First Date

Saturday evening Austin took me out on our first date since having Asher. We were in Huntsville and took advantage of the free babysitting. I wore my new dress from Shabby Apple and new white pumps.

We ate at Dolce on Bridgestreet. The restaurant had the perfect romantic atmosphere. For an appetizer we tried the Carpaccio dish. It consists of marinated raw beef, arugula, parmigiano and balsamico. It was excellent! I definitely recommend it for fine dining.

Of course, I had to hit up my favorite store Anthropologie. I never buy anything there but just walking through it makes me so happy. It always smells delicious and I am inspired to make my home beautiful. Bath and Body Works had a buy two get one free sale so I picked up the new scent Butterfly Flower.

After we drove around downtown HuntsVegas we ended the night with a kiss, a few more and ......

Love my husband!

This weekend the weather has been perfect with temps in the 70s and a slight breeze. Bizaaro Southern weather for July. Yesterday, we took advantage of the beauty and had a picnic at the Renaissance Park downtown. We had fun eating our Mojo Burritos and strolling over the bridge. Austin also got a chance to work on his photography skills. :-)

Wallpaper Tip

I am sure I will probably need this someday so I am just documenting. A designer on HGTV suggests hot water mixed with fabric softener in a spray bottle as the best solution to remove wallpaper.

I admit that most wallpaper is hideous but to be fair, this site actually has some cool ones. Like the pic below. www.romofabrics.com

The Bear Necessities

He is just so darn cute talking to his bear. I can't help myself. I just have to post yet another video of my boy. Plus I want to try out my new Vimeo videos registration.

Asher and His Bear from Kimberly Cone on Vimeo.

The Bump

This article is so true from thebump.com

"Before I had kids, I swore I'd never..."

Posted Wednesday, July 08, 2009 5:32 PM

Real moms spill on giving in to messy faces, picky eaters, and more...

Jen was never -- NOT EVER -- going to let her child sleep in bed with her. And the woman next door yelling at her toddlers? Clearly the meanest mom in the world. Then there's Kate, who’d never have a living room full of toys (“Why would such a tiny person need that much stuff anyway?”) or spend big chunks of dough on baby clothes that would only fit for a few months. This, of course, was before Jen and Kate had children of their own.

Fast-forward to parenthood...and...you guessed it: Jen's baby wouldn't sleep a wink without physical contact. “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” she says, admitting to snoozing with an infant on her chest. And two years later, she knows what that neighbor was going through. “I mean, I never thought I’d have to tell my child not to drink out of a puddle...more than once...every time it rains. They just make you crazy!” And Kate? Yeah, her house is flooded with tiny basketballs and singing Elmos, and she's battling a serious addiction to J.Crew's Crewcuts line. “I can't help it!” she swears.

Hey, it happens. Apparently, babies can do funny things to a girl’s convictions. We asked Bumpies to spill some of their stories:

"I SWORE I WOULDN'T..."

“...smell her butt in the middle of a crowded grocery store and exclaim, ‘Did you poop? I think you pooped!’” --lizzyjames

“...bribe my kid with food, but sometimes Puffs go a long way to making a happy home.” --ironmommy

“...become a short-order cook. Our son was going to eat what we eat, or he wouldn't eat at all.” --Agrippa

“...put my kids in character clothes...but my daughter is sporting her Disney princess jammies that Santa brought her.” --championmama

“...give our kid a pacifier...he ended up getting one while he was still in the hospital.” --Sept17.05Bride

“…take my daughter out with her hair or face a mess.” --MrsStubbs

.”..breastfeed past a year, but we now have no plans of stopping soon. It's surprisingly not weird to me to breastfeed a walking, wild toddler with a mouth full of teeth. Who knew?” --Bride2bMO

“...be a nervous/hovering parent. Yeah, right.” --ITeachK

“...prop a bottle. And I still give the side eye to parents with just one infant who do this. But with twins, sometimes you don't have a choice.” --leslie13510

“...let my son watch TV until he was at least two years old, but when you have to be at work at 7:30 a.m. and you find yourself running late, you get desperate!” --Rah

“...let him have animal crackers for supper. Whoops!” --r9stedt

THE TRUTH
Clearly, the realities of sleepless nights and frustrated kiddos can put a few kinks in your parenting plans. What's happening here? “I didn't realize how strong my baby's personality would be until we had him,” admits Jennifer, mom to two-year-old Cameron. “But I do think you need to have an idea of the kind of parent you want to be. You need a discipline structure. I have that.” And she doesn't think that structure disappears when she lets him run around the table at a restaurant or bribes him with a vanilla wafer. In her opinion, this doesn't make her weak -- it makes her smart. “Some things aren’t worth fighting over. You just have to pick your battles. I know I'm winning the war.” In other words, it's all about compromise. Better to have a safe, healthy, kind kid than one who has a gold star on their chart for never using a pacifier, right? As Bumpie neesernicole says, “It's rarely the things we worry about that really matter in the long run.”

--Erin van Vuuren

This is for Papa

Asher's Papa hasn't seen him in a while. He said he is worried he won't recognize him when he comes to visit again. In this video Asher says, "Hi Papa!"

Rocky Went Out Last Night

Chattanooga, being the hip and swanky city that it is, has just the greatest place on Earth for Rocky - a dog park! We take him almost every opportunity that we have and he loves it. As soon as we pull up to the parking lot he starts salivating and moving back and forth in his seat. Boxers are very high energy dogs and Rocky is no exception. The dog park does wonders for his behavior. If we spend half an hour in the evening watching him run, sniff and play with the other dogs, he is so well behaved for me the next day. This is a good thing since Austin and I have switched roles and I am now home with him during the day.

We like to call him our Rockstar. When we take him out everybody loves him. Just last weekend at the fireworks show someone commented that he was the prettiest Boxer they'd ever seen. We like to think so. ;-)