Goodbye Old Sink!

Goodbye old sink, see you LATER! With the help of our good friend, Brian, we have a new, beautiful kitchen sink that has been installed. It took two nights b/c the new sink was deeper and the drains were positioned further back than our original and the pipes had to be moved underneath. Our new sink is NOT WHITE anymore. It's EXPRESSO. :) More pics to come soon of the pretty new sink. The old one will not be missed. Thank you to Brian who took two of your own nights to help us!!!!

Favorite New Word

Baylen learned a new word this morning: NUTS! LOL It is so funny when he says it.

This is What I walked into...

on Thursday night. Brynn was supposed to be in her bed sleeping. She never came down saying she couldn't sleep. She never made a sound from what I could hear over the baby monitor. I had no clue this had happened...until I walked up around 10ish and found her in our bed looking like THIS...



What a little sneaky girl!

We'll Miss You, Toni!

Brynn's teacher, Toni, (who has been with Bee for most of this last year) has been such a great teacher for her. She is so loving, caring, and has taught Brynn SO much. She helped Brynn really learn how to go potty, taught her more numbers, including (counting on her fingers), helped her learn a ton of songs, helped her learn how to socialize with others, and to love everything there is to love about school. I loved Toni and Brynn really loved her. Toni admitted that Brynna was one of her most favorite kids and had a very hard time letting her go not only over the summer, but again once we returned to daycare. This is the kind of teacher I wish Brynn could have kept for another year (like looping). Both of them would have loved that. We will really miss Toni, and even though we'll see her everyday in school, it still won't be the same. Brynn grew so much with this teacher (emotionally) and i appreciate how hard T. worked to make sure every child felt special in her room, that they felt comfortable and safe being themselves, and felt like they were getting all the individual attention they deserved.

First REAL haircut

Baylen received his first REAL haircut today. He had these beautiful long curls growing in the back, but it was starting to get a little out of control. For instance, he would wake up in the morning and the back of his head looked like a rat's nest. Or, he would look like he had a mullet...business in the front, party in the back type of look. We had to fix this problem. I did not want to cut the curls. I loved his curls. But, he is a boy and we had to control the "nest/mullet" look. Ali helped cut a "hawk" cut for us and so now we can give him a mohawk everyday if we want. He sure does look like such a little boy now.

And of course, I decided I needed a change, as I always do right before school begins. I opted for a much darker color with just a few "chunky" spots of blonde and then cut it in a wedge style this time, with more layers and bit more depth, and more options when I style it.

BEFORE:




AFTER




Of course, Brynn had to get her haircut too..just her bangs though. Then Ali put a cute little "mai tai" in her hair which is a cool little way to "tie" her hair into a little knot. It is super easy to do and super cute when it's done.

Come On, Just Look at me...I don't deserve time outs!

Stepping Out

Brynn insists on trying on her ballet gear at least a couple times a week...so cute. She doesn't have her tights on though, because I didn't want her to get a run in them before it even starts. :)

Daycare Part 3

NO timeouts today. Teacher talked to me like an adult today. Teacher treated me like I knew something. Teacher flipped her words and explained her classroom is not a negative place and timeouts are a last resort. Not sure if teacher is telling me what I want to hear or if teacher is trying to work on this in her class. Mom/Director of teacher says that teacher still has a lot to learn and is having a major learning curve. Lots of kids are returning from the summer break back into the class, which is changing the dynamics big time. Apparently, earlier in the day, teacher had a bit of a breakdown b/c some other kids in the class were biting and she didn't know how to stop it--they kept doing it. Director/Mom helped teacher calm down and gave her some tips on how to help those kids get through this stage. Teacher assured me that they use time out as a last resort...that I am not so sure of, but maybe the last couple days of me asking questions and explaining how I don't think that's the right choice made her re-think her strategies...??? I explained to teacher and to director that I don't like dropping Baylen off every morning sick to my stomach wondering how many timeouts he's going to get that day or that he's going to be in trouble half the day. Teacher and Director assured me that would not happen. I felt better today when I picked up. I think I'll feel better tomorrow dropping him off.

