I only have a few minutes to post as my daughter just used the time when I was soaking in the tub (My Mother’s Day Relaxing Bath!) to POOP and PEE all over herself and her clothes. So I had to get her undressed and her poop in the potty from the panties all while taking a bath. If that doesn’t say “Mom” then I don’t know what does.

Here’s a Mother’s Day photo for you. First glance this may seem to be a shot of NikkiZ throwing the ball to me, but look again. She is SQUINTING because it was me throwing it at her. One second later it bashed her in the face.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you. May you never hit your children in the face with a ball, and may you never be hit in the face by your Mother who is throwing the ball at you

I have had a few photo sessions at our Target Photo Studio in the past. I’ve always been pleased with the work as it compares to the price. It’s no professional studio with an actual photographer, but for my typical budget and for our needs as a family, it has served us well.

They periodically send me email coupons for various services they’re testing out or backdrops they’re introducing. I rarely even pay attention to them, because I really only use photo studios for group/family type shots. This week, however, the coupon featured some small girls in fairy costumes. It advertised that they were bringing in costumes and for about 30 dollars or so, you could bring your daughter in for photographing around fake flowers and a floral backdrop. I considered it for a moment because it gave you a LOT of photos for $30. But then it occurred to me: I can buy the costume myself and just take my daughter to the Botanical Gardens for photos.

And let me tell you - that is the BEST DAMN IDEA I’VE EVER HAD.

Friday night we went to Target and actually found a butterfly/fairy costume - which is even better in my opinion. NikkiZ loved wearing it and we spent three hours this morning going around the Botanical Gardens taking pictures. I took 320 pictures. I’ve gone through them a few times and can honestly tell you that they are freakin’ AWESOME. I assure you that by the time I’m done editing and uploading them to flickr, you will wish you had never seen a picture of my daughter in a Butterfly costume.

I didn’t really have time tonight to do much, so I just picked out a batch that I loved just so I’d have something to show you. I’ve lightened/boosted/or cropped these - but nothing else. The weather was great and my daughter behaved perfectly with the promise of time in the fountains when we finished.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. And I hope that you won’t get so sick of seeing me upload the rest of the batch in the next week that you break up with me. I will spare you the pain of showing EVERY photo here, so you’ll have to actually go to my flickr page for the others throughout the week. Remember…if you can make it 11 more days, I’ll probably start photographing my new kid for awhile, assuring you a break from my daughter, the Butterfly.

• I preregistered for my c-section and my copay is the same as it was with NikkiZ which was two years ago and different insurance. It didn’t go up! SCORE ONE FOR US!
• I’m thinking about going back to being a vegetarian after AndyZ gets here. I did it for nine years and just kinda miss it and feel like I was healthier when I was one. Any thoughts?
• NikkiZ decided the other day that she does NOT want to share a room with her brother. So, we’re going to make him sleep outside.
• I asked a friend of mine if I could borrow her kids tomorrow to photograph because I’m sick of taking pictures of my own kids. Aren’t I sweet?
• My feet swell up so bad on the days I work at a desk that my flip-flops actually get too tight. It’s super sexy.
• This baby will be here in 12 days which is good because I had forgotten how much boobsweat I produce in a car without air-conditioning when I’m pregnant. It’s A LOT.
• I bought Pop Tarts this week, which I never do. Last night I ate TWO PACKS before going to bed. I’m going to miss that part of being pregnant. BUT ONLY THAT PART.
• I found out this week that our Barnes & Noble is having a Vampire Ball when Stephanie Meyer’s new book for the “Twilight” series comes out (Breaking Dawn is the title if you hadn’t heard) and I can’t WAIT.
• I am looking forward to Mother’s Day this weekend because I’m totally going to make my family (sans LilZ who will be spending Mother’s Day with his Dad…heh…) take me to breakfast that morning at Another Broken Egg. We can only justify eating there for special occasions because it’s expensive. Lucky for us - I’m very creative at defining special occasions. The last time we ate there it was because MrZ had to fast before a medical test. See? “Special Occasion.”
• Did you hear the Duggar Family is pregnant with their 18th child? I don’t know what else to say about that besides, “Wow.”

I nursed LilZ, unsuccessfully, for about six months before beginning to supplement for various reasons. However, in that six months I learned that nursing bras were a waste of my time and money. Now, I might have taken this stance because I was not in the financial situation to buy a $40 bra, but I’d like to think I just inherently knew that I would not need one. I used a cheap, wired (but unpadded) bra that I would simply pull around my boob when it was time to nurse. My nursing boobs got up to a DD size cup, so they weren’t tiny, but that $10 bra solution served the short span of nursing LilZ well.

With NikkiZ, I splurged for a few nursing bras. I actually had money and thought I’d see what the fuss was about. Only to decide after a few weeks that they annoyed the hell out of me. I switched back to my old $10 system and called it the year. I nursed her successfully for 14 months never looking back.

It has come time for me to make that decision again - and I opted against the nursing bra. AGAIN. I simply went and bought the cheap (they’re $11 now, however) bras with the underwire and no padding. They are cotton and kinda ugly although I could have bought them in pretty colors if I wanted. I spent less than $40 on three while passing the $45 rack of nursing bras in the corner. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that kind of money on a bra that I found useless and UGLY AS HELL.

Here is my question: Am I alone? Is there anyone else who has failed to find the usefulness of a nursing bra? Or maybe I’m just a rare lucky one? Because I do find myself very blessed that I don’t have to spend $45 dollars on a bra. That leaves me more money left to make up for all of the beer I haven’t been drinking the last 9 months.

My Dad used to keep our “best” pieces of “art” growing up and either hang them on the fridge or would put them in these books/journals he kept. It always made me feel really accomplished when one of my creations was chosen. Like it had been selected for some exhibit somewhere. And it made me feel really confident in my skills as an “artist” so I kept doodling/drawing my entire life. I took art classes in high school and continued screwing around with various artistic endeavors even into adulthood.

Now, at some point along the way I realized my skills were limited. I would get ideas in my mind but they never turned out the way the looked in my head. In other words? The ideas were there, but not the talent. The creativity, but not the skill. Now, the drive still allowed me to make some cool things, and in school I had one or two things that actually did get put in student expos, but all-in-all? I was simply someone who liked to create but who wasn’t all that great at it.

BUT - the fact that I kept (and keep) going with it is something I owe to my Dad. And it’s something I swore I’d foster in my children as well.

I used to have a long empty wall in one of my apartments in college and I filled it floor to ceiling with LilZ’s artwork. Once we bought our house, my first mission was to actually frame some of it. And hang them in - what I call - the Art Hall. He currently has several pieces hanging there and they range from preschool to 5th Grade. 6th grade didn’t give us any art classes so nothing was created that year. This year, however, we had another art class and some of my favorite pieces have been done. Here are the two I matted yesterday.

I haven’t bought frames yet because I wait and do that when Hobby Lobby puts them on 50% off. But I’m looking forward to adding them to various empty walls around the house. I’m not going to put them in the Art Hall because I want to save room there for some of the other kid’s art someday. But, we have so much empty wall space, there will be plenty of choices. And I’ll hang them proudly knowing that my son is very talented. But that he also has his mother’s creative drive which means one thing: My walls will never be bare.