confessions of a sometimes frazzled mama

I got the sweetest email this morning from a dear friend that really lifted my spirits. She said such kind things about me and my life and it just made my heart sing. It also reminded me of something I've said often to Brent; that I wake up many mornings hoping to be the mama/person/photographer that you guys think I am! Usually I fall short. Waaaaay short.

Case in point. On Sunday (three whole days ago...that's how long it took me to decide if I should share this or not!) I made a serious mama error. We were trying to get the whole gang out the door for sunday school and since Brent and I were teaching we couldn't be late. So after everybody was fed, cleaned, and clothed Brent started getting Ephraim strapped into his carseat while I checked on Sarah who was going potty. I hurried her along and we dashed to the car and arrived just in time.

A few hours later once we were back home Brent was lifting Sarah up into her booster seat when he made quite a discovery...a panty-less Pi'bears! My first thought was that she must have had an accident in the church nursery and they'd just taken her undies off since she was wearing a dress. And then I remembered our frazzled scene in the bathroom from earlier in the morning. When I went in to hurry her up she had said, "uh oh! My panties came off!" and I replied with, "I'll put them back on in just second." Oops. I forgot. The often-unanswered "in just a second" came back to haunt me. And so that is how it came to be that a panty-less Pi'bears in a beautiful spring dress showed up in the church nursery and played her heart out while occasionally flashing the world her bits! I was so moritified that I immediately had to call the girls in the nursery to babble on and on about what a dummy I am. (Megan can testify to that)

Anyway, the moral of this story is that I am not nearly as organized and pulled together as many of you might think that I am. I try to be, I swear I do. But I'm really just a big work in progress!

In light of that confession is anyone else willing to share? I'd love to hear your own "oops" moments. Or we can just leave it at that...with everyone basking in my dummyness. :)

Just one of the Pi'bears...fully clothed...

Amazing how one little focus adjustment can tell two different stories.

Her perspective and his.



I like to think of this as a little photographic nod to Judy Blume's classic The Pain and the Great One (a story that I'm fairly certain will be our future in about 6 years).

playing catch up

Believe it or not I actually have been taking lots of pictures. Posting them has been a different story though. I plan to update the potd in the next 24 hours...and you know how good my track record is on blog timeline promises. :)

Until then, check out a few fun photos of that Pi'bears and our sweet guest from last week. Anna had a ball wrestling around with Sarah. Brent (the former high school/college wrestler) took one look at these shots and decided that it was time Sarah got some formal training in the sport. Being pinned by a 16 month old just doesn't look good for the family name.

(and just when you thought the big give was over it decided to be the give that keeps on giving...we reached $1500.00 today!!!)

breakdown

Three days late but who's counting right? :)

Speaking of counting...check out these stats...

48 total gifts in these increments -
$5.00 (6)
$10.00 (14)
$15.00 (2)
$20.00 (14)
$25.00 (6)
$30.00 (3)
$35.00 (1)
$40.00 (1)
$50.00 (2)
$100.00 (2)
$250.00 (1)

and even these fun increments -
$10.18
$22.00
$14.00 (from the person who tried to squeeze the full $100 out of us! HA HA!)


All totaling $1342.39 (after paypal gets their cut). Which means that after Brent and I round to the nearest hundred the grand total for thepigbear's big give is $1400.00!!!

That number astounds me. You guys are amazing. The power of a generous spirit should never be underestimated.

Here are some of my observations over the last two weeks that warm my heart:

1) These gifts were given without any detailed knowledge of this family's situation or need.
2) From the smallest donations to the largest nearly everyone who gave made some kind of comment to the affect of "I wish this could be more". These are becoming increasingly lean times for everyone and yet, you gave.
3) My sneaking suspicion is that many (if not the majority) of the givers have not downloaded my actions and wouldn't know what to do with them if they did! :)
4) Quite a large handful of givers were names I didn't recognize from this blog or anywhere else. Which spells l-u-r-k-e-r. The idea that someone would come out of the woodwork for the first time to give anonymously blows me away.

