Little Attitude

I never expected Summer to get a little attitude - is she 2 yet? She has gotten mad at least 3 times. Once when I took away her sucker (because she put it in her hair and I didn't want her to really have the whole thing, candy and all), once when she was putting her puzzle in her mouth and once when Kris took away one of her toys that she was trying to break - she is getting an ATTITUDE, get's mad, squeezes and whines and lately she is really starting to shake her head NO - all the time. It WAS cute at first but now seriously, NO to everything?
It is very interesting to see this behavior because I have to believe this anger is not taught, no one in my house ever gets an attitude and cries and tries to pinch, so this has to be a natural thing one is born with, which amazes me a little bit. I am trying not to make a big deal out of it and ignore it, but wow, we have started calling Summer Miss Attitude! For the most part the Attitude is a rare occasion, but I get the feeling it is going to increase over time.

park park and more park

Las Vegas is really too hot, we could never go to the park in the summer because it was unbearable, so now that things are cooling off - upper 80s, I am trying to get to the park as much as we can. I took Summer to the park on Saturday and Sunday so she could run around and have lots of fun. Summer enjoys the kids, the ducks, the slide, being outside, and she never gives me attitude when it is time to leave, yet anyway. On Saturday I also went to the bookstore to get more books for Summer. She loves playing with books and looking at the pictures. I ended up getting 5 new books and a floor puzzle. The floor puzzle came with a large poster of different animals. I taped it to the wall so Summer could look at it and point out all the animals. It has a dog, tiger, pony, cat, chicks, snake, rabbit, to name a few. I taped it at her level with a lot of tape so she would not rip it off the wall. After the book store we went to see Grandpa at work. The jewelry store he works at has a play area and Summer found a car. She started zooming it around the floor so we decided she should have a play car. On Sunday Grandpa bought Summer three new cars, a Barbie Mustang with a Barbie inside, a Nascar that zooms around the room and a Leap Frog bus with three passengers that Summer can take out or put in. The Bus also plays a couple songs, The Wheels on the Bus, ABC's and has the ABC letters all around the bus that she can push to hear what they are and what they sound like - very cool toy. Besides the new books, new cars, park trips, I also baked pumpkin pies and made Green Pepper Soup and a yummy meatloaf for dinner. Summer ate both dinners, she didn't seem to care for the pie (of course) but she ate everything else. It was another great weekend.

Cold Weather

The most significant thing that happened in the past week is the changes. First my hair - I cut off about 6-8 inches. I am so happy with it. No regrets! Next is the weather, we had a cold front move through and dropped us from 90s to the 60s. 30 degrees may not seem like much but I am reminded how much I hate cold weather. It hurts. Luckily we are suppose to warm back up into the 80s but it won't last. Why did I ever complain about the heat silly me! We are all healthy again thank goodness. We are eating and everything seems back to normal. On Saturday I took Summer to visit Casey and Ana and we went to a fall festival Halloween thing. It was really cold, actually rained when we arrived. I had went to Kmart the night before to buy Summer some winter clothes, sweat shirts, pants, etc. Thankfully mimi sent some winter clothes as well so Summer has two jackets. I thought Summer would have been in 2T clothes but she is still in 18 months. She will probably be in 2T by the end of the winter. It amazes me how fast they grow in the first year to all but stop in the second. At the Halloween Harvest thing Summer was a little cranky but I did get some good pumpkin pictures.
Yesterday we took some candy Halloween pictures. I have to be the better person and tattle on myself, while taking the pictures Summer had the end of a sucker in her mouth. It was really cute but I was thinking to myself how dangerous that is, and how she should not have the end of the sucker in her mouth. Somehow Summer flinched and jammed the stick into her mouth. I have no clue why or how, but of course it hurt something and she started crying. Luckily there was no blood and Summer would not let me see what she jabbed, but moms - instincts - I knew better and it was almost like I knew it was going to happen. She seemed fine after a few minutes but I felt horrible. No more suckers or sticks, at least not backwards like that, bad mommie! On Tuesday night we have another pumpkin farm thing to go to so I will have more pictures. I hope it warms up a little brrr.

