Easter Saturday

We decided to have our Easter bunny come on Saturday afternoon this year.  Sophia doesn't really know anyway and since we had originally decided that we were going to go to 9am mass, we knew we wouldn't have time to do the bunny thing in the morning, plus let her play with her stuff, plus get ready for church and get out the door.  So while she napped, we set everything up. 

Last year we went waaaay overboard.  We tried to not do that this year.  Even the larger present in the back we found on sale and also used a 50% coupon we found in a target ad.  I was also very excited to make a Shutterfly book for Sophia about her first trip to Disney....for free!!  We don't give her hardly any chocolate so the plastic eggs and the Elmo heads in her basket are filled with Easter shaped marshmallows...her favorite treat!  Michael found a couple coloring books at the dollar store too...lately she has been loving to color.  Once Sophia finally woke up, she was very excited to see her basket!

Sophia really enjoyed pulling each thing out and checking it out.  She usually wanted it open right away, haha.  And as soon as she figured out the marshmallows were in the eggs...they went right into her mouth!!

Looking at the pictures as I am loading them, it does seem like we still did get her a lot of things...but we really did spend a lot less than we thought we were going to and everything we got was a sale or some special discount in some way.  Guess we do love to spoil our girl though.  :-) 

After she went through her basket, we told her that the Easter bunny had hidden some eggs and she had to find them.  She didn't really understand, haha.  So we led her around the living room and slowly but surely she started to find the little plastic eggs that were sort of hidden and then she realized what was going on and had so much fun on her little egg hunt.  She got so excited when she would find one and then she would immediately open it up to see what prize was inside.  (Sara, thanks for the tip on getting little treats at the dollar store...we found some that were a hit and fit right inside our little eggs!)

I'm so glad we decided to do our Easter bunny fun on Saturday.  It was much more relaxing than trying to rush her through it on Sunday (very early) morning.  She had more fun and got to enjoy it a lot more and we were able to enjoy it with her.  Holidays (weekends or sometimes even regular days for that matter) can feel so rushed sometimes and I liked that we were able to do what we wanted and still get the enjoyment and family time out of it.  I know that eventually she will know that the Easter bunny is supposed to come on Sunday...but while she is young enough we can take advantage that she doesn't know!  





Quick Visit To Birmingham

On Wednesday Sophia and I packed up the car, kissed Michael good-bye and drove to Birmingham for a quick visit to my sister, nephew and brother-in-law.  The main purpose of the trip was Cooper's program that was happening on Thursday morning...but we hadn't seen them in quite a while to hang out and the kids really missed each other.  Michael had to work, since it was in the middle of the week, and unfortunately couldn't go with us.  Dillon was already there, since it was his spring break, and my parents were also going to be there for Coops program. 
I was a little worried about how Sophia would be during the program.  I pictured her running up to him while he was trying to sing or yelling out Cooper-Dooper through the entire thing.  Here she was before the program.....

I put her paci in (which we really only let her have now when she sleeps) thinking that might keep her quiet...turns out I really didn't need to...4 year olds can sing much louder than a one and a half year old can yell to her cousin!  But Soph actually was SO good during the show.  She danced around and sat between me and my sister (who was next to me on the end keeping an eye on her class) and loved the music.  I think she is going to LOVE pre-school.  It was funny to see which kids on the stage I could picture her acting like during a program and which ones I knew she would definitely not be, haha.  Coop did so well!  I took a video of a great song he did but here are some of the cute still shots I got.....

He is definitely not the shy guy he used to be!!  After his program we had a great lunch (while it POURED outside) and then went to look at a couple houses that my sister and bro-in-law are interested in.  I really liked the first one we went to, could see them living there, the back yard was definitely awesome.  I mean, if they can't move to Atlanta, that is.  Jay could always just commute to and from work on the company private jet each day...that would be the best case scenario, but if that isn't an option and they are definitely going to stay in Birmingham for a while then I like the first house we looked at.  :-)  I am sure they will keep looking at houses, since they really just started, but it was fun to join in the house hunting efforts.  Maybe someday soon they will get to join Michael and I in a similar hunt around these parts.  I can sure hope.  :-) 
Later that day we were able to go to a really nice park close to Sara's apartment.  Sophia is so funny when we go to the park.  She likes to climb...but that's about it.  Swings are out, she isn't a fan.  Teeter-totters are a no.  And for some reason, she didn't want Coop do partake in these things either.  So for a while, her and Gamma walked in the giant space of green grass. 

Then my Mom must've been exhausted because they came back!  Aunt Sara-Ow Ow (what Sophia has been calling my sister these days, haha) finally got Sophia on to a swing by pulling her onto her lap and saying weeeee, weeee over and over and Sophia actually liked it! 

