Kiss me, I'm a FISH!

Today Aurora moved into the fish room at daycare.

In August several of her friends moved up and she's really missed them. When I drive her home from school, I'll ask her if she had fun playing with her little friends, and she'll say "Yeah... Adi, Emmy (Emily), NeeNee (Sydney)." It's sad because I know she hasn't been able to play with them in over a month! And every time a smaller kiddo moves into the bunny room, it becomes more obvious that she's ready to move up.

Chuck's excited to have her move up because she's actually graduated out of the baby area and into a real classroom. He said he's always looked forward to that, because the kids in the classrooms always seemed so big. It's true, Aurora's almost 18-months old!!! And she already has a little clique of friends. I wanted to take a picture of her with her friends, but they were outside playing when I went to pick her up today, so we just went into the classroom to get our stuff and I took a few pictures. You can see that in the fish room she has a great view...

We also grabbed a snack. Yes, she's eating goldfish. Very fitting for her first day in the fish room!

This Week

What a week it's been. Aurora and I both woke up sick Monday morning and had to stay home from work and school. Aurora recovered quickly and went back to school on Tuesday, while I worked from home. It was good that I could stay home and focus, as I had one very cool project to complete: setting up our account and listing 11 one-of-a-kind signed LIVESTRONG golf bags on eBay. Yes, I'm now the official eBay seller of the Lance Armstrong Foundation! I also tweet as @livestronghq, and I must say that those are two very fun parts of my job.

Unfortunately, Aurora and I were both too sick to make it to Jack's Sweet Life Celebration on Monday afternoon, and I've been thinking about it all week. While we were in Florida, I got a text from my friend Kristen, letting me know that they'd had a terrible family tragedy. Kristen and Dan lost their sweet happy healthy son this weekend, completely unexpectedly. Jack had just turned 2, and I can only imagine the pain they are enduring and will continue to feel for the rest of their lives. He was just a cute, smart, energetic toddler - so much like our little Aurora.

I met Kristen when I was 8-months pregnant and Jack was 6-months old. When you're pregnant, people tend to give strange advice and often say things that are flat out unhelpful, like, "Better get a lot of sleep now because you won't be sleeping once she's born!" or "You have no idea what you're in for." Kristen was so excited for me, and simply told me that parenthood was the best thing ever. Both on her blog and in person she was constantly talking about how lucky she was, how much she loves and is thankful for her husband and sweet children.

Kristen has been such a positive influence in my life, and I certainly have not taken a moment with Aurora for granted since hearing this sad news.

Florida

Chuck, Aurora and I just returned from a long weekend in Florida. We stayed at a great oceanfront hotel and did our best to relax and take it all in while visiting my parents and grandparents. It was a lovely trip and we have a bunch of great pictures to show it! Just click the photo above to see them all...

Birthday Week

I think you all know by now that I've been stretching my birthday for as long as possible. Party on Saturday, dinner and a movie with Amelia on Sunday, then yesterday I got a great birthday lunch with my friend Bill, a pedicure with Bailey, and our friend Nicolette offered to babysit so that Chuck and I could go out to dinner. Today my team took me to breakfast (crepes and coffee!), and I got some treats delivered to work.

I don't know if it was all the sugar and coffee, or simply the excitement of the birthday, but I had an INCREDIBLY silly day today. I feel like Bailey and I laughed for about 6-hours straight. We also both wore great LIVESTRONG hoodies...

After a very fun day at work, I went to pick up my sweet daughter and found her wearing a tutu and pigtails!!! She didn't even look like Aurora - she looked like some super cute big girl!

Alice said she had a great day, and said as close to an actual sentence as she's ever said at school; pointed at one of her classmates and said "That friend Alex." Wait... wait a second... she IS some super cute big girl!

I must seem so big to my parents now... we sure do grow up fast!

They say it's my birthday!

We're gonna have a good time! I mean, we DID have a good time, at my fab Beatles Rockband party last night.

Once Aurora was asleep, friends showed up for birthday cake, drinks, and some serious video game jamming. We had the full Rockband setup with drums, guitar, bass, and 2 mics for harmonizing. Awesome.

And that was just the beginning of my birthday week festivities... tonight I'm going out to dinner and a movie with Amelia, Tuesday we have a friend coming over to babysit (for free as a birthday gift) so that Chuck and I can go to dinner, and Thursday we're heading to Florida to relax and celebrate with family. Who knows what other fun might be in store... hey, you only turn 33 once! I have a feeling it'll be a good year.

PS: Happy Birthday to Preston - my nephew the TEENAGER!!!

Bathroom Remodel

You may recall that last year we did some MAJOR house remodeling; new siding, balcony, A/C unit, floors, cabinetry... not because we wanted to, but out of necessity thanks to some indoor water damage and exterior wood rot. This year's project was much smaller, faster, cheaper, less obtrusive, and definitely more cosmetic in nature. Of course, if you ask anybody who's stayed at our house, they'd probably call it a necessity.

Before: the ugliest peeling wallpaper imaginable (the wallpaper border, not shown, was blech), shower tiles with an ugly green stripe that didn't match up and had cracks in areas due to a poor self-patch job by the previous owner, and old fixtures that were rusted and falling apart.

After: bright white tiles with a cool multi-colored mini-tile stripe going through it, nice new fixtures, and pink... yes PINK walls! It's a subtle pink, and while you can't see a HUGE difference in the photos, it really turned out nice and is a big improvement.

You all know that I had a no pink policy at first, and Aurora's room still doesn't have pink in it - but her bathroom needed something light and bright and feminine to soften the dark green tile floors and stark white shower. Hopefully she'll love it and our house guests will appreciate the updates as well.

