Feed on
Posts
Comments

So, it’s 200, sorry, 2010!  Which really has no significance except that it’s two thousand AND TEN. I’ve now been living in 4 decades and I’ve yet to turn 30.  Sweet!

When I used that line on Kevin he liked to rub it in that he’s been living in FIVE decades now and he’s not yet 40.  Yeah, I told him, but I’m still not even 30, let alone 40. (Bring it on 30.)

I have a lot of hope for 2010 and I want to strive to do my part to see that all these things happen.

I hope it brings change.
I hope it brings prosperity.
I hope it brings revelations about our future.
I hope it brings a baby.
I hope it brings Kevin opportunities.
I hope it brings guidance.
I hope it brings a stronger marriage, a stronger family.
I hope it brings more TIME.
I hope it brings peace, strength and independence.
I hope it brings pride.
I hope it brings laughs.
I hope it brings health.
I hope it brings a strong back, a strong heart and the wisdom to take care of me and my growing family.
I know it will bring love.

My short list goals for this year:

To eat better, eat less.
To trust my instincts, when they’re loud and when they’re quiet.
To protect myself from the people that continue to hurt me.
To make more of an effort to spend grown up time with my husband, sans kids.
To excel at my work, which I’m not ashamed to admit that I love and that I think is one of the most important jobs a person can do.
To always remember that the responsibility I have been given to be Avelyn’s mother is a gift and I should embrace each second as it flies by. 
To love my first born unconditionally, draw on patience (as often as humanly possible) and wrap her up in my arms as much as she can stand.
Okay the last few aren’t really goals, but more of a this will happen until I breathe my last breath.

Finally, I plan to love stronger, live harder and embrace this beautiful, brief opportunity I have been given on this earth.  Life is so, so short and I don’t want to waste another minute on anything or anyone that takes away from my ability to live a happy life.

Happy New Year everybody!

Chats

On the seriousness of games:

Katie: what fun are games if you dont follow the rules??
its not a game anymore, its just a bunch of ppl effing around with no purpose. which is a condition games attempt to remedy. you cannot just play games for fun, you have to play games to win and follow the rules!!! or its just not a game. i dont understand people
me: uh oh. hope it’s not trivial pursuit you are playing. that usually ends in bloodshed
Katie: no. we are playing a simple game called catch phrase. if everyone shouts out answers, including people from the opposing team and people not playing, then you cease to be playing catchphrase and are just a room full of morons yelling out words
am i wrong?
me: ha ha ha ha. i agree with you. sounds like the people you’re playing with don’t understand the seriousness of games
it’s a sport people!
Katie: it just isnt fun if its chaos. i dont expect world poker series level seriousness, but if you arent even following like the ONLY rule of the game you cant really play it
blurg
mmmmm thanksgiving. everything smells so good
me: Avelyn is napping. having a kid to use as an excuse NOT to come over first thing in the morning is finally paying off
Katie: haha
glad that kid thing is working out for you
me: it’s about time she earns her keep :P
Katie: k gonna go help set up. happy thanksgiving!!!!
me: you too! enjoy!

On why I love him [while driving around town]:

me: Those pants look uncomfortable.
Kevin
: Everything about that guy looks uncomfortable. [Puts hand up for a high five.]
Kevin
: Bitch you best put your hand up and high five me.
me
: Love you too dear.

On proving her status as “best friend for 15 years”:

Katie: ho
that is all
you just need to hear it
sorry

On Gmail status updates:

me: are you REALLY starting a fire?
Kevin: yes
me: you should stop it
Kevin: never
me: then maybe you should seek help
Kevin: Are you really hopping on your bike and G – Oing
me: i think we both know the answer to that question. YES.

On frugality:

Katie: sup dude
me: nothing. sup wich you?
Katie: paying bills. i kinda like paying bills. it’s something that one can finish. at least from month to month
me: i’m in class. i hate bills
Katie: downgraded the netflix account so as to afford wine. it’s sad i cut out 7$ from my monthly budget and i see it as a small victory
me: sweet. you are my financial guiding light
Katie: thanks. i also stopped giving 10$ a month to public radio. i mean, dental insurance seems a little more important than NPR. but it was a tough call

On why she’s called a Hobo:

me: i’m going to spy on the daycare webcam. ahh the server must be down
Kevin: dang.
me: what’s she wearing?
Kevin: She’s got a pink onesie and black pants on. Unfortunately the pink onesie has brown letters on it.
me: KEVIN!

