Pregnantly Plump

King of the ottoman empire

2008-11-21T13:38:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy week for Little Elvis, especially when it comes to doing super-cute things while Mommy has the camera out.

We bought a little circular storage ottoman about a year ago, and keep all of his footballs, soccer balls, baseballs, toy balls, etc. in it. Usually he just yanks the lid off, empties the ottoman and runs on his merry little way.
But on Wednesday, he realized the possibilities this ottoman presented, and quickly began to work on conquering it. Here he decided to storm the ottoman while most of the balls were still inside.
No matter, if he needed to take prisoners, then so be it.
Here sits the new ruler of our Ottoman empire. Mommy needs to make him a crown.

All he wants to do is have some fun

2008-11-20T13:08:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since the last Little Elvis music video. It's not that I don't have lots of material to work with -- he is just as cute and curious and wonderful as ever. I've just not been on top of my editing game.

This video is a mishmash of cuteness from August to now. I think you can literally see his hair growing!

I have three other music videos in the works -- all from our Mississippi trip. Two have songs picked out, but I can't come up with a fun song for the third. Anyone know any good songs about ducks? Disco Duck and the Ducktales theme song aren't doing it for me.

NASCAR trumps Steelers

2008-11-18T13:03:00.004-05:00

Bob and I used to live in East Tennessee -- just down the road from the Bristol Motor Speedway. Since we worked at a television station and were in the land of NASCAR, I absorbed quite a bit of knowledge about the sport and its athletes by osmosis.

I distinctly remember talking drivers with my grandfather once and my mom looking at me with a surprised, this-is-not-my-daughter look on her face.

Once we left the land of NASCAR, I went back to my usual self, only watching football and whining while watching baseball with Bob.

It's not that I have too much against car racing, but if watching men stand around a diamond and only sometimes run to a base bores me, then watching cars zoom around a circle is definitely not my idea of entertainment.

As for the wrecks, they just upset me. I can't enjoy that.

Now that I'm a mom, my dislike of NASCAR has grown. And I could only imagine how cool racing would seem to my son.

To prevent dreams of becoming the next Jimmie Johnson, I've done my best to shield my car-loving sweetie from NASCAR.

On Sunday, Little Elvis was not at all interested in the Steelers/Chargers match-up, so he kept changing the channels. Guess what he landed on?
Yep, he found a NASCAR race, and was immediately intrigued. He would point, and dance and was too thrilled with this show.

Every time they cut away to the announcers, he would change the channels in an attempt to find the cars.

Poor Daddy had a devil of a time watching his Steelers squeak by with a win. We're pretty sure it was an exciting game. We only got to see 2-3 second bits of it between channel changes.

I'm pretty sure that if my Colts had been televised, Little Elvis wouldn't have gone channel surfing... right?

Chistmas pics, take 2

2008-11-16T15:57:00.005-05:00

As promised, here are some more attempts at making a super-sweet, super-cute Little Elvis Christmas card for my parents.
Clifford's not Christmas-y! Just because he's red? You guys are REALLY stretching here...
Speaking of stretching, what's Christmas-y about this ottoman? Looks like Spring to me!
Now you're giving me a light green blanket and a red pillow? C'mon! I need REAL inspiration here.
I can NOT work under these conditions! A cuddle by Gram helps.
The Disney Channel helps, too.
Uh-oh, I feel a smile coming on -- better put my finger in my mouth!Wait a second! Where did the Happy Monster Band go?
These monkeys aren't half-bad...

OK, OK, I'll give you a real smile. BUT I don't think this background is going to work... Back to the drawing board Mommy!

Christmas card pics, take 1

2008-11-16T15:40:00.002-05:00

We start things early in my family. Since my mom was in town over the weekend, I decided that we should go ahead and try to get a Christmas picture for her Christmas cards.

Thirty-seven pictures and two days later.... well... let's just say taking pictures of a Christmas-y Little Elvis was MUCH easier last year.

What do you mean, smile? Why would I smile when you won't let me play with that pretty red wreath?
That wreath WILL be mine!
If only Gram would let me go!!

I WANT that wreath Gram!
You think I'm going to smile if Mommy holds me? Ha! I will stick my fingers in my mouth just in case she tickles me and manages a giggle.
I don't want to SIT on this ottoman. I want to CLIMB on it. You want a smile? Let me climb on this ottoman!Oh yeah. Give the camera to Mommy. Guess she thought if she put it on some random filter she might be able to pretend I was smiling....
It's going to take more than 37 pictures to crack me!

