Things I Want to Remember: Baylie

The kids have so many funny words that I miss already.

One of Baylie's best word inventions was "hang-a-bur" for hamburger.

She also used to say "loo loo" when we told her I love you. We used that one for years when we said bye to each other.

One of my favorite memories of Baylie with Kirt's Grampa (aka Little Papa) is when he was holding Baylie on his lap and she noticed his hearing aide. She pointed to one and said, "I like your earrings so much, little papa."

Being the first granchild, Baylie is the one who named Kirt's grampa "Little Papa", because he was so short. I loved watching them interact. They would each be in their own world talking and holding their own conversations really paying no mind to the other one.

I've decided to start a section of this here blog dedicated to all the things the kids say or do that I want to remember.

If you don't think my kids are the most perfect things under the sun, then this may bore you and you should skip these posts. If you do read, just try and resist their yummyness. I dare ya.

So Much Snot

I'm sorry it's been so quiet here these last two weeks. We've been fighting the seasonal allergy junk going around here. As I type my head hurts so bad I just want to close my eyes. I'm hoping to type up an entry about school stuff Wednesday if I can keep my head from exploding. Nice mental picture, huh?

Happy Monday!

A New Year, A New Room

Give me a four day weekend and I see plenty of time for a new project! Kirt was so sweet not roll his eyes when I suggested we paint the school room over new year's weekend. It came out amazing, if I do say so myself.
We painted, made new valances and pillows and I bought a few new wall decorations. The new look makes me feel more productive!

The bookshelf:


My desk area:

Aiden and Camryn's desk areas:

Baylie's desk area:

The shelf above Baylie's desk area:

The pillows/reading area next to Baylie's desk area:

The Year She Found Out

This year, I worked so hard to make sure Camryn still believed in Santa Claus. She asked a lot of questions, and I expertly avoided answering them. I even sat down and asked her what she thought, giving her a safe way to tell me she had figured it all out. I was convinced she still believed.

Then after Christmas my adorable hubby was out front when the neighbor's dad asked what we had gotten for the kids. Kirt told him the kids got a Wii. The man asked where we had found one , since it's been so hard to find them. Kirt told him, "At Walmart." Camryn must have heard them talking because she corrected Kirt and reminded him that Santa brought the Wii. He played it off like he was forgetful and forgot that Walmart was out, so Santa brought one.

Then it happened. The man said, "You almost busted yourself!" And Camryn heard him.

Later that night after watching Fred Claus, she crawled on my lap and was crying. She said she heard the whole conversation outside and was sad. Kirt heard her tell me this and he got extremely upset. He felt so horrible that he had been a part of spoiling the magic. Camryn said it wasn't Kirt's mistake that tipped her off, but the man's comment afterwards.

I comforted them both and Camryn and I shared some giggles about how dad was only a few rows away from us at Walmart the day he bought the Wii. The kids had no idea that on his lunch break one day, I had put the stuff in the basket and Dad paid for it all and hid it. I told her she was a member of the "big girls club" now and she had to help keep the secret until Aiden found out.

My baby's getting older and is too smart for her own good.

An Expensive Lesson

I posted earlier this month that we went to Schlitterbahn's Hill Country Christmas with Baylie's dance team. The first time I felt it was a little overpriced, but the second time we decided we wouldn't be returning next year. The whole team was treated badly by the lady who schedules the entertainment.

Our director was told we would dance from 8-9pm. We arrived, and got the girls ready to perform, but the scheduler from Schlitterbahn said that we were to dance from 9-10 at night! Our director told her there's no way she would have signed 10-16 year olds up to dance that late at night on a Friday, that there must have been a mistake. From what I understand the lady was very snippy and wouldn't move the girls to earlier in the evening.

Once it was the girls' turn to dance, the girls only danced a few minutes before the power went out in the area they were in. After waiting for 15 minutes, our director asked how long they thought it would be until it was back on. She was told it would be 20 more minutes. At that point, she said she thought she would let the girls go on home, and the scheduler snipped, I think you'd better." There was no need to be so rude.

I think we all agreed that we not only wouldn't dance at Schlitterbahn next year, but wouldn't bring our families either. It was definitely not a bright moment this holiday season. How sad.

Christmas 2008

Why is Christmas so exhausting? Round after round of opening gifts and cleaning up in between each one. Whew! I needed a nap just to recover.

This year Santa brought the kids one gift for our whole family- the Wii. We've had a good time playing over the last few days. Who knew we were such competitive people?!

The kids each got a new Nintendo DS for their big gifts from grandparents. They've had their noses in them a lot since Christmas. We've had to ban them while walking through stores. The kids already have no sense of who's around them, and it's even worse when they play a game and walk!

To tell the kids about our trip to Disney in April, I had a puzzle made of a picture of the kids with Goofy. I had the words, "We're going back to Disney!" across the top. Actually, I was trying so hard not to get busted by the kids when I made the puzzle that I didn't notice that I wrote, "We're going to back to Disney!" Nice, huh? A little black sharpie fixed that...

The puzzle was too hard for the kids to do alone, so Kirt, Baylie and I ended up putting it together and just letting the kids put the words together. Camryn read the message out loud and Aiden's reaction was, "Can we play the Wii now?" Great... Not what I hoping for. I don't think I'll ever reveal a trip on Christmas again. There's so much hustle and bustle that it seems to get lost in everything around them.

Now that things have settled down, the girls and I are going to buy the Birnbaum for Kids book and chill by the fire and plan our trip. They are excited now. Maybe threatening to cancel the trip for lack of excitement helped? Of course, I would never do that. I might leave them home, but never cancel the trip!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with love, laughter and lots of desserts!