We didn't do a couple cool things today...

We hit up Leu Gardens for their "Free Before Noon Every Monday" deal, but discovered upon arrival (after getting there at 11:00, not wanting to wake napping babies, driving back out to Einstein Bros. Bagels to grab a picnic lunch for the Gardens, and driving back there) that it was no longer free on Mondays. Only FIRST Mondays. $7 per person? I don't think so. So we left.

And we had a lovely picnic at Loch Haven Park, letting Jhonen run around and play in a big field and on a big tree (though he still wanted to go right for the street), and Calina sat on her blanket trying to reach for big fistfuls of grass to taste. (Prettiest. Day. Ever.)

We wanted to find something fun to do, so Jack suggested that we go downtown (nearby) and check out the puppet museum, where he had some pieces on display. We were all for that, so we drove over there, only to find that - yup - they were closed. 0 - 2. Instead, we walked down to Bento to get some Boba teas: I had a passionfruit red tea with [slightly too many] pearls. It was yummy, almost up until the very end. :)

My good friend Stefany and her friend Chris are coming over tomorrow after traveling all over the country promoting Mona-vie, so I knew I wanted to make a nice dinner tomorrow night... I opted to wait to do the shopping until tomorrow when I figure out what awesome thing to make. So tonight was a "get creative with leftovers" night... again. It was probably the worst menagerie of ingredients I've ever had to deal with in this situation -- and I am usually SO good at it. But when you're really just out of everything, it's really, really hard.

I had a roll of premade pizza dough in the fridge, so I went for the make-a-flatbread-out-of-everything idea. 1/2 of the rectangle was turkey chili with cheese on top; 1/4 was hummus with breakfast sausage and baked beans with cheese on top; 1/4 was red sauce with chopped up fried chicken, buffalo sauce, and - you guessed it - cheese on top. (I knew if nothing else, Colin would eat the buffalo chicken bit.) For the most part, it turned out well. Certainly edible. If a little soggy under the middle chili pieces.

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Yesterday afternoon, we went to our friend Bryan's house for a why-the-crap-is-it-still-so-hot pool party... except that we had our first cold front of the year this weekend, and it was freezing. Still fun. My now-famous chocolate chip cookies were a huge hit, and Colin got in some rock band, with baby strapped on an all!  (Thanks for the awesome pic, Bryan!)

My 1st Halloween - er, Calina's first Halloween.

So, Colin's grandma (Nanny) has a crazy Raggedy Ann collection at her house in Oregon. I wish I had a picture to show you because when I say "collection", you don't usually picture what I am talking about. She has an entire bedroom in their house covered - top to bottom - in Raggedy Ann & Andy stuff. Bedding, lamps, dolls, figurines, books, toys, stuffed dolls, hard ones... Really, in a nutshell, it's a masterful, crazy, incredible room to set foot in - let alone try to get some sleep with all those EYES looking at you.

Anyway, I was inspired by seeing her room, and I thought it would be a fun tribute to Nanny if I dressed Calina up like Raggedy Ann for Halloween. Naturally this meant that I would have to MAKE a costume, since nobody dresses up like Raggedy Ann for Halloween anymore. These days, with about 85% of our sample so far falling into line this year, little girls are all fairies/princesses and little boys are all dinosaurs/dragons.

It also seemed like a good excuse to flesh out my sewing skills, since, on a costume, you can be a little more "fudgy" than on real clothes. And I was sure I'd need some fudging. And I did, but not nearly as much as I figured.

I managed to pull out some sewing skills I didn't know I had, and Calina looks totally amazing.

So today, we went out to the Sanford Zoo here for their annual Halloween "Zoo Boo". Best part was, we not only had a trial run for the actual holiday, but it also made me finish it early so I could get a bunch of photos to send to Nanny before Halloween. Too fun. The whole album is here, but I'll give you a little taste:

Everyone was probably most impressed by the fact that she didn't rip her hat off. We seem to have found another added perk of her helmet! She didn't even notice that she had anything different on her head!

We entered into the Costume Contest, along with about a dozen other "under 3's".

3rd place: The Alligator Dragon kid!
2nd place: The Little Purple Octopus girl!
1st place: Our little Raggedy Ann!

And our prize? A monkey as big as she is. :)

Colin's worried I've set myself up for failure... Now every costume she wears has to be as awesome as this one. And has to win prizes. :)

Autumn

There is nothing like autumn to get the fiendishly ambitious kitchen goddess out in me.

