Knee Slapper

The Peanut has become a wild child lately with a temper to match.

You can tell she's mad at you when she furrows her brow, raises her hand and then slaps her leg as hard as she can in protest. She's got my temper for sure. Poor girl. It's going to be her downfall in life for sure.

She has also taken to bending down and slapping her knees/shins to music. This music can be on the radio, tv, from Jason or I singing. She doesn't care. She gets a big smile on her face and proceeds to slap out the beat the best she can on her legs. Maybe she'll be a music major?

I have to say 'get down please' about a half a million times a day. And that is in no way an exaggeration. She climbs on the coffee table, dining chairs, her crib, the toy box, the bookcase, the couch, Jason's computer tower, and the tv stand. It's getting a little dangerous to be in another room.

We are still in a power struggle over the contents of the lower cabinets of the kitchen. She thinks everything in there is a toy for her including my glassware. I'd prefer to not have footprints in my cooking dishes.

Life in Florida has pretty well settled down. We're in a pretty good routine. We spend Monday through Friday at home and then spend 90% of the weekends with the Trudells. I love having sleepovers as adults. It's just as fun as I remember it being as a kid but this time it's co-ed.

We had the plague hit our house last week. Well, not the plague. But close to it. It started last weekend when we had to cut our sleepover short because the Miss was really sick. We took her to urgent care and were told it was a double ear infection and were given a prescription. The next day she was broken out head to toe in a rash so we took her back and then were told it wasn't ear infections but chicken pox. Then I was hit with a migraine to end all migraines and then a fever and chills. As it turns out, it was actually Hand Foot and Mouth disease. Not the worst thing but certainly no fun at all. We've survived and now all of our spots are healing and we're back to our normal selves. Jason was the only one to escape it's wrath. Lucky duck.

smooches

It's funny to think about all the things I was weirded out by before becoming a mom. One of the biggest was when children would kiss their parents on the mouth. It just seemed weird to me because in my mind a kiss on the mouth is an intimate moment to be shared with your significant other.

Noella has been big on affection lately and so that includes lots of smooches. Her favorite places include but are not limited to: My cheeks, mouth, hair, legs and shoulders.

Most of the time if she's walking around I can lean over and say Noella, can I have a smooch and with a big grin she toddles on over and happily obliges with a big, wet, open mouthed kiss smack dab on my mouth complete with a little lick at the end. It melts my heart because she's as happy to give me lovin' as I am to recieve it.

As time as gone on I've accepted that the whole mouth on mouth thing is just how it's done when you're a wee one and that it probably stems from the fact that there are days that I ask demand for more than just a few pecks from the Mister right in front of her. (how embarassing is it going to be for her in 7 years!?)

I adore that little one and the joy she brings to my heart seems to never ever end.

And so I leave you with your very own Noella kiss and hope you find something to melt your hear today too.

Florida Life

Thus far Florida life has been an adventure. One that's full of heat, humidity, large flying bugs and sunshine in our eyeballs. That sentence just made it sound kind of miserable didn't it? Well, fear not lovely readers! It has been the opposite of miserable. It's been grand. 

I mean, first off, we have a house. A freaking stand alone HOUSE people. That in and of itself is miraculous.

  

 See? Isn't it so super cute? And yes, that SUV is ours. Long gone are the days of the crappy Contour may he rest in pieces... erhm... peace. 

This is our Magnolia tree. The only reason I know it's a magnolia tree is that there was one lonely blossom the day we signed the lease. 

Here's a little update on the Nut which I know is really the reason you read this blog. 

 She is fabulous as ever. The two pictures of her in her knickers are from a weekend visit we made to NH a few weeks ago. I was the photographer for a friend's wedding. She was the reason everyone wanted to talk to me.

She is still super enthused by books and squishes any stuffed animal she can lay her hands on. 

She is starting to figure out how to eat a fork which is a big big deal for us because it really does mean toddlerdom. 

She is tall enough to reach things off the kitchen table and most other tables we own. She still has a few inches to go until she can reach the counters thank heavens. 

She loves taking out the pots and pans and banging them all over my tile floors. (Oh the noise that child can make!)

She can also climb onto the couch by herself and is working on the kitchen chairs. A very very scary skill that climbing is! She gets onto the couch and then stands up and runs back and forth on it. I do not like that Sam-I-Am. We're working on learning that couches are for sitting and not for climbing but there's only so much reasoning you can do with a 15 month old. 

She loves to swim in Aunt Becky's pool but only without any flotation device. Heaven help us if we try to put even a water wing on that child at this point. It's scary and wonderful at the same time. Scary because she loves to be under water almost as much as she loves to be in it. 

She has started to throw some magnificent tantrums if she can't get her way complete with the "you-can't-move-me-because-I-have-no-bones" trick. She certainly is my daughter. 

She continues to be super social and still seems to think everyone every where we go is somehow there just for her. It's kind of charming but also scary because she will go to pretty much anyone. 

