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.

Sorry no time to blog this week, we're moving this weekend and I have tons to do.
Updates next week.

What's Going On...

Let's see, I've been lazy and just been posting pics lately. But hey, at least you're getting something. We've been busy, as always, Easter was crazy and flew by. This week we're working a lot, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Samantha and I went to music class today. It is a different place than her last Music class and we really liked it. It's called Music Together and we got CD's a a songbook so we can learn the songs. As soon as we got there Samantha was walking all over the room and checking it out. She seemed perfectly comfortable there. Sometimes I wonder where Samantha gets this socialness from. Tim and I are not the most outgoing people. While starting to sing Samantha was walking up to all the other kids. While playing the instruments she walked up to another mom and helped herself to the instrument the mom was using. She did share and give the mom her instrument. So at least she's being nice.
I was at a playgroup a few days ago and the facilitator asked everyone what the want there kids to learn and take with them throughout life. I was thinking that being happy is the most impt thing. Some other moms said being honest and polite. Which is also important, but today I was thinking that if she can keep being social like this that would be great. Some kids are so painfully shy and I'd much rather Samantha be outgoing, which I think will help her to be happier too.
She is just so happy, friendly, and full of life right now. It's pretty amazing to watch her interacting with other people.

By the way, here's Sam at the Easter Egg Hunt Saturday at the gun club. Did I mention this already? Is it just me, but is there something wierd about having a childrens Easter Egg Hunt at the gun club??? I guess that's how they do it in the country, we're still new to country life. Don't worry all guns were safely locked away. It was actually just big fields where they hid the eggs.

Happy Easter

Another happy easter pic! Here are the kids doing there Easter egg hunt. It was freezing outside. And this morning there is some snow on the ground. When is spring coming? I'm going to be late for work, so gotta go. Will try to write later.

What Is This?...

Could it be...candy?!?
Believe or not Sam did not have candy for Easter, she was too littel to know what it was. She played with candy, her cousins ate candy, but I figured if this year I can easily keep her from eating it I might as well. We don't need cavities in those little tiny teeth. Did your kids eat candy?? Am I a mean mom? My neice who is 3 months older did have candy so I'm feeling a little mean, but still I'm sure she'll have enough next year, when she DOES get it. And really, she certainly knows what cookies are and has enough of those.

Easter

Easter was really fun. It was a pretty drawn out holiday. Thursday Samantha got a present from Mimi and Grandpa, this chair and ottoman. She loves it. She is so cute, she plops herself down and puts her feet up. It is the perfect chair for her.
Fri some things came in the mail for her, Sat we went to an Easter egg hunt and dyed eggs, of course. And Sun was Easter and we hunted for eggs and had tons of family over. Samantha is very spoiled by all of her cousins. They give her so much attention, I think she was laughing and playing every second of the weekend, which is just how it should be. I'll post more Easter pics throughout the week.

Happy Friday

Here's my big girl, looking all proud of herself. She loves to sit on things, she's a little wierd. : )

Almost Bedtime

I was at a playgroup today and moms we're talking about never having time to themselves and feeling like they were "just moms" because of that. We were all asked whether we get time to ourselves daily, weekly, or monthly. One mom said daily. When asked to elaborate she said the kids go to bed at 8, then she has time to clean up and go to bed. I don't think of this as time to myself. I thought time to myself was time when I'm not expected to do "mom/housewife things" at all. What do you guys think? Do you get time to yourself, if so how and what does that entail?

Also, Sam really needs a haircut, right? What am I going to do with this hair?

I Love NYC

New York was fun. Samantha felt right at home, she loved the subway, and stopped to chat to as many people who would talk to her. We went shopping, saw some friends, and had a fun time. However, Mon night when we got to NY Samantha was pretty awful.. She woke up when we got there and would not go back to sleep. We usually will leave at bedtime so then we put her right into bed when we get somewhere, and she stays asleep. Not this time. Maybe it's the age?? She woke up when we got there and stayed up until 2 AM!!! Does anyone have any tips for traveling with toddlers and dealing witht he bedtime schedules? And, she still got up at 7! She did take a lot of naps yesterday but that didn't help us since we couldn't take naps. I really don't want to hold off on trips for the next few years but Monday night was the worst we've ever had with her. Help!

Just because it was easy

So now here's 2 more pics from our vacation that I'm posting just because I am in shock of how quickly that last picture uploaded. Here's a bad picture of me, Tim, & Sam at Chichen Itza and a picture of the cenote.
I would post 10 times a day if I had high speed.

NYC

I know, again I'm apologizing for not posting. Let's see what's my excuse this time? I don't even know where the last week went. On my day off last Thursday I was so busy, had tons to do, and even a birthday party. Over the weekend was my Dads birthday celebration and just regular business. I have a hard time posting when I don't have pictures to post. Now we're in the city and I'm taking advantage of the high speed internet. I know it's awful but I live in the middle of nowhere and don't have high speed at home, so you guys should all be really impressed that I post at all.
Anyway, enough complaining, Samantha is now a great walker! In a week she has really improved on the skill, we are happy she's on track and now want her to slow down (just kidding!) She has taken to chasing the cats around the house. If anyone wants a new cat we're giving 2 away for free to a good home (don't tell Tim I said that). But seriously, have a cat, it's our Easter gift to you.
Here's a picture from the winter, but isn't this funny of Sam & Courtney. Samantha looks like she thinking, stop touching me. We will have all sorts of fun adventures in NYC tomorrow and I will post about them at some point this week. Have a good week.