Baby Mama Drama

Yesterday Presley and I got back to Huntsville after spending 4 days in Tuscaloosa for the holiday.  Adam had to stay here since he wasn't off work on Friday, and I must say, I missed him terribly!

Mainly because Presley was a freak of nature everywhere we went; crying, not eating, not sleeping, more crying, very clingy, and then topped with more crying.

At Thanksgiving dinner she literally cried the entire time. Granted, it was getting close to bedtime and she doesn't do well when she's in a crowd of loud people.  I don't know why, but whenever we get around a bunch of people or strangers she just flips a switch and acts like a complete psycho! I guess I just find it weird because I can get in the checkout line at Publix and by the time I'm done paying I', BFF with the person behind me.  I can make friends with a wall, I tell ya. 

Once we got in the car to head back to my Moms after dinner Presley was back to her old self.  Laughing, clapping, talking, and being plain ol' crazy! Yeesh.

I've also decided that it'd be a smart idea to just get a babysitter during Christmas dinner :)

Our trip back to Tuscaloosa was a lot of fun, when Presley wasn't being a whiney pants.  I ate lots of Taco Casa & Waltons.  I spent the day with my niece, Taelor, while Bama beat the panties of Auburn! We got to visit with a lot of family.  

And then Presley got sick.

Like, ear draining some funk that I should send to Bill Nye the Science Guy and a croupy-sounding cough.

Once she started pulling at her right ear I knew it was an ear infection.  Even though she had tubes put in about 7 months ago babes can still get an infection every once in a while.  This is the first time she's shown any kind of ear pain since the tubes so I'd say they still do the job!  She also had croup a while back, so I also know the sound of that cough enough to go ahead and just diagnose her myself :)

We are on day 3 of it all and she seems to be feeling a little better.  I kept her home from preschool today (and missed a dentist appointment) and have been giving her a few natural things to help.  Most doctors would just prescribe an antibiotic for the ear infection, and a steroid for the horrible cough.  The thing about antibiotics is that while it does get rid of the infection that sucks major donkey butt, it also wipes out the good bacteria.  Their immune system will be all jacked up when given antibiotics, which I had no clue about when she was younger.  

I try my best to not giver her medicine that's not all natural, but used to give her Tylenol or Motrin for just about anything.

We are slowly trashing all over the counter meds and have been hitting up the natural remedies.  

For the ear infection we've been using Gaia Kids ear drops

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

Presley and I are headed to Tuscaloosa today and will be coming back Sunday after church! Saturday is the Iron Bowl and I can't wait to watch the Tide spank the Tigers :)

Adam has to stay in Huntsville to work but he will be having Thanksgiving lunch with my Dad, Step Mom, and Step-Grandparents. We will miss him while we are gone! I've left the house a disaster as a test to see if he cleans it or not (note to hubs if you're reading this: I will love you 13 times more if I come home to a clean house..LOVE YOU!) 

Safe travels to everyone and gobble gobble!

We Pav's tend to have a reputation of moving a lot.

If I listed all of the moves Adam and I have made during our almost 7 year relationship you'd be here all day.

Before we had PDiddy, moving was not big thang. We really just never unpacked our suitcases and we didn't have much besides clothes. Basically, everything we owned fit in our Yukon.

But now that he's no longer playing baseball and we have a child, moving is much more of a "to do." We now have to get a U-Haul every time and the amount of baby stuff we have is embarrassing.

I have learned a lot, though, by moving so much.  

I've learned that we have tons of unnecessary household items.  Every time we move I get rid of tons and tons of junk.  If I haven't used it in a while then it gets thrown away.  Why haul it around in the box if that's exactly where it's going to stay?

I have also learned that moving can cause you and your spouse to want to poke each others eyeballs out.  But that's neither here nor there.

Another thing I have learned is how to pick out a decent preschool.  That's usually one of the first things I do when we move.  This last move to Huntsville has been the hardest so far.

When we lived in Tuscaloosa it was easy, Presley was going to the school where I worked for years and where my Mom still worked.  My Mom was Presley's teacher, so I never even thought twice about sending her somewhere else.

