she believes!

i am so excited about christmas. it is the most amazing time of the year. so, i as a mother felt it was my duty & obligation to instill the same belief into sweet cheeks that christmas is the absolute "most wonderful time of the year." it started late in november when we began listening to christmas music. she is quite good at "jingle bells." it then progressed into the first week of december when we hung stockings and put up the christmas tree. for a two year old, sweet cheeks truly amazed me at putting up the tree. she was great with the decorations. now onto the holiday movies, i had to record the classics for her to watch, as they are on past her bedtime. I had "rudolph" and "a charlie brown christmas" for her to see. sadly, it was "shrek the halls" that she loved! i think she has watched it a total of 15 times. she now has a favorite holiday movie as well, "the polar express."


i really thought this movie was going to be too old for her to enjoy but i was so wrong. she absolutely loves it. tom hanks did a great job with his many characters in this one. i love how excited sweet cheeks is about christmas already. we have been reading "twas the night before christmas" and "the story of christmas" to her quite a bit. she is excited for santa to bring her presents, though she isn't up for sitting on his lap just yet. she hopes he will bring her a vacuum and baby doll. i am thrilled to see the excitement for christmas through her new, young eyes. it is going to be just as much fun for sweet cheeks parents, as it will be for sweet cheeks.

**

i don't have a little one, as we all know, but if i did you can bet i would be sporting one of these great slings. i love it! why didn't i know about the easiness of slings when sweet cheeks was a baby. what rock was i living under? they can be found here.



**

one more sweet find, if only i knew someone with twins girls to appreciate these cute necklaces from violet gum drop dot com:



**
a bonus photo of sweet cheeks for fun because there is just no better way to color than without your pants on!

look who's a big girl now!

we went to ikea with the intentions of buying a futon for one of the spare bedrooms. what we left with was a twin bed for sweet cheeks! she tried out several different floor models and seems to get in & out of this particular one with ease, so we got it! she is doing such a great job of sleeping in it at night like a big girl. i am so proud of her. we ended up converting our spare bedroom into one more playroom for sweet cheeks(not that she needed another place to make a mess). we also moved her old toddler bed in there.

here is the proud girl in her big girl bed-



oh how i wish sweet cheeks would keep a headband in. i love it on her but the second i put one on her, she yanks it right out.



and another great picture of her in the cute crewcuts dress. i can't help it, the girl is just so cute-

choochoo soul

i was looking back at old videos of sweet cheeks today and came across this cutie.
it is so hard to even remember a time when she wasn't talking but here she is, drooling and signing! she used to love the choochoo soul opening song on the disney channel. we would have to watch it many times over. here she is semi-dancing to it. i love seeing her sign "again" immediately once the opening is finished. she was so adorable. i just can't believe how she has grown.





***

i seriously saw this license plate today on a ford mustang:

UBENBIT

meet my baby doll, jesus

ok, please tell me if i am the only one who finds this a little odd.

i was in the middle of doing a baby doll/accessories search on Target.com

circles in the sand

after a bout of something along the lines of tonsilitis last week, sweet cheeks is finally and mostly better. it did sadly have a negative impact on one of the most glorious kid holidays.... halloween. we were originally scheduled to trick or treat with sweet cheeks cousin but due to the illness, we had to pass. so we (meaning mom & dad to sweet cheeks) took her to a local neighborhood to hit just a few houses so she wouldn't miss out completely. it turned out to be ok. she ate lots of candy and that is in fact what the holiday is all about!

we spent this past weekend at calloway gardens. it was a beautiful weekend, lots of sun and cool temp. we took sweet cheeks to the birds of prey show, the butterfly house, and to the little beach playground. she really had a nice time. despite her going to bed way too late two nights in a row, she even behaved for us! enjoy just a few of the great pictures that i was able to take of her over our weekend.

the first is sweet cheeks with her cousin. they were having a great time feeding the ducks, fish, and turtles!







my cutie on the playground. what a beautiful face, seriously!



she really enjoyed playing in the sand. i loved watching her.





does it get any sweeter than a girl and her favorite doll. phoebe, her first cabbage patch, literally goes everywhere with us these days. also note her cute mayapappaya owl hairclip!





