Bleh

Mo's finally feeling better, and now I'm sick again. Yuck.

Wildlife carnival

Our bird and squirrel feeder was wildly successful and is providing hours of entertainment. Now, what project are we going to do today?

Snowing again...not like that's news

Dear winter storm Titan,
Let me start by saying I'm sorry that we're just not as excited about you as we might have been in December. It's been a busy season. If you want to get our attention you will have to give wedgies to puppies or learn to tap dance. It's not your fault, but you are really late to the party. So move along now, honey. That's quite enough.
Sincerely,
Me

Today we are actively being snowed in. Again. Again again. Last I checked they expect us to get 8-12 inches and not climb out of the 20s. I have a little activity planned for the morning. Mo and I are slathering some pine cones with peanut butter and rolling them in bird seed. Please note we collected the pine cones Saturday morning when it was 50 degrees and sunny. We are going to hang all the pine cones from a stick and then suspend the stick from the big hook outside the kitchen window. Then we can watch the little birds feast. And we'll watch to see how long it takes our friendly neighborhood squirrels rip the whole thing down. Usually quite acrobatic and providing at least several minutes of entertainment. They are efficient little rascals. Then maybe we'll bake cookies and watch movies and shovel as little as humanly possible. I mean, it's supposed to be 80 by Thursday, right?

Real winter

After enjoying several very mild winters in a row--this time last year we were at the playground in sweatshirts--we are being squeezed under the thumb an an extended period of real cold. The snow lingers on the ground long enough to become dirty looking around the edges. Quite astonishing after being essentially winter-free for a few years.

We had a lovely Christmas with family and then celebrated Mo's 3rd birthday in style. Amy and Mike came from Pittsburgh for the birthday weekend, which was a real treat. We played this game called Head's Up with them one evening and laughed until we nearly peed our pants. The main source of hilarity was Robb's ability to free associate answers that sometimes had little to do with the subject at hand.

Now we have a visit from Jenny to look forward to in two weeks, before she ships off to her next assignment in South Korea. What an adventure!

Robb is experiencing a winter of the soul, if you consider our refrigerator and pantry to be the vessels in which Robb's soul lives...and I do. Robb needs to lower his sodium and protein, and I need to eliminate saturated fat. I'm not exactly turning cartwheels over making these changes because it means more work in the kitchen from me. We are getting rid of most processed foods and cooking as much as possible from scratch, that way we control the contents of what we eat. But Robb is especially despondent over dietary changes. He will move toward better health kicking and screaming. I remind him that we are also modeling good habits for Mo. I don't think that makes it any easier for him.

We are still in computer limbo. The new tower (refurbished) had a power supply issue. It was still under warranty, so Robb swapped it out for another new (refurbished) tower. And it has a power supply issue too. Very frustrating. So it also needs to go back, this time we're thinking of swapping it out for a different brand/kind/whatever. This must be a problem specific to the one we purchased. Our old computer was a refurb, and it lasted about 4 years, so I still have faith in refurbs. Hopefully we will get this resolved by the end of the month and be on our merry computing way.

I also went with a friend to see the Van Gogh show at The Phillips Collection before it closes.  It was fascinating, especially the Rouin family portraits.

Happy New Year!

First day of winter and it's 70 degrees here

In no particular order:

The Rainbow Loom is not the season's hottest gift; marketers at craft retailers are trying to trick you. [I stand corrected.] Children really like stickers and chap stick and glitter.

The motherboard in our desktop decided to retire for a long winter's nap. Sad face exclamation mark. As it was home to the downloaded music, the mix cds will all have to wait until we've moved the hard drive into a new host.

Robb was in the right place at the right time this morning. He found an extension ladder at a yard sale for $25. /Score! It looks like our gutters might get cleaned before the new year after all.

We've had a problem with aggressive teens using our side yard as a short cut into the neighborhood behind our house. They stole some things from Robb's truck. And dropped an f-bomb on him one day when he caught a dozen of them walking casually around our house. While he was holding Mo. Not cool. Robb said, "Excuse me? And the kid said, "You heard me, OLD MAN, f*ck you." Grr. That was a couple months ago. Today I saw two of them carrying skateboards cut around the truck, so I said, "What are you doing in my yard?" They looked at each other and laughed, so I shouted, "HEY A**HOLES!" out the front window. They continued on their merry way, a little faster but undeterred. I forgot to shake my fist. Next time...

I was feeling pretty festive and generous of spirit until then. Hmmpf.

