You Betcha

We are going to sleep in Bloomington, MN tonight. More about our trip later but for now...

2 nyquil gel caps

+

painfully slow internet connection (I will never again wonder if I really need those extra 5 gb's or whatever they're called)

=

Good Night!

Fight Club

I think my Poppy has inherited my sleep disorder. I don't recall ever having sleep issues until college, during which it was not unusual for me to stay up all night, just not able to sleep. When 5 am rolled around I would get dressed and go to the gym. Boy are those days long gone. This is not to say I don't like to sleep, of that there is no question. My husband and I? We like our sleep. I think our marriage would have some serious issues if we didn't both respect the other's need for sleep.

As I type, this is what I hear from the other room:

Poppy: "Mom......my.....mom.....my.....mom.....my.....mom.....my". She doesn't need anything, besides maybe a shot of Benadryl.

My sleep issues went from bad to worse when I starting working 7p-7a as a nurse. Sure it was only three days a week, but let me tell you I can totally see why working the night shift takes years off of one's life. I swear I read that somewhere. You go from desperately needing to fall asleep even though your body doesn't really feel like it at 10am, to desperately wanting to close your eyes for just five minutes to make it through the night. It ain't fun. So, be kind to your night nurses:)

It doesn't help my sleep situation that I am a night owl. My husband thinks this is all in my head because he is a morning person. He could and would go to bed at 8pm every night if he had his choice. I never can. And he wakes up in a great mood. I never do. In fact, if I'm asleep by 11pm it's because I'm sick and on cold medicine. More often than not I'm up well past midnight. I get a mental second wind and my mind just will not relax.

So, when my precocious daughter refuses to fall asleep at night and insists on singing every song in her repertoire, I can't be upset with her. If she's not tired, she's not tired. It isn't her fault. I'm hoping things will get better once she gives up her nap, but I think she's destined to be a sleep fighter like her mother. I guess if this is the case, the good news is that when she gets older and it's age appropriate, I'll have a late night movie watching partner? Or maybe she's just being a normal almost three year old. It's anybody's guess.

I think she's finally out. Either that or she's temporarily lost her voice due to the strain placed on her vocal cords from the roughly five thousand songs just forced through them. Again, anybody's guess. I'm off to kiss foreheads...please let them be sleeping:)

Cool Camera Bag

The Bowler

Quick Pics

Chloe was nine months old on the fourth.

Hard to believe it's been nine months since this:

She had a PT/OT follow up this week and as I suspected she is a few months behind with her gross motor skills. She's behaving more like a six month old. I was told she needs more tummy time, so tummy time she will get. She is more on target socially/emotionally. She's a charmer, what can I say?

Today was her nine month well baby exam. She is indeed well. She weighs fourteen pounds. 50th percentile- adjusted for prematurity. Her hemangioma is starting to decrease in size. It will likely disappear by age five. Not much else to report- and that is a very, very good thing.

Yep...I think we'll keep her:)

Happy Weekend!

Let's talk Country

Shall we? Did you watch the CMA's last night? My thoughts:

I love that Hootie aka Darius Rucker is country now! Whenever we're having a challenging moment with the kiddos I try to lighten the mood by singing "it won't be like this for long" in my deepest country voice. Chris just rolls his eyes but I know he secretly likes it.

I heart Kellie Pickler. She's a little bit of a dingbat but I think she's just adorable.

I loved hearing 'The Devil went down to Georgia'- that song is dope or sick or whatever the kids are saying these days. It reminds me of my childhood.

I think Brad Paisley and George Strait are class acts. Of course I don't know them personally, but I would venture to guess they are good guys. We need more men like this.

Who is Lady Antebellum?

I need to get some Judds on my shuffle. Grandpa...tell me 'bout the good ol' days. It would be good warm-down music. Not that I'm familiar with that these days.

Good for Taylor Swift! She's such a talented, poised young lady. I'm not big on celebrity role models, I feel that parents and friends and family should be more of an influence on children. But, if my girls are going to be influenced by popular culture I would prefer Taylor over Miley any day of the week.

Speaking of Taylor Swift, I'm reminded of this interview recently on Oprah. Is this little girl not the cutest thing you've ever seen? Love her.

Speaking of cute kids, have you seen this?

You're welcome:) Off to return some stuff to the store. Note to self: do NOT look around. Chris will kick your ask.

