Daily Sweet Pea

Snow Day? Psych!

2011-02-02T13:50:00.002-06:00

You thought we had snow today, too? Yeah, not so much. These snow pictures are from a few weeks ago, and they turned out so pretty that I had to share. This was Brynn's first snow and she was entirely unsure of what to think. We sat her in the snow for just long enough for her to realize she wanted nothing to do with it. Hadley, on the other hand, LOVED the snow. She and Sean had a blast running, playing, and throwing snowballs for our dog, Bella.

Don't hate us for missing Snowpacalypse. We'll be braving an ice storm in April if our weather is at all consistent. For all of my friends braving the ice and snow this week, stay warm!

Well Hello There-- and Happy Birthday to Me!!

2011-01-20T11:24:00.004-06:00

I know, I know-- it's only been like a month and a half, right? Sorry about that. It seems that once a couple of weeks pass between posts, I just can't think of a segue-way back in. Then, I procrastinate posting because I hate the whole "I haven't posted in so long intros." Annnnd, that's exactly how I opened this post. Love it!

Anyway, once I post again, I find that I have sooo much to tell you guys and I get overloaded with post ideas. That seems to be the case now, too. Here are a few things on my mind-- all of which I will post soon:

* We just transitioned Hadley to her "BIG GIRL" bed after Christmas and I just have to show you guys how cute it is. And tell you about how awesome she did with the transition.

* And then there's the potty training. That's a whole other post.

* My Brynn is growing up so fast! I have to update you on how big she's getting and all the fun, new things she is doing. Right now, she is hitting Hadley on the head with a rubber sword. I'm not stopping her because I consider it payback for all the times Hadley has bopped Brynn on the head. I'm just keeping things even.

* And, of course, I must update you guys on a few fun things we're doing around the house.

All of this assumes that one of my three readers is still actually checking my blog for posts-- it might just be me on here:-). And on that note, It's My Birthday!! I'm 21, by the way. Send booze!

Now act crazy!

2010-11-30T22:22:00.009-06:00

Every year, I drive myself and Sean crazy trying to get the perfect family picture for our Christmas cards. For Hadley's first Christmas, we took picture after picture of the three of us in our living room only to decide that an outdoor picture would look better. Then, once we found a suitable outdoor location, we spent over an hour in the cold trying to get a picture in which Hadley was either 1) not sleeping, or 2) not crying. I ended up sending out cards with Hadley crying in the picture. I thought they were pretty cute.

Last year, we got some great fall pictures at our local botanic gardens and decided to use those for our Christmas cards. I realized as we were designing our Christmas cards that although we had some great family pictures, all of the pictures of just Hadley were of her running. Sigh. We tried taking more pics of Hadley, but you guessed it, more running. So, if you got our Christmas card last year, that's why Hadley was a little blurry.

This year, I've decided to embrace the craziness. Instead of trying to get the perfect family photo for my holiday photo cards, I'm going to use the silliest pictures I have. Like this one from our recent trip to the Ozarks for Thanksgiving:

Or this one from Hadley's birthday party:

The best part is that the pictures are a little kooky and whimsical and goofy. And I love that. Isn't life a little kooky and goofy anyway?

Now, for the really hard part: picking the perfect holiday card design. Luckily, Shutterfly is giving bloggers 50 free cards this year-- and there are a ton of gorgeous cards to choose from. Score! Right now, I'm loving these designs:

Aren't these Christmas photo cards delicious? I'm loving the red and chocolate styles this year.

So as not to spoil the surprise for those of you who might be receiving a card from me in the mail, I won't tell you which style I chose. But, rest assured, there will (likely) be no crying or running children in the photos this year. I hope.

** For the record, I am receiving compensation in the form of 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly for this post. Score:-). To get your own free cards, go here.

This is kinda how I feel about the long weekend ending, too

2010-11-28T10:39:00.004-06:00

Somebody found her piggy face (and just in time for Thanksgiving, too)! Brynn makes this face ALL THE TIME, and it is usually precipitated by much snorting and giggling. I'm in love.

And, just a little more cuteness...

More Thanksgiving info coming up soon! Oh, and sorry for the radio silence these last few weeks. Who knew that working, parenting, and preparing for an out-of-town holiday could consume every waking minute of the day? Hopefully, things will slow down just a smidge so I can catch back up on posting. We'll see about that one:-).

My AHA moment (alternate title: DUH!)

2010-11-02T09:32:00.006-05:00

So, maybe I mentioned Brynn's little sleep issues of late. She went from sleeping 9 glorious hours every night to waking up 3 and 4 (or more) times each night. It was brutal. This non-sleeping thing started around the beginning of October. At first, she would just wake up once or twice at night. Then, she would sleep through the night for a night or two and start waking up again. By last week, she would only sleep in her bed for about 30 minutes at a time, then she would wake up flailing and crying. The only way we could get her to sleep was to put her in bed with us. Then, amazingly, she slept all night long without budging.

We tried everything to make her comfortable. First, we thought she was hungry. So, I nursed her every time she woke up. This, of course, soothed her back to sleep. When that didn't keep her asleep, we thought that maybe she had a tummy ache or wasn't satisfied with just milk. So, we spent the days adjusting her solid food intake to see if that helped. It didn't. Then, we noticed she had teeth. Maybe that was doing it? Maybe, but we saw no measurable relief after a few days.

Finally, FINALLY last week it dawned on me that she was comfortable when she was (1) nursing, or (2) sleeping in our bed. And, she started this whole non-sleeping thing right around the time that it started to get cooler here. That's when it hit me: she's freaking COLD!!!! I could not be dumber, you guys. I haven't mentioned this on here, but Brynn is notoriously cold-natured. She spent the majority of the sweltering summer months bundled up in long-sleeved footie pajamas. While everyone else was sweating outside, she was content in her winter clothing. And, the only times she has ever, ever been inconsolable was when she was cold. I can count those instances on one hand. Why I didn't think of this utterly simple, and very common sense solution, sooner, I have no idea. For some reason, even though it's the most likely culprit, I always consider "cold" last. Another strike for Mama.

Since my AHA moment, I have been dressing Brynn for bed like she is going out to play in the snow-- on the North Pole. She looks like the kid in A Christmas Story who can't move his arms because he is so bundled up. She wears footie, long-sleeved pajamas, a hat, and a fleece, long-sleeved sleep sack. I get hot just looking at her. But, it's working. She has slept through the night for the past three nights. She doesn't make a peep for 9 straight, glorious hours.

So, next time I complain that Brynn won't sleep, smack me! She's probably just cold and I'm too busy adjusting her fruit intake to notice. Sometimes I just need a quick reminder that some things really are that simple.

Good thing I bought that costume...

2010-11-01T22:22:00.009-05:00

The weather was perfect for Halloween-- cool and crisp with the faint smell of smoke in the air. Last night, we gathered with our neighbors in the cove and munched on chili, hot dogs, and brownies. Little ghosts, ballerinas, and ninjas ran, played, and squealed. It was glorious. Then, when dusk set in and the street lights popped on, we took to the streets and begged treats from each house with a light burning on the porch. Haddy did good. The candy jar is stocked and I've had a hard time keeping little (and big) hands out.

This is the first Halloween that Hadley actually understood that when she went to someone's door, she would get NANDY!! I fully anticipate that she will expect candy the next time we go to our neighbor's house to play. She was such a big girl. She marched right up to every door and waited patiently for her candy. She only occasionally said "Trick or Treat," but she told each person we met "Thank You!" big and loud. My sweet, polite girl. I really expected her to be shy given that we were going to strange houses and talking to people she barely knows. Not so much. Apparently, the prospect of sugar totally outweighs caution. Go figure.

Then, when we were tired and had collected way too much sugar, we hiked back up the hill to our house where we relaxed and passed out candy to trick-or-treaters. I roasted the pumpkin seeds we scooped out of our pumpkins earlier in the day and we munched while the girls played. It was perfect.

Here's my little Princess Skeleton, aka, the Princess Bag Lady. We had several costume options for Hadley, including an Olivia costume with homemade piggie ears, a fairy dress with wings, and a flower costume. Hadley wanted nothing to do with any of them. Seriously. Much crying ensued as we tried to dress her. You would think we were trying to send her off to boot camp instead of a night of partying and candy collecting. Hello teen years, you're a little early.

This little outfit is one she picked out herself and is the ONLY THING she would agree to wear. She has on every single one of her favorite items of clothing: her glow-in-the dark pink skeleton pj's, four tutus, pumpkin socks, and ruby slippers (originally planned for the Dorothy costume she refused to wear days before Halloween). It's a mish-mash hodge-podge collection, but it turned out so cute. And, it's so Hadley. My baby is true to herself, that's for sure.

And, my little Brynn was a ferocious lion. She, on the other hand, is so go-with-the-flow, easy peasy. At least this year. I anticipate that next year, we'll be fighting with her over what she wants to wear, too. I'm looking forward to it.

And another one bites the dust

2010-10-28T09:33:00.004-05:00

Let's do bullet points today... that's all my brain can handle after Brynn's attempts last night to break the record on least sleep in one night. That'll teach me to praise her sleeping habits. Point taken, Universe.

* When Brynn finally did fall asleep last night, she was snuggled against me in our bed. Not the best sleep practice, but 1) we all finally got to sleep, and 2) she was snuggled against me. Sigh.

* Right now, I'm feeding Brynn 2 oz of white grape juice (the watered-down baby stuff) to help move some stuff through her little digestive system-- if you know what I mean. Apparently, carrots don't please her tummy.

* Not only is Brynn's tummy bothering her, but she also just cut her second bottom tooth. Yea and boo at the same time! By the way, if it is possible, that second, little tooth is even cuter than the first.

* Just recently, Brynn has started giving kisses when we ask for them. Big, open-mouthed, slobbery jobs that melt my heart every time. I've caught her trying to kiss the dog a few times in passing.

* When we put Hadley to bed at night, we hold Brynn up to Hadley, and Brynn gives Hadley the biggest, slobberiest kisses ever. Hadley then says, "She touches you!" and wipes her face off with her shirt.

* I bought Hadley "ruby slippers" to go with her Dorothy costume for Halloween. Since I tried them on her two days ago, she has only taken them off to sleep.

* Brynn is going to be a lion for Halloween. She's psyched about this choice.

* Hadley may refuse to wear any part of her Halloween costume except for the shoes. So, we may be trick-or-treating as "The Girl in the Red Shoes."

* Hadley just pointed to her banana and said she wanted more bacon. You and me both, kid.

* Last night, Hadley sang "Lullaby and Good Night" to my mom. We sing this song to Hadley at naptime and bedtime but had no idea she could sing it.

* In the car on the way to Target yesterday, Hadley sang, "I want playground" over and over and over again. Intermittently, she would stop and clap for herself and say, "Yea!!" We're headed to the playground now.

Sticker Shock

2010-10-22T08:00:00.004-05:00

Sweet, chubby cheeks are definitely more fun to decorate than plain, old construction paper. Life lesson learned!!

Picture Perfect

2010-10-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

The five o'clock hour comes much too early in this house. That time of day usually finds me rushing around trying to get dinner ready and straighten up the chaos from the day, all while trying to tame the little monkeys who are doing their best to break the sound barrier with their screeching. It's hectic, mad, and loud. It means that Daddy will soon be home, which is fun. But it also means a chaotic bout of trying to chop, measure, and stir while simultaneously entertaining the kiddos, which is so not fun.

Yesterday afternoon, just as Sean's car slid into the driveway at the end of the day, I looked down and realized that I was still wearing the hole-y yoga pants and old t-shirt I threw on when I jumped out of bed at 7 o'clock that morning. My hair was hastily tied up a in a messy bun, I had at some point amassed a giant spit-up stain on my shirt, and I was wearing no make-up and even less deodarant.

It was at that moment, when Sean was about to walk in the door, that I remembered an old newspaper clipping my grandmother used to keep on her refrigerator. My grandmother was raised in the Midwest and went to college in Iowa, where she graduated with a degree in home economics. She was a sorority rose queen and after graduation, she married my grandfather and became the consummate homemaker. My grandmother cooked homemade, delicious meals, including the best beef brisket and chocolate sheet cake I have ever tasted. She was a member of a sewing club and an ardent member of her church. She hand-made individualized Christmas stockings for everyone in the family and she catalogued and labeled the history of everything in her house. She was like Martha Stewart on steroids.

This newspaper article, which I remember my mom talking about, apparently provided tips for busy homemakers. One of those was that no matter how hard the day was, a good homemaker should always put a bow in her hair, apply lipstick, dress the kids in neat clothes, and greet her husband with a smile upon his arrival at the end of the day. Because his day was hard and he would wants to be greeted with a picture-perfect family when he came home. Umm, yeah.

Let's just say that I am about as far from that homemaker as I can possibly be. I'm even farther from the type of homemaker my grandmother was. I am lucky most days to get a shower, I don't do laundry until it threatens to bury me alive, and I can't remember the last time I tried to bake an actual cake from scratch. And you know what, I'm mostly okay with that.

I'd love to be Martha with the perfect house and coiffed hair, but I'm not. Even still, my kids are well-loved, happy children. We live in a happy house that is mostly neat and sometimes clean. And even though my husband doesn't come home to a picture-perfect house or family, he comes home to us, just as we are. Honestly, that's better than any fantasy you can create with lipstick and a bow.

Mexican Eggs

2010-10-20T08:00:00.002-05:00

So, I promised to tell you how we use our leftover enchilada sauce, right? Okay, hold onto your hats 'cause this ones a little crazy. We made this recipe up one night on the fly when we needed a fast, easy, tasty dinner that would satisfy both the adults and the little one at our table. And, did it ever. This meal is so tasty and satisfying.

We call this meal "Mexican Eggs," and essentially it is eggs fried with salsa and enchilada sauce and served with creamy refried beans or black beans and warm, fluffy tortillas. I also top mine with baby spinach or broccoli slaw for some veggie power. This is my all-time favorite easy meal. Try it. You won't be disappointed!

Mexican Eggs

by Sean

serves 2-3

4-5 eggs

1 cup salsa

leftover enchilada sauce (about 1/2 cup)

1 can refried beans or 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

1/2 to 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or pepper jack works well)

4-5 warm flour tortillas

optional toppings:

baby spinach

broccoli slaw

black olives

chopped green onions

Heat refried beans or black beans. Spray a skillet with nonstick spray. Break eggs into the skillet and cook over medium heat until set. Flip the eggs and immediately pour salsa over the top (we like Herdez salsa for this). Then, drizzle enchilada sauce over the salsa. Put a lid over the eggs and cook eggs to your preference. Serve the eggs over the refried beans (or plate the eggs and serve black beans on top). Sprinkle on cheese and optional toppings of choice. Serve with warm tortillas.

NEWS FLASH: Poopy on da Poddy!!!

2010-10-19T14:30:00.000-05:00

We have poopy on the potty! Whoo hoo!!! And since we rewarded this behavior with (lots of) chocolate chips, Hadley has since insisted every 20 minutes that she has to go "poopy on da poddy." I fell for it the first three times and plopped her up there. She loves it. She sits, sings, plays with the shower curtain, and of course, tears up toilet paper to drop into the toilet. Hooray for new games!

Actually, I have very little idea where to go from here with the whole potty training thing. Unlike every other milestone and baby/ toddler issue, I haven't stressed/obsessed/ overly researched this one. I think it's my subconscious way of trying to ignore the fact that very soon, a little person is going to be running around my house sans diaper with the ability and likely desire to pee and poop on everything in sight. Things I like to not have pee and poop on them. Maybe I should invest in some plastic tarps to cover everything in until we have mastered this little lesson?? Yeah, that'll match the decor.

En-chee-ladas, Baby!

2010-10-19T07:58:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I've posted about enchiladas before. And I just posted about tacos. I'm pretty sure I have a problem with Mexican food. If given the choice, I would gladly eat Mexican food every day for the rest of my life. That's normal, though, right?

I recently discovered this enchilada sauce recipe and it is now my forever go-to sauce. I really love the sauce I posted about before, but it can be a little heavy and gravy-esque. That's fine sometimes, but sometimes I crave a lighter, more tomato-y sauce. This is it. It's an Emeril recipe, and since discovering it, I make it ALL THE TIME. It contains ingredients I always have on hand and the process could not be simpler. I usually whip up cheese enchiladas with this sacue, but it is equally good with shredded beef, chicken, pork, or ground beef. Gotta love a little versatility in life, huh? And, the recipe makes a ton. We usually have at least a cup leftover. I'll show you what I do with that next time.

Try this sauce for me, please. You will be so glad you did! (Note: I substitute 8 oz tomato sauce for tomato paste.)

Finally: Fall!

2010-10-18T07:44:00.000-05:00

It's finally cooling off a little bit here-- as in, the weatherman is no longer estimating the high for the day by frying eggs on the sidewalk outside the news station. Ahhh, fall in the South. I love the smell, feel, and sounds of fall: football games in the distance, cool air, chimney smoke, cinnamon, apple cider, and mums and pumpkins in every yard. It's exhilirating and makes me want to curl up under a comfy cableknit throw, sip hot tea, and nibble on pumpkin bread. Oh, and eat chili. Lots and lots of chili. We've been doing that lately.

Last weekend, I was inspired to pull out all of my fall decor. You know, since the temps only spiked in the 80's. I love how cozy and warm our house feels right now. And, as an added bonus: Hadley loves (LOVES) "Haddoeeeen" and "punkins" right now. Yesterday, we had to make a trip to Lowe's specifically so that Hadley could pet the punkins. She would have it no other way.

Here's a little peek at our fall living this year:

My little skeleton helper. We baked chocolate chip blondies yesterday and decorated them with halloween sprinkles for Daddy.

Yummy-- and so festive, too! (Don't you love my fork marks?)

This year, I pulled out our creepy tree, raven, and black feathers to "spookify" the foyer. Hadley loves it and constantly runs into the foyer to say "hi" to the birdie.

Hi birdie!

For a fun, little craft project for Hadley, I cut out some ghost and bats for her to decorate with her glitter markers. She also likes to say "hi" to the bats at least three times an hour.

Our dining room table dolled up for the season.

I also warmed up the library a little with a touch of red. Love red this time of year!

Do you guys decorate for Fall/ Halloween???

Six Months!