Tune in tomorrow to see a pic of a semi-smile from me, and even some tears.

Any advice on getting him to stand near something Christmas-y and smile at the camera?

Re-covering from the weekend

2008-11-11T21:25:00.002-05:00

What did we do this weekend? Well, let's see. We rearranged most of the rooms in our house, AND we reupholstered another chair!

I've liked the IKEA Tullsta chairs for a while, but thought I could find one on craigslist for a steal. After a few months of searching, I finally found one for free! It wasn't in bad shape, but it was dark gray. So it didn't match our other stuff.

No problem, I had some great nubby fabric that I bought a few months ago for such an occasion.

After two nights, several bad finger pokes and even more cursing, we were done!
For two people who have no idea what they are doing, I think we did a pretty good job. This is our second chair to reupholster and we are both happier with this one.
So is Little Elvis!

He also seems to really love our new furniture arrangements. I was anticipating something from him, but he just went with it. He even likes to play in our bedroom now!

I was mistaken

2008-11-10T12:21:00.004-05:00

When I was pregnant, Bob and I had all sorts of discussions and daydreams about what Little Elvis would be like and who he would look like.

We both decided that he would most likely have to wear glasses and get braces, since we both experienced bad eyesight and crooked teeth as kids. (The jury is still out on this one, but I so hope we are wrong!)

We also talked eye color. I figured he would have dark brown eyes like his Daddy. Bob wanted him to inherit my hazel eyes.

I was right about that one. Look at those beautiful dark brown eyes. His eyes started turning brown when he was about 3 months old.

Then we moved to the topic of hair. Despite all the old wive's tales about heartburn being related to a full head of hair, we figured we would have a bald baby on our hands.
This was fine with us. I liked his little cueball head. My nose didn't get tickled everytime I went in for a kiss, and he didn't seem to mind when we rubbed his head for luck. And Little Elvis is wonderful about wearing hats!

Even though we figured he would be bald at first, we debated the color of the hair once it began growing.

I distinctly remember making the comment to my dark-haired hubby that we wouldn't have a blond, curly-headed baby. It's not that I -- a person with stick straight, brown hair -- think blond, curly hair is bad. I just didn't see how it was possible.

Who knew our little boy would end up growing golden, wispy curls in the back? I tried to capture them in all their sweet ringleted glory...
...but he's a whole lot faster than my camera. You can kind of see the little curls in the back in these pics. His hair doesn't curl on top or in the front, but he gets the sweetest little ringlets in the back.

At least he does until I start playing with them. I'm not used to curls and I can't leave his alone! I like to boing them and fluff them. I've been known to make them frizzy.

Anyway, I will admit that I was wrong. We do have a blondish, curly-headed baby. And I wouldn't want him any other way.

Sweets for my sweet

2008-11-06T21:57:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I say, "Little Elvis, there is no way that you can get any cuter. There just isn't. It's not possible."
My little boy sure does love to prove me wrong. Here a very happy boy is showing off his first sucker.

Little Elvis loved dumping all of the candy out our very full (only 10 trick-or-treaters!) candy bowl and then putting 5 or 6 pieces back in it. He usually stopped when he landed on a pineapple sucker. Since it was clear, I decided, "What the hey?"
Definitely worth it.
Here is a collection of items needed to go outside -- all assembled by an impatient Little Elvis while I wasted time cooking. There's his jacket, a pillow, my purse, his diaper bag and a shoe.
Once I removed the pillow -- which I think was just placed there for decoration -- I found my pair of shoes and two more of his! After all of that work, I just had to take him outside.
His love of cars continues to grow. And he's really getting into lining them up. You can see his new pink convertible in the front.

We went to a children's flea market last weekend. Family trips to baby sales may soon be a thing of the past. He wanted to play with EVERYTHING! One little girl tried to sell me a big Barbie van that Little Elvis was trying to tear apart, but I managed to pull him away before getting stuck with that monstrosity.

Then Bob took him to a Girl Scout booth at the back. Bob says Little Elvis spotted the convertible immediately but another child was playing with it. Our son eyed his prize until the other boy got tired of it, then pounced!

I think it was love at first sight. This little pink Polly Pocket convertible has doors that open, a steering wheel that moves, zebra striped carseats (that flip and change to stars with Ps in them!) and stickers of food all over it. There's a slice of pizza by the steering wheel, and two bags of fries on the trunk. Oh, and the trunk used to open. But, um, well, he IS a little boy.