The Secret

I think I figured out the key to saving money, besides only buying what you truly need and budgeting. Don't ever go into a store to look around. This is not usually an issue for me. I don't enjoy shopping, but I do it out of necessity. Truth be told, if I wouldn't be considered eccentric for doing so, I would wear the same well-fitting, weather-appropriate, comfortable outfit every day. Oh wait, I do that now. Except for the well-fitting part. But I digress.

I went to shopping for a flowergirl dress that was recommended for Poppy. There wasn't one in her size. I would normally leave at that point, but today I made the gigantic mistake of looking around. One coat, one pair of boots, one set of hat-mittens-scarf, two tops, and one sweater later I finally left. Ouch. I really did need a new coat though. Anytime my husband agrees that I need something new, I know I must. What can I say? I aim to please:)

Happy Veterans Day...Hooah!

Oops

I'm taking a break from balancing my checkbook (which isn't going well but I'm sure it's because I'm working on it in my bed at night) to post. Better late in the day than never!

Funny story from today. Let me start by saying Poppy brings home a lot of artwork. Wonderful, creative, original, and meaningful artwork. I love emptying her preschool cubby at the end of the day and talking about each masterpiece on our drive home. I don't love the paint stains on her clothing but that's another story for another post.

I do plan on keeping many of her school projects, but obviously some of them have to be- I feel guilty even typing this- thrown away. And some of them were, this morning when Poppy wasn't looking. Guess who found her own precious finger-paintings in the trash this evening? She said something along the lines of "what are these doing in here, these are mine, these are not trash".

She wasn't mad or heartbroken, just concerned. I think she believed my story that they must have fallen in accidentally when I was cleaning. I didn't have the heart to tell her I intended to throw them away. I'll let daddy have that little talk with her:)

I leave you with silly sister pictures. Good night:)

Glorious

That's the kind of weather we had this weekend, appreciated that much more after the cold, rainy October we had here in Wisconsin. Chris was on call and gone both days until close to 7pm so it was just me with the girls, but I was determined to get outside and enjoy what could very well be our last nice weekend until the Spring. This led to my discovery of a new room in our house- the garage! Sure I knew it was a great place to keep our trash cans and recycling bins, lawn and garden supplies, and vehicles, but I'd underestimated it's value as a play area until this weekend.

The doors went up and out we went. Poppy roamed freely as I cleaned my car and then the garage itself. I swept and organized and brought in Poppy's picnic table for the winter, which she then took great pleasure in cleaning so that lunch could be had. I took advantage of the beautiful lighting and practiced with my camera. Chloe watched from her car seat until she fell asleep. It was such a hit we did the same thing on Sunday! I love our garage. It was tops on our 'must-have' list when we were house hunting after having lived without one for so long. We excluded many adorable, charming, old homes because they didn't have a garage. If having a garage is wrong, I don't want to be right:)

I know it's hard to believe that I have something even more exciting to tell you about than the weather and my garage, but I do! Look what my little almost-three-year-old is doing all by herself:

"Daddy is going to be impressed", she said. And she was right.

So long pushbar, see you in a few years!

I got nothin'

It was an uneventful day in my neck of the woods today, but since I'm doing my own version of NaBloPoMo (national blog posting month) which I call MaMyPoSoMoThFr (making myself post something Monday through Friday), I feel compelled to at least post a picture.

I went in to make Poppy's bed one morning recently and found this:

It made my day:)

Delete

I'm removing the photo. Sad. I guess you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to the internet.

Chloe went to see a pediatric ophthalmologist today to get checked for ROP. She was at risk for developing it due to her prematurity. She's all clear, her eyes are normal! Happy dance:)

Not much else going on today so I'll share some recent poppyisms:

***

Poppy (talking about her former nanny): "I like her. She is happy". And she's right:)

***

Me: "Poppy we can do this the easy way or the hard way"

Poppy: "The hard way"

***

Poppy (having fun): "I am very laughing"

***

Poppy (holding my bra- gosh, now I'm scared to type 'bra' lest I attract more wackadoos): "What are these?"

Me: "Those are hooks. That's how I fasten my bra"

Poppy: "I like hooks"

***

Chris (giving Poppy a smoothie): "It has all kinds of good stuff in it for you...calcium..."

Poppy: "I don't like calcium, it's spicy"

***

I love my little hot mess of a daughter:)

Please tell me I should not be worried. Hi Mr. President!

