Family Pictures

First Half of Winter Break

Victoria gets just over two weeks off for Winter Break. We started it off right with a mini family reunion in Las Vegas. My Dad flew into Phoenix and him, V and me drove to Vegas where we met my sis, her husband and daughter and my aunt and cousin. We had a blast!!

After a couple of days in Vegas my Dad, V, my sis, her husband Eric and daughter Madeline all drove back to Phx to celebrate Christmas. Next week V is staying home with Eddie...stories to come...

What we did on Christmas Eve...

Crazy Granny and Sabrina

Victoria

What better thing to do than go get your nails done?!!? Victoria got Christmas stickers on her thumbs...they were gorgeous!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

With much love we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas...

Homework Book

So every week V has homework to do for school. As I mentioned before she has a book that she has to do "triangle reading". I (or Eddie) read it to her, we read it together and she reads it by herself. Well today Eddie was doing the book with her. He told her it was time for her to read it and she wouldn't. She said she already did. It turned into an arguement, she got upset and then she called us liars. I couldn't helpit, I started laughing...just the way she said it, it was really funny. Oh man do we have our hands full with her...

Elf Drama

We had a little bit of Elf drama but luckily Mama is a fast thinker. So since Zert (the Elf) is magically nobody can touch him or his powers will go away. Well, earlier in the week he was sitting on the end table. As you all know Stella loves to carry things in her mouth especially when she gets excited. Sure enough when we got home from work Stella started flipping out and grabbed Zert off the table and dropped him on the floor. V instantly started crying, thinking that his powers were lost. She jumped into my lap and buried her face in me. I motioned for Eddie to put Zert back and go into the kitchen. When Eddie got into the kitchen I turned my head back and said Victoria, Victoria look. He jumped back onto the table. She stopped crying and looked up. I then said I guess his magic only goes away if a person touches him.
Crisis adverted...

Snow in AZ?!!??

Yep, that is right. This past Sat there was snow in Scottsdale. They made snow (lots of snow) for the kids to play in. My Mom took V. Since V is a AZ baby she really didn't know what to do, but she was so excited. I love the picture of her and Santa in the green grass.

Elf on the Shelf

I know many of you reading this have kids of your own. I'm not sure how many have heard of the Elf on the Shelf Christmas tradition. The first time I heard about it was last year from my friend at work sent it to V. It is a great story that explains to kids how Santa knows if they are naughty or nice. Since Santa is only one guy and he is very busy he sends his magic elves to watch the kids and report back. The elf watches V each day and at night when she is sleeping he flies back to Santa and tells him if she was naughty or nice. In the morning he is back in the house except sitting in a different location. There is a story that goes along with the elf. Victoria loves it! Yesterday we put up our tree, this morning when she woke up her elf, Zert, was sitting in the tree.

Thanksgiving Cranberries

We spent Thanksgiving at Len's again this year. We had a really nice time and are thankful to have such great friends. But we couldn't go an occasion without a story from little Miss Victoria. I unfortunately only heard this story second hand. Eddie had the pleasure of hearing it live. I will tell you though, when Eddie told me I literally almost peed my pants. Enjoy...

We were eating dinner. I had put a little of everything on V plate and told her she had to try it all. She had just taken a bite of the cranberries (homemade, not out of the can). Eddie asked her if they were tart. Her reply was priceless..."what is tart? Does that mean not good because they aren't."

Stella has friends too...

This is my Mom's dog Wyatt. Him and Stella are quite good friends which is nice because we can hang out and bring the dogs too.

Go Bears

For those of you that know us you know we are hard core Bears fans. As Eddie says it is pretty much the religion in our house. Well, after a couple of hard losses (the GB loss last week was especially hard) they won today. Yes it was to St. Louis but a W is a W. It probably had to do with the cutest little cheerleader...

Election 2008

Well...it is the day after one of, if not the most historic election in history. We have a new President elect, Barack Obama. Victoria voted at school. I was interested to hear who she voted for because we are not a family that is very vocal about politics. Not that we don't care we just don't sit around and talk about it. So after she voted I asked her who she voted for, and her choice was Brock Obama (she says it so cute). When I asked her why she chose him she said and I quote...John McCain is bald and I don't like bald guys. So there you have it.

Eddie and I decided to wake up early and vote in the morning. We thought it would be good to bring V so she could experience it. We got there about 6:30 figuring that would be enough time to vote and get V to school by 7:45. I signed her in at 10:00. Yes that is right...we waited in line for about 3 hours! It was quite the experience...overall she was very patient and well behaved. Oh, except for the part where she insisted that Eddie and I tell her who we were voting for so she could write it down.

I don't know if she will remember this experience, but I hope she does...

It is November and the air is on...

...yes that is right. As I sit here the air conditioner is running. There was a brief couple of days where I thought it was fall but I was wrong. It has mid in the mid 90s. V was actually sweating during trick or treating because I got her the long sleeved leotard. Yeah, I thought it might get cool when the sun went down, silly me. Don't get me wrong, I do love Arizona. I just miss the fall back home sometimes. Trust me though, I will soon be complaining when it is 60 degrees and I am freezing and wearing two layers of clothes.

Here's to hoping it falls to the 80s this week...

Halloween 2008

So we made it through the Pumpkin Walk. I was helping out with the spider party at her school in the morning, I had to then go to work and after we were going to her friends house to go trick or treating. Busy...busy...busy. I DID remember her costume this time. It was a very good day! And she was SO cute. V and her friend dressed as bunnies. It was very adorable!

As you can see she was beat...

