wow, it has been a while!

wow, i haven't posted in a really. long. time!  it's not a coincidence that the pause in posting occurred at the same time that i a) started a (great) new job and b) the A monster is displaying record levels of energy.  we're having a blast together all the time, but MAN does she keep us busy.  i don't have anything deep or profound to say here because i can tell that she's about to wake up from her nap -- but i wanted to get some pics up for anyone who has been checking!

our life is really full right now, but mostly it's full of great stuff...i just don't often have the opportunity to sit down at my computer (which is a shame, because i miss photo-editing!).  all of these pics are SOOC (straight out-of-camera) -- maybe someday i'll be able to play around with them.  :)

oh, and also?  she's 20 months old.  TWENTY.  like, in four months she'll be TWO.  oh to the em to the gee.

alright, first up...aubrey cheering for the jets in the playoff game.  (she's thinking "mom, are you seriously going to take pictures while daisy eats my ET?!?")

next up?  this is the awesomeness that happens when i leave her with daddy while i get a pedi:

here are my two faves in the reflection of the piggy bank.  (can you see 'em?)  she thinks it is hiLARious how her face gets distorted in the mirrored image.  seriously, she cracks up.  it's awesome.

next pic:  i just think she looks cute here.  you know how sometimes you'll look at a pic and you see a glimpse of what you think they'll look like when they're older?  yeah, THAT.

another from the same day:  (& i think i like putting tutus on her because i think it's funny when she says "mommy, please no tutu...no tutu..."  heh.)

this is her overly dramatic response to my suggestion of "honeybear, do you want to lay down and take a picture next to your baby?"...

fun with sunglasses after being snowed in for like a month:

daddy's little helper:

she cracks herself up wearing my shoes:

a personal fave...this is what she does when you ask for 'blue steel'  (a la zoolander):

and another personal fave...she is constantly asking for "one more" but she uses the most serious, subdued voice...she's already learning how to manipulate us.

and last but not least, my casual little lady (based on body language, she looks like a teenager here...NOOOOOOOO!):

i hope that isn't too much of an overload!  she actually just woke up so i'm going to get her for an afternoon snuggle...but as you can see, we've been having fun!

ahh, play doh. thank you!

we have a new obsession...play doh.  it dries tears, cures tantrums, and stays under her nails for days.  we love our play doh.  or, as A says it, play doze.

and also, here are some cute pics from the week.  she spent a lot of time in pjs, played in the snow (she has a love/hate relationship with it), smooched her baby kinda-cousin, and rocked another family pizza night.  she is so silly, fun, and in the midst of toddlerhood...which we adore.

yet another magic moment

this morning, she found her shadow.  and yes, she was a bit afraid of it.  :)

the joys of toddlerhood

can you imagine a world where everything - everything - is new to you?  that's the magic of toddlerhood.  everything is SO exciting, from the snow boots that she wants to wear every day to learning how to say "excuse me" (sounds more like noomie, but she'll get there!).  this weekend was her first time playing in the snow, and we had many moments of "MOOOOOMMMMMMYYY!" because she fell and...well...she couldn't get up.  here are a few pics:

first, the bundled pics.  she tolerated this better than i thought she would (probably because she was wearing the magic boots)...the mittens were HUGE on her, but that's alright...she was warm!

and here she is outside.  i swear, i was out there playing with her for a while in my oh-so-flattering snow pants, but these were taken from the comfort of my kitchen while i sipped hot cider.  (that's why the color looks weird -- i was shooting them through the sliding glass door.)  anyway:

we hope you were safe in the snow...and get ready for another few inches!  hopefully we'll be able to make a snowman this time!

a very merry christmas!

so, i'm a bit late posting this...but that's the story of my life!  the last two weeks of december were the busiest of the year, with parties, presents, etc...but it was all good stuff (except for the last day of the vacation where i spent it in the ER, but that's neither here nor there).  we had a blast, and seeing her excitement over santa and the abominable snow monster were probably the highlights of the month.  


she was very excited, and kept saying "more presents open???" whenever her present pile was depleted.  it was magic.  :)  


here are a few pics.


first, the poor snow monster.  this is the ornament that we picked out for her because she is in love with this guy, and we thought it was wood (read: unbreakable).  turns out that he's plastic, and he was dropped onto the hardwood floor.  he lost his face...but she still loves him!  i don't think she even noticed!

here she is on christmas eve, with her beloved snow monster.  (before the accident)

and here are some shots from christmas morning.  she LOVED her tunnel, and i got some great smiley shots of her!  (rest assured, my man was also wearing plaid pjs.  in fact, my mom got plaid pjs for the entire fam...it was a theme!)

and santa didn't forget about daisy!  she got a supposedly indestructible chew toy -- the toughest that the make (read: $40!!!).  there's some truth to that, though...she still hasn't killed it!  we usually can't find toys to last longer than 5 minutes.

