Alana and the dentist

Alana went to the dentist today and finally actually got something done there. Every other time she hasn't let anyone near her, but today she didn't have a choice.

Today when she went they gave her a shot to put her to sleep and then put her under general anesthesia. Just sedating her last time wasn't enough. She's a fighter.

I felt so bad for her this morning when she asked for breakfast. Sorry Lana, no food for you. Its one thing when you're older and you understand why you can't have anything to eat. Its a whole other story when you're three, and all you want is a bowl of cereal. I told her sorry, but you can't have anything until after you go to the dentist to get the holes in your teeth fixed.

She's the new owner of three metal crowns. Two on top, one on bottom. They make her look badass. She has street cred now. They are on her molars though, so its not like they're the first thing you see.

She also got like three root canals. My poor lady. If she would cooperate and let me brush her teeth it wouldn't be so bad. But she's independent, she wants to do it herself. And she brushes her teeth like a three year old.

When she was in recovery I got to go in and sit while she woke up. She was out pretty good. I seized the day and cut her nails while she was still out. Its normally a struggle, but if she is passed out then I can cut her nails with no problems.

She was pretty drunk for awhile still after we left the dentist. On the way home the first thing she did was ask if we could go get Mcdonalds. She is obsessed with Mcdonalds. And she kept asking when we were going to the dentist. She didn't remember anything after getting the shot that knocked her out.

All in all she did pretty good. She didn't have any problems with the anesthesia, all of her cavities are gone and she doesn't have any real memory of even going to the dentist.

New title - same old post

I seriously passionately HATE to buy formula. It's one of the top five reasons my babies are breastfed. But when I go clean a couple of people's houses once a week, she has to have something to eat for those couple of hours.

I never once bought formula for Alana. So far in Ava's 7 1/2 months I've scraped by on free samples from the hospital and/or the internet. There are tons of websites where you can get samples of formula, but its a one time thing. And once you open it its only good for 30 days. That goes by quickly when you only use it once a week.

My babies aren't exactly big fans of the bottle anyway. Alana wouldn't even take a bottle if it had breastmilk in it. So buying formula is a huge waste of money.

I have pumped and frozen milk for Ava before. It takes forever. I hate it. But its free. (After you deduct the price of the pump, which I bought when I was pregnant with Alana).

The last time I sent breastmilk with Ava to my mother-in-laws house, I gave her very specific instructions. Do not microwave it. Put it in the fridge. If she doesn't drink it all in one sitting, put it back in the fridge. I may as well have been talking to the wall. When I came back 90 minutes later, the bottle of milk was still sitting in the same place on the kitchen table. All of my work, down the drain.

She will take a bottle if its breastmilk. But do I want to invest my time in it? Or my money? I'd rather spend time than money. I have lots of time, not a lot of money.

So I've spent at least thirty minutes of my day today sitting in the chair slowly filling a bottle for Ava to drink tomorrow. I have to take Alana to the dentist tomorrow and Ava is staying home with David. She needs to eat, and baby food will only fill her up so much. At least I know David won't waste it.

Off to the dentist

Today Alana is finally going to the dentist. After an unsuccessful attempt at just sedating her, they decided to just put her under general anesthesia. That's all fine and good, but you have to wait forever for prior authorization to make sure your insurance will pay for it. And they only have an anesthesiologist once a month, so you have to put your name on a waiting list.

We put our name on the list at the beginning of February and Friday they called and said it was finally our turn. The problem with that is they only give you a few days notice for your appt, so David can't go.

She has to go today to get a pre-appt check up. They will take her vitals and everything and thats the end of the visit. All the way to Sierra Vista for that. And I know she will fight them just to fight. She won't even cooperate with them weighing her.

Then on Wednesday she has to go back and get knocked out. They will take her x-rays, clean her teeth and probably give her a root canal to fix the giant cavity in her molars. That stupid cavity is the reason we had to take her there in the first place.

After this I'm going to be the enforcer. I will personally brush her teeth, not just ask David to do it. You can't rely on men to take care of other people's dental hygiene. Don't. Your kids will get cavities and you will have to take them to the dentist.

Did you know?

Bet you didn't know but ... Mermaid Barbie can fly! I was just as surprised as you. Alana just told me. Apparently her Mermaid Barbie is the only one who can fly, so don't go spreading this info around or other owners of Mermaid Barbies will get jealous.

Whoops!

What Alana said to me just now: "MOMMY! Me "accidently" pilled my milk all over my bubble dum shirt. Now me gonna have to wear my How-to-train-dragon shirt. Whoops!"

I'm sure it was completely accidental. The fact that she knew exactly which shirt she wanted to wear next was just a coincedence.

Caught on camera

Ava likes to crawl over to the tile. I tried to get a good picture of her but she wasn't exactly cooperative. She looked away, turned the other direction, Alana got in the picture and she even coughed. That's what that bottom picture is. She coughed mid picture. It was actually pretty funny. I need a faster camera.

Valley of the naked dolls

Everywhere I look I see naked dolls. It's become an epidemic in our house. Naked Barbies and princesses litter the living room floor right now. Aurora, Ariel, Princess Tiana and Jasmine have all gone wild.

Alana's dolls just can't seem to keep their clothes on. Low standards probably. They must be hot. I should turn on a fan.

The only one who isn't naked is Mermaid Barbie. She physically can't take her clothes off. Her top is painted on and her bottom half is a tail. So she stands out a little from the rest. She's the only one with any morals.

A day at the movies

Alana was pretty hyped every time she saw the 1000 previews for How to train your Dragon, so we decided to go see it this weekend.

We had been telling her we were going to see it all week, so when she went to Walmart with David mid-week he bought her a shirt. Its a couple sizes too big with a crazy small head hole, and its hideous, but she thinks its awesome. It has a picture of Toothless, the main character dragon on it. She was as excited to wear the shirt as she was to see the movie.

David insisted on seeing the movie in 3D even though I was against it. I hate wearing those stupid glasses for two hours. And Alana won't wear them the whole time, so she's probably wondering why the movie is so blurry. Ava too. You can't put 3D glasses on a baby.

My morning at the movies had a rough start. Ava was tired and squirmy, I spilled almost all of David's popcorn on the floor, then Ava smacked her head on the armrest and when I got up to take her into the hallway I kicked my bottle of water underneath someone elses seat.

After Ava settled down and went to sleep I finally got to enjoy the movie.

I have to admit that the 3D was worth it. It was really awesome. The scenes where the dragon is flying through the clouds were really cool. You can just see so many more details in 3D. Every blade of grass, every little piece of floating ash, every hair on Hiccup's head. It was worth the hype.

It was a really good movie and I highly recommend it. I'm so glad they make kids movies so that adults can enjoy them too. Or those of us who are just big kids.

