The latest on the princess

In an attempt to get over myself and my dreary weather-induced grouchy mood, I thought I'd do a little Mimi update. We've both been under the weather and have been laying pretty low for the last couple of weeks so I've barely taken any photos. But for Uncle Chris' sake, and for my own memories, here's what Amelia is up to at two years and four months old (some pics were snapped with my phone, so not great quality): 

• She's totally potty trained- Yay! We had been working on it casually since the fall, and she was doing pretty good when I would take her to potty, but not great at telling me when she had to go on her own. One weekend I got serious and decided we were going to knock it out, and we did. I wouldn't call the whole thing an easy process, but when her stubborn little self decided she was really ready, she was done with diapers and pull-ups for good. Very few accidents since then, and she even wears her big girl panties through the night. Such a big milestone for our big girl!




Quick snap before church with her purse. Mama doesn't have to carry a diaper bag anymore!

• Her behavior is improving. Can I get an amen? She still has her set-backs here and there, but I have to say, along with being more independant with going potty, she has been throwing fewer tantrums and seems to be minding so much better. I will enjoy these small victories while we have them, but I'm not patting myself on the back just yet. I hear age three is worse than two.

Meltdown in the kitchen during one of her "setbacks"

• She has started naming her baby dolls and it is so precious. Before, every baby's name was just "Baby." Now all of a sudden she is giving them names. Her favorites are baby Audrey and baby Annalee (annawee). I have no idea where she came up with them, as we don't know anyone with these names, and I don't think I've heard them on any TV shows that she's watched. She did name one of her dolls Gracie Sherman, after a girl in her class. But I haven't heard her call that doll by that name since then. Audrey and Annawee are in the main rotation right now. My favorite is when all of a sudden she'll say, "Oh, I hear baby Audrey crying! I better go get her." And she'll run to her room, or wherever to get her. She holds her so sweet and snuggles her. I love that she has an active imagination.

A happy day in the kitchen while Mama cooks. Baby Gracie Sherman is beside her.

• She is still saying more hilarious things every day. I've got to do a better job at writing them down between blog posts. Yesterday she told me, "You look cute, Mama!" and later, "I wike your curly hair." She will also say, "Iwuvyousomuch" really fast, and in a sing/song voice. So sweet. She told me the other day when I came to get her after spending the night at my parents' house, "I'm so glad you're here, Mama." Melted me! Then of course she lost it when she realized she actually had to come home. She has always had a strong opinion about her wardrobe, but lately she has just been tickled to death over how cute she looks. She'll say, "My pants are so cute!" or "Don't I look bootiful in my dress, Daddy?" Right now we just laugh and tell her how bootiful she is. We'll work on inner beauty when she's a little older. 



Leaving Pailyn's 2nd birthday party a couple of weeks ago

• She's still obsessed with politeness. Always please, thank you, you're welcome, and of course bless you after you sneeze, cough, clear your throat, whatever. She will yell it from wherever she is if she hears you. She went to church with my parents last Sunday and my dad leads the music. He sneezed while up on stage and she yelled out, "Bless you, Papa!" I know he loved it, and the whole church got a kick out of it. She also tells people to be careful as they are leaving our house.



Monster face at Pay's party

• Her favorite food right now is grits (grips), and that is about the only thing she eats very much of at all. She will eat a bite of a chicken "wugget" and some "inch fries" here and there, but she still eats like a bird most of the time. 

That's about it for what's going on with us right now. Lots of playing indoors, going to school, church and Daddy's basketball games, and wishing the weather would warm up so we can play outside!

Dream come true

If you know me at all, you know that I am a little bit obsessed with party planning. Well, the ultimate has happened for me. Ok, I am setting this up to be something so huge, and I realize that most of you will think it is so silly, ha!

My big news is that Amelia's 2nd birthday party has been featured by The TomKat Studio, a wildly popular party planning blog! She is the next big thing in party planning, so of course I am a huge fan. I've been following her for a couple of years and have gotten tons of ideas and party inspiration from her. She's been featured by the fabulous Amy Atlas, and even Martha. Yes, Martha. Y'all know I want to be Martha when I grow up (minus that whole white collar crime/jail thing).

Check out Mimi's cute face on the TomKat studio's blog here! Such an exciting day for a nerd like me!

Playdate

Last week we got a day off due to the ice storm, and this week we had MLK day. Have I mentioned lately how much I love working for a college? The only thing I love more than a four-day work week is Spring Break, and the only thing I love more than that is Christmas break. Sadly, I do have to work in the summer, so don't hate me too much. Also, our government hates us. So there's that.

Anyway, we filled our three-day weekend with as much fun as possible, and ended it up with a playdate with Pailyn. We finally had weather that allowed us to play outside and the girls had a blast.

(I swiped all these photos from Lindey from Facebook.)

I just realized from looking at their grim faces in these photos, that it looks kind of like we forced them to play, ha. Contrary to no smiles for the pics, they did have a great time playing together, and we love that we have stuff to play with in the backyard now, thanks to all Mimi's Christmas gifts. I hope you're not tired of swingset pics, because we LOVE playing on it and I have a feeling this is not the end of swing photos. 

Now that the holidays are over, we're ready to fast forward to springtime and warmer weather. Looking forward to more outside playtime and playdates with friends!

She's got moves you've never seen

I don't think I've mentioned here before what a performer Amelia is. At home, she never stops singing and talking. If there are adults in the room that are talking amongst themselves and not noticing her, she immediately thinks she needs to climb up on a table and start performing something so that everyone will look at her. I didn't have high expectations for her to participate with the Wolf Pups at the game last night since she's been terrified of the wolf all year, but lately she has just been such a ham, I thought she might actually do it. I told her about it and she has been talking about it all week. She was pumped to say the last. At their practice (when the mascot was not in his costume) she danced and giggled the whole time. Loved it. But when show time came (and he had that costume on)...

