4 weeks of beach days?

Eeesh. I may be getting myself into a commitment to drive to Santa Cruz for 4 weeks of weekdays. This weekend Bunny goes for the swim test for Little Guards in Santa Cruz. Then it's no guarantee, but it looks like there is an opening for a non-resident in their second session, afternoons. We've always wanted her to have this opportunity because, well for starters, it's cool! And also because it'll help her *greatly* with ocean safety. And a little hazing never hurt anyone. Well, okay, I suppose hazing has hurt people, but not a *little* hazing--not their kind. ;)

More later after she takes the test. 25 m swim, shallow item retrieval, and 1 min treading water. All things she can do, so hopefully she does not freak out. :)

A rare treat...

Plum Clafouti, originally uploaded by Tiffany Ernst.

I very rarely make dessert. Not because I don't like to make it, and sure as hell not because I don't like to eat it! But because sugaring up the kids or myself seems stupid right before bedtime. And because my husband is a turd and simultaneously refuses to eat sweets WHILE talking A LOT about how unhealthy sweets are. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Let the kids have birthday cakes and shaddup about it. I'm not a 'fresh baked cookies after school type' because I do understand nutrition, and also the last thing I need is the meltdowns from low blood sugar post-sugar rush.

However, sometimes the kids do get homemade frozen yogurt. It sounds more fancy than it is -- I pop frozen fruit into the miniprep processor and whirl it up with a little vanilla yogurt. Whee! I also make pops with the leftovers for them to have after school.

BUT TONIGHT! Tonight? We will have plum clafouti. I bought some plums that simply will never be good eaten out of hand. It sucks, because the plums we got 2 weeks ago WERE AWESOME. And then, since we loved them so much, I bought more. They have barely ripened beyond rock-hardness in 9 days. So you know they're duds. I tasted one, and they're tart, and they will go straight from unripe to rotten they way they seem to be heading.

Baking them will make them yummy. And clafouti is acutally really eggy, so not as sugary or floury as many desserts.

I love baking, so I am super excited about this. Mmmmm.

Ooka Me! Ooka Me!

Things to remember:
Carter bouncing around on the hoppity ball gleefully screeching, "Ooka me! Ooka me!" (Look at me.) It's really cute, and I love how he is *finally* talking. He still signs sometimes, but more to emphasize while he is saying he's hungry, etc.

The other day he told himself, "Ask Dada... more milk" and then marched back to get Paul to refill his sippy cup. I was right there and could have done it for him, but he seemed so pleased with himself I figured I'd let him go ask Paul. Carter still has a bad habit of not trying to use the right word for things, preferring to point and say, "This!", which is maddening when he's pointing in the general direction of a fridge with a hundred different 'this's. All in due time.

Bad Hair & Good Memories (aka saturday::scans)

Spring Formal, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

Grandpa Russell (FIL) is here visiting, and Paul, Bunny and he are skating... Cole must be asleep, as he's quiet, and Carter is in Wonder Pets oblivion. :)

I felt a little bored of scanning the 1998-2000 album, so I tackled a few images from college. The "Sigma Kappa Memories" album my big sis, Jen, gave me, to be specific. Lots of $2 photos of me and my friends drunk or on our ways there. And oh, the crimes against hairdressery going on!

See, I went to college from 1991-1995, and while it was the 90s, to eb sure, it was really the entrails of the 80s. Hair was still big. Dresses were, well, you can see. Jen Mathias drank from a bigass cup. Well, maybe she still does that one. I'm cracking myself up big time with these photos. My bangs were HUGE! I remember my hair stylist seemed to cut more bangs in each time I went until I told her to STOP IT NOW, in about 1994. I think half my head was bangs, but at least it didn't go up 2", which also still happened then. Perms also still were big and icky. All in all, it was a bad hair time.

But we had fun and thought we were the end-all.
The end. So there.

So it begins...

rag rug #1 first couple of rounds, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

DIY crocheted rag rug. I have a stack of unused op sheets--a couple even are still package fresh, as I gave up making beds with top sheets AGES ago. I do not enjoy retucking it every single day, thanks, and we all like our feet to 'breathe' when we sleep.

