everyone needs a daily dose of giggles

ever since i can remember, my dad used to do this weird claw hand and say "japanese claw" in this really weird voice. if my sister and i heard him saying that, we KNEW we were about to be tickled to death. (i'm sure the saying came from somewhere, but i honestly have no idea of the origin.)

and so that saying has stuck with me. and i've shared it with jeremy. and together, we have shared it with cayden. if he hears either of us say it, he'll stop and look for the hand. and then there's this fit of giggles because, yes, our child is ticklish. super-ticklish, even.

the best part of these giggle fits is when he tries to say "japanese claw" back to us. his voice gets all high-pitched and he says all this gibberish. but it's usually always the correct amount of syllables and he uses the same intonation that we use. i die.

what bedhead?

when one goes to bed with wet, curly hair, this is what you get in the morning

feeding himself

i mean, duh, he's been able to feed himself for a while now. but with a little help at getting things on the fork, he actually makes it to his mouth with food! he seems very proud of himself (it probably helps that we cheer each time a piece makes it into his mouth) and i can't wait to see this trend progress!

a new (used) ride

isn't it sharp? i kind of love it.

so, remember a few weeks ago when i was having this dilemma? yeah, that one. & how we thought we were all brilliant and had things worked out?

well, picture this: we take the car into the shop for its check-up (90,000 mile check-up, mind you). and all looked great. we paid our moneys and headed on our way. except that when they rotated my tires, they didn't balance them. because they didn't have a machine to do that. (as a side note, i know saab's aren't super-fancy, but the place we took the car for its check-up works on other fancier cars [bmw, mercedes, other european cars], so you would think they have that machine. but i digress.)

no worries though. the place we bought the tires from does free rotating and balancing for the life of the tires. jeremy took the saab in to have them balanced. cue guy to walk out and say, "are you the owner of the saab? & can i show you something?"

uh-oh.

he proceeds to show jeremy that while the car is up on the lift, he can take the tire and raise it up. by himself. and apparently, you're not supposed to be able to do this to cars. something about struts and shocks? eh, we were told $1200 to fix it. which is about a fourth of what the car was worth.

um, no thanks.

so we traded that saab in on a new (used) car. one that still gets pretty great gas mileage. that doesn't cost close to $90 to have the oil changed. and, if heaven forbid, something breaks on it, we have a five-year, 100,000 mile warranty on it. (and even if something does break after that? it won't cost a small fortune to fix it!)

whew.

i love my new car. love it. it's no longer than the saab was, so i've had a relatively easy transition. i know it looks huge in that photo. but it's not. oh, and for those interested? it's a nissan rogue. i think this will be the only car i drive from now on. swoon!

fifteen month check-up

big boy sitting on the exam table

it was a pretty uneventful check-up. for us at least. (cayden might have something different to say with the whole shots things being involved. but whatever.) we impressed dr. c with pointing to our nose; cayden points to his nose and says, "noma." so we're pretty sure he's combining nose and mouth together, but hey, if we ask where his nose is, he does point to it! so that's something, right? (as a note, he did used to say "nose"; not entirely sure when he decided to change that.)

anyway, most recent stats:
{weight} 23 pounds, 2 ounces
{height} 32 inches
{head} 19 inches

dr. c approximates cayden being between 5'10" or 5'11" – which is completely laughable to us. i mean, jeremy and i are only 5'6" ourselves, so having a child that tall seems unlikely. but if he is that tall, then yay for him!

next appointment (as long as we have no more ear infections): 18 months

rest in peace, our little xedo

the day xedo found us

it is with a heavy, heavy heart that i write this post. we had to say good-bye to one of our dear kitties last night. it's the first time i've ever had to say bye to a pet in this way. and it was no easy choice on our part either... but first? a little story about our miracle kitty.

xedo found us exactly three years ago. and by found us, i mean he wandered into our backyard with his momma. we fed them both and as always, they stuck around. to be a stray, xedo certainly was a friendly little guy – probably no more than two or three months old. a scraggly little guy, that was more ugly-cute than cute-cute, you know?

helping us build halloween decorations (yes, we go all out!)

he was an outside kitty. and loved every minute of it. i can remember standing in our front yard calling to him, and he'd come running. his little belly swinging from side to side. he loved us so very much and was always excited when we'd get home from work. (i'm pretty sure that had a little something to do with us feeding him about that time... but we'll pretend it was because we were home.)

