live laugh love: this expression (commercialized) annoys me

WHY IS IT EVERYWHERE?

live: today i ran two miles. and it felt good.
laugh: today nate ran across the room and slammed his face into my leg.
love: today karl steam cleaned the rug in our living room.

I know everyone is excited about fall (and i am too) but I am also a little nervous b/c i get all Seasonal Affective Disorderey around weather changing times. I am trying to really take things slower this fall and to really appreciate where we are right now. I am trying not to think about cooking and cleaning and playing with nate as chores per say (though there is nothing glam about cleaning the bathroom or changing diapers... I don't care who you are!) and instead trying to really live (yea, yea, and laugh and love - put it on a tshirt or coffee mug) in the moment.

i have discovered this to be quite challenging - more so than i might have realized. i think in the past i was very, very focused on the NEXT. for instance...the next job, the next project, the next pay check, the next vacation, the next house, the next car, hell, the next trip to the grocery store or next load of laundry. While I still think about these things, i am trying not to put all my energy into them. (and, more importantly, i am not going to stress about the ones i am not able to obtain immediately.) i am trying to be calmer (ask me about my calmess when i couldn't find my car keys last week and we were late to meet up with friends and i threw (and broke) the remote control to our fan.) (what? we never use that remote anyway. AND what kind of pansy fan comes with a remote i ask you!?) and less cluttered (i have thrown away and given away SO MUCH in the past month; i am quite proud.) (i went on one particular binge after watching the show Hoarders for the first time. it frightened me. i told Karl I thought i had a hoarding disorder. He laughed. I threw away a bunch of old purses and clothes that will never fit me again.)

por ejemplo:
BWHAHAH. there are so many things WRONG with these two articles of clothing that i can't believe i am sharing them with you. THE SHIRT: 1. it has the word HUSTLA on it (which stems from an inside joke b/w me and my mom wherein i stumbled in my parents house at 2 a.m. after rounds of (VERY SUCCESSFUL) darts proclaiming i was a hustler... then proceeded to vomit for a few hours.) 2. i don't believe i could fit my left BOOB in that shirt. i'm pretty sure it shrunk a little and i have unshrunk a little but JESUS. Then, THE SHORTS: i know you can't see it in the picture but the word BUD is SPARKLED. jealous? they are in the goodwill bag. i only hope some young girl stumbles across them, wears them inappropriately for years, pushes them to the back of her closet, and finds them again (post a baby of course!) at the ripe old age of 28 and laughs and laughs.

ANYWAY, the point is: lessening of the clutter has helped me feel less stressed. and i think it is helping in the whole livelaughloveliveinthemomentbullshit i am all hopped up about! my kitchen and fridge have been so clean and uncluttered the past few days that i have even COOKED! (not just like pasta in a pot; MEALS!) so, hopefully, the transition into fall and into this new mommyhood lifestyle will be a smooth one.

if not, well, there's always HUSTLING.

birthday and baby

for his 29th birthday (saturday!) nate got karl a big fat hug. and, uh, a diaper.

nate also learned to read. (fair warning: it's kinda long.) (but brilliant.) (clearly.)

Wednesday is ANTM Night AND/OR An Excuse To Eat Cheese

so, there is this thing we do every wednesday night at my house. we (usually about 8 or 9 lovely ladies depending on schedules and what not) watch the terrible trash that is America's NEXT Top Model. (referred to as ANTM.) it's awesome in its ridiculousness. tyra is batty in a way that you JUST HAVE TO WATCH. (for instance, this past week she coined the term SMIZE. which means Smile With Your Eyes. er. eyez i guess. she introduced the word as an 'alter ego' in a super hero costume with a shiny silver cape that had the word SMIZE emblazoned on it. and all episode they were all "ARE YOU SMIZING? YOU AREN'T SMIZING!! SMIZE BITCH!" here is a 46 second clip.) we have decided that ANTM should offer our party OUR OWN REALITY SHOW about watching this particular REALITY SHOW. you know, mystery science theater 3000 style. how awesome would that be? (i am sure there is a HUGE market of fans for that!)

basically, the format of the evening is this:

we bring food and beer. here are some examples of the menu:

last week: two little ceasars pizza's, cheese bread, a bag of twix, cream cheese and triscuits, seven layer dip, chocolate chip ice cream with cones, and, oh yea!, a veggie tray

this week: cheese dip from mexico chiquito, ranch cheddar cheese dip, cheese sticks, california rolls, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies with icing, spinach dip and crackers

so what i'm trying to say is: it's real healthylike. and we chow down as we yell at the models to EAT A HAMBURGER ALREADY. (or some cheese!)

