Our day in pictures

I titled this post appropriately--there are TONS of pictures so be prepared!!!

The day dawned early for us--sadly, Cutie Face was hungry but I didn't have any oatmeal ready for her. So we decided to try our hand at a bowl of cereal + milk for the first time

I was impressed by how well she wielded the spoon + Os--there was nary a spill!

Towards the end of the cereal bowl, though, she decided that finger feeding was the way to go. At least we made it through most of the bowl before that happened!

Right after breakfast, I had to get ready for my Cross-Country 5k. Cutie Face helped me lace my shoes...on her feet!

I left her and J at home and headed North to the race...

I'm glad they stayed home, too, because it was a blustery 34 degrees and snowing--YES there were snowflakes flitting about but they dissipated before the race started. STILL, we did have snow in Atlanta!

The race is not designed for 30-week pregnant women (duh). It was littered with leaves that were slippery from the rain/snow mixture and it was all hills (duh--cross country!) like this one (that we got to run up 3 times!!!):

I walked a bit down the hills and across the bridges because I really did not want to fall. Despite the breaks, I still managed to make top 3 women overall which meant that our Atlanta Track Club Women's team won the race! (we finished 1-2-3 for a total score of 6--the lowest you can get in XC!). We took a celebratory picture but I had my eyes closed (oh well!):

I quickly grabbed a bagel and some M&Ms (yum!) and headed back down to meet Cutie Face and J. They were supposed to have gone to the BlaBla Kids Pajama Party but Cutie Face decided to take a longer-than-usual nap (not a bad thing!). I'm still really sad we missed it--they throw such awesome parties (speaking of throwing awesome parties--they're celebrating the 12 days of Christmas on their blog with 20% off discount codes...click on the picture to see what today's sale is!)

While she slept, I got ready for J's Children's Christmas party and the Atlanta Children's Christmas Parade. Finally we were all awake and ready so off we went! I took a quick family photo snap of us in the elevator:

As soon as we stepped off the elevator, we were greeted by Santa.

We had talked about how "nice" and "happy" Santa was and how Cutie Face would get to meet him for about a week in anticipation of this event. J talked to Cutie Face as we stood in line about how fun it would be to sit on Santa's lap.

Sadly, Cutie Face did not fall for our tactics so the Santa picture became a family photo (sorry about the quality here--I took a photo of the picture with my phone and it doesn't do it justice). Look at her sad, slightly panicked, little face. Poor kiddo!

We knew food would distract her from her Santa trauma so we headed over to eat some Chick-fil-A (yum!) and watch the parade on TV

(we had tried to watch the parade outside but it was sooooo cold and windy that we opted to go to the Christmas party early!)

This is the view we had from the lobby while we ate--you can see the Georgia Dome where the "big" Florida v. Alabama game went down:

And here is the lobby (yes, i know you don't need to see pictures of this but I just needed to document it for myself!)

Cutie Face thoroughly enjoyed her chicken biscuits. She would have eaten the whole tray had we let her--thankfully they had some nutritious fruit for her, too!

After eating, we headed to "Santa's Toyland" to pick up her Children's gift--they pick out PERSONAL gifts for each child that RSVPs--isn't that cool? Here is Cutie Face waiting patiently for her present:

We knew that we were going to donate it to Toys for Tots but she was very intrigued by it:

So much so that she ripped into it immediately:

To find that it was a Melissa and Doug play purse:

She really wanted to open it and play with it:

But we diverted her attention over to the "Big Kids" playing Wii bowling:

and then quickly threw her present into the Toys for Tots bin:

Thankfully she didn't even notice it was gone! We found a cute Snowman on the way back to the lobby that Cutie Face wanted to hug:

and we also stopped at a craft table to make an ornament necklace (that wasn't the craft but she was too young to make the ornament wreath so we created a necklace instead!)

Then it was time to get an animal balloon. She had seen them all over the office and really really wanted one.

The balloon lady made her a green doggie. Cute.

Before we left, Cutie Face made friends with Kaitlin, a sweet girl 2-months younger than her. She was very eager to show Kaitlin her necklace:

but she was even more excited to give Kaitlin hugs:

Poor Kaitlin! She never knew what {hugged} her!

We finally headed home and all took naps before we headed back out into the cold. J really wanted to take a walk around our neighborhood so off we went. We love all the fun shops in our area! Cutie Face got antsy sitting in the stroller so we let her get out at Paper Source...where she found a big polar bear

Who of course needed a hug, too!

We stayed out for quite awhile, long enough for the sun to set and for us to see all the fun and festive lights on the walk home. We particularly liked the tree on top of this local yummy restaurant:

J decided it was because they incorporated blue and white "fairy lights" (as they say in the UK). So pretty!