2010-10-15T13:40:00.008-05:00

My littlest pea,

I am having the hardest time coming to terms with the fact that you are six months old already. Seriously, I just gave birth to you yesterday. And already you are babbling away, almost sitting up, and trying to army crawl (!). At your six month checkup, you weighed in at 14.8 pounds (40th percentile). I guess all of those feedings are working, huh? Our appointment pretty much epitomized your sweet personality. We saw a new doctor in the group this time, and you immediately made friends with him. You squealed when he came in the room, played with his hands and stethoscope, and gave him a giant hug when he picked you up. So far, you haven't met a stranger. As we were leaving, the doctor even joked that if we were giving you away, he'd gladly take you. Um, I said "no."

Good, thing, too. He would have surely regretted that decision. You see, apparently, you were teething pretty hard this week. Daddy and I just didn't get the memo. You tried to tell us with all of the screaming, crying, kicking, refusing to sleep, and, oh yeah, the fever for two days, but we still didn't get it. Then, last night, when your fever had finally broken and you were back to your usual happy self, I noticed the tiniest, little sliver of a tooth had popped through your bottom gums. Oh, the inhumanity! That tooth nearly killed us all, kid. I can only imagine how fun the next few teeth are going to be. Let's hope we get a little breather before they come in, okay?

Despite the pain that little tooth caused, it is the cutest, tiniest, little tooth I have ever seen. Daddy and I had to exclaim over it for most of the night. You know what else is the cutest? The way you stroke my face and hold my hands when you eat. You get settled in, close your eyes, sigh, and reach for my hands. If you aren't holding my hands, you reach up and place your tiny hands on my face. I love it. Most mornings, as soon as you wake up, I scoop you out of your bed and we settle into mine for your first feeding. We get all comfy, pull the covers up around us, and stay cocooned and warm until your little tummy is full. I'll miss those mornings when you are no longer nursing.

For the record, you should know that you are the easiest baby I have ever met. You rarely cry or pitch a fit, you sleep through the night (and have since you were 1 1/2 months old), you smile at everyone, and you eat like a champ. We couldn't have asked for a better complement to our family. And your sister, oh how she loves you. You two are going to be thick as thieves one day. Hadley still calls you "Minnie" (as do Mommy and Daddy) and she loves to give you kisses and hugs. You crack up when she is playing with you and even as Daddy and I are saying, "gentle, Hadley!" you just laugh and laugh. That doesn't really help, kiddo:-)!

Recently, you started eating solid foods. We started with rice cereal, which you like, and have since moved on to sweet potatoes, squash, green peas, and green beans. You love it all! You open your mouth wide and wait for the next bite like you haven't eaten in weeks. And you gobble up every bit we make for you. I have a feeling that you will be a little foodie like your mama.

I want you to know how very much you mean to me and your Daddy, Brynn. You have added so much happiness, light, and love to our lives. I can't wait to see what the next six months will bring-- more teeth (ouch), crawling, talking, and walking. It's sure to be an adventure. And one I can't wait to take with you.

Love,

Mama

Five Things

2010-10-07T14:19:00.004-05:00

Five things I can't live without this week:

1) tissues;

2) gallons of orange juice (I'd take some rum or vodka, too, if I thought Brynn would appreciate it);

3) my all-time favorite chicken soup (Mexican-style, natch), loaded up with jack cheese, avocados, and broccoli slaw;

4) my favorite pillow and down blankie;

5) the girls' nap times.

If you haven't guessed, I'm siiiiiiick. I was just fine Monday when I took Brynn to the doctor for her six month well-baby checkup (she's doing great!!). At the appointment, I asked for a flu shot so I could avoid having to come back to get one. Our doctor agreed but only had the flu mist available. That's what I got and since Tuesday night, I've felt like I have the flu. Coincidence?? Supposedly, the flu mist isn't supposed to give you the flu but can have side effects like a runny nose and fever. Hmmm. I've never had any side effects from the flu shot, and if this is what the flu mist is like, I'm not a fan!!

Apparently, bambinos can sense weakness. The kiddos have been so cranky the past two days. Either they aren't feeling well or they are purposefully trying to torture me while I'm down. This morning, Brynn cried the entire time Hadley and I ate breakfast. Hadley, in a move that is all her, decided she would rather paint with her oatmeal than eat it. While I was trying to soothe Brynn and control the never-ending flow of snot coming out of my nose, Hadley managed to smear oatmeal from her head to her toes. Literally. It took me half an hour to scrape dried oatmeal off of the table and floor. Live and learn, people. You can't turn your back to even blow your nose!

I'll write about Brynn's stats in my next post when I'm not thinking through a fog.

Toddler Speak: Episode Two

2010-09-23T21:29:00.005-05:00

Me: Good morning, Haddy! Can I have a hug?

Hadley: I want Daddy. I want Daddy Nowwwww (pronounced: neowwwwww).

Me: Oh, sweetie, he had to leave early for work. We'll see him for lunch later, though.

Hadley: I want Daddy. I want Daddy Nowwwww.

Me: How about some breakfast? Do you want a smoothie or some yogurt?

Hadley: I want nana. I want nana Nowwwww.

Me: Okay, let's go get you a banana.

Hadley: No want nana.

Me: Okay, no nana. How about a peach?

Hadley: No want.

Me: How about a strawberry smoothie?

Hadley: Yeah, Yeah, want shake. Want shake Nowwwwww.

Me: A shake it is.

Hadley: I want Daddy. I want Daddy Nowwwwwww.

Long live the toddler mantra. If only adding "Nowwwww" to every sentence ensured that you get what you want!

Clean it up

2010-09-17T21:36:00.016-05:00

A couple of weeks before Hadley started school, her teacher sent me a large packet of paperwork in the mail. Included in the packet were lots papers that I was instructed to "keep on hand." Soon thereafter, I started gathering all of the stuff Hadley would need each day for school: a backpack, lunchbox, change of clothes, blanket, sheet, diapers, and lovie. Then, being type A and all, I had a major panic attack and freaked out about where I was going to store all of this STUFF! And it wasn't just school stuff giving me nightmares. We routinely have shoes, bags, purses, hats, and other assorted stuff that ends up hanging out in our kitchen until I can filter it all to its rightful home. Enter my newly-organized laundry room/ mud room/ command center. It's the brains of this operation.

This is it. It's small, but it's the first room you come to when you enter our house from the garage. That makes it the logical spot to store things you either want to drop off when coming home or grab when running out the door. It's the "landing pad" for all of our junk.

Our laundry room was also the first room in the entire house that I decorated. I stole the design wholly and shamelessly from an issue of the now-defunct Domino and love it. I painted the back wall a pretty robins' egg blue and searched high and low for the black and white ironing board cover. I ended up ordering it from a little shop in New York because I couldn't find it anywhere near where I live.

It was worth the trouble.

So here's how I've organized my life, literally, in our teeny, tiny laundry room. That basket on top of the dryer works overtime. It generally holds odds and ends, like clothes that need to be ironed (since I generally try to avoid ironing at all costs), the giant pack of D batteries for Brynn's swing, and a couple of things I need to return to Target. The basket neatly keeps things out of sight while also keeping them close at hand for when I need them. The blanket in the basket was there because I was planning to take it with us on a picnic the next day.

One thing that was driving me crazy every winter was the inevitable pile-up of jackets in our kitchen. Since we come and go from our house through our garage door, which opens into our kitchen, we naturally dropped our jackets off on kitchen chairs instead of walking them to the coat closet on the other side of the house. Enter our makeshift coat closet in the laundry room. Last winter, we hung this set of hooks. Right now, the hooks hold Hadley's backpack and my diaper bag. Once cool weather sets in and we start wearing jackets again, these hooks will hold jackets, and the bags will be moved to the little shelf between the washer and dryer. I'm thinking ahead:-). It's that Type A thing.

We also recently hung the dry-erase whiteboard next to the coat hooks. I'm using the board to keep me sane. It holds school paperwork, school calendars, and other fliers that I need to reference often. I also snagged a set of 3M sticky folders at Target, and so far, they've made organizing assorted paperwork, coupons, and fliers easy. This system has worked wonders on my organizational anxiety!

Luckily, out tiny laundry room also has a closet, which I have stuffed full of everything from canned goods to shoes. Wanna little peek inside? On the inside of the door, we hung another set of hooks. This one is dedicated to our hats and umbrellas during summer months and to the girls' jackets and hats in the winter months.

Inside the closet, I added two baskets, one to hold Hadley's crafts, like sidewalk chalk, Play-Doh, bubbles, water guns, and paints, and one to hold her shoes. It's so simple to have Hadley's shoes handy by the garage door when we are ready to head out. It's one more thing I don't have to remember to get from her room when I'm trying to wrangle the kids out the door. On the remainder of that shelf, we store Hadley's lunch box and small insulated bags. The shelf above holds craft paper and coloring books in an office sorter, Hadley's markers in a clear, plastic cup (love the simplicity of this!), Hadley's watering can, and my recipe box and cookbooks. The shelf below the baskets holds our emergency canned goods supply and Brynn's baby food.

Below that shelf is one that holds the Bumbo (a small chair that Brynn sits in when we feed her) and below that is a small shelving unit we snagged at Target that holds our frequently-worn shoes. This gets the shoes off of the kitchen and laundry room floors but makes them so convenient for slipping on as we are running out the door. I love organization that makes life simpler!

Whew! That's our laundry room! I'm loving my organizational system and the fact that I was able to squeeze so much function into such a teeny, tiny room. Now, when we come home, we can easily drop off our shoes, bags, jackets, and hats as soon as we walk into the house. This keeps everything from piling up in the kitchen and ultimately, keeps me from going c-razy trying to keep everything put away. I'm all about simplicity and ease of design and this little room fits the bill!

Do you guys have "organizational hubs" in your house where you keep all of the things you use on a day-to-day basis? Or, am I the only one who worries about these things???

Home Sick

2010-09-17T21:04:00.006-05:00

Remember staying home sick from school, holed up on the couch with your favorite pillow and blanket, watching the Price is Right? Okay, maybe that was just me, but seeing my sick baby lounging on a little nest Sean made her on the couch reminded me of those days. I was a little heartsick for Sprite and chicken-noodle soup. Hadley got an episode of Dora and a few chocolate chips.

I'm pretty sure she approved.

Putting the "O" in OMG

2010-09-17T13:23:00.003-05:00

Life is kicking my butt this week. What started as a pretty laid-back week quickly devovled into a pit of snot, constipation, and sleepless nights. Want to come over, don't you??

We started Brynn on solid foods (squash and green beans) last weekend and while she LOVED eating them, her tummy didn't so much like processing or digesting them. This then led to a cranky, uncomfortable baby who refused to sleep for more than two hours at night. That was fun.

Luckily, Hadley's two-year well child checkup was scheduled for Tuesday, so I made Sean take off work so we could drag both kids to the doctor's office. Let's just say that it wasn't the best of ideas. I'm glad both kids got looked at, but trying to entertain two kids for two hours in a 6 x 6 exam room wasn't my idea of fun. I think the doc was a little bemused when she saw the pile of tongue depressers we had commandeered as drumsticks to keep Hadley busy. And then, not even 24-hours after the appointment, Hadley started sneezing and sniffling. As if that wasn't bad enough, Hadley hasn't yet mastered covering her nose when she sneezes. So she doesn't just sneeze, she EXPLODES all over everything and all of us, including Brynn. It's like Hadley waits until right before she has to sneeze to run over and stand next to Brynn and then aims right for Brynn's face. Hey, at least she's sharing-- even if it's just her germs!! Then, Hadley runs off to wipe snot on the furniture or just recently, a rattle. I'm constantly shouting, "Cover your nose and mouth!" and "Wait! Let me get a tissue!!" I might as well live in a barn, people.

I think we have fixed Brynn's little tummy troubles. The doc advised that we lay off the solids for a few days to let her tummy adjust. It seems to be working-- slowly. I'm thinking we'll start the solids back a little more slowly next week.

Here's to a nice, relaxing, sleep-filled weekend. I could use it!!

Cow, Dobby, Nanda

2010-09-10T14:08:00.006-05:00

Since Hadley is fascinated by animals, we spent her actual birthday day at the zoo. Or, as she refers to it, DA ZOOOOOO!!!! Naturally, we spent a lot of time at the petting zoo portion, where we could get up close and personal with an actual cow, some ducks, some pigs, and a few, adorable sheep. Hadley was brave enough to touch and feed a goat and some sheep. And, I could have easily pocketed a few of the lambs and brought them home to live in my bathtub. Until that one took an explosive poop right beside me. That's when I realized that owning wildlife would not be so different than owning baby humans.

Lamb poop aside, we had a fabulous day with our newly-minted two year old. It was the absolute perfect way to spend her birthday. We leisurely strolled about, stopping in to see Hadley's favorite animals, and when we were all pooped (no pun intended), we stopped to eat a little picnic that we topped off with more brownie cupcakes. I'm addicted to those things now.

Here are a few highlights from our day:

Labor of love

2010-09-08T20:44:00.010-05:00

Dear Hadley:

This past weekend, you turned two years old. TWO! Or, as you say, "one-two-one." And TWO you definitely are:-)! You are so incredibly adorable. You repeat everything we say, you sing and dance, you are exuberant about everything, and you feel everything so BIG! You wear your emotions like giant beacons on your face and they range from extreme giddiness one second to the depths of despair the next. It's really laughable-- or would be anyway if it didn't involve you melting into a puddle on the floor when things don't go as you wish.

Honestly, you rarely have tantrums. Now that you can communicate with us, we can act almost civilized. We can ask you to stop doing something and tell you why you should stop and amazingly, you listen. I know! I never thought that day would come, either. Speaking of communication, you have made leaps and bounds in speech just in the past month. You are speaking in sentences, singing whole songs (row, row, row your boat is your favorite), learning the alphabet and colors, and learning new words at lightning fast speeds. Your all-time favorite phrase is, "Uh oh, oh no!"

When you are asked what color something is, you automatically answer "LELLOW!" Then, we remind you that it is, in fact, pink or green or blue or red, and you agree. Your favorite thing to say is "I want ______," as in "I want cheese," or "I want mou (her stuffed mouse)." Yesterday, you melted my heart by saying "I want my Minnie (Brynn)" as we were packing up to go to the store. You also routinely want everything you see. Last week at the store, you wanted (in no particular order) a cow, a dobby (doggie), a nanda (panda), a bed, juice, and shoes (men's shoes, in fact).

Recently, much to my surprise and delight, you have decided that you want to wear bows in your hair. You now ask us repeatedly for a bow and frequently request that we "bow Minnie," too. You also love to play dress up and often wear three or four tutus at once while playing in your playroom. One day recently, you refused to take off your tutus, so we compromised and you wore one to Target. The check-out clerk almost fell over fawning over you.

You are the best big sister ever. You love, love, love your little sister and dote on her constantly. As soon as you wake up, you ask for "Minnie" and if Brynn is sleeping, you tell everyone "shhhhh." Lately, when Brynn cries, you say, "Minnie's crying" and you tell her, "It's ok, Minnie," and "I know, Minnie." You have such a big heart and are even learning to share your toys with Brynn. Yesterday, while we were playing, you hugged your giant Pooh Bear and then walked over and placed him right on top of Brynn. Then you casually walked away. Pooh is easily three times bigger than Brynn, but I was still proud of you for sharing! Baby steps.

You recently started preschool and so far, you are loving it. You still have moments where you get lonely for me, Daddy, and Brynn, but otherwise, you are having so much fun. You are learning new songs, painting, coloring, playing outside, and making friends. I love that you are getting the social experience that school provides, and I'm so proud of you for adjusting to something so new.

For your birthday, we had a delightful, little family party at the local botanic gardens. There is a children's "backyard" area there with treehouses, miniature playhouses, a rainstorm area, gardens, a hedge maze, and fountains. You love the gardens and I knew that a party there would make you so happy.

And it did! You had a blast in your pink tutu, headband, and bow. You even wore the sunglasses I brought as party favors. After we played for a while, we took a break to eat some brownie cupcakes that I made. You surprised all of us by blowing out your birthday candle with no prompting at all. I have no idea where you learned that!

It was an amazing day that I will never forget. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

I love you, my Sweet Pea. My life is so much brighter and happier with you in it.

Love and happy, happy Birthday!!!

Momma

Baby Love

2010-09-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

I think we're going to have two Daddy's girls in this house.

A Glimpse

2010-08-31T14:05:00.012-05:00

Here's a little glimpse into a recent Sunday afternoon at our house:

There was LOTS of relaxing (thank God!)...

Plenty of play time...

Lots of sweet sister moments...

Silly moments and for some reason, LOTS of hats...

And even more play.

Bliss! Monday, I may never want to see you again if all Sundays are as nice as this one.

Flashback

2010-08-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here are a few shots from Hadley's first day of Preschool. Enjoy!

An ode to tacos

2010-08-27T07:41:00.015-05:00

I've had an unnatural love affair with tacos my entire life. Always have, always will. But, it wasn't until just recently that I stumbled upon the perfect combination of ingredients for make-at-home, perfect taco-night tacos. Here's the combo:

Ground beef, natch. Cook it up and add your favorite taco seasoning blend. We usually make our own, but I was lazy last night and used a pouch. Our tacos didn't suffer a bit.

Lots and lots of this!! This is extra-sharp cheddar, but I love pepper jack on these tacos, too.

Shredded green leaf lettuce and chopped cilantro. Don't skip the cilantro here. It's a key ingredient!

Okay, I have a little secret to share. This is canned salsa. I know, you're thing G-ROSS, Keri. But, I promise, it is absolutely, 200% A-MAZING! I'm not a jarred salsa fan, but this stuff doesn't taste like jarred salsa at all. It tastes like homemade or restaurant-style with big, fresh chunks. The key is that this has no preservatives. The ingredients are simply tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro, and salt- the same ingredients I use when I make salsa! Please try this salsa for me! You won't regret it and it really makes the tacos.

We're getting there. All seasoned up and ready to play.

Now, this is important. For really delicious tacos, you need fresh corn tortillas. We're going to fry them up, baby. Okay, I don't fry tortillas. Popping oil scares me. Sean fries the tortillas in our house. Here's how he does it:

You need a couple of inches of oil in a skillet. Get the oil nice and hot. Sean said he fries the tortillas on medium-high heat.

Use tongs to "shape" the tortillas as you fry them for a few minutes on each side. He said "fry them until they are done." Helpful, huh? Look for a lightly browned shell with some bubbles. Mmmmmhhhh.

Once the tortillas are fried, it's time to stuff the tacos. This is the good part!

Oh yeah, now we're talking. As soon as I took this picture, I gobbled up more tacos than I care to admit.

On the side: corn and black bean salad with a cilantro-lime vinaigrette. Yummy.

And last, but not least, little helpers to help you gobble up the tacos are a must. Hadley LOVES tacos- almost as much as me.

