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Okay obviously I’m just kidding but seriously after last night I think she would in a heartbeat.  This was my first time ever going to the Circus and it was AMAZING.  Eva was enthralled throughout the entire show.  It had all of her favorite things: beautiful Horses, Zebras, Elephants, Tigers, fun music, dancers, and acrobats.  The entire thing was just filled with excitement.  I don’t think she blinked once. 

I would have to say her favorite part was probably the Elephants.  The whole way there she kept saying she wanted to see Dumbo.   She was not disappointed. 

My favorite part was the human cannonball duo.  Amazing to be able to fly through the air like that.  Just amazing.

This might sound silly but something about Circus performers has just always fascinated me.  I sat there wondering what each of there stories where.  Did they grow up in the circus?  Did they from a long line of clowns, animal trainers, and acrobats?  I was so interested to read their bios in the program and to learn that many of them are from other countries.  That just made them even more cooler.  I started imagining joining the circus and touring Europe.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Zing Zang Zoom Circus is in Phoenix until 06/28 this Sunday.  If you can go I highly highly highly recommend that you do.   Really, especially if you have young kids.  Eva had so much fun I almost want to go again this weekend.

You can get your Tickets at TicketMaster.

Saturday June 27th 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., 7:00p.m.

Sunday June 28th 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.

 On a more somber note.  RIP Michael Jackson.  His music was a part of my childhood and so many others for the past 40 years.  I know there is a lot to be wondered about in how he led his life but he was a musical genius and well there have been many geniuses who have lead strange lives.

Is there a support group for Twilight addicts?  If such a condition exists I think I have it.  I first watched the movie a month or two ago and was surprised that I liked it as much as I did.  I get lost in the scenery.  Maybe because it is such a stark contrast to hot, flat, tree barren Phoenix but I am mesmerized by the green trees, moss, wet ground, and cold air.  I’ve watched the movie at least a dozen times so far, if it wasn’t for my husband that number would be higher.  After enjoying the movie so much I read the first book which took me less then 24 hours.  Then I immediately ran to the library and got the second.  It took me about 2 days to finish that one….I paced myself a little bit more.  After that I had to wait an excruciating 7 days before the third book was available at the library.  I’m glad I was forced to wait though…it prolonged the excitement for me.  The anticipation of the drug is better then the actual experience of getting high.  That’s what I learned working with drug addicts anyway.  See what I mean?  Support group is badly needed.

I just can’t stop thinking about these characters.  After I finish one book and am waiting for the other I find myself going back and re-reading certain parts.  It’s intoxicating and a little bit disturbing.  I’ve never been so obsessed about a book before.  Everything about this series, the movie, and the author intrigues me.   Do you know how she came up these characters?  She had a dream!  It just blows my mind that all of this, the success of these books, and the movie has been the product of a dream.  She wasn’t even actively writing at the time or wishing to write a book.  It just came to her.  Of course there had to have been a lot of hard work on her part and not to mention talent.  She does a wonderful job building the characters up in your head. Yes, sometimes they are annoyingly sappy but it doesn’t make it any easier to put down the books.  I just can’t stop reading about them.

I just got an e-mail that the fourth book is ready at my library.  I’ll be comatose for the next day or two.

I guess this doesn’t really qualify as a random thoughts post so to get your fill head over to Keely’s blog The UnMom.

What would a Modern Mommy do without a Modern Daddy?  I know I could not live without Eva’s Daddy aka my husband Chris.

• He set up this sight for me and maintains it.
• He comes home every night from a long day of work and for the most part takes care of Eva the whole night.  Usually even giving her a bath and getting her ready for bed.
• On top of that he cleans up after dinner every night.
• I’ve never had to touch a lawn mower or weed whacker in my life because he does all of it.
• He humors me as a I order him around outside telling him what shrub to cut and what not to cut while a lay back on a chair and get some sun .
• He takes Eva somewhere when I need a break.
• He loves our daughter and would do anything for her.
• He loves me and would do anything for me.
• He has an incredible sense of duty for his family and is a great provider.
• There are many more reasons why I love this man and could not live without him but I can’t list them all here.

