Happy with my Magic Number

One of my friends just had a baby.  We went and visited her and her newest little in the hospital and for the first time EVER, holding a newborn didn't make me want a new one.

Maybe it is because we had had a particularly awesome day.

My three little Curly's had cleaned their rooms to the point where I could actually vacuum without me standing over them or yelling, I just got to praise them (2 beans in ALL the jars!).

They voluntarily played in our yard for 2 hours without coming in and out or begging me to push them on the swing again and again and again.  They blew bubbles and made up games and just had a great time.  Came in all grimy and starving just in time for lunch - WHICH THEY ACTUALLY ATE.

They got along during quiet time, doing worksheets to help prepare for school (which is coming up SO fast) and stayed there until I said they could be free.
Then we went to the ice cream park.  This park is huge and awesome, mostly because they can run everywhere and I can sit on a bench and crochet.  Which is what I did.

For over an hour, my three played together, following my guidance of ignoring the nasty-talking 5th graders who were running around.
As I sat and watched them play, I thanked God for my THREE.  With three, they have all learned to play with kids of varying age and skill levels without leaving anyone out.  They've learned to share and have to wait an "extra" turn out while the other two do something. They've learned sometimes kids who are playing alone don't really want to be alone, but sometimes they do.
(A new little girl showed up and Curly Girl was trying to make friends with her.  The girl finally said "would you please leave me alone, I'm trying to find my friends." I held my breath to see Curly Girl's response, she adores making new friends and is hurt when others won't play with her.  I shouldn't have worried. She turned to her brothers and said "She just wants some alone time, let's go." And moved along.)

Plus, I got really great pictures like this:

(Curly Boy was taking Not Curly to the "secret entrance" into the playset)

So yeah, that's probably why that new little baby didn't fill me with feelings of longing.  I've got three little perfects to fill me up right here.

3 is the magic number... age... whatever

Oh three. You bring such joy through trials, and pain, and patience....

Not-Curly (Curly Baby as you began) I love you.  You're enthusiasm is endearing.  Your competitiveness is worrying and amazing.  You are full tilt no matter your decision, you do nothing by halves.  And while sometimes that causes disagreements, I know it is a strength you will need in life.  Growing up is hard, but you're doing a great job of it!
Keep your love of life.  Keep your love of cars. Keep believing that you know what is absolutely best for you, despite what people around you say.  Knowing your mind is powerful.
And now you're THREE!  My baby is gone, my toddler has ran, and my preschooler, who is SO READY for kindergarten (or maybe just to be in big school like sis and brother), has one more year at home.  I know it will be a year we never forget!  I pray for you too, Not-Curly, God's blessing and provision, and that you feel his hand on your shoulder all the days of your life.

 Bucky Bear is the ultimate friend, he even protects eyes from the camera's flash!

 Not-Curly insisted on being Larry-Boy for Halloween.  He was so proud of that costume!!

Running back to the sand box with a mini dump truck to fill it up again.  Nothing better than a day outside in camo-pants and matching sweatshirt!

5, 10, 15, 20, 25 - who's not ready, hollar I! I

He's FIVE.  Curly Boy is FIVE today!  That is JUST NOT RIGHT.

My sweet, funny, loving, cuddly, ornery, tickle-y, "preschool preacher" little man is 5. Happy Birthday Curly Boy!  I am so proud of you and your unashamed love of Jesus, never lose that. I love the joy you have in life, keep spreading it. Don't stop asking for hugs and kisses, don't stop giving them. And always love that curly hair God gave you - I love when you excitedly exclaim that we have the same hair, I hope you always feel that way. In short, never change - keep being you.
I pray God's blessing and provision on your life, that you walk with Him every moment of every day.

 Practicing Kung Fu with his travel pillow

Walking with his "girl friend" at his birthday party

IronMan for Halloween - his favorite super hero!

Two down, one to go

That picture there?  That's my little man Curly Boy walking into his first day of preschool with his Daddy.

I haven't cried about it.... yet.

Now that Curly Girl is in school all day, and Curly Boy is gone for about 2.5 hours a day, right during Curly Boy 2's naptime, I should have it made, huh?

But it doesn't seem to matter how much I rearrange my day, I'm still not getting a lot done.  Makes me kind of sad that my kids are gone. 

