A Prayer Request

For those of you who don't know, my brother-in-law, Matthew, and his family (Shawna, Eli, and Kensi) live in Japan. My father-in-law, Ricky, is currently there visiting. They had gone into Japan for a few days to go to the zoo and Disney and are, thus, away from their home phone (our way of contacting them). We haven't heard from them since the earthquake/tsunami. The hubs is certain from looking at the maps they were out of major harm's way, but we are worried because we haven't heard from them. I'm sure it's just that communications are down, but please pray that they will find a way to contact someone in the states soon and that they are fine.

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

What's in a Name?

I was having a discussion recently about someone I know who never really learned to find her value in anything other than her beauty (of which she has plenty). She's a wife, a mother, a student, an athlete, a friend, a Christian -- there are so many labels I could give her that, to me, define her, but to HER, she's beautiful. It's where she finds her validation, her esteem, in essence, it's who she thinks she is.

It made me think about my own definitions and labels, which, to be honest, I've been taking stock of quite a bit lately. But looking at them after this particular conversation made me see them in a different light.

Here's the thing. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me or reads my blog regularly that I don't adore my job. I mean, it has its perks (who wouldn't love working in sweat pants and slippers everyday?!?), but after a while, the downsides really start to outweigh the pajamas. Heck, I actually yearn to dress up and go places all the time now. I get sick of my pjs.

All that to say that I don't define myself by my work, as most people do. And if I WERE to define myself occupationally, I'd be more likely to say that I'm an ex-teacher than to use my current job to define me.

And the fact that occupationally, I'd define myself by something in the past made me realize that alot of my definitions and labels that I would give myself are based in the past. See, to ME, I'm not a fat lady. I'm a skinny, athletic girl who is desperately trying to lose weight. I remember being heartbroken when I realized that more of my friends now never knew me as skinny. They don't think of me as the girl who gained weight after college. They only picture me at this weight, whereas when I think of myself, I know that I'm REALLY a tiny gymnast, not this plump thing I look like now.

I don't think that it's a matter of not accepting who I am now in my job or my weight, but rather than I'm not really pleased with either of those things personally so I don't want to change my definition of myself to meet them, even if they've both been true for more than 6 years now. And realizing that for 6 years I've not been happy with the current "me" makes me kind of sad.

That's not to say that I don't love certain parts of my life. I'm a mom, and a pretty darn good one, I like to think. My kid is happy and intelligent and funny and charming and I like to think at least some of that is a result of something I've done. I certainly hope that I'm a good wife at least most of the time. Granted, a load of laundry almost never gets put all the way up before another one is out of the dryer and my desk stays a mess, but I also have worked 6+ years at a job I really don't like to help pay the bills and I make his coffee and lunch every morning while getting our 2 year old fed and dressed without being asked. I take care of T sometimes 5 days a week and regularly 2 or 3 days a week by myself until past her bedtime. I do the grocery shopping and the cooking (when it gets done). I have mental notes of things he likes and doesn't and try to remember them in all situations (whether that means never cooking with or ordering tomatoes, mushrooms, or olives OR just restraining myself when I want to tell a story I think is hysterical that I know he might think was embarassing).

I'm GOOD at those parts of my life. I'm not perfect, but I'm proud of those parts.

But most people don't really think of or talk about those being things to be proud of. Most people want to define you by your job and what you've accomplished in the business world, not by how awesome your 2-year old is or how mean of a lasagna you can make. And I guess if I were a stay-at-home mom, I would be more ok with that because at least I could say that at my "job" - aka being a mom, I was really successful (and I might also keep the laundry a little closer to done). But I'm not. I work full-time and don't really change the world in any dramatic way, yet I whittle-away hours and hours doing it. And in my own definitions that I set a long, long time ago, that makes me feel like a failure at least a little bit.

I didn't realize until very recently how much having this "random computer job" (which is what I tell most people I do when asked) had cut down my self-esteem, but it really has. Which is ridiculous to me because another definition I have of myself is that I am a confident, self-assured person. I always have been. I've always done things as well as I could and thus been proud of myself and known that if I really wanted something, I could do it, get it, or work towards it. But these days, I question myself and am constantly scared of making a fool of myself.

So I'm working on that now. I took a big step recently and, although the outcome wasn't at all my desired ending, I didn't fail either. I did ok. And it made me think that maybe girl who is really only qualified to do a "random computer job" isn't really just that. Maybe I'm still that skinny, ex-teacher who's an awesome mom and wife somewhere in there and I just need to give her a chance to try and prove herself.

