A few months ago the super cutie would pop around a corner or pull a cloth off her head and say “peek-eee-boo”. Today I tried the same game with her. She ignored me.

Now she feeds herself, tries to dress herself (often objecting to outfits I select for her), and wants to do things on her own. “I want to do it” is a new favorite phrase.

Most recent from the super cutie: Freddie explained to Grandma Julie that Daddy is going to drive to Disney World and Mommy and Freddie are going to fly. Took the adults a few minutes to figure out why she was flapping her arms. We told her about the airplane….but she thought we were birdies.

In other news, Freddie gave up her pacifier last night. She cried a bit but it wasn’t too bad. She found one this morning and said “I have to throw it away. I’m a big girl now”.

Yesterday I told her to throw one away and she said “but I want to keep it”. She knows now what she is supposed to do. Doesn’t mean she has to like it. She threw it away and cried for just a few minutes.

This morning Freddie and I cut the nipple off one. I let her keep that one. She likes to hold it.

She is such a good baby….big girl.

It looks like I did not learn my lesson about uploading videos right away. I broke one video camera a couple years ago and lost all of Freddie’s new baby movies. The videos I’m putting up now are mostly from a year ago. Bad Angie.

I’ll try to do better.

My regualar camera is still broken and I’ve been using Guinness’. Only problem is I don’t have the cord to upload the pics. I have lots of Christmas and birthday pics on there. I’ll do my best to get them to you all soon.

Freddie had a great low-key birthday with only small presents from Mommy and Daddy. She knows now that birthday’s involve presents and cake. She was sad when her birthday was over, but soon got excited about my birthday coming up in May. I’m not sure if she understands she won’t be getting presents on Mommy’s birthday.

We had a small gathering on the Sunday after her birthday with just my family in Lodi. I meant to have something for the family in Sacramento, but it just didn’t happen. Hmm…bad Mommy.

The Lodi family gave way way more gifts than the child needed, but boy has she been having fun. She is especially fond of her necklaces, pop-tent, and many many books. The kid loves to read. She sits with a book and mimics the inflections I’ve used while reading the book. If she remembers any of the actual words she uses them. She likes to make up her own story to fit the book. Yesterday she picked up one of my books, no pictures, and happily read it to herself adding her own cute little story. “Mommy loves Freddie” and “Daddy loves Freddie” seemed to come up a lot. She likes to add “too” to things too. “Freddie loves Mommy too” etc. She spent at least 20 minutes reading my Hamish McBeth Mystery. I love living a half a block from the library.

My diet isn’t going so well yet. I plan to step it up a bit this coming week.

I did start work on Freddie’s room. Freddie is very excited about “Mommy painting Small World on the wall.” She points and talks about it nearly every morning.

Last night Freddie kept getting out of her bed to come into our room. It was early yet, so I hadn’t bothered with the baby gate. At 9:00, early for Freddie, she came in and said “Mommy put baby gate on”. Her way of telling me she was fully ready for bed. I put the gate on and she hopped in bed without even a whimper. Such a good baby.

The other day I mentioned to Guinness that I’d hoped Freddie would count to ten before she turned two. When I got home from work, Guinness had taught her. He said it only took about six minutes. I think I’ll ask him to toilet train her too. He’s a good teacher.

Freddie is big on the hugs and kisses lately. Yesterday she danced around me while I folded laundry. I like to sit on the floor and stack it all up around me. Freddie said “big hug” and “big kiss” every ten seconds or so and climbed all over me. Too cute. I love that baby. I think she likes to make up for the lost hugs and kisses while I’m at work all week. She loves the weekends, but she doesn’t want to nap when I’m around. Yesterday I had to leave the house so she’d go to bed. I left and Guinness asked her if she wanted to go get in her bed. She was sound asleep when I came home. She just goes upstairs, finds a pacifier, climbs in bed and pulls up the covers. Such a good baby.

Last night she brought Daisy, one of her favorite dolls, over to me and said “I colored Daisy”. Freddie has been pretty good about only coloring on paper. She has an easel set up with lots of crayons. Before this she only colored on non-paper once…on her tricycle. Daisy had a bright blue face. I told her it was bad to color on Daisy and she teared up a little bit. I checked her room, but nothing else was covered with blue crayon. Freddie and I took Daisy, a hard plastic Cabbage Patch Kid, to the bathroom and used a nail brush to scrub her clean. Once clean, Freddie hugged Daisy, said “I’m so sorry Daisy” and gave her a teary hug and kiss.

She really gets the “it’s bad” thing. I used the little Captain from her toy tugboat to illustrate the “it’s bad to pee in the bath tub” thing. Now nearly every bath she find the Captain and scolds him “Don’t pee in the bathtub Captain. It’s bad!”. The Captain is hollow with a small hole on the bottom. He was full of water one bath and I squeezed it out of him…then scolded him. Freddie never forgot.

I think she’s growing again. That baby never stops eating. Yesterday we went out to breakfast. She had eggs, toast, two orange slices and some potatoes. We walked in the front door and she said “e hungy”. She says “e” for “I’m”. Not really sure why. I think the only day recently she got her fill was Super Bowl Sunday. We had food out all day and she took what she wanted whenever she felt like it. She loved it! I’m sure she’ll grow a little pot-belly again and then grow a couple inches. She’s already much taller than most kids her age. At almost 24 months, she’s wearing 2T and 3T clothes. I don’t buy 2T anymore because they’re starting to be too small. She’s tall and skinny.

New Business Plan:
I apparently freaked some people out with my last post. Don’t worry. All is well. I don’t take any of it back but it’s really not that bad. Dad and Mom didn’t freak out.