Brynn hasn't tried tacos yet, but I'm betting she will love them, too. Try these tacos-- I promise you won't regret it!

Thoughts from the kitchen floor

2010-08-26T16:36:00.001-05:00

I cannot tell you how much time I spend on any given day cleaning up food and assorted gunk that has managed to fall under Hadley's chair while she was eating. All of that cleaning gives me plenty of time to think. I thought I'd let you guys in on some of the thoughts running through my head during tonight's cleaning adventure:

* This won't take that long. Crap, this is going to take forever. How did Hadley manage to get black beans in the tiniest grooves of her high chair????
* Man, those tacos were good.
* What is that?
* Clearly, Hadley is the messiest human alive. Would it be wrong to make her eat in the bathtub from now on?
* If this post-partum hair loss keeps up, I'm going to be rocking a serious comb-over soon.
* I should update my blog. Did Hadley do anything crazy/ funny/ weird today??? Duh.
* I should really find out if my subscription to Better Homes and Gardens expired this month. I deserve at least one magazine that isn't devoted to baby gas, child discipline, or toddler finger foods.
* Ick, what did I just step on?
* I can no longer eat leftover tacos for lunch tomorrow.
* Oooooh, I wonder if we have the ingredients for brownies. Ugh. I'll just eat chocolate chips and veg on the couch after Hadley goes to bed.
* I still need to download pictures and put laundry in the dryer and iron clothes and organize those pictures. And look for freelance work. Mmmm, chocolate chips.

School Daze

2010-08-25T13:03:00.007-05:00

So, Hadley's first day of preschool on Monday was pretty successful. She didn't cry when we left, didn't pitch a single fit or have a single tantrum all day, and didn't cry once until-- wait for it-- nap time. That dreaded thing. I knew Hadley would have an issue with sleeping on a mat on the floor in her play clothes in a strange place with other kids all around her. Every bit of that is so completely different than her normal nap at home that I'm not one bit surprised that she resisted. My kid-- she's like me in that she resists change. That may not be the best personality trait, but she got it honestly.

According to her teachers, when they suggested that Hadley take a nap after lunch, she vehemently told them, "Noooooooo." She wasn't shy about expressing her displeasure when they tried again a few minutes later. Apparently she meant it when she told them she wasn't going to sleep there. Given that Hadley refused to nap, her first day ended a little early. I picked her up a little after noon and once we had settled in at home, I asked Hadley how her day went. She nodded vigorously when I asked her if she wanted to go back to school and then said just as vigorously, "NO NAP!!!!" My kid is, umm, stubborn.

I've decided not to worry too much about the nap thing. I'd really rather Hadley enjoy the social and educational aspects of school than stress about where she will sleep. If need be, I will pick her up before nap time until she adjusts to the idea of sleeping on the floor at school. If that ever happens. I'm not holding my breath.

Other than the napping fiasco, Hadley did great. She played with the other kids, participated in music class by singing and dancing, and talked all day to everyone. Last night before bed, Sean asked Hadley if school was fun and she immediately said, "Yeah!!!" That's all I can ask for.

I just left my heart in a classroom up the street

2010-08-23T09:27:00.013-05:00

Update: I just drove by Hadley's school on my way to Target and *may* have slowed down, okay stopped in the parking lot, to watch her play on the playground (I know, I know). She was having a blast trying to tote a giant bucket of sand around. That's my girl.

The pink, blue, and green flowered backpack with "Hadley" monogrammed sweetly across the front was ready to go. It was packed full of diapers, a change of clothes, a blanket, and Hadley's favorite stuffed mouse. Her little lunchbox laid waiting on the kitchen counter, stuffed with cheese, crackers, and apple slices. Everything down to her socks was labeled. Hadley was enjoying her breakfast of greek yogurt and fruit. I pushed my bangs out of my eyes as I ate my toast and sipped coffee, silently wondering what in the world I would do all day while she was gone.

Then, the pace picked up and there was no more time for contemplation. There were breakfast dishes to wash, a baby to nurse, and a toddler to dress. As we got everyone ready to head out, Hadley tugged on my leg and pointed to her first-day outfit, declaring herself, "Cute!" And oh was she. She didn't even protest when I slid a little white bow into her hair. That was a first. Then, we all traipsed outside to load up the car and take a few pictures of our newly minted pre-schooler. Hadley obliged us by dragging her pretty backpack around, and we made fools of ourselves trying to get her to look at the camera. Despite her insistence on playing with rocks and leaves instead, the pictures turned out fairly well. Before we knew it, it was time to go.

In a whirlwind, we had the kids strapped into the car and had driven the two minutes to the school. We unloaded, unpacked Hadley in her classroom, and looked on as she dove right into the scene. She was so busy climbing the indoor slide and rocking on rocky horses that she didn't even realize we were preparing to leave. Kisses and quick goodbyes later and we were on our way out. My heart was heavy but luckily, little H didn't seem to care that we were leaving. Her whole world was changing and she was loving every minute of it.

An acquisition

2010-08-19T13:44:00.008-05:00

I recently purchased these little personalized charms, which I wear on a necklace, on Etsy, and the necklace has fast become my absolute favorite possession:

I don't wear a lot of jewelry and when I do, I like simple, understated necklaces and earrings. I don't go for bracelets or rings-- too complicated. This necklace is so perfect. I love its simplicity and the fact that it represents my two bambinos, H and B. And it goes with everything. I've worn it with dresses, capris, shorts, and yoga pants. I did get some funny looks with the yoga pants.

I can't take any credit whatsoever for this find, though. I happened upon Emily's blog recently and found this post about her favorite necklace. I'm so glad I stumbled upon that post. I'm just way too impatient to find anything this cool on Etsy by myself. Have you guys found any amazing scores on Etsy lately? I'm always looking for fun jewelry, personalized gifts, and trinkets.

In other news, my first baby starts preschool on Monday. We've been filling out forms, buying supplies, and labeling everything she owns. All to distract me from the fact that come Monday, Hadley will be gone for two days a week. And then tomorrow, she'll go to preschool for three days a week. And a few weeks later, she'll start kindergarden and then first grade. And next month, she'll go away to college, graduate, and move in with some guy who plays guitar for a heavy metal band (it all comes full circle, right?). Seriously, I'm not being melodramatic at all.

I'm being strong. I know Hadley is going to love her school. It's awesome, the kids are adorable and sweet, the teachers are amazing, and they do art projects, listen to music, and play outside. Hadley is going to have so much fun, in fact, that she won't want to come home. I'm just afraid I'll be glued to the little viewing window outside her classroom for the first few weeks. Look for me on the evening news: stalker caught at local preschool. Good times.

Everyday Lovelies

2010-08-12T21:13:00.005-05:00

Last week, Jules of Pancakes and Frenchfries marveled at the everyday beauty in her life, from flip flops on the floor to a pool bag in the kitchen. Her post and pictures made me want to slow down and document some of the lovelies in my own everyday life. Here are a few un-styled pictures of my house in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon. I was amazed at how pretty some of the toys and clutter actually looked. Maybe instead of picking up toys, from now on I'll just leave them as nouveau art.

Our kitchen table, arranged and "styled" by Hadley.

Hadley enjoying her new "craft table."

Hadley's toy car, abandoned after chasing our dog, Bella, around the house. In the background, one of Brynn's brightly-colored blankets was left on the foyer bench.

Our garage door, adorned with its new window shade and a pair of my discarded flip flops.

One of Brynn's bibs, drying on the counter after her meal.

And most lovely of all, my little sweeties, sharing some love.

Cover Me Softly

2010-08-11T13:26:00.013-05:00

At about 11:00 last Saturday night, Sean and I broke out some paint, a roller and brush, and a few tarps and got busy covering up the biggest eyesore in our house: our fireplace. Let me show the atrocity before I go any further:

And, in context:

Hadley dancing in front of the fireplace on Christmas morning '09.

Now, let me preface the remainder of this post by saying that I love, love, love painted brick. I don't think that painting brick is a sacrilege. In fact, I tend to like brick better when it's painted, whether it's interior or exterior brick. I just think it gives the house a sweet, bungalow/ cottage-y feel.

And, neither Sean nor I has ever liked our fireplace brick. It's too red-orange and doesn't work with the hardwood floors, the furnishings, or the roller shades on the window to the right. In fact, the fireplace seemed to give the whole room an orange-y cast that grated on my nerves. Orange just does that to me.

So, painted it we did. We used a primer + latex paint that is the same color as our trim, called "Vanilla Bean." The color is a light off-white that works beautifully with our wall color, a light cafe au lait. Here are a few in-progress shots (don't mind Sean's backside):

This project was super simple. The night before we painted, we spent about an hour prepping the fireplace by vacumming the brick, washing it with soap and water, and rinsing it. Then, we let the brick dry overnight. The night that we painted, we gave the brick one final once-over with the vacuum to pick up any remaining dust. We used one high-nap roller and one angled paint brush to apply the paint. The roller put lots of paint on the brick at once, which was good since the brick "soaked" up a ton. Then, we used the paint brush to paint in the mortar and cracks. In total, it took us two coats of paint and about 3 hours to complete the painting. I can't believe we waited so long to tackle this. It was done in the amount of time it would normally take us to watch a movie.

And, without further ado, the afters:

[Don't worry-- Sean finished trimming the inside of the fireplace after I took this picture!]

We love the outcome. The room feels so much lighter, brighter, and airier with just two coats of paint over that yucky brick. And, the creamy "Vanilla Bean" works wonders with our furnishings and against the floors and roller blinds. It's like we have a whole new room-- and we only spent about $35 to get there.

Not only did our quickie paint job up the style of the room, but it also created a new work/ play surface for Hadley. With a few coats of paint on the brick, the hearth is now like a nice, laquered table that Hadley uses to color in her coloring books, to play with blocks, and to make sticker art. You can't beat a quick, easy, and cost-effective re-do that packs major style and also adds function to a space. I'm in love.

More diy projects to come. Stay tuned.

Squealy Dan

2010-08-05T14:42:00.005-05:00

Shenanigans abound around here. Our once sweet and quiet little Minny (a.k.a. Brynn)-- and yes, we are calling Brynn by Hadley's nickname for her quite often-- has become quite the little diva of late. She's quickly learning that being sweet, docile, and quiet gets her much less attention than when she yells, screams, and squeals. So squealing, and sometimes outright yelling, it is.

A few nights ago, Sean started Hadley's bedtime routine-- books, bubbi (that would be Hadley's name for her toothbrush), and sillyness-- while I finished feeding Brynn. Once Brynn had finished eating, i.e., fallen asleep, I popped her in her swing and headed to Hadley's room to help move things along. I wasn't in Hadley's room for more than 10 seconds before we all heard Brynn SCREAM at the top of her lungs. I ran back to the living room with Hadley hot on my heels, saying, "Minny, oh no, Minny, Minny, Minny...." She was so concerned. So concerned, in fact, that as soon as we got to the living room, Hadley immediately got distracted by a pile of blocks. And Brynn? She smiled up at me sweetly and cooed as I picked her up. She was perfectly content as long as she was included in our bedtime routine. The little faker just didn't want to be left out.

It's definitely getting interesting around here, folks.

Ahhhh, that's much better!

2010-08-05T14:21:00.004-05:00

I finally re-designed my blog! I never liked that generic blogger template I've had up for, oh, forever, but I just never got around to finding another template that I actually liked. Until today, that is. And, I managed to download it, unzip it, and install it all by myself. If you knew me and my lack of technological ability, you would understand just how enormous that is!!

Do you guys like???? I hope so because as picky as I am, it is unlikely that I'll find anything to replace this template anytime soon. Unless I somehow figure out how to design my own templates and write html. Sean's laughing out loud somewhere RIGHT NOW.

Anyway, I have some fun kiddo stories to share with you-- one of which I'm working on now in a separate post. Things have been a little crazy lately. Sean and I decided we didn't have enough to do, so last weekend, we painted the trim work in the dining room and our brick fireplace in the living room (it looks so much better!).

As if that wasn't enough, I am also working on a freelance project and pet sitting for one of our neighbors this week. Can I just say that the addition of a second dog in our household (even if only for a few hours a day) is like adding three more children and a twister to the mix??? I'm not kidding. This dog is a sweetie, but keeping track of one more living thing is just beyond my mental and physical capabilities right now. I'm constantly counting dogs and people to make sure I have everyone accounted for. This weekend can't come soon enough.

Crazy kiddo stories to come! Stay tuned for shenanigans.

Tips for a Hassle-Free Car Purchase

2010-07-26T15:10:00.003-05:00

1) Be sure to take your two children under the age of two with you to the dealership.

2) Ignore concerned looks of employees and salesmen when you walk in the front doors.

3) Be sure to give your two year old toys that she can throw at the glossy, shiny new cars located inside the dealership. Ignore the fact that most of these toys have plastic edges that don't coexist well with shiny, new auto paint jobs.

4) Be sure (dads, I'm looking at you) to give your two year old a guided tour of the same shiny, new cars while completely ignoring the fact that said two year old's fingers are perpetually sticky. Not to mention the fact that she likes to touch EVERYTHING.

5) To keep said toddler busy during the inevitably long negotiations and needless wait times, be sure to show her the columns upon columns of balloons the dealership has so sweetly provided for her entertainment.

6) Try not to wince every time said toddler yells "Alllooons" at the top of her lungs.

7) Try not to wince every time said toddler pops a balloon-- and then cries because the noise scared her.

8) During negotiations-- and especially while reviewing long, convoluted lists of financing and amortization terms-- make sure your toddler and baby are both crying. This makes concentrating so much easier.

9) To further distract said toddler during negotiations, let toddler play "soccer" with balloons she finds on the floor-- even if her game tends to run through the middle of other people trying to look at or purchase vehicles.

10) Finally, be sure to show your toddler the water cooler that is conveniently just her height. She'll gladly pretend she's playing in the bath tub for 20 minutes while splashing water all over the marble-tiled showroom floor.

Follow these easy tips and I guarantee that car salesmen will rush to ensure that your negotiations run smoothly and you are out of there in no time flat. I think the car salesmen we met last night would have given us a new car to make us leave.

On a happy note, we are the proud, owners of a new Camry. Whoo hoo!!

Check me out

2010-07-16T10:18:00.006-05:00

My Baked Southwestern Corn Dip recipe was featured on Tipnut as one of "24 Delicious Dip Recipes." So cool! Seriously, I've never even heard of Tipnut before, and I have no idea how they even found my little, bitty blog. But, hey, I'll take the link any day!

I'm off to get ready for another telephonic job interview. I guess my screaming banshees didn't completely ruin my first interview. Keep your fingers crossed that everyone manages to nap through this interview.

The lunatic is in my head**

2010-07-15T13:25:00.005-05:00

I am just having one of those weeks. You know-- the kind where nothing goes right. And I mean absolutely nothing. I have woken up feeling like I have cotton in my temples every morning. Worst of all, I had a headache that was so bad yesterday that I ended up sleeping for two hours after Sean got home from work. I almost missed dinner and that, I tell you, never happens.

I set up a phone interview for a potential job on Tuesday and didn't realize that the interviewer was in a different time zone than me. So, the painstaking planning I did to ensure that the kids would be napping during the interview came to a grinding halt when the interviewer called me an hour before I thought we were scheduled to talk. Surprise! Time for an interview and both kids are not only awake but also screeching like little chimpanzees. I'm sure I got that job.

I've forgotten things left and right, like extra diapers for the trip we took to have lunch with Daddy, and Hadley's swim diapers for the trip to the sprinkler park. Today, we went to the botanic gardens to play in the little wading creek and "rain storm" area, and I completely forgot towels and extra clothes. Poor Hadley had to ride home in her diapie because she was way too wet to ride home in her clothes. I'm sure she loved that. Actually, I take that back. She did love it. She sang the whole way home while she gobbled up Craisins. She's easy to please.

That reminds me-- I was going to give you guys the oh-so-difficult (ha!) popsicle recipe I use for making Hadley little sweet afternoon treats. I knew that we would want to give Hadley cold treats this summer, and when I saw a little popsicle-making kit in the dollar section at Target, I jumped on it. Now, I can make her 8 little popsicles at a time, and she loves them. To make, I just fill each little cup 3/4 full with water and 1/4 of orange juice. Easy, healthy, and free of tons of added sugar and dyes. Since Hadley has never had a real popsicle, she thinks these are the best treats ever. And, while she is eating one, I can buy myself a few minutes to get laundry started or to chop veggies for dinner. Win-win, my friends.

** Extra credit if you can name the song I stole this title from.

Toddler Time

2010-07-13T20:30:00.002-05:00

[Warning: excessive whining contained herein. Don't say I didn't warn you.]

So, what exactly do you do with a toddler all day? When Hadley was younger, it was easy. We had our little daily activities, like a playgroup date or Little Gym, and afterwards we would shop a little or go home and play. But now-- now, we have boredom. It's like I live with a teenager already.

We still have daily activities, except now we have upgraded to swimming dates with friends, playgroup dates, kindermusik classes, and storytimes at the local bookstore. But seriously, those don't take up nearly enough time each day. Afterwards, we end up with soooo much wide-open time that I find myself panicking with the thought of trying to fill it with things for us to do. Let's be honest, eating lunch only takes so long. We still have about 3 hours to kill after Hadley's nap before Sean comes home. And let me tell you, just playing or cuddling so does not cut it. At least, that's what I've unceremoniously been told by my little toddler who I can usually find curled in a ball on the floor writhing in boredom by 4:00 each day. Perfect.

Given that I don't especially love seeing Hadley writhing on the floor in boredom, I try to create little activities for us. So far, I have the following (and I warn you, this list is pathetically short):

* Listen to music and dance;
* Read books;
* Play with toys in the playroom;
* Color with markers and coloring books;
* Fingerpaint;
* Play with Play-Doh;
* "Cook" with pots, pans, wooden spoons, and dry pasta;
* "Water" the plants on our back porch;
* Eat popsicles (I'll post my "recipe" later this week) in the backyard;
* Clean the house (seriously, Hadley loves to do laundry and vacuum);
* Make pudding or bake a special treat together

That's all I've got and when you consider that we can do almost all of those things in one afternoon, I can understand why Hadley gets bored. So, dear readers, this is where you come in. What activities/crafts/projects do you do to fill time/entertain/educate your toddler??? I'm desperate for ideas!!

Brynn's Nursery

2010-07-02T13:31:00.004-05:00

I had the hardest time deciding how to decorate Brynn's nursery. I knew I wanted it to be different than Hadley's nursery, which is a pretty pink and brown haven. But, I really didn't know what direction I wanted to go. And it seems like your options with girl bedding are a little limited to pink. Okay, a LOT limited. I contemplated orange and violet and then I saw this nursery on Ohdeedoh and thought, AHA!! Turquoise with lots of pinks, greens, and yellows.