Maybe...

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

The Reason I Haven't Blogged...

...is that although I've had a ton of random thoughts, none of them are a full blog alone. You know what that means? You're about to be on the receiving end of a blog full of randomness. :) How lucky are YOU?!?

Things I'm loving right now:
*Oikos Greek Yogurt with caramel - Dude, seriously!
*Mr. Sunshine's theme song - "Mr. Sunshine, yeah." - Very Juno-esque.
*Mr. Sunshine (the actual show), Castle, Sex in the City reruns, How I Met Your Mother reruns
*Still using my Peanuts Christmas mugs for coffee as oft as I can.
*That most days for the past 2 weeks, it's been warm enough for flip flops, short sleeves, and my homemade iced coffees
*Amy Farrah-Fowler on "Big Bang Theory". I mean, what's not to like? The show is HILARIOUS! Her character gives me at least 3 spit-takes every episode, and HELLO?!? She's BLOSSOM!!!
*Jimmy Palmer on NCIS (the original) - he's a minor character, but they have developed him expertly. He's goofy and quite funny. Love him!

Things driving me nuts lately:
*Arrogance
*People so sure of their rightness in all situations that they never, ever consider anyone else's opinions or thoughts
*Being exhausted and overwhelmed, so much so that even when I have free-time, I'm so burned-out that I can't seem to get myself back on track. I find myself sitting and staring instead of digging myself out.

Other random thoughts:
*You know it's been a rough busy season at work when, on the first day we're allowed to take off (in 6 weeks), no fewer than 4 people (on a team of fewer than 20) called in sick. Granted, I actually had a kid with a 102+ fever, but I'm guessing at least a couple of the other 3 were taking "mental health" days. ;)
*Little Caesar's - Their whole "catch" is that they can be your emergency "I don't have time to even wait on fast food" dinner? Really? There's never a word about taste or quality; nothing mentioned about service or how much you'll want to return. Just "we can have crappy pizza ready for you in a moment's notice on any day when you've given dinner so little thought that you can't even wait 3 minutes for a burger at a drive-through." Awesome.
*T came home from daycare talking about her little sister who was at lunch. It went something like this: "My little sister's at lunch, so we can't see her, but she's crying, so we need to get her some juice." ???? I have no idea. She apparently talked about this mysterious little sister to her teachers yesterday as well. My kid is hysterically crazy. :)

And then there's this gem of a conversation T and I had the other morning while getting ready for school.

T: OOW! My head hurts!

Me: What's wrong with your head?

T: It's SOOO too big!

Me: Does it hurt 'cause it's too big?

T: Yeah. *She wraps her hands around her neck and pulls up on her head.* Ugh! It won't come off!

Yep, that's my life and I love it!

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Things That Make Ya Go "Hmmmm"!

Sometimes, as you walk around this great, big world, you see a real puzzler and feel the need to share.

Now, this isn't one of those signs where you change the stickers out to change the times. It's a laminated piece of printed paper. Tell me. Why doesn't it just say Mon-Sat 10:00-9:00?

It's a real thinker, I tell ya.

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

I'm In a 12-Step Program For It...

... well, it's really more of a 12-letter program. ;)

Here's the thing. We all have neurosis - little weird things about us that we know are a little (or a lot) crazy. We all have certain habits that we can't break or routines we do without knowing why. And in our society, we're taught to hide them... pretend they don't exist and be embarassed by them.

I, on the other hand, like to wear mine on my sleeve. I figure if I didn't have my quirks, I wouldn't be me. ('Cause if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm basically one big ol' pile of quirkiness.)

Last night, I fessed up to yet another crazy-town invitation - both to my husband and to myself. You see, he was playing "Words With Friends" on his iPhone. I'm guessing most of you either play it or have seen others play it, but in case you haven't, it's like Scrabble on your phone. You start a game with another person, a friend or a random computer-selected person. Then you make a move, send it, and wait for them to send their move. Yep, just fancy, delayed-gratification Scrabble.

Drew loves it. Since the first day he discovered the game, I would venture to say he's never had fewer than 5 games going at a time. He plays it so much that I've added words to the ditties it plays when you win or lose ("You-oo-oo-oo WIN!" and "You-oo-oo-oo SUCK!").

So last night, as we were climbing into bed, settling in (somehow I can't say "settling in" without thinking "for a long winter's nap" - another neurosis - Name that reference!), his phone binged with a "Words With Friends" move. He looked over at me and said, "You don't play this anymore, do you?"

