Category: cuteness

heart of scone

We’ve been going through another hectic stretch, mostly due to John working crazy hours again. My own hours have been pretty well filled by taking care of kiddos and work, plus not quite enough sleep. On Sunday, though, I got to sleep in a couple of extra hours. John was still up working when Phoebe and Theo woke up, so he wrangled them and got them a bite to eat while I slept until after 9. It was a wonderful Valentine’s Day present–even better than chocolate.¹ (Now if only I hadn’t been up till 3 trying to get a little quality time with my laptop…)

We haven’t really done much for Valentine’s Day in the past, as I am a cynical cold-hearted type who scorns all forms of romance and sentimentality, with an aversion to heart-shaped things and the color pink. However, having the wee ones around, with their spirits as yet untarnished by such cynicism has changed me a bit. In spite of its brittle candy exterior, my chocolaty heart has melted somewhat towards the heart-shaped rosy-colored trappings of Valentine’s Day. A festive heart-oriented activity was in order.

In keeping with my enthusiasm for baked goods, I thought making pink heart-shaped scones would fit the bill. We used the blueberry scone recipe, but used frozen raspberries instead of blueberries to get the scones festively pink. (They ended up more purple and red than pink, and we all agreed that we like the blueberry ones better, but they were still tasty enough for us to gobble them down in short order.)


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¹Though John did also get me some chocolate.

2010: The Year of Looking Back at 2009

Here we are, entering the last week of January. And I’m still working at getting together those “end of year” posts I had planned.

Case in point: Holly and I are still going strong with our efforts to put together a compilation of the best Just Posts of 2009. We’re asking readers and other friends to look over lists of 10 posts, and let us know which are the best of each batch. Since we have around 300 posts, and since we’ve decided we’d like to get 2 independent reviews per post, we still need help. So, if you’re willing and able to participate in this project, let us know!

Meanwhile, I haven’t made any further progress with my self-indulgent favorite posts of 2009 from this blog list that I had planned to post. I seem to recall that I had narrowed my list down to about 50. Clearly, my ego is healthy! Or perhaps inflated. (It could be bloating. Is ego edema a documented condition?)

There are also many things I meant to post last year, but still haven’t gotten around to. Loads of pictures, and details on life and travels and such. (For that matter, I’ve also still been thinking about my apparent loss of a decade. I’ve been thinking back, and realizing that there were highlights for me even beyond the decade’s defining feature.)

In keeping with looking back at last year, in any case, I thought I’d share some photos. I’ve grabbed 2 photos of Phoebe and Theo for each month. A calendar of cuteness, as it were. Behold!

January

February

March

Theo started solids (photo by John) and we travelled to Texas and California.

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

(Okay, I cheated. The second photo is from November 1st. I didn’t take all that many photos in October, it seems, and got very few with both Phoebe and Theo in the frame.)

November

December

O Tannenbaum


We finally got our tree this past Saturday. Phoebe and I decorated it on Sunday. I put on the star, the lights, and the strands of beads.

Then Phoebe put on ornaments while I made dinner.

She put on just about all of the ornaments.

She put some of them way, way up high!

(Phoebe is about 3 and a half feet tall.)

I totally don’t have to post today

So, here it is almost midnight once more. But it’s December 1st, and so my month of daily blogging is over and done. But I thought I’d post some gratuitous cuteness anyhow.

First, these are a couple of shots I took during our Thanksgiving visit to the in-laws.

These last ones are from grocery shopping tonight. Being a Tuesday evening, it was pretty deserted in Whole Foods, so we let Theo walk around a bit. He had blast. Phoebe went with him and looked after him. (She did a great job except for the couple of times when she got distracted and knocked him over or and pulled him down by his jacket.) I could barely stand the cuteness of it.

I’m glad NaBloPoMo is over. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have the time/energy/inclination to do my annual NaBloPoMoPoMo.

hellfire and dalmatian

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Hellfire and dalmatian.

As I mentioned, Phoebe wanted to be a firefighter for Halloween this year. Her costume turned out to be a cinch. She’d gotten a freebie fire hat at a recent daycare field trip to the firestation, and then our daycare provider had some other firefighter costume gear to lend us. A totally free costume.

Seeing as he doesn’t yet have a say in the matter, I figured I would dress Theo to go along with Phoebe’s firefighter. (As you may have noticed, I’m all about going with themes.) At first, I thought, “Theo can be a fire!” As I thought about the costume, however, I realized that there was a good chance that he would end up looking like a baby on fire. Um…perhaps a tad more disturbing than I had in mind.

So, the plan was to go with a dalmatian (the traditional firehouse dog).

For the pre-Halloween party on Tuesday, I hadn’t managed to get a dalmatian costume together. Theo went as a (very cute, and still black and white spotted) cow, instead. On Wednesday, I stopped by a used children’s store (where they sell used things for children, not actual used children). I had plans to get some white clothes, a white hoodie if possible, to which I would affix black spots, a tail, and some ears.

As it happened, the store had a rack of Halloween costumes. Which were additionally marked down. And there was a dalmatian costume. In Theo’s size. For $4.00. Suddenly, the whole home-made costume idea seemed like it would be a big ordeal.

Apparently, though, I still had a hankering for assembling a Halloween costume, because I decided to put together a costume for myself. I would be the fire to go along with the theme. I wore a red shirt layered over an orange shirt, along with an orange and red swirly-patterned shawl that I happened to have picked up for 1 euro at a Sevilla flea market. I fashioned a hat out of fleece left over from Theo’s carrot costume from last year, and attached flames of red and orange tissue paper to it with staples. (I was in a hurry. I made the hat this afternoon while Theo napped.)

I was quite pleased with the end result, especially considering that I bought nothing new to make my costume.

Of course, wearing this hat around our neighborhood reminded me of something: the fact that I have no dignity.

John, on the other hand, has some. He totally ignored my suggestion of a costume for him. Because you know what would have gone really well with both the firefighter and the dog costumes? A fire hydrant.

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a cow and a firefighter walked into a bar

Well, it wasn’t a bar. More of a community center. (I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere, though. Maybe involving a cow tipping.)

Phoebe is one cool looking fire fighter.
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And I defy you to find a cuter cow.
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(Theo may get to be a dalmatian on Saturday, but I haven’t gotten his costume together. I had this here cow on hand.)

The Princess and the Bag of Tools

One of the presents Phoebe got for her birthday, when she turned three back in February, was a “Pretty Princess FeltTales” felt board set. It’s actually quite a cool toy, consisting of a felt-covered board with some background scenery, and a bunch of smaller felt cut-out pieces. This particular set has three girls and separate clothing (a bit like paper dolls), a horse and carriage, a frog, a castle, and some other assorted princessy accessories:

The Pretty Princess FeltTales set, as shown on the company website.
The Pretty Princess FeltTales set, as shown on the company website.

Here’s how the website describes how a kid might play with the set:

“Pretty Princess” lets you get ready for a night at the castle. Dress your princess in her favorite ball gown, and add a cloak as the evening approaches. Gather her handmaidens and travel by carriage. Make a wish and kiss the frog, and perhaps….

Here’s how Phoebe set up the board.

Phoebe's version: The mechanic get her bag of tools to fix the car after the accident.
Phoebe's version: The mechanic gets her bag of tools to fix the car after the accident.

A: So what’s going on here, Phoebe?
P: Well that’s the bag of tools.
A: Yeah? Now why do they need the tools?
P: Because that’s an accident.
A: Yeah.
P: It’s a car
A: Okay. And who’s got the tools?
P: That’s the mechanic, though.

Damn, I love my little girl.