Such a good mommy

Sarah Beth, not me. She is so loving and sweet to her babies and stuffed animals, and I have no idea where she gets it from because tenderness is NOT one of my gifts. :) Today she securely strapped her pig into the stroller and took her for a fast walk through the house. I don't know why I thought the pig in the stroller was hysterical, but I did.

The sweet part was that somehow she had a wreck and the stroller pitched forward landing the pig, still strapped in, face-first on the carpet. She stopped and asked, "Pig, are you ok? Are you ok pig?" and then pulled the pig out, held it against her chest, and patted it's bum like I do to comfort her. Then she asked, "Boo boo? Kiss?" We asked her if the pig had a boo boo and the pig didn't indicate one way or another, so we told her to just to give the pig a kiss just for good measure.

But I'm Too Cute to Spank!

We are spankers, and lately we've been focusing more on talking with Sarah about the process and trying to make sure she understands (as best as a just-barely-2-year-old can) what she did to deserve the punishment. Today we had several minor spanking incidents, but the following is by far my favorite ever.

Mark: "Sarah, Daddy asked you to take the book back to the bookshelf. Did you do that?"
[Correct Answer: "No."]
Sarah: "Yes."

Mark: "No, you threw it on the table. Then, Daddy asked you to come here. Did you come here?"
[Correct Answer: "No."]
Sarah: "Yes."

Mark: "No, you looked at me and walked in the opposite direction. Did you disobey?"
[Correct Answer: "Yes."]
Sarah: cute smile

Mark: "Yes, you disobeyed. Do you know what Daddy has to give you since you disobeyed?"
[Correct Answer: "A spanking."]
Sarah: (while launching her cute self into Mark's chest) "A hug."

LOVE HER. We tried our best to stifle the giggles until the actual spanking and resulting crying and comforting were over, but that was definitely one of the cuter conversations we've had during discipline moments lately. :)

Here, dear husband, is why I watch the Bachelor

I didn't make him watch it with me, but he dared to sit in the room while I read some hilarious recaps and message board posts, and when he asked what I was reading and why, we got into a discussion about why I watch it. His issue is, he knows that I absolutely hate to see people embarrass themselves (so I absolutely cannot watch any type of Punked/Candid Camera type shows), yet I watch The Bachelor to laugh at the girls who embarrass themselves. While the distinction is crystal clear to me, I had trouble explaining it to him. My thoughts on the subject are:

--There's a difference between involuntary involvement (a la "candid camera" moments) and jumping through hoops to put yourself on television. Mark pointed out, though, that the people who are unwittingly caught in the embarrassing moments have to sign releases after the fact so their stuff shows up on TV, so in a way they're actually voluntarily involved.

--The chicks/dudes on The Bachelor/ette KNOW that how they're portrayed will be out of their hands to an extent, but they sign their rights away and do it anyway. It's not the first season, here, folks. You know they have specific roles to fill and they can take little things about you and blow them up however they want. There's always a crazy-eyes stalker girl and this season they may choose you. You did cry on the first night, so who can blame then? I want to make it clear, though, that though I know the showrunners have enormous power in how you're portrayed, I have no sympathy for you because they can't edit crazy out of thin air. They work with what you give them and when you get trashed in the limo before even meeting your future husband, you've sealed your fate as "the drunk" all on your own.

--You sign up for this anyway, knowing that you may lose your job when your boss sees your bum in the tiny flight attendant outfit. You sign up for this anyway, knowing that your grandma/kindergarden teacher/current boyfriend will watch you make out in the hot tub. I realize the goal of reality television is for the people on it to act as if they've forgotten the cameras are there, but in some situations you have GOT to know that people will watch this. They will write hysterical things about you and make up silly nicknames for you and it's your own fault.

