Pool girl

K has been swimming at Elaine's when she goes there on Thursdays, and gets her weekly swim lesson as well. Elaine told us that she loves it "like a little fish", and I've seen that firsthand when I've taken her to Lifetime to swim. I've taken her two times now alone, and whoa, do I get a workout. Before swimming, during swimming, and trying to change the girl from wet clothes into dry ones to get home. Whew. She usually loves to sit in the zero-entry zone and splash and laugh to her hearts content, and then eventually we wade out into deeper waters, where I work on putting her on her back, like they've been doing in swim lessons.

Sometimes, it's also fun for mommy to get some social time in, too. Last time we went to the pool last week, we made new friends with 10 month old Elsie and her mom, who is also a teacher. I hope to run into her again soon.

Today, I had about 4 or 5 different moms commenting to me about how cute K was in her suit and how fun she looked, splashing around initially in the zero-entry part. I love that at this pool, I don't feel like I stick out with my mom bulge hanging out the front of my suit (no matter how much weight I've lost, I still have the excess 'roll' of skin that hangs out when I bend over; makes me want lipo for that one chunk). I also love that about 97% of the people at the pool are so friendly and make idle chit chat with me, because I find that alone I'm very self-conscious and somewhat shy. And, also, because I am self-conscious, I find myself making stupid comments about nothing to random strangers. LOL.

However, after she spent a few minutes splashing in the zero-entry zone, K decided she didn't want anything to do with me today; she turned into a total monster. It all started out pleasant enough, but suddenly she was feeling brave and wanted to be independent. Not possible when you cannot walk alone yet, and if you crawl away from mommy into the deeper water, you end up with a face full of water, choking and sputtering. So, we spent most of our day walking back and forth along the side of the pool, me holding her as she chanted her "go, go, go" and toddled along, beaming at all the kids in the pool beside her. I attempted deep end swimming with her, but she screamed and tried to wiggle away from me: she wanted nothing to do with mommy's ideas. Oh no. It was all "big girl for Keifer" time today. And now, because of it, mommy's back and arms are exhausted. Just in time for our 2nd Baby Ballroom class tonight. Uh oh, I better go rest up!

Speaking of reading books.....

..let's talk mama's reading book time. Lately, I've been so lucky to have an abundance of my "books on hold" at the library coming in all at once. I often get my ideas of what books to put on my hold list from People magazine, or from the local newspaper book reviews. Of course, I always look for word of mouth, and overall, I feel like I get a pretty well-rounded overview of popular fiction and sometimes non-fiction.

The latest book I've finished is called Twilight, and it's the first in a series of teen books about vampires and young love. Sounds kind of hokey, but at the suggestion of my pal Wieb, I decided to try it out. I really enjoyed it. It looked really thick, but I plowed through it in two couch sessions after K had gone to bed. I believe it's in post-production as a movie, and comes out (highly anticipated) this December. I currently have the second and third books to this saga on hold, so I can continue my knowledge of vampires and falling in love with one.

Speaking of vampires, this book totally reminded me of the book The Historian, which I was engrossed in a few summers back. It was suggested to me at the time while I was purchasing the sixth Harry Potter book, and I was glad I took the clerk up on his suggestion. It's not a children's book, that is for sure, but I found it very interesting and I am not typically a fan of "science fiction" or "vampire" type stories.

I also finished David Sedaris's latest collection of short (humorous) stories, called When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I wouldn't say it was my favorite book of his, but I found myself laughing out loud at the gym, while huffing away on the elliptical machine the other day. He tends to do that to me (laugh out loud in public). Which is a good thing, if you think about it, as long as people realize I am laughing at a book and not them! :) I still find myself chuckling when I recall one of his short stories in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, involving Holland children and Christmas night, as well as 7 or 8 black men. *hee hee* Yes, it sounds far fetched and crazy, but it had me literally trying not to pee my pants, as I tried but couldn't read it out loud to CJ. *hee hee*

I'm also plowing through the Dexter murder mystery books, after falling-in-like with the TV show that was based on these books. I find that I enjoyed the show more thoroughly than the books (I'm currently half-way through the third book), but they are interesting, in a black comedy, serial killer sort of way! As if I would know anything about that! HA!

The Big Read ~ what have you read?

I found this post on Liz's blog the other night, and of course, being a reader, I had to participate! Take a minute and check it out!

