oh girl, please stay on the blanket

When Max was crawling, I remember going outside and sitting with him on a blanket. It was very relaxing because he hated the feel of the grass on his legs/feet and would not budge from the blanket. I think I read books and magazines, drank iced tea, etc. while he contentedly played with his toys. Even after his first birthday when we took him to a family picnic the little guy stayed glued to his little blanket island away from the grass.

Well, baby girl is another story.

Not only does she want off the blanket, she wants to eat everything she finds out in the grass.

Cora does this awesome little "Mogli" crawl: you know like that little boy on the jungle book. Hands and feet. My heart beats a little faster at the sight of this picture. That cute little behind up in the air. Almost too much! (I think it must be mom thing, but I seriously do have a physical reaction to the cuteness of that little butt.)


Ah. Just sit for a little while girl. Let me rest for a minute...

pretty ugly

Meet Lucy. One of four kitties we have guarding our house against mice. (More like sleeping on the porch for hours on end. Ah well, that's what cats do I think.) One of them did catch a mouse the other day, and I was so proud. I didn't actually see it kill the mouse, but I did see it flinging a dead one around. I was so happy in that moment...

Back to Lucy. I think she is such a unique looking little thing. She's pretty in an ugly sort of way. Or maybe ugly in a pretty way. I'm not sure, but whichever it is I think she looks neat.

She'd look even better with a dead mouse in her mouth!

the big picture

After much frustration and experimentation I figured out how to make my photos bigger on my blog. (Much to the relief of Andrew. I think I was getting on his nerves a little while I was working...)

Anyway, hopefully I'll remember how to do a big picture again tomorrow!

joy

Isn't it funny how babies will play with the simplest things for a really long time? Cora's current favorite: a metal bucket and a deck of cards. Cards in the bucket. Cards out of the bucket. Cards in the bucket. Cards out of the bucket.

Follow your joy, Cora girl...no matter how simple it may be.

beans beans everywhere

So there was this jar of green bean seeds sitting on our porch. We bought extra seeds this spring hoping to do multiple green bean plantings in the garden. That didn't happen due to all the monsoon rains + extreme heat + general feelings of laziness towards the garden.

Anyway, so the green bean seeds have been hanging out on the porch. Then the cats broke the jar and the seeds were everywhere. In comes Max to clean up the seeds. Somehow he convinces me to let him bring a small cup of them in the house. I am weak--I let him.

The beans are everywhere. I stress to Max that they must be up off the floor so little Cora can't get her hands on them. He does a pretty good job. I only have to remind him to keep the beans up where she can't reach them about 10 times a day. Still, they seem to be multiplying, and they seem to cover every surface.

I'm sure some day I'll look back and remember all the beans with fondness: beans in the play wagons, in cups, in bowls, on the table, in the little tracors...

kindred spirit

I was clicking around on Etsy yesterday, and found a little article about a woman who considers herself a "collector of images".

Me too! I thought as I read her article. Me too! Me too!

I have shared before how much I love to collect pictures and things from magazines. Then I file them all away in my big metal cabinet. Makes me so happy. The only bad thing about my little nerdy system is that I don't get to see all the little inspiring things I tear out until I catch a spare moment to pull out the drawer and go through them.

The author of this article was assigned this task in a class one time, and she has stuck to it to this day: Put something in a notebook every day. A photo, a picture from a magazine, a quote, a ticket stub, a drawing, a fortune cookie fortune....

I could so do that! So, today I went through my little pile of goodies from the drawer, and decided on a little pretty for the day. I'm going to put all these things in my Moleskine planner that I love so much. Now I can flip through my little fun things more often. Why didn't I think of this?

Magazines + glue stick = happy.

rise above

So, we'll just pretend that I have a beautifully well kept garden. A garden without weeds, with several plants producing basket after basket of beautiful vegetables.

We are pretending because my garden is a little bit, um, crazy overgrown with weeds. Oh well. You'll have that I guess. On the bright side, there are my sunflowers. The ones that Max and I started from little seeds this spring. Luckily these beauties can rise above the weed patch that is my garden.

I love the sunflowers. They are so cheerful! The bugs and bees like them too.

Be careful Max...don't get too close to the weeds! I might lose you in there!

a little piece of light

In our playroom/office there is a little piece of light that comes through the window in the afternoon. I always love those warm spots in the house from sunlight. I had my camera out the other day while Cora was playing, and just hoped that she would get in the light for some good pictures.

Almost Cora, keep going!

There we go. So pretty.

teddy bear picture day - 8 months

Eight months? Doesn't hardly seem possible. Our little Cora is growing up, and she's on the move. Luckily Andrew was home during the little photo shoot to guard the perimeter of the bed. She's pretty fast.

I love this one because you can see her two little teeth:

Max still adores Cora, even though she is now very mobile and tries to get some of his toys. (Correction: she tries to get all of his toys.) Look at how he looks at her!

young art

So, have you heard of this young man?

Kieron Williamson, an very young prodigy taking the art world by storm. I saw a little blurb about him today on Yahoo--the place where I seem to get all my news information. I haven't had much time to peruse much of his website yet, but I am very eager to.

Child art prodigies interest me so much. It is all so mysterious. A few years ago I watched a documentary about child artist Marla Olmstead...and was so torn about the whole thing. If, like me, you are at all intrigued by this idea I recommend the documentary, even though it is a little sad. She was very young (4 I think) when her "career" peaked. It was questioned whether or not she actually did her own work. Poor little thing grew up a little too fast.




Good luck to you Kieron!

oh my gosh I love this!

Kids' Arts & Crafts: Kids Frames Wallpaper to Draw On

I think you could achieve the same results by painting a wall white, then using black paint to draw frame outlines. Oh man. So fun!

july in pictures

Lots of green this month: grass and corn mostly. I love the green. When I am taking pictures in January and February I long for the warmer months and all the pretty outside stuff they bring.

I could do without the humidity though. My hair looks crazy, and I don't think there is any hope until the humidity breaks! It is currently (and always!) in an "updo". (If you can call a frizzy rat's nest of a bun on top of my head an updo.)

Here's to warm weather...and elastic hair bands. I don't know what I would do without either of you!

family portrait by max

For the past couple days, Max has been really into drawing:

He drew this family portrait last night. I love it for so many reasons.

I love how I look like Gumby.

I love how Cora is big. (Max said it was her when she is bigger. Of course.)

I love how tall he made Andrew.

I love how we all have very fun and goofy faces.

There was so many other things he told us about the drawing, but even just a day later I have forgotten them. (I need to get in a better habit of jotting these things down right away!)

"those people from the family picnic"

On Sunday Max and Cora had the day off from being my photo subjects. Andrew's cousin Katie and her fiance Aaron were in town visiting and wanted a few engagement pictures taken. I was happy to do it!

Max has met Katie and Aaron a few times before. Most recently he saw them last month at a family picnic. For the rest of the day he called them: "those people from the family picnic". Sorry guys. He's bad with names I guess!

Disclaimer: I don't take pictures of lots of people other than my own children/family because 1) I get really nervous, 2) I'm not a fan of posing people, 3) I am not the most technically savvy photographer. (I just now learned how to shoot in full manual mode on my camera!) That being considered, I think we got a few "keepers"!

My favorites:





Pretty pretty!