Kids Say the Darndest Things

Aidan is becoming a regular little comedian these days. I have two funnies from him today.

First, this morning as I'm getting him ready, we had this interchange.

Me: Aidan, do you know what Mommy needs?
Aidan: What?
Me: Kisses! (proceed to smooch attack him)
Aidan: Mommy, do you know what Aidan needs?
Me: No, what?
Aidan: (giggles) Toys!

Then just a few minutes ago...

John: Aidan, what do you want for supper?
Aidan: I don't like supper. It's dirty. Too many dirty dishes.

Hmm...I wonder who he's repeating there? Guilty.

Blogging for the sake of blogging.

It's been a few days since I've posted anything, so I'm posting this random photograph that I took on a pretty day in my backyard a couple of weeks ago...because I guess I'm having withdrawal from blogging. Maybe we'll do something exciting and blogworthy this weekend.

Pendant Giveaway

A friend of a friend, and a fellow military wife, is doing a St. Patrick's giveaway on her blog, Dressed-Up Dots. She makes beautiful pendants out of dominos! They're really neat, so you should go check it out!

Lovin' the Lime

I have a sweet picture of Miss Neely to share, too.

A Quick Funny

I have an Aidan story that I want to share. It belongs in the same category as the "Are you digging for gold?" "No, boogies!" story.

We're in the car, driving to church for Mom's Day Out on Friday. I've no idea if he was doing any digging at the time, but out of the clear blue, he says, "Mommy, boogies are NOT a snack." After agreeing with him, I silently shook in laughter for the rest of the ride. I'm sure it was an if A equals B, and B equals C, then C equals A deduction on his part. I'm not supposed to eat boogies. I am allowed to eat snacks. Therefore, boogies are not a snack.

It was so random, it was hilarious. Maybe you had to be there.

I'm having an ambitious week.

Look! I made Neely some pretty little pinwheel bows! I'm really proud of myself. They're not too bad for my first try. I wanted to try it out, because I was having trouble finding something that would match her Easter dress. I got a wild hair, ordered some ribbon, and voila! Bows!

Any requests? ;)

Bag Tag

Alrighty, Tara tagged me in this game, knowing I wouldn't be able to resist.

Here are the rules:

1. Post a picture of whatever bag you are (using) today - not last weekend when you and your hubby went out to that fabulous restaurant. No cheating!!! (Yeah, and no fair cleaning it out first to avoid incriminating yourself.)

2. Tell us how much it cost. This is a no-judgment zone -- there will be no ridiculing or eye rolling here. And, if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I'd love to hear it.

3. Now tag some fellow bloggers and link back to this post so people know why you are posting pictures of your bag.



Here's the bag. It's Vera Bradley's very lovely version of a diaper bag. It's GIANT. My mother-in-law bought it for me, so it was free to me. I have no idea what she paid for it, so I can't really answer that question. Are you ready for what's inside? Brace yourself. I was afraid there might be something scary in there. I lucked out.



Starting at the top left and working our way around clockwise, I have: three baby toys, one of which plays music when shaken (so I can sometimes be seen turning in circles, much like a dog chasing its tail, trying to figure out where that sound is coming from!), a pair of Neely's pj's (which need to be traded out, because I don't think she wears that size anymore), a package of wipes, two diapers, a pile of dirty burp cloths, a changing pad, a baby sling, yesterday's commissary receipt and grocery list, my checkbook, Neely's ID bracelet from the last cardiologist visit and her LSU ID card, my sunglasses, Neely's headband (for attaching giant Aretha-esque bows), the plastic from a juice box straw, three gum wrappers, a weird felt bookmark from a kids' meal at Chickfila, Valentine gummy bears, an ink pen, hand sanitizer, Tylenol infant drops, a frequent car wash card (only punched once), an air freshener wafer, travel baby powder, Visine, one dollar, an expired Joann's coupon, two Sonic mints, Chapstick, and a tube of Clinique Rose Allure lipstick that I accidentally stole from my mother over Christmas. (Sorry, if you've been looking for that one, Mom.)

Whew! It didn't look like that much when I laid it all out!

I will now bag tag Stephanie, Andrea, Jamie, and Kelly...because you all either have children too or are known to carry gigantenormous purses. :D

The Dress.

For those who knew I was working on this dress: IT IS FINISHED.

