It's finally back!!

Yeah, I got my camera back today!! Austin is at a sleep over at a friends house, so Don and I took Bell and went out for Mexican for dinner, yum (and a few Tums for me for dessert!!). When we got home Bell was tired so I laid her in bed with daddy with her milk and came back to find this:

We have been busy lately, just with this and that it seems. I started working at the Y, so am doing that two days a week, and last weekend we all went swimming to get a good start on using our membership! The four lane pool has a spiral tube slide so we went there and Austin finally got Don to go down the slide with him a few times, while Bell and I played in the low end. Austin is excited about having time off from school for spring break, and getting to see his NY friends over Easter weekend.

We just got a new computer, as this one has been giving us LOTS of problems! So before setting it up here (where a crib will need to be in a short time), we searched the house for the best place to relocate my "office" to for the time being. The living room won out over the bedroom (my being on the computer late would disturb Don), and the kitchen (just to tight a squeeze). And the bathroom was just not an option!! So the hope chest will go into our bedroom for now (to get covered and used as a makeshift changing table while the bassinet is in there), and the desk will take its place. We got a new desk, as Don feels he has lived with my white wicker one long enough, so it will have to go and find a new home! Boy, we can't wait to build the addition to teh house and have a little more room!!

Gotta go and get to bed now as we have church in the morning.

Karen

I wish we could have done Baltimore the way we have wanted to, a weekend with beautiful weather and spending some time exploring the inner harbor. Another time....
Of course this weeknd was 32 degrees out!! I was at the Convention Center all day Saturday and Sunday, but had a lot of fun and did great business!!! Vendors were complaining that it was slow on Saturday, but I was busy all day long. One of the events coordinators told me I had the busiest table in the hall!! I really love being able to show moms in real life how great baby carriers can be, and there was tons of pregnant and new moms there. Perfect venue for me.
Saturday Don took the kids to the National Aquarium, and it sounds like they had a fun time! The aquarium is all people movers and escalators, so no strollers - so it worked out good that Don had HIS Mei Tai carrier to wear Bell in. After I was done, they came and picked me up for dinner (corned beef on Saint Pats Day!!), and then we went back to the hotel for some fun in the pool. I was in bed by 9 pm because I was SO tired. Sunday was another good day at the show, and Don ended up driving home earlier than I did to get a little down time before going off to NJ for the night. Harold came back to work today - yeah for Don!!!
This morning Bell got her bath, and while I was cleaning up the bathroom, she was running around naked. Well in the minutes time I was in the bathroom she got up on the kitchen table (again!!). She was sitting up there, naked as can be, eating grapes out of the bag on the table, juice running down her nice clean front, and when she saw me said over and over "grapes"!! I miss my camera. She just LOVES to climb these days. And she is saying SO many new words. This weeks new ones are : grapes, chair, soda (that comes from daddy drinking DDP, not me!!), apple, juice, nap, moon, stars, windy. It is amazing that she can say so many of the words she can sign, it seems to have really helped her pick up words quicker! One of her favorite words now is dirty (or doooorty as she says it). If she gets the slightest thing on her hands, they are dooorty!!

Nice to nasty!!

A few days ago the weather was 78 degrees here in Delaware andwe were at the park in shorts and today it is just above freezing and raining (soon to turn to hail / snow for a few hours says the weatherman). Typical March weather! Dad said they had two inches of hail in NY today.
Of course it was beautiful all week, and now forhte weekend it will be COLD. We are going to Baltimore last minute this weekend. I just, literally just, had the opportunity come up to share a booth at the Baby and Toddler EXPO at the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend. A woman who runs lactation and baby classes in MD has a booth and is doing some seminars, so for manning the booth while she is speaking I get 1/2 the booth for FREE (booth costs $900.00).
It is a two day event and will be two LONG days, but should be fun as well and hopefully great for business. Don and kids are coming along to help set up and then go spend time at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the hotel pool! Luckily we were able to get a room at the Inner Harbor Holiday Inn (on rewards points!!) so the hotel, convention center and attractions are all very close together.
We have been talking about a weekend trip to Baltimore for awhile, but this is not exactly what we planned. I really wish the weather was going to be nicer for Don and the kids getting around.
Well, I have to go finish getting stuff ready as we have to be out of here at 6 AM - ugh!
Karen

Hi all,

The main babywearing website The Babywearer (TBW) just started up a new weekly feature called Spotlight On. They interview one Babywearing business every week and hightlight them on the main page of the site. We are the Spotlight of the week!!!

