My Targaholic self is also addicted to Pinterest. It is SUCH a good time waster - like I have a ton of time to waste!
The other day I was on there and saw a pin that said something about changing YouTube videos to mp3 files. I tried it with Philip Phillips 'Home' (I love that song, don't hate) and it worked like a charm and I was so excited. How had I never thought about doing that before? So I tried another song and it said it wouldn't work. So I laughed at myself for believing it and clicked out of Chrome and didn't think about it again.
Then, this weekend, Jason was watching the Bubble Guppies with C and I thought to myself how much I would love to have those songs in my car (because the music is actually pretty good). Then it dawned on me that that website may be able to help. So I found my first Bubble Guppies song on YouTube, put the URL into the website and crossed my fingers and BAM - it worked. So then I found the next and tried it again and BAM - it worked again! 25 Bubble Guppie and Elmo songs later, I am the coolest mom on the block and Caroline is happy as a clam to listen to her favorite tunes in the car.
I am not opposed to rocking out to some good ol' Kumbaya in the car, but I am trying to delay that for as long as possible. So I am stoked that I have music that she loves and that I actually sing throughout my day of my own free will!
Now for the part you have all been waiting for - DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!
Warning: Some songs are not able to be converted. I'm not sure what makes some work and some not, but the majority of what I have tried has worked very well! I have the music on iTunes and CDs in my car to prove it!
Hello, my name is Sarah and I am a Targaholic. I must go every few days and if I don't, I start itching all over. I just love it. Whether I am going for one thing, twenty things, or nothing at all - I. LOVE. IT. I don't know what it is about it. It could be the Red Card that really does save you 5% off on every single purchase. (If you also love Target and do not have one of these cards - go get one RIGHT NOW. It is a debit card that pulls money straight out of your checking account, but just takes 5% off of your bill every single time. There are no fees (I have had mine for over a year and have not had to pay one penny) of any sort. It is just that awesome because Target is just that awesome!) I loved it before my Target was a grocery store (with a dag-on Starbucks in it!) and once they made the switch I told my husband we were never ever moving. Our Target is literally around the corner for us, which allows me to satisfy my need fairly easily. I love picking Caroline up from school and going to pick up that imaginary item that I came up with just so I could go to Target. I have stood in line at the Starbucks that is now nestled into my sweet little land of joy and had conversations with people about how much we love Target. Does that happen at Walmart? It may, but you won't have that conversation with me.
Which brings me to the point of this post. I have started planning our meals out week by and week and doing the grocery shopping on Sundays. It has saved us from a lot of produce going bad and it has also saved us from the terrible What Are We Having For Dinner? question that I got so sick of. So the first Sunday was pretty fun because it was a new way of doing things. I was in charge of the kitchen (which has not been the case since Jason is the true chef of our family) and I had my list and I was ready to go. Michelle actually went with me, which made it a bit easier. I was in and out and it was not TOO painful. But don't get that tangled and twisted - I was by no means a fan of that place. There are just TOO many people trying to get to the same stuff and it is overwhelming and overcrowded and I overhate it. The next Sunday was worse. I spent all Saturday dreading the trip. The next weekend I ended up just going to Target and getting enough to get us through the week until I could build up the whatever-I-would-need to get back to Walmart.
Last weekend I set up a challenge for myself. I wanted to see how much more expensive Target was than Walmart so I would know that I really did need to go to Walmart to save the most money for my family. (Side note: Since I am the money person for our family, this is VERY important to me since I see the money go out and come in every month.) So I took my list for that week and I went to Target and priced every single item. Target had every thing that I needed for that week. Then I went to Walmart and told myself that I would buy anything at Walmart that was cheaper. Honest to goodness, I left there with one bag full of maybe five or six things. Their canned goods were a few cents cheaper and there were a couple of other items that were cheaper, but it wasn't by much. Everything else I ended up getting at Target because they were cheaper. So not only is Target cheaper on most items I was looking for, I also got 5% off on top of that! It was awesome! If I had really been doing my research as the mathematical brain that I am I would have calculated average percentages and exactly how much cheaper Target was, but I did not. Honestly, I did not think Target was going to be cheaper, so I wasn't prepared for that part of the challenge. Maybe another Sunday!
