Vintage Inspired Cute Girls' Dresses

How cute are these vintage inspired clothes?! Loving the pinafore! When I learned I will be having a daughter I told myself that my daughter will grow up wearing pinafores. I actually have a pattern for it, but haven't had the time to sew it. Looking at these cute clothes makes me want to take out my sewing machine again.


Blue Pony Vintage (U.S.A.)
Olive's Friend Pop (Australia)
Belle and Boo (England)

Little Seouls Casting Call

Little Seouls are having a casting call to find a new face to represent them on their website. Here is their announcement:

We are super excited about our newly designed website which is going to launch very soon! We are also looking for a fresh new face to represent Little Seouls. So from now till the end of April, we will be having a casting call to look for the new face of Little Seouls!


We are looking for a baby under the age of 3 years old. Please send your photos to info@littleseouls.com with subject heading "Casting Call." By submitting your photos, you are agreeing to allow Little Seouls to use images of your baby for advertising, website, and other promotional items. If you are submitting professional photos, please get approval from the photographer.

The winner will be announced on May 1st, 2011. Winner to receive a $250 gift certificate for Little Seouls plus be the new face of the Little Seouls website!

Please include in the email: name of the child, birthdate, parent's name and address.

Get Organized! Do Five Things At a Time

I have four very good Pottery Barn file cabinets, but they are in the basement and this is how I choose to file my bills and papers. Yeap, ghetto Amazon flat boxes in a basket.

I tried to be super organized and separate them by type/company/months, but that lasted one day, the day I separated them. This grouping works for me as I have realized I don't really ever look back on my bills, but I need to have them saved for just-in-cases.

How I filed my bills and documents

I was at Target the other day and saw these plastic bins. It was 11x14x3.5 and I thought "Hm, these bins would be perfect for my bills!" I bought some and it was! Look!

Perfect! Large envelope fits perfectly inside the container!

So I put the bills and papers in there. These are for 2010. Looks much better, no?

Bills and documents for 2010. Busting at the seam, pretty much.

I have come up with a plan to be more organized and clean. With the helpful "Out of Milk" app, I make a list of to-dos. Everyday I will attempt to cross off at least five things off the list. It wouldn't have to be in order, but seeing the list being crossed off will be a great motivator. I will also "put away five things", that means where ever I am, I will put away five things in their rightful place.

2 down and 3 more to go!

Free Angry Bird Rio from Amazon App Store

You can download Angry Bird Rio for free for limited time!

This time the birds are freeing the captured birds.

Recipe: "Great" Pan-Fried Flounder

Another easy recipe! This one came from the back of the frozen flounder we had in our freezer. This was easy to make and it used almost the same ingredient as the Lemon Rice. You could use the lemon zest for the Lemon Rice and the lemon juice for this recipe, a perfect pair!

"Great" Pan-Fried Flounder

"Great" Pan-Fried Flounder and Lemon Rice

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. flounder fillets
• 1/16 tsp salt and pepper (each)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp minced parsley
• 4 thin slices lemon for garnish

Directions:

1. Rinse and pat thawed flounder dry.
2. Season flounder lightly with salt and pepper and coat in flour. Shake off excess.
   
3. Heat butter in a nonstick skillet in medium-high heat, making sure not to burn butter.
   
4. Add flounder fillet and cook until fish flakes off.
5. Move fillet to plate and add to fish bit in the skillet, lemon juice, parsley.
6. Pour sauce over fillet and serve hot.

Online Storytime by Barnes & Noble: Green Eggs and Ham

Every month Barnes and Noble offers free read out loud stories for children on their website. This month's book is "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss, read by Rachel Ray. It has been hinted that next month's book will be "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. I wonder if this program is tied to the local Barnes and Noble children's book reading program, because they just read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" at our local Barnes and Noble last Saturday.

