thursday thirteen

i have somehow managed to loose my camera. i have absolutely no idea where i put it, hence why i deemed it lost. i really have never been good about taking pictures outside of the house so i am going to assume the camera must be inside somewhere but i don't know where. needless to say, i can't post any new, great pics of sweet cheeks without it. so, for now, i have decided to steal the post title that a lot of the other mommy blogs that i read do, a thursday thirteen.

since it is only 9:30am and i am starving for lunch, my first thursday thirteen list will be of the foods i would really love to be eating right now.

13. ribs from fat matts rib shack
12. a take 5
11. cheeseburger happy meal
9. bowl of coco puffs
8. quiznos honey bacon club
7. sloppy joe sandwich
6. slice of cheese pizza
5. oreos dipped in milk
4. bowl of lucky charms cereal (a favorite of mine and sweet cheeks)
3. a snickers followed up with a dr. pepper
2. french toast with a cold glass of chocolate milk
1. a cinnamon cruncher bagel with cream cheese from panera


hopefully i will be back posting pictures soon... as soon as i find my camera. i hate being irresponsible but i so often am. i make myself crazy. sometimes i seriously think i am loosing my mind. yesterday i went to leave work and had to search 3 different levels in the parking garage because i couldn't remember which one i had parked on that day. i am too young for this.

peas please

sweet cheeks love to play with playdoh. that part isn't so funny. what is funny is what she likes to do with the playdoh. most kids like to make balls or worms, which she does, kind of. sweet cheeks likes to make 'peas' with her playdoh. then she follows it up with a 'bowl' to hold the peas and a 'top' to cover the peas. it is the funniest thing and you just had to see it.




UGHHH! i hate the paci because it ruins this adorable picture!


i know, she is cute no matter what though.

girlfriends

i had absolutely the best time friday night with the most amazing girlfriends one could ever have. i know i am the luckiest person in the world because it isn't like i was hanging out with one or two of my best buds, but i was with a total of 6, yup, that's right, 6 of them. i have heard it said many times that you should consider yourself lucky if you have one best friend, so it goes without say that i am more than blessed. i have had the same girlfriends since middle school & high school. these girls probably know more about me than i care to know about myself. i love that they know everything about me and love me just the same, and that goes both ways. as cliche as it sounds, we have seriously been through so much in our past almost 20 years. everything from first loves, first break ups, first cars, first jobs, first smokes, first drinks, first apartments, first homes, first loss, to first born. i couldn't even begin to sum it up just how much we have done and seen together as a clique. these girls are the most amazing group of woman that i have and will ever know. i can't and don't want to imagine my life without them. they have seriously contributed to making me the person i am today. i love them!

thank you girls.

5 songs that make me think about my girlfriends:

5. in your eyes- peter gabriel
4. come undone- duran duran
3. 100% pure love- crystal waters
2. linger- the cranberries
1. ice ice baby- vanilla ice

5 top tv girlfriends:

5. laverne & shirley
4. lucy & ethel
3. the golden girls
2. brenda, donna, & kelly
1. monica, rachel, & phoebe

the sweetest thing

i really have to stop and wonder sometimes what sweet cheek's dad and i are doing so right that is making her grow into this sweet thing. seriously, she is. just last night we were eating dinner (as a family at the table- best time in the world) and she said "i am having fun together." yes, a 27 month old litte girl said that to her father and i. my jaw dropped and i wanted to cry (though i never do tear up as sensitive as i think i am). sweet cheeks will not eat a meal or a snack without saying, "i share with mommy" or "i share with daddy." nor does she ever hesistate to say "thank you" when she is given something. i really have no idea how we are doing it. makes me question, as so many other things make me do, the whole nature v. nurture theory. maybe it has nothing to do with anything her daddy or mommy do. is it possible that she was just born to be sweet? i think it is but i really like to think it has more to do with the first, something we are doing, maybe even an example we set.

i took her to see her very first movie on sunday. i knew if there was going to be a movie this child might sit through, it was going to be shrek the third. she absolutely loves anything and everything shrek these days. our last visit to the grocery store was a shrek shopping experience. we came home with shrek macaroni & cheese, string cheese, and yogurt. she even threw herself to the floor quite dramatically in the dairy aisle that had a shrek & donkey floor advertisement. it was so dramatic. needless to say, she is in love with the ogre. we made it through about 1 hour of the hour & 1/2 long movie. that was about an hour longer than i was exxpecting her to last. she did amazingly well in a theatre full of other kids aged 2-100. i loved that she was most proud of herself for being quit, though i attribute that to the dumdum she ate the entire time we were in there.

my last note of this post will be this: i can not stand fergie or any of her songs. how did she even put a record out. one line of her song out on the radio now actually says, "i'm gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket." not that all music should have quoteable lyrics but come on already. the only positive attribute i can see about fergie is her fiance, josh duhamel. enough said.

accomplishments- in training

i can not believe how mature my two year old is. she is like an adult trapped in this tiny, wobbly, finicky, toddler body. even with my nieces and nephews, i still never realized until having my own just how independent these kids can be and it amazes me every day. i really want to give sweet cheeks that independence as well. she will more than likely be an only child and i really want her to be an inpendent child who blossoms into an independent woman. though, her want for indepence and my need to keep her safe often bump heads. the other day i took her swimming with her cousins. this was sweet cheeks 3rd or 4th time ever in a pool, and the first time this summer. the girl wanted to jump in the pool by herself doing cannon balls and belly flops! she has no idea how to even swim and i would not let her go. it was a struggle because while we were in the pool, i had to hold her and she thought that because her cousins were swimming without their mommy that she should be able to as well. sadly, you just can not reason with a two year old to make them understand what drowning is. i tried telling her that if i let her go, she would only sink into the water. this is a girl who cries when water drips down onto her face while i am washing/rinsing her hair in the bathtub, so there is no way she would appreciate falling face first into the pool. i was having so much fun watching her play, at the same time, praying that she didn't squirm out of my wet, slippery hands and choke on the utterly disgusting-to-swallow chlorinated water. this is just one example of how she is growing and testing her independence daily.

