Long story short

This seemed like TMI for Facebook, but It was sort of hilarious and I thought this might be a more proper venue for it... 

I almost had the "awkward moment" of having to tell someone that my 2-year-old clogged the toilet at church.  I wonder if anyone would have believed me?  Luckily the toilet flushed, on like the 5th try.

A word of advice for future reference, if you know your daughter might have a "total body cleanse" at any time, don't dress her in a LONG, layered dress for church!

Good day

Well some awesome things (well, awesome to me at least) happened today and I thought it might be a good time to blog!

It's kind of funny, because it actually started out as the kind of day that I was just hoping to power through and have over with.  My head hurt from the get go, and when I wake up with a headache, I usually keep it all day long.  And I did, but it got more manageable as the day went on.

Callie, Nana, and I went to Salisbury to eat lunch with Josh.  It's a long drive when you have a headache.  But we had a good lunch, then went to a little gift store where I had a little bit of store credit that I got around, um, Christmastime.  I had just been thinking about what kind of shoes I'm going to get Callie for fall/winter, and then I saw Awesome Thing #1:

How. cute.  And they're Robeez!  And they were $12!  They fit her really well, which means they may or may not fit her in a few months, but if not I can throw them on Ebay or save them for future kids.  Or give them to someone if I'm feeling really nice.  But probably not.  Anyway, I've been excited all day picturing her wearing them with leggings!

Then I found a necklace for me, which I bought on impulse, and now I'm not quite so sure if it's as cute as I thought at first, but I didn't have to pay anything, so oh well.

Callie hasn't taken a nap all week, and she fell asleep on the way home from Salisbury!  That would be Awesome Thing #2.  I took a power nap thinking it might help my head.  It didn't, but I did feel a little more energetic afterwards.

After naptime, I made stuffed shells for dinner, then realized that none of us were really hungry because we'd had a big lunch.  So I just put it in the fridge and figured if we didn't get hungry we could just take it to someone tomorrow.

Since I wasn't too hungry and figured Callie wasn't either, I grabbed her a GoGurt and some blueberries and headed to the mall.  (My friend is having a lingerie shower tomorrow and I've been meaning to shop for it all week.)  If you were wondering, the mall is not a good place to teach your kid how to eat Gogurt.  She's had it before, but not since she was younger, so she's never fed it to herself, and she just kept handing it to me for help.  Which would be fine if I wasn't trying to push the stroller and look for cute lingerie.  Which was harder to find than I thought.

Well, I finally found something cute at Body Central, and then I found two cute necklaces on the $1.99 clearance rack!  And one of them rang up $.99!  I guess that could be considered Awesome Thing #3.

I had to go to GameStop (on the other side of the mall) for Josh, which I didn't really want to do, but he went to the grocery store for me so I figured it was a fair trade.  And I was really glad I did because that's when the Big Awesome Thing happened!  I saw a little girl zipping around in a motorized wheelchair, but I didn't want to stare or anything, and it was too crowded to stop and talk to her, so I just kept walking.  And then I heard someone calling me, and it was the little girl's mom!  I was wearing the GSF "Never Give Up" shirt, and she noticed it and asked if it was an SMA shirt!  And I said yes, and she asked if Callie had SMA, and I said yes, and I asked if her daughter had SMA, and she said yes!  And we stood there and talked for like 15 minutes!  It turns out that Callie's physical therapist also used to work with this little girl, who is 9.  It was so exciting to meet someone else with SMA.  I knew there are programs that will set you up with other parents of children with disabilities, but I have still been a little hesitant to try it.  But it was really cool just meeting someone randomly like that.  Josh said I need a new GSF shirt for every day of the week, so I can make new friends everywhere I go.

This might be a good place for a GSF plug... I just looked at their website again and they have a lot of cute new shirts and stuff.  I'm getting everyone stuff from there for Christmas.

I am what you might call a shy person, at least in the fact that I don't go out of my way to talk to strangers.  A lot of times I want to, but I just feel too awkward or anxious.  I am so glad this new friend didn't hesitate to call out to me and introduce herself!  I'm going to try to take more opportunities to meet new people, so that I don't miss out on what could be a great new friendship!

Also, earlier today, a lady at Kohl's came up to me and asked for my fashion advice because she was buying a dress for her granddaughter who was my age.  I was so flattered.  She held up 3 outfits she was choosing from, and I didn't really love any of them, but Nana and Callie were waiting in the car so I couldn't stay and shop with her, so I just told her to put the sweater on one with the dress from the other.  Hope her granddaughter likes it.