On poopadox:

Katie: yo dude. here is that link
me: gmail chat is telling me you are busy. i might be interrupting by chatting with you
Katie: damn straight. gchat knows i’m important
me: thta video is hilarious. i’m at the jamie lee curtis activia he he he
Katie: i really like when she tries to feed Hillary Clinton yogurt
Katie: in this one, she uses the word “poopadox”, it’s about Number 2, check it out
me: poopadox. ha. i can’t ever use the word poop enough.

On the very first Gmail chat of our lives:

Katie: boo whore
gmail chat!
who knew?

Again, so much to say and not enough time to write it!  Avelyn has been down for nearly an hour now so I’ll see what I can pound out.

I can’t believe how much more I love this child everyday.  I didn’t think it was possible and then, poof!  She grows a little taller, pops a brand new word out of her mouth, busts a move and I sigh and think how on earth did I get so lucky to have this kid? She’s utterly amazing.  And growing up so fast.  Do you know what happened last week?  DO YOU!?  In case you missed the World News Report here it is – I broke down and HAD HER HAIR CUT.  Her FIRST haircut.  LIKE ONE WHOLE INCH, PEOPLE!!!!

FirstHaircutnot to sure about this

Pretty girl!

BeforeAfter.  Totally different, right?  I’m torn between thinking it’s not that much hair and she looks exactly the same (in which case WHY did I do it) and screaming OH. EM. GEE. It’s like I shaved her head or something because her hair!  Look at my baby’s hair!!  It’s gooooooone!  Or maybe it just feels that way.  Tough call.

On the fertilization front, I grow more and more convinced everyday that adding to our family is the right decision for us.  I look at my Hobo growing up and can’t help but get excited about what another one might be like.  Avelyn tends to agree, showing what a great big sister she might one day make by taking such good care of her baby…

"rock, rock, rock"

Of course she also throws the baby on the ground, into the crib, out of the stroller…  Hurling is pretty much her mode of transportation for “bay-bee”.  (She’s yet to figure out this “name your baby” thing).  Kevin continually wonders aloud how a new little person might survive with our Amazonian first born running amok.  I’ve begun to wonder that myself given how much she enjoys “workin’ out” with her dad these days.

push upsI’ll be damned if that’s not the cutest push up I’ve ever seen.  Also, does anyone else notice the high waters?  He he he.

Anyway.  We paint.  We play.  We build houses for homeless-people.  We read.  We are sweet.  We are crazy.  We know how to rock.  But above all, we know how to dance.

*The title that seemed most appropriate after reading this post.

To procreate or not to procreate.  That is my question. 

I used to want 5 kids.  FIVE.  Back when I was crazy and newly married and had no idea of how much debt I would incur with two degrees and a husband with a dream.  Back when I thought staying home with my kids would be the only thing I ever wanted to do (in which case why did I bother going to school and accumulating debt in the first place?).  Back before I birthed my first baby and went a little crazy and felt like I might die everyday. 

Fast forward a few years and I’ve got one kid, one fantastic kid mind you, and the stomach churning questions I wrestle with every five minutes or so.

  • Do I really want any more children?
  • How long do I want to wait to have another?
  • What if I wait too long?
  • What am I waiting for?
  • Ohmygod this child is so adorable and look!  Look at her baby pictures!  I want another one!  Oh wait, there goes the screaming and annoying-ness.  Do I want another one?
  • Loads of people do it everyday, some do it well, some not so well, but can I handle more than one?  Emotionally? Physically?

Some days it feels like an easy decision and I think back to my life before Avelyn and wonder what I’m waiting for.  I really had no life before her.  Kevin and I weren’t living some free and fancy “I want to live before I have kids!” mentality of so many young people.  No friends in town to go out with, no money to travel, heck no money to go out to eat.  Pretty much NO MONEY PERIOD and we had a baby anyway.  A “not planned but not prevented” baby and I thank God everyday for that unexpected blessing. 

Now we have a little more money.  Heck, we have a lot more money.  This working thing has a few really great perks, one of which being a REAL PAYCHECK.  We’re paying bills on time and paying down debts.  We’re eating out when we want to and buying things for the house without checking the account to make sure we can make it to payday.  We’re not rolling it and we still don’t have much leftover at the end of the month but we can provide for ourselves and it’s amazing. 

