Valentine's Day Toddler Shirts

Have you guys had the hardest time finding cute Valentine's day shirts this year? Olivia has a "heart you" shirt from Gap from last year that I got on sale. Most of them are a little cheesy this year.

These are my favorite for toddler boys and girls.

Five on Friday

Happy Friday! This Friday is closer to January being over - totally not our month. I have high hopes for February. Bring on the Superbowl, heart shaped things, and one more month before we can start thinking about warmer weather. 

1. You know how, when you have a toddler, things can go from wonderful to disaster in .04 seconds and there's nothing you can do about it?

Like Sunday morning, when Olivia slept in until NINE and I thought it was going to be a great day and I woke up with pink eye? 

Or Monday when Olivia took Dan's phone, put it to her ear and goes "blah. blah. blah." We laughed out loud. Instead of babbling like she normally does, it was almost as if she was making fun of us: "blah. blah. blah." She puts the other hand on her hip with attitude. Starts strutting across the kitchen. We are dying laughing. "Blah. Blah. Blah." Chucks Dan's phone in the dog's water bowl.

2. Speaking of the dog, Olivia always wants to walk Koda. The problem is she isn't the most reliable walker. She'll drop the leash at the hint of something shiny and Koda runs away at the hint of something moving. Dan came up with a great solution.

3. I keep catching her in the liquor cabinet. I thought I had at least 16 more years until this. She prefers the mini bottles. 

4. Wednesdays I stay at work all day. They are hands down, my least favorite day. I miss Olivia so much and barely get to see her. At least, when I'm stuck in horrible traffic - I get to watch the sun set over the lake. 

5. I can't even describe to you how much this little girl loves her daddy. You can just see it in her eyes!

Olivia's Valentines

I really wanted to get Olivia's class some T Swift valentines, because I know Olivia would have totally picked those out. But I'm not sure her class would get it, and they might find us a little weird.

As a parent of a 15 month old, no one wants candy, unless you can get it without your child seeing it and binge eat it during their nap. Since Olivia's art skills are much to be desired, handmade wasn't in the cards. I wanted to do something practical like the bubbles for Christmas -- without spending much money.

Target dollar spot bath sprinkle cups. The kind with the holes in the bottom that 'rain.' Plus, Target dollar spot gift tags. I did large chocolate bars for her four teachers. So for 10 kids and 4 teachers, I spent $15. 

Shh. Don't tell her friends yet.

Five on Friday

These are my favorite because I don't have to follow any one subject and I can ramble. I love to ramble.

1. Coloring in the lines isn't even close to something we will work on with Olivia, we need to start with 'staying on the paper.' She tends to color with crayons all over the place. Especially behind her. So I bought a disposable plastic table cloth for her to color on. We spread it out, dump the crayons and no longer panic about our floors or tables. Since her attention span is .01 seconds, we fold it back up and bring it out next time.

Anyone else still wearing their Christmas jammies?

2. Olivia has figured out the camera. She likes to sit in front of it to have her picture taken. Then come see the picture of 'baby Olivia' on the screen. Since Ms. Impatient doesn't wait  two seconds for the phone to actually take the picture before getting up to see 'baby Olivia' - this is how our pictures look these days. Thanks chicka.

This is her accessorizing her PJs. I have no control.

3. After the 'tights as pants' incident of 2014, I pick out Olivia's clothes for Dan to dress her in the morning. I pick out the whole week at once. Apparently Olivia pulled the pile down and Dan couldn't figure out how the outfits went back together. So this was what she was wearing the other day to daycare.

I walked in and the lady said "ohhh, you aren't going to like her outfit today." Bhahaha. They know me too well. 

4. These pictures were taken a few months apart, but I'm just getting around to downloading them. Olivia with a picture of me as a baby:

And Olivia with a picture of Dan as a baby:

What do yall think? I'm thinking she's starting to look more and more like Dan. But when I compare baby pictures, I might win here.