In other news, Brynn will be taking Spanish once a week at school. :) How fun is that?!

Daycare Part 2

Well, only two time outs today. Still not appropriate in my mind, but we will see what tomorrow brings. I had a talk with Teacher today but I honestly think she thinks she knows more than me and that I don't know how to parent my own child. If she only knew.

Daycare

The kids started back to daycare today. Brynn was so excited. She entered her teacher's classroom and asked where all her friends were. They have all moved next door. She misses them. She is moving next door tomorrow. Hopefully she'll be okay with the quick transition. She seems to be transitioning into things easier than when she was younger. We'll start slow and build up, but I'm guessing she'll be just fine. She is looking forward to being with her little friends tomorrow.

Baylen had a rough day today. He was not very excited about coming into b-fast at school today. He didn't want to sit down. He didn't want me to leave. I placed him in the chair next to Brynn and took off before he could see me. I hate leaving that way. I hate it. But it is easier on him if I do that instead of seeing him cry and cry. Then he went into his classroom and it was all downhill from there. He got in trouble for jumping on the little "kiddie" couches in the room. He didn't know he could not do this. His teacher does not know Baylen has become very stubborn. That he can be ornery sometimes. That he has a lot of energy. That he says "NO" like 500 times a day and half of those really mean "YES." So he was put into some time outs. I had a chat with Ms. Teacher to find out her philosophy on dsicipline...not sure I agree. I repeated that this was his first day back and he needs some time to adjust, but Ms. Teacher wants him to turn it around in 2 weeks. I am not so sure that will happen. FOr her sake, I hope it does, otherwise he will give her a run for her money. We'll see what happens tomorrow. If he is in multiple time outs tomorrow, I will be ready to hopefully help her try some new tactics to help ease him into this difficult transition. He is too young for all of those time outs. If overused, it's ineffective according to multiple research resources. And then I am afraid he will never want to go back if all he does is get into trouble. Poor kid! :(

Introducing BayBee Designs

Introducing......BAYBEE DESIGNS! (lovingly named after my two children, of course)
After quite a bit of peer pressure from some good WA friends, I decided to open a small shop on etsy.com selling a few baby and toddler hair bows. I will be interested to see if it brings any success.

Here's my shop site!

http://sfitz05.etsy.com

By the way: Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade.

I walked in on this...

Sorry little princess: It looks like your reign has sadly come to an end.

Funny Convo #460

This has to be one of my all time favorite conversations I have had with my daughter. She was angry at Baylen and arguing with him while we were driving home from the spray park yesterday. He was trying to take off his croc and she was telliing him to leave it on. Their conversation went something like this:

Bee: BAYLEN! I SAID LEAVE. IT. ON!

Baylen: NO!

Bee: YES! LEAVE YOUR CROC ON NOWWWW!

Baylen: NO!

Bee: MOM! Baylen's taking his shoe off!

(Now I'm forced to intervene)

Me: Brynn, don't worry about him. If he wants to take his shoe off, that's fine. I'll put it back on when we get home. It's not a big deal. Relax!!!

Bee: But MOM! He needs to leave his shoe ONNNN!

Me: Brynn, mind your own business. He's fine.

Brynn (becomes angry at me and starts blowing one big blow as hard as she can out of her mouth) then grits her teeth and says, "MOM I'm going to huff and puff and BLOW your house DOWN!"

Me (smiling while driving but paused before I replied): If you blow my house down where will I live?

Bee (relaxes, smiles): In a new house. No...with Tami in her house!

