my birthday cake (on sunday night)
spontaneously decided to go to the beach today during the time frame we’re usually at the gym. layne’s had a fever and a runny nose so i didn’t feel right putting her in the kidzone. it had just poured down rain so i knew all the playgrounds would be super wet. decided that we should get to the beach before it gets too “cold” tomorrow. we were only there for about a half hour, but it was alot of fun…really just us, the lifeguards, and like 20 long-boarders.
this girl LOVES her some beach…
post-diaper, pre-shower…
harper and layne are really starting to have a relationship. yes, they still get on each other’s nerves (daily), but most of the time they just get a kick out of each other. i think harper is really starting to learn that she can show layne something and layne can learn and do it too….fun! here are two sister shots from today:
(please don’t think bad of me that layne is barefoot and practically naked in the hall. we were just on our way back in from the beach…i’d carried her in from the car, but harper’s new thing is “leading” layne down the hall.)
Filed under: harper
what can make me feel this way?
MY GIRL.
one of my favorite things about having a very verbal 3 year old is that she says alot of things the wrong way. like many of us did, i’m sure, she says many things the way they sound. a few examples that i hope i never forget:
- tummyache- “tummy egg”
- first lines of under the sea from the little mermaid- “under the sea, under the sea, darlin it’s better shower wetter, take it from me…”
- band-aid- “band and”
- no matter how many time i explain it, when i say “we’re going to run errands”, she never understands why we don’t end up at aunt ERIN’s house.
- vitamins- “bite-a-mins”
- tonight she said that justin was her husband. justin is her cousin.
- remember- “bamember”
- seagull- “eagle”
i can’t think of anymore right now, but if i remember, i’ll add them later.
a cute story i just remembered regarding this (and regarding justin):
when he was 4 years old, justin would call ryan (my husband) “uncle roar”. it took us a while to figure out why he kept calling him that. apparently, justin thought ryan’s name was LION.
yesterday was our (me & ryan) SEVEN year anniversary! i seriously cannot believe it’s been seven years, but at the same time it seems accurate to think that we’ve been “together” for 11 (we met in the spring of 1998). thanks to my good friend jenny’s babysitting we were able to go out for a NICE dinner at The Riverhouse. last time we went there was for our 3rd anniversary. it sounds stupid because i’ve only eaten there twice, but that place is seriously my favorite restaurant i’ve ever been to. amazing steak & mushrooms, gourmet salad bar, on the water, with my best friend: can’t beat it.
i’ve made it almost a week using my mouth guard. i can’t really tell too much of a difference. my jaw is still sore on one side, but maybe not quite as much. it’s defintely easier to sleep without it, but i’ve adjusted to having it in my mouth all night alot quicker than i’d thought i would.
today was harper’s first day of school. she did great. when i dropped her off she didn’t blink an eye…practically ran into the classroom (she’d been talking about that room since the first time we visited). when i picked her up 3 hours later, she said that she’d cried on the playground because she wanted me, but she seemed fine so i didn’t make it a big deal. fun facts: there is another little girl in her class named harper. haven’t seen her yet, but harper said she has dark hair. also, there’s a little boy in her class named layne…spelled the same way and everything. can’t wait to see what they look like. she ended up not even needing the backpack, so we may put it away until VPK next year…or at least until she needs it for an overnight trip or something.
some random snippets from my day:
- a few weeks ago i found an ariel jigsaw puzzle at world thrift. harper’s finished it, with my help, about 6 times. every time we do it she gets faster. the other night i decided to just take random pieces out of the completed puzzle and have her put them back in. it was ridiculous how fast she could get 10 or 15 pieces back into the 70 piece puzzle. so, i decided she needed a new one. got a 24 piece at target today. it said 3+ on the side, so when i opened the box, i decided to give her no help at all and just see how far she could get. she had the thing totally finished in about 10 minutes. i was so proud. i’m gonna let her do it a few more times and then video it and see how fast she can do it. it is SO much fun watching her figure new things out and to see the sense of accomplishment she enjoys afterward.
- we visited harper’s school for about 15 minutes this morning. just picked up a calendar and her supply list and talked with the director about drop-off procedure and what-not. harper is SO excited….wait, i’m pretty excited, too, actually! hopefully when tuesday comes around she’ll be pushing me out of the way at the door to get in like she was today.
- layne climbed up into the chick-fil-a playground again today, but this time around there were A TON of kids in there. i heard a blood-curdling scream and had to climb up into the stinking thing. some brat had pushed her down (at least that’s what another little girl told me). we did not hang around much longer…had to get to target to buy school supplies! (us, and every other family within a 10 mile radius)
- i had sweet tea at lunch today and i just LOVE how much energy that caffeine gives me at the gym. i’m not normally a caffeine person, but i ran 3 miles pretty easily today and i haven’t done that in a few months. (plus the tea just tastes SO darn good.)
