on this dreary rainy day.  Don't get me wrong, it's nice that we're finally getting rain, but I don't think we've seen the sun in a week or so.  I don't know how the folks in Seattle do it.  I need some sun and that's odd coming from me since I'm so sun-phobic.  Is that a real phobia??  Actually, it's not the sun that I'm afraid of but the 3 shades of darkness that I turn in the 5 minutes that I'm in it.  I know, I know...how dare I complain about how easy it is for me to turn 3 shades darker and not sunburn, but you always want what you can't have.  I've always been told that my dark coloring isn't attractive and that I should work on being lighter...which is absolutely impossible in Texas.  Anyways, I digress...

We're watching Monster's Inc, and I remember thinking that when Josh and I finally had children they would look like Boo.  Let's compare...

       

Pretty close...don't you think??? HA!!

On another note, Marisa has had a fever for the last 24 hours.  It's so odd because she has been running a fever between 104 and 106.1...yeah, that's right 106.1!!  However, she has no other symptoms - no vomiting, no diarrhea, no runny nose, no coughing, and she's drinking lots of liquids and she's eating.  It's so odd!!  The dial-a-nurse at our doctor's office said to give her Motrin and as long as her temp goes down, then she's ok.  So, we're watching her closely and keeping her activity down to a minimum.  The photo above, is of a very feverish child...but yet, she still has the ability to smile for the camera.  Gotta love her!

    but the terrible 2's so far haven't been so terrible.  Marisa has her occasional outbursts but luckily she has yet to throw that temper tantrum that all parents fear.  You know the one where they scream at the top of their lungs and hurl their body to the ground trying to hurt themself.  She doesn't do anything remotely close to that and I pray that she never picks it up from someone.  Of course, she is only 2 months into the terrible 2's so lots can happen in the next 10 months.  And, what if she starts it at 3??  Oy.

Late last night I went into her room to check on her before turning in for the night.  To my surprise she was standing in her crib when I pushed her door open and she says, "Hi Momma.."  like she was expecting me all along.  I've read that you're not supposed to talk to them when you go in because then they become more lucid and less likely to go back to sleep.  Not the case with Marisa.  I asked her what she was doing and she said " 'leeping" and I asked her to lay back down.  She did.  As I pulled up the covers, I whispered "night, night, baby"  and a faint whisper came back..."night, night..."  I followed that with an "I love you, baby..."  and another faint whisper came back..." i wuv you, too."  Just melted my heart...I didn't want to leave.  How can 4 little words fill a person with such tremendous joy???  It was amazing!

    I finally finished the baby afghan I've been working on for little Alison.  I started it late last August and finally finished it last Friday!!  It's a single crochet blanket with cross stitching on it and it turned out even better than I expected it to.  The time it took to do everything quadrupled what I had planned it would take, which is why it took almost 6 months to finish.  My initial plan was to have it done for Angela's baby shower in October.  I finished the crochet part but had a long way to go with everything else.  And, then I figured I'd try to have it completed by the time the baby was born.  No, luck there since her birthday came and went and so did Christmas.  My next goal was for a one month gift, since I think that's when Angela gave Marisa her beautiful afghan.  Again, I didn't make it.  So, I worked like mad and finished it just weeks before her 2 month birthday. 

  I'm so proud of this afghan and would do it all over again for little Alison.  I wanted Angela to know how much her family means to me so wanted it to be extra special.  The picture that is cross stitched on the blanket is the same picture that is on Marisa's bible that Angela gave Marisa 2 years ago.

 

    I can't believe it's already Valentine's Day.  It seems like yesterday we were starting the new year. We took a few pictures for some Valentine's Day scrapbooking and I wanted to share the pictures.  Between the smiles and trying to talk her into keeping still she decided she would make a carpet angel.  Not sure where she gets this, but she's been making this carpet angel of hers for a while, now. 



It's funny that she's doing this, since 2 years ago on Valentine's we actually had a snow storm.  She was only 6 weeks old when she made her first snow angel...and she was a sweet little angel.  She looked pretty hot in her fleece pajamas and little baby coat.  Here she is...the sweetest and smallest snow angel we'd ever seen. 



Do you see her little snow angel imprint.  WOW!  Can't believe she was ever that small!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!!!!!

    ...were the words Josh said when he came in this morning after going into Marisa's room.  It took a minute to register what he was saying to me.  My immediate thought was, oh great, she finally figured out how to climb out of her crib.  We've been going back and forth on when we would finally move her out of the crib and into a toddler bed or twin size bed, but figured it wasn't quite necessary yet because she hadn't shown any interest in climbing out it. 

BUT, that apparently wasn't the problem.  It seems that Marisa is mimicking the monkey habit of playing with and throwing her poop.  LOVELY!!  Luckily, (can anything be lucky with this scenario?) it was hard poop and wasn't smeared all over her crib and sheets.  It was, however, all over her hands and under her fingernails.  There were 3 pieces on the floor and at least it didn't look like she had hurled them across the room.  I had to tell her that what she did was wrong and told her that she was a"bad girl" which she just bawled over.  It was the saddest, most disappointed face I've ever seen her make.  While trying to calm her down, I had to ask whether she'd eaten any.  Her answer was a sad "yeaaaahhhh...".  So, I'm hoping she didn't understand the question and just answered.  Oh boy! 

Josh looked at me and was like what do we do now??  So, I took Marisa and stuck her in the bathtub while he proceeded to clean and disinfect everything in her room.  I had to clip her fingernails since that was the only way to get the stuff out from under them.  YUK!

What a great way to start the day.  It's actually pretty comical to think about and talk about, now.  You always hear those kind of stories from parents, and as always you think it could never happen to you.  But, it did...it happened to us.  And when she has her own kids, I can say, "When you were 2, you pulled out poop from your diaper and threw it on the floor..."