...and that, my friends, was our Saturday...Phew!

Fun Friday

Fridays have kind of turned into a special Mommy-Daughter date day. In October, we went to Einstein Bros. Bagels each Friday morning to celebrate their Pumpkin bagels (and it helped that they were free!). Now we go out and run errands and just take a few minutes away from the house and computer to be with each other.

I really LOVE it!

Today, we dropped J off at work and headed to Dunwoody for my 30-week OB appointment. It was a relatively quick appointment since they just had to measure the belly and listen for the heartbeat.

Cutie Face enjoys going to the OB office because there are walls full of baby pictures. She could just stare at them for hours! In fact, we walked by a wall of photos as we went to our room and, after a few moments, she was begging to go back into the hallway to see the babes. ("Baby? Baby? BABY! Pleees plees PLEES")

Thankfully, they had a "Highlights" magazine in our room and that occupied her while we waited for the doctor.

We met the newest member of my doctor's practice--he was a one-man show until last month and it was fun to meet a woman OB (I've never had a woman as an OB/Gyn before!). Verdict is still out on if I'll choose her to be my full-time OB but she seemed nice and Cutie Face felt very comfortable with her (she has longish wavy/curly hair and resembles me a lot which made Cutie Face ask "Mommy?" when my doctor left the office!).

The office just received a new Ultrasound Machine and needed to calibrate the picture settings on it. The OB asked if I'd like to be the "guinea pig" and I agreed. It was a really fast ultrasound but it was another 4-D one which was fun.

Sadly, Babette #2 absolutely continues to REFUSE to show us her face. This time she had BOTH hands in front of her face. I guess we'll just see her in 10 weeks! I just hope she isn't hiding anything scary behind those hands :)

Since it was Friday, I decided to head to a bagel place right across the street from the doctor's office. I've heard great things about Goldberg's Bagels so no time like the present to try them!

Handily, they were right next to a Starbucks, so we headed over for some tea once we bought our bagels. I'm pleased to announce that these bagels truly are New York style bagels and tasted sooo authentic that, despite eating breakfast earlier in the morning, Cutie Face ate her whole Blueberry and I ate the other TWO bagels. Carbo-loading for tomorrow's cross-country race is my only excuse!

Since we were practically in the 'burbs, I decided to get some errands out of the way after we ate. I needed supplies for next week's Tutorial Tuesday!

We don't have a crafty store like Hobby Lobby too close to us so off we went. Turns out I got a little lost but it wasn't a huge deal and we were in the Hobby Lobby parking lot in no time. I couldn't resist a Super Walmart, though, so we headed there first.

Cutie Face found the baby aisle and loved the baby toys, bottles, etc. I think she is really getting into the Big Sister idea--we are so blessed that God is seemingly preparing her sweet heart for a baby!

While in the Crafty aisle, Cutie Face spied "Melmo" (ie "Elmo") and we spent a good five minutes playing and talking to the Elmo balloons. Despite their apparent similarities, Cutie Face, for some odd reason, favored the balloon on the right MUCH more than the one on the left. Weird.

The rest of the day was largely spent writing Monkeys on the Bed blog posts while attempting to get Cutie Face to sleep (I knew I shouldn't have let her taste that Gingerbread Latte sample!). Finally, we both got in a 1-hour nap before we headed off to pick J up at work...and then to Ikea for dinner and shopping!

Sadly, my phone (also now my camera!) died on our way over there so I don't have any pictures but Cutie Face once again greatly enjoyed herself and J and I checked out some "Big Girl" beds...we may have come to a few decisions, too! Yay!

This weekend is grossly busy but stay tuned for a weekend recap on Sunday evening! Hope y'all have a great one!

Silly Poky Puppy!

Cutie Face is a HUGE fan of "The Poky Little Puppy". She loves that book, primarily because she loves puppies.

Once, when we were walking through Publix, Cutie Face spied a Christmas Puppy. This puppy had a green Christmas present with a red bow and it played "Jingle Bells" when you pushed its middle. We thought it was cute that she reached out to it and wanted to hold it--it was March and she was only 7-months old so we didn't think much of it...until the next time we were in Publix when she started looking for the puppy. We couldn't believe she remembered it!

Since it was a Christmas puppy and it was long past Christmas, it was on sale for $1.99. So we bought it. As parents it was our first impulse buy for Cutie Face. But that puppy has been her buddy ever since and we're so happy she has him to snuggle with.

Lately, Cutie Face has become very attached to Puppy and asks to take him outside on our stroller walks. I relented last night and let her bring Puppy with us on a trip to Publix (a homecoming of sorts?).