- keep forgetting to report this: my excema is back in full force. i’m a little relieved that i’m not allergic to sonic, but super annoyed because i really thought i had figured out what was causing it (although i have eaten other fast food and am wondering if maybe it’s just that in general…maybe i need to nix fast food for 6 months…hmmm….i don’t know if i could do that!).
- layne was walking around today the most i’ve ever seen her. she still just takes about 10 steps at a time, but she’s doing it totally on her own more now than i’ve ever seen….confidence is growing, i guess. won’t be long until she’s keeping up with harper! (scary!!!)
- got a call tonight from my sweet sister-in-law julie yesterday and a confirmation call tonight. they are flying me (and harper) out to springfield (MO) at the end of september to take pictures at her brother’s wedding reception (he got married a few months ago). i’m so excited! i’ll make a little money and get to hang out with family that we hardly ever see…and have some fun time with harper! thanks again for thinking of me, julie!
- i’ve been plugging away on the website for about a week now. it is so frustrating that i don’t ever get more than 2 hours or so in a day to work on it. still, it’s slowly coming together and i’m really pleased with it so far….feels very much a few steps above the old one.
and healing comes in your name
helpless children are safe in your arms
THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU.
i’ve had that song in my head for days. shane&shane version. i love that song and i actually don’t mind when it becomes a brain worm.
nothing special going on the past few days. i’ve been fighting a random cold so we haven’t really done too much. don’t get me wrong…we’ve left the house. i cannot spend an entire day in our tiny living space with two loud girlies.
because layne naps twice daily, my days are pretty much divided into three’s. at least in my head they are. 1) after the girls wake up, before nap #1 [8:00-9:45] 2) time between layne’s naps [11:30-2:00] 3) after layne’s second nap (and harper’s, if she takes one), before bedtime [4:00 - 7:30]. i honestly usually try to squeeze something into each third that has to do with leaving the house…even if it’s just going to the gym (downstairs) or the pool (about 6 blocks away). i have no idea how people up north survive life with small children when they’re snowed inside for days at a time. i would LOSE IT.
harper is in sort of a funk. i can’t figure it out. she has been SO demanding and selfish and pretty much bratty for about a week now and i am at a loss. layne is starting to walk more and is basically a sponge right now as far as learning things/figuring things out, so ryan and i are thinking maybe that has something to do with harper’s funny business. something’s gotta give, though. it is seriously getting old. at least 4 times today i had the thought, “i cannot wait until she is in school.” that makes me sad because i really really try to treasure all the time i have with her at this age and i don’t want to wish her away…even if that “her” is being a brat. i just have to keep telling myself that she is testing me and it’s a test i cannot fail. the other day she got a spanking so hard that she still had a welt like 5 hours later. as soon as the welt was gone, so was her good behaviour. ugh. anyway, of course we still have alot of fun every day and she cracks me up and all that, i just sometimes feel like i need to blog about these frustrations so i’ll remember it later down the road.
layne got woken up when we put harper to bed tonight and was NOT happy about it. when she was still telling us how unhappy she was like 20 minutes later (by screaming for no reason like someone was sawing off her leg), we decided to move harper into our bed for a few hours. i was ticked because my plan all day today was to work on my website for at least 2 hours tonight. i can’t work on my website when harper is on the bed 4 feet away. so, as annoyed as i was, ryan and i ended up watching a movie in “the neutral zone” (the living room), which is always nice.
then, here i am. it’s almost 11:00 so i need to get to bed. i’m about to go boil my new mouth guard and hope it fits in my mouth as good as it needs to to stop my jaw from hurting. i got it at wal-mart for $20 and am SO hoping it will save me from getting one from the dentist (they’re like $300). i still can’t figure out when exactly i’m grinding my teeth (almost every time i wake up, my mouth is open), but whatever.
some small things that made me happy today:
- i entered 2 designs into this contest and they are on the site today. GO VOTE!!! i really want to win and i feel like i have a chance…the designs with the most votes right now are a huge deer and michael jackson. the prize is $150…help harper go to preschool!! please vote for either of the last two designs…they’re both mine: “branches” and “peony sketch”.
- chick-fil-a peach milkshake. so good it is just WRONG. why why why must their time be limited?!
- after i cleaned up the mess at our table, i walked into the playground at chick-fil-a and couldn’t see layne anywhere. i couldn’t see her because i was only looking on the ground. guess those nuggets were little bits of battered courage, because she decided today was the day she could climb up all the stairs to get to the little “rooms” at the top. she was SO proud (almost as proud of herself and i was of her).
- talked to a client in tallahassee today. we did a session like 2+ years ago and she decided out of the blue that they need another. i’ve also had another girlfriend from the TLH want to schedule something, so i guess i’ll be heading that way sometime in the next few months. thank goodness….hopefully this is the drought coming to a close.
