Broccoli and Cookies- What a tasty Saturday!

Today has been a just-right kind of Saturday, straddling the line between fun and productive perfectly.


Most of the day was spent cleaning and organizing some areas of the house that have been neglected for too long. Joel and I cleaned out some kitchen cupboards, caught up on laundry, scrubbed the bathroom down, boxed up the fits-no-more kids clothes and brought out some next-size-up kids clothes... and even had time to listen to some Nickel Creek while drinking mid-morning coffee.


The remainder of the day was quality time spent with the girls.


I got a kick out of putting Afton's hair in pigtails for the first time. They were more like pig-stubs or pig-spikes, but cute nonetheless. She is getting so smart and developing such a unique little personality- I love it. We have some broccoli planted in our garden, and she goes right for the florets, picks 'em off the plant and puts them directly into her mouth- it cracks me up... a kid that little, liking raw broccoli so much... good girl! 

Picking broccoli in the garden

She does so many funny little things these days, so much fun just to hang out with her. She likes to back up to things and sit down. Now, that sounds dumb, because everybody backs up to things to sit down on them. But it's the way she does it that is so funny. She turns around quite a ways from where she plans to sit, and then kind of waddles backward carefully until she's just in the right position... and then, plop! It might be her little step-stool, or someone's lap, or just a particular spot on the floor or against a wall.... but the funniest is when she sits on the floor vent. Because the floor vents (where the cold air is coming out, since it's summer) are not a whole lot larger than her little bottom, she seems to take extra care in making sure the plop! is as accurately on spot as possible, and the look of satisfaction on her face when she sits squarely on the middle of the vent is just priceless!


After Afton went to bed, Gillian and I made cookies. I do not bake often, and Gillian usually doesn't get to stay up much past Afton's bedtime, so this was a special treat for both of us. Gillian is such a good little helper, and so eager to do things by herself, or on her own. She measured all the ingredients, and cracked eggs without getting any shells in the dough. She even took the pans out of the oven with the big oven mitts, which she seemed particularly excited about- as if that was a REAL grown up kind of task, and she felt really privileged to be considered big enough to do that part. :o)

The most entertaining portion of the cookie-bake was when Gillian told me to jiggle my belly before I tried one of the finished cookies. She explained that, "Everything you eat goes straight to the baby, but if the baby is sleeping, so are its taste-buds, and the baby won't even know how yummy they are!... So, you should jiggle your belly to wake the baby up before you try one." Agh! Sometimes she just makes me giggle- the way she thinks and the way she DESCRIBES the way she thinks... so funny.


So now, my belly is filled with cookie dough (and one actual cookie), and my head is filled with sleepiness, because my day was filled with simple joy. :o)

Havin' a ball!

Until recently, I was a little worried about Afton's lack of vocab. But she has debuted her first word (besides mama and dada)! She says "BALL" every time she sees something spherical. She loves balls- little balls, big balls, even my big pregnant belly- to her- is a "BALL!". As we walked into the store the other day, she excitedly started reaching for the big red balls along the sidewalk at Target saying "BALL! BALL! BALL!" I guess since it's the only thing she knows how to say, she's enjoying being able to say it. :o)

In other news (does something need to be qualified as news-worthy in order to be called "news"?...), my mom and I recently re-upholstered my couch. YAY us! (mostly YAY for my mom! Who is ridiculously talented and industrious- and generously helpful with her time--- you rock mom!)

Before
(please disregard the super-messy living room, and focus instead on the couch.
If you can't tell, those are reeds, cattails, and loons in the weave of that purple-based fabric)

During...

...And After- Ta-dah!

Oh, and one last tidbit. I got a new MacBook Pro for my birthday! (I'm feeling a little guilty and spoiled just tying that- hehe) So now I get to venture into the world of Mac and see what this little baby can do! So far, I'm impressed (and slightly creeped out) with the face recognition bit in iPhoto... so cool.... how does it do that?!!?

I am dweeb- hear me ROAR!

I am admittedly a huge dweeb. And I find that sometimes, the things that bring me pleasure are just absurd.

Yesterday, after finishing this project and standing back to look at it, I literally chuckled. I thought to myself, "now THIS is a total dweeb moment!".

Most of you who have children know that over the course of that first year, you can go through quite a few canisters of infant formula. For some reason, I saved a bunch of those empty canisters with the intention of reusing them for something. I got this desk from my cousin, who was giving it away, to use as a sewing/craft/hobby desk and storage spot. The side of it has little shelves that are just the right size, and I have a bajillion little craft/hobby items that needed to be organized and put away. And thus, a formula-can storage system was born.

I spray painted the cans & lids white, and used the old paper label strip that was on the formula cans as a template to cut strips of wrapping paper to wrap around them. One can contains cutting utensils (exacto-knife, whole punch, scissors, etc.), another is filled with ribbons. There's a can filled with sewing thread, one with rubber stamps, another with a rainbow of ink pads, one for jewelry-making stuff... and so on.

