Blissfully Blair

We've come a long way, baby!

2011-10-20T15:38:00.003-04:00

Today was Blair's four year well visit with the pediatrician. When I made the appointment a month ago, the receptionist warned me that there would be no shortage of shots for this visit. She wasn't lying. Five ... count them ... FIVE ... shots today! There were four regular vaccines, and I opted to go ahead and have them give her the flu shot too. Poor thing got three shots in one arm and two in the other. I had to hold her arms and legs to keep her from flailing out of control. After the first shot in the second arm (so the right before the fourth shot), she looked right into my eyes and said:

"PLEASE make them stop!"

At that point, I may or may not have started crying with her. She did great, however, and got two stickers and two lollipops for being such a brave girl. And McDonalds for lunch. And a trip to T*rget to get a prize. (OK ... I was mush in her hands after holding her down for that!)

The great news: our sweet little girlie who weighed 4.7 pounds at birth and wasn't even close to being on the charts for weight or height ... is now in the 75th percentile for height and weight! Go Boog! She grew 2 inches and gained 6.5 pounds since her 3 year well visit.

Her mental capacity was great ... I believe the doctor's exact words were "She's more in line with a 4.5-5 year old - she's a smart one!" They also gave her a vision test, and she has perfect vision. She's gained a lot of flexibility in her left ankle, but we're to continue working on her right ankle. The doctor said that ballet would really help in this arena.

I am so proud of her, and we are so blessed to have such a healthy little girl!

Fair Fun

2011-10-18T08:44:00.005-04:00

Last Friday, Brian and I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take Blair to the fair in Perry that afternoon. The weather was perfect, and none of us had ever been to this particular fair. I wasn't sure how Blair would react to all the sights and smells ... the fair can be a teensy bit overwhelming to think about, let alone experience.

She did great! We got there just as the draft horse show was starting, and she loved seeing all the beautiful horses prance around the arena.

Next we had to find a horse that she could actually ride ... from the moment that I picked her up from daycare and told her where we were going, all she could talk about was riding a pony. And, after she finally got that first ride out of her system, I dare say that she would have been as happy as could be if we had just rode the pony for the whole evening!

The petting zoo was next ... this was by far the most impressive petting zoo I'd ever seen. They had a baby giraffe, a miniature zebra, a miniature donkey (my fave), and everything else "mini" that you could imagine ... and some that you probably wouldn't have imagined. Of course Blair was drawn to the petting zoo after getting a glimpse of the tiniest pony I've ever seen. He couldn't have been more than four feet tall and sooo cute! We were supposed to go through and feed all the animals in order, but we had to go straight for the pony first, then throw some bows to make our way back to the beginning so we could feed the other animals. Here she is feeding the very well-mannered giraffe.

After we scarfed down some yummy fair food, she and Brian decided to ride the scrambler. You know, the one that just spins you around in circles really fast? She liked it OK, but Brian was a little green when he stepped off! Then she wanted to ride this ski lift thingy that took you slowly over the whole fair. It seemed harmless enough, even to a mommy who is admittedly horrified of heights. Two feet off the ground, however, and I started freaking. Hands sweating, hyperventilating freaking. So of course Blair caught a glimpse of the terror on my face and decided that she didn't like it either. She screamed bloody murder, and I felt HORRIBLE on top of being horrified. Brian and I finally got her calmed down and she wound up enjoying it ... she even tried to console me several times.

"It's OK mommy. Look at the pretty lights! It's OK."

After what seemed like two hours of imagining my whole family plummeting to the ground, we finally arrived safely on the ground.

We had an apple dumpling with ice cream to celebrate. Blair got really upset that Brian got "yucky" apple stuff on the ice cream and proceeded to melt down. So, we decided that our first trip to the fair had run its course. Naturally, we had to visit the prize winning cows on the way out.

Four?!?

2011-10-11T11:18:00.014-04:00

Where in the wold has the time gone? Blair turned four yesterday ... it seems like time keeps going faster and faster with every year that passes. She decided that she wanted to have a cowgirl birthday party with a pony, so that's what she got. Mimi and Papa came for a pre-birthday visit and gave her the cutest little cowgirl outfit ... now she's a cowgirl from head to toe! When I got the camera out to take a picture, she struck a pose and kept right on going. Wonder who she got that from? :)

Next she had to show off her "fishing" skills. She loves to go fishing ... the grass is the water, and the poor, broken Mickey Mouse is the fish. I've got to hand it to her ... she has a heck of a cast and she catches one every single time!

After the photo shoot and fishing adventure, we had a little birthday surprise for her: we went to see the Disney Princess show in Macon. It wasn't Disney on Ice - it was a stage show of Cinderella, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast. It was pretty good, but last year's Disney on Ice was much better. Mimi and Papa came along for the Princess fun, which made it even MORE fun for Blair. I do believe I heard Papa snoring at one point, but that is to be expected from him. :)

Although Blair may beg to differ ... she was so enthralled with the show that she wouldn't even turn away for a second so I could take this picture. Could be that she was tired of me taking pictures by this point.

Sunday was party day. JLOD made her the cutest custom birthday outfit! And here she is again striking the poses ... seriously, I don't know when she decided that she was a supermodel, but she's got the posing DOWN.

We had the sweetest pony named Ima come visit during the party. We had very thoroughly explained to Blair before the party that the pony was coming to visit for the party ... he wasn't coming to live with us. She protested a little, but she understood. To help the kids get a little more comfortable with the pony, we cut up some apples and carrots so that they could feed her. I'm not sure whether they enjoyed actually riding the pony or feeding her more! The pony figured out where the treats were very quickly, and she wanted to stop at that spot during every ride. They spoiled her!

Of course Blair was fearless on the pony. Right when she got on the first time, the horse did one of those shake things where she literally shook her whole body (like she was shaking water off), and that freaked Blair out a little, but she recovered very gracefully and resumed her cowgirl persona.

Next came the cake! We picked it up the day before the party, and she wanted to taste it soooo badly. But she did great and waited until it was officially cake time.

She will not tell us what she wished for. She's gotten it into her head that dreams are like wishes, and if you tell them, they won't come true (sounds like something off a princess song?). So she won't tell us about her dreams anymore either. Little stinker!

We are so incredibly proud of her ... she's so much fun at this age. FULL of personality and still nonstop energy. We go for her four year well visit next week, and I'm anxious to see where she is on the growth chart. At three, she had risen to just above average ... quite far considering she wasn't even close to being on the charts when she was born. Brian will come with us for this doctor visit ... she'll have to get at least 4 shots, and I know I can't do this one alone!

Hard questions, and even harder answers

2011-09-06T10:06:00.005-04:00

Before I get into the Blair-related story, I need to give you a little bit of a back story so that the Blair part will make a little more sense.

When I was about four months pregnant with Blair, my dad committed suicide. I miss him terribly, and the thing that I have always hated most from the moment that I found out what happened is that he never got the chance to meet Blair. I spoke to him on the phone four days before it happened, and we were talking about the fact that Brian and I had an appointment in a couple of weeks to find out the sex of our baby. My dad said that I should just cancel the appointment, because he just knew that we were going to have a boy, and that he would have the famous "Cornelison ears." (If you know me, you know that I myself was blessed with the Cornelison ears ... which are basically HUGE ears that stick out). I just laughed and said we'd see soon enough. Four days later, I learned that he'd taken his own life with a single gunshot wound to the head (sorry to be graphic, but it is relevant to the Blair-part of the story). While I'll never agree with his decision, I'm slowly letting go of the anger and coming to accept his decision. My dad was such a good man ... he had one of the best hearts you've ever known. But, again, as much as I miss him, I am so disappointed that he never held or saw Blair.

Blair has been pretty curious about my dad for the past year ... maybe a little longer. She started by asking who my daddy is and where he is. I just explained that he went to Heaven to be with Jesus before she was born. She seemed to accept that readily enough for a while, which was a good thing because I certainly didn't want to get into an in depth explanation with her. She doesn't need to know about suicide right now.

Then, about 5-6 months ago, as we were getting ready for work and daycare, she asked me who "shooted" my daddy. Again, I've never gone beyond telling her that he's just in heaven with Jesus. I just looked at her and said "I don't know" - she caught me WAY off guard and I didn't have a clue how else to respond. A couple of days later, she asked me if he had a booboo on his head. And again, I said "I don't know" and quickly changed the subject.

Blair went to stay with my mom in Florida last month, and Brian and I joined them for a few days when it was time for us to pick her up. At dinner one night, my mom, step dad, Brian and I were talking about whether ghosts might be real. I've never believed in them, because if I allow my imagination to go in that direction, I'll never sleep again. Plus, I've always been content to believe that you either go to Heaven or hell when you die ... I like the simplicity of it. Mom and Richard had recently read the book "Heaven is Real" which was penned by a little boy who had a very close encounter with death and came back with some amazing stories to tell his family. I mentioned Blair's recent questions about my dad to them during the conversation, and mom said that Blair had asked her earlier in the week who had "shooted" mommy's dada. She suggested that if she ever asked anything like that again, that we should try to keep our composure and ask why she's asking ... how did she know that he was shot, etc.

Sooo .... we went to Shellman Bluff with some friends over the Labor Day weekend and had a blast. One morning, as we were waiting for the boys to get back from fishing so that we could all go to the beach, Blair asked me why my dad "shooted himself in the head?" After I picked my mouth up off the dock, I said: "Well honey, I'm not sure why. But I wonder how you know that he did that?" She didn't miss a beat with her response ... just as matter-of-factly as you please, said:

"Because I saw through the window in your tummy."

I relayed this whole thing to Brian, and he was pretty blown away too. His question: "How do you explain that?" My response: "I don't think that you can."

Easter, sleeping, puppies and swings

2011-05-03T16:33:00.009-04:00

Wow ... over a month since my last post! Sorry! We've been busy.

Easter was a blast! Blair had egg hunts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday ... so she was a little bit "over" hunting eggs by Sunday.

And candy - boy howdy. She got more candy for Easter than she did for Halloween! I threw out all of the leftover Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day candy before we added the Easter candy to the mix, and even after throwing out half of the Easter candy, her candy stash runneth over. I was a little wary of getting to in depth on the Easter story with her this year ... how do you tell her about Jesus rising from the dead, then explain why people she knows who have died won't rise from the dead? We did talk about it, and said a special Easter prayer to thank Jesus for dying on the cross so that we can spend eternity in heaven with him, and she did OK with that. I'm thinking that she'll be able to grasp it better next year.

She has been doing a GREAT job sleeping all night in her big girl bed! I had to up the bribes from candy to "big surprises" when she slept all night in her big girl bed for three nights in a row. We then stretched it to five nights, then seven, and now we're on two weeks. I heart bribery and will continue to use it shamelessly! I am SOOO proud of her ... and I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to get a good night of sleep! When she hit seven nights of sleep in a row, she got to go to Build-A-Bear. She made a cute puppy dog, which she named Miss Syler. No idea where that name came from, but she has been known to come up with some doozies. Usually they sound like Indian names, so Miss Syler is actually pretty tame by her standards.

The big news around our house is that our beloved Daisy is MIA. She's been gone for over a week now, and I'm fairly certain that she isn't coming home. Daisy would have been 14 in a couple of weeks, and basset hounds typically live for 10-12 years. She's had a long, good life, but I miss her terribly. I got Daisy when she was 6 weeks old, so she's been with me through so much ... deaths, heartaches, weddings, births, and everything in between. Her sweet face made me smile no matter how tough my day had been, and she always loved me unconditionally. She was such a sweet girl, and so full of life and personality. Blair misses her too ... she keeps asking if Daisy has come home yet. I'm not quite sure what to say at this point.

Oh, and Blair finally got to play on her swing set! You know, the one that Santa brought? :) We had a lot of work to do on the yard before we put it up, and she was very patient. At first we kept telling her that we would put it up when the weather got warm. Of course on the first warm day, she expected us to build it. So then we explained that we had to get the yard fixed for her first. Anyway, she was overwhelmed when we got home from school yesterday and saw that Brian had put it up for her. I'm not sure whether she had more fun actually swinging and sliding on it herself, or pretending to help her Care Bears swing and slide. I could just eat her up sometimes!

Princess kisses

2011-03-14T15:13:00.002-04:00

Why didn't anyone warn me that awkward child situations could arise as early as age 3? Why?

Let me explain. We do all sorts of kisses at our house ... butterfly kisses, fish kisses, Eskimo kisses, etc. So I wasn't really shocked when Blair told me that she wanted to give me a princess kiss.

At first it looked like she was going in for a fish kiss ... you know, by sucking in your cheeks and making fish lips? But then, she tilted her head a little. I got a tad bit uneasy then, but continued to play along because after all - she's three and none of you warned me that this may happen this early. So she's giving me a kiss on the mouth with her head tilted a little bit, and SHE LINGERED. There was no moving of the head, no parting of the lips, but there was a LINGER.

I was speechless, grossed out and horrified. I literally did not know what to say, so I said nothing at all. There was still a chance that I had imagined the whole thing, or that I had simply over-reacted. So later that day, I suggested that she give her Dada a princess kiss so that I could see if he thought the same thing that I did.

Sure enough, he backed up and very quickly said that he did not like the princess kiss. She was fine and there have been no more "instances." Until this morning when she told me she wanted to give me a princess kiss.

How do I handle this? I didn't want her to think that she'd done anything wrong, or that there was anything wrong with princess kisses. After all ... all princess movies do involve a princess kiss or two. So, I did the only thing I knew to do: I told her that she needed to save her princess kisses for her prince, and that when she GREW UP and GOT MARRIED to her prince, she could give him all of her saved up princess kisses. I explained that she didn't need to give anyone else princess kisses, only her prince, whom she would meet around the time she's 30 or 40. :)

She was fine, and is now very excited about getting married. Not sure if I solved a problem, or if I just created a whole new one.

