Hello There

Atticus has been coming around several million times a day.  Each time he comes by Shelby freaks out and tells me to take some photos.   She really loves seeing him perched on our window.

Percy seems a bit interested in him as well...although he doesn't seem to quite know what to make of it.

Looks Who's Back!

Just a little more than a year ago we had an interesting bird visit.  After a week or two of the bird tapping at our upstairs windows, Travis was able to catch him.  Last week our little bird friend showed up again.  At first, Travis was reluctant to admit that this could be the same bird as last year, but what other bird would do something so odd?!?  Welcome back, Atticus.  It sure is nice to see you again.

Trick-or-Treat

We tend to watch holiday movies all year long.  Right now, Shelby is really into Garfield's Holiday Collection. Her favorite episode is Garfield's Halloween Adventure.  Today, she really got into the spirit of Halloween and wanted to wear her costume so she could go trick-or-treating with Garfield and Odie.

I'm Getting this Look All the Time

Politeness is a Virtue

This morning as I was changing Shelby's diaper she farted. It was one of the first times she's done this with me around and she was greatly surprised. This was our conversation following the fart:

Shelby: Mom, what's that?
Me: You tooted.
Shelby: Oh.
Me: When you do that you need to say "excuse me."
Shelby: (a few seconds later) Excuse my butt, Mommy.

Goings On

Thrill the World happened last night. Thrill The World is an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson's “Thriller.” Most of you now that I am a big fan of MJ, but my sister, Beth, is probably even more of a fan. She jumped at the opportunity to learn the dance and join in the fun. My mom, Bev, Paul and me went to Portland to watch the dance. It was pretty cool. The "Thriller" dance really is a masterpiece; Michael Jackson is a genius. Beth and her friends looked pretty good, too.

Here is the video of Beth and her friends rockin' it in Portland. You can see Beth at the bottom of the screen wearing a purple dress. The sound quality on this video or horrible, but you can imagine how fun it was hearing the music as they danced.

We have very squeaky doors in our house. After a few months of the squeakiness getting under my skin I grabbed the WD-40 and sprayed every single door. The doors no longer squeak, but they also no longer stay open. Seems I just swapped one annoying problem for another. The only door that really bugs us is the one in Shelby's bathroom. When we are brushing her teeth or fixing her hair the door will close and tap our butts. It's annoying. Last night, Travis was brushing Shelby's teeth and the door kept shutting and hitting his butt. It was really getting to him and after gently kicking the door open a few times he finally kicked the door hard to get it to stay open. That last kicked worked well because the door knob stuck into the wall and the door stopper got stuck in the door. So, NOW we get to fix a whole in the wall and buy a new door. Yay!

Shelby has been into hair bows lately. She has to be wearing them in her hair at all times. The other day I bought out the bow selection at Gymboree. Shelby was in heaven when I came home and showed her all the bows. The next day she made me put all of the bows and barrettes we own in her hair.


A week or so ago I found a student desk for sale at a thrift store. We don't exactly have room for the desk, but I bought it anyway. It is in perfect condition and I knew Shelby would just love it. The only thing I had to do was to re-paint the desk. It started out bright red. Yuck. 2 days after bringing the desk home, Travis and I knew it was a good buy. Shelby spends a lot of her free time sitting at her desk. She has never colored more. We love it! And I love that her mouth is full of candy corn in the first photo.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

I'll be honest. I'm an inch away from needing one of these pillows. I haven't been able to sleep since Travis left last Friday. This has been the longest week ever. And I'm getting really, really, really tired.The only thing that has really kept me going this week has been my daily dose of this movie trailer you can find here or by clicking on the picture.


Shelby has also kept me busy. Yesterday Shelby totally destroyed her bedroom during her nap/quiet time. The picture doesn't do it justice. Everything that could have removed, pulled out or emptied was on the floor. The pillow had lost its pillow case, all of the diapers had the tabs pulled OFF and all of her pull-up training pants have been pulled apart and rendered useless. (I tried putting them back together, but it was useless) I have no idea how she managed to get the drawer out of the dresser. But, none of her clothes are in it. Just toys and other random non-dresser items. I love how Shelby is sleeping on the floor with her boots on. Finally, she decides to take a nap. Her evil plot to destroy her bedroom must have worn her out.

During my Internet wanderings I came across this ad. It's an ad for Midol from the 1970's. The first line it the ad reads, "Be the you HE likes. Good to be around, any day of the month." Isn't that nice? How lucky are we to have a medication we can take to prevent our boyfriends (or husbands) from leaving us. What a relief! Boy how times have changed. We'd never see this kind of ad these days.

I've also lost touch with my exercise groove. I've been fighting with my feet for the past several months (plantar fasciitis) and these shirts I found on Woot made me chuckle.

