birthday eve

So today is the eve of my birthday and.. coincidentally the eve of a new calendar year. Double whammy for me with the whole starting over/resolution thing. I usually don't like making resolutions, because I hate to start a year with unrealistic expectations and then have the beginning marred with disappointment. Hi, I'm pessimistic and why is my glass always half empty? This year, however I feel resolution-ie! I've been compiling a pretty impressive list in my notebook. Really though how can a list of resolutions compete with the other list of... what I want for my birthday! Hehe.

Wish List:
I want world peace.
I want a new phase for Ara so we can stop with the "no-want-um" attitude!
I want the world to promise to be kind to my baby girl.
I want one of those pedometer watches that shows how fast and far you are going and how many calories you have burned!
I want carbs to be good for you.

Oh oh oh.. yesterday my good return karma kicked in. I had just started to accept that I really had lost my iPod forever since it had been gone since before Christmas. Then I was packing up my flute bag after practicing and I noticed there was something inside the zipper pocket. BAM it's my pretty pod! A looked a little disappointed when I came bouncing into the room with it, he says he had planned to buy me a new iPod for my birthday which is super sweet!

Through a Haze of Cold and Tiredness.

I'm starting to really freak out about how little I am practicing for my pic concerto. Freak out gogogo!

Ara and I were down in the dumps yesterday all sick and grumpy and tired and did I mention grumpy?

So yesterday morning, probably around 10 am I notice my phone is saying I have a voice mail. It's A's Brother in law saying that we are all having dinner tomorrow night at 5:30pm at blahblah restaurant. I knew the 27th was her birthday but I just assumed they picked Friday to do dinner. Wrong. 5:15pm rolls around and we are all in the car headed home and we get a call from A's Mom... who is at the restaurant. We have a fight because A is annoyed that I misunderstood the message and I am annoyed that he has the audacity to be annoyed with me for that (plus I'm sick and generally annoyed at anything in my path). I was dressed particularly bummy and my hair was a mess, and I was like... "no way am I going into a nice place looking like this!" The whole time this is happening Ara is like having a melt down fit in the back seat, which makes for a really nice calming ambiance lol. In my head I'm thinking about how A chose to go to his Mom's for Christmas instead of coming with Ara and me to my Dad's like we had planned (this was after his sister's morning thing with all of his family). I was pretty pissed about that and dropping him off at a restaurant with grumpy screaming Ara is feeling like a pretty good plan to me. As I watched him trying to clean her face with a wipey I started to melt a little. Sure, I felt like he bailed on Christmas but they might need me since baby girl was so cranky. Plus, his Mom would probably hold it against me for the rest of my life. So, I brushed my hair and threw on a headband put on my jacket and went inside. While we were sitting at the table I wished I could sink into the floor. I had visions of pulling my jacket over my head and slumping down in my chair. The restaurant was called Zona, and it reeked of something stinky and fishy. All the waitresses had their hair in the "don't I look cute with my super messy pony-tail" and kind of made me thing of like.. I don't know some sort of softball team or something. Ara was quiet and clingy and sweet. She didn't eat a thing. The food was good and brother-in-law's parents found a root in their salad so they got their meals for free. I'm really tired.. I planned on going to bed an hour ago and I've already forgotten where I was going with this story.

A Pile of Presents

Christmas was exhausting!

Ara got a bazillion presents including a new wardrobe and trains of every size.

We did our usual family musical chairs, it is so tiring having parents that are not together. I saw my Mom, we took showers at A's Mom's, then we saw A's dad at his sisters house.. then we hauled ass to my Dad's to cook dinner (since our water was still off, a whole separate issue) and this was just Christmas eve! Our water pipes have broken on the roof 3 times this week alone. We have gone a total of 6 days without water.. which is annoying to say the least. I don't pretend to know anything about pipes or plumbing.. but I think I know enough to say.. our land lord sucks. Well we have water now, and we are catching up on all the lost sleep!

The end.

A Fishy Night.

Update:
My Grandma is in town from California. This makes me happy.
Christmas shopping is done.
Tomorrow is clean/laundry for the holiday. This makes me tired.
I'm a sicky. Achy, low fever, grumpy, and tired.
I had dinner with Megan on Monday.
I've been watching the Christmas episodes of Friends from my DVD's.


Ara Update:
Ara jumped in her first jumping castle with the big kids!
She says it was a "little scary".
She might be getting sick too.