***

now, this is the time when i like to share a new favorite find of mine on the net. what a cute guitar tee. ok, i think it is cute but i haven't actually purchased it as we already have quite the collection of guitar things for sweet cheeks but i still love the line art and simplicity on this toddler tee.

nothing left to do but smile smile smile

it has been so beautiful outside that i have loved taking photos of sweet cheeks outdoors. it is so difficult though being the parent to such a beautiful child, yet she refuses to pose for the camera. i had to share the great shots of her that i was able to catch.

1. she found a piece of pine straw. purpose of the pine straw: to poke at a spider-free spiderweb!



2. all smiles because we were sneakily sitting on the back of daddy's car. (i will shamelessly try anything to make her smile)



3. GRRRRRR- i love this photo, with the exception of the fact that i cut off the top of her head. her amazing features really come through here. what amazing eyes sweet cheeks has.



4. can you guess what she is eating? another new favorite of hers: a cannoli. she has a small piece of italian in her afterall.



5. here i am... new haircut & all. maybe i should have shared a before picture but i am sure there is one on this blog somewhere. i am still not sure how i feel about it. it is a nice cut but doesn't really have much WOW factor.

again....?

i seriously wish that i enjoyed picking out my clothes each day as much i do for sweet cheeks. her closet is always so organized. her clothes are always put away. her socks are always matched. her room is never out of order. i wish i applied the same TLC to my own bedroom, closet, and wardrobe. but i don't. maybe smaller clothes are just cuter. maybe it is the fact that clothes in the size 2T range are about a 1/3 of the cost of my own, on a sale day! so here is another oh-so-sweet picture of sweet cheeks in her leggings. she has them in black and purple as well, but the brown just seem to coordinate so much more with everything.

(in case you are wondering what is in her hand, it is a fruit loop straw. a current favorite of hers!)





**

i have found some sweet hairclips to buy for sweetcheeks from my new favorite website, etsy. i love the colors and shapes of these clips, plus the price isn't that bad at $6.50 per clip. no doubt they will coordinate well with the rest of sweet cheeks fall attire. luckily, she is still at an age in which mommy can pick out her clothes without much protest from the toddler.

just like you!

i can not believe it has already been a week since my last post. i was hoping to make a new goal for myself of two posts a week, but that will have to wait until next week.

this picture of sweet cheeks is of her eating her first candy corn of the halloween season. though, she is eating gourmet candy corn that is strawberry cotton candy flavor. i must say it is yummy. we both like it! i have noticed though that not everyone likes candy corn. i guess it is an acquired taste. she is also wearing her new june, from little einsteins, hooded tee. what a cutie in it. she insisted on wearing the hood all morning long.






***

I now have a really cute story to share about sweet cheeks. i was finished getting ready this morning and grabbing everything that i needed to take with me downstairs so i would not forget anything. i quickly put a tampon in my front pocket. i went to sweet cheeks room to get her ready. she quickly pointed at the tampon in my pocket to ask what it was. i just told her it was something for mommy. we both walked out of her room. i went to her bathroom to get a wash cloth to wet her hair(who knew even toddlers get bedhead). she went into my room. next thing i know, she walks into the bathroom where i am standing and she has a tampon sticking out of her pocket as well. i laughed, for many reasons. i laughed that she knew where i kept my tampons. i laughed at her for putting it in her pocket. i laughed at the sheer sweetness of the story. i laughed because i was ecstatic about just how lucky of a mother i am. such a small story but it says a lot about how much my kid takes in what i do daily. she is so quick to imitate me, or her daddy. it really made me realize just how careful i have to be with all of my actions, big and small, since my toddler, the sponge, has her eyes on me all of the time.


***


have you seen this book yet? i plan on getting it. i love the basic concept of sneaking veggies into sweet cheeks food, still offering the whole veggie on the side. that is what it takes to get kids to eat veggies these days, well my kid anyway!

thursday thirteen

happy birthday to you mom!


finally, i have a photo of sweet cheeks in her new crewcuts dress. she wore it today and it is fabUlous. i guess it doesn't ever really matter to me what she is wearing because i always think she she is cute. the clothes are just an extra bonus :)





lately, one of my favorite websites to browse for work and pleasure is etsy.com. this is a site for anyone who is crafty to sell on. what a great concept. rather than someone trying to run their own small website with only a few items for sale, they can now post their items on this huge site seen by so many. not only that, but it has such a great variety. you can find clothes, jewelry, pillows, blanket, and more for purchase. another benefit of etsy is that if you aren't crafty (as i definitely am not), you can still buy something that is homemade. there is something special about purchasing anything homemade, and you then know just how unique it is.