So. I'll be bundling all of this goodness into a big fat check and sending it along next week. Back when I had high hopes of possibly gathering a hundred dollars (or maybe 2?!) I thought I could send an anonymous gift card or cashier's check. I'm thinking that might be a little weird now though. :) So I plan to send a brief synopsis of what you guys did and why. I'm not sure I can adequately put it into words but I'll give it a try. And then I'll get back to the business of being crazy camera-wielding mama to that Pi'bears and her Buddy-Ro.

But I'll never, ever forget what you guys did and why you did it. One of the givers summed it up best in her short one-lined message...

because I am blessed...

(And to that I'll add...)

to be a blessing.

when will I ever learn?

Never, never, never make promises on the blog as to when I will be posting pictures, info, or other blogworthy items. Today was to be the last day for the pigbear's big give and I promised a fun little breakdown post. Instead I'm miserable on the couch with a host of nasty symptoms that all point to the flu. NOOO!!! To make matters worse Liz and sweet baby Anna are here visiting and trying their best to ward off our nastiness. And my littlest munchkin is battling his first official case of the nasties as well.

So forgive my delay. I swear I'm not out buying those jeans.

old friends

I'm not sure if girls who have only been alive for 2 1/2 years can really be classifed as "old" friends but if they can these two certainly are. Leah was one of the four cuties in our Colorado playgroup that started when our kids were just three months old.

Here was Leah at five months.

And here she is now...



We were so thrilled to have Leah and her family here for a night this weekend, including her NEW BABY SISTER! I loved watching the girls actually play together. When we left Colorado almost a year ago (GASP!) they were not in that mode at all.

They had great fun dragging this poor baby doll all over the yard.









They only stopped long enough to check out the cool snail Mr. Brent/Daddy found. Notice the little hand on the thumb...that was Leah. She was pretty much enamored with Pi'bears daddy.

If you want to see one more of this cutie + a couple shots of her adorable baby sis check out the photography blog.

Note: At risk of sounding like a never-ending NPR fundraising drive, there are only 48 hours left in thepigbear's big give. Brent and I will be rounding to the nearest hundred so feel free to try gaming the system to eek out more $$ from us. :) On Thursday I'll post a fun little synopsis of how many donations and what increments they were. No names, just numbers.

mama monday VI: children's music

Mama Monday Disclaimer: I am nowhere near an expert mom. I am on a mama journey just like all of you are. However, I'm more than willing to share my experience with you guys. If today's topic is something that you have an experience with then I hope you'll share too...either on your own blog (be sure to leave us a link) or in the comments section.

ACK! I'm overcommitted! I'm sure you guys have those days too. You know the ones: the laundry has piled up for what seems like weeks, you're trading in one set of houseguests for another, the kids sense that you went to bed an hour later than usual so they get up an hour earlier than usual, you have an evening commitment that will take a bit more preparation before you're ready for it and, oh yeah, IT'S MONDAY! MAMA monday. So forgive me if I'm a little short. In length I mean. Although with my kiddos it may be my patience that's a little short today. (oops)

SO. In ever so quick list form here are some of our favorite jams. Correction, SARAH's favorite jams. Some of them more tolerable/enjoyable than others for the parental units aorund here.

1. Sandra Boyntons's Philadelphia Chickens and Rhinoceros Tap. It took a bit of time to convince Sarah that this was actually kid music but once she was a bit older (over two) she could really get into the silly lyrics and wordplay. As a parental bonus one of these gems (can't remember which) has a track called "bad babies" which is amazingly cathartic when you sing it at the top of your lungs on a particularly overcommitted day (see above).

2. Anything by Laurie Berkner. Amusing and silly enough for little ones, completely palatable for big ones.

3. Raffi. No comprehensive list of children's favorites is complete without mentioning this guy. Plus I know there are some Raffi groupies out there that might revolt and never read PPAHBR again if I didn't give him a shout-out here. Slightly-related sidenote: Creating a Raffi station on Pandora give you a host of island and environmental tunes but, sadly, no kids music.

4. Curious George and Shrek soundtracks. We've been able to convince Sarah that both of these are in fact "Sarah music." Score.

5. Greg and Steve's Kids in Motion. Absolutely awesome for indoor, need-to-use-up-some-energy days. We're particularly big fans of "the freeze", "animal action", and "who's got the number?"

6. CJ. Our favorites are here and here .

Okay people, let's hear YOUR favorites!

