Being girls!

Kota hates accessories with every fiber of her body. The day we brought her home from the hospital wearing her beanie of flowery over-the-topness? Oh yeah, she ripped it off with her own two-day-old bare hands! Shoes? Forget it. Bows? Ha! Hats? Yeah right, it's not happening sista.

But today (TODAY!), what did my little missy do while the three of us were lying around on the floor reading books? She tottled over to her and big brother's closet, ripped open the sliding door, grabbed her basket of hair do-dads and then brought them to me. Just when I thought this was some random act of the "here Mom, check this out" kind, she turned around, went back to the closet, grabbed that little black shoe, then sat down and tried to put it on! SHE TRIED TO PUT A SHOE ON THE FOOT WHICH HAS WORN LESS SHOES IN HER 15 MONTHS OF LIFE THAN I HAVE WINDEXED MY MIRRORS IN THE LAST MONTH! Yes! Once she figured out that she couldn't do it herself, she scooted over to me to put it on the right way! Then she got the corresponding shoe and we put it on THE OTHER FOOT! Yes, today she wore shoes on both feet!

Next, Carter cracked into her adorable sock collection that literally has never seen the light of day because I've given up trying to put them on. She took off her shoe, which I thought meant the end of our I-can't-believe-she's-actually-wearing-those-things-willingly date, then signaled for me to put the socks on her! After doing it, all while trying to keep my cool, she wanted me to put the shoes back on! Yes!

So. All while wearing socks AND shoes AT THE SAME TIME, WILLINGLY (!!!), she re-found the basket of bows and headbands she had brought over to me to begin with, and then we started the REAL girling-out moments (with Carter involved, no less):

Can you believe this actually happened? I CAN'T! Not only was my DAUGHTER excited for something girly, but she wanted me to participate! And this was all her idea! Anyway, it made me feel less bad about offering her one of Carter's Hot Wheels as consolation items in times of fits!

Oh, to be girly!!!

 Look at that mane of hair!

 More girliness: her princess books!

 "Give the camera a kiss!"

 I love our new play room/office!

 Usual night time activity, I believe.

 My loves.

My babes

Oh, for gosh sakes.

 These darn people give me a very full heart. And I actually had quite the revelation over the last few days, but it's super late and I've got to sleep SOMETIME, so it shall be documented later. But it has something to do with rolling with waking up at 6:30 am and being happy about it, so woohoo!

FAVORITE.

T-ball and the pictures!

So I've been thinking about the 1,700+ pictures saved on my phone. I'm not kidding, I just deleted a picture of pancakes from 2010. Why the heck did I keep that? Why couldn't I just delete the darn thing? Well, I'll tell you: phone pictures are super candid life moments that I never want to let go of! Until about 15 minutes ago, I had 18 of the same picture of Carter, with about a .00000009 degree difference in the angle of his chin. It was just a series of photos where I decided it was crucial to capture not just ONE picture of him smiling at me, but rather 18! And the only reason I figured out that I should delete a few was because my iPhone barred me from taking any MORE due to a lack of storage! Anyway, hilarious.

And speaking of super candid life moments (not that this was candid - hellooooo, this scene was a photo shoot waiting to happen), here are some gosh darn adorable pictures of my big man on his FIRST DAY OF T-BALL! Yes - unbelievable!!! All taken by none other than my trusty phone, because it's awesome!

 Stretching during his "I'm not too sure about this" moment.

 The glove of dreams that he was in love with!

 Base running!

Hanging out with Gavin!

 Learning to field with the other kiddos!

 Super intense, wide leg stance.

 "Here, come stand next to me!" (Proud mom moment!)

The ole' cannon.

 It's on.

 :)

Sleep disruption and life pictures

So remember that time when I talked about how awesome it was to have my two very young bambinos sharing a room? Well.

TONIGHT, after her nightly lead-me-up-the-stairs-at-exactly-8:00-straight-to-her-bed-so-she-can-fall-asleep-immediately routine (I know. And that really happens, too!), I let the little man stay up for a few more minutes to finish Octonauts. Once it hit HIS bed time, I told him that he needed to be VERY quiet when he went to bed because the baby was already asleep, and guess what he did! Just guess! He went and woke her up! Now she's being ultra giggly and he's sulking because every time he opens the door I say, "Carter! Back in bed, DO NOT open the door for the baby!"

Okay, after reading that back I can't help but laugh. What the heck do I expect out of them? The kids are toddlers, for goodness sakes! They're engineered to sense Mom's I'm-being-serious-don't-make-a-peep tension radiating throughout the entire house! It's completely NORMAL for two children aged three and under to execute perfect front flips from Kota's toy chest onto her bed! Am I right? Am I RIGHT?!

Anyway, I'm also laughing because Carter will open the door then jam back to bed while Kota speeds through the hallway on all fours giggling like a maniac, and then the closer I get to her the more she starts to disintegrate into a ball on the floor in a fit of laughter. Oh, the level of cuteness!

And in other fabulous life news, here's what was going on this weekend!

 We got Carter his first baseball glove that was way too big for him but he loved to pieces (tear!). Then we went to lunch with Daddy, because OBVIOUSLY the man has to leave work to shop for mitts. Then we had to go to CPK.

 Dakota, the pasta fiend!

 The fork that has nearly poked my eyeballs out repeatedly. (But she will NOT give up.)

 "Here, ya want some mama?"

 Friday was one of those "Oh my gosh, it's the weekend and I'm ready to chill out" type of days. Also, Chad left for Vegas on Thursday night, so I was really in an anything-goes type mood. So I let the big dude eat a humongous bag of chips in his undies before nap time! I know, cool mom up in here!

 This plate was just for me and Kota. I'm not kidding.

 The "older kids" crew!!! They are awesome.

 Our family friend Lauren had her baby shower on Saturday! All of the little girly clothes made me really sad that I never had one for Kota. Seriously, what was I thinking?

 Holy cow. If you haven't seen Les Miserable, you are a worthless human being.

 Since finding out that one of my most awesome, favorite people on the planet is having another GIRL, I decided that I needed to send back all the adorable clothes she sent me for Kota, so you know what that means... SHOPPING TO FILL KOTA'S WARDROBE UP! It's a slowly but surely type process, but let me tell you: I'm looking forward to it!

From tonight. These two love her bed!