A New Favorite

My Sakura Bloom sling went kaput which initially made me really very sad. After returning it I decided to embrace the opportunity for change and search for a new sling. My poor husband. Of course, I made him look at each and every possibility that I came across. There were a lot. I think his eyes glazed over around sling 10. Somewhere around sling 572 I found the one!

I am so very smitten with this beauty.

It's by Zanytoes. The photos on their website do not do their slings justice at all!!! I almost passed them by, but the reviews I ran into were so good that I decided to give it a go. Especially when I found out about their in stock wrap conversion slings. They just happened to have the Girasol colorway (Frigga Fuchsia) that I had been eyeing but had not been able to find in the U.S. Eeeep! I love, love, love it.

P.S. I got the gathered shoulder, and it's my favorite shoulder now. I've never tried a pleated, so I can't compare the two. Also, just so it's clear, I haven't received any compensation for this post. :-) 

A Cool Spell, An Almost Three Year Old, And A Doll

Miserable, unbearable, and stifling are generally words that I associate with this time of the year, but lately it's been downright tolerable and cool. The temps for the next ten days aren't expected to rise above 89! August, I don't know what's happened to you, but I like it!

This time three years ago, I was hugely pregnant with Sophia and thinking that I would never in a million years be able to cool off. I drove Stephan crazy by keeping the ac on 24/7 and waking him up at all hours of the night to trudge across the house and turn it even lower. I can't really believe that was three years ago. It seems so far away yet so close all at once.
We'll be celebrating this sweet girl's third birthday very soon, and of course, I'm getting sentimental. She is just as much of a delight now as she was as a baby.....just as vibrant, tenacious, and funny too.

There have been a few changes, though. She is quite a bit taller and maybe a tad more opinionated, and she's begun to dress herself...hence the boots on the wrong feet!

One of my aunts made this doll for Sophia when she was itsy bitsy. She's really only just now getting into dolls, and she's been really into this one in particular. Today she named it Lisa...aka "Wisa".

Georgia

The weekend before last we did a whirlwind trip to Georgia to celebrate my Great Aunt Othalyne's birthday. After that my internet access got really spotty. Then it went totally kaput. It's back...for good I hope!
We were only able to spend a few hours there, but it was fun to see family and especially wonderful to see Aunt Othalyne.

She and Lillian were pretty smitten with one another...

Believe it or not, but despite spending 7 hours each day in the car the kids still thought we were on vacation. I kept waiting for them to figure it all out and mutiny.

The few hours spent on Aunt Othalyne's family farm were a much needed break from all the car time.

Each year that we've been here we've taken photos of my mom holding the kids next to this fence. The other pics are here, here, here, here, and here.

Gah! I can't believe how big this one has grown. He's hard to pick up these days!

We all did a little relaxing...

...And some goofing off.
Levi totally has his Nanno's sense of humor.

The kiddos could not have been more wonderful about the whole trip. They were sweet travelers....not exactly the experience we've had on previous whirlwind trips to Georgia. We were all pleasantly surprised, and I was so grateful that they thought it was all just a lovely vacation. They are still talking about it over a week later!