First Birthday

We had Miss P's first birthday party yesterday. It was such a blast! I can't believe how fast it went, though. boohoo.

We had a really busy weekend getting the house ready, and Saturday we had a garage sale that went pretty well. That helped get some of the crap out of here. After we got everything broken down from the sale we cleaned, mowed, planted, scrubbed, etc. The house is now very clean...except for laundry. I am hoping to keep up with it!!

Sunday we did a few last minute things in the morning which stressed me out. Nothing like trying to find a punch bowl one hour before the party. Why was a punch bowl so hard to find? I should have done it earlier, admitdly, but I was so busy with getting the house in order and doing my schoolwork. I was kind of hoping a punch bowl would just show up if I wiggled my nose and made a wish for one.

Miss P was absolutely adorable. She loved having everyone here and playing. She didn't cry except when I took her away from everyone to change her diaper. She looked like a little angel. Pretty much everyone showed up and hung out for a while. We had chicken and egg salads, veges, mac-n-cheese, beans and of course, cake and ice cream. I made sangria and this yummy punch with sherbert in it. Almost everything got eaten up, too!

The person who made the cake was a friend of my parent's. She made an extra little cake for Miss P. The baby didn't really know what to do with the cake and pretty much just played in the icing for a while. She didn't eat very much of it. My little sweetie - preferring veges over cake....yeah, right. I took her dress off so she could get as messy as she'd like. After the icing fest hubby and I put her in the bath. There was cake all in the tub - it was hysterical! She had icing in her hair, smeered on her face and I put an orange icing "P" on her chest signifying "Super P!"

Then we put her in her little dress her auntie D made for her. D made dresses for all the cousins!! They all matched and they all were adorable. My cousin Christina's little girl is only 2 months and looked so adorable in that little dress!! My friend Beth, a very special girl, took pics all day for me. She even had a dinner date and stayed to take pics of the girls in their matching dresses. I couldn't thank her enough!! I can't wait to see them all.

The pics I took aren't that great, but I did get some great moments. I was really busy hosting, and I don't know if I got to everyone, but I tried. I really just wanted to sit on my deck and drink the sangria I made.

We had a ton of people here - Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie D and Uncle P and the kids, Carol, Rick, Dee Dee (great aunts and uncles), Great Grandpa, Cousins Candyce and fam and Brett and fam, and a lot of our friends. Everyone made the day so incredibly special.

Now, I thought I would be sad that my baby was turning one. Like I would feel something was over. But really, I am not sad. I am so so happy to have P in my life and look at her first birthday as only the beginning of a wonderful life together. I have to say though, I did shed a couple of tears because I love her so damn much.

Peek-a-boo

Today Miss P had music class. This was one of the best decisions I have made with her because she LOVES to go. Today we sang a peek-a-boo song and used scarves to cover our faces.

Miss P grabbed the scarf and was playing with it, but when we sang the song she actually held the scarf and played peek-a-boo with it. She would hold the scarf in front of her face and then pull it down when we said peek-a-boo and would smile at Mrs. Julie. I almost cried because it was so cute and to see her do that just made my heart melt. She is growing up! It was so adorable. The song went to the tune of the "Three Little Indians" like this:

(you hold the scarf in front of your face)
Where oh where oh where is mommy
Where oh where oh where is mommy
Where oh where oh where is mommy
Here oh here oh here is mommy
(pull the scarf down)
Peek-a-boo!

Also, after ever song Mrs. Julie says "sshhhh" so it becomes really quiet. Then we all clap and yell "yeah!" Well, Miss P has that down and now claps and yells yeah with us. I love it.

Church

So, I finally went to church yesterday. I went to this Catholic Church really close to my house. Shane and I have been there before, but that was over a year ago! I have been looking for a church for a few years now! You'd think I could just make up my mind, but it isn't that easy.

I wanted to find a church I felt comfortable attending alone...well, now with Miss P. I also wanted a church I felt fit my worship style. I also think that it is important that the reverand's message is something that fits into life and can be used to help make me a better person. Well, this church had all of those things, and being so close to my house makes it all the better.

The 9:30a mass has childcare. I left Miss P with the women in there and she did really well. The one woman said she was really quiet and cried a couple of times, but that when she picked her up she quieted down right away. When I went to get her she seemed a little mad at me. Almost as if she felt like I just left her...which, I guess I did. I think that is good for her, though. She can't always be around mommy, and I need to know that if I get a babysitter for her who she doesn't know that she will be okay. If she totally freaks out in there I guess I just leave her home with daddy, but I don't think that will happen!

Scooter

It seems as if Miss P will be nicknamed Scooter by her Grandpa. He thinks it is so funny the way she scoots around the house. She doesn't do the traditional crawling on all fours - she has found a better way to get places. She scoots on her butt and pulls herself with her arms. This allows her to carry a toy or have hands free to drag along a blanket, teddy or the laundry I am trying to fold. It is really quite humorous. Traveling in this fashion also allows her to skip the step of putting herself in a sitting position because she is already there upon arrival.

