say hello to the big girl bed

It all started two nights ago, when Britton told me she wanted a bigger bed. She's still in her crib, mostly because my sister said that if you don't move a kid into a bed too early, they don't have as many issues (getting up 500 times a night, screaming, refusing to actually get in said bed, you get the gist). And she likes the crib and hasn't had any problems with it, so why mess with a good thing? Well, we were brewing about her desire for a bigger bed, then during nap time yesterday she actually climbed out of her crib by herself. I looked at the monitor, saw her wandering around her room, and ran outside to show the hub, who was cutting the grass. He said, "Guess it's time to get a bed."

 So we spent last night checking out the internet to see what was out there. We decided to just go ahead and get an actual bed instead of a mattress on the floor, so it would feel more like a crib. But that of course means we needed side rails. And since we don't know how a bed will fit in Britton's room (we may have to move furniture around depending on how far it sticks out into the room), we didn't know if the bed would be against a wall, so we went ahead and just got the double rail. Here's the bed we decided on - the "Catalina Bed" from Pottery Barn Kids. We got it in "Simply White," and I didn't even notice that there were options of "White" and "Simply White" until after I ordered it. Turns out that "Simply White" is white and "White" is cream. Ridiculous, I know. But I got the right color because Britton's dresser is white. We got a twin size so it wouldn't take up her entire room. Here is the bed...

And a bed needs a bedspread, but dang it all I couldn't find a set I just LOVED. So I checked out Pottery Barn Kids quilts and decided on the "Sasha Quilt," after checking Target, JC Penney, The Company Store Kids, One Step Ahead, and Overstock and not being blown away. I guess I could have made a quilt, but not in a week! And Memaw made Britton a quilt for her bed, but it fits a toddler bed and not a twin, so it will sit at the end of Britton's bed.

I asked Britton what color sheets she wants, and she said purple. It seemed odd, since she gravitates towards pink, but I figured she knew what she wanted. The quilt is also the only one I found that incorporates purple, pink, and green. Her curtains are pink gingham and her walls are green, and I was not going to redo her entire room to accommodate purple! Truthfully, the hub and I have a weak spot for Pottery Barn sheets, as they are the softest ever, and hold up after hundreds of washings (and get softer after each wash). I checked the prices, and the sheet set we got was the same price as a comparable set at Target! So we went with what we know, and I hope Britton loves them too. They are "Garden Party," and include a lovely shade of lavender.

Last, but not least, the bed rails! I didn't want to spend $100 on the Pottery Barn Kids rails, because I don't really care if they match her bed finish or not. However, I didn't think that the best-reviewed rails would mean I'd be choosing between pink or blue! We went with pink, and I really hope they hold up as well as the reviews said. We ordered them from Wal-Mart.

Everything is set to arrive by the end of the week (yes, the UPS guy is going to hate us!) so we're taking Britton mattress shopping next Saturday. We're also crossing our fingers that by involving her in the mattress shopping and the assembly of the bed and linens that she'll get excited about her new bed. Because ya'll know I'm not going to be a happy camper if Britton gets up 500 times during the night! Next thing to buy...

For all the outside doors, because Britton knows how unlock our doors!

our week

I made the cake from Better Homes and Gardens! It turned out really good, though the icing called for six sticks of butter.  I only used four because I just couldn't get passed the idea that the cake would taste like it was dipped in butter.

Britton liked it, and I sent the rest of it to work with the hub on Monday morning so I wouldn't want to eat the entire thing myself!

Here's Britton last Sunday afternoon after the car ride home from Memaw and PawPaw's house. She naps all week at daycare but come Saturday and Sunday she refuses. I still try to put her down for a nap, but no longer get all bent out of shape if she won't comply. But the reason I had to take this picture was because I never really get to see Britton sleeping. She goes to bed at night and falls asleep within minutes of me leaving the room, but I don't dare ever go back in since Britton is a light sleeper.  Isn't she just so sweet here?

And Britton started ballet classes at daycare this week! There is a traveling dance teacher that goes to the different daycares in the area and teaches for a thirty minute class once a week. Surprisingly, I got an email from the teacher that the recital is on May 21st. Huh? Turns out while they hold classes all year, I managed to sign up Britton one month before the recital! Here are her ballet shoes, and I added the apple for size comparison.

This is Britton pretending to be PawPaw by wearing his glasses and hat. The whole thing cracked her up! And Memaw and PawPaw too, that is until Britton went to throw the glasses!

We were watching Dora the Explorer together this week and during this episode I happened to look up when Dora and the gang were water-skiing in a river, being pulled by a pink dolphin, and then when she and Cousin Diego rode condors. Seriously, this is my WTF? moment of the week!

to ohio memaw and pawpaw go

Yes, it's true - Memaw and PawPaw are moving to Ohio on Friday. PawPaw got a job offer/promotion to move to Ohio and he accepted and now come Friday they will no longer live ten minutes away from us. I haven't told Britton much, mainly because her long-term memory can't be counted on for details, and I don't want to keep explaining it to her and making her upset. She's older now, and understands when the hub goes on a trip. But the problem? She also knows that when the hub is on a trip he's coming back home. And they aren't.

It's not the first time we haven't lived near family. In fact, since the hub and I went to law school, we've never lived near family, save the three months we lived in Virginia Beach. When we had Britton, we were at best a four hour plane ride from anyone related to either of us. And it was hard. Because it doesn't matter how often family calls, or how many friends you have (we had so few in Oklahoma it was embarrassing), having family around is just different.

