June 29, 2009

I know I should be happy about this….

But I must confess I am not. Let me start at the beginning. Elyssa is 2 years 3 months old and for the last 27 months she has slept in my room in her crib beside my bed. That is where I wanted her, where I could keep an eye on her and be there in a second if she woke up in the middle of the night and needed me. I have always wanted her to know Mommy is always there and will always be there for her. We tried letting her sleep in her crib in her nursery one night after converting it into a toddler bed but that was very, very, short lived. Well, I started looking at all of the cute “toddler” beds that they have for kids and she would see them as well as I was looking at them online. She would get so excited and say “mommy, me bed?” and look at me with her beautiful blue eyes. So I set on a mission to find her the perfect bed. Although they make a really nice “castle bed” I just felt it was too big and to much. I even at one point considered a Thomas the Tank Toddler bed that was shaped like a train, but I just got to much flack from everyone including Eddie that is was not a good “little girl bed”. So finally this past weekend we found an adorable “cottage” bed made by Little Tykes. I showed it to Elyssa and she proclaimed to me that it was a “house bed”. Ahhhhhhh, to see the world through the eyes of a child. Anyway, we went on Saturday morning and picked up her new bed and to make a long story short, she loves it. She played, and played, and played in her bed and would pretend she was sleeping and look at me and say “night-night mommy”. It was so cute yet so sad to me in a sense. My little girl was telling me she wanted to sleep in her new house bed but mommy wanted her to sleep in her crib in her room. I know it is selfish but that night when I was rocking her to sleep, I was so tempted to put her in her crib beside my bed but in my heart I new the right thing to do was to allow her to spread her wings and sleep in her new big girl “house bed”. So instead of making the turn at the top of stairs to put her in my room, I went straight ahead to her room and laid my sleeping princess in her bed for the first time. I had to stand there beside her bed for a few moments and make sure she was ok and not going to roll out onto the floor. I kept hoping she would jerk and wake up and know it was not her crib and want to come to bed with mommy, but no luck. I know was a selfish way of thinking, but somedays I just don’t want her to grow up. She slept through the night that night. A part of me wanted her to wake up. The part of me that could not sleep that night, as I lay staring over at the crib knowing she was not in there. All I could hear was the sound of the baby monitor as it waited to tell me she was stirring. I heard her wake up in the morning and she was playing in her bed. About 5 minutes go by before I heard her yelling “mom, mom, Mommy”. I got out of bed to find her at the baby gate across her door all smiles, I walked to her and she said “mom, mom, house, night night” and ran to her bed and climbed back in. Although it broke my heart that night not to have her in my room, it was so sweet to see the happiness on her face as she showed me where all her Pooh Bears had slept the night before. She now asks to go night-night and loves playing in her room. I know we did the right thing…even if it was so heartbreaking for mommy!

In other areas, on Sunday Eddie was carrying her down the stairs in the morning, playing around as he was doing so, and missed 4 stairs! All I heard was the screaming and crying of my baby and Eddie screaming for me to come quickly. He thought he had “protected” her and I had hoped he was right but within 15 minutes we knew that was not the case. After calming Elyssa down, I set her down and as she tried to walk on her left foot, cried out in pain and would not, and could not stand up. I did not over react; I figured we would give her a while to get over this. Maybe it would go away in a couple house with ice on it to “make it feel better”, but 4 hours later, she would still not walk on it and would cry out in pain when trying to walk on it. We finally decided to take her to Care Now and have it looked at. I was so afraid it was broken, but after an hour visit with Care Now dr’s, it was determined it was just a really bad sprain. She could not walk on it at all yesterday and we had to “carry me mommy” all day. Today she was not walking on it for most of the day, but later this after noon, because I think she was just so tired of not being able to move or do anything, she learned to limp on one foot or do a crawl around the house on her knee’s dragging it behind her. Very pathetic looking but she made it work. I really think she will be walking on it tomorrow, she is a pretty tough girl and with a daddy like hers she has to be!

