Rocking Chair

We have this tiny little rocking chair that I'm not sure where it originally came from, but Brandi and I had it as kids. It is a tiny little wooden chair that I have had sitting in the corner of Lily's room with one of my old dolls in it. Well, today Lily crawled over and took the doll out. I thought to myself that we should try sitting her in it to see what happens. She has got pretty good balance and can climb in and out of her other chair (the little infant bouncy thingy) so I pulled the chair out and dusted it off. I sat her in it and she immediately started rocking. As if she already knew that she was supposed to do that! Well, she might have known because we have a big rocking chair that looks very similar. I took this video seconds after putting her in the

seat...see how smart she is?!?!

The other picture is of me and my girls this morning. Someone from Entreprenuer magazine called me yesterday asking could I send some photos of myself for them to include with the article that they are doing for ebay magazine. I was excited before, but now I am excited AND nervous! That magazine is distributed to a hundred thousand households and it will include a PICTURE!! I put on makeup and had Ross take some shots of me and this one with Lily turned out really cute.

The other video was taken a couple of days ago while we were playing outside. Lily likes to lean up against the screen and I'm really not sure what she is trying to do here, but it sure looked funny with that disco outfit I had her dressed in.

So busy but too excited not to share

Such an exciting day! Lily took what I would call her first official steps today! She has been trying for days but tonight she put one foot forward then the other, and successfully put that foot down before falling down. I am counting that as first steps!

Ross said that he has seen her do that before, but I have only seen her try and take one step and fall down before it gets planted.

She knows just what she is trying to accomplish too and it is so sweet to see her get excited about it too.

AND, I officially opened my costume shop tonight too! I currently only have one costume stocked in it but that is because I got another shipment for Addicted to Rockabilly, and I had to work at monstertixx AND fuss over my now walking baby!

so busy......I love it!

Brat

I would never call my baby a brat, but she certainly acts like one sometimes. She has a strong personality and is very sweet and fun to play with. But, if I don't let her have something that she wants she cries. loudly. This cry is different from the cry of hunger or pain. This is an annoying little bratty kid cry. Like the one that you see big kids doing at the grocery store when their moms say 'no' to the candy. It is kinda endearing though because she is showing so many signs of Independence and is able to express her wants now and not just her needs.
We have been working on switching from two naps a day to only one and this has made certain times of the day really trying. I am now second guessing the choice to do that. She was pretty consistent for a long time but the past month she has been constantly skipping naps which is not good for any of us! So, we decided that maybe one good nap would be better than two inconsistant naps. Ross is good about reassuring me that we made the right decision, but the adjustment is hard sometimes. She is the greatest baby in the world though because it still hasn't effected her ability to sleep through the night. We are SOOOOO LUCKY!

The Remote

right now I don't need to spend any money buying toys for Lily. She has so many favorite things to play with and hardly any of them are actually "toys".
Her favorites are:

1. DVDs - she loves to pull them from the shelf and throw them around the room


2. Zelda


3. the remote control


4. the controller for the X-box


5. a can with bells inside


6. tupperware


7. diapers (clean ones of course....I'm not THAT bad of a mom!)


8. books - her books AND ours


9. Zelda's ball


10. Zelda's food

And today she figured out how the remote works! I am sitting here at the kitchen table flipping through my pictures to post and all of the sudden the TV turns on. I look over at Lily and she has the same look of suprise that I do. Then, it turns off again. Another look of suprise, then on, then off. So smart!

Lily has been standing all the time and it is so cute because she stands, looks over at us and starts clapping to congratulate herself. She'll be walking in no time.

I have included a video to show how well she and Zelda play together and another on of her cracking up and driving Zelda crazy. Zelda's favorite ball is in her toy basket and Zelds is going nuts trying to get it. Hopefully you can hear her laughing over the sound of the radio.

I think I wrote about her busted lip last week, so here is the picture.

