Smart little 2 year old...

First of all, here are a couple of pictures from the wedding we attended this weekend. Mom and I did all the flowers, which was a blast, but a lot of work too! Everything was wonderful and beautiful! This is my gorgeous friend Jessica Cofer LaFoy...






And now for a little story about how smart a 2 year old can be.... Never under estimate what they know, or what they can do!
Grace has had a little cold... actually all of us have... but at night I give her a little Benadryl to help dry up her nose a little... Last night the medicine was lost... No where to be found. Chris and I looked high and low...upstairs and down, under the bed, and everywhere else we could think of. After an argument or 2 later and no luck, we gave up.
This entire time, Grace had been sitting on our bed snuggled up with all her Slammy's watching the whole thing. We asked her a couple of times where the Benadryl was... she'd say "Right in front of you!" Of course, this irritated us both immensely... so we stopped asking.
As a last resort, we put Grace on the floor and told her to go find the medicine.... She promptly walked over to this little cabinet beside Chris' closet, opened the door on the right side and pulled out the darn benadryl..... "Here it is Mama!"
Why had we not thought of this earlier? So all was well and Chris and I could have saved an argument or 2 if we'd just told her to go find it first....! Lesson learned. There could be a plethora of lost things in this house that she knows the exact location of.......

A little rant and a new door!

Ok, so you must forgive me for what I am about to rant about... some people may really love this place... but our experience was a little different. Each to his own, I guess.

Here goes....First, let me start out by saying that Saturdays have become precious in our household now that hockey season has begun.... we don't take them lightly, and we don't want to waste our time with Chris before he goes to work....Now for the rant...

This weekend we thought that Gentry's Farm might be a fun way to spend Saturday morning. Grace and I fight over what she'll wear, we get the wagon in the car and we are off. Driving up to the farm we see tons of people, which we expected, seeing that it is one of the last Saturdays before Halloween, no biggie. We park and load grace in the wagon and head to the entrance...

SIX DOLLARS PER PERSON... INCLUDING THE CHILD! Ummm... excuse me? That's EIGHTEEN dollars for our family. I suck it up and pay, thinking it will be worth it. Grace is all excited about seeing 'amimals' so we head in that direction first.... Ok, 3 goats, several pigeons and a turkey later, we are done with the animals.... WHAT? We saw more exciting animals on the way to the farm than we saw there!
(calm down, Jamie, there's more to do and see, I am sure...)

Next comes the corn barn... troughs and troughs of dried corn that the kids can play in.... sounds awesome...right?

Think again.... Grace was loving it for a few minutes and then out of the blue she is bombarded by BIG (think 7-9 year old boys) kids pushing her around and stealing toys right out of her hand.... Once this happened, and I handled it properly... " I'm sorry, she was playing with that, it's really RUDE to take things from little kids..." (The kid reluctantly gave the toy back)

Second time.... YES, a different kid, I grabbed the toy out of the boy's hand that he had just YANKED from Grace and gave him the 'box out' move so he couldn't go in for the second try.

Third time.... I almost lost it. This happened several more times before Grace was just done trying....and I was done with these little BRATS. Come on people, this is clearly an activity for toddlers and preschoolers... why are you allowing your HUGE, OBNOXIOUS BRATS for children bully the other kids to get toys....(which they shouldn't be playing with in the first place.) CALLING ALL PARENTS.... WHERE ARE YOU?

Clearly, this was a parental issue and didn't have anything to do with Gentry's Farm directly... but there started the downhill spiral...

There were a few more activities... but nothing terribly interesting, Grace was clearly frustrated and didn't really want to try anything else...BUT there wasn't really anything else to capture her attention.... and I paid how much? Oh, that's right.... EIGHTEEN DOLLARS!

At this point, we'd been there around 30 minutes or so and we were all ready to go. The cheapness in me wouldn't give in and we tried walking around some more. NOPE... grace started having a meltdown and there was nothing we could do... We left after about an hour... with a child who could not be consoled.

Let me compare this with the trip we had last year to Walden Farm in Smyrna. First of all, it's FREE... there are REAL animals, baby animals, mama animals, TONS of activities, and the kids (who were one year YOUNGER) loved it. It was so worth the drive... and I would recommend it 1000 times more than Gentry. I don't think I'll ever go back there.

Let me give a little disclaimer... I do appreciate that Gentry's farm seemed to have more of a 'christian' theme, and nothing scary and traditionally "haloween," but that's about all. Also, let me say, Walden didn't have anything scary either...

Ok, I am also going to post pictures of my favorite new addition to our household... A DOOR! Yes, a door... well, actually, the storage that is opened up behind it. Sunday my dad graciously agreed to help us cut a hole in the wall in the play room and build a door, instantly opening up more storage! This is so exciting to me, because I am about to have an anxiety attack for our lack of even a coat closet! I love hiding our JUNK!

One happy moment before the breakdown

Playing in the corn bin between mean kid episodes...Riding the tractor
The door, unframed, but beautiful non the less

A peek at the storage I will have!