The simple answer is "No." But here's the neurosis. I TRIED playing the game. I was an avid player two different times (meaning 5 or 6 games at once for months at a time in each effort). I quit both times. Here's why.

I'm not a seriously competitive person usually. I mean, we all have our moments, but for the most part, I don't mind losing a game or two here and there. In fact, when it comes to Monopoly, I always lose... usually because I got bored and moved on halfway through. Seriously. Dullest.Game.EVER!

But I digress...

You see, when playing "Words With Friends", I like to come up with a word that will BLOW THE MIND of my competition. I want a the highest point word possible with the hand I've been dealt. I can't just play the first word I see for whatever points I can get. Even after two days of looking for a high-point word, I won't play a teensie word for next-to-no points. It's not within me. But I don't have the time to spend 30 minutes regularly trying to come up with a high point word. So instead of just playing whatever word comes to mind for whatever points I get and having fun with it, I let my games sit for so long that they time out and I inadvertently forfeit.

Yep, for me, in word games, it's be awesome or go home. I'd rather lose because I stalled-out than lose by 2 points because I played a stupid word.

Ridiculous. I know.

What are YOUR crazy-town invitations? You KNOW you have them!

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

All You Need Is Love

About a week ago, I discovered my sweet, little baby is old enough to be swapping Valentine's at daycare. I'll be honest. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about that... but I do know that if we're going to swap Valentine's, I want them to be C.U.T.E.!!! ;)

I'll be honest again. I didn't originate either of these ideas. I'm a big, fat copier. ;-p

These flowers are for the mailboxes of each of her classmates.

These wax paper hearts full of candy are for her teachers and I got the idea from Kelli @ Random Thoughts of a Supermom.

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wordless Wednesdays - Gifts from Japan

Granna just got back from Japan, where she went for the birth of our sweet niece, Kensi. She brought us back lots of cool presents, but I think this is my favorite. (If you look closely, you can see it even came with the cute wooden shoes. Adorable!)

"Tucker, look at Mommy and smile."

"No, look AT Mommy, not past her."

"There we go... sort of." ;)

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Monday Morning Wrap-Up

I know you're all DYING to know my responses to all that aired last night.

Football? I think I heard something about a football game being on maybe? I didn't watch a minute of it... all season. Pro anyway.

But the rest of it was fabulous!!!

Well, that's not true, but it was at least blog-worthy.

To begin with, the commercial load wasn't nearly as jam-packed with fabulousness as usual. I mean, there were some gems (and I'll get to that), but way too many "reruns" as my friend Will kept calling them. :)

Now, Christina, honey, I GET the pressure when it comes to remembering the words to the National Anthem. When you're singing in front of a crowd, your thoughts are more concerned with the HORROR of messing up the words than actually trying to remember the words. Seriously. Try it one day, folks. But Christina, you are worth somewhere around 5 katrillion dollars. You employ probably near-abouts 4,000 people. Get one of them to stand somewhere in your line of vision with giant posters containing the words OR get a friggin teleprompter. WAY better than flubbing the words to the National Anthem during the SUPER BOWL!!!

You'll be surprised to know, however, that her word flub is NOT my biggest bone to pick with her (and about 3/4 of the rest of National Anthem singers everywhere). WHY? Why, why, why, why, WHY do you feel it necessary to quadrouple the number of notes in the song? WHY do you think it makes you awesome to add so many flourishes and runs and weird additions to the tune that it becomes almost entirely unrecognizible? I think that's more of a faux pas than the flubbing of the words. At least the words thing was a mistake. You did the rest of the song-ruining intentionally. I have a rule when it comes to singing (and incidentally, her version of "Silent Night" is my PRIME example I use when sharing this rule... well, her and Mariah Carey ANYTHING). "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD."

"Halftime Show?" you ask. I liked all the white catsuits. I liked all the lit-up people with power sources for belly buttons. I liked the cool things the catsuit-people did (except for all of the crooked lines and people half-dancing during close-ups). The staging was pretty awesome.