then nate entertains us for awhile and we put him to bed. (karl is banned from the house on wednesday nights. ok, well it's partially a ban and mostly his own choice. he goes and has drinks with his people elsewhere.) the episode goes on and we yell at the tv and each other. particularly this cycle as it is for "short girls" of 5'7 and under. (i am 5'1; melissa is 5'10. the war rages on.) this is maybe the third or fourth cycle of ANTM we have had these gatherings. we are REALLY, REALLY good at predicting things like who is going to freak out at makeover week and who is going to get kicked off AND AND AND we are the best at predicting the order of the photos (the judges call them out best to worst and we scream names the entire panel. it's loud and snarky and absolutely amazing.) sometimes we hang out longer, sometimes everyone leaves right after the show.

this post has no point, just to offer a glimpse and say: i love wednesdays!

i don't so much love thursday mornings:

sundays are for ballers

i really have been BOMBING with the camera work lately AND i have been taking LESS images than normal, but, eh, well, whatever.

so big, n'est-ce pas?

this sunday i am simultaneously watching the emmys, the cardinals and cubs, AND a show on lifetime that i can't admit publicly to watching. I AM ONE TALENTED WOMAN.

i do have some nuggetz of internetz love:

• a new take on the snuggie
• a funny re: miley... i thought it was funny anyway.
  
• AND, for all designers out there: here. #1 request: MAKE MY LOGO BIGGER. the mockumercial is worth a gander.
  
• AND AND AND (and maybe everyone knows this but me) but when you are typing in the blogger editor (i think anytime you are typing in the firefox browser) and you misspell and it underlines it with that dotty red line... DID YOU KNOW you can right click and the magic computer dictionary will give you spelling options? WHY WHY did I not know this? for me, this revelation is similar to the amazingness of the CTRL+F light bulb of many, many, many moons ago.
  

i don't have a lot on the agenda this week. i feel guilty (irrationally) telling you that i will probably park it in front of the TV all week. i definately become a tv junkie early fall. karl and i keep discussing cable cancellation and i'm all "pshhhst. of COURSE we can cancel cable." and then things like TONIGHT happen where i want to watch THREE things at once and curse our DVR for only being able to record two at once. (and not let you watch the third! the HORROR. the TRAGEDY.) so, yea, i'll be on my couch. gaining back any weight i may have lost in the past two weeks.

please forgive my funk

it always happens after several weekends away.

THE FUNK.

it creeps. and crawls. and makes me stop drinking water. and forces copious amounts of mac n cheese down my throat.

it's hard to see your long time, far away friends' and their new babies and bellies and realize you are only going to see them a handful of times a year. i tried desperately to love on all of them in the short time we were there. there are blogs and photos and emails but sometimes i think too much about what could be if all them behbeys were in one city. (i think it would make for some happy mamas!) but such is life and we are where we are and blah blah blabbity blah. i don't intend to move to tulsa or wherever they live and i doubt any of them would like to uproot to good ole A-R. sigh. LETS ALL MOVE TO, uh, MEXICO? CANADA? EUROPE? Piedmont, North Dakota?

we'd probably all kill one another within a week.

so while i am off drowning my sorrows with a nice, gnarly cab, i leave you with these completely unedited and crappy but totally hilarious images:




KISS KISS friends. yes, that is a mirror.

a berf day

a few months ago (with the help of some adorable stock art) i designed these for baby knight's tulsa shower. i have the high res pdf but i didn't want you to be that nosy about it so i took a picture.
the header typeface is called felttip marker and the other text is in the ITC Bauhaus family. i'm way into vectory-children-ey art these days. (surprise.) i was rather fond of these invites - b loves geee-rafs and the shower was all jungle-ey so it seemed like a perfect fit. PLUS it was her BIRTHDAY so it was a Birth Day Celebration. GET IT? GET IT? B designed the cutest invites for my shower so i felt rather under (self) pressure. See - how cute are these? For real.
anyway, the shower was wonderful. sarah and jenny and i have similar planning styles (read: we get shit done.) so it seemed less stressful than past events (or maybe we are just getting REALLY GOOD at throwing parties after years of weddings and babies.). plus we had decor help from melissa and dessert help from ashley which was WONDERFUL. so many people love brooke and are supporting her and paul and baby knight already.

