Mama 2012

I'm still behind in blogging. And admittedly, I'm going to cheat a bit.

Here is a sweet video my friend Allen made me for Mother's Day. It is absolutely perfect. Love it. I wish I could embed it into Blogspot, but you need a paid membership. Darn.

Next up. Have you seen this commercial? I honestly don't normally cry at commercials, but I admit I cannot watch this without tears. It is so precious.


Whatever my baby girl chooses to do, no doubt I'll be the proudest Mama in town. It will be my pleasure to watch her life unfold to see what she chooses for her future.

I was perusing what I shared on Mother's Day last year - here and here. The words are all still so true to this day - both about my Mom and about my precious daughter. Mother's Day fell on May 13 this year. The day before, May 12 stood out to me. My Mom died on June 12 and this year it will be five whole years. I get pretty sad about it this time of year and with the five year anniversary, it doesn't make it any easier. How blessed I am that my daughter came into the world on the 12th of the month. I'd like to believe that it is God and my Mama's way of comforting me, loving me and allowing me to love on my daughter, as my Mom loved me.

I talked to a mama-to-be today. Her baby girl is scheduled to arrive a week from today. We talked about that moment of falling in love with your baby. I am so thrilled for her. Life will never be the same. Mine sure isn't. When that little girl asks for a kiss or hugs my neck tight - my heart absolutely melts.

I thank you, Mom, for teaching me how to love. I'm the Mom I am today because of you.

Wheeeeee!

I'm a bit behind on the blogging front. I still have lots of picture I want to share with you, but I'll likely to get to that another day. Because my to-do list is growing and I just sucked up the last hour of my life attempting to create the pictures below into a time-lapse video with no success, I've given up and will share some with you another way.

This was last Sunday - Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day and we went to the zoo. Elyse was old enough this year to play in the Kid Zone, yet many of the toys were still too big for her. But, she didn't let that stop her.

This is a cup that you sit in and your weight starts it spinning. When you are as little as Elyse it really gets going. The harder she tried to get out, the faster it spun. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. Fortunately, Bill went to her rescue. While I was doubled over in laughter on a bench nearby, Bill got the cup to slow down to get her out. It was quite the sight and people around us were laughing too. I only wished I had it on video (thus my attempt at time-lapse). Even funnier, was when she got out clumsily stumbling around from the dizziness.

The girl never cried though. It also didn't stop her from wanting to find new toys to climb on. She's our character. We sure do love her.

PS: Click on the picture below for a closer look.

Alley Oop!

Elyse had her first day at Alley Oop - they have a gymnastics class just for toddlers! A bunch of stuff to climb, jump and run on and no one telling her no - this girl's heaven!

My baby girl. Patience can be tough and we had to wait to go play.

It was fun to have Luke and Erin joining us!

This was a long runway and the kids were supposed to jump up and down it.

Thankfully Daddy didn't catch pictures of me showing her how to jump!

Super fun!

Luke liked it too!

Did I mention it was like a runway?

Someone was strutting like she was walking the runway!

Luke figured out the jumping!

She was constant smiles.

No fear - obstacle course.

Time to jump in the foam pit.

A little nervous at first - but she was ready to jump in with Dad!

We had a little temper tantrum when we were told we had to wait our turn. Thankfully it ended quickly.

Super fun!

The Climber

This is an old video, but evidently I'm in a video sharing mood!

Elyse was just 17 months old. Funny, how this cracked us up at the time, but now it doesn't surprise me at all! She can climb most anything. Here she pushed her stepstool over to the bathtub to climb into her bathseat.

She keeps us busy - that is for sure!

Karaoke A B Cs

We have to be super stealth these days to attempt any video of Elyse. It happens all the time. She does something super funny / cute and we debate about who runs to get the camera and who can hide it best. She just loves the camera and whatever she is in the middle of, if she notices it, she will chase you down in hopes of watching the videos.

I literally made it only SEVEN seconds in this one before she caught me.


Forgive my incessant giggles at the end. She was literally crawling up me to get to the camera. Funny girl. That's our 19-month-old! Love her.

It's Hard Being Little

Lucien and Elyse - January 2012 playgroup.

Elyse has always been an easy baby. Now that she is officially in toddlerhood, she can definitely have her more trying days. Don't get me wrong, she is a very good girl, but she is 19 months old! I'm always telling her, "It is hard being little, isn't it?" It is hard when you feel like you're communicating, but don't have the words. Have basically no patience. Teeth hurt. Want things and are told no. Yep, life can be tough.