So last week we had Ara spend a night over at my Dad's so that A and I could have a night alone to relax before he went back to work. We had dinner at Chilli's and then watched the latest Borne movie with all our favorite movie time snacks. It was really nice but it felt like time flew by and before we knew it we were picking Ara up the next morning. She had caused some havoc and everyone looked exhausted. Apparently in the middle of the night she slipped out of bed and found the "Mommy backpack (or packpack as Ara calls it). She rummaged around until she found a packet of instant oatmeal I had packed for her breakfast. She then crawled into Papa's bed and covered him in oatmeal while he slept. He woke up feeling something wasn't right and then was surprised to find his face covered in dry oatmeal. He coaxed her back to bed and promptly fell asleep. Ara wasn't sleepy yet though.. and I'm guessing she felt that she needed some moisturizing because her next exploration trip took her to the bathroom, where you guessed it.. she found the scented lotion. Once again she climbed in bed with Papa where she coated herself in lotion. Her hair, face, pajamas, and of course her hands. My Dad awoke again and reach out in the darkness when he touched Ara he pulled his hand back. He says when he touched something cold and slimy he thought he had touched a fish or something. I chuckle a little about that lol. At least it was lotion she had in his bed and not a slimy fish from the refrigerator I guess. With a 2 year old it is always best to consider how much worse a situation could be and then try to be thankful instead of irritated!

Sweet.

A friend suggested these to me.. the first made me cry and the second made me smile.

Birdie can Fly

Ara's birdie helped her to fly to the top of a play place and he even helped her down the long tunnel slide. It was adorable and I felt so proud. She also saw some kids eating ice cream and she looked confused. She asked me, "yukky?" because we always try to look un-happy whenever she sees us eating it lol.

The next time we let her loose in a play place, she played the "I'm in here you can't get me" card. I gave her the 5 minute warning as usual, then went I asked her to come out she gave me a little grin and climbed higher. Oh the power struggle that in sued. I tried using "authoritative Mom voice" but she knew she had the upper hand. So.. I had to climb inside the plastic tunnels, all the while feeling so self conscience about the view of my butt I was giving the restaurant. I will think twice about the next time I let her loose in one of those!

Ara knows the entire first verse of Jingle Bells now and she sings it whenever we pass Christmas lights. She is so festive! We are going to get our tree tonight hopefully... it sucks that it has been raining the past few days. It's cold, wet, and muddy. I usually LOVE rain in the desert but after a few days without sunshine I start to jones for some sun.

A taught Ara about names and she says my name so cute.. I squeal every time she says it. I know this will probably back fire on me and she will stop calling me Momma lol.

I feel lazy today.. it's raining and the house is cold. I don't want to stay here and clean for my student. I want to go somewhere.. like a craft store and buy things.

Blue

I had a really hard day yesterday with Ara. She is really testing her limits, I feel like every time I turn around she is doing something she knows she shouldn't. The part that is really getting to me though is the hitting. We are kind of at our wits end with her hitting and kicking. Time out seems completely ineffective, she can escape from the play pin, putting her in a chair results in more hitting, and sending her to her room full of toys is well.. that's obvious. We talk about how in our family we use words to express ourselves not hitting. I ask her "Do we hit in our family?" and she says, "nooooo" but the words mean nothing to her. My best/only tactic at the moment is walking away and letting her flail alone (in a safe place obviously). You wouldn't think that a little 2 year old could even hurt me but she can! She kicks me in the boobs when I change her diaper, and 2 days ago she hit me in the jaw with her head so hard I tasted blood. So she hits.. and if she hurts me and gets a reaction she will laugh. I know.. that she is in a stage where distinguishing between people and inanimate objects is hard, but it is still disheartening. I don't understand.. we don't hit her, we don't spank, we don't even yell. She has no siblings or preschool kids to set a bad example so where did she learn the hitting? She acts on impulse which is completely age appropriate so the question is; how do we teach her consequences?

Today wasn't so bad, I took her to a play group at the library and she had a great time and has even made progress with participating in (frustrating) circle time. I feel tired though.. and a little bummed.

On a different note: A was telling me he wants to get new Christmas lights. I love any sentence with "new" and "Christmas" in it. He was reading that these new LCD lights are safer and more energy efficient. I think it is SOOOO cute that he is doing Christmas safety research. I also have to get a new fake tree because putting lights on an aluminum tree is dangerous. It makes perfect sense but it never occurred to me! Plus Ara destroyed the tree anyway. She likes cause and effect. "

What will happen if I knock over the tree.
Oh, it falls over.

What will happen if I turn over this bowl of cereal?
Oh, everything falls out and Momma looks exasperated. (cool)

What will happen if I fill my mouth with water and spit it?
It shoots everywhere! (awesome)

She is a little scientist.