Now, as I was chuckling, I was also a bit nostalgic. It made me think of my grandpa and grandma Wasche, who both had a knack for making things no one else would think to make. My Grandma could make pretty much anything out of yarn- and she would if she so desired (have you ever seen an air freshener wearing a crocheted dress?!). And Grandpa was just the type to hold onto seemingly useless things (think formula cans) until just the right purpose came along. I loved and miss them, and am thankful for all of the wonderful and quirky things that made them special.

Let the countdown begin!

This baby is due in 88 days!
I do not have any names picked out. I haven't unpacked a single brand-new-baby item. I am nowhere near ready, but am not worried about it either.

The one thing I have done in preparation for the arrival of baby #3 is submit my official resignation from work! Now, I have never not worked- with the exception of a few months of unemployment- and am not sure this whole stay-at-home-mom thing is really my cup o' tea. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, but I feel like I need to at least give it a fair shot.

I added a "pregnancy countdown widget" to my blog, which is fine... cool... neato! But what I'd really like to do is put a countdown widget for my last day of work on here instead. Unfortunately, all of my Googling and Binging returned no results for any of the following:
"bye-bye-lifeless-gray-cubicle countdown widget"
"sayonara suckers! countdown widget"
"countdown to freedom widget"
"you couldn't pay me enough to stick around widget"
Hmmm.... too bad. :-P

Let the good times roll (or walk, rather)!

Afton, at 12 months old, is walking.
She's taken plenty of steps over the last month or so- a couple here, a couple there- but yesterday was the first day on which I saw her actually walk from point A to point B with balance and intention. :-)

It's hard to believe these little people are growing so fast. In a few months, we'll be adding another little munchkin to the crew. And I'm sure this next child will grow just as fast as Gillian and Afton have. Time to strap on my running shoes- they are going to be tough to keep up with!

Milestone Memories

When my first child was still growing in my belly, I was so sure I'd want to document every milestone... every new ability... every first. I had a baby-book, with adorable little illustrations of bunnies and choo-choo-trains and teddy bears. The kind that has content, like "When I first found out I was pregnant, I felt ____________". I went through and carefully, thoughtfully filled in every page and blank up until the birth page. Then she came out and like a whirlwind she tore through all my good intentions. I guess I was spending too much time working and caring for her and enjoying her to keep up with the book so while I have some vague idea, I have no record of when she first rolled over, sat up, crawled, had her first haircut, grew her first tooth... I don't even know what her first word was!

The second time around, I knew better than to waste any money on the cheesy baby-book. But because I regret all the things I just don't remember, I was really convinced that I'd make an effort to jot these things down this time. But here I sit, my one year old baby sleeping upstairs, already having forgotten exactly what happened when. She was born... eventually she giggled... one day she could sit up... she popped out a tooth... she's popped out several more since... started sleeping through the night at some point... crawled sometime after that... said "mama" and "dada", but I'm not sure which one first... and she's already on to taking steps!

Now, I'm sure I'm not the first mom to have missed some milestones, but I feel incredibly guilty and a little frantic about it. I can't ever rewind and pinpoint the exact day that something happened, and memories fade and warp over time.
For instance, when I think back and remember Gillian, at 18 months old, singing the alphabet- in tune- in the back seat, I may be remembering it all wrong. Perhaps it was really Twinkle-Twinkle... maybe it was off key... what if it never even happened?! I have no proof! No evidence! No record!

So, I find I have two choices. I can either come to the realization that I'm not the only one (please tell me I'm not the only one who stinks at these things!), or I can make a very good effort to do better. And so I will be journaling milestones in my blog (oh goodie for you, huh?). I'm not trying to pretend that these milestones are particularly interesting to anyone else, except maybe a few Grandmas, but this is a convenient way for me to pop up pics and have a saved, dated record of happenings.

So here's one: Afton has recently began taking steps. The first one was back on April 27th, and I've been waiting for an official "she's a walker!" moment... but, well... she's really not that motivated. You can tell that she knows she'll get there faster on hands and knees than on her feet. Smart girl, I say. Nevertheless, we've been trying to encourage the upright mode of transportation because, well, you know, she's gotta get used to it sooner or later, right?

Gillian is outside planting veggies with Joel in the garden. She has so much fun outside with Daddy. Yesterday was our 2nd anniversary (I know!), and we took a nice long bike ride with the girls. Afton rode in the bike-cart that tows behind Joel's bike, and Gillian rode her own bike. She kept up pretty well and we went about 8 miles. Family bike rides are some of my very favorite times. :o)

So that's all I've got at the moment. Hopefully it will be nowhere near as much time before my next post.