dids and didnts

Today I've been busy, busy being nonproductive. Don't you just love days like that, I don't! First, AK woke up with snot...everywhere...even the hair. Eeewwww! It was nasty. She's been sneezing all day. I think her allergies got stirred up from the long walk she took with her Granny yesterday afternoon, plus it was pretty windy. I hope she feels better soon, we have a long weekend ahead of us. Watch out Wachsmanns, here we come!


Now, what I didn't do today. I didn't wash dishes. I didn't get out of my pj's. I didn't go ANYWHERE-not even outside-not once. I didn't make dinner-just heated up leftovers. I didn't watch tv-which is a good didn't today. And I didn't make my bed.

I DID take some pics of the kid today-even though they were terrible because she didn't feel good. I did spend a lot of time on craigslist looking for the perfect deal on a slide-I've been minutes too late everytime!. I did find my sister a changing table/dresser combo on craigslist for her upcoming addition. I did spend way too much time on photoshop. I did eat a cup of delicious icecream. I did feed my child a pb&j sandwich for dinner with bananas and pb too. I did take a shower, even though I got right back into my pjs-atleast they were clean ones. I did do nothing very productive today.

Although I did do this:
I love this, it's so fun! I bet the grandparents will enjoy this.

and I bet her Aunt April will adore this!

and as you can tell, I was losing steam by the time I finished this little project. But hopefully her youngest auntie Shannon will love it all the same.

ANYWAYS, those are a few things I DID get done today, you know, aside from wiping my child's nose raw :(.

bell training

I forgot I wanted to tell you this story.

When we got our (then) puppy we decided we'd try a non conventional potty training technique. We placed a little bell at the bottom of the door and everytime we took him out we'd ring the bell. In turn, that taught him that ringing the bell lets us know he has some business to do. As he grew into a fairly large canine we had to go with a bell that hung around the door knob. We often had to repo his bell because he would abuse his privileges. ANYWAYS, even though we put a bigger bell around the door knob we still left the little one near the floor, mainly because it was nailed to the door frame and I never found the energy necessary to remove it. Well, one day while the dog was outside I heard the bell ringing. In my head I was wondering how it could be ringing because he was outside. I walk in to find my nine month old like this:
(excuse the leg chub and dirty socks-don't judge)
I don't know why, but this is so hilarious to me! I guess because we WERE in the process of ATTEMPTING to potty train the gal herself. Internally, I was wondering if I should put a bell around the bathroom door. HAHAHA! By the way, I have momentarily discontinued potty training Anna-Kate because I didn't think it was doing any good because she would cry when placed on the toilet. I partly felt as though I was traumatizing her and forcing her to do something she wasn't ready for. I hope I'm right and not just allowing my daughter to be lazy and passive about doing HUMAN-LIKE things. She has time.

Today I decided to head to McDonald's earlier than usual to see if we could beat the rowdy crowd. I guess we got there around 9:45, maybe 10. It wasn't too bad, maybe 8 kids or so-the not so rowdy ones. By 10:40 it was time to bolt. I guess this was the group of parents and kiddos that try to beat the lunch time rush-the ones that want to really wear their kiddos out before naptime-the ones that have worn off their morning fog and are ready for some action. So with that, I've decided from experimentation that the early morning bunch is the best and less noisy crowd to go with.

I have a mega grocery list to compile so I'm off for now.

don't be one

Today, I had an experience at McDonalds that I must make note of here...for you to read...

The hubs and I took AK to play indoors today because the weather has been iffy, plus, she loves the little slide at this certain location. As I'm ordering, Sean walks up with AK and says that we're not going to be able to play here because there are too many kids and they won't let her slide. Oh boy, did the Momma come out in me. I refused to leave...and I refused to allow some kids to determine whether my child was going to enjoy her playtime. She WAS going to slide and whoever was preventing her from sliding WAS going to move. One kid was laying at the bottom of the slide and one was laying down it from the top. We get our things settled and I walk AK right over to the slide and ask the kiddos to please move down the slide so my little one can play. They just looked and me and slooowly got down. As I look around to see where the parents to these.....children are I see one woman sitting at a table with what looked to be homework. So I think to myself, "okay, she's obviously got lots to manage here". I look around some more and see three women sitting at a table chatting away, not paying any attention to what was going on all over the place. It was SO frustrating. I know it's not the kids fault that they are behaving this way because they obviously got the okay from somewhere-and I guess it's from these high maintenance looking gals with nothing better to do than sit around a table and talk about birth control (as I overheard while I was keeping my own kid in line). I'm not trying to cut anyone down or make fun of mommy groups but if you're going to be a part of a mommy group please enjoy yourselves WHILE also giving your munchkins some clear guidelines before you enter a public place and actually enforce them. Oh and another tip, make sure your crawler isn't posted at the base of a slide.