about two years ago, xedo went missing for a couple of days. & we were devastated. we found him (finally!) after walking around and calling for him. he was hiding in a culvert just down the road. we're not sure if something had scared him badly enough for him to hide like that or if he just got lost. whatever it was, fast forward a few days later, and our xedo was very sick.

we spent the next couple of weeks taking him back and forth from our vet to the emergency animal hospital. the best guess they could give us was that he'd gotten into poison of some kind. speculations ranged from eating a poisonous lizard, to someone actually poisoning our cat. the little guy was only a year old, so we didn't have the heart to give up on him.

we spent a pretty little penny on this fella, and knew that it was worth it. he finally came home with us (complete with a feeding tube). i believe the tube came out about a week later and xedo started to put weight back on. we were very grateful. unfortunately, the incident with the poison left lesions on his brain. he was no longer able to walk in a straight line; always using the walls as a guidance to get from one place to the other.

testing out the car seat for us

and it worked. for all of us. for a while. until recently we noticed that xedo only stayed in one spot for most of the day. he would leave to eat. and go to the bathroom. but his litter box habits were quickly deteriorating too. and, after being out of town this past weekend, we came home to a huge mess in our kitchen (i won't go into detail here, but it involves things from the mouth and hiney... and worms).

after a meeting with our vet last night, we came to the mutual decision that xedo's quality of life was taking a downward spiral. and most likely, things would only continue to get worse. did we make the right decision? it's hard to know. and believe me, my heart hurts so very much still. i was sad to not see his little white feet sticking out from under the chair in his familiar corner this morning. and i can't get the last image of our sweet xedo out of my head.

our vet was wonderful. she even said a small prayer with us before we left. it helped, but it still didn't make things any easier...

sweet xedo: 2007–2010

...but i know he's in a much happier place now. and i'm pretty sure he's running around again with that belly swinging from side to side. we miss you so much already, but we'll see you on the flip-side sweet kitty.

cuppycakes!

not much of a girly-girl, but LOVE the use of pink in her logo

a couple of weeks ago, jeremy and i were watching the cupcake wars on food network. and surprise! one of the contestants was from franklin! we immediately googled her shop to see exactly where it was and made a promise to each other that the next time we were in tennessee, we would go visit her shop – ivey cake.

and go, we did.

it's this tiny little place, but that apparently doesn't effect the work they do there. i should've taken a photo of the display, but i didn't think about it. and i only had my phone to take photos with (so i apologize for their grittiness). not that it really matters; photos would never do these cupcakes justice.

if you think they look good, you need to try one!

we got quite the assortment. i decided to go for the strawberry (um, yum!). jeremy and cayden ate some chocolate-peanut butter goodness. mom had red velvet. dad had the "i do!" (made for carrie underwood's wedding). and my grandmother? well, she devoured some sort of double chocolate something-or-other – as in, there wasn't a crumb left on her plate!

if you're ever in franklin, you should definitely drop by. i hear there are different choices on different days (or maybe there would've been more choices if we had gotten there earlier?)... we heard the words banana nut and carrot cake mentioned by some people. um, yes please!

just my size

making sure to get each bite & doing his best to not waste any food

we road-tripped it this weekend up to tennesse to have a visit with my dad's side of the family. our food stop on the way? krystal's. i know, super-healthy and whatnot, but guess what? their little bitty burgers are the PERFECT size for toddler hands. we ordered it plain, and he was good to go. i handed him a fry every so often and we were golden.

playing on the playground

we had a fabulous weekend. and since i was lame and completely forgot my camera, i was glad to see that my cousin had brought his and captured several great photos of our little guy.

happy 15 monthday! (that's one year, three months for some of you)

today our kiddo is 15 months old. which means another doctor check-up coming next wednesday. & all morning i thought the 20th was tomorrow. until i signed cayden in for daycare. and well, hello! so we'll celebrate tonight. how? i don't know. maybe we'll celebrate tomorrow anyway. with a milkshake. yum.

but i digress. see that horn up there? it's technically a vuvuzela. and unless you've all been hiding under a rock somewhere, i know you know what that is. picture this: roughly 75ish people, in a semi-small dining room – and all of those people are blowing these at the same time.

yeah, it was loud. it was also our company's annual meeting.

what? your company doesn't toot their own horns? i bet you're going to say that your company's annual meeting doesn't open with a break-dancing gorilla either? i'm serious. it was kind of freakin' awesome to say the least.

