I wanted to just crawl into a hole...

Have you ever had that nightmare where your child is screaming uncontrollably in the middle of a crowded library and everyone is staring at you? Crying so loudly that your husband, who is upstairs, can hear it and think to himself, "That sounds like my daughter, I better go see what's going on." Well that folks was my reality yesterday.

We went to the library, and Amryn and I were in the children's section while hubby went upstairs to look for somethings. Amryn was playing happily around a small table with another little girl that was probably about 3 years old, whose father was busy on a computer like 15 feet away and wasn't really paying attention to his kid, but that's a post for another day. Amryn ends up tripping on something, (her own feet?) and catches her chin on the side of the table, and instantly breaks out into a blood curdling scream. Of course everyone in the library can hear this inconsolable screaming child, and I'm getting the look of death from a number of patrons. (I wanted to scream at them, "Yes, I am aware that this is a library, and that my child is screaming, I really don't need your stares!) My first instinct is to run for the exit, but I've got a screaming child in my arms, and a stroller, plus all the books and movies we've picked out, I was contemplating just leaving the stroller and library books and movies when a library worker comes over to ask if she's okay (because she's still crying and screaming). I'm so annoyed, embarrassed and frustrated at this point that I basically just ignore the lady and say something like "Yea, she hit the table." I think the lady may have offered me some ice, I didn't really hear her because I was focused on getting to the door, when I see my hubby coming down the stairs. I briefly explained what happened and he scoops her up and heads for the exit.

He was finally able to calm her down enough to come back in and we got all the books and movies checked out. She's left with a gash on her chin where she kinda rubbed the skin off, but at least we were saved from having to go to the ER again.

Terrible 2's-day!

Ahh the joys of parenting a stubborn and independent 2 year old...it's time for another addition of Terrible/Terrific 2's-day.

Lately Amryn has decided that napping isn't really her thing. It's been pretty hit or miss lately as it whether or not she will take a nap on any given day. Yesterday, I had a job interview in the afternoon so I was gone around her usual nap time, so it was up to my hubby to fight with the mighty 2 year old over nap time. I get home about half an hour after he had put her down, and she is screaming from her bedroom, he has already gone in once to tell her it is time to sleep, but she is screaming "Ma-ma" so I decide that maybe I should go in and let her know that I have returned. I get into her room and she's standing in her crib with tears and snot running down her face and she says between sobs "sob Da-sob-da made me-sob- take a - sniffle-nap." I comforted her and told her that it was time for her to take a nap, and I layed her down and tucked her in with her bunny, and left the room. She continued fussing and screaming, until we just decided to go get her, which has been happening more and more lately when she just won't nap. She does okay for the most part without a nap, until about 7 or 8 pm when she totally looses it and becomes so clingy and whiny and just miserable, which usually leads us to say "Now see, THIS is why you need a nap!" Which of course doesn't convince her in the slightest that napping is necessary. I'm just really not ready for her to stop taking naps, I think that 1 1/2 to 2 hour break each day is as much (if not more) for my sanity as it is for hers.

It's time for Six Word Saturday

Can I go back to sleep?

America Deserves a Raise!

Do you know of someone who works much harder than what their pay check reflects? Someone who puts in extra hours? Someone who devotes themselves to their job? Do you know anyone who deserves a $40,000 raise? Advance America wants to reward one hard working person a $40,000 raise, and if you nominate them then you'll get one too! Go to America Deserves a Raise and tell their story! The top 100 highest-rated stories will each win a $50 Visa Gift Card and go to the finalist’s round, where a panel of judges will choose the winner of the $40,000 raise. Plus, for every vote, Advance America will donate $1 to job training and education charities (up to $50,000). If you enter someone please leave a comment with a link, I'd love to check out your stories!

They will also be giving away one $100 Visa Gift Card each day!

Disclosure: I was given the opportunity to promote this contest from Bzzagent, for doing so I will have a chance to win an Apple ipad.

Wordless Wednesday

Terrific 2's-day!

Time once again for my new regularly scheduled blog post where I will entertain you with the antics of my newly 2 year-old daughter! Since last weeks Terrible 2's-day post, things have been pretty good at our place, so today I shall share a Terrific 2's-day post with all of you.

I really LOVE how much Amryn is talking now. She has always had a pretty impressive vocabulary, I mean the child said "pizza" before she ever said "Mama". But just recently her vocabulary and speech have just blossomed! We have full thought processes and nearly full sentences! She can recall and describe something that happened months ago! She can make her needs and wants known, she looked at her Daddy yesterday morning and said "Daddy, yogurt please." So polite too! This is definitely something terrific about having a 2 year-old!

Micro Monday

Just a little post to share how much I love gift cards! It's like 2 gifts in one, you get a present AND you get to go shopping! Yay! Off to spend Amryn's birthday gift card to Old Navy today!

