Strawberry Shortcake

Ok, I know that Halloween was a ridiculously long time ago. However, I want to remember this past Halloween, if anything for the hours and hours I poured in to making the costume – ridiculous, I know.

I’m not the best “go with the flow” type mom – okay that’s not entirely true, just mostly related to what she wears. I know one day I’ll have to somewhat hand over the reigns and actually let my child decide what she wants to be for Halloween. Let’s face it, at 4 she changes her mind all the time anyway, so I’m just helping to guide her on the right path, right? Okay, not really, but while the fight is not too great, I relinquish control. When we were thinking about what to be for Halloween, we went through the possibilities of all the princesses, and I was looking for some inspiration. Cha-ching! It hit me. What about making an adorable vintage strawberry shortcake costume, like the one’s I played with as a child. Problem is, they reinvented Strawberry Shortcake to make her more current, hip, and cool – what’s up with that? So getting Madeleine convinced she wanted to be that Strawberry Shortcake was a little tricky. I checked out the vintage Strawberry Shortcake DVD at the library and had her watch it. That helped her warm up to the idea, but she still wasn’t 100%. She called it “the little Strawberry Shortcake” because in the old version their houses were all humongous looking cakes with gigantic fruits all around – something I never really thought about. I wasn’t deterred! I told her she would have the cutest purse and next year she could be … (fill in the blank, because you know as well as I that next year she’d come up with a different idea altogether). Done!

I of course should have planned ahead and started way ahead of time, but that’s not how I roll. I did paint the tights ahead of time. In case you were wondering, it’s near impossible to find green and white striped tights for little girls. So there I was the day of our church Halloween Trunk or Treat, sewing like a mad woman (and to set the scene further, going through some pretty intense miscarriage pains), but I was bound and determined to get it done! I did, just in the nick of time, and she LOVED how it turned out so that made it so fun. She won a best costume prize at church, which you wouldn’t think would be a big deal to her, but it was and that’s part of the fuel for my madness. Luckily the costume got tons of use – Ward Trunk or Treat, to preschool, dance, friend’s party, and Halloween itself.

Madeleine and Cammie Jane– they are cousins and close friends

Her token silly face…

So you can see the back detail. The pinafore was the biggest pain because I just had to make it up as I went. Really happy with how it turned out!

    

And so I have it noted for posterity, the year before she was Madeline from the Ludwig Bemelman books and I was Miss Clavel, the nun over the school.

I’m Baaaaaaaaack!

I know, it’s been a ridiculously long time. I’ve resolved to post over the course of the past 2 years (yikes!) and obviously did not succeed in those resolutions for whatever reasons, but here I am now!

As far as it relates to me, I think social media is a blessed and cursed thing at the same time. It’s incredible the relationships that can be made and fostered, the wealth of ideas and knowledge easily at your finger tips (huge fan of Pinterest!!!), and the ability to shrink our world so people and ideas are not as far away as they used to be. Say goodbye to the notion of long, lost, friends – hello facebook! With all the wonderful things, there is also the flip side of the coin. It can be such a black hole of time that I can get easily sucked up in. Public gossip, online drama, comments, followers, and overall constant comparisons to others can work against my general happiness and purpose, if allowed, and let’s face it, that can easily happen. I will never have the most friends, be invited to every activity, do picture perfect activities all the time, dress the best, go on the most exciting places, easily pop kids out on a whim (I jest :), but that is okay, because I really like me! I try to remember that often people show the rosy world to what there reality is, and that is not a fair comparison.

I bring this up because part of my hesitation in the past to post was my own self consciousness of what I contributed to my online presence. Must have amazing photography – check! Must have witty and grammatically correct writing – check! Must show interesting lifestyle – check! Avoid any view of less than perfection – check! What is THAT? My life is not perfect, now don’t get me wrong. I lead a pretty awesome life, but I have my own share of trials and heartaches. I am in the constant fight to remain positive in my miscarriage battle. I am not great at it. This past year I added another 2 miscarriages to bring my total to 8, and I’m not going to lie. It STINKS!!! I feel like I get the wind knocked out of me and it takes a while to build my resolve for happiness again, but I do it! Another secret, err, not so secret to those who show up to my house unannounced, I’m a horrible housekeeper. So I can make a mean meal, I can sew a pretty awesome outfit for my 4 year old, I’m pretty good photographer – these are my strong points to offset my faults.