The Peas, however? BLECH! They sounded awful!! Everytime I hear them live, I think, "They should really lip-synch in live performances because they use too much post-production touch ups on their cds." Their live performances are always a disappointment to me. And "Good night"? "Boom Boom Pow"? REALLY?!? Pick a new song to perform. I've never bought an album, but you MUST have more than just those 2 songs. They were good the first 4 million times I heard them, but they play on the radio almost every third song, and you've sung them at every major event in America for the past 2 years or so. Geesh! Oh, and Fergie, WHO were you holding the mic out to? In an auditorium for a concert, there are fans a few feet from you and their voices MIGHT pick up on the mic. But in a football stadium where you have 2,000 dancers and half a football field plus some peanut vendors between you and the next fan singing along, what did you think that mic was going to pick up? Just wondering.

Now, onto my favorite commercials for the night. (in no particular order)

• Chevy's "Best First Date Ever" got an extended "Awwwwww" from our living room - well, the female half, anyway.
• Darth Vader starting the car with his mind? I think that was Chevy as well. Seriously?!? SO CUTE!!!
• Audi's "Release the hounds!" with Kenny G - pretty fabulous. The "hounds" were my favorite part.
• Motorola's _1984_ type commercial with the drones in white coats and the guy with the flowers? Very cute and unique
• Bridgestone with the beaver? Almost (that's a big distinction) as good as my favorite Pep Boys commercial with the Moose ("You get them brakes at Pep Boys? Preciate it.")

And the award for the commercial you were MOST ashamed you did a spit-take for?

Timothy Hutton for Groupon. With the crisis in Tibet? And the Groupon for the Tibetan restaurant? Seriously - I almost spit my drink across the living room. Such a spot-on mockery of the American attitude towards serious issues in our world. (If you assume a Valley Girl accent and twirl your hair, maybe smack some pretend gum, it'll really clinch this one for you.) "The problems in Tibet? Absolutely horrible. I'm in total support of us helping them. That's why I eat their awesome chicken at this Tibetan place at least once a week. It HAS to help them, right?" LOVED IT! (Posted it as my FB status and then immediately saw one of my high school friends saying how offended he was by it. Oops!)

It WAS tacky, but isn't MOST of our culture's favorite humor at the moment mocking how insensitive and selfish and ridiculous we can all be? Anyone seen "The Office" or "Modern Family"?

Loved it!

And Glee, you ask? I'll sum up quickly. Love Puck. Love Blaine. Think I actually like the Warblers better than New Directions.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Oh, and hey, how'd that football-thingy turn out? ;)

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Possibly the cutest thing you've ever seen, no?

Yep, she's precious... especially when she sleeps.

But we've been fighting off something on and off since around Thanksgiving. We have a fever and cough that we just can NOT shake. And on nights when that fever spikes up, it usually equals a wide-awake two-year-old at around 4:30am, which happened this morning.

Now, we're not usually kid-in-the-bed kind of people. But when the option is get UP at 4:30am on a work day with no nap in sight or put the kid in our bed, she comes into our bed. She'll usually go back to sleep in a relatively short period of time.

The drawback?

That's my pillow and the amount of room generally left for me. Actually, that's a generous portion of matress compared to the norm when she joins us. Yikes!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

The Drivey-Drive

Tucker hasn't quite figured out how to steer her car. I mean, she can. She just doesn't seem to care at all. She just drives in circles until either you turn her steering wheel or she hits something. I can't help but laugh... hysterically... every.single.time. Enjoy!



Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wordless... Thursdays?

*Riding the train at the mall for the first time*

"Choo Choo!!!"

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Too Much Fun

*Do you love this "Flashdance" outfit she's rocking? It's of her own choosing - from the tutu to the extra headband. A fashionista in our midst, folks.*

I'm so sorry for my lack of blogging lately. I'll be honest. My life is nuts. There's work, the two-year-old, getting ready for Scrapbook camp, and about 5 million other things that I won't mention here. My brain is just otherwise-occupied, so that even when I find time to blog (which is rare), I can't come up with anything I can blog about. All my thoughts are either dull, topics I'm not ready to share (no, I'm not pregnant), or topics that are just not blog-worthy - ie NOT funny or inspiring.

While we wait on my real brain to return, I thought I'd share with you the conversations filling my days these days.

To the doctor at the end of a visit: "Thank you for seeing me today."

While I was going potty and right after she went potty: "Good job, Mommy! You get your M&Ms?"

After almost every single activity for weeks now: "Mommy, we had TOO MUCH FUN today!"

After another doctor visit today: "Mommy, I had TOO MUCH FUN at the doctor today!"

After putting on her new shoes and while modeling them for me: "Mommy, thank you for getting my new shoes!" (Man, I hope this politeness sticks around for a while!)

