Naturally Optimistic

WHAT? 11 Months? I know I sound incredulous every month, but this is getting ridiculous! In less than one month he will be a year old! What's happening to my baby?? Oh he's growing up so fast. He continues to be the family clown & has recently taking to knocking himself on the head with his fist because he thinks it's hilarious & he looks at us expectantly hoping for a great reaction. We're trying to discourage it, but it is pretty darn cute & funny. He loves to do his little 'chair dance' where he bobs up in down in his high chair, stroller, etc...and he gets great reactions from it! Last week he had the schedulers at my doctor's appointment in stitches. He ate it up. Quite a ham this one. He still loves playing with the cat toys & kitchen utensils but he also loves to play with whatever Dahlia currently has in her hands. That leads to much screeching (on both of their parts). He's started to enjoy books more - especially books with phot...

Greetings from springtime in Duluth. A short walk on the Lakewalk after brunch yesterday yielded some pretty awesome sights of nature's ice sculptures. The blizzard force winds last week (no snow) made Lake Superior wild with giant waves. The shoreline & trees at the head of the lake took the brunt of it and left us with quite a spectacle. There were some cute babies out there too...

I'm more than ready for August to start sleeping through the night again. It's been a while & I'm never going to get better if I'm up every few hours to deal with a sleepless baby. *sigh*

Well, a lot of hype up in these parts for a storm that (once again) didn't hit us. If I sound dissappointed by this, I am...a little bit. Sure it's nice to not have to deal with yucky snow & ice...but I was longing for so much snow & blizzardy conditions (with everyone safe, naturally) that the whole city would shut down for a day or two and we'd have to stay home with our families, watch movies & make pizzas & play games. Instead the winds were so strong off the big lake, they kept the snow to our south & west. But since there was no storm there was still pre-school today; Steve didn't have to burn a vacation day; I got to get some things down around the house & take a nap (yay!) & there is absolutely no shoveling or ice melting to do. All in all, I'm so ready for spring!

Last Saturday, Steve & I went on a date. It's been a while (not counting our jaunt up the North Shore, of course). Our babysitter, Iris, came over around 4:30- we had about 1/2 hour for the 'transition' & to finish getting ready...which I think was about right. The kids get along with her really well so it was no problem. First we went out for dinner to Thai Krathong. We've had a gift certificate to there from my birthday in August so that helped the budget. Neither of us was TOTALLY in the mood for Thai & our service was kind of crappy, but it was still nice to eat an uninterrupted meal. After that we headed to see a production of HAMLET. I had many many friends in this show & it was closing weekend. I'm glad I was able to make it. I had comps from Jason so that made it fit in our budget as well! It was pretty good although LOOOOOONG & a bit boring in spots. Overall I think it was done pretty well. My friends did a good job! One of the coolest t...

Although our little family is only a smidge Irish (well, apparently Steve's Mom is 1/2 Irish so he'd be a quarter? Is that how it works? Dalhia & August would be an 1/8? + whatever is on my side...?) Anyway...we love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The menu was corned beef & cabbage (of course), potatoes, carrots & Irish soda bread...the bread was "authentic" alright & a bit tough but it tasted pretty good. Maybe I'll get better at making it next year. Dahlia & I made some decorations & hung up some of her artwork from school. She loved decorating the Shamrocks. We listened to the Celtic Traditional Pandora station & feasted with Steve's Mom Carolyn & Roger. The kids were *mostly* good & it was a fun evening. I even made some green spritz shamrock cookies. Oh and there was Bailey's (or 'Merry's' rather) for dessert. Yum!

Ugh-I have so many grand plans. Why can't I make them come to fruition? I can't even keep up with reading SIMPLE ABUNDANCE for crying out loud! I was going to all sorts of things for CAOK & I haven't managed to do but one or two (which were fairly lame, anyway). My 11 a month in'11 was supposed to be me making 11 of something each month so I could build up my Etsy inventory & launch a store by early summer. THAT hasn't happened. The decorations for our St. Patrick's Day party are not yet up (let alone made). All the million things on my to-do list go undone. I guess I'm just feeling a bit in a funk today. Meh.

I took Dahlia to a gymnastics gym last week to burn off some energy. 1 hour of "preschool" time for $3. Totally worth it. They get the RUN of the place. She had so much fun. I was worried that she wouldn't jump right in (ha!) but she did & loved it. We're going tomorrow as we don't have ECFE this week. I can't wait!!

Ah what a difference a little cut & color makes!

Last Thursday we had our annual ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) fundraiser which was a dance. It was a "dress up" dance so Dahlia went as a Fairy Princess (duh!) & I decided at the last minute to put together a "gypsy" costume. Steve wasn't feeling well so stayed home, August, Dahlia & Steve's Mom Carolyn had a great time! I even "won" a Cooking With Kids basket during the raffle.

So I'm thinking this: Or this: Either one in blonde. Discuss. *Appt made - Saturday morning is CHOP TIME!

One of my favorite blogs, and favorite people, really is AfricanKelli . I've been reading her for years & we've corresponded off line as well. She's a fabulous, generous, inspiring, talented, fun, compassionate individual & I consider her a friend although we've never met. She's also written a darn good book . Each year for Lent she embarks on what is called CAOK or "Calculated Acts of Kindness." For 40 days she thinks of little ways to brighten people's days. An unexpected note of encouragement, a delightful baked good out of the blue, a package in the mail full of goodies when least expected. It could be anything, really, but she's the master. I was lucky enough to receive one of her CAOK gifts a few years back and it quite literally made my month. So, what about you? Wanna join in? I'm thinking that its a great time to do something nice for someone. Write someone a letter, make a meal for someone who's stressed & busy & d...

Two weeks ago, Steve & I went away. It was heaven. We originally were going to drive to Minneapolis on Sunday to drop off our kids with my parents...but since the big storm was coming we all decided that traveling on Saturday was a better option. So we packed up & drove down on Saturday. We met my sister & her family & did the swap-a-roo with the kids. I tried really hard not to cry after leaving them, but it didn't work. I'd never been away from August before & all the usual irrational Mama-feelings started coming out: "what if he doesn't remember me when we get back?" "What if he's mad at me & won't come to me?" "What if something happens to him?" Dahlia? She can hold her own, I know this, but my little baby August? You get the idea....Luckily I started to feel better as we pulled into IKEA. Because what makes me feel better than child-free browsing at IKEA? Again, our original plan was to go up to Bluefin Bay ...

10 MONTHS?! What? Oh my sweet baby boy....I feel like he is really coming into his own. His personality is budding & blooming right before our eyes. He is (mostly) happy & loves to be the 'clown.' Boy he can really crack us up at dinner...the look he gives us, to make sure we're watching him, is the best. Pure gold. He's fairly patient, but a spark of a temper does ignite now & then - especially when Dahlia's trying to take something away from him, or scold him. He still would prefer to be held, while standing, over anything else...but he does love to crawl. He's getting really fast! He also loves pulling himself up on just about everything but hasn't figured anything out yet beyond that...which I am JUST fine with. He's still a skinny little peanut. Weighing in at 16lbs 5.5oz this week...sort of falling off the growth chart. I'm trying to give him a bottle anytime I think he *might* take one. He eats mostly table food & apparently th...