The Essence of Childhood

Last Friday, Wichita was granted an ice storm. It was crazy to watch the trees slowly droop closer and closer to the ground. It was even crazier to walk out in the storm and feel all the tiny little pellets of ice hitting you all over the head.

Saturday brought a blizzard to cover up the ice. I don't know what the technical amount was...but it seemed like a lot of snow. Especially for one morning at the end of March. But don't worry...by 6pm the sun was shining, it was warming up, and a lot of the snow was already disappearing.

While it was snowing out Molly and I ventured out to play a little and to make snow angels. We each made one. But it wasn't very fun for either of us because the snow was coming down pretty quickly and getting in our faces. But I even helped Molly find and eat her first icicle. How fun! I remember eating snow and icicles as a kid. Ahh..the innocence...and then at some point some big kid comes along and tells you that some dog peed in that snow or something awful like that. And suddenly, it's like your innocence is stolen, you grow up and quit eating and/or drinking water outdoors unless it comes from a bottle, a cup, or a drinking fountain.

When we went out, at first, it was pretty windy, and Molly didn't really like the snow pelleting her in the face. Here was one extra breezy moment.



But after a while she got the hang of walking through snow that came all the way up to her sweet little knees and really started enjoying it.



THEN...as I said, the sun came out and melted all the snow. It is now Tuesday and the yard is still drenched. My flower beds that I had began getting ready to plant into are oozy gooey mud.

Yesterday we got home from running some errands and I took Molly out of the car and let her down to do as she pleased while I unloaded the groceries. I left her out in the yard while I put away the milk. Then went back out to gather her because we had about five more errands to run. Here is how I found her.



I think she must have stepped into the mud, got stuck, and fell down. Because she didn't seem too happy about it at first. She was even more upset when she noticed I was taking pictures.



Eventually, she began to enjoy squishing the mud in between her fingers though. And painting her clothes with it.








And yes, she even had to see how some mudpies tasted. She didn't stop with just one taste, so it must not have been too awful.

Mostly, I was so proud of myself. For encouraging her to explore the environments around her in the snow and the mud. See it, smell it, listen to it, touch it, and if you must - taste it. My first thought when seeing her sitting in the mud crying was to get her out as quick as possible. But as she cried a little harder, I started laughing as I realized there would be nothing quick about this. She was covered in mud, and it was going to take a long while to clean it all up. So I decided at that moment that the errands could be put off another day. (It's not like I hadn't already put them off several days to get to this point.) And decided to show her how to enjoy the mud. I ran back inside quickly, changed out of my work clothes into some sweats and ran back out with my camera ready to show her how to squish. And she did! And she loved it! And I think most exciting of all for her was that she ended up getting to be naked outside!!! - Every one year old's greatest desire!

(And even more excitement - Richard ended up taking care of my errands after he got home - and even brought me home a bag a Reese's eggs to "thank me for everything I do." Awwww!!!)

A Beautiful Day For the Zoo

Tuesday was SUCH a gorgeous day! When we left for the zoo at around 1pm it was 65 degrees. BEAUTIFUL! And my car said 75 degrees on the way home, so apparently, it only got better while we were there. :)

I decided we should go to the zoo since we have a year-round pass. I called to invite my parents along too, and of course they wanted to spend the day with their sweet sweet granddaughter!

Going over naptime was OK - considering that's when the weather was the best...but probably not the BEST decision - based on how tired children get when they aren't getting their nap. She did fairly well, although she was scared of EVERYTHING. And I'm sure that had the most to do with being tired. She tends to be a little afraid of animals, but she was freaking out pretty badly. Yeah, she was tired.

It all started in the Children's Zoo where animals run free and you can feed them. Well I know Molly doesn't enjoy that. But whenever my parents are along that's where we go first. And of course a big ugly shaggy sheep came right up to Molly begging for a snack and she panicked. That was the beginning of her scares. Then on to the amphibian house. LOL She was scared of everything there too. We would push her up to the glass of an aquarium and if the turtles or fish came too close, she'd start crying and trying to get away. Some good did come of it though! She learned the word TURTLE!!! Yay! And by the end, she didn't seem so afraid of the turtles. Haha!

The day ended when we were in with the apes and one particularly liked Molly and followed us all along the window and was even signing to Molly a little bit. Molly - unimpressed. She wanted to GO!!!