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. "

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (who doesn't love these? I'm sad there won't be another one)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (one of my top 10 favorites ever)
6 The Bible --some
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -- well, I've read quite a few of his writings, thanks to many years of schooling in AP English classes and college courses.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (probably one of my top five ever)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (so depressing, yet so engrossing)
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan -- I started to, but didn't get into it and put it down (egads!)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (loved it)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett --interesting, that I own this and seem to THINK I've read it, but I don't recall it. Hmm. I do remember re-reading A Little Princess repeatedly.
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -- I actually did a report in my AP English class Senior year of High School comparing this book to Lord of the Flies
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Whew; and there you have it. I didn't italicize many of them, because I hope and plan to read many of them. I feel that because of my English classes, I read many classics that I may have not read otherwise. I counted the Harry Potter series as 7 books (because there are that many, not 1!), and of course, some of the works of Shakespeare may qualify as more. All in all, I estimated I've read about 35 of the "big reads". How about you?

Wipes, anyone? *rolling eyes*

THIS. THIS is what happens when you leave a 14 month old alone in her crib for 3 minutes and 15 (or so) seconds to make her bottle, and forget to take out the wipes bin. Yes. She loves wipes. She loves to take Kleenex or wipes and wipe her mouth and nose. And after today, now I realize she apparently likes to take as many out of the bin as she can and drop them on all over the floor for mama to pick up. And, on top of that, she was smirking at me when I walked in. Yes. SMIRKING! My 14 month old. She is too damn smart for her own good.

Feeling frustrated and blue: 3 ahead of us on Donor List

I left a message the other day for our nurse who schedules the IVF donors, etc.. She left ME a message this AM while I was walking the dogs: she said there are 3 ahead of us on the Donor Egg list, and that she is hoping to match them and have THEM cycling by August/September.
This pushes us out into late Fall.
I'm so sad. I know I have no control over any of this, but I truly had it so awesome when I 1)cycled in the summer, and 2) had Keifer's due date in Spring.
Being a special education teacher, cycling in the summer was nice, because it was relatively stress free, and I didn't have to take time off for doctor visits or 2 full days of bed rest. Not to mention, I teach 3 year olds and it's not exactly a "relaxing" job. I know me and I know how my Fall goes at work: pure stress. *blah* Plus, having a due date closer and closer to the Fall time will suck, because I won't be able to take off as much time as I want to. That may sound petty and selfish to many of you, but I had it so good having Keifer in the Spring, because I was able to combine my maternity leave with my summer vacation and was able to spend precious time with my new baby. *sigh*
Please pray for us and send me patience and "feel good" vibes. Yes, I'm impatient, but I just want to get this going and am worried about the timing and stress factors. :(

This give me goosebumps

Thanks to Mel, for posting this on HER site.

I watched and it gave me goosebumps. Literally.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Hello? Is anyone home??

Where are you? WHO are you? I see you are reading- especially over on the other side of the world!! Who are you and say hello! I write and post about our girl and wonder who is reading! THANK YOU!

See? The girl is a dancing MACHINE!

See? I told you this girl is a Kick Butt Dancer! LOL. She loves to shake her groove thang. This was the other night when we arrived home after a long drive, and she was so happy to be reunited with Dada. The shirt around her neck is the attempt of her trying to get dressed by herself (Dada assisted in putting it over her head). Is it just ME, or do you foresee a little mosh pit action in her future?? Uh oh!
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

It figures

I knew it was a possibility. Because of this post, I had a dream that night that I was on "Rock of Love" and was one of the final three women competing for Bret's affections. In my dream, my long time friend (who is now a mother of 7!), was helping me pick out the slinkiest, sluttiest dress we could find for my dream date with Bret. Say it with me: ewwwwwww!!! LOL.

Separated at birth? LOL

Because Kristine pointed out in my other post, K does really resemble Bret here, doesn't she? LOL. Well, mama always did love her some rock and roll bad guys.

Keifer

Bret Michaels

Wordless Wednesday: See? K *hearts* headbands

"Amen" and other listening pleasures

K has always been a musical girl, as well as a kick butt dancer (LOL). Lately, when we've been walking or reading books, she'll seem to catch onto the tunes I'll sing or hum to her, and reproduce them later at unexpected times. Last week, while we were walking the pup pups (a frequent occurrence in this house), she started la la la-ing the "Amen" tune. I started to sing it to her, and by the end of our walk, she was singing along, loudly, with me.
Papa Dale downloaded the song for her this weekend, and the look on her face was priceless when I put it in my CD player, and me, my parents, and Auntie Barb started singing along with it to her. If looks were worth money, we would've been millionaires. LOL.

