First Easter Basket

I've only done a few link up's in the past, but this Easter Basket Showcase hosted by Sarah was just too enticing to pass up. What a neat idea!

I remember Easters as a kid, and I never got anything half as cool as what kid's get today. In fact, I don't really remember getting anything as a gift, just going on egg hunts and eating loads of sugar. *Sigh*

Enough about my sad, deprived childhood though...

I am so excited to celebrate our second Easter together as a family of three this Sunday! Last year Natalie was only 3 months old, so I didn't give her anything. Having an older child now makes the holidays so much more enjoyable and fun.

The best part is I get to create wonderful memories for my daughter starting with baskets full of stuff.

So what'd I get her? The typical bubbles, chalk, stickers and then a few larger goodies I thought she would enjoy. The list is below! 

(I ordered everything I linked to from Amazon, all the little fillers are from Walgreens.)

Reusable Sticker Pad

Magnetic Fishing Game

Finger Puppets

Dress

What's in your little one's basket this year? Did you get Easter gifts as a kid, or just candy and eggs?

Wordless Wednesday

This little girl is my best bud, we literally go everywhere together. I even took her in to work with me for a couple of hours today. That was interesting.

Happy Wednesday! I'm counting the days until Easter and getting really excited.

We both even rock unkempt hairstyles. 

"Do You Love Your Mommy?"

I used to ask her this question all the time and her response was always a smile and giggle. Now this is what she does.

Park Friends

The neighborhood I live in is full of couples with babies. You can't look out your window without seeing someone pushing a stroller, that's how many young children there are. A lot of the couples seem to be in their mid thirties or older and are very career oriented.

There's a great park right around the corner from me and though it's mostly desolate now because it's winter, it's jam packed in the spring/summer and on nice days. I talk about it in my blog posts all the time, because that's pretty much Natalie and I's second home.

Before Natalie was even old enough to play there, I observed how intimidating it seemed to be there with all the other moms and nannies.

Most the moms are at the least somewhat put together, more so than me on any given day. They are all tall and thin and wear sunglasses and don't have clothes with holes in them on. I wear raggedy workout clothes that I almost never end up exercising in, no make up, my hair in a sloppy bun and I'm still 20 lbs heavier than I was pre-pregnancy.

I overhear conversations they have with each other about how they want to teach their children a second language and a lot of the kids there already do speak another language. I think that's really awesome, but it makes me feel like I have to do the same thing.

Everyone appears to always be there with a friend or a group of friends and I don't know a single soul aside from my baby. Occasionally someone will give me a smile and say hello but that's usually the extent of my interaction with other adults.

 Don't get me wrong, I like talking to other people when there's a connection, but if there is even an attempt on someone else's behalf to talk to me it usually goes nowhere. I've gone through the same old skit time and time again that I just stopped trying to care. I usually get one worded replies like this: "Awww, how old is your little one!? Answer: "X amount of months." Silence.

Maybe that's my fault. Maybe I am supposed to be more engaging and interesting.

I have had a handful of moms who were nice and chatted me up and I loved it. It made me want to hug them on the spot and invite them over for a glass of wine.  I've never seen any of them again though.

The only people who are always friendly and talkative are the rare, random grandparents. They are the nicest people. They ask a bunch of questions about your kid and just chat you up. They tell you how great it is being a grandparent, where they're from, how long they're visiting for and are just overall so sweet.

Maybe I should be the one to take the initiative and be that way with other moms but they just don't seem approachable.

You can vibe out who is down to earth and who is just stuck up. Sometimes I feel like I'm in high school again. Maybe I'm being completely insecure but I truly feel like when I walk away from an area with a group of moms they start talking about me.

Like today, a woman out of the blue asked if Natalie was mine, to which I obviously said yes, with a smile on my face. She just stared into my eyes for a few seconds, like she was judging the depths of my soul and then looked away. It was so uncomfortable.

I know you're probably thinking I'm over analyzing things and that the park is for children and all about them, to which I completely agree. For now I'm alright with focusing on entertaining my kid. I do love playing with her exploring new things together.

The older a kid gets though the more independent they become and eventually Natalie will do her own socializing and playing with other children. I'd like to have some park friends myself while she does. I don't like feeling left out.

This is one of the dumbest non-issue issues I've ever faced but I wanted to put it out there anyway.

What do you think about making friends with other parents/moms? Is is something that comes easy, or do you find it as impossible as I do?

Could Not Ask for More

Signs of spring are in the air, the days have more hours of sunshine, birds are singing and life is just freakin' awesome!