Brynn's nursery came together easily after that. I ordered her bedding first, which is the Brooke nursery bedding from Pottery Barn. The bedding has lots of little owls and trees in multiple shades of blues, greens, and pinks on it. That ended up being the inspiration for the room.

We found the wall decals and canvas art at Target and amazingly, the colors and design match the bedding almost perfectly. We also painted the letters for Brynn's name and hung them with ribbon and little TLC.

This Eames-esq lounge chair is by far Sean's favorite part of the room. He found it in the back of a local antique store and was so surprised and excited to see it that he immediately sat in it and snatched the "for sale" tag off. It was a steal at just $130 and is absolutely the most comfortable rocking chair ever.

These pom poms are my favorite part of the room. I made them by following Martha Stewart's instructions. They were so easy and add tons of visual interest to the room. Brynn already loves staring at them as they softly sway and swirl above her changing table.

Here is Brynn's dresser/ changing table. I love doubling the use of a dresser by having it serve as changing table, too, and the IKEA Hemnes works great for both functions. It's hard to tell scale from this photo, but the actual size of the dresser is massive. I was a little freaked out when we put it together and it was literally the size of an elephant. It looks so amazing now that her room is put together, though. And the best part is that it will easily transition to her big girl room, teenage room, and even into adulthood.

We had so much fun designing and decorating Brynn's room and it is perfect for our sunny, sweet little girl.

Favorites

2010-06-30T14:16:00.006-05:00

It's been a tough, looong week around these parts, so to lift my spirits a little, I thought I would show you some of my favorite spots around our house. And, stay tuned: I'm planning to post pics of Brynn's nursery a little later this week. It's beautacious (yep, that's a word), if I do say so myself.

This is our foyer, complete with our new front door (!!!). I love how light and airy this room is.

We found this piece at an antique store. It's an original 1950's TV cabinet and had the original (non-functioning) tv and record player in it when we bought it. Sean has since removed both and added a new record player and stereo system. This piece is housed in our "library," or what most people would call their "formal living room." Since we aren't formal, we didn't need one of those. This is the room where we keep all of our books, records, cd's, and games. We spend many hours in here listening to music, dancing, and reading books.

This rug in our library is my favorite rug in the house. It's also one of Hadley's favorite reading spots.

This is the other side of the library, which is wall-to-wall bookshelves. Sean built and installed these with his bare hands. And I love them. They make the room and also provide us a ton of storage space for our collection of books and records.

This is the dining room, which you can see from the library. I love this room in the afternoon light.

And this is one of my favorite pieces in the house. It's a mid-century-modern console that we picked up for a steal at an antique store. I use it to house most of my china. It also has the perfect drawer for organizing photographs and photography supplies.

I guess this option beats the alternative, "Hooter Hiders"

2010-06-27T19:10:00.014-05:00

Late yesterday afternoon, we found ourselves out and about so as to allow our contractor time to finish a project at our house without us underfoot. Unfortunately, we ran out of the house without so much as a sippy cup for Hadley or a blanket for Brynn. I think we left our brains at home, too. We didn't have anything planned and ended up just wandering around Target for a little while. Then, out of sheer boredom, we decided to grab an early dinner at a local restaurant.

Everything was going pretty well, i.e., Hadley was having a blast throwing macaroni and cheese on the floor and Sean and I were enjoying a meal without having to worry about mopping afterwards. Then it happened. Brynn decided she was hungry, too. And not just kind of hungry but REALLY FREAKING HUNGRY. She wasn't willing to wait, either, BY GOLLY!! If everyone else was going to eat, she was not going to be left out.

Amazingly, this has not happened to me yet. I am breastfeeding and so far, we have managed to plan things so that I am either home when Brynn is ready to eat or I take a pumped bottle if we are going to be out. But since we rushed out of the house, I didn't even think to grab a bottle. I just figured we would be somewhere breastfeeding friendly when it was time to feed Brynn. And the middle of a restaurant with people all around isn't really all that breastfeeding friendly. Especially since three young children were sitting at the table RIGHT NEXT TO US and had decided to talk to us throughout the meal.

That meant my options for feeding Brynn were really limited. I could breastfeed her at our table in full view of everyone in the tiny restaurant, or I could take her out to the car. I refuse, refuse, refuse to feed a baby in a public bathroom, so that wasn't even an option. As luck would have it, I didn't even have a blanket I could throw over us while I was feeding Brynn. As I said, I think I left my brain at home.

Luckily, the table next to us left pretty quickly. Then, I just bit the bullet and fed Brynn at our table. I had Sean give me his t-shirt (he had on two) to cover us up. And yes, I did get some looks from other patrons and waitstaff, and I think I made the manager a little uncomfortable when he came by to check on us. But, overall, the experience wasn't too bad. It was nowhere near as uncomfortable as the time I breastfed Brynn in the front seat of our car when we were stopped for four hours on the interstate due to a wreck. Feeding Brynn in the car was fine, but the guy who kept getting out of his car in front of us to wave at me was not. Seriously, what was that????

I was still thinking about our interesting meal this morning when I opened my email and saw an offer for a nursing cover gift set from "Udder Covers" for $5. The gift sets are usually $37. I guess the universe was trying to tell me something: "Buy a damned nursing cover already!!! Stop flashing strange men when you forget to pack a blanket!!"

This deal at "Udder Covers" was just too good to pass up. The three-piece nursing cover gift sets include a nursing cover, Milk Bands breastfeeding bracelet, and two pairs of washable breast pads. I ordered the "Maria," which is pretty darn cute. It'll provide a little modesty, too, when I end up feeding Brynn in the middle of Target next time.

*** To get this deal, type "babies" in the "promo code" box at checkout. And nope, I have no affiliation with Udder Covers and was not compensated in any way for mentioning the company or its products in this post.

Hopefully she's going for an encore

2010-06-27T08:23:00.003-05:00

Brynn did her typical eat-every-hour routine last night. Except unlike most nights, she started eating at 5:00 p.m. She normally doesn't start this until 7:00 p.m. at the earliest. And she fell asleep for the night at 8:00 p.m. Usually she falls asleep for the night at 10:00 p.m. and sleeps until the next morning at about 7:00. I was sure that since she fell asleep so early she was going to wake up in the middle of the night to eat. I even contemplated waking her to feed her one more time before we went to bed. But, in the end, I was lazy and tired and just went to sleep.

And hallelujah! My child slept until 7:00 this morning. That's 11 whole hours for a 3-month-old!! As Sean just said, "She's utterly delicious!"

MINE!!!

2010-06-25T13:41:00.005-05:00

We have apparently entered a new phase in which everything belongs to Hadley. When Hadley wanted a bite of my sandwich at lunch, she yelled, "MINE!!!" When she wanted to kiss Brynn last night, she yelled, "MINE!!!" And, when I went to put on my shoes this morning, she yelled, "MINE!!!" To my utter horror and disbelief, she even exclaimed, "MINE, MINE, MINE!!!" while pointing to my cup of coffee this morning. Uh no. That would be MINE, dear child.

And oddly, it wasn't the fact that Hadley wanted to drink coffee that horrified me so much. It was that she actually used that dreaded two-year-old-having-a-tantrum-phrase that got me. Oh God, kill me now please.

I'm not exactly sure where Hadley picked up this fabulous word -- or its meaning-- but I'm thinking that this little piece of literary magic didn't help:

This little gem is about a dinosaur who snatches up all of the toys and yells, "MINE, MINE, MINE!!!" Sound familiar to anyone? Yeah, Daddy thought it was really cute when he read Hadley this book and she immediately repeated the dreaded phrase. Somehow, it took her months to actually call me "Mommy," but she learned "MINE" in seconds. Figures.

And no, we didn't buy "Mine-o-Saur" for Hadley. She received it as part of a book program our state has initiated in which every child receives a book a month from birth until the child reaches age 5. Child experts in education and psychology choose the books, and it truly is an amazing program. In fact, some of Hadley's favorite books have been ones she received in this program.

But, "Mine-o-Saur" is just too mature for her right now. The moral of the story may be that you are supposed to share, but all Hadley got out of it was, "MINE!!!!!!" Apparently we are going to have to hide this one for a little while. And buy Mommy some ear plugs.

Five Things

2010-06-21T14:27:00.003-05:00

Five things I never want to forget:

1) How hard Sean works for our family. He spent most of his Father's Day weekend in a tiny hole in our hot attic prepping it for insulation. We currently have very little insulation on our second floor and that area gets as hot as Hades in the afternoons. Sean had to contort himself into a pretzel and squeeze into a teeny, tiny little space to get the prep work done. He is willing to go to great lengths to accomplish things that make our lives better.

2) How Brynn sucks on two fingers on her left hand right now. It's immensely adorable, but we are nevertheless trying to curb this before she resorts to thumb sucking. I spend most of the day replacing her fingers with her paci. So far, she's not falling for it.

3) How Hadley now calls for "Momma" and "Da-tty" when she wants us. She ran down the hall yesterday afternoon calling "Da-tty," "Da-tty" for Sean. It was heartmelting.

4) How lucky we are to have my family so close. My parents and brother live right around the corner from us and my sister and her family live about 15 minutes away. We also have loads of cousins, aunts, and uncles nearby. Our family spends so much time together on holidays, birthdays, and just for dinners, picnics, and parties. I love that my kids will grow up with lots of family nearby.

5) How sweet my girls are to each other. It is so much fun to watch Hadley with Brynn. She gives her Minnie all of her kisses right now and loves to pat Brynn's back or hand and give her big hugs. And Brynn is fascinated by Hadley, too. Brynn watches Hadley constantly and smiles in her direction. I just love these kids.

Granola Lust

2010-06-18T20:56:00.003-05:00

This post is off subject and really rather dull, but I can't get this little gem out of my head.

Chobani Strawberry greek yogurt topped with this:

Oh yeah!

I usually eat this little treat as a snack when the kiddos are napping in the afternoons. I like to close my eyes, sip my iced coffee, and enjoy the few minutes of quiet with something that feels like a decadent treat. This totally fits the bill!

So, what does it say about me if I'm this excited about yogurt??

The trees

2010-06-16T08:30:00.001-05:00

On the day Brynn was born, Sean's step-father, Jim, planted two trees along the brick walkway that leads to his front porch. He named the trees "Hadley" and "Brynn." We love that Jim dedicated the trees to our girls and plan to take pictures of the girls with their trees on each of our visits.

Here is our first round of pictures taken during our Memorial Day visit:

Brynn's Tree: 2 Months

Hadley's Tree: 21 months

I baked!

2010-06-15T13:25:00.010-05:00

Well, I kind of baked. Isn't it beautiful??

It's a Blueberry Cream Cheese Galette. I'm so stinking proud of this thing because typically, I don't bake. And when I do, it doesn't always end well. There are a few things I do really well but following directions is not one of them. Therefore, baking and I don't always get along. This recipe, though, was foolproof. I used a store-bought crust and had the whole thing ready to pop in the oven in less than 10 minutes.

I based my galette off of this recipe but modified it slightly (see, I told you I can't follow directions). I didn't use cornstarch because I didn't want the fruit to break down too much (and I didn't have any), and I layered cream cheese under the berry mixture. The cream cheese was Sean's idea and made the tart so decadent and yummy. We both loved this dessert! And, it is so simple, yet so elegant and pretty, that I will definitely be making this the next time we entertain.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Galette

Adapted from For the Love of Cooking

1 pie crust
about 3 cups of blueberries, rinsed and dried
1-2 Tbsp white sugar (I only used one because it seemed like plenty)

2-3 Tbsp cream cheese, sliced

1 egg, beaten
Raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper and lightly spraying it with cooking spray. Unroll the pie crust on the parchment paper. Lay slices of cream cheese in the center of the pie crust. Gently mix the berries and sugar in a small bowl and pour/ heap on top of the cream cheese. Fold the pie crust to just cover the berries, leaving plenty of berries showing at the center.

Brush the outside of the pie crust with egg and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream.

Enjoy!

The poop

2010-06-11T10:53:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was interesting. I was in the middle of feeding Brynn in the living room when Her Highness Hadley demanded my attention in the kitchen. Apparently, she had deemed it snack time. I diligently popped Brynn into her swing and assisted Hadley in getting her snack ready.

Once Hadley was settled, I scooped Brynn back up and sat back down so that we could finish her meal. That's when I felt it... a warm, oozy, stickiness rolling down my arm. Let's just say that I wasn't really prepared for that sensation. I jumped up and looked at Brynn's back only to see that the entirety of her clothing was COVERED in poop. Her back, her side, her hair, all of it was covered. Her swing wasn't spared, either. I ran to the back of the house, plopped Brynn on her changing table and undressed her as fast as I could. Of course, she squirmed like crazy and smeared poop all over me and the changing table. Then, as if on command, Brynn started pooping again. So, I'm standing there trying to catch poop on the open, already poopy, diaper and Hadley starts calling me, i.e., crying/ whining from the kitchen. She wanted more graham crackers. Of course.

Somehow, I got everyone and everything cleaned up and both girls fed, but really, I'm not sure how. It was all a blur and ended with me running around the house in my skivvies trying to get everyone calm, clean, and happy. If nothing else, parenting has taught me that juggling is crucial. As long as I can keep all the balls in the air, I'm usually okay. It's when the balls are covered in poop that I'm in trouble.

Toddler Speak

2010-06-10T13:38:00.003-05:00

Me: Hadley, can you tell me how old you are?

Hadley: no

Me: Can you say one?

Hadley: Two!!

Me: Two??

Hadley: Threeeeee!

Me: Can you say 1, 2, 3?

Hadley: (in sing-song) two,three, two, threeeee, two, THREE!!!

Yep, she's definitely got this counting thing down.

And then there were four.... (!!)

2010-06-09T13:36:00.008-05:00

You know, I've been meaning to sit down for weeks... okay, months... and write an introductory post for our new little love, but for so many reasons I have been putting it off. For one, my little bean eats NONSTOP from about 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. every night. It's like she knows she needs to stock up before bed. Unfortunately, that time at night is when I used to get things accomplished, including writing blog posts. Now, I feed Brynn and then crash as soon as she falls asleep.

And second, I just don't want to waste a single minute during the day that I could be spending with my two little girls. They are just that amazing-- and that all-encompassing. They literally keep me going every minute of every day. But, I've never been happier!!

Despite the fact that I have two babies under two (I know, I'm nuts), I'm determined to get this blog back off the ground. That means that I am making a commitment to myself and to all three of my readers (two being closely related to me) to post at least three times a week. I'm just stubborn enough to make it happen. Even if it means making myself post late at night when I'm half-asleep. Should make for some interesting reading, huh??

Okay, enough of that. I know I left you guys hanging after my last post, but I actually did give birth about two months ago. My little Brynn Penelope was born on March 30 and weighed a whopping 8 pounds, 5 ounces. Her birth was relatively easy with the only hitch being that I pushed for about 15 hours. Okay, not really, but those two hours were the longest two hours of my life. It was all worth it, though. Our little Brynn is a doll and is the easiest baby I have ever met.

Brynn captured my heart the moment I laid eyes on her. She loves to hold my hands while I feed her. She gives Sean giant, gummy grins, and she watches Hadley as if she is soaking up every little move so that she can replicate it in a few months. Brynn is also, to my great relief, breastfeeding like a champ. She has had no issues whatsoever latching or getting enough to eat. And, amazingly, she is already sleeping through the night. She started sleeping 5-6 hours at night when she was about three weeks old and in the last few weeks, she started sleeping 8-9 hours at night, from about 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Instead of crying when she is tired, hungry, or bored, Brynn "grumbles." It's the sweetest little gremlin sound that is so much easier on the ears than crying. She loves chewing on her fist and will only sometimes tolerate her paci. And, she is cooing up a storm. At her two-month check-up, she spent the entire time saying, "hiiii" to our pediatrician. Just think-- I can tell people Brynn said her first word at two months:-).

And most importantly, Hadley ADORES Brynn. Hadley can't get enough of her little sister and is happy just kissing, hugging, and patting Brynn. I'm so happy that Hadley isn't jealous or angry that we have a new little one around. To the contrary, Hadley treats Brynn like Brynn is her little baby. She "helps" burp Brynn and will try to give Brynn her paci. A few days ago, I put Brynn in her carseat and turned around to grab a blanket to drape over her. When I looked back, Hadley was already tucking a blanket around Brynn's waist. I have no idea where Hadley got the blanket, but it was amazing to see her mimicking the way I tuck Brynn into her seat.

When we first brought Brynn home from the hospital, Hadley started calling her something that sounded like "Dee-Boo." She would say it every time she saw Brynn. We couldn't figure out what she was saying until we realized that it sounded an awful lot like "gentle," a word we used almost constantly when Hadley would pat or kiss Brynn. Apparently, Hadley thought our new baby was named "gentle." We seem to have cleared up that confusion, though. Now Hadley can say "Brynn," but she usually chooses to call her little sister, "Minn-eee," her version of "Brynnie." I'm loving watching my little girls interact and hope that Hadley keeps her nickname for her sister.

Alright, you guys have to hold me to my 3-posts-a-week promise. I've got lots to update you on, including pics of our new front door, Brynn's nursery, and the playroom.

Any Day Now!

2010-03-23T13:49:00.003-05:00

Okay, so it's been a little while since I posted... I know. I keep meaning to and then these things keep getting in the way-- life, toddler, life, pregnancy, etc. All good things, mind you, but all things that nonetheless are occupying my every waking moment lately.

I did want to stop in to quickly update on the baby baking, though, since we are in the home stretch now. I am currently full term, 38 weeks and 6 days pregnant, or as my husband and everyone I know keeps saying, I'm "huge." And, I am. Admittedly, I am as big as a house right now and am finding it difficult, if not impossible, to do the simplest things, like tying my own shoelaces, bending over to pick up toys and other miscellany that hits the floor, and most fun, getting out of bed. I love feeling like a beached whale once I have laid down in bed. And for the life of me, I can't remember what it felt like to actually be able to lie down and sit right back up without floundering about for a hand hold.

This past weekend was gorgeous so Sean and I took Hadley to our local zoo for some outdoor, family time on Saturday afternoon. She had a blast, as usual, I walked way more than I probably should have, and we all came home happy that we had spent a beautiful afternoon enjoying the weather and sights. Oh, and everyone at the zoo had fun staring at my giant belly. I got so many strange looks that all essentially read, "What the hell is she doing walking around the zoo????" Yeah, it was pleasant.

