Chicken. Head. Cut. Off

What is it about this time of year that makes everyone a little crazy.  I have a soon to be three year old, heading back to preschool, and I feel the stress of BACK TO SCHOOL (BTS)!!!  On one hand, I am so excited that she will soon be spending 3 glorious hours under the care of someone else 3 days a week!  On the other hand, I feel the need to cram all kinds of fun into the last few weeks of summer.  It is crazy I know.  It's not like she is in real school and I will get arrested for being truant if I decide to take a 2 week road trip. But, just the same I feel like we are saying good bye to a fantastic summer.  


On a good note, BTS means getting back on a routine and schedule.  I am proud to say, I have walked the dogs every day this week (I do realize it is only Tuesday, but still), had an early morning run one day, finished Catching Fire, started Mockingjay AND gone to bed at a decent time 2 nights in a row.  All of these things are big accomplishments of late!  Catching up on my 365 project has also been on my mind.  I hate to clump a bunch of pictures together, but I am going to do it anyway!  Like I said, I have crammed lots of fun into the last few weeks, which has left little time for blogging:)  So here is a catch up/run down of what we have been up to the last weekish!  


I am skipping my picture for August 19 (29/365) because it contains top secret information regarding Doodle's birthday party.  It will be released at a later date!

August 20 (30/365)
I like to call this one "Death of the Little Friends".  This is Doodle's new obsession.  They are called Squinkies.  They make me crazy!  She loves them.  They are everywhere!

August 21 (31/365)
Crazy Swan hanging out on a pipe at Gypsy Hill Park

August 22 (32/365)
Giant spider web found in my side yard.  Looked so beautiful in the morning sun!

August 23 (33/365)
My little Doodle testing out the sand.  It was a hard sell, but she finally tolerated the sand! As for me, I am just grateful I got to spend time at the beach!

August 24 (34/365)
Silly Boy!  Doodle and her bestie Japurb at the beach!  They are lucky kids to have one another!

So, that gets me almost caught up.  More to come later, after I reattach my head!

Who I Am!

I am Rosemary's granddaughter
The spitting image of my father
And when the day is done
My momma's still my biggest fan
Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends who love me
And they know just where I stand
It's all a part of me
And that's who I am

I'm a saint and I'm a sinner
I'm a loser, I'm a winner
I'm am steady and unstable
I am young but I'm able


These are lyrics from the song Who I Am by Jessica Andrews. When I took these pictures, I definitely thought of that song. What describes you as a person?  When I think of Doodle, I definitely think of the words "peanut", "little bit", "petit".  I snapped this picture of my little peanut after a lot of jumping.  The shorts are 18 months.  She will be 3 in October.  She has worn them for 2 summers.  They are falling off her! It really does help our clothing budget! I hope that she will find the positive spin on being a tiny little imp!  

August 17 (27/365)

  If you asked me to describe myself, I will tell you I am short and have curly hair.  Those have been the two things that have defined my physical identity my entire life.  I can't say I have always loved either of them.  I straightened my hair for years.  And I still imagine how much simpler life would be if I were just 3 inches taller.  In fact, it is this thought that prompted me to take this picture.  I was cooking and due to my lack of height, found myself standing on a stool to stir a large pot of chicken spaghetti!  I looked down and thought how funny I must look. 

August 18 (28/365)

 That same day, as I was driving to deliver the spaghetti to a friend, I noticed the gigantic perfect curl right in the middle of my head.  Which of course made me think of the nursery rhyme: "there once was a girl with a curl, right in the middle of her head.  When she was good, she was very very good.  And when she was bad, she was horrid".  If you know me, that pretty much sums me up!

Ooops!

So obviously, I am a little behind on my photo postings.  I have no good excuse, other than Life.  And if that is my excuse, I can't really complain, because Life is good around here!  So while I am more than a week behind posting pictures, I have plenty to share.   I am going to try and group them together so I can get a little caught up.  The problem is, many of them  have story to share, or a deep thought to ponder.  So, I may have several posts in a day if I have the time to write.  Hope y'all don't get too bored.  


As this personal photo challenge has progressed, I have managed to take pictures each day.  For the most part they have been a natural picture of what we have been up to at the time.  Only once or twice have I had to think of something to photograph.  And so far, I have not missed one day.  I almost ruined my perfection.  About 2 weeks ago, I went up to bed, got in my jammies, and had a moment of peace before realizing I hadn't taken a single picture.  I stumbled downstairs and grabbed the camera.  Prepared to take a sleepy shot of anything, check the square for the day and go to bed.  It was then that I remembered I forgot to charge the battery.  It was dead.  Not wanting to be a failure 26 days into my challenge, I substituted my phone to take a picture of my poor camera and its dead battery!