Yummy autumn goodies thus far created in our household:

1. A pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting. (Yummy, but not "the" recipe. Will try a different one soon.)
2. Curried pumpkin seeds, roasted. (Amazing.)
3. Jess put together a pumpkin pancake feast for us this morning, to which I added a hash brown potato with peppers & onions.
4. This is all after I discovered the very best chocolate chip cookie recipe and made 2 batches.

Also, I've been making Calina's baby food... steamed carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, avocado, pear sauce. She is an incredible eater!!

Coming up:
-My first attempt at sewing baby clothes
-Halloween!
-A huge post from our Oregon trip with lots of photos & video
-Wedding planning!?! (Yeah, we're getting around to it, finally...)

It's September 25th.

Jess's Mom-iversary

I guess it never really occurred to me before, but now that I'm a mom myself, I kind of understand how parents can go so nuts over their kids' birthday parties before they can really even remember any of it: birth is a crazy transformative experience, and a child's birthday is as much a celebration of the parents' memory of that occasion as it is a chance for the kid to celebrate his or her own existence.

I was so fortunate to be a part of Jhonen's birth one year ago today, and as much fun as it was to find fun presents for Jhonen's birthday (2 AWESOME Yo Gabba Gabba toys and a set of "Big Boy" PJ's), I really wanted to do something special for Jess on the anniversary of one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed. Not only was Jhonen's birth significant, but the year since has been an amazingly fast, hard rollercoaster.

He is HUGE, and has been since the start, and poor Jess's body has been abused heartily by his - albeit sweet - clingy nature. Try lugging around a 30 pound boy who NEVER wants to ride in his stroller! And since he's been able to get around on his own, crawling and walking, a 30 pound boy who doesn't want to ride in his stroller, but DOES want to be put down - regardless of whether it's an appropriate safe place, of course. The only thing worse than a 30 pound sack of potatoes in your arms is a 30 pound sack of potatoes trying desperately to get OUT of your arms.

She is one tough mama. But, I guess we've always known that. :)

Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for her, to celebrate getting through birth itself as well as making it to the end of a very fast but very exhausting first year of momhood, so gramma and I rode out to the Winter Park farmers market this morning before the party and picked out an awesome bucket of mixed plants, a huge mixed herb pot, and a pot of gerber daisies (her fave), and a hazelnut coffee cooler from Barnie's.

[We incidentally discovered that A) the Winter Park Farmers Market is AWESOME and B) that they had a paramedic station with mercury-free flu shots. Trying desperately to NOT get the bug I had last year. Ick.]

So, it was a nice surprise. Like I said, I never really thought about it before, but... It's hard to see this milestone come and go. Calina's about to hit 6 months and I just cannot-belive-it. I guess as a parent your job is to just make sure that every day you appreciate what you have, enjoy each moment, and make sure that the day was as good for that little one as it could have been. Now that my little girl is really starting to "enjoy" doing things, I think we're going to make it a point to start doing more things. Playing at home is awesome, but I can already tell that she gets a little bored and stir crazy with the same toys every day. She loves morning outings when she can get them. She loved the farmers market this morning. She had a good-ish, if a little overstimulating, time at the party today. And her day, really, is only from 7 or 8am to 5pm or so when we start winding down for bedtime.

We're off to Oregon on Wednesday, gramma and Calina and I will be staying out there for 2 weeks, and Colin will come home after the first week. (One whole week away without daddy. Yikes!) Sooooo looking forward to it, though!

Like Riding a Bike

I used to do this sort of thing a lot...

It's prettiest if you go over to YouTube to watch it, but here's a teaser: (Okay, it's the whole thing, but... much smaller.)

Time Suck

I've discovered that, despite the fact that I am now waking far earlier than I have in years, I am losing days left and right. Just, poof, gone. Today, I was up too early, went to Dunkin Donuts for Coffee, drove to Kohl's and Target to let Jess return something and to pick up some new picture hangers, and suddenly it was 5:00. I don't have any idea what happened there.

So if I haven't been faithful about updating this daily, it's because by the time I can even think to remember to sit down and write something, it's hours past the time I should already be asleep.

Like now, for example. It's midnight, and Calina's been sleeping for 5 hours. That means she'll want to be up for good at 7am, and I'm looking at another disappearing, sleepy day ahead of me.

I did make dinner tonight, around 9pm.