESN’T wear a knit cap and Little Gym medal to walk their dog?