Goodbye 2010!

While there were many highlights of the year, Camryn's first dance recital, Chris and Jessica's wedding, the LONG awaited addition of little miss Darcy Rae, Jon and Liz completing their adoption paperwork for a new little nephew or niece, and a much-needed weekend to visit Jeff in San Diego, the overall mood of the year, at least for me, has been BLAH.  I really, really hate to say that. I mean, I just mentioned so many blessings. I'm sure I sound completely ungrateful for what's been given to me this year. I don't mean to.

My life is just not complete without work.  I'm going on 10 months unemployed and have become one of those ugly statistics.  I have no balance in my life right now and it makes for some tough days emotionally.  Hard to keep it together.  And there have been some days (more than I care to mention) where I've been a complete you-know-what to be around this year.  My poor family.

That's all I'm going to say.  I'm hoping and praying for work in 2011.  And hoping a positive attitude adjustment soon follows.

See ya 2010.  I'm drop kicking you out the door!

Taking a moment to laugh

Tonight we had the entire family back in the house.  Camryn has been home for more than 24 hours after being pumped full of fluids to rehydrate herself at the hospital.  My stomach bug is gone.  And Craig picked up Darcy from his parent's house.  We got her out of the germ house in hopes that she would escape this crazy stomach virus.

Anyway, I had a period of about 15-20 minutes tonight that I have to thank God that I was able to laugh at. 

It started at the end of dinner.  Well at the end of Craig's, my and Darcy's dinner.  Camryn usually sits at the table for another 20+ minutes partially because she talks the entire time we're eating and when she is left alone to eat her cold food she begins refusing to eat whatever I've made.   (Oh, I remember stalling on certain foods with parents.  And holding my nose while eating cold peas so I wouldn't have to taste them.  And a list of other foods.  I was so picky.  I'm sorry guys.)  So...I was battling Camryn to eat and even out of the goodness of my heart reheated her dinner.  I was cleaning up the dishes, so when I noticed she was down to a few bites I came over to observe the grand finale.  I noticed she knocked half of her bite into her lap "on accident" and when I walked around the table, half of her dinner was on her lap and on the stinkin' floor!  I yelled at her to get upstairs and change her clothes.

When she came back down she asked if she could fix my hair.  I needed to change Darcy's diaper, so I said okay if you can do it while I'm cleaning her up.  So as Camryn is inserting at least 7 multi-colored clips in my hair I notice Princess Buttercup has a horribly nasty diaper and it has traveled up her back side.  I accidentally got some of it on the carpet, and she is so squirmy it was all I could do to get that outfit off without rubbing it all through her hair.  By this point she was flipped over rocking on all fours with her bottom in the air and I noticed she had something in her mouth.  Only I couldn't fish it out because I had poop on my hands.  I left her her in the buff while I ran to wash my hands.  Craig was able to get a piece of tape out of her mouth before I could get back.  I just vacuumed today too!  That figures she would find the one thing I missed.

After getting a fresh diaper on her I went to rinse off the crap from her outfit when I hear "mommy, I spilled your water all over the floor."  She grabs a towel to start cleaning up and I grab the carpet cleaner to clean off the poop on the floor.  As I'm scrubbing the carpet I look up and Camryn has moved from mopping up the water and grabbed a freshly cleaned mattress pad (that took 2 days to dry because it's the awesome pillow top kind) out of the laundry basket and is using it like a sled on the dirty wood floor.

Really?

Wow! I'm looking sweet!



She may look sweet, but look out!  She can be quite the little trouble maker. In fact as I'm typing this I had to get on her case for using the chair as a jungle gym. (Yes, Dad, I do that now. LOL!)



I'm done with this day!

 I'm not mentioning the Darcy vs. Mommy battle at bath time tonight that left me soaking wet but that wasn't part of the 20 minutes. :)

Tomorrow is a new day! 

Ice cream!!!!!!!!!!

