Grace is 3!

Happy Birthday Grace!! Can't believe you are already 3. We've had 2 of her 3 birthday parties so far. Here is a little recap of the weekend's festivities in pictures:

Grace's Purple People.... basically everyone but mom and dad wore purple to her party... pretty genius if you ask me... Just didn't think of it! And I don't think Chris owns anything purple...

Little birthday hug from Harps

Sparkly purple flower cake... perfect for Grace

Party at home, with her newly re-fashioned purple tutu skirt... I know, if you've known me for any length of time, you are probably in disbelief that I actually let my child wear this, much less MADE it for her...

The ice cream station was a big hit, (Yay!!!) as were the purple crocs. The 2 things I spent the most time on... so glad she liked them.

'Borbin' and family made it to her birthday party at Izze and Pop's house, and that made her day!! She would not put on her party dress until he got there... I mean, a party is not a party without Corb...

And this picture was just too funny not to add... Grace's party at Izze and Papa's house was an 'AMINAL' party with lots of purple thrown in. Everyone had animal hats, the guys were good sports. These 2 just crack me up.

Of Goat Turds and Babies

Well, I can't believe I'm posting this before my child's birthday party post... but hey, I am working on that post too...

First and foremost, the new baby Clouded Leopards at the Nashville Zoo are the cutest things I've ever seen. If you've ever been to the zoo with me, you well know that the Clouded Leopards are my FAVORITE exhibit. I make no secret of it. BUT, after today's visit, I have 2 bones to pick with the zoo. Where should I start?

Location, Location people!!! Upon first entering the zoo, I asked the nice lady where the babies were located. She replied: "Oh, just walk past the Meercats, pass the amphibians and the snack shack and you will see the petting zoo on the left, they are in there!"
I'm silently cringing and thinking to myself "This woman has to be nuts, WHY would they put the baby leopards in the petting zoo, if you can't pet them?" UMMM, nope, she wasn't nuts.

After an hour in the 'jumpy-jump' and a potty break, we make our way over to the petting zoo. Let me just say, that I have NEVER let my kids go in there, and had NO intention of EVER letting them experience this gross germ, poop infested place.

So here I am, waging war in my head:
"I can NOT go in there....
....but the baby leopards, they are going to be so cute....
....poop, poop, poop; dirty children with dirty hands running everywhere, with poop caked into the tread of their size 8/9 crocs.....
.....oh, but the clouded leopards, they are your favorite....
......look at that nasty camel with the crooked hump spitting in that kid's face, ewwwww.....
......cute little cuddly faced clouded leopards, you have to see them.....etc."

You get the idea. This conversation went on in my head for what seemed like an hour. Grace is pulling on my hand, dying to enter this promised land of fun and excitement that I have never let her experience before... What do I do????

I reluctantly park the stroller, unstrap Harper, grab the camera and walk toward this land of germ infested poop caked animals, that are roaming around for a scratch or two. As soon as we make it inside the first gate, I sternly say to Grace, "Honey, we are NOT going to touch any animals and if they walk toward you, run the other way... and look down so as not to step on the millions of goat turds that are scattered all over the mulch. We don't want to get poop on your new purple size 8/9 crocs, do we?" She looks back up at me, a little confused and says " OK, mom... but that little boy is petting the baby goat... I want to pet the goat too...!" "Well, no, sorry we are not going to pet the animals this time, we are just going to see the baby leopards."

I carefully tip toe, examining the mulch beneath each step, and instruct Grace to do the same... we finally make it to the babies! Well worth each tip-toed step! (for me at least) Grace holds interest for maybe 3 minutes, and that darn baby goat catches her attention.

Now, let me interject this point here, there IS a zoo worker hired solely for poop-scooping, and she is there doing her job diligently, but do you know how much a goat can crap? This little one, smaller than a house cat is walking around flicking it's tiny tail in the air spraying what seems like thousands of little marble sized turds EVERYWHERE. It was like a poop sprinkler, I've never seen anything like it. There's no way on earth that one poop scooper can scoop the sheer volume of turds flowing from this little tiny goat's behind. Imagine if one of the adult goats had decided to get up and walk around, you just might need a rain slicker.

