halloween 2011

I think today was the first celebrate-able holiday of Ellie’s life!  I have big (really silly and unrealistic) ideas about what holidays will look like around the Love-Stronghold and today we did pretty not-bad, considering our primary participant was an almost 19 month old who would love absolutely anything if it involved sugary treats and who won’t remember a minute of it.

We pretty much failed at any forward planning, but were able to pull together a decent amount of excitement with minimal effort and almost no money.

The fall festivities started with a family visit to Lynd’s Fruit Farm, where Ellie was terrified of everything, but fell in love with the rocky gravel.  We convinced her to explore the pumpkin field and apple orchard after she spent a good while digging in the parking lot.

David dug the “pumpkin” box out of storage and spruced up the house with pumpkin candles, wood decorations, scarecrows (“guys” as Ellie says), and fake fall flowers.  He drew spooky spider webs on our front windows (to mirror the real one on the back window---EEK!). 

We decorated pumpkins and participated in a practice trick-or-treat at my office.  Ellie started balling the minute she walked into our office, but it was not so bad that a lollipop couldn’t make it better.  She enjoyed walking around the halls, but refused to talk to or take candy from anyone.

We talked about costumes (barely): Muno?  Brobee?  Fufa?  The fat toddler that ate too many Sugar Babies? but the craziness of daily life reigned supreme and we found ourselves on Halloween afternoon with a previously made tutu, a wand from Grandma, a bunch of pink clothes, wire, scraps of tulle, and purple duct tape.  What does that mean?  Abby Cadabby, of course!  A little bit of washable marker on the face and we were good to go.  

Tonight, we were those parents.  First: the ones that bribe their kids with candy to don goofy outfits and pose for pictures and, Second: the ones that walk their too-young-to-really-eat-candy kids around the neighborhood to do our dirty work for us.  We made out pretty well!

(sorry for the crap pics, we're not jessicalovephotography, you know?)

happiness

These are the results of my not so scientific study on what makes me happy, or at least what made me happy from mid-September to mid-October, 2011.  Nothing too surprising, really, and the values are probably more indicative of the ways I spend my time than anything else, but interesting nonetheless.


Analysis:

• I know the girls make me smile, laugh, and gush with pride.
• I find ways to treat myself even with limited time.  Unfortunately the self/happy category was mostly made up of getting extra sleep or extra food.  Those things should probably start to change to more useful and healthy treats to help me actually be happy with my self.
• Low results for house and husband were probably influenced more than any other category by lack of time and energy.  In the craziness that is our current life, those things have (sadly) faded into the background.  The silver lining to that cloud is that I think these things are okay enough to take a backseat for a little while. And yes, David does factor into the happiness of family time, but in my ideal world, I'd mention my husband more specifically, more often as a happiness trigger.
• I am pleasantly surprised by the number of work-related events that I recalled fondly at the ends of my days.  It's hard not to just see work as a necessary evil taking me a way from the girls, so I should try to appreciate it whenever I can.
• I wish I could think/write about this more, but I'm holding the infant that refuses to sleep alone at night, and typing with one hand is definitely NOT making me (or her) happy.

8

Wikipedia says the number 8 is considered a lucky number (that might bring wealth) in Chinese and Japanese culture.  It's a lucky number around here, since both these beautiful girls share that day as a birthday. Here they are on their most recent day:

three months

a year and a half (are you kidding?)

So much wealth!

frantic want-to GTD

David and I made “want to” and “have to” lists that we try to keep updated in our kitchen to keep us on track with getting things done.  Our usual “have to” list includes mowing the lawn, cleaning the kitchen and the floors, and finishing up a few projects that we’ve started but not finished (how fun).  Most of my “want to” list is made up of things that I want to spruce up around the house.  Today, armed with the power of the grandparent army, I found the strength to tackle a project on my "want to" list. 

First, I had to go gather supplies.  Without a definite plan, I made an unsatisfying stop at Home Depot, then headed through insane Sunday traffic to JoAnn Fabrics.  I came home with a few fabric purchases and decided that I would try to re-cover the gnarly seat cushion on Ellie’s Stokke Tripp Trapp Chair.  A super great deal on eBay, we had to accept the gruesome beige cover that came with it.  Aside from being un-fun, it is pretty disgusting—a fact that we can’t blame solely on the previous owners (you’ve seen Ellie feed herself yogurt, right?).