August 16 (26/365)

As disappointing as that photo is, at least I got something to show for the day.  I don't even remember what was going on that day, which must be why I have nothing better to show for it.  I made up for it as the week went on!  I promise!

Thanks Little Gym!

A couple of days ago I posted some pictures of Doodle jumping at The Little Gym.  She has also mastered the art of the Donkey Kick/Monkey jump while at the little gym.  Just to give you an idea, a Donkey Kick is the beginning of a hand stand and Monkey Jump is the beginning of a cart wheel.  Of late, Doodle has taken to doing both as a means of transportation.  I snapped some pictures of her mid jump/spin.

August 15 (25/365)

In our house when we witness Doodle doing something like this, My Favoritest and I often say "thank you Little Gym" out loud.  We have a lot of those moments in our lives.

Swinging at a park in Charleston last fall

Standing on a ball in our living room.

Climbing up a climbing wall at a playground in Central Park.

climbing on her laundry hamper

The pictures also got me thinking about the other things that Doodle has gained from her time at the gym.  Doodle and I have gone to a parent/child class since we moved to VA.  She has ebbed and flowed in her love of the gym.  We have gone through times she loved it, and times she hates it.  Overall, it has been one of the best activities I have done with her.  For 45 minutes every week, I have nothing other than Doodle to focus on.  She has gained a ton of physical skills, but more importantly, she has gained character.  She has learned to get back up and try again when she falls.  She has been encouraged to step out of her comfort zone and try new skills and activities.  She has learned to share, take turns, follow directions.  She has learned how to be part of a group, and how to follow her own lead.  So while we often catch our breath as Doodle demonstrates her newly perfected skills, I am so grateful for the chance to share each accomplishment with her!

Black Out!

The Curly gang enjoyed a restful weekend spent together.  Sunday evening, a storm passed through and we lost power.  We have lived in our house for 2 years and have never lost power for more than a few minutes.  So after about 30 minutes, Doodle's bed time was approaching and I decided we better get serious about finding matches and flashlights.  Of couse, I couldn't find any matches.  After digging through my neighboring SisterWife's kitchen (she is out of town) I was still without matches, but did happen to find our lost house key and batteries!  My other neighbor finally pulled through and had some matches.  I came home and lit all the candles I could find.  I live with 2 dogs and a toddler.  My candles had a lot of dust on them!  They are all also scented, so after about 30 mintues, my house smelled like a cross between Bath and Body Works and Yankee Candle!  Anyway, it was a good thing I found matches and batteries because we didn't get our power back until 11:00 the next morning.  It was a dark evening at our house.  And I have a confession to make.... I am terrified of the dark.  I know, I need to grow up, but I have read one too many scary books and watched one too many Criminal Minds to get over my fear.  So although I am terrified, I have to say I enjoyed our evening off the grid on the edge of the grid (I did have my Iphone).  The weather cooled down, so our windows were open, the house was cool, and I sat in silence reading with a book light.  I didn't have a book on my Kindle so I had to go old school and actually read a book!  It was a peaceful evening.  I was captivated by the shadows from all the candle light.  And since there wasn't much else to do, I got the camera out.  Here is what I got.  I played with the "night vision" mode on the camera.  Kind of cool!

August 14 (24/365)

It was much more beautiful in color, but it was too dark for the camera to get anything and it was too dark for me to find my manual and figure out what I needed to do to fix the problem.  Anyway, I think it looks a little like a city skyline.  The tall skinny one is a drinking glass.  The turrets are our salt and pepper shakers.

This Is How We Do It!

Doodle has started to try and "teach" how to do things.  Mostly she teaches herself.  Sometimes she teaches Ming-Ming and Tuck. Usually she tells me "do not to watch me", and "do not talk about..." whatever she is doing.  (Don't worry, we are working on understanding that is rude).  Anyway, lately one of her favorite things to teach us how to do is jump.  It took Doodle a long time to figure out how to jump, and she really only mastered the skill in the last 3 or 4 months.  Now she jumps all the time.  She jumps into the pool.  She jumps to get places.  She jumps from her stool the the ground.  She JUMPS!  This weekend, My Favoritest and I took Doodle to the Little Gym. Since I wasn't flying solo, I decided to bring the camera.  Lucky for me, there was lots of jumping!