Recipe: Lemon Rice

We have a rice cooker recipe book and this recipe, for some unknown reason, caught our eyes and has become our "go to" recipe for those days when we are feeling uninspired. It is really simple to make and surprisingly tasty.

The recipe says to toss out the cooked garlic, I like to mash it in there while I'm fluffing the rice after it's done cooking (it breaks up easily); it adds a nice flavor to the recipe. I also highly recommend making sure lemon zest gets in there; I have concluded that best tasting food always needs to have two flavors, the lemon adds a nice zing to otherwise bland buttery/chicken flavor.

Lemon Rice
Yield: Serves 3 to 4

Lemon Rice with "Great" Pan-Fried Flounder

Ingredients:

• 1 cup long-grain rice
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• Pinch of salt
• 1 large clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

 Directions:

1. If using basmati rice, place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water twice, and drain twice.
2. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl. Add the stock and salt, stir just to combine, then place the garlic in the center on top of the rice. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle.

   

   Yeap, you read that right, I make 3 cups of rice.

   
   
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, add the lemon zest, butter, and parsley; stir to combine. Close the cover and let the rice steam for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a rice paddle. Before serving, remove the garlic and discard. Serve hot.

   

   Add salt, lemon zest, butter, parsley in there after it's done cooking.

"Walk," Joy Replied

Baby girl started walking on her own within a week after her birthday!

Accessorizing the House for Spring With America Retold

I think these cute little items from America Retold would bring a little spring to every house. How cute is that little mouse doorstop?! His little paw is actually up pushing the door! Sorry, I raised many, many hamsters growing up and even though I don't like mice, depiction of little rodents still gets me overwhelmed with their cuteness.

Super Moon

Super Moon

I took the Baby Girl with me to see the "Super Moon" all the news outlet has been talking about. I was expecting a HUGE moon, but even though it wasn't as big as I had thought in my mind, without knowing I let out a loud gasp when I saw it.

I was lucky enough to catch it as it was just rising, by the time I had coerced my husband to take a peek later on the deck, it was only slightly bigger and much brighter than average.

Hours and Hours of Stupid Fun

Early this week I finally got my first smart phone and I've been having too much fun! So being the nerd that I am I made a list early on of all the apps I would want to have; some of them I've installed and some of them I've scrapped.

For one, I did not install Wolfram|Alpha app when I learned that it was not free. I'm sorry Wolfram, I want you, but I like free better. I also installed Google Sky Map (AWESOME!) and Out of Milk, Coupons, Amazon, Google Shopper, CPR-Choking and Yellowbook. Yeah, I like to shop. A lot.

I feel ya Mooch. This is so me when I forget my coupons. (from Mutts by Patrick McDonnell)

My new phone also has SWYPE. It's so awesome, when I first got info of it, I just KNEW this was the smart way to type on a mobile device and trying it confirms that it IS the best way to type. No shifting, no opening new menus, it's smart and it works!

Picture of Amazon Remembers, a part of Amazon app, in action. I took a picture of ONE Skittles and it found a match for me. It also found a match for my generic looking coffee mug and a similar looking Pooh toy.

While I was away from the blog I also finished my third strawberry hat. The first two hats I gave away because it was too small for my kids. Since I gave them away Colin has been missing it badly and has been asking me for it and when I started knitting one for him, he was sooooo happy! Everytime he saw me knitting he asked if it was for him and if I'm done making it. I also finished the neckwarmer for Caitlin (I didn't want to make a scarf because I always fear that kids will get tangled up and hurt themselves at the playground) that I started a month ago and started on a bear earflap hat. Why another hat? Because I can and because I always wanted to try making a earflap hat.

Some random photos:

Finally found my dream butter dish. I've been holding off on buying a butter dish so I can find the perfect butter dish and I found it! It's $110 at The Nest Egg.

I am very sorry about the crisis in Japan... Verizon is allowing free calls to Japan through 4/10.

Apps I would Get For My Future Smartphone!