I decided to stay in Lodi for one year. Next January, Guinness and I are going to take a super long vacation and run a marathon in Disney World. When we get back I’ll start work as a Broker at a Sacramento Real Estate company yet to be determined. I have to see who will provide the best offer. Guinness or I, or maybe both of us, might have to take a part-time job to make ends meet for a little while. Someday, in the distant future, I may even open my own office in Sacramento. I might find working for another company actually works better for me. Not sure yet. We will see.

Guinness’ back is still way messed up. He had to stop taking the extreme dose of Motrin since it started upsetting his stomach. I tried the reflexology on him last night. Not sure if it did anything, but he likes the 45 minute foot rub either way. He’s been icing and stretching and doing just about everything we can think of to get it feeling even a little bit better.

Work at my office has been driving me crazy. I’m still torn between staying and finding something new. I’ve considered opening my own office in Sacramento. That’s still a few years off. I could just join a Sacramento office and work as a Broker. Of course I have no client base so unless they (the new office) handed me a few listings it would take a few months to break in. I could open a Transaction Coordinating office in Sac right now. Problem is the demand is fairly low for that sort of thing at the moment. Realtors are working twice (sometimes even three times) as hard for a fraction of the commission. Not many can afford to hand over even a small portion to a coordinator. Lots of Realtors are getting out of the business.

Everyone I know in Lodi I’ve already referred to my Dad. But a switch to Sacramento would require lots of advertising…I haven’t the capital to make it happen. Dad and I just sold a house to a girl I’ve known since I was three! He sold it, I assisted. That’s just the way it is. I’m worried no matter how hard I try for it in Lodi, I’ll always just be Larry’s daughter. They don’t care that I’ve been in Real Estate on-and-off for 13 years…nearly half my life! They don’t care that I have a BA in Economics. I’m Larry’s daughter and isn’t he nice for giving his daughter a job. When he retires they’ll come to me…maybe. If I stay I’ll never feel like I’ve really accomplished anything.

I told Dad I would stay.

And they might not come to me. Probably 80% of Dad’s clients are the sort of extreme Christian that he is. I am not. I don’t believe in mixing work and religion. I don’t like having a religious conversation unless it’s on my own terms and I don’t have to fake it to get the client. I’m not going to pretend I share all of his beliefs because I really really don’t. I’m not going to stick a fish symbol on my car to prove something. I’m not going to pray with every client that comes in the door. I don’t believe in praying in groups. I spent too much time in a wacked-out-their-minds church to participate in that kind of crap. Prayer for the sake of hearing your own voice and proving something to those around you isn’t my cup of tea. Dad doesn’t do that. He believes in what he says and does.
I made good money last year but have taken a serious pay-cut, as everyone has, to stay in Real Estate.

Anyway…I’m going to stop focusing on that, treat it as a regular job for a little while and focus on getting in shape and my house organized. I’ll get organized at work too.

Freddie is simply the best baby in the whole world…at least I think so. If I make a noise like I’m upset or hurt, she comes running and says “Are you okay Mommy?”. Seriously cute. The house is so big she likes to call out “Where are you Mommy?” quite a lot. She lost her Mr. Potato Head, one of her favorite Christmas presents this year (Thank you Aunt Lynnie!). She’s been running around the house for 2 days saying “Where are you Potato Head?”. It took me a little while to figure it out. I’ll find him.

Last night she spent the first full night in her big-girl bed. I put the baby gate on her bedroom door, since we don’t have an actual door, so that I could get some sleep. Guinness doesn’t get it, but I tried to explain how knowing she had the option to wander this big old house in the middle of the night made me more than a little nervous. I think the big bed is more comfortable because she slept through the whole night. That’s still a rare occurrence. Generally she wakes up once around 4:00 for a cup of milk and a diaper change. I think the cold pee wakes her up. She stays warmer in the big bed. She tosses around less and has a big comforter on her.

Right now she’s coloring on the easel Guinness got her for Christmas. We’re in the kitchen and I’m just about to make us Sunday morning pancakes. Josh is coming over around noon to watch the big football games with Guinness. I’m going to try to get some laundry done and maybe even work on Freddie’s room a little bit. We will see.

Thanks for listening to me vent.

I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch with just about everyone lately. I’ve been tired, busy, and annoyed with my own self control and determination.

My house is a mess, I failed my diet, and I’m generally just in a bad mood. I’ll get better though. My 30th birthday is coming up in May. I’d really like to have my life organized and my body cooperating by that time. I’d like to reach my goal weight by then. I seem to think by mentioning it here I’ll actually follow through. Fat chance.

Freddie is totally amazing. She keeps me going. She’s using complete sentences and is crazy tall. I haven’t finished, or really much started for that matter, her new bedroom design. Someday I’ll get it done.

Guinness took a few pictures of Christmas but my camera is still broken. We don’t have many pics but I’ll try to get him to upload what we do have soon.

Guinness is still in pain. His back just doesn’t seem to get better…ever. Makes him grumpy. Can’t blame him. He has been working on getting the basement finished. It looks great! I haven’t been much help at all down there since I’m always at work.

What a depressing post. Sorry all. I’ll be happier next time.

We woke up late, at 7:00 am instead of 4:30 as we had the previous mornings. After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, Freddie and I headed to the store. We didn’t find the toddler bed I hoped to get, but did get Freddie her very first pet. Hugo is a very pretty beta fish and Freddie just adores him.

After coming home, having lunch, and setting up Hugo’s new home, Freddie took a nap and I actually got to read a book!

This evening, Freddie and I watched a little Playhouse Disney before having dinner…vegetable beef soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, an apple and a small piece of the yellow cake with chocolate frosting I made during Freddie’s lunch and nap.

Freddie’s acting sleepy again, so we’re no headed upstairs to take a bath and then go to bed.

I’m hoping to talk to Guinness tonight too.