Sweet cheeks is also learning to use the potty. She wears pull ups while at school and uses the potty 3 times a day there. At home, i am not as vigiliant with making her sit on the potty as i should be. though, it is funny, she always has to pee and poop at bedtime. i struggle with the decision to let her go, since she is learning and may really have to go, or do i tell her no, make her go to bed, and feel like the worst mother in the world for making a girl who is learning to pee on the potty have to wet herself. UGHH! motherhood is seriously a tough job that one is never fully equiped for. along with potty traing comes big girl underwear and bless the licensing companies who know they will make a killing off of cartoon character big girl undies. sweet cheeks insists on wearing her backyardigans undies over her diapers (yes, i know, not the way they are intended to be worn but it works for her). did i mention that our poop book is 'miss mary mack." sweet cheeks has me read this to her a minimum of two times every time she goes to the potty. here sweet cheeks trying on her undies and i must say, she is adorable in them.







i am even considering purchasing this to entice her to the potty more often. yes, once again, these companies make a fortune off of suckers like me who will do anything for their toddler-in-training.

not only is she learning to pee, poop, and gas on the potty (her words, not mine), she is also learning to ride her bicycle, a red radioflyer trike. she is still working on getting the pedaling down and for the most part, pushes herself with her feet, but when she isn't falling over, she really does a great job with it! yes, she does wear her helmet when she rides outside.




















now for fun, my list of 5 things i wish i would have had when sweet cheeks was a baby:

1. i absolutely love this bedding set from dwell baby!












2. i think it is the pink and brown combo that makes this fleurville bag so appealing. i used a backpack diaper bag a majority of the time with sweet cheeks, and still do. you can find it here.











3. this is a great highchair for the sake of saving space in your kitchen. love the convenience of it.








4. these onesies come in a pack and i love the baby's name set in the blocks.here.
















5. what an original bib. the piggie is so cute.

well look at that

too great not to share, seriously. when was the last time you saw a beach ball given away with the purchase of corn chips! it just doesn't happen often enough!














who knew new mexico was the land of enchantment? i surely didn't.



i found these silly pictures here

new look, new location

sweet cheeks got a new hair cut on saturday. her dad and i had been trying to hype this up to her for a couple weeks with hopes of having a better experience than it was the first time around. the first haircut, which took place one month before her 2nd birthday, had many tears shed before, during, and after. this haircut went pretty much the same way, with the exception of the runny, melted m&m's in her hands

sweet cheeks started her new school on monday. she has been so excited about this for a month now. it went just as we had hoped it would, smoothly. she seems to really like her new teachers. after her first day of school, i picked her up and her comment to me was, "miss patti is my new friend." i couldn't have hoped for a better comment.

we celebrated nana and poppop's 40th anniversary on saturday night. sweet cheeks was able to show off her new hair-do to the family. it is just so unfair to the rest of the world. no one will ever be as cute as this little girl is. she absolutely kills me. and if being blessed with good looks wasn't enough, she is a genius as well. doesn't get any better than that.

now for the things i am currently pondering:

1. do we seriously use the correct names for anatomy when teaching sweet cheeks? i was forced to make a decison when she started playing with herself. i seriously had so many silly names i had heard others call their parts running through me head. should i say it is a whowho, a front butt, tiddlywink, or teetee? i hesitated for only a moment and said, "stop playing with your vagina." sweet cheeks without a moment of hesistation laughed while saying bagina. enough said.

2. how did she become so bossy? her - "i need more chocolate milk" me- "you can have some water" her- "no, i need chocolate milk" me- "how about both?" her- "no just chocolate milk"

3. how will shonda rhimes play off burke being canned from grays anatomy? i know it is a fictional tv show but i already cringe at the ideas they are going to present us with next season. will burke have to leave seattle grace because his heart just can't take working beside christina or will he suddenly be found dead after committing suicide or will he decide to be just another doctor who goes to africa to so graciously donate his time and abilities (yup, you remember carter & luka from er "leaving" to do the same).

Yup.... It's my very first post!

iam sure it wasn't the need to let all of my somewhat crazy thoughts out into the world for everyone to know. i am sure it wasn't the need for testing my writing skills almost 7 years after receiving my degree in english. i really can't tell you why i wanted to start my own mommy blog other than the fact that i have so many amazing stories to share about my little sweet cheeks! i have been reading other mommy blogs for months now and really thought hard about starting one myself. again, there is something quite strange about putting yourself completely out there, butt naked for the world to see, out onto a computer website for anyone and everyone to read, yet there is something so real, so theraputic about it as well. what better way for me to remember the tiny yet so inspiring and momentous things that my girl does! i love having this blog for the sheer sake of scrapbooking memories (nope, i won't do all the cutsey add on sticker slogans & trims). I hope some of you come back every so often, despite the writers lack of interesting posts, to see updates and photos of my 2-year old sweet cheeks!