Finally, I qualify for a phone upgrade and finally, after bugging my hub and hijacking his phone, I will get my own smartphone! I ordered Droid X. It's by Motorola and the review seems to be on extreme ends but overall it's positive. I like the way my hub's interface is prettier to look at (he has HTC Incredible, but incredible it's not) and I do like that iPhone has lots of pretty accessories but ultimately I went with Droid OS because I like Google, I mean, this blog is hosted on one.

So I thought about ordering it as soon as the midnight struck last night, but I was figured either way it will never come soon enough so after going back and forth between few phones I decided to order it from amazonwireless.com. I was going to order it through Costco.com, but apparently for some unknown reason they won't tell me I did not qualify for the free hand-free set so I thought, "Well, forget that then, at least Amazon will give me free two day shipping and the price is the same."

So why do I after all these years do I need a smartphone now? Well, this year I have officially become a soccer mom and Boy will be attending school five days a week this coming school year and I really want to be organized and it seems like something that would help me (ha! probably not...). I also want a little edge in shopping, I would always want to know that I am getting the best price in everything and I purchase with awareness.

So here are some apps I would install to help me get organized, shop smartly, and be entertained:

RedLaser
For shopping. I can't stand it when I find out I did not get the best price.

TheFind
Also for shopping but I would also have to know what other people's opinion on the product.

Wolfram|Alpha App
For calculating, of course. What is 39cm in inches? How popular is the name "Colin"?

Kindle for Android or Nook App for Android haven't decided which yet
Read books

Math Workout
Math exercise.

Brain Genius
Overall brain exercise.

Angry Birds
I beat the game already, but it's such a no-brainer game that can actually be entertaining for a long time.


Weather Forecast & Clock
I would want to know what the weather and time is.

Advanced Task Killer
I would want to kill the apps I'm not using.

Sprout Player
Boy loves his Sprout


NPR App
Because I love NPR.

Free Download: Printable Blank Calendar

Free Download: Printable Blank Calendar

Spring is almost here! That means it's time to do some serious (and I mean serious) deep cleaning at our household. I've also resolved to be more organized this year (not successful yet...), so here is a blank calendar for all the events and appointments I'll be organizing!

Toddlers & Tiaras with Tom Hanks

This was hilarious! I don't watch Toddlers & Tiaras, but I've seen clips of it here and there on YouTube and Tom Hanks got the pageant moms (at least the ones I've seen on Toddlers & Tiaras) spot on. Hahaha.

Toddlers & Tiaras with Tom Hanks:

I don't watch Jimmy Kimmel, but I did like that he defended Conan O'Brien against Jay Leno during that whole Tonight Show fiasco.

My other favorite Jimmy Kimmel clip? Josh Groban Sings Kanye Tweets:

"Fur pillows are actually hard to sleep on." is my favortie Kanye West Tweet song.

Linda Arnold

Does anyone remember Linda Arnold? Disney Channel used to show her specials back, back in the day (let's say mid 80's... man, I am old...). I was trying to find some of her old videos to play for Colin but this was all I could find.

I am not familiar with this song, but I did love her other songs. I still remember bits and pieces of her songs and they were so whimsical and addictive (Do You Know What Magic Is, There's a Dinosaur Knocking, Make Believe), so I went and bought some of her songs from Amazon so that my children can enjoy them too. But something that surprised me after listening to them again was that her songs are good, but her singing is very good. So clean and refreshing. I did some digging on the interweb and found out that her daughter is now a voice coach. Glad to know that her beautiful voice has been passed down to next generation.

It's One of Those "I Need Two Cups of Coffee" Kind of Day

Too much fun was had over the weekend and now I need more coffee; it's not even noon yet and I've already finished my morning coffee. That's amazing considering it takes me all day to finish one cup of coffee!

