Marley want her baby

With the advent of Marley's second birthday, Josh and I decided it was finally time to throw away her pacifiers. Over the past year, Mars has come to call them her babys. This is due to the fact that we are constantly telling her to "take that thing out of your mouth. Your not a baby." To which she generally responds in the way of "No Marley is a baby." To parents whose kids never truly loved a paci, the fact that Marley never went a day without one seems a little outrageous. But all the parents with kids with pacis, you know what a relief they truly can be. They squelch almost any meltdown. At nighttime, we would give mars her paci and her eyes would instantly start to droop. It was a leveraging device that mars understood in any argument. But alas, we knew it was time. I have heard the horror stories. I have seen the school age kids walking around the grocery store looking ridiculous. So two days ago, while marley was sleeping, we got scissors and cut up all of her pacis. And the transition hasnt been as horrible as expected. Except for the fact that on night one, she was up until almost midnight crying, referring to herself in third person "marley want her baby. Marley be goood. please give marley her baby." This continued untill her eyelids fell closed and she just could not open them again. And she has refused to nap without her paci, so she has been uber grumpy. but its getting better I believe. last night she fell asleep against my arm while we were sitting on the couch. It was eight o clock, the earliest mars has gone to bed in over a year. she literally had been sitting down for about thirty seconds when i heard a soft little snore. it was really cute. it was not really cute when she was wide awake popped out of bed at five thirty this morning though. oh well, at least i wont have any more pictures marred by the presence of a bright orange and green piece of plastic hanging out of her mouth.

Marley turns 2!!!

Well, the inevitable has happened. My sweet little baby has fully entered the tumultuous twos. Always being a sweet, layed back child, this transition is hitting me hard. My patience is being tested daily, but at least I know she can stand up for herself.

Anyways, we through her a birthday party last weekend. The theme we went with was spongebob pool party. I know the show is controversial to some parents, (my sister doesnt let her child watch it) but Marley just seems to love him. As our annual tradition, Josh and I decided to make Marleys cake at home. Though last years lady bug cakes were super cute, I think we really outdid ourselves this year.

I made the cake and did the base frosting while josh did all the detail work. I think he has missed his calling in life. I just hope we havent' hit our peak to early and wont be able to top ourselves next year. We had the party in Pam and Brads back yard which is super pretty this time of year. The weather was beautiful, but we did run into one little problem. Marley was the only little girl among seven boys at her party. We just dont know anyone with girls. The boys are all very sweet to her, and treat her like a little princess, which is only boosting her ego more and more beyond that of an only child. Not only is she an only child, whenever we go places she seems to always be the only girl around. I think that there is something in the water here. Lets just say that Ham is Mars middle name these days. When we brought the cake out, Marley got mad when we all started singing to her. She thought it was kosher for just her to sing to herself.

I'm baaack~!

All right people, I know it's been awhile. I have been neglecting you but this will happen no more. You would think with myself and my husband being jobless bums, we would have endless hours that we could spend blogging. Alas, this is not the case. I am not exactly sure where the time goes, but the days have been flying by. Here is a quick recap of the last four months: Josh finally ended his career at Qwest, we moved to Illinois, I got accepted to QU, I got a job as a waitress and we planted a sweet garden. Josh is cashing in his 401K and we are investing it in cattle. We are going to use this summer as a time to figure out what we want to do with our lives. We are extremely lucky to have the support of our wonderful families. Without them we would be panhandling on the streets of Tiajuana. I know that this blog is pretty dry, lacking my usual peppy wit and humor, but I am suffering from an extreme case of poison ivy right now and am quite loopy on benadryl. I have never had poison ivy before and I would probably chop off my right hand to never have it again. I have pretty much useless for three days now because the only time the itching is bearable is when I am completely still. The annoying thing is that I only originally had it on a small patch on my arm and now it has spread itself all over my entire being. So have a little mercy, I will be more entertaining next time. As a consolation prize, here's a bunch of pics of Mars since I know thats the only reason y'all are reading this.