My Monday Mini

Is it weird that I didn't hate Monday this week?

For some reason, I have a feeling that this week's going to be a busy one, but a good one, too.

It couuuuuuld have something to do with the fact that this critter is home:

Actually, I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with that little critter being home.. haha. I'll tell ya - this little chickadee can put a smile on a mud puddle. I spent the first three quarters of the day pacing at light speed; my desk didn't stop for more than a few bites of salad and exactly 2 bathroom breaks. Monday did what it could to remind me that it was there, but that wasn't happening today. There is absolutely no greater joy in this world than the presence of family, specifically the antics between a mama and her mini.

There's not going to be a lot to this entry today; that mini up there gets me for the night.
I'm off, loves.

xo | cmd

It's TOOTH FAIRY TIME!

Welllll..... this day was coming sooner or later, but I don't know that I believed it would actually happen until it did happen. And that was today! 

this girl... 

Gosh, kiddo.. I need you to stop growing! 

It's crazy to think that this week, we'll be doing her first grade open packet pick up. On Wednesday next week, her open house. And then on Thursday? School. ALL DAY... School. I don't know that Syd realizes yet that first grade is an all day affair, as opposed to the half day she did as a kindergartner. 

*Sigh. Time, slow down! ;) 

We're off for the night, to celebrate the tooth loss and prepare for the tooth fairy's arrival this evening. See you in the morning! 

xo | cmd

Mini Yoga

I've been telling myself since we had our last big snowfall that I really need to [still] get Sydni some new snow pants. It's hard for me sometimes to justify that sort of thing as an immediate priority, I think mainly because in my mind, I know that the snow will fade and it won't be winter all year long.

So after work, Syd and I made a run to Target for snow pants.

Let me break that down for you: We went... to TARGET... for [JUST] snow pants.

that's about how that went

So yeah. Perhaps I didn't fully think that one through: I know better than to think I'd legitimately head into Target and buy only snow pants - I mean, assuming they even still had any [ok, they did..].

So on the bright side, we did get snow pants. AND, they were on sale. So that justifies the rest of the stuff that we bought to maybeormaybenot go along with them:

Oh, and ALL of these were for SYDNI - 

Neon patterned ankle socks

Yoga pants

Mint green sports zip-up... with thumbholes

An Elsa shirt

A Little mermaid nightgown

A $1 tiara

It could've been worse, right? 

So we headed home, where Sydni immediately wanted to climb into her new yoga pants and unroll her yoga mat [also purchased by me at Target on a separate, entiiiiirely unintentional buy, of course]. I happily obliged her request to follow suit, and we spent the next hour working on her warrior pose form and taking lots of mommy-mini yoga pictures: 

warrior

She's working so hard! There are still some kinks to be worked out, but we are definitely heading in the right direction:

tree pose [sorta ;)]

We have our Laura Sykora moments, too.. haha.. 

love my mini yoga time! 

These are the memories I'm going to reflect back on and realize again and again just how fortunate I am to have such a beautiful little girl, with a beautiful little soul. She is a beacon of light on the gloomiest day, and can reverse whatever sour mood that's found me as a result of this life's grudgery. I'll cross the bridge when the time's here for her to awaken to the harshness of this world, but for now, I revel in the beauty of her innocence and and proud beyond words of what she's becoming. 

Anyway Anyway, Aaaanyway... 

Tomorrow's Friiiiiday & that means the weekend! WooO!

xo | cmd

Rings & Noms & Beads ♥

Mondays, more often than not trigger this reaction from me:

[thank you, natalie dee]

Seriously. It's a 50/50 on whether or not I'll crawl home from the day or bounce out like a triumphant Olympian. Today, I came out on top :)

yes, we can! 

I received a phone call early on today that my ring [over which I've been mildly stressing] was finished and returned to the jeweler, now in the correct size that will stay put on my finger :). I gathered Sydni up after work and together we went in for the pick-up. I handed off the $4 temporary ring I'd been wearing to Sydni, and immediately realized she needed one her own size.

And so we did :)

hers... & mini hers! ♥

She loves it. And I love.. that she loves it. She's too stinkin' cute for her own good.. sheesh.

