super seventy-two (a.k.a. steve says)

 Right now, I am lounging on my couch, watching Jane Austen's Persuasion (my favorite of her works) and enjoying our second pajama day at the Clark house.

Liam is sporting a cough and runny nose, so we have opted to take it easy the past few days. But, that has not stopped us from having a fantastic past 72 hours.

Monday started off rather skunky, with my having to spend hours on the phone with billing @ Methodist-- which I have resolved never to use again. Beside the point. Little man and I had a hair appointment (Liam's FIRST!) that afternoon. As you can see above, his hair had gotten QUITE long. So, we headed down to City Centre around 2 to see Steve.

Steve, beyond being an absolute gem of a hairdresser, is exceptionally good with children. He talks about his own kids all the time, and you can tell he is just fantastic with all children. So, I was very comfortable with letting Steve cut Liam's hair. Steve has told me before that it is all about the experience for children as small as Liam, he said if their first few experiences are scary and bad, you can bet they're going to be screamers. He seems to know his stuff, because I have seen young-- and I mean, probably no older than 3-- children go with him, unafraid, without needing Mom and sit quite happily in his chair and chat with him. He is a GEM. Liam didn't shed a tear, or whimper or pout at all. Steve says (I must add that to the title of this post...) that he always tries to be done about 10 minutes before the child is, and in this case, he was done LONG before Liam would have started to mind.

 My "baby" no longer looks like a baby! I love his new hair cut!! And, I must say, I'm enamored of my color. Steve and I opted to darken up for fall & winter, and I'm thrilled with the results.

However, one little Monday mishap? Liam has been SO interested in my puzzle I was working on. I love puzzles, and started working on one last week.

We caught Liam a couple of times trying to pieces in his mouth, so we started watching him like a hawk...

(note: the missing pieces...)


Well, Monday before we went to see Steve, Liam popped a handful of pieces in his mouth without our seeing and proceeded to turn them into this:

Tuesday, since we'd had such a busy day on Monday, we decided to sit around the house on Daddy's day off. Liam loves to watch him play X-Box, so we planned on just hanging around.
Around noon, Zach left to go pick up lunch (our Tuesday treat!) and while he was gone I was checking the latest posts on the internet and saw one by Bobby Flay, saying he was in Houston for the day signing copies of his newest cookbook. Needless to say, I was ecstatic, because Bobby is Zach's all-time favorite on the Food Network. He calls him his hero. So cute.

So I called my mom, talked her into a trip to The Woodlands, told Zach I'd made plans when he got home and we all headed to Barnes & Noble @ The Woodlands Mall around 3:30. The line was long, and we waited for over an hour (who cares!?), but Liam was a champ. Afterwards, we headed to Freebirds for dinner, Liam's first 'official' trip. I say official, because I ate it like a mad woman when I was pregnant with him (there was one at the end of our street we lived on in CS)... and I love Freebirds. You cannot be an Aggie, have lived on Northside across the street from the original, fabulously dive-like Freebirds and not love it. love. LOVE. Hadn't had it since I was pregnant. TOO long.

mom and zach were so excited! leaning around shelving to "catch a glimpse"

the clarks meet bobby flay.
(if only the picture taker had taken an extra second, it wouldn't have been blurry)

When I was getting my hair done on Monday, mom and Liam discovered a fabulous new nail polish.

OPI seems to know how much I love a good glitter polish. :)

I'm going to HAVE to remove the sparkles before Halloween, but I love the beige-green glitter on my nails!

Speaking of Halloween...

My doorbell rang yesterday, revealing my neighbor with a package in his hands that had been put in the wrong mailbox.

Liam's sweet Auntie Ashley (who is going to be an aunt again next year!!) sent him a special Halloween treat! We both love Casper, so it'll be great to watch it with him.

Thanks so much, my dear, darling, wonderful friend!!!!!

Also speaking of Halloween:
                        The last part of my costume came today (which concluded the super 72 hours we've had)!!! I must admit, I order things off the internet not infrequently. Typically, if it'll cost me more in gas to go get it at the store, or if I have a coupon code, or if shipping is free, I will order online, but it's usually not stuff I'm terribly excited about. Maybe it'll be the infamous Boscia blask mask (which you should all try!), or staple clothing items... but my Paul Smith shirt I was genuinely excited about getting. I am so in love with it, and it's a men's shirt, but looks fantastic on! I tried on my costume-- the whole costume-- and I'm crazy about it. I must say, I did a good job putting it all together. Wait until you see the Clarks on Halloween!! 

{Speaking of which: does anybody have grand trick-or-treating plans? We want to take Liam around, but he has no friends in the area...}

And speaking of Paul Smith...

I very rarely plug products. I don't really like to tell people about all the stuff I buy, but I HAVE to tell you about Paul Smith. Beyond the fact that I'm gaga about my shirt, this company is incredible!! I placed the order for my shirt this past Friday, at lunch time, our time. Paul Smith is an English designer, so by the time I placed my order, it was already after hours there. So, my order wasn't processed until Monday (and, may I say, the shirt, which was re-released in a VERY limited run, was already sold out online), was shipped on Tuesday and was in my hot little hands by 11:00 this morning. They had initially told me to expect to wait 10-14 days for shipment, so I'm amazed that they were so fast at getting my order to me. And they sent it with the bag (which I LOVE for designers to do!), and with a sweet note on the inside thanking me. HANDWRITTEN, Ashley & Betsy-- knew you'd love that!!

Without hesitation, I can recommend this company. You SHOULD check them out.

Oh, and Liam broke my toe. Yep, on the left image, you can see the bruising on the top of my toe, in the right, you can see the funny bump that the break has left behind on the right side of the toe. It hurts like the devil. My poor feet, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Finally, I want to recommend a couple of blogs to you:

Betsy, who we all know I love and adore, has changed the name and URL of her sweet blog. Instead of checking out Miss Monogram, go check out Heavens to Betsy.
(I personally love the change: I say "heavens to Betsy" all the time, and always think of her!!}


Secondly, I want you to hop on over and check out my friend Lauren's new blog. She just set off this past Saturday for a 4 month trip around Europe with her super guy, Adam. Lauren is the one friend I really keep in touch with from my time in Australia and she is one of the most darling, sweet girls. So head on over and let's all live vicariously through Lauren as she galavants all over Europe. 

That's all our odds and ends from the past few days. It's been a wonderful little time, I hope you all have had as exciting a week as we have-- and don't forget to go over to Sweet T Family and wish one special little boy a Happy 3rd Birthday!! We love you, CT!!