Cinderella

Sometimes things just work out.

Reese has been asking and asking for a Cinderella dress. I searched DI and classifieds and Etsy and online and Kid to Kid secondhand shop. No smashing deals.

I finally gave in and went to Wal-mart. Would you believe that on their hangers with princess dresses there was only one Cinderella? I would have been totally in luck If I had wanted a Tiana or Belle dress, but I had to dig to find the Cinderella.

So when I brought it home and put it on a very excited Reese, there was nothing I could really do when I found the sleeve was torn. I could try to take it back but then what? No. playing with a torn dress was just the way it would have to be. And play in it she did. Every day.

A couple days later, Will and I were again at Wal-mart looking for a bath-toy storage solution. No luck in the baby section, so we decided to try the toy section, just in case. We find what we were looking for, but we did find a Cinderella dress. I hadn't noticed it before because it wasn't on a hanger- it was in a box. It was packaged this way because it came with a tiara and shoes.
AND

it was less than

two dollars

more than the dress I had purchased.

Ug! I lamented to Will how I had just taken out the garbage before we left- containing the packaging and probably the receipt the the dress we had. I couldn't just take it back used without the receipt. "But is has that torn sleeve," Will said. "Yes! The sleeve!" I exclaimed. "Will, you're a genius!" I suddenly didn't feel guilty trying to return it. People return defective products all the time.
When we got home, Will fished the Disney dress hanger (complete with barcode) out of the garbage can so they could just scan it in instead of look it up at the register, and the next day we were on our way to get the new dress package. While in the car, the receipt magically appeared on my lap. It must have been hiding under some junk in the car. Woo-hoo. Then- get this- The new dress, which we expected to pay about two dollars for after the return, was actually about FOUR DOLLARS LESS!
I went home a very happy mother. And Reese loves the crown and "glass slippers" so much she takes them to bed with her.

Balloons

The weekend after the move we went to a city festival. Reese's favorite part was getting candy at the parade, but she also enjoyed the pony ride and stick-on tattoos. But Liam and Reese both loved the balloons!

Learning The Ins And Outs Of The Cup

Keeping track of a sippy cup got so annoying with Reese that instead of buying so many you can always find one, I'm trying to transition Liam right from the bottle to the cup. He's not doing too bad.

The Move

Goodbye Logan! The move went pretty smooth, as far as moves go. The only really serious hitch was when the portable storage unit we were going to move everything in to turned out to be WAY too small, so we would have had to rent three or four of them. We opted instead to put our stuff in one stationary unit for a third of the price. But I don't think I even looked back as I was leaving Cache Valley.

The Aggie Village. No more 10K. No more washer in the bathroom, dryer on the porch. No more lugging six bags of groceries and an infant across a parking lot, walkway and up a big flight of cement stairs. No more cinder block walls. But unfortunately no playground, sandbox and friends right outside, either.

Liam getting packed up the day before the move to go spend the night with Aunt Lauren. (Reese spent the night with Gramma Heath. Thanks you guys, not having the kids to worry about made all the difference!) I took this picture because it was on his birthday and I wanted to be sure I had at least one in the event that I forgot to ask Lauren to take some. But she did.

Will sporting his A-gear. Bye-bye Utah State.

We had some large stuff that we didn't need, didn't want to move and didn't want to store. Of course when I needed to take the pictures for the online classified ads is when the kids decided that they had to play with the furniture. Bed for sale? Liam wants it! Sorry, kid. You'd fall right out.

Couch for sale $30- two adorable rascals extra, make offer.

Liam gets stuck.

Oh, and while we were busy packing things up, Liam was busy learning to crawl. I know this is a big milestone, but I was so busy I haven't had time to put it up until now. So, without further ado- Liam crawling!

Two Pictures From A Month Ago

11 Months

Liam is 11 months old today.

Here are some things about him:

crawls . resents crawling because now he's not carried around so much . claps . waves . gets terribly jealous when he sees you eating something and and not sharing . has (almost) two teeth . first overnight babysitting tonight! . loves bananas . loves to play in the sandbox . pulls himself to standing . curious . fearless- tries to dive headfirst off of beds, laps, whatever . likes turning pages . likes tearing pages . uses binki less (except when teething) . screams more with delight and less with frustration than before . first 'real' haircut . studly smile .

Real Haircut

Okay, so earlier I may have told you all that Liam had his first haircut. But that was only sort of his first haircut. I was just trimming some hairs that were crazy long on the top of his head.

Yesterday, Liam had is first real haircut. I was going to cut Will's hair anyway, so we figured it was a good time to see if we could get Liam's hair to stick up all cute-like again (it had gotten too long to do that) and also trim the back to avoid any embarrassing mullets.

The "Before" pic. I had just trimmed the back with the electric clippers and wetted his top when I remembered, last minute, that I need to take a picture!! (I don't, ironically, have an "After" pic, and he's sleeping right now so you won't get to see his stylin' self until later)

A lock from the back, all blonde and fuzzy and *eyes tearing* PRECIOUS!

I realized later that only the mother of the child would get all emotional over a picture of the cut hair. Or even any of the cut hair, for that matter. But cut me some slack. I am the mother, after all.