Bean's Bike

bean got this tricycle for her birthday. it is great! however, her little legs are just to short to peddle it. even with the gigantic blocks that my dad made and attached to said peddles. this does NOT mean that bean has given up on the idea of biking! no it just means daddy has to be the source of power. what we need to figure out is how to teach a 2 year old to steer. see, she goes about 6 feet or so and ends up in the grass because she won't keep the handle bars straight. ( poor frustrated daddy!)

ok here it is, pregnancy gripe #1: why did i have to wear a maternity shirt today?? why do i only have 3 pairs of pants that i can wear comfortably?? good grief why do i have to go buy all new bras- honestly how could the "girls" have gotten so much bigger this soon!?!?! i'm 10 weeks! 10 weeks! i didn't wear maternity anything until i was 18 weeks with bean and that was because i wanted to be comfortable at work (my regular pants were too tight and my yoga pants were not professional enough). i feel FAT and this disturbs me because i never really felt fat while pregnant with bean. so... BAH! to my stretched out body! and a prayer that i'm not the size of a house before this is all over..... gah!
:)

Thursday's Theme

i know, gasp in horror! my picture of pretty is not of bean!!!!!

well, bean has not been very pretty this week... ok, for the past several weeks. she looks good physically but wow the 2 year old angst!! so i decided to post a more serene picture. you know one that didn't make my blood boil. ;)

enjoy this sunset over the lake and when you are done, head to tracey's to see more pretty pictures!

How pregnancy can sneak up on you.

yeah, bean is going to be a sister. are we excited? sure. are we still a little in shock? hell yeah!

see i'm a person with a highly irregular cycle. it varies in length from about 40-60 days, sometimes it is even longer. we went off birth control in january. we really didn't expect to get pregnant we were kinda half heartedly trying because in the back of our minds we were sure that the clomid would be necessary again. as a matter of fact when july rolled around we decided that when my next cycle started we'd call the doctor and see if she would put me back on the medication. well, first week of august i experienced two things that threw me: i was TIRED and the thought of the corn on the cob we were having for dinner made me want to throw up. could i be pregnant? certainly not! it is all in my head! the next week i realized my bra really didn't fit right any more. hmmmmm? no, certainly not. then starts the mild sinus issues and the waves of nausea that come and go. did i believe it yet?? well, hell no i didn't! it took my sister looking at me like i was a complete idiot and saying "what?? take a test! you are soooo pregnant!!!"

so i take the test. i glance at it while it sits on the counter- i only see one line. i think well crap it is all in my head! then i stood up and i saw i tiny faint hair line. immediately i march into the living room and demand my husband to "look at this." he of course says "what i'm i looking at?" (duh) i said "is that a second line?" he looks closely and says, "i think so." i keep staring at the test. "do you think it looks darker now?" i ask him. he looks again and says, "how long were you supposed to wait to read the results?" "three minutes" i say. "and it has been how long?" he asks. "umm, maybe a minute and a half," i say a bit sheepishly. he shakes his head at me.

so, we are still kinda surprised. i still find it hard to believe. even thought i have TONS of symptoms and actually SAW the baby on the ultrasound yesterday. you think that watching that little tiny heart beat would make it all real for me. HA!

life is strange and wonderful isn't it? :)

Because it is Getting Hard to Hide it....

yeah, that's right. we're crazy. pray for our sanity.
;)

Best Shot Monday

here is my favorite shot of the week... ok, it is also one of the only pictures i took this week (gasp!). lets just say last week was a LONG week and leave it at that. ;)

this here is a shot i took during one of my husband's poker games. bean wanted to play too. first she sat on daddy's lap, BUT when a seat of her own became available she jumped at the chance to sit by herself. we had to give her her own deck of cards and a pile of chips in a color that weren't being used in the game. she was in heaven. i had to take some pictures when she started interacting with the guys. i think this picture is ADORABLE despite its graininess (is that a word??). she is showing my husband's good friend her cards as if to say "should i call or fold?" he he! she loves hanging out with the boys on poker night AND surprisingly enough, they don't seem to mind having her around! :)

if you want to see more best shots, head over to picture this and check them out!

