Real underwear

I bought my little girl some REAL underwear yesterday, and she went to the potty every time. I am so proud of her. I don't know what will happen today (she's been up since 6am), but I am hopeful that she will go to the bathroom like she did yesterday. She did not sleep very well last night, it would be nice if she took a nap but I doubt it. Tomorrow I'm going to have a mom's day. My mother-in-law has volunteered to keep her for several hours and give me some mom time. I've never had that before I wonder what I will do with myself. I'll probably catch up on my soap opera's and watch a movie that I have on DVD. I seldom get to watch any television programing that doesn't involve Dora the explorer or SpongeBob Squarepants.

Potty time

I am in the process of Potty training my little girl. It is not easy. She has got herself half way there. Let's put it this way. I have not changed a poopy diaper in several months, but a pee pee diaper. That is another story. I would rather change a pee pee diaper than a poopy diaper though. She walked up to me this morning and said "Mommy I'm peeing." Of course I rushed to the potty and you guessed it, too late. I think I am going to have to start a timer and take her every two hours. It may sound bad but I think that is what they do with the residents at the nursing homes. Hey if it works go with it.

Children are a Blessing

The one thing I can say about children, if they find something that they like they stick to it. Yesterday my little girl played with play dough all day. She changed the colors that she played with and several times and had to wash her hands. She was so content it was wonderful to have a day to myself, or at least a day where I could to things around the house. Sometimes I will play with her and it can be fun. I remember playing with play-dough when I was a child. It fuels your imagination and that is what so many children don't know how to do in today's society. Children are taught computers and nothing else. Right now my little girl is at the age where she needs her imagination. It is how she plays. Sometimes I could just watch her for hours and never get tired. Sometimes she will catch me though and she will look at me with those big blue eyes and say "Mommy do you want to play with me?" It at times like those that she just melts my heart. These times are precious. It seems like only yesterday sometimes that I was up all night pacing the floor trying to get her to sleep, and now here she is three years old and growing more every day. When my husband and I discovered she was on the way we did not know what to do or how we would manage, but you find a way. We do not know what we would do without her. She fills our lives more now than we ever thought possible. It's true children are a blessing.

Parents are special too

Yesterday I went to my in-laws to help shell peas, and of course my little girl went with me. She tried to help but it's no use, at three years old it is not exactly the easiest thing for her to do. She did have a good time though, but most children have a good time at their grandparents house. I think they were the happiest when she sat down and ate lunch with them, (which is something she usually does not do). On top of that My parents got back from a trip to Connecticut (they were gone a week). My dad has family up there and his godmother died not to long ago. He wanted to offer his condolences and see his aunt and uncle. My dad has retired and he is enjoying his retirement. I am glad for him and my mother both. They need to get out and enjoy themselves, you never know when your health could stop you from doing anything. It is nice that they live so close to me. Sometimes you forget just how much your parents mean to you until they are gone or you do not have any contact with them for several days. I usually call my mom everyday it's just habit. If I don't call her she calls me. My husband is the same way he usually talked to one of his parents at least once a day. I know they will not be here forever so I guess we talk to them every day or almost everyday and that way we have no regrets about never speaking to them at all, I know that there are some people that can't say that.

SpongeBob, Spiderman and Cars

My little girl has developed a variety of interest. She watched SpongeBob ALL day and if is isn't SpongeBob it is Spider-Man. I started to take her Spider-Man poster down the other day and she begged me not to. "Please I need Spider-Man in here." So Spider-Man stayed, she did let me move him to another wall though, now she can look at Spider-Man while she is laying in the bed. I guess I need to get her a SpongeBob poster. She has a Tinkerbell, Cars and a Spider-Man. (It was my idea to put Tinkerbell in her room.) I'm not that surprised that she likes the movie Cars. Even to an adult it's a good movie. At her age her interest change to much. She has gotten the the point now that she wants to change clothes on average about 3 times a day. I get so aggravated sometimes because when she is changing clothes she throws everything on the floor and I can not tell the clean clothes from the dirty ones sometimes. It is so strange sometimes because she will get dressed in shorts and pink shirt, and then I turn around and she is wearing a dress and a sweater. At least the clothes match. Sometimes she will have the shoes on the wrong feet, but at the age of 3 she's doing pretty good to put them on at all.