5. Last weekend we had a fire in our fire pit and some champagne. In our sweat pants. It was magical.  

When Olivia heard about the fire pit, she decided to BYOB.

No joke though, she took these out of the cooler, loaded them up in her chair and pushed them out toward the fire pit. 

No fire pit is complete with out smores. And a little smores plate theif!

If we don't get abolished by winter storm lola - we'll do it again this weekend.

I went to the store to buy eggs and milk just in case all those crazy people who stock up on eggs and milk made a mad rush on Harris Teeter and they were out. Those crazy people ... 

Happy Friday. Finallllllly.

Growth Chart Pinterest Fail and Lessons Learned

You know those super cute growth charts that I'm sure you could buy on Etsy? Buy them. 

It totally looks fine. But here's what happened. I spray painted the board white because I thought our landing was a little dark. Forgot about the board. Left it in the pouring rain all night. Ran over it in my car on the way to work. 

Spent a month debating whether to spend $8 on a new board, or salvage my current one.

Sand down the board. Repaint. Run out of paint. Run to Lowes. Look for number stencils, but can't find any. Finish painting.

Pinterest tells me to do a long line of painters tape down the length of the board (pictured below) so each of the lines stop at the same point (each of the foot lines, the half foot lines, etc. you keep moving the tape forward). Great. 

Then pinterest tells me to put two pieces of painters tape close together. Paint the line black. Remove the tape. I do this and the black has seeped under the tape and looks awful. Pinterest also told me to paint it white first, so the paint that seeps is white, and then paint it black. So now I have to wait for the the paint to dry twice. I only taped up some lines at a time. Because the tape was bigger than an inch, I couldn't do all the lines at once - they were too close together. So things were taped in phases. Paint had to dry in phases. This is fun.

I'm 95% finished with the lines and then I realize that a friggin ruler and a Sharpie would have worked better than hours of watching paint dry. Really, pinterest? Really?

(I taped off where the numbers would go, hence the squares. But one long line of tape, the tape measure to get the right spots, plus that ruler at the bottom to get the lines straight. Move the tape in as you want smaller lines. It would have taken me five minutes. WHY??)

So then I paint the number 2. Realize that I can't go up or I'm going to smear the 2. So I go to the top, paint 5. Then 3. Crap. In the 4 spot. So I sand over the 3. Spray the white over it. Wait for it to dry. Accidentally spray the 5 and the 2. Repaint the 5 and the 2. Paint the 4 (finally). And the 3. 

Not worth it. 

Also, I kinda wish I had made the board longer and had the 6 at the top.

But, none the less. We have a growth chart to measure our children on. One month and 92 hours of painting later. 

If you make one - get 5.5 feet of board to have the six, use the sharpie and the ruler. And don't leave your board in the rain and run over it. People should pin this. Why is it never the easy way?

Remember those coasters I made? There's one million pins of incredibly complicated ways of making coasters out of tile. Aint nobody got time for that.

Blog Vision

I think it might be the new year upon us - but I've been thinking about this a lot lately. You don't start a company without a vision. You don't embark on a new adventure without a vision. Why would I spend a few hours a week on this blog without a full vision of what I want it to be? 

Maybe this is exposing too much. Many people start a blog to make money, to get free products, and maybe even fame and fortune. But they never put their 'vision' or their business plan out there.

But I think writing out what I want this blog to be, helps me stick to it. Whether I click the 'publish' button or not, this will be a record of my plan (for 2015 at least) for this blog.

1. Number one. First and foremost, this is to update friends and family on our life and Olivia. We have friends and family spread all over the world, that want more than anything to see pictures and know what is going on in her life. If I don't post for a couple of days, I can guarantee my mother in law will text asking for new pictures of Olivia. :)

2. I want people to laugh. Not in a stand up comedy kind of way - but a 'we've all been there, and we aren't alone' kind of way. No one is perfect. No life is perfect. That's really the only thing we know about life. That we can't control it. And sometimes it will suck. So maybe, seeing others going through a not perfect life - and the funny things that can happen - and the funny things that toddlers can say or do - maybe it'll make someone who is going through some real crap, smile. At least for a minute.

