Little Ellie is 2!

One of my favorite things about 

doing family photography is watching families grow.

The last time I photographed this sweet family

was when Ellie was still in her momma's belly.

Now she's turning 2! And momma's about to pop with a baby boy!

Here is a little peek at a few of my favorites from our very hot 

Snook Island morning session.

Project 52

I love watching your brain work.

You love to take things apart to see how they work, 

and you always put them right back together.

Thankful Thursday: Boys with Brushes

Today's Thankful Thursday has no cute quote reminding us that we should show gratitude or try to be better human beings....it's simply one single thing that happened today that deserves recognition and praise.

As I was sitting on the sofa this afternoon, somewhere between my crazy caffeine buzz wearing off and talking myself into a shower, I was confronted by the boy. With a brush.  Raised up over his head. Honestly my knee jerk reaction was to protect my face (since every object in our house has become some sort of ninja weapon lately).  But much to my surprise, there was no "HIIIII YA!" or black eye (and yes...I actually flinched), rather there was a sweet little voice asking if he could brush my hair.

I quickly agreed and sat down on the floor under his little feet that dangled off the side of the couch.  At first, I anxiously anticipated every stroke, expecting a smack or a snag to really rattle me.  Then once I realized that he genuinely just wanted to brush my hair, I started to ponder.... why?  All I could come up with was this: he was embarrassed by what the fuck ever was happening on my head....did I mention that it was before my shower, around 1pm....use your imagination! ha!

After a while I was able to just sit.  I wasn't scared he was going to hurt me, and I had come to grips with the fact that he was going to judge me for the rest of my life.  So I let it all go and just enjoyed it.  Each sweet, sensitive stroke of the brush relaxed me just a little more.  It brought me back to a time when I used to bribe my little sisters for back rubs....there is just something about those tiny people hands!

My grooming session only lasted for about 10 minutes.  But I was thankful for every millisecond of it! And I will make sure that it happens again!

Joys of Parenting: (Super)Hero

This morning I was shaken from an almost perfect nights sleep by a little boy foot drop kick to the face! Rise and shine! All of us piled on top of each other.  Trying to regulate a grouchy dog, a grouchy mom, a grouchy dad, and a wide awake toddler has become sort of a regular morning routine.  So I started with the bribes and threats.  I was trying to buy myself just five more minutes, when my little monster informed me that he had a tummy ache.  "Mom, my tummy hurts so bad because I am so hungry." says the boy.

So as the guilt hit me like a ton of bricks at the realization that maybe I hadn't fed him enough the night before, I pried myself from my cozy nest of pillows and blankets to make him something to eat.  Like a zombie I dragged myself to the kitchen, wondering why the sun wasn't up yet.  I threw some frozen pancakes into the toaster oven and proceeded to the coffee (which I always manage to mess up when I am that tired). Ding. Now I had pancakes and strawberries on the table, coffee grounds on the floor, and my eyes still closed.

Breakfast ended after three half eaten bites.  Three. That was all.  Then I was informed that he was too full.  I wanted to scream! But settled for cartoons and coffee that was too hot to drink.  As we sat there snuggled on the sofa, the bot turned up and looked at me and said: "Mom, you are my hero!"

I was in disbelief. His hero? What did I do? So I asked him.  Well turns out that hero keep people from starving to death! So there it was.  I stood there over my next steaming cup of coffee, donning my imaginary tights and cape, saving the universe at 6am....one half eaten pancake at a time.

thankful thursday

(source)

"life is full of little pleasures", and playing in the rain is one of my new favorites.

i was so excited for our zoo playdate that i decided that some rain clouds were not going to stop me from attempting a super fun day with the boy and the burton girls. we got to the zoo and within the first few moments of being there the sky opened up and really gave it to us! i mean we didn't even make it in the front entry way...soaked.

mind you we were meeting up with brenda and her three girls.  this thankful thursday is truly dedicated to her.  let me just give you a mental image here... twin 3 year olds, an increasingly independent 16 month old, brenda - hair done and looking adorable as usual...oh and did i that she's 31 weeks pregnant?  anyone else would have bowed out from this playdate as soon as the rain started falling. but nope, not this woman. we ran for cover and the kids splash and ran in the rain until they were covered in goose bumps and shivering.  she so effortlessly and gracefully stuck it out to ensure that her kids were having an amazing time. (i think she had fun too!)

when there was a break in the rain we made a dash for the covered picnic area and changed into dry-ish clothes and ate some lunch.  all in all the day was full of laughs, purple lipped toddlers, and hot chocolate.

so what is it that i am thankful for here? simple. i am so thankful that i have friends in my life that are so willing to roll with the punches.  there are great moments in the day that can unfold if you are willing to stick it out through the rain.

spin me right round baby....

a letter to the boy,

there are days that you 

make my head spin.

but i still love you

more than anything.

love me.

