Just What I Needed

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

After a week of long work days and busy nights, I was craving some Isabella time. I had spent a total of 45 minutes with her over Wednesday and Thursday combined, which is just not enough, plain and simple. I really, really missed her and was afraid she would grow apart from me or something.

I needn’t have worried.

I purposely made myself leave the office at 4 p.m. in order to get as much time with her tonight as possible. I got home just as she was waking from her afternoon nap and heard her saying “Mama! Mama!” on the monitor (she can tell which of us is coming home based on the garage door that opens). I went in and was greeted with a big smile. I pulled her out and she gave me a big hug too.

Ah, just what I needed.

I changed her diaper and she was in a great mood. She was talking and giggling and being silly. I started singing, “Where is Munchkin?” to the tune of “Where is Thumpkin?” and she yelled out “MUNCHKIN!” That was the first time she’d called herself that.

I decided it was a good day for a walk so we got our coats on and headed to the garage. She even climbed down the stairs all by herself for the first time! I was so proud of her! I strapped her in to the stroller. We walked for about half an hour. She sang and talked to me the whole time. Being outside in the sun and fresh air was so amazing. I felt my head clear up immediately. And to share it with my daughter was even better.

Mmmm, just what I needed.

When we got back home, I made up some French toast, using the fresh Italian Bread I had bought from Whole Foods (what can I say, I’m multi-cultural). OMG was it good! We had that along with some plums and yogurt and then she had a Mickey Mouse cookie for dessert.

I think Munchkin sensed I needed lots of love because all night she stayed close and gave me tons of kisses, hugs and nose pokes. She wanted to be carried a lot too, which I was happy to do.

Just what I needed.

We played for a bit and she had fun dragging her caterpillar toy up and down the hall saying, “Pulling…pulling…”

Then it was time for her bath. It was a short one as she wasn’t really in the mood for bath time, but that was ok. We had fun splashing and playing with the boats. I put her in her pajamas and she helped me clean up the living room saying “Pick up!” and “Cleaning!” while she did it. I love that she narrates everything she does. It cracks me up and makes me smile every time.

As we neared bedtime, she climbed in to my lap and we read some books together. At one point she leaned back and snuggled in to me. I wanted to freeze time and savor that moment forever.

It was just what I needed.

Now she’s in bed and sound asleep. Part of me is ready to have some quiet time and part of me wishes I could climb in the crib with her and snuggle all night. But, this weekend I will be with her all day both days and can’t wait. She’s my little sweetheart and I love her dearly. A friend asked me last night if I was ever jealous that CJ got to be home with her all the time. My answer was yes. He gets to see and experience moments with her that I can’t. But at the same time, being away from her, helps me appreciate our time together all the more. And I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.

It is just what I need.

P.S. Samson was our buddy all night too. He even let Isabella crawl in the kennel with him and snuggle. Good boy dude!

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15Feb2011

V-weekend, part 2

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

Now on to part 2 of our Valentine weekend. You can read all about part 1 here!

After we got home from Heather and Jeremy’s, we spent the rest of the day, taking it easy. The weather was really nice and the sun shining through the windows was awesome. Isabella and I both took a nap in the morning and while we were asleep, CJ hid Valentine’s around the living room for us. We went on a hunt for them together and Isabella had so much fun with it. I would see one and then ask her if she saw a “card” nearby. She would look around, spot the card, point to it and yell, “YES!”

Here she is handing me the pile of Valentine cards (they were superhero ones):

During the afternoon, I got my baking groove on and made a heart-shaped cake, some cake truffles and chocolate covered rice-Krispy’s, while CJ delivered Valentines to the neighbors (and took down the Christmas decorations). Sounds like a lot but I basically used the same ingredients for it all. I first made up the cake batter and used half of it for the heart-shaped cake and the rest got poured in to a mini-cupcake tin to be baked together. When the mini-cupcakes cooled, I put them in a bowl, crushed ‘em and added chocolate frosting. Mixed that all up and put it in the fridge to chill for a bit. In the meantime, the cake was cool so I frosted it with the remaining chocolate frosting. Then I took some chocolate almond bark and melted it. The truffle batter was chilled enough by now so I rolled it into little balls, dipped those in the melted bark and voila – chocolate cake truffles! With the leftover almond bark, I poured the cereal in and spread on to a cookie sheet. Then everything got topped with red sprinkles! Done and done!

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Just a lot of playing and laughing and snuggling. Isabella must have known it was a weekend to celebrate love because she sure dished it out – and I soaked it all in!!

