Kitchen Wonder

Tatum's Mimi and Boo bought her a kitchen set for her 2nd birthday.  So during her nap on Mother's Day, I spent my afternoon turning this....

into this....

And she loves it.

B-boy Stance

B-boy Stance, that is what we are calling this new move by Tatum where she'll cross her arms in front of her.  There's just something about those chubby toddler arms that makes this pose adorable.  This picture was taken Mother's Day weekend as we hopped aboard a bus to grab dinner up the road.  Lot most tots I imagine, Tatum loves to identify buses shouting "BUSSSS" when one passes by.  So we treated her to a new experience of riding the bus this past weekend.

Descanso Gardens in April

Descanso Gardens is the sister gardens to LA Arboretum; at least that is what I like to refer to it. As members of the Arboretum we are able to enjoy these beautiful gardens with free admission and it is just 10 miles north from where we live. What Descanso has the Arboretum doesn’t is a train ride. We enjoyed our first train ride with Tatum there on Sunday. And choo-choos are a whole lot of fun.

tree fun

Earth Day weekend was spent setting up two tree distribution for work.  Tatum came along to help, and help she did.  To set up the distributions where free trees are given to residents of LA, the trees have to be unloaded from the truck and displayed for adoption.  Tatum greatly enjoyed the task as she helped carry the trees to the event.  She would pick up the tree, holding onto the black bucket, grunt, and say "heavy, heavy, heavy!"  Being a working mom has its shining moments, and this was one of them for me.  Here she is pictured in the truck where she laughed as she ran around inside.

Tatum's Torments

Recently Tatum came down with an eye infection. Symptom – yellow puss coming out of her tear ducts. This resulted in a two hour wait at the walk-in side of the doctor’s office and we came out with the WORST of medical treatments: an antibiotic ointment that must be applied four times a day for seven days to the lower inside lid of the eye. Tatum was out of daycare for the week. The application process was horrible and in the end all I can say is that next time I will demand eye drops (yes, this is option that I did not know at the time) and the infection is finally over. Tatum was a champ, crying intensely as we held her down to administer the medicine, and then quickly cheering up when it was over. It helped that we pretended to give the medicine to her baby first so she knew she had a friend to share the experience. And it was Tatum’s insistence that we did this saying “baby eye, baby eye”.


And right when that cleared up, Tatum was helping me cook (you know where this is going) and she suffered a second degree burn on her wrist while putting greens in a very hot pan. I know, I know, bad judgment, but it came from the good intention of her wanting to be involved. Nevertheless, the girl has a high pain tolerance. She grabbed her wrist and wined a bit and looked at me very puzzled. I quickly got a bowl of cold water and set her on the floor. She was immediately delighted to splash and play on the floor. After spilling the entire bowl of water (which ran across the room since we have a tilted old house), the greens were on simmer, and we headed to the bath where she continued in a good mood to play. We being great parents had NO first aid materials in the house. Walgreens is about two blocks away so I went and picked up some Neosporin, sterile pads, and medical tape. I returned to my happy babe and not so pleased but very helpful husband. We patched her up, gave her some Tylenol and in the morning she woke with a blistered burn. Parenting is a continual lesson. At least now we have Neosporin in the house.

Two is looking like it will be an interesting adventure.  Happy 23 months Tatter Bell!