did you know...

that I can sew clothing? From scratch? Well, I can. I just haven't done it in YEARS. Now that I have a baby girl I am consumed with ideas for outfit designs. I drafted a couple of simple patterns the night before last and have since been whipping out tiny little outfits in the evening after all the children are down for the night. Here's a picture of the first one I finished:


click on the picture to see more "family & friend" pictures at flickr.

It's a tiny bit wrinkled at this point as she's worn it all day long but it's still way cute and she seems comfortable in it as well. Lynn is completely gung ho about me making these outfits to sell and I am thinking about it. We spent sometime looking around the internets at "boutique" children's clothing and I can tell you right now...children are being drowned in ruffles and what seems to be pounds and pounds of fabric. I enjoy a simpler aesthetic and surely there are moms out there who share that same appreciation. Now, knowing how easily I bore doing the same thing over and over again I'm thinking if I do decide to start selling these outfits they'll be limited editions of four or something. I don't know. More thinking to do on the topic.

I have more to blog, however, the boys and Lynn are at a birthday party and Miss Molly is telling me it's supper time...

the weekend of the toe killer...

Catchy title, right? Well the toe killing actually began over the weekend and ended last night. Lynn was the killer and Caleb's right big toe was the victim. Lucky for you guys I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures! The only reason I didn't take any pictures was because looking at the carnage makes me gag and cringe and I don't gag and cringe. Seriously. Ready for a little flashback? Alrighty, but first how 'bout a cute picture of Molly in one of her new bibs I made for her over the weekend (in between attacks on Caleb's big toe).


click on the pic to see more of this bib. i even made a few extras to put up for sale too!

Okay, so the toe killing...Saturday we made a trip out to IKEA to buy a couple chests of drawers for the boys. We decided on the six drawer Malm
for its ample drawer space and two would fit perfectly side by side in the boys' closet. Well, we loaded up the four boxes of six thousand pieces the chests of drawers came in, rounded up the boys from the play area and headed out to the parking lot where Caleb kept trying to get on the back of the cart and we kept telling him not to because of how heavy and hard to control the cart was (if you've ever shopped at IKEA before you know how their carts are to control with all four wheels on 360 degree casters...ugh...brilliant design concept there). Caleb managed to get on the cart anyway and then decided that it wasn't a good idea after all so he hopped off and Lynn proceeded to roll right up on his toe with a cart full of two tons of particle board and plastic laminate.

After all that fun we thought it would be a good idea to load everyone up on Sunday and check out the Star Wars exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The following picture should just about sum up how the trip went:


click here to see the flickr set from the trip.

First of all the content of the exhibit was great. We really enjoyed being able to see so much up close. However, the people flow was HORRIBLE. FWMSH sells tickets to the exhibit in fifteen minute intervals. You enter the exhibit at your specified time and can then stay in the exhibit as long as your little heart desires, but once you leave, you may not return unless you purchase a new ticket. Let's just say lots of people stayed well past when they should have. It was really crowded and made for short tempers and rude people. Caleb was in full-on three-year-old-terrorist mode: whining (omfg! the whining), yelling at complete strangers that it was HIS turn to listen (to the recorded info at each display). Logan was pretty good for the most part, except when he was trying to regulate on Caleb. Logan has a hard time understanding that it is not his job to regulate. Lynn was in rare form...I won't even get into it here, but if you were one of the people who crossed his path, you have my sincerest apologies. On the flip side, Molly and I were absolutely delightful.

Okay, back to the toe...amazingly the toe and nail survived unscathed after the IKEA episode; however, I think that episode primed his toe for its ultimate undoing last night at Walmart.

Lynn came home early from work to take the boys to NRH2O with our friends Gary and Jared. They all had a great time! According to Lynn, whoever designed this water park is a freaking genius...it is well laid out with lots to do for every age group. Anyway, on the way home from the park they stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things. While en route to the car Caleb was farting around on the back of the cart (again) and hopped off before Lynn could stop. At that point the Earth spun off its axis and time stopped. Somehow the cart ripped Caleb's toenail almost completely off the nail bed! Lynn tells me, "he took it like a man." Holy shit, people, what does that mean? He took it like a man. As soon as he said it we both started laughing...it was impossible not to and luckily Caleb was not within earshot of the conversation. For the foreseeable future we'll be doing twice daily twenty minute long Epsom salts soaks along with dressing changes until the toe nail comes completely off. Fun times!

baby feets and baby feats...

WARNING: This is an obligatory mommy-brags-about-the-baby post.



