Blog Slacker

Hi, I'm Brittany, and I'm a blog slacker.

Lots going on around here, but not too much that has led me to blog about. Just regular life, I suppose.

Charlotte has been super cute and full of attitude lately. I should probably separate those two ideas. The attitude is not cute! She definitely has a flair for the dramatic, as demonstrated when she is told she can't have something or do something she wants: hands cover the face as she throws herself on the floor, couch, or whatever piece of furniture would work well for proving her point that she is dissatisfied. Seriously, where do they learn this stuff?

But she has also had lots of sweet, cute moments too and I will do my best to remember those instead of the dramatic attitude moments. She is talking a lot more now and has started repeating the sounds and words we say, even if she doesn't have a clue what they are.

Some of her favorites:
"I O Oooo" (I love you) and she likes to follow this with a "Daa Hee" (Daddy) or "Maa Hee" (Mommy) and she'll also throw in a "Mush" (so much).

"'Mon! Et's Doe!" (Come on! Let's go!)

"Pie Eee" or "Spice" (Potty). It started as "spice", not quite sure how that translated to potty, but that was her word for it. It has slowly changed to "pie eee", which is more recognizable as the actual word.

"Tee" (T.V. or videos). She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and would watch that show all day if I let her. When I tell her she's watched enough, she puts aside "Cute Charlotte" for the "Attitude Charlotte" and a tantrum ensues. ::sigh:: Oh the joys of parenting. She also loves watching home movies on the computer. Especially the ones that she is in. Especially the ones that she is dancing or giggling in. Narcissistic, much?

"Mimi" (Naomi). She loves to hug and kiss my belly, and especially loves giving my belly raspberries. If I tell her to give Naomi a hug or kiss, for some reason she feels the need to lift my shirt to do this. For this reason, I only encourage the hugging and kissing of Naomi at home.

"Baby"... Can you figure out what that one means? It's a toughie. She loves seeing babies, in person or in books. She's usually very gentle to her Cabbage Patch baby, but for some reason does not like for her to wear her socks or shoes. And yesterday, I picked up a double stroller that a friend from church graciously passed down to us, along with the car seat/carrier. I put the carrier in the seat next to Charlotte in the van and she was very excited and kept saying "Baby!". We went straight from my friend's house to my doctor's appointment, and she was very concerned that we were leaving the van with the carrier still in there. She kept pointing back saying, "Baby! Baby!" And as soon as we got back to the parking lot, she resumed her excitement about the "Baby" in the van.

So those are just a few Charlotte-isms as of late. She seems to have forgotten about the word "mine" for now, which I'm grateful for. One less battle.

In other news, I'm continuing to grow and expand and appear that I might burst at any moment. I have a plan for a post on how to talk to a pregnant woman, so if any of you ladies out there had people make comments to you about your size, please share so that I may include those. It'll sort of be a "What to say/What not to say" list.

I'm hoping to get enough accomplished in Naomi's room this weekend that will be worthy of a picture, so hopefully I'll have that to share by Sunday!

Charlotte's New Word

"Mine"

We think she picked it up from a friend at church. Anyone know how to unteach a word?

Beautiful Fall Wedding

This past weekend, Jared and I made a quick trip up to Connecticut for another Rollins wedding! His cousin, Rebekah, the daughter of John & Ruth, married Rob, her sweet beau, in a beautiful fall wedding. And it was the for real kind of fall. Not the fake fall that we're used to down here in Florida (the kind where the high will be in the 70s for a few days before it's back up in the 90s). Any wedding up there at this time of year would be nice, simply because of the weather and the area. The temperatures were perfect with highs in the 60s and the scenery was just beautiful! The leaves were changing colors to the brightest reds, yellows, and oranges I've ever seen. And I've never been to the New England area so it was neat to see the older houses amongst the rolling hills (in Florida those would be considered mountains:), and the quaint little towns with so much character. We were trying to think of a town to compare the area to, but there's just nothing around here that's really the same. Imagine something with the charm and history of a Savannah, Charlotte, Charleston, or St. Augustine, but throw in the postcard version of autumn, and subtract the humidity. Add in lots of quaintness (Jared was so sick of hearing me say the word "quaint" by the end of the weekend), and you've got yourself the Hartford, CT and surrounding small town areas.

