This was the conversation I had with Hailey this morning while I was getting her dressed for the day:
Hailey: "Mommy, your hair is really CRAZY today!" (I did it curly)
Me: "Oh it is huh?"
Hailey: "Yeah! You've got to fix that."
Me: "Thanks."
I felt very pretty after this conversation with a 2 1/2 year old.
Where is your cell phone? purse
Your significant other? basketball
Your hair? dull
Your mother? worrying
Your father? talking
Your favorite things? sunshine
Your dream last night? unknown
Your favorite drink? milk
Your dream/goal? happiness
What room are you in? cube
Your hobby? one?
Your fear? death
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Kasson
Where were you last night? zoning
Something that you aren't? comfortable
Muffins? apple
Wish list item? garden
Last thing you did? ate
Your pets? annoying
Friends? some
Your life? full
Your mood? content
Missing someone? Usually
Drinking? water
Smoking? ish
Your car? dirty
Something you're not wearing? swimsuit
Your favorite store? consignment
Your favorite color? red
When is the last time you cried? Sunday
Where do you go to over and over? bathroom
Five people who email me regularly? Family
My favorite place to eat? out
Give it a try! It was fun to sit here and do.
I'm not quite sure how he did it but my dad managed to squeeze his little head into this child size helmet.
Do you see any resemblance?
Do you think it's a little dry around our house?
- Water being warm right away when you go to use one of those sensor sinks in a public restroom. Love that I didn't have to have cold water first.
- Coming home from work and the kitchen is clean. Either because I cleaned it the night before or Chris did.
- The way Hailey always smells like candy and flowers all the time. Even when she is dirty and could really use bath she still smells sweet, not like flowers and candy anymore but kind of like syrup.
- Finding a street parking spot right outside my building when I'm coming back from errands over lunch.
- When I'm laying in bed at night and I realize the baby hasn't kicked in a while, I'll ask him to so I know he's still there before I go to sleep...and he does. :o)
- Fresh snow on tree branches.
- The smell of dryer sheets.
- I love a cold pillow but hate a cold bed.
- Having someone else make me supper...even if it's mac and cheese.
- My stupid fat cats that I love and hate all at the same time.
- That Stella sleeps on Chris' pillow in bed with me until he comes to bed. That was the thing I missed the most after Scooter died.
These are just a few things I threw together before I head home for the day. Gotta love the Holiday season for getting you in the mood to appreciating things!
Had my ultrasound Thursday and guess what folks, IT'S A BOY! Yes, this is extremely hard to believe for all those in my life. With three sisters who all have daughters (so far) we all were pretty convinced that the 50/50 chance of having a boy did not pertain to us...it's more like 90/10. (Or as my dad put it 99/1). And don't worry, they gave us a full frontal ultrasound picture of his little pee pee so they are very sure it's a boy. How my little man was able to almost fully extend his legs is beyond me. For those of you who are on facebook you've probably already seen that picture and it makes me giggle so much!
So anyway, yep a boy, estimated arrival May 4. The longer this sits with me the more freaked out I get, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH BOYS!!!! I know girls, I understand girls. The whole making crashing and car/truck noises that boys do, I have never quite got.
I did hope I would have a boy someday and I did strongly feel that I was going to have a boy this time but that didn't make me ready for it. So now I have to look through all my baby stuff and make sure it's not to girly for him and basically start from scratch. First item of business, take all the remaining girl stuff out of the nursery. Second is for Chris and I to start coming up with a name list. Since he is a teacher we have a lot of bad association with names so that makes the "like" list pretty small. We'll see how it goes.
Welcome baby boy Otter...we'll see you soon!
This morning while I was trying to rush Hailey out the door she kept insisting that she was going to wear this pink fleece jacket. I responded with "No sweetie, it's too cold you need to wear your purple coat". Arguing for a little longer Hailey stops and says "Let me see Mom". At first I had no idea what she was talking about then she walked toward the coat closet, reached up and grabbed a handful of the pink fleece coat sleeve and very calmly said "No, it's not cold Mom". Seriously child? What do you say to that!? I wanted to bust out laughing so badly but I knew I couldn't because she gave such a sincere response.
She then put here purple coat on, like I asked, and I was truly speechless.
One day I asked my sister: "If there was one thing you would change about your lifestyle to make it more 'earth friendly' what would it be?" Without hesitation she responded "Diapers!" And I completely agree, the only problem is that is a hard thing to change. My husband does a study on this with his classes every year and one stat says that with the amount of disposable diapers thrown away in America in 1 year, the string of diapers could go to the moon and back 7 times! That's just in one year!
Of course I used regular Huggies and Pampers for my Hailey, but for quite a while now I've been looking into other options for Baby #2. Cloth is an option but I wasn't really excited about it. The YUCK factor is still pretty strong on that one and I'm not sure how my daycare would feel about it. I am excited to say that I have found my next baby adventure, gdiapers! Maybe you have heard of these but they were new to me. They are a reusable cloth diaper outside with a waterproof snap in liner, then you have a disposable insert that gets put into the liner. Yes, a disposable reusable! These disposable inserts seem pretty environmentally friendly. They decompose in around 50 days so you can do a number of things:
- throw them in the garbage because guess what, they will still decompose in 50 days in the landfill, as opposed to 500 years like a regular plastic diaper
- if you have your own compost pile you can add the wet diapers to it and make some great nitrogen enriched fertilizer
- you can flush them! when you put them in the toilet, break up the fibers and flush the insert.
