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.

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!

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. ;)

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...

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. :)

"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.) :)