i was happy with my cheese tray piling skillz (VERY important lifeskill; who knew?) (F i love cheese.):

and the whole delicious food table:
and the GEEEEEEEE-rafe cake Jenny ordered:

and the freaking amazing cupcakes Ashley made.
I was OBSESSED with the panda. i mean, seriously, LOOK AT HIM and his oreo haunches:

anyway, enough about the FOOD. ON TO THE PREGNANT LADY FRIEND:
she chose to reveal her baby's name this day and did so via onsie gift opened by hostesses (oddly, we all have BOY BABIES. landen, nate, and maddox also can't wait for their new friend parker to arrive.)
quite honestly i didn't understand what was happening for a moment (mostly cause i was all giggley on wine), until sarah said "here, take #1!" and i was all OOOOHHHHHH.
welcome little parker. we can't wait to post your pictures all over the interwebz.

more pics here from Jax and here from B herself!

cause somedays you just need to cry

these are from last week. nate had, uh, a day. THE DAY OF TEARS we shall call it. not a thing was right in the world for nate on this day. it was frightening and sad and humorous all at once. i did what any stellar mom would do - i took pictures.

¿Dónde está la biblioteca?

WELL HEY. Here I am blogging for books! Friday Sept 3rd was the official day the 'Blogging for Books!' posts were supposed to be published; however, uh, I have a one year old, so maybe i was, uh, reading books to him. er. The cow says MOOOO. (yes, my excuse is super lame, but I'm here now! We'll call my post a REMINDER and/or a LAST MINUTE PUSH before game time!)

So, yea, this Thursday I will be attending an event in Little Rock to benefit Reach Out and Read Arkansas. This organization provides resources to families to encourage reading in the home. Nate has received a board book at each of his pediatric visits so I think our clinic benefits from this program.

The event is all because of TWITTER. (all you twitter haters please take note!) It's a TWESTIVAL. TWAZY, huh? (too much? yea, sorry.) If you are in Little Rock and would like to attend, here is a link to more info and here is the official LRTweetup site. It's 10 dollars and a book and at the Clinton Library. (Bill would love it, right?)

Books&Babies is a topic close to my heart. I am a VORACIOUS reader and I credit my parents for starting me off on the right foot. and for letting me read stephen king at age 12. (can the dark half be considered my favorite childhood book?) and mary higgins clark. and james patterson. (people mock ole JP but I vividly remember being mesmerized by Along Came A Spider.)

I digress. I think my favorite CHILDHOOD book was, uh, huh. I clearly remember thumbing through a well-loved Aesop's Fable book at a very young age. And I wore out my copy of Baby Island which is a ridiculous book about a sinking ship and two teenage girls marooned with four infants. And then I tore through The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and then, you know, silly 90s book like The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High and, uh, V.C. Andrews. I've probably read a solid 40 or so books this year and I've been on a huge biography kick. (why, no my laundry is never done, thanks for asking.) Most are from the library, but I do purchase occasionally or read them on my ereader. And, why, yes, yes i do arrange them by color on my bookshelf. thanks for noticing.
I am trying really hard to instill a love of books in my babe. We currently attend several library story times (our favorite is the Main Library on Mondays - they have a great program and FREE!) Nate's first birthday party was a bookworm themed party (complete with wormy dirtcake) and he already has quite the library. it makes me happy when he brings a book over and climbs in my lap.
so basically, i am supporting this and, if you have the opportunity, you should too! Or look for a local program in your area. Or just READ TO YOUR BABIES. (Mooo baaaa lalala.)

what is your favorite childhood book?

and then we did some other stuff

i have already forgotten the rest of our trip. it is now a blur of walking and eating and, uh, walking. i do know that we got lazy on the last day and ate too close to times square and spent $50 on an egg sandwich, potato pancakes (burned and nasty), and a mushy fruit bowl. yuck.

let's see: this will be saturday, sunday, monday:
NYC PART 3:

saturday morning (STILL RAINING!) i was dying to go to a Yankees game, but with the rain.... we decided to skip it. instead, we hit up the manhattan children's museum where some little girl punched nate in the face (barely) and he lost his shit. lost. it. and then every time another child came near him he cried like the world was ending. it was sad and slightly embarrassing (happy, playing children everywhere and nate screaming his head off) but also somewhat entertaining. i mean, what can you do? nate needs a bit to warm up to new places. it's hard to remember that when karl and i just want to jump right in and play!

we, uh, did some more stuff saturday. uh, OH YEA. the weather cleared up and we ate dinner out-a-doors in bryant park and they had these ridiculously tall breadsticks that kept nate entertained for THREE HOURS. we had multiple drinks with dinner. it was awesome!


