the newborn longies with matching pilot cap. I ahve to figure out a way to get a good picture. Pay no attention to the apple juice stain on the carpet... 

Here is Henry being a very reluctant model for a pilot cap I just finished for a new customer. I had to bribe him with Elmo and a bite of red licorice. Bad mama! 

Henry and I got up this morning, went to breakfast with a friend who is moving away and then made our way to the rock show. I was a bit nervous, considering that the show took place in what should have been nap time, but Henry did great. He mostly wanted to sit on my lap and watch, in complete awe, the performance, but he did get up and shake it a few times. Dan. Was. Awesome. He did a lot of songs we love and then, to our suprize and big huge happiness, Father Goose came out on stage and did a few songs with them! It rocked. Only Dan Zanes could make a song using the spoons, an accordion, a mandolin and someone beat boxing sound perfect. Though they do a lot of traditional music with traditinal instruments (mostly found here in the mountains) they are actually based in Brooklyn and they have so much Brooklyn pride that it really came through in the music. I could see them playing on a stoop as easily as a venue. The way he describes the city is magical. I am so excited to be able to expose Henry to this kind of music. There was a little boy there (probably 4-5) who brought his guitar to the show and walked around with it around his neck strumming the whole time and Dan signed it for him. In fact, I have never seen a more gracious performer. Towards the end of the show they did this crazed version of the hokey pokey and Dan came down and danced with us, actually right next to us. Henry kept looking at him as if he wasn't sure if he was real. He has this crazy impish air about him and he had Henry enthralled. The very last song was an acoustic waltz and they came down off the stage and made their way through the crowd, waltzing with their instruments, and stood at the back entrance finishing the song. After it was done, they stood there for a long ass time talking to people, signing stuff and taking pictures with folks. It was so nice, he seemed to really just love people. I was especially impressed considering they had another show at 2, so standing there with us was seriously eating into his break between shows. Soooo, go see him if he comes near you. Find a kid to bring. I felt so good about giving my ticket money to him instead of the stupid Wiggles or something. I even bought Henry and overpriced shirt.

Henry and I with Dan Zanes!  

Pisces. 

Here is a pair of newborn longies for the Breast Cancer Awareness fundraiser at Season's. Eventually, they will be paired with a matching pilot cap. 

The Libra symbol for the new astrology line at Season's. 

Today Henry and I went on a pretty strenuous 3.5 mile hike to the Upper Falls at Graveyard Fields. It kicked. My butt. It is a gorgeous hike, covering a bunch of different types of terrain.

We started in the parking lot, right off the Blue Ridge Parkway and made our way down a huge flight of stone steps. After walking under a thick canopy of rhododendrons for about a quarter of a mile, we came out into an enormous field of blueberry bushes. We had taken the boys berry picking here before, so Henry immediately started hollering for berries. Since he was speaking Henry-ise, however, it took me about 10 minutes to realise that he was asking for 'tabies' (strawberries, and thus, allberries) and not Telitubbies. The Telitubbies thing threw me because I ahve made it a point to stay away from that show. The baby sun thing freaks me out. Anyway...most of the blueberry bushes had been pretty picked over, but I managed to score a small handful, which Henry insisted I hand him one by one upon request. Ever hiked for a mile with a 2 year old strapped to your back with a handful of blueberries to dole out? Not so much fun. I was pleased when the berries ran out and I didn't have to worry about squishing them while trying to use my knee for leverage to get up onto rocks and such. After the berry field, we started up a series of inclines where you have to step on large rocks to go up and up and up. Having been just told by my fairly cute and very competent doctor that my knees suck and will get progressively worse, I was dismayed at this development. The incline lasted for about a half mile before we popped out at the river, which was beautiful.

We stopped and ate some snacks (Jess and I realizing that neither of us had eaten breakfast and now only had a granola bar each to fuel us up for the hike back) and let the boys throw rocks into the river. When Henry threw a big rock particularly far one time, I said "Awesome!". From that point on, every time a stone connected with water, it was followed by an enthusiastic "Awesome!" screamed by both boys. Cute? Maybe just a little.

The hike back to the car was pitiful. Both Jess and I were done by the time we stepped back onto the trail. Our legs were wobbly and we kept stumbling around trying to get our footing. Jess even managed to stagger off the trail and step into a bush. Oops. My favorite part was when we got close enough to see the car and were confronted by that same huge set of stone steps that we started out hike on. Awesome!

The boys both fell asleep in the car on the way home, making Henry positive that 2o minutes in the car can take the place of his usual 2+ hour nap perfectly well thanks.

Little does he know that his lack of nap just makes me feel less guilty about my plot to put him to bed an hour early so I can watch The OC in peace tonight. MmmmmOC...

Awesome!!! 

Where we stopped for snacking and rock throwing at Graveyard Fields. 

