Speech Therapy and Flashlights

We met with a very interesting guy today that evaluated Peanut Butter to see if she needed any speech therapy. It took her a while to cooperate with some of the tests, but she started warming up after a while. She did very well on the physical and cognitive things, but he did think she would score in the needing speech help range. I was even surprised at some of the things she did, but she is one that likes to figure things out. I will take it if is. I, myself, have a hard time understanding her sometimes. We get the results next week.

Peanut Butter also got a new flashlight today. We had enough Culver's points for a free one. She was in love with one we have here at home, but it is huge and metal. The way she would swing it around I was waiting for it to go through a wall. She gets a big kick out of shining it right in one's face too. It gets to be a bit much sometimes.

Life at the Crazy House

I love my daughter, but on the fourth day of my four day weekend, we have hit our breaking point. At least mine anyway. I cannot pick up anymore toys, fetch anymore food, place her on the cabinets to look at the candy, say no, run her up to the potty to have her run out, carry her down the stairs or change another dvd. She has pushed all the available buttons and I give up. I am ready to go back to work. We still have a bath and bed time to go. She should go right to bed since she had to have read how happy I was she was napping yesterday and decided that she would not nap today and is now a total bear breaking down over the littlest things.

The Weekend

It was another fun filled Saturday at the gym. We were running so late we missed The Boy's first game. Apparently we didn't miss much though. They didn't win a game all day. Last weekend they looked like they were coming together and this weekend not so much. They got pressed to death. You would think after seeing/being pressed the last few weekends it might be something to work on or at least start adjusting to. They end up down by 20 after 10 min just from being pressed and it is pretty much over from there. I don't want to second guess anyone. I know what it is like to coach and I probably will never do it again. Peanut Butter was less than impressed at the whole thing. By the last game she had ripped apart her whole coloring book and had it strewn about the bleachers. She did however get a fancy new pair of sunglasses.

I don't know if she is going through a growing spurt or what. But she has napped the last 3 days and when I say napped I'm talking 2-3hours worth. She rarely naps at home. Today I had to make her get up at 5 since she had been sleeping since 2. I hope she goes to bed tonight.
Daycare is going to have her see a speech therapist. They cannot understand what she is saying and I know I have problems sometimes too. We'll see where it goes.

PhotoStory Friday: What I Am Dealing With Here

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

What I Am Dealing With Here

I have one of those "spirited" children. One that has a mind of her own, one that has her own rule book, a little Miss Independent when it suits her. I have a child who is probably too smart for her own good. I am not saying this to brag, I am saying this because of some of the incredible things I go through here. I have a feeling she is bound to be an inventor, engineer or something along those lines. When she wants something, she definitely really tries and puts in an effort to get it. Today she wanted a lollipop, and instead of asking Momma for it, she felt she needed to get it herself. I heard the drawer pull out on our ever so fabulous 70's cabinets and this is what she proceeded to do.....

Let's see if I pull this drawer out...

I can pull another one out and probably get myself to the counter.

Yep, definitely can get up to the counter. Score!!

This is where Momma hides the left over candy from Halloween.

(Yes, I still have left over candy.)

Hmmm, I should eat one of those half way decent for me Yummy Earth pops,
but Double Bubble gum would be so much better.

Braving the Weather

We braved the weather and walk/ran to the library and grocery store. It isn't the best running on snowy sidewalks, but we made do. Picking items out at the library must have been exhausting since she fell asleep before we got to the grocery store. I took one with the weather shield. She really likes it for some odd reason; J called her bubble girl when we left. When I got home I didn't know what to do with her leave her in the stroller which had the tires not been covered in snow is what I would have done. But I had to put it out on the front porch which is freezing, she probably would have been warm enough all bundled up, but I was going to feel bad leaving her there, so I extracted her and of course she woke up.

Basketball, Potty and Bedtime

We had another fun filled weekend of basketball. I wasn't going to take today off to watch, but I they played pretty good on Saturday and I thought they had a chance to make it out of pool play. Alas, they didn't. We basically watched a rugby match this morning. It was skirting the line of being out of control. It seems to be an age group thing. I've noticed this year with The Boy playing at the 7th grade level they have begun to assert their physicalness, but not with not much finesse. They must also be at the start of trash talking and trying to get the better of the other guy too, but this too isn't with much finesse either. I don't know if refs don't know how to manage this or are letting them get it out of their systems, but it gets really ugly sometimes.

Peanut Butter is semi-working on the potty training. She doesn't yet tell me that she needs to go unless we are somewhere she wants to check out the bathroom. Then it is "potty?" and I feel I have to take her in case, even though I know it is just to go play in the bathroom. But at home it is all "NO POTTY" whenever I ask.

