VOTE for my Kaylin-Bug!!

So it's been waaaaaay too long since I've blogged but the 2 shortest people in my house keep me busier than ever. I know, no excuse. And those of you with 3+ kids are totally rolling your eyes at me right now. Okay, so don't write me off yet. The part of my brain that files potential blog posts has been over-crowded by sippy decisions, teething issues, PlayDoh creations, ballet dancing, and potty-training (the one year old.)

Another little thing that has been taking up brain capacity is this little contest on Facebook.

We entered Kaylin's picture in Talenti's Cutest Gelato Moment photo contest and she is one of the 6 semi-finalists!!

So this is my shameless plug to GO VOTE FOR KAYLIN here so we can win some of the best gelato on the planet!!

The contest runs all week (thru September 11th) and you can vote once a day (per Facebook account.)

We are currently in second place, but the one in first place is a professionally taken/tweaked photo (which is against the rules!) so it's a little unfair. All the more reason to cast votes for Kaylin!! She's under my name, Jill Putty (week 4) and all you have to do is click "VOTE."

Then if you click "SHARE" you can ask all your Facebook friends to "please vote for #4!"

Thanks to all my thousands of faithful readers out there who love me and support our gelato habit. ;)

"Thanks everybody! I promise to share my winnings with Harley again!" - Kaylin

the native tongue of a 2-year-old

Today Cami said batteries. Not "babbies", BATTERIES! I was quick to correct her.

"Um, honey... you mean 'babbies'?"

"No Mommy... ba-ter-eeees. BATTERIES."

"NOOOOO!! Not that one too! Can't we please just keep that one?! I'm not ready for it to go! Please can we keep babbies!?"

[staring at me]

"Hee hee... batteries Mommy."

It's a sad day.

One by one they're fading away and being replaced. Her words. Her sweet little words. She doesn't understand how we love them. She is such a little perfectionist (not sure where that trait came from...ahem) and every time she perfects yet another one of her cute little words it means she's getting older.

"Diddy" is now Kitty.

"Nonny" is banana.

"ahTAHoh" is avocado.

"appauce" has become applesauce (thanks to Cousin Felicity for correcting her)

and speaking of...

"Wissy" has been Felicity for a while now :(

We lost "lellow" around Thanksgiving.

And her "bobberm" is now her bottom.

As with "babbies", I have tried my best to save each of these words in hopes of preserving the original 2-year-old Cami verbiage. She is not much help since she finds a rare joy in correcting her mommy.

There do, in fact, remain a few words still in transition:

"thlank you" still includes the mystery "L" and gets sweeter every day.

"stoomie" has evolved into the more commonly used 'scuse me.

Though she does know how to say it right, she still prefers to wear "meanies" rather than panties.

And our old friend the "Snut" (Noah's skunk) has acquired the new and improved title of "Snuk." Getting closer but not there yet!

One word I'm pretty confident we'll be hanging on to for a while is "dere" (girl). Sometimes she attempts it but isn't completely satisfied with the outcome and honestly neither am I.

She's growing up and it's bittersweet but I'm dealing with it and it helps to be able to blog about it.

In the meantime we praise her for her improvements but still give her lellow nonnies for breakfast and tell her to kiss Diddy goodnight. She corrects us of course, but we just smile and playfully argue about it.

It's only a matter of time before she masters the English language and disappoints us all!

Today she was watching me from her Learning Tower as I prepared a chicken to bake in the oven.

"What's that Mommy? Can I touch it?"

"Yeah Sweetie. This is called aluminum foil. Can you say ah-lu-mi-num?"

"Ah...lumum-mim... hee hee."

That's right. I just bought us some more time.

This is why I live in Florida:

10-Day Forecast for Ocala, FL (34471) Printable Forecast Daily Details | Text Forecast | Averages & Records Video Forecast Forecast Conditions High °F Low °F Precip. Chance High Temperatures Low Temperatures Precipitation Wind Speed Tonight Dec 5 Clear N/A 34° 0% High not valid after 2pm Mon Dec 6 Sunny 59° 27° 0% 59°F Tue Dec 7 Sunny 57° 26° 0% 57°F Wed Dec 8 Partly Cloudy 60° 27° 0% 60°F Thu Dec 9 Sunny 65° 32° 0% 65°F Fri Dec 10 Sunny 71° 40° 0% 71°F

Cookie Monday

It's Monday but that's okay because we just made a ton of cookies.

