Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!

At 1 year, Sweet Pea weighs 20 pounds, half an ounce and is 30.25 inches tall.

Current Skills: Walking (11.5 months), knows cow and dog sounds, tries to do itsy bitsy spider and touches her head for Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  Calls her sister Ge Ge, which is different than Da Da.  Rarely says mama anymore.  :-(  Loves Sesame Street, eats really well.  Switched full time to milk in cups a week before her birthday.

We will be following the recommendation of the AAP and keeping her in a rear facing car seat until she reaches the height/weight limit for the seat.  If you want to know why, check out this information.  There are also some very heart wrenching video's on Youtube if you can handle it. 

Yummy Chocolate Cupcake:

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

One year ago today...

... I was baking cookies for hubby to take to work (they would never make it there). 
... I was at an appointment with my midwife.
... I was watching House.
... It was raining (just like today).
... I went into labor

One year ago tomorrow...we met Sweet Pea.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Footloose and Bottle Free!

Aside from being on the verge of running, Sweet Pea is now free in another sense.  She is bottle free.  She happily drinks regular milk from a cup now, so all of the bottles found their way to the trash this morning.  Yay!  One week until her 1st Bithday!

Monday, September 20, 2010

'Tis the Season for Apple Picking

Fall is, by far, my favorite season.  The smells, the colors, the crispness in the air.  Love everything about it.

Last weekend we went apple picking.  Fun was had by all and we are stuffing ourselves full of apples.






So, the animals may have gotten a little aggressive and took the food cup from Mini Me.  Whoops!


Sweet Pea showing off her new walking ability by stumbling around the farm

Almost a good family shot on the horse drawn hayride

Friday, September 10, 2010

What a difference a day makes

The other day when I posted the video of Sweet Pea taking those handful of unsteady steps, I thought I might still have a couple of weeks before she really became a toddler.  After all, she had been taking 1-2 steps here and there for several weeks.

Alas, that was not the case.  Yesterday, she decided that walking was better than crawling.  She is still unsteady and has no navigational ability...she just walks until she bumps into something or falls.  However, she chooses to start out by walking (even if she falls and crawls the rest of the way) to wherever she is going.

So, at this point, I think we officially have a toddler on our hands. 

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

One foot in front of the other

Crawling is still by far the preferred method of transportation for Sweet Pea, but that's slowly beginning to change. 

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Elmo, and Cookie, and Ernie, Oh My!

It's that time of year again, where I go on and on about our annual trip to Sesame Place.

Elmo fever started the minute we walked into the hotel.  Elmo was plastered everywhere (Ironically, though, they did not carry the TV channel that has Sesame Street.  Um, hello?  What are we supposed to do when the kids are up at 5 am and the park doesn't open until 10???).  And, in the mornings after breakfast, they had an air brush artist (read: 14 year old with an air brush thing and a stencil) to do temporary tattoo things on the kids.  So, armed with our Elmo ta too, we headed out the door.

The very first thing we did when we walked into the park was hit the roller coaster...because Mini Me wanted to.  Seriously.  So, we went.  She did not scream, but I have no idea if she liked it or not.  I was holding on to her for dear life with my eyes closed.  It really isn't a bad ride, it just took me a bit by surprise because it's a little more of a "thrill" ride than I was expecting at Sesame Place. 

We hit a few more rides and such, but it started to get VERY crowded.  It was in the mid-90's, local schools hadn't started yet, and half of their staffing had headed back to college.  So, yeah.  It would be nice if they could do a bit more crowd control.  Some of the water rides/pools got shut down for various reasons (poop-EWWWWWW and an injury) so that didn't help matters any.  There was certainly a bit of over stimulation and much whining most of the day.  We certainly learned that a vacation like this with 2 kids is drastically different than with one.  And, the last time we went, we spent most of the time in the pool or at the shows.  This time, only 2 shows and most of the time on the rides...or, more accurately, waiting in line for the rides.

