After a lot of reverse scooting, rolling, or just plain giving up, Violet has finally started crawling on all fours. She still needs a lot of practice, but I think Violet will be getting speeding tickets by the end of the week. As long as there are pieces of paper or microscopic specs to pick up, Violet will work her way across a room to get them.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKHI97-1VCI

In other news, Violet and Sadie are the best of friends. Or shall I say that Sadie will tolerate being pulled and poked by yet another small child?

Finally! We had an awesome weekend full of SUN and WARMTH. The girls spent just about every waking moment outside with friends, and Mike was happy to just tinker with the garden all weekend. As a way to take advantage of the nice weather (especially before it disappears again) we went on a family bike ride. It’s the first for the season, and the first bike ride ever for Violet. She was pretty meh about the whole experience, but she looked like she had a nice time. We took to the bike trail and rode a total of about 4 miles. The girls both crashed, but they managed to ride back without much drama or tears. Mimi was promised a band-aid once we got home, so that was enough to curb her turmoil. Annie put one of Violet’s leg warmers on her arm to look like a cast, and that satisfied her need for the dramatics. All is good.

Gettin’ ready for the ride. As you can see Mimi has a hard time bottling up her excitement.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX0-tgfh9o8

I don’t know if it’s the nicer weather or what, but I have been full of enough energy and inspiration lately to dust off the sewing machine and get some projects going again. The ruffly leggings are really a new favorite of mine, so I made some more. This time the fabric choice made the leggings look a bit clownish. Ok, they are very clownish, but I think cute, little girls can pull off such a look. I had to laugh when I thought about myself or any other adult dare trying to wear such an ensemble and immediately thought of the Brady Brunch.

The girls had a lot of fun trying them out.

I probably wouldn’t be voted the best parent in the world for giving Violet a whistle, but look at what she did with it. Go figure, she seems to have determined the actual purpose of a whistle.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9grUCRAQcEs

This winter has been overwhelming with so many unplanned events, so I have had to put off the numerous sewing projects I’ve wished to do for so long. I do have a couple of jackets that are partly done, but I got intimidated and have put them on the back burner. As a way to make myself feel better, I decided to pick a quick and easy project to make. The Matilda Jane clothing that I’ve purchased in the past for the girls has such a fun style but also seems to quite simple to reproduce. Those clothes are too expensive to completely wardrobe my daughters with, so I thought I’d try to make a few items for them for a much cheaper price. I actually did make some MJ-inspired dresses for Annie and Mimi last fall, but I failed in my duties to photograph them for the blog. The next time they wear them I do promise to capture it on digital film.

In the meantime, I did complete another project for the girls. I made them ruffly leggings (again influenced by MJ designs). The leggings ended up being fairly simple to make after I overcame a few sewing-with-knits-for-the-first-time headaches. Unfortunately, the consumer fabric world doesn’t make many cute, knit fabrics suitable for leggings available to the general public. I had to settle from little selection, but the girls were still thrilled. At least Annie was; Mimi is a whole different story. She is apparently anti-leggings and is currently in talks to spearhead the “Coalition Against Leggings” (otherwise known as CAL).

Mike’s work had its annual Cubs’ game trip this past week. Of course, the girls wanted to join in the fun. It was was quite cold though, and I didn’t quite dress them warm enough. I was hoping it would somehow magically be like last year where it was warm enough to wear dresses. So we had to improvise with other layers such as a blanket, poncho and camouflage jacket. The rain stayed away long enough for us to enjoy the game. It was quite a game, too, with the Cubs winning against the Florida Marlins by 1 point.

Here we are. Vi took a nap for a bit, and Mimi had apparently took some Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde tonic which caused her quite a facial expression.

Annie made a sign to help root for the Cubs. She was very proud of it and had made it days in advance.

The next few pictures are courtesy of Annie.
Violet.

Mimi.

The game.

While waiting for the bus after the game several groups of these “drummers” came out for entertainment. This guy definitely figured out way to garner some attention by bringing his cute, little son.

Annie and Mimi were intrigued by them and watched the entire time.

We had a lot of fun despite the cold. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do this one more time before Mike is no longer stationed at Great Lakes. Such a sad thought.

Yesterday was Vi’s official natal equinox. What is a natal equinox, you ask? You’d have to ask Mike because he was the one who coined the term meaning being out in the world for the same time you were in the womb. That means Vi is a bona fide 9-month-old. I haven’t taken her in for her check-up yet, but her unscheduled doctor’s visit last week revealed that she weighs about 18 pounds which puts her right around the 50th percentile. I’ll have more stats next week after her official appointment. Poor thing will have to get shots, too:(

The other day we took a walk down to the neighbors for a bonfire. We loaded up our wagon with stuff for the fire, and it occurred to us that we could use Violet’s booster seat to contain her in the wagon. She loved the ride. And check out how green it’s getting in our neck of the woods. It’s deceitful because the weather still feels like winter most days.

