It takes a village

This is from a day or two before Thanksgiving. As I was strapping her in, I realized this shot represents a myriad of families who contribute to our whole. V’s jacket and fancy red pants were her cousin Zya’s; her hat was knitted by my Aunt Beverly; the tent (yes, we have a tent in our backseat. in November) belongs to Aunt Jess and Uncle Brad, and the pink rain slicker in the far corner came from Grandma Myra. Behind her head, just out of the shot, is the DoodlePro, from Grandma Mary and Grandpa David, which is one of her very favorite toys, so it stays in the car to keep her entertained, on short trips or long.
These are just a few of our active connections, and each of them (and all the others not pictured) help so much to make this parenthood carnival ride a little less scary.



Post-Thanksgiving (we hosted, which was great but also tiring, of course), I’ve been working on these, inspired by SouleMama and Rosie Little Things and this collection I found through a flickr search. They will be gifts for many of the wee ones in our lives, and V has been enthusiastically alternating between picking out selections for her loved ones (for Will! and Jess! and Devon!) and then taking two and whacking them together.


Mostly she does the whacking with the Mommy and Daddy dolls (can you guess which ones are us?) I found the blank dolls at Michael’s (most expensive), Hobby Lobby (best selection), and JoAnn’s (least expensive but terrible selection). The best paints have been Dreamacoat, hands down. I’ve also found my Sharpie collection to be most useful for face details, and Elmer’s Paintpens for little decorations (belts, polka-dots).