{un}interesting facts.

serena has taken a liking to dress-ups. she loves wearing her swimsuits around the house all day long. i have to hide them now.

we slept with a flat sheet on our bed last night for the first time in a very long time. i felt like i was in a hotel. i hate how they always get tangled and wadded up and make it complicated to make the bed. but last night it was kind of luxurious.

i am totally aware of the many incomplete and run-on sentences i use. but this is a blog. not an essay for class. {see. i just started two sentences with "but". does that rule about starting a sentence with a conjunction still apply? help me out here, jenny.}

i love the original chapstick. the one with the black label. the one that smells and tastes like medicine. it's my favorite.

serena has a cold sore. which means she will probably get them her whole life. poor girl.

we went to the store and bought tangled at 9 a.m. this morning.

sean told me we could buy the $90 bouncer if i promised to have more babies to use it. i told him i promised to sell it when harper grew out of it... ha!

serena said a full sentence when sean was assembling the bouncer. "harper sits right there." she's pretty much a genius.

i fell asleep reading the glass castle last night. that's a good thing. it wasn't boring. it was so interesting that i wouldn't put it down until my body finally gave in to sleep.

waiting.

house rented. tickets purchased. now the waiting begins.

dear hawaii,

see you in 9 months.

love, ariel

{image}

lunch.

I have had this for lunch every day this week... and I plan to make it again today.

It's that good.

five months.

my baby is five months old! can you believe it? i can't!

harper at five months:
she learned how to roll from back to tummy yesterday!
she smiles like crazy.
she has stranger anxiety. {i kind of love it...}
she likes watching mickey mouse... takes after her sister, i guess.
she has absolutely no nap schedule.
she goes to bed at 9 pm, wakes up once, and is up for good around 8 am.
she reaches and grabs for things and loves holding onto her toys.
she still spits up a lot, but it's getting better.
she still HATES the bathtub. HATES.
she loves her sister.
she is terrified of her sister.
she gets sooooo excited when her daddy comes home from work.
she has a great big head.
she laughs. it kinda sounds like crying. this is the video that least showcases serena's crying in the background:

that's a toy monkey at the end... not serena. and yes, i know my baby talk voice is annoying.

too juicy to hide under pants.

mini boden.

wishing my budget allowed for $50 dresses for my baby & toddler. and that they made that yellow dress in my size. {they do make clothing for women.... also outta my budget range...}

mini







baby

polish perfection.

i've searched high and low for the perfect gold nail polish, and i have found it.

nicole by opi- the next ceo.

love it! it's the perfect not-too-yellow, perfectly shimmery gold.



also loving you're an angel, the right thing, and dandy lyon {which is a gold shimmer, not so much the flat yellow that it looks like in the picture}.

don't judge my cuticles too harshly.

mommy + harper = ♥

i love our mommy-harper time when serena is napping. she is seriously a JOY. such a happy and sweet little thing. every time you look at her she grins from ear to ear. looooove her.

on a side note, last night serena threw a crazy fit in the middle of the night and cried and cried and CRIED every time we put her in her back into bed and left the room. we comforted her, held her, loved her, and couldn't find anything wrong with her. after this went on for over an hour we put her in bed, shut the door, and left. she continued to cry and call for daddy, so i shut our door, turned on our bathroom fan, and slept peacefully until 8:30.

i'm not opposed to her coming and laying in our bed for awhile if she will LAY THERE AND SLEEP. every time we let her, she giggles, smacks us in the face, pulls my hair and just goofs off. so i'm done with that.

is that bad? i'm sure harper woke up sometime and wanted to eat, but she didn't resent us in the morning or anything.

{i hope my mom doesn't read this. i'm pretty sure her heart would break knowing that serena was crying all alone in her room for who knows how long...}

sometimes.

sometimes when my kids are napping i search the internet for an english translation of a german song i love. and then write the words in. and then sing it. and pretend that i sound as good as dawn upshaw does on this album.

because that's the sort of thing that's fun to me.

past nine o'clock.

this time change is totally messing with our schedules. boo!

{loving the lighter evenings, though.}

it was another fantastically bad day with serena. but there were some bright spots:

a happy, content, sweet little harper.
learning that whatever is bothering serena is lessened with some tylenol. {molars?}
chile relleno for lunch.
bachelor finale tonight.
lots of diet dr pepper.

tomorrow will be a better day. i feel it.

lately.

this week serena was required to entertain herself a lot. which she is not very good at. but here she is, playing with her toys. this lasted a good 10 minutes.

after a long day at home on tuesday, we all went to kangaroo zoo to get serena out of the house. she cried for the first 30 minutes and wouldn't go on any of the balloons. but eventually she would let us put her at the top of a slide so she could go down. sean and i got a good workout.

wednesday: rehearsal. thursday: dress rehearsal. friday: concert x2. our broadway bingo concert was a little chaotic and a lot of fun! sold out house at 7:00 so we added a show at 9:00. needless to say, i was completely exhausted on friday night!

but on saturday, we had tickets to disney on ice. despite the fits serena threw all morning, we went to the show. on the way there we found ourselves in the middle of a st patrick's day parade {which we are totally going to next year! fun!}. i stepped in dog crap and had to buy a new pair of shoes at old navy.

we made it to the ESA, bought a $24 minnie mouse doll, an enormous bag of kettle corn and a $10 drink {we didn't know the regular concessions were open and bought everything from those dang disney people...}. and serena made it about 30 minutes before she was crying and asking to go home. what kid goes to disney on ice and begs to go home? it's a good thing she took a 4 hour nap because the whining and crying were driving me insane.

seriously, what is wrong with my child? she has suddenly become the WHINIEST, CLINGIEST kid ever! teeth coming in? terrible twos? whatever it is, it had better be a short phase.

i love. i hate.

i love my shiny, sequined shoes.
i hate when they get worn out because i wear them every day.
i love word games.
i hate mean drivers.
i love fine point sharpies.
i hate painting {walls}.
i love seeing bad movies with good friends. {i am number four}
i hate 12:45-1:15 pm on sundays.
i love sunday dinners.
i hate diet pepsi.
i love catalogs in the mail.
i hate rain on my hair.
i love umbrellas.
i hate oxford shoes on women, especially the ones with heels. bleh!
i love the new shade.
i hate sitting by teenagers at the movies.
i love popcorn with hot tamales.
i hate cleaning the shower/tub.
i love carried away.
i hate missing a girls night.
i love this military chalkboard map.
i hate the price tag.
i love lists.
i hate budgets.
i love happy baby noises.
i hate whiny toddler noises.
i love a hot dog with relish.
i hate my crazy full inbox.
i love alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
i hate having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
i love tights.
i hate leggings.
i love going to bed at 9:30 pm.
i hate getting out of bed before 7 am.
i love singing every wednesday night.
i hate facebook status updates about the weather.
i love my new double stroller.
i hate that we haven't used it yet.
i love strawberry rhubarb pie.
i hate german chocolate cake.
i love nakey babies after bathtime.
i hate finding a pile of clothes + diaper and wondering where naked serena is hiding this time.
i love sparkly snow.
i hate sleep training!
i love serena's hugs around the neck.
i hate when she eats my chapstick.
i love our little home.
i hate shuffling cars.
i love people watching at a jazz game.

hello outside.

it had been a while.

we missed you.

serena was deliriously happy.

harper was in awe. {it was her first time really spending time outside.}

i love me some winter, but our house seems to be getting smaller and smaller and we're running out of fun things to do inside. lucky we got some sunshine before the rain & snow in the forecast.

picture books to love.

“children are made readers on

the laps of their parents.”
- emilie buchwald

since i started this project, i've been obsessing over children's books. i'm on amazon almost daily {mostly looking, sometimes buying} finding old favorites and new ones to love. these are a few:

a tree is nice, janice way udry

sylvester and the magic pebble, william steig

cinderella, marcia brown

knuffle bunny, mo willems

i had entirely forgotten about a tree is nice and sylvester. marcia brown's cinderella was my all-time favorite book as a kid because i loved the magical illustrations {minus the sissy prince}. knuffle bunny is a new favorite at our house. serena asks for it all the time.

isn't reading to kids the best thing ever? serena would be totally content with nothing but books to entertain her. and so would i.