Now that we’re more “prepared” (whatever that means) we’re trying to “plan” this next potential baby.  Although it’s not like you can really “plan” to have a baby.  I mean it either happens or it doesn’t and not necessarily on your time.  And maybe that’s my problem.  The planning.  The waiting.  The believing I’ll be more prepared in [insert time frame here]. 

I was totally unprepared and broke the first time.  And over the moon with excitement.  Now I’m “prepared” and theoretically in a position to afford having a baby this go ’round.  And I’m petrified.

What if it’s too much?  What if this time I have a baby that’s reallysick?  What if Avelyn has a hard time with it?  What if I get depressed again?  Working is hard enough with one, how will I work with TWO kids?  Kevin wants another kid but “not right now… maybe in a year”, how can I put up with this worrying until both of us are ready? Gah! The sheer amount of questions!

If I do have more kids I don’t want them to be too far apart in age.  My siblings and I are all four years apart and that gap caused all sorts of problems growing up.  Four years is a huge difference developmentally, especially in same sex siblings.  I know there is no magic age, that every family is different, every kid is different, yada yada so save me that schpeel.  But still, I don’t want to wait too long.  She’s old enough now that a baby at any time would be the “right time” in my book. 

Maybe this little “problem” won’t end up being a problem anyway.  Maybe I won’t even get pregnant.  Maybe it won’t happen on my timeline and we’ll put it on the back burner another year.  Maybe.

Speaking of my insane delusions timeline: 

  • April is out.  All three of our birthdays are within six days of each other in April.  NO MORE APRIL BABY’S, BABY.
  • September is out because again, too many birthdays and it would kill me to have to hear for the rest of my life “Oh! That’s [insert family member's name here] birthday.  How neat!”  No, well meaning dummy.  NOT NEAT.
  • May-August is out because Kevin goes to Chicago during the summers to run the film program at NHSI.  He loves it and it pays well so I don’t want him to not go ergo having a baby due right before or after he leaves is a bad plan.
  • That leaves October through March.  But December is out because, hello! it’s Christmas and no one in their right mind should plan to have a baby at Christmas.  It’s just mean. 
  • And January, well January means even more family birthdays as well as being the month after Christmas.  As Angella so eloquently stated, “January is the dullest month of the year and if I could have my way I would get a petition signed to rename it “Meh.”  He he he.  Meh.

So there we have it — the only months that I would *ideally* like to have a baby is February/March or October/November.  And if I had my *perfect* way in my *perfect* world, February/March would be out completely because February/March sucks big A and is cold, wet and rainy.  There’s a reason why so few people have birthdays during that time frame.  That and I guess the month of May/June is a really boring time for potential parents to be getting it on.

Okay.  That leaves October/November.  My ideal time frame.  The best of the best times for ME to have another baby. 

  • Avelyn will be 2-1/2 years… going on 22.
  • If I had a baby in November I would have December and January off for maternity leave.  (!)
  • The baby would miss half of RSV season and sweet mother I am up to HERE in RSV babies at work and the less I have to deal with it the better.  (Note to babies under 12 months – STAY HOME and tell people to WASH THEIR HANDS AROUND YOU.)
  • Avelyn would be three and the baby would be about 7 months old when Kevin left for Chicago next summer, meaning we might be in some kind of rhythm by then and my brain mightbe starting to recover from the liquefied mass it became after childbirth.

So okay, after writing this damn thing I think I might have talked myself into having another baby if for no other reason than I don’t want to have to think about it this much ever again.  So November it is (recall: IDEALLY).  But since October wouldn’t completely suck maybe I’ll sabotage the prophylactics a few weeks early and get a head start.  I mean you can’t ever be too *careful*.  Right?

Oh, and in case my husband is reading this and FREAKING. OUT.  (!)  Close your eyes and think back to this day, and how unbelievably excited we were, and will be again.

A post, finally*

I have finally accepted the realization that I will never “catch up” on my blogging so I should stop pretending and just post something already.

The fact is I AM BUSY*. I work between 36 and 50 hours a week at night, sleep a few hours during the day and still manage to be a full time mom every other waking minute. That leaves very little time to sit down in front of a computer and spend time typing.