My precious girl after church today.

In my blogging void, I have missed out on journaling what has happened in my family for the past (almost) 2 years. I hate that! I’m terrible about sending my family pictures, including Madeleine’s birth family. This is for me the best place to share, the good, the bad, and the ugly! So forgive me for bearing a little bit of my soul. I’m encouraging myself to put my best real self forward, if not for anything else, but for my family, and if I can reach out to some friends too, I would love it!

We’ve obviously stayed a family of 3, but our adventures increase. Because Andrew works from home now, we have the ability to spend a lot of time together, and I love it when Madeleine will say, “Hey guys, we’re a family, aren’t we?”. It’s like we have our own personal fan club.

Speaking of Madeleine it’s amazing to me to see how much she’s grown. She’s taken gymnastics ever since she was 1 and has really excelled at her gym. If you could see her cartwheel (bragging alert) I’m sure you would be amazed. She’s got an amazing talent for someone so little. Her gymnastics’ teachers love her and push her to work hard. She’s also taken t-ball and dance, but gymnastics is her favorite! She’ll start kindergarten next year whether I like it or not! I can’t believe how the past 5 years have flown by with her in my life. Time goes on warp speed with Madeleine, and I don’t like it, not. one. bit.

Madeleine with Ms. Janey 

Because of the housing market collapse our home remodeling company was no longer able to support our family and an opportunity presented itself last year for Andrew to work with a friend in his outdoor equipment company. Basically they sell all the backpacks, gear, sleeping bags, you name it to wilderness rehab programs. Andrew loves to work with all the different companies and research gear, it’s right up his alley!

Me, I’m just same old me. I really feel like I haven’t changed much over the past couple of years. I drive Madeleine to preschool, go to playgroup, sew, cook, take pictures, repeat!

So here I am, back to blogging!

Food

I love food – isn’t that obvious!

I’ve been thinking a lot more about food lately. How it’s processed, what’s added in, things that I before thought was crazy mumbo jumbo I’m starting to pay more attention.

One of my friends has given me some great resources on places you can look online for getting better food:

www.eatwild.com this links you to local farms, we’ve found a place where we can buy a half of a pasture-fed cow, much better meat for very reasonable prices

http://www.localharvest.org this links you to local farms that might offer fresh fruits and veggies, even CSAs or community supported agriculture

Food, Inc. is coming on tomorrow night on PBS, you might want to check your local listings. I’ve seen clips before, but this will be my first time watching the whole thing. One of the clips that struck a chord with me was the glimpse of the average chicken from the 1950s to today – scary!

I still buy “regular” meat, but I have to admit, I’m now looking for other options. Andrew’s even somewhat caught the bug, being more weary of high fructose corn syrup.

So if you’re interested, check out Food, Inc.

My good girl

My baby says she’s not my baby anymore. If I ever say, “I love my baby”, she’ll say, “I’m not a baby, I’m a GOOD girl”. A few weeks ago I was talking to her about adoption (which I feel very strongly that it is an ongoing conversation), and I was trying to explain to her about her adoption. I said, “Madeleine, you are adopted”, to which she replied, “No, I’m not adopted, I’m a good girl” – totally caught me off guard and I had to laugh. Of course, she’s adopted AND a good girl (well… sometimes – she’s two!).

My good girl is growing so fast, I want to find someway to stop the time from passing so quickly. We’ve said a lot of recent goodbyes. Goodbye to the ba bas (pacis), goodbye diapers (HALLELUJAH!!!), goodbye high chairs, and goodbye crib (I totally had a break down over that one). It’s so hard not knowing if I will ever get the experience of having another baby again, but it also serves as a constant reminder to never take the moment for granted.

I am so very thankful that I get to be called this special good girl’s mamma.

The most tardy Christmas post (ever?)

Yes, I know it’s the middle of April. And I know my web presence is non-existent – did you miss me?

2010 has proved so far to be the busiest year yet, and I’m finally feeling like we are catching up from Maine and the holidays, pathetic, I know!

