This is what I get . . .

Late one night, we saw our friends had done this to our house. Nick almost went outside naked to scare them, but it was a good thing, because the people we heard were not the culprits, but some skaters across the street.

The next morning, our neighbors came and knocked on our door; they thought something bad had happened to Briz. Hahaha. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little embarrassed to admit that my friends (who are almost 30) caution taped our house as a joke.

Back to School Back to School

I am back at work, as of last Friday. I am still resisting it a little, and still in disbelief a little, mostly because it's such nice weather. I don't like working when it's nice and hot outside. I guess the good news is I'm only .5, so that helps me feel like I can still play a little. And I took Briz to her very first daycare. And man, that is an experience. I think I anticipated it to be incredibly heartwrenching, that when it was only sad, I was relieved. But Briz and I both managed to survive it. And I think it will be okay. It is still definitely not ideal (ideal would be to have unlimited amounts of money and to hire the best nanny money can buy to be in our home), but it will work. I'm grateful that I don't really worry about Briz in social situations. She is a very strong, aggressive little girl, that if anything, I worry she's not going to be disciplined strictly enough and that she'll pick on other kids. And I am also grateful I have a job that I love. In this economy, particularly in education it is really difficult to get a job, particularly that meets my needs as a working mom.

The Almost 16 month old

I thought I would just give you a quick update about Briz. A few facts about this almost 16 month old:

- Still likes to eat . . . a lot.
- Loves to get messy. When going to the beach this last time, she would throw her food in the sand, roll it around, and then eat it. Lately, she's been enjoying eating sand, dirt, lotion, butt paste, you name it. And her meals are EVERYWHERE.
- Likes signing, she's a signing fool these days. It's fun to see her understand and learn.
- Whenever she does anything good she claps for herself.
- We are giving time outs more frequently because she understands when she's doing something bad, like stealing a toy or hitting her friends, and she will quite often give me an evil grin right before she does something bad. The good news is that after her timeouts, she really generally doesn't do it anymore, at least for a few hours. We're also signing sorry quite a bit.
- Recognizes people much more easily and is starting to say people's names (Like Nona, Papa, Landon, Sisi, Yahyah, Grandpa).
- Finally says Momma or Mom. It's kind of funny because she pronounces it very clearly. Sometimes she will say, my Mom.
- Wants to be running around ALL the time! She is a girl on the go.
- Becoming more and more social. When she sees kids at all, she can't resist going near them and trying to play with them. But she doesn't want them to actually help her, because she of course is just way too big for that.
-One of her new favorite words is "Nah," which means No. Lucky me. I tried avoiding that by saying uh uh! when she does something bad instead of No. Guess it didn't work.

When I start to think about it, she really hasn't changed much since she was a baby. She is still stubborn, independent, verbal, smart, aggressive, impatient, and goofy. The other thing that hasn't changed is I still can't resist kissing her cheeks. I'm starting to grieve going back to work because it will mean less Brizzy time for me :(

Busy Summer

My summer has been nuts. Nuts I tell you! But in the best way. Brizzy and I have been traveling buddies, mostly stay-cations really. I have two things to demonstrate just how "on the go" we have been.

1. I have taken hardly any pictures the last 5 weeks. I know, crazy.

Most of the time I have been without Nick, so it's me dragging Briz along with me, and trying to do fun things and watch a kid doesn't leave me with a ton of extra hands. Although as the blog viewer/reader, you may be happy about this, considering I generally put way too many pictures up.

2. When Brizzy wakes up she signs two things, the first is food of course. But the second she signs and says, "caw caw," translation car. In other words, where are we going? We have hardly been in our home for more than 45 minutes without traveling somewhere, even if that's just a day outing. The other morning I was doing my hair in the bathroom, Briz walks in and says, "caw?" Briz has already learned that if I am doing my hair it is only because we are going out and other people will see me, and so I must look somewhat groomed. What have I taught my child? Hopefully I have taught her to take advantage of Oregon summers. I am going back to work this week, and it just all goes by way too fast.

Here are some of the fun things we've done, most of which have not been captured on camera (I do however have some videos on my phone, which I have yet to learn how to upload since I don't get internet):

- Drove to Utah for a Barney Family Reunion in Ogden Canyon (this was without Nick, and yes, I do recognize just how crazy I am for doing this thirteen hour drive alone, but Briz was pretty good, all things considering), where I got to see all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and visited BFF Sadie.

- Went to our family cabin on Crescent Lake (three times so far) and played with cousins and aunts and uncles there.

- Visited Great Grandpa Denny in Sisters

- Have basically lived on boyfriend Jaron's boat and had my first tube ride

- Went camping at Lake Billy Chinook (again without Nick and yes I am once again crazy)

- Visited Portland Zoo

- Picked blackberries, strawberries, blueberries
- Went hiking at Silver Falls

- Visited the beach a few times

There may be more, but I'm tired just typing it. This has all been within a span of about 5 weeks, so yes, we have practically lived in our car. Hopefully Briz will be satisfied with a much less exciting life once I go back to work.

I am tired, so I avoid putting clothes on her whenever possible. One less thing to do.

Beach

When all of my family was in town, we went to the beach for an afternoon. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. We all went wearing sweatshirts and pants, assuming that the beach would be crappy since it was still rainy and cold in the valley. But it turned out to be gorgeous. We even layed out!

Portia and Palmer were busy making "soup." Brizzy really did believe the sand was edible.

She was a mess! Sand pretty much in every crevice imaginable.

I tried to give her food, but she ended up eating mostly sand. Eh, oh well. It can't kill her right?

Walking with papa. She thought it was fun to run from the waves. I made her get her legs wet because I'm a mean mom. No really, I am. The water was freezing!

My favorite part of the day was when Portia peed her pants. No explanation really, I just thought it was funny.