• Thursday I made every effort to visit every Thursday Thirteen on the TT blogroll and leave a comment. I may have missed one or two, but I sure tried and it took me a good part of the day. I won’t be doing that again anytime soon because I just don’t have time, but I thought it would be fun to try it once. I got a lot of visits to my Thirteen in return and I got more comments on that post than on any other post I’ve ever written, which I thought was kind of a cool way to celebrate my Blogiversary. :)

• Friday the three of us went to the salon. Mike got his hair cut first so he could take Little Girl to the Railroad Park while I was relaxing and being pampered. She was sitting in his lap for a minute and our stylist offered to cut her bangs and I told him he could as long as he gave me the hair…lol! So no more hair in her eyes. She will let me put clips in her hair but she will not leave them in and I’m always afraid she will swallow them, so I don’t do it too often.

• At the Railroad Park they watched the train, played on the playground, played in the sand, rode the train and rode the carousel (for the first time). Mike said they could have stayed there another two hours. He really enjoys his daddy/daughter time. Little Girl fell down as soon as she walked into the sand since she’s never tried to walk on that before. So Daddy took off her sandals and she sat down and played in the sand for 20 minutes. She was really enjoying the feeling of the sand trickling through her hands. And Mike said she finally figured out how to walk in the sand.

• I gave Little Girl a bath tonight which is actually a rare occurrence. Mike bathes her probably 98% of the time. That’s daddy/daughter time and that’s fine with me. But I had fun watching her play in the tub. She kept acting like she was going to pull the plug and so I told her that if she did that her bath was over. First she shook her head no at me, so I told her again what would happen if she pulled the plug. This time she waved bye bye as in that’s what would happen if she pulled the plug. Smart kid.

• Melody Melody Melody. Tonight she tried to protect Little Girl from the duckie in the bathtub and me from the ceiling fan in the bedroom. I’ll give her credit for trying. ;)

• On a sad note, I just read in the church bulletin from the church that I grew up in that the church was set on fire last Saturday night. The pastor found it in time to keep the fire damage to a minimum but the smoke damage was extensive. Even though I’m now a different denomination of Christian, it really makes me sad to think that someone would vandalize any church in any way. I just really don’t understand what kind of a person would do that. It’s just shameful.

• Last but not least, here’s a little movie from the Railroad Park. There’s not a lot going on in the clip because they are on the train, but what amazes me about it is figuring out how Mike was holding the camera, filming the movie and holding onto Little Girl all at the same time…lol!

I just walked outside to get the mail. The sky is overcast, but not threatening, there is a gentle spring breeze blowing, the birds are singing, the purples daisies are in bloom as is the brittlebush. I noticed the crocus has buds getting ready to open. A ground squirrel skittered across the front acre as I walked down the driveway. Inside the house my daughter waited. Melody scampered. Mike and Rochelle were working on her bass part for my song for this weekend. And a feeling of contentment washed over me. Yes, I also saw the dead rose bush and noticed today that my cheeks are starting to sag and I might have to have cosmetic surgery to fix them one day if the losing weight thing doesn’t work. The floor could be cleaner. The dishes could be put away. And all the laundry could be done. But who cares? The weather is beautiful. I have a wonderful house and a wonderful family and wonderful friends and my hair looks magnificent. It’s amazing what a new haircut can do for your outlook on life isn’t it? Click if you wanna see it! (Read on …)

If any of you with children under 6 have Magnetix, you need to read this. Thanks to Jen for mentioning it in her blog.

We are off to the salon this morning so I’ll catch y’all on the flipside.

Today is my 4th “blogiversary” so I thought I’d talk about how I got into blogging. It’s all Mr. Syndromes fault. I blame him. ;-) I had a website probably about 10 years ago which was mostly just a repository for links. This was long before blogging as it is now was even really thought of. Way back then Mr. Syndromes also had a different website than he does now and he had his own online diary that he wrote his thoughts in. It’s been awhile, but as far as I can remember there was no way to leave him a comment. You just read what he had to say and that was that unless you wanted to email him. We were out of touch for awhile, and I have no idea what became of that website, although once I did find some of the pages on the Wayback Machine which was quite an interesting trip down memory lane.

At some point after we got back in touch with each other, I found out about his “blog”. What on earth was a blog I wondered? So I read it and I even commented on it. The whole idea of comments from people you don’t know was just fascinating to me, but I wasn’t ready to plunk out the money for a domain of my own at that point. I mentioned the fact that I thought it would be fun to have a blog of my own one day and four years ago today he told me about Live Journal and hooked me up with a free account. And I guess the rest is history.

