That tweet was sent out yesterday morning. Why? Because it was too freaking cute to not be shared.

It nearly melted my heart to hear her say it with such conviction. She didn’t even think twice about it. Just plain and simple.

“I like my daddy!”

I immediately told my husband of course, who happened to be at the store. You could hear the smile in his voice. That man was proud and definitely felt loved. And, rightfully so. His three year old daughter just proclaimed him to be the center of her life!

I got a response from @TRONash that pretty much sums up how most daddies would feel…at least I think.

I later asked my husband how he felt when I told him about it. He confirmed that he felt proud. But, he also said it made him feel like he was doing a decent job.

I would have to agree.

Oh! And why was I asking my daughter that question? Because I was taking the “What Disney Princess are You?” quiz on Facebook. Her responses led to her being Aurora. Because I know you were dying to know.

Now that I’ve told you the story of how our daughter was born, it’s only right that I share how my husband and I met.

Our 6 year anniversary was last weekend, but we’ve known each other for over 13 years.

It all started back in 1995 when my friend and I went over to her friend’s house. Mind you, I was all of 15 back then.

Her friend happened to be on the phone with a guy who later turned out to be my husband’s cousin.

So, she hands the phone to my friend and they start to talk. He “liked the sound of her voice” and they exchanged numbers.

It’s important to note that we lived about 20 miles away from each other, on total opposite ends of the city. When you’re 15, without a car or license, this becomes a challenge.

My friend and I call this guy one day on a three-way call. I don’t know if you remember how silly you can be when you’re 15. But, you do things like that.

Well, he wasn’t home. And who answered the phone instead?

A guy that would 8 years later become my husband.

Since his cousin was not home, we started talking to him.

And then my friend had to hang up. So, it was just him and I talking. And now we exchanged numbers.

What I didn’t know was happening on the other end, is that while my friend and I innocently thought we had met some new friends, my husband’s cousin had convinced him to talk to me. Cause you know, “if you talk to her while I try to talk to her friend, it might help my chances.”

Or something like that. I don’t know, boys are weird. This is just what I find out years later.

Yeah, so we exchange numbers and now we begin to talk on a regular basis.

We talk on the phone for about 6 months before we decide to meet each other in person. And even then, it was totally just a friend thing. We got to know each other pretty well and although he had a slight idea of what I looked like based on a picture I mailed him, I had *no clue* what he looked like.

We meet each other at a local mall that was mid-way and hang out for a bit at the arcade.

And then, we part ways…

We continue the phone conversations for the rest of 1996. We finally figure we should probably do something about this and meet each other again in person later that year. We’ve now known each other a year.

Our “relationship” (if you can call it that at the age of 16), lasts a few more months before we break up. You know, officially. It’s now 1997.

We don’t talk for about 5 months or so. It gets hard to remember exactly.

One day, out of the blue, I decide to give him a call. And he’s actually home.

I don’t know why I called. Maybe I missed him. But, it got us talking again.

By now, though, I not only have a license, I own a car.

So, now I can actually go visit him all the way on the other side of town…often.

I am also a senior in high school at this point and was going to school half-day only since I had extra credits. This gave me time to go to school, drive all the way across town, and meet him in time for when he got out of school.

Yup, the stupid things you do when you’re *in love*. Or in like. [insert huge eye roll here]

From 1997 through 1999, we hung out…a lot. We didn’t really call each other boyfriend/girlfriend, but we were.

Then, when he graduated high school, he moved to South Florida. We spent about 6/7 months doing the long-distance relationship thing before I transferred colleges and moved to South Florida also.

:sigh:

College. Graduate college. Move back to Orlando. Get married.

That pretty much sums up the next 2-3 years.

And there you have it. How the husband and I met, and then some.

To this day, I wonder….”What if I had never called that day?”

Would we have ever gotten back together?

In Hawaii - 5 Year Anniversary/Honeymoon

There’s a lot of jokes going around the internet today for April Fool’s Day, but I have my own special memory…

Every year on April 1st, I’m reminded of the first time the husband (then boyfriend) said I love you.

He chose to do so on April 1st.

On April Fool’s Day.

At the time I was fresh out of high school (i.e. young and naive) and went home that day wondering, “Is he playing a joke on me?”.

I called all my friends, told them of the story, and asked if they thought he was serious or if it was all one big April Fool’s joke.

The husband laughs to this day that I could have thought it was a joke.

But come on, seriously….

Don’t choose April Fool’s Day to say I love you for the first time!

Man oh man…so much has been going on…

Husband has been out of work for almost 4 months now. Job market is just so slow right now. Hopefully the new year will bring about some prospects. It’s been hard and he’s (we’re) definitely frustrated, but we’re hanging in there.

In the meantime, we’ve been working on setting up our freelance web / graphic design business – might as well use the free time and do something productive, right? Still, that’s also hard, since I’m not able to help out too much, as I’m still working full-time and my job is super busy. But, it’s coming along.

Baby girl will be turning 2 in a few days and she’s definitely in her terrible 2s! The lil diva won’t stand for nothing! Everyone tells us it’s just a phase and she’ll grow out of it, bla bla bla, but damn, it’s hard to deal with. Potty training was attempted and well, that’s it. She thinks the potty chair is a toy, so we figured she’s not ready yet. Oh, and have I mentioned that she still drinks milk from a bottle and uses a binky? Yea, we have a lot of work to do – we know.

To add to all the madness, my father was just recently diagnosed with early alzheimer’s. He’s doing fine and you can’t really tell much difference, but it’s just little things here and there. We’re starting to learn to make small changes to adjust.

But, 2007 is almost over, so I can only hope that 2008 will bring better things our way…

What are you looking forward to the most this holiday season?