So I'm ripping into approx 1" strips and making a rug. The ktichen floor needs new ones, and my linen closet needs less crap I don't use. Win-win!

Free Rice + Word Nerdiness = Genius

I just messed around on Free Rice for enough time to score 2000 grains of rice for charity. I am sure 2000 grains is not much, but hey, it's probably a meal. And I found out I really do know a lot of odd words. I must not work many of the more obscure ones into my vernacular, as I get enough grief about my need to use *just* the right word at all times. ;)

Boyfriend? Or unrequited?

Thursday Christi, Lola, and I took our kids to Capitola to play on the beach. While there Lola mentioned to me that Ethan had told her that he and Bunny had decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I smiled and said that was cute -- since Ethan and Bunny do play together more than she and Emily sometimes at the park, etc. And come to think of it, they did play a lot both at Happy Hollow the day before and the beach.

So that night as I was helping Bun to bed, she asked if Ethan and Emily were coming to the pool playdate here. I said, no, they were going to spend the night at their cousins' house. I then said something like how nice it was to get to play with them two days in a row.

Then I said, "So, do you play more with Ethan or Emily?"
Bunny: I play with both of them, but with Ethan more.
Me: He's a good friend, huh?
B: He's kind of my best friend.
Me: That's nice.

So I didn't push it, since Bunny uis not a big fan of knowing how we moms talk about them, haha. The question remains whether they're reciprocated boy/girl friends. ;)

saturday::scanned photos

1998_Paul_RockClimbing_0003, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

I only managed to scan less than a dozen today. I'm pooped after a long few days -- took the kids to Happy Hollow Wednesday, to the beach Thursday, and hosted a playdate here by the pool yesterday, then some friends ended up staying for dinner afterwards. Fun, but tiring. So Cole is kind of clingy after being passed around like currency the past few days. It does help to have those friends to pass him off to when, say your 2 yr old tells you he is poopy with diaper rash (yes, this he can tell me, but he insists on diapers still, and with Cole so little I am not fighting it until later this summer).

ANYWAY. This photo is from the time Paul and his start group at Andersen went rock climbing. I believe it was at Castle Rock?

Showing...

2008-04-11 026, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

...the piece Bunny didn't think I should try. And this is why I really don't think 6 yr olds make the best advisers. But they are WAY better than 2 yr olds. ;)

Gretchen dropped this off while I was at the beach today, and I am very pleased. It makes me want to paint my kitchen to coordinate, seriously.

Blog Tag -- I'm It

I've been tagged by Suzanne at Declutter 365. Here are the rules for this tag.

1. Link to the person that tagged you and leave a comment on their blog, so that their readers can visit yours. (Her name is linked above).
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 7 Random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 random people at the bottom of your post, linking to their blog. Let each person know by leaving a comment on their blog.

My 7 random facts:

1. When I was in high school I had a dog named Petey. He ate table scraps. Beans made him furious.
2. Usually, brown is my favorite color.
3. I really dislike honeydew.
4. Someday I want a pug.
5. I am kind of afraid of heights.
6. My favorite food is a ham and swiss cheese sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and avocado.
7. I always have to have a table cloth on the table. Since kids are messy, I probably go through 3-4 a week.

Now, I need to tag 7 people…So, here you go, Eleanor, Heidi, Heidi, Laurie... that'll have to do as a start.... I don't know a lot of people with blogs and I'm not sending to someone I don't know at all even though I like their blog. :)

Gimme strength and patience...

..for I am attempting to teach Bunny to crochet. I always promised her I'd teach her when she's 6, since that is when I learned. So far she has successfully made a lot of knots and a chain of 6 stitches. Which she then declared 'done' and 'that is enough of that, I don't like it.' But today she is trying once more.

Poor thing -- she really wants moving the yarn to be the way, when in reality, much as you would not move paper to draw (holding the pencil still) you have to use the HOOK to crochet. Perhaps she'll get it; perhaps she'll decide it's too frustrating. 'Tis up to her, I suppose. I'm trying to just answer her questions as she asks them, and not let myself get too invested in it.

