Until June...

We leave for Hawaii bright and early tomorrow morning with Marley in tow...wish us luck on our 18-hour day of travel.  

See you in a week with lots of pictures, hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Must Remember: 15 Months

Marley Kate, I think you are the coolest kid in the world right now.  Here are a few things that I never want to forget about you at 15 months old...

• You sing along to songs you know with soft, high-pitched little noises and sway back and forth.
• You LOVE to push any and all dolls in your stroller around the house.
• We haven't heard any definitive words yet, but you make a "nonononononononono" noise when you don't want to do something and you do this excited full body nod when you are answering yes to a question.
• While you can't talk, you understand almost everything we say to you.
• You take after your mom when it comes to goodbyes.  When you say goodbye to someone and watch them leave (or we drive away), you cry.
• You think it's fun to make "teepees"- making a triangle out of your body with your feet & head on the ground and your butt up in the air, then you want us to help you turn that into a somersault.  
• You could spend 24 hours a day outside and cry whenever we make you come inside.
• When we ask you to show us your "happy feet," you run a little in place with a huge grin on your face.
• You are a wonderful sleeper- still on 2 good naps a day and sleeping through the night consistently for awhile now.
• And finally, in the spirit of sharing too much, due to a scheduling conflict on the salon's part, I had to take you with me to get a bikini wax yesterday.  You totally freaked out when we got into the lovely room with the calming music and had to sit on the table with me the whole time and watch the whole event.  It was top ten in my parenting moments so far.

Here's a little glimpse into our morning today with the peanut.

Pondering Celebrities

• What happened to Bruce Jenner's face?  He looks extremely feminine now.
• (I'm a bit late on this one, but...) How does Christina Aguilera get off being such a B on The Voice...she has the least successful career at the moment and needs America liking her in order to fix that.
• I find Dr. Oz to be the most annoying person in the world (slight exaggeration).  His show is awful and his elementary school-ish demonstrations are ridiculous.
• Why is Emily Maynard the Bachelorette?  She's hot, yes.  Her personality?  Nonexistent.  
• We've been watching the Next Food Network Star...great show.  Giada, however?  Seems like a major B (I'm abbreviating, in case you didn't catch that).
• I will for sure be tuning into X-Factor for at least one night to watch Britney resurface into the spotlight.  My late 90's love for Britney still exists and I have no shame in that because I'm pretty sure most of you feel the same way.
• In closing... Guilana & Bill?  Love them.

Those are my deep thoughts for the day.

Aloha & Mahalo

We are going on a big adventure at the end of the week.  We are going to HAWAII!!!!!  My parents SO generously decided that they want to take their family there to celebrate their 60th birthdays.  So, bright and early on Saturday morning, my parents, my sister, my two brothers, their husband, fiancee, and girlfriend respectively, Mark, Marley, and I (11 of us in total) will board two planes which will take us to the beautiful island of Kauai.

Hawaii is somewhere Mark and I thought we would go in 20 or 30 years and were blown away when my parents proposed this trip.  We are beyond excited and are looking forward to visiting this new, amazing place, family-vacation style.  And there will be some Griswold moments, trust me :)

The only part that I'm nervous about is a 5-hour flight to LA, followed by a 6-hour flight to Kauai...with a 15-month-old.  We have new toys, new books, new snacks, iPads, Kindles, and iPhones galore and many grandparents, aunts, and uncles to help, but I'm trying to think of anything else that will be helpful on the flights.  Any suggestions?  And any favorite activities or restaurants in Kauai?

Gladys is pumped and packing all of her best pairs of shades.

Weekend Recap

A quick rundown for you...because I know you are dying to know how we spent our time...

Friday morning, I went to a subdivision garage sale.  You may remember that I find garage sales incredibly awkward, so this was a big step for me.  In my classy style, I loaded Marley up in her pajamas and headed out.  My finds aren't worth sharing (Halloween decorations), but I only spent $2.50 and got some exercise.

On Friday, Mark took a half-day so that we could go to our anatomy scan and see this little cutie again.

In the doctor's words, our baby looks perfect :)  For some reason, this time around, I'm slightly more worried about having a healthy baby, so it was nice to hear that from the outside, everything looks good on the inside.  I'll be 20 weeks on Thursday...halfway there!

After a post-appointment ice cream treat (which I clearly deserved because I am doing so well at growing a baby), we headed out on my parents' lake with my family, then had dinner with them.  Here is Marley driving the boat with my dad.  She's a lazy driver.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party at the zoo, so we headed back and saw some of my best friends from college and met one of their little boys for the first time.  The only picture I have at the moment is Marley trying to escape from her stroller.

After the party, we made the drive back home and picked up Wendy's for dinner.  I can't remember the last time we had fast food (my rationalization) and it was delicious.  We watched "We Bought A Zoo" and I cried my eyes out.  Fabulous.

Sunday consisted of Mark working for most of the day and Marley catching up on sleep from all that she missed on Saturday.  When she and her dad finally resurfaced in the afternoon, ready to go, we got out the pool that was given to us last year and took advantage of the 87 degree weather.  Marley LOVED it.

Sorry if you've already seen these pictures on Instagram (my user name is krieff!), I've been a lazy picture-taker lately.  

I hope you had a great weekend and that your Monday is tolerable so far ;)

Cheap New Toy!

I've been wanting to make this dyed pasta for Marley to play with for awhile now.  Thanks to my mom coming up and watching the little troublemaker, I was able to.  

I found this tutorial on Pinterest (surprise!) and it didn't take much time at all, other than waiting for the pasta to dry.  I left the pasta soaking in the rubbing alcohol and food coloring for about 3 hours and then let it dry overnight.  

I added some sand toys and let Marley have at it.  It ended as expected, but she had fun!

Deep Thoughts

• Missing, my new favorite show got cancelled already, just as I was hooked.  I'm having flashbacks to my tears after Veronica Mars and Flash Forward were given the ax...damn the man.
• The amount of trail mix I've eaten in the last week is not okay.
• I'm feeling quite gross due to said trail mix.  Also due to the baby bump/thick waist that I'm sporting  at 19 weeks along.  And due to the fact that I have to put on a bathing suit in a little over a week.
• Despite the above, I can't stop eating.
• We have our "big" ultrasound on Friday and we're very excited for it.  It'll be the first time that Mark has seen Baby 2.0 on the screen and I can't wait to see it again.  We will not be looking at the baby's cash and prizes, however- we like the surprise at the end!
• Finally, I would like you to meet Gladys- Marley's alter ego who comes out when she puts on her hat & shades.