I think I'm going to come up with a mommy group that allows good mommy to mommy time but also makes it a point to clearly direct and discipline the children-EVEN in public. GASP! I'm sure there are some out there who do this but when I go to these little playgrounds with Anna~Kate I'm appalled at the parents who just allow their kids free game. Noooo ma'am. Spankings are still in order even out and about...that's what the bathrooms are for. And if not spankings, they can sit their little heine's in a booth and watch everyone else play.

So please, don't be one of those parents who allows there kid to make the whole experience a bust for the others who are trying to really enjoy themselves.

On another note, I did find some Bush's the other day and it was SOOOOO good! Glad I got my fix. It'll probably be another year before I have it again...since my husband hates that place.

toilet training tuesday

Located to the left of this text is the reason for this title. I was innocently greeted with the realization today that toddlers and toilets don't mix and if you choose to allow the two of these in eachother's company you are destined for a distaster.

I decided lastnight that I was going to go for round two in the potty training business. I tried a couple months ago and lasted a whopping 3 hours (if that). Well, I got in to two hours of wake time before I remembered that I was going to start trying again today. Whoops. So, I busted out the cute little panties, the potty topper and was on my way to success...so I thought...until I found my 18 month old monkey fingers making no-no's in the bathroom. Lets see, she got under the cabinet and pulled out some things, made quit the splash with a full can of hairspray that you can see here IN the toilet (i'm assuming it made a great splash because at my little monkey's feet you can see a puddle of water) and a soaking wet shirt. I couldn't discipline her because it's my fault for leaving the door open and allowing her to roam unattended. I thought the racket she was making was her playing in her tupperware cabinet in the kitchen. No, I guess that noise was the hairspray clanking in the toilet instead.

So after I got all of that cleaned up I led her to her room where she was SUPPOSED to be playing and turned on a brainy baby video where I allowed her to chill and drink some milk...you know, to move forward in the potty training stuff. After she drank her milk I paused her video and took her to the potty where she wasn't too excited to be sitting while her video was waiting on her in the other room (bad method-check!). So that was a no go. About 10 minutes later I went back to take her to the potty and low and behold, she peed in her panties. AH! So I ask her where she tt'd at and she takes a couple of steps forward towards her bookshelf, lifts her foot off the floor as if to say, "oh why, right here mom!". And just now, as I'm typing this she came in with another wet pair of panties on! She just got done peeing! And I just got done taking her to the potty! OOOOOh brother, I don't think I'm going to last much longer. This is way harder than I thought. I can't even find the second tt spot. Crap. My MIL will probably not be too thrilled about that. We better get some carpet cleaner FAST.

I'm atleast going to give it a few days before I totally give up again. But from now on, she's wearing pullups!

it's a monday

Mondays seem to always be long for me. I think it's because I spend a lot of my time on the computer uploading and working on pics from the weekend. I do not spend my weekends on the computer much so the camera fills up pretty fast.

This weekend I was in Waco. We left here at 7:30 am and my mom met us on the highway in Waco because we were running a little behind and the hubs needed to get going to work. So, she picked us up and we went to the grocery store where we spent entirely too much time. I spent the day just hanging out with my mom with NO ONE else around. This rarely happens because it seems every weekend we come there some other family member decides to drop by whether it be my sister-in-law and two kids or my aunt with one kid and they usually end up being there the WHOLE time we're there. Sometimes this is fun and sometimes it's way too hectic. I was glad to have a low key weekend.

We took AK to the park and let her exert some energy, we "did up" the play room so it would be more fun. My mom took AK walking up and down the street on my Granny's walker. HAHAHA. It's so hilarious because Annakate sits on the little seat part and my mom pushes her all over the place. We went to smarty pants (which was super exciting because they've double in size) and got her some little white sandals.

Saturday afternoon, around 5, my sister came and picked us up and we went to our littlest sister's birthday party. That night we stayed at my sis's place and I was super happy about getting this picture of my newest little neice Nevaeh Alycia (Heaven spelled backwards and Uh-lee-c-uh ,not Alisha) due to arrive June 1st. We stayed up way too late watching a movie and chatting about labor. It was fun and much needed.

