A long day...

Today we drove home from Stockton. Libs only slept about 40 minutes-- she talked, pestered Tobee and played with Tinkerbell the whole time.



This evening we have been watching Tinkerbell (two times, thank you very much) and, for Mommy, Mamma Mia.

When we went to do her last diaper change she started to sing "Honey, honey"-- aah yes, she's definitely my daughter. She can pick up on songs super quick-- I love it!!!

A Mommy in training...

Libs has really taken to her dolls in the past month or two. She carries them around, reads stories to them, and as of last night.... she feeds them. It was very fun to watch her load her doll into her high chair and set up food on the babies tray. She was actually sorting the food by their colors and size which made Mommy very happy. My little girl is becoming such a good little caretaker!

Hanging with Granpa...

Today Libs found one of the simple pleasures of being a kid..... twirling in a chair. We went to visit Granpa today at his office and she climbed right into the rotating chair.






I know that she will enjoy this for years to come, but the first time is always special.

Happy New Year!

Hello 2009! This year I'm going to try to blog and post photos on Picasa-- I'm hoping to better connect with family and friends as well as preserve more of our day-to-day happenings.

To celebrate the first day of the new year we went to a little zoo near Mom and Dad's house called Micke Grove. They are doing a great deal of construction so we really only saw monkeys, birds and a gecko. The highlight for Libs was introducing herself to all of the animals.

"Hello monkey, I Libi!"-- too cute!

My daughter, the fashionista!

Last night my daughter decided to accessorize herself and go to the "beach"-- in 40 degree weather. Note the sunglasses (which had been worn upside down up until right before this picture was taken), tape measure necklace, bunny purse chocked full of small treasures, and knit cap from Nana. Luckily she was wearing an off-white shirt-- it could have looked so much worse. I love her confidence as she points to Daddy with the command "Cheese!" which means take my picture NOW I am beautiful!!!

A war of wills...

These are the clippers that lead to a very unhappy Mommy and daughter pair yesterday....

Once upon a time when Libs was young, Mommy would clip her nails while she slept. This routine worked until about a month or two ago when Libi would wake up and protest the clipping. This would cut her nap short and result in a very frustrated Mommy due to long, scratchy nails.

Yesterday Libi was napping so I decided to try to trim her claws-- she woke up to complain. Mommy gave Libs a choice-- either you let me clip your nails when you are awake or asleep-- to which she replied "No!" Mommy didn't like this turn of events so she gave her another option-- either let me clip your nails or we don't do anything fun until you do. She still wouldn't let me so we spent a quiet day with no TV, no singing, no getting the mail with Daddy, nothing!!!

When Daddy got home both Mommy and Libi were crying-- trapped in this battle of wills. To save everyone from a melt-down, Daddy called Grammy who watched Libi while we went out to dinner. Grammy and Grampy also tried to trim the nails to no avail.

After dinner Mommy relented a bit-- came home and gave lots of hugs and kisses to her not-quite- two-year old daughter whom Mommy sometimes has way too high expectations for and we all went to bed. Daddy did get to trim the nails after she fell asleep, so the house will be much more fun tomorrow!

Event on December 2-- Journaled on December 3

3rd most frightening parenting moment...

OK, I've just spent the last 60+ minutes comforting, cleaning, and panicking! Miss Libs was taking a short evening rest when she woke up screaming. I thought she was upset that we were laughing and that it might have woken her up, but when I looked I saw a child covered in blood. Ron grabbed her and we spent nearly 20 minutes trying to calm her down and apply pressure on her VERY bloody nose. I have never seen gushing like this. Poor Ronald's UCLA alumni shirt is probably toast... she used it as a Kleenex. After it seemed to slow down we took her upstairs to a tubby and the second she saw herself in the mirror looking like a reject from a horror movie she FREAKED even more!!! We got her in the tubby and cleaned off a bit-- that's when I fell apart.

We only have had two other frightening parenting moments:

1. Libs unstoppable crying at Ron's cousins wedding. She was only a few months old and we did everything to find the problem-- we stripped her, tried to feed her, tried to burp her, changed her diaper, nothing worked. We simply had to leave the party-- she wouldn't stop crying. After a few moments in the car she calmed down, but that feeling of helplessness is simply unbearable to the woman who likes to control everything.

2. Libs was playing one evening and she bumped her head on our rocking chair. She cried for a moment and then went along with her day. We thought nothing of it until about 2 in the morning when she awoke screaming. Ron and I both tried to console her but she was just not herself. She was only about 5 or 6 months old then and we knew this was not her regular cry. We called Dr. Vashistha and he suggested we take her to the ER. We packed her in the car where she promptly stopped crying and drove to Henry Mayo. We waited in the waiting room for what felt like forever as our darling daughter slept soundly in her car seat. After a few hours we got into see a doctor who looked at her, said it was probably a clogged sinus, gave her Motrin and sent us home. She never even whimpered when he examined her-- she was over whatever it was.

Being a parent is wonderful, but moments like this remind you of how much responsibility it is and how I wish my nurse of a Mother lived closer.