Snip Snip Here....Snip Snip There

Eliza has never sat in a salon chair since birth. Last year near Nolan's birthday, I made one small trim to a section in the back to even out things, as we waited for the sides to catch up with the back.

Little did we know just how hazardous little brother would be to her hair, when he'd grab chunks of it at the roots! And always in the same area. Please, please...have mercy on your sisters hair!

Over all, Eliza was a pretty good girl for her first hair cutting experience, besides the extra prompts to stay still and keep her head up. We decided to take several inches off the back and give her bangs, with the hope of her left side growing in and overall fuller head of hair. It is so incredibly fine.

May this next baby be kinder to her fine locks....

Merry Maids

Do you have a weekly cleaning schedule you follow?

Since staying home full time, I had yet to put down any sort of schedule which pertained to house chores. I would see the areas that would be screaming, and I may or may not have attended to them depending on my mood or energy level. Of course there are the urgent ones like unexplained vomit, sippy cup disasters and the, "oh no you just didn't dump every toy bin out!"

We all know about the never ending story of laundry folding. Putting it away is a whole nother book!

Among other daily habits I've struggled to get into in my life...I've found that I need a steady base level of cleaning that gets done, even if nothing else is getting done outside of it. I NEED to know that I am being intentional in some form of house management.

Things like:

Bathroom(s)
Floors
Dishes/kitchen counters
Putting recycling and trash in its respective receptacles
Freeing up laundry baskets with clean clothes

I haven't been perfect in sticking to what is down for the day, but I know it will take time. Especially when your hubby has extra time off and throws your day time routine out the window. I've only put things down for M-F for this reason, so I can give myself the highest chance of success with this plan.

What is your dreaded/hated house chore that you wished would just disappear?

Parent Confessions

Sometimes, when after the kids have gone to bed....I dump out some of their toys and create my own adventures to see what is really possible with Lego bricks and train track configurations. Here we have Jake's pirate island hideaway, standing guard of Captain Hook.

I WAN DAT!

Picking out toys is exhausting work

As our adventurous and lively little girl becomes more aware of the world around her...there are lots of things she thinks she wants or wants for Christmas. The phrase, "maybe for Christmas" seems to work in ending any pleads for things she finds.

Until the next thing catches her eye!

Out of curiosity, I let her brows through the big toy catalog to see what she gravitated to.

No surprise....it was to just about anything.

Funny thing is, most of the stuff pointed out....were things she had no clue about what they did. All she knew was she had to have the pink one. This is where I am glad we don't have cable where many kids are exposed to all the toy commercials on children's stations.

Even perusing the toy aisles....plastic junk lines the shelves. I have nothing against toys being made of plastic, and wooden everything isn't always better either aka Melissa & Doug.

I had fond memories of playing with Calico Critters when I had just turned 4 for that Christmas. A nice sized critter house and bear family were under the tree, complete with furniture. Well, CC have come back and at a crazy price tag. Houses do not come with furniture or families and rooms are about $30 a piece. Yes, they are nicely detailed with drawers that slide out, compared to their pink plastic Barbie rivals.

EXCEPT....

We have a problem if my daughters doll furniture is nicer than the real stuff in our own home! I mean...look at the play kitchens out today. They continue to get "upgrades" over the years.

They need to come out with a true life kitchen that comes with an outdated refrigerator, complete with rattling cooling compressor sound. A sink where the hot/cold knobs have been switched around and an electric play stove that burns one side of your dish while under cooking the other. Oh, and we can't forget that one drawer that keeps coming of the track when pulled out!

THAT, my friends would be the best real play kitchen.

Sweet Silence

Sometimes, it is worth letting your child two fist lollipops given to them from your doctors visit. Stickers just can't do the same. Besides....he looks pretty cute doing it ;)

Its True

Yes, we will be expending our family of four into five, come June. I had spent the last year contemplating if our family felt complete or not. At times, I would trapes back and forth between each camp. And trust me....there were days filled with relief at the thought of never having to go through X phase.

