Thirty... It should be a four-letter word.

Saturday I turn 30. I have been trying most the month to wrap my brain around the idea of it. It isn't working.

When I think back to my early 20's, they really seem so extremely far away. College, my move to Chicago, weeks filled with evenings at the bars and lots of time on email. Writing odes and meeting people for lunch. Big Herm's and euchre leagues.

The early 20's quickly turned into the mid-20's. I bought my first place, friends started to get engaged. Soon we were married and I made the move down to Norfolk. There was still a lot of time out and about, but the group of friends was no longer the same. Finally, we moved back to Indiana.

The turning point of my life came when I was 28. Now a mom, nothing is ever the same. Instead of acting like a kid, I'm teaching them at work and raising one at home. Feeling very much the adult that I wasn't when I was 20. The nights out are few and far between. The friends are spread out and the time on email is very very limited. But family is close and that is important.

I'm sure the 20 year old me would think this time in my life lacks luster and young-me wouldn't trade places for the world. But, fortunately, I feel the same way. While I am none too fond of the number 30, things on this side of my 20's are comfortable and I'm feeling just a tad more wise than I used to. Instead of spending my evenings out, I get to spend every one of them with my best friend and the best little person I've ever seen.

So, I'm feeling old, but feeling lucky.

Fast Friends

Tonight Monica and Eddie Dragut came over to watch the Bears/Packers game. To borrow a quote from Clint (only he was talking about the Brewers), I'm as big a Bears fan as the next guy who isn't a Bears fan. So I wasn't too devastated by the outcome. I had my devastating weekend last weekend.

However, I did love the Bears Tollhouse cookie that they brought and left... Mmmm.

Anyway, Taryn and their son Nicholas were both quite shy at the beginning of the night. By the end, they were literally running around our house yelling! Monica was hoping Taryn would be a positive influence and get Nicholas to eat his dinner... However, it was the other way around and the two ended up having a couple crackers, cookies and yogurt for dinner.

In the picture here, Taryn had set up her chairs like a train and then ORDERED Nicholas to sit down with her.

It was eye-opening to see what it is like to have a little boy in the house. They are a bit more wild than little girls, that's for sure. AND... Monica & Eddie have a bun in the oven! And it will be arriving soon! She is due at the end of March. Clearly we hadn't hung out in awhile...

Hopefully we can schedule some more play dates in the not-to-distant future.

Happy Birthday to My Mom!

Today my mom had her 52nd birthday. I kept asking her what she wanted to do for her birthday and her response was always rather blah saying "when you've had as many birthdays as me..."

But, after some arm twisting, we did have lunch with my grandma and uncle. My mom got quite the array of gifts... A pack of 4 reading glasses from me, and an iPod Shuffle from my grandma. Isn't that kind of ironic or something? Granny glasses and a MP3 player?

Things that are great about my mom:

*She is always willing to do anything for her family. Even when they don't return the favor.

*She is Taryn's biggest fan. And Taryn reciprocates those feelings. As soon as we turn onto my mom's road Taryn starts screaming with joy in the backseat.

*She has endless amounts of energy. At 52 years old, she has way more energy than me and she always has! It was rather annoying when I was a teenager and she was up at 6am singing and vacuuming, but now that we don't live together, it is much more endearing.

*She adores real estate and is always willing to help you look for a house, regardless of the location.

*She is an amazing teacher and works miracles with the students she has.

*She's my mom and sacrificed a ton to be the best single parent as I was growing up.

Happy Birthday Mom! Here's to making it to 100!

Put a Ring On It

I have written many a time about what a girlie girl I somehow gave birth to. Well, we have yet another thing to add to our list.


Taryn often likes to look at my rings and spin them on my fingers. The other day I had the "bright" idea to put my engagement ring on her finger just to see what she thought of it and what it looked like on her chunky little finger.

Dumb idea. She didn't want to give it back. Finally I remembered that someone had given us a tiny baby ring at one of my baby showers. So, I went and dug that up and thankfully got my engagement ring back.


