Christmas Family Photo

So Violet was having none of it when it came to family picture day at the photo place this year. I only pay once a year for photos and she was a mess. Probably because she got so off schedule Thanksgiving weekend and we took them the following Monday. The only way all of us are smiling is in this pic. Which is exactly what I am mailing out on our Christmas cards this year.

Left is Right and Right is Left

My daughter goes to Occupational Therapy once a week. For the last few weeks V's therapist has had a master's degree student working/shadowing with her (so she can finish her degree I assume). Today this very nice lady put my daughter's shoes on the wrong feet (they take off her shoes so she can use the toys on the play mat). I did not even notice until we got to the grocery store. Made me chuckle. The young lady has much to learn.

Sensory Processing.....What???

I find it extremely hard to believe but my daughter is now two years old! She has changed so much in the last 6 months that she is almost like a different little person. At 18 months old she had next to no words and did not use the few she said right so I was beginning to feel concerned. So with the doctor's referral she got an early intervention evaluation. In the evaluation she did beautifully and all the evaluators loved her. (In the month between the referral and the actual appointment her word base had really grown). What they did notice was her inability to play even for 10 seconds by herself and after talking with me they discovered that she did not even come close to sleeping through the night, had some eating issues and was unable to be strapped down (car seat, high chair) for even 5 minutes without screaming. That along with several other small issues and she qualified for Occupational Therapy. They told me she was very bright and personable but that she displayed many Sensory Processing Issues. No actual label was attached to her but she did begin immediately with OT twice a week. They asked me if I knew about SPD or that therapy could help her function better day to day and I basically broke down and cried because I had no idea. I had always knew something was different with her than other babies but since she was my only child and I was not around other children I just figured that I had an extremely high needs baby.

Well after that appointment I immediately began reading every website and book about SPD that I could. Instantly I discovered that she was a sensory seeker and the most surprising thing I learned was that all my problems from my childhood could be explained by the fact I had SPD and I had it severe and I was a sensory avoider. There were many a tears about tags in my clothes, seems in my socks, crying with a change of schedule (even by something small), my inability to focus on homework and numerous others that would need their own dedicated post. When I talked to my mom about all this she was literally shocked that there was an actual disorder for what I had and that we had no idea. I could only imagine how therapy could have helped me.

After 4 months of twice a week we saw drastic improvement in her eating as well as being able to ride in the car or sit at a restaurant and actually finish a meal without taking a screaming toddler outside (we still choose very quick restaurants that are family friendly). Sometimes she is able to play by herself for 5 minutes but she is still all over me all day and has problems playing and most her toys go untouched unless someone is playing right next to her. She now has a bedtime that works most times but she still wakes up with uncontrollable screaming in the night but not every night. She has recently been dropped to once a week which is a little disappointing but Violet just loves to go to OT and we are still seeing improvements which is what matters.

Life has only changed for the better since that evaluation. She speaks in sentences (I think is unrelated to OT just a huge change from 6 months ago) and is generally a much happier child. People that say the 2s are a terrible age obviously do not have children with sensory processing issues because so far toddler life is way way way better than a baby that literally has to be held 24/7. We still have a long road and a majority of her toys go untouched but at least now I understand a little more of what is gong on in her head. Thankfully her situation is mild but I feel like things are looking up for us.

T minus 1 Day!

In the morning I pack up and head down to Miami where I will fly across the Atlantic and be in Europe. To say I am excited is an understatement!!!! Oktoberfest is our destination! My husband and I along with 4 of our good friends will be celebrating the 200th Oktoberfest right in all the action. I am not even a beer drinker but this is the one beer event to end all beer drinking events. We will be spending several days enjoying the festivities and then we are off to Paris for several more days of being a tourist in a far away land. The one and only drawback is leaving my beautiful and fun-loving 23 month old daughter, Violet, behind for 10 days. I know she is in great hands with my parents a.k.a. Grams and Bear. She will have a blast with them. When I say goodbye tomorrow I will be a puddle of tears and I am in no way at all a crier. So of course my heart will ache for her. I hope to bring her some fun souvenirs and I have already promised to take her to Paris when she is 13. I will have a fun and exiting recap of my trip when I get back. I miss you already Violet!!! Mommy loves!!!