Spoiled Rotten!

Well if any of you live in the Portland, Oregon area and smell a strange smell coming from the NW part of town, that would be my kid because she has seriously been spoiled rotten! We had Amryn's birthday party yesterday, she received 1- tricycle,and 1-jungle block set from one set of grandparents, 3 new outfits, a swimsuit, and a golf set from another set of grandparents, 1- Pooh boat blocks set, and an apron for her kitchen from her aunt,uncle, and cousins, and a $25 card to Old Navy from her oldest cousin and his girlfriend. On top of the barn and kitchen we got her, and the Tinkerbell CD player and books and CD's that the 3rd set of grandparents sent from Ohio. Yea...spoiled rotten!

After we had eaten lunch we get the cake all set up with the candle and we're ready to sing happy birthday, and right as we start singing, she sticks her hand in the cake! But she was a big girl and blew the candle out all by herself! Here's a video of Amryn devouring her cake, but she was a big girl and used her fork!

PR Friendly Mom Bloggers Blog Hop!

Happy Birthday Amryn!

As unbelievable as it seems, today my baby turns 2. It seems like yesterday that I was holding my tiny little baby in my arms and now I'm lucky if she'll stop long enough to give me a hug! She is an amazing little person, and she never ceases to surprise me with everything she knows! It's such a fun age though, she is really getting into pretend play, and we are starting to be able to have full conversations with her, even my husband commented this week about how much fun she is now. I sometimes have to remind myself that she isn't a baby anymore, and that she is far more capable and independent than I really give her credit for, I guess this will be my first of many tests of "letting go" and allowing her to stretch and explore for she is such a fearless and adventurous little thing.


Today we are taking Amryn to a local inflatable place where they have play times for just toddlers 3 and under. She LOVES to jump, so I know this is going to be right up her alley. Plus she'll get some much needed socialization with lots of kids and I know that will thrill her to no end. Just a fun day out with Mommy and Daddy, and then her party with family tomorrow. What more could a 2 year old ask for?

Happy Birthday Amryn!

Wordless Wednesday

I just don't know if I'm ready for her to be 2.

Terrible/Terrific 2's-day

As I sit on the verge of officially having a 2 year-old. I came up with this idea for a regular post for this blog...so now everyday Tuesday is now officially Terrible/Terrific 2's-day. The point behind this will be to report some of the terrible or terrific things about having a 2 year old. The ultimate goal here will be to get a button and to figure out those McLinky things and maybe have others participate as well so we can all commiserate or celebrate having 2 year olds!

This week has definitely had some trying Terrible 2's moments. But the biggest one would have to be Amryn taking a bottle of A-1 sauce off a tv tray and sneaking into our bedroom where she proceeded to dump approximately 3/4th of a brand new bottle on our bedroom carpet. Oh yea...good times. She freaked out and came running out to me, and I picked her up and noticed a brown liquid on her foot, and then I smelled it and realized what had happened! Needless to say I couldn't get it all out of the carpet, so now anytime she's in our bedroom she comes in and points to the "sauce" on the carpet. It was a total "Calgon take me away" moment...and I know it is just the beginning of a long terrible and terrific year...

Six Word Saturday

It's time for another Six Word Saturday!




Love you honey, get a job!


My dear sweet husband has been unemployed since December, and I know he has been doing his best to get a job, but seriously he needs to get a job. This 24/7 always being around each other...well it's getting OLD...FAST.

Blogging Role Models

Do you have any blogging role models? You know, blogs that you read and you just WISH that your blog was like 1/2 as cool? Maybe it's the way they write-maybe they are funny or just write with lots of vivid detail, maybe it's that they give away really cool stuff, or maybe you really like their blog layout...whatever. I have a couple of bloggers that I really enjoy, in fact some of them I followed long before I even had a blog of my own. So today I thought I'd take a moment to share with you one of my blogging role models, so check out Amy Storch at amalah.com and maybe she can inspire you too.

Also if you would like to leave a comment and share your blogging role models I'd love to check out their blogs!

Birthday and stuff...

So plans have been made to celebrate Amryn's 2nd birthday next weekend. We've invited family to join us at a local pizza place for lunch, and then we'll have cake and ice cream. She's only 2, and we don't really have friends that have kids her age, so planning some giant "kid" party would not only be way to expensive but also kinda pointless since she really won't care anyway. So we figured lunch at her favorite pizza place with family and maybe a few friends, and a Yo Gabba Gabba cake would be just fine.