Spotlight on... Hands Free Baby Come visit with Karen Tuscano, owner of Hands Free Baby, as she talks to us about her business selling baby carriers and accessories, shares about her family, and gives us her thoughts on babywearing advocacy. Karen will also be dropping in to answer your questions, so feel free to ask what's on your mind!

You can check out the whole interview here:

http://www.thebabywearer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1056778#post1056778

Chicken Man

So I do get to post a few pics, thanks to other peoples cameras!! These are of Don in his "Chicken Hat" from our Church's auction last month.
Every year a woman in the parish makes a new one to auction off - highest bidder get to decide who wears the hat for the whole night, and Mike won it and chose Don. So if anyone needs a hat for "crazy hat day" or an Easter parade, let us know - it is in the attic!! Hey, he paid $35 bucks for that beautiful hat.

Swimming, cleaning and the purple crayon....

Here are some pics from swim class today at the Y. Bell loves the water and has a great time (I know you can't really tell it from this picture!) Usually there are three of us from playgroup there with the kids, but this week Alex's (far left) grandma was in town, so she took him in the pool, and Emma's (middle) dad came and took her in. My friend Virginia got these pics of Bell while taking pics of Emma. She also got some great video clips, but I can't download them, only watch and e-mail them :(( Not the best shot, but you get a little glimpse of by pregnant belly here in the one group shot.

I really hate our kitchen floor, it is not bad looking, just so hard to keep clean! All the little grooves in the tiles trap so much dirt. So every once and awhile you need to do more than just mop it. I was sick of it today, so decided today was the day to get on my hands and knees and do some work on it (not that easy at 28 weeks!). So while Bell ate lunch I started by the dog bowls (always the worst spot) and worked around by the cabinets, you know, the spots the mop just don't get very well. About half way through Bell was done ands wanted out. So I gave her a sponge and she went to town! She preferred washing the vertical surfaces instead of the floor, so did the cabinet doors (which once you are down on the floor looking at them needed doing as well) and washed to front of the oven about 10 times. She did learn that she does not like the taste of the bubbles on the sponge, and when she got a lot of bubbles on her hands kept coming to me and saying and signing "dirty" and needed to wipe her hands - a lot of times!! Of course the oven door was worse off after she "cleaned" it than before, but we had fun, despite the fact that once she got down, not much really got done. The other half will save for another day. When Austin came home from school and let the dogs in, half of the muddy, melted yard came in with them anyway!!

So while I was cleaning up, from cleaning up, Bell went off to play. All of a sudden I heard a noise that was just not right. Well, I turned around to find her scribbling on the hallway wall with a purple crayon. I am not sure where it came from, as we are very careful to put them away after each time (the concept of paper is not complete yet, either is the one of not EATING the crayons!!). Luckily crayon washes off wall easily.

Don got home from work not to late today, which has not been the norm lately (and he had been away overnight Thursday), so we got to have a nice dinner together. We then put on a movie (Barnyard) to watch all together (Austin had a friend sleeping over), and poor Don fell asleep watching it!! Luckily we have a low key weekend, so he can relax, but he has to go back up to NJ Sunday night to stay over for EARLY Monday AM meeting. Not being a early kind of guy, it is always better if he does not have to get up at some ungodly hour to drive there in the AM. Oh, and I am awake now typing this because they called with a question at 1 AM from work, and then I could not get back to sleep! He will be happy when things are more back to normal at work. And I will be happy for him.

Well, I guess I need to try and get back to sleep.

Night,

Karen

We had a fun day on Saturday. The weather was fairly nice, so we took a ride to the duck pond to feed the ducks / geese some stale bread. Well, when we got there, NO ducks! But lots of seagulls, so we fedd the "birds" as Belll kept calling them. Then we went to the park and Austin took Bell down the big slide and daddy and I caught her at the bottom, she loved it!! When I put her in the swings, she loves it right until I take her out, and then she cries because she has to stop. But for daddy she got right out without a tear, go Daddy!! We rounded out the day with Dairy Queen for dinner (as far as takeout goes, it is our favorite - even Austin!) and watched Nanny McPhee - which was pretty funny. It was a good faimly day spent together.
More soon,
I miss my camera!!
Karen