Rub a Dub Dub

She loves playing with the water as it comes from the faucet.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker,
And all of them going to sea.

For some very strange reason I take a lot of pictures of Suzy while we are in the bathroom. Dana Tiner (my sweet friend from work) thinks that Suzy and I live in the bathroom. Every single picture or video that she gets from me are taken in there. We like the bathroom. One of her very favorite things is taking a bath. Water seems to be her best friend these days.

I was in the bathroom cleaning up the other day and Suzy was “helping” me. When I turned my back to rinse a sponge out she decided that she would climb into the shower. The temptation to shut the glass door to the shower was irresistible. She had a ball in that shower. She looked like a little mime. She really started having fun when she realized she could press her face against the glass.

Free Play Pen

She had enough..The dirt from her toes and the water in the shower were really starting to panic her. She doesn't like to be too messy. She didn't like slipping around in dirty water.

A few nights ago we were playing in the bathroom, yet again. Scott joined in on the fun that night. Before I knew it he had her in the bathtub with him, fully clothed, and they were “pretending”. He didn’t know that I was capturing the moments until it was too late. They were precious. The whole time they were in the tub he was telling her not to turn the water on and swatting her hands away from the handles and spout.

I don't know what they were pretending about, but it sure was cute watching them.

 

She was trying to figure out how to get the water turned on. She figured it ouf finally!

She ended up being soaking wet before this was over with. It was so funny.

The very same night, about five minutes after the pretending episode, Scott left our bathroom fun. When he came back in to check on us Suzy was still in the tub, but I was letting her have the time of her life. She was still fully dressed and soaking wet. She figured out how to put the stopper down in the tub and how to turn the water on. She had a ball. It was the funniest thing to watch the amazement on her face when the water would pour out of that spout. That cold water didn’t bother her one bit. She would splash it all over her, gasp, smile, scream, laugh, and start the whole process over again. The tub was turned into a Winter Time Swimming Pool. I recorded some of the cutest videos of her. Scott said, “Here I am trying to teach her not to turn the handles and you are letting her”. Mamas are supposed to be more fun, right?!

Santa Claus? No Thanks

Well, our pictures from Magnolia's Breakfast with Santa turned out just about like I had suspected they would. Out of all the pictures they took we got about 3 that were decent. Three is better than none, right?

"Who is this guy?"

"He might be ok."

 

"Okay, he might even be a little funny?"

"I think I'll be alright."

 

"Let me get another look."

"Nope, I don't think I like him."

"It is official. I DO NOT LIKE HIM!!"

I am very thankful that our little town offers fun stuff like this for Mamas (like me) that like to torture children for a few good pictures. These pictures are not what I had envisioned for my Christmas Cards, but I got to use one of them along with other pictures of Suzy that we snapped throughout the year. Maybe next year we will have one good enough that it can take up the whole Christmas Card. Keep an eye out for Suzy in your mailbox, friends. 

Potty Training Mama

Friday night was a verrrrrrrrrry lame night. After picking up Sue Baby from Tattle Tales we went home and did absolutely nothing productive. She played outside a little, ate Fruit Loops, ate supper, and went to bed. My schedule followed hers pretty closely. I was in bed and was totally asleep by 7:45. I figured that Scott was going hunting Saturday morning (he hunts every single chance he gets). I told him that I didn’t mind if he did. This means that I have to wake up when Suzy wakes up on the weekends. There is no “taking turns” if he goes hunting. I can’t be the only mom who has noticed that it is just as easy for the men to get up and go hunting every single morning. I will to end up waking up anyway. Scott could get up with Suzy at 6:00 and I am up by 6:15, because he is saying “no,no,no”, talking to her exxxxtremely loud, or she is being super vocal. I have come to the conclusion that he uses his outside voice on Saturday and Sunday mornings on purpose. He wants me to get out of the bed and rescue him from the Monster. I can get up at 6:00 with Suzy and he can sleep until noon. Mama and Suzy seem to stay way more quiet that Daddy and Suzy. There is something wrong with this picture.

Making funny faces with Mama time :)

AHHHHHHHHHH!

