dex-tah works here

so, yea, we had to get a new roof. and a new ceiling. well, part of the ceiling anyway. it looks like dexter (a serial killer who murders bad guys in rooms wrapped in plastic and chops up their bodies and throws them in the ocean) (as seen on showtime tv.) (or, in our case, netflix.) (quality tv we watch with nate on sundays.) works here. HOPEFULLY the full project will be done tomorrow. it's been oh so fun sitting around and waiting on the roofers and contractors to show up for two weeks. i am not a big fan of this type of home renovation - this FIXING BROKEN THINGS type. it makes me sigh and pull out my check book SLOWLY. i like painting and decorating and redoing cause i want to do so. (then we can spend with reckless abandon, yes karl?) eh, well, such is life, yes?

i have been wanting to thank some friends for some bloggy love/awards lately but i never know how! i get all socially awkward about blog awards - do i give them? do i display them? I NEVER KNOW. Honestly I think the thing that bothers me about blog awards like these are the HORRENDOUS graphics/images. I mean WHAT IS THAT in the first one? a plate? an O? one of those circular sewing thingeys? and spelling CREATIVE with a K in a scripty typeface does not make one more creative. Am I right? and the other? Well, who wears a hat and heels like that while walking their miniature dog? NO ONE I KNOW for sure! so i don't want to seem all ungrateful because i ADORE bloggy love but I feel that maybe I (or someone equally cool and with more motivation than me) should come up with a cool graphic for an award? Some cute vector art? ANYTHING PEOPLE. These just make blogs ugly. (Please forgive me, creators of these images. I, personally, find them aesthetically UNpleasing.)



this one is from BLAZE LIKE FIRE. (I like to think you have to say that real loud and real fast!) I have to name seven things you might not know about me. (also, how is that KREATIVE? i do not understand.) (but i'm going to do it anyway! HA. i'm such a SHEEP!) (baaaaaaaaa!)

7 things you may not know about me:

1. i have strong feelings about crappy graphics on blog awards. (well, i guess you probably know that now, huh?)
2. my husband and i have been to the movie theater three times since Nate was born. It was to see Wall-E, Up, and Where the Wild Things Are. We (apparently) like to keep it G rated.
3. last week i wrote a letter to my neighbor after my dogs got out (which has happened maybe TWICE in four years) after she complained ('if you can't control them, keep them on a leash') as we were clearly chasing after them with leashes. (and they didn't go far and didn't go anywhere near her.) I OBEY LEASH LAWS LADY. I DONT EVEN LIKE DOGS. i ripped up said passive aggressive letter and decided to dismiss her rudeness.
4. after four years of dog ownership, i still don't like dogs that much. i feel they should only live for five years. (i know! i'm an awful person.)
   
5. i made bread from scratch today. i'm not all that domestic but this one was on MY LIST of things that one must cook at least once in one's lifetime. (it was super delicious hot out of the oven. yeow. score one for me!)
   
6. twitter makes me happy. it can live for more than five years.
7. i still feel like a complete freakshow about my homebirth - more so now that more people in my direct circle are having the babies. i still want to try for homebirth #2.
   

this one is from the amazing stacia! five things i am obsessed with:

1. this song (STILL!):

this print from the beautiful and talented christen byrd (lucy and olive's mama) which i am buying as soon as i start nate's robot room! (she also has these REALLY cool tags for when you take your babe to the nursery or a babysitter):
3. this website: regretsy.com which pokes fun at CRAZY products put on etsy.
4. these sweater boots from Urban Outfitters. TEENY TINY IMAGE.
5. SID the Science Kid on PBS. It's a show about this adorable little nerdy scientist named Sid whose household celebrates Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah! It's my favorite. (and a Jim Henson Productions creation!)


so yea for you if you had it through this long, rambling, disconnected post! i am not going to nominate ANYONE to receive an award just yet. in fact, i believe i will be designing a little award (bad ass blogger? skulls? yes?) and THEN i shall bestow it upon the blogosphere. how Kreative, right? BOOSH.