either way, i came out with a vuvuzela that cayden kind of, sort of loves. as you can see, he just shoves the whole thing in his mouth and then talks through it. so it sounds a little bit right. but it's mostly wrong. and hilarious.

jump!

omg. did you guys realize that kids can't jump? until they're like 2 or something? i mean, duh, they can barely walk, but this isn't one of those things that actually crossed my mind.

the funny thing though? cayden wants to jump. so. badly.

this is only a small snippet of what usually goes on. he'll crouch down low, yell "JUMP!" (or his equivalent to it) and then go all the way up to his tippy toes. sometimes one foot comes off the ground... but for the most part, this is what we get. and it really does make us laugh every time!

and this video? i love the way he runs off screen. all huffy. but cute huffy for sure.

wordless wednesday: whatever it is you're saying? i'm not listening.

in case you guys have missed it...

... there's a huge giveaway going at 30 handmade days this week! yesterday was the kick-off, and you'll see a giveaway from yours truly. you know, in case you were just dying to win something from my etsy shop.

but i digress. for real, you all need to keep checking back there. there are like 30-something shops (maybe even more?) participating. so be sure to check them all out. also? mique likes to keep things easy, so you only have to enter one comment for each giveaway.

simple, right? so what are you waiting for? get over there!

playing around

first video game with daddy: when i asked about the boat with the skull? i was told that cayden picked it out.

pas de deux

with a chair. that's sliding across the doctor's office. oh, but yes, that is the doctor's office. that we had to visit on saturday morning. cayden had the eye boogers. which generally means an ear infection. but guess what? his ears? they looked perfect.

doctor: has anyone at school had pink eye?
jeremy: oh yeah. i forgot, so-and-so had a viral eye infection this week.
me: [shooting daggers at jeremy] you kind of forgot to mention that!

so, $30 later in eye drops (and it's got to be the smallest bottle of eye drops ever), we're now treating cayden for a slight eye infection. and it's mostly gone already, so i guess spending the money was kind of worth it. ok fine, it was totally worth it so our little guy didn't have gross boogers coming out of his eyes any more.

but, man, his dance moves? they're pretty rad, right? right now cayden loves to dance to any sort of music that he hears. (btw, i added the music to this video; it was entirely too quiet otherwise.)

a little something to get you through the weekend...

just testing out the new shoes – the white ankle socks? kill me.

... because there won't be any postings this weekend. that's for sure. why you ask? cause my mama is coming into town and we plan on soaking up every moment we can with her. (my poor daddy; he has to stay home and work. boo to working on weekends!)

we plan to do a little shopping, a lot of eating & i'm pretty sure that nana plans on snuggling up with mr. cayden as much as he'll allow her to. and i'm hoping he'll show her his brand new trick of giving kisses. before this week? we pretty much had to steal them. or at least give each other a kiss before he would give us one. but now? i just say that i need some kisses! and he'll come walking toward me, mouth wide open. (we still need to work on that part just a bit.) sweetest. thing. ever.

our boy is growing

pretty cute, right?

i mean, duh, he's obviously not shrinking. but one area that jeremy and i didn't really think about? his feet. sure, it makes sense that the bigger he gets, the bigger his feet are going to get. but this mama and daddy didn't really think about it.

cause you see, on saturday, we went to eat breakfast at chick-fil-a. (wait, let's back up just a bit. we put him in some cute shoes that he hadn't worn in a while. only because they make his feet really smelly. like, s-t-i-n-k-y!) ok, back to the food. we were about to leave, cayden's walking across the restaurant and he trips over his feet and lands on his bum. no big deal. usually. this day? he threw a fit. in the middle of chick-fil-a. where everyone turned to look at us.

and, cue quick exit.

he was fine once we got to the car, so we decided to brave our grocery stop as well. all was fine, and then about half-way through, cayden got tired of riding in the cart (hey, it happens). jeremy got him out and put him down so he could walk around. instant fit.

we were both totally weirded out. cayden cries, but he doesn't cry like this. jeremy picks him up and for some miraculous reason, thinks about his shoes. we take those puppies off, and you could almost hear his feet singing! the shoes? about a size too small. his poor little pinkie toe was smushed and all five toes on both feet were bright red.

target to the rescue! cayden's now a proud owner of some flip-flops and his first part of one-stars (all-stars to be purchased when we know his feet will be in them longer than six months.) oh, and our almost 15 month old? wears a size 5 toddler now. craziness.