So I use Sitemeter and more recently Google Analytics to monitor traffic to my blog. For the non-blogging readers who might not be familiar, this basically lets me know how many people view my blog on any given day, what search words were used to find my blog, geographic data, and a lot of other stats. I think it's the coolest thing to see a visitor from another country (or really any visitor). I'm easily amused. Anyhoo...I'd say about half of my visitors are via Google Images because of this photo:

(deleted)

It kind of creeps me out. Surely this innocent butt scratching toddler is not inviting the perverts. I would love to know why this photo is so popular. Any ideas bloggers? Do any of you get a lot of hits due to any single photo? Is there a way to extract key words from Google Images? Should I remove the photo or mark it in some way? What search words do you think one might use to find this image? Please, do tell:)

p.s. President Obama is in Madison today! He will be speaking at an elementary school in town and they are keeping everything very hush, hush. Otherwise, I would totally be wherever I needed to be to see him. I'm sure he would be nice enough to let me snap a picture of him with the girls while I gave him my .02 about this healthcare reform stuff:)

Simple but Special

I wanted to display some of Poppy's artwork and came up with this very simple idea.

Jute rope and clothespins:

I like very simple things. Shaker style all the way baby. I also wanted the artwork to stand out and the ability to easily update the display. This is what I did:

I just tacked some rope to the wall and hung our favorite masterpieces:

I love the way it looks, almost like Poppy did it herself:) I hung it in her play area for all of us to enjoy and it fits right in. I think it's a great way to encourage creativity and make her feel special. "Feel special", can you tell I've been watching a lot of Mister Rogers lately?

I might do something like this as our collection grows (picture found here):

But for now this is just perfect:

Sorry for the partial nudity. I can't keep clothes on the girl:) More on that tomorrow!

Trick or Treat

Because we took pictures on the stairs last year:

I thought we'd start a tradition of taking halloween photos in this same spot every year:

We waited until it got dark and set out for Poppy's first trick or treat! I think it's safe to say I was more excited than she was. She was more interested in the moon, her most favorite thing:

We walked across the street and told her what to do.

Halloween must be perplexing for a two year old- you mean I just ring the door bell, say 'trick or treat' and someone gives me candy? And then we do the same thing at another house? And then you let me eat it? Without going potty first? Can we do this again tomorrow?

As I expected, she didn't make a peep at any of the homes we visited. Chris, who carried her to most of them, prompted her over and over to say "trick or treat" and "thank you" but it was all a bit much.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that because it was so cold we drove through our neighborhood instead of walking, hitting up clusters of homes. I know- pathetic. But, that way one of us was able to sit in the car with the baby. This guy happily joined us, too:

Poppy got cold and told us she was ready to go home and hand out candy. Here's her loot. We told her she could pick one treat to eat. She chose a sucker:

As if the night weren't already exciting enough, at Poppy's request we decorated sugar cookies. Someone gave out the bottled water- it was her favorite treat of the night (okay so we gave her two treats-we're rebels like that). She asked for it first thing the next morning.

Chloe was content to sit in her new big girl spot, Poppy's old booster seat on a bar stool:

These were my pumpkin cookies. Not bad for my first time, right?

These were Poppy's:

Also not bad, but she was more concerned with getting the icing in her mouth:

What can I say, she gets it honestly:)

Goodbye October, see you next year!

Happy Halloween!

A much overdue thanks to PawPaw and Mimi for a wonderful long weekend in the Dells! Poppy is still talking about it and has been asking to decorate cookies "like Mimi did". You win best costumes:)

Our costumes this year,

a black cat*:

a little pumpkin:

a pile of leaves:

a...a...I'm at a loss for words:

like father, like daughter:

I think we'll walk to a handful of homes in our neighborhood so Poppy can try to trick or treat. It'll be her first time and I'll be shocked if we can get her to say "trick or treat". She might surprise me but I think she'll prefer to stay home and hand out candy.

Have a spooky, scary, and safe weekend!

*I bought two pumpkin costumes from a consignment sale a while back but Poppy refuses to wear hers (surprise, surprise), so Aunt Sheree saved the day and gave us the cat costume. Thanks Ree-you rock:)

Practice makes perfect.

I make it a point to get out and take pictures whenever I get a chance. I try and take my camera with me everywhere now because there are so many times I see something and think it would make a great picture- if only I had my camera with me. Wisconsin is a good place to ride around with your camera. I really, really, want to get a new lens because my only good one (50mm 1.8) limits me on my current camera. I'd like to get something faster and wider. Santa! Santa? All I want for Christmas is fast, wide, glass:) And my brother home from Afghanistan safely. And every other member of the armed forces home safely. And while you're at it world peace. I'm a simple girl, with simple wants.

