More books. Thomas and I spend a lot of time at Barnes and Noble. Not because I love buying books – in fact we usually don’t buy anything. We go to Barnes and Noble because OUR LIBRARY DOES NOT OPEN UNTIL NOON ON WEDNESDAYS. It makes me angry. Noon does not work for us. Noon is right before naptime which is right after meltdown time if we let it go too long.

So I’m sad to say that we don’t visit the library as much as we should. It is within walking distance, has a good children’s section and it’s a nice library. I just don’t know who decided noon was a good time to open. So for a while we’ll drive to Barnes and Noble to read books… and play with the train set. They have a really good train set.

More adventures in potty training. Thomas has now decided to pee standing up. This came as quite a shock to me and Kei. We didn’t know that he even considered it as an option. To be honest, it’s a lot cleaner – especially when we provide him with “targets” in the form of cheerios floating in the bowl.

Tonight Thomas needed to use the loo. He ran into the bathroom, pulled down his pants, stood on a stool and assumed the position. Unfotunately he leaned a little far forward and fell head first into the bowl. He ended up in water up to his elbows.

I tried to laugh it off, even when Thomas started crying a little. I think it was more the shock than anything but I am really hoping this doesn’t make him afraid of the potty. The good news is that he got right back on the horse and finished what he went in there to do – after I dried him off with a towel of course. 

These are the things you don’t think about when you decide you want to start a family.

I can’t vote. Well I can in Australia (and voting is compulsory there), but I am not yet a US citizen. So here’s a little PSA for my American friends. It is important that you vote. I need you to use your voice because I can’t. I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, just ask that you are thoughtful with your choice and do what you think is best for the country. I would feel much more comfortable with whatever the final decision turns out to be if I knew that the voice of the majority was truly heard.

Here’s a little message from one of the most inspiring artists I have ever met. Sekou (the guy who speaks first) did some projects for us at work and is the nicest person you will ever meet. On top of that he has the ability to give me goosebumps every time I hear him perform one of his poems. The way he is able to convey feeling through spoken word is something I aspire to.

And here’s the Hollywood version if you’re killing time. It’s a little long but it gets funny near the end.

I took the kids to a local eco-baby festival called “Green Sprouts” at the park near our house on Saturday where I gathered some very useful information. Although many of these organizations/companies are based in Oregon, most of the content will be relevant regardless of location.

• Enviromom – a local group of women dedicated to sharing resources and information to help you raise “green” kids. Their booth provided some tips on how to throw an environmentally-friendly birthday party – something I really appreciate now that Thomas is at the age where he is invited to an average of two parties a month. I am proud to say that I already use his artwork as wrapping paper (the stuff I don’t want to keep) and a lot of my friends have been implementing the book swap in leiu of presents. More ideas here. The blog also led me to…
• Catalog Choice – They will remove you from the mailing list of any catalogues you don’t want. I have been meaning to do this forever and just found the perfect tool, especially with Christmas (and billions of christmas catalogues) just around the corner.
• Enjo – My Mum’s been using an enjo glove for years and it seems they have finally come to America.
• Color Me House – These were fun. Thomas spent a lot of time playing in the rocket.
• Organic Fresh Fingers – Did I mention that I will be back at work on Monday? I am open to anything to make the process a little easier, including frozen meals for my child. May as well make them healthy and organic.
• Earth Angel Worm and Garden – My dad has a worm farm. Not really something I have seriously considered, but they said they could make it easy for me. I’m sure dad would be impressed.
• Oregon Environmental Council – A ton of very useful information abotu how to protect your kids from environmental contaminants in your own home. They even gave us a free t-shirt for taking the family pledge.

Just a few small changes can make the world of difference.

Daddy: Why are you in time out?
Thomas: Because you put me in time out.

I really need to blog more regularly. It has been difficult finding the energy on 4-5 hours of sleep a night but I am trying.

I DID blog for the Lauren Reid CT blog today so head on over there to read my Mojo Kickstart post for this week. All about inspiration for baby photography. Now I just need to put my own good advice into practice and actually start taking some cool pics of Samuel befor he gets too big.