 Saturday morning I decided that we needed to go see Santa Claus. Magnolia Heights School was hosting Breakfast with Santa. Of course, we didn’t do the whole Breakfast thing. We just wanted her to meet Santa and take pictures. We got there about 11:00 and were gone by 11:20. It was a breeze. I wish that Suzy would have like Santa better. She didn’t cry when she saw him, but she was very unsure about him. She kept whining and carrying on. It was a sight to see. She got probably ten pictures taken and wasn’t even grinning in a single one. I was hoping to get a good picture of her for Christmas Cards. Maybe, just maybe, there is a good one. We will get our disks of pictures Tuesday.  Fingers crossed.

Gigi has not gotten Suzy the past couple weekends. Nanny fell over Thanksgiving and hurt her arm pretty badly. Gigi has been staying with her to make sure that she doesn’t have any more accidents and help her with daily living things. Gigi and Pops have been missing Sue Baby an awful lot, so they got her Saturday afternoon. Scott and I went to Como with my parents and grandparents that night. We ate supper and had a repeat of Friday night. I went to bed as soon as possible. I looooove my sleep. I have to take Ambien at night to fall asleep within a decent time period. If I don’t go to sleep within about twelve minutes after taking the medicine things tend to get a bit blurry. A prime example of “blurry” would be what happened Saturday night…..

I fell asleep quickly and woke up in the middle of the night. When I woke up there was a brown, mushy substance all over my white sheets (crisp and freshly washed that morning). I immediately panicked and jumped to conclusions. I first thought that Scott had an accident. Then, I realized that the icky mess was all over me. I was covered in it. I got up thinking that I had pooped the bed just to realize that I had fallen asleep with a handful of Reese’s peanut butter cups. I didn’t even get one opened before I was dead asleep. My “blurriness” caused quite the mess!

G-R-O-S-S

 

Speaking of Reese’s…. I found a recipe that included them Sunday morning and tested it out Sunday afternoon! It was a breeze to make. Here is the recipe. Try it out. You won’t be disappointed.

You will need:

*24 pack of sugar cookie precut dough (I used Pillsbury)

* 24 pack of chocolate chip cookie precut dough (I used Pillsbury)

*24 Reese’s cups (not the miniatures, the size that come in individual packaging is what I used. Most of the time you can find an 8 pack for a buck.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

You will make a Reese’s sandwich(kind of). Put the sugar cookie dough on the bottom, then the Reese’s, then the chocolate chip cookie dough on top. Squish the sugar cookie and chocolate chip cookie dough around he Reese’s so that the dough completely covers the Reese’s on the top and bottom (It doesn’t have to be neat. Mine weren’t and still turned out lovely).

 

Place the dough mixture into a muffin pan (normal size, not mini) (I lined my muffin pan to make cleanup easier. I think it helped transport them too).

Bake for 13-15 minutes (the 13 minutes baked mine perfectly. I tried one batch for 15 minutes and they were a little hard when they cooled).

 

Servings: 24 cookies

Redneck Yard of the Month

I have been reminded a lot lately that I have a pretty great group of friends. You may think that your friends are the best friends a gal could ask for, but you haven’t met my group. I mean, really….. my friends are the most concerned, loving, and selfless people that I know. They are so concerned about me that some of them take time out of their busy, busy schedules to recognize me for exciting accomplishments. Earning the title of, “Redneck Yard of the Month” has been one of my most prideful moments thus far.

Suzy walked under the beer can fence and clotheslined herself.
She also stuck her fingers in the mouth hole of one of the cans. I would have had a fine time expaining to the doctor how she choked herself while cutting her fingers off, wouldn't I?

I came home from school one day to see that my yard had received special treatment from Jill Lamar and Larry Coleman. They went above and beyond to make sure that my yard was the most redneck looking lawn in the county. We had everything you can image to rank my yard on the top of the list: beer can garland, dead trees, empty gas cans, old tires, 5 gallon buckets of trash, brooms, coolers, deer horns, a dead tree decorated with empty beer cans and tacky garland, and a toilet. Yes, they put a toilet in my yard. They used the toilet as a flower pot and planted a dead tree in the bowl part. I don’t know how on Earth I could have NOT won the title.

No, but really, Jill and Lamar really got me. I helped Larry paint all the signs for Jill’s yard and we had planned everything that they did to me……. for Jill.  Unfortunately her grandfather became very ill so we put the lovely prank on hold for a couple weeks. In the meantime, Larry decided that he would tell her about our plans and that they would execute the greatness in my yard. I just cannot believe that I made the crap that went in my own yard. That is the “best” part of it all. As I was walking around picking up the mess out of my yard Suzy was having a ball. She loved it all.

