Birthday Express
My mom’s birthday was Tuesday and this is her belated card and bookmark that we sent until we can deliver her present in person next month. Arwyn wanted to know if Woody (our postman) knew how to get to Grandma’s house. I kept waiting for her to ask if he rode a horse all the way there.
It’s a miracle this card was made at all, considering all of the “help” I had, the forty million questions I was answering during the card-making process, and the problematic fact that my supplies are in approximately eleventy different places in the house. The awesome thing, okay ONE of the awesome things, about having kids is they can scribble something on a sheet of paper and it passes as a card/note/present/you name it. And I only lost a few months off my life while getting her to write these letters.
Note To Self: You Are Old.
This weekend totally kicked my ass. It started on Friday with a playdate at the zoo. We hadn’t been to the zoo in a long time and Arwyn was just a TEENSY BIT excited. It was the first time I had attempted this sort of extended outing with Lokie and I was a tad nervous, but I thought if it doesn’t go well we will just go home and I will deal with the ear-drum rupturing shrieks of outrage from the older daughter. We ended up spending four hours at the zoo and it was HOT and I was exhausted! Hills + pushing baby in stroller + heat = one very tired mama. But Arwyn had a blast, Lokie cooperated like a champ and who says I need my knees anyway?
Saturday we had plans to attend the Otters game (local baseball team) with some friends and tailgate in the parking lot beforehand. The logistics of purchasing and preparing food and drinks, getting everyone ready and delivered to grandma’s house and getting ourselves to the ballpark was almost too much work to be considered fun. I really just wanted to lay down on the ground and take a nap. But we prevailed! There was beer to drink and hamburgers to eat, dammit! Everyone came back to our house after the game to continue the festivities in the Party Tent, which is when it all caught up with me and I crashed and lamely went to bed early. Sorry, guys!
Sunday morning Lokie and I went to church (I should get some sort of bonus points for that, considering I felt like a dog’s behind) and then we headed to grandma’s house to pick up Arwyn, where I discovered she had arisen at 5 a.m., eaten donuts all morning and was in a sad, sad state. All four of us napped Sunday afternoon, miracle of miracles.
The moral of this story is when you have two small children you should probably just stay home. Also, I am apparently too old to drink beer all day and not pay for it dearly the following day.
Lokie update: she still isn’t napping worth a crap. However, last week she laughed out loud for the first time and she started sucking on her fist, which is just about the cutest thing ever.
Sisters
Arwyn asked to hold Lokie and then asked me to take their picture today. When Arwyn was a baby, I had all day to sit around and take hundreds of pictures of her, but it is a little harder with the second one. I keep meaning to bust out my film camera but it somehow keeps getting pushed to the back burner, along with about a hundred other things.
Lokie is two and a half months old and is so alert and aware. She’s already lost that tiny, precious newborn fragileness that lasts such a fleeting short time. She is smiling and cooing a lot; mostly for me, Daddy and her big sister. Her baby book sits untouched on my desk and I hope that I can remember all that I want to document. She is becoming a mama’s girl. She reminds me so much of her sister. She really is a very easy to please baby. She is sleeping very well and growing by leaps and bounds. Already the first batch of sleepers and onesies are getting to be too short to accomodate her legs and feet. She likes to be held facing outward, just like Arwyn did. She likes to stand on your lap and “talk” to you. She can hold her head up quite well and doesn’t much care for tummy time. Sometimes I feel like I am looking at Arwyn as a baby again. It is a very strange sense of déjà vu. They don’t look exactly alike, but very similar. She doesn’t really have much of a schedule yet. Being the second baby, she is kind of forced to go with the flow and come along for the ride with whatever activity we might be doing. But she handles it well. I am beginning to be able to tell when she’s had enough. So much of parenting an infant is a guessing game until you get to know their developing personality, what works and what doesn’t. And that yummy baby smell! They should bottle that. Surely it could make the world a more peaceful and happy place.
Rhubarb Cobbler
Friday we visited our local farmer’s market downtown. I came home with lots of fresh veggies and fruit, including two big bunches of rhubarb. I decided to make a rhubarb cobbler and used a recipe found on this blog, though I can’t seem to track it down at the moment. If you are in dire need of the recipe, drop me a comment or email and I’ll send it to you. It isn’t a rolled out pie-dough type of crust which I normally prefer, but it certainly is yummy.