In a moment of pure weakness, Grace takes off running after this tiny bundle of poo, desperate to pet it, and steps right into a little nest of freshly sprayed goat S#*%. Awesome; not only that, but one of the turds eeks through the little hole in her crocs and now resides between her toes. DISGUSTING. Now she is wishing she'd listened to dear ole mom, and had not tried to catch the little bugger. But I am left with the job of fishing the turd out of the shoe, cleansing the foot and the shoe and restoring order to Grace's little world. Sounds fun doesn't it.

So, please dear zoo official, MOVE the non-pettable (sp?) animals OUT of the petting zoo/turd farm and to another location where we can all enjoy them. Thanks!

Here's beef # 2: I'll try to make this short and sweet. I am not sure whether to direct this statement at the parent's/caregivers of the children who visit the zoo, or at the zoo itself, but we'll go with the parents/caregivers: Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, DO NOT let your children just up and urinate wherever and whenever they so choose (unless wearing a diaper)! I am not kidding, today alone, I saw 3 children just stop, drop'em and pee wherever they got the notion. And their parents did not even think twice about it. Grace looked at me and goes "MOM, that is yucky... why is he doing that??? Did he just pee on the freet (street)??? Eewwwww."

Maybe the zoo could benefit from a couple of additional bathrooms, but people, please... stick your child in the stroller, or pick them up and take them to the bathroom yourself. This is disgusting. Trust me, I understand potty training, but folks, that is what potty training is.... TRAINING your child to USE THE POTTY, which INCLUDES holding it for the necessary 5 minutes it takes to walk to one. If you are concerned about the child having an accident, bring a pull up, or an extra change of clothes. And, if your son (or daughter, yes there was one of those too...) tells you they have to pee, turn your lazy tush around and walk to the restroom, that's what they are for.

Ahhh, I feel better.

1st day and 8 months!

Tuesday was Grace's first day in her new class at school. As you can tell, she was so excited. She looked adorable in this dress, yet, 2 seconds before she walked out the door, she decided that it just wasn't up to par for the first day. Much to Chris' frustration, she HAD to change in to her 'tutu dress' so she could twirl. Apparently the twirl factor in dresses is very important these days, and key in making a decision on what to wear. When I went to pick her up, her new teacher said "Well, she did great! Acted like she owned the place.... in a good way!" The 3 year old class is a kindergarten readiness class, and they have more structured activities, lesson plans etc. Grace seems to love it.
I am still working on her birthday plans. Yes, I do realize that her actual birthday is in 4 days... but since it falls on Labor Day this year, I think we are going to wait a week or two to have her 'friend party.' (This is what I tell myself anyways, maybe the more honest truth is that I haven't really been on the ball! OOPS!)

Harper was 8 months old yesterday! Can't believe it. Her little first year of life is flying by faster than I ever dreamed. Her fine motor and language skills are coming along. She says DaDa, MaMa and BaBa pretty regularly, along with lots of yelling, babbling and squealing. She loves to do things with her hands, and her fine pincer grasp is coming along nicely. She loves to pick up Cheerios one by one... (very closely monitored, I might add) though she doesn't seem to put the small things in her mouth... yet. My girls are more fine motor and language oriented...neither cared much about the gross motor skills. Although you can tell that Harper wants to crawl so bad, she won't stay on her tummy long enough to learn! Within 1 second of putting her on her tummy, she has rolled over and is trying to do a 'crunch' to sit up again. I am trying to use a technique we learned with Grace when she was in PT at this age. I like to call it the 'cheerleader sit' so that when she leans forward on her hands, she will naturally fall into the hands and knees position, and may learn to crawl that way. I hold her there and rock her back and forth on her knees, but she is not amused. Still no teeth for this little one. I think Grace's first tooth popped through on her 8 month birthday, but Harper's gums aren't even swollen or red. She does love to gnaw on her hands and lovies though.

