Enter the Stretchy Pant

I've a little shopping problem as of recently. In the form of baby girl outfits. Not just clothes, but straight up we are living on the baby runway outfits. And we wear them to play group, or in the back yard, or eat a strawberry, blueberry, or anything and these outfits get dirty. You think I'm cute when I say we. Not cutesy, reality. If I don't eat with Pippa, she won't eat, and then she'll whine because she's hungry. So I sit by her and let her feed me in hopes that she will allow me to feed her and thus cut down the mess. Hope is the operative word.

After all the lovely, colorful, matching outfits I buy Pippa, it truly depresses me to pull out my old standby black and navy blue t-shirts. See photo below for confirmation and note two things, the drab colors and my new love: stretchy pants! (Also known as leggings.)

Stretchy pants accommodate the ever changing body that is the mother's curse. After pregnancy nothing fits right. The beautiful wardrobe I perfected during my career days hang with awkward folds and bulges. Stretchy pants don't do this. The flex with your body. Gain 30 lbs during pregnancy...wear stretchy pants. Loose 30 lbs and 10 lbs of muscle when breastfeeding...put on your stretchy pants. Much better than buying new jeans every couple of months.

Out and about in stretchy pants? Yes, and here is why. You can stop at the park and chase a toddler no sweat! Need to kick a bad guy in the face? You can in stretchy pants! Need to dive and slide to protect a certain someone from cracking her head on a corner? Yep, doable in stretchy pants! Running from attack dogs in jeans? Bad idea. Quick lunge and squat workout to cheer up the Bean? Stretchy Pants! And you can even curl up and cuddle at nap time with no bunching.

And so I'm embracing the return of the 80s and on the hunt for exciting new leggings and baggy shirts I can tie in a knot.

Easter Sundays

What's in a hanky? Minutes of fun "blowing" our nose then cleaning the floor, table, or chairs with the snot. Thankfully Pippa's nose blowing skills are low, she mostly blows air out and scrunches her face. What does this have to do with blogging? Every time I start typing she toddles over to wipe the keyboard with her hanky. Expect weird spellings and missing words.

Easter has come and gone and we experienced it twice. The week before Easter was our family basket hunt. Skip frustrated me again with his superb hiding skills--even after I gave him specific instructions to make it easy. When I think of hiding Easter baskets or Easter eggs I think it should all be visible from 2 or more angles. Skip thinks visibility is for the weak and perfects his camouflaging skills with my delicious treats. This came back to haunt him when I won the egg war. Mwahahahaha.



Pippa was excited right up to the moment we tried to tape her finding her basket. Then it was screams and wails as I dragged her to the hiding spot. Once she spotted the bright yellows and pinks she realized only good things could be ahead. Somehow the Easter bunny brought easy to open plastic eggs and she enjoyed opening each one looking for chocolate. In fact any time she sees an egg now she opens it expecting chocolate or jelly beans (I've tried healthier snacks and they just get tossed aside).

On Easter Day (when the rest of you celebrated) Pippa and I found some eggs in the yard! Pippa's shaky walking had improved in that week, but not quite enough for the uneven terrain in our yard. She preferred to have me place her at each egg where she promptly pulled the egg apart and its contents fell in muddy grass. Fun! Her walking continues to improve and she's now able to walk anywhere when she's motivated. I've thought about redoing Easter one more time...but really it takes some effort and I'm  furiously writing a couple of research papers. So until next year!

Oh, and all that nose blowing from earlier finally produced something. Yay.