Irrational Affection

There are some things I simply like. Stripes. Seersucker. Floral prints. Patchwork.

These silly hand me down pants from a neighbor tickle me to death. Who knows what Cole thinks of them, but I’m delighted.

Blanket Beginnings

Blanket Beginnings, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

About 1/72nd of the way into a blanket for fall. Minus the edging. If I can just find time, this should be a nice soft place for us to snuggle on cool evenings. Carter is already excited about it, and Bunny has asked if I'll make her one in colors for her room...

Kindred Spirits

Carter is a lot like Curious George, and not only because he looks a lot like a little monkey sometimes.  (Carter, I am sorry, the ears are your genetic curse legacy.)

We finally got to see the actual exhibit, and it’s great.  I must ingest vast quantities of caffeine, but will elaborate later.  :)

Look who's 'like totally seven'.

2009-05-26 034, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

Complete with eyeroll. :)

If you're from the South...

Awesome Deviled Eggs, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

...and you're invited to a party, bringing a bunch of deviled eggs is a no brainer. The only real worry is someone else (or maybe more than one other person) will also bring them, in which case you may suffer from having too much of a good thing.

But I don't live in the South. So I was not sure if people would be excited to see a couple dozen of these yesterday at a Memorial Day BBQ. Thankfully, they were gobbled down. I make a pretty good deviled egg, if I don't say so myself. :)

The secret is to use a good mustard. I prefer dijon--yellow mustard is just not worthy. The cut out carrot and beet slices were just for fun, because I am a dork and have to do these things to keep myself amused.

Full Bloom

The sweet smell of the jasmine or whatever it is fills the air this time of the year.

I never knew…

…that among the things about which George is curious is some truly twisted looking bondage fetish.

Check out his nipple tethers. O_o

I can’t be the only one double taking on that… hysterical!

Motherly Monikers

When Bunny was one, she started to call me Mama. When Carter was one, he started to call me Mama. They still call me that, though I don’t have any ‘rules’ about it. If they want to call me Mom someday, then that’s just skippy.

This one?

He calls me Ma. Yesterday I had a vision of him as a big boy, opening the fridge, hollering, “Ma! What’s there to eat?”

Little Bit of Dance Fest

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

I Can’t Stand the Febreze Smell

I mean, I really dislike that fragrance that apparently drives most other people to such a blissful state that they’ll smell carpets, and my laundry choices have been limited by which isn’t trying to incorporate Febreze into their fragrance line. Again, probably most people are superhappy-yay-yay-yay about fabric softener with Febreze. Me? Nope.

However, I have three kids, a husband, and a cat. I need some kind of fabric freshening! So I have sucked it up and bought the F-word a few times, since I prefer anything to the smells we have around here sometimes.

Recently I found a solution, though. Caldrea Fabric Spray in Sweet Pea. It’s supposed to be for ironing (as if I do much of that), but it’s awesome as a quick pick up smell right before company is here. It’s a couple of bucks more than Febreze (but less at my ACE than the price I see online), but the bottle is a good size, and I find I don’t need to use nearly as much. Plus, I actively enjoy the fragrance, which lasts longer than anything else I have tried (and that would be many, many products). Yay!

Does anything need to be said?

2008-05-20 005, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

I think not.

A Coloring Book for Kids Who Don’t Like Coloring Books

The “Rosie Flo’s” coloring books are a great find to help me in my unending quest for things that help stave off the ‘I’m boreds’, something that has been a trial at times with Bunny, who is nevereverever very excited to amuse herself.

She’s never been a big fan of ‘coloring’. I can’t say I blame her, but I personally am a fan of sometimes having her go into her room and be quiet. :) Hey, I’m human, and I have 3 kids.

Anyway, the Rosie Flo’s books seem to be a nice middle ground for when kids don’t really want to draw, but also don’t just want to color. The creator has set up pages of scenes that are partially drawn, but leave a lot of room for interpretation. Some are fancy dresses where you draw the scene and the bodies and heads. One favorite is the ‘time travel’ book, which has what I think are the most hysterical scenes.

