Full Of It - Literally

Some girls dream and hope for sweet texts from their husbands. I dream of two very special words.

She pooped.

I wish these were daily messages, but not in my world which revolves around my daughter's bowels.

I can almost see cyberspace light up and jump forward to share with me their "tried and true" methods. As much as I would love to find something that works without fail that really isn't the point of this point because, believe me, we've tried it all. Prune juice, dark karo syrup, 2 tbls of Miralax a day, fruit, fiber bars and pop tarts, dates, dried mango and apricots, suppositories, enemas (as a last resort), breaking things up digitally (don't ask), Vaseline, limited meat (we haven't completely limited dairy because a. my child loves cheese and b. we want her to get calcium), fruit, Apple Juice, Warm water, prayer, Kashi cereal (this has actually worked the best but a what a toddler will eat from one day to the next varies greatly on her mood), cookie recipes found online and on and on.

On top of everything else it's a constant guessing game. I feel like my child is one of those science fair volcanoes and I am pouring 18 different things in it to get a reaction. Sometimes I get nothing and others I have a mess on my hands for two days to come.

In the midst of all of my mad science there is a baby girl that is honestly suffering. She goes into the corner and kicks her leg and says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry". We all are quick to comfort her with "it's GOOD, Poopie is GOOD! It's ok!" Even Oakley will go in there and try to give her a poopie pep talk.

Yes, I've talked to her doctor about this many times. That's where the miralax was prescribed. She isn't as concerned about the constipation itself but more about how hard potty training will be if we don't get it under control. And at this point I know we're in for a fight because she's holding it. And who can blame her? It hurts her. And if something hurts? Don't do that.

OK, so maybe I do need advice. Maybe I do need some more beakers of ammo for my finicky volcano. More than anything I want to take the pain and negative connotations away.

...

How crappy is it when you suck at updating your own blog? That's like having to take credit for the crusty toothpaste in the sink. Yes, it's mine... I didn't feel the need to take care of it. Guilty.

We survived the holidays and I have to say that hands down the best thing about it was having Oakley Christmas morning. Our Christmas's with him are always my favorite. We also made the decision that we were not leaving Christmas day. We weren't going to introduce the kids to all of their gifts and then make them shower, get dressed and leave them behind for the day. We lounged and had a wonderful dinner at home. It was perfect.

Evie newsletters will follow... for reals. I imagine there will be pictures and a lot of other random dribble. Stay tuned!

Volume II

Holiday Bows

Starting this week I will officially have my bows in a darling little shop called The Green Monkey. I am working quickly to make more bows since I went through most of my stock at the pumpkin patch. I sold all of my Thanksgiving bows but have made a few more. If you are interested I can modify them however you would like. There are a few more examples also. I will be focusing mainly on Christmas bows but I am open to custom orders.

2 Years Old

Dear Evie,

3 Years ago mommy and daddy got married. I also said vows to Oakley ("Klee" as you call him).Those promises I made to Oakley I also made to you the moment I found out I was pregnant. I promised to be the best mommy that I could and to try to model a good marriage for you. You know that mommy and daddy do not have the perfect marriage but we are both determined to give you two the best life possible. I feel like you give back to us in ten fold. You are such a source of joy and pride.


You've always been a talker. If there is a room full of people you will be heard. If there is a key speaker you will talk over them. But now the babbling has turned to words and I feel like I have to do a double take when you ask me a question and I answer you. Soon I will be having conversations for you and I'm so excited for that. I know that you will have lots of questions and I promise you that I will do my best to answer them honestly. For the really tough ones? Go ask your father. :)


In the past few days you've started to speak in sentences. "Bye dad, going to take a shower" as you wave and saunter away. Some of your words aren't so clear. Like Swiper, Swiper the Fock. When you yell "Fock" during Dora it always needs an explanation to follow. You love, love to brush your teeth but brush teeth comes out as shees shees? And if we don't get the toothpaste on quick enough? SHEES SHEES!

We've tried to take on potty training and you went pee pee on the potty! Once. And haven't since. That wasn't fair to make mommy so hopeful. Now I ask 20 times a day and nothing. Everything that I ask is followed by "no". You want to go potty? "no potty" Do you want cereal? "no cereal" Do you want a million dollars? "no million dollars". Yes the last one actually happened. I just had to check to make sure it wasn't just me. Turns out it is. And the rest of the entire world.

There have been signs that the terrible two's are upon us. There was on Saturday in particular where all I could do was shake my head and sigh. You were impossible. If there is a toddler academy somewhere you are definitely up for the award. The dramatics of it all! The worst are the morning escapades when nothing I do is right and everything is met by meltdowns. Evidentally that is not the sippy cup you wanted and once I get the right one I wasn't supposed to hand it to you but set it on the table so that YOU could pick it up. All of this while trying to get you out the door and myself to work. Don't be surprised if one day I pick you up and throw you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and run out the door. I can hear it now "no sack potatoes"
I love you so much sweetheart and you were the best anniversary gift that I could have ever asked for. I am looking forward to all of our conversations.

Love, Mama

22 Months

Dear Evie,

You are just shy of 22 months, Mommy has to stop and think for both of us when someone asks our age. I remember when I knew how many weeks and days old you were.

At the beginning of the month we took a road trip to Utah and Nevada for your great grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary party. I can't explain to you how important it was for me to be able to be there... other than to say that I would do the hellacious 11 hour drive again in a heartbeat if I had to. Why was it hellacious? It could have something to do with Miss Stubborn-no-sleeping-Chatterbox-Screaming-and-throwing-things-girl. I think I'm brilliant and decided that we should leave at 3:00 am so that the kids would sleep for a good leg of the trip. You decided that was just silly and proceeded to stay awake for nearly 24 hours straight. You were so delirious the next morning at my cousin's house that you honestly couldn't walk. But, you might miss something on this grand adventure so you continued to scream and talk in order to keep yourself awake. You even flailed a bit to wake yourself up and gave mommy a fat lip in the middle of the night.


And then there were the family pictures. I was so stressed out about these pictures that I couldn't breathe. I could just see everyone standing and smiling while a blonde streak ran out of the shot. We got you to stay.... however you are sitting on a toy car with candy on the steering wheel.

You are "spirited" to say the least. You have always been a little girl that knows exactly what she wants. You also know how to work the cute card to get it. And your cute card is a doozy!

You are saying so many words and mini-sentences. What you say mostly is OH WOW! or Oh Wow wow! What's that? You love "Klee" (Oakley) and throwing dirt from your sandbox on the dog. You are not afraid of bugs, water or daddy raising his voice.

There is so much more to tell you but you are yelling in your crib and mommy has house work to do. I will write more soon... or soonish.

Love, Mama

Pictures and More Bow Info...

Ok, so here are some samples. I can customize them however you'd like. I can also do a summer set, holiday set, dance set, etc. The two different types of clips are pictured too. I can also add non-slip material if the clip will be used on a very small child or someone with extremely fine hair.