These are the Days

Inspired by this blog’s other/guest Happiest Mommy, I have been trying to regularly place an entry specifically about the kids in “Tara’s Critters” with the hopes that I can print it off someday and place the entries in the kids’ scrapbooks.  (Who am I kidding?  What scrapbooks? Doesn’t hurt to dream!)

Here is a peak at the latest entry that I posted after a long day of endless crying.  Sigh.  It’s finally quiet.

November 18, 2009

Today was another tough day in a string of several recently.  Maggie is sooooooooooooooo two, and Walt is (I think) cutting teeth.  

Maggie is at the stage where she asks, “What’s that?” and “Why?” about everything.  And she keeps pushing Walt down or she puts him in a headlock and throws him to the ground.  Lots of crying always ensues! However, she makes up for these moments with cuteness and comedy. The other night Bret said he would follow us in his vehicle to the restaurant.  As we pulled away, Maggie asked me, “Mommy, are we going to swallow Daddy?”  Tonight she was so intrigued by the word “conversation” that she went around repeating it over and over (and over, and over) again.  And did you know that she can name every American Girl doll in the latest catalogue?  She won’t potty on the toilet, but she’ll happily tell you who Julie and her best friend “Ling” from San Francisco are!  Her favorite books right now, other than the catalogue, are The Library Lion and Wet Dog.

And Walt…Mr. Stinky Butt.  He has pooped his pants 4-5 times every day this week. His bottom is glowing red with open sores, and his teeth are coming through with a vengeance.  He is super-clingy right now.  I rocked him three times tonight before he finally went to sleep.  (Not that I really minded. These rocking days are numbered.)  All of a sudden, he is repeating words left and right.  Perhaps there wasn’t as much lead in his crib paint as I had feared!  He can clearly say “Momma, Daddy, juice, truck, more,” and “no.”  And several others keep popping up.  He is finally saying animal sounds too.  His first was “quack,” and now he’s moving on to cow, chicken, and baby (shhh!) noises.  Too cute!  His latest favorite book is Little People’s What’s That Noise?

I LOVE seeing the kids dance together.  They both (fortunately) have their father’s moves.  They beg me for music, especially their “Wishy Washy” Kindermusik CD.  I also melt when they play “Ring Around the Rosie.”  Walt just wants to fall down, but it’s cute anyway!

Like the song Bret and I danced to at our wedding, “These are the days…”

Santa Plus One–Again!

Mistletoe Market went well today.  It was a looooong day though.  The ornaments and pendants brought in about $400.  I am not the greatest bookkeeper, so I don’t know how many of each I sold!

Bret brought the kids up for a free photo with Santa.  That didn’t go so well though.  Neither child would sit on Santa’s lap.  Maggie clung to her dad behind the photographer, and Walt would only look at Santa from the comfort of my arms when the jolly old guy dangled a candy cane in front of him. (Shocker!)  So, for the second year in a row, I only have a photo of Walt and Santa.  Perhaps next year will be that third time’s a charm sort of thing.

Here are the fruits of our photo efforts today.

Recovering on a Wednesday

It’s eleven o’clock, and I’m still in my pajamas.  So are the kids.  They are playing in an empty box they call “the boat.”  Maggie says they’re going on an adventure.  I love cheap entertainment!  

We are laying low after a busy weekend and a crazy Tuesday.  I am co-coordinator for MOPS this year, and I have a hard time unwinding after each meeting.  Yesterday was our fourth MOPS meeting.  Although it went fairly smoothly, the kids and I were sassy and tired the rest of the day.

Speaking of low-cost thrills (the empty box mentioned above), the kids have also been playing with their ribbon wands this morning.  I just made them after seeing the idea on a blog called The Doctor’s Wife.  I happen to hoard ribbon, so this was an easy craft to whip together.  My favorite thing about this “toy,” other than its cost, is that it’s safe.  The kids love swinging things at one another these days, and ribbon wands are soft without any sharp edges.  (Less crying and fewer bruises — always a bonus!)

