Ft. Collins

We are in ft. Collins for the day, enjoying a little daytrip on my last day of maternity leave.

A lovely september day at the playground

potty time

I can hear Trey sitting on the potty reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear,
What do you see? Except the words are now "stinky bear stinky bear,
what do you stink?" Then laughing hysterically.

while the cat's away...

Joe is away at Tony's wedding in New Hampshire, so I'm kickin it with
the boys. We have a full day planned of going to look at the very
very big construction vehicles (they are building a high school
stadium about 1/3 mile away), going to to the playground, hanging out
at the library, and of course, naps for all!

Tonight I have a girl's night at the house. Sex in the City movie
and cosmos. There will be 7 of us. It should be superfun (as long
as I can stay awake that late).

busy bees!

Sorry for the lack of posts. We've been busy around here! I go back
to work on Wednesday, so I've been trying to get things done before I
suddenly have no time during the day to spend on Tiny Tales. Here is
what has been going on...

1) Filling that big wholesale order I received last week

2) Writing my business plan and financial forecast

3) Researching different suppliers to reduce my cost of goods

4) I have 3 new products in the works, so I've been working on the
design and descriptions of those

5) Starting Joe's landscape business. He's talked about doing this
for a while, and it seemed like a good time to try to get it off the
ground. It is called JMF Landscape Design & Consulting, and he will
be doing - you guessed it - design and consulting. There are 2
fundraisers coming up (one for the neighborhood and one for Trey's
school), so we donated a landscape consultation. I've handled the
business setup - 800 number, domain name, email, looking into
advertising opportunities, etc. Joe's been brushing up on Colorado
plants and fine tuning his service offering and value proposition.
I'm really excited to see how his consultations go, and to start
getting his name out there. Since we will focus on getting customers
in the neighborhood, he has also been working on a design for our
front yard so it looks impressive to potential customers in case they
do a drive by.

6) I will be starting a new company representing independent wedding
invitation designers. More on this to come as I figure out how it
will work!

Funny!

Real 911 call in Arkansas.

Talking on the phone

I gave trey a phone headset this morning, and he carried on about 20 minutes of imaginary conversations. It was hilarious!

Hi grampy! How are you? Great! Are you coming to my house to play? Great! Good. Good. (Giggle). It has to be after nap. How is your big tractor? Great! Wellllllll... OKBYE.

Hi gigi! How are you? Great! Are you in Texas? Good. Good. After nap I will come see you and mimi in Texas. Great. I'll come to mimi's house and see you and the cows. Good. Will you pick me up at the airport after nap? Great! OKBYE.

Hi gramma T! How are you? Great! Are you coming to play with me? Great! After nap I will come to the airport and pick you up. It will be very fun. OKBYE.

(Don't feel left out pops and nana... He had a long conversation with you yesterday.)

I love sweaters

I LOVE sweaters. Last time I counted I had over 75. I just can't
bear to part with any of them, even the ones I don't wear anymore. I
still have one that my dad bought me in college from Abercrombie and
Fitch. It is too young-looking for me now, but I can't give it
away. I took it with me when I went abroad to England and as any
anyone knows who has spent a lot of time overseas...you just can't
take your whole closet. So you have to wear the same clothes over
and over. That sweater is in just about every photo taken during
that semester, and it was such a special time in my life that when I
look at it those memories come flooding back.

Check out these I recently acquired for Jonah and Trey. Aren't they
adorable?? Gotta love Target.
>

Tiny Dancer

Jonah has discovered his hands

be sure your sound is on to get the full effect

Chunker!

Jonah weighs 11.5 lbs according to our home scale. He goes in for his 2 month checkup tomorrow so we will get his official stats.

his onesie says "i already know more than the president."

Babygap.com

I heard from gap this morning and they won't be carrying Tiny Tales online, only in the stores. I'm disappointed, but they said if sales are good in the store they will reconsider. Apparently keepsake items haven't done well online.

So smart!

We have an unfinished basement, which we don't have the money to refinish right now. I am trying to at least use what we already have and make it a space where Trey can be a crazy, loud toddler. The previous owners left a bunch of carpet rements from when the house was built, which I laid down and they cover about half of the space. Once we figure out how to get more outlets down here we will hook up a tv and our treadmill.