Well, I was waiting for the day she'd scoot over to the dog bowl. She has found it hilarious to splash the water in the dog bowl and then pour the water out of the bowl and dump the food dishes. Yesterday, after she dumped the food she decided to put it back in the bowls piece by piece. Of course, she only got through three pieces before she got bored and needed to do something a bit more destructive. So, she decided to dump the pieces out of the bowl that she just put in there into the dogs' water bowl. Then she picked up another piece and put it in her mouth. Quickly though, she realized the dogs' food tasted like crap and spit it out. I got it all on video.

I plan to post it to youtube and will list the link when I do.

Songs for Miss P

I think my daughter's ego is going to be quite enormous. Songs I sing her are totally ego-stroking...if she understood the words. Ha!!

One song I sing goes to the old Mickey Mouse Club intro. I spell her name to Mickey Mouse and then sing "Who is the cutest baby in the whole wide world?" then I end with "YOU are!!" She loves it.

Then I sing this to her if I can get through it without crying...because like Burt Bacharach I am a dweeb...

Why do birds suddenly appearEvery time you are near?Just like me, they long to beClose to you.

Why do stars fall down from the skyEvery time you walk by?Just like me, they long to beClose to you.

On the day that you were bornThe angels got togetherAnd decided to create a dream come trueSo they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of goldAnd starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in townFollow you all around (except I change "girls" to boys)

Just like me, they long to beClose to you.

On the day that you were bornThe angels got togetherAnd decided to create a dream come trueSo they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of goldAnd starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in townFollow you all around.

Just like me, they long to beClose to you.Just like me (Just like me)They long to beClose to you.Wahhhhhhhhhhh, close to you.Wahhhhhhhhhhh, close to you.Hahhhhhhhhhhh, close to you.Lahhhhhhhhhhh, close to you.

Eating

Miss P officially feeds herself now. boohoo. I can still feed her some things, but she prefers to eat herself. She can only hand feed, and I am betting using the spoon won't be far behind. She likes to do things herself.

I am finding out that she loves bread, muffins, vege dogs and PAPER! I let her go through my wallet because she likes to pull my cards out of it. Well, I have to take out the receipts before I give it to her because twice she has eaten them...not the whole thing, just pieces. gross.

I have to also watch her because she likes to pull bits out of the carpet and sample them, too. I try to sweep everyday or every other day, but with dogs you can't keep up on all the small bits that get brought in from their paws. I can only imagine how much shit she has eaten and she isn't even one....okay, now I am grossed out.

Only a mother...

Only a mother can get all goobelly goo over their child feeding themselves for the first time or doing something that you only showed them once how to do. It is incredible the things I get mushy about that Miss P does, or even doesn't do.

A few weeks ago P grabbed her baby's hairbrush (yes, the baby doll came with a hair brush...go figure) and started brushing her hair with it. I couldn't believe it! We just started brushing her hair after her baths. Her hair would be totally crazy messy from the towel drying and it had to be tamed. I had only brushed her hair twice before she picked up the little orange plastic toy brush and did it herself. Of course, my child IS a genious.

BUT, so now she could brush her own hair, but she couldn't feed herself. Well... until two days ago.

She had been trying to get food in her mouth for a couple of weeks, but kind of stopped trying after endless attempts gone wrong. Then just the other day she picked up a Cheerio and put it right in her mouth. I went overboard with excitement and she did it again. Again...my child is a genious.

Later that day she sat down with our Gerber Sweet Potato puffs and ended up eating the whole container...well, between her and the dogs. She kept reaching in and grabbing handfuls, so I let her. It was too cute to stop. Plus, I wanted her to keep practicing. And believe it or not, that little thing still ate all of her dinner and nursed before bed. Mind you...she is only 17 lbs at 11 months and 29 inches. Tall and skinny with a hollow leg, I guess.

Suet

Suet: oily or greasy matter making up the bulk of fatty tissue in animals and in seeds and other plant tissue. This fat is mixed with seed to make bird food.

I never knew what it was until we got the cold snap in March. Three robins lost their lives on our front porch because of starvation from the cold. The berries they usually eat in the winter had become frozen making it hard for them to swallow. It was so sad to see them struggle trying to ingest a frozen berry. Many birds would swarm around one tree trying to get food. I took bread out to them and currants, but little did I know that suet was a choice food for robins in the winter. I had no idea what it was so I had to research it - but then I didn't know where to find it. I finally saw it at Giant Eagle the other day...of course, by this time it was too late to save the lives of the little birdies that died in our front yard.

We decided to get suet feeders and keep them in our yard. Hubby and I want to be sure that if a bird comes into our yard it will find food. We picked up the suet feeders at Big Lots! and suet at Krogers. How easy is that? Why couldn't I figure that out a month ago?

