Nursery Update

Don't you just love the fabric and patterns we found for the nursery?! I say we, because once again my lovely and talented mother and mother-in-law have offered to make the nursery bedding for the newest little Loughman.

I'm so excited about the calmness of the white and gray, with a little pop of yellow to keep things fun.

I think it will go perfectly with the newly painted walls. After having such a bright, colorful room for Violet, I'm really looking forward to the calm, soothing new color scheme. Hopefully it will go perfectly with the sweet, calm personality I'm expecting out of this newest member of the family. Ha! But hey, a mom can dream!

Last Days of Summer

Well, we've reached the end. Tomorrow is my last day of summer break. To be honest, it feels like it already ended in a way, since I spent all last week going into school to get my classroom set up and ready. You might have noticed that's when I temporarily dropped off the blog. Yeah, expect a bit more radio silence as this school year ramps up.

But summer definitely went out with a bang. Matt's brothers came into town this past weekend and we enjoyed some family time. Matt and I even had some togetherness time at the Guster/Ben Folds Five concert. It was a good ending to a good summer, and now I'm ready for the new school year to get underway.

Taking home a baseball, courtesy of pre-game warm-ups. Although honestly, she was more excited about the cotton candy Grandpa bought her!

Grandpa, Grandma, Grandkids

Hauling in the Sunday paper.

Guster! And we even got "upgraded" to the handicapped seats, thanks to the fact that the ushers probably thought I was going to give birth during the concert.

Show Me the Money

Making a deposit.

Recently Violet discovered a piggy bank. It's technically her piggy bank, she's just never noticed it before. Naturally she wanted to know why piggy had a hole in the top, so we explained the whole idea of money and banks and well, you know the drill. Of course, Violet wanted some money to put in there.

Then one day she spontaneously cleaned up the whole playroom by herself. I was so impressed that I gave her a coin for her piggy. She helped set the table and earned another coin. She got dressed by herself and another coin went into piggy.

Having second thoughts about that deposit...

Of course, she has no idea of the value of money. It doesn't matter what kind of coin we give her. She doesn't even seem overly impressed that she's earning money. At this point, putting it in (and shaking it back out, repeat) is the primary draw. But it seems like a better reward than bribing her with treats, and maybe eventually it will lead to some earning/spending/saving conversations in the future.

Gimme my money back, pig!

Pool Party

Today Violet and I headed down to the neighborhood pool to meet up with most of my first grade team. We finally all had time to get together. Of course, we'll be seeing plenty of each other in a couple short weeks when school official starts, but it was fun to catch up in a slightly more relaxed setting.

Starting just yesterday, the pool has become an extra fun place for Violet, since she has finally gotten brave enough to swim on her own (in her floaties, of course). Before now, she stayed mainly in the kiddie pool, or with a superhuman grip around my neck. But she's finally gotten brave enough to take off by herself, which makes the pool a more relaxing place for me.

Of course, five hours at the pool makes for one tired little girl. She has been pleading to let us sleep in her "tent" for the past week or so (I think it goes along with the kitty cat thing she has going) and until now we have refused, to plenty of tears. But since she didn't nap yesterday, I was willing to pretty much agree to anything today, provided it led to some shut-eye. So I told her she could read in her tent for a little bit when we got home, and now she is sleeping soundly. Ah, dreams do come true!

 

Glucose, Take Two

Gifts from Sweden for Baby Girl! Those Swedes have such good taste.

My mom recently came home from Sweden. She takes a trip to her homeland every year to visit her family, although this trip was under much sadder circumstances, as my sweet Mormor (grandmother) and Violet's namesake passed away. She was an awesome lady and I'll never forget the trip Matt and I took with my mom to visit her several years ago. You can often tell what kind of person someone is by the legacy they leave behind, and based on the pictures and stories I've seen of her funeral, it is clear this woman was beloved by her family.

Mom did not return empty-handed. I got the sweetest little outfits, including a gorgeous handmade sweater, for the baby. And of course, there was the requisite bucket of Swedish candy. Ah, like manna from heaven, this is. I'm addicted. Mom almost didn't hand it over when she found out I failed my first glucose test, fearing it would ruin the retake.

No, you can't have any.