At home, it was dinner: Chicken, potatoes and spinach. I seriously don't know what people do without staple foods!

it's now gone. every bit of it. ;) 

After dinner, Sydni and I went to work on one of the fun things Rob & I picked up for her at Ikea over the weekend. I had one of these as a kid, and I could bet there are still little plastic beads tucked in the nooks & crannies at my parents' house.

in progress.... 

We meticulously placed these, and when done, I broke out the iron and heat paper to create the final product: a heart medallion and one happy little goober:

syd.. that cheesy smile... i just... i love you ;) ♥

Syd, kiddo you're hilarious.
Thank you for making me smile - you have no idea how much we love you!

For the rest of my blogbots out there, happy Monday! Make it a great week!!

xo | cmd

Trunk-Or-Treat!

I have no idea how Halloween is already here, but it is, and with that being said,

BRING ON THE ELSA ARMY! 

If there's one universal American truth this week, it's that at the very least, 1 of 3 little girls has either requested to be, or is going to be... Elsa for Halloween. Thank you Disney, for another year of rampant internet and storefront sales on everything Frozen. I still vote pity for poor Princess Anna; it seems like although that movie was mostly about her, we'll still only see a slight fraction of Anna-clad darlings hitting the 2014 candy-tours in comparison to her magically-empowered-and-simultaneously-cursed older sis. [Welcome to the inevitable and inescapable limelight of younger siblinghood, amiright?] 

Anyway, Sydni found herself in the ideal position for being in a not-so-ideal situation of living between mom & dad's houses. The ideal part is that she now has two Elsa costumes to don this year. She will be trick-or-treating twice, and will likely continue into the winter holiday season in this exact pattern: doubling everything. The only real perks [from a kid's POV, at least] of split households, I'm convinced.

Rob and I rallied together in a tornado fashion after work: change our clothes, change her clothes, and get moving on up to West Chester for one of the few Thursday night trick-or-treats that I could find. It was held at an old stomping ground that I claimed for a very brief time years and years ago: Midwest Cheer Elite. [Clarification: I was a tumbler and a contemporary dance student here, not a competitive cheerleader. I don't want any of you to think I've been withholding a secret life from you!]

It was a trunk-or-treat, which meant an added vote of confidence for all the parents, knowing their little ghosts and goblins [or in this case, their little Elsa's and Marvel superheroes] wouldn't dash away into any line of traffic or otherwise hazardous situation. Keep it contained.... ;)

Sydni had a blast.

[& i spy an olaf back there! ;) ] 

A few of the many, many fun, decorated trunks! 

fun! :) 

And an added bonus of a hayride!

my family. love love love them. 

After trunk-or-treat, we had a last minute vote for Mexican food, so we spent another hour or so in West Chester to eat. We were halfway through dinner when Sydni decided to deliver some insight far beyond her years:

Hahahah. I freakin' love that girl.

Tomorrow is finally Friday, and that being said, I'm pretty excited for the grown-up Halloween festivities that will be taking place. I'll give you one hint:

Villains. 

That's all for now. Tomorrow's the real deal ;) 

Happy [Pre-] Halloween! 

xo | cmd

K is for Kindergarten!

A few things happened today, but none more fun than this girl:

love. her! 

Today was her school's class festival day, meaning each grade donning the appropriate t-shirts. Little miss smiley face there got to wear her kindergarten shirt and join a battalion of orange-clad kindergartners for their school spirit day. The festival itself is being held this evening, and I regret that I won't be attending.

We're currently en-route to Illinois for the weekend, with dogs in tow.

Cheers to a happy, safe weekend for all of you lovely blogbots out there!

xo | cmd

Halloween Pre-Game

It is September 18th. 

This girl reminded me that she does a 6-week pregame for Halloween, which I will totally entertain, every single day until it gets here.

♥♥♥

And I love every second of it.

In tonight's version of Princess Sydni, Snow White doesn't live in a cottage, but rather a castle. Made of blankets and pillows. It is clearly a fortress to be envied. ;)

Back to the royal castle I go!

xo | cmd

FIVE. FIIIIIIIIIIIIVE.

HAPPY.

BIRTHDAY.

SYDNI!!!

It's time for this mama to come to grips with the fact that she has a 5-year-old. Little miss is my only child and for now, it's both a tough pill to swallow and a beautiful milestone, all wrapped up in one sassy little chickadee.

1. & then 5.
love love love love love.

I, embracing the typical ASIAN way, and on top of that being the typical MOTHER, consequently have thousands upon thousands upon probably a thousand more pictures of this girl from the beginning to now.