Unlike the big red Clifford dog, this relationship has already lasted for 5 days. It goes with us just about everywhere. He's even tried to cuddle with it.

Santa is now on a search for a stuffed car.

Saving money for the holidays - please watch!!

2008-11-04T13:11:00.005-05:00

We live in one of the more expensive areas of the country, and on just one income. It's not easy, but we try to be fairly creative in the way we spend and sometimes make money.

When I read about the Wal-Mart contest to submit a money-saving tip to win a $6,000 gift-card, I was pretty excited.

It took me a while to think of something that we did that was unique. I figured lots of people would enter with very similar ideas.

While in Mississippi, inspiration hit while we were wrapping Christmas presents. Yeah, we were wrapping them in October. Many were bought on December 26th. I'm sure you see where I'm going.

From what I understand, the contest is decided by which video is viewed the most. Please watch!!

***Unless you are my mom or Bob's dad. You guys cannot watch. Your presents and prices are included in this and I don't want you to know about them.

But please, everyone else watch!! Watch it lots of times!! Except for Gram and Grandpa Stew. (I'm pretty sure no other family members read this, but if you are family and think you might be getting a gift, then you shouldn't watch either!)

Feel free to tell friends and family to watch as well. I'm not sure if we stand a chance, but I think our tip is pretty helpful. And I know I recently fussed about Wal-Mart. The one closest to us is not a good Wal-Mart, but other than that store, my experiences with Wal-Mart are great.

Back to the regularly scheduled Little Elvis cuteness tomorrow!

New friends

2008-11-03T20:14:00.002-05:00

Little Elvis and I walked to the library this morning. This isn't an unusual occurrence, BUT this was the first time we did it sans stroller!

That's right, I slapped on the harness, and he picked up his new pink VW Beetle convertible
(he picked it out himself!) and we headed on our merry way.

I'm estimating that's it's about half to three quarters of a mile to the library. He did a wonderful job.

Once we were just about outside the library, they called to tell me the story time was cancelled. Oh well. It was right beside his new favorite playground, so no big deal.

We made our way to the park, and there was another little boy there. He was immediately ready to pal around with us. He's just a couple of months older, but was way more willing to socialize than Little Elvis.

Little Elvis wanted up the big slide, and the little boy followed. Little Elvis ran to the next playground, and the little boy followed. Little Elvis ran to the bridge (he adores the echo-ey sound he makes when running over the wooden planks) and the little boy followed.

His mom was always in tow, and I'm sure she thought we were a bad influence, although she was extremely nice.

Little Elvis was just about ready to finish his bridge work when the little boy came up to me and started hugging. I got about 3 or 4 hugs out of the deal!

Then, the boys were off, running around the basketball court. It was a fun time.

Oh! And the mom remembered us from the library story-time that became song-time.

Little Elvis needed to be carried about half of the way back, but that's ok. I'm just glad he had a good time.

We are planning to walk the block and a half to vote tomorrow morning. Oh, how I hope the wait isn't too long! I think I'll bring the stroller just in case I need to put him in it.

Recall drama

2008-11-03T12:17:00.002-05:00

Bob's last weekend as a bachelor was not a very fun one. He spent most of that Saturday taking apart our old crib, schlepping to Wal-Mart, having to call Wal-Mart's customer service because the manager at our crappy Wal-Mart didn't know how to handle recalls and wasn't going to bother herself with it, and then driving to three different Wal-Marts around our area to find something comparable to what we had, then building the new crib set.

What really sweetened this deal was that his sweet wife -- who promised to take her cell phone with her that morning -- did not take her cell phone. And he didn't have her parents' cell numbers. So, yeah. He had lots of fun.

My mom bought Little Elvis' crib set when I was about 5 months pregnant with him. We picked out a set that had the crib that converts to a toddler bed, then daybed, etc. And the changing table was attached.

We liked this crib, and had no problems with it. But we weren't about to run any risks with a recalled crib, especially with our budding mountain climber.

Bob is nicer than I am. So when the manager at Wal-Mart couldn't find our crib in the system (it was bought 2 years ago and no longer in the system) and decided not to deal, and he couldn't reach his sweet wife, Bob called Wal-Mart's customer service.

