This was a year ago!?!

So I was just yapping with a coworker about her little one, who'll be walking soon. She asked me if I remember when Layla started walking and I had to take a look back at the trusty Sherman blog.

Layla took her first steps on October 22, 2008, but here's a glimpse of how well she was moving around on November 13, 2008.

She is soooo grown up now compared to this. She runs so fast I can hardly keep up with her! How did she grow up so fast in just one year!?!?

Stupid Blogger - scroll down

I'm not sure why blogger does this, but if I draft a post and don't post it until after another post, it lists the older post below the newer one.

Anyway, scroll down for pics of Bean from Halloween!

32 and lovin' it

Happy Birthday to me, today! I'm the big 3-2 today and lovin' it (or so I keep trying to tell myself). Each year, my birthday gets more uneventful and less of a "to-do" than the last. Probably because I'm starting to understand what it feels like to get old and I don't want to celebrate that, and probably because the really important thing in my life is my little girl and hubby - who take up all my spare time and energy (in good and bad ways). ;)

Here are some things I've learned this year:

1. It's not selfish to think about yourself before others every once in a great while.
2. Coloring your own hair is easy and cheap. I am not above it!
3. It took me 31.75 years to grow up the courage to have someone besides my mom wax my eyebrows. They did not fall off and they look just fine.
4. I've learned to accept the things I cannot change and change the things I can (although, I don't always know the difference).
5. People who ask for advice over and over and don't take it, don't really want your advice. So, when those people continue to ask me for advice, I am going to start talking in gibberish to see what they say.
6. Glee is the best show to hit t.v. in like 32 years.
7. When it comes to kids - nothing is permanent - good or bad.
8. When it comes to kids - each day with them is better than the day before.
9. Friends who are far away and busy with lives of their own are always near and dear to my heart.
10. Family is the root of all happiness. And Zen, well, Zen is when I look into Layla's big baby blue's see all that she's learning and all that she'll learn from us.

Happy Flippin Bday to meeee!

Halloween n' Stuff

Awe... our little bumble bee. Er, Whinny the Pooh dressed as a bumble bee, that is.

Layla and her buddy Buzz Lightyear, I mean Ryan (the bee costume was his when he was little).
Proud whinny the pooh bee.
Hey, you like my punkin?

Really daddy? Really?


A little late, and out of sequence, but you know what they say about that... Better late than, well, you know how it goes. ;) Halloween at the Sherman house went off without a hitch. Layla dressed up as Whinny the Pooh, dressed up as a bumble bee. The costume was courtesy of the Roemer's (Ryan wore it when he was younger). Layla was very proud of her costume and wore it almost all night. The only time she wanted to take it off was towards the end of the Roemer party when she had been playing for some time and was getting "too ott" (too hot).

A few nights before the party, we carved the pumpkin that came from Grandma D and Grandpa Ice's house. Layla made all the decisions on the face and daddy did the carving according to her requests. Don't mind the beads in her mouth in the shots. Daddy gave her Packer beads and now she's obsessed w/them. Hence them hanging out of her mouth in some of these.

Halloween was Layla's first real exposure to candy. Wow. Now I know why parents are so over the top when people try to give their kids candy. It was like someone fed Layla cocaine with a spoon. We really tried to regulate her intake, but geeze, it was Halloween and there was candy flying at her from everywhere!! We paid for the candy intake starting at about 2:00 a.m. on Nov 1. She was up from 2:00 a.m. on and it was not pretty for mommy and daddy, who stayed up until almost 1:00 a.m. Nice move mom and dad!!

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday was a gorgeous day, so we hit up the pumpkin patch (on the 5 yr anniversary of the weekend that Jake proposed to me - by carving it in a GIANT pumpkin after we hit up Apple Hollar pumpkin patch). It was pretty fun, and Layla was in heaven. Her favorite thing these days is pumpkins, so to walk into a field of them was probably like if one of us were to walk into a field of money that was up for grabs. Or wine, whatever.

As you'll see by the pics, I think the biggest event was Layla's run in with the llama. The pics will tell the story, but let's just say llamas are now on Layla's shit list.

