Being a Mommy

I want to look back and know exactly what being a mom to an almost two year old was like--its crazy how fast you forget each stage of their little lives because they change so quickly--although it doesn't always seem like it when you are in the midst of the "stage"!

Being a mommy to Saylor means that sometimes I open my Burt's Bees chapstick, only to find a thin layer of saliva because little miss independent put chapstick on all by herself.

Being a mommy means I have more iPhone apps for toddlers than I do for myself, truly.

Being a mommy means I have to go on a house wide search to find any kind of tupperwear or serving spoons because someone needed to feed their baby or monkey or bear.

Being a mommy means I do lots of silly dancing and singing, or pretty much anything to get a laugh from my girl.

Being a mommy means that I save my cookies or ice cream or cheetoh puffs for naptime or bedtime so I don't have to share!

Being a mommy means that I carry half of the grocery store around to make sure there are enough snacks to get us through any dilemma.

Being a mommy means helping to put the same diaper on the same bear over and over again because "bear poop" and "he stinky!"

Being a mommy means I get the BEST and most sincere hugs and kisses in the whole world!

Being a mommy means bouncing through the house doing 'horsey' twenty thousand times just to hear a sweet giggle.

Being a mommy means that I get to spend about 20 minutes treating all her clothes with SHOUT before I can even put them in the washing machine.

Being a mommy means that somedays I count down the minutes until bedtime, only to wish that I could go scoop her up from her bed and cuddle with her.

Being a mommy means I will never sleep the same, I'm convinced.

Being a mommy means I say "no" about three thousand times a day and I probably hear it in return about that many times.

Being a mommy means that I cry at the simplest of commercials.

Being a mommy means that the holidays are even more special.

Being a mommy means that most days I think my child is an absolute genius!

Being a mommy allows me to wake up to the sweetest sounds of singing and talking that I have ever heard. It is probably my favorite time of day.

Being a mommy means experiencing an unwavering love that I never knew existed before I knew her!
What a great adventure it is to be Saylor's mommy!

Future Commentator

Saylor just about talks NON-STOP all day! She is to the point now that she gives you a running commentary of EVERYTHING she is doing. It is super sweet. For example, tonight she ran from me to her daddy to give him a high five and then back to me...so this is what she said "wunning, wunning, DADDY HIGH FIVE, wunning, wunning, sit down!" She will also tell you "I seet (sweet), I pincess, Saysee siwy (Saylor silly), and so on and so on! And what I love the most is she tells on herself all the time! I will hear her playing in another room and she will say "dat not nice!" or "no, no" and I walk in and usually catch her doing something she shouldn't be doing. Car rides are non-stop singing and talking performances. Whew--there isn't a quiet moment around here unless she is sleeping! And it is definitely constant entertainment!!

On a completely different note--I started my new job today. It is just new employee orientation all week, mostly just sitting and listening, but that means I am away from my girl for five whole days, which is super tough! Thankfully I have a great husband that switched a few days around so he could be home with her all week while I was working. (That means he worked six out of the last seven days--and 12-13 hour days at that!) I am so thankful for him! Otherwise I would have had to get up SUPER DUPER early to get us both out of the door by 7 am! I know many of you moms do that every day...and I admire you so much....but this momma is way out of practice. Getting us all ready and to church or the library by 10 is about as good as it gets around here. Also, with Mas being home, my sister-in-law didn't have to test her patience with two feisty little girls all day long!

But, after all this orientation stuff is over with I will only be working one, occasionally two nights a week!

That's about it with us!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of my Saylor girl so you aren't too extremely bored with my ramblings.

Playing Daddy's guitar

Little Miss in Daddy's hat

Daddy's workout buddy!

A few nights ago, after Saylor's bath, she wandered into Mas' office/workout room and found him doing P90x (an exercise program) and decided she wanted to join in the fun!

(We actually had some really great footage--but I am a dummy and used the video camera like a regular camera and turned it sideways at one point, not even thinking. Obviously, you can't flip a video halfway through!)

Precious little Indian

Here are a few pictures from last Tuesday night when we took the girls to "Haunt the Zoo" and then some from Halloween night. I am pretty sure that she is the cutest Indian I have ever laid eyes on!