Mo is a terrible eater right now. She demands processed meat (bacon, pepperoni, sausage) and uncooked noodles (spaghetti, ramen) all the time. How do you get through these phases of lousy toddler eating habits?

Robb's giant kidney stone will live to fight another day. It was so fearsome that the lithotripter broke on Thursday. We'll try it again in January.

I wore flip flops to walk the dog just now. Happy first day of winter!

Chilly morning today

Every once in a while I come across a poem and think, "Mom would like this." (For example, the one I posted here.) She loves to play the just-a-dumb-PE-teacher card. But--and I know she would totally mind that I'm pulling back the curtain on her brain here--she double majored in Physical Education and English in college, then went on to complete her Masters in Education, and a significant amount of coursework beyond her Masters. When asked why she did not go for a PhD, she replied that it would rendered her fit for only administration or university work. And that wasn't her cup of tea.

"Waking on the Farm"
by Robert Bly

I can remember the early mornings—how the stubble,
A little proud with frost, snapped as we walked.

How the John Deere tractor hood pulled heat
Away from our hands when we filled it with gas.

And the way the sun brought light right out of the ground.
It turned on a whole hill of stubble as easily as a single stone.

Breathing seemed frail and daring in the morning.
To pull in air was like reading a whole novel.

The angleworms, turned up by the plow, looked
Uneasy like shy people trying to avoid praise.

For a while we had goats. They were like turkeys
Only more reckless. One butted a red Chevrolet.

When we washed up at noon, we were more ordinary.
But the water kept something in it of the early morning.

Making freezer waffles

One of our cooking projects with Mo was waffles. While I pre-measured the ingredients and lined everything up on the counter, Robb rounded up our little chef.



First, we all washed our hands and donned our aprons. I think the donning of aprons is Mo's favorite part of cooking. Robb wore a Valentine apron made by Great Aunt Sissy, Mo wore a green checked apron that was made for me as a child by Barbara Streaker (my namesake), and I wore a white and pink apron made by Theresa.



Sukey could feel the excitement buzzing in the kitchen and came to see what was going on.



Up on the step stool, Mo's first task was to mix the dry ingredients together in the big bowl. At first she was tentative, but then she gained confidence and enthusiasm.



Robb tried to deflect everything that was flying out of the bowl. But you know what they say: you can't make a dozen waffles without spilling a cup of flour...



Mo was really concentrating.



Then we added the wet ingredients. Robb assisted with the mixing.



The batter looked good. So just when Mo's attention was fading, Robb got her cleaned up, and I took over cooking the waffles.



Fast forward a bit, and we have a bag of Mo-made waffles ready for the freezer.



And the next morning I warmed them up in the toaster, and Mo enjoyed a breakfast that she made herself!

Lenten list

1. Only on days I wear khaki pants my black dog twines around my legs like a cat. This morning was a double dose as I also had a white shirt on. The shirt I managed to salvage with some masking tape. But the pants went into the hamper. It looked like I rolled around in the vacuum canister.

2. "Uppidah!" I don't want to forget this current Mo-ism. Although she knows and uses the words "up" and "down," uppidah is her aloha of directional instructions. It means "pick me up," "put me down," "lift me up and over," "move that obstacle out of my way," and "help me climb up and/or down."

3. I used the words el cheapo to describe something when I was talking to my artist friend Juan who is from Honduras. This was about five years ago, and it's still intermittently on my mind. He asked if I had some expensive piece of art equipment, and I replied no, that I use an el cheapo version. Then I paused and asked, "That's not real Spanish?" He laughed and shook his head. But upon reflection it strikes me as racist to imply that goods produced in Spanish-speaking countries are low quality or inferior. If I'm uncomfortable using a phrase in speaking to Juan, I probably shouldn't use it at all, right?

4. Two current projects are underway for the duration of Lent (and hopefully beyond). First, I am going to update my family history blog at least once a week. I have posted twice there so far. Second, I am going to have Mo assist me in the kitchen at least once a week. I think of this goal as "Cooking with Sasquatch." Although I'm not sure if she's the sasquatch or if I am. We made mini-pizzas this week. Hilarity ensued. I got pictures.

5. My friends are attending a workshop seminar thing about potty training in two weeks, and they are encouraging me to go with them. I'm not going. We've been working on it since October, and I feel comfortable with the progress and our methods. It's a war of attrition that I will win because I have greater resources and infinite patience. We introduced a bribe into the mix: when Mo successfully uses the potty, she gets an M&M as a reward. She will do just about anything for "emmy-emms." End of seminar. [Edited to add: after a grumpy day (on my part) and very little success on the pot (on Mo's part) I might be reconsidering my stance here. Not feeling like such a winner right now.]