She now asks for my rings whenever she notices them. Today (after much whining) I let her wear my wedding band (no more engagement ring!) and another ring that used to be my Great Grandma's for a little while. She had one on each hand and was doing all sorts of things with her hands. She said "HI MOMMY" and waved at me with both hands while keeping her eyes on the rings. She clenched her hand, watched the rings as she played with her stuffed snowman... It was hilarious. It was the same way I was right after Lee and I got engaged when I loved to stare at my ring.

Again today, I had to offer up her baby ring in order to get mine back. I guess her little boyfriend Conrad at daycare better have a full piggy bank for this little diva.

P.S. Please excuse her outfit. It was Saturday morning and we weren't leaving the house. Yes, she has cammo pants, we live in Indiana. And the sweatshirt is 29 years old (aka it was mine).

Young Love

Lee and I were naive. We thought we had a good... I don't know... 13 years before we had to worry about young suitors courting our little girl. Our eyes have been opened. With one simple name... "Conrad".

A few days ago, I picked Taryn up at daycare. As we were leaving, a little boy came to the door repeatedly saying "bye" to her. As we left, we looked at the pictures of all the kids outside her classroom and she said all of their names. I learned that Conrad was the little boy saying goodbye to her as we left.

Since then, out of nowhere she'll just say "Conrad" and smile and beam and giggle like a teenager in love. If she had a Trapper Keeper she would totally be doodling his name all over it.

This morning when Lee dropped Taryn off at daycare, the first thing she said quietly was "Conrad". Lee said Conrad was also there to say goodbye to Taryn a dozen times as she left this afternoon. Tonight as we drove home from the Attica basketball game, Taryn was getting ready to fall asleep in the backseat. "-onrad." "What did you say?" "-onrad." "Did you just say Conrad?" "Heeeeheeee."

OH BOY. Does anyone know of any pre-K all girls schools?

And though it has nothing to do with the rest of this blog, I just had to post this picture of Taryn and Kylan that was on my mom's camera. My mom gave it the title "BABY, this way".

Welcome Kylan Wade!!

*
On Wednesday, my cousin Jamie gave birth to an 8lb9oz bundle of joy named Kylan Wade. Today we went down to meet and greet our newest little family member!

Grandma Shirley with her new great-grandchild!
Taryn kept pointing to him and saying BABY! She kept wanting to hold him and she listed all of his facial features... Ears, eyes, eyebrows, etc. She also spent her time immitating whatever Kylan did, which was hilarious. If he stuck out his tongue, so would she. We did worry, though, because when we tried to take him back from her she said "MIIIIIINE!"

The proud momma!

The proud one that thinks she's his momma!

At the end of our visit, we had finally managed to harrass Kylan enough that he woke up and stayed awake for quite awhile. During this time, he just looked around and then struck a pose for some pictures. He is such a good baby and only cried when we changed his itty bitty little diaper. He was so interested in everything around him.

I forgot how tiny newborns are! Congratulations Jamie & Matt! You really have a cutie here!

Bye bye Miss American pie

Looks like Ahow has some competition for the title of Dancing Queen.

(Sorry about the quality of the video... Cell phone.)

Going Private

If any of my family and friends want to continue reading my blog, please email me or do whatever it takes to get signed up for it. I know it is a pain in the butt, but I need to up the privacy factor all of the sudden.

Thank you dedicated readers!

Skinny Mini

Lately I have been calling Taryn a little Skinny Mini. She has stretched out all of the sudden. Don't get me wrong, she still has a belly and soft chubby cheeks, but her legs and arms are long and skinny.

