Baby Babbles

As we celebrated Baby's 3rd birthday, I reflected on our lives pre-Baby and our lives post-Baby.

What a miraculous blessing she has been to our family. Both of my daughters are miracles and I am incredibly grateful for the joy they bring to me. (Most days)

At 3-years-old, here are some common phrases that Baby says, and traits that she possesses. They delight my soul.

She will run wild and twirl in circles like an untied balloon full of air that has been released. Or she'll roll around on the couch or her bed, squealing with happiness. When I ask what she's doing, she responds, "I'm messing around." She'll also tell me randomly to, "Stop messing around, Mama." 

She loves to be chased. LOVES it. A person can get mighty sweaty chasing that girl around and around the house. 

She doesn't like her hands to be dirty. If they are, she will keep her hands clenched in a fist until they can be washed. (Sorry, Baby. I have a thing about dirty hands also.)

A few of her favorite lines are:

If I pick something up, regardless of its size, she'll say, "You're so strong!" 

When we drop Sissy off at swim practice, she yells after her, "Bye, Sissy! Have a good swim!"

She likes to reiterate daily, "You're big, I'm small."

We have a toilet paper stand in the bathroom that my parents sent us. If it's run out of toilet paper, she says, "He's naked. He needs some clothes." Then she carefully stacks the rolls onto his body.

She calls Michael several different names - Pop, Papa, Daddy. His favorite is Papa. My favorite is when she calls out, "Michael!"  

We still use a baby monitor because she won't come out of her room on her own when she wakes up. I've told her multiple times to just open the door but she patiently waits for us instead. One day during her nap, I heard her voice over the monitor say, "Mama, come in. Do you read me?" I was laughing and didn't respond and she said, "Hmm. She didn't answer."

She locks every door in the house ALL DAY LONG. If I'm heading to the bathroom, she'll run ahead of me, slam the door in my face and lock it. We'll get the mail and she'll lock me outside. Michael will come out of his office for a brief snack break and she runs in the office and locks him out. At any given moment in our house, at least one door will be locked. Thankfully we can easily unlock the door with a butter knife. I may just start carrying a butter knife in a holster on my hip. 

Baby loves to serve others and is genuinely kind. She spontaneously gives me kisses. She always says that she's giving me 2 kisses and then kisses my cheek many more than that. She calls me honey. If I tell her that I love her, she responds, "I love you more, honey." I don't even know where she learned it. 

She is tidy and loves to sing and read. She wants to say the prayer every night at bedtime. I smile as she says the sweetest prayers. I imagine God is doing the same.

She is my buddy and I love her. 

Thank you for being mine, Baby.

Helmet Hair

Well...

Did Baby have buyer's remorse or was a birthday bike helmet the proper choice?

You be the judge.

Treasure Hunt

The day after Baby's birthday, I remembered that she hadn't opened her card from my parents. It was stacked on the edge of the kitchen counter with all the other miscellaneous junk that accumulates there as quickly as snow in a blizzard. 

It's the result of having 2 family members who are creative types. They mindlessly pile things up while daydreaming about creative things. I don't understand this behavior. In case you haven't noticed, I'm more of the uptight and controlling type. (In a healthy way)

But I digress...

Baby opened her birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa! 

It was an adorable furry cat and she loved it. I took her up the road to the Super Target to spend the 50 bones they had generously given her. We zigzagged through the toy aisles for about 17 hours while Baby touched every toy and fiddled with every button, knob, and flashing light.

Everytime I asked if this was the toy she wanted to buy and take home she responded, "No," and puttered off to fondle the other merchandise.

And then the toy aisles ended and Baby was empty-handed. I was befuddled and wasn't sure what to do next. I thought about just pocketing her birthday money and picking out out a little treat for myself. I can blow 50 bucks at Target in 2 minutes. But it would probably be wrong to steal from a 3-year-old. (Am I right?) I instead suggested that we walk over to the crayon aisle and look for a drawing pad or somesing. On our way, we passed the bicycles and there was a wall of bike helmets. 

Baby froze and stared in awe. The wall of helmets suddenly illuminated and the angel choir sang, "Ahhhh." This was it. She was choosing a bike helmet as her gift.

After many minutes of contemplation, she settled on the pink kitty. But the Spiderman was a strong contender as well. 

We finished spending the rest of the cash on a drawing pad, stickers, markers, and a ginormous push pop. Whew!

And? And? They were handing out free popcorn! What a delightful surprise.

It was a wonderful day at Super Target. And now I'm tired.

Thank you for the birthday money, Grandma and Grandpa!

Baby is 3!

