"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."

Thursday, September 30, 2010

I haven't taken any pictures lately.


I haven't done any crafts.
Or organizing, repurposing, or great yard-saling, either.

I don't have any heart-warming anecdotes to share.
No funny remarks made by a child.

What I have been doing is living the "filler portion" of life.

The...

Grocery store -- preschool -- housework -- White Collar(FAVE new show) -- Dirty diapers -- Speech Therapy -- "Hi honey, How was your day?" -- Nap time -- Laundry -- "I wuv you" -- "I said GO TO BED AND STOP PLAYING LEGOS" -- Stray Cheerios -- Cherrio dust on the kitchen floor -- Cheerio's in the diaper -- How is there a Cheerio in my bed? -- Great, the Cheerio is moist, too --

part of life.

You get the picture.
No complaints. Just living our little life.

Hope everybody has a great weeke-- wait. There is a Cheerio in my bra.


Ok, maybe one minor complaint.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Yes, yes, it's been almost a week. Moving on...

BabyCakes is extremely mobile right now. And by "mobile" I mean she's ripping apart the 7 magazines that have been sitting on my nightstand for weeks. Mmm, Time and Southern Living taste so good!

When innocent publications aren't being annihilated, BigBoy's toys are usually the next-best thing. We've made sure to keep his choking-hazard toys behind his gated doorway, but the trains have remained in the living room.




Don't you looove the oh-so-stylish rubbermaid bin that we keep them in?

Luckily, BigBoy is pretty indulgent when it comes to her curiosity about his toys. (We have had a couple times that his "No, Baby" was a bit too firm or physical, but on the whole he is extremely patient with her.)
He LIKES to play with her for the most part.




(I know you are wondering.
Yes, that is a basketball jersey. A Tim Duncan - Spurs jersey.
BigBoy wore it too.
I know. At least she has a hairbow in.)




Do you think they'll always want to spend Sunday afternoon playing trains with their parents?

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

BabyCakes is 9 months old now (wow) and I was trying to remember exactly what BigBoy looked like at this age.



See for yourself.



Definitely more auburn hair, even if the lighting is off a bit. And his hair didn't curl quite as much.

Hmm... I don't know. Do they look alike? To me they are just them.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Yesterday afternoon while BabyCakes was napping and BigBoy was dozing on the couch, I slipped out to the front porch with a baby doll (BigBoy's patience has grown thin) to practice using my camera in the Manual mode. While I was out there, my next-door-neighbor Miss Melissa came over. She has two sweet baby girls -- one just born in August -- and she wanted to share with me her oldest' favorite book.



That's right, Baby Cakes! After I commented on the astonishing lack of teeth marks on her book, she told me this was one she was giving to my own BabyCakes.
So nice of her! Thanks again, Miss Melissa!



It's the cutest little book.
In case you can't read it, this page says "Nibble little Baby Cakes on the feet. Oh, my little Baby Cakes tastes so sweet!"

Yes, you do taste sweet, BabyCakes!

Well, most of the time... when you aren't gross, that is. :)

Friday, September 17, 2010

Warning:

This post is purely gratuitous baby pictures. For grandparents' eyes (or anyone else who can handle it) only.

Here are some Before, During, and After pictures of our trip to target this morning.




Notice the addition of a hair bow? I saw a set of them on clearance and, come on, it matches her outfit perfectly.



So I straightened out the few curls she had long enough for a bow to clip to, and we were in business.


I gave her a bowl of puffs and she proceeded to eat the bowl, dumping the puffs all over the floor.
Oh how I miss Kodi...


Oh and here is the ONE picture of BigBoy where he is not hiding from the camera.
He has on his new WKU tee that we got while we were in. After trying to shrink washing it, it's still huge a bit large. He loves it though.



Ok well, don't say I didn't warn ya. No sweet stories, no philosophical pondering, not even a reorganized closet. Just straight up baby pictures.
I may not have the key to world peace, but I do have the key to a grandparent's happiness. :)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Behind these Blue Eyes

BabyCakes, you have been an angel baby. Born with a true knot in your umbilical cord, it's amazing that you survived and thrived. You are taking a nap right now, so I'm going to make a few predictions for our near future with you:

I think you will never throw tantrums. You will happily put away your toys when asked and socks will never "hurt" your feet.




