The Top Five Cutest Things Chucky Sue is Doing Right Now

Lately Chucky Sue has really grown into her personality- she is so adorable!

1. Her words. her vocabulary has grown leaps and bounds. I used to write posts listing all the words she knows, but it's well into the hundreds now. She knows her colors, numbers and letters- though the letters are mostly C, H, A,  and R. She loves pointing to objects and naming them with a huge proud smile on her face.

Bonus cute thing: Getting better at doing projects with mommy!

2. Singing. She's always squeaked, hummed and babbled out musical sounds, but she has started to sing nursery rhymes and primary songs by herself! I recently sent my mom a video of her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If it hadn't occurred during bath time I'd share it here (but I think 14 year old Chucky Sue doesn't want that floating around the internet!)

Random photo of ME! Proving to the internet that I don't live in sweat pants and pigtails.

3. Demon Voice. I've tried again and again to get this on video, but it hasn't worked out. You'll have to rely on my words. When Chucky Sue is mad or angry, she gets this VERY low, grumbly voice. for example, while at the park a few days ago, Chucky Sue didn't want to leave. So in a very LOUD demon voice she stated "MOMMY. I stay at park FOREVER." and then went right back into her very high little girl voice while prancing about the playground. We're working on using a "nice" voice and asking mommy or daddy instead of demanding- but it's still cute!

Mommy and Chucky making faces at Daddy!

4. Her girly tendencies. I don't fancy myself a girly girl, but I do like make up  and making sure I look presentable. Chucky Sue has taken this to a whole new level. She has a few favorite ULTRA poofy pink dresses that she wants to wear everyday. And the shoes. OH THE SHOES. Not only does she want to wear shoes all the time, she likes the colors or designs to match. (bow dress should have bow shoes, flower shoes with flower dress etc. etc. etc.) She even has her own box of "makeup" which consists of clear chapstick and empty eyeshadow pots filled with dried nail polish.

Chucky Sue and Dorita playing in the pool. They are getting better at playing WITH each other.

5. Reading. Chucky Sue has loved books since birth, but lately she's been REALLY into them. She'll pile up a few dozen of her favorite books and sit on her bed and just "read" for an hour or so. It's how she goes to sleep each night- surrounded by her books and stuffed animals. I love that she can entertain herself so well!

New Year Resolutions: A Review

Back in January I posted  a listed of things I wanted to get done this year, both personally and professionally.  Now, 8 months into the year, how have I done so far?

 

These photos are completely unrelated to the post- but they are cute!  

 

Personally I've tried to be a better mom- scheduling Chucky Sue's day better and spending more one on one time with her while being 100% focused on our activity. She's slowly starting to enjoy craft projects, and of course loves it when I play along with her toys. We've decided to wait another 6 months or so before attempting to potty train again. Chucky Sue's communication skills need to develop a bit more; She still spends some days just grunting and pointing instead of using the words we know she knows.

I've also started walking just about everyday (though I will admit that has stopped entirely during this crazy oppressive heat!) and being more aware of what I'm eating. I've almost entirely cut out caffeine and soda, I save it as a treat for when we go out to eat. With all those habit changes, I have lost about 15lbs since February. It's slow going but I'm happy with any loss!

Professionally I had set out to *someday* finish my college education in hopes to find a job with social media advertising. By complete lucky and random chance I found a job I qualified for on Craigslist and am now a freelance writer and graphic designer for Growing Up in The Valley- a new family magazine for all of Southwest Virginia! Our first issue is due out at the end of the this month and I am so excited to share it with all of you! I wrote three articles (about 4ish pages depending on the layout) and so far I've designed 3 ads for our sponsors. I will also be in the online video on the website! I would have never thought I could find a job like this and still be able to stay at home with Chucky Sue. Sometimes blessings are hard to see, sometimes they just smack you in the face. This is definitely a face-smacking blessing.

If you asked me a year ago where I thought I'd be, I would have never guessed that I'd have this much success and happiness. I was predicting that I'd be in a stalemate professionally- stuck between working out of the house and paying for daycare or staying home and not having a career at all. I've never held much stock in making resolutions for the New Year, but I think I'm changing my tune!

Life: Getting in the Way

I am so upset with myself. I had a tiny inkling of an idea to blog every weekday this summer. As you can see, we're almost done with June and I've posted about 9 times.  Way to go Tracy!

Life just jumps out and blocks every creative and/or leisure plan I've made.  Everything I have going on right now is fun and worthwhile. It's not like I'm stuck doing something boring, but I was hoping it'd be a bit more balanced.

