Memories

Right next to my parent's house, where I grew up, is a large park. During the summers especially, I spent a lot of time playing in the park, on each and every piece of play equipment that was there. One of the best things in the park is a giant metal slide.

My mom emailed my brother, sister, and I early last month to let us know that they had started to take out the old, metal, apparently dangerous (although we all survived childhood just fine), equipment, and the slide wasn't long for the world. Right before we got there on Easter weekend, they had taken out the swings! Seriously, right before Easter, on a spring break weekend, they took all of the swings out of a park.

We decided that Gabbie had to try out the slide just once before it was gone. It's pretty tall and intimidating, and she had never even gone near it before (there's some newer, plastic play equipment that she uses). I tagged along, with the camera to capture a few images for posterity.



She had a great time! Sophie even tried it once or twice from a third of the way up.

A quick slide story:

When we were little, and feeling pretty daring, we three kids would each take a piece of wax paper with us to the park. We then would proceed to go down the slide, sitting on the wax paper. And when I say, "go down the slide," I really mean, "fly down the slide with increasing speed each time." Waxing up the slide was so much fun! For us, at least. Now I kind of feel sorry for the next, unsuspecting kids who would likely fly off the end of the slide when they thought they'd just slip down at it's usual, leisurely pace (it was typically covered with sap from the tree right above, so it sometimes took a little effort to get down).

Thanksgiving Weekend Highs and Lows with Gabbie

There was a conversation on Twitter yesterday about three-year-olds, and how the highs are so incredibly high, and the lows are head-explodingly low, and I could not agree more with that sentiment. In my line of work, I couldn't present such a statement without some sort of follow-up evidence, so I present to you: The High Point and Low Point of Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend!

High Point:

Gabbie helped me make pieson Thanksgiving eve/morning. She made a cookie crumb crust almost entirely by herself, by crushing the cookies with her miniature rolling pin, pouring the crumbs in a bowl, mixing in the sugar and melted butter I added, pouring it into the pie pan, and pushing it down on the bottom and sides. All I had to do was the baking part. I can't believe how big and capable she (mostly) is these days!

Then the next morning, she sat at the counter with me and helped peel and slice apples (using an apple peeler/slicer/corer thing - she turned the crank while I did the rest), and kept me company while I did the rest of the pie making. I also taught her how to make pie treats (sprinkle leftover pie crust with cinnamon and sugar and bake), which we shared while the pies were baking. She also was assigned duties as chief spoon/whisk/bowl licker with the spoon/whisk/bowl that resulted from making banana cream pie. (SO GOOD!)

It was lovely and picturesque. She was doing the things I remember doing when I was a kid, and I loved sharing these moments with her. It's moments like that when I just want to scoop her up and put her someplace for safe-keeping, so she never, ever changes how she is right now.

Low Point:

Most of yesterday was not quite so awesome. She was obviously exhausted, but is dropping her nap (I am NOT READY for this), and so was insisting that she wasn't tired and didn't need to nap. There were instances of talking back ("Gabbie, stop it." "No, Mom, you stop it."), being generally unkind to her sister (like holding out one of Sophie's toys just out of reach, saying, "Sophie, you can't play with this," and then snatching it away), and then came the cherry on top of the crap Sunday (haha - I love a good pun!). She was playing with Sophie's walk and ride toy, and I asked her not to ride it onto the wood floor, because she's a little heavy for it and so I was afraid the wheels would leave scrapes on the floor. Not two minutes later, I look over and see her watching me as she slowly and deliberately rode the toy onto the wood floor. (!!!)

At this point, I got a headache due to lack of ability to make my head actually explode, and she was placed in time out for five minutes, because I had absolutely had it. Up to HERE even!

Of course, at the end of her time out, she came over and gave me a big hug and some cuddles and was all sorts of cute and wonderful again.

Three. Man, oh, man is it a ride.

Sophie

I feel like a horrible blogger - not updating my blog with our excellent news until nearly a week after it occurred, but I've been understandably busy.

Sophie Eloise arrived last Thursday morning at 5 in the morning. We're both doing great, and we're all a little tired, but still. Great. She's a really good baby, and I am over the moon about her.

Then of course, there was Christmas and a houseful of guests.

I don't think we've ever been so blessed at Christmastime.

Gabbie is an excellent big sister, and I'm so proud of how well she's doing. There have been a few additional tantrums, and, just to make things a little more interesting, she came down with a cold on Christmas eve, so she hasn't been able to hold and play with her baby sister as much as she wants.

Thankfully, there are plenty of new toys in the house to keep her busy. Her favorites include her toy kitchen:

And chapstick:

(I'm glad she's so easy to please.)

