How to get a decent toddler haircut:a portable high chair, yo gabba on an iphone, a mom to hold your head in place AND an aunt who's been doing this for years and has a toddler of her own. I love Wendy's new haircut. Even if it does make her look like a little girl instead of a baby. Thanks Ruthy!
I had pretty bad procrastinator's remorsethis year when I let the month of December get away from me. I really wanted to go with Ryan and pick out a Christmas tree, but our December evenings together were rare (thanks to his a'cappella group having so many Christmas gigs). And the eveinings we were both free were spent car shopping.
When the week of Christmas came,I was feeling pretty bummed about not getting a tree. I know that's not what the holiday is really about, but it just didn't feel like Christmas. I thought it would be silly of me to go out and spend the money to put up a tree 4 days before Christmas, but deep down that was exactly what I wanted to do. I let Ryan know I was sad about it and vowed to him that next year we'd get a tree the first week of December. The next day, when I came home from work at 5pm, my wonderful husband had gone out and bought a tree, set it up in our living room and started decorating it with white twinkle lights. What a man! It was like he had brought me flowers times ten! I can't even tell you how happy it made me. I just love him.
p.s. Notice the fact that it's a 5 foot tree up on a table and the ornaments don't even start for a least a foot off the bottom of the tree? We have successfully baby-proofed Christmas.
For a great message to get you in the true spirit of Christmas, go here.
This year I had lost my desire to decorate.With this active 19 month old, the thought of a live tree full of messypine needles and glass orbs does not sound so enticing. So I have been procrastinating. Then when Ryan put up our Christmas lights last week, it made me start to get a little excited. I have decided that by NEXT year, I will be ready. I've been researching child friendly decorations. By Christmas 2010 I will be prepared to decorate in a timely manner (as in before December is already halfway over) without fear of constantly having to police my child away from anything. I've found a ton of great ideas.
I am going to follow my sister, Rachel's lead and get crafty. I am going to buy some felt and bust out my broken sewing machine. Here are some great ideas I'm going to attempt to re-create (or go out and buy when they go on sale after Christmas) clock wise, starting from top left:
Felt Advent Calendar(Mine will have a nativity scene instead of a roof top. Each pocket will hold a piece of the nativity. #24 will have the star and #25 will have baby Jesus. My mom made one like that and I LOVED it growing up. We always used to fight over who got to place the baby in the manger.)
We recently had the amazing opportunityto watch our daughter experience the Yo Gabba Gabba Live show! The show was wonderful, but Wendy's response was priceless. She was going back and forth between sitting completely still with her jaw hanging open and dancing around like crazy. It's so fun to watch her grow and actually interact with the world around her!
We were a little star struck,or at least I was. I'm pretty sure Wendy cares more about the gabba characters and "Mama Hat" (as she calls DJ Lance) than the actual stars present. When I told Lance Wendy's name for him, he told me how another mother told him her son refers to him as "Jesus Lance Rock." I guess "D.J." is a little difficult for small children to enunciate.
Melany has been one of my good good friendssince high school. Some of my fondest memories growing up are the times my sister, Rachel, and I spent hanging out with Melany, and her sister Lana. We went to countless dances, shows, road trips to San Francisco, and just hungout at her super fun house. They had the BEST hangout house with an amazing/huge back yard and a trampoline that sat in a hole so it was level with the ground!!! (It's funny how I grew up with a pool in my back yard but would rather jump on her trampoline any day of the week).
Anyway, so back to Melany.She is crazy talentedand crafty and has opened up shop to give everyone the opportunity to benefit from her skills. She has an etsy shop with handmade hair accessories:jellabee, and a shop for baby hair accesories and other goodies: jellabee jr. She also has a blog that I love to stalk, you can check it out here. You're welcome.
*wendy wearing one of her jellabee jr. hair clips! i love it! ps. how pretty is that pink/purple sunset outside my windows?!
For Halloween this year,Wendy was FOOFA. She had this amazing hand crocheted poncho that her mom's mom's mom (aka. Great-Grandma Witten) made her!! She LLOOOVVESS it! I thought I would have to prep her, you know, let her wear it every once in a while so she'd keep it on for Halloween. But boy was I wrong! I don't know how to get it off of her. She's been carrying it around the house for the whole month of October like a blankie.
The night before Halloween,Wendy got to hang out with THE REAL FOOFA! Along with all the other characters and "mama" Lance Rock (which is what she calls him). She was in heaven and wouldn't let them leave her sight. Lance was a wonderful sport and gave Wendy lots of attention. He made her night, and therefore made mine as well. Maybe one day she'll know how lucky she is.
Special thanks to Grandma Witten for taking the time to make this wonderful costume for Wendy! I can't even tell you how many compliments we got or how much she loves it. THANK YOU!
* these last pictures were taken by my friend jenn!check out some of her other photography here.
For mother's day,my wonderful husband got me a family photoshoot with our friend, Amelia Lyon. I made sure he knew it was really the only thing I really wanted for my birthday in June, but he wanted it to be a "surprise" (even though I'd asked for it) so he gave it early in May. Little did he know how excited I would be and how serious I was about it.
You might have noticed that Mother's Day took place about 5 months ago, but I wasn't ready then. I needed everything to be perfect for the pictures and that included Wendy walking. The little stinker didn't walk until she was 16 months old so that's why we waited so long.
