Second to Last Post About C's Hair

This would be the last post about C's hair, but we're getting it cut for reals tomorrow, so I'll have to show you the final result.

Anyway, C's finally taken responsibility for her actions and found a solution all on her own. I actually think it looks pretty good.



Much better than this, which is what it looks like 99% of the time:




I like to give my mom a hard time for buying such an ugly little doll for C, so you can understand why I was uncomfortable when I noticed the striking resemblence between the two. As D's sister said, "It's a nappy-headed girl with her nappy-headed doll."

That's sad, but not as sad as this...Someone at church last week asked my friend who the little girl with the mullet was. Hopefully, we'll be mullet-free tomorrow!

Finally!

Our little O is walking.



Blooper Reel




(My favorite - as you can tell by my embarrassing nasal snort/laugh)

My Favorite Birthday Present

This is her "I did somefing naughty" face.

Thank you to D's sister and husband!

Now our public outings won't be quite as embarrassing.

P.S. We are planning on cutting her hair short...just waiting for our trusted hair stylist to get back in town.

The big two-seven

Happy birthday to B. For your reading pleasure, here are 27 fun facts about the birthday girl.

1. She's never gone to bed without flossing her teeth. Honest.
2. She flosses both sides of her mouth at the same time. You should have her give you a demonstration.
3. She knows every word to a certain Ludacris song, the title of which I won't say since it's her birthday and there's a pretty good chance she'd delete this post altogether.
4. Her signature dish these days is ribs. They give Sweetwater Tavern in Detroit a run for its money.
5. She once tried to smuggle a bunch of candy out of a Halloween party by stockpiling it underneath her elf hat, but got busted when my sister knocked the hat off her head with a pool cue and the candy went flying everywhere.
6. She's got some mad couponing skillz.
7. She's a sucker for just about any chick flick, but pleasantly surprised me by conceding "PS I Love You" was, in fact, pretty crappy.
8. Her patience with C and O is boundless.
9. She owns more shoes at the moment than I've owned in my entire life.
10. Every so often her Michigander accent still shines through. Have her pronounce barrette for you sometime.
11. Have you ever tried her homemade oreos?
12. She's a deceptive 5'2. The whole first summer we knew each other, I thought she was 5'8.
13. She's still a very good basketball player and can whip me in HORSE.
14. I've never seen her more distraught than when C cut her hair.
15. She is really, really tough. If you've heard her birth stories, you know.
16. She falls asleep during movies faster than anyone I've ever met.
17. Come over and watch her straighten her hair sometime. It's quite the process.
18. She used to work in a microbiology lab examining old Domino's pizzas for salmonella.
19. Someone really needs to humble her at Boggle, as I am incapable.
20. She's desperately searching for a converter box on craigslist these days so she can watch So You Think You Can Dance.
21. I have never laughed harder than when she busted out her old coronet and played "Tale as Old as Time."
22. Despite #15, she got worked over by her older sister in a wrestling match a few years ago, and is still making excuses about it to this day.
23. She regularly goes through 3 to 5 sets of tongs whenever she BBQs (see #18 for explanation).
24. One time she slept in a parking garage at the Pisa Airport when she was 6 months pregnant. We didn't have a car at the time either.
25. She's a very good sport when it comes to trying hole-in-the-wall foreign restaurants. She's come a long ways from her Chili's/Applebee's days. Which reminds me, I just heard about a Honduran baleada joint in Richardson...
26. Her guilty pleasure is The Bachelor/Bachelorette.
27. She wanted to rent her wedding dress rather than buy. That's when I knew I was marrying the right girl.

I have another child too...

He just doesn't create a lot of blog worthy drama around here (and that's why he's my favorite right now). I took him for his 15 month check-up on Friday.

Length: 29 1/4 in. (5%)

Weight: 18 pounds 1.5 oz (<3%)

Head Size: 18 1/4 in. (10-25%)

Stats like those combined with the fact that he's still not walking make him seem much younger than he is. But that's fine with me. I like to think of it as a special way to keep my baby hungriness at ease. I didn't realize how crazy it was at the time, but when C was O's age, I was 8 month pregnant with him. Yowzers!

