Sunny Days Are Here Again

It finally feels like spring really is just around the corner. Today it got up to 60 degrees. I know, break out the swimsuits. But seriously, after all of the below zero temperature and the nasty weather the past couple of weeks, I am happy to have anything that feels slightly warm. Sofia and took adventure of the weather and headed to the Zoo. We had a blast. Seriously, it was one of the best days I have had in a long time.

Rather than pull Sofia along, I let her lead the show. We checked out the North American animals, and when she was ready to move on, she would let me know. She'd say, "Mommy, let's go. Let's go." She was scared of some of the animals, even ones that never bothered her before. On the other hand, she was terrified of the aquarium for a while, and today she had an absolute blast. She was running up to the window of the tank and her favorite fish were the sharks. Everytime she saw one she would run up to me and point them out. We were probably in there at least 20 or 30 minutes. I had a slight celebrity moment while in there as well. I was sitting looking at the tank when a little girl points to me and goes, "it's the library lady." Her mom said that yes, it is and then asked my name. It's always weird when I see people from my storytimes or from the library outside the library.

Anyway, just to brag, but I couldn't have asked for a bettter behaved child today. I brought out the older stroller, and Sofia was all for riding in it, pulling down the visor, climbing in and out. For once, I didn't have to yell at her to sit down, stop bending over, etc. Wow, I really need more days like today!

Pasta Pasta

Ryan makes the best homemade pasta (being Italian really helps) and tonight he and Sofia made pasta for our dinner. I came home from work and Sofia was helping make the dough and she was also helping roll out the dough. It was so cute and I can tell she will be like Ryan when she grows up.

(By the way, I finally uploaded my camera to my new computer. This computer is awesome, I can finally upload video as well!!)

Now that I don't feel so lazy, I promise to blog more.

Name Game

I took this idea from another blog. Sometimes it gets a little dull writing about Sofia.


Name Game.

Your Real Name: Carissa

Witness Protection Name:(mother and fathers middle names) Marie Riley.

Secret Spy Name: (your first name spelled backwards) Assirac. (that's right, ASSirac.)

Nascar Name: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad) Ronald Charles.

Detective Name:(favorite color, favorite animal) Purple Dolphin.

Soap Opera Name:(middle name, county where you were born) Anne Hamilton.

Super Hero Name: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning) The Green Guinness.

Fly Name:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Cate.

Street Name:(fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Mint Chocolate Chip Thin Mint.

Rock Star: (current pet, current street) Kitty Turnstone. (since I don't have a current pet, I'm using my last one.)

PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on) Thumper Bursal.

YOUR GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle) Carizzle

YOUR GOTH NAME:(black, and the name of one of your pets)Black Kitty

STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav. candy) Om Rolos

Snow Disaster

My friend Jessi and I took Sofia to meet some other people at the awesome sled hill at the part up the road. This sled hill is sick. There's a smaller one for little kids next to it that it also really cool. Anway, even before I picked Jessi up, disaster struck. Sofia totally bit it on the ice right in front of our apartment. She was crying for so long that I was really afraid she broke her wrist or hand or something. Well, we finally got on our way and picked up Jessi and made it to the park. I unloaded out ghetto sleds. (Both Meiers and Walmart were sold out of sleds. Hello?! It's still the middle of winter. But I guess spring clothes and shoes are more important.) Our sleds were the top to Sofia's turtle sandbox and a plastic storage container. We never did get to see if they worked because we were able to use real sleds at the park. So, anyway, we get there and I take Sofia down the kiddy hill. We flew down that darn thing. So fast that I crashed into the bales of hay at the end. Poor Sofia got a face full of snow when I attempted to plant my feet in the ground as a brake. After that run, Jessi took her down. As I watched them prepare to fly down, Sofia had her hands covering her face. Well, I guess the kiddy hill wasn't good enough for Sofia because she wanted to go down the big hill. Ummm...I wouldn't even go down that hill so there was no way I was letting Sofia. Cut to ten minutes later and Sofia is sobbing uncontrollably and continued to do so for at least fifteen more minutes and then half of the car ride home as well. Next time Mommy's going to the part without Sofia.

Which would you prefer?