Yeasterday, driving home from up North, she was in the back reading one of her Maisy books to herself (yes, she sits with the book and chatters to herself, leading me to believe she is indeed "reading" them to herself), she suddenly stopped, made a little squeak of a sound, and shook her head for a minute to Madonna and Justin singing "4 Minutes". Thatta girl! A girl after my own heart, liking her Madonna and of course, Justin (as she was cooking in my belly when we saw JT in concert here!)

The other tunes she seems to have picked up on, I swear she got them from the Fisher Price Nursery Rhyme CD player toy. She will suddenly break into her version of "POP! Goes the Weasel" while dancing on/in her toy kitchen, and the other day I heard something along the lines of "This Old Man". She also will break into "Old MacDonald" if you even mention A) the word "farm", or B) any animals that might live on a farm, preferably cows in her case.

Every day in the AM, I like to catch up on my own music and top videos of the summer, so I'll turn on VH1's Jump Start to get our day started (along with a Coke Zero for that splash or two of caffeine, oye.). Well, this AM, while eating breakfast, K appeared to like a song/video by a band I have never heard of, the Flight of the Conchords, the song being "Ladies of the World". K was eating her waffles and blueberries and shaking her head and shoulders to the tunes, giggling at me if I watched her. I'm not really sure if it was the tune she enjoyed, or the silly guys rollerskating around and singing. LOL. "The ladies love the feel of the wheel!"

She also enjoys when I pick her up and dance around the living room with her. We (well, mama) has a preference lately for more Abba tunes (as Mamma Mia is coming out soon), and this AM, I was huffing and puffing our girl around to "Chiquita", a song I remember fondly, as my third grade teacher Mrs. Ling had us memorize and sing it for a choir concert (yes, I'm a bit perplexed by that as well! LOL). Anyhoo, our girl loves the dancing with mama, as whenever I stop, she rocks back and forth in my arms, signaling me "more more more dance, mama!"

Talk talk talk

Talk talk talk; Keifer loves to talk. She came out of my womb chattering away, most likely complaining that it was too bright and too loud in this crazy world she entered. But she has always been a talker, and I love that about her (among the 10 million other things! ha).

I have never officially written down the words she says, but I started to this AM, just because I've noticed other people with kids around her age have done the same thing. I'm by no means comparing her to any other child, as each child develops at their own pace, but it's fun and very interesting to see what her vocabulary is full of. Here is a list of the words that I could think of off the top of my head, after sitting for a few minutes. Sometimes its hard to remember them all unless they are in context! I didn't include her signs, but the majority of them are just the basic "more more more" and sometimes "water" or "all done", which has turned from waving her hands up in front of her, to wiping her hands across her tray to make even more of a mess with the leftover food.

• pup pup
• woof woof (sounds like this for the pup pup sounds)
• no no no (very often!)
• Sage/Sass
• cat (ca)
• cow (co) (on the wall next to her bed is the cows)
• frog
• turtle
• fish (shish)
• duck/quack quack quack
• mama
• dada /daddy is emerging
• nana
• papa
• num num num
• uh oh
• tickle tickle tickle
• truck
• car
• cold (for cans or cups of any liquid, it's all cold!)
• hot (while fanning her hand in front of her mouth)
• round round (for the fan, her fixation at this time)
• hi
• bye
• amen (she's been singing this song a LOT lately)
• all done
• good girl (usually for Sager)
• thank you (tan tou)
• hair
• hat
• sock (ock)
• eyes
• baby
• off
• on
• peek
• cracker
• go (especially go, go, go when she's walking)
• here go
• got it
• ee I, ee I , ohh (for the old MacDonald or if she hears the word "farm", she'll sing this)

K is also able to blow her nose, which makes us all crack up. I think she's seen her allergy-ridden mommy blow her nose (honk honk) way too many times, and has caught on to what Kleenex/tissues are for. Whenever her nose is running (which is often, as I think she also has allergies), she'll blow her snot for us very dramatically, and she seems to prefer that her mama sees her snot to wipe. She'll come up to me, walking on her knees, blowing her snot and making her "uh uh" (give me attention) noises. So I wipe her nose, and she'll continue on her way until that nasty nose bugs her again.

