Bed Heads

Cutie Face has been the sweetest sister to little Cakes. 

So sweet. 

She wants to share everything (except for the potty--bizarre--when i put Cutie Cakes on the babybjorn little potty, Cutie Face starts crying real fat tears! why?), tell her about everything Cutie Cakes is looking at, read her stories, sing her "Jesus loves me" before naptimes, and crawl into her crib when she wakes up.

Oh! it just completely warms my heart.

Today, though, Cutie Face wanted "mah sistah" to "sleepin mah behd" (she seriously has the makings of a southern accent when she says "my" and "sister"). 

She cuddled up with Cutie Cakes and insisted that they both have covers. 

Then she said, "bye bye mama. it's sleepy time". 

She really wanted to have a little slumber party with her--oh! i just love that she has a sister (because i know how awesome and what a true blessing sisters are!)

Someone couldn't get comfortable

and the slumber party went to pot...but it was fun while it lasted!

and...we can't always be cute!

the cool "zoo"

It's summer. 

It's Atlanta. 

It's H-O-T-T HOT

(the extra "t" added for good measure...or for temperature...you decide)

Thanks to the Cuties fabulous Grandma, we are proud members of Zoo Atlanta.

Sometimes, though, it's just too hot to visit the zoo animals (and often, those animals find it too hot to be on exhibit and are hiding inside their quarters). 

So what are the Cuties to do when one of them asks to see some animals?

PET STORE!

woot woot.

 Can you tell that we're big fans?

We were big fans of the pet store field trip prior to our zoo membership and i reckon we'll be big fans for years to come. I truthfully find no shame in waltzing into a pet store for the Cuties to visit the animals and then walking out without a purchase...though sometimes I do cave and buy our kitties a bag of treats.

Thursday was Cutie Cakes first intentional pet store visit and I think she enjoyed the sounds. She couldn't really see anything because she was facing me in the Ergo. :-o

Cutie Face tried to free some kitties

when that plan didn't work, she entertained them:

I think they loved it. 

Now if only our cats loved it when Cutie Face played with them...

Next up were the birdies.

Cutie Face thought they were all named Pippen, like Grandma's birdie

the Cakester just wasn't sure about them, though

The fish were much more entertaining

but the best "exhibit" of all was the dog grooming station

she could have spent hours watching the dogs get their hair cut. 

It was quite entertaining to say the least :)

Rockin' and Rollin'

Cutie Cakes has become quite the roller. 

She learned this skill about two weeks ago 

but since then she's been working on perfecting it

Not even 2 seconds after I snapped this picture did she grab for the pillow and, in one fluid maneuver, turn completely around. 

I can no longer trust this Cutie to stay put.

{who, me?}

The rolling stage is completely new to me--Miss Cutie Face never learned to roll over until after she started crawling...and by then rolling was not cool--if she could crawl, why bother rolling? 

So we're rollin' with it.

In unrelated news, we were given a $37 bottle of baby wash/shampoo to test for a blog review. 

Yup. Thirty-Seven Dollars. 

It's French and it foams

and that's where the Rockin' part comes in:

{party on, dude}

Fernbank fun

After a fun-filled 2.5 days at Mimi and Poppy's house, we headed back down to the city, just in time for a little learning action at the local natural history museum.

funny story: when I was in middle school we took a 7th-grade class trip to Fernbank. While waiting to board the vans back to school, all the girls went to the restroom. Post-bathroom break, we waited around in the lobby being goofy middle schoolers. Sadly, it wasn't until we were about to depart that a friend let me know I'd tucked my skirt into my panties. up. That was lovely. And, up until a year or so ago, was the only memory I'd retained from Fernbank! Glad the Cuties and I could make a few new memories today!

Cutie Face wasn't too sure what to think of the three dinosaurs out front...

here she is running away!

Once inside we were met with a larger dinosaur in the atrium:

She felt much more secure with the fossilized skeleton!

checking out the enormity of the dinosaur--HUGE 

our friends that took us to the museum had a quick photo-op in the photo booth. Cutie Face wanted to join them but didn't want to join the Cakester and I in our weekly self-portrait. Oh well :)

i f 

The Fernbank is renovating their children's play section but they saved a few items for kids to play with during the renovation process....one was their fun boat...and the other was their scary corn on the wall--isn't that freaky? i thought so.

The last stop was the hands-on exhibit. The toddlers were a little young for most of the (super informative and educational) sections but they found a few that were pretty exciting:

{shadows}

{electricity}

{pressure? i didn't read the informational plaque!}

Once we were out the door, Cutie Face said goodbye to the dinosaurs...this time from a safe distance!

thanks so much for the Fernbank Fun, Miss W & A!

f-a-m-i-l-y

living in the ATL certainly has many perks. For starters, (and this is just running from stream of consciousness, not from order of importance) I can run year round with the cuties in the jogger--crucial for me when training for races while J is away. 

More importantly, though, as the tile of this post attests, we are very near family. When J is away, it is so nice to be able to scoot over to Mimi & Poppy's house and hang with them and the cousins. (*disclaimer!* Of course we wish we could be near all our family but since the greatest concentration lives in Atlanta, it can't be beat--we love you everyone!)

Anyway, this week was one of those J's-home-for-36-hours weeks so the Cuties and I headed North for a few nights. 

Night 1:

Indoor picnic with the fam

the Cakester thinks...when will my mom ever start me on solids?