My little girl likes BUGS

Today I took my little girl to the store and I told her I would get her a toy. What is the one thing she wants, BUGS. Oh well I guess it is my own fault, I did say what ever she wanted (within reason). I got her a bug house the other day and all she wanted to do was go outside and catch bugs. I suppose they were to hard to find so she wanted plastic ones that would not get away from her. I just wonder how long it will be before she wants to start playing with frogs.

Family Recipes

I cooked Cabbage rolls (or stuffed cabbage) yesterday. I usually do not cook them but I felt like something different, plus they are one of the few foods that taste just as good, if not better the day after. It is a recipe I got from my grandmother (she calls it Pigs in a Blanket). She said it is an old German recipe she got from my her mother-in-law and or Great Grandmother. I guess this recipe will be something I pass down to my little girl. So many things now days are not passed down. My other grandmother died almost 2 years ago and I wish will all my heart that she had taught me some of her cooking secrets or taught them to my mom so that she could have taught them to me. But she is gone and her secrets went with her. I have her old recipe book but many of the things she would cook were habit and she did not measure any of the ingredients. I long for some of her buttermilk biscuits sometimes. I know the ingrediaents she used I just don;t know how much she used. I am hopeful that one day I will figure it out.

Children grow up

Well yesterday my little girl did not go around all day saying "Happy Fathers day," every time I turned around. The moment I woke her up I asked her what she wanted to do that day and without blinking an eye she said "I want to go to Daddy's shop". So Daddy took her to his shop. Talk about a happy little girl. This child loves being with her daddy. I can see it coming already. He is going to teach her all about cars and drag racing, and then she will be the one behind the wheel winning races instead of him. It will be several years before she can officially race a real drag car. She needs to have a drivers license first and that is 13 years away. It may seam like a long time, but the one thing I have learned since becoming a parent, time really does fly. I'll look at her baby pictures and sometimes it is hard to believe that at one time she was that small.

Happy Fathers Day

Well today is Father's day. The day has just started and I am looking forward to a great day. My little girl doesn't understand what this day means but then she is only 3. Earlier this year on mothers day she kept saying. "Happy Mothers day to me," even when Mothers day had past. I wonder if she will do the same thing when she says "Happy Fathers day". I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'm luckier than some people I still have my father with me. Growing up I was always a Daddy's girl, and I really do think that my little girl will be a Daddy's girl as well. If she is given a choice of staying with Daddy or Mommy. She will usually pick Daddy every time. I guess part of the reason is that she doesn't see him as much as she sees me,because he is at work, also when he is in his shop there is so much for her to see and do.

Mommy and Daddy's shadow

The one thing I have learned since becoming a mother is that children imitate absolutely everything that they see you do. If my little girl sees me writing she has to get a piece of paper and write too. If she sees me washing dishes she just has to help, and if her daddy is in his shop working on a car she has to get a screwdriver and work on something as well. I was planting some plants in my flower bed yesterday and she just had to help. What she could not understand was that you don't step in the plants after you plant them in the ground, and you certainly do not pull all the roots off. I understand she is only trying to help, also it is the way that she learns. Children can also be very smart, sometimes too smart. I baked some cookies yesterday and I turn my back for a few seconds and there are tiny finger size holes in several of the cookies that were fresh out of the oven. I look at my little girl and ask her "What happened here?" She did admit to what she had done, but from her point of view she had a very good reason. "These are the cookies I want to eat," she informed me.

My Little Artist

Fathers day is fast approaching. I took my little one shopping for a father's day gift yesterday and she picked something. I don't think she will tell him what it is this time because it isn't a toy(unlike the cat she picked earlier this week). I'm going to tell him that she picked it out all by herself and that will make the item all the more special. It's funny how a small thing that your child will go can mean so much. She will sometimes sit for hours with a pen and paper and simply draw pictures. She has started insisting that I place her artwork on the refrigerator which is getting pretty full of her artistic works. When she first started drawing she did write on a wall with some crayons and I can assure you that crayola washable crayons really are washable. There was no trace of the mark when I washed it from the wall. Anyway she now knows that she is suppose to write on paper. I usually buy copy paper it's cheaper and you can buy 500 sheets at a time which means it will last longer than a few days.