(also as a side note i am reverting back to the stupid blogger commenting system. disqus sucks. they both do. sigh.)

pu pu pu pumpkin

nash's mommy and nate's mommy (gag! shannon and i) took our boys to the pumpkin patch this friday. (seriously click on the link... nash in the overalls... running amongst the pumpkins... it makes me want to vom he's so cute!). The patch was a great success and, literally, SUPER FUN. nash and nate are fast friends and s & i also; we stand around giggling at the boys. for instance, nash thought all the pumpkins were "BALLS!" and nate thought all the pumpkins were "APPLES!" so they ran around screaming BALLAPPLPEAPPLEBALLBALLBALLAPPPLE for, oh, about two hours. it was pretty hilarious (and adorable. ahem, clearly.)
we tried to get their pictures in one of the MANY head-putter-inner picture thingeys (do they have a name?) but nate and nash just kept circling around and giggling and playing peekaboo and highfiveing... so it didn't so much happen. but look: NATE in an OWL. shocking, i know! (you better believe the word OWL in a part of his vocab.)
amongst the pumpkins (can you believe this was him last year?):

a true gq pose (bony hip out, shoulders back, gazing into the distance, hair in eyes, lips pouted out) (totally raising a metro):

and, cause it's cute:

my parents were in town for the rest of the weekend and we enjoyed some quiet time with them and nate (i made stew! we carved the pumpkin! we watched football! we raked leaves! we jumped in leaves!).

pretending pregnancy

so, real quick, i have to tell you that nate and i were running late to go to his little gym class this morning and i skipped breakfast. instead i gulped down a vitamin and chugged half a bottle of gatorade. this vitamin/gatorade combo had a seriously ILL EFFECT on me. halfway there, i started feeling pretty nauseous and like i was going to vom. i did what any normal person would do and dumped out my diaper bag all over the front seat just in case (if you are going to spew, spew in this style) of emergency spontaneous vomiting. i made it to the next light (the michaels/pizza hut/academy sports parking lot) and the saliva was FLOWING so i pulled in the back of the lot, opened my door, and threw up a bunch of liquid gatorade! honestly, it was fine. i was fine. just needed to get it out! this poor man with his umbrella and backpack sees me from the road and comes running over to check on me (how sweet, right?) and i TOLD HIM I WAS PREGNANT. cause i was real embarrassed to be puking, half in a parking spot, baby in the backseat, head hanging out the door! and i wanted to make him feel better (!!) (what is wrong with me?) and assure him i was fine and not THE DYING (cause i wasn't even sick AND am most certainly not pregs.) he said congratulations with a big goofy, knowing grin!

i mean REALLY. i feel ridiculous about the whole thing. pretending to be pregnant. that's the kind of karma that gets you knocked up real quick, right? JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH.

today i broke my blender

the kitchen smells like burnt blender rubber (i.have.no.idea.how.), it's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights and my small companion wants to go 'ousiiiii' NO LESS than every five minutes. (can you say CABIN FEVER.) (first local person to suggest the wonderplace gets a bullet to the brain. it's fun; there's only so many times i can go. and it's, uh, unfree. like many other fun, unfree places.) honestly, we aren't really that bored. i'm just REAL pissed my blender, like, broke (the same blender we use EVERY SINGLE MORNING to make breakfast shakes!) so i feel this gives me the right to complain about everything... cause, well, clearly.

for the record, i was TRYING to make cauliflower 'mashed potatoes' and the bit i salvaged (after slamming around the rubbery blender and waking nate from his nap!) tasted pretty swell. i would like to try again BUT it is literally POURING BUCKETS AND BUCKETS:

and if you have ever taken a kid to the grocery store in the rain (especially my store where they keep the carts outside so there are no dry carts; hence, no dry place for your little one to sit), it's not that fun!

PLUS our roof was SUPPOSED TO BE DONE today and, instead, the tiles/slats *what the hell are they called* SHINGLES? are still sitting half in and half out of my carport (which means i can't actually park in my carport!). in the meantime, the ceiling in our office keeps drip drip dropping. it's like a real SUPER AWESOME country song.

only really classy folk make PATIO SEATIN out of their future roof:

i mean where else would i set my 2 p.m. margarita? (WHICH I WOULD SO HAVE RIGHT NOW IF I HAD A FUCKING BLENDER!)

fall foliage is a fun f(ph)rase

so this weekend began, for me, on thursday evening (just like college!) (or, wait, did college weekends start wednesday?) with the cardinals game. the cardinals, my friends, had an error in the bottom of the 9th that cost them the game (and, arguably, the series) and me my sanity! i was standing, pacing our living room, screaming at the television like a crazy person. (don't worry...nate was asleep so he didn't have to witness his mommy throwing things at the television.) (and tweeting angrily.) THANKFULLY, i had some friends playing darts at the good ole VFW, so i was able to meet them and drown my baseball sorrows in cheap pitchers of beer and shuffleboard.

friday night i hit up happy hour with m&s (cause now that she has a boyfriend her blog name and layout totally have to change....HAHA!) for a bit, and then karl and i attended a rehearsal dinner at the Little Rock Club (schmancy!) for one of his childhood friends. We had a bit of a babysitting debacle so MANY MANY thanks to our friends brad&erin for coming over last minute and hanging out with Nate.

saturday brought not ONE but two weddings! karl attended #1 (his childhood friend) and I attended #2 (ben&kelly). Here is a shot of the alter:

It was so gorgeous. (gush, gush, gush) I did not bring my camera (trend as of late! sorry friends!) but there were candles and pumpkins and fall foliage EVERYWHERE. there were boots and hats and scarves and red tipped noses. the bride looked STUNNING (and smiley and happy as a bride should.) the groom and his groomsmen arrived to the ceremony VIA CANOES. they just paddled right up! there was a live band and fireworks and an outdoor bar and a bonfire and a tiered cupcake cake! I am sure E will have some pics up soon - it was an absolutely gorgeous affair! i was so happy to be included in their special day. BOOK CLUB FOR LIFE, yo.

today we had lunch with m&s once more - got to check this boy out before m jets off into the sunset. afterward we shipped nate off to gigi's so we could (you aren't going to believe this!) CLEAN OUR HOUSE. how sad is that? i know all of you with toddling children understand - it's near impossible to deep clean with a little one creating more mess as you go.

so here i sit, in my clean! and quiet! house.... feeling like a lucky and loved lady....blogging while post-bath naterade (footy pajamas!) gives 'ra-rro' some love.

on a blog housekeeping note, i know some of you were having issues with the new DISQUS commenting system - i changed it to let you comment with your twitter account also. please comment so i know you can OR, if you can't, email me. i have been SUPER frustrated with the blogger commenting system as of late, and i really want to switch over to wordpress. BUT i do feel some allegiance to blogger and i have been here so long! (HELLO MAY 2005!) (and i am opposed to change sometimes dammit!) I like people to know how to find me, how to get here, and not have to update their settings and feeds and blah blah blah. sigh. but i also want to be able to respond to readers via email (hence the attempt at disqus.) i have been playing around with wordpress templates. don't tell blogger.

don't you say i don't make things happen

so. er. um. uh. yea.

i totally colored my hair

AND

pierced my nose.

in the same day. i'm more of a jump right in kind of girl. and once i decide something, well i GO GO GO do it. PLUS i am super happy with both choices so that is a bonus.

my mom says that it is gross and she can't believe i stepped foot in a (gasp) tattoo parlor and that it is (fucking; yep she said that!) ugly. she (jokingly) suggested i wear a burka the next time we visited so she didn't have to see it. my dad thought i was joking and my sister (borrowing a phrase from my dad when i pierced my tongue way back when) said it was the mark of a retard. (for the record, none of us use the word retarded lightly but that expression does make me giggle. it's just wrong.) so, basically my family was very supportive and ON BOARD! one of my darling dearest best friends told me that i was going through a quarter life crisis and that i should do something less drastic like (and i quote) like "just get pregnant again." HA. others also gave the idea TWO THUMBS DOWN but i was a hopeless cause - not to be talked out of it! i figure i can take it out in a few months if i hate it, but i'm pleased as punch at the moment.

two of my besties (for the record, i am opposed to the expression 'besties' and am using it here in jest) kristen and melissa went with me to said tattoo parlor (7th street in Little Rock for all you local readers; they are quite professional. very, very pleased with my experience.)

kristen held my hands and i made a quiet little EEEEE sound as the post went through my nostril. i tried hard not to look at any of the equipment so if you have a technical question about this whole nose dot things, i am NOT your girl. i saw a corkscrewey thing on the post of my little dot and turned away. don't wanna know. did it hurt? yes. it felt like a super intense eyebrow wax. that still hurts the next day. and, yes, it also feels a little like there is a large boog in there so that will take some adjustment. also, i did ask if it would bleed which is something i did NOT do when i pierced my tongue way back when (the day of my 18th birthday b/c my parents would NOT take me before then!). the tongue bled and i was surprised and thought i was dying. the nose did not. (though she said some peoples do a little.)

i didn't know what side to get it on. i hadn't even thought about it until they asked and then i just blurted out right. i like my nose. i like my right side best. PERFECT, right? RIGHT SIDE it was. then, when i got home and googled "nose peircing" i discovered that many people think getting it in the left nostril helps with pain during child birth. huh. who knew? ah well, if my next labor is like my fast and furious first, i don't think the whole tiny dot in one nostril thing would help.

i have been OBSESSIVELY cleaning with the recommended antibacterial soap and a q-tip. which is super fun for me b/c my doctor doesn't allow me to use beloved q-tips in my ears. (i have ridiculously small ear canals and produce more wax than the average human being and q-tips are apparently bad for me.) (sometimes i use them anyway. i love a good q-tipping. who doesn't, right?!?! don't tell my doctor!)

so, here is my teensy teeny itty bitty new friend dottie. karl likes it! (he says he does anyway!) Honestly, it feels like its supposed to be on my face and i am sad i didn't do it sooner (ahem, in college as one of my darling dearest best friends suggested - "that's a college thing!" she said.) ah, well, too old, too fat, whatever, i don't care! I LIKE IT! i'm gonna rock it for awhile.


this is what nate did when he saw it:
laughing at me just like the rest of my family!

llama llama red pajama

isn't he sweet in his little dog (WOOF WOOF) pjs?

things i need recommendations on: (WARNING: COMPLETELY SELF INVOLVED AND RIDICULOUS POST AHEAD!!)

these are the ridiculous things i have been pondering lately re: my personal appearance.

1. should i cut my hair?
2. should i color my hair? (in college, my roomates and i once colored my (then blondish) hair a shade named SOFT BLACK. we took several shots of vodka before we rinsed that hair dye out! it was, uh, an interesting look for me.)
3. should i pierce my nose? (does it really leave a scar? would people really notice? i don't want to be the only 90 year old woman in my nursing home with a nose ring still in b/c i am terrified of scarring.) (is it completely silly to do at almost 29 years old?) (cause i know that a teensy teeny little nose dot would look totally adorable on me.)
4. should i get a (gasp) TATTTTTOOOO? (it would be my first. i am strongly opposed to tattoos on my own body. plus, i know if i got one... i would probably get another and then another and then before the year is out i'd have a sleeve and/or a naked lady on my forearm.)

these questions seem to indicate an identity crisis AN URGE TO DO SOMETHING as we celebrate fall! i want to do something FUN to combat my seasonal, uh, issues. i realize the majority of them MAY sound like a bit like a regression as far as personal appearance go but this whole i-don't-have-to-go-to-an-office thing AND the i-can-wear-work-out-clothes everyday thing is (while awesome) making me CRAVE doing something (semi) drastic. and none of them are harmful! i'm just saying: a new pair of shoes simply will not cut it!

help internetz.

(END COMPLETELY SELF INVOLVED POST).

live laugh love: this expression (commercialized) annoys me

WHY IS IT EVERYWHERE?

live: today i ran two miles. and it felt good.
laugh: today nate ran across the room and slammed his face into my leg.
love: today karl steam cleaned the rug in our living room.

I know everyone is excited about fall (and i am too) but I am also a little nervous b/c i get all Seasonal Affective Disorderey around weather changing times. I am trying to really take things slower this fall and to really appreciate where we are right now. I am trying not to think about cooking and cleaning and playing with nate as chores per say (though there is nothing glam about cleaning the bathroom or changing diapers... I don't care who you are!) and instead trying to really live (yea, yea, and laugh and love - put it on a tshirt or coffee mug) in the moment.

i have discovered this to be quite challenging - more so than i might have realized. i think in the past i was very, very focused on the NEXT. for instance...the next job, the next project, the next pay check, the next vacation, the next house, the next car, hell, the next trip to the grocery store or next load of laundry. While I still think about these things, i am trying not to put all my energy into them. (and, more importantly, i am not going to stress about the ones i am not able to obtain immediately.) i am trying to be calmer (ask me about my calmess when i couldn't find my car keys last week and we were late to meet up with friends and i threw (and broke) the remote control to our fan.) (what? we never use that remote anyway. AND what kind of pansy fan comes with a remote i ask you!?) and less cluttered (i have thrown away and given away SO MUCH in the past month; i am quite proud.) (i went on one particular binge after watching the show Hoarders for the first time. it frightened me. i told Karl I thought i had a hoarding disorder. He laughed. I threw away a bunch of old purses and clothes that will never fit me again.)