While already driving down the road on the way to church: "Daddy, can you crank the car? It's cold!"

And my favorite:

Yelled from upstairs where napping is supposed to be happening:

"Mommy? MOMMY?!? Mommy, what's tomorrow? It's Saturday?"

Me: "No, tomorrow is Wednesday."

"Oh, ok. Just making sure."

Hahaha!!! Seriously, we stay in giggles around our house.

I hope this finds you all well!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Genetics - Part Deux - A Translation

For those of you who don't know the actual words to "Do Your Ears Hang Low"

Do your ears hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot?
Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them over your shoulder like a Continental soldier?
Do your ears hang low?

You're welcome. ;)

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Genetics

Do you remember a few months back (here) when I discussed my love of making up what song lyrics sound like when I can't figure out what they actually are?

Turns out, it's genetic.

And I don't want to build this up too much, but I'm pretty sure, this is the greatest re-write in the history of all lyric-making-up-dom. (I'm pretty sure that's the perfect amount of build-up.)





Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Snow M. G.!!!

For those of you who don't know, we got snow in the South - lots of it - and it stayed...

and stayed...

and stayed!

Tucker is very into rainbows (aka - anything with a semicircle anywhere in or on it).

"Mommy, it's a rainbow!!!"

The average depth in our yard.

Last time I saw snow this deep in the South was in '93.

This is the layer of ice on top of all that snow that developed when it sleeted the day after the snow and stayed cold enough to freeze it all.

Can you tell where the curb is? Our cul de sac was almost completely filled with snow!!!

This was possibly the craziest part to me. I took this picture at 11pm without a flash. It was snowing so hard that it looked like daylight outside. CRAZY!

Our besties - Ashie and Will

Hands down - Cutest Picture Ever!!!

It was HARD WORK for T to walk in all that snow!

That's some seriously deep snow!

Snow cream chilling outside while we ate dinner

Tucker thought Daddy shoveling was a RIOT! :)

Do you see the lump of snow under her hand? That's the snowwoman's heart that Tucker made and placed. (I <3 her.)

Love & Shipoopies (and a yard still full of snow a full week later),

Leslie

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

...how droopy are your branches!!!

Confession time.
See this picture of our house in the snow?

It snowed on the night of January 9th. And it caught me with my wreaths up.

And my tree...

and my other zillion Christmas decorations.

That's right, folks! I'm a complete procrastinator when it comes to taking down my Christmas decorations. It's party because I LOVE THEM!!!! And it's partly because I'm Methodist, so I actually like having the tree up until Epiphany (Jan 6th). But it's mostly for two reasons:

1.) I really enjoy my short break that I get and want to spend it doing other things and

2.) My house seems so empty without them.

I was raised in a house with conflicting views on when to remove the decorations. My father was raised Catholic (and also doesn't actually put up or take down Christmas decorations - Sorry, Dad, but the truth hurts sometimes - haha!), so he always thinks the tree should stay up until January 6th. My mom knows that taking the decorations down takes time and energy, so she wants to get them down quickly so she can have it done and still have a little time to rest before starting back to school. Usually there was a compromise that ended in the tree coming down on New Year's Day.

I talked to my Aunt Nan, and she was in a rush to get hers down as soon after Christmas as she could. Her reasoning? "My house seems so CLEAN once they're all boxed up!"

Isn't it funny how perspective can change anything? For her, it seems clean. For me, it makes everything else in my house seem small, boring, and insignificant.

We did, during one of our snow-trapped evenings, get everything down and boxed up but the tree and the outdoor wreaths. Nowhere to put the tree (garbage pick-up was snowed-out this week) and no WAY I'm letting the hubs climb on the roof or a ladder in the ice that is covering everything to get those wreaths down! But, to be honest, I will cherish any last days I can squeeze out of the decorations.

One last thought. In church the Sunday between Christmas and Epiphany, our preacher talked about taking down the decorations and how some people love to "put Christmas away". She warned us all that we can pack up the glitz and sparkle of Christmas, but to be sure we don't pack Christ away like he's seasonal. Nice. :)

What's your style on getting Christmas decorations up and taking them down?

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Randomness: A Trilogy, in 4 Parts*

1.) When picking out a blanket, be it for cuddling on the couch or to cover my bed while I sleep, I find the most important factor is weight. The thickest, warmest blanket out there will still leave me feeling cold unless it's heavy enough to really weigh on my body as it covers me.

*Seriously random, I know.

