Some Home Videos- I Know its Been a While!

I know, I know, where have all the home videos gone? Well, here is one you'll love of Shaylee singing her ABCs. Too cute!

Please and Thank You are the Magic Words

It is amazing how big Shaylee is getting. She is talking up a storm and for a two year old, has pretty good manners saying "please" and "thank you" and "welcome" (as in "you are welcome") without much help from the adults around her. She even knows when to use the right word- saying "please" when asking for something and then saying "thanks" or "thank you" once she is given whatever she was asking for. I don't think I have met another child her age that remembers to use those "magic words" over 85% of the time and in the right way. Its wonderful to know that all the one-on-one interaction she receives from family is really help shape her into not only an intelligent little girl but a polite little lady as well!

Getting Ready to Potty Train

Shaylee is displaying another good sign that she is getting closer to being ready to begin potty training. Not only is she waking up dry or nearly dry on most nights (three in a row this week alone!) but she is taking a great interest in the toilet. She has one of those training seats that rests on top of the regular "big people" toilet seat. Now whenever we are in the bathroom for any reason, whether it be while we are brushing our teeth, getting ready to take a bath, or if she joins me in there to watch me use the restroom, she "wants a turn" to sit on the potty herself. So far she hasn't done anything but sit there and keep looking down between her legs, but it shows she is interested. She likes to flush the toilet too and waved bye-bye as the water goes down. I had already bought her those really thick cloth training pants but recently purchased two pairs of vinyl training pants and some fun rubber stamps and a rainbow stamp pain to give her a stamp on the back of her hand when she makes a good attempt to use the potty. I also restocked my M&M supply to reward her for actually going in the potty. I am slowly weaning her into potty training- if she does something during the random times she is on the potty, then great, I am armed with rewards...and if not, no biggie, we just go on with our business. No fuss, no expectations. We will begin the major focus in December when she is closer to two and a half years old. Then we just might have to have a Potty Party to celebrate her success once pottytrained! LOL!

My New Glasses

I finally got my new glasses! I had been experiencing eye strain at the computer for sometime and bought a cheap pair of readers at CVS and they really helped. So I got an eye exam last weekend and found that I do need glasses (.75 is my prescription) with a weak prescription but it definitely helps and there is a chance that as I get older I am going to need stronger and stronger prescriptions. Anyhow, I love my new glasses- they are really cute!

Fay is Going Away

After making its first U.S. landfall Monday afternoon over Key West, Florida; Tropical Storm Fay made its second landfall near Cape Romano, Florida on Tuesday morning at about 4:45am ET.

A is in effect for the Florida Keys and the majority of Florida's Atlantic coast. All hurricane warnings have been discontinued and a tropical storm warning is in effect now for the Florida Keys and majority of Florida's Atlantic coast.

As of 5 am, Tropical Storm made landfall about 55 miles south of Ft. Myers, Florida near Cape Romano. Fay is moving to the north-northeast at 9 mph. This northward motion is expected to continue throughout the majority of the day as Fay crosses the Florida peninsula.

Parts of the Florida Keys have experienced tropical storm conditions during much of the day on Monday though conditions should gradually improve during the morning hours. The conditions that the Florida Keys experienced on Monday is what coastal southwest Florida can expect this morning and continue into the midday hours.

The greatest impact from Fay, however, has been the heavy rain. Fay is forecast to produce rain totals of 4 to 8 inches with some locations picking up close to 10 inches throughout South Florida. Eventually, as Fay moves north across the state, a greater portion of the Florida peninsula will deal with the heavy, maybe even flooding, rain.

As Fay rotates northward, it is also possible for isolated tornadoes to impact central and south Florida.

Fay continues to produce moderate to heavy rainfall across the southern half of the state on top of the estimated 4-8 inches that has already fallen across south Florida.

Although Fay's central pressure continued to fall Monday night into Tuesday morning, the winds never responded to the lowering pressure and hurricane status was never reach before landfall.

The extended future of Tropical Storm Fay is somewhat uncertain with computer models suggesting Fay may stall off the northeast Florida Atlantic coast before making another landfall somewhere along the Southeast U.S. coast later on this week.