por ejemplo:
BWHAHAH. there are so many things WRONG with these two articles of clothing that i can't believe i am sharing them with you. THE SHIRT: 1. it has the word HUSTLA on it (which stems from an inside joke b/w me and my mom wherein i stumbled in my parents house at 2 a.m. after rounds of (VERY SUCCESSFUL) darts proclaiming i was a hustler... then proceeded to vomit for a few hours.) 2. i don't believe i could fit my left BOOB in that shirt. i'm pretty sure it shrunk a little and i have unshrunk a little but JESUS. Then, THE SHORTS: i know you can't see it in the picture but the word BUD is SPARKLED. jealous? they are in the goodwill bag. i only hope some young girl stumbles across them, wears them inappropriately for years, pushes them to the back of her closet, and finds them again (post a baby of course!) at the ripe old age of 28 and laughs and laughs.

ANYWAY, the point is: lessening of the clutter has helped me feel less stressed. and i think it is helping in the whole livelaughloveliveinthemomentbullshit i am all hopped up about! my kitchen and fridge have been so clean and uncluttered the past few days that i have even COOKED! (not just like pasta in a pot; MEALS!) so, hopefully, the transition into fall and into this new mommyhood lifestyle will be a smooth one.

if not, well, there's always HUSTLING.

birthday and baby

for his 29th birthday (saturday!) nate got karl a big fat hug. and, uh, a diaper.

nate also learned to read. (fair warning: it's kinda long.) (but brilliant.) (clearly.)

Wednesday is ANTM Night AND/OR An Excuse To Eat Cheese

so, there is this thing we do every wednesday night at my house. we (usually about 8 or 9 lovely ladies depending on schedules and what not) watch the terrible trash that is America's NEXT Top Model. (referred to as ANTM.) it's awesome in its ridiculousness. tyra is batty in a way that you JUST HAVE TO WATCH. (for instance, this past week she coined the term SMIZE. which means Smile With Your Eyes. er. eyez i guess. she introduced the word as an 'alter ego' in a super hero costume with a shiny silver cape that had the word SMIZE emblazoned on it. and all episode they were all "ARE YOU SMIZING? YOU AREN'T SMIZING!! SMIZE BITCH!" here is a 46 second clip.) we have decided that ANTM should offer our party OUR OWN REALITY SHOW about watching this particular REALITY SHOW. you know, mystery science theater 3000 style. how awesome would that be? (i am sure there is a HUGE market of fans for that!)

basically, the format of the evening is this:

we bring food and beer. here are some examples of the menu:

last week: two little ceasars pizza's, cheese bread, a bag of twix, cream cheese and triscuits, seven layer dip, chocolate chip ice cream with cones, and, oh yea!, a veggie tray

this week: cheese dip from mexico chiquito, ranch cheddar cheese dip, cheese sticks, california rolls, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies with icing, spinach dip and crackers

so what i'm trying to say is: it's real healthylike. and we chow down as we yell at the models to EAT A HAMBURGER ALREADY. (or some cheese!)

then nate entertains us for awhile and we put him to bed. (karl is banned from the house on wednesday nights. ok, well it's partially a ban and mostly his own choice. he goes and has drinks with his people elsewhere.) the episode goes on and we yell at the tv and each other. particularly this cycle as it is for "short girls" of 5'7 and under. (i am 5'1; melissa is 5'10. the war rages on.) this is maybe the third or fourth cycle of ANTM we have had these gatherings. we are REALLY, REALLY good at predicting things like who is going to freak out at makeover week and who is going to get kicked off AND AND AND we are the best at predicting the order of the photos (the judges call them out best to worst and we scream names the entire panel. it's loud and snarky and absolutely amazing.) sometimes we hang out longer, sometimes everyone leaves right after the show.

this post has no point, just to offer a glimpse and say: i love wednesdays!

i don't so much love thursday mornings:

sundays are for ballers

i really have been BOMBING with the camera work lately AND i have been taking LESS images than normal, but, eh, well, whatever.

so big, n'est-ce pas?

this sunday i am simultaneously watching the emmys, the cardinals and cubs, AND a show on lifetime that i can't admit publicly to watching. I AM ONE TALENTED WOMAN.

i do have some nuggetz of internetz love:

• a new take on the snuggie
• a funny re: miley... i thought it was funny anyway.
  
• AND, for all designers out there: here. #1 request: MAKE MY LOGO BIGGER. the mockumercial is worth a gander.
  
• AND AND AND (and maybe everyone knows this but me) but when you are typing in the blogger editor (i think anytime you are typing in the firefox browser) and you misspell and it underlines it with that dotty red line... DID YOU KNOW you can right click and the magic computer dictionary will give you spelling options? WHY WHY did I not know this? for me, this revelation is similar to the amazingness of the CTRL+F light bulb of many, many, many moons ago.
  

i don't have a lot on the agenda this week. i feel guilty (irrationally) telling you that i will probably park it in front of the TV all week. i definately become a tv junkie early fall. karl and i keep discussing cable cancellation and i'm all "pshhhst. of COURSE we can cancel cable." and then things like TONIGHT happen where i want to watch THREE things at once and curse our DVR for only being able to record two at once. (and not let you watch the third! the HORROR. the TRAGEDY.) so, yea, i'll be on my couch. gaining back any weight i may have lost in the past two weeks.

please forgive my funk

it always happens after several weekends away.

THE FUNK.

it creeps. and crawls. and makes me stop drinking water. and forces copious amounts of mac n cheese down my throat.

it's hard to see your long time, far away friends' and their new babies and bellies and realize you are only going to see them a handful of times a year. i tried desperately to love on all of them in the short time we were there. there are blogs and photos and emails but sometimes i think too much about what could be if all them behbeys were in one city. (i think it would make for some happy mamas!) but such is life and we are where we are and blah blah blabbity blah. i don't intend to move to tulsa or wherever they live and i doubt any of them would like to uproot to good ole A-R. sigh. LETS ALL MOVE TO, uh, MEXICO? CANADA? EUROPE? Piedmont, North Dakota?

we'd probably all kill one another within a week.

so while i am off drowning my sorrows with a nice, gnarly cab, i leave you with these completely unedited and crappy but totally hilarious images:




KISS KISS friends. yes, that is a mirror.

a berf day

a few months ago (with the help of some adorable stock art) i designed these for baby knight's tulsa shower. i have the high res pdf but i didn't want you to be that nosy about it so i took a picture.
the header typeface is called felttip marker and the other text is in the ITC Bauhaus family. i'm way into vectory-children-ey art these days. (surprise.) i was rather fond of these invites - b loves geee-rafs and the shower was all jungle-ey so it seemed like a perfect fit. PLUS it was her BIRTHDAY so it was a Birth Day Celebration. GET IT? GET IT? B designed the cutest invites for my shower so i felt rather under (self) pressure. See - how cute are these? For real.
anyway, the shower was wonderful. sarah and jenny and i have similar planning styles (read: we get shit done.) so it seemed less stressful than past events (or maybe we are just getting REALLY GOOD at throwing parties after years of weddings and babies.). plus we had decor help from melissa and dessert help from ashley which was WONDERFUL. so many people love brooke and are supporting her and paul and baby knight already.

i was happy with my cheese tray piling skillz (VERY important lifeskill; who knew?) (F i love cheese.):

and the whole delicious food table:
and the GEEEEEEEE-rafe cake Jenny ordered:

and the freaking amazing cupcakes Ashley made.
I was OBSESSED with the panda. i mean, seriously, LOOK AT HIM and his oreo haunches:

anyway, enough about the FOOD. ON TO THE PREGNANT LADY FRIEND:
she chose to reveal her baby's name this day and did so via onsie gift opened by hostesses (oddly, we all have BOY BABIES. landen, nate, and maddox also can't wait for their new friend parker to arrive.)
quite honestly i didn't understand what was happening for a moment (mostly cause i was all giggley on wine), until sarah said "here, take #1!" and i was all OOOOHHHHHH.
welcome little parker. we can't wait to post your pictures all over the interwebz.

more pics here from Jax and here from B herself!

cause somedays you just need to cry

these are from last week. nate had, uh, a day. THE DAY OF TEARS we shall call it. not a thing was right in the world for nate on this day. it was frightening and sad and humorous all at once. i did what any stellar mom would do - i took pictures.

¿Dónde está la biblioteca?

WELL HEY. Here I am blogging for books! Friday Sept 3rd was the official day the 'Blogging for Books!' posts were supposed to be published; however, uh, I have a one year old, so maybe i was, uh, reading books to him. er. The cow says MOOOO. (yes, my excuse is super lame, but I'm here now! We'll call my post a REMINDER and/or a LAST MINUTE PUSH before game time!)

