the one where Tori is twenty six months old

For everyone who hates that title, Ill rephrase it to

"The one where Tori is just over two"

-She has a list of Disney movies she loves right now. The Lion King ("Mommy, king"), The Little Mermaid ("Mommy, fish", Lady and the Tramp("Mommy, puppy"), 101 Dalmations("Mommy, yucky doggie")! She's addicted. Like she can tell you whats going to happen in the next scene sort of addicted. I could not believe how watching the movies literally made all of the words to every song come back to me. I can literally sing every song. Dan hates it lol.
-She is loving animals and dogs more than ever. She has always been obsessed with dogs but its on a whole new level right now.. we can be in the car and if she sees someone walk by with a dog she will scream her head off because she cant pet or hug the dog. She likes to walk around our backyard and look for bunnies. She bird watches. I am accidentally teaching her to not like cats (the cats in lady and the tramp are evil & Im not a fan of cats so I sort of make a big deal out of that lol). She LOVES the opening scenes to the Lion king because of all the animals. "ZEBRA!" ... "EFANT" (elephant).. "BIRDS".. "MONKEY".
-With her love of animals and being over two years old now, Dan and I are so excited to take her to zoos this year. We are going to start out with Lake Tobias because they have a little safari tour and its not super expensive. Tori would actually be free. I know she would love that. We will probably try to go next month.
-Tori is very interested in other people. She is always asking me (when we go to the grocery store or anywhere in public really) who people are.. "Mommy, who's that?"... (She thinks I know everyone lol). After we look at their name tag (if they work at the place) or ask the person who they are, I always make her tell them what her name is. The response is unreal. People smile, they tell me how sweet she is, you can tell for some people it really makes their day that Tori asked about them. It is so sweet. A lot of people comment on how surprised they are that she is so outgoing already and how in tune she is with others.
-Tori is as obsessed as ever with her cousin Iz. She is always asking me about Iz, where she is, wants to call her.. she gets so happy to see her. They are the best of friends.
-Tori has also had a new found obsession with her daddy. She used to ALWAYS be Mommys girl.. and I mean, she still is.. she still wants to lay on me and wants only me to take her to bed and stuff but shes asking about Dan a lot more during the week.. I guess shes finally realizing that hes not here and that work is a place he goes to. "Mommy, where Daddy go?" ... and shes even been hugging him when he gets home and stuff which is adorable &makes him feel much better, it used to be he would get home and she needed to really warm up to him being home. Shes asking that Daddy do bath time instead of Mommy.. she does this adorable thing when Dan does something silly, shell look at him and say "Dadddddyyyyyyy....." in this almost annoyed but funny way.
-She is an outdoors kinda girl. This tease of spring weather one minute and winter weather the next has been terrible for her. I could take her out back and she will play for HOURS & she doesn't get it when its cold or raining outside so she has a meltdown for awhile and then its distracting her with her favorite movies which I hate. I don't mind that she has movies that she likes and letting her watch them at some point during the day but it is hard not letting her sit in front of the tv and trying to get her distracted with other things. Especially with me and work right now. I have been busier than ever in the real estate world and the fact is, I am on the phone and computer a lot.

So anyways, that's where Tori is right now. The older and more independent shes getting the more I realize shes less and less of a baby. I am without a doubt, more clingy to Tori then she is to me but whatever, I own it. She is more fun than ever, smarter than ever, more beautiful than ever (have you seen this girls curly hair and blue eyes?!)  and I am just more in love with her than ever.

the one where I accept my hair

Did anyone else use an iron to straighten their hair? I mean a legit, shirt iron... not a flat iron lol. I did. Terrible. Who does that?!

My hair is this annoying mix of wavy/straight. I am not curly enough to be considered curly and I am not straight enough (without said iron) to say I have straight hair. I HAVE to do something to my hair or its an afro. A big, frizzy, lions mane- afro.

I used to always straighten my hair. Every morning... I had a system.. I washed it at night, straightened it the next morning and wore it down, then wore it half up and half down the following day... and then all up the next before having to wash it again and start this whole thing all over again. Back in the day I would mix it up with crimping.. maybe some braids. Fun.
Now, at my almost ripe age of 28 (almost 30, I can hardly believe it)... I have finally accepted my hair. I have set it free. I save it from heat. I don't go too crazy with colors. I am sure my hair is much, much happier.
I have been asked often how I get my new 'beachy look' so I thought a post about what I do (or don't do) was fitting.

