Weekend with "A"!

This weekend Cousin Ainsley (aka: "A") and Aunt Heather came to visit. They arrived on Friday and left today, so we had a nice, long fun-filled weekend with them. Julia was just delighted to have Cousin "A" at our house and to see her again. As I have said before, she loves her cousin. Every morning Julia would start her day saying "A?"-basically wondering if Ainsley was awake yet. There was much, much confirmation from Julia that Ainsley was truly there by pointing to Ainsley about every half hour and saying "A". "Yes Julia, that is Ainsley" we would respond. We did so many exciting things: we went to the zoo, a water park, ate great meals and played outside a lot. We were all happily exhausted by the end of the weekend. Having two toddlers at your house is quite the challenge (and quite the mess!), but a lot of fun.

Julia and Ainsley lounging in the Lazy Boy after being outside

Aunt Heather and Ainsley at the zoo

Looking at the pretty flamingos

Gazing at the fish in the aquarium

Ainsley greeting the goats (Julia wouldn't go near them)

At the zoo, they have a splash pad with all kinds of sprinklers and water spouts...Ainsley had a great time running through them. Julia, who is definitely not as brave or adventurous as Ainsley, thought it was best to watch from afar in her stroller.

Zonked out on the ride home from the zoo (this was the exact same scene on the way home from the water park the next day)

Ainsley riding a bike (she wouldn't go on it without a helmet...safety first!)

Julia decided to strut her stuff along side of Ainsley on the bike

After the bike ride, Ainsley wouldn't take off the helmet and kept it on for a couple of hours afterwards!

Parting is such sweet sorrow... Julia and Ainsley giving each other a hug goodbye before Heather and Ainsley headed back home

Parenting Lesson # 6,724

Never ever take your eyes off a toddler who seems to be content and happy, but oddly quite when "drawing" with markers. This is what can happen...

Her whole mouth was blue including her tongue, teeth and the inside of her cheeks

Lesson learned.

Landscaping Reveal!

The landscaping is done! Only took about a week. What a remarkable difference it makes. Click here to see the before pictures again and scroll down to see the after pictures...

Julia loves the new landscaping. She loves to walk in the rocks and also sit on a few of the bigger ones in the front yard.

Front

Backyard...where the brush used to be...huge difference!

My veggie garden with grape tomatoes, big tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumbers, peas, dill, basil, cilantro and chives. Can't wait to eat it all!

My caffeine addiction: Part 2

Well, my relationship with this caffeinated beverage didn't last long:

Why you may ask? One dreaded word: Headaches. I hate having headaches (I don't know anyone who likes having them). I never have headaches; I am not prone to headaches. I had a lot of them when I was pregnant and they basically debilitated me. After pregnancy, no headaches again.

Anyway, my diet Mt. Dew love was giving me headaches. I was afraid to admit it at first because, well, I love the stuff! I did a trial of not drinking any; this was difficult because it is usually my afternoon pick me up. I reached for a diet sprite instead (eliminate the caffeine). Still got a headache.

Decided to eliminate all diet soda one day: no headaches
Next day: on the bandwagon again-drank a diet Mt. Dew-got a headache
Next day: no diet soda=no headache.
This off and on break-up went on for about 2 weeks...

I finally broke down and admitted I had to stop drinking diet soda because the aspartame was giving me a headache. It is well-known that aspartame sensitive people get headaches from the stuff. I never knew I was sensitive until all these headaches started.

What do I drink now for an afternoon pick me up? Water (flavored with grape-no aspartame) or tea.

The hardest thing is that I never realized how much aspartame is in different food products! I am having to read any and all sweetened food labels to see if it contains aspartame. Splenda is fine, thank goodness because I need something to sweeten my coffee.

I will no longer be doing the Dew

Landscaping Project...before

We have finally saved enough money to do some landscaping in our yard. We had huge plans to do the whole yard only to be shocked with the sticker price of what the total cost was! So, we are getting about 75% of it done this summer and hopefully next year we can finish the project. Here are some before pictures...

We have (had) about 3-4 feet of this brush area in our backyard and I was just dying to get rid of it!



Front


Brush is now gone! Mike and I spent hours cutting, pulling and digging out weeds, bushes and trees! OK, I am just kidding. It makes my bad back hurt just typing that. We have hired landscapers to do the work because there is no way my back would be able to handle it and Mike would have had to do it himself.
There will soon be some nice trees, more grass and an even bigger veggie garden back here.

Stay tuned for the after pictures...

Yet another reason I hate grocery shopping...

On Wednesday evening after work I attempted to get my grocery shopping done. As many of you know and have read I really don't like grocery shopping. Mike was golfing and I really needed to pick up food and other supplies for MOPS (the mom's church group I attend on Fridays). So, it was the toddler girl and me.


We entered into Cub armed with my list, my coupons and a baggie full of animal crackers. I grabbed a cart and proceeded to put the little gal into the child shopper seat. She whined and held our her arms as I was buckling her in signaling she didn't want to ride in the cart. I got her in tight and thought maybe she will calm down once we get moving. Thinking back, I should have taken that as a sign to not grocery shop and get out of the store right then and there.

