I reject your reality and substitute my own

Lorelai has been making her own words up lately.

She loves telling me that my hair is beautiful or my pink shirt is cute, so she recently combined the 2 and now everything is "cute-iful".

Every single toy today requires batteries. When the batteries stop working I tell her that it needs new batteries to work. So Lorelai now says "mom- (insert toy here) needs new batterworks".

These are my favorite parts of having a kid. I love watching her mind grow and seeing how she puts things together in her head. She is so incredibly smart (tho I may be a bit biased). She is speaking in full sentences now mostly and I almost tear up when she says something new... well, no. I DO tear up when she says something new. I thought I was going to melt into a ball of sappy mush when she told me I was her best friend the other day.

Every time I stub my toe or slam my finger in a cupboard or anything and say "ouch" she runs over saying "oh mom, I'm sooooo sorry. Are you no-k?" Not sure how "ok" got translated into "no-k" but we run with it and now everything is "no-k".

Tomorrow we are going to Chuck E Cheese and all day long I have been hearing about it. "Mom- I high-five chuck e cheese". "chuck e cheese has candy in his pocket". Then after a few more little tidbits she remembers from last time she gets so excited nothing makes sense and it's 5 miutes of complete giberish.

Lorelai has a blanket that is her entire world. so every time I sit down on the couch next to her she will instantly get up and say "mommy blanket too?" Then she will run and get the blanket off my bed and say "here you are mommy!" She recognizes how good she feels when her blanket is around and wants me to be that happy too. She can be so sweet.

Every time I get her dressed or comb her hair (even though she kicks and screams and wiggles and tries to run away), when it's all said and done she always follows it up with "thank you mom getting me dressed!" or "thank you mom brush my hair!" She may be 2, but she's a very kind 2.

Ty is out of town right now and we use Skype to keep in touch so he can see Lorelai. Today, after she had a session with daddy I told her daddy had to go and to say goodbye. When goodbyes were done, I closed to laptop and she said "daddies hiding in the puter!"

Lorelai has been out of a crib since before she was 2. After only a couple rough nights, it has been uneventful except that she will never get out of her bed unless I go in there. I know this is a blessing, but I get so curious as to why she thinks I need to be there for her to get out. Even before I go in her room I can hear her saying "mom- wanna get out!" Sometimes I stand outside her door and say "get out of bed Lo, come open the door". She still will not.

My most favorite thing in the whole world is after I put her to bed I leave her room and she usually talks to herself for a good hour or so. I love listening to her talk and listen to every little thing that goes through her head. But that's not my favorite. Sometimes when she gets sick of being alone and isn't tired she says "mommy- I need you". Regardless of how tired I am or how much I know it's just a ploy, I run in there.

Not sure how this turned into such a long blog about all my little favorite Lo moments, but I'm glad I put them down in writing. I get so worried I am going to forget all of these things. I have such a poor memory. Sometimes she will do or say something and I think, OH! I need to tell Ty when he gets home and just over the course of the day I forget.

You all feel how you do and I feel how I do. Regardless, this is funny. I just read it on a family friends blog and got a serious kick out of it.

http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2002/WhyCantIOwnACanadian_10-02.html

Lo has a plastic beetle that she likes to keep around but is horrified of it. One morning I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and she asked me to go get her "beetle-bug". I told her no, she could get it herself. She goes into the hallway and all I hear is "OUCH!!" I asked what happened and she said "beetle-bug bite me. see mom loook right there!" points to her incision from her hernia surgery. I think this was the first time she lied to me. Hahaha

So when I left off we were at the high school. From there we headed to the police station. There was a mom and daughter that we had met earlier at the visitor center that we kept running into throughout our tour. They were nice enough to take this picture. I'm sure they were a little weirded out at first, but after they took our pic they posed for the same one. hahaha... this might be my fav picture from the trip. Have I said that before?



This is the sign in front of the police station/city hall. Mike had told us earlier that the police chief had been called Chief Swan so often, he now answers to it. We were trying to look shady as we walked around so that a police officer would come out and we could take a pic with them... but apparently they've seen our kind before. I did have to pee really bad at this point and I debated going in, but didn't happen. Also, on my life list is to get arrested... so I thought this would be a great addition to our story, but I chickened out. Plus, I didn't even know what I would do that would have no fines and could get me released within 4 hours. So, didn't get to check that off the list this trip.



Next stop was the Cullen house. It is literally next door to the police station and not hidden at all and no woods around it, no drive way... really nothing that would make you think it was the Cullen house besides I think it's the nicest house their... which really doesn't say too much. It's actually a Bed and Breakfast and the mother and daughter we had been running into were staying there. We were so jealous.




The Innkeeper leaves a note on the door everyday about what the Cullens are doing that day, so that is what this picture is.











After the Cullen house we were starving and headed to Sully's so Laura could get a Bella Burger. I don't eat beef and neither does Jess, so Laura was alone in her adventure unfortunately. I didn't think to ask if they would do it with chicken until after I had ordered. Boo. Anyway, it was your typical greasy spoon. Really yummy stuff and the Bella Burger came with a pair of vampire teeth!! Laura was nice enough to ask if we could all have a pair and they obliged. There was a photo booth there and we took some amazing pics. I still have to scan them in, then I will post them.





