Nan and Grandad - doesn't she look cute in the pj's you sent her??? We love them!

The big rush at the end is her moving around to immediately watch the footage. At least she's getting better at performing a whole song! We just need to work on lighting!

Ok, I have to confess, she jumps up and down and is no Julie Andrews, but the girl melts my heart like butter on a hot skillet. And she really can sing.

Due to the impending arrival of baby numero dos, we have been actively getting Brooklyn's BIG GIRL ROOM ready. In other words, Kyle has been painting. And what a lovely job he's done! It was the only bedroom that remained the ugly masking tape color and I cringed every time I walked in or walked by. But now....inspired by a French house featured in House & Garden, we painted the room a split level purple. The bottom half is a grape color while the top is a lovely lilac color. We're going to continue to work on it (curtains, new bedding, artwork) to make it a lovely little French room for our little girl.

We're all so thrilled with the transformation that we've hung out there lots over the last few days. Brooklyn even took her first nap there today! I kept her company, as I was having a not-good pregnant day. (Almost passed out in the dentist chair today). Freaked me out. Baby's obviously getting too heavy for me to lay on my back for any length of time. Anyway, Brooklyn loves to get under the covers with me and read books together, too. With her hand down my shirt in her all-time favorite cozy position. Can't wait to complete it with some new lamps contributed by my wonderful neighbor, Russ, and new bedding...

I think I've been nesting this entire pregnancy! Is that normal?

Oh, and I have to show off the new overalls that just arrived from J Crew this morning. I ordered them on sale - I have a hard time paying their full prices for the CrewCuts line, but man, as cute as these were, I WOULD have paid full price. Brooklyn could NOT have looked any cuter in them, particularly with her little hair sprouts! And go ahead, admire the purple walls! I do every time I see them!

(no, the plant growing in the little blue pot is NOT poison ivy, but a tiny Japanese maple).

I love gardening and landscaping and creating beauty in my surroundings. I love getting my hands in the dirt and feeling the soil, smelling it on my skin. I hate that it dries my hands out ridiculously and never seems to get out from under my fingernails, but everytime I put on my gardening gloves and begin to work, off they go 5 minutes later as I itch to FEEL the process. It's much like baking with me. If I'm making bread or mixing dough, I have to get my hands in there and FEEL it. This spring, much to Kyle's chagrin, I have been ambitious in my plans. I spent the winter planning exactly what I wanted to do and where. Knowing it would be a plan stretched out over several years, I focused on the most visible aspect of our house - the front! And I'm still not entirely finished, but the progress that's been made is so satisfying to me.

Last fall, I finished a small bed to the left of our walkway and did a tiny little comma of a bed on the other side of the walkway, but it just wasn't enough. So, over the past few weeks, I have pulled out the big guns, consulted my brother Chad, and really given it some sweat and blood of my own. I recruited Kyle to help me one Saturday (he hates working in the yard on landscaping stuff), and while he ripped out the numerous wisteria vines snaking under the St. Augustine grass, I cut and moved the St. Augustine as sod squares. Talk about incredibly exhausting. Even when you're NOT 6 months pregnant. I bought and planted over 16 shrubs, lorapetalum and limemound spirea, a Japanese maple and some sweet potato vines which will take over this summer. I have been working also on container plants for our back deck, making it a cozy, fragrant place to sit and have a cup of tea or an early morning Bible study.

Here's what it was...





And here is what it has become...

The Wisteria Hysteria has come and gone. All during the year, I stare at the gnarling limbs and twining branches that is our wisteria - snaking up and around existing trees, creating a living sculpture. A continual promise of beauty contained within, just waiting for those few weeks in April when the weather is warm enough to coax out the purple pods of color. I love watching them emerge and the branches strain for just a few brief weeks to contain the bundles of color and scent. At their peak, I can stand under the trees, look up and see nothing but the color purple, twining vines and thousands of bumblebees, blissfully grazing off the flowers. Fortunately they take no notice of me, or I would not be brave enough to even admire the flowers. I guarantee that the immensity of the vines would impress you. I've NEVER seen wisteria this dense or established. Much to my chagrine during the remaining months of the year when it just looks green and leafy...and during the winter, it can at best be called "winter interest." One of these days, I know we'll have to cut down some of it, but for now, I continue to enjoy its fragrant, lovely charms.

