The ugly side of show business

When Taylor and I were visiting my parents in Iowa this past fall, my Mom insisted, INSISTED, on taking Taylor toy shopping. And when I reminded her how spoiled her grandbaby already was, not to mention the lack of space we had in our returning luggage, she simply turned her head, mumbled something under her breath and proceeded to stroll T through the toy aisles, chirping, Pick out WHATEVER you want, baby girl. Your Ya-Ya is going to buy you a special toy. And, of course, Taylor’s eyes and arms darted to the most obnoxious toy in the entire store, a mini-music machine, complete with keyboard, microphone and barking-dog joystick. And my Mom smirked and put it in the cart, as if it was retribution for me picking percussion in band when I was younger. Because nothing’s worse than living under the same roof with an eighth-grade girl who releases her teenage angst while practicing snare drum in her room. Alright, I get it now. Are we even yet?

So Miss T played with her revenge-toy for a good week, and then in typical toddler-fashion, moved onto another treasure to covet for a short amount of time. And after residing quietly in the bottom of the toy-bin for a few months, Taylor pulled out her music machine yesterday to give an impromptu performance for Ruby and I. BUT, someone wasn’t in the mood.

And like any artist who has been heckled or interrupted during a show, Taylor reacted in true diva fashion.

I guess we’re gonna have to work on this sensitivity thing before trying out for American Idol, or else T’s gonna be the kid sobbing her way through the cameras outside the audition, and I’ll be the crazy stage-mom going after the judges with my drumsticks.

Multi talented

Go Bulldogs

So a few nights ago Chris decided to treat his ladies to a night of hoops, by scoring us some tickets to the UNCA Men’s Basketball game. With our local Bulldogs competing against Big South Conference rival Winthrop, and with the Justice Center mostly providing general admission, we got to the game about a half hour early to score some good seats and had a few stadium dogs for dinner. As always, the hotdogs were delicious, and we actually managed to get front row seats right behind the dance squad. And our little girl couldn’t have been happier.

And even though the Justice Center is about the size of the gym I played high school basketball in, the tight quarters allowed lots of noise and action as our local favorites proceeded to thump the opponents. UNCA’s head coach is known for it’s fast-pace of play, which is always fun to watch.

And because the game started at seven and ended around nine, we were worried about Miss T having a come-apart around halftime. But she was a total trooper, and was extremely adorable and lively the entire time. Which I assume was a combo of all the action and the game-time snacks.

We’re adventuring

When Chris and I moved to North Carolina seven years ago, we ultimately became residents of a state that boasts award-winning barbeque, year-round mild weather, mountains and beaches, frequent use of the word y’all and mandatory annual car inspections. And with exception to the last, we were fully aware of what we signed up for, and fully excited for our new, Southern lifestyle. But the last one was a bit elusive to us – Until we got an outrageous bill in the mail because we had been North Carolina-residents for six months and had failed to get our cars inspected. We were all, But we just moved here from IOWA. You know... the HEARTLAND. Go Hawkeyes! And why do you need to inspect my car anyways? And they were all, You owe us $250. Pay it. NOW. And then go get your car inspected. Word to the wise – Don’t mess with the NC-DOT.

And because we are no longer dumb college kids, we now schedule our annual car inspections far in advance of their expiration, and today the Cadillac was due for it’s yearly. And while my wonderful husband usually takes care of all automotive issues, he had a last minute appointment come up and I was put in charge of going to the dealership to get my car inspected. Correction – Taylor and I were going to the dealership. At eight o’clock this morning. And since T’s normal rise-and-shine time is around 7:30, I had to gently wake her up with hugs, kisses and cartoons a bit early in order to get her fed, dressed and ready to leave. Oh, remember the days that you could set your alarm a mere five minutes before you needed to head out the door? And then you have a baby and have to plan all outings at least an hour in advance.

So we left the house at 7:45 and had to fight the morning commute to get to the west side. In the rain. Ugh. And while I miss the convenience of traveling solo, I most certainly do not miss driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic five mornings a week. But, Hey, T and I were on an adventure, and with my giant to-go coffee and bag full of toys with us, we were going to complete our mission with, hopefully, very few tantrums. Because, as I have mentioned, Miss Taylor is a bit irritable in the hours following slumber, and any straying from our normal routine generally prompts a melt-down.