Awe... fam shot. We were looking directly into the sun... so I think all three of us were gritting our teeth through the pain.

Layla, observing all the pumpkins while eating popcorn.

Man, this is a lot of pumpkins!

Jake shooting the pumpkin blaster. In his words, it was, "Awesome."Pumpkin blaster target.

After he shot. What a dork. ;)

Layla thought this old broke down wagon was the bee's knees. I was a little nervous that the wheel was going to fall off.

Layla on the choo choo train ride. She loved it!!! We had to go twice.

Mother of God... you want me to do what? You want me to reach my hand over and pet that giant thing that's staring me in the face? Whaaaat? Getting close...

Closer...
Chomp! Here's where the llama decided to tug on Bean's jacket a bit. She was NOT a happy camper after this. She screamed, "AAAAhhhhh!!!!! Lllllaaaammmmaaa!!!" She was the only one at the pumpkin patch having a fit at this time.

Feeding the goat. Gross.

Oddly enough, these goats were picky. After this pig scarfed all the food Layla had in her hand, Layla bent down to pick some up off the ground and feed it to the goat. He wasn't having any of that.

Weekend w/ Bean

The weekend was a good one... a little weird without 2,340 things to do, but relaxing all the same. Saturday, daddy took Layla to run errands with him (aka, dink around at Fleet Farm, Cabella's, some other hunting store, Kmart - for a pumpkin bucket and a giant stuffed fish, etc). While they were gone, I cleaned. Niiice. Sunday was awesome weather day, so we took Bean to a pumpkin patch (those pics are saved for another post this week. No really, I already did the post and have it on reserve).

Pictures below are just some randoms of the weekend. I'm seeing more and more each day how badly we need a new camera. Dear Santa, please send new camera.

New potty, drinkin' chocolate milk. She was mad that this potty didn't have a "flusher", but we're trying to tackle this potty training things from all angles!

She's gonna kill me for this pic someday... Daddy and Layla were watching baseball. And, well, this is how daddy watches baseball, so this is Layla's impression of daddy.

Making popcorn!

Ohhhh! Pop, pop, pop! Bean, when you were in my belly, we called you "Popcorn" cuz it felt like there was popcorn popping in my belly when you'd kick!

Eating popcorn out of her "punkin toy".

Here's Bean singing the intro of "Single Ladies" and a little of "Zippity do da". Then she says hi to almost everyone in the fam and then some. Too funny. She was sitting on the counter playing w/ play dough (from Auntie Megan and Uncle Hot Hair).

Terrible Two's

Well, we're there. The terrible two's. They are upon us in full fury and we're loving it (please note sarcasm). You can see the "Devil" in her eyes in this picture, can't you?? Can't you?? Here, we were doing some artwork at the kitchen table and I so rudely interrupted her by asking her to please smile for the camera. Yikes! ;)

Layla's latest: waking up at 4:30 a.m. to talk, yell, play, have a tantrum, then when it's finally time to leave the house 3 hours later she says she's tired. Lately, I've felt like a terrible mommy because all I want to do is yell, "Pleeeeease!!! For the love of God child, BE QUIET!!!!!! Stop wining!!! Stop crying!!! Stop throwing things!!!" Not long ago, I taught Layla what "patience" means. Now, whenever I say, "Do you know what it means to be patient?" she says, "Wait?" and I say yes. BUT, that has backfired because I'm trying to teach her all kinds of words now like "manners", "do not whine", "be polite", etc. Whenever I say things like, "Do you know what it means to be polite?" she'll say, "Wait?" Pretty funny but frustrating at the same time.

Jake's been really busy lately with school so Layla and I are often left to "fend for ourselves" and / or amuse ourselves. This weekend I chased her around for a bit with the camera to try to capture some of her sassy and chatty moments. Here's what I got... Nothing spectacular but stay tuned. There's never a shortage of sass in our house, that's for sure.

In this video, you'll probably sense the exhaustion in my voice when she walks away from her book and tries to take the camera from me. Then you'll note that I've fallen off my rocker by teaching Layla to "shake her booty". Great values, mom.