So Sick

This has probably been one of the worse weeks in a long time. Monday started off like any other week, got up, went to work, went home. I had ordered a leotard off eBay for Summer and it arrived in the mail on Monday. I tried it on as soon as I got home from work Monday and it was really too small, she could have maybe worn it once or twice. There was also a big box of clothes from MiMi that I couldn't wait to look through. After I took off the leotard I put normal clothes back on Summer and as I was sitting on the couch with her in my lap, for the first time ever, she pukes. She pukes again, again, again, again, about 6 good upchucks all over me, my pants, my shirt. I saw more coming but after the first round hit me I was grounded to the couch, if I had sat up it would have flung everywhere, so I sat and let her get it all out. She didn't look sick before she started puking so I had no warning it was coming. Luckily I am not a squirmy mother, the puke had grapes and smelled like sweet juice. After she finished Cliff handed me some paper towels, I did what I could, then Summer and I went and jumped into the shower. She had a fever the precious week on Thursday and Friday but seemed fine all weekend, so this was a bit of a shock. After the shower I put Summer on the bed on top of a blanket and gave her some water. She downed the water, and about 5 minutes later she puked it all back up. Good thing I had the blanket on the bed. Kris threw the blanket in the washer (the first round of clothes was already in the dryer) and we just sat quietly on the bed. Several thoughts were going through my head, remember the bruise on her head from hitting the bathtub the night before - could this be causing her to be sick? Billy called Kris on Sunday and said he had that really bad contagious staff infection and we just got a box of clothes from his mom, could that be causing her to be sick? During the middle of the night Kris got up and got on the internet, he had taken some pictures of flowers and wondered if Summer might have put one in her mouth, making her sick. None of these things probably made her sick, it was probably just a stomach bug. Cliff went to walgreens and asked the pharmasist for something to help, he gave him some medicine to help with vomiting. I told Kris she didn't need it because at this time she was not vomiting, but he insisted we try it, which resulted in another round of puking. After that she had nothing else to eat or drink, and it was around bed time, so we decided she had better sleep in our room. Oh I forgot to mention Kris was also sick, he was not puking, his was more of a head/body cold, so he was already not feeling well. Now you would think it would be cute to sleep in the same bed as Summer but you are wrong, this girl does not stop moving. She is the squirmiest thing, and for the first few hours into the night I did not sleep. I had to keep her right side up and away from daddy, who didn't feel well and was trying to get some rest himself. Around 2:00 am I decided Summer was well enough to sleep in her crib and took her upstairs. I laid on her floor for 30 minutes to make sure she was going to be ok, then I went downstairs and moved the monitor to my side of the bed so daddy would sleep. It was a quick night, Summer woke up, luckily, fine. Daddy was a little better but still not 100% and mommy was exhausted but went to work. Tuesday - nothing happened. Wednesday seemed like things were better. I ordered pizza on the way home, Kris was pretty much better, and all was well. Around midnight my stomach started hurting. Around 1:00 am Kris got up, and I asked him if his stomach hurt, to which he said "yes" as he crawled to the bathroom. Great, I thought, we have food poisoning! Kris never did throw up, and neither did I until the next morning. When Summer awoke I was dead on the bathroom floor and Kris was still in bed, we were discussing who had enough energy to walk up the stairs to bring Summer down because we figured if the pizza gave us food poisoning then Cliff must be sick too, but he ended up being ok, and he carried Summer down, which meant we did not have food poisoning because he ate the same pizza we did. Did we have what Summer had? We both felt horrible, barely able to move, Cliff went to work and got off early to come and help take care of Summer for us. Summer still seemed fine all this time, even with two sick parents who could barely take care of her. After sleeping several hours on Thursday and all night, Kris and I woke up feeling 75% better on Friday. Cliff and I both went to work and Kris was able to take care of Summer. Oh I finally looked through the box of clothes MiMi got, I did wash them first because I was paranoid, and Summer's Dallas Cowgirl Cheerleader costume arrived, it was too big - so I am back to the drawing board as far as that goes. I tried the leotard on again this morning because we went to dance class, but after about 5 minutes and Summer going from happy to upset itchy baby, we won't get to wear that after all either. Next week MiMi will be here so things have to be better.

Almost October

This weekend we were really busy. I was in and out of the car 4 times on Saturday, and 2 times on Sunday, and Summer was with me all but one of those times. It is a good thing gas prices are going down (I got it for $3.44 yesterday) because I was a driving fool this weekend. Saturday morning we had dance, it was fun, Summer did fine. Then I went and got Kris and I Panda for lunch (I hate Panda, remind me next time to not eat there, nasty food), then Summer and I went grocery shopping, then Kris, Summer and I went out to eat with the Springston's and the Ross's. We had important business to discuss, the upcoming Haunted House Halloween Party. On Sunday Summer and I went to the Springston's Church and later in the afternoon we met the Springston's at a Halloween store and looked at costumes and everything else they had. Summer was not scared of the scary things in the store but she did look a bit concerned or confused. I think I know what I am going to be, but we will see, it may change.
Last Thursday Summer had a fever, really her first non shot fever. It was only up around 100 and only lasted a day or two. She seemed ok, just a little run down. By the weekend she was back to herself, but too bad daddy seems to have caught it and it isn't being as nice to him, I think this is day 3 or 4 and he still feels bad.
I took another video of Summer yesterday - pointing out her hair, eyes, mouth, nose, feet and hands. I forgot to do where is her teeth, she knows that one too.
I am really skipping around here, last night I went to give Summer a bath, and when I was taking off her pants she was standing up and I slid both legs down, which made her unstable and she slipped, spun around, and hit the side of her head on the side of the bathtub. I felt so bad, and she really cried. I held her in my arms and rocked her back and forth saying I was so sorry, I am so sorry. She was better in a few minutes but she had a nice purple bruise right above her eye. Today it did look better but I still feel bad. I know she still loves me because she gave me several kisses when I left this morning and even cried when I had to go to work, and cried hard. I miss her already, Monday's are always the pits for leaving.