*sigh* (#2)

There have been a lot of "sighs" lately in my life. Brynn will be turning 3 next month! I cannot believe my baby girl is hitting her 3rd year of life already. Time ticks by so quickly anymore and I cannot do anything to stop it. She is starting to outgrow naps, which I am not really ready for, and honestly, I don't like it. She "thinks" she doesn't need a nap, but truthfully, she still does because she becomes super cranky and bawls her eyes out at the drop of a hat on these non-nap taking days. It's not fun. But, instead of forcing her to nap, we have now implemented "quiet" time up in her room. The rules are that she can read or play with a toy quietly but she must be on her bed and cannot wander around the house. She must wait in her bed until I come up and get her and tell her it's time to come downstairs. She seems okay with this. I will be interested to see if she starts taking naps again once she starts back into daycare and we're getting up earlier in the morning...hmmm

We are heavy into planning her third birthday party. She'll be inviting many of her friends from daycare this year, which is a first. We'll be having it at a local gym place similar to The Little Gym, except that it's a privately owned small business. She is very excited to have a big party and chose a Hello Kitty theme which she talks about non-stop. I know a mom from our daycare who makes cakes and she is going to make Brynn's Hello Kitty head/face cake, so that is exciting. We are saving that cake for our "family only" party the weekend after her real birthday. I am starting to put together ideas for the party favors for the kids and have a good start on those. I need to find HK gummies or some sort of treat with HK on them. I need to search online for that...

More than likely, she will be getting her ears pierced for her birthday this year. We went to the mall over the weekend and watched a little girl get her ears pierced so she could see what they do and she was confident she still wanted to get her ears pierced as well. I am a little nervous about it, but I am sure it will be fine. I don't know if she'll chicken out or not...and if she does, no big deal. We have traveled to Toys 'R Us, Target and Wal-Mart so she could look at things and figure out what she wanted to ask for for her birthday. She really wants a Barbie Doll--(the one that comes with a dolphin), which I think is really funny that she already noticed them. She also has asked for new outfits for her Baby Addy/Bitty Baby doll, princess dolls (the Disney princesses), and a Cinderella "barbie" that you can take in the tub. She was so excited to go and look at all the toys and it was nice to get ideas of what she thought she wanted. :)

At almost 3, Brynnie certainly is growing up on me. She says so many funny things, displays hilarious facial expressions, and talks as if she's so much older than she really is. She is doing very well recognizing letters, both capital and lower case. So far she can recognize: A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, W, X, Y and Z. For lower case letters, she knows c, e, r, f, and i, j, k, l, o, p, s, t, x, y, z. She can recognize all numbers 1-10 when seen on a puzzle, written down, or with her bath sponge numbers. She is always interested and has to know every sound or noise that she hears as well as identifying smells, good and bad. It's quite funny when she says, "Mom, Cammy (our cat) smells bad...her breath stinks!" The other day we were walking outside and she declared, "Mom, I smell something." I asked her what she smelled and she said "Chicken nuggets!" (it was really someone starting up their grill...)

Little Miss Independent: she is very bossy, curious and extremely driven. Her memory is excellent; she'll talk about things that happened months ago like it just happened yesterday--very good with details. She insists on doing things herself all the time. She is easily irritated by her brother, who has learned that he can annoy her and rubs it in her face whenever he can. Sometimes she gets aggressive with him, but most of the time, she plays the victim and blames everything on Baylen. (such a big sister!!) She is doing very well going potty and poop in the toilet. We have pee accidents from time to time, and Bee still wears a pull-up at night yet. There has been a day here or there where she simply regresses in the pee dept. for no apparent reason. She continues to be a night owl wanting to stay up late and hang out with us, but if it's a day she has not had a nap, the rule is she must go to be by 8 p.m., right after her bath up in her own bed, with no downstairs time. She seems to understand this and finds it "fair."

Her favorite shows continue to be Barney, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Farmyard, Dora the Explorer and Diego. This summer, I allow her to watch 2 shows a day max, sometimes three if I need to get dinner started and it's my only option.

Bee continues to be as tiny as ever, weighing in around 26.5 pounds STILL and wearing mostly size 2T and a few (very little) 3's in tops only. She wears a size 6.5 shoe.

Funny Convos #445, 446, & 447

I often have to hold back my laughter whenever I am having a conversation with my almost-3-year-old daughter these days.

yesterday at the dinner table:

Brynn: Mom, look at my belly. Look at my belly button. (holding up her shirt as she's saying it)

Me: Yes, I can see that.

