A Day of Firsts (243/365)

Today I bought Alice five or so outfits for school, plus new shoes,
and everything came from the GIRLS section. I've had to shop there
before, but never for EVERYTHING. My baby is officially no longer a
toddler. Also, would you look at her with that purse that she just
HAD to carry?! She's definitely my girly girl!

We had been out for hours and kind of missed lunch, so I decided it
best to grab a quick bite before heading to Meijer for round two of
shopping. I had to settle for McDonnald's because the Chic-fil-A still
isn't open (I'm being patient, but damn, I want some chicken nuggets
and waffle fries!) and while we were there we met a nice woman who was
there with her mother. We talked for a bit while waiting for our
orders and then parted ways. Fastforward a half an hour or so and we
run into each other, mulitiple times, in Meijer. The last time the
woman was eating from a Cheese-It box and said something about the
salad not being filling enough. Then she offered me and my girls some
crackers. I accepted, so today is the first day I took food from a
stranger…in a supermarket.

Poor Izzy. This one isn't going to be a fun paragraph. Poor Izzy is so
backed up that she's not eating well at all. The past few weeks I've
been struggling to keep the girls hydrated and both of them have had
BM issues as a result. Izzy though I'm starting to wonder if her
deminished appetite isn't tooth related at all, but due to her belly.
This evening she struggled SO much to no avail. It was my first time
ever having to deal with a very stopped up kid, and I hope she can get
some relief soon. I was so desperate to get her to eat something that
I fed her applesauce off of my finger (the only way she'd eat it).
Hopefully I don't have to buy some baby laxatives, but if she's not
feeling better in the morning, I'm going to have to pick something up.
Like I said, poor Izzy!

There will be a day of firsts tomorrow as well - preschool starts
bright and early in the AM. Now I'm off to convince Matt it's time to
get off the computer so we can go to bed!

Dearest Daughter (242/365)

Why, oh why do you protest at dinner so much?
Is it your ailing teeth,
Or do you just like to fuss?
Be like your big sister and clean up your plate,
The sun's going down, and it's getting late!
Scoop up that pasta,
Pick up that spoon,
If you don't then I'll turn you into a goon!



So I'm not the best poet, but you get the drift. Izzy's back to struggling with dinnertime, and I'm sure her teeth that are STILL coming in are to blame. It certainly hasn't made dinnertime, fun time, that's for sure!

Alice Has a Boyfriend (241/365)

Today was Mary's bridal shower from Andy's family. Ann, Alice, and I
went together and had a great time. Alice got a chance to hang out
with Andy's nephew, whom she met at Auntie Mary's house last month,
Gianni. I found out from his mother that he hasn't stopped talking
about Alice and he loves to refer to her as his girlfriend. Needless
to say they had a great time!

Very Busy Weekend (240/365)

Here are some (slightly out of order) pics from our weekend so far.
Pics from last night are of a tea party Cathy threw for Mary. It was
nice for all of us. Alice and Izzy had a great time with all of the
kids, and Matt and I got to go out to dinner sans kids for once. Cathy
really did a great job putting it together.

Pics from today are of Alice's meet and greet at the preschool. Not
that I had any doubts, but she certainly will have no issue going to
school on Wednesday. Izzy had a fabulous time playing with the big
kids and, of course, all of the toys! She looked ready for preschool
when she sat down to "read" a book!

More pics from today are of cousin Sammy's 2nd birthday party. We all
had a great time at Pat and Marcie's beautiful house! There was lots
of good food and good fun had by all, including a nearly
indistructable piñata! Not bad for a buck, eh Ma? We all had so much
fun that I can pretty much guarentee that we will all sleep well
tonight!

I must go to bed. Tomorrow Alice, Ann, and I are heading into Chicago
for another bridal shower for Mary. It should be good times, so long
as we don't get lost!

Happy 26th Bday, James! (239/365)

If I wasn't so damn busy this weekend I'd make a peach pie in your honor. Love you, miss you, wish you were here.

