"Mama" and "ladlelelele"

Ryan's talking so much now! It's really, really adorable. Ever since she located her tongue last week, it's been "lalala" and "ladeladeladel" and then yesterday, it was, finally, "mama"! Hooray! 11 months of spending nearly every darn day with her and finally, I get a "mama"!!

You can watch a video of her doing it here!

My silly little shopper!

She was getting ready for bed tonight, jammies and stuff, and was all dressed, well, minus pants, and crawled over to her laundry basket, pulled her diapers out of her dipe holder, grabbed her starbucks cup (she has a plastic water cup she’s been playing with for a week) and stuck them in her laundry basket and walked off! Pushing the basket. I wish I’d had the camera handy, cause it was the funniest thing. Then, as we walk by her wipes, no joke, she picks them up and non-chalantly flings them into her basket and keeps walking! She got halfway down the hallway before she decided enough was enough, she was going to crawl to the kitchen. She’s hilarious, I tell ya!

Cashmere and snow

So, it's snowing today, and it's lovely. I think that in all the time I've lived up here (a grand total of five years) it's snowed EVERY year, and I'll never get tired of it. Having grown up in California, snow falling from the sky will never cease to amaze me. And for that first night, before I have to try to drive anywhere in it, it's beauty is simply astounding. It's like you can hear Robert Frost, "walking through the woods on a snowy evening" and you know exactly what he spoke of. You know just how he felt standing at the woods, in the silent, silent snow, wondering which way to go. Granted, I felt that way walking to my mailbox, but magical nonetheless. And for the last two days, I've had "let it snow" and "white christmas" running through my head, which makes me want to do nothing more than set up my new, faux, prelit "giftmas" tree (or Hannukah bush, or what have you), watch white christmas, read polar express to my daughter and generally bask in the loveliness of the season. But alas, I have school work to do. Papers to write and finals to study for. So here I sit, blogging, procrastinating my homework.

As for the cashmere part of the post...I love cashmere. Really and truly I do. There is nothing more lovely than a soft, fuzzy cashmere sweater on a crispy, magical snowy day. And apparently, my daughter agrees. She spent the better part of the afternoon and evening petting me and trying to rest her head on my sweater. She cuddled up and tried to find a comfy spot to sleep on me, to the point that I almost thought I should take my sweater off and let her sleep with it, but I am selfish, and I was warm, and I didn't want to take it off. I did however, make her a pair of cashmere pants out of an old sweater the other day, and I think I shall make her a blankie out of the rest of the sweater. She'll like that, I think. I'll wrap it up for a giftmas gift.

On another RE note...her darling-ness is simply the sweetest thing sometimes. As she fell off to sleep tonight, and babbled to herself (a quiet little dadadadadada) she played with my hair. She does this sometimes, just twisting and playing with it as she drifts off. I always find it the sweetest little thing.

I commented to some friends tonight that her hugs and cuddles just mean so much more now. Sure, it was lovely when she was teeny and did nothing but snuggle all day, but now that she can make her own decision as to whether or not she hugs and cuddles, it is just more meaningful.

Snow pics

My little snowbunny...couldn't understand why she was outside in the cold. Ick.

My poor little Honda, all covered in snow.

Ryan's totally trying to decipher this crazy white stuff.

Ack, it's been forever...as usual

Life is so insane right now. Ryan's everywhere, crawling, pulling up, having tantrums. I'm nutso, school, volunteering, my business. Michael's new job is going well. We have a mold problem in the house that's not being dealt with quickly enough for my taste. Blah.

I'm going to end a very, very long day now. Ugh.

Pumpkins...

Well, it was a while ago, but here are some adorable pics of Ryan at the pumpkin patch from October 6th...and some pics of us from our playgroups Halloween party October 28th.

HOTSLINGS!

So, I am now selling the coolest baby carrier on the block!! I love my hotsling...I want you to love one too! So, to any and all who either come to my blog on purpose, or stumble on it accidentaly, drop me a line if you're interested and we'll chat!

www.REgardingpeanut.blogspot.com

Ok, yeah, sorry, it's been a while

OK, so Ryan's 9 months old today. How did I wind up with a 9 month old??? When did that happen and where, oh where did my baby go?

So, quick and dirty, here's the update:

She's crawling, I think I blogged about that already.
She has 4 teeth, 2 top and 2 bottom. They came in one side at a time though, she looked crazy.
She stands. On everything. But not without anything yet. Thank goodness.
She babbles. Nothing sensical, though Michael and I are pretty sure we both heard woof in reference to Zoe, but we could be wrong.
She loves her piano and all music. I don't know if she's going to be a dancer, a musician, or what, but she bounces and smiles at anything with a beat.

In the last 3 months we've been to California, New Orleans, Mobile, AL, and Cali again. Weave got married, 'Lys got married, Mike got engaged, Julie's about to pop, we refi-ed the house, school started again, Michael got his new job at corporate, I started another business...damn it's been busy!

But, I love my crazy life. It's so fun!! I could do without school, but I'm almost finished with that, and this quarter is pretty good, so I'm ok. And it's fall, and we all know how I love fall, so again, I'm a happy girl. The leaves are a-changing, the weather is cooling off and it's time to break out the sweaters. I had butternut/apple soup for dinner and baked banana bread. I love fall.

Wish him luck...

Michael interviewed for 3 different jobs yesterday (all at Costco). One was for the corporate help desk and the other 2 are in-warehouse management positions.

I am so glad everything is finally falling into place. We've been so up in the air for so long that it's just great to know that things are settling down.

The refi has been started, our real estate agent is coming tomorrow to check out the house and give us a good estimate of value, and Michael's whole job thing is getting sorted out. It's like a huge weight has been lifted.

So, wish him luck and think good thoughts for him!

Movin', movin', movin'...

She's trying to get movin'....

So, yesterday, for the first time, she got her butt and belly up off the ground! She's trying so hard, it's so fun to watch. I wish I could post video on here...I'll have to find some way to host a video and get it up on here. In the meantime, pics will have to do!

We are SO babyproofing this weekend!