sunday, we hit up the bronx zoo.
where we walked and walked and walked (and, oh, did i mention walked?) and it was big and fun and nate thought all the animals were "DOG! DOG!" We also pondered questions like:
we met phillip and his girlfriend for dinner in the lower east side. nate was for sure the only baby in that restaurant. eh. we stayed too late (nate's dinner: ketchup. licked off the french fries. very healthy.) and nate crashed on the subway:
monday we partook in aforementioned 50 dollar breakfast and wandered around Central Park for a few hours. Nate loved the horses (of the horse drawn carriages). We realized this was his first time to see a horse. We had to bring our child to MANHATTAN to see a horse. That's ridiculous. Eventually, we meandered toward the airport where i had to restrain karl from purchasing something from this (just because he could. not because he actually needed/wanted something):
our flight home was uneventful and (after some squirming) nate slept through it.

so, yea, that wraps up my NYC recaps. thanks for listening! would i do it again? yes. and no. i'm just saying - it would have been super nice to hop in a cab. or not question whether a restaurant was receptive to little ones. or come spilling out of a bar at 2 a.m. HA. but i'm still glad we went and that we are starting to share some of our favorite places with our favorite little person.

next trip we are hoping for west coast - maybe i am a west coast kind of girl also!

i hope everyone is having a fabulous and long labor day weekend.

i'm for sure an east coast kind of girl

growing up in the midwest (STL, what what! oh, wait, you didn't know i hail from the Show Me State? HA.), i always wanted to move to the west coast. i really thought i was a west coast kind of girl. i mean, when i read the babysitters club, i TOTALLY wanted to be Dawn not Stacey. (Stacey dots her i's with hearts. i mean REALLY.) my parents took us to california, uh, sometime (sorry mom and dad. it was a blast.), and i totally wanted to be a california girl.

(on a side note, does anyone remember that show? california dreams? early 90s? on before or after Saved by the Bell maybe? i found this on youtube and i PROMISE it is worth the 58 second watch. anyone? anyone? for some reason this show made an impression on me... probably fit in with my dreams of moving to CA to become a beach babe in my butterfly bikini.)

(uh, don't wake me up cause i am dreaming!)

Anyway, I thought California was, like, totally rad and I totally wanted to rollerblade live there. Like, really. (Hair flip.) (Yes, that was my teenage impression of CA. deal with it. i live in arkansas now where some people think we are obese, toothless and illiterate.) NOW I haven't been to the West Coast in my adult life, so my comparison might be a little off. BUT I can most assuredly say that the first moment i stepped off the plane in LaGuardia I knew I was (could be?) an east coast kind of girl. Seriously, in the airport. The energy, the ugly, the people one on top of each other, THE CUSSING (oh the cussing!), the instant gratification, the transportation options, the i'll-talk-to-you-briefly-but-don't-need-to-know-your-life-story attitude. (I grew up in a large city; you would think i would not have been quite so STRUCK. but i was.)

(on a side note, i would be happy to stay in Little Rock. Home is where Karl and Nate are and I love it here. But if the opportunity to move popped up (wherever...would depend on the opportunity, right?), we would probably take it.)

ANYWAY.

The first time Karl and I went to NYC we did it up tourist style - bus tour, theater, central park, MoMA, the Met, fancypants restaurants. It. was. awesome. The second time we went, we stayed with cousin Phillip on the Lower East Side and we did as he and his friends did - yankees game, restaurants where the waitstaff actually speaks their native german or french, rooftops, comedy clubs. It. was. awesome. THIS TIME we did it up family style. And it was also awesome.

Yet, I can understand why there aren't a terrible # of children in manhattan; I also think that with kids you probably would stick to your 6 or 8 block radius (or you live in Brooklyn and hire a babysitter to come into the city!). We did NOT bring a car seat and opted for the trains and the subways. This worked out quite well except for THE STAIRS and THE STROLLER and the TURNSTYLES. (i totally get the maclaren mamas now - it's not just a $250 umbrella stroller! it's sturdy yet easy to fold AND lightweight enough to carry up and down the stairs (with the baby still in it!) and fits on the skinny escalators. uh, unlike mine. which we had to fold up. which means one of us had to carry the stroller and one the baby. i tried to sling him and carry him but you. walk. a. lot. and he is heavy. and many of the places we went (zoos, museums) we wanted a stroller. it was challenging for sure. especially because it rained all day friday and saturday (we still did a lot of walking in the rain, but opted for transport when it was pouring. by saturday i was tempted to just get in a cab. i saw other infants and toddlers carseatless in cabs, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.)

Here are some of the things we did: (Ahem, I present: NYC Part 2!)