Birmingham was the first time I had to send her to a place where I didn't know one single person.  But, we lived in a really nice area so I never even looked at a "semi-ghetto" school.  We found a very nice place that was almost identical to Valley View in Tuscaloosa.

I figured once we moved to Huntsville (also a very nice area) that it'd be a breeze to find a preschool for her.  When I started looking, I found tons of places and called them all.  We tend to stick with a church setting for preschool, just because they're usually cheaper while still being nice and clean.  There are several "academy" type preschools here that were on my list and we super fancy, but way out of our price range.

Some problems I always run into when looking at schools are:

-a lot of places only offer Mother's Day Out programs which is a few days a week from 9-1. We need full time care.

-several places have a waiting list

- a lot of them don't take kids until they're 18 months old. Some even only take 3, 4, and 5 year olds.

- it's too expensive (like, more than what our rent + utilities are)

-it's old, dirty, and musty

I always make an appointment to tour a preschool.  I went to several places here in Huntsville that were just okay, but I always left with a bad feeling in my gut.

We finally found a place that was in our price range and it was just "decent".  It was small, older, and not in the best area but it definitely wasn't completely horrible.  Basically, it was a last resort type of place.  

-The director and teachers were nice and clean.

-There was a chef who cooked all of the meals and snacks

-There was cameras in the room and playground

But that's it.  I really liked that there were cameras. I still left with a weird feeling in my gut that I shouldn't send her there.

After searching, calling, touring, hoping, and praying we found a very nice church that had a spot come open on the day I called.  It's a huge church, tons of nice play areas, a cafeteria with a chef who makes all of the meals.  And there are only 8 kids in her class! It's out of our price range but we are so so so thankful for my Dad and Step Mom who are helping us pay for some of it! 

It's also kind of far away but I have applied for a job at a few spas in the area, so fingers crossed that they need a massage therapist and will hire me soon!

We only plan to be in Huntsville for about 10 months, so knowing we will be moving again and having to do this all over again makes my eye twitch a little!

Yesterday after church and a nap, we headed up to Monte Sano State Park.  It's up on the mountain and right now the leaves are so bright and colorful.  It is such a pretty drive!  The goal was to "attempt" some family photos for this years Christmas card, but if you know anything about cameras, toddlers and 700 MPH wind gusts then you can guess how well that went.

We snapped a few pictures then took PNasty off to the park.  It was pretty crowded, but thankfully a baby swing was open and that's where we stayed most of the time.  It got dark pretty early, so we didn't stay too long.  My Mom is coming up this weekend so we may attempt the family photo again, and I may or may not drug up my child so she will chill out for one cotton pickin' second so we can get just one picture.

It's also very important to note that THANK YOU JESUS we didn't get paged at church this Sunday. Presley finally got her crap together and didn't act a fool, ya'll! YAY!

Tomorrow is an exciting day, Presley starts school! 

And it's not in the ghetto! 

And it's also way above our budget! 

Mama is free!

And can finally get a job!

And a hair cut!

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Can you tell that I'm a little excited?

Anywhoozle, I leave you with our ridiculous attempt to get decent pictures. Don't judge us.

We are finally settled into our new apartment!  Moving out of our apartment in Birmingham was a breeze because we were on the bottom floor and just had to carry the boxes and furniture out the door into the U-Haul.

But, this time I requested a top floor unit because I was tired of people stomping above us! 

Bad move on my part because the place we moved into has 3 levels.

So we are on the 3rd floor.  That means we had to carry everything we own up two flights of stairs.

I KNOW!

It sucked major donkey butt.  Thankfully Adam and my Dad did the majority of the moving :)

Sometimes I am really weird and I get nervous when I think about one day having a house and never moving again.  It gives me a little bit of anxiety because I love moving! I don't mind living in an apartment and I think I would feel so incredibly trapped if we bought a house any time soon.  Thankfully, I think we have a few more years before anything like that happens. We get the moving itch way too much to do something like that! 