The customer service woman was aptly appalled at the idiocy of the Wal-Mart manager. You don't ask questions, you refund or give a trade-in. You DO NOT act like it's not a big deal. It is my understanding that Bob ended up handing his cell phone over to the Wal-Mart manager so she could realize what a mistake she was making. I believe the customer service woman said this was a great "training" opportunity. Nice. Glad the manager got to learn something that she should have already known.

They ended up finally giving Bob a gift card. That Wal-Mart didn't have any comparable cribs. But it's in the same city as a Target and a Babies R Us. Wouldn't it have been nice if they had given him cash? (Trust me, he was buying a crib. Where else would our son have slept?)

Instead, Bob got to drive to two other towns in the pouring rain and bad traffic to find the set he ended up buying. At least his sweet wife had wised up by this point, and had her cell phone stuck to her hip.

Bob, being the nice person that he is, decided not to write Wal-Mart about this crappy experience. I, on the other hand, would have drafted a very long letter about my anger at the manager, and the fact that he got to waste most of a tank of gas trying to replace our crib. (I've written corporate about this particular crappy Wal-Mart in the past, and would not hesitate to do so again. I am all about customer service and will write if I feel the service was shoddy.)

So, Little Elvis has a new bed. This one is a cherry finish. Bob decided to upgrade us. The crib is still a 4-in-1, but the changing table is not attached. It also came with a dresser. This means that we now have a cute white dresser with balloons on it sitting in the middle of our guest room that we bought off of craigslist not two months ago. Oh well.

I think Little Elvis likes his new crib, and I'm glad it's safe. Just hate that poor Bob had to waste a Saturday with it.

More Mississippi shenanigans

2008-11-02T12:13:00.003-05:00

I still have a few cute pics from the Mississippi trip. As Little Elvis has gotten bigger, I have gotten much worse about taking pics and shooting videos. Still, I should have enough fodder for three pretty cute videos in the near future.
Little Elvis stumbles over my shoes several times a day. Usually, he just keeps on going. But one day he decided to try on a pair of my shoes. Yes, he's wearing them backwards. He managed to get a couple of good scoots in before falling out of them.
What a funny face! He loved the stairs at my parents' house and would sneak up them any chance he got. He became very quick!

One afternoon I went upstairs to go to the bathroom. My dad was in the kitchen with Little Elvis getting food out for a meal. I heard loud thumps coming up the stairs and then heard very fast little feet scurrying past the door. It took him less than half a minute to climb the stairs and find me.

By the second week of our stay, he figured out that he could stand on the first step and turn the kitchen light on and off repeatedly. This discovery way outranked the novelty of stair climbing.

Now that we're back home, he pulls his little chair over to our "dining room" light and climbs up on it to turn the light on and off.

Isn't he a cute sleeper? It's very rare that I get sleeping pics of my baby. I don't know if you can tell, but there's a huge wet drool spot under his mouth. He's been drooling a little for the past couple of months. I'm pretty sure he's cutting a couple of 2-year molars. Other than the drool, he seems to be handling it well.

Halloween fun, two costumes and free food!

2008-11-01T13:51:00.003-04:00

Little Elvis seemed to have a pretty good time this Halloween. We took him to several different events and he got to wear two different costumes!
Thursday evening we took him to a Halloween party thrown by my MOMS group. He learned how to pop balloons -- no tears!! -- and I learned that you shouldn't buy Halloween costumes more than a year in advance. His little bulldog was too tight.

I wore my MSU garb to match his little bulldog costume. I think my MSU shirts would have made more sense in Mississippi.

We wanted to hit several fun events on Friday, but I hated to squeeze him into his bulldog costume, so we improvised.
Little Elvis' aunt and uncle live in Denver and sent him an orange windsuit for Christmas last year. We put that on him, and topped off his orange outfit with a Tigger toboggan I bought him at a garage sale for this winter.
Pretty cute, no?
I stuck an orange wired Halloween ribbon with black designs in his waistband, and from a distance I think it made a decent Tigger tail.

Here he is after his first trick or treating experience. He chose some Smarties. He likes the wrapper, we didn't open them for him.

And since we can't pass up a chance at free food, Bob and I dressed as burritoes (Bob is an 80s music star with his foil headband and I am apparently a prairie girl with my foil bonnet) for food at Chipotle.

Although I think his Tigger outfit was cute enough, I plan on making Little Elvis' outfit next year. My mom made or created just about all of my Halloween outfits, and I always loved them. She sprayed my hair yellow and painted my body blue one year so I could be Smurfette. She sewed me a Carebear costume one year. And I've already mentioned my beloved Boy George ensemble.

