Cecilia Is Going To Be A Big Sister

It’s official all of our families know about baby number two.  When I originally found out I was pregnant, Daniel didn’t want to tell our families until after my first doctor’s appointment which was June 12^th at the time (I managed to get it moved up to June 5^th).  He wanted to make sure everything was okay before we told them .  My feelings differed from his, he didn’t want to tell our families in case something were to happen.  I believe 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage the first trimester.  I wanted to tell my family so I would have that support in case something did happen. 

I convinced him to let me tell my parents on Mother’s Day and then we could tell his family whenever he felt the time was right.   There was a little more than a week between the day I got the positive pregnancy test and Mother’s Day so I had to figure out a plan quick!  I looked and looked for a shirt for Cecilia on ETSY announcing she would be a big sister, but no one could get one to me in the time frame I needed so I looked online and found a shirt on Cookie Baby Inc’s Website. 

It was perfect for what I needed .  I ordered it and did priority shipping so it would be guaranteed to be here by Mother’s Day weekend.  When it arrived I immediately thought I should of ordered a size or two smaller, because a 4T was way too big. 

  I didn’t have time for exchanges though.  I stuck that baby in the washer with hot water and prayed it would shrink.  It did, but not by much!

Come Mother’s Day trying to convince Cecilia to wear the shirt was not fun.  My girl is a girly girl who loves her dresses and tutus, not a white t-shirt two sizes too big for her.  I had to bribe her with gummies, but eventually she agreed to wear it.  When we first arrived at my parents, my dad was outside grilling by the pool and my mom was inside getting things ready.  I tried to hide Cecilia’s shirt from my dad so he wouldn’t see it before my mom.   When all went inside Cecilia ran to my mom to give her a hug.  As my mom bent down to pick her up she read her shirt.  She looked at me “Really!? Is this true?”

I told my mom, “No we just bought her a shirt saying she’s going to be a big sister for the hell of it.”  Then my mom started crying!  Both of my parents said congrats.  They asked “How far along?” “When is it due?”…  Then my dad told me “Cecilia already told us anyway…”  I was like ‘What!?” He said ‘Yeah, when we had her on Friday night and we were driving over to Pop pop’s (my grandfather), Cici kept on saying ‘Mommy has a baby brover (brother) in her belly!  I have a baby brover (brother) in my belly! Pop pop has a baby brover in his belly!” My mom claimed she didn’t think anything of it, but my dad knew then that I was pregnant.  I know my parents are really excited for us, but like me they are really cautious too.  My mom wasn’t able to get pregnant after me.  She wouldn’t have any problem getting pregnant, but then she would miscarry during the first trimester.  It was really hard and it’s not something I would wish on anyone!

This past Friday Daniel told me he wanted to tell his family this weekend.  He had called his dad and sister, Lauren and arranged for dinner at either our house or my in-law’s house on Sunday.  We were also going down to the beach on Saturday for our anniversary so we would tell his stepfather while we were down there.

Saturday we stopped by his step father’s house before heading to dinner.  I was going to let Daniel decide when to tell him.  Somehow it came up on in conversation about “having more little ones” and Daniel said “Well it’s too late for that..”  His step dad looked at me and said “Are you pregnant?” I shook my head yes.  He gave us both hugs and was happy.  This will be his fourth grandchild.  Daniel has two step sisters and they each have one kid, and of course we have Cecilia.  We asked him not to tell Daniel’s sisters, we wanted to tell them ourselves.

Sunday we had dinner at Daniel’s dad’s.  Since Ci was with us I could use the shirt trick again, except for Daniel’s sister wasn’t expected to be there until 5:30, we got there at noon.  Once Lauren arrived and everyone was sitting down for dinner I had Cecilia put her shirt on.  Once again she didn’t want to put it on, so this time I bribed her with strawberries. {See I am not above bribing my kids!}  Lauren was the first one to notice.  Her reaction? “OMG! Seriously!? SERIOUSLY!?” She was thrilled!  She said “Cici you are going to be  BIG Sister.”  Then Daniel’s dad, Danny said “WHAT?!”  He looked at me, then at Daniel, then read Ci’s shirt and he was like “WOW! Really?” He asked how far along I was. (6 weeks) and whether it was a boy or girl (uhhh way to early to tell!).  Daniel’s dad, step mom and Lauren were sooo excited!

