hey guess what!

I got some pictures off my camera! And even uploaded them to flickr!

So to finish off a previous post, Here are my kids on last month’s story book dress up day at school:

Ethan went as the woodsman/hunter from Little Red Riding Hood, and Jocelyn went as a Princess.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of Ethan straight on – his costume was a simple plain shirt with suspenders and jeans, and his robin hood style hat.

Jocelyn was more than ready to pose, however.

Jocelyn is wearing a princess hat I made for her out of posterboard and ribbon, and one of her dress up dresses. The dress has an upside down V opening on the front that opens to reveal white lacy underskirt. However, Jocelyn doesn’t like this. She likes the purple skirt better and therefore wears this dress backwards so that only the purple shows to her eyes.

Another little project I tackled one Saturday long long ago (probably 3 weeks ago) was a super girl shirt for Jocelyn.

You see, Ethan has these Batman pajamas. Complete with CAPE. He LOVES wearing them, and after he gets them on, will take a running flying leap onto his bed and then instantly turn to me and say, “Did my cape fly?” (He means flutter.) “Did I fly?” Then he does it all again, except he tries to watch his cape as he does so. Unfortunately the cape doesnt’ flutter that well because it’s a flannely type of material that is thin and tends to stick to his jammie shirt. He still loves it.

Well, as soon as Ethan starts “flying” Jocelyn joins in, and I thought how sad it was that there are no super hero jammies in her life. (Says the woman who when she was 6 wore Wonder Woman under-roos until they fell apart!) Target however has batman and superman t-shirts in the boys dept, so I thought I’d get her some of those and then narrow the shirt down a bit. Maybe add a cape!

So that’s what I did.

The first day, she wouldn’t let me touch it. It hung on her and bunched around her hips and generally looked awful. She loved it.

The next day, she finally consented to let me tweak it to fit her better. I turned it inside out, laid one of her shirts over the top, and drew lines up the sides and out off the sleeves for where to sew. I sewed it up, but it was still incredibly long, and the sleeves reached practically to her elbows. I was planning on chopping them off and hemming, until I remembered the fun we used to have with old tshirts when I was young. THey don’t fray, so you can cut strips in it to make fringe, which is what I did with hers.

She was closely supervising my every move, so at first she protested, until I pointed out that this would make the shirt “twirly.” Then she was eager to see the results.

Super girl!

The cape I planned to attach with velcro, so we could take it on and off, but I didn’t have any when I thought I had, so I just sewed the cape on, lest Super Girl be powerless against her foes for the day.

This is her self-proclaimed: “SUPER FACE!”

She posed for quite a few pictures, but when she was done, she looked like this the rest of the day:

Ethan has a super man t-shirt too, which I think I will attach a cape too as well. Then he’ll have a cape he can wear during the day, instead of just at night. I’ll get to it someday. And I should get velcro first.

Tonight: packing for our not-really-camping trip over the long weekend. Fun fun!

-amy

Remember my mystery squash? You were all correct. It was a pumpkin. It turned orange and then the vine started to mysteriously die and I thought, what the hell, it’s not october?! GROW SOME MORE! So I’ve no idea if it was the right thing to do, but I picked the pumpkin and pruned the vine back a bit, hoping that will spurt some new growth and new pumpkins.

Also I think I figured out how it got there. The only thing I planted from seed was the sunflowers surrounding it. I planted other seeds, but not outside, I started them indoors (most of them died of neglect once they got outside and I had to buy plants at lowes). So I was really confused on how in the world that freaky pumpkin plant GOT there!

Then I remembered that I laid out compost in the late spring. And I BELEIVE I tossed last years pumpkins in the compost bin last fall. And while most of them were carved (no seeds) I beleive that there was one that sat there whole until it started to rot and then was tossed with the rest.

Thus.. pumpkin seeds in the compost. compost spread in beds. VOILA! Pumpkin vine! Pumpkin!

The pumpking is inside now awaiting to be made into pumpkin cupcakes, the best pumpkin destination I know for it.

In other garden news, my raspberries are really taking off. There were always one or two ready to pick and eat, but when i went out yesterday, I picked (and promptly ate) enough to fill a bowl. Exciting exciting stuff! The tricksy part will be NOT eating them so that I can do something with them.

However, next year I’m going to have to make some sort of support for them because they’re tall, bent over, and I’ve got raspberries growing on the dirt.

