There's Something Not Right About This

Seriously? Did you catch that label? Organic collard greens?

Okay, okay, I know. I'm the one who bought them. And cooked them (with a big old hunk of salt pork). Would've eaten them, too, had I not forgotten them and scorched them to high heavens. Serves me right.

But yes, it's true, I admit it, I buy organic. On some things at least. Milk. Cheese. Yogurt. Some Fruit. Some vegetables. And truth be known, I actually think I have a box of Organic Grape Nuts in my pantry. As if Grape Nuts alone weren't sufficiently, um..., what's the word, ...uptight??? They're sitting there happily, right next to the Fruit Loops....

Living Right in [Our Hometown]

We have a mayor who loves to bicycle. Which means the bike paths and trails around our house are awesome. So of course, we all had to have new bikes! Here's Natalie's, her first ever Big Girl Bike.

But, clearly, we could use some skill development.

Oh, and if you don't "get" the post title... it's our town slogan. If you know us well, you know where we live, and voila! If you don't know where we live, then, well, let's just call it protecting our privacy. :-)

Shawty Got Books, Too

My well-rounded child can switch from “Shawty Got Low” to checking out books at the local library, in a shorter time than elapses after the waiter brings hot food to the table to and before she announces she needs to go to the bathroom. Which I’ve clocked at about 5.3 seconds. Faster if I’m really hungry or we’re eating somewhere where the bathroom is gross.

Wow. Digress (v): What you do when you are tired and it’s Friday and you just can’t stick to the point.

So here she is “reading” to herself at the library while I find a book (read: stack of books) for myself.

I love how expressive her face and her voice are. I don’t know if you can hear her nonsense chatter, but I just love to listen to it. I am so excited for her to learn to read to herself, and I hope that she enjoys it as much as I do. She starts pre-K 3 on August 18th, and we are very excited. I think she is going to Love It.

Shicka Low Low Low

So, um, what, exactly, is this??

Let's Just Face It

Natalie loves to make goofy faces. She is very good at it.

I can promise you that this look, while it's cute now with her little smocked dress, will ~not~ be cute when she's about 13.

She's also learned to fake smile. You know, where your mouth is smiling, but none of the rest of your face is? Seriously, they pick up that sort of thing at 3? Where did she get that? Nevermind, don't answer that.

This one is pretty cute, though.

She was supposed to be napping!

Ah, speaking of "supposed to be..." A few weeks ago, Craig and Natalie went through a phase of making slice 'n' bake cookies for bedtime snack. Until one night, instead of making fresh ones, Craig hauled out the leftovers from the night before, presented them to her... and she just sat there. Staring at them. Poking them. And then saying, softly "But Daddy, they 'posed to be waaarm."

Wow. That was just about all I could say. Wow.

In case you didn't know...

It's 5 hours, and counting, to the PRS5 (Project Runway, Season 5) premiere!

Um... ROCK AND ROLL!

:-)
Amanda O.

Daddy Is THE MAN

Oh, my dear friends, you are not going to believe this. You are Just. Not. Going. To. Believe It.

Last night at 7:30, as our nightly game of "Where's Dub-a-duh?" dragged on longer than usual... Much longer than usual.... our Worst Fears came true.

It turns out that our bi-weekly cleaning service does not understand the true value of Dub-a-duh. But that does not mean Dub-a-duh deserved to be taken out in the TRASH, closed up in a bag with wet night-time pull-ups and coffee grounds, to sit all day in the July heat.

Suffice it to say, Daddy is THE MAN.

Now the question is... it's not like I can soak Dub-a-duh in Clorox! He would disentegrate! I had to make do with hot soapy water and Lysol. Now what??

Natalie obviously had her feelings hurt over Dub-a-duh's maltreatment. I tried to explain that the cleaning service just didn't understand how special Dub-a-duh is. "That's because they're not my mommy and daddy," she said.

Mommy and Daddy Understand. Oh, How. We. Understand.

Where's Dub-a-duh?

In light of my last post, I thought you all might want to play along with our favorite game. It's called "Where's dub-a-duh?" We play it A Lot.

So there's a new "Label" over there ...
<-- on the left...
...down a little, under the calendar...
...see it? It says "Dub-a-duh."

So that's all the posts with Dub-a-duh in one of the pictures. So, you can play "Where's Dub-a-duh?" and see if you can find it! Go on, get yourself in a state of near-panic, ask someone near you to whine... getting louder as time goes on... and see if YOU can find that little tattered shred of cloth! The grand prize winner receives.... one Good Night's Sleep. Congratulations, I hope it works out for you.

If you're not up to the competition, you can just take a leisurely perusal and see the deterioration of said lovey over time.

Oh, Dub-a-duh, Thou Art Beloved

A friend recently inquired as to the status of Dub-a-duh, a.k.a. "Mama's Pajamas."

These days, we're calling it "string dub-a-duh" because that's about all that's left. Gone are the days of throwing it in the washing machine. This puppy gets handwashed in Woolite and hung out to dry.

This shred of dingy cloth sends us scattering, scouring the house from top to bottom at bedtime. Looking under beds, in baskets, in toy high chairs and shopping carts. It gets twisted, and pulled, and sucked on, and dragged, and cuddled, and talked to.

Ah, dub-a-duh, thou art beloved above all loveys.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July, to you and yours. We had a great day!

We were in our neighborhood parade again, and YES, it was so sweet it made me cry, AGAIN.

And if anybody's interested in banana pudding, I've made enough to feed a small army. Call me!!

Amanda

Natalina Ballerina

I realized I never posted pics from Natalie's ballet recital!!

Well, and partly that is because I didn't really take any of the actual recital, which lasted a whopping 7 minutes. I did get video, though.

But so you can see her in her outfit: ------>>

Also, thought it was time for a new look around here. I didn't even like orange to start with. But flowers, oh yeah, I can get into that.

Happy 4th of July!

Amanda O.