Baby Fashion: the Whole She-bang

 There is little more satisfying than dressing little baby girls.  Baby boys have a ton of cute clothes, but are you going to accessorize them with bows and sparkles?  No.  Dressing a girl is just better.
It took me some months into having my first baby girl to understand the whole she-bang with dressing girls and my sisters practically had to hit me over the head for me to understand the perhaps once-in-a-lifetime chance to dress up a girl.  It's not just onesie and pants.  Nay.  You gotta go the distance with tights (hopefully coordinating and outfit specific), the tutus, the sparkle shoes, the sassy vest that ties the whole thing together and you'd better not forget the hair accessories.  "She pulls them out" is not an excuse.  Train her.
Here are some of our most recent fashion offerings.

1.  Starting simple in cheetah jammies.  Hairflower STILL IN thank you very much, thanks to glue dots you buy in the craft section.

 2.  Church attire.  Flirty sleeves, matching bow attached with glue dot, sparkly shoes.  Onesie and tights for warmth.

 3.  I'm a sucker for clever onesies.  This one says "Griffindorable" from her auntie namesake Camille Betty.  Paired with a fluffy skirt, of course.

 4.  Mimi so gets it.  My favorite part of the morning is when she shows up in her own outfit creations, poses and says "Ba-BAM".  Converse, galaxy shorts, unicorn shirt, unicorn vest borrowed from my closet, necklace, and crown headband.  She has always been her own fashionista and can put together the most creative outfits that she can some how pull off.

 5.  Vests.  I love vests.  They kick a normal outfit up into the rad level.  I make the vests for me and the girls.  This one has a Pink Floyd patch.  And, of course, the tutu.

 Front view.  Sparkle headband.  Easy to make: grab a half yard of whatever sparkly stretchy trim you like and glue gun it into a headband.

6.  Pattern mixing.  Also BL is modeling our family colors and some Betsey Johnson.  My heart is black, white and pink.

7.  Animal print and leather.  And Vans.  That's the tiniest motorcycle pleather jacket I've ever seen.  It was a must have.  The Vans are Mimi's hand-me-downs and they have conversation hearts on them.  I also love Vans and Converse for learning to walk shoes because they have very flat soles that help babies balance.

 8.  This is an example of a beautiful baby in a just ok outfit.  We have so many clothes we separate them into first tier and second tier.  This would be cuter with a jacket and a bow but it was a rough day.

 9.  Date-conscious dressing.  Obviously this dress was for the summer patriotic holidays.  Holiday colors on babies make the holidays better.

 10.  Fur.  "Stop Mama, I can't handle being photographed in my pink cowboy boots, unicorn leggin's, and furry vest."  Babies in fur is everything.

11.  Tight jammies.  Babies look the cutest in tight jammies so you can see their little bodies scurrying around.  This face, btw, is Lou's KISS face.  She discovered her tongue and has been delighting us with this expression.

 12.  All the important elements, sans hairbow because we were traveling and I failed to bring hair stuff.  Of note is LouLou's fistful of dandelions.  Her number one hobby is picking dandelions.  She could do it for hours.  And she's in the storage phase so it's funny to watch her try to juggle ten dandelions in her fat little fingers.

13.  Mimi ties everything together.  She's fearless with fashion.  We both just wear whatever we feel like.  Animal print, black and pink, fabulous accessories, everything all at once.  Man, I love this kid.

 14.  Mimi in her daily fab donut leggings dressed Betty Lou this morning. 

 I think she understands the whole she-bang.

15.  Mix up the styles.  Betty Lou wears more traditional baby clothes inherited from her cousins and is just as cute.  These tights have little pandas on the ankles and panda shoes that match but they weren't her size.

16.  If you can possibly swing it: Match.  It just feels so good.  My dream life would be coordinating outfits for my whole family all day every day.  But I GUESS they have to have SOME independence.

Vivienne Westwood SS16 Red Label

October 2015

This year the kids begged me to join Chess Club.  Nerds. All three are thrilled to stay at school an extra hour to play the most boring game in the world.  How did they learn to play?  I have no idea.  But even Silas (age 5) knows all the pieces and how they move.

Jude at chess club.

 Baby girl is 13 months and just the most charming baby in the world.  I feel very proud that all of my toddlers have had winning personalities.  They're likeable.  I chalk it up to good sleep and the fact that I never bring them around people when they are likely to melt down.  But Lou is particularly friendly and will go to just about anyone.  She has no separation anxiety.  I think it's particularly funny when she walks up to one of my friends and grins and reaches for them to be held, like she's been dying to see them and think they're her best friend.  She makes people feel really special.

LouLou 13 months, likes beans.