Beach day a month or so ago

Re-aranging the furniture

by the way, we do not keep the high chair in the living room, Lily moved it there herself.

Dirty Feet

This is how I know when it is time to clean the floors! Look at this dirty dirty little girl!
Lily is so good at standing these days that she just stands and stands waiting for us to make a fuss it is the cutest thing. and I haven't yet bored of fussing over it. I love it! I can't seem to catch it on video though.
Today she took a spill and busted both her top and bottom lips. I don't even know what happened. She was just crawling along and then bang, smacked her mouth right into the floor! Poor little baby screamed and screamed.
Yesterday we took her to my boss's surprise party at the park and she was so great. She didn't mind at all when people were passing her around and dogs were licking her face. We took a little break from the action and walked over to the playground to play on the swings and she hated it! She likes the swing here but I think the ones at the park were too high. And, as soon as I find my camera I will download the pics I took and post them.
oh, and update, my loan has been bid down to 11.6% !!!!!! wahooo

Funded!!!

WAHOO!!!!

my prosper loan is 100% funded and it still goes until Sunday! Which, for those of you unfamiliar with prosper, means that I have a VERY good chance of lowering the interest rate for my loan because it is a bidding process. The company projected that my loan would be funded by tomorrow but I have already done better than expected and my interest rate has already dropped from 13% to 12.5 which equals about 20 bucks a month!!!! WAHOOOO!!!!
I am so excited and Ross thinks I am crazy because we were out earlier at my boss's 40th birthday party and I just sat down to the computer to find out I was funded and went running through the house doing the "money dance".
Ok, so the money dance might change depending on the environment. Tonight's money dance was one that most likely no one will ever witness, it is like a really bad 80's dance that you might see a comedian doing but then take that and add alcohol and really bad rhythm. The other money dance is one we do at work which is a very mild money dance like "churning butter" or something when we get a sick crazy client call wanting to buy 50 yard line seats for the super bowl and they say the magic words ...."I don't care what it costs, just get it and put it on my American express". Unfortunately no one does that for handmade swing dresses :(
How come none of you that read my blog have suggested a name for my costume shop yet?

Yay...Mother's Day!!!

Yay, my first mother's day. This is the first holiday that I get that I have actually had to EARN. I am a big holiday person and truely believe in Birthdays being your own personal holiday. This is a cool one because you don't automatically get it, it is a reward!
I told Ross that all I wanted was a day off. So, he has been playing with Lily all day while I worked on my web-stuff. Is that still a day off? Lucky for me, I really enjoy working on my web-stuff. I am getting caught up although because the USPS changes their rates tomorrow and I have to re-list all 160 ebay auctions!
But the most exciting thing is that I finally got my loan application finished.
If you would like to check it out here is where to go

http://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=136705

I would love for any of you to write an endorsement for me or even bid it you want to earn some money off me! you know I am good for it.

Talented little girl

lately Lily has learned some amazing things. She can totally stand on her own! and she can crawl down from things too. She doesn't crawl down correctly, but she is very cautious in her acrobatic stunts. I have been trying hard to get some of this on video and I have files and files of useless clips because the minute she sees the camera she darts straight for it and I end up with a video of the top of her head while she is trying to climb up my leg to get the camera. She says Da Da constantly and it is usually always accompanied by a finger point. At first we thought that she was so bright that she knew who Da Da was, but now after days of it and everything she points at being Da da and not just Ross, I think it just might be a phase. She does however say Zelda! We are sure of it. It sounds more like El-da, but there is a distinct difference between that and the da da sound. And she will actually point to Zelda when she says it too. I, of course, can't get her to do it on video.
Another thing she does is shakes her head. She started doing it when I wash her hair and I guess because she got such a good reaction to it, now does it all the time. Especially when I catch her doing something she isn't supposed to be doing.
This video shows her acrobatic decent, finger pointing AND the head shake.