Neopolitan Dynamite

My Ben & Jerry's favorite flavor of the week is: Neopolitan Dynamite. It's probably like the best flavor they've ever made.

This one is two of my favorite flavors combined. It's one half Cherry Garcia, one half Chocolate fudge brownie. Delicious. I give it an A.

Its not like regular neopolitan where they subject you to vanilla. Just chocolate and cherry, which is better than strawberry.

My only complaint about this flavor is that David doesn't like the cherry. He's crazy. So when he takes the container to get a bite he only takes chocolate. That throws off my chocolate/cherry ratio. I like equal parts of both flavors in each bite. But I can settle for a little bit more cherry than chocolate if I have to. For the greater good.

Wanted: Jingle writer

I see this commercial on Nickelodeon everyday and its so annoying. The one they like to play usually has five year old girls and when they talk its an adult's voice. So creepy. I looked the shoes up and they cost like $80, so the least they could do is come up with a better song. Hire a real advertising company. Seriously. This is the best video of it I could find and I think its the UK version. Even I could come up with a better jingle than this. The worst part is the shoes are hideous and Alana always says she wants them.

If you want a dumb song stuck in your head the rest of your life then watch this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCXqyg7p_ow

Multi-tasking

There's a reason men aren't typically the stay-at-home parent. They are pretty much incapable of doing more than one thing at once. I'll admit that at work David may be able to multi-task, but he loses that ability the minute he clocks out.

Last night I was taking a bath after giving Ava a bath. After I handed Ava to David, clean and shiny and smelling good, his task was simple. All he had to do was get her lotioned up and dressed, while still watching Alana. Simple enough right?

Alana was painting at the kitchen table and while David was getting Ava dressed, with the kitchen table in clear sight, Alana painted her entire hand and arm up to her elbow. Then she showed David and he sent her into the bathroom to have me wash her off. So much for a relaxing bath.

David said he couldn't watch Alana cause he was getting Ava dressed. Like that task requires so much concentration that he was unable to do anything else. That is why men don't stay home to take care of their kids full time. They can't.

Sometimes when I ask David to do something in the household chore department, he will reply he can't, he is watching Alana and/or Ava. If it were truly impossible to watch a child and do housework at the same time nothing would ever get accomplished around here. Its not exactly rocket science. You put the kid in the highchair in the kitchen with you when you're doing the dishes. Clean the living room when they're watching TV.

Men can't imagine vacuuming while holding a baby on their hip, much less peeling potatoes sitting in the living room while playing with a baby who is rolling around the room. I somehow manage to keep the house clean, the laundry done, the kids fed and clothed and not burn the house down in the process. And I still have time to read or write blogs. They do take naps after all. Like I said, its not rocket science.

Can't argue with logic

Tuesday when I attempted to dress Alana in non-pajama clothes she asked if we were going anywhere. When I said no she said she didn't want to get dressed.

A little while ago I got Jayden dressed in something  besides just his underwear. Not that that look wasn't working for him, but his mom sent clothes so at some point he should probably wear them. He asked if we were going anywhere.

Is there some link in a three year olds mind that says clothes=going somewhere? Do you have to be leaving the house to change out of your pajamas? If that were the case I would only wear pajamas most of the week. Not that I'm a natural homebody, but I haven't got anywhere to go. And we only have one car, so even if I wanted to go somewhere I couldn't just do it spur of the moment.

Three year olds have got some crazy logic though. And they say crazy things. I was invited to a birthday party a little while ago. Scooby doo was scheduled to appear. And they were wrapping their own presents. I had a prior engagement to feed Ava, but I bet it was a great party.

Disney leftovers

Just a few leftover Disneyland pics that I'm not sure I posted. We are wild about the 3D glasses, so I always have plenty of those pics. And Alana loves to give the thumbs up. And Ava just looks so cute all of the time, who can help but take her photo?

Poison combs

When Nathan was young he asked me once "Is there poison in combs to kill the rats in our hair?" I thought it was a justified question. How else do we get rid of the "rats" in our hair?

If there was ever anyone who needed a poison comb, it would be Alana. Her hair is a disaster area. I'd call FEMA, but they probably wouldn't get here till next year.

Her hair is curly-ish and fine. It has a swirl in the back and she has her daddy's hairline. I pity her when she gets to high school and has to manage it on her own.

It's too fine to stay up in a ponytail, plus it has a natural part on the side that prevents it from being combed straight back into any sort of ponytail. And she has lots of short little baby hairs in the front that look like little bangs, but the rest of her hair is too wavy/curly for her to have bangs without the aid of a flat iron.

Only the bottom half of her hair is curly. The top is flat and smooth. Luckily for her its not frizzy.

I don't mind the craziness of her hair. I just wish she'd let me comb it once in a while, without having to wrap my legs around her to pin her down.

Because of the fine texture and the placement of the crazy curls, her hair cannot be left all down. If its down it gets tangled and ends up looking like I never comb it.

She cries and says "ousch" constantly when I brush her hair after she takes a bath, but its a necessary evil. If I didn't do it then it would look even worse in the morning.

I've already cut it three times to keep it fairly short. If it had never been cut it would be really long and even more out of control.

When she goes to school in a few years I'm gonna have my work cut out for me. I'd rather pin her down every morning to brush her hair then have her go to school looking like a hobo. (No offense to hobos).

Everything but the...

I'm hardly an ice cream expert. But I do love two special guys from Vermont. I'm talking about Ben & Jerry. They are ice cream experts.

It may seem lame to blog about ice cream. But the point of this blog is to talk about my life, and part of my life involves eating delicious ice cream.

I'm addicted to buying the cleverly named little containers of ice cream. We don't eat ice cream in large quantities so I don't like to buy half gallons because they won't get eaten. We have a container of Schwann's ice cream in the freezer right now, and it's been there almost two weeks. Its barely half gone. If it were at someone else's house (I'm talking about my sister's, Jeremy loves ice cream more than anyone I've ever met), it would be long gone.

But I only eat small quantities, therefore I have a love affair with Ben & Jerry.

My latest flavor of the week was called "Everything but the...". It was chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with white chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups, chocolate covered almonds and heath bar chunks. I give it a C-.

Part of the reason I bought this particular flavor was for the white chocolate and peanut butter cups, not for me, but for David. I didn't want to eat it alone, so I bought a kind I thought he would like. He did. He liked it way more than me.

I just didn't care for the white chocolate or the peanut butter cups. They were kind of gross. White chocolate in general is overrated. And the ice cream was swirled chocolate and vanilla swirled, which wasn't that great.

The almonds were really good, and the toffee pieces were okay. But overall, not my favorite flavor. Better luck next time I guess.

Speedy Sunday

How did Sunday go so quickly? I had plans to wash the car, vacuum the car, cut David's hair, play with the ladies, watch some movies. I guess I accomplished some of those things.

We watched two movies yesterday that were each over two hours long. There's a big chunk of my lost time.