and here we are, dressed in real clothes on christmas day!  we had SUCH a good time!  great food, great family, lots of laughs, and no drama.  a perfect holiday.  yay!

we hope that you had a great holiday, too!  

a girlie girl...

without a doubt, this child has some of the craziest hair that i've seen on a little girl.  it just all grows straight forward -- it doesn't part anywhere like most hair.  hair clips are, therefore, a MUST...otherwise she can't see anything and she starts falling all over.  every time we need to put in a hair tie, it's a battle royale.  she hates it.  

or should i say, she hated it.  i'm wondering if we've turned a corner, because miss thang has a new appreciation for her hair accessories and wanted to wear every. single. one when we were playing the other day.  she was miss serious the entire time...didn't crack a smile.  i guess it was very important to her to have every hair band, tie, and clip nestled somewhere in her blonde hair.

pleaseohpleaseohplease let this be a new phase!  we fight through every diaper and outfit change, and i feel like i deserve a little relief when it comes to dressing this child.  

seriously?

calling all children's clothing designers...  seriously???  sleeveless holiday dresses for toddlers?  sure, they're cute...but i'm not subjecting my kid to hypothermia just to make her extra-special cute for christmas.  why aren't there any cute dresses / outfits WITH SLEEVES!?!?!?!

ugh.  so frustrated.  i just took my lunch break to run through the mall looking for something cute, and it's all basically summerwear...except it's red.  not cool!

& i'm not a turtleneck lover, so i'm not just buying her a red summer dress and throwing a turtleneck underneath.  this is crazy -- i've wasted entirely too much time on this already!

(& yes, i'm picky.  why do you ask?)

a teething toddler

we had a fun weekend, for the most part.  but man, she made us work for it!  she's teething pretty hard right now, and she's just. so. cranky.  this pic was snapped while she was raging because i had the nerve to pick her up and put her in the awesome leaf pile.  she was totally thrilled 0.3 seconds after this pic, but her initial instinct was to rage at me.  gotta love it.  she drove me to tears at one point because she was such a challenge, but my patience has found new limits and we're all a-ok.

finally, a smile captured on film!

there's nothing like a toddler in a leaf pile to make leaf raking more fun!  (not that i would know anything about the 'chore'...i took pics and played with A while the hubs did ALL the raking.  thanks babe!)

can't help myself

this picture is old.  it's from april, & she was still two months shy of her first birthday.  i absolutely love it -- it stops time for me, and looking at it helps me deal with her screaming fits. 

poor daisy!

On Saturday, we brought Daisy to a 3-week board & train program so that she can learn some of the basics (like walking nicely on a leash, being calm, and not jumping on people when they come over).  We heard about this trainer from some friends who were THRILLED with the results…and their dog is awesome.  So we’re super excited to pick her up in a few weeks and see what she has learned.  I texted her trainer yesterday to see how she’s doing, and he replied that she misses us and has lost her appetite as a result.  Honestly, I feel SO bad.  She probably thinks that we gave her away and she’s all depressed.  I’m going to check in again today and see if she has eaten yet, but ugh!  We just want to train her to unleash (haha) her potential…but I hate that she’s all down in the dumps.  Poor Daisy!  I’m sure that she’ll be ok eventually because he’ll be taking her on tons of walks and playing with her, etc…but man, the guilt.

Oh, and the A monster misses Daisy like crazy too.  As soon as she wakes up she starts calling for her, and on Sunday she was walking through the house looking in each room saying “DAISY???...no.”  (In case that didn’t make sense…she said ‘no’ when she realized that Daisy wasn’t there...)

This is probably a good thing for all of us, because we get to see how much we like being a little family of 3+1.

welcome to our new home!

thanks for following us over here!  hopefully this site will be easier for me to use... i know it seems like i haven't been writing, but that's because i've been trying to launch this new site.  i hope you all like it...and please feel free to leave feedback if there is something that i can improve!


there are still TONS of things that i want to do to customize this site and make it mine, but for now, i think it's fine.


happy monday, y'all!

trick or treat

so, given her obsession, the costume choice for halloween 2010 was actually pretty easy.  ELMO.  she loved the costume to pieces and was asking to wear it every day for the last few weeks, although she was miss serious as soon as we zipped it up.  she loved picking out the candy and putting it in her plastic pumpkin, although her uncorrupted mind still doesn’t know what candy is...  so, essentially she walked around in her beloved elmo costume and chose candy for my hubs and i to eat for the next week or so.  

we had a blast!  happy halloween, everyone!

getting ready.  we go through this fight pretty much every time we need to change diapers/fix hair/get dressed.  daisy looks happy, though!

she really looked like elmo!

pun-KIN! (that's how she says it)

boo!