Pumpkin Walk

Halloween Week 2008 has been a very busy week!! Like every other week V has dance on Monday and Gymnastics on Wednesday. On Thursday at school she was carving pumpkins for the Pumpkin Walk Thursday night. On Halloween they had a spider party at school and then trick or treating...breathe, breathe.

I was going to help out at school for the pumpkin carving. We had to bring a gutted pumpkin and carving tools. We also had to bring her costume for the Pumpkin Walk. Well...I forgot her costume. I felt TERRIBLE! I was sure I was going to lose my mother of the year award. We had to stay at the school until all the kids pumpkins were carved. I had to leave at 11:30 because I had a very important meeting at 12 (I was already missing a meeting with the president of the compnay so I had to be there at noon). I was hoping we would get done early and I could go buy a back up. Luck was on my side...9:15 we are done! I am on my way to get a costume...first place, no luck...very picked through. Second place, cute pirate costume...$16.99...no way. I go to the Halloween store with plans to just buy black ears and a tail for a black cat. She was wwearing black leggings. All I needed was a black shirt. I called the Dad of V friend that we were going trick or treating with to see if V could borrow a black shirt. He said they had tons of costumes and to not buy anything, thank goodness! And that was fine with her. She was very excited to wear one of her friends costumes.

First Real Play Date

This is going to sound wierd but V just had her first play date with a girl from school. We have always lived kinda far away from school so we really haven't had play dates with school friends. Well the first week of October was her fall break. So that Thursday I offered to take her friend to hang out with us (her parents had to work). We had a very busy day planned...we went to the park, painted pottery, had lunch, read books at the library, went to a movie, stopped to get ice cream and tehn went to her house for dinner. Yes, all in one day. The girls had so much fun!!

First Parent/Teacher Conference

...or parent, teacher, student conference. Yes, V had to come to the meeting too. It is the parent/teacher conference of the new era. Overall it went well. Victoria is doing well and making a lot of improvement. She is really good at patterns which is the base for multiple things including reading and math. She does need to work on counting and sight words. She needs to know 39 sight words before the end of kindergarten and she already knows about half. Her teacher did mention that V doesn't really like to eat lunch. A lot of time she eats it on the way home. I think she just isn't hungry. That being said we did make a trip to the store on the way home to pick out some different things for her. We'll see if she eats.
Eddie and I are very proud of her. She is a smart, funny, beautiful, sassy, strong girl and we love her more than anything in the world.

Mama's Birthday

So today is my birthday and anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE my birthday. No matter how old I get I will always be a kid on October 19th. Victoria helped me celebrate and we had a very good day! My Mom and her dog Wyatt and Melissa and Sammie came over. It was a nice celebration.

Hello Kitty Shine Star

Victoria has decided she does not like her name and wants to change it. It doesn't understand why Eddie and I picked the name Victoria and has asked us to call her Hello Kitty Shine Star. So there you have it...I told her when she is 18 she can go and have it legally changed. Her response was...fine, but please call me Hello Kitty until then.

It's finally fall in Arizona

Today, October 5th, we finally turned off the air conditioner. It was a beautiful day! It was so nice to open the house and get some fresh air. It has cooled to the mid 80s. It is actually kinda chilly, well chilly when you are used to 100 plus degrees. But it is days like today that remind us why we moved here, remind us why we deal with the hot summer.

Now that we only have Stella we are able to go to the dog park. We found a park, Friendship Park, that is huge and has a dog park as well as a park for V to play on. Stella found some mud to lay in...

We had such a nice time!

Hiccups

One of V's very cute quirks is that when she laughs very hard she gets the hiccups. Every time. And she really hasn't ever gotten them except when she laughs hard. Well yesterday for no reason whatsoever she got the hiccups. And then she got them again a couple of hours later. She was getting really frustrated and said..."what the heck is going on? I haven't even been laughing." I found this so funny because it is sometihng she jsut picked up on. I never said hey, every time you laugh you get the hiccups. She just picks up on things...

Bye Wrigley...

We made a very tough decision and had to give Wrigley up yesterday. About a month ago Stella just got fed up with all the humping and bothering and started to attack him. Since Stella was our dog first and a better fit for our family we gave up Wrigley. It was a very hard day and we were all pretty upset. To make matters worse we had a little drama, okay a lot of drama. Eddie did not want to drop him off so I asked my Mom to go with me. I drove up to Scottsdale, picked her up and we headed to the AZ Humane Society. I went to fill out the paper work and the lady informed me they were full and not taking any more animals. I got upset. Just earlier that morning Stella went after him and V was standing nearby. I did not want to take him home. I did not want to risk V or Wrigley getting hurt.

So my Mom called her vet and they gave her 4 numbers to shelters. They were all full. At this point I was losing it. I was so upset and the last lady that I talked to made things worse by telling me..."I feel sorry for you. That is a reallt bad situation. Either the dog or your daughter will end up getting hurt". I was thinking that but for someone else to say it out loud, I lost it. I was very clsoe to dropping him in the desert (I know...terrible...but I didn't know what to do. I was NOT going to risk my daughter over a dog!). Then my Mom says...what about Tucson? She was kinda half kidding but I immediately dialed the number. They were excepting dogs. Next thing I know we are drving down to Tucson to drop off Wrigley.

After a 2 1/2 road trip we got there. I must say I got a better feeling from it than I did from the Phoenix shelter. I filled out the paper work and said goodbye. I totally started to cry. It was really hard especially when I started to leave and he tried to follow me.

Although it has only been one day I know we made the right decision. It is so much calmer in our house and Stella is back to the sweet fun dog she was when we first got her. We took her to the dog park today and she had a blast.

We will miss Wrigley very much and he will always have a place in our hearts. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions that are better in the long run...

