ABC's

Valerie this is for you!!!  Disclaimer:  I never do these emails/forwards/texts/ but thought this might be a little fun. 

A. Attached or single? Attached.

B. Best friend? Joe

C. Cake or pie? Anything my mother in law bakes...seriously, this isn't a kiss up, seriously, she's an AWESOME baker!!!

D. Day of Choice? Friday

E. Essential Item? Chap stick

F. Favorite color? Pink

G. Gummy bears or worms? Gummy bears

H. Hometown? St. Louis, MO

I. Favorite indulgence? Pepsi, ice cream

J. January or July? July all the way...summer is much more fun than snow.

K. Kids? 1 fun-loving, active, love of my life 20 month old baby girl

L. Life isn't complete without? My husband and Paige

M. Marriage Date? October 1st

N. Number of brothers and sisters? 2 half sisters

O. Oranges or apples? Apples

P. Phobias? Spiders...ewwwww

Q. Quotes? Honesty is the best policy

R. Reasons to smile? I'm alive, healthy and have the best family.  I wake up so happy for the life we have created.

S. Season of choice? Summer, sun and pools are the best.

T. Tag 5 people: opting out

U. Unknown fact about me? Joe handles all the bills at home.  Most people assume that I would do it, but to be honest, I'm horrible with money!

W. Worst habit? Cussing

X. X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound

Y. Your favorite food? Pizza

Z. Zodiac sign? Well, I don't know anymore since they changed it.  I used to be a Libra.

Laundry day

Paige loves laundry day!!!  She will get all excited when we bring out the laundry basket. She "helps" sort the clothes and push the basket downstairs and put them in the washer/dryer.  It's so fun to watch the excitement in her eyes when she feels so proud of her accomplishments.  Joe has now taught her when the basket is empty to push it to the top of the steps and let it go so it "flies" down the steps!  Now, I can't wait till she tries to get in it before she lets it fly down the steps!  Stay tuned for how that turns out....

Grin and bow it

I found this bow in Paige's drawer. She wore it in her newborn pics!  She was just so cute, both then and now. 

Dress up

Paige found her tutu from her 1st birthday in her closet and loves to carry it around. She also likes to try and put it on, but that doesn't work.  My sister in law gave her this tote of necklaces and bracelets and she loves to put them on and take them off over and over again!  It keeps her occupied for at least 30 straight minutes so thanks Tia Rene!!!

Rapunzel

You would think this is like a 4-5 year old, but nope, it's my 20 month old daughter's hair!  Crazy I tell ya!  People comment on hit all the time, while it is cute, it is also a pain in the you know what! 

Potty Time

Well, we are SLOWLY working on potty training in the Merino household.  She sits on the potty but that's about it for now.  Besides her opening and closing the lid about 1000 times and standing on it!!  It's a work in progress.  She will sit on it and say "sssssss" so she knows what she's supposed to do, just hasn't quite DONE it yet!!

Choo Choo lady

When I picked up Paige yesterday she was walking around the neighborhood (with my mother in law) pushing her grocery cart full of sticks, twigs and acorns, wearing this hat!!!  She's so damn cute! 

Keen....WHA???

So I finally made some Quinoa (pronounced Keen Wah) last night for dinner.  It was a hit!  Paige was literally shoveling it in her mouth then saying "More!  More!"  However, most of it ended up on the floor (Titan was pleased) and all over her, so we had to take her outside to brush off!

Bag Lady

My awesome co-worker (Thanks Sam!!) gave us these shoes!!! 

Paige was so excited!

Fun Run

Joe and I had a day off together today so we decided to take Paige to Fun Run to play!  She had a blast.  Of course, she had to play on a slide that she has at home, but I guess it's different.

She LOVED playing in this house.  She would open and close the shutter doors over and over again. And fling them open and just giggle.  She did this for at least 5 minutes, which in her world is a lifetime.

Then we stopped for lunch.  This is how she ate each fry!!!

Ruffles

My mom sent Paige a gift in the mail and she got the cutest jammies!  I love the ruffles at the bottom. 

Paybacks

As posted before, Paige's favorite snack is wheat thin sticks with Peanut Butter.  She absolutely MUST have the peanut butter with it to dip!  Today, she was eating her sticks with PB and Titan must have had enough, because the next thing I knew he had stolen her container of PB and took it to a corner and was licking the cup.  She just stood there in amazement!  I had to laugh because her favorite thing to do now is feed him his food piece by piece or bother him while he's eating.  I guess he figured paybacks were a you know what!!  So I go to put Titan in his kennel, literally gone like 10 seconds and come back to Paige rubbing PB all over her jeans that I just put on her. 

Ah, the life!!

THUD...Scream!!!

I went for brunch with some friends and literally five minutes after I left, I get a text with Paige's latest injury.  Joe said he ran downstairs to throw out some garbage and heard a THUD followed by screaming.  All the doors were closed with the exception of her room so we have no idea how she did it.  But now she has this eye injury that looks like she got into a brawl at the playground!!!  Oh well, makes her look tough, huh?  Joe felt horrible all day, but I kept trying to tell him that I'm surprised this was the first time this happened.  She's a kid and it's bound to happen again.  Poor Paige and Daddy.

Beauty School 101

Poor daddy!!!  He tries so hard to do her hair, but it's kinda difficult when he hasn't had to "do" hair in years!!!  I give him an A+ for effort!!!

