Sock Monster

Growing up you hear the stories of dryers "eating" socks to explain the reason behind perfectly good socks mysteriously loosing their mate.  Well, I do believe the Sock Monster has decided to take up residence in our dryer for the past couple of months, and it's really starting to get on my nerves.

I tend to do laundry about every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks, depending on how much the full laundry baskets are getting on my nerves.  And it seems, without fail, that there are at least a couple socks that went in the washer as a duet and suddenly come out of the dryer as a solo act.  I've even tried putting the girls socks in those sweater/lingerie bags when I wash and dry them to avoid this calamity, but I don't feel the socks get as clean (or dry) this way, so have given up on that, much to the enjoyment of the hungry creature living in my dryer.

The Sock Monster also doesn't seem to discriminate based on size or color.  I can't speak for Matt's sock supply since he does his own laundry (bless him!)  but all three of the females in our house have at least a couple lone rangers in the sock world right now.  It's not a huge deal, none of us are going without foot coverings during this cold winter, but it is annoying. 

After matching up all the pairs of socks I leave the lonely little singles on top of our dressers, just in case their partner is able to escape the clutches of its evil captor and make it's way back to it's sole mate (ba dum bump!).   I always include the loners in my sock matching endeavors, just in case we get lucky and their pair has resurfaced from the abyss.

Today upon finding four (!?!?!) singles after matching everything else up I was able to reunite two pairs with their mates after one had spent some very lonely time on the dresser alone.  But some of these loners seem destined to remain single for the rest of their existence.  The sad solitary lavender sock?  It's been months since she's seen her match.  The tan one has probably been waiting just as long to feel complete again.

 *Note, I did not tell Melanie to put her lonely, naked little toes in this picture, but I kinda like what their presence adds to it.

And yes, I do realize a couple of them look very close to matches based on this picture, but they are not, and my obsessive compulsive tendencies will not allow me to pair a basketweave brown sock with a plain one.  I just can't do it.  I'm letting go of some things, but this I fear is not one of them.

So if by some strange hole in the cosmos (or the back of my dryer) you happen to find one of the mates to these lonely socks, please send them my way.  I hope one day the dreaded Sock Monster will be vanquished and our footwear families will be whole again and live in fear no more.

Bananas! (becasue exclamation points make everything better!)

Claire likes bananas, as most 1-year-olds do.  Well, as I was slicing her banana the other day I laid the remaining unsliced banana a bit too close, and she decided to help herself.  She was quite proud of herself too, I might add.  Take a peak at our mischievous little monkey munching away at her prize.

I got it!

 

Notice the untouched banana slices on her tray

 

She was quite the happy, and sticky, little girl when all was said and done.

Swiffer Girl (not to be confused with the Beach Boys Surfer Girl)

We're big believers in making the kids pull their own weight around here, and around the 1st birthday seems to be the opportune time to make them start doing their share of the household chores.

Cleaning up some of her Cheerios from breakfast.

 

  

  

Seeing how the Swiffer does on the carpet.

Not so well in mom's opinion.

Claire was undeterred by the lack of productivity when using the Swiffer on the living room carpet and decided to try it out on the stairs.

She then proceeded to take it upstairs with her to try cleaning both Melanie's room and mom and dad's room.  Then mom had to go and spoil her fun by taking it away from her to *gasp* actually clean something!

Look What I Can Do!

I've been busy since my birthday figuring out all the things I can do to cause my mom stress, and boy, has it been  fun!

Climbing chairs is one of my new favorite tricks because...

 

...I can get into things mom would rather I didn't, like my sister's crayons...

... or anything I want that they put on the desk (or table) to keep away from me.

 

Of course this doesn't always work out when mom and dad push the chairs in, then I just get stuck.  Now they keep all the chairs pulled out so I don't get stuck and I can't reach the table or desk, but little do they know I've secretly been watching how they move the chairs back and forth across the floor and I will soon have a new trick to show them!  I can hardly wait! 

 

Of course my personal favorite is the laptop!

Now excuse my while I finish composing this important letter.

MUAH!

Who is that pretty baby in the mirror?

 

I think she needs a kiss!

Wall Decals

When we moved and I had the chance to make some changes to Melanie's room I was excited to try out some of those wall decals I had been seeing in the stores.  I picked some up at Target that would go with the decor we already had for her room and was anxious to try them out.

