Where have you been all my life?

Saylor is talking about her feet of course....she just found them and it is adorable to watch her play with them and put them in her mouth. If not, ask these penguins (thanks again betty and david).



All in all, it is really easy to change her diapers these days...... can't you tell? Doesn't everyone do a little capoeira or breakdancing before one?

Oh and to answer those asking the question, a resounding "Yes!!!!", this is what I do all day. I did it with Athena and now I am with Saylor. The best part is that I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world....well, a high salary whilst enjoying my spawn would be nice ;)

Love,

Bar-b

Saylor 1, Spoon 0

Lemme at it....lemme at it...

You ain't nothin but a lily livered..

take that.....

and that....

I am the Victor!!! (or Victoria )

Had enough?


Only you can prevent forest fires...only you.

Is this spinach all there is for dinner?
Brusha Brusha Brusha.....

Which letter(s) in BAMS was NOT at our nuptials exactly 3 years ago?

If you guessed S and only S, you would be right!



Yes, I was 5 months pregnant with the Blaze in this picture (and any pictures of our wedding :)

Kind of feeling nostalgic today. Wanted to drag everyone with me through memory lane :)


I LOVE YOU MICHAEL FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER (if I could put a little hat on the EVER to illustrate recurring, I would). Happy 3rd anniversary baby! Is it the year of GLASS? If you don't know why I ask...scroll down to the "smash and grab" entry. $500 deductible...thank you for the pane of glass baby, I LOVED it. Oh we need to replace my wallet (leather) too...I guess we're covered whether we are traditional or modern.

http://marriage.about.com/cs/anniversaries/a/wedannivideas.htm

Love,
Bar-b (the B in BAMS)

Me? cute?

Do babies truly know how freakin cute they really are. I do believe that God makes them this cute looking, smelling, and sounding so we don't toss them out of the car window. Saylor is "talking" so much these days. Soliloquies are more like it. She goes off and starts to go up and down in pitch and tone. She does this in the car, crib, floor. She might just be another chatterbox like *ahem, Athena.....who did you think I was going to say....moi?

Saylor's babylegs (http://www.babylegs.com/) for when it drops in the high 80's......damn this heat.

I don't even know what she was thinking much less doing here. Athena is on the original cast of the "Cute Show". What a funny little girl with the funniest little comments and observations. She has some words that are funny (to us) too. Like "booty mark" for beauty mark, and "faceball" for baseball, "carouself" for carousel, just to name a few. I have seriously found myself laughing outloud when she says something. Don't even get me started on her spanish words :)))))) She also has a good memory and we really have to watch what we say and do. Toddlers (as my mom friends can attest to) are a fun little species. They are like Ying and Yang. They can have their meltdowns and tantrums and then can have a room splitting their pants. Such a dichotomy.

"mirror mirror on the baby gym, who is the cutest of them all (sorry, no rhyme)?" She got such a kick out of that mirror the other day. Shot out to Juliana who lent us this floor mat. I promise to wash it before returning it :)

Happy Wednesday,

Bar-b

Smash and Grab

No, not what Saylor does with her avocados. This is actually a post about what happened to me yesterday at Athena's school. I went to drop her off at her classroom as I do every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Upon my return I see some glass under my car (on the passenger end) and say to myself, "self, you drove over glass, I can't believe you didn't hear it or feel it when parking". Kept walking towards the car, opened it and sat inside. I looked over to my right and there was a pile of glass on the seat and no purse. Looking more clearly, my ipod was snatched as well. I couldn't believe that the 8-10 minutes (this is including chit chatting with a fellow mum) it took me to get Athena in her room, this brazen person had the audacity to smash my window and grab my purse. I was soooooooooo angry. I immediately went back into the school and called the police. Luckily, my bird brain left the cell phone on the counter in my house so I didn't have to try to get a hold of like 150 people for their numbers and lose some very cool pictures that I have taken (which reminds me I need to download) with my camera phone. Besides that little bit of good news, it was a morning filled with calls to our creditors and health insurance people, Blockbuster and even the Houston library (I didn't want anyone checking out books or dvd and not returning them...you know it isn't 5 cents a day like it was in elementary school). I went from angry to sad thinking that I had lost all of the pictures of Athena that I had gotten done at studios. You know being the first born and all I had and obscene amount of pictures....3mos, 6mos, 9mos, baptism, 12mos, 18 mos, 24 mos and a great picture of michael, Aidan and Juliana :( Wah. This is why you should sear your memories onto your brain so that you can't lose them. Oh well, don't feel too bad, I still have over 2000 pictures on my computer (we bought a separate drive).

