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.