Sunday morning mom came and picked us up and we got breakfast and went back to her house for a day of play. Annakate played on the slide, that we put in the middle of the living room, mostly all day. What can I say, she loves to slide. Sean got there around 3...or a little after and we stayed until around 5, then headed south. Traffic was terrible! I kept thinking about what holiday it could be that I was missing but it turns out that SPRING BREAK was ending for lots of folks. Annakate slept the whole way since she refused a nap that day. It was a peaceful, stop and go ride.

If you have the time please go over to MckMama's blog, read about and pray for her baby boy.

I'm now off to find a Bush's Chicken. I KNOW I saw one one day and I AM GOING to find it!

precious pictures

To go with my "precious moments" theme today I decide to post some of my favorite/most precious pictures as of late-while Daddy and AK are out for a stroll...

^^sleeping so sweetly in her bed^^
^^studying a picture of her gramma^^
^^touching the flowers^^
^^watching a video and appearing way too grown^^
^^looking outside^^
^^definite sweetness to my eyes^^

What's not to treasure.

precious moments

There are days when we need to think about and remember the precious things in life. I'm not particularly having a bad day or anything but as I went in to get my daughter out of bed this morning, it struck me, if I thought about all the sweet and precious things more I'd be happy AND thankful more!

My favorite time of day is when I get to wake up, make my daughter breakfast and sit anxiously awaiting her little voice to greet me. Every morning I effortlessly give her a huge greeting welcoming her to the day. I actually have to try not to over do it sometimes because she probably thinks I'm nuts. But I love this time with her. I walk in, turn on her lamp, say "good morning Princess!", get her out of bed where she proceeds to lay her sweet little head on my shoulder. Then I stand in front of her changing table for a minute savoring the lovin' (because she's rarely still enough to love me like that) and as I lay her down on the table to be changed we have a little chat. "Are you ready for breakfast?" "Did you sleep well?" "Mommy is sooo happy to see you!" And sometimes we sing a little song. Now obviously she can't talk quite yet but the kid DOES sing. It's the cutest thing. She knows how to carry a tune in her jibber jabber. I wish you could hear it. So yeah, I sing a part of a song and she sings it back. PRECIOUS I tell you! And THAT is how our day begins.

Another precious thing in life is seeing the face of my husband when he sees Anna~Kate for the first time of the day. He is usually sleeping when she wakes up because he works nights but oh boy does she get two good greetings everyday. It's so fun.

Precious, yet annoying sometimes, is when AK knows it's about time for bed she takes off and jumps in her ball pit/tunnel contraption where I can't easily remove her-without some effort anyways. She knows when it's coming too, which is so funny to me. From there, we play for a minute to get the last of her energies out and then I grab a limb and start (carefully) pulling her out. Haha.

Sitting across from my husband at a restaurant table, with nothing to say at that very moment and just staring into his eyes. Ah, heaven. I feel giddy all over again.

The look on my daughter's face AND my mom's face when they see each other again after a couple of weeks apart. Priceless. Seriously, I don't think AK greets ANYONE like she greets her. Not even us when we've been away for a couple of hours.

Standing by the monitor at night listening to my child carry a conversation with the angels, I guess. She giggles and talks and then giggles and so on. VERY precious!

I could go on for a while so I'll stop here

When mommy and daddy are giving eachother a BIG hug-on purpose and for THIS response-Anna~Kate starts grinning from ear to ear, runs up and raises her hands to us to join in on the fun. Then we proceed with a big family bear hug type deal. So sweet.

What are some precious moments in your life?

photoshop delight

For the past two days I have been addicted to photoshop. I came to a point where I was totally getting bored with it so I decided to search out the endless possibilities. As you can see, from my new "header", I've been up to a lot. I've even made a couple others for other people, just for fun, and they don't even know it yet. I am getting totally addicted to making fun stuff. BUT, I have a problem, I'll probably be changing my layout quite often until I find THE one. The one I have right now is fun and springy, totally my intentions, but I'm not completely sold. That's the hard part about doing it yourself-you see all your options and you can't use them all at one time. So yeah, we'll see what I come up with next.---I've been downloading and extracting (wow) tons of pages and elements to go with from this blog Here A Scrap There A Scrap. You should definitely go take a look. I have also been downloading tons of fun fonts from random places. I sure hope I'm not giving me computer anything. I only download from legit looking sites. Hahaha.

Yesterday and today I've been "babysitting" an 11 year old and a 7 year old. So much for babysitting...they're actually taking my little monkey off my hands. She loves kids that age and will play play play until she can't play nomore. Haha. It's been nice, that's for sure.

