I have to admit, this hurt my feelings

Let me start with the fact that Alyssa has yet to call me MOM. No mama, ma, mom or mommy!

The other day I went to get her out of her crib and Alyssa is saying "HI DIDA". She couldn't be saying "Hi, Linda", could she?!?

Alyssa does use the "D" sound for a lot of words. Obviously there is dad or daddy. Then she uses ditty (for kitty) and didi (for baby). Gary and I always say MOM or MAMA or MOMMY around her. She has to hear that way more than she would hear me being called Linda. It sucks and it kind of hurts my feelings.

It doesn't help that everyone else thinks it is funny and now eggs Alyssa on. Well, that isn't going to teach her any better, and my MIL made the comment that she couldn't believe Alyssa wasn't saying mama yet. How is that supposed to make me feel?

Part of me thinks that maybe she is so darn smart that she knows that I want so badly for her to say mama that she decided she would piss me off and say Linda first. If this is any indication to how it is going to be in the future, I am in BIG trouble!!!!

Tag You're It

I am participating in a fun game from Melissa and here are the instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

Of course, the closest book to me is What To Expect the Toddler Years.

And the 5th sentence on pg 123 is: An occasional victory will make up for the many "losses" your toddler endures each day. (The first sentence of this paragraph is that parents don't always have to win. I feel like I NEVER win...LOL. Of course this is reading from the 17th month, so maybe the battles get better...hmmmm).

Ok, I tag....Christina. Girl, I know your super busy (and probably exhausted), but take a second to do this fun game.

All that overtime really pays off.

About a month ago, Gary work some extreme OT. It sucked because he was on-call, so he was never home and I missed him very much. Today we reaped the benefits of that horrible two weeks!! The check was AWESOME. It feels so good to be able to save spending money for Georgia and still have spending money in our checking account!! Yeah for us!!

I know we should use some of that money to finish paying off our leased car (sore subject). But, we are not going to. Gary is going to get to buy something for himself (he deserves it) and we are going to go to a nice dinner. The rest of the money I would like to stay in the checking account so we can be comfortable for a little while!

It is funny how two years ago, we were able to be so frivolous because I worked about 50 hours a week. We made the decision as soon as I was pregnant to work the least amount of hours to be able to stay home as much as I can with Alyssa. I work about 24 hours a week and it is the greatest thing! I get time to myself (at work) and I get time with Alyssa on my days off. I know I have said it before, but I am so lucky to have that opportunity. The checks are not as great though, but we have learned to manage and it is definitely worth it.

Because I'm sure you were dying to know

With all my sappy cat stories, I forgot to update on the garage sale.

The second day of the garage sale was a little better than the first. I made about $21.00 which brought my two day total $33.00. Yep, only $33.00. My mom made about $61.00.

We packed everything up and stored it in her shed. She suggested we try again in the beginning of August. Whatever, that is fine with me as long as nothing comes back to my house!!

After we packed everything up my mom says we should use the money we made for the rental van that we are going to get while in Georgia. So, I didn't even get to see a dime of it.

But that is OK, because now I don't have to take money out of my account for the rental van.

I still feel like shit

I keep thinking that I did the wrong thing taking Noah back to the humane society.

There are so many things I already miss about him.

*Every night he would meow when it was time to be fed. I always thought it was annoying. Last night I missed it a lot. I actually filled both dishes with food, because I didn't just want to only fill one.

*Every time I took a shower, he would wait for me to get out so he could rub against my legs.

*When I would eat a bowl of cereal, Noah would wait for me to finish so he could lick the milk out of my bowl.

*When I would give both cats a treat, I would shake their treats container. You could hear the THUMP of Noah jumping off of a bed upstairs and like an elephant he would run down the stairs. You would think he weighed a million pounds. I would always have to give Casper a treat first, because Noah would always steal Caspers. Today, I gave Casper a treat and I swear he was wondering where Noah was to steal it. It was sad to only give one treat away today.

*When I came home, Noah would greet me at the door. Even if it was just a look and then run away. He would always make sure it was someone who belonged here.

I think Casper is a little sad and lost without his buddy. I have been trying to give Casper some extra attention, to make him feel better. It is really strange without Noah here.

I really miss him. I can't believe that this is so hard.

I feel like a horrible person

Today we took our cat, Noah, to the humane society.

It was such a hard thing to do. We had made the decision that he could not live with us any longer after the third bite on Alyssa and after the umteenth time he peed on our new furniture.

I am absolutely miserable today. When we took him, I made Gary go inside. They told Gary that if the cat has bitten a child, they won't even try to put him up for adoption. When Gary came out and told me that, I couldn't do it. We sat in the car for a half an hour crying, trying to exhaust every possible idea. We had already been through this. We have already tried to see if anyone wanted to give him a good home. But noone wants to adopt a cat who has bitten a child and has peed on furniture.

When Gary went back inside, the ladies said she saw how upset we were over our cat and the decision they had made and told us that they would give him a chance. She said that she does have to put he is not good with children and that he has bitten, but she will give him a fighting chance for someone to adopt him.

In a way, I am soo relieved. I am relieved that I can hope he will find a good home, hopefully with an older lady who will take great care of him. Someone who can give him the attention that he needs and deserves.

It is really so hard though. It was hard to come home and see his pictures. (Yes, we have his pictures in frames). It will be hard to not hear him meow every night when it is time to be fed. It will be hard for a while. I feel like maybe I wimped out too soon, but I keep going back to when is it enough? How many bites? How much money thrown away on furniture? When it is enough?

