Crayon Roll--Check this out!!

My friend Marcy is so incredibly creative and talented. She is the one who designed and made all of the adorable personalized burp cloths you probably see laying all around our house....and a few of you have received some for your own little spitter-uppers.

Well, for anyone with a toddler, you must have one of her newest creations---the Crayon Roll. Check out the pics above. To keep a 2 year old interested and behaving well, you must have crayons with you at ALL times, but how do you carry them? In the past they would be thrown haphazardly into whatever bag you are using...marking up the inside, breaking into pieces, hiding in diaper bag crevices unable to find...pretty much a total pain. But fear no more...Marcy has the answer! Check out all of her creative ideas for babies and toddlers at http://www.elephantoes.blogspot.com/

Thanks Marcy!

Where oh where did that little coin go, oh where oh where could it be...

somewhere in Anna's digestive tract, that's where! It's a little ironic that one of the things that I harp on D.J. about (leaving coins around) is the one thing that I end up overlooking. What is it with coins and toddlers anyway...I would say it's a borderline obsession...it's almost as if our children come into this world looking around for them. So as soon as one becomes a parent, those shiny coins become like little grenades lying all over the house....an immediate threat to our poor helpless babies. Of course, it's practically impossible to contain them all and at one point in every toddler's life, he or she will ultimately get their hands on one...and then it will go directly into their mouth!!

To make matters worse, Anna & I were in the car when she swallowed this coin....a contained space...a place where it should have been easy for me to see everything she was doing. And to top that off, she was sitting right next to me playing with handfuls of coins...I was just too busy gabbing on my cell phone to notice!! Anyway, 10 days and 2 x-rays later the thing has yet to make an exit!! We know it's there...confirmed not only by the gagging and smell of her breath seconds after, but also by x-ray. Every diaper change for the past 10 days has been a monumental event around here...kinda like a scientific experiment....and I also have to say that D.J. has done each and every one of them. Each time, I cross my fingers as he heads upstairs with our stinky daughter and all of his coin searching gear. And each time, he comes back down, experiment failed...the coin still baffling us all.

Besides fishing for pennies, we have been very busy having fun! A week or so ago we celebrated Anna's baptismal birthday. Katie & Jack made it extra special by taking Anna bowling...Anna told me she had so much fun and she's been talking about it ever since! Thanks Katie---you're such a great Godmother! That same evening D.J. & I got a sitter, hitched a ride with Katie back to the city and went with her and Marshall to an MS charity event. We had so much fun and what a great cause!

I can't believe it's Thankgiving week already! We kicked it off by heading downtown last night for the Disney holiday parade. Ahhh, there's nothing like watching Mickey Mouse & the gang float down Michigan avenue, amid Gucci & Ferragamo, in 30 degree weather. :-) Let me just say, winter is officially here...both girls were dressed like little eskimo babies (see pic above). It was a little frosty, but to say that Anna loved the parade would be a total understatement...I've never seen her so excited. She kept squealing and looking at me in disbelief, like she just could not believe that she was actually laying her eyes on Mickey Mouse in the flesh...atop a huge lighted float. Yes, the Christmas season is officially here...and we keep telling Anna we'll be singing happy birthday to Baby Jesus very soon!

We tried to have a family pic taken---but this is what happens when you ask a random stranger out of a crowd of thousands to take the picture....ha...Anna is sitting on D.J.'s shoulder....but I picture her with the happiest look of all on her face...

Hot off the press...

the pics are in! Check them out at www.studiokphotoanddesign.com

Go to "View your proofs"
Choose "Anna & Josie Hartman"
Password is : annajosie

Despite the fact that Anna was a little bit like the energizer bunny that day, Karen actually got some decent shots of her at the end! Enjoy!

2 Little Froggies & A Toddler Photo Shoot Gone Awry...

Every night I pretty much have the same routine, I know, sounds boring. But, part of my ritual is to re-check on the girls just before I head off to bed myself. Not that I think they've stopped breathing in those few hours between their bedtime and mine, but I do it simply so I can see their peaceful little faces. Our days seem to fly by, harried and crazed, so peaceful faces seem to be a rarity in the daylight hours.

Anyway, last night, like every night, I tiptoed upstairs quietly to check on both of them...but instead of seeing sleepy faces, I see their cute little bums....high in the air, froggie style...both of them! Now Anna had adopted this style of sleeping as an infant, but abandoned it long ago for a more sprawled out, head on pillow, baby doll under one arm, sippy cup under the other, tummy down look. I honestly can't remember the last time I had seen her in frog position. And Josie, well, she's definitely ms. rolly poley now, but I had yet to see her assume this classic and all popular bum in air, arms tucked underneath position...which, by the way, only small infants and children can do! So if you are over the age of 4, please don't attempt this...you may cause yourself permanent damage. :-) But, on the babies it's just adorable! I thought for a brief moment about grabbing my camera to capture these dual froggies....but my very next thought was of them both awake...and the thought after that was of me having to rock one back to sleep and hear "hold you mommy" for another 30 minutes from the other. So instead I tiptoed out and headed back downstairs to my bottle of wine! :-)

Today was picture day...."yay" (picture me saying that with a frazzled and decidedly sarcastic look on my face). These are days in which, as a mother, you can fret over for months prior. Not necessarily about what they are going to wear, but how might they behave this time? As my sister once put it...'aren't 2 year olds, oh so much fun?' So I started prepping Anna yesterday for this all important photo session (oh please let us just get one good shot of her). And just let me say in advance, there is nothing wrong with bribing a 2 year old! So, last night I let her put on her red tutu (yes, a tutu) that I wanted her to wear today and run around the house. She loved it! She ran around, dancing, singing, falling, twirling...well you get it. The only way I even got it off of her was to tell her that she could wear it tomorrow and WON'T THAT BE SO MUCH FUN??? We also tried to bribe her with an all new cool Ariel (little mermaid) book...seemed like our tactics might work!!

