BREAKFAST WITH APPLESAUCE

Stella has a book about sea creatures. Whenever we read it to her, we tell her the names of the animals and she repeats them. Once when we asked her to say "octopus," she couldn't say it and said "applesauce" instead. This made her parents laugh like crazy, so of course Stella now thinks that the word "applesauce" is this hilarious joke that everyone thinks is funny.

While Cy and Catcher were here last month, there was a ton of "You're applesauce! No, you're applesauce!" going back and forth. It was about that same time that she got a little stuffed lion from Taco Time, and what did we name him? Would you be shocked to hear that his name is Applesauce?

Stella is always too cute with her kitchen. This morning she took some of her crackers, put them in a saucepan, heated them up, put them on her table, and ate them with a spoon. It was pretty adorable. Then the action got even cuter when she shared her hot meal with Applesauce.

GREAT VISIT

My grandparents came to town for a couple of days. The girls had tons of fun entertaining them and showing off all of their tricks. Yesterday was my grandma's birthday, so went to breakfast and hung out at my house for a bit. I took a few quick pictures of the girls with their great-grands.

PONY

I have a very strong dislike for most chores that require being repeated day after day. I can't get out of many of them like brushing teeth or doing dishes. One I do avoid most often is styling my hair. I wash it, walk outside with wet hair, and put it in a pony tail after it dries. It is lazy, and perhaps not that flattering.

I always laugh when people ask me if I curl Stella's hair. "Do I look like I would take the extra time to curl my daughter's hair?" is always my response. I always feel bad when I see little girls with no real hair to work with, but their mommies have at least tried to make them extra cute using an elastic or two. So the other day I tried giving Stella a "pony." Um...she loved it, and kept looking in the mirror at her adorable pony.

So I ask you: Why when I put my hair in a pony does it make me look lazy and less cute, but then if I put Stella's hair in a pony it looks like I am a mom on top of my game, and she looks...dare I say it...even cuter with her pony? It is a great mystery, my friends, that is for sure.

COMPLETE

The basement is finished. Just what we needed--more space! Anyway, we are happy about it even though it does seem like more room than we need right now. As you can see, Brent has already moved some (not all) of his precious DVD collection down to his new shelves. Which I guess means that he really wanted them, and I suppose it is okay that we came to a compromise. (In case you are wondering, I didn't want any built-in shelves, and I wanted to use antiques, while Brent didn't want his vast collection to be housed in my "rickety old antiques.") The shelves we built are about a third as big as Brent originally wanted, and the DVDs that don't fit on the shelves are going in antiques. How is that for mature, adult behavior?

We also have a guest room with a full bathroom. They are connected to each other so when people stay over they can really have their own space and don't have to feel like they are getting kicked out of the bathroom by Stella.

The yellow paint was free from a previous job that my dad did. The strong yellow has been somewhat controversial, but I like it. Especially since it was the only thing that was free. (Also, it doesn't really look as yellow in person as it does in some of these pictures. That's just how the light hit the camera.)

And if this wasn't enough home improvement news for you, I also had our contractor install a new faucet in my kitchen sink. I had been hating my old one for three years now. It was too low and did not have a sprayer. So I am feeling pretty fancy (and poor) these days.

LITTLE MONKEY

There is a substantial list of things I shouldn't let my daughter do, but she gets to do anyway. One of those things is jumping on my bed. She loves it, and it is just so cute when she does it I can't help but smile.