In other catch up news, I got my latest piece of etsy artwork and I love it I love it I love it:

\

Obviously not enough to actually hang it yet, though. Shoosh, I’ve been busy. I did get a frame though, don’t I get credit for that?

I never did post the other artwork I got, so here you go, it’s hanging in my guest room:

ain’t it beeyootiful?

have a loverly weekend, all!

but damn, i laughed hard at this.

– i suck at getting pictures off the camera.

– i suck at house cleaning.

– actually, i don’t really suck at house cleaning. i suck at keeping the house clean.

– how DO you keep a house clean, anyhow?

– i feel like i’m being a parental hardass to ethan way too often.

– but that kid thinks that he can argue and debate his way out of anything! for once i just wish he would accept a ‘no’ and move on without all the conniving!

– i think i am guilty for letting him get this way.

– i’m not sure i know how to parent older children. toddlers are so much simpler.

– oh my god just think when they’re teenagers.

– can i change my mind about having children? it’s not too late, right??

– i’ve just had a coronary thinking about the teenager thing.

– MOVING ON… think of something else think of soemthing else think of something else..

– i wish i had the design sense to know what to do with my annoying cavernous spaces over my fireplace. and to the side of my fireplace.

– see, wouldn’t a PICTURE of said space be beneficial, for you, the reader, in seeing what i’m talking about?

– once again.. i suck at getting pictures off the camera.

– i do have my phone on me. which i can then email to myself.

– EUREKA!!

– there, now you can see. you can also see that it’s where stuff gets piled up. Maybe some pretty white bulbous vases. Those lower cavernouse spaces though… I’m clueless.

– that’s enough about that..

– next phone i get i’m making sure the camera part is super mac daddy.

– i need some gum.

– i could also use a drink.

– i think i’ll go get one of those. I’ll let you guess which.

– i haven’t done any brain dumping posts in a long while. i think my posting has become kind of boring this summer. i’ll try to remedy that.

– is this any better? maybe a little bit.

– it’s another thing i suck at though, so don’t hold your breath.

– if i could just take some decent pictures and then post them regularly, then it wouldn’t be boring.

– see point….. well, i’d say “a” or whatever, but I haven’t been numbering.. errr.. lettering these do-dads.

– ahh well.

– bye!

Jocelyn has stated she wants to be Ariel for halloween.

I don’t want to buy another $25 cheapo big box store costume. I realize it may cost more in the long run to make it myself (fabric ain’t cheap) but the construction will be so much better, and it will last a lot longer… so… If I’m going to make it myself, I’d better start NOW!

She wants to be Ariel in a dress, not Ariel the mermaid… so I’m purchasing this pattern and I’m going to need to get started ASAP!

I’m kind of hoping that she sees this and decides to be Belle instead – I don’t know why, but I just don’t like the thought of her dressing up in a wedding dress. Besides, I like the Belle dress better!

Ethan has stated he wants to be a storm trooper.

James – you get to handle that!

Metro grafiti

I struggle sometimes with the whole princess thing that Jocelyn has got going on. I think having a boy first has really ruined me as a mother to a girl. Boys have such hands on play. Concret. Action. Point A to Point B. Dumping, pushing, scooping, driving, tooting, building… it’s all very simple really. When Jocelyn’s 2nd christmas rolled around, I honestly had no idea what to get her. Clueless, was I. What do girls DO, ANYWAY, was what I thought.

Storytime Treasury, A McCall Book Sleeping Beauty
The Wolf and the Seven Baby Goats
 

Now, of course, I have a much better idea, but it still seems to me that her playing is much less concrete. Much less action oriented. She’s quite content to put on a twirly dress and then kind of wander around. The most action oriented playing she does is when she plays in her kitchen or with her dolls. I realize that this type of playing is fine, it’s just harder for me to wrap my head around it. You’d think having BEEN A LITTLE GIRL MYSELF, with a huge interest in dressing up like a princess and dancing around the house would clue me in to the inner workings of my daughter’s head, but I think I’ve been abducted by aliens and lost that part of my brain or something.

Fratelli Fabbri Editori Publishers
I love the stars!
 

She has a very strong fascination with disney fairy tales. Now don’t get me wrong, I love fairy tales. LOVE THEM. I have collected fairy tale books all my life and read and re-read many different ones. I actually kind of took my older sister’s favorite fairy tale book when I went off to college and she had to nag at me for 5 years before she finally was visiting once and outright took it (damn her!)