Ok, makes me really sad.  I mean, I love when they come home excited about something they did that day, but I miss my kids.  Not so much as to homeschool or anything. I enjoy my down time.  And I know that they will learn better away from me.

Next year Curly Girl and Boy will be gone all day. It will be just me and Curly Boy 2 at home.  That terrifies me!  I have a feeling we'll spend a lot of time running to events where his friends are so he isn't bored at home with just Momma to play with.

I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

After all, I've made it through two....

Waiting for the Tooth Fairy

"Mom! Momma?  My tooth fell out!"

I was awoken by those words this morning at 3:30.

See, Curly Girl's tooth became loose while we were on vacation at my parent's.  And she's been wiggling it and pushing it and showing everybody who smiles at her for a week now (yes, just a week).

And sometime in the middle of the night, it came completely out and when she woke up, she brought it to my room.

Remembering when I found my baby teeth in a Dixie cup on top of the fridge, I took Curly Girl to the kitchen.  We put the TINIEST TOOTH EVER in a little plastic cup and set it up on top of the fridge.  Then I told Curly Girl to go back to bed and we'd leave it under her pillow tonight for the Tooth Fairy.

Which made her start crying.  She wants to keep her teeth.  She's VERY upset that they are falling out to allow bigger ones in, because bigger ones mean she is growing up and she doesn't WANT to grow up.
Believe me, I don't want her to grow up either!

So tonight, in order to make her feel better about losing a tooth, we're going to write a letter to the Tooth Fairy requesting that she gets to keep her tooth.
It's only fair.  After all, I not only wrote the Tooth Fairy as a little girl, but got letters in response!

Whaddya Do?

Last week, Mr. Curly and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on July 4th.
To celebrate, Mr. Curly planned a trip.  I knew about the trip, but had no idea where we'd be going, or what we'd be doing, so I couldn't really say anything about it except that my dad was going to stay with the Curly Kids while we were gone!

But we're back!  And now I can answer ALL the questions (and then some) that we had beforehand!

The short answer is this:
Tuesday we spent the night in Omaha, walked the river park, ate at Old Chicago in the Old Market downtown area, walked through their open air mall, tried on expensive leather hats and fur coats.

Fountains at the River Park

Wednesday we drove down to Brownville, NE where we spent the night at Pierce Cottage (the same place we stayed 8 years ago for our 2nd anniversary when we did a motorcycle trip through Nebraska). 
Here's what you need to know about Brownville.  It is super cute.  It is only 148 people.  It is a tourist trap.  Nothing is open Mon-Thurs.  We lucked out that things would be open on Thursday because they had July 4th events starting at 7am and not ending until 9:30 that night! 

Our view from the cab of Mr. Curly's 1950 Ford F-1 as we drove through the one-way roads of Indian Cave State Park

Part of the cave

Anyway, since it was Wednesday and everything was closed, we went out to Indian State park where we battled an army of ticks and an ant named Bobby (planning a children's book out of that tale!!)


Thursday we were part of the Brownville July 4th parade, then went down to St. Joe, MO, toured the Patee House and Jesse James house where he was shot.




















And I had this thought there - we are weird.  Did you know that?  People are totally weird.  We paid $4/person (really not bad) to go into a 4 room house (that would fit inside most living rooms these days) to see a bullet hole in the wall and hear about the death of a famous bank robbing outlaw.  How WEIRD is that?!  Why would we pay to stand in the room where someone died?!?!
The answer?  I have no idea.  But it was actually really cool.  (insert self conscious smile here)


1886 firetruck

Joaquin Murietta - the Original Zorro!

After we left St. Joe, we headed back up to Brownville, where we perused the local shops, ate some ice cream.....
















 and then the BIG surprise of the trip - a river boat dinner cruise and a night at the River Resort Inn!!

River Boat Resort Inn

The Missouri River may be muddy, and we were the only ones dressed up, but it was an absolutely  lovely river ride.
Once we got back to the shore, we listened to some live music, took a walk, enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather!

View from the Dinner Boat

At 9:00, we were snacky, but we're still in Brownville, that has nothing open. They even unplugged the pop machines! (We're guessing, none of the ones we found in town were on) So we hopped in the truck to go over to Rock Port MO (just 7 miles away).  Brownville is RIGHT on the river, so we were driving across the bridge when the River Boat firework show began!!
We flipped around, ZOOMED back to the riverboat, ran down the gangplank, around the decks back to our room door, where we set down and watched a nice little firework show (and cringed away from the TWELVE HUGE spiders building webs above our heads).

