change it up or leave it be?

I’m thinking I may be changing the format of my blog soon.  Or creating a whole new one.  I’m not sure yet.

I’m sort of all over this Pageant Mom thing, so …. stay tuned!

OH! BTW, just got BabyGirl’s new pageant dress–GORGEOUS!! LOVE IT!  Cannot wait to get some pictures of her in it!  Plus, i really do need some pics of BG. I used to have some every month.  But since my camera died, not so much…

 

Pageant Moms Unite!! Not fight.

So, a few posts back, I said something about BUYING a title.  Which I still feel the same about.  They money raised by selling ad pages does help to put on the pageant and cover expenses. And the one I’m going to in July goes to charity-the best way I think.  I just do not like to ask people for money.  Never have. I HATED selling things in high school for fundraisers.  To win, you simply have to raise the most money by selling ad pages for that particular pageant event and be in the pageant.  You are not judged or anything else.   So I choose not to participate in those for more than maybe to put my baby’s face on ONE more page and give her a Good Luck. That’s it.

The comment the person left said how her daughter won Grand Ambassador at the pageant (not sure if it’s the same one we were at??) and won several other things.  Congratulations!  That’s great!  You must be very well known in your community (we’re not, we’re semi new still) and have a giving family (we both have small families and we’d never ask from them).  I meant no disrespect to your daughter at all-so please don’t take it as so. 

Okay, that’s out of the way. I just don’t like people thinking I’m slamming their children–the pageant world is hard enough as it without us putting down eachother. ha ha

 

Eating out with Toddler

Well, I think I’ve already goofed this post, cause I mean really-who gets to eat?

Papi took the day off work to do some more work in the kitchen. You know, the one that’s been in the middle of being remodeled for over a month? Yeah, that kitchen.  On my way home from work, he calls me to warn that there is plaster dust everywhere and it might be wise to just pick up the kiddo and go eat before coming home.

I think about this as I go inside the daycare to pick up Babygirl.  After loading and fastening her into her seat, I send a text back to him: Get cleaned up, we’re going to pick you up and have dinner at O’Charleys.

He’s outside waiting for me when I drive by.

We arrive and seated quickly. Everyone smiles and waves to the baby as if she’s a local celebrity-as always the little goof is showing off.  But hey, it’s cute, right?  We order, she sits and colors.  Rolls appear and she eats the majority of one.  Her pizza arrives, along with the rest of our food.  She stabs it with a fork.  Dips it in Mommy’s Ranch (dipping makes everything edible, right?).  Everything but actually eat the pizza.

Finally, she’s had enough, just as I decide I really need to start eating on my salad a little faster.  Babygirl NOW wants to sit with Mommy. NOW.  And cries.  And shrieks. So Papi hands her over and she cuddles on my chest as I eat around her few sprigs of hair.

Papi finishes his meal and offers to take her to the bathroom and change a diaper–I get to eat in peace for 5 minutes. YAY!  I get a text, thinking from my friend in Kansas City. Uhm…not quite.

It read:

Papi: I have an emergency in here ( I immiately think she had a blow out!) she threw her skirt in the toilet.

I giggle and ask the waitress for an extra To Go bag and text back I’ll meet them at the door of the bathroom.   I stand up gathering our stuff that’s suddenly EVERYwhere.  I look up and Papi is cuddling Babygirl in his arms just so that her diaper doesn’t show.

Apparently, the toilet had a bit of gross in it and he was not bringing the skirt back home.  Oops.  Now isn’t that just like a man, not to clean the toilet before laying his daughter on the changing table above it?

 

June already?

Can it be?  Summer will be here in 16 days?  I mean, we’ve had some warm weather. So warm that I went out to the patio during my lunch hour, rolled up my sleeves and pant legs and baked for 30 minutes.  I was still red 3 days later!  Given, no base tan, but wow!  Anyway, the last few days have been darn right chilly.  57 degrees at 8 am it cold, right?

June 21st also brings two more things special in my life- the famous Father’s Day and my mother’s birthday!  I t seems like that happens every few years-instead of every, what, 6 or 7? 

Okay, that’s it for my jumbled post. I need to get back into the swing of posting.  I mean, my dearest longest online friend has her act so together, that she’s even going to BlogHer!  Have fun, K!