Knitting: Baby Strawberry Hat

I came across this free baby berry hat pattern called Baby Berry Hat by a knitting blog called Random Stitches via a knitting/crocheting website called Ravely (a membership only website, but it's free) and I thought it looked easy enough to do so I thought I'd give it a try. To give you an idea what kind of a knitter I am and how easy this pattern was to knit, I grab my knitting needles maybe once a year and most of the time it's either a scarf or... a scarf. But I have in the past knitted a stockinette stitch hat, a scarf, leg warmers, attempted at a bathroom rug, a sweater, and dish rags. So I'm not a complete nincompoop, but I'm also not a committed knitter either as I don't usually finish any big projects.

This project I did finish. Twice! Each hat took about two days. I decided to make some changes though, I decided to make mine a strawberry and I added a third color, white, as seeds after about 10th row. I did contemplate black or brown for the seeds but they didn't look too good with the green I had picked out. I also chose to do the bigger sized hat by adding the recommended extra 8 stitches, but the hat still came out small for Caitlin (who turned one yesterday, by the way), about 16" circumference after the roll. I also added the white crocheted flower (I just googled how to crochet flowers, it's all over the internet). I used a safety pin to hold it in place because I wanted the option of not having it.

I followed the pattern and on the first hat I added the seeds by sewing it in. It looked OK but it was annoying counting the stitches and rows. So on the second try I knitted the seeds in, half way through the project I realized the seeds would have looked better as a purl instead of knit. So if I had to go for the third try I would purl, not knit the seed, and for Caitlin I would make the hat bigger, much bigger, adding about 3" more worth of stitches (I think that comes out to about 24 more stitches).

Pupster and Ferocious Bunny's Birthday Week

Will be out all day celebrating Baby Girl's momentous first birthday!

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

My favorite quiet? The "Trying not to hiccup quiet"!

Colin learned to talk fast. I distinctively remember at the age of 9 months on Christmas 2008, Colin repeated back in pitch and rhythm the Korean version of pat-a-cake, "sae-sae-sae." He HAS NOT STOPPED TALKING since then. Literally. He talks and sings ALL DAY.

So one summer day I was browsing Amazon.com for some new books and a book titled "The Quiet Book" was recommended to me. I took a look inside and it was so meaningful to a mom who just wanted a minute of silence! The book thoughtfully describes all the different quiet one can experience.

The illustration is so beautiful and I love all the little details; the subtle introduction of the new character, and the little surprise under the dust jacket (hint hint).

I can't say nothing but good things about this book, but I'm sorry to say that this book is too quiet for the very excitable Boy. I would still recommend that you check it out though!

Free Download: Printable Easter Gift Tags

Free Download: Printable Easter Gift Tags (PDF)

This would be good for baby showers too.

Color Inspiration: Benjamin Moore's Buxton Blue - HC-149

Spring is almost here so they had the spring accent colors up at Pottery Barn, and they had Benjamin Moore's Buxton Blue on one of the walls. I've seen this name come up often on a lot of the home decor/interior sites but I've never seen it in person before. I have to say, I liked what I saw.

Ever since I saw the Benjamin Moore's Labrador Blue on Modern Family (good info on set/decor), I've been set on painting one of the rooms blue. Only kink is that I've been told that houses with blue paint are hard to sell, I'm not a definite authority on this, I've been told by my sister who has been told by her real estate agent, and who knows where that lady heard it from. So I've been hesitant (or rather busy and lazy... can you be busy and lazy at the same time?) also the fact that three bathrooms in our house is very light blue and Caitlin's room is also blue (wedgewood-ish blue)... so where would this blue go? Paint over the blue in the bathroom? Basement? I'm thinking kitchen, already got the white subway tile, burlap curtains and honey colored island. Or maybe the foyer?

"Thick Envelope"

Boy receives his first "thick envelope".

We found out that the Boy has been accepted to the new preschool yesterday. He received his first "thick envelope" (literally, it had a handbook in it) and I literally did the happy dance when I realized what it meant.