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. the hubs was out of town for work early in the week, which is always such a bummer. usually i sulk and whine while he's away just wishing that he was home. i am usually bored out of my mind. but the past few times that he's had to go i have taken it upon myself to enjoy my night. i do all kinds of super girly things. you know like before we were married and i would have ben and jerry/americas next top model marathons. well, my habits of "me time" havn't changed that much, i still love stuffing my face full of ice cream and watching mindless t.v. (except now it's marathons of storage wars) what's wrong with me?
2. the boy has started the "why's". everything i say if followed by his sweet little "why?". while i have already gotten a little tired of the question it is really cool to see his little brain trying to work. i made a pact with myself that i wasn't going to blow these questions off as annoying, or give the "because i said so" answer. he's been asking some tough ones and i honestly think that some times he just gives up because he doesn't understand the encyclopedia explanation that i am giving him, but sometimes you can tell that he's totally piecing things together and really truly understanding.
3. i have been feeling super inspired this week. i feel like everything that i see i am taking in like a sponge and these miny story boards are forming together in my head. i feel like my brain is full of really beautiful ideas and images and words. at the park i am seeing sticks that look like dinosaurs, and standing in front of a wall full of hardware i am seeing really beautiful jewelry. it's funny how the brain works.
4. i came to two really awesome realizations this week. well one really awesome and one pretty sad. the awesome one was finally figuring out what i was going to do with my blue and white polka dot dress. i couldn't be happier with the results. and the other was that what i thought i had figured out to alter my favorite dress (that i have never been able to wear) was absolutely not going to work. it was really sad to have to face the facts: i am never to going to be able to wear this dress. wah.
5. the hubs is opening a new restaurant on monday and the past week was full of training and soft opening events. the boy and i made the journey south to eat some delicious tacos and check out the new spot! it was so much fun and so yummy! we even got to see my best friend and some old friends. it was a perfect date night with the boy.
6. i took the boy to the fair on friday night with some of our friends. i didn't go to the fair much as a kid, not that i really remember any way, and none like this. the south florida fair is by far the biggest i have ever seen. it was so awesome seeing the look on his face as we walked across the fair grounds checking out all the sights and smells. it was an evening i will never forget.
7. my mom and brother and sister came into town for the weekend. it was great spending time with them and so awesome to see my brother and sister finally acting like normal people and getting along!
8. my brother and i did some volunteering for habitat for humanity on saturday. it was so much fun. i love volunteering with that organization. you get to meet some really amazing people and learn some amazing new skills at the same time. i now know how to hang dry wall like a pro!
9. i got the most amazing surprise in the mail this week from my friend kelly. first off i have to say that i love nothing more than unexpected packages! and this one was a double whammy because it included on of my other favorite things in the world....homemade pickles. i can't wait to dig into them....i am waiting for the perfect occasion (ohh....maybe tonight with slow cooked ribs! mmmmm!). the box also contained some goodies for the boy and a jar of homemade sweet corn relish that i want to eat with a spoon!
10. this has been the week of bike rides. the weather has been perfect for toting the boy to the park in the bicycle. this is quickly becoming one of our favorite pass times! he finally has the patience to sit for the entire time and has really gotten into making up stories about what we are seeing along the way. i sure do love that boys crazy imagination.

joys of parenting: that boy is hangry

urban dictionary defines hangry as the state of being so hungry that it causes you to become angry, frustrated, or in some cases....both. while i don't always go to urban dictionary for an accurate account of a word.....this one is spot on.

the boy is growing. and fast! i have been using this word, "hangry", to describe the way he's been acting lately. have you ever seen a really well behaved boy turn monster in the blink of an eye? hangry! have you ever seen a boy tell his mommy that he loves her so much right before taking a chomp at her arm? hangry! how about a full on melt down cured by a pbj? hangry! the boy has a case of the hangries.