Funny Sounds

Summer is cute. It seems like people are always telling me how cute she is. I took her to dance class on Saturday and it was and wasn't what I expected, but I want to take her back. The class was not about dancing to fast music, more about following the instructor and doing certain movements and steps, which is probably better for Summer anyway, the whole hand/eye/feet/body coordination. I signed Summer up so we will be at dance classes each Saturday morning. The best part about the class was the interaction with other kids and people. Of course Summer was the youngest student at 14 months, the other two little girls in the class were 2, but I think Summer did as well if not better. Summer didn't really notice the little girls, she was more interested in the instructors daughter who was probably 8 or 9. Summer loves girls. Anyway all the people from the school kept saying how cute she was, the instructor, the instructors daughter, another mother, another little girl. Is she really as cute as I think she is?
On Sunday we went to a park a little further from home, but a park we will definately go to again in the near future. This park was awesome - it has a gravel pit, a small play area, a larger play area, a water area and a duck pond, plus it even had swings and security, what more could you ask for in a park? While we were waiting for some moms to show up this dad and his daughter were walking to their truck to get a drink. We were sitting right by the parking lot and the dad's truck was facing out, so the gate was down and he had a large cooler of something drinkable. Summer walked over to them because of the little girl, who was the same height as Summer so I am guessing a few more months older. The dad asked if Summer could also have a drink, I said "no, that's ok she is fine, plus she can't drink out of a cup yet" but he got her a drink anyway and held it for her. I assumed the liquid in the large yellow cooler was water, but after changing her shirt because she had several glasses full and had spilt a bit over herself, I realized that it might have been some sort of punch or juice. He was Mexican and I know they drink flavored juices or something, which is fine, just funny how Summer immediately levitates to anyone with food or drink. She had a lot of whatever it was in the jug. The entire family eventually walked over to the dad and the small daughter, I bet there was about 5 girls and they were all cute. At least they all had some of the liquid too. The rest of the park was fun, there were 4 moms all together and we walked around, let the kids play, and after 2 hours headed home. Summer skipped her afternoon nap to go to the park, she was really tired when we finished and fell asleep in the car before we got home. She went to bed early too. Around 5:30 this morning we could hear Summer on the monitor whining, having a bad dream. I went upstairs and got her and put her in our bed so I could hold her and tickle her side to help her out of her sad dream, it worked, she slept better after that and woke up around 6:30 like normal. It was nice having her lay on me while we slept another hour, she is so cuddly and soft and warm. I still love her to pieces. During the dance class right when we started I was so happy to be able to do this for her I almost started crying. I am such a baby now!
The good news - I took new video this weekend. Look at my youTube Baby Love and Animal Sounds are the new ones, enjoy!

Blew me a kiss

Today is Monday again, and like every Monday morning leaving my baby is hard, harder on Monday than any other day. This morning daddy walked Summer to the garage to watch me pull away. I blew Summer a kiss and she kissed her hand back. Several times. It was so precious, but very emotional. It didn't help that an emotional country song was playing on the radio. Summer is such a great loving easy going baby, how could I not hate to leave each day? We had another great weekend, on Saturday we went and visited with Ana and Casey and the four of us went to the park. The girls had fun, the park had a cool tunnel with a lot of static. We took some good pictures. Then Summer and I ran errands, I had to pick up some more books because I am addicted to the Twilight series. The book store is across from Grandpa's job so we stopped in and saw him. Actually we went in so he could show Summer off to everyone there. Summer was giving people "fives" and of course they all thought she is so precious. I almost forgot about our early morning walk, well not real early, around 9:00 am, and actually already too late in the day to be considered cool, but Summer, I, and the dogs walked around the block. You can tell the weather is trying to cool, or that people in Vegas are ready for the weather to cool down because in that short walk around the block we stopped at two garage sales. One had nothing much, the other one was in the back yard and I saw baby clothes. Imagine how fun it was trying to push a baby stroller into the grass with two dogs on the other hand - exactly, not much fun at all, but I spotted a Little Tyke slide that was not for sale. I asked the lady if she wanted to sale it, it didn't look like it was getting used, it was dirty and had spiderwebs on it, and she said to make her an offer. I was at a garage sale, I had no clue how much these climber/slide combos go for, so I said $15. She said she had paid over $100 and she would sell it for $25. I told her I would be back for it. Even thought it was a house right around the corner, this thing was HUGE, it did not fit in the back of my SUV, so I used jumper cables to keep it in the back as best I could and managed to make it around the corner without dropping it. I washed it off and got it all pretty looking, it was definitely worth the $25, Summer will be able to use it for quite a few years. She has mastered the slide already, she knows how to sit and scoot forward and slide, which is so cute, I just love her so much!
Sunday we went shopping, just us girls, we went to Ross, Summer was such a good sport, allowing me three dressing room trips to find some new shirts. Then we went to Wal-Mart for groceries. I also found a pair of shoes and a Halloween outfit for Summer. Not a costume, just a cute orange and black outfit. It was a great weekend together, as usual. The weekends just keep getting better and better.