Worth it

A little story:

Muuuahahah!  Ryan and I are at his mother's house once again. We've got the run of the house while she's out at her clogging class.  Ry is taking a shower in the guest bath, which has clear, etched, sliding glass shower doors .  He's listening to Adele loudly so he didn't hear me when I snuck in and stood about an inch away from the glass doors.  It should be noted that I'm wearing a dark hoodie and yoga pants, you know, sexy style.  He carried on singing loudly and dancing his little nekkid tooshie off (and clapping, who claps in the shower??) while facing the opposite direction. It took him a good 5-10 seconds before he realized I was there.  When he saw me he flipped the frack out. 

  "Oh my God!  Oh my God!  I'm dead.  I've had a heart attack and I'm dead.  You've killed me.  I'm dead.  You're on your own now. Go on without me."  

Heh.  Worth it.  :)

p.s. Spell check wants me to change snuck to snick.  Snick?  Really?  What's a snick?  I understand maybe suggesting "sneaked" but who says sneaked?  Besides you, Natalie. ;)

And then I warbled over the bacon

Scarlet's come down with a little cold so most of our day looks like this.

Earlier though, while I was making bacon and Ryan was tidying the counter tops in the kitchen, this happened:  

Me: *cooking at the stove*
Scarlet: "Wook Daddy! A cinna-nellya pincess."
Ry: *Hastily fussing with dishes, stops in his tracks, lowers himself do his daughters eye line and places a hand on the small of her back* "Oh Cinderella? Look at how beautiful she is. Look at her pretty hair and her make up. Wow and she has a pretty dress, see the sparkles on her shoulders? She has blue eyes just like Scarlet."
Scarlet: "Sewwww amay-thing!"
Ry: *kisses Scarlet's cheek*
Me: *immediate tears as I step away from the stove and look at Ryan.*  "That's sooo sweet."  I warbled and gushed at him.

Ry:  *totally confused*  "What just happend??  *I nestled into his neck kissed his cheek between sniffles*  What is going on here?  Are you getting sick too?"

I loved how natural his response was.  He didn't even have to think to stop what he was doing and take that time out with his daughter.  Before Scarlet, Ryan could barely tell you one Disney character. Now, he delights in them all along with his little girl. I'm SOOOO SOOO thankful for what a natural daddy to a daughter that man is. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

"Buhbye Conaan" A Love Story

(Video proof of Colin's adoration will go  up next week)

Yesterday Scarlet and Leila had a play date at the gymnastics center.  Sooner than not though, poor little Leila became the third wheel on Scarlet's first date. Someone should have told Leila that she was supposed to be put out by this because she seemed to handle it just fine.

That same someone should have also alerted Scarlet to what was going on as well.  

In fact, out of the three of them I think the little boy who joined us was really the only one invested making more of the experience. What for the girls was a fun hour of bouncing, climbing and falling, was an epic love story filled with suspense, triumph and ultimate loss for him.

His name was Colin and he's three years old.  Just like the beginning of any good love story, he spotted Scarlet from across the room.  Enamored, he dashed as quickly as he could over the play mats and balance beams to be by her side. The kid got within 4 inches of her face but for all Scarlet cared, he could have been invisible. *cue Mr. Cellophane from the Chicago soundtrack*  For the rest of the play date Colin was always at hand, gently patting Scarlet's back every few seconds and attempting to usher her out of harms way.  Gym equipment with five year olds flying about are a hazardous combo.  Where ever Scarlet went, Colin was there.  When she went to the climbing wall he did his best to give her a boost and then scampered up wall as fast as he could with big hopes to him impress her.  Sadly by the time he looked back she had already moved on to a new toy.  When she took a tumble (purposefully mind you, on tumble mats) he darted over to her rescue.   Whenever he caught her eye for a second he would seize the moment and toss himself into barrel rolls, kicks and general flailing of arms - anything to impress.  Sadly though, none of it did.  Scarlet continued blindly on her way, without batting an eye at dear Colin.

 I have several poorly shot pictures from the play date but they do show how little Colin and his orange shirt were never more than a foot or two away from my girl.  

When he recognized that I was her mother, he decided that maybe I needed to be impressed as well.  I introduced myself.

"I'm Scarlet's mommy. What's your name?" I asked

"Caw-win" he said

Then he quickly jumped up, furrowed his brow and showed me all his best karate moves.  He chopped at the air furiously, then froze.

