Happy Leap Year!

Just a few facts that I stumbled across to commemorate the day:

- Leap Year has been the traditional time that women can propose marriage. In many of today's cultures, it is okay for a woman to propose marriage to a man. Society doesn't look down on such women. It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose.

- According to English law, February 29th was ignored and had no legal status. So a crime on the day is no crime at all.

- There is a Greek superstition that claims couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.

- A law once existed in Scotland forbidding a man to refuse a proposal made to him on February 29th. Punishment for such an offense was a large fine.

- The exact time the Earth takes to complete a full circle around Sun is a little longer than a year, 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.

- It was the Romans who first designated February 29 as leap day. Later, a more precise formula was adopted in the 16th century when the Gregorian calendar fine-tuned the calculations to include a leap day in years only divisible by four.

No shortage of conversation at my house.

I think my kid has hit overload on her vocab learning. All of sudden, she's stringing multiple words together, and in an order that even makes sense. But it's like she's realized exactly how much she can say and her mind jumps from topic to topic. She can't settle on one thought. It's funny to listen to.

Or sometimes she does focus on one thing, and she can't let go. We had the inside of our house painted last week and the furniture was out of place and the painter would leave his brushes and ladders around after he left. It worried her to no end that things weren't "normal" and she was fixed on the fact that her toy box had moved to another spot and had been replaced by this stranger's belongings. She must have told Craig and me all night that stuff didn't belong there.

I'm praying for warmer weather soon, so we can get her outdoors to burn off some energy. Ha Ha!

The new smile

Somehow in the last few weeks, Cam has forgotten how to smile. Well, I mean her cute little smile. She fronts all teeth now to display the type of smile my grandma used to just hate when I was little.

Introducing the new smile...






What is that anyway?
Goofy girl!

Compliments can make your day!

Well, let me share one I got today. It was given with the truest of intentions, I believe, but I've laughed about it all day.

I was at Bath & Body Works paying for some lotion and the gal helping me with the transaction said: "I know this will sound kind of weird, but you are really beautiful."

Whoa! Gotta admit, hearing that from a complete stranger kind of makes you stand up taller and grin. I greeted that compliment with a big thank you. She should have left it at that, but then proceeded to say, "Don't worry. The right guy will come along some day."

What!?! Did I have a look on my face like I was desparate for the right guy to come along and that I hoped, deep down by purchasing this lotion, and applying it daily, that the good smell would attract the right guy? How odd of statement to hear and then I realized I didn't have my wedding band on. OK, she thinks I'm single. Makes a little more sense, but who says that to a complete stranger? I politely laughed and then showed her my nasty, crusty finger where my band normally is. It's just all dried up from the cold air and washing my hands throughout the day. Happens every winter. If she was quick enough she would have tried to sell me some sort of product to heal it right up, but I think she was a bit embarrassed at what she had just said. By then, I had already spun around grinning at the interaction and thanked her again for the compliment.

Note to self to begin complimenting people more. I forget how nice it is to hear one from a complete stranger.

Poor Little Cam

We found out yesterday that Camryn has to have her tonsils & adenoids removed next month. :(

Since she's under three, she has to spend the night in the hospital so they can monitor her breathing. I know it's a routine surgery, but thinking about it makes me so nervous. She's just so little and it freaks me out to think she'll be under anesthetics and operated on. I figure the worst I can do is show Camryn that it worries me. She'll be looking for comfort that day.

The doc said her voice will change, which I find very interesting. I'm curious what that will sound like. Recovery time is 10-14 days. Yikes! But 10 days of applesauce, ice cream and yogurt...she'll love that.

"Toot Again"

So Cam has seemed to figure out how to make herself toot.

This morning, she had some gas, and was saying "toot" each time. Craig was laughing, and she realized she was doing something funny. So she "forced" one out, with a little grunt, and said "toot again" and proceeded to crack herself up.

Should I be a proud parent???? :)

Tonight, while we were watching American Idol, I said, "Wow, that gal can't sing. Camryn, I bet you can sing better." She busted into song like we've never heard. In her own little zone, she would spread her arms out wide and sing something and then bring her arms into her chest and say "me" and repeat several times. Not sure if she was singing a song from school or making up her own lyrics, but it was quite fun to watch.

96 years old!

Craig's Grandma Collins turned 96 on Feb 6th. Ninety-six! We went to her birthday party last weekend. Every year we have her favorite meal. Chili.

She's a neat lady. Loves her Mizzou Tigers. We don't take advantage of the opportunity we have to ask her to share stories of her life. I'm sure she's got a few. :)

Yes, Craig's dad is missing from the photo. He's off to the store to find a stain remover for the chili that was spilled earlier in the day. I won't name names.



Camryn is spending time with Great Grandma.

New to this blog thing

So I've read my sister-in-laws blog for months now, and thought I'd give it a try. I love documenting life, and figure this is a good of place as any to do so.

I have a great husband and a wonderful daughter that will be two years old next month. She's a GREAT kid. For a first child, she's really broken us into parenthood quite easily. But, all of a sudden, she's hit this (we'll call it a phase) personality change that I'm thinking is what I've heard referred to as the terrible twos. Just this week, she…


· Pulled a little bit of poop out of her diaper to show her teacher that she needed to be changed. (So glad I wasn’t here to witness it!)

· Wrote on the kitchen walls with marker (twice)

· Started ignoring most of what we say to her

and

· Started picking her nose

You might say it could be a lot worse. I'm not including her dumping crayons all of the floor, throwing complete fits because she cannot stand the choice of shirts I give her to wear on any given day, or screaming at me from her car seat to listen to a particular song on the radio, which I don't have on CD.

I paint a great picture of this little demon child, but she is sweet and can be angelic at times. Gives great hugs and kisses and loves story time with me. It's just time for us to adapt our parenting styles.