Good Morning

A few months ago Shelby took a shine to sneaking into bed with us in the middle of the night. Shelby talks in her sleep so having her sleep with us can be very entertaining. She doesn't say much; just a word or two. Her favorite words are"cake" and "cookie," which I've heard several times. At least she likes my baking enough to think about it unconsciously, right?!

On the nights Shelby sleeps with us she'll get the privilege of waking me up in the morning. Sometimes, I get the very cute good morning kiss or a not-so-cute punch in the face to wake me up. But, my most favorite morning wake up call was when Shelby woke me up and said,"Mommy. Cookie. Go."

At least I know what I'm good for.

Diapers

You'll notice the first 2 photos have black marks down the sides. That's proof our camera is almost non-functioning. Most of the time, this is how our camera will take pictures. When the camera isn't feeling sick it will take pictures without any shadow markings.

Anyway, the other day Shelby found her swim diapers and decided it necessary to put them on. I told her the diapers were special diapers for when she goes swimming, but that didn't alleviate the need to wear them. So, I had to put all 3 swim diapers on over her regular diaper and shorts. It's hard to see it in the photos, but she looked hilarious. At least it made her happy. Sometime later I needed to go to the store and told Shelby we needed to take the diapers off. Shelby didn't like the idea, but she finally gave in and let me take them off after we agreed that Elmo could wear the diapers instead. She cracks me up.

It's No Wonder the Batteries are Dead

When I turn on my camera and realize the batteries are dead I'm 100% positive I'll find self portraits of Shelby by the dozens.

Giggle Goggles

Funny photos of Shelby wearing goggles isn't new, but it's funny to see her wearing them. Especially when she finds them and puts them on herself and is so excited to show me. The funniest part is that the goggles pull on her face and cheeks so much that she can't even smile when she's showing me so she has to take them off to giggle.

In Case You Were Wondering

The TV remote fits nicely in the VCR. I'm really glad Shelby thought about putting it in there because never I would have figured that out on my own. She's so thoughtful that way.

To Catch A Mockingbird

A little more than a week ago a bird began tapping at my window. The bird comes around several times a day. Sometimes he just pecks at the window and sometimes he lands on the window sill and sits for a while. I'm not sure what the bird is trying to do exactly, but I decided it was time I catch the bird and make him mine. I'm already trying to come up with a good name for the little guy. Any suggestions?

Actually, I'm not sure what I'll do with him once I catch him because I can't seem to capture the darn thing. I knew catching it wouldn't be the easiest thing to do, but it's becoming much more difficult than I had anticipated. The difficultly is what's keeping me going. I HAVE to catch him now.

That Was Odd

As I was checking my e-mail I heard a weird tapping sound outside my window. The shade was down so I couldn't see if anything was outside. The noise ended almost as quickly as it began, so I dismissed the noise and continued checking my e-mail. But, a minute later I hear the same tapping noise. I quickly opened the shade, but I didn't see anything unusual. I only saw the trees blowing in the wind. I assumed the tapping noise was caused by the wind. It seemed odd, but I couldn't think of any other reason. A minute later the tapping was back, but this time I saw what was causing the tapping. A BIRD was tying to get IN the window. Lucky for me I had my camera ready and snapped a few photos for evidence. Talk about weird.

Elmo Slippers

Shelby and I visited a local thrift store the other day and we found Shelby a pair of Elmo Slippers. When Shelby spotted them she pointed and said, "Melmo!" I had to get them for her. I wanted to get a picture of Shelbs with her slippers, but she wouldn't look at the camera. When she finally did look at the camera, she wasn't too happy about it. She does however, LOVE the Elmo slippers.


Every morning Shelby reads a book with me while we snuggle up on my bed. After she's done with the book reading she'll find my glasses and put them on. She loves wearing them and she's even figured out that she needs to tip her head back a bit to keep them on.


These photos of Shelby make me laugh. My little girl is so silly. Love it!

New Canvas

Shelby finally discovered the fun of drawing on herself with a pen.

Diddy Donkey

This is probably ones of those times where you had to be there to see the humor.

Travis asked me what I wanted to do tonight. I said that I didn't know and asked him what he was in the mood for. He said that he wanted to play "Diddy Donkey" What he MEANT to say was "Donkey Konga." I didn't tell him that I knew what he was talking about, I just looked at him like I had no idea what he was trying to say. His next attempt at telling me what he wanted to play was "Donkey Doonka" and then it was, "Konga Konga." Next he said, "Diddy Konga" (getting closer). He kept rattling off names, but by this point he really had no idea what the name of the game was and I was laughing too hard to tell him. Finally he said "you know the game with the drums" And I said, "yeah Donkey Konga." It's a fun game.