Halloween 2010

My favorite thing about Halloween in Arizona is that nobody has to wear a coat over their costume. It's perfectly pleasant outside. I remember freezing every year in Washington as a kid. I could barely feel my toes when I got home. This year I made the costumes. I ran out of time and didn't get a top made for Ava's witch costume. I shouldn't have spent a big chunk of the afternoon figuring out how to sew her felt hat and velvet flower embellishment, because she wore it for a total of two seconds. Oh well. It was my first time sewing a tutu and leggings. Tutus are much harder than they look. No wonder everyone just ties strips of tulle on elastic. The boys play "pirates" every day, so I figured their costumes could double as dress-up clothes.

Ava's Tea Party

One of my biggest fears in life was that I would never have a daughter. I wanted one so badly. Since the day I saw her kicking around in the ultrasound, I have been the happiest girl in the world. I love my boys dearly, but there is something special about having a girl. Right after I brought her home from the hospital I was stung by a scorpion. My immediate thought was, "I finally had a girl, and now I am going to die. I knew this was too good to be true."

I have always loved all things feminine. Some of my happiest childhood memories are smelling the soaps and lotions that my dad brought me from Crabtree and Evelyn after business trips, and flipping through the pages of Victoria magazine that my grandma always got me a subscription for. I have been dreaming of planning the perfect tea party my whole life. I knew that Ava's first birthday would be my first chance to have one. I was hoping to pull off something 'a la Marie Antoinette' complete with a vintage vibe and glittery butterflies.

But alas Ava's first birthday came and went, and nary a thought was put towards planning a party. Life has been too busy. Last night I decided I would regret not planning a pretty party to celebrate one of the happiest years of my life, so I ran to the dollar store to buy some pink tablecloths. Then I ran to Costco and bought flowers. I woke up this morning, polished my thrift store silver, and pulled out my dusty tea cups. Then I pulled out my cookbook and picked three recipes at random. I only had to run to the store for eggs. We just invited family. Partly because last minute text message invitations violate etiquette, but also because I didn't want to force people to eat our dairy-free, gluten-free food.

The Menu: chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, banana cupcakes with maple vanilla frosting, chocolate chip scones with fresh raspberries, chocolate covered strawberries, and meringues. Hot apple cider, sparkling lemonade, Martinelli, and San Pellegrino to drink.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, beautiful little girl. We love you to pieces.

(more pics on flickr)

crazy hair day

Yesterday was crazy hair day at preschool. Max was so excited. I had to snap a few pictures while he was eating lunch because we were running late and didn't have time for a photo shoot. In fact, I did his hair while he was eating. The reason for the delay? As I was getting Max ready for preschool I realized that it was "black" day and after a quick inventory of his wardrobe I discovered he does not own any black clothes. We made a mad dash to Walmart, came home, whipped up lunch (from scratch like always), and barely got him there on time. Preschool is so crazy that I can't even imagine how my life will change when he goes to real school.

Max has reminded me several times that he has to wear his Halloween costume to preschool on Thursday. He loves preschool. But he loves just about everything these days. He is so happy all the time. Last night at my birthday dinner-date I was lamenting to J-P about how miserable my birthday was last year (three-day-old baby, scorpion sting, husband across the country, and multiple meltdowns by Max).

That led to a conversation about the dramatic changes we have seen in Max over the last year. We are so grateful for the inspiration we have received to help him, and thrilled with the positive results of our interventions. Thrilled, gleeful, bursting with happiness that Max is doing so well. He is incredibly social, his creative play has exploded through the roof, his vocabulary is fantastic, he can recognize/write the entire alphabet, and all of the behaviors that previously worried me are gone (insert huge sigh of relief here).

sunday pics

The lighting is perfect when we get home from church, so I will have to start taking more Sunday pictures. Here is today's sampling. The only child that will stay put (the grass is too itchy to crawl in). She's a mighty sweet thing.

eleven months

How is my sweet little lady almost a year old already? So hard to believe. At eleven months she is: babbling a ton --uh-oh, dat (that), bu-rah (brother), ep (yep). She is the absolute sweetest thing in the world...most of the time. On the rare occasion that she doesn't get what she wants, she is the most dramatic little eleven-month-old I have ever seen. Drama with a capital "D". I'm not sure if she has a strong personality, or if it's just a girl thing. I'm guessing she has a strong personality because she can tackle her brothers to the ground. They are scared of her. She is definitely my most fearless child.

She can stand alone for about 20 seconds, and has taken one step but she always falls after that. She gets very excited about standing alone. She lets go of the couch and starts clapping and smiling, and then the excitement usually makes her lose her balance. Her favorite thing to do is give her brothers and daddy hugs before she goes to bed. She squeezes them, rests her head on their shoulder, and says "ooohhhhhhhh". Cutest thing ever.

lately

I have been reading a lot lately. There are piles and piles of books in this house. I am averaging about a book every two days. All part of my research quest to conquer food allergies and other health issues. When I am not reading I am cooking. Three meals a day. From scratch. We are talking grind-your-own-flour and soak-your-own-beans kind of scratch. I am really trying to put variety into our diet, which is excruciatingly challenging being that we have to avoid wheat, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, pork, peanuts, and nuts. Because life wasn't hard enough, I have decided to cut out all artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. I am also trying to buy mostly organic.