First Snow... Thanksgiving...Decorating The Tree

We've had a busy weekend and it isn't over yet.  Tomorrow, Camryn and I are heading out for a "big girl" day out.  She asked to see Wizard of Oz at the Fox Theatre for Christmas, so we will be dressing up and going together.

But, before I get ahead of myself, we have Thanksgiving.  It actually snowed here on Thursday.  Not enough to stick, but I had to get Darcy outside for a picture of her first snow.  Keep the "where was her coat?" comments to yourself. We were only out there for a minute.

She thinks she's hot stuff!  :)

Camryn found her some people to play games with her.  She's turned into quite the little card player.  Here she's whipping Aunt Jessie and Uncle Chris at memory.

We put up the tree yesterday; but added the ornaments tonight.  Here's Darcy's idea of helping.  Yes, she's chewing on bubble wrap, but I promise I was keeping an eye on her. Besides she insisted on being in the middle fo things and this was a better option then the tissue paper which she can consume before anyone realizes what's happened.

Cam was so excited to hang up ornaments.  She was a huge help this year.  But she didn't want to stop for breaks when Darcy got bored.

Christmas pics

Rather than the normal dress up Christmas pictures, I went a different route this year.  The only thing that would have made the picture more true is Darcy pitching one of her fits.

Also took the opportunity to get Cam's pictures (finally getting her 4 year old pictures 3 months before she turns 5. Ah well.)  And Darcy turned 6 months this past Sunday.

Darcy is such a little stink.  She wants to be entertained at all times.  She's making motorboat sounds now which I find hilarious, has been sitting up for a few weeks now, which makes trip to the stores a lot easier since she'll sit up in the cart. And she wants so badly to move on the floor beyond rolling and scooting backwards on her belly.  At her 6 month check up she ripped the paper on the table to shreds and the doctor just looked at me and said, "her hands are so quick.  You need to child proof extra good with this child."  She weighed in off the charts at 20lbs.  And her height was 27 1/4".  I'm thinking it's time to move her to the next car seat.

Any bets?

So the little bug is now rocking on her hands and knees.  Started that new trick on Saturday.  Any bets as to when she'll start moving forward?  Cam didn't do this. She was an army crawler and didn't move on her knees and hands until much, much later.  So this is a new one for us at 5 1/2 months.

I'm going to say 3 weeks. 

Stay tuned...

If anyone still cares about October...

...here are some pictures.

I started the month out on a high note with an opportunity to skip town and spend some time with Jeff, Mom, Aunt Linda and Kai.  It was an enormous help to my mental state as I've been pretty down in the dumps about being unemployed and feeling kind of sorry for myself for being "stuck" in the house with a baby all day.  I know what you're thinking.  I won't get this time back, so I should enjoy it.  But I gotta be honest.  I don't enjoy 75% of the day.  Darcy is an absolute rotten baby.  So, many of my thoughts go to what would I be doing if I was working right now. 

Anyway...San Diego was a blast. Jeff looks great and I was so glad to get a chance to see him. Love ya Jeff!

He took mom and I to one of his favorite thinking spots.  We wound up climbing down an enormously steep set of narrow, winding stairs, passing surfers (with their boards) on our way down. 

Then on our last day, we went with Kai and Aunt Linda to a winery in Temeculah. So pretty! I really enjoyed the afternoon. Even the part where mom smushed a pesky bee with a napkin against her sandwich.

Kai loved, I mean loved the breadsticks. LOL!

Mid month my uncle passed away.  Mom, Dad, Jon and I took a road trip to Benton, MO to visit with family.  We don't see that side of the family much and it was good to catch up with everyone.

