Gotti

I remember when I first moved to New York I would hear stories about the mob. I learned about different neighborhoods rich with mobsters, old mafia tales, and more importantly mob family names. I had a friend who didn't like waiting for hours at certain restaurants, so when he would give his 'last name' for the list he would provide something richly Italian and famously known. Those times, he never waited for a table more than 10 minutes. Completely brilliant.

riddle me this

boy oh boy

I could photograph each of my children all day long. This One happened to be most available that day when I needed my photography fix. Oh, and btw, it turns out a #2 on the shaver makes for a really, really short hair cut. And ages your sweet, innocent two year old about three extra years.

I landed on this site today from Cup of Jo. I simply love it. Read every single entry. It's a father giving 1001 points of advice to his unborn son. My favorites:

293. Don't shout out requests at rock shows.
282. Never swing at the first pitch.
277. Fish don't have eyelids. Cast into the shade.
270. Stand up to bullies. You'll only have to do it once.
247. Twice a year, write down your goals.
234. Thank the bus driver.
226. Never ask about another person's grades or salary.
222. Don’t boast about projects in progress. Celebrate their completion.
220. Until you are a doctor, never answer your phone at the table.
That goes for emails, texts, twitters, and tweets.

It must be cool to be a father. Mike, you get to teach our boys all your secrets of the boy world. I hope they listen to you. Cos you're a great man and have loads of awesome things to tell them about the world.

Of all the lessons, I hope they pick up on the one about following The Prophet. It's sure helped us make some big decisions over the years.

Okay. Dressing a girl. I am starting from scratch. It's insane. INSANE how much there is to choose from. I am overwhelmed by the amount of crap stores try to get you to buy. They pull together wacky colors and themes from store to store on purpose so that it's impossible to mix and match different clothes from different stores together. Why can't there just be an affordable Americal Apparel for babies?! They are even vertically integrated! Because that's so important when selecting clothing!

So there I stood, thinking of my daugher's bright blue eyes and baby soft skin and really couldn't muster up enough courage to buy all the bright oranges and hot pink/ green polka dots on brown and funky color combos at each store I went into. It's the first full-on seasonal clothing need I am buying for her. Most everything up until now has been gifts. We have been very lucky that way, so many generous gifts.

I literally asked a sales person how this whole 'legging' thing worked. The walls in every store were filled with these legging stretch pants, but it didn't make any sense to me. They were all wacky colors that would require 7 parts of the entire outfit and nothing else in her wardrobe would corrolate to any of those selected leggings. And did I even want to dress her in leggings? What happened to pants? Where are the baby girl pants? Why does it feel like she is stuck in a baby wardrobe hell of leggings?

And who decided a dog would be cute? The whole clothing scheme for the season and all accessories revolved around this little dog image. And the next corner was a cat. Or a unicorn. Like some school mascot or something, but none were cute. Or cool. Why did it need a mascot? And why did all the mascots and colors surrounding the mascots clash? Why can't it just be basic colors with no animal or food or flower on it? If I had more time on my hands I swear I would figure out a way to sew and create my own baby clothing line. There is a need.

My head was spinning by the time I walked out of the 5th store confused about how I want to dress her and figuring out all the variations of needed clothing/ shoes and what color palate I wanted versus what I saw available. I'm starting over. Finding faves. And it's costing a lot more than I want it to. Dang it. Tell me if you have your baby girl shopping route/ path figured out to share with me. I'll need to figure out best place for jammies, church dresses/ shoes/ tights, everyday wear, extra cute outfits, etc. It's like I need a What Not to Wear for Baby Edition.

It wasn't until I looked in Janie & Jack that I actually loved the colors and design of the baby girl clothing. I cannot, however, feel good about the price of their clothing for everyday wear. Which is too bad because they have the colors, fabrics, quality, styling right. Where is my reasonably priced Janie & Jack!?

For my boys I learned the following:

1) Children's Place: argyle socks, ties, sweater vests, white buttom-up shirts, sweat pants. Nothing more should come from this store. Maybe jammies, only the kind without the flame resistant coating, though. Stuff always falls apart.