Al Bundy

Miss Paige loves to climb up on the footstool and then JUMP over to the over sized chair!!  Today, I caught her chilling in the chair, looking down her pants!!!!  She's very interested in her diaper lately, so I'm hoping this means we are getting closer to potty training!!!

Of course, she quickly realized I was snapping shots of her and gave me her cheesy grin!!  She's such a ham!

Freddy Krueger

We aren't sure exactly what's going on lately, but Paige has some bumps and has been really scratching her body lately.  Today, she wanted to show me her tummy...with her scratch marks. 

All wrapped up

After her bath, I wrap her up tight like a burrito and she has to go and find daddy.  She giggles and waddles all over!!

Honestly...

I'll be honest, I mainly took this pic because I wanted to post a pic of her in this cute outfit.  That's all.

Fair Game

If you ever just take a break and lay on the floor, Miss Paige thinks its fair game to run and jump on your back and jump up and down.  It may look funny, but it kinda hurts!!!  She would hug me and then jump up and down, laughing hysterically!  Joe was trying to get a good pic of her face so he told her "Paige look up."  And she did....

Sticky Sticks

My mother in law keeps snacks on her bottom shelf just for Paige.  Her favorite is wheat thin sticks so we had to buy some for our house.  It's not just ok for us to dip the stick in the peanut butter, she HAS to do it herself! 

And this is how it all turns out!

Mirror Mirror

Mirror, mirror on the wall.  Who's the cutest of them all??  Paige!!!!  I will catch her totally checking herself out in the mirror from time to time.  She's too much!

Wonderful day in the neighborhood

After the awful blizzard, the weather finally turned for the better.  It was 50 degrees today so Joe took Paige for a walk in her wagon.  Wish I could have joined, but momma had to work.

Jerseylicious

I really wasn't going for the Snooki look, but somehow that's what happened!  God, I love her hair!

Who...me?????

How could I possibly say no to this face????  She loves to get in to my purses and bags and pull anything and everything she can out.  But when I tell her to stop she just smiles at me...how can I possibly be mad at this face??

Day of destruction

Just before we were leaving this afternoon, Paige came and grabbed my hand and took me to her room and this is what I saw.  She has somehow pulled her drawer out under her crib and now it won't close.  Instead of fixing it right away, I grabbed the camera!  

Can I get your name, please?

Paige loves taking notes.  Today she grabbed my workout journal and pulled out the pen and created a whole new workout for me...ok, so I might be exaggerating a bit!  I tried to put it up before we left today and she kept yelling "Mine!  Mine!" so we took it to LeLa's!  She cracks me up how she even puts the pen in the spiral part when she's done.

Uh-Oh

I'm in trouble now!  Somehow Paige has learned to push the button on top of my phone to turn it on and use her fingers to slide down the bar on the touch screen to unlock it.  She has already been texting people.  I have no idea how she figured it out, but we are so in trouble now!

HOT MAMA

This was the next morning...poor little mama woke up with a 102.5 fever!  She never gets a fever so I was a bit worried.  Not sure what it was, but she had the fever for about 2 days, now it's gone.  No coughing, no pulling at her ears, no runny nose.  Just a fever.  You could tell she didn't feel well because she was so clingy.  Of course, I gave her whatever she wanted.  She normally eats 2 eggs for breakfast.  Today she wouldn't touch the eggs. So she had raisins, blueberries, a few bites of oatmeal and a banana for breakfast!  Poor baby.  Happy to report she's all good now!  I'm thinking it was teething.

And she has now learned to scoot her little chair up to the sink to "help" us.  Good times!

Party Animal

Since we had a party we let Paige stay up late!  She was seriously like the life of the party!  This was taken at 9pm!!!  Her normal bedtime is 7pm.  She went to bed without a problem and didn't seem like anything was wrong...

Beep Beep!!!

We had a last minute going away party for a co-worker who is getting deployed.  So sad.  Paige was a little shy at first, then warmed right up!  She loved playing with all the other kids.  I swear, she never rides this toy until another kid wants to ride it.  She kept running into to little Wyatt!  He didn't seem bothered!

Oweeeee

Paige had an eventful few hours.  First of all, Joe and I have been putting off having her blood drawn for over a month now.  We were terrified because at her doctor appointments she screamed and was a bit traumatized.  So Joe and I didn't want to put her through that again.  However, Paige was a complete ROCKSTAR!!!  She sat quietly and watched the nurse put the needle in and take three containers of blood!  That is what the band aid is for on her right arm.  Now, you can see Joe is dealing with her OTHER arm.  Well, somehow she cut her little finger and cut it pretty good!  It was bleeding a lot!!!  She never cried or screamed so we have no idea what she cut herself on.  She just sat there while we stopped the bleeding.  She's so tough...must get that from her mommy! : )

Real Housewives of KC

My mother in law gave Paige a bath today and put her hair in curlers!!!  How many 19 month olds can you put a full dozen rollers in their hair??  Not many, I'm sure! 

Doesn't she look pretty with her little ringlets.  Thank goodness for pictures because by the time I got to her, after her naps, they didn't quite look like this!  So cute though!

Nom nom nom nom.....

I made a new recipe today, Turkey Meatballs with whole wheat spaghetti, ricotta sauce and spinach.  Paige loves spaghetti noodles.  Her little dainty hand here cracks me up!  Like she's sipping tea.

Clearly, I must have been bothering her here.  She's like "really, mom...can you stop with the pictures already?  I'm trying to eat."