The LA Zoo

So I was right, the zoo - along with a super patient and helpful sister in law...and some cheetos - was all my kids needed to snap out of their funk yesterday.

While at the zoo, Connor seemed more interested in the water features than the animals themselves. And Isla only seemed happy when looking at the animals. When we were walking, she would fuss. But when we got to the next exhibit, she was happy to stare away at the animals.

Petting zoos are always a big hit with Connor. He got all up close and personal with a few of the animals. He carried around a brush for the animals the whole time he was in there, but I never once saw him brush an animal. I let Isla watch safely from outside the fence. I didn't think she was ready for the responsibility of keeping her hands out of her mouth while being around all that filth.

My sister in law ran Connor all over the zoo and did a wonderful job of tiring him out. His favorite part seemed to be the tunnels/caves that the reptiles were in. I am pretty sure he would have stayed in there all day. Alas, we made him move on so we could see more.

I didn't get any pictures, but Connor made friends with a little girl at the zoo. She looked to be about 4. He hugged her at least 10 times. It was embarrassing and funny all at the same time. More so because I was trying to stop it and the little girl said to me "It's okay. He can hug me as many times as he wants."

On the way back home to my parents, both kids crashed within seconds of being in their car seats. Being the nice mom that I am, I refused to allow them to sleep and made them wake up as soon as we got there...I wanted them to actually sleep last night! And sleep they did...it was beautiful, refreshing and needed all at the same time.

And in case you care to check out my post from the last time we went to the LA Zoo.

Parenting is Hard

There are those times as a parent that you feel like an utter and complete failure. As if you are totally failing at the job that God so graciously entrusted you with. Today was one of those days. Who am I kidding, the last few days have been one of those days!

This morning I was totally that mom at Starbucks. The mom whose kid pushed everyone out of the way so he could grab himself a beverage from the refrigerated section. The mom whose kid, then proceeded to try grabbing everything else as well. The mom whose kid then proceeded to run around pushing people, having a fit about something or another…you get the picture.

As I walked out of Starbucks, I cursed Starbucks in my head for not having a drive thru store close to me, then this wouldn’t have happened. Yep. It’s all Starbucks fault for my misbehaving child.

I could go on and on about what happened when I pushed my luck even further by running more errands. Really, the whole point of the story is I ended the morning  feeling like I should have never left the house, like I wanted to be in a dark room and wish away the whole morning. This whole parenting of a strong-willed toddler thing is hard business. Pack on top of that my temper tantrum/drama toddler and it felt like it should be bedtime and it wasn’t even noon.

I’m thankful for nap/quiet time that should hopefully reset both me and the kids. That combined with the fact that we are headed to the zoo with my sister-in-law this afternoon, gives me hope that the day can still turn around. 

Happy Halloween

Happy halloween from my little corner of the world to yours!

We took the kids trick-or-treating for the first time this year. I would say it was mildly successful. Connor just wanted to sit in the wagon and eat all the candy and Isla, well she got a hold of a piece of candy and actually ate through the packaging to get to it. We gave up after a few houses and went to my in-laws so they could see the kids all dressed up. And I am pretty sure Connor had way more fun handing out candy at their house than he did trick-or-treating himself. Either way, my wagon of monkeys looked pretty dang cute.

When I first put Connor's costume on him, I asked him what monkeys ate. His response? Food. He was correct with that one! Such a cute kid...that moves so freaking fast and refuses to look at a camera, making it impossible for me to get a decent shot of him. That wagon shot up there, want to know how I got it? Ian was playing peek-a-boo with the kids right behind me and it worked. Oh, and they were strapped in!

Isla was a little more willing. Or maybe its just that she can't move quite as fast! That and the fact that she was totally into playing with the pumpkins.

Isla's costume was a gift from a former co-worker when I was pregnant with Connor. Want to see him in it on his first halloween? I knew you would! Check him out here.

Hope you had a great halloween. And if you have a stash of candy at home, don't eat it all at once. You don't want to get an upset stomach...that's my tip of the day!

Digging a Little Deeper

During my formative adult years, a friend/mentor came into my life for a time and influenced me more than I ever think she will know. She is a couple years older than me. When I met her, I saw her as cool, on fire for God and always down to have a good time. Besides the fact that we wasted countless work hours chatting it up (and drinking red bull!), those hours could arguably not be considered wasted...they were teaching me, shaping me into the person I would become. That girl taught me to pray like I never knew how, to believe with all my might and to love with every ounce of my being. 

I remember being on a work trip with her in Chicago. Every single homeless person we saw, she stopped and gave money to. I was flabbergasted and asked her about it. She told me it wasn't up to us to judge the person's heart, but to help how we could. To this day that has changed me. But it has changed me in more than just words. The actions I have done because of those words have changed me. I remember giving my leftovers to a guy in Santa Monica and him opening it and eating it with his hands. It was pasta. I literally started to cry. The guy was starving with thousands of people walking in front of him and not even caring. 

More recently, I bought a guy a sandwich at McDonalds after asking him if he was hungry. Again, he wasted no time eating it. And again, my heart broke. Both these instances involve food. You see, the hubby doesn't like me giving away money. Do I still do it from time to time? Yes. but when possible, I do try to meet the need. 

A lot of the time there are homeless people hanging out by the grocery store I shop at. I have given them food before. A few days ago, I needed to run to the store and pick something up. On the way in, I noticed a homeless man sitting off to the side, so I picked up some bananas for him. When I left, I ran over and gave him the bananas and talked to him for a second. And honestly, when I got closer to him I couldn't tell if he was homeless or not, but after offering him the bananas, I couldn't back out of it. When I was driving away, I noticed he was eating one and that reassured me. But the scenario can't escape my mind of his daughter or someone coming out of the store and discovering him eating bananas and wondering how the hell he got them! Oh well. Even if he wasn't homeless or lacking food, at least he got a snack!

