A Day in the Life of Shasta

From Shasta's perspective.

I wake up between 8 and 9 every morning. When mom is at school Dad gets up with me and I sleep until 9, but when Dad's at school and mom gets up with me I sleep until 8.

First thing I do after I wake up is have breakfast. I feed myself because I'm a big girl. Mom mostly just gives me cereal because I'm too impatient to wait for anything else. What can I say, sleeping 11-12 hours at night makes me super hungry.

Once I'm done with my breakfast I help mom finish hers.

Then I climb the stairs all by myself because I'm big like that. I also like to take a pair of shoes up with me every time I go. I don't understand how they always end up back downstairs.

Now it's time to get dressed because I spilled milk all over myself. I like to help mom by taking off my diaper.

As soon as I'm dressed I'm busy at work. It's time to play!

Today mom did my hair because she's going to take a lot of pictures of me to help me document my day. Most days she doesn't bother doing my hair unless we're going somewhere because I pull all of my hair ties out during nap time. Even when we go places I pull them out in my carseat. Still she's a sucker and does my hair anyway! Silly mom. I wonder if she knows the definition of insanity...?

 Now that my hair is done I have to put on some shoes. I don't care whose shoes they are just as long as they're on my feet.

 Then it's time to get back to playing.

Mom forgot to close my closet doors so while she's busy doing who knows what I think I'll pull all of these clothes out and throw them on the floor. Mom doesn't even bother folding my clothes before putting them away anymore because I empty these drawers so often!

It appears I've been caught and she closed the closet doors, so now I'm plotting how I will pull these baskets off the shelves without mom knowing. I'm sure she doesn't suspect a thing!

Whenever I do something I'm not supposed to I always say "No, no" because that's what mom would say and if I say it then she doesn't have to. Mom was in the other room when I got the basket down. How in the world did she catch me? She must have super powers or something!

 I escaped with two hair ties that mom didn't take away. Now it's time to put them on my feet.

 I could play with my feet all day long. They're just so interesting and my toes do funny things.

Aww, that looks perfect. Mom painted our toenails black for Halloween. She told dad we're being festive. Whatever that means. Sometimes I just go with it.

Now it's time to play with my toys. To find the perfect thing to play with I chuck everything on the floor so they don't get in my way as I search through my toy box.

All this playing makes me thirsty. I'm really good at drinking from water bottles. If I spill, it's usually on purpose. What can I say, I like the sound it makes when it hits the floor!

I got tired of the hair ties on my feet so I decided to put on one of mom's socks. Looks pretty good on me!

Don't get me wrong. I like the clothes mom picked out for me, but sometimes I just wish she'd let me choose my own. I'm 17 MONTHS OLD for crying out loud. I'm not a baby anymore.

I love teasing Wedge. When he sits in mom's lap I like to sneak up on him and try to pry his mouth open with my hands. He hates it, but I think it's SO funny!

Of course mom takes all the fun out of it and tells me to be nice, so I let him give me kisses. That's nice, right?

I like to get down on the floor and tease Wedge too. Trying to take his toys from him is even funnier than pulling apart his jaw. I sneak up on him, but he always seems to know what I'm up to. He growls at me and sometimes I growl back. He's super fast too. I can never keep up with him. One of these days, when he least expects it, I'm gonna snatch the toy he's playing with and he won't even know what hit him! Then I'm gonna laugh and laugh and throw it down the stairs for him to go fetch!

Finally, it's time for a snack and some milk. I take my first nap at 11am. I don't understand why mom makes me take naps. It doesn't matter how much I protest, I never win. I'm never even tired when she says it's time for a nap, but the weird thing is as soon as she closes my bedroom door I go right to sleep. Hmmm... It just occurred to me that maybe she's spiking my milk. I better look into that.

Two hours later and I'm up from my nap. I told ya I'd pull out my elastics. I think it looks much better this way. Mom usually lets me play in my crib for a little while after I wake up. I like to have really animated conversations with my stuffed animals. The weird thing is she always comes in at the exact moment when I'm doing something I shouldn't. How does she always know? I play really loud and then when I'm doing something I shouldn't I get really quiet so she won't hear what I'm doing. I'm telling ya, she has super powers.

 Mom and Dad were in the garage when I got up from my nap. They said they were looking for yard sale items. Whatever that means.  While they were busy at work I took the opportunity to play with my new car that I'm not supposed to know I have until Christmas. Oops.