And since organic applesauce is four dollars for a tiny little jar, I decided I would just make my own. So I bought a pressure canner. I have been canning fruit and beans and finally feel like an official grown-up. Canning has always intimidated me, but it really isn't hard at all.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I am using my dormant twitter account (I'm more of a facebook girl) as a widget on my new blog to tell the world what we are eating for dinner. Or lunch. Whichever sounds more appetizing. It seems like every day a new friend calls to say that they are going off of dairy or wheat (for everything from colicky babies to preventing miscarriages) and have no idea what to cook. I will also add tips, tricks, recipes, shopping guides, and my latest interesting research finds to the blog as I find time. Much easier than sending out emails. I have learned so many crazy/interesting things in the past month or two, and I will slowly add links/book reviews to the blog too.

And for those people that keep asking me how to get to the blog, click HERE (click on the word "here"). Sorry, i wasn't trying to be subtle before. I'll eventually get a button on here but I'm too busy cooking to do things like that. Cheers to healthy eating!

tagging

When I taught at an alternative jr high school on the west side of Salt Lake City, I was exposed to all of the current urban vernacular. Most of my students were straight out of jail, and all were gang members. I was in a one room school-house with 13 convicted criminals. By myself. My only instructions from the principal (who worked at the alternative high school downtown) were this: "if a gang fight breaks out, or if gang members show up with weapons, DO NOT call 911...we don't need the bad press."

We all had bus passes, and I was crazy enough to take the criminals on frequent field trips. By myself. They always managed to steal things from the library (think staplers and millions of mini pencils). On our weekly escapades I picked up on what I thought was the latest gangster lingo. I felt so hip. One day while riding in the car with my then boyfriend, I said "so, do you want to hear the latest word on the street for 'cops'?" "Sure", he responded very unenthusiastically. "Pigs", I replied as if I had unveiled some super secret code. He started laughing so hard that he had to pull over so we wouldn't crash. I felt really dumb. He relayed the story to any person we came in contact with for the next few days, and every time hysterical laughter ensued. The kind that causes people to double over and cry. I had no idea that word had been around for-ev-er. Anyway...the word back then for graffiti (my students had never heard that word) was "tagging". They always pointed out their "artwork" as we marauded around town.

Now I have two little criminals. Max and Ian have determined to deface every surface in our home and surrounding property with their own personal brand of "tagging". I am not kidding when I say that every surface in our home is covered in letters and scribbles. Walls, doors, floors, furniture, windows, cabinets, appliances, counter tops...even our patio and fence. J-P and I have spent most of the week cleaning, and they have spent most of the week strapped in time out. No matter where we hide the crayons, they always seem to find them. Sometimes they find an old crayon in the backyard or under a couch cushion and go to work. They can deface an entire room in the amount of time it takes for us to use the bathroom or change Ava's diaper.

teeth

Ava's second top tooth is now poking through. I've always thought baby teeth were odd/funny looking, but she pulls it off ok. She is getting more vocal by the day. Ma ma, da da, bah-ah (brother), bah-bah (bye-bye), BA! (bath). She LOVES her brothers and is contstantly giving them big hugs. She crawls over to them, wraps her arms around them, and rests her smiling head on their shoulder. Maybe it's a girl thing. My boys were not this affectionate at all.

Her new favorite game is chase. When I say "Ava, let's go take a bath", she shakes her head and then crawls away from me as fast as she can while giggling loudly. She has gotten good at shaking her head for anything she doesn't want to do. Sadly.

Eanie Bean

I really love this kid. Between taking care of a new baby this past year and trying to figure out Max's allergy issues, he hasn't gotten the attention he should have. He has been doing a great job of drawing attention to himself lately...pulling every terrible-two tactic imaginable. Even permanent black marker on my white kitchen cabinets. Sigh.

I'm now trying to make up for it by spending special time with him while Max is in preschool. He is so smart, and loves to figure things out. He can grab his dad's iphone, and pull up his favorite youtube bicycling video in just a few seconds. He has a great memory. If something is missing, I always go straight to him because he remembers where everything is...even if it is in a really obscure place.

Right now he is trying to figure out familial titles. I was sitting on the couch talking to a friend the other day, and he came over, looked at her and said very matter-of-factly "Mary Ann is my mother...and that's Ava. She's my daughter". It caught me off guard. I had never heard him say my name, and only ever heard him refer to me as "mommy". Today when he was looking for Max he said "mommy, where's my daddy's other son?" And then at lunch he said "Mary Ann?...are you...mommy?" After I responded in the affirmative, he said "Your name is Mary Ann, but we just call you mommy." As if he was thinking out loud--putting it together.

Yesterday he pointed to a word with two lower case "i's" in it. He said, "see these i's, they stand for Ian!" Which amazed me because I haven't started to teach him letters (bad mom, I know), and he has only seen his name with a capital "I". TV I'm guessing?

I love to watch the wheels churn in his cute little head as he figures things out. Sometimes I forget that he is still two.

Happy

Tonight as I was rocking the baby to sleep (my favorite part of the day), I couldn't stop thinking about how happy I am. Life is good. My children are happy and healthy. They are funny, smart, and good natured. Nothing makes me happier than watching the three of them play together. Which they do quite well now. Ava thinks she is part of the team, following the boys around and "vrooming" cars with them. I am finding so much joy in the small things--a sweet, unexpected hug, the funny things they do and say. Motherhood is a very spiritual experience. It makes me happier than anything else in the world.