Lazy weekend and nothing but pictures

This past weekend was one of those lazy ones that goes by in a blink. I've got a few new photos to share with you.

It's soooo muddy out here right now.

My 20 month old getting a new pair of pants--size 18 months. She's so little!

Lunchtime. Kylie is saying, "Put down the camera and help me eat!"

Kylie's favorite play activity is to put different groups of toys in the windowsills. Little Ponies get their own windowsill, so do Little People. Over the weekend, we got her this set of "Professional People". When we got home that day, she saw her raincoat hanging in the garage and insisted on wearing it for over an hour in the house. You've got to wonder at what goes through their brains.

Early Sunday morning. Kylie is still in her pj's. She grabbed my empty coffee cup and made slurping noises. She looks so much like me here that it is scary--just a chip off the ole block.
For fun, I added one of The Pioneer Woman's Free Photoshop Actions titled "colorize" to this photo. I like the effect!

I bought some yarn on Saturday and knit Kylie this fun hat.


And I completed two scrapbook pages:
Kylie's dress

Ice Cream Coat

Hope you had a good weekend and that your week is starting off well!

Perfect mantra

I've wanted this poster for a while and Karen got it for me for Christmas. It's a silkscreened reproduction of a WWII era poster. I think it's the perfect mantra for a stay-at-home-mom.

Here's a link if you love it too:
Poster link

Typical morning

I thought you might like to see some typical morning shots. These are straight from the camera before the sun came up and would benefit from some photoshop work but I don't have time. I used my big ole, cool-but-heavy flash.

Mischievous. She's on her way to brush her Little Ponies manes. Apparently she needs more than one brush to do it. The mischievous grin is because in two seconds, she's going to try to brush my hair.

Surrounded by toys

Little red table

Mommy's office. On mornings that I run, I put Kylie in front of my computer so that she can watch a few minutes of Sesame Street while I put on running clothes and put in my contacts. You can see that some of my work space is occupied with cat beds and in a typical mess. I'm pleased that the cats no longer run away just because Kylie is in the room.


Kylie is speaking in phrases and small sentences. Some examples I heard this morning were:
"There's {a} big whale; he's swimming"
"Sit down here Mommy" and
"Run bubble? Shoes, coat, Barbie!" This was when I told her that in a minute we were going to get ready for our run. She has a plastic cover for her stroller that she has named run bubble.

And my favorite phrase, "I help! Kylie help!" She likes to help me clean up around the house and prepare food. So when it was time for second breakfast, I asked her to hold this apple for me while I got a few more things from the fridge. Apparently she didn't want to wait for me to cut it up for her. She started gnawing on the apple. You know me; I grabbed the camera.



Teeny, tiny fit. So small that I don't remember what it was about. I like the horror-filled look that says, "I'm upset and crying and you are taking pictures?" You betcha kiddo. Mommy is more than a little strange."

Meltdowns and milk

Six Kylie meltdowns today. Here's the bare minimum on what caused the screams, tears and whines. It's a simple list but I assure you there is an epic story behind each one.

1. During our walk, I had to lead her away from the busy street sidewalk and onto our neighborhood streets.
2. I wouldn't let her jump into our neighbor's fountain.
3. I told her it was time to walk home.
4. I had to scrub her dirt-covered hands more thoroughly than usual to get them clean.
5. I moved her away from the bottom of a slide so another kid wouldn't crash into her.
6. While shopping at Target, she reached for something and I breezed by it. She paid me back by taking off her coat, shoes and socks and then eating my list of things to buy.

By the end of the day, I was limp as a noodle. I looked up to Karen and asked, "The terrible two's don't last an ENTIRE YEAR do they?" "Of course not darling," was my lovely wife's reply. She's probably lying but I love her for it.

I managed to click a few photos. I know that Kylie looks incredibly red but I didn't have the energy for any Photoshop work on them. And I think the shots are cute nonetheless.

Some art, sneaky moves and a walk

On Saturday, Kylie and I did a little art project. We made a ladybug! While Kylie was sleeping, I cut out all the bug parts. So when it was craft time, I would rub a bit of glue from a glue stick, hand her the piece and point to the general direction of where the part should go. Kylie would put the part down and rub her hand back and forth to make sure it was glued down. I was impressed with her ability to glue the stuff down and how happy it made her when she saw it all come together.