Becky Randomness (238/365)

We had a nice day here in Chicagoland. The girls and I got some
shopping out of the way (I got a super cute dress for Mary's second
shower - and it was on sale!) and I made Mom's pork BBQ for dinner
tonight. I have to say, pork shoulder is the key to making it taste
like mom's - Mmmmm! Annie came by to babysit for us as we went to a
meeting for Alice's school. The meeting was nothing special, but I
finally got to ride in Matt's new car. The thing I love most about
it is the lazy man features. How awesome that you don't have to take
the keys out of your pocket to start or open the car! Maybe that's
why Matt likes it so much.

The girls adore their auntie so of course they were well behaived,
though they weren't keen on the idea of eating. Hopefully Iz doesn't
wake up in the middle of the night hungry. Ann had quite the time
attempting to get Izzy out of her chair and she made the mistake of
asking a 3 year old how to do it. In your defense, Ann, there are a
ton of buttons on that chair!

Now I sit here watching some NewsRadio listening to Izzy fight sleep
for God knows what reason and I'm hoping she goes to sleep soon
because we have a busy day tomorrow!

Whatever Wednesday (237/365)

- I'm banning myself from popcorn. I can't seem to keep it from
bothering my gums. I can't wait to get my crappy crown replaced next
year so I won't have this problem anymore.

- Alice has regressed in the potty trained department. Since the Tug
she's wet the bed a handful of times and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's
school related, maybe it's nothing. Either way she's wearing pull-ups
to bed until further notice. :-/

- Preschool orientation is tomorrow night!! I can't believe summer is
already over and my baby is almost a preschooler!

- Izzy is obsessed with the stepstool. Ever since I brought it out for
her climb up on to the couch (little Miss Independant) she's been
carting it all over the house. This evening she took it into her room,
then came out to get me saying "Hawp? Hawp?" in that cute little tone
that she gets. Well she wanted me to help her get Bun-Bun out of her
crib because she couldn't quite reach, even with the stool. She's so
freaking cute!

- Matt starts gradschool on the 8th. I pray that we all survive the
transition. I have a feeling it's going to be hard on all of us, but
definitely worth it in the end.

- We have quite the busy schedule this weekend. Wedding shower in
Chicago, Sammy's bday party, wedding tea party for Mary with the kids,
and a play day where Alice gets to meet her classmates. Whew! But I'm
looking forward to it!

She Did It! (236/365)

And even Daddy approves (as do I, for the record)!

Maybe it was the room full of toys, maybe it was the police car chair
she sat in, or maybe it was the fact that she got to pick out a DVD to
watch while she got beautified (she chose Wonderpets - her current
fav), whatever it was she didn't protest AT ALL! And mommy spoiled
her a bit and bought her her first set of Silly Bands (so she could be
like Amanda) and I bought her a watch.

Now I just need to teach her how to tell time.

Cross Your Fingers (235/365)

That Alice doesn't freak out tomorrow. I'm hoping that I can get her a hair appointment tomorrow. With school starting in just over a week, I'm thinking she could use her first real haircut. If for nothing else than I think it would make getting ready for school that much easier on both of us. I'm thinking of chopping it to about chin length, but a part of me is worried that all of her curls will go with it. The top of her hair still gets curly, but pretty much only when it's humid or when I scrunch her hair. We'll see!! I'll be sure to keep a curl or two just in case.

Sisters, Sisters (234/365)

There were never such adorable sisters.

This was Izzy's third or fourth attempt at eating at the picnic table
with her sister. She ate well, but she got up every minute or two -
she just couldn't sit still. Iz is definitely very ready to be a big
girl, she just needs some practice. It'll be so nice to get that
highchair put away!

I'm Falling Asleep Writing This (233/365)

I almost went to bed without doing the blog. Oops.