What can I really say? <>insert laughter here<>









We took a break from the tour and did some shopping. We went to all the tourist shops and looked at all the Twilight loot. Of course shopping didn't mean we still weren't being creepy twilighters. hahaha I found a few shirts and sweaters that were ok, but I was still holding out for the perfect one. I was a little too cautious and ended up walking away with nothing! I did buy a pen and a coupe postcards for a select few that prob haven't received them yet since they are still sitting on my table.


There was an ice cream/sweet shop that we went to that had these awesome tags. We all decided to get one. Mine said "Twilight Visitor". These are the ones Jess and Laura got. I also got a box of chocolates with vampire teeth on them and some wax candy vampire teeth as a souviner for Lo. This was the store that gave us the hardest time for being Twilighters.


That was the end of our Forks tour, but it wasn't over yet! Next stop was LaPush!!




She's pushing me... get it???



We went straight to First Beach in LaPush. It was GORGEOUS! One of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen. I wanted so badly to rent a cabin and stay for the night. Someday I will. We stayed for a while just absorbing the amazing scenery.







Thought maybe these were wolf prints. hehehe



We were in LaPush, but we represented Team Edward!



Then we saw this carved into a fallen tree. Of course I managed to swipe a piece of driftwood, hahaha. I stole a couple of the smooth rocks for Lo too. She digs rocks.

So that was it, that was our trip. If anyone has the chance to go, I highly recommend it. I'm sure it will all fade away eventually, but definitely not until all the movies are over and done with. That could be years! Next time Amy or mom come up, we are definitely going! Thanks Jess and Laura for seriously making it one of the funnest days of my life. I haven't laughed that hard and so frequently in years! It was great!

Laura came up with the best idea last week... to go to Forks. We live so close, it's only 2.5 hour drive. Saturday morning we left bright and early at 9am and of course I had to make a little sign so everyone knew where we were going! We only stopped twice, once for coffee and once for gas and snacks. We rocked out to good tunes, enjoyed the scenery and gabbed a lot. I only had less than 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was tired, but nothing my latte didn't cure!



When we pulled up, we all had to pee so bad, we drove passed the welcome sign and straight to a gas station where we were made fun of for being "Crazy Twilighters". Already we knew the trip was going to be fun. That gas station had some tote bags, baseball hat and tee shirts all dedicated to Twilight series... definitely getting off to a good start! We ran back to the edge of town to take some obligatory welcome sign pics. It was a hike up and a hike down on slippery mud. Good times!



Jessica took this pic and I think it looks so "twilight-y". hahaha The weather was a little cloudy and chilly, but throughout the day it did warm up and the sun came out. Which probably explains why we didn't see any vampires.












Laura drives a Volvo... Edward drives a Volvo... pretty coincidental right? We had the perfect ride for the perfect trip!!



Our first stop was the Visitors Center. I had read online that they have maps with all the Twilight stops on it. It was all the way at the opposite end of town, so we drove down the main street trying not to look around too much so that we could experience it fully. We knew we were in the right place when we pulled up to the visitors center and saw...



A poster saying I love Bella and Edward. This was the only possible picture to happen in front of this. There was also other posters in the windows. When we walked in there was a guest book with people from all over the world that had come to Forks. There were souveniers and a signed note from Stephenie herself. There were 2 other groups in front of us getting the whole tour run-down from the visitor center worker.




And this is the visitor center employee himself, Mike. He spoke about the book like it really existed and was happening now. He really got us pumped up and excited and just a little nervous about the locals...



They had Bella's truck in the parking lot!!




The second stop was the Swan household. The people that live there put a sign up saying Home of the Swans. When we pulled up there was a man and a little girl cutting wood on the side of the house. Jessica was starting to doubt mine and Laura's judgement when we walked right up for a photo op, but we decided long ago we would have no shame while we were in Forks. I can guarantee that we are the most mild of all Twilight fans.
















Next stop was the hospital where they had a real parking spot reserved for Dr. Cullen. It was so funny to see how far they went to really make it an experience for visitors. It was so fun.












Forks Community Hospital!! There wasn't a whole lot going on over there besides sick people walking in and out... how boring. ;)



Next stop was Forks High School where Bella and Edward attended. It was one of the funnest stops as you will see by the pictures. The parking lot wasn't at all what I thought it would be. It was very small, I'm guessing local kids don't drive much. But I still was able to visualize Bella almost getting plowed into.



We were looking into every window trying to find the Biology room. Laura found it and the pic actually turned out! Even though it's obviously fiction, it was fun to pretend and be silly.



This has nothing to do with the tour, but I love it anyway. Jessica and I were pretending to be high school students telling secrets. We had so much fun, I literally can't look at these pics without cracking up.

I will finish tomorrow... this was about 1/2 way thru the tour, so it's appropriate.

Of course, she will be much more adorable in it... she is obsessed with lady bugs and beetle bugs and slugs and snails... she loves them all. Year 1, she was a fish. Year 2, she was an octopus. It was a difficult decision to steer away from the whole underwater creature theme, but it had to happen sometime. ;)

I am getting out all of my Halloween decorations today. I know that it's early, but now that Lo is going to know what's going on and can get excited, I just can't wait to decorate the house and watch how excited she gets.

All ready to go hunt out some puddles!



Oh ya, those are great ones!



Run, stomp and repeat



After an hour we were so ready to go back inside. Then, bubble bath time!!



End with some hot chocolate and that was one FUN afternoon!!