Have I convinced you yet?

Do you live near me and know me and STILL didn't go to the library book sale last weekend?? You see the books pictured above? I got them for all of $12. Yeah, that's right. Approximately 30 books for the price of one. ONE. I'm not kidding. The Little Engine that Could? Usually $9 at the store. Excellent condition. Cost me about 10 cents.

The next one's on November 20. Mark your calendars!

Recently

I had a birthday My mom and two of my younger siblings came into town.

Livia was in heaven! I hardly touched her on the days when Emily and David were around!

We went to the zoo with her cousins Ella and Beckham

Rode on a seahorse at Happy Hollow (this was a big deal. I could never get her to ride on an animal on the carousel. She just wanted to sit on one of the benches. Finally she decided that the seahourse was cool enough to merit her attention. And of course she loved it!)

And got into mischief. This is ink from a stamp pad...AFTER I washed her hands a few times. It took three days to fully go away. On this same day Livvy may or may not have stuck a stick-on-earring up her nose (WAY up her nose. On purpose), and scribbled on the kitchen floor in pen. Hooray for being two! Really though, Livia's a sweetheart. Her current obsession is coloring/painting/crafting, and she'll sit at her little table for hours each day making all sorts of creations. Her eating has improved slightly, but sometimes it's still all I can do to get her to eat three bites of ANYthing for dinner. She's picky, yes, but mostly she just doesn't eat.

Livia loves nursery, reading, playing at the park, and singing (though not necessarily MY singing). She does NOT like wind and always shrieks and yells at the wind to "go away!" She also dislikes getting dressed in the morning, and would wear her pjs all day long if I let her.

We love her. Ü

really?

I've been working with Livia on the concept of consequences. That if she does something bad she will receive some sort of punishment (usually a short time out or a loss of milk privileges). Tonight at dinner she chewed up a carrot in her mouth and then suddenly spit out the whole slobbering mess onto the ground. Logical consequence? She had to clean it up! (At least a good part of it)

What surprised me is the ATTITUDE she gave me about it! I expected some whining. But that's not really what I got! She was rolling her eyes at me, giving me withering glances (really, that's the only way to describe them), and saying things like "It's just too hard. Mommy do it" or "I can't do it. My hands will get dirty." That little scamp was coming up with excuse after excuse as to why she couldn't do it. I thought I was going to explode with trying to be patient through it all!

Makes me a little worried about the attitude I might be getting from her 14 years down the road...

Sneak peek

Remember that huge, crazy embroidery project I said I was going to work on? I'm halfway done. Ü

My new goal is the end of August.

Monterey Aquarium

We went to the Monterey Aquarium last week (thanks to a friend with guest passes we could use), and it was wonderful. Livia was positively enraptured and has talked about the different sea creatures she saw nearly every day since. I love it!

At one point, as we were watching the Open Ocean exhibit depicted so often in the video below, Livia had her back up against the glass and turned around just in time to see the hammerhead shark come swimming directly toward her, turning upward only when it reached the glass! It startled her so much she fell over, causing everyone around us to burst out laughing. Picture it. It was funny.

The miracle of modern technology

There is a lot of technology that I love and appreciate. But today, my very favorite is...

drum roll please....

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The Magic Eraser! How did our mothers survive without this?!

Livia never napped today. She had "quiet time" instead. And in that quiet time managed to color on three walls and every single surface of her little table. Including the underside, as pictured below (forgive her post naptime hair. It was in pigtails when I first put her in her crib):

Beautiful, isn't it? But, I am pleased to report that 10 minutes later my walls and the table were clean again! Thank you, Mr. Clean.

(Anyone else wonder how that thing works?? It's amazing!)

Vacation

Not that we went on one...we're just planning on it. A few months from now.

We came up with a list of options. A long list. And then I went through and planned out what exactly we would do in each vacation, how much it would cost, how long it would take, etc. etc. (You think it's time-consuming planning ONE vacation...) and presented them to Chase. After much deliberation, a few changes of mind, and some technical difficulties, yesterday we booked ourselves a Mexican cruise!

And I'm excited! Chase wanted time to relax, I wanted to be out and doing something, and I think this will provide us with a good dose of each. Many thanks go out to my parents for being willing to watch Livia while we go (I would feel guilty about leaving her behind, except she's ecstatic about getting to go to her grandparent's house!).

I've heard cruises are a great vacation to do with friends. So, if anyone wants to go....Ü