"How to Jump According to Doodle"

First, you put your feet together and you squat down.

Then, you just jump with BOTH your feet

And then you just land on both feet.

And run run run so you can JUMP again!
August 13 (23/365)

Hidden Treasures

When I did my 30 day photo challenge, one of our assignments was to take a picture of the clouds.  I mentioned how much I love looking at the clouds and trying to find familiar shapes among their billowy puffs.  Thursday, I took the camera out for a few minutes to take some sunburst pictures.  While I was outside, I snapped a couple of pictures of the clouds.  When I looked at the pictures, the sunburst wasn't as pretty as I wanted it to be.  But as I looked at the pictures of the clouds I found two really neat images.

August 11 (21/365)
If you look closely you can see an angry face/mask in between the two trees

And just opposite that angry face in the sky, was this perfect heart!

As you can see from the sky, the weather here has been fantastic!  The end of the week it was only in the mid 80's.  Doodle and I spent lots of time outside because of the beautiful weather.  It has been so hot out, that we haven't "played" outside in a couple of months.  Doodle has begged to play on her "new toy" (that she got 3 months ago) almost daily.  Finally, the weather cooperated and I remembered to wipe the slides down.  As soon as we got outside, she whined to come inside.  The blue slide was too hot to use and I guess that ruined her plan.  I tried to encourage her to play with Ming-Ming, Tuck, Ming-Ming Duckling (stuffed Ming-Ming), and Abby Cadabby.  I sent them all down the slide hoping she would take over.  I was wrong.

Friends.... maybe?

I wasn't taking her inside, so I  brought out bubbles.  That entertained her for a few minutes.  Then I got out water and paint brushes so she could paint the sidewalk.  Between the new toy, the bubbles, and the paint brushes, she managed to entertain herself for a good 45 minutes.  And I managed to get some pictures.  Poor kid, is tired of me having my camera around all the time, but I am determined to succeed at taking a picture a day for 365 days.  Since getting my new camera, I have really stopped using the lcd display while shooting.  I love that I can check the image if I want to, but also love the surprise of seeing what turns up on the computer.  When I uploaded the pictures from our outdoor party for two, I found this

August 12 (22/365)

At first glance, it is just a picture of Doodle and some bubbles.  The interesting part is the bubble over her face.  If you look at it closely you can see the reflection of our back porch in the bubble.  I love when I find little treats like that!  In my dreams this weather will last forever, but I know it wont.  Our neighbor had the nerve to remind me that the cooler weather only meant that Fall was on the way (yippee), which means that Winter isn't far behind (booo!).  Oh well, I guess we will make the most of what we have right now!

Serious. Doodle. Dilemma.

Wednesday, we had a visit from an old friend.  She, her husband, and son were live full time in Saudi Arabia and were finishing up a month long stateside visit.  In honor of their visit, I decided to order pizza for dinner.  Before the pizza, I did make a from scratch pound cake.  I was kind of in a hurry and tried to sneak the cake making past Doodle's watchful eye.  It didn't work.  As soon as she saw the mixer come out of the cabinet she was running to the kitchen asking to help.  So, she helped me count sticks of butter, dump cups of sugar, and spoonfuls of vanilla.  She watched in wonder as our pile of ingredients magically changed into batter.  As the mixer churned, she started asking if she could taste the batter.  I made a show of greasing and flouring the pan.  Doodle was horrified that I was making a mess with the "snow".  I moved to the sink to finish the process.  The whole while, she is asking to taste the cake.  Like I said, I was in a hurry so I made her wait until I had the batter all poured into the pan.  While I was getting the batter in the pan, I hear her say "Mommy, what happened?  It snow on my chair." I glanced over to see flour all over the bar stool she was standing on.  Now, please remember, my toddler is freakishly cleanly.  Also please visualize panic in her eyes and my hands full scooping batter into the bunt pan.  I quickly tell her to stay still and I will clean her chair as soon as I am done.  Well, she is freakishly cleanly, but as fidgety as her mommy and within seconds she had "snow" on her feet.  So she stood on one foot.  By the time I gave her a spoonful of batter, she was so undone with the mess, that I couldn't help myself.  I told her I would clean her feet when she was done eating the cake batter.  And there you have the Ultimate Doodle Dilemma.  Eat sugar or get clean!