After we got home from dinner, Daniel said “Let’s tell Kim and Tammy too….text them and see if they can skype.”  I texted them and said ‘Hey, Ci has something to show you…can you skype?”  They immediately came back with yes.  So we tried to three way skype for the first time, Tammy lives in southern Delaware (about 45 minutes from us), but Kim lives in Arizona.  The three way Skype  Video didn’t work, because we didn’t have a paid Skype account, but we were able to tell them on a three way Skype conference call.  Cecilia said in her soft voice “I’m going to be a big sister.”  Kim screamed and Tammy was like “Wow!”  After  we announced it, we skyped one on one with each of them to talk to them and show them Ci’s shirt.  They were both really excited!  I think everyone is secretly hoping for a boy since girls are out numbering boys right now and on Daniel’s dad and my parent’s side Cecilia is the only grandchild. 

So now the cat is out of the bag with the family!  We have also told my grandfather and we still want to tell Daniel’s Aunt Pam in person.  We have to make arrangements to see her and her family one night.  We are still waiting until the end of the first trimester to go “public” on Facebook.  I know it’s kinda crazy I am telling the blog world, but not my Facebook friends, but honestly not many of my real life friends even know about this blog and if someone were to find out through my blog or Twitter then they know… it’s not the end of the world!

Cecilia swimming in the shirt!

Happy Third Birthday Cecilia!

Three years ago today my life changed forever when I became a mother to a beautiful, eight pound, two ounce, twenty two inch long baby girl.  Cecilia Anne was welcomed into this world at 9:13 PM on April 17, 2009 after a long, 25 hour labor.  My life has not been the same since!

In the last year Cecilia has really became her own person.  She has opinions and isn’t afraid to use them.  She still prefers fruits and veggies to any type of junk food.  Her favorite vegetable is tomatoes, but she loves green beans and corn too.  She hates asparagus and turns her nose up every time I put it on her plate.  Her favorite fruits are oranges, strawberries and blueberries.  She never turns down any type of fruit though. 

She loves to be outside and we could spend hours at any of our nearby parks.  In the past year her favorite park apparatus has changed from the slide to the swings.  She loves to swing and can do so herself.  Sometimes she scares me of how high she goes!  The slide is still her second favorite.  Forget about those sissy baby slides though.  Cecilia prefers the tallest and fastest slides and doesn’t want any help getting up to them.  She also loves anything to do with a ball, whether it be throwing a football , playing catch or hitting a waffle ball.  Her new favorite obsession is basketball, one of the only things she is asking for her birthday is a basketball.  She loves playing basketball at daycare with her friends.

Speaking of her friends, Cecilia has made a few new friends this year.  Her best friend is probably Jenna, a friend that lives in our town.  She loves having Jenna over to her house or going over to Jenna’s.  Every day she asks if she can see Jenna.    Ci is still shy around new friends, but once she gets to know them, watch out, she becomes a social butterfly!

Cecilia has learned so much this year, every day she comes home from daycare learning something new.  Along with knowing her ABCs, colors, shapes and being able to count to 50, Cecilia can now count backwards.   She also is obsessed with anything involving the stars and space.  She knows what planets have rings around them and can tell you all of the planets in our solar system. She is super smart and can turn on our tablet and phones to access her favorite matching and puzzle games.   She prefers reading to watching TV or a movie any day. Hopefully she’ll love Science, because her momma hated it.  She tells us that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up so hopefully that’ll stick!  

Cecilia loves to dress up and if she could she would have a tutu on every day.  However, most days when I pick her up from daycare she is dirty, because she rough houses and plays with the boys.  I always joke that she is a little tom boy who will be wearing her tutu while playing in the dirt.   She does love one very girly thing though, Hello Kitty!  Cecilia’s Hello Kitty obsession started last November and it has taken over.  She wants everything Hello Kitty she sees, whether it be a purse, shirt or Hello Kitty doll.  She loves to watch her Hello Kitty DVD.  She  even requested a Hello Kitty birthday party this year.  She started planning her own birthday party (right after Christmas), she told me she needed Hello Kitty plates, cups, napkins and balloons, along with a Hello Kitty cake.  I wonder where she gets her love of planning from?

Overall Cecilia is a very happy little girl, she wakes up most mornings with a smile on her face.  She does have moments where her daddy’s temper shows.  She doesn’t like when things don’t go her way or sharing one of her toys.  She has gotten better though.  She needs to learn how to share though if she gets the baby brother she has been asking for the past few months.    She hates sleeping in and prefers to wake up with the sun comes up, because “It’s not dark outside!”.  She still takes excellent, two to three hour daily naps most days! 