Anyway, here are a few of my recent favorites from this, my favorite season:

I spotted this tree in our neighborhood and had to go back and take a picture. I've never seen anything like it- is it a special kind of tree or have the leaves changed colors at different rates for some reason to produce this effect? I googled "Rainbow tree" and got nothin'. Any ideas?

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

George Eliot

Milestones

So little Miss Chloe is doing a few new things lately!

First, she is vocalizing more and more and treating us to the sound of her voice:) She's been cooing for months, but it sounds different all of the sudden. Like now she's using her diaphragm or something. When she laughs, it's a deep belly laugh and it's very contagious.

She's also now sitting:

And here she's enjoying her first teething biscuit:

These two fingers are still her favorite snack though:

I also tried to see if she was ready for rice cereal but she wasn't as receptive to that. She's still breastfeeding and I'm in no hurry to give her anything else but the poor thing lunges for any food or drink I put in my mouth.

Finally, she's officially sleeping in her crib. It was a very easy transition for her, much easier than for Poppy. I didn't think Poppy would ever sleep in her crib. She wakes up once or twice to eat and goes right back down. In the mornings I hear her on the monitor babbling and when I walk up to the side of her crib this is what I see:

I mean come on! So much better than coffee:)

Coccinellidae Situation

I like ladybugs and all but they're taking over our house. Seriously, it reminds me of this video:

5D and EX1 Lady Bug Swarm from Michael Ramsey on Vimeo.

Isn't it groovy (love the song)? Poppy was afraid of ladybugs until she saw this. Now she loves to point them out to us and tell us how unafraid she is of them:

Is this just a seasonal Wisconsin thing? Ladybug infestation? I hope that's the case and that this isn't something unique to our house. They say a lady always knows when to leave. Apparently these gals didn't get the memo. I'm off to Google University to figure out what's going on. Wish me luck!

Happy Monday:)

Chris was sick so he stayed in bed most of the day on Saturday. Poppy and I had a late breakfast together while Chloe took her first nap of the day. I made biscuits with homemade strawberry jam. Decadence.

 I finally found a good biscuit recipe. It will be my go-to recipe from now on. No shortening, just lots o' butter. Paula Deen would be proud. Poppy asked for more with lunch and dinner:)

 

I took advantage of the nice sunny weather and the abundance of leaves in our yard* and had an outdoor photo session with the girls:

Don't mind the too big sweater I threw on Chloe before I realized it made her look like a boy with no hands.

 

I forgot to say "whatever you do, DO NOT look into the camera and give me a sweet smile", so I got a lot of this:

 

Good thing I have this guy. He's always willing to go outside and sit pretty for me:

I played around and made this:

I can't decide if I like the crimson red or the bright mustard yellow colored leaves more. I know that without a doubt fall is my favorite season. Sweata weatha. It invigorates me. It speaks to my soul.

We introduced a new book into our nightly routine:

As you may have gathered it's a halloween themed parody of Goodnight Moon. Poppy doesn't really get Halloween yet. I think she was a little confused but she went with it- anything to stall bedtime.

Then, of course, my beloved Amazing Race. I don't think that has ever happened in the history of the show, someone coming in last and going home because they refused to do something. I would think one would expect to encounter heights and/or water at least once during the course of the race.

 The only thing I absolutely won't do when we go on the race (;0) is skydive. Or drink blood. I wonder if the team members are allowed to take medication. I think I might be able to jump out of a plane if I were doped up enough.

Do you watch the show? Is there anything you absolutely, positively would not do?

*Is it rude to not rake up the leaves in one's yard? My husband thinks it is, he thinks the neighbors might not like our leaves blowing into their yard. I don't think it's rude at all. They're leaves. They might blow in the wind. I like the way they look. Please advise:)

 

 

My new goal

I admire those bloggers who post daily. Ree says she has no idea what she's going to blog about until she sits down and types up a post. I really admire that. It would take me a month to write posts as witty and clever and interesting as hers. And then it would take me another month to upload photos.

See, I am not the most creative person in the world. I am not a writer. I have other talents. I think. Baking? Baking is a talent right? But expressing myself through writing isn't one of them. It takes more than a little effort on my part to not only make the time to sit and write something, but to write something remotely coherent or interesting to anyone but me or maybe my husband (bless his heart). 

This is a good thing. It challenges me and it's one of the reasons I decided to start writing my own blog. So I've set a goal for myself to post something, anything, Monday-Friday. Eventually I plan to have a blog book printed as a keepsake for my girls. I think posting more often will force me to chronicle our lives a little better. 

