One of those days...long and bad (both the day and the post)

Yesterday started off well enough, a happy mommy and happy daughter woke up, snuggled, had some breakfast and read a book or two before I decided that we were going to go out and have a fun "date day" of lunch, shopping and hanging out. We showered and Madelyn started dressing herself.
With a little difficulty...and not very weather appropriate clothes. You can't tell in these pictures but her shorts are actually on upside down. As in the waistband was at her knees until she tugged so hard she basically turned them inside out.

After suggesting 5 different outfits, we finally agreed on her sweet little madras dress and purple chucks. It's such a cute outfit we had a little photo shoot.

I did not pose her. Please remember this sweetness in a minute.

We loaded up in the car and drove up north to shopping and food. We talked about our shopping plans on the way and Madelyn watched Robin Hood. Since we had gotten a later start my plan was to eat lunch, then walk to the mall and she would fall asleep in her stroller while I got some shopping and walking in.

Unfortunately she fell asleep before I decided on a place to eat. I wanted an "adult" restaruant. Not fast food as most of our lunches out tend to be. So I drove around for about 5 more minutes to let her get good and asleep. This is where the day falls apart because I thought I could move her from her carseat to the stroller and she'd go right back to sleep. Nope. She screamed and cried so I carried her hoping she'd doze back off on my shoulder. Nope. I bribed her back into the stroller with a jingly bell reindeer headband and we smelled candles and all was OK for a bit. Until she got tired of the jingly bell reindeer headband thing and started crying again. So I found a plastic dragon toy to entertain her for a bit.

This is where the day goes completely and utterly sour. I walk over to feed my addiction of pretty paper and she's playing happily with the dragon, until all the sudden she isn't. I try to make her happy but mostly I'm ignoring her because I'm on a mission and nothing is wrong with her really. I get my papers for my project and we go to check out. I carry her and try to put the dragon back on the shelf and tell it "bye bye" like we do with toys all the time without a fight. Nope. She pitches an everloving fit yelling "Mine" and holding it close. Then she sees some m&ms on the shelf and offer her those to put the dragon up. I figured the m&ms could be a treat for after lunch. So now she has m&ms AND the dragon because my wonderful moment of parenting did not go the way it was supposed to. At the register I tell the cashier that we are not getting the dragon and Madelyn loses her sh*t.

Out to the car we go with a kicking and screaming 2 year old who throws her m&ms out of the car twice before I take them away completely (it was a mini m&m plastic container). I figure out that lunch is not happening so we drive to chic fil a but I have to stop on the way there to get in the back seat to have a little heart to heart with the monster. 10 minutes later I order our food and because it's a gorgeous day the windows are down, I pass Madelyn her fries and she throws them out the window.

I finish eating, she starts playing with her kazoo (seriously?!?!?) and in a last ditch effort to salvage our afternoon I head to walmart. As I turn into the parking lot she falls asleep. We turned around and drove home.

The saving part of the day was going to our friends house for dinner and a chance for Madelyn to play with the girls and a couple of nice big glasses of Lambic and adult conversation for me. Thank you Wiggins family for having us over for dinner. You really did wonders for my sanity!

Before:

Before:

Before: (see that little had creeping up?)

Cute Diapered baby in Mommy's shoes w/ a monkey having nothing to do with the Before's or Afters, just too cute to not include.

After:

After:

Take the above pictures, duplicate them about 20 times and add in a sweet little voice saying "cheese" and you have what happens Every. Single. Time. the camera comes out. Please excuse me if there are no pictures of the pumpkin head until I win this battle. Cause as long as I'm fighting it, most of the pictures on my camera are like the second one. Hopefully she gives in soon cause I'm not. :)

Potties are fun!

No, really they are. I promise. OK, maybe not. They are kinda scary with the swirly water and the body waste and loud noises. Oh, but they are kind of like an amusement park ride for you poo! Yay! Rides are fun. See, potties are totally fun!

Yeah, we're potty training in our house. It's going OK, but when you have a very busy toddler you end up saying "Do you have to pee pee?" and "Let's sit on the potty" a million times a day and the peeing in the potty happens maybe twice because it's much more fun to pee in your pull up (or training pants) 30 seconds after you sit on the potty.

Yesterday we had a great morning potty wise and needed to go to the commissary so I got Madelyn on the potty right before we left, drove the 20 minutes to the store, took her into the potty as soon as we got there and both times nothing. I knew it was coming because she had orange juice on the drive over. We get through produce and 3 aisles over and I hear the tiniest little voice say "peepee" so we beeline to the potty, run in and she's still dry so I sit her on the potty and we sing "bumble bee" in my sexy raspy voice with a grocery store bathroom echo and nothing. So back out we go. We make it through the rest of the store and are in the far back corner completely opposite of the potty when she grabs her diaper and says "Pee!" I start trying to navigate the large space ship buggy full of groceries and a toddler yelling "Pee!" through the store. The thing with the large space ship buggy is that while it keeps Madelyn happy during shopping, it is heavy and a pain to steer when it's full. Luckily the store wasn't packed and we made it fairly easy and I only crashed into one old mans buggy on the way. Did I mention the buggy was hard to steer? Yeah.

