Five Favorites (vol. 3)

1.  When we were starting Michael on solids (oh so long ago, it feels like), I didn't think much about bibs.  We had an assortment from baby shower gifts, and (in hindsight) he was a pretty neat eater.  The cute little ones that came with outfits and the multipacks from Walmart or wherever worked just fine.

Enter the Liam-boy.  Tearing off his bib (because all the velcro is old and useless) is the favorite mealtime activity, following closely by completely pulverizing/liquefying whatever he is supposed to be consuming.  Getting the substance in (or near) his mouth comes in third.  Sometimes.  Getting him out of his high chair generally requires vacuuming off his lap first, unless you want the half of his meal not yet on the floor to end up there as soon as you pick him up.  Not to mention his habit (recently outgrown... mostly...) of consistently spitting out his first swig of whatever is in his sippy cup.  Etc.  Obviously the hand-me-down bibs have not been sufficient.

A good friend has these bibs for her girls, and after months of admiring the bib situation at her house and lamenting the dismal failure of bibs at our house, it finally occurred to me that buying bibs that work and tossing our useless ones would not, actually, be an extravagant waste of money.  Yes, I'm a little bit slow (is it too early to blame pregnancy-brain?).

Bumkins SuperBib

Bumkins Waterproof Junior Bib

I got a 3-pack of the smaller bibs and two of the junior bibs.  M doesn't generally want or use a bib (hello, worthless) anymore, but I know as soon as L has these spiffy new ones that will change.  Disaster averted.

They're supposed to arrive today and I am SO! EXCITED!

2.  French doors.  I was absolutely indifferent to them before we bought our house, but now I can close the doors between the den and the living room and blog work in comparative peace whilst still keeping an eye on the wildmen for about five minutes longer than I would otherwise.  Five minutes is a loooong time around here!

my room with a view

3.  In case you missed it floating around to celebrate Blessed JPII's feast day yesterday, this meme may be may all-time favorite from my favorite meme makers, Catholic Memes:

I'm seriously considering printing out a poster-sized version to hang in the baby's room.

4.  Speaking of babies (sort of), this address by Bishop Conley of Lincoln, NE on "Fulfilling Our Prophetic Mission" was absolutely wonderful (as is just about anything Bishop Conley says/writes).  Here's a snippet:

If we can understand God's love for the least among us--for the poor, the vulnerable, the unborn, or the disabled--we can understand his love for all of us.  If we can witness to the dignity of disabled lives, we're likely to witness deeply to all human dignity.  Our dignity is rooted not in what we can do, but in how much God loves us.

5.  And finally (how has this post taken me all day to write?!), if you are looking for just the right combination of wisdom, insight, and lots of good laughs I highly recommend Simcha Fisher's book:

It's currently only available on Kindle, but the print version is coming soon.  I downloaded the Kindle app for my iPhone just so I could read this book.  My only complaint?  It's too short.  I finished it in two days (albeit while neglecting other minor little tasks, like laundry) and I kind of wish I could go on reading it forever.  Or at least a month.  Fantastic :)

Go see Hallie and the gang for more favorites!

Five Favorites (vol. 2)

1.  If I had ever been there, I'm sure Spain would be one of my favorite places.  Since I haven't gone yet, and since I can't convince Alex that walking the Camino with two small children is a good idea (I have no idea what his problem is), friends who travel internationally and let me live vicariously through them and bring me back amazing and totally unexpected gifts are absolutely my favorite.  Many thanks, Nicole and Laurel (and Alison, whose lovely stuffed animals brought back from Cambodia are not pictured because they in the room of a sleeping child and I did not plan head... sorry)!!!


2.

Tarta de Santiago (cake of St. James) is my newest favoritest pastry (and here's a recipe in English).  The feast of St. James is coming up on July 25th, and if I can keep up my motivation I'll be trying for my very own tarta.  We'll see how it lives up to the real Spanish deal.  Wish me luck.

3.

And these are my newest favoritest earrings.  Apparently the cathedral in Compostela sells jewelry with designs taken from an illuminated medieval manuscript they have in their archives.  How cool is that?  Oh, and Liam loves them too.  Of course.

4.  