That is all I can think of. It basically boils down to "they're asking for it." :) Does that make me a rotten person? Probably. :) You can judge me, but I know you're all watching too! ;) Just being real, here, folks. :)

On the Wings of Love

That is the tagline for this season of The Bachelor. No, I am not joking. The bachelor is an airline pilot. Wings of love indeed. I love that they used to have millionaires, princes, and professional football players, but the guy they got this season works for Delta. This means 25 women will be fighting over a prize who

--Has a slightly above-average salary
--Works in an industry that's suffering and therefore probably has fairly little job security
--Will come home smelling like stale airplane air
--Has a job that will take him away from home several nights a week and trap him in a metal box where his few coworkers are most likely attractive women

What a catch. :)

I only snark because I love, though. I am a sucker. I will watch this show. I am already anxious because our home group tonight will cause me to miss the season premier. As the only family in America without Tivo, I'll have to wait until naptime tomorrow to watch it online, which means I'll also have to wait until tomorrow afternoon/night to read my favorite message board and laugh at the snark of other sensible adults who are also caught up in this mess despite their best intentions. I know you can't wait to hear my thoughts. :)

Who cares about football? We're a baseball and track school anyway.

We got matching Gamecock shirts for Christmas this year. We wore them for the first time for the bowl game today figuring they didn't have any bad juju associated with them yet.




They didn't work. We lost. We lost in spectacular fashion. Tears and gnashing of teach ensued.



Kidding. The tears and teeth gnashing was actually a good old fashioned fit that didn't have anything to do with football. It was the result of me removing her from a large basket (that she's been told DOZENS of times NOT to sit in) AFTER she rolled over in it and was laying on her side with the basket on top of her. She just flopped to the ground and threw an old school tantrum the likes of which we haven't seen in months. Being the heartless parents that we are, Mark and I both just sat on the couch and watched TV for 15 minutes until she was too exhausted to cry anymore, at which point she got up on her own and resumed playing. Although she can almost always hold it together better than this nowadays, she still reacts with extreme displeasure whenever she hears the word "no." I will be THRILLED when one day she accepts a gentle no without completely falling apart. Sigh. Toddlers are fun. :)

New Year's Blogolution

Some of my friends have toyed with the idea of making post-a-day in 2010 resolutions. I briefly (VERY briefly) considered the idea, but since my posting frequency for 2009 was roughly 1 post per every 1.5 months, I decided this would be a ridiculous goal. I do, however, resolve to blog more frequently. My reasons for this relatively frivolous resolution are as follows:



--Posting more frequently will hopefully help me write shorter blog posts. :) Everything I wrote in 2009 was LONG. I mean, really really long. This way maybe I can just shoot for a short blurb or even just a picture every few days or so.



--This will help me remember some of the silly things Sarah Beth says/does. She is getting more and more entertaining by the day, and I hope I will do better at recording the silliness.



--This will hopefully help me document more of baby #2s milestones and the development of his/her routine. I was pretty overwhelmed for months after SB was born and I don't have ANYTHING written down concerning her milestones or when she was doing certain things. I do remember her first real, I'm-positive-that's-an-intentional-smile was on Easter and that she started crawling the week we moved into our house in Dayton (convenient). That's about it. Hoping to do better with the next one.



--It never hurts to read back on funny/ridiculous/inspiring things you learn or experience, right?



--Maybe by posting more frequently I'll be more entertaining and thereby garner more than 3 readers (2 of whom share my last name and thus don't count).



We'll see how it goes. :)



One fun thing about today:



Sarah Beth was in a puzzle mood and got all of her puzzles out and did them one by one. She even did her pretty hard alphabet puzzle! The puzzle pieces are letters and underneath the letters there's a picture of an object that starts with that letter. She can do it if I help by saying, "That piece is a B. B is for basket." She'll find the basket and stick the B in it's place. I think that's pretty impressive. Anyway, she was bored with the "baby puzzles" so to make it more challenging we dumped 5 puzzles out onto the floor and made her dig through the several dozen pieces to complete all the puzzles simultaneously. She got off to a really impressive start by finding all the shapes and quickly completing the shapes puzzle before moving onto the farm animals.