And as embarrassed as I felt for having possibly given a dirty and scruffy yet non-homeless person food, I am not going to let that stop me. I am going to keep on giving. 

 

Lately {in photos}

1. Trying to get a shot of my wiggle worms

2. Playing

3. Walking with Memaw (my mom)

4. Fall fun

5. Birtie Botts Beans!!!

6. Park fun

7. Pumpkin painting

8. The stomach flu came for a little visit

9. Isla's response to her Papa blowing her kisses

10. "Camping" at REI

11. At the train station waiting for uncle

12. Uncle arrived! 

Isla {1 Year}

Weight:  20lbs, 15oz 

Length:  30 inches 

Accomplishments:

Walking across the room

8 teeth

Holds the phone to her ear and says "hello"

I'm a little late on this one, but I am guessing Isla won't care.

Now that Isla is pretty much exclusively walking, she is definitely out of the baby phase. And for some reason, it weirds me out seeing this little person walking all over. I am not sure why. It's like she shouldn't be able to do it yet. Maybe she is growing up to quickly for my comfort...I feel like a broken record with this one. Even though she can walk on her own, it is really cute to watch her take someone's hand finger and walk around. I also have to be more careful now because she has also seemed to gain more of an independence in the house and wanders into other rooms and gets into things. Now is when the real fun begins! 

Isla's hair is now long enough for pigtails. Having never done pigtails before, I never realized how hard they are to do on babies. That fine hair combined with a wiggly head and an oh so tiny hair tie makes for quite the situation. Thankfully, I seem to be quickly getting the hang of it and Isla sort of seems to like getting her hair done...such a girl! After playing around with Isla's hair for a few days, I decided I prefer the look of one pigtail (I guess a ponytail) off to the side. I know, you guys all really care about these details! And speaking of hair, Isla loves brushing her hair. She takes my brush and does it after I brush mine in the morning. It is really cute and something I don't remember Connor ever doing...another reason I think gender really is ingrained in us. 

Food wise Isla will eat pretty much anything and everything. For a while now I have only been feeding her table food (i.e. no baby food) and it works really well. She eats what we eat and she feeds herself. We have started giving her silverware, but she still just bangs it on things rather than trying to eat with it. Isla is still nursing, as I mentioned in this post, and I don't know how long she will go for. I have started to introduce her to cows milk. She seems to like it and will drink it, but only if it is in her brother's cup and she takes it from him. Who knows what that is about?! She also got a hold of some orange juice the other day and I have never seen the girl drink so fast in her life. It was funny and I am sure like liquid candy for her. 

Sleep wise Isla is doing well. She had a difficult time a couple weeks ago when she was sick, but she is doing good and only getting up about once a night. Usually it is around 5-6am, but sometimes she will wake up more around 2am. Either way, I nurse her and she goes right back to sleep and generally won't wake for the day until about 8:30am. It is nice to finally seem to have a good nighttime routine and no longer have chaotic nights. Isla is still taking two naps a day, but seems to be transitioning over to one. The only thing is, on the days that she only takes one nap, she is definitely DONE by bed time and that makes the evenings a little tricky. 

Its fun watching Isla's personality grow and develop. I look forward to what type of person she will become. Hopefully she still won't be throwing herself on the ground when she doesn't get her way as an adult. I kid. But it is funny to hear that many people seem to have way more trouble with their girls having temper tantrums than their boys. And we definitely have a drama queen on our hands. She is either all smiles or all drama. Last week we were out as a family and she had a meltdown of ginormous proportions. As we were walking back to the car, we passed a bench with some people on it. A guy sitting there said "hi baby girl". Isla stopped crying and smiled. As soon as we were passed the bench, she threw herself back again and continued her tantrum. Like I said, drama. But I love my little girl, drama and all. She just adds a little extra stress spice to my life this way! 

Bookshelf Organization {My House}

I am not a fan of clutter. I know that may come as a shock to anyone that has been to my house in the past say three years. With kids come clutter. I blame them. But I really don't like clutter. When we bought our house, I instantly didn't like the bookshelves that surround our fireplace. They were just screaming to "catch" things, to become a sight for sore eyes. 

At first I took the approach of keeping them empty because I thought it would be way to busy to have things on them. Then Ian took over the shelves by the front door. They became his dumping grounds for anything and everything. To deal with this, I threw a bunch of books on the shelves. I was glad to have the random stacks of paper gone, but still wasn't thrilled with the bookshelves. 

I forgot to take a before shot, but this gives you an idea of what I was working with. Random crap everywhere. 

I kept trying to think of ways to help the shelves. My biggest idea was painting or decorating the wall behind them somehow. Then a couple weeks ago I stumbled across an article about organizing bookshelves in Better Homes & Gardens (It may shock you that I get this magazine, but it was a free subscription so I signed up) and it reignited my flame for doing something with these bookshelves. 

Literally a day later, my favorite organizing blog - I Heart Organizing - did a whole post on organizing shelves. It was then and there I decided I needed to do something about the shelves. 

Basically I started turning books on their sides and stacking them and looking for things around the house to set on the shelves with the books to make it look cool. I am very happy with how it turned out. It looks so much more put together. 

And I like that some sentimental things are able to be on display. I don't have many sentimental things in my life, so its nice to see some of the things that I do have. 

And another angle of the bookshelves all done up. I seriously love looking at them now. They make me happy...and make me feel like a semi clean, organized and decorative person!

 

P.S. Sorry for the crazy bright shots. I swear I didn't use a flash. Our windows face the wall and apparently on bright days, look like a flash.