Weary!

Emberly is now asking every morning if we're still doing the 30 for 30 LOL One more week I tell her. One more week. We'll make it.

Private Vaults

There's this storage company here in Las Vegas that I first noticed a billboard for a while back and was disturbed. And now they have commercials. "Why do people want to know so much of your personal information?" is their marketing platform. These "vaults" are accessed via a retina scan and require no ID to open and are completely untraceable. Eek. What kind of people need that level of anonymity? Serial killers? Organized crime members? Divorcees evading child support and/or alimony? And there's that many of these people to whom that is so important to be a target demographic? I'm freaked and discouraged by humanity.

Are Men Allowed?

To just be nice? At Trader Joe's yesterday, a bearded man by himself stopped to admire Bauer and asked me a couple questions about him. It was all very nice and he didn't do anything suspect or odd, aside from being a strange man by himself talking about a baby. So why did I keep my eye on him the rest of the trip and looked around for him when I was getting in my car, as if I expected to be chloroformed at any second? How cynical is it that I don't think people are just nice and chatty, but predators trying to lower my guard. I also was very paranoid about any woman I thought stared at me too long when I was pregnant. Clearly she wanted to follow me home and cut out the baby. And clearly, I watch way too much Law & Order and true crime shows LOL

Cutie

I wish I was as effortlessly cute as my daughter! Maybe all I need is a shirt that has SASSY on it and some cable tights to reclaim my youth LOL

Grasping!

So this outfit was just me trying to put stuff together that had only been worn once so far. I guess this is kind of what the challenge is about!

Years gone!

You might remember about a month ago that I was restless about my hair. So I cut it. My main goal was to be able to style it curly with more ease. Being that the hair in the back of my head both curls more tightly and is shorter, this required that I cut the front significantly. I lost 3+ inches. It's still pretty long relative to all my past hairstyles, but as soon as I did it, I was in mourning! I felt so silly, it's just hair! But it was the longest it'd ever been and those 3+inches represented about 2yrs of taking care of my hair for it to grow that long. I'm over it though, and I'm anxious to wash it and see how it looks curly now with the loss of length and added tapering. My stylist thinks the curl in front will improve with the loss of weight, but that it's still not going to curl up like I'm wanting. I'm not ready to go any shorter. Maybe when I finish losing weight, I'll be less attached to my hair for my vanity :D

Cuffed

I wish I still had this "problem," but Emberly is so tall that she typically needs a pant size that is way too big around to compensate for the length. And I know that the adjustable waist is a wonderful invention, but still, she can look pretty ridiculous with it cinched around he waist. That's why I appreciate the straight an skinny cuts that are in style. It's not a huge deal if they're a tad short. You can wear them as ankle jeans, or cuff them. Emberly only wore them cuffed for a few hours before her neurosis forced her to unroll them LOL. I got a cute picture before at least!

(this smile makes her look like her daddy's bopsy twin)

We went to Target this morning for a few things and Emberly saw some shoes on sale she wanted. She was not enthused about the "no shopping" part of the challenge!

Twice as Nice

Here's my favorite corduroy bib "tunic" again! It gave her lots of room for an expanding, feasting belly. I really thought she looked so sweet. And she got a last minute invite to sleep over with her cousins so she got to wear it again the next day!

Thankful

Emberly made her own accessory for today's outfit.

I asked her what she was thankful for and she said her hands. Yep, I guess it's good to have those!

Keeping it simple. Again.

Ah! I'm itching to work other things in! We're more than half way though. We'll make it!

Lace

Working in the lace print leggings again! I remember the day I spotted these. I was *stoked.*

They can't all be exciting

I was a little bored with this one. But I guess every outfit for a 3yo can't be super styled, at least not sticking to the 30 items LOL

Pretty Please

With a cherry on top!
15 of 30!

Yoga Ease

Yesterday's outfit was probably the simplest one; yoga pants and a comfy cotton tee. Yet Emberly wasn't really in the mood to be photographed.

My baby

Emberly seems like such a big girl now. Compared to her brother, things about her seem almost huge!

What happened to my baby? She doesn't even look 3 to me a lot of the time. I'm almost afraid to blink.

12 of 30!