Now, I am driving a car without a window on the passenger side. I did (after there was a wasp hovering over cars at the red light and I nearly died.....stop laughing marisa) cover up the gaping hole with a trash bag and moving tape. Ghetto fabulous fo' sho. Damn my deductible and damn the vandals (no, not the insurance company) who did this to my car. My mojo is slowly seeping (long month so far) and I must find a way to fix it before it is too late.


Love,
Wind strewn Bar-b

"Baby Jesus"

This is what Athena said when she saw Saylor getting out of her bath in her yellow towel. Gotta love her little school *rolls eyes*. It was too funny and Michael and I couldn't stop laughing. So here is baby jesus in all her glory :)


This is a picture of Saylor reading to Michael, yes, she is rather ahead for her age.












This is Athena having her snack and drinking her juice box with "wings" as she calls them.












Athena continues to be obsessed with stacking and building things. She asks to go "driving to see tall buildings", and she wants to stop and see the "loud construction, huge trucks and skid steers" . She is also very bossy and loves to tell other kiddos how to do things "Sit down and watch C'George NOW....please", or "daddy, play colors with athena, NOW...please". She throws the please in there for effect I guess. So we figure she'll be a foreman, construction manager, or the president. We'll see.


And sweet Saylor is chomping on her baby mum mum cracker that Juliana ("junana" as Athena calls her) introduced her too.

Athena "reading" her animal book. She is also obsessed or preoccupied with all sorts of animals. She knows too many to type...oh alright, I'll tell you (you drive a hard bargain)...

seriously, off the top of my head...anteater, bear, fox, racoon, okapi (remember the FREEEEEE zoo), elephants, giraffe, dolphin, whale, shark, octopus, turtle, tortoise, snake, alligator/crocodile, penguins, reindeer, deer, kangaroo, koala, bat, cheetah, tiger, lion, bird, flamingo, parrot, pig, cow, sheep, goat, seal, manatee, worm, chicken, rooster, armadillo (as shown above), orangutan, gorilla, owl, frog, butterfly, dragonfly, squirrel, dog, cat, zebra, and I am sure a few more. She knows each by name and can tell you in a book or in person (or animal). This is truly one of her favorite things to do. So if you and her are ever together, this is the thing to do. She loves it. Zoologist, Veterinarian, Farmer, Marine Biologist, you get the gist.

Father's Day

These are pictures of both sides of the mug I got Michael for Father's Day. I ordered it on etsy.com from a girl who does custom (obviously) mugs. He really liked the gift (even though it was not wrapped and did not have a card attached). This year I did not get cards for Their father and My father.

Sorry Dad :( I would, however, like to publicly tell you what I would have written in your card had I gotten one for you.

Dear Dad,

Happiest of Father's Day to you! I know you said that the gift is just having us, but I want to say more. This is the day that I get to tell you how special you are to me. You are (and have always been) a supportive, active, funny, present, loving, intelligent, honest, genuine, hard working, a good listener, cheerleader, coach, full of faith, fun, a loving husband to mom, and warm dad. Bianca and I are so very, very lucky to have you.

And know, that the best gift that I could have given you, is the gift of you knowing that I have given your granddaughters a father of the same caliber for them. I am so lucky to have been born to you and I am so happy to have chosen Michael for the girls. My biggest wish is that the girls think of Michael as highly and as lovingly as I think of you.

So Happy Father's Day to you. Thank you and I love you.

Barbie

*****Back to your regularly scheduled blogging

Linear Thinking (ironically very abstract)

Line Dancing...



On the Line.....



Lined Up Play.......


Read me these....



Bar-b

Let me set it up....

So, we are grocery shopping. Saylor is in the sling, the Blaze is in the bucket in the cart...strapped in of course. We are singing songs, talking about stuff on the shelf, reciting the name of kids in her class, remembering the animals in the zoo, etc. You know, the things that you do at the grocery store. We enter the bean aisle, looking for frijoles negros (in a can of course, no one is going to sit there and soak the little effers). I have a lady on my left that goes to get a can of beans but the can manages to slip out of her hands and fall on the floor, when she proceeds to say "Ohh, Shit!". (even though Michael and I curse A LOT, we hardly, if at all curse in front of them). I pay no attention to her. Well I pay no attention to her, but, Ears Atkinson says "Oh Shit! People Lady, Frijoles on the floor". I didn't know what to do. I was laughing hysterically in my head, but I didn't want to reinforce any unwanted behavior, so I "poker faced" it and continued on as if nothing. Well, needless to say Sweet Athena "Oh Shit" everytime we did something by accident. Bumped the cart, picked up the wrong box of cereal, Saylor drooling, dropped a wipee. I couldn't ignore it anymore. I had to tell her that when we make a mistake what we say is "ooopsie" and I made this goofball face to accompany it. Athena tried it and it seemed to be sticking. We even made a couple of mock mistakes and "ooopsie" was said. Great, crisis diverted I thought. Whew.

