Baby Babble

Poor Tripp.

I will be old and senile and not be able to remember a darn thing about his infancy.

Lucky for Charlie, I have a blog during his.

Charlie, our little social butterfly/party animal has quite the vocabulary for a 10 month old.

 

"Mama" of course!

"Dada" generally follows "Hey" and a nice big wave with arms stretched high in the air

"Huh-Buh" is always shouted loudly for Tripp though I think he is saying brother

And our lil' piggy, says "Yum, Yum" as he bounces in his highchair eating whatever it is that he's eating

and his latest is "Bah" until I say "banana!" and he repeats "bah-mah-mah".

He loves some bananas. 

Grilled Cheese- Tripp's Way

It's a firetruck. 

With a carrot ladder.

It originally had another carrot ladder on top, but it was eaten before I could snap my pic.

His choice for wheels...sunflower seeds.

Fine Toddler Food Art, my friends.

Playing

Playing in the Band.

Charlie's favorite activity in the kitchen other than eating.

add one more!

Here. Taste some.
Evidently, Tripp didn't get the memo that we were jamming. Apparently, all that banging didn't tip him off.

And now he's wearing it.
Pot head.
Heh heh.

Overheard

"You're differnt dan dis one and you're differnt dan dis one. But dat's okay because you're both my same feet"

Dirty little different feet

More Handmade Wish List Goodies!

I've tried my share of reusable snack bags and sandwich wraps.

And let me tell you, Madasplace on Etsy has sold me on hers!

Cute, Cute Prints and quality design!

 Tripp picked out these cute gnomies for himself and he also got the matching snack bag!

I love that these bags have a food safe nylon inner that is water resistant. You can easily wipe these clean AND it keeps your food extra fresh!

My biggest complaint with other snack bags and sandwich wraps is that the food tends to go stale quickly. 

Not helpful to a mom on the go who likes to keep a bag or two of snacks in the diaper bag at all times!
not happening with these lined bags and wraps!

The wraps are ROOMY, too! 

We love going to the park and taking a picnic and I can easily fit both a sandwich for Tripp and myself in 1 wrap!

Love this snack bag!

And as you can see, she has prints for any age and style! 

Perfect for "greening" up your meals on the go!

Have you considered handmade goodies for this holiday season?

Well, you should!!

Just a Plain Goose

A silly goose if you ask me, but ask Tripp and he's just plain.

Plain Silly!!

Plain crazy! I'm really in for it with 2 boys, aren't I??

More like a monkey, than a goose!

His drawing tonight- "Devi" and Poppie on the left and Dad and Charlie on the right. All the scribbling in yellow is oil (???). Or so he says. And as he drew oil on everyone, he had quite the evil laugh going on...

Quite the imagination this one.

This my friends, is his pirate treasure. 

I know what you're thinking.

Look at his little nature collection.

Nope. Pirate Treasure.

Love this Plain Goose.

Gosh! My Kids are So Cute!

Prepare yourself for lots of cute pictures!

As you can see, the big boy wasn't participating as much as the baby boy in our photo shoots this weekend. Plus, he was really busy hunting for pirate treasure in the yard and helping to pick up sticks.

Hand Stamped Metal Bling

Oh.My.Goodness.

I have been drooling over this shop and Daisy's stunning jewelry creations for a year now. I've dropped several hints at my husband for my gift this year, so here's another one, honey :)

I LOVE THIS JEWELRY!!

I love the uniqueness in each piece and of course, I love that I can have some oh, so hip, mama jewelry.

Sending some FREE Holiday Cheer

How Cool is THIS!?!?

Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards to bloggers.

Good news for me because that's where I normally order my photo cards from for many occasions (holidays, birth announcement, etc)!

They have tons of designs to choose from for practically ANY occasion, too. The process of designing your own personalized card couldn't be an easier! After uploading pics, you can choose from multiple designs and formats. You can choose the photo paper or high quality cardstock which I LOVE! They even have coordinating address labels,

Adding to my gift giving ideas that are personal, Shutterfly has cute, cute photo calendars. And guess what?! Right now they are buy one at regular price, get any additional ones 50% off. Great Deal in my book!

I can't wait to get started on ours this year.

Now to quest for that perfect pic of my boys...

good thing they're so darn cute!

Woolie Goodness!

The first etsy shop I want to share is run by a friend (Tripp and her youngest son actually share a birthday!). Vicki, owner of asherjasper, creates the most beautiful felted wool toys. And when I say beautiful, I MEAN IT!!  Her husband has also began creating gorgeous organic wooden blocks, teethers and other items that are up for grabs in her store.

I just LOVE this Autumn snail! I think we need one for each of the seasons to go on our seasonal nature shelf.

Vicky sent me this one free as a thank you gift promotion she ran on asherjasper's 2nd anniversary. She knew I'd been drooling over the summer snail :)

Thanks again Vicky!!

A precious turtle egg rattle for my cute little turtle baby! We always made a joke about his turtle head in his newborn days, so this was a definite must-have for Charlie.

I let him sneak peak it when it arrived in the mail (what?! he won't remember in a month) and he was so proud of it. He kept raising it in the air showing it to me and loved the jingles!

From baby to child and even adults, I promise you Vicky has a wool creation for you! 

Check asherjasper out! You won't be disappointed!

The Handmade Challenge

The holiday season is fast approaching and this year I'm going to be firm in our goal of only buying handmade gifts. I already have quite the list of things we will be making ourselves, but my talents are nowhere near matched by the ones of some of my favorite Etsy shops. 

So, I thought I'd share some of my faves with you! Also, I will share my own personal gift creations along the way with lots of easy and thrifty ideas.

Let's rethink all that consumerism and made in china crap! Let's support folks who create their own products right here in our own beautiful country. Sure, it may cost a little more but maybe it's time to rethink QUALITY not quantity. Won't you join me?

The Makings of a Fantastic Day

Yesterday, Will and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

We enjoyed a great afternoon playing at the park followed by a sushi dinner and a visit to a newest favorite, the fro-yo shop. The park was fun and we were the only folks there. This meant Charlie had free range without worries about being trampled by a bunch of kiddos. We all had a blast!  Sushi was delish and Charlie quite possibly ate his weight in yaki udon. To top it all off, we ended with some yummy frozen yogurt at Local Culture.

It was quite lovely! It's so nice to have just a fantastic day with our little family and be able to just enjoy each other thoroughly. Reflecting on the past 5 years, today just summed it up perfectly...being able to appreciate the simple little joys in life keep us so very satisfied.

Now, for the cute pics...

Needless to say after all that, they.were.pooped.