I thank God every day he blessed me with this beautiful, smart little girl.  I love waking up and seeing her smiles, every day I can’t wait to get off work to hear how her day went (and she tells us too..every little detail).  I love seeing her become her own person and having her own ideas and opinions.  She amazes me of the things she says and the songs she makes up.  I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store for us, before I know it she will be heading off the kindergarten.    

Happy birthday, Cecilia Anne! You will always be mommy’s little girl!

An Egg-cellent Easter Weekend

We had such a great three day Easter weekend this past weekend, I was sorry to see it end.  It started off on Friday, which also happened to be my 7 year Dating Anniversary with Daniel.  How many married couples actually celebrate their dating anniversary?  We didn’t do anything special, just spent a great day with the three of us.  Cecilia slept in until 8:00 which is late for her. We had a lazy morning and then decided to run some errands.

First stop was one of our favorite florists/greenhouses.  It is the place Daniel remembers going to growing up with his grandmother and mom to get flowers every spring and to pick strawberries every May.  We picked up flowers for our mothers and my grandmother’s grave.  Cecilia LOVES flowers and I have a feeling she inherited the green thumb from her grandmothers (both my mom and Daniel’s mom were/are avid gardeners…I could kill a cactus..I am not good with plants).  She picked out which grandmother would get what, pink tulips for my mother in law’s grave, a purple hyacinth for my grandmother’s grave and daffodils for my mom and Daniel’s step mom. 

Ci at the greenhouse with my grandmother's hyacinth

After we dropped the tulips off at Daniel’s mom’s grave we headed to lunch at our favorite sushi resteraunt.  Then we headed to my favorite place in the entire world (ok maybe not favorite, but very high up on the list)….Target!  My hubs is not a fan of Target, in fact he prefers Wal-Mart *gasp* to Target!  Since I only get an half hour lunch most days and Daniel I carpool, I rarely get to go to Target like I used to. It is great for my pocketbook, but I tend to have withdrawls.  Although I think Daniel’s opinion of Target may have changed.  We scored three adorable spring dresses for Cecilia for $21!  One of the dresses was on clearance for $2.80!   After Target it was well past Ci's nap time so we headed home. When we got home, hanging on our side door was Ci’s Second Easter’s basket (her first was from daycare on Thursday) Friday full of candy from her Pop Pop Ernie (Daniel’s step dad).  Friday night, my mom came home and we all dyed Easter Eggs.  Cecilia was already a pro at this dying thing since she dyed eggs at daycare on Wednesday, but she still had a blast dying eggs with us.  Of course she wanted every egg to be pink, but Daniel wouldn’t allow that.

Dying Eggs with Mom Mom

Saturday started off with an Easter Egg Hunt.  I love tradition and every year I take Cecilia to the same Egg Hunt I went to as a kid.  It is put on by my hometown’s Lion’s Club.  I always see familiar faces, kids that I used to hunt eggs with now bring their own kids.  Cecilia was in the 1 to 2 year age group, she was a head taller than the tallest kid in her age group.  Considering Ci will be three in a week (yikes!) she definitely had an advantage.  She got the most eggs in her age group (9) and even got one rabbit egg.  The rabbit egg means that she would get a real live bunny to take home as a pet.  Needless to say we gave that egg away to someone who actually wanted a pet rabbit.  CI was not happy with me.

She did some cuddle time in with my cousin’s daughter’s rabbit at the cemetery while we dropped off the flowers on my grandmother's grave.

Saturday afternoon after a very brief nap for Ci, we went to Daniel’s dad’s for a little family get together with his dad’s side of the family.  We don’t get to see Daniel’s aunt and cousins nearly enough, I really wish we saw them more, they are a blast to be around!  This family get together was great and as always there was an abundance of food and great wine.  My sister in law and I may have finished off three bottles of wine between the two of us.   Lauren, my sister in law recently moved an hour away and we don’t get to hang out every weekend like we used to, so when I see her we definitely have catching up to do.

Sunday was another early morning.  Cecilia was up bright and early to see what the Easter bunny had left her in her basket (Hello Kitty bubble bath, sidewalk chalk, a book, Hello Kitty PJs, a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser and a few candy items). She loved it all!!  We then got dressed and went to meet my parents and grandfather for breakfast.  Cecilia LOVED her Easter dress that my parents bought for her.  She kept calling it her “princess dress”.   

 After breakfast, Ci received another Easter basket from my parents, full of bananas, oranges, apples, blueberry applesauce, regular apple sauce and yogurt!  Thank you mom and dad for not giving her even more candy! 