Please please please let me get what I want

Earlier this year I wrote about doing yard work at the rental house, that I wanted to leave it nicer than we found it, that I wanted us to be out by the end of the year but didn't have a concrete plan. Well, the wheels are now in motion, and, while we won't make it out by the end of the year, we will come pretty darn close.

Part one: We are selling the old abandoned apartment. That part feels like the snuffing of a dream. As long as we still had the old abandoned apartment there could exist a remote glimmer of hope of living in Ocean City again. It was a fantasy. An expensive fantasy. We've been living backwards owning a place we don't live in and renting the place we do live in. It could not go on forever. With my cousin and his wife as the buyers it's not as much like lemon juice in the eye as it could be. It's staying in the family--I think that makes it easier on my mom, too. It's just the end of a chapter, not the closing of a book. We can go back for a visit. We can stay there again sometime for a vacation. All mitigating circumstances considered I'll probably blubber at the settlement table anyway.

Part two: Our landlord is selling the rental house, the house I call Fig Point. Although it needs a lot, A LOT of work, Robb and I kept revisiting the idea of taking on the challenges and expense and making it officially our home. What's the worst she can say--no--right? We made our landlord an offer factoring in four years of rental and all the repairs. She liked our number. Yay! And said she would have to get her lender to approve the short sale. Boo! Our landlord has zero equity in the house. And no matter what sales price she likes, the decision to accept or reject an offer is out of her hands once her bank is involved. The bank won't be sentimental about our time here or consider all the rent money we've thrown away. The bank will lowball the cost of repairs to minimize their losses. Very disappointing. Our landlord's realtor comes this afternoon to take photographs and put a lock box on the front door just in time for Christmas. This part to me feels like the end of the world. So the Mayans were right after all.

Part three: We are buying a house nearby. We should be fully moved by the end of January. It has a detached two car garage for Robb's workshop. It has a fenced yard for Mo and Sukey to play in. It has a fourth bedroom for my studio. It has two closets in the master bedroom which will breed domestic tranquility. It has a terrible kitchen but not worse than the Fig Point kitchen, but we can fix it in a few years. It has several of Mo's tot friends right around the corner. And without the expenses of the old abandoned apartment, without our rent, and without a car payment, it has a lot less financial stress. It has vacations without me having panic attacks about money. This part feels like the sun breaking through clouds after a hurricane. Now we'll have to think of something to call our new home. We'll have to plant a fig tree. We'll have to paint the deck and hang curtains and gather our family and friends around the fireplace. I can't wait!

(*Post title refers to, of course, The Smiths.)

Sicky

Poor Mo. Her cough that started on Saturday gained a fever overnight. She's parked on the couch watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now. It's the only way I can think to get Mo to sit still. That, and surrounding her with all of her favorites: Sukey, Brownie, and Nen. Sukey is an excellent nurse--can you even see her in there under the toddler and the stuffed animals. I want to build a fire in the fireplace, but if I open the door to get wood Sukey will jump off the couch to investigate. It can wait. The beagle on the left is Brownie. We adopted him from Ikea. The bunny on the right is Nen, and she was born at Hallmark. She is not gigantic. We have some foreshortening issues going on in this photo. I hope my little peanut is feeling better by Christmas.

Two words

Stomach bug.

Test fit gone wild

Maureen tried on the Simple Dress today. I wish I could tell you that these were the outtakes from the photo shoot. We don't usually interrupt play time with a fashion show, so the novelty factor was high. She pounced on the pile of discarded clothing. This was my favorite picture because of the little piggies peeking out --



But the test fit revealed that the dress is too long, and the neckline is kind of snug in the front.



So it's back to the drawing board cutting mat.

Since you've been gone

Dear Dad,
Mom and I have been having a busy week.