I don't know why I'm so happy about this. It wasn't like this was some prestigious school or anything. Maybe it was because what I saw in the school seemed so much better than his current school and I really wanted for this to be his new educational environment. Or maybe I was secretly very pleased that he is "acceptable" (after all, the school demands all applicants to submit a picture).

But as I type this I feel a little pang of sadness for him leaving his current school. I talk about it to people, "Well, the current school just doesn't focus too much on education as the new school, oh, and it's so unorganized compared to the new school. It's good for socializing, but not for learning." I feel sad, because it's still a good school and I shouldn't put it down like that. The teachers there love the Boy and they put up with his rowdiness and taught his little 2 1/2 year old brain to get used to school, to play nicely with other kids, to celebrate birthdays and holidays together. So why am I enrolling him to a new school...

I console my guilt ridden heart by repetitively saying to myself, "It's not like he'll have the same teacher again next year." And he won't and that's what got us rolling on looking for new school for him in the first place. Hopefully it was a good decision...

Baby Girl's Birthday Party Kit

Baby Girl (or I guess you can tell by now that her name is Caitlin...)'s birthday is this Saturday. Since we've already had her fancy cheot dol (or dohl, meaning birthday in Korean) birthday party few weeks back, we'll do something more low scale on her actual birthday: go to ToysRUs and pick out her present and her birthday balloon, go out for a luncheon, outing with her birthday girl outfit and cake. A week later we'll have to do the same for her older brother, yes, their birthday is eight days apart.

As I have mentioned before, I decided not to outsource party decorating for Caitlin's first Korean birthday. So that meant I had to do everything myself. I wanted to save money, but I also wanted to make it special, so I designed everything myself and printed everything in-house (except for the doljabi board and the banners, they are from Costco and Vista Print). My inkjet printer is not the best printer out there, but it gets the job done for a three hour party.

01  doljabi board
02  doljabi raffle tickets
03  doljabi labels
04  trifold centerpiece
05  birthday banner in English
06  birthday banner in Korean
07  PowerPoint presentation template
08  birthday party invitation
09  thank you card
10  table numbers
11  place setting cards

By the way, things are not to scale, obviously a wall banner would be so much bigger than a trifold paper centerpiece.

Baby & Child: Restoration Hardware's Children Furniture

Baby & Child

I love Restoration Hardware, every time I am at Tyson's Corner Mall I have to stop by their store. I love their apothecary bottles, the shiny chrome (and I don't even like chrome!), everything in there looks timeless to me. But when they branched out to children, I wasn't crazy about that. Their pink/blue and brown line (which are now on sale) was too bold and harsh in my opinion and it was more towards mod than what I'm used to seeing from Restoration Hardware. I never looked at their catalogs and drool over their things; I had Pottery Barn Kids for that.

Last year Restoration Hardware was going towards new direction when they introduced that distressed finished line of furniture, but I still paid no attention to their children's line. So imagine my surprise when I see a mail leaflet and I see on it this cute little neutral lion sitting on a linen chair and I'm like, where are these fantastic items from? I look all over and I see that it's from Restoration Hardware!

So I go to their website and see this:


and this:


Oooooh...... I LOVE IT!

It kind of has that french-old-school thing going on... How awesome is that chalk map up in that play room? It's on sale for $638.99.

Boa - Duvet

I love this song by the UK band Boa (and yes, it's not this BoA, the South Korean pop singer). I first heard it when I was junior in college and I admit that I only knew of it because of Serial Experiments Lain, don't judge me (if you read the comments on the video page everyone is poo-pooing people who only knows of this song because of the anime).

Bedtime Prayer: So be it.

I let the Boy do his bed time prayer solo sometimes. Tonight his prayer was:

Heavenly Father,
We pray for bug bites (his sister and I broke out in rash and he thought they were bug bites and was praying that God will heal us). Amen.