August 10 (20/365)

Needless to say, she ate the cake batter and dealt with the dirty feet.... for about 2 minutes and then she gave in to her freakishly clean nature and handed me the spoon.  She was so proud of the cake when we served it to our guests!  And she told them all about the snow!

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon

Do you ever wonder what is going on inside the mind of a toddler?  Yesterday, I got a rare glimpse into the workings of my little one's mind.  While eating our lunch, Doodle starts saying "the cow jump over the moon!"  "Mommy, and the cow jump over the moon."  I was about to remind her about not singing at the table when she thrust her grape in my face.  I looked at her strangely as she repeated the end of the nursery rhyme for the 3rd or 4th time, and then I looked at the grape.  Sure enough, if you look at it with the eyes of an almost 3 year old, you can see the moon, and possibly a cow jumping over it.

August 10 (19/365)

So, I made good on my promise to have  a more interesting photo!  I'm just a day late posting it.

Mommy! Hey Mommy! Mommy Hey!

This has been the constant stream of words coming out of my toddler's mouth.  I once had a teacher who told us that we had diarrhea of the mouth when we talked too much.  That is the situation in my house.  And the volume is constantly set on loud with the balance set on squealy-squeaky-high pitch!  It has almost sent me in search of a silent convent and a habit, and I am Jewish!!  Sunday night,  Doodle Skyped with The Bubbie and The Zayde, she was looking through Parenting magazine looking for Elmo.  They have an advertisement in the back.  She was so absorbed in her search for Elmo, that she almost ignored her doting grandparents.  Not only that, but for a few minutes, I didn't hear my name screamed.  It was beautiful.  And then I had a brilliant thought pop into my head.  I grabbed her magazine, and ran to the art supply drawer.  I took a couple sheets of Elmo stickers and put them in random places in the magazine.  Gave it back to her and told her to look for Elmo and his friends.  It worked!  There was peace and quiet for a good.... 10 minutes! I must remember this idea for later!

August 7 (16/365)

So I am a total slacker, and never remembered to get back to this posting.  I was feeling slightly guilty about this.  I was also trying to think about what else I could share with the world in future posts.  Thankfully, lightning struck twice and I had yet another brilliant mommy moment!  I know, don't have too much shock and surprise.  If you have recovered, I will now share my fantastic idea #2!

Doodle got a couple of foam puzzles for her 2nd birthday.  It was a thoughtful gift, Doodle loves puzzles.  And she has loved these puzzles since she got them.  She also hates them.  She can't quite figure them out.  I have tried to put them away but she always finds them.  Yesterday morning when she pulled them out, I sighed the big sigh.  Then, lightbulb!!!  I got the camera, and took a picture of each puzzle. ( yes, I am counting this as my picture for the day.  I know it is a copout and I will try and do better, but I took a picture so it counts!)  I printed the pictures and spent a little bit of time showing Doodle how to look at the picture and look at the puzzle.  Miracle of miracles she could put the puzzle together!  This was an even more important achievement because she didn't nap AGAIN which meant not TV AGAIN and she lost her "little friends" on of her favorite toys.  Between the magazine and the puzzle and a good dose of the angry Mommy eyes, we enjoyed a whine free afternoon!  So here is my copout picture of the puzzles and a copout picture of her playing with them this morning:)

August 8 (17/365)

August 9 (18/365)

Therapy

The past two weeks have been really long.  My Favoritest has worked really long hours, and as a result I have worked really long hours.  Last night when I tucked Doodle into bed, I told her we could spend the day with daddy tomorrow.  Her reply was "and the mommy, you go to work."  I told her that mommy went to work every day taking care of her and the pup-pups.  It flew right over her head!  After a long couple of weeks, I really wanted a beer, but we were out.  So to relax, I did the next best thing for me.  I got crafty/creative.  I have been working on several projects and if you walked into my craft area our spare bedroom you could see the mad ADD mind busy at multi-tasking work! Oh wait, I took a picture so you can see!

August  5 (15/365)

If you look closely you can see the makings of Doodle's birthday invitation, a baby announcement for a friends son, and some cards for me to keep on hand.  I love scrapbooking and making cards.  It is  my own personal therapy.  I can forget about all the things that need to be done and just focus on the project at hand!  I also feel like there is a little bit of love put into every hand made creation and I hope that good vibe travels along with the card to the person on the receiving end.

