Our New Cousin

This is Brooke, our new cousin. A couple of weeks ago Mommy, Gwant, and I went to go see her. She's wonderful. I call her "my new cousin Brooke." Mommy says Gwant and I used to be that little. But, "I'm a big gurl now," as I often inform Mommy...you know, just in case she forgot. Stay tuned for more pictures from our visit in Bham.

The Kangaroo

Before this move gets too popular, I thought I better claim it as my own. This, my friends, is The Kangaroo. If you've begun seeing it in your local group dances, please, give me credit. I believe I will be contacting So You Think You Can Dance to introduce myself as the choreographer of this awesome new dance craze. I'm sure they'll let me on to choreograph next season's dancers. I just hope Mommy will have time to get me there.

Gettin' the Hang of It

I'm finally discovering that chalk is much more useful when put on the chalkboard and not in my mouth (that's not to say I don't still have the occassional chalk craving). If you recall from a previous post, I'm delving into the world of art. First, it was with paint. Yellow paint. Now, it's with chalk. All sorts of colors chalk. I enjoy making faint, vertical lines. I feel its softness provides a calming affect, contrary to a hard, solid line. Enjoy.

Who Let the Cows Out?

Yep, that's me. I'm a cow. For some reason Mommy wanted us to dress up like cows to go to "chicken lay." It's my favorite place to go. AND I'm all about dressing up. So I said, SURE! Mommy did say if we all dress up like cows (yes, Daddy did too) then we get to eat at Chick-fil-a for FREE. I know how Mommy loves freebies. And you can't top a free meal at Chicken Lay. What a time we had! Mommy read that you had to be a cow from head to toe to get a WHOLE meal deal for free. She made sure we were cows from head to toe. And we did it. We all got a free meal...even Gwant.

Another Chicken Lay freebie I got for reading (well Mommy reading to me) 25 books for the summer reading program at the library was a free Chicken Lay kids meal. So the other day after Mommy and I went to a FREE movie at the theatre (which was an experience in and of itself...I was so little I couldn't hold the movie seats down. It folded me right up!) Mommy said we could go to Chicken Lay because I had a free kids meal. To which I replied:

"Mommy do I have to dress up like a cow again?"

Sadly, Mommy said we didn't have to. But I heard the words FREE and CHICKEN LAY so I figured the other missing words were DRESS UP LIKE A COW. But I guess it doesn't work like that all the time. I still talk about dressing up like a cow. I say, "Mommy, remember when I dressed up like a cow for chicken lay?" She still remembers.

Cookie Mustard

This is my friend. I call him "Cookie Mustard." Personally, I don't think I'll be eating any cookies with mustard on them, but whatever floats your boat, Cookie Mustard. Whatever floats your boat.

$5 Closer

Hooray! Hooray! We earned $5 today! Thanks Swagbucks! So, we've now earned $35 to put toward Hannah's new birthday trike! What was going to cost us $67 will now cost us only $32. BUT remember, Mommy is hoping to get it for FREE or almost free! If you're not signed up for Swagbucks, you can help! Just click on the button below and sign up. All you have to do is use their search engine (Mommy says it's easiest to download their toolbar and have it in front of your face every time you're on the computer....that way you'll remember to use it instead of Google, Yahoo, or other search engines). Then, every few times you search, you'll earn Swagbucks. You can exchange your Swagbucks for great prizes like the Amazon Gift Card that Mommy likes so much! For every 45 Swagbucks she earns, she gets a $5 gift card. And when she has friends sign up under her, she gets their first 100 bucks too (don't worry, you get them too). She's made over $100 in Amazon gift cards since November. It's worth it because you get rewarded for something you already do! Want to sign up? Just click on the button below to get started!

Can I Please Have Some Hair Gel?

Ahh, that's right, rub it in there. That'll really look special. So suave, so cool.

Can I please have some hair gel? That's what I ask frequently. I think it can really create the look I'm going for. But, if you know my dad, you'll know the answer to using hair gel is an adamant NO (hence the upset face in one picture). So, I created this look on my own with a mixture of lots of sticky stuff from my tray. I feel that I added a tad much to this look and may ease up the next time. But, I think this just may be the look for me. I think it says, "SHAZAM!"