I did capture some pictures of things she was not afraid of though to share.

She was NOT afraid of this turtle. I don't believe she saw it..but she wasn't afraid of it! Woohoo! (Did I mention that EVERYTHING in and after the amphibian house suddenly became a turtle???)


Also not afraid of whatever turtle she was looking at here. :) Isn't she lovely though?


This is a bison turtle. I'm sure it looked much like a rock to her the way it didn't move at all.


She also didn't see this turtle. But hey...not scared of it!


She may have been scared of this zebra turtle. I'm not sure. I was trying to get it to turn its head for a better picture. But I heard my dad call it a "horsey" several times while she argued "turtle." The poor girl is bound to be REALLY confused one day.



Here are a few of her enjoying getting to be her independent self.





And while she WAS at first VERY afraid of the gorilla turtle statues, she warmed up to them after I stuck my finger in the nose of one and told her I was getting his boogers. Oh the things we do to help our children get more out of life.




Then she fell asleep within two minutes of being in the car, and the rest of the beautiful day was blissful.

Adventures in Potty Learning

As you may or may not know Molly is completely in LOVE with Dora.

Ok there may not be total truth to that. She WAS completely in LOVE with Dora until she received, I'm sure, pretty close to EVERYTHING that was ever made Dora. Including this Potty Chair

Now she has fallen in LOVE Blue from Blues Clues. Of course.

This potty chair happened to be on clearance one day in November for 15 bucks. It's a 3-in-1. So you start out using it as pictured, and then when she gets big enough to get on the big potty, but still small enough to fall in the big hole in the big potty, you take the top off and the green cup out and use the top on your big potty and then the bottom flips upside down as a step stool to get on the potty and to reach the sink to wash up. Way cool. So I snagged it that day. I thought we'd just toss it in with her Christmas gifts. But we then decided it's not really Christmas gift material, plus she had 17 other Christmas gifts already just from us. So we just put it the bathroom to let her start getting used to it being in there.

Richard and I take turns bathing her. And one night on his turn he started sitting her on it for a few minutes naked before he put her in the bath. He fixed her up with a little book and she was great for a couple minutes while her bath ran. Then gets up and gets in the tub.

He told me he was doing this, so I decided to try it on my bath-giving nights. It didn't go over as well for me. She just stood up right away or got mad each time.

Mind you, we don't think it's necessary to push potty learning at this point, so when she would stand up or get mad, I happily let her.

Well in the last week or two she finally started letting both of us put her on the potty chair before bath. And a couple times she has even gone to the bathroom asking to sit on the potty chair. (Of course, she sits down and points to her bath toy bag because I let her play with her Pooh and Piglet bath toys that she can only play with in the bath or on the potty. LOL. She's in it for the Pooh, not the Poo.)

Last night, I was running her bath water, and asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty. She said "No." But she meant Yes. LOL She's answering No to everything right now...you have to listen to her tone or just know what she really means. haha. I sat her on the potty and gave her the toy she wanted and then I kept putting my hand in the bath water and dribbling a little onto her legs. She sat on the potty for a few minutes and then was finished. She really enjoyed the water dribbling though and wanted to do it to herself.

As she stood up, I noticed there was PEE in the potty chair!!! Yay!!!!!!!!

I squealed and told Richard to come look! I probably freaked her out a bit, but I gave her tons of huge hugs and just kept carrying on how big a girl she is. I was so excited! I showed it to her, and showed her how we dump it in the big potty and flush and wash our hands.

Oh I am so excited! Of course, I think it was a fluke. The timing happened to just be right...but I have hope now because I can see a light at the end of the tunnel! And I still don't really plan on pushing too hard, because I still don't feel like she knows the sensation means it's coming. This morning she was running nude and twice within 15 minutes she peed on the carpet and didn't seem to notice until she heard the noise. Then I put a diaper on her and it was wet within an hour. So she's definitely not holding her urine for the two hours or whatever they're supposed to be able to go pee-less. I'll just keep an eye on her and let her cue me in when she's ready for us to really start potty teaching. But these are the first steps!!! Yay!!!

Good Car Troubles?