The Constitution

Today is National Constitution Day so in honor of this V school had an assembly this morning. Parents were invited to stay. Let me start by saying it was held outside and although it is Sept 17th it is still 88 or 89 degrees at 8 am. All the students sit together and the parents stood on the side. So I am standing there watching Victoria, oh and I left my sunglasses in the car so I am squinting. The boy scouts and girls scouts walk in carrying the flag and the 2nd graders are singing about the Preamble and I start to think about how my baby girl is at her first school assembly. I can not even beleive it, she is getting so big. And I start to cry!! Yes, I am standing there sweating and crying. And I am not talking a little bit, there are tears streaming down my cheeks. I am sure these parents were wondering why I was so emotional over the Constitution.

Never a dull moment

This past Saturday we spent the day together. Usually that doesn't happen so it was nice although Victoria reminded Eddie why he usually stays a home. First was her dance class. It is a small area crowded with parents. Poor Eddie couldn't wait for it to be over and spent the class half watchin from outside. Then we went shopping. Let me back up and say V was up at 5 in the morning and jsut spent the last hour dancing. needless to say she was tired, well overtired actually. Not crabby overtired but silly overtired. She was being so loud in the store but once again at least she was happy and laughing and not crying.
We had checked out and I started to push the cart to the car. Eddie and V were back a little. All of a sudden I hear V yelling. I turn around to see Eddie carrying V but he is carrrying her kinda different. His arm is around her waist and she is facing out. Not too crazy, just a little different. Well since she is in a silly mood she starts yelling..."this is not how you carry a kid!! this is not how you carry a kid!!". And all the people in the parking lot are now looking at them and laughing. We all know how much Eddie loves attention...I think he started to run to the van. I will say there is never a dull moment with Miss Victoria.

Ripped Good Worker Award

So I have mentioned in the past that every day V gets a good worker award from her teacher. If she is naughty the teacher will rip the award. Every night we ask her to give us her award. Well...on Weds night V came home with a ripped good worker award. Yep, the second one in two weeks. So I asked her what happened...here is the story. V was doing "arm farts" and her teacher asked her to stop. She wouldn't stop and then didn't want to go and sit down at her table. I asked her where she learned the arm farts and she said the mean girl at kids club. Yes she calls her the mean girl. It started because she was mean to V and her friends. Now if you ask her about the mean girl she says "the mean girl, oh yes she is very nice".
Okay, back to the arm farts...the best part of the story is that I was telling Eddie how she got into trouble at school and he says...oh yeah, that is why she wanted to wear a tank top, so she could do it easier. I swear...I told her no more arm farts.

Shape Hunt

This is a good one...so as I have mentioned every week V has 4 or 5 assignments for homework. Well last week they were learning about different shapes. One of her assignments was to go on a shape hunt around the house. She had to find three of each shape and I was to write down what she found. Things were going well. The remote was a rectangle, the cake mix box was a square. She was walking around looking for shapes. Stella was walking in front of her. She yells out "I found a circle...Stella's butt" and points to Stella butthole. I thought Eddie was going to spit his drink across the kitchen. I could hardly breathe because I was trying not to laugh. I said good Victoria but I need you to find another circle. Oh the joys...

My daughter is NOT the mean girl!!!!

That's right...this morning when I dropped of V at school Mrs. Smith told me some great news! She said yesterday there were some rumblings amongst the girls and V piped up and said "...come on girls we are all freinds here..." Her teacher went up to her and told her how great that was and this morning after she told me that I also told V how proud of her I am. I told her we could have a special dinner...so pizza it was. And for now things are calm on the Taugner home front...tomorrow is a new day ;)

She is good too...

It has been a rough couple of days for poor Victoria. After I won the war yesterday we had a very good talk and she was much better yesterday night and today. And I have to admit, when she is good, she is very good. Check out the picture. She sat and played with Stella for a good 45 minutes. She usually sits and plays like this with Kennedy when we are over at Len's. The difference is that Kennedy will play with her. He bats the toys with his paws. It is so funny. Lazy Stella just laid there. Victoria told me a couple of months ago she wants to be an animal doctor when she grows up. I really think she just might.

Oh, and for all of those who say that Victoria needs a sibling...she has her animals to play with. She doesn't need any siblings.

Ding..Ding...Round 2

It seems like jsut yesterday that Victoria had our first all out to blows fight...wait...it was like yesterday, well about a month ago but still. I will start by saying she was overtired which is usually when these things happen. Okay, here are the details. We were coming back from Best Buy and Victoria really started sassying back. I have had it with the arguing. We were going to stop at the grocery to get milk and I said forget it we are going home. And so it began...and once again she undid her seatbelt and that is when I flipped out. Oh it was bad. I pulled over and jumped in the back seat with Victoria and Eddie drove home. It was the longest drive home. And when we got home the fun continued.
For those of you that don't know what to get me for my birthday...a couple bottles of hair dye to cover all the grey I am getting would be great...

My daughter is the mean girl???