The same tactic worked on the teeter-totter.  Grab her and put her on.  My Mom had to be the other side though, hahaha.  Whatever works!  She loved it. 

Since Sophia had been telling Cooper no to most of the things on the playground he had run away to play on his own and was having a great time doing all kinds of fun things.  Apparently so was Grampa!

After a few "races" down the slide (Coop kept saying he won...Sophia didn't care at all or maybe didn't even know they were racing, haha) we mentioned food and Sophia was ready to eat, so we left the park.

After dinner we were all pretty exhausted.  So it seemed like an early night but by the time we got the kids to bed it definitely felt much later.  Plus it had been a long day!  But definitely a fun one.  The next day we let the kids play while we got ready and then had lunch at Cracker Barrel.  After that it was already time to head home.  It was a short trip, but I am very glad we decided to go.  Sophia talks about Cooper-Dooper every single day.  She misses him like crazy.  I'm glad they got to play together, even for a short time, even if she drove him crazy, and I'm glad we will see them in a couple weekends when they come here for more family fun!! :-) 

Strange Encounters

It is always interesting when we take Sophia out...anywhere.  She is not a very shy girl at all and will smile or talk to pretty much anyone.  We will seriously need to work on stranger danger with her.  There is the rare person that she doesn't want anything to do with and will cling to us or whine a bit, but like I said, that is rare.  And there are a lot of people that smile and say hi and wave and talk to her.  I totally appreciate that complete strangers can see how cute my little sweetie pie is (I mean, she is a cutie!) but as if shopping isn't hard enough with a one and half year old, it can be pretty challenging to focus (or get the job done) when well meaning (or just plain weird) strangers feel the need to chat with your child.  Or about your child.  Or about their children. 

Michael and I were at Babies R Us on Saturday afternoon.  We only really had a few things to pick up and decided to just let Sophia walk around and see what she was interested in (plus running up and down the aisles would hopefully tire her out, haha).  We were maybe half way through the store and a very tall dark haired gentleman saw her running away from me and Michael and was like "oh, she's so cute, she reminds me of my boys".  So we said thanks, blah, blah.  Soph stopped and smiled up at him and walked back over to me...at least at this point she does stay somewhat close to me when strangers are around.  We figured he'd just go on his way.  No such luck.  He went on to say he has two twin 22 month old boys and is a stay at home dad.  Ok.  Michael and I kind of looked at each other since we weren't sure where the conversation was going.  The guy asked how old Sophia was and we told him.  Then he handed me a business card for his wife (she was shopping somewhere in the store he let us know) who is a child speech pathologist, just in case we ever needed those services.  Wha???  He said that she works over off Holcomb Bridge and at that point I started to mentally shoot Michael a command to NOT mention that we happen to live near that area.  My ESP worked for the time being, haha.  The guy then goes on to brag about his kids a bit, he taught on the guitar already and the other one the harmonica (Sophia is giving him the side eye by now, ha!) and he can also tell that Sophia is smart...even though she hasn't uttered a peep, not that he has let her, or us for that matter.  He even whipped out his phone and showed us some pictures of his boys, convinced that Sophia looked like one (twins...they both looked the same to me).  Finally he started talking about some park they go to all the time and Michael blew the lid on the general locale of where we live...oops. But it seemed that by that point (I mean, we are talking a good 10 to 15 minutes later...well beyond the typical 'your daughter is cute' stranger chat) he was losing some steam and shook our hands and said bye to Sophia (complete with an I love you....SOOOO weird!!) and moved on....to the restroom.  Guess his bladder couldn't handle any more chit-chat.  Michael and I probably couldn't have handled any more awkwardness. 

We shopped for another good half an hour, not that we needed anything else, but maybe more to avoid any more meet-ups with our new 'buddy'.  And sure enough, we walked out just before him and his wife did and were able to make an escape to our car.  Michael and I both decided it was probably the strangest encounter we'd had so far, brought on by our cute little outgoing Sophia!!  Can't say she had too much to do with this one, though, haha.  And I'm sure this will not be the last of these weird encounters!!

