2nd Grade here I Come!!!

Yes, Bailey has a mowhawk. I think it looks sort of cool. Don't worry, it isn't permanent. I am planning on cutting it before we go to church on Sunday. But it is sort of fun to bug old people with it!

Yo Gabba What?

Sorry I have been MIA lately. For those wondering my FIL is doing well. To see him you wouldn't even know anything is wrong with him. Sadly, we know that something like this could happen again, and next time he might not be so lucky. But we are so grateful for the time that we do have with him, and having an idea of what the future could hold makes our time together so much more precious.

Anyway, on to my post title. Mackenzie is not a big TV fan. Which is a good thing for the most part. But there are moments when I would like to shower in peace without getting the whole bathroom wet in the process because she insists on opening the shower door. One day I was getting desparate for something to distract her because I just needed a few moments to myself. I flipped through the kids' channels and found Yo Gabba Gabba on Nickelodeon. Instantly, she was mesmerized! And I took a shower without hearing "hi, hi, hi" 100 times. And when I got out, she was still perched on the couch where I left her! I am a little worried though. Out of all the shows to watch, this one is a little strange. There is a guy who wears tights, glasses and a wig (he reminds me of Roj from the 70's show "What's Happening?") who has these toy monsters that come to life in a diarama. They do a lot of singing and dancing, and the monsters, whose names I haven't figured out quite yet, are bright and amusing. My favorite so far has been when the green monster tries to bite one of the other monsters, and they break into song about how you don't bite your friends. Funny huh?

I love having a DVR, because now whenever I need Yo Gabba Gabba to come to my rescue, I can turn on one of the episodes I have taped. Thank you Nickelodeon for giving me my sanity back!!!

Sad

My father in law is in the hospital. He has had a series of strokes today. Having kids, I have to stay home, where it is hard to feel "in the loop". Bailey is super close to him, but he isn't worried at all. He feels like he will be OK, and I hope he is right.

I love my own dad, but we aren't close. I haven't talked to him since August when I was there visiting. He isn't very talkative, but I know my mom fills him in on everything going on. But I am close to my father in law. He is truly like a dad to me. He does so much for me and truly cares about me. When someone gets really sick or hurt, you start to think whether they would know how much you care about them. I think my father in law knows I care, but I feel bad that I don't ever say "I love you" to him. It just feels awkward for me to say, since he isn't my dad. But I do love him. He is a wonderful Papa to my kids, and they adore him. He is always so willing to help our family and is a good listening ear. Of course he has his quirks, but I think anyone who knows him loves him as well.

The Big 3-2

So it was my birthday on Saturday. I am now 32, which isn't a big deal, right? Except that I have been dreading this birthday for YEARS. Why would I dread this particular birthday? Well, when I was 16, my little brother was born. He was quite the surprise, and I felt too old for there to be a baby in the house. I always thought about when he would be 16, the same age I was when he was born, I would be 32. It seemed like he would never turn 16, so I would never turn 32.

Well, that day has arrived. He still has 2 months to go before he is 16, but here I sit at 32. The number that seemed too far away to ever come. That makes me feel OLD. So old that when I looked at myself in the mirror, all I could see was gray hair. So the night before my birthday I went and bought hair dye. I have been wanting to dye my hair a medium/dark brown for some time. I think girls who have dark hair and blue eyes are so pretty. So I wanted to try it out. $2.50 later, I have practically black hair. My husband was not a fan initially, but he likes it more and more. But I have a problem. I have these weird horizontal streaks where the color is fading already. Oh well. I really don't want to fry my hair by re-dying it again, so I will leave the streaks for "character". If you see me, just tell me you love my hair, whether you do or not. Please. I just turned 32 and I messed up my hair as if I was 16. I need an ego boost!

So Close!!!

I have a confession. I am a blog hopper. I don't know if there is a real word that describes jumping from blog to blog through other people's blogs, but I think blog hopper is a good word. Anyway, through other people's blogs I found one that was having a contest on the worst parenting advice ever given to you. There was even a prize. Now I love prizes and competition. I have always wanted to win something, and I thought this was my chance. So today I popped on the other blog to see if they had announced a winner, and sure enough they had! My heart pounded with excitement, thinking I might have won.

Nope, not me.

I really want to be a winner. Especially of a gift card prize.

Maybe someday.

I Have the Gimmies

Growing up, we loved to read the Bearenstein bears books. My sister collected them in fact. There was one that was called "The Bearenstein Bears Get the Gimmies" or something along those lines. It is where Brother and Sister want everything imaginable just because. Now I don't even remember how they came to get rid of the gimmies, they probably saw other bears who don't have as much as they do or something like that. But I think I need to read that book again. Because I have the dreaded gimmies.

I don't know why, but there are so many things that I want right now. The Hub got his TV, I feel entitled to get something cool too. Unfortunately I have a list of things I want, none of them being necessarily practical. One of the things I want is a Canon Rebel XTi. I have wanted one for a couple years, but they were out of my price range. But when I went to Amazon.com the other day, they are at a more reasonable $600. Not that $600 isn't a big chunk of money to spend, but I also cashed out my credit card points for a $100 gift card to Amazon, making the camera only $500. But after the big TV purchase, along with the fact that I just got a new point and shoot camera last year, I'm not sure I should make such a big purchase, at least not right now.

Another thing I have been wanting is yarn. Yes, you read right, yarn. I have been knitting for a couple months now and I love it. It is so relaxing and fun to make something out of yarn. We really don't have any good yarn stores around here so I look at yarn online. I am sad, I know. The yard I want is a bit pricey, but it is nice stuff. All the knitting books say you should knit with the nicest yarn you can (I'm sure they get some sort of royalty or something from the cashmere and alpaca people). One day I loaded up a virtual shopping cart with just a few balls of yarn that I was interested in and the total quickly surpassed $50.

I could go on and on about more things that I want right now. Good thing my birthday and mother's day is coming up!

My Little Shrimp

Mackenzie is 18 months, but she is tiny. Whenever we go out and people comment about her, I know they think she is much younger than she is. This is actually sort of nice. They think she is really smart because she can talk and understand direction when really what she can do is average for her age. (Not saying 18 month kids who don't talk are dumb.) Also when she is running around, her size is deceiving. People are impressed that she can walk and run around. Honestly it isn't impressive. It's just the way it is! Most 18 month old kids walk and run. Whenever I tell someone how old she is, they either look at me like I am lying or miscalculated her age, or that I am not feeding her enough which is why she is so small. Let me tell you, she eats like it is going out of style! She likes healthy stuff and some not so healthy things. She eats very well, as anyone who has watched her eat can attest to.

I always had the same thing happen with Bailey. He is still small for being 7, although he has been growing a lot lately. It is an advantage when he is acting good like a 7 year old should be able to and other people observe, and to them, he is a 4 or 5 year old acting exceptionally well behaved. About 6 months ago we were walking around the neighborhood and we ran into some neighbors in the area we had never talked to before. They had a little boy who was about 4. The mom stopped and chatted with me for a minute or two, talking about how they didn't know there were other kids in the neighborhood around her son's age. So she turns to Bailey and asks him how old he is. He says 7, the mom's mouth drops open, she says, oh, well nice talking to you, and that was the end of the conversation. Bailey understood what had happened. He said "I know I am small, but I'm not THAT small!" He is small but pretty mature for his age. At least I think so.