"I LOVE (fill in the blank)!"

Elizabeth is such a little punk lately. A cute punk, but a punk nonetheless. When we tell her to do something or not do something, like, "Don't hit mommy," for example, she'll say, "I LOVE hitting mommy!

Me: "Lizzie, don't lay your face on the toilet."
Liz: "I LOVE laying my face on the toilet!"

Nate: "Don't poke the caterpiller, Elizabeth."
Liz: "I LOVE poking the caterpiller!"

You get the idea. Punk.

First Dance Class

A friend told me about a toddler dance class at one of the local dance studios in town so I immediately signed Lizzie up. (By "immediately," I mean that I called two days before it started to make sure there were still openings...)

So off we go to dance class. On the way, there was a song on the radio about when your babies grow up and leave the house. I got misty eyed thinking about my baby leaving me one day and because this is my little girl's very first dance class and I don't want her to grow up too fast but I am so excited to see her grow up and learn new things and become a contributing member of society... but right now she is my little girl and we are on our way to her very first dance class. (By the way, how exactly did she get old enough to go to a dance class??)

Then she ruined the whole day for me.

The dance class itself was actually pretty fun. Lizzie was super cute doing all of the little dance moves. She shook her wiggles out and jumped and marched and chasséd and skipped with the best of 'em. Well, she tried at skipping. And chasséing. We sang and danced to "If You Are Happy and You Know It" and a song about going in a villiage. She rang a bell up high and down low and in a circle. And then she refused to go through the tunnel even though she has a tunnel at home and goes in it all. the. time. But whatever.

After the class though, my daughter became... I'd rather not say possessed, but I am lacking a better word. Okay... naughty. Super naughty. Extremely, super naughty. She freaked out. She decided that right then and there, in front of 25 other moms and kids, that she wanted to prove that I am a terrible mom and that she is a big jerk. Kidding. Kind of.

I was so humiliated. She wouldn't let me put her boots or her coat on. She screamed and tried running away and then would go all limp noodle on me when I caught her. She even tried hitting me in my face! What the what?? If it wasn't 3° outside, I would have just picked her up and walked outside. But no. I wanted her to be warm.

There are seven more dance classes. I'm not so sure that we'll make it to the next one.

She is soooo lucky she is cute.

Why do I stall?

Nate goes to bed earlier than I do almost every night. All of a sudden I think that I must watch this show that has been on my DVR for four months tonight. Or finish a sewing project, or a scrapbook page, etc...

After the show is over, I shut all the lights off and get ready for bed, brush my teeth, wash my face. I walk into the office to shut my computer off... but I might as well check my email real quick before I go to bed. Oh there's a good sale at that store, maybe we'll have to check that out tomorrow... and pictures are only 7 cents at that website right now! I'll just select the pictures I want to print real quick... Okay, back to email. Well. That email is annoying. I definitely don't know what to do about that one... I should probably stare into space for 5 minutes while I think about what to do about it. Nope, nothing. I suppose that email can wait until tomorrow. Finally I shut the computer down.

I turn around to shut off the lamp over my puzzle table, and think, wouldn't it be nice if I could get just one puzzle piece before I go to bed? Eleven puzzle pieces later, I shut the lamp off. Then I think I spot a piece I've been looking for! Lamp goes back on. Yep, it's the one! Five pieces later, lamp goes back off.

Then I go crawl into bed, hoping I don't wake Nate up so he can say, "What time is it? Wow, you aren't going to get much sleep tonight."

Thanks for that.

Happy Baby

This is pretty much an update to this post.

My kid is emotional. She has always, even as a little baby, flipped emotions in a matter of a second. It has always been a source of amusement in our family, how she can go from laughing to crying or crying to laughing in 2 seconds flat.

It is hilarious how she can compose herself when she is a "sad baby."

Lately she has been throwing these little tantrums where she screams and cries and carries on. When this happens, I tell her, "Go to your room and find a happy face." She will usually run back to her room and look in the mirror by her crib.

The first time I said this to her, I showed her where to go to find her happy face. The second time I told her this, she took off down the hall. I snuck back to her room and saw her making faces at herself in the mirror. She spotted me pretty quick and started laughing. Now when I tell her this, she runs down the hall and runs back a moment later with a huge smile, saying, "Mommy, baby happy now!"

Also, she'll sometimes cross her arms and scrunch up her face and say, "Baby so mad." This is a far cuter way to express those feelings, girlfriend. It is even cuter when she pretends to be mad and can't hold back her smile!

"Baby do it!"

What happened to my little baby girl who still needed her mom for stuff?!

(First, I still call Elizabeth my baby and so she still calls herself Baby. She doesn't know yet that she is a big girl, and not a baby anymore in the literal sense of the word. However, she will be my baby forever and I will not start calling her my big girl for as long as I can get away with it!)


Elizabeth has turned into Little Miss Independent lately. She thinks she doesn't need her mom for anything anymore! If I turn a light on, I hear, "Baby do it!" and she will go turn the light off and turn it back on. If I shut a door, I hear, "Baby do it!" and she will go open the door and shut it again. If I turn her sound machine on, open her monkey tent, stack her books, get a blanket or Henry the Monkey out of her crib, (etc, etc, etc) I hear, "Baby do it!" and she will undo and redo whatever it was that Mommy had actually managed to do quite well the first time, thankyouverymuch. You get the idea.


I can't even feed her anymore. She eats all by herself. (She does really awesome feeding herself with her forks and spoons, by the way.) At least she still needs me to actually prepare her food!