And of course, don't forget about the "punk-in-cook-eeeee"

Our little Staycation

My mom came last weekend to stay with Saylor while Mas and I went out on the town to do things we wouldn't or couldn't normally do with Miss Priss. It was SO.ABSOLUTELY.WONDERFUL!! We went and saw a movie, had fabulous dinners with friends, spent an evening down in Bricktown, etc. It was like we had our own personal nanny and we could just go and do as we pleased all weekend. (Although I don't know that nannies spoil kids like Yonnas do!) It's Wednesday, Yonna left on Sunday, and Saylor is still asking for her!

Mom--we can't thank you enough! We had a wonderful weekend and loved getting to reconnect with each other during our little time away! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! You are the BEST!
(And I was too busy selfishly having fun to even get my camera out. I'm disappointed now that I didn't take any of Mas and I or of Yonna and Saylor.)

Also, Friday I finally had an interview and got a PRN labor and delivery job at a brand new hospital that opened this week! So, I basically get to choose my schedule, and I am planning to work a day or so a week on Mas' days off! I am so excited to be back doing what I love!! And I think a day a week will give Saylor and I just enough of a break from one another--I think she gets pretty tired of my sometimes. It's quite obvious because as soon as daddy comes home--she doesn't leave his side and wants nothing to do with me. I think this will be great for all of us. I'm pumped!

Farm and Family Fun

Last week Mas, Kellen, Tana, the girls, and I went to a place here in OKC called the Orr Family Farm. They had a train ride, a hayride out to a pumpkin patch, a small petting zoo, a playground, etc. They also had LOTS and LOTS of really yummy food. I would have been completely content to just stay in the warm building with all the cider, fudge, kettle corn, and so on! It was pretty darn chilly, but I will speak for everyone else and say that we had a really great time! I am so, so thankful that we are all here together and get to share these experiences--especially for the girls!

Tana and Saylor riding some kind of rubber horse thing. Tana's the expert at the horses, so I let her handle all that! :)

The Smith's (Ave is saying "choo-choo")
I just love this picture of Averey!

Sweet Saylor

It's just about impossible to get a real smile from this kid!

Daddy and Saylor on the train

The girls

What a sucker!

I took Saylor to the doctor's office today because she developed a terrible cough and runny nose all the sudden yesterday afternoon. H1N1 is going around here like crazy (as I'm sure it is many other places) and I wasn't going to take any chances. She definitely didn't feel well but that didn't keep her from insisting that she wear her boots and then modeling a little for momma!

And after a flu nose swab and strep throat swab (which both came back negative) and a few tears, she got her VERY FIRST sucker which made everything better as you can see!!

What a little cutie! So we are now treating croup, which is definitely the lesser of the three evils, and on the road to recovery!

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!

Daddy went with us to story time yesterday at the Moore Public Library and there just happened to be a photographer there from The Oklahoman (the newspaper). He got a few cute shots of Saylor and Mas doing motions to some of the songs. Check them out here: http://newsok.com/multimedia/photos/gallery/501721

What?!?

Today Saylor is twenty-one months old. That means in a mere three months, my baby will be TWO YEARS OLD!! I'm amazed at that fact!!
And here is Saylor's amazed face, when I told her how old she was....

And her 'putting on chapstick' face
And her 'putting chapstick on daddy' face (excuse Mas' obvious enthusiasm)

And her 'big brown-eyed angelic' face
...back to my point--I'm just amazed at how big my little princess is getting! Love my growing girl so much!

Slacker!

I know that I have been majorly neglecting my blog and I still don't really have anything extremely interesting to write about now, but I thought I would list a few things we have been up to lately.

Me, my brother, and Saylor spent another beautiful afternoon at the zoo. (Tana and Ave were out of town and Mas was working).

We went to the Oklahoma State Fair and Disney on Ice. Saylor unfortunately wasn't that impressed. She didn't have a nap that day and she hasn't actually ever seen the movies they portrayed in the ice show--so we may try that again in a year or so. I think she was still a little young. I think if it would have been Elmo, though, it would have been a whole different story!

