And how does that make you feel?

Do you ever hear a phrase or think about one and it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy? I don't mean the first time he/she says "I love you," or your baby saying, "mama" for the first time. I mean, normal every day phrases.

One that gets my imagery gears turnin' is "Crack open a bottle."

I love the word "crack." Not like, cocaine or butt or in the ground. But the onomatopoeia. If feels heavy on the back of my tongue and makes my heart warm. I picture a roaring fire in a log cabin somewhere on a snowy mountain. Two glasses pleading to be filled with a plum red wine twinkling by the glow of the fire.

Person one says to person two, "Let's crack open a bottle of wine."

Warm, inviting, cozy. Crack.

That's Wassup!

People often ask me, "Mandy, what's your latest obsession?" And to those people I made up simply for the sake of having a creative blog opening I respond, "Food blogs!"

I am subscribed to one that is by a woman I used to babysit for in Nacogdoches. La Dolce Vita
She owns her own catering and cake company and makes such delicious food. I have made several things off of her site and they usually turn out. I used regular salt in the stroganoff and it was uber salty, but that was my bad.

I think my favorite thing about food blogs is when your finished product turns out just like the picture! I make Andrea's Shrimp Carbonara all the time and it always looks like hers. A couple days ago I went searching for food blogs and found this one. She has some super yummy looking stuff!

I decided to start simple and do her No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies this morning. They look like hers! Hooray! And they haven't completely cooled yet, but I had to snack on one before nap time. They're delicious! The oatmeal doesn't cook long so it stays a little crunchy/chewy and makes the cookies yumtastic.

Speaking of nap time, it's now. I'll post more when I find more and do more.

I'll also maybe eventually finish the 30 day blog challenge that has turned into a million day challenge.

Day 10- What You Wore Today

I'd been putting this one off for a day that I actually changed out of my pajamas! Well then I went to Idaho and didn't bring my computer.

It's still kind of early today and I'm still in jammies so I'll say what I wore yesterday!

I wore jeans and a white tank top under a wide neck grey t-shirt. Pretty swanky, I know. Haha!

Now I shall rant.

I love Peyton to death, but yesterday I reached my breaking point. She has been so whiny and clingy that I can't get anything done. I'll give her credit for playing in her playpen for an hour watching Baby Mozart while I made tortillas for dinner. But after that I took her out to feed her lunch and she fussed through half of it. Once she finished I went to make myself lunch and she would not leave me alone. She stood up holding onto my jeans and screamed into them until I picked her up. I hadn't eaten since 8 am and was so hungry, so I had to let her cry while I cooked. I felt bad, but she was driving me nuts. Once I came back into the living room she was fine. She didn't want to sit or play with me, just wanted me in the room with her.

When Steven got home he played with her so I could finish getting dinner ready. While he was eating I made her dinner. He offered to feed her while I ate but she screamed. So I put my food down (not even a bite taken yet) and fed her. She started screaming halfway through and hitting the spoon and I had had enough. I took her out of her chair, put everything away, wiped her face and gave her to Steven. I said, "I'm going to take a shower. She's going to scream and I don't care." And with that I took a much needed LONG hot shower. I shaved my legs! Woohoo! And after that I blow dried my hair. It was lovely. I didn't hear her cry at all while I was in there. She started to fuss a little when I was almost done drying my hair.

So, she can be without me if Steven distracts her. But it was a grand total of about 20 minutes. I wish he could be here more to spend time with her so that she would be fine with him anytime and for longer periods.

Oh well! Time for diaper change and nap! I may take one with her. She woke up several times crying last night. Normally she wakes up twice quietly and I can nurse her back so sleep right away, but not last night... I'm exhausted!

Where Have I Been?

Idaho. And before that chasing my 8 month old around the apartment. It's hard to find time to blog! Right now she is entertaining herself with diapers. Whatever floats her boat!

She's is growing up so much! She is a professional crawler. If she wants to get somewhere quickly she does this Spiderman crawl. She spreads her arms wider and "runs." It's pretty much adorable. She is standing on her own now too. She'll just stand up in the middle of the room and keep her balance. She can do it through a sneeze and through waving her arms maniacally. She can say "mama" but normally only does it when she's upset. She'll string it into some "baba"s too.

