Tulip Girl

As my beautiful little toddler develops a more picky...umh, I mean refined...ok, no picky palet, I'm really trying to find healthy alternatives. I know that two years is when she can have peanut butter to prevent peanut allergies so I bought almond butter. The only baby food she still likes is mangoes so I bought mangoes and mango juice. I've tried salmon and talapia. Her favorite foods however are instant mash potatoes and easy mac. She no longer eats her oatmeal for breakfast, snubs the eggs and prefers anything carb based. Where she once loved apple butter, I now have a giant jar of it in my fridge half eaten. The many jars of baby peas are abandoned. Feeding a toddler is not for the faint of heart. At least if I mash the salmon or talapia into the mashed potatoes and used the water I boiled veggies in to mix into the mashed potatoes she is getting some nutrients. How she is staying alive I am not sure. May be the bottle she has yet to give up due to the sippy she refuses to...

Ok, maybe not literally, but it sure felt like it at times. What a whirl wind trip I just had! Miss Wiggles and I spent this last week in Arizona with my family. Here is the lowdown on our trip. Our layover was in DC. Upon arrival I promptly called Hubby sobbing wanting him to make the four hour drive and come get me. I even called my mom and told her I wasn't comming. All were supportive of my choice however a little over an hour delay of the next flight gave me the chance to regroup and regain my sanity for the four hour flight cross country with my insanely wiggley Miss Wiggles who at 13 months is not a lap sleeper. Upon getting into the air heading towards Arizona, I pinned Miss Wiggles to me until after much fuss, fell asleep for the next four hours. An open seat next to me meant two hours of sleeping in my lap and two hours sleeping next to me on the seat. Good times, good times. Miss Wiggles proceded to wake up at exactly 5:30 every morning for the whole vacation. Awes...

I just read an article that made me think shame on America for supposing its the most advanced and yet totally missing the mark on this one. No, it isn't health care , education or technology. Its the swimsuit competition in beauty pageants. Not something you thought you would find her on this blog? Yeah, its what you get when my post is getting out at five in the morning. Seriously though. A young woman, Katrina Hodge in England convinced the Miss England pageant to drop the swimsuit competition for a sports competition. Every beauty pageant across the globe should be smacking their heads right now with a "Why didn't we think of that?" I am eager to see what Donald Trump's response to this. For a program that is supposed to be a scholarship program, this makes so much more sense. I would explain why it is more logical, but I can't come up with words partly because it is five in the morning and partly because its kind of a "duh" thing. Wh...

Coffee Creamer Sugar Miss Wiggles Hubby My family in Arizona in Oregan in Georgia in South Carolina in Texas awesome friends and I have ALOT of awesome friends living in a country wear I can wear pants (I'm just saying.) yoga pants (especially the pair I'm wearing right now cellphones and blue tooths IM139 my husbands work too Lori Wick and every single book she has ever written all the cute coffee mugs 'cause I love variety That my eternity with God started the moment I accepted Jesus died for my sins Knowledge and the wisdom the wield it The bajillion Bible trasnlations The Liberty of London stuff at Target air planes to fly us to family and back stripes (because I've never met a stipe I didn't like) bead board spray paint pearls the smell of freshly dug up dirt wiggley earth worms my neighborhood different varieties of worship music for different varieties of people Tree63 Toby Mac Coffey Anderson Chris Tomlin the color blue chocolate Leo the cat

For the record, I lost the bottle battle. Actually, Miss Wiggles wasn't eating and the only thing she would take was a bottle so contrary to my belief, she was indeed willing to both starve and dehydrate herself. After having her fever Wed. and Thurs. and then Friday morning as I caught glimpse of her gums, she was indeed breaking through two more teeth. She never does eat much when she is teething. I figured now isn't the time to push the issue with everything else she is dealing with plus with the traveling comming up, niether of use needed that extra burden of no bottle. She doesn't have a passie and she doesn't really suck on her thumb unless she is really tired, but that bottle, its her soothie. She even carries it everywhere after she is done with it. So, I'm going to take that social norm of no bottle after one and throw it out the window. We're going to have to do this one on our own timing. Considering that she has already had five new teeth an...