Yes you read right. I am not happy with this...On Friday when I picked up Victoria from school her "good worker award" was ripped and there was a note on it saying Victoria hit another student (she get these awards everyday. If it is ripped that means she did not have a good day. This is the first time it has been ripped). So I ask her what happened. She grabbed the note and started crying and wouldn't tell me. An hour and one potty stop later she told me, lets call it story #1 (yes there are more than one stories...ugh).
Story #1 was that her arm fell on "the other" Skylar (whatever that means) in PE class and it hurt him and that is why the teacher told me she hit him. This story was told during the flood of tears and snot.
Next we come to Story #2. The tears have stopped and she said she was going to tell me "what really happened". So here is Story #2...Her, Alexandra and Yazmin were reading books. Yazmin hit Alexandra with a book so Victoria hit Alexandra with a book. When I hear Story #2 I launch into Mother of the Year and start talking to Victoria about there were two things she did wrong, hitting and using a book incorrectly and how she needs to be nice to her friends, blah, blah, blah. I am comfortable (well not comfortable) that I now have the story of what happened.
And then I get a response to my email (Okay, let me back up a little. I was getting really pissed when she wouldn't tell me what happened so I emailed her teacher to find out what happened.) Her teacher tells me that over the last couple of weeks she has been noticing that there are certain girls in the room that are very selective of who they will play with and Victoria is one of them (and I am sure I know the others...) and that on Friday two other girls wanted to play with her and she said no and hit one of them. She has also noticed that amongst the selective group of girls Victoria changes daily who she plays with and the other is "not her friend". As I am reading this email I am becoming more and more mortified. Yes, mortified. I know it is a strong word but really?? Really?? My daughter is the mean girl??!!?? Oh hell no!! I will NOT have Victoria be the mean girl, there is no way! I mean, where does she get this from? We all know I am friends with everyone and Eddie, well Eddie isn't the "mean girl" type of guy.
So after finishing ready Story #3, the real story I call Victoria over to the couch to talk. I told her that her teacher emailed me what happened. I asked her why? I told her it isn't right to treat people that way. I told her if she continues with that behavior she will lose her privledges and toys.
I don't know how I am going to survive...for christ sakes we just made it through week 5 of KINDERGARTEN and we already have to deal with this shit?!!? I am exhausted...

Closet

Victoria really freaked me out this morning. I went to wake her up and she was not in her bed. I thought maybe she was sleeping in our room on the chair. She sometimes sneaks in there and maybe I just didn't see her...nope. I started to panic. I even woke Eddie up. Well, I went back into her room and happened to look towards the closet. There she was sleeping in the closet under her giant panda bear. I know the picture isn't that great but you get the gitz...

Dance

Victoria's dance career has started. They open a new dance studio in between our house and school. Victoria has been wanting to do dance for a little while so I signed her up. She is taking a combo class that consists of ballet, tap and gymnastics and a hip hop class. She loves it!! And the good news id payless now sells dance shoes so I didn't have to spend a fortune. All the instructors in the studio are pros. They all have danced with the Cardinals, Suns or other pro dance teams. Should be the experieince...

Dream

Okay, you all know how I am about my dreams. I dream in color every night and I usually dream the entire night. Well the other night I had a dream and I have to go on record just in case it comes true...

In my dream I was Victoria when she was older (I didn't realize it at first but I got it when I saw myself and thought oh my mom is here...i know, i know I'm wierd). In my dream Victoria really likes a guy with brown hair that lives in the suburbs (I can still see the kitchen in my head). And the name M Gavin was on the door.

So, only time will if it was a preminition into the future or just a crazy dream...

Cousins

Victoria loves her cousin, Madeline and is always asking when she is coming to visit us. Sabrina, Eric and Madeline are flying in for Christmas and Victoria already has a plan of what they are going to do. And whenever Victoria decides something is too small I have to mail it to Madeline. It was funny because when we were in Seattle in July we were getting Madeline dressed and Victoria saw one of her old dresses in teh closet. She said Mama I used to have a dress like that when I was a baby. I told it that was hers and she kinda laughed and said oh yeah. She cracks me up...

Classroom help

Tomorrow I am going to help out in Victoria's classroom. I am very excited. Last Thursday I went to Victoria's school and listened to her teacher go over what the year has in store. I was impressed with the school and her teacher. I was amazed by the things they are going to learn and what her teacher was saying. I hope I can help in the classroom often. Well...I should wait and see how it goes first. I am sure I will have some stories to tell...

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Yesterday was Victoria's birthday. She is now officially 5. She has been unofficially 5 for about a month now. See when we were in Seattle at the beginning of July we had a little party because my niece, Madeline, birthday is Aug 10th. Since we were together we thought it would be nice to have a little party. Victoria didn't quite get that concept and was convinced she had her birthday in Seattle and was already 5. On Monday night I was telling her I was going to pick her up early because it was her birthday the next day (she was born at 3:20 pm and every year I have been with her). Well, as soon as I said it was her birthday she started going on about how she is going to be 6. Yeah, apparently 5 is a short one month of her life. Thirty minutes later and lots of explaining she finally agreed (more like gave in) to the fact she was still going to be 5.
I will say her birthday is always emotional for me. I remember back to when she was born and all the craziness that happened. For those of you that do not know the story the short version is I got meningitis from the epideral and spent the first two weeks of her life in the hospital. What was supposed to be the happiest time of my life was probably the worst. It was very tramatic for everyone. But I will say 5 years later I wouldn't change anything (well...maybe I would ask me again at age 6). What happened really shaped us as a family. Poor Eddie was forced to take care of this new life with his wife in the hospital with something that could be deadly. Eddie and Victoria really needed each other to make it through. They will always have that special bond.
I love Victoria with all my heart...Happy Birthday my Babaganoush!