We just got back from a week vacation to visit my sister and her family in Rexburg, ID. It was a nice trip. She got to play with her cousins Allie and Adam and went swimming for the first time. I'll get that video up later.

My mom and I took her to Rexburg in January and she did pretty well in the car. This time we had my grandma with us so we stopped a lot more and did the drive in two days. It worked much better for baby's stress and comfort levels. She never got too upset in the car. She would whine when she was getting tired and I had to discover a way to get her to sleep.

She has entered the separation anxiety stage. Yay? No yay. I know it's my fault for never leaving her side, but holy cow... She's driving me nuts! I tried to take a shower yesterday and kept having to stick my head out and make faces at her. Doesn't she know I'll be out faster if I don't have to do that? It started at my sister's house. I was staying in the hotel with mom and gran, but gran snores. REALLY LOUD. So I decided Peyton and I would stay at Kate's. Mom and I ran to the hotel to get some stuff I would need for the night and were gone all of 10 minutes. When we drove back up I saw my 88-year-old grandmother carrying my 18 lb baby outside (heart attack!). I could see Pey's face was red so I got to her quickly. Poor thing had cried pretty much the entire time we were gone. Not a big deal for most babies, but that's the first time she's cried like that. I felt horrible.

I know she needs to get used to the fact that if I go I will be back, but when you're a stay at home mom who never goes anywhere, it's hard to teach her that. She's not really used to be being with anyone else either. It's always her and me. Daddy sees her for about 3 hours a day when he works. When he's off we see him all day so hopefully she'll start realizing that he can take care of her too!

Well, she's done with the diapers and is ready for breakfast. I'll get some pics and videos up later!

I have a cute baby

Day 09- Your Beliefs

I believe in God and Jesus and all that jazz.

I don't go to church partly because Steven worked every Sunday. He doesn't anymore, but we still don't go haha

I don't want to trivialize it by saying "all that jazz," but I wouldn't relegate myself into a specific "religion." I have found things I don't like about almost every church I've ever been to. The most important to me is the idea of original sin. I understand the idea but children are the purest, most innocent of all God's creations, so why do they need to be washed of the sins of their parents? Not for me. I also don't like the idea of baptizing before a child understand the concept. Do a dedication, but let them make a sound decision of when they are baptized.

We will eventually go to church I'm sure. If nothing else to expose Peyton to a religious community so that she can make her own religious choices when she's ready.

I still pray and every once in awhile I'll pull out my devotional book and do one when I have a second to breathe during the day.

I guess you could call me a Stay-At-Home-Believer.

Jeez Louise.

Peyton likes to play with wires and cords. She pulled on my laptop charger a few too many times and it stopped working. SO we had to order a new one and it finally got here today! Woohoo!

She is into everything these days. I seriously have to stop her from getting into stuff every two minutes. Like just now, I had to stop her from eating a Game Informer. Since she's starting crawling I think I've lost some weight and some hair. She pulls up on absolutely everything. She has a special place in her heart for a stool that is next to the couch. She is better about getting down from standing though. She used to just fall onto her tush. Now she slowly sinks down.

She is very curious about what's going on the world. Well, in our world anyway (the apartment). If someone is blowing their nose she stares in wonder. She laughs at me and claps when I brush my teeth. If I'm in the kitchen she thinks she's about to get food and starts smacking her lips. She'll also come into the kitchen and climb up my leg and stand there holding on to my pants for dear life.

She isn't saying anything yet but when I tell her to say "mama" she starts whispering "papapa" so I guess she's associating that? Who knows.

She eats well. She doesn't like stuff with a lot of flavor. We've tried spaghetti and chicken and pasta. She made yuck faces and started to fuss. I've figured out that I have to add oatmeal and apple juice to those foods and she'll eat them just fine. Except for recently. I assume her teeth are starting to hurt. She's felt a little warm to me lately and she starts fussing a couple minutes into some of her meals. I don't feel or see any teeth yet, but when she opens her mouth to eat I can see that her front gums are a little swollen.

I'll try to catch up on my blog challenge. Just for you Kate, because I'm pretty sure you're the only one who reads this.