The girls are asleep and I should be folding this load of laundry and starting the enormous task of stain spotting the kids' load, but I figured I'd update the blog real quick before the two week hiatus.
'So what?', you say, 'You rarely update us more than every two weeks in the first place.' Okay, you are right. I just wanted to tell you about the monumental (to me) vacation that is about to happen:
Wednesday morning we're headed for Georgia. Thursday morning, JUST the Mr. and I are flying to Texas, for FIVE days, JUST US. The kids will not be with us. Only Chris and I. For five whole days. Without kids. Can you believe it?? I can't. =)
Okay, skipping off to finish laundry....

Today Sonja turns 19 months. Tipping the scale at 21 lbs, she continues to make her own curve (well below the established chart norm.) She's the first one up most mornings and insists on the following regimen: throw pacifier into the crib (we're on restricted paci time...tried to give it up cold turkey, but that did not go over well, for anyone involved), put on penguin slippers, take pink fleece blanket out to couch, open dvd drawer and choose Pooh or Boz the Bear, run in place to show enthusiasm, get bowl of dry Cheerios, cozy up on the couch with blanket and cheerios. Exeunt mom, back to bed.
Same thing, every morning. Which is nice as I can get her all set up without ever opening the other eye. Anna wakes up a little later usually and joins Sonja on the couch with a purple Ravens blanket and her own bowl of dry cereal. And this is our morning life for the first hour of the day. A gradual entrance into the day.
I know it's a little different from the hot breakfasts and bustling pre-7AM hours we once knew, but everyone seems happy with this winter morning schedule. We're conserving energy.

Anyway, just yesterday, Sonja developed a fear of bugs. As there was just one gnat-like bug in the house, she ran out of bugs to fear so began to fear crumbs, specks, pieces of fuzz, anything small that could possibly pass as a bug. At first, I thought she was pretending to be afraid, but after several episodes of near panic attacks, I realized she really was scared of things that could be bugs. And her sister, in true sisterly form, capitalized on the new phobe and showed Sonja every bit of fuzz she could find. Until parental intervention.
Anyway, here are some picture of our specko-fuzzo-crumbo-bugophobic little girl:


A little girl with a pony tail...sniff.

And some pictures of Anna, my little sous chef:

Ballerina sous chef.

And taste tester.

And silverware unloader.

That's all for now. Dinner needs to be in the oven soon and ingredients are still at Food Lion, unfortunately.

Chris noticed a crack in the plaster of our ceiling awhile ago. I never saw it until it opened up an inch on Monday. Then, everytime I looked at it, it grew, and grew and GREW until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around. I mean, until there was a serious gap between the plaster and ceiling. I began to feel like Chicken Little. Wednesday night at 4AM, it fell, giving myself one heart attack. My sweet husband, incorporated the noise into a dream, until receiving a death grip to the bicep.
We had company over last night to dine under this fine aesthetic...

Exposed brick walls are classy. It's just like that, right?

Few new things going in the shop this week-
First, a new fabric for aprons:


A couple knitted scarf patterns:





And finally, flower hair clips. I'm in love with these.





Stop by and check out the shop, if you're so inclined. =)

My sincere apologies to Google Reader users...I think I got it.
Hopefully this works- If you want to direct your feet and others to What I Call Pretty, you can "grab" this button using the code in the box. Bloggers can post it as a html/java gadget in the Page Elements section of Layout. That's all I know. This is way too techy for me. Thanks for the idea, Lynn. =)

<a
target="_blank" href="http://www.whaticallpretty.etsy.com" title="Visit Missy's Shop">
<img src="http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss198/whaticallpretty/th_WICPbuttonblackfont.jpg"
alt="Oh Dear, Missy is not very computer literate./"/></a>

So October flew by. With only one post. Really? Okay, let's just get back to it. October was busy- Chris was in PA solo for a wedding, I was in PA to see big Sonja, the girls went to VA, we all went to OH. I don't remember anything else from the month. It just went by in a blink. A blank blink.

When we went to Ohio, Opa got a new puppy-




Also out in OH, we went to a pumpkins festival-

These four are really excited about pumpkin ice cream.

Appreciate the 1600lb pumpkins in the background...

Also in Ohio, we were able to see the Kirklin's!

The girls with Uncle Roo and Daddy.

Back in MD, this fuzzy bear loves getting to pick up the puppy.



Other than busy weekends away and the usual runaround, the etsy shop has been keeping me busy. I'm hoping we have enough sun tomorrow to get some pictures of the new little product line- Flowers, dots and a little bit of cashmere.
Okay, say goodnight, Gracie. Goodnight, Gracie.

Ravens' fans.