Not to mention the fact that my husband is always hinting that my few precious evenings at home with him should not be spent in front of a computer screen romancing the internets with my wit.  Especially since (if all goes according to plan and you internets people keep prodding me in the right direction) I may or may not be persuaded to possibly admit that I am kind of sort of maybe or maybe not hoping to embark on another nine months of water retention and swollen ankles sometime in early 2010.  Maybe.  MAYBE.  But anyway.  Ahem. 

I started this post days ago with the attempt to fill it up to HERE with pictures.  Pictures galore! I tell you but then… sigh… then my laptop started freaking out LIKE IT ALWAYS FREAKING DOES and it was taking 10 minutes to open a single file and I quit.  I did this several times before I wizened up and just started updating my Flickr account.  SO.  Without further adieu…

Project2

Airplane watching.

Finger pointing.

Generally looking cute.

Wheely bugging.

No really, REALwheely bugging.

Hot chocolate.

Hot breakfasts.

Early morning attitude

Laughing.

Crafting.

Baking.

Loving.

Crying.

Practicing for the street life.

Growing up a little.

Growing up a lot.

I’d love to post the 2 1/2 minute video of her first school program performance but I am choosing not to for several reasons.  1) There is very little “performing” from the Hobo unless you consider a generally uncomfortable facial expression and sitting like a lump in the teachers lap a performance and 2) There are a ton of other kids in the video and I’m not one to post videos of other peoples kids without their permission.  Let me just tell you, it was really, really cute and she was REALLYREALLYREALLY-NO REALLY, I REALLY MEAN IT! -SHE WAS SO DAMN CUTE!

I would also like to post a clip from our Christmas morning but it’s on Kevin’s HD camera that is only able to be uploaded on his (not a fraction as crappy as mine) computer and the odds of it ever being seen by human eyeballs is slim to none.  I’m still waiting on my wedding video he promised.  SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS AGO.

Love that guy.

But really, the footage from Christmas wasn’t all that bad considering I had worked until 3:45am Christmas Eve and didn’t crawl into bed until 6am Christmas morning.  Oh-and Avelyn and I were fighting the BIG BAD COLD OF ALL COLDS.

Do any of you watch 30 Rock?  If you don’t, START WATCHING.  It is one of the funniest shows on television.  For reals, y’all.  (That was me channeling Britney Spears there, so you’d know how serious I was).  Anyway, after the “Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001″ episode (Watch it.  NOW. And not just this episode. THE WHOLE SERIES.) I was more than a little worried about the sandbags of fatal exhaustion I had hanging beneath my eyes that the HD camera would surely emphasize.  Turns out HD decided to go easy on me and my sandbag eyes.  Probably only because it was Christmas but still. 

I was more than a little impressed with myself, which is rare for the self deprecating hate monkey I carry around on my back.  Maybe I really will start taking better care of myself in 2010.  It would be about time.  Maybe I’ll hold onto the one true thing I can always count on in life.  That this day, and every day I wake up, is a day I will look better than I will the day after, when I’m older, wrinklier, and more dried out than I was just one day before.

Hope your days have been as merry and bright as mine.

*Alternate title: Oh my gosh. That idiot finally wrote something.

The day after Thanksgiving we drove to Austin and had lunch with a friend of mine I haven’t seen in 11 years, back from my days in the MN.  Here we are at my 17th birthday party she threw for me, sometime after midnight given the date on the photo.  The other photos from the party all say 4/18/98, which is only significant since that is the day the Hobo was born 10 years later.  Prophetic?  Probably not, but cool.

4.19.98

And no, I can’t believe I am posting this picture either because
    a) check out the metal mouth (5-1/2 YEARS of metal mouth mind you)  
    b) we look like infants and  
    c) it is yet another example of why I should never EVER take self portraits

Unfortunately there are a lot of photos like this, most of which have been burned if you know what’s good for you Katie Richey!)

Anyway Stef’s daughter is 3 months younger than Avelyn, and they were clearly meant to live closer together so they could be BFF’s and scream their little heads off with each other everyday. The introductions were a little rocky, with Avelyn refusing to speak to anyone or sit further than 1 inch away from me at the table.  I also suspect I’m not the only one who noticed her penchant for scowls and silence when she’s uncomfortable.  Who knew it was genetic? 