So, I love Sofia - I really do. However, after the two of us have been stuck in the house for three days together, our relationship is wearing thin. Wednesday was a snow day, Thursday we did get out of the house for three hours. Ryan, Sofia and I went out to dinner at Max and Erma's had a really nice time. Sofia kept saying hi to a girl sitting at the next table. After dinner and a sundae, we went to the mall down the street. I haven't been to the mall since Christmas, so it was a quite a shock to see it so slow. We went to Barnes and Noble so that Sofia could play with the toy trains - which actually is her playing with trains for two seconds, running to the Dora books, jumping on the storytime stage, and repeat. Over and over. After this, we decided to go to the main part of the mall (because our's is now one of the fancy ones with an outside part and an inside part.) We took her to the kids play area and she had a blast. She's always been fearless when she played, but this time she was running, climbing, and jumping. She must have gone down the slide at least 20 times in a row. I wish that was an exaggeration, but it isn't. She kept going and going! Finally we left, only to realize it was ten til 9 p.m. Where did the time go? We got home, Ryan put Sofia to bed while I took an hour to get all of the ice off my car. It was a hard battle, but I finally won. We went to bed - only to have Sofia wake up at 3 a.m. crying. I guess all that playing and ice cream didn't sit well in her stomach because she threw up a little. So Ryan put her in bed with us, and after that she was wide awake. She kept talking and talking and talking. This lasted about 30 minutes before I decided to remake her bed and put her in it. By this time it's 4 a.m. and I have to get up in 3 and a half hours for work. I sleep. At 7:30 a.m., right inthe middle of me pushing the snooze alarm, my babysitter calls to let me know that she can't watch Sofia today. I love my babysitter and she's always reliable, so this isn't a big deal. I call my supervisor to let her know I will not be at work today.

On the one hand, I am happy for the extra two hours of sleep. But on the other, I really wish I was at work because I have a ton of stuff to do. I only work part-time, and we were closed Wednesday, which means I only work two days this week. Now, most people would not complain - I would only ask you which you would prefer?

Three house-bound days with a crazy two-year-old? or Nine hours working at the library with dozens of crazy kids and there parents? (Remember, the library people go home eventually, the two-year-old is always there.)

Snow Frenzy

I'm not even going to try and pretend that I've been keeping up with this blog. If I wanted to, I could write a bunch of posts and backdate them, but to be honest I'm too lazy. Besides, things haven't been all that exciting around here. So, instead I'll just jump ahead and talk about things that are current.

Snow...all of this freakin snow. Don't get me wrong, if it's going to be cold and winter, then bring on the snow. However, heavy snow + 2-year-old = major cabin fever. I've been feeling really guilty with the amount of t.v. that Sofia has been watching this past week because, frankly, I can't get out of the house. Plus, I started classes last week so I'm trying really hard to keep up with everything which results in lots and lots of Dora. I wish I was one of those craft moms who does arts and crafts with their kids, has the t.v. off all day, and bakes. Unfortunately, as much as I wish that was me, but it's not. Instead I have days like yesterday where I'm trying to make lunch, cut up veggies and brown a roast to put in the crock pot, have the kitchen sink back up and start to leak, and have Sofia climbing all over me. Nope, no Betty Crocker here. Instead, maintenance never showed up, I had a kitchen sink that could not be used, and my crock pot dinner kind of sucked. Well, at least work was called off and I got a snow day - which to be honest isn't much different than any other day.

Have you heard enough bitching for one day? You haven't? Oh great, because my car's Check Engine light also came on during my hour long drive back from my cancelled class on Tuesday night (that was after the two hour drive to said class, which I wasn't aware was cancelled.)

Okay, now I'm really done. Wow, I don't know what to write now. Sofia's been surprising Ryan and I with her new vocab. She's picking up shapes from who knows where - hearts, squares. It's really cool.

Merry Christmas!

What a busy, busy Christmas! Santa came and brought lots of goodies for Sofia. She was up at 7:30 a.m. this morning, after going to bed at 11:30 p.m. last night. I went to bed a little later, so I didn't have a lot of sleep. The first thing Sofia said when she woke up was, "I want to open presents?" She really got into the spirit of things and loved all of her presents. Of course there were tons of Dora items - including a sheet and bed set from Chelsea, toys, and a Cabbage Patch doll from Mommy and Daddy. I know she's a little young, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to give her the doll because it's the 25th anniversary. (Wow, has it really been that long?) She didn't get into the doll as much as I would have liked, but I wasn't surprised.

