'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 4)

I don't want to spend too much time 'fessing up...I'd rather be across the room sewing! :o)

And the longer I sit in this chair, the greater the probability that I will not get up.

(Maybe I shouldn't have turned on the massage function??)

(But, oh, it feels SO nice on my pregnant back!)

(I am envisioning hours upon hours zipping away from me as my aches upon aches melt away...)

Must.

Get.

Going.

Okay, then. Back to reality. So I spent all that time Tuesday night measuring, and drawing, and erasing, and coloring, and taping my mock-ups...and it turns out that I kinda didn't really need to do that. I spent the better part of Thursday night surfing the web, looking at various wonky log cabin designs and samples, and I realized that if I'm going to do this right, I need to be A LOT more improvisational than my Tuesday night plans would allow. I think I was a bit too analytical about it all. A little bit too perfectionist.

I know, shocking.

After I decided that, yes, I could do this, I got up from the computer, rearranged the stuff on my dining room table, and set about the business of improvisational quilting. Modern quilting. Scary quilting! :o)  Remember how I said I needed all that guidance? And whined about how there was very little guidance? It's just tough for me because there is pretty much NOTHING I can prepare in advance! Which, again, has to be the way it is if I am going to make this quilt honoring Angela and her baby. If I want to make something that reflects her personality, and the beauty that is Angela, then I need to leave myself behind and follow...well...nothing.  Follow my heart, I guess. Follow my impulse.

Impulse. What's that? Do I have any of that?

But to make this wonky log cabin, it's sew, then cut, then sew, then cut, then sew, then cut. Log by log. Block by block. Just like that. No plan. No stack of pre-cut strips to take from. No template. Just go with the flow.

(hurts to even type that!)

But I'm doing it!  And here's the proof.

First round of "logs", before I wonkified it:

And after I very slightly, ever so timidly wonkified it:

And here it is after the second round of logs, pre-wonkification. You can sorta-kinda start to see the wonkiness coming through:

And here it is post-wonkification.

With each level of logs, if I choose to wonkify, it will wonk the block up more and more. My plan (and hope) is to have a range of wonkiness. I'm trying to get away from symmetry and pattern and form. I know in the end this is going to be a beautiful quilt, and I will be a better person for stepping out of my comfort zone to make it unique.

But first I must step away from this computer. And away from this massage chair. Where I might or might not be planning to spend every waking moment for the next 4 months.

*********************
9:38pm Edited to add:
I have finished my first block!! (Can you hear the trumpets toot-toot-ta-ta-tooting?) :o)

Except for the part where I'm not sure how much I like the stark-white in the midst of all that off-whiteness, I think I like it! It's not nearly as wonky as I expected it to be, which is a direct result of my ultra-conservative wonkifying, but I think it might appear more wonky once I add the black border and sashing.

And I am SO glad I spent all that time researching last night because when I came up against a critical error growth opportunity, I knew how to...say it with me...IMPROVISE!!  For some of the fabrics, I'm using strips that I won in a blog contest back in April. The tiny black dot on the outside is one of those winner strips. And it's awesome, and I'm glad to have them, and I have a wonderful variety of them in a vast range of blacks and whites. Except I have mostly only one strip of each.  And when I ran too short of that one strip...

I knew just what to do! Yay! Thank you Interwebs and Bloggy Buddies!

I just inserted a piece of fabric to make the last log long enough! Brilliant, eh? I don't plan on running out every time, so I don't think this extra piece will be a recurring theme, but it might. We'll see.

I'm improvising as I go...

The Blocks That Are Building ME!

I got about the business of cutting out the printouts of my fabric last night. I'm kinda glad I did it this way because I'm so paranoid of cutting the actual fabric wrong!  And so many of the patterns I'm looking at give me painfully LITTLE guidance!!

And I NEED GUIDANCE!!

Explicit instructions. How much, how long, which side, which direction. Explicit.

So, going off the grid, here, with this quilt for Angela? I'm not sure if I'm up for the challenge!

But, armed with my engineering quad-ruled paper, ruler, pencil, scans and paper cutter, I set about to figure out how to make the quilt blocks.

Oh, and I used a few of Mookie's crayons, too. Mostly because they were handy, and I was lazy. And they worked to give me the visual I needed. I wish I could become a fan of Crayola Washable Crayons on Facebook.  I ♥ them.

After much drawing and erasing and drawing, and then cutting, here is the final product:

Block A on the left, and Block B on the right.