Alana took a long nap. Ava coordinated her schedule to nap at the same time.  

I spent an hour in the kitchen making eggrolls for lunch, then cleaning up the mess. I really hate frying things.

We went to the playground at the park. Too many crackheads. I'm not judging, just stating the facts. Also, too many swing hogs. So we ended up going to David's parents house. Ava had her first swing ride. I think she yiked it.

I was attacked by a vampire zombie.

Be afraid, be very afraid!

David read my mind in the car. He knew exactly what I was going to say before I even said it. He knows me too well.

We had a ranch with carrots and chips picnic on the living room floor. Ava inchworm crawled to wherever the ranch was. Then we'd move it. Then she'd inchworm crawl over to it again.

Then I ate my 15th brownie of the day. Just as delicious as the first one.

I did cut David's overgrown hair. I did give both ladies lots of kisses. I did manage to get myself and both ladies dressed in something besides pajamas. I did watch two good movies and managed not to cry. I did show off my gift wrapping skills by wrapping a birthday present in the car on the way to Peter Piper. I did play too many arcade games with Alana.

I did not wash or vacuum the car. I did not fold any of the laundry that I washed. I did not apply makeup before going to return the movies. Stupid Redbox right inside Walmart. Right where everyone coming out of the store walks past you standing in line to return movies.

Whatever. The car and laundry can wait. My ladies will only be small for a little while. Then I can make them wash the car.

Favorite things yesterday

Yesterday was an average Saturday. Nothing special, but still good and memorable. Here are my favorite things from yesterday.

Favorite thing I ate: Pepperoni pizza. Peter Piper Pizza is the pizza people pick
Favorite kiss: This one's a tough call, but I have to give it to...Ava! A slobbery baby kiss really brightens my day
Favorite thing Alana said: "Mommy, I yuv you tree times"
Favorite thing I watched: rerun of The Office - they debated whether or not Hillary Swank is hot
Favorite thing I made: triple chocolate chunk brownies, then I ate three of them
Favorite genetic trait I inherited: fast metabolism, allowing me to eat three pieces of pizza and three brownies without gaining weight
Least favorite stupid thing I did: went into the same bathroom stall at Peter Piper three times, even though there was no toilet paper in it any of those times
Favorite cheap toy from Peter Piper: vampire teeth, they transform Alana into a zombie in the blink of an eye
Favorite husband: David! Like there was ever any real competition in that field
Favorite near-crawling baby moment: Ava inching her way over to Alana playing on the floor, only to have Alana move
Favorite day of the week: Saturday! No work, almost no household chores (I try to avoid doing dishes, like its a Sabbath day), watching TV with David when our kids are asleep, playing dumb arcade games at a pizza place, good times

Breakfast time

Ava is officially too big to sit in her bouncer seat on the table during meals. She sits upright in it and tries to get out. It makes me nervous.


So she has received a complimentary upgrade to first class, by way of a hand-me-down high chair.
She's even trying out the in flight meal. Banana and banana muffin. Hope she likes bananas.


I'm not completely ready for her to only eat finger foods yet. I'm still planning on feeding her pureed baby food for awhile, at least until she gets tired of it. But a little muffin and fruit while I'm doing the dishes won't hurt her.

Ketchup Sandwich

Steps for making a ketchup sandwich:
Take 2 pieces of whole wheat bread; squirt a generous amount of ketchup on them; put the bread slices together; enjoy!

Why argue with a 3 year old? If they say they want a sandwich made of ketchup and bread, then I say let them have it. David insisted that Alana wouldn't like it, he wasn't gonna make it, she wouldn't eat it. He made it, she ate it, she liked it.

He squirted some ketchup on the heel of the bread and she ate the whole thing. I hate the heel of the bread. Bread heels = poison. Its like eating a piece of bread made up of only crust. Plus it was covered in ketchup. It must be an acquired taste. Only a 3 year old has a refined enough palette to be able to enjoy such a delicacy.

Favorite banana muffins

We are currently OBSESSED with these muffins. I've made them at least 4 times in the past week and a half. I only like bananas that have ZERO brown spots on them, so we always have leftover overripe bananas laying around the kitchen. I love to look for recipes on www.allrecipes.com. They have recipes for everything and reviews from people who made them saying whether they're good or not, or what to add to make it a little better. I doctored the recipe a little bit until I liked it. I added honey and cinnamon; and I make them in jumbo muffin cups, but you could make them in any size.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour              3 large bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon baking powder                3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda                   1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt                           1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon                    2 tablespoons honey
                                                   1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350. Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners.
I prefer to use non-stick spray because it makes the outside of the muffin a tiny bit crunchy, which I love.
Stir together dry ingredients; set aside.
I don't like banana chunks so I pre-mix the bananas with my mixer, just till they are smooth.
Combine bananas, sugar, egg, butter, honey and vanilla in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix just until smooth. Don't overmix, it won't do anything but harm.
Scoop into muffin pans.
Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, regular muffins about 15 minutes, and jumbo muffins about 20 minutes.
Muffin tops will spring back when lightly tapped.
Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. You can eat them warm or cool.
I like them better when they've cooled off a little bit.

Reflections

I've noticed a pattern in my blog writing. I almost always dedicate my last paragraph, or at least last couple of lines, to some sort of statement of my opinion. I take a moment to remark on what I've just said. Say something about how I can't change it, or how I should appreciate something while I still can.


Maybe I watch too much TV, and in some of those TV shows they do the same thing. I can think of a couple of instances where that is the case, but I don't think that's why I do it. Besides, most of my TV watching is done between the hours of 6 am - 8 am, where its just me and Ava awake. Once Alana gets up I change the channel to cartoons. Who can concentrate on a TV show with a 3 year asking to watch Spongebob? The only TV I watch at night is with David, and that mostly consists of some sitcoms and American Idol. Then he watches MSNBC while I take a bath, or we watch a rerun of The Colbert Report or Daily Show. Yeah, that's probably not why I do it.


Maybe I'm just a corny person, so therefore whatever I write is corny too. I hope it doesn't come across as too cheesy, but I'm not someone who over thinks stuff too much. Like when I'm taking a test, if I don't know an answer, I don't dwell on it. You're not gonna know the answer in five minutes from now, so why waste your time.


But back to the subject at hand. Why do I need to reflect on what I've just said? Do I think my blog needs some sort of conclusion that ties it all together? Maybe. Maybe not. But its a habit I've developed and I'm not giving it that much thought. If you don't like it don't read my blog. At the end of the day most of my blog readers are probably my family anyway, and they already think I'm awesome. Who can blame them? I am.

**I sort of did it again, I just can't help myself.

Heebie jeebies

**David says not to post this cause its too gross. I agree that its gross, but its also funny.

Tuesday night I went into the bedroom to get a pair of shoes so I could take back a movie. Alana was already asleep so I didn't turn the light on. My shoes were exactly where I left them next to the hamper anyway. I'm always paranoid there's gonna be something in my shoe, so I hit them together once and shook them out.