3. I want people to see the positive things in life. We get very focused on what isn't going well - and should spend more time on what is. Did you eat mac and cheese for dinner? That sounds AWESOME. Do you have friends? Family? A dog? Do you have an apartment that you love or a new shirt that makes your boobs look great? Let's focus on that. Life has some pretty cool stuff - why worry about the crap?

4. I want people to learn. Not that I have much of anything to teach. But sometimes I find some cool stuff on the internet. And I learn. And you can save some time of surfing the internet if I just link to it. This is and has been a goal - but I realize I really don't spend much time on this. I would like to post more recipes, crafts, time saving tips, etc. I'm going to work toward that. 

5. Lastly, I want those who do not have children to see how wonderful it is. Maybe it is the fact that Dan and I work for fortune 50 companies and are living the 'corporate America' life - but kids just don't have a positive connotation to them. It's much cooler to talk about them as though they were a box that had to be checked, yet something that gets in the way of your joy in life and success in your career. It's uncool to want them. It's uncool to try for them. It's uncool to have them early. I want to rid the nation of that. I love my daughter more than anything. I was born to be a mom. I'm very successful in my career, but I wouldn't think for a second about giving it up if it ever got in the way of her happiness. I want people to be a little less scared of diving into having children. It's the best thing that I've ever done.

I love this little space of the internet. And as I continue to do this, I'm building more relationships with wonderful people. Both who share very similar values and sentiments, as well as those who are completely different from me. 

I get offered to sponsor quite a few products, but only choose ones that I absolutely love. I want to ensure that I continue to stick to the five points above, throughout 2015. I hope you'll stick with me.

Just You Wait

You know the 'just you wait'ers? The people who, no matter what you are doing right now, tell you that there's always something worse lying ahead?

If you are one of those people, I apologize. I'm going to talk about how obnoxious you are. 

They say these things because they know. They've been there. You haven't. So you don't.

Just wait until you get married and are tied down to only one person, then you'll be miserable.

You're married and it's fun now, but just you wait until you have kids. Then your lives are over.

You think the first trimester is bad? Wait until the third when you are huge - then you'll really be complaining.

You think you are tired now? Wait until the baby is here. You don't even know the meaning of tired.

You are ready for the baby to be here? Ha. Just you wait until labor. You'll wish that baby could stay in forever. 

You think having a newborn is hard? Wait until they start crawling - then your life is over.

They crawl fast huh? Well nothing compares to walking. You'll wish they never learned to walk.

You think toddlers are bad? Wait until you have teenagers!

Just you wait. Your life is going to get worse. I know these things.

Why do people do it? Is it cool to have this doomsday approach to life? Are they better because they are more miserable? I don't care what you are going through, the last helpful thing someone can say is 'it's only downhill from here.'

And the worst part, is people start to believe it. I am hearing more and more people make caveats that tells me that the 'just you wait'ers are sitting in the back of their mind. "I'm tired! BUT I know it's only going to get worse so I should get used to it." 

Is it so hard to say something like, "wow what a wonderful time in your life."? Or "the best is really yet to come." ?

I want to be like "suck it, 'just you wait'ers" - my life has only gotten better and better.

Being married to my best friend is awesome.

But having Olivia topped that.

I never felt better the entire pregnancy than those last few weeks. The day I went into labor was the best I felt the entire time.

Labor? Best day of my life. A breeze. I'd have a million babies to go through that day a million times.

I was more tired pregnant than with a newborn - you just don't sleep that well pregnant!

Olivia became so much more happy once she could crawl. She could finally get to the toys she wanted.

Once she walked, man did she get easier. Less lugging her around, more carefully watching her sweet steps. And a whole new world of games - chase, pushing things around, playing on cement.

