To blog or not to blog?

Blogger is passing me by with it's new formatting and layouts, and I'm to dumb and impatient to try and figure it out. Each post might look completely different, hmm...

Around here we are just doing our best in an effort to survive summer being over. I already miss the days of walking out the door in a t-shirt and flip flops and heading to the park. I also am trying to decide if I should or could work a little bit to not feel like a single mother all day and night since we rarely see Jed anymore. I almost feel like nursing school (or any school really) is as hard on the rest of the family as for the actual student! It also would be nice not to pinch pennies so hard when he has to leave work to do clinicals. We'll see if Dr. Graf would even have me back now though. Oh how I wish we would have gone through this years ago, but I guess then I couldn't tease Jed for being the old man with all those little girls at school ;)

-Ary is still the boss around here and knows it. 

-We have turned into THOSE PEOPLE at the grocery store when she throws a master temper tantrum and you wonder who her mother is. 

-We've started a little parent and tot class at gymnastics that is great to burn off a little energy and get monkey time in.

-She is so fun to have conversations with now. She speaks in full sentences that usually begin with "Pecause."

No matter what it looks like she does it HERSELF

mini Mitzi in the making

fall 2011

Another pic without pants

This video is from Christmas time, but I want to have it on here to show Ary...

Summer recap

Hmm, I definitely am not taking as much time to blog as I want to. Or taking enough pictures for that matter. Tonight I sat down and looked at all the pics I've put on the computer these past few months and all I had was a few tub time fun pics (of course, since this blog is all about pics without pants!) and some of Ary's rodeo outfit.





I've been working a lot filling in for a few girls that have been gone over the summer, but I still should have made the time and effort to document a few things this summer. Ary is getting so independent and so vocal about everything; every day tasks take twice as long because she insists that "I-DO-IT!" Her new interests are Dora, markers (yes, thanks alot Jed!), salmon, and climbing on the toilet herself. It's so funny to me that I live with such a little woman these days, she is two years old, but we have full-on conversations now and it's so fun to watch the gears turn in that little head of hers:)

Jed and I are just plugging along as always; I still stay up all night snacking my worries away and he has decided he wants to do P90X. We'll see how long he can stay away from the beloved Pepsi:). His second year of nursing school starts next week and he will again thankfully be able to arrange his job around school, so we can stay put for now and not have to move out of our house just yet. I've gotten too used to having him home even before I get here though, hopefully I can borrow some of Ary's independent attitude and get through another semester not seeing him:)

For now I need to find a way to stretch out summer a bit longer!

Two!

This Miss Thang turned two on May 24th. We celebrated the Saturday before at the park with a BBQ and cupcakes.



I have enjoyed this year more than Ary's first year with us. I'm not sure if it's because she's not a baby anymore and doesn't scare me as much or if it's because we're more used to each other and are becoming friends. Either way, I've been able to start and appreciate motherhood and the relationship I'm building with my little girl.
Her cute little personality is becoming feisty and I don't know weather to laugh or get mad at her for the shenanagens she's always up to. Maybe it's her version of the "terrible two's." Being the only one I think she's easily become selfish and I don't help much. If she ever gets a sibling it's going to be a rude awakening!

Fun things at two:
-Potty trained, mostly. She does have accidents when she gets too busy to tell us when it's time to go and by then it's too late, but for the most part she runs to the bathroom and has even made it through the night once or twice.
-Still loves Handy Manny, the cutest show on the Disney channel in the mornings.
-"ARY DO-IT!" and "SELF!" are among the most commonly heard phrases around here besides "NO!"
-Is much less clingy than I ever was. (ok, still am!) She'll march right into nursery and not bat an eyelash these days.
-Still not an exellent eater, she would live on juice and treats if it were up to her.
-Knows how to "exercise" and loves to dance.
-Will tell you all the animals and what they say and knows all her colors and shapes.
-Looks forward to Saturday mornings when she goes to get a Coke with her dad and grandma.

Let's hope the trend continues and we get along even better the third year than we did this one!

Besties

It's been fun lately to watch how Ary has developed relationships with the people she loves. She talks to the dogs of the family just like they are people, and talks to her grandmas just like they are her best friends.

Bandit, "Bandee" as she says, is one of her favorite "people" to go visit. She'll share treats, give him hugs and kisses, show him her freshly painted fingernails, etc...
I wish I had a recent picture of Ary with Jed's mom; she loves to go to grandma "Treesa's" (Teresa's). I just need to catch them in the moment playing and take a pic. My mom is her other BFF as you can imagine:


and the rest of the time I am the goober she gets to hang out with.


Oh yea, and these are the only pics I took of Easter, oops. Check out the awesome side ponytail she NEEDED to have with that green elastic:).

Spring fever 2011

We are wishing it was time to go for long walks outside,
cruise the sidewalk,
then come home and chill in the fridge.
(Did anyone else do that after being outside and get in trouble for leaving the door open for so long?)
It's almost time again, but until then we'll make due chillin' with Bradley instead of in the fridge.


Grandpas are such good sports! Happy T-shirt season!

Miss Independent

"ARY DO-IT!" Squawked over and over this past week is making me wonder what happened to the sweet baby I once knew. Now the little girl who lives in this house is so demanding and decisive every second, no matter the situation. I think I could handle wanting to do everything herself even, but it's not just that, this kid has introduced the world of tantrums to me and I don't know how to handle them.
Poor Jed is up to his eyeballs with homework and studying so I'm trying to do the best I can by myself but lately I'm losing the battle of who is really in charge...
Let's hope this phase passes quickly and I learn some new parenting/coping skills in the near future or I don't know if either one of us will live to see her second birthday! Being cute has got to be a survival mechanism:).

It's so strange

to see Ary doing real "people" things. Not that babies aren't people too, but they don't do anything without help from an adult. I keep telling myself I'm not old enough to have a little girl with an attitude yet. I still *am* the little girl with an attitude so how can there be another one? She's not even two yet so it's only just beginning I'm sure. Lately Ary is into doing everything herself, no matter how long it takes or how frustrating it is for me. She puts on her own jacket (backwards), feeds herself (mostly her shirt not her mouth), puts on her own shoes (on the wrong feet), etc...

For Christmas this year we did snowboots and a bike, and they are still her very favorite things even with the newness all worn off. Santa must have done well!



The potty seat around her waist is just an accessory I guess, I sit her on it on the toilet all the time but we've had very few successes. I was hoping that by introducing it now she might get the hang of it a little bit early. Oh well, my kid isn't as advanced as I tell her she is;).

The pink boots are another favorite accessory; they have just enough room to pull on and off easily and heavy enough to clomp around in. They have only been worn in the snow a few times though, it's funner to wear them instead of pants in the house.


Other things of interest right now:
-putting diapers on her baby
-eating toddler toothpaste
-Handy Manny (cutest show on Disney)
-chocolate - she can distinguish it from other treats and even asks for it by name. Surely she didn't get that from me;)

Jed is doing a good job juggling work/school/young men's. I still get stress bumps on my hands and feet worrying about it all, but he's taking it in stride so far. I just hope he can keep it up so I don't have to start taking horse tranquilizers...