if you think moms who talk a half hour about mundane things like what baby food brand to buy or the color of their kid’s poop, this post is going to annoy you. just stop reading now. don’t say i didn’t warn you. (but i promise, that’s the last time i’m going to say ‘poop’ on this blog. done. never again, and perhaps by the end of this post i will have decided to retract and backspace that one anyway.)

it’s a long post about a blanket, but for the sake of documenting the things that make my child who she is, it needs to be typed up and preserved in blogland. this darn puppy blanket is a huge part of her identity.

it all began with a frog. a frog blanket that was given to me as a shower gift that soon became her favorite blankie.

following the advice of all my mommy friends who said, “if they have a favorite blankie, make sure you buy two,” i decided to buy another one. problem was, it had no tag, no brand name and i had no idea where to get another one. so i googled every possible combination of frog/blankie/frog with blanket attached/frog with yellow piping blanket, etc. until i finally found the exact same frog. it’s a jaag plush and it comes in different versions. so, we decided to expand her collection to include not only a frog but a lamb and a bear.

so, now she had three favorite blankets.
…until her first birthday when, feeling extra sweet, we ordered one more…a puppy. a puppy that, unbeknownst to us would not only become her favorite (she doesn’t give a rat about bear, lamb or frog anymore) but would also be discontinued by the company and never created again.

lovely.

we realized this was a problem a few weeks ago when, at lainey’s designated naptime i began searching for puppy only to be told by brett that he sprayed oxyclean on the ear (she sucks on it) because it stunk and it was soaking in the laundry tub. a half hour of crying later, we gave in and let her stay up.

consequently, i set out to order another one. that’s when i found that jaag’s plush wrap n’ nap yellow lab is over…discontinued…dead. site after site…’no longer available.’ i thought it was a done deal until kelly made it her life’s mission to find that stupid dog and, if you know kelly, if she wants it, she’ll get it. (hello? four years, two invitros and a beautiful baby girl later? that’s what i’m talking about.) so, we now have two pups, but the new one still has some gettin’ dirty to do before the stench and ratty-tattyness is up to her standards.

enter exhibit a: old puppy

and b: new puppy

however, washings are still a problem. being that she chews on puppy’s ear (only the right one) all the time and it daily smells like things i won’t say, washings are becoming more frequent, and it’s like a scene from mission impossible when we decide to go through with it. there’s distraction, whispering, sneaking around, cover-ups, and then the whole issue of timing…puppy washings can only happen after first nap but before second nap or after second nap but before bedtime. half the time, it’s a failed mission and ends with her standing at the washer, crying anyway.

i swear, that puppy is alive to her and seeing us put that blanket in the washer causes trauma equivilent with a child watching oh, i don’t know…the family dog swirling around in a vortex of suds.

today, i tried but her rescue mission was successful and pups will have to go another dirty, stinky day.

p.s. knowing full well many think attachment to a lovie of this degree is a sure sign it needs to go, i stand by my belief that lovies are a beautiful thing, instilling security and friendship in little ones who need it. and, for the record…all babies need security and friendship.

oh, and the verdict is in: poop comment stands.

…enjoying the i-don’t-want-to-forget-one-little-thing things.

enjoying the small things today.

10) it’s just one of these days, literally and figuratively:

clean sheets on the bed. a floor that managed to stay free of piles of oatmeal, cheerios or other various fill-in-the-blank messes that sweet cubby likes to pull out of the pantry. a clean kitchen. it’s all good.

9) this shirt. what? my daughter? now why would she feel the need to say this?

8) finding, on a clearance endcap in target, just what we needed today: an otherwise crappy disney princess purse set…however, it included super cool fake make-up thus avoiding future cubby catastrophes. it was so cute watching her tote the little purse around, stopping occasionally to rifle through it, pulling out the little plastic red lipstick, popping the cap off and giving her lips a good smear of invisible beauty. in fact, she is sleeping now, sweetly curled up in her crib holding puppy in one hand and the plastic lipstick in the other.

7) speaking of clearance endcaps…it’s always a good day with red tags.

6) spaghetti and homemade meatballs in the crockpot. and mozzarella/basil and the closest thing to straight-from-the-garden tomatoes you’ll ever find for dinner tonight. (thank you donna nana for reminding me)

5) surprising brett with a bottle of red. we hardly splurge on wine these days and i don’t like it, but once in a while…i like to make him happy. and the cool frenchy label sold me. i’m so glad my husband has a nice wife.

4) teaching cubby early that every vote counts. …and that $5 will buy you a cheap t-shirt.
(p.s. check out the cool camera strap cover i sewed…working on making my sis one too now.)

3) overwearing these shoes, my favorites. if there’s any shoes to be bronzed for her, it’s these babies and as many cute shoes as she has, i find myself choosing these over all the rest. they’re just so lainey. years from now i’ll look back at pictures and smile when i see these shoes.

2) taking the girls outside this afternoon to play in the water. brett would have died because it was a complete hill-billy set-up what with the beach umbrella and my lawn chair, but it was worth the fun. hey, you can take the girl out of detroit, but….you get it.

1) finding myself saying to brett more and more, “what did we do to deserve this?” because she’s too amazing…too beautiful…too over-the-top for me to grasp that she belongs to me. we’ll be watching her play at night and she’ll do something just dripping with cute and we’ll look at each other and half cry/half laugh and then “she’s ours, she’s ours, she’s ours” will follow.

…enjoying the small-but-beautiful things. ~k

i pulled up to the little parking lot next to the old hotel downtown tonight for my photoshoot of two little girls i had yet to meet. i waited two minutes before the blue car pulled in next to me…i turned to look, and sitting in the backseat were two beauties who literally took my breath away.
i grabbed my cellphone and made a quick call to brett.

him: “did you get there okay?”
me: “holy mother of pete, brett. these girls? oh. my. gosh. they’re beautiful. this is gunna be fun. just had to call and tell you that.”

kelsey and addie…who melted my heart like butter. oh, and their grandparents did this all as a secret surprise for their mommy & daddy. sweet, sweet grandma & grandpa!

this one had me at ‘hello.’ ten minutes into the shoot, her sweet little voice was calling me, “kelle! kelle!” and then she’d show me something fabulous.

no matter how old they are, i gotta get those footie pics.

this next picture makes me laugh…this little thing had so much character and her grandparents would get her to pose and “show her muscles”…and i could move her like play-doh…she just did whatever we told her to do!

…and i could easily post twenty more.

people ask me all time if i miss teaching.
everything i miss about it, i get back from taking pictures of kids…that fulfillment of childhood, that capturing their little attention, that magic that you can only get by being with these precious souls. i still get to experience it. (but i still miss reading hard-cover books aloud…the ones that smell like the library and have thick pages that crinkle when you lick them and turn the page. yeah, i still miss that.)

…enjoying the taking-babies’-pictures-is-a-spiritual-experience-for-me things. ~k
the kid pix…oh, they always get to me.