Kyla's 1st Sentence

Kyla said her first sentence this morning, while getting ready to go to daycare!  This was the first sentence her Dad and I have heard her say (so not positive it is her real first one), but we were shocked.  She is 19 months, and her first sentence was "Dad look cat!"  Sooooooo cute, and so proud of my smart little girl!  :)

Lies of the Beautiful People by Sixx A.M.

My Hubby showed me this song last night and we both like the lyrics. It's a tad bit hard for me, but as long as the lyrics have good meaning, it's a-ok by me. The best part is the beginning, "It's okay to be different." Good job Hubs on letting me know about this song.

Easter 2011

Some pictures I took today of Kyla on her Easter egg hunt and after riding her pony.  We visited my Grandparents and family and also Greg's Dad and family.  Unfortunately we missed church due to an unexpected multiple projectile vomiting session provided by Kyla immediate following the photo I took of her here riding her pony.  We were literally going to be in the car on our way in about two minutes from me taking that photo.  I'm just glad it didn't happen in my car! 

Fun Pre-Easter Photos

I know it's shocking, but I took some photos of something other than Kyla today!  I was putting together Kyla's Easter stuff and thought it would be fun to take a couple photos of her goodies.  I love pastel colors and think these look pretty and fun.  I found felt bird stickers to put on the eggs (to dress them up a little) and thought they were perfect because Kyla LOVES birds.  Everytime she sees a bird she yells "biiiiirrrrdddd" in her cute little baby voice.  It isn't easy to find neat treats to put inside of the eggs for a 19 month old, because anything that is small enough to fit inside the egg is most likely small enough to fit inside her mouth as well.  Hence why the squishy animals made their way into my cart.  I am going to try to find some bigger eggs to fit those in.  I ended up putting yogurt covered raisins inside the eggs so that they would rattle when she picks them up.  Gathering the eggs is going to be the funnest part of the Easter egg hunt this year.  I also picked her up an outfit to wear to Sunday School and our family functions.  Hope everyone has a great Easter with their kiddos (or family)!

My Thoughts on Marriage

This topic is something that I’ve wanted to discuss off and on over the past year or so.  Me being me, I have lots of thoughts that go through my head and I’m always thinking, always constantly analyzing things and possible reasons for why things happen and the steps that lead to them.  My goal before getting pregnant was to get my Masters Degree and become a Licensed Mental Health Counselor.  At the end of my first trimester I was so tired with working FT and being a wife and pregnant, sick and tired, that I decided to take a break.  That break is still on-going mainly due to the fact that in between the start of this break and me wanting to get back into school, I found out that my work stopped reimbursing for Psychology courses; but this is a field that really interests me and I have a want to learn more and help others.  We’ll see where this leads, but for now, my main job is being a Mom.  In a few years that may change and open back up to being a main priority of mine, but we will see. 

My Husband and I have recently gone through some rocky times….this is not something that I’m embarrassed to admit!  I am a pretty truthful person and I know that every relationship has its ups and downs, especially once children are put into the picture…things get harder, focuses adjust and priorities change.  Some couples try desperately to hide their issues, while others don’t care if other people know…hidden or not, it still happens.  Almost every single married couple I know has gone through the same issues as us, it’s just some try their best to seem perfect to on-lookers.  I’m not one to try to hide what is happening, or be fake and act like everything is perfect when in reality it’s not.  I might not always make the right decisions, or react to things in the best way, but then none of us really do during times of trouble.

After discussing stuff with my Dad, and my Husband and I talking to his Dad and Step-Mom and me talking to a co-worker, these are my thoughts on marriage:  (part of the reason why I am writing this and posting it here is so that I can go back and re-read it in the future…) A successful marriage does not come easy.  It requires constant work and two people who hold tight to the commitment that they made to each other.  It is not always fun or exciting; every relationship loses that initial feeling of the excitement of communicating with that person and the butterflies that come along with falling in love.  In October my Husband and I will have been married for 5 years.  Not super long, but long enough to know what marriage consists of.  We have been together since 2004; so 7 years.  The awesome thing about marriage is although you might have difficult moments with that person, you also have a best friend and someone who you know will always be there for you.  A co-worker of mine once told me that her son’s wife had left him and left her two children that she had from a previous relationship.  This lady all of a sudden up and moved to a different state all while the Husband wasn’t sure where she was or what had happened.  The gal eventually talked to my co-worker who has been married for I don’t know, close to 40 years or something and said that she wished she could have as good of marriage as they did.  This gal told her that marriage is not easy and it took a lot of work on both their parts to get to where they were.  I honestly believe that this is the major reason why there is so much divorce in this world today.  I come from a divorced family, as does my Husband.  I think the last time I heard the divorce rate in this country was over 50%.  I believe a lot of people are sometimes selfish and once this initial honeymoon stage dissipates, they think that their marriage has failed, that they married the wrong person, and they might as well end it.  They are no longer getting butterflies, day to day activities are boring/routine and mundane and there is no longer any excitement.  “Might as well end it all,” even if there are children in the picture.  This is wrong….. 