Today was quite an exhausting one for all. Matt went to work super
early on just a few hours of sleep. And the girls and I spent all
afternoon (and part of the morning) on the go getting groceries at 4
different stores. We typically only go to one store, maybe two, so I
spent a lot of time looking at what places had to offer and crunching
numbers. Here are sone highlights of my day.

- No store I visited carried little granny shopping carts. I was
hoping to get one to make lugging the groceries up our rediculous
stairs easier (a task Matt usually handles).

- I didn't seem to have any issue finding parking near the door. I
did, however, have issues with parking. Must work on that.

- We ended up stopping to eat before heading to the main store. It's
only a 5 minute car ride away, yet Izzy managed to fall asleep on the
way there. This was point number one where I almost just gave up and
went home.

- I was "that" mom today when I pushed my cart to one side and looked
for something on the other side, not paying much attention to the cart
for a few seconds. Well I forgot to buckle Izzy in and she was
STANDING in the front child seat. A woman behind us was yelling at her
to sit when I finally noticed. I felt like SUCH an ass. Thank God for
crowded aisles on a Saturday afternoon.

- RIGHT after that, Alice declared that she had to go poo poo. Great.
Not only had she already declared this before and attempted a bathroom
run before without any luck, but we were all the way at the back of
the store. The restrooms are at the front. Luckily I hadn't put any
perishables in my cart yet, so I high-tailed it to the front. Once ww
got in there, let's just say I was ready to leave and attempt grocery
shopping another day. I didn't, but let me tell you I sure wanted to.

- We finally get home and now I'm faced with the tax of carting the
groceries up our dreadful stairs. I leave Iz and Alice upstairs while
I go to make my 3 or 4 trips to the car. Alice couldn't care less, but
sleepy little Izzy was screaming so terribly I actually though she had
really hurt herself my first trip upstairs. Needless to say she went
right to bed for a nap once I got everything upstairs. I didn't even
wait until I got it all put away first.

So that, in a nutshell, was my day. The moral of the story is, never
go shopping on a Saturday - ever! Hopefully next time is much easier.

The plus side - I finally found a large, non-finicky set of dry
measuring cups! That find actually made all of today worry it. You
don't know how long I've searched!

FFFFFFFREEDOM! (232/365)

As of today we're a two car family, woo hoo! Matt decided on a
slightly used (just under 5,000 miles on it) 2009 Nissan Versa. I'm
PRETTY sure he's in love with it!

We bought it from a Honda dealership, and can I just say the place was
quite swanky. The kids playroom wasn't a filthy disaster (though I'm
sure none of the toys had batteries on purpose). The waiting area for
when you bring your car in for maintenance was unreal! Cooshy chairs,
TVs, media centers, food, and a case full of LAPTOPS that anyone could
use. The best part was that their bathroom was not only very nice, but
also the cleanest bathroom I've ever been in. I didn't mind having to
spend 3+ hours at this place!

Oh, and everyone was super nice too. No complaints whatsoever from me!

Hey, Pizza Face! (231/365)

Maybe it's time we start teaching her table manners.

Nah…

10 on Wednesday (230/365)

1) Alice and Izzy are obsessed with a little show called The Wonder
Pets. I swore I'd never let them watch it because I had seen it once
when Augie and Amanda were little and I hated it, but I caved. It's
kind of growing on me.

2) It also helps that Izzy very cutely sings along (in tune, I might
add) with one of their songs.

3) Cross your fingers that we're getting a new car this week. Matt is
pretty sold on the Nissan Versa - now we just need to shop around and
find a good used one and see about financing it. I will be a free
woman soon!

4) So far I've been out driving by myself twice now. Gotta say, I
don't know why it took me so long. Cross your fingers for me that
Chicagoland drivers don't kill me for going the speed limit.

5) Alice starts school in two weeks - yes TWO WEEKS! I'm not even
slightly sad about it. Her Father, on the other hand…

6) I still haven't started Alice's dress. I think I'm more concerned
that I'm gonna suck at it than I thought. My hope is to get it done by
the time she starts school. If it turns out nice I may just have her
wear it for her first day of school!