Homework

So they don't mess around anymore. On Wednesday Victoria came home with homework. Yes, I know, it was only the first week of school. She had three different things to do. It is called "team homework" because the parents have to participate. Yeah, little did I know Eddie and I were going to go through school again. Her first assignment was to read a book (I told you they don't mess around). The new thing with reading is called triangle reading. I read the story, then we are supposed to read it together and then she reads it by herself. Yep, there were detailed directions to this homework. And it says at the bottom if your child can not read on the third try by herself that is fine, it may take a couple of weeks. Okay, so here is where I brag. I read the story to Victoria and when we went to do the second leg of the triangle (we read together), she just read it by herslf! I know...she is a GENIUS!! But then I start to think to myself, oh my, she is not following the proper traingle reading. So what do I do? Well, for the third part of the triangle I send her over to Eddie and I tell her she needs to read the story to him. Hopefully that is "tri" enough. I can't help it if I have the smartest kid now can it?!?
The second assignment to to review the class rules and have the child pick one and draw a picture of that rule. Victoria picked Be a good friend. So she starts to draw. And color...And draw some more. Then she says "I am going to draw a gingerbread man." It is her picture so I say fine. Now Eddie is getting impatient. I turned off the TV so Victoria could do her homework and he wanted to see the score of the baseball game so he says come on Victoria pick up the pace. I give him a look and tell him she needs to take her time and do her homework. He then says...well I have never seen her hanging out with the gingerbread man. Isn't she supposed to be drawing a picture of her friends? I couldn't help but start laughing. Good ol' Eddie...

Ding..Ding...Round 1

Victoria and I went to blows on Thursday. I mean it was an all out war. It started when I went to get her from kids club. When we saw me she rolled her eyes as if to say...uh, my mom is here, great...yeah I know. She had a stuffed annimal that was not hers. It turns out it is her friends. Victoria wanted to bring it home with her and that is when it really started. She wouldn't give it back and then threw it across the floor. I handed it back to her friend and picked up Victoria. She filled out because she didn't want to be picked up. There was crying, screaming, snot...oh man it was bad. And then all hell broke loose. As we were driving down the raod she unbuckled her seatbelt. I lost it...I will accept (to a point) her throwing herself like a maniac but under no circumstances will I accept her undoing her seatbelt. That is so dangerous. So I immediately pulled over. She knew she had gone to far and her whole attitude changed. Suddenly she was sorry and she loved me (oh, I forgot to mention at the ripe old age of 4 she told me she hated me and I was a terrible mother. I can't wait for the teenage years...). I was so mad I was shaking. I told her if she ever did that again I would drive her straight to the police station. Yes that is right, I am not above parenting by fear.

That was the first of I am sure many, many fights. Oh the joys...

I'm a model...

Last week I took Victoria to get her 5 year pictures. What an experience...88 pictures and 1 1/2 later we got some really good shots. She is such a little diva. I will say I was not really impressed with the photographer. If it wasn't for Miss Victoria and her sassy attitude I am sure I would hav gotten crap pictures. Here are a few for your enjoyment.

First Day of Kindergarten

Well, yesterday was the big day...Victoria's first day of kinder. And I have to tell you, she did great! I am SO proud of her. She is such a big girl. And she had a blast. She has a "group" of her "girls". Yes that is right, she comes home and says she hung out with her group. So I asked her what is her group? She explains they are her girls. So I ask further. Turns out her group is her and two girls, her new friend Yazmin and another girl that she does not remember her name. She already has a group...she is too much.

More good news...her best friend from day care goes to school with her. Today she ran up and gave Victoria a big hug. She isn't in her class but she does see her on the playground and lunch. I am so happy. All summer she asked about Xin Xan and now she can see her again.

So far so good...

More Quirks

Here are a few more of Victoria's quirks. Believe it or not the later she stays up at night the earlier she gets up the next morning. We have actually tested and proven this theory. It is the wierdest thing.
Another one of her little quirks is that she does not like her clothes wet, even a little drop of water. If they get wet, she needs to change. This was great in helping to get her potty trained shortly after her second birthday but it can difficult to deal with at five. Heaven for bid I forget to bring a change of clothes with.
It is these quirks that are some of the reasons that I love her.

No more baby girl

Today is the end of things as I know it...tomorrow Victoria starts kindergarten. I know!! It seems like just yesterday she was my baby girl. Things are already changing. I have spent the last three days looking for Crayola no clog tip glue. After 4 stores and recruiting my friend to check out Staples on his way to get some groceries, I emailed her teacher asking where to get this glue and why is it so special. Turns out she has only ever found it at a place called Teaching Tools and it is the special bottle that makes the difference. Well I have never heard of Teaching Tools and I can assure you there isn't one in Laveen. I will be buying good ol' fashion elmers and she can put it in the special bottle.
I then spent this morning reading through all the info they gave us on Thursday at Meet The Teacher Night. I need to start by saying this was more of an ordeal than I could have ever imagined. After 2 1/2 hours, all three of us sweaty and hungry, a bad parent id (yes now the parents have to have ids t00), and a new found love for Victoria (please refer to my earlier post about all the terrible kids on the airplane. Apparently they are everywhere...) we had met Victoria's teacher and were given a packet of info that was going to provide us everything we needed to send her off to kindergarten. I have to say I was amazed, and teary eyed, when reading through all this info. We opted to enroll Victoria in a school by my office that has "open borders". It is much better than the school district we live in and they have an award winning kids club which is important to the working mom.

Okay...off to buy the elmers glue before V loses interest in shopping...more of this to come...

Grilled Cheese and Waffles

So Eddie was talking to Victoria about what to have for dinner. She has been on this cheese sandwich kick so Eddie asked her if she wanted grilled cheese. He explained that grilled cheese was just a hot cheese sandwich. She quickly said no. When he asked her why not she said...grilled chesse really freaks me out...I mean really, where does she get this? Oh wait, I think I told her I was going to freak out the other day...haha...she is my daughter.

Everyday I am amazed at home much Victoria is growing up. Whether it be the things she says or the way she acts. But I was so impressed the other day when she walked over to the freezer, grabbed a waffle then put it in the toaster to cook. She waited for it to pop up then she took a paper towel and grabbed the waffle. She is getting so big! She isn't my baby anymore. And then I thought, this is perfect. One less thing for me to have to remember to do in the morning. The kid can feed herself. Then I asked her to make me one, might as well eat too right?

