© 2014 sarahfortune.

HELLO
Mom to Iris. Wife to Todd. Our little family lives at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We love it here and I love sharing little bits of our life.

© 2014 sarahfortune.
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Life

Hello From November

“Whoa! Slow down little lady.” – What Iris said to me recently as I filled my wine glass. And that’s what I’m saying to this month right now. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through November! Christmas will be here before we know it. I just hope December doesn’t go as fast, but I’m sure it will. Here’s a short update on what we’ve been up to lately.

Razorback basketball season has officially started! We have season tickets, so we try to go to as many games as we can. It’s always tricky with Iris, but it’s getting easier (the ice cream bribe at half-time seems to work pretty well).

A film crew recently came to Fayetteville to do a piece on Iris’ CVS birthday party. It’s for a UK show about funny kids, but there’s a chance it could air in the US too. I’ll keep ya posted. Iris did great… mostly. For some reason during the interview segment, she kept grabbing my BOOB! I have no idea what that was about. She has never done anything like that, so.. really lovely that she decided to get all hands-on when the camera was rolling. Hopefully they’ll edit that out, but I’m sure my face will be beet-red (or make that CVS red).

Iris and I had an afternoon date on Saturday. We ate at our favorite local restaurant and then went shopping along the town square.

Todd built (from scratch!) Iris an amazing playhouse for her fourth birthday. He has worked nearly every day on it, but as of this weekend it’s officially finished. Now comes the fun part – decorating it and moving in some toys! I’ll give you guys the grand tour soon.

We went to “Bring Your Parents to School Night” at Iris’ Montessori school. Iris showed us some of the work she’s been doing lately: Moveable alphabet, pink tower, and stroking work.

That’s all for now… Stayed tuned though because tomorrow I’ll let you know about a giveaway that I’m hosting!

Life

#TeamBaber

Recently Iris met up with Fayetteville’s own Barrett Baber who just advanced to the live playoffs on NBC’s The Voice! Barrett is set to perform tonight (Tuesday 11/10) and whether or not he survives to the next round all depends on votes from the public. Iris is gonna vote. You should too!

Iris and Barrett. New BFFs.

Vote for #TeamBaber!

Photos, Toddler Blog

Halloween 2015

This year for Halloween Iris was about 2,938 different things. Okay, maybe just four. I know, I know. That’s still about three too many, but I just couldn’t help myself. After weeks of deliberation, Iris chose what she wanted to be for trick-or-treating: a panda. At first I had great intentions of getting crafty and making her costume, but then life was all lifey and I had zero time to do so. I showed her some options on Amazon Prime and she chose her favorite one. Bam! Cute, fuzzy, WARM Panda Iris.

I feel like all of her costumes were somewhat justified, as Halloween seemed to last forever this year. On Friday, we had trick-or-treating on the Fayetteville town square. On Saturday (Halloween-proper), we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood. Then on Sunday, Iris’ Montessori school had their Fall Carnival. I also dressed her up in a couple things just for funsies.

Last year we dressed Iris up as a mini-Tom Petty, so this year I went the same route.

Iris as a mini Ryan Adams

And Iris as Iris Apfel. How could I not?!

On to her real costume…
Trick-or-treating on the Square
(my favorite Halloween tradition)

Trick-or-treating with our neighbor friends
At this point she had gotten bored with being a “regular panda” so she made herself into a “fancy panda.”

Montessori Fall Carnival
Iris in Wonderland!

With another Halloween behind us, it’s time to start getting excited for Christmas! Okay, maybe not quite yet, but if I’m already listening to Christmas music in my car you will never know.

Life, Toddler Blog

My Toddler’s Unwrapping Obsession

Move over CVS – Iris has a new obsession and, turns out, she is far from alone. Iris’ new favorite thing is watching toy unwrapping videos on YouTube. She calls them “egg shows” because the first videos she watched were of Kinder Surprise Eggs being unwrapped, showing off the prizes inside. She found them on the YouTube Kids app all on her own and now that’s all she wants to watch. Whether they are plastic eggs with surprises inside or little packages with mystery toys, she wants to watch it all. Todd and I were totally weirded out by this obsession at first, but when we realized many of the videos had over a million views, we realized this must be an actual thing. Turns out, it is. I’ve posted clips of Iris watching “egg shows” on my Snapchat and have had quite a few people message me to say their kids are obsessed with them too. So then how come this is the first time I’m hearing of it? Are our toddlers all closeted unwrapping addicts?

For some reason it feels wrong to let her watch it. I mean, with Daniel Tiger at least she’s learning something, right? But then Todd pointed out something. Our parents collected baseball cards, for us it was Garbage Pail Kids, for the next generation it was Pogs, and so on. Can you imagine if when you were a kid there was a platform where you could watch someone open every item of whatever it was that you nerdily collected? For now, we let her watch the unwrapping videos (as annoying as they are), but limit her screen time. And the sucker in me has already started shopping for Christmas stocking stuffers – searching for egg surprises and blind bags in the toy aisle. Maybe I can really make her dreams come true and find some at CVS.

Do your kids watch these videos? Not know what I’m talking about? I’ve posted some of her favorites below.

Blind Bags

Egg Surprise

Kinder Eggs

Life, Words

When Ellen Doesn’t Call You Back

I had just picked up Iris from school when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, so I almost let it go to voicemail, but then I noticed the caller ID said Burbank, CA. On the last ring I answer it and I hear, “Hi! Is this Sarah? This is (name withheld) from the Ellen Degeneres show.”

THE ELLEN SHOW?!

I still have no idea how they got my number, but I guess when you are Ellen you can find out just about whatever you want. He said he heard about Iris’ CVS birthday party and, since Ellen is always looking for positive, upbeat stories to feature on her show, he wanted to ask me a few questions.

ANYTHING YOU WANT, ELLEN!

He asked all about myself, my family, and the story behind Iris’ birthday party. He requested to talk to Iris, but she was stuffing her face full of M&Ms (from CVS, of course) and wasn’t quite in the mood to chat it up with a stranger. He wanted to set up a time to Skype with her later that evening to see what could come out of it, with the caveat that he “always likes to manage expectations” (AKA – don’t get my hopes up). So we hung up with a plan to Skype an hour later. And that’s when I realized…

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO SKYPE!

I quickly downloaded the program, signed up for an account, and crossed my fingers I could figure it out when the call came. Then, my main focus turned towards getting Iris to cooperate. She was in a pitiful mood. Tired, hungry, whiney – JUST what Ellen is looking for, I’m sure.

At 6:30 pm (basically Iris’ witching hour) we Skyped with the producer. It went… not so great. Within seconds our talkative, hilarious, adorable little kid transformed into a scrunched up mute with her hands curled up over her eyes. When she actually said something, she whispered so quietly that I could barely hear her myself. While my heart was sinking, knowing this wasn’t going to work out, I just hugged her as she sat in my lap and we awkwardly finished the call.

She’s four. She has no idea what this is or what it means. And that’s okay. What matters most out of all of this is that Iris has a positive experience to look back on and I feel satisfied knowing that she does. The producer asked that we not take up any other offers for TV shows that may come our way, as they always like to be first, and that he would connect back with me the next day.

He never called.

I knew what the answer would be, but with as much as I love Ellen, I was still a little bummed that they left us hanging. Iris on the other hand, she’s just happy she can continue eating her M&Ms in peace.