A little college help

Like so many parents I want a better life for my daughter. I never attended college and my husband attended college and received a two year degree. We want more for our child. When she was several months old I started a savings account for her. It wasn't much but the way I felt it's better than nothing. Then I was grocery shopping one day and I saw something on the grocery buggy. It said UPROMICE for college. Well I went to the site to check it out. All I had to do was put in my grocery card number, and certain retailers would deposit money into an account for her, plus I did not have to put in a SS#. True it's not much but she's so young now. I told my mother-in-law and she signed up as well. I know it will not pay her entire college but maybe it will pay for some of her books, regardless anything will help no matter how small. An education now days is very expensive. You need all the help you can get no matter how small.

A gift for Daddy

Yesterday I took my little girl to get her daddy his fathers day gift. For some reason she said she wanted to get him a robot. So we went to Wal-Mart in search of one. Sorry a robot she was happy with could not be found. She did however find a stuffed animal that she wanted him to have. It is cat that is about 2 inches tall and is all white. When he got in from work yesterday she could not wait until fathers day to give it to him, she wanted to give it to him then. Well he placed his new cat on a shelf next to a model car. Children can be so impatient sometimes, but them sometimes adults can be as well.

Simmons Racing

This is the side door panel of my husbands drag car.

A Secure Child

We had a big rain last night. The power went out and it was the first time that it did for any extended period of time that my little girl could remember in her short life so far. After my husband and I assured her that the lights would come back on she was fine. She got her legos out and she went to playing with them. I think I was more afraid that she was. I would hear a pop of thunder and I would jump, I'd look at her and she would be steady putting her lego's together. It is amazing how children can be so secure when they know that Momma and Daddy are close by. I guess it is only that way when you have a child that is happy and truly secure. So many children don't have both parents at home and have no idea what it is like to have a father's love. What makes it so bad is what many mothers don't want a father in the lives of their children. What they fail to realize is that a child needs a father just as much as a child needs a mother.

A new day

Today on Facebook I saw the pictures of a a friend of mine who welcomed a new baby girl (his only child). He and his wife have been married a year or two longer than my husband and I have. I must say he and his wife are in for a surprise. I hope that they slept good until now because after that baby gets home they will not be getting much. Even now with my little one three years old I have not been able to sleep through the night. She wakes up around 2 am and calls for momma, so I go in there and I usually find her sitting up in bed, when she sees me, she reaches for me and when I hold her she settles back down and goes to sleep. I usually fall asleep holding her. It is a wonderful feeling holding your child like that.

Home grown food is best

I am so glad that my little girl likes veggies. When I grew up my parents never ate fresh veggies it was always veggies in a can. Since I have been married my husband has introduced me to growing veggies (along with many other things). Our garden is small my most standards, but it's big enough for us and plus the food is so much better. Her favorite food is broccoli. This year as it was growing she would look at it and say "Momma I'm gonna eat that" and she did. It did disappear rather quickly once she sat at the table for dinner. She will eat it raw or cooked. We have peas planted this year I already know that they will be good, they always are.

Racing in the South

Well my husband has a race in Darlington, SC this weekend. It's only about an hour away so it won't be an overnight trip. If my little girl knew he was going to the drag strip she would be begging to go. At only three-years old she loves the race track. I guess it's my fault. She has been going to the race track since before she was born. I remember the last time we took her to the race in Rockingham, NC. All she wanted to do was watch the "Fast Cars". I keep telling my husband he better watch out, she will be racing as soon as her feet can touch the gas. She is a Daddy's girl and I could not be happier.

another day

Yesterday was something else. Everyday my little girl has a tantrum. Usually it's around 2pm but yesterday it was around 5pm. I was cooking dinner and all she wanted to do was cry, whine, and yell. I told her if you wanted to act that way she could just go to her room. Long story short she sat on the couch and whimpered, them Spongebob came on and it was as if nothing had ever been wrong. Some parents think that sitting a child in front of the TV is wrong. True it can be bad, but sometimes a parent needs a break. If the TV can hold your childs attention for only an hour, that may be the only hour you get to do anything without interruption. Sometimes parents needs some time alone.

My little girl is growing

Well it's been a while since I have posted anything. I figured why not start back. My little girl is growing up so fast. It's true they don't stay little long. At her last checkup back in March she was 3 feet tall, I measures her several days ago and she has already grown another 2 inches. Talk about a growing girl. I know she was getting tall, I just didn't epect her to be that much taller in such a short amount of time. Sometimes I just want to sit and watch her, because I'm afraid I'm going to miss something. Beware parents, your children grow up FAST, if you don't slow down once in a while and spend time with them they will be grown up before you know it and then you will wonder where all the time went.