I don't know how to describe how I feel lately other than blessed. I am just so in love and so grateful for my life. I feel like the luckiest person alive to be the mother to this beautiful little girl.

I know every parent feels this way about their child (or at least I hope every parent does) but Natalie is the best thing ever. She's the sweetest and most lovable child. Last night she was looking at her book with opposites in them and she pointed at the girl with a sad face. Matt said "sad" and  made a sad face and she ran over and gave him a big hug.

Either she is truly compassionate or has one helluva memory. When she first got the book about two or three weeks ago I told her hugs made people happy when they were sad, and demonstrated by making her hug me. I only did this a few times in a row that one day so I am shocked she remembered that.

She's just such a joy and pleasure to be around. I wouldn't trade this little life of mine for anything in the world. I love our simple days of chasing birds, playing at the park, splashing in puddles after the rain and just being together.

No other happiness in the world could ever compare to the happiness she brings to me. I'm all about parents having a life outside of parenthood and doing things for themselves, but this whole mothering thing has consumed me whole. I love it and this is all I want.

Bedhead

Little Miss slept 14 hours last night (14 hours!) and woke up with some seriously crazy hair and in a great mood.

15 Months

Here we are at fifteen months! These last five or so days have seemed pretty long. Natalie is finally starting to get better though.

Poor girl was in the worst condition I've ever seen her. She had a slight fever, kept waking up crying, lost her appetite almost all together and wouldn't eat, and just all around didn't feel well. Thankfully she would drink her bottles and wet diapers. Day four she developed a rash (Sunday) so I called the doctor. They said it was nothing to worry about. We looked on Google and are pretty sure she had/is still getting over Roseola .

Here's what she's been up to:

-She's learning shapes and starting to identify certain, more distinct one's like star, heart, and triangle. (She's actually know star and heart for awhile now.) She still gets confused with one's like oval vs. circle or rectangle vs. square.

-She's gotten really good at putting the pieces of a simple animal puzzle she has where they belong.

-Her vocabulary hasn't expanded too much. You can ask her to say just about any word and she'll make a sound that starts with the right letter but mostly she's not interest in talking much. She also seems to shorten all the words she knows. She went from saying "apple" to now just "app" or "i cue" (ice cube) to just "i". Whateves. No big d, that's what all the cool kids do nowadays.

-She doesn't talk much, but she communicates and understand things very well. I guess she's content getting by by just pointing and squeaking and having us interpret what she wants.

-She seems really coordinated for her age, something she definitely didn't get from me. At the playground she goes down all the slides, big and small, all by herself. I put her on the slide, say, "Wait for Mommy!" and she smiles at me and puts her finger up (I do this gesture to her when I tell her to wait) and before I get to the bottom to catch her she is going down full speed. I used to have to coax her into going down, now she is just a little daredevil.

-Not long ago we were at the park, her on my lap in the swings and I was singing to her (I only do this when no one else is around) and she had the sweetest look on her face. I got to the point in the song where I say, "So baby kiss me!"  and she leaned forward and parted her lips. The rest of the song she watched my face as if she were waiting for another kiss. That moment stuck out in my head and I loved it.

-She damn near refused the thermometer when she was sick (it's one you put against the forehead) but when she saw it she would pick it up, press the button and hold it the wrong way against her head. I said, "Natalie, can you take Mommy's temperature?" and sure enough she walked over to me and put it against my forehead. It's amazing how much they learn and understand.

-I know a lot of doctors recommend getting babies off bottles by a year, but I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. She still wakes up throughout the night and that's what puts her back to sleep/what we need to get her to nap. I don't care who looks down on me for it, they can suck it.

-Not sure her definite height or weight yet, but I think she's about 23 lbs (my friend's son is 7 months and 20 lbs). Haven't tried measuring her though.

-She will sign "please" when asked to but almost never signs "thank you" anymore. When she first learned "thank you" she did it all the time. I think she knows she has to say "please" before I'll give her something and when I ask her to say "thank you" she knows she doesn't have to because she already has what she wants. Ungrateful little....

-She knows that cold is "brrr..." and it's really cute. She knows ice is cold and says "brrr..." when I say it's cold outside. When I was on the phone with the doctor I told her that Natalie seemed to have a cold and Natalie said "brrr..."

-She knows that when we go visit my in laws we take our jackets off when we come in. If Matt and I don't take ours off because we're going to go somewhere she seems to get upset. Yesterday when I went to visit she started taking off my scarf when I sat down.