Natalie & Ryan: Head Start

I hope all my blog readers are enjoying their Sunday. As for me, I'm getting a head start to the week. It's my Monday. Ryan flew out to Virginia Beach for work this morning. He'll be gone until Wednesday. So, instead of a relaxing Sunday with my two loves, I'm back to the old grindstone. Oh well.

This past week was a bit rough for me. The week before made me feel like a champ. I went to the gym every single day. Monday of last week came rolling around, and I just didn't have it in me. Well, I'll put some blame on Lilly and Joel. Lilly was too cranky, and Joel was sick, so I didn't want to have Lilly spread anything when she went to the day care. As for me, I was just having a down week. But that's to be expected, since I'm bipolar. I have manic weeks and last week was the downer week. I'm hoping this next week will keep me upbeat enough to go back to the routine. I sure do hate when my weeks turn out like they did the last time.

Despite being a party pooper, Lilly and I still managed to have fun. Starting with Monday. I was having an amazing Monday. Joel was sick at home with Erin, so I took advantage and ran as many errands as I could. We left the house at 9, ran to the grocery store, Jiffy Lube, ran the groceries home, went to Walmart, Walgreens, Kohls, and the University Mall. And, every stop held a special surprise. I got 50 cents off every gallon of gas when I filled up the car at Smiths. At Jiffy Lube, it turned out I didn't need an oil change, and they fixed a rock chip that I hadn't noticed. I finally got my flu shot at Walgreens. I had $30 of Kohl's Cash to spend at Kohls, and ended up getting Lilly a xylophone and an awesome pop-up book, not costing me a single penny. And at the mall, I went to have screen protectors put on my phone and iPad, a task that would usually cost anywhere from $10-$15, but the guy did it for free, AND I got the voice box taken out of Lilly's bear at Build-A-Bear, so I could finally wash it. Yep, good Monday. I was worried that being out for so long would make Lilly cranky, but to my surprise, she was a complete angel all day. Not one tantrum....well, not until we got home at least.

Let's see, as for the rest of the week, nothing too great happened. Friday threatened to kill me. Lilly was pretty good most of the day, but she refused to take her morning nap. Why? After letting her giggle and chat for an hour, I decided to go in and get her. When I went in, I found a naked baby. She figured out how to unzip her jammies, and had taken them off. We had to meet Erin early that day, so she could take Joel to get his flu shot, so Lilly didn't get her afternoon nap either. At around 3 o'clock, she lost it. Literally every single thing I said to her, whether good or bad, threw her into a huge fit. I couldn't even get her out to the car without getting a fat lip from the experience. I was on the verge of tears by the time I got into the car, and not 30 seconds into the ride, she passed out. That night at dinner, I think we discovered some of the problem. Turns out, she has several of her top and bottom molars! She didn't have any of her normal teething symptoms, so we had no idea. I'm hoping she'll calm down a bit once this process is over, but for now, some days feel like I might die.

As for all the other days, here are pictures to fill you in...

Having a blast at Jiffy Lube. They even had a Halloween candy bucket, so she got some fruit snacks, too!

Playing with her new xylophone. For now she just bashes it.

She likes to help me vacuum now. Usually I'll give it to her at the end of the hall, and she'll push it until she crashes into the wall in our bedroom. Back and forth is not a concept that she understands yet.

She loves to color, but if I give her a piece of paper, she spends all her time moving from spot to spot. I finally just decided to tape a piece of paper to the window, to give her a coloring spot. She loved it. Granted, I really hope I'm not teaching her that it's okay to color on walls.

She put all her crayons in the kitty bed, and then sat on them like a mommy chicken sitting on her eggs.

When daddy comes home for lunch, everyone wants to sit on his lap.

She insisted on sitting on my lap for dinner. Before I could stop her, she had grabbed my fork. I decided to let her feed me my salad.

Ryan came home for lunch and found us like this. Lilly keeps tearing all the movies out of the bookcase, and somehow manages to find Toy Story 3 every time. She runs over to me, hands it to me, and says "bear bear!" She wanted to watch it so badly, she sat down on my lap as I got down on the floor to put the movie in.

A quick trip to the park before daddy had to go back to work

She snuggled up on me one morning to watch Sesame Street. I loved it!

"So, I don't know what happened, but these just kind of fell off..."

This would explain a lot....

Post Friday melt-down. This is my "are you freakin' kidding me?!" face.

Her cat nap in the car bought me enough time to run to Walmart. I found the "for sale" signs, and considered getting one for Lilly. Her face kills me. "Do you really want to sell me?"

Yesterday we went to Paisley's birthday party. It was Halloween themed. Lilly survived, despite not being the center of attention, and not the one getting all the new toys.

All of the sudden I heard my mom say "Natalie!," so I looked up and she was holding Lilly over the landing. Lilly yells out "Nanny!!" It was so cute!

Sitting on the stool like a big girl.

I tried to get creative with my hair. It's a French braid with two small rows of braids. I will be the first to admit that 1) I don't do my hair all that often, and you're lucky if you see me with my hair when it's not in a bun or ponytail, and 2) I SUCK at braids, so I'm trying to force myself to practice.