Yesterday after work I went by my parents' house to pick up Molly, but I needed to run to a store down the street before I came home. My mom graciously offered to keep Molly while I did that. I got in my car, started it right up, and drove to the store. I was in the store for no longer than 5 minutes. When I went back out the car wouldn't start, it did nothing. So I went back in and asked a guy if he could jump my battery. He did and it started right up. I went back to get Molly and left the car running so we didn't have to deal with that again. I got home nicely.

Last night we were loaded up to go play at the mall and once again it was dead. So we jumped it and took it to Walmart to get a new battery. When we were telling the guy our problems, he said it would be about an hour and a half wait. We debated, but then he added that our car should be too new to be having battery issues, so we might just want to talk to the dealership and maybe it would be under warranty still.

We went back to our car and it was dead again. But thankfully, they could jump us with a battery they had there.

This morning I called the dealership and he said that this WOULD be covered under our warranty! WOOHOO!!! So I'm supposed to take it in today. I think I'll have to find a neighbor who will jump me so I can get there. But I'm just so excited to have a car problem that isn't going to cost me half of my savings!!! Yay!!! (Hopefully I don't get back on here later tonight to tell you that they found it was something else that isn't covered! LOL)

Weight Issues

I'm going to make my first weight complaint blog here. And I know for some of you, you will be sick after reading it because it's pretty pathetic. But bear with me here.

Ok here's the story. So I've never really had much of a weight issue. I think through high school I weighed about 135. Which for my height was on the higher end of "normal." Then in the last 3 months of high school my weight catapulted to 170. At that point I was definitely "over-weight." But it didn't last long, even though it wasn't taken care of properly. I just quit eating until I was down to about 120. It took about 18 months before I realized I was pretty much as small as I would get, and decided to start eating normal portions again. Then I leveled out at about 135-140. I think that's just what my body was made to weigh.

At the beginning of my pregnancy I weighed 142. At the end of my pregnancy I weighed 177. Within a few months, I was back down to my 140. Right where I should have been. But THEN we ran into the issues with Molly's allergies, and I quit eating all of those foods and quickly dropped to 120. Molly was weaned the day before Thanksgiving, when I just couldn't fight the temptation anymore and really wanted to eat some cake or pie or something like that. (Gosh, I'd really expect myself to remember that better after 6 months of not eating the "good" stuff.) I expected myself to dig right into Thanksgiving and Christmas foods and be back to my 140 in no time. And all the time of losing weight because of Molly's allergies I kept holding off buying too many new clothes because I knew it was only temporary. So I just kept drowning in my size 8's.

But here I am now, two months later, eating a ton, and not healthily as often as possible (in hopes of getting where I should be sooner) and I've only gained 3 pounds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I'm terribly nervous still to go spend a bunch of money on a whole new wardrobe, but Lord knows I need to. I just know a month after I do, I'll either put back on my 20 pounds or else end up pregnant again.

What to do? What to do?

PS...yes I realize some people would give a left kidney to have this weight problem...but it's real to me. (And probably the worst part is that I can't even fill an A cup any more...which means in a year's time I went from a D (sure I was nursing, but still) to an A-. Ridiculous!

(OK now I'm done complaining!)

A Mom's Best Friend

She's definitely my daughter.

As we lie on our backs in the living room floor and I toss a ball into the air (something I'm sure I'll tell her not to do one day ;)) she lets me know that she wants a turn. I give her the ball. She holds it way up in the air. And drops it right on her forehead.

If that in itself didn't prove that she's my daughter - she went on to laugh hysterically at herself for doing it. Definitely what I would do in that situation.

And also, the thought of a doggy has been wandering through my little mind lately. Molly is VERY interested in the dogs outside. But horrified when they come out while we're out there. So I've definitely been thinking I need to head to Aunt Jenn's again to get some doggy back in Molly's life. That's where doggies will probably stay, as much as I'd love to have one. I think with allergies and everything, it's just easier to go to friends' houses to see doggies.

But today I decided who needs a dog when I've got a perfectly good daughter who will run through the house chasing a baseball, even panting heavily with her tongue hanging out, and bring it right back to me? Good Molly. *pat pat*

Poo-ey Stories with Mama Krissy

Yesterday was a semi-hectic day. Not quite as hectic as today, but I'll spare you today's details.