However, my super independent, wonderful, amazing daughter is still my baby at bedtime. After we read a few books, she turns around and lays her head on my shoulder and I hold her just like I did when she was a tiny newborn (only now her feet go to my knees instead of the bottom of my ribcage) and we sing a song about cuddle time and say our prayers and I wish that she would stay my baby forever. In those few minutes, she isn't fighting with me over who puts her socks on or who pushes the chair in. She is just my sweet little precious baby who still wants to cuddle with her mommy.

'Evermind!

Playing in Mommy's room

Lizzie: Up, up, up bed!

Me: Can I have a kiss first?

Lizzie: No, evermind! *walks away*



Daddy and Lizzie playing downstairs

Lizzie: Daddy get tunnel!

Nate: Do you want to go upstairs and play in the tunnel?

Lizzie: Evermind! *walks away*


Elizabeth...uh... grunting

Me: Lizzie, do you want to sit on the potty chair??"

Lizzie: No, evermind! *runs away to go grunt somewhere else*

Yay baby!!!

For the last week or two, Elizabeth has been sitting on the toilet and reading books and magazines... and doing nothing else. It was super cute and I took pictures and all, but it was more like play time than potty time. I found that she stays put better when she sits on the regular toilet with the toddler seat than for her to sit on her little toilet because she just gets up and wonders around.

Well... today, Elizabeth pooped in the big girl toilet twice. TWICE! Yeah, no big deal. Whatever. (AHHHH!!!!! TWICE!!)

We were playing in the living room and then she said "Baby toot!" So I took her in to the bathroom and set her on the toilet and asked if she could toot again. She did. (hehe) "Baby toot again!" giggled Lizzie. I asked her again if she could toot again. So she tried and all of a sudden... plop! She looked startled and reached out and said, "Carry you??" (Which is what she says when she wants us to pick her up. I believe it came from when we say, "Do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?") I showed her the poop in the toilet and I started freaking out and clapping and praising and we jumped up and down. Yay baby!!! Then later in the day, she did all of this again! Yay baby!!!

I wanted to post a picture of this momentous occassion. However, I decided that when she is older, I still want her to like me. So instead I'll post this picture. Here she is sitting on the toilet shortly after her first job and saying "Ta Da!" What a big girl!!

Sad baby!

When Elizabeth gets told no or she gets pulled out of something that she wants to be in, and pretty much whenever she doesn't get her way, sometimes she'll start crying and run over to me saying, "Baby sad!"

When she does this, we'll say, "Are you a happy baby?" and she'll make this funny face like she's pursing her lips and sucking air in while she composes herself. It is so funny! Then all of a sudden she's a smiling happy baby with wet cheeks. =)

Also, sometimes whens he is in a grumpy mood or upset about something, she will run back in to the room all of a sudden, with a huge smile on her face, saying "Baby HAPPY!" Yay! ♥

Slappy Slappy Blue Ball

Whenever Daddy walks in the door after work, Lizzie starts saying, "Slappy slappy blue ball, Daddy!!" over and over again. Which pretty much means she wants to go downstairs to play. Slappy slappy blue ball is a game Lizzie and her daddy made up and play downstairs where they slap my big, blue yoga ball. Weirdos!

She will also start looking for her shoes and wanting to go outside as soon as her daddy walks in the door. She loves going outside. LOVES IT. Even when it is cold and I am out there shivering, she does not care. She just wants to be outside!

Today when Nate walked in, Lizzie started yelling, "Daddy! Slappy slappy blue ball! Walk outside! Shoes! Jacket! Daddy!" Whoa baby! He didn't know which way to turn! They are outside playing right now. =)

Things I want to remember

This is just a list of things I want to remember... hence the title of the post. :)

• Elizabeth loves eating what she calls "foffles" and "namas" (waffles and bananas, duh) for breakfast.
• Instead of saying something like, "Gimme!" like I hear from most toddlers, Lizzie says, "Reeeach!" if she wants something.
• She is pretty much copying everything we say. It doesn't always sound the same, but she tries!
• After a visit to Colorado, Elizabeth has learned to say everyone's names out there. Kourtny is "Kokey," Faith is "Fate," Olivia is "Livie," David is "Dabie," and Kristal sounds different every time she says it.
• She calls Pooh and Piglet "Pooh and Piggy."
• ***She can kinda sorta count to ten!!! It goes like this... "One, two, three, two, FIVE!!! Six, eight, nine, TEN!!!!" It counts!
• She knows what a bunch of animals say when we ask her. So far she knows cat, dog, horse, cow, sheep, monkey, owl, and pig (kinda).
• She calls Molly "Money" and will say "no, no doggy!" if Molly is doing something naughty.
• When I was teaching Lizzie how to count to 3, I would say, "1...2...3... Mommy!!" and she would say, "...2....3" real quietly, and then say, "MOMMY!!!!" I can't type it as cute as she says it. :) Then she started saying, "...2....3.... GABBA GABBA!!" Hmpf.
• When trying to convince Elizabeth to come back to her room for a diaper change, I held out my hand to her and started marching down the hall while saying, "March, march, march..." It has actually worked a few times! And now she can be found kinda stomping around and saying "Mon, mon, mon..."
• Elizabeth says "wower" for "flower." I tried to get her to say the "f" sound. I said, "Lizzie, say ffffffflower!" So she says, "Ffffffff... wower!"