I tried to give him ideas on things to pray for:

Why toddlers throw temper tantrums

From CNN: Parenting

Why toddlers throw temper tantrums

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The average tantrum lasts about three minutes, according to Potegal's research
• You can predict a tantrum down to the second
• Kids from about 18 months to 4 years are simply hardwired to misbehave

Lord, help us.

The Challenge of School Pick-Up

I always wondered how people with full time jobs pick up the kids... I guess they go to after school program?

From The Wall Street Journal

The Challenge of School Pick-Up

Adele

I'm subscribed to NPR on Facebook. I love NPR, it introduces me to so many new thoughts and stories that I would never even bother to think about. One of their feed had the title "Adele: Tiny Desk Concert". It was about an artist. I normally don't click on music links; I click on scientific ones, stories, but not music. It's not that I don't love music, but I just prefer to read news, not hear it.

But something about the headline "Tiny Desk Concert" piqued my interest. I don't know, I guess I just wanted to know what that "Tiny Desk Concert" meant (in my head I was envisioning concert with little instruments, a la Zoolander style, hahaha). Boy, oh, boy! Was I ever glad I clicked on the link!

I heard the singer's voice and I was thinking, she sounds familiar, she sounds like the artist that sang the music to one of my favorite "So You Think You Can Dance" performance!

So beautiful, both music and dance!

I google and it was the same artist! I listened to more of her music and all are so good! Definitely buying her music, it's been ages since I've been this excited about an artist.

My Funny Valentine

Our first Papa John's Valentine's Day Special

Procrastinating

So Baby Girl's cheot-dol (means first birthday in Korean) is this Sunday and I'm like 60% done with prepping. With Big Boy's first birthday I hired a balloon artist to decorate the hall and the event being held at a Korean restaurant everything was pretty much done by the restaurant, the prepping of the main table, food container for people to take home. All I had to focus on really was to look good and the display table.

With the Baby Girl, we are holding the Big Event at an Italian restaurant. Yeah, it's weird, but it was way cheaper than doing it at a Korean restaurant and I thought it would be cool. While it is cheaper, I realized I'm spending money on lot of things I didn't have to worry about, like the decorative tower that's traditionally placed will have to be rented and I would have to do the fruit arrangement... It also didn't help that I decided not to spend $300 on the balloon artist this year so that means all the centerpiece and decoration has to be done, and I didn't hire a florist, so I have to do that, and hubby was late in booking the photographer so I have to be mindful of that to. Basically, everything, every little detail will have to be done by me.

So two days 'till the big day and here I am typing away. Typical of me to procrastinate. However, for me there is no other motivation like it.

For the Baby Girl's birthday I decided that a candy buffet would be fun. Seems like it's in vogue and I thought it would be cool. I wanted it kind of fancy-like and I thought macarons would be perfect! I bought the ingredients and everything. Went to Costco and bought 3 dozens of eggs, bought confectioner's sugar and almonds, food coloring. The time came to make it and I lost confidence of whether I could do this. I have history of failing at whipping things. My whipped creams turns to butter, and knowing my tendency to overkill I'm pretty sure my almond powder will become almond butter.

So I looked and looked and I found this:

from Creative Hostess

I think I can do this. I think I can! So I went and bought the sticks, the M&Ms, marshmallows, candy melt and sprinkles. I hope it turns out all right!

Maybe for Big Boy's birthday I'll build up my courage and bake one of these still:

I want to be able to make one of these!

Jill.e Designs Small Leather Camera Bag

I've had my DSLR camera(s) for what, two years? And I finally, finally, got myself a camera bag. Two years ago when I first contemplated getting one, I was set on a "functional" bag, one that I can carry on my back, one that hubs won't mind slinging around. Of course, this was when the Boy was a baby and we were carrying A LOT of things around with us, stroller, diaper bags, cart liner, A LOT of things.

Fast forward two years later, yes, I have a new baby, but I've also chilled a lot and I realized I don't need to carry all those fandangled baby things any more. Really? Do we need to carry the table liners? Can't I just use the little paper place mats they give you at the restaurant?

