Confucius says...

I've been slacking with the whole 'keeping up with my blog' deal. Basically Vance & I started watching Dexter and we are totally and completely hooked on the show. One of my best friends had bought me season 1 for Christmas awhile ago, and we put off watching it. . . anyway, we just finished season 1 and HAD to go out and buy season 2 in case we finished season 1 at night and were stuck stranded, wanting to know what happens next. I will admit that something about that show makes me feel a tad uncomfortable-- I mean, I know it's just a show and all, but it seems a bit gruesome to show on TV. And yet I still watch it, so go figure.

Little girl has figured out how to climb on the couch, with the help of a pillow and she LOVES getting up on there

She also loves when Daddy sits next to her and plays/tickles her...

The Pottery Barn chair is probably my favorite gift we've bought Brooke. She loves having her 'own' place to sit down, drink milk, stand up on, etc

Oh, and when did this little girl get so SASSY?!

What's also amazing: little one is coordinated enough to put coins in her piggy bank! When it was given to her at Christmas, she didn't even know what she was supposed to do with this thing... now she's a pro ;)

Finally got around to hanging her Mickey Mouse sign in her room. Nursery still not even close to being complete-- seriously considering just turning it into a playroom. Luckily, she DOES nap in her room... just on the floor, not in her crib. Ha!

Brooke + the pups = LOVE

And last, but certainly not least, here is the fortune that Vance opened from Panda Express the other day ...

Very fitting since we just booked our next vacation! We'll be headed to Chico, CA for a friend's wedding, and possibly hitting up Tahoe so Vance can get some gambling in!

Point & shoot ..

I 'won' a camera on Lucky Chic (Click here to register). It's a Nikon Cool Pix L22-- I paid about $20 for it and it's worth about $90-120 so I was uber excited about it because my SonyCybershot is crap. CRAP.

As soon as we received it, Vance started taking some test-shots. They look really pixelated on the camera, but when I uploaded them, they were O-K:

Brooke looking a hot mess after consuming cheetos and who knows what else.

So when Vance, Nicky, myself and Brooke went hiking last week, I was stoked to have an excuse to use it. Saying that we went hiking sounds way more hardcore than it actually was. . . the entire 'hike' is paved and I ran into a friend who wore her gorgeous baby boy in an Ergo the entire way up and the people in front of us pushed a WHEELCHAIR up to the top. + Vance & Nicky pushed Brooke up while I struggled to keep my breath as we walked. (Okay, so that's an exaggeration, but really, I'm out of shape)

Here we are at the start of the 'hike'

Look how gorgeous!


Brooke enjoying the scenery ..


Yipee! We made it!

Pretty nice huh? THEN, later that weekend we went to my friend's house for dinner and this is the kind of pictures my new camera was taking:

Can somebody PLEASE explain this to me? Is my camera on some sort of weird setting it shouldn't be on?? Please help!

Camping for dummies

My sister-in law turned 24 this past weekend. And we celebrated ... the entire weekend. It started off on Saturday, which was a surprise breakfast at the golf course:
Decorations, favors (googly bans) and Brooke's favorite 'boons'

Chocolate haupia pie ...

Then the family (minus me) went golfing at a different golf course than the one we ate breakfast at. Go figure. At around dinner time everyone came over to set up camp:

I was totally surprised at how seriously Vance's parents took this! They brought their own burners to make breakfast in the morning, walkie talkies, smores, & coolers to hold their milk and eggs in.

I'm not entirely sure what a beer can is doing on top of our plant, but I'm 99% sure Vance had something to do with it...

My camera is TERRIBLE. Here are the kind of pictures it was taking this particular night:

Brooke & I fell asleep soon after these pictures were taken

Well, we all woke up the following morning (we slept in the comfort of our own bed) & ate breakfast in our backyard and Vance's sister decided she wanted to go 'swimming.' So the 4 of us (Vance, Nicky, Brooke & I) headed off to Walmart to buy a pool for our backyard and to pick up some lunch


Little girl decided that she STILL does not like the water so she ran around outside & cuddled with everyone instead

So we threw Buddy in the pool instead, ha ha!

Poor guy. He actually quite liked it inside, but didn't take one step while he was in there!

My lil' lady is now fifteen months! We went to the pediatrician on Monday and turns out she had lost a few ounces (25.5 lbs vs. 26 lbs at one year), but I think it was due to the fact that she was refusing to eat anything for 2 days prior to her doctor's appointment [some crazy teeth, I think] Anyhoot, I'm pretty sure she's still around 26ish lbs, which still puts her at about the 90th percentile for weight and now off the charts for height!

Lots o' pictures

Vance says that Brooke looks like a duck in these pants/bloomers:

Here she is stashing pasta in her mouth:

Oh, and lots of hugs and kisses for daddy

Really thankful that our pups are so sweet and loving with this monster:


Just before going for a walk:

And she's figured out how to get onto her ride-along toy.

But she has trouble getting off of it!

Vance's sister/fiance & parents will be camping ... in our backyard to celebrate his sister's 24th birthday. We'll see how it goes. I will most likely sleep in the comfort of my own bed with my little monster who'll be fifteen months on sunday. Eek!

