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.)

Carnival -- Let's DANCE!

Happy Mardi Gras! All those years of living down south and we didn't come away with any keeper beads. Not that any of them are worth keeping, unless you can inspect each necklace at arm's length and recall, "I got that one by lifting my shirt/skirt," and I can honestly say that I've never had the pleasure of doing that.

So what's a Yankee with a brief stint in the Deep South to do on a holiday such as this? Besides wear some purple, gold, and green, find some Boilt Crawfish to suck on! At Safeway today, I reached for a styrafoam tray of 8 boiled crawfish priced at $4, and scoffed. On Friday afternoons when the Seafood Market sign would flash "Hot Crawfish," Paul & I used to stop off and pick up a grocery bag full of them, along with a sixer of something easy to guzzle. Safeway probably doesn't use Zatarain's anyway.

In lieu of celebrating in traditional carnival-like fashion, I instead decided to learn the Slumdog Millionaire dance. I have NO business dancing; not even faux hip-hop or Bollywood. Nonetheless, the dance is coming along quite nicely. Inside I am bursting for Paul to ask for a demonstration...

Doing Civic Duty

Did I forget to mention my shopping trip last Sunday? It was the figurative icing, intentional or not, far as V-Day goes in our house. Nicely situated in the Pearl are a multitude of women's fitness apparel shops, so I shopped for "work" clothes, and made a little stop at Anthro for those cute bowls I've been admiring for the past couple years. All under 3 hours -- a new long in our house. I was the only shopper at Lucy, and was treated very nicely. Also took care of opening an exercise professional account there and at Lululemon. SO excited to use my discounts!

And I guess we're the bargain hunters, not the hunker downers. A new mattress and vehicle are both on the horizon. AND we need a better way to keep baby's food. Right now we serve in half-cup ramekins and other porcelin 'pinch' bowls, and store them in the fridge covered with saran wrap, or in our smallest tupperware boxes (two tablespoons of mashed whatever in a 2-cup box just takes up space). We're looking at the BabyCubes and these Tellfresh Boxes. Anyone remember what you used?

Here's one more image, just because it's too cute to skip!

I Heart Three Day Weekends

presents, originally uploaded by apkoski.

Paul got Prez Day off, so Sunday felt like Saturday and so on. It was nice.
We had a fun Valentine's Day, making cookies at a friend's house and later having a yummy dinner with an AWESOME dessert.

I have been wanting ice cream cake since the last time I had it. That was almost 6 months ago.

A cool surprise came Fedex today. Adelaide got a handmade music box from her Great Grandparents! It plays Teddy Bear's Picnic when you lift the lid. It's beautiful, Great Grandpa! (There was only a little crying after the end of the vide0.)

This afternoon Adelaide & I walked down to Woodstock to our local children's shop today and picked up a plain white muslin swaddling blanket. I've been asked to embellish it for display, with the idea that other people might want to buy their own white swaddling blanket and try it too. Any ideas on embellishments?

Practicing

She's on the verge of mobility, folks. We are gate shopping soon.


-A

One Person's Shot Glass...

Is another's water glass.


Bottom's up!
Thanks Aunt Marci!

Oh Sweet Weekend!

The last week has been more or less routine, with a cold and some extra work; a new Etsy project and ideas about making birthday cards. Starting this week, we have an average of just over one family birthday per week until April.
Paul has been advancing through the Travis Fingerpicking book. Both us girls are enjoying that.

We went out and did our duty for the nation this weekend, consumerizing and such. Our plywood mantel finally looks pathetic enough to consider replacing, after we found a great big mirror to install above it. A shiny white set of service for 8 was unwrapped, washed and placed in the cupboard Saturday. I am so psyched about our new Demitasse set!
And I even managed to finish a Valentine special for posting.
-A

34 - Year Campaign

starts now. We're still working on a slogan.

Obamacon Yourself!
-A

Abundant Sunshine

We are going outside today for sure.

Sunny

High 42° F

Precip:		0%

Abundant sunshine. High 42F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph.

Despite this.
-A

Mmmmmmm..... Pad Thai Night

We love Pad Thai night. It's not our first:
Nor will it be the last:
Yu-um. Bonus: peanuts were free, sort of.

JanuarYAY!

Well. It's already mid-January. The new president is here, my flu is now one week long gone, and we've just been to Paradise and back. Paul's Grandma Ellen was an excellent hostess; coaxed us to have seconds/thirds, helped us bundle up when we went outside, made sure we didn't read in the dark or sit too close to the tv, and ensured that we enjoyed ourselves on Leftover Liquor Sunday. Too sweet.


Now it's time to plan the rest of the year, clean extra hard, get in shape, deliver a trunk-load to Goodwill, and replace some of it with shiny new, operable stuff. The latter is at the top of our list right now. But we are waiting patiently; I always forget about the lull of sales in January. Retailers are so kind, giving us the month to un-Max our credit cards. I digress.
Tell me though, is now a good time to replace our crappy Target floor lamp with a nice "big kid" lamp (AKA, one worth more than $20)? The baby shows some signs of being able to crawl someday and is also practicing her Balancing on Two Feet act. Its very cute but she's already bonking her head daily.Oy, growing pains!

- A

Dieting Tips

I lost 8 pounds in one day!
Ask me how at www.pukeyourselfthin.com

I'm off the wagon though, and the first thing I wanted: HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). All last evening and this morning I kept trying, and finally my body said "Ok, but..."

If you're in the market for some good HFCS, try Chex Mix Turtle Bars. They're in the cereal aisle at the grocery, and they are awesome. Caramelly sweet, salty, & crunchy with chocolate on them. AND they're a "Good source of WHOLE GRAIN!*" (Surprisingly, asterisk turned out to not be a disclaimer.)
Anyway, I was about to get Nature Valley Peanut Butter Granola Bars -- you know, the ones that come 2-per pack, are a little dry & crumbly but do the job -- but when I compared Nutrition Fact labels, the Turtle bars had twice as much fiber (4), the same amount of sugar (11) (but fewer carbs, if you care about that), a little less protein (2), and less fat (3.5)v.
My verdict: given the choice between a healthy looking granola bar and a candy bar looking 'Bar,' pick the one with chocolate on top! After all, a granola bar is a TREAT, not a SNACK, or worse yet, BREAKFAST!!

Whew. Guess I'm feeling better. Happy New Year's Resolutions. That was your free tip.

-A

Camera is on Break

She gives me kisses sometimes. I swear it. Slimy ones.
She says mama and dada to us. Seriously.
She wants to help me turn the page.
And she loves to flirt with the camera.

-A

Img. by Gma Sandi

Christmas Trip : Success

Friday night late we arrived back to a slightly snowy Portland, having chalked up a ski trip, a Farkle tournament, a day of flu, a sugar cookie fiesta (my own personal party), a stay in the Danny DeVito room, a yoga class, and a nice sandblasted hike.

I forgot to mention several screechy mid-night awakenings (people who can sleep with their kid in bed - or in the same room - are deaf, I tell you).

Oh - and NO line at the airline ticket counter! AND the baby slept on the plane on the way home. Hallelujah!!!

Here is a photo journal of our Colorado Christmas trip:

Tangrams

Yoga Class

Sing along

Hanging with Dad

Farkle Practice

Rockin' with Grandmother

More games

Tea

Uncle Luke's Downhill Ski Face

Tyleen's house

Peek-A-Boo!