Here he his doing what he does best - being cute.

If I knew how to use photo shop I could have made this picture really cool, but I don't.

Here he is pointing at Shamu. He points at everything these days.

And there you have it. O in a nutshell.

One Week Later...

It's been a week now since our little hair cutting incident. I still can't get used to the way she looks. The day after it happened I took her to Kiddoos to see what they could do. They assured me they see this all the time, but then admitted that it's not usually this bad. Basically, I paid $20 for them to trim a few hairs and try putting her hair in pig tails to see if it looked better. It didn't. She has a mullet.

I don't know what to do. Do you think it's better to leave the hair long in back and risk people thinking the mullet is intentional or should we give her a little pixie cut and start fresh? Keep in mind she won't leave bows or head bands in.

Here are the pig tails.



It's so humiliating!

She's kind of cute still, right?

Wait, don't answer that.


Maybe she'll just wear a hat everyday for the next six months.

Lessons in Parenting

I've learned two very important lessons from my children over the past month.

1. Hide the scissors (see below).

2. Don't take toddlers camping.

We decided to spend the Friday night of Memorial Day Weekend camping at Grapevine Lake with D's sister, cousin, and their families. We had a great time hiking, roasting hot dogs, making s'mores, and visiting around the campfire. It was really fun...until bedtime. We spent from 9-10 pm taking turns rocking O to sleep around the campfire until he finally gave in shortly after 10. One down, one to go.

Meanwhile, C was watching Care Bears with her cousins on the dvd player (real rugged, I know). I spent from 10-11 pm with her in the tent trying to get her to settle down, but to no avail. D took his turn, but also gave up after about a half hour. I went back in and by this time it was 11:30 and I was getting frustrated. An hour later, at 12:30 am, in total desperation, I gave her one of O's bottles of milk and she fell asleep.

For the next hour, O slept soundly in his carseat while the adults sat around the fire talking.

At 1:30 am we decided to go to bed. D carried O in his car seat into the tent and started getting him out. "What are you doing?! Leave him in there!! He's been sleeping perfectly for three hours!" Ignoring my pleas, he took him out to put him in the pack 'n play.

O woke up crying. His crying woke up C. C unleashed a fit of rage that could not be stopped. There we were at 1:30 am with two screaming children in a tent from which we could see about six other tents.

For about five tense minutes, we debated what we should do. When C's crying hadn't slowed down one bit, I decided to bail. I grabbed C, O, the keys and headed to the car.

D, unwilling to let our children ruin his camping trip, stayed in the tent and enjoyed a horrible night's sleep.

In twenty minutes I was home and in my glorious bed.

I miss that hair :(

So, in conclusion, there are certain things you can't do when you have a 1-year-old and 2-year-old.

Camping is one of them.

RIP, Hair

Late last night C's precious hair fell victim to the sharp edges of some ill-placed scissors. C's most remarkable feature, her hair was her trademark from the moment she was born. It will be missed dearly. The family is accepting donations in the form of bows, barettes, wigs, and headbands.

WARNING: You may find the following images disturbing. I know I do.

After the bath.


I think it's even worse.


So.

Much.


Hair.

This is what I look like after my daughter cuts her hair and I cry hard for twenty minutes. Just in case you were wondering.

You want to know the real kicker? We were supposed to get our long awaited, much anticipated family pictures taken by the talented Whitni Parker tonight and now that won't be happening.

Engaged!

Meet my brother and his future wife.

Congratulations you guys. We're so happy for you!

And thank-you for giving us an excuse to make a trip to Seattle in August. I love Seattle!

P.S. If you want the rights to this photo for your engagement picture, just let me know :)

Our Favorite Toy

It gets us through the five o'clock hour every day.

Thank you Step 2 Sand and Water Table. I don't know what I'd do without you.

What the...?

She's expanded her decorating with food talents to include cheese now too.

She left it there for a few minutes while she caught the last bit of Curious George and then came back and finished it off.