On another note, my fellow pendant-maker, Cora, and I are gearing up for Saturday’s Mistletoe Market at Lincoln Hills.  Cora just soldered 12 more pendants, and we are hopeful that we will sell several at $10 each ($12 with chain).  I also need to paint a few more ornaments before this weekend, as I will be selling those too.  Here are some photos of the pendants and keepsake ornaments (to be personalized for $15 each and hung on a special Women’s Imaging Center tree) on a table at the Miss Ludington pageant last weekend.

Pink Weekend

I have been seeing pink for quite a few days now, and this weekend is only getting “pinker!”  I have been finishing some pink ribbon pendants with the help of a sweet lady named Cora, and I’ve been driving pink ribbon ornaments here and there to be displayed (and hopefully sold!) at various weekend events.  Next weekend I’ll sell both items at the Mistletoe Market held at Lincoln Hills.

I also decorated two Christmas trees this week — one for a P.E.O. auction and one to be raffled off at the Power of Pink Brunch on Sunday.  You know, I cannot believe myself sometimes!  Too crazy!  I wasn’t happy with the tree for the brunch, so I went back to the hospital and put more decorations on it the day after I dropped it off.  I don’t know whether I made it look better or worse!  Confidence…Can I ask Santa for some for Christmas?

Anyhow, yesterday I had the pleasure of getting to help decorate for a hospital open house.  Even though I was only able to spend an hour hanging pink lanterns, it was lots of fun.  Sometimes it feels good to be needed outside of my home, and I love working with new people in the community.

Today I got to attend the hospital’s open house celebrating its new Women’s Imaging Center.  I became teary-eyed as the C.E.O. discussed how fortunate we all are to live in this kind community.  He’s totally right. This is a special place full of extremely giving and gifted people.  Bret and I are lucky to be able to raise our family here.  

The open house offered tours of the new facility and lots of yummy food.  I especially enjoyed the chocolate-dipped cookies and mountains of cheese cubes!

Tonight I volunteered at the Miss Ludington Pageant — another pink venue. The event was tied to the Power of Pink campaign, so it was entirely decorated with pink Christmas trees, topiaries lit with pink lights, pink lanterns, and yards and yards of pink tulle.  So ethereal!  I helped at the ticket and t-shirt tables and proudly displayed the fundraiser pendants and ornaments.  

And thank goodness my mother taught me to always remember to wear lipstick!  My friend Leslie and I were told that we would be helping direct the princesses in a back room.  Instead, we were put up front because of a shortage of hands.  We didn’t think we would see anyone other than young girls, so we were completely underdressed!  But at least my lips looked good, darn it!

Tomorrow will be the highlight of the weekend.  Some friends and I will attend the Power of Pink Brunch at the Cartier Mansion.  It’s another fundraiser for the women served by the Women’s Imaging Center.  My tree and fourteen others along with several wreaths will be raffled off, we’ll hear from the new Miss Ludington and Miss Michigan, and we’ll get to eat some great food and drink pink peppermint punch.

Here are my two trees (before redecorating!).  They are meant for someone to personalize with family photos.  The first tree in the pot is for the brunch.  I decoupaged the pot with red tissue and then created the polka dots with paint.  The frames on both trees came from a dollar store, and the tags came from Marshall’s.  I stamped them with some small letter stamps purchased a while back at Michael’s for $1.  The rest of the decorations came from a dollar store, Marshall’s, or Michael’s, with the exception of the small silver bell garland on the second tree.  It came from Crate and Barrel in Chicago.

On another note…I just found out that a beloved member of our community, Lydia Schmock, passed away last night after a long battle with cancer.  She was a mother.  A daughter.  A sister.  A friend.  It could have been me.  It could have been any of us.  Let us all have hope.  Let us all pray that all of those shiny pink ribbons tie up a cure SOON.

Fall Tablescape

I just helped a friend with her table for a bridge dinner.  She used my new Nell Hill’s chargers with handles — FUN!  (Just wishing we had smoothed the tablecloth before photos.  Hope Doris did this before guests arrived!)

Kitchen’s Done; Time to Play!

