My Toddler has a Sense of Humor! *gasp*

Who knew raising a kid could be this fun? lol I'm cracking up daily at the antics of my now 18-month-old daughter, Emma. She's got the funniest sense of humor! It's a joy to watch that develop in her, see her becoming her own little person. Okay, so maybe she's always been her own little person. You don't realize that they already are in the womb, lol. Did she think it was funny to kick my ribs black and blue for the entire last half of my pregnancy AND while I was in labor? Probably.

Putting together her mini kitchen. (Review and giveaway to come!)

Oh, she is so my child.

Yup, unmistakably.

If you have a moment, leave a comment -
It'll make me jump up and down for joy! :-)

Sand, Wet Diapers, and Unrealistic Expectations...

I've been sick all week. It stinks. Especially since I'm still in training for my MT job right now. It's going really well, though. My new boss is really happy with me - she said I was a rock star! *beaming* If only you could have seen my head swelling... ;-)

I have all these plans in my head... now that I have a job working less hours (for more money, yippee!) I can keep my house pristine and smelling glorious, I can cook five-course meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I can be perfect and beautiful for my husband when he comes home from work.

Reality check!

Yeah, that dream was pretty much blown out of the water. I still don't have time for all of that! Not to mention energy. It's a full-time job just trying to keep up with my little hurricane girl. I will have more time to cook, clean, and keep things nice, but only within reason.

Too bad. I guess I'm not Lucille Ball - the perfect housewife.


Maybe if I had the apron? ;-)

*runs off to enter apron giveaways*

Kidding. I would never wear an apron. My mother-in-law made me an awesome one once and it hung in my closet, looking like something I should wear... but I just didn't think of it! And I guess I just didn't cook that much. Someday, though...

Anyway, I wanted to share some photos of Emma at the park - her first exposure to saaaaand.

Oooh, I felt your shudders! Wet diapers, drooly babies, and sand. Not a good combination, right? But it actually went well. She didn't even try to eat it!

At first she wasn't sure what to think...

Dirt! Aiiieee!
Quick, wash it off, mommy!

Wait, did I say she didn't try to eat it? I guess she did. Actually it was just a taste. And she didn't like it, lol.

But it started growing on her...

And finally, a smile!

Altogether a good experience. :-)

Ta-ta for now!

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The Blooming Personality of a Precocious One-Year-Old...

Finally catching her blooming personality in photos...

She's what I call a funny bunny. :-)

See more Wordless Wednesday entries at 5 Minutes for Mom and MomDot!

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No wonder I can never find any pacifiers...

No wonder I'm forever looking for pacifiers!

I thought the borrowers had taken them...

Yes, that is a pacifier tucked into the speaker. No, I didn't do it. LOL

My daughter, the pacifier-hider.

Maybe she doesn't really want them anymore? Yeah right.

She always sucks on them sideways like that. If I straighten it, she spits it out, lol.


♥ Share Your Thoughts ♥

When and how did you wean your children from the pacifier?

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I Heart Faces ♥ Hats

To see more wonderful faces and add yours to Mr. Linky, head over to www.iheartfaces.com and share in the fun!

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My Baby is Walking!

I knew it would happen, but it's one thing to imagine it and another to see it for yourself!

All this so close to her birthday, too - on May 8 she's going to be one year old! I plan on writing a special post in celebration of her birthday. :-) I had to share this, though!

Video Below

Lindsey ♥

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Wii Olympics Fun, Me Time, Asian Markets, and Literary Update

I'm up early before Emma is up and at 'em, hoping to get some online stuff done before I hear the little banshee scream (where did she learn that???). Before I had kids, I had no idea that they could have so much personality at such a young age! Right now Emma communicates with us chiefly through spitting. It's SO cute. But I know it's going to backfire as she gets older so we try not to encourage it. Okay, so we encourage it. Because it's CUTE. Come on, nobody else does things like this with their kids?