Well, I must go see what their little monkey hands are up to.

wordless wednesday

weekend things

Today I am sore. Last night the hubs and I went and played tennis at the high school across the street. It was fun, yet a bit challenging. Neither of us knew just how bad I was. HA. I mean, I have the gist of it all, just hit the ball over the net but inside the boundary lines. Well, I can't back hand it without it flying across the whole court, I can't hit the really fast ones, I suck at predicting where the ball is going to land so I'm not very quick and getting to where I need to be-basically I don't know how to play very well. But it was fun nonetheless. I really enjoyed it and I think he did to. I'm sure with practice I'll get better. And I hope with practice I won't be in this much pain. My legs hurt, arms, feet, lower stomach, back. It all hurts. I feel like an old woman right now-not that I know what an old woman feels like-but if I did I'm sure this is how it is.

Our little monkey is doing all new sorts of things these days. She has a new laugh. This, to me, is funny. She even has a new cry-a more "older" sounding cry. She climbed onto our bed yesterday for the first time. That was a nice surprise. She was just running around the house doing her thing and the next thing I know she's sitting beside me. We weren't sleeping, I think we had all just gotten up from a nap and we were still laying down. But really, I think the new laugh is the funniest thing she's been doing. I can't even explain it. She laughs and then at the end of her laugh she takes in a breath that has a squeal to it. It's so funny! Oh and yesterday we were watching Funniest Home Videos or something while we were eating dinner and she was actually laughing. It was SO CUTE! Sean and I would just look at each other and crack up. She definitely has her own little personality.
I put a stool under her window so she can stand on it and look out. Well yesterday my husband was like, "Come here!" while he was running to the baby's room. So I go in there and she was standing on her stool looking out at some deer. He was running in there to show her but she had already spotted them. Ah, she melts my heart.

Yesterday morning at church AK got to play drums with her Uncle Kevin when the service was over. Now, we all know she got a kick out of that...and so did he! We also presented him with his birthday present yesterday morning. Anna-Kate finger painted him a picture and I got an 8x10 black frame with a creme matte. I wrapped sage green ribbon around the edges of the matte and then put the art work in. It looked really cute and I'm super mad at myself that I didn't get a picture of it! But I will, soon, hopefully. This is the "card" we gave him.

I knew he would love this seeing that he adores his niece, is into artsy things (although I'm not sure he's THAT into artsy things made by an 18 month old-but BECAUSE it was his niece he totally loved it) and he really needs to get decorating on his bachelor pad. So, it covered all areas. So yeah, I was really excited to give it to him because I feel it was a brilliant idea. Haha. He liked it and the world moved on-I could've used a little more excitement. HAHAHA!

P.S. I took the drummer picture with my cell phone so it's very poor quality. Sean says I dropped the ball on not having my camera with me because this pic could've served as some great gifts. HAHA. ....oh well.

flashback

I just had some flashback moments as I scrolled through the pictures of my new little baby. I can't believe she's already a year and a half old. Right now she sits in the other room on her great granny's lap sharing icecream. Wow, time truly does fly by.

We're in Waco today. My MIL has been saying how much AK is looking more like my mother, from the nose down, than me! I guess I don't take offense to that because I look just like my mom from the nose down and as a mom, I want my child to look like me. So, that makes me happy.

Lets do a little comparing...
Me and my mom

And boobug

Yeah, I definitely think she carries some of my mom's features. She still has her Daddy's (and other granny's) eyes though and that's a-okay. :)

Happy early Easter

I know it's not Easter yet but I couldn't wait to share this picture...I'll just post it again closer to Easter, why not?!
Isn't my little doodle bug something sweet! I tried to get an "Easter" picture a couple of days ago but she was definitely not cooperating. It is so hard to get a good picture these days, one with her smiling. As soon as she sees my camera she gets up and takes off to her tunnel and jumps in. Little stinker. Seriously, she does, and then she laughs at me while she's in her tunnel. I don't know where she gets her little quirky personality. HAHA. She's still a cutie though, that's for sure. She's been amazing me these days. I can't believe she's already a year and a half. A year and a half year old with a BIG personality. Even though I personally think she's a genius, she still doesn't seem too interested in speaking the english language just yet. She's saying the basics: momma, dadda, nonna (we're not sure who or what that is yet), nanna (for banana), ball, oon (balloon), boo (book), bath, nack (snack), ah du (all done), mimi (milk), belbuh (belly button), bye bye, pease (please)....and I'm sure I'm forgetting some but that's all I can think of right now. For some reason I'm pressuring myself to think she should be saying way more. I guess she'll say what she wants to say when she says it.