Cookie Monster

Aurora doesn't watch much TV, but there's just something about Elmo and Sesame Street...



Actually, she's not copying Cookie Monster directly from the TV. She's copying her DADDY, who likes to make silly Cookie Monster impressions!

Daddy dressed me...

Yesterday when I went to pick up Aurora from school, Alice gave me a silly look as I approached (Aurora was playing in a tent so I couldn't see her) and said "I thought about changing her outfit, but I really wanted you to see this... this is how Chuck actually dressed Aurora for school today." Out walks my sweet little daughter with a huge smile on her face, wearing a backwards dress with denim shorts (both about a size too large). You can't really tell from this picture that the dress was on backwards, but take my word for it. Needless to say, Alice and I had a good laugh.

To his credit, the routine was rudely disrupted yesterday morning when Aurora puked all over herself and his car on the way to daycare. He had to go home, clean everything up, and try to find her a new outfit. He's not normally the one who picks out her clothes, and yes - he was shopping in the wrong part of the closet. And he claims he let her pick out what she'd wear herself, which is very sweet. For those of you more concerned about the puke than the clothing situation, we strongly feel that it was just something she ate, and she's been fine ever since.

On the flip-side, here's Aurora today in one of the cutest outfits she's been able to wear in a long time, thanks to today being cooler and rainy. Yes, mommy picked out these clothes, and while I like to brag that mama's choices are more stylish and functional - I will say that it took us trying 3 different outfits to decide on this one, and Aurora did not have any say in it.

Clothing choices aside, I have to give a big shout out to Chuck for taking such great care of his daughter under less than optimal circumstances. She's lucky to have such a good daddy, and really - she can pretty much pull off any style!

Bigger and Better

Sometimes I laugh at how much I used to think Aurora was so big when she was really just a teeny tiny little thing! NOW she's big.

Okay, so she's still pretty small, but she certainly is getting bigger fast. One of the more fun parts about her growing (both physically and mentally) is shopping and buying the things she needs for the "next phase." To all of you who are waiting until you're financially stable to have kids, it's not a bad idea. Not because you NEED all the bells and whistles - I mean, hand-me-downs and used stuff is great, and not everything is a necessity. But graduating from one stage to the next is great fun and I'm constantly amazed by the changes that happen before our eyes every single day.

This weekend I bought a toddler bedding set that fits in her crib, and includes a bottom sheet, top sheet, comforter and pillow case. Yes, that means we bought her a pillow! As an infant, we'd been dressing her warmly and leaving her each night in a stark bed with no suffocation hazards. Now that she's a big girl and nights are getting longer and cooler, it was time to make her crib into a real bed. It's amazing how much bigger she seems to me because of it!

Her new pillow and blankie are so comfy that when it's time to wake up in the morning, Aurora buries her head in the pillow and says "Nuh Night." It's adorable. She's on her way to becoming a teenager! Chuck says he looks forward to sleeping in on weekends again.

Another thing she did this weekend was climb up on a counter height dining room chair so that she could eat with us. First, who knew she was such a sturdy climber? And second, she has her own little table and chairs and I didn't realize that it mattered to her if she ate with us or not!

So, we went out and got her a booster seat. Now she can sit at the dining room table with us. Not only does it add height, but it also has safety straps. Nice!

Why can't every weekend be a 3-day weekend?

I guess we really didn't do a whole lot, but I for one really enjoyed the extra time off. We hung out with Bethany and her family at the beginning of the weekend...

And ended with a seafood boil at one of Chuck's coworkers homes...

It's still a bit too warm, but we had plenty of shade, cool beverages, activities and friends.

In between... we ran errands, cleaned the house, and just hung out. I'm getting ready to redo Aurora's bathroom (AKA the guest bath), so I spent some time making decisions on tile, paint and fixtures. I read a lot, drank wine, sat on the balcony, and Aurora helped with yard work. Something about that extra day off just makes it a little bit harder to think about going to work tomorrow, but at least it'll be a short week!

Notes from Alice

Everyday when I pick Aurora up from daycare, I take home a "Daily Report" which outlines what she ate, how long she napped, and well, the specifics of her diaper changes. All good information to have! At the bottom of the form there's a fill-in spot where Alice can tell me what fun activities Aurora may have participated in. Apparently I'm one of the few parents who actually reads it, so Alice has been leaving me some pretty awesome comments recently. Here are a few of my favorites...

- Today I taught my friends to say "a book a book a book a book."
- Today I jumped with both feet off the ground!
- Today I practiced counting ("two!")
- Today I enjoyed pointing out objects in books - but refused to believe the whale was not a fish.

Of course, there will be no official "Daily Report" for the next few days, as it's Labor Day weekend! But perhaps I'll update the blog a little more often if we end up doing anything fun or interesting. Enjoy your weekend, loyal readers!

Gooby-eyed Girl

Yesterday Aurora's teacher warned me to keep an eye on her eye. I guess it was no surprise that she woke up this morning miserable with red, puffy, goopiness. We've been through this before and knew that daycare would be a no go, so I made the earliest doctor appointment possible, and Chuck took Aurora in for an 8am with Dr. Sood.

She didn't use the words 'pink eye' or 'conjunctivitis,' but she did prescribe eye drops which have already been making a difference. We have to give them to her every 4-hours for 5-days, and as you can imagine, it's not her favorite thing ever...

The good thing is that she should be able to go back to daycare tomorrow. And all things considered, today wasn't the busiest day for me or Chuck, so that worked out. Friday, yesterday or tomorrow would've been rough. Here's hoping tomorrow's a healthy eye day!!!