Well, since I'm just now posting about this, my anxiety to try them out obviously wasn't enough to get me to actually do it in a timely manner.  Part of my excuse was that I wanted to do it when Matt was home so he could keep the girls occupied because I didn't want them to see me applying them and possibly peeling them back off, therefore showing that they too could peel them off the walls.  So they got put up in the closet and were forgotten about until a couple weeks ago when I finally decided to take care of it one Saturday morning as a distraction while putting away the girls' laundry, my least favorite chore, by far.  Not just the girls' laundry, but all laundry in general.  I would truly prefer to iron every day and live out of laundry baskets to the task of putting away laundry (a habit we do fall back in to every so often it seems).  But I digress.

Melanie was quite tickled when she came upstairs to see the new pretties on her walls.  I may go and pick up another set so that when Claire moves in with Melanie I can decorate around her name as well, instead of taking away from Melanie's name.  Anyway, here is little Miss Melanie showing you some of her new wall art.

She really likes that butterfly :)

 

Melanie very quickly informed me that the pink flower was her flower and the yellow one was Claire's.  That's fine with me, glad to hear she's sharing and all.  I just assumed this was because the pink one was bigger, and therefore should be hers.  Then last week Melanie shed a bit more light on her reasoning behind her choices.  One day when we were putting away laundry (Again!  I tell you, it never ends!) Melanie said "The pink flower is my flower, the yellow flower is Claire's flower.  Claire is a sunflower.  I'm a farmer.  I get candy!"  Ah, it all made sense now!  A reference back to Halloween.  Quite the memory our little lady has!

Claire was quite fascinated by the new additions

 

And just because it's cute, the girls lovin' on each other.

Claire's Hat

In typical Elizabeth "everything has to match" fashion, I made a hat to match Claire's coat, the same as I did for Melanie last year.  She really likes it - a lot!  Whenever I go to get something out of the hall closet she toddles over and gestures at the shelf and makes noises, and is very happy when I get her hat down and let her wear it, whether we're going somewhere or not.  Here are a few pics of her in her prized hat.

The ensemble

A closer shot of the cables

 

  I taught myself some basic crochet with the help of some online videos so I could make the flower for the finishing touch.

 

Bundled up and all ready to set out on an adventure!

Claire's Birthday Party

Ok, so it's been a couple weeks, but I'm ready to jump back on the bloggy bandwagon (I think).  Here goes!

We celebrated Claire's 1st birthday by having our families over for cake and ice cream on Saturday afternoon.  In typical Elizabeth fashion, I made too much cake, but I'd rather too much than not enough.

Cake #1

Cake #2

Claire's cupcake

As with Melanie's birthday parties, we kept is low key (and therefore as stress free as possible for mom and dad!).

The decor

Claire was not especially interested in opening gifts.   She kept toddling off to other rooms when we would try to entice her to open a gift.  This bothered Melanie, who was very interested in what Claire's gifts were, and would therefore chase after Claire with a present exclaiming "Open this one Claire!"

We were eventually able to convince Claire to pay some amount of attention to her presents, and successfully got the wrapping off of them, with help from her dad, mom and big sister.

 

 

Finally some real interest in a gift!

 

Sharing with Grams

As with Melanie's 1st birthday, Matt's sister Katie made Claire an absolutely beautiful scrapbook of her 1st year and included a couple pages for all her family that came to her party to write a little note to her on.  I absolutely love this idea and if I ever make a scrapbook for someone's 1st year I will definitely be borrowing this idea!

The signature pages - aren't they adorable?!?

G.G. Palmer writing a note to Miss Claire

Melanie "writing" her note - it was so important she had to write with both hands.

"Dear Claire, I love you bunches and think you're a great sister.  Now can I play with all the neat toys you just got?  Love, the best big sister you've got, Melanie"

 

Grandma Greenlee and Nana admiring the scrapbook

This one was just too cute not to include - Miss Melanie playing hide and seek with Gramps.

I just love watching their special relationship grow :)

And finally, the birthday girl with each of her guests

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Greenlee

 

G.G. Palmer

Nana

 

Grams and Gramps

Grandma and Grandpa

Auntie K, scrapbooker extraordinaire! 

(and a pretty great godmother, too!)

 

Uncle John

Aunt Laura

Aunt Amber

Needless to say, she was one pooped little girl when all was said and done! 

In a sugar coma ;)

I think we'll put this one down as another successful 1st birthday party.

And no, I didn't forget the cake pictures.  I just can't figure out how to embed the slideshow in a post with other photos and text, so see below for all the frosting filled messiness our little one-year-old got herself into.

I think you'll agree it's safe to say she enjoyed her cake!