book giveaway

What could be better than getting a free kids book? Go here and check out this great book. Leave a comment and you will be entered into the contest for a free book.
Gotta love free stuff!! Thanks Amber for the link and thanks Holly for the giveaway!

the tough questions

Is a board book that went in the toilet cleanable?

Do other mothers ever get sick of picking up the same toys day after day and actually think to themselves "no one is coming over, why should I bother picking them up"?

Is it ridiculous to create errands just to get out of the house when it is raining, cold and you are sick of being stuck inside?

At what age can you start teaching children to pick up their own toys?

At what age do they actually start picking up their own toys?

Do other moms get sick of singing the kiddie songs?

Is it totally crazy to want to spend money on decorations, games, food, take-homes and gifts for a one year old birthday party knowing that she will never remember it?

If I do go crazy on the first birthday party will I regret it afterward and think that it was unnecessary and silly OR will I love that I have the pictures and be happy that I celebrated a major milestone with friends and family?

Is a bike trailer (the kind that the kid rides in behind a bike) an okay first birthday gift even though it is kind of more for the parents than the kid?

After my crazy week last week of working so much today I find myself full of questions, doubt and confusion once again about being a mom. Maybe they aren't really the big, tough questions but it is the stuff on my mind today as I sit here listening to Sam talk and yell in her crib, NOT napping.

Happy Tuesday! What are you thinking about today?

schedule change

So call us crazy but we have decided to really push Sam right now and extend her evening schedule. With day light savings time hitting this weekend we decided that since she was already going to be thrown off why not just throw her off even more. The reason? We are hoping for her to eat dinner a little later and have a later bed time for several reasons. We want her to be able to eat dinner with us, at a normal dinner time and be able to spend a bit more time with Chris when he gets home from work. We are also thinking that the later bed time might help her to take better naps.
So, how is it going? Actually really well! Saturday night she stayed up later and got to see some of our friends when they came over to play cards. She was super cute giving big hugs, showing off her walking and riding on her little bike. Then Sunday she took a later afternoon nap and was able to stay up until 7:30 pm. Today is going really well too. She is napping right now and so far has napped for TWO HOURS!! Could be her longest nap in a while. Chris has volleyball tonight so I am hoping to push her a little tonight again and see if we can go and watch him play.
It's only been a couple of days but I am feeling really positive about the change and hoping that it will mean more productive (or lazy!) days for me and more fun times in the evening with Chris.
Hopefully she will continue to cooperate...that could happen...maybe?

interpreting the nonsense

Sam makes a lot of noise. Most of the time it is just yelling, whining, crying or laughing but occasionally she will look at you and make sounds that seem as if they should be words. She looks at you with this look that only my daughter could make that seems to say "are you listening to me mom?". She has very few words that she says clearly yet; "dada" and "hi". Which means that we have started to become (or at least I have) that parent that interprets the mumbling into words for other people.
But this morning her mumbling was PRICELESS! As Chris was getting ready to leave for work he picked up Sam to say goodbye. He proceeded to give her several kisses on the face. As she was leaning back away from the last kiss a mumble came out of her. Chris and I immediately looked at each other and started laughing. Did she really just say JESUS? No kidding it was as if she was a teenager pissed off that she was being made to do something she didn't want to and had so much attitude when that little word came out of her mouth. Now, neither Chris or I use that word in that manner so I am sure that it was just a coincidence and she really didn't know what she was saying, but man oh man was it hillarious.

flower child

Target had these great flower head bands in the dollar section. I thought it would make the cutest pictures! The funniest part is that she actually liked wearing it and when it fell off at one point she wanted to try and put it back on herself. She has tried to put it on several times now since we bought it and it always ends up around her neck. But it is so fun to watch her try and figure out how to put it on.

She speaks!

We have been working on "all done" for when she is finished eating instead of the throwing food and whining that she has been doing. Normally we only say it to her at times when she would be all done with something (food, bath, etc.) but when she actually started saying it the other night back to Chris he kept her going so that we could get it on video. He surprised me with it last night because I had never heard her say it.

So, here are two videos for your listening and viewing pleasure.






Okay, so maybe its not perfect speech but its close!!

the week ahead

For a "stay-at-home-mom" I have a VERY busy week ahead; at least busy for me. I taught all day today (7:00am - 3:30) outside in the cold (side note - I lost my first students today while teaching a class on GPS! Love the irony of that! Don't worry we did eventually find them). I have a meeting all day tomorrow (8:00 - 2:30) and then have to put some hours in at the WAEE office. Wednesday I am back to teaching. GPS course again, I think my goal will have to be to NOT lose any students! Thursday and Friday I am in the office in the morning. Whew! What a week.
Okay, so maybe its not that much...but I think the part that is hard is that because I don't technically work full time I still feel like all the household stuff and daily Sam stuff is my responsibility. When I come home from teaching all day I just have no energy to do laundry, cook, vaccum and do all the other stuff to keep this house in order. That is the part that frustrates me. But I love teaching and want to do that WAY MORE than almost anything else.
Enough about me...Sam had another mini birthday celebration this weekend. We went to Viroqua to visit some extended family with no intention of celebrating Sam we just wanted to see everybody. But Grandma Hill made a wonderful cake and the aunts had presents.
These next two pictures are the true representation of how she felt about the sweet icing. The cake was delicious but she really wanted nothing to do with it.
It was wonderful to see extended family including Zach our newest member of the family. This is Sam getting to know Zach; too funny. Sam also became a fan of basketball! She played with her first full sized basketball while we were there and so when we got home we got out one of our basketballs. She's a natural born athlete!
Hope you all had a happy Monday. More fun pictures to share tomorrow.
Good night WISCONSIN!