In true Carrie fashion (yes, I did just pull out a third person!), I made Memaw a quilt. She had shown up at my house months ago with some tan fat quarters and no plan on what to make with them. So she handed them to me to make something. I was contemplating an Ohio Stars quilt pattern (oh, the serendipity), but instead went with the Swoon quilt. The pattern looks like this (linked up here):



But I don't buy patterns so I pulled out my graph paper and figured out the pattern of just one block. And made it big.



Sadie helped out too....



Love the two sets of legs behind the quilt...



Who's Mommy's quilt holder helper? Britton!



I used all the tans as mosaic blocks within the pattern. It just worked.



Come Friday I will have lost my quilting buddy! Memaw taught me to quilt and has been my sounding board ever since. We are going to miss them but I also know that Ohio will be a new fun adventure. The hub goes there often for business and has always told me how beautiful the region is, even before we knew they were moving. And Sadie was born in Ohio, so we've got the family connection, you know? We will still visit each other, but we all know it won't be the same. But such is life - it goes on, whether you want it to or not.

what i know (and it ain't much)

This has been a sort of odd neutral week for me. Other than Britton being one big raw nerve yesterday (and crumbling into a crying heap if we even so much as looked at her), this week has been neither fast nor slow, neither boring nor exciting, neither trying nor easy. So here's what we've been up to...

We decided to take the whole "make Britton into a tattoo artist" thing a little further and actually put Tinkerbell tattoos on her (she calls them stickers, though). But darn it all if those things don't come off with soap and water! The hub mentioned, after the fact I might add, that you need rubbing alcohol to remove them. I say we get the steel wool out and teach Britton a lesson about the permanence of tattoos, kidding of course! Okay, only a little.




I don't know what Sadie's secret is, but just by looking at her expression you know it's a good one. And please don't mention that she's getting more white on her face, because I know she looks older than the puppy she used to be and I can't deal with her getting older. Kids are one thing, but dogs really should never get old.



Hummingbirds are visiting the feeder hanging off my office window. I was completely distracted by them yesterday, trying to get a good picture, and conveniently forgot to work for an hour at a time.



Memaw and I went to our favorite quilt shop this week and I got a bundle of goodies. The solids are for an isosceles triangle quilt (my first!) and the bunting fabric was just because I liked it. Until I got to the cutting counter and noticed that all the solids are in the bunting fabric. Visions of little boy quilts danced in my head. So I know I'll make them into a quilt, but I don't know for sure what quilt. The Strawberry Fields fat quarters were all that the store had left of that line, and I couldn't just not get it, you know?



I know that this is what happens when Britton is tall enough to reach her dresser top, and drags the hub into her room and shuts the door.



The best thing I've read about parenting on a blog in a long time (original post here).


You know how you end up buying just one more book from Amazon than you intended, so you get the free shipping? It goes like this, in my head, "Well, one book is $6 and this one is $15 and that's only $21 total so if I buy one more book for $12 then it's $33 total, but I get free shipping so it's like the third book is 80% off and I could never get this deal at Barnes and Noble." Yeah, it's like that - but then throw in Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.



The hub had a near-coniption fit over the cover of this magazine. I know I'm making this cake this weekend. I also know that all leftovers of this cake are going with the hub to his office Monday morning, because the cake plus the icing calls for over two pounds of butter!

a girly quilt

I had some leftover fabric from Britton's "Children on Parade" shirt, and the flowered fabric and pinwheel fabric are part of the same line. That stack of beautiful fabric was just waiting to be made into something, and dang it all I didn't know anyone having a baby girl. But I figured, why not just make a baby girl quilt anyways?

When I mention quilting to my sister, she asks me how the planning is going on my 82nd birthday party. Seriously. I know it's an uncommon hobby for someone who is 33 years old, but it's my stress-relief, my therapy. There is something absolutely calming about taking little pieces of fabric and making something out of them.

Anywho, long story short, I really wanted to try out a new pattern (check it out here) and I had the perfect fabric, so now a beautiful baby girl quilt is sitting in my office closet waiting for a home.



I've never used ric rac before in a quilt, and it was the one part of the quilt pattern I was really excited about. And the green stripe was an addition by the hub, who thought the pink and green looked good together, even though it doesn't appear anywhere in the parade colors. He was right - the green works perfectly.

happy easter!

We started off our Easter weekend on Friday morning with a family breakfast out. Britton wore her Easter dress and we ordered a stack of pancakes, eggs, and bacon galore.



Then Saturday morning it was off to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt with Memaw and PawPaw. We raced home from our monthly Home Depot Kid's Workshop (made a bird feeder!) to throw Britton into the wagon and get down to the neighborhood park. Britton was excited for her egg hunt, and probably the most excited about the candy!







The name of this candy cracks me up. "Jesus Promise Seeds." Huh?



Britton learned a lesson about the black jelly beans - black licorice is gross!



Then that afternoon PawPaw, the hub, and I went to the shooting range.



My first shot was that bullseye in the middle of the target. Of course, it took me ten minutes to line it up!



And Easter without coconut cake? Egads! I made Bobby Flay's Toasted Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream (make it yourself here) and Memaw made her patented bunny cake.




Then this morning Britton woke up to her Easter basket that the Easter Bunny dropped off. She insisted on some candy immediately, but we convinced her to eat a real breakfast before gorging on chocolate and jelly beans!




Then we dyed hard-boiled eggs, and I later made them into deviled eggs with dinner.



Britton loved her markers from Memaw and PawPaw.



And the hub taught her to write a "t." You can see two t's below right next to each other.




And Britton's "n."



The hub predicts Britton will be a tattoo artist based on her excitement at drawing all over PawPaw! She was right due for a bath after all the marker drawing.



Hoppy Easter!