4 of the 5 baksets Ci rcvd (From my parents, The Easter Bunny, Daycare & Pop Pop Ernie)

Sunday afternoon we had Daniel’s dad, step mom and sister over  for a laid back relaxing dinner.  After they left on Sunday, Daniel and I crashed.  I think we were both in bed by 9.  He fell asleep and I stayed up late reading The Hunger Games. I tried not to buy into the hype of The Hunger Games, but I caved in and I am glad I did.  I finished the first book last night and I am well into the second.  My friend is on Chapter 7 of the first book.  After she’s finished, we’re going to go see the movie.

This was the first of many busy weekends this month.  I don’t think there is one weekend until May 12^th where we have nothing planned, I love it though.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter!

Operation Birthday Party 3.0 Has Began

In a little less than two months my baby will be three!  I promise this won’t turn into a sappy post (I will save that for her actual birthday!).   Before we even had kids Daniel and I made the decision not to do huge birthday parties for our kids every year.  I have a huge, close knit extended family on my mom’s side.  My mom is the baby of eight, I have over twenty first cousins and all, but four of my cousins have kids and now the third generation (my cousin’s kids) are having kids! All of us with the exception of one uncle and one cousin live within three hours of one another so that means family get togethers are huge.  We had almost 100 people at Cecilia’s birthday party and that was mostly family.  So needless to say we are saving the big parties for the big years, 1, 5, 10, 13, 16, etc…

That doesn’t mean that I don’t want Cecilia to have a memorable birthday party every year.  We still invite  our parents, Daniel’s sisters and their families, my grandfather and a few of our close friends, but it's not quite on the scale of her first birthday.  This is the first year that Cecilia truly knows what a birthday party is.  She has been planning her party since Christmas.  She has informed us she wants a Hello Kitty party, with Hello Kitty plates, Hello Kitty napkins, a Hello Kitty cake, Hello Kitty balloons and I can’t forget the Hello Kitty hats.  So guess what kind of party she will have? A Hello Kitty Birthday Party!

Her only requirements for the invitations were they had to be pink, have Hello Kitty on it and balloons!  Since I don’t have a lot creative skills I turned to my favorite go to website for all things homemade, ETSY.  I heart ETSY! Seller Bee83  had an invitation that met all of Cecilia’s requirements, I contacted her yesterday and within three hours I had this perfect invitation!

I printed fifteen them off today at my local CVS (for free thanks to a coupon code!) and in three weeks they will be mailed off to our family and friends.  I have been searching Pinterest and the rest of the internet for Hello Kitty birthday party ideas.  I hope to give Cecilia her dream Hello Kitty party!

Saturday's Top Five Laughs

I loved doing last week's Saturday's Top Five Laughs, I plan on doing it every Saturday.  It is where you put the funniest thing your kid(s) have done this week.

1.  On Sunday while watching the Ravens game over to my parents, (they won, yay!) Cecilia took the remote off the coffee table which was next to where my dad was sitting.  She handed it to him and said "I watch Dora & Boots, Pop pop." My dad laughed, but kindly let her know, "No, Cici we're watching football." She put one hand on her hip, the other hand on the remote and said "Nooooooooooooooooooooo, Pop pop I watch Dora & Boots!" This went on for about three minutes. It was hilarious, because my dad couldn't keep a straight face.  Every time her told her no he tried hard not to laugh.

2.  All week during her bath Cecilia is a dog.  She wants me to give her a bath like I give Cari, our dog.  She even got the doggy shampoo out of the cabinet and asked me to use it on her.  Don't worry I didn't, I pretended to use it, but still used her baby shampoo.  After her bath she'd crawl around the house pretending to be her doggy.  Thankfully she didn't eat anything out of Cari's dog dish!

3. On Wednesday night, Ci's Halloween costume came in from ETSY seller minnieschild.  I tried it on her just to make sure it fit and ever since she has tried to wear it to daycare every day and even today to my cousin's daughter's second birthday party (which was a Mickey Mouse theme).  It is going to be a long month if Cecilia is asking to wearing her Minnie Mouse costume every day.

4.  Like Hayley (Melissa's from The Mommyhood Chronicles daughter) Cecilia has learned that she can delay her bedtime. One night this week she played shy and didn't want to give my husband kiss before bed.  I put her to bed to tuck her in when she tells me, "I need to give daddy a kiss." She gets out of bed runs to the family room where was Daniel was and gives him a kiss, then she tells him she wants to watch football (he was watching baseball). We let her stay up another five minutes, but she eventually went to bed.

