This little beauty and her colorful clones are presently stuffed behind the shower curtain in the hall bathroom. I almost want Baby C to find them in there before her birthday(I plan to hang them in the front yard for the party). How magical would that be? To pull back the curtain and have a load of balloon butterflies and dogs cascade on to you? Note Kevin futzing with his own butterfly in the background.
What do you do when you're in the midst of making a butterfly when POW! one of the balloons pops? Make a two-headed dog bracelet, that's what!
Now, it is true that I'm taking an extended vacation from doing design work for Westgate, however I agreed before I went on "vacation" to do this logo or a new children's program. I'm pretty proud of it.
It's really a simile, but the word metaphor is better, simile always sounded like smiley to me.
This is a surveillance photo I took of a certain penguin-lovin'-friend's make-up box. I had to get a shot of it, because when I saw it on my bedroom floor, my mouth dropped open. Good gracious, that is lot of makeup.
Coincidentally I have felt very silly for participating in so many social networking sites. First it's Blogger, which is just my blog, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't browse other blogger blogs. Then it was MySpace. Then Yahoo 360. Then MyFamily.com And now I've joined Facebook.
That is to say, I've got alot of places in which I need to maintain my image, or often enough, my coolness. I like all of them --well Yahoo 360 is lame but I guess if you have a yahoo account you have a 360 acct.
Are they not like a glut of internet make-up? (Bam! Simile!) I think I need an expandable 3 tier case to keep up with all of my About Me's, Favorite Books, and Interests.
Okay, this cake isn't for the babies, it was for Grandma T on her _0th birthday.
It was my first attempt at fondant, and on a hot day, it's not an easy thing to pull off. But the result was cute, so mission accomplished.
Here's the baby connection. Baby C was jonesin' for what she called the "bug take." Note the two candles posing as antennae.
Then she got what I called "cake fever." Mild symptoms of frosting on face, arms and chest as well as relentless focus on the cake at hand.
This is one of the cutest scenarios I have ever captured on film! Baby R decided that Baby C jumping was HILARIOUS! And then Baby C laughed at him laughing, and then we laughed at them laughing at each other.
I decided that Baby C really loves Abby and Cookie on Sesame Street, so I bought her a couple more presents for her birthday, and have relegated two of the things I bought her towards Christmas total. I feel a tinge of spoiling guilt, but I think the evidence is clear as to what a good girl she is. It's not like I bought her a pony...or a donkey (which she likes more :) )
In approximately one month, I will have a brand new, newedly newitty new new, Apple laptop.
Our friend that works at Apple who's facilitating an employee discount tried to convince Kevin to buy me an iPod too, but the ol' boy wouldn't take the bait. Dangit!
He, like the dogs, is almost always ready to be photographed in Sears portrait poses. Baby C brought him that bear-baby. She's a giver.
It was even better when she donned the electric orange cowboy hat. (But the camera batteries went kaput after I took this pic.) Andy Warhol, eat your heart out.
There is nothing in the world Baby C likes more than watching pug and baby videos on YouTube. And Baby R wants to get in on Baby C's action whenever he can.
contento, si?
Viewing comprehension test:
1. Which of the following did you NOT see on the bedroom floor? a. an embarrassing tangle of wires b. a fan, covered in drywall dust c. vacuum lines in the carpet d. a poorly framed photo of San Francisco
2. Fill in the blank. Charlie needs to _____ her hallway. a. paint b. illuminate c. rip the filthy carpet out of d. all of the above
3. Baby(C + R) + Charlie = x a. x = compulsory falsetto b. x = awkward diction and sentence structure c. both a & b d. none of the above
I'm not a good negotiator and I don't have a law degree but I've always wanted to work for Amnesty International or the International Justice Mission.
I can't think of a better job than professional hero/rescuer.
Obviously at this point, I'm not qualified or able to move to Washington DC, New York, South America, Africa or Asia.
They do have a job opening at the A.I. San Francisco branch office but here's what they want for the job opening:
QUALIFICATIONS: Requirements include: BA degree... check! or equivalent experience (3-5 years) in a grassroots organization, ...check! minimum 2-3 experience in organizing,...if "office girl" counts, thencheck! a commitment to multiculturalism,...check! ability to travel 25% of the time...um, no and work on weekends and evenings as needed...definitely not excellent oral and written communication skills,..jury's still out on oral communications and intermediate computer skills...check! Training, facilitation, troubleshooting...vague butsure! and conflict resolution skills are a plus...nope Foreign language skills desired. Spanish? Si!