Yesterday we went to Toys R Us to pick out her last birthday presents, the plan was that since we already got her a big gift (a toy kitchen we got on clearance at Target after Christmas for 50% and have had in storage ever since) that hubby and I would each pick out 1 thing for her that was around $20. Then we saw these bigger Little People sets, a house, a farm, or a parking garage, and I suggested to hubby that maybe we should combine our money and just get one of those. So we took one of each off the shelf and lined them up in front of Amryn and asked her which one she wanted, and she pointed to the farm. Of course we have both realized this is probably going to be the last time we are going to beable to take her shopping with us while buying gifts for her, I'm sure my Christmas time this year she's not going to forget quite as easily.

Speaking of forgetting, I recently got out some toys that had been put away for awhile, she has so many toys and we just don't have the room to have them all out all the time, and she acted like she had never seen them before! One toy, a tea set, has gotten a ton of use as she has made and poured tea for me, Daddy, and even the dog. I think we've all had about a gallon of imaginary tea by now. I guess it is just preparing us for the millions of plastic meals we'll be eating once she gets her kitchen for her birthday! I'm hoping that we can put it together on Thursday night after she goes to bed so when she gets up on her birthday Friday it will be there to surprise her. The biggest challange is going to be figuring out where to put it! I am thinking I'd like it in the living room so she can be with us and play, but I'm not quite sure if it will fit in the space available. I guess I better get hubby to drag it out of storage so we can get measurements.

My Dad got Amryn a trike for her birthday, which I know she will LOVE. Everytime we go outside she wants to play with the bikes in the bike rack at our complex. So I see many sunny days outside this summer with her scooting around on her trike. We're waiting for my Mom's box from Ohio, and then there's still my hubby's parents, and my step-sister also got her something. Seriously this child wants for nothing, and I think the toys may in fact take over our apartment! But I'm still excited to see her reaction to everything! I still can't believe my baby is going to be 2.

Top 2 Tuesday

Time for another Top 2 Tuesday with The Undomestic Momma .

Top 2 Favorite Magazines:

1. O Magazine - I used to have a subscription to Oprah's magazine and I really enjoyed it, it has a lot more content that I am actually interested in compared to other women's magazines. Sadly, I don't have a subscription anymore, and it is just too expensive for us right now, but hopefully one day I'll be able to read it again.

2. Parents - As a (relatively) new first time Mom I really enjoy reading Parents magazine. I think it helps to keep my updated on the latest information but also provides fun ideas. Plus it doesn't hurt that I got a free subscription.

Ahhh Silence...

My husband has been unemployed since the beginning of December, so that means he's been home EVERYDAY.(Yea, I love him and spending time with him, but really it's gotten to be a bit of overkill lately.) Which also means that the TV/computer is spewing the sounds of one video game or another for the majority of any given day. Add to that din the noises of a nearly 2 year old and all of her battery powered toys (Seriously, don't batteries like die anymore?!) and it's non-stop noise a good 16+ hours a day around here. Except for the last 2 hours...

Hubby went out with a friend of ours, and Amryn has been taking the best nap she's had in along time...and I've been sitting here enjoying the relative silence...well except for the dog snoring on the couch. Ahhh...peace.

New Friend Friday!

My blog is growing by leaps and bounds especially my followers list! I love the idea that there are people out there that will actually read what I write. Plus I love to read blogs and get new and fun ideas from other Mommies! So last week I started joining The Girl Creative for New Friend Friday!

This week we were asked to give our birthday, my birthday is February 7th.



Thanks for everyone stopping by!

The Today Show talks about BABIES!

Here's a clip of what the Today Show had to say about the new film Babies, which starts on May 7th! I am so super excited to see this movie, and I'm glad it is getting such good press!

The TODAY Show features BABIES as "the movie trailer that makes hearts melt" and the trailer as "just under 3 minutes of pure pleasure". Featuring Jeff Gardere, Clinical Pschyologist giving his expert opinion of why it's so important for a movie like this to hit theatres now.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Umm...it's Thursday...

It's Thursday, and I can't decide on a single thing to write about, and I feel like doing another Meme would just be a cop-out at this point. So it's the first day of April, and my baby will be 2 in 15 days! We have started doing some pre-party planning, we searched 3 different stores to find one that makes a Yo Gabba Gabba cake, now Amryn is obsessed with cake, anytime you ask her about her birthday all she wants is "cake" and "pizza". We already got her a kitchen on clearance the day after Christmas, regular $100 we got it for just under $50, we've had it in storage this entire time! So hubby and I are each going to pick her out one more under $20 gift, I think hubby has decided on the Fisher Price Little People Fairy Treehouse (which is alot cheaper at Target) and I'm leaning towards the Leap Frog AlphaPet Explorer (which YAY! is on sale right now on Amazon). Plus she has 3 sets of grandparents, and I know that my step-sister and her family already got her something too. This child wants for nothing let me tell ya. We're not really going to throw a "party" but will probably just go out to lunch with family and maybe a few close friends. Aww, I still can't believe my baby is almost 2.