We don't have a teenager yet (although she's working on it) but I'm choosing to believe that they are wrong on this one too. 

Olivia - 15 Months

Time is flying by - and she is getting older (and more fun) by the minute. Thought it was time to do an update since it's been a few months!

She is finally becoming more independent. She always wanted me to hold her and walk her around everywhere. I, of course, obliged. And I, of course, was told I was spoiling her. Well - I already miss it! She doesn't want to be held and she doesn't want to hold our hand. She's too busy - ain't nobody got time for that!

Every single thing she does is my favorite in the world. We are totally biased. We're constantly saying, 'isn't she the cutest thing in the entire world.' And we keep her up way past her bed time because she's just so much fun. I'm not going to be able to capture everything she does in one post - but I'm going to try. I want to remember it all. 

Words: Ut oh is probably her first word. It's super helpful because it means "help me - I want something and I can't get it." If she REALLY wants something it's 'ut ut ut ohhhh.' I love how little her mouth gets on her long 'ohhh.' I'm considering buh-bull (bubble) her first word. She said mama and dada before, but she really pointed to the bubbles and would grab our hand to take us to the bubbles. She loves bubbles! If she REALLY wants them it's 'buh buh buh bull.' So much concentration goes into the 'bull' part. Now she really says dada (dad) and dada (koda) and dada (dog). She says mama. Bow. Boot. More. Ball. She really like's the b's. She also says a lot of other stuff that we can't understand. She says 'yum!' when she's eating something she likes. 'Woah.' And if she sees something she likes or wants to play with she does this really excited 'ohhhh!'

Genius: She claps for herself all the time. Every time she does something she thinks is awesome, she claps. I really think we should all start doing that. If no one pats us on the back, let's just do it for ourselves. The world might be a better place.

Blowing kisses

She loves loves loves to be outside. So to make an even better case for going outside, she gets the dog leash, which she knows riles Koda up - then they both sit banging on the front door to go play. Smart girl, rallying the dog.

This chick loves accessories. She has an opinion on which shoes she wears. She must wear a bow with all outfits, even PJs. She must pick out her own bow. We were even in the bath the other day, and from the tub she could see a bow. I told her she could wear it when she was finished. Even though she loves the bath, she got out immediately to be able to wear the bow. She loves vests and jackets. Anything that is round must be a bracelet and must be worn as such. So funny because she is surrounded by boys. Just shows there's some things that are them from birth.

Bow? Bow? Bohhwww!!

Assuming my sports bra was a new vest for her, she insisted on wearing it around that day.

She's a little type-a. Her sippy cups go on coasters. She's pretty good at putting things back where they came from - at least general vicinity. She will throw trash away for us if asked, and she will notice teeny tiny pieces of something on the ground and have to stop what she is doing to throw it away in the trash can. She doesn't like to have a snotty nose and must have a tissue after she sneezes. At dinner tonight she took Dan's napkin from him to wipe her nose. She and I get along great! :)

Where's your belly?

She loves her little baby dolls. She feeds them bottles, shares her food with them, rocks them (a little rougher but) like you'd rock a baby. In the grocery store she had her baby sit up front with her and was sharing bites of her cookie with her. She just has the sweetest heart. 

And cheeks. Ohh those cheeks.

She is really good with sounds. She doesn't repeat words easily, but she wants to repeat any sounds we make. She clicks her tongue and has whistled a few times. I did this french laugh (hoh hoh hohh) and she practiced it and now does it. Her book of animal sounds is one of her favorites - she likes who like an owl and buzz like a bee. If you put something in the form of a sound she'll not only repeat it but practice it. If only she treated words the same way.

Trouble: She always feeds the dog. She'll take a whole sandwich hold it over the floor near koda. I'll say 'no Olivia, do not give that to Koda' and she'll look at me, let go, and go "ut ut ut ohhhh." I see through you, little one. Then she'll say 'more.' It's like they've got a pact. Koda, everything they give me is limitless. I'll drop you some stuff and then I'll just get more for me. I got ya back. 