Well it is late and I better get some sleep or at least try to, I’m still having trouble sleeping without her in my room….sad, I know, but true….

2009 June ~ Father's Day

Happy Daddy’s Day!

Ok, so we all know it was father’s day but poor Elyssa just could not get “father” out correctly, so in order to accommodate her we changed it to “Happy Daddy’s Day”. I spent most of the morning with Elyssa Sunday morning practicing “Happy Daddy’s Day”. Eddie was out side working on the pool and watering our new trees so we had some alone time to get these 3 words down. She was so cute, I asked her “What are you going to say to daddy when you see him” and she would say “Happy Daddy’s Day”. We did this over and over again. She had it down perfectly even her own added “Surprise” at the end. So we came downstairs and got Daddy’s father’s day gift out of the closet where we had hid it and I called him in from outside. The whole time prepping Elyssa in the background and she was saying over and over again “Happy Daddy’s day!” Well Eddie walks in the door, she is holding her “bag” for daddy and the big moment was there and ……..you guessed it NOTHING. She would not say it at all, I kept telling her to say it, coaxing her to say it, she just stood there with the bag saying “daddy, surprise”…hmmmm, ok, so close but no cigar! We tried, really we tried to get it right. She really was saying it but when the big moment came, she froze like a deer in the headlights. O’well, maybe next year right? I can say that she did indeed say it for daddy after the fact and several times that day, just not at the big moment! She got Daddy a #1 Dad shirt and matching #1 Dad cap and some Dallas Cowboys decals for the car. Daddy had to wear the shirt that day and to the airport since he was flying out on Father’s day as well to Omaha, NE. Fro dinner Daddy took us all out to Texas Roadhouse. He picked that place because it is Elyssa favorite restaurant. She loves the dinner rolls, sweet potatoes and of course the rice. Mommy and daddy love the place because it is so loud in there that no one hears screaming kids throwing tantrums and since we are in the terrible two’s we are always prepared for some kind of fit! I got Eddie his father’s day gift early so he already had it before Father’s Day. He got a new Garmin GPS system, it is an upgrade to his old one (I got the old one), and he got a new semi-pro digital camera he had been wanting. I think he did pretty well for Father’s Day!

On Saturday before Father’s Day we took Elyssa to a beach on Lake Lavon. She has been bugging mommy to “go to beach play sand and watie mommy”. She has read some of her books where the people go to the beach and play in the sand and water and she wanted to go as well. I guess it is not good enough that she has a pool in the backyard and her own sandbox; she wanted to go to the beach. We took Aunt Tonia and her dog Princess with us to the beach and Elyssa had an incredible time. She had so much fun and is such a little dare devil in the water. She wanted to go out deeper and deeper. Of course mommy was watching daddy with her and kept getting scared that he would drop her or something…isn’t that just like a paranoid mom??? Yeah, that’s me…. We can’t wait to take her back again. Watching her little face light up and hearing her little giggles were worth every single minute…

June 2, 2009

I’m not so proud… …of my daughters new favorite word! I guess it was just time before it happened so I should not be very surprised but geez, I thought it would have been my husbands mess up and not mine! I really, really do my best to be careful, and thought I had done an incredible job of cleaning up my language, at least around Elyssa. But one day not to long ago, I was in the kitchen and I dropped something all over the floor. I was having a rough day anyway and when it happened I said that magical word “Sh*t”. The moment it slipped from my lips I looked up and Elyssa was standing right there look at me and the mess! She very calmly exclaimed to me “Mess mum, mum, sh*t”. Well apparently for a 2 year old, you only have to screw up once and you pay for it the rest of your life, because since that one not so innocent day, my little girl has started using her new favorite word. The ironic part is that from the ONE incident she has learned the correct grammatical emphasis to use it in as well. Now every time she is carrying her blocks and they fall, or when she is dealing out cards and they all fall on the floor or is she is drinking from her big girl cup and she accidently spill, or drops something she proudly proclaims “Sh*t mum, mum mess!” She is also very good at pointing out when either mommy or daddy make a mess as well and will use her new favorite words at the right time for US! Now although I accept complete responsibility for this mishap, just how long will she keep this up??? I do not acknowledge when she says it as something bad, because if I make a big deal out of it she repeats it over and over and over again. So I figure if I don’t give her an audience maybe the word will disappear, but so far, no luck. Eddie on the other hand thinks it is funny and nearly laughed his head off when she repeated not only “sh*t” one day, but also “bull sh*t” for him. Again, I am not innocent, I can roll out a whole slew of colorful metaphors when angered but I have tried very successfully NOT to do it in front of my daughter, and now because of one, yes, I said one incident where I let my guard down, she is now using a swear word.