I've also decided to stop using pseudonyms for the Little Flower and Superbaby. I initially thought that for security reasons- I just knew my blog was destined to become an internet sensation- I would stay as anonymous as possible. Well, let's just say that I've come to the realization that security really isn't an issue:) So without further ado...my girls:

Little Flower

aka

Poppy Caroline

Superbaby

aka

Chloe Elizabeth 

 

See you Monday!

    

Lifelong Friends

I recently started taping 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' for Little Flower. We sit and watch it together. I told her that I watched Mister Rogers when I was a little girl and she smiled. I found her playing with her shoes one day and I asked what she was doing. 

"I'm putting my shoes on like Mister Rogers", she said. I smiled.

I had forgotten what a sweet show it was. I love everything about it, the shoe thing, the sweater thing (multiple colors hanging just so in the closet), the seventies decor, Mr. McFeely. But mostly, his calm and kind words, such a rarity these days.

He sang this song in an episode we watched yesterday:

You can make believe it happens,

or pretend that something's true

you can wish or hope or contemplate

a thing you'd like to do

but until you start to do it

you will never see it through

'cause the make believe pretending

just won't do it for you

you've got to do it

every little bit

you've got to do it

do it, do it, do it

and when you're through

you can know who did it

for you did it, you did it, you did it.

It was like he was singing just for me:) 

So I'm doing it. I'm posting even though I don't have much to say except, Mister Rogers was a sweet, neat man. It makes me happy to share him with my children. As the Little Flower would say, "I weery, weery like him".

 

*Did you know that Fred Rogers' middle name was McFeely? Or that he was an ordained minister? Or that he testified on behalf of the manufacturers of VCR's in the seventies? You can read more about him here and here. I hope you do:)  

 

Simple Pleasures

Morning:

The little flower asks me first thing every morning if she can change Superbaby's diaper. It makes her happy. Superbaby goes with it. I watch and appreciate the moment before we go about our day. 

Evening:

Panzanella. Our CSA share included two pounds of tomatoes so I thought this would be a good way to use them up. I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes, but this was fantastic. Easy, colorful, flavorful, and fresh. I tossed together some bread (I used homemade croutons), tomatoes, red onion, mozzarella, parmesan, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar. Divine I tell you. I think I'll make more tomorrow for dinner.

I'm sighing with contentment:)

Homemade Granola Bars

We decided to stop purchasing boxed breakfast cereals after seeing Food. Inc.. I thought granola bars would be a good alternative for us all. I made some last night using this recipe from Ina Garten. She never lets me down!

I used dried cranberries, golden raisins, and chocolate chips (baby steps) and instead of wheat germ I tossed in flax seeds. The whole process took maybe twenty minutes not including cooling time which I discovered is crucial if you indeed wish to create bars and not just crumbles of granola. I will be making these often. Easier than I expected and so much better than store bought! Now if I could just get it together enough to make my own bread...

 

Happiness is:

Family visiting:

Our first badger football game. I had never heard the term 'Sconnie'. I like it:)

Potato-Leek soup using fresh vegetables from our CSA share.  

My new haircut and color:

Family photos taken by Miz Booshay:

 

Anticipating the season premier of the Amazing Race later this month.

This phone message from Little Flower's preschool (she was home sick today- bilateral ear infection):

"Hi this message is for *little flower*. *Little flower* this is *awesome teacher* calling and we are calling from the rainbow room because we miss you so much today. And we hope that you are feeling better and coughing less. So we hope to see you very soon. We miss you in the class. From *awesome teachers 1,2, and 3* and all your friends in the rainbow room. Bye-Bye and a big hug!"

What a kind gesture. That message made our day.

What are you happy about today?

Growns Up

Staycation

Chris was on vacation last week and it's the first time in a long time we didn't have plans to travel somewhere when he's off. It was nice. Very nice. We did a whole lot of nothing sprinkled with a few fun things. 

My aunt and uncle were in town so they came over for dinner Monday night. They live in Florida so we don't get to see them too much. It was fun. The little flower loves company:

 

Thursday night our nanny watched the girls so we could have a date night. We finally went to the Sundance Cinemas (something we've been wanting to do since moving here over a year ago) and saw Food Inc.. I don't know why I watch movies like this, they always depress me. But, I shall continue to vote three times a day for the changes I wish to see.  

