Blue-eyed beauties 3-2-1

I wish I could say I’ve been busy slaying dragons and conquering new skills, but no. Mostly just housework, hanging with the littles, and reorganizing my house. Actually, we shall restate that first bit. I have slain a dragon. Our playroom. I have completely reorganized it into an entirely unbeautiful and very functional toy storage system a la Rubbermaid, that makes it way easier for the kids to spend five minutes cleaning up. Instead of me spending two hours reorganizing every toy into it’s special spot, I have a bunch of buckets that are either by theme or by type, and they get one at a time, and if they want another they throw everything back in the Rubbermaid first. Pinworthy and beautiful? Not particularly. Functional? Absolutely.

I’ve also been working on skills, actually. Firstly, on my houseworking skills. Let’s be real here – it does not come to me naturally. If I strike you as the homemaker type, I apologize. In reality, I am the artsy fartsy type, and if I leave myself in my natural state I tend to sit up every so often and wonder what the heck happened. I’m forcing myself to create new habits and routines and so far I’m doing pretty well. I mean, two steps forward and one back – I have a toddler and a baby after all.

Secondly, I’m giving running another go. It’s actually just happenstance that I took it up in the New Year. That’s just when my husband and I came to the conclusion that going to the gym was not fitting in particularly well in this season of my life. Jackson has been clingy off and on, and my husband struggles with him when I’m gone, and that’s stressful for everyone involved. So in lieu of not having a whole gym available we opted for a second hand treadmill. I’m nearly done my second week of it and I’m getting stronger, faster, and yes, losing weight as well. But mostly I’m feeling more energetic, which is really helping with that housework skills thing… especially since I’ve got less sleep lately than I ever got when Jackson was a newborn. C’est la vie, and this baby season is long days and short years, and all the snuggles and laughter are totally worth the lack of sleep.

However, I have resolved to do or create something every day, even if it’s just a photograph. So, on a particularly crazy day, I pulled out my dslr and took pictures of my crazies. Then I edited them another day. Every day a little bit of something! Running and creating even just little bits, that’s what’s keeping me in a happy, healthy place (mentally and physically) this cold cold winter.

How about you? How do you keep in the happy healthy zone?

It’s a TRADITION

You guys. Every July I realize Nicole is about to have yet another birthday, which I’m pretty sure we literally just covered, and then I do this post about how she grew. Well, okay, last year in the beginning of July I did a picture of her then and a year before. But I stumbled on it earlier this month and decided it must go on, and become better.

So for your viewing pleasure, or possible displeasure, here we have our annual Holy Cow, Guys – a – thon where I post pictures taken at the beginning of July for the past few years. And listen, the first picture is as early as we get because in the beginning of July in 2007 she was cozily tucked away in my giant belly. (PS, watch my photo skills improve!)

July 2007 – nearly one!

July 2009 – nearly two

July 2010 – nearly three

July 2011 – nearly… what? Four? Um, no. I’ll be over in my Denial Corner if you need me.

Olivia vs Kittens (in theory, not practise)

So first of all, yay for a majority government, and congrats to Lawrence Toet for the Conservative win in an NDP zone last night! I’m sure he’ll do great. (Also yay that my husband will go take down signs and then be done with it for the next four years, hahaHA!)

Second. So, last night I was tired, and Nicole was in bed, and Chris was watching voting, and Olivia was :D !!!!! but tired, so I thought to myself, “I shall go lie me down with this wee babe, and I shall nurse her, and she shall cuddle with me and we shall drowse off together, and it shall be lovely.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. HA. No.

Have I even MET Olivia?

So I  feed her and then spend the next 45 minutes trying to defend my face, if nothing else. The girl was acting like a kitten on nip. Or speed. Something like this:

 
“EEEEE SO EXCITED LOOK AN EYE. LOOK SOME HAIR. FACE. MOUTH. NOSE. BITE IT! I WILL BITE IT! NO! YES! GRAB! WAIT IS THAT A HAND OVER THERE?! YES! MINE! KICK KICK KICK! EEE BLANKETS! WRESTLEWRESTLE! FLAIL! WIGGLE! EEE AIR! WRESTLEWRESTLE!
EEE SO EXCITED LOOK AN EYE!”

