10 funny things about Lydia

1. One of her new favorite words is "Wait". It is funny how she will say it over and over to the Marian as Marian runs away from her.

2. So she has picked up another word as of late...a phrase really....Damn it. Oh yes, we have had our first cuss word. She even uses it completely in context. Example, she was crawling down the steps backwards and put her foot in the cat water and said "Damn it". A couple of times when we have told her no, not to do something, she will say "Damn it".

3. I stayed home from work today. Lydia fell asleep while cuddling with me in my bed watching Cinderella. I heard her talking later on and found her snacking on the peanut butter crackers I had brought up earlier. When she saw me she said, "Mama, I eat crackers."

4. She has been putting socks on her hands and saying that she is cooking. I guess she thinks they are potholders??

5. When she sees the Mountaineers she says "Let's Go March"

6. She will now do "this little piggy" on herself and she remembers them too!

7. She likes to watch the digital picture frame and name off everyone and everything that comes on it.

8. "Kumpins" or pumpkins as you might know them to be called, are Lydia's new obsession. Daddy brought home two huge kumpins today and she was so excited. I cannot wait to carve them with her.

9. She is finally cutting the next two bottom teeth so now she has the four front, the four bottom and her four molars. I have no idea why she is cutting them in such a weird order.

10. Did I mention that I gave birth to Jesus? The other day I was doing laundry and I put one of Mark's tee shirts on her. ( My brothers and I always wore my dad's tee shirts to bed so that is where I got the idea) So when I got his shirt on her she raised her two arms and kept walking around saying Jesus. She has done this a couple of times but I never have the camera around. I hope to get a picture of it soon. I have no idea where this came from..if she is thinking of pictures of Jesus she has seen or if she is thinking of the priest...who knows with this child.

A funny for your Monday

Here is Lydia in all her silliness...

But for some reason I find this picture even more hilarious....

I think it is funny that after the first pictures she just goes about her usual business like she is not wearing orange shorts on her head and sock "puppets" on her hands...nothing stops her.

We are closer to having her big girl room ready. Mark's co-worker was in a horrible flood and we gave her the spare bedroom set out of the guest room. Now we have her toddler bed in there and her toys. There is sooo much room now. She loves it.

10 for Tuesday

1. I did the grossest thing today. I drank from my Principal's coffee cup today. It has nothing to do with her..I HATE drinking or eating after folks. I just wanted puke..but not in front of her since she might get a little offended. She had her cup sitting in a spot in the front office where I sometimes place my cup. I just picked it up and drank when she asked me why I was drinking her coffee. Luckily, it was very full and very hot so I am not sure she had even drank from it yet.


2. Stupid thing number 2. I was doing a lesson in a recently divorced kindergarten teacher's class. Her old married name and our Principal's name is very similar. I did not think I did but the teacher claimed I called her by her old married name. I tried telling her I was saying the Principal's name (which I really was) but she said I didn't...so after my coffee stunt who knows. She was not happy with me either.

3. Stupid thing number 3. I was making the afternoon announcements and I forgot to unpush the all call button and everyone could hear me talking..luckily all I was saying was I almost forgot to do the afternoon announcements before everyone was yelling "we can hear you" . I am so glad I did not say something horrible..

4. Did I mention how glad I am to be going to a different school tomorrow?

5. I have already baked a cake for these teacher in case I do more stupid things and end up offending them as well.

6. Really I did, I had some leftover icing from cupcakes I baked this weekend. I wanted it out of my fridge. So I did a homemade (not box) chocolate cake with homemade cream cheese icing. I hope it turned out ok. I purposely did not make my famous brownies b/c I might eat them..I hate cake so my waistline is safe.

7. So I recently bought some Gap jeans. I bought the style that I usually love. I ordered them online..big mistake. They now are made with stretch. They grow all day and are extremely baggy by the end of the day. I hate that I spent so much money on these jeans that look so sloppy on me.

8. We got the second layer of mud on our bedroom...one more to go!

9. Lord God, I hope the Steelers and Mountaineers play better this weekend. Both of them are rival games ( I guess Marshall is our rival?) but the Steelers play Monday night against the Ravens....Oh I hate them!

