Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Scuttlebutt

Today is Jax and Em's cousin Tyler's 3rd birthday, and thinking about that made me realize there are only 40 days left until someone else has a birthday.


Wow.  Less than six weeks and she'll be a year old.  We're pretty sure she'll be walking by then; she took a mini-step yesterday.  My friends say they feel like Em has been here forever, but I feel like it was only moments ago that we were spending those first few days alone with her in the hospital, then coming home and dealing with the transition to a family of four.  Now it's like she's always been here, but not in a take-her-for-granted kind of way.  More like a where-would-we-be-without-her kind of way, since I can still clearly remember days when it was just me and Jax.  And I thought I was so busy back then, too!  Little did I know.

So I have a question for all you baby mamas out there with a precious little baby girl at home.  Any big must-haves for her birthday?  She has pretty much everything she needs as far as basic toys because she has all of Jax's from this stage.  But I want to get the ultraspecial girl's first birthday present.  Please leave me a comment (or better yet, a link!) to some special ideas for  my special girl.

Wordish Wednesday  

*******************

Other odds and ends:

A funny story that will remind you that although J and E have grown into better friends, it's definitely not all 100% sunshine and rainbows over here.


Yesterday I went downstairs to get the laundry and heard a strange sound upstairs where the kids were just happily interacting.  Then I heard a kind of plaintive cry--not a shriek or wail--just kind of a Hey, Mom!  A little help here!  I just shouldn't do laundry so bad things won't ever happen.  Good solution.

So I ran upstairs to find the kids in the small hallway that connects our bedrooms, with our small (and light, I promise) console table pulled over and being held miraculously aloft by a ten-month-old who was trying to keep it from landing on her.  I don't know how she caught it or how she was holding it (although she's not a small girl).  I promise it wouldn't have crippled her but it was an unpleasant surprise.  I paused for a moment in amazement with a look of How did this happen?  She looked up at me like, Hell if I know.  Then I sprung into action and tried to figure out what happened.  Is the table unsafe?  Do we need to secure it to the wall?  I turned to my pretty verbal two-year-old.

Me:  Jax, what happened?  Did the table fall over or did you push it?
Jax:  I pushed it.
Me:  What?  Why?  Why would you do that? 
Jax:  (shrug)
Me:  Were you trying to hurt Em?
Jax: No.
Me:  Well, what were you trying to do?
Jax:  To squash her.

I promise we then had a long talk about how squashing would, in fact, hurt her and he seemed genuinely surprised.  Makes me a little nervous because I've been letting them play nicely alone while I empty the dishwasher, go get the laundry, start lunch.  I hate to have to monitor every moment but apparently my mature almost-two-and-a-half year old can't be trusted as implicitly as I thought.  So there you go.  They love each other, but apparently a little healthy "squashing" isn't out of the question.  Back to vigilance.  Sigh.

*******************

My DIY Dump Truck was featured on Gluesticks, a great blog that I love and recommend you follow if you're crafty.  It's where I found the Wooden Peg Dolls that were such a hit.  Being featured is so exciting for me, especially since I never thought of myself as crafty.  I guess having kids can help you discover all new sides to yourself you didn't know were there! 

And lastly, I've been adding more photos to This Week's Photo Challenge post.  Don't forget to pop back over there and check them out and give me some feedback.

Hope you all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!  We're off for the second Cocktails and Crafts get together tonight!  I've got my Guinness!

14 comments:

Mrs. M317 said...

I LOVE that dump truck! Can't wait for Ezra to be big enough to give it a try.

Alicia said...

This isn't something to purchase, but it's something I'd like to do with Scarlett that we did with Matthew & his daddy on his 1st birthday -- a photo recreation of a picture taken of you on your first birthday.

We had a picture of Spencer (the hubs) on his first birthday, peeking out from behind on old teddy bear chair and his parents still had the same chair lying around, so on Matthew's first birthday, we took a picture of him peeking out from behind it wearing little red PJ's just like his dad was in the original photo.

I'd love to do this with Scarlett if I can find a pic worth doing it from.. and since you're all photo-savvy, I bed yours would be awesome!

lauren & aaron said...

I just laughed so hard when I got to the line "to squash her."

Liz said...

OH those talks with kiddos that just make me wonder about them! Sometimes it is truely difficult to remember that kids have no logic. Their thought process is something to be desired.

Hope it doesn't come out wrong that I actually laughed out loud as I read your conversation with Jax...so simple and innocent...glad you are teaching him about different ways he can hurt people.

deb duty said...

Love the black and white pic of your baby girl. So sweet!

~Shari said...

Love LOVE that first photo! and wow! That dump truck is really cool!

Unknown said...

She is so precious. My baby hasn't been little for so long so I can't think of any must have birthday presents. I know you will come up with something spectacular : )

Tara said...

Gorgeous, beautiful black and white of your baby girl. You should frame that one!! That picture of them looking at each other is priceless...LOL

kayerj said...

love that first picture--her eyes are stunning. Kaye—the road goes ever ever on

Gina Kleinworth said...

That b&w is stunning!!!!!!! Great job!!

Marla said...

I love that first shot. Those eyes are beautiful. :)

Marla @ www.blueskiesphotoblog.com

Our Peculiar Lives said...

That first shot is just beautiful, she has gorgeous eyes!

Natalie said...

love love love! That first shot!

julie said...

That b&w of your sweet girl is gorgeous! I have to laugh at the one where she is glaring at her brother...I have a boy & girl 18 months apart, although they are 8 & 9, my son takes great pleasure in doing things to bug his sis! A sign of things to come for you :)