I'm also demanding little bit of myself back. With the first child my all was the baby. I was on baby high and I never felt fatigue, even if I did, I embraced it. But now I'm slowing down. I miss my old self who used to have time to do things just because it was fun, it didn't have to be meaningful, I did it just because I could.

So two years later when it was time to decide on a camera bag I decided I wanted something stylish and it was OK if hubs didn't want to carry it. I take most of the pictures anyway. I saw the Jill-e camera bag on Amazon.com and the reviews were pretty good. I debated with myself if it was really worth the money... and I even saw the same bag listed on Craigslist, but it was too far for pickup and in the end I ended up buying it.

So far I like it. The small pouch is not plain white as it's shown in the ad picture, and I do see that there are some parts that seems little "cheap" but overall, the padding is good, fits equipments pretty well:

• 1 Nikon D200 with short lens
• 1 Nikon D80 with long lens
• SB600 with diffuser
• battery charger
• small pouch with memory cards and extra batteries
• shoulder strap 

Jill-e Designs Small Leather Camera Bag (Black)

Some parts look "cheap". You can see the rough white thread finishing around the zipper.

Able to fit: 1 Nikon D200 with short lens, 1 Nikon D80 with long lens, SB600 with diffuser, battery charger, small pouch with memory cards and extra batteries, and shoulder strap

Small pouch not plain white as depicted in the sale picture.

Pockets for miscellaneous things.

Madeline: Something is not right... with my head and the book.

After two years with house full of boys (hubs and The Boy), I was glad to be able to finally splurge on girly things when my Baby Girl arrived. So while my baby girl was only six months old I was debating whether I should let her play with Barbies or not. Yes, I CAN be that kind of a mom.

Though I'm tough-ish I really enjoyed playing with fashion dolls as a child. I liked playing with the hair, making clothes for it, accessorizing it, rearranging the furniture. Boy! Did I love my Barbie's Dream House (the pink and yellow A frame house, it was so awesome). But now that I am older I don't like the way Barbie looks. Too plasticky, too... grownup looking. What to do?! I wondered. Surely, creating your fantasy world is awesome for children, surely, using your skills to make your own clothes, pretending, managing, is good for children, but... Barbie?! Yuck.

So I contemplated Cabbage Patch dolls (and I'm really, really sorry to say and I may offend some people, but they are just so ugly!) and then I remembered Madeline and Friends dolls. I vaguely remember seeing them long, long time ago in stores, but I found them online on eBay. It was so cute, and so wholesome looking that I had to bid on it. And I won, for $.99!

Baby Girl triumphantly holding her "new" Nicole doll.

She looks like a bunny, doesn't she?

Then I thought, well, she can't have just one doll, she'll need friends! What if Baby Girl invites friends and there no extra dolls to play with?!

Nicole is joined by her friends:
(L-R) Nicole, Madeline, Danielle, Pepito/Pepita, Chloe

...Then I thought, well... she needs accessories, because Barbie's things won't be compatible since these dolls are 8" tall...

Madeline and Friends and "an old house in Paris that was covered in vine".
See the long haired blondie cooking in the kitchen on the bottom left? Yeah, that's Nona (don't worry, I did not pay that much).

So in the storage just waiting for Baby Girl to be ready is a collection of Madeline and Friends. I hope she loves it.

Through my crazy Madeline and Friends phase the Boy learned to love Madeline too, so I bought some Madeline DVDs and he loves the sweet cartoon and sings the theme song: I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline~. Hubs cringes whenever he hears the Boy singing that song.

We also have every Madeline books, but every time I read Madeline I always wonder:

Something is not right. Why are there twelve little girls after Madeline's appendix surgery?!

Why such an oversight?

Also, who is this man that appears four times through out the book?

What is the significance of this man?

Sometimes I hypothesize that he is:

• the local town drunkard
• the author, himself