Wrong!!! Let me just say that we were there for almost 2 hours trying to coerce this little 2 year old into letting us take her picture...3 grown adults....3 grown adults that could not reign in her contempt at having her picture taken. But, right before throwing in the towel completely, the bribery Gods fell upon us!! Thank you daddy! Out of no where, Daddy pulls out a bright blue lollipop (that's what happens when you have small children...you just pull stuff out of your pockets that you didn't even know existed)..ha! As soon as she knew that a lollipop was on the line, she was all smiles....sitting nicely and looking cute as ever...and at that point, I didn't even care what she was wearing or what condition her hair was in....she was actually sitting still and looking happy...it was a miracle.

We'll send these images along when we get them!

The day after...

If there was ever a day to blog, this is one of them, the day after the 2008 presidential election...probably the single most important election in the history of my own life. I woke up yesterday with a feeling I only remember as a child, one who still believes in Santa...on Christmas morning. Not necessarily with the same excitement, but with the exact same anticipation. I voted and after felt a sense of satisfaction, a sense of freedom and perhaps even rebellion. Living in such a "blue" state, it's easy to feel like your vote doesn't count...and really, at the end of it all, it probably didn’t. But, still, I have the right.

So I voted and then had to run. I mean literally, I had to run. I came home and as fast as I could, grabbed my tennis shoes and I was out the door...alone with the pavement. I started wondering why I had abandoned what was probably one of my very first true loves...running. I remember the first time I ran a mile, I must have only been 10 or 11 years old at the time. But, it was satisfying and exhilarating...and also addicting. I started and just didn't stop...there were months on end where I didn't go through one day without running 4-5 miles. Today while I was running it dawned on me that the last time I ran 5 miles was Thanksgiving day 2005...I was newly pregnant with Anna and still feeling great, but wow, that was 3 years ago...had it really been that long? How did these years go by so fast? I physically struggled and pushed myself to just finish 2 yesterday. Although my weight, ironically after 2 children, is the same as my young 16 year old self, I'm definitely in the worst physical shape of my life. Although more difficult, it was still the all familiar release...and it felt good.


After I put the girls to bed last night, I sat down completely paralyzed in front of the television. I couldn't turn it off and felt like I just couldn't move, was this really happening? Was history in the making right in front of my very eyes? Was Obama really going to be in theWhite House for at least 4 years or maybe even 8? On one hand, I couldn't help but feel inspired and moved. Yesterday was truly monumental---the historical significance will rarely be paralleled, at least in my lifetime.

But yesterday was not a good day for the GOP and the conservative in me has to ask, do the Obama supporters really understand his economic plan? do they really trust his questionable relationships and financial supporters? Is he really going to go through with this socialist plan? As I watched minorities all across the country cry tears of joy, I also listened to their words. When asked why they wanted Obama to win, the answers ranged from "he's going to pay my mortgage and take care of me" to "i didn't think i'd ever see the day when another African American could be and would be elected president". So, it makes me wonder if they have chosen him for the right reasons and if they really understand. Because regardless of his skin color, he is a radical liberal who's plan mimics socialism, government control, anti-capitalism and discourages the American dream...everything that the USA was built upon! There will be no incentive to succeed, to do better, to work harder. Not everyone deserves the same thing...you have to earn what you gain...that's capitalism. What will happen to our economy if we turn away from this? I feel like those who are too successful will be punished while the complainers sit back with a 'life's not fair' entitled attitude. That scares me. At lunch yesterday an uninformed Obama supporter asked me why I would be scared if he was elected into office...she ignorantly asked me "because of his name"? please. Of course not...I told her because of his economic plan, questionable relationships, and approach to Iraq. She had no idea what I was talking about...I wanted to ask her if she had listened to anything he has said over the last year or if she had at the very least tuned in to the debates, but instead I walked away. I walked away knowing that we were in trouble. Are these the people that voted yesterday?

So my thoughts are that 50% of the Obama supporters have no idea what they are supporting. They think that he is going to take care of them, but they don't understand. They got caught up in the movement and instead of voting for the issues, voted socially to change history.

The other 50% I have to just trust. Those intelligent people that voted for Obama fully understanding his involvement, ideas, beliefs...understanding his approach to domestic as well as foreign affairs, how he will spend government dollars, and how he will manage our own personal bank accounts. I just have to trust that they are right...afterall, there must be millions of them! They must know? right? i hope so...

So today is a new day---the democrats changed history forever yesterday. As I said before, at least I feel inspired...how could you not be? But it's going to take a lot of convincing for me to come around to his plans for the economy and when it comes to foreign affairs and national security, I just pray he knows what he is doing.

On to other, cuter things! Below are some recent pics of the girls---to see more, check out the slideshow in the right column titled "October 2008". God bless the USA.