My articles for the first edition of Growing Up in the Valley are due soon, that is what has been eating up my time. I've been up late writing and editing the past week or so. I want to make sure that everything is as perfect as it can be for the first printing. Speaking of- make sure you go like our Facebook page for news about where to find our magazine and interesting links as well. If you like us before the first issue is out, you'll be entered into a drawing for an iPod  Touch (unless you're related to me. Sorry guys!).

Thankfully I keep my phone around and have been able to snap some shots of our busy busy lives:

   

(1: An apple print for my first craft article 2. Working hard at the library

3. Fancy Dinner for missionaries 4. Getting pretty with toddler makeup)

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Family Summer To-Do

In and effort to keep from melting into nothing this summer in our un-air-conditioned house, Jake and I wrote up a list of fun summer-y activities to do with Chucky Sue this year, here is just a sampling of our ideas:

Go Camping*Visit Natural Bridge*Walk the Greenway*Blow Glow-in-the-Dark Bubbles*Roast Marshmallows*Make Ice Cream*Play at Smith Park with Cousins*Go Swimming at Splash Park

Look at Stars*Have a Sleepover*Pick Flowers*Take New Family Photos*Go Shopping

Find a Farmer's Market*Go To Mill Mountain Zoo*Visit Mamaw

Call Nonie and Papaw*Make a Blanket Fort*Give lots of kisses

Watch a sunset*Ride Bikes*Bake Cookies*Go to Story time*Fly Kites*Stay up late

I think we're well on our way to a fun summer!

Odd Blog Traffic

I woke up a few days ago and did my morning computer routine- email, Facebook, Blogger. Now, I average about 20 views a day on this blog, respectable for my size blog, and because I think my mom is only about 10 of those views. But that day I woke up at by 9 am I already had 40! I checked out the traffic sources to discover that 22 different people Googled "Chucky Real Life Twin" and found my blog.

The weirdest part is not that they found my blog: but that 22 different people searched those terms and instead of clicking the actual scary Chucky twins which clearly they were looking for,  they were sidetracked by MY blog.

Welcome Chucky Enthusiasts! This is not the blog you're looking for.

Chucky Sue's Vocabulary

Chucky Sue has recently had a boost in her vocabulary. I'd love to say it's because of all the well prepared and engaging toddler flash card lessons we've been doing all the time.

But the true credit goes to these guys:

The combination of Super Why, Dinosaur Train and Dora the Explorer has taught Chucky Sue the alphabet, words like hypothesis and a lot of spanish.

She still slurs a lot of words which makes her sound like a little drunken toddler.  That just makes it all the more adorable! It also proves that Jake and I both need to slow down and stop mumbling. :D

So here is another 

 Ten Toddler Translations Quiz! 

I know the  many grandmothers in Chucky Sue's life love these things.

1. Nemo (Hint: A character from My Little Pony)

2. Tain (Hint: It goes through a time tunnel!)

3. Char-Ee (Hint: her nickname!)

4. Uck (Hint: depending on context it is a either a waterfowl or opposite of  nummy.)

5. Teack (Hint: She loves teack on her belly and knees.)

6. Brash (Hint: She hardly ever lets me brash her, but she brashes mommy all the time.)

7. Ooze (Hint: you need ooze before you go bye byes!)

8. Arriba (Hint: she reaches her hands up with this one.)

9. Hots (Hint: a delicious lunchtime treat)

10.  Unkey ooh aah (Hint: this is an animal and it's sound all in one.)

Story Time Troubles

We've been taking Chucky Sue to our local library story time for a while now, and she is still extremely shy and reserved with everyone there. It is very odd to see my active, loud, wild toddler transform into a quiet, shy, little girl out in public. 

She loves the books and talks about them non-stop once we leave the building, so I know she enjoys story time. She just refuses to participate in anything that may mean she has to interact with her teacher or other kids! She stands around with her lower lip stuck out during the songs or craft, it's pathetic to witness. For some reason, our story time runs as 3 weeks on, 1 week off. Usually by the third week Chucky Sue starts to dance and join in with other kids, then the week off erases everything from her memory and we start all over again. 

Any tips for getting my shy kid to get involved with her story time group? I'm not TOO worried because Jake and I are both fairly introverted, but her personality at home and with friends is such a 180 from her public personality!

How to get Bourdeaux Butt Paste Out of Hair and Clothes.

Let's just say I have some experience in this.

sigh.