2) Gymboree: Pants (only those without special effects of wacky colors or animals on them- hard to come by at this store), socks, polos, blankets, jammie, onesies. Only from sales rack. Stuff never falls apart.

3) Old Navy: always buy the next size up (runs small), jeans, socks, undies, jammies, under shirts, T-shirts, hoodies, shorts. Barely makes it to round two with second boy.

4) Gap: church pants, T-shirts only on sale, church shoes, flip-flops, swimwear, shorts only on sale.

Stuff never falls apart.

5) Target: shorts, T-shirts, hoodies, ties, church socks, undies, under shirts, jammies. Never pants- they always wear out too soon. Sometimes falls apart, sometimes makes it another go-round with another kiddo.

6) Janie and Jack: sweater vests, button-up shirts, only on sale. Stuff lasts. Of course.

7) Vans: shoes.

8) Nordstrom: shoes.

9) H&M: Anything goes. Mostly T-shirts and hoodies are a score for the boys here. One should be opening soon out here!! Lasts, stays intact thru lots of washing.

or.

they could just be chair head and hamper boy for halloween.

gush

Dear Mike,

Tonight you would have been so proud of Zane. He made dinner all by himself. And ate it! He made pizza. And we had purple grape juice with dinner, which the kids go nuts over. They were so excited about the bubbles that form on the top when you pour it into a cup and how it looks a little bit red at the top. Evan has asked about you every single day.

He says Dahdeeee? instead of dahdah? now. Zane is remembering (on his own) the number of days until you come home. Sylvia's eyes whisper hello to you.

Today she grabbed onto a rattle and chew ring. She got them both, happily, into her mouth. Still no tooth! Zane's new tooth is growing in so fast. It looks like the edge of a saw. The space in his mouth makes his 's' sound really cute.

Tonight before bed the boys decorated with the second annual tradition of vinyl stickers on the sliding glass doors. I was disappointed I couldn't find 'Live Laugh Love Halloween!' wording.

Tomorrow we will do a craft. I know, weird. Me doing crafts. I am certain it will involve candy somehow. Should turn out comical.

Enchantingly Yours,

Liz

Growing up in Arizona October was always my preferred month. But I think March might have it beat out. Simply by the beauty of color that fills the trees as blossoms appear and rainbows in the sky and the gentle weather right before the heat of the summer begins to make an appearance. March is the last ditch effort of outside play without question. And butterflies galore.

October still holds a special place in my heart. Good things always happen in October. Although you could truthfully say that about any month if you watched closely enough for the good.

The thing about October is all of a suddent it's enjoyable to be outside. There is no racing in and out of the car. All of a sudden there is no sweating. And even though it looks the same outside through the window as it looked last week, it FEELS breathy outside. While the rest of the country wraps up summer fun and lets go of their outdoor season, us Zonies are finally coming out of our air conditioned homes and feel ready to take walks, hit the park, go on pinics, and begin to live a comfortable outdoor life again.

So....start tracking the good, because this month will be filled with it. I plan to pull together a cool wreath made of Halloween candy this month. How excellent is that?!

photo from here.

halloween 2009

Evan is going to be Thor.

Zane can't decide between Batman or Spiderman.

Sylvia is going to be a cute little black kitten. Think of it as a modest version of Catwoman. Only minus the whip. And probably no leather or zippers.

So then....they are all officially Superheroes.

always and foreverrrrrrrrr

From now on every night at the dinner table Mike or I will ask each family member what they did for someone else that day.

I heard The Prophet tell of this idea today and it resonates with me. Tells me this is something that will teach my children all through their lives that helping other people and thinking of others is more important than anything else they will do that day. That is how Christ lived and what an excellent way to encourage one to lead a positive life. It's not entirely natural to live that way as humans, but imagine if every single person on this earth started the day with that very thought. What can I do for someone else today? And if we each spent a few moments at the end of the day talking about it with other people who set out to do something nice for another.

she's away with the pixies

It was hard picking one photo for her (oops very delayed) birth announcement. This one was the closest runner up that didn't make it. I love it so. Baby smiles are pretty much just as positively happy as sunflowers and cotton candy.