Toddler Pictures

This is what happens when you leave your digital camera laying around and a toddler gets ahold of it.

A Mother's Proof

Dave will be able to back me up on this one. Last night before we went to bed, I cleaned the playroom up because Chloe was having a friend, Connor, come over to play with her this week. I wanted to have a head start. Well that didn't work. We have been in the play room for about an hour and well it is a disaster. Here is the proof how messy 2 toddlers (both 2 yrs old) can be.

Chloe and her play room

Since we have made one of the bedrooms into a play room, there has been a storage issue. Okay, there was no issue cause there was just no storage. When we started the room I thought just wall shelves would be fine, since I really wanted to display my Disney Snowglobes (I started collecting them back in high school. Everyone is made by Disney- they are all originals. I even have like 3 that are considered "retired" and I hunted them down for like a year..lol). I also figured I would have enough shelf space for Chloe's books. Well, I was totally wrong on the storage issue. For about a year I hated the room because I didn't have any place to actually store her toys thus I never really cleaned it outside of running the vacuum in the room. I mean seriously what was the purpose, Chloe would destroy it seconds after I got it picked up. Well, this week we finally got storage shelves. And I am extremely happy with them. While yes, she still destroys the room, but now there is a place I can tell her to put it when we clean up. It isn't just me going in there closing the door and trying to pick up. Sunday my goal is to make little signs to attach to the cloth baskets with pictures and words so she can see herself where the items belong. (Notes: 1. Not only is there snowglobes, Chloe has been receiving her Aunt Nicole's Barbie dolls as part of her Christmas gifts. My sister collected Barbies and has a great number of expensive collector editions. My dad though did by Chloe a "fishing Barbie" that you can sort of see in the picture on the above right. 2. Anyone else have a Pee Wee Herman doll growing up? He is in great condition other than his pull cord doesn't work. Makes me sad that I can hear him say, " I know you are but what am I." hehe) So those were the original plan.

The new plan includes cubby shelves and cloth baskets. Much much nicer!!! The basket's "hide" some of the toys while the cubbies with no baskets are perfect for her books. I am so excited. The next steps for the play room include some painting. My friend Melissa has "volunteered" to help me paint come colorful shapes on the walls to give the room more of a fun feel instead of blah like the white walls now do. I think we are even going to be putting the color and name of the shape either next to the shape or in the shape. I have lots of paint left over from when we painted the nursery that I am going to use. I am hoping to get this finished before we start working on Chloe's room, but I will not hold my breath. I know we had mentioned doing it before Melissa went back to work form maternity leave as well. We will see.

Dave and I also moved our (well really mine cause Dave uses his laptop more) desktop upstairs so I can start using it more. I mean it is 2 yrs only and I probably only have used it 30 times..lol. I just never go downstairs unless I actually do some laundry. I am also doing some research for someone so I really wanted it up stairs so I can work while Chloe is in her playroom. I still have some things I would like to do, like put up a cork board or some kind of organizational thing on the back wall, but all in all it is what I was wanting. I placed the desk and computer in the closet since we really don't need a closet in the play room. And in the future we already have a desk for the girls when they hit school age, if we are here that long. Dave says he is not going to take the desk out of the closet. It fit but it was a close squeeze. June 10th, I am having the phone line run in the playroom so I can connect to the internet. I can't wait. Any suggestions on how to make this a mini adult area in the midst of kid chaos?

So on top of doing all this in the playroom, I have been working on the front bedroom putting some items on craigslist and going through old clothes of Dave and mine. Today I am actually going to start going through some of Chloe's clothes to pick out what I want to keep and get ride of. We are having a garage sale at my mom's house in the next couple weeks so I want to get ride of lots of stuff. I am getting all the clutter out of out lives cause I know in the next few years we will get more with having 2 girls..lol.

Posts

So tonight I was going to go home and make a couple posts. One would have been about the cool organization in the toy room (with pictures) while another was going to be in general about Chloe. I had so much to type. BUT because of the wonderful storms that we had move through tonight I can't not be at home. There was a fatal accident 2 streets from my house that knocked down power lines. So after driving home to find out we don't have power, Chloe and I are back at my mom's house.

Good News though, Dave will be home around 6 pm tomorrow night!!! I have to work from 3-10 so I will see him after 10.

Boo Boo

Okay, so Monday night we were outside. Chloe was throwing Punkin's ball while Punkin was chasing it. I was on the phone chatting with my aunt that lives in Michigan. I would say for about a good 10 minutes Chloe and Punkin were playing really good. Normally Punkin is lazy and only gets the ball once if twice before laying in the grass to do nothing. Well, Chloe was in the grass and stepped back to get on the drive way (our drive way go around to the back of the house, thus you enter the garage via behind the house). When she stepped back, she caught a rock and fell. My poor aunt hear the horror. I am sure she probably though Chloe was gushing blood and had broken bones. Heck my neighbors might have thought the same. I hang the phone up and pick up Chloe. I ask her what hurts and she doesn't say anything. I check for blood and there was no blood. So we head inside. We sit on the couch and I start taking inventory ( I count her fingers and toes to help calm her and redirect her from being scared of the fall. It also makes her laugh). 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc all her finger and all her toes. I ask her if I need to call the doctor, quickly she responds no, I ask if we need to call daddy at his fishing trip, she says now. I give her limbs a little squeeze to make sure nothing hurts her and we are off to find her blanket. After we get her blanket, we head to the TV room and sit on the couch.

Here is when it starts getting "good.: No I am not trying to be insensitive but my daughter is turning into a TRUE drama queen. I am not saying it didn't hurt but let me just explain.