Unless his tastes change, I figure we'll be trying to create a car outfit for Little Elvis next year.

Little Elvis' Mommy learns a few things in Miss., Pt. 1

2008-10-29T22:06:00.005-04:00

We're back home. Landed last night after a nice delay tacked on top of a two hour layover. Little Elvis recognized his Daddy, but didn't want Daddy to touch him right away. This was a better reaction than he had this summer when he bawled at the first sight of Bob.

In other news, I learned some very important lessons about my little guy during this trip.

1. Pretty much whatever I say he will or will not eat will be wrong. I had no idea he was flavor loyal when it came to jelly. He is. If it's not grape, it's rubbish!

2. He's sneaky. He remembered that my parents were pretty easy marks when it came to getting what he wanted, but he figured out very quickly that my grandmothers were even bigger pushovers. It took him about 2 minutes in to make that assessment and commence with getting whatever it was he wanted (usually it was to go outside.)

3. My dreams of my son becoming an NFL kicker and supporting me might not come true.

Here he is before a HUGE football game at my high school alma mater (my dad's the athletic director of the school and ordered Little Elvis' super tricked out jersey, with Peyton Manning's number, natch.)
Here he is once the game started. Those aren't tears of joy -- despite the acquisition of a Cheeto -- he was petrified. This really was a huge game. The stadium was almost at capacity and it was very loud. They started off the game with fireworks, which they NEVER did when I went there. If you couple that with loud cheers, some cowbells (it IS Mississippi) and the band... it was just too much. It was also past bedtime. We made it through the first half, but just barely.
4. He didn't seem too impressed with his first boat ride. While the football game drew out some pretty strong emotions, he was only mildly interested in the boat ride. This crushes my father's dreams of Little Elvis becoming a pro fisherman and getting his Coachpa a super-tricked-out boat.
5. Little Elvis can rock just about any type of headgear. Here he is wearing an adult's toboggan (I am southern, and that is what I call it.)Here, he's wearing a cheap bandana that I'm sure was given away at some sales event. He rocks it, though.
And I just like this picture. I think my mom looks like a movie star in this shot, and Little Elvis looks like he's challenging the water to impress him.

We had fun, and I still have other pictures and stories to share. Hopefully I will remember them all. AND I have fodder for two new music videos! Both from early 80s we think.

Little Elvis picks a winner(s)!

2008-10-25T10:27:00.002-04:00

This was lots of fun! Bob and I really enjoyed reading all of the entries. Little Elvis really enjoyed drawing ALL of the names and throwing them on the floor in bunches. We managed to get him to pick one name at a time just three times. It was very fortunate that we didn't do four.

The winners of the free CDs are the Burp Cloth Babe, Jenny and Ann(ie)!

Yay!! Thanks for participating in this and since we had so much fun with it, I think we might do another one closer to Christmas.

Giveaway!!! A CD of weather music for kids

2008-10-17T18:08:00.004-04:00

Bob here (Meredith's husband) -- since Meredith and Little Elvis are in Mississippi, I'm going to try to help add content to the blog and perhaps make some loyal readers lucky winners!

My wonderful wife recently shot another great music video for one of the songs, "The Weather Safety Polka," on my CD, "Do the Weather Wiggle with Stormin' Bob Swanson." Little Elvis co-stars in the video so keep an eye out for his cuteness!

To celebrate, I'm going to give away CDs to 3 lucky responders to this blog entry. How do I enter, you ask? It's simple, just check my other videos and tell me which of the videos is your favorite. Little Elvis will draw the winning names on Friday, October 24th. Please make sure you leave your email address so we can email you if you win.

The drawing is over.

(Meredith here: I realize that I got the audio/visual out of sync at the end of this video. By the time I had produced it and figured that out, I had already taken all of the raw footage off of my computer for space. V. frustrating. Grr.)

Little Elvis, the little traveler

2008-10-16T22:11:00.004-04:00

Little Elvis had a big time flying last weekend. A big time. Other than our few minutes of fussiness while waiting to get on the planes and then waiting to actually take off, he was a really good boy.

We ran all over the first airport before we were allowed to board the plane. And I let him. I snapped him in his little harness and let him inspect every sign in sight. Once on the plane, he was pretty good, until we had to change seats 3 times. Can't fuss too much though, because we got a whole row to ourselves.

He slept most of the flight.

