Made Me Happy Today

Made me happy today:

Mom is staying with us for about a week, sleeping in the spare bed in Chloe's room. When I got up this morning, the light was already on in the room, but Chloe wasn't quite out of bed yet. My mom was asking her if she was getting up. I walked into the room, Chloe saw me and started happily calling my name. "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" I went to her bed and she crawled into my lap and hugged me, sitting with me and saying my name over and over. She cuddled with me like that for about 5 minutes before she wanted to get down. The perfect way to start a morning, if you ask me. 

I am Lazy.

This morning as I dropped Chloe off at the babysitter's house, I was asked if I just dyed my hair. Not in a couple of months, no. Later in the afternoon, I had a co-worker asked if I had just cut my hair. The other two agreed that it looked different as well. Nope, no haircut. 

But something is different. 

Today is day one of my third week at this job, and it's the first time since my first day of work that I've taken my hair out of it's always-there ponytail and straightened it. I even *gasp* put on makeup. 

Eric noticed that I was putting makeup on for the second time in three days and jokingly asked if I was having an affair. 

The whole world erupts when you all of a sudden start putting a bit of effort into your appearance, or so I've learned. I'll admit that the attention even feels a bit nice. And it also feels nice to feel like I don't look like "The Mom" in the less-than-designer clothes, messy hair and naked face. Although my clothes are still cheap. 

In reality, I'm just a lazy person. When given the choice to sit on my butt, or get off it and put on makeup and play with the hair straightener, I pick butt-sitting. I'm oh so lazy. 

I get dressed up for weddings. Bar nights. Parties. Not a whole lot else. 

In reality, I spend a lot of my non-working time driving people to and from work and babysitters, making meals, washing little hands, bathing a little body (and my own slightly bigger body), playing with babies and princesses, running around the apartment dancing and yelling, wiggling our butts, jumping on beds and reading some books with exaggerated voices. 

That's pretty much all I have the energy for most days. 

I yawn a lot. 

Being a mom makes me lazy. 

.

.

That's a lie. I was always lazy. Now it's just worse. 

Things I Want to Remember

- The way you yell my name over and over and over, so happy when I pick you up at daycare after work .

- The way you lay your head on my shoulder and either rub my back or play with my hair when you hug me. 

- The way you get so excited to brush your teeth. 

- How much you absolutely love to read, and how good you are at remembering certain parts of books. 

- When I ask if you're my girl, you almost always say "No, I'm Chloe *middle name, last name*", so proud. 

- The way you love jumping on my bed, but only if I bounce with you. 

- The way you're constantly tucking your dolls/stuffed animals into your bed, and treating them with such gentle love. 

- How great you are at saying 'please', 'thank you', and 'you're welcome'. 

- The way you always want to be near me, even if it's not my favorite thing at the time. Bathroom time should be 'me' time. 

- How happy you make me when you smile, laugh, talk or do anything cute. 

(I may have stole this idea from Shannon, but I love it!)

Around here, lately.

It's the first day of my second week at my new job. I'd say I'm settled in well. It helps a lot that I've worked in two of the hotels within the company. It's still a little weird to me that all I do now is answer phone calls, but better than my last job. 

Chloe's been pulled out of daycare due to my slightly later hours, and is now in home care. The person watching her is someone who's babysat her before, and she seems to really like it there. 

I recently got my taxes back, and the tax Gods were smiling down on me. For the last time, since next year Eric and I will be common law so we won't get near as much back. 

But we've made some large payments towards our credit cards. Before the taxes, we booked and paid for our wedding venue. With our taxes, I booked and fully paid our officiant. I plan on writing a nice cheque for our photographer as well, as they are by far our biggest wedding-related bill. One thing I said I would never skimp on was the photography at my wedding, and as big as the bill is, this is one of the cheapest local photographers, but they also take some of the best pictures. Win win. 

I also may have bought a Keurig (on clearance, score!) with my taxes, and of course a few things for Miss Chloe. 

Next up will probably be the wedding rings. After that I'll slowly start gathering decor and everything else we need. I'm still trying to think up a ceremony spot. Using the hall that our reception will be at is my last resort. 

I just need to hurry up and narrow down what I want to do with colors. Colors are hard. 

Otherwise, not much else is going on around these parts.

Chloe, at 2 years and 5 months old

- Chloe still loves Dora the Explorer, but now also loves Bubble Guppies and Super Why.

- Chloe loves to read. Her favorite books right now are: I Am Small, The Napping House, The Elephant and the Bad Baby (which was a book that MY own mother had when she was a child).

- She loves to jump on the bed.

- She's a mommy's girl and always wants to be with me when we're home together.

- She weighs about 26lbs.

- She absolutely loves going to bed. No sarcasm. I hope this phase never ends.

- She can sing the ABCs perfectly. She can count past 10, to about 15 without a problem. She can count to about 8 in Spanish. She knows a few colors (orange, yellow, blue, green, red) and gets them right most of the time. She never gets orange wrong.

- She loves swimming and bath time.

- She loves Cheerios and raisins and bagels and cheese.

- She loves playing with her babies and Little People. She plays pretend with little figures and dolls, actually making them walk and speak.