Another Weekend Recap

Some sort of bug hit our place last week. Poor Ella woke up with a very deep cough. Friday was the worst of it. She had the cough, a runny nose, and puffy eyes. Thankfully, she did not have a fever. After a visit to the doc, she said she had the croup. She was very snuggly over the weekend.

Sam and I weren’t really feeling great either. Sam got it worse than me. I’ve seen her sick before, but I could tell she was really feeling terrible. She had the cough and runny nose, again, no fever. I just had a cough. I’m glad that the baby didn’t seem to get any symptoms outside an occasional cough.

We laid low over the weekend. I was going to meet my son for lunch on Saturday, but when I started coughing, I thought it best to not expose him to anything. I guess I still freak out a bit about being sick, because it seems like every symptom is connected with Covid. Better safe than sorry.

Monday, I had a follow up appointment with my doctor for my blood pressure. It was up when I went in for my physical and she wanted to check me again before making any changes to meds. I took the baby with me and Ella stayed home since she still had her cough.

When they called me back, I walked with the diaper bag, the baby, and my coat. They walked me to the scale and got my weight and then walked me to the exam room. Once I was there I set the baby down, set the diaper bag down and when I turned around, the nurse wanted to take my blood pressure. I was literally out of breath and hadn’t even sat down yet.

160/95! Well, what did you think it was gonna be?! I told her to wait a few minutes and take it again! She put the pulse oximeter on my finger and my heart rate was 118. So she went through my med list with me (which took 3 minutes) and she took my blood pressure again. It was lower, but it was still high. My heart rate had come down to 98. I finally told her that I’d have the doctor check it when she came in. “Good idea,” she replied! LOL!!

When I had my surgery a couple weeks ago, they had the blood pressure cuff on me prior to and after surgery. It takes your vitals every 20 minutes or so. Every time it took my BP, I looked at the machine. The numbers were all within normal values. So I was pretty happy to see that. Now, here I am at the doc for a BP follow up and it’s skewed!

The doc came in and had the med student take it again and it was 130/85. I’m guessing it would have been lower if I hadn’t been freaking out at what the doc would say about those early readings!

The best part of the visit – I had some weight loss. The doc was pleased with that. She wants to see me again in 3 months and wants me down at least 10-15 pounds. I should be able to do that!

Highlight of the Past 24 Hours

Last night, when I was getting the kids ready for bed, I started our normal bed time routine. We usually read books and then I put Ella to bed. Andrew fell asleep right away in my arms, so I placed him in his bed and went back up on our bed with Ella to keep reading. Once we finished all the books, I told her it was time for bed.

Usually, she will grab her blanket and I take her to her bed, say prayers, kiss her goodnight and she is off to sleep. Last night, after I told her it was bed time, she looked at me and said, “Snuggle, daddy.” So I turned out the light and laid next to her. She snuggled right up to me. She looked up at me and said, “What’s the matter, daddy?” I’m not sure how she knew, but she did. I was just mentally and physically exhausted.

I told her, “Nothing, baby. I love you.” She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I lost it. I had to hide my tears. That meant so much to me. She then said, “I stay here, daddy.” She snuggled closer and we hugged for awhile. When she was ready, she said it was “time for sleep” and I picked her up, hugged her extra tight, kissed her and went to bed.

That little girl has no idea just how special she is! I hope when she is old enough to read this, she will know that this is just one of the many times that she has melted her daddy’s heart. I am so lucky to be her daddy.

Pure Sassy!

We took Ella to get her “Two Year Old” Pictures last week. I’m glad that we wound up getting the entire digital package, because I don’t know that I could just pick a few pictures! Maybe I am biased, but I think she is one of the most photogenic kids! I don’t know that she can take a “bad” picture.

We were lucky enough to get the same photographer she liked a few months ago. She and Ella “clicked.” She was able to get fantastic pictures, even though she was constantly moving around. You wouldn’t know that in some of these photos, the props fell literally a second after the picture was taken!

In her first birthday photo shoot, there was one that stood out as “sassy.” We have said that photo defines her personality. After this shoot, we have a companion photo. The “sassiness” continues.

There were so many great photos from the shoot, and somehow, they all capture “her.”

The above two are probably my favorites.

Stay Sassy, my sweet little girl! Daddy loves you to the moon and beyond!

A Two-riffic Birthday!