- took the girls to dubois lagoon after naptime since ryan was working late. it was great….a little more crowded than i’d prefer, but not too bad. love the beach that time of day, and then we got home just in time for baths and bed. also, i got my favorite parking spot right in front of the shower.
- dating in the dark: have y’all seen this show? it is awesome. ryan came into the room while i was watching and laughed at me. he said i had a huge grin on my face. ha!
- sent in harper’s preschool registration!! yay! so excited (for her and for me).
i just posted these on FB, so many of you have already seen them, but i thought i’d post these collages on my blog as well. they are birth-11 months of my girls. the older layne gets, the more different the two girls look (still both very beautiful, in my opinion). (layne’s photos for month 4 and month 8 were terrible, so i left them out.)
- yesterday after church we went to Jersey Mikes subs for lunch (if you’ve never eaten there, go. as soon as they open tomorrow. go.). when we got there, harper had on no panties because of an emergency stop we’d just made on the side of the road after which i’d neglected to put her panties back on (she was wearing a dress so i ripped them off before i held up in the squat position to pee). when we got into the store, i was hoping that harper could keep A) a low profile and B) keep her dress pulled down until we got into the bathroom. ryan got in line and i stopped for a second with him to check out the kids’ menu (harper’s not too hot on lunch meat, so i wasn’t sure what to get her at a sub place). harper ran over the the shelves where they keep the chips and started very loudly asking ryan what kind of chips he was going to get (low profile blown). he was on him own to decide what to get her. off we went to the bathroom (as she is yelling “i don’t need my panties back on!!”). layne had a really full diaper, so i decided to deal with her first. there was no changing thing-a-majiggy. so, i sucked it up and threw the diaper bag on the floor and laid her on it. she’s gotten really squirmy lately, so it usually takes longer than it should to change a pee diaper. as i was changing her, i heard the water running and foolishly thought, “how nice, harper’s washing her hands before she eats without me asking her too.” pshaw. i finally looked up and realized she had filled the sink almost to overflowing and was splashing vigorously in it. i gave her devil eyes then somehow managed to get her panties back on with one hand and both of us remaining on our feet.
- i finally got to enjoy my sandwich. layne was sitting next to me and i was taking turns feeding her and stuffing my face with the amazingly delicious Italian on white with freshly sliced meat and cheese and perfect toppings. as she was eating, layne kept grabbing the paper my sandwich was on a pulling on it. it was getting close to naptime…the closer it is, the friskier she gets. i popped her hand once really good and thought she had the idea (that she needed to keep away from mommy’s sandwich paper). i got too comfortable. about 2 minutes later, she reached over, yanked the paper as hard as she could and my beautiful, less-than-half-eaten sandwich fell to the floor to the tune of my groaning, “NOOOOOO!” i am not one to frown off eating things off the floor, but this was like peel the mayo-covered tomatoes and shredded lettuce off the floor gross. it was ridiculous, but it honestly took me about 10 minutes until i could laugh about it, i was so mad.
- we started VBS at church today. harper was very excited because it’s the most “schoolish” thing she’s ever participated in. she LOVED it and i could tell that she really had a handle on some of the things they talked about. when we got home, she seemed exhausted, but decided (very unfortunately) that she didn’t need a nap. before i gave up on her getting one, i had to give her two spankings. when i brought her in my room for the second time explaining why she was getting the spanking (because she’d woken layne up by singing very loudly), this is the conversation we had:
harper: “mommy, God loves me.”
me: “you’re right honey, God loves you very much.” (my heart overflowing with pride and happiness)
harper: “mommy, God loves me sooo much that He doesn’t want me to get a spanking.”
this is us on a walk around the “neighborhood” where the house was. it was a paved road with huge steep hills. layne LOVED riding in this carrier thing (thanks, charlene!). i think harper was a little jealous, although she was piggyback on me for much of the walk…she even ate a snack while she was riding. here are a few more of the same walk/hike/whatever:
the next one is a picture of my toes after harper painted them for me. can’t remember if it was her idea or mine, but she had fun. the excess came off after like 2 showers. looking at this picture, i’m thinking: my feet are SO different than they were before i had kids. why does pregnancy change EVERYTHING?
this is ryan trying to pull a huge splinter out of harper’s big toe. she was absolutely hysterical…i’m sure it hurt, but it was her first splinter, so i think she was more scared than anything. look how white her little knuckles were…i told her to squeeze as hard as she could and it wouldn’t hurt so bad…i was trying everything to get her mind off of it. i pinched her arm (which just made her madder), shoved a popsicle in her face, and something else that i can’t remember now. when he finally got that thing out i burst into tears. it was so hard to see her freaking out and being held down like that…i have so much sympathy for moms with sick kids…i cannot imagine watching doctors work on my kid all the time.
this picture is pretty self-explanatory. i love harper’s new carseat, but it’s one disadavantage is that it doesn’t recline unless the seat it’s sitting on does. this one didn’t. it hurts my neck just to look at her.