I ended up working on the baby announcements for a while and stayed up much later than I intended.  That left me cranky and tired this morning.  I also was feeling horrible for my sleep deprived hubby, so I got Doodle up and brought her downstairs to let him sleep a little extra.  (unfortunately our weekend ritual of snack cup and tv in mommy and daddy's bed was out of the picture because Doodle didn't nap and lost tv privileges until her next nap).  So anyway, being tired and cranky we had a lazy morning.   Doodle played with her toys and I half payed attention to her and half to Today.  One of the moments I was listening to her never ending chants of "hey mommy, hey mommy, mommy hey" she asked me to take her picture.  She then held up her "camera" and said "I take your picture and you take my picture at the same time.  Okay?  Ready! 1, 2, 3".  I think I am using my camera often if this is the pretend play!

August 6 (15/365)

Best. Dogs. Ever.

August 3 (13/365) & August 4 (14/365)


With this post, I am officially caught up on sharing my 365 pictures so far!  I am also really proud that I have actually taken a picture every say for 2 week!  Yeah me!!!  Like I said yesterday, this project is about sharing my life and learning to use my camera and eyes better.  That being said, here is my "artsy" photo for the weekish.  I have been wanting to take a picture of this tree for a while now.  Yesterday I thought about it when I actually had time!  I don't know what kind of tree it is.  But it is equal parts pretty and weird to me the way the bark peels off.  Anyway, here is the picture and then I will get to the fun part of the post.... my dogs!

August 4 (13/365)

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the couch with Doodle watching some singing cartoon.  I hear her talking to Lo-Lo telling him "just be still"  "Good Boy!"  "Now, you look bofull".  As I looked over at her, I simultaneously laughed out loud, tripped racing to get the camera, and begged her not to ruin Lo-Lo's "boofull" look.   

August 3 (13/365)

Seriously!  That dog better be thankful she is not into princesses, tu-tus and tiaras..... yet!  

Not to be outdone by her younger brother, Joey (Zoe) Girl got in on the photo action tonight.  She let Doodle lay all over her.  Hug her, pat her, and talk to her.  All she did was turn her head around to kiss her two legged sibling.  I couldn't pick just one of these because they were both so great.  Before I had kids I worried that they wouldn't know my Zoe.  After I had Doodle, I worried that she would not remember Zoe as being her dog.  Now, I worry about how devastated my Doodle will be when her Joey Girl is no longer with us (she's almost 12).   So, although they both make me crazy and I threaten to send one or both of them to the pound at least once a week, I love my dogs.  I love them even more because they love my daughter and she adores them back!

August 4 (14/365)

August 4 (14/365)

Snapshots of my 33rd Year- Day 12

August 2 (12/365)

Doing this photo challenge is about learning to use my camera and take better pictures, but it is also for me a way to document and share what's happening in our family.  We have some super fun days.  There are days that Doodle is so much fun to be around, I am sad to put her to bed.  There are days that are full of rainbows and daisies and chirping birdies.  Tuesday was not one of those days!  Not by a long shot.  Tuesday might have looked like all those things transported from a Disney movie straight into South Park.  It was that not-happy.   

We had a rough morning full of whining, crying, and complaining.  So, immediately following lunch, Doodle was tucked in for a nice restful nap.   At least that was the plan.  To make a long, frustrating, story and little shorter, I will give you a timeline of our non-nap

1:00  Doodle put to bed

1:30  Go upstairs to check on Doodle.  She is hiding Llama Llama Red Pajama under her pillows and blankets.  This means she has gotten out of bed to get the book.  The only rule for nap/night time is "do not get out of bed".  The penalty for breaking this rule is that all "friends and books go to time out for an entire day.  I take all friends and books out of bed, lay them outside the door and head downstairs.

1:45  Hear singing and talking on monitor.  Threaten to take paci away if she isn't going to sleep ( I know sounds like a rediculous threat, but she loves that thing so much it usually works.)

2:00  I said usually works.  Not today.  I take paci and lay it on top of friends in hallway.  I also leave the door cracked so I can check on Doodle easire.

2:15 I listen to the monitor only to hear the distinct sound of a toddler sucking on a paci!  I go upstairs and that little sneaky little booger had gotten out of bed, gone out of the room, took her paci back and gotten back in bed!  I took paci (and 3 friends she had also rescued) and moved them and those friends left in the hallway to my bed.