Monday arrived, the actual Valentine’s Day, and I woke up to find some flowers from my honey in the refrigerator.

I worked out, got ready for work and then found another gift in the cupboard when I went to feed Samson – a card and chocolate heart. CJ sure knows the way to my heart!

Sunday night I had made up and hid some more cards for Isabella to find and she had fun discovering them throughout the day. I was a little sad that I wasn’t home to see her find each one but at least she knew I was thinking of her while I was at work. Here is her collection of cards, including ones from the grandparents! She is one loved little girl!

After dinner, we gave Isabella a little gift. She got an Elmo Valentine book and a Leap Frog Alphabet Pal caterpillar (which she calls an octopus. I guess they do both have a lot of legs)!

That was pretty much our Valentine’s weekend! Fairly low key and simple, yet filled with lots of fun and love, the way V-Day should be. To me, it was the perfect way to celebrate.

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15Feb2011

V-Weekend, part 1

Posted in Holidays and Seasons, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

I’ve never been one to go all out for Valentines’ Day. When I was single it was because I was alone and just wanted the day to get over with as quickly as possible. Then, when I was in a relationship, I still didn’t make a big deal out of it because it sort of felt silly. But, over the years I have relaxed and can now enjoy it for what it is. It also makes a difference having a child. Every holiday seems so much more meaningful and fun when you have a little angel to celebrate it with.

Our Valentine celebration this year had 2 parts to it: one with Isabella on a “date” while CJ and I went out and the other was Valentine’s day itself!

Last year, we celebrated Valentine’s with our friends Heather and Jeremy, and their son Owen, who is Isabella’s boyfriend. The parallels in our friendship are kind of spooky sometimes. Jeremy and I work together, Heather and I were pregnant at the same time, had the same due date, had doctors within the same clinic and we all go to the same Chiropractor. Weird, huh? It’s like it was meant to be! Owen ended up making his debut in to the world 5 days before Munchkin so technically she’s dating an older man. Like mother, like daughter!

We had so much fun celebrating with them last year that we decided to do it again! Boy what a difference a year makes! For Valentine’s 2010, the babies were almost 5 months old so they pretty much just laid around, rolling back and forth and batting at toys. This year was much different. They are almost 17 months now and both are super active. They were running all over the place, talking away, climbing on couches, throwing stuff, eating solid food and actually interacting with each other. They are both such great kids and I think they will grow up to be good friends (at least that’s what I’m hoping).

Think they’ve grown up at all?

We got together on Saturday, to start the Valentine’s weekend off right! Isabella jumped right in and started playing with Owen’s toys – that’s the whole fun in being at someone else’s house!

(She’s also showing her runway strut – work it girl!)

Owen had a lot of fun hanging out with us too. He really liked my necklace and camera!

One thing that I think is really cool about our relationship is that Owen knows us and Isabella knows Heather and Jeremy, so neither kid is shy around the other set of parents. I’m glad because I want Owen to be comfortable around us and visa versa. The kids will basically run to whichever adult is closest when they needed something. Always fun to be a universal parent!

For dinner, we ordered heart shaped pizzas. Isabella gobbled hers up. I have to admit, it really hit the spot for me too. I think it tasted that much better because it was shaped like a heart – and because we were eating it with such good friends. We also had chocolate covered strawberries for dessert, because we’re fancy like that! Plus, calories don’t count when you’re celebrating with friends. Like, duh.

After dinner, it was time for CJ and I to leave. We had tickets for a play so Munchkin was going to spend the night at Owen’s. It was her first non-family sleepover. I tell ya what, it never gets easier to say good-bye. We put on our coats and she hardly even noticed. She was playing away and giggling up a storm. I gave her a hug and kiss, which she quickly squirmed out of in order to get back to the toys. As we walked out the door, she came running up to it and pressed her face against the window. My heart started aching. I knew she was in good hands and would be totally fine once we left. But seeing her little face pressed up against the window was like a magnet pulling me back to her. CJ said, “Keep going and don’t look back.” So I blew her a kiss and walked away. As I got to the driveway, I turned to look and saw her toddling off down the hallway, chasing after Owen. I knew then that she’d be perfectly fine and it made it easier to get in the car and drive away.

Apparently, she did more than fine – she did great! The kids got in their jammies and had some more playtime. They stopped for a bit to watch the puppies outside too.

Then it was time for bed. The plan was for Owen to sleep in his room and Isabella to sleep in a pack-n-play in the guest room, but the kids had other ideas…

“Come on mom! Please can’t we sleep together? It’s a slumber party after all!”