I didn’t want to forget our 2009 Christmas, it takes the cake for my favorite. We spent Christmas Eve with Andrew’s family, a breakfast at Anne’s in the morning with yummy waffles and the most delicious parfait, and that night we unconventionally went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner and had those who could make it over to our house afterwards to just hang out. I really loved that. After everyone left, I stayed up way too late getting last minute gifts wrapped and making sure all the final details were ready for Christmas day.

Christmas morning we got up and went downstairs to see what Santa had brought. It was so exciting to see Madeleine all excited, and she totally cracked me up when she saw her new toys laid out she thought she had to pick one (she picked the polly-pocket-like Snow White dress-up dolls) and declared, “I want, this one!”. No silly girl, these are all for you! We let her play for a little bit than we packed up and went to my parents’ house, which this year we were so fortunate because the whole family was there!

Madeleine was having a blast. She got to where she started to open presents like it was a process. She would unwrap a gift (throwing away all paper as she tore), say how much she loved the gift, then would run give it to daddy and then demand the next one! I was totally tickled when she was opening this one gift, held in a Macy’s garment box, as soon as she tore through the wrapping paper and saw the Macy’s logo she said, “Thank you sooooo much for my present!” – ha ha ha! like all she got was a Macy’s box, it ended up being even better a new princess dress to wear.

 

We ate a typical ginormous breakfast, snacked on leftovers for the rest of the day and got totally worn out playing on the new Wii. So embarrassing, by the next day I could hardly lift my arm from doing some serious sword fighting!

I didn’t want Christmas to end, but luckily, it’s now only 8 months away!

Bye bye Bah-bahs

Bah – bahs – def. a MAM pacifier (brand is important)

We are Bah-bah free in our house. Almost two and a half years from it’s first suck to the last we have made it through.

I will first start and say I eat my words entirely. I judged parents whose toddlers had pacifiers past their first birthday. I thought to myself, “I will never allow MY child to have a pacifier that late, absolutely ridiculous!”. Who the heck did I think I was? Obviously someone who had no idea the joy that a pacifier could bring to a child.

I’ll blame it on Maine, we didn’t get rid of the bah bah until recently. My talented little girl became so talented with the darn thing and developed some pretty impressive parlor tricks of being able to flip her bah bah in her mouth or stick her tongue out underneath her bah bah.

When I got home from Maine I knew it was time. I read countless resources on weaning from the pacifier until I came up with my own plan of action. I had heard Santa would gladly accept bah bahs so he could redistribute them to the babies that needed them. So I began plans on preparing her for the exchange.

Several weeks before I began talking about it with her in a conversation like this:

“Madeleine, I heard Santa needs more bah bahs for the babies, and he told me that if you would give him all of your bah bahs, he would bring you lots of toys for Christmas”.

She surprisingly really took to this conversation and sometimes she would tell me out of the blue, “I give… all of my bah bahs to…  Santa Claus and he bring me my toys!”. (I really wish I had the sound byte of this because it is so melodic – a complete crescendo on the ‘all of my bah bahs’ – it had my family finding ways in the conversation to get her to say it).

We kept with the preparation, I would tell her repeatedly to enjoy her bah bahs because we would visit Santa soon to give him your bah bahs so he can give them to the little babies.

At last the day came for us to visit Santa Claus. I had to wait until Andrew made it home from Maine because I did not have the will power to do it all by myself. Luckily visits with Santa on Monday at our historic courthouse are 1. free and 2. completely laid back and unchaotic – not to mention Santa looks the absolute best.

Getting ready to leave the day of, we ran around the house collecting bah bahs and Madeleine got in one last suck.

yes, that is hideous peach walls with drywall mud in the background, baby steps – I’m just thrilled my kitchen finally got done (my dh won’t let me touch it without him)

I ran in ahead of Andrew and Madeleine to announce to Santa of our special mission and made arrangements for an early Christmas surprise for the bah bahs. Everything was set and ready to go. I was anxious to see how she would react considering she had been so excited talking about it and seeing pictures of Santa Claus – I was really hoping we would have no tears.

Well, it wasn’t in the stars for us that day. As soon as she saw him she was terrified. Andrew tried first to get her to sit with him and give him her bah bahs, but she was having none of that!