This is not a preschool coloring book. For starters, there is a lot of detail. Additionally, the subject matter might scare a smaller child (or not, and in that case, I would worry about the child if they did understand the subject matter!).

Here are a couple of completed scenes that I enjoy.

Hijinks at court.

I call this one, “I think I’ll take a walk now.”

As I said, the time travel book is a bit eclectic. Most of them are far more ‘every kid’. However, I have to say, this is the one with the most complete pages.

Hot Days, Cool Treat

This past weekend our area felt like a furnace. Saturday we headed to the beach, which was actually just as hot as home, but the water was only 53 degrees. After playing for a few hours we went to dinner at Riva. The meal was good, as always, but for the kids, the highlight of Riva is their gelato.

Carter loves chocolate ice cream more than just about anything on earth, so his choice was not surprising: chocolate decadence. :)

Bunny likes fruitier flavors and went for raspberry sorbet.

Cole just helped himself to whatever he could reach.

Carter had a little trouble with the drippy consistency of gelato, but loved, loved, loved it nevertheless.

Bunny’s always very generous with her food and shared it with everyone whereas Carter resented Cole’s intrusions in his chocolaty bliss.

He did his best to not waste one drop. :)

What a mess!

I don’t have many drawers in my kitchen. In fact, I have 4. Feel free to pity me and my utter lack of storage space, as I also have very few cabinets. It’s forced me to put pantry items in a built in cabinet that was made for china, and to store some bulk foods in the garage. Boo.

As a result, my junk drawer is also my utensil drawer. Some say there is no need for a junk drawer in an orderly house. Well, this ain’t no orderly house, hahahaaaaaaooooo (laugh dissolving into moan).

But once in a blue moon, I do have to tackle and sort out the stuff that really does have a better keeping place. And yesterday the moon looked a bit bluish to me. :)

The craziest part about this is I knew what was in there, and could put my hands on it very quickly. Really!

The first thing I did was empty the drawer and wipe all the crumbs out – the ones that could FIT. ;) I sorted the detritus and have to say it’s pretty amazing what all was lurking around the edges! Then I chucked out the things, like that freaking Kidz Bop CD, that I would never miss. The picture hanging items were put away in the garage. Duplicates of weirdness, like baby ‘snot suckers’ were discarded, as one is generally more than enough (no clue why I had a second… probably came with something I did need). A lot of this does ‘belong’ in the catchall area, though, so I decided to contain it better.

Arguably some of these items would be ‘theoretically’ better in the garage or where ever, but I really like to have the little flower snippers handy for when I am trimming cut flowers, which I do at the counter. And so forth… It’s still a very full drawer, but when you have FOUR, space is at a premium. :)

In the Footsteps

Q: When faced with what obviously must be the shoes of a now barefoot giant, what do you do?

You try them on for size, of course!

Looking Back

 
Once upon a time, this little girl looked like this.

How do these things happen?  She’s still my baby, still climbs into my armpit to snuggle, still looks to me when she hurts herself.  But she’s also forging a path, always, always.

Nature Walk

The other day, while Cole snoozed in the stroller, Carter and I went on a little nature walk by this river. It felt like getting away from it all… kinda.

See, the river just happens to run through downtown. What’s a million people between you, me, and the river? It *felt* like we were in a different world, at least!

There were big rocks to climb.

Unfortunately, there was not much opportunity for wading, but we did enjoy walking along the river, and through the ‘scary tunnel’ under the street.

Carter really wanted to drop something off the bridge into the river, but I convinced him it would be better to put the random litter he found into a trash can. He did torture me a bit ‘pretending’ to drop stuff, though.

It’s a bit different than the walks I took when I was a kid, lost (sometimes literally) in what seemed like endless woods, but I foresee many more walks here.

Plus, Carter loves airplanes passing overhead.

All Roses are Pretty

Yesterday my family indulged me with a trip to the Rose Garden, one of my favorite places to wander, sniff, and enjoy.