Then I sat on the edge of the bed in the dark and put my shoes on. After that I went into the bathroom and I felt like there was something in my shoe. My grey Nikes have been my go-to shoe the past couple of weeks so they hadn't been sitting around in the back corner of the closet, all neglected like some of my shoes. But guess what? There was a giant gross roach (just threw up in my mouth a little thinking about it) in my shoe. Thank goodness I was wearing socks or I would've run out the front door screaming.
I've heard stories of other people having bugs or other such gross things in their shoes, but I always shake my shoes out so I didn't think it would ever happen to me. Apparently, this particular bug was good at sticking to stuff, because he didn't come out when I hit my shoes together and shook them out. I didn't look that closely because it was dark, but I will never make that mistake again. From now on I'm running my shoes under an x-ray machine before I put them on.

I try to keep my house as clean as possible. I never leave uncovered food out on the counter, I always wipe the counters clean after every meal and I'm obsessive about doing the dishes. I never leave dishes in the sink overnight. I get up from the dinner table and immediately put away the food and do the dishes. I don't have a dishwasher so this means I do the dishes about five times everyday.

Despite all my best efforts, disgusting bugs and roaches find their way into my house. I suppose they were here before me and they'll be here after me. What's wrong with a world without roaches? Why can't I have a life where I've never looked down in the bathtub to see a roach doing the backstroke next to me?

I HATE bugs, especially roaches. They gross me out beyond belief. I was almost crying when I found one in my shoe, not to mention the bathtub one a few years ago. I made David come into the bathroom and get it. It was smashed but not dead. They must have nine lives or something.

After every roach incident I have a serious case of heebie jeebies for at least a week. I washed the shoes I was wearing the other night two times, but I probably won't wear them again for a month or two. I didn't take a bath for two months after I saw one in there, and I scrubbed the bathtub with bleach right after. (I still showered, I'm not completely gross.)

I guess I'm powerless to stop them. They outnumber me and they aren't going anywhere. I still hate them and think they are the most disgusting things ever.

More pirate baby action!

Ava looks too good in this eyepatch to not take a picture for everyone to see. But don't let the cuteness fool you, she is a master pirate ninja who will destroy anyone that crosses her. So that nurse at the health department better watch out for a chubby baby with a score to settle (as soon as she learns to walk and find her way to the health dept by herself).

No makeovers!

I think I've just about said all I've got to say about our trip to Disneyland. I've still got a couple of stories left that are too funny to be forgotten about. Here is one about Alana:

Given that Alana is the ultimate girly girl (she makes me pretend to put makeup on her and fake flatiron her hair all of the time) I thought she would enjoy going to the Bibbidi Boppidi Boutique. They give "makeovers" to little girls starting at age three. They paint their nails, do their hair, slather them with glitter makeup and give them a sash that officially declares them to be a princess. Depending on the package you purchase you can get a princess dress and shoes and wand to complete the look.

We asked Alana in advance if she thought getting a makeover would be fun. She said yes. So I made her an appt for Wednesday morning when we were at Disneyland and we bought her a Belle dress to go with her makeover.

That morning we went to breakfast at Goofy's kitchen and to Toon Town before Alana's makeover appt. I didn't want her to get her Belle dress really dirty at breakfast so I put her in regular clothes and brought the dress. Since her hair was supposed to be clean for her makeover I just put it in pigtails but didn't put in any hairspray (a decision I would later regret).

We went about our morning as scheduled. We had breakfast with Goofy, then went to Toon Town Early Morning Madness and rode the little roller coaster a couple times and took a picture with Donald. It was almost time for Alana's makeover, so we made our way back to Fantasyland.

Alana was really excited all morning. She kept telling people "Me getting a makeover!" So we got to the place and checked in and she even told the clerk she was getting makeover. We told them she had a Belle dress to change into so they led us through the salon area to the dressing rooms. We walked through the little mini salon with small chairs and rows of little girls with hairdressing capes all in various stages of their makeovers. It was so cute.

When we got to the dressing room and closed the curtain Alana started crying. She said "Me don't want a makeover!" I don't know what happened in between the door and the dressing room, but she had changed her mind. Being that she's the most stubborn child in history, once her mind is made up there's no changing it.

I managed to get her into her dress, so that wasn't a total waste. She's gonna be Belle for Halloween this year whether she likes it or not.

We came out of the dressing room with her clinging to my leg. I don't know why she was so scared, but she wouldn't even look at any of the ladies, much less let them try to convince her to get a makeover. I had to tell them sorry, but no makeovers for us today. They understood, its not like all 3 year olds sit calmly and let strangers put makeup on them.

On the way out of the store I let Alana pick something to buy, so she chose a Princess and the Frog earring and ring set. Very glamorous. They cost nothing compared to what I was going to spend on the makeover.

So Alana spent the rest of the day wearing her Belle dress over her shirt and skirt that I had dressed her in that morning. Her pigtails got a little fuzzy in the back. I knew I should've put hairspray in her hair. She still looked glamorous to me. Pink converse shoes and a princess dress is a look that will never go out of style.

My pirate baby

Ava is determined to defend herself from getting any more shots. She's gonna keep this sword in case any other mean health dept. ladies try to stab her in the leg again. She's not taking any chances. Maybe she'll put the eyepatch on too. She looks pretty bad to the bone with an eyepatch, then no one will mess with her.

Seven months!

It doesn't seem possible that Ava is already seven months old, but its true! She is growing at the speed of light and getting chubbier everyday. She is my chubs, my little paco, my pretty Ava Jo. Oh, how I love her.

She has the cutest little fat neck, chubby cheeks, stubby little toes and chubby little baby hands. She has unbelievably long eyelashes, they are amazing. She has the fuzziest black hair, always standing up all over, and her bald spot has almost grown back in. She is a certified professional sitter-upper, number one tummy time baby, and a champion roller-over-er.

She LOVES being on the floor and inchworm crawling over to get into the toys. Alana's toys are her favorite, of course. They are the forbidden fruit of toys, so appealing because they are not hers. She also loves to jump around like a crazy person when she's in her bouncer, madly chewing on the bug toy and reaching up for the bird and frog dangling above her head.

She is officially big enough to eat teething cookies. She sucks on them and slobbers all over, then offers you a bite. Alana must not of told her that sharing is dumb. She eats two meals a day of baby food, and she has yet to find a flavor she doesn't like. She even likes the meat kinds, like chicken and ham, even though they make me want to throw up just looking at them, not to mention the dog food smell they have. She still nurses for most of her food though, bottles and formula aren't looked upon kindly at our house. Neither of my kids have ever taken a bottle, even if it has breastmilk in it, they weren't big fans.