Buddy Posters:

Christie

Jenni

Angela

Jennie

today/tomorrow

Today: The grand finale of Oprah's Big Give. Good news for you is that ThePigbear's Big Give doesn't wrap up for four more days. Come on - catch the giving spirit!

Tomorrow: A short mama monday post about music for kiddos. I'm hoping to GET a lot more ideas than I actually have to give. :) Also tomorrow my dear friend Amy is running competitively in the Boston Marathon. And by competitively I mean that she has a very good chance of placing in the top 15. Seriously. She's amazing. GO AMY!!!

NEWS FLASH!

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO ANNOUNCE THAT ONE OF YOU JUST SENT THEPIGBEAR'S BIG GIVE INTO THOUSAND DOLLAR TERRITORY!!!

(now isn't that better news to read than heartbreak in Texas, earthquakes in the midwest, and politics everywhere???)

Happy day readers. Happy Day.

Now scroll down to catch the blog I interrupted...

sun drenched

This is so what I had in mind with the whole start a family, pop out two kids, and stay at home to raise them thing.



Long, lazy afternoons picking leaves off of the trees with chubby, giggly babies playing on blankets.



Siblings who love on each other and squeal in delight at the mere sight of one another.



Babies who bask in the sun without a care in the world.



And dream about taking care of their dear sweet mama one day when she's old and helpless.



Of course, these moments are fleeting.



You know, the idealized ones.



And the halcyon images are peppered in real life with whines and squabbles and "i gotta go potty"s.



But even if reality is not exactly what I had in mind, I still wouldn't trade it.

seven day countdown starts...NOW!

One week left until the end of ThePigbear's Big Give.

Won't you join us?

it's a good thing he's so chill

Because she's in his face all.the.time. The poor kid can't get five seconds to himself. Kinda like mommy...





I sure do love watching her "take care" of him though. She runs to get a burp cloth if he spits and gingerly pats his little mouth. She dashes into his room the minute she hears him fuss and hollers down the hall, "YOU FIX HIS MILK!", as she turns on his mobile and turns off his fan. And she's very quick to let me know if he's a "happybucket" or a "fussybucket". Usually it's the former. But I tell you the truth, bless her heart, too much of that Pi'bears in your face can turn even the happiest bucket into a fussy bucket.

(did you catch my oh-so-Southern use of "bless her heart". See, down here you can say anything about anyone as long as you preface it with "bless her heart." Try it, it really works. You just better not be talking about ME! )

inspiring my everyday.

Yesterday when I was getting the mama monday post all pertied up with links and such I found myself (stalling) looking back through the archives of thepigbear. Seeing so many pictures of our day to day life really took me back to little moments between January 2006 and today. And then I realized that I've really gotten away from the kind of photos I used to post. Sometimes I hesitate to put photos here that I think you may not enjoy or that I'm afraid aren't fresh and pretty enough. What I realized yesterday though is that while I really, really love that you guys are here reading (let's add in another "really" just for good measure) the reason I started this blog in the first place was to preserve my family's memories. And, ultimately, that's why it still exists.

So bring on the snapshots!

Just a few snatches of goodness from yesterday...playing memory, painting up a storm, snuggling with brother, cleaning up and hanging out.

Mama Monday V: let it rain

Mama Monday Disclaimer: I am nowhere near an expert mom. I am on a mama journey just like all of you are. However, I'm more than willing to share my experience with you guys. If today's topic is something that you have an experience with then I hope you'll share too...either on your own blog (be sure to leave us a link) or in the comments section.

After my pitiful Pajama Day post earlier this month I decided it was time to enlist some help with at-home activites and ideas. You know for those days (rainy, snowy or, for us deep southerners, waaaaay too hot) when you just can't muster loading everyone up and heading out to do anything. I'll start with a few of our go-to activites and then I can't wait to hear from you guys!

1. Homemade playdough. Yeah, the store-bought kind is fun and all but nothing beats the hot off the stove variety. It's super easy to mix up with ingredients that you more than likely already have on hand and the warm feeling of it after you've let it cool for a few minutes is an instant stress-reliever. Grab some cookie cutters, birthday candles, a rolling pin and a garlic press (the perfect tool for making hair) and settle in for hours (or at least 10 uninterrupted minutes) of toddler/big kid fun. Check out the recipe here.

