Picture time!

A friend of a friend is a photographer who was offering great prices for mini-sessions.  I've been debating whether we should get professional photos taken since I never seem to get around to getting them printed.  However, the price was too good and I thought that we might be able to get something fun for our Christmas cards.  I'm so glad we did!  In 20 minutes she was able to get some fantastic shots.  I acknowledge that I don't have a child who will pose or be a little ham for the camera.  Parks with action shots are the way we have to go.  So many cute photos!

 The thinking tongue!

 One of the sweetest photos ever!

 This one was a real contender for the Christmas card, but ultimately lost out.

 Such joy!

 The ultimate Christmas card winner.

The swing is one of her favorite places on Earth.  Even though you can't see her face, I just love this shot.

The thing that was great about this photo shoot was actually getting some great family shots.  Sometimes I think that this is the only way to get the three of us in a photo together!

Garage Shenanigans

I haven't posted too much about our garage project on this blog since I have a separate blog dedicated to that, but I do have some pretty adorable shots of Little Miss.

It's very difficult to manage such a large project while also trying to keep a toddler with some normal semblance of a schedule.  I'm just very blessed that I have such an easygoing child.  She's content to go to the garage and often spends part of the time happily riding along on my back.

Mama gets to walk around a check out what's been done and Little Miss gets to see everything from a different perspective.  

Once the garage moved farther along, it got real interesting.  When the kitchen cabinets were built, she had a place to play hide and seek.  When the plumbing was installed, Little Miss could happily play with some excess tubing.  When the closet in her room was completed, she wanted to be dropped off inside so she could check it out.

You can see from the picture that the closet starts about halfway up the wall and is a very odd shape. We're not going to turn down any extra storage, but we really don't have anything slated for the space at this point.  Little Miss loved being back there and joked that she wanted to read books.  This gave me an idea (I'm sure hubs hates my ideas at this point) that we could put shelves on the left side and high on the back wall.  We could then add a bunch of extra pillows in there and build a 2x4 ladder on the wall.  It could be a fun little cubby for her to hang out in (at least for a few years until she gets too big).  The only problem is that this idea came after the closet was built and I"m not sure if it's built to support that kind of weight.  It might be great, or it may not and I don't want to gamble with my little girl.  At this point we're just looking to get into the space before we start doing any projects.  It may be that we didn't get rid of as much stuff as we needed and we need to use it for storage.  Who knows?

Can't. Take. One. More. Step.

Taken on a recent hike:

Kids.

Double Fisting

Sometimes one cup of hot cocoa just isn't enough.

Happiness is...

an unexpected pile of hay bales.  I think these were near the soccer fields along our greenway to help the grass along over the winter, but they made a fabulous afternoon of entertainment!

She treated these like her personal obstacle course and loved jumping from bale to bale.  It was great practice balancing and assessing risk.  So much fun.

Did you eat chocolate?

....At the Car Wash....

Every few months I look around my car and am disgusted.  It's full of wrappers, food, toys strewn about, bags, etc.  Usually when that happens I take a Mother's Day Out day to wash and vacuum the car myself and go through everything.  This time it was just too far gone.  I put everything into garbage bags and hauled them up to the apartment to go through (I'll be so glad when that task only involves a few steps and not several locks and an elevator ride), loaded up my favorite toddler and headed out to one of those fancy washes where you get out of your car and don't see it again until it's shiny clean.  

Little Miss loved it.  This was a large part of the entertainment:

We got to talk about trucks vs. cars, different colors, and different colors of soap.  It was fun.  This car wash also had a snack bar, free wifi and a lounge with tv.  Sometimes we know how to do things right ;) 

Off to Work (School)

When Little Miss began Mother's Day Out, I bought a lunchbox, but not a new bag.  She just used mine from when I worked.  It was big, and bulky, and eventually became so dirty I couldn't get it clean.  I finally relented and bought her a new lunch bag.  She. Loves. It.  She proudly carries all around and is responsible for it in a way that she never was when she used mine.  The other day when we were in the elevator, it struck me how much it looked like a suitcase or a briefcase.

Sometimes it really sinks in how much we take for granted carrying things that seem so small to us, yet they're so big for little kids.  In this case, it doesn't matter.  Little Miss is happy to carry it no matter what.

Farewell to our Secret Greenway

I've posted pictures before and talked of adventures we took to a neighborhood greenway I stumbled upon near our apartment.  One afternoon Little Miss was up early from nap and I wanted us to get out of the house for a bit.  We loaded up the stroller, grabbed some snacks and hit the road.

We had a great time at the greenway, pushing the stroller, practicing walking puppy alone, and sitting at the different gazebos.  It was just like the other times.  Except something magical happened as we left.  We were walking back through the neighborhoods to the main road to take us home when we came across tons of the Canadian Geese Little Miss enjoyed so much hanging out in the road and in a yard.  They just squawked and watched us as we walked by.  I decided that since it was very likely that it would be our last time at the greenway (it was), it was their way of thanking us for visiting them and wishing us well on our life at the garage.

I wasn't able to capture all of them in the picture, but it was special for us.  We'd like to thank the neighborhood for having that greenway- it was such a fun thing for us to access over the past year.