Afterwards, she got some ladybug stickers.

Now when you see this next picture, you might think, "Oh, what a sweet photo." But let's look again. What's actually going on is that Kylie is trying to sneak a sticker into her mouth. She's smiling sweetly and standing still in the hopes that her camera-crazy Mommy will be too engrossed in taking a picture and won't notice the sticker going in. Ha! Not fooling me kiddo.

You still aren't fooling me Kylie. That's a very sweet pose but I can see you trying to sneak play-doh in your mouth!

So mischievous and such a little actress.

Tonight, I put together a quick mosaic of some of Kylie's recent art projects. You can click here to read more about it.

On Saturday afternoon, it was clear enough for us to take a walk.

Kylie was so excited to be out walking around! With all the snow, it has been quite a while since we've done a neighborhood walk. She didn't even mind that her crazy mother had her dressed in purple pants, brown jacket, pink hat, blue mittens and white shoes. It was so cold that Kylie actually left her mittens on for the entire walk--shocking!

After we had been walking a bit, I noticed that some of Kylie curls were sneaking out from under her hat. I have such a love affair with these curls. I started zooming in to get a good picture of them. By zooming in, I mean getting closer to her (I didn't have on my zoom lens). I'm practically butting her in the face with this photo but I couldn't help it--had to photograph those curls.

The curls! The curls!

Finally, Kylie decided to rest for just a bit on our neighborhood park bench. I know these three photos are almost exactly the same but I just couldn't pick my favorite.

I'm sorry, but this one actually makes my uterus cramp.

Heaven! Bliss!

Did you know that Kylie is running now? Here she is laughing at me as I try to jog backwards far enough to squat down to her level and fire off a shot before she runs on top of me.

I'm pretty sure she was holding the rock in case I tried to zoom in on her curls again.

Lastly, here's a scrapbook page I finished. You might recognize these photos from November (I'm so behind on scrapping!). The blue card image looks like a white blob from a distance but it's actually Karen and Kylie laughing together. I still think it looks kinda cool.
Such Joy

Hope you had a great weekend!

New Year

Thank you all so much for your supportive and encouraging comments. I was so pleased to read and then re-read each and every comment. You lift me up far more than you know.

I love the first day of the year. I threw out last year's page-a-day calendar (which was a bit of a disappointment) and tore into this year's calendar. .

Then Karen helped me rearrange our family room. Our new arrangment lets is more light and provides more windowsill space for Kylie to play with. It's a most welcome change. Unfortantely, Kylie didn't feel much like playing. She was quite uncomfortable with teething pain all day. It's pretty unusual for us to see her doing mostly this.

and this:

It's hard to see her hurting and even harder to listen to the poor dear whine all afternoon.

I was especially glad to turn to my trusty Photoshop for some creative comfort this evening. Here are two new pages:
more to remember


So Happy Together


I hope all of you have a Very Happy New Year!

The comment on hair barrettes

On Friday, I did a flippant little post about my daughter's hair barrettes. I got several helpful comments (thank you for those) and one not-so-helpful comment. Here's a quote from an anonymous commenter:

I can't believe you CHOOSE to think about the hair clip. She's not a doll!
Not only is it petty in the wide-world context of war and famine and all difficulties that even north-americans face beyond the suburban middle-class...it's also just petty on a personal level: what do you want this little person to be preoccupied with as she grows - her appearance?

Well. Let me address this.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is an author and blogger that I admire. She once wrote that blogs were like virtual living rooms. I agree. It's very much like the moms, lesbians, photographers, scrapbookers, knitters and other people who regularly visit this blog are sitting around my living room, drinking coffee (and sometimes wine) and chatting about our lives.

Sometimes these chats are deep and meaningful. Sometimes these chats are about the mundane like how the cat has hairballs, the color and consistency of our kids poop, how much sleep we are getting and our current weather conditions. All of these big things and all of these little things make up my life.

And my life is beautiful.

You don't diminish any part of that beauty with your rudeness.