And then the pumpkin patch.  Camryn is such her daddy's girl.  We go to Rombach's every year, which is huge.  It never fails.  We walk in and Camryn picks out the first pumpkin she sees without even going through the gates to see the entire farm.  And she says "that's the one!".  To Craig's disappointment, I have to say no.  I just do. I mean, she hadn't even seen the ponies yet or the big displays that the owners have spent so long setting up.  She hasn't seen the jungle gym or stood in line for super sweet lemonade while fighting bumble bees to get to it first.  So, we kept walking.  And that's when I begin to enjoy the trip when I see Cam's face light up once she actually sees all the pumpkins. 

Here's farmer Cam.

Here are some other pics from the month, including the girls in their costumes.

Camryn was so proud of how her costume came together. She looked so pretty.  When trick or treating, she would get candy and turn around and spread her wings.  :)

And here's this stinker.  She was wearing a 9 month baby costume. It didn't have any legs to it. Keep in mind she is 5 months old here.  We had to cut off the bottom half just so she would come close to fitting in the costume.  And since it was cold we had to wrap her bottom half with a blanket. HA!

My apologies for such a long break in blogging.  It's been a crazy month and by the time the girls get to bed, I don't feel like doing much besides going to bed myself.  Hoping to be better this month and next.

Happy Halloween!

So sorry for the lack of posts this month. I had a ton of pictures uploaded a week ago and it crashed on me and didn't feel like messing with it again.

Will update soon.

In the mean time, enjoy:  http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/eSScjgfApvGZ0XuV

Belly laughs

During the evening, carrying Darcy around in the front carrier is a common occurance. She's only begun to laugh, although she's quite stingy with them. I had turned on the music and Camryn and I were dancing while I was making dinner. Only on the fast tempo songs were we getting some reaction out of Darcy...




And the next collection of pictures Cam calls Sweet Potatoes!

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes and Oatmeal

And my favorite...

Squash (Can you tell that Darcy has figured out how to spit? HA!)

Soccer

Well, Camryn is in her second season of soccer. I am still predicting that she'll do better at the individual sports, like dancing, swimming or running. But for now, she's 4 and she loves "playing" with the girls. They have a cheer that they do: "Pretty girls don't play soccer, so LET'S GET UGLY!" Cam loves it. On the day of her team pictures I got the 3rd degree for putting a purple ribbon in her hair. "Mommy, ugly girls don't wear pretty things in there hair. I'm supposed to be ugly when I wear my soccer uniform." Whatever. Just wear the bow. Anyway, she scored her first goal last week. It took her a second to realize it but once she did she ran to her coach, who has a tradition of swinging the girls around when they score. It was the first time she got to do that. Craig and I are hoping she got the taste for what it felt like; but this past week she was back to same old goofy Camryn on the field.

Here I guess she wore herself out and needed a rest during the game. Ha!

New Etsy site

The store is live! And I got my first order today already.

Visit http://www.etsy.com/shop/rosieraesnugglies

Two big things happened today

1. I heard Darcy's first belly laugh. Oh my goodness. I can't even express in words what that feels like. It's the funniest and the sweetest thing all at once. You cannot help but laugh with her. Oh, and she had a healthy 4 month check up today. 95% percentile on height & weight. So at least she's proportional but she's a chub.

2. Camryn got in trouble today. The kind that took only a few words and she knew exactly why she was in trouble. The kind that sent her butt straight to bed and she didn't protest once. The kind that made us so angry that we told her it's going to work out much better for her if we deal with it the morning because we were so angry with her. I've never been this angry with her. Camryn gets so many free passes from us. We try our hardest to put into perspective that she's 4. And in most cases that's okay.

But lately she's been writing on stuff. Not paper, which we've drilled into her head since she could pick up a crayon. But stuff. Coffee table, carpet, Darcy's car seat. Thank goodness for washable markers. Still working on the carpet though. Her markers were taken away for an undisclosed period of time. She's only to use colored pencils and crayons until I think she can handle markers again. She has seen me get upset over these incidents and not offered a single apology.