We get to the cashier and I gave the cashier the wrong credit card and I said..oh wait, sorry. and Athena says "Oh shit momma, Oopsie".

Before Avocado.....

After Avocado.....



Any Questions?


*disclaimer* no bumbos or babies were burned in the taking of this picture.

Zoo Much?

So here we are on a fabulous Sunday morning. We got annual passes for the family at the Central Florida Zoo and apparently there is a partership or understanding that if you are a member of the Zoological Association of America (the ZAA) you honor other zoo's members. So, long paragraph just to say that we are attending the AWESOME Houston Zoo for the podunk price of the Central Florida Zoo (no offense Orlandoians). Athena loves it and all that it has to offer. We have like real animals here like lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), elephants, giraffes, koalas, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, okapis (don't know what it is...ask athena :) No seriously, here it is


Although it bears striped markings reminiscent of the zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe.

Here is Michael and Michael Jr. enjoying the sea lion. Even Mr. "I hate being outdoors in this oppresive houston heat" Atkinson likes the zoo. There is a gorgeous carousel and a little splashground for the kids. There is also a petting zoo and a playground. No, I didn't buy stock in the zoo, I am just so happy we get to come here for FREEEEEEEEEE (just look at saylor's excitement).


Sweet "Sayer Girl" in her new hat at the FREEEEEEEEEEE Zoo.


Athena sitting on a turtle in the splashground at the FREEEEEEEE Zoo (such a well trained turtle too....just like the sea lion)


And me....blogger extraordinaire, enjoying the...well you know what.






Love,
Bar-b

The A Listers

Colton, Lana and Soren? A listers in the Houston downtown scene? newest cast members of the OC? uber cool socialites?.....well sort of, more like, in the making. These cool names belong to attendees of Athena & Saylor's Happy Hour Playdate, hosted by yours truly. There was Play Doh, Chalk, Balls and Pomegranate Martinis (don't worry, Athena was not driving) abound....oh that makes me think of Sesame Street....

One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song? Did you guess which thing was not like the others? Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong? If you guessed this one is not like the others, Then you're absolutely...right!

Here, they are taking a break from their running around the tree with their wheeled objects.

Running around tree...mid action.

Athena watching Curious George with Lana and having chips and juice boxes...ahhhh the life of a toddler.

They played and played, had cupcakes and fruit and read to each other. It was really cute and endearing how differently Athena plays now in comparison to just a year ago. She is still doing her parallel paly (playing beside one another but not with each other) but not as much. They took turns on the tee ball set, read to one another, emptied out the cooler, and fed each other grapes and water. Everything a playdate should be.

We're growing a sweet, kind, empathic, joyful, fair (as fair as she can be being 2.5 yrs old), thoughtful, and fun little girl. Michael and I truly bask in their light. Ok, I am going to wrap this up b/c I smell a sappy post coming up unless I abandon ship.

Love,

B in BAMS

Power Puff #2 is 5 months old today!

Yes you Saylor Sloane. I swear Michael and I only breed big eyed babies :) I can't believe that sweet cheeks is 5 months old already. We haven't done any solids yet and will probably start next week like we did with Athena. People that are reading that don't have kids are like "who cares" and "wth are solids and why have you waited so long? Solids are ANYTHING other than breastmilk or formula. It is thought that you should begin by introducing different varieties of cereal (between 4-6 months of age)to see how they fare with their little systems and then you go to vegetables and fruit and eventually she is splitting a burrito with a frozen margarita with me. She is sleeping from 8pm to midnight and then up again at 4am and up for the day at 8am or so. She does take three 2 hr naps a day though. Not so bad, but wouldn't you know I miss continuous sleep. Go figure.

(It doesn't look like they are having fun but they are. don't they know I am a blogger now and need pictures :)

We are having such a good time. The three of us hang out and I tote them all around town. We have joined several moms groups around here and have made some buddies. I am actually asst. organizer for one moms group called Hip Mamas. I host a power walk through the bayou on mondays and a happy hour playdate once a month. We just came back from an outdoor theater that had a show called "wish something something"...a tribute to disney movies. Athena loved it and Saylor just hung happily on me as I wore her. We went to have a picnic in the park afterwards. It was hotter than hell (95 degrees) so our picnic lasted roughly around 14 minutes.








Back soon,



Muah,