Oh what a year its been!

Dear Ellie,

You are the sunshine in my life ~ thats why i'll always be around.  Hee.  But really - YOU ARE!  I have such horrible mama guilt for having let your first year slide by so very (VERY) fast and not taking the time to let you know in writing just how special every one of those moments have been to me. 

Somehow in being less "busy" i am far busier than i have ever been.  Clearly i'm not any less busy but my days are different.  FAR far different from where they were say a year ago :)  These days i cook 3 meals from scratch, chase cotton balls in the wind (you) and in my *free* time i still knit, sew and try to do crafty things with your sister.  Despite my attempts to paint with you ~ you still are happy to eat paint, markers tops and whole crayons.  The other day you even pooped a pretty silver bead.  I swear i'm waiting for an entire christmas ornament to come out your bum!

These days you are really REALLY becoming my lil girl.  Every night your dad and i giggle about how funny you are.  And make no mistakes about it - you know it too.  One of your favorite things to do is push G around in a doll stroller.  Even as i type this i think ~ i'm going to have to get a picture of that this evening.  I bet that image alone will be one of my favorite memories for years to come.  And although your still a milky baby & sleepin with us, you LOVE to go for a ride on daddy for bedtime books.  Of course your attention span is all of 6.5 seconds, you will NOT be left behind when your sister takes off on her daddy's back into your bedroom.  Sometimes you'll stay for the duration, but lately you've taken to dancing in your diaper on the chair next to the bed.  Typically this chair is precariously placed on top of at least 3 books and you dance to make the chair wiggle, sometimes with a hat or headband haphazardly placed on your head.  While all of this may just be another day in the button factory for me ~ it gives your daddy heart palpitations so sometimes i come to the rescue. 

Lets see what else.  ohh FOOD.  You FINALLY dig food.  You went through an astronaut phase where all you'd eat were pureed food from pouches.  No matter how i prepared the exact.same.food. if it didn't come from a pouch ~ you weren't havin it.  While i was thrilled that you finally had accepted some form of nourishment independent of me.  Good lord almighty, those pouches are ridiculously expensive.  But now you're like the rest of us and chow down whatever is put before you.  (insert choir of angels 'ahhh' here.) 

You love to love babies and you love love loooove your sis.  And hee...you love to be a lil sis.  Some days i swear you do things specifically with the intent of pissing G off.  And some days - i'll admit.  Its pretty funny.  And at times its weird taking a backseat to someone else who i consider quite tiny, it is awesome.  An insanely powerful mama type of awesome that i clearly i can't find the words for.

 Awed,
Mama

3/4 of a year - WHAAA

So sweetie, you're like growing way way WAYWAYWAY tooo quickly. and while its cool and all, i want my baby to stick around. you are toooooooooooooo cute. (and way funny at this age too)

Funny - you know we play around with baby signing. While i do think it stimulates your mind and gives us a chance to communicate earlier, really...its just a hoot. Like right now you do 'up', 'finished', 'hello', 'milk' and 'food' and they all look identical. So while technically you're just flailing, i'll read something into it and give it meaning :P The real hilarity comes in with watching you though...you're just so purposeful with each movement. Contextually it all makes complete sense, but its fun to watch you're Daddy try and read your cues sometimes as he just walked in the door from work.

Not-so-funny: rolling off the bed. PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEEEEEEASE for the love of god STOP. You are not superman. you do not have a cape, or wings or anything else cool that will make our CONCRETE FLOOR less painful. If daddy (uhh or mommy) have bad BO, just give us the sign. mmmk?

Funny - that snort baby laugh. your sister did it too. but let me tell you, it never gets old and is just as funny every. single. time.

Not-so-funny: nursing alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll   night long. nufff said. Funny - (so we can end on a good note, right) That tooth...i'm going to say it...you have the cutest little tooth E. i know i know - lady get ahold of yourself. its a tooth. but i'm your mama. and i think its adorable.

,
mama

Uhhh really?!?

So G went to summer camp this year at a gymnastics studio. Part birthday present, part sanity check for mom. Either way it was deeeeeelightful for all involved.

Aside from the omghowcantheybesobitchyat6 girls, a good time was had by all. And i sufficiently made up for any loss of coffee in that week alone. We had a great excuse to meet daddy for lunch at the asian grocery, we enjoyed each others company and watching G 'freeze' for an hour on the trampoline at night. We watched forward roll after forward roll till WE got a bit dizzy.


But nothing could have prepared me for sunday night.

Completely offhand, i make some '50 First Dates' reference about the "kiddies doing flippies" and G walks a few paces away and tosses herself up in the air -- and lands flat on her back after a lil head spasm backwards.

