update: bg edition

As we get closer and closer to three, I'm seeing flashes of why people said "two's not bad; wait til three!". And while those flashes are bone chilling, most of the time, Baby Girl is just one plain awesome kid.

First of all, if you read my post yesterday (thank you guys for reaching out on that one), then you know we've been having some issues at school and such. Well I'm proud to say that today, she had ZERO issues. Her teacher actually told me today that BG's main problem is that she's the most "mature" one in the class. That she's a bit ahead in colors, letters, numbers, and shapes and so she gets bored. And a bored kiddo is never a good thing. So today, they gave her a project of writing her letters while the others worked on something. It did the trick. She stayed busy and she didn't have any discipline issues. Yay for good days.
BG is beyond verbal. BEYOND. Currently her favorite thing is to use her colors to describe something. As in "see that cow Mama? See that black and white cow? He's over there by the green tree." This is all day everyday. I would say she's only quiet in her sleep, but she usually talks in her sleep so... there's that.

She still prefers not to get dirty. She fell down the other day and I thought she was going to have a panic attack over the mud on her hands. She's also slightly dramatic. She'll come running at you screaming bloody murder because she saw a fly.

She's slightly bossy. She got mad today because her shovel kept hitting her. The shovel she was holding. Then she got mad at the wind for messing up her hair and tried to tell it to stop. She is such a girl.

She likes to tell us that she's funny. Which is cute. Until she's getting in trouble and she pops up with "but at least I'm funny" which always makes us laugh.
She is sarcastic like whoa. It's bad. Today while we were driving home I looked in the back to see her rubbing the straw of her cup along the ceiling of the car. I told her to stop messing with the roof and she popped back with "it's not a roof". I said "whatever, stop messing with it". I look back to see her doing the same thing again and so I told her to stop again. Same thing; "it's not a roof". Whatever, just stop. Same thing happens so I tell her to stop again and also add "and don't talk back" to which she pulls the cup down, waits on me to avert my gaze out of the rear view mirror and then I hear a whisper "but it's still not a roof". I laughed I couldn't help it.

She is Miss Independent to a T. She's at the point now where we can ask her to go get dressed and she can pretty much do it all on her own. Buttons are tough, but the rest? she's got. She brushes her teeth, does her potty business, and brushes her hair (though I still prefer to do that) on her own. She is so dang grown.
She is a sweetheart. She really is. She has a stubborn streak as wide as the Mississippi but she's got a heart just as big. I love catching rare moments of her being still such as when she's trying to share a snack with the cat or when she's lovingly cradling a baby doll. I love those glimpses of her heart.

She is still in full on Princess mode. She likes having her hair braided because she thinks it's Princess hair. She likes dresses and dress up and Princess movies. She is all girl.

She is a Daddy's girl through and through but I'm her best friend. Which makes my Mama heart so happy. I'll take it.
She's smart. She's smart in a way that allows us to just sit together and have conversations. Which I love. She still has a child's innocence though which I love more. Like she knows about Heaven but in her mind, Heaven is a place where her Grandma lives in a Princess castle with Jesus. I'll take it.

She went through a period where she constantly asked the difference between what boys and girls could do. She was obsessed with the differences. I think we've finally convinced her that girls can do anything boys can. Except pee standing up. But when I told her that she said "but I can pee in the grass like boys can". I've taught her life necessities for sure.

She's funny. I know I've already said that but y'all, she is so funny. She knows it too. She'll do random things like run into a room naked and start dancing just to get a rise out of people (we're working on keeping her clothes on!). She loves to make people laugh and she thrives on it. If you start laughing at her, you'll just egg her on. And girl can go for days.

She earns an allowance now and she thinks it's so cool. She puts her plate up after dinner, cleans her room up, and makes sure her dirty clothes go in the hamper. If she does that, she gets a dollar. She's already learned that one dime goes to church and one to her savings. I love seeing her pick these things up already. It's small, but it's a HUGE start.
She's a flirt. She has a new doctor that is younger and she loves him. After he checks her out and does his exam, he sits down and chats with me about what he's found. While he does that, she inches over to maybe 5 inches from him and lays on her stomach on the table with her face in her hands and just stares at him. It's actually pretty embarrassing but she adores him. She has no problem going to the doctor at the moment.

She likes for us to lay down with her at night and if I do, she always ask for "the Beatles song". Her favorite song is still "Call Me Maybe" and the other night when she and Mr. P went to the Father/Daughter dance, that was the first song she heard to which she let out a little shriek and got to moving.