For Clothes & Bedding:

First, carefully scrape all the excess paste off with a plastic spatula or credit card. Do not smear it around anymore than possible. This stuff is the stickiest, most waterproof substance known to man. I think you could waterproof shoes with it. Then pre-treat with your favorite laundry soap- apple cider vinegar and oxyclean are my go to treatments. Then launder as normal. The container does warn that it will stain, but  out of all that clothes and bedding pictured above it has only stained the white washcloth I used to wipe up the floor. All colored cloth hasn't been stained. Remember, it may take a few cycles of pre-treating and washing to get the greasy feeling out.

For Hair,

Cut it all off.

I'm almost serious. It took us three baths to just get the "grey" color out of Chucky Sue's hair. Here the rundown of products I've tried:

Baby Shampoo- as useless as water.

Normal Shampoo- Eh, it made it LOOK better, but not feel or actually cut the grease.

Apple Cider Vinegar- worked on the grease well, but it required a LOT of soaking and scrubbing that Chucky Sue did not appreciate, it also dried out her skin really bad.

Because the vinegar dries out her skin and stings her eyes, we're still slowing working on getting the grease out of her hair. Right now she looks like she hasn't bathed in months, but hopefully after a few more treatments her curly hair will return!

 I still recommend Butt Paste as my favorite diaper rash cream, it works great and it's fun to write it on a grocery list. Just double and triple check the lid before leaving it on your changing table with your kid.

Next Two Weeks: Budget Blessings

Clever readers of this blog may have noticed that I didn't do  a second update on our thin budget after the first installment. I had one all planned out,  showing the next few "cheapie" meals I was going to make and talk about how we're all doing. But then something changed- and the whole course of this blog series was turned upside down.

Instead of going out, Jake and I spent tuesday cleaning up the house, we dug out boxes that have been packed since our first move. In one of the boxes was all the memories from my trip to France from high school (Yeah, I went to France. It was pretty sweet.) in among the sugar packets (Yeah...I don't know.) old metro tickets and tourist maps, was over 50EUR!  I kept a few coins for memory purposes and we're depositing the rest.

So, adding what ended up being $70ish to our account took a LOT of the stress off. I knew my kid would have diapers, we wouldn't need to eat ramen for 5 days straight. I was feeling pretty good. I even wrote a little "p.s" segment to put at the end of next budget post.

Then I was checking my emails and goofing around on blogger (did you notice my new color scheme? I'm still tweaking it- tell me what you think!) and I got an email from app.socialspark.com- one of my advertisers. I had been paid for my past three sponsored posts- giving me $28 in my paypal account! We used $14 for some "extra" groceries and the other half for gas. I also have another $15 coming my way next week! So instead of budgeting a whole two weeks on less than $25- I've gained over $100!

Jake was also blessed- he managed to get extra overtime shifts at his everyday job, plus a  translation job from his on call gig. While we don't get that money right away, it will help very much in us "bouncing back" from this week. On top of all that, my mom sent us a care package with a hamburger helper dinner kit, some muffin mixes, and most importantly- a new water filter for Chucky Sue!

While I know we would have survived if all these things hadn't happened, they were such great blessings. I know 100% we got these blessings because we decided to pay tithing first, even though we knew it'd be tough. We're now enjoying this week, instead of just living through it.  Heavenly Father made it possible for us to find/discover/earn this extra money this week specifically- letting me know that He does indeed love me and care about even my smallest of problems.

So this who series took on a whole new turn- and I think it's become something even better than it could have been before.

When Reality TV mimics My Life

You know that guy who did that movie SuperSize Me? Morgan Surplock. Well he had a short lived TV show called 30 Days. In 30 Days he would live someone else's lifestyle and see how it was different to the average american. His first episode, (and the only episode I've seen) was of him and his wife living entirely on minimum wage. No family to help them out, no savings to rely on. Could they live on I think was just shy of $600 for the month? Turns out, they couldn't. They both had medical emergencies that required ER trips, which wiped them out before rent was even due. Now Jake and I are going to have our own reality show- called REAL LIFE.

Yeah, I know talking about money so frankly is considered rude or unsightly, but this week is going to really test our budgeting skills. I think that is something everyone needs to learn no matter how much they make. We're not so low that I'm worried or scared, just a little stressed and in need of some creativity! So here it is, out for the whole world to see- The Next Two Weeks.

