so, this is what the playroom looks like.

and you can’t miss it when you walk in the front door…sort of a welcome to anyone who happens to stop by. …and while i have quite exhausted myself on the justifications i offer to those who walk in the front door to, say, pick up pictures, drop off groceries, offer help, etc., the whole ‘modified bedrest’ is starting to sound like a big fat excuse to be lazy. so, i’m thinking rather a nice painted sign on the wall that says something like…this is our life. we like it. deal with it.

instead of cleaning, we nest and nuzzle. and bake.
today, she learned how to say “cheesecake,” or as she interprets, keycay.
and it has since been said, oh a trillion times.

mini cheesecakes: the recipe is easy, the results divine. and because they’re little, they look quite precious arranged on a cake platter for any party. and if you’re not having a party, maybe make them when your house is a mess, your husband’s gone, you’ve watched far too many episodes of gilmore girls, and you have nothing better to do.

they’re my mama’s recipe…and you can make them too.

and i know halloween is two months away and counting, but we look forward to it big time. not just the costumes but the way our neighborhood becomes sorta like knott’s landing…but instead of murder, drug smuggling and criminal investigations, it’s neighbors passing hot cider and endless trails of kids circling happy luminaire-lit streets. but the costume part is a major deal for me…perhaps because the old church i went to for awhile when i was little had us thinking halloween was bad and dressing up would surely send us to the depths of hell…so all that pent-up creativity and a few years of costume-less halloweens has snowballed me into costume frenzy, and having a kid makes it even better.

with all that said…sneeky peeky on the girl’s costume this year…

i’ve been dying for stride rite saddle shoes for her forever…just for everyday…and when we found them on e-bay for $12 ($45 brand new!), we figured we’d kill two birds with one stone and knock ’em out for halloween too. of course, there’s more…but you just have to wait ’till halloween for that. oh, how i love october (ah ha ha ha…that’s count dracula’s laugh).

and speakin’ of halloween…want cards of your little honey in their rockin’ costume to pass out to family and friends? want to pass some autumn wishes on with your little all fall-ed up in browns and golds? now’s your time…fall minishoots this september! book now…or forever hold your peace!
there’ll be cider and donuts and haybales…oh my!

more fall-y pictures to come…the weather was not cooperating for what i had in mind. my poor little girl who has to do all my advertising (but tell me the tam-tam hat and the toggle-button sweater aren’t to die for?)

p.s. i officially feel like we are on a deserted island what with the house being so quiet for four days now and trying to refrain from going out and overdoing it. i now speak fluent baby. and dog.

and the song…get it? september? for the mini shoot? feeling oh-so-literal tonight. do you think gettin’ up and dancin’ to this song in my pajamas lies somewhere in the lines of ‘modified bedrest’? what if i only shake it a little bit? that’s the modified part.

…more love a’comin. ~k

while we weren’t eating the perfect ballpark hotdog at wrigley field today…
we still celebrated…
…with the shirt and hairbows I had made just for this day.

celebrated the dawn (and crack of dawn, might i add, with my 6 am riser today) of a cozy mama-and-her-girl day with a pile of homemade blueberry pancakes soaked in pools of butter and blueberry syrup…

celebrated the quiet of a rainy day watching pinnochio from the couch…

…and sipping chamomile tea with toes warmed by the glow of a sandlewood candle.

last night, we tore all the cushions off the couch and stacked them into a teetering pyramid which made a lovely bed for us to cuddle, whisper stories and tickle ‘goodness glands’.

perhaps we missed the cloudy view of my favorite american skyline today, but her little head cloaked in our quilt fort last night sufficed for a highrise.

way cuter than sears tower.

we couldn’t participate in ‘the wave’ after a cubs homerun, but we did settle for a few waves of our own in an after-rainshower swim under florida gray skies…

and just about the time daddy and the boys were finding their seats past the first base line today…we found a seat of our own…nestled into the pillows and blankets we brought to the bookstore where we took off our shoes, and settled into a welcoming pile of magazines for mama and caldecott winners for little cub.

we pushed thomas along the quiet tracks of the train table…

and finished our trip with a take-home treasure for the book collection…

and a hot cocoa (where she waited in line patiently with her hands sweetly folded behind her back)…

she makes everything better…

and this not-being-able-to-go-on-vacation thing? we’re rockin’ it out. ‘cuz there’s nothing else you can do.

yes, there’s no place like chicago…
but when you can’t be there, i guess there’s no place like home.
and we’ve got the red shoes to prove it.

a whole quiet, cozy week with my girl…it’s all good.

…blowing kisses to the windy city where we miss the rest of the family.

…and takin’ care of the girl(s).

oh, and wishing very happy back-to-school blessings on all the teachers goin’ back to work tomorrow here in florida!

…love ~k

googly eyes.

in attempts to build our art box and expand her ever-growing love of crafty things, i bought her a pack of them and showed her how adding them to coloring books greatly enhances her pictures.

…except the next day, i found the googlies here…

and here…

and, here.

caught in the act, she was…

and now they just keep showing up. staring at me. from my toothbrush. and dresser drawers. and lampshades. like those stupid geiko eyes. there are eyes all over our house now, and none of them are in coloring books.

and speaking of things not exactly going as intended…life is a little funny right now, and i am learning to embrace it and accept it…perhaps even learn from it.

while i thought i would be packed at this point ready to head to our much-anticipated family vacation to chicago, i am instead finishing laundry for brett and the boys to go as i am on ‘modified’ bedrest for about a month…instructed to lie low and take it easy due to a blood clot in my uterus which is expected to…hopefully…absorb. baby is perfect and healthy, and while i daily struggle with anxiety and this hormonal bundle of emotions and love and this crazy wonderful thing called motherhood, i am doing well and trusting that my body…like all the other amazing bodies that have been protecting and birthing little beans for years…will do its best to harbor, protect and nourish our little lamb. and i nap and do puzzles and snuggle with my girl who is the easiest thing to take care of while ‘taking it easy’…and watch movies and do laundry and take in the good and the bad of a very different pregnancy. reality is, this is not easy at all. but reality usually isn’t and dragging through these parts is what is so character-building about life.

and with all that said…lainey had some news on this here paper, but i couldn’t for the life of me get her to hold it up for a picture…

oh, but wait…she did cooperate a little later.
in the midst of a stressful week, we found a little love in the middle when we discovered a little more about our bean…

yes, lainey will have a little sister, and we are thrilled. two boys, two girls…brett thinks he’s in heaven.

dreaming of holding my two girls…even if i’m not going to chicago.

…love, love and more love. ~k