braided

One thing about having a daughter with long, luscious locks is you have to learn how to tame them. Son of a gun.

Last week I dared braid them, even though I've never successfully french braided hair in my life (sorry for all those failed attempts, Barbie).

Miraculously, they kinda worked and even lasted until nap time. Perhaps there's hope I'll figure out girl hair (including my own?) in this lifetime. Yes!

coming up roses

See those bad boys?

My husband made them... out of dental materials.

He brought the roses home to Addy and I on Valentine's Day after an obviously slow day at school.

Since I can't have the real deal (curse you allergies!!!), I appreciated the beautiful, hand-crafted replacements.

Addy liked them too, even though she'll never be allowed to touch them. Ever.

if I could marry an ice cream flavor...

... it'd be this:

Turkey Hill makes heavenly ice cream (they're based in Pennsylvania, so I'm not surprised). And this Whoopie Pie ice cream is DREAMY.

It breaks my heart to also say that it's only a limited edition. Doug and I feel so passionate about this flavor that I emailed Turkey Hill to tell them about my crush. They wrote back and said they didn't plan to change the limited edition status (doh!), but they did mail me a ridiculous number of Turkey Hill coupons. Now THAT is a consolation prize. I'm guessing nearly every coupon will be used for this one flavor.

So if our baby comes out wanting nothing more than Whoopie Pie ice cream, I won't be surprised.

acquainted with the night

These past two years a line from a Frost poem has oft come to mind: "I have been one acquainted with the night."

Before I got pregnant with Addy, I had a pretty cush sleeping life. I could fall asleep fast, crash through the night, and awake feeling totally refreshed--no biggie.

And then I got pregnant. And developed allergies. And my sleep life totally got ROCKED.

First it was the usual pregnant stuff... getting up with an annoying bladder, waking up when I had to roll over, etc. and etc. But then the cough started when I was 8 months along, and it started keeping me up too. In fact, the first non-elective all-nighter I pulled was the night before Addy was born, and it wasn't due to contractions--it was the cough. So obnoxious.

After that, I was up nursing or coughing every couple hours for several months. If I was with Addy, it was doable. If I was coughing? I was downstairs popping pills, watching TV, surfing the web, quietly cleaning, or just figuring out what it means to be nocturnal.

So now, here I sit in the middle of the night, hugely pregnant and coughing again. And while Frost said the night lights proclaim "the time is neither wrong nor right" (WRONG, Bob, it's WRONG), at least I can feel one with night security guys, ER doctors, and 7-Eleven cashiers... for now I am one acquainted with the night.

thundersnow

On Saturday we finally got our first smattering of snow, PLUS some thunder as it fell. Thundersnow. Sounds like a horror movie, no?

Doesn't she look impressed?

But really, she loved it. She was happy to hold snowballs, make the world's teensiest snowman, and eat as much snow as she could. In fact, we regretted showing her she could eat snow, because she lacked discretion... I'm pretty sure she ate more muddy slush than snow.

Yay for short-lived snow.

byu vs. va tech

A few weeks ago Doug made the trek with some friends to Virginia Tech to see a BYU basketball game.

The man doesn't care much for watching basketball, but he does love the Cougs. Especially when they win.

(Pics stolen from Jessie's blog since I couldn't pay Doug to bring a camera at times like this.)

cool legs

When I was getting ready this morning, Addy said, "Hey! Cool legs. You cool legs, Mommy. I yike dem."

I've trained her well.

the day annual precipitation settled a marital dispute

Doug grew up in a wee town in western Washington called Aberdeen. Any time I talk about how rainy it is in the Northwest, he loves to tell me it's not as wet there as I think. Whatev.

A few weeks ago he checked out a book from the library called "Extreme Weather." He wanted it because it had some cool info in it about tornadoes or something.

So in the car on the way home, I was flipping through it and came upon a chapter about rain and floods. I was about to turn the page when I stopped dead in my tracks... there was tiny "Aberdeen, WA" on a chart. #1 on the chart, in fact:

See that? It's THE wettest city in the whole US of A by average annual precipitation. And not just by a little bit--a LOT.

I not-so-humbly showed Doug, and seriously we couldn't stop laughing. Seeing little Aberdeen on a chart alongside such larger cities like Mobile and Miami was such a treasure.

Such a treasure...

we like to pretend she can read

She's memorized "Duck and Goose: How are you feeling?" but our gut feeling is she's actually reading.

(Since the book has hardly any words, I've made up dialogue for each page that I repeat every time... so that's mostly what she's quoting.)

christmas tree shops

They're not just for the holidays, folks.

We recently got our very own Christmas Tree Shop just 2 minutes from our house. My family first discovered this happy place when my parents lived in Rhode Island, and now my sisters have them in NJ. It took some time for us to be believers, but oh baby... now we believe.

Despite the name, it's not a Christmas store. It's like a dollar store on crack. It has killer discounts on things for your house, toys, party gear, and--like my sister says--stuff you never knew you needed.

So, Richmonders, give it a chance. And prepare yourselves to lose track of your time and your money.