Little Monkey

Over the last couple weeks, Brinleigh has figured out how to climb onto the coffee table and it has quickly become her favorite place to sit.  She can open the front door which has a pull handle and does not lock on the inside of the house, meaning even if the door is locked on the outside, you can still open the door from the inside.  She can climb onto the dining room chairs and table, which are the tall bar style high top chairs and table.  And, she is on the verge of being able to climb out of her crib.

On a daily basis, any time I need her to come to me, she will run in the opposite direction and try to hide, unless it involves food.  When I lay her down to change her diaper, she immediately flips herself over onto her tummy and tucks her arms in under her.  She hates wearing socks and will take them off in different areas of the house, unless she has shoes on.  This isn't usually a pain in my ass unless I had just put them on her only to find out that in the time it took me to go get her shoes, she ripped them off again and then hid them under the coffee table.  She also doesn't like wearing pants and will take them off when she's in her crib or watching tv.  Actually, I'm pretty sure she just wants to be naked and I'm certain that if she knew how to take off her shirt, she would probably be running around the house wearing only a diaper.  She insists on walking anywhere that we normally try to carry her and refuses to hold our hands.  She finally figured out how to open the drawer on the coffee table and would sit in front of it while watching tv just opening and closing it, over and over and over again.  When she is done eating she will dump her entire plate over and then pick up handfuls of food to throw onto the floor.  If she ate all her food, then she will just start throwing her dishes on the floor.  And, now that she can reach the counter tops she will open all the top drawers, which we didn't have child locks on (notice the past tense), and pull everything out.  This includes the silverware drawer, junk drawer and sink drawer.  So, she has gotten a hold of the grill lighter, ran around with a hand full of her forks, and tried chewing on a Mr. Clean magic eraser sponge.

Some of these moments scare the shit out of me and cause an enormous amount of frustration.  If I had the time, I would probably break down in tears at the thoughts of all the ways she can get hurt or from repeating myself twenty million times only for her to still not listen to me.  She is definitely keeping me on my toes, to say the least.  But then there are the moments when she runs into my arms for a hug or gives me a kiss or tilts her head and smiles at me, and I realize......  She is healthy, smart, safe and loved and no matter how frustrated I get at times, the amount of joy she brings me far exceeds the stressful moments.  So, we are learning as we go, childproofing something new on a daily basis, and accepting that she is the first child so inevitably, mistakes will be made.  Sorry Boo Boo, you're the guinea pig child.   

Although I am not a fan of what I believe is to be the start of the "terrible two's", I am trying to remain calm and learn how to work through this stage.  I'm picking my battles and laughing as much as I can.  After all, it's gotta be just as frustrating for her not being able to communicate her wants and needs with me.  Surprisingly, I have not resorted to drinking at night after I put her to bed, although I do think about the option quite often.  However, when I'm really busy, I do sometimes leave her on the coffee table even when she whines to get down, just because I know she can't go anywhere.  (Only for a few minutes, of course.)

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all the mommies that I know had a wonderful Mother's Day!  Mine was awesome to say the least.  Kolt woke up with the baby and let me sleep in a little bit.  When I woke up, Kolt had made a feast for breakfast- Eggs, biscuits, bacon, cinnamon rolls and orange juice (all of which were my request).  Kolt took care of all the cooking and cleaning up and taking care of Brinleigh so that I really didn't have to do much but enjoy my day with my babies.

My Mother's Day gifts were on the table when I woke up this morning.  Kolt and Brinleigh got me something I wanted- Willow Tree figurine, something I needed- a small gun safe to put next to my bed for my hand gun, and a couple of things that would make my life as a momma a little easier- a banana slicer (Brinleigh eats a banana every morning for breakfast) and a spaghetti measure.  Along with a very sweet card and some beautiful flowers.

This evening we had our friends, Kate and Cooper, over for dinner.  Kolt fried up some rock fish and shrimp (all of which were caught by him) and we had fish tacos.  Overall, it was a fantastic day and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Happy Spring!