Mile 4

Wednesday evenings I don't do any weight training and just run. I'm still trying to convince myself to train for another half. My husband might even join me (that's what he says, but when it comes time to train... well, that's a whole other blog entry). While if I ran another half marathon, I would probably still use the walk/run technique I used while pregnant, I still like to see how much I can run without stopping. In fact, I increase my speed with every 1/2mi or so. Right now, around mile 4 is when my body starts urging me to stop. Nothing hurts, per se, I just don't really want to run anymore. It reminds me very much of labor. And that epiphany is what I use to push myself, because if I slow down as soon as my body wants to, how will I ever get faster. So I tell myself, relax into the stride, breathe, you can probably go faster. If you could labor naturally with two babies, you better freaking run the rest of this mile. You don't even have to push a baby out at the end, you get to just walk and go home. And I do it. Another 12+ wk long training season is seeming less impossible every week...

13 of 30

Ignore our stained carpet while you soak in the cute.

Fancy Girl

I love when Emberly refers to herself as a "fancy girl." LOL
I also love this pink corduroy bib dress. Unfortunately, it's a 2T so it is now the corduroy bib tunic! She loved wearing the jewelery.

Butter

I while back I had a conversation with my best friend's (it's her birthday today! woot woot) cousin about going vegan. I lamented that I would miss butter. I confessed that I had a butter fetish. He'd never heard of that before LOL It started when I was pregnant with Emberly. At the end, I made my meal choices in order of what I could soak with the most butter. I barely put syrup on my pancakes.
And then this weekend, I saw Julie & Julia, and found comfort that I am not the only butter lover. The main character, Julie, went on about how if you taste something and it's ridiculously delicious and you wonder, WHAT is in this??? It's more than likely butter!
I've since tamed my butter fetish, but I still really appreciate it's creamy, fatty goodness.

Characters

As a general rule, I don't care for licensed characters on my kid's clothing. But Emberly really is into the Disney princesses, especially Ariel and Tianna. So I've caved a couple times on it. And I don't know why Disney bothers me more than Sanrio (see her decked out in hello kitty here.), but I do cringe a little.
So here's our 11th outfit for the 30 for 30:

Don't ask me what that second expression is supposed to be; I gave her freedom not to smile and that's what she came up with.

Weekend Remix

Emberly and I opted to remix the gray teired swing dress again, today with the hand-knit blatt and bright tights.



The tights though brought to spotlight a problem of hers that I'm beginning to think may be in her head. She is always talking about her legs itching, especially if she's wearing something tight to her legs, like thermal jammies, babylegs, or, tights. There's no consistency in material. Our detergent doesn't have any irritants, and is thoroughly rinsed out. Yet she twitches and scratches like crack withdrawals. I've saturated her legs with lotion and coconut oil. I've even mixed in a little hydrocortisone cream. I don't understand how it could possibly itch like she claims. So I think it's in her head. My sister used to cry about the toe seam of her socks being perfectly placed over her toes. And couldn't stand turtlenecks to be touching her chin. So maybe Emberly doesn't like things to be tight on her legs and the only way she can express it is to say it itches. My sister outgrew some of her quirkiness, so maybe she will too.

Sob Story

I had my mom and sister leave without saying goodbye to Emberly because it wasn't going to be good. They were leaving before the sun would even have the nerve to show it's face, so I didn't want to ruin bedtime by letting her know they would be gone before she woke, and I didn't want her to be awake crying from 4am on if they woke her for a hug goodbye. Result: she walked into the guest room at 6:30am and just sobbed. No words. Just sobbing. I wanted to sob too. Not just because my mom and sister are two of my best friends, but because I no longer had an excuse to avoid working out. I was really gung-ho about my workouts, but decided that since I was already spending half the day working, I didn't want to cut into our time together more by going to the gym. And after about 3 days of not working out, it might as well be three months. It was torture making myself go yesterday and today. But I did it. And soon I'll have my old ambition back, if I can just force it through the weekend.
Emberly accepted that Nana had to go to work so they had to go home, crawled into bed and snuggled us while she calmed down. But any time we talked about them the rest of the day, she would start to tear up. Bless her heart.

Missteps

This morning Emberly felt she had places to be so while Bauer and I stayed under the covers nursing and cuddling, she got dressed. Only she forgot to pick from our 30 for 30 stack. And she forgot what season it is.