The potty was a huge issue because Mini Me is terrified of automatic flush toilets.  And, loud noises.  So, crowded public bathrooms are a nightmare for her.  Which results in her crying, screaming and most importantly, not peeing.  That's bad enough, but after waiting in line for a  ride for 20 minutes, to have her say she needs to go, get out of line, refuse to go, get back in line, wait more, says she has to go, gets out of line, goes, gets back in line, then has to poop.  LOL  Hubby and Mini Me spent the better part of an hour and 4 different attempts to get on the bounce house.  It was insane.

Day 2 started out much better.  We had breakfast with Elmo and the gang.  It's always a good time and worth every penny in our opinion.  It was less crowded, got Sweet Pea out of the stroller more.  Lines were shorter.  Place was cleaner.  We went to see the Elmo's World Live show and Sweet Pea got to be in the show!!!  There's a part of the show, just like on TV, where Elmo talks to a baby, and Sweet Pea got to be the baby.  SHE LOVED IT.  Turns out, she is a HUGE Elmo fan, and really LOVES all of the characters.  It was awesome and funny.  On the other hand, I think it caused some hard feelings on Mini Me's part.  I mean, she is really the whole reason we were there, and on several occasions, the characters barely acknowledged her after they saw how excited Sweet Pea was to see them.  That sucked.  Also, later in the afternoon, Season Pass members got to bring friends for free, so it got super busy again.  Then we all started to melt down and so we went to the hotel for an early night in. 

Although, the positive side of the day was really realizing how much money the season pass was saving us.  When you buy the souvenir cups, not only do you get a discount on them, but you get discounted refills.  In our case, most of the time, we had then refill with water, because it was free.  That was awesome.  Also, on meals and toys...huge discounts.

Day 3 was by far the best.  Not only was it my birthday, but it was our favorite day at the park.  After waiting in lines for 2 days, I was done.  So, I sprang for the Magic Queue wrist bands for me and Mini Me.  That got us line jumping privileges on all the dry rides and the lazy river.  Also, I decided that instead of prying the exhausted children away from the park for a nice birthday dinner where they would cry, melt down, and drive me insane at a restaurant, that we would have dinner with the Street gang there at the park then catch the parade.  It was a near perfect day.  We were able to just hop on rides when we wanted, and Mini Me got first pick.  She had wanted to get on a specific tea cup for 2 days, and finally since we could get on the rides first, she got it.  Again, totally worth every penny in my opinion.  We went on the Lazy river several times, the tea cups, the carousel, Ernie's Water Works, and met some characters.  It was a great day without meltdowns. 

Then we had dinner with the gang.  It was going well.  Even Sweet Pea who was beyond exhausted perked up because of the characters and was completely happy.  Then, it happened.  Mini Me said her tummy hurt.  She got the look, and hubby got out of the way just in time before she spewed her hot dog.  Ugh!  Fortunately, it wasn't a huge mess and we contained it, cleaned up and all was good in a matter of minutes and on with the fun! (Really, what is with her and the puking on vacation?  She hasn't puked this much in her entire life as she has this summer)

Then, we headed outside to watch the parade.  It really was the perfect ending and a near perfect day.

*Pictures coming as soon as I get them uploaded*

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Big 3-0

Today, I turn 30.  I'm not really freaking out about that.  After all, I've been married for 5 years, I have 2 kids, a dog, and a house is in the works for spring.  So, why shouldn't I be 30? 

To be fair, I had a hard time with turning 25.  That sucked.  But, that was so 5 years ago.  :-)

And, since becoming a mother, my whole perspective on birthdays has changed.  It is not my birthday that means anything to me, but those of my children.  For me, celebrating a year in their life, really is celebrating a year in mine.  Remembering so vividly the day they were born, thinking about how much they have changed in the past year and how much they have changed me. 

So, today, 30 years since the day I was born, instead of celebrating me, I want to say 'I love you' to my mom and dad.  Thank you for 30 years of your love and support.

(Oh, and just because I'm 'ok' with 30....we're still gonna call next year 29+2, mkay?)