Big Stuff Happening!

First of all, look at this guy:

Standing like a pro!  He refuses to move his legs, but he's got the whole balance thing down pretty well.  I remember how strange it was with Ingrid to see her upright with no one holding her, and it's the same with Otis.  He doesn't seem big enough for this, but he's 13 months today, so I guess he is.  Some kids are honest to god walking at this age, so...I'm in for it.

Speaking of in for it, I got out of the shower the other day to find the roll of toilet paper shredded, a box of tampons strewn about, and a babbling baby doing this:

First the cat box, now this.  He is going to HATE me for these pictures later in life!

The other big thing around here is my new Etsy shop!  For awhile now I've been buying things when I find them and sending them to my pal Heather at 3Ring Circus.  But, she also finds a ton of stuff, and I'm not always the best at sending them out to her.  So, Toadstool Vintage was born!  I now have a vintage kid's clothes shop on Etsy, and I love it!  I've had it open two days and already sold three things, it's so fun.  There are so many supportive vintage sellers, I love it.  Instead of thinking of another shop as competition, all these lovely ladies have completely welcomed me into the fold.  I love it!

Paper Dolls and Baby Butts.

Once upon a time when I worked at Borders, I bought a book of paper dolls.  Ingrid found them and loves to play with them!  They are so amazing, a family from the 1950s.  The fashions are great.

 I also have a couple random shots of the Fat Man standing up.  He loves to stand up to everything!  Both Brendan and I were saying how he is way more mobile and has better balance than Ingrid did at this age.  He is exactly 11 months old today and I think he might be walking by his birthday!!  He takes the rolling office chair and walks behind it, it's suuper cute.

 

Growing up: Crawling and School Pictures

Yep, Otis is crawling now.  Like full on, hands and knees, makes it across the room in 0.3 seconds crawling!  It's so strange to think that he was so tiny and I worried so much about him and now he's just like any other little nine month old, crawling and teething and drooling and being cute.

Today Ingrid has her school pictures so she didn't have to wear her uniform.  I, of course, had to use this opportunity to bust out her new vintage dress we just got from Fuzzymama Vintage.  When I saw this dress on her facebook page, I had to snatch it up pronto.  So glad I did!!  It is adorable and fits her like a glove.  When I went to take pictures of Ingrid, she couldn't just smile normally, could she?  Oh no, she had to jump and give me coy little looks and dramatic faces...

First Day of K3!

Ingrid got into a local Montessori school and she started today.  She was pretty excited to go, although I'm not sure she understood that it wasn't the same place she went to this summer.  She has to wear a uniform, red top/dark pants, and she has this huge backpack that is bigger than she is.  I feel pretty torn if I'm excited for her or wondering how she got so big? 

We went and signed papers and there were three other girls her age in the office.  She immediately jumped in their pictures their gramma was taking (lol, photo bomb!) and started chatting away with them like she'd known them all her life.  I love how gregarious she is!  After signing papers, we headed into the maze of halls and corridors to find her room.  I don't know what it is about these big city schools, but they intimidate me like nothing else!  Everything looks the same, lockers on the wall, doors here and there.  My elementary school was small and had three grades in it, and seriously had one hallway.  No upstairs or downstairs, just a hallway with rooms, a gym, an office, and a library. 

We found the room, and all the kids were already seated in a circle around the teacher.  Ingrid just sat herself right down and said hi, I'm Ingrid!  She didn't even look back to see me leaving.  And when I picked her up she was bouncing around talking about how fun it had been.  I think she likes school.

I'm so amazed at my fearless little girl.  She just takes an unknown situation and puts herself right in the middle of it with complete confidence and a cheerful smile.  Day one down, let's see what the rest of the week brings us!

Oh Yeah, 8 Months Old!

He is nearly 20 pounds, and compared to a girl the same age today, he does not look small or like he came early.  His drool is astounding, he has ZERO teeth yet, and he just started to use his pincer grasp.  Which means teeny bits of avocado and cooked carrots! 

His biggest love is still his sister.  She can make him smile when no one else can, just by jumping up and down in front of him.  He likes to sit and chew on whatever is nearby, and is the best sleeper in the world.  I can put him down totally awake and he'll just smile and roll over and go to sleep.  I didn't think those babies existed!

So Much Going on!

Well, folks, today marks the start of Ingrid's formal education.  After much debating whether or not to send her to preschool, we found a great starter program for the summer.  It's a Montessori program run out of a teacher's house, very small "class" size (I think there were three kids today) and flexible hours.  So we signed up for two mornings a week and today is her first day.

We got a backpack and lunch bag for her, which was so so exciting for Ingrid!  She has been wearing the backpack around since we got it yesterday.  She bounded out of bed asking when she was going to school.  From 6am to 8am, she kept asking "Is it time yet?" 

When we got there, she ran right over to the materials and one of the teachers started working with her.  I had to say good bye to her four times before she finally called out bye over her shoulder!  I think she's ready for school, but I guess we'll see how she did when I pick her up this afternoon.  I found a public Montessori school with spots open in K3, so if she does well at this class, we'll be sending her off to real school in the fall.  Gulp.

Meanwhile, Otis and I have been hanging out.  He is napping right now, I'm about to watch the DVRed 16 and Pregnant and fold laundry, and I already had a chance to list more washcloths in the shop! 

One last thing:  We got this ridiculous clown onesie in the mail yesterday.  I got it from Hart and Sew and it is the most adorable thing in the world.  It just fits Otis, though, and it's still only 60degrees, so I had to put him in it and take pictures now, since he may not get a chance to show off his chicken legs in it for real before it doesn't fit anymore.  Where is our summer?  It was here for awhile, now it's MIA. 

 

Oh my god, I'm dying at how freakin' cute he is!