More Pictures!

Bree likes to wear my flip-flops - but not in the conventional way. In the first picture she's got it over her arm like it's her purse.



Next, she attempts to wear it as a shoe, but it winds up wrapped around her ankle, like an ankle bracelet.

Finally, the lone flip flop is left by the front door.

I had the duct tape out for a (failed) project, but Bree had a great time with it - and a great idea! Yeah - tape it over your mouth! Mommy likes!

But alas, that didn't last. Then it was looking like she was going to immitate the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys.

So, now I'm off to prepare her things for the new day care. Diapers, wipes, etc. But I can keep her bathing suit at their house, because they'll have sprinkler play just about every day. How exciting! I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow goes well for everyone.

I'm also crossing my fingers for a fixed A/C! Let's hope that tomorrow is a banner day, indeed!

Pictures for Daddy

Bree was playing with her Daddy's hat today - and I was finally able to get a picture of her wearing it. Because once she knew I wanted to take a picture of her in it, she only wanted to play with it, not wear it. Of course!



Here's a picture of the little rebel, being obstinate:

So, Scott amused Bree when she was littler by putting her socks on her hands. Ever since then, it's the funniest thing ever when we do it. Today, well, she really didn't want them on. But who can blame her? Our A/C is still broken, but we have hope that it will be fixed tomorrow.

I asked the home warranty company to assign another vendor to my account, becuase the first repair company was just horrible. They stood me up TWICE, and then the guy had the nerve to yell at me at how he wasn't going to come to my house just to change a fuse. Ooooookay. I told him not to come, and I called the home warranty company to let them know that I wasn't interested in working with that company again. I had taken four 1/2 days off of work to be there when they got there, only to have them come twice, and not even be able to fix the stupid A/C while they were there.

So, on Friday a new company came out - diagnosed the problem within 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it required a part that he couldn't get until Monday - so I'm hopeful that he'll be back tomorrow with the part, and we'll be chillin' in the A/C shortly after.

And then I can stop posting pictures of a half naked baby! But, she is so darn cute, what are a few diaper pics among family & friends?

Watch out or I'll go all kung fu on you!

She was actually dancing, but it does look like she's going to karate chop someone, doesn't it?

Pictures!

Some pictures for your enjoyment:

Caught dancing!

Can you take that camera somewhere else?

Enough, Mama!

Caught giggling

Okay, a smile, finally!

Bree's Bad Day | THREE Incident Reports

Oh my. Yesterday Bree had a very tough afternoon. When I went to pick her up she had THREE, count 'em, THREE incident reports. An all-time record!

And was my girl the victim once again? Oh no. She was the aggressor. Let's break them down:

3:30 p.m. :
"She and another child were fighting over being 1st in line to go outside and Bree bit the other child."

Action taken: Moved her away from the other child, told her biting friends is bad, redirection.

Right - telling her that biting her friends is bad, but you can bet she doesn't give a flying fig as long as she's the FIRST ONE OUT THE DOOR.

4:15 p.m. :
"Bree was upset because another child had just taken her toy she was playing wtih and then another child came up to her while she was crying and sat on her and Bree bit them."

Action taken: Redirection.

Apparently the teacher was rooting for Bree on this one. Because she was almost apologetic that she had to write this one up.

4:55 p.m. :
"Bree and another child were fighting over a toy and Bree got the toy then hit the other child in the forehead with it."

Action taken: Redirection & was told that hitting friends is not nice.

Good grief - between the biting and the hitting, they're going to be glad to see Bree leave on Friday.

Yeah, we've decided to withdraw from the daycare center and try a home daycare setting. We're going on Saturday morning for an interview with the new provider.

But that was kind of a joke about them being glad to see her leave - they're actually quite disappointed. I'm nervous about how Bree will react to the change - she might take it a bit easier than some of her providers. Bree has a very special bond with the two teachers in the infant room - and Bree has been around them every day for the 14 months. It's going to be hard on all of them not to see each other every day.

It wasn't an easy decision to make, but we'll see if this change is as positive as we hope it will be.

Today, though, was a good day for her. No incident reports!

Pictures to come soon.

Quite the Talker

So, Bree got a hold of Grandma's phone at the grocery store and had quite the conversation. We asked if she was talking to Grandpa and we got a look like "NOT NOW, I'M ON THE PHONE." I was curious to see if she'd do it again at home, when I had the camera.

Boy, did she ever do it again. We're not sure if she called Grandpa or Daddy, but she was sure talking away to someone!

Oh, and, she refuses to talk on the phone when there's actually a person on the other end.

Foolin' Around

We were waiting for the A/C repairman to come this morning, and Bree was fooling around with my winter hat. Yes, I realize that it's June, and my winter hat is still "out." I focus on the big things like laundry & dishes. Everything else will be addressed as time permits. (Read: NEVER.)

So, these are the best of the lot that I took this morning:

She's actually blowing razzberries, not sticking her tongue out at me.

It's not just anyone who can mix orange & hot pink, you know.

I may or may not be talking about you under my breath. I know it sounds like it.

I can look cute and thoughtful at the same time!

Here is my scary monster impersonation! Rwarw!

So, uh, that's all I got.

Oh, and the A/C is STILL broken. Another call, another week to wait, I'm sure.

Happy Girl & Her Slide

We went outside to play last night, and much to my delight, we had a baby blue heron land on our dock. It flew away as Bree ran towards it, screaming her WACK WACK WACK! at the poor bird (her version of quack, quack, quack) but it left behind a beautiful feather. Which Bree promptly stuck in her mouth.