Life is Good

That's right, life is good. And suckers are too. You see, it helps having an older sister (or brother if you must). Hannah probably didn't start eating these bad boys until she was much older than I. But, Mommy feels bad for Hannah to have a treat and not me. So, BINGO, a sucker I get each visit to the bank. Based on this picture you probably can guess why Hannah didn't eat them until she was older. Each time we get home I'm a sticky mess. But, a happy, sticky mess. My hands are sticky. My clothes are sticky. My arms are sticky. My feet are sticky. My face is sticky. My hair is sticky. And my car seat is sticky. And then usually Mommy is pretty sticky after getting me out of my seat and into the kitchen for a bit of a sponge bath. But to me, it's well worth it. It's the benefit of being the second child...Mommy gets a little softer and not so uptight. Won't be long til I can get her to give me a sippy cup of that Coke she loves so much.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Over the past couple of months, I've really been growing. Some of my favorite things to do are push my walker all over the house, climb up the stairs, and love on my blankey boy.

Let's start with the walker. It helped (notice the past tense here) me get around. However, now I'm taking many steps and am learning to get around all by myself. But, I still enjoy the occassional stroll with my walker. I owe it to him for all my walking moves so it's a must to still give him some love every now and then.

The stairs. The stairs are such a pleasure. When Mommy says it's time for a bath I say, "baa, baa" and go straight up the stairs. I've even been seen practicing going down the bottom two steps by holding on to the rail and stepping down, just like Hannah. However, Mommy and Daddy clearly give me the "no, no," when I crawl near the stairs to go down. I guess they're just not comfortable with that yet.

And then, there's my precious blankey boy, tagged "the magic blanket" by the nursery workers at church. I like to think it is magic myself. There's just something soothing about this baby that calms even my toughest tantrums. He now goes with me many places: church, the library, long car rides, really just about anywhere where a possible meltdown could be distracting and, more importantly, embarassing to Mommy. It works. One day Mommy tried to pull a fast one on me and put another blankey in my crib. I looked at it and just as I was about to snuggle with him, I realized he was an imposter! I stood up looked all over the floor in my room for it and then started to whine. And, just like that, in a couple of seconds, Mommy came back in my room with the real deal. Apparently she was being lazy and didn't want to go downstairs to get it. But as soon as that baby hit my crib I snuggled up and prepared myself for a cozy nap. Phew.

So those are a few of my favorite things...what are your's?

P.S. Sorry for some of the blurry images...

"The Baby Poo"

By poo I mean pool...give a girl a break...I'm still learning this whole language thing. Our wonderful neighbors next door let us borrow their baby pool. WE LOVED IT. It's just the right size for Gwant and me. Gwant was hesitant at first. However, he warmed up to the idea fast. His favorite part: getting in and out of the pool. Don't ask me why.

Gwant also wanted to be sure we posted his inventive crawling method while outside on concrete. I'll name it, "the monkey walk." He finds that if he crawls like a monkey, then his knees will not get scraped. Props to my little brudder. I applaud your resourcefulness.

His resourcefulness inspired me. I noticed Mommy did not have a hat on Gwant so I kindly shared my hat with him. And, in place of my pink hat I found this lovely green bucket to adorn my head. However, Gwant was not about to be caught dead in a pink hat. As for me, I took a liking to the green bucket hat look and decided I would be willing to be caught dead in it. So, wear it I did.

New Item Up for Bid

After reading Hannah's previous post (the fact I don't have a dime to my name), I figured it was high time I did have a dime to my name. The best way to accomplish that: create my own masterpiece. And add it to the bid war. Their paintings don't stand a chance next to mine. I call my piece: Yellow. I like the color. It reminds me of the sun. And squash. And, the yellow fruit snacks I've recently taken a liking to. But, let's be honest, I chose it, well, because I had to. It was the color Mommy squirted onto the paper (it will be so nice when I can actually talk and have a say in things such as these). So, I went with it. Anyways, I think simplicity says it best. Too many colors like some artists use (I won't name any names here but we all know who they may be) create confusion and chaos. With one color and a few strokes, a masterpiece is born. So, with that, I'll start the bidding at $2. Yes, I said, $2. It's worth both dollars. Trust me.

