You Want Some Cheese With That Whine

I love Taylor. There are some things about her right now at 22 months that I'd like to freeze in time,........and then there are things that I hope I forget. Yes, there are times like this morning when I'm tempted to poke out my ear drums with knitting needles. Am I allowed to say that? Is it against the rules of mommy-hood? If it is, then I beg your pardon, but the sound of whining is #1 on my top ten most annoying sounds list. I CAN'T STAND IT!!!!! The kid can sing and recite monologues for goodness sakes (see 3 blogs ago), but when she doesn't get her way she breaks into this screechy, whiny, moany sort of cry like a cow being tortured and slaughtered. I literally have to give MYSELF a time out so I don't go bizerk! So I'm forcing myself to write down some of the cute things that she's done lately in order to remind myself that this is temporary and will pass. It will, right? I mean, really. She can't do this forever, right? Right?!!!

1.) While listening to Daddy making disgusting grunting noises on purpose from the bathroom, Tay looks at me very seriously and asks, "What's wrong with Daddy?"

2.) After I knocked over her dinner on accident she said, "What happened to Tay Tay's food?"

3.) She sticks her stuffed piggy in her potty and says, "Go pee-pee in the potty, Piggy."

4.) She is constantly telling me to butt out by saying, "Tay Tay do it!"

5.) She told her Daddy, "I love you," twice this past weekend.

6.) While picking up leaves at the park she says, "Dats da Mommy leaf, Daddy leaf, and da baby leaf." So cute!

Ok, I feel better. She's cute, and this whole terrible 2's thing will pass. And I curse her with a whiny child one day.

You're kidding, right?

I've never been what you'd call a "people person." I think people as a whole are just weird, to put it nicely. I read an article on AOL that reminded me just how stupid people can be. This guy in Puerto Rico was found dead under a bridge. Before he died he told his family that he wanted to be standing during his wake when his time came, and the family fulfilled his wishes recently. Try not to gag at the pictures.

My mother in law and I were talking about death and wills this week and it made me think. Just make a mental note to yourselves that if I kick the bucket any time soon, God forbid, I neither want to be standing up or leaning against a wall at my wake. And you don't have to kiss me. I will have been dead for a couple of days, and that's just gross. Read a poem in my honor, but don't feel the need to lay one on me. Oh, and don't get a sticker on the back of your car that says, "In Remembrance Of..." That's just dumb. I saw a car the other day with like, three of those. As if they go to the mall and get a new sticker every time someone they know dies. Please refrain from any such lame behavior.

Poo Poo to Public Schools

I hope we win the lottery before Tay starts school so we can put her in a top notch private school. I work for our local school district two days a week, and I witnessed something today that made me cringe and silently weep for our nations future. The conversation went as follows:

8th Grade Teacher: So what states border CA?

8th Grader: (With total sincerity) North Dakota!

Teacher: Um, no. Not exactly.

8th Grader #2: Ohio?

8th Grader #3: Las Vegas.

Teacher: Um, no. That's a city. .......Let's get out a map.

[Moments Later]

8th Grade Teacher: So what type of land masses are near Santa Clarita?

8th Grader #3: I think, Mt. Everest.

8th Grade Teacher: No, but you have the right idea. What large body of water is closest to CA?

8th Grader #4: Castaic Lake?

Like I said, I weep for the future. However, if these kids become leaders of the free world one day, we won't need to worry about bombings and such. They're so geographically confused that they won't know where to aim.

Summer's Winding Down

I wish I had one fascinating topic to write about, but instead I offer my faithful readers a smorgasbord of topics to feast upon.

-Wes and I have been watching the Olympics lately. Today we watched water polo, women's swimming, and men's beach volleyball. I'm normally not into sports much and I wouldn't exactly call myself patriotic, but it's exciting watching my country compete against the others. We agreed that water polo players are just freaks of nature, as they hop out of the water like fish without any kind of spring board. However, I had to laugh at badminton. Really? Badminton? Apparently in some countries there are hard core badminton players. Interesting. Go USA!! We're #1!

- I'd like to send a "shout out" to our waste management company. Every Thursday morning, they drive past our house and wave to a very excited Taylor. They're becoming like part of the family.