After presents with my Mom, Ken, and sisters, we packed everything up and headed out to my Dad's house. There we opened even more presents (and got lots of cool stuff) and had brunch. Sofia got a drum filled with musical instruments. As my dad said when she opened it, "Revenge." Sofia was playing the tamborine and recorder. She really had a chance to shine when Ryan, Chelsea, Logan and I played Guitar Hero. We were rocking (some more than others, I was on vocals and I feel sorry for everyone who had to listen.) I'll tell you what, that game is just as addicting as the Wii. Maybe there will be a Guitar Hero in my future? After spending a few hours there, we packed up all of the new presents, added them to the other presents and then headed off to our last destination, my aunt and uncle's house (my Mom's brother).

We ate lots of yummy food, watched Sofia be a spaz while playing with Sydney, and then opened more presents! Sofia really wanted to open presents, and I was astounded by how well she handled herself when other people got to open presents. I would have though that a lot of kids Sofia's age would whine or grab at other people's presents, but not Sofia. By 8:30 p.m., Ryan and I were practically falling asleep and we still had a two hour car ride back to Columbus. After packing up the car for the last time, saying our good-byes, we finally headed back out on the road. By the time we made it to Columbus, I was practically falling asleep behind the wheel. I was so tired that I completely missed our exit and had to turn around. All that stood between me and bed was the unloading of the car. I finally got to bed by midnight - only to wake up at 7:30 a.m. on Friday to get ready for work!

Christmas Eve

This will be post-dated because I have been a big slacker blogging lately. Anyway, Christmas was fun. Ryan, Sofia and I drove down to Mt. Orab Christmas Eve. We only had one major hiccup along the way - Sofia decided to puke in the car for the second year in a row. It was gross, it smelled, and it was a bitch to clean up. Luckily we were only 15 minutes from our destination, so we didn't have to be around the nastiness too long. As soon as I got my cousin Stacy's house, we put Sofia's clothes in the washing machine along with the carseat cover. Instead of wearing her cute sparkly pants and top, Sofia wore her jammies. She still looked cute. Luckily the puke was from carsickness as opposed to her being sick. We ate lots of food and checked out all of the new little babies. Sofia had a blast chasing Sydney around the house, talking to people, eating, and playing. The best part of the evening was when Santa came to visit. Everyone piled down into the basement and sat around as Santa passed out presents to all the children. One thing that must be noted is that my dad's side of the family is huge. I've lost count how many cousins and second cousins I have. Anyway, Sofia had a long wait until her name was called. As she waited, she stood right next to Santa and kept saying, "I want a present too. Santa, I want a present please." It was funny, and a little sad, all at the same time. Finally Santa called her name and she went and sat on his lap (much to my surprise) and was happy the rest of the evening. After spending time here, we popped over to another cousin's house to visit with the rest of the family. By this time it was close to 10 p.m., but Sofia was still going strong. She got a big kick out of watching the kids play the Wii. She would yell and jump and generally cheer them on. By the time we left and got to my sister's place to spend the night, it was 11 p.m. and Sofia was STILL up! She sat for another half an hour while my sisters, mom, Ryan, and Ken all played the Wii. Needless to say, it was a long day and night - but totally worth it!

Christmas Lights

Last night, Sofia, Ryan and I got in the car and went driving around looking at Christmas lights. I can't remember the last time I did this, but it was great. Ryan popped some popcorn, we grabbed some water and went on our way. Sofia was so good and really enjoyed seeing all the "pretty lights." She would yell "I see them, I see them!" However, I think she loved the popcorn even more than the lights. That's her new favorite thing - popcorn. We've been letting ehr watch the Christmas specials, Charlie Brown and the Muppets, and giving her popcorn. I hope we can make this a new tradition and keep with it!

Partay!!

Last Saturday we had our work Christmas party. It was a blast! There's nothing like partying and dancing at a library afterhours. Sofia was great. She really was a dancing queen. She was jumping, twirling, shaking her booty, and running around. She tried to become friends with two other little girls close to her age, but they didn't want anything to do with her. It was kind of cute, because the two little girls were dancing, and Sofia was standing by them waving saying, "Hi girls. Hi girls." Over and over.

