Better Days

The rest of our week is going much more smoothly. After Samantha's sleepless night she took a 3 hour nap that next day and then slept that night from 7:30 to 7:30. And this morning, Thursday it's 7:05 and she's still sleeping. It's a daycare day and we have to leave at 7:30 so I might have to wake her up soon if she doesn't on her own. We're having a nice shirt week. We got some very exciting news about some good friends having a baby, we're not telling who yet, but we just can't wait. Samantha will have a new friend. Today we have music class and tomorrow if Friday, yipee!
I also got some nice work related news. I have been babysitting sicnce the end of last summer. It has slowly gotten to be more and more hours and I have been saying I will stop for months. Well they finally found someone else! I'm so glad, she starts next week. Now I will work a few days a week in the mornings, and be done at 12:30 on the days I work. I think it will be much better for us, Samantha will get to spend more time with her grandma and have 2 days at daycare until 12:30, which she really seems to enjoy. I am really looking forward to having the afternoons to myself (and Samantha).

Amendment

Hi everyone. Let me just be a little more clear as to why Tim's bedtime routine annoyed me last night. Sam has a strict 8:00 bedtime. Definitely by 8:30. She is a little angel when she goes to bed on time. You say good night, plop her in her crib, and rarely hear from her until the morning. She's not so good when you mess up her routine. And last night she went to bed really late and ate cookies (i.e. sugar) after her regular bedtime, which can't be so good. I shouldn't really say went to bed at all, because she basically didn't. When Tim put her in at 9:30 she screamed for hours, when she woke up every few hours of the night. It was awful, she was just up and crying, wanting to get up and play. I'm not totally blaming Tim for this but I do believe that it was at least in part due to the lack of her bedtime routine last night, late bedtime, and late sugary baked goods. Let's all hope that tonights bedtime goes normally. I'm not sure how I can get to work today, I have a headache I'm so tired.

Weekend Review

I love long weekends. Doesn't everybody, right? What did you all do this weekend? Saturday we went to swimming lessons, Sam had such a great time. She was going under and jumping in and just loving every second of it. We went to a few tag sales and I got her a little slide for $5. We went to visit Tim at the store, of course. We did a lot of gardening. Basically my whole yard is weeds amd I spent a lot of the weekend digging up the weeds, putting down new soil, planting some new flowers, and getting some areas ready to plant new grass. My mother in law is amazing at gardening, I'm hoping she can help me out because I've really never done this before. The weekend was spent digging, raking, planting, and watering so I'm hoping that it will turn out nicely. I still have a lot more work to do to get the yard in good condition. I'll leave our Monday Memorial Day adventures for another day this week.
Here's some pictures of my yard in progress, and my daughter who decided it would be fun to plant her own garden in the pool, she was so so dirty it was disgusting.

Disclaimer: If you're a Cocheo you may not want to continue. However, Tim has been working hard and not doing much around the house, which is completely fine with me. Tonight he said he wanted to give Sam a bath and put her to bed. It is now 8:44 and they are in our bed, eating cookies. I don't think this is the best way to put her to bed, and I'm not going up there until she is in her crib. And it better be soon...

Long Beautiful Hair

Look at the hair Sams been sportin lately. Check out this pic from last May, she was a total baldy at 6 months old and a year later, she has so much hair! I love it, she wore a ponytail today! I'm still hoping that she gets wavy hair from Tim. It looks a little wavy sometimes. I don't want it to be so super straight like mine.

Any Lost Readers?

Anyone want to tell me what they thought of Lost? I can't believe I have to wait until Feb. I like the flash forward, it was a great ending. But I hate that there's 3 more seasons, how long will this be dragged out for? Any guesses on who is in the coffin? Who are the people on Nadia's boat? What happenned with Jack and Kate?
How sad was the whole thing with Charlie? I was crying, and I don't usually cry.

Anyway, here's Sam making a funny face and telling me. "I don't know". She does a funny I don't know gesture with her hands. Sorry she's all dirty and gross, it was a long, hot day here.

Just Right

Here's Sam making sure the boots are on just right.

What is everyone up to this weekend? We're hoping it's nice b/c I'd like to do lots of outside things with Sam. Maybe a hike at the state park? The park? We have swimming lessons. Sams daycare is all marching in the parade together on Monday. You don't have to march but if your child is under 3 the parent has to accompany them. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to march in the daycare section of the parade. Maybe Sam and I will just watch... that is if Mimi and Grandpa want to come. Tim, of course, will be working.

Have a good Memorial Day weekend!

Cookie

Samantha thinks all treats are cookies. One of our favorite snacks are rice cakes. I remember when I was little thinking rice cakes were bland and gross. Samantha loves them, she calls them cookies. My brother in law Mike thinks this is wrong and that she should know what a cookie is. I assure you, she's had cookies, and loves them. But she also loves the rice cakes. What's wrong with that?

Tonight after dinner we had leftover cake. When Samantha tasted it she erupted into giggles and started kicking her highchair with a huge smile on her face. I said to Tim, wouldn't you just love to that kind of reaction to something, especially food again? It was like a gut reaction, she couldn't help herself, and it was just soo cute.