Baby Princess, before her christening
I love the fabric all through the book, how it folds and trails.. ahh so beautiful!I wanted that hair long before I ever saw Princess Leia, and here’s why!
 

It’s just the disneyification of fairy tales that bugs me. And I’m lucky! My daughter is in love with CINDERELLA, and that was back in the golden age of disney before it started to change around the story! Don’t even get me started on The Little Mermaid and how they messed THAT up! (She dies. At the end, “Ariel” dies. Talk about taking liberties!)

All the fairies gathering at the christening
More stars! and look at those headdresses – don’t you just want to die, they’re so lovely?
 

Anyway, I don’t mind the fact that for the last month, she will often inform us, “I’m Cinderella!” and insist that we address her so. I don’t mind that she has changed the names of all her dolls and stuffed animals to Cinderella as well. I can understand watching a certain movie over and over and internalizing it to such an extent that you want to BE that character. I personally, wanted to be the Lady Amalphia and run around as a unicorn, and that was only when I wasn’t spinning around in a circle pretending to be Wonder Woman while wearing my Wonder Woman under-roos.

The fairies giving their gifts to the baby princess.
I used to pore over this page, and the one above, just studying each fairy and their apparel.
 

I don’t even mind the disney Cinderella movie that much.. But I decided to take some pains to introduce her (and Ethan, by default) to the other sides of fairy tales. The side that doesn’t have mice scampering around making dresses and birds dressing the main character. The disney movies don’t ever transport me to that magical place of times old and past of kings and queens and princesses..

I broke out my most beloved fairy tale book from when I was a girl. My grandmother must have ordered these books from a magazine. They are in a series called “McCall’s Treasury” and the copyright is for Fratelli Fabbri Editori –which i think is just the publishing house name, not the illustrator’s name.

She was my favorite – again, I love the fabric, falling away from the headdress, and also sheathing the princess.
Oh, and don’t forget the stars! Love the stars!
 

Each book contains 2 stories, and though my grandmother gave them to all my siblings, my brothers weren’t all that interested. I have the ones given to me, some of the ones given to my brothers, and some I’ve purchased on eBay.

The witch has done her worst, and now the youngest fairy will try to undo it.
Look at that sweet little baby face.. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but there are halos and halos of ruffles all around the baby’s head – so sweet!
 

This book was my favorite, and if you could see the actual book, you’d be able to tell – the binding is completely shot and one of the pages is ripped significantly. It originally was given to my brother Larry, and my grandmother even wrote a little note to him on the inside cover, with the date as 1972 (2 years before I was born). I’ve been meaning to scan pages from this book for a while, and was going to do it right when my computer died.

The princess as a teen, just after she pricks her fingers.. the material of the clothes – gorgeous!
 

I loved these books as a child, and I think I love them even more as an adult. These illustrations are simply breathtaking. I, of course, loved to pore over the fairies, especially their dress and their headwear. I love the way there are little stars in almost all of the pages, giving it that magical glamourous aura.

Love the teeny kingdown in the distance..
 

So far, the reception of this book has been met with all around approval. They’ve both requested it to be read to them at bedtime. Because of it’s condition (falling apart) and it’s value to me, it is kept away from other books out of their reach, but if they ask for it, I’ll sit down and look through it with them, and then put it away again when we’re done.

Stunning 2-headed dragon!
 

This page is so beautiful! It’s laid out over 2 pages and I had to scan the 4 corners separately and then try to fit them together. This is the last one I scanned, as the “wake up” scene is also on the title page it seemed pointless to scan it again. I strongly urge you to click and look at the bigger versions – they are even more stunning and you can see more detail.

I was thinking I may get some prints of the illustrations framed and put them up on the wall.

Anything to counteract this, currently on the wall above Jocelyn’s bed:

-amy needs a headdress like those just to wear around the house and wash dishes in.

Day 5 of Jocelyn Watch draws to an end. Beleive that it has been a success. Subject had a few moments where the mother figure was worried she would see massive snot production (the biggest downfall to milk protein intolerance) but the subject pulled through and seems to have even fully recovered from her slightly hoarse throat. Any and all post nasal drip has since cleared up, and subject appears to be in normal healthy state.

