Loveable Lydia and Stinker Arlene

At the end of the video, Arlene wipes her mouth and says "Eww!" What a stinker!

Comments

I have had to turn on a filter on the "comments" section because I was getting anonymous comments with bad horrible links. If you leave a comment you'll have to type in the letters. Not a big deal at all, just one little extra step. This should stop those comments from coming through, but in case you do see one, please do NOT click on it!

Suit up

I was at Target today and couldn't resist these suits - Ariel and Princesses! They were $10 each, what a deal! The girls were soooooo excited when I brought them home. They wore them for three hours! Can't wait until it warms up by 40 degrees so they can go swimming!

I am obsessed with ...

... vinyl wall stickers. I want to buy them all!

Ball Tree

Blossoms

Arrows

Chandelier

Stars

Dots

Stickers for the toilet too!

Tip toe walker

***If you've landed on my blog from searching the 'net for info on tip toe walking or serial casting or AFO braces, hello. This particular post here is one in a number I wrote about my daughter's tip toe walking. I encourage you to start with this post instead. It encapsulates our journey more succinctly.***

We all know Lydia is a pretty princess. She walks like a princess ballerina, up on her toes. It was cute for a little bit, but it got to be concerning because she would never walk on her flat feet. Her balance is off because she's on her tip toes. At their three-year well-baby check up I asked the doctor about it, and he referred us to a physical therapist. Lydia has been going to physical therapy for the past four weeks every Monday. She has a weak tendon in her foot/leg that is causing her to walk on her tip toes all the time. It's in her left leg, but she walks on tip toes on both feet to overcompensate. Her tendon is weak either because it's always been weak, and that caused her to start walking on her tip toes, or, it's weak because she has always walked on her tip toes.

My theory is this: when she was a little baby, her favorite thing to do was bounce in a bouncer. She'd bounce on her tip toes. When she started walking, she started out on her tip toes. I think we all thought she'd just stop, but two years later, she's still doing it. I don't know if the bouncer is what caused it, and the physical therapist doesn't know either.

Today, she can walk right - we just have to tell her. We'll say "Lydia, walk on your flat feet" and she'll do it, but then a minute later she's back up on her tip toes. She has to try to walk right, it just doesn't come naturally. Last night at physical therapy she did better at her exercises and the physical therapist said that she is getting greater range with her feet and legs.

Next week when we go in for physical therapy Lydia is going to get fitted for braces and we'll get them a week later. We will have to get her special shoes to fit over the braces. She'll have to wear them most of the day during her normal activities.

They'll look similar to this picture below. I feel bad that she'll have to wear the braces. The physical therapist said that Lydia can do exercises all day for the next year, and still walk on her tip toes just because that's how she's always walked, so that is what feels natural to her. She needs to break the habit of walking on her toes.

Fog as thick as jelly brains*

We've had snow, and rain, and snow, and ice, and rain, and snow. Today it's raining but there's still snow on the ground, so it's foggy, dark and gross out. The rain is supposed to turn to snow today. Wonderful.

*Funny: When I was driving to work today I thought of that line in the Nightmare Before Christmas where the goblin say "Fog as thick as jelly brains!" I wasn't sure if I had the line correct, so I Googled it, and came up with a website where someone has actually typed out the entire script of the movie. I'm a fan, don't get me wrong, but that's a little extreme, don't you think?!

What. A. Weekend.

Our weekend was crazy packed full busy. It's Sunday night now and I'm wishing we had tomorrow off work too just to recouperate from the weekend! On Saturday we had an appointment with the market manager of the new neighborhood we want to build in. We have a lot now!! We picked out the specifications of our floor plan and signed on the dotted line to have them begin the process of construction. The whole process will take about six months. If our house doesn't sell in that timeframe there are ways that they can delay the closing date on the new house.

