Hailey’s description of our activities last weekend was, “Fun, fun, fun!” so it seemed like a good title for my post.  Last weekend there was a fall festival at a park nearby our house.

I think the only reason we bring the stroller most of the time is just to have a place to keep all of our stuff.  When I ask Hailey if she wants to ride in the stroller she says, “No thanks.  My is a big helper.  My push it.”

We went out to eat at a restaurant that had an outdoor area we could eat at and watch the boats going by.  Hailey was so good.  She colored quietly while we waited for our food.  Then she ate her food and watched the boats.  The last time Hailey was this good while we went out to eat was… well… never.

The carousel was having free rides, so we went on several times.  Rich’s plan was for each of us to take Hailey on 10 times- getting a total of 20 free rides, and “saving” him $20.  I think we each took her twice.

The next day there were several more activities going on, so we went back.

Hailey checking out the pumpkins.

Then she got to paint her pumpkin.  I ended up with a big green stripe of paint down the side of my face and in my hair, but it was fun anyways.

Posing with the pumpkins.

The carousel rides were still free and since we are a fan of free- we rode several more times.

Hailey and I walking and talking.

Looking at the lake.

We went on a hay ride while we were there too.  Afterwards Hailey wanted to see the horses.

Taking a break to enjoy some music.

Hailey dancing to the music.

…I didn’t know about the projectile poops. Thankfully that is an infant thing and doesn’t happen anymore. But seriously- I had no idea.

…I thought I knew what it meant to be tired, but really I had no idea.

…I had no idea that I could get so little sleep and still be alive.

…I said, “I will never co-sleep.” (Hailey is still sleeping with us at almost 2 years old)

…I didn’t realize how important it was for my surrounding neighbors to be quiet between 1 and 3pm.  And how annoying it would be when the UPS guy always rings my doorbell during nap-time.

…I never thought I would consider 7:30 am sleeping in.

…I said, “I will not ever give into whining.” HA!

…I had no idea what it was like to really be worried- you know- really worried.

…I didn’t realize how much my parents love me.  I mean I knew that my parents loved me but all of a sudden I could understand just how very much they love me.  And it’s a pretty overwhelming feeling to love someone so much.

So tell me- what’s your “Before I was a mom” statement.

…here at the Livin’ With Me household.  Today, for the first time, Hailey styled my hair for me.   I absolutely love to have my hair played with but Rich refuses to do it.  And I have tried over and over again to get Hailey to brush and style my hair. 

Finally today, she did it.  She’d brush my hair and then step back and look.

“It’s cute mommy.”

Or “Mommy’s hair is pretty.”

And even “It’s different.”  (She made that comment when she had brushed all of my hair forward to cover my face.)

This continued about 15 minutes.  Then the timer went off on the oven signaling that dinner was ready and I had to make her stop. 

She said, “Please mommy.  My fix mommy’s hair more.  Please.” 

Have you ever heard such sweet words?

I’ll be too busy getting my hair done this weekend to do much blogging- so everyone have a great weekend!

(By the way, I am still going to host giveaways, but I am no longer going to have them start on Saturdays.  From now on a new giveaway will start each Tuesday.)

I’ve had some comments and emails asking me what has been going on with me lately.  I haven’t been posting as often and I haven’t been leaving hardly any comments at all.  So, I thought I should explain.

First of all- I have decided to make this blog mostly a personal blog.  That means that you probably won’t be seeing very many paid posts on this blog.  If an offer comes along for the right amount of money, I will do the job.  But, for the most part I will only be using this blog for fun.  So, while I used to post several times a day because of the paid posts I haven’t been doing that lately.  (I am still doing it, just primarily on Our Happy Happenings- my meme blog).  Another reason you don’t see me posting here as much is that I’m doing more posting on Our Crafts ~N~ Things.  I used to only post there maybe a couple of times a week but Hailey has really started to enjoy doing crafts and we’ve been doing them everyday.  So, I have a lot more crafts to share and have been posting there almost everyday.

As far as my commenting goes- I have started to put things into perspective.  The reason I started my blog was to keep track of what we were up to.  And to keep our family and friends up to date.  Somewhere along the line I got obsessed with trying to get a lot of comments on my blog.  And in order to get a lot of comments, you have to leave a lot of comments and it can get time consuming.  There have been nights I have stayed up well past midnight trying to catch up on commenting back to everyone who left me a comment.  And you know what?  I can’t do it anymore.

Bloggy friends have come and gone over the last year and a half that I have been blogging.  Some people that I thought I just had to visit everyday (people I don’t even know) have stopped blogging.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately- the chances that people who comment on my posts today will still be visiting my blog in a year are pretty slim.  Some of you will still be around, but for the most part it seems like people generally move on.

All of that to say this- in 10 years it won’t really matter if I read your blog or left you a comment.  What will matter is that I was there for Hailey to read her a book or to build a tower with her.  She’s the one who matters and time is going by way too fast for me to spend precious moments in front of my computer that could be spent with her.

I will still be blogging, but for the reason I started to begin with- because I want to.  And of course I still love to get comments, so please still leave me comments.  And I will still leave you comments because I enjoy reading your blogs and seeing what you and your families are up to- many of you I consider to be my friends.  But, I have already been cutting way back and I won’t be commenting everyday anymore.  If I have time while Hailey is napping or after she goes to bed I’ll be by to visit.  But, if not- I won’t- and I hope you understand.