Yesterday I was supposed to take my mom to a hospital to get a scan done, my sister-in-law was coming into town to have lunch with Molly and me, and we were going to do a little shopping together, Molly was supposed to start a new medicine, I was supposed to have a Mom's Night Out with my Mom's Group from church, and that was doubling as a diaper shower for three of the pregnant ladies in our group.

I woke up at 7:40, got almost ready by the time Molly woke up. Set her up with her milk while I finished getting ready. Then got Molly ready. Then looked up where this hospital is that I'm supposed to be taking my mom to. Dang it! It's on the east side of town - which is where I live, but Mom lives on the west side. So that meant I needed to leave a little earlier in order to go get her and get her back here and where in the hospital we needed to be by 10:15 to check in. We get in the car - a little later than I had hoped, realize our garage door is STILL not working right, so I manually open and close it. (Yeah, I had a little bit of hope that if I just let it sit overnight and prayed about it it would magically fix itself. Apparently I didn't have enough faith in my prayers.) Then I get to the end of the cul-de-sac just in time for my gas light to turn on. Ugh. So I call Mom and tell her I'm going to be a little later than I had previously mentioned...since it's the time I said I would be at her house NOW and I was still on my block and needed to stop for gas still.

We make it to Mom's house and get back to the hospital with about 4 minutes to spare. Find where we need to be they take her info and get her back to do the scan while Molly and I sit in the waiting room watching Ni Hao, Kai-lan. Within 5 minutes Mom is done and back to gather us. I'm all for quick appointments, but seriously??? It almost made it feel like a waste of time just getting there. lol. Of course, Molly's furious that we have to leave though after only 5 minutes of Kai-lan. - How could a mother be so cruel? But we make it through that tantrum and by the time we're to the hallway she's perfectly fine.

On the way back to Mom's house I get a phone call from my sister-in-law who I have forgot is coming to town. Luckily she says she isn't coming until noon. I've got about an hour and a half to get back home and get Molly's lunch packed.

We get home, I'm packing Molly's lunch. (We're going out to eat with Rhonda, Abby, and Jake, and with all of Molly's allergies, it's easiest just to pack food to take along for her.) She sees me packing her lunch and decides she's hungry NOW. Which is understandable - she ate breakfast kind of early and only had 5 minutes to eat her mid-morning snack of Trix in the waiting room. So I fix her up with some fruit while I finish getting some things together. And of course it gets all over her. But Rhonda shows up before I'm ready for her to, so I tell myself Molly's a kid - kids are messy - she's going with the way messy shirt on. - Plus she's just going to get it messier as she eats more at the restaurant.

We decide upon Jason's Deli so we can have some delicious soup to warm us up. Lunch time at Jason's Deli, though, is always so hustle and bustle. We get a booth that is hardly big enough for the 4 of us, plus our coats/purses with Molly on the end in a high chair that can't be scooted close enough to the table because the benches are too close together for her high chair to fit in between. I get out her ground hamburger in its bowl and she starts digging in. I go to get my salad and when I get back everyone's looking at me with sad faces while Molly's signing "more." LOL. Rhonda tells me that Molly pulled her bowl off the table before she could grab it. The hamburger's gone. Luckily I also brought some mandarin oranges and olives. (Not mixed) So I give her some and she's mostly better. Her lunch bag thingy though was unzipped and had been pushed into the floor under the table somehow - oh that's right..b/c there wasn't enough room in our booth! lol But nothing was in it so that's ok. Rhonda had an appointment at 2:00 and time got away from us and we noticed what time it was at 1:20. But Rhonda still needed to do some shopping. Just at ALDI and Home Depot...nothing major...but still. We finish up. I find Molly's lunch bag on the floor and close up the rest of her olives and oranges and pack them up.

We decide just to do ALDI for now and Rhonda will go to Home Depot after the dr. appointment. We do that and then load back up and they have seven minutes to make it to their appointment. I tell them that I'll just go with them so they don't have to waste more time taking us home first.

We go to the dr's office. Do the check up thing. During which Molly sees her lunch bag and thinks she needs some more to eat. No big deal! I go ahead and pull out the bowl of oranges and out scurries Mr. Cockroach. GROSS! I'm to assume he must have come from the floor under the table at Jason's Deli, where this lunch bag sat during our meal. That's comforting. The closest thing I could find to kill him with was a diaper. He died quickly. But so much for that food. Poor Molly was going to have to throw tantrum #2 for the day because she couldn't eat food that she KNOWS exists, even if Mommy did say it was all gone.