Reading Bean

you can see from this picture what bean's favorite activity is- even when on vacation at the beach. this child LOVES books. they are her favorite things. she could easily spend 30 minutes by herself looking at books. the only bad part is that she does not like her books to be put away. she wants them all over the floor and furniture for easy access. it is amazing that none of us has broken a leg slipping on books left in the middle of the kitchen floor!

a fun story from vacation (that i sadly have no photo to accompany)...
we (bean, my brother, my mom, and i) were walking on the beach. my brother grabbed a stick and started writing in the damp sand. bean watched very closely. my mom came over and slowly spelled out bean's name. bean got excited, ran and got her own stick and proceeded to try to write her name all by herself. she very carefully made 6 vertical lines in the sand (yeah, for those of you who know her real name, she does only have 5 letters in her name but she's 2 and doesn't spell very well! ha!) each time she made a line she would say a letter that is in her name. now, they weren't in the right order but she only used letters that really are in her name. it was very cute. she was very proud. i'm going to try to get her to "write" again so i can take a picture.

hope you all have a great weekend. ours will be busy, as usual!

Thursday's Theme: Fade

well, according to the temperatures we've been having lately summer is not fading away any time soon. BUT at the same time it is. school starts next week and bean and i will be saying bye bye to daddy as he heads back to work.

here is a shot of bean while we were at the beach last week, our last vacation of the summer. interestingly, the weather at the lake seemed very fall like. windy, rough, storms flying through and all that other stuff. and of course there were the temperatures- mid to upper 70's! (that was LOVELY after a week of near 100 degree temps at home!) so maybe summer is fading away after all.... hmmm. but as summer fades, my memories won't- after all i took several hundred pictures. ;)

and as always head over to tracey's place to see more great pictures!

Want S'more?

when told there was chocolate in it- yes, she would try a smore. when she found out fire was involved- she became very unsure about this whole thing. when we finally gave her one- she had no idea what to do with it. the look i got surely said, "i'm supposed to eat this thing you just removed from that HOT fire? surely i'll get burned you crazy lady". ;) but after much urging from her uncle she decided to try it. one teeny, tiny bite at a time. in the time it took her to eat one i ate three. when she was done she had made a decision about smores- she wanted "anonder one".

On Vacations and Sleeping

bean enjoyed walking on the beach very much. she walked a lot farther than either my mom or i guessed she would and never asked to be carried. she liked running into the water with her arms out like a seagull. she liked throwing rocks into the water. she liked jumping in the waves. she liked picking up "treasure". she did not like the dead fish. those were particularly disturbing to her. i had to walk between her and the fish as some sort of protective barrier. she called them "yuck fish".

so, when it comes to sleeping on vacation there were predictable issues. of course she didn't want to take a nap or go to bed, she was at the beach for goodness sake! so the crying that happened everyday at nap and bed time didn't surprise me. what has surprised me is that it has continued at home. she has always been pretty good at bed time and goes down without much fussing. but not now. crying and wailing and saying, "i can't sleep mama. can't sleep!!" of course after about 10 minutes or so it calms down and of course she is asleep 10 minutes or so after that. so clearly she can sleep, she just doesn't want to. i'm hoping this will fade away over the next few days and we will be back to normal... don't worry, i'm not holding my breath on this one!

i'm currently trying to come up with plans for next week. daddy will be back at school and i need to keep bean and myself busy or i might just lose what little mind i have left. (he he!) it is always great to have daddy home for the summer but when he goes back to work i have to re-learn how to do everything on my own. sigh. so if you have any great, creative ideas on what to do with a two year old, lets hear 'em! :)

Best Shot Monday

its monday! and boy, am i exhausted! vacations have a way of doing that to you. especially when you have a 2 year old with you! :)

here is one of my favorite shots from my vacation. bean loving on her magpie! this usually involves magpie either trying to run or the hugger getting their face washed by dog tongue. i have to say that bean got licked several times while moving in for this hug but she enjoyed every second of it. it is plain to see she loves her dog, how much the dog loves her remains a mystery.

we also had a cool sighting while eating supper on night on vacation. we looked out the window to see this headed down the lake!
yikes! a water spout!
it was at the tail end of a very fast moving storm. we never even got any rain the storm was moving so fast. the water spout dissipated and reformed twice while we were watching it. just glad it didn't head toward shore where we were!

bean really seemed to enjoy the beach this time so i can say that i good time was had by all. i am very glad to be home though. i have lots more cute pictures that i will share over the course of the week.

oh, if you want to see other great shots or have some you want to share head on over to tracey's!

