Under Construction

Me Ma

Lately Oscar has been saying Mommy over and over. "Ma Mee Ma Mee Ma Mee" and at some point it became "Mee Ma Mee Ma Mee Ma" Kinda cute. He also calls shadows "dadows" (both the cat named Shadow that lives at daycare and actual shadows on the ground).

So, Mothers' Day. We mostly celebrated Saturday with my mom which was good because Sunday I woke up to a very sore back and I"m still hobbling around. Nevertheless I was able to go on a Mothers' Day family bike ride and enjoy lots of lounging around with Tylenol (turns out you're supposed to take ibuprofin for a sore back).

Back to Saturday. We went to the Discovery Museum in Sacramento and it was great. Crowded (they were having a special event for Intel) but great. The planetarium show was fun and who wouldn't love a little rocket man?

 

And look, we all launched on Space Quest

It was great to spend the day with my parents and finally go to a museum that's 5 minutes from home but we've never visited as a family.

Mr. H got me lovely flowers--you can tell from Oscar's expression how good they smell! :) and Biscuit decorated and together they brought me breakfast in bed.

which I had to eat at the table so I could appreciate the homemade streamers :)

Then I did a lot of nothing all day partly due to sore back and partly due to Mothers' Day. Not a bad day at all. But now I'm done with back pain thankyouverymuch.

Birthday season

Late May is birthday season around here. Two out of four Haworths will get a year older. So will my dad. So a triple party for the three boys is in order. This year's theme, gardens. I finally got the favors planted.

Hopefully there will be nice seedlings by party time. Or they'll be gifted pots of potting soil. Today I finally finished the invitations. The actual invite is just a photo. I added text in PicMonkey (found via While She Naps) and printed them at Costco. 19 cents each done and done. The photo isn't perfect but it had the perfect amount of background space and it was in the garden so good enough.

For the envelopes I made seed packets.

The design was done in PicMonkey and I used a photo I actually liked better-Oscar with his favorite veggie fresh from our garden.

Best of all, they're finally in the mail.

Good riddance

April was not a very good month. Not terrible but just not very good. I'm looking forward to May when I have grand plans for doing some scrapbooking, planning the triple birthday party for Oscar, Mr. H and my dad, gardening, sewing and generally having fun and being productive.

To kick off a new month, a photo of Oscar which should be excellent blackmail material in the future. Princess tiara--check. No pants--check. Chickens--check.

Kid was in his element :)

Oscar, again, because I like him

Right now I'd like to be curled up in bed reading (I just started Code Name Verity and so far it seems good) but I sat down to write....something....because at the end of the day I like having this blog. Haphazard and random as it may be I like keeping notes about the kids and tracking craft projects and generally keeping myself amused.

As for what to write, I think I'm due for an Oscar update. This morning he was a total delight. Mondays, while Biscuit is at school, are our mornings together. Usually we go grocery shopping (the ladies at Trader Joe's are very nice to him) but today was shaping up to be lame so we went on a coffee date instead. It took some convincing but then he really liked the berry streusel coffee cake. I never get baked goods at Starbucks and it was pretty good. I was too cheap to get him a milk but I did share the cake and he was a perfect gentleman sitting in his chair and then wiping up his crumbs. Daycare has taught him well because lord knows he has terrible table manners at home.

After caffination I made what was certain to be an annoying call to the DMV. They have a new service where they will call you back and you don't have to be on hold so we went out and planted some beets and beans in the garden. He really likes sprinkling the seeds (or putting them in the holes I made) and then patting the dirt. Unfortunately he also liked digging up the rows and stepping on my tomato seedlings. The DMV eventually called back and assured me that, sadly, I had to handle my issue at an actual DMV. Luckily, after getting my number and learning of the ~2 hour wait I was able to take Oscar to daycare (the one diaper and two pieces of fruit weren't going to make it--especially over naptime). This is when I am really pleased we pay for full time care even if we don't technically need full time care (I only work three days a week). What would have been a total DMV nightmare turned into a chance to run several errands and then read a few pages of Code Name Verity and then it was (finally) my turn and the person helping me was quite pleasant and overall the entire thing sucked but not as much as I expected.

Then we had a bizarre 30 minute rainstorm at the exact time of Biscuit's tennis lesson so that got cancelled and instead we went to Target to return the 2 pairs of shorts I bought for her and buy 2 pairs of shorts she picked. It'll be all jean shorts this Spring and Summer. But, really, the girl was only convinced to go to Target at all because I told her I saw some shoes she might like (while buying the first pairs of shorts). Then she was out the door like a flash and we held out and did shoe browsing as a reward after shorts trying-on.

