Froggy Towel

Bentley's newest favorite thing is her frog towel. She has always loved baths, but now getting out is fun too! Recently she has decided that the bathroom floor is the perfect place to sleep for bed. She gets out of the tub, curls up in her frog towel and lays down. It's nearly impossible to get her up off the floor. I can't figure out why this is so much fun. Maybe it's just something different that delays bedtime. No matter what, it did make for some cute pictures.

Look at that shine!

This morning I was feeling unusually ambitious. I was cleaning the kitchen and decided to sweep and mop the floors as well. For those who read my blog with any regularity, you will recall that sweeping & mopping floors is one thing I dread to do. I was so proud of myself for actually doing it, I had to take a picture and share. Yes, I'm pathetic that I need a pat on the back for this, but hey, take it where you can! So here is my lovely, sparkling kitchen!


And another shot where you can see the floor better. I really like the big tiles. The color is great, it hides dirt so well!

Dancing Queen

Bentley loves to dance. But her "dancing" is pretty funny to watch. My favorite move is The Squat. She seems to like it as well. She'll even dance when my phone rings.

I took a hilarious video of her dancing naked the other night at bedtime. But since I refuse to post naked pictures (you never know what pervs are out there) I didn't. Here's one I took tonight dancing to her Fridge Farm.

Easter

Grandma was kind enough to buy an Easter dress. Bentley looked so cute in it and loved it! We had to put a long sleeve shirt under it since it was a little chilly. Here she is checking out the Easter basket. She thought it was so much fun! The Easter bunny brought her a new shirt, candy, a wood puzzle, wood hangers, and her favorites - a bouncy ball and bubbles. After it warmed up in the afternoon, we played out on the deck with her bubbles and bouncy ball.

For Easter we did a mini Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Basically, we threw a bunch of eggs around the yard and let Bentley run around and pick them up. It took her a little while to figure out that she was suppose to put the eggs in the basket. But she got it after a while. She had a good time and loved the eggs. It was even better when she discovered there was candy inside.

Running with eggs. Good thing it's not scissors!
I think she liked the basket better than the eggs. She loves to carry it around, which is funny since it's almost as big as she is.

Gratitude Gone

So after the earlier post on how I have so much to grateful for, I'm feeling less gratitude after actually going to the dentist. It was not the quick fix I was hoping for, my insurance will only cover half, leaving me with a hefty bill. So while I'm not as grateful as I was, I am still reminding myself (over and over) that I'm still a lot better off than many others in this world.

Here's my gripe. I hate the dentist. (Sorry to all of you dentists, or wife's of dentists, or soon-to-be dentists.) It's really one of my least favorite activities. I think I would rather go to the OB than the dentist. Wait, thinking.... ok, it's a toss up. At least at the OB I don't get shots. But there are no stir-ups involved at the dentist. Hard to say. Even as much as I dislike the dentist, it's still not motivation enough to floss as I should.

In case you were wondering, here's a list of other things I dislike and/or find annoying:
1- Sweeping/cleaning/ mopping floors
2- The fact that women's dry cleaning is twice as much as men's.
3- The running sound the toilet makes when the seal isn't working properly (a recent home problem).
4- Cold weather when I'm ready for spring.
5- Bentley taking off her socks and shoes the minute we get in the car, even if it's only a ten minute car ride.

Dinosaurs

Justin and I both decided to take the day off and have a fun family outing. We went to the dinosaur museum with Bentley. She was both excited and nervous. She hasn't seen anything so big before. She didn't want to get too close but loved looking at them.



Sitting on the dinosaur.


Eating lunch after the museum.



She thought the dinosaur toes were pretty interesting. She likes her toes, so it was pretty neat to see some that were as big as she is!


Bentley liked the dinos better when she could look at them behind the protection of glass. She really liked the dinosaur scale. It tells you how much you weight and what dinosaur weighed the same. She's getting so big and weighs 25 lbs now! We had a great day at the museum! We'll have to go back again because she had a really good time. In fact, she was so tired that she fell asleep in her stroller on the way home.

Gratitude

Today I am feeling especially grateful for what I have in my life. It might have something to do with the following story:

Last night Justin and I were watching a movie after BG went to bed. Justin had bought some Cracker Jack-type popcorn and I was going to town on it. After eating most of the box, I bit down onto a kernel and chipped my tooth. More than anything, it just annoyed me. Now I have to call the dentist, make an appointment, go in, pay money, all for a stupid corn kernel! And I can't stop playing with it with my tongue. The upside is that, for whatever reason, it doesn't hurt. (Good news since my dentist doesn't work Fridays.) Maybe I should have stopped at half the box. :)

So onto the gratitude part. I realized how lucky I am that this is not a catastrophic event. I have dental insurance to cover most of the cost. We have savings to pay any out of pocket expenses. I live in a country where dental services are easy to access. I realized that even though this is an inconvenience and annoying, it's not going to break our budget. We won't have to decide between fixing my tooth and buying food. I have the option and ability to fix it. I feel grateful for that and it helps me to remember all I actually have. What are you grateful for?

Family Update

Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd give a quick update on what's been going on in our lives.

Live is crazy busy! Justin was gone for two weeks on business and is still catching up on work from his trip. It was hard to have him gone for so long. Bentley knows when Daddy is gone and tends to be more clingy, making life a bit more challenging.

We are getting settled back into our normal routine. I have had several programs for work which keep me busy. On top of all that, we are working really hard to get my jewelry business up and running. (Look for a website announcement coming soon!)

So even though life is crazy busy, it's good. Bentley is talking and picking up new words all the time. She loves to play outside and ride her bike. We are getting excited the the weather is finally starting to warm. We are starting our wish list for spring yardwork and we'll see how far the budget takes us. So if anyone has any great gardening or landscaping ideas, pass them my way!

I would like to get family pictures, but this is the most recent I could find. Christmas wasn't that long ago, so it's still fairly new.