Things that grow

The pretty pink flowers in my front yard, greeting me every morning

The cherry tomatoes : this is the second time I get to pick the ripe ones and more to come

This little bug. 

According to the doctor, the "monsters" that gnaw on her feet are growing pains.

 Poor  little bug !!

4 years ago ...

We welcomed our little bug into the world

And my life changed forever for the better

Look at this bug turning into a pretty pink butterfly

Happy Birthday !!

Monsters attack - Mom and dad strike back

Still much monster fighting over the past few days but some progress to report. 

We had planned to upgrade our munchkin's sleeping accommodation from a toddler bed to a regular twin sized in the next few months. We decided it was time to switch. After another harrowing evening saturday, it was out with the toddler bed, in with the big girl bed. Bonus: Mom or dad can lay down with the little one to calm her down at bedtime. No monster big panic to report tonight. Yay. Hoping for some sleep. 

Good fun outing to a local farm today where we grabbed fresh veggies and picked tons of yummy peaches.  Our little one helped out and had a great time ... in style too! Hat, sunglasses, necklace and bangles: all necessary for a successful trip to the farm.

Monster potion number 9

So this is how you fight back monsters : Anti-monster spray. 

Squirt bottle ($1) , Verbena Extract, 1 drop of food coloring, water, a bit of Photoshop to put the label together. 

Not 100% effective but  definitely less tears and lower panic levels than yesterday. Se still ended up crashing in my bed but fell asleep much faster. So far the anti-monster spray gets 3 out of 5 for efficiency. We will give it a couple more days and hope it works better and better.

 Maybe I should get extra-strength Monster spray (red food dye and lavender extract). 

Monsters under the bed

Last night was rough. Nobody in the house got much sleep. Unbeknownst to us, monsters recently set camp under our daughter's bed. And last night, they attacked. Or so our little princess said. They were pulling her legs and gnawing on her feet. The poor thing!! She was terrified, shaking like a leaf. Big sobs, real tears, it took hours to calm her down and even then she woke up several times and had to stick her leg straight up ... Not much time left for any shuteye.

Apparently the monsters were still here tonight. No cajoling or coaxing from mom or dad could make our little one stay in her bed. So there she is... a little squatter in our bed. Tomorrow, I'm getting monster spray !!

My first linky party (as a guest)

This is the linky party for the gift exhange I participated in 

Yes I am a craftaholic too

Some sleep would be nice

It's happening again: Not enough sleep. I go to bed and the wheels keep spinning. In the morning, strong black coffee is my saving grace. 

This morning I had to go to the office early to be able to discuss an issue with one of my colleague who was going to be unavailable for the rest of the day. I'm not really a morning person, so if you add this with the lack of sleep, not an awesome combination. The rest of my day just went downhill from there. From confrontations with the escalation/development office that seems to be going the extra mile to make you jump through hoops rather than seeking to make customers happy to unpleasant decisions to make about the team. Still love my job but I'm really frustrated by the general inertia and lack of concern for the customers I'm constantly head-butting against.

5pm came, I was totally out of juice. Skipped dinner with Richard since the hubby was not feeling well and I was definitely too tired to drive myself downtown safely in rush traffic and definitely not in shape to drive back in one piece after dinner. I'm bummed. 

So tonight I'm hoping to fall asleep without tossing a turning for hours. Really, it would be nice not to wake up tired for a change.

Rush !!

Today was a run from start to finish.

It started by me oversleeping. I heard the alarm clock .. and fell back asleep. Oops. Quickly went through the morning routine and made it to work on the wire. Errands at lunchtime, more errands after work : Get an air mattress, a set of sheets for it from Target, new cat scratching post from PetSmart, special diet cat food from the Vet's office, straw from the garden center to cover my grass seed, party supplies for saturday. Out of the house at 7:30am, back home at 7:15pm. Sometimes pizza delivery is just what you need!

After dinner a big cuddle with my princess and once she was tucked in I managed to take some pictures of Clara's new wardrobe which I posted on my creative blog: Atelier Caroline

The rest of the week is going to be more rush. Tomorrow night we are having dinner with our British friend Richard who is on vacation in the area. Wednesday evening, Karen, my beloved Canadian friend and colleague who is in the office for the week, is coming for dinner. Thursday will be devoted to tidying up the house. Friday evening, my in-laws will be in town to celebrate their grand-daughter's birthday with us, and I'll have to get all my laundry done because, Saturday, after the birthday party, we are off to the Orioles Park at Camden Yards for a baseball game (the hubby scored fabulous free tickets!!). Oh and I almost forgot brunch on Sunday. Somewhere in all that chaos, I will have to fit a trip to the grocery store and a sanity break!