5.  My mom just told me of this last one.  I am sick today (I've been sick all week with a cold, but today it seems to have gotten worse..I just wanted to stay home and rest since I worked crazy hours with our aduit at work) so I didn't go to my cousin's daughter, Gracie's second birthday party.  I felt horrible for not going, but I would have felt worse if some else got this nasty cold. My mom took Cecilia.  When they left mom said Cecilia gave my aunt and cousin a hug and the next thing she knows she ran back inside and gave every single person at the party a hug, including my cousin's husband's family.  She does this at daycare every day, she has to give each of the daycare kids a hug bye as well as Miss Sally and Dawn (Miss Sally's daughter in law who helps out), but it surprised me she gave complete strangers a hug.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday (and that no one else is stuck home sick like me!).  Be sure to root for the Phillies againest the Cardinals tonight! We want a repeat of 2008!!!

Here's Cecilia in her favorite Phillies shirt

Be sure to also check out Melissa over to The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday's Top Five Laughs and enter her giveaway while you are there.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

Earlier this summer one of my former co-workers posted a link on Facebook for free tickets to Hershey Park if you were a Chevy owner.  Neither my hubs or I are Chevy owners, but Daniel's step father was. He gave his VIN number, we punched it into the website and approximately two weeks later we received four of these babies:

The usual price for an adult ticket? $55! So thanks to Chevy and the hubs' stepdad we saved $220. We had originally planned to go to Hershey a few weeks ago, but thanks to the crazy amount of rain that has been dumped on the east coast this month the park was flooded. So we rescheduled for the last weekend.
 
Since Cecilia was free (kids under three are), we decided to ask our good friends, Mike and Amy to go.  Daniel has known Amy since they were in Sunday School together before they even went to Elementary School and he met Mike in high school. Before kids and mortgages we hung out with Mike and Amy all the time, but now with our busy schedules (and budgets) we don't get to see them nearly as much we used to. Mike and Amy have two adorable little girls,  Miss M who just turned 4 and Little A who is exactly a month younger then Cecilia (she turned 2 on May 17th).

We originally were going to stay the night since Hershey is a little more then a two and a half hour drive from home, but last minute we decided to go up there and back on the same day.

Miss M seeing how tall she is

It had been years since I've been to Hershey Park. I believe the last time I went when was when my grandparents my cousins and I, I was only 10 or so at the time. That was over 18 years ago.  It has changed a lot since then.  Instead of being more of a kiddy park, they have added several roller coasters.  This trip however was all about the kids.  Mike and Daniel snuck off twice to ride rollercoasters and Amy and I snuck off once.

This was the first time Cecilia had been to a bigger amusement park.  She loved it!

Miss M, Little A and Ci "driving" cars

"Mom, these aren't like the swings at the park."

"Nevermind, I like them better!"

You can't go to Hershey Park without taking a tour of Chocolate World where they show you how Hershey's famous candy bars are made.  You go through a replica factory on these little carts.  Suprisingly, Cecilia stayed entertained.

Picture Amy took of us on the cart before the tour (I look horrible!).

Chocolate

Wrapping Hershey's famous candy bars.

Look at all that Heshey's chocolate syrup!

Hershey's famous kisses!

The store after the tour (surprisingly all of this candy was very reasonably priced!)

Daniel, Ci, Miss M & Mike

After the tour is completed they give everyone a sample of a Hershey's product.  I remember when I came 18 years ago I got a full size Kit Kat candy bar.  Now they give you four Hershey Kisses.  It is better then nothing though considering the tour is free.

We went back to the park after the tour.  We were hoping the girls would take a nap in their strollers, but we had no such luck. All five of us rode in the observation tower, it was neat to see the park and the actual Hershey factory from an aerial view.

Daniel and MIike, friends for almost fifteen years. 

We rode some more rides with kids, Ci enjoyed "driving" a classic car with the help of daddy.  I sneaked a picture of the picture the park took.  There's no way I was paying $15 for that..

Miss M wanted to drive too, but was shy when it came picture time.

Here's all three girls, it was nearly impossible to get a picture of them all looking.

Ci, Little A & Miss M

Cecilia was quickly growing tired..

 

Before we left though the girls wanted to one ride again.  Can you guess which one?

 The swings!

We left right after the last ride and before we ever got to the car Cecilia was out.