I recently made cones like the following ones with the Happiest Mommies and Friends group at our meeting.  I had left-over materials and have been itching to make more.  So after the kids went down for a nap, I cleaned the kitchen and threw in a load of laundry.  And as my reward for working sooooooo hard (NOT!), I made more cones to give as gifts.  It was difficult to overlook the hundreds of more important tasks I should have been doing, but I persevered!

The pumpkins, leaves, grassy material, and pipe-cleaners (handles) came from Wal-Mart, and the body of each cone is a wallpaper sample.  A friend of mine was given three books of samples to use for her play group, and she passed along some of the more elegant sheets to me.  

I ran out of the ribbons purchased for the meeting, so I used bits of black, orange, and green that I had stuffed in my personal ribbon drawer.  I love using my stashed, recycled items for craft projects like these.  This is something my mom always did when she was making decorative items for our house and gifts for coworkers or friends’ birthdays.  It seems like projects always turned out more special, more beautiful as a result of using something unexpected.  A great lesson learned from good ol’ Mom!  (I just wish I had listened when she tried to teach me to sew and cook as well!)

Here are some images of the cone I made for myself (the metal-edged “31″ tag), two monogrammed tag cones for friends, and one for my husband’s office (“hello” tag).

Fun with Fall on Picnik (Photo Editing Site)

Honey, we need more cabinets!

I have just started doing letter recognition activities with Maggie. Unfortunately, we do not have a magnet-friendly refrigerator.  So I’m posting the letters and other toddler-created art on the fridge and cabinets with tape. We have only made it through the letter “C” so far, but I am pretty sure that we will soon run out of cabinets.  Time for a kitchen remodel!  (I wish!)

Anyhow, I have been getting some great ideas for letter-making at No Time For Flashcards.  Here is a link to a page with images of all the alphabet letters: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/06/the-whole-alphabet.html.

I am amazed by the free ideas out there in Blogland!  I wish that there had been sites like these when I was teaching.  It is good to not have to reinvent the wheel, especially when my background is not in early-childhood education.  This is all pretty foreign to me!  

Check out some of the other links I have on the right towards the bottom of the column for additional (fabulous!) kid and parent-related blogs.  Each blog author has a list of her favorite blogs as well, which means that the number of ideas out there is endless!  Now, if only I could say the same about time…

A Princess and a Monkey Walked into an RV…

I just returned home from a weekend of camping at Poncho’s Pond here in Ludington.  We had an early Halloween there with loads of fall activities — pumpkin carving, a hayride, and trick-or-treating.  It was fun, but I have to admit that as a result of this busy weekend, I am now “too pooped to pop!” (That came from one of Maggie’s books.)  Here are the kids in their costumes.

I am now catching up on e-mails, Facebook, and other blogs.  I just came across a great idea for a little girl’s party on a darling blog called The Pleated Poppy. The blog’s author, Lindsey, held a Fancy Nancy party for her daughter.  Maggie MUST have a similar party in the future!  I adore the pink, the jewels, the boas…  

You can see Lindsey’s ideas and photos here: http://lindseycheney.blogspot.com/2009/10/fancy-soiree.html.  Too cute!!!

I’m off to rescue two kids from jail (cribs).  Their alarms (voices) are sounding!

Is it Christmas Yet?

Halloween is sooooooooo passe, or at least that’s how I felt for a few glorious moments today when a friend named Paula dropped off some Nell Hill’s goods!  Paula went on a trip south recently and convinced her husband that Atchison, home to Nell Hill’s, was “on the way.”  (It wasn’t.) Fortunately, she called beforehand and asked if she could pick anything up for me.  I would normally pass on such an offer, worried that I might inconvenience someone.  However, I could not help myself this time!  ”Yes!” I replied.  I asked Paula to retrieve six cool woven place mats/chargers with handles and Mary Carol’s new book, O’ Christmas Tree.

After Paula left, I combed through every inch of the book.  Three times. What laundry?  And then I took some quick photos of my fall stuff, because I’m afraid that Mary Carol’s inspirational book won’t let my black and orange linger too much longer!  Can you find the kids’corner?