For those who didn't, here's the story. I was walking through Hancock's a few weeks ago, when I saw this sign advertising clothing patterns for $1.99. In that moment, something possessed me. I scanned through a book and chose a couple of patterns to bring home with me. After I got said patterns home and pulled one out of the envelope, I realized I hadn't a clue what to do with it. Luckily for me, John's parents would be visiting soon, and his mother is fantastic at sewing. When she arrived (seriously, probably not more than 15 minutes after setting foot in my house), I asked for help. We went to the store, we picked out fabric, and we were off!

Making this tiny little dress was a very daunting task, but now that it's done, I feel like I've accomplished something great! Like climbing a mountain! Okay, or just making a child's dress...and hat and giant bloomers. Really giant. If the elastic were longer, I could almost wear them.







Seriously, I'll probably keep this dress forever, that's how proud I am of it. I love the blue flowery pattern, the green gingham lining, and most of all, the hot pink rickrack.



I even managed to do a fairly decent job on my first attempt at a slipstitch. It only shows a little bit...and it's only slightly puckered. And okay, so you can tell at the end that I didn't know how to tie it off or what exactly to do with the thread, but I don't care! I did it!

Pretty Dining Room Wall

I meant to post this photo several weeks ago. I am so thankful for good friends, and friends with good decorating taste! While I was home for the holidays, Andrea gave me a couple of sconces she'd bought from Southern Living at Home and never used in her house. I'd just bought that tin panel for $5, so my dining room got a $5 makeover. I love it!

Some good things.

In my haste to complain about Valentine's Day, I failed to mention the wonderful things that I should be thankful for. I'l give them to you in pictures. First, my wonderful husband got me some beautiful flowers.



Second, Neely got her first Valentine. It was from her Great Granny Norma. I let her play with it.



Aidan got one, too. This is the best picture I could get. In the first one, he was staring at the TV. He just stuck his Valentine out toward the camera for me to photograph.



And here's some of that yummy heart-shaped French toast that I worked so hard to make.



There you go. I really love my family, even when it gets crazy. There's a little pictorial evidence for you.

Hectic Hearts Day

Where to begin? I'll start this way: my Valentine's Day didn't turn out a bit how I expected this year...and my expectations? They really weren't that high. All I wanted to do was sleep in a little bit (7:30 counts as sleeping in these days), make some sort of whimsical, heart-shaped breakfast, enjoy spending the day with my family, and fix something yummy and nice for dinner. See? That doesn't seem too terribly far reaching, does it?

What really happened was as follows: I got to sleep in a little bit, but that was the highlight of my day. Things pretty much go downhill from there. We ate heart-shaped French toast, which was yummy, exchanged gifts and cards, and then things got crazy. In the process of trying to get ready for the day, I had to entertain both of my children and get them dressed. Aidan put pennies down his bathroom sink. (I can only assume. He told me he put quarters in there, but those won't fit. He calls everything from a quarter to a penny to a Chuck E. Cheese token a quarter. The only thing I saw him with all morning was a couple of pennies.) John and I had an argument which left both of us on separate ends of the house, having hissy fits. Aidan stowed a couple of his poopie diapers in the cabinet where I keep my pots and pans. (They were bagged, hanging on the back door to go to the trash.) I picked up about every toy Aidan owns...you see how this goes.

By early afternoon, we were all so exhausted from doing chores and being angry at each other, that we each crashed in a separate location for a nap. When everybody woke up, it was 5:00 pm. So there was also no nice, homemade dinner. There was Carrabba's curbside, no longer hot, because it's on the other side of town.

What lesson do I learn from this? Nobody's perfect; no day can be perfect, not even a holiday intended to celebrate the ones we love.

"God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him." 1 John 4:16b

Lovely Teacher Gifts

I have not been my usual thoughtful, ahead-of-time, with-it self lately. It wasn't until I dropped Aidan off at Mom's Day Out today for his Valentine's party that I realized I hadn't gotten gifts for his teachers yet! Actually, if I'm honest, I just bought all our Valentines this morning. (Sorry, Mom and Dad. Yours will be late.) In my haste to find something suitable at Target, I stumbled across some yummy Philosophy body washes on clearance in that World Marketplace section. I picked up a couple of those, and with some help from a roll of ribbon from the Michael's dollar bin, voila! Teacher gifts for less than $10 that I feel fairly certain will be used and not tossed out among the hordes of candy that they are likely to receive today.

