Who Wore it Better?

It's time for a new segment and it's up to you to decide which baby made the shirt more adorable.

Wait-no-really, no voting. Just admiring these wardrobe sharing munchkins!

Beachy Keen

The upside to a last-minute escape from town? time at a gorgeous beach with the kids.

The downside? An exhausted two-year-old that will use ANY excuse to refuse sleep.

We enjoyed a perfect afternoon at the beach. We watched waves, put our feet in the water, took a walk, we sidestepped poison oak, we birded and we ate sand (well just Ali).

When it was over we headed to get dinner and then spent time in the hot tub, however, that luxury soon brought up a familiar issue: at some point we HAD to get Ri to bed.....in a hotel room you say? We tried a long walk, dimmed lights, TV, no TV. She wouldn't be foiled by her familiar crib, pillows and favorite bed time drink. After all, it's time to party (she thought).

Ri partied until I finally slept. I think that it was the first time she's ever seen me sleep. EVER. She kept popping up in her bed and telling her dad "Uh oh, 'deah-DIN', oh no!" Really, truly, it's not an "uh oh" when "DeahDIN" gets sleep, I need more of it and so do you little Mittster!

P.S. ever the background or sidekick to her dramatic big sister, I had to notice how adorable B'dah is clinging to me with a sweet but smirky monkey face!

Swing Like it's Friday

Last Friday evening we walked to the park by grandma and grandpa's house and the girls had a blast. Riley's finally over her extreme fear of heights and can handle swinging really high, and B'dah is, well, cool with whatever (except DON'T ask her to wear a sun hat) So we had a really nice time enjoying a cooler end to a warm day!
















*If you look carefully you can see remnants of Riley's self-pedicure (toes, toe nails and shins painted white) and you may also notice that she's wearing the baby's sun hat, someone might as well get use out of it.

Oh These Burdemsome Babies

Ms. Mitts can be a devoted doll-mom. Last night we left the house on a walk and instead of bringing just one “dolly”, she brought three! Insisting on carrying all the dolls, along with her new Matchbox truck, Riley created a spectacle. She walked over half a mile carrying and dropping and repositioning her armload.

Recently, she’s very off-put by the camera; however, she was amiable for these two photos because I asked to take a photo of the dolls, and what proud mom doesn’t want to show off her babies?! (and truck)

Don't mind me, I'm just ruining your life...

Sure she's been great for her breathing treatments, if she has my phone, but she's gotten into some nasty habits doing this and it's sort of wrecking my life: deleting emails of bills I have yet to pay, ruining my organization systems, emailing business contacts for NO reason, tweeting random letters or words, tweeting whatever comes when you hit "paste" and the ever-popular deleting apps move she pulls. Though deleting applications does challenge my visual memory (hmm, there's blank space, what used to be here?), I have to conjure up visual maps of my preferred set up and reinstall the missing parts.

I've kind of had enough and I've had to cut her off the "BaBum" cold turkey. I mean I'm all for YouTube, Angry Birds, the ipod and letting her view the albums of "B'dah" pictures. But I really can't stand her in my email or deleting things. And so far I haven't found a way to lock my email and require a password for just that.

I got to work the other morning and checked my work email and was surprised to see an email from myself in my inbox. Ohmuhgaw, I thought, if she's emailed me, who else has she emailed and for how long. Let's just say that when I checked my "sent mail", it wasn't pretty at all.

And if you've sent an email that I haven't responded to, now you know why I haven't responded. (I've been hacked...by a mitt)







P.S. Her lungs sound "great" now, so at least the breathing treatments are working well for her!

Teton Flashback

I finally got a glimpse of a few of the real photos from the wedding! I have to admit, I was shocked by how much teenier that Mitt was, just 11 months ago. (not to mention Alison, who's teenie-in-the-tummy).

The photos are gorgeous, and I forgot how breath-taking the day was. Very changeable weather, sun, rain, fog and loads of wild flowers.

*NOTE: the look of "I will run down any of you-who get in my way-determination" in Ri's eyes as she attempts to propel herself from the Radio Flier wagon. Mitt, you're ridic, absolutely, stubborn and "redic"!*

Safety First (good gaw bdah edition)

I tend to go overboard when I vacuum, and it can take a really long time. So to maximize nap comfort and hearing protection, we went for the professional ear muffs.

(this also worked to maximize the ridiculousness and chubby cheeks)

Old Town Sacramento & Baths (by train)

So the "Baths" part, that was written on our tickets, really confused me. The confusion was cleared up on the train ride, we traveled south along the river and the point at which we turned around was what used to be a "Baths" stop. It was demolished in the 60's to make room for I-5. Which is too bad, I would love to have seen it.

Riley was so unabashedly excited about riding the train (or "benn" as she says it), she was literally awestruck and a little subdued by the awesomeness that was a real train!

























































(for those keeping track, ali-bdah, not so impressed)

An Old Town Saturday

We got a wonderful visit a couple weekends ago, my grandparents came all the way from Southern California to see us. Well, who are we kidding, they came to see the tiny girls!

We had a wonderful weekend and I have a few minutes to snap photos while we were waiting to ride the train in Old Town Sacramento.

I can tell that my grandma has had a ton of experience with little ones, not just her four kids, but she watched all of my cousins and my siste. I was impressed, Grandma handles miss. B'dah like a natural!

It happened again…

…a couple days of not eating well, then yesterday it seemed the cycle started again: the vomiting and all-night cough.
We’ve been celebrating a two-pound weight gain, better coloring and a much improved appetite when we hit another speed bump. I thought her appetite was going downhill for a few days, but I was hoping it was timing, the food, my choices or presentation, but I also felt this might be the fact that we’d started scaling back her meds over the last 2 weeks.

Then yesterday I was just celebrating a mealtime success, the tofu and quinoa w/ tomatoes that I’d carefully cooked, didn’t stay down. Last night I heard her cough a few times after she went to sleep and then I heard that familiar cough all night. It happened a few times an hour. I’d hear it and although it’s not terribly loud or rattle-y, it’s too familiar and worrisome and brings back this prickly feeling of half-asleep-maternal-panic and I think “oh no, be quiet, not again, I’m not getting up, and please don’t throw up”.

Swing set after sunset

After an evening walk to the bank we stopped by our little local park. Even though it was around 8 o’clock , there was still a lot of light in the sky. Plenty of light to see and play at the park, climb ladders and go down slides which was good, because Ri needed to use up a little more energy and it was great to have her expend her energy outside (rather than destroying our house)!

They make a cute pair on the swings.