What did you say?

Naomi has been saying the funniest things, she's just growing up so fast and learning SO much all the time! It's fun but also funny.

Lately her cute phrases have included: "for minute" she will say something like, "baby sit in stroller....for minute." It's really cute.

And she also likes to volunteer when she likes something, out of the blue. We'll be walking outside and she'll see a squirrel and she'll get excited and then she'll say "I like it!" She lets us know what she does NOT like too:) She'll say "no like it" with a sad little voice.

But my total favorite is when she'll say something like "I love Daddy!" and I'll say "you do?" and she'll respond with "Yes I do!" She says it with a little sing-song voice like "yes-ah-doooo!" It cracks me up. Oh, and one more thing, everything is pretty princesses lately.... even our cat is Princess Kitty. hmmm.

So other than her funny stuff, I'm 37+ weeks now and counting down! I feel so stuffed:)

Pansies

I know it's because I am from Utah, NORTHERN Utah, but really. People here are total pansies.
We've been having warnings for the past few days that today would be icy!!! Watch out! There could be ICE! So when we looked outside this morning there was indeed ice on the cars, ground-up salty ice on the pavement and rain falling.
Well, I HAD a doctor appointment scheduled for this morning. I got ready to go, Zach so sweetly scraped the ice off the windshield (really, I've done this here before, it takes all of 5 minutes- tops, they even sell windshield scrapers at the local stores, imagine that), and I drove off to my appointment. The radio was talking about school closures, no surprise, they close for *possible* ice or snow, or heck, any kind of precipitation.
I pulled up to a meter, popped in two quarters and took the elevator to the second floor. And the door to the office was locked. Other offices were open. No, not all but some, and the pharmacy downstairs was open too. I called my doctors number, was sent to an answering service. I just wanted to complain, so I did.
She informed that yes, they are closed. Maybe the roads were bad and they wanted to come in but couldn't make it, and they must not have any patient information at home. I'm sorry, you'll just have to reschedule on Monday.
So I guess I learned my lesson. Even though my doctors staff called me yesterday to confirm my appointment and make sure I would be there, they decided it was just too hard to scrape off their cars and get to work. Never mind informing the patients about it.
So yeah. The roads are wet, the ice is slushy and everyone has the day off.
Pansies.
You would think this weather is a novelty, an extreme. Nope, every winter it gets icy and snowy.
Pansies.

What's In Your Bag Tag

This is my H&M bag that I fell love with last fall- I have short and passionate affiars with bags:) I haven't owned a "real" diaper bag yet, there are just so many other bags out there that fit the bill and look waaaay better. So maybe it's time for a new spring bag.....
Here are the contents of my diaper bag/purse. (when I'm without Naomi I use a purse, smaller and I just transfer a few essentials.)
1. diapers, wipes, pad
2. sippy
3. snacks
4. crayons and a few other random toys
5. baby tylenol
6. plastic bag (poopy diapers:)
7. hand sani
8. Naomi's glasses, my glasses
9. wallet
10. planner
11. metro pass
12. chapstick
13. lotion
14. tums (pregnant!)
15. pen
16. tissues
17. tic tacs/candy for me
18. shuffle
19. dental floss (?)
20. elastics/bobby pins

Tag You're It: Sarah, Cassie, & Ashlee

Two Years

Busy Days with my Baby

First of all, isn't my husband the best!!!!

Valentines day I had a party here at our apartment with lots of mommies, babies and kids. It was tons of fun, the kids painted icing on sugar cookies and did a great job! Naomi ended up with icing ALL over her shirt and more than one kid figured out that the icing paint was super edible:)

Yesterday was Naomi's birthday, 2 years old! I can hardly believe she's so old! When I was putting together the picture slide show (next post) I saw just how fast the time has gone by. She's such a sweetie, and also such an independent, happy, and outgoing little girl!

We did a little bit of a theme birthday this year. We gave her the Finding Nemo movie right after breakfast and then told her we were going to the Aquarium! We drove to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, she watched her new "fishy, shark! moobie" on the way there. She loved the aqarium, we did too! I wished it wasn't so busy with people and that we could have spent more time there, Naomi was a fast mover but she loved the huge sharks and manta rays!