The Last of Sophia's First Swimming Lessons

This was the 4th and last lesson in Sophia's first swimming lessons.  Michael and I had already been talking that we wanted to sign her up for more lessons for sure.  We don't have a little swimmer on our hands yet.  And so far, it's hard to tell if she's having a good time with the lessons. 
Well this week she seemed to have a great time!  Oddly, the water was at it's coldest, so it was the shortest lesson of all, at about 15 minutes.  The smallest baby in the class barely made it ten minutes.  Not only did Sophia seem to have the most fun during this lesson, she seemed to do the best with the skills.  She kicked and almost blew bubbles (still not sure why she'll do this in the tub and not in the pool!) and floated and jumped and jumped and jumped from the side.  She smiled a few times and even waved to me a couple times as I sat on the side and took pictures.  Not sure what prompted the change but as we left we signed her up for more lessons so we won't have any breaks and will continue with a class every Saturday....she is excited to keep swimming and we are excited to see her enjoyment each week.  Here are the pictures!

This was the whole class.  Michael wasn't the only guy...the lady whose back is to us (she was the French one!), her husband is somewhere in the pool...her daughter Leah is with the instructor across from her in this pic.  And next to Michael and Soph is Lily, the tiniest girl in the class.  Her mom is verrrryy close to having a new baby...a boy...so we won't be seeing them in the next swim class!  And the little boy, Caden, was the only boy in the class.  He was almost swimming by himself...but he did have a little swim float thing on his back to help him out, haha.  Sophia loved all the other 'babies' in the class.  :-) 

 Hi, Mommy!  I'm gonna jump to Daddy now!  I'm doing so good today, right??!!

 Climb-y on the wall.  Since class she has been climb-y on our furniture too.  Yay. 

She only had to sit and jump in.  But Caden next to her had to jump from a standing position.  Not to be outdone, she decided to stand up and jump in too. 

Michael let her face get wet, her mouth and nose go under when she jumped in a lot of the time.  She didn't really seem to care and kept wanting to do it again!

Swimming with her instructor.  And a big smile on her face!! 

Floating on her back with her teacher, just relaxing in the cold water.  We won't get this instructor for our next set of swimming lessons (she's not teaching them) but hopefully Sophia will have as much fun and learn as much from her next teacher...to relax in the water and smile and pick up a few skills too.  Michael and I were talking about her skill level and he said that right now he is still at the point if he saw her fall in the pool he would jump in to get her even if his cell phone was in his pocket.  He said once he feels like she is a good enough swimmer, he will still jump in to get her if she fell in, but would feel comfortable enough to take the time to take his cell phone out of his pocket first before jumping in!  We are a long way from his cell phone being safe I am afraid.  I suggested that he just keep his cell phone away from all bodies of water until she knows how to swim and we agreed that would be the best thing to do.  :-) But after this last class we are at least optimistic that Sophia is excited to learn how to swim and looking forward to all the swimming lessons to come!

I'm Done With You, Express!

I really haven't shopped at Express much in the last couple of years.  For one, they don't sell maternity clothes so I definitely wasn't shopping there then.  And since Michael and I got married I can probably count on one hand how many times I have shopped there, maybe to find something cute and flashy to wear for New Years or something like that.  That being said, back in college, I loved the place.  In fact, they were the first store to (stupidly) give me a credit card.  Sure, I had to drive all the way from GA Southern to Savannah to use it (probably saved my credit score, haha) but I definitely loved the ability to get cute clothes when I needed them.  But that was college. 

Wednesday after Sophia and my Mom and I got our haircut we did a little shopping and my Mom wanted me to take a look in Express just to see if they had anything worth looking at that might fit me better than some of the current stuff I've been wearing (as in, pants that I don't have to hike up after every few steps....definitely does get annoying, but better than too tight, am I right?).  I went right back to the sale section, pretty much like I do in every store.  We quickly found two dresses that were on a 30% off rack, but not marked on sale.  They were definitely cute, but no worth the regular price.  I flagged down a sales girl and asked about the dresses.  Oh yeah, she said.  Those dresses are ringing up at like $27 and are so cute on!  Wow, was my response.  I mentioned the 30% off and asked if the $27 was before or after that discount....she wasn't sure.  But I figured that if they fit me then either way that would be a good price.  So the girl started a fitting room for me.  I found a few other sale shirts and got to trying on.  Well both dresses were SO cute!  And for around thirty bucks, can't lose!  My Mom said she would buy them for me, can't argue with that!  Sophia was starting to get antsy, so I dealt with her while Mom checked out and we moved on. 

Cut to later, while I am showing off the new dresses to Michael.  I rummaged in the bag to show him how great the deal was on them (he also thought they were super cute and looked nice on me) and very nearly had a heart attack.  The receipt said ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT DOLLARS!!!!!!  Um, what?????!!!!  Despite Sophia already being in bed for the night, I freaked out and was yelling and possibly cursing Express and the associates there, haha.  I immediately called my Mom to see if she knew that they had totally screwed us over.  She admitted that she had seen the (major) price difference after she signed the credit card pad but didn't want me to make a scene in the store, hahaha.  I explained (much calmer to her, it wasn't like she was the one who had done the screwing anyway) that Express wasn't worth full priced dresses to me, no matter how nice they looked, and that the point was they totally lied and told us the dresses were on sale and apparently they weren't!!  I was taking the dresses, both of them, back and getting her money back. 