The First Cut...

oh yes, we finally did it! bean got her first hair cut! ahhhhhhh! yeah, i know she is 25 months old but really she's never had a lot of hair, you know...

my sister did the honors- she has two girls and has always cut their hair so i wasn't worried. she turned on sesame street and gave her (and the cousins) a lollipop and then went to work with her scissors. bean was great! sat there relatively still and never once complained or got scared. it was a good time, believe it or not.

now, the delightful curl she always had... well yeah, that is gone. am i sad? a little, because now when i see her from behind i see a kid and not my little baby. i mean look at it.....
good grief! that could be a five year old's head i'm looking at!!!! HA! she's looking far too grown up at that angle! :)

i'm glad we waited this long though. bean actually asked if she could get her hair cut. she told us her hair was too long! she wanted it done enough that she cleaned her plate at lunch time because my sister said that she couldn't cut the hair of little girls who didn't finish their lunch. she did exactly what she was told. i was very impressed.

sadly daddy was not there. but when he found out how good she was he got her a special first hair cut prize (a stuffed hippo ballerina!).

oh and best of all, her cousin told her she looked very pretty! :)

Best Shot Monday

Oh my gosh, i'm here on a monday! don't get too used to it though... i'll be gone next monday!

this is my (ok, lie! my husband took these i was in the pool with her!) best shot this week. you see bean discovered that if she wears her "floaty" swimsuit and her arm floaties that she doesn't need help swimming. in fact, we are no longer allowed to help her. if you get too close she starts screaming, "no, i swim by myself!". it was really funny when she realized that if she moved her legs like she was running she would move across the pool. she though she was something then! she swam back and forth from shallow end to deep end, over and over and over again. i think i really have a little fish on my hands! now if i could just get her to go under water...... ha!
here are a couple extra bonus shots of her as she swam down the pool. she kicked those little legs and swam around and around for 45 minutes when i decided that i better drag her out before she exhausted herself. she took a 2 1/2 hour nap. :) ahhhhh.

if you have any great shots from the past week head on over to tracey's and share!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

yes, happy birthday to me! happy birthday dear me! happy birthday to me!

the best part about birthday's, according to bean, is cake. so, daddy and bean made a cake for mommy.
they put in the "grediants". they mixed it good. and they baked it.
they decorated it. bean tried tasting it when she thought no one was looking!

obviously once you decorate a cake it must be eaten. and bean loves her chocolate. she licked the plate clean... unfortunately she couldn't lick herself clean. there was chocolate on her face, arms, chest, tummy, legs, hands... you name it there was chocolate there. she didn't care, she had birthday cake and that was all that mattered!

when she got up in the morning i asked her if she got me a gift. she said "yes!" i asked her what she got me. she said "a book and a razor". what??

well, i did get a razor... in a way. my husband upgraded my phone. i now have a moto razr. of course bean did not know that was the phone i would pick....... or did she? hmmmmm.

this is my birthday. hubby is taking me out to eat and to see the harry potter movie. (yes, i read book 7. it took less than 3 days, it was very good!) i gotta go get ready!

Happy Birthday to me!

in case you have to know, i'm 33 today. bah!

Centennial Bean!

here it is- centennial bean! my 100th post! woo hoo! and sadly i have nothing interesting to say.... typical. sigh.

we have had another SUPER busy weekend. bean got to go visit her nana and papa. she picked tomatoes with her great grandma. (and she ate about 30 cherry tomatoes in two days... maybe more, i lost count!) papa tried to teach her to ride her tricycle. she picked wild flowers in the field. she jumped on a trampoline (or jumping room as she called it) for the first time. she batted a ball off a tee for the first time. plus a lot more. does it make you tired just reading that? it should. ;)

this is a picture of her riding home in the car. she has her all important doodle pro in her lap and her daddy's sunglasses on her head. (and a red mark on her forehead from falling on the trampoline- sigh.) does she look tired? of course not! how is it that toddlers seem to have a never ending supply of energy?!?!

i feel like i should have a cute little antidote about bean. my mind is completely blank at this moment.
maybe i'll have something better to say tomorrow, it is my birthday after all.....

Thursday's Theme: Fair

here is my shot of bean for today's theme- fair! we weren't actually at a fair (we are at a small town festival) but she is eating her very first funnel cake. i think that funnel cakes qualify as fair food, so here we are. :)

she worked really hard licking all the powdered sugar off those pieces of funnel cake. she did eat it, she just wanted to remove all traces of sugar first. what a turkey! ha!

so, do you have any fair pictures?? head on over to tracey's and share them, we'd all love to see them!


oh, mommee, my birthday is actually tuesday.... ;)

Bean at the Base

friday afternoon bean got to head out to the air base to pick up her uncle. the first picture is of bean seeing the two t-38's coming in. the second is... well, maybe awe (i'm not really sure). these jets are LOUD and FAST so that is probably what that look is about. she seemed to really like watching them land.

we were standing in front of the building waiting for him and a man said he would take us out to the planes. (yay!) so on the way out the man says, "this a son, brother, husband?" my sister-in-law says "its is my husband." bean quickly follows with "he's my uncle!" everyone thought that was just too cute!

so here is a shot of bean meeting her uncle out at his jet. she is yelling "hi uncle bill, hi!" she got to look inside the plane- grandpa lifted her up to look.

bean really had fun having her uncle there. we went to a wedding and she danced and danced with him. it was cute. too bad he couldn't stay longer, he had to head back sunday morning.

this was just part of the VERY busy weekend we had! and well, we are going out of town again this weekend too!