Yesterday, I blogged about it being Ella’s last night as a one year old. Today (2-10) she officially turned two! On one of the Facebook “dad” groups I am a part of, someone posted that “Time is a thief.” That is so true. I am still scratching my head and wondering how she could be two already!

On my way home from work, I stopped off and picked up her birthday cake. It came out perfect. I thought it was neat, because they hadn’t written the message on it in frosting. It was actually printed next to the Minnie Mouse design.

The store also had balloons, so I made sure to get a HUGE number “2” balloon to mark the occasion. I helped Sam hang the banner before work last night, and she did the rest of the decorations before bed last night.

She put up streamers and blew up balloons. She then set up Ella’s gift. I guess it is called a “nugget.” It folds, stacks, and such. I can totally see her and I having some fun with this thing.

When I got home, she was still asleep. I was surprised, because she is usually up when I walk through the door. It made the day even more special to be able to sing Happy Birthday to her when Sam brought her out to the living room. She was probably not really ready to be up, so when she came out she wasn’t quite sure what to make of everything. It didn’t take long and she was playing around with the balloons and her “nugget.”

Nickelodeon has a “Birthday Club” where you can schedule calls to your kids from their favorite characters. I had a call scheduled for her from the Bubble Guppies. She smiled when they said her name and wished her Happy Birthday. It was a pretty cute bonus to the morning.

I whipped up some birthday scrambled eggs for her with some cheese on top with a side of blueberries. As she enjoyed her breakfast, I headed to bed because I knew I would be up in a short while.

Ella had a doctor check up this morning and afterward, Sam took her to the Peppa Pig World at the mall. I slept from about 9:30a to noon and got up to head out and meet them there (about a 50 minute drive). She was excited to see me when I got there and she was running from one thing to the next playing!

Because of Covid, Sam and I have been very careful and really haven’t taken her out much. When I walked in, the place was loaded with moms and their “piggies” who were all over the place! My anxiety was through the roof. We must have been hitting the hand sanitizing stations every time we saw one.

She had a blast! We didn’t stay too long, and when we left, we hit the gift shop. Boy, are THEY raking in the money! We saw this Peppa Pig car that we have seen before at Walmart. That was the toy that she picked out. We plopped it on the checkout and it was like $35!! At Walmart, it was like $22. What a markup!!

There is a Build a Bear in the mall and we went to get her Birthday Bear. We did this last year, too. Personally, I like this year’s bear better. It seemed much softer than the one from last year. It is such a cool thing for kids. You pay the price of your birthday. She is 2 – the bear was $2. By the time we got done, the fact that it was naptime was apparent. She was getting cranky.

Sam stopped at Carter’s (which was right by the Build a Bear) to see about an outfit for her birthday pictures this weekend. Sam found an outfit for pictures and some St. Patty’s outfits for them. Surprisingly, she was unable to find a good Valentine’s Day outfit for them (which is probably a good thing and saved us like $60!).

One of my favorite pics of the day – the two most important ladies in my life!

Andrew was at Nana and Papa’s so Ella could go to the doctor. When we left, I drove back home to try to sleep a bit more. Sam and Ella left to go get AJ. Ella fell asleep on the way, so Sam (as most parents would do) drove around awhile in hopes of getting her some sort of nap. I finally got into bed about 3:15-3:30.

Ella got to pick what she wanted for dinner. She loves tacos from one of our favorite Mexican places. Sam picked it up on the way home and woke me about 5pm so we could eat and have cake.

After dinner, I grabbed the “2” candle, put it on the cake and brought it out so we could sing Happy Birthday. What was the first thing she did? She starts to grab the flame of the candle! Sam did the best she could to keep her still as we sang to her and then she blew out the candle.

I had a Microsoft Teams meeting I had to call into on my way to work. Normally, I would be there in person, but because I wanted time with Ella, I decided to leave later and just call in on my drive in. By the time the meeting was over, I texted Sam to see if the kids were still awake. (I usually do a video call before they go to bed.) She texted back that they were already in bed and asleep. Both were pretty wiped out from a busy day.

I still cannot believe that my baby girl is 2 years old. Time is a thief indeed!

Happy Birthday, my sweet Ella! I snapped this picture of you today and it is probably my favorite. There stands a little girl pondering what to do next. She is a little girl full of potential. She is a girl who is smart. She knows she is going to do amazing things – and she is planning just how to get those things done! God has blessed mommy and me with you. We love you as big as the world! We look forward to the many wonderful things you will do in the years ahead!

