Little Healer

My daughter - she is so sweet! Even though I'm the parent and technically the one who is supposed to be imparting good values, I am surprised by how often I feel like she is reminding me of whats important. My little girl is full of love and compassion. As her mama I get to enjoy hugs, cuddles, and kisses all day long, but more than that, she appears to genuinely care about others. Of course, she does squabble and fight with other two year olds from time to time, but when it comes to her family she is very in tune with other's feelings and is quick to take up the role of healer when someone is sad.

The other day we made a special trip to specific grocery store to find our favorite brand of jam. When we got to the jam and bread aisle, I discovered that they had stopped carrying it. I wasn't pleased and Heidi could tell.

 "Whats wrong mommy?" she asked, visibly concerned from her baby seat in the grocery cart.

 "They're out of our jam!" I answered with my best frowny face.

"Oh nooooo!!" she exclaimed and put her hand on my arm and slowly started to rub it in a reassuring manner."Its ok mommy... Its ok" and she just kept rubbing. 

Nearby a middle aged hispanic woman's draw dropped. "I raised 6 six kids and none of them ever did that to me." 

It isn't uncommon for her to take one of our sighs or sniffles when we are tired or sick as a clear indicator that we are upset. Sometimes I forget that she is constantly watching and paying attention to us and am genuinely surprised when she says "Mommy are you ok? Mommy are you crying?" And even though I will answer her "No, I'm just tired baby" or "No, I'm just sick" she still responds with "Oh, its ok mommy! when we get home I will go in the kitchen and get you something to make you feel better!" 

Maybe its because nurturing others is not something that comes easily to me, but I find her ability to be so aware of people inspiring. I think she is going to be very special. I think her love for others will make her shine throughout her life. I can't wait to see how she uses it. 

Saying Goodbye

She did it. She traded the binkies in for a new toy. I feel like I wasn't ready for this milestone. This one was my husband's call. She had become quite dependent on them lately (slightly obsessed) and he figured it wasn't going to improve by itself so he called a date for the affair to end and it did.

She has not been happy about it. We gathered her binkies together and told her we were going to take her to the toy store to get a new toy and that she would give her binkies to the lady at the toy store and that she would get a new toy. She was thrilled with the idea, and then with her toy, it wasn't until bedtime that she realized what the exchange entailed. It broke my heart when she told me "I don't want my new toy I just want my binky".

I guess we have to take it away at some point. Just can't help feeling so sad. She isn't a baby anymore.

Oh motherhood, so bittersweet.

Playing Done Right

 I'm not that great at playing, honestly, but my husband is really good at it. Every night when Daddy comes home she runs up to him and says "Daddy I want you to pray with me!! I LOOOVE it when you pray with me!" (Thats not a typo. She pronounces her Ls like Rs for some reason). Pretty much the cutest thing ever. My husband is definitely the fun parent.

I took these photos last night, but the funniest part of the evening wasn't caught in photo. After we put Heidi to bed I decided to be funny. In an attempt to make my husband laugh, I got into bed and threw the giant bear on top of me in a somewhat suggestive manner and called Austin into the room. Laugh he did. And then he went into a jealous rage and started beating up my teddy lover. In a typical UFC fashion he took Teddy and threw him over his head to body slam him on the floor, but when Teddy went over Austin's head he smashed our glass chandelier into a thousand tiny pieces.

Teddy survived, but we did have to extract quite a few shards out of his coat.

Summer Has Been Summery

To the people who have been giving me reminders about posting on my blog: thank you for the push! I miss doing this and your words have helped me remember that and because of you, here I am writing and recommitting myself to blogging. So here we go people. I’m back! (and this time I mean it!)

Summer has been very summery. I’m proud of myself this summer for not being my usual hermit self and for actually going out and doing summery things. My new job of managing the Beach House has brought to my attention that people spend a lot of money to vacation here for a week or two just to enjoy the town that I call home. Most of the people who stay at the Beach House fly here from all over the US and then spend quite a bit renting a car, renting a house, eating out, etc. just so they can enjoy the California Coast lifestyle! To think I have lived here on the coast for the past 5 years and haven’t really been taking advantage of it, let alone appreciating it the way that these people do. After I had this epiphany I became determined to take advantage of where I live more often. And I did just that.

Heidi has been grateful ever since. 

Strawberry Picking

Is there anything cuter?

 

Bubblegum Baby

I have been so busy lately with unpacking and getting the beach house up and running that I haven't had much time for pictures lately. Today, I decided that needed to change. Sometimes you just need to reevaluate your priorities and adjust accordingly. Heidi will only be 2 for another 5 months. I need to capture some of this!

 She is so adorable right now. She recently hit an intellectual milestone and she is like a whole new child. Its amazing how suddenly the changes show up.

Things we are loving:

How she answers "yah!" in the sweetest little girl voice ever to everything (so glad it isn't no anymore!)

How she suggests what restaurants we should go to for dinner "Mommy I'm hungry we better go to El Cajellon and get some food."

How she imitates her nana all the time. She will walk up to a random pile of toys and go "Oh no!! Who did this? Who made this mess?! I better clean it"

How she reacts when we've finished cleaning a room: "Wow! Mommy! This is preeeeeetty!"

How she will pick up random items and call them her "little baby" and cradle it in her arms. She did this to a doorstop about a week ago. Then she put the doorstop in time out until she was ready to be a good girl.

How she can go and use the potty all by herself! (Waiting until she can pull down her own pants has its advantages!)

How she apologizes as soon as she realizes she has done something wrong.

Watching her role play. This little girl could be an actress. We were playing with a pretend princess curling iron like we do all the time and I said "careful don't let it burn you!" and then she pretended she burned herself and burst into tears (real tears) and then told me she needed fruit snacks to help her feel better.

How she will pretend her stuffed toys are hungry for cookies and fruit snacks if we have already denied her own requests for these things. 

How she makes up her own words like "Yawesome" (Yummy + Awesome) to tell us something is delicious and  "Momdy" (Mommy + Daddy) when she wants to address both of us at the same time.


Things she is loving:

Bambi (obsessed!)

Her Noah's Ark Toy

Her stuffed frog

Chocolate Milk

Cheesy Strawberries (Cottage Cheese and Strawberries)

Fruit Snacks (asks for them all day long)

Legoland Water Park

"Our new house"... "Mommy are we going to our new house? Yay!!! I love our new house!"