this and that from here and there

Assorted:

I'm probably late to this party, but spoonflower fabrics?  I can't stop staring at their stuff with allllll the heart-eye emojis.  It's a site where you can design your own fabric to be printed, or purchase any of the gorgeous fabrics already designed by talented users of the site -- and purchase any print in any type of fabric you want.  I'm dreaming of all the knits for making one hundred totally unnecessary baby clothes.  Can't do it, because they're a teensy bit pricy, but I can dream!  I'm particularly fond of this one at the moment.

How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning.  An interesting read, particularly for parents or educationally-minded folks.

The new Lily Jade navy blue diaper bag.  I've been eyeing bags from this company for a couple of years now.  They're diaper bags that don't look like diaper bags, so, win-win, am I right?!  And this newest release might have bumped my previous contenders for favorite out of the running.  Of course, fortunately for me and my ever-changing mind, I don't seem to be at any risk of affording an almost-two-hundred-dollar bag anytime soon, so I can just keep window shopping and dreaming.  Browser shopping?  Multiple-tab shopping?  What is the internet equivalent of window shopping, anyway?

I thought this post from a wonderfully witty blog, Preventing Grace, was quite good.  Marriage: Try to be a Nicer Person.  Maybe I just resonated with it in particular; I tend to have a "Where I come from, Bucko, you just stiff upper lip and carry on!" approach to illness that I don't think is Nathan's favorite quality of mine.  Aaaaand I just so happen to be laid up super sick in bed right now with the flu, and what do you know, but if that husband of mine isn't cheerfully taking care of our kids and being so nice?  He deserves an award.

And finally, for those of you not living it, this provides some good pictures of the kind of weather we've been dealing with here in the Boston area.  So so so fun.  Nell wanted to go build a snowman the other day, so we bundled her up, amidst my warnings to Nathan that it would take longer to get the kids dressed than the amount of time they would actually want to spend outside.  Mama knows!  Within thirty seconds Nell was wailing and Ree was gasping for air in the windy chill.  So, actually, not fun.  Maybe if we could have some nice temps in the 30's, and snow you could actually walk through?  That would be nice.

{Playing Catch-Up}: Ree at Eight Months

Aaaand skipping right over the very wonderful age of seven months, because her delinquent mother utterly forgot to take seven month pictures -- it was December, the month of craziness -- here is Miss Marie at eight months old, back in January.

She really, really wanted to crawl.  She was so close!  All day, every day, it was the Reach-Forward-Until-You-Belly-Flop-And-Cry-About-It routine.



And, as it turns out, it's hard to take pictures of babies who have a habit of constantly lunging forward.

You get the idea.

No glossing over the stark truth here: at eight months old, Ree was kind of what you might call a horrible sleeper.  And had been for a while.  Master of the 45 minute catnap, queen of the night wakings, she ruled the house with an iron fist.

Her big sister could sometimes be heard sighing and then saying, "You silly baby, you just won't sleep!"

Wonder where she heard that from?  I was just glad she was imitating the more cheerful of the phrases that got uttered around here when piercing screams were heard all-too-soon over the monitor time and time again.

Aside from not sleeping, her abilities expanded to include being able to pull herself up to a stand on any pair of adult hands she could find, with only the slightest bit of assistance.  She loved being in a standing position, the better to display the soft sweet chunkiness of her thighs, I presume.

And her vocal repertoire made prominent feature of adorable sounds like "Haaaaaaah" and "ahbaaaah."

Adored by her big sister, sung to frequently and loudly by the same, and occasionally mauled {with the best of intentions} until a parent intervened.

 Marie Aurelia, we love you so.

PS:

{Playing Catch-Up}: Ree at Six Months

I should really just give up, seeing as this girlie is nearly nine months old already and when we last discussed the little lady, she was five months.

No, no, I shall press onward!

Because look at that six month old smile:

I mean, really.

A chubster, to be sure, but our frame of reference is so skewed by how incredibly chubby Nell was that Ree seems downright petite to us.

Ree at six months old.  Sitting like a champ, toppling over occasionally, picking up anything and everything she wanted to.

Frequently, enthusiastically, and lovingly attacked by her big sister.

Not a fan of being on her tummy, and quick to roll right over to a more desired position.  Even quicker to fuss to be picked up.  Lover of being held, lover of tickles, lover of raspberries blown on her tummy.

No teeth, nary a one, and we couldn't possibly love that toothless mouth any more.