18 months

My baby girl is 18 months old today!
Seriously, 18 months old is the best. I've found myself saying this at every milestone... "O, I love 3 months old she's babbling to me!..... o wow 6 months old, she's sitting up on her own this is the best..." etc. But seriously, I mean it this time, this is the best. She is learning so many new words every day, the list is huge.  She may look like her daddy, be even tempered like him, but she talks excessively a perfect amount, and that my friends is from me.
These days she is testing more boundaries, needing more "re-direction" as our babysitter calls it; occasionally hitting, or pinching but we are working on it, and I know it's all part of her learning about life and the world around her.

A little bit about what my 18 month old peanut loves these days:

• Elmo- she could watch Elmo all day (although we don't let her), she loves Elmo p.j.'s, toys, books, anything Elmo and she is sold.
• Books- She has a favorite book with pictures and words under them and her favorite thing is to sit with me and have me ask her, "what's that" or, "where's the boat, hat, ball" etc. The smile she gets when I tell her, "yes! Good job, that's the hat!" is priceless.. so proud, this girl.
• Outside- I think if she could, she would live outside. When she is outside it doesn't matter if she has a toy or anything to play with, the girl just RUNS! She runs and laughs, and laughs and runs. The faster she runs the louder her laugh. She is just generally happier if she is outside, and truth be told, so am I.
• People- She is one to favor her mom and dad when she is sleepy or sick, but other than that, she loves her friends at daycare, she loves her aunts, her grandparents, or anyone driving by or passing us at the grocery store. She is a stranger to no one. In her littler heart, every single person she sees deserves a smile and a wave, and I absolutely love her for that.

Every day is something new, she can dry her hands after washing them with little help, she took a head dive off of the chair yesterday (minimal tears, no blood, she is good), and her new found love is flushing her potty (Elmo potty of course). There is no element of life this little girl is not exploring, and it is so incredibly fun.

I am thankful every single day for this baby girl I've been given. I know it's all been said before, but she is so much joy. 18 months... the most wonderful 18 months of my life.

Mama said there'd be days like this...

Friday the 13th. I am not superstitious, but today has been a whirlwind of craziness. By the way, it is only 10:45am.  It was one of those mornings where it felt like it was a rush from the minute I got out of bed.  So, let me recap. (Side note: I normally would not care about blow drying my hair, getting make up on etc. but today I have a presentation and have to dress up, look nice and such. Partially the cause of the chaos I'm sure, since I usually sport jeans, T-shirt and a pony tail on school days)
6:00am- Marcus wakes up to get ready, let the dog out, pack Adley's lunch. I am laying in bed leisurely thinking I have all the time in the world right now, I don't have to be anywhere until 8:30.
6:18am- Adley starts coughing, and sneezing, and coughing, then crying. I go to get her from her crib, there are boogers everywhere, she obviously has developed a cold over night.
Change diaper, clothes, pick out my clothes. Marcus takes a quick shower.
6:50- Marcus tells me to hop in the shower quick, he has 10 minutes before he has to leave. I think to myself, "well if you are going to leave in 10 minutes when I get out of the shower in a towel with my hair wet, and no time to get dressed or put makeup on, why don't you just leave now?" Instead of saying that out loud I just pleasantly agreed and hopped in. As predicted right when I got done Marcus needed to leave, so there we were, a hungry booger nosed baby who was wanting to watch "momo" (Elmo), and myself.  One hour until we need to be at daycare.
7:00- I throw on a t-shirt and sweatpants (which I wore to bed that night), and head to the kitchen for breakfast. There is yelling, laughing, more yelling. I whip up some oatmeal and throw some pears on her tray.  I poor my coffee-into my stainless steel mug, anticipating not being able to take a drink for a while- and throw some toast in the toaster for myself.
7:15- Adley inhales her breakfast, and is yelling "DONE!" at me. 15 minutes, that's all I got. I have drank no coffee and taken maybe 2 bites of my breakfast. O.K. Fine. We wash hands, her tray, she sticks her hands in peanut butter, we wash hands again. Finally I get to the bathroom to blow dry/straighten my hair, put make up on and get dressed. Still no drink of coffee. Adley all the while is moving dog food from one place to another, innocently trying to stick Q-tips she just found into her ears, etc. She runs in and out of the bathroom. I try to take objects from her constantly, while straightening my hair with one hand.
I hear Elmo's World music- Son of a... CRAP, its:
7:45- need to be out of the house in 15 minutes.
I finish getting ready FAST- still no drink of coffee.
7:50: I am a MAD-WOMAN trying to gather all things needed for the day; my two bags, Adley's lunch, blanket, paci, shoes, my keys, purse etc.
After SEVERAL trips up and down the stairs I think I have everything, bags on my arms, baby on my hips, paci in my mouth (serious). Here we go... NOT! Coffee is sitting on the bathroom sink. There is NO WAY I am not bringing that liquid happiness with me this morning. Back down and up the stairs we go. Ok, now we have everything
8:05: NOT BAD, I think. I get Adley in her car seat, buckled in, she wants her milk. Get the milk out of her lunch bag. I get in the drivers seat with all my bags. Spill my water. All over the passenger seat, inches from my bag. Close one.
8:08- Off we go to daycare. Reach for my coffee for my first drink of the day. Knocked it over. Minor spill. Another close call.
8:10- Get to daycare (only 4 blocks away, hallelu!) Go to get Adley out of her seat, "where is your milk?" I ask, all of a sudden I can feel my leg getting wet. WHY IS EVERYTHING SPILLING!?! Found the milk.
Get inside to daycare, tell the daycare provider Marcus will be getting Adley at 4:30, she replies with O no, this is the day I have an appointment and the kids need to be picked up by 3:30..... Crap.... she did tell me this, and I forgot. I smile and say O, no big deal, he will be here then.
8:15- Call Marcus to tell him he will need to leave early to get Adley by 330pm. Thank goodness it's possible.
8:16- First drink of coffee. The morning doesn't seem so bad anymore. :)
I am feeling better now, but man do I hate those mornings. I feel rushed, cranky, and sorry for myself. A quick recap can make me feel better about it, make me realize my stress is silly and that we are human and that these moments are life.  How boring would it be if every morning things went perfectly? I always feel a little ashamed when I realize I may not have been as nice to Marcus as I should have been, or attentive to Adley as I could have been. But, now I know, and am sending a thank you, I love you message to Marcus as soon as I post this.
Happy Friday the 13th, hope it is a great day, and you can laugh at your stressors and crazy moments! <3

Happy birthday, Marcus!

Marcus, my hubby, turned 26 yesterday. I must say it is so sad to me that birthday's lose their zest after about age 21... I also feel ever since we found out we were having Adley and i was extremely sick right around Marcus's 24th birthday I have been slacking in the "making birthday's special" department. I used to plan forever to give Marcus a special birthday, including a pretty great surprise 23rd birthday party.  So, although I don't have the time to devote to surprises, or the money to devote to lots of gifts I tried to make him feel special just the same.
So, what did I do you ask? I cooked, I baked, we had champagne. I surely feel like I have to give gifts or plan surprises to make someone feel special on their birthday, but when I don't have those options, I COOK! I made a whole chicken, thyme as the main spice. I chopped and chopped and chopped veggies such as carrots, celery, onions (is that a veggie? hmm), sweet potatoes and others. It took a.long.time. While doing all of this I'm whipping up cake mix, for which I decided to use for cupcakes because they take less time to bake. In the end everything turned out fabulous! Adley on the other hand was not a fan of the seasoned veggies, but over all I felt accomplished and Marcus ate it up quickly! When he does that I never know if it tastes really good, or if he is just trying to eat it as fast as possible so that he doesn't have to taste it... I like to think the first.
I must add that on Saturday Marcus and I did get to spend a couple hours together golfing. I did consider this his birthday present and we had a great time, and the weather was beautiful. 
The champagne was not only for his birthday, but to celebrate me getting a job! I have been hired to the nurse residency program at Methodist Hospital in Des Moines, pending graduation and passing my NCLEX exam, I will start in August! This is so exciting for so many reasons. It was my first interview, it was the job I wanted, and it is proof that in a few short months I will be a nurse! It's hard to believe this 5 year journey is coming to an end. A LOT has happened in the last 5 years to bring me to graduating in exactly one month from tomorrow, I will share more later, but it is almost over! :)

Marcus and me at the Cubs game to celebrate our birthdays with his family.

Blowing out our candles. We share the month of April for our birthdays!

Word of the day

The word of the day- actually yesterday- is... "Crazy"
Yesterday morning while getting ready, Adley was putting dog food in her bathtub, obviously, and I said "you're a crazy girl!" and she yelled back, "CRAYY!" She is a sponge I tell ya!

Evidence

Just an extra  :)

Let's give this another try.

I got caught up one day in not wanting to do homework so I threw together a "blog" on another website. Obviously I had no time to devote, nor a desire to really post anything.  These days I am feeling better about where I am with life and feeling I have so much I'm learning about motherhood, and wifehood (not a word, I know this, bare with me) and so much I want to share, so again, welcome to my "blog".

Adley, my nearly one and a half year old baby girl is growing so much every day. With her it is like we have a "word of the day" because she is repeating and saying something new all the time. Each and every time it surprises me, and each and every time I get excited and then it almost crushes me. I know babies are supposed to grow up, but I didn't know that applied to MY baby!

She is as precious and ornery as she looks.

So another reason I am wanting to devote time to this is to log her moments, her accomplishments, her boo boo's (we WILL use mommy language on this blog), to remember the milestones that I am already too soon forgetting. I owe it to her to remember these things and I owe it to future children so that I won't be constantly wondering if they are on track, or rushing them to the emergency room with a 104 degree fever for the doctor to say its, "No big deal" (sorry Adley, sorry doctor, I am learning here!)

That said, I will do my best to post regularly about a variety of things from mothering, being a wife, and my struggles in the kitchen to my nearing title of Registered Nurse. Join me, will you!?