too much to ask?

2 bedrooms
a dishwasher
a washer
a dryer
a small patch of grass to play on
walking distance to a grocery store
no pests
$1500-ish a month in rent

You will literally get laughed right out of your broker's office if these are your criteria for an apartment in NYC. You can have one of these. Maybe.

to leash or not to leash

It seems in the last few weeks, Blake has decided he hates his stroller. And forcing him into it usually makes me regret deciding to take him somewhere. So I've been contemplating getting him one of those "this looks like a monkey backpack but it's really a way for me to keep you from running out in front of a car" leashes.

But then I saw this:

And I laughed as I realized Blake would be exactly like the kid on the ground. As soon as I tried to pull him in the right direction on a walk around the nabe, he'd collapse to the ground and I'd be stuck either dragging him along or hoisting him over my shoulder and carrying him home (both resulting in judgmental looks from passersby).

Personally I think the little backpack leashes look silly. And before I had a kid I never thought I'd consider getting one. But I totally understand why parents use them. Especially if you are going somewhere by yourself and need to be able to keep track of multiple children.

I don't look down on parents who use them. If they work for your kid, great! If they don't (see picture above) then good luck finding something that does. I'm currently searching for a solution myself.

weekly winter activity

Finger painting day naturally coincides with bath day.

 

this is what I get...

for trying to take my son on a walk:

starts off pretty good

sunny, but cold

return home because Blake insists on walking into oncoming traffic

 horizontal tantrum

Hey! An acorn!

Another one!

Hmmm, I wonder...

Yep. I can step on them.

Beware

The 3-binked monster

new 'do

And you thought you'd have to wait until Monday!

I'm having fun playing with it! Although with a toddler running around there isn't much time to play with it. But I really like it!

chopped

I'm getting my hair cut tonight. I'm going pretty drastic and chopping most of it off. Hopefully the end result will be something like this:

Now, I know I'm not Mandy Moore. I don't expect to turn into her when I get this hair cut. But, I do think I'll like the end result.

When I told my mother I was getting my hair cut short, she so graciously sent me this blast from the past:

I'll be praying to the gods of hair that I won't have a repeat of what my family so lovingly calls "the mushroom".

(And while I have this uber embarrassing picture of myself posted on my blog, can I just say I really have never looked in the mirror and seen this person. How did this photographer manage to capture a side of myself that I've never seen? Ugh, I can't even bare to look at this picture for too long. (And if anyone says this looks exactly like me, I'm going to scream.))