I'll regroup, I always do, I'll feel out of control for only a bit but I will regroup. Right now though, I'm just plane spiraling out of control. Sometimes there isn't a right choice being a mommy, there is just a choice that needs to be made so make it already and stick with it basically. I hate that today is the day to take my daughters bottle away, but there is no perfect day to wait for to be the right day. It isn't going to come. Trust me I waited for it and in waiting I am now paying for that hope for "the right time" and so is Miss Wiggles. I was going to wait until after our trip to visit family but now here I have on my hands a baby girl at 13 months old (well next week she will be 13 months but close enough) who fresh off her immunization fever won't eat anything she normally does and won't have anything but a bottle. She refuses the sippy cup, all of them and trust me, we've tried them all. I'm thinking being sick has cha...

I am so frustrated with my stubborn toddler! Aaagh! I have a toddler. She refuses now to eat anything and only wants a bottle. Even her favorite foods are rejected. Please mothers everywhere! What are some ways to get her to drink from her sippy and once again go back to food? I've tried different sippy cups. I've put formula in her sippy cup. I've used three step transition sippy cups. I've been trying the sippy thing for two months now. I know ya'll aren't big commenters but I know your there and I could really use your mommy help right now.

I'm quite excited to be visiting my family soon. Arizona is so far away. The longer I'm away the more I am comforted by cowboy style and Native American flare. Always took it for granted in Arizona and now I find I feel quite at home in my cowboy boots, Levis and am drawn to turqoise belt buckles and natural stone jewelery. I'll just have to see what I can find in Arizona. I believe that the whole state has achieved rock star status in my own eyes. As my baby girl's one year booster shots kick in and the Motrin work to make the process less painful, we are enjoying the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. I'm loving the scene where they arrive at night at the Red Lion Inn with two men running ahead with torches. Imagine being employed as headlights. "What do you do for a living?" "I'm Mr. Bingley's headlights." I love this movie.

We finally made it to the one year appointment. All is good. The shots I think are starting to effect her today. She feels a little warm so I suppose I'll keep and eye on that today. She doesn't seem to have much of an appetite either. We haven't made it to MOPS in the three months we have lived here. Seriously! It seems like every sickness hits every other Thursday. Its ridiculous . The cold several times, intense teething (teething is so hard on her), stomach bugs for all. Hopefully we will make it this week. Ok , as I wrote that last sentence I realized; slight fever, lack of appetite and I just put her back in her crib and not even so much as a fuss. ~Heavy sigh~ Hopefully this passes quickly. Not likely. I've been doing the Revelation study from Living Proof Ministries by Beth Moore with my church gals. Through out the study, we have been praying for our own revelation from God. As I feel like I have nothing in common with John save a mutual love of ...

Apparently the best insentive we have to get Miss Wiggles to walk is for Leo to walk by. He is quite patiently staying just outside off hand's reach. I can tell he is just bideing his time until she figures out how to give lovey touches and not fist fulls of fur. I'm sure as soon as that day comes, the two will be inseperable. Fortunately there has been no need for the oven since Saturday morning so no more alarmed screams. Don't think my heart could handle that again. I'm sure I won't have a choice. At the moment I am eating gold fish out of Miss Wiggle's hand. I'm trying to promote sharing and she loves to take a bit and then give me the other soggy part. What I won't do for that child. She also likes to give me my cell phone. We can play that game for ten minutes straight. To cute. So desperate times call for desperate measures. I've actually asked someone to be my friend. Seriously, I used those exact words, "Will you be my friend...

First things first! We have an official Toddler. Miss Wiggles started walking yesterday and is quite good at it. We are super excited and already quite aware that we must be mroe vigilant. One of her first places to walk was to the oven and put both hands directly on it. Much freaked out crying ensued. Fortunately it was only hot enough to scare her but not enough to actuallyt harm her. I suppose that is a good thing to show her its a no touch zone there. Why was the oven hot you ask? Ok, you didn't really ask but I will tell you anyway. Hubby made all from scratch biscuits and Italian sausage gravy from breakfast. Give that man a standing ovatian ya'll. I am so thankful for his new zeal for cooking things from scratch. I don't even mind doing the clean up. In business related news; I am so excited. I just got a new e-mail address and ordered business cards. So cool. I know that as I read more and more about owning my own small business that I'm supposed to keep an air ...

