mb

two little piggies.

the girl and her first pigtails.  ooh la la.  when she woke from her afternoon nap looking a little disheveled, i figured i'd give it a go and see if she'd even let me do it.  they were lopsided and messy, but they're there.  and little miss sassy pants was sporting them like nobody's business.  and that shirt she's wearing?  from her aunt lindsey.  best actress?  you got it.  this girl loves to be the center of attention and can put on a show like nobody's business.

she was really putting on a show at swimming last night.  clapping for herself and almost looking like she was "raising the roof" for herself on a couple of occasions.  crazy.  i about fell over when i got her mid-session progress report saying she was ready for the next level of classes : angelfish.  has a better ring to it than little snapper, right?  wonder how old the kids are usually in that level...  right now she's in a class with three blonde haired boys who are between 2.5 and 3 years old.  twice her age.  half the time, she doesn't even give them the time of day.

she truly is her own little person.  and these piggies definitely make her look more girl than baby.

menu plan monday : 7.27.

i usually plan our menu each week but admit i've been slacking on that front for the last month or so.  and to those of you that enjoyed - notice the past tense - my recipe journal, you know i've been slacking on that as well.  too many things to do each day, i suppose.  

so i'm jumping on the menu plan monday bandwagon to hold myself more accountable.  and heck, if you're interested, you can check out the recipes as well.  a possible win/win situation, right?

so here's what we'll be dining on this week : 

monday : pasta w/ pesto sauce - i got this recipe from our csa farmer and love it.  as does the girl.  because what's cuter than a 16 month old with garlic breath, i say?

tuesday : Orange-Apricot Pork Chops in the CrockPot - haven't tried this one, but love using her crock-pot recipes.

wednesday : bubble pizza - another favorite of the girl's.  thought i had this one on the recipe journal but guess not.  will try and get it posted this week.

thursday : tacos - easy.  we love them.  and i love the leftover taco salad for lunch the next day.

friday : dinner out.

saturday : Mongolian Beef CrockPot Recipe - another new one for this week.  

the weekend.

a post without photos...oh my.

a weekend of laying low, but getting to spend time together.  always a good plan.  andy didn't get home until after 10p on friday so it seemed that our weekend was shorter than usual.

saturday we chilled at home during the day and then got ready for a date night to celebrate my birthday.  we had reservations at a restaurant that i had been wanting to try since we moved here.  although the service was fabulous, i'm not sure that it beat another restaurant that i absolutely love.  but, i'm happy to say that i've been there and we did have a good time.  and then after a nice dinner, we ended up at the movies and junk food.  go figure.  i LOVE nachos with the artificial cheese sauce and jalapenos and andy always gets popcorn.  so you know, $20 lighter after hitting the concession stand we made it into our movie to see "the ugly truth."  good, but not as good as i had hoped it would be.  andy fell asleep.  a good reminder of why we don't go to movies that often.  he's usually so tired that at some point he falls asleep for a bit.

yesterday it was church and more hanging out at home.  a trip to get andy some new shoes for the operating room and he ended up with a great pair of flip flops instead.  our neighbor works at the store and is ordering his other shoes in for him to try on.  and ice cream stop, home to chat with our neighbors for a while and the girl ended up in bed later than normal because we were all having such a great time.

and now it's fast forward to a busy week with lots going on.  these are the days of our lives.

the third decade.

so i entered it yesterday.  without too much fanfare.  but a good day nonetheless.  went into the office and had cards waiting for me.  was nice to be so well thought of, even if i wasn't feeling too birthday-ish.  and then my sweet girl sent me flowers.  and we ordered lunch in.  and my sister sent me an awesome fruit arrangement.  

then it was home to the girl.  as i was feeding her dinner, i was eating chocolate covered strawberries from my edible arrangement.  because it was my birthday and i'm old enough to decide if i want to be having chocolate covered strawberries as an appetizer, right?  andy got to come home early so he took care of bath time while i simply sat and did nothing.  which i don't often let myself do.