now, i want to clear one thing up....i am not starving my child! he eats. at this point i am positive that he eats more than i do.  he eats at least half of our grocery bill. the problem is that he's a snacker. he would rather sit on the couch with a bowl full of snacks than sit at the table and eat a five corse meal. and he's not getting the proper fulfillment from all this snacking. i am also well aware that we (me and the hubs) are the source of this snack attack problem. we too are snackers. we come from a long line of snackers....but the empty snacking is stoping here! starting today! the boy started the morning with a nice breakfast, followed by a snack at the park of watermelon, apples, and peas....then he ate an enormous lunch and has quietly settled down for a nap. we have had a full belly all day and no freak outs or melt downs! none. not one. so far my theory is correct and working.

i am feeling the need to interject another disclaimer here....i know that this is no new information. as a matter of fact i am sure that there are plenty of moms reading this thinking "no shit....feed your kid healthy food." that's a no brainer. and we do. in general, he's an amazing eater. he loves veggies and fruits and meats. he eats a very balanced, adventurous, and well rounded diet for a boy his age.  he just had his order backwards....snacking before meals instead of after them.

so in the endless journey of trying to find peace and balance with a two and a half year old, i will try just about anything....and this time around it's finding the cure for the case of the hangries.

joys of parenting: the boy

the boy: 

"i want a super hero beard like daddy" 

[as he smears his face with plaster of paris]

you may not get to wear fancy clothes.

but there is a fantasticlly imaginative game of 

"shark rescue super hero" 

that takes place in a mountain of bubbles.

by the end of the day your glasses are covered 

in yogurt finger prints and squishy nose smudge marks. 

your favorite shirt is now the canvas 

for an art project gone silly. 

plaster of pairs covers 

more than one surface in more than one room,

[and more than one person] 

and your lucky if you get a shower.

i wouldn't trade any of the mess.

greatness lies in the eye of the beholder.

[for you are you and i am i]

joys of parenting: butt snot

the amount of shit you put up with as the mother of a two year old boy is never discussed before you decide to have children. and i mean that in the poopiest! messiest! grossest! way possible. that is your warning! if you don't want to have an open conversation about the shitings of a two year old.....i'll see you later.

potty training is going pretty well. we've been at it now for about 2 months. we have had minimal public accidents. we need to replace only one carpet in the house. and he's pooped in the can....um once. every other single poop has been an "accident".....a really flippin' gross accident. let me tell you how hard it is to pry turd filled underpants off a kid that can't stand still. it really brings a whole new meaning to skid marks. and i am not going to lie....there have been a hand full that we've just looked at and said: "f@$% no i am not cleaning that out"....trashed. also i feel the need to share the face that my favorite kind of poop accident is the "naked drop" (our house is 95% tarrazzo floors...so it's a quick and easily sanitized clean up).  everybody poops.....so as a reasonably intelligent adult, i knew that when in the process of potty training, well, i was going to have to clean shit up along the way.

but what no body tells you about is what happens when you have non-healthy poops.  for the past two weeks the boy has had a mysterious and might i add random butt snot issue. i don't want to freak anyone out....he's doing fine. the doctor is leaning more towards some kind of allergy because he was never really sick. and since starting him on a kids probiotic, things are really starting to shape up.....literally. what is my gut telling me? well the boy has been in daycare now for just a bit over a month....i think that all the crap that they feed them at school is tearing his tummy up.  the daycare offers a state funded meal plan. so they feed him breakfast, lunch, and a snack. the day we had to pick him up early from school for having too much butt snot, he was being fed fritos and pineapple chunks.  that was the state issued snack? wtf? wtf on so many levels! i have since convinced the boys doctor to write a note to his school saying that i will be providing his meals so that we can monitor that crap that is being introduced to him.

i try to feed my family fairly healthy....i wouldn't say that i am a nut about it. i love more than anyone in this house our rapidly growing tradition of saturday pizza night. hell, as i am writing this i am eating a plater of fried spicy cheese balls (that's what she said) for dinner.  but i have never really been one to expose the boy to a lot of crap food. really because i believe that he loves real food too much to ruin it for him. i will gladly pack that boys lunch for the rest of his life. i feel so terrible for his little tummy. i mean really take yourself there....shit your brains out the house a bag of fritos and the eat your share of pineapple....tell me how that works out for you.

shit happens. a whole lot of it. and it's going to get on things. it will for sure get under your nails at some point. you will smell it on something or someone for way to long before you realized it's smeared on your very own arm. hey sometimes the dog even  eats it. but once the stink wears off there is the sweetest little boy who has me wrapped around his finger. i will shovel his shit and make his lunch for the rest of his life if he wants me to.

joys of parenting: uh oh.

never ask a two year old to...

