finally fall!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year....I start pining for cool weather in about mid-May. By August I'm positively lusting for football, sweaters, coats, jeans, gumbo, and breezy cool days. I have to control myself when September rolls around and I can almost taste fall in the air; I start itching to put out my fall decor and be done with the miserably hot summer. Finally October 1st comes around and the celebration begins!! Right on time we had a cool front come through and Monday started out in the upper 50's!! Glorious perfect weather to be outside. After our morning jog I put Caroline down for a nap and eagerly dug through the closet and pulled out all my fall stuff.

I had forgotten that last year when Mom and I were shopping at the outlet mall in San Marcos I had bought some delightful fall potpurri, so when I opened my box of fall goodies the scent was a welcome breath of fresh air! I put up all my knick knacks and candles and decorations and sat back with a nice cup of coffee and the windows open. Heaven. 

Since the weather's been so divine we've been spending as much time outdoors as possible. On days when Caroline doesn't have school we'll go for a jog in the morning. Then we'll do an afternoon stroll over to the park to enjoy the swings. And when Daddy comes home he usually takes her for an evening jog too, so she's getting plenty of outside time!

With all this fall festivity I decided to make some Butternut squash soup. Seemed appropriate, even though I'd never had Butternut squash before. Cooking the thing warranted a lesson on youtube, since I'm none-too-familiar  with cooking with gourds. I microwaved it, I peeled it, I seeded it, I cubed it, I boiled it in broth for 30 minutes, I pureed it, and finally my soup was ready. Took a big bite and....blaaaaah. Turns out Butternut squash tastes as good as it smells- funky. Since it was such a smooth consistency I decided to see if Caroline would like it....and I'll be damned if the little bugger didn't just love it! 

When life hands you butternut squash....make baby food.

My daughter, who hates 95% of everything I feed her, ate a whole babyfood jar full! So we now have enough Butternut squash baby food to last until next fall. 

Her first home-cooked meal. My soup efforts were not in vain!

Good thing she liked it, because she's not too keen on eating her dinnertime bottle these days. She'd much rather play with the bottle nipple. Highly entertaining.

http://youtu.be/xysGjtGeMvk

And on Sunday we'll be visiting a pumpkin patch for the obligatory 'first Halloween' photos. Weather is supposed to be absolutely perfect...high's in the 70's!! Stay tuned for pics. Happy fall to all!!

hair today, gone tomorrow

I have a confession to make.

I've done something I'm not proud of. Something I swore up and down I would never ever do. Something my daughter will disown me for one day, as she flips through her baby album and learns the ghastly secret. Something that will assuredly cause my friend Jackie to no longer associate with us.

I got my child's hair cut at Walmart.

But wait! It gets worse.

Not only did I get my child's hair cut at Walmart, I let them chop it WHILE SHE WAS IN THE SHOPPING CART.

She was all smiles for Shontelle.

Sin of sins! HORROR OF HORRORS! I used to gaze in disdain at the poor fools wandering through the in-store salon. Who on earth gets their hair cut at Walmart?? Not exactly the hotspot of high fashion and haute couture in hair. 

Now I know. Mothers with small children who are seduced by the convenience of killing two (or more) birds with one stone. Loaf of bread, light bulbs, Tylenol, baby haircut. Check check check check. Bless you Sam Walton!!

We were even offered the frequent shopper discount
card. Buy 10 haircuts, get one free! Guess
they get a lot of repeat business around here...

As I'm sure most Moms do, I didn't head into Walmart intending to get her hair cut. But as we strolled past the front of the store with its array of varying services (Big Mac and a frappucino while you shop? Why not go ahead and elevate your cholesterol while you make your weekly purchases!) I paused in front of the salon. I glanced down at my mop-headed child and thought of how many times I've lamented her abundance of hair. It gets in her eyes. She pulls at it. And the back was starting to resemble a mullet that would make Alabama proud.

exhibit A: the hair that has a life of its own

So we wheeled our buggy in and asked for a little snip snip here and there to tidy things up and keep her from looking like a total ragamuffin. There were 3 black lady hairdressers sitting around looking bored who were delighted to entertain their new customer. And she of course charmed their pants off and was pretty cooperative for her first haircut.

We paid our $7.99 plus tip and strolled out the store, with a little less hair for her and a little less dignity for me. She will undoubtedly curse me when she's a teenager consumed with appearances, and she learns that she first got her 'hair did' at Wally world.

All smiles with a little less 'fro!

catching up

We've been busy busy busy the last few weeks...apologies for the delay in updates! We've been caught in a whirlwind of outings, school days, doctor/dentist appointments, a visit from Aunty Em and miscellaneous projects around the house. Here's a recap of the latest happenings.

Highlighting the top of my 'things I never want to do again' list is the gum tissue graft dental surgery I had a few weeks ago. Basically they took a chunk of tissue out of the roof of my mouth and sewed it onto an area on my lower jaw where the gum tissue was receding. Sounds like fun, no? What's not to love about refraining from eating anything for a day and a half, taking pain meds on a militant 6 hour schedule, wearing a delightful plastic mouthguard that gives me a charming lisp, chewing on one side of my mouth and waiting for the next 6 months to pass so the gum tissue will heal? And the icing on the cake is that my oral surgeon said there's no guarantee it will work...we might have to go back and do another surgery in 6 months. Oh joy.

I took a break from the pain and misery of my mouth by hitting up the Just Between Friends sale last week (thanks Christina!) with my friend Jackie. It was the holy mecca of children's consignment sales....thousands and thousands of toys, books, clothes, bedding, strollers, playpens, basically anything a child of any age might need. All cheaply priced bargains for the taking! Jackie loaded up on toys for Tommy...good thing they have a huge new playroom in their new house just waiting to be filled with toys!

Knowing that we are stuffed to the gills in our townhome, I refrained from buying any toys as we simply have nowhere to put them. Clothes however were just what we needed and we stocked up on fall/winter clothes and matching shoes! 

I've also been dabbling with a few craft projects that I kept wanting to do and somehow kept getting put off. We have so many great photos of Caroline that are just collecting virtual dust on the computer hardrive, so I finally got my act together and started making canvas photos to create a gallery wall in her room. 4 down, about 8 more to go.

Also used one of her newborn photos to create some art for her bathroom. 

And since I've been such a slacker I've been behind in posting her 6 month photos. She was very cooperative for her photoshoot and we got several good ones.

If this isn't the cutest little tush you've ever seen.....

Bill and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary on Saturday but it was a low-key day...just hanging out with Aunty Em who came for a visit and watching the abysmal football game. The real fun will start in a few weeks, when our first real 'date night' will take place. I finally finally finally found a babysitter for Caroline, so I arranged for her to come babysit the first Saturday of every month from 10-4 and I planned 6 months worth of fun activities for us to do. I created a bunch of date night coupons and Bill will get to open one every month so there will always be a fun surprise! 

Meanwhile Ms Caroline is improving her crawling skills every day. She's getting pretty good now! Not terribly fast yet but definitely finessing her coordination. Check out her video on youtube to see her in action.

http://youtu.be/tPjvdXdYLyo

And last but not least, today is Daddy's birthday! Happy birthday to our sweet hardworking devoted Daddy.