Henry has developed a new habit that is pretty much the cutest thing ever. He will run into whatever room I am in, unleash a steady stream of words that I can't understand, turn to leave the room again and then stop, like he has forgotten the most important thing, turn back and hold up both hands and say "ten", then continue on his way. Like, "Oh, by the way....ten. Just thought you should know". He gets so excited about the number ten, partially because he can represent it with his 10 fingers (he has trouble with the lesser numbers that require holding fingers down) and partially because I let him watch too much Sesame Street, where the number 10 rules with an iron fist. God, I love that kid.

And part of loving that kid lately, is detangling his hair. Not a fun job. Before he weaned, I could sit 3 times a day and gently pull the tangles out of his hair as he lay in my lap nursing. Now I have to chase him around the house knuckle deep in dread locks while he screams "Ouchy! Ouchy! Huuuuuuurts!". Cutting it is really not an option, so I gave in and bought some obnoxiously fruity smelling (is there really another kind?) detangler and equally obnoxiously fruity smelling detangling shampoo. At least they weren't bubble gum scent. Whatever marketing genius came up with bubble gum scented kid products needs to be shot. Okay, maybe not shot. But they need a serious talking to. First off, chemically manufactured bubble gum scent? So very disgusting. And logically speaking, do you really think it is a good idea to make a potentially hazardous child's grooming product that smells like something they would very much love to gobble up? Probably not. I know I am supposed to be the best mom ever and never leave anything like baby shampoo within arms reach of my darling child, but geez, couldn't you make it smell less edible, just in case? I am near perfect, mind you, but not quite. Anyway. I was almost disappointed when the detangler worked. Henry no longer smells like Henry. He now smells like razzleberry pie or tooty fruity delight or some other frighteningly sweet smell not found in nature. Because, apparently, 'apple' or 'strawberry' would just not do the trick.

Another smell I'm not loving around here? Henry's newly smelly feet. He's 2. His feet smell like they are 13. It is truly disturbing. He has grown out of his sandles, but the thought of socks and shoes in the heat seems so uncomfortable so I just slipped on his Jungle Mocs sockless. Boy howdy was that a mistake. When I took them off to put him down for a nap, I smelled a boy smell remeniseint of my brother's hockey bag in 10th grade. Ummm.....ew. We will no longer be going sockless in leather shoes thankyouverymuch.

Uh oh. Henry just approached me as I sit here with hands that are giving off an unmistakable 'razzleberry pie' smell. This is what I mean! Must go investigate.

Black and pink striped longies for Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Season's. 

So our camping trip ended up being Ill Fated Trip Redux.

We headed out after waking Henry up 2 hours into his nap. I didn't want himt o sleep any longer lest it make it more difficult for him to get to sleep at night. We drove the 45 minutes to the camping spot we had picked in the Pisgah National Forest, but unfortunately, September is not only a popular camping month, but also the month they do maintainance on the sites. Our perfect spot was completely full. We pulled over and Kyle and Anthony got out to look over the map all man-like and pick a new spot. About 2 minutes after we had begun our trek down the windy dirt road to our new destination, we got pulled over. Kyle had forgotten to put his seat belt back on. As I pulled our registration card out of the glove box, I noticed that it had expired. The day before. Mr. Policeman waved Anthony on by and wrote us 2 tickets, telling Kyle that if he went to court, he could most likely get them waived. We got back on our merry way, only to run into a "Road Closed" sign at the turnoff to our newly picked camping area. Awesome! We decided to screw the Pisgah National Forest and got to an organized campsite atop Mt. Pisgah where we would have a spectacular sunset.

Entering our 3rd hour in the car, we arrive at Mt. Pisgah and secure two sites, side by side. Kyle set up the tent and Henry and Noah had fun running in and out and throwing rocks at it while Kyle helped Anthony with a tricky rain fly. When I blew up the air mattress, the party really got started as the boys turned our tent into Wrestlemania 2005. They had a great time jumping and tackling each other until the inevitable accidental head bash, which ended the festivities witha loud screech. We made a fire and ate hot dogs and cous cous and fire cooked pretzels (I actually made dough!) while the boys ran around the site exploring. I bought them each a little flashlight, so they poked around long after dark, looking at trees and rocks and things. We had a great relaxing evening, save for the time Noah headed for the fire and Kyle tried to shoo him away with his marshmallow roasting stick, thereby depositing a whole and very mushy marshmallow firmly into Noah's hair which had to be removed very carefully at the freezing cold spigot.