The Last Year Has Been One-derful

When I get home in the morning, my little girl will be two years old. My wife probably didn’t intend on making me cry, but she sent me a picture of her sleeping in her crib with the message “Last picture as a 1 year old,” but she did.

I wish I had taken the day off tomorrow. I didn’t because I had to save my PTO time for a surgery I am having this month. I want to spend the entire day with her. I want to celebrate HER! Sadly, I have to work tomorrow night, so I will probably miss most of her day.

As I look back over the last year, it is amazing to see how much she has grown and just how far she has come. Some highlights:

First birthday at the Sea Life Aquarium
Amazing professional First Birthday/Cake Smash photoshoot
First haircut with Miss Sherry
Family Easter Egg hunt
Finding out she was going to be a big sister
First time eating corn on the cob
First time bowling (with big brothers)
Family visit to the Detroit and Saginaw Zoos
First trip to the library
Drawing her first picture
Daddy/Daughter picnic
First surgery – ear tubes
Outside adventures (trampoline fun, walks around the neighborhood, sidewalk chalk drawings, sandbox fun, visits to the park, playing on the splashpad, swimming in her kiddie pool, playing in leaf piles, sledding and making snow angels)
Arrival of Little Brother and official promotion to Big Sister
Family visit with Santa at Cabella’s
Daddy/Daughter trip to Bronners to buy the annual Christmas ornament
Visits from Aunt Margaret, Cousin Marissa, Papa and Grandma, Uncle Chris, and so many others.

What a One-derful year it has been!

The “terrible twos” don’t scare me. I just hope that time slows down a bit.

Yesterday, I kissed my one year old for the last time. When I get home in the morning, I will kiss my two year old for the first time. I can’t wait to see her….

Mixed Emotions

If I had to describe today with emoji’s, I’d need a lot of them!

Exhaustion – Tuesdays are always difficult. I get very little sleep before having to come into work for the night. I do the best I can to nap when the kids are napping, but things just never seems to line up where we all sleep at the same time.

Confident – Recently I was presented with an opportunity that peaked my interest. It was one of those things that I really wasn’t searching for, but I looked at it very carefully. After much discussion and weighing all the pros and cons, I made a decision that I feel is best.

Afraid – At the same time, looking on the horizon, there is something I stumbled on that has positives and negatives. I took a leap of faith today. It would be a HUGE change. It has been something that has been on the back burner for some time. Whether or not anything comes of it is yet to be seen. If it does, there are some big things to think about and consider.

Angry – Annoyed – Exasperated – Done – One phone call can bring about so many emotions. How many times can the same things be rehashed? When do you just say “Forget it? I’m done?” An hour and 20 minutes of being on speaker phone being accused, judged, called every profane name imaginable, and treated like a piece of crap is not exactly how I want to spend my time. Once you apologize for something, you shouldn’t be expected to keep apologizing for it over and over again. Especially when the other party has said they forgive you. My God, it was a vicious circle of things that are from years ago, yet here we are talking about it again! Enough is enough. If you can’t get past it, I don’t know what to tell you. Don’t feel sorry for me or my family, because quite frankly, we are fine! Please just let it go!

Dedicated – It is time for me to stop letting the outside BS affect me and my family. I am dedicated to being the best husband and father I can be to those who will let me. I have found happiness and NO ONE will take that away from me. I love my family more than I will ever be able to express here, and intend to keep it together. Leave your negativity at the door or better yet, keep it away. There is LOVE, tenderness, faith, and joy in my house! I intend to increase those feelings with every moment I am alive!

Sadness – With every day my kids continue to grow up. Ella will be two this week. I am having a very difficult time wrapping my head around that. Andrew will be 4 months old this week and it seems like time won’t slow down. Sam has often said to me that she feels when she is done with work for the week, she feels like the look older and are bigger. I feel the same way. Despite having gone through this with my two older sons, it feels like time is going by even faster than before.

I will end on a positive emotion:

Happiness – This week, Ella started saying, “I love you, too, Daddy.” and “I love you, too, Mommy” after we tell her that we love her. There is nothing that will melt your heart faster.

Earlier today, Andrew was laying on the floor and he was giggling. I snapped a picture of him and Ella immediately came over and laid next to him and said, “My turn, Daddy!” In an absolute amazing moment, she grabbed his hand and I snapped the picture.