Little Inspirations

Ellie and I got sick of being outside (okay, Mommy made me say that...the real "truf" is that Mommy and Gwant got tired of playing outside) so we came in for some painting fun. The painting fun, however, only lasted a few minutes. I think Mommy spent more time getting it ready than we did actually painting. But what can I say, when an artist is inspired, creating the piece may only take seconds. We were inspired. After our inspirations were poured out onto the paper, Ellie named her piece, "The Astronaut." I guess astronauts inspire her. However, mine remains nameless. My inspiration comes from everywhere so I can I pin down just one name? Bidding for these one of a kind pieces will begin at $1 starting now. You can place your name and bid in the comments section of this post. Gwant, as you can see, has already shown quite the interest in mine and has already put down $1 (however you and I both know this guy doesn't have a dime to his name...so, unbeknownst to him, bidding will remain at $1).

Nuts!

Ellie and I love to dress up; however, we have different tastes. Ellie prefers the more elegant look while I lean toward a more eclectic look. Yet, we both proudly call ourselves princesses. It's all in the attitude, we say.

Our New Pal

If you follow our blog regularly, you may have remembered a couple of weeks ago we posted a picture of me and that BIG DADDY raccoon. I mentioned a baby raccoon. Well, this is that little guy. I love animals. I ain't skeerd to get close to one either. Can you tell? Gwant was a little nervous. But he enjoyed him. The raccoon was a gentle soul. We would have grown to be gwate fwiends had Mommy and Daddy let me keep him. But Daddy promised him to another. I hope he's safe and happy. I know I would have made a gwate mudder for him.

Who Loves Cupcakes? We Love Cupcakes!

Our neighbor, "Mrs. Becca," as I call her, sometimes brings us cupcakes. I love cupcakes. Grant loves cupcakes, heck, we all love cupcakes! If I could be a cupcake, I would. We all devoured these babies in a matter of seconds. If you think we look messy, you should have seen Mommy. And she wonders why we are such messy eaters (just kidding)! Oh, and take note of Grant's awesome drool. That's how much he loves cupcakes.

$5!!

Yes, you heard me right, we earned $5 thanks to Grandma. So, we can now take $30 off Hannah's tricycle. So, it's now $37!! Remember, you can start earning free stuff too by searching the internet. Just click on the button below to sign up for Swagbucks. Use it as your search engine. Then, every few searches you do, you'll earn "swagbucks" that you can trade in for prizes, like Mommy's favorite, the $5 Amazon gift card. She's already earned well over $100 in Amazon gift cards. Remember, I got my Wheely Bug for $6! Without the Swagbucks, it would have cost $60! Sign up!!

More Fun with Ellie

Ellie and I got to spend the whole week together. So, needless to say, Mommy took lots of pictures! Here we are enjoying yet another day in the hose. Ellie wanted to see how long I could handle water being poured over my head (kind of like water boarding). I graciously complied. Then, she's allowing me to take a quick drink after the drama. You can tell who's in charge here. But that's how we like it. Ellie takes the lead and follow suit. However, I did take the lead in rolling down the hill. Mommy has been trying to get me to roll down it for some time now. We do have a good hill for rolling. In fact, the whole neighborhood knows it. Our neighbors sledded down it that day we got so much snow. But on this day, I got to roll down it. At the time, it was the best idea in the world. However, two hours later...not so much. My poor body was covered in grass scratches. It looked like I had been burned! It wasn't Mommy's smartest Mommy move. But we did have fun. Next time, I'll be wearing my sweatpants and winter parka though.

Summer Fun with Ellie!

A few weeks ago Ellie got to come and play at my house with me while her mommy was gone. We had a blast! We got to play in the "prinkiler" and the hose. Our favorite part was a toss up between drinking out of the hose and running down the hill. The "prinkiler" was the most "cary (scary)" part because it moved. Mommy had to demonstrate how to jump through it before we'd even get close to it. And, even then, we'd only go through it if Mommy was holding us. Call us weenies, we just wanted to be careful. Oh yeah, Gwant was having none of this. All he wanted was some nice cool shade and a tall sippy cup of milk.