A new name - the story behind 'bear fluff 'n' stuff'

I wrote a Facebook status the other day:
--
"I feel like I should write a parenting book. I will entitle it, "What to do when one leg of your child's stuffed bear no longer has stuffing in it, you spend a day or two wondering how it got like that, and then for the next week straight your child is constantly sneezing out chunks of 'bear fuff' from her nose."

No illustrations necessary.
--

My friend Elizabeth commented and said, at the very least, I should start a blog called 'bear fluff and stuff.'

Which is absolutely 100%-amen perfect for this blog dedicated to sharing funny stories, anecdotes, sayings and pictures of Little Miss AllieBug, (bear fluff), along with anything else random that comes into my head, (and stuff).

And so my blog's title changed. Thank you, Elizabeth!!! :)

PLOG! (that's short for picture blog)

Whenever I transfer my pictures from my memory card to my computer, I stick them in a folder called "Unsorted" until I get a chance to sort through them and organize them in my other picture folders/online photo albums.

And apparently, it's been quite a while since I've had the time to sort through that folder. I found pictures in there from all the way back in April.

----------
Allie and I participated in Mommy and Me swim classes at the YMCA back in April. I was so proud of her. She took to the water like a little fish and loved every minute of swim class! Of course, I had my "world's worst mother" experience about mid-week when I sat her on the bench in the locker room after class, turned my back on her for a split second to get my clothes out of the locker and turned around to see her toppling head first onto the hard floor. Called the on-call nurse at her pediatrician and determined she was fine, but still -- scary! Other than that though, swim class was a great experience for us both!

  

Picking her up early from daycare to go to swim class.

Circle time! 

Learning to be comfortable on her back in the water and getting ready to kick.

She loved the paddle board.

So glad Chris and Drake could come too! 

Jumping off the side into the water. One of her favorites!

----------

I found out the hard way that when you run out of dishwasher detergent, regular Palmolive kitchen soap is NOT a good substitute.

It's actually a very very very bad substitute.

----------

One of the perks of having a Northrop-Grumman electrical engineer/computer engineer/computer program inventor for a dad is that he loves making sure his kids have the latest and greatest pieces of technology. So when he called me up several months ago and told me to expect a Blu-ray player in the mail -- well, I'm not one to complain.

Bit decided to supervise the installation process.

"Here father, this cord needs a USB hub."

"Just checking the sturdiness of the box."

----------

Spotted at Newspring (our church): You know he's a dad when he's got a stuffed penguin peeking out the pocket of his cargo shorts.

----------

Our neighbors got married back in the beginning of July, and Justin and I had the privilege to attend. We were thrilled to celebrate with Sam and Chase, the most awesome neighbors ever, and we enjoyed a much needed date night.

Random side note: Last time I wore this dress, it was at the Coast Guard Academy Senior Class ball in New London, CT, when we were at the Academy for my brother's graduation in May 2010, and I was 13 weeks pregnant. Brought back memories!

----------

I put Bit's hair up in a ponytail, and it struck me how much she's losing her baby face. When did my little baby start to look like such a big girl?

----------

One day at work, my co-workers and I randomly decided to suction cup my co-worker Jaclyn's toothbrush to the window in our supervisor's office while he was in a meeting.

Jaclyn, me, Lydia and half of Matt trying to get a good pic of us and the toothbrush before Blake returns to his office.

----------

Other random Bit cuteness overload:

She loves her pillow pet!

Mmmmm chocolate chip cookie

"Bitty, where are your cheeks?"

Sweet girl trying to get over her nasty stomach bug/double virus a few weeks ago. Found her in the exact same position that she started out in, 4 hours later. And apparently Wubby is quite the pillow hog.

Bit in a box!

"What? Doesn't everyone play in the dog cage?" -- Allie and her buddy Drake

----------

Our cats, Wem and Muffintop, have the personalities and mannerisms of gay men. They are often found cleaning each other on a daily basis.

----------

And last but not least, I'm happy to report that my trusty steed Dietfried Bonifaz (aka my little Corolla) is not totaled! A bunch of cosmetic damage, but I picked him up 2 weeks after the accident and he's as good as new. Let me put a quick plug in for Image Collision body shop -- they were efficient, professional, knowledgeable, had awesome customer service, and even cleaned the inside of my car for me. I got my car back in better condition than I left it in -- inside and out. He looks like a brand new car!