Tumble bumble down the stairs

K took her first official tumble bumble down the stairs this AM. Ouch. Mama felt like the worlds' worst mother, of course, but I guess this was her inauguration into toddler hood, huh?
We had just gotten done taking the pup pups for their AM walk (and sweated our arses off, all of us), when I let K climb up the stairs to the living room. She has gotten quite good at going up and also descending them independently. Of course, we are always there to monitor her monkey skills.
Well, this AM mama and K both were confident and playing as she climbed, and I slipped past her, giggling as I went. She stopped for a minute, beaming her smirk of "I am so proud of myself", when whammo, she toppled backwards, slid down on her big Soupy noggin for about 3-4 stairs, and flipped feet over head onto her bum on the landing. I don't know who was more shocked and surprised, her or mama? She was scared more than hurt, thank God, and I comforted her for about 3 minutes before she started pulling to get off my lap and play with her toys. Whew. Ouch. Mama needed a shot after that. LOL.
Tumble Bumble is also the name of a cute book that I have at work, and when she tumbled, I immediately told her she took a tumble bumble.

Fellow book lovers: unite!

I found this blog in an article on Father's Day in a local newspaper *online*, and it captured my interest because it's a blog about children's books!!!
Enjoy!!

Updates

Keifer and I (and the pup pups) are home after a whirlwind long weekend trip up North to visit Papa Dale and Nana Di. We arrived on Friday around lunch time and got home today around 3. I have plenty of pictures to update and things to talk about concerning Keifer; I have been very bad in posting about her milestones and all the changes she has been making. I'm finding that staying home with a very active 14 month old is exhausting and at night, all I want to do is sit and veg out. Keep hanging in there - more to come soon! But know that our girl is an exciting flower to watch blossom: her love of music and dancing and being social with people out in public is a joy to behold.
And an FYI: we showed up on Wednesday for our first Baby Ballroom class, only to find that the class had been post phoned a week and I never received the email announcing the delay. All I can say is: oye. Forty minutes to drive one way and an empty class. At least K was a good girl during the drive!
Updates SOON! I promise! In between Mama's social calender! LOL

Wordless Wednesday: Crazy-in-love with the computer

C is for Cookie -yum yum yum

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Happy Belated Blogversary to me!

Two years ago on June 11, I started blogging. It's so hard for me to even fathom that two years ago, we were just starting our IVF with Mooshie as our egg angel, and it was one of the best summers of my life! Wow.

Inside, Outside, Inside and Repeat

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Six days late, but who is counting? Our girl's 14 month pic

I know who is counting! Nana Di is, that's for sure!! Here they are, with my model being a bit under the weather (as of this AM: snuffly, runny nose, stinky breath, and a slight cough). I think she did well as a poser, considering (I think she may be teething, though). Perhaps the hat helped: this girl LOVES her hats, so mom keeps adding to her hat collection. I've been drilling it into her head that she NEEDS to wear hats in the sun.

Mucho thanks to Kir for the adorable outfit (and I ended up trading the white pants for the orange shorts, as our girl loves to crawl in and out from the deck!). What an adorable outfit and hat! THANK YOU, dear friends (Kir and company!).

The "no daycare" blues

I honestly never in my life thought I'd write this (or say it out loud) but, man oh man, I wish K was in daycare more this summer *gasp*. And no, not for my selfish reasons of wanting to have mom time to myself. Our girl was home all week with me, on my first week back into the summer relaxation mode. Unfortunately, nobody is able to explain "why" to Keifer, "why" she isn't able to see her beloved Elaine and her friends whom she loves so, each and every day of the week.

At first, I chalked up her whiny, clingy, little ornery attitude on teething. But after a few days, and many attempts at activities and play things that I thought she would enjoy, I realized my girl was missing her friends. She was most likely wondering "where is my beloved Ava and Matty?". *sigh*. It truly was apparent to me when we went to Elaine's on Tuesday evening for an "Ice Cream Social". K lit up like a light bulb when we got out of our car and saw her friends all waiting for her on the grass, calling out "Keifer's here, Keifer's here!". She was beaming, and couldn't wait to say "hi" to each and every one of them.

On Wednesday afternoon, as I laid on the couch and listened to my girl fight her nap and whine and moan with nothing that would make her feel better, Elaine called: she was able to take K starting the next day, instead of waiting another full week to start her one-day-a-week appearance. I jumped at the chance, and Keifer came home that night a recharged and whole new little woman. She was clearly happy as a clam to be back in "kiddie land", and although last year, I literally threw up in my mouth having to bring her to daycare, I now am happy she gets to go. I have seen how my girl loves and thrives on the social aspect of it, and although this summer, I'm attempting to bring her to activities involving other kids, and setting up play dates, there is no one that will compare to HER, to her best buddies and pals at Elaine's house. And for that, we are all blessed.