Overall we had a great time, we all agreed next time we need to stay the night.  Going there and back in one day is a lot, especially with little ones. (Can I say, I told you so?) Hopefully next summer we can score some free tickets again.  I'll be sure to let my blog readers know if they are running the promotion again (apparently they run it every year) so those of you close to the Hershey area can take advantage of it too.

Congrats goes out to one of my favorite bloggers (and long time blog buddies), Julie who guessed where we were going! Congrats Julie, e-mail me {mindy71183@gmail.com} or Facebook me your address.  I picked a little something up for you and Issac while we were at Hershey Park.

Saturday's Top 5 Laughs

This week I am joining in The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday's Top 5 Laughs.

Cecilia is getting to that age, she'll be two and a half next month where she is very vocal. I love it! Years from now it will be fun to look back on this with her.

Here are my top 5 laughs from this week:

1. Cecilia was quite the dancer at my cousin's wedding reception on Saturday, it didn't matter what type of music was on she was out on the dance floor shaking her booty. She was determined to keep up with the big kids!

She's the littlest one there.

2. Every night after Cecilia is getting out of the bath tub, brushing her teeth and while we put her pajamas on we sing songs.  Each night I ask her what song she wants to sing, her current favorites are "Bumblebee Song", "ABCs" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." On Wednesday night I asked her what song she wanted to sing and she said "Birthday song." So we sang the "Happy Birthday song." When I got to the part of whose birthday it was, she said Jackson's (little boy from daycare who recently had a birthday.) I love how she is beginning to remember things.

3.  On Thursday night as we were putting her pajamas on I asked her what we were going to sing.  She said "Play-doh" (her play doh was still out from where she played with it earlier). I told her there wasn't a play doh song.  She said "Uh huh mommy "and sings," Play-doh, play-doh, PLAAAYYYYYY DOOOHHHHH. All done mommy, now you sing.."

4.  Friday night after work we went grocery shopping to the place I hate the most, our local Super Wal Mart.  Wal Mart is the most convenient place for us to shop after we pick Cecilia up from daycare.  I loathe Wal Mart, I'd much rather spend the extra money and go to Safeway.  Daniel refuses though, he claims WalMart has the best prices (which they do), but I just cannot stand some of the people who shop there.  There isn't a website called People of WalMart for nothing.  We still don't buy our meat from there though...just the essentials (toilet paper, paper towels and some groceries). Anyway, when we turned in the opposite direction of home, Cecilia asked "Are we going to Mom mom and Pop pop's?"  We told her "No, we're going to WalMart." Then she said "We're going to WalMart!? Cici's Walmart?!" As we get closer every building she sees she points, "That's Cici's WalMart." I tell her, "No that's Lowes." Then she sees another shopping Center, "Is THAT Cici's WalMart?" "Nooo.."  Finally when WalMart is in view, "There's Cici's WalMart!" I love how everything is hers and how she refers to everything in third person even if it is WalMart.

5. Tonight we showed Cecilia the brochure for the amusement park we will hopefully be visiting tomorrow (weather permitting!) and she sees it and says, "Wow, mommy look at those slides!" Referring to all of the rollercoasters.  We laughed, we never thought of how a roller coaster, especially on a map can look like slides to a two year old.

Visit Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles' "Saturday's Top 5 Laughs" What are your kids Top Five Laughs from this week?

Also, I don't have any guesses to where we are going today (Saturday) yet.  The first follower of mine to guess correctly will get a prize, regardless if we go or not.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Y3W: Three Little Monkeys

Here's Cecilia with her friends, Jenna and Aubree jumping on Jenna's bed.  These three little girls play suprisingly well with another.  Usually when three toddlers get together it's pure chaos.  There were only a few tears shed when there weren't enough of the same toy to go around for all.

In the years to come I am sure there will be a lot more play dates, gymnastic and dance classes, soccer games, princess parties and of course sleepovers.

Link up with Jenni from Jenni From The Blog for Your Three Words!

Y3W: Meet My Ellie

Meet "My Ellie".

Ellie or as Cecilia refers to her  "My Ellie" was a gift  given to Cecilia from my cousin, Lesley when she was only a few days old.  Ellie is a snuggle buddy, she's part elephant, part blanket. Cecilia loves her. Her attachment with Ellie started early, as soon as she was able to grab for toys, she always went for Ellie first.

Every night before she goes to bed she has to find Ellie. Cecilia likes to hide Ellie throughout the house and make mommy and daddy find her (I think she does this so she can stay up later). Ellie has been found in bathroom cabinets, night stand drawers and even in Cari, our dog's toy box.  On Sunday we let Cecilia take Ellie to my parents and then to Daniel's dad's.  We normally don't let her go anywhere with Ellie for fear that we'll leave Ellie somewhere or even worse, we'll lose Ellie.  