Costumes

My dream is to own a costume shop. And although I am years and major funds away from ever reaching that goal, I am jumping in and opening another website.....a costume shop!
I have been doing really well with Addicted to Rockabilly and am still planning to grow with it, but now I have decided to divide my time between two sites. I have gotten savvy enough with it that my website work only takes me just a couple of hours a day and I really need more income than it is producing. (my property taxes went up $300 a MONTH!!!!)
I chose such a small niche for the first site that growth is just not coming fast enough. I have already completed my first initial costume buy in order to stock my store (although the money isn't exactly secured yet....yikes! More about that later) and now I am at a dead-lock deciding on a name.
I know that there are lots of creative folks who read my blog, so help me out.
I need a name that is short and easy to remember, preferably beginning with a letter close to the beginning of the alphabet and that has an open website.
I am just going to open up as an ebay store for now but will branch out to regular ecommerce later, but it is best to go ahead and secure the web-address.

Funding. Well, I found this really cool site prosper.com and I have been researching the hell out of it and think I am going to try to get my starting capital there. It is the world's first people-to-people lending site. It essentially is cutting out the middle man (ie., banks) and that way investors get a higher (and riskier) return and borrowers get a better rate. The way it works is that people can lend as little as $50 each so I'd be getting my loan from a number of investors. Prosper collects the money, gives it to me and then I make monthly payments to prosper and they disperse it to all the investors. I intent to try and borrow $5000. Once I get the thing set up it takes a week for potential investors to "bid" on my loan (this can actually lower my interest rate) and then I'll find out if we are a go.

I also set up a group on Prosper which actually gives me kick backs for signing folks up so I have been marketing that all over ebay...free money is free money!!!

smarts

Saturday night Tonya and I went to BeerFest in Ft. Lauderdale and I won a sweatband. Lily loves it.


I think she needs a brother or sister to play with because she is spending too much time with the dog. She growls, snarles and carrys things around in her mouth.



There are two steps in our house, one from the dining room to the play room and another in my studio. The one to the studio is easy because I just keep the door shut. Unfortunately tonight Lily finally figured out that she can get through the dog door the same way as Zelda!
The other one is always a major worry for me and I keep trying to teach Lily to turn around and scoot backwards. I can't get the backward thing through to her, but she does realize that she can't make it down forwards without hurting herself. This morning I was watching to see what she was going to do and she sat like this for about 10 minutes. She must be smart because she was spending all that time contemplating how she was going to make it down and then she scooted over and used the chair to hold on to while she stepped down.



Now that Lily has figured out how to walk around holding onto her scoot thing that Daddy bought her she is discovering that she can get around using all sorts of things. She scoots the dining room chairs, her high chair, laundry baskets and the vacuum. If you let her she will re-arrange the whole house.

Standing on her own!!!!

I think I can make it official. Lily can stand on her own. She has been attempting it for a few days and today I am going to call it official. She is definately my child because she doesn't do it the normal way of holding on to the furniture and then letting go, she does it the hard way...from a sit! She will pull herself from a sit to a full stand very slowly and then wobble there for about 20 seconds before she lowers herself back down. she must have some incredibly strong thighs because the way she does it, I would have a hard time trying that. She does it in the middle of the floor or the middle of the grass and doesn't even hold on to anything. It is great, I can't wait to get it on video.

I'm in print!!!

I am so excited! Last fall I was interviewed by a journalist for the Wall street journal who was doing an article on ebay express. She never called for the last interview so I thought maybe she had just scrapped the article. Well, on Friday I get a call from another journalist wanting to interview me about ebay sales again. I accepted and we set up a phone interview and during the talk he told me that he had found me because he saw my name in another article. Hmmmmm....so, I googled 'Shelley Wall street journal addicted rockabilly' and sure as shit, there I am!
here is a link to the article
It was published back in December in the StartUpJournal, the Wall Street Journal's center for Entreprenuers.
I am so excited! The interview I did today was for a twice yearly ebay publication. I feel so much more accomplished. I feel so much more important that someone called to interview me. It kinda justifies all the hours that I spend on ebay, kinda makes me feel like a real professional.