I love the interaction of comments. I love meeting new people and learning about their lives. I really love the fact that you can get so caught up in another person’s life that you’ve never met, maybe never even seen a picture of and feel like you are friends. I love that you can interact with people all over the world and share your lives with each other - boring or funny or sad or exciting as they may be. I have met so many wonderful people through this blog and I really can’t tell you how much it has meant for me as I have learned how to be a stay at home mom to Little Girl. I love that I can ask the internet to pray for my friends and not only do my friends pray and my regular readers pray but people who have never been to this site pray and ask others to pray. What a gift that is. So yes, the internet has it’s negative points. There are stupid people out there and they do stupid things. But all in all, blogland is a really great place to be a part of. So, thanks for visiting my little blog. Thanks for every single one of your comments. Thanks for getting involved in my crazy life in whatever way you’re involved. And here’s to the next four years. Huzzah! :)

I almost thought we were going to have the first shocker vote off of the season, but…not. (Read on …)

1. Received letter yesterday from insurance company dated February 28 saying that it’s time for our daughter’s well child visit. Which she had well over three weeks ago. When she turned 15 months old. Which is when she is supposed to have had it. Because on Sunday (THIS COMING SUNDAY MIND YOU), she will be SIXTEEN months old. Did I mention we received a letter dated February 28 on March 28? Because I know the mail is bad, but it’s NOT THAT BAD. DUH. And anyway, them sending me a letter to remind me to take my kid in for a Well Check really sort of annoys me because HEY! Guess what? We remember those things because we are involved parents who actually take really good care of our daughter! UGH!

2. Melody is a good dog. She has learned to sit and stay and is even learning to come when called. Finally. But the whole jumping on me and scratching me with her claw thing? Must end. And the mouthing me with her sharp teeth thing? Must also end. And the scratching and mouthing at the child thing? Must end even sooner. Or Melody may not live to see her first birthday. KIDDING. Sheesh. Because really she’s such a good dog. She lets Little Girl take ANYTHING out of her mouth. She has never EVER ONE SINGLE TIME growled aggressively at her for ANY reason. Not once. Even when LG loses her balance and grabs the dog’s fur to right herself. Not even then. So, the claws and the teeth we are working on. But owie in the meantime.

3. How is it fair that Oriental Trading Co. sent a scrapbooking catalog to the church and not to me? HOW IS THAT FAIR????

4. There was something else that was annoying me but I have since forgotten it. Hate when that happens. So if I remember it, I will update this post. *sigh*

Update: I remembered what 4 was supposed to be. Why does the scale not change even though my clothes are getting looser? How is that fair? Yeah, I know I’m gaining muscle which is heavier than fat, but STILL. *sigh*

Songs of the 21st Century - well that’s pretty wide open now isn’t it? (Read on …)

I love overcast days. Marlene and I and the little ones went for a walk today (after taking last week off for her kids’ Spring Break) and the weather was just lovely. I was even able to take off my sunglasses since there was no glare to provoke an ocular migraine. (Anyone else get those from bright lights?) There was a nice breeze blowing, the air was fresh and cool, but not cold. It was just perfect. If only it could be like that more often! The weather will not be good for walking for much longer and we’ll have to switch to mall walking for the summer months.

On our walk we passed a lady standing out in front of her house who was wanting to strike up a conversation…asking if we were from the neighborhood and all. I wondered if she was just being friendly or if she was really worried about interlopers pushing two toddlers and a preschooler in strollers. Yeah, we’re really scary people. :P Anyway, I tried to be as nice and friendly as I could be without losing our pace too too much. Gotta keep that heart rate up you know?

