Book Worm

Here is Lydia Violet with one of her favorite pass times, reading books, well kinda. She does love books, I'm guessing for now the words aren't as important as the colorful pictures and turning the pages.

Much to our chagrin, she doesn't know the difference between her books and ours. She makes a daily mess of our bookshelf in the living room. But, how can one get angry when she is so gosh darn cute.

Unofficial First Phrase

On our walk to school today Lydia was being very squirmy. At one point she threw her body weight forward, more or less stopping in a parallel position to the street with her face pointing down. At which point she uttered the "words" "uh oh!"

She has of course said this phrase many times before and at completely inappropriate times. But this time felt different, she was reaching for the ground and was trying to look around my hip to the back. On a hunch I turned around to see what had sparked her attention and there it was, about 15 feet behind us, her pearly white mitten.

Vapor

Today on our walk to school it was 40º outside. I decided to show Lydia my breath vapor. I picked a sunny spot and took a deep breath. She looked at my puffed out cheeks, I'm sure trying to figure out what Papa was doing. Then I opened my mouth and slowly let puffs of breath out. Lydia looked on in amazement.

At one point she leaned her head forward and tried to chomp on the vapor as it passed by her face. She giggled and had a puzzled look at the same time.

Getting ready for the job.

Construction Baby, sporting the latest in Long Johns, jeans and work boots.

Go Go Lydia

Here is Lydia wearing a dress she received from our friend Victoria. She looks like a blast past, from circa 1967.

I really should...

...get around to writing something. It's been too long. Yada, yada. I haven't even posted about Lydia Violet's first birthday! So, to tide you over, I've posted the obligatory, covered in icing photo. At least I got it up before she turned 13 months.

There's been too much going on around here to blog about it. When we catch our breath. I'll be back. It shouldn't be too long... but in the meantime, don't hold yours.

Two takes. Which do you prefer?

Feist sings 1-2-3-4.

Original:


Seame Street:

What to do...

Starting to think about LoVE's cake for her first birthday next weekend. What's good for pictures? Darker cake. But she's a pukey kid, so I don't want to give her chocolate. Carrot cake? But not with too many bits in it. She'll eat almost anything taste-wise, but she's got some texture issues. Carrot cake with baby food instead of shreaded carrots? Hmmm. Maybe.

If there were an award, she'd win it.

I just need to take a moment to toot our baby's horn. I realize I say this at the risk of it coming back to haunt me at some point, but knock on wood, etc.

So, on to my point: Our little girl is the coolest kid. Period. Full stop. End of sentence.

Allow me to explain: We just got back from watching the fireworks. We power-napped LoVE around dinner time so she would be able to check them out. But honestly, we weren't sure what to expect. Would the noise freak her out? Would she be too tired to take it? But we were ready to give it a go and if she wasn't into it we could easily leave, right? Well, what were we worried about folks? She loved it. (Though she did sleep through a Howitzer at the evening parade last summer, so I guess we shouldn't have been too surprised.)

We got a perfect spot on a neighborhood side street. She sat quietly while we waited for the show to begin and when it did she sat on my hip (while Dima and our friend Jen alternately covered her ears) completely entranced by the pyrotechnical display. She wasn't tense. She didn't jump. She just sat back and enjoyed. At one point she even—literally—oohed and ahhed while she reached out and tried to grab the shimmery lights.

After it was over... and the finale was stupendous... we got in the car and she proceeded to sleep the all the way to our exit, where she woke up and pleasantly cooed until we put her in bed. Then she immediately fell asleep.

Who could ask for a better night? Happy 4th of July! Lydia Violet, you rock! Love, Mama & Papa.

Surprise! It's Customer Satisfaction.

So last night, after a long day, we decided to order a pizza from Papa John's. We do this every so often. And now it's even easier, since you can use their online ordering system. It allows you to create the most complex of pizza's. Gone are the days of this:. "No, that's black olives on half. No. No green peppers. No. No. Grrrr. OK. Let's start over..." So far, for us, it's been error free.

This system even let's you add your tip to your payment. So, now, when the doorbell rings, you say, "Hi. Thanks. Have a good night," and your done. No more digging around for spare dollars. And no more telling the driver that they can just give you back $2 and keep the change as they slowly dig through their wad of money waiting for you to tell them to keep ALL the change.

Well last night we ordered online again: Large/Spicy Italian Sausage/Onions/Mushrooms. By the time the pizza arrived we were extra hungry, so you can imagine my disappointment and frustration to open the box and find that it had not been cut. As in, it was just a big, solid, round pizza. No slices. Luckily we have a pizza cutter so it was quickly rectified. But... what if we hadn't? We'd have ended up cutting it with a knife and it would have ruined the pizza. So, I called... I ended up speaking to a befuddled employee that was really no help. She only offered up that she would be sure to cut it next time. O-K.