I guess I should put away her shorts so that she doesn't get confused.
I helped her wash up, comb her hair and get dressed for real so that we could step outside for some snapshots. Holding her My Little Pony, she immediately missed a step and fell into the rocks. No skin was broken, so I gave her another modeling lesson, suck it up and smile LOL If you look at her leg, you can see the scrape. She's a decent actress, no?



And last, I thought Bauer was feeling left out in his little playsuit so I had to snap a couple of his handsomeness too. So, bonus round! ;)


You know, when I was pregnant I was worried about having a boy, for two reasons: penis and wardrobe. Neither of which have turned out to be so dire. While I might be more limited creatively in what I can crochet/knit for him, I've since learned I have limitless styling options for him. While for infants practicality makes me favor one piece outfits and easy cotton separates, there's lots of cute stuff out there, you just have to be willing to look harder. And I now can't wait for his toddlerhood, not only for the awesome tantrums, but also because in browsing other 30 for 30 challengers, I found the Tot Stylist, who's little style icon elicits endless, "Awwww!"s and has inspired me to not settle for boring just 'cause he's a boy!

Jewel Tones

The camera just does not capture the pretty purple of these cords! Emberly loved the idea of the pink striped scarf around her waist, but it kept slipping down and annoying her so she ditched it about an hour later. Oh, well!



I'm also annoyed with myself for not noticing the turned up hem til my photo op had ended (3yos are divas, in case you didn't know).

Getting Out

My wonderful mother brought my sister out so that they could watch the churren when I went out for Damon's 30th birthday and while I worked since Emberly's daycare provider was on vacation. But I managed to sneak a lunch out with Damon too, since going out for his birthday wasn't particularly intimate (though it was really fun, and interesting to drink after a dry year). It was nice to talk without being interrupted or rushed. I love him so much. I truly admire his endurance of my moodiness. And that's about as mushy as I can be.

Love Pink

According to Emberly, what could better than pink? Pink hearts!

Sassy

The shirt says it, but she lives it.

Ruffles

Today's 30 for 30 is brought to you by ruffles!

Relating

I record every Oprah on my DVR even though I'm not interested in every show because I got tired of seeing a commercial for an episode that did catch my attention and missing it. I finally got around to watching the one with Portia de Rossi from last week. She was talking about her experiences that fed her novel "Unbearably Light," about her eating disorders, her sexuality and how she got to the good place she's in today. She told a story about scoring a L'Oreal campaign and going to a fitting where she had to try on all these suits to decide what would work for an upcoming commercial. None of them fit. 15 size 4 skirts in, she was feeling pretty shitty, only to have the stylist frustratedly tell the producer that "No one told me she's a size 8." Wow. I fondly remember my experiences as a model, but I know that my distance from it (4yrs now!) has allowed me to romanticize it somewhat. My stomach hurt for her just retelling her story. I can remember several go-sees where I just couldn't get the zipper up, button those pants, or could see the side seams screaming for mercy. Feeling like complete crap, thinking about every carb that I probably shouldn't have eaten the last weekend. And I was a size four, which is pretty damn thin for 5'11". Those samples that they send around with trunk shows are ridiculously tiny for women 5'9"+ to fit into. And even though I never got so far as to develop an eating disorder, I relate to feeling proud and in control that I had the discipline to watch what I ate, exercise diligently and get down to a size two so that wouldn't happen to me anymore. So that I could work every job. And that felt pretty hardcore, so I can hardly imagine the neurotic places her mind went to get down to a mere 82lbs.
I don't miss that pressure one bit.

Hello Kitty!

Day 4 of our 30 for 30 remix and Emberly busted out several of her Hello Kitty accessories. Notice I said "several," not "all."

Guess What?

Poop.
I know, you're rolling on the floor laughing. At least you are if you're 3 years old. We were trying to get a family snapshot this morning and saying "poop" repeatedly is what resulted in the look of sheer joy on her face. Too bad Damon's eyes were closed.

Right now, she's playing on my sister's itouch, watching some youtube video she stumbled on of a lizard pooping in a tub. She laughs every time. And she keeps trying to get me to see the humor. I'm want to, I do. Laughter keeps us young.

Let the Remix Begin!

ETA: I guess we weren't supposed to "officially" begin until Monday, but we started Friday. 30 days is 30 days though, right?!

Here are our first few outfits!