Spoiled Mommy.

This whole Mother's Day thing is aaaaaaalright. I got two cards from my hubby, one from my baby girl, one from my godson, and BIL, SIL and two nieces. I'm getting a massage, and got some new books, flowers, a couple of my favorite treats.... I also got an amazing card and gift from my best friend (This pic of my cards was taken before hers arrived.) The gift is SO special. She sent me my very own recipe card box to keep my grandma's recipes, some of her family's, and my favorites as I collect them.

If I had known it was going to be this much fun, I would have gotten knocked up a long time ago!

Very upsetting.

Is anyone else disturbed at a cellular level by the proliferation of M&M flavors of late?

First there was peanut butter, then almond, then krispy. I didn't have too much of an argument with dark chocolate, although it was unncecessary. But NOW, Mint Crisp and Wildly Cherry. It's not right.

M&Ms are supposed to be milk chocolate. Peanut if you MUST.

Ugh.

Mint M&Ms.

Ugh. This bothers me far too much, but what can I say? I'm a purist.

It's been a big day....

First, Em woke up with a boo-boo. Way to stay on top of that fingernail trimming, mom.


Then it was off to the Farmer's Market, then the Calabasas Fine Arts Festival (more about that later). We got some great pieces, and all got a little too much sun. Em's cheeks are a little toasted, but not too badly.

Most importantly, however, Em finally learned how to blow a raspberry. She decided to try out this trick for the first time while eating... with a mouth full of green beans, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal. She thought that was particularly amusing.


Once we were both cleaned up, she decided that she was interested in the camera.

Yummy....

If anyone has wondered how I keep my husband attracted after 5 years, I'll let you in on my secret.... a sweet perfume, known as...... Eau De Baby Puke.
This is why I have to go shopping so often. Everything I own is covered in puke stains. She knows when I'm wearing expensive stuff too. This is a JCrew t-shirt. She didn't touch the $5 tank I put on for the rest of the day. Ah, well. Such is the glamorous life of a stay-at-home-mommy.

She's mobile, folks....

While E is not quite crawling, she is now highly mobile, and faster than you'd expect. Her motion is something in between an army crawl and a breakdancer doing the inchworm. Unfortunately, this newfound mobility has resulted in sad little rugburned knees. In response, we purchased knee protectors, which actually look pretty retro and cool.

Baby E Goes to the Park

On an outing with her Great Auntie, E went to the park for the first time. We went on the swings:














On the slide:















And played in the grass:















All and all, it was a great outing. I love doing all these new things with her.

Just Because....

Preserving a real treasure....

This week, my big project was learning how to use our scanner and scan in some of my grandmother's recipes. If you read this blog regularly, you'll know that my Grandma Ruby passed away in February. If you had the pleasure of meeting my grandma, you'll know that she was an incredible baker. There were always cookies and cakes and breads in her kitchen. She always knew what your favorite was and had it coming out of the oven when you came over. She send me tons of care packages in college. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the counter in her sunny kitchen, drinking Sunny Delight and helping her press Gingersnaps. What a lady.

Rather than have my Aunt type up her recipes, I thought it would be more meaningful to preserve them as I remember them: on recipe cards, aged and creased, with the occasional splatter of oil. After searching through the boxes for my favorites, I have 28 pages of great memories... waiting to be perfected in my own kitchen.

Blasts from the Past.....

In the last few months, I started pages on My Space and Facebook to see if I might find a few old friends. I have been absolutely overwhelmed. I'm now nearly 150 Friends strong on Facebook, and have found some great people on My Space as well. A couple of the highlights.

First, my elementary school best friend. We lost touch after I headed across town to jr. high. I have been hoping to find her and catch up for a long time. Now that that process is started, I can't wait to learn more. I'm pretty much status quo yuppie scum. I know that. So can y'all imagine that this amazingly talented, wild woman used to have sleepovers at my house..... what I won't mention is that she used to have her bedroom wallpapered in NKOTB.... ooops. Did I say that out loud?

http://www.misskatiekay.blogspot.com/

I've also made peace with my ex, found old sorority and theatre friends, and discovered that one of my buds from college auditioned for American Idol last year. Let me say, for the record that he was ROBBED, and Paula was on crack.

Gas Prices and Stupidity reach new heights.....

This. is. DUMB.



To quote Hubby, I'm all for candidates reaching out to the nooks and crannies of American pop-culture, but isn't this going a little too far?

I just lost respect for all three of these people.

P.S. Gas at the station in front of our apartment complex is $3.99 The end is near.

Ancient Solutions to Simple Problems.

Behold the Neti Pot. So, we've probably all seen Neti Pots as the butt of a joke on Six Feet Under or with Dr. Oz on Oprah, but who really does that? Who uses a gravy boat to pour salt water into their nose? ME! That's who. I'm on my second round of a nasty infection that our little family has been passing around for about 6 weeks now. I feel miserable, and I was desperate. I saw this cheap Neti Pot at Thrifty, and we got home and tried it.

