23 Month Update

 

* The biggest monumental thing that happened this month was that Bimmer used the potty! On March 27th, she peed on the potty for the first time and got a gold sticker, jelly bean, the works. Daycare had just started that week with trying the kids on the potty. Of course, that was the only time she went then for weeks, but that was OK. They told us she was anxious to try each day and was seeing other kids use it. I'm OK with the introduction and I'm not pushing it. She's not even two yet!

 

* Bimmer is expanding her vocabulary a lot more lately to include words that are not nouns. She'll say things like "Dark in there" or "Mama's coming." She uses the words "this" and "that." She is grasping the concepts of up and down, in and out, off and on. I may not always understand all the words in a sentence, but she'll tell me about the moon being made out of cheese or playing outside on the slides at school. She is expanding her animal knowledge and now can say gator and flamingo. (Or well, "mingo.") She knows almost all the colors, we're just trying to work on matching the words to the actual colors. If you ask her to name colors, she'll list "red, yellow, blue, green" etc. The only ones she seems to get right a lot of the time are yellow and pink. Perhaps those are her faves? Since she has mastered animals and their noises, we're working now on colors and numbers. She can count to ten in both English and Spanish, but with prodding. If you ask her to actually count something physical, she still goes "one, two, one!" At least she grasps the concept?

 

* On a whim, I took the front of her crib off. We've been battling the whole waking up and wanting to sleep with us issue now for several months. So I figured it was worth a try. The first night, she went down without incident, but about 2 hours later, she woke up crying. I went in and consoled her and she went back to sleep... for about twenty minutes. I eventually went in and laid in bed with her. Yes, I laid in the toddler bed, half ass hanging off, until she fell asleep. That was at about 11:45pm and she slept in her bed until 7am! It has been AGES it feels like since that has happened! The rest of the weekend went pretty well. Fingers crossed the freedom of the toddler bed is what she needed to be OK sleeping through the night in her own bed. She would wake up in the morning and talk about her "big girl bed."

 

* One of the sweetest things a mom can hear is for her child to tell her that they love her. Or so I assume. The first thing Bimmer said that she loved? Kimhead. And then I think it was cheese. In early April, I decided to work on this matter. She did start repeating me when I told her to say "I love Daddy" or "I love Mommy." It was sweet and so cute, but I was anxious for the day when she would say it on her own accord. About a week later, her and Puff were in the other room and she came running in to me to tell me that Daddy was reading her books. I told her that I loved her and asked her for a kiss. After she leaned in and kissed me, she said "I lub you." And got the biggest smile on her face! Oh - kill me now! That kid!

 

* Besides her non-stop of wanting us to read books (current fave is "Zoola Palooza") she has also discovered stickers. And I am inclined to let her play with them, because she can honestly sit still and entertain herself for much longer playing with stickers than anything else. I splurged on a Melissa & Doug reuseable sticker pad back in the winter, and she now climbs up to the table in our office and plays with it on her own. I love that she is figuring out how to play by herself. As an only child myself, I was always having to figure that out. And since we don't know yet if she will be an only child or not, I like that she's at least trying.

 

* There are two boys in Bimmer's class who just got baby brothers in the past month, and another little girl is going to be a big sister to a brother soon. So it doesn't really surprise me, but at least twice this past week, Bimmer has said "Dee Dee brudder?" Maybe this is the sign from the universe I'd been needing to decide of we wanted a second kid? Perhaps.

The Wild Side

As you learned in my last post, my parents came for a visit in early April to hang out with Bimmer. (HERE) One thing I have been wanting to do ever since Bimmer was born was take the trip to Hollywild. You may remember years ago that Puff and I went there for a holiday light display and a mutant cow tried to stick its head through my car window. (HERE) I had low expectations of the actual animal park, since I had heard it was all kinda sketch. But Bimmer loves animals and we were looking for a major wow-factor to a day out with Mamaw & Papaw.

 

 

 

It was amazing! Yes, it was a little run down and there were no pretty paved pathways or glorious enclosures. But Bimmer loved it... and so did the rest of us! I wouldn't recommend going in the middle of summer, since I assume it stinks and would be bloody hot with little trees. And their bathrooms were gross enough without the stench of not being climate controlled in the middle of August. And you could probably stand to pack a lunch if you plan to be there awhile (we were there 4 hours) because nachos and hot dogs are your only choices from the snack shop. But with all that being said... I soooooo recommend it!!!

 

 

 

I was pretty confident Bimmer would want nothing to do with any animal feeding or touching. Just a few weeks back, we were walking down the street and she got excited about a golden retriever. Yet freaked out when it got close enough for her to pet. I figured if an emu or buffalo got within throwing distance, she would have a nervous breakdown. But that's the thing with kids... they surprise you. We climbed on board the rickety old gutted school bus and took our "safari" out into a giant field full of wandering animals.