Oh, are you watching me?

I am learning that I have no need to rent comedy movies to make me laugh anymore. I just look at whatever Brooklyn's doing and it rarely fails to make me and Kyle genuinely laugh out loud with far more enjoyment than had we been watching a movie! I love it when someone does something unexpectedly funny and it just catches you off guard. That kind of funny. Brooklyn is the master at that. Mostly related to her newfound shoe fetish - the girl ADORES shoes and tries on pair after pair throughout the day. Sometimes the pair matches, other times it does not. Never seems to phase her. I have gotten to the point where I'll glance down to see if they're on the right feet or not. If not, I just say, "B, switch em." And she plops down on her bottom and swaps feet. Another new thing is that we are now taking off our clothes at whim. Could be anywhere, anytime. Or just parts of the clothing. You never quite know what to expect. And that, my dear friends, is why I just love being around to witness the ongoing hilarity that is toddlerhood. And why I love being a mom! Here are two moments that caught me off guard and I just happened to have a camera nearby.

I have these big velcro rollers that are designed to coil your hair around, blow dry and then shake out gorgeous rolling curls. Well, when the hair under discussion barely FITS around a roller, you do what you can with what you have. And the end result is...well, anchorwoman hair. Or pageant hair. On a 2 year old. It made me laugh. It was very full, I'll give you that! But I think we'll be waiting awhile to take our rolled hair look out and about.

I realize that as time goes, these pictures get less and less flattering and more and more grotesque, but it is tradition to keep tabs on the progress of your pregnancy via pictures and in this case, I'm not going to buck tradition. So I am officially past the sixth month point and moving right along. The baby is moving pretty regularly, enough so that I find myself absently patting it as though to let him/her know that I acknowledge their presence. Brooklyn felt it move the other day, too, and was delighted! She kept saying, it moved! it moved! And now she's convinced that there is a baby in her tummy, too. So she gets belly pics, too. Although I think her tummy is getting smaller while mine gets larger!

I am a fiend when it comes to estate sales. I hit the kitchen first, in search of cool dishes, interesting cookware, tea cups and saucers, pottery...then the rest of the house - cause you never know what cool pieces lay patiently waiting to be discovered by someone with a new vision for them!

This past Saturday, I made a FABULOUS FIND! This terrific white leather wingback chair that I purchased on the spot, no questions asked, for a whopping $42. It was 50% off day. This afforded me the opportunity to rearrange some stuff in our bedroom, cause the new chair found a home in our hip little nursery.

I also found some sweet black & white antique postcards from Paris which will make their way into Brooklyn's big girl room when it is completed. I also found some great black and white photos of happy couples that may adorn my bathroom. We'll see. The final products will be shown here when we get that far. Meanwhile, feast your eyes on my new white chair! It is too mod and funky for words!

Easter has the remarkable habit of being really cold, no matter what the temp was the day before or after. You can almost guarantee that whatever you've chosen to wear will not be warm enough. Hence the rosy cheeks on little B.

She looked SO much like a little girl that it made me want to cry! Thanks to Shana for the gorgeous dress which made Brooklyn look like a little Sarah Crewe (the Little Princess). Love it. And while she most certainly IS a little princess, that does not preclude her from also being a warrioress when the time calls for it.

With utmost concentration and occasionally some help from the other hand, Brooklyn explores her creative side with some washable markers (thank you, Kara! they really do wash off!) and some oversight from Mommy. Afterwards, we're just plain pooped.

Sometimes, all it takes is a space big enough for just us, and we fall asleep.

On Friday, StoneWard took its employees to Oaklawn for the afternoon. Now, I am a typical girl in that I ADORE horses. My daughter, at age 2, has also already caught the horse bug. She was thrilled to death to see horses and more horses streaming around the track, walking past her with their tiny jockeys, and did her fair share of cheering them on. At one point, because StoneWard sponsored a race, we were able to walk out onto the track and present the winner with their cup. As we did so, Brooklyn (and I) were thrilled to see these monstrous Thoroughbreds prancing past us, their stable boys straining to keep them under control. Brooklyn kept asking to ride them and saying "Mine! My horse!" I know how she feels. Maybe someday we'll have a horse....In the meantime, at least we know where we can go to watch them run! (And no, we made no money. Actually, we were given $5 to bet, we bet 4, lost it, and walked away a dollar ahead).