I rate the success of the Neti Pot at a 9. A doctor once told me that I have super-sized sinuses, and I have been plagued with Sinusitis as long as I can remember. I use sinus spray, medicines, everything I can possibly do. It was a strange experience. During the act, it kinda feels like when you're underwater and accidentaly snort a little pool water, but about two minutes afterward, I got some serious goodies out of my sinuses (TMI? Sorry). My head already feels cleared of pressure. I love it.

Hubby's warming up to it slowly, but I think I'll be investing soon in one that's not cheap plastic.

Check out this NYT article for more info.

Baby E Meets A Puppy....

Today, we went to the homestead to visit my folks, who were also babysitting their furry grandchildren (i.e. My sister's dogs). At one point, I was carrying E through the house and she caught sight of Adelaide, the Aussie, and started laughing hysterically. Now Em has watched the cats, and smiled when they are close, and even petted them a few times, but it never have they gotten half the reaction that Adelaide did. The gigglefest went on for at least 10 minutes, and she was just delighted every time Adelaide was in the room. Although she has the reputation of being the "bad dog" (okay, so she's occasionally a little naughty), she seemed to know that she had to be gentle with the human puppy, and sniffed her and kissed her and even put up with Em grabbing her face. My kid is such an animal person. Yay.

It must be said that I am seriously considering stealing my sister's dog if we move out of State. E loves her, and must have her.

Springtime means......

The occasional Margarita. Mmmmmm, salty, limey, tequila-laced goodness.

The early bird....

Well, I've discovered the secret to successful personal maintenance while caring for a 6 month old. Get up at the crack of dawn. Because his commute is so unbearable, Hubby usually leaves home around 6:30. After that, I never sleep, even though I know Em isn't getting up for at least 1/2 an hour. Usually, I try to fight it, lay there and pet the cats or something. Today, I got up, and had time to really shower, wash my hair, and even get halfway through styling it before the peanut started making noise. I guess that makes me a morning person. Who'da thunk it?

Pttttthhhhhht!

Emma has a new habit. She sticks out her tongue. All the time. But mostly when she's really happy, or really concentrating on something. Here are a few examples:

Playing on the floor:


Eating Dinner:

After Bathtime:

Springtime means......

Sunglasses on the baby! She has at least 5 pair, in case you were wondering.

A Culinary Disaster....

I pride myself on being a pretty good cook. I'm getting much better now that I'm at home and have a little more time to have fun with it. Any given week Scott could get a great treat... this week, so far has included Pasta with Leeks, Sausage and Broccolini, Bourbon/Brown Sugar Glazed Steak, and tonight is Chicken and Brie Sandwiches with Roasted Tomatoes. There have been a lot of hits. I have to share, though, my biggest miss. This weekend, I tried to make Amaretto Souffles. They started out looking great. They rose in the oven. Then they deflated right before they were done. And continued to sink after I took em out. Awwwwww. Sad little Souffles.

A solution to a problem...

Recently, we've been experiencing diaper leakage in the morning and at naptime. E now insists on sleeping on her belly, with her bum in the air. Every time she'd wake up, she'd be wet, along with her sheets, and her jammies, etc.

I did a little research, and then tried Huggies Overnites diapers. They ride really high- almost up to her chest, but this problem has been solved. YAY! I love it when things work the way they're supposed to.

Mommy's New Toy

Last week, I got a great new toy- a Sony Cybershot camera. Before this purchase, our only camera was a huge SLR. Generally, I found it too big and cumbersome to pull out for quick shots of E. Now, I'm taking pictures like crazy. Here are a couple of the winers I've shot so far:

A Pox on Our House...

Last weekend was an exciting one. Once again, we made the cross country trek to Buffallo. The weekend was full of delish bad-for-us food, lots of family, a few laughs, and most importantly, E was baptised. Somehow, though, the weekend was a bit of a disaster:

- E is teething. It sucks for her, and I don't blame her, but she's a nasty grump for at least a few hours every day. For the first time ever, she was a difficult baby at a restaurant. Luckily, Duff's is a noisy place and no one could hear her screaming, but Hubby and I were on edge.

- E's cousin has the chicken pox. It took two days and consultations with at least 4 doctors before the entire group decided that he could not come, but his mom and sister could.

- Weather and ATC prevented my best friend from getting there. They were stuck at JFK overnight, and then had to fly home, because they still couldn't get a guaranteed flight.

- Es Aunt had some sort of rash pop up, and had to miss the whole thing too.

- E's grandpa broke one of the front teeth out of his partial and spent the night before the baptism gluing it back together.

In the grand scheme, none of this was a big deal. E did a fab job and behaved like a princess at church, and we had a good visit with the fam. I even finished another book. Still, we had hoped this would be a weekend away from all the stress of finding hubby a new job and/or a new place to live. Unfortunately, it just made everything seem bigger and somehow worse. Oy. I know there will be a conclusion to this whole drama sometime soon. In the meantime, these pics are some of the weekend's highlights. As you can see, we're all doing our best to keep our happy faces on.