Spring Manifesto

This spring I will finish washing the walls, and collect paint chips with thoughts of brighter, lighter surfaces.

This will be the spring of more walks to the store, the park, and to visit friends, rain or shine.

I will plant more food and less fluff in our garden, and use the compost responsibly, rather than let it sit unchurned for another season.

This spring I will enjoy sitting with my family on the patio and enjoy their company and all the fun of our backyard.

This spring is all about bringing the camera along.

I will offer up good company and share food with friends and visitors, and good old fashioned correspondence to those who enjoy it most.

Trouble

Troublemaker-is-my-middle-name-especially-in-the-fridge, originally uploaded by apkoski.

Ok, so she didn't open the fridge herself, but she did get the peas down and have a couple. She loves to play in there while I'm getting food out for meals. I'm sure "don't let your baby play in the fridge" isn't on the tip list at EERE.

[Indeed, "Troublemaker is my middle name."]

Speaking of cute things, check out Paul's new toy, an EEE. It's so tiny!

A Week with Grandma

We are having quite the time this week with Adelaide's Grandma Mary.My mom has been in town for 4 days, and we've already gone to the zoo, a letterboxing event, the mall, downtown to the Pearl, the plant nursery, and to a few other letterboxing locations, which are a secret and I have been told that I will be disliked by many if I squeal on those locations.

It's been busy but fun.

The letterboxing event was called the Ides Of March, and it was an experience for all of us. As the Event name suggests, it was based around the Romans and Ceasar. Sunday morning, we went to the Oracle (the host lady's house) and were dispensed wisdom (letterboxing clues) and fortified ourselves with coffee cake and coffee. Then commenced the Spoils of War (letterboxing: 4 hours to find over 20 letterboxes). We located one box and then went home to tend the baby.

The event concluded with the Roman Triumph (dinner) at DiNicola's, so we went, donning togas and our carrying letterboxing gear. We talked with other letterboxers and watched a game of Clue, Roman style play out, and traded stamps (which you can only get if you have solved a clue shared online by each letterboxer). They seemed like very nice, pretty normal people, but there was some weirdness.

In no particular order...

1. Everyone was wearing TOGAS and didn't seem to mind. Thespians, perhaps?

2. Everyone referred to themselves by their "Trail Name." So I would say, "Hi, I'm Annie Walnuts," when introduced to someone.

3. A Boxing Buddy won a prize at the prize drawing. When his name was called, the owner carried his buddy, a pocket-sized stuffed monkey, to the prize tray where the monkey proceeded to sniff out his prize, take a nap on the tray, and then jump back into his owner's pocket with the prize.

4. Serious letterboxers carry tool boxes containing a colorful array of stamp pads, markers, stamps, and other secret letterboxing stuff.

Wow, only four. That wasn't so bad.

Enjoying

Sunlight after dinner and Flickr Clock. OMG, babies in other countries do cute funny things too! We had to contribute.

Cheetos for babies. She will drink them.

That even though we'd normally say, "Meh, cheesy." We still had to take a picture of our baby wearing our sunglasses. How cute!
Crawling practice is tough work!
Cheers 'till tomorrow. We will have a special visitor, so wall scrubbing will have to wait.

More Signs of Spring

Spring Cleaning is a daunting word. Let's just say we're putting some tired, old, nasty babies to bed.
Step 1: Remove all milk vomit & spit-up splatter from lower surfaces.

Step 2: Mop, mop, mop (now that the baby is eating off the floor):

Step 3: Wipe down the walls. Yes... surprisingly disgusting, since every wall in our house except for the kitchen is texturized like a ceiling. Somebody went orange peel gun crazy up in here.

Step 4: You'll have to ask Paul. My list ends here. ;)

Happy Weekend

Little Tricks

I've been learning some new Photoshop tricks via Ree and the American Mum, and it's been fun. Albeit, my pictures don't look nearly as pretty as theirs. Here's one thing I learned. See the fix?

Before (with post-pregnancy cowlick):

After: (without cowlick.)
Thank you clone tool!

Now, about that splotchy prego skin...

Somebody's Been Reading the Blog

We received two strands of Mardi Gras Beads in the mail Saturday. Real ones, like, from New Orleans. They've given Adelaide many consecutive minutes of fun; maybe 10 in a row even! See?



Thank you Mia!

I guess the beads are a sign of Spring, as are strewn Easter candy wrappers, and the need for an occasional smoothie.

Also slowly producing more for Etsy and starting to think about more bibs for Plue. Here's part of the last batch, in mundane form. (The bibs look much better on. And when did they get so small? They look silly on my 9-month-old.)