Happy Mother's Day

I can't believe this is "technically" my 5th Mother's Day!  I found out I was pregnant with Auds a few days before Mother's Day five years ago.  That is crazy to me.  It's been the best experience of my life and I am so proud to be the mom of this um, spirited little girl!  :)  She really amazes me daily.  Today has been  a wonderful Mother's Day so far.  I got to sleep in, go for a run, and had a great lunch with Audrey, my mom, and Eric.  And Audrey was just so well behaved I was beaming.  Now she is actually in her room having quiet time!  But the BEST part of today was when I put her down a few minutes ago and she hugged me and said, "Mom you're my favorite person ever!"  *love*

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies, mommy figures, and mommies in waiting out there.  :)

Amy, Dallas, TX

I am *trying* to link up with Kelly's Korner today.  She has a wonderful blog that brings people together every Friday.  Today's link up is to make new friends.  I am in Richardson, TX and would love to meet some fellow Mommies who live in the area!  My daughter Audrey is 3.  You can read more on our blog to find out more about us.  But to sum it up, I am a single working mommy (1st grade teacher) who loves to spend my free time playing with Audrey, reading, going to church, and working out.  :) 

Some exciting things around here!

I was doing so well with the blog updating, but have really slacked in the past few weeks. One of the main reasons was because I was busy with birthday parties for Audrey's friends and studying for the ESL exam that I had to take. Birthday parties=fun, studying for a test, not so much. Plano ISD passed a new initiative this year that all teachers had to be ESL certified. So my team went to study for this test. We all attended two Saturday study sessions, and countless hours of studying for this test. Two of my teammates took it last month, and both came back from it saying it was extremely hard. So I tried to study as much as I could, but as a working momma, how much time do you have? So I took the test this past weekend and . . . PASSED!! With a really good score. I couldn't believe it. Yay me!

I also joined a gym this week. As you know, I have always worked out regularly since I was in high school. But since Auds and I moved to Richardson, and I became a single mom, I couldn't find the time to workout. But lately I've realized that it's a part of me, and I have to do it to feel better about myself, therefore becoming a better mom. So I joined 24 Hour Fitness on Monday and I just cannot express how WONDERFUL it felt to be back in the gym again. And my job allows me to leave work by 3, so I can workout and still pickup Auds by 4. AWESOME! Plus our new gym has a family pool complete with slides and a wading pool which will be perfect for Audrey!

But the most important things in our lives lately is that we finally found a church that we can call home. I was raised Catholic, married and became a Methodist, and am now attending a Baptist church. Yep. But it's where God wants us to be and I am so happy to have finally found a Bible study that I love and a church family. We are so blessed.

And I just can't end a post without some Audrey pictures, so here she is, having too much fun in the bath, making up stories with her mermaids.

"This mermaid hit the other one. She has to go to timeout. It's so sad."

"Now they're friends again and having fun. Yay!" :)

The Many Expressions of Audrey While Reading

Like I've said before, Audrey's teachers at school are AMAZING and teach her so much. They've been teaching the kiddos about the expressions of the characters in the books they are reading, and they encourage the kids to make the "face" that the character feels in each part of the story. Audrey LOVES that and has since been wanting me to do the same thing when she "reads" to me. It's hilarious and the cutest thing ever. Here she is reading the beginning of her Tangled book, where the horse is being mean to Flynn and he feels sad. So Audrey stops the book and says to me, "He's sad, show me your sad face Mom!" and then we make sad faces together.
"He surprised, show me your surprised face!"

Now Tangled (really Rapunzel, but Auds insists on calling her Tangled) is excited. "Show me your excited face mom!"

Tangled is so happy now, "Show me your happy face!" :)

Letting Go of Worrying . . .

Anyone who knows me knows that I.WORRY. It's what I do. From the minute Audrey was born my brain filled with the what if's. . . "What if she starts crying, what if she's hungry, and the biggest . . .what if I CAN'T calm her down???" I am constantly worried about Audrey's state of mind, her developmental progress, how my discipline strategies are working, etc. But I think that this Spring Break has taught me to just LET IT GO. My child is pretty go with the flow, I am not. I need to loosen up ASAP to let her figure out her personality.

Case #1. Trip to Tulsa, a 5 hour drive. The day before we left I called James and asked for the portable DVD player so Audrey would be entertained on the trip. He said it broke on his last trip to Houston with Auds. WHAT???!! I immediately freaked out and was planning my early morning trip to Walmart to buy a replacement. How in the world would Audrey behave in the car for 5 hours without her movies? My mom brought me back to reality. She reminded me that back in the day kids *like me!* traveled for longer lengths of time with just . . .toys to keep them happy. So off we went, and lo and behold Audrey did not whine even once on the trip to Tulsa. She was just fine playing with her dolls and coloring.

