Shannon's World

Libby has been the lucky recipient of quite a few dresses from Monday’s Child. I guess I should say Libby and her dolls . . . her dolls are better dressed than me (with less than 6 weeks till baby #2 arrives, not much is looking cute or fitting these days!!).

We were asked to model a few for their website/newsletters and I didn’t pick the best time to do it . . . Libby didn’t have a nap today (a rarity and something we hardly ever go without), but enjoyed a lot of ice cream and an exciting last day of Mom’s Day Out. To say she wasn’t cooperative is an under statement. Somehow we were able to get some decent ones . . . her are the good, the bad and the silly:

Nanny arrived today and had lots of surprises in hand. . .there was lots of excitement upon her arrival. Below are the matching dresses Nanny made for Libby and Bitty (Libby’s also sporting her new flower bow from the brick street market).

I know I’m posting out of order, but wanted to capture our Friday night – we had a great afternoon/evening! Libby and I met friends at West Park to enjoy the spring weather (low 70s and sunny) and to play! After the park, we headed to Paradise Cafe and enjoyed dinner al fresco with Ella, Grace and their families. “The Dads” were all able to meet us, too. We all ate outside together: 6 adults, 3, 3-4 year olds and 3 babies under 1. It was a great time – we didn’t want the night to end.

Libby and I were also able to check the progress of Nanny and Papas house. We had some time to kill and drove over, walked the lot, etc. They’re making good progress . . .no hardwood floors or kitchen yet, but things are shaping up. Nanny’s coming out this week to finalize all the plans and we can’t wait!

Below is a picture of “the girls” at their last day of ballet…I didn’t bring my camera on Friday, but these 3 were at the end of the table at Paradise happily chowing down and discussing things like when Beauty and the Beast will be released from the Disney vault, how the Barbie exhibit compares to Bob the Builder at the Children’s Museum and the latest Tinkerbell movie.

At Libby’s last day of dance (until September) she was able to dress up and wear whatever she wanted . . . normally she can only wear pink tights, black leotard and ballet slippers. As you can tell Libby took full advantage of the opportunity. Her friends wore tu-tus and Libby wore a fancy princess dress and not pictured: a boa and crown (full regalia pictured here, on Mike’s blog)!! She’s my little fancy, Nancy!

We headed to the Brickstreet Country Market on Saturday and had a great time. I have fond memories of our first trip to the market, 3 years ago. . .Libby was 2 months old and things were starting to fall into place: she (and I) were sleeping more, getting into a schedule, etc. You can see photos here from our first trip here.

I found some new vendors at the Market this year and was glad to see some of our old favorites:

Little Birds Boutique – Libby and I choose 3 hairclips for her . . .a purple flower similar to this (Lib’s choice!) and two crochet ones like this.

Two Seaside Babes – amazing hats, I especially loved the ones for newborns….in the event we have a boy or girl . . .and of course even some for Lib. Too cute and talented for words!

Lucky Duck Designs was back at the market. . .this was a vendor I fell in love with during our first visit. It was so neat this year, because both Libby and I bought headbands . . .first Libby choose one to match the one I was going to purchase and then decided she wanted a different one, but still a little mother daughter shopping ‘n bonding! You can see the headband Libby chose below (and also the sparkly, fairy face painting we waited in line for 45 minutes to get ).

Our neighbor, Indy Art Chick and her Mom were also there selling their wares. Indy Art Chick has some cute, new shirts she’s selling.

It’s amazing how different this years Market experience was – Libby was making decisions about what to purchase and what to eat (hot dog, cheetos and water for lunch – quite a treat!) . . .our girl is growing up and we’re loving every minute of it!

That’s what Libby told Nanny that she had for dinner: chicken, rice, watermelon and torn on the tob. It’s not yet corn season, but this corn was outstanding: very sweet and crunchy! Our farmer’s market starts next week and I couldn’t be more excited for local, fresh fruits and veggies.

Nope . . .olives and watermelon! Not together but at separate times. I’ve eaten my way through quite a few small cans of sliced olives and quite a few watermelons in the past few weeks! Here’s what Mike sliced up for dinner tonight – yum!

Mike and I continue to struggle to find a girl name we both agree on for baby #2. Our boy name is squared away, but the girl name is TBD. Any suggestions out there?! Social Security released the most popular names of 2009 recently here and none of our names are on that list.

Mike was more than pleased with himself when his #1 choice, Charlotte, was listed as the hippest, hottest and most happenin‘ girls name of 2010. Here are a few other girl names that are contenders:

Paige (my favorite)
Molly (the one name we kinda both like/sorta agree on . . but it seems like we’re settling with this one . . .we’ll see)
Charlotte (Mike’s favorite)
Krista
Anna Grace
Cassie
Quinn

As I indicated in a previous post, Lilly Pulitzer designed a box for Barnum’s animal crackers. I was so excited when 2 boxes arrived in the mail from Boston! Special thanks to Laurie for the great surprise! I am so excited but can decide…do we eat a box?! save both boxes?!

I was thrilled when I heard Kelly Corrigan’s second book Lift was published. I read her first book for bookclub and absolutely loved it. I love this Mother’s Day essay/spoken word/video montage. Check it out here and happy mother’s day!

I had to make a quick trip to Chicago and we are lucky enough to have Miss Lauren back in town, so she held down the fort for a day while I was gone. I have a feeling Libby is going to be asking me to leave again soon so Miss Lauren can come back…they had a great time together and Miss Lauren brought all kinds of surprises with her: Barbie nail polish, Tinkerbell and Princess coloring books and crayons and so on. While playing dress-up it sounds like things got a little crazy (for a 3 year old) and Libby and Lauren decided to put as many bows as they could in Libby’s hair. Apparently there’s a photo floating around somewhere – I haven’t seen it yet.

This morning while getting ready, I gave Libby a few bow options (since sometimes we disagree on what matches) and you should be able to tell what happened based on the picture below:

apologies for the mouth full of food – we were eating breakfast!