The madness made my day. I loved it. It was a pain to clean up, but was so worth all the smiling and head shaking I did that afternoon.

Trotting Turkeys and Flying Elves

November was a very busy month for us. I feel like I woke up one day and it was November 1^st and the next day it was November 30^th. I have fallen behind on my blogs with all the exciting things going on.

In early November Kalon and I signed up to participate in The Turkey Trot at the school. The PTO hosted the 5K in order to raise money for the middle school. It was a lot of fun. After finishing the race they announced the winners and I was not on the list (no shock there), but Kalon was. I finished a couple minutes before her, but I assumed that I could not win because I was a teacher at the school. I went to ask the time keepers what my time was just so I would know how fast/slow I ran it. After looking at the times they realized that I had actually won 2^nd place in my age group. I, by no means, was looking for a medal or any recognition when I asked for my time. I was thrilled to know that I finished it in 30 minutes 22 seconds (I think that was right), but cannot believe that I actually placed second. Kalon finished 3^rd in our age group and a friend of ours, Jamie, won first. It was a fun little morning.

We may have gotten caught "pregaming". hahahahaha

 

Sue Baby was happy for Mama!

 

She thinks she must be in all photos. She was jus so excited!

After Thanksgiving I started putting up our Christmas tree and setting out holiday decorations inside and outside. It dawned on me as I was hanging stockings and decorating our Christmas tree how different our lives are this year. Last year we didn’t decorate for Christmas or exchange many gifts at all. Scott and I were preparing for a baby and really didn’t want to spend the unnecessary money considering we were having a baby that was due January 22. We decided we would save our money and I decided that I wouldn’t decorate, because I didn’t want to get all the stuff down from the attic or put it back up while I was 9 months pregnant. This year, on the other hand, has been much different. We have been in full Christmas spirit. I finished the Christmas tree early last week and we placed the finishing touches on the outside of the house this past weekend.

Three stockings this year instead of two :)

I have always made fun of my mom’s tree. I really didn’t like Christmas trees that didn’t match or have a theme. Hers never does. It drove me crazy. She told me, “once you have kids you will understand”. Well, she was right. I have ALWAYS had a themed tree. The past couple years I have used birds, feathers, browns, and greens on my tree. This year I used the same ideas, but instead of it ALL being matched and pretty I have two straggler ornaments. Of course, they are ornaments that people gave me as gifts for our precious little Suzy. My matchy, matchy tree is slowling losing its matchiness and I couldn’t be more happy.

My last "themed" tree, I guess!

This was  gift from my sweet cousin, Jade.

This was my Christmas present from The Fosters last year.

People have also told me that I needed to start traditions with Suzy now. I have followed the commands and tried to start things with her. I tried making Christmas ornaments using her handprints and footprints. That turned out to be a flop. The “clay” that we used to make the impressions dried and cracked. One night last week I read The Elf on the Shelf to her before bed. I think I enjoyed “reading” it to her more than she enjoyed hearing it. The next morning her Elf showed up and surprised her in the car. Then, our Elf didn’t move for a couple days. She was bad, so Elf didn’t report back to Santa. Finally, Elf reported good behavior Friday night. She came back and sat on a Christmas present from Laurie and waited for Suzy to wake up. Suzy woke up, saw Elf, grabbed Elf, and started eating Elf’s legs off. Elf lost her magic after only four days of existence at the Smith household. I told Suzy that I was not sure what would happen to Elf, but that I hope she would have another chance to fly to see Santa…. I guess we will see?!

"Hey! Hey you! What do you think you're doing my my car?" -- Suzy Smith

She was happy to see Elf. Yes, she was wearing Halloween Pajamas, but they still fit and she must sleep in something. Can you tell that she didn't wake up until I sat her in the car?

Suzy's hand and foot imprints BEFORE they cracked to pieces!

I also was given the bright idea to do some fingerpainting with her for Christmas Cards to the grandparents. Well, that was a huge disaster as well. She is too old and busy for me to do it for her, but she is too little to undertsand the concept. It was quite the experience. Thanks for nothing, Jill.

It must have tasted pretty darn good.

