Harlyn's First Costume...

She was an owl.

 

 

And isn't she a doll?

No, she wasn't a doll. She was an owl. No, not an owl dressed as a doll.

 I think I may have lost a few of you with that one.

Let me clarify: she was an owl, but is a doll. Got it?

Moving on.

 

 There really is no significance to her being an owl for her first costume. I chose it simply because no little girl of mine was going to be a princess or something else equally glittery and covered in tulle. But it actually worked out quite well considering Khage was a chicken for his first Halloween.

Its a bird thing. Don't over think it.

 

With all the designing, cutting, sewing and gluing I probably spent well over 8 hours making this costume... and she probably wore it for less then a single hour on Halloween. On account of her getting her first fever she wasn't too interested in the idea of knocking down doors for candy, especially since she was fully aware that any and all candy was going to bypass her lips completely and go straight to Daddy's.

 

So on Halloween she actually looked like this. Sick, sad and down right miserable.

 

But she was happy as can be to wear it a second time on picture day.

 

 

 

 

Fly fly my sweet owl baby.

 

 



A Nice Guy in the Bike Section

Its been over a month since Khage was given this bicycle and he still loves to love it. A part of me thinks the way in which he got this bike only adds to it's appeal. We have bought Khage numerous toys that he just had to have that day but even hours later that toy is no where to be found and never given a second thought. But this toy, his bike, wasn't just picked out and purchased... it was gifted and it all happened so magically.

If we ask him where he got that bike he will happily respond from the nice guy and he couldn't be more right. A very nice guy, a total stranger, overheard us in the bike section telling Khage he couldn't have a bike because we couldn't afford it. We secretly planned to get Khage a bike for his birthday but all that nice man knew was that our boy wanted a bike and we could not get him one that day. He approached us and kindly explained that his son just grew out of a bike and if we were okay with it he wanted Khage to have it. Believe me, we tried to pay him for this practically new bike but his only response was pay it forward.

Not only did the nice guy give Khage a bike, he also gave all of us something even better: a wonderful lesson on the kindness within people. We are constantly telling Khage about the bad people who may try and take him if he wanders too far from us, or that cars will hit him if he plays in the road. All too often we forget to explain to him that in addition to the scary things happening around us, this world is also filled with such kind hearted people whose motives are good. People who are simply nice.

So we thank you nice guy for showing our son what true kindness is, and for reminding Brad and me that while fears are necessary in such a world, goodness is still all around us.

Please no.

Listen here little girl, Mommy and Daddy are not ready for this.

 

 

Your lucky your not of spanking age just yet.

 

Backpacks, bags and satchels.

Khage is such an interesting character. I have mentioned before how he becomes so attached to random things. Today it is the helmet. Apparently its not just for riding bikes. And that backpack has been a favorite all week. I can only imagine the oddities he has stuffed inside of it. I find various sorts of cloth bags all over the house, inside of them he hides his treasures. Whenever I stumble upon one I like to take a little gander inside at its contents. Usually its an assortment of peculiarities; a foam ball, a headless lego man, a hot wheels car, a few rocks, a plastic toy fence, always a weapon of some sort, a small plastic zebra, a wooden cookie and a dog tag that reads Baggera. Those have been the latest items I have seen inside one of his satchels. Why they have come to mean so much this week I will never know. But I do know this: I will never tire of finding his treasures and I hope he never grows out of collecting them.

 

 

Do you see those hands? I love that they still resemble chubby baby hands. I hope that never changes too. So basically what I am saying is that I hope he becomes that strange grown man walking around shoving various items into a backpack with creepy baby hands?

I guess it wont have the same affect when he's older.

Four Months Old

A few special facts about our sweet little girl:

She is now wearing size two diapers

We are truly amazed by how something so small can produce such huge boogers

She has started biting while she nurses

Her hair is getting so thick and coarse like Khage's

She refuses to try and sit up unassisted, her rigid locked knees prohibit it

She squeals when she's happy
She is now fully aware when we walk away from her or leave the room

We can tell she is awake in her bed by the sweet sounds of her talking to herself

If we take things away from her she will cry in protest

She is in the 80 percentile for height

She hates to nurse and will literally try and fight me off by clawing, scratching and kicking

She doesn't know the meaning of stranger danger, she will smile at anyone

She rubs her feet together quite vigorously when she's irritated

When she's eating and is tired she will violently sway her head back and fourth

She sleeps in her own room now

and

While most days she is sweet, sometimes she is incredibly feisty, and it only makes us adore her little self so much more. Though she be little she is fierce.

 

 

Huntington Beach 2013

A relaxing beach vacation is a must for any family. That's what any beach side hotel's brochure will say. They plant an ideal vacation in your head; complete with sandcastles, beach cruisers, delicious dinning experiences, and nightly strolls on the pier.

What they don't tell you is this: sandcastles are impossible to build with a boy who is smack-dab in the middle of his destructive phase.

