Too Fast

I always thought you'd be more sentimental about your first born. That after you went through the milestones with that child it would be easier with your consecutive kids. BOY was I wrong! With my second daughter I am having SUCH a hard time with her growing up! I think with my first I was so excited to do certain things with her I wanted her to grow up quickly. But with #2 I'm dragging my feet, begging her to slow down a little! I'm sure life if just going by faster because I do have a toddler to keep me busy but I think i'm also aware of how much extra work babies are rather than newborns.


I'm trying to force Elaine to not develop. For instance, with Adele (my firstborn) I had her in the bassinet for 6 weeks, I was so excited for her to use her pretty crib in her pretty room that I put her in her crib at 7 weeks old. With Elaine (2nd born) She was in her bassinet for 3.5 months. Even though I'm only SUPPOSED to keep her in it until 3 months.

When Adele was in her crib, her mattress was at the highest level and the side bar was dropped until she was 3 months old. She rolled over once and I dropped that mattress right away. Elaine is 7 months old and has been rolling from tummy to back for 2 months and I just dropped her mattress down this last weekend.

Elaine is the bigger of my babies. Adele was/is always around the 20th percentile. And thats on a good day. She's just tiny and dainty. Elaine is heavier, longer, and has been in the 75th percentile atleast. So even though its giving my arm bruises i'm having a HARD time taking her out of her infant carseat. Adele was 18 lbs at one year. Elaine was 16 1/2 lbs at 6 months. I have a convertible carseat in our garage waiting for her. But I can't bring myself to install it...

With Adele I was SO excited to move on to the next step that she started eating rice cereal at 4 months. She was on table foods by 7 months and she didn't even get her first tooth until she was 14 months. But she was a proficient by then. With Elaine she is almost 7 months and has eaten oatmeal cereal and 3 veggies. I didn't start with solids until she was 6 months. I hate doing it, its a total chore and it makes her more independent of me. I just can't force her to slow down and not grow!!

Does anyone else have a problem like mine? Am I the only demented Mommy out there? Anyone have a secret formula for making time slow down? If you do you can share it with me! I PROMISE I won't tell a soul!

Arrrrrgh!

My sweet little.....girl? Okay so when I was laying on that ultrasound table and found out the wonderful news that I was having my little girl, the LAST thing in my mind was that i'd be playing Pirates with her. Who imagines having a girl and playing pirates? I'd never think that with her princess dresses she'd also insist on having a pirate ensemble.
I do love it though. I love that she's well rounded and not all girly girl. Although she has her girly girl moments, which she probably picked up on from her Mom (ie. irrational fear of spiders). But I love this picture, I took it tonight. She is playing pirates with her Daddy. She is Captain Cook (Hook) and at the moment is chasing her father while he screams like a banshee. Which is quite entertaining to Elaine and I. I'm glad I have a pirate princess daughter, its fun. Who needs boys when you have a little girl thats "Argh" could scare the eyepatch off of an evil pirate. I love her imagination, her energy (most of the time), and her spunky little attitude. I don't think I lived until I had my girls. I don't think I ever knew what true bliss could feel like. I adore my husband, I love his high pitched scream as he's being chased by the scariest 2.5 little pirate girl on earth. Now i'm not so sure I'll be as thrilled when my future little boy insists on being cinderella... 

Literary Love

When I was about 4 years old I remember my mom sitting down with me and taking out a book called "Why Johnny can't read." Its very old school has a picture of a little boy on the cover, picture was probably taken in the late 70's. But I remember this book. When I think back to the earliest book memory I have its this one. My mom was teaching me to read, I remember the lists and memorizing. And I totally loved it. I LOVED to read at a very young age. Then when I hit about 3rd grade I stopped. I went on a reading strike. I read what I HAD to for school but that was it. Then I went into Mr. Carroll's 5th grade class. He was/is an amazing teacher. He loves English, he loves History. He'd read to us after lunch for our quiet time, and you could just tell he had a passion for it. 5th grade is when I realized I really loved English. I loved the books so much, I loved History and all its drama. And I began to read again. If one I had to put one person who is responsible for my love affair with books it would be my Mother. She always encouraged me but never forced it. I remember finding a series I enjoyed when I was in 6th grade. It was called "The Fantastic Five" and it was basically like the babysitters club but more my style. My Mother bought me every single book we could find. And when I fell in love with Anne of Green Gables. She bought me two complete sets. When I was finished with the series we went and bought any L.M. Montgomery book we could get our hands on. I drank it up, I would devour each book. It was/is my passion, to become lost in a well written book. When I started High School I was put in the normal English class. I did have a good teacher, (thank GOODNESS I didn't get some coach who taught English because he HAD to) Mr. Meyer loved English and tried his best to teach us what he could with the kids he had. The kids in my class were total slackers so Mr. Meyer had us read Romeo & Juliet for the ENTIRE SEMESTER. It was sooo boring and a total joke to me. I could read that play in 3 days, not 3 MONTHS. We read it, then we watched the video for a week. I was bored out of my mind so that summer I took the Honors English placement test. You had to take it to get into Honors at my school. I remember getting my test results a month later, I was completely crushed. I hadn't gotten the needed score to get into Honors English. My score was JUST below what I need it to be. I bawled and bawled, my mother tried to console me. My confidence was shot, I felt horrible. I remember telling my mother, "It was the ONE thing I thought I was good at, and i'm not." How that must of broken her heart! It breaks mine thinking back on it. Imagine my surprise when I got my schedule that september and saw I was placed in Honors English! They had some extra spots and the "flunkies" like me were placed in it. I was ESCATIC. I was in a class of my peers. I was actually a little intimidated because these special kids had PASSED the tests. LOL But I got over that and soon became one of the top in my class. And a teachers aide for the years following.
So to get back to my original purpose for this blog. I am SO excited to share my love with my daughter. And I know she has inherited it because the 2 year old can sit for an hour or so each day and just read books. Matthew and I have caughter her up at 2am with her lights on and a pile of books in her bed. She's memorized most of the books we have for her and her face lights up when we go to the library. I'm slowly sharing my favorite books with her, I can't wait until the days when I can read to her about Anne Shirley and Atticus Finch. For now I'm just sharing my childhood books, here are just a few