For the first time, I wasn't feeling that baby fever like I had as Eliza became closer to 12 months. Instead, it was looking beyond the baby stage and a new member who would grow up within our family. I mean, of course, the cuddly snuggly baby is a perk ;)

I believe Nolan has helped me in that department. He wasn't as independent as his sister...didn't walk until several months later, and I went the distance in extending our time of breast feeding. Which, by the way, is still very fond of my chest and have to prompt him to please remove his hand from under my shirt. I think he will have the hardest transition due to this fact. Eliza just wanted to be included while I nursed, and kinda went on with a new normal.

So here is to a new chapter and adventure in our lives of having a Summer baby and not working through this pregnancy!

Now the dreaded..er fun challenge of coming up with a name....

Peddling my Goods

I stepped out into my comfort zone and ventured into a new world of being a craft vendor for a day.

Here is what I learned:

1. There are all sorts of people who do this year round, and it was interesting to see what else people sell. Many of them are just trying to make back the cost of supplies and a little extra to keep things enjoyable.

2. Many who come to craft fairs, will have no intention in buying anything, but to get ideas. Consumers are holding their purse strings tightly this season, and I predict that many will be last minute shoppers.

3. Compliments don't pay the bills. It can be very discouraging to get lots of compliments on your work, but not see the sales reflected.

4. My other fellow crafters are also seeing the trend of mass produced cheap products trumping over personal handcrafted work. Consumers will pay twice as much for the same item in store and not think twice, but hesitate for half the price when buying from someone locally at a fair or bazaar. We are making slave wage when you factor in how much time it really does take to produce our product.

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With using display props from my kitchen and personal collection, many people at first glance, though my gingerbread and snowmen were real cookies.

My day was not a total loss though, and I was grateful to those who did purchase some ornaments. I also made some connections where I can barter my photography services in exchange for selling space in their shop.

So in the mean time, if you do not live locally near me, just know that I do ship orders within the states. So you hear that west coast ;)

Mischief Managed

The Geddes clan went out in the night of sugar fueled fun, games, and of course CANDY! Our little Neverland Pirates, Jake and Izzy posed briefly for me, but it was quite hard to get Nolan to stand still.

This week has been a VERY busy one for the family, with 3 separate harvest/trunk r treating events attended before the very night. We settled on visiting a church where we had last year due to the cold rainy weather. Much to my surprise, this was the first Halloween night in which it did not rain and stayed a bearable cold temperature. So we decided to leave the church a little early and found a neighborhood nearby, littered with zombies, Elsa/Anna's, Ninja Turtles and various princesses. Matt went out to secure some take out while I went walking with the kids.

One house even had a haunted house walk through on the front lawn, with tented rooms. After deciding to skip it and just go for the candy at the end, the drama came to us. Nothing like an inebriated woman knocking your little pirate down on her butt. You could smell the booze on her breath and gave apologies as she was rushing off.

Nolan spent it from the view of the stroller and screamed every time you had to take his bag up to the door to collect some candy. Eliza struggled to walk and haul a candy sack at the same time, so guess who got to be the keeper of the candy ;) Then she noticed the candles in the pumpkins and kept trying to blow them out at every house.

Maybe one day, the whole family will dress up as a theme, but after having to drag a grumpy Captain Hook aka Daddy, he was glad at the end to be pushed out of the house. I think taking the kids out and having the opportunity to teach them social skills and manners shouldn't be overlooked. I guess either the parents never taught or the 6 ft teenage trick or treaters forgot how to take turns, say thank you and put the little kids before themselves.

I spent a total of just over $15 to do both of their costumes (white undershirt, blue and yellow felt, pixie dust bag, Izzy's shirt, puff paint and bandana), while using other clothing items already on hand. Felt really is your best friend when working with costumes. I didn't even pull out the sewing machine for Nolan's vest. Hot glue guns are a wonderful thing!