Well, now we have two feeders hanging from trees in our backyard. There is a cardinal and two squirrels keeping guard of the green wire cages full of fat and seed. They vanish when the dogs go out to pee. It is quite humerous to watch the wildlife guard the food and then the dogs guard the yard from the wildlife. I just hope Piper doesn't catch one.

GROSS!

So, Easter was going great. We took Miss P to her first Easter Egg hunt at the school behind our house and she got her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. She even "found" her first egg. It was so cold and she just sat there and played with the green plastic egg like it was a new toy. She kept scrunching up her nose and making a silly face. Luckily, I had my camera!

Easter morning she got her little basket with yellow gingham lining, a Peter Rabbit book, a few plastic "hippo" eggs and a stuffed pink bunny. We were playing hide the eggs in the cup and have her choose where it was. It was funny because when we stuffed her little bunny in the cup she cried...twice. Twice because of course we had to do it two times to see if she'd react the same way. ha! She liked the bunny, but she loved the yellow plastic grass in her basket. It was so cute to see her pull it out and play with it. Daddy took it away because he thought it could be a choking hazard.

So, all morning we played and had so much fun. Hubby and I ate a colored egg and then I went to dig into the yummy Anthony Thomas chocolate eggs hubby got me. It isn't Easter without those little chocolate eggs in colorful foil wrapping...well, until today. I opened up a bright blue foiled egg and much to my surprise were BUGS munching on my chocolate and making that delectable little egg their home! Bugs in my chocolate egg I wait a full year to get, bugs in my chocolate egg I waited until Miss P went down for a nap to eat and enjoy, bugs in my chocolate egg hubby was so kind to get for me because it is tradition. YUCK! So, I ate a Peep instead and kind of felt ill thinking there was a bug in there, too.

The Feminine Mistake

Everyone has such differing opinions on "to stay at home or to not stay at home." In a world driven by money, I am not surprised that many feel that stay-at-home mothers are making a huge mistake. But, all in all, I am hoping that when people make the decision to quit their jobs to raise their children that it is done with a plan, not just haphazardly...or by society's influence.

The latest thing I heard was on the Today Show. Ann Curry interviewed Leslie Bennetts who wrote the book The Feminine Mistake. Basically, Bennetts made the point that women are misinformed when they make the choice to quit their jobs to raise their children. She blames the media on covering horror daycare stories or not focusing on what it means financially to a family for the woman to quit her job. Here is her response to many critical responses: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-bennetts/the-feminine-mistake_b_44690.html

I commend her for voicing her thoughts and concerns on women staying at home, but I also do not agree with the fact that she thinks most of us make our choices based on what the media says. It is amazing to me that women would even make a choice whether to quit their job or not based on what was said on their local news or CNN. How can Bennetts think we are all so weak-minded that we can't live our own lives or make up our own minds without the influence of the media?

The media is a paid service. It is a disgusting business that is based on what story is the most sensational and will get the most viewers to tune in. Think about what you see on your local news - murder, missing children, fires, controversy...people love shocking stories. Look at national news - it is all about entertainment. Tabloid stories about celebs or choosing the most hair raising statistic, such as: men lose weight faster than women, even if they do the same exercise and make the same food choices...why? Or a little boy who likes vaccuums. WTF? Stupid, yet, highly entertaining. And that is it, it is entertaining. So, why do people take what they see to heart? I worked with the news for a long time "selling" them stories, and luckily I learned how it works.

Knowing what I know, it saddens me that many women would listen to stories on the news to make their life decisions. At least, that is the point Bennetts is trying to make. She totally attacked the media in her interview, and frankly, it made her look stupid. At least to someone like me who made the choice to stay-at-home with Miss P with the TV OFF!

picky, picky

So, what's up with my baby being a picky eater? I guess she takes after her mother. I have specific ways I'll eat things and where I will eat them - I'd never win on Fear Factor. I won't even eat the Fear Factor candy because it looks so gross...and I LOVE sugar.

This morning was a case in point. I made her oatmeal with whole milk and yummy apples and blueberries (fruit from a jar; I am not that good) and mixed it up really well. She hated it. So, then I blended it up together to get the "curd-like" texture out of the oatmeal. She hated it. I wanted to be sure she got her oats, so I thought and thought about what to do next. Then it came to me. Mix that mixture with yogurt and see if she'll eat. That was a winner! She ate two bowls full.

Breakfast ended up taking 45 minutes. haha! Anything to make her happy, I guess. I just want to make sure she eats. Now, that goes against what my pediatrician said. He basically suggested that if she doesn't eat what you present to her then she doesn't eat. He said I can't keep trying to make her happy because then it will be a game of trying to figure out what she wants every meal...for the next five years. To me, though, I need to figure out what she likes now so I know what to fix her and to make sure she actually eats. I have to admit, though, I can be a big push over. Oh well. I may end up going crazy later, but right now my baby is eating and that is most important to me. I've got the time when it comes to my darling daugher to make her happy, so I will.