But now, I'm going back to my favorite activity - baby cuddling.

Happy Halloween (with a side of NaBloPoMo)

Gabbie woke up at six yesterday morning, asking if it was time to go trick or treating yet. I think we may have overhyped that part of Halloween. I mean she obviously takes her candy very seriously:

And we had practiced the week before at Boo at the Zoo (which also gave us a chance for a dry run with the homemade Tinkerbell wings):

You might not be able to tell from the picture, but the wings are very sparkly. And very pink. When we walked into the zoo event, a 5 year old girl stopped in her tracks, pointed, and said, "Mom! She's beautiful!" (And then I melted.)

Since she was so anxious, we started the day off with a little playing dress-up:

Gabbie the Pirate says "Har Har, Baby!" (We tried to get her to say "Argh Matey" and this is her interpretation.)

Things geared up around 4, when we carved our pumpkins (being out of town the entire week before a holiday kind of sucks), ate dinner (Mummy dogs and sweet potato fries (because they're orange)), and then, finally, around 5:45 we got her into costume for a photoshoot on the front porch.

Soon after this she became "Winter Time Tinkerbell" with a hat and gloves (or according to Gabbie, gwubs) because it was pretty darn chilly.

We had played up trick or treating because we were worried about it scaring her a little. She is very shy these days, and we thought approaching and talking to strangers (or at least neighbors that she doesn't see regularly) might be a bit overwhelming for her. Not to worry though, she did great. She made it to eight houses nearby before coming home and refusing to go inside because seeing all the other kids in their costumes was her favorite part of the evening. She did such a great job!

(At least until this morning when she cried that she couldn't have candy for breakfast.)

We had a good turn-out of Trick or Treaters and ended the night watching Ghost Hunters Live and eating leftover candy. It was a pretty spectacular Halloween.

P.S. I decided to give myself a kick in the metaphorical blogging pants and join up to try NaBloPoMo again this year. Maybe this will be the year I make it all the way through! Although with the major case of pregnancy brain I have lately, it's likely I'll forget a day. I'm also NaBloPoMoing it over here.

Christmas: Never Late Than Never

So Christmas happened recently, and it was busy but wonderful.

We got to dress up in fancy clothes:

(This is the best photo we got of her in her Christmas outfit, but trust me, she looked even more adorable than even this.)

We opened up presents, and were so busy opening and then playing with them that no one ever looked at the camera:

We put bows on our heads:

We got teddy bears that were bigger than some of us:

And then Aaron did this:

He won't shave it off because he knows it bugs me. And I deal with it because I love him. It's the little things.

It was a wonderful Christmas, even if it did fly by and we travelled all over the state.

NYE Energy Boost

I cannot, CANNOT, believe that this is the last day of the year. This has been quite the big year, what with our baby turning one, buying a house and related accoutrements, both Aaron and I being ridiculously busy at work, and a wonderful, beautiful daughter who absolutely refuses to sleep most of the time. Add to that Gabbie being sick twice in the past three weeks, and to say that we're exhausted would be a bit of an understatement.

But! The last two nights Gabbie graced us with full nights of sleep, I finished up and submitted two big reports by yesterday at 10 a.m., and I'm hopped up on all kinds of caffeine. I'm rip roaring and ready to go, which is a good thing, because I have quite the to-do list to tackle today, including laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping, and fitting this all in around Gabbie's nap schedule (ha!). I'm shooting for 5:00 to have it all done so I can look relaxed when Aaron returns from work. We'll see how it goes.

Somewhat related, since I'm working on making some right, I have a somewhat surprising confession to make. Until last weekend, I had never in my life eaten a deviled egg. Then I ate about a dozen of them, and I'm obsessed. So, I'm trying my hand at them today, in addition to making pot stickers, Asian turkey lettuce wraps, and some sort of dessert. I know the eggs don't exactly go with the rest of the meal, but I've been having a mad craving for them, so I'm making them fit somehow.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve, however you celebrate, and a very peace-filled and Happy New Year!

Halloween v.2009

For Halloween this year, Gabbie dressed up as a pumpkin/ballerina/interpretive type costume/her parents are lazy. Plus she wasn't going trick-or-treating (she doesn't get to eat candy yet), so we just made her cute. See?

She has 3 tutus, and I felt the need to use at least one of them. She was going to wear a black onesie underneath, but guess who just had a growth spurt!

Also, I put her hair up in a ponytail, which was about the most adorable thing ever:

Sometimes she's so cute it hurts.

**********

For my fun thing yesterday I bought a bunch of new beauty products, including a "trendy" nail polish in a very dark purple color. After Gabbie went to sleep I painted my toenails while Aaron was cleaning up the disaster area into which I had made the kitchen. (I used almost every dish in the kitchen - I swear.)

