Giving Thanks

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Holy moly. It’s been a crazy week! Thanksgiving was one of the best yet  – after 5 years of hosting, I think we have feeding 20+ down to a science. We’ve gotten to see and spend time with old friends and lots of extended family. Baylor is officially BFFs with her second cousin, Abby. And is solidly convinced that her (step) cousins are the best.

Mother Nature threatened, once again, to rain on our parade. I literally stepped out onto our patio with my hands on my hips just daring her to keep sprinkling all over my beautifully set table. Thankfully, I have a very convincing “mom stare” and she backed off before my linens were soaked. In fact, the sun came out by the time all of our family and friends arrived with side dishes in hand. PW’s turkeys were the best he’s ever made and the entire evening was…relaxed. The everyone ate and then sat and enjoyed the beautiful Arizona weather, candle light and kid’s laughter.

{Mother Nature threatening to ruin my table!}

{Chef Wand}

{Chef Wand’s Turkeys}

{Titi and cousin Zoe}

{The hungry crowd}

{How many kids can you fit on a toddlers climber?}

{this many!}

{How do you make tree climbing more interesting? Do it in a tree not really meant for climbing and add fire!}

{A sweet note from cousin Madi about being thankful}

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too! I am very thankful for you reading, commenting and liking my humble blog 🙂

I Like You

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This morning while changing Baylor’s Pull Up, she put her hands on my face and said:

“Mommy, I like your shirt. And you ponytail and your headband. And I like your eyes and your mouth. And I like your boogers.”

With “boogers” she cracked up. As did I. I asked her if she meant the rest of it but she was too busy giggling at her own joke to respond. I like to think that she meant all of it!

I NICE NOW!!!

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Baylor has been working on pushing her boundaries lately. She’s exercising her right to ignore me and flexing her 2 year old muscles when it comes to doing the exact opposite of what I am asking/telling/screaming at her to do. In all? It’s been a fun two weeks.

I decided it was time to get tough so on Sunday, I instituted “two times and then time out” – meaning I will ask her two times to do something (just in case she didn’t hear or understand me) and if she still doesn’t listen, it’s to the crib for some quiet time.

Her school describes the use of time outs as a chance for the child regain control of themselves. Which I think is a nice way of saying “we make them sit by themselves until they get their sh*t together and can rejoin their pals”. Which I am totally down with.

I lost my temper on Sunday when she just. would. not. sit. and. eat. her. food. It was making me insane and she was doing everything except eat including dancing, crawling across the counter, singing, screaming and feeding her carrots to Bear. I had had it so I scooped her up and deposited her in her crib and said “Call me when you’re ready to be nice”. Maybe 5 minutes later, I can hear her saying Mommy and then something else, but I couldn’t make it out. Then PW started cracking up – she was saying “MOMMY!! I NICE NOW!!”. And she was nice. She came out, finished her dinner with only a little fussing and we had a great rest of the evening.

Then yesterday morning, 6:45, she was right back in the crib for not listening when I asked her to sit down in her seat rather than stand on it. Again I hear ” MOMMY!! I LISTEN YOU NOW!!!” and she did listen and the rest of the day went smooth.

I’m not sure if the time oust are more for her or for me, but I can say that her humor cracks me up.

Baylorisms – part 2

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Because our sweet girl has a language all her own:

“Frog” – Bay has a humidifier that looks like a frog. Therefore all humidifiers are called Frogs.

“Hopsitle” – or hospital to you and me

“Gubs” – gloves

“Cookie” – her cousin Quincy

“Nahma and Nampa” – grandma and grandpa

“Poppynoni” – the fast way to say Pop and Noni

“NumNums” – her favorite stuffed rabbit – Peter taught her that rabbits say “num num num” when their little noses twitch

“Loga” – yoga

“Busssssss” – when she was just starting to speak, she would only say Buh for bus. I would accentuate the S sound and now bus has a super long s!

“Baylor lock” – the lock on the door that she can’t reach and therefore keeps her inside. When Peter comes home, I hear “Mommy!! I can’t open door because the BAYLOR lock!!”

 

 

 

The Littlest Blockwatch

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Ever since we’ve become friends with our neighbor, Melissa, Bay has had an eye on her house. B was hooked with the first high-five “Missa” gave her and now she is constantly on the look out. I know when Missa has left her patio light on. I’m told when her kitchen blinds are open and if her car is there all because the Littlest Block Watch is filling me in. I know when Missa is cutting her grass and when she’s missed a spot. I know if Missa has gotten her mail or if it’s still in the mail box.

The funniest part is what Missa is allegedly doing when she is or isn’t home – if the blinds are closed, I’m told that Missa is very tired and still sleeping. If her car is gone, then she’s probably at “Loga” – or yoga to you and me. And when Bay’s door is open with the baby gate and Missa’s windows are open, there is a constant stream of “HIII MISSAAAAA!!!” being shouted out the door until I explain that she probably can’t hear her – or that Missa probably thinks there is some kind of wild animal making crazy sounds.

I finally broke down and told Melissa a few months ago that there is little that she does that goes unnoticed at our house. I was expecting her to freak out and decide to put up a privacy fence or something (and rightly so). Instead she responded “Oh good, I’m glad someone’s got an eye on the place!”. And now I get a text once in awhile asking the LBW to keep a close eye while she’s away.

This will be a great story when Bay is a detective or a FBI agent some day….or as evidence against her in a stalker trial. Either way, it’s cute.

Today is Scottsdale Moms Blog day! Be sure to see my post on cute Thanksgiving themed crafts. 

