I am the mother of a 2 year old

Wow. I have neglected this blog for far too long now. Probably because I felt like I kept repeating myself in every post. Leah is amazing, we are having so much fun...blah blah. This is still true of course, but I didn't want to bore you with details. Leah turned 2 years old exactly 1 month ago. I was looking back at some of my old posts when I was pregnant and when she was a newborn. I'm so glad I posted all of that! I don't remember much of it until I read it (and laugh). It really doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but I never imagined being the mother of a 2 year old! It sounds so weird when I say it still. Long gone are the days of no sleep, having a baby on my boob 24/7, worrying about EVERYTHING she did or didn't do, having no time to brush my teeth/shower/eat/clean/go anywhere. I now have time to do all of these things and I get to teach my child how to do them as well! She is becoming so independent, maybe even a little too much for my liking sometimes! I can remember wondering when I would have a little more freedom from the needs of a small baby, and now that the time is here, I want her to be little again!

Becoming a mother was one of the best things I have ever done in my life. I have had people ask me what it's like to be a mother, how I do things, how I cope with staying home, how I take care of other people's children...basically, how do I stay sane? It's true, taking care of children all day, every day can be exhausting, stressful, frustrating, exhausting...oh I already said that...mind numbing? That doesn't sound right. For some reason I can't think of the right word and it's probably because I spend all day singing children's songs. My mind isn't as sharp as it used to be. This is an example of what I'm trying to say. Anyway, what I've learned so far in my life of being a mother for 2 whole years, is not to sweat the small stuff. You always hear people say that but, I mean, REALLY, don't sweat the small stuff!!! Kids will be kids. They will ruin stuff, they will scream when they don't get what they want, they will use your furniture as their jungle gym, they will get dirty (reeeally dirty), they will find everything you ever will try to hide from them, they will poke/pinch/slap/punch/kick you when they are angry, and they will always use your most expensive eyeliner to "play" with. None of these things are the end of the world. These are ways your kids learn. They learn about their environment and how to act, what is appropriate and how to get the end results they want. They are discovering how to be people. Most of the things kids do are actually pretty hilarious if you just let yourself see it. I've always been able to laugh at the absurdities of many situations. Having a child has tested this, but I'm glad the quality remains or I may have gone crazy by now. I may even want another one (or 2)! So maybe I am crazy. All I know is that I love my kid more than anything in this world and that may make me nutty sometimes but...I am the mother of a 2 year old now! PS..I will also be using this excuse to be nutty probably until she is out of her teens. So, if you are weighing the pros and cons of having children, or wondering what kind of mother you'll be, just know that once that child exists, you will never love something more. Everything else will come with time and experience, so don't sweat it! All you need is love (and lots of snacks). Corny enough for ya?

22 months!

Leah loves her little cousin, Alexis or "Yekus"

Smile! haha

Daddy teaching Leah how to drive...whatever that is

I haven't posted in a long time, sorry! My kid is only 2 months away from turning 2, I can hardly believe it! She is talking so much now, I can't even make a list anymore. She says so many sweet things but my favorite first phrase of all time was "I love you mommy" right before she went to bed. I started bawling of course. We had just come back from being gone 5 days in a row for our good friend's wedding in Colorado (which was SO much fun by the way!), Leah got to stay with Ryan's parents (Mimi and Poppie) for a couple days, then my parents (G-ah, and Papa) for the rest of the time. I missed her so much even though we were having fun. It's funny, when you're a mom focusing all your energy on your child 24/7, all you wish for is a break. Then when you finally do get away, all you wish for is your baby back! It was nice to get away but I was so happy to be reunited with Leah, and when she told me she loved me, that was just the icing on the cake! Leah also loves babies so much, each time she meets one or the daycare babies come here, she gets in front of them and says "Hi sweetie!" and gives them hugs and kisses. What a sweet girl!

We had Mother's day dinner at my parent's house. My awesome husband got me a new camera too, woo hoo! My old one got doused in juice and animal crackers...classic. Here are some pics from Mother's day. Check out that high def! Good job husband!

20 months old!

Today, Leah is 20 months old. That means she will be 2 in a mere four months! AH!!

Leah Elizabeth at 20 months..

- She now knows me as "Mommy" yay!