Dora is still her favorite but Strawberry Shortcake and Tinkerbell are now heavy in rotation. She's given up the WonderPets and Backyardigans almost completely which makes me sad because those seemed more babyish. :(

She's getting taller and skinnier by the day and the baby chub is disappearing with a quickness. I love how much she's changing and growing but it's still hard on my Mama heart to see how big she's getting.

I could talk about her all day every day. She is by far the coolest person ever. And while I know there will be scary parts of age three, so far, I'm totally looking forward to it.

(almost) wordless wednesday

Sunday, we had a snow day. Which is huge around these parts. In fact, when I walked outside Saturday night to all the crazy snow falling, I couldn't believe it. It had been snowing off and on all day but it was still a shock to see all the snow on the ground the next day.

So we did what most South Carolinians probably did; we found our warmest clothes and we trekked out to enjoy our snow day. BG was a huge fan, but even she was over it after a while. We truly are warm weather folks in this house.

words.

There are times when I honestly think I cannot do one more second of life the way it is going right now. And I don't mean that in some super emo way, I just mean it in that I constantly feel like I'm juggling hundreds of balls in the air and I'm just waiting, breathless, on one to fall.

And things are falling. Little things are slipping through the cracks because my focus is off. And it sucks. My calendar is a hot mess of scribbles because my brain can't even stay straight long enough to finish a sentence. Yet, instead of accomplishing anything right now, I'm watching One Tree Hill and jabbering on here. Lucky y'all.

Maybe the problem is that I don't do enough jabbering over here lately. Because one of the only places where things seem to consistently make sense is over here. I do love this space because of that.

I feel a bit stifled here lately. Our little family has spent the greater part of our existence fiercely independent. We haven't had help very often which has sucked, but at the same time, it's awarded us a great deal of freedom. We haven't had set plans weekly, or people wanting to just show up, etc. Now? It's just weird having family so close.

I feel bad even writing that, but it is a HUGE adjustment. One my extremely private, independent self, has a lot of trouble with. I'm learning, it's just... hard.

My child has been in rare form lately. Last week I was in Charlotte for a work trip and while I was gone, Mr. P had his first parent/teacher conference and BG was "written up" for the first time.

Let's talk about "Mom guilt" for a second. I've basically felt guilty about one thing or another since my child was born. But this new working Mom does work trips guilt? AWFUL. As I sat there on the stool in my best friend's kitchen in Charlotte listening to Mr. P tell me what was going on, my eyes filled up with tears faster than I even thought possible.

My pal said it best, I'm out working trying to make things better for her, but while I'm out, my heart is back home. And my heart was hurting back home and there was nothing I could do about it. AWFUL.

So parent teacher conference. Apparently while I was gone, BG quit listening to her teacher and started hitting. There's more, but that's all on her so... she can tell you if she wants. Mr. P and I are at a point where most of the time, we're lost. This disciplining a toddler thing? not for the faint of heart. Most of the time, we have zero clue what we're doing. And this hitting thing? I'm lost.

I wanted to chalk it up to "Mom's out of town"/ "it's Valentines Week and I'm all hopped up on sugar", but so far, it's continued into this week. Nice huh?

My child doesn't seem to be in love with her school. She's been saying stuff like she doesn't like it and she has no friends (heart, wrench) for the longest time. I know she likes school, so I'm not sure if she's just not meshing at this one or what. So today, I got up at 4:30 am to secure her a spot at one of the best preschools in the area. I really, really hope this will be a change for the better.

Also, I get up at 4:30 for no one. I must love that kid.

Work is overwhelming to say the least. I've jumped head first into a new job which has about twice the work to do than there are hours in a day. Tonight alone, I answered emails til 9:45 tonight after beginning my day at 7:30 am. It has been a day. Hence those scribbles all over my calendar.

None of this probably makes any sense. I've been sick for over a week now so the combination of meds, little sleep, long hours, toddler terrors, and the wine glass to my left has left me with these words. My head is a mess.

mark it down: a first

Last month when I heard the circus was coming to town, I got a bit giddy.

I absolutely loved the circus as a kid. It was amazing. It was big and loud and there were all these animals and trapeze artists and guys jumping through fire. So much to see and take in. I loved going.

So obviously when I heard the circus was coming to town, I immediately purchased tickets for the three of us to go. It was going to be a Valentine's Day present of sorts from me to Mr. P and BG. I just knew she would love it.

And if it had been the circus in my head, I just know she would have.

This circus was a bit different though. I guess I should have read a bit more about it but this was one called "Fully Charged" and had more of just people doing different tricks. It was also a one ring circus; scaled down a ton from the 3 ring circuses I remember from being a kid.

Mr. P and I really enjoyed it but BG? well she spent most of the time perfecting her "Mackayla Maroney is not impressed" face.