You will eagerly brush your teeth and hang up your wet towel after bathing. After putting your pajamas on without asking, you will request to go to bed early.




You will always wear the cute outfits I pick out and you will never chew gum in church.




You will never embarrass me in a grocery store and will leave every hair bow I put in your hair, right where it was placed.




And last but not least, you will shatter all my delusional expectations and leave the world better for the fact that BabyCakes was here.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Zoo mornings

Sunday we went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. We have a family pass, so we only do half the zoo at a time. Sunday we hit the Africa side.

This is the view from the bridge to the entrance. Beautiful, isn't it?



The weather was perfect and because we got there pretty early, it was nice and quiet.



This is a zoo where you have to do a little walking to see the animals. I've been to the older style (like the one in Columbia, SC we visited a couple months ago) where you see lots of animals quickly but their habitats are very, very small. I'll gladly get a little exercise if it means the animals have more space to roam.





BabyCakes was happy to relax in her stroller. This time next year she'll probably want to toddle around. :)


I always feel happy at the NC Zoo. Meandering through the trees on a beautiful morning while hearing the sounds of nature.


Encouraging a curiosity about the world and all it contains... definitely one of my favorite tasks as a parent.


Off to speech and then school... hope to check in this afternoon with a real post!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Day 3 of the first cold of the preschool-year.

Fun times. No preschool, no speech therapy. BigBoy has begged to go to school but I'm sure all the mothers of the would-be sneezed-and-coughed-upon classmates of his would thank me for not letting him.

Nice hair, huh?

The last couple days have consisted mostly of this:

with plenty of TV thrown in.

BabyCakes is her usual go-with-the flow self.



Truckin her little butt around the house, snotty or not.


This is what happens when I try to wipe the snottiness away:

Oh well, a little snot never hurt anybody. ;)

Monday, September 6, 2010

I take it all back.

Children are not cute.
They aren't sweet,
Innocent,
Darling little blessings.



NO.




They are petrie dishes.

Little mucus-covered, vomit-spewing germ incubators with 2 arms and 2 legs.

(Have you guessed yet that our household (minus J) is sick?)

This is BigBoy's first week of preschool and speech therapy. So far only BabyCakes and I have this cold from hell, but he announced tonight that he didn't feel very well, either.
Here's hopin he wakes up his usual healthy self and that BabyCakes feels a lot better, too.

Makes me appreciate how lucky we are that a cold is the worst of our ailments...

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Bedroom Closet: Take Two

I bought a cool wooden desk chair at a yard sale last weekend for $10. I paid the full asking price and everything! I thought I wanted to use it at my bedroom computer desk, but I ended up not liking the fat that it doesn't recline and it was going to take a good amount of work to change the color to something that would match the room a little better. Not a problem if it's worth it, but not worth it in this case.
So there sat the chair.

Now let's jump over to the fact that we moved the cedar chest (a former resident of the closet) to another room. I suddenly had space in the closet again.
What to do? What to do? Something just felt incomplete. This is the what the closet looked like. (Blech. Why is it so hard to keep closets tidy?)




And THIS is what it looks like now!




Oh yeah, you know you're jealous. Almost 7 square feet just. for. me. (J, I know you are dying of embarrassment over my excitement right now. Sorry, you knew I was a dork when you married me.)

I have a little vanity area for all 3 of my beauty products (mascara, moisturizing lipstick that occasionally gets used, and the much needed (but rarely used) concealer):



An easy-to-snatch area for my camera, crafting/decorating/yard sale stuff:




Basically I just rearranged all my stuff that has no real home but well, makes me happy. Now it is contained and on much is on display so I now know my inventory a bit better.




I should mention that I didn't buy anything extra to do this. It was all done with what I already owned. I'll go into detail on some of the projects another time, but for now, you can just enjoy this picture again. :)


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

"But Mama, Brother said this was a cookie."


"I thought cookies were supposed to be crumbly, though."


"Maybe this side tastes better."


"This cookie was a waste of perfectly good slobber.
Now where's that light saber?"


(P.S. I know. Putting words in babies' mouths can be highly annoying. Sorry bout that. Just one of the perks of this being my blaaaaahg, though.) :)