Friday, July 25, 2014

InstaFriday

I started participating in #100happydays so that means more instagram pictures!

Our daily happenings in pictures!


I got boots, I am absolutely in love with them. I have no idea what I'm supposed to wear them with though?? I don't know how to do style. But hey, they're cute.


Melody and I went to Bahama Bucks for the first time! If I could enjoy show cones it would be my new favorite place! Melody loved it though!


We found a park. I fell in love with it! This is going to be my new go to place for my lunch breaks, it's beautiful!


This girl, she melts me. And that dimple? I die. She's the best, hands down.



Mustache day! Nothing like being silly at work! The kids loved it! Except for Mel, she acted like I was torturing her just to get that picture.



Melody had an in house field trip last week where a pottery studio came to school and let the kids paint something. Melody had been talking about her owl all week and we finally got it today! I love it!








Thursday, July 24, 2014

Communication with a stutterer

Melody is a stutter. My poor baby girl stutters, one on one it's not that bad and at home it's barely even noticeable. This is until she gets upset or excited. I never stuttered, though I did have to go to speech therapy, so I'm not entirely sure on the right way to go about it. Since it has gone down I've been waiting to put her in speech therapy but we'll see how she does with it in pre-k.

What I've found works best with her is to keep my eyes on her, show her I'm interested and that I'm paying attention to her. I want her to know that what she says is importance and that in turn boosts her confidence. I hope that with her confidence boosted she'll be able to take her time and be able to get her words out. It seems to be working so far!

In school though it's a different story. She's very soft spoken and it's hard to hear her. Especially in a class full of rowdy boys, it's very easy for her to just not be heard. Her teachers say that her confidence has grown and that she enjoys raising her hand and answering questions but in a room full of 4-5 years it can be hard for any child to get out a full sentence, let alone one that stutters. Children don't have as much patience as adults do and I'm worried about their kindness as she gets older.

It seems to be in groups she has the most difficulty, her teachers do encourage her to talk and take the time to listen, but hopefully with realizing that what she has to say is important will help her continue to speak up regardless of the stuttering or maybe even overcome it all together!

Do you have any tips for stuttering?

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

31 Days of lists

I'm gonna try this, 31 Days of lists. I have a thing about lists, they just make me really really happy. And they're fun! Or at least I think so.

Day 1- If I had an extra hour...

I would sleep! I would finally get up to 7-8 hours a night hopefully! Or I'd craft! No more "Mommy I want you to make me this before bed!" 5 minutes before bed. I seriously made the saddest looking panda bear coin purse last night because of that. But hey, it's for a 4 year old that already has roughly seven purses. She doesn't seem to mind.Or clean, we already have a set cleaning time but it'd be nice to get a little extra in.

NO

I would go on longer walks! Longer walks and exercise! That's it, we almost never have time for anything more than a 10 minute walk and it would be oh so nice to make that at least 3 times as long. Walks it is.

If I had an extra hour I would go on longer walks.

Friday, May 16, 2014

InstaFriday

We went to Sea World to see Super Why live in concert! She absolutely loved it and i'm so glad we were able to get in. We got to Sea World at 11:30, concert started at 12:45, we were running a little late but still had an hour and the past few times we've gone we always got in early so I wasn't worried. Boy was I wrong. I had to get her a new pass since hers had expired. They had a preschool pass, bring in a birth certificate and 4 and unders(?) get a free season pass. A lot of other people needed to get their passes too. We wait in line for a hour and only get halfway through it. It is now nap time and the concert has started, there was another at 4. Mommy didn't bring enough snacks for an hour plus wait in line, so now Melody is hungry and tired and just a little bit grumpy. The family in front of us had 5 in their family, they were also getting one preschool pass. They decided to wait any longer was just not worth the free pass so they left the line, taking us with them. Sea World was also doing buy one pass get one free so they gave us their extra pass! Thank you kind family!


Mother's day was great. I spent it with my love bug and even tried doing a Katniss braid with her hair and it turned out decently! We didn't do much or anything special but it was still nice. Boy do I love that kid. 


Baby girl loves Spider man. Do they make girl styled Spider man pjs and/or Marvel underwear, that's on her wish list.

This week was teacher appreciation week at my school! No better way to end it than with a bunch of beautiful flowers! I love my kids!

life rearranged


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Can we start again please?

