Best Friend

I am basking.

A little earlier today when the three of us were hanging out Scott asked Lissy, "Who's your best friend?" I had been looking the opposite direction of her but I felt a little finger-poke on my leg. I looked at her and he asked again, "Who's your best friend?" and this time I saw her reach out and tap my leg again.

After a very difficult and stressful two weeks with my girl, that was like a balm. No. It was much better than a balm. It was a cure. A very, very sweet cure. She is my best buddy too. And I hope she always will be.

I have a toddler.

Ohhh boy, do I have a toddler.

If I were just getting over an intestinal virus, cutting my last molar and suffering from a relentless diaper rash, I would probably scream a lot too. But yeah, she is big on screaming lately! She screams because she wants more "num-num", she screams because I'm taking too long to get her baba ready, she screams because she can't get the lid on her toy cookie jar quite right. Sometimes I swear she screams...just because. And toddlers are LOUD when they scream. Ear-piercing loud. Mama feels like she's losing her sanity at times. My prayer is that she's going through the terrible two's early, and that by the time she's two she'll be a perfect little angel. Pray along with me, won't you? Please? PLEASE???!!!!

The Backstreet Boys are on "Sesame Street" right now. This amuses me.

Sick

I haven't been blogging much. The picture below explains why better than words could. Thankfully, she's feeling better now!

(I also call this picture "I'm NOT a morning person.")

My first cooking class is tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be back soon to write about it!

"Idol!"

So tonight I taught her how to say "Idol!" and then give me a high five. She's getting big way too fast. But WOW is she FUN!

Groceries

I've always rather enjoyed grocery shopping. But I don't enjoy getting to the checkout counter and trying to keep my eyes in my head when the cashier gives me the total.

So I now use http://www.thegrocerygame.com/. I read about it in a recent issue of Woman's Day magazine and decided to check it out. I hope you'll go and explore the website, too, because everybody can greatly benefit from using it. I won't go into the details, but basically you wanna first make sure that you get your local Sunday paper so that you have access to all those weekly coupons. I subscribed to the Chicago Trib Sunday-only delivery. It's $1.25/week. That's five bucks a month and is sooooooo worth it. And it's wonderful having that paper at the end of the driveway every Sunday morning!

The creator of The Grocery Game has a database that tells you exactly what items in YOUR specific grocery store are on sale each week, and then corresponds those in-store sales to coupons. So you're getting 50-80% off a lot of items! I'm so serious - it is amazing how this works. Between last Monday's shopping trip and today's shopping trip, I saved $102.25. That's TWO shopping trips. And that, my friends, is going to add up!

Here's proof of last Monday's savings at Jewel, where I almost always shop:

I have allotted a couple of my laundry room shelves for "overflow items" that I stocked up on because I got them at rock bottom prices. Right now on that shelf I have cereal, pancake mix, syrup, slivered almonds, peanut butter, soup, pasta and several boxes of Ziploc bags. Things that don't go bad very quickly - or don't go bad at all. And I now plan meals (dinners, mostly) based on what's on sale and what I have coupons for instead of just blindly planning meals and paying full price for the ingredients I need.

This is SO awesome! Please check out the website. You can easily save your family a lot of money. And it's FUN, too!

And now, without further ado - here is a cute picture I took today of my girl sitting in her Bumbo chair watching Melmo. Doesn't she look comfy?

And here's what she looks like when Daddy shares his chocolate ice cream:

I hope you're having a good week and staying warm. TTFN! :)

School

Today I bought a notebook and a pen. And a messenger's bag and three textbooks. I'm going to school. Trippy!

The class starts in two weeks and I absolutely cannot wait. After my visit to the college bookstore I went to get the oil changed in the Durango, and since I had to wait almost an hour I hauled in my twenty-pound book. (Slight exaggeration, but the puppy is HUGE. See picture below.) Perusing through it made me soooooo excited!!! I cannot wait for this class!


This is one of the other textbooks. The M-word. *shiver - tremble - shiver again*



And I have to say - the "chef's hat" does not look the way I thought it would. My, how things change.


Bring on the butter and the flour and the roux, baby! And let me cook for you!!!

Melmo

She calls him "Melmo!" And she LOVES Melmo! I don't think I know any kid under four who doesn't love him, but.....
Yesterday we bought her a pair of new shoes that have him on them. They are SO cute. She has great big feet and long toes (definitely didn't get that from Mommy), so we had to buy her new shoes again already. Anyway, whenever she sees her new shoes she says, "Melmo! Melmo!" She is way too flippin' adorable!

Snuggle

There is nothing on this earth I love more than snuggling with my baby.

Usually she's too busy to snuggle, so when I lift her onto my lap she stays for about five seconds and then is off to do the very important things that one-year-olds do: find another toy, chase the kitty or page through a book while pretending to read it. And that's okay. I'm glad she's a busy, curious, energetic little squirt!

But she's starting to snuggle more. YAY!! This morning she was sitting on the floor with her blankie watching "Sesame Street". I could tell she was very intent on the show. I couldn't resist. I scooped her up and put her on my lap and covered both of us with her blankie and she stayed. She stayed and laid her sweet little head on my arm and snuggled for almost twenty minutes!

I cherish these days when she's still so young and innocent and precious. I hold every snuggle and every hug and every sweet kiss on my cheek in my heart. I collect them there. And my heart overflows.