So, yea, this Thursday I will be attending an event in Little Rock to benefit Reach Out and Read Arkansas. This organization provides resources to families to encourage reading in the home. Nate has received a board book at each of his pediatric visits so I think our clinic benefits from this program.

The event is all because of TWITTER. (all you twitter haters please take note!) It's a TWESTIVAL. TWAZY, huh? (too much? yea, sorry.) If you are in Little Rock and would like to attend, here is a link to more info and here is the official LRTweetup site. It's 10 dollars and a book and at the Clinton Library. (Bill would love it, right?)

Books&Babies is a topic close to my heart. I am a VORACIOUS reader and I credit my parents for starting me off on the right foot. and for letting me read stephen king at age 12. (can the dark half be considered my favorite childhood book?) and mary higgins clark. and james patterson. (people mock ole JP but I vividly remember being mesmerized by Along Came A Spider.)

I digress. I think my favorite CHILDHOOD book was, uh, huh. I clearly remember thumbing through a well-loved Aesop's Fable book at a very young age. And I wore out my copy of Baby Island which is a ridiculous book about a sinking ship and two teenage girls marooned with four infants. And then I tore through The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and then, you know, silly 90s book like The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High and, uh, V.C. Andrews. I've probably read a solid 40 or so books this year and I've been on a huge biography kick. (why, no my laundry is never done, thanks for asking.) Most are from the library, but I do purchase occasionally or read them on my ereader. And, why, yes, yes i do arrange them by color on my bookshelf. thanks for noticing.
I am trying really hard to instill a love of books in my babe. We currently attend several library story times (our favorite is the Main Library on Mondays - they have a great program and FREE!) Nate's first birthday party was a bookworm themed party (complete with wormy dirtcake) and he already has quite the library. it makes me happy when he brings a book over and climbs in my lap.
so basically, i am supporting this and, if you have the opportunity, you should too! Or look for a local program in your area. Or just READ TO YOUR BABIES. (Mooo baaaa lalala.)

what is your favorite childhood book?

and then we did some other stuff

i have already forgotten the rest of our trip. it is now a blur of walking and eating and, uh, walking. i do know that we got lazy on the last day and ate too close to times square and spent $50 on an egg sandwich, potato pancakes (burned and nasty), and a mushy fruit bowl. yuck.

let's see: this will be saturday, sunday, monday:
NYC PART 3:

saturday morning (STILL RAINING!) i was dying to go to a Yankees game, but with the rain.... we decided to skip it. instead, we hit up the manhattan children's museum where some little girl punched nate in the face (barely) and he lost his shit. lost. it. and then every time another child came near him he cried like the world was ending. it was sad and slightly embarrassing (happy, playing children everywhere and nate screaming his head off) but also somewhat entertaining. i mean, what can you do? nate needs a bit to warm up to new places. it's hard to remember that when karl and i just want to jump right in and play!

we, uh, did some more stuff saturday. uh, OH YEA. the weather cleared up and we ate dinner out-a-doors in bryant park and they had these ridiculously tall breadsticks that kept nate entertained for THREE HOURS. we had multiple drinks with dinner. it was awesome!


sunday, we hit up the bronx zoo.
where we walked and walked and walked (and, oh, did i mention walked?) and it was big and fun and nate thought all the animals were "DOG! DOG!" We also pondered questions like:
we met phillip and his girlfriend for dinner in the lower east side. nate was for sure the only baby in that restaurant. eh. we stayed too late (nate's dinner: ketchup. licked off the french fries. very healthy.) and nate crashed on the subway:
monday we partook in aforementioned 50 dollar breakfast and wandered around Central Park for a few hours. Nate loved the horses (of the horse drawn carriages). We realized this was his first time to see a horse. We had to bring our child to MANHATTAN to see a horse. That's ridiculous. Eventually, we meandered toward the airport where i had to restrain karl from purchasing something from this (just because he could. not because he actually needed/wanted something):
our flight home was uneventful and (after some squirming) nate slept through it.

so, yea, that wraps up my NYC recaps. thanks for listening! would i do it again? yes. and no. i'm just saying - it would have been super nice to hop in a cab. or not question whether a restaurant was receptive to little ones. or come spilling out of a bar at 2 a.m. HA. but i'm still glad we went and that we are starting to share some of our favorite places with our favorite little person.

next trip we are hoping for west coast - maybe i am a west coast kind of girl also!

i hope everyone is having a fabulous and long labor day weekend.

i'm for sure an east coast kind of girl

growing up in the midwest (STL, what what! oh, wait, you didn't know i hail from the Show Me State? HA.), i always wanted to move to the west coast. i really thought i was a west coast kind of girl. i mean, when i read the babysitters club, i TOTALLY wanted to be Dawn not Stacey. (Stacey dots her i's with hearts. i mean REALLY.) my parents took us to california, uh, sometime (sorry mom and dad. it was a blast.), and i totally wanted to be a california girl.