And then on Sunday, I started having contractions. Lots of them-- and they were actually painful contractions that came every few minutes. I figured that I was just tired from my jaunt around the zoo the day before and spent most of the day resting. But, the buggers just wouldn't stop. Finally, around 6:00, I called our on-call nurse and she said I should head to L & D to have my progress checked. Even though I am more than prepared to the nth degree for this baby, it was stressful getting all of the last-minute stuff packed, getting Hadley to my parents with instructions for dinner and bedtime, and getting us to the hospital. And then, after all of that, we were home again by 9:30.

Even though I had dilated more since my last doctor's appointment, I wasn't dilating enough at the hospital for the hospital to keep me. Fun! For now, I'm still having contractions, but they aren't regular enough for me to head back to L & D. Oh, and I had my 39-week appointment today and I am now dilated to 3.5 cm.

3.5 cm!!! That's 1/3 of the way there! My doctor is pretty sure I will deliver any day now, and I am so ready. We have lots of meals frozen for the weeks after the baby gets here, I have nested, folded, dusted, cleaned, and organized every inch of this house, and Sean has scheduled time off from work. Now we just need this little one to make her appearance. I'll update when she gets here!

Merry Christmas!!! (And hello old friends, it's been awhile!)

2009-12-24T11:10:00.006-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your holiday is bright, warm, and sweet. We're in the midst of baking cookies and magic bars and prepping dinner for tonight. Then, once the little one is in bed tonight, we'll get to work assembling some presents. This is our first year to tackle toy assembly, so we'll see how it goes. I'm so excited to see Hadley's face tomorrow morning. It's great that she now knows what is going on and can enjoy the holiday!

I know I've been MIA for a few weeks, but rest assured that I do have posts planned. These last few weeks have just been busy with holiday planning and shopping, travel, and a work project that I finished in mid-December. This month was also made more hectic by the fact that I had to squeeze in numerous continuing legal education hours that I delayed (i.e., procrastinated) in taking until now. The deadline is December 31 and I finished on the 20th-- go me! Hey, at least they are done.

I've also managed to check several things off of my to-do list in the last month: cleaning out the closets in the soon-to-be new baby's room, shopping for cute (or as cute as they get) maternity clothes, packing up infant items to send to my sister for her new baby, setting up a business for my contract work, and assorted other odds and ends. It feels so good to start the new year with a slightly less onerous list of obligations.

And, lest you feel deprived of Hadley info-- my baby is doing beautifully! She was given rave reviews and praise by our pediatrician (and friend) at her 15-month appointment. Our pediatrician said Hadley is definitely precocious. She asked how many words Hadley knows and when I told her probably 15-20, she was super impressed. Apparently, she only needed 3 words to be on track. And, Hadley has added several more words to her repertoire in the last few days, including "towel," "oatmeal," "I don't know," and "bottle." She loves multiple syllable words. When Sean asks her what she knows, she says, "I don't know," except it sounds like "a da loo." It's so cute.

Our new little one is doing well, too. I'm about 26 weeks along now and the little bean is soooo active. I've been able to feel her kicking since about 15 weeks (early, I know!), and now, I can see my stomach move when she gets really active. It's amazing and a little weird at the same time. I have my glucose tolerance test at my next appointment. Other than that, this pregnancy is just moving along. It is really flying by and I have to make myself stop sometimes and just enjoy these moments. Before long, we'll be a family of four and I'm not sure I'll ever have time to slow down again!

And, since I have utterly failed to post a bump pic thus far, here is a pic of my belly at about 24 weeks. I think my belly has about doubled in size since this picture was taken.

We're planning a trip to visit family the day after Christmas and luckily, there is an IKEA within a quick drive of their house. That means we can stock up on baby furniture and other goodies while we're there. I'm anxious to get the new nursery decorated and ready.

That's it for now, folks. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Dear Hadley: Month 14

2009-11-18T20:42:00.004-06:00

My Sweet Pea! This letter is a bit late, but only because we have been spent every free minute at fun play dates and playing in your new playroom. That's right-- you now have a room that is solely devoted to your TOYS. We used to keep most of your toys in the living room, but we really felt that you were outgrowing that space. So, Daddy spent a few weekends cleaning out his "man playroom" upstairs for you. And, you love your new space. I really love it, too. We can reclaim our living room now and you have this wonderful space to pull out all of your toys and play.

Right now, your favorite toys are your baby doll, your stuffed animals, your books, and oddly enough, my headbands. You love to put one of my headbands on your head, usually backwards or across your forehead Rambo-style. You then continue playing with your toys as if wearing a giant headband backwards is the most natural thing ever. One day, you even wore a headband backwards to Costco because you refused to let me take it off of you. I'm sure we got some funny looks that day, but I don't care. I hope you can always be so confident in your fashion choices.

You have really astounded us this month with your understanding of EVERYTHING that we say to you. I can ask you to put something away and you actually do it. And, one day, I asked you to find your water cup and you went and searched through your piles of toys until you found it. Then, you brought it back to me and triumphantly held it up as if to say, "Here it is, Mama! I knew where it was all along!!" You have also developed a love and fascination for the phone this month. You love your play phones but you also really like our cell phones and home phones. You push buttons and hold the phone, usually upside down, to the side of your head and babble away. It is so fun to watch.

We are having so much fun teaching you new things, too. You have learned the coolest things this month, like that a sheep says, "baaaa," and a lion says, "rrrrrrooar," and monkey says, "ah ah ah." You pound on your chest with your fists when you make the monkey sound. I just love that-- even if it isn't technically what a monkey does. And, you learned to sign "love" this month by crossing your arms over your chest. The first time I told you I loved you and you signed back, my heart just melted. I still can't get enough of your sweet love signs. And you are loving blowing kisses this month. You say "mmm--ahhhh" when you do so, and you blow kisses at everyone, even our cat. Your vocabulary is really expanding rapidly right now, too. Just in the last few days, you have started saying, "tiger," "apple," and "diaper." I just love hearing you talk, Sweet Pea.

This was an amazing month and I can't wait to see all of the new things you learn next month!

Love,
Your Mommy

It's Official....

2009-11-09T19:44:00.006-06:00

We're having another little girl!!! And, she's healthy, measuring perfectly, and is spunky already! During the course of our ultrasound on Friday, the little one managed to maneuver herself from a head-down position to a sideways position to a head-up position. All in the span of about 30 minutes. Over and over again, we watched her kick her perfect, tiny feet out, push off, and roll to a new spot. Then, she would curl up and kick or punch like crazy. It was so fun to watch. She kept her little hands by her face most of the time, too, just like Hadley did in utero. I love that my two little girls are already alike!

Since our ultrasound, we've been going non-stop, so I haven't had much time to concentrate on our big news. But, today, it really hit me. I'm going to have two girls-- and they'll be about 18-19 months apart in age! I can just imagine the matching outfits, shared baby dolls, and fighting over toys now:-). We're going to have so much fun and I can't wait!!

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-01T14:41:00.009-06:00

This was Hadley's first Halloween to go trick-or-treating and amazingly, she loved it! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Who doesn't love going door to door to get treats from complete strangers??? Unfortunately, Tinkerbell has not yet eaten candy and I'm not quite ready for her to start. So, that means that someone other than little Tink will need to consume her loot from last night. Judging by the Reese's peanut butter cups I devoured for breakfast this morning, I'd say that I have that job covered.

18 Weeks

2009-10-30T13:03:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I guess it's about time I come out with the reason I have been so freaking lazy with posting new updates on this blog. Weeks ago, it was because I could barely keep my eyes open for more than two hours at a time. I was so incredibly bone-weary tired. It was a chore to simply load our breakfast dishes in the dishwasher each morning. And then, that went away and I was hit with an all-consuming, overwhelming feeling that I could hurl at any minute. Love that feeling. And then that went away, too. Weird, huh? Now, I actually feel like myself. Almost. Except for that bump that has manifested itself on my midsection:-). Sometimes I forget it's there and catch a glimpse of my profile in the mirror. I usually gasp-- and then smile.

If you haven't guessed, I'm pregnant! Yes, we'll have our second child in early April and we're so excited. And a little freaked out. It will definitely be an interesting experience having two children so close in age, but it's an experience I can't wait to start. We're having so much fun with Hadley that I'm sure the new little one will only double the fun.

Oh, and we find out whether the new little one is a boy or a girl next Friday. I'm so excited and so anxious to find out that I almost ran out this morning in the pouring rain to buy this (which is for sale at Walgreen's stores):

Then I decided that it will be much more fun if we wait until our ultrasound. I'm not good at waiting!! I predict that I will be taking plenty of online baby prediction tests over the next week.

Someone is ready for Halloween

2009-10-22T21:23:00.014-05:00

Dear Hadley: Month 13

2009-10-09T20:18:00.004-05:00

Dear Hadley:

You are 13 months old now, and we are having so much fun with you! You learn something new every day and amaze us with your wit and charm. Right now, everything is funny to you. You giggle constantly-- while you are eating, while you are petting Bella, and especially while you are running around the house. And man, are you running. Daddy asked me a few days ago when you started running and honestly, I can't remember, either. It just happened. You were walking with this wobbly gait one day and the next, you were running as if you had been doing it forever. You have so much fun pushing your little ride-on car around, chasing Bella and Allie, and just exploring your house.

There are a few things you really love this month: Bananas!!!, dancing, and your Baby Doll. Those bananas!! You have always loved them, and this month, that love has seriously intensified. You decided that bananas are THE food to eat for breakfast and you do every morning. As soon as I put you in your chair in the mornings, you start chanting, "nana, nana, nana." And, as soon as I get your banana to slice into your oatmeal, your chants become all-out impatient wails that turn into outright tears when you realize that I have to, of all things, heat up your oatmeal for 20 seconds before you can eat it. You would think with all of that drama that I was starving you, but no, you just can't wait 20 more seconds for that banana. Horrors. Your love for bananas runs deep, child.

And the dancing! You LOVE to dance. You have been dancing for a couple of months, but this month was completely different. You seek out music, pushing buttons on your activity table or push car to start a new song, and as soon as the music starts, you start moving. You shake those hips, bop your head, and swing your arms to the beat. Daddy and I have the best time just watching you bop along to your music.

You also recently developed a deep love for a doll you received as a gift for your birthday. It is a cute, little pink and purple thing that you carry around all day, hugging, squeezing, and kissing. You talk to her, prop her up on the couch and fireplace hearth, and at times, try to get her to sit on your ride-on car seat. You work so hard at trying to balance her on that seat and then you slowly back away to see if she will stay. She usually doesn't, but you are stubborn enough that you keep trying and trying and trying. And, at nap time, when I tell you it is time to go "night night," you look everywhere for that doll and once we find her, you clutch her to you and carry her to your bed. I absolutely love that you have a favorite doll now.

You made huge strides developmentally this month, too. Of utmost importance, we transitioned you to whole milk. And at the same time, we made the transition from bottles to a sippy cup. Amazingly, no one was injured in this transition! I have to admit, I was a little worried. You did great, though. We completed the transition in a little over a week, and you never complained. You are also now almost completely feeding yourself finger foods. You like to hold your food and take bites as opposed to having me cut you little bite-sized pieces. You still let me spoon feed you your oatmeal and yogurt, but other than that, you want to do it yourself. You are such a big girl.

All of a sudden, you also seem to understand just about everything we tell you. This both fascinates and terrifies me. We can tell you to give Bella kisses and you will whirl around, find Bella, and run to her to give her a big, slobbery kiss on the head. One night, you were trying to cuddle with Bella and she was being too wiggly for you to kiss. You fixed that by taking your little hands, putting them on either side of her face and holding her still so you could lean in and kiss her on the top of the head. It was too cute!

I can ask you to hand me something or to share with me and you immediately hand it to me. We constantly tell you to "sit down" in the bathtub and you do-- albeit slowly sometimes. Speaking of the bath, you LOVE your bath. You jump with glee next to the bathtub while we prepare your bath water and giggle and splash once we put you in. You have the best time "swimming" in the bathtub.

You have become quite the little chatterbug lately, too. You are saying "nana" for banana, "apple," "Daddy," "Mama," "no, no, no," "yeah," "bye," and "all done." My favorite is when Daddy gets home at night and you squeal, "Dad--eeee," when he walks in the door. I love to watch you two together.

I love you, Sweet Pea, and can't wait to see what this next month brings!

Love,

Your Mommy

Fall Overhaul

2009-10-07T10:48:00.012-05:00

I love this time of year probably more than any other. When the weather starts to turn a little crisper and the days get shorter, I start nesting like crazy. I want my home to feel warm and cozy and to smell like hearty stews, chilis, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie. Just maybe not all at the same time.

On Sunday afternoon, I spent a little time "autumnizing" the house. I packed away our summery throw pillows, pulled out my cable-knit throws, unearthed my box of fall decor, and bought the same soy candle I buy at this time every year. To me, it smells like Fall and I just can't start Fall without it. This candle, called Harvest Pumpkin, is at Target for $7.99 and it smells divine-- and lasts forever.

To warm up our living room, I arranged a few warmer-toned throw pillows on the couch. I'm in love with the sparkle on the little, brown pillow. I'm a sucker for sparkly.

Every year at this time, I cook a couple of things for the first time in months: chili and pumpkin bread. Both smell and taste amazing, and there is just something about these rituals that make me feel content. I also headed to the grocery store on Monday to pick up a few knobby gourds. I just love the look of gourds on my kitchen table in October.

I also put out some ceramic pumpkins. I love these, but because I don't like a lot of clutter or superfluous stuff sitting about, I always have a hard time deciding where to put them.

And, I love how this time of year, some of my decor looks a little spookier. This candlestick holder is one of my faves and this time of year, it looks a little like spooky fingers to me. Ahhh haa haa. Now all I need are big, round pumpkins to sit on our front porch... and to carve on the night before Halloween.

Please ignore my wrinkly table runner... the iron is on strike

Do you decorate your house for the changing seasons? Or, just for holidays?

Teething Strikes Again

2009-10-06T20:34:00.008-05:00

There have been days over the past week when I honestly have felt like I live with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I can leave the house with a sweet, content child and at some point within the hour, she transforms into a fire-breathing, red-eyed monster who could eat me for breakfast. Seriously.

We were at the grocery store yesterday morning and about halfway through our shopping trip, about the time that my cart was filling up and we just had to pick up a few more items and check out, Hadley completely melted down. She threw the miniature pumpkin she had been holding to the floor, almost maiming an innocent bystander, and started wailing, screaming, and thrashing like a banshee. It was brutal. People were staring, I was trying to console her to no avail, and at the same time, I had to decide what to do with all of the groceries in my cart. Do I check out with a screaming baby? Do I put them all back while she loses it in the cart? WHAT DO I DO???? Long story short, I was that woman in the check-out line with the screaming child that everyone stares at and no one will make eye contact with. It was fabulous. Then we got in the car and she was fine. She stopped crying, smiled at me, and sang the whole way home. What the ----?????

I'm blaming my sweet baby's violent mood swings of the past week on teething. Hadley has about a gazillion teeth coming in all at the same time, and I think the pain is messing with her coping mechanisms. She's just never like this. She's always happy and content, but lately, she can be okay one minute and crazy the next. It's a learning experience for sure. For instance, I now know not to let her hold produce at the grocery store as she can be extremely dangerous when angered. And, when the meltdown occurs, RUN! Hopefully, those pesky teeth will break through soon and we can all return to our normal lives. I'll keep you updated.

On happier notes, I have almost taught Hadley to say "BOO" for Halloween. When you ask her what a ghost says, she replies with, "bahhhh." She's so close. And despite her teething pain, Hadley entertains us every night after dinner with music and dancing. She plays the same song on her activity table over and over again while dancing madly to it. You should see her shake her little booty and flap her arms. She really gets down. It's the cutest thing ever!

Baked Southwestern Corn Dip-- Yum!

2009-09-29T15:17:00.007-05:00

Sean digging in

The last time we made the trek to visit family a few hours away, we brought home a bag full of their fresh-grown sweet corn, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers. I was in heaven. Until I realized we could only eat so many ears of corn on the cob. That's when I remembered this delicious recipe for Baked Southwestern Corn Dip. My mom found this recipe in our local newspaper years ago and we have since adapted it to our tastes. Our family almost always has this dip at holiday parties, but I figured, why not in the middle of the summer? And, for kicks, why not have this dip for dinner instead of an appetizer? It's full of yummy veggies so it can't be completely unhealthy, right? Yeah, just read the list of decadent ingredients.... it's definitely not health food. But it is seriously good!!

Baked Southwestern Corn Dip

About 2 cups fresh corn or 1 Can Yellow Corn Kernels

1 Can Sliced Black Olives (2-1/4 oz)
1 Can Ro-Tel (10 oz)
1 Can Black Beans (15 oz)
1 Medium Fresh Jalapeno Pepper (2 Tablespoons Chopped)
2 Jarred Roasted Red Peppers, chopped
1 Cup Shredded Monterey Jack, Colby Jack, or Pepper Jack Cheese
½ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Cup Mayonnaise

Cooking Oil Spray
Tortilla Chips for Dipping

Preheat Oven to 350
Drain black beans and Ro-tel tomatoes (and corn if you used canned). Mix drained vegetables and corn in a medium size mixing bowl. Add jalapeno, roasted red peppers, both cheeses, and mayonnaise. Stir well.

Spray a 2 quart baking dish lightly with cooking oil spray. Pour the dip into the dish and smooth the top. Bake until the top is bubbly, about 30 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips. Spicy bulk sausage also tastes great in this.

My Little Tinkerbell (and NEWS)

2009-09-25T08:03:00.015-05:00

Now that fall is finally approaching-- even though it hardly feels like it here yet-- I'm working on getting my little bug ready for Halloween. I love Halloween!! The costumes, the cool weather, the face paint, and, of course, the candy. Last year at Halloween, Hadley wasn't quite two months old yet, so we dressed her in a bunting bag costume. She was a little ladybug and was so cute it was ridiculous.

This year, Hadley will be about 14 months, and she is totally old enough for a real costume. I have had the best time scouring shops for little toddler costumes. I wanted something fairy-like with a skirt or tutu, but most importantly, I wanted the costume to reflect Hadley's personality. I finally found the best costume last weekend. It's a Tinkerbell costume and is girly and frou frou and even comes with sparkles. The costume is much greener and less yellow-y in real life. And, best of all, the costume requires no headpiece, which Hadley will most definitely not wear.