2.) Have you ever:
a. Had someone say something so rude, self-absorbed, and nasty that you
b. Laid-out a sharp-tongued, well-planned line of sarcasm beginning with the classic "Well, I'm just SOOOOO sorry for...."
c.) Gotten NO response
d.) And wondered, "Was my biting and amazingly brilliant sarcasm so cutting that they realized the error of their selfish, rude, horrid ways OR are they SOOO self-absorbed that they ACTUALLY thought I was apologizing?!?"

3.) I've sent something out there in the world and just the act of beginning the process has me all giddy inside and nervous. Those of you who are prayers, please pray that God fulfills his plan with it, even if it's not what MY plan for it is. :) (Vague enough for you?!?)

4.) Yesterday, our sweet niece, Kensi Elisabeth made her debut to the world! She was born in Japan to the hubs's brother, Matthew and his wife, Shawna. She's quite adorable and looks much like her big brother, Eli, did upon his arrival. We are so happy for them and can't wait to meet her in person (months and months away :( boo).

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

*If you've never read a trilogy in 4 parts, I highly recommend you go find the book _In Our Humble Opinion_ written by Click and Clack (from NPR's "Car Talk"). It's a riot and totally from wence I stole my title and to what I am paying homage. :)

There's just no denying it, folks...

She is DEFINITELY my child. :)








Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Hot Dog!!!

If you don't watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse everyday, you may not recognize this song.

But you'll still recognize the goober dancing to it. :)



*I love how she's singing so boldly and then remembers I'm filming and stops, smiling shyly at me. That's why I started the video from behind. If she saw the camera from the start, she never would've danced for me.*

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Didn't we pass that tree an hour ago?

This is my two-year-old. (2.5 to be precise.) She is a goober. As my cousin Paige says, "She comes by that naturally."

True story, my friends. True story.

Here's another thing you may or may not know about her. She has a BIG head. I don't just mean kind of big. I mean off the charts (literally off the charts the doctors use with "percentiles" and such), grew so much so fast at one point, they watched its growth for a month and threatened a scan to make sure she didn't have fluid around her brain kind of big. She comes by this naturally as well. We're a family full of big-noggins!

One consequence of her large head is that, well, sometimes her clothes don't really want to go over her head. Sometimes, even the ones WITH buttons or snaps at the neck won't go over her head. And you can just about FORGET trying a shirt without some sort of closure to make the opening get bigger while trying to cram a head through. It rarely happens. In fact, every Alabama cheerleading outfit she's had (read as BOTH, as she's only had two), we've had to kind of clip along the shoulder seams to make the head hole big enough, and even after doing that, I pretty much made her cry because it took me so long to pull her head through it. (No pain no gain, right?)

She used to get really upset anytime we had to REALLY pull to get a shirt on. To be honest, she still does sometimes. But I've tried to make a joke out of it. You know how when your kid falls down and you have that one moment where you can kind of laugh it off and they'll follow your lead instead of melting into a puddle of sadness? I have tried to do that with the whole cramming her head into too small head holes thing.

I'll say, "Shooo, you've got a BIG OL' NOGGIN, girl!!!" She thinks it's funny. It helps.

Even funnier? The time I crammed her head through a neck hole and she said, "Mommy, I got a big ol' noggin!"

Yep. Precious.

It's so cute, in fact, that last night, while at a visitation for a family funeral (where everyone knew/loved Tucker and welcomed the joyful, childish distraction she offered), I asked her, "Tucker, why is it so hard to put shirts on?"

"I got a BIG OL' NOGGIN!!!" *Said while patting her forehead*

Laughter. Preciousness. Mommy beaming at just how adorable her child is.

*Yes, I realize I'm ridiculous. I came to grips with it ages and ages ago.*

Then we get in the car to drive home.

"Mommy, why is it hard to put shirts on?"

"You tell me."

" 'Cause the shirts and I had a big ol' noggin' and 'cause girls not need shirts."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

.

.

.

"Mommy, why is it hard to put shirts on?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"'Cause I got a big ol' noggin and girls don't need shirts."

"Well, girls DO need shirts sometimes. They either wear shirts and pants or dresses."

*We had a discussion the day before about why Daddy didn't wear dresses like Tucker and Mommy, and instead wore shirt and pants. I'm sure that's where this part came from.*

"Oh. "

.

.

.

"Mommy, why is it hard to put shirts on?"

Didn't we pass this tree an hour ago? I SWEAR we're driving in circles here.

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie