Relax, he was RIGHT THERE

Char's comment: "I need a helmet." Smart girl!

In all seriousness, though, she looks like a natural!

i made this!

Yup, i'm now "that mom" who sews her kid's clothes. Well, one dress anyway :). i actually really like it, and it's better in person, but whatevs.

Unfortunately, children's clothes sizes are also wonky, just like adult sizes. An adult size 8 will likely wear a 12 in a pattern dress, or at least a 10. So a "2" in child sizes is apparently about a 4T, or at least a 3T. i'm hoping that with a T-shirt, underneath, she can wear it this fall at least. If not, there's always spring and summer :).

Stump? Who is Stump? I'm stumped!

For a while there i even thought i might BE Stump!

It all started Sunday when we all played a little hide and seek. It was daddy's turn to hide, so Charlotte and i sought him out. He was hiding in the closet, and as we were looking for him, i heard a little thump. i said, "Char, did you hear that thump?" i'm not sure, but i think thump must have been the origin of Stump.

Then it was my turn to hide, and daddy and Char sought me. i heard Char say, "Stump, where are you?" But then they found me and she was still looking for Stump, so i breathed a sigh of relief.

Here's what we know about old Stump. Charlotte refers to Stump as a "she" (slightly insulting as daddy and i are still "its" lol), and she's a few inches in size and gets lost a lot. Char likes to carry her around and put her in my pocket. Alan surmises she may even be a mouse.

i don't recall ever having an imaginary friend really. i would have short daydreams of friends but it wasn't the traditional long-term fantasy friend anyway. But it sure looks likke Charlotte has one. 2 years and 1 month old seems pretty young for this, but it sure is cute!

Preschool lunch

Charlotte now goes to a preschool 2 days a week. This particular school is a peanut-free school, and also does not refrigerate or heat the lunches. We have a small thermos type container for some chilled or heated foods, but for the most part they should be able to get to room temp during the day. i'm trying to get creative and will probably post about it from time to time.

Last Friday:

• Half a whole wheat bagel topped with homemade spinach/asparagus pesto and a little mozzarella cheese, baked like a pizza at 350* for about 10 minutes.


• Baby carrots quartered lengthwise with ranch dressing


• "Ants on a log" made with celery sticks, homemade organic pumpkin seed butter (with a touch of salt and honey) and mixed with enough soynut butter to taste familiar, plus raisins of course.

Tomorrow:

• Kebab made of a cherry tomato, a spinach leaf, a cube of mozarella cheese, another spinach leaf, etc, with a dipping sauce of yogurt, honey, and pesto (it's surprisingly good)


• Same bagel thing as last week (i kept the other half frozen)


• Apple slices topped with the homemade pumpkin seed butter and soynut butter spread


• A homemade apricot cookie

It's been one year since we said "forever"

And i am so amazed by my little girl every day! She's so smart, sweet-natured, loving, and hilarious! i've never seen a 2 year old have quite such a sense of humor.

Today she gave me a gift she hasn't given me in a while. She fell asleep in my lap with my arms around her. (And then she wouldn't wake up even to take a bath or get dressed, so this could be a short, messy night, but it's still a sweet, sappy one.) i love my kiddo so much, and i'm truly the happiest mama in the world!

Just a picture post - lots of pics lately

Saturday Charlotte's little BFF Atticus came over to play for a while, and the kids explored the creek (with our help), then we took some family pics on Sunday, and today we had a little magic show ;).

The "Murder She Wrote" blog entry

There comes a time in every blogger's life when a little "Murder She Wrote" will fall. In this case, i'm writing about MSW because my husband told me i have to ;).

We have come VERY close to cutting the cable, though we haven't yet done so. We have a couple of Roku boxes and something called a Seagate that is like a Roku but will access an internal hard drive and also YouTube. All of the machines get Netflix and the Rokus also get Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime streaming.

Netflix has MSW. And here's a little factoid about me: When i was a kid, my mom and i bonded while watching MSW and other similarly awful mysteries, such as Father Dowling, Matlock, and the oft-forgotten Diagnosis Murder. And, because i almost never forget anything unimportant, i remember many of the episodes of MSW. In enough detail that i can say who did it and/or what the major clue was. For example, the episode about the cosmetic sales convention in which Jessica's nephew Grady is accused of murder (as he usually is when he guests) is "all about the lipstick".

The other night, the hubs and i watched some "Jessica" as my mom called it. We watched the episode about the headless horseman, in which Greg Brady's Barry Williams has the wonderful line, "Ah ha ha!" as his horse spooks a car. Yeah, i wrote that correctly. He tries to spook a guy in a car while on horseback.

In this episode, nothing happens other than Barry getting his ass killed. None of it makes any sense. The main guest star (believe it or not, Greg Brady is not the main guest) speaks in the flowery language of the Gay 90's (the Gay 1890's, that is), and then some guy with a beard acts menacing. And at one point Jessica says, "This is the first thing that's made sense yet." Only it didn't. It was terrible!

And apparently i've decided to continue the tradition of not making any sense with this blog entry. Forgive me, por favor!