Saturday Randomness

- We're getting some new {old} furniture today! Back in February we took an old table and 6 chairs (dated from the 1920's) and a buffet to be refinished, and the pieces are ready! Sean and Hattie are out right now picking it up, and I am ecstatic because a) I love old furniture, b) my Ikea chairs to my dining table were falling apart. I was down to 4, and c) I now have a place to put my china and nice serving pieces, which will free up more room in my cabinets for sippy cups and other baby plastic junk that is rapidly taking over my life. And the coolest thing about all of this is that the table and chairs belonged to Mary Ellen, Sean's great-grandmother and Mary Ellen's namesake. I just think that's so cool!

- Hattie is finished with Mother's Day Out. I wanted to do something nice for her teachers because I love every one of them. They are all sweet grandma types that loved on my baby girl and wiped her tush after she went potty two days a week for nine months. They deserved something nice and much more than I was able to do, but the budget allows what the budget allows. So this is what I made them (painted terra-cotta pots with their last name initial stenciled on the pot):

They were a lot more work than I thought they would be, required more spray paint than I initially thought, but I think they turned out cute; so cute, in fact, that I made one for my kitchen with a big ol' "D" on it.

- My neighborhood is starting a Mom's Group! I know all of you "suburbian types" are like, "Yeah, so what!?!?" This is HUGE for me. This is one of the reasons why I have suburban envy! I want to live in the suburbs SO badly, but then we would never see Sean. His commute would be atrocious. Right now I live in an old subdivision with tons of grandmas and grandpas, which is great for my kids because they are so sweet and attentive to our children, but I crave socialization with other moms, other moms that live around the corner, where they would pop over with their kids for play dates in between nap times. There are already 8 moms in the group and some are {gasp} stay at home moms!!!!! - HUGE answer to prayer.

- So thankful for the 3 day weekend we have! We're gonna be doing lots of grilling and margarita making with some yard work thrown in for good measure.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

{9 months}

My sweet Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen has changed so much in the last few months. She has become way more vocal, still shrieking with glee all the time, but she's also added more consonant and vowel sounds to her vocabulary. Her latest adds are "gah" and "huh."

I cannot imagine having a more joyful, happy baby. God knows how many times I have thanked Him for sending me such a sweet, jovial spirit to care for. I'm not saying that Miss Mary Ellen doesn't have her own set of demands because she does. At nine months she loves to be held and loves to have attention more than anything; she's a baby, after all, but her smiles and her laughs and getting her to be content come pretty easily. I am glad to be her mama.



She has recently developed separation anxiety and takes it personally when I leave the room. I remember this stage with Hattie, and I must confess I won't miss it when it's gone.

Mary Ellen loves her sister so much. Hattie can make her laugh like no one else can. But I also am starting to see an aggravating side to Mary Ellen that's developing. She loves to try and get whatever Hattie is interested in when Hattie's not looking. She's very sneaky. She waits for the split second that Hattie looks away and then goes for whatever it is. She loves to get a rise out of her big sister, not so different, I must confess, from her mama who loved getting reactions out of her own sisters!



Just yesterday she threw her very first drag-out fit, and the reason for her monstrous fit was that she dropped a cookie from her highchair that I had just given her. She was MAD she couldn't get to and eat that cookie. But Mommy rescued it from the floor and all was well with her little heart again :). I guess my kids don't kid around when it comes to cookies!



Mary Ellen is still working on crawling. We have a ways to go, I think, before she's up on hands and knees, crawling like a big girl. Right now she is content doing the inching thing. She kind of rolls to her side and scoots. It works for her, but I'll keep working with her.



She recently got her pincher when picking up puffs, and she can hold and drink from her sippy cup. She loves her fruits and tolerates her vegetables and a few meats I've given her. I'm still not giving her yogurt just yet because she gets stopped up easily, if you know what I mean, so we're gonna take dairy slow.



Baby girl still has just the two bottom teeth, but I can see the top two front teeth wanting to push their way down.

As far as sleep goes, Mary Ellen usually takes 2 naps, each about 1.5 hours long. She goes to bed around 6:30-7 pm, and we are still working on her not waking at 4:30 or 5 a.m.! She doesn't do it every morning, but more than Mama likes, and she won't always go back to sleep either. No more early morning bottles, and we just leave her in her crib to play and/or whine until 6:30 a.m.



I love her so much, and I go back and forth between wanting her to stay little like she is and wanting her to grow and be able to play more with Hattie and talk because I just know the things that are gonna come out of her sweet little mouth are just gonna crack us up all day long.

You've Got a Friend in M.E.!

Mary Ellen had her 9 month appointment this morning.
No shots at this appointment, so that's good!
Her stats: weight - 20 lbs 12 oz (80%)
height - 27 and 3/4 inches (55%)
She's a juicy one, and Mama loves and savors every ounce!