We made it through the produce aisle with few altercations. An occasional whine for more crackers, but nothing major. Then we entered the center aisles of canned goods, boxed foods and other packaged edibles. The toddler then decided she did not want to be in the cart and screamed bloody murder while kicking and screaming. I asked her if she wanted to walk (really dumb mistake) and she said yes. So, I let her out and told her she needed to walk alongside the cart. Well, that certainly wasn't going to happen. We proceeded down the aisle only to encounter a small bin of rubber, bouncy balls. "Great" I thought, she is going to get so distracted...and distracted she did. She immediately saw the balls and said "ball?" "ball?" "ball?" "ball?". I confirmed her discovery and said we have to move on down the aisle. Of course, Julia was not moving without a ball (exactly what the store wants kids to think; obviously they don't have kids to shop with!). I picked her up and put her back in the child seat. She did not like this. Even tempting her with crackers didn't work.

We entered into the cracker and cookie aisle and she reached for every box saying "cracker?" "cookie?". Evidently, the animal crackers I had brought were not good enough anymore. Looking at my list and all the stuff I still needed to get, I grabbed a snack cup of Teddy Graham's and popped it open (yes, I know you are not supposed to do that, but it did get scanned and paid for later). This subdued her for about 2.678 minutes and then it was over. By then I had raced through a few aisles and got 1/4 way through the meat department when she decided to dump the remaining Teddy Graham's (about 90% of them) onto the floor and scream in frustration.

I tried to calm her down, but nothing worked. I then realized I was one of those parents with the misbehaving, cranky, crying and screaming child. You know, the ones you always hated (before you had kids of your own) in any store and wished they would control their child and/or children's screaming fit or leave the store. Well, I decided to put all the other patrons out of their miseries and allow them to shop in peace by heading to the checkout and leaving. Of course, Julia was still complaining all the way through the checkout until she discovered my cell phone in my purse. That entertained her through the rest of checking out, paying and bagging. I glanced at my half bought list and tried to figure out when I could realistically get back to the store another time.

As we walked out of the exit doors, Julia looked up at me and smiled a smile that seemed to say "yup, that was a bad idea mom and I won"

Never again will I grocery shop with my little angel of a toddler.

Yet another reason I now despise grocery shopping even more.

Mother's Day 2010

It is so hard to believe that another year of motherhood has gone by. It feels like we just celebrated Mother's Day 2009. I'll be honest, being a mom is certainly a tough job, but I never expected the overwhelming joy and love that I feel for my little gal. It was just the other day that I was getting her into her pajamas and she gave me a hug that I had another realization that I am her mom; I am a mommy. I don't know why I had this sudden "ah ha" moment 19 months after becoming a mom, but it just kind of hit me. This little gal is depending on me to be a good example and teach her the little things, like zipping up PJ's before bed. It was also then that I had another realization that she would never be that age, at that moment ever again. I have to enjoy every minute I can with my now little gal because someday she will be a woman and won't want to be called 'little'.

Tonight I was doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and Julia came to me and I asked her what she wanted. She reached for my hand and lead me into her toy room and said "play". I realized that the cleaning, the housework, the laundry and other work can wait. It will get done (eventually) and that life it too short to let it go by while trying to get tasks done, when I just need to slow down and savor the time I have with Julia.

Happy Belated Mother's Day to my mom, my grandmothers, my mother-in-law, my sister and all the great, hard working, patient, confident, loving, caring (the list goes on and on) mothers out there!

Julia was thrilled to see cousin Ainsley (aka: "A") again at our Mother's Day brunch

Mommies!

Grandma Mock, Julia and me

Enjoying a yummy, very filling Mother's Day brunch

Bubbles!

There used to be sunshine like this-where did it go? These are just a few fun photos of Julia and me blowing bubbles on a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon.

Who needs toys?

Who knew that this:

could fascinate and entertain a toddler for over an hour

First, she dumped out the canister of mommy's markers and colored pencils


Then, she meticulously put them back in



Making sure each marker had a cap and that each and every pencil was in straight


Once all the items were back in, it was time to dump them all out and start over again.

Repeat 20 times and you have an enjoyable, fun-filled Saturday night for your 19 month old.

Why pay lots of moola for toys that blink, make noises, light-up and whatever else toys can do? Mommy's scrapbooking writing utensils will do.

Ducks!

The pond across the street from our house is full of life. There have been duck couples all spring and now we know why! Yesterday we discovered the baby ducks. Julia loved seeing them and she even called them "baby". Julia's bedroom window faces the pond, so every morning when she wakes up the first word out of her mouth is "duck" and we have to look out the window and say good morning to the ducks. She also has to say good night to the ducks before going to bed.

A mama duck with her babies

This was quite the sight last evening...the baby ducks were swimming all around the pond; sometimes slowly and then other times in fast sprints. We think they were learning how to swim and wade in the water. It was so neat to watch.

Chalked full of fun!

We attempted to spend some time outside on Friday, but Mother Nature only allowed us about 10 minutes before it rained. Julia did get some of her fabulous sidewalk chalk artwork started (and then it was washed away)

Not sure what this face was for

Julia's making a run for it!