11.27.09_ 074

Once lunch was over and we got the girls to an unoccupied room in the restaurant they discovered they could run free and really hit it off.  And by hit it off I mean Avelyn decided that not only was running around really-super-duper-freaking-cool but running around with her mouth wide open screaming was FREAKING AWESOOOOOOOOOOME!  Like a natural born big sister (and don’t read too much into that statement; it’s not ANYTIME SOON) she set the example for her little friend who quickly followed suit. 

11.27.09_ 091 (2)

It turned out to be pretty cold in Austin that day and I started to wish I had worn something warmer than my old maternity sweater and my black leggings (Of which I am starting to think make me look fat.  Still considering this prospect).  Regardless of the cool temps, we felt it would be in the best interest of restaurant go-ers everywhere to take the screaming girls outside, where they proceeded to do two things very well:

One: look ohmygod-ohmygod-ohmygod-SO-CUTE!

11.27.09_ 106 (2)

And two: continue to run around screaming.

11.27.09_ 109

I had such a good time catching up with an old friend.  It was loads of fun to see Stefany again and introduce our husbands and A-dorable baby girls.  How lucky am I to have friends that would drive 200 miles to have lunch with me(!) after they already had 2,100 miles under their belt that trip.  (Really lucky for me is that I like her, as it is probably true that I might know several people who would do that, but not necessarily many that I like.  But anywho…)

11.27.09_ 111 (2)(This picture has nothing to do with anything I’m typing, I just love it. Isn’t she a doll?)

After lunch I rounded out the afternoon with a genius plan I’d cooked up months ago when Stef told me they were coming to Texas.  There is an Ikea just north of Austin and we would just happen to be 15 minutes away the day after Thanksgiving.  SCORE!  I spent too much money and didn’t get nearly enough stuff but now I have an excuse to troll through my thousands of pictures on my computer and print out some good ones to be framed.  I also purchased a set of glass jars that I thought would make great craft supply organizers.  I was right.  AND I ONLY BOUGHT ONE FOUR-PACK.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?!  I could have bought 100 and found uses for all of them!  Now I have to make a point to drive back up there.  Ohhhhhh noooooo. 

So, that was my day after Thanksgiving.  And it was great.  And free of stress.  And to top it off I didn’t have to work that night.  What a difference a decade makes.

11.27.09_ 159 (2)

(Started last Friday)
OMG my beautiful, perfect, so-amazing-and-I-love-her-so-much child is driving me insane tonight.  IN-SANE. My patience runs dangerously thin when I’m tired and tonight, I am tired.  It’s been a long week.  Too much work.  To much extended family.  Not enough doing fun things I wanted to get done. One of those days where all the little things slowly start to creep at you, pick at you, and hammer your last nerve until you’re thisclose to shouting “SWEET HOLY &*#@ STOP WHINING/CRYING/SCREAMING AND GO TO BED ALREADY!”.

Luckily it didn’t come to that point – yet - but only because once dinner/bath/book was over with I flopped her down and ran  sweetly placed her (no really, it was sweet and with tons of kisses and “I love you”s) in her crib and took off. I just couldn’t take one more second of the whining.  The sheer amount of whining I tell you!  Seemingly about nothing!  Maybe her tooth hurts, maybe she’s bored, maybe she’s hungry, maybe a fly landed on some stray hair on her head, I DON’T KNOW because the child is still just a baby and can’t talk.  AGH I have never wanted a child to talk more in my life.  Please talk, Avelyn.  Please.  Mommy needs you to form actual words and tell me exactly what you are thinking.  I’m not a mind reader and this crying thing is not the best communication tool. 

I can hear some of you now.  You’re talking to the computer screen in a really obnoxious sing song voice saying, ”Be careful what you wish for!  One day you’ll beg her to STOP talking.” Well, you can keep your big mouth shut, thank you very much. I know that day will come and when it does I will appreciate very much if you would keep your, “See, I told you so” to yourself and if you just can’t resist don’t say I didn’t warn you when I reply back and call you a really dirty name.  When that day comes I will be the first to reference back to this very day, when I begged and pleaded for my child to speak.

●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●

(Today)
Thanksgiving was fine. The usual annoyances with the usual family members (but hey, that’s family) but thankfully (no pun intended) there were no tears, no breakdowns and no name calling this year.  A success in my book and that’s all I want to say about Thanksgiving. The Hobo helped me make a homemade cheesecake the day before and had a marvelous time with her “cookin’ stick”, which she uses to help at every meal she prepares.  Let me tell you that girl makes a mean cheesecake. 