Now, in a positive note, I am very proud of some of her new words! She used to call her drinks a “Geeze’. I have no idea where she got the word or how she came up with it but when ever she wanted a drink she would say “Geeezzzeee” and we knew what she waned. We would ask if she wanted Juice / Milk and she would say “yeah’ when we picked the right one. Each time giving her the sippy cup and repeating what it was, milk/ juice. Well suddenly out of the blue, on evening while I was sitting in my chair watching TV, she came to me and said “mommy, Mulk”. I looked at her a bit confused and asked her what she said and she repeated “Mommy, mulk, mommy drink mulk”. I was so proud of her!! I of course got up and got her the “mulk” (not quite milk, but we will take mulk). She then proceeded to call Juice, by the name Juice, water by the name “wat-ee” and said drink when she wanted a drink! It was literally overnight and her whole vocabulary changed. Now, as sad as this sounds, I almost miss the word “Geeze” for her drinks. It was always so cute when she would stand adamantly in front of you repeating “Geeze, mommy, geeze”. She is changing so fast and picking up new things everyday. I think her vocabulary doubles every day and if she does not know a word for something it does not stop her, she just makes up a word for it and leave it up to me and daddy to figure it out!

It really is true that kids grow up to fast…right now, I’m looking for the rewind button!

May 29, 2009

I celebrated my 38th Birthday on the 15th of this month. Yup, 38th birthday…wow, does that sound as old as I think it sounds? Honestly I can say I don’t feel that old, I just feel like me, and quite honestly I think the alternative to having birthdays does not appeal to me either. Death, or another year older….I choose another year older! Bring it on I say, give me your best shot, I’m up for the challenge!! I’m the mom of a baby girl who is testing her limits in what is most commonly referred to as the “Terrible Two’s”!! If I can survive the Terrible Two’s I can most certainly survive being another year older. A lot of people make such a fuss about getting older, they refuse to tell people their ages, they joke about being 29 and holding, me, not so much. I really could careless, age is simply a number, and is no direct reflection on the person. So the number of years assigned to me may be 38, but I in no way feel “old”. I think that is all that really matter.

Since my birthday fell on a Friday, Eddie, of course was not in town. He was in DC and flew in that night. He did send me a dozen and half red roses for my b-day that came on Friday so I can’t make him feel too bad. When they came Elyssa saw them and started yelling “surprise mommy, surprise!” It is almost as though she new they were coming and had some hand in the whole thing. She is just so darn cute these days. Friday evening before we went and picked up daddy at the airport, we went out to eat with some friends. My friend Lisa’s b-day is May 18th and we celebrate our b-days together every year. Anyway, Aunt Lisa, Elyssa, Aunt Tonia and I went out to eat with friends of our (Rob, Andrea, and Elyssa’s little friends Olivia and Alexa) to the Twisted Root. After eating we went back to Aunt Lisa’s so that we could all visit for awhile. We picked Daddy up at the airport that evening and he had a really cute card for me also for my b-day. All and all it was a great day.