while looking on this site, i came across so many cute baby items. yes, i was doing research for work, not myself. so here is my thursday thirteen of the cutest etsy bibs for sale, with the guitar one being one of my favs:

not just small potatoes

saturday morning sweet cheeks and i had the best breakfast out. we had a delectable fresh cinnamon crunch bagel topped with cream cheese, a new favorite to sweet cheeks food list which i blame myself for since i ate at least 2 of these a week my entire pregnancy. it wasn't the tasty bagel that made this one of our best breakfasts out, but rather the time we spent together. we ordered a bagel that wasn't even ready yet and we waited 15 minutes for it. normally i would have freaked because our restaurant time is usually a good 20-30 minutes max with our toddler and i was by myself with her, i knew i didn't have that kind of time. since it was by far our first beautiful fall-like morning, we decided to eat outside. plus, i thought this would work out best for a toddler who liked to roam. we picked out a table and sat there... playing... talking... visiting... watching. seriously, it was so memorable. sweet cheeks and i, alone and together, out to eat, just enjoying one another and the great weather we were having that day. she had no problem sitting still while we waited for our bagel. i would periodically ask her if she wanted to walk around while we waited, to which she quickly replied,' no, i like sitting." then to top it off, she even ate an entire half of a bagel. this is huge for a small eater that we nightly beg to get in a good 5-6 bites for dinner and we are satisfied. i know that since you weren't there with us to witness this, it seems like small potatoes but to me it was perfect.

i have finally taken some pictures of sweet cheeks but didn't bring my camera in to download them, so pictures of her will yet again have to wait until my next post.

from the time sweet cheeks was 8 weeks old until she was about a year and a half, robeez were a staple in her daily attire. i loved loved loved these shoes for many reasons. one being how freakin adorable they are. another being how soft they were, to just mold to her foot. so many baby shoes i had seen were hard and not easily bent. also, they washed well. i even started giving robeez as baby gifts to many of my friends so they could also fall in love this with great, stylish baby shoe. (nikki- so sorry i didn't give the captain a pair sooner!)

now i want to know why these robeez were not out when sweet cheeks could actually wear them!!

how we change

I love make up! i haven't always loved make up. even in highschool, i rarely wore anything but eyeliner- GASP at my inexperience. explains my lack of boyfriends in highschool for sure. it was in college that i finally started to wear it. it was a few years later that i would grow to absolutely need the stuff. thank god for it because i think i look horrible without it!

i have a girlfriend who is a make up guru. she is the one who got me interested in make up in the first place. we live two hours apart and on our get togethers, which happened too infrequently, we were sure to bring our make up bags in order to share our newest purchases. the funny thing is, most of the new stuff came out looking like the old stuff. you find yourself always purchasing the same shades in make up. i think i own about 10 different lipsticks and within that 10 you will probably only find two different shades.

i am dying to go make up shopping right now for some new fall colors. i never did buy much new this past spring/summer, so needless to say my drive to purchase some new things is in full force. i think i will have to take a few hours for myself one day and go to one of my two favorite make up counters, stila & bobby brown, and have a mini make over. i am so out of the loop on the newest colors for fall that i could use all the help i can get.

do you want to know why i am out of the loop on make up?
here she is:




oh how i love her so.

now instead of buying make up, this is what i find myself buying the most of:







isn't it the absolute cutest dress. it is from crewcuts, the cute kids line from jcrew. i love the silhouette & the color. sweet cheeks is going to look so freakin sweet in it this fall. i will post pics of her wearing it once she actually wears it.

you say it's your birthday

it has been way too long since my last blog. vacation will do that though. sweet cheeks, her daddy, and i spent my 31st birthday weekend at the beach. we traveled with a few friends and their kids, who just so happen to be only 3 &5 months younger than sweet cheeks. it couldn't have been a more perfect weekend.



now, as i said, we were there with two other couples and a total of 3 other toddlers. sweet cheeks had a playmate 24/7 and was in heaven. it also worked out well that the other kids were on the same daily schedule as sweet cheeks, so when she ate they ate, when she slept they slept, when she threw a tantrum they threw a tantrum. ok, maybe it wasn't so extreme but it was nice that things just seemed to flow so well. it was even a bit of a break for us, the parents, since we weren't her only form of entertainment. she really enjoyed having friends around her all of the time.

