A City Life For Me

Elaine has been playing “mommy” a lot over the last few days.  I don’t know what happened, or “clicked”, but she has been neglecting her best friend Bunny in lieu of playing mommy to her baby doll Betsy.  Betsy literally goes everywhere with Elaine! Maybe it was because she “grew up” over the weekend.  You see, last Thursday (May 19th), Elaine lost her pacifier.  We couldn’t find it anywhere.  It was the last remaining paci, and I had already committed to not replacing it if were to be lost.  Ben has been wanting Elaine to give up her paci for a while, but we were going to wait until after the transition with the new baby.  And though we did find the paci on Sunday, we opted to not give it back.  (Sunday was a monumental day here – Elaine went to church with no paci and no Bunny – a first for her!) Now that Elaine is a “big girl” she has been quite the mommy to her baby doll.  Betsy is wearing her third outfit from the newborn box…becaus...

Today I finally went and bought the wallpaper glue I needed, dug out the Wallies cut-outs, and set to finishing the wall décor in the baby’s room.  I’m so happy to have some color in there!  The green wall now sports a Beatrix Potter “border” mid-way up the wall.  I have rearranged the room, pulled out the baby gear, and cleaned everything.  Now Baby Hamilton can arrive anytime!  (Well…after June 6th would be best so that I can attend Kenny & Becky’s wedding!) The angle makes my border look crooked, but I assure you it is not!   These are part of my Beatrix Potter theme – the beanie babies were a gift for Elaine’s birth, and I made the wall quilt with a fabric remnant I found on Ebay.   Just a glimpse of the rest of the room.  For those of you who don’t know, Ben made the crib.  It is definitely a unique, heirloom type piece.  I helped with the sanding (which me grateful that I am not a wood-worker by trade!) While...

Last night Elaine got her first pedicure.  It started last week when she wanted her toes painted like Mommy.  Then I read a review of Piggy Paint on the So Easy Being Green Blog .  It is a non-toxic nail polish that is safe for little ones, but fast drying and non-peeling for adults as well.  I found a bottle on sale with free shipping, and ordered it. Yesterday we set about removing the old nail polish, trimming Elaine’s nails, and trying out our Piggy Paint.  I got a new coat of polish on my toes too!  I loved that the Piggy Paint doesn’t have the fumes of normal nail polish. Elaine got a new diaper too!  This is the Eiffel Tower print from bumGenius! diapers.  It reminds me of my best friend Danielle (who shares her middle name with Elaine). After Elaine’s toes were completed, she set about cleaning Ben’s feet with the cotton balls and nail polish remover.  What a hoot!

May is Project “Projects” at I Heart Organizing .  I didn’t really have any large projects on the list, but there are a couple of things that I wanted to finish before the baby arrives next month.  I happened to get to all three of them last week! First, I have been wanting to re-do my recipe book for a while now.   I “scheduled” it as my February project, but still never got it done.  I discovered that recipe cards don’t work great for me, and they’re hard to keep track of.  I liked my binder with page protectors, but it was in poor shape.  The page protectors make it easy to wipe off if I splatter on the recipe when cooking.  I print a lot of recipes online, and so I had lots of full size sheets of paper floating around. First I designed some divider sheets and a cover page.  I found page protectors with tab dividers at Office Max – perfect for what I needed!  I divided my recipes into 8 categories, then started organizing.   ...

Last week my old college roomie and buddy came to visit us for the day! Her name is Shannon, but in our “group” she was always Shanaynay and I was Angelina .  (It’s a long story). Shannon finally arrived (she took a couple of detours through Manhattan and Staten Island.  Detours are okay, but they are expensive in NYC if a bridge is involved!).  Shannon, Elaine, and I took the subway to meet Ben for lunch in Manhattan.  He is working on the outside of a building in the historic SoHo district (and right next door to the filming location of Men in Black III …lots of interesting things to see!).  His lunch break isn’t long, so it was a fast “date.”  Then the girls took a stroll through China Town.  We stopped at Starbucks for half-price Frappuccino's, and then stopped at 86th Street in Brooklyn for some more shopping. We finished the day off right with Brooklyn Pizza.  We had a good time visiting, and Elaine loved the attention (and presents) t...

Today marks 18 months since Elaine joined our family on November 5, 2009.  Sometimes it feels like she has been part of the family forever , and other times I think, “Has it really been that long?”  I think that this is a challenging age – she is so much fun, but so strong-willed at the same time! Here are some of the fun things about Elaine right now… She is finally starting to talk…sort of!  Daddy doesn’t get it quite as well, but when you’re with her 24/7, you can start to understand her noises and what she means by them.  Current words are “dah” for dog, “mo” for more, and “ca” can mean car, cat, or cup…whatever is around at the moment.  She also has “no” down pretty pat, and nods her head for “yes.”  She also utilizes a lot of pointing and taking me to what she wants in order to get her point across.  We are still working on “please.” Elaine is definitely very aware of anything “dog” around her.  She will not get close to them – I th...

Last week, my neighbor’s daughter Hannah was on Spring Break from school.  Friday was a gorgeous day, and a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was planned.  Elaine and I were invited to go along! It is Cherry Blossom Festival right now.  I must admit, after seeing the cherry trees in full bloom in Washington, D.C., I was slightly unimpressed by the cherry trees at the garden.  The tulips, however were delightfully arrayed in bright, beautiful colors, and even Elaine enjoyed the “pretty flowers.” There was also a section of lilac bushes.  Though they were not completely blooming, the fragrance was overwhelming…and it is one of my favorites! {cherry blossom by the lake} {lilac blooms} {the most amazing orange tulips I have ever seen}   {don’t pick the flowers…but Mommy it’s so hard to resist} {the best picture we could get together} {sitting pretty…but not looking at Mommy}    {she loves to dangle he...