Terrible Twos??

So here we are 5days into the 2's and I have a sick lil puppy! Well actually I have no clue if she's sick, teething, constipated or just worn slap out from last weekend and is just playing catch up. Sorry its been another 5wks since I've blogged. Since David got me that awesome phone for my birthday I'm rarely on a big computer except to quickly post pix and its rather hard to blog from a phone with a keyboard smaller than a remote control!

June went by pretty uneventfully. We got the house pretty much the way we want it...slowly we'll start painting room by room and replacing door knobs (to keep mother from getting locked in places again! yes...she locked herself in the bathroom last week and we had to take the knob off completely because it was so old and worn. thank goodness it wasn't Freyja in there!!) and stuff like that. David has learned that he has a HUGE backyard to mow now and kinda cursed it the first time mowing. You never know how big the thing really is til you're pushing heavy machinery around its slightly uneven terraine. Our lemon tree has fruit on it! We might just get a small pitcher of lemonade from it come end of summer! I threw a couple of tomatos out there too to try our luck and so far they seem to be doing ok...though I need something to help them grow upright. Freyja ADORES her huge yard and all the neat things there are to explore in it. I worry about the amount of spiders we have out there but so far we haven't had any "close" run in's or bites yet (and knock on wood we don't have any anytime soon!).

July is treating us well so far too. On the 1st dad vh and I took her to Sears to get her 2yr portraits done. She wasn't exactly in a picture taking mood but they did get some really cute shots of her!! Check out the Picasa 2yr photo shoot album to see them. The pix will be back the 17th and then our family pix will be back on the 23rd and I will mail them out then. On the 4th we went to an office party at Davids work and got to watch the big firework display from their balcony (he works right down on the water). Freyja LOVED the fireworks again this year and enjoyed being around all the people. We left right before the firework finale but still got stuck in traffic for an hour just trying to get out of the office subdivision. Pensacola's "finest" had no clue how to direct traffic... Freyja conked out before we even got out of the office parking lot and slept til we got home, woke up long enough to get out of the carseat and pass back out on my shoulder. Poor kid didn't even get changed to pjs that night!

Her birthday party was a huge success last weekend. We ended up with 17adults and 4kids! We moved it from our original location at the park to our house so that more people could make it and essentially make it more comfy on everyone with a/c and good food! David's friend Adam headed up all the cooking, our social lil butterfly took good care of all of her guests and played nicely with all the kids and even shared the fun of opening the gifts with the others. She even blew out her own candle this year!! I made cupcakes inside icecream cones this year and put a candle in hers, Cindy's and Sara's cupcakes since they were all our birthday girls and on the count of three my Miss Mess blew out her candle, licked the base of it and dove into the cupcake! Of course no birthday is complete without a few tears regretfully...bugg was running down the sidewalk, mis-stepped and went crashing down on one knee and even managed to hit her cheek on the concrete as well. She'll have a little bruise there for a bit but nothing too bad and we had already taken tons of pictures so it won't show up on any of her birthday pix.

As for the terrible twos...so far so good! I seriously don't think we're in for too much though she does have her daddy's temper! Potty training is just NOT happening quite yet, she tells us when she's done but thats it. I tried in June but it just ended in tears and frustration for her. I don't want to make this into something terrible for her so we'll take our time and try again after I work Rush in August at the bookstore. Maybe by then it'll have sunk in a little more and it won't be so terrible on her. Plus with the trip to MS coming up I'd hate for her to get confused or frustrated in a new environment. Now if we can just get daddy over the fact his little girl isn't ready yet...

So I guess thats all the news for now! Next month I am taking her to a Colbert family reunion in MS with my moms side of the family. Look forward to more pix and a note on how it went when we get back!

We're still alive!