The girls are loving to play together these days... Harper gets so excited when we go in and wake up Grace in the morning... she squeals, laughs and lunges for Grace as soon as she sees her. Grace says she wants Harper to call her "Sis." Yesterday Grace was sitting with Harper in my bed. She looks at me and says in this really high pitched voice: "Mom, I just love Harper so much, I really really really love her and I just have to snuggle her." So sweet.
If Grace laughs at something Harper does, she will do it over and over and over again...and lately this includes spitting each bite of food all over everything in site. Lovely.

On an unrelated note... Ice Cream anyone??? Here is a preview of one of the things I made Grace for her birthday... An ice cream station! I was inspired by the one they had at the Chicago Children's museum, so I decided to make one of my own. I think it turned out really cute! Hope she likes it, I've spent hours working on it..

Somehow I just erased the picture of the caddy complete with ice cream cones, bowls, sprinkles and the works! I'll try to re post a picture of it later... it's cute! But for now, I'll leave you with the ice cream scoops!

Purple-Toddler-Eater

There is some kind of monster that I am not really fond of called the Purple Toddler Eater that seems to swallow up every little girl ages 2.5-4years old. I don't know what it is that intrigues toddlers about this color, but I swear, it is a real phenomenon. Grace is has been fully swallowed and partly digested by this beast.

All the poor girl wants for her 3rd birthday is purple crocs and a purple dress. I took her to toys-r-us and basically let her have the run of the place, and nothing seemed to intrigue her, except the sight of purple shoes. We've been to Target, same deal. She walked through the toy aisle aimlessly and as I told her to show me some things she might want for her birthday, she looked at me and said in a tone of voice that inadvertently called me dumb: "Mooooommmmm, I want a purple 'ress' and purple shoes for my birfdaaaay.'

So, in order to fulfill my girl's only wish, I have been all over God's green earth and the Internet to find these silly shoes. NO ONE, I mean, NO ONE has her size....(again, here we go again with the monster... only a little girl ages 2-4 years old would wear an 8/9!) Everyone is completely sold out, even crocs.com!

My dad went to Rivergate and scoured every store that sells shoes with no luck. We went to Opry-mills, I've called Hickory Hollow Mall, Green Hills, Cool Springs along with every other shoe store in Nashville and the surrounding area. NO LUCK. I have considered the possibility of spray paint, acrylic paint, applique, and every other type of dye, that may transform a pair of crocs into this hideous color.

Well, today I had a breakthrough. I searched Dillards.com and found one pair of 'grape' crocs in a size 8/9. Ummm, wait for it...... wait for it.... yes, they were over $40 dollars. Can you freaking believe that? I have never paid over $40 dollars for any pair of shoes or clothing item that I own, and I was strongly considering buying these at that ridiculous price. I entered all the necessary information and all I had to do was hit 'place order' and I couldn't do it... I couldn't pull the trigger. I tried with all my might to press that silly button, but everything in me said 'no'! So I closed the page.

I said a little prayer and went to ebay. What do you know, a seller had just posted 2 pair of size 8/9 toddler crocs in 'grape.' The 'buy it now' option was only $14.99. YES...!! the Lord giveth! with shipping these were less than $18.oo and I do not have a permanent twitch from sticker shock! If I am truly honest, I still think $18 is a little high.... but hey, it's her birthday.

So, for her 3rd birthday, Grace will have crocs in the most nauseating shade of purple and all will be well in our world.

This and that

Grace asked me the other day: "Mom, can you take a picture of me on the potty and put it on the 'puter'? So, here you go, Grace.

And here is my 2 cents on potty training: DON'T DO IT!
Grace was potty trained in one day, and it had nothing to do with me. One day, she was completely opposed, and literally, the next day she decided it was time. And since that day, she has only had ONE accident. She knew exactly what to do, when to do it, but she had to decide that she wanted to. So, if you are getting close to potty training your child, just don't do it!!! It takes the pressure off you, explain what has to happen and talk about it, but just let them do it when they are ready. I say this now, but, ask anyone, I was a little nervous that we would go to Kindergarten in diapers. I think we avoided months of frustration and cleaning up messes by just leaving the diapers on until she was ready to take them off. Trust me, I didn't do this willingly, but looking back I think it was the best thing!