Well, Cutie Face grew tired of sharing her stroller with him on our way home so she threw him out.

After a warning that Puppy would be taken away should she throw him out of the stroller again, Cutie Face and I continued home...

and a mere 45-seconds later, Puppy was overboard.

I picked him up and placed him on top of the stroller (where Cutie Face could not see him nor know that he had been rescued). I then exclaimed, "Oh NO! Where did the puppy go? Did you throw him? Oh NO! Poor Puppy."

We continued the sad conversation about the poor puppy's plight all the way home and even talked about how Cutie Face threw him out of her stroller while we were eating dinner. She seemed sad that she didn't know where he was and kept saying, "Puppy? I dunno!"

Finally, when we were done with dinner, I distracted her for a minute, plucked poor Puppy from the top of the stroller and placed him on our doormat at our front door.

Then I knocked and told her that I thought I heard the puppy knocking at the door!

She RAN over to the door and...sure enough, when we opened it, there was Puppy!


I've never seen a happier child. And I couldn't believe how hard she hugged Puppy. I mean, if he was a real dog, he'd be dead she squeezed him so tightly! It was like she found her long lost best friend. (I, sadly, was watching her hug Puppy so much that I forgot to take a picture--it was so cute, though!)

We had a heart-to-heart about how sad, hungry, cold, lonely, and dirty poor puppy must have been. That was that...or so I thought!

I returned to the kitchen to clean up our dinner plates and soon heard her saying "Eat, Eat". Since I couldn't see Cutie Face, I told her, "Sweetie, you already ate!" but she kept repeating "eat eat!" so, finally I went to the dining room to see that she was trying to feed Puppy. She must have thought that he was hungry because she had put Puppy on her booster chair and desperately wanted to feed him something!


Later, as we were drawing Cutie Face's bathwater, I went to get her towel, returned a mere second later and found that she had thrown Puppy into the bath, all the while signing "Dirty".


Guess our little heart-to-heart about Puppy took effect in her sweet, young little mind. I also hope that she learned her lesson and never throws Puppy out of the stroller again!

Welcome home, Sweet Pea!

Today marked the long-awaited arrival of Sweet Pea (the twin's blog moniker for her new baby) to her new home. After her incredibly earl entrance on Monday morning (2:301 AM), the hospital let them stay in the recovery room for more than the usually-allotted 48-hours (thankfully!).

That meant that Cutie Face, Mimi, Lil Miss and I could be at their house to welcome the new bundle of joy home.

While we waited, Cutie Face and I explored Lil Miss' new room--we had not seen the finished look yet. I think the twin did an awesome job!

Look at this cute corner of the room:

and Lil Miss is sleeping in my old bed--from when I was 5! wow!

the cousins pretended to sleep in the bed together but it didn't last long...


They wanted to play with Sweet Pea's balloon (isn't that rug CUTE?)

Cutie Face had a blast in the fun corner while reading a Fancy Nancy book.

Then Lil Miss joined the reading club

and they shared stories....

After exploring Lil Miss' room and playroom, we headed back downstairs to wait...Mimi entertained the girls with a Christmas toy catalog

Finally the twin and Mountain Man arrived with Sweet Pea.

Lil Miss was SO excited to see her mommy!

Cutie Face wanted in on the hug fest reunion so she headed over for a hug with her uncle, Mountain Man.

and cute little Sweet Pea slept through it all. I think she is going to be well loved!

Cutie Face and I are now back at home but she will really miss hanging out with Mimi, Poppy, and Lil Miss. Thankfully, now that we are home, I can start catching up on emails, Google Reader, and other obligations! Talk to y'all soon!

Momentum

...momentum is great until a greater force* stops it!

*(ie fatigue and Thanksgiving and...a new baby!)

I was on such a roll with this blog and LOVED blogging about Cutie Face's Life...then we had a few days where we didn't do anything exciting (not worth blogging) and that was the end of that!

****BIG NEWS ALERT****

My twin had her baby!!!!!


You can find all the cute pictures on her blog here...and here

Regardless, I PROMISE i will be updating and back-blogging the past three weeks worth of fun but I just had to jump ahead and post these pictures of Cutie Face at the park today.

"Mommy SIT. Mommy SIT"

in other words, she wanted me on the other side of the teeter totter. NOW.

Teaching Cutie Face that we do NOT climb UP slides...

"Hi Mom, aren't I cute?"


She and I had an absolute blast pretending to "eat" the mulch and bark.


She thought it was hilarious that I would pretend to eat and then say..."Noooooo".

ahhh, too much:

That's all for now...buh bye!