Its still too early to determine if Nils and I will be reporting to work. I will keep you all posted moving forward.

Fay is On Her Way...

Bringing heavy tropical rains and tropical storm-force winds,Tropical Storm Fay has made landfall for the first time in the US and a second landfall will occur tomorrow morning estimated to be very close to home. Fay is on her way.

A hurricane warning is now in effect for southwestern Florida including Ft Myers which is where we live.

As of 8 pm this evening, Fay was located about 105 miles south of Ft. Myers,with maximum sustained winds at 60 miles per hour. Fay is moving to the north at 9 mph.This northward motion is expected to continue until tomorrow's landfall somewhere along the southwest Florida coast.

Parts of the Florida Keys has experienced tropical storm conditions during much of the day and will likely continue to feel these effect through the evening hours. Sustained winds, at times, have been above 40 mph while gusts have approached 60 mph or greater in a few locales. A gust above hurricane force (74 mph or higher) is not out of the question.

The greatest impact from Fay, however, has been the heavy rain. Fay is forecast to produce rain totals of 4 to 8 inches with some locations picking up close to 10 inches throughout the Florida Keys and portions of South Florida. As Fay rotates northward, it is also possible for isolated tornadoes to impact the South Florida area.

Fay is not a very organized system and regardless of Fay's landfall, the majority of the Florida peninsula will experience heavy rain. There is a small window of time during which Tropical Storm Fay may gain some slight additional organization and thus strengthen. It is not out of the question that Fay may reach Category 1 hurricane status before making landfall along the southwest Florida coast. This is what we are all preparing for.

Fay's peak strength is all dependent on how long it remains over the Gulf waters.

With the uncertainty of where the storm will go, we are making all the necessary precautions. This evening my dad and Nils were busy bringing in patio furniture and putting up the storm shutters. Comcast ordered that all technicians with company vehicles be off the road by 6 pm tonight. Comcast has also agreed to close the office until noon tomorrow. We were all given a card with a Hurricane Hotline number to call around 10 am tomorrow morning for further instructions on whether or not we are to report to work along with any other updates on the storm they might have. Some areas are under mandatory evacuation (coastal areas) and schools in both our county and our neighboring county are scheduled to be closed tomorrow.

With such bad weather in our near future, you would have never known it by looking outside. Outside it looks like our typical Florida summer evening rain with just a slight increase in wind. But as they say, there is the calm before the storm. So for now we are just relaxing and keeping up with the Weather Channel for updates.

Tropical Storm Fay

As you might already know by watching the Weather Channel, there is a tropical story Fay that is working its way to Florida. I know there is a lot of concern from family and friends out of state for the wellbeing of our family in the even that this storm should hit us. I just want you all to know that we are ready and waiting. Its fortunate that we live with my parents as their house has storm panels that can easily be put up should the storm increase to a hurricane status and my dad filled up his gas cans with gasoline should we need to use the generator. All the vehicles have full tanks of gas, we have PLENTY of bottled water (a plus to my mom working for Culligan which is a bottled water supplier), we have loads of can goods, emergency kits, the works. We have to chuckle a little since as we are all secretly hoping this storm will grant us a free day off of work, but without causing any serious damage of course. Since these storms can strengthen or weaken and turn outside of the projected path, we are all just sitting and waiting, living life normally until further notice. So until we have more information on what might happen, just know we are taking all precautions possible and are prepared. We are Floridians, we are used to this stuff now! LOL!

He's A Weight Watcher Now Too!

I have been an active member of Weight Watchers since November of 2007. I have been pretty good about staying on the plan for the most part and have received lots of support from Nils. I guess seeing that it actually works encouraged Nils to take action to lose weight himself as he asked me if I would help him do it too. So I figured his daily points allowance for him and did his initial weigh in here at home. He started Friday 8/8 and has loss 6.6 lbs in a week! I am so proud of him! Such a good amount of weight loss during his very first week! Having his support and now having him going along with the plan with me, must have encouraged me to stick with it because I loss 2 lbs myself! So yesterday while we were out and about, we went to the Weight Watchers main office and bought some goodies to keep us going forward including a work out DVD. I mainly bought it for myself but hope that Nils will do it with me. So here's to us both losing weight and getting healthy!