Our little reader

2011-03-04T19:55:00.003-05:00

Blair LOVES to read. She'll line her babies and animals up and read to them, or teach them, as she says. I finally thought to get the camera when she was reading one of her favorites ... check it out:

Now, the really funny part (if you have 13 year-old boy humor like we do) happened exactly 2.3 seconds after I stopped recording. Actually, it started when she took her final bow. She tooted rather loudly. I tried to cover for her ... note the giggle in my voice when I say "good job princess Blair" (or something to that effect). I figured she would let it go, because what good Southern girl would ever want anyone to know she toots, much less have evidence of such an occurrence on video. But, as soon as I stopped recording, she very politely said:

"I pooted Mama!"

That's my girl! :)

Feel the burn!

2011-02-22T12:27:00.004-05:00

One recent Saturday, I woke up with a little energy and decided to exercise. I put in my workout DVD and proceeded to work up a sweat before the "warm-up" was even over. Those girls on this DVD really made me sick ... they never even appeared to breathe heavy? Anywho, Blair came in about halfway through the workout and was MESMERIZED. Seriously - she didn't say a word - just sat down and watched every move. I finally finished the workout, and she very quickly proclaimed that SHE wanted to exercise too. So, I started the DVD back over and moved to the kitchen to get some water (and look for an oxygen tank). I figured she'd just watch it, but she actually followed along pretty well! See for yourself:

We had been debating whether or not she might be ready for some sort of dance class. I think she proved that she is ready and willing!

Friends ... real and imaginary

2011-02-07T12:57:00.002-05:00

Blair has an imaginary friend, and it is sooooo cute!

Her friend is Braveheart Lion, who is a Carebear Cousin. So he actually isn't imaginary, she just took him from the cartoons and gave him a new home. Because she is Braveheart's mommy, as she'll tell you in a heartbeat. So, he isn't really imaginary, and he isn't really a friend, but those are just technicalities, right?!

Sometimes he sits with us at dinner, sometimes he goes with her to school. And sometimes he gets into trouble and has to go to timeout. He has very specific likes and dislikes ... he doesn't like bananas or the news, and he doesn't like covers at bedtime.

Blair informed me this morning that she wanted the REAL Braveheart Lion to come to her birthday party this year. Yep, she's already planning it. Oh, and she wants the real Elmo to come too. Oh, boy ... this is going to be one heck of a party!

When you've gotta go ...

2011-01-25T09:00:00.002-05:00

We've been visiting a new church lately - it's the first one we've found that could be a good fit for us since we moved. This past Sunday on our way to said church, Blair declared rather urgently that "poo-poo was coming." This is a normal announcement for her, and we were confident, based on the tone of her voice and rate at which she was kicking her feet, that she could hold it until we got to church (we were really close).

By the time we pulled into the parking lot, the tone in her voice had reached a new level and her feet were kicking quite rapidly, so I knew we had to hurry. Brian dropped Blair and me off at the back door, closest to the children's area - and a potty. Upon entering the church, a very cheerful older woman greeted us and seemed smitten with the Boog.

"Well hello there! Aren't you a beautiful little girl. How are you this morning?"

"I'm fine. I have to poo-poo."

The poor little lady didn't know what hit her. All she could do was look at me with a look of shock on her face and point towards the closest potty. We made it, just in time. :)

She has my sweet tooth!

2011-01-20T13:44:00.003-05:00

We've entered the picky eating phase, and it is not fun. Don't get me wrong ... Blair is a great eater; as long as you're feeding her chicken nuggets, spaghetti or anything sweet. Try anything else, and you'll get "I don't like that." And when I say anything else, I mean anything else. This child does not like cheese. She doesn't like peanut butter. She does not like anything "creamy" or with white sauce. The only potato she'll touch is a french fry.

The only veggies she'll eat are broccoli, peas or beans (but no green beans/string beans), collard greens, or corn on the cobb (not kernel or creamed, only on the cobb). I don't think she's met a meat yet that she didn't like. While she isn't overly picky with sweets, she is not wild about pies or some cookies.

Unless we're eating chicken nuggets or spaghetti, dinner time is a fight. We've tried everything ... making her sit by herself, making her go straight to bed if she doesn't want to eat what we've prepared, time out, etc. I just pray that this phase passes fast! But I seem to recall being a fairly picky eater for quite a while ...

EDIT 1/21
So since I wrote that she doesn't like cheese, naturally she decided last night that she did want the "white cheese" on her spaghetti ... then proclaim that she just doesn't like yellow cheese. :)

Random musings

2011-01-14T13:00:00.002-05:00

- A couple of months ago, Brian had a dental crown come out while we were eating dinner one night. Blair didn't say much about it and I didn't think she'd really noticed. A few weeks later, I took her for a doctors appointment. While waiting in the foyer for the elevator, a very nice gentleman who was also waiting took a liking to Blair. Talking to her, laughing and smiling, etc. Not that it matters one bit, but this nice man had maybe 4 or 5 teeth in his whole mouth. One of those things that is best left alone and not to call attention to.

So of course, Blair proceeds to say, "My Daddy lost one of his teeth too." The man didn't respond, so she repeated it even louder. I. Wanted. To. Melt. Through. The. Floor. Then the elevator finally came, and we didn't speak another word.

- We've re-entered the "Why" phase. I thought we'd passed it, but apparently it's coming back with a vengeance. While snuggling up watching one of her shows one morning, Boog tries to find the right "Why" question to ask:

"Why he ..."
"Why that ..."
"Why did ..."
[very exasperated] "WHY?!?!"

Why indeed, Boog ... why indeed. :)

- She's really bad about telling us she doesn't have to go to the bathroom before we leave to go somewhere, then two minutes after we've driven away from a nice, clean potty, declaring that she has to go NOW and can't hold it. So, I did what any patient parent would do after I'd had enough of this ... we told her she'd just have to hold it until we get to where we're going. Sometimes it works, sometimes she says she just can't hold it that long.

So she and Brian were on the way home from somewhere the other day, and she told him she was thirsty. He told her he'd get her something to drink as soon as they got home. A few minutes later, she declares ...

"I can't hold my thirsty anymore, Daddy."

- A couple of nights ago, Blair and I were getting ready for her bath. If I've told her once, I've told her a million times that it isn't a good idea to play with doors (closing them, swinging on them, etc.). So this night she of course closes the door to the bath part of her bathroom, and I of course immediately open it to make sure she's not falling face first into the tub. And, of course, I accidentally squished her finger in the door when I did. I felt horrible! She finally calmed down and we did her bath. Then, as I was drying her off, I get this:

"Mommy, did you do it? Did you let it happen?"

Heaven help me!

Snice

2011-01-14T12:55:00.003-05:00

You know, snow and ice combined! More ice than snow, but we've gotten lots of it and the state of GA has essentially shut down for the better part of the week. Blair LOVED it! Pictures below ...

The look on her face in that last one kills me ... pure bliss!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-14T11:15:00.005-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! Despite the fact that Blair was diagnosed with walking pneumonia a few days before Christmas (she's fine and was a trooper the whole time), it couldn't have been much better. Brian and I usually trade Thanksgiving and Christmas ... meaning Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine one year, then vice versa the next year. It was my year for Christmas, so the whole family descended on our house and we had so much fun! We had a total of 7 adults, 3 children and 5 dogs present, so it was as laid back as a gathering of that size can be. :) Blair had a blast with Olivia and Abigail ... O even spent Christmas Eve night with us, so Santa killed two birds with one stone and the girls had a great time!

A few random memories:
- We had an Elf on the Shelf, who Blair named Squishy. I heart Squishy and wish that he could stay with us all year ... talk about incentive for her to be good!

- The day that I brought Squishy home, I presented the box and told Blair that Santa sent this present for her. She looked at it, paused for a minute, then sadly said "But I really wanted a rocking horse." I then had to explain that this wasn't her Christmas present, just a little package from Santa. :)

- The rocking horse request came out of left field. She'd been saying that she wanted a new swing set from Santa. Her old one was one of those plastic toddler ones, and she has WAY outgrown it. Then, as we were decorating the Christmas tree, she found an old wooden rocking horse ornament that either Brian or I had made as a child - you know the kind I'm talking about ... it was pre cut, and you got to paint it? Didn't everyone make those? Anyway, she decided right then that she also wanted a rocking horse for Christmas. Sure wish she had made that declaration before Black Friday, when Santa scored a great deal on the swing set!

- The rocking horse Santa brought was actually not so much a rocking horse, but more of a jumping horse on springs. She came down on Christmas morning and looked at it for a good minute before she looked at me and said "but i really wanted a rocking horse." I had to explain that it was a rocking horse, it just didn't look like the ornament she'd found.

- We baked a birthday cake for baby Jesus. We were also going to read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, but the Boog tuckered out before we got to it.

- I have a ceramic nativity set that my mom gave me, and it has all the parts and pieces ... donkeys, camels, sheep and all. I was in the shower one morning, and I heard Blair come in with Brian close behind. He told her to tell me what she'd done ...
"I broke it just a tiny bit mommy." One of the camels now has three legs. :)

- She's already working on her list for next year. To say that she "gets" Santa now is an understatement! We'll have to work more on the true meaning of Christmas next year and less on Santa, for sure.

- Also out of left field, she decided at the last minute that she wanted Santa to bring her a watch. Because she's super busy and needs to know what time it is. Don't believe she can tell time? When she put on the watch, I asked her what time it was ... without missing a beat, she replied: "It's thirty o'clock."

Funnies

2010-12-17T15:03:00.004-05:00

At dinner the other night, I was telling Brian that one of my coworkers was pregnant. Blair asked what that meant, so I told her that my friend had a baby growing in her tummy. She had a very concerned look on her face and very quickly asked me: "Mommy, are you going to eat a baby too?"

.....

Blair woke up about 20 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off one recent morning, so I just went to the top of the stairs, grabbed her and put her in bed with Brian and me. Brian's back was to Blair. Soon after we got snuggled in, I heard a very loud (and familiar) popping noise.

"Brian! Blair is right behind you!"

"It wasn't me?!"

...silence...

"Mommy, it was me!"

.........

A few cute pronunciations and sayings I'm fond of these days:
- Lemolade (lemonade)
- Just chill, guys. (said as she waves her hands in front of her)
- Do you know any spiders (or dogs, or elves, or whatevers) mommy?
- Don't fight! (tacked on to random hello's or goodbyes ... sometimes to complete strangers)
- Mommy, I didn't bite anyone at school today!

The Princess Show

2010-11-18T15:23:00.005-05:00

On the way home from work a while back, I noticed a billboard for Disney's Princess Classics on Ice and thought for a second that Blair might enjoy something like that. Boy howdie did she ever! I made the mistake of mentioning it to her way too far in advance of even purchasing the tickets ... so one evening when she was being a really, really sweet girl, we went online and bought the tickets. I even let her push the "Purchase" button, which she thought was way cool. Then, she asked every day whether the "Princess Money" came in the mail ... not sure where she got that, but she was talking about the tickets. :) They finally came, and let me tell you, I used those tickets ruthlessly to my advantage.

"Blair, if you don't do what mommy asked, I'm going to go downstairs and throw the princess money away."

If i said it once, I said it a million times. Finally, about a week before the show, she picked Snow White as her bedtime story. It's just a cheap little paperback, and I noticed on the back cover that there was actually an ad for the princess show. I pointed it out to Blair, and her eyes got as big as saucers.

"Snow White is going to be there?"

"Yes"

"The REAL Snow White?"

"Um, I guess so. Yes."

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

I got so excited because she was so excited, so there was just no containing us! I got so swept up in the excitement that I even bought her a new princess costume to wear to the show ... a pink one! The night before the show, I tried to bribe her into sleeping all night with the promise of a prize the next morning that she would love. It didn't work, but of course she got the prize anyway. :)

Can't you just see the excitement, joy and wonder in her little face? ;)

She did great. We got there and Sleeping Beauty was up first. Not her favorite (that dang dragon at the end of the movie is scary!), but she was still really excited. The, Arial came out next.

My dear, sweet daughter very quietly said "Hey Arial!" and waved, then blew her a kiss. I could hardly contain myself at that point ... I nearly lost it. Yep, I actually teared up. I'm such a dork! It was just so overwhelming to see her so happy! Belle, Snow White, Mulan and Jasmine did their parts, and she really enjoyed herself. She sat in my lap mostly, and really took in everything.

Cinderella stole the show, and Blair did say that she was her most favorite princess of the day. But do you know who she can't stop talking about?

You can't even really see HIM here, but if you look really hard, you'll see that GOOFY is in the extreme right part of the picture. Blair has told me every single day since the show that Goofy is her friend. This morning on the way to daycare, she asked if Goofy knew how to get to her house. I told her I wasn't really sure that Goofy knew how to drive.

"Yes he does mommy. All you do is twist the wheel around. Will you tell him how to get to my house?"

I am so happy that God blessed me with a girly little girl - I am having the time of my life with her!

Trick-or-Treat

2010-11-13T18:02:00.003-05:00

We were so excited about our first Halloween in our new neighborhood ... REAL trick-or-treating!! Our friends the Lamb's brought their two sweet boys too, which is what Blair was most excited about. She loves Jackson and Carson!

Our neighborhood is "golf cart friendly," but ours was in the shop. So, we decided to go really old school and walk. We hit the three houses closest to ours and were already breathing heavily. So, our wonderful neighbors hooked up a trailer, put some chairs on the trailer and we had a modified hayride/trick-or-treat ride! It was awesome ... I do believe we went to every single house in the hood, and Blair was actually anxious to get home by the end of the night.

She did great - couldn't quite keep up with the big kids, but she never gave up and never let it bother her. I hope she keeps that trait! The first picture above is from her daycare's fall festival, then the other one was right before we left for trick-or-treating. I was a horrible mom and didn't get many good pics.

Pumpkins!

2010-10-25T12:31:00.005-04:00

We're getting into the Halloween spirit! A couple of weeks ago (I think - days run together when you have monsters running around keeping everyone from sleeping) we bought one big pumpkin for carving and three small ones for painting.

Here's Blair getting the "ooey-gooey" out of Jack's head. She really enjoyed this part! The pumpkin guts were weird, though ... very stringy. Looked like spaghetti? I don't remember pumpkin guts looking like this - maybe we got some weird variety.