We now have a house in a box:

They gave us the box to house all of our paperwork. I was most excited - I just love organizational items! The next step for the new house is that we will finalize the financing - fun! Not really, it makes me want to puke. We'll be paying more for the new house, but it's much bigger, so we just need to deal. Our lot is gorgeous, it has a tree line in the back and a babbling (really, it babbles!) creek, then another tree line, then there is going to be a park with a walking trail constructed. It's really quiet and the street is a no-outlet street so the girls will be safe. [We don't even let the girls in the front yard where we live now because the street is insanely busy.] There was three inches of snow so I didn't get any pictures. I will post some once the snow melts!

So that was Saturday ... on Sunday we woke up to a phone call that we had a showing at our house. So we organized and cleaned and had to waste time somewhere so we checked out the new Ohio Valley Antiques Mall. I found soooo many things that I wanted to buy. But I just got two items:

The sign on the glass said it was an ice bucket. It'd be a pretty small ice bucket. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for ... for now it's going to sit next Mr. Frog. The book is super cute - I'll use some of the images for pendants.

When we got back to the house we weren't even sure if anyone had been there. Usually there is a rug askew or the shower curtain is pulled back - sure signs someone's been checking the place out. None of that today. Hmmm ... at least there is interest though. We had a showing Wednesday night and the feedback was that the peeps were "maybe" interested.

Oh, in the meantime of all this house selling/building excitement this weekend, I made an Ipod cozie! My friend A. sent me some super soft n' fuzzy yarn last week. Turned out pretty cute!

Lydia was excited that I ordered pizza for dinner! Wahoo!

I'm tired, I'm going to watch the Oscars in bed now!

Etsy update

I made two sales on Saturday - one was for the Infertility pendant for my friend. The other sale was a direct result of my advertising spot. I sold a pendant that was featured in the Showcase. Yay! Aside from the blip of Etsy being down for a bit on Saturday, I'd say that I enjoyed participating in the Showcase and would most likely pay for another one in the future. Oh, I increased my number of "hearts me" in my shop on Saturday.

Ugh, that sucks!

There was an outage on Etsy today at 2:30 p.m. - the site was down for one hour. A server went down, and everyone lost the counts on their listings. Each listing was reset to 1 "view" which sucks because some of my items had over 200 views a piece! I knew those were popular because they had so many views. Now everything is starting from scratch. I'm supposedly supposed to be refunded for my advertising spot cost because of the outage, so I guess that's good news.

So proud!

I have completed a project that I am most proud of. A couple weeks ago a friend from high school asked me to make her a piece of jewelry to signify her struggles with infertility. This sure is an issue close to my heart! I was thrilled to get started.

Pomegranates are the symbol for infertility - I wasn't sure how I was going to signify pomegranates in a pendant, but I was determined. I'm really happy with what I came up with. I made four pendants in total - my friend has her choice. The pendants actually do look like the inside of a pomegranate! I tinted the resin red and added beads and red candy sprinkles.

Go to my Etsy shop and click into a listing to read the explaination of the pendant and the symbolism of the pomegranate.

Etsy news!

I was able to secure a coveted advertising spot on Etsy this weekend. On Saturday, if you go to http://www.etsy.com/, click on the "Main Showcase" banner. You'll see one of my pendants among the other listings! I hope that the exposure brings in some sales. I'll keep you posted!

Blue Light Special

For rent: two darling children, aged 3 years. They are in excellent health, fully potty trained, but they do have the occassional accident, or 'non-accidental intentional peeing or pooping in the pants episode.' They are strong willed and are often found yelling "I want to do it myself!" They are loving when they want to be. Will give hugs and kisses on demand. Will also fall to the floor in a fit of screaming and crying fury. Have been known lately to cause scenes and be irrationally loud and obnoxious when out in public. Inquiries welcome.

Dear Peanut Butter Patty ....

... you are so delicious and you know it. We all appreciate you and your goodness. But please, don't let me eat more than four of you in one night. Stop tempting me. Stop it! Really, stop! XOXO, Kay

Doesn't lose suction

I love my Dyson vacuum, but I do think that James Dyson is an alien.