Aaaand rinse and repeat. Seriously, just wow. I eventually sent my hubby a BBM (like chat for Blackberries, fyi. Yup, we chat from opposite ends of the house, lame.)
Laura: DANGER!
Chris: Are you ok?
Laura: No.
Chris: ???
Laura: I’m being attacked.
Laura: Possibly by a bear.
(note: This is Nicole’s current explanation for EVERYTHING. A bear did it. It got out its cage and came to our house and emptied her pencil sharpener all over the floor and then it ran away)
Chris: LOL
Laura: No, seriously, can you come get it and jiggle it while you watch the voting?
Chris: (inappropriate suggestion)
Chris: Sure

And then he came and got her and she wiggled like mad so he gave up and put her in her bed and two seconds later she passed out and didn’t wake up for another seven hours. The moral of the story is, cosleeping my ash.

(disclaimer: don’t egg my house, crunchy mamas. We totally coslept with Nicole for a few months at one point. I have nothing against cosleeping, done carefully and alcohol-free)

 

I also spent that time coming up with a chart in my head. One column read OLIVIA and the other read KITTEN. In the end everything in the kitten chart also applied to Olivia, except for “will eat me if I die,” so I mean I’ll take Olivia > kitten.

THIRDLY, I am sorry about the crochet bootcamp delay for a week there, I couldn’t find my mini tripod. But it was behind my flute for some reason! (I can’t imagine why, I would understand if it was on top of or in front of my flute, as it’s never pulled out, but behind??) So I will get a video up in the next 24 hours hopefully that goes over double crochet, half double crochet, and treble or triple crochet. I also found a reaaaaaally old McCalls needlework book that agrees with me that crochet is easy and awesome and also that it is all basically the one stitch done a variety different ways.

And fourthly, a pox upon you and your household. Oh, wait, no. A pox upon me and MY household. Nicole, specifically. That’s right, the chicken pox fairy popped by and left us a present! Despite that, I may possibly get something done today yet. I’m planning on putting earrings in the store today, even if I have to take pictures instead of eating and do uploads instead of sleeping. I can sleep next week. DEADLINES, people. I thrive on them. (If by thrive you mean ‘caffiene and sleep deprivation and wild-eyed victory’)

 

edited to add: FIFTH: for those of you who don’t follow me on facebook and thusly haven’t heard, Olivia started full-out crawling on Sunday at 5.5months old. It was at my mom and dads house, in front of the whole family. She’d been schlepping around in her usual scooty fashion and then my dad walked in and she picked herself up and crawled across the room to beg him to pick her up. The moral of THIS story is stay away from the grandparents or bad things like crawling infants will happen to you. everybody loves grandma and grandpa.

Olivia. Plus scissors.

See all that luscious, beautiful baby hair?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know about you, but when I look at that hair, I do not think to myself, “You know what this baby is in desperate need of? A haircut.” Actually my brain just comes up with a vague and foggy string of half-words half-noises, things like “fluffy” and inane gurgle sounds and coos.

Now, I’m pretty sure those of you who have been around little girls EVER in your life are probably already gasping in horror and/or chuckling. You know exactly where this is going. Nowhere good, that’s where.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup, you’ve probably guessed it by now. I heard Olivia crying, and I went to her room to find the door closed. I open the door and Nicole is standing over a bawling Olivia, scissors brandished. (I’m being a bit dramatic, but bear with me, it was pretty dramatic in my own head when it was happening)

Like any good mother, my first reaction was complete panic total calm. “What did you do?!” I hollered calmly inquired. Nicole instantly burst into tears, a combination of guilt and impending doom total remorse.

I snatched the scissors away and put on my best mom-makes-you-feel-guilty performance about how you NEVER have scissors near a baby, all the while flailing my arms in a panic and trying to establish where Olivia was injured to cause such a wail.

When I noticed a chunk of baby hair on the floor I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I realized the source of Olivia’s pain was inevitably having her hair yanked on for a cut. It was just one little bitty chunk on the floor, not so bad. I sent Nicole to her room to stew over the information that she would never again be allowed near scissors until she was in her mid-forties. Then, like any good mom, I snapped a few pictures for the ‘holy crap I can’t believe the shit my kids do’ album. (It’s building up pretty quickly, let me tell you.)

And then I picked up Olivia.

Pardon the crummy picture courtesy of my crackberry. Let me tell you… Nicole cut off more hair than most babies have at this point. SEVERAL LOCKS. There was another hunk on the floor, the first one I had noticed.
I would show you a picture of Olivia’s haircut but honestly, her hair is so helter-skelter I couldn’t even tell where it had come from. So I mean, aside from nearly laying an egg from shock, no real harm done.

 

I know I’m not the only one out there with a “Aww how cute, you have a future hairdresser on your hands there!” horror story. Do share.