Then we had to walk from one terminal to the next to make our connection. I just want to say a huge Thank You to the person who invented motorized walkways.
And another huge Thank You to the planner who put this walkway right in front of our gate.
We rode this thing for about 20 minutes. Little Elvis LOVED it.
He started whimpering as soon as we got off the belt each time. He was great at walking off of the belt, but usually ended up on his bottom when he got on the next belt.

On our second flight, he spent the entire 23 minutes we were up in the air studying the clouds. I told him his Daddy would be very thrilled about that.

During our long flight while he slept, I had a great time. It's been so long since I've held him during a nap. I had forgotten how sweet he is then.

He still puckers his little lips like he's about to say "puh" while he sleeps. And when he's waking up, he shakes his little head several times.

It was pure bliss. He was so cute, that I looked up at one point and caught the guy in front of us smiling at how sweet Little Elvis was. (Not in a skeevy way, just in a, "Wow, that baby sure is sweet and well-behaved. I hope to have a child like that" way.)

On my growing dislike for obvious-staters

2008-10-15T21:34:00.005-04:00

Little Elvis and I are in Mississippi! We've been here for a few days now, and I've just not really gone online too much.

I have some cute pics, but I'm not on my computer at the moment.

Not that any of the people who read my blog would ever do this, but one tiny piece of advice when near a person traveling with an unhappy toddler: Do NOT tell me that someone must be unhappy.

I am his mother. I am very well aware of the fact that he isn't happy. The bright red face and the screaming in my ear are clues to me that my child is not happy.

He wasn't bad while we were flying, but the waiting in my arms while we stood in line to get onto the second plane made him mad. He was ready to go, and the airline people were taking their sweet time.

Did I look at the young deskworker who told me my baby was unhappy and tell her that it looked like she was taking way too long to scan my ticket? No.

Did I tell the woman waiting at the door to point me to the right plane that it looked like her pants were way too tight? No.

If I can keep from stating the obvious when my child is screaming and trying to break out of my arms, then I think others should do the same.

Oh, and another thing -- don't fly if you're contagious! Little Elvis and I had to change seats three times on our first flight because the woman sitting next to us was too sick to fly. At least she warned me I guess...

He's so cute, it's scary!

2008-10-10T14:43:00.006-04:00

Not only is our boy flipping for joy, he's also been working on the "balance beam."I may have to look into a toddler gym class if he keeps this up.

The "nice" manager at the grocery store gave Little Elvis a little Hershey bar. He made a big mess. Anyone know what gets chocolate out? Spray N Wash didn't work! The nice manager at Chick-Fil-A gave Little Elvis a hat and coloring page. Bob received a gift card for his birthday (thanks Mom!) and we stumbled in on a kids fun night. Little Elvis enjoyed an entire bottle of chocolate milk. Lots of chocolate for one day. Hyper boy wanted this empty milk jug once we got home. It had been washed for the recycle bin, but I wasn't thrilled. Especially when I couldn't get a picture of his incredibly adorable Halloween outfit...
... until I got him to lay on the ground. This outfit got him TONS of compliments everywhere we went on Thursday evening. His onesie said "I want my Mummy!" and his socks were orange and black with white bones. His little shoes were the monster Vans my dad got him a few months ago. People were impressed with our little orange bolt of lightning as he ran everywhere.

How random can I get?

2008-10-10T13:39:00.003-04:00

I've been tagged for a fun meme by MIP at Perfectly Imperfect! I promise to do a better time passing on the love this time.Seven random facts:

I LOVE McDonald's Hot Mustard sauce. If they sold this stuff in bottles at Wal-Mart, I would buy it for full price with no coupon!

I also love fun socks. I like Steve Madden ones the best, but any thin cotton socks with cute prints will do. Currently I'm wearing gray socks with a white and bright green argyle print.

Speaking of socks, I'm very particular about where the seam is. If it's on the outside of my pinky toe or on the bottom of my foot, I have to take my shoe off and adjust immediately.

I spent several years convinced that my grandmother sang on the Lawrence Welk Show. She told me this -- obviously in jest -- and I believed her. I told people. They didn't know who Lawrence Welk was, though.

My nickname in college was Pottymouth. It's tied more into my maiden name, but I did (and sometimes still do) have a tendency to talk worse than a sailor. The name was given to me, because I kept nagging people about what my nickname was. The girls who gave it to me, thought it was ironic. Those that knew me, thought it was ironic that others thought it was ironic. Confused?