2:30  I listen to the monitor.  It is quiet.  I think I have succeeded.  Then I hear a strange thump.  A minute later, another thump.  I decide to go investigate.  I walk into her room to find her squatting down beside the drawer that holds her diapers.  I ask her what she is doing.  She scurries to the bed and tries to hide the 10-12 diapers that she has laid out on her bed.   At this point, I pop that tushie.   She finally gets the message that I am not happy and I am not playing.  I make her put the diapers away.  This is the aftermath of the diaper drawer.

I do not have a picture of the incident because my sneaky little tyke is also smart enough to know if I take a picture of it, I must think it is cute.  So I snuck in and took this picture later.  

By this time, Doodle is crying so hard and has her feelings so hurt she cannot calm herself down (remember paci is in timeout).  So I rock her until she falls asleep.  She sleeps for 30 short minutes.  That's all I got after that marathon of toddlerness!  

At dinner, Doodle and I were discussing why her friends were in time out.  She says "Becuase I make bad choices"  I ask "what was your bad choice?"  Doodle replies "I had lots of Elmo diapers and only one polka dots diaper in my bed!"  That kid new just what she was doing and that it was a bad idea!

Snapshots of My 33rd Year- Day 11

August 1 (11/365)


I LOVE LOVE LOVE bed head.  I have at least 2 scrapbook pages laid out dedicated to the BEDHEAD. So when Doodle woke up Monday morning with a perfect example of the ultimate bed head, I had to snap a few pictures.  And since you can't get the full effect from one direction, I am sharing with you what I like to think of as the BedHead mug shots.  Full frontal and profile!  For you enjoyment!
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Snapshots of My 33rd Year- Day 9-10

July 30 (9/365)


Still trying to catch up a little bit.  Life has been a little hectic since we got back from our trip.  It has been filled with lots of catching up in every area of my life.  This biggest catch up has been in the laundry/cleaning department.  Laundry and I have a hate-hate relationship.  We always have and I am pretty sure we always will. The closest I have come to not hating laundry was when I lived in the first townhouse I purchased.  The washer and dryer were in the closet.  In my mind that meant that I didn't have to put anything away.  The dryer in a sense became part of my storage system.   Anyway, I hate every part of it.  Sorting. Loading.  Remembering to switch from washer to dryer.  Remembering to get them out of the dryer.  Folding.  I hate it all.  What I hate the most is putting it all away.   So, usually after I am done folding the clothes, there they sit.  All neatly stacked on my counter.  And that is exactly what happened earlier this week.  The clothes sat, and they sat, and they sat some more.  Finally, I decided to take a picture of the undershirts all neatly stacked and ready to be put in a drawer.   Don't worry, they did get put away the next morning!

July 31 (10/365)

While I spent the weekend playing catchup on all things Stay at Home Mom, My Favoritest spent the weekend working his little tale off.  I jokingly told him that Doodle saw more of him via FaceTime while we were gone that she has since we got home.  I was joking, but it IS true.  I spent the weekend trying to feel bad for him without feeling sorry and frustrated for myself.  Not always an easy task when one spends all day with a 2 1/2 year old and 2 dogs.  When My Favoritest made it home Sunday before Doodle's nap, I was excited to spend some time with him.  Ha, ha, ha!  I should know better by now.  I should know that as soon as the glasses come off, sleep is coming!  At least I can say I spent time with him in the same room!  He was also kind enough to sleep so soundly that I got a fun shot of him and the beagle together!

PS- He will never know this picture exists because he doesn't read my deep and thoughtful blog:) jokes on him today!

Snapshots of My 33rd Year- Day 8

July 29 (8/365)


When I was pregnant with Doodle, I had visions of what I thought she would look like.  I never thought about her face or her height.  I didn't dream about the color of her hair or her eyes.  I never envisioned her is white peaceful baby spendor.  In fact, what I saw in my mind's eye was the Future Doodle.  Future Doodle had crooked pig tails with hair falling out from every angle.  Future Doodle had a little dirt left on her face.  Future Doodle was in such constant motion that I never got more than that little glimpse into whom this baby would become.  Of course the minute she was born, I stopped wondering and just stared in awe at her beauty (and her ability to cry non-stop).  But I never forgot that image of the toddler with the dirty face and crooked pig tails.   Friday afternoon, following a busy morning and a long nap, that toddler made a real live appearance.

Okay, so her face isn't dirty, but check out the pig tails and the wispy hair going in every direction!  When I look back on Doodle at this age, the second picture is what I will see.  My little girl deep in thought and play at her window sill.