7 months is made of...

1 part chunk-style thighs

3 parts toothless, milky grins

2 parts longing to be bigger

15 parts popsicle-snatching stickyness

1 part splashy bathtime clean

2 parts sad and frowny

5 parts super-sidekick

3 parts bouncy sleepyhead

7 parts pinchy pinchy bums

1 part future technological genius

4 parts mischief-making kitten

Fold together gently with plenty of hugs, a splash of kisses and enjoy.

A little bitty change

I've been scouring Pintrest (ahhhhh, Pintrest) for a while, looking for a way to freshen up the entryway on the house. As I typically do, I taped dozens of paint chips to the doorframe and when I went to buy the paint color, got something else entirely. What I chose, almost at random, ended up being the perfectly perfect, not-too-green, not-too-purple shade of blue. I'm trying to figure out if Joe likes the color. When he saw it, his only comment was "that was unexpected."

I've heard it's called Jenny Blue.

These two darling little birdies and several yards of ribbon became a fun wreath. I think this might be a kid-friendly project. All you have to do is tie knots.

The siren song of Hobby Lobby made me buy more sets of little birdies than I originally planned. So the second pair lives in a fun yarn wreath. I should name them. Suggestions?

I'm thinking of saving it for springtime or Valentines.

The paint color for the door is Benjamin Moore Spirit in the Sky

Angst of an infant

In case you were wondering (and I know you were) it is not a good idea to accidentally give your sleepy baby the empty side when he's looking for his snack-n-nap. If you do, you can expect the following sequence of events.

1. Angry furrowing of brows and frustrated kicking of feet (if you're lucky, the kicking feet will pinch your soft elbow skin against the hard chair arm for the 5,387th time today).

2. Baby will pull off and yell angry baby yells at his uncooperative lunch.

3. After yelling all the baby curse words he knows, baby will resume sucking furiously.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 until mom realizes what the heck is going on and switches over to the side filled with delicious lunch.

5. Drift off into blissful dreams of full tummies, succulent fingers and splashy baths.

In which I lost a rubber duck... and my mind

Who knows why this memory is sitting here, in the front of my brain, right now this very second. But it is. And I think it will not go away until I type it into my blog, Pensieve-like, and store it forever. So here goes.

One day I was playing with a very little Violet and a very helpful husband scooped up a then-baby Dash (about the same baby-size and baby-cuteness as JackJack) and took him for a diaper change. From the other room I hear:

"What. The....?"

It's the tone of voice that lets you know, from two rooms away, that there is Something Wrong. So I helpfully call out "what the what?"

"There's a rubber duck in Dash's diaper!"

"Like, IN his diaper?"

"In it."

My first crazy thought : The baby ate a rubber ducky? Is that even p o s s i b l e?

"Are you sure?"

".... pretty sure..."

So. What ACTUALLY ALL CAPS happened, as near as I can tell, was that Dash was playing with a rubber ducky as I was changing his diaper. Obviously, something distracted me (squirrel!!) and he somehow stuck the duck between his legs and I totally didn't see it as I strapped him in. I also didn't notice it as I buttoned up his onsie or as I carried him around before his nap. And if you don't believe it, you obviously haven't witnessed my amazing powers of obliviousness.

The husband did not appreciate that the rubber ducky left a dent in Dash's naughty bits.

No rubber duckies were harmed in the making of this post.