I am addicted to Coca-Cola. It was Diet Coke before Little Elvis was born, but I was worried about NutraSweet. Once I stopped nursing, I attempted to go back to DC and it was NOT the same. The good news is, it was a 3-can-a-day habit with the unleaded nectar. With the fully loaded stuff, it's one can. Tried cutting it out yesterday and spent the entire day with the worst headache ever!

I am a huge car singer. I will belt out just about whatever is on the radio. I probably look like someone trying out for American Idol while I'm at a stoplight. But Little Elvis seems to be fine with my singing... for the moment anyway.

I'd like to know more about these folks:
--Marla
--mpotter
--Laura
--Jenny
--Kristi
--Scarlet O'Kara
--ann(ie)

Flipping out! (a new music video!)

2008-10-07T12:57:00.004-04:00

Little Elvis has been close to doing a flip for several weeks now. He would get so close, and then fall over.

This weekend, we had friends over for a cookout. Little Elvis had to show off by grabbing the hot sauce out of the refrigerator door (the lemon seems to have lost it's cool for the moment) and... turning a flip all by himself!

He shocked himself with this feat and surprised me. Our guests were impressed with his talent as well, but poor Bob was in the kitchen and missed it.

On Sunday, Little Elvis only wanted to perform flips on our bed. This meant that I couldn't use the camera, because he was all over the place. We were able to get one partial shot once Bob got home from work.

But he went to town on Monday evening. We got footage of several real flips and some near misses.

Obviously, this deserves a music video! It's a song I've been planning to use for weeks. Hope you enjoy it!!

I will disclose here that I was a huge fan of Boy George when I was little. So much so, that I dressed like him for Halloween when I was in the third grade! My mom put my long brown hair in several braids, made a witch hat look like the bowler hat he wore, put one of her black blazers on me, and tied the microphone from our stereo to my belt loop! How cool is my mom?

Travel advice needed!

2008-10-06T14:29:00.003-04:00

Little Elvis and I are heading to Mississippi this weekend. We are flying and will have an hour and a half layover.

We've done this before, so I'm not really stressing over him melting down on the plane (not yet anyway.)

But I've pretty much made up my mind not to take the stroller.

I wouldn't take our heavy Joovy stroller, because... it's heavy. One 30-plus pounder is enough for me. (I still like our Joovy, it's just too heavy for a trip like this.)

And our little (i.e. crappy) umbrella stroller is too tight. It was also broken during one of our recent flights. They busted the hooky-thingie that kept it together once it was folded.

Going through the security stuff isn't easy, especially when I have to unsqueeze Little Elvis out of the stroller, take off his shoes, try to keep that stupid stroller together, get out of my shoes and get everything but my bare-footed baby onto the belt.

Why add the extra hassle? He's a good walker, and doesn't mind our harness.

I think he'll want to run around the airport anyway, and I'm hoping 45 minutes to an hour of examining as much as possible will wear him out.

My biggest concern is getting from one gate to the next during our layover. It's an hour and a half layover, but the gates are usually as far apart as possible. I don't want to carry my heavy toddler the length of the airport if he decides that he doesn't want to walk. It's very rare that he decides he has to be carried, but he has done that in the past.

So, do you think this is a bad idea? I will be upfront and admit that my mind is pretty much made up. Bob doesn't seem too thrilled with my decision.

Oh, and my parents have a stroller, so we won't be stroller-less in Mississippi.

I'll be interested to read about your thoughts and experiences.

Watch out Andrew McCarthy!

2008-10-05T13:05:00.004-04:00

Today, Little Elvis went to church dressed like a toddler version of Andrew McCarthy characters from 80s movies. He had the pastel striped shirt with the sleeves rolled just so, the mint green vest, and the khakis.

Call me Elvis... Little Elvis.

Want to see my profile? Yeah, I got it going on.

You want more of a profile? OK.

This pose shows that I can convey a lot of emotions with my big brown eyes. Want pensive? Want thoughtful?

My backside isn't too shabby, either. See?

Accolades and my "store"

2008-10-02T13:29:00.004-04:00

The Burp Cloth Babe recently awarded me with this fun award that is kind of also a meme.

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone? hmmm?

2. Where is your significant other? work

3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? wonderful

5. Your father? wonderful

6. Your favorite thing? Coca-Cola (ahem, it says thing, and Little Elvis isn't a thing. If it had just said favorite? I would have put him down.)