My entire family LOVES this book. Its one of the books I really enjoy reading because it entertains adults AND kids. Definately a fun read.













This is the first book we bought for Adele when I found out I was pregnant. I think I was only a month or two pregnant but Matthew and I realized we both loved it as children. Its now one of Adele's favorites and she has the thing memorized. I caught her reading it to Elaine.











This is one of the sweetest books. I believe its one of my mothers favorites. Everytime I got to a big city and see a little old house I think of this book. There is a reason its so recognized its wonderful!










I love this book for the simple fact that it makes my husband tear up every time he reads it to Adele. Its a very moving story













A great book that I had never seen until my Mom bought it for Adele when she was a week old. Its our special book and means a lot to me. It has a very simple and special message.

What great timing.

So matthew got me a subscription to Cook's Magazine (the best recipe guys in the world) and it was supposed to be a christmas present. He thought he had sent in the postcard to order it and found it in his jacket pocket in January. LOL
Anyway he sent it in and it finally came! On Valentine's Day. So that was a nice surprise. I told him he had just planned it that way, he's a very smart guy right. :)
I have an obsession with kitchen gadgets. Its a pretty healthy one, I only buy what I NEED. But I seriously will not buy a measuring cup I want for like YEARS. And i mean come on its like $5 but I don't buy it. I'm sure i'll buy it finally and realize its the COOLEST measuring cup ever and makes measuring things SO much better. I haven't bought the cup yet but I can imagine right. LOL
I DID finally breakdown and buy parchment paper. I bought it and a flat nice high quality cookie sheet because I was sick of my cheap stained ones that would bend and contort in the oven heat. It was like $2.99 yet i had been putting off buying it for atleast 5 years. Holy crud! Its wonderful! My cookies come out PERFECTLY. They are stinking delicious. They are so good I have to give them away to people or i'll eat 2 dozen by myself with a gallon of milk. My husband praised my cookies and complained that I had never really pushed the issue of buying parchment paper hard enough and now it would be a staple in our home. So thank you Cook's Illustrated, you have made me a baker. A proud baker of cookies. Nice ramble today huh!

Valentine's

Valentines day is SO much funner with toddlers. And i'm sure it will be fun with older children as well but at the moment all the experience I have is with a 2.5 year old. So it will have to do.

Matthew and I both waited unti the last minute to get our Valentine day gifts. In fact we were fighting over WHO got to take Adele shopping. I won because everyone knows that Mommy's and daughters get Daddy's a Valentine. I mean Matthew is Adele's valentine until she is married, and Visa Versa. So Matthew had to go shopping for me and his little valentines by hisself.
It was way fun, Adele picked out the bawwoons for her Daddy and had a great time watching them fly through the air while I shopped for our Valentine dinner and dessert. We picked out candy that we thought he'd like and she INSISTED any candy must be in the form of a heart. I laughed as I saw husbands and boyfriends rifling through the single flowers, trying to make the cheapest arrangement possible and have it still look like they spent a decent amount of money. I helped a couple guys out, I mean I hope somewhere out there is a woman that is happy she didn't get 3 bushels of babys breath and a daisy in the middle. Your welcome.

This morning I woke up with the girls to a box of fresh donuts Daddy had gotten for us before he left for work. Adele was delirious with joy. She kept saying in this deep silly voice "Daddy got me DOOONUUTTTSS!" It was better than Christmas. Then I got us all dressed up and pretty in our Valentine Day outfits (we had plenty to choose from since pink is a necessity for a house with two little girls in it) See Adele's outfit above. And we went to Matthews office to give him his balloons and candy. I arrived early so I could show off my beautiful daughters. I was rewarded with the proper amount of ooooh's & aaahhhh's. I was told many times what pretty little girls I have and how nice they look. I took full credit of course.