Another funny part of the night. Some of my coworkers noticed that most of the kids were running to the food table and grabbing cookies. Not my kid. Now, don't get me wrong, Sofia loves her cookies and she had her fair share, but at one point she must have gotten tired of them. She ran to the table but veered away from the cookies and grabbed... a huge hunk of broccoli. I love that girl.

Poopy Hands

I'm talking on the phone to Mandy when Sofia comes up to me holding her hand out and saying, "Eeewwwyyy." I look at her hand, see nothing, decide to smell it - bad idea. She had poop on her hand. She had pooped in her diaper and stuck her hand in it...the joys of motherhood.

Happy "Be-lated" Thanksgiving

I am the slacker of all bloggers, I swear. My fellow mommy-bloggers are much better. We had a great Thanksgiving with Ryan's parents last week (thanks Rose and Mark!). I was dreading the three-and-a-half hour car ride out to eastern Ohio, but Sofia was great. We are still having the problem with her taking her arms out of her carseat. Luckily, with these nifty 5-point harness seats, she's still attached at the legs and middle. Since I knew the car ride could be trouble, I put Sofia's seat in the middle so that Ryan had access to her while I drove. I packed one bag full of books, one of toys, snacks, her blankie, her bunny, mommy-bear (it's what she calls my old Carebear), and Dora. It was a packed car for only an overnight stay. Traffic sucked coming out of Columbus, of course. Once we got past Zanesville, however, the load lightened. We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel. Ryan had never been there (shock!) so I had to introduce him. Of course I wound up buying things in the store they have. I'm a sucker for stick candy, I had to buy a Christmas count-down calender (like the one on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation), Ryan got a harmonica, and Sofia got M&M's. I just told myself it was a special occassion.

We got to Ryan's parents and settled in. Sofia was so good the whole time. She wasn't timid or nervous, and opened right up to everyone. She didn't eat much during dinner on Thanksgiving day, but Ryan and I made up for that. My pumpkin cheesecake was a success, if I do say so myself! I had never made a cheesecake, but Sofia helped and it was tasty! Then the three of us took a nap in the afternoon before our trek home. It took Sofia a little while to settle down, but soon all of us were out, lying in the same bed.

Check out those muscles!!

The trip home wasn't bad at all. We listened to soothing music and walked in the door around 9:30 p.m. Sofia went straight to sleep. Ryan and I followed soon after!

Blech

Sofia is finally feeling better after days of being sick. It started last Thursday with throwing up. Luckily, for me anyway, she waited until I had just left for class to let loose. Poor Ryan had to deal with it all. When I got home around 9 p.m., Sofia was laying on the couch, wearing nothing but a diaper, covered in blankets, and watching Dora with her arms behind her head. It was a little pathetic and amusing all at the same time. She threw up again Friday morning, so I had to call off work for the afternoon. (I went out the previous evening to get my dance on for a friend's birthday, but it didn't feel quite the same because I was worried about Sofia.) Saturday things seemed to go better, Sofia was perking up. Ryan and I had the day off and we went to the library. Sofia is obsessed with the computers and she ran around like she owned the place. We went out for a late lunch and then popped by the store to grab food for dinner. Sofia was such a trooper because she didn't even take a nap until 3:30, which is an hour and a half after the normal time. Sunday dawned bright and clear, Sofia was quiet and we watched lots of television. (Who am I kidding, we watch lots of television all the time). However, Sunday evening I got a nice surprise...Sofia puked on me. It was disgusting, to say the least. Finally, after throwing up again Monday morning (do you see a pattern?) I took her to the doctor. He promptly told me it was probably a virus (which I already figured out) and there wasn't anything they could do (which I knew as well). I knew Sofia was back to normal yesterday because she was back to whining and crying. Is it bad that I liked her better when she was sick?

All better!