For more blogging about my Weight Watchers success, check out my other blog, http://dietingiswishfulshrinking.blogspot.com/

In the Yard

Yesterday was another nice evening so I got these cute pics of Shaylee and I together while we were outside playing with the dogs after I got home from work. Enjoy!

Our Tiny Dancer....Next Year

I have been waiting and waiting for Shaylee to turn two so we could enroll her in dance classes and now that the time has come, Nils and I have decided to wait until she is another year older. We found a dance studio called Tracee's Dance Impact that is reasonably priced (we agreed to wait to see her actual level of interest before researching a higher quality and more expensive studio). They offer a intro to ballet, tap and some tumbling one day a week for three year olds. We decided to wait since we feel Shaylee would learn more as her attention span and listening skills improve. At this tender age, she is just too young to follow directions very well and I would hate to spend money on a class she is not going to enjoy or learn from. That and the enrollment for the fall semester deadline is next week, which is not nearly enough time to get the tuition together as well as the requirements (pink ballet shoes, tan tie tap shoes and black camisole leotard and pink tights) in that short of time. So we will continue looking into that particular studio for next years Fall semester. Since they are based around a school year, I am assuming next year's semester will begin around August again and since Shaylee's birthday is in June, I think we will be having a ballet themed birthday party to get into the excitement. My mom said she would probably buy some leotards or shoes as a gift . Also by waiting, Nils and I can better plan our work schedules to allow one of us to be able to take her to her classes since they are usually offered during normal business hours where we would otherwise be at work. So thats the latest on Shaylee's dance classes we had been waiting for since discovering her love of dance (she is always dancing, in case you didn't already know!)

Poor Poppa!

This afternoon my mom had to take my dad to the hospital. It started with his taking what he thought was Tylenol for the back pain he was experiencing. Unfortunately what was in the bottle marked Tylenol was not Tylenol but Motrin. Nils and my brother both have had tooth aches recently and since we buy a large bottle of Motrin at Costco, we all recycle smaller pill bottles to take a supple of it with us in case we need it . The problem here is that Motrin is ibuprofen which can cause allergic reactions in those sensitive to aspirin. My father is very allergic to aspirin. So about 20 minutes after taking what he thought was Tylenol, he experienced really bad swelling of his face, especially around his eyes. I found out after my mom came into our room and said my dad was refusing to go to the hospital. She had given him Bennadryl which is what they recommended the last time he had a similar allergic reaction. He looked terrible- his eyes almost swollen shut. Nils, my mom and I finally got him to agree to go but only after we poked a little fun to lighten the situation. I teased him in a Japanese accent by saying "oh no, look like man eat bad part of blowfish!" and Nils brought up a Beijing reference since the Olympics were on, and my mom said he looked like a toad. It sounds mean but he was laughing, making his swollen and squinty eyes even more squinty, LOL. Anyhow, alls well. He was seen immediately and treated him. But it was still a serious situation in which we learned that should we decide to bring pills in a separate container, we should be marking the bottle. My dad said that he was glad Shaylee had been napping when this all took place because his appearance probably would have scared her. I had to agree, even I had a hard time looking at him. My mom said it got worse when she was driving him to the hospital. It was so bad that the white part of his eyes was swollen more so than the irises of his eyes which she said was really gross looking. Eww! Thank goodness he is okay and looking more normal now!

Comcast Office Open House and Cookout

With the opening of my office less than two months ago, Comcast finally held their open house so family and friends of the Comcast employees could see the brand new building. They had a cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs and had balloons and Twinkle Toes the clown for the kids. My mom, Nils, and Shaylee accompanied me to the Open House and got to see first hand where I sit 40 hours a week, five days a week. Though it wasn't really all that exciting, Shaylee had a good time sitting at my desk and pretending to type on my computer. Hmmmm? Future Comcaster???