These are a few of my favourite things

Love me, hate me, feel as you will. I have absolutely neutral feelings for that movie, but its my mom’s Annual Me-Time Movie for Christmas / New Years and as such, that song is stuck is my head. Just from the movie being brought up in conversation a few times. Anywho… here’s a few of MY favourite things as of late.

sisterly love (and tolerance)

chubby baby rolls

tiny artists who wear jeggings (EEEEE!)

the mobile on Olivia’s swing (even if I have to clip toys on it sometimes)

child labour (obviously)

luvinthemommyhood blog (always, Shannon is just such a sweetheart and her roundups and such are ridiculously awesome. we won’t even go into how cute her kids are.)

Barbie clothes tutorials (click pics for the links)

this recipe, which I have yet to make… chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting. WITH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH INSIDE. FOR REALS.

So, what are a few of your favourite things lately? Do you have any links to share? If it involves chocolate or cookie dough, cute kids, or chocolate, I am so very in.

 

(What? I said chocolate twice? Sorry, that should have been three times.)

the eldest child

Technically still the only child. She was a fairy for preschool costume day. I spent around half an hour on her hair, and a week later there is still glitter stuck on her scalp and showing up in random places in my house. I read somewhere once that glitter is the herpes of the crafting world. That is so incredibly inappropriate but so incredibly true. She was a fairy because I figured she would be easier to manage playing a fairy all day than she would be playing a dragon all day. You’re welcome, preschool teacher. She wore the dragon costume for mall trick-or-treating on Friday, and decided it was a dinosaur as soon as she put it on. She was also a dinosaur for the costume party my SIL threw for her kids and Nicole on Saturday. My neighbour lady thinks our poor child is deprived and feels sorry for her because we didn’t want to take her trick or treating this year since it was a Sunday. I think I feel sorry for her kid, it was ridiculously cold that night, plus my kid got to dress up three times last week. She doesn’t really like most candy anyways. Rockets, gummies, maybe the little tootsie things – she’s undecided – and she likes chocolate alright but it’s not her first pick. Which is great because she makes a melty mess because she eats it so slow. So I eat them for her. It’s what’s best for everyone. 

(spoiler alert – baby room paint color! Jamaican Aqua! Somebody asked my hubby if we just reused the paint color from Nicole’s ceiling. This is actually the same color as my craft room. A nice bright aqua. Nicole’s ceiling is actually a very bold hyper-pigmented blue. This picture is from when we just put all the baby stuff I got early on in the room, before I started to decorate it for the specific gender)I made her this shirt from scratch last week while my camera was at my SIL’s. Hence the crummy picture. The hems are all done up with messy random unfinished ruffles, and there are some rosettes on the neck. I like it and she likes it and it looks cute on her. Check check check, winner winner chicken dinner. The ‘pattern’ is from a shirt she has that fits nicely, but I lengthened it to give it some growing room, and I made the sleeves a bit on the long side since it’s the chilly time.  What she does not like so much is the matching hair clip I made her. She wouldn’t even try it on. But that’s okay, I’ll sneak it onto a hat sometime and she’ll wear it. She LOVES hats.

So, I’m due in three days. This morning Nicole tells me that I’m going to poop the baby out and the baby is going to go PHWEEEEW! flying through the air and Nicole is going to catch her. I was like, PANIC. And I was like, “No, mommy’s not going to poop the baby out, that’d be gross huh?” And she looks kindof thoughtful for a minute and she’s like, “But baby’s gonna go PHWEEEEW! flying in the air and Cole gonna catch baby, right?” “Uh, no.” “Can we throw the baby and Cole catch baby?” “Um, no, we don’t throw babies. That’s not very nice, is it?” “But I will catch the baby.” (said in that tone of voice that I’m not very smart and clearly missing something important.) 
“Hey, where are your socks? Let’s go find them.”

What’s up, buttercup?

Good thing I have a giveaway going on (scroll down) to keep y’all distracted from the fact that I’m not blogging much. In case you’re wondering what we’re up to over here, we’re… …trike riding…… berry picking … … learning to shoot (not really though) (apparently this gun is special and old and I paid about as much attention as my hubby did when I was explaining vintage fabrics to him. But it’s real and I’m not allowed to spraypaint it. Unless Chris dies, then I’m allowed to paint any and everything white.) … and I’m learning to shoot too! Shoot manually with my camera! Summertime sure is busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. (We’ve also been to birthday parties, shopping, lots of visits with her cousins, the beach… !!! Love it!) note: yes, my husband has a gun collection. Yes, he’s certified and safetied and registered and the guns have safety locks on them. I even get in trouble when I theorize about what if there was a burglar and I took out the small rifle with the safety on it and pointed it at him and told him to get out, because we don’t point the gun at burglars or rapists or anybody, even if the safety is on. It’s the law. But I’m allowed to use the rifle as a club if the safety is on, so don’t worry, I’m not totally defenceless. (But I’d probably grab the candlestick instead because it’s a lot easier to access.)