Emma's reaction to my Wii Olympics antics (video)

I had a great, refreshing weekend. I needed it, I was starting to get majorly grumpy from having no "me time". My husband was so sweet and took care of the baby for a few hours on Saturday AND Sunday! I have a wonderful hubby. :-) Course I think they napped much of the time on both days... but still! I think this would be an appropriate time to say "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." ;-)

Anyway, Saturday I went shopping with my best friend Ranae at Fred Meyer - we went to the Starbucks in the store and sat and talked for about an hour - that was so nice! I love Starbucks, it always smells so good. Then we walked around and managed to find treasures (fingerless gloves) and I bought some Burt's Bees eye cream for the first time in my life, lol. I love it, it really helps with puffy "mommy" eyes.
After Fred Meyer, we headed to an Asian market (Ranae needed a tea there). Those places are really something! So much atmosphere, you feel like you've stepped into Japan. People speaking but you can't understand, EVERYTHING around you is foreign and totally fascinating - all the products are in Japanese (or Chinese? I have no idea...). Ranae would pick up a product to read the ingredients and then remember there wasn't any English on the box. At the checkout, you're surrounded by candy as usual, but all of it is new and colorful. And cute! I saw some kind of coconut jelly (doesn't sound appetizing), tiny chocolate faces, and blueberry and strawberry chocolate bars. Sometime I would like to try some of it, just for fun. The back wall is covered in different kinds of rice (yum!) and I left the market half expecting to be transported to a different country. But it was still America (thank goodness).

I don't really know how I feel about traveling. I think I'm a little afraid of the different people and laws and such. Maybe that's natural, though? I don't want nervousness to stop me from traveling and experiencing new things. But maybe when I first travel out of America I'll go for England. Where they speak English. Or a form of it. ;-)

From I Love Lucy when the Ricardos and the Mertzes visit England: I'm sorry, we're Americans - we don't understand English.

Oh and the Wii Mommies Olympics! That was a blast! It totally re-motivated me - I hope we do it again. :-) I got two bronze medals - one in Soccer Heading and one in the 10-minute Hula Hoop event. Sweet! I really think I could have done better if my wonderful hubby hadn't bugged me, haha. And I felt guilty for competing while my friend was visiting (though she didn't mind). ;-) Still, it was a blast! I hear that there might be a bowling event coming up... sounds fun!

Yesterday my husband and I went over the finances. Fun. Not. :-/ Well, as depressing as it was, we have a good plan to get out of debt and that's encouraging. I've been trying to figure out how I can cut down on our monthly bills and found it wasn't that hard once I had a good picture of where our money is going. Starbucks... haha. Okay, that's not a monthly expense, it's more like a splurge every now and then. A splurge that helps me keep my sanity and makes me feel human again.

I'm reading Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingston right now - it's YA fantasy and interesting. It's funny that I went straight from Bones of Faerie to this because they both focus on faeries and a land of Faerie being intertwined with modern times. They're not the best I've read on the subject, but are rather diverting. ;-) I'll have reviews up soon.

I'm ready to cut way back on the review books - I miss reading for my own pleasure! I have an old copy of Gone With the Wind on my nightstand right now and I glance longingly at it as I pass by every night, dutifully bringing a review book with me. I think we've defeated the purpose if reading becomes "work". I haven't really come across anything outstanding since The Shape of Mercy. Well actually, Age Before Beauty was very very good, and Kiss. Okay, maybe I'm just tired. ;-) I think it's easy to get burned out when you're struggling to finish a book for review but your heart isn't really in it anymore. We all experience that, though. The main problem is that I'm in such a hurry to get to the next book that I can't entirely enjoy the good books I come across. So I'm only requesting books by authors I'm familiar with. I need self-control! lol

Anyway, can you believe I haven't read Gone With the Wind yet? Unforgivable, I know.

What are you reading right now?

Swings and Sunshine

We were able to get to the park for the first time since the snow yesterday!

I'm super excited about taking Emma to the park this summer...

Now that she can enjoy it

It'll be one big adventure for the both of us!

I look forward to watching her play...

By the way, I dropped my camera and broke the zoom so my pictures are suffering. :-(

But I didn't want you to miss out on this moment. :-) Her first time to the park!

Emma's Lovely Bib and New Discoveries

So look at what my friend Margaret from Creative Madness made for my lil' girl! It was such a pleasant surprise! :-) Thank you, MJ! ♥

(I put that type on there to blot out our last name)



Ain't she cute? She's getting so inquisitive nowadays! There is something new happening every day it seems... the latest new and fun discoveries have been:

♥ Learning to dance (more like a happy happy jerking motion, but oh so cute!)
♥ Saying mama (usually it's being screamed from the other room if she wants me - I have mixed feelings about that one... why couldn't she have learned "daddy" first?)
♥ Eating more and more and more "real people" food, lol. Not even close to being weaned yet, though.
♥ Discovering that there is a whole new world in the kitchen cupboards... and she's capable of getting into it all by herself! Oh horror.

Yeah, keeping tabs on this little girl is getting to be quite a chore. She's such a little busybody - she never stops! It's great fun, though, I must admit. Challenging but she's definitely the best thing in our lives. :-) Thank you, God, for our baby!