I tried the costume on Hadley as soon as we got home and her response was mixed. At first, she pulled the skirt out, looked at it, and then looked at me like, "Huh???" Then, she quickly forgot about her costume and went back to playing. I guess that passes the test, right? She looked so cute in it, too-- like my own little fairy princess.

Now, I'm on a quest to find a treat bag, preferably one that is monogrammed. On pretty much everyone's recommendation, I searched Pottery Barn Kids, but their stock seems kindof blah. I want something a little girly yet generic enough to work year after year. This is one possibility I have found:

It's close but I'm not completely sold yet. Let me know if you have suggestions!

And now, for the big news of the day, I have a new little niece, named Caitlyn Grace, who was born yesterday! She is amazing and beautiful and if I get permission from my sister, I'll post pics soon.

Design HELP!!

2009-09-12T02:00:00.004-05:00

Just recently J Crew added a Q&A for the men's section entitled "Jack Knows Best." Men can send in questions they can't ask anywhere else about appropriate clothing 'n such! Great Idea!

Send your man to the J Crew men's section for the rest of the invaluable info!

Some sample question:

How long should my pants be?

Where can I wear a linen suit?

When do I wear a crew-neck sweater versus a V-neck?

Dear Hadley: Month 12-- Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!!!

2009-09-10T20:03:00.007-05:00

Dear Hadley:

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby!!!! You turned one a few days ago, and I am still amazed that a whole year has passed since your birth. I remember those last, few days before you were born as I prepared meals to freeze, made last-minute purchases for your arrival, and generally nested like crazy. I remember the first moment I met you when you stared right into my eyes and pursed your lips into a sweet rosebud. You did that with your mouth for the first few weeks, and I spent most of that time just staring at you and taking you in. I remember introducing you to our family and friends, bringing you home for the first time, settling in and developing a routine with you, and struggling through those rough, first weeks of breastfeeding. I remember when you learned to roll over (both ways), began cooing and then babbling and jabbering, began smiling and laughing, learned to crawl, stand, and then walk, and finally, started talking. It has been an amazing ride, Sweet Pea, and I have loved every moment with you.

Your birthday was a fun, fun day. You, Daddy, and I woke up early to take care of last-minute preparations for your big birthday bash, then we had a nice, relaxed lunch, and got dressed for the party. You took a looong nap that day and woke up about 15 minutes before your party started. I was getting a little worried that you were going to sleep through the party, but you woke up just in the nick of time!

Your party was so great, too. We had tons of family and friends there to celebrate, and you had so much fun playing and opening presents. You didn't really know what to make of everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to you, but you really LOVED your cake. You started out daintily dipping one little finger into the icing and tasting it. Then, once you realized how good that icing was, you dug both hands into the cake and shoved as much of the cake and icing into your mouth as you could. You even shared your icing with me and Daddy. You are such a sweet baby!

You have really grown from an infant into a little toddler this month, little one. You took your first steps at the beginning of August and by the end of August, you were walking pretty confidently on your own. You decided one day about mid-month that you were ready to walk instead of crawl, and you practiced constantly. Now, you pop up and walk just about everywhere. You still only make it a few feet, and sometimes only a few steps, before you plop back down, but you're getting where you want to go.

You are also talking now. You repeat words that we say, you consistently say "book," "banana," "Mama," "Daddy, and "bye," and you scream "BELLA" all the time. I'm not sure Bella really appreciates it, but you definitely get her attention-- and ours, too! Speaking of books, you LOVE your books right now. You have always loved for us to read to you, but this month, you realized that you can ask us to read to you. And, you do-- constantly. You have a favorite book that you get down from a table in our living room and bring to me. You then flip the book up into my lap and say "boooo" and smile really big at me. After we read the book, you flip it into my lap again and say "aga, aga," as in "again, again, Mama." And, we read it again and again and again. Sometimes we read your books 14 time in one morning. I make sure we switch up your books, but you always come back to your favorite. I love that you are loving your books. I'm thinking you are going to love to read as much as Daddy and I do.

You also have this adorable thing you do right now when something makes you happy. You bunch your little hands at your chest, scrunch up your face, and smile really big. I love when you do that! And, your laugh. Right now, you are so incredibly giggly-- at everything and nothing at all. You giggle at Daddy, you giggle when I hand you something, and sometimes, you just giggle for the heck of it. You are definitely a giggly, little girl.

I love you, my sweet baby and can't wait to see what this next year holds. If it is anything like this last year, we are in for a wild ride!!

Love,
Your Mommy

I'm Here-- I Promise!!!

2009-09-09T20:08:00.005-05:00

I so owe you guys a post! I know I've been MIA for the last couple of weeks, but I have a good excuse, I promise. I've been meticulously planning and prepping for Haddy's big birthday bash during just about every waking moment for the past couple of weeks and unfortuanately, everything not party related, including this blog, kinda fell by the wayside. Oops. But, I'm back now. And, all of my hard work on the party really paid off! The party was fabulous and so fun-- more details and pics to come.

My baby is one!!! I still can't believe it and am still a bit in shock. We have spent this week recovering (i.e., relaxing) from her big birthday bash, attending Hadley's one-year checkup, and organizing Hadley's toys since she really racked up at her party. I hope to post Hadley's 12-month letter tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh, and my amazing sister-in-law, Jennifer, will be posting guest blogs on her favorite topic, interior design. We share a love of modern design and I'm so excited to read her posts. The first two she posted in late August are great. You can find the posts here and here.

Guest Blog: Holy Makeover, Batman!

2009-08-21T23:26:00.006-05:00

I was going to wait till next week for this one, but it was simply too good to hold back. Eric Teng from DMDinsight.com took a weekend to be fabulous and makeover some drab IKEA dressers. I have to be honest, I have seen these night-stands at IKEA many times and have never looked twice at them, but Eric has transformed them into pieces of art. Stain, paint, beautiful pulls, and elbow grease are all it took. OH YEA, and the foresight to see the nude dresser and dream up something spectacular! Check out the before and after.

I think I'll be going to IKEA sometime soon!

First Guest Blog! Swoop Desk review

2009-08-21T22:04:00.005-05:00

Hello all! I'm Jen, Keri's sister-in-law. I'll be doing a weekly guest blog about anything and everything design related! I have been anticipating reviewing this desk for a while because of how pleased I have been since I bought it! It is the Swoop Desk from CB2 and is one of the best desks for the price.

For $299.00 the Swoop Desk from CB2 has been sittin pretty in my room for the past six months, and it is about time I share the gospel of this amazing deal! Sleek, modern design is the tip of the iceberg, this is a very functional, very consumer friendly desk. Easy to set up when it arrives in the mail, unless of course you do what I did and put the little white shelf wall in backward and have to take it all apart again to get it right the second time!! But I digress, once it is set up, you'll find that it is the perfect size for its purpose. I can comfortably fit my laptop, notebooks, drink, pens, etc on the main part of the desk for easy access to all, and the drawers are very useful for storage of office supplies. I have read some reviews saying that others have found this desk to be too top heavy but I have not found that to be true at all. The legs are very sturdy and I have never once felt that I had to be easy with it so it wouldn't wobble or whatnot. Ok, back to the best part, the price. There are many other desks on the market that cost more than the Swoop Desk for the same quality, and that just doesn't seem very enticing.

The Nelson Swag Leg desk will cost you a pretty penny for the George Nelson name, not that the George Nelson name sitting in your office is anything to sneeze at, but running a cool $1745.00 at DWR.com, for me and mine, this is just simply not an option at this point in life! But as you can see they are very similar in design and stay tuned into the guest blogs because soon I will be showing you a very easy tweak to the Swoop Desk to make it look a little bit more like the classic Nelson Swag Leg.

She's Walking!!

2009-08-19T08:44:00.005-05:00

Hadley is officially a walker, a toddler, a (slightly) ambulatory human being. There's no stopping her now! Although Hadley took her first steps at the beginning of August, she has seemed ambivalent about walking until the last few days. I guess when you crawl at the speed of light, there's really no incentive to try to walk where you need to go. But, for some reason, she has been practicing walking constantly for the last two days.

Yesterday, Hadley was standing by a chair in our living room and decided to walk across the room to me. She bravely took four wobbly, jerky steps to get to me before plopping down on her bottom. I excitedly called Sean at work to tell him this exciting news, and his response was, "You were supposed to knock her down if she walked while I was at work!" As if! Hadley and I spent the rest of the afternoon praciticing. And, just for fun, when Daddy got home from work, Hadley walked for him, too. That's my girl!

I am trying to get Hadley's new skill on video, but this is proving to be quite difficult. As soon as we turn the camera on, Hadley goes right to it, turns the little viewing monitor so she can see it, and then proceeds to kiss the baby on the screen. It's adorable, but it really makes getting movies of her very difficult. I'll see what I can do, though.

Sickly

2009-08-18T09:25:00.005-05:00

Well, I think we did it. Hadley has finally caught her first cold. I know, I know-- I made this proclamation here. But really, that little malady was merely a farce. She was better by the end of the day. This time, I think she is truly sick. Runny, runny, snotty nose, a slight cough, raspy breathing. It's great fun around here. And, what I love the most? When Hadley decides she would rather wipe her nose on the couch than let me we wipe it for her. So lovely.

We're going on day 4 of this little illness and I'm crossing my fingers that we're on the tail end. If not, I may need to move to a little bed and breakfast until the snot subsides. I'm not sure I can take much more of the ickiness.

Dear Hadley: Month 11

2009-08-10T08:20:00.009-05:00

Dear Hadley:

You are 11 big, amazing months old now! Already, you are acting like a little toddler. You took your first steps alone a few days ago and are prancing around constantly with the aid of one of our hands or a piece of furniture. And, the attitude! Oh my. You let us know instantly if something is not going exactly as you want it. You have this squeal that you emit when you are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. It's one for the books. But most of the time, you are a happy, content baby and love to learn new things and play with us. You mimic just about anything we show you, copy sounds that we make, clap constantly, and have started waving at anything and everything. Lately, when we walk through the house together, you wave as if you are in a parade and want to make sure your onlookers see you. You also wave to Bella and Allie as we pass them in the house. They rarely respond but you hardly notice. You are happy just to see them.

You spend most of your day cruising around the furniture, or any sturdy object that will support your weight, and walking while holding our hands. You walk very confidently when only slightly touching something. But, the minute you don't feel like you are holding onto something, you plop down on that bottom. It's a security thing for now, but I think you will be walking in no time. A few days ago, you were practicing walking between Daddy and I and you would reach for our hands as you walked to us. One time, you let go of Daddy and couldn't reach me, so you took a few steps all on your own to get to me. I think you were as surprised as we were! You haven't done this again, but I expect you just have to work up the courage.

Your favorite toys right now are little, plastic balls and little, puffy cars and trucks. Your Maggie and Pop are helping foster this love by giving you new balls and trucks to play with, and I jokingly told Daddy that they are going to make a tomboy of you yet. But, you really do love these toys. Your favorite activity right now is to stack toys. You have learned that a ball fits inside a cup and your cup fits inside bowls and you practice this constantly. If we show you a new configuration, you work on that, too. It's so cool to see you learn these things and then apply them.

Things you love this month include cheese crackers, blowing raspberries on our shoulders and knees, your Bella, of course, and any other dog you meet, pasta, cheese, and pancakes. You also LOVE your shoes. You will play with them for hours and actually sit still when I put them on you. You try to put them on by yourself and hold your feet up for me when I put them on you. You may like cars and trucks, Sweet Pea, but you have a little girly side, too!

Unfortunately, this month wasn't all good. You experienced your first loss this month with the passing of your dear grandmother, your Daddy's mom. Memaw had been battling brain cancer for four years, and I hate that you will not remember the short time you had with her. She was a beautiful, talented woman who you inherited your beautiful looks from, and I am grateful she got to meet you and that you were able to spend even a small amount of time with her.

Time is so fleeting. Your first year is rapidly winding down and I sometimes feel that I don't know where the time has gone. I love that we have experienced so much in one year but at the same time, I want to stop the clock and hold you right where we are now. I know I can't do that, though, so I'm determined to cherish and remember every moment. I love you, Sweet Pea.

Love,

Your Mommy

Favorites

2009-08-05T23:04:00.007-05:00

This is one of my new, favorite pictures from this last month. Well, this one and this one:

I love the image each conveys. The sweet, calm, little lady in the first and the mischevious, little imp in the second. Hadley definitely has a little of each in her. By about 3:00 every afternoon, I start hoping her mischevious side is tuckered out. Maybe one day that will happen, but so far, this little imp is keeping me busy. And I couldn't be happier!

A Family Resemblence

2009-08-04T20:04:00.013-05:00

It's no secret that Hadley and I look absolutely, 100% nothing alike. Instead, the general consensus is that Hadley looks just like her Daddy. In fact, people feel so strongly about this that we are routinely accosted by strangers who feel the need to point their similarities out to us. There are occasions where I see the similarities, too, like when Sean and Hadley are playing a game and make the same facial expressions. Then, it is so easy to see where my beautiful baby got her looks.

But, most of the time, I find it a little hard to see the resemblence. Really, I'm much too close to them to objectively make that comparison, and the fact that Hadley is a young girl and Sean is a bearded man doesn't help any. My imagination can only stretch so far. That's why I was so happy to find this picture of Sean's mom as a baby. This picture was taken when Sean's mom was 6 months old.

Do you see a resemblence to someone??

This is Hadley at 8 months old making a similar expression. Can you believe how much they look alike in these pictures??? When I saw the picture of Sean's mom for the first time, I got chills. I felt like I was looking at a picture of my baby. Now this is the kind of proof I like. Pictures of two people at the same age making the same expression. I can see the resemblence without any imagination whatsoever. Whew. Life is easy again.

And, I couldn't be happier that both Sean and my Hadley look like Sean's mom, a beautiful, amazing woman.

Success!

2009-07-28T21:15:00.005-05:00

Today officially marks two weeks that we have been pacifier free! We did it!!! I am still shocked at how easy it was to wean Hadley of her pacifier. We simply stopped giving her her pacifier and she never once lost her mind, cried for the pacifier, or otherwise indicated that she couldn't go on without it. In fact, it was as if she completely forgot about the pacifier. I'm sure we got lucky and Hadley was just ready to give up her pacifier anyway. But still, I'm claiming this as a victory.

Next up, the bottle. We're going to start phasing it out at one year, which is in about a month. This one should be interesting-- as in, I expect the world to fall apart and much resistance to ensue. Stay tuned.

Best Friends

2009-07-28T20:19:00.005-05:00

Hadley LOVES her dog, Bella. She simply cannot get enough of her. When Hadley sees or hears Bella enter a room, Hadley's whole face brightens and she squeals with delight. Then, she screams, "Bella!!!," and tears off in her direction as if she hasn't seen her in days. And, those two together are hilarious. Hadley tries to "pet" Bella by grabbing her fur and holding onto handfuls at a time. Bella tries to play with Hadley by crouching in front of her or by dangling a toy near her face. And, the kisses. That dog gets more kisses in a day than I get in a week. Bella gives her fair share of kisses to the baby, too.

If Hadley is within ten feet of Bella, Hadley will lean in with a big open mouth to kiss Bella on the top of her head or on her cheek or nose. And, in typical Bella fashion, Bella responds with great big licks to Hadley's face. Hadley could not be happier. I, on the other hand, would prefer that the licks not come into contact with Hadley's face or open mouth. We're working on that one.

For all of the fur pulling that Bella endures in Hadley's presence, she seems to genuinely love Hadley and enjoy being around her. Bella typically seeks Hadley out in the house and routinely joins me when I retrieve Hadley from her crib after naptime. I'm sure the treats that rain down from Hadley's highchair have a lot to do with Bella's continued and saint-like patience with Hadley. The fact that Hadley typcially offers to share her Cheerio's and dinner with Bella probably helps, too.

A difference in perception

2009-07-20T08:14:00.004-05:00

At Hadley's Little Gym class last week, a little boy toddled over to Hadley and gave her a big, open-mouthed kiss on the top of her head. After much oohing and ahhing by the mommies, he leaned in and gave her another one. That time, Hadley tilted her head up and kissed him back.

My response: That was so sweet. Look at my baby returning kisses!!

Sean's response when I told him: She's way too young to be kissing boys.

And therein lies the difference in men and women. The end.

My First Award!

2009-07-16T20:56:00.010-05:00

Thanks to Cassie for so kindly giving me my first award! Cassie's websites, Cassie Craves and Life Ensues, are two of my new favorite places to stop each day for a read.

Thanks again, Cassie! And now, I am passing this award on to a few bloggers that I have recently discovered. Here are the rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog along with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve recently discovered.

3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

1. Macaroni and Cheesecake

2. Finn's Garden

3. The Shooting Allens

4. The Kimmers

5. My Journey Through Motherhood

6. Sophie and Hannah's Big Adventure

7. Our Best Bites

8. Our Sweet Life

9. The Most Awesome Stuff Ever

10. The Higher Nest

11. Lime in the Coconut

12. Oh Brooke

13. Good Things Catered

14. Picky Palate

15. Noble Pig

Two Days and Counting...

2009-07-16T10:16:00.005-05:00

I think we've kicked the habit! I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this, but Hadley has now gone two whole days, since Tuesday morning, without touching, looking at, or crying for her pacifier (her paci). She had only been using it when she was sleeping at naptime and at night, but still, she loved that thing. She would wake up in the middle of the night and search for it in her crib. And, she would play with it and sing to it when she woke up in the morning. I figured that taking her paci away would be akin to the world ending, but for some reason, she doesn't even seem to notice that it's gone. I think I'm a little more sad and sentimental than she is to see it go. But, at the same time, I am so happy that we don't have to worry about taking it away when she is old enough to really understand.

Did anyone else's little one use a pacifier?? If so, how did you phase it out/ wean your child from it? I'm half expecting our world to drop out from under us in a few days when Hadley remembers that thing. Keep your fingers crossed that that doesn't happen!

Sweet Corn and Cilantro Salad

2009-07-14T08:13:00.001-05:00

Here it is, my recipe for Sweet Corn and Cilantro Salad-- finally! I promise that I have very good reasons for posting this so belatedly. The main one being that I wanted to re-make the salad and actually measure things out for you. Instead of just giving you rough directions, like add a little of this and a little of that, I wanted to actually give you a RECIPE. Imagine that. Unfortunately, I rarely measure when I cook. I just add ingredients until I get the dish the way I want it. I rarely have failures with this method, but I also rarely have specific recipes to share, either. So, I'm working on that.

Another reason I've been slow to post this? I'm just lazy-- er, busy. Really, we have been super busy this week with story times, Little Gym, play dates, and more. Who knew a baby could have this many social engagements?

