The Shop is Open for Business!

I finally did it - I finally opened my Etsy shop!

http://hestermania.etsy.com



Go and take a look and spend, spend, spend. ;) Tell everyone you know! More items added regularly. Custom orders gladly accepted.

A special thanks to Aunt Ilse and Hazel for being my wonderful first purchasers!!!

PS A link to the shop with gallery thumbnails will now be available in my sidebar -->

Potty Training: Day 2

We began quite successfully yesterday. Lily peed on the potty 3 out of 3 times, and she was so proud of herself. Each time, she jumped off and yelled, "I did it!" Then I'd come investigate and she'd jump up and down and there was much congratulations all around.

Today has not been quite so promising. So far, she's 1 for 3 - the "1" being just a minute ago, so really all day it felt like 0 for 2...and 0% is not positive and uplifting. Both today and yesterday, she pooped in her diaper during naptime in her crib, so we have yet to experience #2 on the potty (or on the floor...so that's good).

The first time she peed on the floor this morning, she looked very distraught. "What happened?!" she pointed at the wet floor. Her feet and her flip flops were wet, and she froze in place. My one saving grace is that Lily does not like mess. Together we cleaned it up and I thought the mess would have scared her into doing it again. But lo and behold, a couple hours later, she brought me into the living room to show me the puddle on the floor. "Oh..." she shook her head. "Pee pee on the floor..."

I'm glad she showed me and knew it was in the wrong spot. And at least both mistakes were on solid flooring and not carpeting. So far I think we're doing pretty good. Diapers only in the crib and in the car.

As Bob would say, "Baby steps on the bus..."

What Sick Lily Looks Like...

Wordless Wednesday

Making Her Aunt Heidi Proud

I wish you could see her big smile up on that horse!! Blurry pic...



Running to Mama, so proud to have ridden the horse!

Lil' Bow Wow

Lily came in to tell me about eating cookies. "Who's eating cookies?" I thought it was a trick. "People!" I followed her quick little legs to the living room. She had positioned them all around the table, eating imaginary cookies.



I'm so glad she doesn't discriminate - the Mama and the farmers and Mary and a Wise Man get to eat cookies around the same table as the giraffe and the pig.



Can I tell you how much I love that she is imagining things now??



Next thing I know, she's wearing this stuffed dog's necklace she got from my cousin Heidi for being her Flower Girl. Heidi, I hate to tell you, but the necklace was a much bigger hit than the dog! ;)

I couldn't decide which pics I liked the most, so I had to put them all!

Our Late Walker

Jacob is 15 months and still has no desire to walk. He'll stand and cruise and walk behind things with wheels (or the garbage can or a chair that he's pushing), but letting go? No thank you! That's just crazy! When you try to make him let go, he immediately sits down. Even if you're two feet away from him and asking him to walk over, he'll plop down and crawl the two feet! Then he'll look at you, like, "What? I'm here, aren't I?"

Today, I got an e-mail from BabyCenter mentioning that by now, 90% of 15-month-olds are walking. Poor little unmotivated Jacob...

The Resemblance

Lots of people ask where our kids get their blonde hair. We always say, "It's in the family." With Jacob, it's quite obvious:



Meet my brother Seth.



Lily wasn't quite sure what to make of her Uncle from Florida:



She moved away from him every time he got close for a picture, so we'd have to time it so we were ready the moment he came over.

My little stinkers:

Bradley Reunion

Maria and Fred were a couple in our Bradley birth class when we were pregnant with Lily in 2006. Their baby Jasmine was born a month after Lily. The last time I saw Maria was when Lily and Jasmine were just a couple months old.



Would you look at them now?!



Here's another fun comparison shot:





And oh yeah, did I mention we each then had two boys within two months of each other?



(Apparently, Lily was loving Jacob a little too aggressively for his taste...)

Here's a shot of the four little munchkins in action:

Too Funny

If I ever get pregnant again, this will be the problem I will probably have at THREE months:



Haha!

Haven't seen "Away We Go" yet, but from the trailers, it looks really funny. And gotta love John Krasinski.