A reminder I needed today...

Piper and I have had a hard week sleepwise.  The worst night I was up with her 5 times.  I've been worrying about my lack of sleep and what I would have to give to both girls during the next exhausted day.  Then, today, I read this about second babies...

"Those first babies do the hard work of breaking us in and smoothing off the rough edges of who we thought we would be as mothers. The babies that come after owe an enormous gift of gratitude to those first-borns, I think, because they weather our anxieties, worries, and insecurities. With the babies that follow, we know better than to waste time with worry. Once we get a taste of how fleeting the baby days are, we learn the importance of savoring each moment, drinking in the sweetness of the second."

Written by Megan of SortaCrunchy and published here.

Achoo! Snot-nosed blues and other tunes

This summer Matt completed an album of 10 original kid songs.  It's a process that started way back in 2006 when I asked him to do some "concerts" for kids at the libraries where I was working.  It's really great and I should have posted about it before now!

It's available for download on Amazon and Itunes.  You can also buy an actual physical cd from Amazon.  Also, you can hear it on Pandora - here's the Matt McGee and Some Lesser Fools station.

The "Lesser Fools" that helped Matt out with this include Benji Morris of Downtown Senate and Turpentine Shine, and Rick and Chrissy DePirro.

Turkey Hair Bow Tutorial

Cadence and I made this adorable turkey hair bow during Piper's afternoon nap on Tuesday.  It's really cute with a ponytail.  Want to make one?  Here's how:

We started with a small brown yo-yo.  Here's a great tutorial for yo-yos.  Normally a yo-yo would be more circular, I smushed two sides together and sewed up the middle to make more of an oval shape.

We added two googly eyes.  And from felt scraps I cut two feet, a triangle beak and a waddle.  I used plain old white school glue to attach these to the yo-yo turkey body.

I traced an oval a little smaller than our yo-yo on brown felt.  This is the backing and where you glue the ribbons.  To be able to put in a barrette (as shown) or alligator clip, fold the oval in half longways and make two little snips with your scissors.  That makes the slit for the barrette or clip to slide through.

Cadence dug through the ribbon box and picked out some ribbons I cut into 2.5 to 3 inch lengths. 

Then Cadence occupied herself elsewhere while I hot glued the ribbon ends together.  Then I just arranged the ribbons around the edge of the brown felt and glued them down.

Finally, I glued the yo-yo turkey body on top.  A cute turkey clip done in about half an hour!

I'm linking up with project with A Glimpse Inside's Catch a Glimpse Party, Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Ladybird Ln's Turkey Show Off Party and A Little Knick Knack's Everything but the Kitchen Sink Party.

Tummy Time

Taken Sunday, Nov. 7.

Sleepy Time

Or more accurately, wake-up-from-nap-so-you-can-eat-time.  Here, let me open the windows and take your picture.

sleeeeeep...

Our bedroom.  6 AM.

Me: Matt.  Your alarm is going off.
Matt: Grunt.
Me: Your alarm is going off!  Piper slept through the night!
Matt (sleepily): That's good.
Me: That's fantastic!  Now I have to go make sure she's not dead.

She continued to sleep until after 7!  I don't know what's going on except her naps were a little short yesterday and we've been stretching her feedings to every 4 hours so she eats more at each feeding.  I went to bed at 9:30 and didn't wake up until 6.  THIS IS AWESOME!

deals of the week

It's been awhile since I've posted a deal, but I got some good ones this week.  On Tuesday we hit the Halloween 50% off clearance at Wal-mart.  This bag of 20 playdoh containers and the bag of peanut m&ms were both just $1.24.  I got the m&ms for free plus overage since I had a $1.50 off coupon. The playdoh will help fill Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

Halloween costumes!

Cadence has been saying for weeks that for Halloween she wanted to be a butterfly fairy, zookeeper,and princess, which pretty much covers all her dress up costumes that fit her well right now.  Believe it or not, we had enough events to go to that she got to wear all three! 

The butterfly fairy attended a costume birthday party Saturday before last.

The zookeeper went to the town Halloween event this Saturday.  (But it was really loud and crowded, and honestly a bit creepy - no where near as much fun as last year - it was moved into an old school cafeteria and we left after about 5 minutes.)

The princess went trick or treating on campus yesterday morning, accompanied by a bunny. 

The bunny really wanted to take a nap.  (I knit the hat using this pattern.)

Piper the bunny slept in the carrier while we walked all over campus and Cadie made out like a bandit!

She seems to really enjoy the chocolate.  And she was nice enough to share some with me!

I have perfected easy oven-baked french toast

This is my new go-to French toast recipe.  It's easy and cheap.  Here's the ingredients:

• One loaf of french bread (I buy it on sale for just under a $1 at Ingles or Wal-mart.  I like to use the whole wheat loaf when I can get it.)
• 2 tbsps butter
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup millk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Cut the bread into 1 to 1.5 inch slices.  Preheat oven to 400.  While oven is heating, put butter in your 13x9 pan and put it in the oven for few minutes to melt.  Whisk together eggs and milk.  Remove pan from oven and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon evenly on the bottom of the pan.  Dip bread slices in egg mixture and arrange in pan.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

When you take the slices out of the pan, flip them over so you see the nice buttery, sugary, cinnamony crust on top.  Cadence takes hers with syrup.

I prefer powdered sugar.  I will probably never go back to frying french toast on the stove top.  This makes a lot, but the leftovers reheat nicely.  Yum!

Some fall stuff

We got some pumpkins.

The girls and I went to the mountains house a couple weeks ago and hiked in the woods.

The leaves were gorgeous - the pictures don't do it justice.

I'm so grateful to live in a place where the seasons display themselves so gloriously!  I regret my Florida childhood where it was just hot, rainy, hot, and a little less hot.

P.S. A recipe and pictures of Halloween costumes coming soon.