after the girl was in bed i was able to open cards and a couple of gifts.  andy thought of a great gift - a card letting me know i could have my choice of a photography class or a new lens for my camera.  awesome!  i also got money for a new le creuset pan that i've been coveting for years.  and ended my day playing "dance dance revolution" on the wii.  because everyone should ask for that game for their birthday.  let me set the scene for you...  i was dancing my heart out and poor andy was falling asleep on the sofa.  why?  because he stayed up until 1a making me a birthday cake from scratch.  carrot cake - my favorite.  he had gotten the recipe from one of the attendings wives and it was pretty tasty.  although i felt bad that he stayed up so late.

so good-bye 20s.  you were good to me.  and hello 30.  please treat me well.

an interesting encounter.

andy was on call saturday which usually means an errand day for me and the girl.  we were at michael's shortly after it opened to snag a few frames for the family photos that i ordered and have since received.  and of course, why would michael's want to carry any mat board for people to purchase?

so after a trip home for nap time, we drove clear over to the other side of town to hobby lobby.  i don't think i've been there since the girl has existed.  it's been that long.  anyway, with trusty side kick in tow, off we went.  when we walked in, i happened to notice this guy.  the only way i can describe him is think of someone you've seen at halloween dressed as a pimp.  i'm talking mint green suit, green lizard print shoes, handkerchief hanging out of his suit coat, etc., etc.  one, it was odd to see someone dressed to the hilt on a saturday morning and two, even more odd to find them at hobby lobby.  but whatever, we were on our quest for mat board.  and lucky me, it was 50% off.

so as we head to the only open cashier, who was there in front of us already checked out but the sharp dressed man.  he walked towards us and asked me how old my "future heartbreaker" was.  we small talked and out from his suit pocket, he pulls out a dollar coin and hands it to the girl.  of course we/i politely thanked him and he ended the conversation and we parted ways.

such a very odd and interesting encounter.  i only wish i had a photo of his outfit.  words can not do it justice.  but we have a dollar coin to prove the story did actually happen.  it's resting in the belly of her piggy bank.

they're so funny.

they think so anyway.  this was one of the highlights of the weekend - we laid pretty low as andy was off and we were both exhausted.  the girl got a water table at the end of last week and it's used pretty much every evening.  on saturday night, before bathtime, these two amused themselves with it.  well, not actually with the water table itself, but with a measuring spoon and the water in it.

they crack themselves up.

going green : line dry.

since it's been warmer, i've really tried to limit the use of my dryer.  i'm not lucky enough to have a clothesline, but i do have two drying racks - one from my days in undergrad.  when the clothes are ready to take out of the washing machine, i simply throw them back in the basket and head upstairs.  using clothes pins, i can pin them to the drying racks and put the racks out on the deck so that they can dry with help from mother nature.  i read recently that each time you use your dryer, it costs 85 cents.  the savings really add up.  and really, by taking the time to hang things to dry instead of throwing them in the dryer, i'm finding laundry to me a more enjoyable task.  did i really just say that?

the only downside is that i have to plan laundry out a bit more in advance.  because things take longer to dry, i try to do one load of laundry each day and then hang to dry in the afternoon.  although it's kind of a positive as well - no more laundry marathons when doing load after load.

16 months.

i swear i don't terrorize her when i take these monthly shots.  apparently it's just not the cool thing to do to smile at me each month anymore.  there are far more interesting things to do.  but she still loves bear.  he's a good partner in crime.  actually, the cast of characters sleeping with her in her crib each night continues to grow.  no wonder she doesn't mind waking up and playing for awhile in her crib each morning?

at 16 months, camryn :

