Thank You Pioneer Woman

I have many reasons to love you Pioneer Woman. I would LOVE to see you at your cookbook signing in Charlotte. I recently got the actions from Pioneer Woman for Photoshop Elements (Thank you too Karen). I have to say this brought tears to my eyes. The picture looks way better in the HUGE format from my camera but this still gets me right in the heart. Go ahead and click on it. LOVE IT!

St Patty's Day Revisited

We started the day with green shamrock pancakes. They looked pitiful but Mia thought they were awesome. We spent St Patty's Day at the park with some buddies. Mia is a daredevil which is proving very scary for me. She climbs up high and goes down huge slides. She hasn't learned to put her feet down at the end of the slide so she just flips over onto the ground, usually face first. It's horrible and she has 2 fat lips right now. She doesn't care though (even if she screams and cries) and just says "try again".

Rasmussen/Maxfield Reunion

Heidi (bff from dental school days) and I finally got our schedules together! It only took us 9 months. Sad. Mia and I drove the shortish (under 3 hours) trip to Richmond, VA. Mia was great and just watched Caillou and Dora and was amazingly content in the car. We stayed from Monday to Wednesday and it was short but really fun.

Owen and Mia really hit it off. I was shocked at how well they got along. I think mainly it's because Owen has the best temperament of any toddler I've ever met. Mia always wants to play with kids her age but they are more into playing alone so the fact that Owen is older and more social really appealed to Mia. They played and played and played. It was so nice not to have to police them the whole time. The weather was great so we stayed outside a lot and went to the Children's Museum which was awesome. We went for walks and the highlight of the trip for me was going to Penn Station. I have really missed that place! It was so fun to just hang out with Heidi again. I miss all my Louisville ladies.

I of course forgot my camera so all the pictures you see below are from my cell phone. The ride home was a sad one and Mia kept crying and saying "Miss Owen". She still says Owen all the time. Thanks Maxfields for an awesome trip! I can't wait for the next one! Now I am ready for some more reunions. You know who you are! Bueller? Bueller?

The first night and already best buddies.

See Owen's patience with Mia? Yes, she likes to be close to the TV.

They would play this game where they would dig up dirt under the deck and then dump it by the house. They played this game for an amazingly long time.

At the Children's Museum playing in the water.

They slid down the slide 100 times together.

I could eat these kids UP!!

The hit of the museum. We found those blue foamie pellets in their diapers afterwards.

Too funny.

Sadie and Mia ready for a walk.

Oooooh heaven is a place on earth. A place called Penn Station.

Mini Getaway

One good thing happened in February and that was Dave had a whole week off for vacation. We dropped Mia off at my mom's house and had our first night away from her. Dave was exhausted from working a billion hours that week but we still had a great trip. Where did we go? Charleston, SC baby!! I LOVE Charleston. If you live anywhere near that city GO THERE. I thought it was a fitting trip for Valentine's Day weekend. It is incredibly fun and not like any other city. Charleston has so much history (Civil War started there at Fort Sumter) and the houses are like nothing you've ever seen before. It was surprisingly cold when we went but I was so excited to show Dave my favorite city and we had a great time. It snowed the night before we got there (it was all melted when we arrived) but the town was packed. That's how much people love this friendly city. We stayed in the historic downtown at the Vendue Inn and saw as much in 24 hours as we could. I actually had never been to Fort Sumter so we went on a tour and even though it was windy and cold it was fun. Mia had a great time with her Gramma and we had some relaxing southern fun. Seriously, if you haven't been to Charleston you haven't experienced the south.

Amazing fountain in Waterfront Park. In the summer you can wade in it because it's just that hot.

Pictures you take of yourself are just not that great.

I asked that seagull to fly right between the bridge just to get this picture.

We ate dinner at Hank's Seafood Restaurant and it was AMAZING. It's one of those places where you get up from your table and come back and your napkin has been refolded and placed on the back of your chair. Before you could ask for something it magically appeared on your table. Delicious fresh seafood that I crave right this minute.

