Brown Bear

I have been a pathetic blogger. It's been over a month since my last blog. (This is the confession part).

I blame my lack of work-life balance. I blame my lack of work-life balance on me because I can't walk away from work. If I'm not at work, I'm on my phone reading work email or thinking about how I'm going to respond to the email I just read. I NEED TO UNPLUG AND LET IT GO. I'm smart enough to realize that my lone actions will not raise the stock price tomorrow morning. But I'm too much a perfectionist/pleaser to let any of the balls drop.

Oh well, enough about my balls.

Here's a moment that drives me to correct my work-life balance issue.

I'm reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to Sara.

Mom: "Who's that?"
Sara: "Brown Bear" (in her cutest little almost-2 voice - really came out "Bown Bear")
Mom: "How does Brown Bear go?"
Sara: (Very confidently) "Beep Beep"

LOVE IT. LOVE HER.

My blog is a reflection...

My blog is a reflection of my life. When life is even-paced, I tend to blog alot...and (I feel) it can even be funny and interesting.

But when my life is in chaos, normally because of my job, I go silent. I don't have time to download pictures, articulate little stories about the girls or even keep up on reading friends blogs.

I have been spending way too much time and energy focusing on things that go on at work. It's a struggle because co-workers say things like "You work too much", "You shouldn't have to work at night" and "You're stressing too much". But no one ever says "Ah...be late, don't worry about it".

And because no one ever says that, I work too much and at night and stress out about it.

But I'm back, at least for today because it's Saturday and Todd has taken the girls upstairs to give mommy a break.

So..what has been going on in the last two months?

Heck, in the last week, Sara said "I love you mommy" for the first time where I didn't ask her to say it. I said "I love you Sara" and there it was, right back at me - "I love you mommy". That was on Tuesday morning.

And the on Wednesday morning, she tee tee'd on the potty for the first time. I couldn't believe it - she's almost 22 months but still. We haven't seen any repeat performances so it may have been a fluke.

And little Sara is talking up a storm, mainly "I want X", "Mine" and "Hello Mommy" but it's just wonderful to hear her little voice.

Paige is such a big girl - no big milestones but she is turning into such a little lady - worrying about her hair, learning to read and become aware of what others think of her. That one sorta freaks me out. If I pass anything on to her, I want it to be confidence and to just not care what other people think and say. It is going to be my biggest challenge with my girls.

I am going on a trip to Vegas with the girls (Beth, Kim and Jaklyn) on Thursday - I'm so excited. I really wish Todd was going because we really are soul mates in Vegas but I know there will be no lack of fun with girls.

Hopefully it won't be May when I post again... I'm sure I'll find work-life balance somewhere...somehow...

Merry Christmas...

We spent Christmas in Phoenix this year - we drove straight through both ways! We are raising little road-tripping warriors and I love it!

Actually, we tried to stop and get some rest on the way back in Odessa, stopping at a "great family hotel" only to unpack the car, get the girls pajamas on and FIND BED BUGS in the hotel room's bed! Blech!!!! Todd saw the news report on them several months ago and decided to pull up the mattress to check it out and there were the "tell-tale" signs. I wasn't convinced so I googled the hotel and sure enough - lots of hits on bed bugs. So then we look a little bit more and one of the little buggers crawls by. I can't tell you how disgusted I was that I had brought my girls to somewhere they could get bitten up while we slept. I so wish we would've taken pictures - we reported it to the hotel but they totally blew us off. We were so angry about the room that we just packed the car back up, bought some Vivarin and drove til 4:30am. I was NOT stopping anywhere else to have this happen again and waste more time.

We came home, washed everything in hot water and haven't looked back although in writing this I'm really how freaking pissed off I am at the hotel. I need to give them another call on Monday. Although, as I said, we didn't take any pictures (and I take pictures of everything, what the heck?) and we weren't there long enough to get bitten so I don't think they would feel any obligation to us at all.

I've included some of my favorite Christmas pictures - my two girls fighting over the cookies for Santa. Paige tried to set them out "oh-so-nice" for Santa and all Sara wanted to do was eat them. We let them go at it for a while cause it was just so funny.

Here Paige has just finished laying out the perfect cookies for Santa. And Sara, well, she's hungry.

Paige is covering up the cookies here. I guess she thinks that Sara is going to forget that they're there???

