The Good, The Bad, The Funny

We’ve been doing this whole daycare thing for a little over a month now and I can honestly say it has not been boring.  Little Miss Jesalyn has picked up on some….let’s call them… habits.   Some good and some not so good.  Luckily, the good has outweighed the bad, so far.

Jesalyn has started talking so much more.  She is constantly saying something.  Funny story; the other day I finished changing her diaper and was just sitting on the floor with her watching something on the tv. She gets up, runs into the kitchen, and starts saying something over and over.  “Doch, doch, doch”  I acknowledge her: “yes Jesalyn.  Uh huh.”  My response didn’t satisfy her, and she kept repeating it. Finally, I get up and go in there to see if I can understand what she means.  She had her diaper in her hand and was pointing at the cabinet where we keep the trash.  She was saying “trash.” As in “um mom, you lazy butt, don’t you know you’re supposed to do something with my diaper besides leave it on the floor!” So, I opened the door and she threw the diaper away. This has become a new thing now.  She will scan the entire apartment for paper, run into the kitchen, open the cabinet (she has taught herself how,) throw the paper away and start looking for more.  Hey, at least we have a third person to clean now =)

Another thing that has helped us communicate with her is sign language.  We started it before she went in to daycare and they use it all day while she is there. Some of the signs she knows are: “more,” “please,” “pretty,” “bird,” “all done,” and “food.”  We were working on ‘water’ but recently found out that the sign for water is dangerously close to a not so nice word, so if you are adept in sign language and you think my daughter is cursing at you,  she’s probably just thirsty. 

I caught my daughter stinking her finger up her nose the other day. Thanks daycare….enough said.

So, the other day Jarrod went to pick Jesalyn up and we both like to look into the room before we go in and get a glimpse of how she interacts with other people when we aren’t around. What he saw was Jesalyn standing with a bouncy ball.  She would throw it in the air, it would fall to floor and roll across the room.  Then, another little boy named Matt who we thinks has a crush on Jesalyn (but do not tell daddy) runs across the room and gets the ball and brings it back to her so that she can throw it back up in the air.  Guess she’s got the boys wrapped around her finger already. 

Yes, Jarrod is a bit, um, sensitive when it comes to Jesalyn and boys.  I asked her the other day if she was going to go to school and play with Matt and Jarrod jumped in “don’t talk to her about Matt! We don’t need to encourage her to play with boys.”  A few days later, I jokingly asked her if she had a boyfriend and I thought he was going to flip out.   He was seriously mad.  Oh man, does he have some fun years ahead.

Wordless Wednesday

Who doesn't love some chocolate...

Mayla LeeAnn

So this past Friday morning I was getting ready for work and the phone rang at like 645 in the am.  I looked at Jarrod and said "who in the world would call me this early?" Only, I knew before I picked up who it was. There was only one thing it could be.  My momma was calling to tell me that my not so baby sister was in labor.  Sure enough. She had been up all night long having contractions and they finally decided to take her in.  The doctors confirmed that yes, this was it.  My very first niece was to be born on tax day =)  Jarrod and I each took a half day off from work and I kicked. butt. getting to Mount Vernon, praying that I would make it before she delivered.  We walked into the hospital and Mayla LeeAnn Massie was born not even 10 min. later.  My sister had a rough delivery; issues with the epidural, but she is one tough momma and got through it.  I'm so proud of her!!  And now, for what your waiting for. Aunt Jamie took lots of pictures! Here are just a few:
 

I have to point out that I picked out this outfit.  Look at the cute flower on the butt!!!

And what was my daughter doing this weekend while everyone was making goo goo eyes at Mayla?????

Crawling on the floor! 

Tourist time

My sister and her boyfriend came to play with Jesalyn and give Jarrod and I a break visit this weekend. We had a lot of fun while they were here.  We took them to Mellow Mushroom for supper the first night. A must for all visitors; they have the best pizza anywhere.   On Sunday, we met them for lunch at The Loveless Cafe.  Being in Nashville for a total of close to five years, I'm ashamed to say we had not ever been.  Although we had to wait an hour and a half for food, it was oh so yummy and there were cute little shops to look at.  Jesalyn has been a trooper all weekend.