In the blink of an eye she went from being a newborn to being a chubby baby who rolls all over, tries to feed herself whatever she gets her hands on, and gives me some sloppy wet kisses. She is diligently working on her crawling skills, probably cause she missed her self-imposed deadline of seven months.

She is definitely a momma's girl, but she saves plenty of sweet smiles and laughs for her daddy and sister. She isn't as social of a person as Alana is. She is a little weary of some people sometimes (sorry Dad, Jeremy and Melissa!). She did warm up to Jeremy a little bit more earlier today though. She decided maybe he's not so scary. She always cries when Melissa tries to hold her, every time without fail. Its not a hysterical cry, she's just not sure she likes her. Maybe she just doesn't like people with red hair or glasses. Or maybe my dad's Kloos voice scares her, although if volume were an issue she wouldn't let Josh hold her. Its a mystery.

She is a sweet, cuddly, lovable, beautiful, smart, perfect lady. There are not enough adjectives to describe her and her cuteness. Before I know it she will be eight months and I will be writing a blog about that, with everything that she's doing now just being a memory.

Camera phone

Just some camera phone pics from Saturday. They're a little grainy, but that comes with the territory when you take pics with your phone. Just me and Alana drinking a milkshake, not a great one, but we drank it anyway. Ava the Easter Bunny asleep at the store, and David and Ava at Chili's.

R.I.P. Hyundaii

After almost ten years I had to say goodbye to a good friend yesterday. Someone who was with me through thick and thin. Someone who's been there since before I even knew David, before I had either of my kids. Someone who knew me when I was just an 18 year old kid living with my parents and working at Wendy's.

Yes, its true. I got rid of my car. My 2000 Hyundaii Elantra is no longer with us. Let's all take a moment of silence to remember my car.

The story of my car began August 2000. I was driving Melissa's old car, a 1984 Oldsmobile, but it wasn't really "mine". Its main purpose was to get me back and forth to work. So I traded it in to Jim Click for a brand new car. Compared to the Oldsmobile it was a luxury car. It had 19 miles on it when I got it, just a baby. I was so grateful to have a car where everything functioned, a/c, power windows, speakers that worked in the front and the back. Plus, it was MINE. I paid for every single penny of it and no one could take it away.

Not even two months after I bought my car someone hit it in the school parking lot. I had a crappy rental car while it was getting fixed and when I picked it up I was really grateful to have it back. It was a good reunion.

One year after getting it I rear ended someone, and it was almost totalled. It took almost 2 months for it to get fixed. It was such a headache until they finally called and said I could officially come pick it up, and take back the crappy Corolla I'd been driving that whole time.

My car and I moved out of my parents house, then back in, then back out again. We ended up in Mescal, where someone put a rock through the windshield. I didn't have glass coverage so I had to wait until I had $250 to replace it. By the time I got it fixed I had a flat tire and a dead battery.

After the windshield fiasco we moved away from Mescal, down to an apartment right next to where we live now. Then six months later we moved a few doors down, to the place that we still live in now. My car was in a constant battle with David's car for the carport. A couple of years ago David's car died and my car won that battle forever.

Then my insurance got cancelled which suspended my registration which meant I needed to get special insurance. I waited forever to get news tags and insurance. Seriously like 2 years. I still drove my car even though it had no insurance or tags, but just to work and back. In the mean time all of the power windows broke at one point, the charger/cigarette lighter broke, the rear view mirror fell off and I had to have the hood replaced because they put it on crooked when it got fixed. The a/c also leaked out all of the cooland in it and I spent a couple really hot months driving it back and forth to work, since at that time none of the windows rolled down.

Then when it was finally legal to drive my car again I was pretty happy. For awhile we had a second honeymoon, everything worked, my a/c worked great, the paint still looked okay. But after awhile we started having problems again. The transmission broke, luckily while it was still under warranty. It took a lot of pulling teeth to get them to fix it correctly. The first time I went to pick it up it wouldn't go in reverse, so I ended up with a brand new transmission.

Then the rear drivers side window wouldn't stay up. I never did get that fixed. For a long time we tried taping it up, but it ripped half of the tinting off of it. Then we discovered that if you shoved in a folded up piece of thick paper, it would create a wedge and hold up the window. Around the same time the switch on the front drivers side window broke, so it wouldn't roll down. One window wouldn't stay up, the other wouldn't go down.

About five or six years in the paint started to look really crappy. It wasn't that it was just scratched or old, it wasn't really peeling, it just started to turn kind of gray. It started with the back bumper. It got big spots on it where the paint was just deteriorating. Then the roof and hood started to look the same way. Spots on the doors and front were rubbed off where we would touch the car when we were opening the doors. It just started to look like a piece of junk. The interior still looked okay, and up until I had Alana I kept it really clean, but the outside looked horrible, and I was judging it by its cover. It had really let itself go.

Little problems came up here and there but we were mostly happy. I payed off the loan in August 2006, 2 months before Alana was born. No matter what problems we had, I was willing to overlook them since I had no car payment. Even though we had to rent cars to go on vacation, my car was paid for so it was worth it.

Then something unforgivable happened last summer. The a/c broke. The estimate to fix it was $1100. They may as well have been asking for my first born child. There's no way I have that kind of money laying around to spend on a car that has a value of less than $1000. To add to the suffocating heat inside the car, it was June, the drivers side window doesn't roll down, and I was 8 months pregnant.

We decided to leave it as is, since we really didn't have a lot of options. That meant driving a hot black car around Benson, and borrowing David's parents truck whenever we had to go to Tucson so I could go to the Dr. Then when Ava was born, we had to borrow my dad's car to bring her home from the hospital, since our car was way too hot to put a newborn in.

And when David came up to Tucson when I was still in the hospital, he had to borrow his parents truck to get there, since it was August, so his mom tagged along. All I really wanted was to see my husband since I was stuck in a hospital room for three days, but instead I got my husband plus my mother in law. It wasn't exactly relaxing.

At the end of summer when the weather got much cooler (probably closer to winter), riding in my car became a little more bearable. We don't really run the heater, so it would figure that it works great. Then two of the tires blew out, in different months at least, and both had to be replaced.

We had kind of figured that we would fix the a/c with our tax refund, but when that money came we had a long list of other stuff we would've rather spent that money on. We needed a vacation, some new clothes for our ladies, and we wanted to pay off a couple of bills. So we put it off. We said we would wait until March/April when money gets deposited into David's retirement fund, then we would use that money to fix everything that was wrong with the car.

Then we rented a car to go on vacation. A brand new car, that had a/c and everything in working order. The day before we were supposed to take it back, we were driving around and decided that we couldn't settle anymore. We needed a new car. I was going to trade in the old crappy car for a newer model.