We are day 2 into the big bed. She has slept the last 2 nights in the bed the whole night. It just takes an hour or so to get her to fall asleep. Last night she kicked at her door for 10 minutes. J about died when I told him I took down the crib. I saw it as saving the girl from breaking her neck, since it had become a trampoline/highbar apparatus.

bargains and beds

Yesterday afternoon was a bargain bonanza. I not only found the 2 cute pairs of shoe for Miss Peanut Butter but I found this.....

in the toy clearance for $14.98. It was regularly priced at $59.99. I know I paid 7 bucks just for the Belle shimmer one. Had I not won Zoe's contest and had a gift card I may not have bought this, okay, who am I kidding I would have, but it made the decision a whole lot easier. Thanks Zoe! PB is going to freak. You can never have too many princesses. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it for some occasion or just give it to her. It is in hiding for now. Target had tons on clearance it was a good thing I was time constrained or I would have done some real damage. Alas, I had to come home and make dinner for the family.
Later in the evening, Peanut Butter, J, and I were in her room, cleaning the disaster area. I should say I cleaned as PB climbed into her crib and then did what I was hoping she would never do, climb out. J looked at me and said, "Great, now what?" In denial, I said it will be fine she's forget about it and she'll scream a bit but she will stay in it and go to bed. Yeah, not so much. We had the screaming and the crib shaking, but that was followed by the patter of little feet up and down the hallway. I even tried to get her to sleep in the big bed, but being the great parents that we are we don't have those door knobby things to keep her in so as soon as I would cover her up and walk out there she was opening the door for the next hour. I got in my bed, she joined me and since she was actually staying in the bed, *sigh* she slept in our bed. ARGH, this bedtime nightmare never ends. Maybe it will warm up enough for me to venture out and get a door knob thing, or like J said maybe she will be sleeping with us until she's 16.

Photostory Friday: The Salt Explosion

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Photostory Friday: The Salt Explosion

I decided to take a shower this morning. I was a wee bit nervous about Miss Peanut Butter, she had naughtiness in her eyes. I took a chance and pulled the chair far away from the computer desk, hoping this would discourage any climbing on the desk and coloring with a highlighter while I was washing up. I took a shower and as I exited the bathroom I heard the distinctive sound of someone on the computer desk. I froze and thought, "Crap, what did she get into."

She pushed the chair back up to the desk where she found the salt shaker, the salt shaker that is purposely placed on top of the computer desk so someone cannot dump it all over. By the time I got downstairs all that was left was an empty salt shaker.

Notice the untouched pepper shaker? She didn't want to mess with that for some odd reason. Like the little finger swipes? Nice, huh?

Salt was everywhere! I didn't even know where to start. I got the shop vac out and just vacuumed. I am still finding grains of salt all over. What a stinker!

You may be wondering what this nice little stacker box is doing here on the floor with a sippy cup next to it well it is because someone just got done doing this .............

only with the little box. I don't know if I am going to survive toddlerhood.

TFT: Changes in Your Life

I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would have a daughter. I always imagined boys, boys upon boys. I also didn't think that my daughter would never get to know one of her Grandmothers. J's Mom died of breast cancer in 2002. In many ways my little Peanut Butter looks like her father's mother, strength of genes, I guess. This strength of genes is one scares me. I worry about what genes were possibly passed on to my little girl. I know the BRAC carriers have a higher chance of getting cancer. J puts up with a lot of quirks that have picked up since the girl was born: I have aversions to fish, I cringe at corn syrup, I recycle, nontoxic cleaning products, I try to buy organic when I can afford/am able to, I try to buy paraben and sls free products. I kept trying to rationalize why I had this need to change other than it is for the greater good, when it really hit me. I was doing it for her, not just so I could live longer and enjoy more of her life, but to keep some of these things out of her life and possibly head off certain things. It hit me when I was mad at J for buying non organic milk and said, "the one thing that people say if you can do organinc is milk, please just do the milk for me." He said, "I don't know why you get all worked up over this." and bam, "you know what happened to your mom right, you know that your daughter possibly could be carrying those genes, I am trying to keep hormone altering products out of her system if I can." There it was, out on the table, I think J gets it a little more. An interesting book, should you want to read it is Our Stolen Future. I'll admit it can be a bit dry and redundant, but eye opening none the less. Should you want to get some products that are paraben and sls free at a decent price, I use VitaCost. It is 5 bucks for shipping, however a lot of their products are significanly cheaper than in the store which more than covers the price of shipping.
Are there any changes you have made in your life, maybe some you didn't know the real reason you were doing them?

At it Again

She's still not wanting to wear pants, or anything for that matter. This afternoon she came running downstairs buck nekkid. I don't know how she can't be cold since I am freezing up in the hizouse. I hate cold, I hate bitter, freezing cold and that is what it is supposed to be like the next couple days. Thursday which is one of my days off this week is supposed to be the worst. I'm thankful I dont' have to freeze my hinder off a 5 am, but I have stuff I need to get done, like grocery shop and the like. Doing this with a toddler is a challenge in itself, doing it with a toddler when it is below zero, doesn't look promising in any shape or form.