So then, if they hold the job open for me for another say, 5 years, I think I could land it!
Did I mention I'm a new super-helper to the Living Center? Mama's got a brand new bag!
That'll have to tide me over until I can graduate to amnesty-hero.
I haven't finished a book in about 6 months, I just keep accumulating ones I'm currently reading.
I was really anticipating reading Under the Banner of Heaven until on like page two it gives graphic detail of a horrible double murder. Great. Just what I needed. Now I can't get it out of my mind, and I don't really want to read anymore about it. Apparently it's a major theme of the book. Gah.
I'll just read the other book: the one that I bought in the Honolulu airport that I thought was titled "Eat Fire Hazzard" but is in fact The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. I'm going to give the book designer a C- for that artistic liberty on the cover.
It's a very well written book, but I'm half way through it and have yet to encounter anything figuratively or literally about a fire. Just alot of post-WWII wandering. What's the fire? Where's the fire? Who's the fire? Am I the fire?
I bought her crayons and a coloring book. I'm still not sure if that was a good decision. So we color outside so if she marks up the porch, I don't care as much.
Naked babies in the bath together. Or as Baby C says it "Nake!"
The "warthog" finger maneuver is even tastier in the bath.
Pool party! Don't they look...confused? Baby C got the hang of it after a while but Baby R had had enough after about 20 minutes. He had milk on his mind.
**baby nudity, avert your eyes if you're squeemish** First double-bathing operation! It didn't last very long, nor did it take Baby C very long to dump water on his head.
**more fat baby nudity** Singular splashing-- in peace.
Until I brought out the camera we had watched videos of Scout on Youtube for half an hour or so. She loves to watch Scout eat cake and swing.
Baby R loves the guitar. Baby C kinda liked it at this age, but he will stop what he is doing and go into a happy trace when Kevin or I play. So cute!
Does anyone else have an unconscious library of songs in your head that pop up when a certain phrase is spoken or an event happens?
I do, and the songs are weird.
For instance, this evening Kevin was cooking some black eyed peas (nothing to do with these guys) and I asked, "how long until it's ready?" And the song "Any day now" by Ronnie Milsap started playing in my head.
How random is Ronnie Milsap!?
Get out of my head!
Some other greatest hits from my brain's B side: (watching these videos was cathartic for me)
I've tried EVERYTHING I could think of to stop our dogs from peeing on stuff in our house. Sprays, cloth diapers, various punishments, isolation and even a web cam sting operation to catch the culprit in the act (I was never sure who the ring leader is, or rather who pees first).
Nothing can stop them, or so it seemed.
But after a visit to Franklin's (a.k.a. "Frankie the Sprinkler") old orphanage website, I saw an advertisement for "Belly Bands."
And I ordered some today, matching dragon print loin cloths, for my little furry kids.
It ends now.** **Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping and handling.
Baby C's birthday is one month away, and I am way more excited than she is about it. Her presents are bought, the celebration location has been chosen, and now I'm trying to choose what sort of cake to make for her. Do I make a "cupcake cake", line up a bunch of cupcakes in the shape of 2 and frost the whole thing like a coral reef? (imagine this in the shape of a 2!)
OR!
Do I buy one of these super pans and make a stand up teddy bear?
I hate being a clockwatcher. I was a chronic clockwatcher at every job I ever had. And I'm pretty good about not doing it with the babies. But on Friday the forecast was hot with a chance of no-nappies, and I started watchin' the clock about 11AM. So I loaded us in the car and we went to Happy Hollow. Baby R and I sweated, and Baby C frolicked. After we saw all the animals, she got a carousel ride, ice cream and a puppet show. Not a bad haul for a toddler on a weekday.
The safari hat Aurora gave me couldn't have been more appropriate for Baby R at a zoo.
She's leering at another little girl, watching where she was going.
Hither and thither through the brush.
I started to feel bad for the farm animals, and then I realized that if they were on an real farm, they'd be "used up" by now. Not a bad gig after all.
How many times can I express how cute I think he is?
Whadya know? She can say "lemurs." She liked Lemur Land.
I think many of you will remember this flashback scene from last Halloween:
Well lookie what she found in her closet and insisted she wear!? I had to pull Baby R's bee suit for him to wear too. If my job required an ID badge, I would suggest this photo of me be used.
I'm kinda scary here, I admit it. The kids look worried as usual.
10 more days and then those teeth will never look the same!
Lift off from the Vietnamese pig habitat! Onward to the guinea pigs!
Why do I film sideway? I don't know. And I tried to film Baby R in the 2nd film, towards the end, but it was too shady.
