First Wednesday Street Fair After a Rare June Rain
Photoshoot in Tahoe
I can't begin to express how much I love you Maddie-kins. You were my first. All of my Mommy adventures began with you. Thanks for teaching me how precious the title, Mama is. 
Unless you have worked in special education or the medical field developmental milestones in a baby/toddler may not be a tremendous concern. A thought it the back of your mind? Definitely. But something you think about everyday? Maybe not. With Maddie I didn't read too much into them. Her dad, who works in the medical field? Totally different story. Always looking for milestone achievement. 
I cannot believe time has passed us by so quickly. It feels like yesterday he was my beefy 9 pound newborn wanting to be held constantly. Now I have a six month old who would rather crawl and put germ-laden shoes in his mouth rather than be confined in my arms.
Not the way I really wanted to begin my day. But it is what it is. For the record, despite having kids I am one of those people that needs to ease into my morning. Ease into it verrrrrrry slooooooooowllllllly. Thank the good lord above I married someone who has the same morning needs. This is key for a successful marriage. Trust me, I have tried it with a morning person. UGH! The happiness! The AM joy! It took all of my strength not tell him to go fuck himself. Anyway, I digress. Where was I? Right. This morning. First I wake up to very poopy diaper. Which I proceeded to migrate onto my hands when I tried to clean it up. Now, I may not have gagged like other people (TODD!), but really, the thought of fecal matter on my hands first thing in the morning does not appeal to me. Call me crazy, but it just doesn't. After I finished wiping the aforementioned poo from my son's butt the diaper came unfurled. Now, as you all know, when a "Number 2" diaper (filled with "Number 2" wipes!) becomes unrolled it is no easy feat to re-roll it into the neat little hockey puck you began with. Especially with shit on your hands. Combine this with me: have not had so much as a drop of coffee and mentally functioning at a pre-school level. Therefore I gave up and just dumped the entire mess into the garbage can (no, not an inside garbage can. All Number 2's go into the garage. We are old skool here people. No Diaper Genie. Such rebels we are!)*My son showered himself in piss
*In addition to college I now have to start saving for my son's overpriced therapist because he almost blinded himself and it WAS ALL MY FAULT!
*My mental capacity is somewhere at a three year old level since I STILL HAVE NOT HAD ANY CAFFEINE!
*I now have to give Luke a bath because he is covered in his own bodily fluids.
All I have to say is thank God pee is sterile!
It's my own unique nickname for our adorable niece, Tana. She is now nine months old and is growing super-fast. While trying to hone my photog skills I have been looking for subjects other than my own two darling rugrats. After spending some time in the pool last weekend Tana gave me an impromptu photo session. We all had a blast, except for the other swimmers. They were subjected to a HORRIBLE view of my butt, clad only in a bathing suit while being thrown in the air as I crouched down on all fours while I shot some pix. I am not sure that is a view even my husband could love (and I can't say I blame him!)
Here are a couple of before and after with some of the Photoshop effects:
Before:
She is by far one of my favorite shoe designers. Her shoes actually make me swoon! I am one of those people who believe that the shoes make the outfit. Even Todd has commented on this when I have worn "boring" shoes. I even wore four inch fuscia stillettos under my wedding dress. I bought my first pair of "Betsey's" for my 3oth birthday. It was a gift to myself. The leopard! The rhinestones! They were fun and fabulous. Oooooh how I love those shoes!!! Seriously, they are one of the things I would grab in case of a fire. Yes, I know they are shoes. But there are shoes, and then there are shoes. These are shoes. 
Anyhoo, since leaving a good paying job to work in public school I took an extremely painful paycut. As a result, the shoe fetish had to be tamed a little. It's not the money it's the personal reward you get from working with children, right? That's what I kept repeating to myself at least (truth be told, it was very fulfilling, even without all of the extra shoe funds.) Fast forward to now, my shoe slush fund is non-existent since I no longer work outside of the home. I had to sacrifice "things" for quality time with my kids. I just have to repeat that "personal fulfillment" mantra when I find myself leaving a trail of drool through the Nordstrom shoe department (which is best just to avoid at all costs.) 
Seriously ladies, how many of you can say your hubby bought you sexy designer shoes?!?! Sorry, still giddy and I had to gloat. For one night I will get to feel like Cinderella and not a frumpy SAHM. 
Anyhoo, we also visited the pool, took Maddie on her annual pony ride at the Tahoe-Donner stables (Todd even humored me and agreed to a trail ride for the two of us), and we took Maddie for a bike ride along the Truckee River. I was even able to finish reading a book while we were there! Really how, often does that happen when you have two kids. And I'll be honest, it was nice to have the help of my gracious in-laws. Mike took Luke one morning to feed him and told me to sleep in. Sleep. In. People. I could have thrown myself at his feet and cried. For the sake of my dignity and his embarrassment, I said thank you instead and returned to the warm haven of my bed. Sleep! Glorious sleep!
Our friends, the Smiths, joined us.
After camping with them last summer we decided it needed to be an annual thing. For the record, we eat good while camping. I even whipped up some of my Martha Stewart mashed potatoes (they really are to-die-for!) Later that night, we discovered our potato peels were a hit with the skunks. Yes, you read that right. Skunks. There are no bears in Big Sur, but there is quite the skunk population. Personally, I do not care to have a battle of wills with bears or skunks. Both can quite deadly in their own unique ways. So we made a quiet pact with the skunks: you stay on your side of the tent, we'll stay on our side, and no one goes home smelling worse than when they arrived. After that incident, we also remembered to dispose of the garbage every night. The kids had a blast running around, playing in the dirt (especially after taking a shower. They looked like Pigpen with a cloud of dust following in their wake!) 
We spent an afternoon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which is quite the hotspot in the summer, unfortunately. So much for going on a weekday), and another at Andrew Molera State Park. Love, love, loved the jellyfish exhibit at the aquarium. Great photo-ops! Despite all of the fun we had, it was nice to get home and wash the dirt off in my own shower that did require the wearing of flip flops while bathing. 