Anyway, back to the recipe. I can't take full credit for this salad, or really much credit at all. My mom has been making this salad for years, and I simply tweaked it a bit after I claimed it as my own. My mom's version of this salad uses white shoepeg corn, yellow onion, and tomato. I like to jazz up the textures and flavors by mixing corns, like sweet golden and white corn . I also love the fresh flavor of cilantro in this salad and now add it every time I make it. For a kick, you can also add fresh jalapeno, pickled onions, or pickled jalapenos. Anything goes with this salad-- and it is always a hit. I love to take this to parties and cookouts since it is so easy, yet so tasty.

Sweet Corn and Cilantro Salad

2 cans corn (white shoepeg, sweet white, sweet golden), drained
1 small tomato, diced
1-2 tablespoons of yellow onion, finely diced (go easy on the onion in this... as the salad sits, the onion can get very strong)
handful of fresh cilantro, roughly torn
Up to 1/4 c. mayo (we use light)
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix the drained corn, tomato, onions, cilantro, and mayo in bowl. I would add a little bit of mayo at a time to make sure that 1/4 c. is not too much mayo for you. I don't like a lot of mayo, so I usually add just under 1/4 c.

Salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for about an hour prior to serving.

Sprinkle, Sprinkle, Little Star: Our Trip to the Sprinkler Park

2009-07-10T10:01:00.017-05:00

Sprinkle, Sprinkle Litle Star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

Sprinkle, Sprinkle Little Star,

How I wonder what you are!

What a fun day with my little Star (and our play group friends)!!

**Hadley is pictured with her Aunt Kacey in the first few pictures.

Dear Hadley: Month 10

2009-07-08T21:29:00.018-05:00

Dear Hadley:

Happy 10 months, Sweet Pea! This was your first June with us and your first experience with our local summer weather. Let me just start by saying, I am so sorry. Summers here are tough-- we have temperatures reaching the low 100's and humidity so extreme that you melt the moment you step outside. But all of that aside, summers are also so much fun. There's swimming, picnics, parties, vacations, and of course, ice cream. And for me, summertime now makes me nostalgic. I spent last summer melting in this crazy heat while I was pregnant with you. Consequently, I will now forever associate summer with your pregnancy and the last few months before I met you.

I sometimes wonder if you realize that you have now experienced three seasons since your birth. Do you realize that it was cold just a few months ago and now it is so hot that going outside is almost unbearable?? Do you realize that you used to wear layers and layers of clothes and now you hardly wear even one? I'm betting you will tell me all about these crazy things when you start talking.

We're making the most of our summer together introducing you to lots of fun warm-weather firsts. We went on our first family vacation to Florida in June with your aunts, uncles, and cousins. We stayed at a cool resort and you swam in both a pool and the ocean for the first time. You loved the pool, but you were a little underwhelmed by the beach experience. We also bought you your own little pool for our back porch. It blows up to just big enough for Daddy and I to sit in it with you. And, you love it. You splash and kick and squeal with delight when we go swimming. I love to see you so happy.

Recently, we enrolled you in a class at The Little Gym. I wanted to make sure you had plenty of educational and physical stimulation and the social interaction is just icing on the cake. You are in a class called the "Birds," which is for babies 10 months to 19 months. You are the youngest in your class, but you are giving the big kids a run for their money. At our class last week, you bested all of the babies by hanging unassisted on the parallel bars, something that completely amazed your teacher. I kept telling her that you have a crazy, monkey grip and that such feat did not surprise me at all. She, however, could not get over how strong you were and kept asking me where you were hiding all of those muscles. When I told Daddy about your athletic feats, he immediately declared that he was going to enter you in the Strong Man competition. He was so proud of you. And he wasn't really surprised, either. We've both had to pry too many things out of that crazy grasp to not think it is entirely possible that you can suspend your weight from those little hands and arms.

Just before Melissa let go to see if you could hang on your own. You did!!

We are also in a playgroup with about six babies and this week, we went to the local sprinkler park for the first time. All of the kids loved it, especially your cousin Ayden, and you had fun letting Aunt Kacey run you through the sprinklers. The best part was that once the sprinklers turned off, you could sit on the ground and splash in the water. It was just like your bath but without the drama of having your hair washed.

You reached a few more important developmental milestones this last month, too. You are now almost entirely transitioned to "finger foods" and love trying new things. You get excited when Daddy and I are eating and reach eagerly for the food on our plates. One of your new favorite foods is blueberry pancakes. Yummy. You also now have two new teeth (the second bottom tooth and one top tooth) and are working on the third (the second top tooth). That top tooth should be in any day now. That means that you have effectively gotten all four front teeth in the span of about five weeks. When you decide to do something, you go all the way, kiddo! You have also mastered standing on your own, cruising on furniture like a champ, clapping, dancing, and walking with assistance. You are such a big girl!

You tend to think you are too big sometimes, though. You have decided in the last month or so that you no longer want us to change your diaper or dress you. The moment we lay you down on your changing table, you flip over and try to crawl away or you just sit up. That makes changing you such a delight-- and changing you by myself is always an adventure. Your grandparents, Maggie and Pop, babysat you last weekend and they had the unfortunate experience of having to change your diaper. They are convinced that it takes four people at a minimum to do this job. I just laughed because you and I know that I manage to do it on my own. At least, most of the time.

GG, Maggie's mother and your great-grandmother, said that Maggie did the exact same thing as a baby. GG would start changing Maggie on one side of the bed and would end up at the other side of the bed before she got the new diaper on. And apparently, I was exactly the same way, too. At least you got it honestly, sweetie.

You have learned a few new "tricks" lately, too. You love to hide your face and then pop out to look at us. You laugh so hard when you do this. You mimic Daddy and I when we raise our hands or hit our hands on the table. You love to be the leader, too, and usually get us to copy you. You also have recently started shaking your head no when we ask for kisses. Then, you usually give us kisses anyway. And, you have started walking around your little activity table, over and over again, bopping to the music. It's like you have to see how many times you can go around without sitting down. We love to watch you play, Sweet Pea. It's so fun to watch the wheels spin and to see you learn new things.

I love you, Sweet Pea, and am having so much fun with you. I can't wait to see what new adventures we have in July.

Love,

Your Mommy

Slacker

2009-07-06T09:49:00.006-05:00

I had the best intentions to take pictures of our Fourth of July party, the beautiful and delicious food, the pretty lights Sean strung up on the back porch, and all of our family and friends enjoying themselves. I failed, however, to follow through. I didn't take a single picture of the food and the few pictures I did take were taken before most of the guests arrived. Oh well. At least I managed to relax a little and enjoy the party.

And enjoy, I did. We had the best time visiting and eating. Most of our friends have babies now, so there were lots of little ones in attendance for Hadley to play with. Hadley shared all of her toys, her walker, her exersaucer, and her jump-n-go. One little guy even fell asleep in the jump-n-go. Hadley patted his arm as his mommy and daddy got him ready to go home.

And the food was fabulous. I love big parties with lots of different foods. Our guests were kind enough to bring all kinds of yummy dishes, like a sinfully good artichoke dip, my mom's marinated slaw, pies, cookies, and lots of bevarages, including a mojito. Yum. I'm still full.

My patriotic trifle also turned out beautiful and delish, although I failed to get a single picture of it. Maybe next time. I will follow up this post with the recipe for my corn salad, which is a fabulous party dish.

I hope your holiday was fun and relaxing!

Happy Fourth of July!!

2009-07-03T22:29:00.004-05:00

I hope yours is great-- full of great food, friends, and family!

I know this post is a little early, but we're having a big cook-out tomorrow for some friends and family, so I'll likely be too busy cleaning/ prepping/ freaking out tomorrow to post. I have so much to do and with a baby in the house, so little time to do any of it. Actually, I'm trying very hard to not over-plan or stress in preparation for this little party. I want to host a laid-back and fun dinner and not care if my house isn't perfectly clean for it. We'll still have fun and we'll all be okay.

Yeah, that isn't really how I work, so that's what I'm trying to do. I don't think it's working. I spent tonight after Hadley went to bed sweeping the garage, back patio, and front porch. Then, I cleaned the kitchen to an inch of its life and was about to start vacuuming when Sean forced me to sit down. I acquiesced but only because I haven't sat down yet today. I'm really not good at the whole laid-back thing.

I do have a pretty yummy menu planned out, though. Here's what we have planned:

Tortilla chips and homemade pico de gallo
Various types of grilled sausages and hot dogs (chicken and apple sausage, spicy smoked sausages, etc.)
Marinated cole slaw
Sweet corn and cilantro salad (I'll post the recipe in a few days)
Baked beans with brown sugar and bacon

And for dessert, a Red, White, and Blue Trifle made with layers of strawberry cake, whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries. I got the recipe here (and am modifying it slightly) and I can't wait to try it. Yum!!

Enjoy the holiday!

Cry It Out

2009-07-01T15:21:00.005-05:00

I hate the "cry it out" method. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Hadley apparently does, too. Right now, she is crying herself to sleep for nap time for the third day in a row and really, I can't tell a difference. She doesn't seem to be going to sleep any easier or crying for shorter periods of time. And, when I go in to calm her, she only gets more upset and wails when I leave again. Right now, she is wailing, "nah, nah, nah," which is her "no, no, no." Ugh. Just UGH.

Pretty Baby

2009-07-01T11:25:00.005-05:00

I love this picture. It's so Hadley: her cute, mussed hair, pretty eyes, and quirky smile. And that tongue. She has recently started sticking it out at us all the time. It's her newest thing. This picture also amuses me because it completely belies the fact that a few minutes after I took this picture, I picked Hadley up to snuggle and she managed to both head butt me and pull my hair. Good times. Unfortunately, Hadley tends to be quite the painful, little one to be around. She is amazingly adept at unwittingly causing pain.

I think I have mentioned that we are working on re-sleep training Hadley. We managed to completely un-sleep train her on vacation a couple of weeks ago and are now having to suffer through the process of teaching her to put herself to sleep again. If this doesn't work, I foresee us having to drive to Hadley's dorm room every night when she is in college because she needs me to pat her back until she falls asleep. That might be a little embarassing. For all of us.

So far, sleep training is going okay. We have good nights and bad. Last night was REALLY bad. Hadley woke us up three times from 1:30 to 6:00. By 6:00, I was a zombie and gave in and put her in bed with us so we could try to get a FEW MORE MINUTES of sleep. Usually, if I put Hadley in bed with us in the morning, she goes right back to sleep with her little hands behind her head and her little legs tucked up like a frog.

But this morning, she was wired. She crawled around our heads, stood up on the headboard and danced, and played a game where she sat up and then threw herself backwards onto the pillow. I knew that that game was ill-advised and could end in pain for someone, but I was so sluggish and half in and out of sleep, that I let her do it one more time. That one time, Hadley mis-aimed and slammed her head into my nose. I saw stars, like the ones that cartoon characters see when they get bonked in the head. Then, I may have said a few words I shouldn't have. I am still in pain some three hours later and I am predicting that by tomorrow, I will look like I tussled with Mike Tyson.

What is that saying, "Love is blind?" Yep, I might be blind, bruised, and bandaged by the time Hadley is grown, but I'll love the journey nonetheless.

Look Mom: No Hands!

2009-06-30T10:51:00.000-05:00

Holding on to furniture is highly over-rated.

Especially when you need both hands to hold (and taste) a fun, new toy. Will you look at the booty sticking out? I just wanna smack it.

I can resist, though. What I can't resist?? Kissing those chubby cheeks.

Gotcha!

2009-06-28T22:35:00.009-05:00

I finally got a picture of Hadley's two litte bottom teeth! Aren't they adorable?? Now, we just need a couple of teeth on the top and she'll be ready for her first cheeseburger.

Let's Go Krogering

2009-06-27T21:40:00.008-05:00

Whoa, Nelly! Does this thing have brakes??!!

Don't worry-- Hadley loved her first ride in the grocery cart today. She even squealed and laughed a little. Especially when we happened to see my mom at the store. Hadley couldn't believe that Maggie goes to Kroger, too. Who knew???

Sandy's Potato Salad

2009-06-26T15:00:00.006-05:00

Years ago, my mom and I took a cooking demonstration class at a Viking School. One week of the class was dedicated to potato salads-- all different types of salads. Some were entree salads with ingredients like pulled pork and flank steak and others were traditional side dishes like one based on a loaded baked potato with thick-cut bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, and green onions. Yum. That was the best. I have long since lost the pamphlet of recipes that we brought home from that class, but I still remember the yummy salad concoctions.

I didn't actually start making potato salad on a regular basis, though, until I tried Sean's mother's potato salad. Sean's mother, Sandy, is a great cook and she loves teaching others her recipes. I have learned so many things from her and make many of her recipes on a regular basis. I hope to pass these recipes onto Hadley one day when she is older.

Sandy's potato salad is loaded with ingredients that I love, like green olives, boiled eggs, celery, green onions, and flat-leaf parsley. And, the kicker is that instead of an all mayonnaise base, she uses mayonnaise and a little bit of canola or olive oil. There's no mustard, either. That would be wrong. And, since she is from New Orleans, she spices it up with lots of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning. It's a must for just about any dish she cooks. We use Tony's in just about everything, too.

I don't really have a recipe for this salad since it's more a method than a science, but essentially, you boil some potatoes and a few eggs. Let both cool slightly. Then peel the potatoes and eggs, cut the potatoes into cubes, mash the eggs, and while the potatoes are still warm, mix in the eggs, vegetables, mayo, and oil. Just add the fillings until you get the salad to the consistency that you like. If you like tons of olives and just a few onions in your salad, that's fine. Then, season to taste with black pepper and Tony's. Tony's is mainly salt, so go easy on the salt if you add any.

Enjoy!

Traveling with a Baby-- Oh Yeah

2009-06-26T09:05:00.001-05:00

The summer before I got pregnant with Hadley, Sean and I took a cruise to Mexico. Packing for that trip was something I put off until the last minute because I hate to pack. I literally threw a bunch of shorts, tank tops, swim suits, and sundresses into a bag the night before we left. And traveling to our port was simple. We drove until one of us got hungry or thirsty or bored or tired, which wasn't that often. Then, we stopped for a few minutes and went on about our way. Those were such simple days.

Now, packing for a trip with Hadley involves plans of such epic proportion that you would think we were trying to move to a new house instead of just go on a week-long vacation. And, the actual road trip itself was less about rushing to get somewhere and more about just making it somewhere with our sanity intact.

Here are a few things I learned on our journey that might make packing, traveling, and vacationing with a little one a little easier.

* If you forget to pack it, you can buy it. I stressed and stressed over having everything I would need for Hadley (from food to clothes to toys) and honestly, we way over-packed. If I had it to do over again, I would only pack a fraction of what we took. Remember that most hotels and/ or condos have laundry facilities, so you can wash clothes if baby rips through every outfit the first day. And, Hadley has been known to do this. The one thing I was really happy I over-packed, though, was a bag of toys. They were invaluable at distracting Hadley while we spent hours in the car.

* Have all of baby's essentials on hand and close by in the car on long car rides. I rode in the backseat with Hadley and had a bag with all of her bottles and food, some finger foods to occupy her snacking needs, diapers and wipes (I didn't change her while we were on the move, though), and a bag full of toys. This made it easy to keep her occupied and make sure she ate on schedule. We tried to stop and get out of the car when she was ready to eat, though. That might have helped more than anything in keeping her from feeling so cooped up in the car.

* All of the odds and ends in your diaper bag and glove compartment (garage door opener, sunglasses, cell phone) are amazingly interesting to a baby and will occupy precious minutes when baby gets bored in the car. At one point on our drive, Sean and my brother took turns giving Hadley their electronic gadgets to play with. She loved it and it bought us a few more miles of happiness. Just make sure the stuff you give baby doesn't have small parts that can be swallowed and is "locked" so baby can't call China.

* Check to see if the hotel or resort has a crib or pack 'n play for baby, so that you don't have to lug your own with you. Our resort had pack 'n plays and we opted to use one with a crib sheet we purchased. I also wiped down the bed THOROUGHLY with anti-bacterial wipes.

* Try to keep the baby on schedule. This is hard since a vacation requires flexibility for everyone's schedules, but if you can maintain some semblence of a schedule, it will make your life so much easier once you return home. Hadley was on an awesome schedule prior to our trip and inevitably, the late dinners, nights out, day trips, days spent swimming, and new surroundings obliterated that. Hadley is re-learning her schedule now and is not so happy about it.

* If you have sleep trained your baby, try, try, try not to undo it. This is a hard one because I'm not sure what the solution is. I felt bad leaving Hadley in a strange room, in a strange condo, and in a strange bed alone to cry herself to sleep. I knew she was confused and scared and felt that I would only compound that by leaving her to "cry it out" in her pack 'n play. But, by not doing so, she became dependent on us to stay with her while she fell asleep. And now, we are having to re-train her to sleep on her own. Ugh.

* Take lots and lots of sunscreen for everyone (if you are traveling to a warm-weather destination). We took baby sunscreen in SPF 60 for Hadley and SPF's 45 and 55 for me and Sean. We slathered it on everyday and avoided painful sunburns. I did manage, even with my SPF 45, to get a little tan, too.

* Also, for babies, be sure to take hats and if you can find them, UVA/ UVB protectant swim clothes. Retailers make little swim shirts for boys and girls to wear in the water that protect their delicate skin from the worst of the sun's rays. Here is a version that Target carries.

* For swimming, a swim floatie for Hadley was so helpful. She could sit in her floatie to play and well, float, and she loved the independence she had. It also gave Sean and I little breaks from holding her in the water.

* I was so happy that I remembered to take a bottle brush with me to wash Hadley's bottles. The second day we were there, my brother used it to wash a grill pan. I learned that I could wash her bottles by hand just as easily and my brother learned what a bottle brush is.

* The one thing I could not have lived without on our trip (and would not have wanted to purchase) was our camera. Memories are fleeting but our pictures will last forever.

Florida, Baby!

2009-06-25T08:06:00.003-05:00

We're home from our first family vacation with the little one! We spent last week with some of Sean's family and my brother at a resort in Orlando, Florida, relaxing and visiting. We had so much fun and got to spend time with family that we don't see very often. Hadley had a ball playing with her little cousins and had some fun first experiences, too:

She managed to survive her first real road trip. The trip was 14 hours each way exclusive of stops for meals and breaks. All total, we were in the car from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on the way there (we lost an hour due to the time change, though). I am absolutely amazed at how well Hadley did on the trip. She could have been mad at the world for detaining her in a carseat for that long, but she wasn't. We made sure to stop and let her get out of the car for short spells. I think this really helped. She played, napped, and sang the time away and was happy except for a few times when it hit her that she was STILL in the freaking car.