7) If not I'll proudly display it at the back of her closet.

8) I'm still dealing with bug bites from hell from The Tug. Oh I
haven't talked about The Tug yet? Someday I'll get around to it.

9) Alice and I have been having much better days lately. Honestly, I
think the problem was as much me as it was her. I've put in a huge
effort to be more patient with her and to walk away and calm down
instead of losing my cool and it's made for a MUCH more enjoyable
week. Time will tell, but hopefully this was the solution.

10) We got a survey from Days Inn about our stay this weekend. I had
to laugh because I was absolutely going to contact corporate about the
rediculousness that was that hotel and now I don't have to. Nah, I
will most definitely still be writing a complaint letter to make
absolute sure they are aware of the problems with this particular hotel.

It wasn't exactly Bates Motel bad, but it was bad enough that
corporate should know what their name is being affiliated with. It was
gross and had HORRID food just like any other place, but the big thing
that got me was that our door did not latch. And when we told
management upon check out their response, "oh yeah, we know." Uh,
what?! Needless to say Matt and I have already decided we will not
stay there again next year. Even if we end up paying twice as much to
stay at The Holiday Inn that we usually stay at.

17 Cavities (229/365)

Ugh. There goes her college fund.

Just kidding - she doesn't have a college fund.

Nah, she's got 20 perfectly healthy teeth! I was pretty shocked that
she did so well with her first trip to the dentist because she hasn't
been to thrilled about going when we've talked about it. I had an
appointment too and she was with me in my room for a bit while I
filled out paperwork, then they took her to her own room, which she
didn't protest at all. I was pretty proud of my big girl and now she's
actually interested in brushing her teeth at home. Hopefully that
means no more fighting with her when we brush.

I'm not holding my breath.

Sorry, No Tug Post Yet (228/365)

Matt had a hell of a day at work and I don't want to bug him about
using the new computer that he hasn't completely finished setting up
yet.

Anyway, the girls and I had lots of fun this afternoon playing that I
lost track of time and ended up feeding them a late lunch. Izzy was so
tired that she fell asleep without eating much of her lunch - with her
banana in her hand. I washed her up and put her to bed and she slept
for several hours. Needless to say she devoured her dinner when she
awoke!

Back to Reality (227/365)

We're all exhausted and tomorrow we clean up from the weekend. I'll be
sure to have a detailed Tug post tomorrow if I can get on to our new
computer to upload pics.

More Tug Fun = Exhausted Kids (226/365)

Sent from my iPhone

Tug Fun (225/365)

That's all you're getting from me tonight as it's late, I'm typing
from the bathroom as Izzy tries to go to sleep in the next room. Love
ya!

This Kid Won't Listen to Save Her Life (224/365)

Alice, for a LONG time had never been one to put things in her mouth
that didn't belong there. At Izzy's age she would pick things off the
carpet (usually cat hair) and give it to me (in fact, Izzy does this
now).

Flashforward about two years and I swear she's worse than the typical
infant discovering their mouth! She will put anything in there, and
she's sneaky about it too. At the beginning of this week she laughed a
big belly laugh in my field of vision, and her mouth looked like she
had just had several fillings put in. Turns out, she had decided she
was hungry and so she ate a blue crayon. Sure was fun picking that out
of her teeth.

Then this afternoon I had a conversation with her that went something
like this:

ALICE: Mom, what's this blue sticky stuff on my hand? It's on my
teeth too.

MOM: Did you eat something? What did you eat? SHOW ME WHAT YOU ATE!

I was afraid she had put her finger into the toilet AGAIN and got some
of the gel toilet cleaner on her hands as she had just come from the
bathroom. Nope, it was crusted toothpaste that was on the sink from
who knows when.

