The End of an Era

So yesterday I wrote my final paper for my last college class ever. Once I printed it out I got this really unexpected feeling of pride, this was it, I had nothing left to finish. I got a little emotional as I thought about my college career, and I started thinking about how relevant the paper was that I had just written; it was for a World Lit. class discussing the third chapter of Virginia Woolf's, A Room of One's Own, it's all about how women were not given the proper tools to become literary geniuses (or intellectual at all for that matter). It made me feel really proud of myself and what I have done all these years; it strengthened my resolve about the importance of what I have accomplished. One of the huge reasons that I kept going to school is to show my daughters the importance of an education and that, as cheesy as it sounds, they can do anything they want if they work hard. I want them to know that education is necessary no matter what they aspire to do, even if it's to be a stay at home mom like their mother. I don't remember the exact statistic but me graduating from college makes Izzy something like eight times more likely to attend college. That's huge to me, that I can make that kind of a difference in my daughter’s future. I just feel really grateful that my girls have so many awesome examples of educated women in their lives; I know it will not go unnoticed. I think women like Woolf would be proud.

Happy Birthday Baby!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my amazing husband on his birthday, Happy Birthday! I love you! I started dating Sean at a time in my life when I was at a major crossroads, my life had the potential to be very different then it is right now. I look at what my life is like right now, which is so blessed, and I credit him and his love for getting me to this place. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who has given me everything I have ever wanted in life, especially my amazing little Izzy. He does so much for us between work, school, being Izzy's hero, and selflessly taking care of a wife that sucks at being pregnant, we are so grateful for him. I love you so much.

Catch Up!

So I haven't posted in awhile so here are a few to get caught up. Things have been a little crazy with school and work and being practically disabled by growing daughter #2. To add to the craziness we decided to buy a house and will be moving next week. It's all fun and exciting and we can't wait.
Also, to address a little concern that many of you seem to have, my child spends the majority of her time at home naked, or mostly naked, because she likes to. We have also been potty training since December (yeah, that's how well it's going) so it makes it a lot easier to just wash a million pairs of underwear and not a million pairs of pants, socks, etc. each week. So I allow it. I happen to know that many of you reading this blog also liked to spend your free time naked as a child so let's not judge.

Easter

Here is our cute little Izzy on Easter. We had a great day with lots of good food at Grandma Pam and Grandpa Mike's house. The Easter Bunny (Grandma Pam) really went all out and Izzy left with a ton of candy, a new funshine bear, and a cute easter book. A couple of days later Izzy was playing with her new teddy bear and says, "Just Grandma's give us presents", and after thinking about it for a second I said, "You're right, they do". So just a little shout out to Grandma Pam who always makes every holiday fun and special for Izzy, she is always looking out for cute little toys and books that she knows Izzy will really be into. We love you Grandma!

The Aquarium

So during our Spring break a couple of weeks ago we had a family fun day and went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It was interesting. Actually, it kind of sucked. Unless your child is really into fish, I'm talking like obsessive, this is not worth the $8 it cost both me and Sean to get in. Izzy had a lot of fun...for like 30 minutes, after that she just started saying, "let's look at something else", like every 2 seconds. So my advice is skip the aquarium and go to a FREE pet store instead. If you are really wanting to spend $8 though I would spend it at the zoo or Discovery Gateway where your child will be entertained long enough to make the outing worth it. (P.S. If you love the Aquarium I'm sorry to have offended you)

A Girl and Her Dogs

So Izzy had a lot of fun this week playing with her two best friends, Mikka & Boston. The one of Mikka is Izzy dressing her up in a "dress" and the one of Boston is him in his party hat. I love my dogs and I love that Izzy loves them so much. I strongly recommend that everyone have a dog, especially people with kids. It's true that it takes some extra time and energy teaching both the dogs and the kids how to act around each other but it is SO worth the extra effort. Izzy has learned so many things from our little pups; she has learned to be kind, to say she is sorry, to be a friend, and to be a good helper all from our dogs! She always has a friend to play with and they are so great to put up with things like blankets on their backs and cardboard on their heads. It is amazing how Izzy knows their personalities, she likes to run around and play chase with Boston but at night she asks for Mikka to lay with her in her room and watch over her when she sleeps. I love watching the three of them together and I'm so grateful for what all three of them add to our little family!

Making Friends

So yesterday my cute Izzy and I had to go and get my drivers license renewed. When we got there Izzy noticed these two little girls playing with each other and says to me, "Mom, it's my friends"(she's in this stage where all little kids are "her friends" even if she has never seen them. I think this might come from preschool where I call all the kids her friends) so I told her that it was okay to go over and play with them. She got off her chair and got a little timid, she started walking over to them but kept looking over her shoulder back at me until finally she turned around and came back. I told her it was okay and that she just needed to go say, "Hi, I'm Izzy", so she turned back and made it all the way to them but when she got there she didn't really say anything and the little girls didn't notice her. She came running back and said, "Mom, them aren't saying hi to me". So I told her to try again, she did and they still didn't notice her. She came back and told me they weren't saying hi again so I told her that she could come back and sit with me or she could just go start running around with them. She really went for it and just started running and chasing these two little girls, then all of them started running and giggling and having lots of fun. As she was running she comes back over to me and exclaims, "Mom! Them are saying hi to me!" It was seriously the happiest I have ever seen her, she was so excited that these little girls had started to play with her. At this point everyone at the DMV was just totally in love with her and were so happy that it all worked out, it was so cute.
This whole cute experience made me feel a little anxious about the future, Izzy is so loving and kind, she wants to play with everyone and just loves people. The whole time she was trying to get these girls to notice her I was just holding my breath thinking, "please be nice to her and let her play". It worries me that someday kids won't be nice to her or will hurt her feelings and that breaks my heart. I just don't want to be that crazy mom that doesn't ever let her kid venture out because I'm scared someone will hurt her feelings. Parenting a toddler is so weird, I hope I'm able to chill out so that when she's a teenager I'm not that mom that calls other moms and gets mad at them because their kid was mean(this actually happened when I was a teenager). I hope to just instill in Izzy the confidence that she is wonderful and amazing even if some little girl at Costco does stick her tongue out at her :)