But I'm pleased to announce... (insert drum roll...) I passed yesterday's 3-hour test! Ha, take that, blood sugar! The test was ugh. I couldn't eat or drink anything before they stabbed me in the arm for a blood sample. Then I had to drink the disgusting glucose drink on an empty stomach. Then every hour for three hours they stabbed me again. In the meantime, I had to sit in the waiting room and attempt not to vomit. Awesome. But it was all worth it to pass.

In a few other random updates, Matt and I headed down to Peachtree City to check out Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of our favorite throwback bands who just happened to be playing the amphitheater in our hometown. We took along one of my teacher friends and her husband and made it a double date.

Rocking out!

My date.

Back home, I was inspired to get crafty and cover the light switches in the newly painted nursery with some pretty scrapbook paper. It was super easy, requiring just the paper and some mod podge. Makes a nice little statement for just a few pennies. I'm always excited when I discover a project my non-crafty self can complete with decent results.

And then I discovered this picture and it's too pretty not to share. I have it as the lock screen on my phone, so every time I turn it on, I'm reminded of this truth.

Visiting INK

Look who dressed all by herself while I was in the shower!

Yesterday my neighbor and I loaded up our kids and headed to INK, Interactive Neighborhood for Kids. It's a cute hands-on museum that lets kids pretend to be various community helpers. There's a little grocery store they can shop in, complete with mini carts, shelves of food and a register for checking out. There is a diner where they can cook pretend food and serve it to customers waiting in the booths. There is even an antique fire truck and police car they can climb in and explore. It was a fun place to spend the afternoon. Of course, after driving all the way there, the kids spent 80 percent of their time running around the indoor playground, leading us to the sad realization that we could probably just have taken them to Chickfila and they would have been just as happy!

Checking out the fire truck.

T had to go to court, on trial for the charge of playground roughness. Think Violet has a future career as a court reporter?

Milking a cow.

Fail

I haven't written much about being pregnant this second time around. Maybe because I'm so busy with the child in front of me, it's a relief to have one safely tucked inside of me who can't run away or talk back or demand more tv time. She's rather low maintenance in comparison!

But there have been quite a few marked differences between this pregnancy and the last. Chalk it up to the second time around, or the fact that I'm older, or working/mothering while pregnant. I've gained more weight. I feel more tired and less "glowy". We haven't even been been able to settle on a name for this sweet thing.

At least we painted the nursery for her!

So when it came time for the glucose test, I faced it with a mixture of confidence and trepidation. Confident, because with Violet I breezed through the test with an A+ (at least, that's what it would have been if they gave grades out). A little fear because, well, things this time around just haven't been the same and I think I was expecting the worst.

Which is exactly what I got. And still managed to totally freak out over. We're talking, crying in the car on the way home. And mind you, I know plenty of women who have failed the initial glucose test. And they went on to pass the second time, no problem. But I'm not used to failure. My doctor said if she was grading my test, I would be a C student. Good Lord, I've never gotten a C on anything in my life! So now I've failed at knowing my baby's name AND I've failed this stupid glucose exam. Just hand over the Mother of the Year award now - I imagine it's only a matter of time before I catch Violet eating cat food or forget her at the grocery store.

You're all invited to my pity party this weekend, where I will be serving lots of cake and carbs. The three hour glucose test involves carbo-binging for three days to try and force your body into the worst possible position. The doctors figure, if you can eat nonstop bread, pasta, rice and cake for three days and still pass the test, well, you deserve your bill of health. Of course, this just means I'll be eating my regular diet, so perhaps therein lies the problem. Hmm...

A New Cat in the House

Violet has a new game she likes to play. She pretends to be a cat.

Sounds cute, right?

It starts that way. But then quickly spirals into the annoying. She meows at us, refusing to use words. She crawls everywhere and insists that "little kitties don't know how to" climb stairs, sit in chairs, get dressed, etc. I've caught her licking herself and trying to pick toys off the ground with her mouth.

Annoying and kind of gross.

