mommys little helper

Scarletts whole face lights up when I turn the blender on. She stops whatever naughty thing she's doing and runs over as fast as she can to help. She even helps me drink it afterwards. Healthy girl :)

...2013

I have a lot of goals for 2013. I have never really made a new years resolution before so I guess i'm making up for the past 23 years, because I have a million this year. I know everyone says they want to lose weight/go to the gym/ eat better. Well I have that goal too.. kinda. I actually eat pretty well, but then for about 2 weeks I go on a crazy In n Out & pizza binge. I really need to get that under control and maybe just limit that to once a month or maybe twice ;) I also like/love to workout, but ill be on a good routine of working out for a while and then just stop. Probably around the time i'm stuffing my face with burgers and pizza. I have this book called Recipes for Health Bliss that I love but would like to actually open it more in this coming year. 

I take plenty of pictures of Scarlett so I don't need to do more of that, but every single picture is on my phone. I really need to get them into a photobook. I would love to scrapbook her whole life, but I think that would take me months and half of my savings. So ill settle for something in between. 

she likes to put her headbands on herself now

Heres a little glimpse at my list..

go to bed earlier

become a better saver

walk my dogs. sad. but true

bake a cake

learn to sew

make Scarletts halloween costume

cook dinner most nights

clean my car out

stop being so bossy. sorry Tony

love the simple things

I have so many more little things I want to accomplish, half of which I can't remember. Probably because i'm beyond exhausted & sadly it's only 9pm. My baby really wears me out. I refuse to call her a toddler, even thought thats what she is now. She really does act like a little girl though, she's so sweet and knows how to use that to get what she wants. She loves puppies and blowing kisses and being naked. She pees on my floor more then a new puppy, but she's so happy when in the nude, that I let her run around naked until she pees, then I realize "oh I should probably put a diaper on her now". She has this new way of trying to tell us what she wants.. she just sits there and says UH UH UH over and over again until we figure out what it is. I thought it was the cutest thing ever when she first started doing it. But then after we heard it about 1000 times a day, it started to drive me craZy. I still secretly love it though. I really love my baby as much as a mom ever could. After we put Scarlett to bed, I love to ask Tony what he thought was cutest thing she did that day.. and the funniest.. He had to leave for work super early tonight but if I were to ask him, I think he would say it was when he turned his head for a second and next thing he knows she's eating an entire crayon. He's so sweet and let me sleep in this morning while he got up with her, but then came running in our room yelling "I NEED YOUR HELP". I look at Scarlett and all of her teeth are green, her whole mouth was green, tongue, everything. It was pretty funny, wish I would have gotten a picture. Anyways, I love to go through my phone and look at all of her perfect pictures every night. I re watch all of her cute videos every night. And I laugh to myself at all the funny things she did that day. Im pretty much obsessed with her as you can tell, but I just feel so lucky to have such a sweet, spunky little girl. 

having ourselves a merry little christmas

Merry Christmas! This Christmas has been so much fun already! Tony and I are such procrastinators, so every day we would say we would go get pictures with Scarlett meeting Santa, tomorrow. Well we never went... So I came up with the great idea of having Tony dress as Santa. He definitely wasn't jolly St. Nick... He hated me, and Scarlett hated him (santa) but we did get some cute pictures. I made Tony go to the park in his fat suit, which probably wasn't the best idea when people started to ask to take pictures with him. haha! This was also the first year that Tony and I have ever made Christmas Eve dinner. It was so much fun and so good. We made a rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and corn. Thanks to Stephanie for the amazing recipe! After dinner we put Scarlett to bed and made Santa's cookies and brownies and watched cheezy lifetime christmas movies and played movie charades during commercials. It was one of the most fun Christmas Eve's ever. Christmas morning we opened our gifts and made a big breakfast with chocolate chip pancakes, sausage, eggs, and fruit. And when Scarlett wakes up from her nap were gonna go to Mt. Charleston! Cant wait! 

Scarlett caught mommy kissing Santa Claus...

 

Christmas Eve dinner

Loving her baby doll & Cinderella II

Hipster Santa

Loving all this wrapping paper!

Scarlett skyping grandma and Xave, she is the sweetest little girl ever. 

Christmas Eve charades, im embarssing. 