I want to pause at this point to be annoyed with Typepad (eating way too many posts lately); iPhoto (seemingly incompatible with Firefox running); and my computer (slow, perhaps bogged down by the 4 gazillion photo files). Anyway, annoyed.

So back to Oscar.  All of the sudden in the last 2 weeks or so he's talking. It's 95% incomprehensible to the passerby but they are clearly real words for real things. Many accompany the sign he already knows (like, car or up, or out) and many are words for things he doesn't have a sign for (wheel and who knows what else.)

He is also really cute at drawing. He does teeny little scribbles then big looping ovals then he runs off with the pencil (or sharpie) and tries to color on the wall/cushion/etc to get attention. Works every time :)

At this point I'm realizing I wrote an Oscar update rather recently so this might be boring. Oh well, better luck tomorrow.

The cutest

I mean honestly.

I love the light/blurriness/glowing dandilion. Oh, and the kid.

His little lips look funny here but he's making his proud smile where he pulls his lips over his teeth like he's trying not to grin but is just. so. pleased. with himself he can't help it. He's making the look at a kind woman who was trying to get him to blow on the dandilion. He was resisting her charms ;)

What cropping do we like?

And just because I love how iPhoto shows you the last 12 months so you're reminded of what happened exactly a year ago....March 12, 2012 (nowhere near Halloween) but look at that smile ;)

Helpers

On Friday at Trader Joe's Oscar pushed one of the little carts all around the store while Biscuit helped make sure he didn't run into anything or anyone and I grabbed groceries off the shelves.

At the Farmers' Market Biscuit does most of the shopping while I corral the baby. But once the strawberries are purchased they can share a snack while I grab a few last items.

In the yard Biscuit keeps an eye on her brother. She makes mud balls (to throw at the fence and see if they stick). He digs in the garden dirt. I get one or two things done in the house.

On the occasion she actually completes her chicken-care chore and fills their food, she also helps Oscar feed handfuls to the chickens he adores.

He's learned all about tools from daddy. After I removed the hinges on the old door, he tried to put the screws back for me.

While I was out yesterday, she surprised me by cleaning the kitchen counters. We celebrated by inviting the grandparents over for pie. She made the crust but left the filling to me.

Oscar is feeding himself (more importantly, he's actually eating what he's served at all). Tonight he spooned up all his risotto and all I had to do was cut up the meat.

These two really seriously awesome.

Lessons (re)learned

1. If Biscuit is asking like a terrible, whiny, feral child--to the point where I wonder aloud to Mr. H what we could be doing wrong raising such a rude and unkind girl--the correct answer is: bed. Yes, she can skip a bath, no she can't clean her room or do homework (or have ice cream). Bed. Even if the teeth aren't brushed.

Oh, and she's probably coming down with something.

2. If Oscar doesn't go right to sleep at naptime and is fussy/whiny but not screaming the answer is: diaper. Yes, he pooped and yes, it should be changed even though doing so is likely to cause an entirely missed nap. The solution is frequent room sniffs during the "laying-down-but-not-yet-asleep" phase of napping.

But look, photographic evidence they aren't always ungrateful poopy pants.

Mornings with Oscar

It will come as a surprise to exactly no one that young toddlers are sort of a pain. And require a lot of close supervision. So despite my thought each week that I could get so. much. done. on Monday morning I rarely do.

This morning I refocused away from my to-do list and tried to document time with a toddler.

First he refused to eat a banana for breakfast (he normally loves them) and when we got in the car he threw the banana at Biscuit. So she ate most of it.

After dropping Biscuit off at school Oscar and I went to Trader Joes where he was cooed at by the employees who know him by name and he enjoyed a sample of vegetarian sausage. He's actually very fun to shop with as long as he can't reach anything in the cart and throw it overboard (I'm looking at you, shallow carts at Raleys!) I gave him a pear to snack on and it turns out that while he loves apples, he doesn't love pears. So I ate that. Back in the car he finally ate some banana.

When we got home he helped carry in a bag and I put him in his highchair to eat rice krispies and milk (he ate a huge bowl of them yesterday). He threw the spoon and the rice krispies so I gave up in disgust, put him down and started doing dishes.

I heard a tell tale clinking and turned around to see that he'd grabbed the bowl off the table and was serving himself on the chair. He really does prefer to self feed these days. Especially with utensils. The tidiness didn't last and he started smearing it on the floor.