The fabric I ended up with wouldn't have been my first choice if I had endless time to search and money to spend, but I was excited that it was on sale, it was bright and fun, and really girly.  I consulted briefly with my mom, who actually knows how to sew, about how I should go about the project… then, quickly growing impatient, decided just to start.  I took the iPad into the purple room and looked up “diy tripp trapp cushion”.    

On a side note, can I show you the purple room?  Intended to be an art space, here’s what we’ve got going on.   

That's where I planned, cut, ironed, and sewed this entire project, see the sewing machine?  David says it looks like we’re hoarders.  And while I’m confessing to our craziness, this is what the kitchen looks like when I bake. 

Haha. (will you ever eat any of my treats again?)

Anyways, I got pretty excited when I found a rough tutorial outline online and started on my own.  Things seemed to be going well, the sewing machine was working, Ellie and Emery were occupied and I was making great progress.  Until I wasn’t.  The tutorial I found was written by a French person, who wasn’t awesome at explaining anything in English.  It got me started, but after consulting it multiple times (swearing more than I have in the past year) ripping out stitches to try things different ways, running out of bobbin thread (convincing David to reload it), and chasing down Alden after he ran away, my heart was racing and I was frustrated that I had wasted my precious weekend time on such a failure.  This is when my internal conversation turns to “this is why it’s not worth it to do anything,” and “you should’ve just been home playing with the girls.”  Probably because of David’s optimism (foolishness?) I kept going and ditched the tutorial.  Just to give you some perspective I’m pretty sure one of the steps in the tutorial said “put the right side of the back side of the bottom cushion on top of 2 of the four layers of batting”.  Yeah, that wasn’t happening.  

I finally figured out the right way to put all the pieces together, and then continued to eff up the seam about 5 times before finally getting it right.  Convinced at this point that it wouldn’t even fit on the chair, I was prepared for defeat, but…

It actually worked!  Since I couldn’t be bothered with precise little details, David was kind enough to read some directions and figure out how to make the extra large button hole for the strap to pass through (after this pic was snapped).  Voila!  We did it!  Without tears!  When Ellie saw it she…. didn’t really care.  She did tap it a few times, though.  Probably her way of saying, "holy crap, that's awesome!"

highlights

10.1
10.2 feeding emery with the rhino at the zoo (haha), ellie running at the zoo
10.3
10.4 celebrating a client's 16th birthday with soft pretzels and cupcakes
10.5 taking ellie and emery on a walk by myself
10.6 making funny faces at ellie to make her laugh, being greeted by a seemingly excited to see me nephew when I got home from work, brainstorming ideas to make people more happy at work
10.7
10.8 taking the girls to playgroup, making mimi almost laugh, loving that the girls have the same birth "day"

draw

Taking the time to create always makes me feel better about life.  I enjoy coming up with ideas, figuring out how to make things happen, and being in the moment of creating something that is pleasing to me, when time seems to fall away and I feel motivated and productive.  Most of the things that I choose to pass my free time include some sort of creative outlet: painting and redecorating the house, cooking and baking, scrapbooking, writing this blog.  It takes all different forms, but the way I feel when I’m doing any of those things (and they are turning out better than awful) is always the same.  Powerful, determined, getting things done.

Ellie already enjoys leaving her mark on the world.  On paper, windows, dry-erase boards, refrigerators, notebooks, posters, and books, if we’d let her.   

The girl loves to draw.  It all started with her love of opening things up.  She loved taking the caps off of the markers (and throwing them on the floor, of course).  I decided to have her make David a father's day card back in June and I don’t think a day has passed in the last 4 months that she hasn’t drawn something.  She’s getting better over time, her grip has improved (it's crazy amazing, actually), she’s gone through phases of drawing lines, elephants, scribbles and now I swear she’s trying to draw faces, possibly of her favorite Yo Gabba Gabba character, MUNO!!!! (he’s tall and friendly!)  

Her love for drawing has caused a good share of our frustration with her (and her with us) as well.  She loves MARKERS, and will scream for them instead of colored pencils or crayons.  She thinks she knows how to ask for certain colors by screaming and stomping if we show her the wrong one.  She mostly understands what markers belong with the window, or the paper, or the fridge, but every once in awhile she tries really hard to convince us they'll work in so many different places. (the floor, the wall, the chair, your foot!)  Nightly baths are basically just to wash her completely stained hands along with whatever stray body parts she decorated that day.  We kind of hate it, but mostly we love it.  We’re always impressed with the ability and focus she shows.  I’m so looking forward to seeing if this sticks with her for the next few years.  And really anxious for the day she decides it's important enough for HER to pick up the caps and put them back on the markers when she is done.