We love you honey, happy early Father’s Day!

Did you hear that at Old Navy this Saturday you can get tank tops for $2 a piece?!

Hope you are having a Fantastical Friday as well! Remember to tell the Dad in your life how much you appreciate him!

How do crumbs find there way into my silverware drawer and cupboards when there is no food near them?

I watched MILK finally last week.  DH and I were silent throughout the whole movie which is rare.  I came up with a new slogan “Guns don’t kill people, HATE kills people.”  Wouldn’t that be great for an anti-hate website?

We have ALIENS in our house.  At least I think that’s what the baby monitor is trying to tell me.  Remember in the movie “Signs” they could hear the aliens through the monitor?

Kabobs are the worlds most perfect meal.  I am obsessed with making them.  Last night I put chicken breast, mushrooms, onions, red pepper, and pineapple on skewers.  I smothered them with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, paprika, salt, garlic powder, and white pepper.  I found the recipe for the mixture this past weekend when I was making lobster tails and it was so delicious I decided I could probably put it on anything I grill.  I was right, it was fabulous on the kabobs.  It is just one of the easiest and tastiest meals ever.  I make some rice to go with them and viola a perfectly balanced meal.  Chris likes them because they are easy to clean up after.

Is it rude to respond to a voicemail with a text message?  Sometimes I am tempted to but then I just end up calling because I’m not sure if the person would get offended.  What do you think?

What I love most about having company over is it forces me to clean my house

I finished reading New Moon in two days.  Yes there was a little bit of that ooey gooey teenage mushy romance that made me want to vomit but really not very much.  I can’t wait for the movie.  I am so addicted to these characters.  I haven’t read a book like that in a long time so it was kind of nice to be able to escape into something that way.

Eva’s favorite book right now is Goodnight Gorilla.  It is the perfect book for her age.  Not very many words but a lot going on in the pictures.  It gives us a lot to talk about and she can tell me what is going on in the story.  She loves the page with just the two surprised eyes in the dark room.  She makes me read those last few pages over and over and over again.

I love saving money!  Ever since we started our Debt Diet I have been a coupon cutter.  Never have paid much attention to ads or coupons before but now that I have more time to do it I love it.  So far this year I have spent $162 at CVS and saved $201!  Everything I buy is something that I genuinely need, I don’t just buy stuff because it is on sale.  Today I went to Albertsons my final bill was $60 and I saved $58.  I cut my bill in half!  I know there are ways to save even more than that but I am still learning. 

I do buy the paper and get coupons that way but I find my best coupons come from registering on product websites.  It’s true I get a million E-mails a day but it’s worth it if it means I am saving more money.

Links:

http://www.afullcup.com/

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

http://print.coupons.com/CouponWeb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10

Hope you are having a Fantastical Friday too!

I saw “UP” last Friday and while I wasn’t expecting to ball my eyes out in a kids movie…I did for the first half hour.  It’s a great  movie.  See it.

I took a tour of Arizona State University today with my niece so I have  a lot of little random facts to share with you.

• They currently have 64,000 students, the second largest university population in the nation. 
• They are the ONLY major university in the Phoenix metropolitan area.  (So, not a lot of options for us here.)
• They have over 200 undergraduate majors to choose from.  Imagine trying to pick one if you are undecided!
• There are 4 campuses spread throughout the valley.
• Researchers at the University are responsible for inventing rubberized asphalt.  If you aren’t from here you’ve probably never heard of it but they pave our freeways with it to make them much more quite.  Which is nice if you live by one.  What’s even cooler is they repair themselves when they crack because it is made out of recycled rubber tires. 
• They are currently working on making rubberized asphalt for other areas of the country that actually get rain because apparently moisture is not it’s friend. 
• Right now they are working on creating a paper thin laptop that fits around your arm for the military.  How cool is that?
• I also learned that you should take your kids to these things when they are freshman’s in high school so they can see what awesome scholarships they can get if they keep up their GPA.
• Watching the parents tour the campus with their kids made me realize just how hard it’s going to be when it is my turn to send Eva to a big scary college campus.

