Catching up AGAIN (I Blame Apple)

So I try to be pretty consistent with my blogging; it’s become a hobby and habit, which I love. However, every once in a while something goes awry, and I get backlogged on things to write about. This time, the “thing” that went awry was that the graphics card in our editing computer died. Womp, womp. One Genius Bar appointment and a week or so later, the ol’ gal was up and running, and now I’m swamped with images to post. So, here I go again, playing catch up in pictures. (If it drives you crazy to look at these super-long posts, don’t blame me. Blame Apple. ;) )

First of all, this happened. I was in the other room working on a project, when I noticed the girls were quiet. A little too quiet. I snuck back into the living room (i.e. playroom with a couch) and found this. And then I melted into the floor. I can’t wait until this is a common occurrence!

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Our time with Mr. Whale Tub (my favorite!) is quickly coming to a close because Cricket insists on being a big girl and sitting up everywhere, even in the bath. It’s a sad end to an era, and I’ll always remember my two littles, crammed into that tub. (Smelling each other’s feet apparently…)

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I’ve been super busy with design projects (graphic and hand-lettering), which I’ve been trying to photograph (when I manage to remember!). I’ll save them up for another post. On a related note, part of what happened over the past few weeks was that E.V. and Cricket added a new friend to their roster! Yay! Have you guys gotten into these BabyLit books yet?? We’re obsessed with them because they’re based on classic literature, have practical and simple application, are kid-friendly but have unique artistry, and are durable board-books. (We love them so much that Emma Vance has memorized a lot of them.) We couldn’t resist giving one to Baby Ginny with a quick note, since I’ve been scribbling a lot lately anyway!

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Emma Vance’s imagination has been running wild these days, and as her speaking gets clearer and clearer, it’s hilarious to hear the crazy things that run through her creative little mind. I don’t think we’ve officially entered the invisible friend stage yet (although she does have an imaginary tuba named “My Tuba” — true story), she has managed to make some quite odd “friends” — the most prominent of which is Sweep. Yes, my toddler’s best friend is a broom. A broom named Sweep. She asks for Sweep at nap time, dances with him during playtime, and wails when I inevitably say “no” when she wants Sweep to take a bath with her. Sigh. How many times can you say, “No, your broom cannot go in the tub with you. Sweep can’t get wet. Remember that will make him unable to clean up messes, which you know is his favorite thing to do…” before you realize that you sound absolutely insane?? :D

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I found these super cute, super expensive knit headbands on Instagram that I really wanted, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay for them (especially since my girls’ heads are so big and grow so fast!). E.V.’s namesake, my grandmother Mrs. Emma Vance, has always been a whiz at knitting and has made ear warmers for us before, so I sent the picture to her. She whipped up a few samples for us to test the width and sizing on the girls, and I’m in love with them! They’re even better than the ones on IG because they’re made with a great grandma’s love. (Plus they’re so small I think Mrs. Emma Vance is excited to finally have a purpose for all that left over yarn!) The minute I tried the samples on Cricket, I was in love with them. However, as is to be expected, Cricket was in love with her feet…and E.V. was in love with, well, with being the center of attention. 

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Mrs. Emma Vance also sent us these pink velour cat suits (yes, you read that right), complete with cat-eared hoods. I couldn’t stop laughing at how cute the girls were in them, probably because I was having flashbacks to “A Christmas Story.”

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Cricket has started crawling on her hands and knees recently, and is even trying to stand up on her own! (Nooooo! Make her slow down!) She loves for us to lay on the ground so she can pull herself up on us and then crawl over us. Although I’m so. not. ready. for her to be entering into this big girl phase, the upside is that we’re starting to have her wear shoes more and more for the fun of it, which is acutely ridiculous and ridiculously cute. Case in point: These awesome hand-me-down chucks from the girls’ friend, Ivy:

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We’ve been to pumpkin patches galore over the past few weeks, and it’s quickly become one of E.V.’s favorite activities. This past week was her preschool class’s turn to venture out to play with the church’s pumpkins, and she was SO excited to go. In fact, when I dropped her off at school, she ran away from the building and toward the patch…and then threw a fit when I tried to explain to her that we’d go later — at the end of class. (She wasn’t having it, and it took some major bribery to get her into school that morning.) When it finally was time to explore the pumpkin patch, Emma Vance was her adventurous self, having balancing contests with her classmates on anything they could find — old wooden planks, hay bales, pumpkins. (Oops. Sorry!) We attempted a class picture (like we do every year) and managed to get about half the kids to sit still. This, of course, was after E.V.’s buddy hugged her out of her seat (ha!), which wasn’t even technically “with” the class to begin with. #storyofmylife ;)

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Last week marked the end of the fall semester at The Music Class for Emma Vance. It was a costume-optional, Halloween-ish class to celebrate, so clearly E.V. insisted on dressing up as her favorite fairy, Tinker Bell. Of course, after much excitement about the outfit, she had a minor breakdown in the parking lot and wanted to ditch the itchy thing. But my love for Halloween eventually prevailed and she wore it to class — well, for most of class. ;) (Cricket, an unofficial student, wore a Halloween shirt from her Nanny.) We sang our favorite songs from the session, including “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,” which Emma Vance loves. I haven’t decided whether or not we’ll take the winter session off or not; I need a little break from toddler activities…but she loves it. So we’ll see which voice wins in the end. ;)

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Oh, and Cricket’s new hands-and-knees style of crawling has allowed her to explore Amityville even more than before. She even decided to try dog food…and liked it. Sigh. #likebigsisterlikelittlesister

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The good news? If you made it through that long post, we really are friends. Or you’re just super curious. ;) Either way, thank you!

The bad news? I’ve got a whole other card filled with pictures somewhere in my mess of a house. So, here’s to hoping that I get to do another catch-up post (which means I didn’t actually lose that card…yikes!).

2 Comments

  1. October 28, 2014 / 10:03 pm

    Spy Garden fully endorses converse; the Spy is a BIG, BIG fan of them! hahahhaha Feel you on the technology woes; my DSLR went kaput this week; had to order a new body because I wore out the on/off switch: lesson learned: let the camera battery die and just leave the camera “on” when in “shooting mode!” So EV is totally Baby’s future merri-mac bestie; but Cricket is pulling on my heartstrings and I want to play with her; Agghhhhh adorable!!!!

    • Talie Shove
      Author
      October 28, 2014 / 10:15 pm

      Oh, no! I’ll have to stop on/off-ing mine…eek! I can’t wait for them to go to Merri-Mac! One of The Music Class songs was “Red River Valley” and E.V. already knew it–with the MM words, of course. ;)

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