 

 

 

When it stopped and we became swarmed by the herd, I even was a bit nervous. Bimmer held back and stood in the center of the vehicle with me, where they couldn't touch her. She watched and I snapped photos. Mamaw let the cows slobber all over her hand. Puff gave the buffalo stale english muffins to munch. The longer we were there, the more Bimmer warmed to the idea. And she decided she wanted to give it a try. I swelled with motherly pride at her taking that big step! Such a brave little girl!

 

 

 

Please note that I did not partake in feeding any animals... unless you count flinging the piece of bread out the bus window as far as humanly possible so that I wouldn't risk any actual animal contact.

 

One of the highlights of the day was getting to see a "show" (I use that term loosely) where they had three baby bears. Bimmer has loved looking at the photos since we've been home and gets excited and yells "baby bear!"

 

 

 

I was surprised at the variety of animals they had... .camels, leopard, baboon, tigers, and lions. All of them in enclosures that looked, well, short of passing any type of safety requirements.

 

 

 

We spent a total of about four hours at the place. Bimmer was soaking up every second and loved it so much. If it weren't such a far drive, I would consider going back quite frequently. I think maybe we'll save the next trip for their holiday lights. Bimmer will be 2 1/2 years old and I'm certain she will love it. Although probably not as much as she loved getting to feed and see all those awesome animals!

 

 

Family Visitors

From The Bungalow to my parent's house in The Fort is about seven hours. In the car. After living in SC for so long, I'm totally used to the drive. But that's my max... no further. When I was in college, I used to make tons of pilgrimages back home each year. As the years have passed, the frequency of these visits has slowed down significantly. Since Bimmer was born two years ago (almost - yikes!!!) we have been home 5 times. And the only reason for that extra visit was to see my Grandma before she passed away. Nope... I'm strictly on a two-visits-per-year plan right now.

 

I want to spend my vacation days on vacation. Sue me. So I made a very strong ultimatum with my dad and told him that if he wants to see Bimmer more often, then they need to pack up their asses and come visit us every once and awhile. (To be fair, we also invited them to Gatlinburg with us last year, and they declined. So far, same with our invite to join us in Hilton Head later this year.) A spur of the moment visit was scheduled and at the start of April, they were at our doorstep.

 

 

 

It was a wonderful visit. While there were moments where I wanted to smack them upside the head (that always happens with family, doesn't it???) Bimmer had a wonderful visit with her Mamaw & Papaw. She is at such a fun age where she wants to hang out with them and has no trepidation of being with them and me not being right next to her.

 

 

 

There was lots of playing. And eating. And chatting. And more playing. And booger wiping. And more eating. I needed a break from their visit for sure and just wanted a nap! (Stay tuned for an upcoming post about a super special fun day we spent at an animal park.) It's so amazing to see Bimmer with her grandparents. I had such vivid and special memories with mine. While I grew up seeing mine super frequently (as in, some of them every day) I know Bimmer won't have that luxury, so these trips are super important and special.

 

She's a lucky little girl.

Mommy Daughter Photo Dump

Instead of just a totally random photo dump this go-round, I thought I would narrow the scope this time. At the end of March, Puff got sent to Michigan on business, so I was playing single mom for four days with Bimmer. It actually was really sweet time together. I love that little munchkin... even if she wears me out! So here are a few shots from my phone from our dedicated mommy-daughter girl bonding time!!!

 

 

Meet Your Step-Mom

Yes, I realize I am a few weeks behind. Give me a break... I'm a working mother of a toddler who is spending all her spare time at the tanning bed and the gym. So, yes, I do have to DVR every single show that I watch. I did finally get around to watching the series finale of How I Met Your Mother. And I feel like I need to toss my two cents out into the blogosphere. Even if I wasn't live-tweeting during the finale, that doesn't make my mindless dribble any less important than other people's mindless dribble.

 

 

 

Back in September 2005, when the show first premiered, I was at a super weird cross-roads in my life. I had just reconnected with Mr. Smith after not speaking for several years after our break-up. I wasn't sure I wanted to stay with The Ex. I hated my job, but I had one thing to look forward to... a trip to New Zealand that December. When the show premiered, The Ex and I decided to take it on. (We had a lot of time to watch lots of TV back then.) We would watch it, and then I would lock myself in our spare room, in front of the computer, and chat on Instant Messenger (remember that???) with Mr. Smith. He was also watching the show and we would discuss it. (Amongst other things.)

 

The show became some weird, unspoken parallel to our own lives. He was Ted. I was Robin.

 

One of my biggest qualms with some TV shows is when they hook up characters too early in the run of the show. "Bones" is a good example... I want Brennan and Booth to end up together, but to me, that needs to be the last episode. Ever. At the very bitter end, they finally get together. However, the writers don't always agree with my view on this. Hence Brennan & Booth being together... and me hating it. I feel the same way currently about Nick & Jess over on "New Girl." And I felt the same when HIMYM finally got Robin & Ted together. Yes, I wanted them to be a couple... just not til the bitter end.