So I turned to the feedback forms on www.papajohns.com and I got the requisite autoresponder saying, "we're sorry you were dissatisfied and we'll do better next time." What was surprising and refreshing was that within 20 minutes of that, I got an email from a real person. The official Franchise Area Supervisor:

I am sorry that your experience at our Wheaton location was less than perfect. We are constantly striving to deliver the best customer service and the best pizza possible. Sometimes we fall short of our goals, but we try to use each misstep as an opportunity to improve.

I have called the store to follow up, making sure that we cut each pizza and check the orders before they are delivered.

Thank you for your business. If I can ever be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me directly so that I can immediately address any of your concerns.

—[Franchise Area Supervisor]

Granted it seems a little form letter-ish but it noted my specific problem in detail. And mind you, this was 9:30 p.m. Wow, I say. Wow. And I emailed him right back to tell him so.

Feelin' Nostalgic...

Look at this tiny little girl. She was so quite and skinny those first few weeks. Now she's almost one and she's certainly neither quite or skinny. Where did the time go?

Lilly: The World Map Master

Yes, little Lilly is amazing. She's almost two. She doesn't know it yet but we're working on this with 11.5 month old Lydia. She's bound to know just as many countries and their capitals too by the time she's two.

Just kidding.

Enjoy.

I just got my invite to Spoonflower.com! This cool little beta site allows you design and buy custom fabric printed on demand. You can create and upload your own textile designs and print only what you need with no minimum order. But, because the list of users is limited to a small group of passionate crafters... for now, you have to be invited. I requested an invitation a few weeks ago with no hope, really, that I would actually get one. But I did! I'm so excited. Now I just need to sort through all my ideas and upload something. What to do first?! Home decor fabric? Or should that kid of mine be wearing clothes made of custom printed fabric first? Decisions. Decisions.

It was a scorcher...

This weekend was hot. And we were out in it. Doin' stuff. Gardening. Raking. Watering. But Miss Lydia V. was just chillin'. After a nap we filled up her new WaterWheel Play Table and she went to town—splashing, dunking, dipping and sipping. It was a huge hit. I highly recommend it.

La La La...

She's a little Myna bird our Lydia. We skipped the doe, ray, me, fa, so and went straight to La la la.

Barefoot and in the Kitchen

My latest culinary adventure is again thanks to Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Last night I made her Chicken Picatta—my first. Quite delicious from the chicken standpoint. The sauce ended up being CRAZY, lemony-tart. Not sure if it was supposed to be that tart, or if not, what I did to make it so much more tart than it was supposed to be. No matter though, despite the mess I made on the counter dipping flattened chicken in flour, egg and then bread crumbs, I will make this again. I think I might come up with my own sauce though. I'm thinking garlic, cilantro, lime... mmmmm.

Doodle 4 Google

A middle schooler named Grace Moon won Google's 2008 Doodle 4 Google competition. Doodle 4 Google is a competition where K-12 students are invited to reinvent Google's homepage logo. This year ked U.S. kids were asked to doodle around the theme "What if...?" Grace described her entry, above, as:

Up in the Clouds: My doodle, "Up in the Clouds," expresses a world in the sky. This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day.

Sounds like a place I'd like to live.

Check out all the Doodle 4 Google finalists.

I wish I had been successful...

... at teaching myself to crochet when I was on maternity leave. Because if I had been I would make this:

You can buy the PDF crochet pattern for this ridiculously adorable capelet by leila & ben on etsy.com. I think I need to find a crochet class. Hmmmm.

baby... I mean tea cosy?

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. Our good friend Rosie Bee came to visit for Christmas and New Years and when she left she took one of LoVE's fleecey pairs of pajamas with her. She said she had a tea pot that matched it perfectly and she thought she could make a tea cosy out of it. Well, clearly she did. That's it, above. Cute as a button.

Magic with Virtual Pause and Record Buttons

I stumbled across this little gem today reading a new blog: Serious About Camo. (Yes, I found him on Twitter.) He recently posted about this service: Mixwit / Create and Share Mixtapes.

This is so cool! Remember the days? The magic you could create with the pause and record buttons on your little boom box? How many times did you bare your soul in a mix tape? I can't even count. And I still have them all. (I actually just found a whole box and considered transfering them to CD or playlist in iTunes... but you know it just wouldn't be the same.) Well, now you can apply modern-day technology to that old nostalgia. Reveal your deepest and most private thoughts and emotions to a friend, a lover, a crush in a mix and then share it with the world on Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, etc.

Have fun...

(Thanks to shortbeatnik, whom I borrowed the above mixtape from so I could provide you with an excellent example. )