Sorry its been so quiet on the picture front lately, we've had a doozey of a past couple of weeks to contend with and this is the FIRST time I've had the chance to sit down and put pictures online (45+ new ones are online). We closed the 22nd with little drama...except for the fact the previous owners still weren't out. They packed the last of their truck and were out the door by 230pm on May 23rd, we put in our first boxes 8am the next morning after having the place cleaned. I turned in the keys to the rental May 27th and sadly said goodbye to the first place we brought Freyja home to. Shortly after moving in we had to contend with a broken water valve in the front yard (that ECUA had to come out and fix), a leaky pipe in the kitchen that leads to the refridgerator, a burned out wire on the electrical plug to the dryer and of course the a/c compressor dying on us. So here we are...2wks into being homeowners and we are finally back in our home (lived with mom and dad vh while the air was out)! Today we are celebrating surviving and David's 28th birthday with a small cookout with a few close friends in our backyard. I got David a grilling tool kit for his birthday and he can't wait to try them out!

News on the Bugg...poor kid hasn't had a decent nap in two weeks but for the most part she's been a trooper with all this moving stuff going on. She's helped me empty boxes, put stuff away, stack boxes, clean and mainly just kept me entertained and from working too much. I might not have had internet access but at least I still had my camera and was able to keep up with some of her cute moments! I have more on my cellphone that I will transfer over later.
We have a little boy that lives next door named Lamar thats about 4months younger than Freyja. Thursday his mother Leslie invited us over for a dip in the kiddie pool, hopefully this a sign of many playdates to come. I wish it had been a girl next door...but at least at this age its a friend!
I am tenatively planning on resuming potty training in the next couple of weeks...now that we are settling into the new place it should come easier for her. She's been acting like she's wanted to for the last couple of weeks but of course that aligned itself with me working "rush" and moving so there was nothing I could really do.
New words and phrases are coming by the bucket loads these days! While Aunt Nita was here she would call her "snaw" or "noo" or "naw" while trying to call her "nonnie" (old family nickname). She's learning to count and can get to three with a little coaxing, if you are counting then she'll count with you or sometimes you can catch her just sitting and saying "one, two, twee". Yesterday while unpacking we came across a swimming pool in a box she started stripping off her clothes while yelling "POO!!! POO!!!" so I took the hint it was time for a break and a dip in the the "POO!! POO!!" pool :)

Life is never boring with this kid around! I am thankful to have her as my constant companion even though some moments are MUCH MORE trying than others! Skotty (mom and dad vh's dog, we're babysitting) has had me up since 530am today so I think I'm gonna try to slip back in bed for another hour or so before my lil bugg graces me with another day full of adventure! Love to everyone!!

Big Girl Seat!

My Bugg has graduated into a booster seat here at home finally. She has been sitting in one for AGES over at mom and dad vh's but we finally broke down and got her one for home. She loves being able to sit at the table with us! She has a hard time controlling her fruit jars at the table vs in the high chair but only because theres not a ledge to keep them from toppling over.

I do believe the mimic stage has begun! Luckily I was G-rated at the time!! I was packing a box yesterday and looked at it and said "GEEZ, we have A LOT of games!", she went around for the next hour stomping and saying GEEZ GEEZ GEEZ!!! She's also going through the "what's this" stage, nothing escapes her notice. She'll try to repeat after us what it is, sometimes it works....other times its all we can do to not laugh at her.

Its time to start potty training again...this time should work as she is learning to tell us wet and poopy. Plus I went in to get her from a nap the other day and she was in the process of taking off her poopy diaper herself....oh the mess that could have made...*shudder* As soon as we get into the new house potty training is at the top of my priority list!

Speaking of new house, closing is FRIDAY!!! The poor sellers did not realize that Closing means "turn in your keys, the house is no longer yours" and thought they had until the 30th to get out. I called Bellsouth yesterday as I was changing over all our stuff to the new house and they said they had to call the current owners to make sure it was ok to move it over on this date and they said....um, no we don't move til the end of the month! Well, everyone called their realtor and for ONCE we're in the right on this and they HAVE to be out by Thursday and have the place in move in condition for the walk thru inspection. It even says it in plain english on the front page of our contract in the FIRST PLACE THEY HAVE TO SIGN!!! HELLO?!?! Geez...I'm sorry its happening this way for them but unless they have an extra $2k to bring to closing for us there's nothing we can do to help, our house is in the process of being rented out so we don't have to pay the last month of our lease and we've already booked our movers, truck, etc.