Dan bought this chocolate cookie butter. (I think the chocolate takes away from the delicious cookie butter, but I digress). It's like nutella - some chocolate crap in a peanut butter jar. No one has eaten this in months. Olivia goes into our pantry to play, sees the cookie butter, gets it out and closes the pantry, takes it over to Dan and starts tapping on the lid and whining for it. How does she know its chocolate? She's never had it. But she KNEW she would love it. He had to give her a bite - she was just too cute taking the time to pick it out and ask for it. 

Music: This chick loves her some good jams. She waves her hands high in the air, as if to say 'this is my jam' whenever one of her songs comes on. We've heard about how much she loves T.Swift's Shake it Off and Blank Space. Meghan Trainor All About that Bass. Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk. Really there's a million. I'll just stop. 

She claps at the end of every song. In restaurants, where most people barely notice that there is music - Olivia claps every time. 

She loves to dance, and this girl dances on beat. I love it! We were a little worried with Dan's  lack of rhythm but this girl has rhythm! 

Favorite Cartoon Character: Taylor Swift. No really. She doesn't watch TV - so there's no Elmo or Mickey obsession. But if you have Taylor up on a youtube video, she freaks like a middle school girl. Anything Taylor. How does this start so early?

Oh, Olivia, my dear, I can't remember life before you. These have been the greatest 15 months so far, and I can't wait for a million more.

Freshly Picked Winner

You guys aren't going to believe this! With over 500 entries in the FP Giveaway, the Random Number Generator gave me the number 2. This means Alyson Clark, from the second comment on the post. 

Shoot me an email at blog.lovelikecrazy{at}gmail{dot}com.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I wish I had 500 pairs to give away!!

New Years 2015

We went to Greenville again for NYE. 

Olivia had this super cute gold skirt and new york shirt that her grandmother got her. She insisted on wearing the fur vest with her outfit - she is ALL about accessories these days and I've lost all control. I said "Olivia don't you think it's too much?" She took the vest from my hand and shook her head 'no' while putting it on. I can't tell if she's 14 months or 14.

I pulled my camera out and the brand new lens I got for Christmas doesn't work. I didn't bring any other lenses, so of course we got no good pictures.

iPhoto will not remove her red eye - and I'm too lazy right now to photoshop.

Remember how last time we went to Blair's I broke into her house? And then the time before that we set off the alarm which dispatched the police at 2 am?

Don't you worry, we are continuing our streak as worst house guests ever. After the party was over, we finished cleaning up and we're heading to bed, when Dan knocks over their table and completely shatters their giant glass vase. He says the table was falling over, he went to catch it, and 'only' broke the vase instead of the glass table. Tomato tomato.

Brett and Dan had to clean up all the broken glass. No worries though - Brett wore his festive Happy New Year hat - to keep the party going even while vacuuming. 

This is when we found Dan's uneaten grapes. Shoulda eaten the grapes. Forced him to eat them. And then he dropped January (lord I hope it was January) on the floor. 

We also heard about fantasy Bachelor/Bachelorette. Have you guys heard of this? I really wish we had done it this season but we didn't have our life together. This was four friends - you all get together (no cheating) and look at the girls listed online for 30 seconds per girl and you all take your own notes. You then go in order 'drafting' people for your team. You can't use anything except the notes you had - so hopefully you remember the people well! You go around until each person has drafted 6 people. You get 3 points for the first impression rose. 1 point for a one on one. And 1 point for a rose. Obviously, the further the girls make it, the more points your team gets. 

They said their favorite part was coming out of the limo. You are hoping that you picked the right girls just from their bio. And then one of them steps out with a lampshade on their head and you know your team is doomed for the season. 

Any of you play? Not that we need a reason to watch the Bachelor .. sounded like a fun twist!