Life is never that easy

Last week we were so excited about Ross's new job and looking forward to our life as real adults. The week we are depressed. It turns out that Ross may not get the job after all. He had even gone to work one day too before they pulled the plug! There is still a chance, but we won't find out until Monday.
But anyway, on a lighter note. This video is of Lily practing walking. I have to hold this thing for her to keep it from going too fast. It goes so fast that she can't keep up and then she just sits down, but if I hold it she can take a few steps. She was walking all over but it took Ross so long to get to a pause point in his video game to film us that she had gotten tired.

Here is a video of her riding on the same toy. I think she is supposed to be a little older to ride it but she seems to do just fine. She can't get on it by herself but she can get off without falling. She can only go backwards on her own but if I push her she hangs on.

Insurance & Taxes

I really wish I understood more about politics. I would love to get involved because I feel so helpless and I want to be a part of the solution. But things are so complex that it is difficult to decide where the stand needs to be made.
I just got a letter from my insurance company basically stating that unless Ross or I join the military we would have to get a different insurance company if we ever decide to move. It explains it in a way that makes sense of the business side so I can't fault them for making this decision not to write new policies for Florida. I also understand the legislation's stand in keeping companies from raising rates to Floridians. However, I also feel that if Florida puts restrictions on companies than all that will happen is companies will do exactly what has been happening, and will just quit serving Florida altogether. Which in turn leaves Florida homeowners still screwed anyway. So, what now? It just seems like when it is election day all this talk of keeping the insurance rates from rising sounds great and everyone is all for it, but there isn't much of a thought to the future. I am glad that I can keep my policy for now, and it is nice that my rates aren't going to hike, but I don't plan to stay in this house forever. We'd like to have another kid and hopefully a bigger house someday, but now it isn't just the cost of property that will slow us from that dream, it is insurance too.
Next issue. Last night I did our taxes. (I am not usually a late taxes person, but O'Malley's took their sweet time getting me my W-2.....it arrived on FRIDAY!!) and I realized that we paid more out in Social Security taxes than we did in Federal taxes. I don' t know how it is for the rest of the world because most of our income is in cash, but I find this very strange. And disheartening because I know I will never see a dime of that. I think it is great that my dad and my aunts will be able to collect some of it, but they paid into it their whole lives too. My generation has really dropped the ball on this one. We are a generation of NOW and it is going to really hurt us in the future. My generation needs to stand up and be counted. Instead, we don't vote, we don't get active and in result have allowed for the current government to refuse to look at this issue. No one in government is going to do anything about it unless it matters come election time. It just seems like my contemporaries have just accepted the fact that we can't depend on it and are planning other ways to support ourselves rather than forcing someone to address this problem. My generation is contributing to retirement savings, 401ks and IRA at a higher rate than those ahead of us, which is great, but sad. Last year I contributed 30% of my salary to IRAs because I am so scared of what the future will hold and since I know that I cannot count on ever seeing that money that I am paying out for social security. I think many of my contemporaries see it as a tax and that isn't what it is! It is supposed to be OUR retirement!
sorry....rant over.

Killing some time while my website loads up

I am beat-down tired, but I can't go to be yet until my website loads. I found a new photo editing software that I absolutely love and it doesn't cost a million dollars so I have been up-dating all my photos.
The other day Daddy sent Lily a new toy. She was so excited about it that she skipped her nap. She first played with the box for about an hour while I tried to fiqure out how to put the damn thing together.
She loves it though. She is supposed to push it around in order to learn to walk but she pushes it and when it starts to move she sits down (she is so smart! only took a hundred head bruises to figure out how to protect herself!) She isn't quite to the stage of wanting to put one foot in front of the other yet. Which is perfectly ok with me. She has learned some new neat crawling tricks though. She will carry things like her socks or a small toy in her mouth while she crawls (Zelda taught her that) and she will push things around too. She likes to pull the pillows off the couch and then slide them down the hall. I have been working on teaching her how to go down the step backwards and she will actually do it once I pick her up and turn her around. She has only fallen off of it once, but I am sure that it will happen again soon.