Okay,  so I guess today isn’t really a tip but more of a plea for help.  Ever since my daughter was 8 months old she has had a problem hitting others.  Let me just add that I don’t know if her foster mom ever hit her but I highly doubt it.  I can tell you that me and my husband have never hit her, not even just a slap on the hand.  So part of my frustration is just not knowing where this comes from.

When it first started I figured okay this is just how she is letting out her frustration and it is normal.  I still think that but am just so fed up with it.  It’s been 20 months of dealing with this and trying to get her to stop and nothing is working!!!  She hits me, she hits her dad, she hits (and kicks) the dog, she hits her cousins, kids at the playground.  She doesn’t really have to be provoked very much, if a kid just thinks about playing with something that she wants she will immediately reach out and swat them in the face, or better pull their hair out, or even better grab their face and dig her finger nails into their skin.

I know it is her personality, she has a very strong one and know’s what she wants which will be good for when she’s older but how do I teach her to stop hurting others?  This is what I’ve done so far.

8-12 months old - Grabbed her hand and told her in a very stern voice “no hitting” then stroked her hand on my face and said “nice”

12-18 months old - Looked her in the eyes told her very sternly “NO NO HITTING” put her down and turned away for a couple of seconds and then dropped it.

18-24 months - Started using time out, talked to her about why hitting is bad, because it hurts and we don’t want to hurt people.  Have her apologize to whoever she hurt.  Taught her how to tell other kids “I want to play with that”.  Many times I would just have to remove her from the situation entirely

24 months - 28 months - At this point I don’t know what to do anymore.  I praise her when she is playing nicely.  I teach her how to introduce herself to other kids (which does work really well).  I use time in if we are at the playground and she does it to another kid.  I still just completely remove her from the situation if she does it 2 or 3 times.  It happens EVERY TIME we go to the playground and EVERY TIME she is around her little cousins.  If she does it to me at home I still give her a time out and that usually works as kind of a cooling off period for her and me.

Everybody I talk to says it will go away when she starts talking more.  She does talk pretty well already but I could see that sometimes she just can’t get the words out when she is playing with other kids.  The thing is sometimes I just break down in tears afterwords because I am just so fed up with it.  20 months I’ve been dealing with this and nothing has worked!

I’ve thought about completley ignoring it and just making sure that the other child is okay so that she can see she is not going to get any attention for it.  I find myself not able to follow through with that though.  Has anybody had any success with a hitter?  Or do I just hold out hope that it will stop by the time she is 3?

I love being a mommy.  I really do.  For 23 hours out of the day.  (There is that 1 hour I told you about on Tuesday.)

I love when my daughter looks at me with a concerned look on her face and says “Are you okay honey?”

I love wiping off her delicious little hands after she eats her lunch.

I love cheering her on when she learns something new.

I love her obsession with everything Disney.

I love watching her welcome her Daddy home every day with so much enthusiasm you would think it was Jesus himself walking through the door.

I love her fearlessness.

I love that she still has that intoxicating baby breath.

I still love kissing those squishy cheeks and her glorious glorious chin.

Y Water

Last week we got some samples of a new product for kids called Y Water.

There are 4 different flavors and each has important vitamins for something specific.  There is Muscle Water, Immune Water, Bone Water, and Brain Water.  All the ingredients are organic and the sweetener they use is evaporated sugar cane juice which is better for you then refined white sugar.

Eva loved every single one of the flavors but my favorites were the Immune and Brain water.  It’s funny because I think one of the reasons she loves them so much is the cool bottle they come in.  She wants me to put all of her drinks in these bottles now.  It’s been nice because I usually have to bribe her to drink anything but with these it is easy.

It does have 11 grams of sugar in each bottle but for Eva I just give her half of one a day and water it down a lot.  Just like I would do with juice.