And tonight, I popped in to check my email and saw pen mark all over our brand new computer screen. BRAND NEW. And the screens these days are not the glass screens. They're the plastic screens that can be scratched much easier and the slightest pressure could damage the screen. She happened to be in the room when I noticed it. I was speechless. And that doesn't happen often. I couldn't believe it! I started saying oh no! oh no! and Craig came in, saw what had happened and started yelling. Now Camryn Rose is such a fragile little flower. She goes straight to tears in a second. She gets that from me. I tear up at so many ridiculous things.

I told her if she woke up her sister it was going to be worse and at least that toned it down a bit.

OK, so what in the world do you do to punish a 4 1/2 year old who definitely knows better? What's going to stick with her? Take away the computer? OK, probably for a while. Definitely pens now. What else? What can I ground her from or do that's really going to make an impact on her, so she gets it.

I tried to clean it with a damp rag and no luck. It appeared to be permanent and under the surface. FORTUNATELY, Craig hopped online to see how to clean it and found that rubbing alcohol might work. It did. Oh my goodness. What a relief!

OK, now what. She still needs to learn a lesson, but the damage isn't what we originally thought. Meanwhile she's crying her eyes out and wailing upstairs. And when we go to check on her (she can get so hysterical she has trouble breathing), she's seriously worried that we don't love her anymore. Oh no! What an impact our glares must have had on her because we barely said anything. Just the body language was enough for her to realize she screwed up big time. It made my heart sad that she believed it was possible for us to stop loving her.

So now what? We told her we would discuss it tomorrow. But not sure what the right consequence is. She's old enough to know better, for sure, but she's 4.

Trying so hard to move. Oh, and enjoy the sound effects. LOL!

Random comment

I LOVE my family, but it's hard work to keep everyone happy.

Lions and tigers and bears!

This is the perfect time of year for family outings. There are so many festivals and fun things to do in town. Camryn is game for just about anything. And Darcy is old enough she can be out in the sun and along for the ride.

Craig has been SO busy with football. The girls and I have really been a little threesome bopping around town. But he was free on Sunday afternoon, so we packed up the gals and headed to the zoo.

When Darcy was awake I popped her into the carrier (which is one of her favorite viewpoints) so she could see the action. Before I knew it her head dropped. All of the action wore her out I guess. The one time she fussed I think I got her too close to the glass in the monkey house. They were way up high and I had leaned in to look up and I think it made her a bit uncomfortable (and rightly so).

Craig wanted to see the sea lions, I wanted to see the bears and Cam wanted to see the lions. They were all hanging out in the shade. Seemed like most of the animals were sleeping when we walked by them.
Just plain wore out!
Camryn, in front of the zebras. She has mastered the stop for a picture pose.

Craig helped Camryn take pictures at the sea lion show with her camera.

She flipped!

Yay Darcy! She's been rolling on her side during play time. I'm sure it was completely a coincidence of body position and her kicking her legs but it gave her the momentum to flip over. Of course it was at 4:30 this morning and it completely freaked her out.

I guess I better get it in gear on the tummy time exercises.

First taste of oatmeal

Finally! Something besides formula!

Changes are happening

Toys, bibs, fingers, whatever is within 3 inches of the mouth almost always heads that way now. Most of the time, we're holding her facing out, but she doesn't seem to mind facing toward us now that she can gnaw on our shoulders. Love that sweet little spit spot on my t-shirt. (That's something that only her mom could say...ha!)

Not rolling over, but showing signs that she's thinking about it.

Quite the little scooter. She will start on her mat and wind up 3 feet away from her mat before we know it. Time to deep clean the carpets, I guess.
Before...

And after...

And she's getting great at tummy time on the boppy. But not so much on the floor.

Also, I'm not sure where else to mention. This is as good as any. Darcy adopted her first pet the other day. LOL! I actually found a tick in her crazy mop of hair. YUCK!! Poor thing.

Pic with big sis. Camryn can't stand not getting in the picture if she's in the same room. Ha!