Yep, she is still making "the face"

You have to watch every second

Lily was playing with the tupperware today and since she was playing so nicely on the floor in front of the cabinet I thought maybe I had a second to check my email using my laptop. Well, things got very quiet, no more banging lids on the floor, so I looked over and Lily was gone. I FREAKED! I instantly checked to see if the door to the studio (not childproof and has a concrete step) was closed, it was, and I was standing at the other entrance to the kitchen. ?????? Guess where Lily went?

First Baseball game and First Easter

Friday night we took Lily to the Marlin's home opener. She was so wonderful. She played around hitting the tires of the jeep while we tailgated and blew kisses to the ladies who sat behind us during the game. She even clapped when the Marlins scored! She clapped when the Phillies scored too so we have to work on that. Ned got us some really great seats right off of home plate where we watched the first half of the game, but then Lily got antsy and since we were also given seats to the Bub beach we moved down there for the 2nd half. The Bud beach is awesome because you are literally on the field, but the view of the game was better in the box seats. In the Bud section there are hot tubs and free appetizers so I put my feet in the hot tub and let the jets give me a foot massage while I pigged out on chicken fingers while Christina played with Lily. That is the life right?

We stayed for the whole game so when Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home at eleven we put her straight in the bed and she slept in her Marlins jersey.

On Easter we played in the yard with Easter eggs, I don't know if I would call it an Easter egg hunt, but she wore her bonnet at least!! We didn't go to church even though I had planned too because she slept all morning. oh well, maybe next year.

Happy Easter

Lily has spent her entire Easter so far sleeping. She must be in a growth spurt or something because last night she fell asleep on the babysitter's shoulder before even having her last bottle of the day and then this morning was only awake for an hour and a half and then now is 3 hours into her morning nap! I am going to go wake her up after I post this because it is starting to scare me. Last night Ross and I went to his boss's wedding and we had so much fun! We rarely get a chance to go out toghether and last night was perfect. A limo drove us down to Miami and back and the food was delicious. There were so many folks there and we knew just about everyone so we did lots of socializing and even a little dancing....yes Ross danced!

Las Vegas

Last week Ross and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went to spend a few days in Vegas. We had a great time and even made sure to work in some relaxation time too. We stayed at Circus Circus and discovered why it was such a great deal. It is an old and yucky hotel, but the location is great. We only had to get a cab when we went to the Palms. We won a little at the Palms but then ended up losing it later. Overall it was a pretty cheap vacation which was exactly what we needed considering that we don't know how long it might take for Ross to get a new job. Aunt Charlotte and Mickey were in Vegas the same week so we met up and AC treated us to lunch and a Gondola ride too.

Ross and I at the Venetian

We walked from Circus Circus to the MGM Grand (that is just about the ENTIRE strip) and we did it not using any escalators or elevators. Add wandering around casinos and hotels. We walked for about 12 hours straight and I spent the rest of the trip limping because my dumb-ass did it in flip-flops! We had to take a break in the grass at the MGM Grand.

Self Portrait before going out to the Palms. I was planning on getting a new tatoo at Heart & Huntington but I chickened out.

Stratosphere

I don't know why, but Lily has this thing where she has to always kick up her right leg. She goes in the stroller like that all the time and now she has even started doing it in her highchair.

And, even though her front teeth are coming in, she is still giving the vampire face.

Fun fun fun

Lily and Marje will play and play and play.

And Lily is so fast with her crawling these days that we just can't keep her in one room anymore. We are very lucky to have a house built in the 60's so we can section off different areas. We can close off just about any area of the house depending on where we need her to stay. She will follow you from room to room too! The problem is that she doesn't respond to us when we call her. She knows her name and we can get her attention, but all she does is look at you and either wave, clap or give you the dragon/vampire face then carries on about her business. As you can see from this video...