When he came into the room, he asked why I painted my toenails black. I told him it's purple, but he refuses to agree. Whatever, I think it looks cool.

I don't know what my fun thing will be today, but I'm really looking forward to Thursday's fun thing. I signed Gabbie and I up for a Mommy and Me swim class. We'll be doing 6 weeks of swim class, and I think she will love it. I can't wait!

NaBloPoMo

I'm on for NaBloPoMo on both of my sites. Here's hoping I do better than last year, when I'm pretty sure I was out within the first few days. Then there was the year before when I forgot on the 3rd to last day. That sucked.

Anyway, this should be extra fun, because I have decided to do something fun every day (starting yesterday) for the 30 days leading up to my 30th birthday. Yesterday's fun thing was dressing up (just glittery makeup and a witch hat) for handing out candy. I have a few pictures of Gabbie too, which are adorable, and I'll post when I get a chance. I'm not sure what today's fun thing is yet, but just the thought of having to do something fun every day has put me in an excellent mood.

Happy NaBloPoMo and good luck to the other participants!

Two days in a row I've forgotten a title. What's wrong with me?

I am pleased to report that my ankle is feeling much, much better today. However, I'm still taking it easy in order to heal as quickly as possible so I can get to Project One Sexy Mama as soon as possible. I do have to admit that being unable to get into the kitchen to get snacks is great for my diet, and using crutches is a pretty good exercise for my arms.

Since I'm under doctor's orders to keep my foot up and iced as much as possible, I'm working from home today, and I actually get a lot more done at home because there's no one to socialize with. However, I still find plenty of ways to procrastinate. I'm in the middle of a solo Halloween fest - watching scary movies nad shows, wishing I had some miniature candy bars to put me more in the mood.

This inevitably gets me in the mood to start crafting Christmas presents - I usually spend the weekend before Halloween making presents while watching scary movies and eating caramel corn and caramel apples. (I love caramel, just in case you couldn't guess). This year I'm trying to do mostly homemade gifts - everyone in my life pretty much has enough stuff, and we're all pretty tired of stuff, so I think I'm mostly going to do consumables. I'm thinking limoncello, green pepper jelly, apple butter, and of course cookies and other sweets. The main reason I like doing homemade gifts is because not only do I get my gift-giving ready to go, but I'm also entertained in teh process. You can't get much more win-win than that!

Well, now. This post is definitely all over the place! Kind of like my brain, which I think is mostly going into overdrive because I can't actually do anything and I really want to. This sitting around is really, incredibly boring.

Happy (Belated) Easter!

Getting ready for church.

Miss Gabbie was so squirmy on Easter morning (maybe she got sugar by proxy (or breastmilk, actually), because I sure as heck loaded up starting at about 7 a.m.) that this is far and away the best Easter picture we got. She looked adorable in her dress and had lots of fans at church because of the adorableness. (As an aside, spell check is totally letting adorableness fly as a real word. Sweet!)

We had a lovely weekend, and I'm glad we have my little sister's graduation next weekend so she gets more than one use out of this dress, because it's completely impractical. She can't crawl in it at all, and that made her pretty mad.

Also, the shoes she's wearing(which you can barely see) were mine when I was a baby. We were looking at my baby pictures this weekend, and she does look a lot like me, just with a smaller head. She gets that from her dad. We saw those shoes in a few pictures as well as the bonnet she wore later on, which was also from my babyhood. (Babyhood is a word according to spell check too!) I'm so glad my mom saved so much of my baby gear. It has been a lot of fun pulling things out to try on Gabbie, and in my opinion, she looks way more cute than I ever did.

Playing with my newest toy

Guess where I'm blogging from tonight!

From my new iMac is where. Aaron totally surprised me with this on Saturday; a belated Christmas present that totally made up for the stomach flu (that wasn't his fault in the first place, but still). It was sitting in the middle of our living room when we came home from my parents house. When we were leaving last Wednesday, he had to run back upstairs because he "forgot" his glasses, wallet, and phone. Sneaky, sneaky.

At least now the new printer totally makes more sense.

It's Monday night and we just hooked this up. I got Aaron an X Box, and he has yet to hook that up. He says we need to get the new TV first. Apparently new HD electronics need a new flat panel TV. I'm not going to say no, because we've been watching the same 19 inch CRT that I bought 3 months into our relationship, and that started nearly 8 years ago. Plus, when we turn it off it makes a *pop* that wakes up Gabbie, and that totally justifies the need for a new TV in my book. Apparently Christmas '08 was the "electronics" Christmas. Add in the million toys that Gabbie received and we made out like bandits, something that is unusual for us. We usually just buy each other stocking stuffers.