Friday:
As mentioned it was raining. We (of course in our sparse suitcase) did NOT have an umbrella nor any sort of rain gear. We walked out of our hotel and bought an umbrella no less than 10 feet out the door. SOLVED. BOOSH.
We went to see the dinosaur rawr at the Museum of Natural History:
we ate and napped (karl and i got used to an afternoon nap!) and headed to THE APPLE FLAGSHIP STORE on 5th Ave. Snow Leapord was released while we were there and it was actually pretty nerdycool to buy it there. it was crazy busy and we were checked out in line by an employee walking around with a credit card swipey. Crazy Efficient.
We headed next door to FAO Schwartz (which I am told is much cooler during the Holidays.) The BIG piano was fun, but, other than that, not so exciting.

We hit up Times Square and packed it in for the evening. Crappy photo. Sorry. We wanted to see how far away we could get from the stroller before people started noticing.
There will be one final post (NYC: Part 3) and then I am DONE. (stick a fork in me.) i have like fourteen other blogs in my head i need to get out there as well. stay TUNED friends! (was it too much?)

okay, okay, i'm on it

I have been writing this blog in my head for DAYS. in snippets. and pieces. and on scraps of paper. that i now can not find. so, i am just going to spill. (as quickly as possible before the terror that is nate can stop me.)

NYC: Part 1

Before I get started, I am giving you fair warning: Most of these images were shot with my iPhone. Honestly, i brought my nice camera but i don't know why. amid all the other things i had to carry, that wasn't high on the priority list. plus it rained and i was paranoid about the lens.

we packed this the night before: (all three of our belongings fit in this suitcase. we additionally brought a stroller and a diaper bag. i know this sounds like packing light but it still seemed quite cumbersome in transit.)
thursday morning, we left on a plane: (nate was surprisingly good on the flight there. he had not flown since november so we were a little nervous. smaller babies = much easier travel buddies. we let him have some paci and he was quite wiggly but quiet. we got many compliments which is always nice.)
nate was hungry on the airport shuttle and fell asleep WHILE eating. observe:
then we got on a train:
we checked into our hotel and got settled and ready to hit the park, meet family, and eat out! i contemplated if NYC was ready for my baby bangs (look how much they have grown!):
decided the fashion mecca of the world was not quite ready for that jelly and headed to the park rocking the side braid (my new favorite mommy-do):
met phillip for dinner somewhere in midtown:

stopped for late night snacks: (banana, milk, and beer. super classy.)
So there you are: DAY ONE, one week later exactly!

we didn't hesitate to bring Nate with us to any restaurant the entire trip. we got some looks but didn't care so much. every single time we walked out of the hotel nate would see all the people and scream "HI! HI!" and wave until someone paid attention to him. he also went b-a-n-a if there was a dog "DOG! DOG!" I find these things highly entertaining as his parent; you might not.

karl and i may also have spent one night locked in the bathroom streaming a netflix movie whilst waiting for Nate to go to sleep. (categories: wild nights in manhattan, you know you are a parent when, and don't tell anyone.)

MORE TOMORROW!

I probably won't be able to drag it out the whole five days (one day per post) but a girl can try, right? it's hard with twitter cause i feel as though i tweeted many moments and am now repeating some of them. you don't mind too much, do you? (don't answer that.)

cripes

i am STILL working on my New York postings - i am such a tease. it is more difficult than one might think to create a comprehensive blogpost (complete with photos!) when your one year old NEVER sleeps. must. get. it. down. before. it. is. forgotten.

plus, i ran this morning at 5:30 after going to bed late so my brain is a bit mushy.

In the meantime, here is a post I submitted on Mamapedia.

(from their twitter feed): Mamapedia: Read "Be Aware of your Surroundings: Unwanted Attention" by @kat22stl on Mamapedia Voices http://bit.ly/tQVDO.

It's my post about the creepshow i encountered while jogging (from a week or two ago).

well heeeeeeeeeeeeaaaay it's rick dooooooley

hey friends - that post title is a stupid inside joke between myself and my dear friend brooke - one that i don't remember exactly the joke but i know that it was funny and we say it when we have nothing else to say and it makes us both giggle like little school girls.

we have safely returned from the depths of NYC public transportation hell. but more on that later. our trip was amazing and i can't wait to fill you in. i was pleasantly surprised to find some blog hacking going on over here at katandkarl DOT COM. thanks baby sister. guess i should change that high school password sometime, eh?

happy tuesday everyone and happy SEPTEMBER. i can't believe fall is on the horizon.