Long time no post...

It's been a little while since I posted here. It's been so busy around here that I've not had a spare moment to post...though so much has been going on. Life is good here...I really sat back and took a look at all that I've been blessed with and I realized that I have no reason to be as grumpy and blah as I have been. So what that things aren't perfect, so what if I have a few extra pounds...I have so much more that I should be thankful for that all the crappy feelings I was having was clouding over all the good things I am lucky to have in my life. I really couldn't ask for more...I have so much more than I could have wished for. My husband is wonderful, my baby girl is growing and thriving, my little sis is getting married, my family is wonderful, I have a roof over my head, two good cars to drive, dogs to keep my house safe, wonderful friends, jobs that allow us to live comfortably, I could go on and on. I have no reason to complain. So, I'm working on those things that make me not so happy, but beginning to realized that even though life isn't perfect things are good.

Miss Mackenzie has been an absolute ball of fire lately. She is truly a toddler. She has lost the baby look and looks more and more like a little girl every day. I can't believe my baby is no longer a baby. She is doing so many new things every day. She is running, hopping (though neither foot has left the ground yet), climbing on anything and everything (I swear she is part monkey), saying a few new words, opening and closing all the doors in the house, eating well with a fork, giving hugs, giving real kisses, will state mommy or daddy when asked who that is, and asking more clearly to go to sleep. She is so much fun. She loves loves loves to play with her sand and water table...that was the best $100 we have spent in a long time. She will play with the table for an hour or more if we let her. She makes such a mess, but has such a good time doing it. She loves to use the shovel to scoop up the sand and then decorate the grass and her picnic table...I think we have more sand in the yard than in the table at this point :) We got her a little stroller that is just her size...she loved pushing her stroller, but it was so tall that she kept falling on her face while pushing it. So, now she pushed her empty stroller down the road when we go for a walk...wouldn't you know that she thinks she is too big to ride in a stroller...so our walks have gotten much shorter :) We can't put anything in the stroller or it goes flying. She also has a new grocery cart that she pushes around the house to go shopping. She has a great time shopping for things and pushing them around. She also enjoys feeding her loot to the dogs...thank goodness they are good sports and put up with her shoving various items at their faces!

We've had a few "worst parent in the world" moments the past few weeks. Last Sunday we found out that she is able to unlock the sliding screen door. She likes to play by herself so we allow her pretty much to have free run of the house with occasional monitoring when she is off by herself. Well I guess we were not monitoring her very well because my neighbor came knocking at our back door with Miss Mackenzie in tow. I have no clue how long she was outside or where she wandered to before he returned her to us. She managed to unlock the screen door, get out, and even close the door behind her. Thank goodness for our neighbor...I don't know how long we would have let her wander before we noticed she was missing. Talk about feeling stupid. We need to find a good and safe way to lock up the house so that she can not escape!!! The second "proud parent" moment happened Monday after work. I was feeding her dinner and she "dropped" a piece of her food on the floor. Now she usually states "Uh oh!!!" and goes about "dropping" food. Well this time she clearly stated "oh shit"...plain as day...nothing she says is plain as day!!! So she had her first cuss word at 17 months old. I'm sure that she did not learn that from me...I guess I should have put soap in Jason's mouth!!! I must say that he has been much more careful with what comes flying out of his mouth. My baby girl has a potty mouth!

For the first time in her little life she is showing sign of separation anxiety. She has been so clingy and whinny lately. We can't barely walk out of the room without her freaking out. It is getting tiring trying to go to the bathroom with 2 little eyes staring at you, even better when she is screaming her head off wanting you to pick her up! I hope this phase passes quickly. I think it may be partly due to teething. She has two new molars poking through and one little front tooth poking through...when I was examining her mouth tonight it looks as though her bottom two molars will be cutting through at any time....her little gums are all white and very swollen where those teeth should be. I feel bad for her because they just look painful. Hopefully they will cut through together and get it over with. I'm ready for her to be done teething, but we are really just getting started. We don't even have half of her baby teeth in yet!!! She will probably still be teething when she is 3.

Other than that life's been busy with work and play. We are having an open house this Sunday. I'm not feeling very optimistic at this time. I so badly want to sell this house, but I have a feeling this is going to be a long process. We are very ready to move and build the new house. I can't wait to have more room and a huge yard to play in. Oh well...it will happen when it is supposed to...or at least that is what I keep telling myself.