"Oh my, that is impressive."  I said

 He stared intently into my eyes and then ran around in a circle 3 times as fast as his little legs would carry him.

"Yes Colin, I see you have many skills.  You have proven yourself a worthy suiter."

He did his best almost-splits, a Chuck Norris style somersault and then sprinted away in Scarlet's direction once again.

Remember, this had been going on for about 40 minutes and Scarlet still hadn't really acknowledged his existence.  I could see his little brain working.  

He had made a few advances toward an actual hug but just couldn't bring himself to do it.  There was the time where she was climbing out of the ball pit and he went for it but it just resulted in two bonked heads and a confused Scarlet.  That threw off his game a bit.  But then he saw it, his chance!  Scarlet was looking out the window at a half deflated sad little orange balloon.     

"A Bawoon a bawooon!" she shouted excitedly.

She's into balloons? he thought. I could be into balloons.  

He ran to the window and squatted beside her.

"A bawoooon!" she said to him.

She'stalkingtome! Shestalkingtome! he thought.

This was it.  He stood and went in for his big move, gently placing his arm around her.

"A bawoon!" Scarlet said.

Colin nodded enthusiastically and they both stared out the window.

Meanwhile (for any of you who are concerned) our little third wheel Leila girl was flying around on ziplines, climing rock walls and bouncing to and fro.  So she was coo'.

All too soon it was time to clear out of the gym.  Scarlet hugged Leila and said her goodbyes. Colin's eyes were as wide as saucers while Scarlet put on her shoes and headed toward the door. I stopped her before we left pointed out the little boy with the orange shirt and said 

"Go tell Colin goodbye too Scarlet."

"Buhbye Conaan."  she said while she waved her floppy little Beeble arm at him.

Happily,  she took my hand and trotted out of the building asking about lunch plans. I looked back and saw dear Colin.  

His grandmother was fussing over him with his jacket and shoes while he unblinkingly watched Scarlet walk out of his life.

Played Out

Yesterday, after Scarlet's play date with Leila (giggles, tackles, park, swings, slide, more giggles, dance party, monkeys on the bed) she crashed at 6:00pm on the living room floor.  Ten minutes earlier she was bouncing in and out of the kitchen telling me stories and asking me questions in her Beeble babble language .  All of sudden the house was still.  I stopped in my tracks, brushed off the acorn squash that was squirshed between my fingers and went to see what my little girl was up to.  

If you've seen the vlog (linked below) then you know how I found her, zonked out to the world.  Scarlet has never fallen asleep without a fight unless she's in her own bed, in her own room.  On vacation I've tried playing movies for her as we settled into bed, thinking her lids would get heavy and she'd give in.  Buuut nope!  I find myself blinking and trying to stay awake while she completes the movie.  So it was really out of character to find her like that!  Not only did she sleep for about 45 minutes right there, but then she grabbed a snuggle nap with Daddy on the couch for another hour.  I was able to get a few bites of dinner in her before we put her into her own bed where she continued to sleep until 10:00am the next morning.  The girl was officially played out!  

She's Aptly Named

I started my blog because I wanted a place where I could keep all of the lovely things that were disappearing into my Facebook archives.  This is a place where I can revisit any of those memories at any point.  Lou just wrote something on FB about us that I want to keep, so I'm stashing it here.

"The modern world is INSANE. I have a friend, who is the same age, has a daughter the same age, has the same humour, the same tastes and the same sort of husband but lives on the opposite side of the planet. We've never met to hug but we've spent years talking for hours each week, we've laughed, cried, pondered and debated and yet we each just live in each other's computer. If you had told someone this 20 years ago they'd have never have got it. 

I know there is a lot of bad and negative that comes with the internet, but think how much happy people have gained through it as well.

True human happiness made through a machine. That's modern magic if you ask me. x"

We just got done chatting now, and it's 1:35 in the morning here for me. So excuse me whilst I babble on about my friend for a bit.  I do need to go to bed, I have to be up in five hours.  Let's go stream of thought style and not worry about editing this one okay?