Saturday we went with Aunt Lisa to the Richardson Flower Festival. It was actually a raining miserable day, but by the time we got there the rain had quit. We had a pretty good evening and Elyssa did pretty good. We spent a lot of time inside at the concerts inside the theater. Well we stayed inside until Elyssa decided to start singing louder than the actual artists, oh and throwing her balloons into the seats in front of us disturbing the people in their seats. Hey, she did last about an hour and for a 2 year old that was pretty good!

On Monday I made dinner for Lisa for her birthday and had her and Aunt Tonia over to eat. Eddie was in town so he got to celebrate with us as well. I bought a cake and had them put mine and Lisa’s name on it for our b-days. Hey, you are never too old for cake and ice cream right? Elyssa insisted on singing the “Happy” song and blowing out our candles and since the only candles I had were Elyssa’s number “2” candles, Lisa and I turned 2 again this year!! Oh and Elyssa had a blast blowing out the candles.

On Wednesday after my birthday, we all went to Southern Junction for Steaks. We being, Aunt Tonia, Aunt Lisa, Eddie, Elyssa and myself, all piled in the van and had a fun evening at our favorite Country music venue. We all had a blast, helping Eddie cook the steaks and letting Elyssa dance with daddy when the band started playing. She was so cute in her pink cowboy hat! Of course Eddie and I got to take a few “spins” around the dance floor as well. Gosh, it has been forever since we’ve done that. Needless to say I was pretty rusty!

So all in all I had a wonderful b-day or should I say b-day week!

May 11, 2009

Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play. Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together. Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sitwith you in the backyard and blow bubbles. Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck and I will buy you one if he comes by. Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.
Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them. Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys. Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry. Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars. Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows. Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given. I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore.
And when I kiss you good night I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer.. It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask Him for nothing, except one more day............
*****Wish I could take credit for writing this, but it was an email forward I got that really enjoyed****

May 9, 2009

Mother’s Day came early for me this year! On Friday I took Elyssa to her Mother’s Day Out play day and to my surprise all the moms were invited to stay for a special Mother’s Day “breakfast” of Muffins, fruit and juice! It was so cute, we got to sit with our little ones and enjoy some snacks with them. They had special coloring sheets the kids did for mom waiting at their seats for each mom. Made me feel so special and so proud to be Elyssa’s mom! Well little did I know there was even more to come. When I picked Elyssa up from school, they had another sheet for me that was laminated with her handprint on it and an adorable “mother’s day” poem attached and as I was leaving they gave me a big package all wrapped up in purple paper. I got in the car and looked inside and it was a ceramic filled pie pan with Elyssa footprint in it and her name and the year traced in it as well!! It was so cute, they had her put pretty little glass type stones in it to decorate it. It actually brought a tear to my eye. I know it is actually my third Mother’s Day and I probably should not get so emotional about little things like this, but it was just so darn cute and made me so proud to be Elyssa Mom!!

Eddie actually out did himself as well this year. He was out of town last week and will be gone again this week (will actually be leaving tomorrow on Mother’s Day). When I got home from picking up my little princess , a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates were delivered with a special little note attached telling what a wonderful mom he thought I was. So all in all, although Mother’s day is not till tomorrow, I have already had an incredible Mother’s Day!