Adele saw her daddy and RAN saying "Look what I havvvee!" In another very silly voice (not sure where she gets the silly voices...) She was so excited to give him his present, I think because she knew there was candy inside the bag and he'd probably share. Then Daddy took us out to lunch and he made sure the girls were happy so Mommy could eat her meal at a somewhat normal pace.

Now we are home, and the girls are sleeping. I'm excitingly making our yummy dessert and reading up on the best way to cook a steak so dinner will be perfect. Adele, Elaine and I will be receiving our gifts from Daddy when he gets home tonight. But ya know, I think I have all the gifts i'll ever need sleeping in their beds upstairs.

New Experiences

I remember when I was a little girl and my Mom used to make playdoh for me. This wasn't the store bought playdoh this is the homemade edible made-with-love playdoh. It didn't smell nasty it didn't taste too bad...maybe a little salty. But nice and kid safe. It was a ton of fun and my friends were jealous of my Mother's natural talent.
But you see i'm not the kind of mom that is into cleaning up huge messes at the moment. I'm sure when my daughter is older I will make playdoh. But since she is only 2.5 and gets bored with things like that after an hour or so i've chosen to go the quicker route. We had a nice art experiment with shaving cream. It was pretty funny to watch since she doesn't really like to get messy, and because her mommy frowns on messiness (I HATE sticky hands & faces). But she slowly let herself go and enjoyed the experience. I put a glob of the stuff on a baking sheet and put a few drops of food coloring on the stuff for her to mix in at her disgression. It was actually a ton of fun and she loved the freedom of becoming messy as her mom encouraged her. Plus she learned a new word.... Squishy. 

I was tagged by Rachelle.

Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

1) ScienceWoman
l2) ProfessorMe
3) Musicalmom
4) Teacher going Mad
5) Sarasalwaysright

Next select five people to tag:
1) Meadow
2) Tara
3) Mommy
4) Stephanie
5) Emily

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago I was almost 16 (rachelle your old woman) And I was madly in love with Elder Couch. I was playing volleyball for my H.S. and hated my mean nazi coach. Who I still to this day have very bad feelings towards. I was also started my FAVORITE class, Honors English with my fav. english teacher Mrs. Anger. Oh and I was dying to be 16 and be able to date.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

I was pregnant with Elaine and counting down the days until I got to find out what sex she was. I thought she might be a boy but turns out I make really cute girls! And I was also dealing with a very independent 1 and a half year old.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Strawberry jellow with pineapple. (trying to be more healthy)
2. Matthews homemade salsa
3. Glazed Donuts
4. Snickers (frozen)
5. See's Candy! (nuts and chews baby!)

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:

1. A whole new world (love ya Denise!)
2. The "Ariel" song
3. Adele's entire Mermaid singalong song video & Sesame Street Karaoke.
4. Most 80's & 90's songs (thanks shauna!)
5. Entire Flood CD (they might be giants) Entire (No, means No CD, also TMBG)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Start an infertility grant program
2. Definately help my fav. bro's and sisters (LOL) Oh mom and dad too
3. Buy a ranch with horses and people to take care of said horses
4. Hire a professional decorator
5. Hire a maid, massuese, gardner, part time chef, & trainer

Five bad habits:

1. losing my temper
2. talking too much
3. being lazy
4. being sarcastic
5. eating too much

Five things you like doing:

1. Reading
2. playing with my girls
3. Spending time with Matthew
4. IM'ing
5. My mom reads this so i can't post it

Five things you would never wear again:

1. My orange and yellow pants with matching vest
2. Skirts I wore before i was married (too short)
3. SIZE 18 pants!
4. Stirrup pants
5. side ponytail

Five favorite toys:

1. Internet baby!
2. Palm Pilot
3. MP3 player (if i get one for my bday!)
4. Adele's Ariel barbie
5. Does Credit Card count?

Artists

Had to share my 2 year olds drawing. I of course think she is a prodigy artist. She drew the "mermaid" on the left side there. I was so impressed I had to take a picture. A month ago she drew her first "picture" of a shark. It was basically a circle with a point on one side. And a happy face.
She's obsessed with the feelings "happy, sad, and mad." This morning she spent almost an hour in the timeout corner because she wasn't ready to be happy. She kept saying she was happy through tears, i'd let her up and she'd say "Stop it Mom, i'm MAD!" And then of course i'd send her right back to her lovely corner. Its great raising a toddler. I think her bedroom is magical. Seriously I love her room. After our fun morning I was done and told her she needed a nap (4 hours early) and I put her in her room kicking and screaming. 30 min later I opened the door to a happy sweet loving little girl. How awesome is that! Its my new best friend that room. Put in a stink, get a sweetie out! I think i'll have to use it MUCH more often. I wonder if I can make money off of it.......bring over your kid! I'll throw them in the room and out comes an angel!