Louise and I often talk about how crazy it is that we found each other. Most of you probably found me through her YouTube channel (here) or her blog (here).  I'm kinda like the kid that some proud parent forces you to admire pictures of. She pimps me out any chance she can and I often think that those who follow her direction are left scratching their heads when they land on my vlogs. She's been my biggest supporter in the little corner of this online world that I've carved out for myself.
We've known one another over a year now and in that short time we've shared SO much life.  I watched her channel grow from 12,000 subscribers to well over 100,000. We've watched our daughters learn to walk and talk and now talk to each other!  Louise has taught Scarlet songs and Darcy has taught Scarlet how to say "Oh dear!" with a British accent no less. They both recognize one another and Scarlet often asks if we can call "Ooweeze and Deh-see".
 We're both wives, mothers, vloggers, and giggling idiots so we 'get on' wonderfully (and our husbands get along too).  We've filled hours with nonsense and laughed so hard we've fallen out of screen on more than one occasion. We often leave Skype on and just casually chat as we go about our chores or browse the web (as we're doing now, she doesn't know I'm writing this though. It will surely make her schmershy and squinch her nose up when she sees it.  Then she'll scold me for posting that pic of us in our jammies, sans makeup on the internet).  It's like always having a best friend around the house.  

Yes, it is very strange that a person I've never met is someone I see more often than those than live down the street.  Technology, like the internet and skype have certainly redefined the term "a strange new world".  Even though there are oceans and time zones between us, she is one of my closest friends.  The only pictures I have of us together look like the one above.   I have high hopes that someday that will change!  (To those that know us both, can you even imagine what that would be like?!!)  That girl truly is a sprinkle of glitter in my everyday, as I know she is to many of you as well. Cheesy as all hell, but it is what it is.  She is aptly named.

 She's my people, and I love her.

Parenthood Initiation

There are a lot of things I just expected in parenthood.  Surprisingly, Scarlet hasn't really hazed us in a lot of ways that I assumed came hand in hand with the job.

Parenting Bullets Dodged Thus Far:

No colic
No spitting up (the kid was never a puker)
 No days and nights mixed up
No tantrums (knock on wood)
No ear piercing scream cry (soooooooo thankful for that!)
Not a picky eater
No teething issues, teeth just pop up without so much as a whimper

I'm super lucky right?  Don't worry, I'm totally aware of how good she's been to me.  She's really easy on us in most respects but she hasn't let us get away scott free.

Mama Merit Badges Earned:
Up ever hour to two hours (till she was nearly 6 months)

Blow out while someone else was holding her (at about 4 months, in a restaurant)
Never ending green snot machine (ew ew ew)
First ER trip (pneumonia)
And now as of today -  Pootastrophe

Today at nap time Scarlet went to sleep wearing a one piece play romper with snaps at the bottom.  She fell asleep for her typical 3 hours and when she woke up, she didn't sound distressed at all as she called for me over the baby monitor. "Mama?" called that sweet little voice.

Clean but cranky Beeble, friends headed for the wash
and a santized crib

I walked into her room and before I even had a chance to turn the lights on the smell of a baaaaaad diaper just about knocked me out.  I switched the lights on and saw my kid, still in her completely snapped up play romper, soaking wet and covered in poo.  Whaaaaaaat the frick happened?  Her umm, fully loaded diaper was off, smashed under her favorite blanket.  How did she do that?  I held her up trying to take it all in, totally confused. This was bad bad bad!  It was everywhere.  Her hands, her hair, between her toes.  I immediately stripped her out of the offending clothes, begged her not to touch her eyes or her mouth and dashed into the shower with her as fast as possible.  It took about 30 minutes just to get us both cleaned up and then another hour sanitizing her crib.  Ryan and I scrubbed the slats, her soother and the walls!  I now have her crib sheets, mattress cover and bumpers tumbling away in the dryer at nearly one in the morning.  I'm still totally boggled as to what happened.  How did she manage to get her cloth diaper off, under her romper, while still remaining totally dressed?  It just reinforces my defense to Ryan as to why I want a video baby monitor.  He thought it was unnecessary since our house is so small, until today.  

I actually Googled mama merit badges to see if someone really had created such a thing, and of course, they have!  

Which badges have you earned? 

Lost in translation - *Day 14*

This morning I looked out the window while holding Scarlet in my arms and said "Wow it's really foggy today."  It's been an hour since I said that and Scarlet remains perched at the window, determined to see the 'froggies'.

"Nu-nu  you see him?  Whey fwoggie go?  See you soon fwoggie.  Whey is he fwoggie? hop hop, wibbit.  I see him pwease?  Fwooogggiiee, whey ahwe youuuuuuu?"

Nu-nu is Lulu, my moms dog.  She's also on high alert for the fwoggies.  I was trying to think of an outing we could take today, 'spose we'll go to the pet store and play I-Spy Fwoggies there.  :)

Once Upon a Time in a Land Far Away...