Looks like we might need to have “the talk” sooner than anticipated….plus Isabella still thinks her girl area is a “pocket”.

Both slept like a charm, which was good for Heather and Jeremy. I would have felt awful if Munchkin had kept them up crying for a woobie or something.

The next morning, they woke up and had eggs for breakfast. Muchkin needs a lesson in manners though as she thought it would be ok to eat with her feet on the table.

We brought donuts with us when we came to pick up Isabella, so everyone had a second breakfast! We were so happy to see our little girl and couldn’t stop kissing her, even while she ate her donut.

It came time to say goodbye. At first, Owen seemed happy to let us leave – he ran down the hall to the front door and tried to open it! But then we realized he had such feelings of sadness in him, at the thought of letting his love go, that he acted out in the opposite way. Typical boys, right? They pull your hair when they want to hold your hand and kick you out the door when they really want you to stay!

Eventually he relaxed and decided to say goodbye the proper way, with a kiss!

All together now…awwwwwww! Good thing Isabella had her woobie in her mouth to keep that kiss from going further!

It was a great start to the Valentine weekend and a big thanks to our friends Heather and Jeremy for being such great sitters! I feel totally comfortable having them watch her and I know she feels loved there too.

Now, on to part 2!

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Go Steelers!

Posted in Family by teamtradermom

Munchkin and I are ready to go! She has her game face on!

Thanks to Cindy Barry @ Tutu Your World for the awesome hair bow!

1Feb2011

IKAT to the Rescue!

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Isabella is a genius. Let’s just get that out there right now.

Ok, so I’m a little biased. After all, every parent thinks their kid is the cutest, smartest, sweetest one ever. But mine really is. 😉

Munchkin has been talking for a while now. She started out like any other baby saying words like, “Mama”, “Dada”, “Baby” and “Dude”. Oh right, other babies don’t say ‘dude’. Well she did because that’s my nickname for Samson. She picked up on that right away! I tell ya, it’s funny to hear a one year old say “Dude!”

Anyway, once she started saying more words, they just came rolling out. Now she pretty much says any word that we say which means we have to be really careful…sure, some of her regular words sound like swear words but we don’t actually want her saying real cuss words.

So back to the genius part. Not only does Isabella say a lot of stuff, she says it in different languages, or rather with different dialects. I think that’s her super power. We all have one right? Mine is being able to hear someone open a cookie jar or candy wrapper from anywhere within a 5 mile radius. We could call her IKAT (her initials) when she’s in disguise, on a mission to save an innocent person from another attack of poor language skills and bad accents.

Here are a few examples of her various talents:

She speaks Chinese and German pretty regularly (translation = gibberish). Neither of us can understand Chinese so who knows, maybe she is saying cuss words. That or she and Samson are planning to take over the house, which would mean Samson speaks Chinese too. Yeah, I doubt that. If he did, he would only know the words for “food”, “car”, “treat”, “walk”, and “Kong” because those are the only things he cares about in life. So IKAT must be working alone.

Certain words she says with an Italian accent, like “Elmo” (AHL-moh) and “Ernie” (EH-nee).

“Andiamo Ernie! Cerchiamo di andare a prendere Elmo in modo da poter salvare il mondo dal malvagio nemico che sta cercando di erradicat lingua dal mondo!”

Translation:

“Come on Ernie! Let’s go get Elmo in order to save the world from the evil enemy who is trying to erradicate language in the world!”

SHe says one word with a French accemt – “bib” (Beeb). When she says it, she wears a beret and turns her bib around so that it looks like a cape.

She knows one word in Russian – “Samson” (Se-am-sun). She just started referring to him by his full name the other day only she thinks his full name is Samson Dude. Makes it sound like he’s the John Wayne of the dog world.

And then there’s her American slang – “macaroni” (roni), “bananas” (nanas), “Yo Yo” (yo yo), and “Droid” (d-r-o-i-d – said just like the Android phone). Seriously, she does this every time I get a text or email on my phone and the little “DROID” alert sounds.

Put it all together and you’ve got one smartie pants little Toddler!

Situating the hat

Consulting with Elmo (or should I say AHL-mo)

Here I come to save the day!

Capable of climbing the couch in a single bound!

Phew! Even Super Heroes get tired!

Hopefully she’ll use her genius for good and not evil. I’d hate to end up on Oprah someday talking about how my sweet, innocent little girl tried to take over the world.

Hark! What’s that I hear? Someone just ripped open a Snickers bar! Gotta fly!!

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