I did take her out in the stroller yesterday. I thought she was going to go into anifilactic shock when it began to snow as we were leaving, when I remembered I had one of those weather shields for it. It was all good when she had her bubble from the snow; it probably shielded the wind pretty good too.

I learned a valuable lesson at the library: don't borrow any magizine that you have taken out from the library to anyone, when they lose it you are out 10 bucks for a $3 magazine that is 2 years old. I'm a little pissy about that one, but it was my own fault.

Speaking of the library I just finished Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and it was pretty dang good for a "young adult" book. It kept me reading/racing to the end and now I have to wait til September for the next in the series. I 'm going to try The Reader now, I have had it for a few years, I just haven't opened it.

Photostory Friday: Pants, Who Needs Pants

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This seems to be a common occurrence around here these days. Thankfully she is keeping at least the diaper on; half naked was the first preference. I started to suggest some potty training since we're running around with no pants on, but it isn't really taking. I may just have to stick the Little Mermaid underwear on and go with it. She wants to wear them, since in wallyworld after we picked them up and put them in the cart, she decided as I was picking out some pudding snacks to take off her shoes, socks, pants and working the diaper as I turned around and caught her in the attempt to put them on.

I don't know how visible it is, but today she also decided to play with whiteout as I walked in the house from the gym. It was my fault she got into it while I was gone since I should have know she would find it, since I can't remember the last time I used it and my husband has the office supply addiction. I am hoping I can get it off of her skin and that her Daddy will talk to her again.

Monsters Inc.

This is how Maggie decided to watch Monsters Inc last night. At one point she had the whole screen under there too. This isn't the hungry dvd player either, it is a crap one I got a deal on Black Friday a few years ago. It would be fine for her if someone hadn't broken the battery pack off making it no longer portable outside a power source. In my search for a new one I found some pretty neat ones for kids. I may get 2 one to replace J's and one for her that may be more destruction proof.

In an attempt to get this whole potty training going. I have been taking Miss Peanut Butter to the potty through out the day. It seems to be going ok. I'm not pressuring just taking her in once and a while to see if she will go and she has. I put some pull ups on her too, I don't know if they make any difference, but we'll see.

I think I wanted a cricut just to fuel my supplies addiction. I need to stay off of ebay. I won another cartridge last night and have yet to turn the sucker on. But if I see Hello Kitty or Storybook for a steal well....

Bleacher Creature

It is that time of the year in which we become bleacher creatures for The Boy's basketball tournaments. These days can be long and trying with Miss Peanut Butter. PB is not one for sitting for any amount of time unless it is at home at her picnic table watching a dvd. No, bringing the dvd player does not work in the bleachers. PB also thinks the concession stands are like an open bar and she is ready to party. She doesn't really want anything, but will pitch a fit should she be denied. It makes for an even longer day when The Boy's team loses all three games. I have yet to decide whether I am taking off of work this Saturday for his next one. I know it makes life a lot easier for J, but sometimes I hate using up my leave time for all The Boy's sporting events. Especially when I take off work and his mom doesn't come to a single game that day.

PB has run into quite the naughty spell. She destroyed one of our portable dvd players with ice cream last night. It must have been hungry for strawberry that PB didn't seem to want. J was all upset with me as he was on the other side of the room from her as she did this. She some how got in the medicine cabinet and got the childproof cap of the liquid bendryl which thankfully was almost empty and that she decided the rocking horse needed a dose more than she did. I can see this girl hanging out her window at 15 to find some trouble. I thought I had grey hair now, OY.

J and I have decided to take The Boy and Peanut Butter to D.C. in the end of Aug. I am hoping PB is potty trained and not sleeping in her crib by then, but we'll see. I also hope that she will get something out of it. We plan to go to the National Zoo and I know she will enjoy that. I am just excited that we are going to have a vacation.

I'm also sorry for the lack of comments lately. I've been reading most posts, but not leaving any mark that I was there. I swear I'm going to do better over the next couple days.

PhotoStory Friday: Almudena Cathedral

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Almudena Cathedral In Madrid

I am a little odd and one of the things J finds quirky about me is while I am an atheist, I love beautiful churches. I love stained glass, altars, all the other intricate beautiful things that are in churches. This is one of the top ones I have been in.

As you can see from the outside it is huge. It has a very large front courtyard, tons of little steeples and wonderful architecture.

The ceilings were amazing. This is just a small taste of what bold and exciting colors adorned the ceilings. This is the huge dome you see from the outside. The murals that ring it were also breath taking.

The stained glass in this Cathedral was really unique. It was almost a taste of different periods in art. I thought this one with all the triangles was really neat. I also have a thing for nuns too. I don't know why.

This one seemed more traditional in its look. Stunning none the less.

This one was more modern art deco-y if I'm using the correct term. An interesting mix I'd say.

A small sample of what beauty this cathedral had to offer.