Time to get a move on and pack some more boxes! I still have the kitchen and two of the three bedrooms left to do....but David did say he saw progress when he came home from work yesterday, so I guess that means I'm making a dent in our stuff! He's taking Thursday-Tuesday off so he can be around to help some. Saturday we're moving boxes in cars to the new house, Sunday we'll use the Uhaul and help for the big stuff...Monday is the house cleaning, Tuesday is the carpet cleaning and I turn in the keys....PRAY we get most/all of our deposit back and they can get this place rented for June 1st or shortly after!!!

HI HO HI HO, its off to pack I go!

Easter and "us" news

We had a busy Easter this year considering that we had three total. Mom and Ed came over earlier in the week and brought Freyja, David and I a basket of candy and sidewalk chalk. Then Easter morning the bunny visited our home and presented Freyja with a puzzle, bubble machine, some braclets, a watch and some Little People. That afternoon after she got all dolled up in her new dress from her Granma Stella and Papa we went over to mom and dad vh's and had steaks on the grill. She got another Easter basket over there filled with candies, bunny ears and a little watering can and shovel. So for her first "real" Easter I think its fair to say she made out like a little bandit!

Our household is finally getting over the last bout of sickness...I hope! Davids ears popped today and no one has had as snotty a nose as we've had for the last week. When it rains it pours...but at least maybe we have all the spring "bugs" out of our system and we can enjoy ourselves now for a while! There's nothing sadder than listening to my lil bugg cough and there's nothing I can really do to help since its just sinuses!

News "outside the bugg"! We have found a house and are in the process of making an offer!! Its a 4/2 with a huge back yard, not far from where we are now, light blue wood exterior located in a cul de sac buried in our subdivision! Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be posting an album on Picasa entitled "Our New Home". Anyone wanna come down the end of June and help us move?!? We'll feed you and entertain you!!

Speaking of Picasa...I'm going to have to hold off til May 1st posting anymore photos. I have reached my full capacity and have to wait til I get my "monthly allowance" to purchase a years worth of extra space for $20. I can't bring myself to delete any of the pix online, heaven forbid something ever happen to my harddrive and I lose my hard copies at least I would have Picasa to fall back on. So...though I might not be posting anything new for the next few days, rest assured the camera is still in action and patiently waiting to deliver pix to you in May! PS, incase you missed it...there's a new Easter album filled with 100+ new photo's. I went a little camera crazy over the weekend...but who can blame me when you have a subject as cute as Freyja to shoot!

More news "outside the bugg", David bought me a fascinating new telephone/palm pilot that allows me to play on the internet and all that fun jazz! If you have MSN Messenger, you can find me online a good portion of the time. Dragnmyst79@yahoo.com Also, dad vh got a new laptop the other day so lucky me inherited his old one!!! So I now have my own computer again!! YAY :)

I think thats about all on the homefront for now! May all our April showers bring everyone pretty May flowers!!

Sick bugg no more

I am a very blessed mother indeed to say my daughter went nearly 21months without ever being sick more than a sniffle! Wednesday after naptime we were playing in the yard as usual when she came back onto the porch to see me, she laid her head in my lap and cried a second then sat up and puked everywhere. This continues for several heart wrenching hours....we head to bed and she's finally "settled" for the night. 2am rolls around and she lets out a death curdling cry, she had blown out her pjs and bed sheets... we settle back in about 3am to our bed then its my turn :( David decides at that point he'll stay home Thursday to help me out because I doubted I would be much use and then he starts that morning! So all Thursday was miserable with the tree of us taking turns being the sickest. By Friday afternoon Freyja was all smiles and giggles again, David is still complaining of throwing out his back and neck with the whiplash of praying to the porceline goddess, and I'm still a little under the weather today. Today daddy and bugg are out running in the yard playing! Its soooo nice to hear the sound of baby laughs around the house again instead of those sad little whimpers! The worst (besides them taking blood from her) was yesterday she went to put her footstool in place so she could brush her teeth and the poor babe didn't have the energy to do it. She moved the stool then laid down next to it and cried because she was so weak. THAT liked to have killed this mother!!