Who are these kids??

I spent the last week in FL at a sales conference. I have been traveling a lot for work this year so I have been on numerous flights. Good stories always come out of flights. Well, the flight home yesterday was quite interesting and to be honest made me realize how good Victoria is and that I am really not that bad of a mom.
So I left Ft Laudersdale on my way to Phoenix but had a stop in New Orleans. Love Southwest, hate all the stops. My experience started in line to check my bag. A mom and daughter, probably between 8 and 10 (I am really bad at guessing ages) were in front of me. Well, this girl had unhooked one side of the strap of her bag and was dragging it...about 4 feel behind her. It was very obnoxious and the mother says nothing. Okay, whatever...no big deal. I check in and head to my plane. Now you need to note I had been gone since Sunday and was getting more and more anxious to get home. Well lucky me I am behind them once again in the security line. And now this girl is arguing with her mom about how sunburn she is (which she is not at all but whatever). Okay, just breathe and ignore...just try not to trip over this damn bag...I make it through security and yes, you are right, they are on my flight and in front of me in line. I mean really. So we walk down to the plane and I sit in the very first seat I can, row 3 window...not bad huh? Well these two idiots sit behind me. AHHH!!! I am exhausted and hoping to sleep a little but this girl will not shut up and she is loud. Oh and very obnoxious. Although I have been travellng a lot I still get nervous on the flights. This stupid kid starts talking about the plane crashing and will it float in the water (we are 100% over water which always makes me nervous). So I am trying to not think about it but this kid does not shut up. I have come to the realization I hate most all other kids. And this mom I wanted to slap. Maybe if you would spend a little less time putting all that makeup on the picking out clothes that are not even close to age appropriate you could spend some time with this keep and teach her how to behave. Well, good news was I was so tired I did fall asleep and when we landed in New Orleans they got off the plane.
I thought it couldn't get any worse than that. Boy was I wrong...they put 3 kids travelling alone in front of me on the flight to Phoenix. These kids were terrible! Throwing food, jumping around, it was so bad...at they were about 11. They should have known better! I know the parents were not there but have they not taught them anything??? And it was the whole 2 hour 50 min fight. They did not stop for 5 mins. I had to bite my tongue to not tell them they needed to knock it off.
So...I start to think of my last trip I took with Victoria...we went to Seattle to see my sis and fam. I had a terrible migraine headache, so bad I could not keep my eyes open. I put my hand on her leg and closed my eyes. My little angel just sat nicely and played. When I grabbed the barf bag (oh yes, it was quite a flight) she opened it and told me to throw up in there. I love her SO much...Yes, she has her moments when I want to leave her on someone elses doorstep (some of these stories are coming soon), but overall I am very lucky. She is a very good kid!
And then I started to think how less than Mrs. Cleaver I felt when I gave her a brownie for breakfast two weeks ago because all I wanted to do was get out of the house without a fight just one time. But I realized I am closer to the Mother of the Year award than I had previously thought. Victoria woulds never act like these kids. She knows that is not acceptable behavior. She knows her beloved princess ponies would be taken away faster than she could say princess pony.
So I guess even though I was on the verge of flipping out it was a good trip home. Despite the many stories to tell I have an awesome kid and I am not so bad either...

Little Miss Photographer

This one always makes me laugh out loud...

One morning we were on our way to camp/work. Traffic was really bad and Victoria was restless. To keep her occupied I gave her the camera and told her she could take some pictures. I always have my camera with me and when she is done I jsut delete the crazy ones she has taken. So we are sitting in traffic and she is taking pictures. I look back and she is taking pictures out her window. Well, like I said we were in traffic...we right side by side with some guy in an SUV...and she was taking pictures out the window...of this poor guy. The guy started to get a little tense and was staring straight ahead trying not to look. Next thing I know the guy starts rolling up his window. I busted out laughing...it is a window, not blackout glass, she was still taking pictures...I told Victoria she ahd to stop taking pictures and laughed the rest of the way to work.

Too what??

I am constantly amazed by what and how Victoria says things. She cracks me up daily. Her latest thing is finger quotes. I could not believe it the first time she did it. I mean where does she get this stuff.
This morning she had me laughing out loud. For a couple of years now she has been extremely independant when it comes to her clothes. She has to pick them out. There have been many times she has gone to school with mismatched colors or two different socks. I think it adds to her creativity and quite frankly there are other battles i wish to fight. Well this morning I was in her room trying to get her to get dressed (it can sometimes be an ordeal). She was going through her closet and said the following...as she moved over a dress from when she was a baby "too small", as she pulled over a dress that Tina gave her "too big", as she pulled over a dress that my Dad bought her that had elmo on it "too elmoy". Yes, that is right...too big, too small, too elmoy. I am laughing just thinking about it...

When I turn 5 cont'd...

So everyday I hear..."when i turn 5..." Yesterday it was "when i turn 5 i will call you Mom, not Mommy." She cracks me up!!

When I turn 5...

As most of you know this August 12th Victoria will be turning 5. She is very excited. She has been saying When I turn 5...this or when I turn 5 that. She will not want me to carry her anymore, she won't need her floaties in the pool...the list goes on and on. I tell you...I can not wait until she turns 5!

Little Quirks

So I know every kids has their funny little quirks but Victoria's are so funny...when she laughs really hard she gets the hiccups, no other time, just when she laughs.