2. The kitchen sink as instant water table. This is one of Sarah's absolute favorite activities. We turn on the kitchen faucet at a very low drizzle, put the plug in and load the sink up with cups, colanders, and whatever other plastic kitchen gadget looks fun. She loves to sit on the counter with her feet dangling in and just play until she's "sooooakin' wet!" Our one rule: once the sink is halfway full the water goes off and we play with what's already there. I'm not advocating hours of wasted running water here.

3. Mustard and ketchup finger painting. Okay, admittedly it's been a while since we did this but when we did it was F-U-N. Just squeeze some of each condiment into little bowls and put newspaper on a cookie sheet to contain the mess. If you're really feeling adventerous you can try relish or pudding or whatever else is bright and colorful and calling out to you from your fridge. Follow this activity with activity #2 for easy clean-up.

4. Dried rice play. When Sarah was between 10 months and about two years we did this A LOT. I just kept a ton of rice in a big tupperware with stacking cups and a few other things inside. Whenever we were at a loss for something to do I'd pull it out, put it on the floor on a big tablecloth and let her at it. In the beginning she was definitely interested in tasting it but it wasn't a big deal since it IS food afterall.

5. Ziploc bag drawing/writing. Okay, I haven't actually done this one with Sarah but we did it a lot when I was teaching kindergarten. It's a great activity to stick in your closet and pull out on those really slow, crummy days. Get gallon size freezer bags (make sure they're freezer bags b/c you'll want them to be thick and sturdy) and squeeze about 1/2 cup or so of tempura paint inside. Zip up the top and tape them with packaging tape just to make sure your little darling doesn't get all Picasso on your furniture. Spread the paint all around the inside of the bag so that it coats the bag evenly. Now put the bag flat on the table with a white piece of paper underneath and show your little one how to drag his/her finger around on the bag to make letters, numbers, shapes, whatever. It's kind of like a magnadoodle but way more fun because you made it yourself!

6. Speaking of homemade toys, another one of our favorite lazy day activities when Sarah was a crawler was playing with our milk carton lids and formula can bank. I cut a slit in the top of the lid and over a period of several months Sarah had hours of fun plinking the milk lids inside. She got really fast at it too! For whatever reason this seemed to engage her so much more than any of the plastic "real" toys she had that did similar things.

7. Another idea with milk lids comes from my friend Liz. When Sarah turned one and I asked friends to bring househould objects for Sarah to play with instead of gifts Liz took it to the next level. She collected milk lids and put little chick stickers on each one. Then she took an old egg carton and put the same little chick stickers in each egg slot. Sarah loved putting the lids in each of those spots. For older kids you could turn it into a matching game and put one sticker on the milk lid and then a matching one into the egg carton so the child would have to find the match inside. Come to think of it, I just might have to put that together tomorrow! Sarah would love it - Thanks for the idea, Liz!

8. Okay, I'm wrapping up for now but I'll leave you with links to some of my favorite baby/toddler idea books:
The Preschooler's Busy Book
Baby Days (possibly my best goodwill purchase ever)
Baby Play
365 Days of Baby Love
365 Days of Creative Play



Buddy Posters :

Angela at the Painted House - your kid = artistic (and cheap!) genius.

The Sarah Bear

Jessica Leigh

Jenni

last minute MM reminder

Hey guys! Tomorrow's Monday! Sorry I didn't get the topic out sooner...I'm really going to try to get better at that so more people can do buddy posts. I know it's hard to get to day-of. Feel free to post about this ANYTIME you can...I'll still link to it and it'll be beneficial for people who scan the archives.

Okay, tomorrow's topic: Rainy Day Activities. GO!

Two notes: The Pigbear's Big Give is BLOWING ME AWAY. If that growing number over there -----------------------------------------------------------------------> isn't a testament to the power of good in this world then I don't know what is. I'm seriously stunned. I'm embarassed to even tell you what number I was hoping for. Apparently God is teaching me that I need to dream a little bigger. :)

Second, I am whole-heartedly committing myself to answer emails tomorrow night. I promise I'm not ignoring anyone!

