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. )

you might as well give up now...

...because Lydia Violet is going to win the Parents magazine cover-model search. But, if you must try, only to have your fragile hopes most certainly dashed, you can enter your cute (but surely not AS cute) and photogenic kid at www.parents.com.

Mother's Day Feats

Last Saturday, during a break in the rain, we had all the local mother's in our family over for a feast. What fun! It gave me an excuse to cook, which I love, and helped me meet a goal. For the first time in my life I hosted a party where I wasn't running around at the last second, frantic, and not nearly ready for anyone to arrive, let alone be entertained. The house was clean, the food was prepped and either finished or ready to be finished off for serving. Amazing!

As I'm writing this now I'm wishing I took pictures! Not just of the food but of the day. It was most excellent. So, I guess, though we weren't rushed or stressed we did fall down on the job there. (Aside from all the tender family moments, my food staging was superb and it's a shame we didn't capture it. Just kidding!)

We served:

• Crud d'ete
• Olives
• Various cheeses with Simply Enjoy brand Apricot & Jalapeño and Balsamic Onion jams. Simply delicious!
  
• A variation on the Barefoot Contessa's Curried Couscous that is becoming a cookout/party standard (Thanks, Nati!).
• Organic Simply Enjoy hot dogs for the boys and their dad, my brother.
  
• Latin Pork with Lime Marinade from this random medical Web site. No matter it's origin though, it was SCRUMPTIOUS, so we can feel good about it being good for us too. Dima grilled it to perfection, as always.
  
• Spice rubbed chicken (our secret: McCormick's Season All. Basic and tasty, it let's your sides be the star.) with avocado salsa (I actually forgot to put this out. Whoops!).

Now, for the rest of this and the avocado salsa above, I need to give props to The Domestic Goddess and her minions at Everyday Food. I got a subscription for Christmas from my aunt in-law and I love it, love it, love it! Every single recipe was delicious and easy. You can't beat that with a stick!

• Cucumber-Carrot Bites - yummy little bites of hollowed out English cucumber stuffed with grated carrots in a sour cream/vinegar sauce. They were billed as after-school snacks. Whatever! I ate them on the weekend and am still eating the leftover carrots as a side salad.
  
• Mini Corn Cakes with Scallions - these were super cute and tasty. A little cayenne pepper gave them a bite that was balanced nicely with... more sour cream.
  
• Two-pea Pasta with Ricotta and Tarragon - This was delish and easy to prepare. The key is not over cooking the peas so they stay nice and bright green. Next time I think I'll try basil instead of tarragon.
• Honey roasted baby carrots - again, quick, easy and divine.
  

For desert, we offered up a strawberry-orange ice cream (see recipe at the bottom of this post)—a variation on my constantly morphing ice cream recipe: avocado banana and ginger pumpkin—with my sister in-law, Carey's, fabulous fudge brownies. What an excellent way to finish off the meal and an excellent day. Yeah for moms! They rock! A point I especially appreciate now that I am one.

Strawberry-Orange Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

1 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cups light cream
1 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons orange extract
a dash of salt

Throw everything in the blender and process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to freeze. Blend a few more seconds before pouring into the ice cream maker just to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Follow your ice cream maker's instructions for freezing.

Meme: Excerpt from a book I'm reading

I peaked in on twitter today to see a former colleague, Cara, at hack Artist, tag various blogger/twitter friends with a meme.

What you say? Twitter? Tagged? Meme? Never you mind. If you're extra curious you can check out those links but here's all you really need to know... Even though I wasn't officially invited by being tagged myself, I've decided to participate in the exercise. I'm supposed to:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Well, I just started reading C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian for the tenthish time. (I'm a HUGE fan of The Chronicles of Narnia—the first books I read without pictures.) And, I'm reading it aloud to my 10 month old. Yes, I'm interested in slowly losing my mind. Yes, I was totally influenced by Hollywood advertising. The good in this is that said advertising prompted me to stick my nose in a book rather than buy cheap plastic toys or a kiddie meal at a fast food restaurant. Which reminds me also: Who else hates the Hollywood versions of the latest made-into-a-movie literary classic? I believe their called movie tie-ins. For me they've always smacked of: the only way you can get people to read a book is to make a movie out of it. They steal people's imaginations by providing them with "characters" to focus on. (Kudos to J.K. Rowling for never allowing them to slap Daniel Radcliffe's face on any of her books.) And they make people think that you can get the same transporting experience that reading a book provides by watching the movie. I hate, hate, hate that. I like watching movies, I just hate that. It always prompts me to go to the library or the nearest used bookstore to get a version of the book from before it was ruined by Hollywood's PR machine. Hmmmm. So, there's good in that too. Uh, maybe I've got the wrong idea about Hollywood advertising.

Anyway. Where were we? Ah, page 123, where Susan says to Lucy:

I'm dead tired. Do let's get out of this wretched wood into the open as quick as we can. And none of us except you saw anything.

Now since I just started reading this again last night, at a 10 month old's pace at that, page 123 is about 121 pages ahead of where I am right now. So, I don't have much to say about the predicament that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy have clearly gotten themselves into, AGAIN, in the wretched wood. What I can say is that I certainly know how Susan feels. And I ask, when will the older siblings learn? If they'd just listen to Lucy the first time around, pretty much every time, they'd save themselves a heap of trouble.

