New items at the castle!

I've been busy making several custom orders/gifts. Here's a few of the latest faves:

Spring has sprung!!

We had an impromptu photo shoot a couple of days ago. Couldn't resist taking pics when she just looked so darned cute. Aerowyn loves to water the flowers that her nana planted, not to mention watering herself in the process. What can I say? She's a water baby.

Adventures in baby jeans

Why is it that I finally find a cute pair of jeans that fit my daughter well... and they're from the non-existent Mervyns. So, on the hunt I go to find jeans that aren't floods but will actually stay up over her skinny butt. And I do this in SoCal as the weather is warming up and jeans are nowhere to be found. Target: no elastic, those will never stay up. Old Navy, you know... the denim place? Yeah, no jeans except capris. I drove around and discovered a The Children's Place store nearby... Yay!! Now this is a mixed blessing. I have memories of Aaron tied to that store, but while they are happy memories, it's hard for me to go into that store because it reminds me of him. But, a little girl needs a good pair of jeans. So, as the mother of an almost 15-month old little girl whose 12 month jeans are looking a bit floodish, I buy her 3 great pair of 18 month jeans: glitter flare, dark stone flare, and pink wash flare. Now I know that us older gals wear our jeans on the long side for those times we wear them with heels, but my baby? No heels for her any time soon... although I did see several heeled sandals in her size which is beyond my understanding, but whatever. The new jeans fit her waist perfectly (yippee as that is an accomplishment in and of itself) and they don't have crazy designs all over them that don't match any of her tops (and yes, I care about her jeans matching her tops). But the length!! They're about an inch too long. So do I go spend more money I don't want to be spending to get the 12 month size and have her outgrow them in a month, or do I risk another trip to the ER when she trips and lands on her face again? $11 for jeans or $600 for the doc to say "she's fine"? Looks like I'm driving back to the store again tomorrow. Of course, I'll keep the ones that are too big because they'll fit her someday, right?

the grass is greener...

I got together with a few of my mommy friends tonight. It was a nice night out with daddy picking up baby from me for a bit so I could enjoy my dinner and friends. Aerowyn was SUCH a good girl at the restaurant while we waited for daddy. Everyone commented on how good she was, how well she ate, how they couldn't do that with their same-age toddlers. So do I have the perfect baby?? I was quick to remind them as they were saying how jealous they were... that my little angel still wakes up every 2 hours at night to nurse and thinks naps are a joke. Sleeping through the night is some foreign concept that I cannot fathom (although she did it for a couple of weeks at 3 months). Although a full night of sleep sounds heavenly, I don't think I'd change anything. I like our private time and I know that the day will come that she doesn't want to nurse or cuddle with me at night and I'll miss her. So for now, a sleepy me will continue to love our extra cuddle time and enjoy the wonderful angel that she is during her waking hours. Of course waking ever 4 hours instead of every 2 would be a welcome change.

A quick walk

It's been a busy weekend, but most of the pics and video are trapped on "real" cameras and not the Storm, so upload is a bit lacking. We drove down to Escondido to see/listen to Brother Luke, aka Shaun deGraff, a musician friend of ours who was in town from Vegas. I promise to upload pictures and video of Aerowyn dancing on stage with him. These pictures were from our walk around the lakes at Dos Lagos. I can't believe how big and independent my little girl is getting. She did the whole walk on her own and chattered the whole way. She is so excited to be walking.

overcoming fear

I love this photo of Aerowyn.

It looks like she's having a great time sitting on this alligator statue at the LA Zoo. What you don't know is the back story.

Aerowyn was having a great time on the slide at the zoo until... mama wanted to get a picture of her on the alligator. She happily walked away from the slide, curiosity taking her to check out whatever I must have had planned next. Then she saw it. I admit, it looks real. She froze and broke out into hysterics. Being the "mean mommy" that I am (I wanted that picture, dang it), I took her hand and walked her over there any way. Yes, she looks happy. That's because she has a crowd of people (aka family) basically doing backflips and cheering to get her to do the same.

It's funny how we can overcome some big fears as little people. We overcome to try new things... and end up ok. As we get older, we let the fear get the best of us. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of just about anything. I wish we could remember what we knew as little kids. I think they have the right idea.

Welcome to the Castle

I've been inspired by my friends' blogs to finally start one of my own. Maybe this will keep me on top of uploading pics and sharing them ;-)

Princess Aerowyn is 13.5 months old and becoming more and more "girl" every day. I hope to share her accomplishments and overall cuteness on this site. I'll be sharing random family stuff along the way too.

Aerowyn's Castle is also my up-and-coming, not quite running, etsy site. I'll post it as soon as I get it going. Being a mommy on a budget with a little princess at home, I've learned to make a lot of that cute "boutique" stuff such as hair bows and clips, tutus, deco burp cloths, baby legs etc. Now that Aerowyn can entertain herself for a bit of time, I'm finally able to start making these on a more regular basis for sale. I'm hoping to share my creations with all of you to get input and suggestions (and maybe a sale or two) as I expand my repetoire of items.

King Robert (aka daddy) is finishing his second year of pharmacy school at USC. In addition to all of that studying (lol, what studying?), he has a small photography business on the side. You can check out some his pictures at www.rjdigitalphoto.com. For her safety, all of Aerowyn's pictures are currently password protected. I'll be loading select pictures here. Message me (can you do that on here?) or leave a comment with a way to contact you and I'll send you the password. I want to know who has access to them.