Thursday's Theme: Drip

today is thusday, which means its time for thursday's theme!

today's theme is drip. thus this delightful picture of my daughter with a giant drip of drool pouring from her mouth! hooray! HA!

you see we took her to the splash park for the first time yesterday. she was so excited- until we got there. she was terrified and began to cry. the drool just comes when she starts crying like that. of course i'm the mean mom that makes her go in even though she is crying. i knew she would like it if she just did it! i was right, of course. about 3 minutes later she was running through the water like a crazy person and loving every second of it. why all the drama when we got there?!?! i mean really! :)

i added a couple of bonus shots of her actually enjoying the water. she has asked twice if we could go back already. will we go back? of course! it is clearly fun and FREE so why not!

if you want to see more drips go visit tracey at picture this! you won't be disappointed, i'm sure! better yet, if you have a shot that is a great drip image, share it! :)

That's right!

she got a tattoo today when we went to "wacky wednesday" at this park in a near by town. it involved a craft (decorating your own bug house), hunting for bugs in the demonstration prairie, and of course, this tattoo. best part- it only cost $1!!!!!!!!! quick question though... umm, do temporary tattoos come with temporary attitude?? just wondering...... ;)

anyways, it was a great day. bean went with her cousins. they played on the play ground, made their boxes, found grasshoppers (which my sister is very good at catching!), and then played some more. afterwards, we took them to the splash park nearby and ate a picnic lunch. i'll have pictures of that tomorrow... lets just say i have a great one for tomorrow's theme (drip) and it probably isn't what you are thinking!

big weekend coming up. gotta pick up sister-in-law at the airport tomorrow and then we all go to the in laws for a family friend's wedding. plus, the softball tournament that my husband is in. plus, a little early celebration of my birthday. etc, etc, etc. you get the picture, i'm sure....

Best Shot Monday

hey, it's monday! and since monday is a day we can ALL use a laugh, i present to you... "bean with undies on her head!"

no, we haven't made any progress with the potty. we are still in full regress. but a new approach was necessary. we put undies on her to let her know how good they feel on. (and i put her on the potty whenever i thought she may need to go.)

well, lets just say it didn't go that well. she loved the undies and i thought that was a great sign. she was interested in the "big potty", another good sign. while sitting on the big potty she took the undies and put them on her head.... i don't know what kind of sign that is! ha!!

it turns out there were no signs. no, none at all. ten minutes after getting off the potty she peed in those undies. THEN about 10 minutes after that she pooped in another pair. this would be fine except that she didn't care. she didn't care that she was all wet. didn't care that she peed on elmo. didn't care that she made a big wet puddle in her playroom. i was expecting her to get upset... oh well. still not ready i guess. sigh.

anyways, enjoy these ridiculous pictures of bean on the potty with undies on her head! i need to go do laundry..... :)
go visit tracey for more great shots!!!

In an Effort to Save Our Sanity...

we have two new rules at our house. there is ALWAYS nap time at our house and bean eats what i make for dinner.

rule number one: 2:00 is "quite time". (giving nap time a new name has helped somewhat, believe it or not) she is not required to sleep BUT she must stay in her crib for an hour before we will let her out. i told her "i don't care what you do in here but we both need a chance to rest. lets have our quiet time so that we can play more later." so far she is cool with that. thursday was the only day this week that she didn't sleep at all (she played happily in her crib for about an hour and 10 minutes though). this is proof to me that she still does need a nap. it also means that i will continue to get my mid-day break. yippee!

rule number two: the entree i make for dinner is the entree she gets! bean is really good about veggies and fruits but wow, entrees are an issue. she needs to try new foods! so, i make 2 veggies she likes and give her some of what we are having too. i figure if she's hungry she will eat it. well, no, she is stubborn. but she has learned that if she eats the designated portion daddy will share a popsicle with her. i don't love this bribe (i actually hate bribes and i'm just waiting for them to backfire on daddy!) BUT she has eaten MEAT for two nights this week!!!! this is NO small feat, believe me! so hooray for bean eating pork chop and grilled chicken!

we will see how these rules go. the nap one should be fine, the food one..... well i'll keep you posted on that one! HA!