 The highlight of this month was JudeJude's 7th birthday party.  I have found that I much prefer to throw big fat parties at my convenience, not at the exact time of birthday.  Jude turned 7 in August but we wanted to have a friend birthday that people would actually remember and attend so we waited until October to throw a bash.

Baby Yoda

 This year Jude and I dreamed up a Jedi Training Camp birthday.  It was a hit.  He invited all the boys in his class and they came over after school for exactly one hour.

Epic Jedi Lightsaber fight

 We hit the dollar store and found $1 lightsabers that really worked.  Each kid got one when they showed up and they mostly just battled the whole time.  This is our new fancy trampoline that gets more use than any trampoline I've ever seen.  We love it.  Thanks grandpa!

Learning from the Jedi Master

 My buddy Nathan was the Jedi Master and taught them very important skills using the force.  The boys were enthralled.

 After cupcakes and pizza Darth Vader showed up and attacked all of the Jedi.  He was outnumbered but managed to kidnap Mimi.

Darth Vader showed up and battled

 Other October happenings included Mimi being a mini me, vegetable lover.

Proof she is my daughter.  Frozen Peas as a snack.

 Jude and the whole famdamnly attending every single one of his soccer games.  We were committed and he was obsessed.  Hush even willingly coached one of the games.  He said it was hard because the although the kids are good they often get distracted.  Not Jude, though.  He plays hard.

Hush sub coached Jude's soccer team

 Blue Apron, saving the day.

Mimi making a giant mess while making dinner

 Oh!  We went to the circus!  I don't know who was more excited, me or the kids.  I don't really care about the animal parts but the people parts are so incredible!  Barnum and Bailey still put on a great show.  We also got to teach the kids about animal rights protesters and their cause.

Please note the rock and roll sign she's throwing up

Hanging with these clowns.

 October brought the birth of Rebekah's long awaited and much adored baby girl Harper.

My ladies. Rebekah delivering, me 6 months pregnant, Christine mercifully not pregnant.

 She's just the sweetest little baby in the whole world.  I wish I could love her up more but I have a germy toddler on my hands most of the time.  But I get to look and enjoy her sweetness from my position blocking Betty Lou from breathing on her and scratching her eyes out.

Harper is super jealous of her unicorn headband.

 We had a stowaway kid one weekend in October.  I love William.  He's right between Jude and Silas' ages and fits in great with our crowd.

Precautions visiting baby Harper.  Extra neighbor kid staying with us that weekend.

 Mimi 8 1/2, Jude 7. William 6, Silas 5 1/2, BL 13 months.

Jude losing teeth

 We were invited to Harper's baby blessing, or the equivalent at the Presbyterian Church.  It was a rockin' good time.  There was pop music that the kids knew (Jeff Buckley Hallelujah? Sure, why not!) and a interactive dancing part.  It was fantastic.  We will definitely be back.  What they lack in extensive doctrine they make up for in great people, good messages, and fun services.

That's Mimi in the stripes, rockin' out at church

 Oh, they also had breakfast.  The kids thought they'd discovered a new world.

Silas thrilled beyond belief about church breakfast

 The weather was amazing this October so we were able to do a little climbing.  It was fun but too hard being pregnant, chasing a baby, and backing up Hush with setting up top ropes.  Still a good day.

Climbing in Big Cottonwood Canyon

 Also, picture day.  I let the kids wear whatever fancy thing they wanted for picture day, which meant a crown for Mimi and a mustache for Jude.  Silas wouldn't get on board.  I don't buy the pictures because they're overpriced and anachronistic so I let them have fun with it.  Jude will probably be the only first grader in the year book with a 'stache. Si's bowtie killed me.  But he has a awkward smiling problem when he has to smile on demand.

School Picture Day Finery.

One One One Number 4 is One!

Remember when we got a new baby last year?  Well apparently she thinks it's ok for her to grow up without my permission.

Lou bringing sunshine around.  She has the cheeriest disposition and is a friendly baby who will go up to baby chat with anyone.

 For her first birthday we were lucky to have Jessica Peterson surprise us with these pictures.  Look at little blue eyes!

Our family tradition with first birthdays is to take the baby out for ice cream sundaes so they can eat as much ice cream as they want for the very first time.

 

It was just our little family and I didn't get many pics, but Lou walked away with this sweet new ride.