The paper plate was much prettier than the Christmas Card.

Our attempt.

Masterpiece.

 

Bad, Bad Turkey

Suzy started being bad as soon as we put those flipping tennis shoes on her little wide paws. She immediately put those things on and decided that she would be sassy and full of attitude. I don’t know where she could have gotten those two characteristics from.

Mean Feet

After eating lunch we let Suzy walk around in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel so she could stretch her legs a little. She walks over to Memaw, looks at her feet (she was wearing flip flops), and stomps her toes. Yes, she stepped on Memaw’s toes! She enjoyed it too. I could have died. I thought that maybe it was a one time only thing, but it continued through the week. Not only did she step on people’s feet, she kicked Sonny and Lucy every chance she got.

I walked out the back door of the house one day and all this was sitting there. I didn't do any arranging. I suppose she parked all her cars neatly before going inside? The cars were the only things that kept her happy.

 

Mean Teeth
Not only did she inherit the habit of kicking while we were away, but she also learned about biting. My ten month old baby girl is biting. Who is she biting? Me. She has only bitten me, but she has bitten me several times. The first time it happened I thought that she just didn’t realize what she had done. She got me on the shoulder and it hurt! The next TWO times she got me on the cheek while I was trying to get her to sleep. She just looked up at me, opened her mouth, and chomped down. I could have died. I have always been told to bite them back if they bite. I immediately wanted to bite her back instead of saying, “no, no, no”, but I didn’t know the rules for biting back. Do you bite them where they bite you? Do you do it hard? Do you scold them before/after you bite them? I got all the rules for the biter and I am ready for her the next time she strikes.

She looooves showing off those teeth.

Mean Voice

Oh my goodness, Suzy is very aware of how to voice her opinions and feelings on different topics. Again, I don’t know where she could have learned this stuff from. Every single time we would take something away from her, say “no”, turn her around in her tracks, or try to get her to eat/drink and she didn’t want to do it…. Oh boy…. Get ready. She let us have it. She screamed, whined, cried, or all of the above 70% of the day. She was asleep 20% and happy the other 10%. I am sure that everybody that was with us wanted to leave at least three times during our “vacation”. I know that I wanted to leave at least a dozen!!

I attempted making an Indian headband with her. My feather making skills are pretty awful.
 

Mean Eyes

Not only did she cut her eyes at us and poke her lip out before she let out a beastly cry, but she also refused shut her eyes and go to sleep while we were away. The child has been doing so well with sleeping. We have had our ups and downs, but I figured since she was wearing herself out by walking, playing, and being plain out right bad that she would sleep well. I figured wrong. She did not sleep an entire night from the time we arrived until the time we left. She would fit sleep and not want to be rocked. Finally, after bear hugging her for an eternity to keep her still she would zonk out. Usually an hour or two later she was up again. The only thing that made her sleep was putting her in my bed. She slept just fine after the change in beds each night, but Scott and I didn’t. We just don’t sleep great when she is in our bed. She has never slept in our bed at home, but somehow the little stinker always makes her way into our bed at the lake. I got two cheek bites from her “snuggling” with me in the bed. A good old bite on the cheek will wake the dead, I promise.

Of course, she is snoozing hard in MY bed.

She gave herself a nice little trophy black eye during the Holiday too.

Mean Mouth

She decided that she did not want anything to eat besides table food while we were at the lake. I guess with all the people around handing her “bites” of stuff made her decide that she no longer likes baby food and formula. I got her to take, on average, 3 bottles a day and no baby food. She would eat everything that we all ate. Her Papaw even snuck in a few things that I would never allow (Nutty Butty, Chips A’hoy cookies, and Pepsi {which really ticked me off}). I decided that half the reason that she was not being her normal self was because she was completely off schedule/routine. Everything down to her feeding/eating schedule was shot.

Mean Face!

Even after all the terrible behaviors that Suzy had, I still cannot help but to find her humorous and sweet. After she would bite me she would love on me. She really, really is a sweet child; she just has some bad habits, already. Bad habits are hard to break, right? No, but really, I cannot think of anything else I would have rather been doing than chasing that little monster around all week. Her little mouth full of mean teeth sure makes the cutest little sweet smile.

She was sitting in Papaw's bolt box "helping" them work on the deck. That is a washer she is trying to eat.