Going postal

I've been frequenting my local post office much more lately mailing out items sold on my Etsy shop. I love my post office - it's clean, it's close, and the workers are friendly and very helpful. I have to give props to the workers - they deal with a bunch of crap. And they are so nice through it all. I try my best to be cheerful whenever I'm in there, because it seems like everyone else has a scowl on their face or is confrontational to each other in line or mean to the clerks. Why is it that the post office brings out the worst in people? Even if there is a line, it typically moves pretty quickly. It's not like you're plunking down a bunch of cash - postage is relatively cheap. So why the hostility? I don't get it!

I want everything

There is an IKEA store opening March 12 here and I am so excited! I want EVERYTHING in the store. So, if you're looking to buy me a present in the next few years, you'd be safe buying me a gift card to IKEA. Don't forget, my birthday is March 30! Oh, perfect timing - right after IKEA opens!

So wrong, yet so funny

I came across these "Do's and Don'ts with Baby" images on the web and just had to share. They are too funny. Click here to see the web site.

Save the trees

I cannot stand getting receipts from fast food restaurants. Is that really necesssary? I cleaned out my purse tonight and was AMAZED at the amount of useless paper I had - all receipts! Urgh!

Here we go!

Our house is for sale again! We researched realtors and realty companies and settled on the most perfect one for us. It's actually a team of two realtors - Ken and Cindy. Ken has been in the business 24 years and is a straight shooter, no-nonsense type of guy. He's almost a little brash, but we don't mind his frank honesty. Cindy hasn't been in the business as long but does have lots of experience and is super duper nice. They are a qualified team and we are hopeful that this is the year for us. The only thing we have to do to the house is to get our carpets stretched and cleaned. We can handle that!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Hearts Day everyone! I had a little Valentine helper in my office this morning. Lydia is at home sick with a cold, so I brought Arlene in to work with me for an hour before taking her to preschool. She enjoyed being in my office and told me, "Everyone likes me here!" My co-workers were all ga-ga over her. Poor Lydia! She has green stuff coming out of her nose and she's coughing and sneezing all the time. She's staying at home with Grandma all day today to get hugs and comfort.

Curlers!

I found sponge curlers at the Dollar Store! I put them in Arlene's hair because Lydia's is too short for them. I had pink curlers just like these when I was a little tike! Arlene's hair is naturally curly anyway, but the curlers gave it a bit more volume.

My mind is turning to mush

I don't have anything to blog about. How sad. My mind is too preoccupied with work stuff. We have a huge event coming up. When I have something interesting to say, I'll blog. Until then, read the other blogs that I visit, links are to the left. Those people have interesting things to say.

Worse storm of the year?

I don't think so. Cincinnati plays up snowstorms like we're all going to die a horrible, snowed in, frigid death. Yesterday the news stations were vamping it up, forecasting the winter storm as being "the worse of this season" and possibly "the worse this area has ever seen." We were predicted to get up to 9 inches of snow followed by ice overnight. The sound of Mike's cell phone woke ringing me up this morning - he had a snow day. I looked outside expecting to see a total white out. What I saw were clear roads and GRASS. It didn't even snow enough to cover the grass. There was a little ice on the car and in parking lots, but nothing major. It's rediculous how people freak out over snow around here!

Test your vocab and donate rice

This is super cool. FreeRice is a site that tests your vocabulary. For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to hungry people around the world. When you play the game, advertisements appear at the bottom of the screen. When you play, the advertisement changes and generates money, which is then used to buy rice. If you get a word wrong the game still continues, giving you more chances to donate more rice. It's addicting, and it's for a good cause. Click here to start.

A to the L

What smarties ... look at them, writing the first letters of their names now!

Valentine's etiquette

The girls and I were putting together their Valentine's tonight and I couldn't figure out which way to fold them! Does the design go on the inside, and the "to" and "from" go on the outside? I did Lydia's with the design on the outside, and Arlene's with the design on the inside. Which way is which? Look:

--- > Lydia's design on outside.

--- > Arlene's design on inside.

HANNAH MONTANA in 3D!