10. The biggest news of all. Lydia is starting library school tomorrow. The Mannington Library is starting a 18 month-36 month program. There are three other little girls that are going to be there. I think Lydia going to have so much fun. I have the perfect outfit picked out now we just have to pray that between Poppi and Daddy, they get her cleaned, fed, dressed, and get a picture of her before 9am! Mark is going to ask Poppi to take pictures during the lesson..but who knows if that will happen.

Mommy and Me

This was my fave picture from that fateful Sears session. I have been meaning to scan it for a long time and finally got to do it last week.
Poor Miss Lydia's allergies are up to their old tricks again. I guess it is my fault for taking her off of the Claritin but it seemed as if things were better. So along with all the clear junk constantly running out of her nose, she is coughing. I am hoping that it will clear up soon and we do not have to start her back on her Singular. If we put her back on it, her doctor wants her on it until she is five. I had to beg to take her off of it this summer. I just hate when she is not feeling good.

Draft Day

So fantasy football is pretty big in our house. Mark is commissioner of one league and participate in other leagues. After a stellar performance the first year I participated...I have gone down hill ever since. So here is my beautiful daughter, the daughter who I carried inside me for 9 months, fed, bathed, fed some more, snuggled, cared for, (you catch my drift I am sure) picking the draft order.....and who does she pick to get the first pick....well me of course! Did you think she would pick someone else?

Here is her dad telling her to my name back in the hat...no not really but he was pretty cranky that I got first pick.

Daddy got a pretty good pick..I cannot remember exactly what right now since this was back on Labor Day.
But don't worry for those of you who thought, hey maybe Paula's team is finally going to pull itself out of the gutter...anyone want to guess who I picked with my precious first pick???????

The number one points getter in the whole league last year....

The person that won my husband many many games last year...

The person who has won his team many many SuperBowls....

Tom Brady. The streak continues.

Really??

So if hearing it from friends and family is not enough...I just got an email from parenting.com wanting to know if I am ready for number 2! Really???

10 for Tuesday

1. I am trying to get back on track with my Mommy and Me posts. This is from last night. The corn stalks and the pumpkin is from Mark's garden. Lydia loved the pumpkin.

2. Ruby is fixed again. The "new" water pump he put on broke. He towed and fixed it for free. She ran ok for a couple of days but she was making a noise again this morning.



3. Today has been a quiet day at my school. That always makes a better day for me.



4. The first layer of mud is up on our hole in the bedroom but now the worker has not been back. Pray for rain so he will come back and finish. I think he said it will take three layers. So make that two rainy days.



5. Warning, this statement will contain bragging. At church on Sunday, we had a etch-n-sketch for Lydia to play with. I thought this was going to be a quiet toy to keep Lydia entertained. Well Daddy thought to start writing letters and numbers on it for Lydia to say out loud! So anyway, this women leans over and says "how old is your daughter? she knows more letters than some of the kindergarten children I teach!" Can a person learn her letters from having Cinderella read to her 100 times a day???



6. Sleep is finally doing better. We switched up our nighttime routine. I bath, dress and read to her. Mark sings, rocks and lays her down. She goes down without a peep. If I try to lay her down all hell brakes loose. So for now this is working and I am happy.



7. My daughter officially has huge feet. Nonni bought her a pair of shoes with Cinderella on it. They were a size 5 and we could not get them on her feet. I guess the crocs and sandles gave me a false idea that her foot had stopped growing! But the Cinderella shirt did fit and she had to wear it the next day even thought it was hot and humid. She cried and cried when we could not get the shoes on her and when I called her Drizella she cried even harder...who knew she would be so smart and get that joke??? (I know that she most likely did not but the timing was perfect)
8. Is it bad that my daughter has coffee parties instead of tea parties?


9. I finally won a Cinderella dress off of Ebay. After being outbid at the last second, someone buying one "buy now" and so forth. I scored one and at an excellent price. I hope it comes soon and looks as good as the picture.


10. We found a bucket at Walmart with Cinderella on so now we are all set for Trick or Treat! Now we need some invites to some parties!

Flashback 1978

So I am finally getting around to posting my birthday pictures. I had a great time at my party and was so thankful for those of you who came.

Here are some yummy cupcakes that April made.

Notice the paper that was on the table Miranda put together a list of some facts from 1978.

President:James Earl Carter, Jr.