YAY!

So what does this mean?

I have no idea.

It could mean that she had ice cream that was made with a cooked custard or just crappy highly processed ice cream in which the proteins were altered or broken down enough that her system did not view them as the usual threat.

Or it could mean that she’s well on her way to being milk protein intolerance FREE!

I am tempted to test this further. Now would be a good time, if she does get sick she’d have a week or so to recover before our not-really-camping trip at the end of the month. I would probably go about it by adding a bit of cow’s milk to her soy milk and see what happens.

Must discuss with father figure. Will ponder results and will jointly decide future action.

Word.

I’ve been informed that I am SLACKING in my duties to alert the public on every California Tortilla doing.

I humbly apologize.

Now, go get a burrito, because in celebration of today’s sale of their 5 MILLIONTH burrito, they’re giving away a free t-shirt to the first 100 folks to buy an entre, and everyone gets a free burrito coupon.

I loved CT when they were just in Bethesda, but now they’re virtually EVERYWHERE! Thank god, because I hardly ever get up to Bethesda anymore. Find one near you and go and munch in peace.

Get a crispy bbq ranch burrito for me.

OK, now I’m hungry.

Are you happy now James and Kurt? 🙂

I feel like we’re on an express train hurtling toward the end of the year. End of the year, you say? Yes, well, sort of.

This week is the last week of “Summer Camp” at our kids’ school. Today is the last “splash day” until next year

Of course, every time I try to mention this, there are misunderstandings – Ethan has this memory of when we all stayed HOME together (even daddy, who worked at home in the basement office and popped up for lunch and to witness important feats in block castles) so news of anything school related being “over” instantly translates into not going to school anymore. I try to explain. He gets it. I think I confuse Jocelyn a lot though.

We had our “big” vacation this year in May when we went to Utah to see my family and go camping, but we also planned a wee little getaway for labor day weekend. The kids’ school year (kindergarten & preschool) starts Tuesday after Labor day, and the previous Friday they are closed for a teacher work day, so we took it as an opportunity to take a mini vacation.

I wanted to go camping, especially since we bought stuff in may and hauled it home (mostly I guess it was a tent), but I also didn’t want to go somewhere where we’d be miserable with the heat and humidity. A happy medium was found when we found an almost amusement park type camp ground with water slides, mini golf and… (drum roll) air conditioned cabins. With bathrooms and fridges. So that’s where we’ll be heading that weekend, for what I can’t stop calling our “Camping, but not really camping, trip.”

The other day, Ethan said to me, “Mommy, is it fall yet?”

I looked at him quizzically and said, “No, not yet. A few more weeks. Why?”

I expected him to talk about how he can’t wait to wear long sleeves again, or show his excitement for being a kindergartener, so I was surprised when he answered, “I can’t wait to play soccer again!”

I was quick to point out to Jocelyn that SHE would be playing soccer too, and they both got all excited and wiggly over it. Jocelyn was enamored to hear she would have her VERY OWN shorts and jersey and socks. Now that I think about it.. I wonder if this is why she says “When I turn into a boy…” — maybe because she sees soccer clothes as ‘boy clothes’ and soccer as a ‘boy sport’ (which is crazy because there were tons of girls on ethan’s team in the spring) and since she knows she’s going to play soon, she thinks she’ll turn into a boy.. Hmmm. Will have to ponder this theory.

This express train feeling is all my own doing, really. The kids are kind of getting antsy with school, and I fear it will get worse once summer camp is over and school is only doing general open play for the next 2 weeks w/out any structured activities, but they’ve only fixated on the end of summer and our vacation and the beginning of school/soccer. I think that’s all pretty natural. But I am the big dolt who keeps saying things like, “Maybe for christmas,” when Ethan expresses his wish for a certain toy, and then walking him through the order of everything left in the year, “First our vacation, then school starts, then we have soccer season, and then a few months before Halloween, then Thanksgiving and then Christmas!”

A-duh. If I lay it all out like that, of course I’m going to feel like I’m running a race with the end of the year as the finish line.

So, my goal for the last few weeks of summer.. Live each day. Try to play with the kids more. Try to spend more time with my honey, instead of letting the day-to-day stuff act as “time together.” Let these last few weeks of summer be lazy, no matter what push may be on to get to the end.

And quit laying out the rest of the year like a damn race! 🙂

– amy