See the rest of the photos here. I love them. Amelia is one talented lady.
My blog has been lacking some Wendyever since she turned 1 and I stopped doing those monthly pictures. Now that she's almost 18 months old !?, here are some recent pictures and (mostly for myself) a long list of her current quirks:
She has grown up so much in the past month or two. She's still OBSESSED with yo gabba and is turning into a daredevil climbing up on anything she can.
Wendy's current vocabulary
"Hi" (said as 2 syllables with a cute little wave)
bye bye
dog
ball
daddy
momma
mimi =grammie
mam-uh = grandma
papa =grandpa
got? (what do you got?)
wassat? (what's that?)
hot! (usually referring to food or her carseat)
gabba
foofa
bubee =brobee
pleh pleh pleh! = plex (always said at least 3x's in a row)
mumow = muno
coocoo = cooper
ah-geee & an-you = audrey & andrew (her cousins that live next door)
baba (bottle)
baby (at the site of any doll or baby up to about 1 year older than her)
Songs:
itsy bitsy spider
pop corn popping
If you ask her:
Where are your pretty eyes? She'll roll her eyes and blink
Where's your nose? She'll scrunch up her nose and breath in & out of it really fast
Where's your mouth? She'll stick her tongue out and say, "BLAHH!"
Where are your hands? She'll rub them together like she's washing them
Where's your belly button? She'll lift up her shirt & show you
How big is Wendy? Raises both hands up in the air
*at the park wearing her muno beanie that great grandma witten made her!
...my enclosed patio room would look something like thisimage I found in a Better Homes & Gardens. I love the bench under the windows that goes all the way around the room. It makes for lots of seating and great storage. I also love the window coverings, maybe one day I'll get crafty and make some.
But as a mom, I realizethere are far better uses for this room (like a place to store all the BIG toys instead of letting them take over the house). What I really needed was a place to occupy Wendy while I run my 2 miles on the treadmill. So, last Thursday was spent putting together this little play area for Wendy. The BEST part about it was that the whole setup only cost me $14.07! (thanks to some great toysrus coupons and Ryan's aunt next door).
*and I still get to have my "pretty to look at/hangout/read a book and feel like you're outside without the bugs" space on the other side of the room
Wendy loves her play area.And, as you can see, the bird has found a lovely home NOT inside the house, but not quite outside either. So everyone is happy.
For those of you who were as bummed as I wasto hear that Polaroid film was done, here's some GREAT news!! It's a little pricey, but, I believe, a product that's worth it. Get ithere.
*The last polaroid I thought I'd ever be in.
Ryan & I at my mom's 45th birthday party. I was about 5 months pregnant with Wendy.
Wendy and I took "Parent & Me" swimming lessonsat the Brea Plunge this summer. On the days I worked she got to go with either Ryan or my mom. The class pretty much teaches the toddlers how to hold their breath under water and gets them ready for real swimming lessons. The other moms, mainly Ruth, said they had fun watching my face every time Wendy got dunked. I don't know who hated it more, me or her.
Wendy was given the MVP awardby her teacher, Brett. She was SUPER bummed on the first half of lessons. She would cry and cling to me, but by the end, I was dropping her off the diving board (to the swim instructor waiting below of course) and she was trying to jump before I let her go and would come up laughing.
*brothers with each other's daughters + grammie and grandpa.
this family finally got some girls.
Ryan's family rents the same beach housein Newport each summer, right on the sand. They've been getting the same rental for over 20 years, but I think we're out growing it a little. Luckily, we're either on the beach or bike riding on the boardwalk most of the time so we don't notice.
*Wendy DOES NOT like to get her hands dirty, as you can see in the picture on the right, so it took a little while for her to get used to the sand.
On our last day there,grammie & grandpa took us on a boat ride around the harbor then to the Balboa Fun Zone. The kids had so much fun taking turns driving the boat. I had so much fun checking out all the ridiculously huge mansions with their ridiculously huge yachts docked out front.
*grammie & grandpa w/the grandkids on "our" boat
*Balboa Fun Zone. I can't stop laughing when I look at the 3rd picture down.
*grandma wanted us all to wear matching flag shirts. and we love our grandma. that's why.
Almost every year since my mom was a little girl,my WHOLE family (on my mom's side) goes camping in Yosemite in the summer time. But since our family is growing SO big, it's pretty much impossible for us to plan a vacation where everyone can be there EXCEPT for 4th of July weekend... And getting a campsite in Yosemite is really difficult. Let alone SIX campsites for all of us. Let alone on a holiday weekend. So, this year, to fill the Yosemite void, we all went camping in Flagstaff, AZ.
*this is SLIDE ROCK! natural rock slides and jumping cliffs- kinda crowded but really fun!
Flagstaff was a lot more like Yosemitethan I thought it would be. The main difference was that the forest backed up to mountains of red rock. Some of the highlights included:
1. Slide Rock
2. washing my hair in the rain in the forest
3. Williams, AZ (super cool old town named after me)
4. Melanie & Dane's announcement!
5. Campfire games & smores
6. Ridiculously long/over the top fireworks show in the middle of nowhere
My only complaint wasthe looooonng drive. On the way home we stopped at a Del Taco that had these high chairs that matched the real chairs. Wendy thought they were pretty cool.