So, let me just say this really fast, my husband told me the other day that he actually wanted another kiddo. I almost fell over when he said it....and then he clarified by saying now isn't the time but that he did want one. Hotdogit. I guess that's one step closer. I find myself so confused on the whole birth control issue. I'm not on birth control but we obviously take precautions, most of the time. We have some family members (a couple) who felt convicted about even being careful, so they use NO precautions. She made the statement that it'll happen when it happens and that they didn't feel comfortable playing God. Wow. Very trusting right there. Part of me wishes we lived by that but part of me is thankful not to be popping out kids left and right. By the way, they only have two so obviously God is in control and knows what they can handle and afford at this time. I'm so torn. Plus, I'm not the only one who can make this decision for my family.

Another side note, I thought of another little girl name that I love, Malauni. It's Hawaiian. Let me know what you think. Not that I need a name but I just like thinking of the prosects.

Well, I must go, the hubs called and said the kid is screaming her head off, in her bed. She hasn't slept all day. I think she's finally cutting her bottom molars. Poor thing.

words AND pictures

Today we went on a little family picnic. It was so fun. We ate lunch and then went on a nature walk. Anna-Kate loves to be outside. LOVES it! She also loves rocks. Weird, I know, but she does. She doesn't like for her hands to be dirty though so loving the outdoors (and rocks) makes this a little difficult sometimes. She also loves when Mommy puts her crib mattress on the floor in her room for her to climb and walk on. I learned this one day when I was changing her sheet and she knocked it over on the floor and started playing on it. THEN, she went right to sleep (at bedtime). It was nice. It totally wears her out. So, the other evening I carried her mattress to the living room while we watched American Idol (she also LOVES AI). I find that it's actually good exercise for her little body because she walks to one end, steps off and then steps back on and walks to the other end and repeats the whole thing. That's a high little step for someone who's only 29 inches tall. HAHAHA!

........The other day when we took her to the park there were a bunch of little teams having soccer practice. I had to chase my little kiddo off the fields atleast a handful of times. She loved seeing the kids running around kicking a ball. I think she might be a soccer player. Haha. We've been doing a lot of outdoorsy things with her lately. It's really important to me for her to be active. I definitely don't want her to be a couch potato. Although, we do watch our share of TV, I want there to be a balance and I think we're finding it.--That's one of the things I love about living here, there are parks EVERYWHERE, literally, bunches and bunches of fun parks-And there are always people out doing things-it motivates me.

Here are some pictures of the past few days:

^^^the mattress relays^^^

^^^she found this unoccupied soccer ball^^^

^^^I came in to find my kiddo like this!!!^^^

^^^her "whatever mom" look^^^

schlotzsky's parking lot getting wireless

I'm here for a quick update, as I am sitting in my car, toes freezing and the night passing me by. My child is at home sleeping and my husband is playing xbox. Perfect time for an update, eh?

Anyways, I took Anna-Kate for her 18 month check up on Friday. She's doing well: 22.9 lbs-24%, 29 5/8 inches tall (short)-measley 5% and 18 1/16 head circ-26%. Her pediatrician said he was going to fax her growth to her Austin pediatric cardiologist because he (ped. cardio.) told him (trician) to be sure to watch her growth...and he's (trician) wondering why her height is taking such a huge hit in the growth area. I told him that she has two great grandmothers that were 4'9 and 4'11....it's total genetics. He just wants to be cautious and send them anyways. My heart is telling me all is good though. She eats like a champ and has no developmental delays. She's amazing and smart...in my opinion. And plus, last time we saw her ped. cardio. at 12 months he said he didn't want to see her again until 24 months and that would probably be her last visit to him. So, I'm not worried.

Other than that, nothing much is going on. I think I'm going to start potty training soon. I started the day after she pottied in the potty for the first time but I only made it through the morning before I gave up. Hahaha! I'm not sure if she's ready or not. She is showing a couple of signs-squatting and grabbing her diaper when she's about to go or going and "exploring" the area when being changed-but I'm not sure if she really gets it. I think the one time she went was just chance. Maybe I'll wait until she's closer to two...or seems more interested. Any potty training tips????

Well, I really need to go. My toes are close to numb and my bladder is quite full. Until next time, Happy Easter. Hahaha. Just kidding-bye.

picture update

^^^playing in the yard with mommy^^^


^^^checking out the flowers^^^


^^^smiling at her BIG dog^^^


^^^umm, yeah, sitting in a shoe box^^^


^^^smiling on her granny's shoulder^^^


^^^tossing sand^^^


^^^climbing the slide^^^


^^^loving the slide...I guess^^^


^^^just being cute^^^


^^^hanging out at granny's work^^^


^^^at her 18 month check up^^^


^^^laying in her homemade ball pit^^^


^^^so much for that^^^