Blair's painted pumpkin. She used every color we had, multiple times. :)

I'll let you guess which of us painted this one. Hint: it wasn't me, and it wasn't Blair!

My pumpkin. There is an 's on the end. I'm SOOO not crafty, so I was pretty proud of this creation until one of my friends pointed out that it could double as an Easter egg. Nice. Well, maybe I could throw it in the freezer after Halloween and put it back out around Easter?

And here's Blair with our pumpkin family. She was so excited that she was bouncing everywhere, taking Jack's lid off and would not sit still for a picture. Love this kid!

One proud mama

2010-10-20T12:10:00.000-04:00

Blair's 3 year check up was Monday, and she did so good! Physically, she's in the 50-75 percentile for height and weight ... she's come a LONG way since those early days when she wasn't even on the charts. Her fine motor skills are right where they should be for a new 3-year-old. And her social and analytical skills ... the doctor reported that she's more in line with a 3 1/2 - 4 year old. Glad there isn't a webcam on me right now, because I'd be embarrassed for y'all to see me beaming so much. :)

She got two shots, including her flu shot, plus a finger prick. She was soo brave right up until the nurse was about to give her the first shot, then she completely lost it. I took her to daycare after the appointment and as I was putting her things away her teacher asked me how it went. Mind you, I was still holding Blair as I started to give the report. I let the teacher know that she had gotten a shot in both arms and that she may be a bit sensitive today. Immediately after I said this, Blair grabbed my face with both of her hands and turned me around so that I was nose to nose with her, and said in THE most pitiful voice you've ever heard ... "Tell her it hurted too, mama!"

She melts my heart every single day, many times a day. Here are a few cute things she's doing and saying:

"Just chill, guys." she says this as she holds her hands out - too cute not to laugh!
"Are we going to stay home and do nuffing today?" again, she crosses her hands in front of her as she says this, signaling the "nuffing"
"Is Jesus here?" she asked me this at two of the last three churches we visited;
"Yes your majesty" I don't think that I act like a diva, but I do get this response from her sometimes when I ask her a question;
"Did you have a fun day at work today mommy?" I always ask her when I pick her up from daycare if she had a fun day at school ... one day she threw it back at me;

She's such a big girl, and she truly is like a little sponge right now ... soaking up everything around her. Conversations are getting really fun. And they are also nonstop. Seriously. The Boog Does. Not. Stop. Talking. At this rate, she'll be out conversing Brian and me in just a few more years!

Birthday Fun

2010-10-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

Blair's 3rd birthday was a blast! She wanted a Care Bears party, and thanks to Party City and Sugar Mama cakes, we were able to oblige. A while back I found an old Care Bears movie in the $5 bin at WalMart and bought it for her ... she became obsessed and absoltely loves Care Bears. Naturally, they don't make Care Bears anymore, so I was pretty sure we wouldn't be abe to pull off an entire Care Bears party. Oh, and she did get an actual Care Bear, which I had to stalk on eBay. Since we still aren't quite done fixing up our house, we had the party at this awesome place called Twin Oaks Fun Farm. There were hayrides, animals to pet, a pig chase (yep, you read that right ... they actually turned a little piglet loose in this big field and the kids chased him until someone caught him ... poor piggy!) and an awesome playground. I'm pretty sure that everyone slept pretty well afterwards - at least I kno that Blair did! I still can't get over the fact that she's three ... I'll post more about the fun things she's doing and saying next time.

Hello. Remember me?

2010-10-15T12:01:00.002-04:00

I'll be honest. I wasn't planning to blog anymore. Life is just too hectic and who has time to sit down at the computer and blog on a regular basis? Not me! But then, I visited my blog and took a stroll down memory lane, reading all the way back to the beginning. It was so much fun!

Then I realized that this was the closest thing that I have to a baby journal - or baby book or whatever you call those things - that I have. Who knows how many cute things Blair has done since I last posted that I've already forgotten about! I must go on, even though no one reads this thing anymore except me. :)

My goal: one post each week. No matter how short, and it doesn't even have to include words. But if I am ever going to win that dang Mother of the Year award, I HAVE to do a better job of chronicling the Boog's life. Every smile, every toot, every booboo. OK, maybe not every one, but the ones deserving of a chronicle.

So, here I go again! Y'all hold me to it, please!

I'll try to post pics from her birthday party tomorrow.

Surprise! I'm still here ...

2010-07-23T13:55:00.002-04:00

although only sporadically. Thought I'd share some recent pictures: http://www.monkeybeanphotos.com/home/2010/7/22/barbara-dean-and-blairs-tea-party.html

I don't think I could be more in love with this little girl! I gave away our diaper stash the other day ... you know what that means ... yep - we've mastered the fine art of potty training! If I'm this proud of her for using the potty, I seriously don't think I'll be able to contain myself when she reaches other milestones like, say ... reading. And she went through a growth spurt recently which made her feet grow a full size, almost a size and a half. This one left her jammies showing about 3 inches of belly, too, so we jumped up a whole clothing size too.

Her vocabulary blows me away. This child literally does not stop talking. Ever. And we have been in the "why" phase for a couple of months now, which is interesting.

"What are you doing mommy?"
"Driving."
"Why?"
"So we can get home."
"Why?"
"So we can eat dinner."
"Why?"
"Because it's dinner time."
"Why?"

You get the drift? While I know it's wonderful that she's so inquisitive, this is one phase that I can honestly say that I'm pretty sure I won't miss. :) I'm sure there's more, but that's all I have time for now!

Singing sensation

2010-04-16T19:05:00.008-04:00

Hello! Yes, I'm still here ... life has just been a little crazier than usual and I haven't taken the time to update. New job is great, we're supposed to close on a new house next week and should move within a few weeks.

Blair is amazing. She's like a little sponge - learning at lighting speed every single day - it's so cool to watch her take everything in! And her little personality is too cute - just call her Princess Blair! No, seriously - she'll tell you to herself sometimes.

Temper tantrums are a regular occurrence now. But so are those angelic moments when she can do no wrong. She still loves Dora, but she's also discovered Dora's cousin Diego. He's slightly less annoying, so that's a plus. ;)

I'm really going to try to do better - I've neglected to post her first haircut, her first encounter with a REAL princess (or Miss GA Sweet Onion - who cares - she was pretty and had on a shiny crown) and so much more! But for now, I'll leave you with a new discovery - Blair loves to perform, and loves to watch herself perform even more. She's been singing the cutest little songs lately, so I decided to video her singing. As you'll see - she's a complete camera ham! At the end of a few of the videos, you can here her ask to watch the videos ... I don't know whether she likes singing more or watching herself sing!

Enjoy!

2010-04-16T18:57:00.000-04:00

Just in case you have trouble understanding this one, here are the words:

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree
Teasing Mr. Alligator;
Can't catch me, no you can't catch me
Along comes Mr. Alligator quiet as can be and...
SNAP that monkey right out of that tree!
(repeat with one less monkey - kinda morbid, huh?)

And then there's the bumblebee song ...

"I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
OUCH! It stung me.

I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee
won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee
EWW! It's all on me!

I'm wiping off my baby bumblebee
won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm wiping off my baby bumblebee
All gone!"

And of course ... Little Bunny FuFu

Best of all is Jesus Loves Me - this one melts my heart every time she sings it!

Louisiana in a BIG PLANE

2010-03-13T08:40:00.004-05:00

Before I started my new job, Blair and I took a quick trip to see Mimi and Papa in Louisiana ... on an airplane. Blair was beyond excited, and I was beyond terrified. Flying out of ATL with a 2 year old - alone? I believe that I bought every imaginable "no mess, no noise" activity I could find, plus a couple of new movies to keep her occupied.

I was pleasantly surprised - she did great! I am ashamed to say that I have no pictures of the occasion. I took out my camera when we got situated in our seats only to find out that the battery was completely dead. Nice. As soon as the plane started moving, she yelled "3-2-1 Blastoff!" And she kept yelling it as we taxied down the runway. Finally, when we weren't going superfast or flying high in the sky, she turned to me and said, very matter-of-factly, "Dis plane broke. Needs batteries."

We had a great time while we were there. I'm not sure who had more fun, Blair or Mimi! We played, ate and shopped until we dropped. We also visited my family in Mississippi (we flew home from Jackson). My cousin had just had a baby a few days before we got there, and Blair was so excited about the "teeny-tiny baby!" The baby was jaundiced a little, so she had a little tube-light thingy that was attached through the back of her diaper somehow. I'd never seen anything like it, but Blair figured it out immediately. She announced that "That teeny tiny baby has a LONG tail!" and proceeded to pull it off! We got it back on before anyone noticed, thankfully.

I was horrible about taking pictures, but here are a couple from our trip:

Grandaddy, Mimi, and a reluctant Blair.

Swimming in Mimi's "swimming pool"

Boog's big week

2010-02-18T13:04:00.003-05:00

The Boog has a big week coming up. Huge really. Actually, I have a big week coming too, which led to at least part of her big week. On March 1, I start a new job. It's a good move , great job, and I'm really excited, but after working at my current job for 10 years, I'm also a little overwhelmed.

I have a week off between my last day here and my first day at the new job, so Blair and I are flying to Louisiana to visit Mimi, Papa, Mother Sue, Grandaddy, Uncle Staten, Aunt Wyndie and Abigail. Yep - her first plane trip. We leave on Sunday and come home Wednesday.

Then, next Thursday, I have to go to a Board meeting so I'm taking Blair to her new "school" for a short day so that she can hopefully acclimate a little easier. I've been really trying to get her excited about the switch...it's all about the "New School!" though - we haven't broached the subject of her not returning to her current daycare. She's playing along, but I'm waiting for the realization to sink in...we're going to miss "Miss Bli-blitz" and the rest of the crew, but the new job is in the opposite direction, so we had to switch.

Then, next Saturday she's going to her cousin "Bobba Deane's" birthday party at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Whew...I'm tired just thinking about it all! I should have some great pictures to post soon so stay tuned!

Random Cuteness

2010-02-10T10:07:00.002-05:00

The proof is in the sticker

2010-02-10T10:01:00.004-05:00

So the other morning I was in the kitchen, and I received confirmation of something I had begun to suspect...Daisy actually likes Blair. I'll let the photographic evidence speak for itself. Photos below are in chronological order (first Blair came into the kitchen, followed by Daisy).

So, there you have it. Blair has officially won Daisy over. Either that or she attacked Daisy with the stickers while she was in mid-nap. I prefer the first theory.

Blairology: 102

2010-01-28T08:58:00.003-05:00

The Boog's vocabulary is growing by the minute, and she's really getting good at properly pronouncing words. Which is exciting, but also sad at the same time because we have fewer and fewer "Blair words" to giggle over...

Here are the only ones that I can think of that she still says:

Adla: Water (this one is fading fast - she's using "water" more and more)
Bobba Dean: cousin Barbara Deane - she says it really fast and it is super cute. Sometimes she even sings it..."Bobba Deane Bobba Deane Bobba Deane"
Mockin: mopping...as in, she is mopping the kitchen with her toy mop. Again, she sings this one a lot ... "mock, mock. mock, mock."
Botch: watch. As in, "I botch Dowa and Boots."
Holdju: Hold me. For pronunciation, think "hold you."

And a few cute phrases she uses:

Come on, follow me. (This one is really cute, and completely irresistible. You have no choice but to follow her upon hearing this phrase.)
I do it all myself. (we hear this one ALOT)
I go teetee on potty, get the canee. (At school, when she successfully uses the potty, she gets an m&m.)
Please. (She's learned the power of combining her utter cuteness and the word please. Again, it leaves you completely helpless to her powers.)

Pink Shoes

2010-01-20T10:00:00.004-05:00

I keep telling people that I'm going to get away with dressing Blair as girly as possible for as long as I can, because I'm painfully aware that she may reach a point where she boycotts pink clothes and hair bows. Well ... it's beginning to look like she may be more on board with being a girly-girl than I thought!

After Christmas, my Mom and I took Blair shoe shopping. She usually wears her little tennis shoes to day care, and she was beginning to protest a bit. So I wanted to get her a pair of casual brown shoes that we could alternate in with the tennis shoes. We got to Stride Rite and they measured her feet, then we looked around for the right pair of shoes. I found a good, sensible pair of brown mary-janes and asked the sales woman to see if they had them in Blair's size.

While she was in the back looking, Blair bounced over to where I was standing. Then, in a very excited voice, I heard "PINK! Pink shoes, mommy!" I looked down to see what she was talking about, and she had found a pair of bright pink mary-janes just like the brown ones I'd requested.

About that time, the sales woman came back and informed me that they did not have the brown ones in Blair's size. So, I did what any sucker-of-a-mom would do and asked her to check to see if they had the pink ones. She came back a few seconds later with a shoe box in hand. She helped Blair up onto the bench so that she could put the shoes on her. As soon as she took one of the shoes out of the box and Blair saw that it was the pink shoe, she said "I like dees."

Needless to say, she wore the pink shoes out of the store.

Our Little Multi-Tasking Mommy

2010-01-11T11:35:00.023-05:00

Blair loves all things babies. Real ones and play ones - she just can't get enough babies. For her birthday this year, she received a little pack-and-play/crib for her babies. She will drag the crib over to her rocking chair, put the baby in the crib (face down only - apparently babies can't sleep on their backs), cover the baby up, sit in her rocking chair and sing to the baby while patting her (all our babies are girls) back and watching television. We get the biggest kick out of it every time she does it - I tried to capture it on film for you all to enjoy too. She's usually way more "into" it than she is here, but whatever was on TV had her distracted. :)

New Year's Fitness Motivation

2010-01-11T08:36:00.003-05:00

For those of you who may have made fitness-related resolutions this year, here's a little motivation for you:

She wanted Mommy to have a turn doing push-ups too...I was a little embarrassed to tell her that I couldn't do any...hopefully she got her Daddy's athletic genes!