Taryn's language skills have improved a ton. She knows a lot of peoples' names now. One of her favorite things to say right now is "NO DADDY!" If we're tickling her she'll say "STOP" and hold her hand up. It is the same way that she holds her hand up to say "hot". She knows the difference between hot and cold and knows to put her hood up when it is cold out. Besides "NO DADDY" we hear a lot of "DASSY". This is what she calls a Paci. She talks a lot about the potty and when we flush it she says "bye bye pee pee" which cracks me up everytime. I'm hoping this interest in the potty turns into potty training here soon... She calls her crayons "color" and is getting close to being able to count to 3. She is such a sweetie and says "Wuv you mommy" and melts my heart. She gives lots of hugs and kisses and blows kisses to everyone when she says goodbye. She loves to talk about animals and what sounds they make. My absolute favorite is "lion". The sound that a lion makes is a whispered "rawr" and she always makes her hand look like it is clawing something too. She still loves to dance and has added a few new moves. It really hit me how much her language had expanded the other day when she brought me one of her "first word" books and could tell me what most of the pictures were herself.

Taryn is enjoying all of her new toys from Christmas and has been starting to have a lot of "tea parties" with her new tea set and her new table. She likes her new coloring stuff and her Sit & Spin and her new princess chair. She got a bracelet that she will put on sometimes when she is pushing her stroller or caring for her babies. While wearing the bracelet you can tell that she is much more aware of her arm and holds it funny. She is still a huge fan of her books, two of her current favorites being her Bible story books. When we get to the place to do the Our Father prayer, she's learned to put her hands together. However, her attention span doesn't quite make it through the whole prayer. She is getting very helpful these days and will bring us our shoes, socks and jacket. She loves to throw things in the trashcan (which can also be a little worrisome if something isn't actually trash). She'll now help us unload our groceries by handing us one can at a time.

I can't believe that she is going on 20 months old this month. It really has flown by! Lee's sister asked me the other day what theme her 2nd birthday would be and it really made it seem close. (P.S. I haven't put an ounce of thought into her 2nd birthday yet! Seriously. May?) She gets cuter and smarter and funnier to us by the day. While I'm sure her sassy little attitude will give us lots of challenges over the next, um, 17 years, I look forward to every day of them!

After Christmas Returns Include: My Sanity!

It was recently brought to my attention that my New Year's post seemed a bit... Well... Discouraged. So, if anyone else out there was concerned for my mental well-being, let me assure you, you can put away the straight jacket and the Prozac, I am doing much better.

To explain, my Christmas break from work started off with me getting sick. Awesome. I fought through and got through Christmas. Then, Taryn got sick. About the same time, my dad arrived to visit. While this is not a bad thing by any means, we always give up our bedroom and stay on the futon in Taryn's room when he visits. (Nothing at all is my dad's fault. Our house is just too darn small for a 3rd adult!!) Sharing a room with Taryn isn't all that fun on a normal night, but when she is sick, FORGETABOUTIT. Taryn stopped sleeping. She stopped napping. The only sleep that I was getting was little catnaps in our LaZBoy. Then (perhaps due to my lack of sleep) my illness made a curtain call. At one point my mom sent me an email saying "Maybe Taryn just isn't going to nap anymore. Some kids give up their naps early." It almost sent me on a killing spree.

Finally, on January 1st, in the pics above, you can see when Taryn finally slept again. She fought me on a nap for a good 3-4 hours. She threw temper tantrums, I threw a few myself. I was ready to move out, divorce Lee, disown Taryn, and jump in the river... Finally, at 5pm, she fell asleep and she was CRASHED OUT. She woke up for dinner and a little bit of play time and then went to bed. And slept. And I slept. And the next day at 6am, my dad left and Lee and I immediately reclaimed our bedroom. And we slept some more.

Taryn is back to going to bed at 7:30, waking at 6:30 and taking a few hour nap in the afternoons. And things are suddenly a lot brighter. It's amazing what a little sleep can do for ya!

Snack & Spin

One of Taryn's gifts for Christmas was a Sit & Spin. I totally had one of these back when I was a tot. Taryn didn't quite get it at first, but she has been spinning away since. This morning she decided to take her cup of raisins and eat them while on the Sit & Spin. Now that's thinking!

Jasper has been enjoying the Christmas gifts as well. "What? I am a princess too!"