 Finally, it's time for lunch. I'm starved.

 But still I like to share some of my lunch with Wedge.

 Now that lunch is done it's time to put on some shoes again.

I like smiling. Smiling's my favorite! Oh, and don't mind all my toys in the background. Mom doesn't make me clean them up all day because I'll just get them out again. The weird thing is when I get up in the morning none of my toys are where I left them. They're all neatly put away on shelves and in my toy box. We must have cleaning elves that come out while we sleep or something.

 Look mom! I got my shoe on all by myself!

 Mom forgot to close my bedroom door when she got me up from my nap.

 I can climb into this chair all by myself. Whenever mom tells me I'm so big I get a huge grin on my face and feel a sense of pride. I like being big!

 I like to pretend everything is a phone, but the real thing is the most fun to play with. I call Grammy and Papa several times a day and have animated conversations with them.

 I saw mom pointing and thought it looked fun so I decided to point too.

 Time for another snack and milk before my 2nd nap. I don't take 2 naps everyday. The days that I only take one nap I get to stay up until 1pm before mom makes me lay down. Those days are the best! Mom says we're in a transitional period right now. I don't NEED to take 2 naps, but she NEEDS me to take 2 naps. Something about homework and chores? I don't know, I wasn't really listening. The days I take 2 naps I sleep for 4-6 hours out of the day, but the days I only take one I sleep for 2 hours at best. I don't see what the big deal is.

It's 4:00 and since today's a 2 nap day I guess I'll see ya in 2 hours or so. Oh, and this is Bunny and Puppy (Dad says his name is Pluto, but I don't know what that means so to me he's just puppy). I sleep with these two in my arms every time I go to sleep.

 Sometimes after my second nap I get a little grumpy. I cry and cry for no apparent reason.

 But mom gives me a yummy snack and I feel a lot better. While I eat my snack mom unloads the dishwasher. I don't understand why she waits until I'm distracted because I LOVE to help!

 Hey look! I got another shoe on all by myself!

 Now we're loading the dishwasher while dinner is cooking. I like to unload it as fast as she loads it. It's a good system we have.

 Mom gave me a few bites of ice cream straight out of the carton before dinner, but she said I couldn't tell dad. I'm not sure which part I'm not supposed to tell him; that she gave me ice cream, it was straight out of the carton, or it was right before dinner. At least if I accidentally tell him he won't be able to understand my gibberish. And she didn't give me nearly as much as I wanted. Something about spoiling my dinner? I don't know, I couldn't hear her over my cries in protest.

 It's finally time for dinner and good thing too. I'm starved. I love dinner time because dad comes home from work and eats with us. We eat dinner at the same time every night because of dad's dinner break. I'm not always a good eater, but mom always rants and raves about how yummy it is so I always try some. And sometimes if I see Wedge eating dinner I decide it must be good so I'll eat too. We used to go on a walk every night after dinner, but now it's dark outside by the time we're done eating. I can already tell I don't like this whole Fall/Winter business. Now mom makes me take a bath right after dinner, but I told her she couldn't put up any embarrassing pictures. Luckily I only have to take a bath every other night and tonight was the other night.

 I like to munch on some animal crackers and milk before bed time. Have you noticed I really like to eat? I would eat all day long if mom would let me. I share some with Wedge, but mom says he can only eat the kitties. I don't know which ones are kitties so I just give him whichever ones I feel like.

 Before bed I have to tease Wedge one more time. While mom puts away laundry, I like to pretend to throw his ball and watch him jump. It's SO funny!

It's 9pm and mom says it's time for bed. I don't want to, but she's the mom so I guess I will. Goodnight and thanks for reading. PS. I love comments almost as much as I love teasing Wedge!

New Cupboard

I wanted to expand our pantry space by putting a cupboard under our kitchen bar. We don't have chairs for the bar and don't have a need for any so it was the perfect place to put a cupboard. Our pantry is small with really spaced out shelves. It was impossible to keep canned food stacked 4 and 5 high and up to 10 cans deep organized. And it was hard to know what was out of stock without having to pull everything out. Super annoying.

So, Nick's uncle built us this...

Look at that organization!!! And that's only one side. The other side is just as organized and lovely! It's opened up my pantry space incredibly and has pretty much doubled my food storage space. I absolutely LOVE our new cupboard! The only downfall is that Shasta can reach the handles and open the cupboard and I pull her out of it at east 5 times a day. But other than that it's perfect!