Many Faces of Lily

My dad sent this hat for Lily for Easter, isn't she sweet in it? But then.....
For Christmas Ross had a fake poo in his stocking. It was probably one of the best gifts he has ever gotten. He won't let me put it away. It has become a regular decoration in our living room. So, being that everything Lily sees she MUST taste....
We have childproofed the best we know how, but Lily is determined to see what is in this cabinet. Having bartenders for parents, what is your guess?
Since Tony and Marje have been here we have really put them to work. So, we thought it best that Lily start doing her fair share too, so she has to help Granny pick weeds.
Lily's teeth are like a vampire. She grew them all out of order. She started out well when she grew the bottom two. But then instead of growing the top two front teeth (which would be the normal order of things) she grew the second set of top teeth. They are not the canine teeth, but when they are the only ones on the top they sure look like it!
The funniest part of it is that she makes a dragon face and even hisses too! I don't know if it was something that we accidentally taught her or not, but we have definitely made it worse because we laugh so much when she does it. At first I tried to get it on camera, now it is difficult to take her picture without her making that evil face.

First hard food

We started giving Lily lady fingers and she absolutely loves feeding herself. We scrape the sugar off the top though. Zelda has been very bad though. Zelda just about knocks her over when she has food. Zelda is so good not to try and eat our food, so we are going to have to teach her that Lily's food is off limits too.

First parade

Last Sunday we went to the St. Patrick's day parade downtown. This was Lily's first parade and she had a really nice time. She danced to the drummers and took a nap on Grandpa's shouder. She LOVED the beads that they threw out but we had to protect her from getting hit when they were tossed. We had a very nice time.

stuff

I fell behind schedule and didn't finish all the St.Patrick's day outfits in time to sell them, so I'll be boxing up 4 tops and 3 dresses to hopefully sell next year! Bummer.
I finally ordered my business cards today, unfortunately they will take over a week to come in so I won't have them to pass out in Vegas or on St. Patrick's day. Bummer.
Couple of good things....
Ross put in his notice at Shenanigans. Kinda scary because he doesn't have a plan for what it next though. I know it sounds crazy because Shenanigan's is our bread and butter right now, but we were both just so tired of the late nights. He comes home at 6 and most days I am getting up at that time. Having a kid really makes you crave stability and I know that quitting your job isn't the stable thing to do, but in the long run it will be. So, if you are reading this and have a job idea for Ross...let us know!!
Next good thing.
Tony fixed the bathroom leak saving us from having to replace all the fixtures, saving us hundreds!
Next good thing.
Tony is pretty sure that he can fix the car too!
And last but not least.....less than a week until VEGAS BABY!!!!!

Another one bites the dust

and another one down, another one bites the dust! (Don't worry, we are all ok, just out a car)

Family Beach Day

Wednesdays are the only days that neither Ross or I work, so we went to the beach!
It is still too cold for Lily to swim, but she had to rock her suit anyway. Marje is a massage therapist so Ross "booked a massage" for his day off and Lily wanted to help. Because it was my day off too, I decided to have a beer, no one would drink with me so I only had two.

Crawling all over

Tony & Marje

It is so nice having Tony and Marje here. I have been so spoiled the past few days. Tony has taken his "job" of fixing things for us very seriously. He has done all sorts of maintenance to the Jeep, fitted our new Zim lamp with an American plug, hung our mailbox, and fiddled with the stupid door. Marje has already been straightening out the yard and pulling up weeds. They took Lily to the beach on Friday while I was at work so Ross got to have a day off. Last night I got to have a night out with friends and this morning Marje had Lily fed and dressed already by the time I woke up. Today Lily sat out in the yard pulling weeds with Marge and I got to take a nap and get a bunch of sewing done.
I really could get used to this life, now I just have to find a way to convince them to stay longer.