Does she look like me now??!

It is a funny feeling to house a baby in your tummy for 9 long months only to have it pop out looking identical to your spouse. While I think my daughter is beautiful, that's not the point. He did about 10 minutes worth of work!!! How is it that she looks JUST like him??

So in the early months I scrutinized my 3 month old baby looking for signs of "me". One day I found a wig and as you can see I put it on my unsuspecting child and sent it to my best friend with the title "Does she look like me now?"!! To this day her and most all of her co-workers keep this photo handy for the bad days. I am so glad it brings joy to so many.

Last year I thought I should probably continue the tradition and on Halloween after I was 'Dora the Explorer" I begged and pleaded with my 2 year old to please please let Mommy take a photo of her with the wig on. She was not happy. I bribed her with something and although she offered not even a hint of a smile, I still got the photo which one day she will laugh at with me (I hope).

 

Now that she is 3, she has a mind of her own. While getting ready for work she found the wig to my Sue Sylvestor costume which looks something like a Donald Trump wig. She asked why I didn't wear it and she tried it on. The lightbulb went off and I thought ,  OMG I need to capitalize on this.

So I said : "Hey A do you want to try on mommy's Dora wig???" Naturally she said yes...

So here is Year 3's version of "Does she look like me now?!"

As you can see she LOVES it. She asked me if she could wear it to school and then proceeded to watch sesame street while wearing it. A - M - A - Z - I - N - G!  This brought me so much joy in the morning.

Breakfast Chatter

If you have a toddler you are most likely used to things having to be a "certain" way. For example, If you dare rip the straw off of the juice box when little sweetie wants to do it herself you are entering a world of ear piercing screams and irrational behavior. Every child is different of course but mine doesn't like her food to touch. 

Ok so this she gets from me. I have a weird thing about food touching and I don't like it when people put things on my plate without me asking. 

Poor hubs handed me a blue cheese dipped wing at a bar when we first started dating and he put it on my plate and I almost fell over. I had to explain that;

A) I loathe when people put food on my plate especially when its soaked in blue cheese and

B) I have an aversion to white dips etc. 

Don't laugh. I know that's ridiculous and I have since added Ranch dip to my list of things I like with celery and carrots but I would never dip a wing in anything but the hottest of hot sauces and I would never dip a fry in mayo or eat mayo for that matter. 

Back to crazy toddlers and there irrational likes and dislikes…

So this morning after she squealed about not wanting to go to school for 10 minutes when I woke her up, (This happens lately and by breakfast she is giddy to see her friends and teachers. I haven't been able to understand this at all) I started to make her pancakes. (Don't worry I am still my mother's daughter. They are microwaveable mini pancakes. Mothers who have to do 80 things all before they catch a bus to Manhattan don't make pancakes from scratch OR a box in the morning). 

So I hand her the pancakes on one plate and a syrup smiley face man on a second plate (yes this must be on its own plate these days) and she asks me for some sliced banana. Suddenly because I slice banana in my cereal in the morning she wants it too which is FINE by me! So I start to slice it over her plate and she says:

A: Put the banana right here. (She points to the exact spot she wants it so it has its own section. She continues on...)

You can't put the banana on top of the pancake. No, no. (and then in a sing songy voice) You know who's watching!!!!

She then belts out her rendition of "You better watch out, you better not cry.....".

So despite my hellish morning of rushing because I forgot to turn on my alarm, followed by the sobs of a child who doesn’t feel like waking up, being forced into clothes and shipped off to school, we ended our morning ritual on the best note, a happy one. 

We sang “Santa Claus is coming to Town” the whole way to school…

Classroom Birthdays!

Do you remember when your birthday fell on a school day? Oh how exciting it was knowing you were going to serve your friends cupcakes and perhaps give out goodie bags too!

Some kids came to school with hand painted and elaborate cupcakes hand made in the wee hours of the night by their doting mothers. Others came with ornately decorated cookies from scratch! As I devoured these delicious cupcakes I would visualize their mom's covered in flour and sweat smiling while they mixed and baked for their precious darlings.

My mother was a little more unorthodox. She took me to Entenmman's bakery to buy 6 boxes of assorted cupcakes (vanilla, strawberry and chocolate iced vanilla cupcakes which they sadly no longer make). We then would go home and place each cupcake on a plate from home and wrap them in foil so they "looked" homemade. Since they were delicious I didn't mind, I was just grateful she had the good sense to make it looked like she was just like all the other moms.

Most of what I know about parenting I have learned from having been a kid and having the two parents I was given (obviously right?). If the Entenmman's bakery still sold those cupcakes I would probably go that route too but I do the in-between and buy the good ol' Betty Crocker mix and go to town. Don't worry Mom, I don't judge you for buying boxed cupcakes. I turned out alright ;)

Well evidently A was so excited about her birthday while at school that she didn't nap a wink. I came and hubs surprised her too and we brought cupcakes for all the little pre-k class who will do anything for sweets of ANY kind. We decided to take our 3 year old Miniature Golfing after that since it was 80 degrees and October. She did as well as could be expected (running after the balls we shot and placing them into the hole's for us).

Happy Birthday to my baby girl. I just can't believe you are 3! The past 3 years have been challenging, rewarding and overall a TON of fun. Thank you for being YOU.