writing sideways

Pearce has been doing the funniest thing lately. She's big into hunting for pens, pencils and crayons everywhere, including purses, diaper bags, closets, drawers, cubbies, etc. She is getting better at actually writing on paper (including checkbooks, receipts, pattern pieces and sometimes coloring books). And she almost always immediately drops down flat on her belly to start drawing/coloring. And then starts squirming. And just yesterday I saw her starting to twist sideways while still drawing. Cracks me up!!

18 months

I woke up this morning singing any combination of a birthday song I could think of and adding "half" in there. 

This is what she did when I said, "smile! say cheese!" very busy playing with her bag of ponies.

Onto play outside. Still loves all the many big and small rocks in the driveway.

and also a happy happy REAL birthday to Uncle DohDoh, Freddie! 

home salon

there is a first for everything, and this was my first time with this:

But apparently, new to me, Jeremy has experience with this! I brought home this box from the grocery and I was reading the instructions, and he said "I know what to do, I did this all the time in college." Wow. Who knew!! He experimented with all sorts of colors in the past. lol. But i'm glad he was around to help, because I would have been in over my head starting this by myself. He applied all the color, and even put on his own rubber gloves. It was quite the sight. We both at different times got a laugh out of the situation. He was a HUGE help. I started getting nervous while waiting for the color to process for the 30 minutes, because it started to look SOOOO dark!! I kinda freaked out a bit, and washed about 10 minutes early. I really like the color, but it will take some getting use to -- it's sooo different!! Meanwhile, Pearce has slept through this whole ordeal, I wonder if she is gonna act weird when I get her from her nap!

And just for kicks, here are some pics. Thanks, Jeremy!

My hair looks a little lighter in these photos because of the natural light coming in through window I'm standing next too, I actually wish it was a little lighter like this. But hopefully it will fade some.

And I can never end a post without a Pearce picture, because let's face it I have 100s of them. Yesterday, she got into one of the drawers that had leftover candy from Easter! And immediately started peeling away at this chocolate bunny and saying "bunny". I let her lick bite for a little bit, but then we tossed it.

It's funny Freddie made the comment about her "2 left feet", cuz know I notice she does this foot twist thing a lot.

nursery and other ramblings...

I taught the YW lesson today, so I needed to sneak Pearce into nursery. It will be official for next Sunday since she turns 18 months on Wednesday, but the Nursery leader has been so nice to let me bring her in the last hour a couple times over the summer. There is only one other little girl, Audrey, who Pearce LOVES. Whenever I tell her she is gonna go to nursery, all she says is "Aw-dwee! Aw-dwee! Aw-dwee!"

My lesson ended about 10 minutes early, (no surprise there! How on earth can you teach a lesson to two people for a full hour??) so I went to get Pearce, and they were all in the primary room sitting on chairs and signing songs. I watched from the back door, and my heart just MELTED. She didn't sit down the whole time, rather it was up and all around, standing next to the other kids in their seats, then right back to her seat, and repeat. Part of the time she was rocking back and forth in her chair while the kids sang. She was smiling so big, and happy as a clam. And it hit me. She is growing up. She is a little girl now.

We drove to Mercer Island on Friday for her 18 month check-up, and made a girl's day out of it. Now that she is a little older, she is a fun little buddy to go shopping with and run errands with. Granted for a limited amount of time, but still, a fun little buddy. We fooyayed at the U Village outdoor mall, lunched, and shopped til we (Pearce) dropped.

Doc said all is looking good, she got 3 shots, and still has a large bump on her thigh that will hopefully go away soon. She loved the fish tanks, coloring stations and all the toys in the waiting room. I had this same pic on Facebook, and my lil bro commented "2 left feet???" I got a good laugh at that.

ok, so i feel like a fish out of water, cuz i wanted to put the next two pics side-by-side, but when we upgraded our operating system on the iMac a couple months ago, it wiped away our old-school Photoshop CS1, and I have no idea how to do that without psd. so i'm sad it's gone. And my 30-day free trial of CS5 was up a week ago. :-( And I can't justify paying the $200 for only using the program to put photos-side-by-side. hahahahaha. oh, and the occasional new blog header. i'll just have to recycle some old ones, b/c i have major blogger ADD. I digress...

I think Pearce looks like me in this next picture. So the one after it is of me when i was somewhere around that age. Do you agree?? Sisters, where you at?

And speaking of sisters, my sis Jess just updated her blog, and her kids are hilarious. I got a good laugh at her latest post. 

dump day

Ever wondered what the dump looks like? Well, here it is, in all it's glory. ;-) Saturday was that time of the month... and we have made it into a little family outing now, so we can get some free Dairy Queen for Pea. Me and Pearce tagged along last month for the first time, because I was curious to see what this dump thing was like. And now I know. You stop at the front station - they weigh your truck - you pull up to this big dumping area - back your truck in - and start dumping - with gloves preferably. Then you drive back out to the entry/exit station - they re-weigh your truck to determine the TONS you've unloaded - and you pay accordingly. (about $9-10, in case you're interested...hahaha). And when you have a little one in the car with you, they hand you a DQ token for a free cone or dilly bar. SCORE!

Before heading to the dump, Jeremy had to do a little work on the truck. He was ready to get rid of all the stinky in the back of the truck, mostly because he's been itching to drive around the (new) old ford truck without junk in it, because he just put in a new carburetor. It's tit-for-tat over here... every trip to NAPA, means some new fabric in my stash. I finally just ordered some of Sarah Jane's Children at Play with a big sale at fabric.com. I'm so excited to get it in the mail and finally see it in person!!

My little girl.

Pearce has been on BRAT diet for a week now. (TMI?? sorry). But it's been a hard couple weeks with several sleepless nights, and plenty un-napping days. Not sure if it's teething related or bug related.  It's a good thing she is SUCH a SWEET little girl (and I mean, like, the sweetest little girl on the planet!) and I love her to pieces, because if this was some other random child, it would be extremely difficult.)



I did a couple new blocks for my quilting bee this am, and it MELTS MY HEART how much she wants to do everything like mommy. She is right by my side all day long. Needed to be in the Bee Block pictures. Wanted to help cut the fabric. Wanted to touch every button on the sewing machine. Had to play with all the fabric. Yup, she's my little girl.