As we were almost back to my house, Mike was driving off to work and I held up my hand to get him to stop so we could ask him a question and Marlene started singing “Stop! In the name of love!” which just totally cracked me up and is one of the reasons I really love spending time with her. Because in the reverse situation, I would probably do the same thing. The best kind of friends are the friends that don’t think you’re nuts when you do goofy things like that. Instead, they do them before you or with you or laugh when you do it. I love my friends. :)

I finished the outfit I was making for Little Girl yesterday afternoon. I’m thinking she’ll wear it to church on Sunday. There is a reversible pinafore and then a pair of bloomers/panties/pantaloons (whatever you want to call them) to match each side of the pinafore. Mike prefers the green side and I prefer the floral side, so I guess it’s good there are two sides. Anyway, here’s a photo of the outfit:

It went together so easily that I got some more fabric this weekend since Joann’s was having a big sale. One side will be Easter eggs on blue and the other side will be flowers on yellow. I was going to do Easter fabric on both sides and then my brain started to actually work and I realized she’d get more use out of it if one side was NOT Easter fabric. So the Easter side she can wear to the church Easter egg hunt. How cute will that be? Her first Easter egg hunt. :)

I’m also going to find a pattern for a sun hat because I have leftover fabric and that seems like a good thing to do here in the desert right?

I bought sandals for Little Girl last week to wear with her summer dresses and since it was in the 80s yesterday, she wore one of the summer dresses and her sandals to church last night. Yesterday afternoon I put them on her to see if she would have any problems walking in them since they do not have the nice flexible soles the “learning to walk” shoes do. And you know what? She had no problems at all. In fact, she seemed to really love the fact that they made such a nice loud sound on the laminate floor in her room as she toddled around.

It made me cry just a little, partly because she is growing up so very fast right before my eyes, but also because she is growing up so very well. All throughout my pregnancy, knowing that she would probably be a preemie - if she made it at all - I worried. I worried that she would be too early and she would be sick. I worried that she would be too early and she would have developmental problems. I worried that she would be too early and she would have a learning disability. And yes she was technically “too early”. And she was tiny. And she had to stay in the hospital for 18 days to learn how to regulate her temperature and eat and all that good stuff. But she wasn’t sick and she hasn’t had any developmental problems and she doesn’t seem to have a learning disability. Of course time will tell on the last two. Sometimes these things show up later rather than sooner. But so far? So far it looks like all the time I spent worrying about those things was pointless. And for that I thank God every single day.

And that’s why sandals made me cry.

Have you ever walked up on your child playing peacefully and totally oblivious to anything going on around them? I just did that to my daughter. She was playing happily in her corral with the old computer keyboard we had given her to try and curb her desire to play with the keyboard on my laptop (yeah right). Anyway, I stood there quietly for awhile just enjoying watching her play until I saw her pulling a piece the black rubber foot off the bottom of the keyboard. Worried she might shove it into her mouth as she frequently does with things, I said her name sharply: “Little Girl!” which startled her. She jumped, looked up at me, held the piece of rubber out to me as her face crumpled and she tearily said “thank you” (which is what she says when she hands me something), then broke down in tears. I felt pretty mean at that moment even though I really wasn’t trying to startle her. Some cuddles and kisses fixed it soon enough. *sigh* If only their hurts could always be fixed so easily.

We’re on what? Amazing Race 9? It just occurred to me this morning that “Amazing Race” is a play on the words “Amazing Grace”. Duh!*

*But Mike said it never occurred to him either, so I don’t feel totally stupid…lol!

My daughter amazes me every day with what she can do - with what is going on in that cute little head of hers. Today was no exception. Besides her usual words, today we also got “door”, “uh oh”, “pretty baby”, “voom voom”, “bye bye bye” and “brush”. Well sort of brush. I was brushing her hair after her bath and telling her the word for it. She said “buh” over and over as I said “brush”. But then she started watching my mouth very closely, and tried to copy the “sh” sound a few times. Then she said “buh” “sh”. She’s getting it that kid. She’s getting it. She opened one of her board books and was looking at the page with the apple and the orange, so I brought a real apple and a real orange to her and let her hold them and feel their textures and their weight. She would look from the fruit to the picture and study each very closely. Then finally she held up the orange to me and said “ball”. Well, yes it is sort of a ball. I’ll take it.

I know every parent is proud and amazed at the things their child does as they develop. But to me she is like a living petri dish demonstrating all the concepts I learned in all the child development classes I had to take in college on my way to becoming a teacher. It’s fascinating. And now it all finally makes sense. My daughter teaches me in ways no book or professor ever could and for that I am awed, grateful and blown away. Thank you Little Girl for making it all clear to me at last.

Conversation with my daughter today when she awoke from her nap as she held her new doll her Grandpa brought her:

LG: Bear!
Me: No, that’s a doll!
LG: Bear!
Me: Doll!
LG: Bear!
Me: Doll!
LG: Doll?
Me: Yes, Doll!
LG: Bear!

*sigh*