baby in the hood returns

see orginial hooded babe here.

mother's day dresses

observant readers will have noticed that the handmade dresses the girls wore on mother's day here were actually the *same* dresses (gasp! shock! horror!) that they wore the year previous here.

so obviously i haven't been super deadline driven lately (remember that new baby? new house? new job? they have *all* been seriously encroaching on my craft time), but i did eventually get summer and afton's 2012 mother's day dresses done.

voila:

modified from cottage mama's tutorial here.

look for my beauties to be modeling their new gowns during caleb's upcoming blessing weekend extravaganza.

elephant ears

i heart baby elephant ears.

when summer and afton were little babies, i hated seeing them with their heads all curled up in awkward positions as they were transported to and fro in their car seats. even if it didn't make them uncomfortable (having been bent up in the womb and all that jazz), it certainly made me cringe to look at their poor contorted baby selves.

so lucky caleb (being third child and all) is showered with frivolity and gets to travel in style:  keeping his neck straight and head secure while looking like an itty bitty, cutie patootie, polkadotted baby elephant.

ps - captain lubbers (aka "el capitan") logged in today at 95+ % for weight and 90 % for height. love me some giant baby!

somebody loves me

(or the microwave??)

drip drip drop

see summer and afton's first showers here.

potty power

so i thought i would post a little report (for all her fans out there) on how much potty progress afton is making:

(uh-hem, drum roll, please!)

none. zero. zip. zilch. nada. nothin'. negative.

absolutely no progress is being made (heck, we might even be sliding backwards at this point).

afton won't go potty for stickers or for candy or for dora panties or even for the strawberry shortcake berry bitty market she joyously selected as her "potty prize."

in fact, after we brought the bitty market home, anxious for little missy to "earn" it (we had a chart and everything!), it was mere days before afton stated matter-of-factly (once she realized what subversive control we were trying to take of her), "i don't want to earn strawberry shortcake."

and skipped merrily on her diapered way.

sigh.

i was recently reading old blog posts when i came across this gem in reference to afton learning how to walk: "it is my personal belief that afton can walk, she just won't."

and so it is with potty.

i absolutely believe skill and know-how are not what is lacking here (after all, this is a girl who has enough bladder control to manage to never ever, after months and months of trying, go in the potty).

it's desire.

she just doesn't wanna.

and i dare you -- no, i double-dog dare you -- to try to get afton to do something she doesn't want to do.

yeah.

good luck with that.

my little monets

first water colors.

hey, dude

now, thumbs up if you thought that milk was delish:

fresh and clean

guess which two mischief makers just spent fifteen minutes 

outside dumping sand on their heads while momma made lunch?

heads up

strongest baby ever. 

new specs

well, it turns out that casa de la wheeler just wasn't satisfied with the number of changes going on in our lives right now.

so bryan over there (that bodacious babe to the left) decided he'd turn up the heat a little by throwing two more logs onto our proverbial fire:

1) new glasses.
he came home with them on for the first time the other day; summer gasped and said, "dad! they're so cute!" (or maybe it was, "dad! you're so cute!" either way, it's a win for him).

2) a new job.
yes, for the masses who have not yet heard, bryan was recently offered and accepted a new job at amazon, bidding farewell after nearly five great years at msnbc.com.

his first day at the zon was today.

so for those of you keeping track, the past two months have seen a new house, a new baby, a new job, and new glasses.

it's just how we like to roll.

caleb goes to church

rockin' the bow tie.

pittypat and tippytoe

All day long they come and go---
Pittypat and Tippytoe;
   Footprints up and down the hall,
      Playthings scattered on the floor,
   Finger-marks along the wall,
      Tell-tale smudges on the door---
By these presents you shall know
Pittypat and Tippytoe.


How they riot at their play!
And a dozen times a day
   In they troop, demanding bread---
      Only buttered bread will do,
   And the butter must be spread
      Inches thick with sugar too!
And I never can say "No,
Pittypat and Tippytoe!"