So the next morning, totally unshowered, I got in the car with Sophia and went over to Express.  The stupid air conditioning was out in the store and their stupid system was down.  Not a good start to fixing my problem or keeping me as a customer.  I explained my issue and they said, oh, no, those dresses weren't on sale.  Hmm.  Well, they were on a sale rack.  And apparently one of your employees thinks so.  She thinks they are $27!!  They asked me to describe her and when I did they just looked at each other and laughed and said oh, that's so and so and laughed some more.  The one lady, who I will just assume was the manager or something said she would talk to her and I guess that girl gets talked to a lot....she seems to be the store screw up according to the looks they gave each other and all the laughter.  Doesn't really solve my problem though does it??  Oh and besides the system being down, they actually can't return the dresses without my Mom being there in the flesh with her credit card.  What kind of ancient system are they running on??  Target never needs my card to make a return.  Neither does Macy's or Banana Republic (which is like two stores down from Express) or half a dozen other stores I shop at and return things to regularly.  So now I have to wait until my Mom can be there for me to return the dresses.  But you can bet that they WILL be returned.  And that Express has seen the last of my business. Guess I'll find my cute New Years flashy tops somewhere else!! 

Phobias

This was not what I was going to post about at all.  I was going to (and am still going to at some point) post about Sophia's final swim lesson because she did so good and I got a lot of good pictures.  Anyway, that is a much happier topic.  But I was just watching Grey's Anatomy repeats (I put that on the TV every afternoon so I can get some things done and sort of half watch it...since I've really already seen all the episodes...sometimes I get sucked back in, but often I can get things done while Sophia naps) and they are showing the episodes where Izzy Stephens has brain cancer.  And they keep showing her getting MRI's.  And it really seriously freaks me out. 
Michael and I actually very recently had a conversation about my 'phobias' lately.  Such as how they've increased in number and intensity lately.  And after I thought about it for a while, he was totally right. 
I've been scared to fly since far before he ever met me.  Although I don't think my whole life and I still recognize that there are places you just have to fly to get to (like Hawaii...Jamaica, where we went for our honeymoon...I wouldn't NOT go to these places just because I am scared to fly).  As I get older though, I feel like I get a bit more scared of it.  And I guess other factors over time have gone into making me more scared.  9/11.  I am a parent now.  Things like that I guess. 
I am not scared of heights, so much, but a somewhat new 'phobia' I have is staying at a hotel with a high balcony and getting too close to the edge and either the balcony breaking away or just going over the edge to my death.  Even worse, my nephew or daughter falling over the side or through the rails or pushing against the rails and it breaking away and falling.  I literally almost can't breathe when I see someone walk close to a railing when they are holding a child.  It doesn't have to be my child, but it is SO much worse when it IS my child, or one that I care about.  When I was pregnant with Sophia, I had a dream that my nephew Cooper went over a rail and I just missed catching him....I can still picture it in my head and it is terrifying.  If you are ever holding my daughter near a rail and I irrationally freak out at you and you don't know why....well that is why. 
And my newest....claustrophobia.  An actual phobia that I really have never thought I have had in my life.  Little things in the last couple of years pointed in a vague way to it....on a roller coaster, after it stops and you are kind of just sitting there...I would start to feel very trapped and panicky.  And the more restrained, the more 'get me out of here' I would feel.  And on the few times I would ride on an airplane, I would notice how cramped the seating area was and how very little room there was to move my legs around.  Not that I expected a lot, but that it was super uncomfortable for me to not be able to move my legs around.  Almost in a freak out way, but not quite.  Before all that, if shoes were too constricting, if I couldn't move my toes, I would literally have to take my shoes off or I would feel like I could freak out.  So weird.  And then, when I had to have my c-section, and they upped my epidural and I literally couldn't even feel anything from my chest to my ankles and it felt like a ton of bricks on my body, the first thing I thought didn't really have anything to do with being crushed, it had more to do with being trapped in a small space.  Even though I was in a wide open room.  SO weird.  But the final thing to really make me think I'm totally certifiably claustrophobic was when I had my MRI's.  No getting around it.  No amount of 'relaxation' medication could slow down my racing heart and calm me down.  And, half an hour ago, watching Izzy Stephens, a completely fake person on a made up show, lay down on a moving backboard thing and get a cage put over her head (I didn't watch any further, I knew what was next), my whole body got the chills and my heart started to speed up just knowing that she had to get a fake MRI.  Yup, I'm a crazy, whack-job, claustrophobic weirdo.  :-(
Is this a getting older thing?  If you are scared of something, shouldn't you get less scared of it as you get older, not more scared of it??  Michael said, when we were discussing, that an actual phobia you really don't have that much control over.  So I would assume that I don't really have a 'phobia' of flying, I just hate it and am scared of it.  I can get on a plane, I don't totally freak out and cause a total scene or whatever.  Actually, I'm not scared of the plane so much...I'm scared of it crashing, blowing up, plummeting out of the sky.  Whatever.  Ok, so not a phobia.  And the balcony issue.  Hmm.  I really almost can't physically watch if someone is standing super close to a balcony with a small child.  I may not run over and grab the child (with my own, I very well might) but my heart does rise up into my throat.  I do totally envision the very worst.  Borderline phobia.  I can always try to book a room on a lower floor and make sure those I travel with know how scared I am and keep my kids (and their own) far from the edge. But the claustrophobia thing.  Even watching other people go through tight encounters, fake MRI's, the thought of being caught in a tight space (here are some examples....getting in an accident and caught in my car...being upside down would be even worse.  Being trapped under any kind of wreckage during a tornado or other storm in our safe space....being buried alive...ok, this one is super highly unlikely but it happened once on that show Las Vegas) is enough to make me feel panicky and nervous.  Just the thought. So I guess it might be an actual phobia. 
The thing is, I don't want to pass on any of these fears/phobias, whatever they are to Sophia.  And to me, the only one that I can see that I can control not passing on is the fear of flying, because I think that I can take her on a plane and present it to her as something fun (and then just internally hope and pray that we don't crash).  I don't know how I can stop myself from snatching her from walking out on a balcony and putting her hands on the bars and pressing her face between the two slats and looking through (I am sweating just typing this).  Or if I got stuck in some small closed in space, I wouldn't want to freak out in front of Sophia, but I honestly don't know if I could even control it.  And, given that I hate to not have control of something (haha), that makes me wonder how do people get control of their phobias?  Guess I will have to do some research.  Hopefully, the answer is not putting myself into small spaces on purpose, because then I will never be cured!