I love that they are made with all organic ingredients and that the bottles are 100% recyclable.  Although your child can play with them over and over again so you don’t really need to throw them away anyway.  I also love that the plastic they are in is a number 1 which is the best kind of plastic to eat or drink out of in terms of BPA.

*Yes I know I use the word love a lot.  Got a problem with that?

Can you believe I’ve never been to the circus?  Well I am so excited it is coming to Phoenix and we are going the end of this month.

If you are planning on going go to ticketmaster.com and enter the coupon code MOM and you can get a 4 pack of tickets for $44!

This looks like so much fun I can’t wait to go!  I know Eva is going to love it.

It will be at the US Airways center from June 24th to June 28th.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is the best environment for my daughter.  Let me start by saying that in my young adulthood I never dreamed I would be a SAHM.  I always saw myself as a working mommy and denied any wrong in having a child in daycare.  I argued that daycare is good for children because they get to learn new things everyday and as long as they are getting quality time with mom and dad at night and on the weekends then it is the best situation.  I also just never pictured myself being happy as a SAHM, and I thought that a happy working mom is 100% better then an unhappy mom at home.

My daughter came along…I stayed home for 3 months…went back to work for 10 months…and have now been home with her for 8 months.  My reasons for staying home were complex.  Although I had a flexible work schedule I was bringing too much stress from my job home.  The families I worked with were becoming more and more challenging and the feeling of helplessness was breaking my heart every day.  I’ve always heard the average turn around time for people working in social services is 2 years per job.  I had been in my job for 3 and a half years.  I also thought I was going back to school because with my husbands job I was only going to have to pay 20%.  That is too long and depressing of a story to get into here but it didn’t work out.

Besides the stress of work and the promise of becoming a student again I just MISSED my daughter.  She was getting to be a really fun age…18 months…and every morning as I got her dressed my heart just ached to be home with her.  I longed for afternoon trips to the park and the zoo, story time at the library, lunch dates at the mall, snuggles after nap time.  Then there were some complications with her current daycare and that kind of made the decision for me.  Enrolling her in another daycare was out of the question.  Since she was adopted and had already been through 2 caregivers plus a daycare provider I just couldn’t put her through another big change so soon.

Now that it has been 8 months the monotony of staying home is really starting to wear on me.  Being home everyday is not all peaches and cream like I thought it was going to be.  You see because my 18 month old little monkey has turned into a defiant 2 1/2 year old.  Being the full time mom of a 2 year old takes creativity and patience…two things I do not possess in large amounts.  That’s not the only reason I’ve been questioning whether being at home with me is the best for my daughter though.  She is a very social person.  Slow to warm up but once she does she has a great time.  She loves being around  other kids, adults, and big crowds.  I took her to a playgroup last week and she clung to me the whole time.  I couldn’t help but think “Am I sheltering her too much?”  “Am I keeping her from all the wonderful experiences she could be having at a child care?”  I’m sure at a quality daycare the providers will not yell the way mommy sometimes does.  But then they will probably not cuddle her the way mommy does either.  “Does that mean I am coddling her then?”  “Am I depriving her of learning life lessons without the hovering helicopter mommy watching her every move?”  “Am I depriving myself of my career? Of feeling like I am making a difference in the world?”

I don’t have any answers.  Just questions.  Even with all the questions I am content with where I’m at.  I do not regret my decisions or what I’m doing right now I guess I just need to know where all of this is going.  I don’t want to stop thinking about my future as not just a mom but a woman who has something valuable to offer society, and I never want to stop learning.  At the same time I don’t want my daughter’s world to be confined to this house.  I want her to experience new things at a young age.  Nuclear and isolated families are something fairly new to humans.  I have a strong feeling that it was not meant to be this way.  We are social beings and children used to have a lot of people around to play and interact with.  Have we gone too far with wanting to shelter our children to our own little world where we can control everything?

I obviously don’t know the answer so what are your thoughts?