Monkey See, Monkey... You Know!

Just when I thought Georgia seemed to be mimicking (or trying to) everything I did, she put that sucker on warp speed and somehow started copying everything even more. Holy crap! I brush my teeth, she wants to brush her teeth. I brush my hair, she brushes her hair. I eat my cereal, she wants to eat my cereal. I use the TV remote, she uses the TV remote (successfully, I might add!!). I type on my laptop, she types on my laptop and deletes or somehow messes up everything I had open. Sometimes she even changes things that I have no idea how to change back, gosh darn! I load the dish washer, she tries to load dishes (this one will come in handy one day). I blow my nose, she blows her nose. We'll end with the bodily function examples there. :) The list is never-ending, let me tell you, and something tells me it will get longer and longer. I'm already telling myself I really need to watch that language in the car, or before long I'll hear the parrot in the back seat, "get out of the f****** fast lane you slow a** son of a b****!!" Oh Lord no!

Today, in addition to all the scrutiny I receive from that tiny pair of eyes, the dogs fell into her cross hairs as well. I let them back into the house from the backyard, and they quickly stopped to lick up some Cheerios Georgia had dropped on the floor. I shooed them away and turned around to find this:

So the dogs lick things up off the floor, Georgia has to lick things up off the floor. Yeah! Thank goodness I don't have to worry about the dog's language as well. I just hope I don't find Georgia trying to lift her leg on a tree one day.

Read more...

The Cookie That Roared!!!

Or at least you would have thought it was roaring after Georgia's initial reaction. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things and somehow ended up in the bakery section. My, my, I don't know how that always happens. There in the cookie case were these adorable iced cookies smiling back at me. Yes, I swear, their little faces overloaded with sugar were smiling.

So I picked up the lion one for Georgia.

Here it was, her first large cookie covered in liquid sugar. I just knew she would have so much fun devouring it bite by bite. Funny though, no one told Georgia that's how she should react.

When she first saw that happy, innocent, smiling cookie - she was scared of it! So much so, we took it away and tried again later. Oh my goodness! But this time, she decided to at least touch it, a little bit. Well, that was after I stuck a finger-full of yummy icing in her mouth.

And then, it was on... kind of. Not quite the devouring I envisioned, but the girl likes her icing!

Take that scary (and yummy) cookie!

Read more...

RED - Go Red for Women - I Heart Faces

The theme for this week's I Heart Faces challenge is red, in honor of the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women. It's a cause I have worked with through the years with my job - from wearing red on Go Red Day to raise awareness among thousands of viewers, to shooting promos to raise awareness, to even last year when I painted a "celebrity" picture to be auctioned off to raise money for the American Heart Association. So when I saw this week's theme, I knew I had to enter to raise awareness for anyone who might read this blog.

My picture for the week is of my daughter, who I will raise to make sure she is aware of the risks women do face when it comes to heart disease and other heart issues. She was also the topic of that picture I painted for charity. And although the serious issues and talks with my daughter will come one day about things like heart disease, the risks and the symptoms - right now she's only 16 months old and this is the time for the innocence of childhood. Like her first spin in her new, red Radio Flyer wagon. That's a red of childhood I think many of us remember.

She looked back as if to say "mommy, what are you doing on the ground? Come along with us silly!"

Heart disease has some very un-silly facts though. Heart disease is still the #1 killer of women, taking the life of 1 in 3 women each year. Some of the signs of a heart attack include:
- Chest discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back.
- Discomfort in other areas like one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
- Shortness of breath, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.
- Women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

Go check out some other red entries this week at I Heart Faces:

Read more...

No Card... No Cake... No Goodbye Hugs...

... just a meeting in the boss's office, an empty box and an escorted walk to the door. This week, I lost my job. What the F??? Although this topic doesn't quite fit with the theme of this blog, everything Georgia, this event will change the course of her life. Mommy has to find a new job and that means a move to a new city.

It is no fun to be at the losing end of a lay off, and I probably don't have to tell many of you that corporate America quickly forgets all you've done for it when it determines you are no longer needed. All those overtime hours never clocked, all those missed dinner breaks, all those hours missed with your family, all those nine hour shifts of not sitting down for more than 10 minutes to makes sure you got the interviews or the court documents or the research or the facts or the balance or all of the above, all of the crap, all of it - when it's your time, none of it means a thing. If I've learned one thing this week, it's that to be safe in corporate America, you must be a lemming. Keep your head down, your feet shuffling forward and the silent nod of agreement at the ready. However, that will never be me. So it is that I am now job hunting.

Where it will take me and my family is yet to be seen, but I know it will be somewhere fabulous. It's a new adventure, and honestly it's one we've been ready for for quite a while. I guess this is our much-needed push. What awaits us in the future is so unknown it's pretty exciting, a new adventure somewhere (hopefully somewhere with an ocean and a beach!).

In the meantime, I will be spending A LOT of time with my little lovely:

... who not long ago decided she just HAD to wear a sock (just one) over her pj's.

For the record, I will not be letting her choose my attire for any job interviews I might have in the near future.

But when the most critical thing of the moment is getting one striped, colorful sock onto or off of your foot, then that's a pretty good day. No worries. Just days ahead full of innocence, wonder, smiles and fun - I can do that for a while. She makes me smile, and that's just what I need right now.

Read more...