Introducing

In an effort to give myself something frequent to blog about and maybe even garnish myself a few more readers I decided to start my own segment called Love/Hate.  The goal of this is to vent about something that you both love and hate at the same time.  I have so many things that come to mind, I had a hard time picking the inaugural topic. But here we have our first entry into Love/Hate:

Cleaning the Bathroom
Love: Who doesn't love a clean bathroom?  Everything smells so fresh.  You can see yourself in the mirror without spots.  There aren't mysterious streaks in your sink that you can't find the source of.  In our case, there isn't kitty litter strewn across the floor.  A clean bathroom definitely makes me one happy lady.
Hate: I hate the actual process of cleaning the bathroom.  Toilet bowl brushes are the most disgusting things ever.  And then you have to lift the seat and clean the rim. YUCK.  The toothbrush holder has a weird concoction of water and toothpaste that has congealed in the bottom.  The kitty litter gets stuck in the grooves of the tile grout and is impossible to sweep out.  Overall, the whole process is 20 minutes of GROSS.

So there you have it.  My love/hate relationship with clean bathrooms.

How you can help:  If you have something that you have a love/hate relationship about, I'd love to read it.  I'll be honest, it took me about 2 hours to create the button you see up there, and I'm not 100% I did it right.  So if you can, grab that button to share with your readers.  And although I know there is a simple way to create a linky so that I can read all your posts, I don't know how and have spent all my blog energy on said button, so please leave a comment so I can come read your love/hate story.  And if you can explain the linky thing simply, I'd love that too.

For the first time ever I'm going to link up with Shannon for So What Wednesday...

 So What ...

• That I DVR Episodes of General Hospital because I just love me some soap opera goodness...especially in the summer
• If my favorite place to buy kids clothes for Harper is Once Upon a Child and the Target clearance rack.  Have you seen what toddlers do to clothes?  And how fast they grow out of them?  No way am I shopping in those expensive baby clothing stores.
• If I'm letting Harper watch Doc McStuffins while I type this.  She has fallen in love with this show and it has inspired her to start "playing doctor."  Every parent hopes their parent grows up to be a doctor right?
• That I listen to completely inappropriate and disgusting rap music while I run...it keeps me pumped up.
• If whenever Harper brings me something pretend to drink she always says it's coffee.  Apparently she thinks that's all I drink.

The Summer of Country Music

I like to think that I have very eclectic music tastes.  I'll pretty much listen to anything, though my favorite types of music are probably pop and rap.  This summer though, I find myself tuned in to 92.3 WCOL here in Columbus.  Maybe it's because I always have Harper around and the music I typically listen to isn't what I'd call child appropriate.  Plus if you're going to listen to country music, summer is the best season for it.  It's sunshine and beer type of music.  Here are some of my crank the volume favorites.

Come Over by Kenny Chesney...I've always loved his music.  Seen him in concert too.

I Don't Want this Night to End by Luke Bryant...this one even made my running playlist because it always makes me want to sing at the top of my lungs.  Plus he is quite yummy.

Courtesy of Lastfm.com

Take a back Road by Rodney Atkins...very catchy

Keep Me in Mind by the Zac Brown Band...I love a little banjo with my country pop music

Red Dirt Road by Brooks and Dunn...another belt it out at the top of my lungs song

So there we have it, my guilty pleasure.  What are your favorite country songs?

Splash

Anyone who has met Harper knows she has the tendency to be very timid.  She is super cautious, so whenever we get the chance we encourage her to do new things and take risks.  One area we have been working on this summer is water.  She is very cautious when it comes to playing in water.  So when we were at Easton and she told us she wanted to splash in the fountains, we were like "Yeah, right."

She started out her usual self, only willing to put her feet in a puddle about 3 feet away from the fountains.  But with continued encouragement and patience, she got brave and by the end of the night was completely soaked from playing.

I always carry extra shorts and underwear in case of accidents, but she had to ride home with no shirt, which was really funny.

**In case you're wondering what she's doing with her hands in all these pictures, she has started "carrying" Mickey Mouse around with her and letting him lay with her when she does things.  Her imaginative play is getting pretty impressive.

• Last weekend we flew to KC to spend some time with my Ems and her family.  She had all the good pics, so check out the wrap up of the weekend here.  The kids are adorable!
• I have been staying up way too late this week watching the Olympics.  I am addicted.  The summer Olympics are by far my favorite.  And I managed to avoid all news sources for two days until I had time to watch the Women's All Around.  Go USA!  I think my new favorite to watch though is volleyball.  I've watched it in the past, but I'm really in to it this year.
• Despite my late nights, I'm not lacking any sleep because Harper has been sleeping in like a teenager.  I think she might be smack in the middle of a growth spurt.  One morning she slept til 9am.  That is unheard of.  Not that I'm complaining.
• There's some major drama going on in my family right now and I'm having a hard time not going crazy about it.  Ultimately there's nothing I can do to change the situation, but I wish there was.  I just don't want the situation to end up badly.  I feel so bad for some of the people involved, and I have to spend a lot of time biting my tongue...I might actually bite it off at some point.
• Summer is almost over.  Two more weeks til I have to go back to school.  I am really sad about it.  I have been having way too much fun with Harper this summer.  I mean who wouldn't love hanging out with this cutie.

Holding Hands with a Lego Man who apparently needs a magnifying glass for his special place????

State Fair

Wednesday was the first day of the Ohio State Fair.  The weather was beautiful, so I was excited to take Harper to her first fair experience.  She LOVED.IT.  To say the least.  I mean, it's animals, fried food, and crazy things to look at...all toddler favorites.

Hanging out with the sheep.  She was sad there weren't amy pigs at the fair yet, but loved all the other animals

Her first fair corn dog.  Passing the tradition on to the next generation

Feeding the pygme goats at the petting zoo.  I was proud of brave she was going right up to the animals to give them carrots.

Talking Two Year Old

As Harper's vocabulary continues to grow, I am constantly amazed at the conversations we have.  Here are a few gems:
1. (Background - she loves to close all the doors upstairs every morning.  Also she watches Dora the Explorer as much as I'll let her.)
       Me: Harper, Mommy needs you to open her door
       Harper: No.
       Me: Please open the door.
       Harper: No mommy, you have to say abre (open in Spanish)

2. While making silly faces and noises at lunch....
      Harper:  What's Harper doing?
      Me: I don't know
      Harper:  I don't know either
followed by 2 minutes of hysterical laughing.  Seriously, when did she learn "either" and how to use it correctly?

3.  Harper:  I want to watch T.V.
     Me: Why?
     Harper: Because I have to.
Maybe we need to do some lessons on have to versus want to?!

Some days I think I'm conversing with a 14 year old.  I can only imagine what's to come.