More funnies from the monitor...

Right now, here is a little excerpt of what I am hearing...it's kind of hard to type when I am laughing so hard...

ABC song: Grace's rendition:
ABCDEFG...HIJK...LMNaP.....QRST and V...double-oooooo, XY and ZZZZZZZZ!

BINGO song...
(background: this is how we taught her how to spell her name...and other names that fit into the rhythm...

G-R-A-C-E, G-R-A-C-E, G-R-A-C-E.... name-oooooo

"what bout Izze?" (talking to herself, of course...)
G-R-izze, G-R-izze .....izze name-ooo

"what bout mommy?"
G-R-M-M-E, G-R-M-M-E.....mommy name-ooo.

"what bout papa?"
G-R-papa.... G-R- papa... nuts! HeHeHe...

"what bout LeLe?
(she fizzled out with this one...)


And I am sure she was thinking of 5 little monkeys with this conversation:
"No LeLe's jump bed.... silly LeLe's....go to torner (corner)... gacie (gracie) call doctor say No No No... to time out!"

(And she's never gone to time out for jumping on the bed before, simply because this was one of the things we needed to work on for her therapy... jumping and walking on uneven surfaces, and the bed is perfect... so she's learned a bad habit... for a good cause... ankle strength! I guess she's asserting her independence and dominance over LeLe's...Who knows...)

One more funny story from today... just so I'll remember it in the future:
We had to go look for shoes today, something besides crocs that is... This activity is similar to going to the doctor for Grace... she HATES it and will scream and throw a fit... it's awful. I guess she's got bad memories from all the doctor's appointments, etc... that involved her feet earlier in life... But either way, it's torture, for both of us.

She'd been really good (I guess all behavior is relative, probably to someone else, she looked like a complete terror) and I'd gotten her to try on 3 pairs of tennis shoes...At that point, she was trying really hard not to loose it... (as was I) and she said:
"Mama, Gacie feet Ok... no cold, no stinky, no dirty, no be ugly.... go look sometin' else... new dress..."

I almost died.... It was like she was trying to think of any reason her little mind could come up with that she shouldn't have to try on any more shoes....she even went so far as to say that her feet were not being ugly.... She is really clever, that one...

Oh, what a morning...!

Grace woke up this morning around 6:15 coughing ... I left her in there until around 6:45, and when I finally went to get her, fearing the worst... she jumped up in her bed and said "SCHOOL MOMMY! YEA SCHOOL!" She wasn't stuffy at all, just a little dry throat I guess. She was in the greatest mood and wanted to get dressed right away although we had another hour before we had to get ready.

So, with Grace and Chris out the door, I decide to take a walk before the 'green' cleaners came to clean the carpets...It's so nice outside, fall is in the air, and I love this weather. It even smells a little like crisp leaves. Well, about half way through the walk something started hitting me... It was small and wet and kind of like little drops or something... When I wised up and realized that this was actually RAIN, I prayed that it wouldn't get too heavy until I got home.... another 2 miles later...after all, I was carrying my phone (for safety) and didn't want it to get ruined in the rain...
What is a 6 1/2 months pregnant woman to do when the life of her phone is on the line...? RUN! Yes, that's right folks, I ran, and ran.... about a mile, maybe a mile and a half...in the pouring rain... I had tucked the phone into my bra... which is the logical thing to do, hoping my gazoongas would somewhat protect it from the rain...
I am somewhat proud to say that was still able to run a mile and a half; but thankfully after that long, the rain slowed up to just a drop here and there...and I was able to briskly walk the rest of the way.
Let me tell you, the looks I was getting by the few that passed me were hilarious.... I had a few lookey-loos who got all the way over to the other side of the road and slowed waaaay down and just watched in amazement...Even a little doggy decided that I should not endure that humiliation alone, and decided to trot along side me until I stopped running.

Oh, folks, the story isn't over. I checked the clock and it was about 8:55am when I got home. The carpet cleaners were not supposed to be here until 9:30, and since I was soaking wet and stinky, I thought I'd take a quick shower before they arrived. I am in the shower and hear something....sounds like knocking....but it couldn't be... no service company arrives early... more knocking... What could I do...?

I turned off the shower, conditioner still in hair... and grabbed a t-shirt and my robe, wrapped up and ran to the door. If they were to leave, I'd have to pay another 'gas' fee for them to come back out. You all know how cheap I am, and I figure a little more humiliation for the day was well worth the extra fee.

I open the front door, and the poor man doesn't know what to say.... He politely says, "Hi! This the right house?"
"Oh, yea, you've come to the right place... weren't you supposed to be here at 9:30?"
"I don't know, I guess I just got here a little early... Do you want me to start cleaning the carpets...?"
"Of course...! Come on in... I'll be upstairs if you need me."

I crawl up the stairs a little embarrassed, laughing to myself and chalk it up to "just one of those mornings..."

I've been tagged... I think that's the word...

So my friend Katie 'tagged' me. I have to fill out these questions and post them on my blog. I am not sure if I am supposed to tag anyone else or not... but since most of my friends haven't entered the blogging world, I may have to skip that part.

