I demand a refund

Shortly after Sayler was born we bought the "Your Baby Can Read" dvd's off of Craigslist as a part of our plan to create a genius child who can read Shakespere at 3 and allow us a very early retirement desire to have educational programming for Sayler to watch.

She used to watch them all the time but we haven't for about a year now.  So today while we were playing in the toy room I decided to put in the starter dvd and she actually really liked watching all of the pictures and words.  So then I whipped out the flash cards and started going all Tiger Mom on her letting her play with them.

Then I came upon the following flashcards that have me doubting the success of this program:

Wait for it...

We're waiting to submit her MENSA application until we can fully assess the damage.

21 Months

Sayler you are 21 months old today!  

I can't get my head around the fact that you will soon be 2!!!  We have had a fun Summer together and I feel like you are officially my little girl and no longer my baby :(  Though I miss your babyness I love watching you grow and change and learn new things every day.  You are my little sponge and amaze your Daddy and I with all of the new things you do and say.  At least once a day one of us will say, "How does she know that?" You weigh about 27-28 lbs. and I am not sure how tall you are but I know you are tall for your age.  I think probably 35 inches or so.  You still wear a size 4 diaper but will transition into a size 5 by the end of this month as we are almost out of size 4's.  You wear a size 6 shoe and 18 mo. and 2T clothes.  You still love your "bee-bee's" (blankies) and are getting more and more into your baby dolls.  Mostly you like to hug them and pat them and then put them in "Eye out!" (time out)!  You are such a mother hen at home and at daycare. You love taking care of everyone and making sure you are in everyone's business all the time!

What Makes You, You:  You are still a careful little girl and are not one to jump into any new situation without some warming up.  But you have started becoming more confident and are spreading your wings more and more which makes me so proud of you.  No matter your personality or temperament you are my precious gift and I only want you to be true to who you are.  I always remind myself when you are nervous about a new environment or not sure about a new person that you are not a carbon copy of me or your Dad and that you don't need to do anything you are not comfortable with to try and please us. You are uniquely Sayler and I just admire you and the confidence you have to be you and no one else!

You Didn't Come With An Instruction Manual: Being a Mommy is such a case of 2 steps forward and 1 step back.  Before I had you I was the perfect Mom. Ha!!!  There are a million things I swore I would never do or allow you to do that guess what...we do!!! I vowed to have you weaned off of the bottle at 1 year.  9 months later you still take a morning and night time bottle. I guess I'll worry about it when you still want a bottle as you move into your college dorm...but until then I am just going to go with the flow.  You weren't going to have any juice whatsoever.  You have 1 or 2 juice boxes a day.  You wouldn't be allowed to play with Mommy's things. You have my cell phone in hand more than I do!!!  We are just walking this path together my sweet girl and learning as we go.  I really try to just go with the flow and not get to caught up in what I think I should be doing or what other people say. There are definitely some non-negotiable rules (i.e. you threw a fork at me the other night from your high chair...do not pass go, do not collect $200, proceed directly to time out!).  But other than those types of blatant no-no's...we are pretty laid back.

Curly Q:  Can we talk about this hair?  Miss Lady...this whole head of hair you have sprouted has become the bane of my existence.  You don't want Mommy to wash it, brush it, style it or even touch it.  If you see me coming with a comb and the de-tangle spray you run and tell me, "NOOOOOOOOO!" We have gone from washing your hair every night to only washing it every 3rd day because the screaming...oh the screaming.  We can only imagine what the neighbors think we are doing to you!  I'm sure you can imagine my joy when I went to pick you up from daycare one day and Dana had your hair braided and told me that you "loved" playing beauty salon and just sat like a perfect angel and let her braid it all up. Ugh!!!!  We told her we may be sending you with your comb and spray in the morning and let her deal with it :)

 

Daddy's Girl: You have become quite the fan of this guy. You are truly a Daddy's girl lately and have let me know in no uncertain terms that I am a distant 2nd.  From the minute you wake up (literally) until you lay your sweet head down to sleep you are asking for your Dada.  At first I felt like I had been voted off the island, but I know that this is a normal part of your development and it is so precious to see you snuggle up in your Daddy's lap like there is no other place in the world you would rather be.