Denver Bound

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We spent this past weekend in Colorado visiting friends from law school and going to the UofA v CU Boulder game. In a word, it was awesome.

When the PAC 10 became the PAC 12, PW began dreaming of snowy football games in CO. And when this season’s schedule was announced, he began putting together plans for a road trip. We get a double bonus for trips to Denver because our friends, Brian and Jeanne are now Denver-ites which means we got to see and catch up with them too. And catch up we did.

Friday night was spent laughing, reminising and filling each other in on life, jobs and the kiddo. We talked over the most amazing meal ever at Osteria Marco. We also walked around Larimer Square – it felt like the perfect holiday location; strings of lights, chilly weather and a warm coat!

After a delicious, greasy spoon cafe breakfast, we headed West to Boulder for the game. Colorado is spectacularly beautiful and getting to go to a small college town made me think of Tucson. We arrived to join the UofA tailgate hosted by a group of friends and PW’s fraternity brothers. It’s always nice to know that some things don’t change.

Check out Grizzly Adams back there…

To sum up the game…it was horrible. The wind was blowing at a steady 40mph and gusting up to 70mph. Worse, UofA was crushed by Boulder (maybe the only team that was worse than the Cats). But the scenery and the company made up for all of it. Not to mention the super cute cowboys on the field that were incharge of running Ralphie the Buffalo down the field.

Seriously, check out my hair in the wind!

Beautiful Boulder

Who runs a real buffalo around??

Saturday night we ordered pizza and opened several bottles of wine and warmed up at Brian and Jeanne’s house. After several sips, Brian agreed to break out the guitar and play. He can literally play anything. He has a huge book of lyrics so that everyone can accurately sing along – and it’s something we did often when we were all broke law school students (or just broke because we were married to a student). It reminded of one of my favorite memories – it was maybe a week before we were moving home to AZ. I had cut out of work early to meet PW, Brian, Jeanne and our other friends James and Tess (Brian and James were roommates at the time). I found them all sitting on the “patio” of the row “house”James and Brian rented (I say “house” because their slum lord probably had the house condemned the minute the tenants moved out), drinking and singing Toto’s “Africa” with total seriousness on their faces. There was no making fun of Toto, it was serious music to be taken seriously. The weather was finally warm, the beer was cold and we sat and sang and drank until it was time to catch the last metro home. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to the city, our friends and to being a student.

Flash forward 4 years, weddings, kids, jobs and many miles traveled later and we were right back to that point. We sat and sang until we realized that we had to get up in just a few hours to catch our plane. And much like I am an amazing dancer after several cocktails, I am also an amazing singer. Sadly for you, WordPress won’t let me upload the voice memo I took of the Billy Bragg and Wilco California Stars  jam session. You’ll just have to imagine the awesomeness in your mind.

A thousand thank you’s to Brian and Jeanne for being such sweet hosts and amazing friends. I see reunion 2012: Spring Training in our future!

Say Cheese

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I have been on the hunt for a photographer that fit into our budget to take family pictures for us. I love pictures and I like when I get to be in them, which doesn’t often happen when I’m the one taking all the pictures! Plus, I love the candid shots and retouching of professional work.

Awhile ago I “liked” a friend from high school’s photography page – 2 Comforts Photography. I thought she did mostly wedding work but recently saw some family pics pop up. So I reached out to Meredith for a quote and it turned out that not only were her rates increadibly reasonable, they were having a special AND had openings! Jackpot!

So we met a few weekends ago at Civic Center Park and spent an hour snapping pics. I have to say that Bay was quite cooperative. She did start to loose it towards the end of the hour, but Meredith and her husband Travis were able to catch some great shots during that phase. Needless to say, I am thrilled with pictures and I can’t wait to get them up on the wall!

Here are a few of my favorites:

 

This is the epitome of our relationship – we just follow her lead!

Act surprised when you get our Christmas card, ok?

I love this one

This was when we started entering the uncooperative phase. Thankfully she looks cute when she’s being defiant.

Thank you again Meredith and Travis for the gorgeous family treasures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garlic Shots

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Two weeks. We are closing in on two weeks of sickness around here. As soon as one of us starts feeling better, another is feeling worse. And then we switch.

A family friend told me about a Mexican homeopathic remedy that was sure to ward off whatever illness I have an also keep me healthy. As I was scribbling down the recipe, I started feeling a little queasy at the thought of ingesting the concoction. But I’m into natural remedies and I would like to get rid of my Rudolph nose, so I was in.

I gathered all of the ingredients and then began mixing: 2 cloves of garlic finely crushed. Juice of 1 lemon. Honey. A little hot water. And I added some crushed ginger because it too is a great immunity booster, and if you’re going to drink something disgusting, it might as well be really sick. I stirred all the ingredients together in a high ball glass because it made it feel a little more fancy.

Then the moment had come. I couldn’t mix any more so it was time to drink. I picked up the glass and chugged that beast like it was Thursday at Dirtbags and the glass was filled to the rim with a Sicilian Whore.

And really? It was not the worse thing I had ever had. It sort of tasted like a sauce you would use on chicken – a little spicy and sweet. So if you see a recipe here soon with those ingredients, you’ll know where the idea came from.

As for the immunity properties, I’m undecided. I think it might do better if you were trying to stay healthy rather than get healthy. So Bay and I opted for a trip around the medical complex (our doctor’s are right next door to each other) and got loaded up with antibiotics. We’ll save the lemon garlic honey mix for the chicken.