Again, these are just paper samples of what I will be doing (hopefully? maybe? possibly? unless I am convinced to do something else?) for Angela's baby's quilt.

I want the large orange dot to be a recurring fabric in each of the quilt blocks, so I plan to alternate between blocks A and B on the actual quilt. I have a variety of oranges for the center of A/outer ring of B, and a variety of blacks for the middle ring of A/center of B. I added (by painting) black sashing around each block because I kinda felt it needed it.

And, much as I would like to just cut the strips at 2 1/2" and run with it, I know I'm going to have to fussy cut at least the fish fabric so they are all swimming in the same direction!  I'm not sure, yet, whether or not the large dots not all going in the same direction bothers me.

Seriously. I think my Perfectionist Badge is getting in the way! And, Lord knows I can't take it off for fear of being excommunicated from the Absolutely Straight Society. Of which I am a long-standing member, thankyouverymuch.

Oooh, ooh. I just had an idea! I'll be right back...

Okay, here's what I've got:  a 12 block "quilt" and a 15 block "quilt". Forgive the ickiness of it all, and just "visualize" with me. :o)

What do you think? Which do you prefer? 12 or 15?

There will obviously be some variety in the blocks, since I'll be using different fabrics for each block, this is just a mock-up.  And the actual pieces in the blocks will be somewhat asymmetrical and "wonky."

Another option for me to do later is to applique (whasachusayyyy??) circles over top of the blocks, (hopefully) randomly.  But I guess that is a decision I can make when (a) I am finished, and (b) if I have time!!

Because I am fully aware that the making of the quilt top is going to be QUICK compared to the actual quilting of the thing! Eep!! 

Or do I scrap it all and make a rag quilt out of the fabrics? Wouldn't that just be easier, doggone it?

Please, pretty please, weigh in. I need the support of my bloggie world. Mookie doesn't seem to care much...

24 for 24 (Sprout in Pictures)

I knew I had to write about it when I turned 24 weeks pregnant on the 24th of the month. That kind of oversight is unforgivable. :o)  Time is inching forward.

As is my belly.  I'm still measuring about a half inch to an inch bigger than when I was pregnant with Mookie. I don't know about my weight, but I'm slowly gaining, and that's what is important. Just like with Mookie, though, I'm not often hungry. And when I am hungry, I don't necessarily want to eat what is available, and can't think of what I would eat if it were to suddenly appear on my kitchen counter, either! :o)  I try. I try and I try and I try. And at the end of the day, or the end of the month, if I'm gaining weight and feeling teeny baby kicks and, in general, feel healthy, then I guess I'm doing okay. Do I wish I could be one of those eat-the-whole-house moms? Yes. But a leopard can't change her stripes, right?

(wink)

I am committing the classic mom-of-a-second sin, however, and I'm not documenting the pregnancy progress nearly as much as I did when I was pregnant with Mookie. I hope Sprout doesn't hold it against me later! :o)  I think part of it before was that everything was so new and exciting and I had all the time in the world to spend surfing the web, learning what was going on, etc. Now? I'm chasing a toddler.  Also, when I was pregnant with Mookie, I knew my mom was checking my blog 834 times a day hoping/wishing/praying for another update. Another story about her granddaughter kicking me in the ribs. Another story about how her hiccups made it feel like there were little tiny explosions going off in my hind-quarters. Another story about how I was getting nervous, or how we were decorating the nursery, or how I worried the cats would react. Mom was just hungry for information and word on how the baby was treating me. :o)  And believe you, me, she was quick to call me and tell me how long it had been since I'd posted about "The Yipper." :o)  Now, I don't have that...that...pressure.  I know now that it was a good thing, of course. I don't think Mom was doing it so that I would have long-term documentation, of course. I think she was doing it because she wanted to know. I was like her own little personal soap opera. :o)  And believe you, me, she was quick to call my grandma and tell her what The Yipper and I had been up to, too! I'm sure if there had been a live webcam feed on my life, Mom and Grandma would have been tuned in 24/7 and on the phone with each other the entire time! :o)

But, again, I don't have that pressure, that impetus, that guiding force to update my blog and keep track of how I'm feeling as the little Sproutlette is growing inside of me. I get caught up in the day-to-day doings of hanging out with a toddler, and making stuff for my best friend's new baby, and making sure I have eaten that day, and getting out to enjoy the sunshine when the rest of the continent is snowed under. Blogging about kicks and hiccups seems LOW on the totem pole of importance.

