Dumped by the babysitter!

I think this ranks at the top of the list for things that make your day suck! I got a call from our babysitter letting me know that she has dropped Libby and picked up a new full time kid to replace her. On a regular basis, Libby only goes to the sitter every other Monday...twice a month...and if anything comes up I may take her over there randomly, but that hardly ever happens. But I always knew I could if I had to do something. And Libby hasn't been over since before Easter because of my screwed up schedule....So I do understand why she dumped us...But it doesn't make it any easier to accept! It was like I got the rug pulled from under my feet! I was, and still am, quite upset by this. I took for granted how lucky I was to have a sitter that I knew and trusted, that I knew took good care of my baby, fed her, gave her naps, etc! This was Libby's first sitter and she has been going there since she was 16months old! Now I'm faced with finding another sitter or daycare...I don't know anybody in this little town I live in!! I'm going to have to send my baby to a stranger! I'm really stressing about this. Of course I realize "my baby" is nearly 4, but it doesn't make it any easier to just send her somewhere and hope it works out! Its almost like I feel like I was dumped by "Mr Right" instead of the babysitter...I'm that crushed! I realize it doesn't sound so bad because Libby does only need a sitter twice a month and I can change my work schedule so she doesn't have to go at all...but I was getting ready to get a 2nd job because we are so crazy broke and I was really going to need a good babysitter. Now I just don't know! I don't envy you moms who live in the big city and have to just randomly pick someplace to send your kids! Its so crazy! OK...back to my mourning process...

The Meijer Penny Pony

I don't know if it's just our Meijer, or if they are at all Meijers...but there is a horse in front of the store @ the checkout counters that only takes a penny to ride...Libby loves it! In this pic, you can see how laid back and comfortable she is on the horse! So if she is nice and patient while I do the grocery shopping I'll let her go for a ride on the "Penny Pony" when we are done. What you may not notice in this picture is the ensemble she is wearing (that's a fancy word for clothes)! She is wearing her Halloween black and orange pants with her orange sequin pumpkin shirt! And yes, this pic was just taken last week! Luckily it was a little chilly so she needed a sweater!

Libby's Day at the Park

I'm sure everyone noticed what great weather we had last week....That includes Libby! Last Thursday Libby wanted to go to the park and play after she got out of school, so that's what we did! My poor baby hardly ever gets to go to the park for a few reasons: 1) Its all the way in town, 20 minutes away from our house, 2) She has a playground at home, 3) I ususally can't stand the kids that are there! But on this day, there weren't any kids there...I guess it was still too early! Here are some pics of her adventures there! The top one is Libby on a tire swing merry-go-round thingy! There are 4 or 5 of these tires swings on one central post and you push them around like a merry-go-round. Sounds easy right?! It's a pain in the ass to get that thing going! Especially when there is only one kid on the tires! You either have to run with it to get it started (BTW - I DON'T RUN!) or grab the tires as they come around and give them a big shove. These tires swing every which way so its harder than it sounds. This is one toy I always look for other kids to be on with some aggressive parent standing nearby who thinks its fun to get that swing going! As I said earlier, we were the only ones there! So I put on my "Super Mommy" cape and got that thing a-spinning! The funny thing is, that same tire merry-go-round was there when I was little and my parents brought us kids to the park and we always wanted to swing on it....I now understand their pain!! The next pic is Libby on the jungle gym getting ready to go down the slide...no pain for me! The last pic is Libby in a big wooden hamster wheel. As you can see, she is not big enough to spin that thing around herself. So once again I pull out my "Super Mommy" cape, that I keep hidden descreetly in pocket, and jumped on in that hamster wheel with Libby. Talk about a workout...that thing is hard to get moving! And did I mention I'm holding Libby's hand so she won't fall while I am trying to get the wheel in motion! Again, this all comes off effortless to my dear innocent unsuspecting daughter....ahh the powers of the cape! A day of fun in the park for the kiddos = mommy boot camp for the parents!

Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat....

Anyone who has ever watched "Friends" is familiar with Phoebe's "Smelly Cat" song. Well I have my own smelly cat story! Saturday night when Libby & I got home I smelled this awful smell right before we reached the door....it smelled of dead animal. It was dark out so we couldn't really see anything. I looked around the deck to see if there was anything laying around. I didn't see anything. I made the mistake of telling Libby it smelled like there was a dead animal somewhere. She wanted to see the animal, know what kind of animal it was, where it came from, everything about the animal! I told her daddy would just have to look for it tomorrow when it was light outside. Don't you know, first thing out of her mouth when she woke up the next morning was, "Did daddy find the dead animal yet?" We all went outside to look around for this animal. Mike finally found it... It was a dead cat that had gotten under the deck and wedged between the old concrete step under the deck and the deck itself. Hmmm....how to get this animal out from under the deck??? Mike suggested cutting a hole in the deck. No, I don't think so, Honey! I suggested we get my nephew, Nathan, to crawl under the deck and get it. Nathan was agreeable to this...for $20! Quite the deal on our part, I think! Nathan crawls through the steps of the deck to get under the deck....He has gloves on and a trash bag with him as well! He finds the cat...then we hear, "OOOH MY, GROSS, YUCK! EEWW!" We ask him what he sees...(meanwhile we are all trying not to laugh)! He says the cat has an eye missing a little worms (maggots) are coming out of it! He then decides he doesn't want to get the cat...its not worth $20! After Nathan get out, we once again try to figure out how to get the cat, the smelly cat, out! Once again, Mike is contemplating cutting through the deck. Again, not my first choice! I suggest pulling the lattice off and Mike crawling under the deck to get the smelly cat. By this time Libby is so excited about seeing this dead cat she can hardly stand it. Somehow Mike cons my brother, Todd into crawling under the deck to pull this cat out. SO, being the good sister I am, I take pictures and post them on the Internet of my brother crawling under the deck to pull out and old smelly cat! And that is what you see in the first picture! Of course, Libby is dying to see this cat, so when Todd gets out she is begging to see the cat, even though Todd assures her that she doesn't want to see it. Libby is sure that she does...that is the 2nd picture...the dead cat in the bag that Libby saw. You couldn't really see much except its fur. I think she was disappointed she didn't she any worms!