We are still searching for a preschool.  It's really expensive here!  I mean, unless we want to send her to some place in the hood, which I have no intentions of doing.  Until then Presley and I are just hanging around the house trying not to kill each other.  Staying at home is hard, ya'll! Presley does so much better when she is in school playing with other children her age, so hopefully we find something soon!

I feel like she has grown so much in the last few weeks.  She's expresses herself more, shows her personality, and is becoming a little person.

LIKE A REAL HUMAN BEING!

Here are some fun little updates on PDizzle:

~She's left handed!

We noticed this early on but figured she would eventually be a righty (Adam and I both are).  But now, if I hand her a spoon or fork to her right hand she switches it to her left. 

~Spankings don't really phase her.

ZOMG! GASP! I spank my child!

Not all the time, and not for just any reason. Obviously.

Only when I warn her, then she still does whatever she knows she is not supposed to be doing.

Then we will pop her hand or leg with the Spanking Spoon, she will give us a little fake cry, then move on to her next disastrous mission.

~She is really bad about ignoring Adam or I when she know she is getting into something she isn't supposed to be into.  Which usually leads to the spanking.

~She's become a picky eater.  

I refuse to be a Mom who cooks two separate dinners. If Presley doesn't eat what I've cooked (after being offered several different times) then she goes to bed anyways.  The only time I give her something different to eat is when I cook something spicy.  

~We are trying to break her of throwing her food on the ground and hitting the spoon/fork when we feed her.

Presley is very bad about chucking things on the ground when she's finished.  Or, if it's something we are feeding her she will hit the spoon causing food to go everywhere.

It's super frustrating and I don't really know how to stop it!

~She has become more snugly! YAY!

She loves to sit in our laps and will give more hugs and kisses. She still doesn't want to lay down with us if we try to nap together.  Home girl loves her bed and will only go to sleep in her crib.

~Loves shoes.

Lord help us!

She is constantly going into our closet and walking out with Adam's shoes on. 

~Walking is a thing of the past.

Only running for her! I'm sure the people below us love that!

That's just a few little tidbits on our girl! She's growing so fast.  This stage is definitely fun, but hard.  Going out to eat is more work than it is fun, we still get paged every Sunday to come get her from the church nursery, and the temper tantrums aren't my favorite. But, I know it will all pass soon and she will be a bratty little 5 year old not wanting anything to do with her Mom and Dad! 

Toodles for now!

Happy voting day! I'm not big on talking politics but, go Mittens!

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Since we are now living in Huntsville, we were a little bummed that we wouldn't be able to join my niece and nephews for trick-or-treating. Thankfully, we still got to have some fun with my Dad and Step-Mom! There was a trunk-or-treat going on at her work from 4:30-6:30 on Tuesday and it was perfect! It was great for Presley because it wasn't close to bedtime and we didn't have to go from house to house.  Basically, a "trunk-or-treat" shin-dig is where everyone lines up their cars and decorates their trunks, and you go from car to car and get some goodies! YAY! 

Obviously Presley can't have candy so I was on a mission to collect as many Reece Cups and Snickers as possible.  She did nibble on a sour straw and loved it! 

Oh yeah, and my Dad fed her an entire sugar cookie.  

So, that was fun!

In typical "Lindsay fashion" I waited until about 3 hours before leaving to get PDizzle's costume.

I KNOW!

But, you know what? If you wait until last minutes you get the costume for SUPER cheap, and by that point most of the costumes are picked over so you don't have that many options.  Makes things a lot easier! There were literally two costumes in her size so I took them both up to the register and said just give me the cheapest!

The strawberry was $14.00.

The spider was $7.00.

BOOM!

I also had to get her a black long sleeved shirt to wear under it, but being the bright cookie I am I got a Christmas themed shirt so she can wear it again :)

When we got there it was really cold and windy, but Presley didn't care and she ran all around. She had so much fun looking at everyone's costumes.  It also was virtually impossible to get a picture with her.

We filled up her bucket, then my Dad showed her off to some of their friends.  We left and grabbed dinner at Chipotle.  

We had a lot of fun!

Next year I think she will really get the hang of it!

**also, only a few more days left in my Noodle and Boo giveaway !**