BUT (Sprout, as you read this later), I know that I'll be glad for whatever I can record for posterity!  I don't want to forget things like:

• I don't have any particular cravings for food during this pregnancy, same as before with Mookie.
• I am having the same lower-back pain (sciatica) that I did with Mookie, although I think it came on earlier than it did with Mookie. I'm also having other back pain, but that's probably from cutting fabric and sewing, and not just being pregnant.
  
• When Sprout gets the hiccups, I feel it in the front of my belly, near my right hip (rather than near my sit-bones like with Mookie). I find this hiccup-location thing really interesting! I guess it means that they hang out in different parts of my uterus? I HOPE (against all hope) that it doesn't mean that Sprout is going to be in a painful birthing position!! Mookie just slid right on out, I would like to repeat that this time. :o)  I guess we'll see at my next ultrasound.
• I don't seem to be having as many ultrasounds with Sprout as I did with Mookie. I guess that's a good thing because it means the doctor isn't as worried (no fibroids appearing yet...), but it makes me sad because I want to see her again! :o)  Next one is March 1st. :-(
• I think it's interesting how many people have said that Sprout looks "just like Mookie" in her ultrasound pictures. Like, Sprout in utero looks like Mookie at 20 months, if that makes sense...not that they look alike in their ultrasound photos. Although I should go back and check. :o)
• I am having the Braxton Hicks contractions, sometimes more...contracting...than others. Just my old uterus getting into shape, I guess. Uterine calisthenics. Fabulous.
  
• I think I'm going to go off the grid with Sprout's nursery decor. I went Big Box with Mookie's, but I'm not finding anything I adore now. And while I still like what we did with Mookie's room, I wish that I had said aloud "Do I really have to go with a package? Or can I start with a fabric I love, and go from there?" And had someone (in the know) say to me, "Why, of COURSE, Melissa. Don't go with a package if you don't absolutely love it!"  I'll let you know more about my plans once I've run it past Dave. Not that he's (a) gonna care, and (b) have much say in the decision! I learned years ago to buy the paint, then show it to him as I was painting the walls. :o)   (Love you, Honey!)
• I bought the first box of Pampers Swaddlers this week. Gotta get stocked up! I figure if I budget and buy two boxes a month, I'll be in good shape come May Whatevereth.
• I've been talking to Mookie about her baby sister, and she knows there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, but I don't know how much she really understands yet. The other day, we were outside talking to a neighbor, and Debbie mentioned the baby, and Mookie pointed to Debbie's large bazoombas, and said "baby"...tee hee...I felt HORRIBLE!!! Her belly isn't big at all...just her bazoombas. But, to her credit (and my salvation) Mookie pointed to her own tummy and said "baby tummy" and then to my belly and said "baby tummy." So, we're working on who has a baby in their tummy and who doesn't. :o)
• We are going to keep Sprout's real name a secret until she's born - just like we did with Mookie. Dave and I haven't discussed names, yet, so no, we don't have one picked out, but even when we do, it'll be just betwixt us.
  

That last one got me to thinking. When I was pregnant with Mookie, not too much farther along than I am now, I posted this about singing and mind-dancing with my baby girl.  And, reading it for the first time in nearly 2 years, thinking about Mookie AND Sprout, the same happy Mama tears came to my eyes, and the same tearful Mama prayer came to my lips. And it makes me think that I need to be singing this song to Mookie and Sprout as we dance, the three of us, around the living room. Or should I say, the FOUR of us. :o)

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 3)

You'd think with all this attrocious weather we've been having here in southern California that I would have gotten more sewing done, but my body just wants to sit, feet up, under a warm blanket and forget about the howls and pelts and backyard furniture tipping over.  So, no. Not as productive of a week as I had hoped.

And because all 4 of you are desperately waiting to find out what I decided to do about the bathroom-rug blanket from the last post, I have decided to err on the side of laziness and leave it like it is and just pray that Angela likes it enough to at least use it, and doesn't secretly donate it to a children's home, or something!

As for the baby quilt I'm going to make her, I've been a bit paralyzed in my quilt top design (What? Me? Can't make a decision? Say it isn't so!!)  Hah. So, what I (brilliantly) decided to do was to scan the fabrics I have and I'm going to cut out the printouts and make paper quilt blocks so I don't cut the fabric and then regret my decision! Especially since I've got two retired fabrics and a pile of others carefully selected off the internet! It's not like I can just run up the street to Joann's and grab some more.  So, hopefully that goes well. It's just that I have the confidence of a church mouse when it comes to big artistic things like this. So, I did that, but I'm putting it aside for a week.