a not so wordless wednesday

i needed a decent shot of me for the interview, so jeremy and i had a quick photoshoot

you guys, a couple of weeks ago, i was contacted by caitlin (of martha stewart's dreamers into doers) to see if i'd like to be featured as "doer of the week." i mean, do you really say no to something like that? yeah, i think not.

i'm so honored to be featured for the next week. & also incredibly nervous about it as it shows how awful i am at interviews. it does, however, showcase how well i can ramble. and not really answer the question that was asked. but you know, i'm just cool like that. or stupid. or whatever.


either way, i'm thrilled to be a part of this site and i'm meeting a lot of other crafty women through it. and hey, if it helps boost the shop, i'm all for it!

thanking my lucky stars above that i'm being "seen." and also thanking the good lord up above.

sigh.

wordless wednedsay: bath toy or chew toy? or both?

another video. but, he kind of says his name!

cayden LOVES this photo montage of himself that our friend kristie took. saying he's obsessed with it might even be more appropriate. and while it might be slightly narcissistic, we've kind of used it as an opportunity to teach him his name. & he can kind of say it now. but only kind of. it mostly comes out "dayden" - you can catch it once at about :06 in. and please forgive me for having an annoying voice... but this was too cute not to share, you know?

(and p.s. that's his toothbrush he keeps playing with in his hands. just so you know.)

and sometimes?

we are mean just for fun. you see, cayden was playing with a bouncy ball. for some reason, jeremy thought it would be fun to stick the ball in the back of cayden's diaper. he spun & spun around in circles looking for that ball. and what you see here is just the end of it. we laughed and laughed. while our child cried... does that make us awful? probably not. but mean? for sure.

weekend fun

i'm just gonna lay it out there. teething? sucks. a lot. cayden's usually a happy-go-lucky sort of guy. but this weekend was an entirely different story.

(part of that may have had a little something to do with us shoving shoes on his feet that were a size too small. but that's another post for another day. promise. and we didn't do it on purpose. we're usually not that mean! usually.)

but anyway, random fits all weekend. waking up before six (he usually sleeps until about 6:30ish). and the diapers. omg. the diapers. liquid poop is normal, yes? so is drool stringing down one's chest, right? ugh. one of his molars has cut through. two of them are now fighting their way through. and it's a big 'ol mess.

oh, and napping on mama? never happens. but when he woke from his nap for like, the fifth time yesterday, i cuddled him and he was out again for the count. (i'll admit, i soaked up every sweaty moment of that. it never happens anymore, and i'll take what i can get.)

we actually had to wash the teddy bear this weekend because it smelt like mouth. gross. and we've also let him chew on the pacifiers again. i honestly thought we were done with them. but i can only imagine what his poor little mouth feels like, so we let him have it.

i'm ready for teething to be over. unfortunately, we only have nine teeth at the moment. so i'm guessing we have a ways to go yet.

new etsy listing - diaper clutches

four new diaper clutches have been listed in the etsy shop. these guys went super-fast last time around, so if you're thinking of getting one, grab it quick!

happy friday y'all!

it might be almost time for a small haircut, no?

we're excited for a nice, relaxing weekend. maybe hitting up the farmers market again. (but really hoping for some rain, so if we have to miss it this weekend, i'd be ok with that. we need the rain desperately!) hoping to get upstairs and get some sewing done, but we'll see what the weekend brings.

hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

& they're here!

i didn't make you guys wait that long, huh? the hugs & kisses mini pouches are now available in the etsy shop! buy one. or buy a couple. i don't really think you can have too many of these, you know?

new etsy item - mini-pouches!

you guys? i'm really excited about these little pouches. i'm hoping to have them listed by the weekend. (there are nine to be listed. nine!) they're a great little size at about four inches wide by five-ish inches tall. and not only are the outside fabrics adorable, they're also lined with an equally adorable contrasting fabric.

i made one for myself to hold my digital point and click cause i'm always losing it in my purse. but, these are great for those lost pacifiers (cause goodness knows that when you need one, you need to be able to find it quickly). they'll also keep all your diaper creams in one place in the diaper bag (surely we're not the only people that have multiple creams, right?). if you need a cute place to hold some ibuprofen or benadryl (generic, of course), then these little pouches will do it perfectly and keep them all in one place. look for them in the shop soon.

(& no worries, i'll let you know when they're there!)