I am a LIBRARIAN!!!!!!!

After 5 and a half long years I am finally a LIBRARIAN!!!! Part-time classes, late nights, lost weekends, research, web searches, books read for all ages and I am finally done. Despite what others think earning a Master's in Library and Information Science is no walk in the park. Lots and lots of research in and out of databases. I won't lie the classes for young adult and children's literature were pure fun. I will not miss writing papers at all. I guess that means I will never work in an academic library which is fine by me. I hope to one day work in a media center or public library with children. For now I am a stay at home librarian/mommy and I am loving every second of it.

I guess it is obvious that my daughter's book collection is pretty extensive for a 21 month old but thankfully she loves to be read too (especially right before bed every single night).

Libraries have always had a special place in my heart. Now to perfect my shushing voice!

I am not ready for a Toddler....

This weekend my 20 month old daughter decided to climb out of her crib for the very first time. Which inevitably meant converting her crib over to her adorable toddler bed. The entire thing frightens me since she is not even close to sleeping through the night yet. She is still unable to soothe herself back to sleep despite trying every method out there, but that would be a whole other blog post. On night 2 of the big switch my husband put Violet to bed and left the room and shutting the door behind him. She ran after the door calling Daddy but moments later she was quiet. Fifteen minutes later I decided I just had to check on her (despite husband saying otherwise). When I enter her room she is sitting in the glider in the corner, holding her favorite stuffed animal, Brobee, with an empty bottle in her mouth that husband accidentally left on the nightstand, all while flipping through her Thomas the Tank Engine Board book. She just looked up at me as if to say "I was not ready for bed yet and if you will not read to me I will just have to do it myself." She does this with a room that is very very dark. She looked adorable. I walked her back to the crib and said she had to go to sleep. She cried and pointed at her book and I let her have it. She fell asleep holding the book. Every night this week she has fallen asleep with a book and Brobee. She definitely gets her love of books from me.

Side note: I never let her sleep in her bed with her bottle but that night I did not have the heart to take it. It was empty and she had taken it off the nightstand all by herself. I breastfed for 15 months and I never should have started the bottle but that will be a whole other issue in a few months to deal with.

Origins of a Blog

The title of my blog is Wakeboarding Mama and up until this point I do not even think I have mentioned wakeboarding. It is just a sport my husband and I like to do with friends for fun and I felt every other mommy blog name was taken so I tried to be original. I have never been one to be very creative.

This past weekend was full of wakeboarding so I decided to post a picture of me and the hubby wakeboarding together. On July 2nd we will have been married for 5 years.

Down Here it is Hot Hot Hot

I blinked and now Violet is 20 months old. Things have never been better around the house. V was not an easy baby so now that she can do some things on her own there seems to be more of a calm around the house. On the weekends we spend a lot of time in the water. We have been in the pool more times than I can count and we have been to the beach and boating on multiple occasions. Violet has started up her swim lessons again through Infant Swimming Resource. She is doing so well! Learning to swim to the wall to get herself out all on her own in case she ever fell in the pool. She does not even cry during lessons anymore although there is many "out" and "wall" being said so she can go to the wall and get out. ISR has taught over a hundred thousand swimmers and there have been no documented drownings from a student who graduated from their swim lessons. This is the number one reason I suggest them to anyone I know with a baby or toddler. Life saving skills are so important...especially here in Florida where there is water everywhere. I am an ISR swimming graduate from when I was a toddler and I feel right at home in the water. Even though Violet does not look forward to lessons each day I sure do. She also looks super cute in her little swimsuits.



Mommy blogging in the giveaway/freebie/coupon world has been going really well the last few months. Multiple $100 value wins and even a few gift certificates. I even got a shutterfly order of $116 for a penny, because apparently they tax you on $0. I had collected multiple freebie coupons, including a few giveaway win coupons and bravo, 5 packages of picture awesomeness. I even got Violet's 2nd Birthday invitations done because they were free....doesn't matter that they are done over 4 months early as long as it saves me some money. I just won a giveaway of a $60 giveaway to CSN stores and I am going to use it towards a super cute play kitchen for Violet for Christmas. I also won her a video game bike and she will be getting that for Christmas too. Combined with over 2 huge buckets worth of free stuff, including books, clothes, hats, toy blocks and more, that I have won her for when she gets a little older. Even my husband has been getting to reap my rewards since I won him a History Channel duffel bag full of history channel swag. He graduated from college with a degree and History and he just loves the History Channel. Which on a side note is the only channel that is not working on our TV right now.