A is for...

Absolutely Adorable.








And the color version from my photo-a-day...


Told you I had more! Happy Weekend!

mirror, mirror on the wall

Who's the sweetest babe of all?



So sorry. I just couldn't resist.

I have lots more of these to share but I think I'll wait because there's a little bit of business to take care of. Fun business though. We like to keep it fun here at thepigbear, right?

First of all, the action link yesterday was for some jacked up actions. If you tried to use them you probably got an error code saying something or other wasn't available, right? The link is fixed now so if you downloaded the wonky ones please trash them and try again. So sorry. It's a good thing I don't charge for these, huh?! I think I told you guys from the beginning that I had no idea what I was doing with saving and sharing actions. I'm just out to prove myself right to maintain my stellar record.

Second, Jeanelle started a Flickr group where people can share stuff they've used any of my actions on. I'm kind of afraid to go look...I hope I'm not ruining your lovely, lovely photographs! Anyway, you can check it out and join here. I'm also updating the sidebar with a link.

And finally, WHOA NELLY! Do you see the running total over there in the sidebar for thepigbear's Big Give? (I was pretty flattered when Brent thought it was an actual running total...like I'm some sort of html genius! I actually just hand-enter the new number into my blog code every few hours) I'll keep that info up for two weeks to give anyone who wants to participate the opportunity. And I've decided that instead of sending a check I'm going to purchase a VISA gift card that can be used anywhere that accepts VISA. I want it to be anonymous since this is clearly not my money to give. You guys are so amazing and I'm so inspired that you are reaching out to help a family whose situation you don't even know. Thank you. Truly.

thepigbear's big give

So. Does anyone watch Oprah? What about Oprah's Big Give? I've watched it once and then seen clips here or there. I'm not thrilled about the million dollar prize at the end but I do think the concept is pretty cool. I also like how they're encouraging using what you have to make a difference in creative ways.

Quick change of subject. Last summer I was made aware of a horrific situation facing a former student and family. It's heart-wrenching and painful and not a day goes by that I don't think about what they're going through. I've been keeping in touch with the mom but have felt so powerless to help. The details are much too painful and personal to share here especially considering that many in their community frequent our blog but suffice it to say that they are in dire straits emotionally but most pressingly, financially Last night I was feeling particularly down about their situation. And increasingly helpless. This morning I woke up still struggling with the question that I know so many of us have when we hear of horrible things in the world, "what can I do?" And then I think my Big Give light bulb went on.

Here's the deal.

My actions are free. They've always been free. They always will be free. I hope you like them. I hope they work for you. If you've downloaded them in the past and have enjoyed them I'd like for you to consider contributing to thepigbear's big give. I won't even make a number suggestion because that might suggest that they're not free. MY ACTIONS ARE STILL FREE. Period. Take, use, give if you want, don't if you can't. 100% of the money deposited into my paypal account in the next two weeks will be bundled up and sent via check to this family in need. I hope you feel you know me well enough by now to trust that I won't be sporting new 7 For All Mankind jeans next week.

To kick off this campaign Jeanelle has again generously agreed to host a few new actions for me. For now these only work with full photoshop but I promise to work in the coming days to figure out something for you elements users. These actions resize and sharpen your photos beautifully for display on the web. There are three in the set: a horizontal action, a vertical action, and a third resize and sharpen action that the other two will call...you shouldn't ever have to touch this one yourself unless you just want to play.

So your web-posted photos will go from this...

To this... (click on the images to get the full effect)

Again, please feel free to download even if you can't or don't want to contribute. This is a sharing place and will continue to be so.

For contributions to this family in need log in to paypal and send donations to

erkatco at yahoo.com.

overlooked.

I've never understood when I read on other photographer's blogs about old pictures they've just gotten around to proofing. I'm pretty much a grab the memory card, race to the computer, download, proof, and post kind of girl. I'm so addicted to instant gratification it's not even funny. So I was a little surprised when I was backing up old files and found these two gems. Honestly you guys, if it hadn't been for the date of the folder they were in I wouldn't have even known when they were taken. Before Ephraim? After Ephraim? Who knows. As it turns out they were taken in January when I was still very much in the newborn with a crazy mama phase. Man was I pretty much just a wreck. Feel free to tell me that I hid it well. The internet can do wonders dontcha think?