View of fireworks from our spot on the lower deck.  Nice, but started a bit too early.

Then we got in the truck, now that it was truly dark, and headed to Rock Port!  We got to watch fireworks as we drove, and once we got our pop and snacks, followed the flares to downtown Rock Port where we sat on the back of the truck (still all dressed up!) and watched their show too!
Heading back to Brownville, we got to watch the fireworks people were shooting off at the Brownville bar.

View of the River Boat Resort Inn from the shore at night.

We spent the night on the riverboat, woke up Friday morning just in time for a wonderful breakfast watching the river sparkle in the sunlight and laughing at a gentleman from the kitchen who was VERY particular about where people set.

Friday we headed back to Omaha, where we toured the zoo without our kids and watched the Dinosaur Alive imax movie.  That night we stayed in the Council Bluffs Settle Inn (Mr. Curly booked us the Mountain Retreat room - it was SO nice, a Jacuzzi tub right in the room.... bliss) and ate at the Red Lobster (that had the worst service ever).

Saturday morning we slept in, ate a late breakfast, and came home to extremely joyful kids and a (probably gratefully relieved!) granddad.

We had a marvelous trip.  We enjoyed hot food and quiet times, walks without worry, drives without car seats, late nights and later mornings.
As our first vacation without our kids since they were born, it was quite successful.  I can't wait for the next one!

Potty Training?!

Curly Baby has decided he wants to potty train.

And while I love our prefolds and wool covers, they inhibit his independence when trying to get to a potty all by himself.

We can't to AIO (all-in-ones) because, well, because 1) I refuse to buy  new diapers for potty training, but more importantly is 2) Curly Baby's skin does not get along well with PUL.
And I don't want to spend money on pull-ups, since his desire to potty train hits a bump anytime he's in disposables.

But I do have lots of prefolds, lots and lots.  And a good friend let me have her leftover PUL when I helped her make training underpants for her girls and nieces and nephews.
With this, and some pinterest research, I came up with my own little diaper-trainer of sorts.  I'm calling it the Curly Special.

This is a prefold, cut into a contour shape.  I suppose it is rather like a fitted, because there isn't really a way to adjust it, and there is no elastic.  I added some velcro on either side, but you can just pull it up and down.  I put PUL down the soaker area.  As you can see, it does not go all the way up in the back, so that it doesn't touch his skin there.  And then I lined the edges with cut up wool covers that weren't our favorites.  This allows PUL to go all the way up the front and to the edges of the legs, but doesn't allow the PUL to touch his skin.  The wool "bias tape" basically acts as a wool cover would, keeping any moisture in the diaper, and not on the clothes.

And here it is in action.  He LOVES the owl print, asks for it, as well as the monkey one.  I'm hoping this love can translate into "you can wear it longer if you keep it clean!"

And just for those who wonder, since he isn't yet 2, this is completely child-led.  In fact, I fought it for 2 months before bringing the trainer potty down from the attic.  This boy is ready to go!

Happy Birthday to You!

Today is Curly Girl's preschool teacher's birthday.

It isn't very often that Curly Girl asks to write things - she's usually happy to draw and then sign her name.
But for Ms. Teacher, we not only bought a gift (a manicure set and 3 bottles of nail polish - Curly Girl LOVES to do her nails, and thought Ms. Teacher would like to as well), but Curly Girl even made her a handwritten card.

The Front - This is Ms. Teacher with spider fingers and toes!

This is the inside - She wrote it all herself!

Torn jeans and bifocals....

I "celebrated" (I wasn't so enthused but lots of other people wanted to) a birthday at the end of June.  It's not an age I was looking forward to.

So far, it hasn't been so bad.  I mean, birthdays don't make things just change over night.

There is one thing that is kind of annoying though.  I had to go buy acne cleansing face soap yesterday.  I wash my face with acne cleansing face soap, and then put on wrinkle preventing facial moisturizer (that I've been using since I turned 24, because I was majorly paranoid about that sort of thing).

It's just a little ridiculous.  Ah the joy of aging.