Median Household Income: $15,064.00

Cost of gallon of regular gas: $.63

Cost of a first class stamp: $.15

Cost of gallon of milk: $1.71

Sony introduced the Walkman

Academy Award, Best Picture: Annie Hall

Super Bowl: Dallas d. Denver

#1 Song: Shadow Dancing-Andy Gibb

I am sure poor Miranda tried to find out some cool people that were born on my day but found that here are NONE...so here are some folks who turn thirty this year...

Clay Aiken,

Kobe Bryant,

Kevin Federline,

Nelly Furtado,

Katie Holmes,

Chad Johnson,

Ashton Kutcher,

Usher!

Miranda and Andrew made me an awesome CD that had the top three songs from 1978, the top three songs from 1996 (when I graduated high school) and some of my faves..Michael Jackson, Elvis, Kanye West, Jay-Z and the Rolling Stones...it was great!

Now to the food.....

Here is my Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard Ice Cream cake...yummy

Here are some of of the cool folks that showed up..Derek, Angie, April and Mark

Here is Miranda, Dan, Kelly, Whitney, Anthony and Ericka

Here are Lydia and Braylon busting a move my Birthday CD.

Here is Lydia and I for a mommy and me photo and sharing some cake. Check out my bracelet. That was made especially for me from April. I need to get a picture our mommy and me WVU bracelets.

Here is Lydia trying to steal my fork

And here is the Hostess with the Mostess herself...Miss Miranda...she is the best!

Best Buddies

This is their new game. Lydia pushes Thelma down. Thelma then rolls over on her side. Lydia goes "night night" on her. I am tellin you..Thelma is no ordinary cat!

Church Picnic

We decided to go to our church's parish picnic. Mark and I have been going to church her for a couple of years now and we still know very few folks. Plus, the few that we have met really only know us as Lydia's mom and dad (that includes the priest). You really don't realize how large our church is since we have three different Masses over the weekend.

The picnic was held at a local park with a pool and putt-putt golf. We originally planned to play putt-putt but as usually Lydia had other plans. She decided to be sleepy and kinda cranky...that is until my high school history teacher's grandson came up to her and asked to go walk with him...then she was all smiles and giggles. There is a picture of them somewhere on the camera but I cannot find it. (our memory card has been eating our pictures....)
They had fun stuff for the kids planned. While Lydia slept through some of it, Sleeping Beauty did wake up in time to play with the bubbles.

Here is Lydia trying to help.

This was a pretty neat contraption. You put a small hole in the side of the cup and insert a straw. then you put a cloth on the top and "seal" it with a rubber band. Then you place the top in dish washing liquid.

It made some impressive bubbles.

She called them snakes and chased them around the park.

Cinderella

So we now officially have Cinderella living in our home. Last week we were swimming in Poppi and Nonni's pool and Lydia was doing a very good job swimming. So I told her she was a mermaid like Ariel. She stopped, looked at me at said "No, rella"

So here is our little Cinderella doing her chores with Daddy. These were taken through my storm door so excuse the weirdness. She loves to sweep and will take the dry Swiffer mop and "sweep"

She is attacking those leaves isn't she?
Admiring her work..

10 on Tuesday

1. Big stress..Ruby broke down again. I know, I know...all of you tried to tell me not to put money in her...she would continually break down now....but a $400 dollar investment in her was worth it for a little longer without two car payments. Of course that is not how much we payed for the repairs and now two weeks later it is broken down again..looks like we are in the market for a new car...

2. On a positive...I have the best friends in the world. My birthday party was wonderful. I have some fun stuff that I am going to post. Miranda throws the best parties...she did all kinds of fun stuff.

3. Lydia has been fun lately. Using sentences when we ask her things...she amazes me everyday. I have a funny post coming up with her.

4. Have I mentioned on here before that I believe you should have to pass a test before you are allowed to have kids. The things I hear in this office....

5. Oh, so we have not had rain in like two months right...it stormed like hell last night and guess who forgot to close the stupid, stupid, stupid sunroof. I was soaked when I came to school today.

6. My job might be changing. They are thinking about combining one of my elementary schools with the middle school and making that one position. We will see what happens, I am not holding my breath.