 Things You Say:  In previous milestone posts I have written out all of the words you say.  Let me tell you I would be typing a list 10 feet long if I tried to do that now.  I have no idea how many words you have at this point but is well in excess of 50 for sure.  So I will just type up some of the funny things you have said lately.  You keep your Daddy and I in stitches with all of your Sayler speak:

• "Air go???" (Where go?  You always want to know where everyone is and where they are going.  If we say someone's name you always say "Air go?").
• "Dat Say Say mope." (That's Sayler's remote.  You can really replace remote with any and everything in the house.  If it is in your hand or you are even thinking about it...it is yours without question."
• "No. Dat my Say Say's!" (Again...everything belongs to you.  I love it when you say this and try to get you to say it all the time).
• "Eh pie-yo." (My pillow.  You love to drag all of the pillows from Mommy and Daddy's room out into the living room and jump on your "Pie-yos.").
• "Hi-woah?" (Hello?  You always say this when you are playing with my phone.  You will hold it to your ear and say "Hi-woah?" Love it!).
• "Air twuck go?" (Where did the truck go?  No even sure how you know what a truck is...but you spot them when we are out driving and are very curious about where the trucks are going.).
• "Rye dere!" (Right there!  We always ask you where things are in your books like, "Where is the kitty? or Where is the sun?"  And you always point to it and say in this sing-song voice, "Ryeee dere!!!).
• "Eh awe fwy." (I want a french fry! You are a lover of the french fry.  You would pick it over anything including a popcicle or ice cream. Last Sunday we were taking an afternoon drive and we pulled into Sonic for happy hour...what what!!!  And the minute we pulled up you said, "Eh awe fwy!"  We have no idea how you associated french fries with Sonic as we had never been there with you before...but you knew exactly what you wanted).
• "I poop!" (Every morning when we go to get you up this is the first thing you say. No matter if it is accurate or not...you want to make sure we know...I poop!!!").

 This is a picture of you in August of 2010. I can't ever remember you being that little.  Though I remember taking these pictures of you swinging for the first time...I just can't believe you were that tiny!  I can only imagine how much you will have changed by August 2012.  I am just head over heels in love with you and can't believe my luck that God chose me to be your Mama.  You keep us on our toes baby girl...and we love every minute of it! Happy 1 3/4 Birthday!!!

Love you to the moon and back,
Mama

Summer lovin'...had me a blast! - June 2011

We have had a busy summer and I am just now getting around to blogging about it! Pitiful.  My whole life I have been told I talk too much...but apparently that doesn't translate into blogging.  I need to find a way to have this blog read my mind an just automatically post.  Wait...that probably would not be a great idea.  Lots of crazy talk goes through this noggin all day long.  Best to keep that under wraps.  So while I can still remember what we did this summer I will give a quick recap:

Say and Daddy took advantage of the beautiful weather and flew a kite in the backyard (Daddy continued to fly the Princess kite all by himself LONG after Say lost interest! Ha!)

Oh how I love those chubber legs running all around!

Nana and Papa bought Sayler a cool new sandbox and she was way into "mess" as she called it.  She could not believe we were letting her dig in the "mess" with no repercussions.

My Midwest girl in all her corn-on-the-cob eatin' glory.

We took our first family vacation to visit the Beckman's in Indianapolis and Sayler had so much fun with her cousins.  She still walks around the house talking about Ayba (Ava), Nick, and Nenny (Jenny).

Sayler and Ava playing in the sand table. 2 diva's for sure!

Is this not the most precious picture ever? The 3 Musketeers!!!  Sayler loved riding on the boat! 

Like mother like daughter...we both LOVE going fast.  Sayler kept saying "mo ayah" (more air) she loved the wind in her face!

This is what happens when Uncle Jim let's us take the boat out by ourselves, Captain Ava!!!

Sayler loved standing at the very front of the boat...until, she figured out that gate could open.  Then she wanted to sit on the seat with Mommy.

All the girl cousins enjoying the boat ride.

Daddy caught lots of fish and was pretty proud of himself.

We went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum which is the largest children's museum in the world and Sayler had so much fun.  She just jumped right in and loved all of the cool activities.

Looking at Daddy through the tunnel debating whether or not to crawl through.

Sayler and Ava playing in the garden.

Sayler refused to put on the rain coat that was required for the water table area...so we didn't last long at this station :)

We took our first trip to Deanna Rosa Children's Farm one afternoon and it was so much fun.  It is this awesome place in Overland Park that is designed to depict a turn of the century farmstead.  Sayler loved all of the animals and was very interested in a cow that was mooing very loudly out in her pen.  She kept mooing right back at her!

Feeding the hungry goat some grass.

Sayler liked the goats as long as they were stationary.  The minute one of them started moving she was not a fan.

Say sneaking into the fridge and taste testing the strawberry cream pie I made.

Yummy pie mommy!

June was so fun and the Summer just got busier after that.  Will update with our July tomorrow!