• weighs 26 pounds.  i know this as she loves to pick up the scale in our bathroom and carry it around weighing herself every few steps.  
• current nicknames : peeps + peepers.  although we're calling her by her actual name more these days.  go us. 
• is constantly on the go.  she doesn't stay in one place too long.  she's a very busy girl. 
• loves books.  she'll bring one to you and plop in your lap for you to read to her.  at bedtime, we're in a rotation of three different books : "buzz, buzz, busy bees", "brown bear, brown bear" and "dear zoo".  usually she chooses "brown bear, brown bear".  she is obsessed with that book as she knows all the signs and animal sounds for each page. 
• continues to love all things bubbles.  her plethora of bubble wands, bubble containers and her bubble machines.  always a good time. 
• loves to be in the water.  whether at swimming lessons or in her inflatable pool on the deck. 
• goes to bed by 8p each night and is up between 7-7:30a each morning. 
• is still taking a morning nap - although most days it's fairly short.  her afternoon nap is usually longer and is usually around 1.5 hours. 
• loves going to story time each week.  she's now in the toddler section which really amazed her at first since there are a lot of bigger kids there.  she's interacting more and more with the songs and fingerplays and loves the stories.
• isn't fond of bland food.  i can feed her part of a chicken breast and she isn't interested.  but i can give her a piece of barbecue chicken with sauce that also has a rub on it and she can eat almost an entire thigh piece.  she is her mother's daughter. 
• when the phone rings, she instantly says "dada".  however she won't talk to her daddy until the end of the conversation when he's about to hang up.  then he can't get her off the phone. 
• adores her furry older brother thomas.  at times she thinks she can pick him up and actually attempts it.  why she thinks she can do this, i have no clue. 
• has become quite the french fry thief.  she loves them.  not so sure that's a good thing. 
• loves watching "play with me sesame" each morning and will sing the "la la la" part as soon as she sees that it's starting. 

our holiday weekend.

 

this is the only photo i managed to snap over the weekend - well, rather one of the four i attempted yesterday after we got home right before the girl's bathtime.  which meant her standing in the driveway and trying to get her to stand still.  easier said than done.

not an overly exciting weekend, but a productive one which i truly appreciate.  friday, the girl and i headed to a play group picnic in the morning before her am nap.  played a bit, chatted a bit and then strolled back home. nice in that it was at a resident's house that lives close to us - .8 miles away according to mapquest, so i got in a good workout as well.  we also went to the store to get all the things needed for food i wanted to make the next day.

saturday andy got home after noon as he was on call friday.  the girl and i had already made bbq sauce and while she took her morning nap, i whipped up some potato salad - so yummy!  while they both napped in the afternoon, i finally caught myself up on editing photos.  i can't tell you what a weight that is off my shoulders!  i was averaging three months behind.  not good at all.  we ended up at a bbq for a couple of hours and then after the girl's bath and she was in bed, andy and i had our own bbq as well.  we have perfected the bbq chicken.  it was fantastic.

and then today andy, andy was on call again.  after church, the girl and i hit costco.  after her nap, we went and visited daddy at the hospital and brought cookies for him and the nurses.  then it was home, dinner, play outside and bath.  i'm worn out.

and did i mention i made a dent on her baby book this weekend as well?  go me!  and in even bigger news, our church will soon have a pastor!  it's been a long road, but the seventh one we called accepted.  you could hear the big sigh of relief today when it was announced.

a big thank you to all the men and women who serve our country and help us have the many freedoms that we do.

the girl's tribute.

late friday afternoon, i heard that mtv was playing michael jackson's videos continuously.  granted, i can't remember the last time i intentionally watched mtv, but it seemed like the thing to do.  and it trumped the usual rotation of pbs' preschool channel.  although usually, the tv isn't on that often in the afternoon.  regardless, the girl performed her own tribute of sorts to the king of pop in our living room - i believe it's "don't stop 'til you get enough".  she seemed riveted by his dancing.  notice thomas is not riveted by either one of them.  and yes, our living room looks like that each and every day.  well, until 8p when everything is put away until it's strewn about the next morning.

also going on in our world...

friday, we attended the annual cheifs' dinner for andy's department.  these are the guys he works with way too many hours during the day.  a great bunch of guys though - sad that two of them completed the program and are moving.  but just something you get used to.  crazy to believe that andy is starting his fourth year of residency.  at christmas, he'll be halfway done.  super proud of him as he won a "creativity and research" award to help him push for a motorcycle law in the state.  so ridiculous that we don't have one.

and she's still loving swimming.  here she is taking a dip with her teacher who i absolutely adore.  she's quite the little fish and loves heading to the pool each week.