Matt and I are currently trying to finish our planning for our big trip to Oktoberfest in September. Seriously how cool is it that we will be at the 200th anniversary of one of the most famous festivals in the world. We are planning on visiting another country besides Germany we just have to decide which one. The only thing booked is the hotel in Munich since you have to book practically a year in advance.

Looks like next year we will be doing a family vacation to Stone Mountain. It was always one of my favorite places to go as a kid and it is a fairly easy and cheap vacation. We try and do some planning in advance but next summer seams so far away.


My child fears no wave. Even after a huge wave knocked her over she just jumped up for more. She especially enjoyed jumping into the waves when they came up on the beach.

For her second birthday her Daddy and I will be taking her to her very first concert, Yo Gabba Gabba! She really loves it since there is a lot of singing and dancing. Daddy even splurged and we will be going VIP style so we get to meet the characters. It's Dancey Dance Time!

Summer is Right Around the Corner

I know I have been slacking on posting lately but with Easter and the end of the semester looming I have been really busy.

I have won a few giveaways lately and I can't wait to receive them and share them with Violet. I am most excited about my recent win on Familylicous. I won Mary's Soft Dough from Terrapin Toys. Should be a fun activity for us to do one afternoon.

I will get back to blogging as soon as the semester is over. After the summer semester I will officially be a librarian!

Cookie Monster

As a child I just LOVED watching Sesame Street. That and Reading Rainbow were my absolute favorites as a young child. As I got older I progressed to other masterpieces like DuckTales, DarkWing Duck and others that were part of the after school line up. Back to the good old street. My favorite character was and always will be Cookie Monster. I loved everything about him, the fact that he was blue, his googly eyes and of course his love for cookies!!! I have only recently started watching shows on television with my daughter and Sesame Street is one of them. I find that on the newer episodes Cookie Monster is not nearly as common...or so it seems. I guess this is because Elmo has become the new favorite and probably because moms across America didn't like a puppet conveying the message "eat tons of cookies!" Perhaps he should be eating celery??? I like it when they show some of the original episodes. Lo and behold they recently played my favorite song every...I Lost My Cookie at the Disco!!!!!! I have attached the video so you can be reminded of your youth and how awesome Cookie Monster is!!!!!!!!!!

Spring is Coming

Since Easter is coming I decided to take Violet out back and take some pictures of her in her new tutu for an Easter card to send to friends and family. The pictures turned out pretty cute especially since it was so cloudy. I also find it almost scary how much she looks just like me. Some of my friends and family even joke that she is my "mini me." It is true that I was hoping to only have boys but she is showing me how much fun it is to have a little girl to dress up and play with. The morning this picture was shot she had found her hair ties on the floor and she brought them over to me and held out her hair on the side. She does not talk yet but I knew what she wanted and pigtails she got. Sooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also in the background is my loveable pooch that would not stop making me throw the frisbee and she would not get out of the pictures. Silly pooch. I still got some great shots without Princess Peach in the background.

Mom of the Year I am NOT

So for the last few weeks Violet will wake up from a nap or in the middle of the night (no she is not sleeping through the night) and just scream bloody babe-let murder screams and there is nothing I have found that I can do to help her until she screams through it. Not everyday but probably every third day. I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong with her. She has never been a good sleeper so her sleep patterns have never been "normal" to me. The other day I decided to feel around in her mouth to see if she was getting any new teeth since she had not gotten a new one since Thanksgiving. She has been living with the basic 8 for months. Well lo and behold she had 2 new teeth (not in order but scattered but this is normal for her). She also has a HUGE mound where a molar is coming through. All I could think is DUH MOMMY.....WHAT GOOD AM I????????? Of course she has been crying she has been teething like crazy. She woke up from her afternoon nap screaming and this time I notice her putting both her hands in her mouth while screaming. Poor thing was in pain. After a dose of Motrin things were back to normal. Just goes to show myself that I can read all the books and blogs in the world but I can still miss the obvious. I feel awful but I bought her some stuff from BabySteals to make up for it. And the Easter bunny is going to need a wheelbarrow to tote all the goodies she is getting.