Wow! It has been a long time since I’ve posted, huh?

It’s been rather busy both at work and in the home life. But, I wanted to do a quick post to plug my husband’s site.

My husband is a graphic and web designer.

His portfolio is up at http://createone.energdesign.com/.

If you know of anyone looking for a graphic designer, spread the link!

Dear Baby Daddy Husband:

Today is our wedding anniversary.

We’ve made it 4 years!

Well, really we’ve known each other a lot longer, so 4 years really doesn’t do us justice, now does it?

Still, 4 years is something to be celebrated!

That’s 4 years of putting up with me and my

• anal-retentive self
• weird animosity towards socks
• love for cheesy chick flicks
• massive amount of shoes you think all look the same (I assure you, they’re not)
• goofy, but ever loving nature

Of course this also means that I’ve been putting up with 4 years of you

• being a smart ass
• leaving your socks lying around
• not putting things back in their place (you know just what I mean)
• procrastinating until the last minute 
• always finding a way to harass me make me laugh

However, there are a few great things we share that bring us a common bond:

• like our taste in music (most of the time anyway)
• our constant support for each other and desire to be successful
• the ability to endlessly quote cartoon movies & slip it into normal conversation
• a certain lil monkey that we’d do anything for
• our love for each other

So, here’s to us baby daddy and many more years…

technorati: wedding anniversary, husband, baby daddy, happy anniversary

Baby girl is now 14 months old (Just when do you stop counting the months?). Anyway, as a very active 14 month old, she naturally wants to explore. Problem is, she doesn’t exactly know her boundaries just yet. She completely ignores when we tell her NO and she runs away when we go to grab her. This works alright when at home. But, when out and about (at the store, mall, neighborhood, etc.), I would like to be able to walk around with her and get her out of her stroller or the shopping cart. I know she would LOVE this too. She can only last in the stroller but so long before she gets frustrated and tired. Same thing with the shopping cart. So, what are our options?

Well, just the other day, the husband and I were talking and we started laughing when we remembered the baby leash safety harness.

See, we used to think that the baby leash was a horrible horrible invention. I mean, why would anyone put a LEASH on their baby? The poor little things were walking around looking like little dogs!

We SWORE we would never do that to our baby when we had one. However, upon actually having a baby and when faced with such a situation, we can’t help but wonder if maybe the leash would help. It would help her with her frustration, since she’d actually get to be walking instead of strapped into the cart or stroller. Then again, she might get even more frustrated when she realizes she can’t get very far. It would also help us have control and she wouldn’t be able to get very far from us.

I have no idea, what do you think? Would you use a baby harness for your toddler? Or, have you used one in the past?

baby image via babycenter store
dog image via doggienews.com

technorati: safety harness, baby leash, parenting, toddlers, motherhood

Maybe you’ve seen the latest Ciara video. The one where she looks like a mix between Aaliyah, Janet Jackson in her Control days, and short-haired Toni Braxton.

My husband has now fallen in love with Ciara. I mean he liked her before, thought she danced good and such, which I agree, but now he’s in love. I like the song too, but the video is clearly meant for men such as my husband, so they can salivate all over themselves. What’s bad is that my husband loves to share. He loves to share so much that EVERY.TIME the damn song or video comes on, I MUST hear ALL about it. It’s down right sickening. :eyeroll:

If you haven’t seen the video, just take a look and see what I mean.

***WARNING: Do not watch in front of your husband for he may drool all over you.***

Now tell me, how am I supposed to compete with THAT? :sigh:

Don’t forget to vote for me on TopMomma!

technorati: ciara, promise, aaliyah, toni braxton, janet jackson, husbands, men, music videos

Hey folks. I know I haven’t posted in a week, it was a VERY busy week at work. I have a lot of posts in queue and hope to get around to posting them this week, but I just wanted to update real quick and let you all know I’m still alive.

The husband and I made it through our first week on South Beach and are now on day 9 of 14 of Phase 1. But, who’s counting, right? I have no idea if I’ve lost weight, since stupid me didn’t weigh myself before starting the diet. I now live on deli meat and cheese for breakfast since I still can’t get used to eggs every day. :ugh:

Will be back later in the week (hopefully), if work comes to a manageable level.

Happy Monday!

technorati: South beach diet, diets, south beach, Mondays, Happy Monday

The husband and I have jumped on the bandwagon and began the South Beach diet yesterday. I hope I can make it through the first two weeks, where it seems like all you can eat is salad and eggs. Have I mentioned I’m not too fond of eggs?

The house is coming along pretty good. The construction is proceeding a lot faster than we expected. The frame of the house is already up, as well as the windows and roof. Next they’ll work on setting up the electrical layout and plumbing and after it goes through inspection, we’ll be ready for the drywall and much closer to the end. Looks like only a couple more months before we get to move in!

It was pretty much a quiet weekend, which is always a good thing. I got to spend a lot of time with baby girl on Saturday and although frustrating at times (she’s starting to throw major tantrums), it was all around a good day. Lots of singing, dancing, laughing and cuddling was involved. Those are the days that make me sad I’m not able to stay home with her, but at the same time, it gives me more reason to stay motivated and find a way to do just that.

Speaking of tantrums, the girl is only 1 and she has a major temper! Anytime we take something away from her or tell her NO, we get a full out screaming fit. We haven’t quite figured out the right way to handle these situations and it’s definitely a work in progress. I’ve heard to ignore the tantrum and let her cry it out, or to distract her with another toy, but both have their pros and cons. If you’ve got any tips for how you handled 1 year old tantrums (or are currently handling), please do let me know. I hate to see her throwing these fits, but I don’t want her to get spoiled either.

Have a great week everyone!

technorati: South beach diet, diets, south beach, tantrums, Mondays, stay at home