I asked him to clean it up so he helpfully picked up a single rice puff and put it in the trash. I wiped up the rest and he was off to grab books and ask for a story.

That lasted about 4 short pages. And he was off again to play with tools. For several minutes!

At this point (9:45) I realized if I wanted to fit in a run and not have him fall asleep in the stroller I'd better get on it. So while he tried to escape my (very messy) bed

I put on running clothes. Note he is still in pajamas. Whatever.

It was still chilly at 10 but very sunny. I had sort of a crappy run. Three miles just under a 10 minute pace. Bleh. Whatever at least I got out there. By the end he was soooooo close to dozing off.

So of course he was wide awake when we came in and helpfully threw away two dirty diapers (sense a theme here? He loves to throw away trash)

11 am time to try again on food. He ate the turkey and cheese. Threw the pear again (this time in sliced form but he wasn't fooled) and tried a big bite of red bell pepper. But only one bite. Then he went over and tried to open a drawer well over his head while signing "more, more." I opened the drawer and spotted a nearly empty bag of Craisins that he'd had a few of over a week ago. Yep, he remembered they were there! So Craisins and tangerine for dessert.

This is where Typepad crapped out on me 8 hours ago. 9:45 pm and I'm back to the post. Keeping it short in hopes of technological success.

At 11:15 I provide the pre-nap baba and he is very relaxed.

11:25 he laughs at my presumption he would like to nap

11:30 I hold him down. Surprisingly, he relaxes and I can sneak out.

11:45 I sneak the phone around the door to snap this photo. Proof of what my ears have told me. He's happy but not asleep.

Noon. He's asleep. And stayed asleep for 2 hours (!) While I tried to tick things off the to do list and spent way too long on this post and attendant technical challenges. Oh well.

365 portraits?

I'm mulling doing another thing-a-day project this year. In 2011 I did a photo a day. I only forgot twice all year although several days the photos were really bad. It was a fun exercise.

This year I'm considering a photo-a-day with a theme. Family-member-a-day. With a broad definition of family. Even if I don't stick with it I'm already enjoying working a bit on photographing people.

I have a feeling the challenge will be that some days we'll spend time with family that lives far away and I'll have several photos whereas other days I'll be at work and could maybe do a self portrait but will basically have crap.

So I think I'll be looser on myself this time. Aim for every day but really choose the best images from within a week or so to represent each day.

And by "best" I don't necessarily mean technically, best (although that would be nice) I mean representing our life best.

Like even an overexposed shot that shows the ridiculous game of "throw the practice golf ball" that overtook the living room yesterday. It was wild and crazy ;)

Or the fuzzy image that shows exactly how far Oscar can throw his socks from his crib. And how he empties out his blankets when he isn't sleeping (he pooped instead).

I want to work on different perspectives.

On capturing interests (chickens!) and expressions.

This may look freaky but he's trying to raise his eyebrows. Oh. My. Gosh. the laughter this has led to at the dining room table. He is hysterical rolling his eyes back to raise his brows (unsuccessfully).

Capturing context so we can see where  and how we live.

I do need to branch out from baby photos but he's so damn cute it's hard. Something to strive for.

Kid in the kitchen

Tonight Biscuit made the salad dressing. I'm listening to an audiobook* in which the author is teaching a group of women how to cook. I find myself annoyed and inspired by the book in about equal parts. But I will say it's really made me think more about making simple items (like dressings) from scratch.

So tonight I got home and laid out 3 vinegars and a lemon, a bottle of olive oil and the salt for Biscuit. I told her the author's 3:1 "recipe" for dressing (3 parts oil and 1 part acid) and let her choose her acid (red wine vinegar) and her add ins (chopped green onion and some garlic dijon mustard along with S&P). She measured, chopped, poured then put the lid on the jam jar and shook.

She tasted on a leaf and it wasn't quite right. I asked what she thought it needed and the thought more vinegar. Gosh darn it if she wasn't right--another splash and it was much improved and tasty.

That was cool.

The photos are of the smaller of the two artichoke obsessed boys in the house.

I'm thinking of trying homemade mayonnaise next--Mr. H and Biscuit like to dip their leaves. After weeks of dutifully scraping each leaf and then enjoying the heart Oscar said ta' heck with it and started refusing the leaves and begging hearts off everyone. Or just trying to get to them directly by starting on the stem side.

Oh look, the chef popped in to be part of a photo. Ha.