A little side-note humor on this one...when Brian came into the living room with his long johns on, Blair casually looked at him and asked "Panty hose on, Dada?"

Big Girl Panties!

2010-01-08T16:11:00.012-05:00

Santa left Blair two packs of big girl panties in her stocking - some princess panties and some Tinkerbell panties. Today, on a whim, we went for it. I asked if she wanted to put on a pair of her big girl panties. She was SOO excited! We put on Snow White panties first - she was incredibly cute in them. Five minutes later, she had an accident, so we decided on a pair of Tinkerbell panties. Well, why don't I just let her tell you about it for herself:

The Tinkerbell panties stayed on for about an hour. Mind you, I asked if she needed to go to the potty, and she confidently said "No." Three minutes later, we put a pull up back on and cleaned more teetee off the floor. :)

She's moved to a new class at daycare, and her new class is equipped with toddler-sized potties. So, I'm thinking that I'll let Ms. Elizabeth (or, as Blair says, "Blibitz") help us on this one!

Sleepy Blessings

2010-01-07T11:02:00.004-05:00

I was going to write about our little sleep problem today. You see, Blair is officially spoiled rotten and insists that I be by her side to rub her back, sing to her, and maybe brush the stray hairs off her face so they don't tickle her nose if she wakes during the middle of the night. I honestly don't mind - she's woken up at least once every night for probably the past six months and it's fine. However, for the past week she's waking up 3-4 times, maybe more, per night and I'm exhausted and was feeling like I was at the end of my rope last night.

I was going to ask for your advice on how to get her to sleep better, etc. Then, I happened across this blog: http://therowefam.blogspot.com/.

I had to fight back tears - they were tears for this family who lost such a beautiful baby; tears for knowing how easily we could have lost Blair; tears of guilt for not treasuring every fleeting, sleepless moment with our beautiful, precious gift from God.

Funny how He helps us put things in perspective, huh?

And by the way, I really do plan to tell you all about our wonderful Christmas...it was one of the best I've had in years...just be patient with me.

Blair's First Christmas Program

2009-12-18T20:07:00.003-05:00

Blair's first Christmas program was tonight. Her little class sang Jingle Bells, and she was fabulous! I felt like I was going to burst with pride, and I still do (not that I don't always feel that way). She practiced this song so much over the past month, and she really had it down.

I was so afraid that she'd get scared and freak out - especially when I saw how many people showed up for the program, but I do believe we have a future rock star on our hands...she could not wait for her turn to go to the front of the room and sing! As you'll see in the video, she was the first one up after the song - I nearly lost it as she ran over to me with so much pride on her face. Yep, I can see it now, I'm going to be that crazy mom who cries at every single school program, dance recital, or even private concert in the living room.

Way to go, Boog!

An amazing moment

2009-11-30T16:41:00.002-05:00

Last night Brian and I had an epiphany: we no longer have a baby...we have a little person.

You see, Blair and I were lying on the couch watch Dora before bedtime. She had insisted on wearing her red church shoes with her jammies, and we were laying in such a way that her feet were in my face. Sounds weird, I know, but it's actually not uncommon. Anyway, she kicked her feet - the ones with the hard-soled red shoes on them - and accidentally kicked me in the eye. It really hurt, and before I could catch myself I yelled "Ouch!"

She looked at me with those chocolate doe-eyes and a puzzled expression on her little face. Brian saw the whole thing and told her very gently that she had hurt mommy and needed to say that she was sorry. She looked at him, then cut her eyes at me. He reminded her several more times, but she never said anything. I can't describe the look on her face as she was looking from him to me. She wanted to say something, but she just couldn't. She was so torn!

Finally I told her that it was OK. Mommy was ok, and I knew she didn't mean to hurt me. But even when we hurt people on accident we need to tell them we're sorry. My heart was breaking! She just kept looking at me with this torn expression on her face. About a minute after I had dropped it, she looked me right in the eyes and very softly said "I sorry mommy."

I have never been more heartbroken and proud at the same moment. Our baby - excuse me, our little person - has such strong emotions already! I could not possibly love her more or be more proud to be her mommy.

Somehow, I think she's teaching me just as much as I'm teaching her. And I know that's how it is supposed to be.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T16:20:00.002-05:00

Boy...I wish I had some awesome Thanksgiving pictures to share with you all, but I don't. Wanna know why? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. But I will try to give you the condensed version. :)

I picked Blair up from school around 2:30 Wednesday afternoon. Her teacher met me at the door with a very solemn look on her face and she was shaking her head. I knew that couldn't be good. So when I entered the classroom and saw Blair lying on her cot with bright red cheeks, I knew she was sick. I called the pediatrician from daycare, but they closed at noon for the holiday - of course! So I turned and headed towards Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta's urgent care center in Morrow. I called to make sure they were in fact open, which they were. When I inquired as to the wait time, the receptionist chuckled and said 2 1/2 hours minimum. So I turned around and went to this other urgent care center near my office. I knew it would be empty, and Blair was burning up. In the meantime, I called Brian and told him he'd be going to our first Thanksgiving celebration alone - we were supposed to go to my sister-in-law's for a scrumptious dinner with her sweet family.

Her temp when we got there and got checked in? 104.7. They did a strep test, which was negative, and her ears were fine. The doctor thought it was probably a sinus infection, but had chest x-rays done just in case. Blair was fairly certain that the x-ray machine was going to eat her alive...getting 2 clear x-rays of her took about 6 tries. The doctor wrote us a prescription for amoxocyllin (SP?) and sent us on our way.

We got the scrip filled and headed home. We had been there for about half an hour when the doctor called. He hadn't seen anything on her x-rays, but sent them to a pediatric radiologist just to be sure. The pediatric radiologist called him right back with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Nothing changed, just keep a close watch over her and give her the antibiotics and she should be well within a few days.

Now, since Blair was born so prematurely and has had breathing issues since birth, we've always been warned that her asthma plus pneumonia would mean hospitalization. I didn't remember that until I told the doctor that I understood and didn't have any questions. Then I had a complete and total meltdown. My dear, sweet friend BBB, who is also a nurse, came to the rescue once again when I called her in hysterics. She calmed me down and told me what to do, since I had lost all will to think for myself. Then Brian finally called me back (I had called him first pre-meltdown, but I knew they were eating so I tried to remain calm...didn't work) and gave me further instruction. I called both our pediatrician and pulmonologists' after-hours numbers.

The pulmonologist called me back first. He went through a laundry list of questions, and about half-way through the Q&A, Blair started singing twinkle-twinkle little star at the top of her lungs. I believe the question he asked before the song was "does she seem to be breathing OK now?" He laughed and said that she seemed fine. So we were given further instructions to keep her home and watch her closely.

Flash-forward to the next morning. No fever, all smiles and giggles from the Boog. And it's been like that since Thursday. I am SOO thankful that she's OK! But she and I did miss out on all the Thanksgiving festivities, so no pictures. I swear this sweet child has an internal clock that alerts her to weekends and holidays, because that's when she always seems to get sick! Lord please let us all be healthy this Christmas!

The Halloween Fairy

2009-11-20T09:19:00.002-05:00

I was talking to my coworkers after Halloween about the obscene amounts of candy that Blair got and how I hated to throw it all away, but I really didn't want her to eat much of it. One coworker told me how in his family they have a Halloween Fairy. After trick-or-treating, their kids kept their favorite 3 or 5 pieces of candy and left the rest near their beds. During the night, the Halloween Fairy would come and exchange the rest of the candy for a cool toy. We are so doing that - what a great idea!

The Halloween Fairy also left a treat for the family. See, the mom would take all of the chocolate from the Halloween loot and make a "Candy Bar Cake." She sent me the recipe today, and I swear I gained 5 pounds just by reading the recipe. And it was worth it. This, too, shall be part of our Halloween tradition going forward. Here's the recipe (you didn't think I was going to gain all that weight alone, did you?):

Candy Bar Cake

Melt 8 full size candy bars (snickers, milky ways, mars) and 1 stick of butter in a double boiler;
Cream together 2 cups of sugar, 1 stick of butter and 3 eggs;
Dissolve 1 tsp of soda in 1 1/4 cup of buttermilk;
Add buttermilk mixture to the butter mixture along with 3 cups of flour;
Stir in melted candy and butter;
Add 1 tsp of salt and 1 cup of chopped nuts;
Bake at 350 for 1 hour
Icing - 2 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 small can of evaporated milk, 1 stick of butter - cook until this reaches a soft ball stage then add 1 cup of marshmallow cream and 1 (6 ox) package of chocolate chips. Beat and frost cake.

There you have it - a grown-up's version of Halloween Heaven. I can't wait to try this next year!

Mean Witch

2009-11-12T11:24:00.003-05:00

We were watching Dora the Explorer last night before Blair's bed time, and there was a mean witch on this episode. Seriously - that's what Dora and Boots kept calling her, and she was, in fact, a mean witch. Well, that's all fine and good, but Blair has reached that stage where she actually interacts with the TV. If Dora tells her to yell "Swiper" or, in this case, "Mean Witch," Blair does so with great enthusiasm.

Only she couldn't quite pronounce witch...it kept coming out with a "b" instead of a "w". In between belly laughs, I kept trying to say it with her and really enunciate the W in the word, but this just made Blair even more excited to say it her way.

How in the world do you keep from laughing when things like this happen? I tried - I really did, but it just wasn't possible!

Oh Dora - you just keep making life at my house more and more interesting.

Catching up

2009-11-03T08:36:00.006-05:00

We've had a lot going on - excuse me...Blair has had a lot going on and she's been kind enough to let us tag along. Last Thursday was her "school's" Halloween party. Not sure why they didn't do it on Friday, but whatever. The party was to last from 4-6. The teachers helped them into their costumes (Blair was a butterfly) for the costume contest and they had all these different activities set up in the different classrooms for the kids to enjoy. Brian and I got there at 5, and her teacher greeted me with a sheepish smile and informed me that she'd been eating candy pretty much all day. Just as she said that, Blair came barrelling around the corner and latched on to my leg for about 1/2 a second, then she was off again. I swear her little butterfly wings were flapping she was moving so fast! Really...candy you say? I would have never guessed! She had a blast, and won third prize in the costume contest. I still say it was rigged...some kid dressed up as a garden gnome won, and a Tigger got 2nd.

So the day after the Boog consumed unknown quantities of candy, she had her first dental appointment. Whoever scheduled that should be fired! Oh wait, that would be me...anywho, this dentist office rocked! Huge plasma TV on the wall with Sponge Bob playing, 2 more TVs with video game consoles attached, a big "school bus" shaped bench thing to watch TV in...and this was just the waiting room! We went to the exam room and they even had little flat screen TVs on the ceiling so that when you recline in the dentist chair you can watch TV while having your work done. The best part about my childhood dentist was that he had Highlights magazines in the waiting room. Blair and I were equally impressed with this place, until the dentist pulled on the plastic gloves. I kid you not - she was all smiles and charm with this woman, but the second she snapped that second glove on, Blair lost it. She screamed the entire time! But, her teeth checked out just fine and we don't have to go back for a whole year. She got a rubber ducky and a bouncy ball as a reward, so the tears dried up pretty quickly.

Saturday was trick-or-treating with Aunt "Becca", "Bobba Dean" and MawMaw. Never mind Uncle Dean, Mommy or Daddy...we were apparently just along for the ride. That's OK - it was fun to stand back and watch her have fun. She was a little shy at first, but when the person came to the door of the first house with candy, I swear I saw her throw a few 'bows to get to the front of the line. She hadn't even put the candy in her bucket and she was already making the sign for more and chanting "mo-mo candy!" Yep - I do believe that the Boog completely grasped the point of Halloween. I'm afraid getting her to understand that Halloween only comes once each year may be difficult, but we'll deal with that when we have to.

And the so the battle begins...

2009-10-23T09:36:00.003-04:00

I had a long-overdue hair appointment yesterday after work, and my sweet husband was nice enough to take on the parenting responsibilities alone until I finished. He did a fantastic job, as he always does, but Blair didn't get a bath last night. No big deal, right? I'd just give her one this morning.

Of course that would mean that the Boog would choose this morning to want to sleep late. I had her bath drawn, milk warmed, vitamin out, clothes out...everything ready so that I could dip her in the tub, get her dressed, and head out the door. We try to leave between 7:15/7:20 each morning so that I can get her to daycare and me to work. So this morning, at 7:00, I finally woke her up. She was fine - talking, snuggling, laughing, even used the potty! Then it was time for the bath, which didn't go over so well. I knew it wouldn't - who wants to get up and go straight into the tub? We all need a few minutes to wake up, right? So I had mustered up an extra batch of patience, because I knew it would be a struggle.

And a struggle it was. There was screaming. There was splashing. There was crying. Finally, at 7:15, I had to take a stand. I informed her that we'd done it her way, and now we were going to be late so we had to do it Mommy's way. She didn't like Mommy's way. Not one bit. After wrestling with her to get her at least semi-clean, I got her out of the tub and was trying to dry her off. More wrestling ensued. I looked her in the eye and asked her as lovingly - but firmly - as I could whether she knew who was going to win this fight...

She stopped sobbing and flailing, looked straight into my eyes, and said as clearly and confidently as I've ever heard her say anything ..."Blair."

Bring it, Boog!

Rite of Passage

2009-10-20T09:37:00.003-04:00

Blair crossed a really big rite of passage this past Friday night. Seriously big. She watched her first Disney princess movie. She received a copy of Snow White for her birthday, and I had been dying to watch it...I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen this movie. Finally, Friday night she decided she wanted to watch it. I really didn't think she'd last long...it's old-school animation after all...no new 4-d technology or anything fancy like that, so I questioned whether it would hold her interest.

Well, it did. In a big way - she watched the entire movie in one sitting, and LOVED it! I had forgotten about the little scary parts, mainly the part in the beginning when Snow White is running through the forest and imagines seeing all these "monsters" and eyes and stuff. She handled it just fine - just said "Monsters scare Snow White" after that particular part. We've watched it a couple of times since Friday - she really likes it and I couldn't be happier! I'm on a princess mission now...gotta get all the princess movies. I am so happy that God blessed us with a little princess!