Sara is ready to take what she feels is hers and Paige starts to melt.

And here is the full blown melt down. Sara went to bed right after this and Paige got to arrange her cookies any way she wanted.

Sara and the kitchen chair

Sara, in her 18th month, has figured out how to get up on the dining room and kitchen chairs. Yikes!

We've had to go from using the tables to keep things away from her to putting them on top of the entertainment center. The kitchen counters weren't even a safe spot because she's figured out how to push the chair to the kitchen counter and then climb up on the chair. She's a smart one....

The Nutcracker Ballet Tea

Today we went to the Collin County Ballet Theatre's annual Nutcracker & Sugar Plum Fairy team - this is our third one and it was really great.

It's at the Westin in Frisco and they really do a great job. They serve kid-friendly tea sandwiches of peanut butter & jelly and grilled cheese, strawberries with cream, scones with jelly and cookies. It's kid heaven! And then, when they think it can't get any better, they get to mingle and dance with the ballerinas.


As we were leaving all of the little girls were spinning and twirling, pretending they were the ballerinas - it's so cute!


Here are some pictures from the event...


This is Paige and her American Girl doll, Kit, in their matching outfits. I hadn't bought a Christmas dress for Paige yet and thought she would love to have an outfit to match her doll. Note to self - before you promise a matching dress, check out the price tag. :) Enough said.


My little lady enjoying the tea (well, lemonade) part of the ballet

Paige with Riley and Caroline

Paige with a few of the dancers from the show...

Paige's Tooth Finally Came Out!

Paige finally lost her first tooth this morning - it took over two weeks since we first noticed it was loose for that little bugger to come out!

And here's Paige getting ready for the tooth fairy - Grandma Margaret made her a tooth fairy pillow. I need to remember to go up to her room and make sure the tooth fairy does her job!

Our little Rock Star

Check out the Rock Star playing a little Barbie guitar...

and our trip to McAlister's... "MMMMmmm..."

Lots of Baking!

Last Sunday was a big baking day in our house. We started off the morning making Cinnamon Rolls. Paige took the lead and did everything except for take them out of the oven. (Mom's not quite ready to let her try that one...)

Paige did a great job and they were VERY tasty!



And that afternoon Paige made her first cake using the Easy Bake Oven. It was just like I remembered it - light bulb and all!

It was alot of fun until mom had to call for reinforcements when she got the cake stuck in the Not So Easy Bake Oven after it was done. Dad had to come in and save the day! (No, I have no idea how the cake got stuck - seriously)

I can't believe it's already here...

We went to the mall this morning to meet the Nirchis to allow the kids to let loose in the play area at the mall. And after play time is snack time so I bought the girls some pretzel sticks.

We pick up Subway for lunch on the way home and as Paige is eating her sandwich she starts to complain about how it hurts. Now, you have to know that Paige whines about hurting, stomach aches, being too full, etc whenever she doesn't want to finish the food that has been given to. I realized this trick very quickly after the first "stomach ache" when not 10 minutes later she was asking for cookies. Sigh.

I basically tell her to suck it up and finish her sandwich. But then she tells me that one specific front tooth hurts and that it's moving. Huh? Moving?

No, can't be - you are WAY too young to lose a baby tooth. But, after a quick confirmation that in fact, the tooth is moving AND you can see the adult one popping in behind it, I let it sink in. My first born is not a little girl anymore. She's my big girl. This is seriously bumming me out a bit. I just can't believe she is old enough for her baby teeth to come out. Okay, logically, I get that she's five and that's about the right age but my heart tells me different - she TOO young!

I'll keep you updated but I have a feeling the Tooth Fairy will be visiting our home tonight or tomorrow!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year! We spent it with our good friends the Butlers and the Harrisons over at the Butlers house. Food, drinks and candy - what could be better?



The Butlers really do their house up for Halloween - the kids loved it! Heck, I loved it!

Here's Little Red Riding Hood! You can't really tell from this picture but Sara absolutely hated the cape...

...but she loved the basket.

And here's Paige as a Barbie Cheerleader. Let me tell you, I wouldn't have bought this particular costume if I have would have known that it was "sexy" version but oh well... I mean seriously, what kiddos costume shows her midriff?



Here are Paige and Marshall before Trick or Treating. They're smiling but on the inside they were saying "Can we go? Can we go yet? Can we go now? Can we go?".