Holiday cheer

Every year Tryst & XS, where Tony and I work, donates money to the KLUC toy drive, this year we raised $172k!! The day of the toy drive, all of the staff go to Walmart and fill up shopping cart after shopping cart with toys. The toy aisle shelves are seriously empty! This year was so fun because Scarlett got to participate. This was like a dream come true for her. For once in her life she got to take every. single. toy. off the shelves. It was a great day for me also to see her picking out toys for other less fortunate kids <3 This year was also fun to have Tony's mom come with us to help. Over the past few years, Tryst & XS have donated so much money to the toy drive that the mayor declared Dec. 5th Tryst & XS day! Its so nice to work for such an amazing company!

Never ending line of all of the shopping carts filled with toys!

Fascinated by a bagel

 We also were able to get in the holiday spirit a little early this year because tony's sissy is having her baby December 18th (tomorrow! Happy Baby day Angela!) & his family will be in Chicago with her for Christmas, so we had Christmas at our house last week. Tonys other sis Jenny and her boyfriend and his mom and dad all came over for games, din din and a gingerbread house competition. 

 Starting from the left: mine & Tonys Tonys parents (the winners) & Jenny and Miahs. We had 30 minutes to complete our houses. In those 30 minutes of course Scarlett wanted to be held, so Tony the perfectionist made most of our house. It looks beautiful but he went so slow to make it perfect that it looks a little bare :( But still perfect!

What we've been doing lately... Park dates. Scarlett & I usually go to the park everyday. She loves being outside and we always have fun. She makes this face below when I am counting 1..2..3... to push her on the swings. It cracks me up everytime. 

little angel

New words

Well my phone is totally smashed and useless (thanks Scarlett). So I havn't been able to take pictures or videos for a while, which sucks because Scarlett is out of nowhere full on walking & talking... kind of. She just started saying soo much! Its crazy. She now says "tickle, tickle" and makes tickling fingers it's the cutest thing ever! She says "here!" when she's trying to feed you or hand you something.  I swear she also says doggie. Wish I had some videos to show ya... heres some pics from the past week I took on Tony's phone. 

                                                          Having fun at the park

                        Today at Bass Pro Shops.. my little shopper. She's such a girl.

Firsts

Scarlett said her first word! So for a while now, since about about 7 months, Scarlett has said mama & dada. But she doesn't really say them with purpose, she kind of just babbles them throughout the day. She does yell mama when she's crying and wants me, but i'm not gonna count that... because I really feel like Hi is her first real word. Maybe I just want it to be because its so dang cute. See for yourself... She was saying it to me a million times and when Tony finally got his camera out she only said it once. The cutest part is she knows when to say it at the right time. She says it when we first see someone and she waves and says "hi." 

Also, Scarletts hair is finally long enough to do pigtails! I was so excited when I first tried and she actually let me do it. I gave her a forbidden object (a quarter) to hold, so she would sit still, and they looked soo cute on her. They also made her look so much older :( She hasn't let me put bows in her hair since she was about 6 months, so i'm so happy that I can finally do something to her crazy hair!

 Tony & I both swear, ever since she's turned 1, she seems so much older. She also gets cuter every day <3

One year old

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. How very true. I have never been happier in my life, Scarlett has brought us so much joy! Every day with her is special. Every night after I put her to bed I think back on the day and smile. And about 10 times a day I say to Tony "Look how cute she is!" I just can't get over how amazing she is! Here are some things Scarlett is doing at one!
*Shes the happiest little girl. Im sure most parents say that, but she really is. Everywhere we go, people comment on how happy she is
*Loves the bath more than anything! She splashes so much theres barely any water left in the bath. 
*Finally sleeping through the night!! She usually goes to bed around 630/7 and is up around 6/630
*Claps for just about anything. She is always very proud of herself :)
*Waves when we say hi and just started saying "hiiii" in the sweetest little voice ever. It melts my heart every time
*Says mama and dada 
*Shes walking so much now, but still prefers her siLLy crawl
*Loves to smile :) for the camera. Probably the cutest thing ever!
* She eats really well. She looooves quesadillas. blueberries. bananas. broccoli. 
*She usually wakes up from her nap in a not so happy mood, not sure why. But if I give her a pretzel her whole mood turns around. Its hilarious
*Loves being outside
*Loves the dogs, she tortures our dog Beasley but he puts up with it because she feeds him half of her food
*Loves the toilet and toilet paper, what baby doesn't
*Loves cell phones. She is very serious when she talks on the phone and usually "yells" at the fake person on the phone with her
*Finally goes to bed all on her own! Im so proud. I rock and nurse her and lay her down awake and shes out in a few minutes. If anyone knew what we've gone through to get here, they'd be proud too :)
*Nap time is a different story. She insists on being rocked to sleep :( Its exhausting because it can take longer to rock her to sleep than her actual nap! Scarlett you're lucky we love you so much!
*Refuses to let me put bows or hats on her. But she loves to put headbands around her neck
*Loves brushing her teeth!
I could go on forever! I just don't want to forget a thing! 

