Mmmmm-Ba

Well, I guess we can all be thankful that my parenting skills show more consistency than my blogging frequency. I'd like to blame my lameness on the fact that I'm a mother of a toddler but since Sydney is the easiest toddler on the planet, that would just be, well...lame. There, now that we've established that I'm lame, lets move on.

Life lately has been a whirlwind of climbing anything and everything, a budding vocabulary that grows almost hourly, unsolicited kisses and unwanted hitting. Seriously, how does a toddler who's never been hit learn to hit her mama 3496 times a day? I know I know, it's instinct. This is an instinct I could live without. There are plenty of other instincts that would be more beneficial to have. Personally, I'd like to see an instinct for picking up one's own toys but hey, what do I know, I'm just the mama. Luckily the unsolicited kissing and unwanted hitting developed about the same time, my guess is that's part of a toddler's survival instinct.

Speaking of the unsolicited kisses, lets talk about those for a moment. When Syd comes up to me with her lips puckered and makes that sweet little "mmmmmmm-ba" sound, is it wrong that I want to run out and buy her a pony? Thankfully I'm broke or we'd have a backyard full of ponies.

Yellowrific Canola-y Goodness

Have you ever stopped to think about where canola oil comes from? Yeah, me neither. Allow me to show you...

It comes from beautiful fields like this one--->

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It was so beautiful, I've never seen anything quite like it. Sydney had little interest in being near the flowers long enough for me to take pictures so Ty got roped into holding her long enough for me to snap a few.

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When she did agree to stand by them, she refused to look at me. Little booger.

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When we headed back to the car, Sydney suddenly wanted down. Because really, what could be more fun than playing on the road?!

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Sydney's latest thing is to make a scrunchie faces.

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I'm outta here!

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Picking rocks, she comes by it naturally.

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Coping some 'tude...practicing for when she's 13.

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Short bus Sydney

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More scrunchie face goodness. I know is out of focus but I just don't care. She's still holding that prized rock!

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I hope canola crops catch on around here, I'd love to make this a spring family tradition!

Days You Wish Would Never End

I love those kinds of days and they seem to happen more often now that I'm a mom. We had a great time Saturday, just the 3 of us. After breakfast we headed down to Market Square in Knoxville for the preview of the Farmer's Market and the Chalk Walk street art contest.



Sydney loves to be out and about people watching. She enjoyed this street performer's music.



We were all fascinated by this man blowing bubbles. I would have loved to let Sydney get out of her stroller but the older kids were just too fast.



On our way back to the car, we met this guy at the booth for the Smoky Mountain Great Dane Rescue. I fell in love with him instantly, he was so sweet. Thankfully my rational brain reminded me that I already have 2 dogs :-)



We then went home so Syd could take a nap and get rested up for an awesome evening. While she slept we packed a picnic and decided to visit a new park. Turns out Everett Park is incredible. The picnic shelter is a red barn and the play ground equipment is wonderful.

Sydney was able to enjoy some of her favorite things like...

airplanes:


Sweet puppy dogs named Zander:


Slides:


and a drink of juice...something she rarely gets:


I would have given anything for Saturday to last forever!

Because I have nothing better to do...

...I've been sitting here watching old videos of Sydney. Time is going by too quickly. This video is almost a year old already. I need to make more time for this blog so that the memories are captured.

UDCS

My child refuses to hold crayons and markers the right way. In her world the point must always be facing up. If you try to correct it, she becomes very angry and promptly flips it upside down again. As you can imagine, her artwork leaves something to be desired :)

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Even if she sticks her tongue out and concentrates real hard, she can't hold the crayon correctly.

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Mama, quit fussing at me about the crayon!

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UDCS (Upside Down Crayon Syndrome) is a sign of brilliance, I'm sure of it!

You're #1

I'll probably offend someone with this photo but I don't care, it makes me laugh every time I see it.


My baby girl has had spunk from day she was conceived. I hope she never loses it!

The Pros and Cons...

...of a big floppy sun hat.

Pros: Um hello, they're cute!

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The cons: You can't see her sweet little face. Heavy sigh, being cute is hard work!

I hate that I have to use small pictures on my blog so I've added links to LARGE versions for those who can't get enough delicious baby goodness (Grandma, I'm looking at you!)

Peace out homies, we've got a play date. Places to go, people to see.

Sticks and Stones

Being an older first time mother and knowing Sydney will mostly likely grow up an only child, I try to surround her with loving, trustworthy people. Without brothers or sisters, I feel like it's even more important to have a strong network of friends, for her and for myself. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of that until recently. Someone I trusted 100% let me down in a big way. It was hard enough for me to trust people when it was just my emotions on the line, but now I'm putting my child's heart on the line too.

It's said often you should trust your instincts. What happens when you do that and your instincts are completely wrong? I can tell you one thing for certain, not only do you feel betrayed by the person who hurt you, you feel betrayed by your own instincts. I don't understand what drives people to act the way they do. What causes a trusted friend to take your care and concern and twist into something ugly?

There are so many things to worry about as a mother but the thing that scares me the most these days is broken hearts. Broken bones can be fixed without much lasting damage, but a broken heart can change the course of a child's life.

So yeah, whoever came up with that saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me", they were a few fries short of a happy meal. I'm making a pact with myself right now to never ever utter those words to Sydney. I don't care who you are, words hurt a lot more than being smacked upside the noggin with a stick!

Dear Sunshine,

You're the bomb! Please take your coat off and stay awhile so mama and I can play outside every single day.

Love,
Sydney

Who Needs Tizzie?

When Syd turned one I decided it was time to break the bad habit we had of rocking her to sleep before putting her to bed. I never intended for that habit to go on so long in the first place but you know the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". It's hard to convince yourself to shake up the bedtime routine when your kid's been sleeping through the night since her 4th month.

So back in January I set about the task of researching how to break this habit of ours. I felt we might all 3 need an intervention and possibly some xanex for Ty. I was considering making some woman named Tizzie Hall $30 richer because she's the international baby whisperer extraordinaire whose book had all the answers. Turns out I didn't have to contribute to Tizzie's retirement fund after all because Syd broke the habit herself.

It was the strangest thing. One night, no matter how much I rocked her, she just would not fall into a deep sleep. I figured it was due to the change in routine because daddy usually does bedtime but he was not home that night. Out of frustration I kissed her, put her in her bed and walked out of her room. I fully expected blood curdling screams to ensue but I'll be damned if she didn't just lay down and go to sleep. Pffft, total fluke, right? Wrong. I tried it the next night and it worked again. Then I started trying it during the day at nap time and voila, habit broken.

So the way I see it, I owe Syd $30.

Welcome!

Well, it's official, I can add mommy blogger to the list of things I am. I'm also a mother (duh), wife, sister, daughter, friend and hopefully some day I'll be an Auntie too...sorry H, I owe you a jab or 6. Of course I'm also the cook, maid, financial consultant, chauffeur, secretary, personal shopper, nurse, domestic engineer, party planner, director of entertainment etc etc. You get the point.

This is my space to write about it all. Welcome to it!