 

Could you help me?

I entered Alexis into a photo contest! You can vote daily until the end of the month, once a day.  Please vote?  She’s #7 and #8  ABProductions

The votes count as 1/3 of her score. So even though she is the MOST GORGEOUS one of the group, she could lose if someone pulls in a lot of votes and she does not.  Sucks, huh?

I appreciate any help you can bring her way! Thank you!!

*************UPDATE********************

Alexis did not win, but thank you so much for your votes!

She received first runner up!  She lost by two points overall! She got a lot of online votes, but you can see that the older looking ‘girl’ won that bit. 

Still proud of my little girl!

 

Good Luck, Sunburst State Competitors!

It is finally here.  Memorial Day weekend.  But we are not going to do it, nope.  I decided to not have baby girl do the state pageant in Springfield this weekend.  I sort of wish we were, but after the week we’ve had. No Thank You. 

Started out with the inland hurricane that blew through a week or so ago. Yikes.  We didn’t have power for 6 days.  I packed up the baby and went to visit my parents for a long weekend.  Well, the last day there, BabyGirl decided to throw up everywhere–she came down with the flu!!  We rushed home (even though no power, we had everything else).  Ended up having to take her to the ER for some fluids, and she’s all better.

And then, I came down with the flu. The worst flu I have ever had. I could hardly do a thing without being exhausted. Lost 17 pounds in 3 1/2 days. I’ve gained 7 back…but fighting to keep the rest off.

Yesterday, we took the baby to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St Louis. She’s fine, but she gets chronic ear infections.  She got tubes put in her little ears….so we’re dealing with all the hospital shock drama now, ie very clingy.   

In our little community there is a big festival going on and they have a baby contest in the morning. We are doing that…it was cheap to enter, so why not? ha

But, I do want to wish a great big good luck to my new pageant mommy friend’s and their children this week at the Sunburst State Competition!!  Samantha, Alexis will do great!!!  Dynice and Christina, good luck–you’re little ones will sleep well on the way home! ha ha!!  Sunburst is a great pageant system!  Good luck!

 

I see Bun-ny!

Time is flying, is it not? It’s already MAY!

Well, I decided to skip the Sunburst State pageant and went to America’s Fabulous Faces Missouri/Illinois State in St Louis instead.  Phew!  Cost a little more, but it was definitely an experience!  She placed 1st Runner Up in Beauty, but we decided not to buy any of the other awards. Example, if you sell the most ads (at $100 a page) you win Grand Ambassador. You can be the ugliest, cryingest baby there, and you get a huge crown and trophy for suckering people into giving you money.  Stuff like that.

I’m proud of my baby-she did awesome. Here she is in her new pageant dress!

And here I put together some shots from the actual Pageant!!

 

And of course she is now 19 months and saying a new word everyday!  I have heard her say a three word sentence twice!  the first was I see Bun-ny!  and the second was I see bear!

 

She’s a queen!

We have always known that BabyGirl is a royal beauty-but now she has shown Illinois too!

About two months ago, she entered the Sunburst Beauty Pageant.  She walked away with a medal for Prettiest Eyes and Hometown Queen age division 11-23 months.  Two weeks ago, I took her to America’s Fabulous Faces.  She could have performed a little better, but still managed to pull First Runner Up!

Then today.  *gasp*  YAY!  BabyGirl entered last minute Celebrity Pageant.  She did FABULOUS and wowed everyone (How does a one-year old do that?!).  She even beat the (not-so) Ex-Director’s granddaughter!!  She came home with FOUR Trophies, a ribbon and TWO CROWNS!  In her age division, she won Most Beautiful, Most Photogenic and Best Personality!!  Since she had such high points, she competed for Overall.  There she won OVERALL BEST PERSONALITY! and BABY MISS CELEBRITY (highest points out of 0-3 year olds!).  SO PROUD!

Okay, so I must say this was an odd pageant for us. I’m very happy with the outcome, obviously, but if my little girl hadn’t have done so well, I definitely would be contacting the national board on a few things.  1) The “ex” director seemed to be running the show. In fact, she got me a discount even though I registered two days before and the deadline had ended two weeks prior! 2)the “ex” Director’s granddaughter was entered.  She had a fit on stage during the beauty competition, so they let her go again!!  So of course, another girl went again…so I had Alexis go again. It was a bit ridiculous. I didn’t think you go “RE-DO’s” in pageants!!  3) the “ex” Director’s daughter, I believe, ended up winning the Supreme title. Uhm….no way should she have won.  I’m sorry, she had no charisma, she barely moved, she BARELY fit into her already plus sized dress (I’m a big girl, I know what I am talking about!)-uhm. No, would have been close to my last pick, actually.  4) the judges. OMG.  One still had the big black permanent marker X on her hand from going out the night before.  They looked like, well, like white trash.  One of them was introduced as being in management at McDonald’s. Another had some experience with pageants as a kid. The third, well, she look like one of the other judge’s mom!  So, I’m thinking, friends of the director and “ex” director?  5) Try as she did, the new director confused the crowns as the end.  And actually removed a crown from the head of girl and gave it to another!! 6) also,  the granddaughter had on what you see on TV as a glitz pageant dress. And she won Overall Best Attire.  Which, yes, it was pretty. BUT IT DID NOT FIT THE GIRL!  It wasn’t sized properly or something, but I saw that little girl’s belly more than I saw her face!!  Sorry, but that girl did not deserve to win that great honor.

So, yeah, we did great, BabyGirl deserved to win (thankfully!)  But I had to get my grievences out somewhere!!

 

Saturday, it was a day for just BayGirl and me. We went shopping and decided to end our evening at KFC. I know, I know, hillbilly to start with, but close to home, has a buffet which makes it easier for me to find something she’ll eat. We go at 5 and beat a lot of the normal traffic. My back is to the front of the restaurant-behind me is an empty table or two and then the buffet set up.

Everyone comments on how adorable BabyGirl is, blah blah blah. Same ole’ stuff. Near the end of our little dinner of playing and eating, a quite average family for Southern Illinois sits down behind me–a 40-something grandmother with smoker voice, a slow looking mother in her late 20s and three children ranging from about 11 to 1 year old. They sit and argue over who ordered what, what a cute baby that it (BabyGirl), and talked on their cell phones (grandmother and mother). I ignore them and think-wow, children really should be seen and not heard.

During the 5 minutes they were sitting there, two of the little girls got up from their dinner, touched my shoulder to tell me “That baby cute” And then one of the “guardians” called them back to the table saying “leave them alone, Shelby” Okay, maybe Shelby wasn’t her name, but it fits. BabyGirl and I get up to leave, I clear the table. I come back get Alexis out of her high chair standing her on the floor, dusting the crumbs off, I hold BabyGirl’s hand and I put my purse on my shoulder and have my drink in my other hand. We turn to leave and are confronted by the eldest looking child blocking our way out.

All I remember is a ponytail that looked like it was put up the night before and a mouth full of silver (ie Mtn Dew mouth). The little girl does a knee bend, arms out with her hands under my child’s armpits–going to pick her up!! I try to pull BabyGirl behind me and say very firmly “DO NOT TOUCH MY CHILD!” I mean, seriously, this girl thought she could walk up to a stranger and pick up an 18 month old!! What the hell? The girl looks up at me and takes a step back and goes “Okay, I won’t” Her grandmother takes a break from talking on her cell phone and says “She ain’t gonna hurt her none” I tell her “Good, she doesn’t know me and will not touch my baby” The grandmother reiterates as she drags out “She ain’t gonna hurt your daughter” I said something to the affect “I don’t care, nobody touches my child I do not know. She could be sick, have a cold” Grandmother “It’s by the grace of God that that child can walk and talk” I just roll my eyes, pick up BabyGirl and say one more time “I don’t let strangers touch my child” The entire place was staring!!

So, tell me someone. When did babies and toddlers become public properties? Every weekend, at least once, a child or even an adult, will pet her head, tweak her cheek, or try to hold her hand!! I mean really! GROSS What would have you done?!

 

Must Try It!

This is fabulous! I just found this through one of my ole’ favorite sites, Posh Mama!

You must check out the Kitchen Cupboard collection from Green Cupboards.  Environmentally friendly products for EVERY ROOM in your house…obviously the Kitchen Cupboard is my favorite!!  Now, go…Check it out!