MY Daughter the Fashion Victim

Samantha insisted that she wear these rain boots with this dress when we had company the other night. I know, as my mom pointed out, she's 17 months old and I'm her mother. But it was so cute and she wasn't hurting anyone so I let her. When I tried to put normal shoes on her she said, no shoes and kept grabbing the boots and giving them to me.

We've gone 2 full days without a pacifier outside of the crib!

Cheese

What happens when I ask Sam to say cheese... she loves the camera... most of the time.

Not Fair

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, and yesterday morning, and the morning before that. 5:30 is when Tim leaves for work. He slams the door shut every morning (not toally his fault, it's the door) and Sam wakes up. Some days I can get her back to sleep for a little, but most days I can't. I have repeatedly asked Tim to use the back door but he has been refusing, it's too far away or something. I know Tim has to be up at 5:30, but I don't, so it's not fair. Finally today he agreed to use the back door tomorrow. We'll see...

Also, one of my cats has been outside for 18 hours. That is the longest he's been out at this house. I just looked around for him when I got home and don't see him. I want him to stay outside and be a happy outside cat, so I'm glad he's out. Just a tiny part of me feels bad and worries that he'll get hit by a car or something. Lots of cats are outdoor cats, how do they know to stay away from cars? Instinct, I hope.

Boring Life

Tim and I have been going to bed around 9 pm. Thank God we have Tivo to tape our favorite shows. We were actually just complaining that we should have the Tivo in our room instead of the living room b/c we're not watching it. Our routine for the last 2 weeks has been, dinner at 7, bath and Sam to bed at 8, then straighten up and in bed ourselves at 8:30. I was actually just in bed but I didn't like what Tim was watching so I came down to check my email. Right now it is 9:15. Pretty sad, huh? Oh well, it doesn't bother me. A few months ago Tim was getting home at 1 am and I was in the routine of waiting up for him. I was always tired when Sam woke up at 7. Now I am very rested and I don't mind too much when she wakes up early. So going to bed early has its perks. I need to clean up and make my house presentable b/c my sister is visiting on Monday. Mimi and Grandpa are taking Sam tomorrow so I can clean up. I might even have dinner here Monday night instead of at my sisters. That will be the first time we have had people over and don't forget I'm nto exactly a chef, just a chefs wife, so my cooking isn't always too great. On that note, since we moved here, May 1st, I have cooked dinner every single night and Tim has said its been good. Samantha has loved it. I look up my recipes and go shopping and I've made a real effort to cook dinner for my family. I like it, it's fun. I just don't like the cleaning up from cooking part. So tomorrow I'll figure out what I should make on Monday.

By the way, can anyone tell me how to get rid of this thing? The paci, or juju as Samantha calls it. I think she got this b/c it reminded her of how she would suck on the sippy cup of juice, juice became juju. Anyway, I desperately want her to get rid of it. We were on car and crib only, then we were on crib only, but car crept back in. Now we are car and crib and if she's really sad I will give it to her in the house. I can't help it. Any suggestions? She loves it and says juju juju over and over when she wants it. I just want to lose them all so I don't have choice. She's 17 months now. I want them gone by 18 months, or at least on a STRICT crib only policy.

Updates

Let's see, I did find my camera cord but have not taken any other pics, so I'll give you one from this time last year. Tim did find a dishwasher but he's still not getting home that much earlier, but at least I'm not washing dishes. Now we need a breakfast cook to do egg sandwiches and omelets. Right now Tim is going into work at 5:30 to do all that stuff. Things are so busy, it's going really well. They have about 10 events to cater so far. The first one is this Friday and is a kids birthday party. We finally put blinds up in our office, we have this room sort of figured out. We still need to put our pictures up on the wall. By the time Tim gets home and has dinner, he's practically ready for bed. We have a busy weekend. Sam and I are going to LI to have brunch with some friends and hopefully will see Samantha's new baby cousin.
This pic is from today last year. We had just moved out here from NYC.

Hard Times

Sam looks like she has the hardest life, then wait, but I do have nice shoes on. Nice shoes can cheer any girl up...

Here's my messy girl

More Mothers Day

As promised...

Happy Mothers Day!
How cute is she?

Sorry

I know I have been a horrible blogger. I just can't seem to post lately. First we moved on May 1st in an unexpected rush. Then Tim opened his store on May 6th, and we catered an event on the 5th. Without being able to hire help just yet that meant I had to help and by help I mean mostly do dishes and it was not fun. I washed so many dishes I never want to look at another one. Anyone know a prep cook/dishwasher/stock person near Ancram NY??
And we're still trying to get the house in order/set up the office/get our satelitte guy to come. Every spare moment has been spent at the store and not at the house where I should be. Oh and Samantha started swimming lessons, which wasn't the greatest start but hopefully she'll have more fun tomorrow.
And, I can't find my camera charger. And I still have dial up.
My cable modem comes Monday so hopefully I will have found my charger by then and can take some beautiful pictures of my lovely daughter over the weekend.
If all goes well I will have pictures and a witty post for you by Monday, I'm sure I can think of something witty to say, I'll work on it...
Have a good weekend.