And just as if you were in my living room with the rest of my guests and you stood up and told me that I was petty, I wouldn't expect any of my guests or blog visitors to stand up and defend me. I would probably say,

"Wow, the subject of hair barrettes really hit a nerve for you, didn't it? Did a parent torture you with them as a child?" or

"Wow, you have some strong feelings about this. Tell me more." or

"Are you aware that that was a rude statement?" or

"That is so unlike you to have an outburst like that. You must be in a lot of pain". or

"Jeez, who pissed in your Wheaties this morning?" or

"Don't let the door hit you on your way out."

One of those. Depending on what kind of mood I was in. Then we might have a very interesting conversation, perhaps with some reasonable debating. But to quote Amy, a Pearl McFee commenter, to call someone petty sounds like, "You're ugly and your mom dresses you funny". There's just no art in it'.

And for those of you who come for a daily dose of Kylie, here are some pictures of her playing at the park.

One Word

On Friday, the snow had melted just enough for us to get out. And what a relief it was! Saturday we took down the Christmas tree and Sunday I sat down to think about my One Word for 2009.

I first read about the One Little Word project on Ali Edwards blog. The intention is to pick a single word for the year instead of a bunch of New Year resolutions and goals. For 2008 my word was create.

When I blogged on January 1 2008 I wrote,

I want to create healthy meals for my family.
I want to create learning opportunities for Kylie.
I want to create playful days and funny days; loving days and peaceful days.
I want to create beautiful photos and scrapbook pages.
I could go on and on but you get the point.

In taking stock of the year, I can see that I did all of these things.

Kylie is healthy, happy, loving, learning like crazy and having fun.
Karen and I have a wonderful relationship that gets deeper each year.
I made healthy meals but not as many new menu items as I wanted.
I started running Sept. 15th and ran 4-6 times a week, 2-3 miles each time for a total of 157 miles by Dec 15.
I dropped a few pounds and a size (not as much as I wanted but I'll take it).
And of course, there was the creation of thousands of photos and 137 scrapbook pages documenting our lives.

Overall, I'm pleased. The word CREATE has seeped deep into the marrow of my bones.

For 2009, I've picked the word CHOOSE..

And just like create, I'm sure this word's meaning for me will evolve over time.

For right now, I'll simply say:
I choose to be attentive to our family's budget,
I choose to be more constant in upkeep of our home (like I really need to caulk our crown moldings and clean up our gas grill and cut back the rose bushes, stuff like that).
I choose to play, play, play with Kylie.
I choose to keep running.
I choose to learn some Spanish.
I choose to learn more about my camera, more about Photoshop and continue with my scrapbooking.
And I choose to keep on creating.

Suddenly, becoming more intentional about what I choose to do with my time, attention, energy and resources has never looked more important or more liberating and fun.

If you would like to play along with the One Word Project, I'd love to read what your one word will be.
You can find a list of words here.
Read more about the One Word Project here and here.

"A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow." Ali Edwards.

Help with hair

Because of all the snow, we've not been able to take Kylie for a haircut. And she has really needed one. She has been pushing the hair out of her eyes for weeks now. Today I thought I would try some barrettes to hold back the side bangs. Some days she'll tolerate barrettes; other days she pulls them right out.

I have to admit that I don't know the proper way to put in a barrette like this. Do you know how? It seems to me that the hair would stay clipped better if I push the barrette from her hairline up towards the top of her hair. But then it also seems that the flower part of the barrette should be on top instead of on bottom.

I know that there is an economic crisis and world hunger, ect. And I feel pretty shallow blogging about this.

But I would really like to know. I've googled it and I can't find the answer. So can you help me out?


Wait. Here's a close-up.


And is it just me, or is Kylie looking really grown-up toddler ALL OF A SUDDEN. How did this happen?

Merry Christmas

More Christmas pictures--click here.

Christmas Eve

We let Kylie open her presents from Karen and I today.

You can see the more pictures if you click here.

Here are some of our favorites:


The biggest hit of the day was this cell phone. She's carried it around all afternoon.

Kylie loves to help me clean. Some of you may remember her affinity for Clorox wipes. . So we got her a cleaning kit with brooms, a mop, pretend spray bottles and such. This photo cracks me up.



Happy Holidays Everyone!