I took Kaelin to the library yesterday for story time, only to find that there is no story time until June. Go figure, that's what I get for passing on story time the last few weeks. So we hung out there for a bit then went over to the park. Kaelin played on the jungle gym for a few minutes then we went and checked out the turtle pond. There was only one lonely little turtle out. We went and checked out the fountain but the water looked pretty gross so I made her stay away from it. When it was time to leave I had to drag her to the car kicking and screaming.

It's still wierd for me to go to that park. That's where Grandpa Jack officiated numerous weddings (2 of which I was in the party for), held the Sunrise Service every Easter and led many other events through out the years. I still think about him and how much he loved that park every time we go. I really think we should find out how to donate a bench or something in his name for the gazebo. He was such a huge part of that park's history. It's sad for me to think that in the past few years I have gone from having 3 sets of grandparents to only one. I really hope that they make it until August so they can meet Kaelin when we go up for Jake's wedding. Not that either of them are ill or anything but you never know what can happen.

Kaelin's independant streak is getting worse. She's so intent on doing everything herself and often refuses help. Mom said today that she is exactly how I was at this age. Hopefully that means she'll potty train herself like I did too! Nah, that would be too much to ask for. She frustrates me sometimes because she's never content to sit quietly while I do something. Like she won't sit in the basket at the store while I shop. She constantly has to be entertained and wants to see and touch everything. So then I either spend my time running after her and cleaning up her mess, or we leave the store and I don't get my errands done. I'm hoping this is further evidence that she is smart and her mind is constantly craving knowledge. In the meantime it means she gets more spankings then I like. In June we're going to take a Mommy and Me class at the studio. Depending on how that goes I may find more structured activities like that for her to get into next year. When we were at the library yesterday a lady asked me if she was small for her age. I told her that she was almost 2 but only in the 5th percentile for her size. She told me she figured she was either small for her age or had very advanced verbal skills. She speaks such clear and complex sentances that it blows my mind. I was expecting her to be speaking 3 word sentances or whatever, but instead she says things like "I want to wear that shirt to Grammy's house today". She likes to tell me the color and types of cars we pass on the road and in the parking lots also. "There's a blue truck Mommy....oh, there's a red car and a big van". And of course, her most used sentance these days is "I'm sorry Mommy, I didn't mean to do it" or right when she's about to get her booty blistered she'll say "I love you too Momma".

Terrible 2s + teething + learning about independance = 1 frustrated Mommy

I have been telling Mike that Kaelin is going through the "terrible twos" for quite awhile now. Throws herself on the floor over not getting to wear exactly the shirt she wants to wear (even though she refuses to decide when given the choice), fighting nap time, not listening to me in public, etc. Today she proved me right. I had to run to Hobby Lobby to see what colors of 1.5 inch ribbon they stock for an order I got for some bows. While we were there Kae refused to sit in the cart, wouldn't walk holding my hand, pulled everything off the shelves, ran away from me, and threw one hell of a fit when I had to spank her for being bad. If I grabbed her hand to make her walk with me she'd yell "my ARM! Mommy hurting me!" Add that to the bandaids covering her right hand (from the burn) and down her leg (making a fashion statement) I'm sure I looked like a great mother. In my defense I picked up everything she destroyed and left the store in pretty decent shape. I had to give her some tylenol this morning because she has more teeth coming in, so I'm sure that didn't help any. Plus, she's learning what it's like to be independant. She threw a fir in the car because she wanted to change her shoes. Fine, I handed her the other ones. Then she couldn't get the sandals buckled so I had to try to help her. BUt then she would get frustrated because she couldn't get it on her own. I had to fight screaming out of frustration because I know she is frustrated too and it wouldn't help for her to see me break down. I just tried to gently remind her that buckling shoes is hard and sometimes even big girls need help. She wants to do so many things by herself now and forgets she's only 22 months old. She's a bit stubborn like her mom though.

My mom tells me that when I was little my favorite thing to say was "I can if I can" meaning I should be allowed to do anything I was physically capable of. Well, Kaelin is starting to have the same kind of attitude. Yesterday we were swimming and Kae wanted to sit in her chair on the deck. She tried to drag it over to the other side of the ladder and Mike told her she couldn't sit there because she could fall off the side of the deck. So she proceeded to sit down in her chair and put her feet up on the higher part of the deck and tell Mike "I sit in my chair Daddy". My mom looked at me and started laughing. Yeah, I'm in for it, I know. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's just a phase and she'll outgrow it (right??). All I have to do is keep my cool and try to survive the next few years. Then I can send her to her room when I need to!

Kaelin's first slumber party

Kaelin has been asking when we were going to pick up Carissa again. So Friday we picked her up from school and had her spend the night. Kaelin had a blast! We went swimming, colored, played dress up, watched movies and ate popcorn. Kaelin didn't take her nap before we picked Rissa up so she was pretty grumpy. She was so excited about having copany that she fought her nap all afternoon and didn't crash until we drove to get dinner and movies. The girls shared spaghetti and watched The Jungle Book before finally crashing at 11. I got up Saturday morning and made us all pancakes for breakfast. We took the girls outside and let them color the driveway and sidewalks with chalk. That gave me the oppurtunity to pull some weeds from the front garden and Mike trimmed the bushes in front of the house. I didn't get to take as many pics as I wanted, but here's a few of the girls.


Sharing the headphones to the iPod in the car
Playing in the tub after swimming in the pool

Random thoughts

Not much has been going on around here. Kaelin's hand is healing nicely. In fact, she's using it as a way to get new band-aids every day. I had to cover her legs with them today because she was convinced she needed more! Silly girl! Mike is getting over a stomach bug. He missed Monday and Tuesday from work. But he's feeling better and neither Kaelin or I got it. I decided since there isn't much to write about, I decided to post a few random thoughts.