I did dye my hair a nice radiant red (John Frieda 5R) though, that I really like.  And I got a haircut.  Which I needed and enjoy.  Though I think the next haircut is going to be a Farah Fawcett Charlie's Angels haircut.  I don't know, I figure maybe going back to the decade BEFORE I was born would make me feel younger.  Who knows.

You're Beautiful

Growing up, my dad always called me Beautiful.  He still does.  And I remember going through stages of thinking "Well, yeah, he's my dad, of course HE thinks I'm beautiful!"
I hope and pray Curly Girl never thinks I call her beautiful just because I'm her mama. 
And I know that I already have to start working on her self-esteem due to several conversations that happened yesterday.

I told Curly Girl in the morning, as she helped me do dishes, that she was ridiculously smart and could be and do anything she wanted.  She could be president, or a mom, or a scientist, or a dancer - just anything.  And she agreed with me.

Only later that day, she said she just wanted to be prettier, but couldn't, because she was just smart.
I was absolutely flabbergasted - I can only imagine she got that idea from watching Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.  Sam Sparks gave up glasses and a ponytail and acted stupid in order to be pretty.  But the movie SO redeems it - you can be smart AND beautiful, but Curly Girl is obviously not getting that.

And then, Monday night, while I brushed out her hair, we discussed a freckle she has on her shin.  She was sure that freckle meant she was ugly.  I insisted that she has fair, beautiful skin, and fair skinned people get freckles, it isn't any big deal.
She told me fair skin wasn't pretty.  I responded with "Of course it is!  Snow White and Rapunzel (two of her favorite princesses) have fair skin and they are beautiful."
"But they don't have freckles."
"Not on their faces, but I'm sure they do on their arms and legs."
She thought about this for a moment and then said "Well, my hair will just have to keep growing then so I can braid it and it can be beautiful like Da-punzel's."
I corrected the princess's name and then told her that her hair was already beautiful, but there was nothing wrong with growing those glorious curls out longer.

She's FOUR.  FOUR and I'm already dealing with "I'm not pretty enough."  I know I'm bias, but I truly believe Curly Girl is the prettiest four year old I know.  If she had said she wasn't smart enough, that's one thing - then we just study more, do more school (which is fun and easy for her) and we get smarter.  But prettier?  How do you make a gorgeous girl more pretty?

I'm hoping she's just repeating things she's hearing.  Because she has no shame in her shape - she thinks she looks gorgeous in absolutely everything, I hear a million times a week "Don't I look beaUTiful, Mama?" And she does her little model walk in front of a mirror.

But to say she can't be pretty and smart?  I really like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as a movie for the boys - it has a strong male lead who uses his brain and doesn't let anyone tell him what he can and can't be.  And, honestly, the female lead is strong too - smart and beautiful and assertive.  It should be a great movie.... but the FULL message obviously isn't getting through.

I think this one is going to take a lot of prayer and guidance from God.  I'm sure He knows better how to get a girl to adulthood with her self esteem in tact than I do.

We don't have enough small home repair vikings....

I have officially joined the ranks of DIYers who say "no I've never done that before, but how hard can it be?"  and "oh yeah, you always get extra parts."

My vacuum has sounded like a jet engine for about.... well 2 years, probably.  You know, right after the warranty expired.  And Tuesday night the sound pitch got higher and higher and the motor turned slower and slower and it was smelling really hot.....
So I turned it off before it could explode.

Wednesday morning I pulled all the strings off the beater bar (it seriously was a huge pile of strings, you could've crocheted a small toy out of them) and cleaned all the filters.  When Mr. Curly came home he said "As long as you have it that far apart, you might as well take it all the way apart and clean the dirt off the fan blades to see if that helps."

My exact thoughts were "You want me to do what-huh?  Are you crazy? I don't take appliances apart.  That is YOUR job.  You love doing things like that!"  My response was "You want me to?  Uh, ok, I can do that."

During nap time, the vacuum came completely apart.  There was somehow less and yet more screws than I expected.  I did take out some I didn't need to, and in trying to get a casing apart, found two more I had missed.
I ran myself out of canned air, so Thursday morning I brought Mr. Curly's air compressor in from the garage to blow all the dirt out of the motor and fan blades (which also got scrubbed with a paint brush because that fine dust was REALLY caked on!).

And then I had to put it back together.  It took only 10 minutes and I had an extra screw (which I put into a slot that was missing a screw from a previous time I had to pull the beater bar off) and then came the test.

I pulled it to a less dusty area, plugged it in, turned it on and....
IT WORKS!!!  And it is SO much quieter I can't even believe it.

Now I just have to stop losing screws every time I pull it apart......


Post title from How To Train Your Dragon

One year....

No, not Curly Baby's birthday quite yet!

Today we celebrate the one year anniversary of moving to our new church in Iowa.

One year ago yesterday, I was cleaning out my desk, filing away the last paper, leaving notes for whoever would follow me, as I left my position as Program Assistant at the college I had worked at for just a little over a year.  I was leaving the official workforce to become a stay at home mom to (soon) 3 kids. 

One year ago today, we struggled through getting our rental truck, loaded up MOST of our possessions (I don't want to admit how many we left behind and had to go back for), trusted God would take care of the house-sale, and headed south.

Thankfully, because we had been commuting on weekends for 6 months, we had food, furniture and beds already at our new home.  Thankfully, because we knew people in town already, we were able to merely park the truck and sleep, knowing that the next day we'd have plenty of help in unloading our multitude of things.

Over the past year we've done the following things we had never done before:
Added to our family - Curly Baby arrived
Lost from our family - we lost our cat
Settled in as the new pastor family at our first established church
Joined local ministries and organizations outside our local church
Celebrated Ice Cream Days, watched a Christmas Light Parade
Sent Mr. Curly on week away to rest and relax and plan for the year ahead
Sent me to Vegas with my best friend
Built a fence
Added a swing set to our yard
Went to the Henry Dorley Zoo
It's amazing how that list sounds so normal, but has brought so many changes to our family.
We feel incredibly blessed to be here and can't wait to see what the next year brings!

He do the walk, the walk of life....

Curly Baby is walking!  10 months and 1 week old and he is walking short distances between furniture and people.

Mr. Curly and I are just in awe of this.  Both Curly Girl and Boy didn't walk until they were 18 months old.  When they did walk, they merely stood up and started walking, never falling or showing any hesitancy.

Curly Baby definitely falls around a bit, but he WALKS, and it seems SO EARLY to us.

(Picture Courtesy of Curly Girl)

Post title from Dire Straits "Walk of Life"

Tearful on Your End

Last night I let Curly Baby cry.

And you know what?  Nobody but me woke up.

It was 11:30, he was sporadically raising his voice.  He had had a good full snack at 7:45.  I honestly didn't think that 4 hours later he was hungry.  He had gone straight to bed after that snack, and there are days where he can go 5-6 hours without wanting to eat.

And I was tired, SO tired.  I had only been in bed for about 45 minutes, just long enough to hit that really deep sleep.  And being pulled out of it by a loud baby was like swimming in syrup, I just couldn't get my brain to start.

But then the sporadic raising of his voice turned to whimpering and crying, so I got out of bed.  When I opened the bedroom door, there was Curly Baby, standing in his crib.  He started to really cry when he saw me.
In normal circumstances, I would've picked him up, nursed him, rocked him, put him back to bed fully asleep.  But after several months of feeling like this child really should sleep through the night, and a few nights when he did, I decided to be tough mom.

I laid him down, gave him his bear, covered him up, bounced the crib mattress a little, told him I loved him, and walked out.
I took my cell phone to bed with me.  11:42.  I was going to let him cry for 10 minutes, and then I'd go back in.  (I discoverd one day while baking cookines during nap time, that if I leave him alone for more than 8 minutes, he'll settle back down and sleep longer!)

I never looked at the clock again.  I woke up around 3:00 am to a dead silent house, smiled and went back to sleep.

Now, it is 7:35 and Curly Boy is still asleep.  So obviously, his deep sleep was disturbed a little (he's usually up by 7:00), but all in all, I'm kind of proud of myself for letting the baby cry.

Maybe now I can get a full night's sleep on a regular basis instead of only once a month.

Post Title from The Holiday

Success!

Well, we had a rather successful 5 day weekend!

Thursday morning we took off around 6:30 to head down to KS to visit my mom for mother's day and attend her college graduation.

WAY TO GO (again) MOM on the college degree! I am SO proud of you! (Can you hear the voice, can you can you?)