My Baby turned 3-years-old. 3! She has been an incredible joy and blessing to me. She thinks I'm amazing and I feel the same about her. I appreciate our special bond and I secretly love that she prefers me. (Is that wrong?) 

But 3 already?! Come on - that stings.

We epically celebrated her big day.

First, Mykey left her an epic Etch A Sketch surprise.

Then Baby helped me make an epic cake.

She was a great helper.

Then, I took her to the dentist. Seems like an appropriate birthday outing.

She was shy at first but bravely sat in the chair like a champ. She was rewarded with 2 prizes. Picking out what she wanted took longer than the exam. So many decisions!

We met up with cousins after dinner for cake and presents with her birthday buddy. They were going to McDonald's for his birthday dinner and I politely said, "Are you crazy? I ain't eating that garbage on my baby's birthday! Gross! We'll just see you for cake." 

I ooze diplomacy.

I made Baby a Pinkfong-shaped strawberry cake with chocolate fudge filling and strawberry frosting. Pinkfong is Baby's current obsession. (If you haven't had the delight of watching Pinkfong and Hogi videos on repeat, you're really missing out.) Mykey printed me a cookie-cutter to make the shape and Sissy did the face for me. I was pleased with our creation. She was a cute little cake! Birthday buddy had a Spiderman cake. It was pretty awesome too.

Baby received the requisite BYU garb from my cousins. She particularly loved the balls. We gave her a colored magnetic drawing pad. It was an instant hit. All the kids were horning in on her trying to draw on it.

But Baby made the best picture by far. 

It was a wonderfully epic day celebrating my girl. I sure love her. But stop growing up!

Happy Birthday to the birthday buddies!

Memorial Day

We had big plans for Memorial Day. Big. HUGE.

We was gonna see the long-anticipated Mandalorian movie. Surely with snacks and a bucket of popcorn, Baby would sit through the movie.

Surely. 

Well, you and I are both idiots for thinking that. Baby sat through approximately 8.32 minutes of the movie. I barely had any popcorn grease on my fingertips before I had to extricate myself from the theater with a noisy 2-year-old by my side. Mykey and Sissy stayed behind to enjoy the film.

It's tough being the mom sometimes...

So - Baby and I walked around the shopping complex and fondled all the merchandise at various establishments. Then we stopped for the most woof-ity cookie I ever did eat. I had to throw away half of it because it was so unsatisfying. Can you imagine Booney throwing away a cookie? It happened. What a waste of 6 dollars. 

But it wasn't all bad. The time actually passed fairly quickly and Baby met a special someone.

Ahh, young love. Isn't it magical?

School Be Out

It was finally the last day of school! Sissy didn't want me to commemorate the day. 

Is it obvious?

After a short day at school, I took Sissy and her friend for dirty sodas and dill-pickle flavored pretzel bites. 

Yum?

Then we went as a family to Gatlinburg for a quick overnight trip to celebrate the end of 7th grade. 

And celebrate we did!

Buc-ee's burritos for lunch, naturally.

And shopping at a cute European old-world themed plaza, where Baby just wanted to ride the pony. Naturally.

We ventured up to Anakeesta where Baby and Sissy jumped on the giant trampoline net and we enjoyed the beautiful views while sweating our faces off.

 

After we gorged ourselves on chocolates from a quaint shop, we ventured back to Anakeesta at night for an epic light display among the trees. We thought Baby would be in awe of the spectacle - she was not. Instead, she ran around like a 2-year-old who was awake far beyond her bedtime. It was incredibly dark, we were walking along dirt paths high up in the forest, and Baby was zipping around dangerously close to the edge of the trails. 

It was stressful. I'm too old to be darting around the trees in the darkness. Thankfully, Sissy was a hero and ran after her little sister again and again, saving her from tumbling down the mountainside. 

Whew. 

We leisurely headed home the next day with another burrito in our bellies and plenty of fudge for the journey. With a kick-off like this, I think we're in for a mighty fine summer.

Hooray for no more school!

And the Award Goes to

I received a covert message from the school that Sissy would be honored at their end-of-school awards ceremony and to keep my big, fat mouth shut about it.

Rude. 

A few days later, away we went to the ceremony for Sissy's big event. I didn't know what award she would be receiving, but as the ceremony went on and on, Sissy's name wasn't being called for anything. 

I was getting nervous. Am I being punked?!

I discovered that I hate watching other people's dumb kids receive their dumb awards while I have to wait.

I hate waiting. 

And then...

Sissy was called!

She received 3 awards: All A's for the year, Social Studies Outstanding Student, and she was voted Most Creative by her peers. Pretty good stuff.

We celebrated by getting fancy sno cones after dinner. Sissy's was enormous and full of chocolate.

It was perfect. 

Congrats to my girl!