Saturday we drove our car to Sierra Vista to go to Target. We did not intend on getting a new car. But when we got back into our non-air-conditioned car to leave Target, and the temperature had started to climb and the sun had come out, we knew it was over. We decided to go look at used cars, and maybe see what they would give us for trade in on our car. We didn't have a cash down payment, so we didn't want to get our hopes up since our car wasn't worth much in cash to them, just in sentimental value to me.

After a grueling 4 hours of waiting at the car dealership all of our financing and everything finally went through. It took longer than usual since we hadn't planned on buying a car, so we didn't have any of the paperwork they wanted. David had to call his boss and have her fax over paycheck stubs (turns out we had some in our old car the whole time), I had to call Progressive and make changes to our insurance policy to make it full coverage, we needed a copy of a bill with our address on it so I had to log online using their computer and print out my cell phone bill. It just took forever.

Finally it was time to sign the papers and get the heck out of there. Then we were handed the keys to our new car. It's a 2008 Pontiac G6. Not brand new, but new to us and 100 times newer and better than our old car. Then we had to take our carseats and junk and switch them over.

After we had moved everything it was time to say goodbye. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry. That was my first car. Despite everything that broke on it it was a good, reliable car. It never broke down and left me stranded somewhere, or just wouldn't start in the morning for no reason. It got me where I needed to go for ten years. It took us to Dallas once, even to Las Vegas. I will never have another first car. I took a picture of it with my camera phone and said goodbye. I have to move on, even if I don't want to. If the a/c hadn't broken we probably would've kept it another year. It was nice not having a car payment for 3 1/2 years.

Lucky number 101

I didn't notice at the time, but my last post was my 100th post. I only started this blog in October, partly because Nicole told me to so she would have more "blog friends", or people following her blog too. I didn't realize it would be so fun to write about my life, past and present. I have lots of things to say and since my days are spent in the company of kids, I don't always have anyone to tell my stories to.

I could tell David, but he's at work and half the time when I'm talking I'm pretty sure he's only half listening. I guess we're even, cause when he's talking about sports I'm mostly pretending to listen. I still manage to retain some knowledge about whatever he's talking about, while he asks me questions about stuff I told him half an hour ago. "Did you get milk at the store?" "Do we have cheese?" Didn't I just tell you the answers to those questions? It probably seems like the only questions he asks are food related, they're not. Those are just the first two examples I could think of.

So I don't mean to dedicate my entire 101st blog to ranting about my husband. But I do have plenty to say on every topic under the sun so my blogging days are just beginning. Even if David says some of the stuff I say is lame, corny or just stupid. He says he should get a humanitarian award just for staying with me, just because of the alleged "lameness" of my blog. I'll get right on that.

So here's to my 101st blog, I'm ready to add a couple hundred more to that total (not today of course, but eventually).

Sharing is over rated

Alana has developed a seemingly incurable condition: I-don't-want-to-share-cause-I-was-an-only-child-for-almost-three-years-and-you-can't-make-me-share-or-I'll-scream-really-loud-itis. The symptoms include: screaming at your cousin for attempting to play with a toy that you weren't even looking at until he picked it up and now you really want to play with it all of a sudden; being a poophead; throwing a toy at your cousin for refusing to give you his stuff (even if its the pants that he's wearing); crying; being as stubborn as humanly possible; being cute right after being bratty so that no one will hold a grudge.

There is no known cure for this condition. If your child develops it I wish you the best of luck because you will want to immediately list this child on craigslist to whoever calls you first. Why craigslist and not Ebay? Ebay charges fees and shipping, plus you have to wait for payment. Craigslist is free.

Trying to make the stubborn child share is pointless, she will not. You will end up with a pile of "unshareable" toys on top of the entertainment center at the end of the day.

Inch worm

I'm not quite sure how she's accomplishing it, but Ava is semi-crawling. She can lift her chubby belly off of the floor, but she doesn't last in that position very long. She rolls back and forth, left and right and in a semi-circle when she wants to get to something on the side of her.

But when the object of her desire is directly in front she is faced with a dilemma. She can push herself backwards just fine, but moving forward is another story. I know she can somehow do it, I just haven't actually seen her move that far at once.

Yesterday I put my glass of water at least a foot out of her reach when I was sitting on the floor with her. Then I turned to face the other direction to say something to Alana and when I turned back to look at Ava she could reach my water and was in the process of knocking it over. She wasn't up against the couch, where she can push herself off with her feet, and she can't "officially" crawl, but she somehow move herself forward about a foot to get to my water.

Later that night while I was in the kitchen Ava was on the floor with David. He baits her with stuff, by putting a toy that she wants a few inches out of her reach, and every time she manages to get to it.

She is working hard to develop her crawling skills. Maybe she set a personal goal to crawl before she turns seven months on Sunday. She better get crackin, if thats the case.

Lesson learned

Don't give three year olds pudding. This is what they'll do with it. Jayden did have more on his forehead but he wiped his face on my couch. I knew I bought a brown couch for a reason.

Taking your socks off when you're sleeping is a difficult skill to develop.

Wearing all of your jewelry at once is always classy.

Independence

Alana is at an age where she will just leave me for the day without a second glance. I'm going to Nana and Tata's he-youse, see you later. Maybe I'll be home for dinner. They do have a swingset, how can I compete?

The only time she's spent the night away from me was when I had Ava. I spent two nights in the hospital and Alana spent both of those nights at home with David. Then when she would come visit me she didn't want to leave. But now she sees me all day every day so she figures a few hours apart won't do any harm.

I wonder if I'll cry when she goes to school for the first time. She is such a social butterfly that she probably won't even notice when I leave her there. Ava and I will just go back home and wait out the day until Alana comes home at three, excited from getting to spend all those hours away from me.

I haven't seen enough of Ava's personality yet to know if she'll have separation anxiety. She is a pretty independent little lady though. She plays on the floor by herself for up to an hour at a time, just rolling around to different toys that she can put in her mouth, as happy as can be. She also doesn't need to be held to go to sleep, I just put her in her swing and she falls asleep on her own.

I know I had my share of separation anxiety. I cried everyday of first grade. I HATED my teacher. She was an evil witch who I'm pretty sure cast spells on people. She was always yelling at me to pick up my feet when I walked. The sound of my white fringe cowboy boots on the tile floor drove her crazy. Well guess what Ms. White? I still drag my feet when I walk and its been 22 years. Ha. I showed you. I'm gonna do it forever too, even if it means that I get shocked by the dairy case at Walmart, because of the static that built up when I was dragging my feet.

I came home early from my share of sleepovers too. I got homesick, which made me sick to my stomach, so my friends parents called my parents and said I didn't feel good. I sometimes got a little homesick when I was spending the night at an aunt or uncle's house too, but then I usually sucked it up because I wanted to play with my cousins or continue getting spoiled by my aunt Beth.