Now for step #5, like my friend Cara, I'm going to tag some of the people I enjoy on Twitter AND in other realms of the Internet:

chris_bailey also of BaileyWorkPlay.com (Whom is a testament to the smallness of this here Internet.)

writer.baker.musicmaker (Who is a master at all of her chosen endeavors.)

Scott Edward Anderson also of The Green Skeptic and another former colleague (Whom Cara already tagged, but I'm tagging him again. Am I breaking the rules? This is my first time.)

Dinosaur Mom (Whom I wish was on Twitter. Hmmm. Maybe she is.)

Expat with the Elephants (Because I know she'll appreciate this type of thing and give us an excellent post to boot.)

What are YOU reading? I last devoured The Time Traveler's Wife and am now looking for something I can finish quicker than reading Prince Caspian to a 10 month old.

If the shoe fits...

Well, mine doesn't anymore. I never believed it could be true but I think my left foot DID get bigger when I was pregnant. And is it possible? But I think my right foot got smaller.

I just bought a pair of Women's Converse® One Star® Skimmers in Glitter, which are ridiculously cute/cool. Normally a 10, I ended up buying a 9 1/2 because when trying them on in Target the 10 was flying off my right foot while the 9 1/2 on my left seemed to fit OK. But now my poor left foot is suffering. Out of the store, my big toe is smashed up against the end of the shoe and more than once I've checked to make sure I bought two shoes of the same size. (Yep. 9 ½. 9 ½.) The only explanation is that post-pregnancy my feet are two different sizes. (I really should go check on one of those foot-measuring devices to be sure.) I'm actually considering buying a second pair so I can have a good fit. 9 ½ for the right. 10 for the left. Crazy. But maybe worth it, because they're oh, so cute.

And the icing on the cake? Drumroll please...

Over the course of four days our little girl has made some major strides.

1. On Monday she got to a sitting position on entirely her own power.
2. On Tuesday she pulled herself to standing.
3. And, on Thursday she finally got around to crawling!

Now, I'm not saying she a little speed demon, crawling expert at this point, but she's doing it. She's a bit hindered by this weird yoga/pilates move she's been doing with her right leg. She stretches it out to the side and does a little spin. So it's often: spin, crawl, spin, spin, spin, crawl. And often her urge to backward army crawl still takes over. Then there's the frog hop she's been doing too, where she moves both knees forward at the same time instead of independently. But like I said, she's just getting it.

Go LoVE, go!

An Update to "By Jove, She's Done It!"

As a follow up to her stellar solo sitting-up maneuver last night, Lydia Violet chose this evening to pull herself to a full standing position while we were fixing dinner. She grabbed the handle on one of the kitchen cabinet drawers and sswwooop, up she went. Exhilarating and sobering all at once. She'll be walking soon. Man, do we have a ton of baby-proofing to do.

By Jove, She's Done It!

Lydia Violet sat up by herself today! It may be that she's been practicing this in her crib without our knowledge (or maybe at daycare) but we are happy to believe that she put on this show just for us. Way to go LoVE!

Styalin'!

Ah, Spring!

I just had to post this: a street-side view on my new walk to the Metro after work. (We moved to a new office and a new Metro stop in February.) What a beautiful day. What a beautiful little postage stamp of a front "yard." And for once in my life my allergies aren't even that bad, so I can actually enjoy a scene like this without the requsite sniffling/itching/runny nose that usually goes along with it.

So, I say it in full voice, "Ah, Spring!" and to all the things that go with it: flowers, green trees, outside time, campfires, grillin', longer days, sandles, etc. But I especially say, "ahhhhh," to new beginnings. We've had a rough couple of months 'round these parts, and all of it, at the very least, has kept me out of the blogosphere. I haven't even been updating Baby in a Carseat. (But that said, I will today. Check it out in an hour or so: http://babyinacarseat.blogspot.com)

So, long story short, I want to catch up. And I will. See you around here soon.

Lydia sporting a matching orange syosya and orange bandana.

Today we went to visit and meet Jake S. for the very first time in Annapolis, MD. Jake and his parent's had not had the pleasure of meeting Lydia until today as well. We had a great time catching up over lunch, talking about what seems like the inevitable downfall of our former employer A.I. As well as my new job prospects since I was laid off in January.

After spending some time with our friends and letting the kids get acquainted we hit the road, homeward bound. The directions home are pretty straight forward if you're paying attention. Needless to say, Jen and I were discussing my future when we zipped right passed our exit for MD Route 50. Not sure which route we had gotten on, I decided we'll turn around at the next exit and get back on the correct path. 8 miles down the road is our opportunity to make a u-turn. We took the exit for Route 32...but wait...it was an exit with no return to wherever we had just come from. An adventure begins.

I was under the impression that Route 32 intersected at least one maybe even two north/south bound roads near our house and we would be fine if we just continued on. At some point in our trip west Jen suggested we take I-95 home, but I suggested we just continue on, since it was a relaxing drive. Before I knew it, the sun had shifted from right in front of to our left, we had turned and were now headed north. Not good.

To make a long story short, we ended up on I-70 which connects Fredrick, MD to Baltimore. Oops. Jen quickly whipped out the map and told me to take Route 97 south. As it turns out, Route 97 took us south towards Olney. As we approached Olney we decided to stop at the Olney Ale House for dinner.

The photo shows Lydia gnawing on a carrot stick from our order of Old Bay seasoned wings. I guess two teeth is all you need to have a quick evening snack before bed.