One last  Noella talent. Whenever she sees a picture of herself she says "Mama" and if you ask her who it is, she'll point to herself. It may be coincidence at this age but it's so charming. 

Jason is doing wonderfully at his new job. He is not a fan of the commute home but who would be when they commute home is double plus some from his commute into work? He continues to melt anytime we are outdoors but he seems to be adjusting the best he can. 

I have been enjoying mornings of sleeping in past 8am (A big thanks to the Peanut!) and getting the house in order. I have also decided that I am NOT a fan of tile because 1) you can feel/see the dirt every where you step and 2) it takes 3 steps to clean my floors now. I have to sweep, then dry mop and then actually mop my floors to get them clean. The result is amazing but what a pain in the keaster! 

I am also getting to the point once again that I think I can pick up school where I left off before the move which is exciting and intimidating for me. It will probably be another month before I can start the paperwork for classes again but I'm slowly getting there. 

That's all for now folks! 

ch-ch-ch-changes

So it's been a long while since I've posted anything and for that, I apologize. There have been some BIG changes in the past few weeks. The biggest one being that we now reside in the sunshine state.

(Don't mind the fact that I obviously stole this from the internet and it not only doesn't have our names but it has someone else's address as well) 

That's right folks. We've moved to Florida! We have dear friends who re-located down here last year for a new job and coincidentally this year the very same company was in need of an awesome and super talented customer service guy to work the help desk and voila! Jason had a job offer.

The reason I haven't really mentioned all this change before was, well, literally we had been talking for a good long while without any progress so it seemed stupid to mention something that wasn't coming any time soon and then once it did, we literally picked up and moved 1,299 miles away in a matter of two weeks. It's been a whirlwind I tell ya but it seems to have worked out just fine indeed.

We're currently staying with the aforementioned dear friends in Mount Plymouth until we can find our own little home. Which, might I add, we think we may have found yesterday evening but more to come on that when we find out whether or not we actually get it.

Noella adores Florida thus far. I think we swam everyday the first week we were here. That made her day. She ADORES the water which of course tickles me pink.

Besides the oppressive humidity and occasional 93 degree day life in Florida has been lovely. It's rained quite a bit but as I'm told this is kind of like Florida's winter. It's too hot or rainy to do much of anything outside so most of your days are spent indoors or running from the air conditioned car to the air conditioned store and back to the car to get home to central air. I can't say I'm complaining though. :) 

Well, I'm off to grab the angel of a girl who has been sleeping in until almost 10am most mornings for a wonderful adventure with Becky and Caden.

I clicked it up a notch!

This is my favorite from April because it really shows the relationship my husband has with our daughter. She has this wild spirit about her and a deep desire to be independent but at the same time needs her Daddy there right behind her to hold her close and tell her he loves her.

Toddlerhood.

The Miss is quickly morphing into a fully fledged toddler. She no longer smells like a baby. She has taken on that odd toddler smell of left over snacks with a whiff of milk. She throws tantrums when she's told no. Especially when Daddy says no. She refuses foods (and by foods I mean anything green that is not directly from our plates). She will take a bit but then spit it out again. All. Over. My. Floors.

Look at that girl. Clearly baby-dom is quickly becoming a thing of the past. 

It has also brought on some great and glorious changes too. She is more independent during the day. She wants to walk everywhere by herself. She is attempting to repeat words. She can say duck and tries hard to say quack. She's also starting to pick up the word no.

With Daddy at the beach

Miss Independent at the Aquarium

 We have been having great adventures lately too. We've gone into Boston to the Aquarium and on a duck boat tour. We play outside with some local friends when the weather is nice. When she wants to go bye-bye she grabs her shoes and walks around with them or whatever jacket happens to be still unhung from the last adventure and throws it over her head in an attempt to put it on. She really loves to get up and go lately.

This is Dahlia. They were fighting over the sand rake because clearly it's the only toy to use in the sandbox. 

It took Noella a while to finally warm up to the swings. I'm so glad she did though.

All these changes lately have been so fast that it's hard to keep up with her. I am feeling a little more frazzled by the end of the day and I can see it's wearing on Jason too when 2/3 of her dinner is on the floor or when we've had to remove her from playing with the wires under his desk for the 15th time in an hour. Who knew that this much independence could lead to so much more stress? 

I keep telling myself that this is for a short time and that in a year from now when I look back I'll laugh because this stress, these worries, these were the easy ones.

Oh the Spring!

Around here we've been pretty excited about the spring and the sunshine that's finally deciding to stick around.

Friday of last week was so gorgeous we decided to take the Miss to the local beach and have some fun with the sand toys. Noella wasn't so sure at first but she warmed up after a few minutes. She loved to try to shovel sand into the pail and watched Mister sift sand to find a million little rocks. It was a lovely way to spend the evening as a family.

Sometimes I look at that little face and my heart is so full of joy I think it's going to burst. She is growing so fast and learning so much. She loves new experiences and never ceases to surprise us. I so look forward to watching her grow everyday and seeing life through her eyes.