Brynn: Let me see your belly button.

Me: No, mommy doesn't lift up her shirt to show her belly, especially at the table.

Brynn: Oh yeah...because you have boobs.

Me: Um...yes, that is er, exactly right, my dear.

(NOTE: she is totally obsessed with all body parts these days. I mean all of them.)


And then tonight:

Me: Brynn, do you want to go outside after dinner?

Brynn (excited): Yes! That would be GREAT!



Last night during wiener dog races:

Tami's aunt's dog raced, her name is Tahoe.

After the second heat where Tahoe placed 6th, the dog was being carried back and Brynn says:

"Look mom, there's the racing dog!"



A few nights ago:

ME: Brynn, you have to be careful with your brother! YOu can't push him like that.

Brynn: Oh yeah, mom, because he's just a little guy..."


Other funny stuff:

a couple weeks ago out of the blue she asks:

"Mom, who is my grandfather?" (she knows her papas of course, but she had never heard the term, grandfather...I told her the answer)


And lately she will ask exactly like this: "Mom, what time it is?"
always curious what the time is, as well as declaring the kind of weather we're having..."Mom it's sunny out." or "Mom, it's raining outside." Or mom, "It's cloudy out." etc. etc.

She is also into constant bargaining for more time. I'll say, "Two more minutes!" and she'll come back with, "No, mom, FIVE more minutes!" and try and strike a deal with me. She rarely wins that game.

*sigh*

This was the last week of swimming lessons. I am sad that they have ended for the summer/year as Brynn has come such a long way since day one when she was crying to get out after the first five minutes, and then day 2 when she would only stay in with a pacifier in her mouth. I have loved seeing her progress and go from being frightened in the water and refusing to do much to loving every minute of her lesson and being so proud of all of her accomplishments at the end of each session. And her teachers? Oh my goodness: I loved loved loved these three girls--all sisters, who were so patient, loving, sweet, and firmly but gently pushed both Brynn and Cade to really try when in the water. She was holding her breath and diving for items, blowing bubbles in the water, kicking around the pool, floating on her back and more. It was so much fun to see her do so well.

Light Rail

We took a ride on the NEW Light Rail on Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of fun. Baylen was not a good traveler on the train, but we took turns wrestling with him all the way downtown. Brynn was in Heaven. I asked her if she wanted to go ride on a train that we ride "up in the sky" and she was sold. We did some shopping downtown, which we haven't done in awhile and really enjoyed ourselves. We grabbed a bit to eat at PF Chang's first, and the kids were difficult throughout the lunch. Baylen is getting to the age where he is so hard to take out in public b/c he's so unpredictable and generally awful at restaurants especially if he decides that day he's not going to eat anything that we put in front of him. It's a stage and I know we'll get through it, but it drives me crazy and it's very frustrating. The rest of the trip shopping around, he was great...slept a bit of it and then rode in the stroller like a champ...so I think really he was super tired.

Pros of the NEW Light Rail:
-it just opened 2 weeks ago
-it makes 10 stops total
-we can ride it to M's baseball games
-eventually it will run from the airport all the way downtown
-we can ride it downtown to the Pike St. market or to the bars on Pioneer Square
-we can ride it to see shows at the Paramount
-we can ride it to get to the Monorail, which will take us to Seattle Center
-we don't have to drive around to find expensive parking and it's cheaper to ride the LR
-kids 6 and under ride free
-trains come every 10 minutes and run every day of the week until 1 a.m.
-it's eco-friendly

Wicked!

I'm stoked! We have tickets to Wicked for late September! :) It was our anniversary present to each other, although, I must admit, I think I'm way more excited about it than Dj...he's a good husband for going along with this present idea. I loved loved loved this book and can't wait to see the musical!

So You Think She Can Dance...I hope so!