In talking to my Dad, he compared the recent troubles my Husband and I have been going through to Adam and Eve and the temptation of the forbidden fruit.  Quoting another co-worker, “the Devil makes sin look innocent, beautiful, justified.  He is deceitful and treacherous.  Sin is pleasurable for a season, in the end it leads to death.”  Looking back, no one ever really told me how hard marriage was going to be, before I got married.  My Husband and I got married out of town on the beach by someone who did not require marriage counseling.  I think there is a lot to be said about marriage counseling, done through a church.  Looking back, it is definitely something we should’ve done.  Someone would’ve told us how hard it was going to be and how it would require a lifetime of constant work in order to be successful.  I wish I could remember the exact way my Dad puts this, but I can’t, but I will try my best…he has told me this on several occasions; “every relationship is going to have the same issues and same problems.  If you think things are going to be greener on the other side, you’re wrong… you’re just getting yourself a different face to look at,” (something like this, but of course he explained it much better, lol J).  My Mom has been married 3 times and is now divorced from her third marriage, so she has never really had anything to suggest regarding marriage and even if she did, I would most likely take it with a grain of salt (or whatever that saying is...).  My Dad has only been married once and has rarely dated since; he’s pretty much been single for 18 something years….but he is a good Christian man who sort of knows what he is talking about…he is definitely someone I can go to for advice/guidance and words really cannot describe how much respect I have for my Dad; he pretty much raised us once my Mom left etc., so whatever he has to say, I listen.  Although my Dad has always been very involved in my Sister and I’s life, he was also kind of hands off…he let us date and make our own mistakes, he offered up words of advice but never pushed anything on us or told us what to do.  I remember my Dad’s only words of advice to me before getting married, which were while driving home from getting my Dad his tux for our wedding when he asked me “now you’re sure you want to do this?”  I said “yes, I’m sure…I know Greg will be a good Husband and a great Father.”  And he has been, but sometimes people get tripped up along the way, including myself, sometimes the Devil squirms his way in between a couple and attempts to break them up by throwing in temptations.  As a co-worker also stated, my Husband is a good looking guy and I’m not a horrible looking person either….we are probably more vulnerable to predators.  And the word predator’s is not a joke, or me trying to be funny, it is the truth.  A lot of people out there have no respect for marriage (including myself, I have made this mistake before and am not proud of it) and have no respect for families.  They are thinking about themselves and what they can take and the adventure and excitement of winning that forbidden fruit.  Not good. 

So those are my thoughts/ideas on marriage.  Hard work, but worth it… you have to stay committed to each other and remember what you both have worked so hard to create, and be willing to do whatever it takes to protect that sacred relationship. 

Anyone have thoughts/ideas to add?

Playing Outside

I took this photo of Kyla yesterday evening after taking her outside to play.  She likes to run back and forth between two railings on our porches and yell at the dogs or play a peek a boo type game.  As you can see, she also likes to put the curly part of the piece of metal in her mouth.  Yuck...  During this play time she also found the hose and put the end of it in her mouth only to get a mouth full of dirt! 

New Email Address

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you all know that I have a new email address, it is ambervnc@gmail.com

My old email, ambrrrr19@hotmail.com, I had since I was in high school and it got to be a little embarrassing when people would ask me what my email was.  I'm no longer 19 and I'm not ambrrrr.  :)  Thought I would post that update (I have updated it on my profile as well) however I received an email from someone a few days ago and did not see it until I randomly thought to check my old email today.

