This is what's wrong with America, people...

A couple of weekends ago we all got together for the January and Feburary Colley birthdays. I've been meaning to post these photos for a while but I've been so mad at myself for not breaking out my video camera for Mike's gifts that I've put it off! Haha. So, anyway, here we go:

Miss Autumn and Mr. Tyler did some drawer emptying on birthday night. Which is a bit of a change from Autumn's usual cabinet emptying. ha. I'm not sure what Tyler did with his drawer treasures but Autumn spent the night carrying her measuring cups and spoons into the living room and using them as dance props.


Speaking of dancing, here's Autumn getting down with Uncle Brad on the table. And, yeah, she loves pajamas. She was wearing a perfectly cute outfit but dragged out her "spending the night" pj's and insisted on wearing them all night. Funny baby.


Product plug: if you want awesome ice cream while supporting a small business owner who is super nice, you must, must go to Emack and Bolio's on Houston Levee. This cake was divvviiiiine. Pretty much everything else there is divine. :D


Here's Mike cutting the cake Filipino style. Why use a wussy cake knife when you can use a meat cleaver?


See? You thought I was joking BUT I WASN'T. Even I thought the the massive knife was a little bit of overkill. Although I did make him let me smack the cake with it once. Oh, and do you like his shirt? That's what I got him for his birthday...along with a baguette from Panera. My friend Tamara found the shirt online and sent me the link saying it was totally Mike!


And what else is TOTALLY MIKE??? Da da da daaaa: The Snuggie!!! This was the last gift given out. I had almost forgotten about it...I'm totally mad at myself for not videoing this but I managed to get his face when he realized what was in the box.


"Oh, look! My life problems are totally solved! I'll never be cold again...except my back because the back is open...but that could be solved by turning it around...LIKE A ROBE. Because this is nothing but a BACKWARDS ROBE. All I need is a belt..."


"Oh, wait, what's that?"


"Look! Now I have a belt! All I have to do now is turn the SNUGGIE backwards, and I HAVE A ROBE."


"This is what's wrong with America, people. Instead of making useful things we're 'inventing' horrible things like Snuggies and Slankets."

LOL!

So, yeah...

If you have you ever thought, "man, all Pride and Prejudice needs is some ZOMBIES," then this book is for you!

All I really want to know is, why would anyone even think about something like that?

And since everyone comes here for Miss Autumn and not zombie books...have some valentine monkey pics!


Mama Lainey provided Autumn with an adorable Valentine's Day dress and a kind of matching pink outfit for Autumn's baby doll. Today Autumn had her first go at changing her baby doll's clothes which was fun. And funny.


I used Valentine's Day as an excuse to get Autumn the little highchair that goes with her doll. I got some of Autumn's old stuff out--a bottle, a bowl, and a small spoon. It's been fun watching her try to feed the doll. And us. And pretty much anyone who will let her near their mouth.


And herself. This child never took a bottle once she got the hang of nursing. Would never use a sippy cup. But she's all over pretending like she's feeding the baby and then feeding herself. :P


Muah! Bye bye for now!

More of the Busy Bee

We have riding:


Coloring:


Eating:


and feeding her baby doll!

A Real Update!

I was bad about updating last month but hopefully this month will be a little better. :) We've been up to a lot of stuff, though. We're doing some schedule and work and sitter adjustments--Mike has started taking Fitness Kickboxing at the school where my aikido and kali classes are. How cool is that? At least one day a week we're there at the same time which is super fun. I've added an extra few hours of work a week which is kind of exciting plus we're working on a proposal to teach aikido in a local private school. And Autumn's been especially busy with all her Mother's Day Out-ing and marker eating. ha! Actually, she's been doing some fun stuff.

Earlier in January, Penny and I went out for her birthday. We ended up at the mall that day and she really wanted to take Autumn on the carousel. I am really glad we went because it was a ton of fun and Autumn totally didn't want to get off.


We've also been playing Rock Band pretty much every weekend. Autumn loves to dance but, even more than that, she loves to sing. It can be inconvenient when we're playing but it's pretty cute when we can hand over the mic.


Lately Autumn's really enjoyed dress-up. She likes to put on her coat(s) and certain shirt(s) and accessorizes with, oh, sunglasses, hair clips, hats, purses, bags and, occasionally, all of the above.


I'm not sure why but this picture makes me giggle. Mmmm...bag lady chic.


"Dahlignks...I am, how you say, fahhhhbulous. You Amereeecans cannot understand zee fahshion."


Ah. And we have Molly here. She's been experimenting with new places to sleep. We have a laundry sorter and Mike's pretty picky about it always sitting in a certain place with the colors in a certain order because he's color blind (sometimes the bright/light pile looks like the whites to him). One night he came out of our room fussing about me moving the cart around and mixing up the colors. I was, like, look, you're crazy because I haven't touched it. He said, "I just want to know who put the gray cat in with the whites." Hahahaha!


Oh, and this is fun. My mom came over to cut everyone's hair and Autumn wanted in on it. All she need was a bang trim but after that was done, she realllly wanted to stay. She put on the cape and climbed back into the chair. Funny kid. My mom just combed Autumn's hair some. I like this pic because it really shows how her eyes change sometimes like Mike's--or a little like my dad's did.


I think this is the last one and it's just Autumn discovering the fun of oven mitts. :) It's pretty cool to see her interested in cooking. My mom says I was always in the kitchen playing with bowls and oven mitts and wanting to do everything with her and Autumn seems to be a lot like I was in that regard. So, who knows! Maybe we'll have another little chef in the family someday!

News update at 5!

In todays headlines, small bad girl Autumn Rose Colley ate a green marker. We unfortunately do not have pictures of the grisly aftermath of this marker eating incident since her mother panicked and went to immediately wash the child's mouth out. Asked for her thoughts on why she would do something so astoundingly boneheaded as devouring a writing implement, all Autumn had to say about the matter was: "Uh-oh."

Now for a word from our sponsors:

A Big Day!

Today was a Very Big Day in the life of Miss Autumn. She went to her first day of Mother's Day Out! The morning went really smoothly. I had packed almost all of her things (diaper bag, lunch and napmat--awwww!) Sunday night so all we really had to do was eat breakfast, get dressed, and play a little.


We got all bundled up and headed out. Autumn wanted to bring her little doll along which was pretty cute. She's been carrying it around a lot lately. Here they are, with Autumn looking totally grown up. And for some reason...she looks like she's going fishing. I think it's the hat and the way it is positioned on her head.


Drop off went spectacularly. Everyone was super nice and she went in with no trouble. When I picked her up, (five and a half hours later!) I got a great report from the teachers. Autumn transitioned really well and didn't cause too much drama. I tried to get a picture of her playing with the kids and hanging on to her doll but she saw me and then wouldn't let me go. In a "small world" moment, I saw the mother of a couple of boys I used to teach aikido to. Her youngest daughter is in Autumn's room at MDO. Lena, whose little one is 3 months older than Autumn, took a picture of the two of us.


And so ended Autumn's First Day!

First snow of the year!

For some reason my camera didn't pick up the FIVE MILLION SNOWFLAKES but it really has been snowing since about 7 this morning--our backyard is totally covered! Autumn and I put our coats and hats on over our pajamas and went out to play a little just in case it stopped quickly. The snow is still going as of right now but Miss Autumn wanted to come in after only a few minutes of being outside. She was mad because her swing was full of snow. :)




Funny enough, an hour later, she's still wearing her coat. She finally took off her hat and scarf about ten minutes ago but for some weird reason, she really wants to keep her coat on.