Oh man! This is super convicting. I tried to paraphrase or pull quotes but I couldn't. I am so convicted by these words. How much do I really pray about what I will do whether it is daily or long term. Even when I know something is what I'm supposed to do, often I hijack it and try to do it my way. I'm thankful that every day is a new day and God's mercy is new every morning. If we lose "the heavenly vision" God has given us, we alone are responsible - not God . We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to "the heavenly vision" is to give our utmost for His highest - our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make determination to continually remember God's vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision ...

We love us some pink bunnie! Things are doing much better since yesterday. Miss Wiggles woke up this morning at 5:30am but was in a good mood. After breakfast, she played for a little bit then I put her back in her crib since I figured curling up next to the child gate with her thumb in her mouth meant she was tired. It really was pretty cute. Anyway, she proceeded to sleep until 8:40 when the Critter Control guy came to take care of the squirrels in the attic. He rang the door bell...twice. I'm not going to complain though because I too got to sleep in until 8:40 and that really helped me a lot. We have had a great day. We even tackled the little problem I created with her not wanting to hold her own bottle. She seems to be catching on that she has to hold her own bottle from here on out. First step towards getting the sippy cup thing down I think. Also, one step towards a later wake up time is a later bed time. Daddy likes that extra time with his baby girl and I'm excited w...

Update: Just so you know, I went back and reread my post so yes I do realize it looks like a second grader wrote it. I'm hormonal, tired and have a toddler people! Ok , sorry no body was on my case about it but PMS makes me slightly schizophrenic and insanely prideful. No, I'm not proud of it. Wait that doesn't make sense. I'm going to leave it the way it is. Our lives can look to perfect here in the blogosphere anyway. Here is a slice of reality ladies. Nothing has prepared me for this. I thought those first months were the hardest. I thought I never expected to get to the toddler stage and see my sweet little angel develop a temper in need of anger management counseling or a right hook that belongs in boxing. She reduced me to tears today as she yelled and failed for the billionth time and for seemingly to reason at all. I realize she is trying to communicate but that she goes straight to anger before ever really trying to communicate is so out of my league. I...

Just checking in. Getting over stomach bug. Have a head ache. Good news; Miss Wiggles is much better two new teeth on top, no more cold or stomach bug and has lots of energry...lots and lots of stubborn I'm a toddler now energy. Please pray for me. ;)

So today is Women's Day. I never knew that there was a Women's Day. Seems like there is a day or a month for every one (unless your a white guy who isn't a dad, you just get your Birthday, sorry guys). No complaining here though, I'll celebrate just about anything. Speaking of celebrating and Birthdays, it seems to me like spring our Birthday Party season. Famous people get their awards season with Oscars, Razzies, Tonys, and what not. We have bunches of great kids. So to start us off, we had Miss Wiggles Birthday. There would have been A's Birthday in Richmond, but we moved at that time. Then their was Miss E's, Cloggsy's daughter. You know her from the English Tea blog on my left side bar. Then there is all my nieces and now a nephew (my other nephew isn't until August). I've got my big sis and my mom, my Dad right after new years. Coming up is our little friend B's birthday. Last weekend, our frien N turned two. So basically you ge...

Recently I realized I do have a lot of great blogs I follow like: English Tea Paperie Sarah at A Beach Cottage The Nester Rage Against the Mini Van MckMamma Candy and Ladybugs The LPM Blog Family Fountain Well, I've really enjoyed these blogs and many more, I am looking to find more especially blogs that are different than mine. I do love blogs about relationships with Jesus, blogs about home decorating and blogs about families. I want more than what I know though. This morning I found a blog where a woman journaled through her experience with breast cancer. I also found blogs with people dealing with diabetes and lupus. There are also blogs about fashion and blogs about cats, cars and surviving through the death of a spouse. These are all great blogs and I am on the look out for some diversity in my blog surfing. One way to do that is what I found on Lynnette Kraft's blog , a featured blogger every week. I'm seriously liking it because this infuses some fresh faces int...

My pal Chloe posted a some pics of her wedding day and herself now in her wedding dress. Seriously, how many of us can say we are smaller now than we were on our wedding day? Last time I tried my wedding dress barely zipped over my butt let alone my middle. In fact I don't think I was able to zip it up all the way. I am so insanely, crazy proud of my pal. Check her out and be as jealous as I am. Now that we are pretty much settled and Miss Wiggles first Birthday are behind us, I am officially back on diligently at work in the IM139 Studio. I've got quite a few pieces that might tickle your fancy. For now, I finally got a decent store front banner on my Etsy account. Check it out. It only took three hours to do. The last thirty minutes was when I finally went to the Etsy how to page and figured it out. What can I say, I'm a slow learner. Thanks Hubby for coming along on that ride. I think I need more red wine. Speaking of red wine, we had some for dinner. I made beef stew (...

