Mardi Gras masks

Last week for one of our afternoon art projects JQ, G-tot, and I made Mardi Gras masks. I printed out some blank paper masks I found online and we went to town on them with markers, cut paper, stickers, and glitter glue.

When the glue had set I cut out the eyes and punched holes for the string. You know what came next right?

Pictures!




We had a blast. JQ's mask was the big hit. We all wore that one. How could you not want to put it on—with its cool yellow extension. Very fancy in a Roman Gladiator/Mexican Wrestler sort of way.

growing up—21 months

Dear Gideon,

On Christmas Eve you turned 21 months old. I knew long before that day that this letter to you would be late. I had no idea it would end up being this late. Such is the life of a chronic procrastinator. I know I'm the only one to blame for not getting these letters done in a timely fashion, but I'm going to blame you, okay? When you are awake, all I want to do is play, read, and snuggle with you. And when you are sleeping? Well, I'm tired from all that playing, reading, and snuggling with you. You are the best distraction from life's less entertaining responsibilities. Thanks for that.

21 months—December 24, 2008

It has been one hell of a month with you. On December 18th (Daddy's 30th birthday) you did something so awesome I couldn't wait to shout it out to the world—YOU POOPED ON THE POTTY LIKE A BIG BOY!!! To say that we are a little proud would be an understatement. We are thrilled. Who knew poop could be so exciting? You had a couple of incidents where you pooped on the floor—both sort of my fault—but other than that, you've been a champion toilet pooper. I even created a "Super Duper Potty Chart" for you. Every time you go on the potty, you get a sticker for your chart. Only if you actually GO. Just sitting on the potty gets you nothing more than a story and a little together time with Mommy & Daddy. You like the sticker chart—which hangs above your changing table—and to date, you already have ten stickers. Pretty good for a 21 month old boy. Pretty damn good.


You taken giant leaps in your development over the past month as well. You are talking all the time—and quite clearly I might add. Not just random words either. Real sentences. And your comprehension and ability to make connections to separate concepts—just WOW. Before I became a Mother, I had no idea how smart a little guy like you could be. Every day you do something that makes me exclaim, "You are so smart!" I'd like to think Daddy and I are partially responsible for that.

filling the bird feeders with Mommy

You have discovered the deliciousness known as chocolate milk and not a day goes by where you don't ask for "Choco Malk". If we won't give you the chocolate milk you immediately ask for "Soy Malk". Apparently, Vitamin D milk is at the bottom of the pile as far as deliciousness is concerned. I completely understand.


For Christmas you got an easel and a little table—two gifts I suggested that Gam and G-Gi get for you. They've turned out to be two of the best gifts. The table is perfect for you and beats having to toss you into your high chair or trying to do an art activity on the floor. We still do plenty of floor play, but the table just rocks. You love to create art—coloring, painting, playing with play-doh—and we do some sort of art activity every day. Seeing you in a smock (one of Daddy's old t-shirts) painting at the easel makes me so happy. Daddy and I love that you are so fond of both art and music. Singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with you at night while we rock is the perfect way to end my day. You are definitely our kid.

playing play-doh with Daddy

This month hasn't been all fun and games for you. You been subjected to almost non-stop ear infections since October and they refuse to go away. You must have some cozy set-up in that left ear of yours because the infection seems to have moved in and hung up its cross-stitched Home Sweet Home sign. Let me just say that it sucks balls. Big, hairy balls. You've been on four different antibiotics and two different ear drops but nothing seems to be kicking it to the curb. As soon as you get over one antibiotic you start coughing and sneezing again. It's heartbreaking to see you sick so often. Especially since you were never sick until you started daycare back in late September. Who knew that our consolation gift for enrolling you in school would be chronic ear infections? Seems like a pretty crappy gift to me. Daddy and I took you to the doctor's again last Friday (with the hopes that the infection was finally gone). It wasn't. Now we have to go see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist at the end of the month. Unfortunately, that probably means you'll have to get tubes in your ears—at least the left one. That scares the shit out of me. You'll have to be put under for the surgery. When you consider the fact that I didn't even want an epidural when I was in labor, you can imagine that I'm not crazy about you having anesthesia at such a young age. But, I really don't want you to be in constant pain or to lose your hearing, so we'll do whatever it takes to make you well again. If that means tubes, well then you'll get tubes. Both your cousins have them—so I'm blaming Dad's genes—which I guess means you won't be a family outcast, even with the hair.

Love,

Mommy

Fruit Loops

I am in a major blogging funk. I feel like I have a lot to write about but every time I sit down to do so, nothing. Even worse, I just don't have the desire to sit down and compose thoughtful, well-written posts. I'm always too busy or too tired or too something.

Instead of writing I'm spending my time doing things like this:




Pretty talented, huh?

Help me choose a photo of this pornstache wearing gent.

I need your opinion oh wise people of the internet. I shot a series of these fantastically creepy, yet oddly nostalgic mannequins last week and am having trouble deciding which direction to go with them. I have a faculty show coming up soon and I think I'd like to put a few in the show. Here are four versions of a gent wearing a muff, a fur turtleneck and a pornstache. See what I mean about creepy?

I can't decide which one gives me the best vibe. Which one do you like best?

1. vintage

2. color

3. faded

4. black & white

Do you think Santa uses their sonar to help him navigate?

