... When No One Else is Watching

Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

Where have I been you ask? Oh, let's just say that me and my bathroom have become well acquainted over the past week. I have had a horrible stomach bug and it has just about put me in my bed or on my couch for a solid week. Poor Avery, all she wants to do is play some games and the only thing I have the energy to do is roll the ball back and forth between us, asking me to do more than flick my hand across the ball would have been enough to send me back to the bathroom because that means I would have to move and movement is not good when your stomach feels like it wants to explode out of your body.

The good news is that the stomach is now feeling fine and we are on our way to Napa! It's probably a good thing I haven't been able to play too much with Avery this past week because she needed to conserve her energy due to the amount of play she will be doing with Grandma! When the girl is with her grandma she is in constant motion,,, or asleep from exhaustion, so I'm sure she will enjoy her vacation just as much as we will ours! And there is an added bonus because her Aunt Diane has also decided to take time off and help watch Avery so if the girl was thinking she was going to be able to catch up on her beauty sleep and the writing of her novel while we were gone she now knows there will be no chance of anything but fun, fun, fun!

I'm now off to enjoy our anniversary trip! Cheers to three years!

Sorry for the yelling and, you know, the loss of your hearing

On Thursday afternoon I was having a nice conversation with my friend Susannah, well, okay it wasn't the most pleasant conversation as it was about how mean some children are and don't their parents notice that? Why doesn't everyone learn that if you aren't raising your children like Susannah and I do, THEN YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! It was one of those conversations, and don't think we are horrible for talking about how mean some kids are because if you have children YOU KNOW you have all had those same conversations with your friends.

Anyways, we were having our conversation and I suddenly started screaming directly into the phone and freaking out in all possible ways. I think I scared Sus a bit because she automatically started asking me repeatedly what was wrong. The thing is, nothing was wrong, actually, everything was really, really good! In my peripheral vision I had just noticed that a little toe headed child was moving her feet! Across the floor! While standing up! She finally took her first steps by herself without any prompting from her overly anxious mother! I can't finish a sentence without an exclamation point at the end of it! Because this is huge!

She hasn't taken a ton of steps by herself since those first few but is still very much attached to my fingers when we walk. And that is okay, because the thing she doesn't realize is that my fingers aren't helping her at all, she's barely holding on to them. Now we are fast approaching the time where I start to complain about all the walking she's doing, because she can get into so much more stuff and terrify her mama with wanting to do other dangerous things, like walking the stairs! That won't happen if I have anything to say about it, nope, I'm carrying her to college.

Oh, and Sus, send me the bill for your hearing aid.

Is it too early?

Is it okay to start the timeout stage with 'the girl'? Because if it isn't I am going to be throwing myself off our deck! I am going to lose my mind if I have to say NO! one more time. And the kicker is she will always pull back from what she is going to do that I am telling her not to and then she will literally look at me and smile and continue to disobey. I know the only thought going through her head is, "I could obey you, but come on Mom, we both know you're a wuss and you couldn't get mad at me if you tried. Better luck next time lady!"

The Easter Bunny Rocks!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend and some great weather to boot! I was very excited for this day to come because I love that the easter bunny brings chocolate, sugar, the wonderful substance I gave up for six weeks to honor the big guy upstairs, so really this post should have been titled 'The Lord Rocks!' because the fact I gave up sugar for forty-six days proves that I sincerely believe He is great.

This was Avery's first Easter where she could truly participate and boy did she. I think she loves chocolate as much as her mama,,, and that's a lot! Rob took some great pictures of the girl with her Easter basket and he even got one of her and I, which seems to rarely happen because I'm usually the one behind the camera. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

The girl in her Easter dress, we've raised quite a young lady haven't we? She wouldn't cooperate!

Avery and her Mama - A happy mama because I just had a piece of chocolate! Allelujia!

So it begins...

Chocolate is the best! We will eat this for every meal!

We're done? Can I please have some more chocolate? ( I cut her off because let's face it, too much chocolate CAN be a bad thing!)

With Flowers In Her Hair

Spring has sprung! Happy Easter to you and yours!