Carter was asking to go home about 5 seconds after he surmised there is no playground there. So we gave him and Bunny baskets and told them to go petal hunting. The rules are the flowers have to be done with their petals—they have to be on the ground, and there is no winner.

The result was I was able to wander and sniff, and they were not bored mindless. Bunny actually likes looking at the flowers a lot, too, but adding in a game made it more fun.

Paul sneaked in this smooch when Bunny was taking our photo. All in all, a great little afternoon trip.

Happy Mother's Day ....

Happy Mother's Day ...., originally uploaded by j_jyarbrough.

Hope all the moms are being spoiled rotten with presents full of love, breakfasts that're made with love (if not totally edible), and days of leisure.

Adventures with Paint

It was a Discovery Museum day for the boys and me yesterday. Poor Bunny had to go to school. (But she did have a very fun play date after school, so she had a nice day, too.)

Right off the bat Carter wanted to go up to the Wonder Closet, and the little art room was where he wanted to go first. He got to paint with toys!

He had a super time ‘making tracks’.

I think the plane was the ‘paint brush’ he likes best. He’d fly it around, making a noise that required this face here (haha), then the plane would land on the paper and make more tracks. Carter loves to paint, but does not like to get more than just a little messy. He goes to the sink every few minutes to wash his hands. Dirt? He’ll bathe in it and stay muddy. Paint? Not so much.

Cole is not that way.

Yesterday was the first time he held a paintbrush. The painting wall in the Wonder Cabinet is perfect for him-the pots of paint are at just the right height, the brushes are plentiful, so he can double fist, and when we got there, the wall was mostly clean, so Cole really saw what he was making happen.

Plus, I mean… come ON! This is adorable. I spend about 23.5 hours a day with him and still could just eat him up looking at this photo!

Well, no. Probably not now.
Name the movie! Name the movie! :)

After he was done ‘making tracks’, Carter joined his little brother at the painting wall.

I encouraged Cole to see what happened when he touched the paint—how he could make lines and handprints in it.

He had no problemo complying. It felt neat, and was fun!

In between frequent hand washings, Carter preferred to stick to the paint brush. Sure, he got some paint on his pants, but he really didn’t want his hands to get too ‘painty’ as he put it.

I think we will be spending more time at this wall.

Conversation with Carter

Yesterday as we were going to pick up Bunny from school.

Carter: Mama, next time can I drive my own little car behind you?
Me: Your toy car? I think you’d get scared on the road in that. Grown up cars are fast and noisy.
C: No! (laughs as if I am SO STUPID) I want my own tiny REAL car!
Me: Oh! I’m sorry honey, but you’re not old enough to drive a real car.
C: Please? I can do it! I can do it, mom! Please?
Me: Carter, I am sorry, but it’s against the rules. People have to be SIXTEEN years old to drive.
C: I’m three and a half! (said as if this is clearly old enough, not despairingly at all)
Me: I didn’t make this rule. The police won’t let little boys drive.
C: I’m a big boy!
Me: You’re right, you are a big boy. But you have to be older to drive.
C: You’re poo poo. Stinky poo poo diaper baby.

Can’t help it…

I was straightening Bunny’s desk this morning when I spied her ‘journal’, open to a page. Normally I just close it and put it aside while I corral her crayons, markers, and pencils, trying to sort the gum wrappers and debris from the nontrash.

But this entry from a couple of months ago is hysterical, so I had to scurry off and scan it. Sorry, Bunny!

For those not accustomed to reading phonetic spelling:

4-13-09

My brothers are borthering (bothering) me a lot. the bad news is I had to do a lot of homework. even worse my brother wacked me in the fais (face) with a snacke (snake) and it was ruber (rubber). what a dummy. Oh hel (he’ll) get it. Hel (He’ll) get a big nuckl (knuckle) sandwich! and Cole he ran into my room 10000 times. p.s. dummy!

I think I remember this day. She was in the WORST mood that afternoon. It was spring break, but she had a week’s worth of makeup work piled up, and I forced her to do some that day. Good times.