Neely Now

I have a couple of short videos to share, cataloguing the things Neely is doing now. For starters, she's just recently started communicating with us by "yelling" at us. It sort of sounds like a baby dinosaur or some sort of squawking. I remember Aidan went through this phase, but when he did it, it really did just sound like yelling.



She also started rolling over, belly to back, yesterday. She has rolled from her back to her tummy once, in the middle of the night, because when I checked on her in the morning, she was on her tummy. This is the only rolling I've witnessed thus far. My baby girl is growing so fast!

Mini Update

I have an update on Neely's little heart for those who are interested. On Thursday, she had an appointment with the cardiologist to check on her VSD. For those who don't know, she was born with a tiny hole in one wall of her heart. We were told that it would probably grow closed as she got older, but even if it didn't, it should never affect her health. She had an echocardiogram at her doctor's visit, and the doctor could no longer find a hole. She still has a slight murmur, but she now has a whole heart. (I know. I'm so punny.) Anyway, praise Jesus! No more heart defect!

P.S.

I got a funny new picture of Neely today, too.

New Love

I finally got my house all cleaned up, so it's project time again! I had these old whitewashed looking picture frames jammed into a junky closet that I haven't used since we moved last...mainly because if I hang them on the wall, they're going to do that chameleon thing and be practically invisible. So what did I do? I bought a can of black Rust Oleum.



I had fun spray painting these puppies. Except for when I accidentally stepped in a red ant hill. I guess I didn't realize that red ants were out and about and biting this time of year, or I'd have been paying better attention.



Anyway, I am excited about my shiny new black picture frames! I've yet to figure out what photographs to put in them, but they sure are pretty. And I'm in love with this new Rust Oleum that comes in a can with a trigger. I'd post a picture if I had one. No kidding, you can spray paint without getting a crick in your pointer finger. It's wonderful!

My Birthday

This morning, it was my turn to host Aidan's play group. All the other mommies are always very domestic and make some sort of yummy breakfast item, and I'm the lame-o that never brings anything with her but my children. I figured I'd better pony up some food, since they were coming to my house today. So first thing this morning, I'm standing in my kitchen wondering, "What can I make that I have all the ingredients for?" I found a box of pound cake mix in the pantry. As I'm mixing it up, I remember some frozen blueberries hanging out in my freezer...so I mix those in. Then, I think, "Wouldn't this be yummy with some streusel topping?" Yes, it would. So I mix that up, put it on top, and throw it in the oven. It tasted good, but I think I need to rethink things if I ever make it again. For starters, all the blueberries sank to the bottom. I don't guess that's too terrible. And then, I'm not really sure how this happened, but all the streusel topping was in the dead center of the cake once it finished baking. Maybe I need to wait and add that on top once it's nearly done the next time? It tasted good (in my opinion), but as evidenced in the photograph, it sure did look funny.

By now, you're probably thinking, "Why on earth is this post titled My Birthday?" I'm getting there. I had to ramble about that cake first. Anyway, as most of the kids were filtering out this morning, Aidan starts tugging my hand and saying, "I need my birthday!" He drags me to the kitchen and points to that cake. Just a few minutes ago, he remembered it and asked me for "his birthday" again. Too funny. I guess he doesn't need a fancy birthday cake. That's good to know. Maybe I'll make him one myself this year.

Loving Crazy Loud

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Our pastor began a new series today called Love Loud. The main focus is for us to learn to love people as Christ did, to love people that are hard to love, to love when it makes us uncomfortable. Our challenge as we left was to leave our shoes at the altar, to be donated to someone who needs them through Samaritan's Feet. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head...Is it still raining outside? How much did I pay for these shoes? Do I have another pair of shoes similar that I can wear when I'm missing these? Am I wearing socks that will protect my feet as a cross the parking lot with two children and all the assorted paraphernalia that I carry for them? Ultimately, I gave away my shoes. Not because they weren't my absolute favorites or because I knew one of my friends' husbands would probably volunteer to bring my car to the door if it was still raining, but because it was the right thing to do. It was symbolic. I want to love people as Christ did. I want to show that love spontaneously, even if it means doing something that inconveniences me a little bit. And as I traipsed from my car to the house, through the puddle that forms in my parking space whenever it's been raining for longer than 30 seconds, I thought about how I may only have ten pairs of shoes now, but somewhere on this earth, one of God's children will now have a single pair of shoes.