In other news, we have had fun over the last week with our cousins in from DC. You can tell from this picture that bath time was a hit. Grace had a great time with Ellie, Karina and Caleb and asks if they can come over and play almost once a day! Too bad they live 12 hours away!
Harper and her little friend Ford had a playdate this week. (Ford's first, I might add). Above, Harper is giving him a little advice on life, probably about pooping, eating and how to sleep through the night. Ford is taking it all in.
And lately, Harps has been a little brown-noser. For good reason, she has been an absolute terror for approximately 80% of the day (waking and sleeping). I am not sure what has gotten into her, I keep thinking she is teething, but she doesn't have any other signs.... Anywhoo, the other night she cried for 3, count them, 3 hours...because there was nothing I could do to get her to stop. This crying has gone on for about 2 weeks. Her ears look OK, so it's not that, but I almost can not take it any longer! As I type, she is screaming through her nap. Needless to say, for that 20% of the day where she is happy, she tries to act super cute, says 'da-da' a lot and tries to win our affection once again. (She's pretty good at it!) Not sure what happened to my easy going, sweet and calm baby. Any ideas???

Note to self:

Never let your kid try to breastfeed a mechanical dog, while trying to hold your hand, wearing crocs, walking through the parking lot at Target.

It will result in disaster: bloodied knees, hands and a dirty nose, not to mention the piercing screams (from both children) that may well burst your eardrums, wear thin your patience, make you want to run far, far away (alone) and continue for roughly 1 hour.

For the love of all that is good and holy, please, never let your child do this.



Ok, I feel the need to explain: We made a trip to target today and Grace is really into this little toy dog she has that barks, wiggles, etc. Well, she had brought it with her. As we were walking out to the parking lot, Grace decided her doggy was hungry. So she pulled up her shirt, laid the dog on her bare belly and started feeding it.

I was in a hurry and didn't really care what she was doing, as long as she was holding my hand... well, she tripped on her crocs and face planted into the concrete; skinned her knees, hands, and thus the screaming ensued.

Enter: Note to self (above) -make more sense now??? :)

Inspired

Well, everyone knows that I have a love affair with Anthropologie. I love to study their catalogs and website. I study how the dresses are made, what they are made out of, the color schemes etc... I am a dork. It's OK, I admit it. I was inspired my this dress. So, after several trips to the goodwill outlet, I found the materials I could work with. A brown tank top that was a little short in the torso, a hideous shirt with a cute applique, and a vintage gold crinkle skirt size XXL. PERFECT.

Here is the result. I apologize for the crappy picture. It is hard to take a picture of yourself, thank goodness for the self timer.


I am also proud to say that I actually wore the dress 'out on the town' last night for some margaritas~! Loved it... My friends seemed to love it too...(or maybe they were just being nice because they are my friends... ) But, whatever... I love it and it is so comfortable, and I am so pleased with how it turned out. Yea for me. I've made 3 other dresses for myself, but haven't actually worn them out yet. This was the first. So, here's to sewing and learning to sew and making a fab dress for less than 2 dollars and to fruity margaritas, just because I like them.

In other news, Grace Ann is still using the potty with no problem. This little stubborn girl has just decided that now is the time she will start using the potty. Not that she couldn't have done it 6 months ago, but she just plain didn't want to do it 6 months ago. She kind of lives life by her own little schedule, doesn't really care what other people want her to do or think of what she is doing... she just has a mind of her own. That's good. (And according to my hilarious friend Em, that is what makes you 'cool' in high school, if that's true, Grace may be the coolest of the cool.)

Here is a little cute picture of another recent development in our house... bathing them together is much easier, I might add... not to mention, they both love it. (Why did we wait so long?)