This might be my last post until next week. Tonight I’ll be rushing around packing and doing some last minute shopping. Tomorrow we leave for OK/MO. We’ll spend most of the time visiting with my brother and his family, and my sister and her husband. On Saturday we are headed to Bartlesville, OK to visit Woolaroc and the Kiddie Park. I haven’t been to Woolaroc since probably ‘92, and the Kiddie Park, well, since I was a kid. It’s pretty much exactly as it sounds… an amusement park with rides only for little kids. They even have a mini roller coaster. We used to go a lot when we lived in Bartlesville. Woolaroc is a museum and game preserve, originally the ranch retreat for oilman Frank Phillips. It’s pretty cool if you have any interest in Oklahoma history or Native American artifacts and art. We always enjoyed going, even as little kids. But my sister doesn’t ever remember going to Woolaroc. Not even the time we nudged a buffalo out of the road with our Chevy Nova. That was memorable. Or the time my brother got attacked by a swan. That was hilarious. Let’s hope we don’t have any wildlife adventures this Saturday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

I was reading a blog the other day that mentioned Southerners fascination with putting bows on babies. I didn’t realize this was a Southern thing, but OK. I think they were referring more to slapping tiny bows on bald babies, held on by Karo syrup or some other such nonsense. Luckily I had a baby with a ton of hair and we could immediately use hair clips, otherwise I suppose I might have been tempted. Chris, however, was adamant about no baldy hair bows or headbands. I understand his position, but I’ve also seen some tasteful headbands. I think my little bald niece looked cute here:

And I try not to put too large of a bow on Daphne. I don’t want her to look like something landed on her head. But if bows in general are a faux pas then I am guilty.

Something else the blog mentioned was smocked dresses. I have to admit I’m not a fan of these either. Really, really not a fan. I don’t know exactly what I don’t like about them. I mean it’s not the smocking itself, maybe just the common dress shape? I don’t know. What is even worse are the smocked outfits for boys. I really try hard not to use the word “never” but I swear I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER dress any boy of mine in some outfit like these:

I had a co-worker whose wife dressed his kids like they walked out of a Strasburg catalog every day, even to go to the playground. She did her own custom clothing for them and really liked that look. I know this is terrible to say, but I always felt sorry for the little boy in his smocked jon jons and bowl haircut. Because you know he’s going to get his ass kicked in elementary school for dressing like a sissy. I hope she doesn’t let him wear knee socks and jon jons to school. Oh dear.

I’m officially done with Crazy 8. For those of you not familiar with the company it’s Gymboree’s lower priced sister store. Like Old Navy is to Gap. Anyway, apparently they only make children’s clothes for freakishly tall anorexic children. I bought this t-shirt for Daphne in a size 12-18 months (supposed to fit 22 to 27 lbs, my child is probably 17.5 lbs):

It’s really snug around the middle, but if I sized up to a 18-24 months, then she could wear it as a dress and the neck would be big and weird. I really don’t get their sizing. Daphne is average for height and below average for weight… she should fit into one of their sizes. But she doesn’t. Too bad.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but Chris & I use Mpix for our photo printing. They have really great customer service and lightning fast shipping. In fact, I ordered Daphne’s invitations yesterday morning (I created the invitation in Photoshop and had it printed as a 5×7 matte photo) and received them around 2:00pm today. Which is great until I realized I bought 4×6 envelopes at Michael’s. Crap, off to find new envelopes. Anyway, here’s the invitation (minus the important details like the address, etc. which has been blurred out. Sorry interwebs, I love ya and we are making a ton of cake, but everyone is not invited.)

I’m absolutely no graphic designer, but I’m happy with the end result. I can’t wait for the party.

It’s hard for me to believe Daphne is already 11 months old. I know I say this every month, but she really has changed SO much in the last 4 weeks. Last month she was just beginning to take her first steps between the coffee table and the couch and of course now she can power walk around the house (she’s not running yet, thank God!). She’s very independent and does not want to hold my hand and pushes my hand away if I try to steady her. It’s like she’s saying, “It’s OK Mom, I got this.” And she is a very active little girl and in constant motion. A day with Daphne consists of chasing her around the house as she walks and gets into everything and if you are lucky she’ll take two naps, play with a couple of toys and watch 5 minutes of TV so you can get some laundry done or dinner started.

She’s not as verbal as I thought she would be at 11 months. My mom and I were both early talkers and I guess I thought Daphne would be too. So far she says mama, dada, yay and that’s about it, but now that she isn’t concentrating so much on walking I’ve noticed she’s talking more. She’ll only say mama when she needs me for something. Sometimes I’ll be in bed, listening to her on the baby monitor, crying out from her crib “mamamama MAMA mamamama MAMA!!!” Then I go and get her and she whimpers “mama” as I pick her up. Melts my heart.

Today I got a glimpse of “little girl Daphne.” She was kicked back in a pink bean bag chair, feet crossed, watching Noggin and drinking water from her sippy cup as I tucked a blanket around her legs. She smiled at me and looked like such a big girl!! Of course, she’s not a big girl… not at all. A few weeks ago my mom and I were looking at shoes for Daphne and struck up a conversation with a woman shopping with her infant daughter. Her daughter was 9 months, 22 pounds and wore a size 5 shoe. No wonder she gave us a weird look when I told my mom that Daphne really wore a size 2 shoe, but I’ve been buying her 3s. But Daph has had a little growth spurt and is definitely taller now. I need to measure her. I think by her 12 month well visit she’ll be a little over 18 pounds (she was not quite 17 at her 9.5 mo appt). And with 2 short parents I don’t expect Daphne to be an Amazon.