The two of us leave and head back to the waiting room, where Molly is just sure she needs not be. Because of course she needs to be back in the exam room with the other kids. She tried sneaking off MULTIPLE times to get back there. But Mommy's quicker than that. Finally out come the kids and Rhonda and everyone's happy. That is until Abby sees another kid wearing a sticker, which is when she remembers that the dr. told her she could have a sticker if she would talk. And so she is brought to tears, because she forgot to pick up her sticker from nurse before she left. Rhonda and Abby head back toward the exam rooms again and Molly is just POSITIVE she needs to go too. But Jake blocks the door at which Molly pulls the ultimate move by throwing her sweet little body into the floor screaming. - Tantrum #3 'Surely Mom will think Jake pushed me down and will scold him, leaving the door unblocked for me to get through!' Mom's smarter than that too. ;)

So we leave, and I decide I'm just going to have to pass on Home Depot because it is most definitely nap time.

We go home, have a good nap time - although it only lasted 45 minutes...but I'll take what she'll give me. And I remember about the medicine and diaper shower. I decide that Prince Charming will be home soon so I'll just wait til he gets home and leave Molly with him. That'll make the cold trip out and about quicker.

He comes home. My group meeting/dinner is at 7. So at 5:30 I head to the pharmacy to pick up the meds. I get there and my insurance isn't going to cover this medicine.I decide to pass on it until I can find out if we have other options. (Had I known I would have the hectic day I had today based on this decision, I would have just forked over the $100 and paid for it myself.) I head to Walmart to get receiving blankets to wrap diapers in - because through the day this is what I've decided would make the best presentation of the diapers. Well I realize that the only receiving blankets Walmart has aren't big enough to cover a pack of diapers. I just got wipes instead. Diapers can be returned.

I get home and it's 6:30. I've got 15 minutes to spruce myself up, wrap these wipes, and get out the door if I'm going to make it on time. I walk in the door and Prince Charming yells "Not it!!!" That's our diaper game. Anyone who smells or sees a diaper and yells "not it" before the other person doesn't have to change the dirty diaper. I tell him that I just don't have time to change a diaper I've got 15 minutes to wrap and get ready. He informs me that it's not a diaper, it's the bathtub. See - he was being an Awesome Daddy - giving the Princess a bath when she got a little too comfy and pooped. And it wasn't one of her normal bathtub poops where it's just one small, firm, solid turd before you notice. It was an explosion. And she and the bathtub and all her little bath friends and toys were so poopy. I still didn't have time to help. Good thing he was in Awesome Daddy Mode. He gets her cleaned up, but she wasn't happy at all because she had to get out of her bath sooner than she would have liked. Throwing tantrum #4 he struggles to get a diaper on her and it ends up crooked and kind of off one side of her butt. But she's happier, and that's what matters.

Richard is off putting poopy bath toys through the dishwasher and I'm still trying to wrap wipes. Molly comes to give me a hug and I smell round 2. I bellow a "Not it Round 2!" and Rich says that he figured she would again since he interrupted her by pulling her out of the bath. Which is why he only put a diaper on her and not pjs yet. So she goes on playing while we're both busy. And about 5 minutes later she comes running to me whining. I look at her and her foot is covered with green poop and she's trying to pull her diaper off - which from previous knowledge means that the poopy is burning her sensitive little bottom a little. So as she runs off laughing because apparently my reaction was hilarious, I grab her and take her to the changing table. Well Awesome Dad comes in to go ahead and clean her up. But I turn around to find over by her book case two large piles of poo on the carpet. FANTASTIC! So much for sprucing myself up. Instead I will be scrubbing poo out of the carpet. On my way to find a towel I notice that it's also spread down the hallway a bit. Nice. Luckily I had just bought a new bottle of Febreeze. Too bad I hadn't bought carpet cleaner too. So yes, if you see the spot on the floor in Molly's bedroom, it is a poop stain. I get it cleaned up as much as possible and then I must go scrub myself...because well...I smell like crap. Literally.

I make it out the door at 7:05 and have a wonderful time with my fellow Mommy friends! (Even if I did have to go wash my hands a few times due to catching the faint smell of poo as they waved past my face.)

Whew...what a pooey day.