While I was busily clickity clacking away on old GertiTron, Scarlet sat down next to me on the couch and started reading to her dolly.  Before opening the book, she told her baby that it was the bible (which to her means any big book with a lot of words) and then began to read.

"Onne upona tieeemmme inna wan faway" she started.  

Where did she get that?  I can't think of one book or even a movie that shows a book starting that way.  

Mind blown for the umpteenth time.

I'm often delightfully bested by The Beeble.

Beeble Chatter Time Capsule - 21 months

Scarlet loves to spend time trashing playing in her room by herself.  This evening she was yapping away so much that I snuck in and watched her play.  She wasn't phased by me there at all, continuing in independent play.  I felt Like Jane Goodall, watching a Beeble in her natural habitat.  I snapped a few pics and decided to  capture the chatter of my little 21 month old in a blog time capsule. So here is a live stream of everything (comprehensible) that came out of her mouth in the period of 15 min.

"Come on!  Come on Ernie!  Der it is!  You yike dis Ernie.  *smothers Ernie with blanket*  Nigh-niiiiiight, oh wate up!  You yike puzzoh.  hmmmmm wet's seee.  his frwiends. anna Emmo, common elmo! *drops elmo*  Oh No!!  You okay Emmo?  *picks all toys up and purposely drops them*  Oh no!  You okay Ernie?  You okay Emmo?  One, Two Emmos! *drops both* Uh oh!  Ooooh nooooo!  You ok Ernie eh Emmo?    Is frwiends! Is shoooes?  Buckles?  Heewp?  My buckles?  Heewp witsh shooes?  Emmo in shoes?  You oo Ernie!  Common *shoves Ernie into one of her shoes*   Burt inna Ernie oh-weo-weo-weo an a Dohyee! (dolly)

*hits musical toy and sings* LA-LALAAAAA-LLLAAAAAAA!  LA-LAAAaaa Laaaaaa! *shriek* Weeeoooo weeeooo weeoewowow! I got a duck.  QUAAAAACK.

 Oh-e-oh-e-oh-e-oh pway toys!  *studies pictures on her wooden block*  One, Two, Free boons!  I need a bwock.  Buiwd a towerh. *organizes the pieces so that the same shapes are all together*  Onnne, Twoooooo, Freeeee,  It's soo high!  Soo high!  Pweetty, a towerh, so high.  A towehr. I got it.  *Sings* Heeeeaaaad, shhhoouuuldyuhs, knees an tooooees. Eyes an eaaaoooooo and mouf and nooose.  High towehr.  Geegogeegogeegogeego. <-- that and the "oh-weo-weo" business is her filler talk in conversation.  It must be what she thinks English sounds like.

A puppy!  Hi puppy!  Doggy. It's a doggy.  Come on doggy!  Come on!  Hmmmmm, wet's see.  How booooouuuuuut? A book?  Der it is! *reads* A baby? A cow? A syeep?   Ni-night horsey.  Ni-night cow.


That's enough I think.  Her natural habitat is now a disaster zone and we're past bed time.
If you read it all, Thank you!  If you understood it all,  high five.  I love watching her little language develop.  At this age, it's like a little window into her thoughts.  All new parents wonder what goes on in those little people brains of theirs so it's pretty cool when you finally get to hear little bits.

Savoring Summer

Today was another spent entirely outside.  It started with a baseball game and ended with a backyard filled with bubbles, giggles and grandmas.  Autumn officially started today (yay!) and I'm completely ready to put my wellies on and crunch leaves in the crisp air.  But for now, I'm resisting that urge and embracing the lingering bits of summer.  
This afternoon we toasted it farewell with fresh berries and bubbles. 

     The season change means the days are getting shorter,
 so it's easy for little beebles to outlast the day light.

I always sleep so well when I've spent the whole day out in the fresh air.  Hopefully the same goes for Scarlet.  We came in for bed and waved "buh-byeee" to the sunshine.

 So long Summer!  

Not cool Nana, not cool

My mom's conversation with Scarlet about her Sesame Street
coloring book and stickers:

"Who's that Scarlet?  Annie Spaghetti? (Abbey Cadabby)
Oh, and is that her friend Kuhlumpadumpalus?" (Snuffleupagus)

Nice Try Nana, but I don't think you're earning your street cred with the 3 and under crowd.