I look down and notice blood. (Shit what did I miss went through my head). So I once again start taking inventory. I find the source, it is on her right elbow. just a tiny scratch nothing major. I tell her we need to go wash her elbow. BIG MISTAKE! You would have thought her arm was cut off at the elbow (now I know my mom is laugh her butt off thinking "of she just like Cassie"). I get a wash cloth and gently wipe the area then we go and get her a band aid and some neosporin. I get both on and put her down. She seriously walked for the next 3 hours (until bed time) like her arm was in a cast and sling. Then the next morning when we got up, she did the same. And she KNEW that band aid was still there. Everything had a "ow hurts." with it- pants change "ow hurts," getting dressed "ow hurts," playing with her toys "ow hurts." Once again her arm was in a cast and sling. She wouldn't feed herself cause it "hurts." She did nothing. Finally I got tired of it and took the band aid off, and it was a MIRACLE!! Her arm was instantly healed. It truly was a miracle (okay no it wasn't but I would have never thought a band aid would cause that much trouble.

Here is the big bad boo boo that "ow hurts" so much. Can you see it???

disclaimer: No I am really not this insensitive to my child, but if you would have been here I know you would have thought the same thing, drama queen. I know this is only her 2nd boo boo but man oh man (her first occurred when she tripped lat fall over Dave's feet while on the driveway).

Chloe and Genevieve

Okay, so I am about a day behind Melissa on posting this. Sorry! But yesterday Chloe and I visited with Melissa and Genevieve. Well, actually Melissa and I had chiropractor appointments so we just went to hang out at her house afterwards. Chloe always has fun and never wants to leave. Melissa got some great pictures of the girls together. This time they really did "play." We went up in to Genevieve's room (Chloe is obsessed with being up there) and got out some of Genevieve's toys. Even though Genevieve just laid there, Chloe played with blocks and a doll house. It was pretty cute. When Genevieve was laying on her little gym mat (not sure what to call it but it has things that hang down from cloth bars to pat and kick at) Chloe would move the toys around. But of course Chloe was more interested in seeing all of Genevieve's toys.

The picture below I have to tell you alittle bit about it. We were trying to get Genevieve to sit up more with Chloe "holding" her. Well not even a second after Melissa snapped the picture, Genevieve start going down. It was kinda cute, I am not sure Chloe really knew what she was doing when it came to holding her, but just imagine "timber" with a little one slowly falling down. Neither child was injured in the making of these photos but it was sure cute.

The Adult Updates!!

So what has been going on in the adult world in our house, LOTS!! I will start with Dave. Work has been bad for him lately but honestly that isn't anything too new. Jobs are the luck of the draw and well to be truthful, Dave's luck most of the time just isn't that good. But as I type, he is actually on a lake somewhere in Canada fishing. Yes, he is not here. I hope he is having fun. I haven't been able to talk to him since Friday at about 11 pm my time. They were close to the board and the phones don't work up there. He is there until next Saturday for a week full of nothing but fishing and beer. He should catch at least 40+ fish a day, that is how good the fishing is at these lakes. I say "these" lakes because they don't just stay on the main lake by the cabin, they actually move to various lakes in the area to fish. Last week before they left I know my dad called and was told the small mouth were starting to create bed, which in turns means good fishing.

As for me, I have actually started an internship for a local company that deals with weddings. I had my second wedding last night and I LOVE IT! I have so much fun and am learning the ropes of the "behind the scenes" to weddings. This coming week I am even going to be tagging along to a couple prewedding meetings as well as working a wedding on Saturday. I had the privilege to meet the company's owner during the planning of our wedding. I have kept in touch ans was given a great opportunity. I look forward to know what is the next step. And I know I will hopefully be contributing to our fiances as well as being able to still stay at home with the girls. (yes I need to start saying girls, I mean the new little girl will be here in alittle over 15 weeks). So this position is totally ideal for me. Yes, it will take me away on the weekends, but it will not be every weekend. And I will be able to always ask for specific times off. Best of all, our family Florida trip in January/February of each year will not be effected because that is not the busy season. I will easily be able to make sure I have those dates off. As soon as I know exactly what is going on with the company, I will reveal more information about it. But I don't want to jinx myself.

So as I mentioned Dave is in Canada, thus I am getting a taste of single parenthood. And WOW, it sucks. I think anyone who does this is am amazingly strong person. Dave has been gone since Friday evening and with the exception of the 7 hours I worked yesterday, I have had no down time. And my house already is a wreck. I was doing so good at keeping it cleaned (on my own surprisingly). But since Dave isn't hear to give me a break in the evening, I am already exhausted. The tow night I have slept alone seem like someone hits fast forward cause I am not at all rested when Chloe gets up (hmm does this have anything to do with the fact that I am 25w2d pregnant..lol. (Oh and as I am typing this, Chloe is doing laps through the kitchen, dining room, foyer, and sitting room - these 4 rooms make a circle track .)

Okay, so on to a different note. My online friend Trish, who was a week ahead of me, just gave birth to a baby boy (she was about 26 wks 2 days). She ended up developing severe Preeclampsia. They were able to give her doses of medicine to help her baby's development for 45 hr but in turn needed to deliver the baby because she slowly continued to get worse. I have linked her website (via her name) if you would like to read about the details. I am writing this because her baby boy has a long road ahead of him. Even though he is doing good now he still has to battle. So I just wanted to ask when you think of us and our new baby girl, please take the time out to add Trish, David and little Robert in your thoughts as well. Her husband and her truly received a miracle in having Robert. All thoughts and prayers that you can give her family are much needed at this time. Thanks!