(on a side note, does anyone remember that show? california dreams? early 90s? on before or after Saved by the Bell maybe? i found this on youtube and i PROMISE it is worth the 58 second watch. anyone? anyone? for some reason this show made an impression on me... probably fit in with my dreams of moving to CA to become a beach babe in my butterfly bikini.)

(uh, don't wake me up cause i am dreaming!)

Anyway, I thought California was, like, totally rad and I totally wanted to rollerblade live there. Like, really. (Hair flip.) (Yes, that was my teenage impression of CA. deal with it. i live in arkansas now where some people think we are obese, toothless and illiterate.) NOW I haven't been to the West Coast in my adult life, so my comparison might be a little off. BUT I can most assuredly say that the first moment i stepped off the plane in LaGuardia I knew I was (could be?) an east coast kind of girl. Seriously, in the airport. The energy, the ugly, the people one on top of each other, THE CUSSING (oh the cussing!), the instant gratification, the transportation options, the i'll-talk-to-you-briefly-but-don't-need-to-know-your-life-story attitude. (I grew up in a large city; you would think i would not have been quite so STRUCK. but i was.)

(on a side note, i would be happy to stay in Little Rock. Home is where Karl and Nate are and I love it here. But if the opportunity to move popped up (wherever...would depend on the opportunity, right?), we would probably take it.)

ANYWAY.

The first time Karl and I went to NYC we did it up tourist style - bus tour, theater, central park, MoMA, the Met, fancypants restaurants. It. was. awesome. The second time we went, we stayed with cousin Phillip on the Lower East Side and we did as he and his friends did - yankees game, restaurants where the waitstaff actually speaks their native german or french, rooftops, comedy clubs. It. was. awesome. THIS TIME we did it up family style. And it was also awesome.

Yet, I can understand why there aren't a terrible # of children in manhattan; I also think that with kids you probably would stick to your 6 or 8 block radius (or you live in Brooklyn and hire a babysitter to come into the city!). We did NOT bring a car seat and opted for the trains and the subways. This worked out quite well except for THE STAIRS and THE STROLLER and the TURNSTYLES. (i totally get the maclaren mamas now - it's not just a $250 umbrella stroller! it's sturdy yet easy to fold AND lightweight enough to carry up and down the stairs (with the baby still in it!) and fits on the skinny escalators. uh, unlike mine. which we had to fold up. which means one of us had to carry the stroller and one the baby. i tried to sling him and carry him but you. walk. a. lot. and he is heavy. and many of the places we went (zoos, museums) we wanted a stroller. it was challenging for sure. especially because it rained all day friday and saturday (we still did a lot of walking in the rain, but opted for transport when it was pouring. by saturday i was tempted to just get in a cab. i saw other infants and toddlers carseatless in cabs, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.)

Here are some of the things we did: (Ahem, I present: NYC Part 2!)

Friday:
As mentioned it was raining. We (of course in our sparse suitcase) did NOT have an umbrella nor any sort of rain gear. We walked out of our hotel and bought an umbrella no less than 10 feet out the door. SOLVED. BOOSH.
We went to see the dinosaur rawr at the Museum of Natural History:
we ate and napped (karl and i got used to an afternoon nap!) and headed to THE APPLE FLAGSHIP STORE on 5th Ave. Snow Leapord was released while we were there and it was actually pretty nerdycool to buy it there. it was crazy busy and we were checked out in line by an employee walking around with a credit card swipey. Crazy Efficient.
We headed next door to FAO Schwartz (which I am told is much cooler during the Holidays.) The BIG piano was fun, but, other than that, not so exciting.

We hit up Times Square and packed it in for the evening. Crappy photo. Sorry. We wanted to see how far away we could get from the stroller before people started noticing.
There will be one final post (NYC: Part 3) and then I am DONE. (stick a fork in me.) i have like fourteen other blogs in my head i need to get out there as well. stay TUNED friends! (was it too much?)