impromptu photo shoot

I think I will miss my blue wall when I paint, because it makes a splendid backdrop for photos sometimes. At least, I think so. Not so much the little shelves, they maybe take away from it a bit, haha.We are so cool. So cool we’re beyond cool even. Ice, ice, baby. My idea of casual chic is jeans, a purple wifebeater, and the warmest, yummiest sweater I own, cos apparently when the blizzard left it took every bit of warmth we had in the air with it. (My version of warmth lately is anything between –10 and –15 celcious, so take that as you may.) Nicole's idea of casual chic is the jammies she is not so into taking off lately. You will be comforted to know I made her get dressed right after lunch. Gotta have rules.  Here’s my little tip for getting fun pictures with your kid… And this only works with one kid per adult, I would imagine. What you have to do is tell your kid to look at the camera, and then you TICKLE TICKLE TICKLE! Nicole loves it. She’s not into me taking her picture so much lately, unless I’m trying to take a picture of something that is not her and then she’s in there like a dirty shirt. (or a wii cord, in my case… See it in the bottom left below? I couldn’t crop it out without making the picture look really weird and I am too lazy to photoshop it out.) Anwhoo, she will sit with me for picture after picture after picture, she just loves the tickling. How gigantic is my mouth? Yes, I can shove my fist in there. I just tried. Do you like the sort of questions that pop into my head? Like I just assume you’d wonder that?

I shall leave you now to ponder the workings of my what I can only assume to be gigantic brain, what with my giant head (cannot wear woman hats! Just man hats!) and I will go sew. Right now. Yes, Im going. And sometime in the next 24 hours Ive got to get on the whole gazillion cupcakes I decided I was going to bake and decorate to be sold at a volleyball game slash bake sale that is being held on Saturday. Proceeds from the fundraising event are going towards Corem Deo International Aid who is a registered Canadian charity, and all donations to CDIA will be matched by the government of Canada. 

flash(light)dance

I took a whole bunch of really cute pictures of Nicole a few days ago. Too many to throw at you all in one post, so I’m just sharing some of my favourites. This was the day that I also took a bunch of pictures of manicotti, but in total that day I took around 68 pictures!    There’s something fun coming up… I’m going to be hosting a giveaway! It doesn’t come from me, and you won’t have to deal with my inability to make it to a post office, haha. (It would be funnier if it wasn’t horribly true. This is why I don’t have an etsy store, I just do not have the ability to mail things out in a timely fashion, even if I want to. No drivers license. Send hate mail to my doctor. Kthx.)

In other news, at least once a week I get spam messages on this post about the Rain Gutter Bookshelves. I still haven’t added a captcha to the blog though, because it’s still pretty manageable, and mostly just on that particular post.  Although now that I wrote that maybe this post will wind up with them too, if they’re just targeting the keywords Rain Gutter Bookshelves. O: I bet eventually I will have to cave and add a captcha, but for now it’s quicker for me to delete the spam than it would be for you guys to have to ‘enter the words in the box!’

Cup of Sugar

I just couldn't go to bed without sharing this cup of sugar with you. I tried, I even closed the window. But then my desktop background, which is that black and white shot above, made my eyes soften and my mouth turn up at the corners.

What can I say - I adore this child. We had the hardest time putting her to bed tonight. But ah, who cares. A few extra minutes stolen from these quick first few years.

Right now, the sun rises and sets at my command, as far as she's got it figured. (The sun being slightly more obediant than some, apparently.)

Right now, I slip on my sunday dress and she flounces into the room, pets it reverently, and gushes on in her two-year-old nearly-english about how pretty I look.

Right now, I serve her a bowl of sunday soup, and she pauses between each slurp to hum 'mmmmm, nummy nummy nummy' to herself and to me.

She prances. She poses. She's starting to grow an imagination - yesterday she was telling me that she was in the middle of a game of hide and go seek with grandma and a monkey. (the monkey thing might need more explaination, but another day.)

I love her so much, and that love grows with her every day. But boy, I think I'll cling onto a few more moments. Let a few more bedtimes slip by unnoticed. She's supposed to be my little baby, but as you all can clearly see, this is a little girl. A funky, spunky, funny, charming little girl. And I'd love to keep her all to myself, but I think I'll share her, just a little. Just a cup of sugar.