As impressive as the beginning was, the puzzle inspiration was short-lived. After completing 1.5 of the 5 puzzles, she lost focus and started trying to pick up puzzle pieces with her feet. Sadly, I wasn't quick enough to get any good pictures of that part. Let's just say she needs a lot more practice before she can compete with her daddy's monkey toes.

Annual Halloween Post

It's late and I'm tired and lazy and nobody told SB that we're supposed to get an extra hour of sleep tonight. :) That being said, here's a short and sweet report on our 2009 Halloween:

--Candy: 18.56 lb - 747 pieces based on back-of-the-bag numbers. Only 1 bowl (maybe 40 pieces) left after 2 hours.

--Absolute Favorite Costume (that wasn't on my own kid :)) - a 3-ish year old boy dressed as the UPS guy--brown shirt w/UPS logo, brown pants, hat, and he even had a cardboard box in which to carry his candy! His mom said he picked it out himself.

--2nd Favorite Costume--a 13-ish guy in all black with an upside-down cardboard U around his shoulders. It was painted black and then ends were red and had little yellow chicks on them. Chick Magnet. Get it?. Nice.

--I love my neighbors because: they would call out the lazy teenagers trick-or-treating without serious costumes. I mean really. You know you're too old to do this. At least put a little effort into the costume.

--I love my neighborhood because: there were dozens of military cops walking and riding bikes through the neighborhood. They even had the firetruck out roaming around just for fun again! It's like trick-or-treating in Mayberry! I kept offering them candy to help keep their energy level up but they always declined. :)

--Funny Kid Comments --
--a 4-ish year old boy after I put 2 pieces of candy in his bag (younger kids got 2, anybody over about 11 got 1 and I usually made sure it was the crappy candy--Now & Laters, Starbursts, Nerds, etc.) "Give me another piece." He looked me straight in the eye and didn't even say please! His parents were horrified.
--as a kid and mom were walking up the kid noticed Fredo sitting under my chair. "Look at that fake dog!" kid says. Mom says, "That dog's not fake! He's real!" Fredo licks himself. Kid says, "WHOA! That dog IS real!"
--"Do you have a trash can I could use?" Apparently someone was giving out styrofoam cups of hot chocolate with "God loves you!" written on them. The girl handed me 2 empty ones and I carried them all the way inside for her. I am a sucker.

--Disappointment of the night -- I saw another Abby Cadabby! AND her costume was an actual store-bought one! She had the perfect dress and the wings and her yarn pom-pom pigtails were even a more perfect shade of pink than SB's! She didn't need a nametag! I was only temporarily sad because my kid's costume was much cuter. Hers may have been more easily identifiable, but we won the cuteness contest hands down.

SB was a pretty awful trick-or-treater. She enjoyed carrying her little bag but once we walked up to people she wouldn't say a word. We only went to the 4 houses closest to us and then she stood outside with us for a while watching us give out candy and smiling as I pointed out kids wearing costumes she'd recognize (dog, cow, UPS guy. Since I am constantly ordering ribbon/bow supplies we see a lot of him these days. :)). She did get to eat some chocolate. My neighbors gave her a bag of Raisinets and I was thinking, "Come on! Raisinets?!? Nobody actually likes those!" Well, I forgot that regular raisins are like crack to SB. She LOVED the Raisinets. They saw how much she enjoyed them and walked over and slipped her another bag. :) They may have ruined her for regular raisins forever. She also ate a fun size Nestle Crunch Bar. The mini bag of Raisinets and the Crunch bar together amount to the most chocolate intake she's ever experienced in one day. Surprisingly enough, she went to bed easily and on time--helped by the fact that I had a football game and Mark had a baseball game to watch so nobody wanted to let her stay up. :)

Halloween--Fun. :)
Carolina/Tennessee Football Game--Awful :(

They balance out for a pretty OK day. :)