~Stuffing Cheerios~

As a mom, you will most likely do pretty much anything in the world to entertain and try to get your child to laugh. For example, jump up and down like a goofball-make every animal sound you can think of-invent sounds that you didn't even know your voice could make-etc...and I have fulfilled them all. I usually can get a huge smile from my daughter-but laughing is rare. This whole time, all I needed was Brooklyn (Aylah's BFF-and I mean BFF) to stuff her face with cheerios to entertain my child and get her laughing. This video doesn't even measure up to how much she was laughing before the camera was turned on, but at least I caught this much.

So thank you Brooklyn-for making Aylah laugh and being such a good friend to her. She loves being with you! You sure will make a good big sis-huh?!

~Bear Crawl~

~Car Seat~

It is time for Aylah to get a new car seat. She has outgrown her infant seat, so.... I need some help. Can anyone tell me why these things range from $59 to over $300? What exactly am I suppose to be looking for here? Obviousely, I don't need the car seat with speakers (yes, they have car seats with speakers)...but I would like your opinion on what you liked, didn't like or what you wish you had as far as features, brand etc...

Thanks in advance for your help.

~Whistle While You Play~

Aylah was hard at play today...

when she found her daddy's whistle.

Pretty good job, if you ask me?

~Cleaning House~

I'm definitely not one that has my house clean if you just happen to pop by to say hi. Nope, not me at all. I am one to have a halfway decent clean house if I know you are coming (what I mean by decent is...most things are picked up off the floor, everything that was out of place was thrown in to the extra bedroom with the door closed, and the floors were vacuumed). I use to be a spic-n-span type of girl. I loved fly lady and I definitely had a weekly schedule that I stuck to as far as cleaning, laundry, ironing etc. Then one day I meet this guy named Mike and I feel head over heels. I decided that there was absolutely nothing more important than spending every spare second with him-and that's when all the organizing-cleaning and having everything in ABC order went out the door. Then on another day-I gave birth to the most beautiful girl in the world and any cleaning that I might have still had in me, yep, you guessed it...I have nothing left, nothing! I figured that my time was much more valuable spent playing, teaching and learning with sweet Aylah. You might be thinking, so what about when she is taking a nap. You should be cleaning then, right? WRONG!!! Who wants to clean when noone is around. When your child is sleeping, your husband is at work, noone is coming over (at least not planned). I would rather sit and do nothing-or read your blogs-or sit and do nothing. So this is what I have to do. I set the timer for oh, lets say 30 or 45 minutes (sometimes 1 hour)...and then off I go. Cleaning as fast as I can. Yes, I actually run-on my tiptoes of course so that I won't wake my sleeping beauty. I run from room to room-cleaning and grabbing things as I go. I get as much accomplished as possible within the time set and then when that timer beeps---I go back to sitting and doing nothing.
I'm trying though, I really am. I want to have a well balanced home. I want my children to know that a clean house is important but that it is definitely not a priority over playing, loving and spending time with each other. Many people have a hard time with that-letting the small things go such as a few dirty dishes in the sink, an extra pile of laundry, crumbs on the floor...you get the point. So, I'm really not complaining about my lack of cleaning...I'm saying thank you to my wonderful husband who totally agrees with me and doesn't mind if the house is a mess sometimes. On the other hand, I need to be more disciplined so I can set a good example to my children and so I can be the best wife and mother I can be. It's all about balance I suppose.

~Weekend Fun~

Our weekends are so much fun. They actually begin on Fridays for us since that is Mike's day off. I usually make Waffles on Fridays...and the puppies get the leftovers. As usual, I walked outside and threw the leftovers on the back patio so the puppies could chow down. Well, now that Aylah can crawl so well, and gets practically anywhere in the house in a matter of a split second...this is what I found-

Aylah decided she wasn't quite through with her waffles and wanted the puppies to share with her...and yes-I let them share (yuck, I can't believe I did that and I really can't believe I let you know about it)

Aylah is getting so good at standing up. Here she is in action.

Daddy's lil' ~Polka-Daughter~

I apologize that none of these pictures are edited. I have yet to retire the old Kodak program and it is taking me at least half a day to even get the pics loaded-so as soon as I get this rather annoying problem solved...edited pics will be back-don't worry.

~Taken By Brooklyn~

Aylah's bff, Brooklyn came over yesterday for a few hours and loves to video Aylah. She captured this hilarious moment of Aylah misplacing her hand and....well, I'll just let you watch and see for yourself.