Green Bread

For St Patrick's day (yes....I know, that seems like forever ago now), my parents made "Leprechaun Bread" to sell at their store.

It is Old Fashioned White Bread "magically zapped green by little leprechauns" (aka food coloring).

It was a big hit! And I thought it looked pretty sweet!

And then I made toast with it.....and was oddly unnerved by its green-ness.

Don't get me wrong. It was delicious.
But it just didn't seem natural....

The Children's Museum

This past weekend, we met up with some friends to go to a Children's Museum. Papillon was a little reserved about the whole situation at first, its a lot of stimulation for a baby who is content to sit at home in one spot and play with the same toy for 45 minutes. But she warmed up to it and we all had a great time.

Here is Papillon and our friend's daughter; clearly they are concocting a scheme of some sort. These two keep up with each other via their mothers blogs so getting to hang out in person was extra fun.

At the museum there was a little book nook which Papillon enjoyed.

There was also the "squishy area" which is a little zone with a padded floor intended for the littlest kids (since it is safe for them to fall down on the squishyness). Papillon and our friends' little boy enjoyed this little area quite a lot.

More book nook!

The craft area! Papillon was a bit young for crafts, but her friend made a little paper box (with her mom's help of course)

Afterward the museum we went back to our friends' house for some lunch and more fun times. Papillon and their little boy (who is just 3 months younger than Papillon) played a bit (as much as 8 and 5 month olds do...) Papillon wanted to touch his soft fuzzy head:

They posed for a little picture together.

Isn't he cute!

Many thanks to our friends for suggesting the outing!
It was such a fun time!

The Dwight Schrute Look

Papillon's hair is growing like crazy. And we are slowly trying to figure out what to do with it. Which way to comb it, etc. We usually go for the side part, which, despite making her look like a boy, seems to be the best option.

Cause when we part it down the middle....

...she looks a little like Dwight Schrute

First Beach Trip

Last weekend Mon Amour and I decided to explore one of the local state parks. So packed a lunch and plopped Papillon in the car and off we went!

We got a bit lost (who knew the park actually has two separate areas in totally different parts of the county...). But eventually, we found the area of the park that we were looking for.

We were hoping Papillon would have her first experience in a swing on this trip, but the two (count them...only TWO!) swings at this playground were both broken. So no swinging for Papillon.

Instead we sat on a fun tire and watched the other kids in the park play.

Then it was off to the beach area of the park, where we spread out a blanket and sat Papillon on the edge for her first sand experience.

She was not sure what to think at first. But after a few moments concluded that she HATED it. From then on if she touched even the smallest bit of sand she would freak out. As my mother pointed out, this makes a beach blanket an excellent play pen. Even if she were mobile, I doubt Papillon would have moved from the very center of that blanket, for fear of the sand.

We had a good time nonetheless.

Papillon loves Mon Amour a lot. She always lights up when she sees him, and though she pretends not to....

She loves his kisses.

We will definitely be exploring this park some more as the year goes on. Perhaps Papillon will come to enjoy the beach, but if not, once she can crawl, I think the playgrounds will afford her lots of fun times.

A Typical Day

Today was a pretty typical day for Papillon and myself. No particular plans, just hanging out, working, playing, etc. So I thought I would just post a little outline of a typical outing-free day for us these days. Enjoy!

7am - I get up, get Marge up and get organized for the day

Between 7:30 and 8:30am - Papillon gets up. She is always excited when she wakes up, and always ravenous! So every morning starts with a little nursing.

After that it's time for breakfast. Usually some fruit/yogurt and some cheerios.

Then it's house chores time. Papillon plays (i.e. spreads her toys all over the living room) while I get some stuff done around the house.

Usually by 9:30 or 10am Papillon is ready for Nap #1. We read a story and down she goes, sound asleep. Nap 1 averages just over an hour, during which time I do some computer-working and that kind of thing.

11 or 11:30am and Papillon is back up and ready for nursing, followed by lunch! Here she is enjoying some lunch. She eats like a ravenous beast and is not afraid to tell me when she is still hungry.



After lunch today, we went for a walk. We walk for the sake of Marge's sanity - exercise does her a world of good. And Papillon and I enjoy getting a little sunshine.

By 1 or 2pm Papillon is ready for Nap #2. Nap #2 tends to be a smidge shorter - usually not any more than an hour. Again, I use nap time for administrative computer things (which Papillon finds boring).

In the afternoon Papillon is up again and ready to play. Sometimes these days she likes to stand while holding on to something and play that way. Sometimes she likes to scootch backwards around the room. But typically she is pretty content just to sit and play.



Depending on the timing and length of nap #2, a 3rd nap is sometimes in order. When that happens, it usually starts around 5pm. Which is perfect because it allows me to get dinner ready.

Mon Amour arrives home at about the time Papillon gets up from nap #3. And then its time for dinner! And yes, Papillon is just as hungry for dinner as she is for breakfast and lunch.

