sweet m. is 6!

m. has a little collection of matryoshka dolls (and kokeshi dolls, too) so we thought, "matryoshka doll party!" (you know from this blog's banner that i'm a fan!)
we read about stephmodo's party for her daughter and used her ideas for games: pin the bow on the matryoshka and hide and seek with matryoshka dolls. each little girl got her own little wooden doll to paint, and we read this book. here are some images:

mini bowling

i got these vintage mini bowling pins mostly for decoration, but hey, they can be fun too!
*something you're probably figuring out from my pictures: my kids do not like pants. they come inside, off with the pants! the fact the sweet m. is wearing them in these pictures is beyond amazing.

our lives lately

 

go to sleepy little babe

so i know i have been very remiss in introducing blogland to nene's latest great achievement. as you may know we don't say our kiddies names here, so for now we will be calling this sweetie "baby s." i know, not very unique, but we'll see what we come up with later. i can tell you that i have the honor of her being named after me! (middle name.) isn't that sweet? i feel so honored and so undeserving.
anyway, she's now almost a month old! can't believe it! isn't she beautiful in pink, with her gorgeous dark hair?

here is a short playlist of songs for baby s. some are lullabies, some are cute little ditties, and heck, some just have "baby" in the title.

sea of love -cat power
leo & luna -mark kozelek
firefly -don peris
slumber my darling -alison krauss, edgar meyer, mark o'connor & yo-yo ma
asleep on a sunbeam -belle & sebastian
birds and ships -billy bragg and wilco
little eyes -yo la tengo
if i needed you -townes van zandt
sweet child o' mine -taken by trees
gentle moon -sun kil moon
eyes of green, green, green -gorky's zygotic mynci
little flowers -denison witmer
baby i'm yours -arctic monkeys
** click on the song title to hear the track**
p.s. if any of the links don't work please let me know!

the ubiquitous binky

here is little c., and here is his binky, his pasha, his dummy, whatever you want to call it. the two of them go everywhere together; and just try and separate them, oh-ho, just try. you will soon feel the wrath of the two-year-old. i need to hunker down and get more consistent about taking it away from him, but it is proving difficult. with sweet m. it was a pretty natural progression, we started leaving it at home when we went places, then we'd leave it in the crib and she could only have it for naps and bed, then only bed, then not at all. but little c. is a more stubborn child.
do any of you have tips for getting binkies out of the picture?