But I did get two great pictures of her - you can even see her mouth full of teeth in the second one!


Okay, this is kind of a goofy picture, but you can see her teeth. Most times I can't get her to smile for the camera.

And I know with these next pictures you're going to be thinking, "For crying out loud, MORE teeth brushing pictures?" What can I say? It's her favorite pastime these days.

Notice that Beary is very carefully placed on top of the toilet for safe keeping. Beary must be kept in her sight at all times.

Bree was very excited about brushing her teeth. I'm not sure where this fasciantion came from - although I suspect it has to do with the flavor of her baby toothpaste. . . .

Kicked Around By Karma - And Pictures!

So, lately it seems that I'm getting kicked around by Karma. I don't know what I did, but I think that my punishment has been swift and severe.

Last Friday when we got home from work/daycare, it was a steamy 91 degrees in the house. With the A/C set at 77, it was clear that it was broken. If you remember last summer, we lived in a condo that had no air conditioning - but we knew this when we signed the 3 month lease. We had a stand fan, and eventually, a portable A/C unit. Do you think that I could find that stand fan anywhere? Nope. I looked in the garage, the shed, and even the attic. It's around here somewhere, but becuase I was in such a hurry to find it, I'm sure I overlooked it. So, one trip to Wal*Mart later, we had another stand fan.

On Saturday I called the home warranty company and the soonest they could send someone out - Tuesday. The forecast was calling for 100 degree weather both Saturday and Sunday. I tried to make plans that would keep us out of the house for most of the day.

On Sunday, I got everything together to be gone for the day. I had made one trip out to the car with my bag, the diaper bag and her snacks. We were headed to church, then to the aquarium. As Bree & I went out the door, and I pulled the door shut behind me, it hit me that my keys were on the mantle. Crap. At least my cell phone and my purse were out in the car. One hour and I'm not even going to say how many dollars later, I had my keys. We missed church, but I TRIED. We had a great time at the aquarium, because it wasn't crowded at all and I let Bree run wherever she wanted (with the exception of the gift shop, because I'm a mean & horrible mother.) There's a nature trail that runs between the two buildings of the aquarium, and it's about a 15 minute walk. I made Bree walk it - my weekends are, after all, planned to WEAR HER OUT. She did a great job, and I carried her 1/2 way back. She fell asleep in the car on the way home.

To add insult to injury, the power went out for about two hours on Sunday night. I was SERIOULY debating about whether or not to go to a hotel, but the power came back on. Hurrray!

On Monday, it was heavenly to be in air conditioning. And I only had one more day to go before the A/C technician came! When we got home that evening, the power was out. I went next door to find out from the neighbors how long it had been out - they said it went out at 4 o'clock that afternoon. I put Bree back in the car and we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. I called the power company on the way to the restaurant becuase I was really angry and frustrated. I told the woman that if they were going to be doing rolling blackouts, they had to tell people, becuase I had a baby in the house and our A/C was broken. She assured me that they were not doing rolling blackouts, and when she checked my address, she said that a fuse had blown at the pole and that workers were there fixing it, and that the power would be back on by 8:15. When we got home from dinner, the power was back on.

I was never so happy for a Tuesday morning to roll around! The A/C repair man showed up and the first thing out of his mouth after looking at it was, "I've never seen a unit that old before. Did you know it's over 30 years old?" I assured him that I did know how old it was, but what I really wanted to know was: could he fix it? He gave it a shot of freon, and did some kind of acid wash on the coil, and voila! The unit started back up. Apparently it hadn't been serviced in years. By the time he left, it was a cool 84 degrees in the house. Hurray!

When I got to work, though, I discovered that my computer was broken. And I couldn't get the help desk to help me for over two hours! Two hours without e-mail! It was like being back in the 20th century - pre-computers! The horror! Okay, all joking aside, 99% of my work is done on the network and by e-mail. So it kind of sucked. When the help desk made their final evaluation, the good news was that I was getting a new computer. The bad news was that they couldn't provide one for me until the next day.

At least I had a cool house to go home to, right? Well, it was back up to 89 degrees in the house when we got home. The A/C unit had stopped working since it had been "fixed." Another call to the home warranty company.

The power went out again at 8:30 that evening and stayed off until about 3.

I am pleased to say that my (bad) luck seemed to have changed with the weather on Wednesday. The power has stayed on, I got a new computer on Wednesday and was back in business, and it was actually cool enough where I could muster up enough energy to actually fix dinner that didn't consist of lunch meat, fruit and cheese. And goldfish crackers. You know, stuff that didn't require any heating.

The A/C guy will be back next Wednesday. Luckily for me the high temperature will be around 88 on Saturday. It's been comfortable in the house with the windows open and the ceiling fans on.

And now, as the reward for reading all of that dribble, here are pictures of Bree! Taken at Cracker Barrel outside on their veranda.

Hopefully karma will consider this past week and determine that I've been punished enough. And stop kicking me around!

So Bree Thinks She Can Dance!

Bree's sleep patterns have gotten kind of wacky, and she's just not tired at 8 o'clock any more. Or, I should say, she's gotten better at keeping herself awake!



Some nights I'll let her stay up until 8:30, other nights, I really need her to go to bed at 8. On Wednesday night, though, I let her stay up. We were watching "So You Think You Can Dance!" She was dancing whenever a new contestant started their audition. I was able to get it on camera.

Enjoy!