Thursday, March 31, 2011

More teeth, and a new game

Meg has two more teeth! They're premolars, both on the bottom, and arrived Tuesday. Yay Meg!

And today she learned to play catch! We started by playing fetch (don't judge me), but Meg got the hang of throwing the ball back in my direction. I'm so excited. She's brilliant. :-)

In other news, raisins are now out of favor. They are nasty food, only suitable for throwing on the floor. We like quesadillas, though.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Always laugh at your daddy's jokes

"Monks are creatures of habit." Jonathan
"YEAH!" Meg

:-)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

How menus are made

"We have a can of crab meat! We should have crab cakes for dinner with homemade biscuits, for this snowy day, and we can pretend we're Northern. Like... North.. North... why are you looking at me funny?" Me

"Some of us are Northern." Jonathan

"Some of us have to pretend!" Me

Surely some of you do theme dinners? Anything fun? Excuse me, I need to go wipe hummus off Meg's shoes.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fixing up a t-shirt

I needed to do something creative tonight, so I broke out the fusible interfacing I've been thinking about for a while and experimented with iron-ons.





The t-shirt was one I had demoted to pajamas because the sleeves are weird. So, if the experiment didn't work out, that's not much loss. But I think it turned out pretty cute. The flowers might need some embroidery, for added beauty. Also I might cut off the sleeves and leave them raw and fluttery. Hmm... better sleep on that one.

Ironing-on is much easier than I expected. The method:

1. Cut out identical pieces of the fabric and the interfacing.

2. Put the cut-outs on the shirt on the ironing board, and cover with a damp tea towel.

3. Iron for 10 seconds in each position, until all the cut-outs have had their turn.

4. Sew on decorative buttons, if motivated.

There, now the secret is out. Go and do likewise. :-)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Today was an "other," but it improved

Some days are just more inspiring than others. Today was an "other."

We got up and tried to go for a walk, but we got outside and it was too cold for me, so my next idea was to go out and about and do something indoors, probably a library. But Oh Noes! My bottle of Oxy-Clean has fallen off the dryer and graced the kitchen floor with fully half its contents!

So I set up a baby gate to keep Meg from stomping in the glistening temptation, and tidy up enough for me to get at the floor to (otherwise) sweep and mop it. By the time it was soapless and dried, it was lunchtime and too late to go Out and About. So we had quesadillas and cheese soup, which Meg ate cheerfully and then with equal gusto flung all over the newly clean floor.

By this time it was clear Someone needed a nap, so Jonathan put her down and headed off to class. I wrote a nice note in Meg's baptism book, you know, the one she's going to keep for posterity, and decided after it was done (in ink) that it was definitely sub-par, but it was too late to change it. Then I worked on work. Today I was researching a late nineties boy-band member with more appearances as "self" than you'd care to shake a stick at. In fact, woo boy, there was another credit since I'd worked on him over the weekend. I'm so grateful not to have gotten into the MTV-reality-show culture as a teenager. After two hours of this, I give up and make a cup of tea.

Grumbling at life, I carry a pair of boots upstairs and notice one of them is -- full? I laugh and dump out the contents on the bed: one sheep, one R2-D2 unit, and a farmer named Owen. And you know, somehow that made it all better. :-)


Owen, R2, and Sheep That Says Baa reunited with Beru and the gang in the shadow of the giant flowerpot.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

We're official now!

Nope, not officially courting... we got married a couple years back, in case you missed it... official church members! We were presented during this morning's service.

Immediately after the membership part, Meg got baptized! She grinned hugely as the pastor put the water on her head and charmed everyone. At one point, she actually covered her eyes and played peekaboo with the audience. I love it. It was also pretty cool that FIVE little church girls got baptized this morning, including our friend Maren from small group. Meg's Nana and Poppie got to come down and videotape the ceremony, and we all went to Panera's for lunch afterward.

How exciting was that??

The main difference now that we're church members, I think, is that we take a turn at nursery duty (totally fair) and go to annual meetings. The main difference for Meg is that the sign has been put on her: GOD HAS HIS HAND ON YOU! She isn't saved yet... but He'll be faithful to her, like He has been to us. And she'll always know about Jesus. So hopefully she'll come to Him soon. :-) I think I accepted Him at the hardened age of four.

Honestly, it was kind of a sticky point whether we were going to baptize her as an infant or wait till after she had professed for herself. Jonathan felt strongly and I came around, because I really do see their point, and if we're wrong, God can still count it perfectly well. It's not like she's going to be disowned for getting the ceremony wrong. And if she grows up and decides she needs to be baptized again, that's quite doable.

For the occasion, we all dressed to the nines. I've got to admit, that made me happy too, as a stay-at-home mom doesn't get a lot of dress-up excuses. Jonathan was the easiest: a good suit with a shirt and tie. I found Meg a fluffy white dress. She was a bit old for a classic super-long christening dress, like some of the other baptizees wore, but Target had a cutesy dress with a raw-silk-looking top and a big tulle skirt. I realized it actually looked a lot like my wedding dress (only Meg's was not strapless, of course).

And for me, I hunted all over and finally found the perfect dress in Williamsburg. We went to the beach on Friday and stopped for a smoothie on the way home, and there across the parking lot -- a Ross's. ::cue ethereal music:: It's a really darling retro style, in an almost ikat black and white floral, with a crossed surplice bodice, waist tie detail, full a-line skirt, and little flutter sleeves. I wore it with pearls and my famous red heels and looked like a classic church lady.

Since my life goals have been to be a church lady and home school mom - I'm well on the way!

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Things that make me happy today

Chives! These in the pot are last season's roots, which recently decided that spring was here and so up they sprouted. There's no arguing with success.

Blueberries.

Trader Joe's Meyer lemon cookie thins. (Preferably with blueberries.)

Forsythia bushes. Our street is all yellow-blossomed up and down.

Naptime!

Jonathan home for spring break.

My light gray swing cardigan over a bright t-shirt.

Yay spring!

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Talking, stacking, identifying colors, eating chili

Hello, world! Meggers hit a handful of developmental milestones this week, so I wanted to share. :-)

Thursday, 7:20 pm: First word! Jonathan came home, and she yelled, "Da da da da da!" Now, she's said that before, but (as far as we can tell) that's the first time she connected a word and what it meant. Fun!

Also this week, she learned to stack. She put boxes on top of each other in the kitchen, and upstairs she stacked all the plastic doughnuts on their pole and even identified the right colors. I walked her through it - "Now the PURPLE one" - and she'd grab the purple one and put it on - "Now the ORANGE one" - and so on. She could tell which color I meant, reinforced sometimes by pointing (but sometimes she could tell just verbally). The whole collection made it on there in order.

I boggled the other day at how much she really does understand. I said, "Can you go get But Not the Hippopotamus?" and she chose that very book off her shelf from among them all. Whoa.

She's also worked out how to tell us what she wants to eat. I'm trying to teach her the signs for "more" and "please," but when she's hungry... she points. If we don't get it, she starts jumping and yelling. She also lets us know if we feed her the wrong thing, such as Cheerios when she really wants raisins. Craisins are all right too, but raisins are her true love at the moment.

But tonight, she proved she was her mother's daughter. We made our own little Chili Works burritos for dinner tonight, complete with three-chili red sauce and the works. They were really, really good. My New Mexican heart was happy. So meanwhile we were feeding Meg a little rice cereal and raisins, like good parents, and she starts pointing at my burrito and getting worked up over it. Um... okay, Meg, but watch out. That chili's hot. I tear off a bite. And she gobbles down that bite and several others. What a girl!