On another note, like everyone else we've had some wicked wild weather around here the last few days. Sadly David and I missed most of it because we were too sick to care...heck! We didn't even know we had warnings til we watched our shows on the DV-R the next day! We even got hail last night but for a rare change the house did not leak ANYWHERE!!! If April showers bring May flowers, where does all this March nastiness fall into place?!?

Rain, chalk and playdates!

Sorry its been a few days since I last blogged, its been a little hectic around here with spring fever and all. This past week has been a blast! Freyja got to REALLY play out in the rain for the first time the other day and LOVED every minute of it! After two days of rain she woke up from her nap and the look gave me the ultimatum of outside or DIE MOTHER! After about 30-45min of playing in the not so warm...yet not frigid rain I coaxed her inside with the promise of a bubble bath. Happy times!!

Wednesday I introduced her to sidewalk chalk. She likes that a lot better than just crayons...though now thinking about it I might have done a bad thing. We'll see the next time we break out the crayons...if she aims for the floor, oh boy! I drew her a star at one point and she took the blue chalk and started to draw over it, now it looks a bit like a shooting star! My baby's an artist!!!

Yesterday we had the kids over for a playdate, her kissing boyfriend Christian was there, Keaton her long time boyfriend, and Julian (he's new to the group, he's 13months but a giant!). They played in the pool for a while then played on the porch after we dried them off. Keaton decided it would be great fun to go skinny dipping and zoomed out of the porch before Christina could get clothes on him.

As always there's pictures on the website in the 20month album if you haven't checked them out already. This morning she woke up and
looked under the covers and said PUPPY! then looked at the door and said DADDY, then snuggled into my arms and said MOMMY! It's a rare but awesome thing when my child actually calls me by title!! Time to go get the lil one out of her bed, it seems naptime is ending a little early today I can hear her grumbling back there. Happy weekend to you all!

Beautiful park weather today!

First off, happy 20month b'day Miss Freyja Rose and happy 19month b'day Mister Keaton Alexander! Christina and I took the b'day kids to Perdido Kids Park today and they had a blast chasing each other around and doing their normal "thing" together. I love getting to see Keaton! He treats me like a 2nd mom and if I'm not busy with Freyja he's got me by the hand leading me off to come play with him. Of course Freyja thinks of Christina the same way since these kids have been together since 4 and 5 months old. Such cuties! We're hoping our 2nd children will turn up about the same time too so they all can be playmates together.

Bugg went on an adventure last night...we think... About 3am we heard a thump and wail, David turned on the bedside lamp and Freyja was face down on the floor. We're still not sure how she got there, she might have climbed over David and fell off or she might have missed a step getting on/off the bed (we have a set of 3 steps on the end of the bed for Star and Freyja to be able to climb up on) or aliens might have levitated her and dropped her off the side of the bed when they found out they couldn't suck her through the ceiling or wall....But no bruises or dents of any kind, just heart attacks for the parents and bruised ego for the youngen.

Yesterday I went digging through some of her baby clothes to find something and she found a pair of her baby shoes from this time last year and demanded to put them on. Needless to say you can't fit a size 7 foot in a size 3 shoe...but she gave it her best! If you need a good laugh, there's pix in the 20month album of the attempt. She walked around for a minute in them kinda like high heels then gave up and found some comfy ones that fit!

Stay tuned...I'm sure as spring and summer progress she'll be into plenty more mischeif and fun!

Christmas in February!

Gotta love consignment sales! Friday night was the opening of one of my favorite kids consignment sales, mom vh and I went over to stock up on goodies. In the pic you can see all of her new toys that she got: Lil People Castle and Farm, Cleaning Trolley (behind her) and a brand new Barbie ATV! Plus I found her a few cute new outfits for the upcoming warmer months, just need to pick her up some shorts as the need progresses.

