Naked Baby Biking

Steve got me this iBert Safe-T Front Mounted Child Bicycle Seat for my birthday, and we finally got around to installing it this week! It apparently wasn't very hard to install anywayz, but it had been just one more thing on the to-do list. It's gotten really great reviews on safety and parent/child satisfaction. It's supposed to work from 12 months to 4 years too!

The verdict is in, though, and WE LOVE IT!!! We meaning Eliza + me. We decided to take it for a spin yesterday night after spaghetti dinner, hence the clothes-free child (don't worry, she's got a cloth diaper on, you just can't tell).

Eliza loved it so much that every time I stopped in front of the house, she'd immediately starting signing and saying, "mohr? mohr?" It was so funny! She loved being able to see where we we're going. And as we rode along the road she was going, "whoah, woah, woooah" in amazement. 

It was also fun to be able to point things out to her and see and hear her excitement
in response to my narration of, "Look there's the kitty! Look at the trees! Look at the neighbor's doggy! Look at the cars!"

The only bad thing is she's not so much a fan of the helmet, so hopefully she'll get more used to it with time.

I'm so excited to get to ride my bike again. I used to do it a lot before I had Eliza, but Tuesday marked my first ride in about 16 months. Yippee!

A mother's feet

Yeah, I know I'm in desperate need of a pedicure.

But that's not gonna happen, and that's not the subject of this post.

About eight or nine months ago, I noticed a dark pattern on the top of my feet. I thought it was weird but didn't give much thought to it besides to try to rub a little more soap on 'em in the shower. Then it got a little darker. I rubbed my feet one night and realized that they were callouses... callouses from kneeling down and knee walking over and over again on rough carpets, cement, and grass to get closer to Eliza's world. 

The callouses are getting a little bit better since Eliza's been walking, so I thought I better record this before it's all gone. This physical evidence of my symbolic sacrifice and "worship" of my baby girl.

To me it portrays a little of my desire to be a close and intimate part of 
Eliza's exciting life adventure.

Just another pleasant and attractive emblem that marks my body as a mommy body. I won't go in to anymore details about that, though. Motherhood is a glamorous thing....

Readability

TV Reviews

Well, at least it's not kindergarten. Most days, I feel like I end up talking in one word sentences (more, eat, paci, hot, water, doggie, kitty, etc) and blubbering or singing other versions of baby words (baba, growl, if your scared and you know it you can shake- woohhhoohoo!).

Soo I'm glad to hear that every once in a while I'm able to redeem myself to a college level-- at least in the written format.

I think I'll start inserting larger words at the end of each post randomly just to artificially boost up my score...

somnambulist, anhedonic, sordid, discombobulation, mastication, occipital, concatenation, palimpsest... How many of these do you guys know the definition of?

Take that readability test!

Steve's illustration blog got this rating:

TV Reviews

Which now really makes me feel dumb because it's a PICTURE blog!

His secret blog of random thoughts that he didn't tell me that he had started until four months later got this rating:

TV Reviews

Irrelevant intelligence quotient... just like IQ scores.... whatever.

I felt silly doing this...

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I used to worship Ariel in the first grade... guess she really became my inspiration.

Respite

It's kinda been a hard month for our little family for various reasons. However, one peaceful reprieve for Eliza and me has been our walks.

Our walks used to mean a very different thing... strollers, backpacks, or both.

Now Eliza holds my hand as we go explore our coldesac
and backyard and sometimes make it all the way to the playground.

We discover sticks, moss, crunchy leaves, butterflies, birds, flowers, and ferns. I love the nature that this house is surrounded by. When we're outside, Eliza often makes the sign for bird as she hears one of them tweeting. Most days we see wild bunnies hopping through our yard or across the street.

She's quite the out-doorsy girl these days, and I love it. Most of the time we're just wandering a few yards behind the cat or the dog, but by the time we get back inside, Eliza is WORN OUT!

And while we're discussing the outdoors, I want to take the opportunity to bore you by bragging about my awesome compost!!

Steve and I started our composting a little while after we moved into this place.
We just throw our fruit cores and old veggies, etc into a bucket. 
Later we take it out and bury it in our hole 
and mix in some old leaves and dirt.

Anywayz, we finally ran out of the fancy organic compost that I bought at Snow's nursery and decided to check on our homegrown stuff. To Steve and my delight, our nasty, stinky garbage was suddenly gorgeous soil that more than filled the above blue bucket. We sprinkled down a new layer in our garden Friday night.

We're just so proud of the fact that we turn our garbage into something that will continue to nourish more life! Corny but kinda a cool feeling...?

Sweaty Pride

And here's a picture of the nest we found in our outdoor laundry room about a month ago. They're Carolina Wren chicks. I checked the nest yesterday, though, and they've all flown away!

I guess Summer is almost over...