It is finally starting to feel like spring here in Alaska.  We have had the most beautiful weather the last few days with lots of sunshine.  It seems to be getting warmer every day and we are taking full advantage.  Brinleigh is getting smarter by the minute and I swear she learns a new word every other day.  When we tell her we are gonna go outside she says "ssyyy" and runs to the back door.  All of our neighbors have kids and most of the spouses stay at home so it's nice to be able to go outside in the middle of the day and socialize with other adults while the kids all play.  Brinleigh is limited of course to what she can do but the bigger kids play in the woods behind our houses.  Brinleigh seems content exploring the outdoors and trying to play with the small babies.  She is getting better at driving her little VW bug and we have started to let her walk on her own when we go for walks outside.  Only short distances like to the playground or through the neighborhood.  Anything more requires the stroller, which she still enjoys as well.  Kolt got her swing out of the shed a couple weekends ago so we are able to take her out back to swing after breakfast or in the evenings.  She really just likes to be outside so it's not hard to entertain her.  She still thoroughly enjoys bubbles and I just ordered her some sidewalk chalk so we will be experimenting with that here soon.

I have started going to workout classes at a fitness studio in town which I'm really enjoying and it's getting me motivated to get in shape.  It's my outlet to burn some energy, get out of the house for a bit and have some "me time."  Now that we have all fully recovered from the sickness I plan on spending a lot more time working out and will be going to workout classes 3-4 times a week.  Kolt started fishing again last week and already has about three camping trips planned for this month.  I don't foresee him being home too much on the weekends between now and the time we leave Alaska.  

Last weekend the town had a "Big Rig" event for the kids at the college campus where there is a huge parking lot.  They parked a bunch of tractors and construction equipment, some bucket trucks, police cars and a fire truck and let the kids climb and crawl through them.  They were taking the kids for rides up in the bucket truck and the kids got to press the lights and sirens buttons on the police cars.  Kolt was on duty so Brinleigh and I went with our neighbor and her little girl.  Brinleigh wasn't too sure about the police car at first but eventually opened up & liked to stand in the drivers seat turning the steering wheel.  However, she loved the firetruck.  She sat in the drivers seat and I closed the door waiting for her to lose her shit as soon as she realized that I wasn't right next to her.  Surprisingly, she thought it was great. 

Easter Pictures

Here in Sitka, you only get one shot with the Easter bunny.  We don't have a mall that he hangs out at for weeks before Easter, instead he's at the rainy day bazaar for a few hours and that's it.  This year, I didn't worry too much about when the Easter bunny was going to be here, mostly because of the Santa Clause fiasco we endured this past Christmas.  So instead of getting pictures with the Easter bunny, we had a mini Easter photo shoot with our photographer.  It was beautiful and sunny one day last week so we went to the park and found an open spot by the water.

I love these little photo shoots and in some ways they are the easiest to do, for me anyways.  Probably not so much for the photographer.  We just let Brinleigh wander and explore and  as much as we try to get her to do specific things or look at the camera, she just ignores us.

Ashley Ann Photography

Easter 2014

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!  Saturday was spent prepping for Easter dinner, cleaning the house, boiling eggs and making a three layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Go big or go home, right?  We put the ham in the oven when we woke up Sunday morning and after breakfast we opened our Easter baskets.  Sunday afternoon we had our usual group of friends over for our normal pot luck style dinner.  Everything was delicious and we were soooo stuffed afterwards.

I have been slacking on the holiday crafts since we all got sick, but I did manage this one piece, haha.

 (Decorative Glitter Easter Eggs are from Kohls, but now sold out.)

Saturday evening we decided to attempt to color eggs with Brinleigh and it actually went a lot better than I was expecting.  We got through an entire dozen without a single broken egg.  But I will say, I am super thankful for dark furniture.  Brinleigh seemed to enjoy herself and was not happy about the egg dying session being over, but she was so proud of her colored eggs.

I probably went a little overboard on Brinleigh's Easter basket but I was proud of how well it turned out.  I will continue to make it a goal to avoid candy as much as possible so I'm gonna have to work on becoming more creative as she gets older.

Growing up, my mom made my sister and I Easter baskets and Christmas stockings into our adult years and so I've always felt like it was a tradition that I wanted to carry on.  So I made Kolt an Easter basket and he made me one as well.  Kolt's basket had some new ear buds for the gym, a dive knife he wanted, some energy drinks, chocolate covered blueberries and some extra candy.  He got me The Pioneer Woman Cookbook, a car charger cable for my iphone, and a strawberry huller and slicer, all of which were on my amazon wish list.

I was also excited about using Brinleigh's personalized Easter basket liner for the first time since I bought it on sale after Easter last year.