- She has a lot of teeth but still not all of them

- Her favorite foods are mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, and any kind of fruit

- She is mostly in 18 month clothes but still fits in a lot of 12 month clothes!

- She still thinks Elmo is the coolest puppet on the planet

- She loves to read books

- I think her favorite toy is her babydoll "Dede"

- Apparently she has a peanut allergy now UGH, I had to switch to sunflower seed butter (3x as expensive but she likes it)

- She is talking ALL the time!

- She likes to sleep in til 9 am, plus take a 2-3 hour nap! That's my kid alright

Playground fun!

Today was such a beautiful day! When Leah woke up from her nap I just knew we had to go find a park. I have found that I just become riddled with guilt when Leah isn't able to get outside to play, or at least to the mall play place. At first I thought those mall playplaces were wonderful...until Leah got pink eye the day after playing at one, and flu-like symptoms after playing at another. Damn you winter! Luckily there is an elementary school just blocks from our house, and they even have a "little person" play set, it's the perfect size for my little monster...er, lady. Leah was so excited when we got there, she didn't know where to go first!

This kid amazes me...Hyper Diaper 2

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would update you on what's been happening around the Parks household. In short...not much. Except for the fact that my daughter amazes me every single day with the things she knows! Here I go on a shameless bragging spree. Leah knows almost every single letter of the alphabet (except J for some reason) and also knows some numbers! This shocked me again since I had no idea she knew these things. She just points to numbers and says them, crazy! She knows she is ONE year old, and holds up her little finger. Sometimes she tries to lie about her age and say she is 2...naughty. She can identify some colors too! Pink, of course, orange and green! I know to some people, this may seem like it's so obvious. DUH a child is supposed to learn these things, it's normal! I know this but to actually see it happening is a miracle. Here are some words and phrases she likes to say.

"Shoe" (over and over again as she tries to fit all of her shoes on her feet)

"nana" (banana)

"eat" (obviously)

"ka-ker" (cracker)

"cookie" (there is no mistaking this one)

"oger" (orange)

"ogie" (not to be confused with "oger", "ogie" means yogurt)

"nack" (snack)

"all done!"

"get down!" (usually to the dog)

"happy" (aww)

"tho-thee" (Sofie, the cat)

"boos" (boots)

"peeees" (please)

"go GOCK!" (we don't get it either, but it means go downstairs, or upstairs)

She is also repeating everything we say. Like today I told her not to touch the garbage can because it's "icky". Of course she runs around the house screaming "ICKY! ICKY!" aaah wonderful.

Another fun thing about my beautiful daughter...she likes to climb. She will climb anything and everything she can possibly get her chubby little paws around. I have been told that her father was the exact same way....lovely! They called him "Hyper Diaper". Looks like we have "Hyper Diaper 2" on our hands.

Oven baked corn tortilla chips

Last night was Mexican food night! I made chicken fajitas with peppers, onions and tomatoes. The chicken was marinated in some hotsauce, soy sauce, cumin, garlic, and chili powder. Probably not authentic Mexican cuisine but I used what I had. I also made these great tortilla chips! I used to make these all the time in college. They don't last very long because they are soooo good, and SO easy! I totally would have made fried tortilla chips but we are watching our figures. Here's the recipe!

Corn tortillas

Olive oil or veg oil

salt

Stack desired number of tortillas and cut into triangles (I use a pizza cutter)

Lay on greased cookie sheet. Do not overlap, make sure the pieces are spaced

Spray with oil. I use my Olive Oil mister thing

Sprinkle with salt. You can also do fun spices like chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin etc.

Bake at 400 degrees 8-12 minutes. Check often after 8 minutes as they can turn from golden to burnt really fast!

Enjoy!

Homemade play dough!

Wow...so many activities going on here! Haha! Not really, we are just bored. Today I made some play dough for Leah since I discovered that our store-bought play dough was dried out (we really keep up on things here). It was super easy!

1 c. Flour

1/4 c. Salt

1/4 - 1/2 c. Water

Mix together flour and salt, then add water to desired consistency.

Note: I tried adding liquid food coloring (green of course, remember it's all I have) and it didn't work out so well. It was kind of speckly. I've heard you can add powdered drink mix to color the dough but I thought that would make it way too tempting to eat. So that's it! Easy and fun.