Bedtime wasn't too torturous. Noah went to sleep like a dream, leaving Anthiny and Jess time to theirselves with a beer by the fire. Must have been nice. Though he was tired enough to be very *aherm* sensitive *aherm*, Henry was having no part of going to sleep in the tent on his own. Kyle and I decided just to call it a night as well and all three of us drifted cozily to sleep in our family tent. Until round about 4:30 when Henry woke up screaming bloody murder. He started screaming before he was awake, so I tried to soothe him back to peaceful sleep without waking him. That was a pathetic failure so I had to wake him up. The screaming didn't stop and I could feel that every other person in the campground was now awake and cursing the dreadful baby that had awakened them. Henry was officially "that kid". With no end in sight, I took him to the car to muffle the sound of his cries and play some music to calm him down. About 25 minutes later, he was asleep in my arms. Unfortunately, he awoke upon reentering the tent and screamed once more with renewed vigor. Back to the car. After 20 more minutes of this nightmare, we decided that it was time to throw in the towel. I cuddled and shooshed Henry while Kyle broke down the tent and chucked everything into the back of the van. Anthony (no doubt having been awake for an hour of screaming now) came out to help him and we were off.

We rolled back into our driveway at about 6:15 this morning. Henry had no intention of going back to sleep, so I sent Kyle off to bed, put every snack food we had in a pile in front of Henry, turned on Sesame Street and laid in a comatose state on the couch until 8:20 when I decided that Kyle had slept long enough for a shift change and went to bed. Kyle came back to bed about a half hour later saying that Henry had been running around the living room like a spazmotron, flung himself over the arm of the couch (a favorite activity) and fell alseep in that instant, top half on the chair, bottom half dangling down the side. It ook until about 1 until we had all recovered.

Now the day I had planned to be hiking in the woods exploring and watching Henry revel in nature has dissolved into me hiding in the bedroom thinking about all the work I have to do while Kyle watches football and Henry watches The Wiggles on his portable dvd player. How pitiful. Any minute now I am going to get a second wind, get dressed and take Henry to the park to play. Any minute now...

This afternoon I finally bought our tickets to Dan Zanes! I am way too excited. Yes, yes, he is a kids' musician, but he used to be an indie rocker, so he's a kids' musician with street cred. He got Lou Reed to sing on one of his albums for Pete's sake. Lou Reed and kids' music seem like unmixy things, but it is not so. I also submitted our volunteer application for LEAF, so we can see our other favorite kids' musician Billy Jonas. Henry adores him so it should be way too much fun. I am crossing my fingers that I don't have to be volunteering during his set.

We leave for our grand camping excursion to Avery Creek tomorrow. The boys are going to have so much fun splashing around and hiking all day. Two little boys with all the room in the world to run and play, what could be finer? Hopefully I will still feel this way come Sunday morning when I am waking up from my 2 full ours of sleep on the ground with a toddler laying across my chest. We'll see how in tune with nature I feel then.

I just shipped out my last custom order on the list. I am now working on some black and pale pink pans for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October). I am hoping to be able to get them finished and listed next week. Then I can start my hot pink pair, also for BCA Month. Then Halloween is closing in. I'd like to get at least one Halloween set up, maybe a pair of black pants with a tail and a matching hat with ears or something. Who knows if I'll have time. I am also supposed to be doing an Autumn collaboration with another SO mama.

Aye yay yay...

Henry is modeling a newsboy cap that we traded with a friend for. It is so dern cute! It's really too bad that he won't leave it on for more than 12 seconds at a time. 

Those 70s longies. I sent a picture to the customer who loved them, but I still think they look like Grandma's afgan... 

My newborn set to list on SO. 

Henry and I and Jess and Noah went hiking again this morning at Bent Creek. We did a short hike and let the boys play in the lake for a long time. Henry spent most of his time sitting in the very shallowest of water piling wet sand onto his legs and feet. I'm so glad he seems at home in the outdoors. We are planning a 2 family camping trip this weekend, so we shall see...

I also submitted our volunteer applications for the Lake Eden Arts Festival today, so we are committed to going. I am looking forward to it with cautious optimism. We are going to try the family campground this time, so hopefully it will be a little more quiet at night. We are hoping to be able to volunteer with the LEAF in Schools and Streets program, but I might get stuck in the daycare. At least Henry can come with me if he needs to. I think we are going to try to get our hands on a Radio Flyer wagon so we can make a little bed for Henry in it and pull him around all cozy and sleeping instead of having to stay at the tent with him after 9pm. From now until Halloween is going to be busy.

Kyle put Henry to bed all by himself tonight while I went out with the sisters Bell. He said henry didn't even make a peep, he just laid down and went to sleep. He is getting to be such a big boy, I can't stand it.

pilot cap other side 

pilot cap front 

pilot cap side 

This is another picture from our blueberry picking adventure at Graveyard Fields. Henry is jamming berries into his mouth as fast as humanly possible while his friend Noah keeps one eye out for mom. 

Anarchy longies I made for my friend Branwyn's daughter Sarah. 

Henry and his friend Ruby brambling through the blueberry patch at Graveyard Fields. 

Henry decides to follow in the footsteps of his Pepere and ride off into the sunset. As long as the sun sets before bed time.