Sunday, December 4th
Starting Account Balance: $660.35 
$76 tithing check
Ending Account Balance: $584.35


Besides tithing, we spent nothing today. We planned out the next two weeks. We mostly focused on food, as we can cut out most other spending. Our food supply isn't low, we have lots of rice/pasta meals, and canned soups. We only have a few pounds of chicken, fishsticks and a can of tuna for meat though, that means groceries are focusing on meat, fresh fruit/veggies and soy milk for Chucky Sue. Of course the time we get low on money is when we need to buy the most expensive items.
For lunch we ate spicy ranch chicken leftovers with some ramen. Dinner was "just add water" triple berry pancakes and leftover bacon.

We also planned for our "addictions". I made Puppy Chow with leftover cereal and cocoa powder, then divided it up into 1/2 cup portions. I have enough for one a day until we get paid. As for my Dr Pepper addiction, I'm hoping to not give into the temptation at all, but there are $0.79 bottles at Kroger, just in case.

Monday, December 5th
Starting Account Balance: $584.35
$525 rent
~$20 groceries (will update once we've purchased them.)
Ending Account Balance: $39.35


We knew rent was eating up most of this check. Normally we have the previous check's cash on hand for grocery and living expenses, but christmas planning and a trip up to DC for Dorita's sealing to Chloe and Superman took up our normal savings. Totally worth it, and wouldn't change our decision for all the groceries in the world. I'm currently planning our grocery shopping trip- thankfully our local Kroger is having some good deals. I've budgeted $20 for two week's worth of meals. I did notice that our water filter light has turned yellow. I'm hoping with limited use, it won't turn red until the next paycheck! Our unfiltered water makes Chucky's diapers very gross. As for diapers? We're low- but we have a coupon that should make a small package do-able.

As for entertainment, we have been enjoying Netflix and video games. Chucky Sue is still very much in love with her new play kitchen, (Thanks Nonie & Ooogie!) so she's always entertained.

Breakfast: Chucky Sue ate leftover pancakes and yogurt, Jake and I had blueberry muffins.
Lunch: PB&J and potato chips
Dinner: Tuna Casserole

Well so far, so good- next update on this "experiment" will be wednesday night!

Our Newest Visitor

Just a few short days after saying goodbye to Nonie and Ooogie we had a new visitor, of the unwelome sort. 

(No this is not an actual photo- you think I had time to take a photo!?)

While playing in Chucky-Sue's room I heard her say "Meow?" and looked up to see what she was pointing at.

it was a HUGE rat crawling on her radiator.

After much shrieking, frustration, jumping up and down, creative cursing and "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh"-ing, Jake was able to capture the nasty thing and GET IT OUT  OF MY HOUSE. 

Chucky-Sue thought it was the funniest thing ever and would jump up and down when I did. We then camped out in the living room together because I had to psych myself up just to walk PAST the room, let alone allow my child to SLEEP in there!! I'm doing better today, I let Chucky Sue take her nap in there and she survived. But every little sound that this old house makes puts me on edge. 

This is a long about way of telling you that you all need to leave comment convincing Jake that we need to adopt a cat.

Adult-like Decision Making

We needed a new printer, our old trusty $29.99 Target Special finally crapped out on us the last time we tried to change ink cartridges. We had a goal. This new printer must be:

1. Wireless, so we can print from the living room (where the computers are) without having to lug the laptops back and forth and keep track of all the cords.

2. Be able to scan reasonable well, I need that for a lot of my digital artsy stuff. (not having a ridiculous 90's style fax machine attached would be a plus too....)

3. be less than $100 total with not-super-crazy expensive ink.

we found ourselves at our local Wal-Mart, place for all things cheap and quick. We found exactly three printers for sale. The first was an identical match to the one we already one-but not wireless. the other two were pretty much exact copies of each other. Jake and I stood there looking back and forth at each box, comparing print speeds and ink layouts and whatamajiggers and whozamawhatzees.

"Well, which one do you like?" He asked me.
"I dunno. which one do you like?" I replied.
"Just pick one Tracy!!" The poor man was tired from his overnight shift, and was spending money. Those are two things he hates.

I studied the boxes some more. They each had a nifty SD card reader, pretty LCD display screens... Then I saw it, the extreme deciding factor in this Very Important Decision.

The Kodak ESP Printer came with 

 Harry Potter Image Editing Software.

That was it, that lone sticker half ripped off by a careless employee is what got Kodak our hard-earned money over whatever that other printer was. I am now trying so hard to finish the printing project I initially replaced our printer for so I can go play with all the pretty EXCLUSIVE and OFFICIAL images.