We've had a great weekend, but it has been a little rough for her. She is teething, had a runny nose, wanted to play, but then would change her mind and want to be held and didn't sleep very well, waking during the night and naps needing to be comforted. Yep, it is tough being little.

We stayed home from playgroup today. I was pretty bummed about that because she loves being with her friends. She always has so much fun. I'm pretty sure her runny nose is from teething and she has no fever. But, she is just not a happy girl and I didn't want to risk exposing her friends in case she is contagious.

We went and ran some errands this morning. She loves going "bye-bye" and I find her frustrations are much less when we are on-the-go and it was too cold to be outside.

I put a dress on her with some leggings. We hadn't worn the dress in a while and as soon as I put it on I realized it was just too tight at the top. "Owww," she said. I went to pull it over her head and realized it had caught on her tooth. Did I mention her mouth was already sore? Now, I had a screaming baby and as I went to get the fabric off the tooth I realized it was just too awkward to get off. It was very tight around the shoulders and arms. She was already so upset, I just grabbed some scissors and cut it off.

It was just one of those days. I hated ruining the dress, but I hate a sad baby even more. Ever have one of those days? Enjoy your Monday. We sure will.

Buh-Bye Picnik

So, Picnik is closing. In less than five days to be exact. This may mean nothing to many of you, but to a small group of us - it is really a bummer. Picnik is a photo editing software. I use a combination of Picasa, Picnik and Photoshop Elements (PSE) to edit photos. Really, PSE could do it all for me, but I just really haven't taken the time to learn all the ins and outs of the program. Often, I'm editing photos on a Saturday night after Elyse goes to bed and time is of the essence and Picnik is really easy and quick.

We've been warned of the closing for some time now. Picnik is now suggesting we try GooglePlus, PicMonkey and Aviary.com.

Tonight I dabbled quickly in PicMonkey.

The first shot is straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) with no editing, except a little cropping. The light is just horrible in Elyse's room and many of her pictures shot in auto white balance get that terrible orange cast. The edit in PicMonkey is pretty. I like how the color cleaned up, but it does wash out the orange pad she is laying on.

Not bad, but I liked it better that Picnik was embedded as part of Picasa. It just made it easier to edit. PicMonkey is time consuming as you have to pull up each photo at a time to edit. I'll keep at it and maybe I need to start reading my PSE manual.

Happy photo editing! What programs do you like to use?

New Beginnings

It is easy to get focused on the eggs, candy, baskets and ham dinners. But, Easter is about hope and new beginnings. I had an inspired morning on Easter listening to a message at a new church. It is a large church and completely out of my comfort zone of The Lord's Prayer and hymns on page such-and-such, but it was interesting to try something new.

I didn't end up taking any pictures on Easter Sunday, but here's what we did get on Saturday.

I took Elyse to the mall where a local church sponsored an Easter Egg hunt and celebration. Elyse had a ball. We got her face painted with one of her favorite things - BALLOONS. She was so sweet and super good. She held really still and admired herself in the mirror afterward. I was so proud of her!

They gave away balloons and we had to stand in line for one. She was so excited seeing them everywhere repeatedly saying, "BOOOON!"

Pushing the stroller is great fun.

We saw our cousin Sophia on stage. She participated in a dance-off and a hula hoop contest. The girl is NOT shy. She was happy to see Elyse.

Not a fan of the Easter Bunny.

Grandma Jo, Sue and Scott came over later for dinner. Sue and Scott brought Libby a present - a leather jacket! So funny. Sadly, it didn't fit.

We had a yummy ham dinner with potatoes and a seven-layer salad. It was pretty good if I do say so myself.

We colored eggs. Paas has come a long way, let me tell you. Such vibrant colors and glitter! So fun!

She liked it.

Grandma was fascinated by the entire process.

Big smiles for Aunt Sue.

Time to hunt for eggs!

She had it figured out quick!

Libby thought it was fun too!

All that hard work paid off. Daddy let her have some chocolate.

She loves to look at the pictures in the camera.

Someone is teething again and gets fussy. She wanted to go bye-bye when Grandma Jo was leaving. So, Sue and I took her for a walk around the neighborhood. But, Sue had to snap this photo first. I know she is sad and crying, but it is still cute!

Guess what? The Easter Bunny came to our house!!



I hope your Easter was joyous!

PS: Thanks to Aunt Sue and Uncle Scott for taking pictures for us!