tornadoes

Well, I've talked to just about everyone, but just for posterity's sake...

We survived this round of tornadoes. I was surprised to learn this weekend that Florida is actually 2nd in the country for number of tornadoes!

About a half a mile from our house there is some pretty significant damage. Power lines and trees down, a couple of houses (they are pretty far apart in that area) with part of their roofs missing. We got really lucky. I woke up about 3:30 Friday morning from the storm and heard this terrifying wind. It didn't sound like the "freight train" sound like most people describe, just really strong, loud, long wind. It was pretty scary.

But we're okay, thanks be to God.

more singing

The other day Bethany started singing the ABC song, but then transitioned into another:

"A-B-C-D-E-F-G,
How I wonder what you are?"

I think it is so great that she realizes that it's the same song!

Then the next day as we were getting ready to brush her teeth she starts with this:

"Up Up Up Up in the sky,
See the stars go Twinkle, Twinkle"

Not sure where the tune came from. It's not anything I've heard before.

She continues to amaze us with her singing and composition!

it's time to rake

Prior to her nap, I told B that we would finish raking the yard when she got up. She responded, "No, I wanna rake now."

She and I really do have a good time working together in the yard. Having her out there helps me pass the time. She has her own toy shovel and rake that she will actually use to help out (although sporadically).

Well, Amy just went to get B up from her nap. As soon as she opened the door B declared, "I'm ready to rake now."

i want...

...an iPhone. Check it out. If anyone wants to help me attain this goal with a financial contribution, please contact me.

Oh!

This is one of Bethany's favorite sayings right now. Whenever we "explain" something to her, she says, "Oh!" (but with that swoopy inflection)

Today she put on a dress up dress and told me she was dressed "just like uh angel". So I took a picture of my angel:



Then she went and a horrific nap today. Why does it always seem to happen when mommy isn't feeling 100%?

oscar

My crazy cat...he normally likes to sleep in the rocker in Bethany's room, but lately has taken to actually jumping into her crip to sleep. See?

i love...

the Dollar Spot at Target! Has anyone ever bought stuff out of there? I find the cutest little things for Bethany. Recently I bought some child plates, utensils, a little sport bottle and princess shoes! And during different holidays they always have little decorations or holiday-related gifts. It is so great. I've also noticed, though, that other store are starting to have a little "dollar section". Even when I was in Walgreens today they had one.

Copy-cats.

new stuff

We recently bought a digital piano which arrived not too long before Christmas. It is so great. Bethany loves it, too. Check out some pics.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone brought in the new year the way you wanted. Nathan and I spent our new year's eve re-painting the dining room. I'll take a picture and post it later. I think you'll like it better. I know we do. It makes everything look bigger.

Today we're FINALLY putting the baseboards back up. You may recall about a year ago when we had to replace all of our floors due to our shower leaking. We took off the damaged base boards then decided that since we had to redo the floors we might as well take off the rest in the kitchen/dining room and family room since it would be easier to do that to put down the flooring. Well today is the big day! We got them all painted a couple of weeks ago and Nathan's dad is here with his handy-dandy nail gun to help put them back on! We really know how to stretch out a project, don't we???

our schools

This is ridiculous: School accuses 5-year-old of sex harassment

My daughter is almost 2 1/2. I need to start looking into where to send her in a couple of years.

Lost and Found

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we lost Bethany's Polly Pocket doll. We looked everywhere. The poor people in the toddler nursery at church even took everything apart TWICE because we thought she had left it there.

Yesterday after her nap, she got up and played for a few minutes then said, "Where's Ears?" (Ears is a beanie that she got in the NICU after she was born. He's her sleeping buddy and goes almost everywhere she does)

I said, "I don't know, did you leave him in your bed?"
B: "I throwed him out!"
Me: "Where?"
B: "On the floor!" (duh, mom)
Me: "Well let's look behind the bed. There he is!"

After I picked him up I saw her. Bethany had "throwed" Ears right on top of her. It was Polly Pocket!

I said, "Bethany, guess who is back here?"
B: "Ears was!"
Me: "Who have we been looking for?" I pull her out...
B: "POLLY POCKET!!!!" Begins doing a jumping dance and giggling like crazy!

The rest of the afternoon she didn't let her go. Bethany took her in the bath, took her to bed, and had her this morning when she woke up. I don't think we'll lose Polly Pocket again any time soon!