anyway, we did lots of sand playing and swimming with the kids on our mini-vacation. i have so many fun shots to share, so enjoy








no, i know what you are already thinking. it wasn't enough to make sweet cheek's parents want to give her a sibling! playmates work out so well, i just don't see the additional need for another child just so she can play with someone. who is to say she would even get along with the sibling. there is no guarantee, so we'll play it safe and leave her as an only child. it is what works for us right now




for some reason on our way home in the car i noticed a sign on an 18-wheeler truck that was driving in front of me. the small sign on the back of the truck posted "safe driver needed." i realize this small sign was only meant to suggest that the trucking company was in need of some additional employees. that is what they intended to say anyway, but i took something else from it. to me, it meant i better floor it and get around this truck. to me the sign said that the driver of the truck in front of me was a crazy bad driver and i did not need to be anywhere close to him. to me, "safe driver needed" was because the one currently driving wasn't capable. we quickly passed it


has anyone heard the song "bubbly" by colbie caillat? i have heard it on the radio a few times and now Oxygen uses it on a commercial of theirs. i absolute adore this song right now. it just sounds so happy and makes you want to smile.




one song that i absolutely loathe at the moment is "hey there delilah" by plain white tees. drives me frickin nuts and it seems like every single radio station is playing it!

what in the name of LA-T- DA?

sweet cheeks had an awesome weekend playing with lots of friends. she went to her twin boy friend's 2nd birthday party. the theme of the party was none other than sweet cheeks all time favorite tv show, "jack's big music show." this is the cutest puppet show that toddlers love due to the great music & constant motion. mommy to the boys made tee's for the kids and sweet cheeks was so excited when the day of the party finally arrived so she could wear the cute tee. this picture shows the sheer excitement she was feeling!


really, the tee was so cute and it was so cute on her! thanks for that twins mommy!

can you see her? the party had a fun bubble machine. it was funny to see sweet cheeks going bubble crazy, chasing them with the hopes of popping them. ahhh... the joys of the simple life!

sunday, at sweet cheeks' request, we spent over an hour just browsing all the toys of our local toys r us. she loves to just run around and try everything out. i was so tempted to buy her the radio flyer my first scooter. she not only loved it but she did a great job of riding it (and staying upright!). i was buckling her into her carseat after our one hour visit only to hear her ask for phoebes! OH NO! we had somehow lost her favorite cabbage patch doll phoebe in toys r us. we ran back in and searched everywhere since we had really seen just about every toy there. finally we found her on a shelf in the train section. i guess someone had found her before us and put her up on a shelf. the look on sweet cheeks face was priceless once phoebes was back in her arms. we get back to the car and seriously, this is what she says, "phoebe was sad- i was supposed to watch her." i couldn't believe sweet cheeks actually felt responsible for loosing phoebe. it was so sad because her expression was totally backing up what she was saying, you could see how upset she was about the entire situation. moments later though she said, "phoebes is happy." it really was so sweet.

cute picture below but i couldn't turn it. sorry!
later that night, we had some company! the twins were at sweet cheeks house and they were so fun to watch! trying to get a picture of the three, sitting happy, sitting content, that was impossible so here is the best they had to offer for the camera.

seriously... does it get any cuter! i didn't think so either.

ok, so here is the part were is shamely admit that i have watched more than once on tv... at night... alone... 'tori & dean- inn love.' not sure how it even happened or why i let it happen more than once, but i did so i thought i had to fess up. seriously though, i semi enjoyed it. she is so lame, so dumb that you just kind of have to watch. in all honesty, her husband isn't that bad. he seems pretty normal actually. i am not sure how he puts up with her all the time. anyway, for a bit, i was actually fooled by her, thinking she did quite a bit with the new baby liam. it was obvious, as you see her all the time, that she had a nanny who helped out quite a bit. who wouldn't want someone full time to help. just an extra set of hands to hold the baby while you pee or get some lunch, that doesn't sound so bad. then last night i watched an episode when my original thoughts of tori returned. it is morning time and you see the nanny holding & feeding baby liam his bottle. dean asks the nanny, "how did you sleep?", followed by the question, "how did he sleep?'" then you see tori strolling out of bed getting herself some coffee. WTF? the nanny is the one to keep their son over night, doing the night wakings, etc? how pathetic is that. seriously, she is so spoiled, so lame, and she can't even keep her own son with her through the night. that is just not right.

i feel better now.