We opened presents later that afternoon and I think that it's official that the $7 doll stroller is a definite favorte! She's going to be a good big sister:)

Later for dinner we had some friends come over, the Stewarts and the Piersons. Naomi was in heaven having friends over, she gets soooo excited. The kids ate about 2 bites of pizza and about 10000 bites of ice cream and cake:) It was a fun little "party." Naomi even figured out how to blow the candle out- with a little help from mommy.

So after two busy and fun days in a row we are just chillin' at home today. Naomi went to bed late but got up right at 7 a.m. as usual! I'm hoping for a nice long nap later.

Naomi is getting to be such a good talker. She constantly surprises me with how much she says and understands. She will read her books back to us, it's darling.

my favorite was this morning when I was changing her diaper she started talking like this:

" Nomi sing a song- ohtay. Blaah, la, dooh ahh may bee.... Sing Bee Song. Bee song beeeeee song, be song beeeee song , bee song bee. Sing 'nother song....twinkle twinkle little star, how I w......what you are! ..... sing 'nother song...." And she went on making up songs or using phrases she knows from songs until we were done with her diaper change:) It's just so cute to listen to her.

I can't believe it's been two years already but I'm sure before I know it, it will have been two more years.

Happy Valentines Day Trisha

Dear Trisha,

I've infiltrated your blog today because in the tradition of all famous lovers (of which I can give you examples later) I wanted to declare to you my love and have it be known to all the world (I'll keep it short because I know you can only tolerate a certain amount of sappiness:).

You truly are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are my best friend. Our relationship brings untold joy and happiness to my life. I cherish your companionship, your love and your devotion. I admire your selflessness in caring for Naomi and me (and soon our son). A day does not go by that I don't thank the heavens for you. I consider myself exceedingly blessed.

Thank you for everything. I Love You and can't wait until forever.

Zach

Husband Tag

So this is a new kind of tag that I thought was an interesting change:)
Thanks Natalie for tagging me.

Zach is a fantastic daddy, that's not on the tag list so I thought I would add it at the top.

What is his name? Zachary Taylor Champlin
How long have you been married? 6 years and change
How long did you date? not very long! Honestly our first date was July 4th and we were married December 29th
How old is he? 28
Who eats more? Zach, by a loooong shot. Unless it's cereal....
Who said "I love you" first? Zach
Who is taller? Zach
Who sings better? Zach does, he's got a pretty good voice.
Who is smarter? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm pretty sure Zach's smarter- But I can hold my own!
Whose temper is worse? Hmm, that's maybe a toss up. He'd probably say me!
Who does the laundry? both of us
Who does the dishes? both of us (he saves me from my most hated chore often!)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me
Who pays the bills? both of us do
Who mows the lawn? (ditto from Natalie) one benefit of apartment dwelling - no lawn to mow!
Who cooks dinner? we both do but Zach cooks MUCH better than me. And he always improves upon my recipes. Lucky huh!
Who drives when you are together? Both, but I like for him to drive. Acutally- lately I would prefer he DIDN'T drive, since he rides the metro everyday he's a little out of practice....
Who is more stubborn? Me
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Zach
Whose parents do you see the most? Right now neither. But probably mine when we are "home"
Who proposed? Zach
Who has more friends? Probably me, Zach gets a little lost in his school stuff:)
Who has more siblings? We're even! 7 kids in each family.
Who wears the pants? We'd like to think we are soooo even on this, but I'm pretty sure I do. Or at least I get my way more often. I hate to admit that one too!

Ok, I tag.... Angela, Kelly, Dani and Raegan

Best Play Dough Recipe

I'm not totally sure where I originally found this recipe but it's a good one. We get out the play dough probably at least once a week around here, Naomi loves it. Today I decided it was time to make some new dough. I do buy it occasionally too but it's fun to make, Naomi helped me measure all the ingredients and stirred them together.

In medium bowl add:
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Salt
1 Tbs Alum
3 Tbs Oil
Boil 2 Cups water. I do this in the microwave, about 4-5 minutes ought to get it hot enough.

Add food coloring to water. More drops = brighter/darker color. I add to the water and not the mixture as a whole because then it is more evenly distributed- and doesn't end up on my hands when I knead the dough.

