This morning Avelyn slept in and I got to play with Jolie all by herself for about an hour. It was so nice and made me realize how little I get to enjoy just her, without the frenzy of her older sister running laps around us. 

So here’s to Jolie, my funny little blue-eyed girl.  She eats everything she can get her hands on, she loves it when Avelyn rides her like a donkey, she is crawling everywhere and eating random pieces of lint off my grungy carpet, she is loud, she wrinkles her nose when she laughs, she’s still only got two teeth, she has three doughy arm rolls left, she locks herself in the bathroom then cries for rescue, and her favourite foods are ham and berries. 

Not to be forgotten is Avelyn. For all my griping, she is turning into a lovely little girl who is figuring out how best to deal with her complicated emotions in a complicated world. She calls me Momma, she loves playing with her sister, she only likes to wear skirts and dresses, her favourite flavour of ice cream is chocolate, she loves belting it out along with Taylor Swift while we drive in the truck, she is tall and lean, she creeps away by herself and finds a quiet corner of solace before she poops in her princess underwear, she thinks vegetables are unnecessary, she loves bouncing on her “jumpoline”, she hasn’t napped in years, she loves books, and her curls get tighter everyday.

I am so blessed. Tired, impatient, and grumpy at times, but graciously blessed through it all.

Blogging has taken a backseat to mornings at the beach, sweeping sand off of kids’ bum cheeks, worming used cigarette butts out of Jolie’s mouth by the shore, fishing daily logs out of Avelyn’s swim diapers, reading Anne Lamott in the afternoons, playing at the park with friends, the occasional girls’ night out, play dates aplenty, watching disappointing summer television in the evenings, and so on and so forth. 

If things stay quiet around here, it just means I’m having a really good summer. Here’s hoping you are too!

Yesterday a big delivery truck pulled into our driveway and brought a shiny white box to my door. It was my new Macbook Pro!  Yes, you read that right.  Steve finally relented, but only because I found a smokin’ deal on ebay.  I got it for about half the price it would have cost me to buy it from the Apple store and it came with the 3 year applecare warranty as well as Adobe CS4.  So I am set! And loving it!  Thanks to everyone who chimed in with positive reviews about their macs.  In the end, Steve disregarded your words and was swayed only by the cheap(er) price I was able to track down.  

I’ve got some cute pictures to post of what we’ve been up to lately but all this sunshine has been making me lazy. (Wait. I’ve always been lazy, but am extra so now, I suppose.)

Thank you so much for your outpourings of support and prayers and “I’ve been there, my kid was a total beast when he was two too”s. I hesitate to mention it, but Avelyn has been mildy happier this week and I am not pulling my hair out in chunks anymore. Kids, they take you for quite the ride, don’t they?

My current pc is dying, sputtering its final breaths and I am on the market for a new computer. It’s no secret that I am dreaming of a Mac laptop, but Steve will have none of it.  He’s convinced you’re paying for nothing more than the brand name, since you can get get an identical computer (as far as RAM and processing speed goes) for one third the price.  I am convinced that he’s a party pooper.  He needs firm, solid evidence that a Mac is worth the money.  Anyone care to give it? I need all the help I can get here.  Also, I take donations.

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and they brought their two children.  When I look at their eldest daughter, I see Avelyn’s future.  In talking with her mom, Sarah was exactly the same temperment as our girl: she had a lot of frustration, pent-up agression, tantrums and grumpiness.

But as she got older, she blossomed into a sweet girl who is kind and smart and sweet. The old adage “it gets better” might not be the urban legend I thought it was.

Perhaps, someday, it will get better.  Until then, I’ll take the good with the bad and try my best not to go bat-crap crazy.

Things have been quiet here on the blog front because I’ve been busy shaking my fist at the air and, with a defeated whisper, calling out for help, “I think my daughter is trying to kill me.”

Avelyn has been destroying my patience, my energy, my will to parent and my desire to live. Just when I thought we had turned a corner and caught myself mentioning how much more pleasant and obedient and polite and mature she had become, she goes and pulls a complete 180 and makes a mad dash for The Land of Outrageous Mood Swings, Potty Training Regression (We’re Talking Poop In The Undies Three Times Daily), General Melancholy, and Let’s Ruin The Day With All We’ve Got.

At first I was mildly annoyed, then concerned, then frustrated, then irritated, then frazzled, then I hit the wall and had a full fledged meltdown, complete with stringy snot, contorted facial expressions, sniveling and gnashing of teeth. I just couldn’t take it anymore and was at the end of my rope.

I felt a bit better after crying all morning but am still on the verge.  This kid is pushing me to the brink and I’m not sure when we’ll make it back.

Click here to see what I did this weekend.

Hint: there were pretty dresses, paper lanterns, lakeviews, wind-blown hair and amazing food.

(Thanks to my best girl, Tamaram for the invitation.)

I found this really great recipe for homemade cheese.  It was surprisingly simple: take one half-empty bottle of milk, forget about it and let it fester in the hot sun for 48 hours and voila! Homemade feta.

Jolie has hit my favourite milestone.  Many mothers eagerly anticipate their children’s first words or first steps, but here’s what really yanks my chain:

She can hold her own bottle!  I can taste the freedom, can you?  Best milestone ever.

I am done trying to cut carbs. A life without bread is one I want no part of.

