My camera-shy garden gnome.
What's a Halloween party without a little after-dinner music, particularly the kind where you play sans costume in your underwear?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
My Photogenic Sweetheart
I know, it's been nearly two months to the day since I posted anything. The first trimester of pregnancy number two was a little rough. Nausea settled in around 11 AM and lasted until about 10 PM, and I was so tired I was in bed about as soon as I could be after getting Harper down. Work also got really busy and sapped any extra energy I had, so pretty much all non-essential activities (like blogging, returning emails to friends, exercising, unpacking the remaining boxes from our remodel) came to a standstill in the last few months.
But I hit the magic second trimester (well, plus a few weeks) and I'm finally feeling good again. I even went on my first vacation without Harper a week ago (went to New England for five days with friends), and yesterday I made it to a yoga class. I'm definitely glad to be back in the world of the living.
To celebrate my return to the blog, here are a few pictures of my oh-so-photogenic toddler. She's one cute kid, but man, she takes terrible pictures. Most of the time she won't hold still long enough to get a photo, and she never smiles. This time she did stand still, but she just stood in the middle of the room with her eyes closed. Then she needed to see what was happening behind the camera so my opportunity for a still shot was gone, which is when I got the third "I'm coming to get you" photo. At least she has cute clothes.
By the way, as you can tell from the bear in the pictures, Harper has finally decided stuffed animals are fun, rather than something to stick in your mouth once and then chuck on the floor in disgust. In the last two weeks she's suddenly very interested in playing with her baby doll, and she's taken this purple bear with her everywhere the last two mornings. I had to pry it out of her hands so she could eat breakfast.
But I hit the magic second trimester (well, plus a few weeks) and I'm finally feeling good again. I even went on my first vacation without Harper a week ago (went to New England for five days with friends), and yesterday I made it to a yoga class. I'm definitely glad to be back in the world of the living.
To celebrate my return to the blog, here are a few pictures of my oh-so-photogenic toddler. She's one cute kid, but man, she takes terrible pictures. Most of the time she won't hold still long enough to get a photo, and she never smiles. This time she did stand still, but she just stood in the middle of the room with her eyes closed. Then she needed to see what was happening behind the camera so my opportunity for a still shot was gone, which is when I got the third "I'm coming to get you" photo. At least she has cute clothes.
By the way, as you can tell from the bear in the pictures, Harper has finally decided stuffed animals are fun, rather than something to stick in your mouth once and then chuck on the floor in disgust. In the last two weeks she's suddenly very interested in playing with her baby doll, and she's taken this purple bear with her everywhere the last two mornings. I had to pry it out of her hands so she could eat breakfast.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Parenting Lesson #101
When your toddler poops in the bathtub, you should let her finish. If you whisk her out of the bathtub after the first round is launched, you will only scare her into disrupting the procedure and she will have to finish when she finally relaxes again: like when you've put her back in the now-clean tub.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Secret Keeping
Monday and Tuesday afternoons this week I heard a great series on NPR about day care. Michele Norris hosted a round table discussion with several parents from the D.C. area, all talking about day care and its costs, the guilt you feel dropping your kids off, how important it is to find a great center or nanny to care for your kids, and the challenges of parenting away from your own parents or siblings.
I heard these discussions as I was driving to pick up Harper from day care, and since I missed a little bit of each one, Tuesday night I logged onto my computer, looked them up on NPR's website and listened to the whole series, something I've often meant to do but never have. When I was done I was thinking, "That was really interesting," and then I saw the button that said Contact Us. "Okay," I thought, "since I'm here at my computer, I will." And I emailed my first comment ever to NPR, telling them how timely I thought the series was--after all, I heard it while driving to pick up my kid from day care--and that I appreciated the discussion.
The next day they read my comment on the air. It was shocking to hear my own name announced on national radio. It was extra shocking because I hadn't really realized what I'd written: that the piece was very timely for me because I found out last week I'm pregnant again.
Yes folks, I'm pregnant with Kiddo 2 and I unwittingly announced it to the entire country yesterday. We were planning to keep it a secret for a few more weeks--since I'm only five weeks along--but then I went and told a national news organization about it. Brilliant. Within 30 seconds of it airing on NPR my phone and inbox were flooded with friends and family contacting me saying, "Hey, I just heard on NPR that your pregnant!" This morning my neighbor came over and said, "Um, my husband was in San Diego yesterday and said he heard Harper was going to have a sibling. Is that true?" Even my GC knew.
If you missed the grand reveal, you can listen to it here. Hey, if you're going to tell a secret, might as well do it with style, right?