Well as any good parent would do, i maybe, sorta, kinda asked "WHAT THE FOCK ARE YOU DOING?"
---Mommy, I was just trying to do a flip

WHAT?!? Who does this? Flat footed on the ground my 4 year old just tossed herself in the air and tried to do a back tuck. I know, I know she could have gotten really hurt (believe me we dealt with that later) but duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude.

my kid just tried to flip. rock on with your badass self G. i love that she truely believes there is nothing she can't do.

love. it.

SHE is here!

And so it begins...

So today I dropped G off at daycare for their Halloween party & parade. ALLLLLLLLLLLLl the lil girls were princesses. Which of course is practically unavoidable at 3 years old, but nonetheless...every single one was a specific Disney princess. Since i sew and i'm a dork - i just can't do off-the-shelf costumes. Nothing against folks who do ~ there were quite a few hours last week where i wish i didn't have this form of OCD. Alas...

All of G's lil friends kept coming up to her and asking her "Which princess are you?" After about the 3rd girl asked and G still hadn't had a chance to get a word in edgewise she looked at me with big puppy dog eyes. I smiled and told her - your not a movie princess...your a REAL princess.

She glowed and I fought back tears.

Definition of a Daddy

Did i mention...

I'm pregnant :P



There are so few & far between photos of me as I try my darndest to stay behind the camera, but the light was beautiful and i was dressed....so i threw caution to the wind and let pete-a-lee play with my camera.

I'm pretty glad i did!

G's Top 10

So i know my momma friends with 2+ will attest that you just fall madly in love with your first before the second is born, but duuuuuuuude - who woulda though they'd make it soo stinkin easy.

So in lieu of a lengthy mooshy love letter; i'll keep it short and sweet

Top 10 Reasons I love my "Hunny Bunny"
1) she brings me water &/or juice when i need it
2) she saves me snacks from her lunch at school
3) she sits beside me and sews for hours on end.
4) she insisted that we get a rabbit for dinner from the farmers market
5) she LIVES for farmers market trips
6) she thinks her last name is 'alca-tater'
7) leaves stickers everywhere (the walls, her comforter, my pillow)
8) is as 'tude-tastic' as her mama. (mama you're gonna whine when my baby comes out too and i'm just not gonna wanna hear it!)
9) kisses her kitty cat every morning & night just like a regular member of the family
10) she looooooooves to cook with us in the kitchen
11) her dances make me soo happy

of course there is so much more, but i promised myself that i'd let this be a happy free-association exercise. and with that...another pic of G's fall wardrobe.

My Cuteness

I was going to save this pic for when i have more of the 'fall wardrobe' done, but
1) ha. like i have the time
2) isn't she just too cute?!?

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potatoes

MORE!!!!!

So one of the most fun things we've ever done with our garden is plant potatoes. Potatoes & Tomatoes were the crop du anno ~ and boy did that work on G's language skills :) I've never actually seen a potato plant so it was a fun experiment all around. I mean even from the day we received the amazing package ~ its been a blast. The companies packaging was insane. Like a little present. Then all summer the plants flourished, flowered and grew grew grew. But despite all this ~ we had NO idea what awaited us beneath the soil.

We got a decent amount. Certainly nothing to sustain us through the winter, but it was fun nonetheless. AND since these are heirloom potatoes, we'll be able to plant some of our product in the spring again and continue without any further purchases. Unlike just about everyone else...thank-you Monsanto. (grrr)

Last night we FINALLY got around to cleaning our crop and though a messy job...someone's gotta do it. And thankfully that someone is G!




And because we were feeling the potato love ~ we went to a farm for their annual pancake breakfast & potato harvest. To me it was a step above chuck-e-cheese, but G had fun...and that was really the intent. (or so i keep telling myself)

G's first...

It was a raucous hot day made only more so by the zillions of parents & running kids, buuut. G was THRILLED to have her first art show. "Just like mommy, my stuffs is on the walls". (swoon)


Then while she was all good & sugared up, of course she had to show off her extra load of sillies by getting into her baby brodder's seat. (no we don't know - i swear. And even G technically thinks its a girl, but due to all of her friends, is less familiar with the words 'baby sister' But no worries, she'll assure you..."it does NOT hab a penis mommy!")

You know its time to turn the AC on when...

Your nudie daughter is playing 'stuck in the mud' on the brown leather sofa.

(just realized i haven't posted in awhile and despite not having much to say...I figured i'd pop in to say 'yo')

She loves me!

Last week while shopping at wegmans we found these AWESOME cookies. Not only were they cute lil butterfies, but they were gluten free and gooood. (usually not a word combination you see together in one sentance)

Anyhooters - we each had a cookie in the car which left one for for G to take as her snack for school later in the week. Unbeknownst to me this was her snack in its entirity (daddies!) but alas...the story is sweet.