We took the girls to see Hannah Montana! Mike even went! I took pictures (I felt like a dork, but I didn't care, it was a big deal for the girls to go to a big girl movie!! all but one came out too dark and fuzzy, but oh well) The girls were all a buzz all day about going to the movie. Arlene picked out her Hannah Montana shirt to wear today, and also insisted that I do her hair up with two pony tail holders, two clips, and two barrettes. They talked about the concert all day and were so impatient while we were eating dinner because they were ready to see Hannah NOW! We went to the theater early because we weren't sure if there would be a crowd. It wasn't bad. (What was bad was the $30 ticket price! And that was for TWO adult tickets! Geez! We lied and said the girls were 2 years old so we didn't have to pay to get them in. That would have been an extra $14.) Because we overestimated the crowds, we had to sit in the theater for about 20 minutes waiting for the show to start. When the show started Arlene got scared because of the freaky previews. They had a preview for another Disney 3D movie about the middle of the Earth, or something, and they showed a dinosaur coming at you in 3D - I didn't blame Arlene for getting scared! She kept grabbing onto my arm and holding tight.

The previews lasted what seemed like HOURS and Arlene kept saying "I want to see Hannah Montana!" When she finally started it was pretty cool! Arlene sat there in awe and didn't move a muscle for about 30 minutes. Lydia danced in her seat and then got tired and crawled up on Mike's lap. She refused to wear her 3D glasses from that point on, so I don't know what she got out of the movie because it was blurry without the glasses on. Arlene kept hers on and was incredibly ecstatic when the Jonas Brothers came on stage. She "loves" the Jonas Brothers because they are "cute"! Oh dear! My favorite part of the movie was when Miley sat on stage with her guitar and sang a song about missing her grandpa - she had on what I presume was one of his old cardigan sweaters - it was a men's sweater and looked old and worn. I thought that was really sweet. The movie was super cute and Miley Cyrus is one heck of a talented little girl. She seems wise beyond her years and I can only hope that she stays smart and doesn't let her fame get the best of her!

You have to love Karate Kid

The Karate Kid was on TV tonight and I was sucked in - I couldn't stop watching it! It struck me how small Daniel-son seemed ... and then I remembered that in the 80s when the movie came out, I was a little tike, so Daniel-son seemed like a "grown up" in .... that far away land of .... "high school" .... oooo lala!

------> That's the Karate Kid today!

We got it

Mike played it most of the day Sunday. He's pretty good. I tried it a few times and was really bad. I need to practice!

The new camera rocks

The new camera is soooo good for taking photos for my Etsy shop. You'll have to go to my shop to check it out. I spent all day yesterday taking new pics of everything. The camera has a "macro focus" feature which allows me to get right up on top of the pendant and take a picture of it. I was able to capture the detail of the pendants. I am pretty excited about the new pics! Check them out. You can click on the banner to the left to get to my shop.

Should we go?

I am considering taking Arlene to see the Hannah Montana movie. She has seen the previews for it and her little eyes light up. She knew that Hannah came to town last year, but that she couldn't go see her because the tickets were all sold out. I checked the movie times and it's almost all sold out for Saturday and Sunday ... the only times available for Sunday are at 8 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. So either we'd have to get up super early or go to bed super late! There are showtimes available during the week ... that might be the better, less busy option. I think it's going to be nuts no matter what time we go, but I guess that would be part of the experience for her.

New camera!

I got a new camera! Well, technically it's not "mine" but it's home for the weekend for me to try out. I bought the camera for work because a co-worker needed a new camera. She got my older camera and I bought myself a new one, worked out nicely! I am anxious to try the camera out this weekend. I want to experiment with it and learn how to use it so that I can take good photos for work. We need a new camera at home, so if this camera works good, we'll probably end up buying one for ourselves. Ours isn't taking good photos anymore ... I tried re-setting it but the photos still aren't coming out right. Out of focus, not enough flash, grainy. We had taken about a bazillion photos with the thing, so I guess it served its purpose! This new camera is awesome - it's a Canon 8.0 megapixel. It has a bunch of features that I have to learn how to use. I'm going to get the light box out tomorrow and try taking some pendant photos. That's the real test - if it takes good pendant photos then we definetely need to buy one for ourselves!

I do apologize, dear readers

I apologize for that last post! Whooo-eee, I was spitting fire. I'm in a much better mood now. I think I was just tired and had zero patience for anything.