Ok , so I'm posting for the second time in only a couple hours but, well, its my blog. Don't go without checking the previous post regarding getting to know the Characteristics of God. I'm kind of excited I got my first e-mail to advertise on my blog. I'm not sure I'll do it yet, but I'm excited about it anyway. Of course there is that little advertisement to the left for that cute jewelry shop at Etsy . Ok , its my jewelry shop. I'm working at adding more and updating the site. Its a process and fortunately I have more time to do it these days. In the mean times here are some great pieces while we wait. Who doesn't love jewelry? I have to ask and I hope you will answer. Are you a pearl gal or a diamond girl? If you don't know my answer from these any where in this post, well, you will never know. :) 18" double pearl (turquoise and periwinkle) stranded with Sterling silver chain and pendent Grapes of VaVaVoom : 20" 3 strands in one purple...

Yesterday after I posted I decided to go work out on my elliptical machine but first I needed a book to read. I grabbed the book A God You Can Know by Dan DaHaan. Its always great when I can go back and read a good old trusted friend (which is what I call my books, friends) and the truths in a new light after God reveals new perspectives and truths. Where once my goal was to prove to God I really loved Him, that is gone and now I see it was there all along. God knew. Now I can focus on what should have been the goal all along, to simply get to know my Abba King. When we realize that God delights in nothing more than revealing Himself to His creatures, then we understand why knowing Him is our highest calling. In fact we are allowed to brag about nothing else except that we know God. " 'Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the might man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boast boast of this, that he understand and knows Me...

Currently my church gals and I are going through the Living Proof Ministry's study on Revelation; Here and Now...There and Then. Part of the study is continually praying for a fresh revelation from the LORD. Well, I got one yesterday! I wanted to share with you how God has been leading me in my time with Him, how Satan has tried to distract me and how ultimately God's light has broken through, a new day is in its beginning. I am excited to see where this new day takes me. As you may recall if you have been around the last couple months, God has brought to my attention Rahab , Boaz and Ruth. I am intrigued by their lives, choices they made, perceptions they may have had, what their lives were like and how God viewed them and brought their lives to a place of bringing Him glory. Can you imagine a prostitute and her family being the only people God saw fit to save of an entire people? Can you imagine what it was like for her son to grow up seeing his mom, a foreigner married to a...

Go Hubby! Its your Birthday! Its your....oh, wait, it was Miss Wiggles Birthday! Miss Wiggle's Daddy made her Birthday cake, so I figured we would share the recipe because boy was this family recipe a big hit! Ingredients: 3 cups all purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp salt 3 cups grated carrots 1 tsp vanilla flavoring 2 cups sugar 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil 3 eggs for frosting 1 cup of chopped pecans Cream cheese frosting Instructions: 1. Lay your cream cheese and margarine out to soften for the icing. 2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. 3. Add the carrots, sugar, oil and eggs in your mixing bowl, then add your dry ingredients a little at a time so lour won't fly everywhere till all is mixed together. mix well then add vanilla flavoring and mix well. 4. spray 3 round 8 or 9 inch baking pans with Pam for baking no stick cooking spray with flour works good. Pour your batter into each pan ...

Update!: How could I have forgotten?! Miss Wiggle's daddy made her Birthday Cake. Hubby made a Carrot Cake for scratch for his baby girl. It was a tradition for him that his mommy made him a carrot cake for his birthday. So until she can say what she wants on her Birthday, Carrot Cake it is. I will have to learn to make Angel Food Cake as that was tradition in my family. Who said you could have to much cake? :) Miss Wiggles Birthday Party was a rousing success! Here is to turning 1! We has so much fun with many of our simply fabulous friends. Our house received such a blessing to be full with so much laughter, good conversation and love. Miss Wiggles received her first cupcake ever. This was actually the first time she had a ton of sugar. Oh my goodness! That child got hyper! Every moment was just wonderful. Thank you to everyone who came and thank you for your warm thoughts and prayers to those who I knew were their in my heart. My baby girl is one gorgeous little lady. I am...