Crash

As of a couple months ago, we've got a walker! Our boy was in no rush to get on his two feet, but he's making up for lost time and is all over the place these days. During one of his first, longer jaunts a couple months ago, this happened.



Poor kid! I'm not one for parading your children's embarrassing videos online for the world to see, but I felt like this was too funny to keep to myself. After a few tears, he was right back up, walking, and trying to find and play with the furry offender.

Marshall is my brother and sister-in-law's puppy and he and Sawyer are becoming fast friends, despite their run-ins. Sweet little guy!

Anchors Away!

We've been the benevolent recipients of our friends Bruce and Carol's hospitality over the last several years. They've got a boat. A nice big sailboat. Moored in Monroe Harbor, right smack dab on the Lakefront downtown across from Millennium Park!

Captain Bruce and his lovely first mate brought us out into the lake where there was swimming, competitive diving, and general merriment. I could get used to a life of leisure.

Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee

My quilting bee's book is hot off the press and available for ordering! Thanks to the top-notch Chicago postal service, I've finally received my books, only two months after I should have. I beg to differ with their supposed creed: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

Moving on. About a year and a half ago, my virtual quilting bee got a book deal and signed our lives away. I'm thrilled to be a contributor to the book.

September was my month and I asked my fellow quilters to do an "Uneven Coin Block." I chose a light brown background and provided an array of pastelly blues and greens for them to make the uneven coins. To me, they look like books in a library, piled high and waiting to be read.

As if having a published book about quilting wasn't enough, the one and only Denyse Schmidt, one of the truest queens of quilting and fabric design, wrote the foreword! Be still my heart!

Two of my favorites are Jaquie's "Dresden Plate Block" (July) and Elizabeth's "Wonky Stripe Block" (November). If you've ever attempted a Dresden plate, it'll really kick your butt to the curb. I can't even imagine doing an entire Dresden quilt on my own...but that's one of the joys of the quilting bee...you can learn new techniques and promptly move on if you don't care for the work involved with them!

You can order your copy of the book here!

I Scream, You Scream!

I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. I mean, I'll certainly enjoy a scoop if one is offered to me, but I don't stock it in my freezer. Don't get me wrong, I've got my vices when it comes to food, but ice cream just isn't one of them. I don't crave it. I don't bask in it's goodness.

Last week I realized that because of my disinterest though, I've unintentionally kept my sweet child from exploring his potential love-affair with it. Oops! My mom was in town and was trying to think of a date she could go on with the little guy and suggested Dairy Queen, so I encouraged the trip. Evidently he was a fan, so TK and I went again with him this past weekend.

Sawyer got a twist and I got vanilla with sprinkles. I AM a huge fan of rainbow sprinkles. Huge fan. I shared and let him take a handful. Chicago has been brutal this summer, so it was nice to actually get outside and enjoy a tolerable temperature!

Bittersweet

When I imagined Sawy Boy as a toddler, I envisioned locks of hair, wildly flying with the wind and falling in a carefree, just-so manner. Picture Lord of the Flies.

Not the case. For better or worse, the poor kid has been cursed with the genes of his parents, both of which have boring, straight, lifeless hair. In my efforts to avoid a haircut to see if this is "just a stage," I fear I've allowed to grow what's turning out to be an unfortunate mullet.

Against my hopes, we had to break down and just cut it. I mourn the day because I thought we wouldn't cut his hair until it was longer, but you've got to know when you're beat. I even put a bobby-pin in it pre-haircut since it was getting in his way and he couldn't see I wanted to know what it felt like to put a barrette in your baby's hair.

TK refused to pay someone any money for something he believed he could do. And he was right... we put a video on the computer, and daddy got to work, snipping and pruning my little baby's precious locks.

Sweet little love! A big-boy haircut was the nail in the coffin that my boy is really growing up before my eyes. He's become so independent, capable, and lively over the last couple months, and now he's starting to look the part of a legitimate toddler.

Bittersweet.