Sometimes there are griefs to soothe,
Sometimes ruffled brows to smooth;
   For (I much regret to say)
      Tippytoe and Pittypat
   Sometimes interrupt their play
      With an internecine spat;
Fie, for shame! to quarrel so---
Pittypat and Tippytoe!


Oh the thousand worrying things
Every day recurrent brings!
   Hands to scrub and hair to brush,
      Search for playthings gone amiss,
   Many a wee complaint to hush,
      Many a little bump to kiss;
Life seems one vain, fleeting show
To Pittypat and Tippytoe!


And when day is at an end,
There are little duds to mend;
   Little frocks are strangely torn,
      Little shoes great holes reveal,
   Little hose, but one day worn,
      Rudely yawn at toe and heel!
Who but you could work such woe,
Pittypat and Tippytoe?


But when comes this thought to me:
"Some there are that childless be,"
   Stealing to their little beds,
      With a love I cannot speak,
   Tenderly I stroke their heads---
      Fondly kiss each velvet cheek.
God help those who do not know
A Pittypat or Tippytoe!


On the floor and down the hall,
Rudely smutched upon the wall,
   There are proofs in every kind
      Of the havoc they have wrought,
   And upon my heart you 'd find
      Just such trade-marks, if you sought;
Oh, how glad I am 't is so,
Pittypat and Tippytoe!


Eugene Field


see emily's maternal evolution: here, here, here, and here

one month

here's baby caleb, one month into his crazy awesome life:

updates:

he now weighs about 12 pounds, and i continue to treat myself to a bowl of ice cream once a day to ensure his caloric intake is at its peak. ice cream goes in, breast milk comes out, and everybody wins!

caleb's newest nicknames include lub-lub, lubby, lubbers, lubs, and the lub. summer and afton still call him "new baby" quite a bit, though a recent development of afton's is to call him "new caleb."

he's so far not too much of a screamer (unlike quintessential baby screamer, sister summer, and runner-up baby screamer, sister afton). he mostly just spends his days in what i term "low-level discontent." sometimes he's crying, and i'm all, "is that a baby crying?" 'cause it's hard to tell when the only thing you've ever heard before is babies SCREAMING THEIR HEADS OFF at you. so definite kudos to lubs on that point.

he has his mother's fair and sensitive (yet beautiful!) skin, and his father's knack for looking bored (and secretly thinking about math) all the time.

and he has the cutest ever baby sigh.

so even though sleeplessness and crankiness are peaking (a common newborn/mommy predicament during weeks three through six), we're seriously lovin' us some new caleb around here.

biker babes

summer's grandparents were recently in town and generously gifted her her very first bike. we waited a few days for her helmet to arrive in the mail, and then she was off on her inaugural ride:

of course, with little sister, afton, not too far behind:

rite of passage

ah, childhood.

one minute, you're smiling, skipping along, enjoying the beautiful sunshine and a delicious double-scoop ice cream cone, and the next, you've tripped, landed face-first on the concrete, skinned both knees, and, oh yeah, that delicious ice cream? it bit the dust, too.



luckily, summer's a tropper. after shedding a few tears, getting wiped down and bandaged up, we salvaged what creamy deliciousness we could, and little miss summer was back to rollin' with her homies.

postpartum

(good morning, from the wheelers)

we've had a couple of big, big days around here, people.

first of all, i bravely tried on my fat jeans for the first time a few days ago. buttoned them up! still a far cry from being able to bend over in them. or sit down in them. or breathe in them. or look like i'm not wearing pants two sizes too small for me in them. but trending in the right direction. vanity, ho!

secondly, i went to the grocery store. with all three kids. in the rain. by myself.

sure, caleb screamed the entire time we were in the checkout line. and yes, the milk that was on the bottom of the cart fell out in the parking lot on the way to the car (in the rain). and i may or may not have hit more than a few folks with my grocery cart, which was teeming with little munchkins who were greatly impeding visibility. but as far as circus acts i've been a part of go, certainly not my worst showing.

and definitely worthy of the pat-on-the-back/big-bowl-of-ice-cream i gave myself afterwards.

(ah well, fitting in the jeans can wait.)