Standing!

The return of the backyard (This week, Oct 24- 30)

Both girls were a little sick this week, so we didn't get at all. Since we were stuck at home, I'm so thankful that the weather is FINALLY nice enough to play outside. I hate that weird little season where it's still too hot to play outside after 10ish, but the pool is too cold. What the heck is a mom to do? Anyway, we found a few ways to entertain ourselves.
Here's what we did this week!

Played with Mommy's fabric...

Enjoyed some avacado...

um, wiped two little noses...a lot...

painted with water...

generally enjoyed the beautiful weather...

and BONKED! This is one of the many totally adorable things Cora bee does. If' you lean your head forward, she does too and you BONK heads! Definitely one of those things I will reminisce about.

homemade toys vol 1

My friend Jennifer and I are always joking how we should never even bother with toys for our children because they are so much more interested in EVERYTHING but their toys. Her son Wylie much prefers the dog toys to his own and Charissa likes, well, rocks. And clothespins. And the empty coffee container. So I have decided to take on the challenge of making a new toy each week out of stuff I have around the house already.
Right now, Charissa loves to collect and sort anything, hence the rocks and clothespins. She moves things from place to place, puts them into different containers, hands them to me, over and over and over. With this in mind, I decided to make play dough. Yeah... I don't really see the connection either, but it worked out anyway. I used the old stand by recipe of 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and 1 cup water. I found a recipe for cooked playdough, but that's way too complicated for me. A little food coloring completed the project. Combined with some mixing bowls and of course, nakedness, the playdough was a big hit. We played with it for a very long time. She squished and tore and sorted and made funny noises when I rolled the playdough into little balls. (Wish I could describe that, but really it was indescribable)In fact, I think I was bored of it before she was! Even after we put away the other colors, she insisted on carrying around the yellow in the plastic baggie.
First homemade toy = successful. Now on to some others. It's kind of fun hunting through the house for things I can make into new toys for the Little Bee!

Amy Blooder, um I mean Amy Butler shirt

I have been in a baby girl sewing frenzy lately. I think I got sick of sewing baby stuff, then got sick of sewing and just read (and I admit, napped) when I had time. But I wanted to make a gift for a certain sister in law out of a yard of Amy Butler fabric that I had lying around. When I had finished the gift - more on that later - I had some fabric left over and let me tell you I am not going to let Amy go to waste! So I wiggled a pattern I had around until gosh darn it, I made it fit onto that little scrap. What I got was a little baby belly shirt, so I bought a chubby 8 that coordinated with it and added it to the bottom. I think it made it even cuter! I love Amy Butler.
Little Bee wore her new shirt to MOPS on Wednesday and then to her Auntie's, who watches her when I am at work. My last words before I left were "please put a bib on her if you give her some of that chocolate ice cream that I know you are hiding from me because I just made that shirt" Okay so that's almost what I said. My poor little sweetie is wanting so bad to run but her tiny feet can't keep up with her brain, or in my language, she lacks neuromuscular coordination (ain't I smart?) and in her quest for speed she apparently fell right on her nose about ten minutes before I came to pick her up! Awwwwww. Good thing I wasn't there - I would have cried more than she did. The shirt that Auntie so carefully kept chocolate free suffered the consequences of a lack of neuromuscular coordination. Oh, and so did Little Bee's nose. So that's how the Amy Butler shirt became the Amy Blooder shirt. Don't tell Amy...

oh hello there...

Yes, it's been a while. Here's what I've been up to. Lots and lots of baby goodies. I'm hoping to do a craft fair or two before Christmas, but to be honest, I've kind of lost steam. I also have an etsy shop with nothing in it. Yay for starting strong. Anyhoo...there are bibs and burpies and changing pads galore all stacked up on the guest bed if you know anyone who needs one!

Wait a second!

Why does my Thankful Thursday post say it was published last Friday? Hmmmmm....

Thankful Thursday

I can't remember whose blog it was where I first saw Thankful Thursday, but I found it during a time when I really needed it. In retrospect, it really wasn't that difficult, and even in the middle of it I knew that my "problems" were sort of, well, ridiculous compared to the real opposition that faces people today. Everyone struggles to adjust to motherhood. In my heart I know that even those amazing women who seemed to make the transition seamlessly had their share of tears and phone calls to their own mothers and feelings of doubt and guilt and anxiety.
Anyway back to Thankful Thursday...so at that point whenever I felt overwhelmed, I would write down things I was thankful for on a yellow legal pad on the kitchen table. I left it on that table where I could read it whenever I wanted. Some days I spent a lot of time at the kitchen table!
So today on my first blogged (is that a word?) Thankful Thursday, I am most thankful for my husband. Duh, right. Isn't everyone thankful for their husband? But mine is exceptional. (Yes I know yours is too, but hear me out) A couple of years ago when we had first moved here to AZ, my Poppa was not in great shape. He frequently would fall, and my Nana hurt herself a few times trying to get him up. One day my Poppa fell and Nana really had no chance of getting him up. Poppa had fallen in the bathroom, and my delicate Nana did not want one of his daughters or granddaughters to see him that way. So she called Loren. He didn't hesitate or claim that it wasn't his responsibility, he just went over there, picked up my Poppa (who was definitely not his usual kind and loving self at this point) and cleaned him up. Loren didn't even tell me about it for a few days. That is an exceptional man.
I'm thankful for his diligent attention to our finances, even when I wish he wasn't so diligent so I could slip a few things in here and there *wink wink*. I'm thankful that he gives me a little break in the evenings by reading to the Little Bee before bed. I'm thankful that he doesn't mention the messy house or the half cooked dinner when he gets home from his own sometimes challenging job. And man am I thankful that he puts his own laundry away....