Communication

2009-10-15T13:25:00.004-04:00

I swear - the Boog is throwing some serious curve balls...in the form of maturing at lightening speed. She's been stringing more and more words together for the past couple of weeks. Nothing major, but big improvements for her. There were lots of "Sit down Mommy" and "Watch Dowa TV" type phrases.

Then, a couple of days ago, she busted out with "Sit down rocking chair Mommy." I just stared at her in disbelief, so she said it again, only louder.

Oh, and in a new development, we've officially kicked the bottle habit. We had been letting her have one "ba" per day - right before bed. The pediatrician didn't like that one bit, so we kicked the habit. She's actually been fine with it thank goodness!

Birthday Fun!

2009-10-12T15:37:00.003-04:00

It's official - Blair is TWO! Gone are the days of having to keep track of how many months old she is - we're now in the land of years. Not sure how I feel about that yet - some moments I like it, other moments it makes me sad. But, no matter how I feel about it, she's a real toddler...not a baby. She had a great birthday - lots of fun was had by all! The day started with Brian and I unveiling all the baby stuff we got for her...a high chair, a stroller, a pack-n-play/crib, and more. She loved it all, but I don't think she fully understands that this is play stuff...not the real deal:

Yep - she got in the toy crib to take a pretend nap...and got stuck. I was in the shower when it happened, but when I got out she and Brian were giving said toy a very firm "no-no" talking to.

This does look terribly uncomfortable, doesn't it?

Then we come to the actual party. It was at a great indoor playground for toddlers/not-so-big kids. She loved it! When we first got there she ran around the whole place with this expression on her face...she literally didn't know what to do first!

There were horsies...

and balls...

2009-10-12T15:36:00.002-04:00

and parachutes...

and slides and jumpy-things...

and BUBBLES!

and a Dora the Explorer birthday cake. She was so funny when we sang Happy Birthday to her - she had this expression on her face through the whole song, and she just kept cutting her eyes around at everyone in the room...like she was afraid to actually move her head. It was very funny.

And, since she got the sweet tooth gene from both Brian and me, she had a lot of fun eating the cake and ice cream. She wound up not wearing as much of it as I expected - her skills with utensil's is really improving!

2009-10-12T15:28:00.005-04:00

While the best thing about the party was that she got to see family and friends from near and far, she did also get some great gifts. Among them was a cute pink doctors kit. She gave everyone shots and listened to hearts and checked our ears. Out of everyone there, however, her favorite patient to doctor was Daisy...

Here is Daisy getting her shots...

And here she is getting her heart checked. Blair was too funny when she checked hearts - she would put the stethoscope up to our chests and say "boom-boom," then go on to the next person.

She had her 2-year check up today, and she is doing great! She hadn't grown much since her 18 month checkup, but the doctor said that was fairly normal for kids her age. I still can't believe she's 2 - I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and I thank God each and every day for letting me be her mommy!

Wow - Slow Down Boog!

2009-10-09T14:32:00.002-04:00

Two years ago today, at about this time (late afternoon), I was on my way to see my OBGYN due to what I thought was a really leaky bladder. But alas, the next morning at 10:49, our little Boog was born. In less than 24 hours, she'll be 2! I can remember all the details of her birth like it happened yesterday...how in the world have 2 whole years passed???

She is just an unbelievable delight. She's been sick this week - with a "flu bug"...good thing she got her flu shot! Oh well, such is life. She's handled it like a trooper, just like always. Mom and Dad? Not so much. Well, Dad has an excuse - he caught it too. Mom? Well, I just worry too much, OK?!

She gets more and more independent every day. Her new favorite words are "Blair do it!" And she means it. She can still pitch a fit like nobody's business, but she can also melt your heart with one smile. She's growing up soo fast, and I love her more and more every day and I look forward to each and every stage she will go through, I just wish she'd slow down the pace a bit. :) I'll post pics next week of the party - stay tuned!

A counting we will go...

2009-09-30T08:36:00.002-04:00

So you know how in my last post I told you that the Boog is developing at lightening speed now? She's now kicked the lightening speed into turbo gear. Brian and I were in the kitchen Saturday evening getting ready for dinner, and Blair was playing in her playroom (which used to be the dining room, so it's right off the kitchen). She talks to herself a lot - mostly jibberish or general conversations with her babies telling them to "sit down" or "nap." But this night - well, she said something more significant. 10 somethings, actually.

As clearly as I've ever heard her say anything, she counted to 10! I looked at Brian to make sure he'd heard it too. Then, she did it again! She didn't miss a single number. She did it several more times before I could no longer contain myself and I burst into cheers for her. She's counted several times since then, sometimes getting in all the numbers and sometimes missing a 6 or a 7, but still. She'll be the big 2 in 11 days - I don't think I could possibly be more proud of her!

Development

2009-09-16T09:37:00.003-04:00

As we approach her 2nd birthday (less than a month away - how the heck did that happen?), Blair is developing at lightening speed. Her verbal skills are amazingly improved...we can actually communicate with her 90% of the time now whereas we used to only understand about 50% of what she said. And she's saying so many new words...most of them very clearly. She's stringing many words together - we're not quite up to complete sentences, but 2-4 words is getting really close. We're really having to mind our words, because she's repeating everything she hears these days. She really only has one "special" word left, and that is agla. I've never heard her utter the word water - it has always been agla. Even if we ask her specifically if she wants water, she'll reply back with an enthusiastic "Agla!" The words we hear her say most often are "cookies," "milk," "babies" and, of course, "Dora."

She's still really into Dora the Explorer. On a whim I bought her a copy of Finding Nemo a few weeks ago. She LOVES Nemo. Loves him, I say. He's not quite up to Dora's rankings, but he's not far behind. While we were at the coast a couple of weeks ago, she enjoyed watching a few of her cousin Olivia's movies...namely Cars and Monsters, Inc. She likes Sesame Street characters, but not necessarily watching the show. She'll still ask for Elmo occasionally, but not often.

She still loves her babies. She feeds them - sometimes even sharing out of her own sippy cup while making little "sucking" noises for them. And she also likes to put them down for naps. This usually consists of laying them face-down and covering them up with a dishtowel, wet-wipe or anything else resembling a blanket. I have to be careful with hand towels...if I give her one to dry her hands on, she dries them quickly then takes off running chanting "babies? babies!" meaning that they're about to be put down for a nap. She also really likes her little kitchen which came from her cousin Barbara Deane. She'll make cookies and spaghetti mostly. And she uses her oven mitts to do most things in the kitchen, which is soo cute. I'm impressed with her pretending skills - I think she's going to have a really great imagination!

I think we may have conquered her fear of bears. Olivia had her birthday party at the Build-A-Bear workshop, so she got completely immersed in all things bears. Since then, she's been OK with them. She doesn't seek them out, and she still occasionally says "Bears? Yay Dada!" referring to the wooden bears my Dad made that were in her bedroom until she developed the bear-phobia...then Daddy promptly got rid of said bears.

And she still loves dogs, especially Daisy. I wish I could say that Daisy was warming up to Blair, but I'm afraid that may never happen. Daisy has learned, however, that Blair is very useful as a snack-dispenser. So she tolerates her for the food if nothing else.

Oh, and she has great manners. She's very good at saying "Thank You." We're working on please, your welcome and sirs and mams. She can throw a tantrum like nobody's business. We're feeling our way through these. If we're at home, we try to walk away and not acknowledge it. In public, we (or maybe I should speak for myself here and say I) tend to panic and do whatever we can to get her to stop. Yep...gotta figure this one out, and fast! Potty training hasn't been a priority, but she's really starting to show signs of readiness so that is our next hurdle. My plan is to try my friend Kim's "3 days and $75" plan...barricade ourselves in the house for three whole days with no diapers and go hard-core with the potty, then spend $75 to have the carpet cleaned once we're done. She swears it works...we shall see. I just have to figure out when I can dedicate three days with no work, errands or other plans...

She is truly a delight and I thank God each and every day for bringing her into our lives.

Cartwheels

2009-09-07T21:53:00.003-04:00

We spent a day at Blackbeard Island while at the coast last week, and we had the ENTIRE beach to ourselves...it was awesome! I don't think I've ever gone there and had no one else there. I was so happy about it that I decided to do a cartwheel...don't ask why, I just felt the urge.

So I did one. And Blair thought it was really cool, so I did a few more. She would throw her arms in the air, lift one foot and get so frustrated because she wanted to do one too - it was quite cute. So, being the expert gymnast that I am, I taught both Blair and Brian to do cartwheels.

Check it out:

Aaaaagggghhhh! (Screams)

2009-08-12T09:01:00.003-04:00

In case I haven't mentioned it before, Blair is now officially obsessed with Dora the Explorer. She thinks that every time the TV comes on, Dora should be on it. If by chance anything besides Dora is on the tube, she will hunt down the remote, take it to me, Brian, Daisy or her baby dolls, and say "Dora?!" incessantly until you give in and put it on a Tivo'd episode of her beloved Dora.

This past weekend, she and I were snuggled up watching an episode of D-D-Dora...trying to calm down enough to get ready for a nice nap. My plan was working brilliantly - she was in a daze, eyes getting heavier with each passing minute, breathing getting more and more even - she was about to drift off into a much-needed nap.

Then, all of a sudden, she let out the most horrifying scream I've ever heard. I snapped her up as fast as I could, prepared to see either a tarantula straight out of a horror movie underneath her legs (which it must have bitten in half judging by the scream) or one of those Stephen King rats which must have taken off a couple of toes. Nothing. There were no biting insects, spiders or rodents to be found. She now had her arms wrapped so tightly around my neck that I was having difficulties breathing. I convinced her to loosen the death grip and look at me. I asked her what was wrong - what atrocity had occurred to warrant such a scream.

"Bear!" she said between sobs as she pointed a finger towards the TV.

Yep, there was a bear on this episode of Dora, and it scared the HOLY CRAP out of the Boog. It wasn't a particularly scary bear - I honestly hadn't even noticed it...probably because I was so excited that I thought she was going to go down for a nap so easily. But, it scared the HOLY CRAP out of her. We turned off the TV, then shook our fingers in the direction of the TV and said "No no, Bear!"

Dang Dora.

Baby Birds!

2009-08-09T14:48:00.012-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we found that a bird had built a nest in an empty flower pot in our garage. And, that nest had four or five baby birds in it! Now, every morning before we leave the house...and every afternoon when we get home, we have to check on the "babies." Blair sits on the ground and insists on the pot o' babies being put between her legs. Here - I'll let her tell you about it herself:

Ah...What fun little tests

2009-08-05T11:09:00.002-04:00

The Boog has entered that fun little phase that I hear most toddlers go through...the testing phase. As in, she's testing her limits with everyone, and testing everyone's power to resist those big chocolate brown eyes. Brian is better at resisting than I am, although I'm pleasantly surprised that I haven't become a complete and total pushover.

We went out for dinner last night, and Blair thought it would be a great idea to bite the edge of the table. Brian told her not to do it again, so of course she did it again immediately. He got on to her (with a very firm voice) a couple more times, and finally resorted to the "Blair, Daddy's going to spank you if you do that again" tactic. She bit it again, and he VERY LIGHTLY popped her on the leg.

Before you call the police, let me emphasize that when we say spank, we mean very lightly brush a rogue hand or leg...no belts, switches or paddles involved and no children are actually hurt in the act. They're only mildly embarrassed.

She of course had a complete and total meltdown. So then, once she regained her dignity, she locked eyes with Brian and, in slow motion, bit the table again. He gave her another warning, and she did it AGAIN! This child seriously does not know her Daddy yet - the man has an iron will and does not give in.

Needless to say, Daddy won the battle of the wills. This time.

The Blame Game

2009-07-20T13:19:00.004-04:00

Blair is really big into cause and effect these days...as in, "I ran into that door, thus that door hurt me." When the door (or wall, cabinet, floor, or whatever other inanimate object struck her) causes her to fall down or otherwise hurt her psyche, it must be reprimanded appropriately.

"NO NO, Door!" She says it, then looks at us to say it too. Sometimes it (whatever "it" is at that particular time, and depending upon the level of hurt or embarrassment it has caused) even gets a spanking.

Yesterday we were in the kitchen - I was putting dishes into the dishwasher, and she was helping by taking them right back out and handing them to me. She eventually got bored and wandered off, and a few seconds later I heard a thud. Followed by the kind of crying that can only come from a toddler who is in desperate need of a nap. I ran to her, picked her up and kissed her boo-boo.

She then looked at me and, in between sobs, said "NO NO, Daisy!"

I looked around, and spotted Daisy sleeping soundly in the living room. Huh...guess she's learned that it's less embarrassing if the dog made you fall rather than if you ran into a cabinet? I just agreed - "NO NO, Daisy."

Sleeping Woes

2009-07-13T14:15:00.004-04:00

Blair doesn't like to sleep anymore. Seriously - she'll tell you so herself. Just a few short months ago, our routine was...well...blissful. Dinner around 6, bath around 7, soundly sleeping Boog by 7:45 at the latest, sleep for around 11 hours. It was perfect.

But then summer came along and I got caught up in all the excitement. It was a very gradual process, now that I think about it. With the warmer weather we'd play outside some evenings, meaning that dinner wasn't ready until 7-ish, pushing bed time back to 8 or 8:30. Then there were parties. Mind you, I don't regret these and fully support breaking the schedule from time to time for new experiences. However, we're now at a 9-10:00 bed time and it is killing me!

And, where as we used to be able to put her in her crib while she was drowsy, but not sleeping, we now have to wait until she is completely knocked out before we put her down or else we get the meltdown. And there is no letting her "cry it out," this meltdown involves near hyperventilation, crying so hard that she nearly spurs an asthma attack. So no, I cannot just let her cry and it isn't because I'm a softy (well, I guess that might be a tiny factor, but seriously TINY).