CSN Websites

With my daughter turning 16 months and the fact that she is a climber I have recently begun my search of toddler beds.. I have looked in stores but the selection is so incredibly limited. That is when someone showed me all the toddler beds available through CSN stores. WOW, the selection is amazing and the beds are super cute too. The only hard part is trying to pick out just one.

They also have so many different websites that there is literally something for everyone. The main CSN store has a wide array of stuff for children but my favorite website of theirs would have to be Toys and Games Online. They have a extensive selection of toys from baby up through the teen years. Heck I even want to play with most the stuff on their site.

Not into toys? That's cool too because they have tons more websites to choose from. There is the ever popular barstools website...with you guessed it everything barstool related! Mailboxes more your style? They have a website for that too. Check out their list of websites and look around. Go ahead browsing is free.

You can literally get lost on their website for hours. I know I was.

UPDATE: I lied my favorite of their websites has to be all the stuff they have for water sports! My friends and family are avid wakeboarders and tubers. That website has more tubes and water toy accessories than I have ever seen. They even have trainer skis for the little ones. I hope little Violet grows up with the love of water like we do.

Be on the lookout for a great product review courtesy of CSN coming soon!

Book Giveaways

I probably win anywhere from 3-10 books a month depending on how much time I spend entering contests. At least 90% of the books I win are for adults...meaning the books are all mine!!! I find most of my book giveaways on West of Mars which is a site that tells you where all the good giveaways are located. I just love the layout of the site. The site gives you the book title, basic giveaway rules for the particular book and a link to the giveaway. So if you love to read and you love FREE books then go check it out. Now I only need my daughter to sleep through the night so I will have more time for my reading!

Name Your Tune: Review and Giveaway - WINNER

I know I know....way late but the winner of the Personalized CD from Name Your Tune is:

Entry #6

Ch4ttyC4thy said...

It has to be "The More We Get Together". I remember singing that song in elementary school!

I have heard of these personal CDs before, and I thought "what a fun birthday gift!!" I just never really checked it out till now.

I will be sending Name Your Tune your contact information and they will contact you regarding your prize. Thanks for all that entered!

Old Granny Tales

Everyone has heard of old wive's tales involving everything from how to get pregnant to how to get better from illnesses. My Granny is full of them and everytime she tells me a new one I usually drop my jaw because I am so shocked by the craziness of it all. I decided that I need to document some of her more crazy tales. A quick background of her is she is 83 years old, of relatively good health, on husband number four and the first three are dead and she grew up in the backwoods of central Florida, right down to the horse and buggy and outhouses. I love her dearly and I even named my daughter after her, Violet.

Whenever she spouts one of her Granny Tales it is always out of nowhere and rarely involves the topic of conversation. Thus making the tale that much funnier for those listening in. This one involves thrush in babies. I know first hand what thrush is as my daughter and I experienced it when she was 12 months old. Here is how this particular Granny Tale goes. To cure thrush in a baby all that has to be done is for a man that has never met his father has to blow in the child's mouth. The story is a relative of mine his father died when his mom was 6 months pregnant with him (in fact the father died at 21 years old). His whole life people everywhere had him travel great distances to blow in their sick child's mouth. It would cure them every time. If a person tried genetian violet (remedy used at the time and at times still is used as a homeopathic remedy) it would turn everything the liquid touched purple for days and clothes permanently. Instead mothers would search out this man in my family and have him cure their young. My Granny firmly believes in this remedy today and will fight you back if you mention science or absurd propaganda that it does not work. She will then go into detail about how people her whole young adult life would come up to her and tell her how (I believe her great-grandfather) he cured their children. She will tell you exact first and last names of those that told her it worked. She says it is not used much anymore since it is hard to find a man where his father died before he was born. She believes it so strongly which is what makes me chuckle.

Don't get me started on how she proved my daughter would be a girl before she was born.

For next time....how to cure warts...trust me this is the weirdest one yet!

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