Next stop: iTunes to use the gift card he got me. I totally missed all of the clues he gave me to let me know this computer was coming. I'm so obtuse!

Merry Christmas!

This belated holiday message brought to you courtesy of the stomach flu and possibly the croup.

Edited to add: I'm obviously not completely recovered yet, or otherwise I wouldn't have posted the same picture two posts in a row. Time for another recovery nap!

Baby's First Christmas Program

Last night Gabbie's daycare had its annual Christmas Program, and it was, in a word, adorable! The kids sang three very cute songs, made gingerbread houses, listened to stories, and visited with Santa. Of course, this was the perfect opportunity to get Gabbie into her Christmas dress: 

We had lots of fun getting to know the other parents. We don't typically get a chance to talk much a drop off or pick up, so it was nice to get a chance to just sit and chat. Gabbie had a lot of fun just watching the pandemonium of over a hundred people in a small cafeteria. During the song portion of the program, they had the babies up front with the other kids, and Gabbie was in a bouncy chair with her feet in her mouth the entire time. While wearing a dress. She's such a little lady!

Holiday Preparations

In my mind, today is the official kick-off to the holiday season. It's starting with a bang due to door decorating at work (we all decorate our office doors - I use the same decorations every year because I'm "green" (read: lazy)) and the Christmas Program at Gabbie's daycare. Apparently even the babies are participating in the show. Don't worry. There will be pictures.

Saturday I'm throwing a holiday party of my very own, and so I want to have the apartment all decorated before then. It's a good thing Aaron and I have Friday off of work (to shuffle Gabbie around to different doctors' appointments), so we can use any extra time we have that day to put the tree and lights up.

Side note: does anyone know how to baby proof a Christmas tree? We're already planning on leaving the bottom few branches empty, but how about keeping it from being able to tip over? Advice? Anyone?

After that there are a couple of work parties, baking, shopping, more baking, and then the actual holiday. I've decided this year will be a retro Christmas for me. That means I'm baking the cookies my mom used to make when I was growing up, instead of trying out new recipes like usual. It means I'm using the old decorations my mom sent down to me. It also means that I'm making as many of my gifts as possible, just like I used to when I was a kid. Hopefully the construction will be a little better though. I think having a little one around is making me nostalgic for how Christmas was when I was a kid. I hope we can make it as much fun as our parents did for us.

The only new thing I'm trying this year is making caramels from scratch. I have to be me, I guess, and to not try to master one new recipe would not be me at all.

Catch Up

Man alive, have I been busy! Between work, home, holidays and a birthday I just realized that I haven't posted in a week. Glad I wasn't too wound up in NaBloPoMo! So, to catch up here are some handy bullets:

• Gabbie is: sitting up unsupported, creeping/army crawling (kind of, only with one arm and the opposite leg and with many breaks to look at where she has gotten to so far, but I'm sure she'll catch up soon because she always does a new trick on one side for about a week before she masters it on the other side), eating sweet potatoes and pears (so far), laughing a whole lot, and just seemingly growing in front of my very eyes. I know it's cliche but sometimes I want to put a brick on her head so she'll stop growing so darn fast.
• I am: another year older (here's to the last year of my twenties!), wearing a new sweater and a new pair of shoes, able to add another "cooked Thanksgiving dinner" notch to my belt (both figuratively and somewhat literally - it was a good BIG dinner), and currently plotting out my Christmas shopping/crafting/baking. Watch for it to be detailed here on this site, because there's going to be a lot of it.
• Aaron is: not impressed by sports games on the Wii, adding unrealistic gifts to his Christmas list daily (last night: I think I'd like a Lexus with a big bow. Just like in those commercials. Me: Yeah. Right. Go to bed and keep dreaming.), and is able to add "baked an amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie" notch to his belt (also fairly figuratively and literally. He baked this for me in place of a birthday cake. Best idea ever!) (please to note: I LOVE BAKERELLA!). He's also the best husband ever, who, for my birthday bought me: 1) the new crockpot I've been wanting, 2) a black cardigan I've been wanting, 3) dinner at my favorite restaurant, and 4) a few other sweaters that he insisted I try on and then heaped on the praise about how good they looked. How great is he?!?
• This coming weekend I am throwing a cookie exchange party and I can't wait! I'm baking rugelach. There's also a cookie exchange at the daycare holiday party this Wednesday, and I'm making Oreo Truffles. I'm so excited the holiday baking season is here! 

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone gets the chance to do a little monkeying around!