Thanks.
Amber

Kyla and 'Blanket'

This is Kyla's 'Blanket.'  She loves this thing.  I got it as a gift at one of my baby showers.  A girl that Greg works with made it and when I first got it I really was like 'hmmm, this ain't that cute," but still kept it around.  Turns out it is Kyla's favorite blanket and she has about 10 different blankets of her own.  This one is smaller and is the perfect size for a baby to drag around.  It is now carried around pretty much everywhere with her except for to daycare.  You can see in the photo she is attempting to find the corner of the blanket...she loves to rub these corners and like I have said in previous posts she will rub the corner with her little arm to put herself to sleep.  I had my blanket until I was probably 16 or so, about the time that I started dating and quickly realized that it wasn't cool to still be sleeping with my blanket.  :)  I still have it somewhere, probably at my Dad's house still, but I'm not sure.  I know it isn't gone though, that is the important thing!  I wonder how long Kyla will be attached to this thing?

Note:  For some reason Blogger sort of distorts my photos...so if you are interested in seeing what the photo really looks like, just click on it to enlarge.

Possible Ear Tubes for Kyla

Today I stayed home super sick.  Felt like crap all thru the night, woke up this morning with a fever and couldn't keep the kid home with me, so I sent her off to daycare.  I spent the whole day just napping and trying to take care of myself.  I also made Kyla a doctor's appointment and the Husband took her to that for me (which I was thankful for), and she has a double ear infection.  The doctor said she has had too many, that she has had almost 1 ear infection every single month since she was born, so she is going to see her back in 10 days and then see how they look and decide if she will refer her to someone to look at doing tubes.  :(  I kind of figured this was inevitable, but is not something that I wanted to happen.  I certainly don't want my baby being put under, but also in a way I am kind of open to something that might help her to get healthy finally and stop being sick all the time, along with me being sick all the time.  So we will see what happens.  I had Greg talk to the doctor about her picky eating and learned that we are pretty much doing it all wrong.  She said not to fight with her when it comes to eating, that if we do that, we will just cause her to be a picky eater for the rest of her childhood and we don't want that, so she said just basically put food in front of her and she will eat when she gets hungry.  She did say to try chicken nuggests and if she'll eat chicken nuggets, give her those...for breakfast lunch and dinner if she wants them.  This is gonna be a hard one for me, since I want her to eat healthy.  We tried them tonight and she only ate a few bites.  Kyla wants to feed herself but she has a difficult time doing it because she don't have that other hand to hold things, like her yougart container and that type thing.  She just kinda scoots it all over the tray.  So I will continue to try to feed her myself but won't fight with her over it like I have been. 

On a side note, I've been kinda in a funk lately because of all the issues I've been having with my family.  I have not talked to my Sister or Mom is like over two months.  It's a super long story but my Sister's boyfriend who moved in with her over two years ago finally went to prison like about a month ago.  He will be there for almost 3 years and she has set her mind to staying with him through it and has even said on several occasions that she is going to marry him when he gets out (sigh....).  I've never met the dude, but he has caused issued for my Sister and I and our entire family for the past two + years.  It's pretty dumb....  I'm married to someone who is in law enforcement so this has not worked out well for any of us.  He is the type that moved into her home, and could never get a job and spent most of his time wakeboarding, boating, snowboarding, etc. all while my Sister went to work and brought home a paycheck.  I don't like dudes who use single Mother's.  Like go get a job dude, even if you have to work at 7-11...don't use my Sister for everything you can get.  My Sister and I are a year and 11 days apart so we have always up until about 3 years ago been super close.  Unfortunately that has changed and she has actually only ever seen my daughter maybe 6 times or so....  the day of her birth she actually chose to go out of town to this dude's family reunion in Seattle and after Kyla was born, and everyone learned about her arm, my Dad paid to fly her home to "be there for me..." she stayed at the hospital for about an hour and flew back to Seattle the next morning.  I was watching Dr. Phil today and it was on like Sisters that are not getting along and those girls' stories don't even compare to my Sister and I's.... which is sad, but is reality.  I know I should probably not be so concerned about who my Sister is dating, but she has a young daughter who was crying over her "dad" going to prison and has unfortunately been exposed to a lot of crap during her 6 years of life.  Then there is my Mom who I have never had a good relationship with since she left our family and my Sister and I when we were 10 and 11.  When she heard my Sister and I had a huge fight (once again) I told her to not get involved and she did and said inappropriate stuff (once again) and I am just finally tired of dealing with her stuff.  I have put up with it for a longgg, longgg time and I'm just kinda tired of it.  There was the whole abandoning my Sis and I when we were little, then ruining my wedding day by freaking out and screaming at me because apparently I couldn't handle the fact that she had a bf and threatening to not even come to my wedding which left my crying hysterically up until I walked down the aisle and then this, where she was verbally attacking my Husband.  Never once has she ever apologized for anything she has ever done, it has just always been a don't talk about it, act like it never happened type deal.  So ya, things are just very weird and have been for much too long.  I finally told my Mom how I feel about everything she has done to us and her only response was GROW UP AND GET OVER IT.  So that was about the last straw for me.  So I haven't been in the best spirits the past several months.  Anyway, I'm getting to bed early tonight so that I can hopefully make it to work tomorrow.  Everyone have a good night.

I swear there is not enough time in the day!  We have been super busy and I don't think it's going to slow down anytime soon.  My baby is now onto just one nap/day and so she sleeps from about 12:30 - 3:30 or so, about 3 hours.  I'm having a hard time adjusting to this new schedule, because I feel like this is my usual time to go out and get things done, like bank runs, errands, trips to the grocery store, etc.  So I'm going to have to start doing my trips early in the morning after breakfast.  The bad days are the days when I won't get my butt out of bed, like this morning to shower before my Husband leaves for work, so then I have to wait to shower until Kyla goes down for a nap (not cool).  The kid is sick again and therefore I am also sick again.  I think her and I have been fighting the same cold for the past 5 weeks or so.  Note to those without kids - if your kids are in daycare, it's a good chance they will always be sick and you will always be sick as well.  Just something you have to get used to.  The only positive of that is the doctor says that once she starts school she won't get sick at all because she will have built up all the antibodies for everything that she might be exposed to.  What happened to my antibodies?  I guess I have none. 

I've been bugging Greg about doing a project for me for about 3 months now and we finally did it this weekend.  Our basement stairs/hallway was literally scary (it was about 3 different colors - blue, yellow, and off white) and after ripping out the bright orange shag carpet on the stairs, it was nasty bare stairs that looked dirty and could not be walked on without shoes.  So we painted the hallway and stairs/rail all white and carpeted the steps with a dark gray indoor/outdoor carpet.  Greg still has to put some metal things on the end of each step and then it'll be done.  Looks so much better.  Note to those who also might not have kids....getting "projects" done requires staying up late at night, doing it during naps, or switching off parents (one works while the other watches the kid).  LOL.  The next project is to fence our backyard.  When we lived in our old house, we lived in a development that required vinyl fencing.  This was miserable because a fence for our large yard would've been ~ $10,000....and I'm not spending 10 grand on a stupid fence, so we had none.  We sort of have a fence now (a cyclone one, I think...) but it's not fully enclosed so whenever Kyla is outside she gets chased around most of the time to make sure she doesn't get into the street, wander into the neighbors yards, etc.  Since I want to be in my bathing suit with Kyla this summer and not have to chase after her into the front yard constantly in my bathing suit for all the neighbors to see, a fence is a requirement.  I called this morning and can't believe how cheap cedar fencing is....  I'm pretty sure we will buy everything this weekend and get started sometime soon.  Hmmm, only other thing to note is my kid has been driving me up a wall lately with her picky eating habits.  Literally this morning I felt like crying out of frustration.  She is rejecting everything and won't eat anything.  I guess some Mom's are like "oh my kid did the same thing and they just didn't eat..." well I can't do that, like even our babysitter is always telling my Hubs, "tell Amber to not freak out....." I just have to make sure she is getting what she needs...no matter how frustrating it is or hard it is to do.  The poor sitter tried to make Kyla like 5 different new things last week and she wouldn't touch any of them.  So I've been dealing with that too and Greg doesn't have enough patience to feed her, so I'm stuck doing it all the time....   Anyways, just thought I'd give an update.  Going to try to catch a nap now before the kid wakes up.  I have no new photos...weather has been not that great lately so we haven't been outside much.