I am such a good grown up.

P.S. I can't believe this is the first post I've needed the tag "harry potter" for before!!

Chucky-Sue Update

again, for the grandmothers:

Chucky-Sue's stats!

She's probably 19lbs now, eating more and more "table" food everyday, but she still prefers her "baby" foods. I'm hoping that in 3 weeks at her check up we'll finally be over 20lbs! You'll have to wait till after that appointment for her height and head percentiles.

She correctly says "mama" and "dada" to the right parent now! For a while, we were both mama and dada. among her vocabulary: hi, bye, no, and one. She has her signs for food, more, and up. We are still working on thank you, yes, no and toilet.

She is on 90% sippy cup, 10% bottle, and 100% whole milk. (Which may change at her next doctor appointment, if he nixes my unauthorized switch to cow's milk, but her constipation problem is completely gone now- proving to me it was the formula the whole time.)

She has stood unassisted for maybe 2 whole seconds, and it freaked her out! I don't think she'll be doing that, or walking, for a few months. But she can crawl fast! We play tag up and down our hallway all the time. Though, i have learned that climbing CAN happen before walking, she climbs up onto our couch, up our bookshelves, and I'm waiting for the day she climbs out of her crib.

Her favorite pastime? emptying shelves, boxes, drawers and cupboards of their contents and throwing them around. She loves her leap frog bilingual bongo, her green purse, and the picnic set she got for her birthday. But her favorite toy is whatever mommy and daddy have in their hands.

So, there you go loved ones, Chucky-Sue is alive, well and developing right on track :)

Little Things

Chucky-Sue learning how to "kiss"

Jake bringing home dinner after a tough day.

Dorita snuggling (even if it was just for a second between fussies)

Finishing a load of laundry and dishes during nap time.

Finding out Chucky-Sue hid my phone in her  security purse.

The fact that Chucky-Sue HAS a security purse.

Well timed rainstorms that let me have a good excuse to stay in PJs all weekend.

I love the little things in life.

A Year on Sunday

Chucky-Sue has been HOME for a year this sunday!

first "photos" of the Girls

When she came home she was 5lbs 11oz,  a touch over 18 inches long, and sleeping almost 22 hours a day, but never longer than 3 hours at a time! Now she's 18lbs 2oz, 26 inches long and sleeping a straight 12 hours each night, plus a wonderful 3 hour nap in the afternoon.

12 months of ups and downs.(Mostly ups!)

12 months of dirty diapers.

12 months of cleaning bottles.

12 months of doctor appointments.

12 months of kisses and hugs.

12 months of formula scoops.

Soon there will be no more bottles, no more formula, less doctor appointments and a lot later, but in the horizon, no diapers! She has grown so fast these past few months, she's almost completely bottle-free, she's on her last can of formula, she's thiiiis close to standing on her own and, dare I say it, walking!?

I love you so much Chucky baby!!

Mobile!

Oh Boy.

Remember back when I was wishing Chucky-Sue would just crawl already?

I take back those wishes!! I'm not ready for a child that moves from the spot I put her! Chucky-Sue learns so quickly, she moved maybe an inch or two with the army crawl two days ago, and now? Now no part of my house is safe from her tiny fingers.

I've tried to capture her "army crawl" on video, unlike a true army crawl, she does not use her arms to pull her forward, but rather she spreads her legs out straight behind her, and rotates her feet to push her along. This is efficient for her as it keeps her hands free to grab anything and everything she goes by. We've had to have the "people don't eat paper" conversation several times, but she doesn't seem to quite grasp the concept. My trash is filled with spitballs and we've had two scary gagging incidents. Also, her foot crawl thing doesn't lend itself direction very well, she basically launches herself and hopes she doesn't land on anything hard.

That's my baby folks, never does anything the easy way!

Memory

I'm only in my early twenties but I'm fairly certain I'm losing my memory. If I ever had one to begin with, I don't remember! (oh the puns, I got a million of 'em!)