The Doodle Pro Meow Meow

Shaylee is becoming quite a little artist. She has always enjoyed drawing and painting with watercolors and has just recently explored the world of sculpture using Play Doh. But tonight she truly amazed us when she was playing with her Doodle Pro. She brought it over to my mom, proudly showing off what she drew on the magnetic drawing surface. She pointed to it and said "Meow Meow" and this is what we saw....
Can you see the kitty? I had to take a photo of it since its a magnetic drawing toy, it erases with the slide of that little yellow handle. Not bad for a two year old!!!

Blog-O-Holic

Yes, yes, I know, I have started yet another blog.

It started out with Yahoo 360, then MySpace, then Xanga, and now Blogger. I am officially a Blog-O-Holic. I still have my MySpace up and running since its the only way I can communicate with old high school friends and some family members like my young cousins in California, but my Xanga pages has fizzled out and Yahoo 360 is a thing of the past. I know I might annoy family actually wanting to keep up with us since most of them live on the other side of the country, so I would like them all to know that I am gonna stick with Blogger. It gives me the most creativity outlet out the different blogs I have used, and its free- Xanga has the option to purchase an upgraded account which removed ads, and I got sick of seeing adds on my page and paying for the service to keep them off. So thanks for tagging along everyone that reads this- I promise I will stick with it!

Its also nice to see that others in our extended family are blogging on Blogger. It would be nice if all family members could set up a Blogger account of their own. I know blogging is more of the "younger generation's" thing, but if you look up any topic online, you are sure to see a blogger blogging all about it- everything from business related things to personal life to politics to just interesting articles they come across on the web. Well, heres to hoping you will all set up a Blogger account of your own- spread the word to those that haven't started a blog at all!

One Step Closer to Potty Training

We think that Shaylee is one step closer in becoming potty trained! One of the indications that a child is ready to begin potty training is that they take an interest in the adult toilet which she has already done for sometime now. I let her come with me and watch and then let her flush the toilet. Now she is letting us know when she is wet which is another indication that a child is on their way to becoming ready to potty train. She will tell us she is "squishy" or is her diaper is "leaky", or in the few times she has peed on the bathmat after getting our of the tub, telling us that she "peed". She obviously knows what it feels like- both the feeling of a wet cold diaper after she has already urinated, but also the feeling of actually relieving herself. Although she is still not very good at telling us when she has a soiled diaper, she will got and get the diaper and wipes for us when asked, sometimes even without us asking her to do so.

Since we have already made a big attempt at toilet training that fell flat due to Shaylee not being quite ready last year (silly, impatient me thinking she would be ready at 1 yr old!), we are gonna wait until all the signs are there before beginning the actual training. We are thinking by the time she is 2 1/2 years old, she should begin the training if she has not done so already as that is the age the baby books say most children begin, girls training more quickly than boys.

Our Pets

This afternoon was really beautiful and I got some awesome shots of the pets enjoying the sunshine as well.

From top to bottom: Cayman our long haired miniature dachshund puppy, Sterling our gray tabby cat, and Zoey, our toy poodle. My fur-babies!

A Day at the Children's Play Area at Coconut Point Mall

Click on picture to enlarge, then click Back button to return to my blog. Last weekend my mom and I took Shaylee to get some photo's taken at the Picture People and afterwards took her to the Children's Area which was two or three stores down. Its a play area with that recycled rubber ground covering and is sheltered with ceiling fans making it a great place for parents to let their little ones burn off energy while out shopping at the Coconut Point shopping center. Anyhow, since then Shaylee has been talking nonstop about the "playgrowd" so Nils and I had to take her again. She, as usual, had a blast. Its really cute, with it's castle and dragon theme. She loved getting to play with other kids, even if most of them were older than her. We had to laugh when a rather large group of kids left, she asked us "Where my guys go?". She is turning into such a social butterfly when it comes to other kids. When it was time to leave she made a point to yell "Bye buddies, see you 'ater! Bye Bye!" I am thinking about taking her there every weekend since its so close to home and is much cooler than the other outdoor playgrounds in the area since its shaded and has those fans going. Plus its free where as the indoor playgrounds all had a $12 cover charge to play. Gotta love those freebies!