Because...I've got a LOT of other work to get done if I want to send stuff for Angela's shower next weekend! I found more fun flannels for receiving blankets than I wanted to, and had to whittle down my decision to 4, and I will use 2 of those to also make some fun burp cloths.

Even though I want to vegetate tonight (like I did Wednesday night instead of sewing!), I am planning on getting each of these pieces of fun flannel sewn into receiving blankets tonight. Planning being the key word, there! :o)

And in the midst of my search for uni-gender flannels, I came across some yummsterlicious butter yellow satin and matching soft minkee which is going to be the snuggle blanket I was planning to make. I'm planning to wrap the satin around to the front and do a self-binding.  (and I have enough to make one for Sprout...how sweet will that be that Ang's baby and my baby will have matching blankies?!)

Sooo..here's the internal debate I would like your opinion on: do I (A) make the snuggly and send it now (for her shower), or do I (B) wait till I know the baby's name and embroider the baby's name on the binding and then send it immediately? (I think I can do most of it ahead of time and machine embroider the name later).

What say you? Name or no name?

Hope you have a great, productive, super crafty weekend!

Well, Alley Approves!

(Warning: this is largely a stream-of-conscious post. Good luck following my train of thought!)


So I'm almost finished with the stroller blanket I'm making for my best friend's new baby, and I have not only struggled with the new type of fabric (hairier than any German Shepherd I've ever met!) (and stretchy, too!), but I've also struggled with not being confident that Angela will love it as much as I do.

I know it's totally simple, so there's really not much to love (or hate, I suppose). And she picked out the Alexander Henry Diamond Eye fabric...but she didn't pick out the reminds-me-of-my-bathroom-mat red minkee for the backside. :o)

I know black/white/red is supposed to be the ideal color combination for new babies, and the soft fabric, and bold pattern, and a couple of textures will delight the little budding genius.  But what I don't know is if Angela will love it because I made it, or because it's awesome.

I think it's awesome. But I tend to like more traditional color combinations, like black/white/red. She tends to go for the bolder, modern, retro color combinations. Like her wedding colors were brown and green. They were stupendously awesome together, and she did an amazing job of creating a perfectly coordinated wedding, and I love that color combination now, but it just didn't turn my head before her big day, you know?

I've gone back and forth and back and forth, again about whether or not the red was the right color for the backing. I could have gone with white, but the AH is not a true white, and it's too dingy to kinda/sorta go, you know?  And I know I could have ordered any number of colors from the web, but I didn't want to blindly order "off-white" and not like it. And I could have gone with an orange (again from the web), but, well, I was kinda doofy about that. Basically, I just didn't think about it! I went with the VERY BASIC color selection of minkee fabrics at my local Joann's, and fell for the red.  Am I a bad friend for not going the extra mile and ordering the orange from the web, so that her baby would have yet another black/white/orange thing for its room? Or for not ordering off-white from the web and hoping that it would be "off" enough to go with the front fabric?

I've got another piece of the AH Diamond Eye. Should I just order the orange minky dot off the web, and start over?

Help. I can't make this decision alone!

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 2)

Doggone it, this week went fast!  For you, too? Did you get much accomplished? I made some Christmas thank you cards for Mookie to send out. Come to think of it, I'm pretty good at making Christmas cards when I've got sewing to do! :o)

As for beating the babies, I learned a bit of disturbing exciting news -- my best friend, Angela, is having her baby shower on January 31st! Since we live about 1200 miles apart, I'm not going to be able to make it (though I so desperately wish I could! It kills me that we're not together for her first pregnancy!)...but I'm hoping that some of my handiwork will make it to the shower. :o)

Before I learned that, however, I went ahead and washed and ironed all the fabric for the wonky crooked lumpy cabin idea. And by "ironed", I mean cursed at the deep, deep creases that seem to have taken up permanent residence in the fabrics after washing. It irritates me. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Or buy a new iron, one of the two! :o)  I've got some more black-and-white strips from another quilter who was giving them away on her blog, so they're not included here, but below is the photo of the fabrics I purchased for this quilt.

I'm really hoping all of the oranges go together well and don't totally clash when I'm finished!  The only one I'm really worried about is that light one next to the black/white (that looks like wallpaper). I think the others will be fine.  What do you think? (hint: leave comment below)

On that note, though, I've kinda-sorta-semi-quasi-pseudo decided to do a "quilt-along" with Randi at i have to say. I'm going to have to deviate, though, and go off-the-grid and make my own pattern, so I won't be 100% along with her, but I'm sure I can learn a ton, and boy, do I need to learn a ton!