Molly turned three months old on Wednesday. She's been sleeping through the night for almost three weeks now! Admittedly, we didn't have it bad at all to begin with as she only woke up once a night to nurse from the get go. She's flipped over from her tummy to her back several times now...the first few times she did it I was skeptical as I'm pretty sure she had some help from small hands that are not supposed to touch the baby when she is on her quilt; but I actually SAW her do it all by herself last Monday! You forget how exciting these little milestones are until they happen again :). All she wants to do lately is stand or sit up right...screw this reclining in the bouncy chair business, thankyouverymuch. To placate the demand to sit up right we bought her a Bumbo chair. I wouldn't say she loves it, but she's content to sit in it for awhile until she slips to one side or the other...physically she's a bit too small for it yet. As for the desire to stand all the time, well, we're bringing down the johnny jumper and the wheelie chair from the attic tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed she likes one of them...Logan loved both the jumper and the chair while Caleb hated the jumper with the heat of a thousand suns but loved the chair.

edited to add: Lynn was shocked and appalled that I failed to mention all the scooting around and talking she does. To illustrate: no matter where you start her out in her crib she will not be anywhere near the original point of entry when you go to pick her up...in fact, she's typically turned 180 degrees and at the opposite end of the crib. This does not bode well for us in years to come when she won't have four rails to keep her in her bed! As for the "talking?" She is a real chatter box and lucky for us there are two little boys who'll come running at the first peep to engage her in often silly and wandering conversations. If noone is immediately available to talk, that's okay, she just gets louder until someone shows up.

So, basically, all is well here. I'm working on some things right now and will hopefully have some show and tell ready in the next few days! Have a great weekend everyone!!

i could not resist...

Go buy your baby a pair: here. You know you want to. I can't blame you either! So cute!

things i'm loving this afternoon...

• "twinkle, twinkle, little farm. how i sleeping on the farm. see that guy over there, he is sleeping in the dark. now i know my abc's, next time won't you sing with me." as sung by Caleb to Molly. It starts out in the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and ends up in the tune of the Alphabet Song.



• C: "Hi little finger, I'm bigger finger." (while holding Molly's index finger and wiggling his own index finger at her index finger.)
  m: "coo, gurgle, coo, coo, squeal!"



• C: "Mom, I love Molly. She's such a cute guh-rull."
  M: "Molly loves you too. She thinks you're cute too."
  C: "No, she thinks I'm handsome."
  M: "Of course she does."



• Logan laughing hysterically while trying to explain an awesome new game he's discovered. I still don't have any idea what game he's talking about...



• Molly blowing tiny, drooly spit bubbles. SO CUTE!



• Watching Molly watch her hands move around in amazement and then startle herself when her feet moved too.

Life is good.

as a public service...

We looked into taking the boys to Medieval Times for a treat last year and found they charged a ridiculous amount of money for their meal and show...we opted to do something that didn't cost us a car payment instead. Cut to last Wednesday when Lynn was driving to work. While listening to his sports radio, he heard a commercial detailing a kids eat free special at the Medieval Times and called me to check out pricing again. If it wasn't TOO much, we'd make reservations and surprise the boys. Well I called, it was still expensive, but not AS expensive. Since we were saving $72 plus tax with the kids eating free, I bumped for the royalty package (preferred seating [near as I could tell there were no bad seats in the house], Knights cheering banner [cheap little flag thing they were selling for a dollar], Medieval Times souvenir DVD [Caleb has watched this a couple times already, but did we really need four?], and
commemorative program [meh.] for each member of the party! [A complete waste of money!]).



Part one of this public service announcement: if you absolutely have to check out Medieval Times, save yourself some money and pass on the royalty package. Bottom line: you get nothing special and you end up with more stuff you'll more than likely just throw away the minute you get home.

Part two of this psa: In an effort to save you from spending a ton of money on a sub par meal and mediocre show I offer this: to experience the meal (and I do mean experience it identically) you will need to swing by your local grocery and pick up a couple cans of Campbell's vegetable soup (everyone gets a bowl), a couple roasted chickens (each person will get one half of a roasted chicken), a box of Pepperidge Farm garlic toast, a bag of potatoes (that you will cut in half, coat with oil and herbs and bake...each person will get one half of a potato), a half rack of spare ribs (each person gets one rib). On your way home swing by McDonald's and pick up as many fried apple pies as there are guests in your party. Don't worry about brewing a big batch of iced tea because you only need enough to fill an eight ounce mug twice. This is plenty of food for any one person to eat, but my point is the meal is unimpressive to say the least and certainly not worth the money charged for it. Once the meal is ready, feel free to peruse the photo set I put together on Flickr. You're actually getting the better end of the deal here as you don't have to hear the painfully trite dialogue. In fact, you could watch A Knight's Tale (or your favorite Robin Hood-type movie) on dvd and probably have a better time.

I will say this: the boys had a great time. Lynn and I? We laughed at the hokiness but choked on the fact that we spent a ton of money without much return on our investment. I think we would have had a better time and spent less money roaming around a Renaissance Faire.