Family Fun in the summer

Getting loved on by Uncle Corey, whom she loves very much!

Abbers loves to read and sing to K
K is intrigued by the Mason man
Mason loved K's ball pool
Abby was just helping her out (it looks like she's flying!)

The stuff memories are made of: Cousins hanging out and having fun on a Sunday afternoon

Wordless Wednesday: She's a maniac, maniac, in the .... book bin?

She's obsessed lately with wearing headbands of mama's!

come on in, plenty of room!!

Haircut #2

Our girl had her second haircut this Saturday, the same day and same place as mama. Thanks, Betsy! You did a great job (and so did our girl: not a peep outta her!). Notice she had to hold onto her blue ball: she loves her balls and her blue blocks. I've made plenty of jokes about our girl's love for blue balls (hee hee).

Such a big girl
Ta da: the finished product: who IS this big girl, and where did Keifer go?

No, no , no

The dreaded "no" word has made it's appearance into our lives.
Our girl has learned it, and is smart enough to know WHEN she will be told it
Ahh, fun times are ahead.
It is pretty cute, though, her little voice saying , "no no no", with her little head shake.

Blowing in like the wind

Whew. It's been a whirlwind since last week; I'm officially done with work for the summer, and we had Papa Jim & Nana Marge here with us all weekend. It was Abby's birthday last week, and we had a family party for her at the Corey & Jill's house. I'll have pictures of that later, but we all had a great time, and Keifer doesn't lack for attention when her family is around. Abby is infatuated with her, and in turn, Keif is infatuated with Mason, who really is all about his own things. It's pretty cute.

Yesterday, we hung out all day with Nana & Papa and did lunch at Applebees, as well as some shopping. Keifer played social hostess to anyone and everyone who walked by on their way to the bathroom, as well as with all the wait staff. Everyone got a kick out of our friendly little gal. Last night, we all went out for dinner (can you just imagine my waistline, on top of the fact that Nana brought her infamous brownies with homemade frosting? Oye.). Keifer got her 'flirt on'' with the Latino waiter who served us last weekend; he remembered her and remembered she loved pink balloons. He is her favorite.

Last night, after bathing wild woman Keifer, Nana and I settled in and watched 27 Dresses. I was a bit disappointed in it, but we both fell in love with James Marsden (although I loved him in Enchanted, and Hairspray). Then, the night from hell began. Keif was up no fewer than 5-6 times, screaming in pain from her teeth coming in. Of course, whenever she saw us come into her room, the screaming intensified to decibels that no doubt will contribute to my future hearing loss. I'm really surprised that Papa & Nana, way down in the basement, didn't hear her as much as I thought they would.

This AM, I felt like I had when she was a newborn: hung-over with lack of sleep, headache(y), and not very chipper. Papa & Nana said their goodbyes as they left for home, CJ returned to work, and Keif and I began our summer together.

We hit our first ever library "Baby Story Time", where my girl demonstrated to me her lack of interest in structured group story times and songs, since she is clearly a social being. She proceeded to zoom in on the only baby in the group, where she waved in his face and said "hi" repeatedly, as his Grandmother beamed. Then, she attempted to interact with a variety of other kids, all ages and sizes, but sadly, nobody reciprocated Keif's initiation at an interaction. But my girl was not sad; she just started climbing all over any stroller she saw, as well as pushing around a wagon, and got pissy with me whenever I attempted to redirect her towards the toys.

We left for lunch at home, and she let me down when she didn't nap for more than a mere hour. She needed a nap, and has been a cranky bear of a girl all day, as well as super clingy. She is saying "no no no" to almost everything I say to her, and all I can do is ignore it and repeat, "no, thank you", each and everytime she says it. Oye, welcome to toddler hood, eh? *sigh*. Oh well. She did enjoy crawling in and out of the sliding door to the deck, and screamed in joy when she was able to pull herself up on the railings of the deck. Again, nobody seemed too interested in this toddler on the deck, calling out "hi" to them.

Mama is exhausted, and now CJ is putting our wild woman to bed, because he agreed I looked like something the cat drug in.