Anyway, here's our sweet Pi'bears having a tea party in her winter finest. She loves this little teaset she got from her JoJo and Papa for Christmas.





While we're on the subject of that little stinker I figured it's about time for an update on her craziness.

- She's obsessed with all things princess and castle and kingdom. She tells me daily that she's going to meet the prince or that she's doing work in her castle. She even calls herself "Princess Pi'bears" or "Cinderella Lorraine Pi'bears Cobb", neither of which she got from me. Am I some sort of prophetic genius or what?

- Along the same lines, she has a new favorite prayer in her prayer book. Coincidentally (yeah, right) it happens to be situated on the same page spread as a picture of a little girl in bed (a princess) with an angel hovering above (her fairy godmother). Every night without fail she turns right to that prayer and demands that we all "take a look at that." We must fixate on it for a few minutes before we can actually begin the prayer. I recently asked Brent what kind of skewed Christianity we were teaching this child to which he responded, "uh, we took her to Disneyworld on Easter. What do you expect?". We've got some spiritual splainin' to do I think.

- At her insistence we've been listening to Christmas music in the car for the last month. Excuse me, I mean "the songs about KissMiss."

- She's all about playing pretend or in Pi'bearese, "prettytend".

- The girl who carried around a dead cicada for days on end last summer has decided that this summer she's going to be deathly afraid of those. Daily I hear her scream, "Uh-OH! It's ONE OF THOSE! When is Mr. Jason coming???" Yes, she knows the bug guy by name. If he gets rid of our ants once and for all I'm pretty sure he'll be her new best friend.


Just a little glimpse into her spunk and spirit at 2 1/2.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Megan M. emailed me to show me this. (Thanks again Megan!!!) Anybody recognize that cutie little girl in the Hero Arts spread? Jennifer McGuire rocks.

2. If you haven't read my business blog lately (you should!) then you missed yesterday's post about possible travel sessions for this year. More details will be forthcoming as I crunch numbers and get my ideas a little better organized.

3. Little Mr. William Clark is about the cutest thing I've ever seen. My arms are aching to hold that not-so-little bundle. Too bad Samantha doesn't have a blog to prove how stinkin' cute he is.

4. I love Mama Mondays! And I totally appreciate so many of you who have emailed to say that you love them too. And I think it's cool that so many people have participated at one time or another.

5. Ephraim has spent the last several days rolling over from back to tummy and then getting ticked off about being on his tummy even though he could totally roll back the other way if he thought about it hard enough.

Babies. (insert exasperated eye-rolling)

6. Not two seconds after Brent walked in the door yesterday Sarah looked right at me and said, "I was mad at you today." (which I already knew because, duh, she'd spent the last 20 minutes screaming bloody murder in her room) When I asked her why she was mad at me she said, "because that puzzle was hard to put the pieces in and so I was mad." Clearly my fault. I accept full responsiblity.

Toddlers. (repeat exasperated eye-rolling)

7. Last night as we were going to bed Brent teased me with some remark that I can't even remember now. So I said, "You're mean to me. I'm going to go live in my blog where everyone loves me." To which he responded, "What do you mean going to go live in your blog?"

Husbands. (you know the drill)

8. Despite their many imperfections, I adore those three stinkers.

9. We've been invited by Christi to join a supper club. Saturday night is our first meal and I'm so excited. No person should get as excited over food as I do. It's just not right. But I am. And we're called The Four Seasons which makes Brent giggle everytime I refer to the group. Yes, Brent giggles. It's pretty cute too.

10. Sarah continues to be an all-star big sister. After one of Ephraim's belly fits the other day she grabbed a random passy (not even sure where she found it!) and ran over to soothe him. After he calmed down he kept trying to push the passy out to get his thumb in his mouth to which she kept yelling at him, "No! THIS! No! THIS!" as she shoved the passy back in. That girl has a bossy streak and I haven't the faintest idea where she got it.

Bonus #11 (!!) My computer deserves some sort of computing award for uploading that picture while also having five internet explorer tabs open, running Hello, Photoshop, and PhotoEditor while also uploading 100+ pictures to mpix.