So needless to say, I am very excited about my Sunday shopping trips to Target to get ready for the meals for the week!
Here I am wiping my brow and being glad that we made it through the past few weeks!
We just completed our third week of daycare. When we first started, Mrs. Val told me it may take a couple of weeks for things to start to calm down a bit. She was exactly right. Last Friday (the end of the second week) we started talking about friends on the way to school. When we got in the car we talked about how Mommy is going to go to school, Daddy is going to go to school, Chell is going to go to school, and Caromine (her new pronunciation) is going to go to school. Then we started talking about her friends at school and how much fun she is going to have. Some of the kids are the same as last year and some of the kids I have never met before. So I sneaked a peek at the names on the cubbies so that I could add to her list of friends. So we talked about Ayden, Tanvi, Dreama, Patrick, Jackson, Neil, Mrs. Nita, and Mrs. Val. I'd say the names and she would repeat them back. She got especially excited about Tanvi (I think they are close buds) and Mrs. Val. Last year she LOVED Mrs. Nita, but I think she is more about Mrs. Val this year. By the time we got to school we had talked about all of her friends and how much fun she was going to have. So I went to get her out of her seat (every time before this this is where she would really start crying) and I told her we were going to see her friends. She got right out, I grabbed her hand to walk her in, she dropped my hand once we got to the door inside and asked me to open the door. Then she walked right in, ran to Mrs. Val, told me bye, and I turned and left. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!
This is how every morning has been since then and it has been awesome. She is hanging her coat up in her cubbie, asking for Mrs. Val, and walking herself right in. I give her a kiss and peace out for my day. It really is an easier way to start my day and lets me head to work thinking about work and not about my heart breaking for her. Bonus this week was that we got a 2 hour nap out of her on Wednesday and an hour and a half nap on Thursday. Those days she came home my sweet girl. She was not fussy or whiny. She listened, used her manners, and was just much more fun to be around. We played outside, we laughed, and we spent those hours just enjoying each other. The days she doesn't naps are just afternoons that we have to get through and I will admit they are not a lot of fun.
Some people told me to enjoy the times that she wanted me because soon she would not. I'll tell you what, I got no pleasure out of her crying for me and having to be torn out of my arms. There is nothing about that that made me feel extra loved by her. It made me so sad knowing that I had to leave her feeling like that for 8 hours. Now that she walks in by herself and gives me a kiss and tells me bye, it makes me so happy and proud that she is confident and feels safe and secure in knowing that I always will come back to get her and until that happens, she has lots of friends and two great teachers to spend her day with!
A year ago I was dropping Caroline off at daycare for the first time. A month in I wrote this. The moral is that daycare sucked, but that we were all getting along just fine.
Fast forward to May and I was picking her up for the last time before summer. That's when I wrote this. Well, our summer was AWESOME. She was just getting to the age where she wanted to learn anything and everything. She was a sponge and I was glad to be there to pour in everything I could. She learned all sorts of stuff and became a pretty decent conversationalist.
Then came August when summer ended and we had to go back to work. Thanks to my mom, we got her to stay for a week and Jason's mom to stay for a week so that we didn't have to pay for daycare at all in August. That was really sweet of them and awesome for us because we got to focus on school starting and not have to worry about her. We knew she was at home and getting a good nap and bopping around and having a good ol' time. She would cry for us when we left, but I'm sure that was more for our benefit than hers. I think it lasted 2.5 seconds and then the Bubble Guppies or her blocks would grab her attention.
This week was the first week of 'school' for C and it was rough. I wish I could go back to myself last year and explain what a breeze taking her to 'school' was then because she didn't know any difference and was happy just about anywhere you put her. Now that she is 18 months old, she is very aware of where she is and where we are. So when we get to school I walk her in and she starts crying as soon as we walk in the door. I know she doesn't remember Mrs. Val and Mrs. Nita from last year, but they LOVE her and have been so patient with her. So they are right there to help take her and distract her. So I either hand C over or they take her while she is crying harder and yelling out for me. I tell her bye bye, that I love her, and that mommy always comes back. Then I close the door and walk to my car as I can hear her crying for me. It is absolutely heart breaking. Then I drive to school (only crying one morning this week when I left!), put in my full day of work, and get in my car as soon as I can. When they open the door she walks out to me crying because they have just told her that I'm there and she starts crying because she is reminded that I've left her. Then they tell me either she slept for 45 minutes or just cried the whole time and hasn't had a nap at all. When we get in the car most of the car ride home consists of her saying, 'Mommy' and 'back' and me reassuring her that Mommy will ALWAYS come back. Then every once in a while she'll through, 'Daddy' and 'back' in there, just to make sure that Daddy will always come back, too!