And then there were three...

We finally have cabinets in our kitchen again! It had been a slight inconvenience because our fridge, stove and sink were in the kitchen, but pretty much all of our food and dishes were in the dining room. It felt like we were always going back and forth between the two rooms. It is nice to have everything in the kitchen again. AND it is nice to have our dining room back to being only a dining room!

What's left on the kitchen:

Install the countertop next to the stove (hopefully tomorrow)

Some shelves

A little bit of painting and some trim

Oh, yeah... The DISHWASHER that is still in my garage!

But, one thing at a time. I'll just be satisfied with my cabinets!

One last Christmas 2010 Celebration!

Generally the Klemme's have their Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, but this year it was moved to the 26th. I liked having Christmas Eve to get ready for things, but I felt a little burned out on Christmas by the time this day rolled around. It probably didn't help that I was trying to recover from an illness and Taryn had one just beginning. Hopefully I wasn't too Scrooge-y!

Taryn is very serious in this picture. Lee representing West Lafayette High School. RDP!

Look at all those grandkids! They are up to 7 grandkids right now and are actually in the biggest draught they have seen. For the last 6 years there was one grandkid born each year. In 2009 there were two, Taryn & Ryan and 2010 was our first year without a new Klemme. Hopefully the draught is ending soon and maybe we'll see three more grandkids here before long. (Then, I think we're ALL done.)

Taryn's gift at this celebration was a table and 4 chairs. She loves using it at home, but unwrapping it was not all that exciting to her. Especially when Cora was next to her unwrapping this...

"How come Cora gets a wagon and I got a boring ol' table?" She loves her new table now that it is home though!

Lee's parents bought us the treadmill... THANK YOU! In addition, I got 3 different types of bags from Thirty-One. I got a wristlet purse/wallet thing, a lunchbag and a utility bag. The other day I went to school using all three of them. I looked like Thirty-One.com had thrown up on me! Love them though!

The excitement for next year's Christmas is that it will be celebrated in Florida! Lee's parents will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and decided to celebrate with a family trip. SO... Barring any complications due to Lee's job, we'll be enjoying some warm weather next December!

Our Christmas + My family

*
Just realized that I never posted anything about our Christmas celebrations! I guess I just skipped over and went right to New Years!
Her pajamas say "I've been good ask grandma". That's for sure... How could you not want to shower that face with presents though?

Taryn unwrapped her gifts so delicately. She would tear off a tiny piece of paper and then hand it to me before tearing off another. Lee was getting a little impatient with the process and had to "help her".

No wonder Lee was anxious for her gift to be unwrapped!! Batter up!

It was a VERY white Christmas!!! A little too white for my tastes. I prefer when we don't have to worry about half our family members driving over to celebrate.

My mom said (and was serious) "I feel bad, Taryn's pile of gifts isn't very big." Um, yeah... It's just 10 times her entire size. This is what happens when you're the only grandchild!

Four generations + Lee on Christmas Day!

Our little family on our second Christmas together.

Taryn and my cousins Maya and Macy. All the little Boiler Babes got purdue shirts.

Taryn on her Barbie Big Wheel Tricycle. She likes it, but can't quite reach the pedals yet... It'll be great come spring!

After the festivities, my dad came to visit from New Jersey. He was delayed a day by their blizzard (Jersey City, where he lives, got 2 FEET!), but fortunately he was driving out here and not flying. Taryn really took to "Papa" quickly. She has a new thing where she identifies objects with people. Like she will point to my shoes and say "Mommy". Or point to Lee's jacket and say "Daddy". Some things are pretty funny. For example, the remote control is "Daddy", while the laptop is "Mommy". Anyway, since my dad has left, she has been pointing to everything that he used while here and saying "Papa". It is adorable.

Anyway, the Christmas break went WAY too fast, but it was great seeing all the family that we were able to see. It really makes all the work that goes along with the holidays worthwhile. Now, I just hope that my spring break is a little more calm and productive than winter break was... Only 10 more weeks!!