But my girl surprised me. Shocked me, actually. She was such a good girl in the waiting area, and spent the majority of the time exploring the room, checking out all the chairs and nooks and crannies. Oh, and she discovered one of the best magazines of ALL TIME: Highlights.

And after the car inspection was done, I decided to take advantage of being on the west side and treated my little girl to her very first-ever Krispy Kreme donut. And, needless to say, it blew her 21-month old mind.

It’s like a heatwave

Asheville has been blessed with sunshine and mid-sixties weather for the past few days, so Chris and I have been taking advantage of this wonderfulness and bringing Taylor to Azalea Park every afternoon. And may I just say how much fun T is at the park now. Last year at this time, she would just sit in the baby-swing and look at everyone, but now, NOW she is running around all over the place and testing out all of the equipment ALL BY HERSELF.

And while her love of the slide keeps her attention for a few rounds, after about 15 minutes in the tot-lot, T’s eyes start wandering over to the big kid area and all of the loudness and out-of-controlness that comes with it.

And even though she can still go up and down the stairs to the big castle and cross the draw-bridge, the majority of the curvy slides, monkey bars, fireman poles, rope swings and tire shoots are still a bit out of her league. And THAT drives her bonkers.

But we still manage to have a good time.

No shirt. No shoes. No problem.

Looking through some of the recent pictures I’ve taken of Taylor, I’ve noticed an emerging fashion trend for our toddler:

And just so you don’t think we encourage nakedness in the wintertime months, let me tell you that the reason T is topless for our latest pictures is mostly due to us taking her shirt off when she eats dinner. Because if you have seen my daughter eat, you know her love of food and how fast and furiously she’ll shovel it in her mouth. And to cut down costs on stain-stick around our house, we just strip her down and let her paint her body with that night’s entree.

And after we finish eating and cleaning up, Taylor always refuses to put her shirt back on. She actually runs away from it going, NOOOOOO! And since we’re only an hour or so from bedtime at that point, we just let her run around half naked because, A. It’s not worth a tantrum, B. We love marveling at how big her belly is, and C. It allows good tickling opportunities.

Elliot turns two

Miss Taylor’s BFF, Elliot, turned two this past weekend, so Saturday afternoon we went over to the Scully house to celebrate. Paige and Danny threw their birthday girl a dance party themed bash, complete with sequins, cupcakes and lots of lots of boogying.

As you can see, it was a serious cuteness overload. Elliot was so jazzed about her birthday party, and when it was time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out her candles, she just stopped and savored every second. AH! My precious Elly-bean has turned into a little girl.

And then it came time for presents, and I don’t know who was more excited to open the gifts, the birthday girl or T.

So let me take a quick moment to explain the present we got Elliot – An inflatable Sesame Street themed ball pit. I know Elliot pretty well, and the girl is OBSESSED with Elmo and the gang. And, Yes, it is a rather large present, not to mention that I have silently been cursing my parents EVERY DAY for buying Taylor that gigantic Dora the Explorer tent for Christmas, but the moment I saw it I knew that Elliot HAD TO HAVE IT.

Here is a photo-montage and narration of Elliot and Taylor when the birthday girl opened her gift from us:

T: Dude. I can’t wait for you to open this... You are gonna FREAK OUT.
E: Really? Is it better than the new kickball I just got?

T: Uh, YEAH. It’s AWESOME! Can you see it? Do you know what this is? Do. You. Know. What. THIS. IS?
E: Seriously, calm down, Tee-Tee. Let me finish opening it...

E: OH MY GOD! Is this for real? Elmo? Big Bird? Lots of small rubbery balls? This is the best present I’ve ever got!

T: Told you so, buddy. Happy birthday!
E: Love ya, man.

Sorry, Paige and Danny. I fully expect you to pay us back in April. BUT, just think of all the giggles and squeals our little girls will have with it over the next few months. You’ll be thanking me later. Maybe.

