The Things You Do at 2

Dear Summer,

You are 2! I say it all the time, but I will say it again...TIME FLIES. This past year has been so animated and full of happiness that I just can't believe how fast our lives are passing by. Every day you feature new words, laughs, phrases and surprise us with the depth of your understanding. Watching the world through your eyes shows me how innocent and simple life should be. Thanks for being my sprightly little sunshine...

So, my sweet pea I will try and share just SOME of the cute things you do at two...

"HOLD YOU"-Expressed when you would like to be held

"Bunny, Blankey"-You are OBSESSED with the stankey blankey and the bunny. You sleep, eat and drag it everywhere. When I decide to wash it, you scream and stand next to the washing machine while I give them a "bath."

"Summer BIZABEF ATWELL"-When I ask you your name you say "Summer" when I ask you your middle name you say "BIZABEF" and when I ask you your last name you YELL with pride..."ATWELL"

ABC's-You sing the song and emphasize the letters D,G,P,Y and Z...You can almost recognize most letters and do the sounds.

Counting-You can count to 10 while trying to express with your hands at the same time

Lady Gaga-You love her...

Passy-The week before your birthday you gave it up thanks to "Ro Ro Mccloud"

Food-You love it all...chicken, broccoli, yogurt, grapes,rice and apples are your favorite

Shoes-You spend hours in your closet trying on shoes...you come out model them and go back and change them to model some more.

Night Night-You LOVE to go to bed and when you wake up you prefer to be left alone so you can whirl and twirl in the 5 blankets in your crib. You also act like you hate for me to sing the good morning songs but when I sometimes forget you say "SING" and laugh till I start to sing.

Talk-You are a chatty Cathy who pretty much repeats everything like a parrot. You are advanced in your language skills and the good lord knows where you get it from.

Art-you love sit outside on the ground and write with sidewalk chalk...You have started writing your name...no one reading will think this is true and that I am a neurotic mommy, but you do. Meemaw saw you do it first, but me and Ms. Mercer confirmed:)

Weekends-you somehow know when its the weekend and really prefer to stay home, play and relax. You even know that Friday nights are reserved for "EleFANts" (Red Elephant).

Map-You are like a little GPS. You know the way to the following places...Meemaws, Gran Gran's, school, Red Elephant, the park, and HOME:)

Grandparents-You love to spend time with them all...What a blessing that we live where they can all be a part of your life.

"Emmy"=AKA Emily is your soul sister. Although you look nothing alike, have completely different temperaments you somehow have a sisterly bond. I pray everyday that you two will stay this close for life.


You are a free-spirited, expressive, happy, charming, spirited little being. My wish for you my sweet little Summer is that you will always know how much Daddy and I love and adore you. You keep our love strong. Thanks for being you!

I love you-

Mommy

Easter Fun

The Easter Bunny came and left a basket with all types of goodies. Shoes, eggs that talked, panties, bunny glasses, sidewalk chalk and much more! After a relaxing morning, we went to my Granny's aka "Gran Gran's" for the annual Easter lunch with a LARGE egg hunt. Austin and Brett were gracious enough to allow Summer to hunt eggs in her own section while they duked it out against each other. She did well, but I think she enjoyed the "chocate" that was melting on her hands as she licked it off more than the hunt itself. Watching my daughter hunt eggs in the same yard that I did is especially poignant for me as my Granny would lure me into taking naps with a promise of an Easter egg hunt when I woke up. We hunted all year round in honor of good naps! Gosh that lady is smart!

SIDE NOTE...I got a call from Summer's teacher on the Friday before spring break. She left me a message telling me I needed to call the school as it wasn't an emergency but she needed to talk to me. When I called her back she wanted to inform me that Sum was the "EASTER EGG CHAMPION." Summer stole the show at the toddler egg hunt uncovering 32 eggs while her classmates averaged 4. MMMMMM...Overachiever?!? Well, then Rosie asked me...Sherri did you practice with her...my response "of course." Practice does make perfect!

First Visit to the Easter Bunny

Milly and Grampa decided to come and visit and help out during spring break. We decided to meet Caroline F., Liam, Kimberly, Jack and Tyler to enjoy in this special visit to the Easter bunny. Although Jack refused to meet him and Liam cried Summer decided that it would be "ok" to sit on the Easter bunny's lap so mommy could take a picture. My heart melts looking at this sweet girl checking to see if she is SAFE as she looks at me with doe eyes.

Can't we just stay home?!?