More Chuck E. Cheese

Here is Libby riding a virtual horse at Chuck E Cheese. You're supposed to watch the TV screen which shows you on a horse track racing other horses and you "drive" your horse accordingly. Libby didn't quite get the concept, but she liked riding the horse anyway because you could move it and make it jump!

Julianna's Birthday

My youngest niece, Julianna, just turned 3 on April 14th. She is just 9 months younger than Libby! It's funny though, they seem farther apart than that...I still think of Julianna as a baby, even though when Libby was that age I thought she was such a big girl! Here is a picture of the girls at Julianna's party at Chuck E. Cheese. The girls are riding on one of those virtual roller coaster rides where you watch the movie and your chair shakes! The girls loved it. I think they rode it about 12 times!

My Magnolia Tree

Here is a picture of my magnolia tree...it bloomed this year!! It didn't bloom last year because of frost, so I've been waiting patiently to see if it would actually bloom this year with all the crazy weather we've been having! These are one of my favorite trees...they are so pretty. I just wish they were fragrant too and that the blooms would last longer! Then it would be the perfect tree. It does do a nice job of keeping the evening sun from shining in Libby's playroom window!!

Shout out!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my friend, and Libby's friend, Katie! She doesn't have a blogspot because she doesn't think her life is interesting enough! So here's what she did tonight....She worked, took a break, worked some more! We didn't have much time to socialize this evening because we were SOOO busy! I would tell you about our night, but that would be a HIPPA violation and we would all get fired! hehehe.... SO, Katie Skidmark Jolie-Pitt this one's for you....Holla!

Princess Libby

It all started when Libby got a new "party dress" from Grandpa & Joan for Xmas. I swear she comes up with this stuff on her own! She started calling that dress her princess dress. She then found out that Grandpa and Joan go dancing every week. She would put on her princess dress and ask if she could dance around the house. Sure! So now she is obsessed with dancing in her princess dress and always asks if Grandpa will take her dancing in her princess dress someday. And yes, she packed her dress and took it to Grandpa's when she spent the night last week! But she was so busy she didn't remember she had it with her. Anyway...her original princess dress is from winter, with a long sleeve bodice. She gets so hot when she's dancing around, I knew she would need a summer princess dress! I waited until after Easter for the dresses to go on sale and boy did I hit the jackpot! I got this dress she has on in the pictures and one other dress off the clearance rack at Meijer for $5 each!! For $5, who cares if she doesn't ever do anything but play in them or happens to accidentally ruin them! She loves these dresses! She wears them at least once a week. The other dress is even nice enough that I would let her wear it for a special occasion if needed. Have you priced actual princess dress-up clothes in the toy aisle? They run $25-$30...for play!! I'm going to stick with the out of season clearance rack so I can keep my baby in princess dresses all year round! Happy Libby, Happy Mama!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

For those of you who don't know, one of Libby's favorite movies is, "Mary Poppins." I'm sure everyone is familiar with the scene at the end where the Banks family skips off into the sunset to go fly a kite while singing, "Let's Go Fly a Kite." So for Easter, the Easter Bunny left Libby a kite in her basket. It was finally warm enough and had just the right amount of wind last week that Libby was finally able to go outside to fly her kite. I tried to talk her into waiting until daddy got home from work but she insisted on flying it right away. Did I forget to mention I only remember flying a kite once in my lifetime and that was when I was little (young enough that my parents were still married)! It was on a family vacation in Colorado and we flew kites on a mountain. So here I am with my 3yr old and myself, trying to fly a kite. You may not be surprised when I tell you it wasn't very successful! We did get the kite off the ground, but only to have it come crashing down moments later. After a few attempts Libby decided we should call daddy and see if he was on his way home from work. Libby was talking to daddy and he must have been saying that he was still working and would be a while, to go ahead and fly the kite with mommy. Then, in this very matter of fact way, at a slightly elevated volume, Libby states, "MOMMY DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY A KITE!" I thought I was going to lose it. You could hear Mike laughing on the phone as well. He was still laughing when he got home! Luckily, Libby and Daddy were able to have many successful flights after he got home from work. She even requested that I sing the "Let's go fly a Kite" song while, you guessed it....she flew her kite!