THAT IS WHAT MATTERS! Those two amazing kids (and my beautiful and wonderful wife) are the source of my happiness. There is nothing but joy connected with them. There is no negativity. There is no hate. There are no grudges. There are no hidden motives. There is LOVE. There is JOY. There is HAPPINESS. There is DELIGHT. There is LAUGHTER.

This is what is important! THEY are what is important.

On my bad days, those two special kids remind me to focus on what really matters!

Milestones

I was informed by WordPress that my blog is officially 4 years old this week. It’s hard to believe that I have been blogging consistently for that long … and that folks like you are still reading it. For that, I thank you!

In two weeks, we will celebrate another milestone, as our daughter Ella will celebrate her 2nd birthday. Wow!

It is interesting to note that I began this blog shortly before Sam and I were married. This blog is just a bit older than our marriage. I’ve been through a lot in 4 years, and I am so grateful to have been able to share the ups and downs of life with you.

Here is to many more years (and blogs) ahead …

Playing Doctor

When I was a kid, I remember having one of those Fisher Price Doctor kits. As a matter of fact, I think it remains a staple in every kid’s toy box!

I remember how cool it was that you could hear your heartbeat with the Stethoscope. Of course, you always had to give every one in your family a “shot!”

Today, my friend Margaret stopped by to drop off the kid’s Christmas presents. Naturally, Ella was excited to see her. She loves Aunt Margaret! She knew that she probably wasn’t going to get to see Ella before her birthday next month, so she also brought her birthday present.

I put the gift bag aside and figured I’d give it to her closer to her birthday. I was standing in the kitchen and Ella found the bag. She looked in it and started yelling “CoCo Mel!” “CoCo Mel!” which is Ella talk for Cocomelon. Aunt Margaret got her a Cocomelon doctor kit.

When you push the bandaid on the “bag” it sings and stuff. She was so excited to play with it, so she got her present early.

Of course, she had to give mommy, daddy, and baby brother a shot. Sam told me she was playing doctor all night. She takes liquid vitamin D in a dropper every day and AJ takes GERD meds in a syringe. So was walking up to him and giving him “medicine” (the shot) like his syringe.

When Sam told me this, I was reminded of an event that happened when I was probably a couple years older than Ella (maybe 5 or 6). I was playing doctor as well…and it put me in the hospital! Remember how Grey’s Anatomy had Dr. McDreamy and Dr. McSteamy? As a kid, I was Dr. McDummy!!

Growing up, when we had a fever, mom used to give us baby aspirin. It was orange flavored and I remember thinking it tasted like candy.

I want to say that the bottle did NOT have a child proof cap on it. I know that because of what happened.

My brother and I had gotten up and we were watching TV. My mom was still in bed sleeping. I grabbed the old Fisher Price doctor kit and we were playing. I told him he was sick and needed medicine. Mom kept the medicine up in a cupboard in the kitchen. It was a high cupboard and I had to work to get to it.

I pulled over a kitchen chair and climbed up on it. I don’t remember much, but I do remember grabbing the baby aspirin and taking my brother’s temperature with the fake thermometer. I said he needed medicine, but I was always the one who ate a baby aspirin. I don’t know how many I wound up taking. I do know that mom found me in the kitchen and I was off to the hospital to have my stomach pumped.

I don’t remember much about the hospital stay or any of the aftermath. I hadn’t thought about this incident in many years. Maybe I’ll call my dad this weekend and see how much he remembers. I can’t even imagine how scary this had to be for either one of them. I wonder if Dr. McDummy’s antics led to the child proof caps?

I’ve Been Yelling At Her For Days

For Christmas, my dad gave us an Amazon Alexa. I know many people have these and use them for a variety of things. On Christmas Day, I set it up and started to mess around with it.

The first issue I had was not being able to remember my Amazon password! I have the app and the password is saved, because I never end us remembering it. After trying about 35 different passwords, I finally just reset it and continued with the set up.

When you first start the thing, she starts telling you what to do. “Ask me to tell you a joke.” “I can help you get to work on time. Ask me about traffic.” “Ask me how long to cook a turkey.” “Ask me what the weather is like.” She just kept cranking out the commands!

Eventually, after messing with it a while, I got to where I kind of knew how to use it. I started asking Alexa questions about everything. Then, I started to ask her to play songs for Ella.

