Happy Father’s Day

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June is a busy month around here – Baylor’s birthday, my birthday, father’s day and our anniversary. Generally by the time we get to our anniversary, we are so partied out and broke, we are happy to have frozen pizza to celebrate!

And true to form, PW bought himself a little present and requested we didn’t spend any money on him. Done and done. Instead, he got to spend some time at the shooting range while B and I recreated the breakfast from her favorite new book Tyler Makes Pancakes! . The book comes with a recipe for blueberry pancakes and calls for cantaloupe and bacon on the side. I happily take my demotion to sous chef when Chef Wand is in the kitchen.

 

Baylor also presented  Peter with her gift she made at school. How cute is the frame with nuts, bolts and washers?? And I love that she has tools and a hard-hat. Such a great pic for dads!

The pancakes were delicious! And we had a lazy morning around the house after breakfast followed by family nap time and then swimming (thanks Missa!). It was a great day not deterred by the “soul crushing heat” (direct quote from a meteorologist). And as I write this post, the Wildcats are winning in the college world series. Life couldn’t get much better.

Happy father’s day to all the dads in our lives!

 

Zip It or the Doll Gets It

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I was woken up early Tuesday morning by loud shouts for Mommy. As soon as my heart started again, I realized the shouts were demands for me to come to Baylor’s room and help her favorite doll, New Baby, put on her hat and find her pacifier. I ignored the first shout, but the second one infuriated me (Momma doesn’t like being woken up, even more so to help out inanimate objects). I marched to her room declaring either New Baby comes out of the crib or her accessories do, but either way, waking Mommy and Daddy up to dress a doll at 2 freaking am was completely unacceptable. There was more shouting, crying, a brief tug of war and then finally an agreement which lead to everyone except for me going back to sleep.

I laid awake for the next two hours unable to get comfortable and also thinking about when Mr. Man is here and he is sharing a room with Bay. What am I going to do when she pulls something like that and wakes the real baby? Or vise versa? Which is why I tossed and turned for the rest of the night leaving me oh-so-friendly on Tuesday morning.

The end result is that New Baby either gets put to sleep in her own bed OR her accessories do not go to sleep with her. Either way, the doll’s on notice.

That’s right New Baby, I’d sleep with one eye open too…

Birthday Recap

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I planned to post about my birthday yesterday, however, I was severely sleep deprived due to Baylor’s favorite doll, New Baby, loosing her hat and pacifier in the middle of the night. More on that tomorrow. If the doll makes it to then.

Anyway, I had a lovely 30th birthday. It hasn’t quite sunk in just how old I am, but I’m sure as my back gets achier and the cost of my face cream continues to increase, I’ll get a good dose of reality.

I treated myself to a lovely pedicure, breakfast with the sister (including presents!), a nap, phone calls from family and friends, endless FaceBook well wishing and dinner with B and PW. It was a fast, but totally relaxing day. We dined at one of my favorite places, Cowboy Ciao and then came home for some cake and presents – it was a fantastic day spent with the ones I love…I am however, looking forward to the birthday remix where we have cake AND cocktails in a few months!

 

And yes, that dress and hairdo do look familiar. It’s the only damn thing I own that fits right now and doesn’t look too horrible. Not to mention my hair is atrocious due to the need for a cut and color and hormones. Did I mention that I love the end result but hate being pregnant??

Hand Over the Camera

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When we were kids, my dad snapped pictures of everything and anything we did. He had a great camera and always had it handy. So I guess it’s safe to say I come by my need to document life via photos, naturally.

I invested in a Cannon Rebel T3 last summer after exensive research. I needed something that was fast, easy to use, small and didn’t cost us Baylor’s college fund. I realized that in order not to break the bank, I’d have to ditch the small requirement. I settled on the T3 because it wasn’t enormous and it got great reviews for newbies like me.

I snap pictures all the time with it – which means I’m never in the pictures. PW will take over periodically, but then there’s never a picture of the three of us. So this past weekend for Baylor’s party, I grabbed a friend that I knew took great pictures and asked them to snap a few shots of the important moments so that I could actually be present and enjoy. And the result? Awesome. The pictures are beautiful because they’re done with someone else’s eye so the light is a little different, the zoom is a little closer, everything is just different enough that it’s fantastic. And the best part is that I get to help blow out the candles on the cake, eat it and have the picture to remember it for a lifetime.

So next time you are busy snapping away, hand over the camera and see what happens. At the very least, you’ll be able to prove you were actually there!

Case in point? I love the flowers in the front of this pic.

I love catching me mid song and B’s sweet smile!