7. Your dream last night? none!

8. Your dream/goal? happiness

9. The room you're in? den

10. Your hobby? sewing (I used to do it, so that counts, right?)

11. Your fear? quicksand (I blame Beastmaster for this!)

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? not-here (I hyphenated it, so it counts as one word!)

13. Where were you last night? home

14. What you're not? hairstylist

15. One of your wish-list items? MereWear.com

16. Where you grew up? Mississippi

17. The last thing you did? lunch

18. What are you wearing? sweater

19. Your TV? off

20. Your pet? cats

21. Your computer? mean

22. Your mood? tired

23. Missing someone? yes

24. Your car? dirty

25. Something you're not wearing? barrette

26. Favorite store? Macys

27. Your summer? good

28.Love someone? yes

29. Your favorite color? yellow

30. When is the last time you laughed? earlier

31. Last time you cried? yesterday

I'm supposed to pass this on, but I'm tired and lazy. Little Elvis hasn't completely recovered from our weekend away. He woke up at 5 this morning. And he's been whining. I have a feeling that my whining might be what's causing his whining...

Since this is mainly about me anyway, thought I'd share a little about what I've been doing. I overtook our garage last year and made it into my own little consignment boutique/thrift store. I had TONS of clothes that I had made, but never found a great way to sell, and lots of clothes that I didn't wear anymore.

After putting posts up on craigslist, and having some really great customers, I've sold a lot and decided to redesign the store.

This week, I've been completely rearranging everything, and individually pricing, and making displays. And I finished it last night.
This pic is fuzzy. I am not a photographer either! It's my trendy/formal section. Prom dresses, faux fur wraps, beaded tops, low slung camel colored wool pants with military buttons, etc.
Here are some of work pieces. Although I don't watch it, Mad Men has been great for my design aesthetic and style in general. Most of my pieces match what's in magazines right now.

Here's a display of three different outfits soup-to-nuts. The shelf beside has different accessory possibilities.

I also posted up a collection of comparable items I've found in recent fashion magazines. Do NOT loan me a magazine -- it will come back with several pages missing.

Here's my helper. He's been very patient with Mommy this week. Sweet Little Elvis. He's kissing my keyboard as I type this.

Oh, what a weekend!

2008-10-01T13:41:00.002-04:00

This is a picture of my sweet baby shopping at Target on Sunday.

Why yes, he IS wearing a flannel blanket sleeper with footies. Oh, and it was over 70 degrees, too. Let's just say that I'm a very bad packer.

Last weekend, we headed to PA for Bob's high school reunion. It was on a Saturday night, but we headed up on Friday to spend some time with the grandparents.

As luck would have it, my mom was in town, too. So Little Elvis got to visit with THREE grandparents this weekend. He loved all of the extra attention.
Before we headed out on Friday morning, he wanted to show off his new trick. He's learned how to pull the dining room chair out, climb into it and sit like a big boy. (Mommy note: Since we've gotten back, he's moved on to dancing in the chair. Yay.)

He seems to like this new outlook, because...

he decided to branch out during our visit and try other chairs. He looks like a little squinchy-faced king, doesn't he?

After spending just a few days with grandparents (a few hours with my mom, and the weekend with Bob's) he learned several new tricks -- he can tick tock for clocks (guess I need to get us one now, huh?) oo oo for owls, and can hum. Bob's dad also said he heard Little Elvis say "yellow."

Here he is with Grandpa Stew trying to become the new spokesperson for HonestKids. I still think he would be better at shilling KozyShack, though.

From what I've heard, he wasn't easy to get to sleep on Saturday night. But I don't think his grandparents minded too much.

Back to the Target shopping trip. I packed Little Elvis an outfit for each day of the trip, two pajamas, and had one extra outfit in his diaper bag.

We had to use the extra outfit on Friday. (It's in the throne picture and NOT one of my favorites, which is why it was banished to the diaper bag in the first place.) He really soiled his Saturday outfit and managed to get completely soaked in his Sunday outfit. The blanket sleeper was my just-in-case-it-was-cold pajama option. He made a mess in his other pajamas, and it was our only option.

Target was a last minute stop and we got confused looks as our angel ran through the aisles (sans harness, because I forgot that, too) in his footy pajamas.

I used to overpack to the extreme for him, but thought we were past that stage. Since he wears just a diaper around the house, he's been only going through one outfit a day. I don't know what I was thinking. At least 2 outfits per day next time, for sure!