Moving on Up!

There is a show on the DIY network called "Yard Crashers". The host, Ahmed, is a professional landscaper. He goes to a home improvement store and finds someone in need of some improvement to their landscaping. He then follows them home, assesses their yard and over the next two days Ahmed and his team of professionals completely redo the yard and make it super cool. I am pretty sure we have seen every episode of this show. We watch in awe and longing that one day we too will run in to Ahmed at our local home improvement store. Ryan says they make it like an outdoor living room. I don't know about that because my living room is air conditioned but I will say that they make the backyard seem just as comfortable as a living room.

We've been to Lowe's several times over the past few weeks. I have been putting on my oh-we-need-so-much-help-in-our-backyard face. It's not working. There ain't no Ahmed in this neck of the woods. Now that I think back on the fifty or so episodes that we've watched they seem to always be in California or someone ultra cool or at least much cooler than Greenwood, Indiana. Stupid show.

We had to take matters into our own hands. We crashed our own yard.

Before:



After:



Madison is a fan of our new "outdoor living room".







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I feel as if I have provided our little munchkin with plenty of toys and books to stimulate her. We have tons of books, puppets, blocks, balls, stuffed animals, teething toys, oh dear the list goes on and on. My point is when I look over to see why she is so quiet I find her chewing on the floor. Seriously. The floor.



I take it away because chewing on the flooring is not appropriate and this is what I get...



Um yikes!

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When I was pregnant, Ryan and I registered for the best of the best. We wanted our little peanut to have the coolest, safest, toughest, cutest things available. We got the best infant car seat for our little bundle of joy. The car seat was going to last us until our baby was at least a year old so it was going to be totally worth the extra bucks. "Thirty pounds or thirty inches whichever one comes first." The lady chirped as we made our selection. Well, this bundle of joy isn't so little anymore. She's grown herself to 29 inches already. What the heck? We are still supposed to get 4 months use out of this car seat.

This time in choosing the convertible car seat for our tiny giant we went a little more conservative. Since these seats are much different then the infant seats, for ease and convenience we needed to buy two. The new seat is supposed to last us until she is five or six so maybe we'll make it until she is three, if we're lucky. She seems to like what we picked out for her and she looks pretty comfy in it.





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I am obsessed with anything that is smaller than what it should be. I like tiny things. When I'm out shopping with my sister and I see something tiny, like a miniature pan or a tiny bowl, she asks what I would do with it. My response is who cares it's cute so I have to have it. While browsing in the produce section at Target this weekend, I came across some mini bananas. Of course I had to buy them.

They are the perfect size for Maddie O!





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On some other exciting news....



Madison can say Dada and Mama! She has been saying Dada for about 3 weeks now. I failed to announce that here on my little blog mostly because I was a little jealous. While very cute that she would say Dada over and over and over I was a little bitter that Mama wasn't her first word. I was the one that carried her in my womb for 10 months! Well, Saturday night she said Mama for the first time. My bitterness is now erased and I am a proud and happy Mama.



She's also working on a new trick.....




Bye for now!