Things that counted towards success -

• Thursday's 8 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive due to Mr. Curly's sick stomach and an extra long lunch break, but not one of our 3 kids had a melt down.



• Curly Baby took his first vacation successful at just 2.5 weeks old - he travels MARVELOUSLY (Just like Curly Girl and Boy do).



• The kids got new swimsuits and now their KS Grandparents have an inflatable pool to cool their toes in on the hot summer nights.



• Curly Boy got his summer tan, Curly Girl did NOT burn, and I got my first sunburn in several years!*



• The weather was beautifully, unseasonably hot.



• I met my new little nephew, who is just a stinkin' handsome fella. You can read more about my brother and his family on my sister-in-law's blog, Life with Mrs. B.



• The Curly Kids (minus Curly Baby) spent every night at my parent's house, while Mr. Curly and I crashed in the church apartment. This allowed us to sleep in (though Curly Girl got my parents up at 6:00 every morning!). Thank you, Mom and Dad!



• And the drive back on Monday only took 8 hours, there were no meltdowns, no road construction, and ice cream at the end.

I'll do a picture post, hopefully this week!

*Since our move to SD, I have never found it warm enough to sit outside in a sleeveless dress. I greatly enjoyed melting in the sun at Mom's graduation. I did spray the Curly Kids down with sunscreen, but between one thing and another, completely forgot to spray myself. My right shoulder is nice and crispy and will fade/peel down to my normal porcelain white. While it is uncomfortable now, it was just nice to enjoy the sun. Next time I'll remember the sunscreen!

I know the upside to downsizing and the downside to upgrading....

Things are going to get a little odd come October. See, in October, Mr. Curly begins his new pastoral position at a church in Iowa.

Only, we can't officially move there until we sell our house here. It's only 2.5 hours away from where we currently call home, and the church has provided us with a house here.

That's where things get kind of sticky. Currently, we live in a 2-story 4 bedroom, 2 bath, with a laundry room, family room and formal room 1912 farmhouse dreamhome. I LOVE this house. And I say HOUSE on purpose, because since we've moved in, it has been in a constant state of remodeling, so it never really became home. Curly Boy's room was a storage room until 2 months before he arrived. We never have used the formal sitting room, and my piano, tucked into the entryway, has been covered with remodeling tools and dust 75% of the time. There has never been a night where Mr. Curly and I sit and say "Wow, it's finally fully ours."

So leaving it, selling it, isn't too horrible. It's just the DOWNSIZING that scares me.

The parsonage (pastor's home owned by the church) is nice. It's a three bedroom, 1 bath home built sometime between 1910 and 1920. What was once probably a formal parlor (it has pocket doors) has been converted into a front bedroom (thus the three bedrooms). The front room is HUGE, as they took a covered porch and made it an official part of the interior home.

The bedrooms for the kids will be bigger, and yet seem somehow smaller than what they are in currently, but I think that is a shape issue. And really, I've only been in this parsonage twice very briefly.

I think the downsizing will be good. Yes, Mr. Curly (and subsequently I) will lose a home office, but Mr. Curly will have an office in the church. It will be good for him to get out of the house. And with such a huge front room, I can partion a corner for my desk and files.

I think downsizing will be good. It will ensure that we stay organized and clean. That all files are put away at the end of the day, that toys are regularly sorted for what really needs to be kept, and what hasn't been played with for ages.

I think downsizing will be good. The kitchen is much smaller, but that means less counters to gather clutter (a problem for me, I'm a piler). There is a great pantry with cabinets and shelves that I am actually very excited about organizing.

I think downsizing will be good. Except, I'm losing an awesome laundry room. My laundry room currently holds my washer/dryer, a dresser full of sewing supplies, a crafting table, shelves full of games, scrapbooking supplies, memory boxes and toys of "when I'm older" for my kids. I do lament the loss of my laundry room.

I think downsizing will be good. We will have a gorgeous dining room, and a bathroom that is actually normal sized instead of a bedroom that was converted to a bathroom when indoor plumbing became big. The parsonage bathroom, like our current bathroom, has the door to the walk up attic in it. Only, they've added shelves and towel racks in the stairwell for more storage.

I think downsizing will be good. I just have to have a discerning and editorial eye while packing and sorting and deciding what we absolutely need.

I think downsizing will be good. I think downsizing will be good. I think downsizing will be good. I think downsizing will be good. I think downsizing will be good. Won't it?