We also have a rubber floor mat from our old house when Trey was learning to crawl to cover the wood floor. It is perfect for this space! At school Trey is learning about letters, and he was able to pick out A and B. He is so smart!

{more photos here}

I love having family around!

Thanks to Mari and Anne who helped me put together 60 kits last night while watching The Hills.

HOLY CRAP

I just received a wholesale order for 105 Tiny Tales kits. That
might take me a few days to fill...

Time to renew my effort in finding a factory to assemble these things
for me!

Today I went for a walk/jog with Trey in the jogging stroller. This is my first attempt at jogging since, well, november? So I took it easy and walked up the hills and jogged when it was flat or downhill. One time when I slowed to a walk Trey said "why did you slow down mommy? Are you not using the pedals anymore?"

You've got mail

I found an old keyboard in the basement so I put it on a box in the office and told Trey it was his computer. He told me - mommy don't come over here because I am sending an email.

Grampy - check your computer for a note from Trey because he told me he sent you a pretend email.

More Trey wisdom

Trey: do you have a tissue in the car?

Me: no, sorry baby.

Trey: ok. I'll just have to pick my nose then.

Shut up and drive

Today at the gym they were giving away samples of the new V8 fusion juice in dixie cups (which is fantastic by the way - 1 serving of veggies and 1 of fruit in each serving). I got Trey into his carseat then let him drink the juice. It was purple so I was hovering to make sure he didn't spill it. He said "go away and drive mommy. I'll be ok."

Lil' burrito

I love to swaddle my babies!

An afternoon activity

Time to give the jungle gym (aka jungle book) DVD a rest and do something different post-nap.

Afternoons at the library

We have the coolest library in town. Let me tell you why...

1) The outside book drop has a moving sidewalk-type window you and
put the book there and it sucks it in. Then a man's deep voice says
"Thanks for using the Parker library." It is very mesmerizing.

2) There is a self checkout like a grocery store where you lay the
book on a pad then bag it. It fulfills my dream of working in a
grocery store.

3) Trey LOVES the water fountain with a stool in front of it so he
can reach it.

4) In the kid's book area, there is a big fish tank. Today Trey
watched the fish for about 10 minutes while I picked out some books.
When we were leaving he said "Bye bye fish. Bye bye big fish. I
love you big fish. I'll come back and see you after my nap. Is that
ok? Big fish? He's not saying anything!"

Trey's new school

When we first moved to colorado we put Trey in a daycare 2 days a week so he wouldn't forget what it was like to be away from us and around other kids. I also love some of the little tricks they teach in daycare, like listening ears (if you ask if he has his listening ears on he pulls on his right one then his left one to show you that, yes, his listening ears are on his head) and 'you need to rest your body' which was a precursor to time out. He never really loved this daycare like he loved the one in Boston. Dropoffs were a nightmare, and everytime I went there I didn't like the lack of control the teachers had over the room. So a few weeks ago he started 3 mornings a week at a Montessori school in town. The first few days of school he had a rough time - he wouldn't participate and wouldn't go on the potty there even though he goes at home. Today's report was that he participated in the activities and went on the potty. Yea!

I can't believe I go back to work in 3 week. Argh. It is going to go by so fast!

T-shirt sale at Tiny Sprouts

My friend Tracey is having a sale on her adorable hand embroidered baby t-shirts...only $15!

BOY

GIRL

Joe's breakfast in santa fe

Road trip!

For our anniversary, we are headed to Santa Fe and staying with Cousin Allyn. This is Jonah in the car on the drive down there.

a bit confused

Trey has been walking around the house measuring everything with a
measuring tape and saying "this weighs 13 pounds!"

Happy anniversary to us!

We've been married for 5 years!

On monday we are driving to Santa Fe for a few days for our anniversary trip. Any tips of things we should do or see? We'll have the baby with us and Gigi will be babysitting Trey. I haven't been there since high school and can't wait.

a nice scene in steamboat springs

How clever