Especially for Grandma B.

I love this set of photos so much, I actually find it unnecessary to say another thing about it.

This is pretty much how things go at a birthday party where the three-and-unders almost outnumber the over-thirties.









Dizzy yet?

Well, it’s official. The dog days of summer are here. And I am feeling Lazy. Thankfully, we had another big family birthday blowout last weekend that should tide me over with post topics for the remainder of the week. One of the birthday boys just so happened to be a certain one I gave birth to almost three years ago already! So for his portion of the celebration, I gave the kids a little project to work on. Spray painting shirts with a Kool-Aid concoction (Kool-Aid + 1/4 c each of boiled water & vinegar). It was a decent hit, except for Little Left-out Hadley. She likes to suck on spray bottles, and was quite irate that she could not partake in this activity. Bastien made a shirt for her though. And it’s all forgotten now, a day later, that I’ve let her suck on an empty squirt bottle to her heart’s content.

You know you are living with an almost-three-year-old when those are the only words you hear, day in and day out. Truthfully, they are music to my ears.

Suddenly I have this child who picks out his own clothes, dresses himself, puts on his shoes, buckles his seatbelt, goes to the bathroom, and more, without assistance! That is so many free hands that I suddenly now have, if you’re keeping track. He barely lets me do anything at all for him anymore, telling me at least once a day, “I’m a big boy now.” And he is.

But I have to admit, I will miss the baby that he was. If only I’d known he’d be leaving so soon, I wouldn’t have begrudged that last chance to help him get his shirt over his head. That’s why this morning’s words were just as pleasing to my ears as his new manifesto of independence.

As he stood at the top of the stairs, hair every which way, eyes and voice still groggy from sleep, he took one step then called down:
“Maybe Mommy carry me downstairs…?”

This new(?) Flickr feature is how we’ve been winding down our days together as of late. Exploring 500 beautiful, engaging photos that are constantly updated.

Now, as a general rule of thumb, I’m against screens in the bedroom. But beautiful photos on the iPad each night before slipping off to dreamland? Somehow it feels ok to break the rule for this. And just so you know, we usually only make it to about 200 before we’re too tired to look anymore.

A warning, from the site itself: “Before you start though, you might want to take your phone off the hook, send your boss to an executive training session and block off some time on your schedule, because we don’t think you’re going to be walking away from your screen any time soon. Beautiful, amazing, moving, striking – explore and discover some of Flickr’s Finest.”

Now, get thee to Interestingness. Sit back, relax and take a journey through many lenses.