Summer Camp

I was lucky enough to get Victoria into summer camp this year. The reason I say lucky is because I wanted to the last minute. And by last minute I mean the day it started. I know, I know...but that doesn't matter, she is in. Since she is going into kinder in the fall she is able to go into the kinder summer camp. Eddie was nervous because the camps are K-5 and they go on field trips 2-3 times a week. Well, there is one school in the program that is only K-2 and the field trips come to them...PERFECT!! So that is the program she is in.

She has made it through two weeks and is doing very well. She did have a little bit of an adjustment. This is summer camp so they do not take naps. She normally doesn't take naps on the weekends but did during the week at day care. As you can imagine by day 3 she was exhausted. We adjusted her bedtime, before 9 or 9:30, now she starts to get ready about 7:30 and is asleep between 8 and 8:15. (And yes, Eddie and I did not know what to do with ourselves. She has never went to bed that early).

An adjustment for me is now I need to send her with lunch everyday. Just when I thought mornings could not be crazier...I am surprised I leave the house with pants on sometimes. I thought I would be Mom of the Year and send her with a thermos of hot food, and a story begins...on Wednesday (yes that would be day 3. The day she was exhausted) we started off the morning very bad. Victoria was tired and not listening. Eddie was crabby and yelling at Victoria for not listening and I am trying to just get everyone to calm down and out the door. I finally get Victoria dressed and in the car but she is very tired and very crabby. She doesn't want to go to camp, she misses her friends from day care and she wants to go back to bed. Oh did I mention I have a meeting at 8? So we get to camp and she is clinging to me like I am sending her off to war. Trying to be a good understanding Mom I hold her for a little bit and tell her she is going to have fun. But time is ticking away...It is now code red. I have to leave. She won't let go of me. She grew four more legs and two more arms. Now the tears come. Here is the clincher...when Victoria is really upset she does the quiet cry. Uh...my heart is literally being pulled from my chest. One of the camp counselers take her and I leave. Now the mothers guilt sets in real good. I am obviously the worst Mother in the world.

But oh, it gets better...back to the lunch...hot food in a thermos...so I made some mac and cheese for her lunch. I got it good and hot and put it in a thermos this way when lunch came around it would still be warm. Monday and Tuesday there were no problems. She loved the hot food. But it was Wednesday and after the morning there has to be an issue...as I said I had meetings all day long. About 3 I notice I have a voicemail...a voicemail from camp. Oh Gosh...if I thought the Mothers guilt was bad before...how long has this message been there? What is wrong? Why didn't I take my phone into the meetings? So I listen to the message. Victoria is fine (Thank you God) but they could not open her thermos. They passed it around to all the staff and nobody could open it so they gave her cereal. Oh jeez...my poor baby. What a day a bad drop off and cerea for lunch. I grabbed a package of lunchmeat out of the fridge at work (good thing I didn't have time to eat lunch) and went to get her. She was hungry and tired. What a day.

Thank goodness Thursday was a Hip Hop Class and Ms Music Lady. She ran to camp...and I survived too.

Victoria is getting too big too fast...Eddie and Victoria were talking about her new princess ponies. Eddie mentioned how beautiful they are Victoria just looked at him and said..."I need a woman's opinion..."

where's the pizza?

Today we got a Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. Eddie was upstairs giving Victoria a bath. I was downstairs watching tv. I went went upstairs for literally 3 minutes. When I came back downstairs the pizza was gone and Eddie hadn't ate yet. Eddie came running downstairs with Victoria quickly at his feet. Stella was hiding in her cage. Eddie was obviously furious and starting yelling at Stella.

Victoria decided she had something to say too. She yells You dogs are in big trouble!! He is fat and hungry! Let's just say that Stella is lucky that she is so funny because Eddie starting laughing.

What kind of rolls?

Last night after Victoria ate all her dinner she asked Eddie if she could have a cibvamiv roll. He asked her what she was talking about. She again asked for a cibvamiv roll. He again asked what kind of roll. She put her hands on her hips and yelled CIB-VA-MIV roll. She wanted a cinnamon roll...

First Art Showing

Victoria has always been a very creative child and we encourage it. So when she said she wanted to hang some of the pictures she drew up on the wall we were okay with it. Little did we know it would be half the wall in the living room. At least I got a pictures so when she is a famous artist I have the "First Showing".

Bald Dad

Victoria and Eddie have quite interesting conversations sometimes. I don't know how they started talking about baldness but it led to another funny comment by Victoria...
Eddie asked her what would she think if he lost all his hair and went bald. She replied (with much confidence) I would get very mad and not talk to you anymore.
Apparently Victoria doens't like bald guys...

Daddy and Daughter

Many of my favorite stories revolve around Eddie and Victoria. Victoria may be funny and outgoing like me but she also has a lot of Eddie's personality traits too. This is usually were the good stories start...

This story goes WAY back...Victoria must have been only a couple of weeks old. Since I was on maternaty leave and Eddie was back at work I was getting up every night with her for feedings. One night shortly after I got out of the hospital Eddie offered to get up with her so I could get some rest and get better. That night when Victoria woke up Eddie jumped out of bed to take care of her. I quickly fell back to sleep. Some time later I woke up with Eddie standing over me. He started apologizing for waking me up but he didn't know what to do. It had been hours and he couldn't get her to go back to sleep. I rolled over to see all the lights on. I went into the living room...the TV was on and she was laying on her activity mat...the poor kid was overstimulated. We I got up with her I did everything in the dark, changed her diaper, fed her and put her back to sleep. I shut everything off, held her for a few minutes and she fell right to sleep. Never again did Eddie turn the lights on.