As rough as this week has been, I have to believe that it will only get better from here. It seems that she is playing a little more each day and doing a little less crying. They say she is eating just as well as she always has, so it isn't like she is so distraught she can't eat. Home girl just needs to take a nap!
So we made it through this week. It was tough, but we made it to Friday. So when the bell rang this afternoon I rushed to my car, scooped her up, and got her home. We started our weekend together by watching 3 - THREE! - episodes of Bubble Guppies in a row. She usually gets one in the afternoon and that is it. Today, I didn't give a shit how many she watched and what it may do to her. All I wanted to do was sit with her and kiss her head and get her a snack and pay attention to only her. It was the perfect way to start off the weekend and I don't plan on doing anything but making sure to get some good QT in with her.
I hope I can come back in a couple of weeks and wipe my brow and be glad that we made it through!
Thank you, Darius Rucker, for helping me believe that this will get better!
From 'It Won't Be Like This For Long'
And when he drops her off at preschool She's clinging to his leg
That is so crazy! I can't believe my sweet little baby girl is not a baby girl anymore! We are in full fledged toddler-hood.
*She is still wearing 18 month clothes. The 12-18 month stuff is getting small on her, so I think she has caught up with sizing. She is in size 5 shoes. She is in size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 diapers at night.
*We went to the doctor a couple of weeks early because somehow we missed out on the 15 month appointment. At her "18 month" appointment she weighed 23 lb. 9.5 oz. (43rd percentile) and she was 32.5 in (80th percentile). She was healthy as a clam and her doctor was very impressed with how verbal she was.
*Even though her weight percentile is low, she eats SOO well. She will eat just about anything and eat plenty of it. She loves ravioli (olis), mac+cheese, hotdogs, watermelon, canteloupe, pears, etc. We don't ever have to worry about her being hungry!
*We have had to institute time out at our house. I was spanking her (and I am not stopping, nor am I opposed to it) but it just wasn't working. So we started sending her to time out. We have a chair that I wrote Time Out on and we put it in the corner of the front room. It separates her from us, but lets her still see us. She hates it, which is a good thing. She shouldn't want to go there! I leave her for no longer than 1 minute and then I go and explain to her why she was put in time out, make her say I'm sorry, give her a big hug, and I tell her I love her. I want for her to understand, above all else, that even when she messes up I will still love her.
*She now has all sorts of friends in the crib with her. Sometimes it is just the normal gang (Daci, Bobo, piggy, pig, and elephant), but occasionally she'll invite some new friends in there with her. Hey, I'm all about her feeling loved and not lonely!
*Within the past week, she has come up with this crazy obsession with Dora. She doesn't watch the TV show at all and hasn't really seen her since Grands' Camp this summer. For her birthday she got a Dora outfit. She has worn it once or twice before this week. Now all of a sudden she goes into meltdown mode when she can't wear Dora. Jason's mom was with us this week and she found some Dora pajamas. Those also cause fits if she can't wear those. Today I went and got her a little $6 Dora figure and I am hoping that does the trick and lets her hang out with Dora no matter what she has on. Dora is in the bed with her right now and she is in her monkey pjs, so it may be working. It is crazy what they get stuck on!
*She knows ALL of her colors very well and knows all body parts. There really are very few words that she can't say that she needs. She also knows all of the Sesame Street characters.
*She LOVES to help me feed Harley. I get the food into the cup and then she carries the cup to his bowl, dumps it in, carries it back, and closes the lid. She asks if we can do it all the time.
*She loves Harley. When we are somewhere and she wants to get out of her car seat all we have to say is that she can get out once we get home and she can see Harley-boo. She'll say, 'Har-boo' until we get there!