- Yesterday we went to Nana's house and gave Daddy a well deserved day to himself. We took Tay to the Moorpark Zoo, and I'll just add that it's not on my recommended list for places you should take your toddler. The animals we're in cages, set behind other cages, and blocked by chain link fence. It didn't exactly feel like Jurassic Park, and I doubt Tay could see much. She did have a great time with Nana and JJ though. Daddy, being the giving person that he is, gave me "Guitar Hero" for my birthday. I hadn't had a chance to open it yet, so he did the honors while I was away and broke it in. He's just so thoughtful that way.

- One field trip I DO recommend for toddlers is the Gull's Wings Children's Museum in Oxnard (see picture below). I went last week with my "play group", (Shout out to my peeps!), and Tay loved it. It's about an hour from Santa Clarita, but it's only $4.

Tay playing in the Dr.'s Office room at Gull's Wings.

- Taylor is a crack up lately. I know you're all sick of reading about her. I'm sure you're saying, "She's cute. We get it, already." But I'm proud to say that the kid is a little singer and can sing all of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She made me laugh the other day at Hot Dog On A Stick too. The girl behind the counter was bouncing up and down on that ridiculous lemon squishing machine, and Tay was laughing hysterically saying, "Dancing! She's Dancing!" She's WAY into dress up (see pics above), and loves hats all of a sudden. I'm also proud to say that she just loves saying her prayers. We say them at dinner as a family, and then again before bed. She likes to say them at least three times before bed and even before her nap. I put her in bed for her nap today and she said, "Sit down Mama! Prayers." She folds her little hands and kneels, and my heart just melts. My heart also melts every morning, now that she's figured out how to sleep until 7:30a. FINALLY!!!! I thought I was doomed to wake up at 6:00a forever. But by far the cutest thing she's done lately has been reciting the end monologue, that's right, a monologue from her favorite TV show "The Big Comfy Couch." If you've never seen this children's show, it ends with the main character saying, "Who made this big mess? Me? I did. I guess I'll clean it up. Get ready for the ten second tidy. Ready? Set? Go!" I attached the video of Tay saying it VERBATIM! She did it about 50 times in a row when she saw that it got a laugh out of us.

-In pregnancy related news...I'm just getting bigger. Nothing to report. The peeing every 10 minutes has subsided, and we're looking forward to finding out the gender in 3 weeks.

One year older and wiser too....

One year older and wiser too, happy birthday to you!

I'm in the last year of my twenties! My twenties have been good to me though, so I'm sad to see them dwindle away. I got married, completed a degree and started a career, had a beautiful daughter, became a stay-at-home mom, bought our 2nd house, and am cooking up another little bundle as we speak. It's been a busy and wonderful time of life. I have a few more crow's feet than I would have hoped for, but am pretty happy with how things have gone for me the last 9 years, and 29 will be the best yet.

I'm not a wife who needs to worry about her husband ever forgetting birthdays or holidays. In fact, Wes always goes above and beyond which is what he did yesterday. He woke up at an ungodly hour with Taylor so that I could attempt to sleep some more, and he even cleaned the house from top to bottom so it was sparkling by the time my family arrived for dinner. He got me every season of "The Office" on dvd and Guitar Hero III. He knows me pretty well. On our way to church I told him how sad I was that I wasn't going to get a birthday spotlight in Primary. After all, nobody had called and asked me all of the typical spotlight questions. He looked at me like I was being ridiculous, but to my surprise I WAS spotlighted in primary, and all the kids sang Happy Birthday to me. Turns out they had called Wes, and he filled them in on my favorite color, food, etc., and said some very touching things about me. I didn't grow up in the church, so this was a big deal for me! I almost cried. Pathetic, I know.

It was SO nice having most of my family over for dinner. Stuffing our faces and shooting the breeze with them is probably one of my favorite things to do. Wes set up a fun sprinkler system outside for Tay and my nephew Logan, but I took a run through it too after church. Taylor and Logan seem to finally have some love between them, and Tay's decided not to scream bloody murder whenever he's around. Thank goodness! I was spoiled rotten in the gift area too. Next year I'm writing "No Gifts!" on the invitation, but this year they were so thoughtful that I felt like a little kid on Christmas. I love looking around my house and seeing so many faces that I love. It was a good day, and I went to bed with a smile on my face, feeling so blessed. I love my family!

It was also my Uncle Mike's birthday too.