Last night was better - she was asleep in her crib by 8:10. But that came with a price: NO nap. She still takes a 2 hour nap most days. And since we're beginning to feel the pains of the terrible two's approaching (see: meltdown, above), NO nap makes for a LONG day.

Feel free to leave some advice for us in the comments - surely this behavior isn't unique to the Boog! Please tell me it isn't unique!!

Boog's First Concert!

2009-07-09T09:14:00.006-04:00

A friend recently invited us to a "backyard concert" for her boyfriend's band. It was awesome - the band sounded fantastic and everyone had a blast. None more so than the Boog. All of her favorite things were there: music, dancing, juice, big kids, little kids, BABIES, dogs, and...most importantly, BUBBLES.

I think her two favorite things right now are babies and bubbles. If the latter "b" word gets mentioned in her presence, she will chase you down and repeatedly say "Bubbles?" until you go outside and blow some bubbles for her. And by repeatedly, I mean she'll carry on for an hour...seriously - we've tested her. The most accurate correlation I can think up for you is that for Blair, bubbles = crack rock.

So you can imagine her delight when she got to the concert/cookout/party and saw that they had not one, but two magical machines that blew bubbles continuously all by themselves. That's right - they have bubble machines. And, they had more little bottles of bubbles than you could shake a stick at. She LOVED it! I actually got a little frightened for the other kids who dared to go near the bubble machines, or, worse yet, try to claim one of the small bottles of bubbles. She did fine, though. Guess she figured there were plenty to go around.

Here's a little pictorial for you:

Dancing and singing with Daddy.

Still dancing and singing, throwing in a few tickles.

Found the bubbles.

Found LOTS of bubbles!

Found the bubble machine.

2009-07-09T09:11:00.002-04:00

Pouring little bottles of bubbles into the magical bubble machine.

Seriously. See the empty bottles of bubbles strewn around her feet? She emptied them ALL into the machine. Boog heaven, I say!

A strawberry milk nightcap to top things off. She began the infamous toddler melt-down about 3 seconds after this picture was taken. We wrestled her into the car, and she fell asleep before we even backed out of our parking spot.

The Devil and his Spawn

2009-07-06T10:22:00.003-04:00

We had a wonderful holiday weekend, and I hope you all did too. We had a very low key few days, which I absolutely loved. We had some fun activities - one I'll post about tomorrow, and lots of down time...which meant quality time with Noggin and videos. After watching one particular DVD at least 5 times, I'm fairly certain that I've identified the Devil:

And the devil reproduced. Luckily, Blair hasn't made his spawn's acquaintance yet:

Blair may love Elmo, but Elmo hates Mommy. So much so, in fact, that he actually triggers horrible headaches and dry heaves. :) She will pick up the remote now, take it to Brian, me or Daisy and say very sweetly "Elmo!"

The spawn, in case you don't currently have a toddler, is that creepy guy from Yo Gabba Gabba. I can tolerate Max and Ruby. Heck, I've even been known to sing along with Dora and Boots. But this is the one show that I just can't take. Hopefully Blair will never get the desire to get her Yo Gabba on.

What's with the face?!?

2009-06-30T16:23:00.004-04:00

I got a call from daycare yesterday (don't you hate those?) because Blair had been stung by a bee. They said she was fine, but would pay extra special attention to her since it was her first bee sting and we weren't sure what might happen. She was fine - hopefully no epi-pens are in her future.

I neglected to find out where the sting was, so when I picked her up yesterday afternoon, I was understandably heartbroken when I saw that it had stung her right beneath her left eye! She looked so pitiful - it wasn't swollen completely closed, but it was very puffy. They found the next and sprayed it, but no outside play for the kiddos for a couple of days. I'm afraid the Boog may get a few dirty looks from the other children for wrecking their outside time!

As I was telling Brian about the sting on the way home so that he wouldn't be shocked to see her puffy eye, we realized that all of her significant injuries thus far in her little life have been to her sweet little face: chipped tooth, two black eyes, busted lip, scratches, etc. Gosh...we really do watch her closely, but writing everything out like that may make DFCS want to come knockin! We're going to have to look into getting a special catchers mask for her if this keeps up.

Happy Friday

2009-06-19T09:30:00.003-04:00

It is Friday, so go ahead...

Let it all hang out and have a great weekend!!

Pretty Flowers

2009-06-10T09:56:00.004-04:00

After church last Sunday Brian and I took the Boog to a nearby park. She played SO hard and had a blast. At one point she was sitting in the grass picking flowers, and it looked like she put one behind her ear. I thought that it was really cute and assumed that she must have picked it up at "school." Well, I went over to see said flower behind her ear, and she had actually put it IN her ear - as in...her actual ear canal! I removed it and put what was left of it behind her ear, so she picked another one and put it IN her ear.

Must be some new-age thing I haven't heard of yet...maybe it makes sounds sweeter? Hearing through flower-muffled ears as opposed to seeing through rose-colored glasses?

Funny Words

2009-06-04T09:03:00.004-04:00

Blair is talking so much now - actual conversations in some instances. Mind you, we can usually only pick out one or two actual English words in most of her dialogues, but she is talking. We're having to decipher a few words that she has created, because when she says them, she means them, and if we don't understand she gets very upset. For instance, here is a bit of "Blairology:"

schooo (said with a VERY thick German-sounding accent): shoe
schock (again with the German thing): sock
jchui (German accent again): juice
agla (sometimes aglagla): water
paddy-paddy: play patt-a-cake
dis-dis: play itsy bitsy spider
book-t (heavy emphasis on the "t" at the end of the word): book
pat-c: pacy
tookie: cookie
d (pregnant pause) d (pregnant pause) dura: Dora the Explorer (she's doing the d-d-d-dora thing they do in the theme song)
neey: horse (as in a horse says...neeey, only she won't say horse, she just calls them neey)
mmm: give me a bite of whatever that delicious-looking food you have is...and give it to me now
mo-moowah: we haven't figured this one out yet...has something to do with food though because she only says it when she's eating...I'll let you know when we decipher it.
I do ju: I love you

Have I mentioned how much fun she is right now? Except for the tantrums...but that's another post for another time.

Chocolate Induced Coma

2009-06-01T11:05:00.004-04:00

Have you ever witnessed a chocolate-induced coma? Well now you can say that you have. After a hard day of playing at the farm, and being given 2 chocolate cookies to eat on the ride home, this is the transgression of events...

The chocolate cookies disappeared in about 5 seconds flat - no joke. She gets it honest since both mom and dad are certified chocoholics. Note the presence of chocolate crumbs EVERYWHERE. Ears - check. Eyes - check. Mouth - check. Nose - check. Hands to elbows - check. Diaper to shoes - check.

Note the look of complete and total satisfaction in her glassy eyes...

The eyes are now getting heavy, and the rest of the body has gone limp...

And - she's out. This all went down in oh, I'd say 2.3 minutes.

Time left alone in bathroom: 3.2 seconds...

2009-05-26T12:04:00.002-04:00

Result? An ENTIRE roll of toilet paper unrolled ... and it was a double roll! I may have to contact the folks at Guinness - this could be a new record.

I wish I'd had the camera - she came out of the potty room with as much of the TP as she could hold, and there was a long trail of fluffy TP flowing behind her. She had such a look of pride in her accomplishment on her sweet little face - it was hard for me to keep a straight face when I told her not to do that again. Oh well - at least she didn't put the whole roll in the toilet...then we would have really been late this morning!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2009-05-18T09:42:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday to the best daddy, husband and friend in the world (a day late)!!

Strawberry Fields Forever

2009-05-14T13:57:00.002-04:00

We went to a really fun birthday party this week - the theme was Strawberry Shortcake, and the hostess gave out some awesome favors...including strawberry-shaped sunglasses and strawberry hats. Both were a big hit with Blair:

How to Eat Spaghetti

2009-05-11T08:59:00.004-04:00

Emily Post is going to have to write a whole new chapter on how to eat spaghetti.

We're trying to teach Blair how to eat by herself. You know, with spoons, forks and other such nonsensical utensils. You'll see in this video that she has her way cool toddler fork in her right hand - watch and see how well she's using it!

So since she's actually using her left hand to eat, we're not too worried with the fact that she's holding the fork in her right hand. To her credit, she did try to use the fork for a couple of bites. But the one or two noodles she was actually getting into her mouth that way were obviously not sufficient for her very hungry belly. I feel ya, Blair Bear. There have been many times when I would much rather start grabbing fists full of whatever I'm eating and stuff my face as fast as possible because I'm just that hungry. I only wish it was this cute when I do it.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Potty Update

2009-05-08T13:18:00.002-04:00

We had number 1 and 2 in the potty two nights ago, and number 2 in the potty last night. Yay Blair! They've started putting her on the potty a couple of times each day at daycare too...I really had not intended to get serious with potty training this early, but at this rate I may be forced to. Brian and I are really proud of her, and I believe she's starting to catch on. Originally, she wouldn't even look in the potty after she'd done something, but she is beginning to now and even sat back down once when there wasn't anything in it to "try again."

So all you more experienced moms, when did you start using pull-ups? And are they more prone to leaking than regular diapers? As in, do we maybe just do pull-ups during the daytime? And how often should we put her on the potty, or just when she says she has to go to the bathroom? I'm off to consult the Google on these questions, but I'd love to hear your advice...PLEASE!

A very sick weekend...not the good sick either.

2009-04-28T09:30:00.002-04:00

Last Friday, when I picked Blair up from daycare, she greeted me with rosy cheeks and a very warm body. They explained that she had just come back inside after playing outside for a while. Well...she never cooled off. Her fever shot to 103.4 Friday night. It was horrifying...I gave her Tylenol, and she threw it right up (which was extra scary, because it was cherry Tylenol...which means red vomit...took me a minute to remember the Tylenol was red). We gave her a cool bath and I actually had to get in with her because she was so upset. Cool baths are NOT fun ever, especially while holding an 18-month old sick child down.

Her fever finally started dropping a bit, and Saturday morning I took her to the pediatrician. Her fever was 103.7. They tested her for strep and the flu, and she was negative for both. So, the doctor decided that she had the weird "fever virus" that so many kids had come in with over the past week. The doctor said it usually lasts 72 hours and might end with the virus coming out in the form of a rash. She assured me that Blair would be fine - and gave me some warnings to look out for that might indicate a need for a trip to the ER. Since the doctor acted like it wasn't a big deal, I asked about this monstrous fever...specifically what the magic number is where we need to be concerned about her brain frying. She informed me that kids are much more resilient than adults when it comes to fever, and that we shouldn't be worried about the "number." She said she had kids come in with fever of 105 who, thought they were miserable and some even hallucinated, were just fine. So we were sent home with Motrin and Tylenol instructions.

The fever kept up Saturday, and I do believe Blair hallucinated at one point. It freaked me out...Brian was at work, so it was just Blair and me. She was sitting in my lap (she was permanently attached to me throughout this sickness...I couldn't put her down, and no one else could hold her...I learned to do things I never thought possible with a baby on my hip) with her bloodshot eyes glazed over. All of a sudden she jumped, her eyes got big, she grabbed hold of me very tightly, and she started following something on the ceiling with her eyes. There was nothing there, and I nearly lost it. Had the doctor not told me that she may hallucinate, I probably would have lost it.

Sunday was more fever - up to 105 at one point Sunday night. We finally got her fever down, and she only had a low-grade fever yesterday...and no fever this morning. I took her to school today, but I'm just waiting for them to call me to come get her because of a rash...

It was a long weekend, and a very scary weekend. I feel lost without her in my lap right now...guess I got a little too attached. Anyway, she's all better now, and was so happy last night that she ran, danced, sang and laughed until 9:00. I didn't have the heart to try to put her to bed...so we just let her wear herself out until she was good and ready to go to sleep on her own. I've never been so happy to see her so wired!

D is for D-R-A-M-A and D-I-V-A

2009-04-23T08:17:00.002-04:00

For the past couple of nights, Blair has had a hard time going to sleep for some reason. She normally has her last bottle around 7, and goes down without a fight by 7:30. But lately, she has her last bottle around 7, gets put into her crib by 7:30, screams bloody murder until mommy caves in around 7:40, rocks with mommy until 7:50 and gets put back into her crib, screams bloody murder until mommy caves in again around 8:00 and gets put in her crib around 8:15 to sleep for the night.

When I say "screams bloody murder until mommy caves in," I mean she screams bloody murder. I'll admit that part of the reason mommy caves in is because I'm sure the neighbors can hear her and will no doubt call the police on us if we don't quiet her down. When I get to her room, she's standing in her crib with a death grip on the railing...crying so hard that I'm surprised she hasn't hyperventilated with snot smeared over every inch of her little face.

Two nights ago, however, she added a new twist. After caving in, I went into her room to find that she had thrown her pacifier across the room. A few feet away from her pacy was the blanket she'd thrown at some point. And a few feet away from the blanket was...wait a minute...what is that? Are those her pajama pants? Yep. She had taken off her PJ pants and slung them across the room too.

I looked back at her, standing there with her fat little legs shining in all their glory, and she pointed to the pants and said...in between sobs..."pants." Now, from the tone of her voice, I read this into her one word plea: "Mom, I got a little carried away and flung my pants over there. I really didn't mean to, so could you please put them back on me so that I can continue with my now extremely dramatic fit?"

So I put her pants back on and we rocked...and laughed. She didn't go to sleep until nearly 9 that night. Can you say drama diva? (we somehow skipped right past drama queen and upgraded directly to drama diva)

The greatest boxer in the world...

2009-04-22T09:40:00.004-04:00

Or at least in her class at daycare, anyway. Yep...it's true. Remember a few posts ago I showed you the picture of Blair's shiner and told you about the really bad two weeks she had at school...one rug rat pushed her down onto a bookshelf (resulting in the shiner) and another bit her lip a few days later? Remember - I wanted to inflict corporal punishment on those two little hellions who hurt my poor, sweet, innocent Blair-bear?

Well...apparently yesterday, she decided to take a stand. When I picked her up yesterday afternoon, we were saying our goodbyes (she has to tell all the staff bye-bye before we leave every. single. day.) and the director giggled and told me that Blair was quite frisky today. I smiled and thought she'd probably entertained them with her new "shake-it" dance.