“Alexa. Play Baby Shark.” Boom! There it is. “Alexa. Play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Ta Da! It’s there. “Alexa. Play the theme song for Paw Patrol.” Instantly it is there. I think to myself, how nice this is. Now, almost two weeks later….. I am OVER asking Alexa for songs!

Ella loves it. If Alexa were to make a playlist based off what we’ve asked her to play, I could take it to a preschool class and PARTY!! Here requests include:

Baby Shark
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
The Alphabet Song
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Johnny, Johnny No Papa
Three Little Kittens
Five Little Speckled Frogs
There Were 10 in the Bed
Happy Birthday to You

I am sure there are more, but those are the ones that stick in my head. We can be sitting on the floor or on the couch reading books or watching TV and she’ll just look at me and say, “Row Row Row Your Boat?!” (or any of the other above songs).

“Alexa. Play Baby Shark …..again!” “Alexa! Play Twinkle Twinkle!” “ALEXA! Play the Itsy Bitsy Spider!!!!!”

When the song is over, Ella always looks at me and says, “Again? Again?! Please, Daddy, Again!”

I have a feeling, I will be hearing those songs in my sleep for a very long time!

Please help me when Alexa finally is able to understand her, because she will be playing toddler songs non-stop!!

2021 – What a Year!

At midnight tonight, we’ll start a brand new year – 2022. Some have compared a new year to a book. The book with 365 blank pages – one for each day – and said that the book is ours to write. There is truth to that.

As I looked back over my “book” entitled “2021,” I see that (despite the pandemic and all the crap that came with it) I really did have a good year. Bear with me, he’s the recap:

January

January started with some snow. It actually looks like we should be getting snow again this week. Ella absolutely loved being outside in the snow. It was fun to watch her try to figure out just what all the white stuff was. Today, when she sees it, she get’s excited and yells, “Snow! Snow!”

In mid-January, we scratched our heads and wondered just how Ella was 11 months old! I mean, it seemed like she was just born!

The pressure was on as we closed in on her first birthday. With Covid, we weren’t quite sure if we’d even be able to have a party for her.

February

As we got closer to Ella’s birthday, Sam was just not feeling right. 3 days before Ella’s birthday, we found out that baby #2 was on the way!

This took us both completely by surprise! There was great excitement all over again. The hardest part was keeping it a secret…

Ella’s first birthday was a fun and busy day. We ditched the pink blocks and marked the birthday with a HUGE number “1” balloon. This was followed by a trip to the Sea Life Aquarium, the Build a Bear place, and cake at Nana’s house.

We were glad to be able to get some professional “1st Birthday” pictures, too!

March

In March we got our first look at the baby we now know as Andrew/AJ and announced Ella’s promotion to big sister.

Ella also got her first haircut

March also consisted of many walks around the neighborhood and stops at the park.

April

Big brother, Dante’ turned 19 this month! Before that, Easter fell on my mom’s birthday. We got Ella all dressed up in her Easter dress, stopped at the cemetery to visit grandma on her birthday and then went to Nana’s for an Easter Egg hunt!

Ella is so very blessed to have wonderful people in her life. Aunt Margaret is one of them! (She will kill me for posting this picture, but I just love this!!) She and cousin Marissa came to visit and the highlight was watching them read books together.

We also found out the baby’s gender, but that wouldn’t be revealed until May.

May

Birthday’s have never really bothered me, mostly because I opt for the Jack Benny attitude and say that I am stuck at 39. However, in reality I turned 51. 30 was big. 40 was tough. 50 a bit hard to swallow. Over 50? Well…..I examine my own mortality every day.

The month started warm enough that Ella got to spend lots of time in her sandbox and pool.

We revealed that Ella was having a baby brother and got another look at him on an ultrasound.

Ella and I worked on a special project for Sam for Mother’s Day and we got to visit the Detroit Zoo.

May also brought Ella her first taste of corn on the cob!

June

My second oldest boy celebrated his 14th birthday in June. We got to spend Father’s Day together by visiting Crossroads Village. They had a Classic Car Show there and we walked the village and rode the train. It was such a great day with my kids!

It was SO hot that day!!! By the end of it all, Ella was physically exhausted. June was a hot month and we did get to get out and enjoy walks in the park and a day at the splash pad.