So, please hope with me! Hope that Noah will find the home he deserves with someone who can love him just as much as we really did (and still do).

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Garage Sale - Day 1: I have sunburn on my face and arms. I sat outside from the hours of 9-4. I only made $12.00!!! I sure hope today is a better day!! I am sure my mom made a little more than me, but not a whole lot. I am really hoping that today being Saturday, more people will be out. I have to admit, I am scamming out today. I went to Jazzercise already this morning and now I have to get ready for a bridal shower that I was invited to.

My 101 list: Check out the list of 101 Things About Me!!!

Christina: I am dying to hear an update!!! Just so you know, I am thinking about you everyday! And I am really wondering why the nurses won't let you on the laptop. I mean, come on, it is like the phone these days. This is how most of the world communicates!!!

Thanks: Thanks to everyone who is reading my blog! I love that everyone likes to read about me and Alyssa and our life. Every comment is truley appreciated, so keep 'em coming!!

With that said, I better go get ready for the shower, and stop back in on the garage sale to see how everything is going!!

Who is out there?!?

I wanted to copy a fun poll from Laina's site, although it seems hard since noone knows me in real life.

So, what I hope to get out of this is just to let me know your out there. Let me know that you are reading and what you like about my blog.

Even if you lurk, just let me know you are there!!

1. Who are you?
2. What keeps you coming back to read more about my life??

Where did my baby go???

She looks like a little girl here! What happened to my baby?!?
Sniff, sniff, sniff.

Garage Sale

This weekend I will be having my first garage sale ever. Well, it is going to be joined with my mom at my mom's house. But, it is the first one that I have ever brought my stuff to sell. When I was loading my truck today I realized that I had a lot more stuff to sell than I thought. I really hope that I make a few bucks on this stuff. This will be part of our spending money when we take our trip to Georgia. Yay!!

Plus, I don't want to have to bring any of this stuff home!!

Yeah, and it is less than one month until Alyssa flies in an airplane for the first time. Does anyone have any advice for flying with a one year old? How about popping ears? Would a binky work good for that?

When packages arrive

I get so freakin' excited when packages come in the mail. I got two in the past week.

The first one was a table with three boxes under it for toys. I put it together and put it in Alyssa's room. It is so cute the boxes have heart shapes for the handles and pastel flowers on the front. Very girlie and very cute!! This was on backorder for months and it finally came, I am too excited.

But that wasn't all, a couple days later another package came. It was Alyssa's book order that I had gotten for her. We have a whole new selection of books to read! I love reading books to Alyssa. It is our time to relax and bond.

What a great week this has been! (And how sad is it that I am overly excited for a toy box and some books).

What a weekend

This past weekend was very interesting.

Good friends of ours had wanted to go out of town for the weekend and I offered to babysit their two kiddos and their dog. One is a boy (9) and the other is a girl (4 1/2 months). I really didn't mind doing it, but I have to admit having two babies is HARD WORK!!

First of all, the baby, doesn't sleep through the night and doesn't like to sleep too much during the day. She likes a lot of attention and likes to be held. I didn't think Alyssa would be the jealous type, but I was wrong! A few different times I had to give the baby my attention (crying, feeding ect) and Alyssa would cry big crocodile tears until I was able to put the baby down and pick her up. That was very rough.

I have got it too easy now. Alyssa has slept through the night since she was 3 months old. I could lay her down awake and she wouldn't scream. She would (and still does) sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning! Well, this baby, is NOT like that!!

The boy helped out ALOT. He took the dog out whenever I asked him to. He played with Alyssa and picked up messes. He didn't bother me too much asking for stuff.

Gary and I have been discussing having another baby lately. Well, after this weekend, I told Gary that I didn't know if I was ready for this. I mean Alyssa and the baby were on separate schedules. They hardly slept at the same time and I almost forgot how much attention that small babies need compared to my one year old. It was so hard to get on the floor to spend time with Alyssa because so much time was consumed with the baby and I felt horrible. I felt horrible that I couldn't give Alyssa 100% of my attention like she is used to, (and I am used to).

How do you moms of more than one do it??

Yesterday was my birthday!

Officially on May 3, I turned the big 2-7!

It really didn't feel like my birthday at first. On Friday we had celebrated a friend's sister's birthday and on Sunday we celebrated my nephew's birthday (the big 1). So, it just seemed as if mine were non-existent, with all this other celebrating going around.

First, I had to work. Ughh...

But afterwards, my mom had made dinner. Chicken paprikash (sp?). It was mmmmm delicious! That is by far my favorite meal that she makes. She gave me a card, but no present because we are going to Georgia in June and she helped pay for part of my plane ticket as a b-day present.

When we got home my hubby gave me two cards and a precious moment (from Alyssa he said). It was so cute. I love precious moments.

The in-laws came over and visited. After they left, Gary gave Alyssa a bath and we put her to bed. I came on the computer and he came up behind me and asked me why I didn't feel like it was my birthday. I told him that it wasn't anything he had done, and I was happy. He took me into our living room and there was a cake for me with candles. He sang happy birthday to me and gave me a box with a gold necklace in it. It was so sweet. I was totally not expecting anything big and I was really happy with everything. It was so sweet, I cried.

So, my birthday turned out to be an awesome one. It would have anyway, but it was nice that my hubby got me something without me having to ask for it. I always hate telling him things I want.

And that was my birthday!!!