After dinner, there is time to clean up, give Papillon a bath, and then its time for books and bed! Papillon goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8pm. Leaving a nice cushion of time to straighten the house for the night and sometimes even relax and unwind a bit before bed!

As much as I love our adventurous days filled with fun outings and good friends, I really really love our days at home. I am so blessed to be able to work from home so that I can spend every day with my baby

Fun times with Friends

Last week Papillon and I met up with some friends who we hadn't seen in a while.

First we met up with this little guy and his mom. He is much more adventures than then pensive Papillon, which may explain the look of skepticism in this picture.

Look at him go! He is almost 7 months older that Papillon and getting very good at his walking skills!

Papillon, on the other hand, is working on mastering the raised eyebrow of skepticism.

If she were to stop being so skeptical, I think the two of them would be good buds. Until then, she will deny his obvious request to hold hands on the slides.

In the afternoon we visited another friend who Papillon thought was quite fun...

...because she was very willing to play Papillon's "stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down" game.

Papillon's Baptism

This past Sunday we officially became members of our new church, and also had Papillon baptized.

Despite the fact that she did not nap in the morning and so had been up for 4+ hours by the time the baptism started, Papillon did great! She was a little wiggly as we were being received as members, but then the Pastor started talking about Baptism, and about her name. Her first and middle names together mean Radiant Friend. And, as if on cue, when the Pastor pointed this out, Papillon straightened up, looked out at the congregation and broke into a huge smile.

Needless to say, the congregation melted. Go Papillon for making about 200 new friends with one smile.

We are so excited to be a part of this church, and to have Papillon officially be a part of it as well.


We had a lot of friends and family come for the baptism. This is most (but not all) of them:

After church we had everyone over to our house for some fun lunch and play time with the newly baptized Papillon.

Papillon's two-year-old friend was a huge help with feeding her her lunch!

We tried to get a group shot of the kids (minus the one who was napping) and this is as good as it got. Everyone is clearly looking at something different.

It was a great afternoon and so fun to see some good friends

who we haven't seen in a while.

And for good measure, Papillon with the Little Guy who slept through the photo shoot from earlier.

Thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate Papillon's baptism!
(and sincerest apologies to those who I forgot to invite)

Baby in a baseball cap

Forwards or backwards, we are huge fans of this little baseball cap these days.

Movie...Wednesday. Splashing in the Tub

As promised, here is a little video footage of Papillon thoroughly enjoying bathtime.

Dinner with the Fam

Recently my wonderful dad decided he wanted to take the fam out for a little dinner.
So we gathered up all all the fam that was local (little brother was home from spring break, so he joined us, yay!) and went to a fun little restaurant.
Little brother really is excited about dinner, but he was doing his best "dad face" (dad doesn't always look like he's smiling in pictures). Dad, however, put on a nice perky face, so little brother's excellent "dad face" imitation stands out a bit.

Papillon had a lovely time.
First she inspected all the coasters (our very nice waitress gave us a few extras since Papillon loved them so much).

She concluded they were acceptable, and asked for a menu.

She read the menu very thoroughly.

Then asked the waitress for her recommendation.

"I'll just have some applesauce, thank you"

It was a really fun time that warranted a family photo (we don't do these often enough, I feel).

We are not usually persuaded into dessert options when we go out to eat, but our waitress was clearly good at her job, because upon her recommendation (she said they had Key Lime Pie, and dad can't resist Key Lime Pie!) we ended the meal with some tasty goodness.

Dad and his Key Lime Pie!

Little Brother and the chocolate amazingness that we shared. You can tell by the crazy eyebrows how much he wants to dig in!

Standing Adventures

Even though Papillon doesn't really ever roll over, nor does she crawl (though she is becoming a scootching machine!), this little girl of mine loves to practice her standing.

I propped her up on one of her toys recently and she just stood and stood and stood.

And clearly she thought it was the best thing ever!

She tried to tell Marge how fun it was.

Marge was not interested, but Papillon pulled out a crazy face of delight!

And then....

One hand came loose...

And bonk!
Down she fell. Straight as a stick too. She is usually pretty good at falling on her but and then falling backwards, but not this time. It was timber and flat on her back for this one.

Marge was now very intrigued. She is wonderfully protective.
(Side Note: Nobody fret, I only kept taking pictures because Papillon wasn't crying and she was clearly fine. Our carpet is pretty cushy, so no damage was done)

Marge knows that kisses always make things better. So she gave Papillon a few slobbery ones right on the face. Papillon concluded that this was worse than falling over.

Once I rescued her from Marge's love, Papillon decided she just wanted to chill on the floor for a while. All that standing can be exhausting...and dangerous.

"Clearly," Papillon says, "this is why I am not rolling over/crawling/walking yet, Mom. It is much must too adventurous. I prefer to just lay here and stare at my hand".