Jake is always laughing at me when I try to get ready to go somewhere. My internal thought process goes something like this:

 I pick up my phone. oh but wait, we need diapers. But where did I put my phone in between picking it up and getting the diapers? oh that's right by the microwave cause I was making bottles and I didn't want it to get wet. but where'd that bottle go? It's in the bag, good. okay. my phone? it's in the bag. It's not? oh no, I saw it by the microwave but I never picked it up! diapers? What? They are on the couch NEXT to the bag. Okay, almost done. keys, keys need my keys. Used them yesterday to get the mail... mail is on the nightstand...no keys. Keys keys keys....Aha, keys in the bathroom because I used the jagged edge to open one of my stubborn body butter jars. Let's go!

all this takes me walking up and down our one tiny hallway about seventy times with Jake laughing by the door with Chucky-Sue. Going in one room, out but back in to double check one spot, My tiny two bedroom apartment  can hide so many of my things! I'm not looking forward to when Chucky-Sue can start moving my things around along with Jake (My keys do not belong on my desk. my desk eats everything that touches it!!)

I'll soon be posting another video, this is one of chucky-sue laughing at my renditon of the mickey mouse clubhouse closing song :) Unless I forget!

Update on Ms. Sassafras!

Sassafras is a current nickname for our darling girl- she has definitely grown into her personality. She talks back just as well as any two year old and lets her opinion known LOUDLY. We had her 4-month check up today and her are her stats (Michael likes to say that like a sports announcer talking about LeBron...)


Height: 25 1/4 inches, the 50% for an average 4 month old
Weight: 13 lbs 9 oz, that's the 25-30% for an average 4 month old


Considering that she is not an average 4 month old, the doctors are very pleased with her growth. It's looking like she's just going to be a lean baby, as long as she doesn't plateau or lose weight they're happy. They've taken her off Neosure and on to a sensitive formula (poor girl gets awful constipation and tummyaches!)  The doctor did confirm our fears: she is beginning to teeth! As if the drool and random outbursts of crying weren't clues enough...She also had to suffer through another round of shots but this time she had her daddy to comfort her afterwards.


She is SUCH a daddy's girl and I love it! When he walks in a room or  speaks up in a conversation her eyes whip over to him and gives him such a goofy drool-filled grin! My favorite thing to do in the morning is to listen to Jake sing to her as he feeds her (Yes, he is still the one to get up in the morning, my mom-mode doesn't turn on til 9am.) and then he brings her into bed with us and we just cuddle and talk till breakfast. I know us being unemployed is generally a bad thing, and it's stressful but I am loving that we do get so much family time... Is that wrong of me? or am I just looking at the silver lining in our rain cloud?


Back to the doctor's appointment, the doctor has instructed us to have even more playtime with her. We mentioned that she doesn't seem interested in toys, she'll look at them some times; if something makes an interesting noise her eyes light up but she doesn't try to find where the noise is coming from. So we're going to try to use our voices which she WILL turn to to get her to turn from side to side and get her looking at different toys and objects. Hopefully we'll find a toy here soon she'll actually want bad enough to reach for!

Fate, Destiny, Karma...

This crazy thing called "Life" can lead you in many strange directions. I got married and had children instead of travelling the world as a French translator. Jake got a BA in psychology instead of nuclear science. This past holiday season, we thought we had found a perfect job in a perfect company for Jake to grow as a professional, and sadly the fates had another idea.

So, dear readers, if you know  of a job in the psychological/social service industry leave me a comment, and I'll be eternally grateful!

To help my tiny family, I want to start giving art lessons; in a completely unregistered, non-certificate kind of way. (Basically, these lessons would be for fun. I can't provide any credit for school or anything like that) I'm willing to create different curriculum  for the individual students. I'm just putting feelers out there, for all I know- no one could be interested!

your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated!

I just noticed that I use exclamation points too often!!

Long Lost Writer

MISSING: SIMPLY 14 BLOG WRITER
LAST SEEN: Searching for free wifi throughout town
REWARD: Nothing but more funny awesome interesting posts

Sorry I've been so MIA the last month or so, our neighbor moved and so did our wifi at home. Thankfully nothing too exciting passed without documentation (thanks to my mobile facebook to update photos instantly.)

We've been just getting used to being a family of three, Chucky-Sue and I have lots of fun during the day getting to know each other. She has a few new "tricks". She smiles all the time now, attempts to sit up despite her large noggin, and loves playing with scarves and brightly colored things. We're actively excited for the big trip up to New England (and the train! I love Trains!!) But I've learned that planning long trips with a youngster is not fun. Half the weight I'll be carrying will be food and diapers for ms.stinky-butt. :)

Chucky-Sue has been playing a local "celebrity" visiting our families various workplaces (two schools, two offices, a restaurant and a bank) she is still great with strangers and can put on a "show" for them by smiling and babbling away.

I do have photos and videos to post someday, but my battery is dying so you'll have to live with this short post!