STEPS:
1-Wash hair
2- While hair is wet... I use my hands to "scrunch" my hair (I don't know another word that for that?)
3-Add about a golf ball size of mousse to hair
4-Spray hair with hairspray
5- Run fingers through hair
6-Let air dry

AND IM DONE.
I would say this whole process takes about 5 minutes and then it air dries so however long that is?... I think my hair is definitely softer, its definitely easier.. and I think hair with a curly to it is much easier to work with. I can wear it down and it can look dressy or laid back. Putting it up has the same effect.. its so much more full and fun looking. It can look like I really tried too which is very deceiving and I like it.

the one with our house to do list

I feel like time has gone from the longest winter ever to BOOM spring is here. If that makes any sense? It just came out of nowhere and we are very excited to start our Spring/Summer house TO-DO list... so for the sake of sharing (as I have been a terrible blogger lately) here is our list of things we would like to get done to the house by the end of the summer...

1. Paint our bedroom- When we moved into our house the whole place was freshly painted top to bottom. We couldn't justify spending money on painting when everything was so crisp and new... but a year later, the same color paint all through the house is boring. We have a really beautiful dark espresso (almost black) bedroom suit so I want to paint the bedroom charcoal gray. A lot of our pictures/frames/décor are black and white which I think will look great against the walls and then Ill have a splash of colors throughout. Our bedding set is blue and green so we may add touches of that throughout. Heres a pic of the color I was thinking of:

2. Paint the playroom- The playroom is located off of the kitchen and has a door so its a fun room because no matter how it looks in there, we can close the door and no one will know. Tori takes full advantage of destroying that place. Anyways, its an off white color right now and I am thinking a mint green/aqua color. We have a section of a wall specifically for her art work and then I have a little chalkboard area for her. The aqua is a bright and cheery color and would be good for girls or boys...unisex playroom for whatever Rera babies join the party lol. Color idea below:

3. Backsplash in the kitchen- Currently there is no backsplash. This makes for a boring look and also an annoying mess when cooking. Its not as easy to clean food splatter off of a painted wall then it would be to clean off backsplash. ANNOYING. Looks terrible. Must change. Our countertops are a blue color & our cabinets are white so I want to change the overall look to feature light grays/whites/blacks.

4. Change the flooring in the kitchen: The previous owners of this home had a son who was in a wheelchair.. so the doors are wheelchair accessible (including first floor full bathroom), the flooring was chosen so that it would be easy and durable with the use of wheelchair wheels on it at all times. It is hideous. Its a fake brick look and it doesn't match anything. It is in both the kitchen and bathroom. It is currently the biggest eye sore of the house and I think could potentially be our first thing we change (outside of paint which is just easy and cheap). Again, I want to do something to stick with the gray/white/black color scheme.

5. Landscaping. The previous owners had some pretty bushes outside and cute bird houses etc but then they also had some pretty terrible looking ones that you can tell they just used to fill up space. We want to mulch. A lot. Flowers I am a bit nervous about, Tori loves to pick flowers for Mommy and Daddy so that could be a waste of money? We will see.

6. Paint our shutters/front door- They are this weird green right now, lighter than hunter green but not green green....we dont really like it. So we have decided on navy blue. That with the colorful flowers/bushes and our adorable seating set we put on the front porch is going to look great.

 

NOW THAT I WROTE THE LONGEST BLOG POST EVER.. have a great week everyone.

 

 

the one where its a new month

A new month, new beginnings.
I am going to follow the lead of Kat over at cheshirekatblog.com/ and share my list of goals for the month of April.
First off I would like to note, Dan and I have a family calendar where we put all of our appointments, work schedule, weekend events, etc. I did our April calendar today and we have FOUR DAYS THIS ENTIRE MONTH that do not have an appointment or something scheduled for either me, Dan or Tori. Craziness.

Goal #1- Stay calm. I can get overly anxious when I know I have 101 things going on during a certain day. That makes me not be able to eat properly, it makes me not be able to sleep. I am trying to learn to let go and just take things as they come. This is not a measureable goal outside of maybe the amount of times I have a meltdown to Dan. So Ill tell him to keep track lol.
Goal #2- Add a spin class a week to my workout schedule. I figured if I try for one time a week that is realistic and it will give me something to spice up my workout routine.
Goal #3- Give my business card to at least one brand new person a week.
Goal #4- Get to a park at least once a week (weather permitting). This isn't always easy either with our gym and naps and lunch schedule but starting this month with one day a week and working up to more for the summer, doable.
Goal #5- Update Toris baby book. I have SO dropped the ball on this. Its so easy to take pictures and upload them onto the computer and facebook, I rarely develop them so I need to get on that.

Ok.. so this is where I am starting. Ill keep you posted on progress!