Domestic Diva...in training!

Here is a picture of Libby cooking! She loves to help me cook! I found these aprons at Bed Bath & Beyond...We both have one...Mine says, "Domestic Diva" and hers says, "Diva in Training." How funny is that! So here she is in her apron making meatloaf. This is great fun for her because she gets to squish the meat and stuff together! Another one of her specialties is spaghetti...she likes to cook the meat...stir it and chop it up with the spatula! In fact, this morning at breakfast she was just telling me that when she gets bigger she can do daddy's laundry and mommy's laundry too! If she still has the desire when she is bigger I will be the luckiest mommy ever!

Spring Break '08

For Libby's spring break we went to Greensburg and Batesville to visit my friends from college. Libby has been down there one other time when she was almost 2 1/2, at the time I was the only one with a baby, although Kennita was pregnant. This visit, Kennita's baby was 1 year old (Christopher), Libby was 3 1/2, and our friend "Vosko" has a 6 month old (Jocelyn aka Josie). Jo hasn't joined the mommy club yet, but we keep trying to talk her into becoming a member!! As you can see from the pics, it's difficult to get all the kids together in a picture, especially when Libby is going through a "no pictures" phase! (I know its hard to believe she didn't want her pic taken!) So thank you to Kennita for posing with the kids! The other picture is of me and my friends... Jennifer Jo, Jennifer Joanne, Jennifer Ann, and Kennita... yes you read it correctly...3/4ths of us are Jen's! Can you guess what the most popular name was in the 70's? Its hard to believe that we have been friends for 16 years now! It seems like only last year we were all moving into our dorm rooms at ISU, Bloomberg Hall, 12th floor! We may not get together often anymore, but it doesn't seem to matter. We just always seem to pick up right where we left off. Its like going home! It was so nice that we were all able together and see our children playing together. Considering the age differences they all did quite well with each other. Until the very end, when Libby and Christopher were both getting tired and decided they were done sharing! Christopher was looking through Jo's purse and Libby wanted to join in too. Every time Libby would go to stick her hand in Jo's purse, Christopher would push her away. It was quite amusing...it gave us all a good laugh. I don't think the kids thought it was funny though!

After our weekend down south we returned home. Midweek Libby had another monumental event....She went all the way to Muncie to spend the night at grandpa's house for the first time! It wasn't her first time away from home, she has spent the night at my brother's before, just the first time at grandpa's house! Of course, Nathan spent the night too, so I knew she would be just fine! She had a very good time and came home exhausted! I think she actually slept until 8:30 the next morning AND stayed in her own bed all night!

Today is Tuesday and it's her first day back to school! That means I am back at my brothers house playing on the Internet, catching up my blogspot and checking to make sure our webkinz is still alive all while Libby is at school! Checking the time, it looks like I was not as productive today as I had hoped to be! Oh well...there is always Thursday!

Idol Chatter

OK, for all my loyal blog fans...this is one of the few entries you will see that has nothing to do with Libby! Surprise! As many of you know, I am an idol addict! And let me start by commenting on this weeks results show! Wow! I can't believe it! Michael Johns was eliminated this week...you know, "the Australian guy!" What a surprise that was! I know everyone has to go at some point, but he was one of the good ones, one of the ones I looked forward to seeing each week...and as my friend Kennita pointed out, a nice piece of eye candy! So how is it that some one like Michael Johns gets eliminated while people like Kristi Lee Cook are still in the show. Now I know Krisiti has done fairly well the last two weeks, but does everyone really think she's any good? I'm also surprised that America only takes into account the one performance when they vote?! I like to keep ALL their performances in mind when voting! Keep the strong ones! Get rid of the weak! So that's all I have to say about that! Just a little venting. One more thing America, Don't mess with Jason Castro!

It's all about the shoes!

These are Libby's new "glitter" shoes! I saw these in target of all places and knew I had to get them for Libby. The shoes just say it all! They fit Libby's personality perfectly! She has had them about a month now and has worn them almost everyday...whether they match her outfit or not. Almost daily she also tells me, "Thank you for my glitter shoes. How did you know to get them for me?" or "I love my new sparkle shoes!" I tell her, "Mommy just knew!" When we go out, if she's not feeling shy, she'll tell people, "Look at my new glitter shoes!" I'm also going to post pics of her other new shoes...flip flops...that I got her. She was also very excited about these. She would wear them around the house constantly (that was before the sparkle shoes arrived), and tell me, "Maybe when it gets warm outside I can wear my new sandals bye-bye and I can wear short sleeves and I won't even have to wear a jacket! How about that!?" We started with a pink pair and a black pair of sandals and she would switch them out about every five minutes. Unfortunately, Ginger, the wonder dog, chewed up her pink pair! Lucky for Ginger I'm only out $2.50! You'd have to see Libby walking in these flip flops to truly appreciate them, but I think these photos will help with the visual! Enjoy!