Yup that's my kid there, she's quite the multitasker. She can play with crayons AND talk to Grandma while Mommy changes her diaper. This is probably the quietest Arielle is when I change her. Grandma talks and Arielle listens...she's getting to a point where she can say some things like 'hi' and random babble that Grandma loves to hear.

I just got a kick out of it when I was done changing her she was just lying there with the phone by her ear...it's hilarious.

Speaking of the phone the other night when I was giving her a bath she picked up one of her foam letters (the letter 'I') put it up to her ear and said 'HI'...then proceeded to babble and giggle as tho she was talking to someone. I think she just might be imitating me...lol Gotta watch what I say now...although I have been for some time, cause she's the kinda kid that will repeat what she hears much later...I just know it...lol

Today we went to the mall to get some much needed items and Arielle was a complete doll the whole time. Just sat in the stroller and smiled at everyone walking by. There were times when she had to examine the items that Mommy was buying but other than that there wasn't a peep out of her. So after I got what was needed I let her roam around the mall...where she proceeded to walk to a bench and sit on it...lol She finally gets out of the stroller and she wants to people watch on a bench...it was hilarious. An older woman sitting next to us kept marvelling at how cute she was; which is very true of course :)

Now I gotta make sure my little cuteness gets into bed for her nap...and we'll see if she actually naps. Apparently she napped for Auntie Krista yesterday and the day before she napped for Daddy so here's hoping she'll nap for Mommy. Which means actually sleep as opposed to two ours of "MOM!...mom...momomomom...MOM"...lol Then I'd like to say I'd do the dishes but I'm not making an promises :)

The only thing that cannot be fixed with a nap is the hyper-activeness of an almost two year old. Today she was in her bed in the afternoon for about two hours. There most definitely was no napping. Sleep did not happen. However, there was some giggling, some calling out, laughing and above kicking the crib. It was good times.

I wanted to be upset, but all I could do was finally go in there and tickle her...lol I wish I had more to say but I don't, so today the entry is short :p

...is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult. ~Fran Lebowitz

So we have a morning ritual now. It just sort of happened this way. Arielle will get up in the morning and we'll have breakfast. Then I'll have my coffee and do some blogging she'll play with her play doh and drink her water. Usually this means for the first couple of minutes she'll point at my coffee and I'll say 'Mommy's' then she'll point at her water and I'll say 'Arielle's'. She loves this game, one day, after she decides it's okay to talk, I'll get her to do the talking. Until then, it's all up to mommy.

Strange that she doesn't talk a mile a minute yet like her mother? No not really. You see she's a bit of perfectionist, so she'll only talk when she's good and comfortable with talking and not a minute sooner. She did the same with rolling over, crawling and walking. I've learned to just let it happen. Encouraging her to try to live up to something I've read in a book really only leads her to teach me that she's her own person and will not be put in a box. She's wise beyond her years.

I can't think of anything else to post right now, so I'm going to put this up to maintain trying to daily blog or at least every other day...plus Arielle is going to eat soup now which means I have to strip her down, because even with a bib she still manages to get soup all over herself. lol And she's wearing a cute outfit today as you can see :)

Does that mean when Arielle and I are having a really good giggle that I'm working out? Could I use that as fit credits for my Wii? I should look into that, because I rarely go a day without having a good rough and tumble laugh with my little girl. It's kind of difficult not to laugh with her, she's just so cute and funny I can't help myself.

For example today she was bringing magnets from the living room into the kitchen and for some reason decided that crawling would be a funnier mode of transportation than walking. I mean really she crawled from the living room, to the kitchen and back, then did it again because she realized I was laughing. She loves to make people laugh. When she realizes someone is laughing at something she's doing she can't help but elevate the action just to get another giggle. She really is a little ham, I absolutely love it. She projects such joy out of her life that I can't help but find the silver lining, her attitude usually points directly to it.

Right now she is lying in her bed putting her feet up against the side of her crib and gently kicking them. The crib makes a small noise when she does this you see, I think it's a mild way to refuse to nap. This is fine by me, she's quiet and lying down eventually this will lead to sleeping and if not then she'll be spending some quality time alone and I can spend some quality time with the laundry, the dishes and the bathroom. (First two are done, I'm putting off doing the latter :)

Another random thought, I love the happy noises Arielle makes. Like when I say she can have a treat and hand it to her in a little bowl (like the picture) she'll point at the bowl and let out this happy little giggle that cracks me up. Or the other night when I asked Jonathan to return to me a stack of her wash cloths that she had moved to the middle of the bathroom floor. He gave them to her one by one so she could, in turn, give them to me. She laughed every time he handed one to her and every time I took one. The simplest things give this girl a chuckle.

How do you not look at life on the bright side with this kind of brightness around?

So there is my inner jogging. That and running up and down the stairs with the laundry, scrubbing the bathroom and loading and unloading the dishwasher. Couple that with about a half hour of yoga before I go to bed and I have a very full day of exercise. Now if only the weather would get warmer so I could go back outside with Arielle and run around, that'd be even better.