I'm so disappointed in the outcome of the last few Texas Tech games--that's all I will say about that. Let's hope things pick up in the coming weeks.

I went to Amarillo alone this past weekend because I had to do hospital competencies, but I went a few days early and spent some much needed quality time with my parents and grandparents! I also got to do lots of cuddling with baby Max who is now 6 weeks old! It was a WONDERFUL break! And Mas did an AMAZING job with Saylor for two days/nights. He took her to church and toddler play group all by himself while I was gone--and even did her hair! What a good daddy! I even came home to a clean house. Im a lucky girl!

I missed my baby girl so much, but she is having some MAJOR attitude since I've been home. I guess she's a little upset with me for leaving. Whew--I've been saying lots of prayers for patience today! But at the moment--she is sweetly slumbering with her little hiney in the air and I could just kiss her all over!

That's about it! Hopefully I'll find something fun to talk about soon!

Park Perfection

This is such a typical Saylor expression

I love this weather! Its been a perfect 75-80 degrees (with 100% humidity, but we'll ignore that little tidbit) for the past week and I. AM. LOVIN. IT! So, we have been frequenting the playgrounds a lot. And we have about 5 parks within about 5 miles of our house, so we have plenty of variety. I love going to the park and watching Saylor branch out a little more each time. She is an extremely cautious child--so I love to see her challenge herself and take a few risks! Today we had the playground all to ourselves and she had a ball. She gets a little intimidated when bigger kids are running and jumping around her and she clings to me, so today was just perfect for her.

I have to say--there is nothing better than watching my sweet girl grow, learn and mature. I feel so blessed to be her momma!

I got nothin'

I have nothing really to blog about so I thought I would share a few of the pictures I uploaded off my phone from the past month or so. Completely random, but I dont really have much else.

Saylor on the potty. She is still telling me occasionally that she needs to poop and actually makes it to the potty! Yay! (although I wish she would wait on me to take her to the potty in the mornings. The past three mornings I have had to change sheets because there has been poo leakage in her crib. Probably TMI, but oh well! It's frustrating the heck out of me. I have tried every possible diaper--with no luck! They just don't hold all she has to offer overnight. :) She is gonna love me for the picture someday!

Miss Priss helping me water the flowers. Isn't her little belly just kissable. She has really slimmed up everywhere else, but she is keepin' the belly! I love it!

A GIGANTIC spider in our garage. Saylor wanted to touch it and then sing Itsy Bitsy Spider. I love her!

Crazy week!

We have had a crazy busy last week. Last Tuesday we made a mad dash to Amarillo to be there for the birth of our friends' baby! Ross and Missy and big brother Reid welcomed sweet baby Max into the world on Thursday, August 13th. He weighed a whopping 9 lbs 2 oz! What a precious, chunkly little thing he is! I am so glad that we were able to be there to help them welcome their little miracle into the world. We love you guys and wish we were right there to watch him grow every day. (These are the times I just H.A.T.E. living so far away, but I am thankful it is only a four hour drive. And thankfully Mas was off too, so I didn't have to handle the little munchkin in the car all by myself. Praise the Lord!)

My parents had already planned several weeks back that they would visit this last weekend, so after Max was born, we made another mad dash back to OKC so we could spend some fun family time with them. Unfortunately Mas had to work all weekend, so he just caught up with us here and there when he could. We went to the water park, pool, Bricktown, and lots of good places to eat! We had a great time with them.....I really, really miss us all being together. (And I was terrible and didn't take one single picture while they were here. Maybe because I was in a bathing suit half of the weekend.)

Other little random tidbits going on in our life right now:

~I'm working on getting my RN license in the state of Oklahoma so I can start working again, just a day a week or so. I was already beginning the paperwork, but laboring/delivering with Missy the other day made me that more motivated to get this done. I absolutely LOVE and MISS my job. Please be praying for our family that the Lord provides the perfect job for us!

~Mas has started P90X. He is actually in there dripping sweat as I type. I think it is a little too hard core for me. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

~We just bought Saylor SIZE EIGHT shoes tonight! Holy Cow!! She is growing like a weed. I know that is very random, but I just can't believe it!