*When you ask her where something is, she'll say, 'I on't know' and shrug her shoulders and look really concerned.
*She is still saying 'Oh, pay' or 'Oh, fay' for okay. I hope that is something that never goes away - even though I know eventually it will.
*She is a master with a fork and a spoon and she LOVES to drink out of cups and does a pretty good job already.
*We worked really hard not to make her OCD. We let her be dirty with the intention of her not having to be clean all the time. Well, her OCD developed on its own. She cannot have dirty hands and she'll say, 'Mess' any time something spills. We made smores and she could not eat them because her fingers were getting dirty.
*We can tell her to put her hands on the ground, then her head on the ground, and 'Go!' and she will do a forward roll! I think we have a gymnast on our hands!
*We have an elephant that blows colored balls into the air. Caroline could care less about the balls and just holds her head over the blowing air like a mini-Marilyn!
*She LOVES to wear hats and sunglasses.
*We got her her first puzzle recently and she LOVES it. She will put the animals where they need to go over and over again.
*We brought home some Legos from when I was growing up and she has LOVED those. She will build and build towers and talk about the colors. We recently got her some bigger blocks and she has LOVED those, too. She can even say 'tower' once she builds it high enough.
*When we get her dressed or I fix her hair, she'll look down and say, 'Cute!'
*She still loves to talk on the phone. She is getting better at it all the time.
*She loves to take a shower (which is funny because she was so scared not long ago). After drying off she will ask for the towel and when we wrap the towel around her shoulder she'll say, 'Cute!'
*Showers have also led to the boy/girl conversation. She can point to my lady parts and call it a tuta and point to Jason's and call it a wee wee.
*She still LOVES LOVES LOVES the Bubbles. She wants to watch it ALL the time, but she only gets on in the morning and one in the afternoon. Partly because I love that she will sit in our lap for that 20 minutes and not want to get up.
*Now that she has had something to drink other than milk and water she is all about having some of everyone's drink. She'll keep saying 'dink, dink' until someone shares-and she has said please!
*She likes to pick up things and take them to the appropriate person to make sure everyone has their stuff.
*Anytime we put on deodorant she'll run up and say, 'Some!' and we pretend to put deo on her.
*She eats cereal every morning. She loves plain ol' Cheerios with milk and fruit for breakfast. Can't get much better than that.
*Now that she has names mastered, she will just randomly scream out people's names. Today we went to lunch with most of my side of the family and she would just randomly scream 'Will!' or 'Papa!' or 'Mimi!' or anyone else's name and just smile when they looked at her.
*When she sees a baby she'll say, 'Baby!' and then say 'Aww!' with her head cocked to one side.
*Even though she can talk a ton, she is still only 18 months old and gets very frustrated. Lately she has been telling other kids to share as she is ripping things out of their hands and not sharing one bit. She is also a screamer when someone tries to get in her business.
*She loves watching Elmo videos on YouTube. I have a list that we watch on my Kindle Fire, so every time she sees it she asks for Elmo. She also asks for 'Stars' every time she sees Mom's phone because they watch 'Twinkle, twinkle' on there.
*I think she is going to have an awesome memory. A few times we have said something to her before bed and she wakes up asking for it.
*Her hair is long enough to make a ponytail. It is awesome. Her little curls will pull out of it and she'll have a ponytail with curls at the nape of her neck.
*When she gets really tired she'll say 'Night, night' and go run to her room. Can't beat that.
Thank you, sweet girl, for giving us the best 18 months of our lives! You are trying out those boundaries and we want you to do that - even though it frustrates the mess out of us sometimes! We know you are going to be your own person and could wish nothing more for you. We love you a bushel and a peck!
'The good, the bad, the happy, and the sad...I want it all!' - Edwin McCain
I wear my sassy pants daily. I love living and being from the South. I hate stickers and tags. I love peanut butter. Target is my happy place. I love Dirty Dancing. I love sarcasm. I love wine. I am completely in love with my little family.
I married my very best friend in February of 2009. We met through a mutual friend and began our love story over lemon drops at a bar. Our life is crazy and amazing and this blog is a place for me to document our story.