Sad Saxophone

Nathan had Bethany in the car a few days ago. The radio was on 107.7, playing 24/7 Christmas music. Kenny G (barf) came on. Bethany says to Nathan, "What instrument is that, Dada?" "That's a saxophone". Bethany replies, "That's a SAD Saxophone!"

Yes, it is.

New songs

Bethany now makes up complete songs. They're pretty disjointed, but they are completely original. She used to just make up words for tunes she already new. Now I catch her singing original compositions. Words and music. I don't think she's ready to publish or anything, but she's well on her way! :)

Safety Patrol

As we're pulling out of the mall parking lot the other day Bethany says to me, "Mama, you forgot your belt!" I hadn't put on my seat belt yet.

It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas! I started putting stuff out for Christmas today. The first thing Bethany said when she saw the tree was, "I LOVE it!" She then helped me put up some ornaments. I put out her little toy nativity and she's in her room playing with it right now. I also found a mini tree (about 8" tall) WITH lights (!) at Target for $2.50! It was in the dollar spot. So that is in her room, too. I saw some pretty cute mini tree ornaments at Big Lots so I'll probably go get a few for her to decorate her tree. We found some window clings that are SUPER cute at Target. Bethany put those on the sliding glass door in the dining room. It looks really cute. I love how excited she gets. I'll have a few pictures up soon of her helping decorate.

Calling me back

Okay, this will take a bit of back story. Bethany has been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lately. Ever since her first trip to Disney in August, she has been obsessed! (Aside: what is so cute is that she has the same enthusiasm about going into the Disney Store!) Anyway, there is an episode where Pluto is running a race and he gets distracted by a butterfly and goes off the course. Mickey has to use a whistle to call Pluto back. Bethany has a little play medical kit that has a device like the thing the doctor uses to look in your ears. Well, B has discovered that if she sucks air through the toy, it makes a whistle sound. So she likes to whistle through it and call Oscar or me or Ears. Sometimes when we play outside she asks me or Nathan to "call her back". And when we say, "Come back Bethany" she says, "You have to whistle!"

Tonight, Nathan's mom was babysitting while I was at work (Nathan is in New Orleans this week). Judy told me when I got home that she wanted to take that toy to bed with her so she could call me back. :( She said B whistled through it for a while then quieted down. Well, about 30 minutes after I got home we heard the whistle! I guess she heard my voice and woke up to call me back! So I went in and she said, "Hi, Mommy". I said hi and gave her a hug and a kiss. I said, "I'm home now so you can put that down" and she promptly put it down in her bed. Then she laid back down and went to sleep! How cute is she?

PS - there are some new pics up and an updated wish list page.

our little conversationalist

So we've been going to a church here in DeLand for about 2 months and we're still new enough that there are workers in the toddler nursery that haven't seen Bethany yet. Yesterday was one of those days.

When we went to pick up Bethany after church I spoke to Ashley, one of the workers, for a few minutes. She started off by saying how cute Bethany is. Then she said since she hadn't met Bethany before that she introduced herself. This is her explanation of how the conversation went:

A: Hi, my name is Ashley.
B: I'm Bethany and (pointing to her new friend) this is Sophia and I'm two (holds up two fingers).
A: Wow, you're very well spoken!
B: That's because I'm a princess!

Yes, she is (despite any attempt on our part to avoid it!).

holy cow!

Check this out!

Pelican and Pigeon

SmokinMini

Well, my 7-year-old grape iMac finally bit the dust. It was sad. But, it was good to us. The downside was that we had to spend money on a new computer. Once we got the new one though we forgot all about the hit to our bank account. We bought a Mac mini. It is smokin'. New computers seem even faster when you wait 7 years between purchases! And it's so little. It's very cute. It's also very quiet. For the last few months my old computer had a capacitor that was singing. it was not pleasant to ones' ears. It does so many cool things. It comes with a remote that can call up my iPhoto, iTunes, etc and I don't have to be sitting at my computer to go through pictures or music. I can select one of my photo albums in iPhoto and turn it into a slide show right there. So cool. I am very happy. :)

Pictures, yay!

I am FINALLY posting some new pics. So sorry for the delay. There are new pictures in "at home" and I'll be updating more today. For now, enjoy these! Click on the picture to view the whole album.