We reach the potty and she's still dry, I start feeling a little twinge of success, we go inside, she sits on the potty, we sing "bumble bee" and nothing. She signs "all done" so we flush and wash our hands and go to finish shopping. I don't know if she was uncomfortable in the public restroom or if she just wasn't sure if she needed to go.

On the way home she fell asleep in the car and I brought her in for nap and with the sleeping, she peed in her and that was it for the day. No more potty sitting. I really hope I didn't traumatize her in the bathroom at the commissary.

Yesterday was Day 11 of 27 days of Thankful.

So for yesterday I was very thankful for not very crowded grocery stores so that I could hurry like a madwoman to the bathroom for two false alarms. :)

27 Days of Thankful Days 9 & 10

I have a really hard time blogging daily huh?

Day 9 - I am thankful for powdered soup mixes like onion beef or vegetable, they add so much pep and flavor to simple dishes and the vegetable soup mix is AWESOME for spinach dip.

Day 10 - I am thankful for all of the Marines that have served, are serving, and will serve this great nation of ours. I am thankful for the Marines that have fallen fighting for what they believe in, fighting so that my family, friends, and strangers may continue to enjoy the freedom and security that we have today. It is because of Marines and the job that they do that we don't live in a war torn nation and that I am able to share my opinions with the world.

Happy Birthday Marines!

Go check out Amanda and see what everyone else is thankful for.

Has anyone seen my voice?

On Thursday I developed a sweet little scratchy throat cough, on Friday it wasn't much better, but no worse, a sip of water was enough to calm it down most times. Apparently wine is not so good for sweet little scratchy throat coughs and turns them into big nasty mean barky hacking coughs that result in loss of voice and the need for a glass of water in the middle of your supposed to be relaxing massage. Luckily I did make it through the ball and most of Saturday morning before losing my voice completely. It's a good thing cause I had dancing and chatting to do at the ball.


Now, for a little catch up on 27 days of Thankful.


Day 6. I am thankful for people who own boats. I love boats, I share this love with my Daddy, and seeing as how I am unable to afford the kind of a boat I would love to have (think yacht not row) I am thankful that there are people out there who can afford the kinds of boats that I enjoy looking at so that I have something to look at and dream about.

The view from our room for the ball

Day 7. I am thankful for massages. On Saturday morning Chris got me a massage at the hotel and it was so relaxing and wonderful and the first one I've had in the 2 years since Madelyn was born. The spa was fabulous, the prices reasonable, and the staff were wonderful. Actually I am going to amend this to being thankful for the entire staff at the Hyatt Regency. They were amazingly attentive, friendly, polite, and eager to make our stay wonderful. I've never been at a hotel with such amazing staff and the only thing I can compare it to is the staff on a cruise. LOVE IT!

Day 8. I am thankful for boxed muffin mixes that have cans of blueberries and not dehydrated weird little blueberry blobs. They make breakfast time so much more yummy and I always feel a little gourmet draining the blueberries and folding them gently into the mix. They are totally worth the extra money.

27 days of Thankful - day 5

Today I am thankful for cool, fall-like weather. I love the crisp little bite in the air that fall brings in the morning and evening with the toasty sun warming it just enough mid-afternoon. This is one of my favorite seasons, I love breaking out the cooler weather clothes and snuggling under blankets to watch tv. This morning I loved that we were able to comfortably wear long sleeve shirts all day without roasting.

27 Days of Thankful days 1-4

In my blog hopping I have stumbled upon lots of blogs that I thoroughly enjoy and today I found Amanda at Serenity Now and she is doing a project where you blog about something you are thankful each day leading up to Thanksgiving. I LOVE this idea! Check out the reason behind the posts here and join in if you're feeling froggy.

I am 3 days late in starting so I will list 4 things I am thankful for today and get all caught up. Sometimes it's the little things that we forget to be thankful for so I'll be focusing on the small, the silly, and the thing that just brighten my day and my life.

1. I am thankful for my husband. He really compliments me and puts up with my shenanigans. Actually I think he enjoys my shenanigans which makes me all that more thankful! His schedule is hard right now and we don't always take the time we should for one another but when you strip away all the outside pressures, he always supports me and is there for me when I need him.

2. I am thankful for delivery people who deliver hot food to my door. Some days cooking beyond my realm of things I want to do and leaving the house with a toddler seems like just as much of a chore on those super long days. Therefore the delivery guy knocking on my door is truly a blessing!

3. I am thankful for good friends. It is always nice to have friends that you consider family and you don't feel that you have to clean your house for them or put on your "company face". It makes life fun, interesting and whole lot easier.

4. I am thankful for bedtime. I love the snuggles, the wind down and the eventual peace that it brings when the whole house is resting. There was a time not long ago that bedtime was stressful, painful, and gave me so much anxiety that I started dreading it as soon as we sat down to dinner. I am thankful that I am past that and that those demons are silent now. This is probably one of the number one things I am thankful for right now. I am aware of the change every night as I fall asleep and sleep peacefully without hearing and fearing bumps in the night.

What are you thankful for?