 

 

 

I will say, that I absolutely hated the Barney & Robin thing. It just never felt like it was going to work. It didn't feel real... the womanizer and the career-minded woman. They weren't going to last. No... Ted was the hopeless romantic that Robin needed to be with. Just like I ran the parallel that I was the career-minded, hardened girl who wasn't always enamored by romance, but there was that one person in life who could get to me that way... Mr. Smith was my Casanova.

 

While I am a happily married woman and Mr. Smith is a happily married man, I couldn't help but smile at the end finale of HIMYM. (Spoiler alert - Ted's wife dies and he goes to win back Robin.) In my smiles, I had some tears. Not just at the end of the series that has meant so much to me for all these years, but for that little bit of romance that I know Mr. Smith had impacted on my life. I could see that, years down the road, if something were to ever happen in our lives that brought us back to a situation where we were both single, Mr. Smith would bring me a blue French horn. (Symbolically speaking, of course.)

 

I hope I never come to that place in life. But it brought a sweet peace to me, to the me who saw myself through those characters, that they ended up together in the end. So while I didn't love all of the finale (I didn't agree with Barney having a baby) I was definitely OK with how it all wound up. I was never vested in "the mother." It didn't upset me that after all the build-up, she was hardly in the story at all. No... because the story I wanted was Ted & Robin together in the end. I think I'm in the minority of people who agreed or liked the ending. (At least amongst my friends anyway.)

 

It was that hopeless romantic hiding deep inside me. Shhhh.... that's our little secret.

Hey There, Fatty

I am currently suffering from the worst bout of "I hate my body" that I've had in, oh, forever.

I joined a gym back in November and have been going regularly. Or well, as regularly as a working mom of a toddler with a bonkers schedule and a husband who also works goofy hours can. I started off swimming laps, but soon realized it wasn't having the weight-loss impact I desired, so I switched to full-time ellipticizing back in February. I had done this before my wedding back in 2010, and lost a good 10 or 15 pounds in just a few months.

Not this time.

Post-baby weight is not being kind to me. And yes, I am technically hovering at my pre-baby weight, it has redistributed. And it's all in that horrible spot that will not look so cute in a bikini this summer. A spot that I should have worked harder to get rid of LAST year. Not the year my baby is turning two. My bikinis are taunting me from the depths of my bottom drawer. Buying new ones is not an option. I won't let it be.

A few things to note about all of this....

1) Since I am, deep down, a woman, I thought that getting some new cute work-out gear may bump the motivation level up a notch. Getting checked out in tight pants and a cute top would make going to the gym not so bad. Right? So I nixed my old ratty t-shirts and running shorts (which is hilarious to call them that, because, I've never ran ever... except for that "challenge" to run a mile in gym class that nearly killed me) and hit up Old Navy for a few cute new things.

2) A co-worker whose son is a few months younger that Bimmer has been going to the gym less time than me, but has lost more weight. Yes, she eats better than I do. (Seriously - my diet is horrific.) And yes, she had more weight to lose than I did. But still... that doesn't make me feel good to have only lost two pounds in almost 5 months. And I still have a nice little muffin-top. My summer vacation is sneaking up on me quicker than I care to admit. And watching other people lose weight and me be stuck? It's depressing. I want to go eat a brownie.

3) I am contemplating a trainer. It's not cheap ($24/half hour) but I think it's the kick-in-the-ass that I really need. I don't know which exercises to be doing to lose the tire around my gut. I have had some in-shape friends give me some moves to work my abs, but that involves laying on the group at home. And that means Bimmer thinks I'm a horse and runs over to me screaming "NEIGH!!!" before jumping on me. Gosh, I love that kid, but she's not helping my quest to lose a few lbs. I was all geared up to ask at the gym about signing up for a session, but the guy I need to chat with was always helping someone. And let's be honest, I'm not quite proactive enough in this endeavor to call the gym to talk to him.

Thanks for listening to my little bitch-fest about how much I wish I could lose weight, but am not. I did go on a gluten-free diet this past week, since that tends to cleanse and I usually lose a few pounds. It did nothing. Not a single ounce. Talk about frustration!!!!! Stay tuned. I'm hoping to have an ab-reveal in a few weeks! **UPDATE: I went ahead and bit the bullet and I have my first session with a trainer this week! Will post about it soon!**

Man Candy Monday

There's no rhyme or reason to today's post. Just needed a little eye candy to start the week. Enjoy! :)

 

 

I'm late on the Jared Leto bandwagon. It wasn't until the Oscars.. that hair, that scruff, those eyes, that smile. Yup... I'm a fan!