What you see above is all G ate of her fabulous cookie. Some might suspect that she truely didn't like the cookie that much. But i can attest that she did. However she told her teachers that they were Mommy's favorite cookies and good for her tummy. and so she wanted to save it for me.

awe swoon. makes a mama heart happy!

We're ba-ack

So its been awhile. It's amazing how hard it is to blog when your internet at home crashes every time you pull up the site :P

So rather than trying to catch up on everything that's passed here are a few lil snippits of life - then i'll just pick up where I left off.

we had a beautiful memorial day weekend


Then Peter took G to their first father daughter camping weekend. this is where i used to go with my dad, but alas the #1 rule: NO MOMS


Then we went to the beach with Grandma :) (yes thats a mama smile there as it was the first VACATION i've had in years. You mamas out there know what i'm talking about.


And now - I've just passed the 1/2 way point for baby #2. Its like time just doesn't stop for me to catch a breath or anything.

Whew!

Problems anyone?

So is anyone out there in cyber world having problems with this blog???

At home it seems to short circut our wireless connection but here at the office all seems fine.

This inherently STINKS as all photos and such are at home on my play pc - but i'm sure i'll figure something out.

I just wanted to see if anyone else was having probs lately or perhaps it twas just lil ol me.

Danke!
~j

A Walk in the Park

A errm month or so ago we had the most magical saturday walk around Walney park. I love that place. I especially love how close it is. What i don't love are the deer ticks. More on that later.

Like any good hike with a toddler it started off with a 'Ihafta go poooottty' as soon as your far enough away from a good working toilet. I'll spare you the pictures, but rest assured ~ there are some :) We followed the stream through the woods and wildflowers. The goal of the day was to find morels, but meh. That didn't last long.


We saw a snake, a turtle, actually found some pitcher plants (that was my favorite part). Stopped and watched the cutest lil family of teeny squirrels play up in the trees. Watch a beautifully green inchworm work her way up a tree. And played with photos...all of us.

Clearly a month post ~ i didn't do the day justice, but you'll just have to believe me when i say...it was awesome.

Big News

So i'm trying my bestest to catch up. I have so many fun stories and wonderful photos to share, but really...first things first. Coming this December...

In the cherry blossoms' shade. There is no such thing as a stranger

and that was certainly the case at today's Cherry Blossom festival - YOGA event. Right there on the national mall hoards of yogi's showed up for a once a year opportunity to do yoga outside, under the cherry blossoms (well not really, but...), and en mass. I personally LOVE huge yoga classes and i LOVE LOVE outdoor yoga so this was a super duper treat.

The day started out gray gray much like last weekend and I wasn't super duper motivated to deal with cherry blossom 'mainstream' folks. BUT pete-a-lee assured me he was feeling the parking karma and promised to drop G & I off close and meet up with us. We skirted traffic as only a (quasi) local can and i was pleasantly surprised by the ease. Peter found a parking spot RIGHT in front of the white house. No, like right right in front. It could not have been a better spot. But like my mom said...only an IDIOT would drive downtown during the cherry blossom festival :P
There was live music and incense (from somewhere) and the vibe was dreamy. And of course, G participated like only a 3 year old can.

The sun finally came out - we all have happy rosy cheeks. We ultimately loved every minute of it.

namaste,
the alcantarians

Cherry Blossom Time

In recent years we've taken to visiting the cherry blossoms when the nerds do. i.e. at sunrise before all the tourists get out of bed. Well at least the jerky/irritating ones.

This year however was a M.A.J.O.R letdown. The skies were gray the weather was cold and we were significantly unmotivated. Despite all that ~ we still managed a decent time. Like a true local G had never been to a monument (that her pea brain could remember. don't spaz, we've taken her many times...as a baby)

Anyhoo - she thought Jefferson was the coolest dude in the world. And LOVED being in the monument. The elevator didn't hurt either. And yes - we took the elevator to the top because we were already visiting the potties and i thought the elevator would be a bigger "WOW" factor. Silly mommy forgot that an elevator is WOW factor enough!

I'll spare you all the blossom photos and just leave you with a selection of my favorites.








oh and it was flooded too.

Before & After

So going through some photos and I have quite a few before & after shots I wanted to share.

Our Home:
this before is before before~ like before i was preg and before we had a toddler...hence the extreme clean :)


the after --ahh i love. after having always moved in the fall, its nice to have something bright & spring-y. Plus i think it personally reflects the now-me much better. -- the wide angle lens doesn't hurt either.


And since i don't have a before of the dress -- which would really just be a pile of yummy fabric...here's the dress as all nice & pressed.


and in action!

and just to toot my own horn a bit. this was my FIRST ever pattern! As most of you know- i love to sew, but i really felt like its time to up the ante a bit. This was a super simple pattern to begin with and despite a (few) minor panic attacks about fit...i couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
(for anyone interested it's the modkid - frida dress with michael miller fabric)