Currently I’m trying to figure out what to get her for her birthday. Most of my crafty stuff is in storage so I really can’t make her anything. I’m sure I can find something toy related to buy her, but I’d like to get her something memorable as well. I don’t know. What do you get a 1 year old that has 4 sets of grandparents, 8 aunts and uncles and various extended family members all buying her gifts? I’m stumped. Suggestions welcome.

This weekend we got a few more details worked out for Daphne’s birthday. Yesterday we drove down to Sugar Land to a cake decorating mega store. Seriously, they had everything. We are planning on doing a three tier white butter cake with pink buttercream frosting, and pink, orange and hot pink flowers and butterflies (in gum paste? fondant? melted chocolate? we haven’t decided). Today we did a trial run of just the bottom 9 in. tier so we could decide what cake recipe we wanted to use. We might rethink our tiers, otherwise we’ll have enough cake to feed the neighborhood! And if you take the amount of money mom and I have spent on cake stuff just to make this one cake I’m sure we could have flown to Baltimore and had those Charm City cake people make one for us. Ok, I exaggerate. Let’s just say no one is getting a store bought cake anytime soon so we can get our money’s worth of all these pans.

Today I had every intention of getting some more pictures of Daphne to use in her invitations. Then I realized my husband took all the cameras to a photo shoot and the media cards. I just used the Radio Flyer pic from Saturday. Those of you that are listed as my Friends or Family Contacts on Flickr can see the finished product here. Don’t look too closely because I think the dots aren’t completely even. I wish I knew a way to make the grid smaller in Photoshop. Those dots were almost the death of me.

Oh yes, and another reason I couldn’t get pics today… Daphne has Angelina Jolie lips after falling at church onto the tile floor. Poor baby. She was walking and kept pulling her hand back as I was trying to hold it, then she fell over my shoe, face down. I hate it when she hurts herself.

This week will be a short one for us. We are traveling to Missouri to see my brother and celebrate my niece’s 2nd birthday. August is going to be a busy month!

Here’s a few outtakes from our birthday invitation shoot today. As usual, things don’t work out as I had envisioned. Instead of the birthday hat outfit, we decided to try her birthday girl shirt and her new Radio Flyer Sport Coupe (an early birthday present from my parents) as a prop. I’ll try to get a few more pictures tomorrow, but I have to hurry up get these invitations designed, printed and mailed.

She loved this sucker and cried big crocodile tears when we took it away for the wardrobe change:

And she’s totally in love with this new Sport Coupe. It’s really cute!

After being stuck in the house this week due to Hurricane Dolly rain, I’m dying to get out!! Not that we couldn’t have gone out, but with my sense of direction it’s best not to get lost in Houston in the rain with a teething baby. The other evening Chris surprised me with a Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS thingy. I think he’s really concerned I’m going to get completely lost. I suppose that’s a valid fear.

So this weekend- get the D50 cleaned, buy brown sandals (since I can’t find any of my brown shoes), finish Chris’ photography website and Daphne’s birthday invitations. I haven’t blogged about this yet, but last week my husband had a really good interview with a local media company looking for event/concert photographers. They really liked his work and he’s shooting a concert this weekend. He’s still looking for a day job, but he’s pretty excited about this part-time opportunity. Shh.. don’t tell anyone but if you give him a media pass and backstage access he’d pretty much shoot these concerts for free.

What are your plans?

I need to use my Crock Pot more, I think. Currently I have a roast and veggies slow cooking, and rosemary bread in the bread machine. I have been struggling this week to cook a decent dinner and keep Daphne entertained and out of my hair while I’m in the kitchen. I’m not sure if it’s the move, or her growing independence now that she can almost run all over the house, but she is not content to stay in the Pack ‘n Play anymore while I cook. Today’s meal prep was simple- dump everything into the Crock Pot while Daphne was eating breakfast and don’t mess with it. Then throw everything into the bread machine while she was eating lunch. And as a bonus, the house smells great.

My problem? I only use my Crock Pot for a few things and need ideas. I spent some time on A Year of CrockPotting. If you haven’t heard about it, the blogger made a New Year’s resolution to use her Crock Pot everyday. Today’s recipe was for Crock Pot Chex Mix (huh, never would have thought to do that). And I guess I need to look on allrecipes.com as well. Any readers out there with a great Crock Pot recipe? Please send it to me.

I have a confession to make. I have been watching So You Think You Can Dance? and enjoying it. I know, I’m usually a TV snob. I don’t watch American Idol (except for the season with Ruben Studdard since my husband knew him) or Big Brother or Survivor or any of that. Of course I have my guilty pleasure shows, like America’s Next Top Model and (this is really embarrasing) Gossip Girl. I know, I know. At 34 years old I’m sure I’m more than double the target age for that show. But all the pretty clothes, and all the pretty boys, I can’t help myself.

My mom is a big fan of SYTYCD and got me hooked on the show. I can’t believe how invested I’ve become in just a few episodes. I’m seriously sitting in front of the TV right now totally shocked that Will and Twitch are in the bottom 2. How is this possible? Kick Mark off the show. And of course I’m getting a lot of crap from my husband about watching it. In fact he just mentioned how ironic it is that the person with the least amount of rhythm or dance ability in the house is enjoying a dancing show. I don’t see what that has to do with it, lol!!! Anyway, earlier Chris & Daphne were dancing and she was mimicking his movements, which was pretty darn cute. Oh the things you see when you don’t have a camera or video camera close by.