And for those of you who need the facts: I'm due April 10 and so far am feeling pretty good. The nausea has been limited to just the afternoon, which is an improvement over last time. Of course, I've only known I'm pregnant for about a week, so we'll give it a little time before doing too much comparison.
I heard these discussions as I was driving to pick up Harper from day care, and since I missed a little bit of each one, Tuesday night I logged onto my computer, looked them up on NPR's website and listened to the whole series, something I've often meant to do but never have. When I was done I was thinking, "That was really interesting," and then I saw the button that said Contact Us. "Okay," I thought, "since I'm here at my computer, I will." And I emailed my first comment ever to NPR, telling them how timely I thought the series was--after all, I heard it while driving to pick up my kid from day care--and that I appreciated the discussion.
The next day they read my comment on the air. It was shocking to hear my own name announced on national radio. It was extra shocking because I hadn't really realized what I'd written: that the piece was very timely for me because I found out last week I'm pregnant again.
Yes folks, I'm pregnant with Kiddo 2 and I unwittingly announced it to the entire country yesterday. We were planning to keep it a secret for a few more weeks--since I'm only five weeks along--but then I went and told a national news organization about it. Brilliant. Within 30 seconds of it airing on NPR my phone and inbox were flooded with friends and family contacting me saying, "Hey, I just heard on NPR that your pregnant!" This morning my neighbor came over and said, "Um, my husband was in San Diego yesterday and said he heard Harper was going to have a sibling. Is that true?" Even my GC knew.
If you missed the grand reveal, you can listen to it here. Hey, if you're going to tell a secret, might as well do it with style, right?
And for those of you who need the facts: I'm due April 10 and so far am feeling pretty good. The nausea has been limited to just the afternoon, which is an improvement over last time. Of course, I've only known I'm pregnant for about a week, so we'll give it a little time before doing too much comparison.
Sunday, August 07, 2011
The Weekend
We spent most of the weekend outdoors, as we have for the past month during our remodeling project. Joe and I had Friday off but we sent Harper to day care since the painting crew was going to be here most of the day finishing up our interior. We went for a hike and had lunch in the sun on the mountain while Harper ate real food and napped in the air conditioning. Who had the better deal?
The painters finished around 3 on Friday (a crew that finishes early, what a wonder!) and after 24 hours of panic due to poor paint selection on my part (surprise, surprise--more on this later) the inside of our house looks great. It will look especially great when we have furniture and pictures again to help fill the space. Until then we have an awful lot of grey wall to look at... After my phone call to our GC last week there was a flurry of activity in our house this past week, and the project will be done when we get back from our vacation next week. This probably means there won't be much happening this coming week since our vacation bought them a week, but when I walk in my front door after vacation I've promised it will be finished and cleaned and beautiful. I really really hope that's true.
Anyway, we did a little cleaning this weekend in our multipurpose room upstairs and used our new cooktop (no electric starter but a match works) to cook eggs for dinner tonight. Let me tell you, food that didn't come out the microwave tasted fantastic.
This afternoon we met a friend at Golden's Splash park. Both of the little girls loved the water park, though they didn't do much playing together (I shared fragments of a conversation with my friend as the girls passed eachother). Here's a picture of Harper enjoying the pool. She found the place where the warm water bubbled into the shallow end and parked her butt on it for about 20 minutes. Smart girl. Click here to view more pictures.
The painters finished around 3 on Friday (a crew that finishes early, what a wonder!) and after 24 hours of panic due to poor paint selection on my part (surprise, surprise--more on this later) the inside of our house looks great. It will look especially great when we have furniture and pictures again to help fill the space. Until then we have an awful lot of grey wall to look at... After my phone call to our GC last week there was a flurry of activity in our house this past week, and the project will be done when we get back from our vacation next week. This probably means there won't be much happening this coming week since our vacation bought them a week, but when I walk in my front door after vacation I've promised it will be finished and cleaned and beautiful. I really really hope that's true.
Anyway, we did a little cleaning this weekend in our multipurpose room upstairs and used our new cooktop (no electric starter but a match works) to cook eggs for dinner tonight. Let me tell you, food that didn't come out the microwave tasted fantastic.
This afternoon we met a friend at Golden's Splash park. Both of the little girls loved the water park, though they didn't do much playing together (I shared fragments of a conversation with my friend as the girls passed eachother). Here's a picture of Harper enjoying the pool. She found the place where the warm water bubbled into the shallow end and parked her butt on it for about 20 minutes. Smart girl. Click here to view more pictures.
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