On Sunday though we knew we'd be gone for the majority of the day and we thought if Cecilia had Ellie the more likely she would be to take a nap (she normally doesn't nap anywhere but home and daycare). She took a great nap at Daniel's dad's (with Ellie of course).  We didn't leave Daniel's dad and step mom's until after 7:00, which was past Ci's bed time. It wasn't until we were five minutes from our house I realized we forgot Ellie.  Daniel said there was no way we were going to turn around and drive the twenty minutes back to his dad's.  Cecilia would have to do without Ellie for one night.

After her bath, Ci asked "Where's my Ellie?" I explained to her that she left Ellie at Mom mom and Pop pop's and that Charley (my father in law's boxer who Cecilia adores) would take care of Ellie for her.  At first she cried, but once I told her Ellie was safe with Charley she was okay.  The following day my amazing father in law brought Ellie to Daniel at work.  Cecilia was so happy to sleep with her Ellie that night.

The next morning Daniel told her as we getting ready to leave that Ellie needed a bath tonight.  Later on that evening, Cecilia told me she had to go to the potty. I was making dinner so I told her to go to the bathroom and when she's done call for mommy.  The next thing I hear is the bath tub turn on.  I run into the bathroom and see Ellie in the bath tub.  Cecilia looked up at me with her gorgeous blue eyes and said, "I give Ellie a bath!"

I busted out laughing.  She was too cute, I couldn't be mad at her. We did tell her Ellie needed a bath.  So while Cecilia took her bath that night, Daniel gave Ellie a bath and put her in the dryer so when Cecilia got out of the tub, Ellie was ready for her.  She grabbed her Ellie, we read a book, sung a song and then I tucked her in.  As I was tucking her in she asked me, "Take a picture of me and my Ellie" and that's how we get to today's "Your Three Words."

Link up to "Your Three Words" by visiting Jenni From The Blog

Have a great Friday! My day will be easy today, I only have to work for an hour and a half and then I head off to help set up for our employee appreciation picnic. The rest of the day I'll be busy mingling with my coworkers, eating great food and playing  Corn Hole and volleyball.

The Day I'd Like To Start Over & Terrible Twos Advice??

Do you ever have a morning were you just want to crawl back into bed and start the day over.  Today was one of those days.  On a typical work day morning I usually get up around 5:30 get my shower and eat my breakfast.  Daniel gets up at 6 to start his day.  While he is in the shower, I usually unload the dishwasher or put away laundry.  By the time he gets out of the shower, I am already starting to blow dry my hair {yes, I wash my hair every day…if not it’d be an oily mess}, do my make up and get dressed. He eats his breakfast and at about 6:30 he goes into Cecilia’s room to get her ready. The last thing I have to do is do Cecilia’s hair which takes no more then three minutes.  By 6:45 we are all three ready to go out the door, Daniel and I take Cecilia to daycare, I take Daniel to work and around 7:30 I am usually getting to work.

This has been our routine since February when I started my new job.  The mornings are Daniel and Cecilia’s time.  It’s the only time throughout the day they get with just them.  The evenings at bath time is my time with Cecilia. It’s just what we do and it’s worked great for us, until now!  This morning Cecilia wanted nothing to do with daddy.  She wanted mommy.  I tried to explain to her that mommy needed to get ready, but she wasn’t having it.  Anytime Daniel tried to get her she yelled, “No! I want my mommy!” and swatted at him.   Ordinarily, she wants daddy, not mommy.  Eventually I was able to get her to brush her teeth and let Daniel dress her, but it wasn’t without a fight. 

Daniel ended up getting frustrated and hit her on behind (not hard it didn’t leave a mark, but it was enough to make her come to me and say “Daddy hit me!”). Now I know all of us have different parenting styles, even my parenting style and Daniel’s parenting style is very different.  I’m the time out mom.  If Cecilia does something wrong, I’ll give her a warning, I’ll tell her not to do it and the next time she does it she gets time out.  So the next time she does it, she gets put in time out (which usually consists of me holding her down in one of her chairs, because she’s screaming and won’t stay there for two minutes).  I make her say sorry and then she gets a hug and gets up from time out.

Daniel warns once, then the second time she gets a tap on her bottom (which usually has a pull up on). I am not saying my way is right or Daniel’s way is right, but neither seems to be working.  Cecilia is very much like Daniel where if you yell at her or tell her no it doesn’t phase her.  Where as I was always the goody two shoes., my dad would just have to give me “the look” and I would bust out crying.

