Long weekend

We spent the weekend in Louisville building a new deck by the pool at my Dad's house. Started out tearing out the old floor and stairs from the old deck...holy hell that was hard work. Sue and I did the majority of that work and I must say it was a wonderful way to prepare for my go-live at work tomorrow. There is definitely something therapeutic about beating the crap out of stuff. Save yourself some money and bypass the therapist and opt for tearing stuff up instead.

I was completely impressed with my wonderful husband who used all of his skills obtained building our deck and applied them to this new deck. He worked his butt off this weekend and I am very thankful for what he did. The deck turned out beautifully and I can't wait to go swimming next weekend.

Hope you had a great Memorial Day and thank you to all those who served or are serving their country. I wouldn't have had the weekend I had without you.

Pictures

Better late than never - Mother's Day

Mother's Day and other things

I had a wonderful Mother's Day and will post some pictures soon. My hubby and bebe let me sleep in and then they made me breakfast...pancakes. Yummy. Surprisingly Miss C must have a bank account and a drivers license because my present was an orchid and a spa gift certificate. Perfect!

For lunch we met Mom, Bruce, Dawn and Mia for lunch at Butler State Park and had a wonderful visit. Those girls are ridiculously fun and totally enjoy each other. That is so nice to see. It's also nice to see the youthfulness they bring out in Granny as she climbed through the outside play area at McDonalds with the girls.

For dinner we took SPs mom to dinner and that was nice as well. Miss C loved dancing to the band that was playing at the restaurant. It is so funny to see her bounce up and down with her little arms going. That alone made my Mother's Day. She is so ridiculously hilarious and the personality that child has...wow!

In other news, Miss C now has hand, foot, mouth disease which is a name that totally grosses me out. Seriously, it invokes visions of hands and feet all shoved in ones mouth. Ick.

Anyway, turns out that little germ pool of a daycare has given her yet another ailment to contend with. We thought we were going to skate by because she wasn't running a fever and only had a couple of sores on her tongue. But that would be WAY too easy.

So, now her tongue is coverded in sores and pretty much everything she eats and drinks hurts. She's also getting spots on her hands and feet. Good times. I feel so bad for her because I know it hurts but there isn't much I can do for her but hold her and try to make it just a little bit easier for her.

Busy but life continues

I am EXTREMELY busy right now preparing for a go-live on May 26th. It's wiping me out and since I am working all day and then at night I don't have a lot of time to write.

But I wanted to check in and let you know Miss C is FABULOUS.

She loves her new swing set but still will not swing alone. We try to get outside and play every chance we can because that girl continues to LOVE the outdoors. The child has no fear and I wonder if other toddlers her age are just as fearless. Tonight, for example, she climbed up the rock walk with SPs help and then proceeded to go head first down the slide. While I typically wouldn't encourage this, we both stood in amazement when she did it and smiled the entire time.

I expect lots of bruises, blood and trips to the ER in our future. I am not sure I'll survive it.

Actions and food

Miss C is in a mimicing/doing phase where she wants to do anything and everything we do.

Here are some examples:

• tried to put her sunglasses on her head like mine and then smiled with them all cockeyed at her achievement
• tried to put her socks and shoes on
• came over to me with books, crawled in my lap, crossed her ankles and waited for me to read to her
• then she read to me
• took boxes out of the recycling and then put them back
• brushed her hair
• tried to put on her bib
• helped put her car seat straps on

The other thing she insists upon is eating everything we eat. It's really kind of interesting to witness because there isn't much she won't eat, unless it's baby food. We still have some jars of food left that she won't eat. We also bought these little toddler meals to have on hand if necessary which she has taken to barely touching. Instead, she wants some of whatever we have.

Today this included:

• cantelope, melon, strawberries, bananas
• tortilla, black beans, rice
• pasta, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli

I am not going to complain. She has a good appetite and is not picky. Can't ask for much more than that.

Words

Miss C's vocabulary is ever increasing. Right now things are falling into 4 categories.

Category 1 is the words we understand and that sound similar to what she is referencing, like more. It is definitely a common word she uses and it get used A LOT. More food. More toys. More play. More songs. More. SP is Dada while I am Ma or Mom. Ball is ba. Cat is ca. There's also umdat which is I want that. She also says "yah" and nods her head for yes.

Category 2 is the words we understand but don't sound anything like what she is referencing. Like milk. It's like mudat but she accompanies it with the sign for milk. Of course this can be confusing but despite all efforts the sign for milk means any drink.

Category 3 is the words she is just starting to use and figure out that are close to Category 1. Right now she is saying "cockar" which is Copper. This has also become the word for every dog she sees. They are all a cockar.

Category 4 is the words she uses constantly but we can't figure out what the heck she is talking about. She carries on pretty active conversations but we don't have a clue what she's saying and there's no consistency to associate the sounds with things. So, we just laugh and talk gibberish back.

She has a much better grasp of what we are saying to her than what she is saying to us. So we continue to repeat what things are over and over and talk to her constantly. Of course, we keep it simple because she is learning. I don't foresee me discussing politics or the theory of relativity with her anytime soon.