I even got homesick on my senior trip. I'm such a weiner that I cried because I wanted to go home. In hindsight I can blame it on exhaustion, hormones or teen angst, but I just wanted to go home. I should've been having an awesome time, but instead I just wanted to go home. So much for being independent at 18.

David's brother just turned 21. He still lives with his parents and doesn't have a drivers license so if he needs driven somewhere they drive him. If I still lived with my parents when I was 21 I would've gone crazy. I probably would've pulled my hair out at the roots, or drove my car off of a cliff. And I had a car and license so I could come and go on my own terms. He doesn't, he's stuck there with his mom still telling him to clean his room. If he wants to leave, someone else has to drive him. I do not envy him. Not that I don't love my parents, but if someone was still telling me to clean my room when I was 21 they would've had to commit me. I would never have been able to stand it.

I hope I don't drive my kids that crazy, but it's natures cycle. They drive you crazy when they're teenagers so you don't miss them as much when they move out, and you drive them crazy so they learn to do things for themselves and hopefully move out on their own someday.

Funny Faces

Ava has a new "face". I call it the scrunchy face. She wrinkles her nose and either smiles or scowls, but sometimes she changes it up and sticks out her tongue instead. One of the cutest things about it is that when she is making that crazy face she breathes through her nose really loud, almost scary loud.

I can't seem to get a picture that really does this expression justice. She just looks mad or semi-normal and as soon as I put the camera away she makes lots of faces. Its all part of her evil plan. Here are a few of my attempts from this afternoon, and as always Alana insisted on being in the picture.

None of these pictures do this face justice. She wasn't really making a whole-hearted attempt at the scrunchy face, maybe because David always says its freaky. If Nicole were here she would've made it and paired it with a scowl, that one's her specialty.

A subdued scrunchy face. No scowling or anything fancy when being photographed.

This one is a smiley version of the scrunchy face. She didn't do any tongue-sticking-out versions today.

Alana takes the expression "say cheese" a little to literally. She had cheese in her mouth and showed it when I took the picture.

Parade time

One of the funnest things to do at Disneyland is watch the parades. Waiting for them to start is another story. You seriously have to get there like an hour ahead to get a good seat, earlier if its the weekend. Luckily for us we watched the Pixar parade at California Adventure on a Monday. We didn't watch the Celebrate parade at Disneyland this year, but I feel like I've seen it a million times since David recorded it last year and we've watched it back A LOT of times.

When we watched the Pixar parade this year we went over to California Adventure about an hour before it started. This parade doesn't get as crowded as the other parade so people really hadn't started filling up the sidewalks and good spots yet. We got a good spot at the beginning of the parade route on a bench.

Ava was asleep so we didn't have to worry about entertaining her till it started, just Alana. Up until about ten minutes before the parade started they had all kinds of characters right behind where we were sitting, so that occupied most of her attention. Then I came back and waited with Ava while David and Alana went and got some cookies and drinks.

Once the parade started Alana got really excited. The best part of this parade is that its all Pixar characters and stuff, which happen to be Alana's favorite Disney movies, especially Toy Story. During the summer it shoots water at you too, can't say I missed that part, I've gotten squirted in the side of the head enough times.

This was the third time we've seen this parade, so we're old pros. We know how long it lasts and what to look for. My favorite part is the gymnasts doing cool flips on the Toy Story float. Alana likes the whole thing, especially when she can point out each character and inform us of their name, which is most of the time.

Ava was unimpressed. She woke up halfway through and at first the loud music scared her a little bit, but she got used to it and then it bored her.

On Wednesday we happened to be in Disneyland about an hour and a half before the parade was going to get to main street. We hadn't planned on watching that parade, but since there were still lots of spots to sit and we were there anyway, we figured we may as well watch it.

It gets really crowded around parade time, no matter what day of the week, and waiting for it to start can seem to take forever. So Ava and I found a spot on the curb and parked the stroller. Then David and Alana went to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride for the fourth time. Forty minutes went by, lots of people commented on Ava's cuteness in her Minnie hat and we were still sitting patiently on the curb. Then David and Alana reappeared. He wanted to leave. Alana peed on him. The only accident Alana had on the whole vacation and it was on him. He was holding her in line to go on Buzz Lightyear and she peed. Then he put her down and she peed more. Luckily no one around him noticed. He still went on the ride with pee on him, but he didn't want to watch the parade. Picky picky.

I had been sitting on that curb for 45 minutes, there was no way I was leaving without a fight. Alana didn't want to leave either, she wanted to watch the parade. So David left and took Ava and her stroller with him, leaving me and Alana to watch the parade that still had like 30 minutes before it started.

I kind of wanted to leave cause I felt sorry for David, he did get peed on. But I like Alana better and she wanted to watch the parade. But I wanted Ava to watch the parade too. I was torn.

So after about ten minutes of me and Alana sitting and waiting for the parade, which takes forever because its a "street party", it was still pretty far off. I'm not a huge fan of this parade, as much as I love Disneyland, I think this parade is kind of corny. Its a little over the top for me, and that's saying a lot. It parks in the street in 3 different parts of the park so it takes a long time to get from one place to another.

Alana is older this year and more patient, but I was getting a little bit impatient since David and Ava had left and I'd been sitting there almost an hour. Then the "pre-parade" came through. It was about five minutes long and was an honorary volunteer parade thing, since they have a big promotion where you can do volunteer work to get a free park admission. The Muppets were in this parade however, not just volunteers and we do love the Muppets.

Alana was dancing and clapping and waving to the people in the parade that weren't muppets, just people who volunteered and got to be in the parade as a result. She waved to Miss Piggy and Kermit (my personal favorite) and even the big monster like muppet guy who's really tall and whose name I can never seem to remember (it's not Animal). After the "pre-parade" I told Alana "Yey, clap for the parade, its over, say bye to the muppets!". I'm probably going to hell for lying to my innocent 3 year old, but it was still half an hour till the actual parade and David and Ava were long gone, probably back at the room by now. Plus, we saw the exact same parade less than a year ago and we've watched it on dvd at least 25 times since then. She got to see the Muppets and she was happy with that.

So we didn't watch the "entire" Celebrate parade, but we watched the Pixar parade. My ladies like the parades and that's what counts anyway.