21 months old

Miss Taylor turns 21 months old today, and this picture just about sums up how the last month has been:

That’s right. Completely OUT OF CONTROL. And guess what? We survived. Not only did we survive, we killed it. To me, Month 20 was a smooshed up ball of incredible highs and a few anxiety attacks. We were able to experience Christmas through the eyes of a toddler, and it made all past holidays fade into the background. To watch our daughter’s face light up in absolute joy while ripping wrapping paper off her gifts was one of the most precious moments of my life. The smiles, the squeals, the happy-dance... NOW we get it. It almost made me want to exchange all of my own presents in order to buy her some more new, shiny things to watch her open. Almost.

So, yes, cuteness was all around at the Amys house this past month. Whether it be impromptu dance parties in our living room, singing the Hotdog song from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon or just having a nice, afternoon fake-coffee party, there had to be at least ten moments each day that I stopped, took a deep breath and thanked my lucky stars that I am able to experience every second of this.

Oh, and an important milestone to record in that we are completely off the bottle now. We had been down to her having just the before-bed bottle for about four months, mostly in fear that ditching it would disrupt her 12-hour sleeping stretch at night. Yes, selfish on our part, but I LOVE TO SLEEP. Sue me. Anyways, the first few nights without her bah-bah, she was a bit confused and whiny, but by the fourth night she didn’t even look for it. And then something awesome happened – We replaced the bottle with a nightly book. Okay, THREE nightly books. And while she has always let me read to her during the day, those stories are usually rushed as she’ll violently flip through the illustrations and barely let me read half a sentence on each page. But now, at nighttime, she snuggles into my chest and listens to every word, not even bothering to turn the pages herself, and she just lets me read to her. And every night we finish up story-time with Goodnight Moon, I kiss her head and she’ll look up at me and say, Love you, Mommy. And every night it melts my hearts.

She’s also talking so much more now, grouping words together and, sometimes, just spewing gibberish. She also discovered the word, Mine, and likes to grab random objects and announce that she is the owner. MINE baby. MINE Elmo. MINE bear. And as far as the babble, I would say that it is adorable 85-percent of the time, and down-right frustrating the other 15-percent. Like when she’ll point at something and say, GOO-YA, and I’ll look up and see nothing that matches that word. And then she’ll start shaking and stomping, GOO-YA. GOO-YA. GOO-YA. And I’ll just look at her and say, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? And one of three things will happen here, either I will distract her with a treat, or she’ll have a total melt-down, or she’ll grab something that is so obviously NOT a GOO-YA, give me THE look, smile and be over it. Whatever.

Oh yes, she is definitely starting to test her boundaries – read, OUR SANITY – more and more frequently. She knows what will and will not get a rise out of me, like sticking her hands in the trash – Big No-No – versus spiking all her fake food on the floor – Hey, if that’s where you want your food to go. And I’m learning to read her moods much better as well. For example, she is extremely fragile after she wakes up from her nap, and if I want to accomplish ANYTHING during the afternoon hours, it’s best to wake up our princess with cartoons, milk and a tasty treat. She gets this from her father, only he prefers SportsCenter and a Diet Pepsi.

We did have a couple monumental melt-downs this month, one ending with her being put in her first-ever time-out. We were all downstairs enjoying the afternoon when our darling daughter started crying because Chris was eating a snack. And even though he was willing to share, Miss T just lost her marbles because she wanted the whole bowl. It was madness, mostly because she had her own little treat sitting in a bowl right next to her, and they were both eating the SAME THING. So we just laughed at her, told her to get a grip and kept doing what we were doing, all with the lovely sounds of screaming in the background. And then she stopped crying, picked up her bowl, looked me straight in the eyes and SPIKED IT ON THE GROUND. And before it finished bouncing on the floor, I had her off her feet and on the rug in the corner of the room. TIME OUT, I screamed. And I would have left her there by herself, but I had to stand close in order to cradle her head so she didn’t slam it on the hard wood, all while Chris and I just looked at each other in fear that our kid had spontaneously been possessed by the Devil. And after a few minutes, the smoked cleared and our happy-go-lucky daughter returned. And Chris and I just stopped and were like, What was THAT? And everyone we told that tantrum story to just laughed and said, THAT is your daughter starting to become a two year old

In heaven there is no beer...