Mix ALL ingredients with spoon until a dough forms, dump onto table and knead until smooth.
I've found that on rainy days I need a little more flour, if it's too sticky just add little bits of flour until it resembles a nice big wad of stale bubble gum! Sorry, that's what it reminded me of today:) We also added some silver glitter to the green dough today, it sticks to the dough really well, don't worry that you'll have glitter everywhere.

Store this in the fridge in a zippy baggie, it lasts FOREVER. The last batch I threw out finally because I was sure it had picked up all kinds of gross things over the past month, not because it was stale or whatever.
Ok, have fun making (and playing with) play dough!

A week in the life of....

We've been busy doing lots of things this week, having fun for the most part.
To start off, last Saturday- a week ago, I went to pick up my friend Kelly to go to a baby shower. After I backed up her driveway my car was stuck in reverse. Literally stuck. It's a manual and the shifter wouldn't budge. So after much pushing, wiggling and backing up we decided to leave the car parked at her place on the road and take her car. We were late and I was embarrassed. I hated my car that day. It's done this in the past and it's somewhat mysterious. From what I could find out from my internet sluething it seems to be something with the bushing on the linkage (???). No idea. But what I do know is that to get it fixed at the shop would definitly cost more than our little 94 Altima is worth. Meh.

So we left it there overnight, actually Zach was conviently gone to Charlotte that day and wouldn't be home until the next morning. Hmmm. So Kelly and Brian, being the nice and very cool people they are, invited us over Sunday for dinner. After dinner "the boys" went and worked on the car:) Well, Zach backed it down a hill and up another and then let it roll forward and viola! it was unstuck! I know it's not the best plan, but I'm just crossing my fingers it doesn't get stuck again in a more inconvienent location....say the grocery store. It seems to be related to backing up a steep incline, so I'll avoid that!

Then, the rest of this week we have been playing! We went to the park (last post), we went to a a few friends houses to play, we went visiting teaching. That last one ended up with Naomi and the other little girl smacking their heads together, oops.

On Thursday we went to storytime at the Bethesda library with Abby, Cassie and Claire (the baby that Cassie takes care of). The girls had a good time dancing and just being crazy little toddlers.

We drove "downtown" with Zach to get some books from his school. I realized that I don't drive/ride into DC very often. I need to make a better effort to see all this city has to offer!

On Friday I went early to "the Lab" to take my glucose tolerance test, you know for when you're preggo and they want to check to see if you have gestational diabetes. When I was pregnant with Naomi, my doctor sent me home with the sugar-shocked orange drink to take one hour before my blood test. So I could drink it at home (but you only have 5 minutes to down 10 oz of the slightly fizzy orange syrup,) and then come in to get my blood drawn an hour later. Well, here I had to make my appt for the test, go and drink the orange stuff in their presence and then sit and wait an hour there in their office. Oh my... it was boring. Their TV channel was very much annoying, especially when it looped through it's programming. I brought a book that proved to be just about at boring as the TV and I was sick of all the songs on my iPod. And I was tired. Then they get to stick a needle in my arm and suck my blood. Ok, I know I'm being a whiner but it was a drag.

BUT, after that yesterday we had our very first "Preschool" at our place! Naomi, Abby and a new little friend that just moved in, Isabel are doing preschool twice a week, rotating whose place it's at. The girls were so cute, I wish I would have taken a few pictures. I had fun getting a little circle time ready and a creative activity. It's been a while:) Our theme was Snowmen. We talked about the letter S and circles, we sang a snowman song- "Once there was a Snowman," and then we made snowman pictures. The girls had the most fun with the glue, Abby had nice big pools of glue all over her paper. They used cotton balls, buttons and pom poms to make their pictures. Naomi is still talking about it.

Today we met Cassie and Abby at the mall play area. It was probably warm enough to hit the park again today but it was all soggy from our downpour yesterday. So we made good use of the mall, again. I also did a little shopping there at Target, and Motherhood Maternity- as much as I despise that store. I swear, they basically ask for your blood type when you try to buy something.

So there- it's all out. My week! Here we are at Saturday night again. Time goes by so quickly. Things are just going to get busier around here as we get ready for this baby, and Naomi's big 2-year birthday!