Oh, I recommend you bet on the greys. They always win!

If I didn't know better, I'd think I was part English. Well, technically, I may be, but I've not spent enough time on the island to be as English-y as I feel sometimes. And by that, I mean that I drink enough hot tea to float a rather large boat; I adore a good rainy day; I love to wear my Wellies; I make a mean scone (probably better than the dry Enlish versions; I love to putter in my garden; I would give anything for a thatched roof cottage in Devonshire or somewhere on the moors...and I love to read about all things English. In fact, I recently discovered a British author whose works I have been pouring through: Marcia Willett. I delved into several of her books, loved them, and Kyle has been bringing more home from the library for me. I had the unfortunate realization midway through my piles, that her characters are all related. There is an order to her books that I was NOT made aware of in time. There is no helpful list in the front of her books, and the library has confusingly placed some of her first books on the new release shelf, despite the fact that they precede the others I already read! They were apparently re-released, but nobody told me!

Anyway, with my mind full of English cottages, thatched roofs, large, hairy Newfoundlands lounging about, wild ponies and sheep on the moors, the gorse and heather...I was thrilled to awaken yesterday to a day straight out of an English countryside. It was rainy, misty, my windows fogged up...Kyle and I nestled under quilts with our mugs of hot tea and pretended we were in our own little cottage far from North Little Rock. The lushness of color outside our windows was breathtaking, the birds chirped lazily, and time passed extra slowly just for us. I made myself a delicious grilled cheese sandwich with this fabulous hearty whole grain bread, sliced up a nectarine and threw in some grapes for good measure. I slowly savoured each bite as I did my quiet time and praised God for a day made in heaven!!!!

With Ingrid the kitty in our house, I have to be vigilant at making sure Brooklyn isn't tormenting her. She has this little stroller that she loves to zoom around the house, wheels screeching around corners, her little voice shrieking along with her movements! This tends to scare the dickens out of Ingrid who immediately dashes beneath the bed. After repeatedly reprimanding Brooklyn for scaring Ingrid, I was witness to her zooming purposefully towards Ingrid with her stroller. From the other end of the hallway, I yelled at her to STOP and come here immediately. The wheels immediately halted, as did her feet. She knew she was in trouble and was in no hurry to come face the music.

I stood there, staring her down as she made her decision to obey or disobey. After several long seconds, she began wheeling stroller down the hallway to me, lifting it ever so slowly up over the edge of the runner, slowly approaching me and what she knew was going to be a lecture. She stopped just short of my knees as I squatted down at her level. I calmly explained why we don't chase Ingrid and how important it is for her to obey me. She stared at me impassively the whole time, taking it in. Then, as I concluded, she reached out her tiny hand to rest on my cheek and said, "Mommy, you cute."

A parent more experienced than me would probably have swallowed the laughter that erupted in them. Or at least turned their head to preserve the lesson being taught at that moment. I couldn't do it. Spontaneous laughter gurgled out of me in rolling peals, and I squeezed her little body to me, praying that something sunk in, cause she sure threw me off my soapbox. What a stinker!

Being 22 weeks pregnant means that you frequently feel like a whale. Bulky, large, ever-expanding, sore, heavy, FAT...just not the prettiest you've ever felt. I have said this before, but I hate gaining weight and it's by far the hardest part of pregnancy for me. Even though I know it's necessary. Well, there are little moments of redemption that pierce through the feeling of unattractiveness, often from the most unexpected places.

Today, as I tried on some new clothes that arrived via my beloved UPS man (from Babystyle, from Old Navy and from Gap - all maternity apparel), I was feeling rather large. When Brooklyn strolled into the room and said, "Mommy, you pretty!" Followed immediately by, "That's cute, Mommy!" I gotta tell you, that just lit me up like a Christmas tree. Unprompted compliments from a 2 year old GOTTA be the real deal. Even if it's only in her little brown eyes, today, she thought I was pretty, and that's a fact.