Passing the Taste Test

October resolution--to update this blog every-other day...
YES!
I will be back-dating some posts and be playing catch up
BUT!
I want to start documenting things that happen TODAY, too!

Cutie Face's cousin experienced a Fall Festival and Pumpkin Patch last weekend. While there, Cousin R started a new tradition--kissing the pumpkin.

Cutie Face may be cute but she is a toughie at heart--and is into EATING a bit more than kissing. So she started her own tradition--eating the pumpkin...it is a three step process that occurs each time: Taste, Think, Tongue

1. Taste



2. Think



3. Tongue (a mark of approval)



1. Taste



2. Think

3. Tongue

and a few more taste test pics just because they're cute:




We love our funny Cutie Face!




PS These pictures can be viewed larger--just click!

1...2...3...GO!

Cutie Face discovered a new love of slides last week. I decided to see if she would be willing to let go and slide on her own (with me at the end, of course!)...she is a little daredevil, free falling onto pillows and jumping off pool edges...so I figured I might as well see what she thought of sliding!

To start her off, we went down the tandem slides--me on one slide and her on the other. I sat her on the top and made sure she knew to SIT and not move until Mommy said "GO!" She knows how to say "sitting" and I made her say it over and over again so that she would know to stay put.

When we were ready,

I took her hand,

said 1...2...3...

GO!

and off we slid.

She thought it was GREAT.

Next I placed her at the top of the slide on her own and said "Sitting" and she repeated it.

When I positioned myself at the bottom I counted

"1...2...3...GO!" and she just...

closed her eyes...

let go...



and weeee! slid to the bottom!

She quickly learned how to say "Three. GO!" and now says that at the top of every slide. Pretty cute.

We've tried out lots of slides since then and she continues to get a huge kick out of them...

Please Come to Boston...{part 1}

She said...YES!

We had the chance to visit Boston and Cambridge (our old stomping grounds for three years). I couldn't believe that we hadn't been back since June 2008! Cutie Face got to meet a lot of our friends and visit our old haunts.

Visiting the Harvard Museum of Natural History, where I used to work:

she was really quite taken by this cat and kept going back to it

I couldn't pass up a flower picture of my floral-wearing headband girl in front of the Glass Flowers exhibit

and, of course, a Monkeys-on-the-Bed! shot:

Souvenir from daddy's alma mater:

Stay tuned for Part 2 (running through Boston) and Part 3 (visiting the Vineyard)

it's a rainy night (day, week, month) in Georgia

I'm not a huge fan of this song but it is very very true these days!

view from our parking lot on Friday

Picture taken from the Internet...but this is what it looked like a few days later!

Despite the rain, we had fun this weekend!

On Saturday, we visited our favorite Farmer's Market in Atlanta.

i kind of dig these overhead shots of Cutie Face walking on cool surfaces:

We were even quoted in an USA Today article about why we like Farmer's Markets so much (yes, this will give away our names but I'm trusting you to be nice with that information!)

It continued to rain on Sunday but, in between showers, we took the kiddo to a local park. Needless to say we were the only ones there. She found a fun little toy (the neighborhood parents just leave/donate play toys for kids to play on while visiting the park! neat!)

Here's to a dry start of the week...!

Updates schmupdates

I have so much to update on and I don't really want to skip over anything that we did because it was all so fun. So, be prepared for crazy posting...eventually!

We just got back from Portland, Oregon (and a little bit of the seaside, too!) so we have tons of pictures from that...and then we have all of July and August to catch up on, too! I hope you won't mind...I'm hoping to use this blog as a record of Cutie Face's life (and her future sibling's life, too!) so updating is key :)

For now I just wanted to show you the super cute birthday gift she received from one of my friends from Team-in-Training (they say when you sign up for TNT that you will find friends for life and they were RIGHT!).

As you may know, Cutie Face's nursery is yellow, black, and white. All over. I love it! You also know that she wears bows all.the.time. To the point that people don't recognize her without the bow! So my thoughtful friend sent her a customized hairbow/clippie holder that matches her nursery decor to a "T"! We love it so much that I just had to share!

She now obsessively says "please" all the time with words or using sign language
(you rub your hand near your neck like she is doing below)

She also sniffs flowers--even fake ones:






finally wearing a bow and looking at all the bows on her bow holder:

PS if you want one, too, you can buy them at Bowtique Lollipop!

Mini Reunions in Portland

One of my sorority sisters from college lives in Portland. Believe it or not, we hadn't seen each other for more than 6 years! that is crazy! It was so nice to just pick up where we left off.

Cutie Face took to her right away, too, and thought she was quite funny:

In fact, she giggled quite a bit:

We had a great night with you, Kaitie, and hope we see you again soon!

The next day, J's brother Noah came to visit. He hadn't seen Cutie Face since she was 4 months old! A lot has changed since then!

On Saturday, we all headed to the Portland Farmer's Market in the University District!

To encourage some uncle/niece bonding time, we had Noah wear the Moby-esque wrap (tutorial on my other blog, Monkeys on the Bed!)

I think Cutie Face had as much fun as Noah did just "hanging out" (ha! get it?)



We definitely loaded up on goodies, too--perfect for our trip to the beach in two hours...

Our visit with Noah was far too short but we enjoyed every minute with him!

Bikes in the City

Lookout! Bikes are EVERYWHERE in Portland!

J has this crazy idea that we only need to be a 1-car family...and that we can survive on one car by getting a Bakfiets. "A WHAT?" you ask? Well, so did I.

A Bafkiets is a Dutch bike that seats three kids in front of you in this little wooden wheelbarrow contraption. We had the privilege of test driving it while in Portland at an awesome little shop called Clever Cycles.

Cutie Face was the first guinea pig...don't know if that was the smartest idea to let her ride first!

Here is our happy family:

Brave Uncle Noah bit the bullet and also took a test ride...



So, will we get one of these? Well, let's just say it wasn't ruled out...

Tourist Traps...and darn good ones, too!

We hit (what we thought/think is) a famous breakfast eatery in Portland on our first morning...

Kenny and Zuke's. Cutie Face LOVED being able to color and eat bagels and J and I enjoyed their breakfast meals as well.

I also performed an obligatory pregnant woman duty and ordered some pickles...for breakfast. Hey! They aren't called Kenny and ZUKE's for nothing!

We also spent a lot of time in Powell's bookstore. The kiddo loved it and she got to kid-watch, too, which is often the highlight of her days!

I'm sure we did some other Portland-y things but those were the highlights!