7. I was excited while listening to the FOX sports radio this morning. They called the Steelers a powerhouse!! The AFC elite...wow I cannot remember a time those words were used with us. I hope it does not bite us in the ass.

8. I hope WVU takes this off week to re-group and calm down. I don't think we played all that well but I think East Carolina is better than people originally thought.

9. I miss my Friday afternoon buddy. We would go and have a margarita at the Mexican restaurant every Friday after school. She is off taking care of her family...I hope things get better soon.

10. Let's Go Steelers!!!!

Big Girl Bed

Well I talked to several people about what they did for "big" girl bedding. Just when I had decided to put Lydia in a twin bed...someone offered to give us a toddler bed and mattress. It was already put together so we just placed it in Lydia's nursery. We want to keep the guest bed up until after football season. So she has asked to lay in it a couple of times. Sometimes in the mornings she will lay in it and read..it is too cute. She now will ask for her binkie and a blanket to lay down.

You might have noticed the pink outfit in the frame in the background. That actually is what I wore home from the hospital. My mom put my outfit, a picture of her holding me and a picture of my dad holding me for the first time in the bottom. If you look real close you can see my mom holding me. I really wanted a girl so I could hang this in her room. But there are no wall to hang things from in Lydia's nursery so I just placed it there so it was still in her room. I hope to be able to hang it in her big girl room!
Well we are feeling better in our house...the Steelers kicked ass!!!!!!!!!! We are forgeting that any team we cheered for played yesterday.

Chris and April

Our friends Chris and April were able to come up from Florida for the home opener game. I was hoping to get more pictures of them especially with April's new baby bump! Alas...Lydia did not cooperate..she was sleeping or crabby and we did not get many pictures.

This is from last year's game. Lydia is so little.

Lydia and I did not get to tailgate for several different reasons so that was photo op number 1 squashed. After the game we showered and went over to the hotel where Chris and April were staying with pizza's in hand. Here is the papa to be trying to handle a almost two year old!

We finally got Lydia playing with these cups and disstracted enought to take a semi-ok picture.

I love this picture...it is so cute..I wish you could see April super cute baby bump...we are currently saving some moolah so that we can fly down either during spring break or summertime to see Max or Madison (correct me April if I screwed up the names) We might take a quick hop to see Mickey Mouse and Cinderella.

The reasons I am not too sad about turning the BIG 3-0

This picture is from Valley Falls...This was Lydia's first cookout. This is my favorite family photo.



I love both these pictures..it is in the oddest times that you notice how much they look alike...and act alike. I woke up to the picture above and snuck down to get the camera. Then the picture below. Lydia and Mark were just hanging out watching TV and I noticed they were laying the exact same way. I could not find the camera so I snapped this with my phone.

This was one of the funny pictures Mark sent me. Lydia is trying to grab it tongue I think.

There are no words for this picture..I think it is my very favorite one.

I am very lucky to have a wonderful husband and beautiful daughter. I have a great family and the best friends (cannot wait for Wendy's party in a bucket and Miranda's yummy food this evening). So no need to be sad just because I am no longer a young adult and just an adult. And I am not going to focus on I had to get my fat jeans out today to wear to work....because with this fat came the best gift God gave me.

Our Little Cheerleader

So here she is...in her replica cheerleading outfit that my mom's friend Mary Gay bought for her..and the necklace that Nonni made for her and her beautiful bracelet that our friend April made for her (she also made me a matching one...she said our mommy and me pictures inspired her to make us mommy and me bracelet..I love them)

This was the only time she would even look at the field...when was this you ask...during half time while the band was playing "fusic"


You can see the look on her face when the football action began again.

She finally passed out in the fourth quarter. I felt so bad for her. I would have dressed her differently if I had known how hot it was going to get. When we left to tailgate it was raining and cool. Over all she did alright. I really did not get to watch the game much. She wanted to walk around up stairs and since is was so hot..I did not mind much. Lydia made a friend while walking up there too!
ps...excuse the hat...I have worn that hat to every football game since my freshman year at WVU...I have only forgotten one time in eight year...our last home game last of the season...yeah we all remember what happened at that game...so I will not forget again!

UPDATE..maybe it is the big birthday looming which is making me say I am younger than I am ...I was not a freshman in college eight years ago..that is when I graduated college..the hat is 12 years old.