 

 Brinleigh's Easter basket had a bubble wand, stuffed bunny, Fancy Nancy book, Tangled DVD, Thumper book, Minnie Mouse towel, Minnie Mouse feeding set, sunglasses and carrying case, and a few plastic Minnie Mouse eggs with some candy, which Mommy ate.

I think it's safe to say that the sunglasses and the carrying case were by far Brinleigh's favorite part of her basket.  She carries the case around all day with both pairs of her sunglasses or with one pair while she wears the other.  A few months ago I couldn't keep a pair of sunglasses on her for more than two seconds and now she wears them all day, even when she is watching tv.  She also constantly carries around a pink stuffed bunny that Kolt bought for her basket that isn't in the picture.

I used the eggs we dyed on Saturday to make my colored deviled eggs on Sunday and they were Amazing!  I got the idea last Easter from Pinterest, of course, and have decided that this is my new Easter tradition.  I also made some punch using a recipe that I got from one of my coastie wife friends.  She had made it the weekend before for her daughter's first birthday and I thought it was delicious, so of course, I had to try and make it myself.  This was actually my practice run because I want to make it for Brinleigh's birthday party this summer.

Directions for the colored deviled eggs can be found here, but I use my own mayo and mustard combo for the filling.

I spent way too much time on this cake but I was very proud of it.  I just used a couple boxes of carrot cake mix with pre-made cream cheese frosting in the jars.  I baked three separate round 8" layers with frosting in between each layer.  Then I frosted the outside of the entire cake.  For decoration I used a few drops of green food coloring mixed in with some shredded coconut to make some "grass" and then topped the cake with some peeps.  I forgot to take pictures of the finished product on the table, so I only have a picture that I took really quick the night before.

Brinleigh seemed to enjoy the Easter dinner more than she did the Thanksgiving one.  She especially loves the marshmallow fruit salad.

I get so caught up with all the discussions and eating and entertaining that I always forget to take pictures with our friends.  I forgot to have a family Easter picture taken, so we ended up doing a family selfie later on that night.  (Kolt had already changed out of his Easter clothes)

Sickness Sickness, go away!

After two weeks, I think I can say that the sickness has officially left the house.  Kolt and I are still dealing with a little sinus stuff, but Brinleigh is doing awesome.  Besides a couple minor sniffles, this was Brinleigh's first time being really sick.  And it was absolutely horrible.

She had a low grade fever, stuffed up nose and a terrible cough.  Her cough actually got so bad that she would have what the nurse said was "Bronchial Spasms" where she would literally cough herself into a vomiting fit.  We kept her on a liquid diet for the most part because even trying to eat would launch her into a coughing fit.

There was one night that basically broke down crying.  I was literally at a loss as to what I was supposed to do.  Kolt was at work and Brinleigh had already been sick for several days.  I was giving her baths every night because they relaxed her and I just felt like it was helping to wash some germs away from that day.  I got Brinleigh out of the bath tub and once she was in her pajamas, she went into one of her bronchial spasms.  I could not get her to stop coughing.  And then the vomit came, and just kept coming.  What do you do when your child won't stop throwing up and is coughing at the same time?  So, off went the pajamas, and back into the tub she went.  She calmed down right away and we had to start all over again.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to see her so miserable.  We ended up laying in mine and Kolt's bed watching tv until she passed out for the night.

And who would have thought that such a tiny little person could take down an entire household with a cold?  Never underestimate the germs of a child.  It was brutal.

On day five, Kolt had finally had enough.  He insisted we take Brinleigh to the Emergency Room to check for an ear infection.  As soon as we left the house she immediately seemed better.  Apparently she was just going a little stir crazy and needed to get out.  The doctor we saw in the emergency room did say that she was starting to get an ear infection and prescribed her some antibiotics.  Brinleigh has never had an ear infection so we were so thankful that we caught it early.

  

Out Sick!

Brinleigh caught a horrible cold that is going around right now and when we went to see the doctor they told us it was croup.  Two days later, we made a trip to Urgent Care to find out she had what looked to be the start of her first ear infection.  The following day, Kolt was sick.  The day after that, I was down for the count as well.  Since our entire family is fighting this nasty bug, we are all remaining quarantined to the house.  I'm also working on disinfecting EVERYTHING!!!

I will post more once we've recuperated.