Mmm..bread

Recently, we ran out of sliced bread at the Parks household. A tragedy I know. Since it is so nasty outside and I am terrified of driving in winter weather conditions, I thought it would be fun to make my own bread instead of making a trip to the store when it's the only thing we need. It's preservative free, tastes good, and it's not that hard to make, so why not? I personally don't eat that much bread unless I'm really craving a piece of toast or something but, I do make lunches for the husband and he gets a sandwich everyday. I thought I would share with you the recipe for this Honey Wheat Bread...no bread machine required! I consider it a fun activity for myself and it keeps me occupied during the day when we don't want to go anywhere. Yes, I do realize that is sad and lame but I know some of you must understand! I also recently joined Weight Watcher's so I am becoming obsessed with finding recipes that are WW friendly. Expect to see a lot more of those! I don't know how many points per serving this bread is but I'm really not to worried about it right now. I have lost 4.2 lbs so far though! More on that later

HONEY WHEAT BREAD

1. In large bowl, dissolve 1 T. yeast in 2 c. warm water

2. Add 1/3 c. honey and stir

3. Stir in 2 c. wheat flour, 1 teaspoon sal, and 1/3 c. vegetable oil

4. Work in 4-5 c. all purpose flour gradually

5. Knead 10-15 min

6. Place in oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let proof (rise) in warm area for 45 min.

7. Punch down dough and separate in half. Place in 2 greased 9x5 inch loaf pans and allow to rise again

8. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes

This bread is so soft and good. Mine turned out a little too soft for sandwiches the first time I made it but I will try again and maybe add more flour this time to toughen it up. Enjoy!

I love activities!

As my little stinker is growing, her curiousity is blossoming as well. I am trying to find ways to encourage her creativity (and keep her busy) while having fun. Today I decided to make some finger paint and let her have at it! This did not last long as it was SO MESSY! ugh! And by the way, food coloring is hard to get out of clothing, upholstery, carpet, etc. She did have a lot of fun though. The recipe is just equal parts flour and cold water with a little bit of food coloring added. I only had green so Leah painted a tree/grass/leprechaun/lettuce? I am struggling to find activities suitable for an 18 month old, so if you have any ideas, please do let me know! She likes to color with crayons, have tea parties, read books, cook fake food, play hide and seek, play with her baby, climb things (and fall off things), recite the letters of the alphabet, and eat...just to name a few. I am running out of things to keep this child entertained during these winter months. She did get to go sledding a few weeks ago in our back yard and LOVED it! I'm not such a big fan though so she has to wait for her dad to take her again!

18 months old!

I can hardly believe it! I know I am going to be saying that for the rest of my life no matter how old my baby gets, but really! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I guess I kind of forgot about the blog, or I just didn't have anything exciting to write! Well my little peanut is talking like crazy lately, she is so hilarious! She is actually starting to repeat things we say so now I actually have to be careful. We took her to her 18 month wellness exam today and the doctor was really impressed with how much she is talking. She thinks she was talking in sentences but I have no idea what she is saying! Sometimes Leah will come up to me, put her little hand on my shoulder, look me in the eyes and say something that sounds really important...then wait for a response. Uhh, I have no idea what you are saying child, but it sure is cute! She got a babydoll with all of the accessories for Christmas. She will wake up in the morning, see her babydoll and scream "Dede!!" (baby). It's like she just missed her so much!

Another amazing and proud mommy moment happened a few weeks ago. I was making dinner in the kitchen while Leah was playing with the letter magnets on the fridge. I hear her say "Itsa S!" I look down and sure enough she is holding the "S" magnet. Hmmm. So I get down there with her and start pulling down letters to show her. To my complete and utter amazement, she could name almost all of the letters of the alphabet! Even letters I would consider hard like, "W", "R", "L". Wow! I have never taught her this so I know she must be learning from her favorite show, Sesame Street. I felt bad about letting her sit there and watch TV, but now that I know she is actually learning from it, well, I don't feel so bad anymore. She will only be watching the educational shows though! Now I am going to sound like one of those braggy parents that thinks their kid is a genius but COME ON!! She is a genius! That's my girl :-)