Compartmentalizing

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Compartmentalizing is the name of the game today. It’s been a year since we lost Mame and I just can’t do it today. I can’t disolve into to tears. I can’t think about how much I miss her and all the other sad feelings that would overwhelm me if I let them. I had an ugly cry (a really ugly cry) on PW’s shoulder last night so that I could face today and the tasks at hand without puffy eyes (it’s not going to great so far). I just need to get through today in one, non tear streaked piece and can and will accept and feel whatever emotions come my way on another day. It’s just too much today.

I have a voice mail from last May on my phone from Mame and I can’t delete it. It’s so funny – it’s her telling me that she swears there is a bird in her yard and when he chirps, it sounds like he’s saying “Baylor! Baylor!”. She ends the call by noting that she has yet to take her pain meds so it is clearly real and not a hallucination. It makes me laugh and cry all at the same time.

So, no sad comments please. No long hugs or “how are you?” questions. Only jokes, snarky comments and funny stories today. I’m terrible at hiding my feelings so I need all the support I can get. We’ll deal with the sad stuff later, ok?

Happy Birthday Baylor!

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Phew, what a weekend! We spent the entire weekend celebrating Baylor and the amazing fact that she is now three years old!

The festivities kicked off with some presents from mom and dad – Dr. Barbie, Hello Kitty everything and pancakes for breakfast. The morning quickly ran into her party for her buddies. PW and I are suckers for backyard shin digs – when we remodeled our house, the phrase “oh, that would be so awesome for a party” came up many, many times. Therefore we spent the last few weeks planning the best splash party any kid without a pool could ever ask for. I started a Pinterest board and had a blast collecting ideas. The best one though was the Kid Car Wash. Peter was pumped for a new hands on project and his creation was amazing. There was also our (ghetto) water slide that consisted of a small pool at the bottom of the swing set slide. Add in some big buckets of water (which turned out to be a hit all on their own), some water balloons and giant squirt guns and we had a hit on our hands!

Sunday afternoon was the family get together which consisted of actual family and also our close friends who we consider family. It was so nice to catch up with all of them, eat Baylor’s favorite food – quesadillas and open presents. All in all, it was amazing and totally exhausting – everything a birthday should be!

Pancakes and Dr.Barbie

Either craftyness is contagious, or PW’s been holding out on me. I showed him this free printable website and he nixed it as being too much work – then surprised us with this Saturday morning!

The Amazing Kid Car Wash – complete with bubble machine. Even the parents were considering a run.

Splash down!

Serious squirt guns.

When buckets become fun…

It’s official when the candles are blown out.

Momma and her girl.

Ready to blow out the candles, again.

Finally a picture of the three of us!

Eating her cake in her new “doll” high chair. Thankfully Grandma thought ahead and bought a sturdy one!

Bear was so tired, his butt didn’t make it all the way into bed.

Pig or People?

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Last night we tried out a new baby sitter who cousin Zoe just loves. Her name is Olivia and we tried to build up the fact that she was coming – we find if we make it  really exciting, there’s no melt down when we leave.

So yesterday morning PW asked B if she was excited about Olivia coming and she responded “oh yes. I just loooove Olivia”. Confused, we looked at each other and then back at the kid and told her that she’s not met Olivia so how does she know she looooves her? B was quiet a minute and then said “oh I know her”. I went back to making breakfast and then it hit me – she thinks Olivia the Piglet is coming to baby sit.

So I mentioned to her that Olivia was not a pig but a nice girl and she seemed a little bummed. And the rest of the day she asked “is Oliva a girl or a boy?”. When I would respond that she was a girl, I could see the wheels turning in her head thinking ‘Olivia the piglet is a girl too….”. Thankfully, despite Olivia being people and not piglet, they got along famously as Olivia let B go through her purse, stay up late and she “believed” Baylor when she told her that she got two M&M’s before bed.

Archives Week

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It’s Archive Week at Scottsdale Mom’s Blog! I got to pick my favorite from Angela’s (a fellow contributor) posts. Which might be the most difficult and also the easiest job ever since she write such great stuff. Angela is the “what to do and where to go” lady and she has some really fantastic ideas. The post I chose has some great places to visit with the munchkins, even in the heat! Who doesn’t need ideas of what to do with energetic munchkins in the summer?? So read, enjoy, and get out!

www.scottsdalemomsblog.com

Schooool’s Out For Summa

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Holy moly. It has been one jam packed school year and yet it’s hard to believe that it’s over! And my how much B has grown this year – just look. Here’s her first day of school:

All chubby cheeks and finally getting some hair!

And on the last day (btw, it’s pajama day at school):

Look at how long she is! And finally hair!

It’s hard to believe in just a 9 months how fast she’s gone from “being able to get her point across ” to talking like a teenager, hand gestures and all. The chubby cheeks have thinned out and her hair can no longer be described as baby curls… I know that the teachers have a present for the parents that is a collection of pictures from over the school year…I’m getting my box of tissues ready now. What am I going to do when she’s graduating high school?!