Storm chasers and singers

CJ was playing storm chaser last night. We've had a series of really bad weather the past few weeks in MN, and we were expected to get a really bad thunderstorm (with tornado warnings) late last night. I woke up to K crying (teething pain, it sucks for all of us) around midnight and CJ was still up. He was tracking the storms and had our gear ready for under the stairs in case anything happened. Keif experienced her first thunderstorm on our drive home from the doctor last night (I had a check up). The rain was coming really hard and fast, and she was whimpering in the back seat. She didn't really know what to think of it. It was the kind of rain that is so loud, it's hard to even talk audibly over it inside the car. We made it home safely, where she was reunited with daddy and told him all about it (babbles).

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K has been singing a lot more to us lately; I really think she's going to be a singer and dancer. Whenever she hears ANY type of music (even a commercial or a cell phone ringing) she starts shaking her head and shoulders side to side, and gets a big ol' grin on her face. She also shakes her head and shoulders when she's really excited about something (like a new truck book or eating!). Lately, she'll sing "ee ohhh" to us, in her attempts to sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm". She recognizes the book immediately, and starts singing the chorus to us every morning when I put the book in her crib while I get ready. Last night, she was doing her new nightly routine of dancing in her Laugh and Learn Kitchen (while holding onto the toaster and shaking her bum bum like a wild woman), and out of nowhere, she sang, "Pop, goes....babble babble babble" to the tune of "Pop , Goes the Weasel". CJ and I looked at each other in shock, wondering "did we just hear that correctly", when suddenly, Keif started singing it again, only this time not as intelligibly as the first time Whoa. I asked Elaine this AM if they are singing this song at child care, and turns out, yes, they do, so apparently our girl is picking up on this. Yay!

Another thing she's been doing the past few weeks is imitating her friends at child care. Every day, during circle time, they sing "Willoughby Wallaby Woo" and the child of the day goes around patting each child on the head. Whenever we start to sing this to Keif, she stops in her tracks, smiles and starts patting her own head. Smart little lady, our angel girl.

Ball Mania FUN

Last summer, we found this Ball Mania ball pool at a KB Toy outlet in a 'burb an hour north of us.
We also found it in Portland, visiting Mooshie and company last summer, and purchased it for Maddie & Alex for their Christmas gifts from us.

Maddie loved it and we enjoyed seeing pictures of the kids in the ball pool, surrounding by a million and one stuffed animals.

Last night, CJ pumped it up for our angel girl, and she plowed her way into the ball pool, and we were greeted with cries of delight! She loved it! She loved grabbing the balls (apparently she wants to hold onto all the red ones, for some reason), and she was just a hoot to watch babbling and screeching with joy. I'll get some pictures of her later.........

Wordless Wednesday: More Yoga Baby

"Oh! Hi, there!"
"Thread the Needle"

How do YOU save your blog?

Do you back up and save your blog? If so, HOW? And, can you please explain it to me simply, so that CJ can figure it out and we can do this? I am freaked- if I were to lose all my blog stuff, there goes my IVF history for Keifer, my PG journal and now my life-with-baby journal.
TIA (Thanks in Advance!)
C.

Woof woof: more puppy PJ's!

Hey ya'll, I'm so excited, mama ordered another pair of Pup-pup pajamas for me to wear! How fun!

Don't I look so big?
I kept my shades on for about 2.2 seconds
... and made sure Tboy was still protecting me
... and then I insisted on taking them off. No more of these!

Photo sharing catch up: The Soupy Clan GTG

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, we drove close to 6 hours up north to visit Nana Marge and Papa Jim. We are guilty of not going North to visit them, not more than maybe once a year. It's so bad of us. K had quite a hard time on the way up there, and we now know 4 hours is her limit in the car as far as driving long distances, LOL.

CJ's brother, SIL, and Abby and Mason were up there, as well as Marge's brother Carl and his wife, Wanda. We had a blast, and the 4 of us "kids" (CJ, Corey, Jill and I) even got to go out on a double date Saturday night while Papa & Nana watched the grandkids. It was so much fun!

K discovers sunglasses are pretty cool to play with

dealing with the paparazzi, as usual (aka one of her Papas) taking a family walk on Saturday and enjoying the weather
Abbers loved all the time with her cousin
yo, yo, yo, what is up, homies?
Nana gets in on the action
K was researching some new words in the dictionary (she seriously sat and studied this for almost an hour! Oh boy!)
K loves her auntie Wanda

It was Uncle Carl's bday! Abby had fun dressing him up
But, K couldn't quite figure him out
Watch out: when there are newspapers out, K goes hog wild: here,she teaches Abby the fun of shaking paper
Papa Jimbo