Have a number of things on my to do list this week that I HAVE to get done. I booked flights for us all to travel to Australia in August so now I need to get things organized so Samuel has the right documentation. That means getting a copy of his birth certificate, applying for his US passport, organizing his Aussie citizenship and then getting him an Aussie passport as well. I don’t know how I did this for Thomas last time. I must have been more organized.

Samuel has his first Drs appointment tomorrow. I’m curious to see how much he weighs. The kid does nothing but eat so I would be surprised if he wasn’t at least back up to his birthweight.

I still have to jot down some thoughts about his birth. Also on my list. Need to take a nap now though. It’s all about priorities.

A couple of quick inspiring things I would like to share this morning before I go:

• Love this Tara Whitney project. Has me very inspired to do something similar in my house. Of course the photos won’t be nearly as good.
• I ordered this for Thomas last night. I put his old backpack through the dryer with a crayon in the pocket so I had to get him a new one. Did I mention he is very much into dinosaurs right now?
• Love some new kits by Paislee Press. This one and this one. Saving up my pennies though (and waiting for a sale). 

OK – nap calls. Have a great day.

Nicole

Wow – what a weekend! I feel like we got so much accomplished but had loads of fun at the same time. Thomas didn’t nap AT ALL – skipped naps on Saturday and Sunday and I am completely exhausted but it we had a great time – just the three of us for the most part.

I will do full daily recaps when I post my Photos of the day (I am a little behind). I still have to go through and choose one pic for each day – although there will be probably be a few bonus pics as well as it seems I took a LOT.

Didn’t do a whole lot of scrapping for NSD but I did do some shopping. I spent less than expected thanks to a couple of wonderful little birthday surprises that I received in the form of store Gift Certificates. I LOVE suprises. 🙂

Here’s a  purchased (all on sale of course):

From Oscraps – I seriously LOVE Paislee Press and her style is just DARING you to make it simple which it’s fantastic.

I bought this album from her a while ago and plan to make it into a baby/kids album. I don’t usually buy digital albums but this one was so clean, simple and beautiful that I couldn’t resist.

Now onto my little shopping adventure at The Lilypad.

I think there was something else as well but can’t quite recall…

And then last week I spent some cash at Little Dreamer and We Are Storytellers dring their sales.

And from Little Dreamer (Thomas is into Dinosaurs right now and I think this kit was $1 – Bargain!).

I was going to post a couple of LOs that I did manage to get done but I’ll save them for a day when I am short on words (you won’t have to wait long :)).

Hope you had a great weekend too and, oh, two weeks from today. Yes, I am definiely at the countdown stage.

Nicole

So I stole this directly from Jodie’s blog. Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources” – Albert Einstein – hey, if it’s good enough for Al…

I digress.

Here are the rules for a little blog post about me:
1. go to http://www.flickr.com
2. type in your answer to the question in the “search” box (just use one word, with the exception of question #5)
3. use only the first page to choose your picture
4. copy the html and paste for the answer

Easy enough? Well here goes:

1. What is your first name ?

It had to be the Aussie right?

2. Favourite Food?

3.What school did you go to?

4.What is your favourite colour?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

I bypassed some of the more gratuitous shots so had to go to page five for this one.

6.Who is your favourite Disney Princess?

7. Favourite Drink?

8.Dream Vacation?

9.Favourite Dessert?

But may change after I have this baby. It’s a craving thing.

10.What do you want to be when you grow up?

11.What do you love most in life?

12.One word to describe you?

13.What do you dream about?

Some of these questions were hard, but what a great way to see some amazing photography.

Link me up if you do one of your own.

Listening to Pandora and this song came on. Love it!

Pandora is my lifeline at work. You create a “Station” based on a song or artist you like and then it plays random songs that have characteristics similar to the song you chose. This song played from my station called “Love Song”. Oh and here’s that song too.

I am in such a musical/creative mood. Making it hard to get work done.