If I only had a maid

If I had a maid, she would:

1) follow me when I walk the dog and bag up his poop
2) assemble my tacos
3) fold my fitted sheets (but ONLY my fitted sheets. I like folding everything else.)
4) come to work with me and rinse out my coffee cup when I'm finished with it
5) clean the litter box
6) clean anything that comes in contact with my child's poop, like her stuffed Bear
7) kill spiders
8) wake up 15 minutes before I do and start a pot of coffee
9) hold the vacuum at the top of the stairs when I vacuum so it doesn't fall down on top of me
10) lick the envelopes when I mail something
11) reach down into the food disposal to retrieve whatever fell down there

Overheard in the news

I found this story on Yahoo news today. In all my years in the journalism field, I don't think I've ever read anything as hilarious as this. I read it to both my mom and my husband, and the first thing that BOTH of them said was, "Oh Kathy, I could totally see you doing that." -.-

But hey -- the article says the woman *is* Asian . . . 

Here's the story:

-----------------------------------------

Credit: Reporter with Yahoo news, Ron Recinto

A woman who was reported missing from an Icelandic tour unwittingly joined a search for herself.

According to the Reykjavik Grapevine, a woman described as "Asian, about 160cm, in dark clothing and speaks English well" was listed as missing Saturday near the Eldgja volcanic canyon in southern Iceland.

A search continued through the weekend with reports saying she got off a tour bus and never returned.

It turns out the woman merely changed clothes during the bus stop, and after she returned, those on the bus didn't recognize her.

When the description of the "missing" woman was circulated, apparently the lady who changed her outfit didn't recognize the description of herself. So she joined the search party.

About 50 people searched the area in vehicles and on foot, and a helicopter was ready to assist.

Eventually it occurred to the "missing" woman that she could very well be the person everyone was looking for, and she promptly reported herself as safe and sound to the police.

The search was called off early Sunday morning.

Mirror Mirror

Excuse our messy hair, my greasy face, and her (again) lack of pants/shorts. 

I told her to make a silly face . . . 

And then I told her to say cheese . . .  

And then I told her to stick out her tongue . . .  

And then she tried to copy my silly face.

Miss Manners

Something embarrassing seems to happen EVERY TIME we go to Sams Club.

Last time, Allie announced to the entire, full women's bathroom that "Mommy go poopy! Yaaay Mommy!"

Today, we had just checked out and were heading over to get our receipt punched. As we walked past the Customer Service desk, a man in line coughed loudly and pretty violently. I didn't pay too much attention, as I was more focused on digging my receipt out of my wallet.

"Hey! HEY!"

My head jerked up as my small, sweet little daughter belted out across the aisle toward the Customer Service desk.

And as I watched in horror, several people in line at the desk turned around, including the coughing man, and Allie loudly fake coughed, while very pointedly covering her mouth with her hand.

I swear she does stuff like this on purpose, to get back at me for trying to teach her manners (like covering her mouth when she coughs). :) Well, on the bright side, I suppose she's learning!

everything . . . and nothing

Last Friday, I drove through the McDonald's drive through and specified that my order was 'to go.' Then a butterfly flew in my window right into my face. As one of my friends told me -- the butterfly was the universe's way of telling me to keep my mouth shut. He just showed up a little late.

A few Sundays ago, while I was getting ready for church, Allie took it upon herself to slather the dog nose-to-tail with lotion. That would be the Eucerin Intensive Repair super thick, greasy lotion. Poor Dingo. He's such a good sport and he gets mad props for that. He also got a pretty intense bath later that day.

Our townhouse complex has been in the process of re-doing everyone's back porches for about the past month or so now. We got a letter in the mail about the maintenance guys coming today to change out the screens and put the final touches on the paint job, but that was like a week ago and I have way too much going on to remember stuff like that. So this morning while I was at work, I got a call from the office that I needed to come home and move all the stuff on my back porch.

My co-worker/friend Jaclyn so very sweetly offered to go with me. Now, if I were a fibber, this would be the part where I mentioned how easy it was to clean out my back porch, since I'm just so awesome and always keep every inch of my house uber organized and neat.

Yeah, no. I found randomness on my back porch that I totally didn't even remember was there, from my old close-contact jumping saddle to a very withered, dead Mother's Day plant that Allie made at daycare.

Oh yeah, and a few spiders.

So anyone who knows anything about me knows that I absolutely HATE spiders. I fear and detest them with every fiber of my squinty Asian being. And so does Jaclyn. Let's just say there was much girly screaming coming from the back porch as we moved bins and discovered webs upon webs of gross, creepy, disgusting spiders.

I tried to be brave, but finally just couldn't handle the extreme spider-age anymore. So I got the bright idea that maybe the painting guys waiting patiently out in my front yard could save the day.

"Hey, could you guys come help us real quick?"
The guys put out their cigarettes. "Yeah, sure. You got something heavy?"
"Um, well kind of, but not really. There's just this really big spider . . . "

They could've at least *tried* to hide their guffaws.

I hate spiders.