Rhubarb reminds me of my grandma’s sister named Virgina who grew rhubarb in her garden. Aunt Gene made the best pie crust I have ever had. It was incredibly soft and almost slightly doughy. Her pumpkin pie was fantastic. I remember wanting to taste raw rhubarb once just to see what it was like. Aunt Gene and my mom both tried to talk me out of it, but being the stubborn soul that I am I did it anyway. Rhubarb is very bitter and sour, just so you know. Aunt Gene’s husband, Uncle Roger, smoked a pipe and their house was filled with tchotchkes that my mom was probably terrified I would break during our visits. Isn’t it funny and strange how certain smells or flavors take you straight back to childhood? Suddenly you’re six years old again, frolicking in the yard while the grown ups discussed boring grown up things in the background.
Through lots of rigorous experimentation, we’ve found that the cobbler is best served warm with vanilla ice cream on the side. Pink ducky plate optional.
Lemonade Layer Cake
One fine day last week Arwyn wanted us to make something in the kitchen. She likes to use our Rainbow Bakery book, but I had other plans to make something a little more grown up and I used the recipe found here. This cake is very easy to put together, even with a four-year-old’s “help”, and it is scrumptious. The cake is very moist and the icing is creamy but not too rich. Plus, it is a Cooking Light recipe so that means I didn’t feel guilty for making something “bad”.
Bubby liked it even though it didn’t contain any chocolate. Arwyn ate a couple of small slices as well, so it was an all-around family hit. Hooray for small victories.
Ham, Thy Name is Arwyn
On Tuesday we began our school year. I’m not sure who was more excited, me or Arwyn. I always get all nervous before events such as these and have crazy non-founded fears such as “What if we came on the wrong day?” or “What if I was supposed to re-register at the end of the year and I didn’t and now she doesn’t have a spot?” “What if they make us leave and we both go home crying????” But everything was fine, of course, and she had a lovely first week of school and I had six hours of relative silence this week. There was still another little person to take care of, but at two months old she doesn’t require a lot of conversation. I do talk at to her, but she hasn’t yet begun the litany of questions for which her sister seems to be striving for a gold medal. “Where do bugs live?” “What do bugs eat?” “How do bugs pee and poop?” “How does the lightning bug’s butt light up?” Aren’t these questions you should be asking your teachers?? Not too long ago I read this book, which is quite amusing and very informative. The author takes questions from actual kids and goes straight to the experts for the answers. Too bad Arwyn can’t read yet, because when she asks me those questions, I would just point her to the book. Usually I lamely say, “I don’t know” or ‘We’ll look it up when we get home.” Don’t 4 year olds know what Google is for? I’m thinking they should initiate a Google 101 in pre-school.
Time Traveling
Eight years ago, Bubby and I were madly in love and beginning our life together. At that time, I had only one niece and six nephews so my niece E was very special to me. She was a very selective toddler and didn’t much care for the male portion of the population, but warmed up to Bubby pretty well, which sealed the deal for me. Since then I’ve seen him become the Pied Piper for little girls everywhere, just by being his sweet, funny self. Children in restaurants, churches, where ever we happen to be, giggle and bat their eyelashes at him. Maybe they sense his kindred innocent soul or that he’s really still just a kid at heart.
But back to my niece, E, and the supposed point of this post. Her 9th birthday was at the end of July and we weren’t able to make it to her birthday party so I sent her a package filled with the goodies in the picture. Now that we are hip deep in this parenthood gig ourselves and she beginning her tween years, we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time with her anymore. I wasn’t too sure what she is interested in at the moment, so I packed it with things that I would like if I were a nine year old girl. I hope her 9 year old self likes what my 9 year old self picked out.
Reading and Writing
Aunt Banana was here for the day on Monday and we ventured out to the teacher supply store and a thrift store. I am mad about drawing pads and tablets lately. I picked up a handwriting tablet for Arwyn to practice writing her letters. I also snagged that Melissa & Doug doodle pad for 99 cents and a paint-by-number kit that I have squirreled away for later. We can never seem to have too many paper pads for little people to create their masterpieces.
We came home with a Hello Kitty cover from the thrift store (already washed and put to use inside Arwyn’s “tent” in her bedroom) and this giant stack of books. I could have gotten more books, but I tried to reign myself in and put a few back. The shelves were overflowing with wonderful finds, but you had to dig through a lot of piles and my arms were tired and the baby was hungry, so we had to go. It was worth it for the Richard Scarry activity book alone.
Summer Livin’
The Party Tent has been erected (thanks to Super Bubby). We’ll light a few million citronella candles to keep the skeeters away and have a frosty beverage. Come on over!