1. I love the smell of fresh chopped onions and how it stays on my fingers.
2. I take longer showers then I need to. I often find myself just standing under the hot water in an absolute daze.
3. I have a fairly good photographic memory. It drives me nuts sometimes that I can't get little details out of my mind.
4. I consider myself a good cook. Mike may have a different opinion, I don't know.
5. I am in love with the Ellen Degeneres show!
6. Kaelin is my world, but I can't wait until she goes to sleep most days so I can relax.
7. I secretly want to be nominated for What Not To Wear so I can get a whole new wardrobe.
8. I hate Rachel Ray and Guy Fierri. There voices drive me bonkers!
9. I am painfully shy but when I get nervous I talk too much.
10. I have a huge problem with organization. No matter how hard I try, I always have a junk pile somewhere.
11. I wish I had a career in medicine.
12. I have a thirst for knowledge. I love to learn new things and all the details on how things are done.
13. I am not afraid of pet snakes or mice. I had both as a kid.
14. I am in serious need of a decorator for my house. I am failing miserably at it!
15. I have a home phone but rarely answer it.
16. I love crafting and I can remake just about anything I see.
17. I love to watch shows about dance.
18. Once I pick up a good book I often finish it in less then 2 days.
19. I love to swim, but I hate getting in a bathing suit.
20. I am embaressed by how pale my skin is.
21. I hate feet. My friends used to torment me about this in high school.
22. I loved being pregnant and often consider being a surrogate someday so I could finally get paid for what I really love.
23. I think that my daughter has the sweetest voice in the world and I love hearing her say "I love you too Momma"!
24. I am a huge romantic. The sappier things are the better. My husband does not feel the same way, unfortunately.
25. I miss my pre baby abs.
26. I am secretly glad I had an emergency c-section. I was very nervous about pushing with a room full of people.
27. I am very modest.
28. I rarely take the time,or money, to do nice things for myself. Even when I spend money on my hobby it gets given away to other people.
29. I love reading cakewrecks.blogspot.com. I think it is the funniest blog!
30. I wish I could write better. I have alot to say and very rarely find the right words to say it with.
31. I care way too much about what other people think of me.
32. I don't always believe my husband when he says he thinks I'm beautiful.
33. I cry easily.
34. I wish I was still flexible.
35. I do not, nor have I ever, watched The Bachelor.

Beautiful

Kaelin has been a mess of tantrums all day long. Impossible to please. After throwing a monstrous tantrum tonight, I dragged her off to her room determined to put her to bed. Within minutes of getting her in the rocking chair, she was crashed. I knew she was tired and so glad I forced her into sleep. I got to thinking about how she is still up so many times a night and how discouraging that is to me. But then I saw something absolutely beautiful- my little girl in all her perfection, looking like an absolute angel. So I guess my silver lining in all her sleep problems is that I get to witness something as beautiful as a sleeping angel multiple times a night. Ahhhh, small things like that keep me going when it gets unbearable.

Strawberry Picking Day!!

I'm so excited, we're going to Froberg's Farm in Alving for strawberry picking today! I've been wanting to do this since I heard about it last year. I really think Kaelin is going to have fun, she loves picking things and strawberries. I'm taking both cameras so I should have some good pictures and videos to post!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had so much fun! The field of strawberries was huge and had some great berries. Not to mention, they were under $2 a pound! We each took a bucket and pretty much filled them up in one row. Kaelin ate as many berries as she put in the bucket! I definately need to find some more strawberry recipes. We'll definately have strawberry salad tonight. Here's a few pics I was able to take, it was so bright it was hard to get any good ones.

Picking berries

The loot

Eating a berry



Miss Abigail


Carrying her bucket

She had to play in the dirt

What a hectic day

Today was a good day, but hectic. Kaelin and I decided to try the new Color Wonder fingerpaint set we bought last night. I was expecting it to be more of a solid gel (like Carmex) but it is more of a snotty substance. Kaelin kept dipping in and getting huge globs to paint with. But overall it was fun. Daddy has a new piece of "art" to take to work and display. :)

I had to take the car to Discount Tire because the back right tire has been running low. I dropped it off and walked across the street to get us some lunch at McDonald's. The guy from DT came over and told me the tire was trashed because there was a nail in the sidewall of the tire. Dammit! Those are new tires with less than 8000 miles on them. So I forked over $180 for a new tire, after I had already paid $25 to get the tires rotated also. I could have sworn I saw paperwork in the glove box when we bought the car for a warranty at NTB, but it wasn't in there when I looked. It wasn't too bad of a trip though because they had most of the work done by the time we got back from lunch and it only took about 10 minutes to get the new tire on. Kaelin ran around playing peek a boo around the tire displays, giving me mini heart attacks.

I stopped at CVS to get Mike some shampoo since I had Extra Reward Bucks to spend. His shampoo was on sale plus I got $5 more in Extra Bucks. I love when that happens! Kaelin latched on to a pair of red Mickey Mouse sunglasses and wouldn't let go of them. So she now is the proud owner of 1 million and one pairs of sunglasses. Whatever. It kept her from continuing to pull everything off of the shelves. Our trip into Krogers was a bit better. I was able to keep her in the cart for all of about 5 minutes. But atleast I didn't get a huge fit, so that was nice.

I have had BBQ chicken in the oven for the last few hours and it smells so good! I'm going to make fresh corn on the cob to go with it. When I make a menu and a good grocery list I can stick to cooking every night. Then Mike has lunch for work each day and doesn't have to buy anything. But when we run low in groceries, I totally slack on cooking and we eat late each night. I much more prefer to an early, delicious, dinner to take out any day.