She's tried to ride the ATV a couple of times but is not really sure about it yet. I have put it up in the garage for the time being and when it starts to get warmer we'll try it out again. I was wanting to get her a car for her birthday but this works just as well and WAY less expensive!

Saturday I took her to buy new shoes. We got a regular pair and a "squeaker" pair. If you check out the 19month album you can see the new squeakers! Sunday she got a new doll from her Papa and Gramma Stella, it coo's and turns it head and waves. She loves to carry it around and call it bb so I think we may name her BeeBee so she has an easy time saying its name. I'll post pix of her and the doll soon!

We have a couple of new words in our vocabulary this week! Gran= Graaa, Papa= Papa (imagine that...), Boo Boo, Horse, Bubbles= bubbulls or bubbies and pop corn= caw corn. She takes out the photo albums I have in our bedroom and will point at pictures of my mom and dad and can finally tell me Graaa and Papa! She got mad at David Saturday night for trying to feed her Grapes when she was telling him she wanted her Gran. Then yesterday right before nap time we were playing with bubbles and when I told her they needed a nap too I swear she screamed BUT MY BUBBLES!!! as I was picking her up to take her back to her room.

OI!! I can tell the "terrific" two's are just around the corner! She refused to eat dinner til almost 930pm last night but I couldn't let her go to bed hungry so I had to give in on that one. But if it happens again, we'll be curbing that behavior quickly!

It's too cold to play outdoors today so we've been holed up in the living room playing with all of our Little People. Now that she has the Castle and Farm we have a whole little community! I can't wait til she can really start make believe play and we can have "field trips" from her city to the farm and that kind of thing!

Time to get ready for the repair guy to come fix my ceiling fan AGAIN! Gotta wake up the tot a little early but at least she's gotten in most of her nap. Here's hoping for a warmer rest of the week!

Playdate

Today we had a playdate our house. Just a few kids close to Freyja's age that I know she gets along well enough with to have fun. The kids had an absolute blast digging for treasure in the brick flower bed, playing kitchen and snacking all sorts of goodies. Oddly enough none of these moms had met eachother yet but everyone meshed PERFECTLY!! My child is dead zonked in her bed already, she lasted 5minutes after they left. We kept it to the porch and back yard so my house is still "clean". After a quick pick up on the porch and yard everything looks normal again. I think I may have to have these more often!


Left to Right- Logan and Kat (Deidra's kids), Freyja, Keaton (Christina's son and Freyja's good friend), and Owen (Kristy's son and the one Freyja tackled a few months ago with a hug and kiss)

There's more pix online of course. Time to go relax for a bit while my babe is down and the dog is at the office with David! Ahh...quiet :)

Another day

My child has the same complex Star does, the bigger the toy the better she seems to like it. In her MAMMOTH collection she has a dog (seen in picture), dragon, river otter and a manatee. All of which are just shy of being bigger than her yet she loves to lug the huge things around and make pillows out of them or dance or ride them. You've probably seen the Huggies commercial where the little black baby in just a diaper is wrestling a HUGE teddy bear, yup...that's my kiddo!

We have added a new "word" to our vocabulary. On the "Wiggles" they do a nursery rhyme segment, this week they did one on the "Three Little Kittens" and now she goes around and MEOW's. Its precious! She's also working hard on the word SNEEZY, David says it everytime he sneezes so when she hears a sneeze you can hear her start and try to say a "sn" word. In the yard today I was praising her hard work and told her "good job" and she turned around and said JOB!! They weren't joking in those parenting books when they say after 18months its a new word almost every day! I just can't wait for "I love you" or whatever it comes out as :)

Today I had an early AM meeting and tried to slip out of the house unnoticed but I guess her mommy radar went off anyway. So she got David up at 730am this morning (he's rarely up before 9am on weekdays and 11am on weekends), I got home by 830am and unlike last week the tyke was still up. Though she did pass out in my arms about 1030am and slept til close to 1230pm when the maintenance guy came to fix our leaky bathroom roof. He said squirrels were chewing on our ventilation cover which caused the leak.