Haloweenie

Oh, October. The month that's the start of one of my favorite things: the Holiday Season. Why do I love the holiday season so much? Because it’s the perfect time for crafting and baking, two of my very favorite things. Also, sweaters. I love the feeling of being all cozied up in a sweater more than just about any other feeling. (Except now, and excuse all the annoyingly cute gushing, the feeling of cuddling up with Gabbie. That truly is the best!)

Another one of my favorite things that is definitely in full swing right now, is the eating of anything pumpkin flavored. I have a few things I’m itching to make right now, including some standards like Linda’s Insanely Good Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins and Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars, as well as a new recipe this year: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Ooh, and pumpkin butter from The Pioneer Woman. Yum!

Newly added excitement this year includes dressing up Gabbie in a Halloween costume. There are so many cute options, like all of these at Mighty Junior, it’s hard to choose. Especially since I don’t want to spend a lot on something she’ll likely only wear once, although the costumes at One Step Ahead might fit her next year if she continues on her growth curve.

Finally, I love the photo ideas from this post at Momspark. I’m definitely going to have to add trips out to the local cider mill and pumpkin patch to our weekend activities sometime soon. I’m quickly finding out that holidays with a little one are way more fun than they were before. Or at least they are fun in a totally different way; you know, no more getting all dressed up and then wasted on the spooky spiked punch at a friend’s party.

I was getting too old for that, anyway.

Weekend Baking 1.8.5

So, yeah. I'm not making that Lemon-Swirled Cheesecake this weekend, even if it is super delicious. I forgot that Monday is St. Patty's Day, and since remembering have changed my plans: I'm making Mint Oreo Truffles for the St. Patrick's Day potluck we're having on Monday. Because, everything from Bakerella looks fabulous, and it's about time I try out one of her recipes. I'll let you know how they turn out.

So, I disappeared again. What of it? Busy times at work, Christmas shopping and baking, and celebrating three years since this:


have kept me incredibly busy. Plus I'm obsessed with point number 5 in my last post, since the utrasound occurs in less than a week now and I'm having a hard time being patient. By the way, you can guess here or there what sex the baby is if you'd like.

I really have no inkling as to what sex it is; my mom thinks it's a boy and Aaron keeps slipping and calling the baby "him", as do I. My sister and best friend want it to be a girl and my dad is convinced that's what it will be, but he could just be doing that since my mom says boy and he likes to pick on her a lot.

**********************************************************************************

Today is the last day of 12 DAYS OF COOKIES, and I hope you've enjoyed all the recipes I've shared. Today's cookie is one I've wanted to try for a while, one that looks amazing, and one that I'm sure would be a hit: homemade oreos. I think they look more delicious than the branded kind, and now I'm craving a glass of milk. Enjoy!

Five Things

1. I've definitely been feeling the baby moving, so imagine my disappointment and slight panic this weekend when I went a day and a half without feeling much. Then my mom pointed out what should probably have been obvious: I hadn't moved much in a day and a half, and maybe if I pulled my butt up off the couch and moved around for a little while I might feel something more. So I got up, washed some dishes, made some cookies, made some more cookies, and made an afternoon snack. When I sat down the baby moved up a storm, and it was awesome.

I have to say that the baby moving is, at once, the weirdest and coolest thing I have ever felt. I love it and that's why I was missing it when the baby wasn't moving. Check with me in a few months when the baby is kicking me in the ribs, though, and see if I feel the same. I'm sure I'll still love it, but it won't be quite as awesome.

2. Carrie over at Carrster had her baby this weekend, and it's a girl! A beautiful girl, with a beautiful name. I'm so happy for her little family! Go over and congratulate her if you can, she definitely deserves it after all she's been through pregnancy-wise lately.

3. Frema is being induced today, because little Freka didn't seem to want to come out on her own. Wish her some good thoughts! I can't wait to see her little one!

4. In the one non-baby related note, there's only today and tomorrow left in my 12 DAYS OF COOKIES, and today I bring you a recipe I've brought before but one I love as much as ever: Nanaimo Bars. They're incredibly rich, which works better this time of year than during the summer, which is when I originally posted the recipe. If you do make them, cut them small as a large piece is almost too much to handle. And just as a side note, the recipe calls for vanilla custard powder and icing sugar. These are instant vanilla pudding mix and powdered sugar. It took me a minute to figure it out for sure, but I used these and they turned out wonderfully.

5. Final baby related note, I have my Big Ultrasound a week from Wednesday and I have no inkling one way or another as to what sex the baby is. Any guesses? I may have to choose randomly from the right guesses to send out a little prize, if anyone is interested. I'll take guesses until Wednesday at noon (EST).