She is my light, my purpose and above all my greatest achievement. I live for her and daily give thanks that I was chosen to be her mama. Happy birthday, mini-me. I love you!!

******* 

Here in real time, Syd is actually with her dad today, since she was with me last year, and that's how trades work. [sad face.]  We celebrated Syd's birthday over the phone with her, with the actual celebration of course to follow. We also did some heavy driving today, back to Ohio from our extended stay in Illinois for the weekend.

family of four!
.. just.. missing.. one.. ♥

We're HOME, safe & sound.
Now that's a weekend! Thanks again to our awesome friends for their hospitality! Ya'll are the finest :)

Happy Labor Day to you & yours! I hope today was safe and awesome for you!

xo | cmd 

Dear Universe....

To say this is how I felt this morning wouldn't be much of a lie.. at all:

Yeah.. it was one of those mornings. My mind wanted nothing to do with being productive, a handful of my employees clearly wanted nothing to do with going to work and after that sad excuse for a workout yesterday, my body wanted very little to do with... me. Wah, wah, wah.

Fortunately, lunch proved to be a complete turn of events, and left me without adequate words.

I decided to stop by Chipotle for lunch. Upon entering, there was a man & woman sitting outside on the sidewalk, asking passersby for spare change, saying they'd been evicted. I typically don't give money, but offered to get them some food on my way out. I doubled my order at the counter, still very skeptical about whether or not I was catering to an honest couple or being "conned." I asked the cashier to bag them separately, paid and stopped to get two forks and napkins before leaving. I walked out, handed the bag of food to them, got in my care and started bawling [like, UGLY crying, folks]. I was forced to ask myself,

WHO AM I .. to EVER judge a struggle at face value?!

That's NOT my job. WHO CARES if they did or didn't lie to me?! Call me a fool, call me whatever you want.. but this is the reality of what can happen when we all just slow down for a second and think. I don't want praise or a back-pat for this; I gave up what, 30 extra seconds and $6 - is that really that noteworthy? No. It isn't.

[no other words needed]

^This, by the way, is what I saw when I put the bags down at the fountain drink/silverware stand [& ultimately propelled me into a sputtering mess once I did get into my car. The left was theirs, and the right was mine. I was a [BIT] overwhelmed by irony today, but I wouldn't change a thing. I wonder if they read theirs. Who knows. But... Dear Universe: Message Received.

The string of fortune for me didn't end there; 4:30 rolled around and I was out the door to pick up Sydni! Her dad and I agreed that on the weeks that she is with him, she'll still be here with us every Thursday now.

And that makes me happy :D.

So this was my otherwise-uneventful-night:

my everything ♥

... And honestly, I wouldn't have had it any other way. ♥

xo | cmd

Flashback Friday..

Here's the reality: TOMORROW, Rob and I will embark together on the journey that is school supply shopping with Sydni. Of the three of us, Sydni is actually the one maintaining composure the best. Her primary objective for tomorrow's outing is to find everything in the store that is labeled, emblazened, embroidered, stickered, macrometed or otherwise adorned with anything My Little Pony. The girl is obsessed. Haha.

But that's tomorrow. We are kindergarten school supply shopping... tomorrow. 
For today, that meant reminiscing over the last nearly 5 years of life for my little girl, who in just a couple of short weeks, becomes a "school kid," as she calls it.

I'll be doing this whole flashback thing in much greater detail a few short weeks from now when Sydni turns 5, so we'll just consider this a precourser to that.

Just a couple of my favorite then & nows:

Crafts:


2010, 2011, 2013 & 2014

Eating [More specifically using any type of silverware]:  


2009, 2010, 2012, 2013
& mostly ice cream, apparently.. haha ;)

A Taste of the Seasons:
Summer:


2010 & 2014

 Winter:

2009, 2012, 2014

Carseat Memoirs:

2010, 2012, 2014

 The "Mom, I'm DONE With Pictures" Face:

staaaaaahhhhhp!

 & of COURSE, Enjoying Life!

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Haha.. Miss Syd certainly is the epitome of love in my book. I can't believe my little girl is growing into elementary school. I'm so excited for her, and simultaneously wrecked because it's happening already.

Let's go do this [tomorrow], Syd. ♥♥♥♥.

xo | cmd