1 week old

3 Months old6 months old
9 months old

ONE!

Thankful

I just wanted to write a quick little post about how wonderful my mother in law is. She has always been there to support Tony and I. She's so thoughtful and sweet and the most amazing mother. After Scarlett was born, she spent the night with me and got up in the middle of the night to help me change and feed her so I could get a little sleep. She made us dinner and breakfast when we came home from the hospital and helped us with dishes and laundry and everything else during that crazy time. She is so great with Scarlett and will come over anytime to babysit. Scarlett loves her! Last night, she came over to watch Scarlett while Tony and I went to work, and not only did she play with her all morning, but when I woke up all of our laundry was done and folded into a million neat little piles. All this laundry would have taken me hours! I am not exaggerating when I say there was about a months worth of laundry!! I am so thankful for her and all that she does for us! We love you!

Happy Birthday

I cant believe it's been one year since my baby was born. I miss that teeny tiny little cuddle bug, but I love the independent, bubbly one year old she has become! Im bummed I didn't blog about the day she was born, so I will just have to go back in time for a minute to reminisce... My due date was November 15th, but Scarlett just couldn't wait, definitely fits her personality. A week before, me, Tony and his sister went to dinner at El Segundo, our fav, and then got milkshakes next-door at Stripburger. This close to my due date, my belly was so big and I was so uncomfortable that all I wanted to do was hang out at home. So afterwards, thats exactly what we did and I'm soo happy because I didn't know what was coming next! Im not sure I would have survived the embarrassment of my water breaking in public. Tony is so sweet and made me a huge comfy bed on the couch and we watched tv. All of a sudden, it felt like Scarlett gave the biggest kick and then BOOM! ...just like the movies,  my water broke. There was seriously so much water, Tony and I were both in such shock, our brains couldn't remember what to do! So we called his mom and she ever so wisely told us "GO TO THE HOSPITAL!" Naturally, I took a shower, because you have to be clean for when your pushin out a baby, and off we went to the hospital! We got there at 11:45 and the first thing I asked was "when can I get the epidural?" I got my epidural within an hour of getting to the hospital. I felt contractions for about 15 minutes until the anesthesiologist came and thought I was gonna die. I have no idea how women do natural birth! Me, Tony and our best friend Kara just hung out in the room and watched movies all night until it was time to push.  I had an amazing delivery experience thanks to the epidural! And on November 8th at 753am Scarlett Lilly Zanello was born <3 Im so thankful to have had Tony, my mom and Kara there. Of course, Kara filled the entire room with fresh flowers, brought my favorite meal and deserts from Panera bread, brought a million snacks, and a case of water with a bunch of lemons, because she knows I love lemon water. I know shes amazing and were so lucky to have her in our lives! 
Fast forward one year later... The night before Scarletts birthday Tony and I had a little date night and went to El Segundo and got milkshakes :) The next day, we took Scarlett to Town Square to play and the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Afterwards we went home to have cake. We were gonna let her have the whole cake to smash, but she seemed to have a little belly ache. But you can't not have cake on your birthday, so I gave her a tiny bite to try and she spit it out! She's never had sweets so I thought she was going to be in heaven! I don't know any kid who would rather eat broccoli than cake! Scarlett definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer! This year with Scarlett has been the best year of my life and Im seriously so lucky to be her mommy! We are also so lucky to have amazing family that has been there to help us every step of the way!! We love you!

Yayy! I'm one!

I put a million candles so Scarlett would like it :)