July

By July, Sam was 5 months pregnant and was so sick. The pregnancy was a rough one on her. The heat didn’t help things. Despite that, the middle of summer was packed full of amazing things and our family had loads of fun.

We celebrated America’s Birthday, Ella had her first visit to the public library and bowled for the first time, and we all visited the Saginaw Children’s Zoo.

August

As Summer drew to a close, we continued to squeeze as much into it as we could. I got to spend a perfect day doing a daddy daughter picnic, my name was finally on the board at the Corner Cone for a free ice cream, Ella spent lots of time drawing with crayons, and our stress levels were through the roof as we took Ella in for her ear tube surgery. We also got another peak at AJ and had a visit from my brother.

September

Fall! My favorite season of all. I was glad to be able to get together with Margaret, Walt and my buddy Chris at Margaret’s house. Since she’s already mad at the one picture I posted, I’ll just share the one she told me I could share. Hopefully, that makes things a little better….

We always love going to get pumpkins and decorating the front of the house for fall. Ella seemed to like it, too.

Ella and I also got to take one last trip to the Saginaw Zoo before it closed for the season. It was a great day for us, and Sam actually got to relax a bit.

October

We had been told more than once that there was a possibility that the baby would come before his due date. He held out almost until the date! Just two days before he was born, Ella and I got to go outside and enjoy the fall colors.

On October 11th, AJ entered the world. I watched in awe as my son was born and all the pride of being a daddy again filled my soul. We weren’t sure how Ella would handle it, but she welcomed him with open arms.

They still did not have a photographer at the hospital, so we went to JC Penney to have some newborn pictures taken. AJ looks spiffy in his outfit!

While this wasn’t Ella’s first Halloween, it was the first real Trick or Treating adventure for her. She was happy that big brother was there to walk with her. AJ was obviously way too young to attempt to go out this year.

November

Fall walks are among my favorites. I love looking at the colors. Ella and I took many fall walks and there were many instances where she’d just play in a pile of leaves! AJ kept us all busy and so it was just Ella and I making the trip to Bronner’s to get his ornament for the Christmas tree. We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at home and got the house ready for Christmas.

December

The final month of the year brought many happy memories. Professional Christmas pictures, my annual reading of Dickens, AJ turned 2 months old, a visit from Papa and Grandma, Christmas Eve with my boys, Holiday lights at Crossroads, our first Christmas as a family of four, and the anticipation of a brand new year.

Blog highlights included my entries to the 2021 Song Draft, salutes to Soupy Sales, my grandpa, and Ernie Harwell, a guest blog from my pal Max, silly blogs about hats and Bernie Sanders’ mittens, fishing memories, my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, and a blog about an amazing cartoon Dog Dad.

There were many sad moments in 2021. I lost classmates and friends to cancer, heart disease, and of course, Covid. If the past two years have taught me anything, it is that life is precious and another day is not promised. You never know when it will be the “last picture,” the “last phone call,” or the “last visit.” It takes me make to that quote that my band director wrote on the grease board my senior year. I have quoted it many times. “Live every day as if it were your last. Someday, you’ll be right.”

Life is too short. Live. Laugh. Love.

As we welcome 2022, I pray that it is a good year for all of us. May we find it full of happiness and good health. May God bless you and yours in the upcoming year.

Get ready. The Book of 2022 awaits. Grab your pen and turn to page (January) 1.

No More “Bloobies”

When my oldest son was growing up, he called the vacuum a “latchoom.” Both of my oldest sons called pizza “Pee-cuh.” Naturally, as they got older, they began to call those (and other) things by the correct word. When that happened, it always left me sad. That same thing happened today.

Every since she started eating blueberries, Ella has called them “bloobies.” I just LOVE that! When we would bring her breakfast to the table, she’d tell us what everything was on her plate.

Bloobies (Blueberries)
Strawbies (Strawberries)
Nana’s (Bananas)
Cockeese (Cottage cheese)

It was amazing when she started saying those words and knowing what they were.

When I woke up for work today, Sam said, “Guess who is saying ‘blueberries’ now?” She looked at Ella and said, “Tell daddy what you had for breakfast today?”

“Blue Berries,” she said. There it was. Clear as day. Ok, it may have been more like “Blue Bear-wees,” but it was definitely NOT “bloobies” anymore.

Sigh. My little girl is growing up so fast.

You know, I kinda like the word “bloobies.” I may just have to always call them that from now on ….