Whatever keeps her busy. ;)

So there, ha!

So yesterday Bunny and I went to Petroglyph with Anika and Gretchen. It was a combo birthday present for both the girls, as Anika and Bunny are about 2 weeks apart in age and her family is artistic, and Bunny has been jonesing for Petroglyph for about a year. Along with the party, her main gift was the ceramic painting.

I worked all day Saturday pumping a bottle for Cole--well, all day means every time I nursed, I latched the Medela torture device onto my other side to get what I could, and finally mustered up 3 oz to leave with Paul to tide Cole over.

Before we set out to the studio I printed the image I had known I would want to recreate as soon as I saw it a month or so ago. Someone far more creative than I came up with it: a little girl's face peeking out from behind some leaves with an endearing expression of pure mischief in her eyes. I admit I was not sure I could pull it off, though I thought I probably could, as it's a VERY simple drawing. Bunny looked at it and said, "You're not the best artist in this house... I don't know if you should try that..." Well, I never! ;) I was amused by her saying that, though Paul was kind of peeved because, well, because he didn't want my feelings hurt, and all the more because he worries about Bunny making the same kind of social blunders he was (sometimes is) prone to just because he doesnt' think. Now, I think *everyone* misspeaks at times, but anyway, Paul has a few scars here and there from his gaffes that he really didn't mean as they were taken, so he worries about Bunny in that regard.

Little lecture about taking people's feelings into consideration over, we set out and met Anika and her mom at Petroglyph. They were so sweet as to give Bunny a *really* well crafted--and yummy!-- chocolate cat from the shop a couple of doors down. Note to self: must stroll around downtown LG more, as it's really good for window shopping and the kids would enjoy the fountain in the park. It's 5 mins away but I forget it's there.

Bunny and Anika both painted two pieces each: a little faux mosaic tile and a small surfboard for Anika and a horse figurine and a 4" tile for Bunny. Gretchen painted a platter with what promises to be a very cool scene of a few goldfish being preyed upon by a robot fish emerging from the grasses. And my piece? I think it came out very well! It was not exactly like my inspiration piece, but I think I caught the glint in the girl's eyes well, and I painted the hair to be the same shades as Bunny's--I hope... it's hard to tell with glazings, since the colors really become brighter and richer upon firing. I think it'll come out to be adorable no matter what.

Gretchen has an errand to run in the vicinity of the studio in a couple of days, so she's going to pick up the finished pieces and when they come to our playdate Friday we'll get to see how everything came out.

saturday::scanned photo

1998_ETVisit_0004, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

Continued with a whopping 6 more scanned photos today. Cole managed to handle the bassinet for that long--he'd have lasted longer, but Carter bounce-bounce-bounced his way down the hall on a hoppity ball and broke Cole out of his reverie of gazing at the little doohickeys on his bassinet shade.

Anyway! This is another from 1998--it'd have to be fall. We took a drive up to SF and got some typical weather at the GG Bridge, so you can only see the closest tower to the Marin side. The weather was really nice about 1 mile away where we took a little hike up in the headlands. Funny, since the day when Paul, Mock, Jim and I essentially hiked every square inch of Mt. Tam I have been *over* Marin hiking. Maybe this summer we should take the kids on one of the less rigorous ones (not the Dipsea!).

Only babies...

...get "hand jam". You know, like toe-jam, but in the creases of their hands. I looked at Cole's palm and there is 'jam' in one part of the "M". Hims widdle fisties don't open much.

Out of the Mouths of Moms

2008-04-01 029, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

Another thing I never would have guessed I'd utter:
"Stop breathing on your sister."

But I did. Yesterday Carter walked up behind Bunny, and very forcefully exhaled through his nose onto Bunny's head. Bunny is a burgeoning tattler, but even she was a bit confused. "Mama, um, Carter breathed on me?" Said very unsure. I *suspect* Carter was hoping to get something gross onto her head, as he's been a bit stuffy.

So anyway, I told him to not breathe on her. ::eyeroll::