I've had a couple of blog posts on my mind. The problem is that both require me to get into a certain mindset. They'll probably take me hours to write. I used to easily do that, but I don't have the time or the initiative most days to do it now. Trust me, I'm not complaining. I do find, however, that those posts seem to be keeping me from posting at all. They're lurking on the edge of my brain. I think to post, realize I don't have the time to do those in particular, so I don't at all.

I obviously need to find the time and get those words out of my head.

Things are great here. Sera is just a joy. Every day she adds words and now sentences to her vocabulary. She is so independent and so smart. And she's getting so big. She has completely lost the baby look. She's a little girl now.

A little girl who likes to get her way. We had our first "tantrum" the other day. I wouldn't let her have some Gerber Fruit Snacks. They're like crack to her. I grabbed a banana and told her she could have it. I left the kitchen and went to the living room. She stayed in the kitchen a few more minutes. I called her to join me, and she came to the doorway between the hall and the living room. She stood there crying. When I told her to come to me, she flung herself to the ground crying. I told her to come to me again, and again she ignored me. I went to her and picked her up. She kicked and pushed me away and wanted nothing to do with me. I told her she needed to come to mommy when I called her. I then carried her to the sofa and placed her in the middle. She sat there sobbing while I sat next to her. After a few minutes, she grabbed my hand, pulled my arm around her, and scooted over to snuggle in while still doing that post-sob breathing. After another minute, I peeled the top of the banana down and held it to her. She started eating and we sat together. I think we had our first time-in.

Her favorite game is still pretend. She still loves her dolls. She plays with them for hours. She puts them to sleep, changes their diapers, cuddles them, feeds them, etc... She has a new doll that has become her favorite one.

Yep, it's her daddy. Her new favorite game is called daddy nye-nye. She makes him lie down on the floor with the top part of his body on her sofa bed. She grabs pillows off the sofa for him to put under his head, and she covers him with one of her key-keys (blanket for the rest of us). She'll sit there rubbing his back and shushing him to sleep. He likes this game a lot. He gets to lie there and pretend to sleep. As you can see, she also likes to lie there with him.

Today, she told him to "upwego", which is her way of saying sit up. She then placed her bib around his neck and started feeding him pretend food. It'll be interesting when she decides she needs to change his diaper.

She's also very excited about being able to climb into the rocking chair. She loves to rock and can now rock herself endlessly.

Shadow is her biggest love and her darkest nemesis. He knocks her down, beats her head with his tail, and steals her food, and she loves him dearly. Just as long as he doesn't lie on her key-keys or climb on the sofa or lie next to mommy or lie next to daddy.

We were home again today because of the wackiest winter weather. Yesterday, it was 51 degrees and we had thunderstorms. I went out for mom's night out to meet some fellow moms. I made a quick stop at the grocery on the way to pick up some Raisin Bran on sale. I had to run inside the store as it was pouring rain and the parking lot was flooding. It was still in the high 40s. Two and a half hours later, I left the restaurant to find temps in the low 30s and snow. This morning it was 0 with a windchill of -20 to -30. The news said that the temperature dropped 51 degrees overnight and the windchill dropped 74 degrees. That's a huge change. And the good news keeps coming. We're expecting 4-8 inches of snow tomorrow night. Woo Hoo! Is it spring yet?