This afternoon, I signed Brynn up for dance lessons. She will take them through a nearby dance academy once a week, learning tap dancing and ballet. I am so excited and I think she will be once she actually starts going to dance and seeing how it all works. We have to get a few items before it starts, which is in late September. It's nice because our daycare transports them to and from the lessons and at the end of the year, they perform in the fancy 5th Avenue Theatre downtown. :) I always wanted to be in dance growing up, but it was pretty expensive and too far for my parents to drive to when we were growing up. Am I starting to live vicariously through my child? Maybe a teeny bit. She enjoyed swim lessons so much and progressed so much in just a few short weeks, that I hope dance will do the same for her. Plus, I want to expose her to the arts as much as I can.

Costumes...:)

We found the perfect duo for the kids to dress up as for 2009 Halloween. I know it's super early, but I didn't want to wait until things sold out, etc., so I gave in and ordered their costumes tonight! We had to ditch our original idea b/c we couldn't find one of the costumes in a toddler size--only in children's sizes, so we'll have them dress as that famous movie duo maybe next year.

Remember, last year, they dressed as the Tortoise and the Hare. B & B are going to dress as another famous duo once again from storybook land. No other hints...you'll have to wait until Oct. to find out. We are so excited and I hope the costumes fit!

Molars, Welcome...we've been waiting for you

Finally! They have arrived! Baylen's molars have pushed through and we couldn't be happier. His bottom right pushed through on Friday and his bottom left made an appearance we think today. OH YEAH! He's been so much happier, easy going, laughing, kissing, playing nicely, and not freaking out when I tell him no or to get out of something. He's been eating like a champ again and we haven't had to give him Tylenol. He's been sleeping well at night and an all-around happy little Mister! :) That took forever.

Sun, Please come BAAAAACK!

Mister Golden Sun, where are you? I miss you. Please come back before we have to return to school. PLEASEEEE!

We're still devoted to ISU but...

We also like the Huskies.

Take One

The kids had a great time at the movie last night. Tami and Brian watched Baylen and we took Brynn and Cade to the movie. Brynn was totally stoked and her eyes were glued to the screen the entire movie. They enjoyed a lot of popcorn and water. I had to peel the kids off their seats about half way through the movie because they needed to go potty. Brynn had already had a "small" accident b/c she didn't want to miss any part of the movie, so it was a must to get them to the bathroom. She was NOT happy with me when I took them down the steps and was crying and screaming to go back into the movie. I told her we'd be right back and we should run to the potty quick. She finally gave in and at first when I asked her if she peed in her pants a little, she told me it was water she spilled from her water bottle. I told her it smelled like pee and then she finally admitted she had a little accident. Luckily, I brought an extra pair of pants and a pair of undies so we slipped those on and then returned to the show. The movie was really cute (G-Force) and both of the kids really enjoyed it, as did Dj and I. I haven't been to a movie in months, so it was nice to go. The only disappointment was there was NO poster or giant cardboard guinea pig for the kids to stand by so I could get their picture. TOTAL BUMMER!


BTW, we did see a short trailer for Toy Story 3, which is TOTALLY COOL and we can't wait for that to come out next summer! :)

G-Force

Wer'e taking Brynn and Cade to see Brynn's FIRST movie tonight. She is SOOOOOO excited. She kept saying all week: "I can't wait for the movie, mom!" So cute and I'm excited too! I'll try and take lots of pictures until I get the "You're a weird mom" look from a stranger. LOL

Mini Golf

We took the kids mini-golfing on vacation, again at Fun City. The course was a little dirty but overall, the kids enjoyed it. Baylen was super cranky and refused to sit in the stroller. So he walked around the last half of the golfing experience with a club attempting to golf. It was not easy keeping track of him when golfing. Brynn had a great time and Papa and Daniel helped her golf quite a bit. She had 3 different holes where she scored a hole in one! By hole 17, she was ready to be done and go back to the slides.

More Vacation...water/bumper boats

This is more from Fun City...the kids, Dj, my dad and Daniel all tried out the water bumper boats. They had squirt guns in them and a little engine/stick you used to operate the boat around the water. They didn't get each other too wet b/c it was a bit chilly, however, the kids loved the boats.