Here is another daddy/daughter story...I am a morning person and Eddie is a night owl so it works out perfectly. I am in charge of getting her up and dressed for the day and Eddie is in charge of putting her to sleep. One day I was giving Victoria a bath. After I washed her up she was playing in the tub so I was just sitting there so she could play for awhile. She had a washcloth in the shape of a frog and she put a square washcloth over it as a blanket. She started to rub its back so it would go to sleep. She then says...for the love of God go to be. Yes that is right. I walked into the living room and looked at Eddie and said for the love of God go to sleep?!!?? He said...well she wouldn't fall asleep. i couldn't believe it, but we ahve all felt that frustration at some point. Hopefully she never said that at school...

Friends

As I have mentioned before Victoria has "friends". Jake was the first and she had him as a friend for awhile. Well, Jake was naughty (more like the bad Victoria). If Victoria did anything wrong she blamed Jake. She was having a fit and peed on the kitchen floor...that was Jake. She said damn it (a grown up word as we call them)...that was Jake. Well, Jake continued to be naughty. One day I had it. I was tired of all the naughty behavior getting blamed on Jake. I told Victoria Jake had to go, he was just getting her into trouble. So that was the end of Jake. She "kicked him to the curb".

Now she has new friends (yes there is more than one). Lately is the first one to come around after Jake. Lately is a girl and has much better behavior. Next came Marnie and Potato (I have no idea where she got these names). People must think I am nuts because on more than one occassion I have had to hold open the car door or pick them up and put them in the shopping cart.

Never a dull moment...

Sick Mom

This story made me laugh so hard I HAD to share.

I have been sick for about two weeks now. I think I have the flu but because there is no rest for the working Mom I have not been able to take any time to get better. Well this weekend it all caught up to me. I was almost in tears. I was laying on the couch trying to take a nap. Victoria says to me I must have eaten something bad and I need to drink only water so I will get better. She ran upstairs and got a blanket. She covered me up and then went to the kitchen to get me some water (I know...she is so good to me). On her way to the kitchen she says....I don't know why Daddy isn't doing this...

Graduation

Yesterday was a big day...Victoria graduated from pre-k. (I lost my mother of the year on this one. Apparently they put an invitation in her folder last week. I only check that thing every couple of weeks. So I was talking to her director on Monday and she asked if I was coming to graduation...I guess it was time to check the folder).

There was a very nice ceramony at her school. It was a Hawaiian theme. They had on grass skirts and got lei with their diplomas. They also did a hula dance. Victoria was SO cute!! She picked out a dress (I know I was shocked too) and tons of jewelry. I took lots of pictures. I did okay until the end. The teachers had squares of paper and ballons. The parents were to put on the paper waht they wished for their child, tie it to the ballon and there was going to be a ballon release. Yep, that was it...I started crying as I was writing. Eddie and I both put a message on the paper and then she released it. It was really nice.

Well, it is official...it is the beginning of the end. She will start elementary school on Aug 4th. It will only get more interesting from here...

Real friend?

My Dad is in town for a conference this week. Tonight after work we went out with him. Victoria was telling him about her friend from school. He looked at me and said Is this friend real? You can never be too sure with Victoria...

Jake

Let me take a minute to introduce you all to Jake. Jake is Victoria's "friend". Let's just say I called her doctor when she started talking to Jake and he said it was fine and showed creativity. If he only knew...Jake has recently left because he was very naughty and she now has some new friends (to be introduced later) but Jake will be in our hearts and of course stories forever.

The first story i really remember about Jake takes place one night when she was about 2 1/2. Eddie does nights and he was putting her to bed. I was in the living room and all of a sudden I heard her yelling. I immediately thought it was completely inappropriate for her to be talking to Eddie that way and I got up to go see what was going on. I had no idea what I was walking into...There was Victoria jumping around her bed, obviusly in the middle of a fist fight with someone. I asked what was going on and Eddie said Jake had said a grown up word (that is what we call swear words because it is okay for grown ups to say them, just not kids). Victoria yelled at Jake for saying it (apparently the yelling I had heard) and they were now in a heated fight. Oh don't worry it gets better. Not only was Victoria throwing punches at her imaginary friend but on a couple of occasions she even took some punches! Yes that is right, she was taking punches from her imaginary friend. I had to walk away I was laughing so hard.

Girl bed

Here is a recent story...On Sat night Victoria woke up in the middle of the night. She crawled into bed with us. Instead of putting her back into bed and risking a fight Eddie just let her sleep with me and he went in her bed. Sunday morning Victoria and I went into her bedroom to wake Eddie up. Victoria says "Daddy wake up. You know Daddy, this is a girl bed you really need to start sleeping down stairs on the couch."

Only Victoria...

A few of the classics

At four and a half I already have more Tori stories than I could have ever imagined. Victoria has quite a personality and the stories truely bring laughter to all those I have told. So, not only am I going to tell all new stories but I am going to go back to some of the classics.
I like to call this one Spider Daddy. So Victoria has always loved Spiderman (I think it is in her genes. Spidy has always been Eddie's favorite superhero). Her love for Spiderman started on her second birthday. I, being a fun mom, wanted to bring a bunch of goodies and ballons to school for her birthday. So the weekend before her birthday I took her to party city so she could pick out her decorations. Well she headed straight to Spiderman and so it began.
When she turned three I took her to the doctor for her well check. Everything went fine with the check up and then it was time for Dr Reznick to go over the developmental milestones. He told me her "rankings" and then let me know we should work on making sure she knew my and Eddie's full name, phone number and address. You know stuff like that. Well on the way home I started to work with her. So I asked her my name and went over my phone number. Then it came to Eddie. When I asked her what her Daddy's name was she stated with confidence"...Peter Parker".
And her love for Spiderman continued...