Now that she's finally quiet (I choose to think that she's sleeping :) I'm gonna have some me time and forget the bathroom for now :)

At this point I'm not sure what quote I'm going to put in my title so I figured I'd just start typing and see where that takes me. Arielle is stomping around the house right now refusing to let me change her out of her PJ's into clothes for the day. Not a huge deal except that, of course, we have plans to go visit this morning so I might have to use my amazing powers of persuasion to get her onto the change table. (read: bribe her into distraction with animal crackers :)

Animal crackers didn't work but telling her that we were going to see Auntie Krista and Kai seemed to get her thrilled enough to let me do the clothing exchange. Naturally I didn't get this posted before we left, but hey I figure if I can get something out by the end of the day I'm doing better than I have been...lol

I'm trying to get back into a work out routine. I was getting pretty good at it, then I had to take a weekend off which sorta messed with my schedule. No biggie, it just took me three weeks to get back into another schedule. I just wish I could tell the stupid Wii board to shut up about missing a day...honestly that thing is annoying! LoL It's not like a personal trainer cause at least you can dialogue with them...stupid Wii board doesn't know squat...haha BUT it does give me some kind of guidance in regards to working out so that's a good thing. It also helped me say hello to my pre-pregnancy weight, which was one of my goals. Now that I'm there I'd like to lose another ten pounds before I get pregnant again. But even if I don't I like that's I've made it here, I feel better in my own skin.

Last but not least today Jonathan and I are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary. No not the anniversary of our 3rd wedding (that's in October) this is the anniversary of the very first day we were married. March 24, 2007, I got married to my best friend and today we get to celebrate that by...him having a review of some kind at work. :p I'll be drinking wine and eating cheesecake at home...however next week he's taking me out to dinner so that makes up for it...LOL One learns to compromise in marriage and while this is the official day I see no reason why we can't celebrate this day when it is more convenient for us...so I love you hunny! Have a good work meeting :)

Here's a picture of the most amazing thing that Jonathan and I have accomplished in out marriage. The creation of this beautiful girl, not too bad hey? :)

...decided against the privacy settings again...don't ask me why...lol I flip flop on things like this...if you had subscribed to read my blog I still have the list saved so if I decide to hit the privacy settings again you'll already be there.

Until then it'll stream on facebook again. I'm cool like that :p

I kinda miss doing the whole quote in the title thing that I did before so I'm gonna try to get back to that...much like I'd like to get to a blogging every day or two...wait did I ever do that?

I'm inspired by my husband who is trying to quit smoking. He blogs daily about his struggles and triumphs and it shows that there really is time in the day to do that...I just need to carve it out. I type about 50-80 words a minute so honestly it shouldn't take that long to write a post...see look how many words I just typed in that whole diatribe that really wasn't worth writing but heck it's a post now...lol

In case you hadn't noticed I changed my blog template. I was kinda bored with the one before and found a website that had some original templates so I figured I'd try it out. I don't know how long this will tickle my fancy we'll have to see. Maybe as long as I actually blog...*sigh* So inconsistent I am. I think my problem is I put all this pressure on myself to say all kinds of inspiring things when really I just want to have some thoughts about parenting my little girl.

She is a delight. Still loves to watch Veggie Tales. As the weather slowly gets warmer she is enjoying the outdoors as well. We have some stones in our backyard that she likes to move from one spot to the other. She's definitely an organizer. She'll take them out one by one and line them along the step then when she's done she'll put them, one by one, back into the seat of her car. Sometimes I wish I could crawl inside her head for five minutes just to follow the thoughts there.

She's also a bit of a ham. If she knows that she's made someone laugh she'll go out of her way to continue to get them to giggle. It's hilarious.

We're working on her adaptation process. Right now she tends to adapt to new situations rather dramatically unless she gets a full description of what we are doing differently and why...then maybe she won't scream. It's going to be funny in years to come, I know this. But right now it's a bit frustrating. It took me over an hour and a half the other day to get her used to being outdoors again. She had to slowly acclimatize herself...there is absolutely no jumping into new situations. This should be interesting when a new sibling comes along, but that's not a bridge we're crossing right now so I won't fret about that yet.

Lunch is ready so I should go eat that...maybe tomorrow I'll write more...maybe not...it's kind of like I'm making my own waiting game. I hate waiting...very masochistic of me :p

It seems like such an irrelevant thing, time. We all rely on it in one way or another and most days we probably don't give it much thought. I think that since I became a mother I'm noticing time a lot more closely now. For starters it's right in front of my face. As my daughter learns, grows and progresses I can see time go by. There are days when I can still remember holding my small 7lb 4oz baby on my chest in the hospital doing our first skin to skin contact. Seriously I can almost feel her there now if I think about it. Yet today she is running around the house in my slippers saying 'Mom!' whenever she needs something and it amazes me that she is that same baby.

Heck she's not a baby any more she's a toddler, a small child, my little girl. Every day I'm reminded of how amazing she is and how blessed I am to have her. As she gets older I start thinking about what sort of person she will be and what part I will play in that. It's a bit overwhelming to think I have so much influence over this person. That some things I decide could literally shape who she is in the future. I try not to think about that too much, because I also know she's her own person and if I try to be perfect I will most definitely fail so above all she'll know she's loved, protected and respected.

So that brings me back to the tiny little baby on my chest...I want another one :p