~I'm sad that summer is almost over. I AM looking forward to some cooler weather, but I don't know what I'm gonna do when we can't play outside in the water every day. I think I will move to sunny southern California. Ok, maybe not. You see how much I complain about being four hours away from my friends and family. I don't think Cali would be worth it--even if it never snows. I'm rambling....

~Hope you all have a wonderful week!

POO

I've been bored with my blog lately, and I'm sure if I'm bored, everyone else reading is even more so.....so I was just going to hop on and post a cute pic that I got from Erin. But then I remembered a very exciting thing that happened today that I thought I should probably document. Don't get too excited yet, it's really not anything that impressive--unless of course, you are a mom of an eighteen month old.

Saylor has been telling me for a while now when she needs to poop, and so the past couple of days when she tells me I ask her if she wants to go sit on the potty. The past two days, she would run happily into the bathroom, sit on the potty, giggle and then say "all done". I would put her diaper back on and she would poop. I am really not "potty training" her yet. She is not ready, and I'm not going to rush it (she still doesn't recognize the sensation to pee). I just want her to be comfortable with the whole process of sitting on the potty. But today before her nap she told me she needed to poop and so she went and sat on the potty and she tee-teed!! I was shocked and excited and she, on the other hand, just turned around and wanted to touch it! I will spare you the picture that I took of the pee in the potty so her daddy could see her big accomplishment today, since he was at work. I know he was thrilled when he got that email!

My baby is getting so big! I just love her more and more every day! I know I say that all the time, but I could just eat her up some days!

Anyways, that was our excitement for the day. I will leave you with a sweet picture of Erin's dog, Olive and Saylor. Saylor and the tiny pup were big buds, Saylor would wake up from her naps while we were there and ask for Olive. Saylor was bound and determined to get in the "poo". It was actually raining off an on, but she didn't mind, so we stripped her down and she splashed around in her diaper with her little friend keeping an eye on things.

GOD OF THIS CITY @ People's Church OKC

This was one of the worship songs performed a few weeks ago at our church. (I actually wasn't there--but I'm sure it was awesome in person!) I LOVE IT! Some of the youth started a rap group called Exodus and this is the second time they have "performed" at church. There is a little something for EVERYONE there and you never know what to expect when you show up on Sunday morning! God is doing AMAZING things through this church!

Weekend Getaway--Part Tres

Ok, I'm way behind on blogging about last weekend, so I'm just gonna get it done real fast.

Last Sunday night, Saylor stayed at the Slott's house while Mas and I went out and celebrated our three year anniversary at Texas de Brazil! YUM-MO!! Oh my goodness, it was divine! And so nice to have dinner just the two of us! Thanks, guys for watching the little pumpkin so we could have a wonderful dinner!

Then Monday (our actual anniversary), Karen made us a delicious breakfast, then we went shopping at IKEA! I've checked them out online before several times, but this is the first time I've actually been! I could spend three days in there! Then Karen proved her culinary skills again at dinner. Mas is still talking about it, actually. I guess I will have to get the recipe. Thanks for feeding us! It was mah-velous!

Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to our great host/hostesses and headed for home!

Saylor, Erin and I

Also, this great weekend wouldn't have been possible without the greatest brother and sister-in-law! Kellen and Tana came over to our house and took care of Samson while we were gone! We so appreciate you guys! And Samson does too--considering he didn't have to spend 5 days in a kennel! Perks of having family in town again, hu.....

Best buddies, reunited

Mas: We have come a LONG way in the past three years and I can't wait to continue this amazing journey with you. I am so proud to call you my husband! Love you so, so much!

Weekend Getaway: Part Dos

On Sunday afternoon, after we left the "interracial convention", we headed to Plano to see my friend, Erin and her parents. Her dad, Tom took us downtown and took some much anticipated pictures of Saylor. He took pictures for us last year and he does an OUTSTANDING job--I couldn't wait for some new ones! Saylor was pretty grumpy--she hadn't had a nap all day, and it was about 100 degrees outside, but he can take great pictures, even with a high maintenance, crabby model! Thank you so much, Tom. We can't even begin to thank you for all your hard work and patience! To say we LOVE our pictures, would be an understatement!

Here are a few: