18

18 months is a big milestone for me. This is the age where they really start morphing from baby to toddler. By 2, they are full-blown toddler. But 18 months is like a vortex of baby one minute and raging toddler the next. I am clinging for dear life to the baby part. Sadly, this has not been working so much these days.



Ugh...what am I going to do? She's growing up you guys!! She is getting smarter, more vocal, figuring stuff out, becoming more independent (at least in her thoughts and actions!!). It's going by so fast. She is such a joy...seriously. We all love her so much. She is the thing we all look forward to when we come home. She is the best entertainment around. So glad that we have this little ray of sunshine in our lives.

Happy Half-Birthday Parker Faye!!



(This is Parker carrying around her "luggage"...everyone's lunch bags.)

Busy Bee

Have you ever heard of this book? I think Aunt Vicki gave this book to the girls when they were littles. I absolutely love the illustrations in this book. The colors are so bright and vivid, and I love the happy pictures of warmer, springy-er weather. I'm glad I have held onto it. Parker loves this book. She seeks it out and insists that we read it to her over and over and over. The funny thing about this book is that the last page has a battery-powered buzzing sound when you open it. She jumps every time, and giggles, and smiles, and points, and falls in love with it as if it were the first time every time. I just love that.

Anyway, in other news: I am as busy as a buzzing bee around this place!!

There are weeks when my days are fairly lax. I mean, lax is relative when you have a busy toddler underfoot. But there are definitely days when the jammies don't come off until well, the next day??? Anyway, this month is shaping up to be a pretty packed.

Girl Scouts:

• We are picking up cookies and starting the arduous sorting process on Monday. For a small town troop, we sold a butt-load of cookies this year. Butt (sorry Mom), that's a good thing actually. Did you know that for every box of cookies a girl scout sells, the girl makes 20 cents and the troop makes 30 cents? Cool, eh? The girls get to spend their "dough" at the Girl Scout shop on silly little trinkets, badges, etc. or use it for camps, or local service area activities. The troop gets to use it for monthly meetings, field trips, etc.

• Speaking of field trips, we are going to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal this Saturday. Should be fun, but what a PIB (pain in butt) to plan. We have 13 girls and 9 adults scheduled to attend. Can somebody explain to these parents the reasoning behind permission slips? They all want to go. I guess it's good though, because their daughters are like a pack of wild animals, and at least this way I won't be in charge of containing them.

• Later this month, we will be selling cookies at a cookie booth at the Tonica Bank...wish you lived closer so you could pick up some of your faves from these cute little scouts.

Achievement Days

• So I have been doing this for going on 3 years now. It never gets any easier, and I'm still doing it solo. I'm trying my best, but sometimes it just feels like one more thing, ya know? Tonight we are having a "babysitter's Bootcamp". The girls requested this. I know that many of them won't be babysitting any time soon.

• The third Wednesday we'll be welcoming a new girl to our group with a little par-tay (also have 2 other March bdays), and working in our FIG books. We'll probably have a little lesson on "peer pressure".
  

• The third Saturday is the annual FIG Conference at the Stake Center in Joliet. It's usually a lot of fun. The girls pass off 3-5 goals in one morning, and afterwards we get lunch and do some shopping at the Joliet Mall as a group.

Nursery

So I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but this is my latest calling in our Ward. They released me as an RS teacher and called me to be Nursery leader. Do you see the trend? You basically get called wherever your kids are. Achievment Days and now Nursery...awesome!! It's really not too bad. There are only 3 regular kids, plus visitors and less actives occassionally. It could be much, much worse. (Flashbacks from Chelsea Branch come to mind...circa 1995...Andrew and Paige, along with all of their wild Pierson cousins...pre-mission...sends chills up my spine. Hee hee!!)

Work

• I'm working 2 nights a week at the Writing Center on campus. So far, the semester has been slow, so I've been catching up on other stuff (blogging), and just enjoying quiet time (sans Miss P).

• I'm also still doing a few days here and there at Sparkle Cleaners. Tomorrow and Friday this week.

Homefront

• The girls are in the Illinois Valley Youth Choir again this year. They have weekly rehearsals, and for some reason I've volunteered to help out with a bunch of crap. Why can't I say no???

• Tonica Grade School is doing this fundraiser where they want you to donate a bunch of money to make baskets to raffle off. Then they want you to buy at least $20 worth of tickets to get the basket. Do you see the nonsense here??? I hate fundraisers. Bah Humbug!!

• We have been getting various bids to do some work on our house. First off is the electrical stuff. Needs to be updated...bad. Next up is getting AIR CONDITIONING!! It sounds so hillbilly to even say that...I can't believe we've lived without it as long as we have. Insanity. Anyway, I couldn't be more excited about this...seriously, I am stoked...bring it on Illinois summer...I dare you!!

The Chicken and the Faux-hawk

While we were going through some of the cupboards in the Rigby kitchen, we came across the infamous chicken basket. We all collectively said, "Awww, the chicken!!", and we added it to the pile of sentimental items to sort through later. I didn't see what happened to the chicken after that, but come to find out about a week ago, a smart sister-in-law had already "hatched" a plan!! The infamous chicken basket graced the dining room table at most family dinners. It was a chicken covered oblong basket filled with warm rolls...usually Rhodes rolls (which Laurie loved to make), or the very delicious Geraldine's rolls (which Laurie loved to eat!) LOL! Anyway, the chicken basket has been around a long time. And tradition is nothing to "bawk" at. You can imagine how excited I was to open a package from Moscow, Idaho last week and find my very own personal chicken topper!! What a sweet gift...it will definitely bring back some very happy memories. Thank you Mindy! You are awesome. Too bad Geraldine's is so far away!!



In other news, Parker's hair is finally growing!! This is what happened after she put all manner of slime in her hair during lunch one day and I used a wash cloth to give her a quick shampoo. I present to you...Parker with a Faux-Hawk!! Move over Sanjaya, you've got some stiff competition in town!!

Home & Garden Television

I knew when I finally got DISH that HGTV was going to be my downfall. I love me some interior design, and HGTV delivers. Recently I have become best friends with the show, "Designed to Sell". I luv it!! For $2000, you have a team of good-looking, friendly, enthusiastic, talented contractors and decorators at your beckoned call. They swoosh in with magnificent plans, tons of smiles, and get to work!! And within a matter of days, your home is transformed!! It's quite amazing. The only downside is, after they swoosh in, you have to swoosh out. The catch is that they help you to SELL your house. They fix all the problems you had to live with, but you never get to enjoy the upgrades and improvements. (Thumbs down!) I would love it if they revised the show to include people like me who just need a little help on a tight budget. Just nudge me in the right direction and I'd be happy. Or maybe I could scam the show...pretend like I'm moving and then hide the "For Sale" sign after the HGTV trucks rolled out of town. Shhhh...don't tell, it might just work!!

My favorite designer is definitely Monica Pederson. Besides the fact that she lives in the Chicago area, the girls think she looks like Aunt Melanie...the one whose baby is Maia. :-) Her style is still funky and eclectic. She still values the whimsy in design and uses color to make a statement. Her rooms look bright and friendly, but still well proportioned and functional. I like that.

My least favorite designer is John Gidding (aka Curb Appeal). Who does this guy think he is? His design may be economical, but it just isn't what normal people (with families) are looking for. His rooms don't flow, the colors aren't neutral enough, and I've seen him literally ruin a home's best features...removing unique architecture and character. In a recent episode, he painted a living room gold, a dining room purple, with pinky salmon drapes. Yuck.

My second favorite designer is Lisa LaPorta, and my second least favorite is Taniya Nayak. If it weren't for John being such a joke, Taniya's palette of brown, tan, and beige would bore me into a designing coma.

Do you watch the show? Who is your favorite designer and why?

Can you say funny?

Parker is not really talking yet. It's kind of concerning because the big girls were both talking by this time. I talked to the dr. at her last appt. and she said give her another month and by 18 months, we'll see what happens. I told the dr. she knows exactly what we're talking about and will point and mumble, but no real words. Unless you can count this...lately when I ask her if she wants something..."Parker, do you want some lunch?" she'll respond, "huh-uh." Which sounds like no, but really means yes because she'll run to her high-chair or the fridge. Precocious much? Sometimes I'll ask her, "Parker, do you want your binky?" and she'll shake her head no emphatically, whilst plucking the binky from my fingers and shoving it in her mouth as if to say, "thanks for the reminder Mom." So I know she knows what we're talking about. I just wonder if this is all her little game. To hold out on us as long as she can to prove her dominance. To make us spoil her just a little bit longer. To prove, once and for all, she IS the baby, forever and always, amen. I mean she has all these servants at her beckoned call. We jump when she cries, squeals, or squeaks. We clap and ooh and ahh when she makes funny faces or does new things. She knows she's got us right where she wants us. Could this be a form of manipulation? Sometimes when I look at her, I think yes (as I shake my head no), but other times when I hear her say "huh-uh" (for yes), or "mama" (for more food) I think she's doing just fine and to chill out. But this sweet little voice that is slowly emerging is just too much to handle...when I hear her babble as she plays, or sing along as I sing to her at bedtime, or bossily yell "mama" for more food...I think maybe she's holding out because my heart might just explode inside my chest. She is just too darn cute!! But seriously, any advice on how to get her talking???

Snowpocalypse of 2011

(Pictures taken this morning.)

So we pretty much got slammed last night...it was the craziest thing I've ever seen. There was a thunderstorm with lightening that bounced off the crazy blizzard sky and teamed up with the 60 mph winds for quite a spectacle. For a minute I seriously listened close for the sound of trumpets...is that sacrelig??? Hee hee. Anyhoo, what a blizzard! This morning there was no way anybody was going anywhere. The snow day for the girls and Mark had already been announced the day before. But that wasn't it...Wal-Mart, Culver's, and most banks closed down too. You know if Wal-Mart is shut down, it's serious. Mark called our neighbor Chris, who has a bobcat, and asked him to help us plow out our driveway. He agreed, and thank the heavens above! He did a great job. He must have thought so too, because he showed up at the door and asked for $45 to prove it. Ha ha!! No really, Mark offered to pay him and he said that diesel is pretty expensive, so that was that. But whatever, at least we could pull our cars out. Our front door is another story...completely snowed shut. Ah well, who needs to enter/exit from the front door anyway?

School is out again for the girls tomorrow, but life is probably back to "normal" for the rest of the community. Maryn and I made a Target run and it seemed like the roads had pretty much been cleared by late this afternoon. Target was open, but Wal-Mart was not. Does that say anything?!? LOL!

Sicky

This little munchkin hasn't been officially "sick" yet. I guess that's good for 17 months old!! This was her first real bout with anything more than just a runny nose or a little cough. I guess she's had the flu, of some variation. No vomiting, a little diarrhea, but mostly just lethargic, whiny, uncomfortable, high fever, no appetite. She has been out.of.it!! It started Wednesday and literally hasn't let up until yesterday. Anyway, I am glad she is sloooowly getting back to her old self. It has been a looong weekend. She is sleeping A LOT now, which I guess is good because she is making up for 4 straight nights of no sleep. Ey-yi-yi...we are tooooo old for sleepless nights!! Sick babies break my heart!! No more of this stuff, Parker Foo Foo!! (Now I'm not feeling too hot myself.) Ugh!