1. What time did you get up this morning?
About 7:30am... VERY unusual... Grace usually sleeps until at least 8:30 or later (if not a school day)

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds…of course.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
I can't sit through one...I am serious...It's like torture. At least watching at home, I can get up and do stuff

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Private Practice... I have a slight crush on Taye Diggs

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?

Usually always cereal... and I like to mix 2 different kinds in each bowl... I know, weird.

6. What is your middle name?
Amanda

7. What food do you dislike?
Sushi, any kind of fish, real ice cream (I like fro yo)

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?
Don't remember what listening to a CD of my own is like...

9. What kind of car do you drive?
Nissan Pathfinder

10. Favorite Sandwich?
veggie

11. What characteristic do you despise?
Depends on the day... I know, that's bad...

12. Favorite item of clothing?
PJ's...sweats... you know, anything clean and comfortable

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Australia, Aruba, Tahiti

14. Favorite brand of clothing?
Anything that I can find cheap at The Goodwill

15. Where would you retire to?
Probably love to have a house on the beach

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?

I can't really remember my last few birthdays, when you have kids, do you really even celebrate birthday's anymore?

17. Favorite sport to watch?
Football- College

18. When is your birthday?
Nov. 16, 1980

19. Are you a morning person or night?
NIGHT

20. What is your shoe size?
8.5 or 9

21. Pets?
I am a cat person, and we had 2 really awesome cats, but had to find them a new home because I really didn't want 2 kids and 2 cats...

22. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with us???
Nope, not really

23. What did you want to be when you were little?
Marine Biologist

24. How are you today?
Sleepy, Tired, Hungry...

25. What is your favorite candy?
Anything that is not chocolate... like sweet-tarts, starburst, skittles, candy corn etc...

26. What is your favorite flower?
I love gerbera daisys and orchids

27. What is a day on your calendar you are looking forward to?
Anytime in Dec when this baby wants to make me not pregnant anymore...

28. What is your full name?
I'm taking the hint from Michelle and not posting the full name here...

29. What are you listening to right now?
The sweet, sweet sound of silence...

30. What was the last thing you ate?
A really yummy quesadilla that Katie made

31. Do you wish on stars?
Grace and I like to count them...

32. If you were a crayon what color would you be?
Grass Green

33. How is the weather right now?
sunny and still warmer than I’d like it to be.... I love rainy days

34. The first person you spoke to on the phone today?
Chris

35. Favorite soft drink?
Dr Pepper hands down... nice and cold... with a straw.... yum.

36. Favorite Restaurant?
Probably Wolfgang Puck's although I do love a good Japanese Steak House

37. Real Hair Color?
light brown

38. What was your favorite toy as a child?
LeMutt... my little stuffed dog that I loved and slept with every night

39. Summer or winter?
Summer, unless pregnant, then winter.

40. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs

41. Chocolate or vanilla?

Depends on the mood

42. Coffee or tea?
A good sweet tea, and sometimes Hot Chocolate with a bit of coffee in it...does that count as coffee?

43. When was the last time you cried?
Maybe a couple weeks ago....I'm not much of a crier

44. What is under your bed?
A tupperware of wrapping paper, and a few random sippy cups

45. What did you do last night?
Went to "Old Lady" (what grace has started calling Old Navy... don't know why... she can say Old Navy well, it's her favorite store...) and DSW to look or hubby shoes

46. What are you afraid of?
Teenage Girls, spiders, snakes, being alone at night (sometimes)

47. Salty or sweet?
Both...Together... Like Candy Corn and Pretzles (my favorite thing to eat) Frosty and Fries, cheese crackers and chocolate pudding...(Ok, maybe that's a weird pregnancy thing)

48. How many keys on your key ring?
Am I really supposed to know that?

49. How many years at your current job?
2 years 1 month

50. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday when Chris isn't working...

51. How many places have you lived in?
3: Nashville, Knoxville, Franklin

Random pictures and the bird cage

This is one of Grace's current favorite activities. She loves going to the park with friends and throwing rocks off the bridge into the Harpeth River. What could be more fun to a two year old?

Love the Glasses... Upside down, they just work better.

Our friends Mac and Emily

Here is the bird cage I made on Tuesday...I think that the baby's room is going to have a 'bird' theme (grace's is similar also). I saw this idea on another blog: Pretty Ditty and thought it was adorable. They also sell one at Anthropologie for $198! I love it! I may make another one with vintage fabrics. We'll see...!

Also, I would like everyone to notice what Grace is 'showing' you in the above picture... She has started eating steamed carrots again! YEA! I have to disguise veggies usually, but the other night I made some carrots along with steamed zucchini and spaghetti with tomato sauce (which included extra veggies) She ate everything on her plate and asked for more carrots as well as some in her 'school lunch.' Now she'll eat cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes (cut to look like fries), and sometimes potatoes.... Everything else I disguise, but she also loves tomato sauce, and that's good!