11.25.09_cheesecakecollage

Speaking of which, how long is cream cheese good for?  I’m still nibbling on it now, literally right now as I type.  Hope that doesn’t come back to bite me in a few hours…

I will say one more thing about Thanksgiving and that is A looked ravishing in the dress I bought for her to wear the day after Thanksgiving, but she insisted on wearing the day of.  She has hit an independent streak (don’t know where she gets it) and is very vocal about what she wears sometimes.  See above paragraphs regarding SHEER EXHAUSTION FROM THE WHINING.

11.26.09_ 02211.26.09_ 031 (2)11.26.09_ 045 (2)

The kid barely ate anything but if I recall she did quite enjoy the homemade cranberry sauce she helped me make and for that I was satisfied.  The rest of the day was spent trying to keep her calm and feeling safe since some other people had brought their dog to the house and A is scared of dogs.  Please don’t ask why they didn’t remove the dog from the family room where the family and my terrified daughter was because a) I have no polite answer and  b) it might cause WW3 and I really don’t think we need another unnecessary war right now.  Also I’m totally over it because the real reason I could come up with is rather sad and pathetic and anyway the Hobo and I had a great time walking around outside picking flowers and generally looking cute.

Thanksgiving.  It’s over.  The End.  I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!

Our holiday crafting has begun. I thought a good place to start was the obligatory hands and feet turkey.  Using the leftover felt from The Peacock Halloween costume we fashioned a colorful array of little girl hands and a big ol’ size 7 foot into something that resembled a turkey.  I thought about making it a puppet but I didn’t have any cheap old gloves lying around so we used a big popsicle stick left over from birthday crafting gone awry.  It cost me absolutely nothing to make this since I had everything lying around, but even if I had bought the supplies it would have been less than $2 to make this.  That’s my kind of craft.

11.14.09_ 012

Next I thought I would tackle matching Avelyn and Beh-be blankets.  Avelyn was torn between a bright pretty floral print and a borderline hideous 70’s style owl print.  It was cute but I think if you stared at it too long you might have some sort of fready deaky acid flashback so we went with the flowers in the end.  If I had a sewing machine (HINT HINT HUSBAND) I could have sewn the blanket together and in theory had a much better end product, emphasis on the “theory” since the only two things I have sewn in my entire LIFE are a dog pillow and a piece of scrap fabric on which to practice my dog pillow sewing skills.  It was just shy of a travesty but the dog didn’t care.

11.17.09_ 00311.17.09_ 005

Avelyn’s blanket was a no-sew endeavor.  Two pieces of fleece tied together on all four sides.  Thus far she has not spit on it or thrown it in the trash so I call that a success.  When I finished it last night I told hubby

“I wish I didn’t HATE everything I make once it’s done.”

“Yeah.  ME TOO.” 

Poor Hubby.  I wonder what it’s like to live with someone as crazy AWESOME as me.  Probably rad. 

I haven’t finished Beh-be’s blanket yet but I did hand sew and stuff a pillow for her.  How much you want to bet that Beh-be won’t even say thanks?

11.17.09_ 017

On the agenda for the next few weeks:

  1. Avelyn’s Christmas stocking
  2. Food made of felt (I’m kind of into felt these days, in case you haven’t noticed)
  3. Christmas cards
  4. Snowmen (of the not-made-of-ice variety since we live in Texas, and it’s currently in the 70’s)
  5. Decorating cookies
  6. Ornaments
  7. Finger puppets
  8. Whatever else I come up with along the way. 

With Avelyn growing up I finally have an excuse to make all these fun crafts I’ve always wanted to do.  I hope she will enjoy it as much as I do and if not, there’s always cookie bribery.  This having kids thing is too much fun.

Do you have any fun things planned for the holiday season?

Perfection

Today was one of those perfect days.  The kind of day that comes so rarely you begin to wonder if maybe you should pinch yourself, but you’re too afraid to try because you know you’ll wake up.  Today Avelyn woke up singing.  That perfect, soft, light song of a baby that wakes up safe and warm and knows she is loved.  Kevin brought her in bed with us and she grinned, open mouthed, rolling back and forth between us trading hugs and laughing as she laid her head on a pillow, something she’s never tried before.  It was the most perfect start of a morning, ever. 

