Same old, same old

We've had so many special events lately - visits, trips, holidays - that I haven't shared some of the regular, daily life moments. (One more post is coming on this weekend's guests, so stay tuned!)

First, a little food catch-up. But, as a preview, here's the executive chef in action:

Roasted tomato soup with broiled cheese topping:

Pumpkin buttermilk scones (from scratch!)

(This was the before picture. No after picture, since they were too yummy!)

Pumpkin Praline Pie (link is for the recipe; I'm not a reader of this blog, and can't vouch for it, though it seems cool enough)

(This was Mike's birthday pie. Coming off the weekend in Austin and Halloween, we were sort of caked- and treated-out, so Mike requested something a little different. A good birthday was had by all!)

Also, I'm still knitting. This is the season of gift-knitting, but, hey, these projects were a birthday gift (the swirly hat) / an extremely belated baby gift and a just-in-time baby gift (the green elf/pixie hats) / and (gasp!) something I made for myself (the beret). Behold!

As you may have seen or heard, we are pretty much still, uh, doing summer down here. We had a cold snap severe enough to kill half the basil in the garden (don't worry - ample pesto cubes were made in time!), but then it warmed back up again. And I do mean warm - today was nearly 80! Luckily, girlfriend here can rock the sunglasses and the fleece slippers with equal savvy.

We had a rainy day! Okay, actually, it was just kinda, sorta overcast with a slim chance of rain, but preparing for the rain is so! much! fun!

And we are wearing long sleeves here at the park because of the sun and the wind, not because of the cold.

As a further artifact of our warm temps, Natalie has learned my Starbucks order. She'll often call out "Mommy have iced grande. Okay, okay, Mommy have iced grande" whenever I'm drinking coffee - even at home. I can't figure out if this parenting success beyond my wildest dreams or just one more step in the crass commercialization of childhood.

In other news, we take recycling very seriously.

Tigers are also serious business. Actually, this is Natalie readying herself for the long journey to the mailbox. All that junk mail has to get into  the house somehow, you know?

It's good that the tiger is more of a ride-on thing than a car seat thing, since sitting nicely in the car seat while it gets buckled has not, um, been a strength of hers.

You know what is not serious business? Couch cushions! It's like the princess and the 
. . . . sometimes this blog just writes itself . . . . .

It's funny that Natalie is the one on the cushions here - because while we were having a spate of bad sleep on her part, she was actually handling it pretty decently for the most part. Mike and I were wrecked. Wrecked. Forthemoment, though, things seem to have stabilized (The two year molars have made their appearance? We've moved past the bad habits we started in Austin?), and she's giving us more continuous sleep at night.

That doesn't mean she goes to sleep willingly, though. She often provides a topic for her lullaby song - recent prompts have included: her teachers, quesadillas, jeans, garbage trucks, and her crib. The kicker came the other day, though, when she kept demanding "CD song". I tried various CDs, only to finally realize that what she wanted was a song about a CD. And then - just as you are getting ready to leave the room, she'll demand extra kisses ("kiss my elbow") or claim that she can't find her blanket - you know, the blanket that is covering her . . . .

Love to you all! Sleep well!

Trick or Treat!

This was the first year that Natalie actually did any Halloween activities. Before, we'd dressed her up and had fun, but she'd been pretty much indifferent. This year, she definitely knew something was up. Of course, words like "candy" and "party" are certainly comprehensible to her now in a way that they were not before.

Still, she hasn't quite caught on that the kid usually gets to request the costume. I figure she'll have that down by next year. So I took advantage of what I presume to be my last year in full control of costume selection. Natalie was a soccer player. But not just any soccer player. She was Nani, the player from Manchester United. Now, I don't know if Manchester United is, like, the super, ultra-vile team that we are all supposed to hate or something. Quite possibly. But I do know that we saw a lot of Nani jerseys in Europe this summer, and I knew our Nani needed one. I mean, come on. How could I resist? (As an aside, I'm glad this was sort of a one-off licensed gear purchase for our family. That stuff is pricey! And you don't even get a discount if your name is Nani! For shame! On the other hand, I gather spending too much on your kid's costume is some sort of tradition. Dear Global Economy: you're welcome.)

We actually had two Halloween events this year (have costume, will get candy). The first was a dorm trick-or-treating event at Mike's school the Tuesday before Halloween.

As you can see, the line to get in was really long. Luckily, Natalie's good friend Yagi was able to stop by and keep us company for a bit.

When we finally made it in, it was actually really sweet: the north part of the dorm was "scary" and the south part was "nice". Each floor had an elaborate theme (some of the themes in the nice area included Candyland, Under the Sea, and The Wizard of Oz). The students - some dressed up for the occasion - sat in the doors of their dorm rooms and handed out candy as the kids walked up and down the interior hallways. It was super-cute.