This weekend we went to Middleton's Good Neighbor festival. It was drizzly and cold on Saturday so we stayed just long enough for the little flower to ride a few little rides:

 

Her first cotton candy:

The weather was beautiful on Sunday so we returned to the festival for more midwestern family fun. The little flower was just a little happy about this: 

We decided that we have a little daredevil on our hands.

The only ride that she did NOT LIKE AT ALL was the tilt-a-whirl. In hindsight, not the best judgement on our parts. It started out promising:

But then I watched helplessly as it quickly turned into this (this is the best picture I could get- it's not a happy face):

Poor baby. Lesson learned.

It was a great week. I look forward to many more 'staycations' in our future:)

Badgers

So I guess we're officially Badgers.

 We don't really follow sports. I don't think I am in danger of ever becoming a football widow. But, since we now live in the Madison area, we thought we should take an interest. 

Sunday was family fun day at the stadium. It was a gorgeous day for such an event. All of the football players were on the field to sign autographs and have pictures taken. 

Our nanny, Serah, was there. Isn't she lovely? She was only supposed to work for us until April, but we just couldn't bear to let her go. She watches the girls about once a week now. If it weren't so expensive and unethical, I'd look into cloning her.

She just recently got engaged to this sweet guy, who is just as clone-worthy:

He broke the 'one autograph' rule for us. Thanks #21- you're the best!

 Poor little flower wasn't sure what to think. She's so quiet and unsure sometimes. It didn't help that she missed her nap. 

We all had a fun time:

* * *

Big news!

Look who's potty trained!

Perfect timing on her part since she'll be moving into a classroom with older kids in the fall. She's so proud of herself, but not nearly as proud as we are.

 

 

E.T.

Have you seen E.T.?

My dad took me to see it when I was nine years old. He had been promising to take me and I was excited to go. When we stepped up to the ticket counter he requested two tickets for  "The Extra-Terrestrial". I was so disappointed. I think I may have started crying. He promised me he'd take me to see E.T., but he went and bought tickets for some other movie. Some other movie I'd never heard of and it sounded boring.

He assured me that we were indeed going to see E.T.. I didn't believe him. I thought he was trying to trick me into seeing what he wanted to see. Of course, once the movie started I was thrilled. It is one of my all-time favorite movies. I look forward to watching it with my girls some day. I hope they like it as much as I do. We'll all share a big bowl of Reese's Pieces:)

Anyway...there is a scene in the movie in which E.T. is hidden amongst a bunch of stuffed animals. We re-created that scene with Superbaby this morning. Only we were in our family room instead of a closet.

 E.T. was adorable, but not this adorable.

Happy Weekend;)

I actually do have hobbies.

Evidently one of them is wasting precious time doing stuff like this:

I have more issues than Vogue magazine;)

Not Acceptable

Exhibit A:

Board books it is.

One, two, three...

So I hosted a get together last night and had a house full of moms and kids. I'll give you one guess as to how things went where little miss flower is concerned. She was a total menace. She kept picking on the same little girl (whom she really likes and asks to play with almost daily) and doing other annoying things. I had to send her to her room a number of times. It didn't help, time-outs never do with her. I wanted to cry after everyone left (but that could also be due to the insane amount of dishes awaiting me). It makes me sad for her. I don't want her to be the kid that no one wants to play with. 

 When I picked her up from school today, the teacher informed me that little flower had pinched and shoved one of her classmates and refused to apologize. Nice. The teacher politely reassured me and shared some stories about her own daughter who had the same sort of issues at this age. She recommended a book that someone else recommended in the comments. That book is now on hold for me at the library. If I get desperate enough I'll just go buy the darn thing. In the interim I'm taking deep breaths and counting to ten. And loving my little menace.

On a lighter note, look who just turned SIX months old:

Superbaby! She soothes herself with these two fingers:

She loves her mobile:

She loves playing with her feet (with my help, she still can't quite reach them on her own):

She loves tummy time and her big sister (especially her big sister):

And we all love her!

I'll have to try and post a video of her laughing at her reflection in the mirror. You can't not smile. 

Speaking of smiling...when I was little my mom could always make me smile by saying "Here comes that smile, here it comes, I see it, you want to smile but you're trying so hard not to, you're trying so hard to keep a straight face, there it is, oh I see it...", to which I would inevitably giggle. I could be in the worst mood, but that got me every time. I discovered a variation of that which given the little flower's current defiant personality works quite well. I simply say "Now don't you smile". I've never seen someone smile so eagerly in all my life:)