I brought the camera to the doctor's office because Mary Ellen LOVED and befriended her reflection so nicely last time that I wanted to capture it. Once in the room, we waited about 10 minutes for the doctor, and this is what my little social butterfly did for the entire 10 minutes............



I call this one, Like Mother like Daughter.



I call this one, Ah, Ma, Just 5 More Minutes!

And I didn't take any pictures in the waiting room because that might have looked weird, but Mary Ellen was trying for the whole 15 minutes we sat in there to make eye contact with every baby and child she could. If she made said eye contact, she squealed with delight and bounced up and down on my legs. She LOVES attention, especially from other children.

I predict that this one will be the life of the party, that is a no alcohol or smoking, girls only party........... and now I'm sitting here thinking about what kinds of parties will be acceptable for her to be at...........um.............a knitting party or a feed the homeless party. Maybe a book club party............. a homework party, or a bible study party, but the 3 no's definitely apply to all of them - no boys, no alcohol, and no smoking. I'm digressing......or jumping ahead of myself here........I think I'd rather live in denial that she's just going to stay my chunky 9 month old indefinitely!

So anyways, we had a good time at the doctor's today, and now both girls are napping, and I have laundry to fold. I plan on doing a better, more "milestone related" 9 month post soon.

And the Hattie girl had pajama day at school today. She thought it was the funniest thing ever to get to wear her pajamas to school. She was so cute. One more day of MDO and we're done until August {sniff}.

Monday with my Monkeys!

That's what these two were acting like after lunch today, being so loud and playing so sweetly with each other. I had to pry myself from the dishes and snap a few pictures to catch this moment!



Man, I look at the last picture and think, I need to clean my babies' faces better after they eat. I'm bad about that.
But clean or raggamuffin lookin', I love those sweet faces, especially when they're happy and an extra bonus that they're happy TOGETHER, with EACH OTHER, AT THE SAME TIME.
This Monday has turned out to be a pretty good one! Hope yours is full of smiles and laughter, too!

P is for........

popsicle and pickle!

That's what Hattie wanted after a HOT afternoon at the park last week. I guess she can appreciate the wonder of both sweet and sour simultaneously.

I totally get it because as a kid, I LOVED these:

Starting to Feel like Summer

Hattie had no problem sharing Mommy's popsicle with Mary Ellen, but she sure wasn't going to share HER purple popsicle! NO WAY!

I took this pic when Hattie was mid-sentence saying, "No, MARYYYYY!" We hear that a lot these days.
Possessive toddler plus exploring baby who loves to grab for things don't mix well.

This one is still not crawling. She can scoot a little but only backwards. I have to admit that I'm a little concerned, but a bunch of sweet mommies have reassured me over and over that she'll crawl on her own time. She's just laid-back. And I get that. If I lay her on the floor and plop a toy far in front of her, she'll try for like a second to get to it, but quickly, she gives up and just plays with her fingers or a crumb on the floor that's within her reach. Seriously. Needless to say, Mary Ellen has had lots of tummy time lately, like it or not!

She's not really mobile yet, but her verbal skills have taken off. She babbles all day long, and when I walk by, she often babbles, in a whiney, pick me up kinda way, "Mmmmma! Mmmma!" She's done this so many times that I'm sure it's not a coincidence but that she's calling for me. This makes me very happy because Hattie said "Dadda" before "Mama." I'm glad to be first this time :).


This soon to be 3 year old [sniff, sniff] has 3 more weeks of Mother's Day Out. Not sure what the summer's gonna be like. It's hard because baby sister usually takes a pretty good morning nap, which kills the morning for long excursions. I have some brainstorming to do to think of things that will keep Hattie entertained so Mama keeps her sanity!

We've been working on writing letters with Hattie quite a bit, and she can successfully write "H," "T," and "i." Can you guess what I'm trying to teach her to spell? The vowels of her name have been a bit more challenging, but I'm so proud of what she can do at this point!

As for me, I've been so into all the decorating blogs online. I've finally started to decorate our bedroom, and thanks to all the great, cheap ideas that I've seen online, I've been able to create this

for very, very cheap. All of the frames were sitting in my garage, being unused because they were gold or some other color that doesn't go with my house, so I just bought some craft paint and painted them all black and then framed some fabric that I got on clearance. And the bedding is all from Marshall's and most of it was on clearance. Next up I plan to make some curtains for the windows.

That's all for now! Hope you are all finding ways to stay cool as it heats up.

Emotional Eater?

Yesterday Hattie was being a normal, clumsy toddler and hurt herself while playing. Rubbing teary eyes, she came up to me and whined, "Mommy, {sniff, sniff} I think I need some chocolate to make me feel better."

Ah yes, darlin'.

I have never said this. Don't know how she made this connection of chocolate being a "healer."

I guess some things are just written in our girly DNA! :)