Case #2 The Fancy Restaurant. When we got to Tulsa Eric decided that he wanted to take our Mom out for her birthday dinner at this nice Italian restaurant across town from his house. Of course I vetoed it right away because one, Auds was tired from the drive and wouldn't do well in the car again, and 2, HELLO, it was a quaint, Italian restaurant, not meant for kiddos who had been traveleing all day! But . . . I lost, so off we went. Oh my goodness was Audrey great at the restaurant. She loved the fish tanks at the front and had to go see them a lot, but overall she was amazing. I couldn't believe it.

Case #3 No White Noise Machine! Once it was time for bed at Eric's. I realized I forgot the White Noise machine that Audrey sleeps with every night. I was sure she would wake up at every noise, especially since we were sharing a room. NOPE. She fell right asleep and slept for 12 hours straight, no white noise machine needed! (Now me on the other hand needed one, Audrey is a snorer!!!)

Case #4 The All Day Trip to the Zoo. I have been wanting to take Audrey on the Light Rail around town, but wasn't sure due to potty training issues, how she would sit still, etc. I have also been wanting to take her to the Zoo, but hadn't yet. Well, yesterday my friend called and invited us to the Zoo. She said we would be taking the train down there. Before I could even think about it I said YES! How fun! So I fretted all last night about Audrey having to potty while on the train, having to potty while at the zoo, and a million other things that could go wrong.

Goodness. It was one of the BEST experiences I have ever had with Audrey. TOP 5. She loved the train ride (50 minutes one way!) and loved sitting by her friend Amanda and watching the buildings go by. When we got to the Zoo she couldn't contain herself. Audrey was running around with her friend to every exhibit. We all packed a lunch and the kiddos loved eating while watching the animals. AND Audrey pottied when needed. NO STRESS! We caught the train back home, and it was just as easy. The kids LOVED IT.

Lesson learned my friends. Being a kiddo is full of fun and no stress, unless the adults in your life bring it on you. Which this Mama won't be doing anymore!

Visit to Tulsa

Our Spring Break visit to Tulsa can be summed up in one word. LAKEN! That is Eric's dog and Audrey is obsessed with her. It's so funny to me, because as everyone knows, I am most definitely NOT a dog person. But Audrey is really turning out to be a dog lover, so who knows, I may have to get a dog in the near future.

We had been talking about going to see Uncle Eric for awhile now, and every time I mentioned it, Audrey yelled "Laken! I see Laken!!" So she was ready for the trip. When she woke up on Saturday morning she could not wait to get out of the house and on the road. I was a little nervous about the almost 5 hour drive because our portable DVD player had just broken and I wasn't sure how she would do. My mom thought (and rightfully so) that I was being ridiculous. She gave me the standard speech "Back in my day . . .what do you think we did before those things, you were fine in the car . . . ." !! ;) So off we went with tons of toys, coloring sheets, and anything else I could toss in the car. Luckily Grammy was with us, so worst case scenario she could hop in the backseat to keeps Auds company.

Oh my goodness y'all . . . I should not have worried for minute. Audrey was beyond perfect. (Which as we know doesn't happen much these days.) She did not even WHINE once in the car, which she does plenty of at home. She was happy as a clam to sit in the backseat and play with her babies and color. The only issue was that she didn't want to potty in any of the places that we stoppped. (And could we really blame her?!) So I resorted to the tried and true candy bribery. Worked like a charm and we were good to go. ;)

Audrey loves her Uncle Eric almost more than she loves me. Maybe even more, because the week leading up to the trip she kept saying that Uncle Eric was her favorite person in the whole entire world, but she only wanted Laken when we finally got to Eric's. Here they are playing in the backyard . . .

Oh . . . I forgot my camera at home, so these are from my mom's camera. I was SO mad at myself and missed my new camera SO much!

Audrey LOVED reading to Laken. It was SO stinkin cute.

The weather was horrible over the weekend and it rained the whole time, so we had to make up some things to keep Auds occupied. Making cookies . . . yum!

On Monday it was absolutely beautiful outside. We walked Laken to the park and played, walked by the creek, and helped Eric plant some things outside. Audrey LOVED helping Grammy garden.

Finally, it was time to go and Audrey was so sad. Here she is saying goodbye to Laken.

Overall it was a great trip. I forget what a great traveler my girl is. Can't wait to do it again soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Well, just a few words. I was looking back through old pictures today, and came across this one. I just can't believe Auds used to be this little! Such a sweet face. :)