Wolfpups "performance" from Angela Furr on Vimeo.

...she FROZE. Bless her little heart, she was terrified. Of course we all died laughing, as any compassionate family members would. Fun times. The second it was over she ran into my arms.

Here are a few other pics I got of her and Daddy before the game.

Maybe she will be an athlete one day if this singing and dancing thing doesn't work out.

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, I have 3 words: NO MORE DIAPERS! Yay!

MimiTV

Amelia is in love with her swingset already, but one thing that we are getting used to is hanging out in the backyard with Cash, our rambunctious 4-year-old lab who still has a lot of puppy in him. Amelia has liked playing with him through the fence, but hasn't been a big fan of getting up close and personal with him. Until now, we've mostly played in the front yard because of that, and also we didn't really have anything to play with in the back yard. I had hoped the swingset would not only give us something to do in the backyard, but also get Amelia used to being around Cash up close without being scared.

Yesterday after school we played on the swingset until it got dark (which sadly was less than an hour. I hate when we aren't in daylight savings time. Is there a name for what we are in now? A quick internet search produced no answers for me.) and as I tried to get some video of her swinging, it turned into more video of her shooing Cash away. Surely they will be BFFs soon.

Swingin from Angela Furr on Vimeo.

Don't feel sad for her. I am not trying to torture her. But hello, we've had her for two years and the dog for four. It's time they got to know each other.

(Insert Let Mimi Swing video)

I also was able to catch Amelia "reading" one of her favorite books, Princess Baby last night. We realized a month or so ago that there are a couple of books that she can actually quote from memory. She will be sitting there flipping through and actually saying the words on the pages they appear on. I remember doing this with a few books as a child, Cinderella in particular, but I'm sure I was much older than Mimi is now. We are so amazed at how much she remembers. I've been wanting to catch it on video, but of course she always refuses to perform when I want her to. I caught a little of it last night, although it wasn't quite as verbatim as she usually does it. Pinkalicious is her other fave book right now that she pretty much knows by heart, so hopefully I'll be able to capture her "reading" that one to us soon.

Princess Baby from Angela Furr on Vimeo.

Funny Girl

Parenting a toddler is very challenging. It's almost impossible to reason with them (at least my kid anyway), their attention spans are incredibly short, they are very self-centered (at least my kid anyway), and tantrums are their way of showing their displeasure. Discipline is all about being consistent, and some kids catch on quicker than others. Mine is one of the stubborn ones, Lord help me. However, I think God knew parents of toddlers would need something to break up the difficulty, and that's why he enabled them to begin talking.

I prayed for a funny child. Of course, I prayed that she'd be healthy, first and foremost. Then of course, I hoped she'd be cute, but after that I prayed that she'd be funny. You know some kids are not, and I was really hoping we'd get a funny child. Well, we did. And I am thankful to God for the funny moments that help me keep my sanity when I just want to pull my hair out. Here's just a few snippets of converstaions that have gone on in our house in recent weeks:

• "Mama, where's your make-up?" - upon waking up and seeing that I had clothes on and my hair done, but had not yet put on make-up. Ouch.
• "You drive your car."- Amelia's distraction technique when Cliff or I notice her doing something in the back seat that she shouldn't. For me, it was when she was smashing a cookie into a million pieces by banging it on the window. When I caught her and told her to stop, she said, "You drive your car." She's tried this same technique when I've been on the computer or watching TV and catch her doing something. She'll say, "You watch that." In other words, "Don't worry about what I've got going on here. You just do what you're doing." That girl!

• "Mama, you look like an angel."- after seeing a photo of me in my wedding dress. Guess she was trying to suck up after the make-up comment.
• "Mama, your belly's sticking out."- after a big pasta supper. Ouch again.
• "I need to get in the corner!" - after getting in trouble for something. Yes, she likes to go to the corner to pout. We've got to get a new time-out spot. She also NEEDS everything. "I need to go outside and play." "I need to get some more books." "I need a cookie."
• "I need some breakfast." - she asks for a snack or breakfast at random times of the day and they mean different things to her. I think a snack means goldfish crackers and breakfast means a cereal bar, even though she has many other things other than a cereal bar for breakfast and other snacks other than goldfish.

• "Bite my butt!" - not what you're thinking. She can't say her 'f' sounds very well and she usually substitues 'f' words with the 'b' sound. She likes for us to nibble on her toes or tickle her feet and she'll say, "Bite my butt!" or "Tickle my butt!" That one was a riot at all the family holiday gatherings. She is starting to finally say 'foot,' so that joke will end soon. I did paint her toenails the other day and she said, "Oh, my butt looks so pretty!" Ha!
• "Yes my are!"- When I tell her she doesn't NEED to get a snack right before supper. Or when I tell her she can't watch another episode of Dora. That kind of back talk would warrant a spanking if it didn't make me laugh every time she says it.
• "I wike that song!"- to Cliff when he's driving and the "Thong Song" comes on (from the CD box set my friend Josh made in honor of our 10-year reunion. Just to clarify. It's not like that song comes on often or that we would choose to listen to it, although you know you know all the words.)
• "I sing it!"- when she is singing something and we try to sing along with her. She doesn't like sharing the spotlight.

I know there have been many, many more funny Mimi moments recently, but those are the main ones that come to mind. I've got to do better about recording them because this kid cracks me up!