Sunday, June 27, 2010

Kids These Days

Kids these days advance so quickly...



I knew mom would get a kick out of these :)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Wrightsville Beach 2010

Finally! These are the pictures from our trip to Wrightsville Beach last week. I don't have time to blog about the trip tonight but I'll try to do it soon. You can see from the first few pictures how humid it was down there!! The pictures are pretty self-explanatory though.














Friday, June 18, 2010

#89 - Get some sort of indoor pet

When we go to the beach, I would rather spend my time looking for seashells rather than playing in the waves or laying out, to tell you the truth. I can walk up and down the beach for hours (much to the chagrin of the people I am with usually) collecting animals and shells, without a care in the world. Nothing much was different this trip to the beach except that Jennifer (sister-in-law) was also a fan of this.

I love the ocean. I love getting in the warm water when it's too hot to stand the sand any longer. I love playing in the waves. I love swimming. BUT. I hate the freezing water. I hate stepping on something squishy or sharp and not knowing what it is. I hate swimming and seeing a jellyfish right next to me at the last second. I hate trying to pick up a shell and watching it scuttle away because it's a crab and I would have freaked out if I had stepped on it. So, there it is.

Anyway, so I was spending my time walking along the ankle-deep to knee-deep water catching shells and attempting to catch fish when I found this really cool shell... which started moving. I had caught a hermit crab! Yes!


I am keeping him in one of Brianna's beach toys for now (she wasn't using this one anyway - she was more interested in her shovel and the shells we were collecting). The problem is, I know what to feed him, I just don't know how long I'm actually going to be able to keep him alive. If he had died already I would have felt really guilty bringing him home but at this point I think he's doing pretty well.

A couple of years ago we had an indoor dog for the first time and we found out that I'm mildly (but irritating-ly) allergic to dogs in confined spaces. Stephen doesn't like cats because they shed too much indoors. So my choices for an indoor pet were becoming limited. Before we were married and the year we were in Charleston, we owned several "exotic" pets - scorpions, tarantulas, and snakes were the big ones because they were the easiest to care for. When I made this goal on my 101 list I was really thinking that I'd be able to convince Stephen to go for a kitten. I've since realized that the only cat he'll agree to is a hairless one (AGGGH!! Scary!!)

and it turns out that although I love kittens I don't particularly like cats. I really just wanted something to snuggle with, and now that we have a 14-month old (yikes! today is her 14-month birthday!) who has time to snuggle during the day?? So Crab is as close as I'm going to get to having an indoor pet. And I'm marking this off.

I will put up beach pictures soon, I promise. I haven't even looked at them yet.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Preparing for Vacation Part 2

This is what I've been doing to prepare for vacation for Brianna...

It makes me feel like Suzy Homemaker.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Preparing for Vacation

In just a few days we're taking our first vacation with Brianna in 2010. We went to the beach with her in 2009, and while it wasn't a disaster, it wasn't the most fun trip ever. She was about four months old, compared to fourteen months this time.

2009: She slept on the queen bed next to us.
2010: If we tried to do that now she would leap off in about ten seconds. I guess we're going to attempt a Pack 'n' Play or a crib, whichever the hotel offers.

2009: We tried to go on the beach but it was windy and cold, so Brianna didn't want to be out for very long.
2009: She also wasn't a big fan of the water.
2010: We're going almost three months earlier so I know it won't be cold!!
2010: She loves playing in the water now, and has been practicing here at the house in her Scooby-Doo pool.

2009: She still fit in the Baby Bjorn so we carried her everywhere in that when our arms got tired.
2010: She weighs over twice as much and doesn't fit in the Bjorn, but can't walk yet. We're going with more people this time though, so between all of us, carrying her shouldn't be an issue! Plus we'll bring our stroller this time.

2009: I was still nursing her so packing for the beach wasn't an issue. Diapers? Check. An outfit or two? Check. Boobs? Check.
2010: Not only is she not nursing but it seems like she eats every 30 minutes. Now packing is going to be much more of a hassle. Diapers? Check. An outfit or two? Check. Bananas? Check. Milk? We'll buy that when we get there. Cheerios? Check. Applesauce? In progress. Carrots pureed and frozen? In progress. Mashed potatoes? In progress. You get my point. I have to make sure she has a variety of foods to last her four days or else she's going to end up eating bananas and Chef Boyardee products the last two days we're there.