Someone thinks she is old enough to drive

At one point during our drive, Hadley created a game in which I would hand her a toy, and she would toss it back at me. Or to the back of the car, or to the front of the car, or at the window beside her. I'm still finding toys in the car. How can you be mad at this, though?

Hadley also went swimming for the first time at the resort's pools.

With Aunt Jenny just before going swimming for the first time

This was Hadley's first experience with swimming and she was so not sure of the whole "giant tub" thing at first. She clung to us for dear life the first two times we tried swimming. Then, she warmed up to the idea and soon LOVED it. She splashed, squealed, and kicked her little legs in the water.

As much as she loved swimming in the pool, she hated the beach and ocean. We took a day trip to a nearby beach, ate on the pier, and played in the sand and surf for a little while. We thought Hadley might like playing with her toys in the sand, but she decidedly did not. I think she was just hot and uncomfortable. We tried to let her dip her toes in the waves, too. She screamed as loud as she could when she saw the wave coming to her. Oh well, maybe next time.

With Daddy on the pier

We realized about halfway through our trip that Hadley was getting a second tooth. She seemed to be a little more cranky than usual but I attributed that to the long car ride, lack of sleep, and new surroundings. Silly me. I hate that she was in pain, but the tooth is in now, and she looks so cute with two little bottom teeth.

The only real downside to traveling with a little one was that it completely threw her schedule and sleep training out the window. Since returning home, we are having to re-sleep train Hadley and she is so fighting it. Ugh. Last night was not pretty. Hadley wore herself out and fell asleep sitting straight up in her crib. It was so sad and so sweet that I almost picked her up to cuddle her. I managed to resist her cuteness, though.

I'll post my Do's and Don'ts for traveling with a little one tomorrow. We're heading off to our first Little Gym class now.

Home Sweet Home

2009-06-24T11:37:00.007-05:00

We're home! We got back on Monday from our vacation and we've been recuperating and trying to re-sleep train Hadley ever since. The trip was great. The sleep training-- not so much. I will post a full vacation recap post a little later today, complete with pictures and do's and don'ts for traveling with a baby!

Vacation

2009-06-12T09:35:00.005-05:00

Well, we're off tonight for a weeklong vacation. We will be back on Monday, June 22, hopefully well rested and tan! I'll try to update while we are away, but I make no promises. I may be too busy laying by the pool to get out the laptop.

By the way, as I am typing this, Hadley is standing by my knee blowing raspberries on my leg. She gets cracked up each time she does it and smiles up at me with a huge smile, like "Did you hear that????" I love this little one.

This is what I have to put up with

2009-06-11T15:07:00.003-05:00

Sean sent me this in an email today:

Q: How do you stop a lawyer from drowning?

A: Shoot him before he hits the water.

Lawyers get no respect.

The Easiest Dinner Ever

2009-06-10T22:09:00.010-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Things have been uber hectic around here. We were out of town visiting family last weekend and since returning home, I have been trying to get us ready and packed for a weeklong vacation in Orlando that we leave for on Friday night. I'm dreading the drive already. Yes, we have opted to drive 14 hours with an infant. We need help. And, I need to be medicated before we leave.

But, before we leave, I have been wanting to share a recipe that we tried last week for a rotisserie crockpot chicken. The full recipe is below. Variations for this recipe are floating around the web right now, but the method is essentially the same for all of them. You prepare a chicken to cook, season it, and then place the chicken on top of loosely rolled balls of aluminum foil that you have placed in the bottom of your crockpot. The aluminum balls keep the chicken from resting in its juices and allow the heat to circulate around the chicken, much like it would if you roasted the chicken in the oven.

I cooked a 3.3-pound chicken and it was tender, falling apart, and delicious. I don't know if the chicken actually tasted like a rotisserie chicken since I don't buy those, but the meat was great. We made shredded chicken tacos, barbecue chicken pizza, and buffalo chicken sandwiches with our chicken and still had enough meat to freeze some for later. And, seriously, this was the easiest and fastest dinner I have made in a long time. I spent ten minutes prepping the chicken and had cooked chicken for dinners throughout the week. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from one I found here on Big Oven:

3 -4 lb. whole chicken rinsed, patted dry (remove bag from cavity)
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Seasoning salt, black pepper, cayenne, onion powder, and garlic powder (season your chicken to taste)
aluminum foil

Make 4-5 loose balls from the aluminum foil. Mix seasoning salt, black pepper, cayenne, onion powder, and garlic powder in a bowl. Rub inside and outside of chicken with olive oil and then rub with seasonings to taste. Spray the inside of the crockpot with non-stick cooking spray. Put foil balls (4-5) in the bottom of the crockpot. Place the chicken on top of the foil balls, breast side up. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours. Do not add water or other liquid to crockpot. Do not remove the lid from the crockpot until the chicken has finished cooking.

Dear Hadley: Month 9

2009-06-10T08:28:00.008-05:00

Dear Hadley:

A few days ago, you turned nine months old and that night, we attended your Uncle Jack's college graduation party at Maggie and Pop's house. You were the youngest in attendance, but you didn't let that stop you from letting loose. You squealed, laughed, sang, and bounced with the best of them. I was told by one party guest that he could hear you squealing when he was getting out of his car. And you were in the house. And all of the doors and windows to the house were closed. I knew you were loud, but the fact that your squeal can pierce the sound barrier came as a bit of shock.

You definitely found your lungs this last month and love to see just how loud you can be. You squeal with delight at your toys, screech at Bella, and yell at Allie. Sometimes, out of nowhere, you just screech like a little monkey. And, you cause a stir everywhere we go. Daddy and I were at the grocery store about a week ago and you were happily screeching and squealing as we wheeled you up and down the aisles. You had everyone's attention and may have even embarassed Daddy a little bit. A passing man made sure to tell us that you sure have a lot to say. Yes, yes, you do. I'm not sure what you are saying yet, but I'm hoping you develop an indoor voice really soon.

Even if you don't, though, I'm planning on keeping you. Mainly because you give hugs AND kisses now. Daddy got the first kiss a few weeks ago and since then, you have been doling out kisses like crazy. Your kisses are soooo endearing. You open your little mouth and lean in to touch us on the cheeks or lips. It is the sweetest kiss on Earth and one I wish I could have every second of every day.

Speaking of your Daddy, you absolutely and totally adore him. If I am holding you and walk by Daddy, you reach out your arms to him, grab his shirt and pull him to you. And then, if he doesn't get the hint fast enough that you want him, you practically throw yourself into his arms. It's amazing to see you act on what you want-- and get it. I think you have realized that Daddy is gone at work all day because you cling to him in the mornings at breakfast. And, when Daddy gets home at night, you squeal with delight and give him the biggest smile. You just melt his heart.

We have had so much fun with you this last month. You are like a little sponge, just soaking up everything we teach you. I am constantly amazed at how fast you learn. On our way to visit family out of town last weekend, I taught you to to say "AHHHH" while I patted your mouth (to make the "ABBABABABA" sound). This is one of your favorite games. You have quite a few-- most of which you have made up on your own. You are trying to whistle, mimic us when we hit our hands on a table, "chase" us, and jump in your bed. You definitely keep us busy.

You hit a couple more developmental milestones this month, too: you are trying to stand and balance on your own, you are pointing at characters in your books, and of utmost importance, you got your first tooth!! We were so excited about that tooth. It has made us a little more comfortable expanding your solid food repertoire. You are now working on finger foods and have found lots of favorites, like mashed potatoes and bananas. Oh boy.

I'm wondering if you will love food as much as Daddy and I do. Right now, you really seem to. When I was pregnant with you, I craved cheeseburgers 24 hours a day and even ate one a time or two for breakfast (Sonic serves them early). I am not normally a cheeseburger fan, but your Daddy loves cheeseburgers. I can't wait to see if you love them as much as he does. Given how alike you two are already, that would not surprise me in the least.

I love you, Sweet Pea, and can't wait to see what next month brings.

Mommy

Monkeying Around

2009-06-04T08:21:00.015-05:00

A few days ago, Hadley and I were engaged in our normal ritual of playing keep away from the fireplace. We do this often. Hadley makes a mad dash for the fireplace and I scoop her up and put her back in the middle of the room with all of her toys. Of course, the fireplace, the one thing in the room I don't want her playing on or near, is the one thing she wants to play on constantly. Go figure.

Well, that day, Hadley kept dashing to the fireplace and pausing as if she was waiting for me to catch up. Instead of picking her up like I normally do, I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her crawling and said "no fireplace." I thought this would elicit a cry, but instead she stared straight forward and started laughing. I took my hand off of her shoulder and she started slowly crawling forward. I put my hand on her shoulder and she laughed again hysterically. We did this several times before it finally dawned on me that she had created a game for us! She was just waiting for me to figure out how to play.

This seems to be a common theme lately. Hadley does something new until Sean and I finally catch on as to what she wants or is trying to communicate. She must think we are so dense. And, most of the time, we are. I'm still so used to thinking of Hadley as my little baby that it catches me by surprise when she does something as intellectually advanced as creating a game-- or eating without blowing food all over the room.

Hadley also has a game for Sean. One night while we were eating dinner at a restaurant, Hadley got bored and cranky halfway through the meal. To try to keep her busy, Sean gave Hadley her pacifier and then popped it back out. Hadley laughed hysterically at this. When Sean gave her the paci back, she immediately spit it out and started squealing. This continued for some time. People two tables over were laughing along with her.

Hadley has also recently decided that jumping in the bed is her all-time favorite activity. When I put her down for her nap, she stands up, holds onto the rails and jumps up and down until I come back to check on her. When I come in the room, she leans down to look at me through the rails and grins with a huge smile that says, "Did you see that???" I have a feeling we'll be telling our little monkey to stop jumping in the bed quite often.

A Tooth, A Tooth, A Tooth!!!!

2009-06-02T10:35:00.013-05:00

A lot of excitement for one little tooth, huh? Let's just say that we've been waiting a while for this tooth. I was just commenting to another blogger yesterday morning that Hadley still, at almost 9 months, had no teeth. I had even started calling Hadley my "toothless wonder" since she is learning to eat all kinds of solid foods with no teeth whatsoever. We had thought that she was teething on occasion over the past few months, but since we never saw a tooth, we started to second guess that and thought maybe we were just attributing crankiness to teething.

Then, while out at lunch with my friend, Maria, yesterday, she commented that she thought she saw a little tooth on Hadley's bottom gum. I absently replied that nope, that must be a bit of a puff because there are no teeth in there.

I remembered Maria's comment last night while Sean and I were making dinner and out of curiosity, we went hunting to see if there might actually be a tooth. And lo and behold, there is!!! One snuck by us. The tiniest sliver of a little tooth has broken through on the bottom left. Sean and I were so excited that we were dancing around the kitchen-- Hadley thought this was incredibly funny.

Interestingly, Hadley hasn't even seemed to be teething this time. She has not been overly cranky or overly drooly and has not been eating or sleeping any differently than normal. It's like this tooth has not yet affected her one bit. I'm surprised, to say the least. Let's hope the remainder of her teething goes this smoothly. I'm positive I will live to regret that statement.

Chunky Monkey

2009-06-01T08:47:00.001-05:00

Will you look at these thighs:

Absolutely scrumptious. I have a hard time not devouring them every day. Notice my baby standing? She's so good at it now. She practices pulling up and sitting back down constantly-- and I mean constantly. She was reaching for my laptop when I took this picture. We battle constantly over the laptop. She says she needs it for work. Apparently, I'm just playing on the Internet.

That look she's making? That is an "AAAAHHHH" sound that very closely resembles a howler monkey's screech. She's pretty good at that now, too. I'll have video of her screech coming soon. You just won't believe it until you hear for yourself.

And, look at these rubber-band wrists and arms!

I love those little arms, especially when they're giving me giant hugs. My little monkey is getting good at giving hugs now, too. She wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes with all her might. I'm working on bottling those hugs so I can save them forever.

Saturday....In the Park

2009-05-30T20:44:00.036-05:00

Every time I hear that song, I get nostalgic for something... I'm not sure what exactly. A relaxing Saturday? A day spent laughing in the park with friends? We definitely don't have enough of either. Our Saturdays are normally pretty busy and we rarely have time to relax at the park. But, today, we managed to do exactly that. We spent the day with friends at the local botanic gardens, perusing an exhibit of locally-made pottery and strolling through the flower gardens. We had the best time. The pottery was amazing and the flowers were beautiful. We found a HUGE Magnolia tree with the most amazing blooms.

Some of the plants got a little unruly with us, though.

Robert had to fight his way out of this creepy tree/ plant thing.

It was a hot, hot day, so we tried to stay in the shade. To make sure Hadley was protected from the sun, I slathered her in spf 60 and put a hat on her to shade her from the sun.

She didn't so much like the hat. In fact, she ripped it off before we even got outside-- several times. I put the hat on, Hadley pulled the hat off. Sean said he couldn't decide which one of us is more stubborn. I think I am.

Robert and his wife, Ana, have a 3.5-month-old named Samantha. Ana had a cute, yellow hat for Samantha to wear, which Samantha actually wore. Samantha isn't quite to that stage where she can reach up and rip her hat off yet, though. I kinda miss those days.

Hadley didn't really like her sunglasses, either. She took them off as soon as I put them on.

Hadley did like the ducks and geese we found in the Japanese Gardens, though. There were a lot of little ducklings and downy gosslings for her to look at.

She couldn't get enough of the cute, little ducklings.

We bought fish food on our way in to feed the koi in the Japanese Gardens. Look at these things. Are they not kind of creepy?

There were tons of them and they piled on top of each other to get to the food.

Our day was so incredibly relaxing and fun. I can't wait for our next carefree Saturday in the park. Try it if you have time soon-- you won't regret it!

Mashed Potatoes

2009-05-28T21:52:00.006-05:00

I thought feeding an infant strained and mashed veggies was messy, but finger foods are a whole different ball game. For the past few months, we have been feeding Hadley lots of mashed veggies, some mashed fruits, and lots of whole wheat cereal and oatmeal. About a month ago, Sean decided to throw caution to the wind and feed Hadley her first bite of "big girl food"-- a tiny, itty bitty crumb of a biscuit. You would have thought Hadley was eating acid by the look on her face. There was lots of gagging, choking, grimacing, and general drama by both Daddy and baby. Sean then declared that Hadley wasn't allowed to eat "big girl food" again until she was at least five years old. He just couldn't stand to watch her choke and gag on tiny bites of food.

So, I waited a couple of days and let Hadley try Puffs (little snacks that dissolve in baby's mouth-- they remind me of Cheerios) a few times while Sean was at work. At first, Hadley just played with the Puffs. She picked them up, clutched them in her little paws, and kept them there until I cleaned them out at the end of the meal. She tried to swipe her little hand into her mouth to eat the Puffs, but the Puffs rarely made it past her lips. After a few days, though, she managed to successfully transfer the Puffs to her mouth. And then, the fun began. There was more gagging and drama, but within a day or so, Hadley had learned to gum and swallow the Puffs. Now, she is a Puff-eating machine.

And, we are having so much fun experimenting with new and inventive table foods and finger foods that she can gum. Have I mentioned that my little star has no teeth whatsoever? Nope, not a one. That's made eating so much more interesting. In addition to vegetables, Hadley has tasted and approved cottage cheese, pancakes, dry wheat toast, plain oatmeal, cheddar cheese, mashed bananas, brown rice, refried beans, and her all-time favorite, mashed potatoes.

We went out to dinner last night with some of Sean's co-workers and since it was also Hadley's dinner time, we ordered her some mashed potatoes to accompany her veggies. The restaurant's mashed potatoes were very chunky, almost dry even, with a little bit of garlic thrown in. I wasn't sure Hadley would go for them. Until then, she had never had white potatoes and she certainly had not had anything with garlic. She loved them, though, and ate almost the entire plate. No one could believe she ate that many potatoes.

My first "real" food was mashed potatoes fed to me by my grandmother at about Hadley's age. I ate my grandmother's entire serving of potatoes and wanted more. Since Hadley is essentially Sean's little twin, I'm always happy when I find something Hadley inherited from me. I guess our love for potatoes starts early.

The Front Door Makeover

2009-05-26T20:33:00.010-05:00

So, we've spent the last week working on replacing our front door-- a project we hadn't planned to undertake right now. At least, that is, until last week when Sean had the idea to rejuvenate our front door by removing two wooden panels and some superfluous moldings so that he could replace the panels with antique wavy glass we have had for years. When Sean explained his idea to me, I jumped on board without a second thought. Why? Well, mainly because our front door is atrocious. And also because it is just plain ugly. I figured that anything we did to it would be an improvement. Oh, was I wrong.

Not about the door-- it really is ugly. We didn't think through Sean's plan, though. About ten minutes after Sean explained his plan to me, there were giant holes in the front door. About ten minutes after that, we realized that our plan also had a few holes in it. For starters, our wavy glass is not really sturdy enough to serve as exterior glass on the house. And, I decided that even if we added glass to the door, the door would still look awful. So, what to do, what to do???? All of a sudden, we had holes in our front door the size of Alaska and no plan for replacing the door.

Our house was built in the late 70's and doesn't have much curb appeal. That may be putting it too nicely. When we bought the house, it had a brownish-orangish roof, orange brick, tan trim, a wooden front door that the prior owners had sloppily painted hunter green, and a glass door with hideous gold trim. Sounds pretty, huh? Oh yeah. Our plan when we bought the house was to replace the roof, which needed replacing anyway, replace the front door, and paint the exterior of the house, brick included, a neutral color.

Since buying the house, we have replaced the roof with three-dimensional grayish shingles. But, we haven't yet gotten to painting the house or replacing the front door. Until now. We spent most of last week searching for a new front door. We started by searching architectural salvage for antique doors with character. But we ultimately couldn't find anything that would work. We then started shopping retail. Can I tell you how overwhelming it is trying to search for a front door that does not have leaded, elaborately designed glass? I just wanted a simple four or six-light (or is it lite) door made of solid wood. With my dad's help and research, we finally found exactly what I was looking for, and it was delivered today. Hallelujah! Here's a picture.

Our door has four lights instead of six, which means that each light is larger than the ones pictured. Also, our door is unfinished, but you get the idea. Now, we just have to pick a stain color, stain the door, pick out hardware, add the hardware, and install the door. I'm thinking we might have the new door installed by Labor Day. Until then, rest assured that our house is not open to the elements. The hideously tacky glass door is doing a good job standing in as our front door for now. At least it's good for something.