Speaking of favorite places, here's one of them.  Please ignore the classy framing and artistically placed flattened bugs, and focus on the buttes on either side of the highway.  This is on Hwy 85 between Cheyenne and Torrington, Wyoming.  Alex and I both love driving through Wyoming (seriously), and this is our favorite part (okay, one of several).  There is something so majestic and lonely about those two buttes framing the highway...  So if you're ever needing to drive from Denver up to SD, we highly recommend taking 85 right after Cheyenne instead of staying on I-25.  But the Taco John's in Torrington doesn't have a public restroom.  Just so you know.

5.  And for something completely different...

I had completely despaired of finding a new swimsuit.  Ever.  I'll spare you all of my whining about how impossible it is to find one that fits modestly--let alone looks at all flattering.  I had looked at Kohl's the last couple summers and couldn't find anything, so I almost didn't try again this summer.  But I was desperate.  And voila, look at what I found!!!  It fits (although I had to go up 6 sizes from what my size actually is based on the numbers, but whatever)!  I like the color!  It was on sale (although not as on sale as it is now... rats)!  It has support!  It's modest (for a swimsuit)!  Win!

Go see Hallie and the gang for more favorites!

Five Favorites (vol. 1)

After being a long-time lurker, I'm finally linking up with Hallie for Five Favorites!  Are you excited?  I am!

1.

HoMedics Sound SPA Relaxation Sound Machine
[source]

When Michael was born I was adamant that we did not need any special noise-making devices.  For the life of me I cannot remember why... I just felt like creating white noise with fans should be sufficient.  Should.  Ha.  This attitude persisted for the first several months of Liam's life as well.  He was in our room, and if we had the bathroom fan turned on all night that seemed to work just fine.  Then we moved him out of our room at 6 months, and for a while I tried to make do with radio static.  Not so great... it was kind of harsh but it worked, except when reception suddenly improved in the middle of the night and I'm sitting there nursing Liam, half asleep, and I realize I'm hearing voices.  Radio voices, not in-my-head-voices, although it took a minute to figure out.  So I finally gave in and ordered a sound machine and I LOVE IT (yes, it is worthy of shouting).

The ocean setting is so incredibly soothing.  I have a tendency to fall asleep when I'm nursing Liam at night (and sometimes at naptime) anyway, and with this it is almost impossible for me to not doze off.  Which is sometimes nice and sometimes a pain--literally, a pain in my neck when I realize I've been sleeping in an awkward sitting position for two hours.  But I love this sound machine as much as--probably even more than--Liam does.

sweet dreams

2.

[source]

The last several times I've tried to paint my nails I've been horribly disappointed in the result.  I've never become particularly skilled at it, but recently it seemed like no matter what I did they did not turn out even remotely smooth.  Then it dawned on me that pretty much all of my nail polish is 8-14 years old.  Hmmm... maybe just because there is some left in the bottle doesn't necessarily mean it is still usable?  So I treated myself to some new nail polish, and I opted for a quick dry type because even when my nails do turn out semi-okay I ruin them almost right away because someone (or sometwo, for that matter) demands my attention before they are completely dry.  I'm pretty darn pleased with the result--it went on smoothly and dried quickly (such high standards, I know).  It seems to chip fairly easily, but for how quickly it dried I can afford to redo them.

Side-note: I was checking the bottle looking for the name of the color before writing this post, and all it said was "24k."  Great, some stupid code/numbering system isn't particularly descriptive.  How can it not have a name?  I distinctly remember there being names for the colors on the display at the store...  So how would I describe it?  Faintly shimmery, kind of a gold tone.  Gold... 24k... okay, I get it.  Obviously I need some more quality time with those ocean waves.

3.

[source]

Impulse buy yesterday while shopping for above nail polish: Mike the Knight DVD for $5.  The show itself is cute (um, a knight, named Mike? obviously Michael needed this--and it is not available on Netflix. lame.) but not spectacular enough to make it into the top 5 by itself.  What is truly my favorite is how excited M got about it.  He carried the DVD carefully for the rest of our shopping/browsing trip, relinquished it reluctantly in the check-out line, and sat absolutely enthralled for the entire thing when we got home.  Then for the rest of the day he told everyone that he watched "Mite the Knight"!  And then told us again!  And again!

The evolution (devolution?) of my thoughts on children's shows is a topic for another post.  Suffice it to say that I'm thankful for a little variety in our life.  I can only watch so much Thomas before my boilers bust...

4.

[source]

Don't judge.

5.

These boys.  Always my favorite.  Cheating?  Maybe.  But one of them (*cough*littleone*cough*) woke me up at 6 this morning and I have been trying to finish this post ever since.  It has been a cheating sort of day.

The end!