(soon enough dearie...

it's just a bit more than mommy can handle at the moment)

in the meantime, play with your fun cuz

don't worry--you'll be best buds soon!

...Sweet Pea's really not as tough as she looks!

Day 2:

the ritual--Starbucks run with Mimi & Poppy

always means green juice & a bagel

this time Cutie Cakes and I got to tag along, too!

we headed back home to take the big cousins swimming

but it was all hands on deck so no pictures were taken. 

alas

they are GREAT swimmers these days, though--jumping off, no hands, and kick kick kicking around (while wearing their swim school vests, of course)!

the girls somehow still had enough energy to not sit still long enough for a decent picture. boo. they're still cute, though :)

Lil Miss was a sweetie and posed quickly for me 

(ie "Turn around, Lil Miss!"...SNAP!)

Cutie Cakes also posed nicely for me

always content with a thumb!

It rained like crazy on Monday night so, in lieu of running in the deluge, I ran out and bought a pizza special. I hadn't packed enough yummy veg for the kid but i figured she could try a slice.

Try = understatement

Eat = yes

She ate TWO slices by herself. And Lil' Miss ate one! 

needless to say i was impressed! all this just days after being confused by what a sandwich was! Way to make huge strides in eating "normal" people food!

Tuesday we hung out with the gang before heading back home for an afternoon at the natural history museum...post about that to come!

Jungle Boogie

Ahhh the life of a toddler...and so called "dance parties" 

One video is 10 seconds

the other video is 80 seconds

the joys these girls bring us is unreal

YAY you did it!

That was the theme of the remainder of the week:

YAY You Did It!

Thursdays are the days that J usually comes home so it's always a cause for celebration. This week, though, we had HUGE cause for celebration--he finished the first project he ever "led". We were very proud of him and wanted to express that through a craft.

so we did. 

Cutie Face was a huge help. She's getting so good at crafting!

She was also quite pleased with her creation

and, from time to time, would run into the room and say:

"look at dat, mommy. dat's my craft for daddy. yes."

it's kind of like saying, "yay, Cutie Face--YOU did it!"

In more "you did its"...The kiddos and i went to the playground again.

Cutie Cakes is showing you how she did it...and had SO.MUCH.FUN

she's so excited that she's smiling SO BIG that it looks like she's yawning!

gotta love this action shot with Cutie Face in the background

(and the Cakester still ecstatic about swinging)

We then retreated to the shade where the duckies were.

Sadly for them we did not do it--

as in, bring the bread that they were anticipating.

these poor (seemingly) starved ducks came from every direction and landed at our feet, just waiting for us to drop them a snack. Luckily for them, we went to Target yesterday and bought a $1 loaf for future duck pond visits.

Here's some long-awaited "yay you did it" news: Cutie Face can finally walk her Little Tikes car forward (previously, it'd only been backward movement). 

This photo captured the literal first moment that she lurched in the correct direction. It took a few tries and "eeeeeeh. i can't do it"s but she eventually had fluidity of motion! YAY, Cutie Face, you did it!

Cutie Cakes, meanwhile, managed to finagle a little more mommy/daddy time by being inconsolable around 11 PM Thursday night. That's one "you did it" that we weren't too fond of but...really...who can resist this kid? I can't!

We then had the extreme pleasure of having guests on Friday. The amazing Lauren stopped in with her three kids (can we all say, YAY Lauren, YOU did it!?!) on her way to see her parents and friends. 

Before I post pictures I just have to publicly say that having Lauren visit feels like an incredible blessing. She mothers with grace, patience, and wisdom all while pointing her children's hearts back to God. I really feel like I received a lesson in mothering just by watching her interact with her two kids while soothing her newborn! Thank you, Lauren, for your incredible (and humble!) example! 

We played, ate, made LOTS of noise, blew bubbles, snipped basil, and shared life stories. It was great!

This morning we let J sleep in--a totally deserved and much needed lie-in (as evidenced by the fact that he slept until 11 AM!!!!!). 

Once the tiny tike was down for her morning nap, Cutie Face and i ventured into the extreme heat (can we say: heat index of 116?!?!). We walked to a "porch sale" (as opposed to say, a yard/garage sale)--she rode in the newish Ergo--i LOVE that thing. Even with those high temperatures, we managed to stay cool! go Ergo (you did it :). 

The kind neighbors who were moving gifted a toddler life jacket to her (maybe they thought we'd soon melt into a puddle and need something to stay afloat in...). We couldn't say no but we did look a little funny carrying on to Starbucks, life jacket in tow (plus two plush kitties and one blanket)

at Starbucks I caved and bought the kid a doughnut. She does a bang-up job of eating soooo many veggies--spinach, sweet potatoes and broccoli being her faves--that i thought a little treat couldn't hurt.

she was much appreciative

and ate it all

while i took comfort in the fact that it was...

"Real Food"

Cutie Face's consumption of it definitely attested to the doughnut's "Simply Delicious" claim

While that was all fine and good, the customer in the background was not too pleased with something. I nearly died when i saw these pictures up close (they were taken on the iPhone)...i enjoyed her facial expressions so much that i made them into a little collage for your viewing pleasure:

oh my.

we rounded the day off by thrift-store shopping for fabric. it was tons of fun

one piece of fabric came on a bolt...that J turned into a toy:

YAY for free, simple toys!

and check out Cutie Cakes' new yellow vintage dress--$1!

and now this post is finally over! yay i did it :-0