Natalie was a big hit, of course. She raked in the candy! We had practiced with her beforehand, but the dialogue went something like this:

Me: What do you say when they open the door?
Natalie: TrickTreat
Me: And what do you say when they give you candy?
Natalie: More!
(she did manage to pull out a hushed thank you or two on the actual day, though)

Adding to the list of Things-That-Probably-Won't-Happen-Next-Year, we were able to never again speak of the candy she collected. She ate one piece that night, and then never asked for it - she seemed much more interested in the empty plastic pumpkin bucket. And, in the spirit of great wrongs done to small children, we actually handed out her candy to our own trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. Win.

The Saturday before Halloween, we were invited to a toddler Halloween party in a local park. The kids' costumes were totally adorable. And the party had a wonderful pace: the kids were able to just run around, play on the playground, and eat snacks without too much forced organization (herding cats or herding toddlers: what's harder? What's the difference?).

You know how I said Natalie definitely knew what candy is? She fell in love with candy corn at the party. It wasn't that she ate a lot of it; she didn't. It was just that she kept clutching the same piece for most of the party - we couldn't pry from her sticky, gummy hands for the life of us. And, at one point, when she realized she didn't have her candy corn or her bucket, she got my dear friend Miso to walk her over to get her bucket, at which point - lightening fast - she snaked another piece of candy corn. That girl has it nailed.

Thus commenceth the love affair.

Here are some pictures of the other babies in attendance.

As I mentioned above, Miso was in town for the weekend. It was so, so, so wonderful to see her. We were able to knit, chat, talk, and just relax. Plus, she watched Natalie while I went for am midweek haircut. Talk about luxurious. There's nothing like a good friend. Miso also brought Natalie a little hedgehog she'd made.

How cute is that? Natalie decided the hedgehog should live in her plastic pumpkin bucket, so that's where it spent the weekend. Now that the pumpkin bucket has been put away until next year, the hedgehog is currently in the microwave of the toy kitchen. Believe it not, this is actually a prized toy storage location.

Pumpkin-wise, I had grand plans for carving an elaborate cat onto my pumpkin. Ha, ha. As if. As it turned out, Natalie ended up having an epic temper tantrum on Halloween afternoon, Jekyll-and-Hyde-style. Everything was fine until the real pumpkin was too heavy for her to carry, despite her best efforts. And then I committed the gross felony of putting the pumpkin in her shopping cart, so she could push it around, and, well, that was pretty much The. Worst. Thing. Ever. She went to bed at 5:30, and we didn't hear from her again until morning.

Post-tantrum, Miso carved the pumpkin. She did an excellent job!

 

Boo! Hope your Halloween was just as cute (minus the tantrum) as ours!

This is Austin, not . . . .

(And if anyone other than Miso gets my hi-larious joke in the post title, cookies to you!)

(Also, I have Halloween pictures, but they are are still on the camera, so, well, trick for now, treats to come.)


The weekend before Halloween, we headed down to Austin to meet Bubbe and Grrr. The Detroit crew flew in Thursday evening, and we joined them Friday morning. We were staying in a very convivial, well-located hotel. In fact, we weren't there but for a few hours before we found this:

That's a s'more cupcake, complete with graham cracker bottom, chocolate cake, and marshmallow creme frosting. Um, yes! And I even shared:

The next morning we hit the Austin Farmer's Market; the downtown market was walking distance from our hotel, so we were able to score a very yummy lunch there.

It was also Food Day, a day aimed at celebrating healthy/local produce. To this end, Natalie got to participate in a parade.

She was totally into it; she walked right up to the woman organizing the parade and was totally willing to hold hands and march around the park with her (paparazzi in tow, of course).

That afternoon found us cupcakes, yarn, and a very lovely park.

Natalie was also quite smitten with this turtle, which she insisted was a "mushroom." So, well, there you have it.

Everyone got into playing at the park.

The next morning Mike and I had a lovely breakfast at Jo's. Natalie stayed with her grandparents. We were ready for strong, hot coffee since, well, her sleeping Austin in the portable crib at the foot of our bed was less than ideal. In fact, I think she sort of realized that the world didn't stop when she slept AND that if she woke up and cried for us, we'd come and attend to her needs, real or imagined. This resulted in her being in our bed in the hotel room - between us, tucked snuggly, so as to discourage any sitting up - at 4am declaring over and over "can't find my feet, can't find my feet." The she'd cry, announce her nose and eyes were running, and that she needed a tissue. This went on, oh, until the grandparents work up and took her for a few hours so we could get some sleep. So, yes, coffee. Lots. (Alas, this trend has sort of continued now that we're home, so that is less than awesome . . . .)

But, well, another day in Austin, another park.

I want to leave you with two things:

1. A confession: blogging has been slow because, well, lately I've been feeling a little blogged out. You see, I've been stepping out on this blog to work on a blog project for work. That blog is about teaching and technology, especially in the higher education context. Anyway, it's launched now, and hopefully it will start to be a little less time-consuming.

2. My favorite picture from the whole weekend: