More important notice.

Because I am bored at work.

The fact that I am going to Montana a few days before I am laid off has not escaped me.

Play Date for Penny

www.flickr.com

A couple of weedends ago Penny, Nathaniel and I went to her new friend Dora's house. I hung out with her mom, Jill and Nathaniel got to play with Nicholas, Dora's 6 year old brother. Nick enjoys Bakugan and Legos just like Nathaniel. Penny and Dora had a great time playing and checking each other out. They both love, love books. Dora is such a little cutie pie and I can't wait for our next get together because I know that they really had lot of fun together and Jill is just such a nice and wonderful person. Thanks for having us over Jill!!

Wordless Wedsnesday

Go Dillon

Please pray for an uneventful surgery for Dillon and a quick recovery. He is have his g-tube placed today God willing. This will be huge for him!

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY

Who Was St. Patrick?

"St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling.

Taken Prisoner By Irish Raiders

It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. . . ."

You can read the whole story by clicking on the title or here.

AND YOU CAN TAKE THE IRISH QUIZ HERE. It doesn't test how Irish you are, just how much you know about Ireland. :)

Blankies for Babies

I have wanted to post on this for some time now. Jaxson's mother Lacey, who has so much on her plate already, wants to comfort other children that may be going through a rough stretch of medical concerns with her blankets. I think it is so wonderful that she wants to donate her time and materials for this. I personally know a mother (and her kid) that has benefitted from Lacey's thoughtfulness.

So if you think your child would like a blanket or you know a child that might need a blanket spread the word. You can also go onto this site and donate. Every $ counts and it helps to offset Lacey's expense of materials so she can get more blankets out there!!

I won another award!!

Thanks to Joanie I now have another award. I guess you get this for having a good attitude or some crap like that. You know, "When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade."

So, I would like to hand this out to a few people I know that just have a swell attitude about life, even though there have a been a few bumps in the road of life.

Melissa from Having fun at home with Master Dillon.

Lacey from Jaxson's fight.

Jessica from Raising Joey.

Cammie at The Helflin Family.

Michelle at The Zoromski Chronicles.

Erin from Adelynn's Journey.

And Rene at Life with My Special Ks.

Now the recipients can pass this on to as many or as few blogs as they want, maximum of 10! You will need to link to the other person's blog. Lacey, for the love of all that is good. We will figure this out together ok! and then you need to comment on their blog so that they know to come find this award.

Congratulations winners!!

Museum Visits

Nathaniel, Penny, and myself have been taking advantage of our CT Museum pass. For a yearly membership fee, we have access to several musuems across the country. We have been to the Lutz serveral times. Penny really gets engaged even though she is not yet walkin; however it is not too big so I don't feel that she gets overstimulated or anything.



Here is Penny checking out the model cow with working udders!!



Now she is constructing her own farmyard.



Nathaniel brought Penny "under" into the yellow submarine that they have there. She loves that thing.


I think Penny could stay at the helm (is that what they call it on a submarine?) and press buttons all day! One button plays The Beatles "Yellow Submarine."

So much to catch up on

So I have not disappeared off the face of the planet. I apologize for being away for so long, but there has been so much to do. This week I have started a bathroom remodel project.




Not that I want to complain or anything, but why, why can't anything be easy. This wall paper backing is NOT coming off easy in any way. I have tried to commit about an hour every day after work to scraping the paper off the wall, but I can't even get one tiny wall done in an hour. Please excuse my giant butt!! But, hey, I have a wonderful little helper. For now, we are going to paint the walls. Color is TBA, and I want to change out the vanity top and the sink. It has seen better days.

The glaze has been literally popping off the sink bowl. It is a creepy noise when you are on the toilet and then you hear this noise like chipping glass. You can't see it in this picture, but there are spots where you see the cobalt metal that is rusting.

My Miserable Little Girl

That little girl was the most desperate, miserable little baby I have ever seen tonight. Part of me wished I could provide her comfort, the other part wanted to pass this off as possibly the onset of the terrible twos. Scott and I were unable to put her down for a nap until closer to 3:00pm. On it's own, that should not have been enough for the meltdown that ensued. She woke herself up around 5pm. At the time she woke up I considered that a plus. Penelope is a much crankier baby when she is woken up by an external source. Scott brought her downstairs and we both took turns trying to calm her down. Scott went to make dinner and I cuddled with her on the couch. Any move I made elicited screams and cries from that little girl.

Then dinner time came. Typically, when Penny sees the highchair, we get big smiles out of her. However tonight there was only a lukewarm reception. I was able to buckle her in without resistance. Then. The food was served. I do not believe I have ever heard her scream and cry as loudly and for as long as tonight. Every attempt to feed her brought more screaming. I took her out of the highchair and had her sit in my lap a bit. She calmed down, but just. I admit I was a little tired of her behavior so I put her on the floor. There. She had such an awesome temper tantrum. She rolled around on the ground. She sreamed; she flailed around; she breathed in and out so fast I thought she was hyperventilating. I tried to ignore her and go back to my dinner. After I said, "Welcome to the terrible twos," Nathaniel was a little amused since he knew she was still only one year old. Of course he had to correct me.

We tried to put her back in the high chair and feed her yogurt to replace the offending spaghetti and sauce I had attempted to poison her with earlier (any one who has ever fed my daughter knows that marina sauce can never do wrong, she would eat absolutely anything if it has tomato sauce on it.) Even the yogurt upset her so badly. In between bites we couln't tell if she was holding her mouth in agony or trying to sign "eat," but we kind of gathered it was the former. Oh the horror!!

Scott and I finally blamed her very unusual behavior to her molars that may be coming in. Being a little tired and cranky would possibly be enough to put her over the edge when the severe mouth pain began to come in. Penny had been grabbing at her ears and her mouth all weekend, and I have been wondering about the 2 year molars. So we gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed with a bottle. I do hope that she feels better tomorrow. Poor baby!!!

Can you believe that it is March already

Gees, wasn't Christmas, like, a few weeks ago? Between running around to complete tasks for Nathaniel's Cubscout Den, working full-time, Penelope's appointments, Scott becoming ill, play dates for the children, and of course making time for myself, this year is already flying by. Pretty soon I will be looking forward to the Easter bunny. I do hope Penny will understand a little more about Easter bunnies this year than last.

Mostly, I am not that frustrated by her self-paced development. But I have to be honest and admit that there are those things that I miss. She is 21 months and she has not uttered "mama" or even attempted to sign it. She uses about four signs routinely now, why can't mama be one of them if she cannot form the sounds with her mouth? And don't get me wrong, she is doing wonderfully and I am very proud of where she is today. But I still wish she would say my name!!!!

Today I took her to the Lutz Museum, a children's museum in Manchester, CT that I have loved since I was a child. How proud I was when Penny initiated one-handed walking throughout the museum. How dare I cramp her style by making her unable to point at the things she wanted as she ambled over!!? She was such an adorable cutie-pie strutting her stuff all throughout the museum while I followed. I know that she is mostly crawling as she investigates the exhibits, but as I keep telling her, "If you want to check those out so badly, you can figure out how to walk on your own!" Does this display of encouragement border neglect? Her glares back at me paint the picture that she knows my opinion on the matter, but she remains steady on her course to complete these achievements on her own time. And what else can a mother expect, or accept?