We just came in from working out in the yard this afternoon. We have a playdate on Friday and I finally got around to clearing out the piles or pinestraw I raked up a month ago. Freyja took her little wagon and collected pinecones for me and would bring it to me to dump them. Then she would go fill it up again with more pinecones and pine straw. I can definitely tell she's gonna have a green thumb when she gets older. She doesn't mind getting dirty and she loves gardening tools. I slightly worry about her digging into the muck like that with her little hands because of bugs, but at the same time she shows no interest in bugs...so maybe I'll luck out on the bug eating and finding them in pockets stage. Just need to find her some little gardening gloves...

Now my tot is in there watching her daily dose of Doodlebops, giving me a moment to rest after the yard work! Time to go start figuring out dinner and get the rest of the laundry done.

Cute! Plain and Simple

For once I got a good shot of her front on with just a nice little smile on her face! She's had a doozy of a day and Lord help me but I wish I could gently knock the little sucker out and let her sleep for the rest of the day! Last night she went to bed around 11ish, came to bed with me about 130am, then around 5am she was up and playing in bed. After fighting with her til about 645am I finally gave up and got my shower and got dressed for my 9am meeting. She played and watched cartoons and had breakfast with me, then about 815ish she started to look a little dozy so I took her back to bed where David was still sleeping and I tucked her in next to him so I could leave and I will be doggoned if the little ape slept the ENTIRE time I was gone! Dad vh had to come watch her here instead of David taking her over there because she was too zonked to move out of our bed. As I walked in from my meeting and grocery shopping she was just making her way down the hallway at 1030am! No love for mama...

She stole my Route 44 for Sonic today TWICE! Luckily she didn't spill it either time, plus the second time she stole it, it was very well watered down and not so caffinated! Pix are online of my lil thief gulping down my cherry Dr. Pepper.

We went out and blew bubbles in the back yard today. I'm sure some neighbor somewhere thought it was wierd having bubbles fly over head in such mass quantities but it was the only way I could wear her out for her nap this afternoon...which I need to go wake her from... If she doesn't sleep tonight, me v-day gift better be being allowed to sleep in this weekend!

Happy Valentines Day weekend to you all! We love you :)

Friends!

I can't help but giggle everytime I look at this picture! Last night we had some friends over, first time really since being back in Pensacola. David's friend Adam has a daughter (Sarina) thats 14months older than Freyja, we tried once before to get the kids together but Sarina was going through the LOUD phase and everytime she would laugh it would make Freyja cry. Well now Freyja is in that LOUD phase and Sarina is in that "oooo! its another girl, I MUST play with her!" stage so last night was awesome! This particular picture was taken around 10pm right before everyone left and the girls were running hand in hand through the house laughing and "talking". Of course Heather
(Sarina's mom) and I both tear up at this and David has to grab the camera while everyone else is laughing at us crazy mom's. Over all it was a good night, I fixed a HUGE pot of chili and had a condiment buffet you wouldn't believe! (hotdogs, fritos, crackers...if it goes with chili it was there!) We watched Wall-E and sent everyone home about 1030pm. I can definitely see us doing this again soon! Especially now that the kids are at the age that they can/will play together!

Mommy's lil helper

This has been a GREAT week for us! Monday as I was getting ready to do the Bugg's laundry I give her the basket and tell her to put all of her clothes from her hamper into the basket and bring it to me. Well, she gets all the clothes out of it that she can reach (still a little on the short side) and then pushes the basket out of her room and down the hall to the bathroom where I'm gathering towels. She then pushes it with the towels the rest of the way to the baby gates in the kitchen. She even helped me toss the clothes in the machine and push the start button! Afterwards she sat on the bed while I hung up David's and my clothes and helped organize my socks. Since I wear patterned socks(with cats, monkeys..you name it on them) its easy for her to pair them together.

