Hide and Seek

This morning was a bit rough for Alyssa. Before it was even 9 o'clock the poor dear had to go to time out. You see, she was dancing on the table. But that's not why we went to time out. We went to time out because we've developed this lovely back-talk habit of screaming "NOOOOOOOO!" at me any time I ask her to do something. So when I asked her to please dance on the floor, or SIT on the table (see I'm not mean, sit on the table all you want) the screaming began. Then the flailing. Then the kicking. Then the time out. She was assisted to her room where the door was promptly shut. If you'll remember the one about her being able to open doors, ya, well I bought those door knob thingys so she can't escape when she needs some alone time. Anyway, after a minute or two I opened her door so she could come join the rest of us. However... there was no Alyssa. Then came the best game of hide and seek the girl has ever played. Was she behind her door?

No... Was she IN her closet? (she always is.)

Not this time. Under her covers?

No. By this time I'm thinking, hmmm... she's really put some thought in to it today.

Not in this corner.

Not in that corner.

Now I'm starting to wig out thinking she better not have figured out how to get around those stupid knobs or I'm screwed. I looked in my room, in the living room. Not there. I go back in her room where I here the tiniest little giggle...

THAT corner. The one I JUST BARELY looked at. She had been there the entire time. So tiny she can hide behind a 17 inch long-9 inch wide-12 inch tall BABY DOLL CHANGING TABLE!

Congratulations girlie. You're the best hide-and-seeker EVER!

Never Doubt a Fortune Cookie

Be excited for this fantastic little couple. And pray for them and their new found birthmother.

Ooh, Alice

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Now, if only I had her skillz...

"Expressive" doesn't begin to describe her.

I don't know how many times I've put on here that this girl seriously cracks me up. The things that come out of her mouth, not even the swearing, sometimes makes me laugh so hard that my stomach hurts. When things are especially wonderful and going her way she'll say either "Dis is fanTAStic!" or "Oh, dat be perfect." We were coming out of my mom's house last night and it had gotten dark while we were there. She stepped on to her front porch and said "Oh no, this is TERRIBLE!" You might say she's a bit on the theatrical side. You might... When maybe she's not in the greatest of spirits I get this look.

The stink eye. Well I gave it back to her the other day and she said to me, in quite the stern voice, "DON'T give me the stink eye!" Then there is my favorite for the week. Tim was talking something or other about his brains falling out and what did our little princess say? Nothing other than "You have brains daddy?"

She's just my funny little girl.

This is how we roll...

Hey, I was playing here first.

Mom! Make him stop!

Hmm... maybe this is bugging him as much as it's bugging me. (Insert evil laugh here)

Ah, he's gonna give her a kiss.

Oh, no he's not. Down she goes!

Hey, we're still smiling. All is well.

I love these little children.

FOUR A.M. and I'm doing WHAT!?!

How October 16th went for me. It's 4am. Alyssa wakes up and wants hot milk. Not an uncommon occurrence at our house. Whatev. I get up, I go to the kitchen. I toss some milk in the microwave and glance over at my roast that I started in the crock pot last night. Not pleased with what I see, I retrieve the milk from the microwave, take it back to my room for Alyssa (sure she's almost 3 and still sleeping with us, again, whatev) I give it to her, kiss her and tell her I'll be right back in to snuggle. Back to the kitchen I go. At 4am. FOUR A.M. The roast, which was frozen solid at 9:00 the night before has cooked completely and is in the process of becoming some sort of cow something jerky. My "plan" for this roast was to follow this fantastic recipe that my friend gave me for BBQ beef. The "plan" is to take a frozen solid hunk of meat, toss it in the crock pot and let it cook on low over night. Sometime during the next day, pull it apart, dump an amazingly simple sauce over the top and let it simmer all together until dinner time. My friend does this often. Rumor has it that a lot of people cook roasts like this. Not at my house. Not in my POS crockpot. Now I'm no chef. I hate cooking. I don't know the rules of how long you can leave a chunk of beef in a crock pot to get cold and all fungus-ish. The thought of leaving it out until I woke up at a normal hour kind of sicks me out. I don't think if I put it in the fridge that I'll be able to pull it apart like I'm supposed to. Crap, I have to pull this thing apart now. AT FOUR A.M.! I pull it, I dump the sauce on it, I go back to bed. Alyssa, hot milk in tummy should be sleeping by now... Ya. Right. Alyssa: Mommy, what doin? Me: Going to sleep. Alyssa: You cook mommy? Me: Ya. Close your eyes sweet baby. Alyssa: Ok. She then proceeds to stand on her head and start singing songs. At this point I decide to be a good wife and take her to her own bed so Tim can get some sleep. We snuggle in to her bed and things are quiet for a moment... Alyssa: Mommy, I yuv you too. Me: I love you too, sweet girl, go to sleep. Alyssa: Ok. I roll over so my back is facing her so she'll hopefully quit talking and go to sleep. Things are quiet again... but a mysterious kind of quiet. No slow steady breathing, no snoring... I roll over to check things out and what do I find? Alyssa playing with her shadow on the wall. Waving, scrunching her fingers, making her hands go big and small, making antlers on her head. I roll back over in total denial. A few minutes later I hear her climbing on the top of her bed, scooting across the back and sliding down the side. Alyssa: Weeeeee!!! Dat's a fun slide mommy! Me: Crap, you're not going back to sleep are you? Alyssa: Let's play!

