Say Cheese!

Bayley has a toy watergun that she runs around the house with. It's tiny like her and she loves going around saying, "Pow pow!" Not sure where she learned that from, but before anyone gets all "up in arms" (pun intended, ha) rest assured that she's not watching Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Terminator, or any other violent movies. She watches Disney and Nickelodeon.

So anyway, the other day she walks up to Joe and grabs his face and pulls it towards her and says, "Look at me, Daddy!" (She does that a lot.) So he looks at her and she points the watergun to his forehead and grins really big and says, "Say cheese!"

Critically Beautiful.

Bayley likes to check my answers on my accounting homework.

She likes to inspect her food before eating it.

And I like to stare at her every second of every day to drink in her gorgeousness. :)

Then vs Now

A friend of mine from high school and I were roommates for one year in college. We have kept in touch over the years and are amazed at how our lives have paralleled, despite her moving across the country to Vegas. One of the best parallels is that we got pregnant two weeks apart. :) We were so excited to let our little angels "meet" and take their photo together. Look at how little and cute they were!
We haven't seen each other since that photo, but she came into town for a visit over the 4th of July. I drove up to her parents' house and we let the kids play at a park down the street. It was MUGGY and HOT outside, but the kids had a good time playing. Isn't this cute?!

He was a little bundle of energy and Bayley was Miss Attitude, of course. :) But they sat still long enough to get a couple of photos.

Hold You Too!

No news is good news, right?

We had to get an appliance repairman out to fix our icemaker on our "new to us" freezer. We got a good deal on a clean steel side by side and the ice maker has never worked for us. Long story short... $80 to tell us the line that goes to the icemaker was crimped. We now have ice. Hallelujah!

Bayley's speech is growing by leaps and bounds. It cracks me up how she parrots whever people say. Monday, my best friend came by and I wanted her to see Bayley's room (I had cleaned it and hung up a few things) so I said, "Come see Bayley's room," and Bayley looked at Courtney and said, "Come see my room!" It was too cute.

She likes to say, "Hold you!" when she wants you to hold her. I'll say, "Want me to hold you?" as I pick her up and she'll say, "Hold you too!" and giggles.

Yesterday she started saying, "Oh! Cool!" Very cute, especially the expression on her face.

I could go on and on.... maybe I will when I'm done with all this stupid homework for summer school. WTF was I thinking?!

I not reach!

Bayley is into the "What's that?" phase. She points at something and asks. You tell her what it is. She points 2 inches to the right of the same thing and asks again. You again tell her what it is. Repeat this 3000 times a day. :)

Joe and I were sitting in the driveway while she ran around the yard, asking what things were. She then pointed at the sky and Joe told her those were clouds. She then streeeeetched upward and was reaching for the clouds and said quite sadly, "I not reach them, Daddy!" Just melted our hearts.

Sweet girl.

Sorry for the lack of posting... I've been making time for myself. I may spend a few minutes making Bayley's hair bows, organizing a closet, etc. But it's time that I do something that I want to do. Yes, sometimes I want to organize a closet. :)

This morning as I dropped Bayley off at daycare, she said, "Lah loo. Hab a goo day!" (Love you. Have a good day!)

I must be doing something right.

I'm the Mom of THAT kid.

Yesterday when Joe brought Bayley home, he said that Bayley had been in "rare form" that day. She decided to hit some kit for no apparent reason and was put in time out. Later, she bit another kid ON THE FACE!! Time out again. What has gotten into my sassypants daughter? Yeesh. She's never done it before I hope that was her first and last time. I don't want to be the mom of that kid.

You know what I'm talking about: the kid who throws rocks, bites/kicks/hits other kids, the potty mouthed kid, etc. I was struggling with something in Bayley's room while Joe changed her diaper (I'm documenting for all to see that Joe changed a diaper!) and I said, "Dang it!" Bayley then chimed back, "Dang it!" Joe just looked at me. Why do I feel guilty when he says all sorts of very colorful words all the time, and I'm constantly reminding him to watch his mouth? "Dang it" isn't a bad word, so to speak, but I still don't want my 2 year old loudmouth running around saying it.

I guess I'm preparing for the worst. She stuck her hands up in the air Sunday afternoon and shook her booty at me and said, "neneh neneh neneh!" (or however you spell it) because she thought I couldn't reach her with the water hose. I got a good laugh out of that, but then realized that she's sort of learning how to "talk back." She likes to push things out of her way and tell you, "I don't want that!" or she'll push me and say, "Go away!"

I'm glad she's expressing herself, but why do they have to be so mean?? Last night she slapped me (not hard) on the face and I told her that that wasn't nice and gave her a very sad look. She tried to lean into me for a hug (without hugging me) and I just kept looking down and very sad. She whimpered out, "Sorry," so I hugged her and told her, "Thank you." I want her to learn that while it's not okay to hit, she'll be forgiven with a sincere apology.

Finding the right balance between discipline, forgivness, and love is going to be tough, but I am not the mother who screams at her kid, nor am I the mom who just lets it slide or makes excuses. I want her to be well-balanced and think before she speaks/acts.

Maybe I need to teach myself that sometimes. :)