Tuesday I had to vaccum and get the house somewhat in order, once again she chipped in and helped out by carrying things or pushing them where I pointed to. When I cleaned the hall bathroom she helped hold the dust pan!

Thursday I had to do a little grocery shopping for our guests that are due today. As I was bringing in the groceries a bag fell out, so she picked up the bag and brought it in for me! Then when it was time for lunch she went to the fridge and tried to open it, when I got the door open for her she reached in and took her lunch meat and pointed as the cheese drawer for her slice of cheese. She'll even get the juice out of the fridge for me if its light enough for her to carry so I can refill her bottle.

Today we went over to moms for a bit, in the car we listened to the Doodlebops and she had her dolls with her and I could see her in the rearview mirror making them dance as she sang along with her cd. We went by the bookstore today (college one where I work occasionally) and she raided Cindy's (the accountant) Mardi Gras bead stash. I wish I had the camera with me as she was as decked out as she could get and weighed about 5lbs more than normal by the time she was done!

Oh, the picture is her in her new favorite spot in the living room. Now that we've turned that corner into her play space she enjoys sitting at the window watching for squirrels and people walk by. It'll be nice this summer when its stays light later and she can watch for her daddy to come home. Star loves this area too because she can turn into her "solar pup" self while Freyja's napping and soak up her much loved sun!

Well, our company should be on the road soon to come and see us. So expect some new pix Monday after all the excitement has died down and I have my house back to normal again. Cleaning should get alot easier (and more fun!) now that my little mover and groover has also become a little mommy's helper! Gotta love'em!!

Sweet success!

Yes ladies and gentlemen! I am pleased to announce Freyja poopied in the potty for the first time today! PURE luck, but hey I'm not lookin the gift horse in the mouth! I let her watch as I emptied her seat into the big potty and let her do the honor of flushing as we waved bye-bye. We went to McDonalds to celebrate and had chicken nuggets!! Next month I'm picking up some Pull-Ups instead of the regular diapers and we'll start the hourly potty sitting routine til we get this done. So if you don't see/hear from me for a while...you can find me in the bathroom!

Today we rearranged the back of the living room. Mom now has my striped love seat so now we have a big open space that I converted into a play area for Freyja (pix are online, 18month album). I know better than to expect her to "stay" in that area...but its nice to have a spot that stuff can call home when she's not playing with it. Eventually my goal is for her to see that rug as where toys go back to when she's done with them. We'll see...

Dad's having surgery Feb. 3, so everyone please keep fingers and toes crossed for him. Its a "simple" shoulder scraping and doc says he'll be good as new in 3-6wks afterwards.

Off to get my Bugg out of bed, I hear her waking from her nap. Love to you all!

Kisses!

Its moments like these that just make me want to eat this child alive with hugs and kisses! Here I am thinking I'm going to catch a cute video of her running like a bat out of hell through the house and then she runs up and kisses the camera!
We played outside for a little while today after lunch but it was just tooooo cold to stay out for long. I finally found her gloves that I bought her last year hidden in her closet so I dug those out and she played in those for a while today. Surprisingly, she doesn't mind wearing them...but I never realized how hard it is to get those squirmy lil fingers into the right holes. She's down for a nap now, I figured once she gets up we'll bundle up and go run around the back yard some more. Now I can just sit back and enjoy some quiet time!

18month check up

Today was Bugg's 18month check up. She's in the 25% of weight @ 22.8lbs and is in the 90% of height @ 33 1/4in tall. Dr Riney says she has a little bit of a hernia under the belly button but nothing that won't fix itself in time as she grows. Her hemangioma on her back is almost completely gone, its just a little pink spot now. Doc says she's ready for potty training as soon as I am.... I figure as soon as I'm done with this "rush" at the bookstore and get back to being a full time mom again we'll get started. Leapers (the frog) accompanied us to the appt. today, he got his ears and throat checked as well which thrilled Freyja to no end! Well, Doodlebops is almost off so I better go get another episode ready for my lil mover-n-groover and get some dinner started!