Look How Grown-up

Every time I close my eyes I see my little pip-squeak as a tiny baby laying a wrapped up in her sweet little blankets. Then I open my eyes and I see a crazy-fast tornado spinning around my living room like her life depends on it. I can't believe she turned three on Saturday; but she did. How fast time flies by. I've accomplished a lot these last three years, but the best accomplishment I really can't take much credit for. And that is how sweet and wonderful my sweet little girl is. I'm so blessed to be her mommy.
I planned a very "fancy" little tea party for her and all her friends. The girls came with fancy hats, jewelry, and very pretty party dresses on. I made them all tutus and little party favor bags. (Before you get too impressed; only three little girls were invited so making four bags and four tutus wasn't that big of a deal.) The favor bags turned out pretty cute and were filled with bracelets, a heart-shaped ring pop, fancy crayons, and a little tea cup and saucer for them to bring home. They made necklaces and put them in their bag too.

For tea they had tiny little sandwiches, strawberries, blueberries, and some very special treats. Their tea was a very tasty "lemonade flavored tea". All the girls were so cute and my little pip-squeak was so happy.

For some reason she refused to blow out her candles. Good thing her little friend is so helpful.

Three is going to be fun. . .I can tell!

This One's For You Sissy!

My good friend Sissy is always first to laugh at someone who shows any sign of being slightly balanced-impaired. She has great stories of my sweet Jon falling, tripping, and dropping soda that have brought her to tears (or so she says) on more than one occasion. So this story is dedicated to her, may it bring you many laughs.

Yesterday I was cleaning the house, which takes much longer when you have 3 extra kids over. Anyway, I was upstairs cleaning up the toy room. The end was in sight, and the house was looking very nice and clean. (If I do say so myself.) While cleaning, my little pip-squeak told me she needed to go to the bathroom. "So go." I told her. She insisted that I help her, and by insisted I mean threatened to pee her pants if I didn't bring her down the stairs. So I scooped her up and went to hurry down the stairs so I could get back to work and finish up quickly. On the way down, and much to my surprise, the stairs decided to provide me with a little unsolicted help. Before I knew it I had (very gracefully, I'm sure) surfed down four steps and landed HARD on my ARSE! I mean hard! Let it be known that I landed on the edge of a step and then slide down another just to add insult to injury. . .or maybe injury to insult. In an attempt to secure my baby's safety I sacrificed my own well being. (Hold your applause until the end please.) The pip-squeak escaped unscathed. I, on the other hand, am not so lucky. Right now I am sporting a bruise that covers my ENTIRE left cheek. It's the best bruise ever, but you'll have to use your imagination because a picture of my crack is out of the question! I am currently typing this up while leaning slightly to the right so as not to put any pressure on my "butt owie" (as the pip-squeak calls it).

So everyone get a good laugh on my expense. I'm sure it would have been quality entertainment to see me slide down those stairs! In my defense: I had very slippery socks on. . .

Pop and Pee

My Pip-squeak has had more soda over the last 10 days than I think she had during the entirety of 2009!!

Why? You ask. Well. . . two weeks ago she came down with a UTI. Trying to get that girl to pee in a cup was definitely not a pleasent experience. Finally (after a lot of tears and pleading from both sides) I got her to put both her pee and the "owies" in the cup. She was prescribed an anti-biotic and we were in the clear. . . or so I thought.

Over the following week I tried fruitlessly to get her to take the anti-biotics. She full on refused. Let me just go on record as saying that forcing one tiny teaspoon of nasty tasting medicine down the throat of an opinionated nearly three-year-old little girl is one of the HARDEST things I have ever tried to do. After trying every method I thought possible I called the Dr. and explained that she wasn't getting any of the medication. "Just push the syringe past her teeth and she'll have an automatic swallowing response." I was told. Do they not think that I had tried that already? In fact, pushing the syringe past her teeth did not provide an "automatic swallowing response." What it provided was a shower of sticky, pale pink anti-biotic that resulted in in a bath for each of us every time I attempted to dose her.

After pinning her down and forcefully shoving the anti-biotic down her throat, all the while feeling like I was literally abusing my child I decided I'd had enough. She still wasn't feeling better and really had only gotten a fraction of the anti-biotic she was supposed to get. So where does the soda come in? Jon called the Dr. back and got a different anti-biotic that was supposed to be easily hidden in milk. Ummm. . .no. She refused to drink the new anti-biotic as well. Neither regular nor strawberry milk fit the bill. Let it be known that this new anti-biotic had a 10 day regiment instead of 7. I was not feeling too confident, or motivated to do this for another week-and-a-half. Then an epiphany. Try hiding it in rootbeer. Jon was sure it would work. I was skeptical. But, to my great relief it worked!

Now we are on day 10 of the anti-biotic and cups 19 and 20 of root beer! I've been paying extra attention to her teeth and feeling really horrible about the excess of sugar she's had in her diet. But, the "owies" are gone, my baby still loves me, and it's almost over! Hallelujah!!!



Just for the record: I usually say "soda" and not "pop" but there's nothing like a catchy title to pull in the readers. OK, so maybe that wasn't the catchiest of titles, but you know what I mean. So what do you call it? I found this map while looking for pictures of root beer online. The things people study! It kind of made me laugh. Plus, I found out I'm in the minority here.

2009 in Pictures (and a few words)

A few of our highlights from a great

2009

January:

First Haircut

February:

Molluscum Dermitis injections begin. Poor little guy. It all cleared up by May.

March:

April:

maybe this should say "bought"



May:

June:



July:


August:


September:


October:

First Snow


November:
Uhhh....where are all the November pictures?? I dunno

December:

Christmas was fantastic, but somehow, in the shuffle, my camera is now MIA.
So, this year ended with a great bang! The last couple years we've set our clocks forward on New Year's Eve and ring in the New Year with the Little Guy on East Coast Time. He, of course, has no clue and feels so grown up for staying up until midnight. We, of course, feel great sending him off to bed at 10pm!!