... Because I’m pretty sure we drank it all while watching the Hawkeye game last night. Correction – That AWESOME HAWKEYE VICTORY! It’s a good day to be an Iowa fan, even if it includes a bit of a hangover. And while Chris refused to sit or keep his voice at a reasonable volume throughout the entire game, I was able to catch a few moments of blog-appropriate behavior out of him a few hours before kick-off.

Way to go, Hawkeyes!

The best part of waking up

So right now I, like many of you other bloggers, am FREEZING. Fah-ree-zeen. It is COLD out. It is so cold that almost all of the schools in our area are closed today, and for the past three nights, our six-o’clock news has headlined How to Stay Safe in Cold Weather. No joke. And how cold is it, you ask? Well, this morning my car told me that it was 16-degrees, but with the wind-chill, I’m betting we’re in the negatives. And here is where all of my Midwestern readers rolls their eyes and say, Ha! You think THAT’S cold? And I say, Y-E-S. THAT’S COLD. We’re are freezing down here. Show me the updated stats on Global Warming NOW, tree-huggers.

And with the bone-chilling wind whipping around outside, we’ve managed to stay pretty warm the past few days, mostly through a fire in the fireplace, lots of snuggling and eating numerous big, hearty meals. Which means our New Year’s diet will start as soon as the thermometer rises past 40, because the last thing I want to eat right now is a bowl of leafy greens. And we’ve pretty much barricaded ourselves inside our house as well. Yesterday, when I bundled up Miss T to get in the car and go to the gym, I realized that it was the first time she had been outside since the previous Thursday. That’s what we do when it’s cold – Stay home, take naps under the covers and eat chili.

But it wasn’t like we were completely secluded over the weekend. We had friends over on Friday night, and then Chris and I each took our separate turns leaving the house over the next few days. And do you want to know what I did with my Brooke-time? I ran a few errands and made some Christmas exchanges and purchases ALL BY MYSELF. It was heavenly. I even bought a cup of coffee to hold as I was strolling the aisles. Take advantage of solo-shopping while you can, childless-ladies. Because grocery shopping is far less relaxing when you are constantly shoving treats into your kids mouth in order to divert their attention from all the random foods that have Dora the Explorer on their boxes.

And even though she was stuck inside for four straight days, Taylor didn’t mind one bit as she is STILL preoccupied with the numbers of toys she opened over Christmas. In fact, each morning when we come downstairs she shrieks in delight over the fact that all of her toys are still here. As if she was nervous that in the middle of the night, Santa might just fly right back down the chimney and take everything back. And it’s such an ordeal, as she scampers around to all her different stations and picks up each thing and screams out its name – BAY-BEE (baby), CUH-LER (colors), CAH-PEE (coffee). And the last one is actually the tea set that Chris’s parents gave her, but she insists that it is a coffee set. Which might have something to do with the fact that her father and I walk around like zombies until we’ve each drank a gallon or so of coffee. So instead of tea parties we have coffee parties, and just so she feels like part of the gang, she actually stuffs some Play-doh into her cup and sips it right along with us. And it’s pretty cute. And even if it’s freezing outside, it makes for a pretty cozy morning - Just us, our princess and our coffee.

Welcoming a new decade

Ten years ago today, I was packing my bags to take a five-day long trip to London with some friends, and after I got back from across the pond, I was planning on introducing my parents to this guy I had been dating for a few months. Turns out, I was introducing them to their future son-in-law. And thus began the most fabulous decade of my life. I fell in love with my husband, graduated from college, moved across the country, got a puppy, got married, got a few jobs and, eventually, had a precious, baby girl. And I know I’m missing a lot of important things in that last sentence, like all of the wonderful moments spent with my family and friends, but, in a nutshell, the 2000s were extremely good to me. And for that I feel blessed, and also anxious to see what the 10s have in store for me and all of my loved ones.

So while the last decade was like a gigantic ice cream sundae made up of all my favorite flavors, 2009 was the cherry on top. Chris made a courageous, yet extremely rewarding, career change. Taylor sprouted from a baby into a small, sassy person. And I successfully survived another year as a stay-at-home mom, learning how to balance everyone’s needs, including my own, and began running again. All-in-all, it was the best year yet for the Famous Amys family, and to celebrate all of our accomplishments this year, we had a good old-fashioned dance party in our living room last night.

Happy New Year, Bloggers - May 2010 bring you and yours much happiness.