Elves' Faire

The local Waldorf school has a Elves' Faire each year and I decided that Little Miss was big enough this year to actually enjoy it.  It was a little chilly, but not cold and there were tons of things to do.

When we arrived we found a puppet show in one of the classrooms.  It was presented in an interesting way, but the story was a bit too long for Little Miss- she got wiggly.  After that we came out and I allowed her to do the unthinkable....Little Miss got her first tattoo.

She chose a beautiful butterfly and cherished that thing for a week until it finally washed off.  She also enjoyed the live music, getting up close to the stage and even doing a little dancing (and more checking out of her tattoo).

There was a climbing wall there and I thought I'd let my little monkey give it a try.  You can see her getting the harness on:

but I have no pictures of climbing itself as I was the spotter.  She did brilliantly until I could no longer reach her and then she declared herself done.  She challenged herself and did well enough that I'd like to get her some climbing lessons at a local place to try next year.

We went to their outdoor play area and made fairy wands and just enjoyed the space.

Finally, we got a little treat at the bake sale and found a beautiful are to enjoy it.

I loved the tulle they used and the colors they chose.  I wonder if we could try something like that in our backyard at some point.  There was so much more that we didn't do- classrooms full of crafts for older kids, a secret angel room, archery, and traditional crafts to buy.  She had an absolute blast and I can see how she'll love different aspects of it for years to come.  Can't wait to go again next year!

How We Spend our Friday Nights

Although the apartment and I got off to a rocky start, there are several things about it that I came to love dearly.  The workout room on the first floor made it incredibly easy to slip away at bedtime and get in a quick workout.  The free coffee/tea/hot chocolate in the lounge made for a nice treat (not to mention the free cable down there).  We were frequent users of the pool and will miss that dearly.  Now that the weather has cooled a bit and it's dark before bedtime, we've started enjoying the fire pit. There were several Friday nights we were able to grab a beer from the apartment and head down to the courtyard to just relax.

You can't tell me that this doesn't look appealing to you.  What's even better is that the pool is fenced off, so hubs and I could just chill out by the fire and Little Miss could wander and we weren't worried about her getting hurt.  For the most part, Little Miss Curious was content to hang out with us and enjoy the fire herself.

A couple of times my friend who also moved into the building came down and we had a nice chat.  It made us feel more like the 'old days' before we had kids and were restricted in what we could do.  While the views above are pretty, nothing compares to the picture below.

Mmmm- warm snuggles with Daddy by the fire.  A sign that it's time to go upstairs to bed.  This.  This is one thing that I will miss dearly when we go.

Glitter!

There is no doubt that Little Miss is crafty.  She loves painting, coloring, cutting, gluing and anything I can throw at her.  I decided it was time to up the ante.  I bought some glitter to make 'gak' a while ago and thought it would be fun to do with glue, since she recently discovered the glue bottle.  She had a blast pouring the glue all over the paper and then sprinkling on the glitter (blue, of course).  It was no time at all until she learned to bend the paper to shake off the excess glitter and then use that paper to apply more.

 Of course, it made a huge mess, but Little Miss found it charming and was agreeable to washing her hands immediately.

As predicted, even after multiple sweeps and immediate cleaning, there was glitter all over the area. Later that week, hubs sent a text telling me he found glitter on his pants at work.  In my opinion, glitter is part of the magic of childhood.  I'm glad that I introduced her to it early and have every intention of trying it again.  Any suggestions for fun (toddler) glitter activities are welcome.

Happy Halloween

I was really stuck on Halloween this year.  Little Miss isn't really into anything and I'm not very creative when it comes to dressing up- in fact, I hate it.  My mama friends came to the rescue.  When I posted in our group asking for ideas for a kid who loves to change babies' diapers and help me in the kitchen, they suggested being a baker.  I thought that it could be kind of fun and we could get a fun apron that we could actually use in the future.  However, when I googled 'toddler baking costumes' there appeared a girl in a vintage Strawberry Shortcake costume and I knew what I had to do.
In a rare moment, I dropped full price on the costume.  It was worth every penny.  Here's what she looked like when she tried on the costume:

Luckily, we had a busy Halloween season so this costume was able to get lots of wear.  We went to music class (no picture), and a special trick-or-treating event at Daddy's work.

We got to walk around the office and different people volunteered to give out candy from their cubicles/offices, or just left it sitting out.  Our friend was there to help her reach all the candy the M&M's were offering.

Most importantly, she got to see where Daddy actually goes when he's at work everyday.  She loved sitting in his chair and playing with his computer.

It was a lot of fun.  Halloween itself rolled around and was cold and rainy.  Luckily, it cleared up towards the end of trick-or-treating, but we were busy playing at a friend's house, so she didn't seem to notice.  We only went for about 2 blocks, but that was perfect for her to get the idea and plenty of candy, but not so much that she was going to make herself sick and we gain tons of weight ;)  She was allowed to eat as much as she wanted on Halloween night (luckily, she preferred suckers that took a long time to eat), and then there were 'magically' only 5 pieces of candy left in her bucket when she woke up the next morning.  She was allowed one piece of candy a day until it was gone.  She seemed totally fine with that, so I'll keep trying it until she wises up.  It was a really fun holiday and I think that we're both eager to do it again next year!