Finding the Fun in September

The life of a Greenbaum (my family of nascence) is the Life of the Party.  We are activity doers and party throwers and fun time havers.  I think the primary reason for the Party Life is that my father gets bored easily.  My mother would happily stay at home and read her book most of the time, peppered with family gatherings and concentrating her Party Life into two weeks biannually when she stages grand productions with forty kids and hundreds in attendance.  But my father needs constant entertainment.  Every single Saturday from the beginning of my memory involved doing activities with dad.  Not just one activity.  Average Saturday activities are three.  And while he's doing that activity he is planning the other one or texting people to come on along on the activity.  His nickname is Doctor Fun.  He's a fun enforcer.

The real reason he had eight children is so that he would have eight playmates to go do fun things with him.  If one of us isn't available another one is.  We eventually had to schedule to keep his fun having sufficiently stocked. See Dadderdays.

This trait has rubbed off.  All day every day I am thinking up ideas for activities, events, gatherings, and projects.  Whatever it is, I'm game.  Recently most of my fun has been centralized at home because of nap schedules and general pregnancy malaise.  Being homebound is difficult for me unless I'm doing projects or creating fun in other ways.  Looking through my phone pictures I found not a log of September: school started, routine ensued, thirty days passed. I found a record of the stuff I want to remember:  the activities and the fun!

Our ongoing project has been this mosaic wall in front of our house.  Gaudi covered Barcelona parks in tile and Venice Beach in California boasts many tile installations.  Right above this wall (to the left, dying) irises bloom in bright purple during the spring.  They always remind me of Van Gogh.   The layout of the tiles is meant to evoke Van Gogh's starry night, Gaudi's Park Guell and Venice Beach.  The tiles are from Michael's and the Dollar Store glued on with mosaic glue.  It takes forever to get them to stick -- you have to hold them on there while the glue gets sufficiently tacky.  We enlisted the missionaries who were walking by to help.

 School started.  I was PLANNING to get the kids new outfits for the first day but apparently every children's clothing retail store sells out of all of their clothes for the two weeks before school.  Not our fanciest first day but we've made up for it since.  Si is in K, Jude 1, and Mimi 3.  BL is nearly one year old in this pic.  Starting school is fun because these three hop on their scooters and bikes and coast the 100 meters to school.  They feel like they live at school and everybody else is finally coming back to play with them.

 We have even managed to find family-friendly free fun (alliteration FTW) on Sundays.  During the summer we go down to Liberty Park after church to wade in the Seven Canyons water feature and race rubber duckies.

 Our Sunday highlight is joining in the drum circle.  Hippies spend their Sunday afternoons drumming and dancing, hula hooping and doing other hippie type activities.  My kids join right in.  I love that they're learning rhythm by participating in a community that is so welcoming and positive.

 We've been spending a lot of time in our art/music/sunroom doing projects.  The children recently completed this painting and I must say, I am really proud of their creation.  I did not paint on it at all.  It's now hanging above our fireplace.  This photo was taken right as they started.

 And of course, Betty Lou must be included.  Painting, crafts and babies equals messes.  But she's so happy unloading all of the boxes I just can't stop her.

Betty Lou, one year, making messes.

BL had her first birthday this month but I will record that in another post.

Baby girl and Hush have fun playing music together.  She helps by strumming the guitar while he holds the chords.  We've also re-positioned the drums so that she can bang on them whenever she wants.  I've always wanted a house where the musical instruments were readily available and accessible for the kids.  They are welcome to mess with them and I'm grateful Hush is comfortable with the kids touching them.  We have to tune them a lot.

In September grandpa bought us a fabulous trampoline to expand the fun options in our backyard. In the first fifteen minutes Mimi injured her growth plate in her ankle.  She had a sweet boot to wear for one week and then she was fine.

Grandpa also brought Paige's kids out to play for a weekend.  We went to Park City to do the Aspen slide again because it is super fast and fun.

On Sunday we indoctrinated Jim and Paige's girls and some friends into the hippie gathering at Liberty Park.  At first the other kids were reluctant but the atmosphere is so welcoming everybody joined in, including some of my friends who were still in their church clothes.  Sundays in the park are one of my favorite things about Salt Lake City.  You should come with us some time.  Or just show up.  It's easy to find and lasts all afternoon.

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of Jim ever taken because it shows his true nature: having fun with his grandchildren and dancing.  He's a great dancer.

And Betty Lou ran around making friends for us the whole afternoon.  I like having a toddler because they make you talk to people you wouldn't otherwise speak to.

There were some hard things about September but I'm choosing not to remember them.  That's why I like blogging.  I reduce the impact of hard things that happened by writing about the things I want to remember.  But I put these little notes in my blog to remind myself that really hard things were happening at this time that I don't need to specifically remember, and I do want to remind myself that this was that hard time and I kicked ass through it.  I have a short memory for un-fun things.  And for that I turn to poetry, specifically thirteenth century Sufi poets, don't you?  You need Rumi in your life.