We did end up eating the stuffed shells for dinner, around the time that Callie usually goes to bed.

Another Awesome Thing that I'm excited about is that some of our friends are having a fundraiser for Callie in a couple weeks!  They're doing a rummage/bake sale and all the proceeds will go to the GSF fundraiser that my friend Jessica has started.  I think it will just be a great opportunity to get everyone together and promote SMA awareness.  How appropriate that it is SMA awareness month!  I am so thankful for the service that these wonderful ladies are providing, and I know they will be blessed for it!

I have been craving a dipped cone from McDonald's all day.  I am just too worn out to go, and it's a hard thing to send your husband out for, seeing as it will be halfway melted by the time he gets home.  But I just remembered that we have vanilla ice cream, Oreo crumbs, and hot fudge... and that's the last Awesome Thing of the day.

Callie is 2!

It is so hard to believe, but Callie's 2nd birthday was last week!  I can't believe it's been 2 years since she was born, and almost 3 years since I got pregnant with her!  And at the same time, it's like she has always been here.  It's a weird thing, parenthood.

We decided not to do a big party, so instead we had a few little family gatherings.  A few days before her birthday, we met our cousins, the Applegates, at Sciworks in Winston.  I think about every daycare within 100 miles was there that day.  We managed to find a few quiet areas and still enjoyed our time there.  I'm so glad that Callie has cousins that live close!

(OK this picture is sort of a lie because it was taken a couple months ago.  But it was taken at Sciworks, with the same cousins we went with this time.)

The night before her birthday we spend with my family in Mt. Airy.  We went to eat Mexican food, and they brought out a sombrero, put whipped cream in Callie's face, and sang to her!  Her expression was absolutely priceless.  I was afraid she'd freak out, but she just sat there licking her lips.  For some reason she looked like a little baby again (maybe because the hat covered up her hair, which makes her look older, I think).

Sunday was her actual birthday.  We went to church, as usual.  I was glad that her birthday fell on a Sunday because going to the nursery at church is one of Callie's favorite things to do!  She loves her leaders, singing songs, and blowing bubbles.  And I love that I can leave her there happily and go to class in peace!  On Sunday her teachers gave her a birthday tiara and a couple little treats.  

Callie's Isenhour grandparents were in town from Colorado to celebrate her birthday.  We had family dinner after church, then cupcakes.  She didn't like her candles the night before so we didn't even light them this time.  Here are the cupcakes that Nana and I made.

That would be Ming Ming, Callie's favorite thing in the whole word.  She didn't really seem to even notice the cupcakes though, to my dismay, since it took a lot to get me to do anything creative.  She just picked the candies off.  Whatever, I guess.  Nana got her a singing Ming Ming doll, which has already eaten through one pack of cheap batteries.  I almost died of laughter the first night we were checking it out while Callie was in bed.  It will just be standing there talking, then all of a sudden kicks it's leg up and starts "flying" in circles with it's cape flapping in the breeze.  It is hilarious.  I hope that it will work better with some better batteries, because right now it only growls a little.

Josh's cousin Paige was in town for the weekend, and she took some pictures of Callie and of us.  She has recently gotten into photography, and I think she's a natural!

The last day of our celebrations was at our Isenhour grandparent's house.  I had told Meme I wasn't planning a party, so she pretty much threw one for that side of the family.  We had a huge family dinner, homemade ice cream, and cupcakes.  Unfortunately, Callie didn't get a nap that day, so about the time everyone came, she was ready to go home.  She was just kind of tired and not her usual peppy self.  It was still a lot of fun.

I had more cute cousin pictures to upload but for some reason I'm having a hard time, so here's this cute one of Callie waiting for everyone to get there.

I know I keep saying it, but I can't believe my baby is 2.  It's weird to look at pictures and videos of her from even just a few months ago, because she changes so fast.  She surprises us every day with new words, expressions, dances, etc.  Today she was singing her night night song and says "Night night Ming Ming, night night Tuck, night night Blue, night night Buck."  I don't know if she was trying to rhyme but we'll just pretend she was.  Another thing she has learned, that I found out today, is the smell of bacon.  She's only recently been introduced to bacon (deprived child, I know), and today I was cooking breakfast for Josh, and Callie comes rolling into the kitchen saying "Bacon?  Bacon!?"  Oops, I hadn't fixed her any... she'd already had breakfast and I figured if she didn't see it she wouldn't want it... wrong.  

Every day there's at least one moment when I am just overwhelmed with how beautiful she is.  She really is the biggest joy in our life.