The day in the life of a full time working mommy...a normal day looks like this:

4:45am wake up to hit the gym
5:07 leave to meet Jamie to either run stairs, do pilates, or meet the morning madness crew
6:30 leave gym
7:00 home and daddy leaves to go to work
7:30 try to wake up little princess
7:45 Summer decides whether or not she will eat toast or waffle
8:00 still eating said breakfast
8:15 time to get dressed
8:17 chasing naked toddler
8:19 Sumo wrestle child to get shirt on her head
8:21 tears over the pants and shoes
8:30 in the car ready for school
8:31 OOPS left the dog out, must turn around to put her in
8:50 drop of Peanut at school
9:00 Half a days work and it's just now 9am!
9:30 drive around FSU seeking a parking place that doesn't require parallel parking or is large enough to accomodate the soccer mom car that I insist on driving
10:00 Pace campus trying to peddle insurance and retirement programs
11:30 LUNCH-thank GOD for girl time lunches
12:30 head out to find another parking place
1:00 emails, clients, text messages OH MY
2:00 is it time for a nap?
3:00 Hubby to me "what's for dinner"
3:01 Wife...mmm yes dear "what is for dinner"
3:55 leave campus to head 40 minutes across town
4:40 pick up Sweet pea who cries as she wants to eat a "nack" before she leaves
5:01 finally leave school
5:14 Publix...with everyone else who was too lazy to go to the grocery store over the weekend to adequately prepare healthy meals for the week
5:46 home
5:48 dog escapes, toddler chases dog,neighbor returns dog, and laughs at mommy running in high heels chasing both dog and toddler...
5:50 child in "safe place chair" to think about running in the road
5:52 Little bit takes out all the books to "READ MOMMY READ"
6:05 Still reading Brown Bear Brown Bear
6:10 Outside to ride bike
6:37 Tears of sadness as we HAVE to go inside and start dinner and bath process
6:40 baby eats
6:59 DADDY'S HOME
7:03 Mommy's cooking, Daddy's bathing baby
7:18 pa "jama" time
7:24 brush teeth, collect blankey, bunny, passy and "cover" to go night night
7:31 baby is in bed
7:45 sit down to eat dinner as a couple
8:00 discuss life, chores, finances,tv options
8:07 is it time for bed yet?
8:30 muster up enough energy for list at 8:00
9:12 climb into bed
9:47 go to sleep and pray that you get something accomplished tomorrow...or maybe we will just stay home!!!

Grandma and Grandpa...HOO

Grandma and Grandpa along with Yahoo (pronounced HOO) came to visit for a few days. It was so helpful to have them here as it allowed me to work some too...They enjoyed exclusive Summy time and spoiled her rotten as usual. Sum is so blessed to have them as her grandparents!

Fun with friends

We had the opportunity to enjoy a play date at the park with lots of my best friends and their sweet children during spring break as BSM was closed for the week. Summer refers to them as "mommy fends." She loves KAYEE, LIAM, JACK, TYEEER and the rest of the clan too. It was my first time at "little" Tom Brown park.(THANKS Kimberly for this wonderful suggestion). It was great as there were not many people there and we could enjoy each others company.

You will notice that Summer is wearing her "gasses" in most every picture. She is in the OCD phase and thinks she looks "coote" while wearing them. Truth is, I think she looks cute too!

Potty Time

Yes it is a bit disgusting and not very polite to share the journey of potty training, however I just can't resist in posting this to revisit later.

Summer was VERY into potty training during the holidays while cousin "EMMY" was here. I must give aunt Mamy credit as Emmy was completely potty trained by 19 months. YES, 19 months, big girl panties and all. Well, these are big shoes to follow, but I just didn't thing my girl was quite ready till now.

We were doing really well at the beginning of the year, but she had a bit of regression over the last couple of weeks and here's why...
Sum's teachers thought I was the crazy overachieving mommy when I came in after the 2week Christmas break and told them that she was ready to begin the journey of potty training. Low and behold she looked at Rosie and said to her "me go now, hand (for hold my hand), go, me go potty now"...Well her teacher was caught off guard considering she is the first in class to express interest let alone tell her she was ready. She put Summy up on the potty and was putting her gloves on when OOPS her hiney hit the water! She and Rosie both freaked out and Summer pretty much was cured of the potty adventure.

So over the next few weeks, we would go to the classroom bathroom and say good morning to the potty and touch the toilet to show that it was "safe."

With that being said this weekend she starting asking to sit on her Dora potty and asked me to sing her the potty song all weekend. She told me she needed to go while we were outside and even made it on the potty to go #1. The next day while were at Meemaw's she told her she needed to go "poopy" and went #2. We are continuing this adventure, but OMG this means she really isn't a baby any more!