So, anyways, once I learned that I've got to work a bit quicker to beat the baby, I decided to shift my focus to the gifts I can actually, you know, complete and send to Ang at the shower. :o)

I'm going to have to do a teeny bit of flannel shopping this weekend (Danger, danger!), and I hope to find some really fun, gender-neutral, bright flannels.

But before I can do that, I need to start on the Diamond-Eye/Minkee stroller blanket. Which I hope to start tonight. Which requires that I finish this post. And then clean off the dining room/craft table to make room to cut my fabrics. And not give in to the tired that seems to be taking over my body at the moment!

Hopefully by next week, I'll have quite a bit more to show you!

But for now, here's a funny little Mookie story. This morning I was surfing the web (trying to figure out the best way to iron out the creases in my fabric) while Dora was entertaining my child. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that Mookie had a crayon in her hand, and her hand was rather close to her ear. Now before you jump to any conclusions, she was not shoving the crayon IN her ear canal, which I know some children are wont to do.

The picture doesn't tell the clearest picture, but YOU try taking a good quality photo of a toddler's ear!

Good thing I only keep washable crayons in the house, no?  :o)

Hope you have a great, productive, and green-ear free weekend!

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 1)

Honestly, does your creativity end in December?  Does your need for handmade gifts end in December? Does your desire to buy new stuff use up what you've got end in December? Nope. Me neither.

So I decided to keep up 'Fess Up Fridays. And since I need a deadline goal, I'm going to be posting 'FUF - Beat The Babies edition.  And we all know that it's important for crafters to beat the babies, right? :o)

And by "beat the babies" you know that I mean that I have to complete the project before the baby recipient gets borned, right?  Okay, good. I didn't want anyone reporting me for baby abuse.

In my little world, I know of 4 babies getting borned sometime between now and June. Two boys, one girl (mine!), and one yet-to-be-revealed (dangit).

The first baby is due to my bestest friend, Angela, in early March. They're the meanies ones that want the gender to be a surprise. Ang has picked nursery colors to be in varying shades of orange, and is using black (and some white, if I recall correctly) furniture. She's going to be adding some other colors, too, to keep it from being too Halloween-y.

And, for the record, this is the baby whose gifts are going to be the most complex. Mostly because I'm probably going to be more generous with these babies than with (at least) two of the other babies. So, for now at least, I'm going to concentrate on beating Angela's baby.

Here's the list of desired gifts, not necessarily in baby-beating order: (Angela, you don't read my blog, right?)  :o)

1. Crib quilt made with variety of fabrics, the focal point to be Katie Jump Rope Dots in Geranium.

2. At least one, hopefully more, receiving blankets made of soft and snuggly flannel.
3. Sweet burp cloths made with flannel to match the receiving blankets. (I much prefer the Gerber Premium Prefold Diapers for this.) (I only needed to make that mistake once!)
4.  A snuggle blanket* with satin on one side and something like velour on the other. (It could be anywhere from 12" square to 36" square, depending on what I find) (Mookie absolutely adores her two like this)
   
5. A stroller blanket with red minkee on one side, and the Alexander Henry Diamond Eye on the other.

And, well, yes, you are right. Her baby is due in about 8 weeks. And it's probably going to take me that many weeks of FuF-BtB to even get the fabric cut out for the crib quilt, much less COMPLETE any of the other projects!!

Eep!

The good news is that I finally got the book with the pattern I want to use for the crib quilt. Angela is not as, hmmm...shall we say, symmetrical as I am. It's not that she's funky in an artsy-fartsy kind of way, it's just that she doesn't feel the need for everything to be as square symmetrical as I do. So I wanted a quilt pattern that would reflect the non-traditional, funky mom she is.  Thus, I've chosen to make a bit of a wonky, crooked log cabin, based on the quilt pattern by Denyse Schmidt. (She calls it "What A Bunch of Squares" in her book). Pat Sloan does one, too, called the Crooked Cabin.)

And, me? Making something "funky" or "wonky" or "crooked"? Is going to S-T-R-E-T-C-H me to the outer bounds of my comfort zone, and probably take me far, far away into a galaxy of discomfort the likes of which I have never seen.

But I am committed.