Family Update

 On to Alyssa. I love her. So much, I love her. But alas, I have a sad story to share about my sweet girl. She's been in gymnastics since January. JANUARY! That's 9 months with next to no problems. We started in Mom and Tots, which was WAY fun. I loved playing with her, helping her learn new tricks, oh my gosh it was fun. She was doing so well in gym, I thought we'd try dance. She went all by her big girl self the first week, no prob. Followed her teacher up to her class, came down after, told me how much fun it was, she danced all week long. Loved it! Three weeks later.... the shiz hit the fan. The girls were all lined up to go up stairs to the studio and this little girl behind Lys decided it would be great to PICK UP ALYSSA AND SWING HER BACK AND FORTH!!! (I could have smacked that little girl AND her mother up side the head.) Now, Alyssa isn't exactly big for her age... or for anyone's age really... so of course it scared the crap right out of her. She freaked, was crying that she wanted to go home, wouldn't go with her class. The next week? Wouldn't go AGAIN. And the NEXT WEEK? Wouldn't go to dance OR to gymnastics. I'm so bummed for her. She LOVED gymnastics. And now she has a complex about being small. My mom took her outside to see the moon and said "Look Alyssa, the moon is HUGE! Isn't it beautiful." Lys looked at her with these big sad eyes and pouty lips and said "No, it not big, it little like Alyssa." Seriously! That just broke my heart when my mom told me that. So now we are trying REALLY HARD to focus on what a big girl she is. I had her stand against the wall and drew a line with how tall she is (which by the way, she has grown an entire inch since June 25th, bringing her to 32 1/2 inches) We look at the molds we have of her hand and foot and see how much she's grown. Some of her summer clothes I've put away WITH her, telling her she can't wear them anymore because she's growing too tall for them. She such a sweet, sweet girl... I hope this passes soon.

On to my hilarious Alyssa. I about wet myself daily with the things that come out of her mouth. Let it be known that my daughter cusses in correct context, and has been doing for a while. Yes, she learned these lovely words from me. Am I proud of that? Not really. Do I find it amusing? Um... yes. :) Most recently she was trying to lift the blade on my paper trimmer. Well it doesn't lift, which she was clearly puzzled by because while she was trying to figure it out she said "What da hell?" Then while she was scrapbooking with me, she dropped her stamp on the floor and said "oh shit" Maybe scrapbooking isn't a good activity for us. Last week she wanted me to bring up her rocking horse. After much discussion and whining (on my part, not wanting to haul it up the stairs) I finally gave in. On my way up with the horse we have this conversation: Alyssa: Oh mommy! You make all my come true! You make all my come true! Me: I make all your come true? All... your... dreams? Alyssa: YES! All my dreams, you make all my dreams come true! It was music to my ears. Lastly, me. Obviously I've been spending some time doing our bathroom. Which I luuuuv. Thus the rest of the house is a disaster. I can't even see the top of our kitchen table, which really isn't that out of the ordinary... I'm really wanting to jump in and do Tim's bathroom now, but I don't think he'll let me, being that it's taken this long to do mine, AND I want to do my kitchen. I think I'm going to finish Alyssa's quilt that I started MONTHS ago before I do any more decorating. Towards the end of August I started watching my nephew, Evan, during the week for my sister. It has been a lot of fun, and not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I've gotten to know his sweet little personality better and have really enjoyed being able to spend this time with him. Alyssa LOVES it. Everyday when she wakes up she wants to see if "Edan" is here. I think it's good for them to have someone to play with everyday, even if they don't think so... That's us, in a freakishly long post. In the next few days I hope to have my house back in order, Mae's pictures done, and a quilt on the table. Wish me luck!