We are leaving on Saturday so today and tomorrow are all about starting the food preparations for her. That way if I see on Friday I haven't made enough I can run out and buy some more stuff. At least we're getting our food co-op box today - that will mean more carrots, tomatoes, beets and squash for her, so that will help out some.

Monday, June 7, 2010

For the Record

Just so I can be "on the record", I think I should take a guess at the gender of Jenn's latest baby. I really don't have any feelings about this one - I never have "feelings" and if I do they are rarely correct - but my guess is going to be a boy.

I think with 50% of Matthew's blood flowing in the veins, having a boy is a great possibility. We'll find out later tonight at the Gender Reveal party!!

Plus, I think if it's a boy it will be great because we can roll our eyes in unison at everything boys do as they get older together.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Picture Update

I was taking a really cute video of Brianna today, and my camera just stopped. Memory full. Oops, my bad. I started uploading pictures and I had some on my camera from February, so that shows how far behind I am. I tried just to pick the best of the best to put on here.

She loves looking through anything colored:




Testing the waters of walking with assistance:


I wiped her out!


She makes sure she has a beverage when she's riding around on her pony:


She loves to play the piano:


Our idea of lounging poolside:





Background of this video: Jenn, Matt and Claire gave Brianna a drumset for her birthday that included a recorder. This video is not very good - I started taping and I was walking backwards at the same time to turn a light on, and then something happened with my camera and it stopped taping. I switched to the video camera and the end results on that was 20 minutes of her playing the recorder. This video is not nearly that long but it gives you the Reader's Digest version of that night:



Brianna loves to walk, she just hasn't grasped the concept of letting go and walking more than three steps at a time by herself. She has a small walker that she usually uses; for some reason this day she chose to walk around with her exersaucer instead. Much bulkier but really funny when she does this:

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

May Goals

Having three blogs (this one, the frugal one, and the recipe one) has really come in handy. People who read my blog only to read about Brianna don't have to read my frugal tips, and recipes don't get lost in the jumble of my other posts. But it's also a hassle sometimes. Do I post my recipe for homemade baby wipes solution on my frugal blog or recipe blog? Do I post my creation of homemade spaghetti sauce on this blog (101 in 1001 list) or my recipe blog? Do I just do the same post on two separate blogs when this occurs? I haven't figured it out yet.

But I am starting to create goals for every month. For example, the goals for May were:
  • $100 grocery budget
  • make 6 new recipes
  • get 5 books read and out of the house
  • sell $5 worth of items on eBay
  • clean out our silverware drawer
  • make X amount of money for our savings account
Unfortunately, I busted our budget by $12.88. BUT, I met my goals of making 6 new recipes, getting 5 books read and out of the house, selling over $5 on eBay, and our silverware drawer is neat as a pin. I also made more money for our savings account than I had planned. Yay! Last night I created my new goals for June. I don't really remember what they are because I couldn't sleep so I created them sometime after midnight last night. But here they are, so I'm sticking with them!


  • $100 grocery challenge as usual
  • 6 new recipes
  • 5 books read and gone from the house
  • $10 worth of items sold on eBay
  • write 1 article (I haven't written an article in ages and I'd love to have the extra cash again!)
  • clean our my nightstand drawers (you should hear ominous music with this goal... those drawers are atrocious!)
  • make X amount of money to go towards our savings
I am pretty pumped! I love making goals and I love reaching them. I have started reading this blog called Frugal & Simple Living and I love this girl! She is so much like me, with the decluttering and goal setting and making toys for her son.... okay so I don't make toys. But I would if I had the knowledge! Anyway, that's why some of the goals are just to declutter (get five books gone, sell items of my own on eBay, etc.) because I feel like the simple life is just better! For me, anyway.

Brianna's waking up so I have to end this now. Does anyone else have goals for the month of June? I'd love to hear them!