Downtown Hartford


"I guess this road is a little bit nicer drive than Hwy 301." --Jared. Understatement of the year.


Where we got some snacks for Saturday night... the inside was not as quaint as the outside. It had the feel of an Asian grocery store :/


The chapel... like something from a postcard


The bride and her father


I love the back of her dress!


The best shot I have of the bride and groom's faces. You know how they say after many years, couples start to look alike? Well, they've started that early in their marriage because their features are so similar. They are the cutest and sweetest couple ever!


The lake at the park where they had the reception. They had their first dance out on the dock. The picture really does not do the colors of the leaves justice!


Our rental car, a Chevy Aveo. According to Jared, "the most powerful go-cart I've ever driven." Lucky for me, I'm still under the age for being able to drive without having to pay an outlandish fee, so whenever we travel and need to rent a car, Jared is stuck driving.


With all of my raving over CT, I must also say that I realize the picture-perfectness lasts for about a month out of the year. I heard that it's supposed to snow there in two weeks... living in that would be fun for the first day. After that, get me back to Florida!

ABCs

Sneak Peek!

Here's a little sneak peek at what I've been working on for the past couple days. I call it a "sneak peek" but it's really a "this is all that's finished peek".




It's the crib bumper for Naomi's room! Yesterday afternoon I was able to get the material cut and most of the ties completed. I finished them up this morning, along with the piping for the top (the first time I've ever done this-- not as complicated as I expected it to be), and this afternoon I pieced, pinned, and sewed the one side of the bumper shown. As with most of my sewing projects, it started out slow, but the pace should pick up a little as I figure things out and get into a rhythm.

I'm copying the look of some bumpers I've seen online, but am doing it without a pattern so I'm sort of learning as I go. It will be far from perfect but I'm pleased with how the first quarter of the project has turned out. I love all things toile and am excited to finally have it somewhere in our house! The interior of the bumper is a soft ivory minky fabric. The theme of the room is going to be the "Fruits of the Spirit". I'll do some sort of painting with fruit on it and frame some of the fruits listed in Galatians 5. That's the plan anyways. What we don't yet have a plan for is the color of the walls. Right now they're the awful builder beige. Any and all suggestions are appreciated! Should we add a chair rail? One color on the bottom, a different on top? What do you think?

Celebrating Naomi

This past Saturday, my best friend, Shannon, threw a baby shower for me and Naomi at her mom's (Mrs. Nancy) house in Keystone! It was a sweet time with family and close friends who I don't get to see often enough from our old church. Naomi racked up with some adorable outfits, lots of diapers, and some cute baby accessories, including some of the cutest homemade burp cloths you've ever seen (thanks to Mrs. Martha, Shannon's grandmother)!

Shannon and Mrs. Nancy planned a great shower for Charlotte two years ago, but unfortunately we weren't able to make it. Charlotte decided to make her appearance into this world three weeks early so the Sunday morning she was born, Shannon was spreading word to all the ladies in the church that the shower was cancelled on account of me being in labor :)

I know some people think it's tacky to have a baby shower for any child that's not the first, but a friend of mine made a good point to me: Every child deserves to be celebrated! That doesn't mean that I think every child needs a baby shower and I am in no way asking for one for any and all future children of ours, but every child is a gift from God. Every birth should be anxiously anticipated and recognized for the special blessing it is. That's my two cents. **Steps off soap box**

Here's the one decent photo of me from my camera that I approve for blog publication. Apparently, I cannot make an "aww" face without looking like I am trying to pass gas.


But the fun didn't end when the shower ended. Oh no, that would be too easy. When I went to pull the van around to load up all the gifts, I realized it was driving a little funny. I guess it does that when you have a flat tire. It took six of us ladies who were still there, but we managed to get the tire changed (thankfully I had a spare)! Most of the work was actually done by Lacey, the daughter of a friend of the family's. The youngest of us all. She's still in high school and totally whooped us all in the tire-changing department. I'm very grateful the tire went flat when it did and not while I was driving. It was in bad shape- threads sticking out and all. If I had been driving, I'm sure it would have blown rather than just go flat and I can only imagine the damage that could have been done. But God was looking out for me and I was able to get to Tire Kingdom in Middleburg and get four new tires. And a new brake line. And a new something else. I think the guy also said something about taking care of the unicorns jumping around in the engine. Half a million dollars and about three hours later, I was finally headed home!