Or I will be committed after this project is done, one of the two! To the Funny Farm! :o)

And, so, hopefully, by next Friday, I will have made some progress, and can show you my handiwork! Hopefully!!

So, now it's your turn to 'fess up...what are you working on? Any babies deadlines you're trying to beat? :o)

Sprout in Pictures - Week 21

My, my, my. Time sure does fly! And the belly sure does grow big!

Here's the latest shot of my baby bump. I'm feeling lots of healthy kicks, and lots of normal aches and pains. And most of my trousers no longer fit, and my shirts all seem to be shrinking (tug, tug, tug).

I'm still just a smidge rounder than I was when I was this pregnant with Mookie, but they say that it's normal to be bigger with the second baby than with the first (even if the baby isn't bigger).  It's all the same as with Mookie, really...no specific cravings, no desire to eat everything in the house, etc. My only strong desire is for MORE SLEEP!!!  But that's probably a side effect of this stupid head cold Santa brought to me. :o)

I talk to Mookie about her being a big sister, and that there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, etc., but I don't know how much of it she's getting. We've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so she'll hear the baby's heartbeat again, so maybe that will help. Who knows! :o)

I hope you have a great week!

Christmas 2009 - The Festival of Family

I'm hoping I can write a quick Christmas wrap-up. I have no clue how "quick" it will be however!

We're home now, and don't plan to travel for a VERY VERY long time. I would like to kindly request that none of my loved ones decide to get married or pass away this year so I don't have to go anywhere. Thank you. Forgive me, I just don't feel like seeing another airplane bathroom.

We got to Atlanta (After another overnight delay in Chicago. Just like last year. Why do I fly through there???), and got to spend one quality day with Dave's dad and his other half, Nancy. Even though we've looked at pictures and talked about it for a while, Mookie had never said "Grandma" or "Grandpa" before. But there we were, and there was a grandma and a grandpa hugging her and loving her and just soaking her in...so Mookie decided to bless us all with her version of Grandma -- "Baga" -- and Grandpa -- "Baka". It's hard to tell the difference between the two, but it was sure sweet to hear! Then Bob and Nancy went to Virginia to see her family.

We spent some time the next couple of days with Dave's mom and husband and Dave's brother and family. I was a bit curious about how Mookie would do meeting two new people that look different, but we call by the names Grandma and Grandpa. Why does it surprise me, really, that she took it all in stride and loved on them just as much as Bob and Nancy. :o)  We had a little gift-exchange, and Grandma gave Mookie a doll, and a tea set.

And then we drove to Birmingham and got to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and a few days after with my step-brother and his family. My dad and step-mom drove up and spent the time there, too, so the Festival of Family continued. Again, not surprisingly, Mookie picked up that yet another set of people get called Grandma and Grandpa. I know some people have different names for all the sets of grandparents, but all these grandparents have other grandkids, so we're just going to go with the names they already get called.

Anyway, Santa brought my niece Rock Band (and accessories) for Christmas, and we had a concert all day Christmas Day. :o)  Pretty much every time someone was singing, Mookie was dancing. It was hilarious and precious and oh-so-memorable. I didn't get the best video of the fancy dancing, but we couldn't get the video from my dad's camera to upload to YouTube or to Blogger. That really is a travesty because it was adorable! :o)

This one is pretty cute, however. And only about 20 seconds long, so you can suffer through. :o)  


(Side note: she saw me posting this today, and kept saying "diss", "diss"...I had no clue! Then later on, I was singing something, and she was dancing to it. Then it was time for bed, and she started saying "diss", "diss" again. I figured it out - she wanted to dance some more! So I used the tune for Pink's So What, and sang lyrics about how wonderful Mookie is...and she dissed like a champion!)

Here's a different picture of her in her jammies, you can see the front of the kimono-style top better.

We stayed a few more days in Birmingham, and had tons of fun shopping, and eating, and painting with my niece, but then it was time to pack everything up (a-gain!) and head back to Atlanta to spend a couple more days with Bob and Nancy.  More eating. More shopping. No painting, but lots of trivia!

And Mookie found the dog's crate to be more fascinating than anything else.

Which brings us to New Year's Eve, and one uneventful plane ride followed by a far-too-eventful plane ride. One where I accumulated milk, juice, puke, poop, and pee on my person. It's stuff like that that makes me not ever want to get on an airplane again.

It's stuff like that that make me glad to be HOME HOME HOME!!! I hope you have a great weekend, and a wonderful, blessed 2010.