Sure, we are all familiar with the symbolism of reindeer at Christmas time. You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and Vixen.


Comet and Cupid and Donner, and Blitzen…


But did you know there is another creature at Christmas that only comes out at night?

That's right kiddos, it's the elusive Christmas Bat.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Half in the bag and lit up

G-tot was fascinated with watching us put the lights on the Christmas tree this year. Row after row of tiny bursts of color spiraling towards the ceiling. To a 20 month old it has to seem extra spectacular. It really is magical, but the cuteness factor of him in a brown paper bag with huge wondering eyes was my favorite part.

Optimistic

Wow…I've been a real treat these last few days, haven't I?

I'm doing better. Saturday morning was my tipping point and we got through it and are on the upswing again. Well, at least I am. JQ is too, I just think he will be better once the bathroom is done. Which it's not.even.close. Despite that suckfest, I feel pretty good.

I'm back to work tomorrow for the start of a new quarter after a week off. New quarters are fun. All the students are excited to get into new subjects. New classes change the dynamics of student interaction. It's good stuff. It also equals a couple of 13 hour work days, but that's the way it goes.

How about a couple of random pictures?

6.10.07

11.14.08

All you need is love

Happy Love Thursday.

If anybody knows where I can get the Ringo I'm missing on the Beatle's side, let me know. It's the only one we're missing.

The pile isn't as cushy as you would think

When you looked out the window yesterday you couldn't see a speck of grass. The trees in the yard had dropped a huge amount of leaves over the past few weeks and yesterday the leaves blanketed the entire front lawn.

Temps were in the low 40s—but with the wind felt like the 30s. Even so, during lunch JQ told G-tot he would rake the yard and make a pile for us to play in. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to shoot.

Shutter Sisters recently posted a superhero photo challenge to shoot from the perspective of a leaf. So while JQ raked, G-tot and I marveled at the leaves. The possibilities were endless.


Needless to say, we had a blast.

I rocked the vote—did you?

When you've had a sick kid at home who wakes up every two hours throughout the night, getting up early to head to the polls isn't easy. Coffee is a necessity—especially when you are running on just a couple of hours of sleep.

6:30 a.m. (oh how I loathe thee)

Want to see what a 32 year old woman looks like moments after she has stumbled out of bed (and well before her coffee)?

I'm not pissed. I just can't open my eyes all the way yet.

After the coffee was made and I had thrown on some clothes and brushed my hair and teeth I woke up JQ and G-tot. They weren't too thrilled. Within twenty minutes of my feet first hitting the hardwood floors we were piling in the car and heading down the street to our local polling place.

G-tot stayed in his pjs.
I'm guessing that I would have gotten some odd looks if I had done the same.

We vote at a small church just a couple of minutes from our house. When we got there the parking lot was so packed people were just making their own spots along the curbs and on the grass. We were lucky enough to get a real spot without having to circle or wait for anyone to leave.

I don't know what the protocol is for taking pictures inside the polling locations so this is the only shot I took inside. No flash and trying to be inconspicuous (although I doubt my giant camera went unnoticed).

It's still early people. Give me a break

The lines were long inside but we were in and out within a half an hour. Not too bad considering many early voters waited in line for over two hours. G-tot was an angel despite being woken up and dragged out of the nice warm bed so early.

While I was casting my ballot one of the sweet poll working women gave G-tot a chocolate chip cookie pop. I love that the poll workers are so nice at our place—despite having been there since 5 a.m. and knowing they'll be there for another 12 or so hours. I always thank them and tell them to have a nice day when we leave.

What I want to know is, where's my cookie?

Amazingly it is going to be a beautiful day here in Toledo. I swear every time there is an election it rains. Or it's freezing. Or snowing. Not today. It's going to be 70° and sunny. Perfect.

How can you not feel good after doing your civic duty and walking out to this?

I know I felt great.

I love getting my sticker.

For the past several days this read, "I can vote".
As soon as I got home I changed the verb tense.

I voted. Did you?

making a mess can be so fun

Last night we decorated our pumpkins for Halloween. We opted for an amalgamation of traditional carving and a new-to-us method of painting. So I can't just say we carved pumpkins—even though decorate sounds odd to me. I didn't really think it would be a good idea to let G-tot wield a sharp knife and I thought painting would be a great alternative. It was awesome.

absolutely into it

I waited until the absolute last minute to get pumpkins. Which seems to be a trend in my life these days. On the way home from work yesterday I stopped at the farmer's market and picked up one pumpkin for us to carve as a family and 3 small pumpkins to decorate individually. The carving pumpkin was HUGE and topped out the scales at the market—which max out at 30 pounds. We normally carve at least one each—but we also tend to do that well before the eve of Halloween.

separating seeds from pulp

I love making roasted pumpkin seeds out of the innards. One pumpkin surely wouldn't yield enough seeds to satisfy us, but I was willing to make do with what we would get. It wasn't too bad for coming from just one pumpkin.

playing with play-doh after finishing his pumpkin

This year we opted for the super traditional carve as opposed to our normal—more elaborate—designs. JQ carved the eyes and nose while I kept an eye on G-tot painting and then we switched and I carved the mouth. Painting turned out be a real treat and was perfect for G-tot. It was an awesome family moment. Spontaneous & fun. The kind memories are made of.

jq's

mine

G-tot's

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I'm hoping his blue eyes will distract you from my three chins.