I've spoken to a few child experts (ie: my neighbors), who both just chuckled and started reminiscing about when their boys pretended to be dogs, going so far as to require their food be placed on the floor. So I guess it could be worse. In fact, it seems like most parents have stories like this. So I'm trying to be patient, let this one ride itself out. Matt has reached the point where he's wanted to forbid it outright, but I worry that this will only make the phase last longer. I've resorted to ignoring it, continuing to talk to her and treat her like a human. There's also been a little bribing involved, in the form of "little kitties don't eat dessert, so you'll have to turn back into a little girl..." It works most of the time.

I'm wondering if it's some weird response to the imminent new baby. Acting like a helpless little kitten who requires being carried is not that far off from pretending to be a baby again, which I've heard can happen when a new sibling enters the scene. Or maybe all kids do this at some point and Violet just picked this time. Either way, I'm riding it out until school starts and then laying down the law the cats don't go to school. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Unless one of you has any better advice?

Can you spot the real cat?

Our rainy, indoor 4tho f July.

These faces just crack me up. I think she inherited a wee flair for the dramatic. No idea which side of the family that came from!

Date night with Daddy.

Violet's Room

We have been hard at work redoing the nursery this weekend, but before I show you the progress, I realized I haven't officially debuted Violet's big girl room yet. It's been a steady work in progress for the past few months, but I think it's finally done. Just excuse the dark photos... using my phone as my camera is convenient but has its drawbacks!

Once you step through the door...

We left the purple paint because, hey, Violet likes purple for now. The furniture is Ikea. The bedding is from Land of Nod, as is the garland. I really wanted something nice and bright to pop on the purple walls and with all the white furniture. This definitely did the trick, and I think Violet will be able to keep it for a while. I framed some random scrapbook paper and reclaimed the mirror and cabinet from elsewhere in the house.

Close up of the dresser. Love the print from Naptime Diaries.

Reading nook (sorry for the crappy photo quality).

The reading corner features curtains from Target, two little chairs from Ikea, and spice racks turned book shelves, also Ikea. The "read" sign I got at Hobby Lobby. Thanks, pinterest, for the inspiration! The shelves are nice because they keep the books way more organized that a regular bookshelf, and it puts a limit on the amount of books Violet can keep in her room, so we're not overrun.

Read all about it!

How it all fits together...

And there you have it! I'm pleased with how it turned out, considering I have zero decorating sense or style. Violet seems pretty content with it, too. Now if only we could keep it this neat and clean on a regular basis!

These Days

Because after some days like this, I need some days like this:

Never underestimate the power of a pretty park, a beautiful sky, a happy face, and ice cream for dessert.

Recently

Last week Violet had her first ever swim lessons, or as we referred to it, "swim camp". She did awesome. I was worried that she'd balk at going since none of her friends were with her, or that she'd freak out when I left the room, but this kid was a champ. She jumped in the water to her instructor, learned to put her face in and blow bubbles, practiced her kicking, wore goggles (perhaps her favorite part).

I just had to take a picture of my proud girl after she finished cleaning up her playroom all by herself! I was so shocked that a) she did it and b) did it without me and c) only had to be asked one time. Here's hoping I can figure out how to make this happen again! (I'm guessing bribery in the form of food would work...)

Matt and I had ourselves a date night and finally got to check out Cinebistro. It was very fun, regardless of the zombie apocalypse I had to sit though. (Brad Pitt's face helped a little.) If you don't know (and are too lazy to click on the above link to find out), Cinebistro is an upscale movie house that serves dinner and drinks while you watch. You get to sit in fancy leather seats and enjoy excellent service... it's basically a really nice restaurant that happens to have a giant movie screen as part of its decor.

I haven't killed the garden yet!

Tea party for three!

Party Time, Excellent!

This weekend our friends Tim and Jeanette flew down from the Great North of NJ with their daughter M to celebrate said daughter's second birthday. Jeanette is such a fantastic party planner. I wish I had taken pictures of the adorable Curious George party she put together - I'm sure it will be all over Pinterest in a few days. Violet is currently going through a Curious George phase of her own - if it keeps up another few months, perhaps I'll just copy Jeanette's ideas for a swingin' monkey party of our own!

Every good party has to include some story time.

Sweets to the sweet!

A little young for her first date...

And what has to be one of the simultaneously most adorable and most anxiety-inducing pictures ever taken of my child...

A (not small) part of me hopes they get married just so we can show this picture at their wedding.