Getting ready for the B-Day

Next weekend, we will be celebrating the 4th birthday of our sunshine. Her actual birthday is on the 26th but the 17th was the best date. This past week, was all about shopping, making sure the presents would be delivered on time and then sewing... a lot of sewing. 

As it turns out, my daughter is a bit of a fashion victim. She's all about dresses and shoes, handbags and sunglass. The shoes and handbags is probably because of me. The immoderate taste for girly girl dresses, not me .. at all. I'm all for pants, especially jeans. Anyway, we decided it was time to get her a doll that she can dress.. and that is NOT a Barbie doll or a baby doll. Meet our pick: Clara

She looks just like a little girl!! Of course we had to pick the redhead :). The clothing sets are a bit pricey so  the evenings have been spent sewing and sewing and sewing ... doll outfits. A tennis dress, a sundress, 2 skirts that can be paired with the t-shirt and/or overshirt from this picture and a formal long skirt with matching top. I have to say it was fun to create those outfits. I hope our little one will have lots of fun with her new friend. 

3 letters 3 digits : HOT 105

Yes it's been that hot here today: 105F (that's  40.5 Celcius). That's when having centrail air conditioning is definitely a saving grace. Thankfully our air conditioning works like a charm. And so does the AC at work. 

Other than the scorching heat it was a good day. Our princess had so much fun at school and later at home that she crashed at 7:15 PM .. a whole 45 minutes before her regular bedtime. Work didn't suck and I finally finished the little dress for Juliet. I also decided to try to separate my "rant" blog from my creative blog. Drumroll.... 

Behold, the new hot address: 

Atelier Caroline

About the 4th

I believe she had a good time at the parade

Lollipops and pure fascination 

Our stay-home getaway

Unlike the regular routing, this year's 4th of July parade was held... on the 3rd. After the parade we had a nice family/friends barbeque at my hubby's aunt and uncle. As planned, our princess spent the night at their place and they all headed to Virginia to spend the day on a farm. Yay! Free time for mom and dad!

We were hoping to take off somewhere overnight. As it turns out, we couldn't find a last minute getaway but we still had a great time. First we had dinner at a cajun restaurant. Just the two of us. Our daughter is well behaved and we gladly take her along to the restaurant... however  it tends to kill the romantic side of things. Anyway nice dinner, great evening. Then this morning we did a spur of the moment thing. We are watching CBS' Sunday Morning show on TV while having breakfast. One of the topics this week was the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in DC. And we just decided to go. Just like that. So and hour later we are on our way to DC (Ok it's only a few miles away, but not an expedition we would undertake without planing if out little one had to come along). The exhibit was great, we plenty of time to enjoy it and check out other area of the the museum. And cherry on the cake, the Air Force Jazz band was playing in the museum's courtyard. Very cool. 

We headed back home before things went crazy with people heading to the fireworks. 

Back home we tidied up the house and had another nice dinner together on the back porch. Then it was back to reality. And the great feeling of those little arms around my neck.  I did miss my munchkin! 

Tomorrow is going to be a slow day. Shopping, cleaning, laundry all done already. If it's not too hot in the morning I might try to tackle some gardening. We'll see. 

Pea, strawberry and moojacks

You learn from your child everyday. I learn even more everyday as my child is growing up in a different country than I grew up in. You grow into a parent, a more patient, more open person. And then there is the added difficulty of my child language challenges. I learned that a "Happy to you" is plenty when "birthday" is in the heart. I learned that any red berry is a strawberry. I learned that peabutter contains peanuts and is spread on toast. I learned today that moojacks (wheat chex for you and I) are just the thing for breakfast. 

Today was a pretty good day at work. Everybody finally calmed down after the frantic activity to close fiscal year on June 30th. Everybody was on long holiday weekend mood. I wish people were this relaxed every week. I'm sure we would get just as much work done, and do it without a constant stress induced heartburn.

I also upgraded my iPhone (the software, not the phone) and I love the new features. Especially the apps groups. Yay for decluttering. Also love having a picture of my princess in the background all the time. 

And then, super weekend last minute bonus, tomorrow night our muchkin is spending the night (and the sunday) with her great aunt Joan. Desperately looking for a last minute overnight getaway for the hubby and I. Easier said than done on the eve of a holiday weekend!