In other news, the girls found a recently hatched butterfly. Mike found out that it is a black swallowtail. He/she was very “friendly” by letting the girls hold it. I’m guessing it was still adjusting to the world and didn’t know yet how to flee from large beings. The girls freed it back into the woods but found it the next day in the same spot.

Stay tuned tomorrow for shots from our Cubbies adventure this past week.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Banana!

Banana who?!

Orange.

…Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana???

Remember that one. I personally like the dumber and more obvious version with the punch line, “Orange you glad it’s ME!” When I was looking for a shortcut to just copy and paste the joke I also came across this after the punch line was revealed…HA:

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Anyway, the reason I’ve got oranges (not bananas) on the mind is because I finally completed one of Annie’s requests. Thanks to Grandma Florida Annie now has an American Girl magazine subscription. Each issue features a fun and/or cute recipe to try. The past issue featured jello oranges, and Annie has been itching to try it out ever since. Mike was the good parent and finally purchased oranges, and I surprised Annie this afternoon with the completed task. I must say it was pretty easy to do and is quite a crowd pleaser. The girls were very excited to eat their “oranges” tonight with dinner.

Not many (actually nobody on their own) got the “Booger Barnes” reference from my last post. Before last week I wouldn’t have either. However, we seem to have started a new tradition in our home. That is we have been watching old episodes of Dallas most week nights. Thanks to Mike’s brother Dave we decided to start renting Dallas DVDs from Netflix. We just finished up Disk 4 of Season 1 that has episodes 10-12.

Let me tell you, times have changed on prime time television. Surprisingly, the styles have not too much. I suppose the fashion scene has come full circle because the tight, tapered jeans, belted blouses, and feathered hair seem to be quite prevalent these days. Political correctness was unheard of though, and boy oh boy did they get away with a lot. The Ewing lot had many servants and none of them were Caucasian. The assumption that women are too dim for anything beyond looking good and taking care of their men is also a common theme. The one thing that I do like about Dallas is that the women are “traditionally built” and have actual curves. No bony anorexics on this show. And, the booze! I don’t think there is one scene where someone isn’t drinking a glass of some alcoholic beverage. There is definitely no shortage of crystal carafes full of liquor. You’d also be hard pressed to find one episode where a main character doesn’t have a drunken outburst.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post, Booger Barnes. The name and character of Digger Barnes pops up occasionally in most episodes of Dallas. Digger Barnes is Pamela Ewing’s daddy (this must be said with a thick, southern drawl). He has some issues, namely with alcohol. If he does make an appearance in an episode, then he’s definitely inebriated and spewing fireballs of hate toward the Ewings. Apparently, he and Jock Ewing were partners in the 30’s, and Jock took credit and all the money for the oil that was discovered and later formed into Ewing Oil. As you can see, Dallas is sucking up much of my brain power these days, and the name Digger Barnes is on the tip of my tongue most of the time. So it’s not hard to figure out how I came up with Booger Barnes.

As a result of our Dallas viewing, Mike is now obsessed with J.R. Ewing. If you look at our internet search history, I’m sure you’ll find loads of J.R. or Larry Hagman search terms. Go figure.

In other news, Sadie has found a new bed. Speaking of Sadie, she goes in for her girly bits and paw surgeries next week. Keep her in your prayers.

I will spare you any pictures in this post because I’m sure you can figure out from the title that it wouldn’t be pretty. As is apparently custom in this household Booger Barnes made his biweekly visit again. Yes, that means that the girls are sick again. I’ve since lost count how many times my kids have been sick this school year. I’m almost embarrassed to mention it anymore because people are probably starting to think that I suffer from Münchausen’s syndrome. I really don’t, and I REALLY DON’T want my kids to be sick constantly or to gain attention from all the illness we deal with in this house.

I don’t think that I mentioned before that Grandma Minnesota stayed with the girls while we were in San Diego (thank you, oh so much!). Booger Barnes thought it would be a nice treat for Grandma if he visited Annie. He made the visit extra special by not only filling her with mucous but also afflicting her with pneumonia. Grandma was sure busy dealing with all of Booger Barnes’ presents during her whole time here. Booger Barnes didn’t let us off easy though because Violet got her fair share of goodies during our vacation in San Diego.

Not long after Grandma went back to Minnesota Booger Barnes almost forgot to leave presents for Mimi and came back and gave her a grand soiree of mucous and hacking coughs. He really wanted Mimi to feel especially important by sticking by her side for over 2 weeks which resulted in a doctor’s visit chock full of a breathing treatment, x-ray and a diagnosis of bronchitis.

Booger Barnes wasn’t done yet as he thought Violet didn’t get enough gifts while in San Diego, so he has given her a bonus amount of mucous this go around. Oh, how we love Booger Barnes.

P.S. I’ll give you a prize if you can guess the Booger Barnes reference.

Alright, I won’t leave you without any pictures. Vi is SO close to crawling. C’mon, girl!