For example yesterday Cecilia got at trouble at day care for pulling another girls hair and trying to bite her, because Cecilia wanted to swing and the girl was on the swing.  When I heard that my heart broke.  Cecilia hasn’t bitten any kids at daycare, but she has gotten bit quite a few times.  It’s what toddlers do and I never got mad at the little boy who bit her or the boys parents, but when it’s your kid doing the biting it’s harder.  So last night Daniel said “Next time she does it she is going to get spanked when she gets home.” I told him that it would defeat the purpose, because we are spanking her 5 hours after the fact.  I don’t know what to do.  At daycare they have a reward system, they get a little lolly pop if they are good every day.  If they are good all week, they get to pick out of the treasure chest. Cecilia didn’t get to pick from the treasure chest last week (because she hit) and she won’t be able to this week, because of yesterdays incident. 

My question, how do you or did you discipline your two year old (she’ll be two and a half next month)? Do you use time out,  a reward system or do you “spank “ them aka tap their bottom if they’re bad? I don’t want this bad behavior to continue into school.  I am hoping this is just part of the terrible twos and she’ll grow out of it very soon! All advice is welcome!

Thank you!

Remembering

On our way home from work on Friday night, Daniel and I realized we had no plans. Nada.  This is unusual for us, usually every weekend on Friday and Saturday night we have something to do, whether it be having friends over for poker or going out for a date night.  He told me to call my parents to see what they were doing.

I called my mom and she told me they were going to a 9/11 Memorial in the county seat of where I grew up.  I asked if anyone could come and she said yes, so I told her we'd get back to her.  I told Daniel what they were doing and he immediately said, "Let's go." 

My dad is a retired police..  He spent twenty five yeas of his life protecting his community.  He started off as a police officer in my home town, then went to work as a road officer for the county Sheriff's Department.  While at the Sheriff's Department he was promoted to a detective and eventually became the lead deputy of the Criminal Investigations unit there.  He also was the head of the Drug Task Force which served three counties on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  After leaving that job he accepted a position as Chief of Police of the town where he started at.  He loved doing police work and I know he misses it.

Any opportunity he gets, my dad supports local police departments and this memorial was no exception.

We met my parents at the memorial service.  When we walked up to the courthouse green my breath was taken away.

 I have been to my share of police office and fireman funerals and the sight of the American flag being hung from the ladders of two fire trucks always gives me chills.

Cecilia loved watching the parade of fire trucks come in.

She stood up to the sound of the bagpipes as the Maryland State Police honor guard walked in.

The first speaker was an officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, he was one of the first responders to the World Trade Center. He told us his story of the tragic events that day, I don't think there was a dry eye in the crowd.

Cecilia showed her love for the USA.

 

The next speaker was the former Maryland State Police Commissioner. He recounted the days from hearing about he attacks, to assisting getting first responders up to New York in the safest way possible to help with the rescue efforts.  He also told us of stories of how Maryland State Troopers had the horrible job of telling families in Maryland that their loved ones were dead, because of the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

The last part of the ceremony was the dedication of the 9/11 flag by the Sherriffs Department, the flag represents, The Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and  the plane crash in Pennsylvania. Every year on September 11th that flag will be flown on the Courthouse Green.

 After the memorial service, we walked around and Cecilia loved checking out the fire trucks.

She also made a new friend:

I think her favorite part of the night was getting to spend time with her Mom mom and Pop pop. I love this picture of Cecilia with my dad in the background.

The memorial service brought back a lot of emotions from that horrible day in our history.  I think all of us remember where we were and what we were doing.  Please not only honor your local police departments and fire fighters once a year on 9/11, but every day.  They are out there serving and protecting your community.

Also, I want to add almost 3,000 people lost their loves on September 11th and the days and weeks following the attacks.  Please don't forget those who have lost their lives in the years since.  One of my dad's mentors and best friends worked for FEMA and went up the the World Trade Center to help with the relief efforts.  He was true public servant. In 2009 he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma and after a little more then a year fighting the disease he lost his life, he left his wife, daugher, son in law and two adorable grandkids behind.  He developed Mesothelioma, because of the over 400,000 tons of asbestos in the World Trade Center.   Mr. Ollie was just one many who have delveoped this horrible disease.

While the Memorial Service was difficult, I am glad we went. I hope our children never have to expereince a day like 9/11/01.