 Playing with Aunt Nell in the game room at Mellow Mushroom

She stood at the door and waived at everyone coming in

The Loveless Cafe

 

Spring Cleaning: Face Edition

I heard on The Doctors yesterday that summer is 12 weeks away.  What does this mean? It means we have 3 months to get our butt ready for the skin baring, warm weather that’s about to come.  I’ve been working on the muscles and lose flab part the past couple of months.  Even though I punked out the last two weeks of Insanity, I haven’t given up altogether. I’ve been running and working those weights.  But that’s another topic. I’m here today to talk about dusting off the cobwebs and getting your skin prepped and ready.  Summer months are about carefree days and wiping off that mask of makeup we tend to pile on in the colder months.  “Less is more” is never truer than your make-up in the summer.  But who wants a naked face (plus a little concealer and lip gloss.  Let’s be honest, who goes completely face naked anymore!) when the skin below it is blotchy and rough?  What’s the remedy? Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate! When you exfoliate your face, it removes all that dead skin laying on top and leaves you with fresh, brand new epidermis.

Lately, I have been trying to stay away from chemicals.  "They" always tell you to limit the amount of chemicals that you eat or ingest. As you probably know, when you put something on your skin, it seeps into your body.  If you look on the back of just about any cosmetic bottle, you are bound to see a list of words you cannot pronounce.   If you thought about eating that bottle of face wash after looking at the ingredients, you might think differently.  I recently stumbled upon a totally natural way to exfoliate your face.  Come with me as I change. your. world.  =)

Coffee: It’s not just for breakfast anymore.

Yes, my friends. Starting now, you are only cool if you have coffee grounds on your face.  You think I’m crazy, but this works and is so easy (and cheap!)  I do this when I’m in the shower. It makes for easy clean up.  All you have to do is gather about 2 tsp of yesterdays coffee grounds before you throw them out.  Mix it with a little of your face wash you normally use and apply it to your face.  You want to be very gentle doing this because the grounds are rough (an important pillar needed in an exfoliant.)  You simply rub them on your face for a few minutes and rinse.  I promise, your face will feel like a baby’s bottom.  Dead skin begone!!!!

 

Sugar Scrub:    

Something else that needs exfoliated that I never do, until now, is your lips. There is just something about super soft lips that makes that lipgloss go on more smooth.  I have found two different mixes that work.  Both of them use sugar as the base.  In the first, you mix honey with sugar until it creates a sticky paste and in the second, you add an equal amount of olive oil to the sugar.   Once mixed, apply to your lips and rub together gently for a few minutes.  Rinse.  Again with the baby’s bottom!!

Exfoliating is hard on the skin and it might feel a little irritated afterwards so it’s very important to moisturize generously.  I have a secret moisturizer I use to, but I’ll save that for next week.

I have been doing this new “natural” regime for three days now, and I can already tell a difference.  My face feels so smooth and I think just looks healthier.  But don’t take my word for it. Try it!  And let me know what you think!!

The Perfect Jam

No, I don't mean like strawberry jam. More like "oh my freakin' goodness, how in the world did I get that stuck!!!"

Today, I stayed home to be with Jesalyn because she has been sick the past couple of days.  At about 2pm the weather started to get pretty bad.  As the tornado sirens started going off, I thought it would be a good idea to gather some things so we could hang out in the bathroom (Jarrod and I's bathroom is in the back part of the apt.)  I got the candles, a blanket, and some books for her to read.  I forget now what I was going to get, but I needed something out of the other bathroom (the one that everyone else uses.)  I go to open the door and it won't open.  It opened about 1mm and just stopped.  I do a little investigating, not much because remember the sirens are going off, and figure out that the bathroom drawer inside the bathroom had magically opened up, after I turned off the light and shut the door. So much so that it is blocking the door from opening.  I scratch my head and gather Jesalyn up as we ride out the storm to "Corduroy" the bear.   After the storm was over I come back out to get another look.  I seriously don't know how I'm going to get this door open.  "Take it off it's hinges" was my next thought.  Nope the hinges are inside the bathroom.  I let it go for the rest of the afternoon until Jarrod got home.  We got a wire hanger out and after about 15min of maneuvering, he somehow got the drawer to close and the door opened.  I took a picture afterwards to show just how crazy and impossible this was.

"Really?!?"

Paducah fun

It only took one weekend at Aunt Nell's (my sister) for Miss Jesalyn to tap into her diva side.  As I said last week, I believe my daughter is turning into a girly girl.  This, did not come from me.  I'm not saying I was a total tomboy growing up, but on a scale of 1 through 10, 10 being ultimate girly, I was maybe a 5.  My sister Janel, on the other hand was an 11 =)   This past weekend we took an impromptu  trip to visit her in Paducah.  Janel had made Jesalyn a tutu so we had to try it on.  Jesalyn loved it!  Janel got out some beads and a mini purse and it was over!! Jesalyn had a good 45 min play session while this momma took pictures

This is her balancing on one foot like mommy and daddy does when they are working out =)

 

Putting on her purse and pretending she was going "bye bye"

Gotta get a picture with mom!  =)