"Why - what did she do?"

"Well, I really shouldn't tell you this, but I just have to," she said. I started to panic a little. "She initiated three scuffles today."

"Noooo! Was anyone hurt?" I asked - Blair had no new visible injuries, and I hadn't noticed any bloody noses or fat lips on any of the other kids in her class.

"No, and I just giggled when they told me about it. I guess she felt the need to make a new name for herself - she let them know that she isn't the new girl anymore and won't let them push her around!" was her response.

I laughed, picked her up and exited with the theme from Rocky playing in my head. I'm sort of proud, embarrassed, horrified and curious about this new milestone. Oh well, I guess we shouldn't let her watch Wrestlemania any more. (KIDDING)

Oh, and she has tinkled in the potty twice since the big poo-poo post!!

Y'all aren't going to believe this one...

2009-04-16T11:36:00.005-04:00

My mom casually suggested that we get Blair's hand-me-down toilet training thingy out of the attic to let her "play with it and just get familiar with it." So, before bath time last night, I did just that. It's just a plain old white toilet, just her size. She thought it was way cool - she'd sit on it, stand up walk around it, then sit on it again.

So, we drug it to the bathroom (all this playing went on in the hallway) and proceeded to undress her for her bath. Once she was naked, I let her play around on the toilet again. She sat on it, and I swore I heard liquid dripping, but when she got up there was nothing. So after doing a lap around the potty, she sat back down and made a sound I'm very familiar with. Then there was the undeniable sound of something hitting the toilet.

I screamed for Brian to come in the bathroom, and he ran in just in time to see her stand up from the potty. And guess what - she had pooped! Can you believe it? I'm still in shock. I know it was pure dumb luck, but I have a smidgen of hope now that potty training won't be such a nightmare after all. Here's hoping, anyway!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T13:00:00.001-04:00

We had a great Easter, and I hope you did too! After church, we went to Brian's grandfather's farm for lunch and an egg hunt. Let me tell you - Blair had the best time! She was an egg super sleuth. Rather than bore you with my stories, I'll just narrarate the photos...because I know that's what you're really after. :)

We hit the "big slide" before the egg hunt started...

And it was obviously a "big hit" - she laughed like this the whole time!

Here's Daddy helping her find some eggs to put in her basket...

And here she is going for the egg...

No cute comment for this one - it was just cute. She did lots of bending and lifting (kinda reminds me of the "Bend and Snap" from Legally Blonde)...

2009-04-13T12:58:00.000-04:00

Scoping out the field for more bounty...

We wound up with lots of "flowers" and extra stuff in our basket in addition to the eggs...

Lots of cute little baby butts up in the air...

Checking out the competition to make sure no one had more eggs than her...

And we had lots of little spills, too. See the shadow of my head in the bottom part of the picture? Yes, that was me laughing hysterically and taking a picture while my poor daughter tumbled over for the 100th time and spilled all her eggs. I couldn't help it - as soon as I didn't hear the "OK - I'm really hurt this time" scream, I doubled over in laughter - as did everyone else. It was very funny. Hey - I've told y'all already that I won't be winning the Mom of the Year award any time soon.

2009-04-13T12:55:00.000-04:00

She wound up with SO much candy (and lots of grass stains, too)...

Here's the ariel view of all of her Easter goodies...

Daddy actually let her have a piece of candy - we typically steer her clear of sweets, but this was a special occasion and she'd worked very hard to get all this candy. An hour later, you would have thought we'd given her crack she was so wired!

She also got some really cute bunny ears...

OK we thought they were really cute, you can see how she felt about them by the expression of her face here. :)

2009-04-13T12:50:00.000-04:00

We had a fantastic Easter and we're already looking forward to next year. Maybe we'll even take a crack at Amber's special Resurrection cookies!

Reason #476: Why I Don't Go to the Gym

2009-04-09T11:43:00.004-04:00

This, my friends, is why I don't go to the gym anymore. This would SOO happen to me if I tried to do some crazy exercise like this!

Complete humiliation. Forget hurt - I bet she was too embarrassed to even know if she was actually physically hurt. Poor woman.

Oh my...this could be a problem

2009-03-31T11:43:00.002-04:00

Blair's bedroom is literally five steps from her bathroom. However, when charting her little naked self from the bedroom to the bathroom for her nightly bath, I make use of every single step by squishing and patting her little butt. I won't apologize for it - I simply can't help myself.

So anyway, the other night I got in a couple of pats on the way to the tub, pausing at the linen closet to get her towel and wash cloth. As I paused, I noticed her hand reaching behind her. She was smacking her own butt. I nearly wet myself I laughed so hard. Yep, I guess it's true what they say...baby got back!

Wow - that was one COOL birthday party!

2009-03-16T12:55:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday was Blair's cousin's birthday party. It. Was. The. Coolest. Party. Ever. Seriously! Finger painting, swings and slides, tricycles, bubbles, YUMMY food, oh...and PONY RIDES! Yes, this was one cool party. And Blair was right in the middle of all of it - check it out:

Finger painting was first. We were driving 5 hrs to MS right after the party, so this one scared me a little. OK, it scared me a lot...especially when Blair dove into the yellow paint with such gusto. Turned out OK though, thanks to Daddy's helping hand.

The swing was next - she really liked it. Come on, sing it with me..."Just a swang-in....Swang-in!" (you'll thank me 4 hours from now when you're still singing that song).

Then it was time to slide. Her expression speaks for itself. Blair hearts sliding. Oh, and I believe the Easter Bunny may bring her a play set like this - she LOVED it!

Next was the coolest tire swing I've ever seen. I wanted to try it out myself, but I was afraid the poor horse's head would be level with the ground, and the rest of his body would be buried under my big badonkadonk.

We may have a farm girl on our hands...she really liked the tractor!

2009-03-16T12:51:00.004-04:00

The tricycle...notice how her feet didn't touch the pedals and MawMaw Burnett had to help "drive," but as you can see from the expression on her face, she was none the less proud of herself. :)

The playhouse...also a big hit.

And then there was the pony...she was not scared at all. She loved it! She actually rode twice.

Note how she's holding the saddle horn in this one (once you get past the cuteness of those cheeks)...she's a natural!

And then we rode off into the sunset...for 5 hours to Mississippi!

If she gets any sweeter I just might burst

2009-02-27T16:29:00.002-05:00

I had this small wound on one of my knuckles, and as most wounds do, it eventually scabbed over. One night after dinner, Blair pointed at it (meaning touched it) then leaned in to it with her mouth wide open. I was seriously afraid she was about to bite me, but she kissed it! You know, those good, juicy, wet toddler-type kisses.

She kissed it to make it better! I instantly became a puddle of goo in the floor.

It's extremely difficult for me to think this, let alone type it out for the world to see, but she's getting to be such a big girl. Not just in size, but in general. She's not really a baby anymore, but a toddler. I have a really hard time wrapping my brain around that. I'm sure it will get harder and harder the older she gets. But Brian and I are enjoying every second of it. We have such a sweet Boog!!

Piggy Tails and Shiners

2009-02-10T14:53:00.004-05:00

Wanna see the cutest pig tails ever? Check this out:

What's that you say? It looks like Blair has a black eye? Well that's just ridiculous! Oh wait...she does have a shiner at the moment.

Last week I got a call from daycare around 4:30 - they said that Blair had a bit of a fall and hit her eye on the bookshelves in her classroom. No serious injury, just a little swollen. Now I seem to get one of these calls from daycare every few weeks, so I didn't panic. When I got there to pick her up, the woman behind the desk was explaining what happened before I went to Blair's room. Seems another little ankle-biter demon child pushed The Boog down!

I went barrelling into the room, see my daughter with a HUGE SHINER (slight swelling my behind), and I wanted to know which one of these little devils did this to her. Maybe it was the crazed "I'm out for vengeance" look in my eye, but the teacher wouldn't tell me. Grr.

All kidding aside, we do love our daycare...we're just adjusting to being put in the official 1-year-old room as opposed to the much more docile infant room. According to the new teacher, Blair is the most wobbly walker in the class. OK, I'll agree with that, but that just means you HAVE TO KEEP A BETTER WATCH OVER HER! Right?!

Speechless

2009-02-02T16:25:00.002-05:00

Does your love for your family ever render you speechless? That's where I am right now. I love my family more than I thought I was capable of loving, and that love just grows stronger with every passing day. To the point that it makes my heart feel like it just might burst. Seriously!

OK - obviously I'm not speechless. :) Blair is doing so good. Here's a quick rundown of what she's up to:

She's gained some mad walking skills - she actually walks more than she crawls now.
Her favorite words are "dog" and "ba."
She still drinks her milk out of a bottle - she'll chug water or juice from her sippy cup, but don't you dare even think of giving her milk in a sippy cup.
She's known in her daycare as being the best eater in her class (I think she may get that from me).
She laughs hysterically whenever Daisy does the basset 500 around the living room.
She wrinkles her nose when she poops.
She dances and sings all the time.
She loves babies.

That's all I can think of for now - I'll try to post a recent picture soon.

Tickle, Tickle!

2009-01-22T08:09:00.005-05:00

Sorry - guess I've been going kinda crazy with the video clips lately, but one of you (Mimi) made the mistake of telling me how much you enjoyed the walking video. So....here's one more. Brian was tickling Blair during dinner last night - it was quite cute. I just cannot get enough of her little laugh.

Proof of the Canine Persuasion

2009-01-22T06:12:00.009-05:00

So you all know by now that my beloved soon-to-be 12 year-old basset hound, Daisy, is...well...less than fond of The Boog. Growls, snarls, runs away from her - it ain't pretty. Well, yesterday evening, I actually got video evidence that even Daisy has a soft spot for Blair. It may have only lasted for a few seconds, but still...maybe Blair will have at least one fond memory of Daisy Doo!

These boots are made for walkin'

2009-01-04T16:42:00.004-05:00

Y'all aren't going to believe this, but we took SO many great pictures over Christmas...and our memory card ATE THEM ALL! I am so angry. We had some really good ones of her "jumping" on the trampoline with her cousin Olivia and Mimi, some good family pictures, and some downright too cute for words pictures. It's a travesty I tell you. Panasonic has some serious bad karma coming their way.

We got a new memory card (bigger, better, faster), and we got a great little video of Blair's newest hobby...walking! Yep - she's walking! Nothing too serious...10 steps max, but it's really cool. See for yourself:

Our First Santa Picture!

2008-12-22T09:40:00.002-05:00

We went to a Christmas party this past Friday night, and the guest of honor was none other than Santa Claus. We were soo excited...this would be Blair's first visit with the jolly ole' Saint Nick. I was certain she'd love him instantly. The man who leads to candy, toys gallore and maybe even an electronic or two in later years...who wouldn't want to charm the pants off this guy? I mean, come on! Every good little girl knows that she needs to be on her best behavior for the Big Guy, right?

Well...I'll just let the picture speak for itself:

Guess she doesn't want much for Christmas this year, huh? Seriously, it was hot, she was sweating, she was tired and she was OVER it. Then we threw her in the lap of this big burly man in a red suit with white hair all over his face? Not a smart move. Oh well, next year we'll try for a morning visit to the jolly ole' Saint Nick.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

School pictures

2008-12-18T08:35:00.004-05:00

I am probably going to get carted off to jail for this, because I'm sure it's as illegal as ripping the tags off mattresses, but I scanned Blair's latest school pictures in and am blatantly posting them here for you all to enjoy.

And for the record, it was TOTALLY worth it if I have to spend the next 5 years in jail to show off the cuteness that is Blair. TOTALLY.

Aqua Net could not possibly have come close to matching this...

2008-12-10T08:32:00.004-05:00

Blair has a new tooth coming in - on the bottom. Isn't the fifth tooth supposed to come in on the top? She really needs to follow all the parenting books we've been reading...her OCD mommy can't handle the change-ups. Anyway, with this new tooth is coming disturbances in her normally sound sleep. Twice last night she woke up and needed consoling. When I went in to get her dressed at 7 this morning, she was of course sound asleep. I had to wake her up. And this is what I found when she sat up:

Between screaming for mommy to come console her sore gums, she evidently did some serious sleeping which must have involved quite a bit of rooting around or something. That hair had a mind of its own this morning. There was no brushing it down, no licking it down. Aqua Net only wishes they had the capabilities to make hair freeze in mid-air like this!

Pretty Hair!

2008-12-04T10:03:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm still here. Just a little overwhelmed with life and all that it entails. But fear not - things are beginning to look up! While it is sad that I've been such a blogger-slacker, the really sad part is that I've also been a slacker photographer. Bad mommy! I'll do better and promise to take some new pictures of Blair to post next week. In the meantime, here are a few cute things she's doing:

Pretty hair. This child has a head full of hair, and it is in fact beautiful. It's getting long enough to have some real curls - ringlets even. And it is the prettiest golden brown color. Brian and I discovered the other night that the bottom layer of my hair - the part with no color on it anymore - is very close to Blair's color. Hmph. She does have a little bit of me in her after all!
Anywho - a couple of weeks ago she started putting her hand on her head. Not both hands like she does for peek-a-boo, just one. Usually above her ear. I of course panicked and assumed that she must have an ear infection. But she seemed to feel OK - she'd just put her hand there and look at me and smile. She did it as I dropped her off at daycare one morning, and her teacher immediately said "Oh, what pretty hair!" and Blair giggled. So that's what she was doing! No earache - just reminding us of how pretty her hair is!
Blowing kisses. She blows the sweetest kisses!
Getting into EVERYTHING. She's not walking on her own yet, still only while holding someones finger(s) or while holding on to any stationary object (wall, chair, table, window - whatever). But she is very close, and she's also getting very fast. We've started getting more hard-core with our baby proofing activities. When she picked up the pretty antique hatchet that we kept with our fireplace tools, we took it as a sign that it really was time to get serious.
Eating real food. We've been giving her lots of foods that she can pick up by herself and feed herself. We can't do plates or bowls, because they of course distract her. Rather, it has to be food we can put directly on her booster seat tray. We switched to daycare lunch this week, and so far she's devoured a sloppy joe, chicken pot pie, a grilled cheese sandwich, peas, carrots, pineapples and pretty much everything else they've put in front of her. Her teacher said that Blair is by far the best eater in her class. Hmm...more of her mommy coming through!
OCDing bye-bye and hey. Seriously. She waves bye-bye and hey every time she sees something new. Other words are limited to "Mama," "Dada," "Daidy" (Daisy) and "Ba." Ba is anything that isn't mama, dada or daisy.
Reading. She loves to "read." It is the cutest thing ever - she'll talk and talk and talk while flipping her books over, turning pages, smacking the covers, etc.
Singing. Oh yeah - I have yet to be able to identify the exact tune she's belting out, but she's got some serious pipes on her. I'm not sure what Simon Cowell would say, but we think it's the prettiest voice we've ever heard.
Torturing Daidy. She chases her. Especially when she's in her walker. Daisy is a nervous wreck, poor thing. I'm surprised she has a voice left she's barking so much.
Pitching fits. Girlfriend can flat throw a tantrum. She doesn't do it often, but when she does decide to pitch a fit, you can rest assured that it's going to be a good one.
Wrapping us tighter around her little finger. 'Nuff said.