After Kevin left for work she and I sat on the back porch a while.  It’s one of her new favorite things, to sit on the porch or the driveway and pat her tiny hand next to her while she looks up and mumbles a phrase I can’t understand, inviting me, no instructing me, to join her.  She could sit like that with me for hours. 

I sat on the cold concrete while she crawled around pointing to all the things she knew the words for, shouting each one in a voice that has not yet learned volume control.

“Burrrrrr!” (bird) 
“Ayyyyyyyy!” (plane) 
“Teeeeeee!” (tree)
“Ow-uh!” (flower)

Her unruly blond curls blew in the wind and she gasped and smiled, sucking in her breath like she does every time the wind blows and surprises her.  As if it’s the first time this has ever happened.  Every single time.

11.06.09_ 015Perfection

We walked around the block mid morning, and for the first time she walked the whole way all by herself, munching a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie the entire time.  We are still working on the “hold Mommy’s hand when you’re outside” bit, but she did pretty well.  She really can’t be blamed since she is my child after all, and is the epitomy of independent first born. 

She waved and quietly whispered “Hi” to the passing cars and when no one saw her and waved back I silently hated them all.  Don’t you see this precious baby waving to you!? Don’t you understand that she is shy and beautiful and doesn’t do this ever!? Don’t you know how lucky you are you non-waving-at-little-girls ASS!?

Ahem.

The rest of the day we spent chasing each other around the house, playing “beh-bee”, tickling, and working together on our memoirs, er internet window shopping.  She is really quite the typist.  You can’t tell from the photo but her shorthand is outstanding.

11.09.09_ 026

Nearly every half hour I would stop and realize how beautiful it was outside, and how beautiful we were having it inside and I couldn’t believe it.  Our days are mostly good, but as most days with a toddler they are usually full of lots of whining and tears too, from both of us.  But not today.  At one point Avelyn was playing contentedly by herself so I sat down at the computer bookmarking “Santa finds” online.  I peered over the couch to see this:

11.09.09_ 035

Can you fully appreciate what’s going on in this picture?  My child is soothing her baby doll, sifting flour in the kitchen strainer, typing on her keyboard, shouting out the words while watching WordWorld on PBS (off camera) and talking on her phone.  (Okay, the phone she’s talking on is actually a mouse but her “real” cell phone is sitting next to her, she is just so creative she’s invented multiple uses for each instrument.)  How could I have known she would reach her multi-tasking potential so young?  Oh yeah – THIS IS SOOOOO MY CHILD.

●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●

To top off an entirely fabulous day Avelyn ate carrots at lunch.  As in Carrots.  The vegetable that grows in the ground.  I rolled them around in a little butter and brown sugar and put nothing on her plate but carrots and her sandwich and she ate them.  Not all of them but some and that’s a step.  We made chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli for dinner and yes, I was totally pushing my luck with everything but potatoes but she ate it!  We both agreed the chicken was bland so we dipped it in Honey Dijon dressing and she ate it up.  The broccoli was a little harder but I let her decide when to try it and she nibbled a few pieces.  We’re making progress. 

To celebrate our fan-tab-tab-ulous day of perfection we finished with ice cream and chocolate sauce.  Well deserved, don’t you think?

For the first time in a long time everything about my day, the whole day, was perfect.  And I just want to remember it that way.  It was perfect.  It smelled of little girls and pig tails, sunshine and wind in our hair, salty sweat on a chubby cheek from running so hard, so fast, and countless tiny bear hugs and snotty nosed kisses.  Unbelievably, undeservedly… perfect.

Before I bore you with words let’s jump right in with a “What a Difference a Year Makes” thing.  Can you believe that this little GIRL right here

Happy Halloween...

is this little BABY from last year??

10.31.08_ 036

NEITHER CAN I.  GAH!

●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●

The Peacock was the last idea I had for a costume, after a few superheros, a fairy or two and a spork.  Okay, maybe the spork was never actually thought of until just now but how awesome would a spork costume be?  I’ll have to file that one away.

