A Shout Out to Painting Me Happy!

My good friend Meredith is so talented. She is an artist and started a business that is SO cute, you'll flip for it. The mother of 2 girls, she is the perfect resource for cutesy kiddo creations! She can customize anything from your desired color palette to family members, names, birthdays and requested designs. Her canvases would be cute art work in a child's room and special enough to have on display for holidays, birthdays and parties. Everything she is creates is wonderful. Check it out!

http://paintingmehappy.blogspot.com

The Halloween Parade and Fall Festival

Say CHEESE!

Today was picture day at Mother's Day Out. Since the church is a real preschool from 1 year-4 years, they have an official picture day with the ol' traditional blue backdrop just like we did as kids. They even have the Scholastic Book catalog too which I thought was ancient news! Anyways, back to picture day. I gave William two choices for his outfit and he pointed to the helicopter overalls (I was hoping so!). His beloved red tennies were in the wash, so he kindly humored me with a white pair. I thought he looked pretty cute considering I had no idea how the pictures would really go. When I picked him up, his teacher said he wanted nothing to do with having his photo taken. I think it all had to do with the fact that they wanted him to sit still and pose. What 21 month old can do that? Apparently, the whole class but William! Anyways, he sat on his teacher's lap and she leaned like Gumby so she wasn't in the shot. This should be real interesting to see. Again, just a school picture.

Daddy Part 2

Saturday morning Dan announced he was taking William for a hike while I worked at the stationary store. At his request, I was to dress William in pocket pant cargos, a wilderness shirt and appropriate footwear. Well, talk about pressure. So, I dug into the black hole of William's drawer and actually found pocket cargo pants....I was shocked because they certainly aren't anything I would instinctively purchase...must have been a Walmart special! Then I found a shirt with a bear on it and checked the "wilderness shirt" box. Footwear, I was excited. I have a pair of Merrells that William is finally big enough to fit into;however, he wanted NOTHING to do with them AT ALL. I put them on his feet and he looked so stinkin' cute until he burst into tears and grabbed his favorite sneakers, the red Keds. Well, I keep life positive for the kid. After all, 20 months can be rough. So, I caved and changed the shoes. The boys set out on a hike which included throwing 50 rocks in the creek, collecting sticks, watching geese, examining an old tree stump and topped off with a trip to Burger King. My William loves a nugget. Lots of fun and a loooooong bath when he got home!

Daddy makes life extra fun!

I went out to dinner with a girlfriend on Friday night which left Dan in charge of William. They decided to go to National airport and watch the planes, an event that ranks #1 in William's book. Dan lightly mentioned the idea to him this m0rning and several times during the day, William would look at me and say, "Dada sky WHHOOSH!" This of course meant, "Dada said we'd go watch the planes (hence WHHOOSH) in the sky." When Dan got home William repeated the "sentence" and basically was NUTS to get out the door and off to the promise land. So, they left quickly and spent 1.5 hours exploring the airport. When I got home and asked William how it went, this is exactly what he said: "Wee wow, big, sky" and then he raised his hands and waved them around as he does to describe airplanes and said, "WHHOOSH! WEE." A job well done Dada.

Tag! You're It!

I received this game of "blogger tag" from cyberspace and the deal is, you fill out the answers and tag a fellow blogger. I am tagging Nora and Meredith. IF you read this, you are to copy it into your blog and answer the questions. Then tag a fellow blogger and pass along the quiz.

1. Where is your cell phone? on the table
2. Where is your significant other? in the car
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? everyone's friend
5. Your father? talks like Donald Duck
6. Your favorite thing? geeze, so many. Just lucky to have my fabulous life. Wouldn't change a beat.
7. Your dream last night? something about a house and lots of rooms.
8. Your dream/goal? happy, healthy, funny and respectful children. To know my grandchildren.
9. The room you're in? the living room
10. Your hobby? needlepoint, crafting, and reading PEOPLE
11. Your fear? Obama
12. Where do you want to be in six years? not in VA
13. Where were you last night? home with the family
14. What you’re not? into downloading music, tattoos, fowl language and soda.
15. One of your wish list items? a super camera
16. Where you grew up? Tornado country
17. The last thing you did? scanned Ebay
18. What are you wearing? jeans and tshirt
19. Your TV? hearts DVR.
20. Your pet? none. thanks.
21. Your computer? a bugger when it kicks me off email.
22. Your mood? happy
23. Missing someone? mac. He's 89 tomorrow!
24. Your car? a home to a stroller, 3 trucks, several goldfish and graham crackers.
25. Something you’re not wearing? make up
26. Favorite store? again, hard to say.
27. Your summer? so fun, but exhausting
28. Love someone? lots of love around here
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? 4p.m.ish
31. Last time you cried? not sure

Carol Brady, June Cleaver, Marilyn Monroe, Pippi Longstocking.....Nope, I am Doris Day!

A friend sent me a quiz to see what famous Leading Lady I was most like. Turns out, I am Doris Day! I am happy with the results and just glad I didn't turn out as Lily Munster.

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz ...

You Are a Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
• * Share fun times with me.
• * Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
• * Let me know that I am important and special to you.
• * Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

• * Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
• * Reassure me often that you love me.
• * Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

• * being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
• * knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
• * being generous, caring, and warm
• * being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
• * being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

• * not being able to say no
• * having low self-esteem
• * feeling drained from overdoing for others
• * not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
• * criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
• * being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
• * working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

• * are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
• * try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
• * are outwardly compliant
• * are popular or try to be popular with other children
• * act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
• * are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

• * are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
• * are often playful with their children
• * wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
• * can become fiercely protective

Rate my test!

Different Patch, Different Pumpkins!

Pick a Patch of Perfect Pumpkins on a Picture Perfect Day!

Happy Columbus Day! Dan had the day off and so we up and left for the pumpkin patch this morning. We headed for Burke, VA where there is a garden nursery (Burke's Nursery), and they host a very elaborate pumpkin patch festival. There's a big patch of pumpkins, hayrides, slides, bouncy houses, pony rides, a play train, playground, an old wild west house, a play fire truck, story time, puppet shows and an Indian tepee. WHEW! Needless to say, William was overwhelmed when we got there but luckily, we were there before the crowds. After the hayride and a few trips over to examine the "big orange balls all over the ground," William was more relaxed. We ran around chasing him and trying our best to take pictures of a moving toddler. He wasn't interested in the ponies or bouncy house. He did enjoy the slide SO MUCH and had Dan and I going down that thing about 12 times! We loved it too! It was a fun celebration and a treat to spend a weekday with Daddy!

Trip into downtown D.C. to see Daddy at work

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day - 80 degrees for October! After a successful day at school, William and I headed downtown on the subway to see Dan at work. William loved watching the trains come and go underground and I think he remembered his last adventure into D.C. because he kept saying "wheels, dadda." I totally think he "got it" that we were riding the train to see Dan. We had a great time visiting Dan's office and William was the perfect performer for all of Dan's coworkers.

Am I NUTs? Got to get CRACKing!

Well, here we are in the early stages of October and I am SO SO SO close to finishing William's Christmas stocking. I have been working on it since I knew he was a boy and still in my belly. I did a majority of the work before he was born. For the last 20 months, I have only had time to stitch for minutes at a time. I wish I could freeze frame my day and tackle the final stages of the project in a few hours, but I can't. At this point, I hope to have the stocking completed and "hanging on the staircase with care" by the time Christmas rolls around. If not, it will be ready for William when he is 2.5 years old! YIKES!