Birthday Parties, Big Fish Tanks, and Jungle Animals

~Little Bit's birthday was Sunday, as was her party. We survived. Thank God! Most everything went perfectly. I have learned that I don't like kids...I hope this changes when it is your own (as I hear it does). Let me
clarify that--I love kids that are well behaved. I don't like kids that don't mind. I bet I told Little Bit's cousin 8000 times not to go into our bedroom and to leave our cats alone. He never listened. She loved the cake. LOVED it. I have heard from a lot of my friends w/ 1 year olds that they babies pick at the icing but not her. She dug right in. It might have something to do with the fact that she doesn't do the pincher finger thing yet, but I think she just really liked it :) She got lots of fun stuff--clothes galore, several toys that sing annoying songs that I can't get out of my head, and a tickle me elmo chair (no, not the coveted TMX Elmo). All in all, it was a success

~We visited the Georgia Aquarium yesterday. Totally great and totally worth the money. Yes, spending $25 to go see a few fish seems a bit high, but like I said--worth it. Little Bit even seemed to like it. She was definitely exhausted, though. The big tank was AMAZINGLY big.

~We don't "celebrate" Halloween . However, we are dressing Little Bit up and going to the All Saints Fair at the church. It should be fun. I think we are also going to go have her picture made with her cousins and aunt (who's 7). We had our playgroup today and dressed the babies up in their costumes. TOO cute! We took about a million pictures but I'm hesitant to put a bunch of people online without their permission. Between her birthday, the aquarium, and today, I'll be uploading pictures for days!

Dear Lord

Thank you that it is 9am and Little Bit is still sleeping. It makes me happy...especially in light of the upcoming time change. Amen

Speaking of Little Bit--WOW the sign language thing is just amazing me. I can almost see her mind working when I teach her a new sign. I have always done water or juice as "drink" b/c it is interchangeable. Well, when she does it, it is very similar to "cat" so I decided to specifically do "water" in hopes that there will be a distinguishable difference. We were in the bathtub the other night, and I was telling her about the "water" and it took about 30 seconds for her to start signing it back to me. Then, last night we were in the tub and she just started signing it. She was also signing it when she was thirsty yesterday. I wonder what she thinks about the water being in her cup and in the bathtub (other than the fact that she threw her face in the water and took a big gulp). She has also picked up "pumpkin" this week. Oh, and have you ever seen Hitch? Remember the part where the guy dances and makes the pizza and lights the fire and does the q-tip? B and I think that is HILARIOUS so since Little Bit was about 5 months old we have gotten her to do it (us moving her hands/arms around). 2 days ago she decided that she can make the pizza all by herself :) It is too cute! Right off the top of my head, I don't know how many signs she has, but I have them all written down and the date I notice her doing them. It is so fun being able to communicate with her. I really think it is helping with the temper tantrum thing.

Amen :)

Little Bit can now "say" the blessing. My mom has been really working with her on it. So now, when we sit down to dinner and I say "let's say the blessing," she puts her hands together under her chin (ignore the bits of food on her face b/c she had technically already started eating and I had her resay the blessing to get the picture). She has also added "milk" and I think "dog" to her signing vocabulary. Milk is my favorite one thus far. It is so cute :) God love her...

Work is still...well, work. I really despise it! What stinks is that I would really like my job if it weren't for the people. Yesterday, I was SWAMPED trying to get stuff pulled, so I asked this other girl (who was talking on the phone and drinking her coffee) to help me with one thing that would've taken her about 2 minutes, and she looked at me and said "No." The new girl (Emily) said "was she serious?" yup! As serious as a heart attack! This would also be the lady who called me at home wanting me to bring her free Oreo cookies (my husband is a Nabisco rep) and who asks me about 10x a month to work for her...yeah, right! That won't happen again! And FYI: it is perfectly OK to accept free stuff from a rep (ex--Oreos from the Nabisco guy) and to jokingly say "well, you should bring us some cookies." However, it is totally unacceptable to call said rep at home and ask them to bring you free cookies. Seriously lady, we make a living on SELLING the cookies. *sigh*

I'm sure I have much more stuff to write but Little Bit just woke up (and it's 9:15--yea for sleeping late) so I need to go feed her breakfast :)

OH OH OH--If anyone knows what to feed a picky (almost) 1 year old, please do share!

i'm so thankful for my blogging friends. in a perfect world we would all live on wisteria lane and no one would've committed suicide or be twisted (like so many of them are).