Disney Store Stickermania

On Saturday Sophia had her last swimming lesson (post to come....I didn't think I was going to do one about it since I've already done two others about her swimming lessons....but she did SO good so I just have to!) but a few weeks ago I went to pick up our pre-ordered blu-ray of Lady and the Tramp at the Disney Store and inside our bag was a flyer that had all these fun things going on at the store for the month of March...which just happens to be the 25the anniversary of the Disney Store!!  For March 24th they were having a Stickermania and Storytime, something we thought that Sophia would really love so we decided that we would take her. 
I am totally a sucker for anything Disney and it is pretty much a fact that we probably spend waaayyy too much money at the Disney Store and on Disney stuff in general (Sophia has stuffed Mickey and Minnie's in several sizes and colors....pretty much most of the plush that they offer....shirts/clothing...books...we are building her dvd/blu-ray collection....that might be partially for us, whatever).....I mean, we just really love Disney at our house. I am actually trying to decide if we should go back on Wednesday morning, the actual 25th anniversary day....the guy at the store told us that the first 250 customers get free Mickey ears....and that they go fast, like get there at 9:30 and they don't even open till 10 fast.  I mean, sure, Sophia usually isn't up quite that early.  And sure, she sort of already has her own Minnie ears (personalized, that's how she rolls).  But it just seems like it would be a cool thing to do, right?! 
Anyway, back to our fun day at the Disney Store.  I was a little worried it was going to be packed or they'd be out of stickers or something since it was closer to 10:45 when we got there (and it started at 10) but it was totally empty.  I guess the flyer in the bag thing wasn't the best way to advertise...but they got me in and that's all that matters!  Next I was worried Sophia was too little to participate but nope, the guy was super nice to her, handed her the sticker sheet and gave the pencil (for writing in the story....kind of like a Disney mad lib) to Michael.  We sat right down on the floor and Michael helped Sophia with the stickers and I took some pictures.  Once she figured out that the stickers went on the poster and not her hand (which is her favorite place to put stickers these days), she had a great time.  And we had a great time seeing how much fun she was having.  And afterwards we all had fun doing a little shopping (cause there are still a few things Sophia doesn't have from the Disney store!).  Pretty much all there is left to do is show the pictures of our fun day...so here ya go! 

The last picture is some Minnie ear hair clips that we got for Sophia....we think she likes them, but we aren't sure!!! :-)