Post Title from "George Carlin: Life is Worth Losing."

Put one foot in front of the other....

Curly Boy walks! Finally!

Wednesday night, after the announcement was made, the children were playing on a platform. Myself and the other little girl's mother went to set with them to make sure they didn't fall off (it's about 3 feet high).

Curly Boy used the wall to stand up and then walked right past me to this other mom. 1) I was amazed that he walked past me, he's an extreme mama's boy. 2) He WALKED!! Without holding anything!

Well, of course we laughed and screamed, and so all the people came over to see what was happening. Mr. Curly got Curly Boy to walk about 3 feet to me. I swooped him up and we all laughed and applauded and said "woo hoo!" This scared him, so he lunged for the other mom.

But once we all calmed down, he walked again. Until one shoe fell off, then he crawled.
If we can keep his shoes on him, I'm sure there will be no stopping him now!

For those of you wondering, Curly Boy will be 17 months old in a week.

Title post from the song "Put one foot in front of the other" on Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.

Listen, Mr. Curly, I think I like you.

Today is Mr. Curly's birthday! And I've decided that I like him enough to keep him around awhile longer (we've been married 7 years now, and we got married at 14, so I'm only 21. Yep. Ha).


So, anyway. Happy Birthday, Mr. Curly! Tonight you get presents and fun and maybe a cake and whatever you want for dinner.

I love you and I can't even express how happy I am that you are in my life. Between you and pancakes, I choose you!!

Mr. Curly studying during his master degree days. Now he studies like this for sermons!

Quote, with name changed, from Stranger than Fiction.

Your friendly, neighborhood spider-baby....

Curly Boy. Oh, that child. He can walk, I know he can. When we're out in the yard, or on a walk as a family, he barely holds your finger. You don't have to support him, or catch him, or even hold the hand that is holding yours, but the minute you try to let go.... Well, then he's crawling again.


He can climb a baby gate now though. He can make it up and down stairs faster than any of us (and no, not with falling).
On the outlet covers there is always a warning "when your child can defeat this saftey device...." but the baby gates have no such warning! They never tell you what to do when your child can climb over them to get up and down the stairs anyway!

He also can climb up and around the little playset, slide down headfirst, then turn around and climb up the slide!

We've taken to instructing our dog, Titus, to "follow the boy." It's really just getting both of them in more trouble. Titus only just turned 1 himself yesterday! Those two have to be watched!



To see Curly Boy's "I can't walk without your help" see this:


The pauses and stops he makes are when I'm trying to get him to let go of my finger. As Mr. Curly says "He just doesn't liked to be pushed, especially when the cameras are rolling."

You Need A Role Model! (Lessons from a Car Show)

Mr. Curly's favorite quote from "Gone in 60 Seconds" (the Nicolas Cage rendition) is "You need a role model!" It happens while a car thief is held at gun point for the stolen car he is driving.

It's a quote Mr. Curly says often while at car shows, particularly around little boys who think '36 Chevy Coupes are PT Cruisers (ask me about it sometime).

It is very important in the Curly household to know how to handle yourself at car shows. A milestone to be marked in the baby book even.

Here are Curly Girl and Boy enjoying some cool water in their wagon (Curly Boy's birthday present from Granddad and Grandma) at our local town car show this summer.

Curly Girl has finally reached the car show milestone. She knows not to touch a single spot on any car parked at a carshow, even if it's in the "currently in the restoring process" stage.

Curly Girl can walk you through a car show, pointing out the pretty cars, and you never have to remind her more than the cursory "we don't touch" at the beginning to be careful. It's completely awesome.

This car show was a bit more special, Mr. Curly actually entered his '50 Ford F-1. We haven't done this for a few years, due to the poor Ford not getting the attention it deserves (babies and church planting will do that to a truck). However, even with only a quick 15 minute scrub down - he won second place in his class! AND was 2nd place (tied with several other cars) for Best In Show (by popular vote)!

The plaque is sitting proudly in our dining room. It will either find its place on a garage wall, or possibly Mr. Curly's office. It could even end up in Curly Boy's bedroom, because of course, his bedroom is classic cars.

It was a proud day for the Curly's - to realize Curly Girl has reached the Car Show Trustworthy milestone, and to have Mr. Curly's truck was recognized for it's greatness.