So we switched off with me having no more luck then Andrew until I said the magic words, “Maybe Santa Claus has something for you if you give him your bah bahs.”.

Santa was grateful to have the bah bahs collected in a plastic bag! Ha! Just kidding – total speculation on my part.

Poor, cute Santa was trying so hard calling her by name and being so gentle with her, but as soon as he brought out that Cinderella doll it was all love and smiles and the bah bah exchange was made – SUCCESS!

She was killing me, now giving Santa high fives and hugs, that little stinker! We gave one final hug to Santa and waved goodbye.

She was jumping for joy over her new Cinderella doll! She also got an extra special lunch at her favorite lunch spot – Chick-fil-a.

The first nap was a little difficult – she had to figure out how to go to sleep without her bah bahs. The first night was hard – about an hour of fussing – but never asking for her bah bahs she was just having a hard time falling asleep without it. Andrew has wanted many times to give them back, and I’ve all but body barricaded myself from allowing that to happen. That would make it near impossible to ever get her weaned, and she really can do this!

To toot my own horn (cause I never do ;) the best part of giving the bah bahs to Santa and getting something in return made it very easy for her to transition. She knew she had physically given her bah bahs away so she couldn’t ask for more – she knew Santa had them (and thank goodness Santa kinda goes in hibernation after Christmas). The couple of times she did ask we could remind her that Santa gave her Cinderella and that he had already given her bah bahs to the babies.

It’s now been a few weeks, and I think we can finally say we’ve settled into our now bah bah free world. She found one the other day and came into the kitchen with it in her mouth, crisis adverted, I exclaimed, “Oh, no! We need to send that one to Santa Claus right away”. Not a fuss came from her. She’s getting so grown up (boo hoo!).

Next stop… potty training.

Oh no! Not AGAIN!!!

These were the words uttered out of my mouth earlier today. I was hard at work on the computer getting something ready for an upcoming shoot I have, and then I realize the dreaded silence of a two year old. Quickly I look to see what my latest ‘surprise’ will behold, and there, standing right by my nightstand was my sneaky Miss Mess who now looks like this:

Oh. my. goodness. Not again.

You see, it doesn’t matter where it’s hidden, I swear to you, she will find it. Makeup, that is. She absolutely LOVES the stuff. Which would almost lead you to believe that I’m one that puts it on first thing in the morning and continues to reapply all day – couldn’t be more false. I love having my makeup free days when I know I’m not going anywhere, and truth be told you could probably catch me at a stop light applying mascara (I’ve become really handy at auto makeup application). Madeleine’s first run in occurred over the summer when I found this:

I’m sure part of my problem has to be in my reaction. I just don’t understand how you can keep a straight face and be stern when you see this:

I mean seriously?

So of course, I have to just take more pictures – must have something to torture her with in her teen years, right? Maybe that will be her delayed punishment.

Just check out those hands!   

And then, what came next mortified me and totally grossed me out, but then again, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t keep the camera still…

Mmmmmm…….

 

In a 2 year old brain, “That was not too bad, and it got a fabulous reaction from my old lady, I think I’ll try that again!”.

“Perfect! Just the reaction I was hoping for!”.

So much for the Gymboree sweater I rediscovered in her closet for her to wear that day for the second time. And can I just say, lipstick is soooooo not easy to clean up.

I have to give a lot of love to my ginormous kitchen sink that my sister, Kayleen will be horrified to know I gave my child a bath in (let’s just say she has a little case of OCD and a lot is focused on the kitchen – but in my defense that sink gets a good scrub and disinfectant everyday!). Oh, and my backsplash, how I love my backsplash. When you wait 6 years in a completely torn apart kitchen you do appreciate these things so much more!

I’d like to think this pose is, “Mom, I’m so very sorry about getting in your makeup for the umpteenth time. Pretty please forgive me for the huge mess I made. I’ll be so good from now on I promise (at least until the next forbidden thing I find that I can somehow manage to get my hands on)!”.

 

 

How could I ever be mad at such an adorable messy face. And years from now I know I will be so sad that I don’t have those inconveniences in my day of the mischievous acts of my Miss Mess.

I so love that little girl.