Random (some hypocritical) musings

1.
My friends and I have had numerous vents and discussions about things people post onto their facebook page. Not all of these are bad, but I've seen people post sonograms, maternity pics (one with only her pantie on), 'modeling' shots (aka taking a long-arm pictures of yourself in something you think you look cute in), updating their status to reflect dramazzz going on in their lives, etc, etc. Seriously?! [I may or may not be guilty of some of these things..] I go back and forth between wanting to delete my facebook page, weed out my friends list and take off all pictures of Brooke on my page because it is weird to have friends/acquaintances that I run into say, "I love that picture of her on facebook!" It's getting too much for me. (I think). Then again, I do have this blog where the general public can see, so...

2.
I've watched this show since it aired (when the girls were '16 and pregnant') & I'm still hooked. Starting to feel a tad bit sorry for Farrah, who I once thought as a snobby brat, but I really can't imagine being a single parent with no real role models/familial help at the age of 17. Maci has always been my favorite 'mom' and I am still amazed at how mature and-- well-- NORMAL she seems. Amber, you basically ruined what could have been a sweet and romantic proposal from your boyfriend ... not totally surprised though, considering how you complain about EVERYTHING! And as for Catelynn and Tyler-- is it just me, or does it seem that Tyler just isn't into Catelynn anymore & is just looking for excuses to leave or to push her away from him? Sad.

3.

link

Really?! I actually don't mind the Duggers & their 19 kids, but really?

4.

link
I'm late in watching the Jersey shore & didn't understand the hype at all, but I get it now. It is the epitome of trashy TV at its best and I luuuuurve it. I'm so hooked. These guys are just absolutely ridiculous and I walk away feeling even more dumb (more dumb, ha ha) than when I began watching it, but I thoroughly enjoy the craziness.

5.

Isn't this the SWEETEST little face you've ever seen!? (This is Mason Dash Disick in case you didn't know)... I think Scott is a big fat d-bag for not changing his life for this little man. He is too sweet.

Welcome to my life ...

I'm about to admit something really personal and quite embarrassing. Here it is: we co-sleep. We don't even TRY to put Brooke in her crib at night. We don't even have a plan of action for the future. It is. .. what it is. We accept it. And you know what the worst part about it is? We didn't start co-sleeping until Brooke was about 10 months old. She slept peacefully in her basinett, then her pack-n-play, then her own crib for ten solid months. And she would sleep through the night from about 2 months!

And then she stopped. She just ... stopped sleeping through the night. So here's how it happened. She would wake up at about 3am, cry, and I would pick her up and she would fall right back to sleep. Most sleep experts/doctors/whatever would have told me that she's 'training' and 'testing' me and that I should have just left her to wail her eyes out until she fell asleep. Except it was 3 o'clock in the freaking morning and did I mention that I was used to sleeping through the night at that point?

So... she'd fall asleep on me in bed and somehow ... she would just never leave until it was time to wake up to start the day. Then I realized that nursing her to sleep would have to stop, so Vance and I conducted an experiment where we'd all head to bed and just leave her lying next to us, and before we knew it, she'd fallen asleep. All by herself. No carrying her, rocking her, nursing her, NOTHING.

And it's been like that ever since.

Here is our messy, crazy, ENORMOUS bed (queen + twin pushed together)

My little monkey, her scab and her precious Hello Kitty

I'm always curious as to what other toddler's are eating. It is so much easier now that she's no longer eating baby food. Here's one of Brooke's lunches from this past week:

Leftover pasta from Pizza Hut and milk

One of our 'go-to' dinners:

Mapo tofu (comment if you want a recipe!)

Last night I made dinner and I didn't kill everyone. I did make everyone feel nauseous, as the recipe was SO fattening and creamy. It caught my eye since it said 5 minutes to make! Here is the recipe:

What else have we been up to this week? Well, we've been spoiled as Vance was off from Wednesday until today.

We walked around Borders..


Explored around Bed Bath and Beyond which just opened in Hawaii!

Brooke is playing with a pillow that Vance told her was a dog. She was petting it and hugging it in the store.

We went shopping at Nordstrom:


And that's about it :) Hope you all have a great weekend!

Busy thinking ...

You know, I posted recently that I have no idea what I want to do when I 'grow up.' And the truth is that I'm secretly (actually not-so-secretly) panicking because I really need to figure this out. I mean, for goodness sake, my parents paid for my undergraduate AND graduate degrees and now I don't even know if I want to use it?

Here are some recent & desperate thoughts that have crossed my mind regarding a new career/job:
-real estate
-bartending (ha)
-law school (not going to happen-- I just browsed through an LSAT prep book at Borders the other day and the thought of taking that scared the crap out of me)
-OT/PT school
-genetic counseling

Again, these are out of desperation. I don't think I want to go back to school, yuck. Anyway. I think it's just a quarter-life crisis.

Here is Brooke eating crayons at Islands:


And how she's been falling asleep in the car (sassy pants)

And her new scratches .. she basically stopped her fall on cement with her face. Little girl doesn't know how to WALK ... she only wants to run everywhere.

Doing her best blue-steel impression:

Napping today:

This little one LOVES Hello Kitty. I have always hated it, but have caved in buying her stuff because she enjoys it so much. Gah.