Beach cruisers, while fun, have no place to stowaway a baby with a bobble head.

You will order your meal at a restaurant, take a single bite, then frantically beg the server to package it up to go because both your kids are throwing tantrums.

And nightly walks on the pier are impossible when your destructive kid and bobble headed baby require a bedtime around eight o'clock.

Stupid lying brochures.

Maybe we are just not your typical picture perfect family vacation people. Don't get me wrong, it was fun. It wasn't relaxing like you would assume a vacation would be, it's just so much harder with kids. Remember when you used to go to the beach with a towel and a couple snacks? Those days are dead. We were dragging and hauling kid necessary items all over that beach.

And the hotel room was a real party, especially when Khage got into one of his scream fests. I'm sure our vacationing neighbors loved that. It was awful to be on vacation with so much to do, but stuck in the room while the kids took naps, thank you hotel for free HBO. I'm sure Brad would say it was worth it purely for the continental breakfast. But I was just happy to sleep in a bed once occupied by hundreds of other strangers. Ugh, gross. Good thing I have enough sense to bring my own pillowcases.

Looking back now, it was really such fun to be with each other and experience new things. When your knee deep in crying kids it's hard to treasure those moments. But once your home, unpacked and looking back at the trip through pictures it really makes you realize how wonderful it all was. It was no brochure, but amazing in it's own hectic way.

 

Instagrammed - Harlyn's first Haircut

We can never really tell how long certain fads will last, and for that sole purpose I want to start double documenting my favorite instagram posts. Instagram may be currently on the up and up, but I'm sure myspace can tell you its never forever. So if you follow me on IG don't get a sass mouth because you have to see my pictures twice, such is life when your on my turf.

 

And I am still mourning the loss of her sweet little locks. You should know by now that I'm kind of sappy like that. Call me ridiculous. Call me mushy. I'm not even worried about your name calling.

At least that smile of hers can speak for itself, who cares if she closely resembles a boy from the forehead up. Nothing a little bow can't fix.

 

 

Three Months Old

A few little facts about our sweet girl:

She is already sleeping through the night

When she nurses she will hold onto my fingers ever so tightly
Her nose is always filled with boogers and they are totally thick and sticky like putty

She has a slight drooling problem
She refuses to lie in one spot on the floor, she will attempt to get places by scooting on her belly

She loves to suck on her fingers, sometimes she will suck on a finger WHILE she nurses

She laughs out loud when Daddy tickles her with his beard
Or when we pretend to sneeze

Her hair has become even more unmanageable, it doesn't want to lay flat or stand up

She also has a mean bald spot on the back of her head

And her hair is lightening into an interesting shade of red

She will sit and gurgle to herself when she's trying to fall asleep or right when she wakes up
Her cry is quite pathetic, never reaching a screaming point
She rolls over from back to front with such tenacity
Her new favorite way to fall asleep is laying on her tummy with no one touching her
She watches Khage play like he is the coolest thing she has ever seen
and
As much as we love that she is learning new things we wish that she would just stay our little tiny baby forever.

 

We Interrupt This Broadcast...

for a very important message from Harlyn

 

 

Did you get all of that?

I hope so because there will be a pop quiz on its content at the end of class.

Failure to pass said quiz will result in Harlyn's morning babble on loop for 24 hours.

 

I must be her Mommy because that hardly sounds like a punishment to me.

 

Things to note:
Harlyn will go on these little rants all of the time but this particular morning it started around six a.m and lasted well passed seven
Brad swears it was because he left the blinds open so the light was pouring in and she woke up all Salutations to the Sun

This is by far the best baby Chewbacca imitation I have ever heard

I purposely recorded the wall for the first minute of this video so Harlyn didn't know what I was up to, she is no match for my stealth op recording tactics.

and lastly, you may of heard Brad in the background talking loudly at Khage to go to the bathroom, just ignore that. They were only playing a little game we like to call force Khage to use the bathroom or else he will just hold his junk and dance around all morning. Obviously they both hate that game.

We Bid You Adieu

Which is just a fancy way of saying get out. Your time is up. Move along.

I have played favorites long enough.

And frankly this header and myself have been at odds since the day I created it. I was never sure how people would interpret it... were you aware that I meant those hand prints above to be mud smudges or did you see the dirty little kmart kid pictured in diapers and automatically assume the worst? At the end of the day, no matter how cute that ragamuffin is, I just don't want people visiting this blog and thinking that we condone that kind of ill-mannered behavior. Its not what were about here and I want that to be clear. I may talk about my lactating habits and my kids are not always going to be fully clothed but excrement? No, the line stops there. We have a little bit of class, not much, but enough.

And for those of you who thought it was chocolate, well your just an idiot. Who gives their kid enough melted chocolate to fully coat their hands? That just disappoints me, I would rather you thought it was poop.