Happy Fourth!

Not a whole lot to update on. This is a long weekend for Brooke and I. Classes were canceled for the holiday weekend, so we have Wednesday through Sunday off to spend together! I am already pulling my hair out. Brooke has started a new phase. Her stubborn/no phase. Let me share with you how pleasant it is. Brooke has been saying no and knowing what the meaning is for quite some time now. But up until recently, it was used sparingly. Up until recently. I would say in the past week or so, this child has gotten so bull-headed stubborn I am ready to pack her in a fedex box and overnight her to her grandparents. (Don't worry, I'd give her enough water and snacks to tide her over for the trip.)(And for those who don't have a sense of humor or understand sarcasm, I'm kidding.) Her latest thing is not wanting to eat. Now, if you know my kid, you know that she loves food. She loves ALL food. I can't even bribe her with a cheeto now days. I ask her if she wants to eat, and the response back is a sassy little "No!" with attitude. At first I would just pick her up and strap her down, while fighting the brutal strength of a two year old. And two year olds are feisty! She would sit there for the next ten minutes screaming her lungs out while I completely ignored her. After a while she opened her eyes long enough to see me eating and realize, "Oh, okay. Maybe I will eat." Today I tried a new approach. I told her that her meal was ready, got the same sassy response back and left it at that. I took both of our meals to the table, set hers down in her spot, sat down in my spot and started to eat. A couple minutes later guess who saunters up to her seat saying, "My eat! Mommy, my eat." Yup, my divalicious two year old. I think I'll start using this method from now on. If her food gets told, her fault. Hopefully this will last as long as the hair pulling did, about a month. Brooke tends to go through phases really fast so I hope this is one of them.




These are some pictures of little miss divapants. It's very rare these days to get a genuine smile, but she was in a hammy mood that day, so I got some pretty cute shots. It's hard to stay mad at a face like this.

I'm starting to gear up for craft shows. There are two big ones coming up that I'm sure I'll do well at. The first one is the Elmendorf Arctic Bazaar. It's held on Elmendorf Air Force Base and it always draws a large crowd. I think I'm going to change my products up a but this year. Last year I mainly had bows and a few beanies. This year I'm going to focus on the smaller pinwheel bows, simple clips, bug bows, small korkers, hand crochet beanies, hand crochet hats, hand crochet booties and pacifier clips. With the crochet items, I should bring in more money, because they cost more. But they won't bee too expensive where people will be put off on buying them. Beanies are so popular right now, so I think they'll be ok. I plan on having some of the nylon headbands as well, I think they look cuter than the stretch lace or the mass produced crochet headbands. The second one is the Fort Richardson Craft Bazaar. That one is held in November, so I have about a month to replenish my stock. People say that the Elmendorf show draws more of a crowd. I thought I did pretty well at the Richardson one last year, so to have two huge shows consecutive months will be great.

Eric comes home soon for R & R. I'm so excited. His parents are coming up for a few days to see him, so it will be nice to have a babysitter here so we can go out a couple of times and spend some one on one time together. I miss him so much. I'm worried about him right now. The soldier that was captured is in the same area where Eric is based out of, so I have this feeling that Eric's platoon was called up to help find this guy. So please keep him and his brothers in your thoughts. They need all the positive thoughts right now.

I'm heading to bed. I don't know what we're doing for the fourth tomorrow, so we'll see what the day brings! Night!