I try to tell her that we don't put things in out mouth that aren't
food, but if course it goes in one ear and out the other. She's VERY
much into the independant, doing what Alice wants to do and nuts to
Mom, phase so I'm not surprised. I just wish she'd throw me a bone and
listen to me sometimes, especially when she could potentially put
something very harmful in her mouth.

I swear this kid is going to be the death of me.

Peekaboo! (223/365)

Just pretend I made this into an animated GIF, mmkay?

So Matt's been researching commuter cars for a few weeks and tonight
we decided it was time to go out car shopping. The girls and I had
time to kill while Matt test drove a few cars and thankfully Car Max
has a playroom, though it was kind of disgusting. The kids didn't seem
to mind. We're still looking and plan to hit another dealership
tomorrow.

It Was (222/365)

*sigh*

Hopefully It's Not a Fluke (221/365)

The past couple of days Alice really seems to be putting in the effort
to overcome some of her behavior issues. I can't really say that I've
been doing anything different to prompt this change, but I have been
trying to make the effort to be more calm with her in hopes that that
would make her more calm.

Today she was pretty darn good. She listened to me, and if she
disagreed she'd quickly catch herself and we'd talk through things
instead of arguing about them. For once she actually ate all of her
dinner with out needing constant reminders to take bites, and she had
seconds! The only big issue we had was her usual fit about cleaning
up toys before Daddy gets home. At least it didn't take her two hours
to finish cleaning this time - I got to keep telling myself it's the
small victories.

My fingers and toes are crossed that this trend continues.

Waterpark Fun (220/365)

Today Tori, JJ, Matt, the girls, and I all went to Knight's Action Park before heading home. We all had SO much fun!! Izzy, as usual, has no fear of anything. She loved the wave pool and squealed with delight every time a wave came in. She even stuck her head down in anticipation of one coming in so it would go over her face - crazy girl. Alice really surprised me. Izzy must have shared some of her daredevil-ness with her because Alice actually went down some of the larger kid slides multiple times. She was so brave and didn't want to leave when it was time! And this is the girl who doesn't like to go down regular slides at the playground!

Matt and Tori went down the Devil Ray. Matt couldn't see much (he's blind as a bat w/o his glasses), but he says that he could see enough to know that it was one heck of a drop. They both really enjoyed it - they're much braver than I am!

All in all it was a great trip to the park. Not too crowded, not too muggy, and a nice breeze. It was great sleeping weather for Izaboo!

I Passed!!! (219/365)

Wish Me Luck (218/365)

I'm home (ok, in J'ville) and on our way there (Al and I waited in the
car while Daddy took Iz in to see the doctor) we talked to James as he
waited for his plane. The pic was taken about 10 seconds before Alice
purposfully hung up on him - stinker.

In Bloomington we made our usual stop at Cracker Barrel, but this time
we met up with my friend Michele and her kiddos whom we had previously
met on our Indy trip. Dinner was good, and the girls probably drove
the staff and other patrons insane because we let them run around our
little area (we had one of those corner tables) like wild banshees. We
didn't care, they had so much fun!

I drove the rest if the way home and now I'm off to bed. 8am is when I
plan on arriving at the Secretary of State office. I'm hoping I don't
make any little STUPID mistakes and fail. Yes I am a pessimist.

I'll feel so much better once it's over.

Food is Apparently My Theme This Week (217/365)

We went out driving again tonight in preperation for my test on
Saturday (my God am I nervous). I spaced and forgot to prepare dinner
ahead of time, so we ate at our most favorite mom & pop establishment
- Grandma Sally's Pancake House. We hadn't been there in ages so it
was certainly a nice change from the Jimmy John's we usually get when
eating out (not bashing, I LOVE JJ, it just gets boring after a while).

Anyway, Iz was apparantly famished by the time we got there so she was
being quite demanding. She had a muffin to tide her over, but wouldn't
you know when her food came she would rather eat a silly cracker
instead of her scrumptious waffles we bought for her.

Sigh, I don't know why I bother sometimes.