This is me starting over, starting fresh. I'm not going to go back and delete everything but from here on out it's a brand new start.

I'm Layni. I'll be 22 in a month, I have the most amazing 4 year old daughter, life has had it's up's and down's but I'm hanging in there. My favorite color is blue, I love sitting and watching the sunrise/set with a journal and a cup of tea, my God is my strength. I'm just trying to make it in this world.

I say I pride myself on commitment. My inability to keep this blog up has proven otherwise, as does the fact I haven't even stayed with the same job for a year. Though, next month I will be changing that. Even keeping up a workout plan seems to get lost after a month. It doesn't matter how excited I am or want to keep up with it, it just kind of pans out. I would blame this on the bipolar, my quickness to be excited and the quick onset of apathy. Bipolar is not a crutch though and it will not be one for me. This is my vow to stick with something. It may not be this exactly, but it will be journaling somewhere.

This is also me starting fresh. Starting over from my baggage of the past year. My fiancé left me, 2 weeks after I moved to a different city to live with him, 2 months before the wedding date. The day before my nonreturnable wedding dress came in. This is me letting go of that. I refuse to be crushed by the weight and despair that it made me feel. I will grow and learn from it. It will not defeat me.

This is me becoming the mother and person I want to be. No more excuses. It's time I made an effort to be someone I'm proud of.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Being a yes mom

Sometimes I forget that schedules aren't all that important. Sometimes it's okay to, literally, stop and smell the flowers. Schedules aren't what is remembered in the years to come, it's the memories made. I've been trying to be more of a "yes mom". One more book before bed really won't hurt, even if the leggings and shirts don't match but she picked it out is really fine, 5 more minutes of playtime before eating dinner won't really make the food cold, even if Momma is tired and just wants to cuddle on the couch with a movie I can still get up and play toys.  

Routines are nice but they shouldn't dominate our life. I've also been trying to cut out the words, "hurry up". Melody is the slowest walker there, the slowest at anything. Walking to the car she has to stop and watch the bug, and stare at her funny reflection on the car, or stop and smell the flowers. She just likes to notice things, I love that about her. She always reminds me to look for the beauty in things. So instead of going right by all of those things we just leave the house earlier, to give my little noticer time to notice. 

I've also been working on being more "hands free", concentrating on what's important and putting everything else on the back burner. This means during Melody and I time no electronics and chores wait. My attention is solely on her. And she is wonderful, I get to pay more attention to the stories she comes up with and her little imaginative mind. 

I'm still working on it, but it's a start on me being a new and improved mom for my little girl,

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Keep your head up

Well I was going to make this a long and fun post but then I stumbled across some old pictures and got sad. So this will just be filled with today.

Tried my hand at winged liner for the first time today. For a first try I was pretty pleased, though you can't see it that well in this picture.

Few things are as much fun as jumping on crunchy leaves!

Off course had to take a mommy and baby shadow pic with our recycle bags!

Found my old headband today!

We recently started geocaching and this was our second find. Look at my little adventurer!


Our "treasure" from geocaching!




"Hold your head up princess, your crown is falling."
It has now been 6 months since he left. I'm making it.


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A New Year

Well I did it. I made it through 2013. I was the best and worst. Full of love and heartbreak. I'm glad to leave the year behind but I'm also sad to see it go. I had such high hopes. But now its a new year; new hopes, new dreams, maybe even a new love.

I got to finish of the year by getting a 2nd degree burn on the back of my leg. Great way to finish off a not so great year, huh? This morning Melody woke up at 5 with her first bad sore throat and cried for almost 2 hours straight, my poor baby. So we were able to just stay in and watch movies and play games. I really wish I had more Melody time, she's so wonderful.



She got the Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel game for Christmas and she is in love with it! Which I'm glad, I'm a huge board game fan and I wasn't sure how she'd do since she's so into imaginative play but she really enjoys it. Speaking of Melody and love. She has a boyfriend. Like they hold hands in school and when I drop her off he stops what he's doing to go hug her. Then randomly at home or the store or anywhere I always hear, "Mommy, I'm going to marry Lincoln. We're going to dance at the ball. He's very handsome."

She slays me. And now I am slightly regretting talking to her so much about marriage since she always ends those talks with, "Mommy, why aren't you marrying Ryan anymore?" or "Don't worry Mommy, we'll find you a boy to marry." Thanks kid.

Well heres to a new year and hopefully a new and better me.