...get you a towel from the bathroom.

this is how my 2 year old gets down...

erin trumble photography: the burton's

DIY: toddler pj pants

yesterday the hubs brought me this pile:

a stack of old boxers that have been buried away at the bottom of his under ware drawer. never warn. as he explains, "they are too skinny, someone made them wrong."

since i have been on such a up-cycling clothing mood lately, all i could think was i could make these into pj's for the boy. this is such an easy alteration. it literally took 5 minutes to convert one pair.

here is a little updated picture of the boy in his new pj's

rainy day on our beach vaca

joys of parenting: poop mittens

this morning my sweet little boy let us sleep in until 8 o'clock, which was greatly appreciated since he usually is ready to start his day at 6:30. Well technically he was awake before 8, but he was playing so quietly in his room that the hubs and i decided to just let him be and enjoy just a few more minutes of snuggle time.

after a few minutes of snuggling, starting the coffee, and letting the dog out i decided it was time to get that little monkey and start our day.

upon opening ash's bedroom door i was first taken aback by the giant mess that he made. there were toys, books, diapers, and wipes strewn about his room.

as i made my way into the giant mess it hit me like a brick in the face, a really stinky brick in the face. POOP!

now i am not talking about a little dirty diaper here. i am talking about the overwhelming smell of poop.

as i got further into his room he jumped out of bed to show me the cause of stink. let's start with his hands. my son was wearing poop mittens. there was poop under his nails, in between his fingers, and clear up to his wrists. in sheer panic i raced ash to the bathroom and quickly de-pooped his hands. i scrubbed them and then covered them in hand sanitizer. let me just interject here that i am not usually the squeamish one in the family when in comes to bodily excrement. but i was totally freaked out by this whole situation.

after sanitizing the child, he pointed out to me that there was a pile of poop hiding out next to his book shelf. now i don't pride myself of my detective skills, but i just can't wrap my head around how all of this happened!

i figured the pile of poop wasn't going anywhere, so i decided to tackle the source of the issue. ash's butt was next on the cleaning list.

by this point the dog and the hubs had joined us in the poop cave. all the commotion was drawing a crowd. but it was a much needed extra pair of hands. plus the hubs super sensitive gag reflex provided an extra source of entertainment. as if all the inappropriate poop jokes were not enough. as we started discussing the literal "shit everywhere", we found more. poop smears on the door, on the drum set, oh and check out the pile over there......where did it go?

yeah that's right the poop pile was gone. and so was the dog.

moral of the story. shit happens. and sometimes the dog looks guilty. gross.

needless to say, i spent the following hours avoiding the dog.

The Silver Lining

I have always taken a lot of pride in being able to find the "silver lining" in maybe not so great situations. I tend to be a glass half full kinda gal, and really like that about myself. But there are times that my optimism is challenged. Is there always a silver lining?

Today's events went something like this:

• Woke up this morning in a terrible mood feeling like doo.
• Started a load of laundry and quickly set out to burn some of my one year old energy.
• After a few hours at the pool, we returned home to find that there was about an inch and a half of water on the kitchen floor.
• After the immediate shock wore off, the panic set in.
• It's Friday and I need a repair person NOW (not sometime next week between 8am and 8pm) NOW!
• Call repair person in panic, there is something wrong! It must be the refrigerator.
• Pace. Pace. Pace.
• Discover that the water is not coming from the refrigerator, in fact it is coming from the laundry room.
• (side note: our washing machine drains into a utility sink)
• There is a towel in the utility sink, therefore blocking the drain.
• Light bulb.
• All of this water came from the washing machine/utility sink. AHHHHHHHHHHH.
• I have secretly feared this day since we moved in to this house.
• This also explains the suds and glorious smell of clean laundry.
• So about two hours goes by of sopping up the water.
• Obviously this answered the question of if i was going to mop the floor today. Yes.
• I mop.

So why all the rambling on and where is the silver lining?
I'll tell you where.....
The "pre-soak" that the kitchen floor got made for one really clean kitchen floor. I am not sure that it has ever been so clean. Even under the appliances. That is one super clean kitchen floor.

the little man

All week long while I was supposed to be focused on relaxing and finding a house (that sound's like an impossible combo!), all I could really focus on was how big my little man is getting! Where has the past year gone?