But it's not the same without you. Hurry home!
Love,
Momo

Hell of a month

It's the last day of January and already I've met the year's sadness quota. On December 28th we buried Aunt Julie, three years almost to the day after Grandma B died (December 29th). Lisa passed on January 19th. And then Great Aunt Sissy on January 28th. In many ways Sissy's death has been more difficult than Grandma's. My relationship with her was less complicated. She was full of pragmatism--not like Grandma at all in that way. And I am sad on Maureen's behalf because Sissy was getting to know my daughter through letters and photos. Sissy was less than a month away from her ninetieth birthday. How could I have expected her to be around for Maureen's life? I supposed I did not. But I'm having trouble imagining Mo's childhood without a Sissy in it. She was such a larger-than-life character in my own childhood, driving from Vermont to North Carolina on the spur of the moment. Her letters and visits such a treat. We are surrounded by reminders, artifacts of that love. The snowflakes that hang from my kitchen window. The blue pillow in Mo's bedroom. The little bluebird of happiness on the shelf. Stacks of cards and letters tied with ribbon, each decorated with a hand drawn cartoon of herself putting a letter into a mailbox.



The quilt she made us as a wedding gift. You should have seen how twisted and gnarled her hands were after a lifetime of use. First as an Army nurse in World War II, then as a nurse on the homefront working nights and raising seven children with Uncle Bob. Always crafting, cooking, knitting, quilting--and writing letters by hand. She was a prolific letter writer. Sissy corresponded regularly with dozens and dozens of relatives and friends. When she moved in with Margie and Ken several months ago, I wrote I was sure my letter would find its way to her as the USPS owed her for keeping them flush all these years. She was the glue that kept my dad's family together and informed about each others comings and goings. She was the memory keeper.



I dug through my wedding photos to find a picture of Sissy.*



I love these photos of her with Uncle Rich: Marjorie Amber Brigham Miller.



Here are Sissy and Aunt Julie.



And here is a great photo of my Grandma Brigham, although she was totally self conscious about the spot on her cheek and hated having her picture taken. I think she really looked beautiful that day.

[*How much has our photographic technology changed in the past 10 years that my wedding photos are a physical collection of photographs in a box rather than a couple file folders on my computer!]

Robb made me

I'm not such a fan of staged formal photos, but I'm glad that Robb pushed for a family Christmas picture this year. I pushed for us to wear matching outfits--Robb was not a fan of that at all. We made an appointment at The Big-Box and used a coupon from their website: free sitting fees ($10 per person at most places) and $3.99 per sheet for prints. !!! The photographer did a nice job, and Momo was an angel. I screen-grabbed these thumbnails to show you. Merry merry!

Baptisms

I recognize that I am boring in that I am completely obsessed with my infant daughter and only posting on baby-related topics these days, but there's really no avoiding it.



Yesterday was Jack's baptism at Grace Church. Here are the three little cousins together at church all looking very serious: Larry, Mo, and Curly. Maureen was wearing a dress from my own babyhood. In fact, it is the dress I arrived in when I was adopted. The hem is embroidered Mommy Loves Me. Indeed.



And Maureen's baptism was three weeks ago. (Has it really been that long?!) Here she is with her godparents Vitad and Amy.



I love this picture of Maureen with her three grandmas.



We were very spoiled to have Rick and Theresa fly across the country to meet Maureen. It was so good that they could be here for her baptism. A girl can never have too many grandparents!

Two months

Last Thursday Maureen was two months old. That means I've survived two full seasons of Survivor Newborn. Better yet, so has she! She had a trip to the doctor's on Wednesday and got vaccinated (ouch!) and some new stats:  little Mo weighed 10 pounds 7 ounces and measured 22 inches long.

[**EDITED 3/9/11 TO ADD** I had a feeling that the nurse made a mistake when she weighted baby Mo last Wednesday at her two month checkup. I was sure she was over 11 pounds. Today at the "weigh & feed" she clocked in at 11 pounds 14 ounces.]



"You and I"
by Jonathan Potter

You are a warm front
that moved in from the north,
a blind spot bearing beautiful gifts,
a garden in the air, a golden filament
inscribed with the name of God's hunting dog,
a magic heirloom mistaken for a feather duster,
a fountain in a cow pasture, an anachronistic anagram
annoyed by anonymity, a dollar in the pocket
of a winter coat in summer.

And I am the discoverer of you.

Checking in

My absence from the blog seems to imply that I've been really sick since that was my last post. Not the case. The bug went from Robb to me to Mom and seemed to be a 24-48 hour thing. Maureen dodged the bullet.



The real reason I haven't been posting was that Robb was working in Silver Spring for 2 weeks. We spent that time staying at Mom's house. It gave me a chance to practice leaving the house with the baby. Running errands with the munchkin in tow is a whole new ballgame. I am relearning life skills by trial and error, like taking a shower, walking the dog, going to the mall, purchasing a sandwich, attending staff meetings at work, and going to the doctor. It's occupational therapy. Robb's taken Maureen to the grocery store several times. I'm still working up to that one.