April 20, 2009

Well I have finally got a lot of the pictures updated from our busy couple months! It all started with Elyssa b-day and then ran right into the Easter holiday. As you can tell from the pictures and the videos, Elyssa LOVED decorating eggs for Easter. Aunt Tonia and JT helped us color eggs this year. In the end we gave her one egg to do with what she pleased and she put it in every color we had and pretty much turned it black. It was so cracked by the time she finished dropping it into all the colors we took a picture of it and had to throw it away. It certainly was not edible!
For Easter we went to visit Nana and Pop in Lufkin, TX. Since the house is not big enough for all of us to stay at one time (Eddie’s 2 sisters and their family were there as well), we stayed at the Hampton Inn Saturday night. When we got to our room it only had a shower (was a handicap accessible room) and there is no way little princess will take a shower and allow the raindrops to fall on her head in the shower so we had to switch rooms. There were no other rooms available so they upgraded our room to a suite. It was a really nice room with a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bath! It was the perfect room for our morning Easter egg hunt! It does help that Eddie has diamond status with Hilton Hotels, so whenever there is a problem they do their best to satisfy him. He will only stay in Hilton hotels or Embassy Suites when he travels so the free nights/ stays really to rack up! In the morning Elyssa woke up to find her Easter basket on the coffee table and was soo excited that the Easter bunny had come. I had to coax her through the egg hunt. All she wanted to do was find the egg, open it and eat the “canies” (candies in Elyssa words). She only eats M&M’s so that is what all the eggs were filled with. The Easter bunny only brought her lollipops in her basket since she will take a few licks off of “pops". Her basket was over flowing with toys and such that the Easter Bunny brought her for Easter. I think she really did enjoy the morning. She even took her little egg hunt basket down to breakfast with us so she could show everyone downstairs some of her treats. She got gummy bears from the hotel desk clerk and a Bible from one of the other guests staying at the hotel. It was a very sweet morning!! After leaving the hotel, we rushed over to church where Pop was preaching and made it just in time for the start of the service. All the rest of the family sat up front, we of course had no idea how Elyssa was going to be for the service so we sat all the way in the back, just safer that way! After church we all went back to Nana and Pops and visited for awhile and then headed back to Dallas!
Eddie has been around a bit lately. He was home all last week, and only travels Thursday and Friday this week. Of course then his schedule picks up again on Sunday and who knows when his next break will be. He has another upcoming trip to Washington DC and Elyssa and I are going to try to go with him. The weather is getting so nice that a trip north will be great. Elyssa and I can do some site seeing while daddy is at work!
Elyssa is doing great! She is learning new words everyday and I don’t know where she is getting some of it. The other day she came up to me pointing to her neck saying “neck mom-mom”. Now I don’t ever remember telling her neck before, we just stick to the basics, mouth, teeth, cheeks, face, eyes, tongue..you know.. but she came up with neck on her own! She loves trains and says “choo-choo” every time we see one. When we are driving down the road she points out all the trailer trucks and say “big truck mom-mom, big truck” and tells me they have “big wheels”. She has even started talking on the phone some! She would usually just sit there and listen to the other person but she will talk now to people, especially daddy. When Eddie was away on his last trip she heard his voice and squealed into the phone “daddy, hi daddy!” It truly is the cutest thing in the world to watch as her world opens up more to her. She knows 2 colors now, pink and green, knows her name starts with the letter “E”, and can hold up 2 fingers when asked how old she is! I’m sure there is so much more I am forgetting to put on here but those are some of the things I can think of. There is just so much she is learning.
She is doing wonderfully with her potty training! We got her another new potty and this one is a fr nd she LOVES it!! She has it in the living room and will sit on it forever..lol. She even tells me know when she has to pee, of course sometimes it is a bit late but she is trying soooo hard. In fact I have not changed a “poopy” diaper in 3 days, she has done her poopy on the potty every time! She even told me at Fry’s yesterday that she had to pee-pee and held it till I got her to the potty and she went for the fist time on the big potty. Of course then we went to the Olive Garden to eat afterward and she said she had to pee, I took her and the darn thing had an auto flush that would not stop flushing, and it scared the “bajeezers” our of her!!! She would not go and of course went in her diaper on the way home. Not sure how to get past the auto flush modes on the potties!! At night it is hard, she is waking up in the middle of the night yelling “mom-mom pee-pee potty” but each time it is to late. She is usually dry in the morning (after being up and me changing her at about 4am) and goes right on the potty! I’m so proud of my little girl.
Ok enough about the potty talk. Aunt Tonia is on her way over and is going to make us dinner tonight! Aunt Tonia is just too good to Elyssa. For Easter she got Elyssa a big wagon filled with Sand box toys. Elyssa loves the wagon and pulls all of her stuff all over my living room with it.
Hope everyone had a great Easter!