Freezing at Fort Sumter.

Flags at Fort Sumter.

Our cute hotel.

March!!!!

Thank you March for finally getting here. February is not my favorite month at ALL. Other than my beautiful sister's birthday there is nothing I like about that month (even Valentine's Day doesn't make me like February better). March is kind of rainy and cold but spring officially starts and I feel like coming out of hibernation. I am ready to get rid of winter all together. Mia seems impervious to the cold. She wants to go outside no matter how cold it is and I HATE it so much I just stay home like a hermit if at all possible. I need some warm sunshine and flip flops. I saw workers at the blueberry patch, pruning and preparing for blueberry season. I know it's still months away but it brought a smile to my face. Hurry spring, HURRY!!

Speaking of blueberries.

Tantrums 101

Mia is coming up on her second birthday. The terrible two's. Let's just say she has arrived early. She can throw a tantrum to end all tantrums. And she whines. Oh the whining. After a particularly bad day of tantrums (at least 5 BIG ones) I got on the internet and researched tantrums. I learned so much and am so thankful for Google. My best technique I've learned is "biggies" and "smallies". Now if you heard No! No!, stop that, and we don't do that, constantly over and over you might want to throw a fit also. So when she asks for something, I think about it before I answer. If you answer no right away and then change your mind (aka GIVE IN) then they don't hear "no", they just hear "I need to fight harder to get what I want". So I think about my answer before I give it. I think, is this a biggie (something dangerous or inappropriate) or a smallie (something I can live with and may not love but really wouldn't hurt anything in the grand scheme of things). For example, Mia loves to have the door open to the deck. I used to always so no and then she would immediately throw a tantrum. Now I say yes and set a time limit letting her know a few minutes before we need to shut the door again. Does it bug me that I'm letting cold air in the warm house? Yes. Does it hurt anyone or anything to have the door open for 10 minutes? No. So it's a smallie and we move on. Her requests to have the door open are fewer and fewer now too. Since she gets to do it, it doesn't seem like a challenge to get what she wants.

At first I used a behavioral chart to see what things were setting the tantrums off. I noted the place, time, and severity of the tantrum. It helped me to see if she was throwing a tantrum because she was tired, hungry, or over stimulated. It helped me so much to figure out how to not only handle future tantrums but also how to keep the number of tantrums down.

One of the best things I have tried is hugging her during a tantrum or outburst. I read that at such a young age a tantrum can be scary for the kid not just the parent. They don't really understand why they are reacting this way and don't really know how to get control of themselves again. If you offer a hug it might amaze you how quickly they calm down. The article said not to coddle them though. Don't say "poor baby", say things like "I understand you are upset/sad/disappointed." Or just don't say anything at all, just a hug helps so much. Now more often than not when Mia looks like she is on the verge of a tantrum she runs to me before and hugs me and we talk about it. It isn't perfect but I can promise you it is so much better than before. Mia is a difficult child in a lot of ways and you may think I just need to spank her but I can promise you I have tried A LOT and these are the things that work for us!

Mia wanted to play with the snow outside. Biggie or smallie? Well I HATE the cold so....

I let her bring the snow inside in a bowl.

And I let her play with the door open for 10 minutes with a spatula to dig in the snow. She thought this was the coolest activity ever and guess what... NO TANTRUM. (At that point anyway!)

Wicked, Take Two!!

I went to see Wicked again with some of my favorite ladies. My mom, Grandma Seay, my aunt Bibbi, sis in law Lindsay, her mom Shelly, and our friend Mylene (aka my mom's next door neighbor). We had a great time. I was so excited to see all their reactions since none of them had seen it before. I can honestly say It was just as good the 2nd time. I would see it again and again and let's be honest, I probably will.

Mia loves her Gramma DeeDee for many reasons but one of them is chocolate popsicles.

Me and my Momma, waiting for WICKED to start!!

Well the poor girl who took our picture struggled. It was just my point and shoot too. Shouldn't have been too tough. Sorry Mom!