Seem too good to be true...I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to find out. Last week someone listed a lot of small gdiapers in our local craigslist and I jumped at the opportunity. I got 9 fabric outsides, 16 liners and an unopened package of small diaper inserts, all new would have cost me more than $200 and I got this lot for $100. I will need to buy a few new snap in liners because some are a little too "used" for me. The website has a lot of information and even videos on how these things work.
I'm really hoping they work for us but even if we use these part of the time it is still reducing the number of regular diapers we put in the landfill. :o) I'm turning into such a green geek!
I am proud to say that at 7am this morning Hailey and I went into our designated voting location and did our part for the country. Well actually, I did my part and Hailey watched. There is something very special about showing your 2 year old the voting process. She got a little antsy standing in line but once we got in a booth she wanted to see all the action. So I picked her up, sat her on the counter and she watched me fill in all the circles. She sat very well and placed her bear where he could see too. Thankfully, she didn't try to draw on the paper. :o) She just asked me once "Whacha doin' there Mommy?" and after I said "Voting" she just kept saying "Oh, Voting. Voting Mommy? Voting?" I'm surprised at how interested she really was.
When we left she so so excited to get her own "I voted" sticker and had to place it right on the front of her shirt. (She refused to have it on her jacket). It was the first thing she showed Ann (our daycare mom) when we got to her house. When asked who she voted for, Hailey very confidently responded "My Mommy."
Oh yes, and another reason I love living in the country...I waited less than 5 minutes in line. I'm pretty sure I heard one of the guys say they already had more than a 50% turn out and it was only 7am. They must have been open very early for all the farmers in our township.
A lot has happened in the month of October and there is so much to talk about that I think I need to lump it into one big post, Stangl style. :o)
Baby #2
Most of you know this already but yes I am pregnant with Baby #2. It's been a rough 14 weeks but the last couple have weeks have been a little better and I'm hoping that continues. Sorry, I still have not managed to scan in my 10 week ultrasound photo but honestly I think it's only exciting for Chris and I. To sum up, it looks like a little kidney bean shaped blob. :o) At my appointment next week I'll get to hear the heart beat and I'm pretty sure my big ultrasound is going to be in December. Hopefully we'll be able to find out what we are having sometime before Christmas.
Auntie Again
So besides having another baby in May and I'm excited to say that I'm going to be an auntie again in May also. My little sister Beth is pregnant too and our due dates are about 2 weeks apart. How exciting that our kids are going to be so close in age. The entire family is really hoping that one or both of us is having a boy to even out all the girls. Do not expect to see any sisterly "fat" photo's posted here.
Terwilliger wedding
Amy and Joe got married, Yeah! Such a beautiful day and a fun wedding. I only managed to get a couple photo's but here they are.
Pumpkin patch
A few weeks ago the Stangl crew came down for a visit and we went to the local pumpkin patch. This place is so close to where I live and it was my first time there. The kids had a blast, like usual, and we all got pumpkins for carving. Like Brian had said in his post, it was a little expensive but there was so much to do that it made it worth the money. I think we'll know better next year to either get there earlier or wait to go until after nap time. Here are a few photo's from the day.
After the pumpkin patch and naps we decided to decorate Gluten free sugar cookies. For the girls the sprinkles were the best part. Macie had frosting from her eyebrows to her shirt after eating one cookie, Hailey wouldn't eat the cookie at all (I think she didn't understand that this was art you could eat), and Nattie kept putting big mounds of sprinkles on her cookies. :o) Fun was had by all.
Halloween
This year our friends Chris and Jessi hosted a Halloween party for their friends and the kiddies were included in the fun. So Hailey, Chris and I all dressed up for the occasion. Since Hailey was a lion (thank you Gina for borrowing us Nattie's costume from last year) Chris and I decided to go as the Scarecrow and Tin man. It took us all day to get that outfit on Hailey but she finally put it on to show Jaxon (Chris and Jessi's son). Chris' outfit was made entirely out of duct tape, he was the tin man who wore shorts and at the end of the night had to throw both the shirt and shorts in the garbage. Personally I'm amazed that he was even able to get the shorts off, they looked like biker shorts! I made some very fun cupcakes to bring to the party and also made some cute snacks for Hailey to bring to her friends at daycare.
Hailey
Hailey continues to amaze Chris and I. Sometimes the things she thinks of is just hilarious! Yesterday Chris had her in the wheel barrow for a ride and Chris mentioned how bouncy the ride was and she responded with "Like Tigger!"
Recently Chris has taught her the following, he'll ask "Who's house is this?" and she'll respond by flexing her muscles and making a tough face "Daddy's house!". Well last night at the supper table she said it again out of the blue, I looked at her and said "Where's Mommy's house?" and with, I swear, no prompting she pointed to the kitchen and said "In there Mom, the kitchen." Nice. Chris almost spit out his supper!
Something she's been doing lately is to say "Me so much..." to the things she really loves. For example, we left the Stangl house Saturday night and when we were getting buckled into the car she said "Me so much Gina, Mom. Me so much Nattie and Macie. Me so much Brian. Me so much Molly, Mom." It is truly precious!
What can I say, she's my goof!
