My sweet darling angel. I can hardly believe you are going to be 22 months old at midnight. You are so incredibly smart and imaginative. I love watching you feed your ride-on ponies zucchini and potato chips. And watching you give your baby dolls bottles, and putting them to bed with the night night song. You have been blessed with the gift of nuture.
You have officially surpassed my knowledge of all electronics. You can find and master a new app on the ipad as soon as it is done loading. You love puzzles and books and princesses and ponies. Watching you figure out how everything works is truly mind blowing. I am often taken back by things that you say or ways that you act. I feel as though you are wise beyond your months.
Lately you just love water. From baths, showers, the ocean and the pool, you have become my water baby overnight. I try to take you to the pool all the time to keep practicing your kicking, and swimming lessons are in your near future. You love to color, even though I hate it, because you decided my tile grout would look better in red crayon and I still have not scrubbed it clean. You put on your own shoes already. Your not even 2! You were hell bent on figuring it out and now you can do it! Your motivation will get you incredibly far in life. I am sure of that.
I am beyond grateful that I get to spend all day and night with you. We are finally getting into a nice, smooth groove and I am loving it. You make me laugh, make me cry, and are the absolute light of my life.
I don’t know how I ever lived without you.
Xoxo.
Mommy
A little late to a New Year’s resolution, but I made one nonetheless. We shall call it my March 2013 resolution. Mid March to be exact. I decided to take better control of my life. It is in my control, isn’t it. Don’t ask Mike, he assumes he controls it. It’s a male thing. Or an Italian thing. Whichever. It is my new resolution to make the most of every single moment. Even little tasks can be made more fun and memorable if you put some effort into them. So as a result…check out our fantastic memorable weekend.
All began with a sunset picnic on the beach. I get that we had to move away from our family and friends. And I get that it really sucks and can be lonely. But why not enjoy the beauty that is our new home, for the time we are here. Instead of shitting on this town the entire time and making ourselves miserable. I packed dinner, beach toys, and a bottle of wine. Figured that would make it to the sunset finale of our evening. Plans got off track when I forgot the wine opener. I could screw up a wet dream. Then they got further off track when the temperature dropped 10 degrees, the wind was blowing and Mini’s nose starting to do that annoying automatic boogie drippy thing. Put all that aside, and I enjoyed mozzarella cheese, rosemary ciabatta and shrimp cocktail. Mini enjoyed a ritz cracker and a chocolate pudding. I give up.
Saturday was for errand running. Never fun with Mini as she loathes the stroller, high chair, car seat..and um anything else with straps to tie her down. So I treated her just like the big girl she thinks she is. And suprisingly, she listened! And behaved! Well I wouldn’t go that far, but she tried. There was obvious effort. And instead of a struggle, we made it into 3 stores without a meltdown or a snack. So we finished our outing with a mama and Mini lunch date at Panera bread. The day was completely bittersweet. On one hand it was so enjoyable to be able to communicate and enjoy my time with Mini, but on the other I was thinking WHERE IS MY BABY!?! The Maggie Simpson paci sucking, doesn’t ever get her own meal, drinks from a sippy cup, throws food on the floor and laughs baby??? I had lunch with a little person. A little person who ate half a grilled cheese and drank her milk from a box with a straw. I relaxed when she squeezed the milk and it squirted all over us. As Mini would say….ohhhh nooooooo.
Figuring our weekend was going so great, we took a little trip down to the Naples Zoo today with some of our friends. My friend Heather has 3 of the most HANDSOME boys you will ever meet. The zoo was…a zoo. Smelled like shit in areas due to people sweating and animals shitting. Precisely. But we had a blast. I even rode a camel! I was surprised Mini’s belly wasn’t all red because I was holding onto her for dear life. It was quite the experience and worth every cent of the $10 ride. Mini also though it was a hoot to feed the giraffes. They were so tall even I was impressed. She was so brave and held up her lettuce leaves and let them lick the lettuce right out of her little hand, with their ginormously long tongues I might add. Black tongues. Kind of gross. I am so happy she is still young enough to not be scared by anything. I cringe the day she runs from Mickey Mouse screaming her head off. But the day will come.
Hands down, a fantastic weekend. Ending perfectly with some couch snuggling and Blue’s Clue’s watching. Now to go fix my martini before Revenge starts….
OMG the time finally came to give Mini her FIRST HAIRCUT! I have to admit, I wasn’t ready but my Minster was starting to look like a Shagster…
Case in point.
Soooo….much to my dismay, we called up Grandpa Pat to give Mini her first real haircut.
She was so good and well behaved (surprisingly) to sit in the salon chair and put a robe on. I was impressed that she held it together and there were no waterworks. She was pretty serious through the whole thing 🙂
Getting sprayed with some water
Look up!
Look down!
Look at Grandma!
Smile with Mama and Daddy
She was so good throughout the entire process, and loved her special frozen yogurt treat afterwards! As her mama, I’m good on haircuts for a while 😉 I miss the shaggy mini baby. She looks like a big girl now, and quite frankly..I’m not ready for that.
So I’ve learned throughout my short journey into the world of motherhood so far that the busier I can keep my toddler the better we all are. When Mini is busy, she is engaged, interested and my favorite, getting tired. A new, exciting morning activity leads to a nice long afternoon nap. Win win. So I invited over lil cuz Milania for some colored cool whip.
Started out like this…
A touch aprehensive. What is it? It’s all different colors. Can we touch it?
Can we eat it? Why are we naked??
Can we eat it? Why are we naked??
Don’t worry, before long they got into it. When they realized it was sweet
tasting, well forget it. I love this shot of Mini feeding her cousin with the
paintbrush. Yum yum!
tasting, well forget it. I love this shot of Mini feeding her cousin with the
paintbrush. Yum yum!
And I will leave you with my favorite picture of the entire morning. I love the look in her eyes. Too cute this baby is 🙂
There’s a ton more sensory play to come! The girls had a blast and it was great
watching them explore. It is an interesting way to teach the babies their
colors and about different textures. Giving them a paintbrush also made it fun
to watch as they painted each other. I hope these two never end up at fantasy
fest in Key West 😉 They’ll blame me.
watching them explore. It is an interesting way to teach the babies their
colors and about different textures. Giving them a paintbrush also made it fun
to watch as they painted each other. I hope these two never end up at fantasy
fest in Key West 😉 They’ll blame me.
TO MAKE SENSORY COOL WHIP:
1 Muffin tin (I used jumbo size)
1 Container of cool whip
Food coloring
Just scoop some cool whip in each container and then add a few
drops of food coloring to each. The more food coloring added the more vibrant the colors will be.
drops of food coloring to each. The more food coloring added the more vibrant the colors will be.
I mixed each with a toothpick and then kept the
tray in the fridge until I was ready to let the girls play. I will try to
achieve more of a rainbow tone next time, so we can practice colors. It’s hard
to teach a toddler the color “baby blue” and “pastel yellow”…PS I threw the sheet right in the washer and nothing stained! I used a white sheet just in
case I needed to bleach it, but there was no need! Love me an easy clean up!
tray in the fridge until I was ready to let the girls play. I will try to
achieve more of a rainbow tone next time, so we can practice colors. It’s hard
to teach a toddler the color “baby blue” and “pastel yellow”…PS I threw the sheet right in the washer and nothing stained! I used a white sheet just in
case I needed to bleach it, but there was no need! Love me an easy clean up!