Pictures soon - I promise!

Nooo...that couldn't have been....not Blair!?!

2008-11-12T09:56:00.002-05:00

Those of you who know me know that I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. Bodily function humor is the funniest stuff out there. The louder the fart, the harder I laugh.

So last night we were in the kitchen cleaning up. We had eaten, Blair had eaten, and Daisy was still waiting for someone to drop some wonderful morsel of people food in her bowl. Blair was playing happily in her booster seat at the table while we attempted to de-germ the kitchen. We were talking - for the life of me I can't remember what specifically we were talking about, but it was serious and intense.

In mid-sentence, we heard a noise that I can only relate to the sound of a tree breaking - the really loud cracking noise it makes regardless of whether anyone is in the woods to hear it. And it didn't stop - it kept going. And going. And going.

Brian and I were stunned to silence. We looked at each other with disbelief. It had to be a joke. There was a remote control fart machine somewhere in our kitchen. Or a fog horn.

Then we looked at Blair. She had stopped playing, had a very...focused...look on her face, and was as red as a beet. All the while, she had the weirdest smile on her face - kind of a cross between "oh yeah, this is funny stuff," "holy crap I didn't know I could do this," and "oh yeah, I've been holding this in all day and the feeling of sweet release is more than my little body can take."

When she finally stopped and the noise subsided, she clapped. We are so proud of our sweet little girl!!

Can I change my vote? I want to vote for this guy!

2008-11-05T16:47:00.002-05:00

Brian voted earlier in the day than I did yesterday, and he had to wait in line for 45 minutes. Significant when you consider our polling location is a teeny little church.

Anywho, he was in line behind this man sporting a "stroller limo" (his words, not mine). He had triplets - two girls and a boy or vice versa...just thinking about triplets makes me lose my mind a little bit.

Anyway, Brian got to talking to this guy, and it turns out these three 9-month old babies were born at 27 weeks (I think, again, triplets make my mind go numb) and weighed between 1 and 2 pounds each. They started talking about time in the NICU, bringing babies home on apnea monitors, etc., and Brian said he felt so guilty for even talking about our experience with our 32-weeker after hearing this guy's story.

Plus, while he was talking, he was holding one baby with a bottle wedged underneath his chin to feed the baby in his arms, was holding another bottle while feeding a second baby who was resting in the stroller, and trying to soothe the third baby who was screaming because he was hungry too. All this while tap dancing and pulling a rabbit out of his hat.

OK, I made the last part up, but seriously...TRIPLETS?!? And taking them out ALONE to VOTE? This guy sounds amazing - I wish I could have been there to witness this spectacle for myself...I may very well have started a write-in campaign for him.

Refocusing

2008-11-04T14:38:00.002-05:00

In the world today, it is so easy to lose focus of what is most important to us. I've recently done a lot of soul searching - painful, hard soul searching. In the end, I've come to realize that there is absolutely nothing on this earth more important to me than this:

I am so blessed to have a husband willing to duke it out with me and show me what's most important in life and look me in the eye when I can't stand to look at my own reflection in the mirror, and a daughter who is the very epitome of the phrase "a gift from God."

I am humbled to have such an amazing family, and I have absolutely no doubt that I will never again lose focus of how truly blessed I am.

100 things you are dying to know...

2008-10-20T15:36:00.002-04:00

OK, maybe not, but my friend Kim did this cool blog where she tells 100 things about herself and I decided to "borrow" her idea. I challenge you all to do the same...

I am 31 years old.
When I turned 30, my feelings got hurt. I saw it as a threshold - when you're in your 20s any mistakes you make are chalked up to your youth, inexperience and (in my case) naivete. 30 meant I was a full-fledged adult with responsibilities and expectations. But you know, I was pregnant at the time, so a lot of things hurt my feelings thanks to overactive hormones.
Age is relative to me now. I'm still 20 in my head.
I hail from Pelahatchie, Mississippi
I still have to recite the M-I-Crooked letter-Crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpback-I whenever I spell out my home state...
I am a creature of habit and I find comfort in routines
My parents divorced when I was 5
My mom and I moved to Glennville, Georgia, where we lived until I went to college
I won the spelling bee in 3rd grade, but I can't spell worth a crap now thanks to spell check
I've won 4 beauty pageants in my lifetime - Junior Miss GA Sweet Onion Princess, Junior Miss Sweet Onion, Miss GA Sweet Onion and Miss Pinewood Christian Academy (and you thought I'd only won the one onion pageant - I am the onion queen who just couldn't stop)
I started modeling when I was 14
I was a finalist in Teen magazine's Great Model Search in 1992 - sort of my launching pad
I modeled during school breaks until I graduated high school in '95
When I told my agent that I was going to college she told me I was crazy
I took a hiatus from college after only one quarter to model full time
After 6 weeks of being a career model, I quit because knowing that my livelihood rested on whether I was having a good hair day didn't sit well with me
I've never regretted quitting, although I have wondered how far I could have gone
I was in Something to Talk About with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid when I was 17
I lied about my age to go to the audition (told them I was 22)
They lied about my age so that I could get the part (said I was 25)
Someone who didn't get the part ratted me out and my mom had to come with me to film the last scene
I was a waitress for a week.
I was the world's worst waitress. Ever.
I finished college in 4 years, despite going to an infamous "party" school and despite my modeling hiatus
My first job out of college was as a departmental assistant for a non-profit
I stayed there for 6 months, then left for a dot.com company
This was a huge mistake, the dot.com company didn't last long (we all know what happened to most of those companies) and I don't think I learned much at all from my time there
My third job out of college is my current job.
I love where I work
I love the people I work with
I love what I do
I worked harder the three months I was out on maternity leave than I ever have in my entire life
I actually looked forward to coming back to work
This made me feel guilty
My daughter is my world
In the words of Jerry McGuire, she "Completes Me"
I worry about being a good mom for her
I worry about raising her in a world infested with pedophiles, cyberstalkers and worse
I wonder how I will be able to protect her from all the evil in the world
I am sad that her childhood won't involve riding bikes with friends from sun-up to sun-down during summers as mine did
I hope that I will always make her proud to call me mom (or mommy, mama, whatever)
I hope she knows that I won't hesitate to go all "Chuck Norris" on the first boy that makes her cry
I am not kidding - I ain't skeered of a 4th grader
Want proof? I once broke a former step-sister's nose. (we were throwing apples into the apple tree to knock good apples down, and she was stupid enough to stand there and watch as a really big apple fell right on top of her face)
Biologically, I'm an only child.
I have a step-sister and step-brother who I do not refer to as "steps"
I love my family and friends unconditionally
I used to be a certified germaphob until I had Blair
Now I'm quite used to having puke in my hair, poop under my fingernails and dried boogers smeared on my pants
I still go through A LOT of Purel and GermX
I love food
I especially love fattening food
and candy
and chocolate
I hate exercising
I miss the days when I had to eat a lot of fattening foods to keep from being too thin
I miss the days when I had to eat a lot of fattening foods to keep from being too thin A LOT
I miss the days when I had to eat a lot of fattening foods to keep from being too thin A WHOLE LOT
I weigh approximately 25 pounds more now than I did when I modeled
I wouldn't mind losing 10 pounds, but I'm OK where I am
I voted for George W Bush twice
I'd vote for him all over again given who he ran against
I met Dick Cheney once
He was most unimpressive
I'll probably vote for McCain next month
I want really badly to support Palin, but she has really disappointed me
In our high school elections (where you get to "pretend" to vote on Presidential election day), I was THE ONLY PERSON IN MY WHOLE SCHOOL who voted for Bill Clinton.
I think I voted for him because I knew I'd be the only one
and I was a rebel
I am now the opposite of a rebel
I hate conflict, no matter who it is with/between
I avoid conflict at all costs
I hate that our society is so materialistic
I hope Blair is strong enough to go against the grain if she wants to
I don't recycle
But I know I should
I have two regrets in my life
I'm not telling you what they are
Fall is my favorite season
My favorite color changes frequently
I admire strength, humor, intelligence and loyalty in people
I question the character of people who don't like animals
Especially dogs
I love dogs
I like dogs more than I like some people
The beach is my favorite place to be
I wish I could scuba dive a lot more than I do
I wish I could live in a small beach town, or at least a small town
I know #88 will never happen
I hate that #88 will never happen
I'm addicted to Facebook
I love scary movies
But I hate real life violence
But I love to watch professional boxing
I've never been in trouble with the law
except for 5 speeding tickets
But that's just because I've never been caught breaking the law :)
I did inhale, Bill Clinton. And so did you.
I love mindless fun
I am a walking, talking contradiction and bundle of randomness.

Peek-A-Boo

2008-10-20T09:05:00.005-04:00

As I was feeding Blair the other night, she kept smacking herself in the head then making a big "ta-da" motion. She was quite proud of herself, and her blonde mommy took quite a while to catch on.

She was playing peek-a-boo! Since we all have another set of eyes on the tops of our heads, I don't know why it wasn't clear to me immediately what she was doing.

Once I caught on, however, and joined in her game, we had a very good time and a good belly laugh. See for yourself:

See? I can't believe it took me so long to catch on. Here - let's see it again:

Genius. Genius, I say.

Happy Birthday to You!

2008-10-17T11:28:00.001-04:00

So the big day came and went without a hitch, the party was relatively drama-free, and I am just now getting around to telling you all about it. Sorry - I've been a little busy. So the actual birthday was last Friday. We really didn't do anything extravagant that day, other than telling her how much we love her an extra couple hundred times and singing Happy Birthday to her.

The party was Sunday, and it was so much fun! Lots of friends and family came to celebrate with us. Big kids, little kids, and lots of big adult kids. A friend asked me recently whether Blair seemed to know what was going on during the party, and I didn't really have to think about it much. She had no idea that it was her birthday party, why people were singing to her and taking her picture, or why she got to taste a little piece of heaven known as birthday cake. What she did know: it was all about her. And she loved it!

She smiled a lot, clapped a lot, showed off her new birthday outfit made especially for her by JLOD and enjoyed every ounce of attention that was showered upon her. I was so afraid that she would clam up and get shy with so many people there, but she did just the opposite. I don't think she cried once!

Well, maybe when the daddy took her cake away. I was really proud of him - the food Nazi in him let her play in her cake for a good 5 or 6 minutes before he couldn't stand the thought of all that fat and sugar anymore.

When it was all said and done, it reminded me a little of weddings. You spend all that time planning and working on the details, and the actual event is a blur and is over before you realize it.

Excuse me for a second while I thank the people who made it all possible (my pretend Emmy-moment):

JLOD - The outfit and bibs were beautiful, and the decorations were fabulous. Thanks for coming to the rescue.

Mimi - Well, thanks for everything (still a little brain-dead, but you did a lot and I appreciate it)

Papa - Read Mimi's thanks above - that goes for you too. :)

Uncle Yeye (Steven) - You rock, man! Thanks for everything.

Olivia/Weewa - You are such a great babysitter for Blair - we couldn't have done it without you.

To all of Blair's fans (or family and friends - whatever) - Thank you so much for celebrating such a special day with us!

OK - I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.....I'll do my best to get a video up too, but given my brain-dead state, that might be more of a challenge than I'm capable of tackling.

In her very first Peppermint Rainbows outfit - thanks JLOD!!

Check out our new shoes - they're our first "real" shoes...she had a fitting and everything. Gotta love Stride Rite!

Here she is clapping about something...she claps a lot now which is absolutely adorable.

I love this picture - Blair and Aunt Jackie are really "studying" each other...and Blair really wanted to try Jackie's hat on.

2008-10-17T11:26:00.000-04:00

2008-10-17T11:25:00.002-04:00

No FREAKIN' Way!?!

2008-10-03T09:06:00.004-04:00

This sweet, tiny, beautiful baby girl can NOT be LESS THAN A WEEK away from turning one year old.

Nope, it has NOT been ALMOST A YEAR since this precious gift from God blessed us with her presence (8 weeks early - surprise!).

Impossible. It has not been 11 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS and 4 DAYS since I timidly went to see My Dr. Dunaway (another story for another time) because I thought I had completely lost control of my bladder only to have him tell me that MY WATER HAD BROKEN.

2008-10-03T09:02:00.006-04:00

It has to be a joke. Those first 17 days in the NICU, bringing her home on an apnea monitor to help us make sure that she didn't stop breathing...that has NOT BEEN 359 DAYS AGO.

It simply cannot be. As endless as those first three months seemed with our beautiful, but colic-y baby who screamed whenever she was awake, NEARLY A WHOLE YEAR simply cannot have passed.

HOLY CRAP how did this happen? I wonder if I can find some sort of time freezing thing-a-majig on ebay...or at least something to slow the progression of these events...