Looking for a nice, uplifting movie with some great acting?  Check out House of D.  I had never heard of it but some friends brought it over last night and it was a great flick.

Operation Stop Crapping Your Pants took a turn for the better when Avelyn finally pooped on the potty yesterday.  We are officially accident-free when indoors at home.  But as soon as she leaves the house, well, we’ve got some work to do.

Have you ever made these muffins?  Because two words: WOW. They are tangy and sweet and delicious, just like me.

I really didn’t want to like Taylor Swift (because she’s really skinny and way too pretty and I wish I were both of those things), but we’ve been listening to her new CD (I bought it for Steve for Valentine’s Day because he totally has a crush on her) in the car for a few weeks and Avelyn knows most of the songs off by heart, and if watching a two year-old sing “Love Story”, with her eyes closed and arms swaying, doesn’t melt your heart, I don’t know what will.

I took a pregnancy test last week.  It was negative and I was thrilled.

It’s really easy to write an incoherent blog post like this, and I don’t even feel bad when I can’t think of a good way to end it.

For the past couple days we had the pleasure of hosting Jen and her girls.  It was fun, crazy, exhausting and great.  There were four kids between us and at times the combination was a tad volatile, but everyone survived and had some fun in between the screaming and meltdowns.  Every night after the kids were (finally!) tucked in to bed, Jen and I would collapse on the couch and eat freezies and sigh in wonder about how such small people can suck the life out of us with such force.

The first night she arrived we had a huge BBQ at the beach with everyone.  I am still recovering from the whole “sweet mercy, there were FOUR KIDS running rampant under my roof” deal so you can just look at Angella’s sweet post about the whole shindig.  And here is my contribution: one picture (I love to go above and beyond).

Jolie wore her cherry print bathing suit and white sunhat and she’s pretty dang cute when she’s not crying about nothing for no good reason.

Avelyn loved playing with Jen’s older daughter, Kaylie, and she followed her around like a pesky shadow the whole time she was here.

Good times all around.

Here’s what’s circulating in my gray matter lately:

If you need a good laugh then check out this site, Awkward Family Photos. Not many things make me laugh out loud when I’m all by myself, but this is one of them.

When my mom was here last week we were talking about the pressures on young moms to be stick-thin and back in their skinny jeans by 3 weeks post-partum. I told her that I have fallen prey to those ideals and was finding it hard to be satisfied with where I’m at.  She said, “But you’re totally a MILF, Amanda!” My MOM said MILF.

Avelyn has started swimming lessons and is loving them. The only problem is that she is making a habit of taking a dump in the pool.  (Potty training progress is slow but steady.  When we’re at home she will pee all by herself and I don’t have to worry about accidents. But when we’re out, away from her little potty, trouble inevitably seeps down her legs and into her rubber boots. And the whole pooping thing? Hasn’t happened yet since she always poops in the mornings, when we’re out running errands, etc. so I have her in a diaper.  What to do?! Anyways, we are making progress and we’re miles ahead where we were when we attempted training her at Christmastime.) I put her in a swimming diaper but COME ON! Those things are nasty, especially with a water-logged turd trapped inside.

No more bottle! Yes, Avelyn was still taking a bottle of water to bed every night (shut up) and sometimes in the afternoons for her quiet times.  I anticipated it was going to be quite a battle to rid her of this comforting habit but a couple weeks ago all the bottles were dirty so I sent her to bed with a regular sippy cup of water and that was that. No more bottle.  My little girl is growing up!

I am trying to cut carbs and get more protein. This sucks and is not fun at all and I WANT CRACKERS. Actually, a cracker sandwich: two fat pieces of bread with a fistful of crackers smushed between them.

I think my iron levels are improving since I don’t fall into a coma every day at 1 o’clock.

Our toilet is still plugged with turkey bones (again, don’t ask).  It’s like being in Mexico. You can pee in the pot, but if you wipe you have to toss your soggy tp in the waste basket. (GAG.)

I am starting to enjoy Twitter more.  When I first joined I thought it was a waste of time and I rarely updated. While I still only update once or twice a day, I find myself checking everyone else’s updates more often. Because it makes me connected and it’s somehow comforting to know that somewhere, someone is doing something and they’re telling me about it.  Yes, I realize that this sounds rather pathetic. Now I’m going to go Twitter about how I’m feeling foolishly needy.

Things that are good: pigtail ringlets, ice cream, action shots.

My mom just left after a whirlwind visit. It was short but packed with fun.  She wasted no time scooping Jolie up into her arms and covering her in wet, grandma-y kisses.

On the weekend we went to the Farmer’s Market and Children’s Festival.  Grandma bought Avelyn a cookie as big as her face.

Then we got her face painted at the festival.

A somewhat tentative butterfly.  She really liked having her face painted but was spooked by this huge man walking around in towering stilts and a big inflatable suit.  He was a creepy giant and seemed to follow us around the festival.  Whenever Avelyn would spot him lumbering towards us she’d clamp onto my leg and wail, “Let’s GO HOME now!”

She also got to try her hand at painting the landscape.  Obviously an abstract interpretation, but lovely nonetheless.

We finished the weekend off with a huge bbq with lots of friends.

It was a wonderful visit with my momma: she babysat, she tidied, she bought me coffee.  And that, my friends, is the way to my heart.  Watch my kids, clean my house, buy me treats.  Not too much to ask, is it?