Ava's to do list

Ava's to-do list for today:

6:30 am - wake up, wake up Mommy (she doesn't need sleep)
6:35 - 6:45 am - roll around on living room floor, play with Mommy's cat slippers, stare at ceiling fan
6:45 am - poop
6:50 am - eat
7 am - go back to sleep
8:30 am - wake up refreshed, wiggle like crazy in swing till lazy Mommy picks me up
8:35 - 9:30 am - make scrunchy face/stick out tongue at Alana, roll around on floor trying to get into stuff I know I shouldn't (ha, ha, ha Mommy, you can't keep stuff away from me) , play with Mommy's cat slippers (they were looking delicious, maybe they taste good this time)
9:30 am - eat some pear and strawberry granola, my favorite kind! get baby food all over my face and cupcake bib, put my bib in my mouth to make an even bigger mess
9:40 am - roll around on floor once again, it really is one of my favorite pastimes, I can't begin to explain how fun it is
9:50 am - whine a little bit, this floor business is getting BORING, make scrunchy face/stick tongue out at mommy and Alana, maybe eat a little bit, then retire to my swing for a mid-morning catnap
10:30 - 11:15 am - wake up from refreshing catnap, wiggle like crazy when mommy comes to pick me up, eat a little to top off the belly, roll around on floor once again
11:15 - 11:45 am - Daddy is home for lunch! whine a little bit and pretend I hate rolling around on the floor to get a little sympathy from Daddy - then he will pick me up and I can sit in his lap and chew on some stuff
11:45 am - 12:15 pm - sit on Mommy's lap, still coasting sympathy wave I started when Daddy was home for lunch, arch my back a little bit like I want to go on floor, complain when I'm put down on floor, good times
12:15 - 1 pm - bounce around in awesome jumper, I can always count on it for a good time
1 - 1:10 pm - convince Mommy I'm starving, try to eat her arm to further prove my point
1:10 - 1:25 pm - sit in swing contemplating sleep, decide to poop instead, then make noises but don't actually cry until Mommy picks me up to check me
1:25 pm - get my diaper changed, try to roll away at least three times, try to eat diaper and wipes and complain if they're taken away from me
1:30 - 1:40 pm - roll around on floor for a little while, put everything within my reach in my mouth, rub my eyes to further convince Mommy I'm tired (she's so gullible, I could stay up for hours!)
1:40 pm - Mommy will put me in my swing again cause she thinks I'm tired, she's so crazy, I'm wide awake, I'll even scream and laugh to myself a little bit to further my point
1:41 - 3 pm - sleep
3 pm - what happened? i wasn't tired, who made me go to sleep? I must've been drugged or something! to prove my point I will stick out my bottom lip and make a sad crying face when Mommy comes to pick me up
3:05 -3:20 pm - eat a late lunch, nobody ever feeds me, I'm wasting away to nothing, you can hardly see my cankles anymore and my wrist rolls have virtually disappeared
3:20 - 4:30 pm - roll around on the floor, play with Alana and Mommy, scream, make my cutest scrunchy/tongue sticking out face ever, taste test everything that I can reach (you never know what's edible these days), practice trying to crawl (I've almost got my fat belly off of the floor, now I just have to work on keeping it up), pull off my socks (I really don't do this enough, why not?), roll onto tile then look confused as to how exactly I got there, try to eat legs of swing
4:30 - 4:45 pm - eat an early dinner, rolling around really works up an appetite, try to sit up a few times during my meal, just to keep Mommy on her toes
4:45 - 5:25 pm - jump around like crazy person in bouncer in kitchen while Mommy makes dinner, scream a little bit, talk jibberish and make scrunchy/tongue sticking out face, eat all attached toys on bouncer (bug is my favorite, he'll always have a special place in my heart)
5:30ish pm - Daddy is home!
5:30 - 6 pm - scream at him and then get into my seat for dinner, eat lots of food (carrots or some sort of mixed fruit are both sounding pretty good right now, followed by a teething cookie to be smeared all over my face)
6 - 6:15 pm - take a bath, get stinky feet washed, roll around while Mommy is trying to get me dressed, pretend I don't like getting lotion put on, get crazy hair brushed, eat brush
6:15 - 6:45 pm - roll around on floor, play with Daddy and Alana, maybe even Mommy, eat all of the toys on the floor, make scrunchy/tongue sticking out face at Daddy at least ten times (I know he secretly likes it even though he says its freaky), give some slobbery kisses and rub my eyes
6:45 - 7 pm - eat, mostly just to fill up my little belly for the long night ahead, pull on my ears to try and keep myself awake (I'm still undecided about cooperating at bedtime)
7 pm - Mommy will probably put me in my swing (she thinks I'm tired, she's so naive, I'm ready to party all night)
7:05 pm - go to sleep, there's probably nothing better to do anyway

Beware of zombies!

Special bulletin: Alana's room has been invaded by zombies! Exercise caution when entering because chances are you will run into one. They tend to frequent the closet and scary smelly dark half bathroom that is adjacent to the toybox. They can be killed with a tinkerbell baseball bat or Mickey Mouse pirate sword. Alana's daddy is an expert zombie killer so he can be called upon to exterminate any troublesome zombies that may be plaguing you and your household. Alana is the only one who can see the zombies in her room so she must accompany anyone looking to kill them to point them out and verify they are dead. Luckily she is not afraid of zombies or we would have a real problem on our hands.

Real time vs. game time

David is watching basketball. I suggested we watch one of the 50 things we have recorded on our dvr. He said "Just wait, there's only 4 minutes left." That was like ten minutes ago. I'm not exaggerating.

The time clock during sporting events does not exactly operate in real time. Once you take into account the commercials, time outs, foul shots, etc. four minutes in a basketball/football game can last forever. Don't even get me started on baseball. If its tied at the bottom of the ninth they're going extra innings until someone comes out on top.

David is a Yankees fan and some of the world series games this year went on FOREVER. They were seriously like 15 innings. At least they finally won and got it over with.

At least the season has to come to an end at some point. David is always sad at the end of football season but I'm secretly ecstatic. Finally all of my Sundays don't revolve around Cowboys football. Finally he can't say "Hold on, there's only two minutes left," and then the game goes into overtime and the kicker misses like three field goals that would've ended the game a long time ago.

I've written this whole blog in the "four minutes" left in that game.

Ava's culinary adventures

Ava has recently been trying a few new foods that aren't really "baby" food, but dietary staples nonetheless.

The last time we went to the movies I saved my leftover red vines and left them open for a day or so to let them get stale. Then I ripped one in half and let her have her way with it. She was a fan. She gnawed on it and sucked on her lips that were covered in red vine. By the time she was done with it her face was smeared with red. It looked like she had tried to put on lipstick. I think she'll be a repeat customer.

Then yesterday we went to McDonald's for dinner. I know, big spenders going to such a fancy place for a big Friday night dinner out. Ava was a little tired so I didn't want to take her out of her seat, but I also didn't want her to complain. So I gave her a french fry to chew on. There was nothing about that soggy salty fried potato that she didn't like. If I was unsure whether or not she liked it all I had to do was try to take it away from her. She wasn't a happy camper when I tried to switch her chewed up fry with a new one, but she had gnawed it down to a stub.

Hopefully she won't be in too big of a hurry to stop eating baby foods like her sister. So until then she can just sample table food off of our plates.

***Yes Alana is wearing a bathing suit over her jammies in the picture above. Don't be jealous that you can't pull it off.