thanks to my blog i:
have learned how to take care of ants and not poison my family (thank GOD)
have learned NUMEROUS baby tips, techniques, and ideas
have laughed until i cried!
have gotten so many nice comments when i am having a bad day
have been able to share the most important thing in my life with people i hardly know but would give my left pinky toe to go out to dinner with
have been exposed to some of the most talented writing ever
have learned NOT to get a gymboree credit card :)
have seen some of the best pictures that have ever existed
have lived vicariously in california, utah, and nyc (primarily)

i've learned a lot more but i can't list it all!

little bit got her 3rd tooth in today (about darn time too). one of the ones on the top. i'm hoping this alleviates some of the crankiness (although i'll be surprised if it does b/c the one right next to it is ready and rarin' to come in). she also decided today that walking is a little bit more fun than she realized. she has been walking a good bit here lately but today she's done it a lot. don't get me wrong, we're not signing her up for a walk-a-thon or anything b/c she is still QUITE wobbly but practice makes perfect. my mom has an INCESSANT need to worry about EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY THING pertaining to little bit so she decided she needed some shoes and no matter the cost, we were to buy her a pair. little bit is now the proud owner of a pair of white, pink, and black k-swiss sneakers.
originally, she had these new balance shoes but they were INCREDIBLY heavy and velcro. i thought "velcro's easier" but i failed to think "what's easy for me, is easier for her." she figured that out and back those went.

now she has these k swiss ones (except where these are blue, her's are pink and where these have that funky design, her's are black). they are much much lighter and they tie. and she hates them. everytime we put them on her, she fusses...nonstop! blame it on the teething if you'd like but i'm pretty sure the fact that she keeps picking up her foot (in her shoe) and crying is a dead giveaway that it isn't teething.

email me at ashley_1301 (at) yahoo.com if you can help me with the previous problem!

CAN ANYONE EMAIL ME AND TELL ME WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THIS BLOGGER BETA STUFF??? I CONVERTED MY ACCOUNT AND NOW WHEN I TRY TO CLICK ON MY COMMENTS, IT SAYS MY BLOG ISN'T FOUND! HELP!!

anyone want to make me feel better?

long boring post that you shouldn't feel obligated to read but i need to vent:

1) i finally made all the decisions about little bit's bday party--location, menu, time, etc. i sent out invitations on saturday via email b/c i'm too cheap and lazy to get the ones i really wanted and actually mail them out. several people have responded. however, my dad, stepmom, and dad's parents looked at the invitation and didn't bother to rsvp. it does hurt my feelings a little that they wouldn't automatically plan to be there. however, maybe the next story explains that a little bit

2) my dad and stepmom used to live in the same town i do. several months ago (way before this school year started; actually, before the last school year ended) they moved to another town about 30 minutes away. my step sisters still live in my town so instead of taking my 7 year old little sister out of school here, they decided to use my step sister's address. last week my little sister's school called me wanting me to bring her a pair of shoes b/c she broke her sandals. many things wrong with that--*i don't know what size she wears, *i didn't know i was an emergency contact (not that i mind but i just didn't know), *they live 30 minutes away from me. so i told the lady that i would have to drive 30 minutes in order to get her a pair of shoes. i don't think i told her that they lived 30 minutes away but if i did, i refuse to feel bad about it b/c THEY are the ones breaking the rules and it shouldn't be MY responsibility to lie for them. anyway, long story a little shorter--my sister is being pulled out of school and put into the correct school district and the word is that the school found out b/c "something about her shoe breaking." great...i'm sure everyone loves me right now. i have also called my step mom 2x in the last week and she hasn't bothered to call me back (something she always does when she checks caller id)

3) my boss is the worst boss that ever did live. he made me cry a lot today (which i hate to do in front of people but can't help it to save my life), he's changed my schedule (which makes me cry even more), he told me that i was a "grown woman" and basically to stop crying, and i now have to work the weekend of my daughter's birthday. i hate my job. good thing i made all those decisions and sent that invitation out saturday (she says sarcastically). maybe this is a sign not to have a birthday party. after all, it is just going to involve 30 people in the tiniest house ever and most of them are ex families (ex in-laws, ex husbands, ex...lots of stuff) and my daugther doesn't like but 2 of them anyway.

4) my daughter is cranky. she's felt a little warm today but no fever has registered on the thermometer. she is DEFINITELY teething. she's spit up twice in the last 2 days (not a usual thing for her anymore) and she had the absolute worst diaper ever on saturday night. maybe she has a virus.

anyone have anything to make me feel better? a valium maybe? i couldn't even take that, though, b/c we've had 2 people get fired recently for failing drug tests and therefore my other boss says "we are going to be tee teeing in cups a lot more often." great...

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i just visited my website via internet explorer

does it look like that to everyone and why has no one told me???? i use mozilla and it looks perfectly fine. maybe i should put a banner up that says excuse the mess b/c i honestly don't know how to fix it...then again, i don't know how to do a banner either.