She perked up a bit at the dog exhibit (dogs?! where are the lions and tigers?!), and she enjoyed the elephants but... let's just say we'll wait a few years before taking her again.

Next time I'll be sure to pick the show with more animals. Or Mr. P and I will go alone.

She had fun though. I think she just enjoyed being out and doing something special with her Dad and I. Next time, we're just going to the zoo. That's a bit more my little animal lovers speed.

love day.

I was actually out of town the week of V-Day. If you know me at all, you know I have slight control freak tendencies. I can't help it. It just is the way it is. When I realized that my work trip and Valentine's Day were the same week, I might have freaked out a little. I might have even considered switching around my trip. I didn't; but I considered it.

I did leave Mr. P with strict instructions for the week. I was bummed that I wouldn't have time to make homemade Valentine's for BG's class, but let's be honest, the Tinkerbell ones probably made her happier any way. I did manage to buy everything she would need for her class party and just left Mr. P the list of things to do.

When I told him he might have to take something, he told me he'd be telling her teacher "her Moms out of town. We'll catch you on the next one", so the red velvet cupcakes I bought never got made. Oh well.

Other than that, he stuck to the plan. The two of them sat down together one night and made her Valentines for her class and he even managed to text me a few pictures.

BG had quite the week at school. She and her grandparents attended the Grandparents' Lunch on Valentine's Day and she had a class party the next day. Don't worry, I laid out perfectly heart related clothes for each event.

Because I wasn't here, there are no pictures of those events, but word on the street is she had a blast. She usually does.

I came home Valentine's Day night so I was home for the big event on Friday night; the Father/Daughter dance.

Y'all. There are no words.

BG was so excited about getting to do this with her Daddy. She was excited about dressing up, excited about dancing, and just plain excited for one on one time with her favorite guy. She almost didn't get to go, but I am so, so glad they went. I think it was good for both of them.

They didn't stay long and BG spent more time chasing a balloon than dancing with her Daddy but they both had a blast. It was written all over their faces when they got home.

Of course that could have been the ice-cream from their ice-cream stop on the way home. Whatever.

I couldn't have picked a better way to spend Heart Day. I have two amazing Valentines.

Nature Box: a review

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Molly over at Nature Box about doing a review. At first I was all "healthy snacks?? Umm.. I guess?!", but then I realized that this opportunity had come at the perfect opportunity as Mr. P and I have been trying to introduce BG to more options of what to eat lately and we would both prefer it to be of the healthy variety. So I agreed.

When the box came in, I was super pleased with the presentation and could hardly wait for Mr. P to come home that evening so that we could have a family taste testing of sorts. I sat down to read a little bit more and was found out that we were taste testing the November box and that each month, new items were sent out. Pretty cool in my book.

Finally Mr. P came home and it was time to taste.

Now when I say that Mr. P and I are not healthy snackers, I mean that. Completely. As in we will NEVER choose granola over chocolate. Ever. It just won't happen. So when we opened the box to find Roasted Garlic Pumpkin Seeds, Chipotle Maple Almonds, Carrot Chips, Country Ranch Peas, and Cinnamon Spiced Granola, I think we both actually decided we weren't going to like any of it. We aren't great at the whole open mind thing.

Fortunately BG was a much more willing subject and set right out to taste the carrot chips.
Which she promptly hated. Nice.

Mr. P and I tried them as well and weren't fans. Probably shouldn't have started with the carrot snack as we both detest carrots. At least we tried right?

The Country Ranch Peas and the Roasted Garlic Pumpkin Seeds were next and they both quickly earned a big thumbs up from all of us. They were both good. Really good.

I don't eat almonds at all so I skipped on those but Mr. P tried them and was shocked at how hot they were. He said they had a good flavor but the chipotle snuck up on you and it was HOT. He ate a few more but then had to stop. Something about breathing fire...

Last up was the granola, which disappeared with a quickness at my house. In fact, I took one bite and Mr. P and BG downed the rest of the bag in no time. We'll call that one a hit.

The idea behind Nature Box is pretty genius. You sign up, and then monthly receive a new shipment of healthy snacks. There are new snacks to try every single month and they come in 5 good sized bags that will last you a few days at the least. We had some of the snacks for about two weeks and they were still just as delicious as when we received them.

Also, the folks over at Nature Box were kind enough to generate a discount code for my readers. Currently you can take 25% off the first month when you sign up for the month to month subscription with the code CARROT. Not too shabby.

Be sure and take a look around their site. This is the perfect plan for busy moms on the go. I'm all for anything that makes my life just a little bit easier!