Halloween

This was the first year we took Sofia trick-or-treating and I must say, I'm glad we waited. Sofia was a princess this year and she absolutely loved this costume. In fact, she wants to wear it all the time. She looked really cute in her costume and the night was perfect. We went to Russ and Vanessa's to meet up. They have more neighborhoods with houses, rather than apartments, around them. We took the wagon for the girls, a little Halloween limo. It took a few visits to houses before Sofia caught on but after she did, she was on a role. She would run up to the house and say, "trick treat. Tank Ew." She would then run back to the sidewalk, put down her bag, add the candy, pick back up the bag, and then run down the sidewalk yelling, "Next house, next house." Genevieve took her time and rode in the wagon...maybe she should have worn the princess costume! We went to all kind of houses and got lots of candy. I thought for sure the girls would tire out, but they lasted the whole 2 hours. I think they would have kept going, but us adults were pooped. (In addition to Ryan and myself, we also had Russ, Vanessa, and Vanessa's parents.) Sofia was really good about not trying to eat all of her candy, although we did give her a bite or two along the way. I was excited to get home and see what kind of loot we got because, I'm not going to lie, most of that candy will be eaten by Ryan and I.

Pumpkin Party

Pumpkins + Knives + Two-year-old = interesting!

We had a good time carving pumpkins tonight. This was the first time we've tried it with Sofia. At first, I don't think she knew what to think. I tried to get her to stick her hand in the pumpkin, but she wouldn't touch it. I tried shoving the pumpkin goo in her face, but that didn't help either. (Are you surprised?) However, after she aw how much fun Ryan, Jessi and I were having, Sofia decided to give it a try. However, I don't think she quite had the concept down because she started to put the goopy insides back into the pumpkins as we were trying to get them out. All in all, it was a good, messy time and I think we made some good pumpkins.

Leed's Farm

We went to this farm and had a blast! It's out in the country near Ostrander and we couldn't have picked a better day. It was cool, but sunny. When we got there, the first thing Sofia did was this black tube slide.

She took turns going down with me, then Ryan. I think we each went down a total of four times. Sofia was having so much fun that she didn't want to stop, but I wanted to check out the hay barn.

Now this barn is not for those with allergies. It was filled with hay. So much that Sofia could barely walk. Even Ryan and I were falling down. It was such a blast that I felt like I was eight years old again! After playing in the hay barn, we checked out the goats and donkeys. Sofia really got a kick out of feeding the goats.

I was afraid they would bite, but they didn't. After playing, we got a quick bite to eat, including one of the best pieces of pie I have ever had. After that we went on this little tractor ride called the banana bus. The only stipulation for riding was if you can fit inside, you can ride. I'll be honest, it was a tight fit. Ryan and Sofia rode together and I sat in front taking pictures. It was a little bit scary being smooshed into that little car, but was worth it. I can't wait to go back next year!!

Pretty, Pretty Princess

I picked up this princess costume for Sofia at Old Navy for half off, you really can't beat that. Well, now she wants to wear it all the time. And when she wants to wear it, this is what Sofia says," lollollollipplillipp wear pretty princess." Quite a mouthful. This will most likely be her Halloween costume as well, for all of you who are curious. (However, I did pick up a really cool ninja costume there as well, so who knows!)

Mother - Daughter Outing

I've been feeling a little guilty lately because I've been doing so much homework during the day, that I've been putting Sofia in front of the television with Dora. I don't think she minds too much, but it's been weighing heavily on my shoulders. So, since I had the day off today, I decided to take her out and about, away from the t.v. We started the morning at Old Navy, where they are having awesome sales. 99cent shirts and tank tops, how can you pass that up?! So, I bought some shirts, a couple of Halloween costumes for Sofia...in all about 24 items for $90. After our shopping spree, we went to the library for some Dora the Explorer books (you never can get away from her), then we went to the park. This was one that we have never been to, near my old college Otterbein. There were a ton of kids there running all around. Sofia was brave and got right into the middle of them. After that, we topped off the first part of the day with hotdogs at The Dog Joint. The food was tasty,my only complaint was the women's restroom didn't have a changing table. I just don't understand why a restaurant, especially one that has such kiddie food, wouldn't have a changing table? This isn't even the first time it's happened. All in all, it was nice to get out of the house and play!

Mmmm...Pudding

Mmmm...I like chocolate pudding.
I like it so much I want to lick the bowl.
Do you like my goatee?

My, What Big Feet You Have!

This is why pens and toddlers don't mix. That is pen drawings (by Sofia) all over the arm of my couch. I can't really blame her, because I'm the one who left her alone with access to my pens. Argh!!!