We're outside again and it's easy breezy beautiful. But not like Maybeline 'cause I have zero make-up on and would probably break a camera were it aimed at me right now.

This might be a good reason I don't have a lot of friends in town 'cause unannounced visits would be embarrassing. In more ways than one.

Cami's playing with sand again and trying not to spill it everywhere.

She was just pushing Baby Sister in the walker and Harley was in the way...

"Harley, SCOOTCH!"

...but it was more like "Harley STOOTS!" because she's still selective of when she uses the "ck" sound.

I had to wake The Perfect Baby up a little bit ago from her 3 1/2 hour nap. It worked out great for me and Cami to bake cookies. We made the "kitchen sink" ones that Grandma Kay makes. They have chocolate chips, raisins, oatmeal, nuts and coconut. But I misplaced my coconut so we did without it. They are yummy and I'm trying not to think about them.

I have my Michael Buble Pandora station playing. It's such "feel good" music.

This is THE best weather ever created. I remember thinking that every year at this time. Where can I live where it's like this year round??

Cami is throwing all the balls out of the bouncy house ball pit. They are everywhere. I'm gonna make her clean them up. She's been bringing them to me one at a time asking, "Where is the ball's home, Mommy?"

It is now that precious time of the day called "nap time."

I want to nap too but I don't want to waste a minute of this amazing weather!

Maybe I'll clean house. ugh.

Those cookies are haunting my thoughts!!

Bittersweet Ordinary

(Since no one reads my blog anymore - and for good reason since I don't update it - this one's just for me ;)

Today is one of those normal kind of days.

The ones that happen over and over all in a row. They all begin to run together unless something out of the ordinary happens. And by "out of the ordinary" I mean like a birthday party or going to Gram's or something.

Yeah, these are the days that I stay in my PJ's half the day 'til nap time when I take a shower and throw on whatever T-shirt and shorts I most likely wore yesterday. Cami wears play clothes that usually don't match and Kaylin sports a baby sleeper. We sometimes have a Blue's Clues marathon or watch a few Mister Rogers 'sodes while building a play ground with blocks for Noah's animals.

Today the weather is unarguably perfect and we are out back on the porch enjoying every bit of it. Kaylin just finished nursing (which took all of 10 minutes) and she's chillin' in her walker, kicking her chubby feet.

Cami is wearing a stained shirt and "mom jeans", playing very well by herself. She goes back and forth between her water/sand table and her bowl of bird seed (the new favorite toy around here.) There are also water guns, shells, sidewalk chalk, and from what I just heard, a bug participating in her activities. Her little $3.00 yard sale tricycle is parked on the patio waiting for her to remember it. The bouncy house is resting deflated in the grass. Harley is lapping up stale bird seed as he finds it scattered about. It's 73 degrees in the shade (THIS is why I live in Florida!)

I don't want to forget this day. There's nothing special about it except that it's part of my life right now that will one day soon be gone and I will miss it and wish I could have just 5 minutes of it so I could feel this feeling again. I take the feeling for such granted! The feeling I feel every single ordinary day in this season of my life. It's not even a conscious or noticeable feeling. Maybe that's what is so bittersweet about it. I could've sat down and recorded details of yesterday and have had an almost identical post.

But today is the one.

Nothing special about it, yet special now.

I just chose one of those ordinary days, in the middle of so many. I captured it before it escaped into history and became a blurry link in the chain of days spent this way for a season.

November 12, 2010... you lucky Friday, you!

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Cami is now experimenting with water and bird seed. She has various sized containers and keeps dumping her watery seed mixture back and forth, each time spilling some on the concrete. Soon she will wonder why there isn't anymore to dump and she will ask me where it went and beg me for more ingredients.

She is making a huge mess.

She is learning.

She is being two.

The past me would be getting my panties in a wad over something like this. I wonder what the future me would do. . .probably be finding her more ingredients. I'm somewhere in between right now.

Today's funny phrase for Cami is "monkey poopy." She occasionally and randomly blurts it out and laughs hysterically as though proud of herself for discovering the hilarious combination of words.

Okay, my panties almost wadded just now when she attempted to pour a bucket of her mixture on her head.

The baby is letting me know it's nap time. Cami's play clothes are soaked. I'm sure her Crocs are filled with mushy bird seed.

I just announced that it's almost nap time and she countered with, "Know what!? Now we can do different stuff! We can go play inside!" Nice try.

One day, sooner than I want it to, my ordinary will change and never be this again.