So, it started with an idea.  An idea that went a little something like this:

costumesketch001

I should start by saying that I have a lot of grand ideas.  Lots.  However, I tend to get caught up in the details and obsess about getting everything just right so many of my ideas never come to fruition.  Also hindering my creative outlet is the fact that a) I had no children until 18 months ago and b) I was in school during most of the last 18 months and had no time to do anything artistic.  I should also say that I have waited my whole life to have kids to do art projects with and make costumes for like my mom did for my siblings and I.  I get my creative gene from her.  (Thanks Mom).  It’s one of the few genes I will claim out loud she gave me.  (Ha ha. :P Sorry Mom).  I’m not sure if I ever wore a store bought costume in all my years of trick or treating; she made them all.

foilheadcrayonshaggydogoldHalloween001
Foil Head (kidding), Can of Paint, Shaggy Dog, Snowman

Granted, I was not appreciative of all of them.  After all, as Annalee wrote just today, there is something so wonderful to a child about that awful vinyl store bought costume all your friends are wearing.  And when you’re the only kid wearing a city trash clean up bag the size of Rhode Island you might feel a little jipped no matter how long it took your mother to shred that bag into a Shaggy Dog.

So anyway, I love making things with Avelyn, and I LOVE coming up with her costume ideas.  In fact, two weeks ago we took a cue from the brilliant SAJ and recycled a few giant diaper boxes and cut out cardboard Halloween shapes and painted them.  We had a black bat swinging in our kitchen window, a friendly ghost with rosy cheeks, a cackling witch with bright green skin and my favorite, the spooky house.  I really wanted to take pictures of the whole process and the final product and share them with you but that would have taken time away from the fun we were having, which seems a whole lot more important.  I only have three photos to show for it.  It is a super easy, super cheap and really fun project to do with kids and it’s recyclable when the holiday is over.  You do the cutting and let them do the painting.  (And yes, as you can see I did most of the painting this time around, but I swear to you that Avelyn painted the whole pumpkin all by herself, you just can’t tell from this distance.)

IMG_062110.25.09_ 052IMG_0622
(First round of painting, Our giraffe playing in front of the spooky house, Breakfast with the ghost)

Back to the real Halloween.  I planned to have the costume finished two weeks ago so we could have her pictures taken.  That didn’t happen.  I wanted it to be perfect and I figured if I had two weeks until Halloween then why rush just for some crappy portraits?  We take better photos anyway.

My biggest problem when it comes to making anything is 1) I don’t have a sewing machine and 2) I don’t know how to sew.  Although I’m pretty sure the latter problem could be easily rectified if I just BOUGHT A SEWING MACHINE.  KEVIN.  HINT HINT.  (I say that but I will probably buy one before Christmas because I still need to make Avelyn a stocking and I have big ideas.  SURPRISE!)

So, I knew exactly how to make the tutu but I thought long and hard about how to make the shirt.  I came up with several ideas

costumesketch002

and in the end settled on the last one.  But the Top/Right image is just so darn cute I may have to make her that shirt to wear in her regular wardrobe.  How adorable would that be?

It really was not difficult, just a little time consuming, but that could be because if you haven’t picked up on it by now, I tend to pay attention to detail.  Like, a lot.

“Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I am a detailaholic.”

I’m not kidding when I say that.  I believe it’s all in the details.  I feel most happy when my floors are vaccummed clean, my child is always color coordinated (when I dress her), my kitchen countertops are always crumb free and wiped clean, and I’m not ashamed to admit my gift wrapping skills are superior to most.  That doesn’t mean I judge you by my standards, I just have a nervous NEED to have it this way at my house.  I also organize my Skittles into piles by color so I can make sure I have the same number of each and eat them in order ending with red, of course.

Just so you know, I’ve always been this crazy.

Back to before I told you I was crazy, I glued two colors of large sequins together to make the multidimensional green feathers at the base of the peacock body and glued them all individually to a white long sleeve shirt.  Then I glued green beads between all the sequins and cut out and backstitched three layers of felt by hand to make the “peacock eye” feathers and glued them to the shirt.

10.23.09_ 01810.31.09_ 098

I put some peacock feathers and some blue feathers in her hair and that was it!  I am really proud of the final product.  For one she looked adorable (no more than usual of course since she is always stunning) but she also won first place for best costume at the party we went to!  Double proud!

sigh worthyCostume test run: nothing fell off the shirt.  SCORE!

...from my little crazy peacock!Five minutes at the party and she’s already hitting the bottle. My Little Lady indeed.

Favorite
This is definitely being printed and framed.



I would love to post all my favorites but I already uploaded them all in the Fallness folder on Flickr, and there are only about 30 of them so you really have no reason not to click over and view them here.

I hope your holiday was as fantastic as ours!

http://annaleeper.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-impressions-on-first.html

Older Posts »